.plasbad

“Well, uh, mom, I’m currently in Violet City in Johto. It might be a bit hard for me to get there quickly. But that doesn’t mean I can’t try!”

‘Violet City?’ Where is that? Mama thought, more confused then before. It didn’t ring a bell at all. This was just making her more worried for her daughter. 

“Sweetie…I don’t know a “Violet City”, but I know home and I can give you directions. Just please come home! Mama misses you so very much and please send some money too. Mama can’t buy any more PokeDolls because there isn’t any funds left…for you. I meant the PokeDolls are for you. Anyway, sweetie. Here is the address.” 

With the address already given via PokeGear, Mama expects her daughter to be home. 

The address popped up on her screen, the PokeGear automatically plugging it into the Johto map. New Bark Town. It was only three routes and a city in between away, a distance she could easily travel in just under four hours. Still, this wasn’t Accumula Town. Her mother had never been the forgetful type, but maybe Liri was remembering incorrectly.

The PokeDolls were a surprise though. As a child her parents had refused to get her any, but had gotten her brother two. Maybe this was a nice welcome back gift her mom got her, knowing how much she always wanted one.

“I guess so…” It didn’t feel like she knew the girl from somewhere in Johto, but before she could press further questions on her, the man’s voice beckoned her to the kitchen for some help. “Well, just take your time with that.” Anzu shrugged half-heartedly and turned around making her way towards the kitchen

The scraping of a chair against the floor was loud enough to turn heads. Anzu was only halfway into the kitchen when it happened. She turned her head to the table that was now empty. A flash of purple went past the door, presumably the Liepard that was sitting there less than a minute ago.

“Goddammit…” she sighed under her breath, walking back to the table. A quick glance at the checkbook told her all she needed to know. 500 short. This was worse than not being tipped.

“Son of a bitch!” Her angry voice turned even more heads from the other end of the cafe, followed by murmured whispers of those speculating what just occurred here. From the front window, the girl could be seen running down the street. She had accumulated an incredible amount of distance in that short time.

There wasn’t time to give an explanation to the other staff, but from her tone and the speed she took off out the front door, it was easy to guess.

“Hey you!” Anzu shouted across the street, trying to match the other girl’s pace. “Get back over here!”

She could hear yelling coming from the cafe as the waitress had realized that she hadn’t paid the full amount. A quick glance behind Liri confirmed that Purrsephone had followed her out as well, catching up quickly. The waitress was also chasing after her, clearly angry about the money she had left behind.

“I’m sorry!” Liri yelled back. As nice of a city Olivine was, with the ruckus she created, Liri knew she would probably never come back again. Hopefully there was another city or town nearby that Liri could find a small job at, because she was now fully broke. And hopefully she would lose the waitress soon.

Her running slowed a bit, breathing significantly heavier. Liri could sprint, but she couldn’t run long distances. She rounded a corner, not looking behind her to see if the waitress was still giving chase. The girl completely stopped running, giving herself a second to catch her breath before she continued walking. Back in Castelia City, Team Plasma decided to hide right in front of the gym, in plain sight. This is what she needed to do now. If Liri would continue to run, not only would she tire out even more (and she was already pretty winded), it would clearly attract the attention of everyone around her.

As Summer’s patrols brought her closer to Johto, she began hearing rumors about sightings of Celebi in Ilex Forest. News of the mythical Pokemon always grabbed her interest, although she doubted that this particular individual was the same one she’d met in Oblivia. Then again, with its power to travel through time, who knew?

Regardless of whether she would actually have the chance to interact with this Celebi, Summer had found that sightings of rare or unusual Pokemon were often associated with trouble. Sometimes the natural order had become unbalanced in the area, or the Pokemon was attempting to warn about an impending disaster. Whatever the reason for the correlation, it seemed sensible to check on the situation at the forest.

Asking around the nearby towns didn’t give her much new information to work with. Just a few recent Celebi sightings and comments that the forest Pokemon were more restless than usual. The locals did seem glad that a Ranger was looking into the issue, though, which solidified her decision to investigate the forest directly.

When she arrived at Ilex Forest, she noticed Ukulele Pichu hesitate at the edge of the trees, ears twitching. “Hey, is everything alright?” she asked. Pichu gave a determined nod and stepped forward, but Summer made a note to keep a close eye on his behavior. Her partner hated being left out of missions, even when they were more dangerous. Especially when they were more dangerous.

After just a few minutes of walking, she heard a loud crack and the rustle of several Pokemon or people running through the underbrush. A flashing light appeared on the screen of her capture styler, directing her to the source of the noise.

As she got close enough to see what was going on, Summer quickly surveyed the scene. A young woman, possibly a trainer since she had a Pokemon with her, was surrounded by several unhappy forest Pokemon. The Noctowl seemed the most upset about the situation, hovering in the air and looking ready to dive at any second.

“Capture on!” Summer shouted, drawing attention to herself as she detached the disk of her capture styler and sent it flying around the Noctowl. As the disk looped around the Pokemon she channeled feelings of safety and protection through the styler. Their frantic wingbeats gradually slowed, until they appeared disinterested in the humans below.

“C’mon, let’s get out of here,” she motioned as the disk returned to its holder on her wrist. Something was making the forest Pokemon more aggressive than usual; during the day Noctowl tended to ignore anything that wasn’t directly harassing them. She could stay here all day trying to calm these Pokemon down, but that wouldn’t solve the root of the problem.

With the situation becoming more complicated, Summer started a list in her head. Objective One: Make sure this girl and her Pokemon were safe. Objective Two: Figure out what was going wrong in the forest. Objective Three: Fix it. It wasn’t a long list yet, but Summer had the feeling it wouldn’t be getting shorter anytime soon.

She had been ready to give up. Even though she knew that Purrsephone would have hated it, Liri had been ready to put her in her pokeball and use herself as a shield for her pokemon. Purrsephone was worth more than she was. Also, Liri didn’t mind getting scratched and hurt if it meant that the only living being that cared for her was safe.

Before Liri could resign herself to her fate, a voice rang out, taking the attention of the angry pokemon off of her. The voice came from a short brunette, who threw something at the angry notctowl, somehow making the object circle the angry pokemon. The noctowl then calmed down thanks to the strange apparatus, and left. Still, there were angry pokemon, none of them approaching - yet.

“C’mon, let’s get out of here.”

“Uh, sure! Thank you!” Liri got up from the ground, not even having noticed that she had fallen in the first place. “Purrsephone, let’s follow this nice lady. I don’t think you need to get into your pokeball anymore,” Liri smiled at Purrsephone, knowing that the liepard had clearly been startled earlier. None of them were good with conflict, but Liri still knew that her pokemon was the braver one of them both.

Still, Purrsephone didn’t stop growling. “Everything’s going to be alright, girl. There’s no need to be scared.” It was weird. While Liri certainly was no pokemon expert, but she didn’t have to hear the voices of pokemon to know that the way Purrsephone was acting was strange. Purrsephone was a jolly-natured pokemon, and so for her to growl for so long, especially when the danger was gone, was weird.

She turned her head towards the girl that had just saved her and apologized, “I’m sorry, she’s not usually like this.”

Yet again Liri attempted to calm Purrsephone down. She reached out her hand to try to pet the liepard’s head, wanting to go for the behind-the-ear scratches that she loved so much. Although her hand did waver a bit, Liri wasn’t scared. After all, they had been friends ever since she was little and Purrsephone was a purrloin. And yet, the growling only deepened.

As shocking as it was, it was also embarrassing. She didn’t want this stranger to think that she didn’t have a good connection with her pokemon. But Purrsephone’s eyes looked angry as she still pawed at her ears.

@plasmaliri

An answer? Did this PokeGear actually work?? Did she finally know how to use it- after all these years of just adjusting the time and date. Mama silently listened, quite curious about who she managed to connect with on the other line.

“Mom?! I’m coming home right now mom! But, uh, mom, can you tell me where you live again?”

Wha- If you could see Mama’s face behind the PokeGear, the person on the other line would see confusion highlighting her expression. ‘What does her daughter mean by not knowing where she lived?!’ Has traveling for an extended period of time cause her memory to loosen?

“Sweetie, how do you not know your hometown?” It was a serious and concerning question. 

“Well, uh, mom, I’m currently in Violet City in Johto. It might be a bit hard for me to get there quickly. But that doesn’t mean I can’t try!”

Nagging Calling was always her strong suit. Mama is the number one reason youths do not answer their PokeGear. When the dreaded HOME number is on display, the weary traveler would roll their eyes and put the idea of calling back on hold. 

But she is relentless in her efforts, for you have not called Mama back and she is worried. ‘Have you eaten yet?’ ‘Do you have fresh underwear?!’ ‘When will you arrive home for a visit? Mama has tons of berries for alignments.’ And she is not kidding about that. 

The PokeGear that Liri had kept in her pocket was going off. It had been given to her when she was part of Team Plasma, just so that grunts could easier communicate over long distances. Of course, they were almost rarely used in the end, usually forgotten about.

Nobody had ever called her PokeGear before. Maybe there were a couple of ex Team Plasma members that had her number, but Liri couldn’t think of a reason that they would be calling her. Since she was one of the youngest members of the team, everyone either saw her as a little sister that was trying her best or a child that was a nuisance. Nobody had ever actually been a close friend of hers.

She picked up the phone, but was too scared to say anything.

“Sweetie?! Why did it take you so long? Is your PokeGear broken?! Please get it fixed! Mama was really worried about you!”

Mama? It couldn’t actually be her mom. Liri hadn’t heard from her in seven years. Had she been looking this whole time for her? Knowing her mom, she would say she’s grounded-

“You are g.r.o.u.n.d.e.d. when you get home young lady. G.R.O.U.N.D.E.D. I know what the youth is up to nowadays, playing Poke-tricks on your mother like this!”

You knows the importance of stretching before practice

There were several rumors surrounding Kalos’s Pokémon Village, foremost among them being the existence of the location itself. From what Moros had gathered, few people had ever traveled there. It was said to be a safe haven for all Pokémon, the only place in the region that was free from humans’ influence. A place like that, Moros reasoned, was as likely as any to contain Pokémon as elusive and rare as the legendary Xerneas and Yveltal.

Regardless of the accuracy of his guess, Moros intended to visit the ‘village’ and see it for himself firsthand. The only problem was the path there—the reason the location was so shrouded in mystery was the route connecting it to the nearest city. The Winding Wood was more than living up to its name. 

Moros had been traversing its paths for what felt like hours now. Every time he believed he’d made progress, he passed by a tree or rock formation that looked exactly like one he’d seen before. It was impossibly frustrating, but he refused to turn back until he’d made it through. Never mind the fact that even if he wanted to leave, he might very well be unable to.

Attempting to go a way he hadn’t before, Moros heard something he hadn’t this entire time: the voice of another human. They were talking quite a lot, practically shouting in apparent frustration. From the fragments he could hear, it seemed they were stuck in the same predicament as he was.

Moros followed the sound, curious about who else would bother coming here. Movement in the distance caught his eye, and he hurried to catch up, staying silent as he approached. He considered revealing himself outright to them, but when he at last caught sight of the other traveler he paused.

The young woman had light brown hair, and when she turned to address the Liepard at her side Moros saw her face in profile. It was hard to be completely certain, but she looked familiar. Moros hadn’t been required to know everything about everyone in Team Plasma, but he had made an extra effort to remember faces and names where he could, and this one he felt like he recognized. She wasn’t one of the ones who had returned to their ranks, that was certain.

Moros grit his teeth. Grunts they may have been, but every single deserter was one less person to fight on their side and make a difference in Lord Ghetsis’s cause. There was no telling what they might have accomplished with the full strength of their original numbers, and Moros resented all of them for doubting and abandoning their leader when their aid was so desperately needed.

Original task forgotten, Moros appeared on the path behind the former grunt. He didn’t have a plan in mind, but the was no way he was going to let her pass without some sort of confrontation. “Going somewhere?” 

“Eek!” The sudden voice of another person scared her, causing Liri to scream loudly enough to frighten some wild pokemon.

Liri didn’t have to glance behind her to know who it was, but she did just to confirm that the stupid forest wasn’t making her hallucinate.

She hated this situation, she hated that voice, she hated the memories of the false leader it brought up, she hated him. There weren’t many things Liri hated, but this guy was near the top of that short list. Even Purrsephone, usually a jolly pokemon, went into a defensive position, a small growl forming at the back of her throat.

She desperately tried to maintain some composure. “Shadow,” she nodded in acknowledgment, not of the scream but of the question she wasn’t going to answer. The ex-grunt had promised herself in the past that she wasn’t going to give bullies like Shadow (she couldn’t tell which one this was) the satisfaction of being in power, even if it was something as simple as not giving them an answer.

Of course, Liri was terrified. Try as she might, she couldn’t stop her hands from shaking. Lowly grunts like her may not have worked that often with the Shadow Triad, but everyone knew how dangerous and powerful they were. There was no way Liri could ever defend herself against someone like him, if it came to having to battle. She didn’t even think she could win against him in a battle of wits.

Survival mode was definitely on now if it wasn’t before. Liri had to somehow get past this encounter without any tempers rising and past Shadow to the exit. It was so close.

Except, it wasn’t. When Liri looked at the exit again, it was completely blocked by a large trevenant. It seemed like when she screamed, it caused the pokemon to fall down, and it didn’t bother to get back up. The aura emanating from it screamed “try to climb over me and you’ll face the hardest battle of your life.”

“Gotcha.” Anzu scrawled the order onto her notepad. “I’ll get that right out for ya.”

She stepped away to place the ticket in the kitchen window, making an exchange with the kitchen staff about another order for a different table. Before she turned away, a gruff older man stopped her, holding the ticket in his hand.

“Anzu, did this customer say how spicy they wanted the curry?”

“No. I can go back and ask.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it.” The older man glanced at the table noted on the ticket and shrugged, resuming the prep work he had been working on. “It’s usually kids that order it mild anyway.”

In no time, the curry was ready for the customer, warm and full of flavor, yet delivered a painful kick to those who couldn’t handle a little extra spice. In spite of this, the girl ate quite a lot of it, leaving a decent portion for her Pokemon. Anzu didn’t seem to notice the panged expression on the girl’s face when she came back to her table after some time had passed.

“Here’s your check.” She presented a black book to her, laying it down on the table. Her voice was dry as sand, not a hint of a chipper tone.

“You know… you look kind of familiar…” She tilted her head a bit sideways and looked again at the Liepard that was eating off of her plate. “I’m not sure why, but I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere before. Have we met?” 

Liri pulled out what little coins she had from her pocket. She placed them down onto the table, and opened the booklet to have the total of 800 staring up at her. She counted the coins as quickly as she could - honestly it took her around 15 seconds - seeing that she only had 300. Her left hand covered the displayed money, not wanting to show the waitress that she couldn’t even pay for half of the meal, right hand rummaging around in her belongings hoping to find another 500. Surely she had more money. There was no way Liri would’ve allowed herself to have so little.

When the waitress asked if she knew Liri, her hand froze. She hadn’t done anything bad. At least, not recently if her time at Team Plasma was considered “bad.” Her pulse quickened as her mind raced trying to come up with an explanation. Liri had never met this girl, but she had been travelling around for the past two years. Still, in those years she hadn’t made any significant connections, and this was her first time travelling to Johto, all on a whim.

Wait, that’s right! This was her first time in Johto! “I don’t think we’ve met before. I just came to Johto for the first time on the S.S. Aqua and came straight to this cafe to eat. Maybe you’re mistaking me for someone else?” 

The girl took a deep breath to calm herself and continued feeling around her bag for more money. Nothing came up other than the essentials she carried around with her and the Plasma patch she kept as a reminder.