Chapter Twenty-Four:
In Great Strides
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: My original message for this chapter was a happy and hopeful one for the new year. That was for the year 2020.
…I think we can all agree that the tone no longer applies, with the state of the world as it is. It was nobody's year. We have officially survived Level Five of Jumanji. Congrats.
Now we're on Level One of the Oregon Trail. Let's go, motherfuckers.
On a completely separate and thankful note: Thank you to Guest Reviewer Mal, who has recently caught up and reviewed my story. I'm glad for your support and enthusiastic reviews as of late. I'm absolutely grateful that you haven't given up on me, despite my long absence in this story. It wasn't willing, but you caught up and it makes me so darn happy to hear from you! Thank you again for your lovely reviews and words.
Especially since I've been going through this pandemic, watching my kids, a new dog (he's one years' old!) and my going through a divorce, and graduating (but not really) from college. Shit's been cray-cray on my end!
Happy New Year 2021!
…on another separate note, I may or may not need a beta. Any serious volunteers? Especially for those that won't be distracted by the prospect of "NEW CHAPTER EARLY" syndrome. I'm good at beta-ing other stories, but apparently, not my own. Do I have any takers?!
And on a last, separate note (thank you to everyone who got this far!) I have posted a new story, with hopes of trying to kickstart my brain. Please give it a look-see!
Current Team: Keno the Marshtomp, Sela the Poochyena, Ambrose the Kirlia, Faye the Taillow, Breela the Shroomish, Luna the Skitty
Badges Won: Stone Badge, Knuckle Badge
"Yes, get out is the thing. It has been a wonderful life—effort, then perception, peace and insight—deer mice and beavers—sunshine and river. But now, washing my head in the Nankoweap Creek, I know it's over. I have overstayed my welcome in the museum. The things I wanted to do are done. The time has passed for contemplation. I must get out and do. For doing is what counts. The contemplation is only for that."
—Colin Fletcher
Shay didn't feel safe, knowing that Team Aqua was possibly still in Slateport. They were perhaps not lingering in huge numbers, but after the earlier encounter with Archie, it did little to assuage her nerves. And now, right on the heels after an intense meeting with Maxie of Team Magma barely hours later from confronting Archie…
It was an unsettling sensation deep in her gut from the back-to-back events. Once she and her team made it back to the Center, Shay wasted no time in hurrying to sweep her room. What she was looking for, she couldn't even truly guess. Listening devices? Hidden cameras? Other people or pokémon, even? Kecleon could hide in plain sight—more chameleon than any actual chameleon ever was from her world.
That's so stupid. The phrase should be about the octopus or the cuttlefish. They're better at camouflage and hiding in plain sight! Whoever thought chameleons were the ultimate critters with those supreme skills were high off their asses, I swear.
"Sela, Luna, can you smell who's been in here? Besides us, I mean."
The pair exchanged a look with one another. Keno watched as his trainer darted around the room with Breela gently clasped in his arms. Faye and Ambrose lingered by the door.
"I don't smell anything. Or, anyone else, for that matter," Luna finally stated, yellow eyes closing as she began to groom one of her paws. Sela gave a pointed sniff, ears flicking a few times before she snorted and nodded.
"She's right. There's nothing and no one else here, except for us."
Shay faltered in her frantic search. Her fingers were still splayed underneath the bedside table. She patted the smooth surface, trying to find something out of place—a bug, a chip of some sort, hidden wires, tiny cameras—anything at all. She pulled back and twisted around, still on her hands and knees, head peeping over the unkempt bed.
"You're sure?"
Keno moved to gently deposit Breela onto the bed and crossed the room to Shay, reaching for her hand. He was surprisingly warm for an amphibian. The thought skittered across her mind and was gone in a blink as his thick fingers closed around her smaller ones.
"I don't think we should stay for much longer, but maybe you should take a minute or two to calm down? You'll drive yourself crazy if you don't slow down."
She wanted to tear her hand away and keep looking and packing. The possibilities that Maxie—that Archie, even—had tracked down where she was staying to the exact room, was terrifying. She felt defenseless, powerless, blindsided…
A wayward leaf at the mercy of the gusting wind.
Keno refused to let her hand go and squeezed it firmly, bringing her out of the distressed whirlwind of her thoughts. He kept her pinned with his tiger-orange gaze, burning with quiet intensity.
"One step at a time, Shay. Breathe. What's first?"
Slowly, the flustered fragments of what she needed to do and how to get it done began to fall into place as she realigned her focus. It was a welcome respite. She was eternally grateful for sense of calm Keno was giving her.
"We need to pack up," she finally decided. "Everyone needs to look around. Make sure we don't leave anything behind."
There was hardly any protest. Keno stood with her, watching as the others started to scour the room, picking up stray items and depositing them on the bed beside Breela. The Shroomish carefully stepped aside, looking on as the others moved. Keno shot Shay a glance, his lips quirking into a faint smile. She returned it, a flush of relief expelling outward from her core.
"Thanks, buddy."
"You were getting jittery," he simply replied. "Sometimes, you need help focusing."
Shay's smile fell and she dropped her gaze. "Sorry."
"You don't need to apologize. You know we're here if you ever need a helping hand." He reached out toward her and gently touched her elbow. "We should probably pack all this up."
Shay found herself nodding. They only had a few hours of daylight left. The next ten minutes was spent picking up everything that wasn't already in her pack. Carefully, she arranged everything as it needed to be. She changed her clothes before slipping the dirty ones into a laundry bag back into her pack and quietly mourned her time in Slateport being cut so short.
I'll have to do laundry when I arrive in New Mauville. And I guess any time I planned on spending at the beach isn't happening, either.
The quiet in which everyone worked in was interrupted by a sudden ringing from Shay's wrist. She fumbled with it, annoyance shooting through her before it dissipated at the name on the small screen. She swallowed back down the alarm and pressed the answer button, clearing her throat.
"Hello?"
The screen remained blank on her end, but a voice filtered through, clear as a bell.
"Miss Kenway! It's Mister Stone, of Devon Corporation."
"Mister Stone, hello," she replied, and cleared her throat again. "Yes. Mister Stone. I'm so sorry, I wasn't expecting a call from you so soon, what a surprise."
Mister's Stone's laughter was loud but boisterous. "I just got off the phone with Captain Stern, and he regaled me with how competent you were in your delivery of his promised goods. A bit of minor B&E to get to him, mind, but he's not in the least worried about pressing charges or anything of the sort."
Shay was incredibly glad that the call wasn't on video, or her sheepishness and annoyance would have spread across her face faster than she could comprehend. She promptly made a face at her wrist, lips tightening up as she quirked them.
"He also made mention of a brush with Team Aqua following your delivery, and how vigilant you were in repelling their attempts at absconding with his goods. I am fairly impressed with your dedication."
Shay politely cleared her throat, shooting a glance at her team. They had gathered themselves on the bed, listening and watching. A smile wormed its way onto her face as she looked at them, and a swelling of pride grew inside her chest. She turned her gaze back to her the x-transceiver on her wrist.
"I'm glad that he called you on the matter. I just got back to the Center, and I'm getting ready to head out. I did plan on calling to let you know that I was done with the delivery before I left, though."
"Ah, already? You're quite the busy little worker, aren't you? Heading to New Mauville, I presume?"
"Yes, sir. I hope to get some training done in the next several weeks so we can be ready to challenge Wattson."
"That old windbag," Mister Stone said, a touch of affection colouring his tone. "He won't be easy, but don't feel bad giving him a beatdown. He won't mind it himself."
"I'll…be sure to do just that, Mister Stone."
There was a brief pause, as though Mister Stone had his attentions drift to something else before he snapped to once more. "Oh, that reminds me. I'll be sure to transfer the rest of your payment to your account. Don't spend it all in one place now!"
The man on the other end chuckled, and perhaps even patted himself on the back for such a humourous, light-hearted jab. Shay felt a nervous chuckle bubbling up inside her as her patience began to wear thin. She needed to leave and soon. Shay visually went over her pack and scanned the room, already calculating whether she had everything or not.
"Thank you, Mister Stone. I appreciate that. Um, if you don't mind much, sir, I'm just about to leave so I'll need to check out soon. Was there anything else that you need of me, before I go?"
"Hmm. Mmm, none that I can think of at this point in time. Miss Kenway, I hope that you have a good rest of your day, and I thank you again for the service you've done for me. If I do have need of your services, I'll be sure to call you."
Without much further prompting, he bid Shay farewell and hung up.
One less thing to worry about. One more checkbox marked off.
Shay finished packing up, slung her pack onto her back and buckled the waist belt on.
Checklist, checklist.
'Supplies,' Ambrose provided helpfully in the churning of her thoughts. 'We should stop at the store before we elope back into the wilderness.'
"Right. Store. Check out of the Center, and then head to the store. Get supplies, get out of Dodge."
The trip to the store had been fairly quick, efficient, and thankfully painless. Repacking everything into her pack had been a fair bit more challenging, but everything fit inside eventually. She called up Norman and Professor Birch both before leaving Slateport. By the time it was all said and done, the sun was dipping lower into the western horizon.
The halcyon hours of summer kept chipping away at the nightly hours, filling them with more and more light every day.
Suburban homes stood in neat ranks and orderly streets as she made her way through Slateport. Manicured lawns were uniform out front of the homes. Sprinklers, children, pokémon, and adults all loitered the streets as Shay marched further north. The taste of the sea was still heavy in the air, even as she put distance between herself and the coastline. It was a nostalgic scent she'd miss the further inland she went.
Rural homesteads eventually broke up the tidy city suburban neighborhoods. She even came across several sizable ranches that housed a number of pokémon as she led the way to Route 110. At a distance, she could make out the flashing manes of Ponyta and Rapidash. Huge, bullish Tauros grazed in clustered groups in their own paddock separate from the others, appearing quite peaceful at a distance. Flaaffy and Mareep and Miltank were clumped together in another paddock, socializing in smaller clusters. When Faye took to the skies and did a flyby, she reported back that there were also Torchic, Combusken, Spoink and Grumpig residing on the properties.
When the last of the rural properties were no longer visible behind a veil of coastal forests, Shay called it quits for the night. A sliver of sunlight was all that was left on the horizon, and it was all Shay needed to set up a fire and set out her sleeping bag. It was a clear enough night and Shay found herself distracted by the stars as, one by one, they shimmered against the velvety black sky above.
In the distance, Shay could make out the headlights of cars driving on the highway.
Luna curled in Shay's lap, purring contentedly away as she ate her dinner.
"What're those lights out there?"
The small and quiet voice drew Shay out of her head, and she looked down at Breela. The little Shroomish was seated between her and Keno. Breela had her attentions drawn to flashing lights that were decidedly not far enough to be car lights.
Shay stared, squinting into the dark, watching as the soft glow moved in random patterns.
Look…fireflies.
"Volbeat and Illumise," she finally answered, a touch of a smile lifting the corners of her mouth upward. "Bug-types."
"It's so pretty," Keno said quietly. Shay took another bite of her food, humming in agreement. Sela snorted, looking about as unimpressed as she could get. Luna peeped an eye open, watched the floating lights floating about, then closed it again. Faye was content in keeping her head buried in her feathers, unmoving as she snoozed on Shay's pack.
"When I was at my first duty station, it was the first time I'd ever really seen fireflies in person. I must've sat out on the balcony for hours watching them at sunset and after dark."
After a long day of constant tension, it was pure, cathartic leisure in being this far from Slateport—and more importantly, both Team Aqua and Team Magma. She hated that her time in Slateport had been cut short. At the same time, she was grateful that she managed to get out of the city and preserved a safer environment for herself and the team. She would rather rough it outside than to be trapped like a rat inside of a building.
At least for once the damn cops didn't get to accuse me of criminal activities. Better count that as another blessing, too. Maybe my luck is finally turning around.
Morning came around slowly. A low and dense fog blew in from the east, curling about every nook and cranny it could snake its way over to. The faint pallor of the sun alit over the silvery early morning veil, but there was still a chill in the air. Shay had awoken as the dark shadows turned grey and worked on getting breakfast ready.
The fire took some time to rebuild. Alongside the fog, a light sheen of morning dew clung to whatever surfaces would hold the moisture for some time. Shay finally managed to get it going on her own, and in record time. The team began to awaken as she heated up a pot of hot water that dangled over the low flames.
She greeted each of them as they awoke. While she gently stirred in oatmeal into the pot, she pulled Breela into her lap and planted a gentle kiss on the top of her head.
"Morning Bree. How're you feeling?"
Breela shivered in Shay's lap but pressed in deeper against her body. A faint whiff of something sweet and pleasant wafted up from the top of her head.
"Fine. It's nice out today."
"It is, isn't it? Not too hot, not too chilly. Goldilocks weather."
"What's…'Go-dee-locks'?" This came from Luna, her bright yellow eyes trained on Shay intensely. She met the feline's gaze with a furrowed brow, but a light smile.
"Where I'm from, there's this old fairytale story about a little girl named Goldilocks. She was wandering through the woods and came across a house. It belonged to a small family of bears. A Mama, Papa, and Baby Bear."
"What's a bear?" Keno piped up, head tilting to the side, his smooth face crinkling up with curiousity in his tiger-orange eyes.
"It's…" Shay took pause, thinking on it for a moment, before she dove into her x-transceiver. Her connection to the internet was surprisingly strong outside the city limits of Slateport, so it didn't take an excessively long time to find what she was searching for.
Google, eat your heart out. You've got some competition on your hands.
When she finished, she pulled up a photo of an Ursaring and showed the little screen to everyone. The pokémon itself highly resembled a grizzly bear-right down to the height, stance, and large appearance as a whole.
"These guys live in Johto, but this is similar to what we have back home. We simply call them bears," Shay replied. Sela ventured closer, sniffing lightly at Shay's wrist before stepping back, maraschino-bright eyes looking dull and unimpressed. "So, in the story, Goldilocks ventures into the bear family's house. She tries to sit in one of the three chairs and eat their porridge. Papa's chair and porridge were too hard and too hot. Mama Bear's chair and porridge were too soft and too cold. But it was Baby Bear's that were just right."
Shay dove into the rest of the story, hitting the main points of how Goldilocks went through the same motions of trial and error until the Bear family came home.
"And they found her snoozing away in Baby Bear's bed, and…that's about it. Goldilocks doesn't really suffer any consequences and the bears don't do much with her, except help send her on her way home."
"Question," Faye dug in pointedly, raising a wing in Shay's direction. "Why didn't they simply dispose of this Goldilocks intruder? Why didn't they just eat her?"
"It's…meant to be an analogy, not a strict cut-and-dry story. It's a really old story that's been watered down over the decades. Over time, it also became the analogy for the 'perfect conditions' for things. Like-like, with planets. Where I'm from…and I'm guessing this place too…they're considered 'Goldilocks conditions'. We aren't too far away but also not too close to the nearest star, and the right conditions led to a plethora of life to evolve over the millennia. Single-cell organisms gave way to multi-cellular lifeforms and that led to larger animals to come out of the primordial goop soup of the oceans and from there…everything else came."
There was a whole slew of information running rampant inside her head, years' worth of research and gathered information. She wasn't sure how relevant her world's trail of evolutionary life could compare.
"The allegory taken from the story eventually boils down to the right conditions serving at the right time for life to flourish. But, honestly, it really is an old story from a long, long time before I was even born. I think it's from…I want to say the Brothers Grimm. But I have a feeling I'm wrong."
"So, the point of the story was to…explain the perfect condition?" Keno brought a large, webbed finger to his mouth, tapping it thoughtfully. He turned to glance at the fire, where the embers crackled, and wood smoke chugged its way skyward.
Shay hesitated before replying. "N-no. The original moral of the story was about how someone's actions could harm others. Such as Goldilocks breaking into the Bears' home and causing damage to their property, and about how respecting others and learning self-control are important to another's well-being. Goldilocks had no respect for the things she broke or ruined. But the Goldilocks condition, on the other hand, is explained for conditions of living that are 'just right'. It's complicated."
"So, then what was the point of this whole explanation?" Luna pressed, tail flicking impatiently behind her as she laid on the ground, all paws tucked underneath her body.
You look like a pink fuzzy loaf, Shay thought, resisting the urge to break out grinning. She wanted to squeal in delight and gently assault the Skitty with fingers that could rub all across her furry body to send her into a purring mess. God, she missed her parents' Abyssinian cat, Cleo…
"It was brought up because I mentioned the weather and it reminded me of the whole 'Goldilocks conditions', and then I guess I went too far breaking down the points of the entire fairytale story," Shay sighed tiredly. Even after a relatively moderate amount of sleep, she wanted to roll back over and curl up in her sleeping bag.
"Sleep isn't your main issue," Ambrose replied unprompted. His lips quirked when Shay brought her gaze to bear on him. "We should finish our breakfast and get going."
"Is someone following us?" Shay remarked, alarm lancing through her like a quick flash of lightning. She was relieved when he shook his head, eyes staring blankly out, but she could sense a more ethereal gaze on her emanating from the Kirlia.
"No. Not anything I can sense, at the very least. We just have a long hike ahead of us. New Mauville…" Ambrose took pause, and a momentary pinch in his expression alluded to annoyance. "I…can't sense it yet. There's too much interference from Slateport and everywhere else around us."
"Useless. I could have called that," Sela said with a sniff. Ambrose tilted his head in her general direction, a flash of fangs peeking out from the corner of his mouth. All the while, Sela allowed a smug expression to cross her canine features.
"What's the matter, little faun? Can't hear what's going through my head? Oh, how sad for you."
Ambrose's snout crinkled ever so slightly. Shay sighed, already feeling the pressure mounting at the possibility of in-house fighting.
"Knock it off, you two. And Ambrose isn't wrong, we do have a long way to go to get up to New Mauville. We probably won't see it until late tonight, if we're lucky. So, let's eat, pack up, and get ready to go. Fair?"
Mumbles of agreement were sent her way. Satisfied for the time being, Shay settled Breela back in her lap and helped spoon feed the Shroomish. She gently petted the Shroomish, putting the shy Breela at ease. Her skin was the same texture as a mushroom, and it was a familiar sensation to Shay now. But there was something new now.
Fuzzy growth grew in sparse little areas was now visible, both by sight and touch.
"Breela? Are you all right? You're…getting a bit…fluffy. Are you okay?"
"…oh. Oh, that's normal. Mama was fuzzy. And warm. And so tall, too. She always made sure we were safe. She could kick really well with her back claws. Some of them looked like…a crescent moon."
Shay puzzled on that scant bit of information as she packed up her things and doused the campfire. After everyone ate from their collapsible travel bowls, Shay cleaned them from a nearby stream. The fire was put out by kicking dirt on top of the embers, and Keno sprayed the smoking ashes for further emphasis in putting it out. She finished rolling up her sleeping bag as the others stretched and finished taking turns drinking up water from the same creek Shay visited.
Once she swung the pack onto her back and tightened the straps, everyone else was ready to go.
Most of the gloom of the fog had cleared, allowing for better visibility. After the first half hour into the hike, Shay checked on the map, confirming that they were indeed heading north. The GPS inside the x-transceiver indicated they were closing in on the seaside cove that abutted against Route 110. As the morning hours ticked away, Shay could see more and more in the distance. Faye took her time flitting off skyward, circling high above them all. Occasionally, she'd disappear completely, and shortly return later with an aerial report of what lay ahead.
There were a few small homesteads ahead on the road, but not much else. To the northeast was where the manmade trail and the Seaside Cycling Road that connected New Mauville to Slateport. It was a marvel of human engineering, the more pieces she saw coming together to make a whole. The road itself didn't suspend quite as high up like it seemed to in the games.
It was similar to a suspension bridge she'd expect to see connecting a major city to another borough or leading out into the more suburban areas. Cars were not in sight, but she could just barely make out the bobbing heads of cyclists coming in and out sight of the edges of the bridge. Their helmets gleamed like little beetle shells as they caught snatches of sunlight.
It didn't take long to finally make it to the manmade land bridge. It had been built to both facilitate a clear northern passage for people to walk across—traveling trainers being the main focus—and vast patches of sand dunes and seagrass to encourage wild pokémon habitation. She couldn't see anyone poking their heads above the grass, human or pokémon.
It didn't mean they weren't there.
Shay called for a short break before they continued on their journey north. They rested for nearly thirty minutes. Shay changed out her socks and almost immediately, the condition of her feet seemed to improve. They nibbled on snacks, drank their ration of clean water. Right as they began again, the clear deep blue of the sky was slowly chased away with the presence of greying cloud cover. The temperature dropped a few degrees, but it wasn't wholly unpleasant.
Without fanfare, they pressed onward, invigorated by the energy that slowly built up inside of them all. Even Shay found herself moving at a faster pace than she normally would have moved with. The impending sense of the end of the line hovered dangerously close over their heads, encouraging them on.
It all came to an abrupt halt when Shay spotted a familiar face as it briefly rose above the tall grass that, quite frankly, nearly engulfed her form completely. She spoke before realizing the incredulous and surprised words came flying out of her mouth.
"Brendan?"
