Chapter 20 - Four Hours to Four Island

08:08 AM

Celeste was the last to arrive at the pier, flustered and out of breath. She had taken too long to explain to nurse Joy that a gang of rattata was moving in, and when she saw the time, she darted through the town, afraid she would be left behind.

Not that her friends would leave her behind. But they were not who she was concerned about.

As she stopped to catch her breath, a woman approached her with a smile. "So you are Luan's other friend?" she greeted. "I'm Mia. Nice to meet you."

Celeste was taken aback by Mia's appearance. Although she shared Luan's fair skin and grey eyes, there were few similarities between the cousins. Mia's natural-looking makeup highlighted her features. Her vibrant flowery dress accentuated her athletic build, and her hair, dyed a bold shade of purple, added an extra dimension to her already impressive appearance.

"Hey, haven't I seen you on TV?" she suddenly asked, catching Celeste off guard.

The young trainer blushed immediately. She had slept little the previous night and her brain was way too cranky to deal with being embarrassed. Mumbling something unintelligible in response, Celeste quickly looked around for Delia, hoping to divert the attention away from herself. Soon enough, she saw her friend helping Olga load a crate onto Mia's sailboat.

Yes. Olga was there, too.

The Ice Boutique owner needed last-minute transport and apparently Mia was always in for some quick extra cash. So, when Delia told her boss about her plans to travel to Four Island with her friends, it was a match made in heaven (or hell, if you ask Celeste).

And that was not even the worse part.

On the side, Luan, who was struggling to carry both a box and his munna, spotted Celeste. Their eyes met for a moment, and he silently apologised before being shoved aside by none other than Rey. Who, of course, came along with his mother.

"I hope this sailboat you hired is up to date on safety requirements at the very least, mother," the silver-haired boy moved slowly past Celeste, who he only groaned to. "It seems positively ancient. Do you even have energy running in here? We need to keep our product frozen in the perfect temperature, you know?"

Mia, who finally shifted her focus away from Celeste, stuck her tongue out to Rey as he marched inside her sailboat. But as soon as he turned around, she put on a professional smile and rushed towards him, offering a tour.

Four hours, just four hours, to Four Island

—*—*—

09:03 AM

After half an hour of the most uncomfortable silence, Mia stepped back on the boat's deck with an apologetical smile. They had just left One Island's marina and reached more open waters.

"Okay kids and Olga. Sorry for the delay, but I'm glad to say we are already well on our way," Mia said, making a playful salute to Olga. "Our ETA is around 1 PM. The weather is lovely, and the ocean is calm." She winked at the group. "You can all take it easy now and let your pokémon out for some fresh air… I mean, don't let them out if they are a snorlax or something. But otherwise have fun."

Olga seemed unimpressed by Mia or her boat. As always, both her face and her vanilite's were frozen in their perpetual scowl. She crossed her arms and informed the other woman they needed to discuss payment before vanishing into the small door that led to the cabin.

Meanwhile, Rey leaned nonchalantly against the wall beside the door. He seemed calm and unthreatening, but Celeste knew better than to fall for that again. She would ignore him the whole day. That sounded sensible. Well, that and maybe keep her little Powder tucked away safely in her ball.

"Hey Delia, I'm letting Pat out. Are you letting Shelly too?"

Delia smiled. "Yeah, I think it should be fine. They didn't even get close to each other yesterday."

Luan, who was already dealing with his hoothoot pecks, looked curious. "I was wondering about that. You kept checking in on them last night. What was that about?"

"Shelly is a shellder, Pat is a slowpoke. We want to avoid… accidents," Delia explained as she let her shellder out, making sure the slowpoke was far enough.

From the side, the trio of friends heard a snort. "You should aim for evolution, not avoid it," Rey said, flashing his smooth smile and pretending he was a decent person. "Slowbro can be a competent pokémon, if you know how to train it."

Celeste looked at the boy for about a second and then turned back to her friends. She did not need unsolicited advice, and she did not need to engage him. After these four hours of ignoring him, hopefully, their paths would never have to cross again.

"You can cut the slowbro's tail out, you know?" Luan said, still trying to hold his hoothoot away. His munna had long since floated to a more peaceful spot by the slowpoke's side.

"I can do what now?"

"Dude, don't give me this look. This is totally a thing, you can look it up. If you cut the tail off, both pokémon will de-evolve and the tail will eventually grow back. Plus, slowpoke don't feel pain, right?"

"Well, that seems horrible," Delia said, scooping her shellder from the floor and walking towards the railings overlooking the water.

Celeste was quick to nod in agreement, her expression dropping hints of disgust. "No way I can do that," she said firmly. "And slowpoke do feel pain. They just have a… delay."

The hoothoot seemingly agreed with Celeste. Either that or she would just use any excuse to be more aggressive towards the trainer. After a particular nasty peck, the lunatone, who was also out of its ball, intervened. Lulu positioned itself between the bird and the trainer and let out a string of threatening noises.

"I'm fine, Lulu," Luan placed a hand on his pokémon. "Menace just needs a little time to get used to us."

Rey, with his signature smug smile, ran his fingers through his hair as he shifted his weight to one side and crossed his arms. "Looks like Celeste isn't the only incompetent trainer here."

"Not nice dude," Luan said under his breath, "Like I said, Menace is still getting used to me. She'll come around to Team Luan."

Rey snorted. "Please. You need to assert your dominance over your bird. The sooner you discipline it, the better."

Celeste fought the urge to engage in an argument with Rey with all she could. As the saying goes, don't feed the impidimp. She was not falling for his bait. In fact, she would do the opposite. She would be helpful.

"Mena, don't you want to play with Aria? Might be more fun than attacking your trainer," Celeste said, mustering the most playful tone she could. The owl pokémon chirped and seemed excited by the idea. She had really taken a liking to Aria.

As soon as Celeste mentioned playing, the eevee darted towards the hoothoot, only to be met with a gentle peck from Mena. Aria responded with a tackle, but the bird swiftly flew up, turning their interaction into an impromptu game of tag.

"You two be careful not to fall in the water!"

Luan cleared his throat and corrected Celeste. "Her name is Menace, Cee. 'Cause she's my little menace."

Celeste couldn't help but giggle.

"Yeah, and I told you I'm not calling her that. Be glad I could salvage it." Celeste teased. "Mena is a total cutie, though. And she doesn't peck me. I wonder why?"

The boy let out a scoff and gestured at his bird. "Menace is part of team Luan. That means she is not a cutie. She is a badass."

"Oh, Luan… You train a pink flowery blob. And your other pokémon is called Lulu."

Luan stuck his tongue out childishly, causing Celeste to burst into a fit of laughter.

"You two are so childish…" Rey muttered.

Celeste took a deep breath and rolled her eyes.

She was not engaging.

—*—*—

09:59 AM

While Delia and Olga were away checking on the ice cream, Rey had started an argument with Luan about how stupid it was to have two psychic types on his team. Celeste was determined to ignore them both, so she decided to pay attention to the game of tag developing in front of her. It had become quite the show now Lulu had joined in and teamed up with Aria. The lunatone was using psychic to lift the eevee so she could get to the hoothoot more easily.

"I never got an answer," Mia said as she strolled up between the two boys, interrupting their bickering before it got too bad. She gave Luan a teasing grin before sitting down next to Celeste. "You are Celly from that archaeology TV show, aren't you?"

Celeste blushed immediately.

Rey turned his attention away from Luan, intrigued. "She was on some TV show?"

"Not some TV show. She was in Diggleting Through Time!"

Celeste cringed at the name. Somehow, her parent's TV show sounded really bad at the moment.

Rey stared uncomfortably at both Mia and Celeste, and at some point closed his hand into a fist. "And we are supposed to know what that is?"

Luan turned away from Rey with a raised eyebrow and an unreadable expression. "For real? How come you didn't mention it before, Cee? And how do you know about it, Mia?"

"Because I know stuff," Mia laughed. "I'm a bit of an archaeology buff, I guess. I watched it even before Celly joined the show."

"Well?" Rey simply asked. At first glance, he seemed like his usual insufferable self. However, Celeste could see his heavier breathing and tensed muscles.

"I think it's pretty cool," Mia grinned. "It's a docuseries where Celly and her parents explore different places and learn about legends all over the world. It's really popular with the nerdy kids."

Celeste let a small smile escape. Yes, she always thought the show was corny and nerdy. But really, she was corny and nerdy, too. And it was fun to travel the world with her parents and Aria. For a while, at least…

She sighed and looked at Luan, who seemed eager to learn more about it. Was there even more to tell?

"Mom and dad are archaeologists," the girl started explaining. "They got PhDs and all that. But somewhere along the way, they got frustrated with academia and how elitist it could be. So they began a science outreach project to make history more accessible. That project grew into a small TV show and… well… it grew even more after that."

"Sooo…" Luan looked at the girl with a grin. "Are you like a rich TV star?"

Celeste laughed. "Not at all. My parents still work as archaeologists and we don't make that much money from the show itself. It's all about sharing their passion of history, science and travelling."

The girl looked over at Rey. He had been quiet for a while now, and that made her uneasy. His expression was the same one he wore towards the end of their battle.

"Besides," she added, trying to somehow lighten the mood, "I quit all that to become a trainer. So… um… there's that."

Rey scoffed. "Are you fucking stupid?"

"Now, now. Let's be nice," Mia said, keeping her smile. "Why did you quit, though? Your parents might be the hotshot scientists running things, but I always thought you were the heart of the show."

As Mia finished speaking, Celeste pressed her lips together, wondering what it even meant to be the heart of the show. It was an educational series, after all. Her parents were the scientists, but Celeste was just… well, Celly. Her job was to ask them questions, not much else.

"A couple of years ago, mom and dad thought their audience was skewing old, so they figured I should join in. To be a role-model, attract more kids and all that." Celeste shrugged, "I guess… I just didn't want to be that anymore. I should be able to choose, right?"

Luan, not reading his friend's discomfort, kept asking questions. Celebrity or not, he seemed thrilled to know someone who was on TV. He wanted to know everything. How it the backstage of a TV show like? Did she do interviews? Did she ever meet legendries?

Eventually, Celeste was laughing along with him. She still wasn't sure why she had been so apprehensive about people recognising her, but Luan had a way of making "Celly from TV" seem like something fun again.

"Most of our crew are my parents' pokémon, but we always had a makeup artist and a cameraman with us," she explained. "I did tons of interviews, and no, we never met an actual legendary pokémon. I'm good friends with Diantha, though. Is she legendary enough?"

Rey abruptly shouted, "You are friends with Diantha?"

As the conversation progressed, he grew increasingly on edge, especially since Celeste was still mostly ignoring him. After his outburst, however, he quickly regained his composure, marched inside the cabin, and declared, "This changes nothing."

—*—*—

11:37 AM

Mia had disappeared somewhere inside the sailboat, Rey was still nowhere to be seen and Olga was quietly reading some book on exotic berries. Delia and Luan's voices were the only ones to be heard. They were laughing in the distance and Celeste figured she didn't want to interrupt. So she stayed on the deck with her pokémon.

Aria had dozed off in the corner with Pat and Luan's pokémon. It seemed like the lack of sleep from the night before and all the playing had finally caught up to her. Since Rey was still missing, Celeste let her vulpix out, and the pokémon quickly hopped onto her lap, wagging its tail.

The girl smiled at her pokémon and picked up the flyer for the upcoming festival that she kept in her pocket. "Excited we are actually going?"

Powder let out her sharp bark and wagged her tail some more.

"There is going to be a beauty contest there," the trainer said with a smile. "I looked it up. The winner will get some cool prize and will be crowned Snow Royalty. What do you say we take part?"

The vulpix leaped away from Celeste and raised her tail while spreading her front paws, taking the same battle stance as Aria usually did. Celeste really wanted to ignore it and insist they should take part in the very safe beauty competition, but that wouldn't be fair to her pokémon.

"You want to battle, huh?"

The vulpix nodded, determined. But Celeste could feel a heavy heart as the images of the overheat danced in her head. On one side, she was happy that her pokémon wanted to train and become strong. That is what she wanted, too. But the idea that her baby might get hurt would not leave her mind.

"Lite!" Celeste looked up to see Olga's vanilite hovering above Powder with as mild an expression as it could muster. The pokémon twirled and sprinkled snowflakes on the little ice type, who was overjoyed. She playfully hopped around, trying to catch the snowflakes with her tiny paws.

"Vanilite, be gentle," Olga said, barely looking up from her book.

Celeste stared at it. "I never thought I'd see this one playing."

The older woman shot a judgmental glance at Celeste, who just pressed her lips together, instantly regretting having talked. "He misses the other ice types," she said before getting back to her book.

The young trainer looked at the vanilite again and took a deep breath. "You have other ice types?"

"I'm reading," the woman said, and Celeste suppressed a sigh of frustration. But, to the girl's surprise, after a minute Olga looked up at her again. "Most people on Four Island have ice types. They aren't as common in other places, especially not on the islands. Vanilite is homesick."

Right. Celeste had some vague recollection of Rey mentioning they were from Four Island, but travelled a lot. "Have you been away for long?"

"You are prying, Celeste." The woman turned to her book again, making Celeste groan in frustration.

The trainer kept watching the two ice types play for a while longer. Her head was spinning with questions about how to train her vulpix. And she needed to train the others, too. It was not because her battle with Rey was done that she was going to slack off.

"Your vulpix still doesn't know how to lower her temperature a lot, huh?" Olga suddenly asked.

"She can freeze things."

"Yes, so can my freezer. Ice pokémon are supposed to do more than that."

Now who was prying? She wasn't sure if the older woman was just being blunt or trying to provoke her. "Come on, she is just a baby. She is not ready yet…"

Olga raised an eyebrow. "I think your pokémon disagrees with you."

The trainer bit her lips. Of course Powder disagreed. Heck, part of Celeste also disagreed. All Powder wanted was to battle, but how could they do it without her pokémon getting hurt?

"Tomorrow, 5 AM," the woman said in a stoic tone. "You will come to my shop and we will train you and your vulpix."

What?

—*—*—

12:45 AM

"This ice cream is delicious, Olga," Mia said, taking a scoop.

As they anchored just before Four Island's marina, the group took a break in the kitchen. Luan was sleeping in a corner while Delia inspected the ice cream with the help of Shelly and Vanilite. On the opposite side of the table from Celeste sat Ray, and much to girl's dismay, his eevee and larvesta were out too.

"Hey, I should give your contact to my boss," Mia kept talking, mouth full of ice cream. "We're mostly a cosmetics company, but we're always on the lookout for new partnerships, you know? And we're expanding into other stuff, too. Hang on, I think I have a business card around here somewhere."

Mia jumped up and made her way to a jar sitting on the kitchen counter. Celeste's attention was on her pokémon, however. Aria was sneaking around the table with a mischievous grin.

"Found it!" The boat owner waved a black card towards Olga. Celeste curiously peeked at it. In elegant silver letters was the word Razzo, and in the back was Mia's contact information. "Maybe we can work on some marketing campaign together. We are all about empowering woman in leadership positions."

While the women chatted away, Celeste glanced at her eevee once more. The pokémon had snuck over to the ice cream container, attempting to go unnoticed.

Celeste smirked. She knew what Aria had in mind, and she loved it.

"I appreciate the offer, but I prefer to keep the Ice Boutique independent," Olga said firmly as Mia insisted she keep the business card. "I want to build something on my own, without being attached to a big company."

Mia took another spoonful of ice cream and grinned at Olga. "Come on, at least consider it. We could really help each other out."

Aria's eyes sparkled as she continued to push the ice cream container towards the edge of the table, bit by bit. The others were too distracted by their conversation to notice her.

This was going to be brilliant.

"Don't keep your hopes up." The shop-owner stood her ground.

Rey finally looked up at Olga. "Mother, surely this could be a valuable opportunity."

Olga gave a disapproving frown to her son just as Aria tackled the ice cream container. It fell right into Rey's eevee's head. Mag barked at Aria and jumped on the table after her, making a sticky mess of everywhere she went.

"Rey, control you pokémon," Olga said in a stern tone.

Aria jumped away from her rival and landed swiftly on Celeste's lap. Her look was of pure innocence.

"Mag is so undisciplined," Celeste said with a wide grin. "Someone clearly doesn't know how to educate their eevee."

Rey let out a frustrated groan and shot Mag a menacing glare. For a moment, Celeste almost felt sorry for the eevee. But the boy didn't seem too harsh on her this time. He simply recalled the eevee and left the kitchen with his quiet larvesta slithering along.

As Mia stood up, she gestured towards the mess on the table. "Well, that was fun," she said. "But I think it's time for us to get going. Olga, please consider my offer."

—*—*—

1:22 PM

Celeste yawned as she stretched herself on the pier. By her side, Delia was still holding her shellder.

"Guess we survived four hours with Rey, huh?"

Delia laughed. "Guess you did. I barely even noticed he was there."

"Lucky." Cee grinned, pointing to the island ahead. "So, can we explore?"

The other girl nodded in agreement. "Four Island, here we go!"


A/N:

NEXT CHAPTER: Chores