Chapter Thirteen

Francesca awoke to silence. She'd fallen asleep sprawled over the table, so she took a moment to stretch out her stiff, aching limbs. It hadn't been the best night's sleep; she'd have preferred a bigger center, one with actual guestrooms. Stupid backwater towns. She'd struggled to get any rest at all, what with the healing machinery's red light blinking constantly through the night.

Still, she'd gotten some sleep at least, and it was better than sleeping outside. Some trainers seemed to enjoy the whole 'sleeping rough' thing, but she'd never been one for lying out in the freezing cold.

Apparently, there was at least one person who shared that feeling, because as she blinked her weary eyes back into focus, she realised she wasn't alone.

The boy was young, no older than ten, his tiny body resting against the corner. His face was hidden under a loose mess of auburn strands, but judging by his silence he was asleep. Actually, looking at him closer, he was almost totally still too. There was little to indicate he was even alive.

She coughed, just once, but loudly. The boy flinched, letting some of that hair fall away to reveal sharp, thin features and hollow, boney cheeks. Corpse-like, maybe, but at least not totally dead.

He was skinny, far too so for his age, but other than that he seemed in relative good health. Her interest in him faded fast; she had too much on her plate to bother about some kid.

The sun shone brightly outside. Time was getting on. It had already been two days and she wasn't any closer to getting off this damned region. So much lost time already. She'd have to work extra hard from now on to make up for it.

She hopped to her feet and grabbed her bag. Momentarily she forgot about her wrist, and it winced in pain as she lifted the weight of the rucksack. She needed to do something about that soon; it was really starting to get on her nerves.

She took one final glance at the boy before she left. "See ya, Kid," she whispered, and she was just about to leave before she noticed it.

Francesca had always prided herself on her skills of observation. Ever since she was a kid, she'd found herself spotting things no one else had the patience or awareness to notice. No doubt that'd help her in her current situation; already she'd made several observations and deductions and she was confident she knew more about the region than any of the other mouth-breathers that were supposed to be her competition.

But sometimes - rarely, but sometimes - she cursed that particular skill, and this was one such time. Because, from the exact place she stood, looking down at the sleeping child, she had a full view of the belt that he'd thrown to his side, and in a split second she knew she wasn't going anywhere.

The belt had a dozen metal loops, specifically to clasp pokéballs onto. Not a single one of those loops was taken. The belt was empty.

Dammit. Of course she didn't just get to leave. Of course something else interesting had to come up.

"Hey," she said, prodding the boy's arm with her toe. "Hey, Kid!" She nudged him again, in the thigh this time, a little less gently.

He awoke, jumped to his feet, swung his belt into both hands, and slid his fingers down each empty loop, searching for his missing weapon. The move was fast, fluid, instinctual. This wasn't the first time this boy had been woken by surprise.

"Not bad, Kid," she said. "'Course, it'd help if you actually had a pokémon attached to that belt of yours."

His brow furrowed as his eyes darted towards the exit. He ran, throwing himself low as he made a dash for it. If he'd been up against anyone else, he'd have slipped right through their fingers. Unfortunately for him, he was facing her, and she caught him by the shoulders with ease.

"Relax. I don't want to hurt you." She relaxed her grip a little, but not so much that his wriggling would be enough to set him free. "I just want to talk."

He kicked her, hard in the shin. Her balance wobbled, but she managed to keep a hold of him. This clearly wasn't his first fight, but then again, it wasn't hers either. She pressed her foot down against his, not firmly enough to hurt him but enough for him to feel the steel-capped toe of her boot.

"I'm not trying to make things difficult," she said. "I can help you."

"I don't need your help." His words cut through the air, a cruel sharpness to his voice, but she could hear the fear behind it.

"Look, you're pretty good. You're fast, scrappy, nimble. All admirable qualities. But even you won't survive long out there by yourself. Now, I'm going to let go of you, we're going to sit down at that table, you're going to tell me why you're walking around without a pokémon, and I won't have to show you mine." She moved her arm, lifting the hem of her coat away from the ball that lay attached to her own belt. "Is that understood?"

He scowled, muttered something under his breath, but nodded.

"Very good." She threw her hands off of him and plopped herself onto a seat, kicking the other one out for him. "I'm Francesca, by the way. You?"

"Tobias," he said, giving her a steely glare as he sat down opposite her.

"Nice to meet you, Toby. Now, what's the story?"

"You won't believe me."

"And why's that?"

He shrugged. "Most people wouldn't."

"Toby!" she said in mock offence. "Do I look like most people to you?"

"She was stolen," he said. "By a man. A man in a cape."

A smile spread across her face. "Really? How... interesting."

Amber took her time heading down the stairs, dreading reaching the bottom. After last night, she wasn't exactly in any hurry to see Gavin again. That was one awkward conversation she wasn't in the mood for. She quietly hoped that he was still in his room, that she'd have some time to steel herself before he woke but she knew he wasn't. In all the years she'd known him, not once had she gotten up earlier than him.

As she'd expected, he was up. Nathaniel sat opposite him at the table, his brow furrowed in concentration as he carefully examined some large piece of parchment. Even sitting across from someone so obviously stressed, though, Gavin managed to appear just as bright and relaxed as ever.

Hailey sat on the floor by Harry, though he was too busy snuggling up to Abby to hold any kind of conversation, and so the young girl was left to chew at her breakfast roll in quiet boredom.

Briefly, Amber wondered if she could just go. It'd be easier on all of them; it wasn't like anyone actually wanted her there. But, as much as much as she wanted to, she couldn't. It had been so long since she'd seen Gavin, and she couldn't just leave with things between them so sour. She cleared her throat, and all eyes flicked towards her.

Gavin shot her a smile, neither fake nor forced. It was just the same one he'd always given her, but she'd never felt so relieved to see it. "Good morning," he said with his usual cheer.

It had been silly to think things would be awkward. They'd been friends too long for a stupid argument to change anything. "I've had better," she replied, taking the seat next to Hailey.

She leaned in, inspecting the parchment that she now recognised as the map that had been hanging on the wall the night before. They were planning.

"So," she said, "what's our next move?"

"Hard to say," Nathaniel said, not even looking up. He still didn't trust her, then. Not that she really cared. "There's too many places this Quinn could've gone. It won't be easy to pick up on his trail."

"I checked with one of the moderators outside," Hailey said. "The boat from here either takes you back to the beach where you woke up, or the route by the forest."

"Put that together with the fact that we have no idea if Quinn has left the island, or if he's even left the cave," Nathaniel said, "and we're pretty much at a dead end."

"Eh, I wouldn't worry about it." Gavin leaned back in his seat, stretching his arms out in a relaxed yawn. "He'll show up sooner or later. Just as long as we keep our eyes and ears open, we'll find him in no time."

"Yes, I suppose you're right." Nathaniel sighed and rolled up the map, defeated. "Until then, we'll just have to stay together, travel some more, and hope we stumble upon a clue along the way."

"Woah, woah, woah, wait a minute," Amber cut in, rising to her feet. "I was all up for sticking with you lot when I thought we had an actual plan."

"We do have a plan," Nathaniel said. "We're sticking with the one we made last night. But we need to be careful. If we execute it at the wrong time, or in the wrong place, we might not get another chance."

"So what, we just stick together and hope things work out? For how long? Days? Weeks? Months? No way. I've got things to do."

"Amber…" Gavin managed to hold his smile, but he sounded weary, too tired for another fight.

"Fine then." Nathaniel crossed his arms, staring up at her through intense eyes. "Leave. Good luck taking Quinn down by yourself. Unless, of course, you've moved on and decided to forgive him. Although, judging by the rather colourful language you were using to describe him and his friends, I have my doubts that you're capable of that. But really, it's up to you. God knows it'd make my life a lot easier if you did leave, but frankly we could do with the numbers, so do whatever you like."

Amber opened her mouth to argue, but she had nothing. As much as she hated to admit it, she needed them. "Fine," she said, sitting back down. "Where do we go from here?"

"I'd like to go back to Rustboro," Harry suggested. "I was about to challenge the gym there before… well, before all this."

"Rustboro…" From the way he said it, Nathaniel didn't seem to confident on the idea, but apparently he didn't have any alternatives to offer because in the end he nodded and said, "Very well, Rustboro it is."

"Excellent!" Gavin exclaimed, leaping to his feet. "We go to Rustboro, I get to kick the gym leader's ass, and with a bit of luck we'll bump into someone who's seen an idiot in a cape. Sound good?"

Even she nodded in agreement. Rustboro did seem like the place to go. Going by the map, it looked like a pretty big town, so it had to hold some secrets. Hell, maybe there was something there that could actually help with her escape.

"Right then." The door slid open as Nathaniel approached it, letting the cool morning breeze roll through the room. "The next boat's in twenty minutes, so gather what you need from the mart and we'll meet up at the docks."

"Ah." It only occurred to Amber there and then. She had been busy, and she hadn't even thought of the problem until he mentioned the boat. "That could be an issue," she said, raising her wrist to show where the bracelet wasn't. "Even if the moderators don't recognise me, they're probably going to notice this."

"Amber," Gavin said, shaking his head, "was it too much to ask for you to stay out of trouble for, like, a day?"

She shrugged. "I guess so."

"Honestly, it's a good thing you've got me here." He snapped his fingers, turned on his heel and, with an all-too-dramatic flourish, pointed directly at Harry. "Kiddo, you, I believe, have an abra!"

The boy gave a little jump. "Well, uh, yeah," he said.

"And what, pray tell, are abra's known for best?"

The realisation must have hit them all at once. It was so obvious, now that she thought of it. "We can teleport out of here…" she muttered.

"That's my girl," Gavin said, flashing her a wink. "So, Harry, what do you say? You and Abby up for it?"

"I don't know…" he said. "It's not that easy. That's a long way for her to go. She could maybe manage three of us, at most."

"Well, that's no problem," Gavin said. "The other two can just take the boat. Harry, you go along with Amber - we don't want that little one getting out of your hands again, do we? And as to who will join you two, I think-"

"I'll go," Nathaniel said.

Amber looked at him in surprise. "You? No, I'd rather-"

"I don't much care what you'd rather," he said. "I still don't trust you two." His eyes, still full of suspicion, danced between her and Gavin. "So I'll be going with you. That way, I can keep an eye on you, and Hailey can keep an eye on him."

"Alright, glad that's decided," Gavin said, although she could hear the disappointment in his voice. Even if they'd just had a fight, they'd have both preferred to stick together. "Hailey, come with me to the mart, I'd like see if they've got any potions left."

"I guess I'll see you in a bit, then," Amber said to Gavin as he made to leave. It seemed cruel, to be splitting up again so soon, but she knew it wouldn't be for long. Just knowing that he was here in this nightmare with her was enough to ease her nerves anyway.

"Yeah, I guess so," he said. And then, to Nathaniel and Harry, "Try keep her out of trouble, okay?"

"We'll do our best," Nathaniel said, "but we're not miracle workers."

Gavin gave one final nod to the two of them and headed out the door. Before it could shut behind him though, he stopped and glanced back. "Oh, and Amber?"

"Yeah?"

"Looks like you're getting that head-start after all." He gave another wink and, as the door slid shut, he shouted, "Try not waste it!"

For a second she stood there, watching him through the door's glass as he ran off. Nathaniel tapped her on the shoulder, ruining the moment.

"We'd better get a move on," he said. "If by chance Quinn is in Rustboro, we wouldn't want him getting to far ahead of us. Harry, are you ready?"

The boy nodded. "Abby," he whispered to his pokémon, "take us back to where we were last together, okay?"

Nathaniel put a hand to the boy's arm, and then offered the other to her. She took it - his grip was tight, and a little cold, but surprisingly not all that discomforting. A blink, and suddenly she was no longer in the centre.