Chapter 5 - The Pallet Girl

The seas were rocky and whirlpools kept forming around the boat Celeste was travelling on. That didn't bother the girl, however, as she absentmindedly strolled on the upper deck until she found a float to sit on.

"Aria, come out," Celeste called her starter out. As soon as the light faded, the eevee tackled her trainer. She was not fond of her ball and preferred to stay out of it. Tackling was her loving way to make sure her human realised it.

"Sorry, buddy," the trainer apologised, still distracted. "I needed to pack fast. It was easier if you weren't there."

That had been a lie, of course. The real reason Celeste kept Aria away was that she didn't want to be convinced to check out how the geodude, machop and golem were doing. It would have been too hard.

"Surge gave us something…" Celeste said, showing her eevee the thunder stone. "Do you know what this is?"

"Vee?" the eevee sniffed the object with curiosity, while carefully avoiding any contact.

"If you use that stone, you can evolve. You will become an electric pokémon. A jolteon."

"Eev ve ve!"

"Yeah, just like Trooper," Celeste answered, smiling. "Would you want to become a jolteon?"

"Eevee…?"

"Of course, I would still love you if you were a jolteon, silly," Celeste chuckled. "Just as much as I would love you as a glaceon, a sylveon or anything else. And in case you didn't notice, I love my little eevee too," she concluded, petting her pokémon. "You know I will never force you to do anything you don't want to, right?"

"V-vee!"

"This choice will always be yours, Aria," Celeste smiled at her starter. "Whenever you are ready, and if you are ever ready, you can become the pokémon you want to be."

"Eeveeeee!" the pokémon cried with emotion while tackling her trainer once more.

"Oh, my! Are you going to evolve your eevee?" an excited girl yelled as she crashed into the conversation.

Celeste blinked in confusion at the strange girl. The two were around the same age and the newcomer, much like Celeste, had brown hair and a friendly smile. But the trainer suspected that is where the similarities between them ended. The stranger was shorter than Celeste and wore a visibly ironed plaided shirt tucked inside a pair of shorts. The girl's ensemble, complete with her hair neatly made into a braid, gave her what Celeste would describe as a very neat country girl look.

"I gotta say, I've never seen an eevee evolve before," the bubbly girl continued with an excited smile. "And although I'm partial to a flareon myself, any evolution is just the greatest! The professor and Spencer will be so impressed when I tell them about it."

"The professor?"

"Yeah! Professor Oak," the stranger answered, finally turning her attention to Celeste. "Hey, do I know you from somewhere? You seem familiar."

Celeste blushed at the prospect of being recognised.

"D-doubt it," the trainer faltered but promptly recovered. "But I'm… I'm actually on my way to visit professor Oak."

"Wow really? That is so cool! Even though the professor is a big deal, no one ever goes to Pallet, you know? Especially at this time of the year. My name is Delia, by the way. Delia Ketchum. I'm the professor's assistant," the country girl introduced herself, extending a hand.

"Nice to meet you, Delia," Celeste politely said, shaking Delia's hand, "So what is Pallet town like? My guidebook didn't say much about it."

"Well, it's a small town. It's mostly farming. The only big thing there is the professor's lab, which is more or less a farm itself," Delia said, smiling. "By the way, you should know, it's polite for people to introduce themselves when they meet someone new."

Celeste cringed. She was afraid to be recognised, and this girl was the type who would absolutely recognise Celly. But then again, this was Kanto and she was not supposed to be known here.

"Uh… sorry. I'm Cel… I mean… I'm Cee. My friends call me Cee, anyway. And you… hmm… you seem friendly."

It was the most awkward introduction Celeste had ever given anyone. Luckily, Delia didn't mind, so the trainer continued. "This little one here is my buddy, Aria".

"Well, nice to meet you both! So, is this cutie evolving today?" the outgoing brunette asked while sitting on the floor to pet Aria.

"I don't think she wants to."

"Are you sure? She seemed excited when you showed her the stone," Delia said, getting flustered. "Sorry, I wasn't spying on you or anything. I just thought your eevee was cute and paid attention."

"That is ok," Celeste chuckled, sliding down to sit beside her strange new friend. "We were having a moment, I suppose. Plus, my little Aria gets excited easily."

The eevee huffed.

"Aww. So why no evolution?" Delia asked, even though she was not really disappointed.

"She only gets to evolve if she wants," Celeste concluded, petting her wonderful eevee, "and, like I said, I don't think she does. Not right now, at least."

"You are letting your eevee decide by herself?"

"She is the one that will evolve. It's only fair that she decides when she is ready," Celeste answered, wondering why did people find this so strange.

Delia studied the trainer for a second and with a smile concluded, "I think I like you, Cee!"

—*—*—

The girls became instant friends, probably more due to Delia being incredibly outgoing than to anything Celeste did. Cee could be charming, but Delia seemed to be on a whole different level.

After some talking, the young trainer found that professor Oak had sent Delia to Cinnabar island to get some samples from the local volcano. His research was apparently into the relationships between people and pokémon, and more recently, he became interested in how this relationship changed the environment. Thus, to quantify his results, he decided to analyse the composition of the lava and see if the pokémon raised in the region had affected it.

Delia only seemed marginally invested in his boss' research. The assistant wanted to find an excuse to leave for a beach holiday. She loved it when she had the chance to travel, so she offered him her help right away.

"But if you like pokémon and wanted to travel, wouldn't it make more sense to become a trainer?" Celeste pondered, "To go see the world on your own terms."

"Hmm… I suppose," Delia shrugged, "But I guess that was never on the cards for me."

Before their conversation could extend more, both girls heard a loud thump on the side of the boat.

"Did we hit something?" Delia asked worriedly.

"Nothing serious for sure," Cee added, moving closer to the rails to see if she could spot something. "I lived in a boat for a while. This sort of stuff always happens. It's probably just some junk," she started explaining, but was rather surprised at how she finished. "Or a seel?"

At the mention of the pokémon, Delia instantly jumped beside Celeste.

"Where? I want to—AH I see it!"

"Hey. Delia," Celeste started, "I've never seen a seel up close before, so I might be very wrong, but, uh… is this one all right?"

The girls studied the pokémon clumsily swimming by their boat. For starters, it was wearing some sort of electronic collar. Was it not wild?

"Maybe it's lost?" Celeste asked, trying to explain the situation.

"Do you think its trainer might be here?" Delia retorted while looking around, but no one else was on the upper deck of their boat.

The girls exchanged a concerned look, with Celeste finally saying, "It swims funny."

"That is not how it is supposed to swim," Delia said, shooting her hands up to her mouth to muffle a scream when the pokémon hit the boat again. The seel wasn't actually swimming, the girls realised, it was being dragged. A loose net hanging from their ship must have caught it by accident.

"It looks like it's in pain," Delia concluded, clearly worried.

"We need to help! I'll jump in and untangle it. You throw us a float right away," Celeste said as she climbed onto the rails. Her new, poorly thought plan was already in motion.

"I think can do something better," Delia said, interrupting the other girl's action. The country girl threw a pokeball into the water and, before Celeste could protest, jumped in after her pokémon. With a splash, both the Pallet girl and a shellder were in the water.

Great, Celeste thought to herself with a mixture of worry and annoyance. Just great.

"Delia! What the hell are you doing?"

"It's really hard to swim beside a boat without water pokémon!" Delia answered, not losing her smile. "No worries, me and Shelly can take care of things. Just have that float ready to reel us—AHRG."

"Delia, what is going on?" Celeste asked in exasperation while she watched the girl and her shellder spin around the water. A whirlpool must have caught them.

Panicking, Celeste threw the float. It was better to make sure they were back safely to the boat before it left them behind. The seel would have to wait.

"Grab it!" Celeste commanded, but there was nothing Delia could do. The currents were too strong, even for the shellder.

"Aria, come on, we are getting the lifeboat," Celeste shouted, as she pulled the cord to inflate it. The girl didn't have time to consider what she was doing. Before she knew it, she was throwing the inflatable orange boat and herself into the ocean.

"Hold on tight, AriaaAAHHH."

As soon as they hit the water, the current started pulling them away. They could not waste time with fear, though, so the trainer promptly instructed her eevee, "Quick, buddy, use your Swift attack to break that seel free."

As the pokémon launched its move, Celeste tried moving her boat as close as possible to the whirlpool.

"Delia, can your shellder bring you closer? Grab my hand."

Delia attempted very hard to free herself from the powerful waters, but it was no use. She was getting dizzy and having a hard time holding on to her Shelly. If this kept going any longer, she would—

SEEEEEEEL


A/N: Chapter 5 is here! This one is on the shorter side, but I felt that was the place to end (making cliffhangers is hard). Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed meeting Delia this chapter, she is fun and right now she is in trouble! :D

And thanks for comments and likes! Any feedback is appreciated.

Update 20/01: Updated this chapter for better flow and grammar.