"Piper, Piper, Piper, look what I found!"
Piper took one look at the jar Piper was waving around before wrinkling her nose. "Claire, that's a bug."
"It's a caterpillar," Claire proclaimed haughtily, with the air of Einstein declaring the Theory of Relativity. "A Monarch caterpillar."
"It's all wiggly and yellow, though." Piper made a face.
"Well yeah, that's what it looks like now," Claire huffed, as if it was obvious. "But soon, it's gonna be a butterfly."
"Really?" Piper liked butterflies, but in no way could she connect them to the squirmy thing clawing at the walls of the jar. "How?"
"It's called metimorthafisis." She set the jar on the table and watched the caterpillar continue to try and climb its way up the jar. She had put garden leaves and flowers in the jar, but it wasn't touching them. "First it eats a lot, and it turns into a krisoliz which is like a shell, and it sleeps a lot, and then when it wakes up it'll be a butterfly, and we have to keep it and see it happen!"
Piper tilted her head to the side. "But won't it be lonely? I mean, if I was going to turn into a butterfly, I wouldn't want to wake up with my new wings and be all alone. I'd want to share them with you," she said matter-of-factly.
"Hmm. Maybe you're right..." The caterpillar had curled up, exhausted from its attempts at escape. It looked dead. To wake up with new wings, only to have no sky to fly free in, no friend to fly with...
Claire unscrewed the lid on the jar.
"Bye-bye, caterpillar."
Two weeks later, a brilliant orange butterfly alighted on their windowsill.
-X-
CLOCKWORK
chapter four: innocence and ignorance
-X-
-x-X-piper-X-x-
"How much longer do I have to walk?" I moaned. It had to have been hours since I had left Professor Cypress' lab and went on to traverse the horror known as Route 1.
'It's only been thirty minutes. You might have arrived at your destination sooner if you had gone left like I had told you to.'
"Yeah, well, you suck." The nice thing about Route 1 was that there weren't many people so I could freely converse out loud with my beloved sister and not be thought delusional. "I remember this going by a lot quicker in the video game."
'Well, the region of Kanto was based on and named after the Kanto region in Japan, which is about 13,000 square miles. That means—'
I would have stared at her blankly, except that would have been pretty difficult. "How the fuck do you know this stuff?"
One of the other downsides to Route 1 was that there was nothing to do. Getting a Pokémon and battling that jerk-ass 'Black Dove' had distracted me from the problem, but with nothing but trees and walking to distract me, I my mind turned back to the main issue. The fact that Claire was in my head.
You'd think it'd be easy to ignore a voice in your head that didn't talk. You'd be wrong.
"Can you stop that?" I said irritably.
'I'm not doing anything.'
"You're existing," I grumbled. "In my head. That's bad enough. It just... feels weird."
'Placebo effect. The EPOC system is calibrated around your mind. Anything you feel is a product of your own creation.'
"Yeah, well... Fuck you." I put on my grouchy-Piper-is-grouchy-face even though Claire couldn't see it. Goddamn it everything sucked. "You know, this is your fault. I wouldn't have wandered into that machine if you hadn't been... I dunno, making out with your boyfriend or something."
'Boyfriend?' For a moment, she seemed completely caught off guard before the Claire-is-a-robot mentality kicked in again. 'I did tell you to wait for me.'
"Well you should know I don't listen to you!"
'You're being unreasonable. I am trying to help.' Her tone was slightly irritated, giving me a vindictive satisfaction. However, I forgot that the rare times Claire showed emotions, she could be mean. 'You know, I could have left you there. I could still leave you.'
"You—" I was speechless for once, effectively making me lose the argument. She was right. She could have left me and had nothing to do with me. She still could. It would be just like her. But why didn't she? "I... Holy fu—!"
I was cut off as something fell on my head and began to wiggle, looking up to see big, blinking, beady black eyes. I had never seen anything like it before, but one thought did come through to me pretty clearly.
It was a bug.
I screamed.
"Piiiieee!" The writhing thing gave an indignant sound as it was flung away from my head. Priorities instantly took place; my hands whipped up to my hair and I breathed a sigh of relief as I assured myself it was not covering in gross slime or whatever.
After that extremely important criteria was passed, I turned my head to the lesser problem: the bug. It was green and worm-like and ten times the size of the slugs back home. A pink, forked antennae jutted from its head.
"Ew." I made a face. "What the hell is that thing?"
'It's a Caterpie. A Bug-Type.'
No flippin' shit. "It's gross."
The worm jerked its head to me and gave me a look that almost seemed flat. And then it spewed white gunk at me.
"My hair!" I shrieked, frantically combing my fingers through the chestnut locks, getting the sticky strands even more entangled. "Oh my god, this is never going to get out. Eww..." I wailed miserably as my hand separated from my hair, sticky strings coming with.
"Ca-ca-ca-ca," the Caterpie said in what almost seemed like a cackle.
I glared at it murderously. "You little bitch."
'Piper, don't be impulsi—'
"Sergeant Scribblywinks the Second, we have a bug to roast!" I screeched, smashing his PokéBall on the ground where it exploded into light and one surprised looking fire-lizard. He took one glance at the Caterpie.
"Pie."
"Char!" He squealed in fright, scrambling and tripping backwards.
I resisted the urge to kick a tree, because I didn't have anything against trees. "Oh, come on." Just my luck that my Charmander would have bug phobia.
'That's odd. Fire-Types have an advantage against Bug-Types.'
"All right, Scribbles." Sergeant Scribblywinks the Second was a bit of a mouthful to shout out, so I went with the nickname I had used as a kid. Plus, it was cuter. I glared at him and drew myself up to my full height, which wasn't much for humans, but gigantic compared to my starter. "Scribbles. I do not care if you are afraid of ugly green worms. I am your Trainer. We have to get revenge for my hair. You are going to incinerate that stupid insect if it's the last thing you do."
Scribbles gulped. He looked at me. Then at the Caterpie. Then back at me. He then chose the lesser of the evils and shakily turned back to the bug.
He chose wisely.
"Alright! Use—uh..." I drew a blank, despite having just been in a battle an hour ago. "The pew-pew-pew balls of fire."
'Ember,' Claire supplied.
"Pew-pew-pew balls of fire, Ember, same difference. Now—shoot, move your ass, Scribbles! Actually, shoot and move your ass!" I shouted as the Caterpie, slightly singed from the Ember, fired another spray of spider silk. Scribbles clumsily tried to dodge, but tripped and ended up getting tangled in the sticky threads. I shuddered and thanked God that wasn't me.
Then the Caterpie squirmed forward at a pace I didn't think possible for a foot-long slug and rammed my Charmander into a tree. I gawked. That couldn't be possible, could it? Scribbles was beginning to look like he was regretting his decision.
'Tell him to burn off the String Shot.'
I guessed that the white stuff was String Shot. "Um, wouldn't setting himself on fire be bad for his skin, or something? UV rays?"
'I doubt it, considering his tail is on fire. Besides, he's a Fire-type. Most types are not very effective against their own types. Also, ultraviolet waves are part of the electromagnetic spectrum, not—'
I tuned her out. Most of that went over my head, but I stayed on the safe side. "Burn off that String Shot, Scribbles!" The Charmander quickly bathed himself in flames, and the cinders of the String Shot fell down around him. Too bad he couldn't try that for my hair. "Okay, now another Ember!" The worm was faster than I would have believed, but it couldn't be faster than flaming balls of awesome.
Or so I thought.
It spat another String Shot. Upwards. I once again found myself with dropped jaw as the sticky thread attached itself to a branch over my head and the worm swung like Tarzan, avoiding the Ember and tackling Scribbles square in the stomach.
"I have a feeling beating a bug with a fire-breathing lizard shouldn't be so hard," I mumbled.
'I am inclined to agree with you.'
"We're agreeing on something. This must be serious." I wondered if I could use my compact mirror for the magnifying-glass trick. "Well, you're the expert. What should I do?"
'Tell him to use Scratch. Perhaps close combat will prove more fruitful.'
I sighed and relayed the commands, but the worm delighted in gluing Scribbles' feet to the ground. It aimed another String Shot at him, but the Charmander fortunately managed to duck under it.
Unfortunately, the web instead hit my shoes. There was a blank silence as the Caterpie cackled, Scribbles stared wide-eyed, and Claire sighed. Then I screamed murder.
"Alright, this shit's real, now," I shouted. "Scribbles, Dragon Rush!"
Claire sighed, beyond telling me what to do. Scribbles glowed purple and began to run towards the worm and top speed. The flames still looked out of control, but the thing was probably too scared to argue.
Then, I could have sworn I saw the Caterpie smirk as it once again fired a String Shot straight up. Scribbles crashed hopelessly into the tree behind it, causing splinters to fly.
I gawked as Scribbles collapsed, defeated. The Caterpie looked extremely smug.
Until I punted it into a tree.
"Who's boss now, bitch?" I swaggered over to the knocked out worm, probably feeling more proud than I should. Who needed fire-breathing dragons when I had sexy ass-kicking legs? Then I looked down at the unconscious bug and scratched my head, annoyed when bits of web still fell out. "So... What am I supposed to do now?" Was I supposed to just leave it in the middle of the road?
'You could catch it,' Claire suggested.
For a second I didn't understand what she meant. Then I remembered the empty red and white balls in my purse. "Oh no. No way."
'It must be of a high level, or at least extremely intelligent to be able to beat a level seven Pokémon with a type advantage.'
"But it's a bug. A caterpillar."
'And caterpillars metamorphose into butterflies. They're not the best stat-wise, but you need to catch more Pokémon eventually, and you liked Butterfree when we were little, didn't you?' I vaguely remembered something like that. Claire continued, 'Caterpie evolve quickly, anyway. It'll probably evolve into a Metapod by tomorrow. And if you don't like it, you can always release it.'
"Release?"
'You can think of it as terminating the contract between Trainer and Pokémon. The PokéBall is rendered useless and the Pokémon can go back to the wild.'
I frowned. That seemed kind of mean, taking animals from their homes and then dumping them, defenseless, someplace else. And then my old rebelliousness kicked in. I'd keep the stupid worm 'til I beat the stupid game. I may not like the weird critters, and they may not be real, but I wasn't cruel and emotionless like Claire.
"Fine," I sighed, fishing the ball from my purse. Under Claire's instructions, the red and white sphere enlarged at the click of a button, and the green worm was sucked up in a flash of red. The thing—a PokéBall, shook on the ground three times before coming to a stop with a soft ding. The red PokéDex read out information: Worm Pokémon, level 5, female.
I picked up the ball and held it to eye-level. "You're gonna be Flux," I told it. I could feel Claire's questioning vibes in my head, though she didn't say anything. "Shut up. Just be thankful I didn't name her Jackass."
-x-X-claire-X-x-
"...You're joking, right? A miracle has occurred and Claire Reed is making a joke. She happened to knock out her sister to make it, but it is definitely a joke and this unconscious person in front of me is most definitely not in a coma where she's dreaming she's a Pokémon Trainer. ...Okay who am I kidding you don't make jokes."
Transporting Piper from Sundial Laboratory to Minnie's and my dorm room had taken time, innovative thinking, and two beakers of acetic acid, but the part I had been worried about was how Minnie would take it.
Minnie's first response was to bang her head against the wall, then throw herself on the bed, hyperventilate, sulk, and eat a Pop Tart.
To be honest, I thought she took it rather well.
"I'm not joking," I informed her again, just to clarify. Piper's body lay between us like a corpse. Minnie looked like she wanted another Pop Tart.
"...You know, for first meetings, this one sort of sucks," Minnie decided, poking the empty Piper on the nose. "I mean, I know you didn't like your sister, but you didn't have to stick her brain in a video game."
"I didn't do it. It was a malfunction at the lab."
"Suuure you didn't." Minnie grinned cheekily, her usual cheer back. She gave a huge sigh. "Okay, wow. This is whacked. So what's the game plan?"
I blinked. Telling Minnie had been a fifty-fifty gamble, and while normally I didn't do gambles, I didn't really have another choice. I was slightly relieved when she jumped up, beaming, nearly hitting her head on the ceiling. "You're okay with it?"
"Well, yeah!" said Minnie. "You're my friend. Plus, this is sort of like awesome. It's like a movie plot! Either that, or a really bad fanfiction. Those things are hilarious!"
I just nodded, my usual response to Minnie's strange ramblings. "Right. The premise is simple. I guide Piper through the virtual reality. She beats the game and exits the system."
"If only, if only." She sighed wryly. "How long is this supposed to take?"
"According to my calculations, it should take Piper approximately six months to get to the Indigo Plateau, without considering... wild factors." Which, in association with Piper, would probably double that time. "The problem is time."
"Yeah. We only have three months 'til fall term. Even your beastly brain won't be able to balance all that."
"Not that sort of time." I looked at the face of our analog clock. Tick, tock, tick, tock. "Time in dreams is ambiguous."
"So... Five days in there is a year in here?" Minnie guessed, waving her hands vaguely.
"No. It's—"
"Wibbly wobbly timey wimey?"
"A distorted temporal perception set."
"Okay, you just like destroying my dreams, don't you," Minnie whined. "Hey. That's slightly a pun."
"Never mind." Anything deeper would probably pass right over her head. "I'll have to set up some of the Sundial neurotechnology in here."
Minnie nodded. "I can probably sneak some tech out of the Game Design department, if you need it."
I nodded. Perhaps between Minnie and I, we could actually do it. We could get Piper out of the virtual reality, life would be normal, and our paths would diverge. Again.
There was a minute of just staring before Minnie broke the silence.
"So, where's she sleeping?"
-x-X-piper-X-x-
The place Claire identified as Viridian seemed a bit sleepy to be considered a City, but the sign of civilization was a godsend after nothing but trees. Though I still didn't have anything against trees.
'Check in at the Pokémon Center. You're lucky you didn't run into any wild Pokémon or Trainers; both your Pokémon are out of commission.' Claire pointed out a large building with a red roof that I vaguely remembered from my Pokémon-playing days.
"If it means chairs," I muttered. "Then hell yes."
I wasn't really expecting what I found inside.
From what I remembered of the game, it was a black and white building—though that probably had something to do with the fact that the whole game was monochrome—in which you walked straight upwards, repeatedly pressed a button, then walked out. The real thing wasn't quite what I expected.
For one thing, the building actually had color. For another, I had trouble even moving forward—there were people everywhere alongside their Pokémon. There were chairs everywhere, but I was annoyed to find that they were all occupied. I would rectify that later. I also saw a rack of magazines and a television playing, but they only seemed to contain Pokémon battles. God, did these people have a life outside watching animals beat each other to death?
At Claire's direction, I walked up to a red counter where a nurse with pink hair was standing. I held out Scribbles' and Flux's PokéBalls, along with my Trainer Card. "Here."
"Thank you, Miss Reed." She put the three items on a tray and handed it to a giant pink balloon in a nurse hat. "You're new, aren't you? I'm the Nurse Joy of Viridian City, though you probably know that." Oh, yes, of course I did. "Chansey will give back your team momentarily. Are you staying the night?"
"What?"
"Don't worry about space. Vidirian is the crossroad of the traditional beginning Trainer's route and the road to Indigo Plateau, so we always have a lot of rooms. Breakfast, as well."
Wow. That seemed awfully nice of them. Though from my senior experience, I suspected there would be something like taxes later. Claire added, 'You should probably take the offer. You'll have to go through Viridian Forest, next, and you won't be able to get through it before nightfall. Plus, you need supplies and your Pokémon need training and rest.'
I certainly didn't want to camp out in the middle of a forest where I knew monsters were hiding in the trees. I paused, asking, "Do you have showers?"
"Of course. The hot water may be limited, though."
I was sold. "Right, of course," I said, pouring on the charm for the Nurse Joy. "Room for one."
She handed me a key and I walked off, taking in the sights of the Pokémon Center lobby and trying to find a chair so I could actually sit down. At cheerleading practice, stamina was always my weak point and my strappy sandals didn't help. Even though they were fucking adorable.
"Watch it!" I snapped as a huge purple dinosaur-thing nearly ran me over. Its Trainer, presumably, apologized quickly before running off. Everywhere there were creatures in funny shapes lounging around. And even the humans came in every kind, from young kids with little baby Pokémon to adults with worn clothing. One girl was jumping up and down shouting something about winning her final badge. Just as I was walking, another girl barreled past, tears in her eyes as she gave the pink-haired nurse a PokéBall.
I still felt slightly self-conscious as I walked by, dressed in a skirt and strappy top and sandals while everyone else was wearing tough, travelling clothes. For once in my life, I was the one out of style. It was a pretty weird feeling.
"Is this how you feel every day?" I asked Claire out loud. In the busy room, nobody would notice. But Claire was silent. "Hello? You there?"
When she spoke, her voice was low. 'Don't turn around. You're being watched.'
I rolled my eyes. Trust Claire to be melodramatic. "Chill out, you make everything sound macabre. It's probably just some guy checking me out. Is he hot?"
'Listen.'
I sighed but obliged. It was hard to hear over the din, but I eventually picked out the voices in question.
"Are you sure it's her? If we jump to conclusions—"
"Who else could it be? She's standing out like a sore thumb." A new voice, female. I sucked in a breath and tried to casually angle myself indiscreetly so I could see them. There was a boy my age and a younger girl facing each-other by the Nurse's counter, but I could see them looking at me out of the corner of my eye. I walked up to the Nurse casually, keeping my eyes forward, but I felt Claire's gaze looking out from the corner of my eye, watching the two strangers.
"Piper, right?" the pink-haired Nurse said sweetly. "Here are your Charmander and Caterpie. Have a nice day!"
"Thanks." I took the two PokéBalls but lingered nearby, pretending to check a Trainer's brochure. The two strangers were still locked in banter.
"She looks too out of place. I doubt one of us would walk into a Pokémon Center wearing that," the boy said. "Plus, Klara won't be happy if we get this wrong. Again."
"Hey, that was your fault. You were the one who pretended to ask her out on a date."
"Only because you made me! How else are we supposed to start a conversation out of the blue?" said the boy, indignant.
"Silly goose." The girl sighed, as if deeply disappointed. She smirked and held up a red and white PokéBall. "You forget? We're Trainers."
I heard steps behind me then felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around to see the girl beaming at me.
"Hi, my name's Evelien, he's Kar. Battle me."
-x-X-333-X-x-
A middle-aged man mopped his brow, pacing in his office. His security was top-notch and they weren't even meeting at his house, but he had heard the rumors about his contractee. And one of those rumors was the reason why every light in the room was burning.
That's when the lights went out.
"Hello."
The man froze, inwardly cursing irony. His voice jumped octaves: "Who's there?"
"Oh, calm down."
The man whirled around, where a figure in all black was sitting at his desk comfortably, blending in with the surrounding dark. The rumors stirred in the man's mind again. "How did you..." He shook his head, restored his composure, and said stiffly, "I believe the checkpoint for the rendezvous was already set, Black Dove."
The dark figure nearly snorted. They were still calling him that. "I don't trust men in all black who don't show their faces." He pushed away from the chair, full-body black cloak swishing, hood still fixed over his face except for his beaming smile. "So I decided to make a house call. You should think yourself lucky."
The man took an involuntary step back, very much considering pissing his pants. he half-stuttered, half-spat, "F-Fine! Just give them to me!"
From the folds of his cloak he placed two shiny PokéBalls on the desk as the man took out a wallet.
"...There are only two PokéBalls here."
The Black Dove clapped sarcastically. "Master of observation, you are."
"I remember ordering a set of three."
"Yeah, yeah." The thief rolled his eyes despite the fact that the other would not see it. "Complications." And such interesting complications they were...
"They're no use if they're not a complete set!" The man hesitated. Briefly, he remembered where he had come across the name Black Dove in the first place. If he could capture him and turn him in... "I believe my business is finished with you, Black Dove."
He reached for a PokéBall in his pocket just as the dark figure tilted his head, smile vanished. It was the contractor's turn to smile.
He didn't even see the orange blur coming.
"Good girl," the Black Dove cooed, petting his Arcanine before stalking towards the unconscious man, kicking him lightly then shrugging and picking up the wallet next to him, and, after a thought, the two PokéBalls, too. "Our work is done. Blue, are you done hacking into the security cameras?"
From the computer monitor seeped blue plasma, forming a Rotom who chirped a half-cackle, leaving behind the Blue Screen of Death it was named for.
"Alright, we're outta he—"
"Daddy?" The thief turned around. At the doorway was a tiny girl, who blinked upon seeing him. "Oh. Hi. I'm looking for Daddy. Have you seen him?"
The thief paused, then shrugged to himself. There was no harm in making conversation. "He stepped out for a while." He kicked the body so it was more hidden behind the desk, trying to hide his smirk.
"Oh..." said the girl, confused but accepting. "Daddy said that today, he would get me the Pokémon I wanted..."
"Is that so?" His smile vanished again. After a moment of hesitation, he leaned down eye-level with the girl, slowly pulling his hood back. His Arcanine and Rotom regarded him in silent surprise, though they didn't stop him. If the girl was surprised, she didn't show it, merely looking him in the eyes, her own full of wonder. "Tell me. Do you want to be a Trainer when you grow up?"
She beamed and nodded. "Yeah!"
"Why?"
"I want to see the world."
"And if you don't like the world you see?"
"Then I'll change it."
"You think you can just do that?"
"Yeah." She nodded emphatically. "'Cause if I'm a Trainer, I'll have friends to help me beat all the bad guys up!"
The Black Dove had to smile ruefully at that, before turning serious again. "But how will you know who the bad guys are?"
The girl blinked. "I'd ask them."
The thief blinked, then sighed slightly before taking out the two PokéBalls from his pocket, selecting one. He kneeled down to eye-level and placed the shiny sphere in the girl's hands. "Here, kid."
The girl's eyes went huge, an awed smile coming on her face. "Wow! Thank you, mister!"
"Make sure you take good care of it." He turned around, toward his Pokémon. "Don't give me that look." He glared stubbornly.
"Ar!"
"Ro!"
"Yeah, yeah." He replaced his hood before looking at the remaining PokéBall in his hand, considering it, then pocketing it again. He did like challenges. "C'mon. Let's fly."
"Mister?" The girl spoke up again and the thief turned around. "Are you a bad guy?" Her voice was completely sincere. So sweet. So innocent.
So naive.
The Black Dove smiled. "You decide." And he was gone.
-x-X-AN-X-x-
~Caterpie = Butterfree = fluttering + fluctuation + "flow" = Flux. I like symbolism except for when I give no shits. Therefore, you have Scribbles and Flux.
-X-
Evelien = Fang
Kar = Mega
Okay so I had this chapter written but I didn't like it so I deleted the whole thing. Then, week later, get block on newly written chapter and no way of getting the old one back so this chapter is short and everything sucks. And this battle sucked, but hey, Caterpie only has two moves. Also, everything else sucked, but hey, I suck so that's a given. Whatever.
Also: new chapter theme 'cause I realized the old one would never work.
Reviews are totes fab.
