Chapter 6: The Parade

In haste, Trance made his way back home, forgetting about his sunglasses. He would have to get them at a later time. He did not want to return to the vet when there was a possibility that the authorities were scavenging the area for any clues to the crime committed. The problem with waiting, however was that if the authorities found his sunglasses before anyone else, they would be able to identify that he was the owner, as his name was engraved on the inside part of one of the frame's earpieces. At this point, he could only hope for the best.

He arrived at his house with minimal conflict. The only person that stopped him was a kid who admired Trance's backpack. Apparently he was carrying a very trendy version of the newest line of backpacks that was very popular among school kids. He did not have to bring up the backpack's contents, but he was trying to avoid contact with people as much as he could on his return home.

Walking up to the porch, Trance decided that it would be best to hide the animal in his back yard. The shed would be ideal for now, considering that its only use was to store lawn care devices. Since his father was away, and since the yard was just done a few days ago, he did not foresee anyone making trips to the shed any time soon. Trance took a surgery mask from his garage and put it on over his face. He headed around back and traversed his yard over to the old shed. Since beyond his yard was just forest, he hid behind the shed so that nobody could see him from the house or from next door. Sitting down, he lowered the mask from his face, unzipped the backpack and found the pikachu inside to be mostly awake. It looked up at him with curiosity. He scooped up Pikachu, using the rubber lining for protection, and put him on the ground.

"Hey there," said Trance. Again, uncomfortable with the fact that he was talking directly to animals as if he were trying to have a conversation, he found it hard to find the right words to say. "I, um, brought you here to my house. I was, er… hoping to hide you here until your owner could come get you." Pikachu gave an affirmative nod. Trance was relieved that he could easily talk to Pikachu as if he were just another person. He became more confident with what he had to say.

"I don't know if you are aware, but you are in a country where pokémon are not respected for what they are. As a matter of fact, your kind is seen as a threat to our society." He sighed. "Anyway, I'm going to have to hide you in this shed until later tonight." Pikachu responded by tilting his head to the side and making a sound as if he was confused. Trance hesitated talking further. He did not know what Pikachu did not understand; the fact that he was not respected or why he was here in the first place, or maybe both, or possibly he understood it all and did not know what to say about it. He sighed again and smiled at Pikachu.

"The only reason I am helping you out myself is because… I don't know what is right in society and what is wrong, at least in terms of people's lifestyles. Gallawains believe that Pokémon have corrupted the world's wildlife, but everyone else seems enjoy the change, and they believe that taking advantage of these creatures for their own benefit is an acceptable way of life." Trance paused for a moment. "Look, as of this afternoon I will be a ranger, and my primary job will be to exterminate animals like you." Pikachu gave a quick look of fear and disgust at Trance. "But, don't worry, I've been thinking for a while, and I am wondering if this is the right way to go about life. I mean, you don't seem so bad." Pikachu's expression changed to a satisfied look. "I just want to make sure that what I do is absolutely the right thing for this world." Pikachu walked up to Trance and sat down in front of him. Apparently, the bandage had helped him recover enough to move freely again. "People should have a right to live however they want, as long as what they do doesn't negatively affect society as a whole. And yet, Gallawains believe that you all affect society in a negative way. The thing is, we only make up, what, 3 of the world? They view us as a threat to society and want us to keep to ourselves about what we think is right. I guess since it goes two ways, both sides have something valid to argue about, and that's why I want to find out the absolute truth." Pikachu jumped up and started checking out the backpack behind him.

"Ugh, I don't even know why I am talking to you about this. Listen, just stay here until tonight. Make sure nobody sees you. If you are seen you will most likely be killed on the spot. I will bring you food and water before I leave today, so just sit tight until I come back." Trance opened the shed door and motioned for Pikachu to enter. "I hope you don't mind the smell of gasoline, although it isn't so bad considering I used up whatever was left of it a few days ago. I'll open up the window on the far side of the shed to give you some air." After Pikachu had walked inside, Trance closed the shed and opened the ventilation window in the back. "See you tonight," said Trance as he put the mask back on over his face and headed back towards his house. Pikachu responded with a "Pika" sound, which obviously meant something along the lines of "okay."

Trance walked in through the front of his house and into the kitchen. He was greeted by his mother, who was in the process of getting ready for the parade. "Good morning Trance. Good to see you're already up. What were you doing out back?"

Taking off the mask and throwing it in the trash can, Trance made a heavy sigh as if relieved from stressful work. "I was checking on the hornet's nest behind the shed. By the way, don't go back there, I just emptied a second can, and the bottle said to wait at least 24 hours before going near the area because the poison is so strong." Trance was quick to make up decent excuses on short notice. Although because of the situation this time around, this devious excuse was more than enough to fool his mom for a while.

"Oh, so they're still there then… well, whatever, hurry up and get ready to leave!" said Heather, who was tying her long hair back. Leaving the kitchen, she headed upstairs to her room to gather her makeup. Knowing that this was too close of a call, Trance decided to nearly forget everything about the pokémon in his shed and go along with life as if everything was normal, at least until tonight. This was not very long to keep an act going, but Trance's entire future was at stake, so every moment counted for everything.

He headed upstairs, where he prepared for the celebration. All he needed to do was change his clothing into something nice, retrieve his camera, and wash up. Since he was able to do this quickly, he had time to quickly run downstairs, grab some bread and water, and run outside and put it in the shed for Pikachu.

Knowing that he was probably seen, Trance headed back as fast as he could. Unfortunately, upon reentering the kitchen, he once again found his mom looking at him in a confused manner, saying "what is up with you and that shed this morning?" Holding out his wallet, he simply said "I dropped this outside, I just wanted to get it, is that alright with you?" Disregarding the thought that something was probably going on given the slightly worried look on Trance's face, Heather simply waved Trance aside and gathered the last of her things before heading out the door.

"I hope you know that I was waiting on your return for quite a while. I was about to leave without you." said Heather, who was walking at a brisk pace.

"I'm sorry, I got a little held up."

Since the parade was walking distance from their house, Trance, Heather, and most of the rest of the neighborhood, set out towards the nearest marked part of the parade route.

"Where did you go this morning anyway? I thought we discussed that we would be leaving around 9:00. Yet, you came back later than that! I don't know what to think, because it's not like you to do this at all, ever! I want to know what is going on Trance."

Heather was known to be one of the most punctual people in the entire town. She was incredibly strict about timeliness. She was also bent on teaching everyone, especially her own son, to be on time as often as possible. If there was one thing she hated the most in the world, it was tardiness. Trance wanted to explain himself without revealing the fact that he was actually hiding a pokémon in the back yard, but he could hardly think of anything to say at the moment.

"Can I tell you later? It's not something I want to talk about right now, with the parade going on and all." Heather just looked at Trance as if he were talking nonsense.

At this point in time, there was a large amount of people heading down the road with Trance and Heather. He knew a lot of these people from where he lived. Some were friends of the family, were from his school, and some he knew as friends with whom he spent time with outside of class. He joined up with a few of them and they conglomerated into a larger group of people. This helped him avoid having to explain himself to his mother. It was not long before Trance met up with one of his best friends, Nick Collamore, who was also walking with his mother. Pushing past the rest of the people in the group, he caught up with Nick.

"Hey you, I figured you would be coming," said Trance to Nick.

"Oh hey Trance, how's it going?" Nick was calm in his attitude as he always was. He was always decent, never showing too much emotion in whatever he did. This was one of the only times he was ever seen somewhat excited. For one thing, he was graduating with Trance in a matter of hours, but since he was always following current events, he was excited about what was happening with the parade today. He was always concerned about the progress of the nation. "Trance, did you hear? Rumor has it that your father won the tournament and is returning home with a huge announcement of success. It's supposed to be one of the biggest things in this nation's history. I'm just glad the media can actually keep a secret around here. I love the suspense."

Trance laughed. "Yea seriously, I know they do that because there are people like you who are huge supporters of this nation's ideas. They keep you in suspense so you will keep watching their reports in hopes for more information."

"They're way too damn annoying about how they go on and on about how they have the biggest stories 'coming up in a few minutes,' and all they end up doing is saying that all day long. I am so anxious to find out what really happened."

"Well yeah, don't you figure that half of the people coming to this parade would not be here if they revealed what happened on last night's news? Again, it's another stupid media advertisement thing. I'll bet there will be banners of advertisements everywhere," said Trance.

"Yes, because we love advertisements. They are the centers of our lives. Hey, would you mind helping me burn them all after the parade?"

"Certainly," said Trance sarcastically.

As they continued walking, everyone was congratulating Trance, Nick and the few other graduates who happened to be around as well. Trance took these gestures lightly, as there was definitely more to come later that day. Even so, he did not take being in such a large group for granted, as being in a big group composed of graduating students made it easier for them to find a decent spot along the parade route.

The walk was short, and once everyone was able to find a seat along the route, Trance merely stood in the middle with his friends. There was a lot to talk about, and Trance was the subject of a lot of the conversations. This was mainly due to the fact that his father was coming back from the mission of peace, most likely victorious.

The main idea of this parade was to celebrate the efforts of the people who put their lives on the line for the country of Gallaway. The hunt in South Africa was one of the only recent events when the people of Gallaway have needed to risk the lives of its citizens, and since Trance's father was one of the only significant people involved, he was the main feature of the parade. Additionally, this was the first time that any country had openly supported the development of Gallaway as a nation and as a society. This was a sign to the citizens that Gallaway was taking the right approach to correcting the corrupted world.

It was not long before Trance could hear the drums of the marching band that was leading the parade. The drum cadence was followed by a glorious brass ensemble. It became apparent that the band was performing the Gallawain national anthem. Since the song was roughly three minutes long when played at the appropriate speed, there was a lot to be heard, and there was not much song repeating to be done by the marching band. Soon he could see the entire band come into view, which was in a perfect rectangular formation. To everyone's surprise, following the band was a very gothic looking float. On each corner of the float was a person standing in a wide stance hanging their heads all the way forward. One of them held a microphone, two of them had guitars, one of them had a keyboard in front of them, and in the center sat a fifth person with a drum set. After the marching band had finished playing through the anthem the first time, they repeated about ten seconds later, only this time the people on the float joined in! The screaming of electric guitars filled the air and the words to the anthem were sung by the singer on top of the float. There was a roar of applause.

"Oh my God," said Nick in amazement, "I can't believe they actually agreed to hire a metal band to play along." One of the only things that got Nick more emotional was when something incredibly unexpected like this happened. It was of course unexpected that the management of the parade had actually agreed to hire Sonata Arctica to play a metallized version of the national anthem.

"You've got to be kidding me," were the only words that could escape Trance's mouth at the sight of this. Of course, there was nothing wrong with allowing the band to play in the parade. In fact, they did an amazing job performing the song, it just seemed extremely inappropriate for such an event. This did not take away from the thunderous cheering that ensued because of the first surprise that this parade presented. Trance did not forget to snap as many pictures as he could. This was indeed a moment to remember.

Following the band was a variety of floats containing small versions of designs that were to become monuments and parts of memorials that will be set up in the local national parks. These memorials were meant to recognize those who put their lives on the line for the past wars of Gallaway, and for those who have made historical changes for the better of the nation. People began to clap and cheer at some of the designs that passed. Trance did not see his father on any of these memorials. He was not expecting there to be any at this time, because Sean had hardly done enough in his life to earn a place with the memorials. Trance only expected to see a memorial of his father sometime in his life, once he had become more accomplished.

Soon, he was able to see the last float of the parade appear, on top of which sat his father. He was surrounded by other people, many of whom had assisted him during the event, including his hunting partner. People began to cheer once more for Sean and the group of officials on the float. Trance waved to his father, who did not see him due to the enormous amount of people who were seated along the side. This did not bother Trance all too much, because he would be joining up with his father at the end of the parade regardless. He was sure to take a few pictures of his father on top of the rather plain parade float. Following the parade float was a large group of people who had taken the initiative to see the celebration at the final destination of the parade. It was there that they would announce the results of the hunt, and the future of the nation.

Once the final group had passed, people began to leave, while some joined into the crowd of people that were following the parade. The events of the parade were all the talk amongst most of the people who were leaving. He could hear people talking about how nice some of the memorial designs looked. Others were talking about how awesome the metallized version of the national anthem had been.

Nick, Trance, and Heather, along with many other people, followed the last group of the parade down the path towards the end of the route. It was rather difficult to stay together because of all the people who were trying to push past one another. Trance could hardly make out where he was headed. He could only rely on the fact that everyone was heading somewhere and that wherever he ended up, there would be tons of people around him so he would be safe. From his point of view he could only see loads of people, the sky and the buildings of the city up ahead. The crowd was soon taken to the center of the city, where the streets were lined with many buildings and offices. There was confetti and streamers flying everywhere. This was the heart of the celebration. Sonata Arctica's repeated performance could be heard up ahead as they played for everyone in this area of the city one last time.

The crowd's movement was eventually halted at the last stop. They had arrived. The crowd's noise was elevated by the excitement of everyone around him. By this time, Trance had lost sight of both his mother and Nick among the chaos of the crowd. Seeing that it was futile to try to find either of them, Trance pushed through the crowd up to the front where he could see his father disembarking the float. He saw that there was a path in the crowd cleared and roped off so that the officials on the float could approach the high-standing podium that was set up next to one of the buildings. The first person to make it to the top of the stand about ten meters high, which overlooked the entire crowd, was one of the nation's most highly regarded senators. He was the one scheduled to make the announcement.

While the announcement was being prepared, Trance made it up to the edge of the cleared path, where he saw his father walking past. Luckily, Sean only walked a few feet further before standing at the edge of the steps that led up to the podium. This gave Trance an ample opportunity to make for the edge of the roped off area closest to where Sean was standing. When he got as close as he could, he was able to reach over and tap his father on the shoulder. Apparently, security was very lenient about this, seeing as they did not feel compelled to prevent Trance from doing this. Turning around casually, Sean was able to see his son for the first time in over a month.

"Hey Trance!" he yelled over the loud roar of the crowd. He lifted up the rope and allowed Trance to slip under it, letting him to stand near his side.

"It's great to see you again, father!" said Trance excitedly.

"You too son! It's been quite a while!" They stood there chatting about how exhilarating the celebration was up to this point, and how he was happy that things were finally looking up for everyone. Finally, Sean oriented the subject to a more pressing matter. "Hey, Senator Herriman is about to make the announcement," said Sean, pointing at the senator who was standing tall and proud on the podium, "This is supposed to be a good speech. I just hope for the life of me that he says what he is supposed to."

Senator Herriman, one of the better known senators of the government, spoke with strength and dignity as he addressed the crowd before him.

"Citizens of Gallaway!" Senator Herriman was well known for over-dramatizing his speeches. That did not, however, cut back in his popularity. Most people seemed mesmerized by his speaking, which ultimately gave him favorable advantage in debates and competitions. At the sound of his voice, the crowd's volume was cut in half and further quieted in a matter of seconds. "It is my pleasure to announce the first major victory of our nation. This victory was not won through continued strife between this nation and another, rather this victory was won through expressed friendship and agreement of ideas and beliefs between two nations." People began cheering as these words emerged from Herriman.

"The victory was won because of the will and dedication of the citizens of this nation. Especially present in two specific citizens of this nation, Sean Enphernium…" There was a sudden roar of applause as Sean took his time waving to everyone in the crowd with a massive smile on his face. "…Sean Enphernium," he continued, "the head of this district's ranger department, and his most trusted assistant, Jonathon Green," there was more applause erupted from the crowd, "these two have brought with them great honor and recognition. I am proud to announce the unification of Gallaway, and two nations in Southern Africa." At this point, nobody had expected any such results to occur. They merely expected to have won the respect of another group of people in the world, a single government at least. To have encountered results involving actual conglomeration was completely unexpected.

"This merging effort, however, will not involve a complete change of the map as we know it; this will merely affect territorial possession. The two countries in Southern Africa will remain governmentally unchanged. They will merely be under the social and economic influence of our nation. This will strengthen our ideals and bring us one step closer to achieving our nation's ultimate goal." The crowd noise rose to a new level. The citizens of Gallaway had become extensively excited about the future of the nation. Sean and looked up at the senator, clearly impressed with his speech. Sean, who had known the results beforehand, merely held his silence and smiled, proud of what he had accomplished in the name of Gallaway.

"Well!" Sean finally shouted as loud as he could so Trance could hear, "I think they're happy about it!"

"Oh my God dad that's so amazing!" shouted Trance, completely in disbelief at what he had just heard. In Trance's mind, this was the best news he had heard in a while. Even though he was unsure whether people outside the country were willing to conform to Gallaway's ideas of how society should be run, he had come to the realization that there were other people who agreed with the idea that today's society outside of Gallaway did have its flaws. This meant that this 3 of the world that was a threat to the other 97 was in fact an unrealistic estimation. Although he felt he was beginning to understand the situation better, there were still things bothering him, such as the moral aspects of forcibly imposing one's ideas upon another. It's okay, I will figure it all out in time, thought Trance to himself.

Looking down the street, which was nearly empty as most of the crowd had dispersed, Trance, Heather, and Sean looked at the podium where the senator had made his extraordinary announcement. This was news that was going to change the world. In their eyes, it was a change for the better.

"I've been hearing rumors from some of my coworkers that because of this accomplishment, there are several other countries who have, in response, openly expressed support for our growing nation. I also heard that many parts of Asia want to actually merge our governments," explained Sean.

"So they like the way our government works! That's great!" exclaimed Heather.

"Well it's more than just our government; it's the way that our society functions. They are beginning to see how society in the past has had its significant advantages compared to what they have going with their…" Sean paused, "pokémon…" he hesitated to say the word. "Maybe they will begin to realize their erroneous ways, that enslaving animal after animal is wrong, and that these animals are plaguing… well you know the rest." Sean laughed, knowing that explaining himself over and over to the same people was redundant. Although it was understandable, considering he found it hard to not express himself with regards to his passion for his beliefs.

"We know, father, we've heard it before!" Trance joked.

"Think of this as one small step for Gallaway," said Sean.

"And one giant leap for our ideals! Right?" said Trance enthusiastically. Heather laughed hearing this.

"Yes, I would say that about fits," said Sean. "Alright, what do you say we head home? I'm anxious to see what has happened after all this time."

With that, Sean, Heather, and Trance made their way towards home.

A/N: Wow, I am loving how this is turning out. I have made it about 40 through this story. I hope to get the next chapter up soon, but it may be a while. Keep checking for updates, as I plan to make this plot get very interesting.