"So let's get started! This is going to be really fun, and we're so happy to have you with us here at Alpha Tours!"
Clare had to give the girl credit: the massive smile she gave the tour group didn't waver for a second.
They trudged slowly forward, the young girl- what was her name? Ellen? Helen?- prattling on and on about how wonderful it was to just breathe the same air that rushed through the ruins and God himself has blessed the researchers who dedicated their lives to this great archaeological endeavor! Or something.
Clare sighed. "Don't force yourself to have a bad time," her husband had said. But it was difficult to not feel patronized by the whole tour-group experience, especially when they were one small decision away from having been able to avoid it. No one was allowed in the ruins without a pokemon, something they hadn't realized when planning their tour of Johto, and without one your only way in was with a tour group. They'd used to rent out pokemon, she'd been told earlier, but the rental service was shut down when it was determined the pokemon were miserable.
They really should have brought George (why did she let her husband name him, seriously) with them. The spunky little poochyena would have been such a comfort on a long trip, and he certainly would have been thrilled to be included. But then it became difficult to find hotels that would take them and didn't she really want a break from responsibility while on vacation? So he got left behind. God knows the sitter would have her hands full. Ideally, one day, George would be able to watch over the house by himself, but right now he was just a pup, and he tended to encourage the kids' bad behavior more readily than diffuse it. "George, will you run out and meet the mailman?" And then he wouldn't return for a half hour and she'd look out the window, worried, to see him rolling in the dirt with little Danny, the youngest of the four, with the mail nowhere in sight.
He tried hard, though, and they loved him dearly. One day he'd be a big mightyena who could be left in charge alone for three weeks and they'd say, "Remember when he was such an unruly pup?" just like with the kids.
"So this is our first stop!" Clare snapped out of her thoughts. They were in front of a small mound that looked like you'd have to duck to get in. There was no way they would get to go inside; the whole group would never fit. "Many of the chambers in the Ruins of Alph are blocked by intricate puzzle mechanisms that must be solved before access is granted, and…" She knew all this already, as she'd read all the pamphlets and scoured the maps. She didn't want a lecture, she just wanted to go inside.
Not that it mattered much now anyway. There was no George, and there was no Harry, either, as he'd woken up feeling ill but insisted she make the best of the day and go see the Ruins herself. "I'll come down tomorrow, or even later today," he'd said. Lot of good that did if she'd already seen everything. The first leg of the trip, a disaster.
'Don't force yourself to have a bad time, Clare.' His words rung in her head again. Yes-yes, I know. I know. I'm sorry. Well, how could she turn this into a good time?
She looked around. Make a mad dash into the hovel and see it for yourself! What? No, that was a terrible idea. Christ, what was wrong with her. Catch a pokemon? No, no. That was an even worse idea. "Happy vacation dear, I've gotten us a pet we didn't actually want!" Well, George would be thrilled, but no one else would, the new family member certainly included.
"Now we're going to move down the road to another of these puzzle stations that has an even more exciting subject: aerodactyl!"
Unless…
As they walked, she eyed the other travellers and tourists scattered about the area. She didn't need a pokemon, she realized. All she needed was someone else who had one.
"On our left here, this is the main research institute. There's a small museum inside we'll be visiting near the end of the tour and if we're lucky, we may be able to meet one of the scientists themselves!"
If she paid them, one of these kids would have to let her tag along. Hell, all they needed to do was get her in. After that, they could do their separate ways. Though… were there any older trainers around? A 54-year-old woman approaching a ten-year-old with money might not seem very… kosher.
"...okay, so we're going to stop there, and…"
She let the group wander away, slinking back into the shadow of the building and feeling very much the evil genius. Who could she ask, who could she ask?
He wandered into her vision as if on cue. Next to him a most curious little pokemon, nothing like she'd ever seen in Hoenn, trotted along on stemlike feet. It was, the seemingly infinite amount of artistic tributes dotting the city had taught her, a bellsprout, and it walked next to an old monk from the famous tower.
She sprung like George after a zigzagoon.
.:E:.
"Are you sure you'd rather not stay with us?" The little old man tilted his head curiously, and the bellsprout mimicked his behavior.
"No, no, it's fine. I don't want to bother you. I just wanted to snoop around. I won't even leave the top level, really, I just so badly wanted to do some exploring!"
"Well, give a yell if you need anything. Do be careful." She could have sworn the bellsprout waggled a finger at her, and it didn't even have fingers.
"I won't leave the first level, I really promise." She meant it, too. She wanted to be on her own, see some real ruins, take her time, but she wasn't looking to go adventuring, and certainly not to injure herself somehow or get in trouble. Harry would be mad at her rashness, probably, but she'd certainly have a story to tell.
With that the monk gave a short bow, turned heel, and plodded away. Naturally, his bellsprout followed suit. What a peculiar little creature, she thought, not entirely sure whether she was referring to the man, the pokemon, or both.
It was probably both.
.:F:.
The Ruins of Alph were everything she had hoped they would be and more, a maze of high walls and domed chambers untold years old and running seemingly forever into the ether. She was worried her own curiosity would get the best of her and she would end up going down a level "just to check" and then another and possibly more after that, but the truth was that the first floor had more than enough to keep her occupied and she was sure she'd only seen a fraction of it. She had no idea how many pictures she'd taken (without the flash, of course), but she couldn't imagine it was anywhere near enough to encapsulate the experience. She would have to come back here with Harry, it was just so amazing.
The forms of the unown lined the walls. She had read that if you wanted to see one- that is, a real, live one- you would have to manage your way very deep into the caverns. She was more than okay with this, and really quite relieved. Something about them disturbed her. She didn't know which was more unsettling, the idea that a pokemon species developed itself based on ancient writing or that they somehow created written language. And they were psychic types, of all things! Yes, she very much wished George was around.
Still, it brought her back to her younger days, journeying around Hoenn with her trusty pokemon at her side. Ah, her first venture into Dewford Cave with her ickle electrike, Mindy. She missed her team so very much. Her old walrein, Gordo, had been the last to go… well, it was almost a decade now since his passing. She thought she'd never move on, never want a pokemon in her life again, but then two years ago someone left a flyer in her mailbox about a poochyena that needed a home, and the rest was history.
She'd never liked psychic types, though. They made her feel all shivery. Perhaps that's why she kept so many dark types- Riley (a mightyena) and Juno (a sharpedo) in her youth, and now George. If only Riley and Juno were here to see this!
She ran her hands carefully over the carvings in the wall. What did they say, though? Some of it was clearly written in early English, but most of the writing was unintelligible to her. Plus, what was so important that you had to write it all over the walls in a way that would survive forever? In Sinnoh, at least, they just used tablets for records and only put short inscriptions on the walls. That seems the more practical way of doing things. Then again, perhaps this place had once been very important, and it was more like religious text or something. Could you imagine, though, the time it would take to write a book on the walls! No wonder this place was so big.
.:G:.
"Ow!"
The sound of her yell echoed through the chambers. Damn, she'd nicked herself. Was that some kind of nail…no, of course not, just a sharp rock. She sucked on her finger to stop the bleeding. Well, it was a good run. Certainly after more than an hour wandering around a cave she could have been injured much worse.
As she stood there, disproportionately annoyed at the tiny cut, she thought she was beginning to feel dizzy. But the feeling picked up much too fast and she nearly fell over before she realized the floor was vibrating.
Ohmygod, did I cause a cave-in? She hadn't yelled that loudly! But soon it was clear that whatever was going on was much bigger that any simple yell could cause.
She ran. She'd been smart enough to travel in a straight line, marking her path with rocks, and so it was easy to follow them back, but she was no spring chicken and she knew it. As soon as the rumbling started to slow she stopped to catch her breath, leaning on the archway of a stairwell for a rest.
Then the stairwell collapsed.
She screamed for real this time, a scream that she reckoned could actually have set off a cave-in. But instead, as she sat terrified with her back against the far wall, the rumbling subsided and then stopped completely and the only noise was her ragged breathing.
"Ohmygod." She choked back a sob. "Holy fucking shit." Then: "Georgie. Georgie come here, God." What was she saying? He wasn't here. She didn't care, though. "Georgie..."
She wasn't sure how long she sat pushed into the corner where the wall met the floor, shaking uncontrollably. All she knew was that eventually she stopped and caught her breath. Slowly, unsurely, she stood up, bracing herself against the uneven wall. When she finally felt like walking was a thing she could do, she made her way over to what was once a staircase and looked down at the rubble.
And that was when someone bashed her on the back of the head and pushed her into the hole.
Research note: The lifespans of walrein, manectric, mightyena, and sharpedo were based on the walrus (up to 30 years), maned wolf (max 16 years in captivity), spotted hyena (average 12 years in captivity), and mako shark (average of up to 21 years). Thus, assuming all the pokemon were caught in their first year or two of life and the other two unnamed pokemon in Clare's party had lifespans shorter than a walrus, the walrein would probably have been the last to pass away.