Calem, Serena, Shauna, Tierno and Trevor were smiling at first, but faltered after a moment. They withheld saying anything while the trio approached, taking notice that Chad was carrying all of Stanley’s gear.
Before the group left, Chad pulled up the speech-pad dangling on a strap to his side, and began typing. After a few seconds of hunt-and-peck typing, he pressed the ‘speak’ button and held it up for the two of them to hear. [THANK, YOU, EMERIC, AND, ADRIENNE] it spoke electronically, with some lost inflection and a weird gap between each word. The words seemed to bring the two near tears, before they bent down and gave the lizard a loving hug. With a final goodbye, the two return home, leaving the six to begin their grand journey.
“Right, well we should get going. Professor Sycamore sent me a message this morning and said he wanted to personally meet Calem and Serena in Aquacorde Town before we traveled too far,” Tierno informed the group, adjusting the straps on his backpack. One by one, the other five nodded, and the group set out north from their humble village. Route 1 was fairly unique, being the safest route in the region due to human foot traffic. The paved road was often traveled by Vaniville residents to access the larger nearby town. The short trek barely took an hour at their relaxed pace, with the mood steadily increasing as each member thought of something interesting they had been looking forward to.
Not long later, a man in a long white coat walked over while joyfully attempting to gain their attention. His purple button-up shirt was wrinkle-free paired with dark gray pants, a pair of meticulously shiny brown leather shoes, and swoopy gray hair clearly locked in place with half a can of hairspray. “Calem and Serena right? Nice to finally meet you,” He calmly settled into the group, pulling up a chair from another table to join the 6. “Congratulations on claiming the top two spots of your class, that’s quite a feat, and I am excited about what you… two…” he drifts off, his gaze locked on Chad. “Is- is that Charmeleon one of your pokemon?”
All five shake their heads in sync, with Calem answering for the group. “No, Chad was the starter pokemon of a good friend of ours, Stanley, who passed away last night. The six of us were planning to travel Kalos together but…” he trailed off, letting the thought linger as the mood began to collapse the sugary treats before them.
Resolutely, Serena lifted the mood, “But, Chad agreed to carry on in Stanley’s memory. That way it’ll be like he’s still with us,” she clarified with a soft smile. Chad, lightly sipping a bubbling orange soda with a frothy cream topping, nodded in accordance.
“I see, I am sorry for your loss, he was much too young,” the professor responded, becoming infected by the down mood. He pulled a messenger bag onto his lap and began rummaging through it to pull out a small red card-shaped device. “On a lighter note, as part of your reward for graduating in the top ten percent of the academy students, or with special distinctions, I’ve brought 5 Pokedexes for you all to take on your journeys.” He begins to hand out the devices to each human at the table, holding the final one up to give a brief demonstration of how it works by aiming it at Chad.
“I guess Stanley really was at a disadvantage, huh Chad? I know you were trying hard together, but climbing from the bottom of the class rankings probably was too much,” Serena commented, her soft smile trying to focus on the meteoric rise the duo had been on. Chad shrugged, taking a break from his drink to pull out the typing pad for a momentary response. [YES, BUT, STILL, CLIMBING] the device buzzed out, catching the professor off-guard while the rest of the former students smiled at his resolution.
“Did- Is he using that device to communicate?” the shocked adult stammered out, immediately standing to walk over and inspect the odd keyboard. [YES, STANLEY, MUTE] the board responded, as Chad took advantage of his now much nimbler hands than his previous evolutionary stage. Sycamore respectfully kept his distance, but glanced at the others at the table with a raised eyebrow.
“Stanley was a mute and couldn’t talk, so Emeric from our hometown built him this device to let him ‘speak’. Chad had learned to use it before Stanley even figured out how to type numbers on it,” Trevor clarified, pushing up his glasses with a finger. “Frankly, I believe Chad taught Stanley how to use it. I am also 75% certain of the rumors Chad was doing Stanley’s homework-”
[ALLEGED] the device beeped, as Chad continued drinking his soda. The response got a weird look from everyone except Trevor, who grinned like the winner of a children’s game.
“Sure, but I bet there’s a ton of words in Stanley’s assignments that go beyond his reading level,” Shauna continued, finishing the spoonful of parfait with a smile. “Like I know for a fact that in a single month, he went from thinking the sum of two and three was two-” Chad winced in pain, “to turning in a paragraph that had the word ‘derivative’ in it when asked how to figure out how fast a Pidgey could travel between two cities,” she finished, leveling her spoon at Chad accusingly. Chad continued to sit still, almost as if he couldn’t hear or understand her.
“So the five of you believe that this pokemon, sitting at the table with you,” Sycamore began, slowly returning to his seat, “while speaking via a novel device that can serve as a universal bridge between human and pokemon communications, is the reason your friend managed to graduate?” The five shared a rotating collection of glances towards each other, seemingly communicating with slight facial expressions, before all turning to Chad, then the professor.
“Yea.” / “Pretty sure.” / “100%” / “Yup.” Four of them responded in sync, with Tierno providing a supplemental: “I’d bet 5 Pokedollars he also took the written Trainer exam too.” Chad, pretending to be a pokemon at the moment, sat quietly while his soda neared empty at the bottom of the glass cup.
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“No way! A pokemon taking the trainer exam would be national news, I doubt he was even allowed to-” Trevor began, before Chad gently placed a trainer card from Stanley’s bag in the center of the table. The six humans stood up, leaning forward slightly to see it, as right at the top, it read… Chad…
Chad, free to speak with the world on pause, looked to the sky with a pleased toothy smile. “I figured it out during a previous fast-forward, that if I set out any hints of wanting to get something done, that I would inevitably accomplish it during that period. For example, placing a knife on the counter with some vegetables and a recipe lead to selecting what we ate for dinner that night,” he explained, leaning back in the chair.
“Two years is a long time. Plenty of time to build up a reputation, file the endless amounts of paperwork, and communicate with just the right people to line everything up. Stanley did accomplish what you wanted him to, don’t be mistaken about that. Rather, the Author agreed with me that I would need my own card in order to take advantage of the trainer services since the sob story would only hold out for so long. So the two of us worked on lining all that up off-scene to make it happen without breaking your half of the story. Don't you remember, you even said I had helped him file the application for his license?”
<...What are you saying? We only agreed on Stanley’s death last night- You’ve been planning this ever since the beginning, haven’t you? Every time I took my gaze off you, you were just placing another Checkov’s gun. You and the accursed author were just laying your trap for me to stumble into and trigger.>
Chad, frowning at the heated response shifts to sit upright. “I took the initiative to do everything you would’ve needed me to do! I put my scaly butt on the line fighting for the past two years to save up the money for this, for the 5 pokeballs in my bag, for the emergency rations, for the license fee! Did you think I would just evolve by the power of friendship? I worked hard for us, to line up every domino that would need to fall in sequence for us to have this strong start!” Chad was practically shouting at the end, standing on the chair with a leg on the table itself.
ENOUGH.
Chad, the Narrator is partially correct. Had he been on-board with our plans from the beginning I believe he would’ve been much more cooperative with the plan. Narrator, that last bit was over the line and unfair to Chad.
“Thanks-”
It isn’t his fault he failed to realize he was perpetually being abused by a company that never promoted anyone other than upper management. Now, I am going to insist we continue this scene so that we can move towards the first gym battle. Chad, I will be forwarding a copy of our big plan to the Narrator so he’ll be in the loop. Narrator, Chad’s entire team is set, and you can find it highlighted in the information packet. I will notify Chad when they appear, so do not feel the need to force any wild battles or captures. So please, promise me you two will attempt to work together more going forward?
“I promise not to antagonize the Narrator by planning things off-screen,” Chad recited, his face upset as he slunk back into the chair.
Good enough, I suppose.
----------------------------------------
“By the light of Arceus, he actually did it?!” Calem’s eyes shone in wonder, as Trevor handed Tierno his winnings with a grimace while looking away.
“This is huge! Why is nobody talking about this?!” Sycamore exclaimed, looking around to notice the seven were the only ones remaining at the cafe. Chad sighed, before returning the card to his bag. [SECRECY, SPECIAL, RULES] he typed out, eyeing his empty drink with lamentation. “What rules? You have special rules?” Sycamore inquired as the other five leaned in with interest. Chad began typing a lot, frequently having to delete words and start over, until he hit the green button.
[I, COUNT, IN, SIX, MAX, SIX, CONFERENCE, ABLE, PENDING] it eventually spat out, leading to some visible confusion in the group. Calem snapped, as he pointed at Chad, “Oh, the first part means you count towards the carry limit right?” Chad nodded, “And the second bit means your carry limit is six?” Chad shook his head no, but Serena popped in with her idea.
“Not the carry limit, I think he means he can’t catch more than six, period, so only the five who will travel with him?” She questioned, to which Chad gave a thumbs up. “But the conference… Can you clarify that more?” Chad was about to type when Shauna put her hat in the ring.
“I think he means the league hasn’t decided if he can enter the conference at the end yet,” to which Chad nodded again. “So he could earn all eight badges and potentially be told he can’t compete.”
“That hardly seems fair, if he gets all eight why shouldn’t he be allowed to compete?” Tierno asked, reaching the end of his own snack pile.
“Secrecy; I believe the league is trying to determine how big of an impact the reveal of a pokemon like Chad would have,” Sycamore supplied. “We already have pokemon working alongside humans in a variety of jobs. I guess it was inevitable that one would try to become a professional battler.” The man was calm, collected, and regarded the Charmeleon with new-found approval. “If a pokemon could serve in the role as the trainer, with their superior senses and reflexes, just imagine how much harder facing them could be.” Sycamore stood up, sliding the chair under the table as he took another look at the group. “Calem, Serena, when you two earn your first badge, come visit me in Lumiose city; I have your rewards for graduating in the top three at my lab. For the rest of you, I wish you good luck on your journeys.”
[QUESTIONS, TWO] the tablet beeped, as the group turned to Chad. [TRAVEL, TOGETHER, TO, CITY] was the first, followed by [SEEK, ANY, POKEMON]. The group took a moment to parse the questions, and confer with one another. Tierno broke the silence first, “I want to build a team of the best dancers, so if I find any pokemon that share my dream I’ll ask them to join. But otherwise, I’m not seeking anyone in particular,” he explained, doing a twirl at the word ‘dance’.
Trevor stepped forward next, “I plan to be the first of us to complete the pokedex, so I’ll be trying to meet every species that lives on the route.” Saying this, he pulled out his ‘dex and scanned Chad, realizing he had forgotten to do so earlier.
Shauna gave a flip of her hair with a proud stance, “I just wanna see everything, so I’m not in a rush to go anywhere!”
Serena and Calem shared a look, before she chimed in with their shared opinion. “There aren’t any specific pokemon we’re interested in that are on this route, but both Calem and I want to get to Lumiose quickly. I don’t believe the professor will hold our rewards too long,” she explained, as Calem agreed with a nod. [SANTALUNE, GYM, BUSY, IF, WAIT] Chad typed out in response.
<”How about this then?” Trevor started, “How about Tierno, Shauna, and myself take it slow, while you three can rush to challenge the gym?” His suggestion to split the party was met with concern and quiet, as each member thought it over. Though one by one, they agreed with the plan. Calem and Serena were on a time limit, and it wouldn’t be fair to anyone if they compromised either group’s goals to meet the desires of the others. With an agreement to call each other to share big events, the group split in two. Calem, Chad, and Serena rushed off to try and reach Santalune City before the wait list for the gym got too long.>
As the now-trio continued, Chad slowed to walk at the back of the group. “We’re probably gonna split from Calem and Serena once we get our first badge huh?” he asked, gazing upon the gentle passing clouds high above.
No, they’ll be heading to Lumiose. If you decide to try your detour for the ice gym, you’ll be parting ways with them soon.
“Yea, I figured you’d say that. But if I wait to do the ice gym last it’s gonna be a hard one,” he explained, his voice low enough that neither human could overhear.
And sometimes, those choices are hard.