Five: Completing the Circuit
Chloe had managed to sneak into her bedroom through the open window right when her mother poked her head around the door to check on her. One awkward conversation and several apologies later, she was let off the hook with a slap on the wrist and a warning to not be so reckless next time. "If there is a next time," she stressed.
She slept well that night, despite everything. Come morning, she was ready to face the day head on. Atop her list? Making up with Goh. Her determination powered her walk up the familiar path to her father's lab. Yamper trotted along faithfully beside her, panting in an even rhythm. Along the way, hundreds of little thoughts scratched away at her head – things like "What if this goes badly?" and "What if he really doesn't like me anymore?" - but they were all swatted away by the bigger thought simply called "today's plan".
It went like this: she would arrive at the lab like normal, drag his lazy butt out of bed, exchange apologies, and then ask if he wanted to grab a bite to eat, or something. Ash could come too, if he was still around. If Goh turned her down for whatever reason – and being honest, she could think of a few reasons right then – she would try again another time. And then again after that, if need be. If Goh no longer wanted to be her friend, then... well, she didn't know what she'd do. She hadn't thought that far ahead. All being well, things wouldn't get to that stage.
There was one slight issue with her plan. She still had no idea what Ash was scheming.
All he said was that he'd do something, but if he was distracted, like if a tournament was taking place in some far off land she hadn't even heard of, he'd be gone in no time. He'd probably take Goh with him, too, which would be a problem, to say the least.
I can never tell what he's going to do, she thought as the lab came into the view. When she approached the entrance, unease wormed its way into her gut. She passed them off as nerves ahead of "today's plan", but then felt the muscles of her neck and back squirm under the gaze of something. Whatever it was, it was close by, waiting for her.
A starting pistol went off in her head. She leapt to the side, just as a streak of blue and red whizzed past and skid to a halt in front of Yamper. Blue jacket, shorts, red hat, and a set of teeth brighter than the sun – Ash Ketchum was unmistakable in all his stupid glory.
"Yamper!" he cried, pointing dramatically. He pulled an expression somewhere between an astonished Grimer and a panting Gastly. Apparently, he had been taking lessons from his Gengar. "Follow me!"
He took off into the trees, Yamper barking at his heels. Chloe barely had time to react before they were gone. Should I go after them, or...? Ash was mad, but she could probably trust him with Yamper. He'd be back with it later, probably in tatters, but that would be entirely his own fault.
She pressed on and entered the lab. She found Goh waiting in the kitchen, munching on a slice of toast while Mimey swept the floor. When he saw her, he smiled uneasily around a mouthful and swallowed. "H-hey, Chloe," he choked out. "How's it going?"
Chloe sighed. "I'm not mad."
"Great!" he squeaked, high enough to startle Mimey and earn himself a disapproving glare. "I mean, cool. I'm glad. I asked some weird questions yesterday since I was worried if we were still friends but realised I sounded like a jerk and-"
"Goh," she cut in, holding back a laugh, "it's fine. Really."
"Ah, um... yeah."
His gaze dropped the table, maybe hoping he could smash his burning face into it.
"What I wanted to say was, I thought about it last night and realised I was being stupid too, so..." She bowed her head ever so slightly, mostly so she could avoid looking him in the eyes. "I'm sorry."
Goh blinked a few times and then began snickering. Chloe puffed out her cheeks and glared at him. "What? What's so funny?"
"N-nothing," Goh struggled to get out between snickers. He put a hand over his mouth to stop the laughter, but his shoulders continued shaking. Positive thoughts, Chloe reminded herself. You're trying to be a good friend today. Finally, Goh composed himself. "Sorry, I didn't mean to laugh, but for some reason you bowing your head to me was super funny."
"Oh yeah? Don't get used to it, you jerk."
Goh smiled off her threat. Truthfully, her heart wasn't really in that one.
"Anyway, you wanna go for a walk with me? I figure now we're friends again, we should go and so something together."
The last time they went for a "walk", they wound up lost in some woods. Despite Goh's many assurances he knew where he was going, he ended up on his haunches in tears by the end of it. Granted, that had been five years ago. "Where to?"
"Secret," he said. "You just leave it all to me."
He rose from the table, grabbed her hand and lead her out the lab before she had time to talk herself out of going. He took down the street, past the house with windows covered in shocking yellow and black in homage to the Electabuzz baseball team, past the pair of elderly ladies who always walked together at noon every day, and then through a zigzagging shortcut that spit them out onto a patch of dusty land once owned by an elderly man who dreamed of developing property on it (and whose whereabouts were unknown to Chloe after the project was abandoned). Where a new building could have stood was a set of swings, a slide, and a roundabout; the sight of many scuffed knee-caps and sand-filled socks.
She recognised the journey as easily as she could recite the alphabet. She had trodden it for many years, until the indeterminable moment playing on the swings or going down the slide became too childish and she just stopped. Looking at them now, she got the strongest urge to sit herself in the rubber saddle again and let her shoes drag against the sand bed. There was something about parks that seemed to de-age people.
Goh released her hand and seated himself on one of the saddles. He beckoned her to join him. When she did, she forgot how much she had grown since the last time and fell onto the seat. She had to grasp the chains just so she wouldn't fall butt-first onto the sand. Goh laughed at her again – a sound that travelled through time, straight from five years ago. She found it weirdly nostalgic, if not infuriating.
"Welcome back to our base. It's just like we left it."
She ran a hand over the rusted chains diligently supporting her weight. "I don't remember it being so run down."
"It's way cooler like that." Goh kicked against the sand to rock his swing back and forth. The chains whined. "A secret place nobody ever goes to, except for two brave Pokemon hunters, planning their next capture..."
"We never actually caught anything, though."
"That's because the Pokemon we wanted were super rare."
"Were they? All I remember were Pidgey and Rattata."
"Exactly. The rare Pokemon were too rare, so we were left with the common stuff."
If he stepped off the swing at that moment, he would sink into the deep hole he had dug for himself. Goh was always like this. He couldn't help embellishing his stories, even the ones that were actually true. After they went to Professor Oak's lab for a camp and saw Mew, Goh spent so much time talking about all the other legendary Pokemon they had supposedly seen the other kids at school stopped believing him and started making fun of him instead.
"I'll prove you all wrong!" he used to say before disappearing for the remainder of the day. Later on, he would turn up again with a hair full of twigs, a face caked in dirt and ripped clothes. If he ever found another rare Pokemon, it always seemed to have its way with him. She realised with a smile that not much had changed since then. Even after Ash's arrival, and the mountain of good fortune that seemed to follow him, he hadn't changed that much.
"It's funny. Everyone thought I knew about Pokemon because of dad, but you never did. You acted like the know-it-all instead." Her smile turned evil. "Do you remember? You used to say things like, 'since you know nothing about Pokemon, I'll teach you!' and then lecture me about all those Pidgey and Rattata we saw."
"I never did that."
"You totally did! I even got a good grade in class thanks to you. Did I ever thank you for that?"
"I'm gonna say... probably not, knowing you? If you did, it was definitely something backhanded."
Truth be told, she didn't actually remember either, but it did sound like something she'd do.
"I like that about you. The know it-all-thing, I mean," she said. "How do I put it...? It's like, once something interests you, you have to know everything about it, and you end up concentrating on it so much you can't think about anything else. It's actually amazing."
"Uh huh, whatever you say," Goh dismissed her with a smile.
They swung back and forth in a comfortable silence. A boat's horn came in on the breeze and spooked a flock of Pidgey out of the nearby trees. Goh watched them flap away thoughtfully and then hopped off his swing. "Let's go catch Pokemon together, like we used to!" he said, turning to her.
If he had asked her that a few weeks ago, she would have turned him down and told him to go do his homework. Goh's capture attempts tended to involve a lot of effort, roaring, and crying, but precious few results.
But now? He had a greenhouse bulging with new Pokemon he had captured on his adventures. And not just small fry, either. Whatever he was doing, it was clearly working.
"Fine," she decided. "I'll go with you this time. Whereabouts?"
"You'll see," he said, eyes twinkling.
She sighed. What was with boys and keeping secrets from her?
Goh took Chloe to a wooded area nestled on the fringes of Vermilion's northern exit. Nearby was the road leading to Saffron City; the same one her dad had gone down when he took her and Goh to Professor Oak's camp. They had driven him mad with their boundless excitement and maddening tendency to bounce around in their seats, but he eventually had the last laugh when the pair of them fell asleep not even halfway through the journey. Neither of them realised just how far Pallet Town was. Standing there now, looking out at the endless green expense and tarmac stretching into the distance, she realised even Saffron was far away.
Goh hummed a happy tune to himself as he trod through knee-high grass without a care for grass stains, nettles, or anything else hiding within. She follow behind him with more trepidation, wincing every time a blade of grass swiped her jeans. By the time they came back, they'd probably be dyed green and brown.
Just as she was fretting about getting the stains out later, her foot caught a thick root coiling across the ground. She stumbled forward and flailed her arms for balance. "What were we looking for again?" she asked through a sigh.
"Anything that'll fill in the pages of my Pokedex. Look!"
He shoved his Rotom Phone in her face. Rows upon rows of Pokemon icons, numbered from one upwards, flooded the screen. Several of the icons lit up in full colour – the Pokemon Goh had caught, she assumed – but there were a fair few that were greyed out.
"Any one in particular?"
"Whatever we come across first," was his helpful answer. He slid a finger over the phone's screen. "I really hope it's a Meowth, though. I've been looking for one ever since I saw Team Rocket's. I wanna teach it how to talk."
"Teach it to what now?"
"Ash says there's an Alolan version of Meowth, and I'm certain I heard the professor say there was a Galarian version, too. Having all three variants would be so cool."
Goh babbled on about the merits of having three Meowth formes in his collection. She struggled to see the appeal, but his face was leaking so much joy she decided to roll with it. As long as he's having a good time...
As he went on, the object of his desire burst from the foliage, claws swiping at a fleeing Spearow. The Spearow hovered out of reach and made a show of its untouchable status, before descending enough to peck the Meowth on the head. It flew away with a triumphant squawk.
Chloe pointed at the Meowth. "Goh, look!" He continued rambling, so she reached forward and tugged his shirt sleeve. "Goh!"
He stopped mid-ramble. "What?"
She pointed behind him. He turned around, his feet snapping twigs. The Meowth stared back at him with wide eyes. "Ah!" he burst out, before snapping his jaw shut. Too late. The Meowth fled, running deeper into the forest. "Get back here!"
He chased after it. Chloe held a hand out, "Wait!" on the tip of her tongue, but it died as he vanished into the trees. She took a deep breath, resigning herself to an afternoon of sore calves and frizzy hair after all the running around she was about to do thanks to Goh's impatience. The next moment, he returned, back-peddling, a sheepish grin on his face.
"Sorry for taking off without you. You ready to go?"
"As ready as I'm gonna be."
She trailed behind him as they hurried through the narrow gaps between trees, stepped over devious roots and ducked beneath sagging branches. She could see the tension in his back, and his shoulders rocking back and forth, propelling him forward. His head was bowed ever so slightly so he could keep track of the Meowth's movements. A tree branch brushed against his hair, inches away from striking his forehead.
He's not even looking where he's going, she thought, just as an even thicker tee trunk came into view. It stuck out a bulging limb as thick as Goh's head. He paid it no mind, head still bowed, eyes still on the retreating back of the Meowth.
"Watch out!"
She hoped the panic in her voice would reach him.
He glanced back at her over his shoulder, then looked forward again, just in time to see the tree branch swing towards his head. He screeched to a halt, arms wind-milling, until his weight shifted forward and his forehead came within inches of kissing the rough bark. He slapped it in indignation. "When did this thing get here?"
She pulled up beside him, panting for breath. "Probably from before we were born."
"Where's Meowth?" He ducked down and peeked under the branch. "It's getting away!"
They lowered themselves under the branch. As soon as they were on the other side, Goh took off again. Chloe followed along, face scrunching up as the lactic acid took hold in her legs and turned every step into a bigger effort than it needed to be. Goh, she realised, was having no such troubles. His form was stable, and each of his steps were light. Whatever he had been doing with Ash, he was clearly no longer the boy who used to sit out of PE classes. I'm kinda jealous...
But while she was admiring his new physical prowess, she noticed he still wasn't looking where he was going. Her gaze dropped to the ground for an instant, just long enough to spot the sharp decline in the ground hiding in the grass. The one he was rocketing towards at record speeds, and would assuredly do a number on his ankles.
She reached out and grabbed a fistful of his shirt. She yanked until he came to a hard stop. "Watch where you're going!" Goh stared at her, eyes bulging with impatience. She pointed out the decline to him. "I know you're excited, but don't get reckless, okay? I can't carry you home if you get hurt."
He let out an awkward laugh, unsure if she was joking or not. She cocked a brow, letting him know if he did go down with a twisted ankle because of his own stupidity, she would leave him there.
"I'll be careful," he conceded.
Satisfied her message had gotten through to him, they pressed on. They caught a glimpse of the Meowth escaping out of the wood and followed into a clearing basking in the noon sunshine. The Meowth faced them and hissed. Stay away.
Goh wasn't intimidated. "I've got you now! Pokeball, go!"
He threw his Pokeball like a baseball pitcher. It was a good throw, too – flat, quick, and right on course to peg the Meowth on its lucky charm. Somebody had clearly been practising. But just as it seemed sure of striking, the Meowth swatted it out the sky with a disdainful flash of its paw.
Goh clicked his tongue and tried again. No luck. He tried once more – still, no luck. He readied a fourth ball, sweat gathering on his brow. Chloe couldn't bare to watch any longer.
"Isn't this the part where you battle it? It's obviously not going to let you capture it without a fight."
He grumbled something about disliking battling and reluctantly reached for Raboot's Pokeball. Raboot appeared in a shower of light and sized up its opponent with a disinterest even the most moodiest of teenagers would be proud of.
"I really, really need to get this one, Raboot! Double Kick!"
Raboot responded with a dismissive flick of its head, but nonetheless followed Goh's orders. It sprung off the ground with its deceptively powerful legs and descended with both feet prime to strike.
The Meowth didn't wait for it come down. Instead, it hopped to the side and, just as Raboot struck the ground, swiped with its claws. Raboot swayed backwards, but not quick enough to avoid a claw scraping its mid-drift.
"Ember!"
Glaring, Raboot spat a handful of pebble-sized fireballs, but the Meowth was too quick, and once again moved aside. It returned with another swipe of its claws. Raboot turned its body to one side, allowing the Meowth to swipe at the air. It was exposed, vulnerable to any attack Raboot could throw at it... but the order never came. Goh was too busy muttering to himself with his hands on his head. "It's too fast. We can't hit it. What should I do? What would Ash do?"
"Wake up, Goh! It's going to attack again!" Chloe snapped at him.
The Meowth's eyes gleamed. It opened its mouth wide and chomped down on Raboot's arm.
Goh looked at Chloe. "What do I do now?"
"Why are you asking me? I've only had one battle my whole life!" He bit his lower lip, eyes shimmering. "Fine, just... stop looking at me like that."
She said that, but she wasn't exactly full of bright ideas.
The Meowth was savvy. As a wild Pokemon, it clearly had its fair share of fights. Goh might not be the first trainer to attempt to catch it. It was fast and nimble, perfect qualities for evading attacks and Pokeballs, so how could they get it to stay still long enough for Raboot to land a hit? How could they stop it from dodging? Laying out the problem in her head failed to invite solutions. Her knowledge of battles was simply too low, and she had no real experience she could call on.
She found herself thinking of Ash's battle with Surge the night before. It had mostly been screaming, bright lights and loud noises she couldn't make any sense of. Even after sleeping on it, she still didn't understand everything. But there was one moment that stood out to her: the grinning Lt. Surge, waiting to prey upon Pikachu as he fell from the sky. Why had he been so excited at that moment?
Because Pikachu can't fly. Duh. And since he couldn't fly, he couldn't control himself while falling through the air. He could only fall down.
"Goh! Tell Raboot to jump!"
He stared back at her with a frustrating mix of panic and confusion, but did as she suggested.
Raboot stopped trying to wrench its arm free from Meowth's maw and hopped up and down on the spot. When it still couldn't shake the Meowth off, it surveyed its surrounding for anything that could help.
It saw a tree with a sturdy trunk, just a few metres away. It struggled over, gritting its teeth as it pulled the Meowth along with it, fangs still piercing its skin. With a guttural roar, it put one foot up on the trunk and kicked off into the air with enough force to splinter the bark. The Meowth came up with it.
They weren't very high up, yet it was enough for the Meowth to unclench its jaw and release Raboot's arm.
"Now, Raboot!"
Raboot spat out more fiery pebbles. They pelted the Meowth all over its fur, splotching it a deep brown.
Seeing his chance, Goh threw his Pokeball again. This time, it met its mark.
The three of them didn't dare breath as the ball shook back and forth. Then, after what felt like the longest ten seconds in their entire lives, the ball stopped moving. Meowth had been caught.
Goh picked the ball up, lips quivering in a failed effort to contain a gleeful smile. Chloe herself couldn't resist a smile as something akin to pride welled up inside her – like the pair of them had taken on a particularly challenging problem and overcame it together. The feeling was addicting. If Goh felt this way after every capture, it was little wonder he was always so eager to go out looking for new Pokemon to catch.
"Wow, you guys! That was awesome!"
The voice exploded from the trees behind them. She shrieked. Loud, ear-piercing, undignified, but entirely justified. Goh screamed, too, though she wasn't sure if it was the same reason as her, or because of her.
She whipped around, fire in her eyes, voice as sharp as any blade. "Ash, never do that again."
Ash returned with his trademark blank look; the one he used when he was processing something, but that something got stuck somewhere between his ear and brain and was being diverted to the other ear and back out into the air again. Infuriating at the best of times, but even more so when viewed upside down.
"Why are you hanging upside down from a tree, Ash?" Goh asked, already sounding like he wasn't going to like the answer.
Yes, for some reason, Ash was hanging upside down, legs wrapped around a tree branch. Pikachu stood atop the branch, wearing Ash's hat.
"I wanted to surprise you!"
That's it. He's done for.
Fortunately for Ash, whatever grisly end was in store him was postponed by happy barking. Yamper emerged from the shrubbery and tackled Chloe's ankles. "What are you doing here?"
"I took him for a walk," Ash explained. He unwrapped his legs and fell to the ground head first. Just before he snapped his own neck, he flipped and landed on his feet. "I think we're friends now. Right, Yamper?"
Yamper growled in response. Chloe blinked, trying to work out what she should be more concerned about: Ash's surprising display of athleticism, of his newfound "friendship" with Yamper. Looking closer, Ash's hair was frizzier than normal, as if he'd been electrocuted once or twice or maybe a dozen times. It prickled her to the point of wanting to attack it with a hair brush, like she had done to her own so many times before.
"So, did it all work out in the end?" Ash asked.
Goh nodded. "Yeah, we're cool now."
She looked at each of them in turn. "You guys planned all this?"
Goh laughed. "As if Ash could come up with something like this! I asked him to distract Yamper. The rest was all me."
"No way! I was the one who told you about this place!"
"But it was my idea to catch a Pokemon together. Speaking of: check this out!"
Chloe put a hand to her forehead. Suddenly, all the noise was giving her a major headache. "Enough. I get it. You're both as dumb as one another."
Ash pouted. "Hey, I thought really hard about this place. Look."
He ran to the edge of the clearing. Goh and Chloe joined him. She gasped at the sprawling field and rolling hills unfurling underneath them. There were bright yellow patches of healthy crops and a road winding through them that seemed to go on for forever. On the horizon, she could make out the vague outlines of Saffron City's skyscrapers. Down there, beyond the walls of Vermilion, were surely endless amount of Pokemon. She could walk for just a single mile and see all types of species.
Even if she wasn't into the Pokemon themselves, the journey would be lovely. A blue sky with just enough cloud cover to block the harshest of the sun's rays, no cars blaring their horns while being stuck in traffic, no ships roaring as they pulled into harbour, and no classmates around to bug her about being the daughter of a professor. It was just a stone's throw away.
"Cool, huh? You only get to see this kinda stuff while you're travelling," said Ash. He had been all over the place, but still spoke with a nostalgic longing.
"That's why," Goh said, nudging her arm, "you should come with us next time!"
"I'll think about it."
She was sure school would get in the way, and her parents would probably have a few choice words for her, and the thought of being out in the wild with a pair of dimwits mildly terrified her, but even still... the idea appealed to her.
Ash could go and battle whoever he came across, Goh could try and catch whatever Pokemon he could find, and she could experience as much as she could until she was to decide what she really wanted to do. They'd have problems along the way, and she had no doubts whatsoever Ash and Goh would be cause of most them, but that would be okay. She could think of worse people to explore the world with.