Author's Note:
I have ellipses.
Thank you again, Quagsire12, for your praise on my writing of Silver! I'm trying to keep him in-character, and it's nice to know that I am evidently doing a good job!
Disclaimer:
Pokémon and any other referential materials found in this story do not belong to me. They belong to their respective owners and subsidiaries, and I claim no ownership of them.
Of Children, Men, and Monsters
Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Good Girl
Cue music – Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal Version soundtrack – Professor Elm's Laboratory
The windmills scattered around New Bark Town twirled and tilted, their noise audible in the otherwise silent dusk. A four-wheeled vehicle whose appearance practically screamed "authority" was parked near Elm's lab-house's front door. Marza knocked thrice on said door, patiently waiting for someone to come out.
Just as she had predicted, the one who came out was a stern-looking police officer. That's what she assumed, at least, judging by his apparel and wooden club hoisted at his waist.
"And who might you be, girl? Someone coming to confess to their crimes? Rule number one of these cases: The perpetrator will always come back to the scene of the crime at some point!"
Marza couldn't help but snark back, "Some one's been watching too many reality shows, it would seem! First of all, that is a huge generalization, to the point where it is, in fact, frequently incorrect – specifically, right now. Second: I already have a partner in the form of Oscura–" said Pokémon made herself known by way of giving an affirmative "Lar!" at that instance – "so why would I have need for stealing a start Pokémon? Third: did you not even take a singular moment to notice the fact that I hardly appear to be some sort of miscreant? Especially for my age? And fourth: rude!"
The officer struggled for a few moments to respond, and during those moments, Elm strode over.
"I can vouch for Marza, sir. She was running an errand for me while this whole debacle occurred, I assure you."
"I… suppose you raise a convincing argument for your case, and if the victim himself says so, you're good to go… That still leaves the question of who in the blazes stole that Totodile, however!"
Marza was feeling a bit conflicted as to how to respond to this exclamation. Should she tell them of this boy and have them solve the problem of Silver for her, or feign ignorance and attempt to do so herself, making up for her admittedly wounded pride in the process?
'… This just might be against whatever laws this world has, but I am not going to just let him get away with punching me like that!"
"I'm afraid I've no idea as to who this might be, officer," she smoothly lied, thankful for her ability to act to a decent degree, yet still feeling a slight sting of guilt for doing so.
Oscura shot her a curious glance at this action, but remained silent, trusting her decision – as well as the reasons behind it – completely.
The officer remained mildly suspicious of her, shooting Marza a caution glance before declaring, "Well, there's no further business to be had here, and I've found all the evidence that I can. Crimes aren't solved by just standing around and doing nothing, after all!"
He then got into his vehicle and left, with Marza and Elm both bidding him farewell as he headed for the car.
"… So! I see you've obtained the package and brought it here. Would you like to come in and discuss it – as well as your little quest – inside?" he inquired, clearly attempting to steer the conversation into less serious territory.
Marza, going along with this, agreed, "Yes, indeed, on both accounts."
She handed the contained egg over to Elm when they arranged some seating from the lab, which somehow got even messier than before. Broken objects were strewn about, and the window on the relative left side of the building was shattered, its shards scattered on the nearby area of floor.
Elm proclaimed, "Oh, another Pokémon egg? You are making yourself predictable, my friend…!"
"I assume he's done this many times before, then?"
Elm let out a good-natured sigh.
"Indeed. He always gets so hyped up whenever her finds or receives a Pokémon egg; it's almost gotten obnoxious, how often he does this!"
"Well, to be fair, he did say that this is apparently the egg of a highly endangered species…"
Elm then took a closer look at the semi-ovular object, saying next, "Is that so? Now that you mention it, the pattern on this thing does remind me of a rather rare species line of Pokémon… Hmm…"
Marza, curious, asked of him, "You know what this egg will hatch into, then?"
Pulling his glasses back up from their lowered position, he confirmed, "Again, judging by the unique pattern, yes."
He didn't say any more on the subject, proceeding to set the encased egg down on a nearby counter, humming softly in thought before resuming, "I believe that I said you would be compensated for fetching this for me. I may have been a bit hasty when I said that I could give you something worth your while, especially for all that walking you doubtlessly had to do. So, ah… if you could give me a moment to scrounge around and hope that that miscreant hasn't stolen anything else…"
While doing just that, he asked another question:
"Say, Marza… How is it that you're aware that the thief specifically stole a Pokémon?"
'Oh,' she internally cringed, not having thought of a response to such an inquiry ahead of time. Quickly making up something on the spot, she said, "I saw a boy with red hair running away to Cherrygrove and probably somewhere beyond. Wouldn't surprise me, at least, and I decided not to say anything because if I just said that I saw a suspicious-looking, red-haired boy running, it decidedly wouldn't've helped that much. I would imagine there are quite a lot of people with red hair his age, anyways. There's also a decent chance that he wasn't even a part of the crime. Who knows?"
'I do.'
The part about the quantity of young boys with red hair was age mildly bold assumption on Marza's part, and it paid off when Elm replied, "I suppose that I see your point, even if red hair isn't the most common natural hair color here in Johto. You still should have at least told him what he looked like, though; what if he turned out to actually be the criminal?"
Marza, still a tad guilty about leading him on like this, responded in turn: "I suppose so."
Elm simply sighed as he continued to search for something half-decent and not wrecked in some aspect or another for Marza, struggling to do so because of how disorganized the place now was.
Well, more than what was evidently the place's usual, at least.
Nearly ten minutes of searching on Elm's part passed before Marza declared, "If it's taken you this long to search for something decent, then I don't think that–"
"Found it!" he then declared himself, as if prompted and intentionally timed.
'Really, now? You find it just as I say that!?'
He paced back over to the lass, handing her a small device, red-on-white device that reminded Marza distinctly of a flip-to-open phone. She idly opening it up as Elm began to explain, "That is one of the latest models of Pokégear, a sort of multi-purpose device. It has a built-in call feature like a phone, a clock, a radio, a calculator, and an ever-handy map of the Johto region with a GPS locator!"
Marza used the buttons on both the center and sides of the device, navigating to the scroll-like icon of said region. At the moment, it only displayed a rather tiny amount of land, specifically the area of – and just around – New Bark Town. An arrow helpfully bobbed up and down above the large red square that represented the town, telling the girl of her current location. Marza pondered why the map displayed such a tiny area until Elm clarified for the befuddled lass, "And if you're wondering why they didn't just make the map full-scale for the region or even made into a global one, the designers – some deviant company of a larger one over in Sinnoh, if I recall correctly – figured that they would design it so that you could only view regions of a world once you first arrive in each individual area. Something about promoting Trainer careers, travelling, and exercise, despite the fact that you can just look at a world map online with relative ease. Seems silly, if you ask me…"
'Heh… Like exploring a massive world in a video game for the first time. It does seem silly, but for me, personally… I think I'm going to enjoy the feeling of filling in this massive map bit by bit!"
Filling things such as maps in caused an inexplicable sort of pleasure to course through the girl, it would seem.
Speaking of, Marza was grinning at the thought without even realizing it, as Elm pointed out: "… Why're you smiling like that, Marza?"
Blushing mildly, Marza stuttered out, "W-Well, you could say that the idea of exploring unfamiliar territory appeals to me. You could say that I'm not that worldly, and I haven't exactly seen much of this world, so…"
This answer didn't appear to satisfy the professor that much, but he accepted it with a shrug, regardless.
'"Unworldly" indeed!' the Pokémon Professor silently observed, remembering how the girl asked about Types because she was somehow unfamiliar with them, which, considering her apparent age, was particularly strange to him.
"Anyways, that thing isn't registered to anyone yet – not that it registration is really officially a thing a person can do on that thing, anyways – the reason being that it's a spare I keep around in case my one – which is getting on in the years, by the way – kicks the bucket. Speaking of my Pokégear, though, would you mind registering my number in yours? You know, in case something urgent such as a theft like this comes up again, or if I need another errand ran for me."
He couldn't help but grin sardonically at this. Marza simply sighed good-naturedly, asking him, "Alright, alright, I'll comply. How do you work this thing when it comes to that?"
He demonstrated, completing the process in nary a minute and asking Marza to dedicate the procedure to memory.
"I've been told that I have a good memory, but if I forget anyways, I'll be sure to call you. I think we're about done here, aside from one last thing I've got to ask: how are the other starter Pokémon?"
Elm took a finger and pushed his glasses up to an unnecessary height on his nose, as if to appear knowledgeable.
"Cyndaquil thankfully didn't have to witness any of the chaos because he was picked up by Ethan earlier today. Chikorita, on the other hand…"
His glasses fell down from the top of his nose, as if to signify his deteriorating mood.
"Poor girls been hiding in the nearby woods since that thief left. I've been seeing her a couple times near the treeline throughout the evening, but I can tell that she's reluctant to come back indoors because of the incident. It's kind of sad to watch, really. She's clearly been shaken up by this quite a bit – I just hope that she hasn't been flat-out traumatized by this whole debacle…"
'It's almost like he's trying to make me want to help. I don't think that he's doing so intentionally, though… Hmm… To help or not to help… That is the question…'
After a few moments of thought, Marza decided on her next course of action:
"If you want, I can go look for Chikorita…"
Elm was beginning to feel some shock coming on with how kind this girl was being.
"W-What!? But, Marza! You've already done plenty as is! And I'm not really sure I have anything else that I can give you, besides!"
Marza rebuked, with a somewhat cheeky grin on her face: "And who's to say that I can't just do something out of the good of my heart?"
Elm studied Marza for some moments, probably attempting to find some sort of ulterior motive. She he found himself incapable of finding any, he stated, with a grin of his own, "If you insist, I won't stop you! Do be sure to be back here before it gets completely dark, however, even if it means giving up on your "search and rescue" attempt! And if you're wondering, no, I won't be giving you his Poké Ball, because if Chikorita is involuntarily caught and brought back here, I don't think that she'll react well."
"I wasn't even entertaining that thought, but okay then, Professor."
"Oh, and don't be afraid to defend yourself with Oscura! Just about anything that's got a brain and a functioning set of instincts usually doesn't react well when backed into a corner!"
"I'll be sure to keep that in mind," Marza idly stated as she closed the door behind her. She next said, this time to Oscura after "really" exiting the premises:
"So much for "one last thing", eh, Oscura?"
Said Pokémon giggled.
Just before the pair of females crossed the line between civilization, Marza thought, with an audible sigh:
'My feet are going to regret this later… I guess this is what I get for being a "one more time" kind of person, regardless of the fact that I'm trying to do the right thing…'
