Chapter 3: Search Mission
The morning time finally rolls around and I groan to myself as I had barely gotten any sleep at all.
After finally managing to force myself to get up from the floor, I stretch my arms and legs a bit before turning towards my bed to see a still very much asleep pokemon.
I couldn't help but laugh a bit to myself as she was basically almost upside down with her arm over her face and her mouth wide open.
"Jeez, she sleeps almost as wild as I do." I said to myself, shaking my head as I walk out of the room and into my kitchen to make a pot of coffee.
I stand there, yawning several times as I listen to nothing but the sound of the coffee pot bubbling, breaking through the peaceful morning silence as a pleasant aroma begins filling the kitchen air.
All of a sudden as I turn around to grab myself a cup I could hear a few small noises coming from my bedroom. I glance around the corner down the hallway to see a small green figure stumbling down the somewhat dimly lit corridor, putting her paw over her mouth as she yawns.
"Well good morning. Slept okay?" I asked as she walks over to my couch and plops down, nodding and smiling.
"You're bed feels like a cloud." She said, yawning once again. "Haaaahh...I could sleep all day on it."
"Hah...glad you liked it." I said, taking a sip of my coffee, raising the mug towards her direction. "You uh...drink coffee before?"
She raises an eye and sniffs the air a bit as she closes her eyes and takes in the scent.
"Oh! That's the stuff mama would make sometimes...it's really bitter though and I didn't like it when she let me have a sip."
"Ah...she probably liked drinking it black. Have you ever had it with a little sugar and vanilla creamer in it?" I asked her, walking towards her and holding the cup out towards her.
She looks at it momentarily before cautiously taking it from me and holding the warm mug in between her paws.
"Uhh...sorry if you feel weird about taking a sip after me, I mean it's not like I spit in it or anything weird like that I just...I mean that's literally my only coffee mug since...well I mean I do live alone. I can get you another cup or something if you don't feel comfortable or-"
"No no...it's okay, I don't mind." She said, taking a small sip from the mug, her face lighting up shortly afterwards.
"Heh, that's twice you've made that look after trying something I've given you. I must be doing a pretty good job." I said, proud of myself once again.
"Yeah it's...good. I like it!" She exclaimed taking another big sip before trying to hand me back the mug.
I shake my head and lightly palm it back towards her. "Nah, you can have the rest. I just usually take a few sips and throw it down the drain half the time anyway."
I stand up from the couch, walking to the kitchen to turn the coffee machine off and rinse the pot out.
"Um...you said you live here by yourself?" She asked a bit meekly, setting the cup down on the coffee table as she finished the last few sips.
"Yep. Been living by myself since I moved around here by Frank."
"Frank?" She asked with a raised eye.
"My best friend." I said, looking over my shoulder towards her while washing out the coffee pot. "You'll most likely get to meet him today once we go to the Professor's Lab. he's the one who will probably be the biggest help in being able to track down your caretaker if I'm being honest."
She lowers her head a bit, seemingly a little distraught.
I finish up washing the dish before walking back into the living room and sitting down next to her again. "Don't worry, these are people I trust quite a bit. I know it's all probably a lot to ask of you in such a short period of time of us knowing each other, but I'd like you to trust me."
She ponders for a minute, glancing at the coffee mug before looking back up towards me and nodding. "Okay, I will then."
"Heh...thanks Maya." I said ruffling her hair once again, though this time she let's out a little playful groan.
"You know, I get that I'm small but I'm not a baby or anything." She said in a playfully annoyed tone.
"Hm...actually...how old are you then? Since we're on the subject."
"My age? Mama said when she first found me I was around 14 years alive. I've been with her and my brothers and sisters for quite a while too. She kept this paper on the wall with dates for something she called birthdays, and I had eight of them while I was there, if that helps."
I couldn't help but raise an eye after taking in this bit of information. The pokemon in front of me had definitely resembled that of a young humanoid preteen looks wise.
"So let me get this straight...you were in your first evolved form for 14 years before you became what you are now?"
"Mhm." She said with a proud nod. "That's correct."
"And you were with your mom and siblings for 8 years? So that means...you'd be about 22 years old?"
She shrugs her shoulders before nodding in agreement. "Seems that way yes."
"Huh...that's...interesting to say the least. I guess looks can be deceiving."
"What about you?" She asked me curiously.
"Me? I'm 25. I'll be 26 in a couple of months...that's when MY birthday is." I said, folding my arms and leaning back on my couch a bit. "Do you actually know what your birthday is? Or..."
She puts a finger to her chin, tapping repeatedly as she ponders for a moment. "Well mama always had my name down on what she called January. That's when she first found me...on the 25th day of January she said."
"Hmm...so the beginning of this year would technically have been when you turned 22 going off of that information. Interesting to know."
"When is yours? Your um...birth day?" She asked, fumbling over the word as it must have still been somewhat of a weird concept to the mind of a pokemon.
"Mine's in September...September 10th to be exact. It's April 6th right now so we have about five more months to go before my birthday comes." I said, showing her the calendar app on my phone in my best attempt to explain it all to her thoroughly.
"Do you celebrate yours too? Mom always did for all of us. We always got to eat cake and she would always play with us...it was nice." She said, a hint of sadness in her voice as she reminisced.
"Well...I mean, Frank and his pokemon, Angie, come over every year to hang out with me here at the house, sometimes my friend Whitney does as well if she isn't at her gym or working. My cousin also just moved here so I'm sure he'll be joining now too when the time comes from now on, but that's about it. I don't exactly have tons of friends, or really any family around anymore beside those guys. Told you, I'm pretty much a loner heheh."
"Hm...I see." She simply said before going quiet.
I could sense the air shift to a more depressing tone, so I slapped both of my knees as I stood up to break the awkward silence.
"Welp. Guess you and I should go visit the professor now. Look uh...you have to mind him cause I'm sure he's gonna freak out a little bit when you talk...he's fascinated by all things pokemon and I'm sure something like that is definitely gonna get his undivided attention. But all in all he's a great person and mean's well by everything he does. My best friend and the girl Whitney I told you about?...I'm...not entirely sure how they'll take it, but I think they should at the very least be about the same as I was."
I walk over to the door, grabbing my wallet off of the end table and my keys off of the rack before turning back towards her. "You ready?"
She lets out a long winded sigh before nodding and hopping off of the couch and walking up to my side. "Yes, I'm ready."
I nod before opening the door for her, following her outside and locking it behind us.
I decided to walk since it was only about five minutes up the road and ultimately it would give me a little more time to call everyone and let them know that we were on the way to Elm's lab.
We arrive and I greet Professor Elm as I always have, save for the introduction of the very foreign pokemon standing beside me this time. After a few minutes, Brett and Frank both arrive with Angie in tow, with Whitney arriving about ten minutes afterwards. We all exchange our pleasantries and whatnot for a few minutes before I finally sit everyone down and explain everything to the best of my abilities of what had happened up to this exact point.
Elm and the others were all of course all on board for helping get Maya back to where she belonged, the professor probably more than anybody else which was to be expected. He began making some phone calls and doing what he could while the rest of us chatted for the time being as I had gotten bombarded with questions from the guys about it all.
Once he came back into the room, he places his phone back in his pocket letting out a little sigh as he did so.
"So...good news and bad...which one would you care to hear first?" He asked me.
"Great...always love to hear that." I said rubbing the bridge of my nose out of aggravation.
"Never can be easy huh Hayden?" Frank chipped in.
"Yeah, tell me about it. Well...I guess let's go with the good news first professor." I said, flipping one of the chairs around and sitting on it reversed with my arms resting atop the back rest.
"Well...good news is I've phoned a few of the other professors to at the very least get some sort of lead as to where to start, and my good friend and professor of the Unova region, Juniper, gave me the contact information of the professor of the Galar region...a one 'Professor Magnolia' it appears."
He pauses for a few moments before setting down his clipboard and taking a seat himself at his personal desk.
"Anyways, I received her information from Juniper and phoned her right after to explain the situation and she informed me that she was happy to help and that it must have been a sign that I called her, considering that she will actually be travelling to the Paldea region herself to visit a bit of family that she has over there, who she claims would also have no problem in assisting if she asks them!" He exclaimed, before his facial expression suddenly changed to a more serious one.
"I don't like that look at all professor...what is it that you're not saying?" I asked him, now standing at the edge of my seat.
"Well...the bad news...or well, two parts of bad news actually."
"Awesome, love that. Well...I guess hit me with it, you're killing me with the suspense here prof."
"Well, unfortunately, she isn't leaving to go for another two and a half months, but that isn't all. She told me that the Paldea region is quite massive, a significant amount larger than our region here, even with Kanto and Johto combined. There are...tons and tons of pokemon nurseries and breeding centers...and...well..."
"So basically, we're gonna be trying to find the world's smallest needle in the world's largest haystack." I said, plopping back down on the seat as I heave an elongated sigh.
"Precisely. Now, with that being said...this ISN'T impossible my boy...just...it may take some time since we don't exactly know where exactly in Paldea that she was nor do we know the name of the nursery." He said, standing back up. "We just have to be patient and try our best to figure it all out."
"Ugh this is all so crazy that this happened in the first place!" Whitney shouted suddenly, coming forward from the chair she was sitting on. "I mean, what on God's earth would team rocket want with a random pokemon from all the way over there? Are they like insanely rare or something?"
Professor Elm simply shakes his head, typing a few things on his laptop before turning it towards Whitney. "Quite the common species over there to be exact as you see here, so it strikes me as quite appalling as well as to why they would go through such lengths for this."
I look down towards Maya and I could see her beginning to get a little nervous, as did I since I believed that I knew the reasoning behind it. It was the one thing I had left out when I was explaining everything to everyone earlier and I felt like now was probably a good time as any to talk about the elephant in the room.
"Uhh..." I said, raising a hand. "Pretty sure I can clarify a bit. I think I know what it may be."
"Oh?" Elm said, quite intrigued now. "Do tell please."
"Go ahead...show them." I give Maya a little nod and smile to reassure her that she was in a safe space.
Everyone looks towards one another before looking back towards me in suspense, awaiting what would happen.
She takes a deep breath before walking forward. "Um...hello...heheh.." She said with a nervous chuckle.
The room had gone dead silent for a moment and everyone's jaws had hit the floor.
"HAAAAAAAHHH?" Everyone said loudly in unison.
Angie was the only one who had clapped a little bit, seemingly amused at the fact that she now knew a pokemon who could talk.
Maya was clearly a bit startled by the sudden outburst as she quickly jumped behind me, though I immediately reassured her.
"She can TALK?" Whitney said with her mouth agape. "That's amazing!"
Elm had almost fallen out of his chair due to getting up so fast.
"WOW! I've only heard stories...no not even...RUMORS that non psychic or non fairy pokemon were capable of learning human speech! This could be groundbreaking for my research!"
"Whoa...hold on professor...look I mean I know I expected this to some extent but let's not freak her out okay? She's going through a lot right now and I'm sure this is all quite a bit for her to process all at once."
"Right, of course my boy...um...please, forgive me. It's just so fascinating to be able to witness this...in all my years of research, I never would have thought a grass pokemon of all things. I always figured if I ever did get the chance, that it would be the more common psychic type if anything due to their telepathic abilities..."
"I thought I had done something crazy just with the fact that I taught Angie how to use the phone and text but...that's next level man." Frank said, playfully slapping my shoulder. "Always gotta one up me huh?"
"Oh come on, I didn't even do anything, she already knew how before we met." I said, rolling my eyes at him jokingly.
"Hayden...would you mind if I ran a few tests on her? Simple tests I promise...I'd just like to measure her brain activity...it could help tons with research on pokemon speech and maybe even give us some insight on how to teach ALL pokemon how to talk as well. It would be a huge discovery for the future of humans and pokemon!"
Maybe at some point professor...but for now, I really just want to make sure she get's back home safe, that's top priority for me..." I said, turning my attention down to the pokemon next to me and giving her a reassuring smile. "I know she wants that more than anything else, and I'm lucky that she's put her trust in me to help do it."
She looks back directly into my eyes and suddenly, she feels something well up in her chest that was unbeknownst to her at the time.
"Ngh...what..was that?" She said to herself, clutching her chest a bit.
I turned my head to the side a bit out of confusion as I had noticed the weird behavior. "Everything alright Maya?"
She quickly regains her normal composure before nodding. "Yeah, I'm okay...just missing home is all I think."
"Well don't you worry! You've got me on the team now and I promise I'll will make this happen, you have my word as a friend and most importatnly as a professor. I am dedicated to the art of helping with pokemon and it is by the astute abilities within me that allow me to-"
"Professor?" I said, cutting off his monologuing a bit. "I think she gets it."
"Oh..um of course!" He said, nervously rubbing the back of his neck. "Sorry about that, got excited is all it seems heheh."
We all chuckled a bit amongst ourselves for a moment before I had decided it was time to press on.
"Well, I'm getting hungry. You guys wanna come over for lunch?" I asked, looking around the entirety of the room for confirmation.
"Not gonna turn down free food! I'm in." Whitney said, almost jumping for joy at the thought. "We could all come up with more of a solid game plan along the way too!"
Angie clapped a bit again in excitement before nodding.
"Well, think you know our answer." Frank said, rubbing her head a bit.
"I would but I actually start my job today, so I gotta get going soon. But thanks anyway cuz." Brett said, checking the time on his phone.
"What about you professor?" I asked.
He just puts his hand up and politely shakes his head. "I appreciate it you guys, but I'm actually quite busy believe it or not. Especially now with this new presented problem, I'll be cracking down on the daily and awaiting any news I hear so we can all go from there."
"Alright, might stop by and drop you off a bit of food anyways later, ya know, as a thank you for all your help."
"I appreciate it Hayden. Well with that being said...off to work for me!" He exclaimed, sitting back down at his desk, immediately burying his face in his research once again.
I thanked the professor once more, who promised to keep in touch about the whole ordeal and let me know the instant that he knew something.
Unfortunately at the time, I wouldn't have known that it would come a bit too soon for me...