“Arceus almighty, Blitzer… How do you keep managing to do this to yourself?”

“Look, it wasn’t my fault, okay? I just tripped and fell! It happens!”

“Blitzer, who do you think you’re talking to? I’ve been your father for damn well over a decade, do you honestly think I can’t see through any lies you’re trying to tell me?”

“No, it’s not a darned lie, dad! It’s the truth!”

George walked in on the argument that had erupted in the living room on the hovel after they had come back from exploring Little Rock. While Blitzer was busy arguing over how he’d suddenly acquired a limp, George took the time to hide the flute piece inside his straw nest. Like the message, they wouldn’t be doing themselves a favor if anyone found out. Once the flute was buried deep enough to cause a headache when George’s head would inevitably fall onto it later that night, George went back to give Blitzer a hand..

“Ask George if you don’t believe me, he was there with me the whole time!” Blitzer shouted, his tail viciously swaying through the air. George twitched his nose and thumbed his ears back slightly. ‘ Damn, he is not happy about this little argument. Not one bit. He can be real angry when he wants to. ’

While Nera was busy preparing the night’s dinner, audibly grumbling the whole time, Nero looked at the Oshawott with a disapproving stare. “Well? Go on then. What happened?”

George gulped. “It’s like Blitzer says. We were exploring this cave we had found, and he tripped and fell onto a sharp rock. It was pretty bad, alright. There were a lot of wild Pokemon all over the place,” he said, gesturing to the Charmander with a spare hand. Nero’s large ears gradually flattened.

“Why you two kids can’t find less dangerous spots to play in, Arceus knows.”

A loud clang echoed through the house. It came from the kitchen. “Listen, I’ve defended this kind of behaviour before, but I have my limits.”

“M-mom?” Blitzer stammered.

“Listen to me, Blitzer. I like getting to see you grow, I really do,” Nera said, having left her cooking work to the side for a moment, “but I’m not going to let you hurt yourself just because you want to go adventuring. Look at you! You’re struggling to stand on that leg of yours!”

Nera nodded at the foot Blitzer was struggling to stand on. Realizing how bad it still looked despite the progress he made since exiting the cave, Blitzer tried standing onto it, but quickly wobbled backwards; a quick hand from George was all that stopped the injuries getting worse.

“See? Look at you! You can’t do this to yourself, Blitzer? What if George gets hurt, too? We can’t afford someone that can come and save you two!”

“Mom, I’m sorry…” the Charmander stammered. He hung his head and tail low; the flame at the tip was weak. George felt guilty just standing next to him. The one parent who had their backs was now throwing in the towel. This was a side of Nera that George never believed in. Even Blitzer seemed in disbelief.

“You’re sorry? Then show me. Please.”

“Yes mom, I will.”

“Promise?”

“...promise.”

The slight pause Blitzer replied with hadn’t gone unnoticed. Nero wasn’t having any of it. “See what I mean, Nera? This is what he always does. ‘Oh, sorry’, then tomorrow it’s the same damn story.”

“No, I-”

“Shut it! You’ve made enough excuses already!”

“No dad, please-”

“Blitzer. You heard your father. Listen to him.”

The Charmander sighed. “Okay, mom…” he said.

Nero went on to recite a whole bunch of incidents that Blitzer had gotten himself into before George had woken up in this world. For George, it was eerily reminiscent of the so called ‘discussions’ the headmistress would hold with all the foster kids. Nero and Nera were leering down at their heads, going on long diatribes about everything the two had done wrong. When they were done, all he felt was that same stinging sensation of defeat he’d feel at least once a week back home.

“So then, mister. How much do you think that was? I think we’ve barely even scratched the surface on just how much of a troublemaker you are.”

“I swear dad, I didn’t mean to be that way…”

“Well that really makes a difference, does it? You didn’t want to make anyone feel that way? Do you know what I really do not want to do to you, or that Oshawott laddie? Have to ground you.”

A gasp shot out Blitzer’s throat. “Dad, no,” he said. George couldn’t bring himself to say anything. Not anymore.

“I’m sorry, but you’re pushing me and your mother to the limit, lad. Either you’re going to be more cautious from now on, or we’ll have to keep you in here for a week straight.”

Thankfully, the argument ended right then and there. George and Blitzer could at least find relief in the fact that no one had spotted the flute piece in George’s scarf. But at what cost? Their freedom to pursue all the adventure and fame they loved to fantasize about was hanging on a thread. And whether that thread would hold was something neither of them could guess. All they knew is that they were facing an uncertain future.

* * *

Three days went by. Life in the village continued, with George and Blitzer sticking to playing around with the other kids. At least they still had the tale of their little underground adventure to tell, which the other kids enjoyed hearing about in between games of hide and seek, tossing the ball around, tag and the like. Fearing the worst, they spent their time in a peaceful manner. George was happy to be having a good time with children his age, and Blitzer was happy to keep bridging the gap between himself and the others.

Of course, it wasn’t all peaceful. Over the past few days, the question of the flute piece and the messenger came up several times. They tried looking for the Tangrowth again, but he was nowhere to be found. They tried asking Hein, and were told that if they stepped in uninvited one more time, he’d punt them a few villages over. How he could do that without feet, George and Blitzer weren’t keen on finding out.

So they went back to their lives, letting the idea of the messenger slide for now. If the flute piece they’d found was important, then someone would come looking forward eventually.

* * *

“Tag! You’re it!”

“Aah! I’ll get you, Blitzer!”

“He’s coming this way, quick!”

“Not if I can-”

“Tag!”

“Aww!”

“That’s what you get for always teleporting away!”

Feeling numb in his feet, George put his hands against the mossy walls of a house. ‘ Tag sure is exhausting when there’s Pokemon involved. ’ he thought to himself, panting all the while. The others seemed to agree, and were wrapping up the game. George was glad: It was good to not be all alone in the dust, and instead have others with you. As the warmth from Blitzer’s tail reached his fur, George felt a little less numb in his limbs. Life here was simple, but good.

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“Aah, I’m beat!”

“Says the kid that’s always running off and getting himself into trouble,” Alcia said chuckling.

Blitzer puffed up his cheeks. “Hey, I can’t float around all over the place like you can! It’s not my fault I get tired!”

“Sounds like you’re makin’ excuses…” Alcia replied in a jovial tone. The rest of the group laughed, much to the pouting Charmander’s chagrin.

“You know, I’m not good at tag, but it’s always so much fun!” Junior then said.

George raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean, you’re not good at tag? You’re pretty fast.” ‘I sure had a hard time getting away from you, anyway.’

Junior tilted his head. “Because I have to get down on four feet if I want to stand a chance! I don’t like getting on four feet, it’s annoying.”

George had to tilt his head. ‘But I thought Pokemon relied on their instincts. Don’t Pikachu run on four feet, or am I getting something wrong?’

A gathering crowd was making noise in the distance. “So, uh, has anything been going on these past few days?” Corst then asked. “Because it doesn’t seem like much is going on ever since those two went exploring.”

Blitzer shrugged. “I dunno. Do you, Junior?”

Junior followed in Blitzer’s footsteps. “Nope. What about you, Sweitelle?”

“Nope, nothing,” the thus far Buizel answered. George put a hand under his chin. ‘ Her name is Sweitelle? Who knew Pokemon had such strange names…

“What about you, George? Anything else you’ve been up to? That Blitzer hasn’t been willing to talk about yet?” Alcia asked with a joking grin plastered all over her face. Upon seeing this, Blitzer resumed pouting, this time with his arms crossed. George only had a shrug to give. Outside of the forbidden, they had nothing but the same talk to tell.

“Nah. What you’ve seen is just about it. Well, aside from Blitzer’s parents lecturing me too.”

“Aw, your parents give you lectures all day too?” Junior asked. George and Blitzer both nodded.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t they? As much fun as we had, we’re just kids, and we need to know our limits.” Blitzer said.

“Yeah. I guess.” Junior sighed. “You know, you’ve never told us, but did you find any treasure out there?”

George eyed Blitzer, and gulped. He had that silly look on his face that would always come out when he had to think about something. Was he considering spilling the beans, despite promising George he wouldn’t earlier? George shook his hands around and put his ears down, hoping that Blitzer would take the hint. ‘ Come on, you promised you wouldn’t tell anyone. ’

“Not really. We found a rag down there. So yeah.”

The other children gave dull stares, their tails lowering to the ground as Blitzer’s words set in. “Oh…” George let his tail sink as well, relieved.

‘ Thank goodness, he realized. Well, I don’t know what would happen if he said the truth, but I don’t want to know.. ’

Junior bit at his cheeks; a little spark flew out. “Why a rag?”

Blitzer shrugged back with a flick of his tail. “Don’t know. It just was there.”

“Do you think someone might have dropped it?” Corst asked, then tilted his head.. “Or, do you think it might have been from someone that, uh…”

“Nope! Nope.” George took it upon himself to answer. ‘I know where this is going .’ “It wasn’t on the ground or anything like that. It was on some pedestal. You know, like a real treasure! Or something in a museum!”

“Oh. Oh… okay. Sorry, I didn’t think I’d be so stupid.” Corst nervously chuckled, before bonking himself on his rocky helmet with the stick he had been lugging around all day.

“Nah, it’s not stupid to think that, I was expecting more too,” said Blitzer.

“...what’s a museum? Another one of those northern things you talk about so much?”’ asked Sweitelle, twirling her tails around. George put his hands on his cheeks, prickling himself right on the freckles.

“Yeah, something like that. It’s uh, well it was a place where they showed off minerals and the like. On pedestals. It uh, yeah. In a city, in a city in the north, but I forgot the name. It was run by a Rolycoly and his parents.”

“Okay.” Sweitelle shrugged. ‘ Yeah, she’s not buying a word of it ,’ George thought to himself.

“Hey, do you hear that?” Junior’s ears had gone straight up into the air. He was staring across the stream in the direction of the village’s roadside entrance. The others poked their attention in that direction as well; something odd was making noise, hidden by the houses of a few town residents. A sharp crunching, as if a hundred feet were marching in unison.

“I don’t like the sound of this,” Corst said.

“Soldiers…” Blitzer whispered.

“What?” Alcia said. Blitzer’s body spun around.

“Soldiers. It has to be. I know what this sound is.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Trust me, this can’t be anything else. We’ve got to check this out.”

“I don’t know Blitzer, I’m scared…” Sweitelle said.

“Me too,” George followed, albeit for different reasons. ‘Blitzer was that close to telling them, and now they’re here?’

“I know, I don’t like this either, but we have to see it for ourselves.” Blitzer said in a level-headed tone. All the cheers and smiles were buried now. Soldiers were no laughing matter. When he gestured to the party to follow him to the village square, where the crowd they had heard earlier had likely been waiting for the Soldiers to come in, everyone followed in spite of their reservations.

“Do you think they’ve come to take food again?” Junior asked.

“I don’t know. We’ll have to see,” Blitzer replied, swinging his tail around.

“I don’t want to go hungry again…” Corst stammered.

“Me neither, but if it comes down to that, me and George are ready to help out. Right, George?”

George gulped. “Right,” he said. Blitzer wasn’t exactly giving him a lot of options here. Then again, were the Soldiers? Everyone needed to eat. Either he’d follow Blitzer to the ends of the earth, or he could lay down and starve. And that was unacceptable.

All together, the children arrived at the town square, and fidgeted past the crowd until they found a free spot on the very edge of the square. The road leading from the square to the village entrance was flanked by strong, vicious looking Pokemon from various species, whose very presence was enough to get one’s skin to shiver under their fur. All voices gathered fell silent, as the Soldiers raised their heads to greet what had to have been their leader. None of the children could see, they could only judge. Their parents and neighbours were aghast, half of them were adrift in confusion, the others were on the verge of curling up into a ball.

An air of menace came into the square, and the children were like insects caught in a stormwind, scaredly whimpering as the crunching of the gravel path they were so familiar with became louder. George’s fingers squeezed into a fist. He had to fight to keep his eyes open, just to catch a glimpse of what beast had come to the village now. His breath hissed between his teeth. Worse than last time, when they were being confronted with starvation, how was that even possible? It would be a few seconds until he had his answer.

‘ Stay calm, stay calm. ..’

Into the square stepped a large Pokemon. Coated in dark blue scales everywhere except for the chest, and scythe like arms, the whole crowd was speechless. It was like seeing a creature from a world beyond this one, perhaps that wasn’t so far off the mark, either. George’s whole body ran cold as he looked up at this beast. He felt Blitzer’s claw hold his back, the familiarity of it a lonely comfort in this . The human turned Oshawott felt utterly puny. A small fish in a big pond. Together with this. The fins, the tail, the hammerhead like a shark, with the reaper’s scythes embedded on both arms, and those agile, lizard-like feet. A killing machine, glaring everyone down into the ground, ready to slice them into pieces should they make one wrong move. Living without knowledge of this beast was a luxury they had now lost. A glimpse of that scowl was like a knife running under the skin.

“Let’s get this over with, shall we?”

The Pokemon cleared its throat; its voice sounded decisively feminine. The dusky green scarf, and the badge pinning the scarf down on the red part of the Pokemon’s chest nullified any feeling of safety they might have gained. George found himself reaching for Blitzer’s arm. Anything to feel just a little protected.

“Villagers, I take it that everyone here is as disinterested in this as the others. Keep an ear open, and this won’t take long. Brigands have been passing through this area, making off with stolen goods. We want those goods back, and that is why we are here. To collect information on these thieves…”

The Pokemon’s scowl crossed the audience; from the edge, George saw all the passed fears come back at full force. ‘ First our food, now everyone’s treasures? ’ Soft whispering crept up from numerous points in the square. Suddenly, the shark stomped her feet, causing a vibration in the earth below. Any murmuring disappeared instantly..

“...As I was saying, thieves are running amok in this area. They’ve made off with an important treasure. We want it back. Our request to you is that you report any shady folks or activity to us immediately. This is in your interest. Do you want your most prized possessions to be stolen, too? If your answer is no, then you will do as we suggest. I hope you see the urgency in this.”

As she finished speaking, her eyes briefly glanced off to the side. For a second, George met her scowl head on, causing a shiver to pass through him. It only lasted for a second, but it felt as if that Pokemon was crushing his bones into the pavement. Even she let a glimpse of satisfaction be visible on her; the scowl lessened as she turned her head away.

With a swish of her tail, the bestial Pokemon left the square. Row by row, the Soldiers that had come with her followed in lockstep, the crunching of their feet . Once the people of Greenfield had gotten the idea that they had fallen out of earshot, the soft murmuring spread like wildfire throughout the crowd. Still feeling uneasy, George turned to the Charmander standing next to him; the other children were nowhere to be seen. No one was in the mood for fun and games; the air they now breathed tasted very dreary.

“What was that…?”

“I think… that was a Garchomp, George.”

“A what now?” George said with a sudden slap of his tail.

“A Garchomp. It’s a dragon type,” Blitzer softly said. George gulped.

‘ Garchomp? I never saw … ’

“Haven’t ever seen one of them in my whole life, and I’m glad I never did,” Blitzer continued, staring right down the path the Pokemon had come in from. Out of the blue, a Mankey wearing a dark green wristband ran into the square with a flyer and some sort of bottle in its hands. A wanted poster, by the looks of it. Blitzer shook his head.

“If they want to make us feel safe, why would they bring a Pokemon like that here? She looked like she could kill anyone just by staring at them.”

“Yeah,” George whispered, all while his hands met over his scalchop. For a brief moment, he felt that glare pass through him again. To think that was just the eyes, and not any of the other tools at that beast’s disposal. “I want to go home.”

Blitzer grimaced. “Me too.”

Around them, the square had already thinned out. Most were in the process of going home, or heading into the cafe to drown out their sorrows. The people left were Lance, who was the lone Pokemon reading the flyer the Mankey had put up, and Nero and Nera, who were sitting on their hindquarters, waiting.

“About time you two noticed us,” Nero said. “T’is about time we headed home for the day, what do you say?”

“Uh, dad? Can I-”

“Not right now.” Nera cut Blitzer right off. “We can talk, but not here of all places. Let’s just go home, shall we?”

Blitzer audibly gulped. “Um, sure, Mom. George? Let’s go, okay?”

George didn’t have a say in the matter. Even if he wanted to leave, that wasn’t an option. And by the looks of it, no one else had a say, either. When they had a view over the stream, he could see the other children being led back home as well. A storm had gathered. No one was willing to weather it outside. An unspoken command had been ordered, and everyone old enough to obey did as was asked.

It wasn’t until the door of the hovel clicked back into frame that anyone in the household had the guts to say another word. Nero and Nera gathered around the table, and ordered the two children to sit opposite to them. The children eyed each other with a nervous, but confident stare. They had each other, and the familiar smell of candle wax in their nostrils.

“First off, and this should go without saying, but I will drill this into your heads until you can repeat it in your sleep. Do not, ever, EVER, talk to the Soldiers. Don’t care for what. Thieves? Give me a break. Another excuse to pry whatever they really want out of your lips. Is that clear?”

Nero’s words rang loud through the hovel. The two children nodded. His stare, though not in the same stratosphere as that of the Garchomp, made any protesting seem foolish.

“Yes.”

“Good.”

Nero shook his head. “What in Arceus’ name are they planning this time?”

“Blitzer, George.” Nera looked on with eyes as stern as her husband’s. George felt very uneasy. “This is not a joke. If they come here, if we give them an inch, they’ll take it all. Everything in this village, okay? It’s better if you don’t go outside for the rest of the day. Alright? Just stay indoors.”

“Wh-what?”

“You heard her, Blitzer. We told you, didn’t we?”

“But dad, they’re gone now! We’ll be fine! We haven’t left the village in three days!”

Nera suddenly slammed the table. “We’re serious here, Blitzer. You’re not leaving this house today. Either you’re waiting until tomorrow, or you’re waiting until next week. I’m not allowing you anywhere near them, is that clear?”

“...yes, mom.” whimpered Blitzer.

‘ A week?! They can’t seriously be thinking this after three days! ’

George put his hand up, only for another slam to land on the table.

“You, don’t you dare! To your room, right now!” Nero shouted.

Neither Blitzer nor George said a word back. It was raining outside, anyway.