Vermillion City

The Next Morning

Getting his phone back was the first thing Goh did as he dug through the bad of clothes and things his parents brought for him. He needed help changing from his pajamas to his grey t-shirt and black jeans, but his dad was quick to step in much to Goh's embarrassment. Leaving the hospital had been uneventful after that. Goh let his parents and grandma fuss over him on the bus ride home while he tried to figure out the best way to use his phone one handed. His grandma made him take one of the seats and stood over him trying to style his hair and straighten his shirt collar until he playfully swatted her hands away. Thankfully he still had the neck strap from when he was a kid, but his phone swung and bumped his sling as he walked. It was nice to grab it when he checked his messages though. And Chloe had been texting him all morning asking where he was, if he was home yet how he was feeling. Goh was vibrating with excitement with each beep as he made plans to meet her.

Each time the screen lit up Goh could see a crack that spiderwebbed across the screen and he traced it with his finger before he would reply to each message. He had checked his Rotom when he first noticed and it assured him it was fine, but Goh still felt guilty for the crack. In between messages he scrolled through his internet history and open apps to try to get more ideas of what he was working on. He found his half written paper on tracking zapdos based on spikes of electricity in the region's electric infrastructure. He could almost remember his theory about predicting its migration patterns from this. There was another file, an older one, on the migration of Beautifly that he an Ash had written that he was using for comparison. Everything else was in order so he tucked the phone into his sling to keep it from bumping his arm.

The city seemed to move too fast out the window and got watched the streets fly by until his parents all too familiar building came into view. He let his parents bully him off the bus and into the elevator. Following them down the hall and into the entryway he stood just inside the door after he toed off his shoes. Was it worth it trying to get comfortable or should he try to go back to his own apartment now? Nana was starting dinner and his parents had started to retreat to their office that had been converted from his bedroom. Sinking into the couch he texted Chole to bring Cinderace and hopefully be enough of a distraction that he could head home and not listen to the argument that he should give up his pokemon dreams. His phone dinged, Chole was already at the lab waiting to hear from him so she was on her way with Cinderace's poke ball.

"Who're you texting?" Nana called from the kitchen, peeking her head around the wall.

"Chole," Goh called back as he replied to Chole's text with a string of happy emoji that he knew would annoy her.

"Oh, is she coming for dinner?"

Goh hmmed as he read the newest message. "I don't know, but I can ask. She's bringing me Cinderace."

Nana blinked and glanced to the closed office door. "And how do your parents feel about that hun?"

Goh shrugged. "Didn't ask, but I haven't seen her yet and I want to make sure she's okay. Plus I bet she's been worried sick about me anyway."

Nana frowned, but retreated to the kitchen. Goh could smell some sort of meat cooking and once again questioned if he should wait until after dinner. He pulled up the files on his phone to open the notes he had been taking on his memory when he spotted a zipped file that he hadn't noticed before. He tapped the screen to try and open it, but got an error. Tapping again he looked at the details of the file. It was from the night in Galar. It must be something from Marco Cosmos. He needed to get home to open the files on his computer. Whatever was in these files was apparently worth almost killing him. He leapt up when he heard someone ring the bell and dashed over to the buzzer to let Chloe up.

The door to the office opened and his dad came out, seeing Goh waiting by the door. "Who rang?"

"Chloe. She's bringing Cinderace."
His dad crossed his arms. "Are we still on this? I thought we talked about you giving up the pokemon thing."

Goh shook his head. "You guys talked about it. It's not happening. I've started a career and my pokemon are my friends. I'm not just going to give all that up."

"You almost died!" His died shouted.

The door to the office opened again and this time his mom came out, frown already marring her features.

"I'm not going to stop when pokemon are being hurt," Goh argued.

"What about when you're hurt?" His mom asked quietly.

"Mom…" Goh whispered. "I need to do this. If I don't no one else will and Pokemon are being hurt. People are being hurt too."

His mom shook her head and retreated back to the office, the door closing with a soft click.

His dad sighed. "Maybe it's best if you leave for a while. Since you have your greater purpose."

A knock on the door behind Goh got his attention and he opened the door long enough to scoot past Chloe and shut the door again. He leaned his forehead against the door with a sigh.

"Goh? What's going on?" She pat his head as he groaned.

"My parents want me to give up pokemon. It's all they have been able to talk about. I guess they kicked me out? I don't know but they want me to give it up and work for them."

Chloe pulled him into a hug and Goh was surprised at the tears that started to pool in his eyes.

"They kicked you out of a place you aren't even living?" She asked with a hit of humor.

Goh chuckled wetly against her shoulder. "It sounds stupid when you say it like that."

"Not stupid," Chloe defended, patting his head. "Do you need me to grab anything for you from inside?"

Goh pat first his right then left pockets with his good hand. "I have my keys and my phone. So no I'm good." He gestured to his phone tucked in his sling. "I didn't have anything else when we left the hospital."

Chole nodded, pulling a poke ball out of her pocket. "I only brought Cinderace. I didn't want to overwhelm you."

Goh took the poke ball and pressed the cool metal to his cheek, closing his eyes. "Thanks Chloe."

He released Cincerace and was immediately covered in a furry hug as Cinderace chittered and inspected him. She rubbed her cheek on his face as Goh returned the overzealous hug.

"I'm fine!" Goh laughed. "And it looks like you are too."

Cinderace purred and cuddled Goh's chest, careful of his injured arm. Off to the side Chole beamed at the reunion and the three of them headed back out the building and toward his apartment. On the walk Goh told Chole about the mystery files on his phone from Marco Cosmos.

"It must be the location of Project: Nul and that's why I was attacked," Goh was saying.

"Or…" Chloe started. "It was because you broke in and were stealing files. These might not be anything at all."

Goh frowned. "Maybe. But if they're nothing that means I almost died for nothing. And I don't know if I could take that. It makes life feel kinda pointless."

Chloe nodded and looked over the street at the people passing by, the buildings and thought about what Goh said. The rest of the walk was in silence as Chole followed Goh into his building and up the single flight of stairs. Goh fumbled trying to pull his keys out of his pocket, dropping them for Cinderace to swoop in and grab. Goh grinned his thanks and unlocked the door, gesturing Chloe inside with a teasing bow. She flicked his forehead and lightly shoved him inside with a laugh.

Cinderace flopped into her beanbag chair and wiggled happily as she watched Goh and Chloe head to the computer. Goh pulled out a cord and hooked up his phone while Chole grabbed a kitchen chair and sat next to him. Opening the files was easy with a program on his computer and there were six text documents with random number names in the zipped drive. Goh clicked on the first one and skimmed the contents.

"What does it say?" Chloe asked reading over his shoulder. "It doesn't make any sense to me."
Goh shrugged. "It's not about Nul, but it looks like some sort of experiment? See here?" Goh pointed to the screen. "This mentions some sort of exposure and these charts show the amount and duration of these exposures, but it doesn't mention what the subject is or what it's being exposed to."

"It's probably a pokemon though isn't it." Chole was quiet, thoughtful and also most likely right. Not everyone cared about pokemon or respected them.

Goh skipped to the bottom and froze, breathing out a quiet fuck.

"What? What is it?" Chloe leaned closer to read what Goh had read. "Subject ready for Team Rocket field testing. Macro Cosmos is working with Team Rocket?"

"It's worse than that," Goh sighed, leaning back in his chair and gazing up at the ceiling. "Ash is working for Team Rocket."