Diary,

I failed the test of character. Should I feel lucky that I did not lose myself to despair, as the rumours say others have? I was told that I am too callous, too unforgiving. Despite everything I have done, they told me that my heart was still black. I have studied, I have learnt, I have bled for this, but it was still not enough.

The told me I see to see things clearly, not just using my eyes. I am uncertain what they mean by this, Diary.

Tomorrow, I will travel and learn the world. You will come with me.


Pokémon

Transgression

By Crukix


|Tell Me Sweet Little Lies|

-O-O-O-

New Bark is so thoroughly unremarkably that I'm sure if Diz decided to appear and streak naked down the streets, people would probably have heart attacks and die from the sheer scandal alone.

The parade of shops that they call a high street reminds me of some film I was forced to watch in school where everyone died of boredom. Seriously, I know that Professor Elm has his research thing here, but I'm pretty sure this place is where old people come to die. All I can see are charity shops full of old lady clothes, a couple of old-fashioned green grocers and butchers and a million bingo halls.

I'm actually surprised they don't fill the streets with funeral shops and mobility scooters. I get the feeling they'd sell a lot more here than they would in the rest of Johto combined.

I grab my phone and send Jerry and Ali the same text, moaning about how boring New Bark is. It's easier to text them and avoid their calls – surprisingly, they weren't too happy about me up and leaving them during the night. I mean, I even texted them both and said that I got a little lost trying to track down and capture a wild totodile – which I think is a pretty believable explanation, but all it brought me was a thousand missed calls from them both come the morning.

And given that it's only barely past dawn and they've sent me about a hundred texts between them, I get the feeling that today might be a very long day.

I mean, it's not like I've never travelled around anywhere by myself! Though I can't really turn around and tell them that I'm doing it all to protect them from Diz. That would just naturally end up with a load more questions being thrown at me and then somehow, Diz would find out and it would be the total opposite of what I intended.

I sigh and choose a random bus shelter to sit in. Thankfully, it doesn't smell like pee.

What I need is an alibi. I need someone to turn around and let Jerry know that no, I'm not currently being kidnapped by hungry misdreavous who are intent on eating my soul and teaching me how to boil frogs and give people the plague.

I glance up at the bus timetable and see that I've got ten minutes until the bus to Cherrygrove arrives. By the looks of it, the trip takes about an hour. That said, it'll give me a pretty awesome alibi and all the cookies I can eat.

I'm gonna go visit Grandma.

-O-O-O-

Whereas New Bark felt like God's waiting room, Cherrygrove at least seems to have some life left in it. Mostly it's full of farms growing loads of cherry trees which I guess explains the name of the town, really.

It takes me a little while to find the street that Grandma lives on. I can't remember the last time I came to visit her, but the street is vaguely familiar-ish. Mostly I remember it by the old man a few doors down with the really old wartortle that just didn't seem to want to evolve. I swear, it could have been given a walking stick and an anorak and it would have been impossible to tell the difference between it and all the old people in New Bark.

I finally stop at what I'm pretty sure is Grandma's house. It's a three storey, grey-bricked terraced house with – predictably – a cherry tree growing in the front garden. I can see pictures hanging up on the windowsill in the living room and if I crane my neck back far enough, I'm fairly certain I can see thick, brown vines snaking out of the attic room window. They have to belong to her victreebel.

Remembering that creature just makes me shudder. I'm pretty sure the last time I stayed here, Grandma threatened to have the thing eat Jerry and me if we misbehaved. I'm certain it salivated when she said that too.

I wonder if maybe I should have rung to let her know I was coming. I shrug to myself and decide that if I've got the wrong house, I'll ring her and find out if she still even lives in Cherrygrove. For all I know she could have moved to the moon.

The doorbell chimes with one of those really long songs that just loops and loops again and again. I'm pretty sure dogs in the distance howl.

Someone's definitely in, because I can see the lights switch on in the second floor hallway.

At the same time, the front door opens.

"Hi!" I say, grinning. Only, nothing greets me except an empty hallway.

Then I look down and see a single, fat hairless meowth.

"Oh crap," I say, panicking. Please don't tell me I've turned up at Aunt Sally's house! Does she even live in Johto? I've never even been to her house! What if she makes me eat cat treats and has those fat meowth shed all their skin over me?

Oh man, I do not want to sit through her holiday pictures and see those fat little furless things on the beach being cooked. Nor do I want to see Aunt Sally in a bikini. I swear, if she ever shows any boy those pictures, he's going to decide then and there that he doesn't like women.

The fat meowth sits there in the hallway, staring up at me with wide eyes. It looks like it wants to stretch, but I'm pretty sure it'll just end up getting stuck and having to roll its way down the hallway.

"Hello?" I say into the house. The meowth keeps staring, like I've got a rattata on my shoulder or something. "I'm not food!" I hiss at it.

The thing – because any pokémon that gets that fat and looks that unnatural can only ever be called a thing – hisses back at me and then turns, strutting away into the house, tail wagging.

Thankfully at the same time I hear the stairs creaking with what has to be human weight coming down them. I peer in the door and see Grandma coming down the stairs, her hair tied up in a bun and a mutant on her face.

That or a face mask. But it's so green it could probably be caught in a poké ball and battle in the championships.

When Grandma sees me, her whole face lights up. She actually squeals and leaps down the remaining stairs to rush at me and pick me up. She practically shouts my name at me – which is strange enough, because she's the only one that ever calls me by my whole name – and kisses my cheeks, leaving traces of face-mask slime behind.

For the first time, I see just how much my mum looks like her. The same sort of hair – though Grandma's is still a dull blonde, rather than Mum's jet black – and almost the same nose. In fact, Jerry looks a lot like her too, now that I can see it.

"Come in, come in!" Grandma says, shutting the door behind me. "It's so wonderful to see you here! Ignore the meowth – those fat, useless creatures are only here whilst your Aunt Sally swans off on her honeymoon."

"Honeymoon?" I ask. Didn't she get married like over a year ago?

Grandma rolls her eyes and grunts. "Husband number five," she says, her opinion obvious in her tone. "The third decided to leave her for his secretary. The fourth… well I imagine he saw her in the bedroom and decided that women weren't his cup of tea anymore."

I can't help but snort a laugh.

"Ah, don't mind me," Grandma sighs, leading me into the kitchen. "She's my daughter, so I'm allowed to say it."

The kitchen has been redecorated again – dark red, with black-topped counters and a massive fridge that I'm sure could hide a person in. The cookie jar is full with more treats – not freshly baked, but sugar's sugar – and the massive mirror that hangs up above the sink is smeared with make-up marks and post it notes about shopping.

One of the fat meowth sits on the window ledge, its tail wrapped around a mini cactus. Whatever it's staring at in the garden must be interesting, because it doesn't even look around when we walk in.

"Tea?" Grandma offers. "Hot chocolate?" She looks me up and down. "You're not old enough for coffee yet. Tried it with your mother at your age – it took her a whole day to come down from the rush. This was after she bounced through a bed and managed to fall into the curtains and bring them down with her too."

I laugh at the thought of Mum bouncing up and down on any bed and getting caught in the curtains. "Chocolate," I say. "And can I charge my phone? I need to text Jerry and let him know I'm here, but my phone's ran out of battery."

"Of course," Grandma says, flipping on the kettle – something that I'm sure is a large as a small child. Either she has a lot of guests or her victreebel drinks a lot of tea. "And don't you worry about Jeremy. I'll let him know you're here."

I grin to myself as she walks out of the room, muttering about phones and how they're ridiculously small these days. Alibi sorted.

The papers laid out on the kitchen table are pretty depressing – missing trainers, mostly about my age, all apparently having disappeared in the last few weeks. One of the fat meowth squeezes its way through a cat flap that's way too small for it – somehow it still manages to fit. I see that it's got something like a needle mark in the middle of its back and grin to myself. Hopefully they're getting beaten up by other pokémon – they really look like they need some form of exercise.

And a wig. Maybe I should introduce Diz to them.

"That's all done," Grandma says as she walks back into the room. She literally tosses her phone at the table and returns her attention to the kettle. If she treats them like that, I'm not surprised she can ever find them. "So what brings you here then?"

"I just got to Johto yesterday," I tell her, shrugging. I'm not sure how much my parents have told her, so maybe it's not a good idea to let her know everything. "I'm trying to get a scholarship into a school in Anville in Unova – people like Cynthia teach there. So do people like Blaine and Falkner – I need to get badges from them to prove that I'm good enough to get in."

"Well that does seem interesting!" Grandma says. She fills my chocolate up, adds a load of big, chunky marshmallows to it and hands me a mug that I'm pretty sure is as large as my head. I see her add what has to be half a bag of sugar to hers and understand where I get my sweet tooth from. "Is it going well then?"

I've got three of the badges I need so far," I say. "And a few others that I've collected along the way. The ones I need don't test how strong my pokémon are, so I have to do normal gyms as well to keep up with everyone else."

"Smart," she says. "How are things with Jeremy? And your parents – I haven't heard from Carol in a little while."

I try my best not to let any discomfort show. "Urm, Jerry's alright. He's gonna go back through Kanto now and try and get badges there. His team's pretty strong now. He's actually travelling with a friend of mine anyway – her name's Ali."

"A girl?" Grandma's face lights up again. "Oh, well that is interesting. A friend of yours, you say?"

"Uh-huh. She's Jerry's age though. Maybe a little younger."

Grandma's smile practically reaches her ears. "Ah, young love," she sighs. "Why, I remember my own trainer journey – that's where I met your grandfather, you know?"

"Didn't he beat you in a League match or something?" I ask, popping a marshmallow into my mouth.

"He did. And then I told him that the only gentlemanly thing to do afterwards was to buy me dinner." She laughs, just a little. "Ah, Dennis. The little time we had together was enjoyable and brought me one of the best treasures in my life." She uses one of the sleeves of her bright purple dressing gown to dab at her eyes, somehow avoiding all the sludge over her face. "Anyway," she says, cheering considerably, "how is your mother? And Joe – I assume they're both doing well?"

"Yeah," I say, not really willing to say much more.

"They've moved now, haven't they? Seemed a bit sudden to me."

"I guess so. I think they wanted to though, since I started travelling too. I don't think Dad wanted to pay for an empty house or something."

"That man," she says, shaking her head. "And how's your mother? Does she know about Jeremy and this Ali?"

"She's okay. And yeah, they both know about Ali – I met her first, actually. She was travelling with her nephew but he ran away, so I helped her look for him and then when we found out he went back home, she started travelling with me." I glance at the cookies, but it's not enough for Grandma to notice and offer me any.

"Kiki's gotten stronger too," I say. "And I've got three others too."

"Four pokémon? And you've only been travelling what – seven, eight months?"

I frown as I try to think about it. "Something like that." Honestly, I'm not even sure how long it's been.

"Well then, let them out!"

I hesitate and look around her kitchen – her obviously newly remodelled kitchen. "Urm, maybe I should do it outside, or something? I don't want to damage anything in here."

Grandma smiles at me. "Smart, as always. Your brother didn't think about that when I asked him – that's the main reason why I have this new kitchen." She laughs. "Shame on me for not thinking it myself – you'd think I'd have learnt by now."

I just nod and follow her as she opens the back door into the garden. I can see the big bay doors that lead into the dining room and make the decision to let my pokémon out as far away from that as possible.

The garden is pretty overgrown, with an ancient swingset still at the end. Grandma just laughs and tells me that her victreebel – Dave, his name is – prefers it that way, because it makes it easier to hunt. That and if Mum's anything like her, that means she probably kills every plant she touches.

I also find out that apparently Dave has set up his nest in the guest bathroom. If I need to pee, I'm going outside.

I release all of my pokémon at once, which in retrospect, could have been a very bad idea.

"This is my grandma," I tell them, though Kiki already knows. "Be nice. And – Cassie!" I shriek, having to chase her through the garden. "No, don't try and freeze the fat meowth!"

Grandma just finds it hilarious. I look over my shoulder to see that Mandy has perched on her shoulder and has her face pressed up against the facepack Grandma's wearing. Duke sits in front of them both, croaking occasionally, as if he's asking them a question. Meanwhile Kiki's followed me slightly into the maze of a garden, looking like she's about to slay the grass for whatever reason.

"She still follows you like that?" Grandma shakes her head. "I hadn't thought it would have lasted this long."

I forget about Cassie as I look between Kiki and Grandma. "You've known about Kiki before?" I struggle to think back. "Didn't I come round here last before I got her?"

"Yes, but I helped your father get her," she says. "I knew the breeder who had released a few maractus into the wild – Kiki was the final one that was meant to be released. Her father was a cacturne, you know? You can see it, in the way she's developing."

That and the fact that she also acts like Mandy and other dark pokémon I've seen. Though I can see what Grandma means – I can see where Kiki's legs are starting to grow and where's she's getting taller. She even looks like she's forming a pattern of spikes on her chest, like the buttons cacturne seem to have.

"Do all pokémon end up looking like a mix of their parents?"

"I wouldn't know," Grandma says. "I'm not a breeder. My time for training pokémon has passed. My team have gone now and I'm left with Dave. The age of fifty-three isn't exactly the best time to start chasing after young pokémon and attempting to train them."

"I guess not," I say, trying to picture it myself. Somehow, no matter how hard I try I can't picture myself old and chasing after pokémon. In fact, I can't picture myself old at all. I'll find some sort of miracle cream that keeps me young forever or something. Problem solved.

I see the way Grandma's staring off into the distance, as if she's trying to see over the fences in her garden. Tough to do that – even if I stood at the top of the sloping hill, I'm pretty sure I'd only see about halfway up the fences. She smiles when Mandy squawks and flaps her wings, demanding more attention.

"Don't worry about your snorunt," she says, "the fences are designed to stop pokémon being able to escape or even sneak in. Besides – it's easy to find her. Just follow the maze of ice that's appearing."

I look at the grass and see that it is indeed freezing over wherever Cassie runs through. "Oops," I say, flinching. "Sorry!"

"Don't worry about it, dear. If she manages to freeze over enough of the garden, we might even get to watch these fat meowth slip and slide across the ice! Now," she says, clapping her hands and startling Mandy. Duke copies her, though Grandma doesn't say anything to that. "You're staying for dinner," she tells me. "You and your pokémon. You're also staying the night before you head off to wherever it is you're going next."

"Okay," I say. It's not like I've got any real plans anyway – just head up to Violet City and try and get another badge off Falkner. Then round to Ecruteak, get a badge there, head to Olivine and then onward to Hoenn.

Grandma wraps an arm around me and squeezes me tight against her. I make the mental note to tell Jerry to come and visit her when he can. She seems kinda lonely – I guess that Dave isn't that great company. Unless of course he traps the mail man and snares him against the basement wall – I distinctly remember overhearing Grandma's plans for something like that when I was younger.

My family: inducing mental trauma from as early as possible.

"Can I help?" I ask, practically skipping into the kitchen. "I'll try and keep my pokémon out of the way. They just seem to prefer food that I've made."

Total lies – they eat pretty much anything. Never mind Mandy and her habits of eating rotting meat – there's also Cassie and her love for anything that she can get her hands on and I'm still not sure what Duke is meant to eat, but he tries pretty much everything – even if it just ends up giving him a runny bum for the next few days.

"That'd be wonderful. First of all, you can help me feed Dave – I've had some miltank meat out in the pantry for a few days, he'll love that."

I wish I'd never offered. The things I do, just to get some cookies.

I don't miss, however, the way Grandma watches me out of the corner of her eye when she thinks I'm not looking. She glances out into the garden again, as if there's someone out there that she expects to see. When I walk back into the kitchen, I see that the papers full of missing children reports are missing, replaced with pamphlets for baking cakes and making stews.

I also don't miss the envelope atop the pile of post, with the address written in Mum's handwriting. Here I thought that keeping my family in the dark to protect them was something only I did.

I can't help but wonder if Aunt Sally is on another honeymoon. It's obvious though that Grandma's not going to tell me anything. Maybe somehow Grandma is behind all the videos of Duke disappearing on the internet? I'm pretty sure she's retired, so she has to find something to do all day to stop herself getting bored.

All in all, it's just another thing to add to the list. Discover what's really happening with Diz and the legends, get the badges to get into my school, avoid random creepy government people that Diz happened to kill when they got too close and find out just what it is that my family are hiding from me.

Put like that, it sounds so easy.

The most important things first, I decide. Cookies.