Route 212 was a pleasant walk, and just as ritzy as Hearthome City was. The path was clearly laid out for travellers, having well-maintained hedges and other plants somehow still alive along the borders of the road. The whole route probably belonged to the same guy who owned the enormous mansion that branched out from the path, seeing as about half of the route was the equally gigantic garden in the mansion's backyard. That wasn't even counting all the people with expensive clothing and Luxury Balls out for a stroll.
The upper-classiness of the route made Kevin wonder why it wasn't just classified as part of Hearthome City, but for all he knew the mansion was only built a year or two ago. (It certainly looked new, but then again the owner could probably afford enough maintenance staff to ensure it stayed that way.) However old it was, though, it was probably an awesome place to live. Y'know, as a rich human.
The only thing that was bugging him was the route's name. Unless he was mistaken, he'd gone from Route 206 to 207, then to 208 earlier, which logically meant that the next route was 209. The wild Pokémon of the area assured him that he was on Route 212, though, so…
He shook his head. Hoenn numbered its routes weirdly, too. If he remembered correctly, one could easily reach Route 115 after Rustboro City, which came after Route 104. Whatever the routes were numbered, in the end, it still made the most sense to go to the closest gym.
By the time Kevin got to the end of the route, the sun was beginning to set. Despite feeling fatigued and hungry for the fiftieth time since he left the team, he decided to press on. The sooner he caught up to them the better, lest he want to starve to death in the land of craziness and no fruit.
What did everyone else here eat anyway? Rocks? Plenty of those to go around…
He stopped. The air around him suddenly felt much cooler and… wet. A quick glance up assured him of his fears – the clouds overhead were a deep, deep gray and about to spill a lake's worth of water any second. Not even snow. Great. Just great. It was going to rain on the one Monferno who couldn't take a wet tail.
If there was any time to wish he were normal, it was now. Oh yeah, purebred members of the Monferno family didn't have anything to fear from getting their tails wet, save for an unpleasant sick feeling. But thanks to dear old dad, Kevin's tail was more akin to a Charmander's.
…Okay, he wouldn't die, but being in a coma or whatever until he was perfectly dry again? Not a good idea.
Kevin quickly looked around for some sort of shelter. Unfortunately, aside from inadequate foliage, there was nothing. Of course. Sinnoh was cold, and it was the middle of fall. The trees didn't have any fruit or leaves and weren't going to get any until spring.
Seriously, how did anyone live here? Aside from the rich mansion guy, obviously.
Wait… The mansion! Wait, no, people apparently thought he was the Shade, which may or may not be a good thing. Too risky. Kevin's eyes darted around, looking for some form of salvation from the storm to come.
Thunder roared. Damn it, he'd just have to outrun the rain, if that was even possible. He darted through the forest area, realizing that the ground was soggy. So… it rained here a lot? But the ground in the first part of the route was dry. Ugh, Kevin hadn't been this confused since he went to Fortree in May.
He laughed a bit at the memory. Route 118 was perfectly sunny and sandy, but as soon as he stepped into Route 119, lightning flashed and he was drenched in seconds. Luckily, there was plenty of shelter available there and he was able to travel through without getting any soggier, but he'd never tried going through perpetually rainy routes since.
As Kevin ran through the marsh, however, he became more and more desperate. Rain was starting to fall now; creating puddles immediately since the ground was already so damp. The flame on his tail protested, stinging with each drop it got hit with. Kevin cursed, holding it close to his body in an attempt to shield it.
He rounded a corner and cursed again. The next portion of the route was merely a couple of bridges across a very high river. The river was flowing rapidly, water sloshing up and over the edges of the bridges and almost submerging them altogether. Kevin sighed, gripped his tail tightly, and bolted across.
Running on slippery wood was not such a good idea, though. Kevin soon tripped in yet another puddle and grunted. He got up as fast as he could and continued to walk quickly without falling a second time. He repeatedly swore under his breath, cursing Kyogre for lack of anyone better.
After getting about halfway across the river, when he stepped onto the second bridge, Kevin saw a house. It wasn't majestic like the mansion from before, actually being on the quaint side, but he didn't care. At this point, he couldn't afford to be picky. He scrambled across the second bridge, barely managing to keep his balance before reaching the house and yanking the door open. Stumbling inside, Kevin breathed a sigh of relief.
As it turned out, however, the house was already occupied. There was a man in what looked like fishing gear playing solitaire or something at a cheap wooden table. He eyed Kevin before turning back to his game.
"Um…" started Kevin. "Is it— Is it possible that I can stay here until the rain clears up?"
"No," grunted the man.
"Okay…" Kevin said. Crazylanders seemed to be rude by nature.
He spared Kevin a quick glance. "It barely ever clears up around here. The next clear day is probably in a month or so."
"Wha- but I swear it didn't start raining until I showed up!" Kevin exclaimed.
"Trainers," grunted the man, "using Sunny Day because they can't stand a little rain,"
Kevin bit his lip. "'Kay, what if I just stay here until the rain gets lighter?"
"Seven hours," replied the man.
"Eh?"
"The thunder will stop in seven hours," he clarified. Okay, he could deal with that.
He nodded to the man and sat down on the floor. He didn't know what he was going to do for seven hours, but he'd gone longer with nothing to do before. No biggie. It'd be nice if he could use Sunny Day, though.
Wait, could he? Kevin frowned, trying to remember if his father had ever used it before. Somebody had used Sunny Day on his mom's birthday a long time ago, he knew that. Kyle was still a baby…
Oh, right. That was Uncle Nick. His dad sucked at using fire moves.
He sighed. Even if he did know Sunny Day, it wasn't like he would remember how. Yeah, to little kids, non-damaging moves were always considered "useless," and Kevin was no exception. Whatever. Even if he didn't have Nick's techniques—
Damn it! How the hell did he forget about that?
Kevin stood up. The fisherman barely paid him any attention as he opened and walked out the door, but that didn't matter. That guy was as sour as aspear and nomel berries combined. Kevin took a deep breath and stuck the end of his tail in his mouth. Not exactly a perfect method, but it worked.
Uncle Nick had used the technique so that he was able to go swimming. For a reason that neither Kevin nor the rest of his family could fathom, Nick loved water almost as much as he loved his wife. Biting it was a weird way of keeping his tail dry, but what other way was there, really? Unless he felt like putting a plastic bag on it…
So, with his tail safe between his teeth, Kevin ran as quickly as he could through the last part of the route. He still wasn't going very fast, what with all the puddles threatening to make him slip in the way, but at least he could actually make some progress this way. Finally, he got across all the bridges, only to discover that there was a giant swamp covering the last several feet of route. Fantastic.
Kevin spotted a few trees somehow growing in the mucky earth and decided that it'd be easiest to use them to get across. Why the landowner didn't pay the bridge guys to make one more bridge over the swamp, he didn't know, and frankly, he didn't care. At this point, all Kevin could think of was being somewhere dry.
After a few hazardous leaps from tree to tree, Kevin finally made it into the city's border. There was a sign announcing the name of the city (not that he could read it) along with several buildings and other city stuff. It was pretty average, although Kevin was kind of surprised that a settlement this large didn't have paved roads.
His stomach growled with dissatisfaction. It was probably in his best interest to find Lana fast so that he could eat, since he didn't trust himself to persuade yet another cashier to let him have some food for free. Sighing, Kevin dragged himself along the grassy roads, looking for a building that vaguely resembled Eterna City's Pokémon Gym. That's where Lana would be, right? Or would she be staying at the Pokémon Center by now?
As Kevin rounded the corner, he was met with a sign advertising burgers and fries. He frowned. Even meat, despite his instinct, sounded appetizing at the moment. Upon observation, the building the sign went to wasn't a shop, but rather an arcade of some sort. He smiled weakly. He'd always wanted to go to one as a child.
Kevin stopped. Maybe he could just take a peek? Hell, for all he knew, Lana could be in there. And it was more likely that even if Lana wasn't there, some other sympathetic person was, and that meant he'd get to eat.
With a grin, Kevin stepped through the automatic doors of the arcade. He was met with a blur of light and sound, all competing for his attention with as many seizure-inducing flashes and noises as they could possibly make. Naturally, with all the distractions, nobody really seemed to notice him as he snuck past the token-buying queue into the main section of the arcade.
The sight was reminiscent of a commercial or two he recalled when watching TV. There was the familiar section of token and ticket spewing games ranging from pseudo-basketball to "Whacka-Diglett", yet among the familiar activities there seemed to be an electronic game or two that took quarters instead. He approached one intrigued; video games always looked cool on the TV, but finally seeing one in person was something else altogether.
He didn't really know what he was expecting when he looked at the screen, but this was ridiculous. On the left was a standard game booth, grungy eighties graphics and all. The one on the right, however, looked like it was brand-spanking new, and… mind-blowing, really. The three dimensional models were certainly much better looking than the graphics of the games Kevin had seen advertised – probably by ten-fold. And that was saying something; while the graphics on the left were barely-animated ghosts and yellow sphere-headed blobby things, the right one was rendering people beating each other up. With blood. Realistically. And even the background was 3D!
Kevin stared in shock. Either the company that made the game was keeping their talents secret from everyone else, or Sinnoh was just that high technical.
He reeeaaally wished he had a quarter right now.
With a sigh, he turned to exit the arcade. He vowed that someday, he'd get a chance to at least try a video game, regardless of if he could actually beat it or not. It was just like battling, right? You just needed to figure out a strategy, and then everything else would be a cinch. He emerged outside where, thankfully, the rain had let up.
Kevin was about to turn to walk away when, in the corner of his eye, he thought he spotted a girl with black hair and a shirt with a suspiciously familiar smiling heart on it.