The Pokes are not mine!
ooooo
Yesterday & Today
Chapter 12
Edith felt much freer without her bulky rain gear and umbrella, and she practically skipped down the central lane in the town. Passersby gave her strange looks, until finally she approached one of the nicer looking gentlemen and asked, "Excuse me, but why are the townsfolk so suspicious-looking? Do you not get many out-of-towners?"
He sized her up, and must have decided she wasn't a threat. "Some shady folk have been going in and out of Professor Cozmo's home for a few days. Now, he's gone off to Meteor Falls with them, and hasn't come back since yesterday!"
One of the men he was standing with muttered, "Something's happening, and I don't like it!" The man Edith was speaking to shushed him.
"We're used to unfamiliar trainers coming by to challenge the Battle Tent, and to be fair, you look like one of those types rather than those grunts we saw. But, folk'll be quick to jump to conclusions, so I imagine a fair few are worried about you just for being new."
Edith thanked him for his time and stepped away from the group. Mysterious characters who looked like grunts abducting a professor and going to a secluded cave. That certainly sounded ominous. And…related to what she had seen outside the cable car station.
Abruptly, Edith grabbed her Pokenav and called Steven. He picked up after two rings. "Heeeey Steven, guess where I am?"
"I'm going to guess Fallarbor Town?" he said with mock surprise.
"That's right! Where are you?"
"I'm at my friend's house, which is on the west side of town. If you follow the main road west, I'll come outside and meet you."
Edith hung up and began to walk. After a few minutes, she noticed a distant figure that looked tall and distinctly well-dressed. Steven grinned when he saw her. "Welcome to Fallarbor Town. I hope you weren't planning to do much sightseeing, because you've basically done it already."
She shrugged. "And what lovely sightseeing it was. At this point, I'll settle for meeting your friend."
"You're in luck, because that was the plan." They walked back towards the house, which was a quaint, unpainted wooden structure with small windows to either side of the door. Steven walked right in, calling, "Dexter, I'm back with Edie!"
"Come on back," called a voice from somewhere in the house. Edith toed off her shoes and followed Steven down the hallway. She let out a little gasp when her first sight was of an enormous eyeball gaping at her. "Oh, sorry!" said Dexter, laughing. He pushed up his magnifying glass, revealing a thin, freckled face dwarfed by thick spectacles. "I've just been cataloging some rare stones, you see." He turned to clear a space on the low table, the only piece of furniture in the room aside from some floor pillows, and Edith shot Steven a look and mouthed 'Fossil maniac!' Steven grinned and shrugged.
Dexter unceremoniously swept the remaining dust off the table and onto the floor, then hastily set out some pillows for them to sit on. "Please, sit, sit," he said, trying his hand at hospitality. "I'll get some drinks."
While Dexter was safely out of earshot in the small kitchen, Edith whispered, "You guys have totally been sitting here having a fossil nerd party!"
"So what if we have?" Steven shot back good-naturedly. "Are you saying you're too cool for me now? And I was going to give you a nice present, too!"
Edith stuck her tongue out at him, and quickly withdrew it when Dexter returned with a pitcher and three glasses. "Got some lemonade!" he announced. "And clean cups!"
They drank. "So, Edie, Steven tells me you're quite the pokemon trainer!"
"Does he now?" She glanced at her friend with a grin. "Well, I like to think I am, at least. Do you have any pokemon?"
"Just a Geodude. I don't really train it, though. It mostly keeps me company, helps me with my archaeology, things like that. Steven's the real trainer. I couldn't believe it, when we met he-"
"We met in school," Steven interrupted. "We were both studying archaeology together in school."
Edith frowned. Steven was very obviously hiding something. But so am I, she thought sheepishly, and decided not to press the matter. At that moment, a young girl wandered into the room, blinking sleepily and carrying a Marrill doll.
"Morning, sleepyhead!" said Dexter fondly. The girl sat down next to him and leaned against him.
"Mmmm," she yawned.
"Edie, this is my niece Rosalyn. She's staying with me to learn about archaeology before she turns 10 and decides what she wants to do with herself."
"Nice to meet you, Rosalyn," Edie said politely.
Rosalyn spoke around her hand as she yawned again, "Mommy and Daddy don't like archaeology. They say you get really dirty and don't find anything useful. But I like archaeology and I like to dig in the dirt and I like the pretty rocks. And I even like the rocks that aren't pretty too because they are important!" she informed the older woman seriously.
Steven leaned over and stage-whispered, "Her parents are hoping that she will be so bored with Uncle Dexter that she will forget archaeology entirely."
"I won't!" Rosalyn protested. "Uncle Dexter isn't boring, and I like him! He says I'm the best archaeologist he knows," she insisted.
"You are the best," Dexter assured her. "Why don't you go get something to eat?" He shooed her towards the kitchen. Steven raised an amused eyebrow. "Well, she's the best 8-year-old archaeologist I've ever seen," Dexter amended.
"So what is there to do in Fallarbor Town?" Edie asked. "What's to the west of here?"
"Ummm let's see." Dexter drummed his fingers on the table. "There's a small lake for fishing to the immediate west; south of that is a much bigger lake at the base of Meteor Falls. There are a few houses out there, and then it gets into the foothills of the mountain."
"Houses?" Edie interrupted. "Is Lanette's house out there? I met her at the Pokemon Center and she asked me to come by."
"Oh, yeah. It's pretty easy to find once you cross the big lake. She'll probably give you something if you make the trip all the way out there. She's one of those rich eccentric types, you know." Dexter glanced pointedly at Steven, who wrinkled his nose.
"If you're going all the way out there, I'll give you directions to one of my favorite mining sites," Steven offered. He ignored her victorious grin. "It's pretty close to the entrance of the Falls and has a lot of interesting rock formations."
After a few moments, Edith gave up on mouthing "fossil maniac" at him and focused on the conversation. As she was raising her glass to take a sip of her drink, Steven reached out and caught her wrist.
"What happened to your hand? It looks like you got stung by a ton of bug pokemon." He pulled her hand closer to his face and frowned at the reddened skin.
"I touched a poisonous plant on the way to Fallarbor," Edith said, squirming to free her hand. "It's fine now; I went to the Pokemon Center and everything."
"Well, it looks awful," Steven said matter-of-factly. "Keep an eye on it, okay?" He released her hand with a concerned look.
Edith stayed for lunch and spent the afternoon learning about Dexter and Rosalyn. Steven was talkative, but never about himself. Dexter was more than willing to fill in any missing information about their archaeological adventures, and talked at length about fossils and pokemon resurrection. Rosalyn listened with rapt attention and asked every question that came to her mind.
In the mid-afternoon, Dexter announced that he had promised to take Rosalyn to the store, and Edith decided to take her leave rather than accompany them. She shook Dexter's hand and gave Rosalyn a hug, then stood awkwardly on the front stoop with Steven. He went over the directions he had given her again.
"There's no need to go all the way through the Falls, unless you want to backtrack to Rustboro. You won't need much of this map since the digsite is very close to the entrance, but you can have my personal map." He presented her with a very detailed hand-drawn map labeled with spidery writing.
"This looks way too important to be giving to someone with no interest in fossils like me. It's practically a handmade guide to the entire mountain!" Edith moved to pass the map back, and Steven held up a hand.
"I'm enough of a fossil nerd that I don't really need it for reference any more. Please, consider it a gift."
Suddenly, Dexter ran back into the house. "I almost forgot!" When he returned, he had a TM case with him. "I got this TM for Rosalyn, but she doesn't have any pokemon that can use it right now. Since you're about to go into a pretty big cave, you will probably benefit more. We can get another one easily enough, anyway."
Edith took the case and examined the label. "Dig! This will be so useful! You really shouldn't have, Dexter," she said gratefully.
"Not at all," he said, waving his hand dismissively. "I have all sorts of weird things laying around in the house; I'd rather see them put to use!"
Edith set off towards the west, and soon found the path turning southwards. When she came upon a small fishing pond, she released Grumpy in preparation for battling any fishermen trainers she might run into.
"Hopefully all of these fishermen will be using their water pokemon to battle," she told the pokemon. "You'll have the upper hand."
Grumpy puffed with self-importance. 'Let's go! How about that guy?'
They took the first three people they came to down with ease. Grumpy was a stun-sporing, absorbing, tackling machine. In the last battle, she faced a strange gray fish that Edith identified as a water/ground type called Barboach.
"Grumpy, you are going to love this. Barboach is doubly susceptible to your grass attacks! Go get 'im!"
Grumpy puffed out a cloud of spores, rendering the Barboach useless on the shore. She followed it up with Leech Seed, which drained her opponent's health twice as fast as normal. 'Take that!' Grumpy said triumphantly. She turned to Edith. 'Did you see that? Did you? That was great! I am the master!' As she spoke, she began to glow, and Edith gasped.
Her pokemon's body stretched upwards, thinning and elongating. Grumpy's head flattened into a mushroom shape, and her legs rounded with new muscles. And... 'Arms! I grew arms!' Grumpy said happily. She waved the thin appendages around for good measure. 'Look! Look at these!' She picked up a stick, put it down, picked it up again, and threw it. Edith was about to comment on how her nickname no longer suited her when Grumpy's face turned devious. 'Just wait till Sly gets a look at these! I can get him back for all those jokes…all those pranks!'
"According to my Pokedex, you should have a much stronger fighting ability now," Edith informed her pokemon. Grumpy experimentally punched the air. "We should work on those new skills!"
Years of training with fighting pokemon in a dojo flooded back to Edith, and she grinned with the sudden nostalgia. She set an easy pace for them and took off running south along Route 114. They passed by other lakes, surrounded by fishermen, and stopped here and there to battle. Grumpy was elated, going so far as to attempt to pick up her opponents before beating them. In between battles, Edith stopped them to do jumping jacks, pushups, and punches, before running off again. It was still cool along the water, and the ash didn't appear to float over this route, so it was easy going. Every 20 minutes Edith would stop them to rest, but before long, Grumpy would inevitably be up and running again in her excitement.
By late afternoon they had passed through most of the lakes, including a massive one spanned by a sturdy wooden dock. Grumpy was hunched over the water, admiring her new body once again when Edith noticed the house on the edge of the lake.
"That must be where Lanette lives! We haven't seen any other houses the whole way here. C'mon, Grumpy." They jogged the rest of the way across the lake and came up to the house. It was one story, with cheerful wood paneling and flowers beneath the windows. "Be sure to stretch," Edith advised Grumpy, and they stood in Lanette's front yard and stretched before Edith gathered Grumpy back into her pokeball.
At that moment, Lanette opened one of the windows to water her flowers and noticed Edith. "Hey you! Aren't you that girl I met in the Pokemon Center in Fallarbor?"
"I am!" Edith approached the door. "I came to visit on my way to Meteor Falls!"
Inside, the house was welcoming and homey, if more than a little cluttered. Lanette ushered her into what appeared to be the only room other than the bedroom and kitchen and shoved some empty disc cases onto the floor to make room for Edith to sit. The room was cramped with a small table, couch, TV, and several computers trailing cords across the floor. Every available surface had notebooks, discs, or other scientific paraphernalia obscuring its surface.
"I'll get some coffee," Lanette offered, and bustled into the kitchen to set about making it. Edith glanced around the room politely, curious about the wall of computers she could hear gently humming. One of them was on, and Edith could make out an open message that read "Your storage system offers more convenience than mine. It has a lot of user-friendly features that make it fun and useful, too. It makes me proud that I played a part in its development. Here's hoping that you'll continue research in Storage Systems. From Bill."
Lanette returned with two mugs and set one in front of Edith. It read "World's Best Programmer." Lanette's mug had a chip in the rim and a drawing of a Zigzagoon on the side. "So!" She cleared a space on a three-legged stool and sat down heavily. "How are you liking north Hoenn?"
Edith took a sip of her coffee. "Well, I couldn't believe how much ash came down over Route 113! But Fallarbor is a lovely little town. It seems like it would be a very peaceful place, although right now the residents seem a little…suspicious."
Lanette nodded. "I noticed that myself when I was in town. Professor Cozmo, a friend of mine who lives in town, has been getting trouble from some shady types lately. I haven't heard from him in a while, and I know the townfolk are wary of those thugs hanging around. I know Cozmo, and he has a tendency to go wandering without a second thought to telling anyone his plans, but him not being around combined with those hoodlums does make me nervous."
Edith gritted her teeth reflexively. There it was again: mysterious, dangerous people menacing her peaceful life. She shouldn't get involved; how could she not get involved? "I heard that they were also talking about something happening in Meteor Falls. Since that's where I'm headed, I'll keep an eye out for any sign of him." She shut her mouth with a snap. What was she thinking, volunteering to go after the bad guys?
"I would really appreciate that. And I would also really appreciate your thoughts on the Pokemon Storage System!" Lanette leaned forward eagerly. "It's my baby, but I am always looking for fresh ideas for improvement. Have you been using it much?"
"I use it fairly often; mostly when I catch a new pokemon. I have a pretty set team at the moment, so I transfer new pokemon from the field directly into my storage boxes. It's been very easy to use, and I like the decorative and organizational features."
Lanette grabbed a notepad, ripped off the top page of scribbles, and fished a pen out of a pile of keychains. "Do you experience any difficulty like lag, ignored commands, and so on, when you use the system?"
"Not that I know of. I haven't lost any pokemon being transferred remotely, and it's a very fast program when it comes to depositing, withdrawing, and moving pokemon." Lanette wrote furiously, bushy pigtails shaking on her shoulders. "How long have you been working on the system, Lanette?" Edith asked.
"Oh, let's see…the preliminary system has been around for years. I've been programming for fun since I was a little girl, and I always loved pokemon, so my sister and I worked to develop the basics from an early age. After we worked out the major kinks in transporting pokemon remotely, we began to fine-tune the controls, user preferences, networking…" she noticed Edith's polite grin. "Sorry, I sometimes get lost in my own technobabble."
"I heard that you were working with a programmer from another region to improve the system," Edith said.
"Oh yes, Bill!" Lanette grinned proudly. "Bill, the pokemon programmer himself, contacted me out of the blue a few years ago to ask about my system! He said that I had made some amazing developments and wanted to ask me how I had done it. I must admit, considering how long I have admired Bill, if feels like a dream to speak directly to him!"
Edith grinned. Bill was just as enthusiastic about his work as Lanette was about hers. "You must get along well together."
"Well, a hefty dose of hero worship probably doesn't hurt," Lanette laughed. She glanced at the clock, which was propped against the wall on top of a cabinet and partially obscured by a stack of books. "I know you said you were going to Meteor Falls, but it's getting rather late. If you'd like, you're welcome to stay here for the night and head out there tomorrow!"
The sun was mostly below the horizon when Edith looked out the window. "That would be nice, if it's not too much trouble for you."
Lanette fished a spare futon out of the closet and set up Edith in the guest room upstairs. The guest room, while marginally cleaner, was still a study in clutter. After depositing her things upstairs, Edith met Lanette in the kitchen, where the older woman was microwaving frozen dinners and hastily washing some spare cutlery. They ate perched on the edge of a threadbare couch, surrounded by worn pillows.
In the morning, Edith finally discovered what had been bothering her. "Lanette, do you have any pokemon?"
Lanette momentarily forgot about the oatmeal she was stirring and looked searchingly out the window. "This may seem strange, coming from the person who developed the means to electronically store and manage a collection of pokemon, but I don't catch any pokemon. None of them belong to me. But there are pokemon out in the world who are my companions. I always give them my love and affection when they see fit to visit me. We continue our lives separately, but that doesn't mean we are not often together." She shook herself out of her reverie and grinned at Edith. "Pretty deep, I know."
"I think it's beautiful," Edith said seriously.
On the way out, Lanette ran back into the house and made an impressive racket looking for something. Minutes later she returned with an adorable plush Lotad doll.
"I wanted to thank you for, uh, not saying anything about my Rattata's nest of a house." She handed the doll to Edith.
"Wow, thanks! It's so cute!" Edith exclaimed, giving the plush an experimental squeeze. "But…I don't know if I have space to carry it in my pack," she said sadly.
Lanette giggled. "Good thing you're hanging out with a programming whiz! I'll just electronically transfer it to your PC, so you can retrieve it whenever you get home."
"Thank you, Lanette!" They hugged.
"Keep an eye out for Cozmo, okay?"
ooooo
Edith was actually glad when the grassy hills gave way to outright rock outcroppings, because the strenuous climbing warmed her up after the cool walk in the morning. She secretly wished that she had a bird pokemon with her, so it could fly her right where she needed to be. As it was, she had shed her sweater, tugged on some fingerless gloves, and stuffed Steven's handmade map in easy reach on her belt. Although she was only in the foothills, the rocky terrain apparently held enough interest for Steven, as he had multiple notations jotted in for this section of the map. She dutifully looked at the locations that were closest to her as she climbed, but so far had found nothing of particular interest. Then again, she wasn't a fossil maniac.
Sometime before lunch, she discovered the entrance to Meteor Falls and slipped inside. It was damper than she had expected, but the dim coolness prompted her to put on her sweatshirt again. Following, Steven's directions, she passed by melted rockfalls and jagged boulders until she came to a yawning cave.
It was wide and tall, dimmer than the rest of the cave she had come through. What light did enter, however, reflected off the walls to reveal pure beauty. The cave walls glittered with striated, powdery rock peppered with gold and silver flecks. The ground was dotted with smooth, milky pebbles from palest pink to opalescent white. Edith began to walk along the wall, hesitantly trailing her hand along the stone, and let her eyes soak in the dim radiance.
She soon came across a curious structure carved out of the rock. Although Steven would not leave behind tools or trash in the places he visited, it appeared he was not above making them more suitable for him. The formation was throne-like, elegantly shaped and polished, and still mostly connected to the wall it had been carved from. It shared the same glimmer as the walls, and had been set with semi-precious gems along the armrests. Edith sat and found it surprisingly comfortable. The chair was more reclined than she expected, which was when she noticed the ceiling of the cave.
Set high above the ground were hundreds of glimmering stones winking cheerfully in the soft light. Edith exhaled in awe, at once reminded of both the night sky and Sly's gemstone eyes. She smiled at the memory of how she had met the Sableye; Steven had been with her then. Half-dreaming, she allowed herself to bask in the quiet glory of the cave.
She wasn't sure how long it had been when she heard the shout. It sounded muffled, as if it had come from very far away, but it was enough to shake her from her daydream. Edith jumped to her feet and ran to the mouth of the cave. There was another shout, followed by many voices. She released Glade, pressed a finger to her lips, and stole quietly through the cave towards the sound.
