In the context of the classroom, wearing his white coat and tucked-in polo, Samuel Oak had looked like a scientist, Tori thought. This morning, standing at the north exit to town in his dusty brown slacks, canvas jacket, and oversized pack, Sam cut a different figure. More like an adventurer.
Beside him, wearing a matching backpack and a sun visor, stood a blue reptilian creature on its hind legs nearly half Sam's height. The pack rested against the domed shell on its back and a pale, airy tail swayed behind it. A Wartortle, the middle-evolution of Squirtle, marked by the soft, white fans of its ears. Both of them were waving as Tori and Hisoka approached.
Tori waved back enthusiastically.
"Good morning, you two!" Samuel called.
"Wartortle!" the Pokémon added.
"I sent the others into town for a few more supplies. They should be back shortly," he explained as she and Hisoka drew up.
Meowth followed at Tori's heels. She was happy to keep it outside its Pokéball, perpetually in range for pets when the impulse struck. It struck often.
Hisoka glanced over his shoulder, back towards town. "Coffee…" he said wistfully.
"Not used to early mornings, my friend?"
Tori looked to Hisoka to see how he would answer. In truth, Hisoka had been up for hours, if it could truly even be said that he'd gone to sleep. According to him, there were too many things moving about and too many sounds in the night. It was too windy, the stars were too bright, and the ground way too hard. By the time Tori had woken up, well after sunrise, Hisoka had already packed up the camp and set out their breakfast.
"I think he was so excited, he didn't get any sleep," Tori interjected when Hisoka stayed silent.
"Oh-ho! There they are!" Samuel didn't seem to care about the answer anyway. He was looking past them, down the road at another approaching group.
Two of Samuel's research assistants cooperated to pull a wagon with rugged wheels, packed high with supplies and strapped down with bungie cords. Walking alongside the wagon, holding two trays of paper coffee cups and flanked by a toddling Cubone, was Aiden.
"Aiden?" Hisoka screwed up his face in a look of confusion.
"Aiden!" Tori felt a rising thrill in her chest. Did this mean he was joining the trip? She skipped forward to meet him and relieve him of one of the trays.
"Hey, guys." Aiden sounded sheepish. He plucked a paper coffee cup from the holder and handed it to Hisoka. Hisoka accepted it quietly.
"Aiden, it seems you already know our research assistants, your classmates Tori and Hisoka." Samuel received a coffee cup from Aiden and kept talking. "Let me introduce then, Beau and Levi, two of my graduate students at Celadon University."
Both students inclined their heads to the group, making the sun glint off the lenses of their glasses identically. Tori and Hisoka nodded back.
"Ok! The team's all here!"
"Wartortle!"
"Everyone, to me! A word before we set out." Samuel was loud, definitive, and he punctuated his sentences with whole-arm gestures.
Tori, Hisoka, Aiden, and the two grad students arranged themselves to face Samuel. It felt for a second like a very official and serious moment. Then Beau loudly slurped their coffee. Samuel didn't seem bothered.
"We'll be traversing mountain terrain for the next two weeks. It is important to stay hydrated and clear-headed, and to be certain of your traction. Be extra cognizant of footing and stability when involving your Pokémon. If you feel fatigued, speak up. Our worst case scenario is likely a twisted ankle, and a bumpy ride home packed in the wagon." Samuel cleared his throat. "Aiden, anything you want to add?"
Aiden bobbed his head and stepped up next to Samuel, facing out at the rest.
"Uh, hi everyone. I'm Aaaiden." He gave a little wave, for the benefit of Beau and Levi and to the amusement of Tori and Hisoka. "I'll be the guardian for the trip, so if you're feeling ill at all or you have any questions about foraging, uh, please ask me before you eat anything you find. That's it."
Tori clapped. No one else clapped.
"Well said, Aiden!" Samuel declared. "Now, let's get moving. We've got ground to cover."
The group, as one, started forward.
"Hold up!" Samuel stopped at the lead and turned about-face.
The rest of the group stumbled to a halt.
"One more thing. When we reach the foothills, we run a chance of encountering some very strong Pokémon. If you cannot deal with a Pokémon on your own, send for me. And keep your head on a swivel! Most wild Pokémon don't want anything to do with you, but if you stumble into their nest, they will defend themselves. Okay?"
Samuel looked around the group, locking in a moment of eye contact with each person, seeking confirmation.
Tori affirmed, then reached down to pet Meowth.
"You got that, Meowth? If you see a scary Pokémon, go get Samuel." She searched Meowth's face the same way Samuel had searched hers. It blinked once, then nuzzled into her hand. That seemed like a yes.
The group started moving again, and the three friends fell into step at the back.
Hisoka trudged along in silence, periodically sipping his wished-for coffee.
Tori, walking between the boys, practically vibrated with excitement. She had only had a few sips of her coffee. Rather, she was riding the high of getting what she'd wanted. Especially after a night of feeling the ache of something, someone, missing.
"You're our GUAR~di~an!" she whispered conspicuously to Aiden. "I don't know how, but Hisoka totally guessed it last night when you didn't show up!"
Hisoka looked over at them. "Congrats, dude."
"Thanks." Aiden seemed to warm at his friends' approval. "I'm sorry I didn't come through. I didn't have a lot of time to get things together before this morning. But look! Now we'll get to do lots of camping!" He spread his hands and gestured to the open fields and rising mountain range. "How was last night, anyway?"
Tori looked up at Hisoka as he heaved a big sigh. The two of them exchanged glances, then started chuckling. Aiden hunched away from them.
"There was… a Machoke attack!" Tori said, searching for the most interesting story element that didn't involve telling Aiden they'd been naked. Her cheeks felt warm even while skirting the topic.
Aiden perked up at the mention of another Pokémon. "A Machoke? At your campsite?"
"Bulbasaur scared it off." Hisoka sounded proud.
"You didn't try to catch it?"
Tori exchanged another look with Hisoka. It hadn't occurred to her to catch the Machoke. She was unsure of how her family would react to Meowth in the house, let alone a meter-and-a-half-tall fighting type. She wasn't even carrying any extra Pokéballs. She shook her head.
Hisoka shook his head too. "It ran off pretty quick. Didn't seem interested in battling."
She wasn't sure he'd brought any empty Pokéballs either.
"I thought you were going to catch ALL the Pokémon, Tori," Aiden teased, referencing a brag she'd made in their last few days at school.
Tori pivoted to face him, hands clutched around her coffee cup. She released her right hand and sliced it about as she spoke.
"Stages, Aiden. There are steps to my plan! The first step, of course, is to acquire unlimited wealth, power, and autonomy. Then we catch all the Pokémon-"
"Of course," Hisoka interjected, then sipped his drink again.
"Naturally," Aiden added.
Tori didn't pause, but she got quieter and more intense, and her hand motions got smaller. "THEN we give them each individualized love and care. every. single. day. and we make sure that all of them experience both happiness and the freedom of challenges necessary to facilitate personal-"
"Do you not already have unlimited wealth, power, and autonomy? Get collectin'."
Tori snorted at Hisoka's question. "I don't have shit, dude. Not 'til I dance the dance."
She never really addressed her family obligations with Hisoka straight on, but after over a decade of friendship, she took it for granted that he understood what she meant. His teasing on that topic was her least favorite kind.
Upset to be thinking about the dark future in the midst of a good time, she fell silent, waiting for either of the boys to start the next conversation.
On her left, Hisoka was focused on draining the dregs of his coffee. Hefting her own, she noted how full it felt. He'd chugged that thing.
To her right, Aiden was focused on Cubone. It was tugging on the cargo pocket of his shorts.
"When we stop," Aiden explained to Cubone, "I'll give you some more. If you eat too much while you're walking, you'll get a stomach ache."
Ahead of them on the path, Samuel appeared to be lecturing for the benefit of the grad students. He pointed to places on the horizon, naming the highest peaks. Tori picked up her pace in order to listen in. Meowth, frustrated by the increased speed, leapt atop Tori's pack to ride along instead.
"-completely disincentivizing transport across it or expansion into it. Changing footpaths make it difficult to map, so the mountain teams publish trails annually after conducting surveys each spring." Samuel noticed Tori approaching over his shoulder. "I'm explaining, Tori, why no one should wander too far from the group. It's very easy to get lost in the mountains, especially on the higher cliffs."
"No worries, sir, I am a certified coward," Tori replied cheerily, "I will not be seeking out unnecessary danger, thank you."
Samuel chuckled, she noted. "You can just call me Sam. Or Oak. Not sir."
"Sam. Oak? Oak."
"Oak," Levi affirmed. Next to him, Beau nodded. At Oak's side, Wartortle nodded too.
Tori took a turn pulling the wagon as she worked her way further into the conversation. She asked the grad students about their Pokémon, which they were happy to discuss.
Levi had an Electabuzz she was looking forward to meeting later. From the way he described it, the Pokémon was as much a scientist as he was, always curious in the lab. When given the chance to set up its own experiment, the Electabuzz nearly overloaded the power grid, but Levi felt it was on the right track. He wanted to be the first researcher to co-author an academic paper with an Electabuzz. Others had done it with Alakazam and Kadabra, he said, but that was old news.
It took a little coaxing to get Beau talking, but once Tori and Levi started nodding along, they opened up. They had recently partnered with a Grimer caught in a polluted waterway north of Neon City, and they hoped to fine-tune its senses to detect different types of chemicals in the water. As Beau saw it, the Grimer and Muk thriving in the area were the environment's response to a problem people had created. People had a responsibility not only to help clean up the mess, but to take care of the Grimer brought in by the population boom and then left homeless.
A day of walking passed by peacefully. The sun was warm, but a steady breeze kept it from becoming unbearable. They stopped for lunch in the shade of a tree and spent some time stretching and stripping off jackets and sweaters before resuming the march.
By dinner time, some were slipping back into long sleeves, but the balmy weather at the base of the foothills made it optional. Tomorrow they would begin their ascent in earnest, climbing to an elevation at which they hoped to find Clefairy congregating.
Tori didn't really care what they found. She was thrilled to be outside of her house past 8pm and delighted to meet interesting people and their Pokémon, with zero expectation that she'd marry them.
Despite riding atop Tori's bag for most of the day's journey, Meowth was the first Pokémon asleep after dinner. Electabuzz was pleasant, but more interested in eating and murmuring with Grimer than playing a get-to-know-you pantomime with a human.
Hisoka and Aiden were both uncharacteristically quiet, but neither seemed grumpy, just thoughtful. Tori could understand that. A lot had just happened - graduating and partnering a Pokémon and now a huge change of scenery - and her friends tended towards quiet processing over Tori's quick compartmentalizing.
Tori was savoring all those feelings, those examinations, for the rainy days ahead. Right now, she was focused on experience. She wanted to remember every rounded cloud and scent on the breeze.
They camped in the open, backed to the mountains. Above and south of them, the purple sky stretched over the wide, rippling fields they'd spent the day traversing. Tori took a deep breath, telling herself that the air here was fresher than the air a day's walk back. That she needed this, and that she should be grateful for it. She faced out into the darkness, the campfire throwing shadows in her periphery, and she smiled.