Part 7: The Grove
Chapter 51: To Amend Oneself
Six more chapters headed your way. Hope you guys are staying safe with the COVID-19 running amok. That there is a real world infection, unlike Wave here. Lot less fun, too.
well I don't know about that actually lol
I don't own Pokémon.
"Is she okay?"
"What do you think, Lee?"
"I think those kids came through for us."
"If that's how you see it, then good."
"Yeah... How much does she know?"
"She knows about Travis."
"Is that it? What about Chaile?"
…
"Well, what about her brother then, Ki-?"
"Don't...! I don't want to hear that name."
"...'Young', then, if that's what you want."
"Hm... I told her about Travis and that's it."
"That's not good enough. She needs to know everything. Look, this might be the only chance we'll get to be together, and I want Kat to know the truth. I was hoping you would tell her, but you can't be asked, can you? I'll do it myself."
"I won't let you. I'll be damned if I ever let her find out now."
"Why...? Why hide it? Look at our daughter. She's been broken apart by the Crossblade and forced to live like THAT, and she still came to the Grove. Why make it worse for her by keeping secrets? Can't you spare our family some knowledge? Is Delta Meadow really that important to you, that you wouldn't even tell your own daughter what happened to-"
"Stop it, Lee. This isn't fixing the problem – no amount of bullshit coming out of your mouth is going to fix it, and don't even THINK about telling her a thing. She's Fluxed. Even if she is an eevee, Secany said that it's a miracle her head hasn't exploded, and if there's ANY chance that making her angry might cause that Flux to spill out, I'm keeping my mouth closed... and... enjoying this time that I get to spend with her... to the best of my ability."
"I don't... understand you anymore. I don't know whether to respect you, fear you, or just... pity you."
"It's your call, but you haven't seen what I've seen. I won't risk losing another kid."
"If you care so much, why didn't you come back sooner?"
"Somebody had to be there for Travis, and somebody had to be there for Kat. That was you, Lee. I trusted you. I always did. I wanted to come back, but not with Chaile's blood on my hands."
"Even if you couldn't have come back, you could have called me sooner."
"We've been over this. Jeopardizing the integrity of Delta Meadow would've put you and I in a situation so bad that Kat may as well have never known about what they did."
"Oh. Sorry. My bad. I'm the stupid father."
"Tch..."
…
"Does... Travis know what happened?"
"Yes."
"Kat's going to ask you, and ask you again, and ask both of us. When she doesn't get anything back, she's gonna find Travis. You told her about him."
"I told her about Travis. I didn't tell her about Flicker."
"Mmm, no, 'Young', you forgot who our daughter was. She's smart. She'll work it all out."
"Then maybe I'm a stupid father, too."
"...We need to beat her to Travis. If he's so important to you – if Kat's Fluxed condition is as sensitive as you think, then... we need to find him."
"Hm, right. Go on, then. Go out there in that clusterfuck of a wasteland. See what happens."
"You and I, we're... not the greatest Pokémon. I'm flat useless as an umbreon, and you're-"
"I know. We'll get help. Those kids – Alli and Cadi. They're good. I can't keep sending Paige on recon missions either, so this will have to do."
"Isn't... Cadi important to you, too?"
"What're you trying to say?"
"Sending kids out there in your place. You're no mom anymore."
"Go fuck yourself."
…
…
…
Alli
I was lost to the sounds scissors snipping through my hair. In the background was the sounds of casual chatter drifting over from the middle of the Grove, the other 'mons in the neighborhood up to their stubby arms and legs or whatnot in renovations – reassigning tents, fixing spaces up to look a bit better. That kind of stuff. They figured since we weren't moving from this cozy spot any time soon that they might as well have made it feel more homely. I already had my share of that, with Cadi at my back, letting me use her phone to check up on life outside of Autumnridge.
I felt good today – or, well, good after my rest. I was all warmed up by Rayse, both in body and in heart. Even now, I felt my cheeks yield to a smile that didn't seem to want to go away. She'd already left, but just knowing that she and I trusted each other enough to bundle up and relax for a while was something special. I couldn't contact her on the phone here, not that Nick ever had a big list of contacts, but I knew I would've gotten to see her again later. Truth was, I wanted to protect her. I knew she could kick ass on her own – I wasn't worried about that part. I was worried about the part where people like Joel went around and made things complicated for our Gamma buddies. Same went for Cadi, Diancie, and even Secany if she had any plans of returning.
It went without saying that those were tall priorities, and, right now, Cadi had my back instead, with all her prestige in fashion. Set up on a fairly convenient stone outside 'Club Siren', I sat with my legs crossed while Miss Fancy Fluff over here did my hair the way I'd wanted it. She jumped at the opportunity with so much spring in her legs that I was surprised she didn't topple over and fall.
"Mmm, look down for me, please?" she asked of me and I obliged with a tilt of my head toward her hips, a small black lock of my hair shaking loose and falling away. "There you are."
"How's it looking back there?" I asked, aimlessly fondling with the phone in some distant hope that I could get a signal.
"All's well, darling! You've come to the right Symbi, I have to say," she gloated, chipper and melodic. "You know, assuming you have the ability to change back, your skywisp form will likely still have long hair, and I do so enjoy brushing it. Please tell me you'll consider keeping it!"
"I owe it to you, I guess?" I furrowed my brow, still looking at the dimming screen of the phone. "'S more my own preference, y'know? Long hair on a wisp keeps 'er warm, and I'll take all the heat I can get. But this body? Nah. Gotta have something shorter, otherwise I'll get, like, testy 'n stuff."
"Of course, of course," she agreed, two fingers pulling carefully at strands of hair, followed by another soft snip. "Alli gets to keep her hair, then... Oh that's perfect!"
"Huh? You're done with it already?" I quipped. Even in her excitement, the exclamation came as a surprise. I'd only sat here for ten minutes. That wasn't long enough, was it? Wasn't the difference between getting a 'haircut' and getting 'your hair done' all in time and money? And didn't girls mostly do the latter of the two?
"Blessings, no! We have a ways to go before I meet your request," she giggled, twirling the comb between her fingers and brushing it through the side of my head. Another couple snips. "I think I have a new name for you."
"Ohhh, okay – right, my 'siren' name. Go on, then! Lemme, uh, 'hair' it."
"Yes, of—did... did you just make a joke?"
"Uh, jokes are usually funny, sooo nope."
"Oh, comb on, Sandra..." she came right back. I had to avert my eyes from the phone just to replay that reply in my head with peace of mind.
"Sandra," I repeated. "Uh, Sandra—huh?"
"Your new name," she told me, gently brushing past my left ear with her comb. "What do you think?"
"Sandra Sanders," I thought aloud. Kinda tacky. I didn't think Cadi would've used my last name to compose something. Maybe I overestimated her creativity a touch, or... maybe she just was a genius and I was too dumb to see it? "Kind of girly for me, yo. I'm more of a Jade or a Courtney. Or, I was thinkin' more like, uh, 'Alexis'? That's a badass name!"
"What about Sandy?" she offered. Tell ya, I was actually kind of surprised she knew as many Earth-based girl names as she did, being from another world and everything.
"Oh, I like Sandy," I said. It did fit me. It was... kind of sandy, like me. I was rough and I got all up under your clothes sometimes. Well, shit, only Emelina, I guess, but hey! Sandy felt alright! "Actually, hey, I like Sandra now, if Sandy can be my nickname."
"And I'll only use 'Sandra' when I'm upset with you! Wonderful~!" Cadi sang. She flicked her white poof of a tail from one side to the other and back again, taking my head between her finger and thumb and turning it slightly away.
Cadi was fun to talk to, and yet she kept her distance from the rest of the Grove, just like me. For someone as charismatic and confident as her, I would've imagined Cadi to end up as the star of the show. She was silly, clever, strong, and holy ass did she have looks; however, she wanted to keep to herself. I didn't have a big enough ego to assume that she did it all for me. To some degree, she may have felt guilty that she took Nick away and had an obligation to make it up to one of his friends, but I wasn't entirely sure that was the reason she stayed so aloof. Whatever the case, I wasn't complaining. She was one of the only reasons I hadn't been driven mad long ago ('crazy' mad, anyway). I wanted to believe other Symbis were like this, too – just all-around good people, but I knew they couldn't be. Seeing how down-to-Earth the Champions and Symbis were, it wasn't hard to picture a few that had questionable motives, like Andromeda and that, uh, sickle with the eye. Those ones didn't show off their personalities as much as Cadi, anyway. Made me wonder what Astraea was like.
"Uhm, question:" I began. "Where's Astraea? I never see her anymore."
It'd occurred to me that I never brought up Astraea to Cadi. My encounter with Joel must've brought it to the front of my mind.
After posing the question, Cadi froze. Her scissors remained still, the blades resting against my hair, like she was struggling to come up with an answer. I had to combat the urge to move my head to look up at her.
"Hmmm..." she finally hummed after a long pause. Was she thinking about an answer? Was she thinking about my hair? I didn't know. It wasn't like her to leave something unanswered. She always 'tried'. She always 'participated'. But now, she didn't even say anything.
"Greetings, friends!" exclaimed a young, English girl. Diancie, I thought, as I saw a hue of pink sparkle and swerve into my peripheral vision.
Cadi carried on with my hair. Lucky break for her. Diancie's timing really made it easy for her to avoid saying anything, but I made a mental note. I needed to ask her again. Maybe she just didn't hear me correctly. Maybe she was too distracted with hairstyling.
"'Sup, Diancie – how you doin'?" I asked her. She stopped a couple yards in front of me, hovering, her long bands just centimeters from the ground, meticulously avoiding any unneeded filth.
"Oh, mind your manners, would you? That is no way to greet royalty." she pouted, arms crossed, an object of interest showing in one of her gray hands – a long red ribbon, clean, yet torn in spots.
"'Course it is. It's not a good way to greet royalty, but it's still a way." I argued, brash, receiving a quizzical glare.
"Pah, is it that futile with you? At least one has decided to spruce herself fair. Or, was that Cadi's decision?" she inquired. I was wondering when she'd say something about the makeshift salon.
"Neither of us, actually," Cadi answered. "It was Sandy's decision."
Hah, cute.
"Sandy? I say, Sandy?" she asked twice, with a much more tonal inflection the second time. "Who is this 'Sandy'? Do tell."
I raised one arm, careful not to disrupt the artist at work.
"Aaah, yes. Pray tell, a new name for a reformed lady," Diancie mused. "Onto business; I've washed this hideous accessory. Do not let my favor to you go unconsidered."
Diancie floated by and held out Emelina's shiny red hair ribbon for me. I took it, examined it closely, and, lo and behold, didn't find a single smudge of dirt or grime left, sans the obvious tears or seams in the silk, but I didn't want to repair it. Truthfully, I was shocked Diancie did as much as I wanted, since she and Cadi had this freakish desire to keep things clean.
"'Preciate it." I said, lost in vague recollection of events as I rubbed along the ribbon with my free hand's thumb – not so much all about Emi, but all the times this stupid little thing was ever important: the days Emi didn't wear it to school, the days she wore it to cheer leading practice, the days Topher or Pat wore it for shits and gigs...
"Do you honestly plan on wearing that?" Diancie queried.
I scoffed at the question. How things have changed...
"Because it would look appalling. That color with your fur and eyes? Oh, and don't even get me STARTED on its condition," she sighed. "But, nary will I be the one to dissuade you from the usage of something with sentimental value."
"Yeah, that. That word. 'Sentimental' – thanks," I looked at her. She had this obnoxious way of expressing her opinion, but the more I ignored it and the louder she got with it, the less serious she took herself. Conversely, when I actually praised her for being annoying, she looked surprised and charmed all the same. "Or, uh, my most gracious thanks to you, Your Highness."
"Ohoho~..." she laughed, covering her mouth and shying away. "Much better."
"Yeah, whatever," I grinned. Her 'charmed' poise fell apart and she squinted at me, disappointed. I was lovin' it. "So, any word on Rayse?"
"Rayse, you ask? She didn't tell you?"
"Nope. She said she was going to go out to 'do her bizznizz'." I recalled. Or maybe it was 'bizzernizz'. Something to that effect.
"'Bizznizz', yes—I believe she meant to seek out Secany, or what have you with the Crossblade." said Diancie. While it wasn't much for confirmation on Rayse's whereabouts, at least we all knew the same amount of information: Rayse was out and about.
"D'you think we should help her look for Secany, or is this something she wants to do on her own?" I inquired.
"I am a poor model for instruction," she said, a hand softly placed against her chest. "You'll find that Rayse is not of the predictable sort. She often goes against her own instincts and it leads her into some trying situations, but her heart is in the right place. She wants to protect these people. Mm, 'your' people, Alli – or, excuse me, 'Sandy'."
"I know she wants to keep us from losing our minds, but I could never figure out why. Aren't humans just kind of expendable?" I asked, narrowly dodging a cringe toward my own comment.
"If you were expendable," Cadi began, running the comb through the back of my head, capturing strands of hair in its prongs, tickling me as she held them steady. "I wouldn't be doing this for you. Diancie wouldn't have cleaned off that ribbon for you. Rayse wouldn't have cuddled up with you."
"The evidence is well put, Arcadia," Diancie chirped. "Whether you're humans or demons, nay, any species beyond Pokémon or otherwise, this town is Gamma's new birthplace, and we of its seed act on behalf of the morals and principles that we once lived for. We owe humanity as much as our true intentions: simply to live and give new life to the world we occupy. Many humans scowl at our desire, but I, for one, refuse to give up and die away in the dark. The very best ultimatum at which I and my fellow Champions can arrive is to remain positive and caring of feelings these people own."
"We're all people. With feelings," Cadi interjected. "It should be no surprise that we have needs and wants of our own, and it just so happens that we both 'need' and 'want' you humans to be comfortable around us, for the most part. We 'need' it because it is healthy for the expansion of Gamma. We 'want' it because we do, honest to gods, care."
"God dang," I grinned, a bit patronized and enticed at the same time. "Did you two talk about this beforehand?"
"We may have shared an exchange and a helping of pleasantries, yes," said the princess. "And over the most delightful cup of tea. What was it again, Arcadia?"
"Chamomile, my ravishing royal friend!" Cadi remarked, hardly taken from the task before her. All the while, she had been paying fine attention to the manner in which she trimmed.
The both of 'em went on to talk about various teas and pastries from their own home worlds, compared to the stuff that Earth had in supply. Nice to hear they shared a passion. I might've been into it if I wasn't so absorbed with all these old text messages that Nick had and that Cadi didn't care about anymore. Some of the conversations he had with Pat were so old and irrelevant to life nowadays. I didn't even realize she and Nick had talked. The stuff he had with Bryan was pretty chuckle-worthy. Cruce's convos with him were mostly internet faces back and forth – not even emojis. Straight-up old school internet emotes. Nick actually had some hysterical imgur shit sent to him by Ivan as recently as mid-November. Wherever Ivan was, he had to be wondering why Nick hadn't responded for so long. The most recent stuff on here was between Cadi and I. Made sense, too. Jesus I needed that phone back.
Some thirty minutes later, Cadi finished up with the styling while I took to one of Nick's rhythm games. Something about tapping the screen. It made me appreciate fingers all the more. Passively, she cued me to put the damn phone down already, handing me a pocket vanity mirror and asking for my opinion. To the best of my ability, I squinted and angled the mirror around, presenting myself with the best view of my new cut. It was shoulder length, 'stead of a couple inches off my butt. She'd managed to get that annoying bit of hair sticking up from the top of my head to settle just shy of my right eye, the single bang swooping gently over my brow. I liked it. Gave my face more of a sense of roundness – less jagged than part of my hair sticking high all the time.
I gave her my praise. She received it so well that she gave me a squeezed from behind, wrapping her arms around me and pressing my own arms into my sides. Made my heart dance a little! It was great to see her all excited and merry over something as trivial as this. Goddess with a magical energy-absorbing, ancient staff? Nah, that was just her side gig.
When she let me go, she did my hair up into a ponytail, trim of black still winding up each of my ears, but not without making my whole face look smaller and more manicured. I kinda fell in love with it. It was easy and it didn't look like ass, and least not until I slid the red ribbon's concealed clip through a thick enough lick of hair, just behind my right ear, the bands flowing down about as far as the ponytail itself, tickling the fur of my shoulder. I could feel the spot where the silken fibers strayed in accord to the accessory's damage, one loose string straying off with the sole purpose of touching just behind my neck. Diancie was right. This looked, uh, not so good. It needed to match, and that was unnecessarily difficult when your natural fur and eye color didn't even match to begin with. Red made me look kinda ghetto, but y'know what, red had some real meaning here in Autumnridge. I had my own dollop of it to deal with, somewhere inside of me.
Sadly, my professional hairstylist didn't get a word in edgewise. With her supplies in one hand, a rolled up, dry towel she'd used to keep my hair from littering the grass in the other, she gave an unprepared greeting while I was, once again, absorbed by antics on Nick's phone.
I looked away from the screen when the person she'd said her hello to didn't so much as reply. That person was looking right at me. I would've though he was insulted that I didn't give him much attention, but the confusion in that canid face struck me as similar to Rayse's when we'd talked before our sleep.
"Ladies," the tall, black canine addressed us, tipping his head low for a moment, like he didn't know what gestures were polite in that body. "Alli?"
"Sandy, Alli," I shrugged, kicking my legs up to get some momentum, launching myself off of the rock. Wasn't all that fancy, but it felt good to stretch them out. "Same diff."
"How can we help you, Lee?" Cadi asked. First name basis; a good start.
"We've got something that needs doin', and we need to fill you two in." he said.
"What?" I muttered. The hotshots of the Grove wanted US? What were we? We were sirens and that was all. "That's new."
"How peculiar," Cadi acknowledged. "Okay, yes, give me a moment."
"Don't sweat it. Stop by the tree's entrance when you're ready. It's a quick briefing – shouldn't take more than ten minutes." he explained.
"A'ight. Go on, Cadi. I'll wait here for you." I turned to the cinccino, the new weight of my head more bearable and refreshing, considerably more so when I hadn't the need to worry about slapping myself in the face every time I turned around.
…
The tree was crowded today. The four layers that had been built into it each had their own group activity going on, and ours happened to be at the very top. As we followed Lee, our umbreon messenger, up the narrow ramp outlining the interior wall of the hollow tree, we got all the attention – all those puzzled looks from Pokémon either interested or bothered by the idea that they shared a living space with us weirdos. Made me wonder where Kat was. In fact, it made me wonder if this was about Kat. Wasn't Lee related to her?
Well, anyway, we got up to the top, the space just as capacious as those before it, a bumpy wooden floor coated over with a big, circular fuzzy rug, hatched with dark purple and pink stripes, assorted pillows dotted around the rug. Lining the walls were frames and bulletin boards untidily hung about, papers and the like decorating each of those. Most of the writing was done by hand, and it was all illegible to me, at least from this distance. A space in the far end of the wide room had some old lockers and safes, cardboard boxes and even bits of machinery and computers. One of those computers was mounted onto a box, its monitor pointed down toward a smaller box with a keyboard atop it. Most notably, the computer was functioning, a generic desktop background of hills and blue skies showing, few icons in the mix. Seated before the keyboard on a folded up towel was a small white Pokémon, tiny legs crossed, leaning in with his paws on his chin. Doc Young, I thought, with an assembly of all the others who kept 'order' in this place.
Teach, Mr. Davidson, was standing by the room's entrance, politely greeting us with a smile and a gesture of his arm for us to pass through. One of the dragon Pokémon who'd went up to the sky lands and brought me back was here – the flygon, watching us enter. Caden was here, standing right beside Mama Anne – he always called her that. That Paige chick, the little white 'n green fairy thing, was here, tiredly leaning up against the thick end of her baseball bat with both her arms over it, resting her chin atop 'em. Even Lucia, the spunky go-getter bellossom who ran a popular café, was around, having already taken a seat on the floor, legs hidden beneath her skirt of petals.
"Hiii!" Caden chirped, unusually sprightly. His little waist-height wings started goin' crazy before he flew up and at us, stopping Cadi and I.
"Hello, li'l one!" Cadi happily greeted, rubbing the space between the kid's big bunny ears. He giggled like a toddler, touching the tips of his scarlet hands together.
"It's Caden," I announced, hands on my hips. I leaned in, facing him on his level. "And how are you doin', buckeroono?"
"I'm okay. I like your hair like that!" he exclaimed, wide-eyed and fascinated. The little sucker made my heart melt. I smiled and gave his tiny black nose a gentle tap with one finger.
"Oh, somebody knows how to win a girl's heart," I teased him. "Thanks! Hey, Cadi deserves some love, too."
"Uh-huh!" the kid obliged, quickly darting into Cadi here and giving her a hug, pushing his face into her white fluff scarf for a brief moment. She hardly had any time to hug him back, playing the part with only a single hand around his back, before he looked up at her, then bolted back. I couldn't tell if he was embarrassed, but the kid seemed to wear his decisions with pockets full of confidence.
Not a second after that, something lunged into my bosom so fast I had the need to cough. I made no mistake when that blob of peach and orange showed itself up under my short muzzle. If there wasn't already a conversation going on between some of the people up here, then this would've been harder to play off as any old hug, and, normally, I tried to avoid kids whenever and wherever I could. Given that my tail was swinging around and my arms were already moving around the little guy, squeezing him like the stuffed toy I'd never had, Caden was the big exception. I felt his face brush against my chest, reorienting it so that he was laying his cheek there instead of his nose, one of his ears lain against my cheek.
"What is it with you?" I asked, hand at the back of his head. "One minute you're a moody little fart, and the next you're the biggest cutie-patootie I've met."
"I think I have a problem." he mumbled slowly. He didn't object to the remark at all. He just totally owned it.
"The little fella's problem is that he done can't control himself around ladies. Sorry, girls!" Anne commented behind him, showing a tinge of concern in her small, youthful face, despite being well older than the brunt of us.
"Nah, no worries! It's cool." I said, taking care to pet along Caden's head and back with the hand that didn't have my phone in it.
"Yeah, me and Alli know each other. Right?" he asked for confirmation.
"Al, Alli, Sandy – they all know you." I told him.
"But... they're all one person, aren't they?" he asked.
"I think so!" I guessed. I would've liked to think they were all the same person, because, uh, I was 'them'. All of 'them'. I didn't know if Al or Alli went anywhere when Sandy was around. Maybe the Timescape?
Then again, making up different names for my forms was systematic. Cadi and I were the only ones who constructed it. Gamma didn't do it. For all I knew, Gamma saw me as Al and bent me as far as Al could be bent.
"That's good..." he cooed, rubbing his cheek into my chest some more. I couldn't shake the suspicion that the kid was holing up somewhere between desperation, acceptance, and perversion. Through all that conflict, he still managed to be cute as hell.
"Come on, now. 'Nough of that. We got things that need doin', hon!" Anne remarked, but Caden didn't let go. I gave the small Pokémon lady a shake of my head and a wide grin, but I didn't so much say anything as I gestured that things were all good.
"Caden, if you keep on hugging every 'purdy lady' you see, you'll have no affection left for your brother." Lee suggested.
"But..." Caden mewled. "My brother's not a purdy lady."
"How do you know that?" Young asked from afar.
"Yeah. Young used to be a pretty lady, and now look at 'im." Teach said, still hanging out by his wall. He grabbed a snicker out of Lee, to which Young beamed a terrible glare at.
"Stanley," Young calmly started. "You realize I have the 'type advantage' over you, yeah?"
"Do you? What am I again? Fire and fight, and you're... Oh, fair then – s'pose you're... right." he cleared his throat.
"So I am. Anyway, thanks for comin' up here, girls," Young began, taking a small hop from his box and brushing off one shoulder, covering his chest with the black flap of skin that was his wing. Flying squirrel Pokémon, huh? "As per normal, I wouldn't bother you two, but lately you've been busy, and your business has, for better or for worse, shown. Personally, I think it's been for better."
He approached the center circle, crossed his arms and wings over his chest, and took a deep breath. I'd almost forgotten the way Young spoke – it was weird; like, apathetic and dull. Young was one of those people who had some of the early telltale signs of Flux, but those signs never developed into any advanced symptoms. All that he was left with was a slight black marking under one eye, so he got away easy. Was a damn lucky thing, too, considering he knew a bit about Delta Meadow.
"None of us could ever find another use for somebody who went out and beat up Fluxes. That in itself was its own use," he continued, looking straight at me. "All up to you if you wanna go and make things safer outside the Grove. We, on the other paw or hand or... whatever, are concerned with rescue and reconnaissance. As of recent, you've been doing a lot of that, and it just so happens that the people you've been involved with are very, very important."
He stopped talking, opened his mouth to talk again, then shut it, as if without any other words to say. Something caught his tongue? Well, whatever it was, he'd already explained a fair share. I barely cared what these guys did up here. I always heard that there was a Pokémon rescue team in the Grove and it had something to do with Young, Paige, Anne, Caden – all these people who had lost somebody important to 'em. Mari-Charley was in the mix, too, but I think she had her own agenda – she was just stupidly powerful because of that Symbi. Secany and Rayse might've played a role early on since they had Nirva to worry about, but that didn't last very long.
"Well," Anne rebounded. "I sure as a sunny day ain't seen what you girls can do, but I know you're sirens just like that Xima 'n Astraea. That should be enough to get our 'purge' back on track."
"Purge?" I asked. "Who's Purge?"
"Not who, but what," Cadi explained to me. "Somebody who is a purge expels all of the Gamma they have in an instant, resulting in a conflagration of energy. Sirens are the opposite of purges – we maintain and harbor this energy, rather than releasing it in such a devastating manner."
"Good girl, you remember what I taught'cha," Young said with a quick smile. "So that's Travis, er, Flicker, one of the first purges.
I take it you know Chevron at this point. Everyone should. He was a purge. The Doctor Kaiser himself made a mess of that man and put him back together after he exploded. With all due contrivance, Chevron was the first human to transform into a Pokémon and then turn back into a human by way of purging. So, he went from one Gamma to the other, since all we have left of humans are those Scionic vampires. So far, I haven't heard of any Scion Gamma folk purging into Pokémon, but it's possible, lest they turn into sirens."
"So Chevron's got a lot of Gamma inside of him," I thought aloud. "I saw a human—er, like, a vampire guy up at those sky islands. He took Joel away. Was that Chevron?"
"Not possible," Young claimed. "Chevron's not a vampire anymore. Charley told me about the events on Aera Firma. That was Doctor Gauze."
"Is... that the guy you know? Kat said you had a history with him." I ventured.
"That's... confidential?" Young, exasperated, sighed, trying to claw away from my question. "Lemme stop mincing words. We need you to get Flicker back, and we need you to keep her away from Kat if you can. I've dropped communications with Delta Meadow, but if I know Chevron, he's going to jump at the chance to get Flicker back. That can't happen either – if it does, it... It can't happen, alright? Good."
Young paused.
"Sooo, I get that we're... kinda strong, maybe? But what's stopping you guys from going out 'n getting Flicker back? Not that I'm declining!" I inquired.
There wasn't much of an answer other than curious glances across the room. If operations were always this shaky in the rescue team, then I was glad I wasn't a part of it, but a sense of unease lofted over the room like a skunk spray. Nobody knew what to say about this, like a big fight just passed and Cadi and I had to sweep up all the horseshit of it because everybody else was blind to the mess. Really. The Grove was a crapshoot, but it was always more organized than this, so this poorly worded 'mission' had some hidden justification for being the way it was. I wanted to ask why, but I was too stupid to put it into words, so I just kept hugging Caden and waiting for a response.
"Apologies – if I may elaborate," Cadi picked up for me. "We're questioning the integrity of this assignment. We don't require a reward, but we would like to know where this request comes from. After all, I remember Delta Meadow. Discretion is an ongoing theme of Delta Meadow, no? If this operation involves the Meadow, then my friend and I would like to know everything we can, even if expressed tautologically."
Welp, 'guess I had a cure for stupidity: Arcadia.
"We took care not to tell Kat about anything, but we can still tell them, Young," Teach said. "Delta Meadow's one of the only reasons we've banded up together. If any of us have a shared reason for being here, Delta Meadow's the biggest. That's earned more than a, 'get out there and find this person' briefing."
"I know," Young shrugged. "It's not that I don't want to tell them. It's that I don't know where to start. I'm not willing to send Paige or Caden after Flicker because of that damn Symbi Susano'o. And if what I heard about Charley's son being a big cause of Flicker's defection, I don't want them getting Fluxed. I'd go myself if I wasn't so vulnerable to Flux. Alli, or whatever you wanna be called now, you dealt with Flux, and I doubt THE Symbi Arcadia cares much for it. You're the best candidates we can come up with to get my Travis back."
He was starting to shake – actually break down, with the way his speech became less stable, harder breaths parting longer words, the syllables forced together like wedges of a puzzle that just didn't work together.
"We're not keeping you in the dark," Anne said. "But there are hundreds upon hundreds of variables out there, and we dun got no clue what you'll find."
"You could find who we're looking for..." Paige finally spoke up.
"What if you find my brother?" Caden asked into my chest.
"Can't forget about Astraea and all those lost Metedia students." Teach quipped.
"Kat's already out there again. You might run into her." said Lee.
There's Cruce. Might find him, too.
All that unanswered stuff about the Crossblade. There's so much I want to know. Like, is Dad still around? If Katalyn killed him with the Crossblade, he's not 'dead' dead, right? Fuck if I know!
"You might even find my kids," Anne suggested. "All that said, this ain't too different from what y'all used to do: go out and get yourselves dirty."
"It's a little different than that, Anne," Young objected. "We're giving them direction. Even if that direction sucks, it's better than having no goal at all. Alli and Cadi, you're special girls, and you've shown us that you can get out there and come back... mostly in one piece. Whatever you find, this might be the most difficult thing you've ever had to do under this damn red sky, 'cause when Travis goes rogue, he goes rogue hard.
Pardon my French, but with the shit that Travis has been through, and that Symbi at his command, he's one of the most dangerous things walking around Autumnridge. And this is after he's purged.
He's not above hurting people. He's not innocent. He's driven grown men crazy. One of those men is Chevron.
Don't underestimate him."
That was all Young and company told us. There was no locale pointed out and no way of contacting Flicker, but they were generous enough to give us some advice. We were going in empty-handed, which was no problem for Cadi, but I was still a greenhorn siren. I knew how to dick around with electricity, but if Flicker was as big a deal as Young was prying on, I needed more bite, and Paige decided that bite came in the shape of her baseball bat. She gave it to me, claiming she had more in a locker somewhere. It wasn't the same beating stick I was used to, but yo, I wasn't the picky type. On top of this, Paige suggested that we pick up some equipment from the neighborhood. I thought that was a no-brainer at first, but Pokémon couldn't use a lot of the things humans could, so, being sirens, Cadi and I had the privilege of using stuff designed for humans. I respected the idea, but I had my backpack lying in my tent, so I could finally use that.
I gave Caden a gentle noogie, after he told me and my home girl to be safe. No promises, I thought, while my heart melted all over the wooden floor. I wanted to tell him to try and get along with Diancie a little more, but I liked Caden when he wasn't being a bag of dicks, so I stayed away from the subject. As for everyone else, well, I would've loved to give them more of a parting gesture, but I didn't know them all very well. We were all forced to team up after having watched our families and friends get torn apart, some of us figuratively, some of us literally, all of us for worse, and to me, it sounded like we were being asked to mend something of that nature between Travis and Young, Kat, Lee – didn't really understand, but it was a bigger deal than I'd ever bargained for. 'Guess I WAS expendable. Maybe? I'unno. The vibe was sketchy in the tree, but I didn't really feel like I was a tool. I felt like I was part of the most dysfunctional team 'round this town. Maybe I just missed the gang.
Walking down the tree's spiral spiral ramp, I thought about it. I missed my crew. That spec of a time where we got to go and confront the big bad guys was all I had to remember them by in this Wave era – that and the time we all turned into 'mons together.
Walking outside into the red air with an assignment weighing my shoulders down, I remembered the time I was so sick of how I looked as a shinx that I covered my face in bandages, just like that man who took Joel. What was he hiding? He was human. He shouldn't have had anything to hide, but because he was with Delta Meadow, he did.
Heading to my tent with Cadi, twirling the bat with uncertainty, like a heavy baton, I remembered two or three 'sleep cycles' ago, when I was still a lazy wisp. I only ever wanted to go out into the streets and make trouble. I had no other motivations. I had no team. I had no school, no house, no mom and dad and dog. Pres was still out in the big world of college life, so I never saw him, but all that shit mattered to me enough to give me shape and structure, and I was goin' somewhere with it.
I gave myself some time to get things together. Kneeling down in the tent, still pungent with the scent of Rayse's Gamma, I zipped open my backpack and stared at it, picturing what it would look like if it had cans of food, first aid supplies, water – apocalypse stuff. I didn't think I was going to be out for that long, and there were still bound to be goods lying around Autumnridge. If not, then the next town over was wont to have some quality things, but I think that place had been abandoned pre-Wave. Y'only ever went there for fishing anymore.
I reached behind my neck and pinched on Emelina's ribbon, making sure that it was still there in all its torn glory. While, admittedly, Pat's trinket didn't give me as much spur, I still wanted it around, so I tucked it safely into the pack's front pouch. At least no one could come in and steal it.
I took out my binder and textbooks to make room for my jacket. I folded that up and put it in. The downhill slope of cold kept getting steeper, so if push came to shove, I needed to bundle up, no matter how ugly the thing looked on me, or if it even fit me at all. Lastly, I put Paige's bat in there with it, zipped up so that the grip was left out at a tilt, picked up the pack by the handle, turned it around, and let my arms through the loops. It was a lot looser on me than I recalled, and the fabric against my fur was an itchy bother, but it was alright. I flopped back onto my rump and brought up Nick's phone from somewhere under the mountain of blankets. I didn't even know what I wanted to check. Just having that bright screen in front of me set me at ease.
I let that ease settle over me like snowfall. It was cold, but I bathed in it for a few. Then the screen finally went dark.
"'Kay. Let's go." I whispered.
The screen alighted again, but I didn't touch anything. Not a second after, two short vibrations stirred in my wrist.
A single icon with a translucent box of text next to it, the icon a generic open letter symbol indicating that a text message has been received. From Kieran.
Rote as always, I didn't think on it. I swiped the phone, unlocked it, and touched on texts. At the top of the list was Kieran's name above a simple, short message: Hello?
Naturally, I replied. I did so with, "Hey, this is Al. Are you okay?"
Kieran was one of us, but I hadn't heard from him much since that drama that fell out between him and Pat 'n Emi, let alone anything from after the Wave hit. I waited a quick minute, but I didn't get anything back. A little spooky, I thought. I rolled my neck over to the left, looking at the ceiling of my tent. Kieran was always hanging out with Bryan and Ivan. The '-an' trio. That was, until the big fallout. I didn't have anything to do with it, and I would've been fine with helping Kieran out. Drama shouldn't have mattered anymore. Y'know, I really hoped that I wasn't about to dive right into it again.
I left my tent. Kieran's message posed something for conversation on the way out of the Grove, and food for thought, but not a lotta peace of mind.
Kieran, what the hell is goin' on with you? Did Gamma shove itself down your throat, too? Just being able to text on an operating phone is a luxury among luxuries.
If you're out there, we'll pick you up. Unless it's not you. Somebody could've found your phone, or...
...that somebody used to be you.
…
…
…
Shaymin
Delta Meadow
…
"You're a purge." I told him.
"A... purge?"
"That's right," I nodded, setting down on the old black leather desk chair. I bent my hind legs in and sat down. "You purged one Gamma and went to the other. EGS to EGL. Now you're a Pokémon."
I'd defined it for him, but he didn't know what to take from it, other than words and ideas alone. It didn't benefit him knowing this. It didn't bring back his friend, nor did it help him adjust to his change, so he said nothing. In both of his small, three-fingered hands, he cupped his phone, the light of the screen illuminating his face, giving a shine to his pink irises. With the lack of a reaction, the sounds of the computer processor humming and chugging behind me grew more apparent. I wasn't perturbed. I had accommodated to the subjects here. A lot of them had nothing left to say. This was, at least, pertinent to the ones that the Quiet Room would let me talk to.
Apropos of that, I had an obligation to break the silence.
"Would you like me to get you something? Some water? Or I'm sure I could manage one of those, um, microwavable meals for you." I offered.
"N-no thanks," he declined, eyes flicking between the screen and my face. He shuffled backwards, lifting his legs onto the retractable bed and crossing them. After visibly mulling in the light of his phone, he set it and his fluff-covered wrists between his legs. He looked at me with a disparity of negative feelings accenting his brow and muzzle. "When'll I be able to go...?"
He'd asked that question once before. He asked it even before he knew where he was. I felt my tall ears droop around me.
"Kieran," I exhaled. "You can't leave."
"You won't let me?" he asked.
"I would love to help you leave," I said. "But you haven't seen the outside world since you were brought here."
He didn't reply. I stood up, then took to flight, one paw pushing the desk chair to its side, the backrest no longer blocking the view of the monitors. With space for finesse, I began tapping keys on the hardware below me – I could hardly call it a keyboard, given it was a small segment of a much larger set of electronics beneath it. With messy keystrokes, I pulled up menus, surfed through files, and initiated a programmed that allowed visual access to a handful of cameras on the facility's property. Even deep underground, where the cables and servers were hidden away and distant, the resolution of the panning feed wasn't altered, if not slightly overlaying with delicate, transparent film.
As it the camera panned, it showed not much more than an overcast of red against cracked pavement, abandoned vehicles of varying sizes, and, more than anything, an overwhelming sense of emptiness.
I turned around again, if only to ensure the young lopunny was looking at the screen up here not the one in his hands.
"This is a feed of the surface on the property," I told him. "There's not much to look at. The sky's gone red. The next day never comes. On top of that, Fluxes and runaways make the streets uninhabitable. You can think however you'd like about Delta Meadow, but it's the safest place for a Pokémon like you right now."
"What... Wh-what happens if I leave?" he asked. I gave it a moment's regard. If he wasn't convinced to stay, then I needed to show him the consequence of leaving, in spite of how ill suited it was for the faint of heart.
"I could show you a feed of that, too, but maybe it's better that I show you in person." I said, alighting a curious twinkle in his eye. I hadn't earned his trust, but I had at least piqued his interest.
…
A dozen hissing hatches opened later, through the damp green haze of atmosphere that permeated the stony corridors and catwalks of the 'Deep' Meadow, we arrived at a containment unit. The chamber was sealed behind a lot of walls and clearance, the likes of which should have shooed off somebody like Kieran. Despite that, I had to ask for his help time and time again swiping key cards through their native devices. Other times, where code input was required, I was fine to act on my own.
The chamber in question, with the sliding door shut behind us, housed an air of its own, a white shade separate to that of the previous hall's green, floodlights blasting into the center of the room from all four sides. At the center of this room was another – a giant glass cubical 'terrarium' of sorts, its walls concealed by steel sheeting for the moment. Around cube was an observation deck, foldaway chairs set up with desks, water jugs, forklifts, crates, servers, all and other devices aplenty arranged for the comfort of the researchers, accompanied by an entanglement of wires running through the examination area. For the time being, the area was clear of staff, the lot of them keeping to themselves in their dormitories.
I flew on, while Kieran stayed back. The steel shudders were bound to a mechanism with a numerical keypad. The code was simple; just a mathematical equation. I typed it in and, in a flurry of loud clanging noises, the shudders folded up all at once, rising in small segments. The first segment revealed reinforced glass and a white floor stained with reddish brown. The second segment revealed that the terrarium had a gurney and a set of cupboards.
The third segment showed the subject, a young Pokémon sitting on the bloodied floor, her arms dangling at her sides, head forward, face hidden. Her taller ear was flopped over, while the other ear was missing altogether, along with that half of the head, the transition from skull to skin sharp. The fur color was patched with black and dark brown, fluffy fleece around her waist lighter brown, torn up and mismanaged. Behind the Pokémon was an irregularity of skin and fat, like an insect's abdomen in the place of her tail, four red viscera-like appendages loosely lain around her.
"Uh-uhm?" Kieran swallowed.
"This is... a buneary, the first of your line of evolution. About your friend Jack; this was his little sister," I explained, as the last segment of shudders lifted with a finalizing clang. It goaded no reaction out of the subject inside, but she was very much alive. "Before we procured her, she had no signs of Flux. Hours later, following containment, she was already mutating. Hours after that, she wasn't responsive to anything. She only displayed malaise. It's all she has left. It's her will to live, and she won't let go of it."
"Wh-... why does she look like that?"
"Flux arouses cell growth, but it does so in an unfixed accordance. I... I've seen a lot of Fluxes. There's no clear pattern to their mutation." I said. I was remembering Fluxes from a time before Delta Meadow. The only way that could have been possible was if I was honest-to-God turning into somebody else. I'd long passed that point. That memory came from another place.
"If I go outside," Kieran began. I watched him as he approached the observation space, each step taken slower than the previous, until he stopped behind a chair. "I'll start to turn into that?"
"There's not really any telling. This is Flux, and I don't know how it spreads. It's not like EGL or EGS. The best assumption we've made is that spreads through negative emotion, and right now, you need care, even if your case is... uhm, odd."
"My case is weird?" he asked quietly, eyes locked on the Flux. "Because I was a parasite before this?"
"That's part of it. After all, wouldn't it have made more sense for your host to become the lopunny, and not you?" I asked, without the intention to step on sensitive territory.
"I'm..." Kieran breathed in. He didn't talk for a spell. When I looked back into the terrarium, the subject had raised her head. She was looking straight at Kieran, wielding one terribly large black eye and an empty socket. I shivered. "I'm stuck here?"
He didn't have a clue. My chest ached. I returned to the keypad and input the same code, the shudders starting their descent. To distract Kieran from the Flux, I flew in front of him and sighed, then smiled to the best of my capability. It shouldn't have been hard, but knowing that all of this was, to some degree, my fault, smiling at one of my mistakes was a test of strength.
"There is somewhere you could go," I said. "Stay with me. I might be able to get you out of here yet, but we both need to be smart about it.
A team was just dispatched into the town. Until they get back, I won't act out of line. As I'd shown you earlier, Delta Meadow's always watching, so I need to keep you detained at all times."
The lopunny averted his eyes from both the Flux and myself, cowering, shrinking his shoulders inward staring off at a space somewhere beneath me. He wasn't a very talkative boy, but given his situation, I had the opportunity to exercise a lost compassion. I let him digest the silence for a moment longer, and then I swerved around him, a tiny paw touching his shoulder from behind. He raised his head and turned it a little.
"You're gonna be okay," I consoled him, struggling for a softness in my voice. It was so foreign. "Stay positive. It'll keep you safe. And I'm going to keep reminding you. If it gets annoying, too bad."
I smiled again, just to humor myself. He couldn't see my face anyway.
"So, c-can I... go back now?" he asked with sluggish spite.
"If you want, yes. I'll take you." I offered.
He turned around slowly after I'd removed my paw. He avoided eye contact with me. I took the inactivity as a sign to lead him out of the room.
I imagined that little girl to be looking longingly through the covered glass even still, unknowing of where we were. All she knew was that there were people in here at one time, and one of them looked like a Pokémon that she could've been. I would've loathed myself to think that she was happy for Kieran. She wasn't happy, angry, or resentful. She wasn't even sad. Someone like her didn't have anything like sadness left, unlike another Flux that I knew.
I can't tie up this many loose ends all by myself. Nobody can.
I don't want this... I don't want to have this on my conscience. I-I...
I can't live with the guilt. It's like a fire eating me alive inside. It's so hard.
Wh-wh... Why... did I get put... here? Why did I get put so close to this... dead heart? I'm not strong enough.
Would I be any better off if Felix was a good man? Would it make any difference if a good person was becoming another good person?
Should I just stay in Delta Meadow?
…
