CHAPTER 4: In Which There Are Plazas. Lots Of Plazas.
Once Adrian and Gwen had gotten the all-clear from the gatekeepers, they were free to enter Galenaville proper. They'd been here a few times with the academy: this was the place where the very first pokemon hero had started, so it was important to the hero community. But they'd only ever visited on tightly-scheduled field trips, and now they were free to explore it however they wanted.
It looked a little like Adventurine: old buildings, paved streets, lots of trees. But where Adventurine was built from neat, square blocks, and every building had a subdued palette, Galena was a riot of colour. Trees and flowers grew everywhere, not just in neat pots, and there were vines on plenty of the houses, covered in flowers. There were open-air plazas everywhere they looked, full of fountains and cafes.
It was gorgeous, and it was a lot busier than Adventurine ever was. They resolved to sit down somewhere while they downloaded maps to their Pokegears so they could get their bearings, and decided on a particularly charming cafe next to a quiet bookshop in one of the plazas.
A waitress was at their table almost immediately to get their milkshake orders, and came back with bowls of pokemon food as well as their drinks.
"You guys are trainers, right?" she asked, when they questioned her. "I can usually tell."
"We're, uh, yeah. We're trainers," Adrian agreed awkwardly. "Thanks."
She grinned at them. "It's fine! I wish I could be a trainer, it must be so much fun."
Once she'd left them alone with their drinks, Gwen leaned over to Adrian. "You didn't tell her the truth," she said. "Why?"
He shrugged. "Should we really tell everyone?"
Secret identities had been a serious topic at the academy. Some heroes embraced the concept, whereas others eschewed it, letting everyone know their civilian identity. It was up to the hero, and Gwen had never quite decided what she was going to do. It looked like Adrian was in the same boat.
Gwen slurped at her milkshake. "I guess we can figure it out later," she said. "I mean, once that Delcatty's out of the bag, there's no putting it back in."
"Exactly!" Adrian laughed. His Pokegear beeped as the map finished downloading. He placed the device in the middle of the table, and pressed a button. The air above the Pokegear flickered before turning into a miniature, blue version of Galenaville.
"So we're...here," Gwen said, poking at one of the many plazas on the holographic map. "Right?"
"Right," Adrian agreed. "Uh, I think. And we want to go...here?" He poked at a large clocktower on the hologram, and then they both peered around at the real life location.
"I think I see it?" said Gwen doubtfully. "Behind that chimney over there."
"Ohh, yeah, that could be it. Maybe."
"Maybe? Are you doubting me?" She gave him a playful punch on the shoulder, then turned her attention back to the map. "Do we even want to go there right now, though?"
"What?" Adrian asked, raising his eyebrows. "Why would you even say that?"
Gwen shrugged awkwardly, playing with her straw. "I dunno, maybe it's too late in the day to have a big hero meeting. Maybe we should just stay at the Pokecentre tonight and go tomorrow."
Adrian shrugged in response. "I guess we can do that," he said. "If you don't feel up to it today."
"I feel up to it, I just don't know if we should," Gwen argued, trying to sound like she believed her own argument.
"We can do whatever you want," Adrian said, clearly meaning the opposite. "Just say the word, and we'll stay at the Pokecentre."
Gwen sighed. "Can we at least have a bit of a touristy look around before we go to the tower?"
In the end, they did stay at the Pokecentre that night. They spent a few hours looking at cool shops, trying on stupid clothes and reading the backs of interesting books, eating gourmet ice cream and splashing each other at the fountains. Then, once they decided to actually go to to the clocktower, they realised they were lost. Spectacularly lost.
"This is why you downloaded the map," Gwen muttered for the fifth time, as they stomped through the billionth plaza of the day. "So we wouldn't get lost. And yet here we are-"
"Ugh," said Adrian, drawing out the word. "Shut up, already! I get it, we're lost!"
"What are we going to do, Adrian? Get rescued? Do you even realise how embarrassing that would be?"
"Maybe we could live on the streets," Adrian suggested with a grin.
There was an awkward pause.
"That was a joke," he pointed out.
"Oh, uh, yeah. Haha, hilarious, etcetera. Now can we please work out where we are? I'm tired, and the sun's going down. We're never going to get un-lost in the dark."
Completely by accident, the next street they walked down was the street the Pokecentre was located on.
"Oh thank goodness," Gwen gasped when the building came into view. "We're saved!"
They rushed into the building, more than ready to get a couple of rooms for the night, eat some vending machine dinner, and hit the hay. The lady at the desk was very sympathetic to their tale of being lost.
"No flying pokemon, huh?" she asked with an empathetic smile. "New cities can be so hard when you can't see them from the air."
Gwen and Adrian looked at each other in horror.
"Uh," Adrian said after a moment. "Yeah. So hard. The map just got us more lost."
She laughed. "Yeah, maps can be hard to work out at first. We've got a pretty good poster map on the wall down here, you guys should check it out in the morning, it might help."
"Thanks," Gwen said, trying to muster up a grin. She felt like a total idiot.
"We are such idiots," Adrian hissed to her, as they walked away from the counter.
"I know," Gwen groaned. "How could we forget about Rufflet?"
"Or Ralts?" Adrian asked. "Your faithful pokemon who knows-"
"Teleport," Gwen finished with a tragic sigh. "What is wrong with us, dude?"
Adrian laughed wryly. "At least we made it here? And hey, we'll never make that mistake again!"
Gwen punched him. "Now you've jinxed us!"
Laughing and bickering, they made it upstairs to their rooms. Gwen unlocked her door, but before she could open it, Adrian tapped her shoulder. She turned.
"Tomorrow," he said, face uncharacteristically serious. "Tomorrow we go to the tower, and get an audience with the town hero."
"Alright," she said, feeling like a flock of nervous Butterfree had been released into her stomach. "Tomorrow we'll appeal for our next emblem!"