Pokémon Amber & Opal
Chapter xi: Onion-headed individualAzalea Town, spring of 2021
It took Luck a day and a half to heal a twisted ankle.
After managing to get out in one piece from the damp, slippery, cult-leader-hosting Slowpoke Well, Luck and the gang limped and laughed all their way back to the Pokémon Centre in dire need of a shower, a cold drink and a place to rest, old bandages probably to be replaced with new ones, plus some added on top.
Having then handed their Pokémon away to pink-haired nurses for a couple of hours to partake in the wondrous, free healthcare system, the four kids sat at the cafeteria, excitedly chatting and sipping from well-deserved, celebratory lemonade cans.
If Luck — or any lost readers — needed any reminder of what happened in the last adventure, Lorelei was there to tell the story again and again, providing a healthy slice of her mocking commentary and cackling laughter on the side, hands waving in the air as a testament of her elation.
"Geez, Misfortune", referring to her blond counterpart, she feigned care, "what does it feel like? To be, like, flying?", she asked, smirking, resting her chin on her hand, and her elbow, on the table in front of her, "just, to be completely bested like that by a fairytale totem pole?".
"Xatu aren't "fairytail" totem poles, Lorelei, they're actually mythology, there's a difference", he pointed out matter-of-factly, glancing briefly towards Lilly, half-afraid she would turn and correct him (he was, after all, what's colloquially known as "speaking out of his ass").
"They are very powerful Pokémon that… that have… you know, very strong powers, that's why they're mythology", he rolled his eyes, attempting to sound confidently knowledgeable as he readjusted a bandaid that was plastered across the bridge of his nose.
"… I was shitting my pants though, not gonna lie", he accepted with an unnerved grin, making the table giggle as he let his head fall, defeated, still chuckling in disbelief at the fact that everything that happened a couple hours ago had actually happened. "It felt as if I was, like, underwater, or something, but in the air".
"Not codding ya', it was brutal", Fiadh chimed in with pep, small, red scratches blending in with the starry sky that were her pale cheeks, "boyo over there was hanging around like a puppet for actual minutes, and I almost had to fist fight those three-headed dossers on my own until you guys showed up. Absolute murder, really makes me reconsider this whole thing about only having an Electric-type, y'know?", she chuckled, pained, leaning back on her chair as she held the cold can she was drinking from against a developing bruise on her temple, hoping to appease the soreness.
"I had never seen Pokémon act like that before… well, I don't think I've ever even heard of it", Lilly listened intently to every part of the story, occasionally taking notes into one of the few battered notebooks she kept in her bag. Twirled a black coil around her finger, lips pursed and deep-in-thought, making an effort to emote sympathy and worry when her eyes gave away how much more interested she was in the details of the story than on Luck and Fiadh's wellbeing, "it… it's almost as if… the Xatu was commanding the rest of the Slowpoke, like a leader, of sorts".
"Oh, that fecker had a cult, alright", the red-headed girl pointed at her, serious, "swear by my oul dear: that thing was building an army out of those fat buggers, I think he might've been wanting to take over the damn world!".
"Hmm, Pokémon commanding other Pokémon in trainer-like fashion is a phenomenon that's rarely seen in nature…", Lilly nodded, pushing her round glasses up her nose, "in fact, there's only three recognized species who've been observed displaying this kind of behaviour in the wild, and one of them can be left out if you consider that it involves an actual legendary Pokémon: Garlikid, who's known specifically for its particular, human-like sense of justice, and leadership, which influences over nearby Pokémom. I… hah, I just can't believe we got to witness this…". Her voice trailed off, her outwardly voiced thoughts getting quieter and quieter until they turned into intelligible mutters as she became suddenly engrossed in scribbling notes.
"... Eh, I dunno", Fiadh shrugged after a brief moment of silence, taking a long chug from her drink and burping, "shit was crazy, though".
The vivid exchange, an excited back and forth of chattering and going over the events of the past couple hours, was finally interrupted by the voice of the local nurse (who looked eerily similar to the one at Cherrygrove City, as well as to that of Violet City), who called over from the front desk to announce the ready retrieval of their healed Pokémon.
The girls promptly stood up, but when Luck tried to follow suit, he was met with the unpleasant surprise of trying to stand up when your bones have been turned into a malleable putty.
He fell, flat on the ground, his legs failing under his weight and catching the rest of the group's attention with a short, pained "oof".
"... Unreal", Lorelei crouched beside him, placing her hands on her knees and cocking an eyebrow, "can you not fall for, like, a second?".
Luck wanted to snark back, a remark already on his tongue as he tried to pick himself up, believing the fall to be an inattentive misstep until a sharp pain kicked the air out of his lungs.
A flash of soreness like a lightning-strike, which stiffened his right leg and made him wince, cementing his jaws together.
He frowned, slightly bewildered, and looked down, rolling up his jeans to be met with a gruelling sight: the ankle of the afflicted leg was swollen, and the enlarged skin around the twisted ligaments was the colour of a freshly-picked chesto berry…
It was Seven and Donut's turn for waiting, this time, and when they finally got to see Luck again the boy was laying down on a bed of sterile, white sheets, quiet in a room at the healing quarters of the Pokémon Centre, his right foot chunkier with bandages.
His long hair was still damp, darker and less frizzy after a much-needed shower, and his bag and Seven and Donut's PokéBalls had been neatly placed in the corner of the small lodging of light, wooden walls.
"Hey, guys", he greeted with a little smile, and his voice was a whimper of his usual energetic tone, "I, uh… I twisted my ankle".
Seven hopped on the bed, crawling through the covers and blankets and nuzzling next to the boy's ear, attempting to make him feel better with optimistic encouragement.
The Pokémon mewled, patting his head before digging with his snout to hide in between him and the bed, pressing his body as close as he could to the warmth of his trainer.
Luck giggled, but the sound turned into an airy wheeze as Donut jumped on him too, stretching her body across his stomach as if she were a long Furret, with a placid groan, her tail wagging softly when she turned her face to see him, opening her mouth to pant, thus causing her snout to curl like a slobbery smile.
The door of the room opened once more, and the boy buried in fur turned his head ever-so-slightly to see who it was, unable to face them completely and offering them a small, crushed smile.
Lilly and Lorelei stepped in, chuckling at the sight.
The first girl walked over and stood beside the bed, grinning at the boy with slight nervousness as he struggled to get into a more comfortable sitting position. She placed her hand on his shoulder, "hey, Luck", she managed, "... I see you, heh, you took quite the tumble".
She rubbed her neck, glancing at his bandaged foot, "are you okay? It looks like it hurts a lot".
"Not really. Not anymore, at least", he uttered, looking down at his foot too, sighing, "the nurse said it wasn't that bad, just a little sprain…".
"Hey, who would've thought: your actions have consequences".
Lorelei leaned against the door frame, crossing her arms and raising her eyebrows, watching them from the other end of the quaint, cleanly adorned room with a mocking grin tinted with the faintest trace of empathy. Luck dismissed her, placing a pillow behind his back to support himself, "well, I don't think this wasn't really my doing…", he pointed out, "not like I picked a fight with that Xatu, it just… saw me once and immediately decided it didn't like me, I guess".
"Oh, right", the blond girl nodded, faking an exaggerated expression of realisation as she placed one of her hands on her forehead, "yeah, I think I missed the part where someone came and forced you to climb inside a stinky well in the first place — also, can you really blame the Pokémon? ".
"We hope you get better soon, Luck", Lilly cut her off, placing a Poké Mart bag of goodies in shiny packages on his bedside table, "try to take it easy from now on, yeah? You're lucky it wasn't anything serious; you could've really… torn a ligament, or something, and that's a tough injury to come back from. You could've risked your entire journey!".
"Yeah, I guess", the boy winced away from her scorn, suddenly reminded of the fact that he should call his mom. "Its weird that I didn't even notice at the time. I guess I was still spooked out of my mind", he chuckled pitifully, resting his hand on the warm body of a black canine; Donut was still, as if asleep, but her brown orbs followed the figures of the two girls in the room carefully, occasionally revealing a sliver of her sclerae like a white, crescent moon in a comically human look of worry.
"Good thing you "didn't notice"", Lorelei pointed out, sarcastically, marking quotations in the air with her fingers, "you were already basically using us as crutches. I don't know what we would've had to do if you had noticed: probably have to carry you all the way back here on our shoulders, might've had to used Donut here as a stretcher", she joked, her caustic sense of humour not willing to give his friend a break even as he laid on a hospital bed.
The boy, after rolling his eyes, noticed that both of the girls were casually dressed-up, possibly not planning to spend the night at the Pokémon Centre. He frowned, "are you guys going out now?".
"Ah, yes", Lilly began before Lorelei could get any commentary in, "we didn't tell you because, uh… well…", she made a nod to his foot, followed by an apologetic giggle, "and, besides, you already turned us down once, you lost your opportunity to travel along", she played, but still rubbed the hem of her purple, woven sweater awkwardly.
"It's okay," Luck chuckled, setting her easily-worrying mind at ease, "I do have to wait for Maple, anyways. It just caught me by surprise, because…like, what time is it?".
"It's late, far too late", Lorelei answered, shooting an annoyed look at the other girl, who shielded away by glancing around the room gingerly.
"The initial plan, our plan, was to rest", she continued, grumbling and making Lilly smile sheepishly, "you know, like any sane person would when it's past midnight and they just came back from fighting a literal cult that tried to murder them…".
"But, we need to go out now because we're going to look around Ilex forest", Lilly added, clearing her throat and twirling a dark, pink-spotted finger around a black coil, a flyaway from the two buns she had fastened her hair in, "just a bit, until we get to Goldenrod City."
"Yeah, can you believe this one?", Lorelei pointed at her with accusation, exasperated, "she's dragging me in there because she wants to catch a stupid critter that only pops out at night!".
"An Oddish", she explained, unvarnished, "a Vileplume could be a great addition to my team, and their unevolved forms are very easy to come by in Ilex forest… just… at night".
"So, we're going Bug-catching at midnight, after fighting a Pokémon with a god complex and its two minions. She didn't even give me time to catch my breath! Lilly, have ever heard of power naps? Taking a break? Resting? Hell, you're supposed to be the smart one here!",
"... Um, Oddish is a Grass-type, Grass Poison…".
"I'm gonna be there, standing like a complete idiot watching her hurl Pokéballs in the dark when I could be, oh, I don't know, sleeping? Letting my developing brain develop? How did I manage to befriend two assholes who just don't seem to give a fuck about getting a rightful eight hours of rest…".
The pair bickered all their way out of the Pokémon Centre.
Luck laughed, hearing them arguing in the hallway, getting comfortable in his awkward position as the voices of his childhood friends become meeker and meeker, getting lost somewhere amongst night critters and squabbles, their path moonlit and noses, guided by their sense of adventure and a girls who's particularly good at reading maps.
He chuckled earnestly, dedicating a half-thought to how far they had come, and how much of the road was still left for them to cross…
The boy winced as he managed to lay down once more, wriggling under Donut's weight and placing a hand on her head, giving her a tired pat. He sighed heavily, listening to Seven's small snoring next to his ear and Donut's loud, dreamy howls as she succumbed to exhaustion.
He closed his eyes and attempted to fall asleep, stuck between the two warm Fire-types and with one foot bandaged and propped up, uncomfortable and stiff as a board.
But, and as his mother would gladly confirm, Luck had never had any problems falling asleep, and could possibly do so in any position, regardless of how awkward or odd…
The next morning, Luck woke up to the sound of a door opening.
He frowned, finding that his hand was covered in acrid drool, charged with the stench of heavy soot, and that sweat was beginning to build up on his forehead and lower back, drowsily blinking away the blurriness of his sight as he questioned, in the few seconds of dazed morning confusion, where he was and how on Earth did he get there.
The Pokémon Centre breakfast — room service provided only for those with injuries severe enough to not be able to walk over to the cafeteria — consisted of a piece of round bread, freshly baked and still steaming, cut in two pieces, each half smeared with Moo Moo butter, a compote of mixed berries and sweet apples, and a sweating glass of pearly coconut milk, carried in a tin tray by a cheerful Chansey, announcing her entry with a sing-songy voice as she opened the door and ended Seven, Donut and Luck's snoring.
The Pokémon nurse placed the lovingly put-together meal on his bedside table, straightening the covers of the bed before going on her way, singing goodbye and shutting the room behind her.
Luck, with his now-dry hair a blond lookin like a hay-coloured Tangela stuck to his head, sat up on his bed with a laborious motion, his mouth watering at the scent of warm yeast and melting butter, only then realising the hunger that made his insides gargle.
"Donut, no", he pointed his finger at the waking Houndour on his lap, who had started to sniffle at the air, wafting the scent of sweet bread into her sharp nose, "I will fight you over this one if I have to, I swear", he warned, trying to shield the image from her eyes as she moved her face around, managing to peer at the tantalising plate from around his hand.
But the trainer and Pokémon wouldn't have to battle it out for a piece of bread just yet.
Seven looked over to the door as he noticed the incoming entrance of yet another Chansey, this one, holding a woven basket with square-shaped treats in an array of different colours.
Him and Donut, now disinterested in Luck and his measly plate, dropped from the bed, inspecting the new delivery that had been dropped off with curious looks and cautious licks as the second nurse announced a goodbye.
The Cyndaquil grabbed one of the goodies in his hands: a brightly green cube, springy yet solid like hard gummy, carefully sniffing it with his long snout and biting its corner off. Delighted, he squealed before shoving the rest inside his mouth, taking to the less than favourable eating habits of his trainer, who mirrored him by shoving a large mouth full of bread into his gullet.
Donut followed more cautiously, crunching a yellow cube between her molars and chewing on it, allowing silence to settle in the room as breakfast was set in motion.
It wasn't much later than a new figure came barging into his room.
Luck was startled, but he let a slightly embarrassed smile slip as he realised it was only Maple, relaxing his shoulders and offering a lax smile, genuinely happy to see her.
But his smile faltered, his eyes widening as he noticed Maple looked real pissed…
The woman's face was not unlike her usual stoic expression, but the boy was growing steadily better at recognising the slight changes in mood it occasionally let through; and, as she approached his bed, eyes darting from his stupefied face to his bandaged-up foot, propped up and useless, the boy knew he had it coming.
"Kid, I swear to…", she started, standing beside him, words failing to come off her lips.
She closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose and turning away, as if keeping herself from turning around and spraining Luck's other ankle was taking all of her mental strength.
"Two days?", she turned around, her voice an angered, faint ghost, still trying to process what the nurse at the desk had told her about the particularly upbeat, blond patient, "two days?", she repeated, as if repeating the words could somehow fix their situation.
She pointed a finger at him, "I told you I had to get to Goldenrod City as fast as possible, that was our deal, but it seems you're dead-set on making this as hard as you possibly can for everyone involved…".
Her eyes fell on his surprised face, noticing he hadn't said a word to defend himself (and Luck speaking was an abnormality). Then, she noticed PokéGear he had rested on the table where the remnants of a devoured breakfast laid, supported against a glass of Moomoo milk, and her pupils shrunk as she heard a cheerful voice coming from the device: "...oh, is that your friend, Maple? Hello, Martina! How are you doing?".
The woman staggered, and Luck sent a doubtful look her way before tilting the PokéGear towards her.
She stood there, awkwardly, and pushed her glasses up her nose, "... hello, Miss Lewis".
"Oh, I've told you, it's just Pina", the miniature silhouette of Luck's mother came into view, the screen serving as a window into her living room, as Luck and her seemed to have been in the middle of a video call before Maple's interruption.
The face of the equally-as fair woman was kind. Her congenial, matronly smile, coupled with the woollen sweater with a pattern of pink and green flowers she wore, painted a warm domestic picture.
She had a brooch holding her ashen blond hair out of her face, and her device was propped up against an object they couldn't see behind the camera, which recorded her in real time as she was in the middle of dusting a rather large flower with wide, magenta petals, scooping golden pollen into a plastic dust pan.
Upon further inspection, Maple realised she was on top of an enormous Venusaur that spilled beyond the borders of the PokéGear, and which placidly purred at the touch of the woman's soft brush as she stood on its rough, blueish-green skin: a ticklish behemoth.
At the sight of Maple's arrival, Pina Lewis put her utensils down and patted the large Pokémon who, in turn, hoisted her up with two thick, green vines, dropping her back on the ground.
She approached her PokéGear, her rosy face sprinkled with tiny yellow spots, and grinned, making Maple clear her throat.
"… I… I am sorry about your son", the square woman could only mutter, darting her eyes towards the boy as if it were his fault that she was standing there right then, speaking to his mother yet again. Luck shrugged, equally as startled by the situation.
"Ah, it's completely fine, really: it was silly of me to think he'd take any advice from his old mother", she smiled, jokingly exasperated, "I told him to try and be a bit more careful and he… well, what did he do, again?".
"Jumped down a well".
"Jumped down a well, yes", Pina sighed, a sound that turned into an airy laugh, "he's got that lust for life from his father, an undying sense of adventure… too bad he didn't get his mother's brains", she teased, making Luck block his face with his hand, abashed, audibly goraning, "a bit of his ma's common sense would've gone a long way, huh, Luck? Would've spared you quite a bit of scars".
"Mom, come on…".
"I'm just kidding", she grinned, running a hand through a flyaway strand of hair and combing it behind her ear, "worry not about him, Maple, I'm fully aware of how stubborn he can be. As long as he doesn't get himself or that little Cyndaquil killed, consider myself satisfied".
Pina searched for something off-screen, leaving the two of them in silence for a short while until she returned, now, with a notepad and a pen in her hands.
She clicked the pen's top, which was a rubber Bulbasaur head, and looked up, expectantly, "I think it'll be very helpful if you could give me your number, Martina", she offered, catching Maple by surprise.
"… My number?".
"Yes, just in case there's ever an emergency like this", Pina simply stated, "Luck's very easily-distracted, and he could've easily lost his PokéGear in that well, and, then, there would've been just no way for me to contact him!".
"The screens at the Pokémon Centres work fine…", Luck began, quickly catching sight of his mother's signature look of when he had to bite his tongue, falling quiet once more.
Maple's jaw tensed, and when she couldn't think of anything better to say, she dug into the pocket of her coat for her own PokéGear…
"I mean, it's not like you knocked, or anything", Luck guessed he should say, having ended the call with his mother and watching Maple stare at the wall with a blank, unnerving expression.
"… If you had told me you were gonna come in I would've…".
"Just…", she raised her finger in the air, her perfect posture and regained poise giving her the air of an attorney at court, taking in a deep breath through her nose and letting it out through her thin lips.
"That ankle of yours better heal quickly, kid", she stated, raising her nose up in the air.
"Aw, thanks!".
"That was a warning".
She took in a deep, quick breath, ironing her taupe sport coat with a downwards motion of her hand and exhaling through her nose.
She noticed that something lumped her pocket, suddenly remembering a favour she had reluctantly accepted to fulfil for a particularly loud, ginger girl who spoke in a fast, blabbering brogue as she struggled to keep hold of the lead she had strapped to a yappy Yamper's harness, stumbling out of the Pokémon Centre and leaving as fast as she had appeared.
"This is for you", she refused to elaborate further, dropping the package on the bed and exiting the room to find something to keep her mind from the face of all of her annoyances.
Donut and Seven watched her leave from beside their now-empty Pokéblock basket, startled in unison as she loudly shut the door behind her.
Luck blinked, exchanging a disconcerted look with his Pokémon.
Shrugging, he made haste to assess whatever she had left on the bed for him: it was a small envelope, its paper surface adorned with a multicoloured mosaic pattern, and it had his name scribbled hastily on the backside with a sharp, angular penmanship.
He tore it open, watching a paper sheet drop down to his lap, which appeared to accompany the message written on the mail.
He quickly realised who it was from, which prompted him to shift to an exaggerated Galarian accent, smiling through his words:
"Luck! Sorry I didn't stop by to say bye, lad, but we did bags of our time and had to leave pretty early today: those Johtonian cities aren't gonna visit themselves!
Thanks for saving Honey's arse like three times, I meant it when I said I wouldn't forget it! We came here looking for adventure, and we sort of hit the jackpot square when we found you; I don't think many can say they've seen a Pokémon cult, but that's probably for the better, honestly. You really are a magnet for weird shite to happen…
Hope we get to meet again sooner or later, chap, you and your Pokémon are proper deadly!
Good luck on your gym battles and all that; try to challenge the league as soon as you can, so we can stop by and cheer for ya, Honey and I would be chuffed to see you and your Pokémon kick some Arse.
Cheers, your pal, Fiadh.
By the way: check out the story I'm currently working on, something tells me I'm about to hit it big time!".
The boy chuckled, lowering the envelope and reaching for the sheet of paper that had fallen on him, unfolding it to read its contents: at the top, in big, boldened letters, capitalised and underlined, "Xatu Mastermind: the cult hidden in Slowpoke Well".
"... Oh, would you look at that! Seven, come here! You too, Donut; you guys gotta listen to this…", Luck smiled, straightening his posture over a pile of pillows and attempting to read this new piece of mail out loud without giggling excitedly.
The two Fire-types made their way to the bed, Donut sitting next to her trainer with her head resting on the edge of the bed ,and Seven hopping up to his lap.
""Our travelling around the unpredictable, mountainous lands of Johto brought Honey and I to the buzzling Azalea Town… and, it would be a quite the shock to find that this small settlement hid something sinister at the depths of its locally-adored well…"", he patted the bed, pointing at one line of the printed passage specifically, ""it took finding a trainer equally as adventurous as us — and with quite the penchant of getting in trouble —: a blond chancer named Luck and his two Fire-type Pókemon, to get us to climb down the tourist attraction and stumble upon that which may change our perspective of Pokémon forever…".
Once Luck could stand on two feet without limping lamely, Maple made a reappearance.
The boy individually thanked each one of the four Chanseys that had tended to him as he healed his injury, holding their stubby hands in his and attempting to interpret their squeals as language, exchanging goodbyes and high-pitched pleasantries.
The woman was waiting for him at the door, leaning against a wall of the Pokémon Centre and huffing tobacco smoke up into the midday sky.
He raised his eyes to her, looking like a much refreshed, cleaner version of the boy she had seen two days ago: his long, blond hair was soft once more, loose under a backwards baseball cap that bore the emblem of the Johto Sneasels — his favourite hockey team. On top of his head was a lax Cyndaquil laying on his beige belly, and who lifted his snout and cheerfully squealed at the sight of the familiar woman.
Luck grinned, unfazed by the monotonous greeting that was Maple's unmovable face, "come on, let's get going!", he clapped, marching forward into the sparkling Spring noon, spirits up high, "we've got no time to waste! Oh, Maple, dude, did I tell you already what we found in the Slowpoke Well? I don't think I did, heh, you're not gonna believe it…!".
With a silent, yet heavy sigh, Maple followed behind him.
Azalea Town unfurled around the odd couple.
Its quaint roads of grass-speckled cobblestone hosted a plethora of different characters from all around the region, getting a head-start on their day's activities as the pale sky gifted them a clear morning, swirling through the town and scheming for the gruelling task that was getting to battle a gym leader. And sprinkled between legs and Pokémon were countless pink Slowpokes, which now reminded Luck of quite an unbelievable experience.
As they walked through town, the boy barely taking a moment between sentences to breathe and the woman trying to figure out how to make it out of the town without going insane, the landscape around them steadily started to darken to a more forest-like shade of green, people and buildings spacing out until trees and bushes heavily outnumbered them.
For the first time almost since they left the Pokémon Centre, Luck fell silent, stopping on his tracks as they suddenly found themselves before a gate, the sign next to it announcing the end of Azalea Town, the beginning of Ilex Forest and the distance between them and Goldenrod City.
He loaded the map application in his PokéGear to remind himself where they were supposed to be going, noting how they, indeed, had to get through the forest in order to reach their desired destination.
"I can't believe they still haven't built a highway to Goldenrod City", Maple sighed, fixing her walnut topcoat to fall straight over her shoulders.
She closed her eyes for a moment, then signalling for Luck to move forwards, which made a wide smile creep onto his face. "I've never been to Ilex Forest before", the boy muttered, bouncing with the energy of an excited, over-charged electron, his eyes lighting up at the possibility of a buzzing ecosystem chock-full of Pokémon readily available for capture.
He had heard about Ilex Forest before, mostly from childhood stories and nature documentaries, but he had never managed to convince his mom to carry out an excursion to see it for himself (or, well, he never quite managed to meet his mother's requirements to go, rather, and he never did see a single above-average score on a graded school paper).
"I wonder if we're gonna catch a new teammate today, Seven…", Luck whispered excitedly, talking to the round Pokémon that alternated between jumping on his head and dropping to his shoulder, raising his hand to scratch his furry, cream-coloured chin, hoping his taller companion would hear him and know of his Pokémon-catching intentions.
He turned to Maple, who was seemingly putting special effort into pretending she couldn't hear him.
She caught his sight, unable to escape his instintent seeking for approval: her eyes were hard, and her tone was not without her usual harshness, "we're not wasting any more time, you hear me?".
And he followed her fast silhouette into the emerald guts of the forest, letting the warning go in one ear and out the other as he breathed the new, damper air around them, which was charged with the scent of pine needles and tree bark..
Ilex forest was a rich, thick ball of green yarn composed by twisting paths lined with lush, fat trees that opened up towards the sky, creating canopies like spider webs over Luck, Seven and Maple's heads. The grass beneath their feet, unlike the well-kept carpet of Azalea Town, grew in sharp blades of uneven sizes, squashed under the soles of the boy's sneakers before recuperating their shape: it was like walking on a waterbed of fertile, fresh soil, leaves and branches too damp to crunch when stepped over.
A natural spectacle of Mother Nature's finest works… if you saw it through Luck' eyes.
Maple, instead, couldn't wait to see Goldenrod City gates opening up their arms to receive her, a much coveted destination that would put an end to all of the unbearable shenanigans that the blond boy had been causing: it was a finish line, and the only thing between her and her much-deserved cash price were a few musty kilometres she had to wade through between foliage and Bug-type Pokémon.
"Nice change of scenery after all of those caves, right, Seven?", Luck was still talking, and he grazed the branches of the trees he could reach with his fingers as he walked by them, "about time we have something going for us…".
He followed Maple diligently through the main path of the forest, admiring the lush scenery that never seemed to change around them, an eternal background of leaves and emerald shadows. It was then that his ears caught a distant rummaging of branches and grass, and, from the corner of his eye, he saw something move near them, fast and sneaky, disappearing the very moment he focused his gaze on it.
He stopped, facing a deviation from the path they were on that opened up like a secret, narrow passage, another road carved out as a more audacious alternative to traverse the forest, enveloped in green light and the enticing scent of petrichor and adventure.
He narrowed his eyes: it was as brief and flashing as a blink, a passing millisecond, but he could've sworn he saw a small silhouette hovering closeby, and the distinct feeling of being watched managed to find its way back into his head. An omnipresent feeling from a source he couldn't begin to decipher, like a charge of static energy from the clouds themselves…
Luck felt a hand grabbing the handle of the backpack he had strapped to his back, pulling on it and, by consequence, on him, as if the leash of a runaway puppy.
"Hey!", he complained, stumbling as he was carried away from the tentative misdirection by Maple's firm grasp, Seven falling to his shoulder and clinging to his shirt to keep himself from falling. He was released only after they found themselves far from the forest passage and back on the main, wide track.
The boy frowned at her, readjusting his bag on his shoulders as they resumed their pace, a scorned child frustrated at the fact that he "hadn't done anything" to deserve the punishment.
"I'm not letting you off my sight this time, kid, so, don't try anything funny", she warned him, "the last time I left you on your own you managed to land yourself in the hospital".
"Come on, that wasn't even my fault!", the blond combatted, "I was literally attacked by a crazy cult leader Pokémon, what was I even supposed to do?".
"That's the thing", she pressed her palms together, lowering them and towards him in order to get the seriousness of her point through, "that isn't a normal thing that happens to normal people. Every time I leave you alone you come up with something… just, something outrageous to get involved with, and I am not in the mood to be wasting any more of my time".
The blond pouted, rolling his eyes but eventually deciding to comply. He fixed his cap, left with not much option other than walking alongside her, arms crossed over his chest.
And then, something popped into his head, staying true to his habit of not letting moments of silence live for very long, looking to entertain himself by any means necessary.
"... Hey, Maple", he called, receiving no answer, "why did that Pokéball guy call you Professor, back there?".
Maple remained silent, her face refusing to confirm that she had even heard the question.
But Luck noticed a few, slithering veins protruding from her neck as she clenched her jaw, scrambling in silence for a quick answer to hurl back to the nosy teenager, for she knew that he would only insist further and further until she said something to appease his curiosity.
"I mean, not like I don't think you wouldn't make a good teacher…", Luck tried, except that was exactly what he thought, "it's just… I just don't think you have the vibe, you know? Of, like, having patience to teach".
"Mhm, you would know", she quipped back, unable to stop herself, "I assume you made some professors very happy when you left school".
The boy snorted, amused by the rare sight that was Maple uttering anything that resembled a joke, even if it was at his own expense.
He waited for an instance in the murmurs of the lively forest, kicking a rock away from their path, expectantly counting the seconds where neither of them said a word.
"… So, are you just gonna avoid the question?".
Maple shot him daggers from behind her thin, rectangle glasses, suddenly wishing for the appearance of another Pokémon with a lust for assaulting blond teenagers.
She averted her eyes to the surrounding foliage, an apathetic, wilted plant in the shadows of majestic oaks and pines, reminding herself that it wouldn't be long before they reached Goldenrod City, and then, she would not only be ten thousand Poké richer, but able to relish the sound of complete silence without the bangs and clambering of pots that was Luck's nagging little voice.
She sighed, a short, exasperated sound, rolling her shoulders backwards in her upright, proud posture as if he was an uncomfortable soreness she could stretch away.
But there was no avoiding the keen, sky-blue eyes. "I…", she cleared her throat, "used to be a Pokémon Professor, yes".
Luck blinked, stupefied, and then cackled loudly.
"No way!", he laughed, eyes wide open, skipping around the taller woman, the Cyndaquil on his shoulder equally as interested in her words, "no way! You? A professor? How?!".
"Well, I used to be one", she snarled, annoyed, trying her best to keep her composure, "I'm not anymore, and I haven't been for several years".
"Why?", he continued with the interrogation, completely engrossed in this new piece of information, "I mean, I can begin to imagine why, but, why why?".
"Other things came up".
"Man, can you stop being mysterious for a second?", Luck groaned, throwing his head back and making, "how are we supposed to bond if you keep being so vague about everything?".
The woman cocked an eyebrow, looking down at him with inexpressive disbelief, "why do you care so badly, all of a sudden?".
"… I dunno", the blond boy shrugged, lifting his nose up in the air, "I guess we just want to get to know our journey partner better, right, Seven?".
"We're not…", she gave up, closing her eyes instead. "Fine", she decided, exhaling through her nose a smile crept on the round, rosy face beside her.
"Three questions" she told him, severely, "you get to ask three questions, and then we never speak about this ever again".
"Deal", he nodded, giddy, sharing fast ushering with the Cyndaquil on his shoulder, two heads swimming in ideas and possibilities.
Maple caught herself glancing at him, an eyebrow still cocked and almost cracking an incredulous chuckle at how diligently he had taken to the new task, putting his usually all-over-the-place thoughts into careful groups and queues for the flashing instance of his thought process resembling any form of organisation.
Luck was an odd machine, and just thinking about the way his brain worked gave her a headache.
He breathed in, apparently coming to a decision that pleased both him and his rodent Pokémon. "Okay, question one", he began, turning towards the woman and establishing serious eye contact, "have you… met Professor Oak?".
She rolled her eyes. "Yes, kid, I've met Professor Oak".
Luck let out a gasp of wonder, sharing an excited look with Seven. "Holy shit, that's so cool!", he grinned broadly, unable to conceal his radiant exuberance. He released one more gasp as yet another idea showed up in his whirlwind mind, "can you take Seven and I to meet him, please?".
"No", she answered, monotonous and cutting, "and that's two questions down".
"Hey, wait, that one doesn't count!", he frowned, clicking his tongue in frustration.
He thought carefully about his last question, focusing his gaze on the ground and biting his lip, allowing his machinations to be cradled by the constant sound of his footsteps on the squishy carpet of moss and mud. Seven, rested his belly on his shoulder, letting himself hang like a limp plush doll, his snout pointing downwards and his paws swaying with his trainer's gentle pace.
"... Okay, why are you not a professor anymore, then?", he finally decided, looking up at her stoic face, shadows of leaves and the green glimmer of the forest reflecting on her coppery, beige skin, tinted khaki from a lifetime of hiding indoors and wandering through grey cities. "And don't just say that "other things came up"".
Maple's face was inexpensive, but the tightening of the muscles on her jaw let through that perhaps the boy was straying into dangerously awkward territory. A story hidden between layers of animosity, indifference, and monochromatic clothing, more than meets the eye…
"I… got preoccupied with a personal project, which ended up taking the majority of my time", she cryptically let through, clearing her throat, "... amongst, other reasons".
Luck blinked. "… Come on", he raised an eyebrow, "you can't count that as an answer! That was barely even a sentence!".
"It wasn't right for me to continue with that job, okay?", she raised her voice, frowning lightly, "besides, I don't have to tell you anything, kid".
"But, you said… !".
"You know what?". Maple turned to him, about to defy her nonchalant façade and her resignation from being anything that even resembled a matronly professor by scolding the blond boy, a tutor pushed to the limit by a rowdy troublemaker, one finger pointed towards him and the other hand on her hip, brows furrowed and met in the middle of an annoyed, stone-hard face.
But, before she could get another word out, her brown, dark eyes caught something from behind Luck's silhouette, slightly obscured by being outside the frame of her rectangular glasses.
She lifted her nose, focusing the slabs of glass like a shooter taking aim, and narrowed her eyes.
The rustling of leaves, shaking bushes and the flashing of a scurrying shadow…
"… What?", Luck turned, quickly, trying to take a look at what had kept Maple from shouting at him.
She frowned, the boy standing on the tips of his toes in an attempt to make out whatever she seemed to be assessing, suddenly forgetting about their conversation, "what is it?".
"Shush", Maple only gestured, holding a finger in the air like an orchestra director, shutting up the single nagging instrument in a one-man ensemble.
The leaves of an oak shook, and a silhouette abandoned the tops of the trees to come barrelling down to the ground, followed by the hissing whispers of leaves and branches. Their gazes followed this source of commotion as it landed, swiftly, between the bushes right in front of them.
And from amongst the foliage, two luminous ambers blinked: sharp, orange eyes that watched them from the shadows, making the Professor widen her own orbs in surprise.
And then, a smile of razor sharp teeth.
Luck couldn't contain a frightened yelp as a Pokémon jumped out of the foliage, pushing them back. It hissed, trying to intimidate them, its fiery eyes focused solely on him and Seven, and took a step backwards as it aimed to pounce on them.
Maple stepped out of the way, alarmed into silence, and the boy lost his footing, dropping backwards and landing with his backside on the mushy ground, scurrying in reverse with his feet. His Cyndaquil fell from his shoulder to his lap, covering him in the ash of the affrighted flames that erupted from his back as he squealed, startled.
The creature that now stood menacingly before them was a stumpy, bipedal feline, grey and with a round body and head, the latter covered in hair with the texture of steel wool that resembled a thick, long Viking beard.
Its mouth was wide and open like a bear trap with pearly white teeth, and its eyes were bright orange, vivacious and barbaric, on a hardened head with two horns for ears and a sparkling, silver coin clung to its forehead.
"Shit…!", the boy uttered, his sight falling on the Pokémon's black, long claws, which it stuck together to create menacing daggers at the end of its dark beige paws.
It took a step forward, lowering into a combat-ready position and uttering gargling, threatening cry.
"S-Seven!", the boy managed, grabbing his own Pokémon from under his arms and pointing him towards their attacker, preparing to use him as a living flamethrower, shielding his face away, "use…!".
"Quarter!".
The fierce, grey feline reacted strongly to the sound of a female voice coming from somewhere in the forest by the path it had taken to get to them, slit-pupils suddenly wide, painting most of his orange eyes black. It lowered its claws, mouth slightly ajar, no longer fiercely baring sharp teeth but idle as it listened attentively. It blinked, slowly, turning away from the Pokémon and trainer it had been terrorising and assuming a slightly hunched-back posture, no longer looking like a ravenous beast, but rather like a confused, lost toddler.
Luck scurried away, lifting himself up and placing himself and Seven behind Maple, "thanks a lot for the help", he murmured, annoyed, as he used her silhouette to hide themselves from sight, receiving no response.
The calls got louder and louder until they were accompanied by the sound of snapping twigs and foliage pulled apart: a young woman, with a round face wrapped in a blue headscarf, appeared from the insides of the forest and showed up to meet them, her long, brown eyes widening in surprise.
"Oh! Well, hello", she quickly spoke, straightening her posture and smiling brightly, her lips adorned with a café-au-lait coloured lipstick and her hands wrapped around a chunky camera strapped to her neck, which she lowered to properly greet the unexpected guests.
Her cheerful eyes fell to the feline Pokémon, motherly rage glinting in them ever-so-slightly, "... I don't suppose Quarter over here has been causing you guys any trouble, is that right?".
The Pokémon, apparently named Quarter, placed her arms behind her back, lowering her gaze to the ground: a demure attempt to appear innocent, one which the woman seemed to be very familiar with, not easily fooled by the orange eyes that couldn't hide a passion for mischief.
"Ah, I'm terribly sorry", she released, followed by an airy laugh that turned into an exasperated sigh, "I try to keep an eye on this one, but she's too much at times — most of the times".
Once safe from the threat of being viciously attacked by a rabid Pokémon, Luck dug in his pocket for a talking, red, electronic square, pointing it towards Quarter: "Perrserker, the Viking Pokémon. What appears to be an iron helmet is actually hardened hair. This Pokémon lives for the thrill of battle".
"… Huh, cool", the boy finally said, poking from behind the woman in beige.
"Come on, over here, don't just stand there and look stupid", she crossed her arms, fulminating the Pokémon with an annoyed stare that made her drag her feet towards her trainer, head lowered in defeat, "she's mostly harmless, although she gets pretty worked-up when she sees people", she explained, shifting from her congenial tone to a harsh, scolding voice when she referred to her Pokémon, "and, well, let's just say she looks rather threatening by nature", she chuckled embarrasedly, "but, really, she wouldn't hurt a Beautifly, she's only aggressively social when it comes to making friends… which, now that I think about it: I don't think we've ever seen you two before in the forest".
The apparently chatty woman chirped at them, pushing her square glasses up her wavy, bumpy nose, eager to make conversation, "are you hiking up to Goldenrod City?".
"Yeah, actually", Luck answered, leaving his hiding spot to match the sunny disposition, Seven now back on his head, watching the woman and Pokémon with attention, "I'm a Pokémon trainer, collecting all eight badges and what not, and Goldenrod our my next spot!".
A quick nod of comprehension told him that the woman had heard that story before, seemingly unfazed by the strange dynamic that was a never-quiet teenager and an ever-quiet adult, who looked nothing alike in more ways than one. "Great! You're in the right direction, then. The path that leads to Goldenrod City is mostly just straight ahead — it is the most popular route taken, after all —, and you'll get there if you avoid turns and twists: this forest can get pretty puzzle-y at times if you're not careful…".
Her voice trailed off, a new thought popping into her head as her Perrserker returned to her side, "oh, and, by the way: have you guys seen a Pokémon that looks like this around here?".
She took out a perfectly folded piece of paper from a pocket on her long skirt, unfolding it and presenting it to Luck and Maple, which prompted a cocked eyebrow from the latter. "... Are you asking if we've seen Celebi?".
"… Oh, yeah!", Luck agreed, recognising the particular shape of the mythical Grass-type, "that's totally Celebi! Isn't it a legendary Pokémon?".
"Mythical, but, like, yeah… it never hurts to ask", she sighed, slightly defeated.
"I should've guessed you'd know it by name", she smiled, sizing down her picture back to its portable size and hiding it once more, "I had a feeling you were locals, I just wasn't completely sure".
"Why are you looking for Celebi?", Luck tilted his head, his eyes shimmering as he thought of an exciting possibility, "oh! Are you part of the group that follows legendaries and mythicals around? Palkia, or something, I'm pretty sure it was an acronym…".
"Great, just what we needed", Maple muttered under her breath, but a dismissive head movement from the woman put that theory down, "no, I'm not, although I am familiar with the Documentarians and Investigators Apropos of Legends Association", she affirmed, despite carrying with a camera not unlike one Luck would expect to find amongst his friend Ello's clutter.
"I'm just a film student from Unova, here as part of a production I've been working on for quite some time now, and Celebi's the big name on the cover", she joked, placing her hand forward, "the name's Delphine, and you've already had the… fortune, of meeting Quarter here".
"I'm Luck", the boy shook her hand enthusiastically, grinning, "this is Seven", he added, pointing towards the Cyndaquil on his head, who waved joyfully, "and, this is my journey partner, Maple".
"And we hope you're successful in finding Celebi", Maple quickly chimed in, placing a firm hand on the blond's shoulder, meant to come off as a gesture of familiarity when it was really more of a threat, a tentative pull on the leash of a canine that's not walking fast enough for her liking, "good luck with your work. Unovian Art scholars tend to favour passionate projects, so, don't get caught up with technicalities. They will most likely appreciate it as long as it has enough flair".
Luck pointed at her with his thumb, seemingly not picking up on her coded insistence to keep moving, "she used to be a Pokémon Professor", he smiled, proudly, as if he wasn't teasing her about it a couple seconds ago.
"I will", Delphine placed her hand on her forehead, jokingly saluting like a soldier.
As she saw them start to walk away, Delphine was suddenly reminded of something, "oh, one more thing! … Well, I haven't seen it for myself yet, but, when I first entered the forest, a curious fella passed on a warning to me as he rushed back to Azalea Town, so, I think it's only fair that I pass it on to you, too: there's been some… odd things happening around here? I guess that's what he said".
Maple stopped in her tracks, having managed to only put a few steps of distance between her and them before halting. She listened, attentively, and turned back around to face her.
"It's about the wild Pokémon in the forest — or rather, in Johto, I should say. He mentioned that some of them have been acting weird… hmm, I'm not very sure of how he explained it…".
The woman in beige frowned.
".. Ah, he was probably just an inexperienced traveller afraid of Bug-types", Delphine dismissed it quickly at the sight of growing worry, smiling broadly, not wanting to be the bearer of bad news, "it happens more often than you'd think. I've been roaming around the forest for about a week now, and I haven't seen a single Pokémon acting inordinately. Quarter angered a hive of Beedrill once, though, that was something".
Luck giggled, but his companion's frown had deepened in thought, a pair of dark, brown eyes carving a hole in the mossy forest carpet.
"I guess we're just unlucky like that, huh, Quarter?", the woman smiled, slightly crestfallen, "we're here to record odd things happening, and they apparently stop happening the moment we show up".
"… Well, I do get called a bad-luck charm sometimes", the blond boy offered, grinning sheepishly, "maybe your luck's about to change! … Although, if you do want strange things to happen, then maybe I'm a… good-luck charm to you? Or, if I'm bad luck, then maybe bad things aren't going to happen, which is, like, good", he grimaced, confusing himself, "… this was supposed to be a joke".
"Hey, c'mon, I'm sure you're not a bad luck charm", Delphine smiled at them, patting Seven's head and making him shift the backwards cap on the boy's head slightly forward, half-covering his eyes "you look just fine to me".
"You clearly haven't met him yet, then", Maple spoke once more, resuming her hasty exit from the forest, "let's go, kid, before something actually starts to happen…".
"Wait, wait!", he negated, staying in his place despite the woman's insistent, fast-moving steps, fixing his cap to be able to see, eyes sparkling with excitement, "have you been to the shrine yet?".
"Ah, many times", Delphine confirmed, "I've even camped next to it in hopes of catching footage of Celebi. Which, in actuality, wasn't as successful as I was hoping it would be…".
Luck turned towards Maple, his stare suddenly that of a small, pleading Eevee, hoping to spark some kind of endearment.
"… Definitely not", her voice was harsh, and she lightly cringed at the sound of her words, attempting to come off the less motherly she could. She cleared her throat, "we're not taking yet another detour".
"But, we've never seen the shrine in real life!", he pleaded, his Cyndaquil nodding zealously in support, "and Delphine knows the way already! We'll just, you know, pop in for a little bit, look around, and we'll be right back towards Goldenrod City, I promise!".
"Kid, I am not your…".
"It won't be longer than five minutes, right?", Luck turned towards Delphine, who's eyes went a little wide as he put her in the spot.
"… It really isn't far from here", she uttered, wanting to help the giddy teenager but slightly intimidated by Maple's strong, judging gaze, which caused her to fall silent at once.
"See?", Luck, unshaken and with hope painting his blue irises with a speckled, silvery glimmer, continued insisting, "maybe we can meet in Goldenrod City, if you don't want to tag along! I promise it's gonna be quick, yeah? I'll be back before you even notice, and I swear I'll stay out of trouble".
"I doubt that's even possible", she murmured to herself, fixing small creases on her coat and dress pants with her free hand, cracking her neck silently.
"… By Arceus… Fine", it visibly pained her to say, her face curled into a displeased frown, "we'll go, I'm afraid that if I let you alone you're going to get yourself killed".
Delphine chuckled, but the sound was short lived as she realised the woman's voice was devoid of the cheer that would suggest a joke. She bit her tongue, sharing a tense look with her Perrserker.
"Yeah, cool! Thanks, Maple!", the teenager beamed, an excitement he shared with the small, blue rodent on his head, "lead the way, Delphine! Oh, mom's gonna love this…"
And so, Luck and Maple took yet another detour.
With one stealing all the sun from the other's disposition, they walked behind a woman who had a knack for being over-friendly, and who managed to talk herself into taking a pause in her academic activities to serve as a tour guide amongst greenery and foliage, her bipedal Pokémon walking beside her, big eyes wide open to the forest setting that was beginning to feel very familiar.
Delphine's eyes couldn't help but wander towards the strange pair, trying to helplessly guess how they wound up in such a situation…
Like a lighthouse for returning sailboats, the woman made their way through the emerald maze she had memorised. Luck had his PokéGear raised in front of his face, snapping ocasional pictures of wildlife that hung around the canopies, and crouching for brief moments to capture those crawling through the grass as well, endeared by the looks of all Pokémon alike, vertebrate or not, his Cyndaquil mirroring his excitement as he reached a beige paw towards bright-coloured Caterpi.
He seemed to be amused even by the sourest, most unapproachable of creatures, which was the very woman that walked right beside him, sending energetic, cheer-y grins her way that were met by a wall-like, blank face.
"... Well, this is it".
Delphine beheld an opening amongst tall pine trees and oaks, a natural gate to a forest clearing struck by the light of the sun that peaked through from where the foliage thinned out.
Seven jumped from the boy's head to the soft, loamy soil, eager to explore the brand new place they now found themselves in. "Woah", the easily-amazed boy uttered in wonder, as excited for the world as his starter Pokémon.
A gauzy, ethereal, greenish veil seemed to cloak the scene, and pragmatic sunlight reflected off of fresh leaves and healthy grass showered the apparently unassuming, small wooden structure built in the middle of the clearing, a calm, sleeping creature with a mystifying energy, sitting at the fancy enclosure made just for it.
He lifted his electronic device's camera, snapping another picture.
"... Great, we saw the shrine", Maple exclaimed, uninterested in what she considered to be a tourist attraction meant to call visitors into the otherwise underwhelming, cumbersome forest, "can we get going now?".
But her words fell on deaf ears, as the blond boy was already strutting towards the red-and-white shrine, followed closely by a round rodent with a long snout.
"Check this out, Seven", he giggled, now close enough to notice the intricacies of the item of devotion, "you can hardly tell this thing's been here for forever…".
He examined the birdhouse-like building: a small, white-washed wooden box with a red gable roof, adorned with golden intricacies and two shut louvre doors from where the vague, yet very distinct aroma of a flowery incense managed to slip through and reach Seven's sharp, refined nose, unassuming and unperceived by that of a distracted boy in a forest filled with fresh, ever-changing smells.
Luck raised his PokéGear over his shoulder, straying it far from his face with the frontal camera activated, ready to snap a picture of a wide, pale face, "cm'ere, Seven, this one's for mom", he voiced for his Pokémon, who jumped up to his shoulder at the sight of the familiar call, knowing to strike a pose for an instance as his trainer raised a peace sign and a smiled, the shutter of the camera announcing the end of the ritualistic motion.
The boy relaxed his face, pressing on the picture that now appeared on his PokéGear smiling to himself and the Cyndaquil that gazed upon it, too, "it's a good one, huh?", he chuckled, "she's gonna love it…".
But right as he was about to press on the screen one more time to send off the picture as a digital message, he caught a glimpse of something that made him do a double take…
"Kid, I know you think so, but we really don't have all day", Maple raised her voice, crossing her arms over her chest as she saw the boy standing still, head downwards and focused eyes glued to a device despite being right at the place he had so insisted to go see and admire.
Luck ignored her, using his fingers to expand the picture, zooming in on its pixels to thoroughly examine an abnormality he hadn't noticed as he was taking it.
He turned, just to make sure, towards the shrine, and then back to his PokéGear. He was certain, briefly asking for Seven's opinion, which corroborated their discovery: the pair of blue eyes and small, mischievous grin that appeared on the screen, just above the shrine, were certainly not there anymore, and they weren't there as the picture was being snapped… or, so he thought.
The silhouette wasn't all that defined, but it was a noticeable enough smoosh on the otherwise pristine picture that made him frown in confusion, again searching the location for any signs of the head-scratching, disappearing phantom whose head had a very particular shape, resembling that of an onion…
He circled the shrine, eventually winding up in his initial position, and then proceeded to crouch next to the louvred doors, trying to peer into the inside through the thin blinds that pointed down.
"What is he even… ?", Maple uttered, scoffing frustrated.
The boy narrowed his eyes, attempting to make out shapes in the darkness of the little room, finally hit with the wafting scent of incense when his face was pressed against the shrine.
"I don't think this shrine has been opened in, like… a hundred or so years", Delphine was suddenly beside him, observing his antics with the wizened face of someone who had tried doing exactly what he was doing before and more, a grey, bipedal Pokémon standing at her feet, zealously holding on to a particularly shiny rock she had found on the ground.
Her words had tried to keep Luck from his search, but the boy was diligent, and he made no move to stray from his place, trying to sniff out a suspect like a shaggy, blond Stoutland.
"It's just…", he muttered, unable to finish his sentence, hung up in the air as he realised he couldn't put to words the kind of feeling that had taken over him, like being watched by a presence that's neither human nor Pokémon — or Pokémon in a way he understood them…
And then, he caught sight of a moving object, inside the shrine.
"Holy… !", he took a step back, startled, followed by the suddenly-wide eyes of the film student.
"What?", she questioned, expectantly staring at him and the shrine, which remained static.
"... I, uh… I think I saw something move in there".
Delphine took his spot then, slightly shoving him in her sudden excitement and taking her turn on trying to peek inside the minute space between the wooden blinds, making Maple groan in her place.
"… I don't see anything", she uttered, fixing her glasses on the bridge of her nose, "I mean, I can't see anything, it's all dark… Luck, are you sure you saw something? It could've been… I don't know, the shadows of the leaves, or something".
"I'm pretty sure", Luck corroborated, "I don't know what it was, but it was… something, and the picture I took was all weird".
He pressed his face against the shrine once more as Delphine recuperated her posture, imprinting lines of accumulated dust on his rosy features. "I'm sure I saw it… onion-shaped…".
Seven tried to catch a glimpse for himself, turning upside-down on the boy's head, eyes scouring for any sign of life inside the static shrine.
"Well, that would surprise me greatly", Delphine exclaimed as the boy muttered to himself non-intelligibly, "I can't think of a Pokémon who could possibly fit through…".
Her words trailed off, wandering around the forest as something more important than speech suddenly preoccupied her senses.
Luck was still very much focused on his task, barely taking notice of the filmmaker's sudden silence until it was broken once more.
"… Luck", she exclaimed, her tone slightly shaken, "you… you're a trainer. You have a PokéDex, right?", she continued as she received a grunt that indicated the focused boy was listening to her, the shakiness still making her speech tremble ever-so-slightly.
"Yeah", he answered, "… why?".
"… Well", she finally decided, dilly-dallying around the appropriate words.
"… Because, I'm pretty sure a Pichu is not supposed to look like that".
As he finished processing her words, the boy finally separated his nose from the shrine, looking slightly upwards with furrowed eyebrows as he followed Demphine's gaze of honey-brown eyes behind square glasses to the shrine's roof.
"… Oh", he uttered, slightly tilting his head, "... no, I don't think they do".
Without taking his eyes from the creature they had both just then discovered, he pulled out the aforementioned device, finding that it was just as confused as they were, unable to pinpoint the creature before them as a Pichu, or any Pokémon, for that matter.
The Pokémon that watched them, sat on top of the shrine, did in fact look like a Pichu, although coloured a pale shade of lilac, and with fur that was more gas than fur itself: a fallen chunk of a sunset cloud, shaped by a mould made off of the image of the baby rodent.
This Pokémon was shaped like a Pichu, from the pointed ears — although one of them ended, curiously, in three, small points, instead of just one — , the round cheeks, teeny feet and the so-iconic lightning bolt-shaped tail, but it was just… off, and it somehow wasn't like that Rattata he had encountered when he was searching for Raikou a couple days back, which, despite the odd colouring, it still held true to the basic characteristics of the Pokémon…
For instance: its eyes were not their usual big, black and sparkly beads, replaced by glowing pits of faint purple light, vacant and uniform. The soft shade of yellow of his fur was, instead, various hues of violets and blues, which shifted like a cloudy sky on a windy day, occasionally dimming to the point of threatening to disappear, as though the Pokémon was a shared hallucination between the film graduate and the scrawny teenager.
They looked at each other, then back at the mirage, making sure they were seeing what they were, indeed, seeing.
"That's…", Delphine's fingers reached for her camera, "not something I've seen before".
She raised the lenses in front of her face, snapping a careful picture.
Luck and his Cyndaquil stared up at the surprising creature, enthralled despite it not quite resembling the phantom that had photobombed them.
Seven, on his head, raised his snout towards it, attempting to decide if it was truly a Pokémon, for he couldn't seem to communicate with it through his usual, soft cries, unable to recognise its scent, warmth or even a beating heart at all.
The strange Pichu simply kept its spot, unbothered, scratching one of its wide ears, wisps of what appeared to be the vapour its body was composed of circling around its head.
"Huh, now… that's weird", the woman mouthed, stepping next to Luck to show him the screen of the camera: she had taken a perfectly detailed image of the shrine before them, although missing one essential part, the initial objective of the photo.
The purple Pichu was nowhere to be seen.
"I don't think I've ever seen anything like this", she added, looking at the Pokémon with wide, surprised eyes, "... I mean, it's not quite Celebi, but it is pretty darn interesting".
The purple Pokémon seemed to make some of Luck's memories rattle around his head, trying to recall why its sight felt strangely familiar. It's not like he had seen that particular Pichu before, but something about it…
Maple exhaled through her nose, her lips pressed around the springy wrapping paper of the butt of a new cigarette, her fingers wrapping around the cold surface of a metallic lighter. She brought the flame to her face, cupping it with one hand until the end of the paper snout lit up orange and red, breathing in a huff of warm bitterness, her body absorbing a morsel of tranquillity as she watched a column of white smoke climb towards the hidden sky.
She brought her eyes to an old watch on her wrist, its silver surface telling on how much time their little detour had already cost them. Vexed, she sighed with exasperation, a brown dress shoe tapping on mushy ground as a testament of her patience running thin.
"By Arceus…", she mouthed, her cigarette stuck between two fingers of her left hand, her right rubbing one of her eyes, "I should've just asked him for the money then… I swear, I'm not built for this type of shit…".
Her eyes closed for a moment, allowing her an instance of imagining herself anywhere but there, praying to whichever deity listening for the blond kid to hurry up and wrap whatever it was that he was even doing.
But, when she opened them back up, she was startled to see she wasn't alone anymore. "What the…", she took a step back, disconcerted, met by a pair of large, sapphire-blue eyes outlined with black, belonging to a flying Pokémon that now hovered just in front of her nose.
Maple blinked, the fright steadily replaced by disbelieving astonishment, nonplused at the familiarity of the creature. "... Celebi?".
The Pokémon that had so suddenly appeared did, in fact, look like the mythical Pokémon Celebi: a round-ish creature floating with the aid of small, clearwings on its back, pale and dark green in colour. Its head was curved, ending on a vertex that pointed upwards, and its face held an innocent look of curiosity, round, kiddish eyes sparkling with brilliance. A creature of old, yet holding on still to a child-like sense of wonder.
Its antennas quivered as it noticed it had startled Maple, giving her a bit of space before approaching her once more, tiny limbs swirling around in the air, opalescent wings shimmering as they kept the Pokémon afloat.
Maple's cigarette hung limply from her lips, dumbfounded and completely at a loss as to what the presence of the mythical Pokémon meant in that very moment, or whatever she was even supposed to do about it. "… Uh…", she stumbled, pushing her glasses up her nose, "… woah", she couldn't help but to let the voice of her inner professor shine through for a brief moment, "this is… fascinating".
Celebi appearing for a human was not something that happened often, a detail Maple had considered informing Delphine about, but decided against it, not wanting to shoot down the dreams of a young student (she was cold, not heartless).
In fact, Celebi's appearances in their realm were seldom pointless wandering, and could usually mean only a select number of highly-specific things, which caused the woman's face to contort in confusion, returning the attentive gaze that the creature sent her way.
"Surely not…", she began, trying to piece together a monochromatic jigsaw.
Her area of expertise wasn't Pokémon mythology, but her courses had once led her to studying the methods of temporal transportation of the Lilliputian, green creature: Celebi's presence in multiple realms of time essentially engraved a popular saying in the long-winded setting stone of physics: "we are not alone", in a way that matters (according to Maple).
Mohn's and Burnet's discoveries regarding the Ultra Beasts only whetted the thirst of exploring the void above; but, every creature, extradimensional or not, in that universe, coexisted in a single realm of time, which encapsulated their all. All of their all.
All, except for a few select creatures, one of them which now hovered right before her, doll-eyes blinking expectantly. One of the only true individuals.
And time is not a lonely creature: there may be an infinite number of temporal realms, thus an infinite number of universes. An infinite number of all.
But there may only be one Celebi.
… Or so do Professors with headaches insist.
"… Does this have anything to do with…?", she began, uncertain as to how that question should end.
"… With the dreams?".
But before anything resembling an answer could come to her (well, that would be just too easy, wouldn't it?), Celebi's sharp senses charged up an attack in between its small hands, suddenly defensively hostile.
Maple instinctively ducked, but the balled-up, bright pink energy wasn't directed towards her; Celebi turned the other way around, facing the shadows of the forest and firing off, a high-pitch mutter filtering through its small mouth.
The Professor blinked, fixing her glasses up her nose, barely making out what it was that the mythical Pokémon had decimated with so little thought.
But she didn't have to try and guess for long, for the target that had been hit was part of an army, a swirling cloud of angry hornets like an airborne field of lavenders.
A horde of Beedrills, angry and buzzing, and they all were a very pale shade of lilac.
Her eyes went wide.