Starling - Heheh.. In a way :P But let's be real, when is poor Ari ever gonna be given the chance to just rest for a few days lol.
...
I dangled from Shalegas's ropey feelers and we glided serenely down the radioactive mountain, over the sagging Silverport Town, across the bay and past the rocky Labyrinth.
I alighted on the suburban fringes of Venesi and let out a big breath of opulence into the clean environment. None of Nowtoch's smog, or Belbeach's pretentious airs. No preachers. This might actually have been the coveted modern paradise, which of course had absolutely nothing to do with Rosalind…
The only thing missing from the picture now was my will to live.
I knew what the problem was, to be honest. It had been too long since I'd had something to drink. I'd only been gone a couple of days, so, craving some non-Theo company, I headed to Amy's hotel and emerged with two shrieking children in tow.
Amy was practising a cheerleading routine. "I'm gonna enter the Championship, cos it's my birthday soon! I'll be old enough!" she said happily. She lifted two duct-taped bundles of Chicoatl feathers in the air. "Route 1 represent!" she shouted. "Chyin-munk, Bir-bie, your insults can't hurt me. For-tog, Magikarp, I am gonna reach the top!"
"Nice," I said, giving her an appreciative thumbs up. My main homie had some mad skills going.
"Where are we going?" Henry whined. "Are we there yet?"
"Yep," I said, dragging them into the Tipsy Tavern. It was still early afternoon, so Jack the bartender didn't look twice at the children, though he cast a withering glance towards me.
I ordered kids' parmies for Amy and Henry and a vodka-rich concoction for myself. Jack's mouth was drawn into a thin line. I was feeling better already.
"I had another idea too you know," Amy said with her mouth full. I leaned back against the ripped back of the booth and pretended to blow smoke rings (I'm not actually a smoker, though I make weed jokes sometimes. I'm too lazy to maintain any habits, even bad ones.)
"Watch this," Amy continued. She got up and hoisted her Chicoatl pom-poms in the air. "2 4 6 8, I won't take your troll bait. 3 5 7 9, talk to me another time."
I gasped. I suddenly had newfound respect for Amy. She'd used the word 'troll' in a sentence and it hadn't involved bridges.
"Brother, that was great," I said heartily. I offered her a taste of my fluorescent orange juice, and she chugged it like a container ship fighting a storm current. My mouth fell open in horror as I grabbed the glass back from her.
"I said a sip," I hissed as Amy started to giggle hysterically. Great. Now I was going to have a rapping, drunk, nine-year-old girl on my hands.
"Come on, hurry up," I said to her, giving Henry a poke as well as he slid pieces of salad around his plate. Amy was going to have to walk it off in the next hour if I wanted to leave Venesi City with my kneecaps intact.
I used the next few minutes to scull a couple more drinks, and when we walked out of the tavern I was jazzed enough to trip over the step and almost crush Amy. I laughed when I realised she was holding me up. Cheerleading probably got you ripped.
"You should get help," Amy said insolently. I mocked her pretentious arm-folding.
"My mum says people who get drunk in the day need help," she continued haughtily. I snatched one of her Chicoatl pom-poms.
"Your mum doesn't know anything."
"She knows the whole periodic table."
"Doesn't count if you don't know anything about life."
"But carbon and nitrogen and oxygen are life."
Fuck, this child was sharp. I smiled lazily. Before I could fail to clap back with a smart response, my pokepod started to beep: call incoming. I fumbled with my bag, relieved.
Amy reached in and fished the pokepod out for me, pompously showing off her unimpaired hand-eye coordination. "Thanks." I grumbled.
I hit 'accept', third try lucky.
"Ari! Ari, is that you? Sorry to bother you mate; I know I was the one who said you should call if you ever –"
"Hold up, who's this?" I said, scrunching up my face. Did the pokepod have a caller ID? I couldn't remember.
"It is I," the mystery caller said sombrely. "The Frenchiest fry," I mumbled, erupting into uncontrollable laughter and shielding the phone.
"I'm the disgraced Hokage," the caller continued. "Ninja boss of the seas, remember that shit?"
"Ah!" I said, my face relaxing. "What's up, homie?"
"There's big trouble in Tsukinami Village!" Hokage snapped to attention. "I need your help! You are our last hope."
I groaned so loudly Amy was visibly buffeted by the mega sound waves. No! I had just walked away from the drama! I knew Power Plant Omicron was near Tsukinami. Here I was, totally smashed, accompanied by two small children, and Hokage was probably going to ask me to orchestrate the rescue of his hometown from a nuclear apocalypse.
"What is it?" I wailed.
"Ari, you gotta come quickly. The... the..." Hokage seemed to shake himself. "The royal anniversary celebrations are ruined!"
I blinked. I almost tripped over, and I wasn't even moving. What the... fuck?
"What the fuck?" I said aloud. Whoops, I hadn't meant for that to leave my head.
"Uh... Mate, Hinata and Kaito's tenth anniversary... You know? There's a big party, but fucking Ronin went on a bender and forgot to bring the cat."
"The... cat?"
And that's the story of how I ended up in Tsukinami Village Square, completely off my face, wobbling on my feet as I sombrely watched my Metalynx being raised on a gold-plated pedestal, slowly rotating to a chorus of 'ooh's and 'ahh's from a crowd of about five hundred people.
Hokage and his four brothers were dressed in smart suits, their unruly hair exposed and combed back. Hokage had a big toothy smile on his face.
I sweated. Kitty's tail twitched periodically as it lay in its relaxed, lounging state. All it needed was one carelessly thrown flower...
"Princess Hinata loves cats," Hokage had explained to me earlier. "She has them all – Persian, Liepard, Purugly. But she hasn't shut up for days about the new species Ernest Bamb'o discovered. She had to have one at the party..."
I had been furiously spraying mint mouth freshener into Amy's mouth. "Wider," I hissed.
"I assigned Ronin to obtain one," Hokage had continued, grumbling. "Stupid move. The football final was last night. Venesi won, so there was a total piss up at the pub... Oh, sorry about the spoilers. Were you watching?"
"Yep," I had lied. "Good game."
"Yeww!" Hokage had shouted. "So, long story short... I need to borrow your Metalynx. I don't know anyone else who has one."
"Um..." I had been herding the protesting children into a lift at their hotel at this point. Henry kept trying to snatch my pokepod from me. "Ari!" Amy whined. "Come back and take us out again. It's SO boring here."
"Fine," I had snapped, diving forward as Henry caught ahold of the strap.
"Thanks mate!" Hokage said, his voice crackling on the line. "No, wait..." I had spluttered as Hokage took my misdirected affirmation and ran.
"We're just a quick surf from Venesi," he said cheerfully. "Head south out of the bay. I can send Ronin to pick you up if you get lost. He's being fucking useless here anyway."
"Aye..." I had lamented, my voice petering out. I lay on the carpet, breathing heavily as Hokage hung up and Henry and Amy started tickling me, laughing hysterically.
So, here I was. With a mighty effort I brought my eyes back into focus. A beautifully arranged bouquet was being placed on the pedestal beside kitty. It flicked its tail and sliced off a handful of roses. My eyes fluttered shut.
"Hello!" an elegant, high-pitched voice cut suddenly through the hubbub. The crowd fell silent. I opened my eyes again. A tall, slender woman wearing an embroidered traditional dress was making her way towards kitty, trailed by a man in a dark dress cinched with a shiny dagger.
I gulped.
They were going to sacrifice my kitty.
"No," I rasped. But the alcohol had dried my throat. I looked around frantically and caught sight of the punch bowls lining a long trestle table nearby.
"Metalynx is truly beautiful," the woman said with a smile, reaching out to stroke kitty under the chin. It purred happily, unaware of its impending doom. The man reached for his dagger...
I broke formation with a screech and lunged towards the punch bowls. Five hundred pairs of eyes turned to stare. I grabbed a bowl, lifting it up to my face, funnelling it down in an effort to quickly lubricate my throat. Hokage's mouth had fallen open.
"Scull! Scull!" a small chant broke out in the back.
"Stop!" I shouted, lowering the bowl. "Don't do it! Kitty, get down here!"
"What are you doing?!" Hokage bellowed.
"Don't sacrifice my kitty!" I yelled. "I can breed you another one real fast if you want! Just let me keep this one!"
"For fuck's sake!" Hokage roared, his eyes turning to the heavens.
The woman smiled, looking like she was trying to suppress a laugh. "Hi, you must be Ari," she said. "I'm Hinata. Nice to meet you. Now, why would I want to slaughter this beautiful creature? Kaito was merely going to cut up some meat for it..."
"Oh, right," I said after a long silence, scratching my head awkwardly. "I knew that."
I sank down onto the grass, and everyone quickly lost interest in me as they watched or filmed Kaito butchering a chicken and feeding it to kitty, which ate noisily, smacking its steely lips for the vine. Was that really necessary. I scowled.
"Thanks for coming, everyone!" Hinata called cheerfully. "Enjoy the party!"
The noise level rose up again immediately, and people started flocking to the trestle table to start drinking. At least they had their priorities right here. I quickly scrambled up and stumbled towards the podium, where kitty was being spoiled with attention. It lifted its head and let the sun glint off its metal parts.
"Sorry," I slurred to Hokage, who was lining up, keen for some action too.
He laughed and showed me a toothy grin. "Nah, just a bit of a shock, that's all. Really livened up the cat part. It's always the same."
"Ari!" Hinata called to me, waving above everyone's heads. "Ari, I've got a proposal for you!"
Kaito rolled his eyes. "Stole it from me this year," he joked.
Hinata rushed forward, holding up her long dress. "Hokage tells me you're a strong trainer," she said with a grin. "That cat certainly looks very well cared for. So what do you say, let's get this party going? You can have your gym battle right here, in front of everyone!"
"My... gym battle?" I gasped.
Hinata and Kaito exchanged amused glances. "Yep," Hinata said. "We're the Tsukinami gym leaders. Your eighth badge."
The latest voluminous infusion of alcohol was catching up with me. "Great," I managed to force out of my lips, lifting my hands and forming two sloppy thumbs up. I smiled giddily and felt myself folding to the ground.
...
Again.
Amy and Theo are right, you know. You should really do something about your drinking.
I groaned and tossed, though my limbs felt strangely heavy.
Good morning... Ari. Curie seemed to sneer my name. I snapped awake when I realised who it was. I tried to prise open my eyes but the darkness remained.
I was back in that dream state.
You won't be able to see anything until I open my eyes, Curie said to me. You're inside my mind now. So, take a look.
Light flooded in and an unfamiliar scene unfolded before me.
It looked like Curie was on an island, full of wild grasses and winding paths. Rather idyllic. But what was that in the distance? ...Cooling towers?
Power Plant Omicron... Curie said, gloating. Cameron has moved the fuel for me, to a secluded storage pool. There shouldn't be too much resistance now.
The view before me swivelled. I assumed Curie was turning.
I'm hiding in the grass, but it was worth it to leave the underground. I'm out of my suit right now; it's been so long since I felt the sun on my own skin.
They turned again and I saw the suit, discarded on the ground. I also saw people in the distance and, despite myself (I was probably still drunk, let's be honest), I cried out a warning to Curie.
Don't worry, I'm small. They can't see me. Look, there's Cameron... and Kellyn. They sneered that name too. We pay Cameron very well. We know he has to maintain his... illusion for poor Theo and everyone else. We help him with that too. He's been invaluable in designing the stylus's electric circuits, though I thought it was strange he bought up that warehouse... TAPCO never bothered us when we used it all those years; it was abandoned.
So, I was right. I smirked. But I didn't want to think about Theo. Although he would now be feeling my pain, I felt some measure of regret about that.
Oh? ...Someone's coming. It's always a pleasure, Ari. See you on the other side.
Curie giggled aloud and the sound reached my ears too.
"Ari?"
Curie let go of me fast that time. They seemed to be less temperamental these days. I wiggled my own fingers, and worked on my eyelids.
Now, when I told you in Snowbank that it was hours before I pieced everything together, I wasn't joking. It hit me right then like a flash, before I could even get my eyes open.
I wasn't sure whether Curie had planted the idea or not, but either way I had it all figured out, just like that.
Lucille and Vaeryn had worked together at Larkspur Labs, probably at first on the Sheebit cloning project. Vaeryn had ducked when the stylus research started, but Lucille had stayed.
Finally, I realised what the others had been talking about - Vaeryn not knowing why Lucille hadn't left too, Kellyn not understanding why she never talked though she would have disagreed with what Larkspur was doing...
"Ari, are you awake?"
Hey, that voice sounded familiar. My eyelids sprang open and the corners of my mouth turned up, thoughts of Lucille and Vaeryn and Curie fading away. Rosalind was standing over me.
"Phew," she said with a reciprocating smirk. "You had a lot to drink yesterday. Here I was thinking I was bad."
"How long have I been out?" I asked, relaxing despite a stinging headache.
"Like, all afternoon and most of the night. It's about six in the morning now."
Hinata, who I hadn't noticed, shuffled forward and handed me a Panadol and a cup of water. "Cheers," I said. The hangover actually wasn't that bad, considering. I didn't feel as sick as last time.
"You kept asking for Rosalind in your sleep," she said to me, amused. "We called her and she came pretty fast." She gave me a wink. I scowled but I was blushing.
"What about Maria," I mumbled, quietly enough that I hoped Rosalind wouldn't hear me.
"What about her?" Rosalind said, trying not to laugh. "We're just friends."
I gasped. Wow, my life was worth living again! I tried to forget the fact I was 14 years old. (Just over a month from 15 though).
"Cool," I said.
"Cool," Rosalind said back, still grinning. She perched herself on the edge of my bed.
"You're in the royal palace," Hinata continued. "Kaito insisted we bring you here. Your Metalynx is being looked after, beautiful creature..."
I imagined kitty drinking from its own personal gold-plated water bowl.
Hinata smiled. "He seems to like my Persian. Oh!" she said, quickly perking up. "I almost forgot. Your mother was here earlier, she left this for you." Hinata held out a small cloth bag with a drawstring. "She says not to open it until you get to the Championship. You should call her once in a while, she seemed worried about you."
My jaw had steadily fallen open. What?! I looked at Rosalind, who shrugged helplessly. "I... I don't have a mother," I spluttered.
Hinata frowned. "Oh. I just assumed... Sorry. Never mind." She placed the little bag on the bedside cabinet and turned away.
"Who was it?" I hissed, as Hinata busied herself opening blinds and turning off the overhead light.
"I don't know," Rosalind whispered back, her face lit up by the morning sun. "I just got back half an hour ago." She took in my confused expression. "They lent me a room, I was getting some sleep," she said. Her grin had returned.
"Ohhh, of course," Hinata exclaimed suddenly, her face relaxing into a smile as she turned to face us again. "I forgot, it's your father who's the ranger. Okay! It must have been someone he sent then."
I gasped. A ranger. The blue ranger woman! It must have been her... the same one who had taken care of me in Venesi City.
This was too suss to be a coincidence. Curie had lost control of their rangers both times I'd gotten blackout drunk. Was it even possible our minds were connected like that?!
"Anyway, you should brush up and grab some breakfast," Hinata said cheerfully. "The kitchen's downstairs, Rosalind can show you. Kaito and I will be waiting for your challenge. I can't wait to see that Metalynx in battle."
She took my empty cup and gave me a wink, slipping discreetly out and closing the door.
I looked at Rosalind in the sudden quiet. She looked back at me. "Sup," I said.
"Hungry?" she asked.
"Cookies," I rumbled and we collapsed into laughter, the way a random word can set you off with your bestie and you don't even know why you're laughing.
We raided the palace kitchen, bypassing tables and pantries stacked to the ceiling with vibrant platters of exotic fruits and delicacies, to grill ourselves some cheese toasties. Rosalind's exploded in the microwave and, hooting with laughter, we grabbed cinnamon sticks to peel cheese off the sides. She was an even worse cook than I was.
The sun was well and truly up by the time we headed outside. Juunin and Ronin were sitting on a nearby roof, smoking and bantering.
"Ayyy," Juunin whooped, catching sight of me. "The boss loves a good party, eh?" He giggled, elbowing Ronin, who dropped his cigarette.
Rosalind flipped them off. I was in love.
We turned away, not bothering to give Ronin the time of day as he fell off the shingled roof in his hurry to prevent a bushfire. He landed in the dry grass below with a crunch.
"So what's been happening?" I said easily, as Rosalind and I weaved our way through the winding cobbled streets down to the shoreline.
"Same old," Rosalind said with a yawn. She stopped to buy a jade pendant from a roadside stall. "Struggling along on my shitty actor's pay. You?"
I shrugged. "Not much... Got to Snowbank Town, beat the gym, found out my best friend's dad is a terrorist."
Rosalind looked at me in horror. I grinned lazily. "It's all good. He used to tell everyone I smoked weed anyway."
I bought ice creams for us both once we reached the windy clifftop, and we sat on one of the benches, looking out over the sea.
"You going back to Venesi then?" I asked. No point delaying disappointment when it's coming.
"I gotta," Rosalind said. "The interns have already fucked up my insurance payments once. You should come visit some time."
"Nah, why would I ever wanna see you again," I agreed.
"Solana says thanks, by the way," Rosalind said suddenly. "She's had a lot of success with Tracton; Morgan's new process is working. I think Stan gave him a tank at the mine to use."
"Sick," I said. I meant it. Whatever it was Curie wanted, they would be hard-pressed to get it without a working stylus. They would be easily overwhelmed and probably captured if strong trainers could use their pokemon against Urayne.
Rosalind and I grabbed a selfie above where the big blue sea met the big blue sky, and I was left with a big blue hole in my heart when she flew off on her Coatlith. Even the hundred and fifty likes on my beam me up meme couldn't console me.
Oh, sorry, that's a bit lame for you all, right? Let me rap it instead: Rosalind, Coatlith, I want her as my sidekick. Shalegas, beam me up, you will see that I'm in love.
I was never going to be able to rhyme in a different rhythm again. Whenever I tried, Amy and her Chicoatl pom-poms loomed in my mind's eye, reminding me of choices which were not mine to make.
I sighed and began the long trudge back up to the gleaming royal palace, to collect my kitty (if it would ever move again after having been stuffed and scratched all night by adoring fans) and head off to the eighth and final gym.