More exploring! Getting through a good chunk of time in this chapter, though I make no promises as to the plot.
Pokemon in this chapter:
Gryffin: Loxley, braixen; Zulu, blitzle; Zen, zorua; Regina, tyrunt etc.
Ilima: Vivi, sylveon; Nunna, toucannon; smeargle
Louis: Bastion, riolu; Feugneur, litleo
Lisette: Mimi, houndour
Chapter 35: Puzzle Pieces
Sweet Goddess not being on my period made camping so much better.
"Freedom!" I cheered as I stretched myself out of my tent. The last dry pad from the night before dropped into the fire from my open palm with dramatic solemnity. It burned beautifully.
"Fabulous," Lisette intoned from her log seat with the same dry sobriety. "Hand over the chocolate."
I blinked down at my friend for a moment before nearly cackling in understanding. She was slumped in place; her new houndour Mimi was draped in a strategically familiar spot in her lap. I turned on my heal to go back to my tent, rummaged through my inventory screens, and returned to drop both a bag of chocolates and my bottle of pain killer.
"Oooh," Lisette nearly whistled as she turned the bottle over. "You got the fancy shit with hydrocodone…"
"Cramps are evil." And that was all I was willing to say with a male audience.
Lisette shrugged before popping two herself.
"I'm sticking to camp today," she nodded to Louis before tossing me back the bottle. "I can't believe you managed to hike through that tauros shit. Mine's awful."
So was mine, but the boys were looking just the slightest bit green so we let the conversation drop with only a tiny bit of teasing laughter.
"So," Ilima coughed from behind his mug of tea. "Do we have actual plans for today or …?"
"Uh…." Louis wavered under a long deliberate stare from his girlfriend. "I was thinking we try for a grid pattern? Get a better idea of the area and see where the pokémon like to gather."
"We should start along the river," I suggested. "North side going out, south side coming back?"
Ilima and Louis agreed with the idea and we set out heading east after breakfast. Not that we left Lisette entirely alone, mind you. Loxley was left snuggled into Lisette on one side while Feugneur lounged regally on the other. It was like a living cocoon of heat and I was the teeniest bit jealous. My friend looked quite comfortable with her braids loose and cuddly fire pokémon draped all over her. Ilima's toucannon Nunna was perched on the rafters above just in case as well.
"…mieux très vite," (1) Louis said with a kiss to her forehead before we shouldered our way out the gate.
Those two were just too cute.
XYXYXY
La Fleuve Le Fer, or the Iron Stream, curved through the hills with all the regularity of a ribbon tossed on the floor. Still unwilling to share my Gamer skills, I'd used my new sketch book to roughly draw the lines of the river from my minimap and the satellite images off my phone but actually making it useful was another task altogether. I was marking groves of trees, particularly high hills, and even deep sections in the river as best I could… but it was amateur hour at best.
Still I thought we made good progress for one day. Almost three kilometers out from the fort and then back again. Without Loxley I had chosen instead to keep out Zen, my second little fox all too happy to ride on my shoulder as we walked. At least until I released Zulu to fight a slowpoke, the normally laidback pokémon shaking itself fast enough to launch a water gun attack before we managed to pass.
But it was too slow to keep up the attacks, and despite being at level 25, was absolutely no match for the speed my little blitzle could put behind his prancing. Neither Louis nor I were interested in catching such a slow creature, so we left it on the bank tucked under some trees before trotting neatly away.
Zen took this opportunity to leap from my shoulders onto Zulu's back, cute fluff butt wiggling as she prepared for take-off and all. Zulu seemed pleased to have a passenger, nickering gently as Zen made herself comfortable. And then he was off, galloping freely as Zen cheered, her tiny legs bracing her in place as the zebra colt dashed every which way. Since Zulu was only running, not running away, I resigned myself to simply laughing at their shenanigans.
All the noise didn't even phase the local wildlife. Several pokémon actually came out of hiding to see what all the ruckus was about.
And if we caught a few of them, well that was what we were there for.
We stuck to the river, the cold water was quite refreshing as the day grew warmer. Trees gathered close to the banks, hiding all sorts of herbs to be plucked. I actually caught a hoppip by accident that way; I'd thought it was arugula but as soon as I tugged it the pink body of the plant pokémon became obvious. Rocky outcrops held numerous pebbles, mostly jasper and agates with a few pieces of pretty quartz jutting out here and there. Some of the agates had an almost metallic sheen mixed into the lines, and the Game decided to call these tumblestones, and could be used for ?. Ilima was much more useful, saying they were actually used in the pokeball industry so I checked the spots on my makeshift map even as a marker appeared on the HUD above me.
If nothing else I could sell them.
The way back was quicker, the south bank flatter with less trees or boulders to navigate around. We did end up accidentally disturbing a very strong and very grumpy graveler, which had me worried for a brief moment before Ilima swooped in with smeargle. Seeing the little normal type one shot a level 46 rock type with a single move was … inspiring.
And inspiring jealousy, to be honest. I wanted that. Ilima was so casual about strolling through the wilderness. Without a care in the world. Like a trainer with all eight badges about to handle the Elite Four just casually moseyed their way through Victory Road. And me with a single badge, stuck in the 20's.
But I would get there. Stupid game with its stupid level cap. How'd I ever get stuck in a position like this?
XYXYXY
Shauna sat numbly in the plastic seat of the Ranger station's interrogation room. They'd been flagged down by the desk staff at the Pokémon Center in Florenville(2), and told the Pokémon Rangers wanted to ask them some questions. They didn't have warrants out for them, but the looks the rest of the trainers in the lobby had given them had been so embarrassing.
Never, ever in a million years did she EVER think she'd be in a position like this.
She could help a small whimper as she curled into herself when the red uniformed ranger sat down across from her.
"Madamoiselle Rayne," the man said gently, "I want to reiterate that you are not in any trouble, d'accord non? (3) But we have to know if you noticed anything unusual about your mother or Madam Lapointe in the past few months. Has she done anything unusual? Did anyone strange visit her?"
Because yeah, her mom. And Serena's mom. They were both under investigation. Again.
Somehow, someone had attacked Madam Grace really badly … and the police were worried that because she and Shauna's mom (and Serena's) were friends that she was somehow in trouble too.
"I told you!" Shauna tried desperately not to cry. "My mom's a dog groomer. For Le Grande Salon Pokémon.(4) She sees all sorts of clients all the time! And she's always travelling for the contest circuit!"
The ranger sighed, ran a hand through dark curls, and opened a thick file. Carefully he placed several photos with names written on them onto the table between them.
"Can you help us identify your mother's regular clients? And is there anyone new that you don't recognize? Or you do recognize them, and anything, and I mean anything mademoiselle, seemed off about them? Please."
Shauna sniffled but looked down at the pictures. Slowly she started to point out a few she knew.
"They've been mom's clients forever, and they're all really nice."
The Ranger moved those pictures aside, carefully marking each with a simple check.
"Are any of the others familiar?" The ranger asked.
Shauna rubbed her eyes and kept looking before pointing to a few more.
"I've never met these ones, but I've heard mom talk about them. They always book before contests …" She peered down at one in particular. "That one maybe?" She tapped the photo carefully. "She's new, only been around for a year or so. Mom doesn't like her much, or her mightyena, but she'll never say why only that I shouldn't bother them. And she never wins anything when she does compete. But she tips really well, like a stupid amount of money, so mom keeps her on."
The ranger pulled the photograph closer to himself to peer at it. Close cropped brown hair. Brown eyes. Red turtleneck.
"Aliana Haigneré. 27. Works at Lysandre Laboratories," he hummed thoughtfully. "And none of the others ring a bell?"
"Non," Shauna whispered, wrapping her arms around herself. "…Do you promise we're not in trouble? We're not gonna lose our licenses like…" She stopped herself with a hiccup, refusing to think about losing her precious pokémon.
The ranger's dark eyes softened.
"Non, mademoiselle," he reassured her kindly. "The International League has no intention of doing to you what the Kalos League tried to do to Gryphonne."
Oh. Oh! Shauna felt her face split into a watery grin as she finally recognized the ranger. He was the one Gryffin-chan had called before. No wonder he was being so nice, he knew her friend!
"Merci," she managed as the lieutenant showed her out the door like a gentleman.
He nodded back politely before beckoning out to the waiting room where the rest of her friends were.
Serena stood silently until Shauna smiled at her; then the blonde started pacing back and forth while checking her phone every few passes. Trevor and Tierno were both still on the stiff couch, fidgeting nervously until they were called. All Shauna could do was sit with them and wait.
XYXYXY
The weather stayed pleasant, with only a few scattered afternoon showers sprinkled across otherwise warm and sunny spring days. We didn't run into any more alpha pokémon. There was no Team Flare. A week of camping with friends and fur babies in a remote ruin surrounded by pristine nature and a dazzling variety of wild pokémon, with another to go? I was in heaven.
Honestly, the Game and its Plot could fuck right off. This, right here? Bliss.
The amount of progress my pokémon made in the last week was glorious. Between Louis and Ilima, I had plenty of eager opponents for battle practice. Loxley was sitting pretty at level 30, unable to progress further due to the cap the Game had me under. Tobio and Delacour were actually right there with him, having gotten entirely too much experience chasing down all the bugs that were determined to assault me. The rest of my pokémon trailing behind only by a few levels each. I was actually the lowest level of my team, sitting right in the middle of level 23.
I didn't want to blame my new friends' presence for my lack of personal progress … but no matter how much fun I was having (and I was, really) I was definitely itching for a good dungeon crawl. Activating an Instant Dungeon however would require either leaving Louis' party, which wasn't really feasible considering we were in the middle of nowhere all together, or revealing my Gamer abilities. Which wasn't happening.
Still, the Gate Crystal in the fort worked a bit like a pokestop in that it would give me 100 points for accessing it each day, and a bonus of 1000 EXP on the seventh. Not quite the same as Pokémon Go, but better than nothing. And I was now getting a Daily Tasks quests everyday as well, which gave me another 200 EXP each day for completing a long list of 5-10 camp chores like finding firewood or hauling water. I only got the EXP if I did the whole list, as I discovered on the second day when I didn't… Tedious, but not difficult in any real sense.
But it was the pokémon catching that had really allowed me to level up at all. I wasn't joking, the Kalacour was a naturalist's dream. Every morning would start cool and dewy, rich with bug and birdsong. Often there would be mist rising off the river when we woke, hiding the ducks and deer and all the other pokémon from view in the first few minutes of light.
Early morning was proving to be the best time to catch pokémon, with Loxley and Feugneur happily rousing the camp every morning at dawn. Louis and I would groggily head out to circle the fort almost immediately, with Ilima and Lisette switching off as to who started breakfast and who tagged along with us. We'd found more pichu, a handful of gothita, and even a small herd of numel out with the skiddo in the grasslands on the south bank. From the river we'd gotten a couple of poliwag, chewtle, and a very friendly lotad that tried very hard to get in my lap of all things. We'd caught a few deerling, though Louis had utterly failed to capture an adult sawsbuck that had charged when it realized we'd taken its fawn. The doe had been level 39, far above Feugneur for the moment. Poor kitty boy was decidedly grumpy when it had bounded away and had snarled smoke all the way back to camp.
The morning would continue to warm up until afternoons were closing in on 30 degrees with a solid influx of humidity from the river. We'd head back to camp dripping sweat, foraging for cattail tubers, watercress, mushrooms (the non-poisonous ones, thank you Foraging lvl 15), and anything else I could find on the way. There were, of course, far too many bugs for my liking no matter when or where I was. I seriously needed a way to turn Bug Out off. The little grey grasshoppers had passed through after a few days, leaving behind the more familiar (but still exciting for me to see) kricketot and ledyba to fill the morning grass with chirping. Illumise and volbeat hummed along, bioluminescent tails flickering as the firefly pokémon fled the rising sun and the skies were overtaken by butterfree and vivillion. A pair of young venonat that lingered into late morning were caught for the trainer's school, but none of the other bugs flittering about were worth the effort.
Each individual pokémon caught was still only 20-50 EXP for me, since I wasn't joining my team in battles. But with the unlocking of curveball and the Aim skills together, I was now getting points for the precision of my throws as well. Like in Pokémon Go, the Game offered Good, Great, and Excellent aim bonuses on top of special throws and surprise attacks. I'd only gotten a few Excellent throws, but the 1000 EXP they offered nearly made me cackle the first time I'd gotten one.
It had been on an igglybuff of all things. I'd thrown my pokeball almost before I'd properly recognized the little pink fairy and hit the little thing right between the eyes. The igglybuff was tiny, nearly as small as Levi had been when I first caught him. I wasn't giving him to the Santalune Academy though…
"This one is under my name please," I'd asked the lab tech who picked up my call when I had sent it off later in the day. "I have a friend who expressed interest in the line, and I think he'll take really good care of it."
Trevor would still need to find a moonstone if he wanted a wigglytuff, but I had no doubt my redheaded friend would manage the evolution to jigglypuff just fine on his own. He was absolutely going to love the balloon pokémon.
XYXYXY
Trevor winced as he handed his journal over to Gryffin's dad. The man was a lot more intimidating without his daughter around.
"You're not in trouble," Inspector Higashi promised as he flipped through the pages Trevor had earmarked ahead of time.
"Okay." The quiet word was the best Trevor could manage. Shauna had promised the rangers didn't want to take their licenses, just ask questions, but Trevor's nerves were still shot. He'd barely been a trainer a month; and hardly done anything special yet… He couldn't imagine they'd be in such a mess so quickly.
"Your parents are currently abroad for work, correct?"
The question startled him a bit, but all Monsieur Higashi did was watch him calmly. It only made Trevor feel like he was in a fish tank.
"Um, yes," he finally answered. "They're on a research trip in Almia. Well, based in Almia. They're looking at the pokémon in the wildlands and …"
Trevor babbled softly as Gryffin's dad sorted through the entries, certain that the inspector heard every word despite seeming to be absorbed in the words written on paper instead of spoken out loud. Eventually he trailed off, waiting.
The man in front of him read through the final marked page before turning his eyes back up to Trevor.
"This last entry is March of last year, just before your parents left. I assume the man you mention in the highlighted dates hasn't returned since they departed." It wasn't a question.
"No," he confirmed. "Though that's not that strange, since Professor Xanthin is more of a work colleague and not a family friend."
The man's icy blue eyes narrowed minutely, and Trevor felt a chill run up his spine.
"But you think he's suspicious." Again. Not a question.
"It's just," Trevor faltered for a moment. "He's always … rambled. About strange things like energy and beauty and remaking the world. My parents never paid much attention to it, so I didn't either. But some of the things he would talk about … the Team Flare people we ran into, they said a lot of the same stuff."
Inspector Higashi stared at him for a long moment before letting out a soft sigh and rubbing his temple with two fingers.
"Gryffin mentioned you were quite intelligent," the man said coolly. "I suppose you would be the one to guess the Team Flare connection. But please understand that information is highly classified at this moment."
Trevor shuffled his feet just a bit as he tried to keep his expression smooth.
Oops.
XYXYXY
As the week wore on a new dilemma presented itself while camping:
Sleeping arrangements.
Specifically my pokémon's, as they all wanted to sleep with me. All of them. All at once.
And yes, this now included my blitzle.
"Zulu, NO." I commanded, as the little colt splayed his legs in the classic pose of defiance.
He was already halfway in my tent, tiny hooves digging into my sleeping mat. He tossed his head, whinnying piteously and giving me the best equine version of puppy eyes I'd ever seen. It was super effective.
My friend's laughter could clearly be heard outside the tent.
"You could help!" I called to them even as I tried to shove Zulu back out the tent flap.
The laughter only got louder.
Loxley purred mischievously from my pillow where he was already curled up with Zen and Levi. Hogs, all three of them. They were just lucky I had more pillows in my Bag. Basil was being sweet at least, splayed out at the foot of my sleeping bag just mumbling sleepily as the sun went down, the blossom on his back trickling a soothing fragrance. Tobio and Delacour were rustling their feathers nervously. They didn't dislike Zulu per se, but even after a week of close quarters the blitzle's electric typing still made them a bit uneasy.
And Zulu? My zebra was now flopped on his side, nuzzling his head into my knees with enough static to make my hair stand on end. But somehow being absolutely adorable doing it.
"There's no room for you!" I protested.
It fell on deaf ears. Zulu just managed to belly crawl forward so that only his back legs and tail were still outside my tent. My tent, which was now very crowded. My sleeping bag alone took up half the floor space, and that was without me in it. Add the pillows I smuggled in to accommodate my own need for comfort, the pillows I needed for my team, the water bottle and towel I had out, all of my pokémon…
A happy snort as I absently rubbed his velvety nose, and Zulu took advantage of my inattention to roll himself the rest of the way into my tent. On top of me.
Everyone was laughing at me now, humans and pokémon alike.
"You're all horrible," I sniffed in defeat.
There was no escape. I managed to wrangle myself into my sleeping bag, earning grumbles from Loxley, Zen, and Levi as I shoved them off my pillows. Serves them right, the pests. I carefully maneuvered my legs to avoid jostling Basil too much, my sweetie pie ivysaur already happily snoring as the sun dipped below the horizon. The rest of my pokémon were quick to reposition themselves around me. Loxley draped over my chest and Zen curled under my chin.
"Horrible." I repeated.
Levi bounced himself down to Basil and tucked himself under his friend's leaves. Tobio and Delacour happily nestled in on either side of my head. And Zulu cheerfully made himself comfortable curled into my side with his head tossed over my stomach.
I was, in a word, trapped.
And despite all my grumbling, not entirely unhappy about any of it.
…Especially when, after several long minutes of quiet, one last nose snuffled inside the unzipped flap from the darkness. Tentatively, of course. One clawed foot cautiously after another.
But it wasn't long before a certain reluctant reptile carefully settled herself on the edge of the pokémon pile that was my team.
And how could I be mad about that?
XYXYXY
There were, I was forced to admit, several very different kinds of outdoorsy people. Before getting dropped in the pokémon world, I had been the very casual kind: I could walk a trail, have a beach day in the middle of nowhere, or even do a weekend camping trip at a park. But I wasn't really into the more extreme stuff: mountain climbing, spelunking, or even really roughing it like we were now.
Ilima was a great deal more experienced with the finer details of survival camping. Which I certainly appreciated, even if I now had far more experience with field dressing than I would have preferred. But to my surprise, Ilima's true passion for the outdoors lay in photography. The guy would go through entirely too much effort for the perfect shot and seemed to take our trip to the Kalacour as his personal mission to build an entire photo library. Which it might be, actually, considering he was a lab sponsored trainer just like I was. I was happy to send him the photos of all the different pokémon I'd seen when he asked. Even if they weren't the same quality as his massively upgraded specialty phone camera.
There were other types: The conservationists, which we kind of were; looking for rare plants and animals and trying to make as little impact as possible. Spiritualists, again slightly guilty myself, who were looking to commune with nature itself. There were hikers, hunters, adrenaline junkies who did dangerous sports like cliff jumping or cave diving.
And then …
"Mrooooooow!"
Then there were the ones like Louis and Lisette. Rural kids who'd spent their whole lives outdoors and around large animals and had long stopped caring about the danger if they ever had in the first place. The ones who did dumb shit for the fun of it. Like cow tipping. Which wasn't even supposed to be a real thing!
"Mwooo."
The little pink and black miltalk heifer on its back was, in fact, very real.
"I," I heaved; my hands on my knees and stitch burning in my side as I struggled to regain my breath. "am going to kill you both. Of all the stupid, idiotic…"
"That was completely moronic! What in the world were you thinking!"
The two were unrepentant, giggling like little kids as Ilima scolded them relentlessly. The Alolan teen had a deeply unamused scowl twisting his lips, not helped in the slightest by the brown, black, and black and pink calves currently munching grass in the dried-out moat around the fort.
Calves that we'd nearly needed to outrun a wild herd of cattle to keep hold of. And by nearly I meant definitely. Ow.
"And what were we supposed to do?" Louis finally argued back. "Just let them get away?"
""Yes!""
Well, my friend certainly seemed taken aback, blinking at the vehemence in both mine and Ilima's voices. Serves him right. He and Lisette had spotted the herd of wild tauros and miltank early in the morning and insisted on following it along the river for several kilometers. It had been nearly noon by the time the cows had gotten used to our presence, several napping upright under the riverside trees in the growing heat of the day while their babies frolicked in and out of the stream bed.
Ilima and I had thought we were going to catch one, possibly two tauros for the trainer school. Maybe a miltank for Lisette.
No. No, instead Louis and Lisette had used a handful of lure blocks to entice nearly a dozen calves to the north bank; cutting a whole group of the youngest bovines off from their herd. And promptly catching them. Nearly causing a stampede when the miltank in the herd realized their babies were gone. With us in the middle.
Thank goodness for Ilima and stoutland; the large dog wasn't as large as some of the bulls in the herd, but he was stronger. And capable of intimidating the adult cattle away from us. I'd still needed to sprint from the river up a rocky part of the bank to get to safety. And this was with the luck incense I'd given Loxley to burn when we started out.
"Murder," I insisted again with a wheeze.
Ilima just shook his head in exasperation and threw his hands in the air. My friends were usually pretty level headed, but Lisette, especially since she was feeling better, was determined to catch every farm type animal she could get her hands on. Aside from the sheep and the pigs, she'd found a sick mother skiddo with three hungry kids that had gone into pokeballs without even a fight as well as caught several ducklett from the river. And now bunch of baby tauros and miltank. Which she was wrestling into submission one by one to check over legs and hooves and everything else.
Most of them were between the levels of five and ten. But one feisty black bull calf was level 14 and definitely looking to cause trouble with the way it was tossing those knobby horns.
And it was apparently a fighting type, as my Observe ability was all too happy to tell me once it had been captured. Because never mind that regional variations hadn't been introduced until Gen 7; Kalos' secret border region clearly had rules of its own.
"Loxley, mind meld the little menace would you please." My starter yowled in agreement; the psychic ripples he sent through the air now closer to lavender than magenta in color to show his refinement of his psychic abilities. The little black tauros wobbled unsteadily, turned in a confused circle, and practically fell onto its side. It then continued to munch on the grass in front of it without a care in the world. It was almost cute.
"I'm sending it to Kahuna Hala," Ilima declared with a wrinkled nose at Louis and holding his hand out imperiously, the trial captain's expression daring the taller blond to say anything.
Fortunately, Louis was not that stupid and simply handed over the pokeball. There were still six other miltank calves for Lisette, and a few tauros too. If the games were accurate, Hala already had a normal type tauros and was very fond of it. Giving the Kahuna a fighting type version of his favorite ride pokémon made sense enough to me. I'd never seen the subspecies before, so it would probably be a hit with Professor Oak too. Samson, not Samuel, though since the two were cousins they probably kept up with each other's work.
A scream cut off any further arguments, and we all turned in unison to see Lisette now covered in blood.
"Merde!"
"Sibal!"
"Fuck!"
Louis rushed forward with a hand towel and water bottle even as we all swore. The little heifer had kicked at the exact wrong moment, her sharp hoof slicing deep into the girl's arm. Red blood ran freely over hickory skin down to stain denim coveralls.
Ilima dug into his side pouch for a potion.
Due to a clever yellow fox, however, I had a different option.
"Loxley, Cure now!" I cried frantically, reaching to help Louis apply pressure to Lisette's arm with the damp towel.
For once, Loxley abandoned his crozier, the staff hitting the ground with a dull thump. He clambered over with a panicked yip on all fours before standing again in front of Lisette. Her green eyes were screwed shut and leaking tears and she was biting her lip hard enough to draw blood to keep from crying out again. Her dark complexion had already taken on a disturbingly grey pallor and the towel Louis and I were clamping to her arm was quickly soaking through. White paws were placed delicately in between our hands before teal light shone pale in the afternoon sun.
"Good boy, Lox, good boy," I praised, moving the towel slightly aside so my starter had a better view of the wound he was fixing.
It wasn't pretty. A gash as long as my hand cut several centimeters down in some places, sliced muscles oozing blood even as the healing magick sank into Lisette's arm. It wasn't to the bone at least, but it was probably close. Shit that had to hurt.
"Good boy indeed," Ilima added with a shaky smile. He knelt down just to Loxley's side and carefully poured a potion at the top of Lisette's cut, allowing the blue liquid to gently slide over the slowly closing wound.
It took several minutes for Loxley to cure the arm, nervous and unused to healing humans as he was. All the while Louis had moved to holding Lisette's head against his chest murmuring softly in Kalais as I kept pressure on her arm with one hand and covered Loxley's paws with the other, invisibly adding my own mana to boost the spell. Ilima stayed rooted in front, ordering us all through a moderated breathing exercise.
"In, two three four. And hold, two three four. Breathe out, two three four. And again-"
Eventually, after three different recasts, Loxley pulled away and let the spell fade. A pink scar slashed luridly pale across Lisette's skin, but the wound was closed. My fox teetered backwards on his hind legs, ruby eyes frozen on the blood staining his fur.
A wave of horror slammed into my mind, and I was kneeling in the grass wrapped around my starter before I knew what I was doing.
"You were so good," I whispered into steamy ears as I plucked Loxley clear off the ground. "Such a clever fox."
Whether I was rocking him for his comfort or mine was anyone's guess at this point. It wasn't as if Louis wasn't doing the same thing for Lisette. Gods I was so grateful Loxley had insisted on trading spells. So glad he'd gotten the hang of Cure so quickly.
"Such a good boy." I kissed the top of his fuzzy little head and willingly let Gamer's Mind soothe away my own tumultuous emotions as I felt Loxley's mind lean more deeply into mine for comfort.
"Right," Ilima said shakily as he rose. "Right. Enough excitement for one day I think. Let's get back to camp before I decide to call that air taxi after all."
Louis stood and scooped Lisette up bridal style, ignoring his bag entirely as he called Feugneur over to head out. Ilima grabbed Louis' gear as I mutely gathered Lisette's. The cows were put back in their pokeballs without a word. I pulled my trembling braixen onto my shoulders and we walked back to camp in silence, the only sounds being the water, the wind, and some very quiet sniffles from Louis' arms.
XYXYXY
There wasn't much Tierno could do while they waited in the ranger station. He didn't know either of the girls' families well; heck he'd probably spent more time with Monsieur Higashi in the last year than he had Serena's or Shauna's parents.
"Just to reiterate, you aren't in trouble."
Tierno sighed, then tried to smile at the man across the table. The brown trench coat was draped casually over the back of a spare chair, but somehow the inspector looked even more intimidating in rolled shirt cuffs and a slightly wrinkled vest.
"I know," he finally answered. "You're Gryffin's dad; you wouldn't hurt us."
They shared a wry smile before Monsieur Higashi started laying out photos on the table, just like Shauna had described. The interview wasn't hard. It was mostly pictures of people from Vaniville. What were their names? What did they do for a living? Where did they live? Most were neighbors, and Tierno was able to describe them pretty well for his friend's father. A few were relatives of said neighbors, stopping by frequently enough that the sociable boy was acquainted with them. He didn't always know their names though.
"So why are you asking about people in Vaniville?" Tierno couldn't help but ask. "It's a pretty quiet town, not much happening." His parents' dance studio was probably the liveliest place there.
"Not much coming or going either way," Inspector Higashi mused in agreement. "And it gets very little attention. So it's very easy for things to go unnoticed from an outside perspective."
"And we're the inside perspective," Tierno realized. It earned him a surprisingly warm smile from the man; and the blond boy was really to see the similarities between his friend and her dad. Their eyes crinkled the same way.
"You and your friend Trevor are both quite clever aren't you?"
Tierno blushed. No one had ever compared him to Trevs like that. Yeah, everyone knew Trevor was smart. But him?
He almost missed the new photographs Gryffin's dad placed in a perfectly straight line across the table.
"What about these people?"
Tierno shook himself back into focus, unable to help the tiny grin that was forming even in such a serious place.
Then he frowned. And pulled a photo closer. It had clearly been taken in his hometown. He recognized the cake shop. And the church. However… he looked at the different pictures, each with a new and unfamiliar face.
"No," he admitted. "I don't know any of them."
XYXYXY
"The fennekin line doesn't normally know Heal Pulse," Ilima said quietly over dinner: a simple affair of rice and fish with foraged greens. The words were an observation, not an accusation, but the implications still felt heavy as they sunk in.
All I could do was look at the older teen with a slightly guilty expression.
"They don't," I admitted.
Ilima stared at me with a cool gaze. Louis and Lisette were only vaguely paying attention; the former still fussing softly over his girlfriend. But the trial captain's expression stayed focused as he seemed to search my face for something. Vivi chirruped beside him, a glowing ribbon reaching up to wrap around his trainer's wrist. Ilima looked down at his sylveon before back up at me with a sense of understanding.
"But yours did."
I hummed noncommittedly, desperately hoping Ilima wouldn't continue the conversation. There was so much I simply could not explain without giving away my powers. Relief came from Vivi, surprisingly enough. The sylveon had wrapped a long ribbon around Ilima's wrist and looked deeply into his trainer's eyes. A long, silent conversation had stretched between the two before Ilima turned away with a nod.
The next morning however, Ilima snagged Louis and I before we could head out on our normal hunting rounds.
"Mandatory rest day," the pinket ordered. "Even if she's healed, Lisette lost quite a bit of blood. She needs to drink a lot of water and should be monitored to make sure she's alright." He then stared at me with a particularly interested expression. "In the meantime, that Loxley of yours has some moves I want to check out."
Lisette mutely waved from her position by the firepit. Louis had made a point to pull out all the pillows and blankets from both of their tents to make a very cushy looking nest for her. She was still in her night clothes and hair bonnet; and with the giant mug of tea in her hands she looked perfectly content to stay right where she was.
Vivi chirped sweetly from beside Ilima, but there was a calculating shine in the sylveon's eyes as well. But while Ilima was more interested in my braixen, Vivi kept circling me. Just a brush against my ankles and an utterly guileless sparkle in big blue eyes, but it made me feel like the eevee evolution was sizing me up like a particularly tasty chew toy. I quickly decided to stay focused on his trainer instead.
After he'd cajoled the blonde away from fussing over his girlfriend, Ilima had Louis pull Bastion out. The little riolu snuffled happily as it leaned into the blonde's pants leg. Then, the alolan teen pulled out his smeargle and beckoned Loxley over with a curl of long, tanned fingers.
"Lucario are pretty well known for their own healing and empathic abilities, even if they aren't officially psychic types. And smeargle can learn anything if another pokémon shows them how."
Ilima's plan was painfully sensible. Why have one healer in the party when you can have three? Loxley looked up at me nervously, shaking meticulously cleaned paws before moving to follow the trial captain's commands. Several of our pokémon had little cuts and scrapes, and Ilima had Loxley fix all of them in order to demonstrate Heal Pulse. Smeargle picked it up almost immediately, the lanky simian's eyes lighting up in comprehension before using his own on one last scab on Feugneur. Lisette's arm was already healed, and the additional spells didn't do much to fade the scar left behind. But Bastion's excited barks when the Heal Pulse finally formed between his claws were adorable, and the little fighting type abandoned standing upright for a case of the zoomies.
Lisette's laughter at the puppy's antics were more of a relief than I'd expected. She'd (understandably) been very quiet since the kick. Bastion picked up on it as well and was soon snuggling into every human and even Loxley as he ran back and forth in excitement.
Then the riolu launched himself into Louis' knees and started to glow. There was a collective gasp before we all held our breath in the light of transformation. Louis' hands hovered above his pokémon's body, eyes wide in awe as the light grew, then flashing once before fading again.
Bastion's new form slowly became visible, the Lucario shaking himself as his evolution finished.
"Rau!" He gave a happy back up at Louis before faceplanting himself just under the blonde's ribcage.
Louis burst out laughing as he hugged his now much taller pokémon close.
"You are incredible," I heard him murmur into blue fur. "Absolutely incredible."
We all joined in the laughter a few moments later, as Bastion decided to use his new height to better secure himself a perch on Louis' shoulders. The boys did not stay upright for long.
Neither did Lisette and I, as we tipped over on each other laughing at them both.
XYXYXY
The four of us were spread out around a large overturned tree that was wedged against a boulder. My three friends had pokeballs ready in their hands while I had a collection of ropes that had been carefully tied onto several of the leafless branches still sticking up from the dry trunk. I twisted them together and handed them gently to my pokémon. Mindful of the teeth of course.
"Alright Regina," I encouraged softly, "Now PULL."
My tyrunt had been doing so well the last few days, and I'd finally gotten my hands on her long enough to turn her into dino-putty with all the petting. She'd gotten a ton of treats along with her new name. But this was the first time I would used her anywhere near a battle, and I was cautious about how she'd react.
Luckily Regina jerked her head up without even a snarl, ropes secure in her stony jaws as she walked backwards. The tree jerked crookedly before inevitably sliding in the direction of my dinosaur. A flurry of motion preceded an indignant yowl from beneath.
"Vivi, swift!" Ilima ordered from one side. His sylveon stepped forward, ribbons spiraling to fling stars into the flamethrower that shot out from the crevasse created by the loss of the tree. A charcoal and cream body snaked over the trunk, long back arched in a blaze meant entirely to intimidate as the pokémon issued its challenge.
I'd seen it two days before, with a teeny tiny baby in its mouth, and I'd clambered after it as stealthily as I could to find the nest. It had taken Ilima and stoutland to track it down properly, but we'd finally cornered it.
A female quilava, level 34 as far as the Game was concerned. But no matter how unexpected the Johto-native pokémon had been, it wasn't what we were hoping to catch.
The litter of cyndaquil it was nursing on the other hand… literally perfect for starter pokémon. Just ask anyone in New Bark Town. Louis had certainly looked excited when I'd told the group and Lisette had perked up, still recovering as she was. Even Ilima had been intrigued despite himself.
"No one is going to complain about League standard starters," was all he'd said with a wide grin. But he'd taken point for dealing with the angry mother of our quarry.
The quilava dashed forward, using what had to be a quick attack to dodge several shurikens of light before blasting another flamethrower at Vivi. The sylveon stepped back to summon a light screen to block the fire.
"Chirp," Ilima ordered calmly.
Vivi took a deep breath even as the quilava spat another inferno, a burst of fairy pink energy rippling forward with an unfairly adorable cry. It slammed through the quilava's attack and into its side. The fire pokémon slid back, unconscious.
As Ilima stepped forward to carefully to pick up the quilava, Louis, Lisette, and I cautiously approached the tree. Louis instinctively placing himself just in front of Lisette at all times. Even baby pokémon could cause serious injuries if they tried hard enough, after all. And Lisette was still a bit hesitant after the nasty kick from the miltank. But I had Loxley's ever growing psychic abilities to soothe both us and the terrified cyndaquil huddled in a pile of pebbles in a hole dug under the boulder.
Seven itty bitty little fire puffs blinked up at us, tiny squeaks utterly precious. The little ones weren't even up to level 5. I cooed and had to remind myself that the little pokémon were for other people, not me, and I already had two fire types. But all baby animals were cute, more so if they were fluffy, and the cyndaquil in front of us were no exception. If they'd been totodile it might have been another story but…
"Make sure to leave the females," Ilima ordered as he carried over the fallen mother quilava. "It's a rare pokémon, and we don't want to upset the population more than we have to."
Louis handed Lisette a pair of gloves I knew were fire proof and she gently checked the bottoms of each baby. Two cyndaquil were placed back into their stone nest while the other five went into pokeballs. Ilima softly tucked the mother quilava back on top of them. With a twist of his hands, the trial captain sprinkled a pungent revival herb on the ground in front of it and placed several meat treats down as well.
Carefully, I showed Regina how to use her head to shove the fallen tree back into position and Ilima handed her a treat too.
We retreated as quietly as we could, making over the next hill before bursting into happy cheers.
"Good girl Regina!" I praised, kneeling down to rub my knuckles under her chin. With her thick hide, it was one of the softest places on the rock type's body and quickly becoming my little dinosaur's favorite place for skritches.
My friends also offered praises to my little dinosaur, as well as more treats. Regina was still wary of being touched by them, but with positive reinforcement in the form of gentle encouragement and snacks she was slowly accepting the presence of the other humans now in her life. It was night and day from the feral menace she'd been a month ago, and I had literally cried the first time Regina had clambered awkwardly onto my lap like the rest of my pokémon. She was starting to learn some proper commands and accepting Loxley's translations when she inevitably didn't understand enough human to get what I was saying. But she was getting better, and today she'd followed me out into the field, stayed with the group, and not attacked when I asked her not to.
It was a good day.
"It's a freaking great day!" Lisette exclaimed with a bounce. It was good to see the pep back in her step. "Who knew premier pokémon du Johto(5) lived all the way out here!"
"And we got five of them!" Louis added with a laugh, hazel eyes bright. The stress that had weighed on the blond at the beginning of the trip had certainly lifted, and my friend seemed all the lighter for it.
The cyndaquil were only the latest of our catches in the Kalacour, but they were definitely the most impressive so far.
This trip was turning out amazing.
So it was a complete surprise later that afternoon when a black cloud started to ooze across the sky to the west.
XYXYXY
Serena felt lost as the older gentleman politely held out a chair for her.
"I thought Gryffin's dad was doing the interviews?" she asked. Tierno and Trevor had told her and Shauna about their interview. Shauna had actually been sad she hadn't gotten a chance to meet the man. "Or the Ranger from Aquacorde?"
Dark eyes crinkled in restrained amusement, and the police officer ran a hand flippantly through his cropped grey hair.
"Well it's complicated mademoiselle," he drawled. "Neither the lieutenant or Looker felt it was appropriate to take charge of interviewing you; all things considered."
"All things considered?" Serena repeated incredulously even as suspicion tingled at the edge of her brain. "What kind of things?"
"Mostly your father."
And there it was, Serena huffed to herself. The gentleman then surprised her by introducing himself. Despite the common looking uniform, he was shockingly the head of the International Police. Suddenly the interview felt a lot more serious, even if the Directeur général(6) insisted she just call him Nanu. Which she absolutely would not be doing.
"So I'm here because my second's ex-wife, who you know as Grace, has been attacked. When our associate Hale interviewed your parents, her espeon realized your mother had been as well."
"What?!" Serena was out of her chair in milliseconds. Her mom was hurt? Why had no one told her?! She needed to go home immediately! She needed to-
"You need to sit down kid," Nanu sighed. "Rushing off right now won't do anyone any good."
Serena flushed, mortified to realize she'd screamed all that out loud. Mon dieu(7), and at the head of Interpol no less. For some reason, the grey haired officer only looked at her with wicked amusement. Gulping she sat down, but she wasn't giving up.
"So what did this Holly thinks happened to my mom?" she asked politely.
"Hah-leh," Nanu corrected her blandly. "And the specifics are classified. But since she's your mother, and it directly affects this interview, I will tell you that she has been assaulted psionically."
"Psi … on …ically?" Serena rolled the word over in her mind. "Psionique?"
"That's the one." The officer acknowledged. He then leaned back to roll one arm over the back of the chair and stared at her expectantly.
Serena gulped as his silent gaze lingered, slowly realizing exactly where this interview was going.
"Do you think I have been as well?" She wanted to know.
"It's definitely a possibility," Director Nanu admitted drolly. "Too many people have been affected for us to ignore the risk that you've also been involved. I can't, and won't allow it without your permission, but it would go a long way to ruling out more serious scenarios."
Serena looked down, trying to consider of all the different things the policeman might be thinking.
"Don't you have to talk to my parents first?" she asked, still stalling for time to think. "You said my mother was affected, but surely my father's not under investigation as well?" Because, yes, psychic manipulation was a horrible crime, with victims often being completely unaware until it was too late. If they ever knew at all. The League had strict regulations for people with psychic abilities, and people who broke those laws were harshly punished. Her father would definitely be furious about the whole ordeal if something really had happened to her
"You're an emancipated minor," Nanu stated. "So ultimately the final authority for you is you." Dark eyes softened as the older man waited for her to stop bristling. Finally he offered gently. "But if you want to wait for your father I completely understand."
Serena couldn't shake the mulish expression from her face even as she answered no. She wasn't waiting for her father. If he was even coming. She could do this herself. She could.
A beautiful woman walked in, lavender hair matching neatly with the dainty espeon that followed at her heels.
"I'm Anabel Hale," she introduced herself. "And Espy here is just going to do a quick surface scan to see if everything's alright."
Serena nodded mutely.
Amethyst eyes bore into blue.
And the world went black.
1- (feel) better soon
2-Florenville is the French name for Calanthe Town, a location in the anime.
3- "Okay, no?" Basically looking for stating the obvious or looking for agreement
4- Salon Pokémon is the French name for Pokémon Showcase, the Kalos contest circuit
5- Starter pokémon from Johto
6- Director General- the top police rank in France (Interpol keep their ranks according to their country, so the people of Kalos are using Kalos ranks)
7- my god