Chapter Two:
Another Fine Mess
Disclaimer: I do not own the series Pokémon. Like, at all. It and all its respectable characters are © to Game Freak and Satoshi Tajiri. However, all writing contents and semi-plots here are © to me; unless it is stated otherwise. All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I do not own them.
Notes: I noticed a lack of interaction in the review box! Not upset, just something I noticed. If I have offended anyone with my pleas from last chapter's notes, it wasn't my intent to offend or call out any one individual. It was merely a request that I'd appreciate keeping things civil. I hope that this wasn't too much of a request.
Anyway, enough of my blathering! I hope last chapter was read, and that you enjoy this one! Here is where the seedlings of the plot begins to trickle in.
"You're not making sense, man!"
"Excuse me, I'm making perfect sense. You're just not keeping up."
-Tony Mack and The Doctor, "Doctor Who"
"Norman! So good of you to finally make it!"
The Petalburg gym leader nodded toward his colleague, Wattson of Mauville City, offering a thin smile toward the jovial older man.
"Sorry I'm late. I was held up."
"With what, another pupil? Lord knows you've taken on more than your fair share of 'em lately!" Wattson laughed, but it was short and quick. Before long, it faded just as quick as it'd come, and a fleeting air of seriousness enveloped the other man. "How has everything been lately? How're you holding up?"
Norman closed his eyes, face schooled into patient serenity, even if he was being battered relentlessly by internal chaos. He had just taken in a strange woman into his home, right after he had just had her arrested the other morning. She was tight-lipped on how or why she had been there, but he's learned over the years to trust his gut. And it was telling him that the strange happenings in the world recently had something to do with her sudden appearance. Perhaps, he corrected himself, not her specifically—she had a bit of a mouth on her, but other than that, she didn't appear to be anything entirely special or unique—but with the sudden and unexplained…strangeness that seemed to envelop her. Even if she herself wasn't aware of the aura she seemed to put out, he could feel it, just barely, rolling across him in waves. He hasn't decided if it was good or not yet but keeping her close at hand may prove fruitful.
"I've been fine, Wattson. I promise." Before Wattson could shoot off another question, Norman changed the subject. "Am I the only one late or are we waiting for someone else?"
Wattson sobered at the inquiry and nodded toward the doors that lay beyond. "Most everyone's here, except for Wallace and Roxanne. And, of course, in typical fashion—"
"—we're also waiting on Steven." Norman felt a more relaxed smile tug at his lips. "Of course."
Wattson belted out another laugh, clapping Norman heartily on the shoulder that very nearly knocked him over. He recovered before the older gent noticed.
"Let's get inside, m'boy, afore any of the others gets here and tries to rub it in both our faces!"
The two gym leaders made for the door and threw them open to reveal the glossy conference table within, ringed by chairs both occupied and empty. Just as Wattson had reported, most of everyone else were already there, lounging in their assigned seats. Flannery, their newest gym leader member, hopped up to her feet upon seeing Wattson and rounded the table to tackle him into a hug. Wattson took it in good grace, laughter booming out of him like cannon fire as he returned the young woman's embrace enthusiastically.
"There's our new girl! How're ya holding the position, kiddo?"
"Great, thanks! I mean, I'm still trying to find my feet in all this mess, but hey, I think I'm getting better!"
"That-a girl, that's the spirit! Don't let anyone drain your batteries!"
"You mean don't let them put out my fire, right?" Flannery teased back, sharing a loud laugh with Wattson. Norman left the two to catch up and took up his seat, nestled between Flannery's and Winona's. The other woman shifted in her seat and took him in with a calm look and a serene smile. She reached up to tuck a stray lavender lock back behind her ear.
"Norman. It's good to see you. How have you been? It's been a while," she asked, her voice airy and quiet.
As Norman chatted with the others and caught up with them all, Wallace and Roxanne eventually came to join them. Soon, the only one they were waiting upon was Steven. They didn't have long to wait for the Hoenn Champion to make his appearance, and when he arrived, everyone fell silent. They followed him with their eyes, silent as the grave, as Steven took his seat at the head of the conference table. The young man waited a moment longer, nodding to them all in recognition before he began.
"Thank you all again for coming. I apologize for the inconvenience I may have imposed with your schedules, but as I'm sure you're well aware, we're in dire straits at the moment." With practiced ease, he plucked up a lone remote settled at his seat. With a click of several buttons, the back panel of the room behind him slid away to reveal a large screen imbedded in the wall. It winked to life, immediately showcasing a newsfeed, with the logo for Sinnoh Region News. The woman, with her platinum blonde hair smartly pinned in a bun, her blue blazer prim and clean, gazed boldly with clear hazel-green eyes into the camera unflinchingly as a smaller window feed was pinned to the corner of the screen.
"—reports of the Creation Trio's appearances across Sinnoh are beginning to emerge more frequently. We have confirmed with several scientists across the region that readings of dimensional rifts are appearing across the region, in conjunction with the disappearances of citizens—"
In the pinned window of a looping video beside her, was a feed of the renegade pokémon, Giratina, sliding into an amorphous dimensional rift, like an Ekans slithering into a Rattata burrowing hole. The rift slid shut as its tail disappeared into it. The loop lasted only several seconds and kept replaying a few times. It switched to show a brief flash of Dialga rocketing skyward into an overcast sky. Hot on its tail was Palkia, charging up to blast off a Hyper Beam attack at its fleeing quarry.
Steven allowed the newsfeed to play a minute longer, then muted it, and swiveled back around in his seat to face the rest of the Hoenn League and gym leader members.
"Sinnoh has been trying to keep this hush-hush for a while, but their attempts have obviously failed. With more eyewitnesses observing these legendary pokémon, it's been nearly impossible to keep the lid on things for long. Especially when its citizens are recording these events as they happen across the region, it wasn't long before the world over began to notice things as well."
"Damn internet junkies," Wattson griped, although there was no malice in his tone. Instead, there was a deflated acceptance dripping from his words and it wasn't long before he allowed a reluctant grin twitch his lips upwards.
"And what exactly does that have to do with us here in Hoenn?" Drake, the last member of the League quartet, remarked pointedly, ignoring Wattson's remark. There were a few nods of agreement from some of the gym leaders, but Norman remained silent, waiting for Steven to continue.
"Those dimensional rift readings those scientists have been studying? They've spread beyond the scope of Sinnoh's borders. They've begun to appear elsewhere. People going missing. People appearing out of nowhere. It's impossible to say if any pokémon have done the same, as we don't keep a strict census on all wild populations, but I wouldn't put it off the table if some have gone missing as well, especially trainer-registered pokémon alongside their trainers."
Norman sat up a little straighter at this block of information passed along to them. As low murmurs were shot around the table, Norman couldn't help but focus on Steven's admission: people were, in fact, going missing. People were appearing, seemingly out of nowhere. His thoughts immediately flew to the young woman staying at his house.
He had heard the rumours, of course, but at the time, they had only been just that: rumours. Small and inconsequential, he hadn't devoted any time to chasing or confirming them, and with his work in Petalburg, his focus had been on the community, not the world. When Shay had arrived under mysterious circumstances, Norman had been ready to move on after the police had taken her away to their station, to wipe his hands of the mess and go home to rest.
But it was by Steven's orders that he get her released and take her in, despite his reluctance in doing so. Now he had his suspicions as to why Steven had him do so in the first place.
As though he had read his mind, Steven turned his steel-coloured gaze on Norman, smiling wanly.
"As a matter of fact, I believe we may have a location on one such Appeared person. Norman? Would you care to relate your encounter?"
Damn. Right on the spotlight. He should have seen this coming. Eyes trained themselves on him and Norman shifted in his seat. He cleared his throat and nodded, but not before throwing a disapproving frown Steven's way.
"A woman appeared in my home. I'm not sure how long she was there, but she claims to not have any memory to how she got there. My home was secured with no signs of a break-in, and even if there had been a break-in, I have a security system in place for extra measure. She had no identification on her, and when the police ran prints and photos on her, she wasn't in any Trainer Registration Database, nor was she listed in any criminal databases, local or international." He paused, taking his time to collect his thoughts before continuing. "When Steven called me yesterday morning to check-in on things with my gym and I related the incident to him, he had me return to the station to have the woman released into my custody. That's as much as I know at this time, but she was still back at my place as of this morning."
He hoped she was still there when he returned.
"If I had known that this was to be today's topic of our meeting, I would have brought her along with me."
"Shame you didn't, but I hadn't thought of that myself, if I'm being honest. I apologize on that matter. Thank you, Norman." Steven stated with a cool nod in Norman's direction. The Petalburg gym leader canted his head back in return. "As far as how many others have gone missing, and those that have Appeared…we're still working on that. It's going to be difficult to differentiate normal disappearances versus these unnatural ones, and as to where they're coming from, we don't have enough information on that matter either, but I'm sure we will soon enough."
"So, what's the plan? We just gonna barrel on over to Sinnoh and try to blast those pokémon out of the sky, be done with it?" Sidney piped up, earning him a look of ire from several other members. Glacia especially was giving him a cold gaze, her lips pursed tightly together into a thin line. "I mean, I'm all for it, no question about it, but…those things are gods, and last time I checked, they were also supposed to be legends. You know, the stuff of myths, bedtime stories, all that jazz."
"That is actually the second topic of this meeting. I was out of the region, as you well know, and while it was partly to continue my research on Mega Evolution, I was waylaid by this growing situation in Sinnoh. I met with the League Champion there, Cynthia, to discuss options on their predicament."
"And what conclusion did you both reach, if any?" Winona piped up beside Norman, her voice still airy as always, but with a steel edge of seriousness coating her words.
"Well, it was more than Cynthia I met with, if I'm being honest," Steven admitted. "I wasn't the only League Champion with her. Red, the current Kanto-Johto Champion, actually came out of training to come meet with us, alongside the temporary place-holding Champion, Lance. Unfortunately, Hilda from Unova, wasn't available, so her predecessor, Alder, came in her stead."
"What about the Region Professors?"
Steven shook his head. "They have their hands full enough as it is, but they are accepting of any research components and data analyzations they can on the matter. I'll be meeting with Professor Birch later on to discuss the subject, see what he can offer. As for where we stand on the situation in Sinnoh…" Steven sighed heavily, his shoulders slumping ever so slightly. It was the first sign of exhaustion Norman's seen in Steven in a long while. It was startling, to say the least. He was normally a very well put-together young man who rarely offered any sign of weakness.
Such was the fate of a Champion.
"As for what conclusion we reached, is that we can't offer much in the way of help,. It's not just the Creation Trio they're worrying over, it's the terrorist organization that released them all in the first place, Team Galactic. Currently, they have some handle on it, as they're trying to reverse whatever they have done, and that brings me to the next subject. As I'm sure you all know, we have had run-ins with our own terrorist organizations: Team Aqua and Team Magma."
"You mean those costumed nut jobs that have been running around lately? I thought they were just cosplay enthusiasts." Flannery interjected. A few people uttered their own concurrence on the matter, saying they too have noticed a rise in the costumed individuals. Steven waited for their chatter to die down before he continued onwards.
"Yes, I do mean those people. We aren't sure what Team Aqua's goals are, exactly, as they haven't released any statements beyond their desire to "expand the sea". As far as I can tell, Team Magma are opposing Team Aqua, but what their goals are from one another, they also haven't released a definitive statement, or what their operation size is like. They weren't much trouble when they registered themselves as nature preservationist and conservationist groups, but there's been an increase in reports issued against them. Petty thievery such as attempts at stealing trainer registered pokémon after battles, things of this nature. I've already alerted authorities across the region to be on high alert for these people, but I also expect you to do so as well. It's partly why I had to pull out of offering full support in assisting Champion Cynthia and Sinnoh."
"Has anyone heard from Alola at this time? Or any of the other island regions, for that matter?" Wallace suddenly inquired. Steven glanced at the Sootopolis gym leader, surprise colouring his features momentarily. He shook his head.
"Not at this time, no. Alola doesn't have a proper League as of yet, but from what I've heard, Professor Kukui has put forth a proposal for one. As far as the other nations such as the Sevii Islands, I've reached out, but haven't heard back as of this moment. I will continue to reach out, and have Professor Birch do so as well, see if their islands have experienced any strangeness that we have."
With that all said, Steven began to wrap up the conversation of the meeting, fielding questions for the next ten minutes. All the while, Norman mulled over the information that had just been given to them all. It was some time before he too pushed a piece of inquiry Steven's way.
"What, exactly, do we do with those that have appeared here? What am I to do with the woman at my house?"
That gave Steven, along with most everyone around him, pause. It grew quiet, but Norman could see the sudden flash of the same question rolling around on their faces as well. What were they supposed to do for these Appeared people? Steven took his time in answering, letting the silence roll over them in waves.
"We can't just…leave them alone, can we? We can't ignore them." Roxanne said when the crushing silence became too much. With the hush broken, there was a series of quietly muttered concurrence from the others, nods and agreement all around. Steven stared over each of them, studying them carefully. He turned back to Norman, and when he began to answer, the rest fell quiet.
"For the woman at your house, I would suggest giving her something to do, so that she doesn't feel quite so lost. Perhaps give her a job at your gym, or somewhere else, if she prefers. Let her ease in on things, but don't overwhelm her on the matter. I would suggest much the same for anyone else any of you find from this point on."
The conversation began to wrap up from there, dwindling down to nitpicky or broad subjects that Steven had to defer to a later date when more information was available. When he finally had them all released from the meeting, it was nearly noon. Norman made a pit stop in the front lobby, watching as the others either lingered around or they immediately took off back to their gyms as he pulled out his phone to place a call. The line rang a couple times before, to his relief, Professor Birch picked up.
He sounded, as usual, out of breath and excited when his voice came up on the other line.
"Norman, ya old coot, how ya been!"
"Fine, Professor Birch. And you?"
"Good, good! Not too bad myself."
"How's Brenden doing?" Norman pressed, deciding to catch up on pleasantries first. Birch laughed. It was almost as hearty-sounding as Wattson's.
"Ah, the kid's a chip off the old block, taking after his old man, if I do say so myself! Assisting me in my research, helping out at the lab—kid's prime material to go into the same line of work as me."
Norman found his smile to be bitter at the sound of that news, and it felt it eat away, bit by bit, at his heart. He internally scolded himself when he caught it doing so.
It's not his fault, Norman told himself. Not his fault his child is able to follow in his footsteps and yours…
Norman shook the thoughts from his mind, pushing himself back on track.
"That sounds fantastic, I'm glad to hear it," he said. With niceties aside, now he could move on to the heart of the matter. "Listen, the reason I'm calling is…well, it's big, Birch. Are you at your lab, by any chance?"
"Um, yeah, I am. Steven caught me right before I was about to go out into the field, asked if I could hold off on any outdoor research for the day. He wanted to see me in-person. Why?"
"I had hoped to talk to you in-person myself. Do you know when he'll be out of your hair?"
"Sometime in the afternoon. I'll give you a call when I'm free. You gonna be swinging by back home or going to your gym?"
"I'll be home," Norman confirmed.
"Sounds good, I'll call you there, then."
"Thanks, Birch. I'll see you later."
"Not a problem. And hey, Norman? Take care of yourself. Seriously."
With that said, the line went dead, and Norman, with nothing else left to do, pocketed his phone and headed to the Teleport Lab, where only gym leaders and League members had access to it. In fact, only they knew about its existence. The technician on duty was looking rather bored as they stared at their computer screen, but as soon as Norman popped in, they shot to their feet, looking embarrassed at being caught slacking off.
"Oh, shit—Mister Norman, I—"
"Save it. So long as you weren't looking up porn, I don't care what you do with your work hours. That's not my job." Norman stated bluntly, to which the young man's face coloured up nice and pink.
"Uh, r-right. Sorry. Um, didja need a transport, sir?"
"Yes. Back to Littleroot."
"Anywhere specific?"
"My home." Norman relayed the coordinates, the technician nodded and with a small amount of fumbling, he fished out a pokéball, tossing it. Spilling from light and energy, the form of a Kirlia arose. The Kirlia glanced between its trainer and Norman.
"Hey, Crissie, time to go to work." The technician all but cooed, offering the coordinates to Norman's home to the emotion pokémon. Crissie nodded, unperturbed, and turned to Norman, holding out a hand to him. He gently reached out and clasped the pokémon's hand in his own. It took seconds for the Kirlia's teleport technique to bring him from the League in Ever Grande City to his home in Littleroot. He stared up at his house, looking pleased, and turned to the Kirlia for thanks. Crissie curtsied in acknowledgment, then in a wink was gone, just like that.
Norman pressed on, making his way into the house.
The woman was still there, much to his surprise. He had almost been expecting her to have run off, perhaps even nicked a few things to fence at some seedy little pawn shop elsewhere. But no, no. She was there, relaxing on the couch with his Zigzagoon, Bandit, snoozing in her lap and a pokémon documentary on city-dwelling pokémon in places such as Grimer in Celadon of Kanto or Trubbish moving in Castelia City over in Unova. She hadn't seemed to notice him quite yet, her focus was so intent on the television.
A frown and furrow of the brow adorned her features as the narrator went on.
"They're talking about how hungry they are, they're not just 'lazing around'. What is this guy talking about?" She mumbled low to herself, her frown still firmly in place. It was there Norman cleared his throat, announcing his presence more fully, and she jumped up, startled. Bandit went tumbling to the ground with a surprised yelp, and she hurriedly bent down to pick him up, murmuring apologies. When she straightened, she was like a Deerling in headlights, frozen and wide-eyed, and perhaps looking a smidgeon guilty, like she'd been caught doing something she shouldn't have.
"I see you've finally decided to take some liberties in my absence." He remarked dryly. Her eyes flickered to the television, the narrator still drawling on. She reached down to swipe up the remote and jabbed at the power button and the video blanked out of existence. Silence hung between them like the dust motes that have collected in his home for the last few weeks.
"Sorry."
"No, no. Please, by all means. Enjoy what you can."
She eyed him, her brow furrowing into that intense concentration again, guarded and drawn tight as a bowstring, like she was just waiting for him to spring a trap upon her. She was suspicious and he supposed he couldn't fault her for being as such. The last thirty-six hours has been a whirlwind for her as much as it has been for him. Norman watched her, feeling the beginnings of a smile tugging at his lips. Before she could figure out what he meant by that, he motioned for her to follow him.
"C'mon. We're taking you shopping."
"I…wait, what?"
"You have one pair of clothes, no shoes, no socks. I'm going to hazard a guess you won't enjoy that for much longer, especially when you need to do laundry. I have no clothes that'll fit you in the interim either." He saw her cheeks flush, suddenly reminded of the clothing she had borrowed for the night. They really were much too big for her, and he had nothing else to offer her. Hesitantly, she stood there for longer than he would have liked, and he sighed, glancing over at her from his shoulder. "I also need to go grocery shopping. I'm sure you noticed the lack of food everywhere."
"Yeah…I did," she replied. "Why is that?"
"I'm rarely ever home and it didn't make much sense to have food rotting in the fridge and cupboards for weeks on end when I get all my food elsewhere."
"Your job keeps you away for that long?"
"It's the kind of job that requires me to be available to the public at all times, as often as possible. I don't like being kept away for long." She began to follow him. Satisfied, he whipped out his phone and pressed on an app, quickly dialing in commands through the prompt screens, and then replaced it in his pocket as they reached the front door. Before he led them out, he recalled Bandit into his pokéball. As soon as the Zigzagoon was nestled safely within, he returned the pokéball onto his belt.
"What about your family?"
There was something subdued about her tone, like she had an inkling of an idea of his situation but wanted to confirm her suspicions by hearing it from him. Norman felt his tongue turn numb and thick inside his mouth, unwilling to cooperate. At last, he managed to untangle it all and answered her as he locked up the house after she stepped outside.
"I don't have one." A beat. "Not anymore."
"Oh." She was quick to put two and two together and was quiet for a moment longer than usual. Then, "I'm sorry."
"It happened years ago."
"How? If you don't mind my asking, that is."
"Plane crash. Mechanical failures that were overlooked. My wife and…and my daughter…" Norman trailed off, mostly due to the painful lump growing in his throat. Even years after the fact, it still hurt. It was still a gaping, open wound that he had hoped would have scabbed over and healed with the passage of time, but every inquiry or mention of his lost family reopened it all over again. "They didn't survive the crash. No one did."
"I'm sorry," the woman said again, sounding genuinely heartfelt in her response.
"Like I said before…it happened years ago."
Yet it still felt fresh in his mind. There were times when he swore he could still smell his wife's perfume even when the room was completely empty save himself or he could hear his daughter's laughter pealing from down the hall, even when her room hasn't ever even been occupied by her. There were only the ghosts of his family left, little reminders that he never got to enjoy in this new home with his wife, his daughter. They had bought the house unseen, and he had been the first to fly out, half of their possessions coming halfway across the world with him as he settled into his newly appointed gym leader position. The rest of their things had shipped to the house, a week after the crash, just before the funeral.
They were supposed to have come together, and yet…
And yet, that all crumbled apart before it even began.
Even after all these years, he hasn't quite had the heart to unpack of the boxes his wife and daughter had packed together. His job was the only thing that he could now focus on. If he didn't come crawling back to a home he was supposed to share with a family that no longer was alive, he didn't have long to linger on his grief.
It had worked so far.
They stepped outside into the crisp sunlight of the noonday sun. Norman enjoyed the breeze coming in, felt it ruffling his hair. It was refreshing, with the faint scent of the last of spring's flowers trailing in the breeze. He motioned for them to wait just outside the front gate. She raised a brow but said nothing on the matter. For several minutes, they waited in almost companionable silence. She, enjoying the quiet and quaint sights of the rural neighborhood Littleroot had to offer, and he mulled over how to broach the subject of her true origins.
"She would have been almost your age by now. My daughter May, I mean." A beat. "She would have been going out in the world by now, perhaps on a pokémon journey to challenge the Ever Grande Conference. Or whatever her heart may have desired, really."
That seemed to throw her for a loop. He himself hadn't really expected himself to continue on the subject of his late daughter. But that didn't make his statement any less true. Or so he liked to believe.
"How old do you think I am?"
"About eighteen, I'd say." he answered honestly, gazing down at her. Her face contorted in shocked amusement, her lips twisting into a thin and wry smile.
"I'm twenty-seven. You're about ten years off the mark, bucko."
"Oh. Well, I suppose that's a compliment to you, then."
"If you say so." She didn't sound entirely convinced. The silence between them was palpable but endurable, and they only had to wait a few minutes. A cab pulled up on the curb and Norman motioned for her to get in. As she settled in the back seat beside him and the cab pulled away, she glanced over at him from the corner of her eye and asked, "So…where are we going, now?"
"Petalburg City. Oldale Town doesn't have much in the way of good shopping. It's mostly a pit stop town for aspiring trainers from Littleroot or Petalburg. They have basic supplies for trainers, but anything else, everyone goes to Petalburg. It'll be about an hour before we get there."
"Right."
That seemed to satisfy her for the time being. Another spell of silence filled the space between them, filled only by the faint and tinny music from the cab driver's radio. Norman filled much of his time fielding emails from work, returning a few calls, and setting up orders for his personnel at the gym to follow in the lieu of his absence.
Ten minutes before they even made it into Petalburg, he was tagged in a group email alongside the rest of the gym leaders and League members from Wallace, exclaiming he might have found "an Appeared" right smack dab in the middle of the ocean, floating on a piece of driftwood. He had intercepted the poor soul on his way back home to Sootopolis and was now attempting to get the full story of things, and that he'd fill everyone in on the matter when he had more information.
Norman leaned back in his seat after closing out the email, pocketing his phone.
And so it begins, he thought with a light grimace crossing his features. It was going to be easier to find the Appeared than it was to find the missing at this rate.
Norman's attention was torn between the young woman pushing a cart full of groceries down the brightly lit lane and the name emblazoned upon his phone's screen. He finally pressed the call button and brought it to his ear, following after his ward while it rang. The last few aisles for groceries were coming to a final end, but he shooed the woman away when she stopped to look back at him. She quickly got the message and leaned on the handlebar, pushing forward and allowing him to talk with some privacy
Clad in a pair of new jeans, a dark grey tank-top emblazoned with a Zoroark gazing mischievously at the world, another plaid button up shirt with the sleeves rolled to the elbows, and a pair of a steel-toed hiking boots, she looked far better off than when she had walking into the clothing store earlier in the day. In all honesty, the clerk had looked offended at the rumpled clothes and no socks or shoes that she had walked in with.
The line rang several times as he slowed his pace until the telltale click of the call connecting sounded off. There was a burst of muffled chatter for a split second before Birch's robust voice boomed a greeting on the other end.
"Afternoon, Birch," Norman responded. "Everything well?"
"Oh, hey Norman! I wasn't expecting you to call again. Are you on your way over?" There was an anxious tightness in the other man's voice, although he was trying admirably to hide it behind a jovial tone.
"About that…" Norman replied with a faintly embarrassed laugh. He eyed the woman from the corner of his eye as she opened a refrigerator door. The door fogged up as soon as it met the slightly warmer air of the store, and he moved in closer to see her picking up a gallon of Mama MooMoo's Milk. It was emblazoned with a cutesy Miltank on the label and she deposited it in the cart. She was also fairly quick to toss in a bottle of coffee creamer in, right alongside the box of dark roast coffee grounds from several aisles ago. She was a caffeine hound, it seemed. "I might have to take a raincheck on that meeting. But judging from your voice…I assume you've wrapped things up with Steven. What do you think?"
"Jeez…where do I start? I don't even know, honestly. This is big, Norman. Huge."
"I know. And there's a reason I wanted to talk to you, although again, I won't be able to make it in person. The subject I wanted to discuss, however, is related, in a way, to what Steven's told you."
"What is it," Birch sighed, apprehension and expectancy rolled into one. "Please don't tell me it's some crazy mission to go to Sinnoh to study these crazy gods."
"Nothing like that. You know I wouldn't do that to you."
"Oh. Well, good. Not like I wanted to go, anyways."
Norman huffed a discreet laugh. Birch was fibbing; he was just as curious as anyone else with a predilection towards furthering their understanding of the world of pokémon and the Creation Trio weren't excluded from that list. He'd bet his gym status that Birch was itching to go study them, just like any regional professor. Instead of pointing all that out, Norman decided to press on with the conversation.
"I'm sure by now you've heard I had a break-in at my house."
"Oh, yeah. I actually meant to ask you about that. What happened? Nothing was taken, I hope?"
"It wasn't a break-in."
There was silence on the other end. "I'm not following."
"The woman I found in my house hadn't broken in."
Norman waited for that to sink in. It took Birch a few seconds to realize the implications of his words before there was a shout on the other end, a moment of eureka striking the other man.
"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!"
Norman politely covered the speaker of his phone, offering a thin smile to an elderly woman with a Delcatty at her side passing him in the aisle. She shuffled off, casting a nasty glare over her shoulder at him before disappearing into the frozen foods section. The Delcatty, much like its trainer, lifted its nose up into the air, walking with a haughtiness in its graceful steps. Lowering his voice, he continued on.
"No, Birch. I'm not. The woman I found at my house was one of the Appeared."
"Holy—you're screwing with me here, aren't you? There's—there's already someone here? Here? In Littleroot?"
"Well, at the moment, I'm shopping for groceries with her in Petalburg."
"You went to Petalburg? With her?"
"I did, yes. I have no food at my house and she didn't have any spare clothes beyond those on her back. It's not like she packed for the occasion of dimension-hopping."
"I guess…but you're serious? She's not from…here?" Birch queried, the initial shock that had soaked his voice beginning to leech away in lieu of curiousity, fascination.
"I would hazard a guess that she isn't. She acts like she's never seen a live pokémon in her life, and perhaps where she's from…pokémon don't exist."
"I can't imagine that. I honestly can't."
"I know you can't, old friend," Norman chuckled. "And I'm not the only one. Wallace found another on his way back to Sootopolis earlier today after our meeting with Steven. He'll send us further details as they unfold."
Birch muttered another series of words that sounded muffled, like he'd taken the receiver well away from his face. When he came back, he asked what Norman was going to do with her.
"I'm setting her up at my place, but I doubt she's going to be content doing nothing all day, except watching television or puttering around an empty house. Do you…do you think you could find something for her to do with you? At the lab? Anything to keep her busy."
"Whoa, that's…" Birch laughed, nervous and uneasy. "I wasn't expecting to be blindsided twice in one day. First Steven's news and now this…? I don't…I don't know, man."
Norman rounded the corner of the aisle, spotting the young woman looking over labels behind the fridge doors, but craned her neck to gape openly at a well-built man paired with a Machamp behind him making their way down the refrigerated aisle. The man smiled and winked at her, but Norman couldn't see her expression as she turned. She went back to pushing the cart towards the other end, ignoring the perturbed expression on the Machamp's trainer. She paused long enough to grab a tub of ice cream before moving on.
"C'mon, Birch. I can already tell, she's not an idle person. I don't want her to get into any sort of trouble and keeping her occupied with something is better than letting her get…creative."
Something about her just screamed 'trouble' if left to her own devices. Maybe not dangerous, but there was definitely something mischievous about her that trouble was a label he'd put on her, if given half a chance.
Birch hummed on the other line, dithering at an answer before he expelled a heavy and loud exhalation.
"Okay. Okay, okay, okay. Fine. Yes, I'll see what I can do. I mean, I've already got my bases covered with my assistants and Brenden helping me out. Have her come by here tomorrow morning around eight. I dunno what I could have her do, besides maybe cleaning…but I'll see what I can scrounge up."
A pressure in Norman's chest seemed to deflate at the news. He expelled a long, quiet sigh of his own as he nodded. "Thank you. I appreciate it."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. You owe me big time. And I mean big."
"That I do. Maybe we'll go out one of these days. My treat."
"Sounds good, man. Listen, I gotta get back at things here in the lab, but we'll talk later."
"Right. Thanks again."
When the connection ended, Norman was quick to plunge down into the grocery lanes, in search of the woman when an odd thought struck him: he didn't even know her name. He hadn't bothered to ask, hadn't even thought about it. He was also still trying to work out a way to broach the subject of what he knew about her. What if she tried to play dumb and deny all claims that she wasn't from here? Well, there wasn't much she could have learned, not with only a single morning's worth of watching television. She didn't know the regions of this world, the nuances of each region's cultures and customs. She had the obvious look of a Magikarp out of water whenever he caught her looking intently at something so mundane to him, it was almost like she was either enchanted…or trying to puzzle out an equation. He couldn't quite tell sometimes; she was guarded and smart enough to keep her trap shut.
At that, he found himself less obligated to worry for her. Steven wanted them to keep this issue under wraps for as long as they could, or at least until they could figure out a solution to this mess. If she figured out much the same on her end, perhaps she'd be just fine in this world for a short while longer after all.
He caught up with the woman and he paid for the groceries after they rang everything up at the register. A Machop donning a grocery smock was helping bag everything, but as soon as Norman had finished at the register, the woman started helping the pokémon, and thanked the little fighting-type as they left. The Machop offered a hearty smile to her for her assistance.
Outside, the cab was still parked in the lot, right where they had left it, and they loaded everything into the taxi cab's trunk. There were undeniably good perks with being a gym leader—he could buy the services of a cab driver for a day without complaints. The sun was beginning to dip low in the sky as they hit the road and Petalburg was slipping away from them.
The music from the radio was playing softly and it sounded to Norman like an old song he hasn't heard since he was a teenager. The singer was crooning away, something about the love between a Meowth and a Houndour, and how different yet similar they were, down to their cores.
"You know," he started, breaking the relative silence that stood between himself and the woman. "I don't think I ever introduced myself."
"You're Norman Radliff. Petalburg City's gym leader. You specialize in normal-type pokémon."
He froze, startled. The woman was looking out the window, watching as the scenery passed them by. Even with the rays of the setting afternoon sun, it suddenly felt ice cold in the cab's backseat.
"There was a documentary with interviews on the Hoenn gym leaders earlier today before you got back. You're the fifth challenge in line to the Ever Grande Conference."
Norman felt tension he hadn't realized he'd been holding onto melt away. Of course. She'd been watching television while he was away. When she mentioned the interviews, he could recall with damning clarity when the last interview he's done had been: before his family was set to move out here to Hoenn. He had been brighter-eyed and more optimistic back then. Looking back on things, he wondered where that man had gone.
"That seems a bit unfair," he stated bluntly, shaking the thoughts from his head. "You know who I am, but I have no clue what to call you. I'd feel pretty awkward calling you 'girl' or 'lady'. Seems a bit derivative, if you ask me."
"Um…just…just call me Shay…Kenway."
"Shay Kenway?"
"Yep."
"All right. Shay it is."
Norman felt slightly better at now knowing a little more information to go off of with. The quiet persisted aside from the sound of music and the car's motor, leaving them in a more comfortable atmosphere with one another. It lasted for all of thirty minutes before Shay spoke again.
"Um…hey, Norman?"
Norman stirred at the sound of his name. He'd dozed off. He blinked several times and shifted in his seat. It'd been a long day. He turned to Shay, noticed the guarded way she stared at him.
"Yes?"
The guarded expression lasted for just a smidgeon longer. It fell away when she smiled, the first he's seen that's been genuine.
"Thanks. For all the help, I mean."
He considered her before returning the smile, despite how tired he felt, and they still had miles to go before there was time to rest. But in this moment, it was nice to sit back and relax. He can't remember the last time he's done something as simple, as relaxing, as this in a long, long time.
"You're welcome."
Notes: There really isn't a last name for Norman, or his family, as far as I could find, so I chose one for the sake of the story. It's not overtly importantly, just some filler. 'Radliff' was the name I went with, as it seemed to be a lesser known surname.
On another, unrelated note, Bandit is the name of one of my (many) cats, who is overly friendly, curious, and lovey-dovey with just about everyone. That cat doesn't know the meaning of hate, in all honesty.
On a secondary note, I figured that Zigzagoon are pretty popular for several reasons: easy to train, good tempered around children, helpful in stressful situations for individuals that need an easy-going pokémon to help destress them, and perfect in easing young trainers into pokémon battling, training, and the like. Having one around at all times, except in gym-mandated battles, is advantageous in a highly public position in the city community.
But this is simply my own interpretation. If you have others, leave it in the review box and let me know what you think!
