Chapter Two – Visiting Relatives pt 2
Hailey stood over the kitchen stove, atop of which was a saucepan filled with macaroni in boiling water, which Hailey was stirring with the wooden spoon in her free hand. There were two other saucepans on the stove, both with their lids on; both lids were transparent, but they were completely covered in steam from the contents inside, which made it impossible to identify said contents at a glance. On the worktop next to Hailey was a large bowl of prepared salad, made with lettuce leaves, cherry tomatoes, trace amounts of red onion, rocket leaves and balsamic vinegar for some seasoning. The oven underneath the stove was glowing in a gentle red-orange glow, cooking what looked like a baguette wrapped in tin foil, which lay on a baking tray in the middle of the oven. Hailey held the cordless telephone with her other hand.
"Seriously, though, I think it'll do Alexa some good," Hailey said. "She needs the time away from him."
"Sounds it," a male voice replied on the phone. "I thought he was supposed to be a nice guy."
"I wouldn't know, Harvey, I've never met him face to face," Hailey shrugged as she removed the lid from one of the other two saucepans and stirred the contents with a different spoon, after having left the wooden spoon in the macaroni saucepan.
"All I know about it is what I heard from her Pokémon," Harvey replied. "Got the buzz from them, y'see. There's a lot of mixed feelings about it as well."
"How do you mean?"
"Some of them are now carrying a grudge against Keith, some are more in the 'worried about Alexa' category, that sort of thing," Harvey explained. "It's actually rather interesting to say the least."
"I'm sure they'll be all right," Hailey smiled as she removed the spoon from the saucepan and replaced its lid, returning her focus to the cooking pasta. "Oh, there's a Pokémon Contest coming up at the end of the week-"
"C'mon, sis, you know we're already planning to visit you and Hayden," Harvey laughed. "We're going to be at that Contest Hall."
Daphne and Daniel were in their bedroom, which was simplistic. There were two single beds on the same wall, opposite the bedroom door, upon which was a poster beautifully depicting a favourite Pokémon mutually shared by both Daphne and Daniel; Articuno. The walls themselves were painted a relatively dark green, but with several other posters attached to them; some of the posters belonged to Daphne, as they depicted imagery that represented her love of music. There were posters of detective and/or crime novels, which belonged to Daniel, who was, in fact, reading his book, "Night of the Clefairy Dance", which was also one of the posters on the wall. The furnishing was also simplistic in design, but they added a certain charm to the room to make feel more homely to the twins. The bookcase was wonderfully divided into two sections; one side held Daphne's belongings, magazines and other knick-knacks like figurines and a plush Meloetta, and the other side was home to Daniel's many crime and detective novels, school books and a small blue book light that could clip to a book, which would allow Daniel to read in the dark. At the bottom of the bookcase, there were two large gaps, each with Daphne and Daniel's school bags neatly tucked inside in their proper places. In one corner of the room, on the same wall as the bedroom door, was a television with a DVD player underneath; there were two stacks of DVDs on either side of the player, one side housing Daphne's DVDs, the other housing Daniel's DVDs. Daniel was lying on his bed, his duvet set being a simple terracotta brown, with and Umbreon curled up peacefully near his feet, reading his novel. Daphne sat on her bed, her duvet set being black with white different sized stars printed all over the covers, with a resting Espeon on her lap, communicating with someone on her grey and pink Xtransceiver. Daphne had her other hand over her wrist for support, thus covering the Xtransceiver strap.
"You'd be concerned about her too if you saw that picture I told you about; that Manaphy looked so lonely...it gave me a really spooky vibe, Troy."
"There's a reason for your concern," Troy replied. On the Xtransceiver's display screen was a young adult with dark brunette hair, green eyes and an extremely thin goatee. "Alexa's had a row with her fella."
"Really?! That's so sad!" Daphne exclaimed. Daniel huffed to himself and continued his reading. "How did you hear about it?"
"From Perri," Troy replied. "She, in turn, was informed by Xavier, who is in the 'I hate Keith' corner."
"Be honest, Daphne, is it really any of our business?" Daniel sighed. "It's her problem, let her sort it out herself; I don't see why we should really care."
"You should care," Troy smirked. "Daphne may end up with the same dilemma one day!" Daniel, irate, quickly placed his bookmark in his book before closing it loudly, dropping it – almost on his Umbreon's head – and sprinted out of bed to face Troy on Daphne's Xtransceiver.
"Don't you start, Troy, don't you start!" Troy and Daphne laughed at Daniel's sudden burst of anger, though Daphne tried constantly to calm him down. The sudden eruption of noise awoke Daniel's Umbreon and Daphne's Espeon briefly; Umbreon went back to sleep after a sigh, but Espeon stayed awake, grinning rather smugly at his owner's brother.
Peggy heard Daphne's laughter and Daniel's inaudible rage from her bedroom. She shrugged it off and resumed her drawing. Peggy was pretty much surrounded in nothing but pink walls and carpet, but her furniture was mostly white. The single rounded rug in the middle of the room, where Peggy was drawing, was also white, but it had rounded bumps around it, almost like a flower. The bookcase in the corner of the room behind Peggy had many children's books and several plush Pokémon, all of which were Pokémon Peggy considered "cute"; among them were Cubone, Minccino, Eevee, Phanpy, Pachirisu, Munna and Shroomish. In front of the bookcase was a fully inflated blue and white beach ball. There was also a pink television on a white desk opposite Peggy's bed, but neither one looked as though they'd even been touched since they were placed in the bedroom. However, the chair that sat in front of the desk seemed to be home to Peggy's school backpack, which was identical to those belonging to her twin siblings, save for a small cute Chimecho keychain that depicted her name. Peggy's bed was a single white framed bed with a cute pink duvet set with purple flowers printed all over the covers; "Munna Print", Peggy called it. The red-eyed Swablu flew away from the bed and sat in front of the paper Peggy was drawing on. Swablu looked at the drawing and suddenly felt awkward; though viewed upside down, Peggy's drawing depicted rather crudely drawn stick figured of Keith and Alexa. In the picture, Keith appeared to be angry at Alexa, who seemed to have a bruise on her cheek and crying. Swablu wasn't sure if an eight year old girl like Peggy should be drawing something so grim.
"Piper...do you think Lexa will be happy again?" Peggy asked sadly as she halted her drawing.
"Blu?" Piper cooed in confusion.
"Lexa looked really sad today. I wish she was happy," Peggy sighed. Piper flew over to Peggy's beach ball and rolled it towards her by gently nudging it with her head. Peggy felt the beach ball softly hitting her leg and looked at it. Peggy smiled at her Swablu, dropped her blue crayon and proceeded to pick up her beach ball.
"Blu, blu!" Piper sang happily.
"You want to play? Okay, let's play!" Peggy said happily as she rolled the beach ball towards her cheery Swablu.
The sun was shining brightly the next morning, and not a single cloud could be seen in the sky. Peggy was at the beach, playing with her beach ball with Daphne and Keenan. Iara ran around Keenan as he ran around the beach, whilst Piper followed Peggy around in a similar manner; the objective of the game was nothing more than to catch the beach ball whenever it was thrown. There were no winners or losers. Daniel was lying on one of the beach deck chairs, under a large parasol, still reading his "Night of the Clefairy Dance" novel. Hailey, Colin, Hayden and Lily were also on their own beach deck chairs, sunbathing. Everyone was wearing some form of swimwear, but Hayden seemed to be the only one wearing sunglasses. Tidus lay on the sand next to Hayden, sleeping soundly. Chelsea was lying in the sun, basking in the sunlight, along with a Bellossom and a Maractus. Espeon and Umbreon were both resting underneath Daniel's deck chair.
"This was a good idea, dear," Colin said. "The weather's perfect for a beach trip."
"I'm glad everyone's having a good time," Hailey smiled.
"The kids are, that's for sure," Lily chuckled as she watched Peggy's little game. Daniel rolled his eyes and kept reading.
"I'm surprised there aren't more people here; I think we're the only ones on the entire beach," Hayden commented.
"Oh, everyone else is off at the Pokémon World Tournament; they say Cynthia and Lance are going to be there, as well as Steven," Hailey explained.
"I don't know why that place exists," Colin sighed.
"You're just jealous because you weren't contracted to design the building," Hailey teased.
"There is that, yeah," Colin chuckled. "Eh, whaddya gonna do?" he shrugged. Peggy suddenly stopped playing and looked around. She and Piper approached Hayden, looking rather worried.
"Uncle Hayden, I can't find Lexa!" she panicked.
"It's all right, sweet pea, Alexa's gone diving in the Undella Bay," Hayden said reassuringly.
"Why?" Peggy asked in confusion.
"She claimed it might take her mind off of her worries for a while," Lily replied sweetly. "That and she heard there are ruins at the bottom of the bay; and we know how much she likes that sort of thing."
"Now, don't you worry about a thing, baby girl, Alexa's more than capable of looking after herself," Hailey smiled. Peggy smiled and nodded at her mother as Keenan approached her.
"Are you okay, Peggy?" he asked. Peggy smiled at Keenan.
"I'm okay."
"Does this mean we're back on?" Keenan asked, with a smile on his face. Peggy nodded and the pair returned to Daphne, who held onto Peggy's beach ball.
Alexa was underwater, holding onto her Azumarill gently as they descended towards a large submerged stone structure. In addition to her blue swimsuit, Alexa wore a diving mask over her eyes and nose, black swimming shoes on her feet and an aqualung in her mouth to provide her with oxygen as her Azumarill dived further. Azumarill looked like any other Azumarill, with the exception of a white spot behind his right ear. The pair dove into the ruins and eventually made their way inside the ruins. Alexa was surprised to find that the ruins were bone dry on the inside, but gave it no second thought as she and her Azumarill climbed out of the water. She took off her aqualung and mask and carefully placed them near the hole leading back to the ocean. Alexa looked around the ruins with intrigue; the entire area appeared to be extremely bland, devoid of any kind of statue or furnishing or anything to take up the large amount of space before her. However, there were many different engravings on the walls, which captured Alexa's interest. Azumarill looked around and felt uneasy.
"Azu..."
"It's okay, Aquos, I think we're the only ones here," Alexa said kindly as she patted her Azumarill on the head. She took a closer look at the engravings on the wall nearest to her; she wished she had some way of translating the strange symbols, but, alas, they were all completely illegible to her. "So whoever lived in or built these ruins used a different language...I guess I sort of expected to see Unown hieroglyphs."
"Azu?"
"Mmhmm. This language is completely out of my league," Alexa sighed. "That raises the question of how old these ruins are... Was this place built before Unown hieroglyphs were discovered or did the people who built it simply use a different language?"
"Azumarill," Aquos walked over to Alexa.
"I'm sure they mean something, Aquos; I just can't read them." Alexa walked further into the room, looking around as she walked. Aquos followed her closely, still feeling rather unnerved at the ominous silence of the ruins; he felt as though he and Alexa would be ambushed at any given moment. He held onto Alexa for some comfort. Alexa laughed.
"Aquos, relax; I'm sure these ruins aren't haunted and I'm sure there's nobody here but us," she said as she stroked her fearful friend. "Nothing's going to hurt you." Aquos nodded and felt rather relaxed until he heard the noise of a coin being dropped onto the floor.
"AZUUU!" Aquos panicked and hid behind Alexa, shivering. Alexa looked down at the ground and spotted a rust coloured coin not too far from her feet.
"What's a penny doing in a place like this?" she asked herself as she knelt down to inspect the coin she allegedly kicked. After taking a closer look, the coin didn't look like any other penny she had seen before. Aquos looked at the coin over Alexa's shoulder and was equally as intrigued.
"I didn't think you'd be at the Pokémon World Tournament," Harvey chuckled as he and Troy approached Hayden, Lily, Hailey and Colin. Harvey, in terms of appearance, looked astonishingly similar to Troy; his brunette hair was tied in a ponytail, akin to Troy's, and had a slightly more obvious goatee, but his eyes were identical to Hayden's; sapphire blue. Contrary to Hayden, however, Harvey wore a simple green T-shirt and grey jeans with black boots, whilst Troy wore a white vest with grey jeans and black boots. Hayden stood up from the deck chair and approached Harvey, who was considerably taller than Hayden. Riding on Harvey's shoulder was a happy looking Aipom with an extremely untidy cowlick and a grey ring near the end of his tail.
"How are you, Harvey?" Hayden asked, pulling his sunglasses up to his forehead.
"We're fine, Uncle Hayden," Troy replied. "How're you enjoying Unova?"
"So far so good," Hayden nodded as, eventually, the other three adults approached Harvey and Troy. "Hotel's better than I thought it would be."
"Glad to hear it," Harvey smiled.
"Hello there, Laddy," Lily smiled as she stroked the Aipom's cheek.
"Aipom!" Laddy said merrily.
"Aunt Lily, is Alexa okay?" Troy asked.
"Oh, yes, she's fine at the moment, thank you for asking," Lily replied. Harvey looked around the beach; he saw Daphne, Peggy and Keenan playing their game and Daniel ignoring everyone else and reading his book, but...
"Where IS she anyway?" Before anyone could answer, Troy spotted Alexa and Aquos surfacing from the ocean not too far from the shore.
"There she is," Troy smiled as the pair made their way to the beach. Alexa pulled her diving mask down to her neck after taking the aqualung out of her mouth. She smiled as she approached the adults.
"Troy! Uncle Harvey!"
"So you were swimming, huh? Meet any interesting Pokémon?" Troy asked.
"Not really," Alexa said, losing her smile a little. "We saw some Basculin and Frillish...that was about it. But Aquos and I found this," she said as she unveiled the item clasped in her left hand; the copper coin she found in the ruins was resting in her palm. Intrigued, Daniel placed his bookmark in his book and joined in the conversation and got a look at the coin.
"You don't see pennies like that anymore," Hailey laughed.
"Where did you find that?" Daniel asked.
"The undersea ruins in the bay," Alexa answered truthfully. Harvey laughed.
"I should've known you'd check those ruins out for yourself, chick. Why don't you see Undella's antique dealer about it? He might end up buying it off of you," he suggested with a cheeky wink.
"I will, considering I don't have a use for it," Alexa smiled. "But I think it'll be a better idea if I paid him a visit once I'm dry enough. And have gotten all this salt out of my hair. Dad, can you please look after this while I'm gone?"
"Of course I can," Hayden replied as he accepted the coin from Alexa. Daniel spotted Daphne waving him over, encouraging him to join in the game; he shrugged and ran off to join his sister. Alexa and Aquos ran over to her bag and took out a green bottle and a comb before walking over to the beach showers near the steps leading to the Pokémon Centre, Troy following behind them.
"How's she taking things?" Harvey asked. "Y'know, with the..." Hayden placed the coin in his pocket.
"I don't know," Hayden replied. "I had a word with her about it last night after dinner; I think she's trying to put it behind her, but I don't think she's ready to move on from it yet."
"How did you know about it anyway?" Colin asked. "I mean, did Hailey tell you, or..?"
"Yeah, but I knew about it beforehand; Alexa's Pokémon are all talking about it," Harvey explained.
"All of them?" Lily asked.
"Well...I don't think the 'babies' of the bunch know anything," Harvey replied awkwardly. "Anyway, the ones that do know about it seem to have their own views on the matter; some are more worried about Alexa, some are harbouring grudges against Keith, but most of them are purely 'in the know', if you will."
"Which ones have the grudges, dare I ask?" Hailey questioned.
"The only ones I know about who carry these grudges are Xavier and Ryder," Harvey replied.
"I'm not surprised; both of them spent quite a lot of time around Keith, Ryder especially, being the first Pokémon of Alexa's Keith met," Hayden mused. "I just hope the matter gets resolved, whatever the outcome; this whole thing's bugging Alexa to no end."
"I hope so," Harvey admitted. "Anyway, did you manage to see A Hero's Rising?"
"Yes, and it sucks," Hailey said bluntly. "Even Peggy didn't like it!" Harvey laughed.
"Hardly surprising; I've seen the reviews. On average, the movie received one star out of five and one point out of ten, mostly because of the whole 'it was hilariously bad' thing."
"Which is a shame; Troy's Golurk played the villain's Pokémon," Lily said worriedly.
"I don't think Brad really cares about the movie's reception," Harvey chuckled. "At any rate, it's usually the director and/or writers that get the blame for how bad a movie is; the actors just do as they're told and follow the script."
"Still, I am happy to see Alexa finally cheering up," Hayden smiled as he looked over at the beach showers; Alexa was massaging the shampoo into her hair as she spoke with Troy. Aquos was under the shower next to her, dancing around without a single care in the world. Troy and Alexa began laughing.
"Does Keith know where she is?" Harvey asked.
"Like I said to Hailey yesterday, I don't know if she said anything to Keith," Lily explained.
"I wouldn't think she said anything to him," Hayden assumed. "She hasn't spoken to him or looked him in the eye since that argument."
"Makes sense," Harvey nodded. "I just asked in case he tries to rain in on her parade."
"If he does, he needs to get through the umbrella," Hayden stated firmly. Harvey grinned.
"Nice! By the way, what's Keenan's take on the whole thing?" Harvey asked curiously. Hayden looked towards his son, who was still playing with Daphne, Daniel and Peggy; Keenan had the beach ball and threw it towards the less enthusiastic Daniel.
"He's more concerned about Alexa than Keith," Hayden replied. "Though he's still a little hurt, considering he trusted Keith."
"Sounds like Keith lost some brownie points after that argument," Colin stated.
"Evidently. I doubt Keith knows the damage he caused when he lashed out on Alexa," Hayden sighed.
"So he started it?" Hailey asked.
"We don't know," Lily replied. "Like I told you, Alexa was incredibly sketchy on the details; she didn't mention which of them started the argument, just that he had the last word before she ran away from the Ranger Union."
"So she ran from the Ranger Union to Chicole Village? All by herself?" Harvey asked.
"No, she had Franz with her," Lily answered. "But she did run the entire way."
"Wow. Still, the main thing is she's happy," Harvey smiled as he watched Alexa, Aquos and Troy returning to the adults. "By the way, chick, what did you think of A Hero's Rising?"
"A waste of time," Alexa replied as she walked over to her bag. She took out a white towel and dropped her green bottle inside the bag. "The characters were extremely one-dimensional and horribly clichéd, the plot was generic and predictable, there were continuity errors and plot holes everywhere, the dialogue was incredibly cheesy and the only good acting came from the Pokémon," she elaborated as she rubbed the towel slightly around her head. Her response startled Hailey, Hayden and Lily. "I was bored after the first 10 minutes, so I just ignored the rest of the film for the most part. Though it was also because I couldn't help thinking about my...about Keith."
"Does he know you're here, chick?" Harvey asked. Alexa shook her head.
"I didn't say anything to Keith. I've purposely left my mobile and laptop at home in case he tries to text, call or email me," Alexa replied. "I don't want to worry about him while I'm here," she added as she placed her towel back in her bag and took out a hairbrush. "The last thing I want is to have this holiday spoiled because I told Keith where I am," she said as she began running the brush through her slightly damp and rather tangled hair.
"You don't have to worry about us, sweetheart; if Keith does try to find you, he'll need to get through your mother and I before he can get close to you," Hayden said.
"Thanks, Dad," Alexa smiled. She suddenly felt the hairbrush stopping in its tracks; when Alexa tried to pull it further, she felt a slightly painful pulling sensation from the top of her head. Alexa groaned. "I used the towel to dry my hair because...?" Lily laughed as she took the hairbrush in her hand.
"Here, let me sort this out." Lily took the hairbrush out of the tangled mess and gripped the hair tightly just above where the hairbrush got stuck. Being careful not to pull too hard on Alexa's hair, Lily pulled the brush down the tangled mess quickly and rather vigorously until Alexa's hair was smooth and free from tangles. Lily gave Alexa's hair a gentle brushing for a few seconds before returning the hairbrush to Alexa.
"Thanks, Mum, I appreciate it."
"You're welcome, honey," Lily smiled.
"Say, Alexa, aren't you going to go to the antique dealer about that coin?" Troy asked.
"Yeah, why?" Alexa asked.
"I should go with you, just in case the dealer's dad's there," Troy suggested.
"Yes, he is rather...passionate about rare artefacts," Hailey said timidly.
"Passionate? That's putting it mildly, the guy's a psycho for rare artefacts," Harvey said rather rudely.
"Thanks, Troy, I didn't think of that," Alexa said gratefully. Hayden returned the old coin to Alexa, and Alexa headed towards one of the buildings at the far end of the beach with Troy and Aquos following closely.
It was about ten minutes later by the time the adults were packing their belongings away. Daphne and Peggy were still playing their ball game, but Keenan and Daniel had since left the game to pack up their stuff as well. Keenan kept his gaze away from Daniel, knowing of his distaste for Alexa and Keenan himself. Iara hung from Keenan's shoulder and watched him as he packed his stuff into his bag. Keenan smiled when he spotted Troy and Alexa approaching the beach a few minutes later. Alexa immediately approached her bag and discreetly slipped a folded up piece of paper into a secret compartment inside her bag before closing it altogether. Hailey approached Alexa, her bag already around her shoulders.
"Sorry, Alexa, I forgot to tell you; there's a Pokémon Contest in Nimbasa City this weekend, and I was wondering if you'd like to watch," Hailey offered politely.
"I'd be happy to," Alexa smiled as she lifted her bag off of the sand, placing the strap around her shoulders. "I haven't seen a Pokémon Contest live before; most of the contests I've seen have been on live television."
"That's great!"
"Are you participating this year?"
"Like I do every year," Hailey winked. "I tell you what, though, Eric's been excited about this contest since the last one, especially since he couldn't participate last year because of a broken arm."
"Think he's up for it?" Alexa asked as she looked towards the seemingly motionless Bellossom.
"Course he is! Aren't you, darling?"
"Bellossom!" Eric replied as he awoke and danced over towards Hailey. The little Flower Pokémon jumped up as Hailey crouched, allowing Eric to land right in Hailey's arm. Hailey stood up and faced Alexa, her Bellossom in her arm.
"I promised the appeal stage to Eric this year, seeing as he missed out. It was stupid, really, he fell over during rehearsal and fell on his arm," Hailey explained.
"I'm glad me made a full recovery," Alexa smiled. "Can't wait to see your appeal, Eric."
"Bell-ossom," Eric bowed courteously.
"You're welcome," Alexa said politely. Harvey and Hayden approached Hailey and Alexa.
"We're all set," Hayden said. "Fancy stopping at the café for drinks or something?"
"I don't mind," Hailey replied. "I'm up for whatever the majority wants to do."
"So far, that's the café," Harvey laughed.
"What about you, Lexie?" Hayden asked.
"Sure, that'd be nice."
"Azu, azu!" Aquos cheered happily. Hayden smiled as he and Harvey began walking towards the café with Alexa and Aquos. Hailey looked towards her two daughters.
"Daphne, Peggy, café time! Come on!" she called. In response to Hailey's call, Daphne and Peggy ceased their game and ran towards their mother, Daphne holding the beach ball under her arm.
The café was a very spacious and charming place; there were many identical white tables around the main area, all of different sizes and with identical matching chairs around them, some tables having more than others, considering the different table sizes, shapes and lengths. In three of the café's corners were three seating booths, which all shared the same white leather seats in front of three squared tables. The service counter was at the far end of the café, which had various snacks, sandwiches, cakes and soft drinks on display, with a reasonably sized freezer for the ice creams. On top of the freezer was several stacks of ice cream cones and disposable tubs for the ice creams, and a selection of sprinkles, sauces and a tub of small chocolate sticks. Behind the cash register were two identical coffee machines with a selection of different flavour coffee syrups and several other containers, presumably containing chocolate for sprinkling. Above the service counter were three large boards that made up the full café menu and displayed all of the prices for the products sold. Hayden, Lily, Hailey, Colin, Harvey, Troy, Daniel, Daphne, Peggy, Keenan and Alexa all sat at one of the seating booths, Troy and Harvey having cheekily borrowed two chairs from a different table in order to sit on the same table as their family. The Pokémon were all nearby, each with a bowl of poffins in front of them. The poffins in each bowl were all different coloured. Daphne and Peggy were the only ones with an ice cream cone, Daphne's being strawberry with a chocolate sauce and Peggy's being vanilla with sprinkles on top. Everyone else had a cold drink of some variety; Daniel, Alexa, Keenan and Hayden each had a cola – Hayden's and Alexa's being the same, Hailey had an iced coffee, Harvey, Troy and Colin each had a fruit smoothie. Daphne and Peggy had their own little conversation.
"So, Hayden, what do you have planned for the rest of the week?" Harvey asked curiously.
"I think it's something we need to discuss amongst ourselves, but I was thinking a shopping trip tomorrow and maybe a trip to Nimbasa City before the contest this weekend," Hayden replied. "I haven't really thought about it, this is only day two."
"If you're going shopping, do you plan on going to Shopping Mall Nine?" Harvey asked.
"Urgh, no! It's not like my department stores; not only do they allow Pokémon battles indoors, but it's pretty much exactly what my department stores used to be; just a glorified multi-storey PokéMart with no merchandise ordinary people can use," Hayden ranted with disgust.
"I keep telling you, Hayden; buy Unova's PokéMarts," Harvey said casually as he drank his smoothie.
"I'm not sure if I can; the PokéMarts in Unova aren't even proper PokéMarts, they're just piggyback riding on the Pokémon Centres," Hayden said plainly. "As soon as you go into a Unova Pokémon Centre, there's the 'PokéMart' counter on your right hand side."
"Stupid idea, that was," Colin sighed. "But if you were able to purchase Shopping Mall Nine, think you'd be able to fix it up?"
"In two shakes of a Flaaffy's tail," Hayden replied. "It's just a matter of whether it's worth the investment, given its location; between the Tubeline Bridge and Opelucid City? It doesn't feel worth adding to my department store collection."
"That's a strange way to call it, Hayden," Hailey laughed.
"I suppose so, but you know what I mean, right? For now, though, I'll leave it be," Hayden stated. "My PokéMart business is stronger than it's ever been."
"Unsurprisingly; you were the one who pulled it out of the gutter by adding human only products to the smaller PokéMart stores," Colin smiled.
"And adding a PokéMart in Cianwood City," Hailey added. "That was a good move, and a desperately needed one."
"I know; I mean, what were the Cianwood citizens living on in the meantime, sand and sea water?" Hayden chuckled.
"Hey, Alexa; if you're going shopping tomorrow, thought about what you're going to get?" Troy asked curiously. Alexa lowered her soda can from her lips and faced Troy.
"No idea, why?"
"Well, there's that $1000 you've got from that coin you found in the ruins," Troy began. "Maybe you can treat yourself to a little spree of some kind?"
"Troy, $1000 is nothing compared to the seldom touched prize money I won for winning the Sinnoh league," Alexa sighed. "But, no, I have no idea what I'm going to spend the $1000 on."
"What about a Xtransceiver?" Hayden suggested. Alexa looked up at her father in confusion.
"Hm?"
"Y'know, one of these," Daphne said as she held out her wrist to Alexa, showing her the Xtransceiver. "You can take it off if you want to; I would, except my other hand's preoccupied."
"I don't know how..."
"Here." Hayden carefully took Daphne's wrist and pulled the Xtransceiver off of her. Daphne smiled.
"Thank you, Uncle Hayden. Here, Alexa, check it out," Daphne said happily. Alexa took hold of the Xtransceiver and looked at it curiously; Daphne's strap was white with an assortment of black musical notes printed all around it. Alexa felt the strap to be rather smooth, almost like a thin and unused sweatband, only with a more limited elasticity.
"So...it's a watch?" Alexa asked.
"Its 'idle' display is a watch, yeah, but it's more like a PokéGear in watch form," Daphne explained. "It doesn't have radio on it, though, but you can put your own music on it for ringtones! And your own photos for the wallpaper if the standard ones and interface designs don't suit your tastes!"
"So how do I get to the menus?" Alexa asked curiously.
"The main screen is a touch screen," Daphne explained. "There are two other screens hidden in the Xtransceiver, but I've not needed to call more than one person at a time," she added nervously. "And you can change the straps whenever you want; there are so many different design choices in XCommunications, the Xtransceiver store in Castelia City!"
"Except Daphne didn't need to look at the other designs," Daniel said with a small smirk. "She saw the music note one and fell in love with it immediately."
"What can I say? I love music," Daphne laughed.
"No need to tell me twice," Daniel replied.
"I think it's a good idea," Keenan smiled. "Besides, your PokéGear's broken, isn't it?" Keenan purposely withheld the information regarding how Alexa's PokéGear broke; the truth was Alexa had the PokéGear with her, in her pocket, when she, Keith and Keenan intercepted the poacher Jordan on Mt Silver, and it was with her when she and Keith got caught in the avalanche Jordan caused in the first place.
"Oh yeah..."
"All the more reason to consider a Xtransceiver," Daphne grinned.
"I'm going to get one when I'm older!" Peggy smiled delightfully. Alexa examined the Xtransceiver a little more; the more she looked at it, the more intrigued she became.
"Maybe I should..."
To be continued...