The bridge from Aquacorde Town spanned over a canal; eighty meters wide, fourty meters deep. The public on either side of the old clay brick bridge were held from plunging into the current below by a meter tall fence running along the banks. Standing at the fence, the vagrant placed the pointer finger of each hand on the top of the railing, pressing down with his hand and bending the fingers back painfully against the fence. After bending his fingers back for about a minute, the man swapped to pressing his centre fingers instead. Taking a minute on each finger, paying little attention to the tattoo numbers at the knuckle of each. He knew the sequence like, well, the back of his hand. working from left to right on his right hand were the simple symbols; One, Four, Sixteen and Sixty Four. Seemed the oddest things to get etched permanently on the skin at the back of his hand. His left hand was more detailed than his right, consisting of; 256, 1024, 4096 and 16384. By spending ten minutes forcing his fingers to bend back individually, or in each possible combination, the man had plenty of time to notice the young woman approaching across the bridge. Though she was the sort to bounce as she walked, or perhaps even skip most the time, she walked calmly and solemnly. Even without the occasional glimpses of small gold and red ears by her side, he recognized this girl. Shauna was a sweet child, if often a little naive, when she pays attention or is interested she can be quite intelligent, though she rarely acts it.
Arriving at his side of the canal, Shauna approached the older man, head hung down. She stopped at the railing beside him, hands gripping the wooden bar as she looked down at the water silently. The man could see some officers of the law moving about the streets in the town across the canal, they were speaking to a collection of people near where the two men in red suits had attacked the children. "Thank you" She muttered, not looking up from the water as she kicked a small stone over the edge. "Don't worry Mr. Cabberin" Their reflections below rippled silently, blurring their images in the wake of the small stone.
"I'm surprised you recognized me Ms. Armeniox. A lot has changed in the last few years" He responded, turning away from the water to watch as the two red and gold canines tugged on either end of the stick he'd given his, the healthier looking one growling playfully.
"I don't think anyone could forget you sir. But I'm finished that part of my life, please call me Shauna?" Shauna knelt by the two canines, slight watering could be seen in her otherwise smiling eyes.
"In that case, call me Ryan" He offered the young lady his hand, both to help her stand and as a typical greeting. She took it and welcomed the aid in standing, though she did not need it. "I assume they're asking about me then?" He asked, nodding to the police across the river.
"Kinda" Was her shaky response, taking care not to glance across the river. A flash of mechanical red light, and Ryan's Fennekin was left alone holding its stick. It's ears lowered before it's head. "Some people called them because of those people that attacked us" She sat on the edge of the bridge, kicking her legs as she looked at him, a ragged and visually broken man. "They were right though." A strange comment given the ambiguous pronoun. "The men in red." She continued, "They said that parents send off kids with no other options, idiots, just to get rid of them." He intended to stop her, try and explain that she's not an idiot, that the people in red just wanted to demoralize them.
She stared at the ground, taking a long time to draw a small envelope from her pocket, which she offered to the man. Ryan took it, noting that it was already opened. With a nod from Shauna he removed the folded letter from inside and began to read. The general sense was that Shauna had been selected to take part in a special study of new pokemon trainers. Each trainer would be given a rare pokemon and sent to collect research information on pokemon all across the country. The letter called it a great honour, though the wording did strike him as peculiar. Once he'd read the note twice he folded it back up and returned it to the envelope before handing it back. In return she handed him another sheet, this one crumpled in obvious frustration. After carefully peeling the page open, he understood precisely why. It was a printing of an email, from one 'Professor Augustine Sycamore', the same name that signed the bottom of the letter. To a 'Mr. Joseph Armeniox', Ryan had met him before; Shauna's father. The printed email contained both the original message, and Sycamore's response. Mr. Armeniox had reached out to the professor, explaining his daughters grades; including her failing school. She showed interest in almost nothing, having almost no attention span or care for anything beyond the ground she stood on. The things he said about his own daughter disgusted Ryan, such that the printout in his hands shook almost too violently for him to read from it, but he continued. Sycamore's response was as bad, if not worse; detailing how this was a common issue among parents, so much so that a system had been devised to handle such problem children. Often they were given little more than a single starter pokemon and set off on some false quest, usually seeking some pointless goal. The pokemon league sport had grown so much in popularity recently that the problem children have had to stop being sent after it. A new 'knowledge seeking' quest had been devised, requiring children to search for information about Mega Evolution. Perfectly safe and it gets the children out of the house, that was the promise. That promise is what sickened Ryan most. She spoke again when it was clear he had finished reading "When I arrive at the Professor's Lab in Lumiose city, he'll send me off and call my parents to tell them it's done". He shook his head and started to walk past her, heading across the bridge, as he passed the young woman her hand grabbed his arm. "I want to go. I do. But with those people in red out there I'm worried I won't be able to get to Lumiose. I could always trust you Mr. Cabberin, will you help me?"
Drooping his shoulders, Ryan turned to face the lass sitting beside him. "If you're sure?" She nodded her response, hopping off the wall of the bridge and taking a couple steps north. Returning back to town would also mean confronting the police. Ryan had no issues with the police, but prison is something he would much rather avoid. He returned to walk with the young lady north through the grassland and trees to a small forest. The forest leads to Santalune city, which lay between here and their destination. Passing under a tree, Ryan was greeted by a small feathered critter. No bigger than the palm of his admittedly large hand, the tiny bird had a red head and black tail. It landed on his shirt, investigating with interest the recently seared flesh of his shoulder. Shauna asked what it was, watching as Ryan slid a finger under its feet and lifting it away from his shirt. "Looks like a Fletchling" he responded, the little red robin tweeting at him. It whistled a little song, bobbing up and down as he moved his finger around. "Here, don't move" He smiled as he lowered the little bird onto Shauna's shoulder, she giggled as it hopped around for a moment. After a little time on her shoulders, the small bird fluttered up to sitting on Ryan's shoulder once again. When he grabbed it around the body with two fingers, it sung happily. It's singing was more pleasant as he moved it through the air, though it ended on a sudden and sharp note when he released it onto a tree branch nearby.