Disclaimer: Pokémon and its related properties are copyrighted to The Pokémon Company and Nintendo, respectively
A Yearning for the Mud
Chapter Forty-Seven - Public Enemy
"Stop. Your dad isn't alive," Neo said, twisting a strand of his hair around his finger.
Wallace flicked a strip of loose skin he'd bitten off his lip with his tongue as the coppery taste of his blood filled his mouth like he'd swallowed a jar mason jar of pennies. "There's no one else that could do this," he said, pacing a line in Cole's room from the mirror to the desks. His frantic gait had caught the attention of Cole's luxray who eyed him with a lazy awareness.
"Okay," Neo said, his eyes drifting off as he drew out the last syllable. "So why don't we do what Cole suggested? We use my database to find students with pokémon like elgyem."
"That could be over half, even I have a psychic-type" Cole said. "That doesn't narrow anything down."
"It was your idea," Neo said, tossing him a glance over his shoulder. "Besides if we can reference that list against students that haven't yet been taken it might give an answer."
Wallace stopped, the idea shining through the darkness flooding his mind like a lighthouse. "You're right, there can't be that many. I mean, at least it's a start," he said, picking up his pacing again as his mind started to poke holes in Neo's plan. "I guess..."
Cole sighed and leaned back on his bed. "I think it's a waste of time, I know it was my idea, but think about how many people have psychic-types. Even if we only look at the kids still hanging around there could be dozens. Also, don't forget, we don't even know if it's really a psychic-type. That's just Neo's guess," Cole said, waving his hand through the air like he was trying to wave something away. "And, let's say we do manage to narrow it down to, let's say, forty students, what are we going to do then? Follow them around? See if they do something shady? Have you thought that far ahead?
"First." Neo cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses as he turned fully on the chair to face Cole. "I don't guess," he said. "I form a hypothesis based on the information around me. Not everything can be done through the use of brute strength, yeah it might seem like the most logical explanation that someone is physically snatching people away in the middle of the night. But when it comes to items, entire bedrooms being wiped clean, and the memories of our classmates being pried from our memories, that kind of thing is what psychic-types are known for. Altering memories and distorting perception."
"Whatever," Cole scoffed, studying his ceiling.
"Second, if we have a list of suspects we'll divide them up and monitor each of them, report back anything of interest," Neo explained, his eyes flicking from Cole to Wallace. "Any objections?"
Cole remained silent and Wallace only shook his head as he made another trip to the dresser.
"So it's settled." Neo tapped his knees as he straightened up in his seat and flicked his tablet screen. "I need to get to bed soon. Tomorrow, I'll check the database and make a list of every student with a psychic-type, once it's ready we'll look over it and see what we find. Aside from that, we all need to work together to track what's happening on campus. Wallace, since you appear to be the only one who can remember, keep track of anyone you notice that vanishes and make a list of everyone you've noticed until now. Cole and I will keep track of how many empty seats we notice in our classes and if that number grows. Once we feel like we have a good grasp on this we'll put that together with the database and hopefully have a list of suspects."
"Watch out."
Wallace pulled himself from the well of his thoughts as Cole's hand pulled him out of the way from colliding with a flagpole. "Sorry," he said, glancing back at the pole and some students who looked like they'd been waiting for his collision.
"And why didn't you notice it either?" Cole barked, leaning over elgyem who floated behind Wallace around his hip. "I can't be the only one watching out for him."
Elgyem flashed his lights into Cole's eyes that made the boy flinch back and floated to Wallace's shoulder to take his usual place.
His mood on the way back from the clinic with Cole was more sour than usual. Thoughts of the vanishing students kept pulling him out of his work acting as Nurse Cheryl's right hand as she worked on repairing tyrogue's lungs using the artificial replacements. Too many times Cheryl had to pull her hands from tyrogue's open chest and snap at him to get him to focus. Occasionally, when Cole caught him drifting first, he'd rush past and whisper in his ear to bring him back.
Once, while wondering what Arlette had found on her mission to check into the other dorm halls, Cole placed a hand on Wallace's lower back that caused him to drop a tray of equipment.
As they walked, Wallace took the normality of the student lives around him. Many were running across the fields with their pokémon or lounging in the grass with their friends. One couple had even set up a picnic in the shade of an oak tree. Although the campus seemed full of life, it was nothing compared to what he knew it to be. As fall approached students couldn't seem to spend enough time outside around the fountains to the point of getting a spot to sit became a game of first come first serve.
As he and Cole came into view of the campus quad less than a dozen students were sitting among the stone blocks. They too seemed oblivious to any potential danger as they shared notes, listened to music, and swapped snacks. The ease at which they seemed to conduct their lives made him uneasy and so he picked up his pace until a bright orange ball smacked the stone in front of him. Wallace studied the ball like an alien might study a slingshot as it rolled to a slow stop ahead of him.
"Hey!" A fair-skinned boy waved at them. "Kick it back!"
"Get out of your own head," Cole said as he placed his foot on the ball and rolled it under his shoe before he nudged it back toward him. "Here, kick it to them."
Wallace's leg twitched at the idea. He'd certainly played his fair amount of sports with his father's hired help and could easily best a group of middle-aged servants. But even then, Andrew eclipsed him in that department.
While he considered kicking the ball back all Wallace could see was the ball flying off course and smashing through the window of the administrative building. Somehow the orange rubber ball would become a weapon of destruction when mixed with his own lack of skill and coordination. As a group of girls gathered around the boy, Wallace picked the ball up and quickly crossed the quad to offer it back.
"Thanks, Wallace," the boy said, grinning.
Wallace winced, an involuntary reaction he picked up whenever someone said his name, as it seemed to carry so much weight, and studied the boy's too-good looking features. "Travis," he said, sputtering out the first name that came to mind. "Hi Travis, you're welcome."
"How's it going?" Travis asked as he gripped the ball from both sides, his bare arms flexing as he applied pressure. "Haven't seen you around."
Wallace held his tongue and studied Travis for a beat, their last run-in came to mind when Willow was outed as an Orphan and Nat nearly murdered Julian's mightyena. "Fine?"
"Cool, cool." Travis bobbed his head and kept squeezing the ball, his emerald stare boring into Wallace. "Do you want to play?" he asked, offering the ball back.
Wallace's mouth fell open slightly, his eyes honing on the ball, brimming with the potential to cause property damage if he was allowed any further influence over it. "No, that's okay, I was actually just on my way to my room." A quick knock against the back of his head caused Wallace to gasp in pain, glaring at elgyem who flashed his red lights at him. "What?" he hissed.
Elgyem jabbed his arm in the direction of the ball and then at Wallace, his red lights flashing in desperation, a sight that normally filled Wallace with dread. Was elgyem able to predict the damage Wallace could do with the ball as well?
"Seems like the little guy wants to play," Travis said, grinning.
"Maybe we'll just watch," Wallace said, he glanced over his shoulder. Cole had taken root on one of the blocks and was sitting with his head back, soaking in the sunlight that made his skin look like shiny metal. "Just got a minute," he said as he backed away to Cole's side and eased down beside him. "I mean it, Elgy, I have to get back to my room. We're only watching for a minute."
"What's the rush?" Cole asked, peeking at him.
"You're the one that said I shouldn't be wandering campus and that my room was the best place for me," Wallace said. Aside from talks of missing students, Neo and Cole stressed to him his role as a possible target. He was less sure, considering the person doing the taking had walked directly past him and Serena and done nothing to either of them. In fact, Wallace felt the same about them being targets for simply being associated with him. As a result, they started a group chat and checked in with each other whenever they were alone. Cole had taken his role to the next level by offering to walk him to and from classes.
"I believe I said you don't need to be wandering campus alone," Cole said as he turned his attention to elgyem. "And the little green man here doesn't count. I don't care if you aren't ready to go back to your room, I'm not just leaving you alone. We can hang out here."
Elgyem pointed to the ball again, then to Wallace before he spread his arms and spun in a circle. Wallace squinted against the sunlight and gave the quad another once over. All of it was a very typical college campus, something he might see in a brochure advertising the school, students and their pokémon enjoying the weather between classes, but none of it seemed right to him. Purely because no one aside from Neo, Cole, and Arlette had any idea what was happening to their classmates.
"Are you saying I should do what everyone else is doing?" he asked. "Be a normal student?" Normal? Him? No.
"Wouldn't kill you," Cole quipped. "Like me, even with our special project, I'm sitting here, working on my tan. You ever tan?"
Wallace thought back to his summer with Andrew, even while visiting the beaches outside Ambrette and Shalour he hadn't taken much time to lay on the sand. Kalos was larger than he realized when not being escorted around and having to explore caves and trudge across valleys their summer trip much more of a chore to finish in time before classes started. "Not really."
"You should try it, it feels good, the heat," Cole said as he rolled up the sleeves of his shirt to expose his shoulders. "Though if you don't think ahead you get weird tan lines."
"Or you could stay inside all day like me, no tan lines like that," Wallace said with a self-deprecating laugh.
"Or I could just take my clothes off," Cole said flatly.
Wallace stayed still for a breath, studying Cole's mouth, waiting for him to smile, or smirk, or break out in laughter, but his expression never moved as he let the sunlight pour over him. It wasn't until elgyem jumped up and started flashing his lights that Wallace pulled his eyes away to see that Travis had kicked the ball through two cones that looked like goal markers.
"Great, he scored, let's go. We've got a million other things we could be doing," Wallace hissed, then fumed when elgyem seemed to wave off his comment. "I wish you could speak or really understand me so I could explain to you how silly this is."
Elgyem whipped around and touched a hand to his temple and extended his other arm out, pointing to Wallace's head.
"Can you read my mind?" Wallace asked, surely a foolish question to ask a psychic-type.
Elgyem nodded and turned back to the quad as the ball flew up in the air and the crowd backed away to see where it would land. Wallace sat in silence for a minute, pondering the extent of elgyem's ability to read his thoughts. Was it passive, the same way he had no choice but to hear and take in all the chatter around him or was it something he could turn on and off?
"Elgy, we need to talk about this," Wallace said. "What do you mean you can read my mind, like read it like a book?"
"Hey," Cole said. "Is your roommate okay? When's the last time you checked in?"
Against his will, Wallace pulled his attention from elgyem, determined to find out more about this ability. "What do you mean?"
"Have you heard from your roommate today? Or roommates. You have two right? We told you to keep tabs on them."
He realized that Cole had never actually been in his room before, due to his extra roommate and Nicki's inquisitive, no, nosy, demeanor, it was never the ideal place to meet. "They're fine," he said. Like Neo, he insisted on texting them both sporadically throughout the day to their annoyance as he'd never kept in such frequent constant with them. Looking to the sky, Wallace pulled their last texts up in his memory. "One of them is at the library and the other told me to get a life and stop worrying about theirs, which is as good a sign as any that they're okay."
"Have you told them what's happening?" he asked quickly.
"No, it was enough of a stretch to get you to believe me, and even then if it wasn't for Neo I would have no real proof," Wallace said. "Though Willow might believe me Nicki is a different case."
"I'll come with you if you want, we can bring Neo, give them the whole run down about that guy, Kit, that Neo used to room with. If we get more people on our side, maybe it'll protect them, keep them alert. I wouldn't mind seeing how the other half lives," Cole said with a hearty laugh.
Wallace nibbled at his lip as he pictured the hoarder mess that his room had become. "I hope you're not expecting a carpet made of gold thread or something," he said as a blur of orange alerted him to an incoming object. Rooted in his spot, he had no time to react to the orange ball flying toward his face. He braced himself for the stinging impact as a gloss of purple light halted the ball in mid-flight close enough that Wallace could read the faded manufacturer logo on the rubber.
"Nice!" Cole howled, clapping. "Good catch, elgyem, that's what I'm talking about."
Elgyem beeped in response to Cole's praise and lowered the ball. As it moved, Wallace stared out across the quad, the game had stopped and its players were all eyeing him. Some of the girls were covering their mouths, out of shock or trying to suppress laughter, he couldn't tell. His eyes fell to the leader of the group, Travis, as he lowered his foot to the ground and a smirk overtook his face.
Cole must have noticed it too because he scooted closer, his eyes locked onto the group. "Kick it back at him," he growled. "Don't back down."
"I'd miss," Wallace said, truly, if he tried he didn't think he could muster enough strength to make it across the quad while keeping accuracy in mind. "Let's go, you can meet my roommates and help me explain the state of our school to them." On shaking legs, Wallace stood up and tried his best not to look entirely rattled by the event. He could list off a number of people that might want to hurt him, but the only person bold enough to try something in public was Neo, and even then he did under the guise of a battle so to anyone watching it looked completely normal.
"You're really walking away?" Cole asked, tearing the ball out of elgyem's hold. "He just tried to beam you with this ball and now that I think about it, the first time it came to you was probably another attempt. You want me to put him in his place?"
"I want you to give them their ball back," Wallace said as the urge to cry hit him. He squeezed his eyes as his eyes burned from a mix of frustration, embarrassment, and helplessness. "Let's just leave."
"Hell no," Cole said, smacking the ball against his open palm as he stood up and pulled it back over his shoulder. "Time for a game of dodgeball. Line up, nerds."
"Cole!" Wallace snapped, his eyes shooting open to see Cole's flexed arm propel the ball across the quad. Like a bullet, the ball cut through the air and beamed Travis in the back of the head, startling him and nearly causing him to fall forward.
The girls surrounding Travis screamed and started to make room around him as he regained composure and looked back to them, his eyes blazing on Wallace until Cole slapped his chest a few times, willingly accepting blame.
Travis dug a hand into his pocket and threw it into the air. Wallace watched the unmistakable sight of a poké ball soar over the quad before it opened and released a stream of light onto the stones. A familiar pokémon took its place in front of Travis, its dark blue fur shining under the sun. While Cole's own luxray seemed rather lazy and content with its job as his bodyguard, the one Travis released seemed more curious as it sniffed the air and swished its tail.
"Get 'em, Leo," Travis said with the wave of his hand. "Bite!"
"Lux!" Luxray lowered its body and tore off from its spot in a flash, crossing the quad in a matter of seconds.
Wallace lost sight of it in the flash of another poké ball opening at his side. The thud of an impact brought his attention to Cole who stood a foot behind an infernape, whose fist had collided with the luxray's head. Wallace admired infernape while it remained still, a pokémon he knew all too well as it had been Andrew's starter when he visited Sinnoh.
"Attacking, and I didn't even have a pokémon out yet?" Cole said. "Oh, you really want to get embarrassed today, huh? Fiona, use close combat."
"Leo, get back!" Travis shouted.
Wallace watched in awe as Fiona clamped her hand down around the luxray's head before it could get away, gripping a handful of fur. Pulling Travis's luxray in closer, Fiona's free hand pulled back before it shot forward several times in succession, landing several blows against the luxray. The most critical coming after Fiona released her opponent and brought both hands down on luxray's head.
Another light across the quad drew Wallace's attention from the battle a girl rushed to Travis's side, a small snivy running with her, its leafy tail bouncing with each step. "Wallace! Prepare to lose on behalf of the AAA Girls!"
Wallace leaned forward and narrowed his eyes until he thought he had a good enough look at her. She'd faded into the background when he first approached the group, but on her own Wallace recognized her, mainly from standing in with Alice's crowd. She didn't have Alice's pink hair or Azalea's blue tips, so the bone straight blonde Alina didn't stand out as much as her posse did.
Her snivy waddled out ahead of her, its thin serpentine body making it look frail and weak, though its eyes relayed a different message.
Elgyem flashed his lights to Wallace as he stood on his shoulder and pointed to the quad. "No," Wallace said, never taking his eyes on the snivy. "You stay here," he said as he dug in his pocket and pulled out two poké balls. A fire-type like Cole's infernape would be great, and Mila would enjoy the battle, but Wallace put her ball back in his pocket as he let his other choice roll to the ground.
Spinarak shot out of his ball like a jet, snapping his mandibles and jumping from side to side until he noticed the opposing snivy.
"Let's get close for a leech seed!"
Snivy's head bobbed before it charged ahead and narrowed the gap to spinarak. Snivy's body bulged as it seemed to bring up a seed from its throat and spit it at spinarak. The bug-type, never staying still for more than a second didn't need Wallace as he leaped back and let the seed hit the ground, cracking open and sprouting instantly. Snivy followed it with two more seeds, each that missed their target.
"Poison sting," Wallace said.
As spinarak shot out a line of web that anchored him to a spot beyond snivy and pulled himself forward, a thin purple needle-like projectile firing from his mouth next. Snivy barely moved in time, slithering across the stones before it fired several more seeds.
"Try and slow it down, go for a string shot," Wallace said, recognizing snivy's speed as an asset.
Spinarak swerved past the newly sprouted plants to fire off another line of web that struck snivy's chest. Without missing a beat, spinarak detached and climbed onto the web, his own speed increasing while navigating the line.
"Vine whip, snivy!" Alina called out.
Two deep green vines burst from snivy's tail and cracked down on the ground, shattering the connection between spinarak and snivy. The vines curled back before they swung forward and swept the ground, bashing spinarak off his line and sending him rolling across the quad.
"Keep it up!" Alina cheered with the clap of her hands. "Wow, Travis, you're amazing!"
Stealing a glance at Cole's battle, Wallace saw luxray and infernape chasing each other in parallel lines, neither of them moving any closer to each other, but testing the grounds to see who would move first. Judging by infernape's rigid movement he guessed Travis had landed an electric attack or two.
A sound like snaps against the stone pulled his attention back to his own battle as spinarak ran in a circle, avoiding the cracking whips from snivy who fired out a few more seeds in the process. In an attempt to avoid both, spinarak jumped and landed with his back to snivy who managed to fire off a seed onto spinarak's abdomen.
Wallace's jaw fell as the seed broke and sprouted on his pokémon's back, the twin leaf plant glowing in the sunlight as it drained spinarak for a second before the glow faded. "Are you okay?"
Spinarak rose up and nodded, shaking his body, though the sprout did not budge much. Darting forward, spinarak avoided snivy's whips as he closed the distance.
"Good job!" Wallace said, without worrying about another leech seed, spinarak was free to get as close as he needed if he could just avoid the whips. "Go for string shot again, hit snivy, or the whips."
As snivy backed away, spinarak stayed on track and fired several strings of web, each missing and landing on the stone. After avoiding a vine, spinarak landed a hit on the bulbed edge and attached the end to the ground. Snivy struggled to pull its vine free or break the web before spinarak climbed onto the vine and bit down.
"Use infestation," Wallace said, eyeing the remaining vine as it coiled back. "Then get out of there!"
The plant on spinarak's back glimmered again as he chomped away at the vine. "Spi! Spi!" Sinarak released a collection of what looked like black dots onto the vine that made quick work of spreading down its length. Before he could release, the other vine swung down and smacked spinarak away.
"Quick snivy, get rid of those things!" Alina said.
"We can do some serious damage with poison, use poison sting," Wallace said as he watched spinarak get up.
As snivy smacked one vine with the other, spinarak fired a collection of purple projectiles. Snivy hadn't been too occupied not to dodge, but several of them struck its vines. While it didn't seem to affect snivy, after taking a few hits one of the vines darkened as a purple spot began to spread. As spinarak was drained again, the poison spread down snivy's vine until it reached the host. Snivy gaped at its sagging vine as the poison struck it, flinching.
"Hold on snivy, I've got an antidote!" Alina said as she ran back to a pile of bags on the ground and started rummaging through a big pink one.
Wallace heard Travis say something as he waved his hand at his luxray. "Bite!"
Infernape pulled back her fist, but her wrist was caught within luxray's jaws. Infernape screeched and began to thrash, trying to pry luxray off before she struck the electric-type in the ribs a few times.
Spinarak leaped forward at snivy, but before he could make it, the remaining vine swung down and batted him from the air and pinned him to the ground.
"Coming snivy!" Alina said as she darted into the open, a container in her hand. She fell to the ground beside snivy and started to spray the contents of the container all over her pokémon, leaving nothing behind as she tossed the container over her shoulder.
Slowly, the poison faded from snivy's vine and as both started to rise up, spinarak bit down onto the end of one.
"What an annoying bug!" Alina said as she backed out of the way. "Snivy, take care of that thing!"
Snivy let out a deep hiss as its vines pulled back and took spinarak with them, lifting the bug-type into the air before they shook him around and slammed into down onto the ground.
"Spinarak, let go!" Wallace yelled. "Go for another poison sting!"
"No way!" Alina yelled over him. "Keep it up, snivy."
With another yank, spinarak was pulled from the ground only to be slammed back down moments later and then dragged side to side like a rag meant for cleaning the stones. Wallace watched in silence as snivy pulled spinarak close and lift him just off the ground.
"Finish it with your energy ball," Alina said.
Snivy's mouth opened as a glint of green light formed in front of it and started to spin, growing in size, and spreading its light until it nearly absorbed spinarak. Wallace rolled spinarak's ball across his palm, ready to recall him as he watched light take over spinarak, only he realized it had nothing to do with snivy's attack. The light that swallowed spinarak was pure white and as it glowed he lost sight of his pokémon in it. Shapes seemed to blend together and stretch as snivy's vines sagged, struggling to hold spinarak any longer as the light spread and then vanished.
Wallace was lost for words as it took too long for him to register he'd witnessed his first evolution, in person. He'd watched most if not all of Andrew's evolutions, but the idea that his own pokémon might achieve it had been lost on him until an eight-legged pokémon with a shiny red body assumed its position, towering over snivy.
Yellow and purple striped legs spread out, effectively trapping snivy in its bounds as it loomed over the small grass-type with a pair of sharp-looking mandibles.
"S-Sni?"
A low stridulation came from Wallace's pokémon before it he lunged down and pinned snivy to the ground between his pincers then lifted it off the ground and started to shake it. Like snivy had done, it started to drag snivy across the ground like a ragdoll before it tossed snivy to the side, a chunk missing from its tail leaf.
"Snivy!" Alina cried as she fumbled for her poké ball.
Wallace watched in awe as his new pokémon tracked down over snivy. "Attack," he said.
His pokémon clicked its mandibles before it released a stream of poison needles that sprayed snivy, many of them lodging into the grass-type's body like toothpicks before Alina recalled her pokémon.
When their field was clear Wallace felt a great pressure easing from his best. He'd just battled, and won. "I did it!" Wallace heard Travis scream something before a flash of light blinded him. Heat flooded him and the hairs on his arms stood up.
As quick as it came it was gone and fragments of purple light, spinning fast enough the eye could be forgiven for mistaking them for shards of glass, flittered to the ground in front of Wallace. As the remnants of what Wallace knew to be elgyem's psychic shield vanished, he registered elgyem had protected him from an attack, though it had happened too fast for him to understand what it was.
Gazing around the quad, stunned, he noticed Travis's luxray standing at attention, its deep gaze focused on him as sparks of electricity died on his body.
"What?" Wallace asked as he scanned the faces around him. Alina covered her mouth and the girls in the group behind her had done the same. Cole's eyes were wide, but only remained on him for a breath before he clenched his teeth and turned his eyes on Travis.
"Are you out of your mind? You could have killed him!" Cole roared. "Fiona, use acrobatics!"
Wallace watched with fading interest as infernape flipped onto her hands and leaped into the air, her foot smacking luxray on the head. Wallace looked to his hands before elgyem drifted into sight, his yellow lights flashing in mild concern. "I'm okay," he said. "Thank you? What was that?"
Elgyem's lights burned red as he pointed to luxray, suddenly a white line of web struck elgyem and yanked him from the air. Wallace watched as his pokémon seemed to reel elgyem in by pulling on the web with his legs until he'd brought elgyem in close enough to rub against.
Pulling his phone from his pocket, Wallace booted up a pokédex app Neo mentioned and snapped a picture. The results were instant and contained a lot of information he didn't care to read. "Ariados," he read. "Known for attaching silk to its prey, only to release them. Later, Ariados will track that string back to its targets and its family. I don't think I needed to picture that," he said as he pocketed his phone and watched elgyem try to escape his much larger team member.
With a flash of purple light, elgyem vanished and reappeared on ariados' back. Ariados jumped from side to side, an act that didn't look as cute anymore, trying to buck elgyem off.
A high whimper brought his attention to Cole's battle as he saw infernape flip luxray onto its back awkwardly before she pinned the electric-type to the ground with her elbow. Infernape reached for luxray's mouth with both hands and managed to start to pry his mouth open when Travis recalled his pokémon, leaving infernape without a target for Cole's fury.
"Sorry, Travis, I tried…" Alina said, coming to Travis's side and reaching out to him.
Travis jerked away from her touch and started to walk away before Cole sprinted for him. "Oh no, we're not done here!"
"Cole, let him go," Wallace said, rubbing ariados's head. "We won, it's over."
Cole faltered and gave Travis enough time to retreat into the shadows beyond the quad and for his pack to start to break up once the show was over. "You're too nice, you know that?" he said. "He tried to hit you with a thunderbolt, I heard him say it and was waiting for it, but then his luxray wasn't looking at Fiona anymore and I couldn't – it happened too fast." Cole held his fist out to elgyem. "You're alright in my book, you keep him safe better than anyone else ever could."
Elgyem, riding his new ariados steed, bumped Cole's fist and flashed him with green lights. "Elgy!"
"So, an ariados huh?" Cole asked. "How does it feel?"
"Kind of awesome," Wallace said, admiring his new pokémon as they started to leave the quad. Ariados was easily the most intimidating on his team just off looks alone. "That was my first win," he said, grinning as they stepped into the shadow of Rose-Absolute Hall.
"Seriously?" Cole asked, his disbelief clear on his face. "Ever?"
"Against another trainer, yeah." He'd tried his hand a few times battling with Andrew's help this summer, but between forgetting type advantages and an overall lack of experience even little kids with inner-tubes managed to beat him.
They talked in hushed tones about Travis all the way from the entrance to his floor, Cole said he regretted working with him in the safari after seeing how he behaved. "I mean, there's just some unspoken rules in battle right? Like don't send your pokémon, knowingly, after the trainer."
"I never felt like he had it out for me," Wallace said as they stopped outside his room and he fished for his key. "Before we go inside, I just want to apologize for – everything," he said, shrugging, not knowing which part of his cramped space was worse, Willows' blowup bed in the floor, Wink's pool, or Nicki's ever-growing makeup collection. Unlocking the door, he presented all of that and more to Cole as he gingerly stepped inside, somewhat grateful to find Nicki gone and just Willow sitting at his desk. "Thought you were at the library?"
Ariados navigated his space with ease, his long legs making maneuvering past the clutter a breeze until he nestled on the floor at the edge of Wallace's bed.
"I just got back," she said, gesturing to her bag on the floor near the door as her eyes fell on Cole. "Nice to meet you, I'm Willow Oakburn."
Wallace regarded them both with a pleased smile, but when Cole didn't say anything he found an expression he couldn't place on Cole's face, something on the spectrum between embarrassed and upset. "Cole?" he asked, inching closer before he grabbed Cole's wrist.
Cole's face went blank before an overexerted smile took over. "Nice to meet you. I'm Cole Fierosa," he said as he made a clumsy effort to cross the room and extend his hand.
Slowly, Willow took it and their shook it, her bright eyes flicking to Wallace in the process. "Nice to meet you too. Your Wallace's friend?"
"Yeah," Cole said, still holding WIllow's hand. "You?"
"Same," Willow said, tugging her hand free and replacing it in her lap. "Friend and roommate, which, actually, I'm glad you're here. We should talk."
"You're not leaving," Wallace said without hesitation.
Willow slapped her face and dragged her hands down. "I don't see why not? I can't even remember why I moved in in the first place, my room, my actual assigned room is completely empty. I stopped by earlier, it's just waiting for me. I love that you had me move in, but it's so cramped in here."
Wallace swallowed a lump in his throat at Willow's glossing over the fact that her room appeared to be vacant. The idea that anyone could best Simone hadn't sat right with him, without a question she was one of the strongest people he knew and couldn't imagine her being taken without a war ensuing. But beyond wanting to keep Willow safe from Simone, he wanted to keep her close to protect her from whoever was brave enough to take Simone on, and win.
"Listen, we came because we need to talk too," Wallace said. "And I really want you to listen and keep an open mind to what I'm saying and then maybe you'll understand why you can't leave." Wallace maneuvered around the room to his bed as Cole sat slowly on the edge of Nicki's bed.
"Okay, I'm listening," Willow said.
"Remember what I said, open mind." Wallace licked his teeth and sucked in a deep breath. "What if I told you the reason I had you move in was because you had a roommate who hated you, hated you to the point if left alone she'd probably have put you in the hospital?" He studied Willow's face as what the said sunk in and instantly saw it, the way her mouth hung open and her eyes glazed over, doubt. "Open mind! Okay, just listen. You had a roommate, her name was Simone. I can prove it, I have a copy of the dorm roster that will show you that you lived with someone named Simone at the beginning of the semester. But the reason you don't remember is because something – someone – took her and everything she owned out of that room. They also took all of your memories of her, which is why you don't remember why you really moved in."
Silence held the room in the wake of Wallace's speech and Willow's eyes between him and Cole before she drummed her fingers on the back of her chair. "Okay, so, let's pretend you're right. Just who is responsible for, all that?"
At Neo's request he stopped placing his late father at the top of the list and widened his horizons to another option, one he didn't want to accept. "The Orphans."
"Wallace, all of that is in the past, besides, they wouldn't do something like that," Willow said, waving him off. "It's not that kind of group."
"What are you saying? You know what they're capable of better than anyone!" Wallace snapped, shooting up from his bed. "Did you forget everything Chara did?"
Willow sat back in her chair and flicked a glance to Cole. "Who's Chara?"
Tile by tile, Wallace felt the floor fall away beneath him. If Willow didn't remember Chara it could only mean he'd been taken as well. By someone strong enough, smart enough to best Simone and outwit Chara. The fear of slipping and falling sent him reeling back onto his bed as Cole rose to his feet and trampled over Willow's bed to reach him and clamped a hand on his shoulder.
"Wallace?" he asked, shaking him gently. "Are you alright?"
"Wallace, do you need some water?" Willow asked as she grabbed a clear orange bottle from the desk and uncapped it. "Here."
"No." Wallace waved the bottle off as Cole grabbed it and tried to pass it off. He squeezed his eyes shut as his head throbbed, trying to push the idea aside to focus. Chara being taken was a blessing, and a curse. His biggest threat was gone, but only to be replaced by someone more menacing and cunning.
"Fine," Willow said with a sigh. "I'm going to go, I need to find Nicki, we're gonna help each other move."
"Wait what?"
Willow stood up and scooted the chair in and surveyed the room. "Nicki is going to move into my room with me, we've bonded since I moved in and think it'd be nice and since that space is empty we thought it'd be a great fresh start."
"So you're going to leave him in here by himself?" Cole asked. "He just told you someone is going around abducting students, did you hear anything he said? I know you're not this dense."
"You know nothing about me," Willow fired back and threw her hands up as she made her way to the door. "I'm out, I'll be back in a bit to start cleaning up."
"Will you at least tell Professor Oakburn what I said?" Wallace asked before Willow exited the room. "About the students. Even if you don't believe it, can you just tell her what I said, even if it sounds crazy."
Willow's head fell back as she groaned. "Who is Professor Oakburn? Is that some kind of joke?"
"Your sister!" Wallace snapped, shrugging Cole's hand off his shoulder.
"I don't have a sister!" Willow barked back. "She's dead with the rest of my family. Thank you for bringing that up on top of everything else! Wallace, I'm so done with you. You're never around unless you need something or just pop up and start spouting off crazy stories." Willow grabbed the edge of the door and swung it shut behind her, the boom echoing in the room.
Wallace jammed his knuckles to his temples as he hunched over and sucked in a deep breath, the urge to cry building in him again. "This isn't happening!"
"Hey, hey, relax," Cole said, rubbing a circle on Wallace's back. "You already figured she wouldn't believe you, but it's okay, I do. Neo does. Nothing's changed."
"Willow's sister is gone," Wallace breathed. "Chara is gone. I mean, i'm not upset about that one, but still." Wallace choked back a laugh, unsure which outweighed the other, the idea that Chara was out of the picture, or the threat of someone worse than him lurking around. "You know about the Orphans, right?" he asked, straightening up and wiping moisture from his eyes.
"Only what I've heard from others," Cole said quickly. "They attacked a student last year, well killed, and have it out for you. I wasn't sure how much of it was true though."
"Everything, all of it is true," Wallace opened his hand and started to count. "Chara was the first one I met, he killed a boy named Dirk and attacked Simone, Willow's old roommate and our friend Ben, and me. Willow was an Orphan too, but I helped her escape, but when Simone found out she wanted blood so I made her move in with me. Umm, James, he was another one, dead." Wallace touched his two remaining fingers and bit at his lower lip. "Willow told me there were two more Orphans she hadn't met, a boy and girl, who were already on campus, we never figured out who they were. And then there's Katherine, she's the leader I guess."
"You think one of them could be behind this?" Cole asked. "Besides this Chara guy?"
"I don't know, I thought so, but it doesn't seem like their style," Wallace admitted. "They've been sneaking and shady, but nothing like this. Chara and James were violent, not kidnappers, but I guess each of them had their own thing. Willow was like a spy and a bully. One of them set fire to the stadium and burned Nat, god, I still remember that night..." Wallace trailed off as he felt Cole's hand fall from his back and hit the bed, the thought of fires ringing a bell in his memory as his eyes fell onto Cole's burned and scarred legs. "I'm sorry, Cole, I wasn't thinking – I know, your parents, I'm sorry."
"It's fine, it's – I should go," Cole said, standing up and clumsily making his way to the door. "I got you home safe, my job's done for the day. i'll let Neo take over. See ya."
Before Wallace could think of another way to apologize for wandering into a touchy topic, Cole was out of the door. "0 for 2 Wallace, good job," he said scooted back on his bed and peered over the edge to find Ariados nestled on a pile of his dirty clothes with elgyem sprawled out on his back.
Pulling his other two poké balls out, Wallace released Mila and Wink into the room. Wink wasted no time scampering into his pool while Mila stretched out and slid to the floor, flopping down on her belly.
Lying back on his bed, Wallace kicked off his shoes and pulled his phone out and fired off a text to Eleanor to check on her. Aside from Neo and Cole, among the people who would still talk to him, Eleanor was the one he couldn't bear to think about losing. The thought didn't just bring forth to urge to cry, it turned the faucets on high and left him numb.
While waiting for a reply, his group chat with Neo and Cole buzzed to life with a message from Cole. Opening it he found a picture of Cole and his luxray in his room along with a thumbs-up emoji. Neo replied instantly with a picture of him in his room illuminated by his tablet screen. Playing along, Wallace turned on his camera and snapped a picture of himself with his thumb pointing down and sent it.
While he waited, he sent out a few more check-in texts to people Alexia, Ignatius, and Cosmo, whom he asked for an update on Don as well.
I'm good! In the freshman dorm doing homework with a girlfriend, hope you're okay. Just take one day at a time. Eleanor messaged back with a heart emoji. As weird as the thought was, he imagined texting Eleanor was what texting his mom would have been like.
He fired back a smiley face when a message from Cole came through. why so sad?
Because I made you mad. It seems to be what I'm best at. He replied.
Wallace watched the gray dots for a minute before Cole replied, in the meantime he got confirmations from Alexia and Ignatius that they were okay. not mad, just had to go. your more than welcome to come join me and shia. we're probably going to get some food soon, I want to go off campus
A scratching at his bed startled him as he saw Mila clawing at his sheet before she jumped up to him and started to circle around his feet for a spot to lay down. If you wanted me around you wouldn't have left, also it's you're*.
watch out, its the grammar police. maybe I left because I was feeling a little suffocated in that mess of a room
Fair enough.
If you don't want to stay alone, if willow leaves YOU'RE welcome to come live with me
I mean you can move in if you want
I've got the space
might make keeping you safe easier
and you can make sure im all caught up on whatever Cheryl needs from us for our assignment with tyrogue
our meetings with neo would be easier too
Wallace stared at his phone as each of Cole's messages came through lightning fast, he could almost hear him stumbling over his words as nerves took over, though he couldn't remember a time he'd seen Cole looking nervous.
Unsure of what to say, Wallace turned the phone over and pressed it into the bed before he sat up. "One day at a time," he said, replaying Eleanor's advise. Although it was early, he plucked his pill bottle off his desk and popped out two sleeping bills and grabbed Willow's water bottle. He downed the bills and finished off the water before he laid back down at the foot of his bed, curling his arms around Mila to use her warm fur as a pillow. "One day at a time."
End of Chapter Forty-Seven
AN: Happy 2020!