Chapter 21
Road of No Return

Goldenrod was noticeably different from Saffron. The whole city exuded an atmosphere that Chris personally felt Saffron could never pull off. It wasn't just the sunny sky or the shiny skyscrapers that contrasted with the dark, crooked streets and grimy buildings. The people themselves were different too. Happy and loud, bustling on the streets and chattering under green trees and next to blue fountains. A look of contentment and happiness cut deep in their eyes. The buzzing of transformers, the chatting and laughing of people, the spin of tires—Goldenrod was a city alive with contentment, an orchestra of urban life.

Well, there was maybe one thing Goldenrod and Saffron had in common. It was a freaking maze.

Upon exiting the PokeCenter, Chris and Karma were greeted with the sight of an ideal metropolis and they had fun ambling randomly down the roads, seeing the different shops, even coming upon a park and finding it full of battling trainers; there was a competition being held that day. Karma had to pry Chris away from that scene. "Aww! Come on! You got to battle Sabrina!" he protested with a pokeball clutched in hand as Karma pulled him backwards by his shirt.

It wasn't too long though before the duo realized they had a problem. The signs were foreign and complex; they ended up more confused than before whenever they stopped to read a city map. It was sprawled into many layers; it appeared Goldenrod had a sprawling underground to accompany its colorful surface city.

"Hey, I thought you knew your way around this place?" groaned Karma. "What kind of native are you?"

"I do!" Chris cried for the umpteenth time. "Relax... I'm sure we're on the right track..."

Eventually they emerged from an underground tunnel they had entered (Someone, obscured in a shadow had offered Karma a hair cut. She had declined) and Karma smacked Chris. "Ow! What was that for?"

Calmly she pointed to a purple question mark on a building they had been passing, it looked like it had been drawn in marker. "I drew that 15 minutes ago..."

"Erm..."

She had chased him for the next five minutes screaming threats as he tried to pacify her. People around them giggled knowingly at the two.

Eventually she had tired (Waaaay after Chris had tired, he had been running on pure fear) and they had stopped at a street vendor and bought nachos (Chris bought Karma's with a wink, "Now I don't owe ya' squat for the bus"). They stopped and asked a man in a suit the way to the southern exit of town. He had given them directions and they had seemed simple enough so they followed them. That had been a bad idea because they ended up more lost than ever.

Karma sighed, her fists clenched. She was starting to get pissed. Chris saw this with bemusement and did nothing to stop it. It wasn't like they didn't know which way was north or south. The sun wasn't high enough to be seen above the city yet, it was still too early, but sometimes they spied it between buildings when they were on an elevated floor and they could guess which way was east and west from how it was rising. And from that, north and south became clear as well. Knowing the compass directions didn't help either way. The way the city was laid out, they could try heading only south, but without fail, they would eventually find themselves heading in some other direction. The streets just turned like that.

"Mismagius! Go!" Chris yelled as he chucked a pokeball into the air. Karma turned to him in surprise. "Uh... I thought that since she can float, she could just fly up and see where we are. You know? Get us to the southern exit easier?"

Karma looked at him for a minute before she slapped her head, "Ugh... That could work..."

Chris smiled, "Okay, Mismagius! Go up and try to find the town's southern exit!" With a faint yelp, the purple floating cloak soared higher. As it glided above, Chris could make out the faint chanting. He sighed, he really did like his pokemon, but they had some bad habits, and Mismagius' chants tended to give headaches if you heard em for too long. He had asked her not chant unless they were in a battle but he supposed old habits died hard.

It flew above the nearest buildings, spun 360 degrees, looked south, looked back down at them, looked south one more time and finally descended.

"Well?" asked Chris. Mismagius floated up and down happily and started yelping melodically. It was whatever it did when it didn't chant.

"Which way?" asked Chris again. Mismagius ignored him and kept floating in circles, up and down. Karma gave Chris an annoyed look and Chris laughed.

"Don't tell me your pokemon aren't even tame?" asked Karma.

"No, no!" Chris stammered. "It's not like that... She just..." Chris sighed, raised his arms and tickled Mismagius rapidly with his fingers. Without warning, the floating cloak gave out a very girlish sounding cries of laughter. Karma watched this go on for nearly a minute before Mismagius yelped again and Chris stopped. With that done, Mismagius stopped and regained its serene composure, yelped again, and trailed off to their right. Eastward.

Chris motioned for them to follow and proceeded. Karma's mouth was still open from what she had just seen, but she sighed, shook her head, and followed.

He had been expecting a long walk so he was surprised when Mismagius led them down one block, and went down a narrow space between two buildings. Chris stopped and peered into the space. Had they just been walking along, they would have probably missed it. It was fairly dark and cramped. But inside, the floating cloak glided out the other side, through which bright light filtered. Chris thought he saw a green field. He hesitated no more and jumped in.

Karma stared at the space and sighed again before she too climbed in.

Chris reached out to the other side and toppled out as his feet smashed into something on the floor. He got up to find himself facing a green plain that stretched out to the south. Large pink cows, Miltanks, grazed and napped lazily on this land. The air had a tang of salt to it and Chris guessed that the ocean wasn't too far off. Off to the east he could make out a fence that enclosed the land and on the other side, a road.

Karma toppled on top of him. She too had smashed her feet into whatever was in the space and fallen out. She climbed off Chris and got up, surveying the land. Mismagius was floating happily again and Chris tickled her into submission for a reward. He recalled her into her pokeball and turned to Karma.

She shrugged and conceded: "Alright, so it was a good idea." She started off towards the road. Chris beamed and followed.

They got to the fence, it really wasn't that high and it didn't look very strong, yet it was seemingly the only safeguard that kept the Miltank inside the fields. Although it probably wouldn't matter if the fence was there or not, the cows didn't particularly look like they wanted to leave (a napping one nearby was snoring loudly and its feet swung lazily as it slept) and they could probably easily smash through the fence if the fancy struck them. Chris figured the fence served more as... a physical marking to show where the Miltank could graze, a marking that showed the end of the owner's land.

Karma added her own thoughts to the theory: "A few people who walk by might be scared by all those large bulky pokemon, so the fence just serves to subside a few coward's fears. Something separating them from those pokemon, even something so weak, is better than nothing."

Either way, the duo easily climbed over the fence and got on Route 34.

Karma removed a pokeball from her belt and with the usual red light, called out Arcanine. The great orange dog appeared on the road, it blinked slowly and stretched.

Karma asked, "how're ya feeling?"

Arcanine turned around slowly and its eyes fell upon the Miltank.

Chris' brow darkened, "Don't tell me you're hungry?" He didn't know if Arcanine preyed on Miltank naturally and he didn't want to find out.

"Huh?" asked Arcanine. "Nah... I'm just wondering where we are... Last thing I remember, we were outside Saffron and now... Miltank?"

Karma gave Chris a sharp look, "It's the next day. We've reached Goldenrod. And it's a long story." Karma recounted the story of meeting Sabrina and how they had reached Goldenrod. Arcanine listened to her story, Chris noted that every time a Miltank mooed, its ears twitched.

The morning sun was reaching higher now and Chris guessed that it was somewhere around seven or eight in the morning now. The air was crisp and cool, and the grass shiny with dew. Route 34's dirt road stretched out before them and off in the distance, he could see the faint tips of trees. The first hints of the ancient woods; Ilex Forest.

Arcanine came over to Chris and stared out at the road. Behind them, Karma too studied the horizon. "It's the end of the road, huh?" mused Arcanine. "And what a strange and long road it's been."

They stayed like that for a little bit before Karma came up next to Arcanine. "Come on, Greg. Let me get on."

Arcanine practically jumped, "No way! You're heavy!"

Chris laughed at that.

Karma clenched her fists and said, "stop playing around. Hurry up, let me on."

Arcanine bounded down the road, away from Karma and Chris, "I'm not playing, you're heavy!"

Karma ran after her brother, to Chris' surprise, she screamed shrilly, "I AM NOT HEAVY!"

Chris thought she must be furious as he ran after her, but when he caught up he was surprised to see she was smiling broadly. Arcanine was laughing as it bounded ahead. Chris stopped as he watched their progression. Those two really are siblings, huh?

Chris followed them.

Karma eventually explained (after she stopped running after Arcanine) that by walking, it would be half a day's time before they reached the forest. Time was no longer a priority either. They were safely outside of Team Rocket's grasp thanks to Sabrina, it wouldn't matter if they walked or not. Had it been a matter of urgency, Arcanine would comply with her request (probably). So they walked. Arcanine ran ahead of them, sometimes on the road, sometimes in the plains, and once, when they reached a twist in the road and the beach appeared, unexpectedly, along the sand and frothy water.

The road twisted back and away from the beach and they walked on. They were making better time than they had originally planned and it looked like they might make it before the afternoon set in at all.

Then, in the road before them, they encountered a large puddle. It encompassed an entire section of the road. It wasn't particularly deep, and Arcanine didn't even notice it because he had been bounding next to road, in the plains. It struck Chris as weird, but not particularly unsettling. Maybe it had rained recently and this was just the remainder of that? That was more or less the only thoughts he spared for the puddle and soon his eyes were on Arcanine again.

Karma, too, thought the puddle strange and she too thought that perhaps it had rained recently, but she also saw that there was no other evidence of recent rainfall. No other puddles, no rain clouds, no mention of recent rain, even in Goldenrod. It was odd.

Yet they both continued. They stepped into the puddle and nothing strange happened, so they continued. Then the road exploded.

A watery explosion. The puddle resonated a blueish color and before the duo even had a chance to think, they were swimming. Yes, swimming. Their legs and arms kicked out randomly but they were trapped in a strange glowing watery sphere in the middle of the road.

Arcanine froze, turned, and bolted back. His eyes met the sight of the giant water sphere which glowed with a dark blue light and it looked up. High in the air above the strange scene was Mewtwo, one arm raised out pointing down at the submerged Chris and Karma. It no longer wore the metallic armor it had on when it had first appeared and now its eyes could be seen freely. Its eyes were slitted in rage. Hello,doggy. Want to come and play with this kitty-kat?

It happened instantly, a bright blue and white light shot out from Mewtwo's outstretched hand and struck the great water sphere. Ice Beam.

Upon contact, the water froze, along with Karma and Chris inside it.