Those who steal wine must drink the ciguë
Serena had to face facts after walking the length and breadth of the city: Amelia was already gone.
"Still nothing?" she asked the dragon who had just landed.
"Char," he confirmed what she already knew. "Charichar, Rizard?"
"I'd rather see Officer Jenny and ask her, just in case."
Ash exchanged glances with the vixen who had also been assigned to lead the search, silently asking if it was still worth it. The vixen shrugged: more important than finding Amelia was reassuring Serena. He knew that, but Joy hadn't worried, and Ash hadn't either. He wouldn't hide the fact that he didn't really want to see the girl in purple again, but what was so worrying about the fact that she hadn't stopped by the Pokemon Center after the contest?
Serena presented herself at the reception desk of the police station, and the reptile was immediately asked to wait outside. No pokemons over 90 kilograms was allowed in the enclosure, and that was to the nearest 500 grams. He sighed in boredom as he sat on the steps, certain that if Amelia were here, she'd laugh at them looking for her when she was already on her way to the next competition. Annoyed, he scratched his cheek and was surprised to see tiny black flakes clinging to his claws. It was as if someone had glittered his face. But this obsidian appearance reminded him of the mask that had stolen his face and his life as a trainer.
"Ah..."
Mos stifled a cry as he garroted Anne's wrist in his hand. For a moment he thought... He felt his wife clinging to his coat, her face washed of all color. The dragon rose to help them, a charitable gesture Mos quickly dismissed.
"Let's go, Anne."
Ash refrained from staring at the man now sitting inside the post. He felt like he knew him, but was sure he didn't. I hope I'm not doing my Charizard look, the fake pokemon worried. To his great relief, Serena soon returned, and he didn't hesitate to give her a little tug to get them out of there as quickly as possible.
"Char?" he asked when they were far enough away.
The girl shook her head in a negative way. As Joy had said, contests would become less frequent as the Grand Festival approached, which would motivate the coordinators not to stay in the same city for too long. Still, Espeon faced Charizard, and her wounds could not have been so minor that a few potions could have healed them.
"We shouldn't be too long either," Ash remarked.
Serena nodded and checked her tablet for the various competition sites the nurse had told her about. She clicked on the various points to estimate the distances, ignoring the pop-up windows that appeared each time, until one caught her eye. Elsevier Island, near the western tip of the region, seemed for a moment to be the most attractive place in the world. But would Amelia be there? It was one of the closest, but not necessarily the most accessible, competition sites. It would add another day or two to her trip, and in her situation...
"According to Joy, many coordinators will soon be on their fourth or fifth ribbon. We are really behind schedule in Lavaridge..."
"We tried to rest at Lavaridge," he corrected her gently. "And don't worry: arriving at the last minute is not being late, trust my experience."
He wouldn't blame her if she preferred her chances of getting into the Grand Festival, and she would have other opportunities to visit this island. Serena knew that, but that didn't mean she wouldn't be ashamed of Charizard if she missed the opportunity and then... He's lying to you, Serena. She shook off Amelia's voice as she registered their destination, her decision made.
No sooner had they returned to the Center than the nurse informed them that they had received a call and that the person on the other end of the line wanted Serena to get back to her as soon as possible. Though the coordinator thought of May at first, she soon realized her mistake when she read the number. The girl grew pale, a sinking feeling in her chest, and her conscience warned her: You're in for a rough time. Great, thanks for the encouragement, she felt completely and utterly reassured as she turned on the videophone. But if the woman on the screen seemed more than a little angry and ready to scream, it was Serena, no doubt pumped with a good gram of adrenaline, who took the initiative and yelled:
"What happened to you?!"
The white cast around her arm, the bandages on her face, who had done this to her? Team Aqua? Would they have gone all the way to Kalos to... What about Bonnie, Clemont, Ash?!
"Rhyhorn got a little too playful during a training session," Grace explained, looking at her arm. "The poor thing hasn't eaten in days, he's blaming himself."
"That's all it was," Serena sighed in genuine relief.
"The - all it was - was still painful," the woman chided herself. "First of all, it would be better if you told me what happened to you. First you forget to contact me after your victory in Verdanturf, then I don't hear from you again until you show up in Fallarbor with a charizard. Since when do these types of pokemons evolve at the speed of a scatterbug?"
"We've been practicing," the uncertain coordinator mumbled.
"To the point where you didn't make a single phone call?" grumbled Grace. "I was worried sick, Serena, I had no idea where you were or what you were doing and... Look, Ash and the others are no longer with you, and even though I trust your pokemons, it would reassure me if you kept me better informed, especially if you plan to take breaks between your tournaments."
Ash didn't miss a beat of the conversation, and Braixen was no better than he was, maybe even worse, judging by the way her ears twitched.
"Do you think she'll tell him?" the former human worried.
"Try to imagine it's you who has to explain that your shoulder was ripped out, and you'll get your answer," the vixen replied.
Ash grimaced; he hadn't tried to contact his mother himself. Anyway, he rarely told her about the dangers he encountered on the road, even if it was a catastrophe that distorted time and space. But he was lucky enough not to have any scars from those bad encounters, while Serena...
"What are you doing?" Braixen panicked as she saw him approach the videophone.
"I promised I'd take care of her."
"You'll just have to... Stop!"
Head bowed, Ash was already ready to apologize. That was without counting on Serena's speed to block his mouth. She nodded nervously, begging him not to say anything. Grace watched them argue in silence, the fake pokemon finally slipping from the hands holding him.
"I didn't get a chance to talk to you in Charmeleon, but I'm glad to see you're still on good terms with my daughter, even after evolving."
Serena swallowed, her hand slipping to the band on her wrist.
"This wasn't just a training session, was it?" Grace guessed.
The coordinator looked at her feet for a moment before answering:
"Not quite."
Grace gave Fletchling a quick signal not to interrupt. The little pokemon chirped his displeasure, and his mistress promised him a double ration of food in exchange for his silence. Quiet again, the mother borrowed her softest voice, the one she used to soothe her daughter when she cried in fear at the thought of riding Rhyhorn.
"It's your first trip alone, to a new region, and it's natural to feel stuck at times, especially since charmanders evolutions are not known for being the easiest to raise."
"He goes out of his way to help me," the girl admitted.
"If he doesn't, he knows what he's in for," she threatened. "But I think he's clumsy sometimes, and you don't always know how to react, and it's even harder when there are two evolutions almost in quick succession."
Serena crossed her arms, checking with a quick glance that her clothes still covered her shoulder.
"Serena, you can't hesitate to call me if something's wrong," she continued. "I know it's always going to be when you need it most that you say I can't help you or that it's just going to make things worse, but... Try your best, because who knows, maybe your mother, who doesn't understand much, will be more helpful than you think".
The young girl seemed to meditate on these last words, as if an inner struggle was going on inside her.
"Do you..." she finally ventured. "Do you know someone named Archie?"
Ash looked up sharply and Braixen jumped closer, both eager to hear the answer to the girl's dismay. Serena shook her head; she already knew that neither she nor her mother knew this man at all. All the better if they stayed, then everyone would be reassured on the subject.
"Mom?"
Grace's face suddenly fell. She stammered out a few unintelligible words and looked around in panic.
"What... How do you know?"
Let's do it again! Serena wanted to shout. But she was too stunned to make a sound. And her fire dragon growled right next to her, just to remind her of the hell she'd thrown herself into.
"Ash..." Braixen growled, making it clear that her trainer didn't need this.
"You said she could be trusted when she said..."
"And she looks as surprised as we are!"
"That makes it all the more serious! If Serena didn't know then... how many other things doesn't she know? And why exactly does she ignore them?"
"That's enough, you two!" the girl stopped them.
They grunted for a few more seconds, then finally approached the videophone to make sure they hadn't missed anything.
"You get worked up pretty easily," Grace remarked.
And you, how can you stay so calm?!
"Please, Mom, I... I need you to explain."
"I didn't want to hide it from you," the woman defended. "But you were out of touch, and it was an excellent offer, so..."
"An offer?" Serena choked. "How could you accept such an offer?"
Grace folded her hands in an apologetic gesture.
"Yes, I know, I know, it's your room, but if you're only going to use it once a year, it's better..."
"What do you mean, my room? Don't tell me he was in my room!"
The two pokemons couldn't believe it either. And for good reason: How could they imagine the man who had caused their trainer so much pain wandering freely around her house, her room... when they hadn't even had that privilege yet!
"We don't get upset about the right things," Braixen remarked.
"I know," Ash grumbled with his red scales. "But it's still one more thing he has to pay for."
"I agree," the vixen conceded.
"They make up fast, too," Grace interrupted.
And Serena felt like she was back on the volcano, or worse, because the heat had become so stifling.
"Mom, don't change the subject."
The woman laughed tersely, beginning to find her daughter very territorial, to the point where she wondered if she hadn't taken on some of the characteristics of a charizard.
"If it makes you feel any better, he didn't touch anything..."
"Glad it hasn't!"
...For now, the rhyhorn jockey choked, not really understanding his daughter's reactions.
"Maybe it's time to calm down, young lady. I don't care if you don't like the idea, but that's no reason to yell at an interior decorator."
Serena blinked several times, her jaw clenching before she finally managed to articulate:
"An interior decorator?"
"And I think I have every right to dream of a room of my own where I can relax, with soothing music, a comfy chair..."
"Wait a minute, wait! This... decorator, what did he look like?"
"Well, he..."
"Was he tall, dark haired, tanned?"
"Not really dark-haired, and then he was about my height," she mused aloud. "When you say tanned, do you mean like someone who's used Sunny Day attack too much, or..."
"Like someone who spends a lot of time at sea. A sailor, for example."
Grace burst out laughing as she remembered the man who had come to do the estimate.
"You mean Archie? The one who can't set foot in my garden without having a heart attack when he sees Rhyhorn? Where are you making that up?"
Serena heard her pokemons stumble behind her, and with good reason: Archie the interior decorator wasn't quite the same as Archie the leader of Team Aqua.
"And you don't know anyone who fits that description?"
"Aside from mantine surfers, I don't know many people in the maritime field."
Grace thought she was disappointing her daughter, so she was surprised to see a broad smile, her first since the call began.
"One last thing, Mom," the trainer murmured.
"Yes?"
"Don't touch my room."
"What... Wait Serena, you haven't even seen the plans and I can assure you there will be a click-clac just for you!"
No one was allowed in the office of the head of Team Magma, and that rule applied to Courtney too, most of the time. The woman slumped her shoulders, cracked her spine, warming up before the big jump.
"You wanted to see me?"
She pulled back her hood with one hand, taking no offense at Maxie greeting her with his nose in the files.
"I wanted your opinion on this," he pointed to the large screen on the wall.
Direct Contest was summarizing the Fallarbor competition, not forgetting to include a photo of the winner and her pokemons. Courtney waddled her head, her fingers hooked to her chin.
"Between Mew following them and Xatu's limited view, it's more than enough to worry about."
"You're just stating the obvious," Maxie remarked, turning a page in his file. "But I have something to help you."
The popular program gave way to low-quality video, oversaturated with lights, its field of view shrinking as the minutes ticked by. Pause, rewind, pause, Maxie wasn't going to help, it was up to Courtney to train her eyes. The woman memorized the second she was there and, with a slide of her finger across the screen, rewound the movie a few minutes, as much to understand what her boss wanted to show her as for the pleasure of discovering what had happened at that moment.
"You're even more crazy about him than I thought," she scoffed.
The trainer throwing herself in front of her pokemon without the slightest hesitation was almost frightening. Almost as frightening as the devotion with which Courtney had followed the leader of Team Magma when... Why did she feel regret? The woman staggered, the impression of her skull clamped in a vise and the distant voice of Maxie, the Maxie she admired.
"Is everything okay?"
He had put his papers on the table. His face remained stoic, but his eyes were eager for an answer. Courtney suddenly turned to him, both confused and frightened, before regaining her composure.
"Did I scare you?" she teased.
She cracked her vertebrae, nearly breaking her neck.
"I would have just postponed our discussion until later."
The Admin smiled, then plunged her nose back into the video. She zoomed in, changed the contrast to soften the lightning, enhanced the charmander's evolution, and... Courtney frowned.
"Intrigued?" her boss asked.
"Maybe it's just an artifact," she replied. "Given the quality of the video..."
Maxie removed his glasses with an annoyed gesture, feeling the gem embedded in them with the tip of his finger.
"I'll simplify my question from earlier," he suggested.
Courtney came to sit on the desk, her back to the man as she continued to stare at the screen. She ran a finger over her own lips, enjoying their sweetness as she waited for her boss to speak.
"Drivers or passengers?"
Wide-eyed, her body dropped so that she was half lying on the desk.
"Aren't you going a little too fast?"
He pulled her back with two fingers on her forehead. Courtney put her hair back in place, looked at the messy papers before picking one up and beginning to fold it with her clumsy fingers.
"Still having trouble getting used to it?" asked Maxie.
"I don't use it as much as you do, so I have to practice a little when I get the chance until..."
She put down the crudely folded sheet with a bored gesture, disgusted by her lack of talent.
"Your opinion?" the man repeated.
Courtney nodded annoyed and shrugged.
"Drivers are still rare, although we didn't have much luck last time."
She returned to the wall screen and ran her finger over the black pixels attached to the reptile, quite different from the blue glow that usually accompanied evolution.
"It wasn't just luck," Maxie said.
He turned his computer toward her, showing photos taken in Geosenge Town and aerial views of Galar, enough to bring back bad memories.
"Our friend the Captain had his doubts even then, and I'm more and more inclined to go along with his idea."
"I didn't expect this turnaround," Courtney hissed. "You always called him a fool."
"Every now and then he has a stroke of genius. And his LINE idea... that would explain why things stayed the same."
Courtney clapped her jaw, less than thrilled with the news.
"That's no reason to have so many drivers," she grumbled.
Maxie smiled slightly, as if he'd expected her to say that.
"What if he had found a way to create the prototype here, and then..."
She looked more closely at the cloud of rough squares, not hiding a grimace of disgust.
"And this," she said, pressing down on the screen as if to crush the reptile's head, "would be the way he does it?"
"Maybe it's just this pokemon, maybe it's the kid too, hard to say without knowing the exact mechanism."
"In the end, we would have been better off if he had finished them" off," she regretted.
"Mew didn't seem very determined to stop him," Maxie observed.
Courtney threw her hands up in the air. Okay, maybe rushing in without knowing the direction of the effect wasn't the best idea.
"So what are we supposed to do?"
"You're dismissed."
Courtney hadn't appreciated the brusque tone he'd just used. He was the leader, but he shouldn't overdo it.
"Oh..." she understood.
Teeth gritted, hands clenched, face flushed with effort, a brief flash of anger in his eyes, but voice still calm as he repeated:
"You're dismissed."
Courtney preferred to slide in next to him, so lithe and light that the word "levitate" wouldn't have been out of place.
"Don't get so excited, Maxie."
He tore up the paper, and the woman let out a laugh before leaning toward him.
"I'll stay a little longer until we finish this discussion, and then I promise I'll leave," she reassured him.
His hands relaxed, his face calmed, the life in his eyes faded. He readjusted his glasses, barely bothered by his little feverish outburst.
"Sorry about that."
"It won't be today either," Courtney lamented. "Anyway, back to our problem: what do you want to do about them?"
"Are our henchmen still watching them?"
She straightened and explained proudly:
"We haven't let them off the hook since Route 111, and I've already transferred all the information gathered by the Aqua to you in Lavaridge," she added, tapping the computer.
"Good, then you can tell them to stop here."
Courtney tore off her boss's glasses to get a better look at his eyes and make sure he hadn't lost his mind.
"Now I'm having trouble understanding you," she admitted.
He held out his hand and she took it obediently.
"I don't want us to become harmful by trying to do too much."
"It's not overdoing it, it's being cautious," Courtney grumbled.
"I could be wrong," Maxie smiled. "It's up to you to convince me that the benefits outweigh the risks."
"My guess: counter Mew when he makes his move," she scoffed.
"Of course, I'm sure our five henchmen armed with their poochyenas and carvanhas will stop him in his tracks."
Courtney grits her teeth and crosses her arms, muttering:
"At least we'll know."
"But at what cost? I've already thought it through, and all we'll gain is our friend's curiosity. And if you're not convinced, maybe I should remind you of what happened in Mauville?"
"Maybe it wasn't..."
"A charmeleon capable of disappearing in less than a second?"
And whose mere presence was enough to make her panic. Okay, maybe she'd had a narrow escape at that point.
"We're not standing still," Maxie continued. "We've already got what we wanted in the Desert Ruins, now we have to avoid spreading ourselves too thin and minimize the risks until it's ready."
"But eventually we'll have to decide what to do with them."
He crossed his fingers and sank a little further into his seat.
"Let's get things in order. You'll see that by solving our first problem, we'll have a lot more freedom to solve the next one."
Courtney remained in the office for some time, not saying whether she accepted the plan or not. Suddenly she yawned, a sign that she couldn't delay her answer any longer.
"No one is coming to help us, I hope you haven't forgotten that."
She rubbed her eyes, growing sleepy.
"That's why I'm choosing the option that seems most prudent to me."
"I would have liked more certainty," she grimaced, "but in any case, if Xatu didn't know what was coming, then... All right, you have my consent, but see what the other one thinks."
"I'm not going to be able to cut it?" joked Maxie.
Courtney had already greeted him. Maxie counted the rings: one, two, three before his caller picked up. Let's see, how do I convince you that this is a bad time to rip the kid apart?
Well, I know it's not very cool to keep you waiting for a lore chapter, but I have to distill my background image so I don't have to put it all in one block at the end.
As for what comes next, as you saw in this chapter, the antagonists are giving our friends a breather... And I have to find other elements to keep your attention. I have ideas, of course, but the difficulty is how to raise the stakes in a "quiet and harmless" period.