Chapter Text
I sat in the hotel room, the Shadow Ball clutched in my hands. I still couldn't believe it. Niekramant was in this little pokeball and I was alive all the while. My phone sat buzzing with cautious texts from Astrid, Mum, Gladion - everyone - asking if I was okay, alive, dead. Just begging for a response from me. I ignored it. I was trapped in a limbo, unable to comprehend the fact that I had just done that... And lived.
"I must dreaming." I said aloud. Nobody heard me. I was alone in the room, Guzma having left to do... Something. I wasn't paying attention when he had specified. I needed someone to talk to, something to do. I looked over at my school bag. It held my books, laptop, sketch book and pencil case. I glanced at the small yellow bag beside it, the one with my pokeballs and average trainer items. I put the Shadow Ball down with a sigh and reached over, clutching at my trainer bag with an unsteady hand. I unzipped it and took out the six pokeballs that sat on the top of everything. I threw them upwards, letting each and every one of them out.
Flare Mane, Matty, FireBeam, NightLight and Yellow Belly blinked in surprise as they emerged. They had been taken by Niekramant's shadows in an attempt to give it strength. They had provided that. But they didn't know. They didn't remember. They had been dead. But as their eyes landed on me and the hotel room, no necromancer Pokemon to be seen, they leapt at me. My arms were open wide after all. I hugged the six of them, proud of my gorgeous children for doing something like they did.
I had to hand it to them, they had all given it an amazing shot out there.
Grillby had ended up emerging victorious for my sake, but that was no reason to downgrade what everyone else had done. I remember laughing a lot. And hugging each of them a lot. And crying a little bit. And lots of love being shared. We were just happy to be alive.
You know, you really take life for granted until it's almost taken from you. You're convinced that every day is a right as a human or as a Pokemon. We don't realise it's finite until it's ending. We don't accept until old age because we know it'll happen eventually. But you would never expect that as a fifteen year old girl, you would be thrown into a situation that would threaten everything you knew. I never expected it. But it's what happened.
After I finished caring for them all, I put them back into their pokeballs and picked up my phone. The text preview displayed the fact that I had 39 texts, from Satan, Mother Dearest, Band T-shirt, The Freckleface, Vampire Turkey and Caffeine Junkie. I selected the preview and typed in my passcode, letting the messages app open on its own. I checked the oldest one first, from Satan.
'WHAT? OMG NO DONT SAY SHIT LIKE THAT!' 'HAZEL' 'HAZEL!!' 'ANSWER ME YOU LITTLE SHIT FANGIRL!' 'PLEASE' 'DONT BE DEAD!' 'OMG PLEASE ANSWER ME!' 'I COULDNT LIVE WITH MYSELF IF YOU DIED!' 'PLEASE ANSWER ME PLEASE BE ALIVE!' 'Please answer me...' 'Hazel...' 'I just got a text from Gladion. He thinks you're alive... Is it true' 'Did you win or not' 'please answer me' I stopped reading them. I tapped to enter text and wrote down a few simple words.
'It's okay. I'm alive.' I hit send and went to the next thread. Mother Dearest. There was only one lonely text.
'Text me if you're alive, baby. Luv u' I smiled and texted her,
'If you're alive, baby. Luv u.' I smirked at my own stupid joke. I was gonna cop it for that one. I opened the thread from Band T-shirt.
'Good luck! Heard you were going into battle about now. Don't die please, I need more chapters' it was followed by a smiley emoji. Charlie did always have her priorities straight. I didn't reply to her text. I opened The Freckleface and read what she had left me.
'Hazel' 'fine then don't talk to me' 'hey human. U alive?' 'answer me, you naked hedgehog' 'we would all like you text to us back' Once again, I didn't answer her. I skipped to the next one. Vampire Turkey.
'I wish you luck, miss Sky. I'm sure you'll make it out alive' This one had actually sent before the battle started. Oops. My eyes flitted to the next few texts. 'So, Rivers is under the impression you have a crush on me.' 'If it's true, all I can say is that you have a bad taste in men.' 'I always thought it was her, to be perfectly honest. She is quite the Tsundere, if I'm using that lingo correctly.' 'Yes, I understand you're battling the God of Necromancy, but if you wish to reply, you always can.' 'Okay, it's been hours. Are you even alive? It would be tragic if you weren't.' 'Please tell me you're alive.' 'Sky.' 'You're making everyone worried.' 'I checked with Rivers and you haven't replied to her. You are alive, right?' 'Answer me, Hazel' 'You missed a called from *number withheld* who did not leave a message. This message was provided by Telstra at no charge to you' 'fine then miss sky. Have it your way' He had texted me more than anyone else, except for maybe Astrid of course. I was more than just surprised.
'Im alive. And you never finished your explanation on Ultra Energy and so on. It was pretty aggressive on its own. If you meant that it would be more aggressive to those with Ultra Energy... maybe that was a good call. But I'm alive.' I replied solemnly. I checked the last thread. It had only appeared three minutes ago.
'You like gummies or no' 'oh my god, answer me' 'I'm getting you gummies' 'is it illegal to look at a Snorunt sideways cause a lady just yelled at me for doing that' 'what hotel are we in again' 'nvm I found it' It was right about this time that Guzma arrived back at our room.
"You never answered mah question about the gummies." He said when he saw me holding my phone.
"I love gummies." He nodded, as if he already knew it.
"They all losin' their shit about y'all being alive?" I shook my head up and down.
"Some of these texts are freaking hilarious." I said, but didn't move to show him. He let out a meagre chuckle. The banter wasn't normal for us, but I'm pretty sure it's just because we were thankful to be back here, alive. A question hung heavy over me, but I wasn't sure if Guzma could answer me. Maybe he didn't know. Maybe he did. I wanted to ask, but I held it back. When I got back to Nuhola, I could make all the calls I wanted...
I held back my desire to call Gladion for an answer, resisting any urge to even reply to the texts further. Something hit my face and I yelped in surprise. It was a bag of gummies. "Wow, thanks." I knew how sarcastic I sounded as I ripped the bag open, taking out the first one at the top no popping it into my mouth. Shit. Black one. The grossest kind. I finished it anyway, not wanting to offend Guzma after just sarcastically accepting it. He took off his sunglasses and jacket, tossing them onto his bed and sitting down with a sigh.
I stood up and grabbed my pokeballs, shoving them back into my trainer bag with many mixed emotions, grabbing my school bag instead. I grabbed out my laptop and sat on my bed, opening it up and turning it on. I entered the passcode and let it boot up while Guzma flipped the TV on. An old soap opera began to play silently, one that Guzma flicked past on a surf through the channels. My laptop had finished loading, so I opened up my word document for A Mystery For Dead, a story I was working on at the time. After finding nothing to watch, he flipped the TV off with yet another sigh.
"Do y'all have any streaming sights?" He asked, looking over at my laptop with disdain.
"Yeah, I've got Netflix."
"Any good shows on it?"
"What would you define as good?" He shrugged. I connected to the network the hotel had, holding back a smirk and opening the Netflix app on my laptop. My list showed an array of different shows. I scrolled through the list of about five. "I've got on my list," I started listing off all the shows in my list to him. "Voltron: Legendary Defender and my personal favourite anime, Riverdale, Doctor Who, Stranger Things and Alice in Wonderland... The Tim Burton version." He nodded.
"What's the first one about?" I clicked onto the show preview and read off the synopsis.
"Overwhelmed but ready for action, five aspiring space explorers learn they have the power to create Voltron, the most powerful robot in the universe." I shrugged. "It's about these five guys who find a robotic lion and go through a wormhole to a planet named Eris and they have to find more lions to form Voltron. It gets serious at some bits, but it's great for a laugh."
"Ah'll take it." He sat down beside me. I eyed him off before sighing and clicking the first episode of season 1. I set the laptop down and got up, switching off the light of the room. I sat back down and leant back against the wall, pulling my laptop onto my thighs. Guzma shifted to be next to me against the wall, leaning on my shoulder to see the laptop screen that was beginning to play the intro.
But after Lance had made a stupid decision and went through a wormhole that led himself and the other future Paladins to Eris, my exhaustion from the unfathomable day I had just been through got to me more than I'd like to admit. I couldn't help but nod off. Not even the hilarity of trying to find the yellow lion could keep me awake. Before I knew it, my head hit Guzma's shoulder and I was sound asleep.
*
I woke up feeling cool and annoyed... And hungry. Really, really hungry. I lifted my head from my pillow, looking around the only slightly familiar hotel room. I was still wearing my clothes from the previous day and my only source of warmth and makeshift blanket was Guzma's jacket. My laptop sat charging at the end of the bed, though I didn't remember closing it or setting it to charge. I sat up with a groan, rubbing my eyes tenderly and without the obstruction of my glasses. The TV was on, an anime I didn't recognise playing. Did seem interesting from what I could make out though. My eyes were needlessly blurry from sleep and my natural sight being stupidly stupid. Astigmatism. Why must I have you?
"Here." I hadn't noticed, but Guzma had stood when I sat up and was handing me my glasses, taking his jacket at the same time. I accepted the spectacles, opening them and slipping them onto my face in a routine way.
"Thanks." I said, a stutter in my croaky voice. I looked up at him, my eyes still half closed and gave a grateful smile. A barely saw it, but he returned it for a moment,
"Don't mention it." He said, sitting back on his bed, putting his jacket back on and pulling his hood over his head. Typical.
"Do we have any food? Anything more than gummies?" He threw me a packet of Tamato chips. "Thanks." Ahh. Breakfast.
*
The next few days waiting for our ferry back to Nuholani was spent doing the same sorts of things. Mindlessly ignoring each other while watching whatever came onto the TV programs and then watching Voltron together when the night got late. We almost got through a season too.
But then the four days were up and we were checking out of the hotel, walking back to our specified docks to Nuholani. It was at least a more pleasant walk without having to drag the machine everywhere. When we arrived, we were narrowly missing our docking time, but with a certainly determined run, we made it aboard in time. There was far fewer people leaving to Nuholani than there was people leaving for Sinnoh.
It was thankfully quiet. We were both still pretty shaken.
I hadn't really stopped to think about Guzma must have felt while I was fighting. He had the machine, the thing that was meant to control my battle environment and he couldn't make the shadows go away as he was supposed to be able to. He had panicked. He had thought that because of him, I wouldn't make it out alive. He had destroyed the shadow unit to stop it, but it had never worked. He had waited for the shadows to recede, to maybe find me dead, or not there at all. But I had turned out alive with Niekramant in the Shadow Ball and Grillby - my beautiful little Grillby - standing by my side.
He must have been just as relieved as I was.
About halfway through the trip home, a Pelliper appeared, carrying a message to the captain. The captain took it and wrote a quick reply on it. The few passangers gave him odd looks as he sent the Pelliper away. The eyeing quickly got to him, warranting an eventual explanation.
"It was checking if a certain someone was on the boat. But they couldn't be leaving Sinnoh now."
*
The docks were silent when we stepped from the ferry. I sighed. There were about three people hanging around waiting for some relatives from Sinnoh, but nobody was there for the two randoms who left four days ago and came back.
"Come on. We need to get to the bus stop before the last one to Boonalee leaves." I said, ushering Guzma along. I didn't want to be out in this darkness. I wanted to get back home. It was dark out, night time in fact. I didn't bother to check the time, it didn't matter too much. I was tired, I wanted to be back home, knowing that in a few short weeks, I would be leaving Nuholani yet another time to return to Alola. If only I could get a decently sized break from everything.
After a while of walking, we found the nearest bus station. A timetable was listed on the side of the station, giving us an idea of when the bus would leave... We had about four more minutes until the bus came to get us. I flopped down on the seat of the station, closing my eyes and bidding this entire experience unreal, a dream, something that would be over soon enough. Mission completed, amiright?
"Get up. It's here." Guzma said, his voice gruff. I stood up, watching the headlights of a bus approaching the station. We waited for it to pull up.
"Boonalee, I presume?" He asked, removing the lollipop from his mouth. I nodded to him as I walked up the stairs and almost threw my bag onto one of the seats. "Well, you gonna pay for it? This service ain't free." I groaned and dodged past Guzma as he took his own seat - the one behind me - passing the driver a crumpled five dollar bill. He flipped me a dollar coin and closed the door of the bus. I went back to my seat and nearly fell back on it. I pulled out my phone and notified my mother that I was on the bus on my way home to Boonalee. Finally.
I was home.
For those of you wondering why I'm acting so sober and bored and angsty... Tired. Sick of everything I've had to do. Silently thankful to be home. But everything else overpowering me.
I couldn't be bothered removing my iPod from my bag, so I tuned myself into the radio. Well, I tried to at least. My Mum replied right at that moment and I queue of several texts from Astrid, Charlie and Susan all appeared at once. I read my Mum's reply, which was of relief to finally have me home again. But... I opened Astrid's text thread, expecting nothing more than bullshit ideas and TurboPee references as normal. But the first text was not good.
'I'm really worried about Casha. She didn't come to school today and she won't answer any of us.' The rest of her texts were along the same lines. A sweat formed in my brow. I opened Susan's text thread.
'Hazel' 'Hazel' 'HAZEL' 'I think Casha is missing!' 'Answer me you naked hedgehog!' 'Something isn't right about this!' 'She would never leave Boonah!' My breath ceased momentarily. Casha? Missing? I tried to calm down, but I couldn't. I hoped there wasn't any of this from Charlie... Boy, was I wrong.
'We think Casha is missing. She didn't even reply to Britney when we called her.' 'OMG' 'we found her stuff at her bus station!' 'She wouldn't leave would she?' I let out a gasp and covered my mouth.
"What now?" Guzma asked me, leaning in the rail of my seat and peering over my shoulder at my phone.
"I think..." I couldn't get the words to come out. I just couldn't muster it. The radio station changed from an upbeat song and turned to a news report. The 'we interrupt this program' jingle came up, somehow catching my attention. I listened in, and what I heard made my heart jump into my throat.
"The young girl Casha Danielle was reported missing from the country town of Boonalee just an hour ago. It seems she left her home to go to the bus stop on her way to school Monday Morning, but never showed up to school or home afterwards. Her family and friends have attempted to contact her, but her phone and other belongings for school were found near the bus stop she was meant to go to. Authorities have been searching all over Nuholani to find her and have interfered all ferry services and airlines in case she tried to escape, but there has been no such luck in finding her. She has been officially reported missing."