Chapter 5: Mislead
It was about 9am the next morning before Diana was rudely awoken by the sunlight streaming through the window. She blearily looked at the nightstand alarm clock that blinked annoying flashing red lights, as if to taunt her, before she muttered an illegible groan and buried her face back into her pillow. After a couple minutes of failing to fall back asleep, the sunlight somehow invading her eyelids no matter which direction she turned towards, she felt something foreign shift near her feet. Thinking it was her dog Jackson, she settled back into her pillow with a smile until it occurred to her that the bundle was much smaller than her German Shepard mix and that he had passed away two years ago.
That sudden realization caused her to jolt awake and instinctively kick back the sheets. Her anxiety only added as she noticed that, not only was it not two years ago, but this wasn't her bed. This wasn't even her room! The walls were too plain, the furniture was too simple, and the overall room was just too clean. It was just straight up unnatural!
Casting that thought aside, her attention soon turned towards the sheets again, which began to shift underneath the blankets. Unsure of what to do, Diana lifted her pillow above her head as a makeshift weapon as she cautiously lifted up the blanket, pulling it away she was like ripping off a band-aid before she felt a relieved smile spread over her face as she recognized the Eevee curled up on the foot of the bed. Eve stared up at Diana with an irritated, one-eyed glare before settling back into her slumber. It seemed that she was not a morning person either, or in this case, morning pokemon.
Even after going through the mini heart-attack, Diana now had to face the challenge of having to drag herself from the bed to the bathroom. She felt incredibly sluggish and very groggy, despite having slept for twelve hours straight, but the uncomfortable crawling of shaky adrenaline and urgency churning in her gut motivated her enough to slump toward her destination.
Since Aaron wasn't currently occupying the bathroom, she decided to get a shower in as well, which felt a bit counterproductive since she was still putting on the same, dirty old clothes, but it felt nice to wash the grime off, not to mention she got some free toiletries out of it. The pokemon center provided packaged miniature pokeball shaped soaps and shampoo bottles for guests, which Diana pocketed almost immediately afterward. It wasn't until she stepped out of the bathroom after drying her hair that she noticed Aaron was still nowhere to be found. The only proof that he had been there was a small pile of sheets she assumed was from his bed that was thrown haphazardly into the hamper.
Where is he? Diana thought before there was a knock on the door. She answered it, expecting it to be him, only to be greeted by an empty hallway. Thinking she was being pranked, her eyebrows scrunched up before she heard a cheerful little cry.
"Chansey!" She looked down and recognized the figure to be one of the nurse pokemon, Chansey. The pink, egg pokemon smiled up at her and gestured towards the room behind her before Diana realized why she was here.
"Oh... come on in, I guess," Diana blinked before stepping out of the way and opening the door.
"Chan-sey!~" the pokemon nodded before she came in and began stripping off Diana's bed, much to Eve's dismay, who was rudely awakened again by suddenly being pulled off the bed and dragged across the floor.
"Weeev..." Eve groaned, looking blearily up at Diana and Chansey, the latter who was at the receiving end of a poisonous glare.
"If you're so tired, you can continue sleeping in your pokeball," Diana offered with an eye-roll after she grabbed her pokeball from the desk and called Eve back into it. Running her thumb over the ball, the teenager beamed brightly at the small red and white orb in the palm of her hand. The gleeful feeling of being a pokemon trainer had still not worn off yet. What was she going to do first? Train or catch a new pokemon? She didn't have any money, so buying pokeballs was a bust, but it didn't seem to put a damper on her spirits. With a renewed spring in her step, Diana marched towards the front desk to check up on the baby Swablu.
Thinking it was going to be just like the pokemon games, Diana expected there to be a Nurse Joy faithfully waiting at the front desk, but surprisingly she found herself greeted by vacant silence. The only thing on the counter was a sign-in sheet and a silver call bell that was engraved with "Ring for Service" into the metal. Taking that as an open invitation to do the inevitable, Diana walked over with a mischievous grin and slammed her hand excitedly on the bell over and over, impatient for assistance. It wasn't long after that that Nurse Joy rushed towards the counter, putting her hand on top of the bell.
"Yes? How can I help you?" the nurse greeted her cheerfully, seemingly unfazed by Diana's obnoxious ringing. It was like she was one of the Queen's royal guards, adamant and steadfast in her positive demeanor. Maybe that was why she was called Nurse Joy... or maybe she was just used to it, since the majority of pokemon trainers were kids ten and up. Diana made a mental note to try this tactic at other pokemon centers and see if she could invoke a reaction.
"Hello again. My friend and I came here yesterday with an injured Swablu," Diana asked with a bright smile as she took her hand off the bell, pretending she wasn't irritating five seconds ago, "And I was wondering if you know how it's doing?"
"Again?" Joy tilted her head in confusion before hitting her fist against the palm of her hand in realization, "Oh! You must've met my sister. Yes, she did mention a baby Swablu being brought in... and you know, now that I think about it, your friend also came by earlier and asked about it as well."
"Oh... Do you happen to know where he went?" Diana asked her hopefully. Joy shook her head.
"Unfortunately no, but I saw him leave around six this morning. That's usually when we open up our doors again to the public, so I thought it was a bit unusual that someone would be leaving so early in the morning."
"Okay," she frowned with a shrug. A strange feeling of insecurity and abandonment quickly fell over her, wondering why Aaron left and didn't tell her where he went, but she tried to ignore the sudden twisting feeling in her gut and masked her emotions.
"Swablu is doing fine, by the way, but I can bring it out to see you, if you'd like," Nurse Joy offered. Diana managed to offer her a small smile.
"That would be great. Thank you," Diana thanked her before handing her pokeball over. "Also, could you do a quick check up on my Eevee before you go?"
"Certainly. Wait right here. I'll have your pokemon back to you in just a minute," the nurse bowed before taking off towards the back with Eve in hand. Placing her hands in her pockets, the trainer took note of the different surroundings before a poster plastered on the side of the wall caught her eye. It had a red pokeball and multiple pokemon type symbols scattered all over. It read: "Pokemon League Sinnoh Regional Championship. 'Today's winners are tomorrow's pokemon masters.' Register today!" Before she could contemplate further about how to register, Nurse Joy appeared before her.
"Here's the Swablu, and your Eevee's all done with its check-up. Both are healthy and fighting fit!" Joy smiled as she brought in the Swablu on a roller table and her Eevee in a pokeball tray. Diana picked up and pocketed Eve's pokeball before turning towards the little bird pokemon, who chirped happily towards Diana.
"Hi!" Diana smiled, leaning down towards the Swablu until they were at eye-level. "Do you remember me?"
"Swa-swablu!" it nodded, flapping its wings a bit before settling back down. Diana cautiously let the bird sniff her hand again before she leaned in to pet its soft wings.
"Wow, it feels like large balls of cotton..." Diana's eyes widened before petting the top of Swablu's head. "It's good to see that you feel better."
"Blu! Swa-blu!" The pokemon jumped high into the air before landing softly on the desk. Wow, big jump.
"So what happens now?" Diana asked the nurse, who was running some numbers on a computer database.
"Well, since it's still a fledgling, the right thing to do would be return it to its nest so it can learn to fly, but since the annual Swablu and Altaria migration already took off without it, we can keep it here at the pokemon center until the migration comes back again in the spring. By then, its wings should be strong enough so it can rejoin its flock."
"That's awesome! Looks like you're all taken care of," Diana praised as she patted the Swablu's head again. "By the way, Nurse Joy, I have a question about the Pokemon League. Do you have to register to join in the competition or is that more of a formality?"
"All trainers that wish to participate in the Pokemon League must register for it, which you can do at any pokemon center," she explained before giving Diana a look, "But you're seriously not considering registration for this year's tournament, are you?"
"Yep!" Diana nodded before cocking an eyebrow. "...Why?"
"The tournament's only six months away." Diana shifted and crossed her arms.
"So?"
"By most people's standards, that's an awfully short amount of time to train before a major competition, and with winter coming early this year, it will be that much harder to train in the cold."
"Ah, that's not so bad. Six months is plenty of time. Besides, a little cold never bothered me anyway."
"Well, if you're sure... I can have you registered if you just hand me your Trainer ID," Nurse Joy suggested, taking Diana's ID after she fished it out of her pocket, and placed it inside a machine. After a couple seconds of whirring gears and button beeps, Joy handed back her identification card. "There you go. You're all registered for the Spring Regional tournament. I wish you the best of luck, but do be careful. The weather's been a bit unpredictable in parts of Sinnoh ever since Hoenn had that massive volcanic eruption a couple years ago, so make sure you and your pokemon rest from time to time and be sure to have enough supplies prepared for the journey."
"I'll be fine. Thanks for the warning," Diana waved nonplussed before turning to address the bird pokemon. "See you later, Swablu. Hope you find your family." After she had walked out the automatic doors, Nurse Joy went back to her usual business. A group of the Joy staff came out of the break-room with coffee and their Chanseys, putting various confections to put into their mugs.
"Where's she off to?" asked the older sister of the Nurse Joy sitting at the desk.
"Oh, she's off to Jubilife City."
"Oh dear, you didn't try and give her directions like that other boy, did you?" the other Joy exclaimed, taking her awkward silence as a yes. "Sister, you know you're bad with directions! Which way did you tell her to go?"
"I told her to take a left at the crossroads and that should send her on the pathway to Jubilife."
"Oh no, Sister! That's not the road to Jubilife. It's the shortcut through Bewilder Forest. You know that the Stantler there become more territorial during this time of year."
"Oh dear... I hope she's alright," Joy feigned with concern, but was partially glad that the bell-ringer was getting her comeuppance. Her only regret was sending out an innocent Eevee to have to deal with her trainer's mess.
"Blu..." Swablu called out softly, sad that the nice human left. The strap it had been bandaged with laid haphazardly on the desk, covered with the human girl's scent. While the pink-haired humans talked amongst themselves, Swablu scooped the strap into its mouth and, when the nurses wasn't looking, the little bird pokemon jumped off the counter and started hopping towards the door.
Well, now the journey really begins... Diana thought, standing at the crossroads. She wasn't lying when she said to Nurse Joy that she was going to be fine, but that didn't change the fact that she had no money, no items, and no food, the last part emphasized by the low grumble in her stomach. Until she got her funds from Professor Rowan, that was all she would have. That, and the pokedex she had borrowed from Aaron, since she also had to wait to get her own from Professor Rowan. She couldn't even contact the professor for an advancement on her salary because the only one who had his number was Aaron. Diana face-palmed her forehead. Without even realizing it, she had become co-dependent on him. So much for heading to Jubilife City.
It wasn't supposed to be like this. She was supposed to start out with money, pokeballs, her own pokedex, and walk around with a spring in her step, and a song in her heart. Guess two out of five would have to do for now. Holding up the device Aaron lent her, Diana's thoughts went back the Swablu she had rescued with Aaron. It would've been nice to catch a Swablu. A Flying Type was always a good kind of pokemon to have on any team, but since it was still a baby, it probably wasn't even able to fly yet, let alone fight. Even if the Swablu was fully grown, Diana didn't even have any pokeballs, so what good did that do?
Perplexed about what to do next, Diana spied the Krabby Shack in the distance. She had remembered Aaron talking about visiting the Krabby Shack to pay for their bill. Maybe they would have an idea about where Aaron went. Right as she stood in front of the door, a wave of hesitation hit her. What if they were still mad about the dine-and-dash? What if Aaron hadn't paid their tab and they stuck her with dish duty, dishes that he was supposed to wash? After wrestling with her conscious a bit, the guilt of being a criminal drove her to pushing the restaurant door open, and to make matters worse, she spotted the waitress from yesterday almost immediately. Great. Just my luck.
With shaky resolve, Diana plastered on an artificial grin, hoping to come off as naive and innocent, and not completely desperate as she approached the waitress.
"Hi! Umm..." Diana began awkwardly, forcing a smile as an embarrassed blush staining her face. "My friend and I ate here yesterday, only I think we forgot to pay, so I came here to apologize."
"Oh no, don't worry about it! You're already taken care of. Your boyfriend came by earlier to pay and explained everything," Rhonda the waitress sighed happily. "He was so nice and generous, he left me an enormous tip for all the trouble! You're so lucky to have such a great boyfriend," she complimented before pulling a sour frown. "All my boyfriend does is 'forget his wallet' at home any time we go out, the lousy cheapskate..."
"Okay, good. At least that's taken care of, but he's not my boyfriend," Diana thanked before correcting the nice waitress. Why is it that a boy and girl can't have dinner and be platonic? Guess I have to have a 2+ party of friends in order to eat without assumptions. "So, I don't have to wash any dishes?"
"Nope. Although, if you're offering..." Rhonda joked before noticing Diana's perplexed expression. The waitress gave her a blank look. "Wait, you seriously want to help me wash dishes?"
"I'm considering it..." Diana admitted truthfully with a shrug. "Does it pay any?" Rhona's face scrunched up into a squinting frown.
"Not as much as you'd think. You don't get minimum wage, since you get paid mostly in tips. It's not even the lunch rush yet, so I don't think I would be able to give you more than 200 poke for the small amount of dishes left." Diana's brow furrowed. That was barely enough to buy one pokeball, and with her horrible aim, that was more money wasted than spent well.
"Ah, well then, never mind. Forget I asked. I should probably be on my way," Diana waved dismissively. "Oh by the way, you didn't happen to see where my friend went this morning, did you?"
"I'm sorry, sugar. He only said he had a few more errands to run."
"Oh... thanks anyways." After saying goodbye to the waitress, Diana's smile melted away. Damn it. Another dead end. Where the hell was Aaron? What could be taking him so long? It was nice to know that he hadn't abandoned her, but she kind of couldn't move forward without him.
Maybe I should just go back to the pokemon center and wait for him. Rhonda did say that he was running errands. Maybe that meant he would come back... but what kind of errands start at 6am in the morning and last past 9am? It wasn't until she was being smacked in the face by branches and tripping over plant roots that she realized she had wandered into a grove of trees.
Wait... where am I again?
Looking around, she suddenly heard the rustle of leaves and grass before the outline of a small deer pokemon stepped out of the wood. Before she could even register what happened, the deer snorted as its horns began to glow a light purple and create waves that reverberated the surrounding area until it was warped and surrounded by mist. Unsure of where she was, Diana stumbled through the mist, her mind acting like a fog had gone over it, diluting her senses.
Her mind continued to haze over as she walked, the air quivering and swirling with an odd energy until she tripped over something more solid and crashed onto the ground. The fog around her began to dissipate as she hissed at the sting of the fall, the debris scuffing along the bottom part of her pants, holding her knee that had now torn a small hole in the pant-leg. She was about to curse at the thing that made her fall before she realized it was Aaron, crumpled up and unconscious on the ground.
"Aaron!" she exclaimed. By the looks of it, he was asleep, but it didn't seem to be natural. Relaying over the events that had taken place, she decided it was probably caused by a pokemon, most likely the one she had run into earlier. "Come on, Aaron! Wake up!" She tried slapping his face, but it didn't seem to have any effect other than staining his cheek with a red hand-print mark. Was this how Aaron felt when he found her?
What other ways are there to wake a person up? Unless... she pulled out her flute case and unlocked it. Maybe playing the Pokeflute song would help, since it awakens sleeping pokemon. Now, how did that tune go again?
Either this was going to work or she was going to look very stupid for trying. Regardless, it was better than doing nothing. After letting out a small series of notes, she managed to find the right ones and played an impromptu arrangement of the Pokeflute song. It wasn't perfect. The notes came out as slightly jumbled and squeaky, her intonation slightly off from the unrehearsed piece. She wasn't even sure this was going to work, since she was just playing a normal flute, but it didn't matter because seconds later, Aaron's eyes fluttered open.
"Nice song..." Aaron mumbled with a smile. Diana let out a sigh of relief before she offered her hand, helping Aaron get to his feet before he hissed in pain and held the side of his face. "Oww... Why does my face hurt so much?"
"Umm... you must have hit it when you passed out," Diana lied as she stared at the hand print on his cheek, hoping Aaron didn't somehow own a mirror. "So this is where you've been all morning."
"I guess so. Sorry. I meant to leave a note, but I figured I would've been done with my errands before you woke up," he apologized, rubbing the back of his neck. "I didn't expect to be ambushed by Stantler."
"Stantler?" Diana frowned.
"Yeah. I was out doing my morning jog when all of a sudden, I was surrounded by Stantler. They must have used hypnosis on me to defend their territory."
Diana crossed her arms and shifted feet, taking in his information. "That makes sense. Their horns are supposed to have reality warping powers. I think I experienced the same thing, only I think I managed to snap out of it before it took full effect when I tripped over you."
"So that's why my side aches," Aaron rubbed his side. "Oh! Before I forget... Here." He dropped his orange and black backpack before he pulled out and handed her a grey bag filled to the brim with potions and other essentials. "I would've gotten you clothes, but I didn't know your size and figured you'd like to pick those out."
"Aaron... this is... This is the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me. Thank you," Diana ran her hands to inspect over all of the goods. He had thought of everything. Water, matches, pokemon food. There was even a sleeping bag tucked at the bottom of the bag. How he managed to shove that many things into a tiny backpack, she'd never know, but the gesture warmed her heart.
"I figured since trainers need most of this stuff in the beginning, that you would prefer to be paid in supplies than money," he shrugged before he was alerted by a snapping twig. "We should probably get out of here before we run into anymore Stantler."
"I second that," Diana added eagerly when suddenly a loud cry rang out from the forest.
"Lerrrooooo!" Almost immediately after the cry followed a large group of Stantler that seemed to appear out of nowhere, surrounding them.
"Oh boy, not again! Go, Yanmega!" Aaron blanched before calling out his pokemon. "Use Uproar!" Suddenly massive amounts of shock-waves began erupting from Yanmega's wings, causing all the Stantler and anyone else nearby to reel back in pain from the loud noise. Diana clutched her ears in pain, the sound worse than being caught between the saxophone and drummer sections.
"Argh! Make it stop!" she cried out over the loud roar as Yanmega continued to excitedly screech and quickly beat its wings, even after all the Stantler had passed out around them on the ground. Finally, after what felt like forever, Yanmega calmed down and slowed the frequency of its wing speed. Diana could do nothing but collapse onto her knees out of sheer joy. "Thank god..."
"Sorry about that," Aaron apologized. "Yanmega's wings are supposed to be so powerful that they can create horrible migraines in adults."
"I'd believe it," Diana offered sarcastically, her ears still ringing from the Uproar attack. "Just please... don't do that again. Not at least until I get some earplugs."
"Normally, Yanmega doesn't use it around other people unless it was during a battle, but since it's been a while since I've battled with him outside of training, so I kind of forgot. At this point, I'm pretty much just used to it by now."
"Jeez, what have you been putting in his food? He's knocked out the whole area," Diana commented in disbelief. The path earlier had been quiet for the most part, but now the whole forest floor was covered in fainted pokemon, having fallen down from the surrounding trees. The types of pokemon littering the forest floor ranged from bug types like Weedle all the way to flying types like Starly, but the one that stood out to her the most was the little blue and white ball of fluff that curled a couple yards behind her.
"Swa...blu..." the little bird pokemon whimpered weakly as it dizzily rolled out of one of the shrubs by the roadside.
"Hey, isn't that the Swablu from earlier?" she asked Aaron as he walked over to examine the cotton bird.
"Yeah, it's still has your flute strap sling around it," he nodded, noting the strap was wrapped around the pokemon and held in its beak. "Why didn't Nurse Joy remove it?"
"She did. Swablu wasn't wearing it when I saw it this morning," Diana frowned. Aaron rubbed the strap with his thumb thoughtfully for a moment before a dawning realization hit him.
"Maybe this Swablu was returning your strap to you, and that was why it was out here when Yanmega fought against those Stantler."
"Really?" Diana blinked in surprise before kneeling down towards the Swablu. "Is that what you wanted to do?"
"Swa-blu!" It chirped, pulling at the strap before laying it down at Diana's feet and nudging it forward with its beak.
"Thank you for returning it. I had almost forgotten about it," Diana beamed cheerfully, picking up and reattaching her strap to her case. Swablu looked at her case before sniffing and inspecting the flute Diana placed back into it and clicked shut.
"What I still don't get was how did it got past all of those Stantler..." he frowned and crossed his arms. As if on cue, the cries of more Stantler began to echo in the distance.
"Oh great. More Stantler?!" Diana grumbled irritably before pointing an accusatory finger at Aaron. "Don't you even think about using Uproar again!"
"Well how else do you expect us to get out of here without falling asleep?" her friend argued, anxiously looking for an exit or another option. There was none.
"Just... don't look at their horns," was all she could offer.
"That's kind of like trying to outrun time," Aaron defended as the herd fully surrounded them, but reluctantly returned Yanmega as he tried to keep his focus on the Stantlers' hooves.
"Just don't... look at their... horns..." Diana mumbled as her eyes began to glaze over, the forest beginning to spin again. Right as the Stantlers' antlers started producing a large haze, Swablu suddenly jumped out of her arms and let out a triumphant cry as it began producing a large, green energy shield that began to cover the group. Like before, the haze began to quickly clear away.
"That's Safeguard!" Aaron exclaimed as he slowly began to come to. "It protected us from being affected by the hypnosis."
"Well, that certainly solves our Uproar problem, but now what?" Diana suggested, but Swablu quickly fixed the situation by letting out a beautiful song that appeared to lull the surrounding Stantler into a deep sleep.
"Wow, Sing and Safeguard? What a great combo!" Diana exclaimed. "And incredibly convenient for us!"
"Yeah, but we should probably take it back to the pokemon center. Nurse Joy is probably worried sick about it," Aaron suggested as he picked up the little bird. Swablu let out a defiant chirp, pecking angrily at his hand until he'd let go and flopped enthusiastically over towards Diana.
"Guess it still doesn't like you," Diana couldn't help but grin smugly, holding the tiny bird in her arms. It was so small and squishy, she was afraid that she was going to accidentally crush it if she tried to hug it.
"Actually, I think it wants to go with you," Aaron admitted with a shrug.
"What?! Really!?" Diana exclaimed before looking down at the little bird in her arms. "Is he right? Do you want to come with me?"
"Blu!" it nodded, and Diana could not be more elated. In fact, she couldn't help but beam with pride, but it was quickly crushed by a sad realization. "But I don't have any pokeballs," she frowned. "How am I going to catch you if I don't have any pokeballs?"
"What do you mean 'you have no pokeballs'? I put some in your bag," Aaron pointed towards the grey bag on the ground by her feet. Sure enough, after she did some digging in the side pockets, she managed to pull out an unused pokeball. Enlarging the pokeball in her hand, she leaned forward to press the pokeball to the Swablu before pausing.
"Is it really okay to do this? I mean, it's still just a baby, after all. It can't even fly yet," she frowned, retracting her hand back in hesitation. "And what if I'm taking it away from its family, and they wonder what happened to their baby during the migration? I'll just end up being a homewrecker and I-"
"Diana," Aaron interjected.
"Yes?" Abruptly, his finger met her forehead and harshly flicked it.
"You think too much," he smiled, snapping her out of her rant. "If Swablu wants to come with you, it's Swablu's decision. No one is forcing it to choose or anything. It just wants to be with you, plain and simple."
"O-Okay..." was all she said as she rubbed her forehead. Diana looked back down at the Swablu and before she could change her mind, Swablu decided to beat her to the punch and pecked the little button that opened the pokeball before it was suddenly pulled into it in a white flash. The ball wiggled back and forth in her hand before it let out a satisfying "ping!" and stopped.
"Cool! I got a Swablu!" Diana cheered happily as she got out Aaron's pokedex. "And it's female too."
"Congratulations," Aaron smiled as the girl cheerfully called out her pokemon again. He definitely missed this. "Are you going to name it like you did with your Eevee?"
"Hmmm... I hadn't thought of that..." she paused thoughtfully as the Swablu pulled at her flute strap like it was a teething ring. "I'm sure I'll think of something."