Chapter 5 - The Pallet Girl

The waves gave the ferry a shove, causing it to jostle against the wooden pier where passengers were hopping on board. Celeste watched them with boredom. The bridge leading in didn’t look particularly stable, but during the stops they made along the Seafoam Islands, she realised it didn’t matter how wobbly it got. People simply didn’t fall down. Granted, it was teetering more now, but after hours at sea, the excitement of people watching waned.

She peeked when a girl missed her footing and screamed. Her perfectly tied braid danced through the air as she clung tightly on to the bridge. Showing spirit, she attempted to hoist herself up on her own, but the moment turned all boring again when the first mate rushed over to assist, and she shifted into all smiles and thanks.

Oh well, at least Cinnabar is our last stop before Pallet, Celeste thought to herself. Not only was she bored, but the ferry was packed. With the weather getting steadily worse, the crew had herded everyone inside for safety, confining them to cramped spaces. To make matters worse, all Pokémon were to remain in their Pokéballs due to the lack of space. She really wanted to show Aria their new Thunder Stone.

With a sigh, Celeste looked out beyond the pier. There was supposed to be a volcano on the horizon, but all she could see were thick grey clouds hanging very low.

The ferry’s horn blared, signalling their departure at last.

“Thank the Legendries”, she murmured to herself, wondering if she should find a vending machine? That ought to entertain her for a good fifteen minutes.

Her steps swayed when she got up and squeezed herself into a hallway. There were fewer people there. Mostly the newer passengers looking for places to store their luggage. Clearly, not everyone was bound for Pallet. The ferry serviced the entire Esat Indigo Bay, from Celadon and going clockwise all the way to Viridian. High-speed ferries left every day, while this low-speed one, that stopped at every single hole along the way, left only once a week. In hindsight, Celeste might’ve been better off taking a faster ferry to Viridian and making her way to Pallet from there.

“Live and learn, Celeste,” she told herself. “You live and—ah, there you are!”

Tucked in a corner, she found the vending machine. She fished through her bumbag for some cash, cursing silently when she realised her wallet was left in her backpack. She glanced back at the hallway with the luggage storage. People there weren’t trainers, they were tourists, enjoying the last days of summer at the beach. Their suitcases were big, and they were cramping up to fit parasols and surfboards on the few remaining racks. Why did she think it was a good idea to leave her backpack there again?

“Live and learn,” she repeated with a sigh. She sat on the floor and began rummaging through the bumbag for loose change. That’s when she overheard something intriguing.

“Will it really be okay if I go up?” a voice, smooth and youthful, asked. “That’s awfully nice of you.”

Always too curious for her own good, Celeste peered around the corner to see the girl that had fallen on the bridge earlier was still chatting with the first mate. She only got bits and pieces from the conversation, but it was clear the girl had charmed her way into getting permission to visit the deck.

“Just head back if it starts to rain, okay?” he advised, unlocking a door and gesturing upward. “The captain might’ve been overly cautious keeping everyone inside, but it gets risky if the storm hits and no one’s around to keep watch.”

As the girl showered him with a flurry of thanks, he vanished back into the vessel. Once he was out of sight, she proceeded up, and Celeste wasted no time in following. Her reasoning? She’d been cooped up for far too long and felt a lot more entitled to the open space. That and… well, she really, really wanted to show Aria the Thunder Stone.

Imagine that? She could be Jolteon.

Reaching the deck, Celeste found the braid-girl already distancing herself from the door. She stretched and sighed deeply, then drifted towards the railing to gaze back at the island they’d departed, lost in thought. Smirking triumphantly, Celeste tiptoed to the opposite side, finding a secluded spot between some cargo and a lifeboat.

It was time to talk to Aria.

—*——*—

All Eevee trainers think about evolution. With so many possibilities, how could they not? Some will tell you it doesn’t matter, they’ll love their Pokémon no matter what they become. That’s a given. Loving them no matter what doesn’t mean people can’t have their preferences. If they tell you they don’t, they are lying.

“Hey yo—”

Aria tacked Celeste’s leg as soon as she emerged from her Pokéball. Her angry huff said it all. How could her trainer leave her in there for so long? With a tilt of her head and a glance, Aria’s question was obvious: Where were they?

Celeste laughed at that. “We’re on the ferry already, and it’s cramped as hell. They made people keep their Pokémon tucked in.”

Aria surveyed the deserted deck, scoffing. Mouth open enough for her pointy teeth to show. Eevee could bite. Not capital B Bite (though Celeste read somewhere they could learn that one too), but lower b bite as in the action of sinking her teeth in the skin and being strong enough to leave a mark. Celeste had a scar to show. Though that was from a long time ago.

“I broke out, just for you.” She grinned and then leaned in with a whisper on her lips. “We’re not supposed to be here.”

Aria’s eyelids half-closed as she hummed a sceptical “vee.”

“Don’t believe me, huh? Well, in that case, back to the ball? And without even checking out Surge’s gift.”

At the mention of a gift, Aria’s ears stood tall, her paws eagerly tapping Celeste’s thigh, her eyes sparkling with anticipation. She probably thought it was food and would be very disappointed with a Thunder Stone.

Probably.

And probably was enough for Celeste to hesitate. They never really talked about evolution.

Suddenly, all the times Aria had barked angrily at some poor Flareon or Glaceon on the street came back to Celeste at once. She knew her Eevee hated all her evolutions equally, but Aria also hated the other Eevee. The insight some long night of guessing and miming got her was that Aria simply thought she was the best of all Eeveekind. Did that mean she didn’t want to evolve? Or that she would keep thinking she was the best in whatever form she took?

Aria, growing impatient, started nosing through Celeste’s bumbag, definitely expecting a treat.

“Calm down, I’m not so sure you’re going to like it,” Celeste said, pushing her Pokémon away from the bag before she opened it. “And maybe keep a little distance.”

Aria frowned at that last bit, but backed out slowly. She waited quietly as Celeste retrieved the Thunder Stone and she kept quiet after.

“You know what this is?” Celeste asked, her chest suddenly feeling tight. What if she actually went for it?

A Jolteon. Aria would be a Jolteon.

It wouldn’t be Celeste’s first choice, but she could see it fitting her Pokémon very well. Jolteon were fast, weren’t they? Like lightning. And they had those needles. Aria would harass everyone with those needles—

“Eve,” Aria interjected, cutting through her trainer’s thoughts way more seriously and to the point than she expected. Celeste had no trouble understanding it, of course. It was ’eve’ for yes and ’ve’ for no.

She acknowledged the answer and took a more serious posture. “Would you like to evolve into a Jolteon?”

There was a moment of quiet. A wave crashed over the hull, spraying water all over and thunder echoed in the distance. For a moment, Celeste could swear she saw the lighting reflected in Aria’s eyes.

She held her breath.

“Ve,” her Eevee answered. That was a no.

They were both quiet again for what felt like forever. The only noises between them came from the waves splashing and the creaking of the timbers. Aria’s focus had shifted away from the Thunder Stone, but she wasn’t looking at Celeste, either. Her muscles had become tight, and her breath quick. Was she nervous? Having second thoughts?

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“Aria?”

The Eevee turned to face her trainer. Shaking? Afraid? Afraid of what? Had Celeste ever seen Aria afraid before? Her own heartbeat quickened.

“Are you scared… of evolving?” Celeste frowned, but her Pokémon was quick to answer with another “Ve”. Then what are you scared of?

Their eyes met. Aria’s gaze became intense, as if she herself was reading all of Celeste’s movements and searching for something in her expression. Understanding, perhaps?

Suddenly, it clicked. Aria feared she had let Celeste down.

Celeste put the stone away, safely tucked inside her bag where there was no chance of an accident. Then, not wasting another moment, she threw herself over her Eevee in the tightest hug she could muster.

Aria froze, uncharacteristically rigid. “Since when you’re stiff around my hugs?” Celeste asked, forcing out a laugh.

“Veev,” came Aria’s soft reply. Veev. That was the one other word Celeste knew. Veev was how she called her. This was serious, not something she could wave away with a joke.

When she backed away, Celeste saw her Pokémon’s eyes were watery and swollen.

“I won’t ever make you evolve into something you don’t want to be.” Celeste stared directly into her Pokémon’s eyes.

“Veev,” Aria repeated.

Preferences. They all had their preferences. Aria knew that much and Celeste wouldn’t lie to her. Acceptance and love came beyond that. She cupped Aria’s face in her hands.

“I’d love you as a Jolteon,” Celeste said. “And I love you as a Flareon. And as a Vaporeon or a Leafeon. And I’ll love you if you want to stay an Eevee forever. I’m sorry if I made you feel pressured. I just wanted you to know you had the choice.”

The tears Aria had been holding on to fell down. She shook her head. Maybe she shook the tears away, too. For a third time she said, “Veev,” but now it came loud and with a tackle on her stomach.

“Love you too, Aria.” Celeste wrapped her hands around the soft fur and smiled. “Just the way you are…”

They shared a nice moment of silence.

And then… someone sniffled.

What?

Both turned around to see braid-bridge girl sniffling on the corner.

“Sorry. It’s just… You two are just so sweet!” She dabbed at her tears, then introduced herself with a shaky smile. “I’m Delia, by the way. Delia Ketchum.”

Celeste blinked.

What?

—*——*—

Celeste’s first thought was that this girl was weird.

Her brown hair, not as chocolaty as Celeste’s, was styled in of those pretty but hard to do braids that start puffier and intricate before they cascade down get slender. Not a hair was out of place. Her shirt, a plaided blouse, of the kind that you have to iron out constantly, didn’t have a single wrinkle on it. Her boots—rain boots—were glimmering without a smudge; not even finger marks.

Celeste’s second thought was that she was fun, even if a little too headstrong.

Delia had barely spent a minute petting Aria, yet she had already completely charmed the Eevee. She then turned to Celeste with a smile so polished it could have been rehearsed. “And do you have a name?”

“Huh?”

“People often have names.” Delia somehow remained polite even when she was condescending. “I’m Delia and your are…” She squinted slightly, adding, “Familiar.”

That gave Celeste pause. “F-Familiar?”

The last thing Celeste wanted was to be recognised. People weren’t supposed to know who she was in Kanto. That was the whole point of travelling halfway across the world. How’d she ever be—

“Ah, I got it!” Delia beamed, using the lifeboat on their side as support for standing back up. “You’re the girl Professor Oak mentioned.” She took another step forward, brown eyes staring deep into Celeste’s. “You’re the one who’s coming to visit.”

Celeste blinked at that. A few more times than she should. Awkwardly, she ran a hand through her hair, trying to keep the mounting wind from blowing it in her face. Finally, she stuttered, “Professor Oak… knows I’m coming?”

Delia giggled. “I’m right? I wasn’t sure. When I asked for a picture yesterday, all he had was your trainer ID and he showed me through a video call.”

She let her breathing calm. “Yeah. I’m actually going to Pallet right now. I’m… Celeste. Celeste… uh…” She paused again. Would Celeste Diaz mean anything to this girl? “Cee!” she suddenly blurted out, surprising even herself.

“Celeste Cee?” Delia kept on the smile.

“No… I meant that… you can call me Cee…?” Cee sounds nice, right? “I mean, people…call me Cee… So you can…maybe call me that too?” She leaned on the tarp that covered the lifeboat, maybe a little too self conscious. No one had ever called her Cee before in her life.

Aria, with whatever heartfelt moment they had gone, didn’t manage to contain a very mocking laugh. Like karma, the ferry lurched to the side, and she tumbled on her back. Celeste was the one to snort at that. Then, like the world needed to fully balance itself out, it began to drizzle.

“So… Cee,” Delia bobbed her head to the side, where there was a roof. She seemed intent on staying outside, even in the rain. “Excited to visit the sprawling metropolis we call Pallet?”

They watched the drizzle turn into rain as they talked.

Pallet, it turned out, was mostly farmland and only on the maps because the world famous Professor Samuel Oak had built his lab in the place he’d grown up. It was home to a few hundred souls and the occasional visitor—mostly academics or trainers touched by the professor’s influence. Delia served as Oak’s personal assistant and one of the few permanent residents of his lab, along with some guy called Spencer. She didn’t say much about him, but mentioned his name a lot.

“Were you on holiday in Cinnabar?” Celeste asked, hoisting Aria more securely onto her shoulders. The ferry had pitched under another wave, causing the Eevee to lose her balance.

Delia lazily held on to a rope attached to the wall. “No. It was work. The Professor studies the relationship between humans and Pokémon and their collective impact on our surroundings. This time, it involved collecting volcanic ash samples from Cinnabar… fascinating stuff.”

Celeste grinned. She could speak for experience. “I know how interesting it is to do research on the beach during the summer.”

Delia maintained her ever-polite smile, feigning innocence. “Who needs a beach when they get to live in Pallet Town?”

Celeste couldn’t quite gauge the level of sarcasm in Delia’s retort. A lot, probably? “Why not go—”

Their conversation was abruptly cut off as another wave slammed into the ferry, jostling them violently. Celeste quickly grabbed onto the rope for stability as the wind picked up, ushering in more forceful waves. Aria clung to Celeste’s shoulders, voicing her discomfort with a sharp bark.

“We better get inside,” Celeste suggested, her voice spiking up to compete with large drops splattering onto the metal and wood. Just as they decided to make a move and Delia had let go of the rope, a particularly massive wave hit, sending her sliding across the deck and crashing into the railing with a thud.

Celeste watched as the other girl struggled to stand, her movements shaky.

“We gotta help her,” she told Aria, who barked in agreement. Her eyes turned to the rope she was holding, connected to a lifebuoy. She tugged it to see if it would come loose, but nothing bulged. Delia attempted to navigate back to them but fell again as another wave washed over the deck.

“It’s stuck…” Celeste muttered, trying harder to release the rope. At some point, it had got dark, the rain evolving into a downpour, the waves showing no mercy. Delia was in danger of being swept overboard… but she wasn’t on the water yet, which meant there was no need for the buoy, just the rope. “Aria, can you cut through it? Bite through… or better yet, use Swift.”

Scanning the deck, Celeste sought something to secure the rope to. The lifeboat, despite being jostled by the storm, remained in place, covered by a tarp anchored by hooks. That could work.

A quick bark from Aria alerted Celeste. Her Eevee had the rope between her teeth. Good, because they needed to be fast. Bad, because now they didn’t have support as well. With no hesitation, Celeste lunged for the lifeboat, her heart skipping a beat as it nearly capsized under her weight, but it held steady. Only when she extended her hand to untie the knot from the tarp, she remembered she still had a cast on her left arm—and that it was now drenched.

With a frustrated huff, Celeste directed Aria to keep steady. The wind howled, the water lashing against them, tasting of salt. Clinging to the lifeboat with her injured arm, she was grateful her right hand was free to work. She managed to untie the tarp, narrowly avoiding a slap in the face from the flailing material. With Aria’s assistance, they threaded the rope through a hook, Celeste grabbing it to tie a hasty knot. It was far from perfect, but under the circumstances, it would have to suffice.

“Delia!” Celeste shouted, shifting her weight around.

Delia was no longer having trouble standing up, only because she’d outright given up. For some reason, she was rooted to the spot, her gaze locked on the churning waters below, oblivious to Celeste’s calls. The smell of kelp and salt burned in her nostrils when Celeste took a long, steadying breath. She let go of the lifeboat and felt Aria’s grip on her strength as she navigated through the chaos of the storm-tossed deck.

“Rope?” was all she could say, reaching the railing beside the other girl. Celeste then noticed Delia’s focus was on something in the water. “I hope you’re spotting Kyogre out there because we really need to move.”

“Not Kyogre,” Delia replied, her finger pointing towards a shape caught against the ferry. It was difficult to make out anything clearly through the spray and tumult of the waves, but something was definitely there. Some… Pokémon trapped under a net that had tangled around their vessel..

Celeste strained her eyes. It was… whitish? Greyish? Maybe sort of round? There were blinking lights over it, though they blurred with the movement. With lightning flashing through the sky, she made out horn and fins.

“Is that a Seel?” she muttered, curiosity picked. Seel was one of the few very common Pokémon she never actually seen up close. Not that this was the time for that.

“It’s stuck,” Delia stated flatly, her polite smile replaced by a look of concern. Celeste was worried, too.

The rope in her hands felt heavy, and she half-wished she had managed to free the buoy as well. “Live and learn,” she chuckled, mirroring her earlier words. Aria was the only one to listen. Her Eevee, sensing a rash plan brewing, nibbled at the rope in protest.

“Let’s prove how great we are, huh?” Celeste suggested, knowing her Pokémon too well.

Aria paused at that, not convinced, but weighing the options.

That was enough.

“Let’s use the rope to save that Seel,” she told Delia, who looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. “I’m good with plans, and with knots! We tie it to the rails, then one of us can go down and remove the net,” Celeste insisted, and noted the other girl’s eyes moving to her cast as she spoke.

Yep, she definitely thought Celeste had lost it.

But then Delia reached for a Pokéball. “My Shellder can help,” she said. “Shelly might not be able to cut the net, but she… she can help.”

Celeste nodded. Aria barked, exasperated, apparently having decided it was, in fact, a bad idea to go into the ocean during a storm. She wasn’t wrong, but she was too late to do anything. With all she had, Celeste pulled the rope, hoping her knotwork wouldn’t hold. Instead of the rope giving way, the lifeboat they had tethered it to began to slide across the deck, propelled by another tilt of the ferry.

There was no time to react. The lifeboat collided with them, sending everyone overboard into the revolting ocean.

For a fleeting moment, Celeste felt the disorienting absence of solid ground beneath her. Delia’s scream pierced the air as a red beam took the shape of a Shellder. Aria clung to Celeste’s shirt, unable to reach on her skin. There wasn’t even a time to secure her Eevee to her.

Before they could even gasp for air she hit a wall of water.