Hilda lost her mother and never stopped blaming herself. Now? She'll be damned if she lets Oshawott slip away too. The past and present blur together.
Chapter Two: Lost & Found
Everything just seemed to happen all at once.
Hilda felt her head throbbing from hitting the dashboard and squeezed her eyes from the pain. The deflating airbag had protected her from far greater pain but she still found her vision wavering when trying to look around her. The windshield was shattered before her, the cuts from the shards starting to sting.
"Mom... where are..." Hilda began to ask when she looked to her left at the driver seat. "MOM!"
Adrenaline started to kick in when she saw her mother's battered state. Hilda gasped with eyes open wide to take in the more bloody cuts from the broken glass shards. Helga's head bruised greatly from hitting the dashboard, hunched over the driving wheel from the severe whiplash. Her airbag had clearly failed to deploy.
"Mom-ow, ow!" Hilda cried out when she struggled to move from the shotgun seat. "Please get up." Between her pained body and the loose glass still about, she found it burdensome to make to her mother.
Hilda was relieved to see her mother gritting her teeth and still breathing when a very funny sort of smell wafted through the broken windshield. Helga opened her eyes in a wincing frown before looking towards Hilda with a piercing glare.
"Get out of here!" Hilda heard her mother manage to force out, wincing from her injuries. "Hurry to the woods!"
Hilda was taken aback by her mother's abrasiveness. "Not without you!" she insisted, grabbing onto Helga's limping right arm. "You need a doctor!"
"I'll be... fine..." her mother grunted back, coughing heavily. "Just get into the woods." She yanked her arm back. "I promise I'll catch up."
Hilda was left at a loss for words, the shock of it all catching up fast, until she smelled the funny smell turn into ugly smoke.
"GET AWAY!" Helga barked with a most fierce look in her eyes, making Hilda recoil harshly.
The seven year old girl feared she might've upset her mother and backed away. The shotgun seat door had flung clean off in the collision so Hilda stumbled and fell out onto the grass. Hilda winced hard when she fell flat on her back with her body still battered but forced herself back up and turned towards the woods.
"It'll be fine," she told herself, taking off at once. Mom always told her to stay focused during a crisis.
All Hilda had to do was run as fast as her bare feet could take her through the trees and find help for her mother. She didn't know which way Nuvema Town was, having napped during the ride, but maybe she'd stumble across it.
"It'll be fine," she panted more and more wearily, her bruises stinging worse than irritable Ferroseeds. She shook her head as if her dread was some sort of Joltik.
If not people, then... a Pokemon? A helpful sort like a Stoutland? They were always good with kids. Anything decently evolved would do at this point. She just had to look around. So far, a bunch of Patrat and Lillipup. The odd Purrloin here and there. Nothing.
"It'll b-"
Hilda was a quarter mile or so into the woods when the explosion nearly pierced her eardrums and nearly made her heart stop cold. It decimated her attempt at keeping focus and caused her to step on a round rock that made her slip.
With a loud yelp, Hilda's arms braced themselves for a crash landing but her face still hit the grass and her limbs sprawled across the ground. Her fists balled, grabbing clumps of dirt in the process while she caught her breath with every pant. Letting her legs fire on all cylinders was really starting to catch up with her.
This topple had finally allowed her mind to finally process what had happened because, well, that was the million buck question, wasn't it? What in the name of the Great Dragon just happened? Hilda remembered Minnie's warning about the inspectors but she expected some stuffy officials trying to undermine the Junipers not... this.
It felt so surreal. The chase through the lab. The explosion. That... weird cosplay the four put on. And...
Oshawott.
The vivid recollection of her Starter Pokemon being taken away in a net and bawling out for her help was what did it. His tears. The promise she made him with their victory. Despite her body aching for rest, Hilda grit her teeth when pushing herself up by her arms and got herself upright on her knees at the bare minimum.
Craning her head up, she found no sign of the four imposters nor hear Oshawott's cries for help. Hilda clenched her gut and felt her stomach tied up in knots of anxiety. They could be anywhere in the woods. Maybe anywhere in Unova for that matter.
No.
Hilda scowled while furiously shaking her head in denial and slapping the sides of her cheeks. She urged herself to believe that they had to be in the woods. It'd make sense for them to have some sort of hideout under the cover of the trees after all. Hilda summoned enough strength to stand back up one step at a time and run-
"What do you think you're doing?" Aurea's stern voice panted. Paired with her firm grip on Hilda's shoulder, it thankfully stopped her goddaughter cold. She had her lab coat stored away into her Personal Computer for any chance of keeping up.
Seven seconds of silence between the two of them felt like centuries. However, Aurea had a strong foreboding as to what Hilda's reply would be by how her fists clenched up quick.
"Saving Oshawott," the young lady affirmed, keeping herself from turning around. "What else you expect me to do?"
"Would 'not getting yourself killed' be too much to ask?" Aurea firmly claimed, telling herself to keep the foot she put down. "You're-"
"In way over my head?" Hilda responded curtly, hearing a small "Huh?" of surprise from the Professor. "Being too reckless?" She jerked her left shoulder out of Aurea's grip when it had loosened up and started forth slowly. "Save the lecture when I've saved Oshawott."
Aurea's attempt at being firm but fair melted away into a borderline scowl when she took out a Poke Ball and enlarged it. Hilda had gotten eight feet away from her when Tepig was released from his Poke Ball, the blue-white energy cutting her off before reforming.
The Fire Pig Pokemon snorted smoke strongly to make the young Trainer stopped in her tracks but made a rather anxious face. [Don't make this harder than it need to be, Miss,] he snorted sadly.
"You have no Pokemon to defend yourself with from the wild," Aurea began to chastise her goddaughter. "Those thieves could even kill if push came to shove." She walked closer towards Hilda in hope of dragging her back kicking and screaming. "You're coming back to the laboratory and leaving this to the police for once in your-."
"AND DO WHAT, PROFESSOR?" Hilda demanded, swinging around to look Aurea in the eye. "Run away from the one that needs me the most and just hope everything turns out well?"
Aurea stepped back from surprise when her goddaughter revealed not just a scowl but hot tears endlessly pouring from her straining eyes. Tepig nervously stayed where he was in hopes of not facing Hilda's personal Roar attack.
"Let the small town fuzz barely even try let alone find a lead?" Hilda shouted in anger. "It'd be too late and you know it." She sought to drive the point home by marching towards the Professor like a Scolipede going for the kill.
"Even if I got killed, at least, at the VERY least, I didn't just turn tail and ditch my own Starter!" she borderline screamed up in an intimidated Aurea's face. "Better that than to live like a coward!" She paused and panted as though she'd been running yet again.
However, it was long enough for Aurea to reflect on her final statement and put it together what it was really about. Above all else. Most of her frustration morphed into sadness. A similar sort to the kind she felt seven years ago. The Professor could still smell the smoldering wreckage.
Tepig stayed respectfully where they were before the Professor recalled them to their Poke Ball.
"You really are your mother's daughter," Aurea sighed with a wistful tone caught between resignation and remembrance. "Whether I like it or not..."
Hilda was prepared to throw hands but found herself caught off guard when Aurea knelt down and came in for a hug, embracing her tightly. The kind that she remembered only too well. When they had first met in this part of the woods.
"You're not coward, Hilda," the Professor unconditionally assured. "Never were, never will." Her right hand pat her goddaughter on the head.
Almost immediately, Hilda felt her raw anger slowly being doused and cooled off by cold sorrow. She hugged Aurea back like it was all that it was keeping her together and let her tears flow freely, her sinuses loosening up almost too well. Neither one of them could help their mind from traveling to the past in a moment of Deja Vu.
History just loved to repeat itself like a bad sequel.
Hiding behind thick enough bushes, Aurea used her father's old fashioned binoculars to spy on and record a puddle of four Lillipups in a clearing just ahead. Their energetic play-battling and wrassling while their older sister of a Herdier supervised was part of her report but she'd be lying of it wasn't just play cute.
The Professor needed it more than she was willing to admit. After... finding Helga, the police lazily assumed the worst of Hilda. Just getting out into the woods and immersing herself into a fluffy report on wild Lillipup behavior patterns was keeping her as sane as possible. It's what Helga would've wanted.
She thought.
"Observation #5," Aurea spoke into her father's trusty tape recorder. "As the mother Stoutland goes off to find plenty of food, her young ones are left to practice their fighting with the oldest sibling keeping order." She rolled her eyes and tried not to sigh too audibly over such rudimentaries.
"It has long be said that the first Pokemon to bond with humans were Lillipup and their evolutionary line," Aurea pressed on, keeping her voice low, "A common trait shared with similar canine-like Pokemon in other region, earning them the name of Man's Best friend."
The Professor regretted her choice of words, starting to remember her own best friend. "Though studies have been done of it before," Aurea continued to distract herself, "I intend to scrutinize a Lillipup's behavior far more closely." She took out an occupied Poke Ball. "Vis-a-vis a simulated scenario of danger, one highly controlled for the record."
Aurea went over the plan in her head: Drilbur would "chase" her into the clearing where she would trip and prompt the Herdier to protect her. If the battle when on, perhaps the Lillipups would gang up on the Ground-type. So long as her acting from High School theater hadn't gotten too rusty, it would go as smooth as a Escavalier's armor.
"WHOA, BLITZY, WHOA!"
Aurea was thrown off her game by the abrupt little girl's voice, especially since she had come mighty far into the woods. Even rookie Trainers wouldn't stumble in at the risk of getting turned around. However, the sound of electrical discharges coming closer and closer was what really made her turn around is dread.
"GANGWAY!"
Aurea saw one bolt of electricity after another shooting up into the air like lightening in reverse amongst the trees behind her. She stood up to prepare herself but was too late as a red eyed Blitzle galloped around a tree and zipped towards her at a breakneck speed. It's black and white fur was frizzing with static electricity.
The Professor's scream was almost as ear-piercing as the Electrified Pokemon's neigh when she hit the deck and barely avoided a nasty ramming. Aurea heard the Herdier and Lillipups yip in distress before lifting herself up. She overlooked the pups scattering in favor of the frenzied Blitzle bucking about in the clearing.
Or rather what the Electrified Pokemon was trying to shake off. There was a young girl with brown hair in a ponytail and wearing nothing but a white t-shirt over blue shorts. She was gripping onto the Blitzle's fur with her arms around their torso. All while her head kept clear of the Electrified Pokemon's mane that discharged wild Thunder Waves.
The cherry on top that solidified Aurea's slack-jawed stupor was how the little girl was gritting her teeth through it all. The ballistic Blitzle was jumping and kicking all about but their unwelcome passenger was clinging on like a Joltik taking in lunch. In fact, the youngster's grimy clothes and skin indicted that she had her share of tussles.
"Hey, lady, do you have an Pokemon on you?" the little girl called out, snapping Aurea out of it. "Blitzy's Overcharge is driving her crazy!"
The Professor returned to the here and now when a strong bucking caused the youngster to lose her grip at last. She took the crash landing front first like a trooper but was too stunned to get up quickly. Aurea enlarged her Poke Ball and rushed in without thinking any further, knowing exactly what Helga would've done already.
"DRILBUR, INTERCEPT AND GROUND IT OUT!" she bellowed, focusing on the fallen child.
The Poke Ball opened up and released just when the Blitzle blasted a Thunder Wave in a random direction. Said direction happened to be where the little girl was starting to get up. She gasped and shut her eyes, expecting to be zapped into an instant paralysis.
However, Drilbur leapt in front of the electrical bolt and took the blast in the nick of time. The youngster let herself open one eye to find the Mole Pokemon right before her unscathed, the voltage being grounded out by his body. She was shaken by the near miss enough to allow Aurea to scoop her up with her arms.
"Dig us out of this!" the Professor ordered without missing a beat.
The Blitzle was still bucking about within the clearing and kicking at the trees in her crazed state, discharging voltage every two seconds. Far too busy to notice the dauntless Drillbur leaping forward with his claws forming a drill around his face. He dove into the ground like the dirt was one huge swimming pool and disappeared nearly instantly.
The little girl wriggled within Aurea's hold as the Professor's arms wrapped around her torso. "It's too much of a type advantage!" she protested shrilly, struggling against the older woman. "She's just confused and scared." A stray Thunder Wave make her yelp while Aurea ducked in the nick of time.
"Electrical Overcharge symptoms of this nature can only be mitigated if the victim is calmed down," the Professor promised the young girl, recounting her studies to keep calm. "Trust me, this is fresh man college all over again."
The Blitzle's erratic hoof-stomping thankfully provides the underground Drilbur loud enough sounds to hone in on where to strike. Not where she is but where she will be. The Electrified Pokemon's galloping was just about to take her towards Aurea and her fearful ward when the Ground-type burst out of the ground.
Drilbur rammed into Blitzle's underbelly just in time and managed to send her flying away from the ladies. The zebra landed on her back before rolling onto her side and reeling from the painful sucker punch. Aurea held the little girl in one arm while taking out a white Poke Ball from her lab coat.
"Premier Ball, GO!" the Professor shouted upon tossing the device.
The Premier Ball hit the Blitzle on the side and took her all in as red plasmic energy before shutting tightly. The Electrified Pokemon was so blown down that she didn't even try to rock her way out and allowed the loud PING to sound within but a second.
Aurea sighed in relief and took out Drilbur's Poke Ball. "Drilbur, return and rest up," she ordered, voice activating the device to beam in the Mole Pokemon back into it. However, her left arm had slacked in her grip and allowed for the little girl to slip out. "Hey!"
However, the youngster didn't get far and only hurried to grab the Premier Ball. "I'm sorry..." she lamented to the device with small tears beading in her eyes.
Aurea couldn't stay mad when she got in closer to see the little girl's frown, squatting down to her level. "My father has equipment that can siphon the excess voltage from Blitzle and regulate it better," the Professor promised, patting the little girl on the head. "She's be good as new in no time."
Aurea tried to hide her cringing when she found that a lot of dirt had been disguised by the little girl's brown hair. In fact, it was getting increasingly hard to ignore how her body odor was an outright offense to the senses. She knew kids hated bath time but this was ridiculous. Even so, she kept up a decent smile when the little girl's face cheered up.
"Thank you so very much, Miss... um," the little girl began cordially before realizing their lack of introduction.
"Aurea," the Professor gave out. "And you can thank me by not riding on anymore bucking broncos."
"I know it was dumb but I couldn't turn away from Blitzy," the little girl pleaded. "She was left all alone in these woods because something bad happened to her she couldn't help." Her frown returned when she looked back at the Poke Ball. "Just like I was..."
It was those four words that piqued Aurea's interest the most. "Hang on... where are your parents?" the Professor ventured to ask, her smile melting into something more concerned. "And... have you really been alone in these woods?"
"Oh... yeah..." the little girl responded with a more despondent tone of voice, swallowing anxious. "Mom was driving me to Nuvema Town when... we had an accident." Her troubled eyes gazed downward and missed Aurea's widening in realization. "I got out to find help but I got so lost and couldn't even get back to Accumula."
"Hilda...?!" the Professor exclaimed with a breathless voice nearly strangled by shock.
The little girl looked back up at Aurea just when the older women nearly fell over in her surprise. "How did you know my name?" she asked while stepping back, warily remembering her mother's warning about strangers. "I never gave it out."
"I-I-I-It's me!" Aurea stammered with a growing smile she hadn't made in a long time. "I'm Aurea Juniper." She covered her mouth and teared up. "I knew your mother since we were kids like you."
Hilda stopped her backwards walk when she recognized the name of Juniper and especially the wavy orange hair from her mother's pictures. "No way..." she gasped, immediately overwhelmed by a perfect blend of delight and relief.
"I've been looking everywhere for you!" both Hilda and Aurea exclaimed to each other simultaneously. They paused in surprise before immediately giggling over how they jinxed each other.
"We assumed the worst when we found the crash but... look at you," the Professor claimed, far more impressed with Hilda's grimy and stench. "Roughing it out here at on your own with your own two hands for two whole weeks." She went so far as to ruffle Hilda's dirty ponytail. "You're a mighty brave girl, you know that?"
Hilda giggled giddily from meeting a friend of Mom's and getting high praise from a Professor of all people. "Well, I did manage to make friends with a lot of the Pokemon here," she cheerfully claimed, giving back the Premier Ball to Aurea. "The fully evolved Pokemon can be meanies but the little guys really look out for each other."
"Oh, of course," Aurea proclaimed, slapping her forehead in realization. "You share your mother's power to talk with Pokemon."
"A lot of the wood Pokemon told me about how you come her for research but I always seemed to just miss you," Hilda replied, wagging her proverbial tail. "My friends helped me the best they can but, between you and me, they're not exactly great at directions just yet."
[Hey, Hilda, over here!] a series of squeaks called out.
[Did you help Blitzy?] a series of yips and yaps followed. [Who's the nice lady?]
Hilda and Aurea turned their attention towards where the ballistic Blitzle had came into the clearing. A Patrat and Lillipup were scampering their way almost as fast as the Electrified Pokemon, making a beeline for the little girl.
"Patty and Pupper!" Hilda greeted in delight, opening her arms for a hug. "We finally found Professor Juniper!" Both the Patrat and Lillipup jovially leaped into her arms for a warm cuddling of congratulation. "Blitzy's gonna be just fine with her help."
[I'm so happy for you, Hilda!] Pupper panted, his tongue hanging out happily. [Now you'll be back with your mommy!] He made Hilda giggle with a few licks of congratulation.
"Only because I had the bestest of best buddies to protect me," Hilda praised back. "I can't thank you enough, my knights in shining armor."
Aurea was fascinated by how Hilda was truly communicating with a Patrat and Lillipup but felt the pangs of nostalgia for when Helga let her in on the family secret.
[Guess that's all folks for our misadventurin',] Patty sighed in spite of his smile for his friend. [Don' you go forgettin' us little Pokemon, y'hear?]
"Hey, I'm not going away forever," Hilda promised the Patrat with a friendly kiss on his chubby cheeks. "I just need to meet up with Mom in Nuvema Town." She didn't see the look of dread forming on Aurea's face. "Tomorrow, I'll drag her back here to meet every one of you."
The Professor felt her heart sinking when she heard exactly how Hilda referred to Helga and quickly put together why. She made a firm enough expression to hide her apprehension and pushed herself to at least break it to the little girl gently. She knew from experience that prolonging the bad news would only make it worse.
"Helga would've been so proud to see your persistence," Aurea began, choosing her nouns carefully. "She was always sending me letter of your little escapades when you were traveling around Unova." She gripped her left elbow with her right hand tightly, showing her immense unease. "I can't tell you how much it means to finally meet you, Hilda."
Hilda initially grinned back with her buddies in her arms when she registered how Aurea choose to phrase it. "Wait... you said... 'would've been' just then..." she began to put together in growing distress, her eyes darting around fearfully. "But... Mom in Nuvema Town... isn't she?"
Hilda looked back at Aurea in hopes that she'd reassure her that she merely misspoke but the sollemn look on her face didn't change one bit. The little girl kept staring with a pleading sort of look, silently hoping against hope that it wasn't what it sounded like. Patty and Pupper remained silently in their own fear for their friend.
"She made me promise that whatever happened to her, I'd step up to take care of you," the Professor finally answered, tears beading in her eyes. "And I promise you that you'll always have a home with me."
Patty and Pupper found themselves crashing to the ground after slipping out of Hilda's loosening grasp. Yet neither of them made a fuss over it when they saw the devastated look in their best friend's eyes grow in distress by the second. She looked as though the whole world was eroding away around her.
Hilda felt just that with a kind of numbness that froze her body to subzero levels. Deep down, she knew that something must have happened to her mother. After all, she wouldn't have hesitated to seek out her own daughter lost out in the wild woods. She'd told herself that she was recovering from the crash but... the explosion.
Hilda's breathing became heavier and heavier when she remembered that loud BOOM that haunted her nightmares. Her body trembled with only her chest heaving. She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream. Yet... it felt like something was blocking her. Some part of her soul that refused to process the possibility.
Not true.
Mom's alive.
It's a misunderstanding.
Mom's strong.
She's-
As quickly as it came, the overloading onset of anxiety and panic was quelled when Hilda felt Aurea pull her in for a very protective hug. The little girl felt the numbness leave her when she felt the Professor's right hand pat her on the head with unconditional love. Hilda... felt safe just like what Aurea had promised.
Safe... just like when Mom held her in the face of peril.
Safe enough to let the tears well up in her eyes and soak her cheeks in an endless waterfall.
Hilda clung tightly to Aurea like she'd fall off the Earth and sobbed loud enough for all of the woods to hear. The Professor didn't say a word and let her tears flow freely. All while Patty and Pupper hung their heads in respectful silence.
I've got to be the one, the only one who can
Withstand the test and be the best and
Got to strive, keep up the drive
Be a Master
Aurea's new X-Transceiver ringtone shattered the mood like a Bouffalant in a glass house. Gasping in shame, the Professor broke her hug with Hilda hastily in order to tap "Hang Up" on the screen and blushed bright red over her choice of music.
"So much for trash reception..." Aurea grumbled through her teeth. "Thanks for nothing, Dad." Her embarrassment was soon compounded by her goddaughter's sobbing and sniffling morphing into an uncontrollable laughter.
"You seriously still listen to that cheese?" Hilda cackled, drying her tears with her wristbands. "That stuff's from, what, the dark ages?"
"Russell Velazquez was well ahead of his time," Aurea protested petulantly. "It's not my fault you can't appreciate the classics."
However, the Professor found it hard to take Hilda roasting her taste in music too seriously when she saw how her goddaughter's distress all but vanished. The sight of her laughter made Aurea giggle if only from how the absurdity of it all smashed away the tension from before. She made a mental note to thank her father when...
"Dad!" Aurea gasped loudly, sending the mood of the room back into peril. "He was all along with two of them."
Hilda pumped the brakes on her laughter immediately upon realizing this oversight. She checked her X-Transceiver to find that her reception was coming and going but still tapped "Grandpa" on her contact list. Aurea did the exact same to join in a group call and pulled out a secondary screen for the third party.
"C'mon... c'mon..." Hilda anxiously muttered, her foot tapping near synced with her godmother's.
"Hilda, Aurea!" Cedric exclaimed the second his face popped on screen. "I've been trying to raise you for a while." His family could barely make out the mess of Poke Balls and papers on the floor behind him. "Those inspectors are imposters!"
"We know," Aurea answered, slightly relieved to find her father slightly unscathed. "They took away Oshawott and Snivy from us in jet packs if you can believe it."
"At this point, I'll believe Fairy-types exist," Cedric declared in a rare tone of gravity. "Two of them strung me up and stole sixty Pokemon from Storage."
Hilda's eyes opened wide in distraught while Aurea adopted her earlier mortification, her hand over her mouth. "But... that's nearly half of the center's reference material!" the junior Juniper exclaimed, her voice strangled by growing panic. "This could set us back months with our work."
A very miffed "Ahem" got Aurea to see Hilda's dirty raise of her eyebrow on the X-Transceiver and up close when she lifted her head. "And the Pokemon are in danger!" she hastily put out in exasperation. "That goes without saying!"
"I tried to pursue them into the woods but their jet packs were too fast," Hilda told Cedric, sighing grimly before trying to pivot. "Did they hurt you?"
"Only my pride..." Cedric half-joked before smiling. "I'll try to join you out there as soon as restore the internal computer system." Hilda and Aurea could hear very steady if frustrated keyboard typing outside of his video frame. "It seems that hackers helped them access the Transfer System and beam out any Poke Ball."
"So that's how the security locks just shut off," Aurea remarked, becoming bewildered in addition to her fear. "Are our backups programs safe?"
"You've never let me turn in without a look-see if that answers your question," Cedric replied, still typing. "They tried to cover their tracks with the Transfer System but I tracing their destination... now!"
"Where are they?" Hilda demanded with her previous vigor renewed, Aurea firmly eyeing her in concern.
"It's still fuzzy but I think it was short distance trip to..." Cedric began, squinting at the computer screen before they go wide in surprise, "...the middle of the North Woods?!"
Hilda and Aurea shared his baffled look in their eye. "North as in... North West?" the junior Juniper cautiously asked her father.
"That's where the trace ends," Cedric began, typing more into the computer. "I... vaguely recall a campsite there years back but it was made into a cell tower on a pretty shoe-string budget." He stroked his beard in curiosity. "Since when would it have a Transfer Machine?"
"Since they put their own there themselves," Hilda assumed, looking up at a particularly tall tree just in front of her. "I've seen smaller models that wouldn't take up much data in a basic P.C. model." She glanced at Aurea to make sure she was glued to her X-Transceiver and began to move slowly.
"We know where their hidey-hole is but they're still dangerous," Aurea asserted before focusing on her father. "Dad, call the police while we hurry back to see what's left."
"About that..." Cedric groaned, scratching the back of his head anxiously. "Chief Dismuke told me that most of the force is in Accumula."
"What?!" Aurea exclaimed bluntly yet appalled.
"Apparently, an wild outbreak of Venipede has the whole town infested," Cedric explained, clearly confused by it.
"But... Venipede are nowhere..." Aurea began to cry out in confusion.
"...near these parts?" Cedric finished with a groan. "That's what I told Maxey but apparently, the universe is conspiring against us." He exhaled slowly like a locomotive letting off way too much steam. "They're doing all they can to capture them but as is, they can't spare a single officer."
"Somehow I doubt two would make a difference," Aurea moaned, rubbing her hand down her whole face. "I already have Hilda trying to play super... he... ro..." The Professor's words trailed off when she finally noticed that Hilda has exited the group call.
"Oh no..." Aurea sighed in an annoyed sort of dread.
She had looked around in expecting that Hilda had ran out of sight but soon found herself wishing she could be that lucky. There was her goddaughter was instead climbing up the highest tree with both of her shoes off. Halfway up by the time Aurea had caught sight of her.
"She's climbing a tree, isn't she?" Cedric guessed almost too casually.
"Just a sec, Dad," Aurea hastily replied before bolting off.
Hilda drew upon the memories of surviving these very woods in order to concentrate on gripping the course bark. She especially kept from looking down with the height being a far cry from the backyard. There were enough study branches along the way for the occasional rests and bits of bark for her hands to grip.
Enough time for her to hear Auntie Aurea chew her out.
"Contrary to popular belief, this is not how you get air to clear your head!" the Professor snarkily snapped at the base of the tree. "Get down here before you hurt yourself!"
"This is practically my second home!" Hilda protested back before continuing back up the tree. "The worst I'll get is a splinter!" She looked upwards closely and could see a long branch that was thick enough to support a full grown adult. "Trust me, I'm going somewhere with this!"
"Yeah, to the emergency ward!" Aurea shouted back in growing exasperation. "If you're lucky!" She took off her coat with full intention to scale the tree herself when...
"Let her climb," Cedric insisted to his daughter's surprise. "Hilda wouldn't be doing this at the drop of a hat so we oughta hear her out."
"Of course, you take her side..." Aurea muttered under her breath, knowing how his father spoiled Hilda.
Hilda ignored her Auntie's naysaying in order to reach the sturdy branch and shuffle over to sit down on it. The creak was concerning but she knew that she'd come too far now and took out her Personal Computer. She took out a pair of high-tech binoculars from her Digital Inventory and caught them before they were claimed by gravity.
"Campsite, campsite," Hilda mused when she checked the Town Map on her X-Transceiver, tapping the screen to zoom in. "Leaving Nuvema Town by Route 1 takes you True North." She looked past the tree and easily made out the dirt road that divided the forest with her binoculars. "So our hive of scum and villainy would be..."
Hilda followed the directions Cedric alluded to order to pick out where the thieves made off. Her binoculars booted up a landscape scanner that could helped her spot any gaps in the trees and let her pick out which one stuck out like a sore thumb.
"There!" Hilda exclaimed when the scanner honed in what seemed like a big clearing. She rotated herself around with her right leg lifted over the branch. She could now sit and look straight ahead towards True North, her feet dangling in the air. It really felt like the good ol' days of exploring the woods.
Hilda finally managed to make out a very retro cabin in the clearing and a mighty modern anthennae dish on the roof. A makeshift cell tower she presumed. What stuck out first was a dome of light that seemed to flicker on and off around the clearing itself. It reminded her of a Reflect or Protect attack.
"A force-field?" Hilda exclaimed, both parts impressed and disturbed. "Who are these guys?" However, a zoom in on the clearing itself helped her make out two tables in front of the cabin. Each had one person sitting at them with poor posture and a familiar uniform on.
Gray hood. White apron. A shield logo with a capital "P" on them.
"Gotcha!" Hilda triumphantly declared like she used as Master Ball. She was just grinning with a clenched fist when she heard her X-Transceiver ring. The young trainer smirked at the better reception, figuring she owed somebody a few "I told you so"s.
Hilda slid open the second screen and tapped "Answer" to find a very concerned Cedric to the right of a very frustrated Aurea. "Guess who just found the bad guys?" she smugly gloated, all too eager to hold it over her godmother.
"The headliner for tomorrow's obituary?" Aunite Aurea snarked sharply.
"Don't quit your day job," Hilda sniped back in stride, letting the Professor get her licks in. "I just spotted two of the cosplay creeps are outside the old cabin."
"The one you thought was haunted?" Cedric recalled, stroking his beard. "I thought they torn it down for the cell tower."
"They just stuck an antennae dish on it and called it a day," Hilda claimed, stretching out her left arm so the Live Caster could show the Junipers. "They sometimes rent out the cabin but barely anybody knows it exists anymore."
"A perfect place to hide while the heat dies down..." Aurea mused for a few seconds, putting her fuss aside in her growing intrigue. "Can you make out any Poke Balls?" She squinted in hopes of making out the distance figures without her own binoculars.
Hilda squinted herself through the binoculars but a distance breeze blew branches in the way of her view. "I think I saw them handle a few," Hilda answered with uncertainty, ignoring the small sounds of creaking wood. "With luck, they're too busy counting their spoils but just to make sure..."
Hilda felt confident in her experience in the woods when she stood up with both feet on the branch. She felt perfectly balanced when she looked through the binoculars and zoomed in on the clearing ahead and paid little mind to yet another creak from beneath.
"And it looks like luck's on our side," Hilda quipped in preemptive triumph.
This boost allowed her to properly make out the two thieves each working on laptops and scanning a Poke Ball thoroughly with a hooked up Pokedex. One of them in glasses took the Poke Ball and put it into one of two see-through bins under the edge of each table. One was full of Poke Balls, the other was only just filling up.
"They're analyzing each Pokemon one by one rather thoroughly," Hilda reported when the branch started to bend slowly. "Some sort of cataloguing to check for aliments or strength potential." The creaking grew louder.
"Probably hoping to find the ones they can charge the most," Aurea assumed in her disgust. "But if they had jetpacks, why have a layover here when the lab isn't that far off?"
"What's the best way to hide a tree?" Cedric answered with an age old proverb. "They thought we'd race past them for Accumula-"
"-or get lost the woods," Hilda began to smirk, looking away from her binoculars. "But I've got the home field advantage."
"Nooooo, you've got to get down here," Aurea firmly retorted. "Dad and I will handle things."
"Hey, I grew up in these trees," Hilda barked back indignantly, ignorant to the creaking. "You need an expert to-"
SNAP!
"Sh-" was all Hilda could scream when her Live Caster feed froze up.
"Hilda!" Aurea and Cedric cried out, fearing the worst.
The youngest Juniper jumped back when the binoculars landed right in front of her, just inches from hitting her head. She looked up in time to borderline leap backwards and avoid getting her head struck by a large branch. She was relieved that her goddaughter hadn't come down with her until she looked up for the answer.
To Be Continued...
Aurea and Hilda share the same pain but not the same methods of recovering. But after dealing with their past but does the young Trainer even have a future?
Times like these, we could all use some Fair Feathered Friends.
Thank you for reading my fanfiction. Write up a comment or a full blown review about what you liked or loathed about my work. I can roll with the punches so let me have it.