Chapter 28: 21, -156
(Orion Fremont)
Orion could not believe these past few weeks.
Actually, he could not believe himself over these past few weeks. The events themselves had been insane enough, but when he looked at his own actions he was simply flabbergasted. He had willingly walked right into a confrontation with his father, let a bunch of random strangers find out who he and Jason were, and trusted them to help him and his friends escape from Cerulean City. He had played hardball with both his father and the four investigators, behaving more like some hardened detective out of a crime novel than his old, bumbling self. And, even though he had not heard from Zahlia in weeks, he had forgotten all about their last, strangely cut off conversation in light of all the other stuff. He felt responsible that she was in trouble now, even though he knew it was ridiculous.
Orion had another thing to add to the list of things he could not believe. He could not believe he had just willingly hopped an underground train right back into Vermillion City.
Granted, they were not planning on sticking around for long. Orion lead them around the outskirts of the city, keeping them close to the quieter areas. He was tempted to grab a cab but didn't want to do so near the Gym district. He would run the risk of being recognized there.
Jason and Gina were quiet as the grave as they walked speedily beside him, not complaining about the distance, the time, or their backpacks that were certainly digging into their shoulders by now. Orion felt a surge of gratitude for them. As much as he tried to play the responsible, poised older brother to Jason, he was sure he wouldn't be able to deal if they hadn't been here too.
Orion checked his phone for the umpteenth time that day. Ever since they'd received the message that morning, he had been struggling to get ahold of Zahlia while directing the group south. All he had been able to hear when he called Zahlia were two words: "no police." She had shoved the phone in her pocket, from the sounds of it, and Orion had remained quiet, listening to what sounded like the wilderness around her. There was another voice, a boy maybe Jason's age asking her a question, and then the reception had cut out. After that he had been unable to reach her; the phone was off or dead.
His texts had gone unanswered as well, of course. The last one he had sent had been an hour ago: we're in Vermillion now. He hoped she was still able to check her phone and see that help was on the way, but he had no way of knowing. It made him feel sick.
Orion saw a yellow cab drive by, with no charge from the look of it. He paused for just a moment before flagging it down. "Let me pay," he said to Jason and Gina. "I don't want you to use your Dexes if we can help it."
The cab ride was tense and quiet. Orion spent most of it looking at his phone, sending himself texts just to see if they went through. He felt mildly car sick when they reached the eastern side of Vermillion, and he had to take a moment to right himself after he tossed a fistful of marks at the cabby.
We're about to start on R11. Where are you?
Orion knew it was pointless to text by this point, but he still tried. He called and got her voicemail machine, one of those generic ones that said "You have reached the voicemail box of: 8-227-4876." He left her a message anyway and pocketed his phone, exchanging a brief look with Jason and Gina. He could tell from their worn, bleak expressions that they were feeling just as daunted as he was.
"We'll just start off, together," he said. "No splitting up whatsoever."
"Right," Jason said. "We're not going to make the traditional horror movie mistake."
"Please don't mention horror movies right now," Gina said, her eyes scanning the darkening skies.
An hour into their walk through the flat, grassy expanse of Route 11, Orion got a text. He dropped a great deal of marks on the ground in his haste to get the phone out of his pocket, and Jason and Gina stooped to help him pick them up. The text was very short.
21, -156
Orion frowned at the numbers in absolute confusion for a second before he realized what they were. "Coordinates," he said, reaching his hand out to Jason. "Jason, let me use your Dex."
Jason deposited the Dex in his brother's hand, and after some fumbling to find the backlight, Orion was navigating through it for the map function. He punched the longitude and latitude in, and within a moment the Dex had called up its GPA and was pointing them along the way.
"This way," Orion said, walking quickly in the direction it indicated with its bright yellow arrow. He hit the dimmer part way there to make the screen not so much of an obvious beacon, and he and the others picked their way through steadily encroaching darkness.
"Are we close?" Gina asked a half hour later. Orion squinted at the screen and zoomed out to see how much farther they had to go.
"We are," he said quietly. "Be ready for anything, guys."
Gina made a small sound of acknowledgment, and Orion could see that her silhouette was grasping a Pokéball. Jason too had one in his hand as they crept forward through the trees.
Orion's mind was focused on the goal ahead, but inside his stomach was turning cartwheels. He was painfully aware that they had a small group of Pokémon that hadn't even broken the level twenty mark yet. If Zahlia called for them, though, he had to hope that she knew they could actually help.
There was a small sound; it was the only warning Orion had. A moment later a Pidgeotto soared out from the trees and screeched loudly at him, and Orion fell backwards. He heard Gina shout in alarm and Jason hit the ground as well. A red light went off and Charmander must have been deployed, because flickering firelight came to his vision.
"Blake!" a female voice hissed from the darkness. "Stop, that's them."
Orion's heart was beating out of his chest, but he could comprehend what was going on. "Zahlia," he said, getting to his feet and instinctively putting a hand up in case the Pidgeotto decided to come back for round two. "Are you okay?"
Gina was back on her feet and was helping Jason up. Orion peered myopically through the trees and jumped a little when he saw a boy rise up from the grass and fix him with a blank, hard stare. Even in the darkness Orion could see the sharp contrast the boy's dark irises made to the whites of his eyes. Straight black hair fell partially into the boy's face above an awkward, skinny frame.
"Who are you?" the boy asked, his voice even and tense.
Orion took a step forward. "Orion," he said. "Gina and Jason are with me."
"It is them, Blake," Zahlia's voice said from somewhere behind the boy. "Let them through."
After a moment of hesitation, the hard look left the young boy's face and he let out a sigh. "I'm too old for this," he said, then looked up at the Pidgeotto. "Come on, Grumpy."
For one very confusing second, Orion thought that Blake was talking to him. A moment later, though, the Pidgeotto flew down from its branch and followed the boy through some underbrush that had been tromped flat. Orion and the others followed suit at once.
It took Orion's eyes a long time to adjust to the dark, and as he blinked around he heard Zahlia and Blake talking some more.
"I thought he'd be older," Blake was saying. "He doesn't look much older than me."
"He's sixteen," Zahlia said, and for the first time Orion could hear the strain in her voice. "He's six years older than you."
"He doesn't look sixteen," Blake said. Orion could vaguely see Blake turning to face him. "No offense. You don't look sixteen. But that's a good thing. You'll age really well, or something."
"Zahlia," Orion said, his eyes finally starting to adjust to the darkness. He could see Gina moving forward and crouching down somewhere. "What's going on?"
"Blake and I were attacked by some mugger," Zahlia explained. "I hurt my leg. He's gone, but Blake and I have been stuck here."
"I can't 'zactly carry her," Blake explained even as Orion rushed forward. "And Grumpy doesn't know Fly or anything."
Orion wasn't really listening anymore. He could finally make out shapes in the dark and felt a coiling wave of empathy pain wrack his stomach. Zahlia had been putting it lightly when she said she "hurt her leg." "Mangled" would have been a better term. It had been wrapped, but he could tell that it was bent at a strange angle, and blood was seeping through what looked like an undershirt. He hissed softly at the sight and dug in his bag for painkillers and a bottle of water. He could feel Zahlia's dark eyes watching him.
"Here," he said. "You're not allergic to any medicines, are you?"
"No," Zahlia said, accepting the pill and water quietly. She drank and Orion turned to Blake.
"How long ago did this happen?" he asked.
Blake explained while Zahlia was drinking. "Just before the sun came up."
Zahlia sighed softly, done with the water, and Orion took the bottle back. "My phone reception has been acting up," she explained. "I'm not sure if you've been getting all of my messages, or if I've," she paused for a moment mid-sentence and Orion became worried anew. "… Been getting all of yours."
"Did either of you see who did this?" he asked, already trying to brainstorm how to get them out of here. "Has it been quiet all day? No one's come back?"
"Just the one guy," Zahlia explained. "He left."
Suddenly something occurred to Orion, and he felt his blood turn to cold sludge and stop in his veins. He felt like he wanted to vomit, but he managed to ask, "Do you remember what he looked like?" In that moment an image of Nathan Fremont, clenching his fist on the table in Cerulean, his eyes boring into Orion's, leapt into his mind. Orion tried to convince himself to calm down as Zahlia thought about it.
"Maybe eighteen," she said. "Black hair. Tall, pale, not too muscular. He had a lot of strong Pokémon though. I expect that's how he gets the better of people."
Orion felt the knot of sickness unwork itself. He let out a breath and took a mental tally of the Pokémon he, Jason and Gina had. He suddenly wished he had caught a Tauros somewhere. None of their Pokémon were big enough to help carry Zahlia comfortably back to the nearest town. Meowth, Clefairy and Rattata couldn't exactly do the job. Charmander, Bulbasaur, the two Nidorans… none of the rest of Jason's or Gina's team had that kind of strength or size. Orion could carry her for a while, but he knew that would be immensely painful for her, and he honestly wasn't sure he could make the journey all the way back through Route 11 that way. With a groan, he realized that Jason's Abra might have been able to at least teleport Zahlia to a Pokémon Center, but it had not yet been registered and would never be able to figure out where to go. Plus, since Jason had never practiced teleporting with Abra yet, now would be a very, very bad time to experiment.
"How are you feeling?" Gina asked Zahlia softly, sitting down next to her.
"Better," Zahlia said, and Orion could see right through the lie. "It's not as bad as it looks."
"How did it happen?" Jason asked, frowning deeply.
"More of an accident than anything else," Zahlia explained. "I took a very, very bad tumble during the Pokémon battle. Got too close to the fray."
"What sort of Pokémon did he have?" Gina asked, taking out her Dex and getting ready to write.
"A big Fearow," Zahlia said. "Other than that he used an Arbok. He might have had more but I didn't see them."
Gina wrote this down and Jason shook his head in disbelief. He glanced over at Blake and put out his hand. "I'm Jason."
"Blake," Blake said simply, shaking his hand. Somewhere during this discussion Blake's strange quips had stopped abruptly. He seemed sullen and somber now, and had very little to say.
"The guy," Orion asked, as he looked down at his phone, "You say he was pale, right? Not tan at all? Did he have long hair, or short?"
"Yeah, very pale. And short black hair."
Gav's face swam in Orion's mind, and he knew that the man who had attacked Zahlia and Blake had not been him. After another moment of hesitation, he brought Gav's phone number to his screen.
"I might have to call some other people," Orion explained hesitantly. "I don't know how else we're going to get you both back to a city without involving the authorities." He frowned even as he spoke the last words, more questions rising to the top of his mind.
"I can just lean on you," Zahlia said, and Orion looked at her like she was insane. "Use some of you as crutches, so to speak."
"Zahlia, your leg is probably broken in multiple places. There's no way you should risk moving at all if you can help it. Not until we know how bad it is." He ran a hand through his hair and sighed, resigning himself to opening up this next can of worms. "Look, are you sure we can't contact the police? They could be here very fast, and we'd be able to report this whack-job."
Zahlia was very quiet for a second as Jason and Gina collaborated over Gina's Pokédex. Finally, she said, "I'd really rather we don't get them involved. I promise I'll explain later." Orion's expression must have been strange, because she conceded a small amount of information. "Blake's ten. He's not supposed to be traveling at all. If we get carded he could get taken away." She saw Orion opening his mouth to suggest an alternative, but put her hand up to stop him. "That's… part of the reason. Now, these people you are going to call. Can they be trusted?"
"If you don't want the police, something tells me these guys are the next best thing," Orion said, his face set into a permanent frown as he hit "send" on the phone and listened while it rang. Something told him that it would take a lot to get Zahlia to tell him more, and that he might not even hear it all. Something also told him he would have to get used to this feeling.
