"O-okay, okay okay..." Grant lowered his arms, keeping everything as disarming as possible, "so does... everyone understand?"
An awed, eerie silence melted through the vicinity. Dozens of panicked fish-eyes stared him down, and the evening twilight wasn't doing anything to make the ambience less creepy.
"S-so let's make sure we don't panic," Grant's voice was stiff. "And that way we can-"
"-we're all gonna die!" Someone cut him off, and then the shit hit the proverbial fan as the restrained tension of the audience dissolved into pure mania.
"...great," Grant massaged his forehead, as his 'audience' descended further by the second into the self-spawned chaos, some resorting to literally running about in circles. "So should we just let them figure this out for themselves?"
Alex balked. "W-well if it's all the same to you, I'd rather see these young'uns live to see tomorrow!"
"Well yeah, of course, but how're we gonna get their attention back now?" Grant frowned. "We'd have better bloody luck herding walla-"
But Grant's voice, as well as everything else in the surrounding area, was quickly drowned out by a piercing, high-pitched chirruping. Flapping its tiny wings madly, Priya's Natu squeaked for all it was worth. Panicky limbs eventually stopped flailing, and soon most everyone was covering their ears instead.
"Th-thank you, Natu," Priya mumbled, and brought the tiny bird back to her chest.
"Good thinking, Priya," Grant could breathe a sigh of relief. "Now, everyone! Before you run off screaming again, listen to me! If we start panicking and forgetting ourselves, we're letting that old guy win! You understand?! And I dunno about you, but I don't wanna give him that satisfaction! So you wanna know what I think we should do?!"
The loudest silence pursued his answer.
"We fight! Fight against him, and his silly game, and win! We've all played these games before, right? So how hard can this one be? It's still gotta follow the same rules, hasn't it? So instead of running around like headless Torchics,"
A ripple of laughter was his mercy.
"Let's all get a good night's sleep, get training first thing tomorrow, and live to fight another day!"
Applause smattered from the crowds, and Grant could've sworn he even heard a half-drowned cheer. But nevertheless, this was a huge improvement over the panic from before. If they all focused on training instead of panicking, not only would they be putting their time to better use, but also increase their chances of getting out of here, and seeing their families again!
Grant squeezed the locket around his neck. "I'll seeya soon, Izzy."
It had been a restless night for Caitlyn. Not only did Leon squirm about so much that she had to return him to his pokeball, she found it so hard to relax, even close her eyes, that she had soon relented, and was once again aggressively stroking the Litleo.
"Mrrraaoooww...?!" Leon flailed about in her grip, splashed across her waist and entirely dissatisfied with the arrangement.
"I know Leon, I know..." she groaned at him. "Just settle down and lemme hug ye fer a while, a'right?"
Leon continued to squirm, however it at least seemed like he was listening to her. The flailing limbs reduced in vigour, and his claws were no longer digging into her side. Huge improvement. Caitlyn's bitten nails raked across Leon's fur, strained and shaky. Never in her years of playing these games, had she seen a Pokémon actually die. It was mentioned a couple of times at specific places, like in Lavender Town where someone had lost a Clefairy, and even the cartoon said a Charmander would die if its tail fire went out, but... but these were the games. They were child friendly, handholdey, happy, fluffy shite! This wasn't supposed to happen!
Caitlyn flicked at the smoulder of light atop her Litleo's head. Not unlike a candle, it would flicker around her touch, and she could feel the heat prickle across her skin with the contact, yet it wouldn't burn. Was Leon's head fire like a Charmander's tail fire? Was his life force that fragile? Even when he was in the bathtub, it at least sizzled...
The weight on her eyelids was really coming down now, but as the light of dawn crept in through the cheap curtains, she knew attempting to sleep was futile at this point.
"...wanna go for a walk, Leon?"
"Mrrh?!" The Litleo's head bounced up instantly. A flurry or flaws and embers he was, scratching himself off of the bed and reducing Caitlyn's arm to little more than ribbons in the process. She grimaced at the fresh marks, as they glistened in the approaching sunlight.
"I'll... take that as a yes then."
With a few clenched fists and a run under cold tap water, her arm was hopefully just going to scar for a while. Still grimacing at the pain, Caitlyn pulled on some day clothes, including a warm hoodie from the generic grey set that seemed to have come with the property. Her front door had barely been opened, and Leon had already shot out of it. But with a sharp whistle from Caitlyn, he sat to attention, and stared at her expectantly instead.
"T'ank ye Leon, I'll be with ye soon." Caitlyn sighed. The brisk morning air kissed her cheeks, blowing the sleep from her eyes and inviting her to join nature's party with its salty, seaside tang. She hadn't yet been to the beach here. While she knew it wasn't far, and the allure of getting sand in-between her toes was powerful, she resisted the urge in favour of exploring the town. It was ghostly quiet without the usual bustle of other trainers, what with it being half five in the morning, and maybe with Leon as her only distraction, she would be able to better understand how this world worked.
The best she could figure, her town was divided into a group of little chalets on one side, while the heavy duty block of flats sulked on the other end of town more inland, and all of the commerce and tourism was squashed into one street in the centre. Shops and stalls were run by characters who were seemingly programmed into the game itself, and an unusual quirk that existed in this world, but not the games, was that many of the shops - and most importantly the poke centre - had opening and closing times.
This had become evident to Caitlyn as she spied the shop attendant dragging a chalkboard sign out through the front doors, and scribble the day's notices down on it. While it did give Caitlyn relief that poke centre nurses no longer had to suffer back shifts, and she felt all the more ridiculous for even taking pity on pixelated characters, it did also draw some concern from her depths;
What if you needed a heal at night time? Would you have to rely on potions? That was a risky game...
"Hmm, Super Potions on premium..." the redhead mused to herself, reading the scribblings on the notice board. Of the three whole items she'd managed to gather up since starting her training, a Super Potion was indeed one of them. She hadn't brought it with her, instead keeping it safe in a drawer back at the chalet, her two years working in a shop had her wondering just how much buying power a 'premium' Super Potion would get her.
The church bells rang six; another irony of this world that Caitlyn couldn't help but laugh at. And just like clockwork, the shop attendant appeared at the door, and span the sign around to 'open'. With a smile and a tinkle of the bells on the door, she unveiled her wares to the world.
"T'anks," Caitlyn accepted the door as it was held open for her, and stepped into the tiny shop. Pungent bleach mixed in with seaside salt, and the abundance of shelves crammed with all sorts of random things with no rhyme or reason, it was with a slight twinge in the chest that the redhead was reminded of home. From the salty air to the sporadic items on the shelves, it was all just a bit too familiar.
"M-morning!" Niceties always came first. "So i-if I were to sell ye a Super Potion, how much would that be worth on premium?"
The lady behind the counter smiled politely. "Super Potions normally sell for three fifty, but today I'm buying them for five hundred instead."
"And that's today only?" Caitlyn asked.
"Unless demand increases, yes," the lady continued. "If that happens, the premium will be even higher tomorrow."
"That's quite a gamble," Caitlyn rubbed at her chin. A quick glance around the shop floor told her that five hundred still was not a lot of money however; basic hygiene necessities like toothpaste and soap were both past the thousand mark. Even the humble newspaper was going to cost her a hundred, simple food items like snack bars and fruit varied between one and five hundred, and for clothes, she was looking at five figure sums for basic, not-very-cute things. Better than the boring grey, but definitely not deserving of the luxury price tag.
Caitlyn let out a low whistle. Surviving here wasn't going to be easy.
"A'right, t'ank you," Her customer service voice escaped her smile. The shop attendant simply smiled back at her, and let the redhead on her way.
6AM seemed to be the wake-up call for the village's early risers, it seemed. With Leon still trotting about her heels and getting in the way wherever he could, Caitlyn was relieved that others were settling into this lifestyle without too much hassle, either. As always, there was the early morning jogger, only with the wonderful addition of a Spheal barrelling across the ground alongside them, while the stereotypical yoga wanker stretched in some oblique position on the field across from them, her Swablu looking thoroughly unamused with the situation. Like breezes, freshly roused trainers would float into town, generally with a Pokémon chasing after them and a sleepy expression. Some could afford breakfast items from the nearby deli, and Caitlyn grumbled at how good it all smelled, while others were just as penniless as her, reinforcing just how much of an uphill struggle this was all going to be.
"Okay..." she collapsed into a bench opposite a fountain, and frowned at the missed opportunity. "Sit here for a minute, then maybe some trainin' or something. How's that sound, Leon?"
"Mrrrah!" Leon mewled up at her, doing the butt wiggle thing as he aimed his jump. But clumsy feet were his enemy as always, and once again Leon found himself scrabbling against gravity.
"C'mere, c'mere..." Caitlyn winced in apprehension, gripping at his torso with two shaky hands. Leon gave a 'mrow?' of confusion as he was lifted away, and plonked into his trainer's lap.
"Therrre's a good boy," she smiled, feeling his warmth radiate through her. "Now I'll be just a..." she gulped down a yawn, "m-minute longer..."
"Okay Makkie, give that new move another try!"
"Mak!" Makuhita's deep voice grunted, as it thwacked a poor Shellder with the full force of its arm. The Shellder whimpered as Makuhita struck it once, twice more, and retaliated by bounding into the air!
"Another Clamp! Dodge it if you can, Mak-" Grant issued his command. However his mind and Makuhita's body were not one, and instead the fat little fighter gurgled in surprise as the shellfish suctioned onto its head.
"Maak! Maaaaaak!" Makuhita grunted in pain.
"See if you can pry if off or something, Makko!" Grant ordered. Makuhita's two pudgy fists gripped at the sides of Shellder's shell, and began trying to force it open again. No such luck.
Shellder squeezed again, and Makuhita resorted to simply punching at the tough shell instead. Every hit was accompanied with a pained squeak, and Makuhita was quickly learning where it could hit hardest;
"Mah-
kuh-
hi-!"
Away it kept punching. However, Shellder wisened up, and chose its timing perfectly to release Makuhita's head and crash back onto the sand. And Makuhita wasn't quick enough to avoid punching itself in the face.
"Ohhh..." Grant shook his head fondly. "Alright, easy mistake. Double back and keep punching! You're almost there!"
Shellder retaliated with a blast of rainbow coloured light, and the fighter countered with another series of arm thrusts, which cracked the shell on the second hit, broke through on the third, and reduced the Shellder into pixels on the fourth. Success!
"Whew!" Grant could breathe a sigh of relief. "Great work Makkie! He was a tough old bugger eh?"
"Ma-kuuh?" Makuhita scratched its head, staring at something in the waves.
"Huh? What's wrong? Did it drop something?"
Makuhita span around, and 'pointed' at what looked like a box bobbing up and down in the water. Grant reached in to grab it, only to find out that it was a lot heavier than he'd expected at first. Was everything in this world heavy?
He tore the wrapping off, and found what looked like a roll of brown paper inside. It was far brown paper could ever hope to be however, as well as a lot springier.
"What am I gonna do with this...?" He frowned. With a shrug, he tucked the roll under his arm. It would be useful in some way or another.
"C'mon Makkie, let's head back. See if we can't find a use for whatever this is."
"Kuh!" Makuhita pumped both arms, and started swaggering behind its trainer.
"All good, Alex?" Grant called across the sands, where she, her boy Ty, her Kangaskhan and even the French boy Michel were busy making sandcastles. Something told Grant that this was more to keep Ty happy than anything else.
"Oh! Mornin' Grant! We're doing great! Takin' a quick break from all this fightin', ain't that right Kanga?"
"Skaaa...!" Her Kangaskhan mewled down to her, showing incredible motor skills as it placed a tiny stick on top of Ty's sand 'castle'. It was really just a mound of sand with a hole in the top, but Ty looked like he was satisfied with it.
"That's great news. You find anything yet?"
"Well, umm..." Alex fished around in the grocery bag she'd taken with her. "I dunno if it counts, but we found this pearl? It's real shiny like?"
Grant was expecting a marble. Maybe a ping pong ball. Definitely not a bloody soccer ball!
"Oh whoa, that's huge!" He gasped, as Alex wrenched the thing out of her bag. "You found that?!"
"Uh huh!" Alex beamed, as her giant pearl was quickly snatched away by Ty. "Kanga beat up this little dude in a shell, and it left this behind! Y'all think it's worth much...?"
"Oh, you'll get a lot for that," Grant nodded fervently. "A lot more than this thing, anyway."
He unrolled his sheet of material to show to her, and even she looked confused by it.
"What is that?"
"No clue," he shrugged. "But I figure, if I can't find any use for it, I can sell it. Everything's worth something, eh?"
"Maybe you can-" Alex began, but her suggestion was interrupted by an irate yell from Ty. With a huff, the boy shuffled away from his 'sandcastle', which was little more than a crater now. Alex's giant pearl had proven heavier than he'd thought.
"Oh, Ty..." She sighed, and brought the small boy into her arms. "Sandcastles and heavy things don't work together, hun!"
"But shiny shiny..." Ty sobbed into his mother's shoulder.
"We'll help you make another one, okay?" Alex urged. "Sorry Grant, looks like grown-up talk'll have to wait!"
"...no no, that's all good," Grant continued staring at the sandcastle. "...you seen Shemmy recently? I just had an idea."
"Shemmy? No idea honey. Try back at the village?" Alex ruffled her boy's hair. "He and that Ivan boy get along pretty good."
"That's good, 'cause I need both of them!" Grant cried, "C'mon Makkie, I'll race ya home!"
"Mak!" Makuhita grinned, before shoving his trainer over and charging ahead.
"Ooh, you're gonna pay for that!" he laughed, and chased after the fighter.