Heeeeey guys, let's just not talk about how long this took to come out, okay? Okay.
GO!
Act 1: Where I belong (Protostar)
Chapter 5: Disarray (Bad Computer)
The sound of gentle rain against canvas awning and cold asphalt seeps into the main dining area of Ruby's kitchen. The Diner vacant save for Ruby herself and another pair of Eeveelutions sitting in one of the window booths as dull white light reflects against the muted red walls of the diner.
A pair of plates of eggs benedict are gently plopped onto the table by a set of ribbons as Ruby pulls away. "Thanks Mom." Klayton thanks as the Espeon across from him just tiredly smiles and nods to the Sylveon.
Upside of having a diner owner as a mom? Breakfast of champions every day, and boy does Ruby do a good benedict. As he stares through the glass, watching the oil rise from the road outside. His sister takes a long swig from a coffee mug in her paws.
"I still can't believe you can be fully awake at 7 in the morning without caffeine." She says from across the booth, prompting the Vaporeon before him to break out of his trance and turn back to her.
"Well, unlike you I get 9 hours every night. Besides," He cuts off a piece of benedict, gooey yolk now oozing from the hollandaise-soaked poached eggs atop the galarian muffin as he stuffs a piece into his maw. "I wouldn't necessarily say that I'm completely awake. Still got a bit of a cloud in my head." he finishes.
"That soooo...?" Aria coyly ponders. Leaning forward with a devillish smirk on her face as she stuffs some of her food into her mouth.
Klayton blinks, "What? W-why are you looking at me like that?" he asks with a tiny chuckle in his voice as Aria slowly inches closer to his face.
"Are you thinking about that girl mom said you brought in here yesterdaaaay~?" Aria teases the water type, now recoiling away from her.
Busted.
Yeah, but still, that's none of her business!
Klayton looks away, somewhat flustered, "Yeah, I was, what about it?" he retorts, stuffing another bite of benedict into his maw.
"Is she a girlfriend I don't know about?" She continues.
"No, Aria. She's the new foreign exchange student. I thought I'd give he-"
"Her? I thought she was a guy!"
"...How?"
"I dunno, all Lycanroc look like guys, especially the Midnight ones, I'm sorry!"
"Lycanroc?"
"...Am I thinking of the wrong person?"
"Delilah Chaser, the Snivy who just started school on monday!"
"OOOOHHH, I DIDN'T KNOW SHE WAS AN EXCHANGE STUDENT! The one who wears the black and purple hoodie, right?"
"Yeah, she's Celatian."
"...That's neat. Well if she's not your girlfriend, then are you trying to MAKE her your girlfr-"
"Aria. Stop. I don't like her like that, besides, she's already dating someone from her home country. She's just a person I'm trying to convince Valerie to let into the GT4."
"Oh well if she's already with someone else then that changes things."
"Exactly. For whatever reason, Valerie seems...extra paranoid of her, so...that's why I was lost in thought there."
"Hm...You think maybe Delilah reminds her of someone involved in...you know? the incident?"
Klayton sighs, "Maybe, I dunno. I'll have to talk with her later today. I really hope those two can see eye to eye at some point soon."
The two finish their meals in silence, with only the sound of rain and Ruby setting up tables keeping the decibels from dropping to naught. "Alright, we should probably get going." Klay announces as he slings his satchel over his back.
Aria sighs as she puts a bookmark into her novel and stuffs it into her own bag, "I get that it's just down the road, but I really wish we didn't have to walk in the rain. BEFORE YOU SAY IT, not everyone's a Vaporeon like you."
"I wasn't going to say anything."
"You thought about it, don't lie to me."
"Perhaps."
Aria calls out to Ruby across the diner. "We're off, mom!"
"Now howhd on, keeds!" she announces from the kitchen as she bursts from the back door and trots over to the teens, wrapping them both in a hug using her ribbons and her own paws in tandem with one another. "Have a good'ay you two!" she chirps as she breaks away. The teens nodding and exiting the diner.
As they walk down the street with Aria using a translucent psychic barrier to keep her fur mostly dry, she randomly turns to the water type absorbing the raindrops into his own body. "Hey, don't you find it weird that you're a Vaporeon playing the role of a Jolteon in the play?"
"Not really, cast substitutions happen all the time. Not every pokemon from a story can be accurately replicated, especially since we're only high schoolers, there's only so many of us to choose from, even less given how small the theater club is." Klay explains to warrant only a 'hmm' of confirmation from the psychic type.
The two finally step through the threshold that is the campus limit to their high school, the front lawns now muddy and slick.
"Well anyway, I promised Zach I'd meet him in the Library, so I'll be heading off now!"
"Alright. Hey wait, is that a BOYFRIEND I DON'T KNOW ABOUT? ARIA!" Klay teases as she begins slipping away from him.
"Yeah, actually. Unlike you, I'm not scared enough to admit such things." She replies, not even turning back to him. Klay, dumbfounded, just watches her gleefully trot away. The gratification of what was supposed to be a taste of his younger sister's medicine has turned to slight insult.
Oh you KNOW she's giving you the finger in her mind.
Oh yeah, definitely. Arceus, how can she just be impervious like that?
Maybe you're just not good at being a sibling.
What's THAT supposed to mean!?
I'm just saying, she's way better at psychological warfare than you are, you're older, you're supposed to be better!
Necrozma, you don't have siblings, stop pretending you know how these things work.
(Yeah, Sav! Stop pretending you know how siblings work, Mr. only child!)
Wh-hey! Cut me some slack, Arceus! I'm trying my best! Er...right, anyway.
Klay thrashes his head for a second, shaking off the emotional effects of what had just transpired. He resumes his excursion to the regular morning meetup point of the GT4, which ISN'T at table four, as you might think. However, upon getting there he spots Luna under the cover of an awning fiddling with some sort of small object.
Although the Ice type obviously doesn't generally make great conversation, she IS the only one currently present. So Klay approaches, curious about this activity Luna is participating in. Upon getting closer, Klayton notices that in her paws is what appears to be a brand new, very professional looking DSLR camera.
He calls out to her, "Hey, Luna." The Vulpix quickly turns away from the screen of her DSLR and locks eyes with the Eeveelution, giving a smile and a wave in response. Klayton sits on the bench beside the ice type, gesturing to the camera. "Fancy camera you've got there, what for?" he asks, Luna's eyes lighting up in response, clicking a button next to the screen, the camera clicks as an image appears on the screen. She clicks a D pad a couple times and then hands the camera over to the water type.
On the screen, Klayton sees a nighttime photo of the old gas station by her apartment complex, rain falling gently, the camera perfectly capturing the neon lights surrounding the canopy as it reflects off a puddle in the foreground, with that puddle clearly being the focus of this photo, as the background is captured with perfect focus and aperture. The exposure is flawless.
Clicking to the next photo, a photo of the rainy city of West Latias, The cars in the streets but a blur, one of those long exposure types of photographs. Again, fantastically composed.
"Whoa, Luna, these are actually really good." Klay notes as he turns back to the Vulpix, who, in the time he was admiring her pictures, has been writing a response to his question on a small whiteboard. She flips it over to him.
"My Dad won it in a company raffle yesterday. He gave it to me last night and I love it so far!"
"Huh, no kidding. That's a Toucanon EOS, right? That's like industry standard isn't it?" He prods, Luna nods happily. "Well, you're a natural with that thing, I tell ya."
The Vulpix smiles warmly and quickly replaces the writing on her board.
"I'm glad you think so! I'm still learning the ins and outs of it."
"Hey, maybe you should check out the school's photography club, I'm sure they could help you out." he suggests, prompting the ice type to look away, pondering this new revelation. Then turning back and pointing at him with her paw, mouthing "Good Idea." as Klay hands the camera back to her.
"Kinda suits you, y'know?" Klay starts, prompting Luna to make eye contact with him again. "An art form that requires no words, kinda poetic if you..." Klay trails off as he notices that his speech isn't particularly landing well for Luna, as her ears flatten and her eyes narrow at the water type. "Err...I wasn't trying to offend you, I'm sorry."
Man, I just can't win today.
Luna takes a deep breath, then quickly forgets about the whole thing as she looks past Klayton and whips her camera out. Zooming in on a pitiful Deerling trudging along the courtyard. Klayton turns around to follow the lens and with a click, she captures the grass type's exhausted demeanor, then silently giggles to herself.
"Gaah...why is it raining...in AUGUST...I'm gonna start turning autumn-colored early at this rate." Blake begins, drenched and freezing.
"You look like hell, Blake." Klay greets with a half chuckle as the grass type plops down between them, sighing. Luna pitifully starts stroking his back with her off-paw. A reassuring smile on her face.
"Hey bro...aghhh...you do the homework for Riggs' last night?" Blake starts, finally picking his head up.
"Yes...Whyyy?" Klayton responds, suspiciously leaning forward with a slight squint and head cocked slightly to the left
"Man I was having such a hard time with that, it-"
"No, you can't copy my homework, Blake."
"Uh- that's not what I was getting at! I was just saying it took me so long I wasn't able to sleep until like 3 AM, bro." Blake corrects, followed by an immediate yawn. "I was gonna say, could we head inside? I wanna get out of the rain and I'm hoping the vending machine has a Yerba Mate I can slam before classes start." He finishes.
Klayton peers over Blake's shoulder towards Luna, but she seems fine with the proposition, having already hopped off of the bench. As the couple pass him, he shrugs and hops down himself.
A Houndoom walks down the stairs in the opposite direction, Blake takes notice.
"Sup, Terry?"
"Yee-uh~" The Houndoom replies with an upward flick of his head and a half-cocked grin, the group continues.
However, as Klayton gets closer to the main building, his ears pick up the sounds of a fierce argument between two of his female peers. He merely rolls his eyes, it's probably those two juniors at it again, he figures. He doesn't know either of their names, but they seem to get into arguments quite a bit, usually over trivial things.
As he's about to head inside, ready to tune out the racket from down the hall, he realizes that the two arguing sound...familiar...
"PUH-LEASE! YOU'RE JUST TRYING TO JOIN SO THAT YOU DON'T COME OFF AS THE COMPLETE LOSER YOU REALLY ARE!" A harsh, fierce woman's voice reverberates off the walls.
"YOU KNOW FUCK-ALL ABOUT ME, AND YOU WON'T EVEN TAKE THE OPPORTUNITY TO ACTUALLY GET TO KNOW ME!" a much smoother and yet just as venomous voice follows.
The realization plows into all three of the GT4 members who've just entered the building like a Ford Mustang doing a burnout near a crowd. (That's dark.)
Oh, you gotta be kidding me!
The three quickly glance at each other and rush over to the small gathering of onlookers surrounding the unfolding event. Klayton pushes through the crowd to witness Valerie pinning Delilah up against one of the walls by the hood on her sweater.
"OH YEAH? I SEE YOU ACTING ALL TOUGH, BUT YOU PROBABLY BREAK LIKE A MINIOR'S SHELL THE SECOND YOU'RE PLACED ON A BATTLING COURT!" Valerie growls at the Snivy struggling against her anchor to the wall.
Klayton, shocked at the scene before him, steels himself. He HAS to stop this, and he needs to stop this NOW! Jade stops struggling and glares at the bug type.
"TRY ME, WONDER WOMAN, I CA-"
He charges the rainwater absorbed into his system earlier with elemental energy, before expelling it from his mouth, knocking Valerie's pincer away from Jade, the grass snake yelps as she's simultaneously dropped to the ground and doused with water. Valerie immediately turns to the water type.
"Valerie! What the hell is your problem!?" Klayton yells at the bug type. Who merely scoffs in response. Luna rushes over to help Delilah to her feet.
"We're doing battling drills tomorrow, you better hope I'm in a good mood…" Valerie announces to the Grass type, completely ignoring Klay. Before he could open his mouth, the steel-skinned insect calmly left the scene.
"I'm good, I'm good…" Delilah assured the worried ice type as she pressed her back against the wall and huffed in a mixture of relief and annoyance.
"What the hell happened?" Blake asked his fellow grass type. Now composed enough to step in.
"I saw her in the halls, tried to talk to her and see what her issue was with me so that maybe we could work something out. She just said that it wasn't any of my business and then just went off on me! So much for trying to settle it like a fuckin' adult!" Jade shouts angrily.
"Seriously? The hell's with her?!" Blake replies.
"Right?!" Delilah follows. Klayton says nothing, but stares towards Valerie's direction as if contemplating something.
Hmm…I've known Valerie a long time. This is a bit excessive.
It's Valerie!
Yeah I know, know...but this is a level of overaggressiveness I've never seen from her. I get the feeling there's something more than just her usual trust issues at work here I think.
Maybe your sister is right, maybe Delilah reminds her of someone from 'The Incident.'
…Now that you mention it, that seems likely, I'll ask her about it when I see her in Chem.
That's a touchy subject for her and you know it! She already seems really standoffish as it is!
Since when did you care?
I don't want her knocking your lights out! They're delicious!
Sigh…
…Wait…did Valerie say something about battling trials?
The bell sounds throughout the halls as the shock hits Klayton.
I need to talk to Jade. NOW.
He turns back to find everyone already en-route to their registration classes. He quickly hurries to catch up with the understandably irritated Snivy.
"Hey! Delilah!" He calls as he taps her shoulder as she enters the room, she reflexively tries batting his paw away, but stops and sighs.
"Yes…what?" She grumbles.
"Sit with me, I gotta talk with you." Klay follows.
"But we're in class, Mr. Telepo won't just shut us down?" She sighs, visibly bothered by the altercation prior.
"Mr. Telepo doesn't actually care enough to do anything about us talking, if it'll make you feel better we can just pretend we're working on a group project and leave us alone." He explains. Jade ponders quietly, then nods as the two pull a pair of desks together and put some miscellaneous papers on the desk to sell the look.
As the two sat down, Klay looked over at the grass type, watching her emerald irises staring at the flat gray tiles in the middle of the room in thought, her chin resting against the palm of her hand.
"You okay?" He queries, sending Jade back into reality with a heavy blink. She glances over to the worried Vaporeon and huffs before picking her head up.
"Well…all things considered, I suppose I could be worse. I swear I've met people with trust issues before, but Valerie…there's definitely something more with her, I don't know what though…" She explains.
"You know what I think?" Klay starts.
"What's that?" Jade nonchalantly replies.
"Near the tail end of middle school, Valerie got mixed up in a bad crowd and…something horrible happened to her, changed her forever. It's just a theory, but maybe…you remind her of someone from then, Y'know?" Klayton explains. "Maybe she's lashing out from pent up aggression towards whoever that person is. That's just my thoughts anyway."
"Seriously? What happened to her?" She asks, placing her head back onto the palm of her hand.
"I'd…rather not get into it, for her sake. If you two ever get past this, maybe she'll tell you. Anyway, that's not important right now."
"Hm?"
"Did you…hear what she said as she walked off?" Klay asks, Delilah now noticing the worry intensify in his dark eyes.
"I don't remember, my nerves were going a mile a minute!"
"Delilah, Valerie challenged you to a battle tomorrow!" Klayton slams both of his paws on the desk in desperation, Jade's face sharpens as she suddenly leans back and crosses her arms, a scowl now plastered across her face.
"Seriously? That's so childish! Alright, fine! If that's how she wants to-!"
"Delilah, this is THE CAPTAIN OF THE BATTLING TEAM WE'RE TALKING ABOUT. Valerie hasn't lost a match since sophomore year! She's level 79, trained in 6 moves!" Klayton explains frantically, watching the Snivy's demeanor completely change from annoyance to anxious realization.
"Oh…" She starts "...Oh, shit."
Klayton places a paw on her shoulder, "I'll try to talk her out of it, but if I can't…I think you should call in si-" Delilah stops him with a raised hand.
"No, Klay." She notes as she stares into his eyes with a determined glare. "If I run away, she'll hold it over me forever, I have to finish this tomorrow."
Klayton maintains his worried expression, "But she'll-"
"I'll figure something out!" She interrupts. "If I can't beat her, I can at least try and hold my own longer than the previous best."
Klayton looks away nervously, then looks back towards the grass. "Are you sure about this?"
"I'm sure."
Klayton sighs, then nods, "Okay, but I'll still try and see if I can't get her to call it off."
Jade nods, clasping her hands together on her desk as she takes a long, deep breath.
"I'll figure something out, Klay. Don't worry about it." She follows.
…
"...Alright, if you say so.."
Delilah finds herself once again on her balcony, her back against the railing, with her arms sprawled out over the wooden surface lining the top. She places her phone to her ear and waits as tone after tone follows, before finally.
"Coach Weezle, West Latias Athletics."
Delilah slowly turns around to lean forward on the railing as she begins to speak, pulling a lum berry from her pocket and turning it over in her hand.
"Hi, I'm Delilah Chaser, the exchange student from your fourth period class, I have a quick question about the battling rules in this country."
"O-Oh, alright, what do you want to know?"
"I wanted to know what the policy is on held items during school sanctioned battles."
"Ah, that one's pretty standard worldwide, actually. One item at a time, no potions, battle items, bright powder or lax incense. You only get one use."
"Are berries allowed?"
"Of course. Are you thinking of bringing one in tomorrow?"
"Yeah, I'm thinking about it."
"Alright, as long as it's within regulation, will that be all?"
"Yep, thank you!"
"Take Care."
With that she hangs up the phone and glances to the berry in her hand, smirking. She throws it up a few inches and quickly catches it, before turning back around to head inside.
Before she can cross the threshold to her abode, her phone begins to vibrate and beep yet again. She halts in the doorway and stops herself from putting the device back in her pocket.
Upon observing the name on the contact, her eyes light up as she grins and answers the video call. A bubbly female voice erupts from her phone's speaker.
"GOOOOOD MORNING DARLING~! It's a beautiful day outside, perfect for a cute skirt~!" A spirited Braixen cheers as she comes on screen.
"You know I'm only like two hours behind you, right?"
"Pssh yeah! I…just wanted to open with that, for old time's sake!"
"You wanna run that again?"
"Mmmm….nah!"
"Alright, how've ya been, Zara? Keeping my baby brother outta trouble?"
"I've been great, darling~! I mean minus the fighting, but that's happening way up north! Isaac's been doing pretty good, in fact…" The orange-eyed Braixen chirps, before inching closer to her phone. "He's in the living room with A GIRL." She whispers. Jade has to take a double take to process what Zara just said.
"Wait…whaaat~?" She starts with a flabbergasted grin across her face. "Tell me more!"
"Heehee~! She's a Fennekin that goes to his school, pretty golden eyes!" Zara explains, Jade takes a second to process, then her enthusiasm fades, albeit keeping the smile.
"Oh wait." Jade replies, rolling her eyes as the Fox blips her tongue out playfully. "Yeah, Katherine and Isaac always did get along pretty well during meetups."
"How 'bout yourself, darling?"
"Well, some drama at school already, I'm afraid. I'll get into it later, I'm…still having some trouble adjusting, but I think once the said issue is resolved I'll be alright."
"I have faith it'll all work out! Now, come on, let me see it~!"
Delilah scoffs with a smirk, "Alright, fine." She relents as she switches the camera to the rear-facing camera, exposing the Braixen to the inside of Delilah's apartment. "Knock yourself out, Ms. interior designer." She jokes.
"Still gray? I thought you were gonna repaint the walls!" Zara asks as her face moves closer to her camera with squinted eyes.
"I repainted them! Just not in here." She replies as she heads further in.
"At least you've done some good contrast with- hey wait, is that a second-hand couch?!"
"Hey! That was the last thing on my list and dad didn't give me enough budget to afford anything better! I will say though, this is quite possibly the comfiest couch I've ever sat in!"
"Mmmm…." Zara hums, clearly showing disapproval of the aesthetic choice, but then shrugs. "I suppose that's what matters. Last I heard from you, you were just starting to work on your room? How's that coming?"
Delilah takes the phone into the door in between the kitchen and living room, allowing the Braixen to see her bedroom. "Ooooo~~! I love the dark maroon! It's so you, darling! The complimentary dark faux-wood tile looks great! Aw man, if only your room back home looked like this~!"
Delilah can't help but chuckle at the geeking out of her BFF. "Well I figured I might as well turn it into a space more in line with today's me, rather than 8 year old me, y'know? It's a bit small but it gets the job done."
"Oh for sure~! Well I think this room has successfully redeemed the main room, that's for sure~!" Zara replies, giving her camera a wink.
"Yeah, I kinda used most of my budget here. You satisfied yet? Can we get back to catching up?"
"Yeah, yeah! I'm satisfied. So tell me about this drama, give me deeetes!"
"Whooo, where do I begin?" Delilah starts as she flips the camera around and flops on her bed. "I found a group of people who seem really nice and they were really welcoming to me, but there's one member of it who just…hates my guts!"
"Really? Why?"
"I don't know! Klay, the guy who introduced me, thinks I might remind her of someone from her past or something."
"Have you tried talking to her about it?"
"Yes but she won't even bother to hear me out! In fact, she's even going to challenge me to a battle!"
"Well you were on the team with us! I'm sure you can take her! Maybe she'll listen if you can win!"
"That's my thought process as well, the problem is that she's a Scizor that's over level 70, and the Captain of the battling team…"
"O-oh…That's a problem."
"Yeeeeep…I'm trying to think of a way I can at least hold my own for a while, so far I'm drawing a blank cuz this whole thing's stressing me out."
"Have you thought about doing a VM?"
"VM?"
"You know! A Versus Mix! I remember you used it to beat Riley that one time and he was ten levels above you!"
Jade looks away, pondering the proposition.
"You know…that might work, I completely forgot about that. That was only a mock battle though, I don't think they'll let me use that strategy in a real one."
"...Nobody has to know."
The Snivy weighed her options, lifting up one of her earbuds from the front of her sweater.
"Well, worst case scenario I get disqualified. I'll give it a shot, thanks Z."
"Call me tomorrow, let me know how it goes!"
"I will, heading out?"
"Yeah, sorry we couldn't talk for longer, darling~!"
"Alright, see ya."
"Byyeeee~~!"
And with that, the Braixen disappears from her phone screen. Leaving the grass type alone in silence yet again.
Well, save for one.
So, that's Zara? I like her.
You've been quiet today.
Sometimes I have to actually do work, I mean, heck. There's a parallel universe where earth is glitched into hundreds of areas of space at the same time! Someone's gotta fix that before Arceus finds out!
…Parallel universes exist?
I mean that's more of Dialga's ballpark, but yeah.
Wait, does that mean there's multiple 'me's?
Well yeah, it's the multiverse, you're even a human in some of them, but I don't really need to get into this right now.
The fuck's a human?
I said I don't want to get into it.
…Fine.
Anyway, what's this "Versus Mix" thing about?
Well, I had an epiphany a couple years ago. Battling and dancing aren't really that different, two partners interlocked, ebbing and flowing to a rhythm. The only difference with battling is that rhythm can be exploited, if Valerie can catch onto my rhythm, she can use it against me.
And you against hers, right?
Well yes, but I don't think I can put out enough damage unless I use my two aces.
And what does this…mix do?
Well, she can't exploit my rhythm…
…
If it's constantly changing…
ALRIGHT! ACTION SCENE NEXT CHAPTER! And those of you who've read Covelight, my 'main' series, you know I love some good action! Because of that, I promise this next one will actually come out on time, assuming other shit doesn't get in the way like this chapter.
Long story short: Other Projects, A summer lifeguarding Job, a trip across europe, burnout. A whole lotta shit got in the way of this chapter, and given that it was essentially just a setup chapter, I wasn't as enthusiastic as I could've been, while writing this one. I'm sorry for the YEAR LONG DELAY, and I PROMISE I WILL DO BETTER. I KNOW I KEEP SAYING THIS BUT BELIEVE ME, I'M JUST AS FRUSTRATED AS YOU ARE.
Regardless, this is SavageCaliber, over and out.
Music Referenced:
Chapter Title: Disarray - Bad Computer.