“Huh. So it’s spelled onix, rather than onyx.” Drake gave me an inquisitive look. “Onyx is a black stone, so I’d assumed that the name was spelled- okay, so, the name of the stone is spelled with a ‘why’, but the actual name of the pokemon is spelled with an ‘eye’. See?”
Drake shrugged, then laid his head back down on my leg and closed his eyes again. I stroked his head gently, tapping the screen of the dex in my hand as I skim through the stored data on onix. It’s not surprising that the entry is quite a bit larger and more comprehensive than the bare summary and small blurb common to the entries of the game Dex. Instead, every entry on every Pokemon was a comprehensive breakdown of things that were confirmed, and a few things that were merely speculation. Pawing through the notes saved to the internal memory, it wasn’t hard to figure out that this device had belonged to a researcher of some kind, who was studying the Pokemon of Sinnoh while traveling around at a relatively slow pace.
I sighed through my nose, looking out of the truck bed at the passing scenery. According to my Pokenav, we were about three quarters of the way to Hearthome. We’d passed few other vehicles on the way here, the road mostly abandoned, save for the occasional Pokemon that skittered away from the concrete when they heard our engine. I’d asked Jen why a road had even been built out to Emeragrove, if there was so little traffic, and got a surprising answer.
Apparently, while there was a train that went between Veilstone and Celestic, stopping in Solaceon, it was more of a light rail passenger train. Goods were rarely shipped along the line, and it hadn’t been built with them in mind, not to mention that the train had only been open five or six years.
Emeragrove, in a traditional and very real sense, was something of a hub of the area. What I hadn’t seen when I looked over the town were the underground warehouses, where goods were shipped to and stored, before being purchased or picked up in bulk by farmers, stores in the towns in the area, and otherwise. If you wanted to go somewhere and you lived in the Emeragrove-Solaceon area, you went to Solaceon for the train. If you needed to pick up an order of goods, you came to Emeragrove.
This meant that, rather than personal or public transport, the main traffic using the road was corporate. No Sylph or Devon dedicated transport, even Emeragrove was too remote for that, but third parties ran shipments out. From the warehouses, they were picked up by couriers, and then shipped by Pokemon back to various places. I’d been surprised to learn that, apparently, there was a courier service that used Arcanines that had started in this area and spread to the rest of Sinnoh. Wacky branding, but with the knowledge that vehicle motors on the unpaved trails tended to attract aggressive Pokemon, it made some degree of sense.
Hah, degree. Arcanine. I open my mouth to tell Drake that one, then close it again as I see that he’s breathing deeply and slowly, fast asleep in my lap. I stroke one of his ears, smiling as he shifts slightly. Something warms in my chest as I realise that, most likely, that means he feels safe enough to just… fall asleep there. Especially because I could just leave him behind when I got to-
I grimace. “Thank you, intrusive thoughts, how would I ever live without you.”
Now, though, I have to wonder if he’s so willing to just fall asleep in my lap because he wants to show me that he trusts me. I feel myself soften a little at that idea. Being left behind by the person that’s supposed to take care of you, be your partner through thick and thin, has left marks on him. Desperate to please doesn’t begin to cover it. I think back to the moment after we beat the Onix, and now, going over the memory in my head, I can see past the bravado. To the way that he’d been eyeing me nervously. Desperate to know that I approved of what he’d managed to do, even though he’d performed as well as you could possibly expect.
My heart clenches a little as I wonder what sort of person could possibly do this, leaving essentially a puppy to fend for themselves- a puppy with powers, yeah, but still. Little wonder that he spent a month staring out a window. Alice had said that she’d found his Pokeball in the lost and found, and now I wonder if he hadn’t just been dropped in there while he was sleeping in it. I hadn’t tried to return him yet, and now with that line of thinking, I was a lot less eager to try it. I doubted he associated good things with being recalled to his Pokeball.
I leaned back against the cab with a sigh, entwining my fingers with Drake’s fur. Just sitting here and worrying about this wasn’t exactly doing me any good, just making me more anxious about letting the hyena in my lap down. What would happen if I caught another Pokemon? Would he think he was being replaced? I grimaced. Questions for later, hopefully, bridges I could cross when I came to them. For now, I simply settled into my seat, and tried to drift off a bit.
I startled awake as the vehicle rolled over a bump, then slowed to a stop. Drake raised his head, looking around blearily, then wiggles himself off of my lap and stretches. I follow his example, grabbing the roll cage around the cab and pulling myself to my feet before working the kinks out of my joints. As soon as I was done, I looked forwards, in the direction the truck was still moving.
We were still in the forest, a few more cars around us than there had been before. At a certain point, however, the trees changed into buildings mixed with plantlife. Looking far off into the distance, I couldn’t see any skyscrapers, only a mix of multi-storied buildings, though some of them reached much higher into the air than their fellows. Far off in the distance, on the other side of the town, I could see a huge gray cylindrical structure. Focusing on it revealed that there was a symbol on the front of it- a tilted Pokeball with a lightning bolt-like arrow coming off of one side. A gym, maybe?
A quick glance at my Pokenav confirmed that there was, indeed, a Hearthome gym. Leader by the name of Fantina, running a Ghost-type gym. I grimaced at that; even if I was planning to start challenging gyms, I think I’d skip this one, at least for the moment. I had absolutely no intention of tangling with ghosts again so soon, if it were at all possible.
The truck shook as it pulled off the road and into a small parking lot, and I clung to the roll cage to steady myself. Jennifer pulled into one of the parking spots, and I heard the parking brake engage before the engine was shut off, and she stepped out onto the tarmac. She glanced around, then turned and walked to the back, leaning against the wall of the bed.
“Well, here we are, Hearthome.” Her eyes watched Drake, who decided that he was done stretching and walked to the tailgate. “I’d suggest recalling your poochyena, if you plan on walking around the city. Makes people nervous.”
I shared a glance with Drake. The poochyena was doing his level best to appear unconcerned, but I could see the flickers of anxiety in his eyes as they flicked to his Pokeball at my waist. Augh… consequences be damned, I couldn’t recall him after seeing that. I turned to Jen, smiling.
“Thanks, but I think I’m good. Not going to be here very long, anyway.”
She shrugged. “Well, on your head be it.”
I popped the tailgate, Drake jumping down to the concrete with me on his heels. We both came around the side of the truck, with him following behind me, head swiveling side to side as he took in the outskirts of the city behind us. Jen turned herself around, crossing her arms and leaning her back against the side of her truck.
“Listen, there are some things that I have to do in town, so take care of yourself, yeah?” She offered the both of us a nod. “Thanks again for the help, though. I just wish- ah!”
She snapped her fingers, then opened up the truck door again. She rummaged around in a box in the back seat as Drake and I looked on, sharing a somewhat bemused glance. We turn back as she withdraws herself from the box, and there, in her hands… red and white with black stripes. Three more Pokeballs.
“Here. Hazard pay, for having to actually fight those onix.”
I hold out my hands, and she places the three balls in them. I note that these Pokeballs are near untouched, unlike Drake’s worn ball or the scratched-up one that had originally been attached to this belt. I clip them to the magnetic mounts one by one, making a mental note to register them to my ID later, though I can’t imagine having any use for them anytime soon.
“If you’ve thought about anything beyond getting to Sandgem… well, those are a good place to start.”
I frowned, somewhat nervously, picking my backpack out of the truck bed and slinging it over my back.
“I haven’t really thought about it.” I said. “I suppose that it’s something that I can put off until after I meet Rowan.”
Jen shrugged, then dug a Pokenav out of her pants pocket and held it out. I stared for a moment, then immediately felt like an idiot- Kevan had done the same thing. I fumbled my Pokenav out of my own pocket and matched the gesture, both of them beeping immediately in our hands. Jen nodded, tucking hers away.
“If you’re ever back in the Emeragrove area again, call me, yeah? Maybe I’ll have something for you to do, or maybe you’ll need something. Whatever it is… don’t hesitate, alright?” She clapped my shoulder with a grin. “And don’t be a stranger, yeah?”
“Yeah, I’ll try not to. See you later, hopefully.”
Jen locked her truck, then walked off and towards the building that we’d parked in front of. Glancing up, I realized that it was a supply store of some sort- maybe stuff that she couldn’t get in Emeragrove? I shrug, turning my attention back to Drake.
“Alright, so…” He looked up at me, held tilted. “We need to call Kevan, and I’d like to find a milsurp for camping supplies. Maybe some packaged meals, a portable stove…”
I trailed off, then reached for my Pokenav. A few moments of poking around directed me to a notepad app of sorts, and I began noting down everything that I thought I might need. The list went through several drafts, as I tried to pair it down from a list of what I’d like to have to a list of what I strictly had to have.
“What do you think? A grill could probably do most of the work, but I admit that a propane stove would be nice- though it might be more difficult. A folding grill’s easier to carry than a stove and a propane bottle.”
Drake tilted his head one way, then the other, before shaking it. I sighed through my nose.
“Yeah, you’re probably right. A little too much to carry. As it is, I’m going to have to hand some of it off to you- if you’re willing.” He nodded without hesitation, and I smiled. “Excellent. Do you think they sell carrying harnesses?” A shrug. “Yeah, maybe, maybe not. Would be a nice thing to have, though.”
I weighed the phone in my hands, considering. Kevan had said to call him when I got to Hearthome, but under the stated intention of attempting to find a Ranger patrol I could move with. Did that mean that it was better to wait to call until I had the gear I wanted to get? I adjusted my grip on the phone, playing with it. It was probably better to call him now, honestly, to see if there was anything that he’d found. Informed him that I was here, in case he hadn’t had time to make calls around… huh.
I tossed the Pokenav a little, catching it as I thought. I hadn’t really considered the lengths the Ranger was going to just to help me, especially given that he was already dealing with his own responsibilities. Even without managing the aftermath of Vinewood and clearing the area around the town, it was a safe bet that he had other responsibilities from his position that he was putting aside. I hit the actual calling app and tapped his name- one of the two in my contacts list. The phone rang twice, then-
“Hey! Cam! I- no, no, put that down over there, we need it for- give me a second, alright?” There was some shuffling at the other end of the line. “Okay, there we go… so, run into trouble?”
“Nope. Made it to Hearthome just fine.”
“Well! Huh, I wasn’t expecting your call until tomorrow at least.”
“Yeah, I can see why you’d think that- doubt I would’ve wanted to call you after the bus pulled in at midnight, even if I thought you were awake.” I sat down on the curb around the side of the parking lot. “Did a favour for the officer in Emeragrove, and she gave me a ride.”
“Emeragrove, huh? I went through there not long before the whole Vinewood thing. What was her name… general, gene…?”
“Jennifer.”
“That was it, Jennifer! I only talked to her long enough to check in on region-wide intel. Hope the favour wasn’t too rough.”
“Ah… do you know what an absol is?”
“... And it appears that I spoke too soon. Serious enough for an absol is… what did she want you to do, exactly?”
I shuffled. “She didn’t know what it was, wanted me to go out and see to it, given that I had a Dark type with me. We followed it to a nest of onix, had to fight them off- managed alright.”
I heard a hum through the phone. “Onix nest, huh? That shouldn’t happen, not so close to a permanent human settlement. I’ll make a call into Ranger HQ, see if they can’t assign a Ranger or two to do a sweep and make sure that they’re really gone. Still, good work. Knew giving you affiliation was the right choice.” There was a shifting of something against something else, then a sigh and the noise of creaking metal, followed by shuffling papers. “Give me a little bit to review some of the reports I have my hands on, I’ll see if there are any patrols in Hearthome right now, alright? I’ll tag you later.”
“Thank you, seriously. You’ve done a lot for me.”
“Don’t worry about it, seriously. It’s a Ranger’s duty! Now, take care of yourself, yeah?”
“Likewise for you.”
My Pokenav clicked as he disconnected the call, and I palmed it. Kevan was just… a good guy, honestly. He might say that it was fine- a Ranger’s duty, as he’d said- but that didn’t change the fact that I felt somewhat indebted to him. The goal of getting to Sandgem gave me something to focus on, something to think about, rather than the fact that I’d been… cast adrift, as it were. I shuddered, then pushed the thought away and brought up the mapping function.
Supplies were a good thing, here, but ultimately that was balanced with the importance of gear. The thing that I was worried about, more than anything, was weighing myself down too much. I had a long way to go, up and down a mountain trail and through a pass or through a cave, and I didn’t particularly want to buy anything only for it to have it slow me down or have to be stashed because I just couldn’t carry it with me any farther. So, a good balance, and the best place to find this stuff would be…
I was surprised to be immediately greeted with more than one option in Hearthome alone when I typed in ‘military surplus’. So, that did confirm that there was milsurp here, which implied militaries… standardized gear and warfighting capability. Though, given the legendaries, one had to wonder whether a lot of that military power was ever actually exerted. Without looking farther into it, my guess was that they’d probably be high-grade trainers with standardized training regimens. Though, honestly, what they would do with such a prospective force was beyond me.
“Alright, that one’s…” I pushed myself back to my feet, Drake stretching and standing at my side.
I glanced at the sky, then the clock- fifteen hundred. So, afternoon, but not so late that I couldn’t get moving, depending on when Kevan contacted me back. If there were no Ranger patrols in the next week, then Drake and I would cross Coronet on our own. There was a certain point where the waiting was long enough that I might as well go to the coast and find a boat…
I paused, looking up at the sky between the buildings. I hadn’t really thought about it, but I actually wanted to do this, to cross that mountain. I could feel the eagerness in me, slowly churning. Maybe, without anything else to tie me down, I wanted to go places under my own power. It… wasn’t a bad feeling, honestly. It wasn’t a new one, but it was the first time I’d felt it so intently, or really had the resources and ability to act on it. It was an opportunity like none I’d ever had.
Here, on this foreign world, staring up at an alien sky, I thought about my family. I thought about my friends, my responsibilities… and I was sorry. Sorry, for leaving them behind, whether it was my choice or not. I hoped that there was some way to see them again, but this? This was something deep and abiding. The world called to me, and I, for the first time in my life, could answer. I could answer it without hesitation, or hangups. The sky was open to me, for the first time in my life. The feeling was nothing short of liberating.
I would regret it for the rest of my life if I didn’t reach out and hold onto it, with everything that I had. Hopefully, the people I’d left behind could forgive me for it, if we ever saw each other again.
There was pressure against my leg, and I dropped the thought, looking down. Drake, his paws resting against me, looked up at me with visible concern on his face. I smiled, reaching down and stroking the inside of one of his ears with my thumb, making him tilt his head.
“Sorry, dude, just got… distracted, thinking about something. Let’s get a move on, okay?”
He huffed, giving me a measured look, then pushed off of my leg and onto his feet again. I wrapped my hands around the backpack’s straps, adjusting it on my back, my smile unwavering. I gave one last glance at the sky, then followed after him.
Exploring Hearthome as we looked revealed that the town was more or less divided into two sections: the public facing areas, mostly inhabited by tourists and trainers with their Pokemon, and the more private sections for the locals. Both were surprisingly and impressively clean, which I attributed to the locals being all-but obsessive about keeping their city practically sparkling. Pokemon played in the trees planted along every street, and many of the paved roads were devoted to foot traffic. The Center took up a building all its own, multiple stories reaching upwards, and I could see what looked like tiny hotel rooms on the upper levels through the windows.
The noise was a rich mix of people, Pokemon, and the sounds you’d expect to hear from a city in this world. It seemed like almost every tree was home to a Pokemon or a colony of them, living wild or accompanied by people. Trainers, wearing their Pokeballs openly on the outside of their clothing, walked between the various shops. Restaurants and cafes were filled with chatter and smells. Interestingly, the thing that I noticed least was the noise of engines; here and there, you’d see a motorbike or a vehicle of some description, but they were surprisingly rare. People here, it seemed, got around with their feet, or their Pokemon.
“Not much reason to own a car if you’ve got a Pokemon that can run about as fast as one, huh?” I said to Drake. His eyes flicked to me before going back to roving over the crowd and buildings, but he offered no comment.
The map led us through the public areas, and into the more private ones. Here, there were less open-air restaurants and businesses, more enclosed and less decorated. The local places, intermixed with apartments and actual houses, where the permanent residents of the cities lived. Of course, those decorations turned into gardens, which hung from balconies and overflowed from suspended pots. Small plots of vegetables or flowers grew in tiny squares of dirt in front of apartment buildings, and people sat on the steps up to them, playing with Pokemon or speaking with each other.
I was so engrossed in the sights that I didn’t even notice when we actually arrived. I was trying not to look like I was staring as a hitmonlee was doing what looked like Tai Chi with a human when I felt a tug on my pant’s leg. Looking down revealed that Drake had gotten his teeth into the fabric, and the moment he noticed that I was looking at him, he let the fabric go and turned forwards again. Looking up, I realised that we’d found ourselves in front of a shop- Pawniard’s Surplus, by the sign, with a line of kanji underneath it.
“Wait, hold on.”
Drake stopped at the steps up to the shop, then came back to me, looking quizzical. I took off the hiking backpack, setting it on the ground in front of me and opening up the zipper, metal quietly rattling as I reached inside and retrieved my wallet. It’d been somewhat unsettling, not having it in my pocket, but there hadn’t been a real reason to keep it there.
Opening it up revealed the packed billfold. I started pawing through the various notes, sorting them by monetary value, putting the greatest towards the back. The faces were a mix of completely inscrutable and surprisingly recognizable: the biggest bill was a ten thousand note, with Arceus on the front. Everything else was smaller bills, a mix of a couple of legendaries I recognized- Latias and Mew- and an array of humans that I didn’t recognize at all. All told, tallied up and counted, it came out to about nineteen thousand and change.
I frowned, stuffing it all back into my wallet and putting it in my pocket. I… had no concept of how much money that was. A hundred grand was what I considered to be a decent amount of funds in any given Pokemon game, but how did that translate to reality? If I remembered correctly, an antidote was about… two hundred? Antidote was the cheapest of the status condition treatment medicines. If I took that as a baseline, then I had an okay amount of money. Nothing too special, but not so low that I was struggling. This was in addition to whatever funds I could access through my affiliate ID, if my stipend had already been given to me.
I sighed. Well, there was nothing for it but to bite the bullet: go in and see how far my money would take me. I gave one last look at the street, appreciating the mild day, then turned around and pushed the door open.
There was a soft jingling as the glass and steel door swung open. Drake trotted in at my heels, slipping past my legs and into the store as I stepped in, letting the door close behind me. The inside of the store reminded me of milsurp stores that I’d been in before at first glance, but as I looked closer, I started recognizing the difference. While there were the typical sections for surplus human military clothing, it was all in camo patterns that I didn’t recognize, and it was broken up by sections of things labeled for Pokemon. They were divided by type, then by the form they were designed to fit, and I noticed that by far the largest section was for quadrupeds.
Sections of backpacks for humans were mixed with backpacks for Pokemon. Saddlebags were on display, one of them mounted on a life-size doglike mannequin, generic enough to be almost anything. Actual harnesses were also displayed, with attachment points for a variety of bags and mounted gear. There wasn’t anything huge, mostly ranging around the size of your average mightyena or eevolution, but there were a few outliers in either direction.
As the door clicked back into its frame, my eyes landed on the counter at the rear of the store. The grizzled man behind the counter did that thing with his eyes that I was getting very familiar with- hoodie, belt, Drake. Casually, he set an odd-looking Pokeball on the counter, and I tried not to swallow at the implicit threat. I doubted that I wanted to tangle with a guy that was most probably a veteran and his Pokemon.
Instead, I avoided eye contact with him, turning to the side and immersing myself among the shelves. It wasn’t hard to find the plain black stuff, durable pants that were similar to the ones that I was wearing now. I sorted through them, noting a couple of pairs that seemed more or less my size. Wearing my only set of clothing made me somewhat anxious, and I intended to fix that as soon as possible. I figured that the 500P price tag was… reasonable? Another place where I was somewhat lost on whether that was a fair price or not. I really needed to establish a pricing baseline, or I was liable to get ripped off on all sorts of transactions, not even mentioning sellers who may wish to haggle.
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Finding a harness that would fit Drake was at least somewhat difficult. Most of the quadruped harnesses built for more or less his build assumed that the Pokemon themselves wouldn’t be changing much in size, and I had to keep an eye towards the future. Eventually, Drake would be a Mightyena instead of a Poochyena, I hoped, and that meant larger body size. I twitched with my fingers on the harnesses themselves, wondering if I should go to the front and retrieve a cart. I’d always felt awkward in milsurps, with the people behind the counters watching me constantly and asking if I had everything I needed, things like that.
I spared a glance at the guy behind the counter between the shelves of a rack. Here, it was less a friendly sort of watching, ensuring that I was finding things okay. Instead, the veteran practically glared in my direction across the store, the implicit threat of the Pokeball on the counter never disappearing. I had the anxious feeling that if I walked towards the door without buying anything, he’d accost me, and I couldn’t tell if that was just anxiety or not.
I jumped slightly in place, taken off guard by a rattling noise behind me, and spun in place. I paused, blinking in surprise as I beheld Drake, dragging a small shopping trolley behind him with his teeth alone. The small hyena let go of the steel bar he was dragging it by, turning towards me with a smug expression on his face. I felt a flicker of fondness for the little Pokemon, petting his head and wrapping my hands around the bar.
Pants were a must, I needed changes of clothes. A waterproof poncho, in olive. Among the tool section, I managed to locate an e-tool- simple, with a folding steel spade and a wooden handle. A small supply of MRE’s, a couple week’s worth, and I realized that I was already getting close to my comfortable weight limit. I hemmed and hawed over a hydration bladder, before finally passing up on it, thinking of the Hoenn-branded bottle that was strapped to the side of my bag already. The final thing I grabbed was one of the harnesses, this one with expandable loops with quite a bit of give: I figured that its halfway point was approximately between the size of a poochyena and a mightyena. Some attachable bags to go with it…
I winced as I realized that all this gear and supplies would run me at about P12,000. Over half of my physical cash, all in one go, though at least it was for a good cause. Ideally, I’d be using these things for a long time. I resigned myself to the expenditure of cash, placing the last of the bags into the cart and pushing it to the front.
The man behind the counter looked me up and down, examining me closely as I nervously set the items that I’d selected in front of him. He glanced at the bag on my back, then at my hoodie’s zipper, and I could almost see the demand to see inside forming on his lips before he grunted instead. The moment my money changed hands and I had all my purchases in hand, I didn’t even stop to put them away, practically running out of the building.
“That was unpleasant.” I muttered to Drake, the moment the front door closed behind us.
The two of us walked down a few blocks before arriving at a bench along one of the roads. I unbuckled the straps over my chest and waist, slinging the bag onto the bench itself, and started sorting the various items that I’d gotten into the variety of pockets that it had. Being both empty and large, it was a relatively simple task, though I left the poncho at the top of the main pocket, atop the MRE’s. You never knew when you’d need protection from the rain.
“C’mon, hop up.” I patted the bench, and Drake jumped atop it with ease. I’d seen him jump higher and farther with relative ease, and I marveled for a second at the muscles that must be in his legs to allow that. “Alright, so, I think we should split the packaged meals between us. That sound fine to you?”
He nodded without argument, and I smiled. I went to work fitting his harness on him, tightening the adjustable straps nearly as far as they could go to get a comfortable fit, then attaching the various bags to mounting points. I noted that the harness had built-in quick release buckles, most likely to allow the trainer to pull it right off of their Pokemon and go straight to fighting. Interesting to see that kind of development in essentially a carrying harness, but it made enough sense.
When I had the bags mounted and the things I needed him to carry properly packed, Drake leaped down from the bench. He walked back and forth, feeling how the weight of the packs changed his center of balance, then did some experimental stretching to see how it would interfere with his range of motion before sitting and nodding to me. I grinning in return- then winced as my stomach grumbled.
“Yeesh…” I ran my hand across my face. “We haven’t eaten since those berries, have we? Still have a few of those, and the MRE’s, but…”
This was a city. I was in a city, and I wouldn’t see civilization until I reached Oreburgh on the other side of Mount Coronet. That meant that I’d be preparing my own food for… however long it took me to walk the distance. Now, this wasn’t to say that I couldn’t cook my own food perfectly well, but it did mean that I’d go quite a stretch of time without having access to a lot of civilization-based foodstuffs. Plus, it would just be efficient to eat a meal in town instead of one of my packaged meals, right?
“What do you think, wanna go somewhere to eat?” Drake perked up immediately and stood, tail wagging. I laughed. “Well, I guess I’ll take that as a yes! Why don’t you sniff out a place that smells good, huh?”
He nodded, then sniffed the air and strutted off in a direction, with me right behind him. As we walked, I took in the sights of the city around us, watching as the less public-facing areas slowly shifted back to tourist decorations and trappings. Flags hung from light poles, more traveler-oriented shops, those kinds of things. More people and Pokemon filled the streets as they got wider, to the point that I nearly missed it when Drake veered right and into an alleyway between two buildings.
I picked up the pace to catch up with him, stepping into the divide. To my surprise, instead of finding your typical city alleyway, I instead found myself looking at a little hole in the wall place that had occupied one end of the alley. A brick wall covered in vines closed off the end of the passage, and the space between buildings was filled with polished wooden tables. A net with lights hanging from it was strung between the buildings, vines weaving between the cables that held them up, sometimes hanging down over the heads of the people eating. As I watched, some small Pokemon scampered over the net, calling at each other as they played some kind of game.
There wasn’t an inside: rather, there was an ordering window sticking out of the side of the building, with a chalkboard next to it. Drawn on the slate surface was a happy-looking riolu, wearing a small apron and holding up a tray with a donut on it, surprising artistic skill depicting the little Pokemon perfectly in chalk. The menu was listed besides the drawing with prices, and as I drew closer, I realized that it was divided into human and Pokemon sections. The Pokemon section was written in varying colours of chalk, and I realized after a moment that the colours probably referred to the dominant taste of the dish. Across the wall, just above the window that leaked delicious smells into the alley, the words RIOLU'S HIDEY HOLE were displayed in bright blue neon.
It was warm and rather pretty, and honestly among the best little eating stops that I’d ever seen. The smells that were drifting up the alley were, in a word, fantastic. Drake had stopped cold on catching full blast of the sights and scents of the place, just as I had, so I reached down and stroked his head a bit.
“Hell of a good find.” I muttered to him, which seemed to snap him out of it as he preened a little.
There were a couple of people in line, waiting to order, and a trainer with a small Abra sleeping on his shoulders speaking with the person behind the window. I took in the menu items on the human side, finding it a strange mix of what I would consider standard fare for several different countries. Not inherently unpleasant combinations, but still somewhat odd to see. Drake examined the other half of the menu for himself, finally pointing out one of the options in red with his nose. Spicy, then. I nodded and patted his head.
The guy with the abra finished his order, receiving a ticket from the window and walking off to the side, correcting the sleeping Pokemon on his shoulders as he did. I gave the menu one more look, then nodded to myself, walking up to the window.
Behind the little opening, I could see straight into the kitchen of the place. There wasn’t any inside dining area, all the space that I could see inside the building being devoted to either food storage or food prep, and I wondered what they did in the case of inclement weather. Maybe they had tarps or something for the outside tables? As I stepped up to the counter, the person at the window smiled at me.
Before they could ask me for an order, one of the doors in the back opened, little attached bells jingling with the motion. To my stirring surprise, what came through the door wasn’t a human, but a Pokemon- a lucario, in fact. To be fair, I suppose that it could only be expected, given the name of the place, but I had assumed it to be in name only. Generally, lucario were both too rare and too sought after for their combat potential for me to really envision one working in a cafe named for its previous evolution.
The lucario pushed their way through the door with a tray of what looked like fresh-baked rolls. I could smell the bread from here, and I wasn’t ashamed to admit that it made my stomach twitch. Was bread different here, in this world? It certainly smelled the same, but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t produced in different ways, or that the same plants went into making it. As I thought about it, and seriously considered asking for one of them, the lucario set the tray down and turned, looking in my direction. I found my line of thought derailed as the moment their eyes landed on me, they physically winced. I watched, bemused, as they held up a paw to block their line of sight and quickly edged towards the back of the kitchen area.
“Sir?”
I twitched, eyes flicking to the person behind the counter, then back to the retreating lucario. I caught a flash of blue tail as the door in the back of the kitchen closed behind them, latch clicking into place. I felt a flicker of confusion and curiosity, then pushed it aside and turned my full attention to the person smiling at me. Something I could think about later.
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The rolls were actually delicious.
Rolling the bit of bread around in my mouth as I chewed it, I couldn’t think of anything that I’d eaten that was quite like this. Perhaps some of the from-scratch bread I’d had was pretty close, I remembered the dinner rolls from fancier places I’d been, but it wasn’t precise. There was a sweetness about the bread itself, something that I couldn’t quite identify. Honey, maybe? That was a thing in the Pokemon world.
Drake, for his part, had his front paws up on the table, his back paws on a chair. What he’d gone for was something like strips of meat in a red broth, and I watched with some concern as a tear rolled down his cheek from the absolute heat of the dish. On the menu itself, spiciness had been depicted by drawings of a pill-shaped red berry with spikes on it, and the dish Drake had picked had had three of them next to its name. Clearly he was enjoying the suffering, if the way he was devouring it was any indication, even if I had absolutely no understanding of it. Spiciness had never been my thing, I was much more a savoury, salty, or sweet kind of dude.
I tossed the last bite of the roll into my mouth and turned my attention back to the bowl of simple ramen noodles and broth that I’d gotten. Sampling it revealed a taste that was somewhat similar to chicken, though I was at a complete loss as to what it actually was. Hell, normal animals were a thing in the Poke world, right? Maybe it was just chicken broth, and I was overthinking things.
Regardless, it was quite tasty, and I found myself enjoying it quite a bit. It reminded me a little of the cheap ramen, though more… full? It was hard to describe the difference, but there was a lot more nuance in the flavour itself. The noodles were wonderful, though I noted that they had a slightly firmer texture that I didn’t think I’d felt before. I wasn’t much of a food reviewer, given my restrictive palette, but I felt like I’d give this one a pretty high rating.
Delicious and easy to eat went well together, and before long, I was drinking the rest of the broth. I set the bowl down gently with a sigh and leaned forwards, watching Drake drench the last slice of meat in his own broth. When it was properly soaked in the liquid, he tilted his head back and let it slide across his tongue. His eyes closed in obvious pleasure, and a sigh escaped through his nose. The moment he’d swallowed it properly, he went right back to work on the broth, lapping it up with care and trying to spill as little as possible.
“I take it that you haven’t eaten really gourmet stuff before?” Drake shook his head. “Well, ah, I’m not sure if that counts as gourmet, precisely, but still. Surprised at how good that was. If we ever come back this way…”
I trailed off, and noted with a small smile how Drake seemed practically enamoured at the idea. He finished off the rest of the red liquid, then nosed the empty bowl towards me. I picked it up, set it inside mine, then walked to the counter and set it at a dropoff for dirty dishes. The person manning the little… noodle shop, I supposed? Regardless, they nodded to me in thanks, and I nodded back and walked back to our table, where Drake was stretching and obviously raring to go.
“Calm down, calm down, we’ll get a move on.” I picked up my backpack from where I’d set it leaning against my chair, slinging it over my back and closing the clasps that kept it there. “You know, I was thinking about it, and we should probably spend a few days here, you know? Wait for Kevan to call us, if he finds a patrol we can accompany.”
Drake leaned his head one way, then the other, before nodding his assent. His back leg cracked as he extended it behind himself, and he let out a noise of satisfaction, before jumping down from the chair and moving next to my legs. I leaned down and scratched between his ears, making them twitch, before I walked out of the alleyway.
“I think there’s a gym in this town, too. We might be able to get something of the lay of the land, see what proper Pokemon fights are like, you know? If you want to, we might even be able to participate in some.”
His tail wagged, and he seemed somewhat interested in the prospect. I recalled how we’d done against the ghost types on our run from Vinewood, how we’d fought the onix. Drake had performed admirably in both circumstances, and it might be good to get an idea of his capabilities before we decided on the underground or aboveground path.
“Good!”
I glanced up at the sky, which was dimming slightly. Sunset was painting the sky above the city in soft oranges and blues, though the colouration was simpler and with less range than the sunsets back home. Vaguely, I recalled that there was something about that I’d read once: one of the primary causes of sunsets with a wide range of colouration was the pollution in the atmosphere doing strange things to the light as it passed through them. Was that an indicator that there wasn’t much, if any, pollution in the skies of this world? That was… honestly somewhat comforting. Lifted my mood a little.
Which was, of course, the moment that I noted somebody blocking the path forwards.
Drake and I were on a side road, something that led in the general direction of the Center that I’d seen earlier. I’d had some idea of spending the night in the Center, remembering the hotel-like rooms I’d seen in the floors above it and accounts of them acting like hotels for trainers in various stories I’d read. I’d taken this less as a shortcut and more just general exploring, not being really pressed for time.
I slowed to a halt, Drake at full alert at my side. The person blocking my way forwards was a woman with a sour expression on her face, matched by the electrike sitting by her foot. Being glowered at by a person was bad enough, but the glare of a car battery on legs was enough to make me distinctly anxious. I glanced behind us, only to find somebody else, a guy wearing red and white, blocking the way we’d come. He was leaning against the wall, idly tossing a Pokeball into the air and catching it, but I didn’t mistake the way he stared at me.
I swallowed, turning my attention forwards. I wasn’t much for altercations- not that I was afraid of a scrape, as such, more that I didn’t like being confrontational at all. The few times I’d been in fights, it was as a kid. This was shaping up to be something much more serious, and I didn’t like how it appeared to be panning out. From the way Drake was making a low growl, head closer to the ground and ears pinned back, I was guessing that he didn’t like it either.
“We don’t tolerate the teams here.”
I flicked my gaze away from Drake and back up to the woman in confusion.
“Teams…?”
Teams of-? No, she couldn’t mean what I thought she meant. That was apparently the wrong thing to say, though, from the way her mouth twisted downward into something less neutral and more of a scowl. As if sensing their trainer’s mood, the electrike pushed themselves up to all fours, growling, little sparks of static electricity arcing within their fur.
“Don’t act stupid. You know damn well what I’m talking about, and that they- and you- aren’t welcome in this city.” She folded her arms over her chest, and my eyes went to the additional Pokeballs at her waist. “We’ve kept those thugs in Galactic out so far, and we’re not about to allow them to get a foothold now.”
I held up my hands. “Hey, uh, l-look, this is a misunderstanding, alright? I’m a League affiliate, I have my ID here, I could just show it to you.”
She snorted. “Yeah, right, get close enough to sick your hyena on me? Fat chance of that.” She glared at me, anger crystalized about her expression. “Recall your Pokemon and roll their ball to me, then I’ll let you go. You can do whatever after that, I don’t care, as long as you don’t stay here.”
Drake stopped growling, and when I glanced at him, he seemed shaken by the statement. I didn’t miss the way his eyes twitched in my direction, nor the way that he retreated a single pawstep. Something clenched inside me, and instead of anxious, I felt something else. I clenched my teeth, my hands tightening into fists.
“That’s not going to happen.” I planted my feet and crossed my arms in a mirror of her own gesture. “I’m not leaving without him.”
“Whatever. I’m not about to let some thug walk away with a Pokemon they probably stole anyway.” I opened my mouth to object to that, then shut it again with an audible click, clenching my teeth. She nodded her head. “Electrike.”
The electrical dog stepped forwards, electricity arcing up their back as they stood, proud despite their short stature. I noted that they were somewhat smaller than Drake, though not by much- the crest of their head was roughly level with Drake’s shoulder. Drake stepped forwards in turn, putting himself between myself and the electric type with another growl, this one much more solid and sure. Good. I leaned down, whispering to him.
“Look, I don’t… this isn’t good.” I glanced at the electrike. “I think we can win, but even if we do- you’re strong, but I don’t have backup for you. She’s got a belt full of Pokemon, and that’s not even mentioning the guy behind us.” Drake sent me a questioning glance. “The moment that electrike is down, you need to go for her belt. Once you grab it, I think I can get past her, and we can get to a more populated area. Okay?”
His lips twitched downwards in obvious displeasure, but he inclined his head slightly. I nodded in return, then patted his back and stood up. Drake pointed himself towards his opponent across the field, widening his stance as he openly snarled at them. The electrike hesitated, glancing back at their trainer, who nodded.
There wasn’t a warning. One moment, the electrike was looking at their trainer, and the next they were shooting across the bricks! Weak sparks of electricity danced around their legs and fur, charging up around the muzzle. What was that? Nuzzle. They were looking to go for nuzzle. Paralyze as a status condition wasn’t much more than an annoyance in the games, but this-
“Tackle over top!” I shouted.
Thankfully, despite my vague wording, Drake seemed to understand. The shreds of white energy gathered around his legs, and then he was propelling himself over the electrike, who immediately tried to brake and turn from the charge that they had committed themselves to. I heard my opposite swear from across the field.
“Cancel and range, damn thing’s faster than we thought!”
Range might mean a ranged electric attack, might mean thunderwave. Whatever it was, we had to interrupt it; no matter what we did, we had to get away from this without a status effect. Our best chance of escaping depended on it. I thought rapidly, then opened my mouth and said it as loudly as I could.
“Interrupt! Snarl and close!”
Drake planted his paws and growled so loud it echoed off the walls around us, sending out a dark wave that slammed into the electrike, bowling them over. They yelped, the sparks they’d been gathering flickering out uselessly against the wave of Dark. Almost immediately, they rolled back onto their feet, and looked up- only to have a sucker punch slam into their side, driving out their breath. Drake had used the pulse of Dark from snarl and the electrike’s disorientation to sneak up on it and land a hit, and I couldn’t help but bare my teeth in satisfaction.
“Bite! Slow them down!”
“Shit- don’t let it at your legs!” She called in response.
Drake lunged, but his sharp teeth closed on air. The electrike wheezed as they retreated, trying to get the distance to recover from the critical hit. Drake, however, wasn’t hearing anything of it, and chased after them.
This began a deadly dance between the two, with electrike on the backfoot but still mobile, while Drake attempted to slow them down. We had the momentum, for the moment, but that could change at any time- hell, it could be changed just by the electrike getting their wind back. Drake was fast, but the electric Pokemon wasn’t far behind in speed, and that slight edge wasn’t enough to ensure anything. As I watched, I realized that there were sparks gathering around the electrike again.
Their first attack had been wordless. They’d gone for a nuzzle or a spark right at the beginning without their trainer giving the specific command, the electrike knowing what to do without input. It wasn’t too far to assume that they had another set up, a strategy for taking an opponent by surprise. Would it be thunder wave? Maybe a lightning bolt? Right now, the electrike needed space, and if they went ranged, then we were through. The only thing Drake knew with ranged capacity was snarl, and that was a generalized area of effect attack with a limited range. All the electrike had to do was land the status effect, then stay at a distance and wear Drake down. I chewed my thumb anxiously, thinking rapidly. How did I get us out of this situation?
There was a yelp, and I swore under my breath, turning my attention back to the fight. Electrike was rolling from an impact, and Drake was wincing, but showing a touch of satisfaction through it. He’d won their speed contest, landed a hit! Hurriedly, I yelled to him-
“Legs!”
Drake shook off the pain from the electricity still sparking through his fur and leaped forwards. Electrike tried to get away, but the dodge ended with his leg buckling, slamming him into the brick. The trainer opposite me made a pained noise, which was immediately drowned out by the electrike howling as Drake closed, wrapped his jaws around one of the electrike’s legs, and BIT. Instead of letting go and despite the crackles of weak spark attacks the electrike was pushing out in desperation, the hyena stubbornly kept his jaws closed, shaking his head back and forth.
Finally, he was pushed off as the electrike landed a solid blow with their paw against Drake’s forehead, causing my hyena to stumble back, shaking his head. Despite the worrying smell of burnt hair coming from Drake and the hit he’d taken, he had gotten away the better from that encounter. The electrike tried to stand, then nearly collapsed again as the leg Drake had bitten gave out underneath them.
They whined, retreating back a few steps as Drake circled to the right, steps slow and methodical. They’d been taken by surprise by Drake’s raw speed right at the beginning, and, somewhat like the ghosts we’d faced before, hadn’t gotten the momentum back before Drake managed to land some critical blows. If their plan had been to land a paralyze and stay beyond the range of snarl while whittling down Drake’s strength, then it’d been a good plan, but now it was completely out of the question.
Drake had been fast enough before that they’d completely failed to land a nuzzle, and that had been before he’d injured the electrike’s leg. Thunder wave was the only way they could apply a paralyzing effect to him, and at this point, that wasn’t any more useful. The strategy of paralyzing Drake relied on being able to keep him at range, and even if the electrike knew thunder wave and managed to land it, a paralyzed Drake was easily faster. An electrike with only three legs capable of reliably bearing their weight couldn’t hope to outdistance him, paralysis or no. Whether or not the electrike knew it, the fight was over.
“Don’t let him get close. Thunder!”
A bolt of electricity surged from the electrike, scarring the brickwork with carbon scoring, but Drake wasn’t there anymore. White energy moved him in a burst, closer in, red eyes staring into electrike’s black. For just a moment, a split second, the electric type faltered. Their eyes widened, their electricity petering out, and they took an anxious step back.
A moment was all it took for Drake to capitalize. He darted in, then yiped- his paws slipped on the brick! I felt my stomach clench into a knot, and the electrike realized that he had a chance. They reared up, obviously trying to dance away-
Which allowed Drake’s skull to slam into their rib cage. My momentary fear turned to relief instantly; damn, if the little hyena wasn’t skilled as hell with his acting.
I could hear electrike’s breath leave them in a huff for the second time in the fight as they were sent rolling away. They struggled to their feet, but Drake had taken the impetus, the poochyena slamming into them with a tackle that drove them back to the brick. The electrike struggled, trying to get up- then let out a painful keen as they collapsed.
But Drake hadn’t stopped. Instead, the moment he’d hit his opponent, he’d darted straight past them and towards the trainer behind them. Staring at her electrike with concern and frustration written all across her face, it was far too late, when she saw the movement out of the corner of her eye and turned. She let out a cry of alarm as Drake leaped for her, which ended in a huff of escaping breath as Drake slammed into her- specifically, at the waist. I heard a click, and I started running as the guy behind me made a noise of surprise as Drake grabbed the newly-released Pokeball belt between his teeth. As I ran towards them, he danced a few steps away from the fallen woman, flicking his head so that the belt wrapped around his neck and giving her a smug look.
“No showboating, let’s go!” I yelled.
Drake huffed, then matched my speed as I sprinted past them. Behind me, I heard the release of a Pokeball, and pushed my legs harder without looking back. My hope was that the guy and his Pokemon would be distracted enough by the woman that we’d get a precious few seconds of head start before they came guns blazing with whatever Pokemon they had. Without a doubt, I’d violated at least two of the rules of Pokemon battling, using a Pokemon to attack a human and stealing the opposing trainer’s Pokemon. Didn’t matter if she’d been trying to steal mine first, they’d be royally pissed and willing to do things usually outside of the polite bounds of Pokemon battling.
“Give the belt here!” I said, the moment we’d rounded a corner and were out of sight.
Drake assented in an instant, handing over the belt. There were three Pokeballs on it, and I immediately pressed my hands on the bottom and top of them right as they began to shake, the Pokemon inside them looking to escape. I looked around frantically, then spied a metal box just big enough left to one side of the road. I stuffed the belt and Pokeballs into the box, then slammed the lid shut and picked it up, sprinting down the alleyway. Hopefully, the space was small enough and the metal durable enough that the Pokemon wouldn’t try to escape their balls, not until we had reached the Center and safety.
We skidded around corner after corner, my breath coming in rapid pants. The burning of adrenaline combatted the burn in my arms from carrying the box, and the burn in my legs from carrying me. Drake kept up easily, sending occasional glances behind us, probably as anxious as I’d ever seen him. I almost let out an audible cry of relief when I saw a sign with a large Pokeball symbol on it pointing to the right.
It wasn’t until I entered the square that I realized my mistake. Somewhere during my running in the direction I’d thought the Center to be, I’d gotten turned around. Instead of the multistory Center and a number of Pokemon trainers, what loomed above me was a huge gray cylinder, purple fabric hung from the wides and displaying a woman I didn’t recognize, a symbol depicting three purple circles connected by a gray circle, and a Pokeball symbol… with a lightning-like tail coming off of it.
“The Gym. We ran to the goddamn Gym.” I muttered. Drake growled in frustration between his panting.
I looked around the square, searching desperately for signage that would direct us towards the Center, or maybe a police station of some kind. A loud sound stopped me in my tracks- a roar, originating from the direction we’d come from, echoing through the alleys and roads.
Drake and I shared an unsettled glance, then turned towards the building again. I took a deep breath, wondering if this really was the right decision… and then we stepped through the doors together, which hissed out of our way and welcomed us to the cool, dim interior.