Chapter 12: Open Road


Welcome to Steven's Head

I woke up. I had been asleep for a few hours according to the clock on the dashboard. Carol was still at the wheel of the car. Her eyes were more than a little bloodshot. Behind me, Chris was filling a pistol magazine with loose cartridges from someplace within his jacket. I swear, he must've had enough bullets on him to go toe-to-toe with a small army back then.

"Hey, sis."

"Hey, bro."

"Did I miss anything?"

"Not really. Chris found some stuff laying around he was excited about a little bit after you fell asleep. Apparently, this vehicle used to belong to some government agency."

Chris said, "I found some ammo and a wallet that must've been lost or something. It belonged to some lady called Caitlin Todd. She was a federal agent. According to this, she-"

"Chris. Shut up," said Carol. "I don't want to hear another story about 'Kate.'"

"Fine."

I asked, "How are the pokémon?"

Chris answered, "They're all asleep on the back bench. I convinced Grovyle to sleep after I promised I wouldn't accidentally shoot him in his sleep."

Carol coughed, "Salt Lake."

Grovyle said something I couldn't comprehend.

"I said I was sorry!" responded Chris.

More gibberish.

"You leave my mother out of this, or I will shoot you in the fucking head!"

Grovyle chuckled to himself.

Chris mumbled away as Carol pulled over.

When the car came to a stop, Carol and I got out. Chris followed us.


Welcome to Peak's Head

When the humans had left, I turned to my partner. "What is it?" she asked.

I told her, "We can't stay with these guys."

"Oh, this again. They know what they're doing, Peak. We have to stay with them."

"I know, Val, but we need to start thinking of an exit strategy."

"...okay. What can we do?"

Finally, she was starting to see reason. "We need to find our way back to Treasure Town."

"And to do that, we'll need to find out where we are."

"I heard the stupid one say we were in I-95, wherever that is."

"But where is that in relation to home?"

"That's the big question, isn't it?" asked a voice in the front of the car

We jumped and turned around to see that Grovyle hadn't left the car.

"What do you want?!" I demanded.

"I believe I owe you two an explanation. I only wish to clear things up," he said.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Do you even know where we are, when we are?"

"...no. But we can figure that out, right?"

"No, not easily. These humans have assigned such strange numbers to their years, and stranger names to their homes. And even worse, we are not even in our native universe."

"What?" asked Val. "Are you joking? There's only one universe, isn't there?"

"No. There are many. Our world is linked to this one, inexplicably."

"How?" I asked.

"I am not entirely sure, but I can tell you that we are many years in the future compared to your time as well. Getting back is going to be a very difficult task."

"Oh," said Val.

I said, "But not impossible, right? We got here, didn't we?"

"True. But it is difficult to travel the wasteland because there is no light."

"Won't the sun rise eventually, though?"

Grovyle's face suddenly turned very sad. "No. Time has ceased to run, and with it the sun and the stars have been extinguished."

"What?! You made all this happen?!" I was horrified.

Grovyle was taken aback. "Why would I want this?!"

"You stole the Time Gears! That made time stop!"

"No, it wasn't supposed to come to this. Even if we hadn't stolen the Time Gears, time would have frozen, I believe. We needed to get the Time Gears to Temporal Tower in order to stop this. That's why we stole them!"

Val was surprised. "What?! You're trying to restart time?"

"How do we know you're not lying?" I asked.

"You have to believe me. After all, I am your only hope of getting home."

Grovyle left the car. "Shit," I realized, "he has a point."

"Told you so," teased Val.

"Oh, be quiet."


Welcome to Steven's Head

Chris said, "I know that. It's not like I'm drunk. I need to talk to you about something."

"What is it?" I asked.

"What are we going to do? How are we going to get back to the past?"

Carol was silent for a second. "You really are sober, aren't you?"

"They confiscated all my alcohol."

"Good. You'll act like less of a moron now."

"Ha ha. Fuck you, too. The point still stands. What's the plan?"

I said, "You both remember the Professor, right?"

"Of course. I was his favorite guinea pig," said Chris.

"Yeah. Provided a lot of entertainment," said Carol.

Grovyle came to join us, and he made a wisecrack that made Carol laugh. I really wished I could understand him.

I continued, "Anyway, he left to attend a conference in D.C. right before Dusknoir raided the lab. He'll be there for a few weeks. If we can find him, then he might be able to help us."

"How are we going to get to D.C. on a quarter-tank of gas in this thing?" asked Chris.

I said, "We'll manage. Let's go."

We all piled back in the car. I was driving this time.

An hour or so later...

"Are we there yet?"

"Say that again and I electrocute you," threatened Carol.

"That's the first time I said it!"

"And I don't want to hear it ever again."

"You're no fun at all."

I interrupted, "We're in Maryland."

"Stay out of this," said Chris and Carol.

"Fine." I concentrated on driving. I was absorbed in the task until-

ZAP! "Ow! Hey!"

"You were asking for it."

"Break it up, you two," I said.

Grovyle stepped in and dragged Chris to the back row. He sat where Chris did. He quickly said something to both Carol and Chris.

"We're not like an old couple!" they responded.

Ugh, this is going to be a long car ride.


Carol started messing with the radio dials after a while.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm bored," she said. "The radio's the only thing I haven't examined yet."

"Hey, anybody got food?" asked Chris. "I haven't eaten for a couple of days and it's starting to get to me."

"Actually, I'm pretty hungry, too," agreed Carol. "Also, two days? I haven't eaten in three!"

"Well, you could call it a diet..."

"Are you calling me fat?!"

"You said it, love. Not me."

"I am not your 'love,' moron."

"Yeah, right," I muttered.

"Stay out of this," chorused the pair.

"Married couple," said Grovyle.

"I will roast you, you oversized gecko," said Carol.

"Back off; I'm hungry, too."

"Hey, they haven't kept me well-fed either," I said.

"Oh yeah? How much have you eaten the past forty-eight hours?" challenged Chris.

Val and Peak were wisely staying quiet.

"Some vaguely corn-flavored mush."

"Still better than school lunch."

"Amen."

"Should you be driving? I mean, shouldn't the dizzy spells start kicking in soon?" asked Chris.

"You're worse off than I am!" I argued.

Carol said, "Pull over at the next rest stop. There might be food."

"Good idea."


Welcome to Carol's Head

Steven pulled into a rest stop. It was the kind where there was a grassy area with picnic tables between the parking lot and a stout building that held a few dozen toilets. Between the bathroom entrances was a group of vending machines.

He put the car in park and we all piled out.

"Maybe they'll have some ice cream," said Chris.

"Or some soda," I said. My mind drifted to the idea of an ice cream float. Two scoops of vanilla with a can of coke on top. Crushed cookies dropped in, and two spoons. I almost found myself wishing I was on my first date again, despite the terrible ending.

Peak looked around. "Nobody's here. We can't buy anything."

"We weren't going to," said Grovyle plainly.

"What? We can't just steal food!" said Val.

"It's our way of life," said Chris. "Besides. Stealing's such a negative term. I prefer 'taking what's left behind.'"

"Chris," I said, "It's 'looting.' Stop kidding yourself."

"Alright."

We came to the vending machines, and we found that they were still operational.

"Wow! The power's still on!" said Chris.

"The grid in the DC area was left mostly intact after it happened. It's really not all that surprising," said Steven. "In fact, they repaired most of the infrastructure in Maryland and Virginia just for the conference, even though everyone was coming in by plane."

"Hang on." Chris rooted around in his pockets for a moment and pulled out an extremely crumpled dollar bill.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

He straightened it out on the corner of the machine that served snacks. "For old time's sake, you know?" He put in the bill slot.

The machine whirred for a moment, and then rejected the bill.

"Seriously?" he asked. He folded and unfolded it, and then put in back in.

Again, the machine deemed the bill unworthy and spat it back at him.

"Let me try," I offered.

"Go ahead."

I took the bill and manually straightened it out, then I stuck it in the machine.

This time, the machine took it.

"Yes," I whispered under my breath.

"You got lucky," muttered Chris.

"You're just jealous." I looked at the machine. There were a few different kinds of chips, some cookies, packs of gum and mints, and-

"Is that a chocolate bar?"

"I know what I'm getting." I typed in the code for it.

The machine thought it over for a moment, then decided that I actually asked for a pack of mints. The cylinder popped out from the bottom row with a clunk.

Chris was confused. "Seriously, mints?"

"I didn't want that. I asked it for the chocolate."

"Also, shouldn't there be change?" added Steven.

He had a point. The mints only cost 75 cents, and I put in a dollar.

Chris checked the change slot. "Hey, there's no change."

"Let's try this again." I stuck my hand out.

It took him a moment. "Oh, right." He stuck a dollar in my hand.

I did the same routine from again.

This time, the machine understood what I wanted from it. It spun its spiral, and the bar inched forward. However, just short of the edge, it stopped.

"You've gotta be kidding," I said.

"Alright, step aside." said Chris. "Let me handle this."

"Good luck." I stepped back.

Chris punched the glass on the machine, to no effect. His fist bounced off the glass and hit him in the face. "Ah! Fuck!"

"It's acrylic," whispered Steven to me.

I stifled a laugh. "Oh, this is gonna be good."

"Alright, you just made an enemy, machine," said Chris, along with a dramatic finger point.

Peak observed, "He's talking to an inanimate object."

Val worriedly said, "Is this normal behavior for humans?"

"No," said Grovyle, "He's just... 'special.'"

"Oh."

Chris kicked the machine, and then he fell on his face.

"Should we stop him before he hurts himself?" asked Val.

Peak said, "No, this is hilarious."

"Okay, fun time's over." Chris gave up and shot the glass. It shattered into a few large pieces. He stuck his hands in and tore out a whole shelf of candy. It came down to the floor with a crash.

"Damn," said Grovyle. "He actually did it."

"He could've gone on hurting himself for so much longer," said Peak.

Chris said, "A little appreciation would be nice."

"Thanks for getting us candy," said Steven.

"You're welcome." He pulled a chocolate bar from the shelf. "Now let's eat!"


"This stuff is real good," said Val, enjoying the chocolate.

"This isn't even the best stuff," said Chris. "What's real good is European chocolate. This stuff is cheaper, and not as good as Swiss."

"Oh, man," said Steven. "Swiss chocolate is amazing."

"It's okay," conceded Peak, "I guess."

"So," I said, "what are we gonna do when we get to DC?"

"The Professor is giving a talk at the Washington Convention Center about the Time Gears. It's going to take place the day after tomorrow, if I've got the date right," explained Steven.

"No hurry," said Chris offhandedly. "What's gonna happen if we don't meet him before the meeting?"

"Actually, I overheard some conversations when I was imprisoned. Apparently, Dusknoir's planning something big for the conference."

"What kind of big?"

"I don't know. It's not like they plotted in my presence."

"Whatever it is," I said, "it can't be good."

"We need to get to him before then," said Grovyle with certainty.

Peak asked, "Why do we need to get to this Professor guy, anyway?"

"He has the locations of the Passage entryways, and the future locations of Celebi. We need those in order to get back to the past," I explained.

"If Dusknoir were to obtain those, we'd be fucked," deduced Steven.

"Well, then we have to get to him first!" exclaimed Chris, stuffing his chocolate in his face. "Let's move! No time to waste!"

"He's right," said Steven. "We gotta move. We have less than 48 hours to get to the Professor."

We all quickly finished our chocolate bars and piled in the car again. Washington wasn't far.


A/N:Hey, guess who got over writer's block! I'm back in the game, folks. Now, I'm a little apprehensive about doing this, but I really want to start some new stories that I've got rattling around in this head of mine, but I also don't want to abandon the stuff that's not done. Thoughts? Leave it as a review, if that's alright.

Oh, yeah. Thanks for putting up with me. Have a good night.