45 minutes remaining

Time marched onwards, and the pokenoid's continued marching towards the goal and the heat from the summer day had begun to simmer to a humid coolness. A gentle breeze pushed at the Chesnaught as he strode confidently towards the park, though James was a tad more tense about the situation, "come on you weren't turned into a slowpoke, move those legs. Come on hop to it." The Eevee was pacing in front of George and Gabriel, who has been slugging behind while lost in his own thoughts.

"Hey, you aren't even participating, why are you so anxious?" George asked as he strolled past James, "we'll make it, so what's the rush?"

The Eevee huffed and scurried down the path "well, the anticipation is killing me you know! I wanna know who made it. So come on, let's go" the Eevee padded his feet against the ground like a child throwing a mini-tantrum, he grumpily pouted and waited for George and Gabriel to finally reach him, "seriously I'd be better off picking you up and carrying you there."

"So rude …" George huffed, he looked over his shoulder to check on Gabriel, the boy had been glued to his phone since they had run into the strange Sceptile, "hey Gabriel, you alright? Are you still trying to get in touch with someone?"

Gabriel looked from his phone for a second and nodded, his eyes darted back to the phone screen as he began speaking, "my mom. She's taking part in an induction program at her new position at work; I'm waiting for her to respond."

"About that package, right?" George hit the hammer on the head, Gabriel nodded with concern across his face, "Gabriel …" he seemed to lose the confidence in his voice as he trailed off 'I have to tell him about what those packages do. I have to. But everyone close to me whose opened them has …'

"What were you saying" Gabriel snapped the Chesnaught out of his own thoughts, "please is it something important?" Gabriel tucked the phone away and stared at George, forcing the pokenoid to look him in the eyes. George blinked, looking over at James who nodded; the Chesnaught took a deep breath and looked back over at Gabriel and began to explain what he knew to him.

…

"So … that's everything?" Gabriel asked anxiously, George nodded calmly, and the boy began pacing back and forth. The past 15 minutes felt like an hour as George told Gabriel everything about the packages and what they did to the people who came into contact with them, he nodded quickly in a rhythm as he tried to process the information. "I need to go home, I'm really sorry about this but-"

"Go" the Chesnaught smiled and encouraged Gabriel to leave.

"A-are you sure? It will only take a few minutes, and then I-"

"Take as long as you need, please it's better to make sure your brother is okay."

Gabriel began pacing down the road but stopped and turned back around, "can you give me your phone number? I-I know we only met today but would that-"

George smiled and pulled out his own phone "let me know when everything is alright at home, then you can come meet me at the park, I'll introduce you to everyone." The pair exchanged phone numbers and Gabriel ran down the road, George and James watched him until he was out of sight, 'even if we only met today, I can't ignore what I saw earlier. That Sceptile was carrying one of those packages, I don't understand if he had some part in this but if somebody, I just met is being targeted by whoever makes these boxes then I going to keep them safe.' George nodded to himself then turned around to face James, "alright, let's move." The Eevee nodded and began walking down the road again; it was just a little further, just a little longer and they would be there; the path continued on past a stone wall which was overshadowed by hanging branches and dotted with discarded leaves which decorated it and added a splash of green to the grey concrete wall.

"Can we pick up the pace please? Come on dude put one foot in front of the other a little faster please." James called out from in front, the Chesnaught huffed and put his hands on his hips stopping in defiance, "why are you stopping? You're gonna lose."

"You've got a real attitude problem all of a sudden, what's up?" George stared down at the Eevee, who had stopped a little way down the road. But he didn't linger for long and started walking again, "hey don't just walk away from me." He hurried over to James and scooped him up off the ground.

"Wh- hey, let go of me" James struggled in George's grip, trying to swipe at his arm and trying to shake himself free. George continued walking while the Eevee struggled to break free of his grasp, although he held him lightly as to not hurt him, he eventually caught James eye, he had transitioned from angrily struggling to break free in defiance to instead pleading silently with puppy eyes. George stared stoically at the Eevee for a moment while they walked, but George's heart wavered, and he sighed letting the Eevee down and back onto the ground.

"Are you at least going to talk to me?" George asked as James padded away.

James paused and dropped his head in a sigh, "he doesn't understand me, do I really need to be nice to him?"

"You … is that it?" George asked as cogs began to turn in his mind, and a thought sprang to mind, "you don't like him because he can't understand you?"

"… yeah" James admitted quietly.

"Then was that the same for me?" The chesnaught asked, James froze mid stride but didn't turn to look at his friend, "did you not care for me back when I couldn't understand you?"

"That's different, don't compare yourself to some guy I just met." James turned around and looked up at George, he looked regretful, "I mean … it's not the same. I mean, I've known you my whole life, literally." George backed off, it was a different situation, he had literally known James his whole life, for the past 6 years he's cared for James ever since he had hatched from that egg.

….

It was a cool afternoon in March, might have been closer to April, but George was certain that it was the day, the egg has been shaking more and more with each passing hour, it has to be today. He laid the egg's container on the bed and waited "I wonder what it is?" George wondered excitedly as the egg shook one last time before falling silent. A crack broke the perfect clean surface of the egg, it was just a small crack at first, but it quickly grew and spread across. A fragment of the shell fell loose, and light escaped the shell "woah- right now? Uhh, here we go." The light continued to break through more and more of the collapsing eggshell, until it finally sent a flash through the entire room, George shielded his eyes and held them shut until the light began to dull and he could open his eyes. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust back to the normal lighting, the first thing he focused on was the contents of the egg that had just hatched before him, and Eevee.

"I …" George raised a hand awkwardly, uncertain of how to respond as the Eevee stared at him and waved it slowly, the Eevee followed the hand with curious intent, "hi …" he couldn't help but smile as the Eevee raised a paw and leaned forward to touch his hand. But the Eevee fell forward and the Eevee's head hit the soft bed in front of it, George couldn't help but laugh a little as he watched the Eevee stumble around and try to gain its bearings on the strange new world "hey, no need to rush." The Eevee looked up at the trainer again, it's big eyes full of wonder, curiosity, excitement and innocence, a literal new-born. "Everything is brand new, but I'll help you figure it out." George extended his hand out towards the Eevee, which stared at the hand curiously, it leaned forward and sniffed it cautiously "hah, I'm not on the menu little guy, but if your hungry I'm sure I can- ow!"

George pulled his hand away gentle and held it, "well, guess I was wrong. Pokèmon really are born with their baby teeth." He shook it for a moment as he glanced between it and the Eevee, who had sunk back into itself slightly, "no hey, hey. It's okay, it didn't really hurt. See, I'm fine" he smiled reassuringly and showed off his hand, it was lucky that the bite didn't break through the skin on his hand, otherwise it might have been a different story. George put his cheery smile back on and extended his hand out again, "it's alright. We'll take it all one step at a time." The Eevee leaned forward once again, sniffing at the hand curiously, George inhaled sharply as he braced himself for another bite, but he felt fuzzy soft fur enter his hand instead. He let out a quite breathless laugh as the Eevee put its head in his hand, he smiled with pride as he laid his other hand on the Eevee's head and rubbed it delicately "I'll take care of you."

…

"I want an answer, please. Did you care?" George asked him again, kneeling down in front of him to ask him in a soft tone. James looked up at George, the pokenoid's face had this mixed feeling of sadness and confusion, he couldn't look at it head on. "James, please."

"I … I never thought about it … I mean" James stumbled over his words, his eyes darted around the floor in front of him as he tried to pull himself out of the memory, "of course I … I don't … I don't know." He shook his head as he tried to break through the cloud of doubt that he had cast himself into. "I … I … I want to go." George straightened his back, he wasn't quite sure what he had just heard but the atmosphere around James felt dark, conflicted. "Put me back … in my pokèball."

A half-gasp escaped the pokenoid, James hated it in there, he always complained when he was let out or at least tried to. He hadn't been in his pokèball for several weeks now, "James, you don't have to go away, I'm sure it's just a-"

"Please, just do it." James asked with more force, finally lifting his head, the glassy veil in his eyes won George over, and he gave into his demands. He took out the pokèball and held it out towards the Eevee, a flash of crimson later and he was gone. Leaving the Chesnaught all alone in the street. He paused to reflect as he stared at the pokèball in his hand, his image reflected in the surface; he placed the ball in his pocket and turned around to continue down the road, placing his hand against the wall and dragging it along as he continued down the road, the park had multiple entrances and the closet one was at least a 5-minute walk which would be followed by a 10-minute walk to the actual meeting point. This was going to be a close shave.

James hated being inside his pokèball so to hear him willingly ask for it must have meant something was wrong. George felt odd not having him around, since he first became a pokenoid James was always around to talk to; it was odd to have the quite back after James had filled it for so long. His Eevee, a confident boisterous soul that has just swept his way into his life once the communication gap had been crossed. Though, George supposed that James was always like this. "… I wonder if I can actually shave?" George wondered as he scratched his beard, it was rough against his fingers, sure he had shaved before he transformed but he had never bothered to try doing it since he had change. Well, it hasn't grown all that much, so he hasn't felt the need to cut it "well I don't suppose they shave in the wild …" he tried to focus on this train of thought while he walked down the path, pulling his hand off the wall and brushing it against his shorts as he turned to the left and stared down the entryway to the park.

He crossed the threshold with confidence and focused on the dirt path ahead of him, the pebbles and mud beneath his feet felt soft in comparison to earlier experiences, and the way the breeze pushed around him reminded him of his different frame how much … well, wider he was now. The shell on his back did him no favours, he put a hand on it and closed his eyes, he reflected on that day again, that first day when his whole life changed. 'It's been like an avalanche, first it was me, but then more and more of the people around me changed too … did I cause this? Was their change my fault?' George rubbed his neck as he continued walking, through the confidence in his stride wavered and he felt his feet begin to drag against the ground. 'I mean … it's all coincidence, right? Just one big coincidence that the people in my life have all …' he shook his head and sighed. He felt something brush against his head, instinctively running his hand across his scalp to check but he found nothing. He glanced around the area looking for what might have brushed his head, but it was just him, the clear dusty road behind and in front of him and the trees and greenery to his sides "hah, maybe I'm finally losing my mind." He couldn't help but laugh at himself a little, perhaps he had simply imagined something brushing against his head, he shook it off and continued down the road, putting his hand into his pocket to check his phone.

There was a message from Amelia which asked him to accept an invite which she sent, he didn't hesitate and accept the invite, his phone opened another chat room, and he was assaulted with numerous messages at once, the assailant was Rob. "Hey! Hiya! Glad you could make it. Jeez you took forever to join AND your taking forever to get here."

George smiled as he typed out his response, "you're".

"Oh real mature, seriously just hurry up, your the last person we're waiting for. So come on, hurry up!" Rob replied again.

"You're" Patrick responded and sent a cool glasses emoji, Rob responded with a series of angry emojis, "but for real dude, get down here you've got like 10 minutes tops."

Amelia joined in on the conversation by sending a group photo and sure enough everyone was there, Nathan, Rob and Patrick were dressed in plasters and bandages for all the scrapes and cuts they had taken throughout the day, the Hawlucha had some wrapped around his waist while the Frogadier and Charizard had them in numerous places across their bodies. The girls looked in tip-top condition, like they didn't even break a sweat, and then there was Tom who was sitting in the back, he looked exhausted but still smiled for the camera. George smiled back, though he felt a bit silly for it before returning to scanning the photo, where he spied his brother and Tepig near the back, they looked like they were having fun. His smile widened as he saved the picture to his phone 'even if I got them into this mess, at least they're happy.'

"Hey, are you all meeting up without me?" A new messenger entered the chat, a Flygon icon gave him away immediately.

"Jack, you said you couldn't come, that's on you" Chloe responded.

"Well, where are you guys? I got some free time all of a sudden." Jack sent a begging emote, "please guys, I'm so bored right now."

"What happened to family time?" George asked, Jack's message bubble appeared for a while then disappeared, then reappeared. Then disappeared again, "did you ditch your family? You ditched them didn't you."

"Dude, no!" Jack finally responded, "the family are just having one of those 'adult discussions' so they kicked me out for the next two hours."

"They told you to not come back for 2 hours?" Chloe asked

"Well, they said come back later, so I'm just gonna give them a few hours."

"Wow, so mature" Patrick responded.

"Hey, shut up! I know your making fun of me over there, I can sense it." Jack sent a narrowed eye emoji to show that he knew, Patrick just sent a smiley face.

George put his phone away and shook his head happily while continuing down the path, it seemed fairly clear that he would get there without any issues, at least at the moment. He continued down the path, with more familiar scenery coming into view, passing a Poliwag pond and just watching the wild pokèmon as they thrived. The Park was always a favourite place of his, he normally invited friends here because the park was not only massive, so they had a lot of space to themselves, but it was also just a nice quite spot to be outside. He made his way around a turn and his friends were in sight, just a little further down the path and he would be there, but something stopped him. A force pulled at him, asking for his attention as he tried to walk forward, he sighed and decided to listen to this force "guess that means he's ready." He pulled the pokèball from his pocket once again and cast it into the air, a bright flare erupted from the pokèball and collided with the ground, it swirled and took the form of his friend, partner in crime, James. "Hey …" George began calmly, catching the pokèball as he watched James shake himself off.

"I have an answer" he began right off the bat, taking a deep breath and looking up at George, "I know what I said sounded careless, and I apologise for that" he frowned for a second as he apologised, but blinked and reformed his resolve "but if you're asking about how I felt towards you back then I want to tell you that I did care. I cared a lot." George felt his shoulders loosen as he heard the words, he wanted to smile but James had more to say so he held off, "before we could talk like this, I would talk to other pokèmon when I got the chance and they always talked about how their trainers were always pushing them to test their limits. But you didn't do that. You were different, treated me with an overwhelming amount of kindness." James paused, scratching behind his ear before shaking and continuing, "like during that one fight with a real jerk of a trainer, you know the one with the Ivysaur?"

George realised it was his turn to respond, he thought about the specific trainer he was being asked to recall, "uhh, that one dude … yeah I remember them."

…

"Hey that's enough" George cried out worriedly, his Eevee had finally fallen to its knees and its head was lowered in clear defeat, yet the opponents Ivysaur didn't seem to understand, only backing off because George had cried out, "I'm out of pokèmon, the battles over." It still didn't seem to understand that it could stop fighting though.

The other trainer laughed; he eyed the Eevee with a snide look in his eyes "what, you think that's it?" He chuckled and locked eyes with George, "no, no, that won't do. That wasn't anywhere worth enough EXP to get my Ivysaur to level up, right girl?" The Ivysaur huffed and lowered its body to the floor, bringing out it's vine tendrils again, "yeah we're not done here, so why don't you just use a potion on your little buddy over there and we can continue."

"No! He's in no condition to fight" George protested "the battle is over, please lets just return our pokèmon and …" George looked down at his Eevee and felt a pit open in his stomach. His Eevee was looking back at him fearfully, but it wasn't looking directly at him with terror in its eyes but rather at the pokèball that he had clutched in his palm. "I'm sorry, I know you don't like it. But you have to …" the Eevee just continued to stare in terror at the pokèball, completely ignoring his trainer as the boy pleaded with the pokèmon to return.

"Heh, a pokèmon that won't listen to it's trainer, that's not a first. But I know what will whip them into shape." The trainer gave a signal to the Ivysaur, which began advancing slowly towards the unsuspecting Eevee, "I'm sure we can get just a little bit more EXP out of the little guy, now hold still." The trainer smiled as his Ivysaur leaned to the right and then threw itself to the right, the tendrils flinging out towards Georges Eevee and landing square in its side. It let out a pained gasp and fell to it's sighed "what couldn't even take one more hit? Come on, get back up." The Ivysaur grinned and began talking to the Eevee, George had no idea what it was saying at the time, but he could only imagine it was taunting his Eevee. The pokèmon groaned as it pushed itself back to its knees somehow finding the strength to stand once more, though it's legs clearly wobbled under its own weight. "See? If it can stand it can still fight."

"What are you doing? You don't have to fight anymore" George knelt down and spoke to his Eevee, the pokèmon looked back at him wearily "please, you can stop now. You did a good job but you're at your limit." He once again raised the pokèball to the Eevee, the fear in its eyes seemed to have diminished somewhat and George held it forwards, "okay, we're done he-" George reeled as he felt a sharp pain run through his hand, and the pokèball was sent flying across the ground, a vine retreated through the air and the Ivysaur let out a battle cry, it wasn't done. "H-hey, I said we're done here."

"When did we decide that?" The trainer asked with a stoic face, seemed like all formality had gone out the window, "I'm going to make this worth my time, even if it's only one point of EXP more, I'll at least give my Ivysaur a bit of a workout. Now let 'em have it." George tried to protest against the continuation of the battle, but the Ivysaur moved faster than he could speak, sending another tendril at the Eevees legs and sweeping them out from underneath them. With a thud he hit the floor again, before weakly pushing his legs out to stand up again, but his efforts were met with sharp rings of pain which rippled across his back as he was hit again and again by the vines of the Ivysaur, just the sounds that were made with each strike caused George to flinch and reel in pain even though he wasn't being hit. The Eevee didn't even let out cries of pain, he just tried to keep breathing as the pain seemed to numb and he felt his eyelids drop shut, he was exhausted.

Another cracking sound rung out, but he felt no pain but instead he felt something wet drip against his head. Cautiously opening one eye, the Eevee came face to face with his trainer, hovering over him with one arm on the ground and the other holding something in the air, "I said it's over …" George mumbled as he took in a deep breath. Another tear hit the Eevee's forehead before George threw his head up and yelled "this fight is over; I won't let you hurt him anymore."

The other trainer scoffed angrily, "fine, you were a waste of time anyways. Ivysaur, back off. We're done here." Finally, the vine that George had been holding was retracted, and the opponent retreated, walking over to her trainer, "if I ever see you again, I won't be so merciful." With that final backhanded remark, the trainer pulled out a pokèball and called the Ivysaur back, then strode off out of sight.

Neither of them moved for a moment after the other trainer had left, George surveyed the area nervously "looks like he's gone … gah" he sat up and immediately began rubbing the hand he had used to block that last attack, "if I knew it hurt that much … I would have done that a lot sooner." George rested for a moment on his knees, simply watching the Eevee as it breathed slowly, calmly at long last. "… I'm sorry" his voice cracked as his shoulders trembled, "I should have done something sooner … I-I shouldn't have let that go so far …" he gently rubbed a hand against his face as he looked over at the Eevee, which had laid it's head down to rest, "I … I'm sorry … I-I'm sorry …" he muttered the phrase repeatedly while the two of them sat there and rested together. Quietly, in that cool May afternoon.

….

"3 years ago, I can't believe that was really 3 years ago" George sighed as he recalled what happened, "I'm sort of glad we took that break afterward. I think we both needed it, you definitely needed it."

James rose to his feet and began walking towards George, "you did a lot for me, even outside of just that though. You understood when I was afraid of something, showed me overwhelming amounts of kindness, even got hurt for me." He finally stopped once he was directly in front of George and looked up "even if you couldn't understand what I was saying, you understood how I felt. That was more than enough for me." George turned his head upwards and took in a long deep breath, he clenched his hands and stood as still as he could, though his shoulders still trembled slightly, "wait, are you …"

"No, no I'm not" the Chesnaught blubbered, "I-I have some dust in my eye. Shut up." James cracked a smile as George composed himself, whipping the 'dust' from his eyes before kneeling down to pick James up and resting him on his shoulder, "don't want to strain your neck having to look up at me all the time."

"Yeah, now I can see how red your eyes are from all the crying you're gonna do." James smiled, and George couldn't help but smile back as they shared in the joke, "now come on, times a wasting. Let's get you to that second round."

"Yeah … and James."

"Hmm?"

"Thanks …"

With that final exchange they proceeded onward, down the path and to the final destination, their goal.