Warren-Pokemon: 1 Deaths: 0
Carlotta-Pokemon: 5 Deaths: 0
Cheren-Pokemon: 5 Deaths: 1
Bianca-Pokemon: 4 Deaths: 2
{Reshin 19th, 6:17pm}
{Route 3}
"Was this it?" Cheren said, showing the image on his screen to Bianca. "Zebstrika?"
"No," Bianca said, shaking her head. "I told you, it was all white an' red an' blue. And it talked."
"Maybe there was a Chatot nearby?" Carlotta suggested. "Or a trainer you couldn't see?"
"No!" Bianca argued in frustration. "I'm tellin' y'all, I really saw a real weird Pokemon that spoke to me! An' he… or she… or somethin', I dunno… they told me Mina's name, and…" The Woobat perked up at the word "Mina", clearly recognizing her name. She was sitting by the fire with Tiberius, squeaking with her new, and only, teammate.
"Y'know, I don't get why you kept her when you were insistin' so hard on leavin' Pine an' Packard at the nursery," Carlotta said, resting her chin on her hands with a sigh. "You coulda had a good team goin'."
"I don't get why y'all kept your two," Bianca murmured. "They were abused. Just 'cause they get along with y'all now don't mean they wanna fight. But Mina said she liked me an' Tibby wanted to stay, so I'm keepin' 'em. You sure them Pokemon you adopted wanna fight? I mean, your Purrloin sure don't..."
"Those two Roggenrola weren't allowed near the kids because they fight so much, and the Pidove we picked up were also left by trainers," Cheren pointed out. "In fact, once we've finished dinner, I recommend some training matches so we can get a better feel for their abilities."
"While I am going to nap," Warren groaned, flopping backwards onto the grass. "It felt like we were in that police station forever."
"Six hours," Cheren corrected him.
"So many statements," Warren mumbled into the arm he'd flung over his face.
"Hey, at least we ain't gonna be on the news," Carlotta said, patting Bianca's shoulder. "I mean, they're doin' their best to keep it quiet 'cause they don't wanna admit foreign dignitaries are gettin' their kids kidnapped around here, so your folks won't see nothin' about us, probably."
"We're media minors, they couldn't put us on the news anyway without parental consent, which they will not get without us directing them to our parents," Cheren said, standing up and releasing Sherlock, Priscilla, Poncho the Panpour, and his new acquisitions, Peabean the Pidove and Rocky the Roggenrola.
"Bring it on," Carlotta hooted, releasing Owain, Loyal, Paden the Pansear, Pijon the Pidove and Roland the Roggenrola. "I'm thinkin' I can get an evolution outta Loyal an' maybe Pijon by the end of the night!"
"You don't have to join them if you don't want to, Bianca," Warren said, patting Bianca's shoulder as she watched Tiberius and Mina. "But it might be a good idea to evolve Tiberius before taking on the next gym."
"Yeah… maybe," Bianca said, resting her chin on her knees. "Warren? You don't think I'm crazy or nothin', do you?"
"I don't," Warren assured her immediately. "I think… you saw something you don't fully understand, but none of us can say what because we didn't see it. Who knows? Maybe you'll see it again."
"I sure hope so," Bianca said softly. "They promised."
{Reshin 20th, 11:24am}
{Nacrene City}
"Oh my goodness," Bianca gasped, clasping her hands to her chest. "It's amazin'!"
"It really is," Cheren agreed. "I haven't been here in person myself. Pictures don't quite capture it, do they? It wasn't originally a residential area, you know."
"Here we go," Carlotta said with a grin.
"Hush up an' let 'im nerd," Warren hissed. Bianca was already enraptured.
"Originally, this area was part of was miles and miles of warehouses and factories that had been built during the industrial boom, then begun lying empty during the bust." Cheren explained. "The many drifting, homeless unemployed had moved in, and many had taken to decorating their new homes. Though there were a few clearouts, once the place got an artistic reputation, it didn't take long for famous artists to start considering it trendy and buying up property there, converting the warehouses into lofts and workshops. For a while, the city was priced far out of the range of the squatters who'd originally given it its reputation, but the work of a few philanthropists and the sands of time have now given the city real variety. People from all layers of society live here now, with one unifying trait-they're almost all highly creative sorts. Painters, sculptors, musicians… I believe Burgh, the Castelia City Leader, originally comes from here."
"It's beautiful," Bianca cooed, gazing up at a mural of Reshiram and Zekrom took up the entire, vast side of one warehouse building.
"Well, lucky for you, Carly an' me've been here once before, an' we know where the good souvenir shoppin' is," Warren said, leading them through the buzz of summer tourists. They drifted in and out of the clouds of music created by buskers, just far apart that they never seemed to clash, occasionally accompanied by dancers or jugglers or other performers. Bianca was enraptured, wanting to stay and watch every one, and Warren knew his boyfriend well enough to know that Cheren was also fascinated by the performers but was happier to hide behind the excuse of doing what made Bianca happy.
It took them over an hour to get to the first shop that Warren remembered from their trip to Nacrene, a beautiful handicrafts shop that took up a good-sized space on the bottom floor of one warehouse, though part of it was also the workshop, where customers could actually see the artists who sold their wares working.
"Oh, ain't these lovely?" Bianca said, examining some rugs. "These are all, like… Native Unovan styled, right?"
"That would be because all of us who own and sell in this shop are Native Unovan," the woman weaving at a loom next to the rugs said without looking up.
"Huh?" Bianca said, staring at the woman in confusion. "You're Native Unovan?"
"Well, yeah," the woman said, looking up and crooking an eyebrow. She had the long, black hair, copper-toned skin and strong nose classically associated with Native Unovans, so Warren could understand her mild confusion at Bianca's surprise.
"It's just… I thought y'all got wiped out, like, a thousand years ago," Bianca said, still looking confused. "I thought y'all didn't exist anymore 'cause of civilization movin' in."
"Oh. My gods. Did you even have history class?" Cheren groaned, putting one hand over his eyes and steering Bianca away with the other. "Ma'am, I am very sorry about this."
"She just escaped a very religious household," Carlotta explained.
"It's fine," the woman said, in a way that suggested that it wasn't, really, but it was too much trouble to get into with these customers. "If you'll excuse me, I have to finish this rug."
"Bianca, the Native Unovans were never wiped out, despite the ancient colonial governments' best attempts," Cheren sighed, "but it could be said to be a touchy subject and somewhat disrespectful to bring up to a complete stranger."
"Oh, no," Bianca gasped, clasping a hand over her mouth. "I gotta go apologize!"
"You weren't to know, Bianca," Carlotta said, putting an arm around her shoulders and giving her a little hug. "They'd probably prefer if you didn't blow it up into a whole thing. Just move on, and now you know better for the future, huh?"
"I've gotta buy somethin' nice," Bianca decided, digging into her purse to see how nice she could afford.
"I think the least we can do is spend some money here," Cheren agreed, looking at a selection of small sculptures. "These look to be in our price range. They're mostly mythological Pokemon, or Pokemon that were once thought to be gods-"
"Oh!" Bianca gasped, running after him and pointing at one of the figures on the shelf. "That's it! That's the Pokemon I saw!"
"Wait, what?" Carlotta asked, leaning over her shoulder to look. Warren also came to have a closer look.
The figurine was about three inches tall, carved out of wood and unpainted, but polished to make the detail clear. It looked like a Rapidash with the mane of an Arcanine, but with rounder, stockier features.
"Hmmm," Cheren said, peering at the figure, then picking it up carefully and looking at the base for an inscription. "I… don't believe I recognize this one. Are you certain?"
"Yeah! It was all white, with all this-" Bianca ran a finger over the mane- "all red an' blue!"
"All the artists work in here, let's find the carver an' ask 'im," Carlotta suggested, walking to the end of the shelf and peering around it. "'Scuse me, sir, all these carvin's your work?"
"Yes, they are," a deep voice on the other side said. They walked around the shelf to see a surprisingly small and delicate man for what a deep voice he had, whittling nonstop at a block of wood while he talked to Carlotta.
"Sorry to interrupt your work, but could you tell us which Pokemon this is, please?" Cheren asked, holding out the figure. "I'm afraid I don't recognize it at all."
"Most don't," the man said, glancing at the figure with a smile. "We don't know their name, but we call them The Little One. You know of the the Three Warriors-the ones your people call the Swords of Justice?"
"Cobalion, Terrakion and Virizion," Cheren immediately rattled off. "Fabled defenders of Pokemon."
"Those three are famous, but a legend less known these days is that with every battle they lose, they gain a new soldier," the carver explained, still whittling. "Once there was one, then two, then three… now there are four, but the balance has not fallen far enough to call their wrath down on us, so The Little One's powers and name are as yet unknown. But they're seen around, every so often. My grandmother saw them, as a child, even spoke to them, briefly."
"See!" Bianca exclaimed. "I told you it spoke to me!"
"Bianca, it's a myth-" Cheren began.
"Now, hang on, young lady," the whittler said, finally setting down his wood and staring intently at Bianca. "You say that you saw The Little One? Even spoke to them?" He looked at the pokeballs on her belt. "I would never expect one of The Warriors to favour a trainer…"
"Well… I was healin' a hurt wild Pokemon I found," Bianca explained. "An' then this other wild Pokemon attacked us, an' I tried to protect it, then, um… The Little One came an' protected me. An' they spoke to me. They said…" She bit her lip. "Um. It's a secret. Sorry."
"My grandmother would never speak of what The Little One said to her, either," the whittler mused. "Aint' that something."
"What is happening?" Warren whispered to Carlotta.
"I have no idea," Carlotta whispered back as Bianca started digging out money to buy the statuette, "but Bianca knew that thing even when Cheren's never seen it before."
"You think she really might've…?" Warren said, nodding at the statuette.
"I don't think it's really what that guy thinks it is," Carlotta murmured, "but Bianca definitely saw somethin' not normal…"
{Reshin 20th, 5:36pm}
{Nacrene City}
"I think we took a wrong turn somewhere," Cheren said, pulling up a map again on his c-gear. They'd definitely wandered off the beaten path-there wasn't anybody else walking down the road they were on. "You know, they really ought to use the murals on the buildings as landmarks."
"Nah, they change 'em every so often," Warren said, shaking his head. "Some of 'em ain't murals so much as super-fancy graffiti."
"Tourism could hire a guy to keep the maps updated, though," Carlotta pointed out. "I'd do it. Sounds like a sweet job."
"That don't exist," Warren pointed out.
"I think I hear a voice," Cheren said, glancing up at the nearest building and then at the sculpture garden in front of it. "Excuse me?" he called.
"Hello?" a little voice called from behind a sculpture.
"Excuse me, but we're lost," Cheren said, walking around the sculpture. "Are your parents… around…?"
"What's-oh," Bianca said, following Cheren and pausing when she saw what made him trail off. The kid on the other side was in a wheelchair, but not the regular sort for just going about your life in. It was a huge mass of monitors, tanks and tubes that the little girl it was all connected to was almost lost in all the equipment. The kid herself was skeletally skinny.
In front of her sat a little Petlil, playing with some leaves it had picked up, using its powers to make them dance. It dropped the leaves at the sight of the new humans.
"My mom's working late, but I bet one of the nurses can help you," the girl said, ducking her head shyly from their gazes. She pressed a button on the arm of her wheelchair. "One'll be out in a minute."
"Thanks very much," Warren said, smiling. "Real kind of you. Hey, little thing," he added, waving at the Petlil.
"Hey, are y'all trainers?" the little girl asked, pointing to Angus' pokeball, which Warren had strapped to the shoulderpad of his bag.
"Sure are!" Carlotta said, showing off her own pokeballs.
"Coooooool," the girl breathed, her eyes lighting up. "I really wanna be a trainer an' travel with Lilli an' see the world, but…" She trailed off, having to take a mask to breathe into for a minute, the excited rush of words too much for her. "I'm not gonna get to travel," she said in a tiny voice.
"You wanna meet our Pokemon?" Bianca suggested, releasing Mina and Tiberius. "They're real friendly!"
"Hi," the girl said, giggling as Mina gave her a heart-shaped kiss on the cheek. "They're real sweet!"
"They sure are," Warren said, releasing Angus and glancing at Cheren and Carlotta. "Do y'all have any Pokemon that are gentle enough to be around this kid?" he hissed.
"Um… no," Carlotta said, running a hand over her pokeballs.
"I think I have one, actually," Cheren said, releasing Priscilla. The Purrloin immediately leapt up and curled up on the little girl's lap for a nap. "Priscilla, careful! She's not hurting you, is she?"
"No! She's real light… and real warm," the girl said happily, gently stroking Priscilla's fur. "I get chills a lot. I'd love to have a real furry one like her." Priscilla purred loudly as the girl kept petting her.
"Well… why don't you keep her?" Cheren suggested with a sigh. "To be honest, I've never been able to make a fighter of her. Looks like lap-warmer is her life's dream."
"Really?!" the little girl said excitedly. "You'd just… give her to me? Just like that?"
"What's all the commotion about?" a nurse said, walking across the lawn towards them. "Denise, do you know these people?"
"This trainer said I can have his Purrloin!" Denise squeaked, getting so excited her breathing started to get laboured and she had to reach for her mask again.
"Breathe in and out, hon, it's real excitin', I know, but you've gotta relax," the nurse said soothingly, glancing at Cheren. "You know her?"
"No, we were passing by and just asked for directions," Cheren said. "But really, all that Purrloin does is sleep. I think she'd be happier with Denise here, and Denise certainly seems happy."
"Well… we do have a station for processing gift Pokemon, and we will have to look her over before letting Denise spend too much time around her," the nurse said, softening a little at how wide Denise was grinning. "But I think, with her mother's permission, we can do that. Come on inside and we can process that, okay? Is it a trade or just a gift?"
"Just a gift-" Cheren began.
"No, we should trade!" Denise insisted. "Trainers trade so their Pokemon can have all sorts of new experiences, right? I want you to take Lilli with you!" The little Petilil perked up at the sound of her name. "You're goin' to all sorts of cool places, right? You've gotta, to take the gyms, right?"
"That's right!" Carlotta said, showing off her Striaton gym badge. "We've got a lot of travelling ahead of us."
"So… take Lilli with you!" Denise insisted. "Just… take her all the places I can't, okay?"
"...I'd be happy to trade with you," Cheren offered, "on the condition that you let me send you pictures of Lilli in all of the cool places we go, okay?"
"You will definitely need her mother's permission for that," the nurse said, leaning down so he could pick up Lilli and start wheeling Denise inside, "but I think it sounds lovely."
"You softie," Warren said, kissing Cheren on the cheek.
{Reshin 20th, 6:43pm}
{Nacrene City}
"Seriously, Cheren, that was the sweetest," Bianca was still gushing as they walked into the Pokemon Centre, having finally been directed on their way by Denise's delighted mother, who had offered them her instagram account to send pictures to in lieu of giving strangers a direct line to her eight-year-old.
"Well, last night you pointed out that Priscilla simply isn't a fighter," Cheren said with a shrug. "Now she gets to sleep all she wants and that girl gets a reliable therapy Pokemon."
"And you gotta carry around a Pokemon that you gotta be careful about ever usin' to fight 'cause if she gets hurt you gotta tell that to a terminally ill little girl," Carlotta said teasingly.
"I can manage just fine with a team of five," Cheren said loftily.
"Bianca D'Artagnan?"
"Yeah?" Bianca said, turning around.
"Don't answer that-damn," Carlotta muttered, immediately moving between Bianca and the dark-haired man in a brown longcoat who'd approached her. "What do you want, pal?"
"Well, I just wanted to know if she was really Bianca D'artagnan," the man said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a card that declared him a private detective. "The name's Perivale. Ace Perivale. I've been hired by your parents to find you, Miss D'artagnan."
Warren and Cheren immediately joined Carlotta in forming a protective human wall. "You cannot force Bianca to go anywhere," Cheren pointed out. "She is legally independent."
"Technically, you also legally can't stop me from calling her parents right now," Ace said, though he showed no motion towards making a call. "I would, however, like to hear your side of the story, why you left and why your parents are so protective."
"Um, because they're Romrams?" Warren said scathingly. "Doesn't that say it all? They're homophobic, transphobic, racist, ableist…. Everything bad, really."
"I gathered," Ace deadpanned.
"An' they were startin' to set up marriage meetin's," Bianca mumbled. "I don't wanna marry any of them boys from the church."
"They can't legally compel you to get married, Miss D'Artagnan," Ace pointed out.
"No, but they'll drag me to the meetin's anyway and ignore me sayin' I ain't interested an' send out invites and start plannin' and it'll be the goddamn day and they'll be guilt-trippin' an' harrassin' me ta get into the dress 'cause they already did all that work an' their ears went an' erased every time I said I didn't wanna do it, and ain't I such a horrible, selfish daughter!" Bianca burst out. "I ain't goin'! You call 'em, an' all I'll do is run away again!"
"I understand," Ace said, holding up a hand. His blue eyes were sparkling with what looked like… amusement? "They came off as a real pair of pricks when I first met them, AND on their daily calls demanding updates, but I was really hoping that was just been out of worry."
"Nope, that's how they are," Carlotta said, folding her arms and tensing her muscles. She had been slacking off a little on her own training in favour of training her new Pokemon, but she was still pretty confident that she could break the guy's neck with a flex and she wanted to make damn sure he knew it.
"We know you have a job to do, Mr Perivale-"
"Sir, actually," Ace said with a grin, flashing a necklace with some kind of heavy pendant on it, like that was supposed to mean anything, though of course Cheren seemed to recognize it.
"...Well, Sir, we know you have a job to do," Cheren said, raising an eyebrow. "But if you agree that trying to reunite Bianca with her parents would be awful…"
"Now, young man, I am a professional, and the D'Artagnans are paying me extremely well to find their little girl," Ace said, shaking his head. "They are paying me, by the day, very, very well, and they'd have to be absolutely awful for me to not feel unconscionable about continuing to take their money without giving them any updates… so, thanks for that." He tucked his necklace away again. "They're essentially funding another investigation of mine that I personally rank as more important. Just be forewarned that they might hire somebody else if they get tired of my lack of progress, Miss D'Artagnan. Enjoy your time in Nacrene."
"Hey, how'd you find us, anyway?" Carlotta demanded.
"Oh, I've spent a couple days just jumping around between Pokemon Centres, keeping an eye out," Ace said with a shrug. "Runaway teenagers, I figured it was that or I'd have to start scouring for campers. And truth be told, when you walked in you all caught my eye. You have a very distinct aura, Miss D'Artagnan."
"Um… thank you?" Bianca said in confusion. Ace just waved and walked off.
"...Well, at least we know he's not a Romram," Warren said, sounding nonplussed. "He's one of those aura hippies."
"So… should we be runnin' away to another city or what?" Bianca said, wiping frightened tears out of her eyes.
"I… think we go find a camping spot by the train tracks, just in case," Carlotta suggested. "Even if that guy's not gonna sell you to your parents, he's gondamn weird."
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Sir Ace Perivale belongs to ShinigamiMaster on FFnet! Thank you very much for letting me use him! He'll be back quite quickly ;) Because… this was another chapter I had to split in two because it was just getting too damn long, even at twice the length of my old style of chapters. I. Uh. May not be good at estimating chapter lengths. Who even knows how long this is gonna be now XP
This is also my first time writing approximations of Native American characters, so as usual, if I'm fucking up at all, let me know?
Okay, confession number 1: Pine died in the Plasma fight in Wellspring Cavern, and original drafts did have Plasma kill Pine during the kidnapping, but arranging the scene and getting Bianca to meet Keldeo meant that ultimately, it just didn't flow. Nothing bad happened to Packard, but I ended up boxing him in favour of other Pokemon a little while after this and he was really not central to any events in the meantime, so this was a good, peaceful way to send him off and also give Bianca a break for a damn minute
Confession number 2: Priscilla also did die but that happened while catching the Cottonnee Key traded for a Petlil and she didn't take that thing's details so given Priscilla's pre-existing characterization it made more sense to trade her away :P THEY'VE EACH GOTTEN ONE. Carlotta gets one and then that's IT.
Confession number 3: I could've finished this on time but I went shopping at the Pokemon Mega Centre in Ikebukuro instead and bought too many plushies. Apologies for the schedule slip but I'm planning to get ahead of it while I'm on holiday next week!
Warren
Angus the Audino
Carlotta
Owain the Dewott, Loyal the Herdier, Paden the Pansear, Pijon the Tranquil, Roland the Roggenrola
Bianca
Tiberius the Tepig, Wilhelmina the Woobat
RIP Pine the Pansage, level 10-14
Cheren
Sherlock the Servine, Poncho the Panpour, Rocky the Roggenrola
Name: Lilli. Species: Petlil. Nature: Modest. Ability: Chlorophyll. Location: Nacrene City. Level: 15
RIP Priscilla the Purrloin, level 3-21
