Chapter Text
The Underground Railnet was filthy, noisy, and all around unpleasant. Cal planned on entirely blocking out all of the annoying stimuli seeing as he was only here to survey the layout, to find any potential secret passages and report it back to Sirius who would pass it up to Solaris. There were other people here, so he tried to ignore them as he felt along the little cracks in the wall for any give.
They became increasingly harder to ignore when the casual chattering started escalating into raised voices. Cal felt the irritation as it began to boil beneath his skin, his jaw clenching and cheeks heating. Did they not know that this place echoed? Or did they, and just not care? Regardless, he grimaced as the shouts reached his ears.
“C’mooon, you’re always such a riot! I’ve never seen you turn down some fun before!” The voice was distinctly masculine, rough and easily the loudest.
“Yeah, and you look so stressed today. You need some R&R, honey. We got a good spot in one of Peridot’s alleyways!” The second voice sounded more feminine, something light and excited.
“Guys, I’m just really, really not feeling it today. I had a ton of people trying to challenge me today, most of them weren’t even eligible for a badge! And one took the loss pretty badly, and then my mom got involved…” The third voice he was able to pick up on sounded somewhere in the middle, and had a nervous edge to it at that.
“Which is exactly why you should take it easy! Come back and hang with us, you don’t gotta worry your pretty little head about anything.”
“I really shouldn’t,” The other voice laughed, a tinny high-pitched sound, “honestly I should really just get back home now. Super tired.”
“No way, you just got here!” The feminine voice chimed in again.
“Seriously. Any other time you’re practically falling over yourself asking us to hang out with you! C’mon, don’t leave us high and dry.” The rough voice followed.
“Yeah, quit bein' so damn weird about it.”
Cal grit his teeth. Couldn’t these chumps take a fucking hint? All of the voices started to blur into one and they fuzzed in his ears like wet static. He marched up to the group, fists clenched tightly at his side, his fingernails pressing into his palms, leaving crescent indents in their way. His steps came down heavy as he approached them, finally able to see them fully.
“Hey, fuckwads! He said he doesn’t want to hang out with your lame asses, so how about you get a fucking move on, huh?” The three turned to face him. One of them was slightly recognizable, something about that striking purple hair, but Cal couldn’t place from where. Maybe TV? It didn’t matter. The other two were much more ordinary looking, a man with blonde hair and a red jacket and a woman with black hair that matched her dress.
“And just who the hell are you?” The man walked up to him with a finger pointed at his chest. It took all of his willpower not to grab it and break it.
He wasn’t exactly known for his patience. He bared his teeth, grabbing the guy’s hand and squeezed his knuckles together. “Listen, shit-weasel, it doesn’t fucking matter who I am because you aren’t going to see me ever again. Because you are going to fuck right off and not bother him anymore. Am I fucking clear? Am I?”
The girl spoke up pretty quickly after, already looking ready to retreat. “Hey, chill the fuck out, man! We were just–”
Cal’s burning gaze snapped over to her. “Just what? Being pieces of shit to some guy who clearly doesn’t want to fucking go anywhere with you? The more you talk, the more you’re pissing me off. Now get the fuck out of here before I put both of you beneath the fucking dirt!” He wrenched the man he was holding by his arm, pulling him closer before shoving him away hard enough to make him stumble.
“You’re fucking crazy, man!” The blonde man yelled at him, before both of them backed up and scampered out of the Railnet back into the Peridot Ward.
He shouted back something unintelligible to even his own ears, not wanting to let them get the last word. He turned to the only person left from the group, the one the other two were pestering. “You okay?”
The man laughed, sounding a bit awkward, and fiddled with the cuffs of his sleeves. “Sure, I’m all better now that I’ve got a knight in scorching armor at my rescue. Thanks, sweetie.”
Cal scrunched up his nose. “Those punks just shouldn’t have been talking to you like that. You clearly didn’t want to go with them. I don’t know why they couldn’t just take a fucking hint.”
He shrugged. “They’re friends of mine. I’ve run with them before, just didn’t feel like it tonight. Sometimes a guy just wants to get some air, y’know? I’m Cain, by the way.”
“Cal. And you’ve got some shitty friends.”
“Eh, you can’t really be picky around here. And they aren’t that bad, besides, it’s not like they stick around very long anyway.”
“I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere.”
Cain laughed again. “That’s never a good thing to hear.”
Cal shook his head. “No, I’m serious.” He ignored Cain’s mumble of “so was I” in favor of trying to piece together the familiarity in his head. “LaRue? You’re the new poison leader, right? I think I saw you in an interview once.”
“Oh, wow, really? I didn’t know anyone even watched those things,” he laughed. “But, yep, that’s all me. I just took the position recently, so I don’t blame you for not knowing right away. Sorry to make you play hero when I could’ve handled it myself.”
“Even if I did know, I still would’ve stepped in. Those fucks needed someone to verbally burn them to a crisp and it would’ve been pathetic as fuck of me to just stand around and let them bother you. You probably could’ve handled it yourself, yeah, but that doesn’t mean you should have to.”
“What a gentleman, you’re going to make me blush. Are you a league challenger then?”
Cal froze, confusion flashing across his face before he remembered he was asked a question. “No, uh, actually, I’m in the fire-type gym leader position right now. Pretty new myself.”
“Huh! Isn’t that something? I don’t watch much TV, and I never open the mail Ame sends us, so I’m pretty out of the loop when it comes to what’s happening in the league.”
“Really? I didn’t know Ame sent us mail.” She likely sent it to the house where he was still legally a resident, and he made damn sure not to go back there if he had anything to say about it.
“Sometimes, when it’s important. I just take on challengers that manage to wade their way through the waste and actually end up at my house. If she needs me for anything else, well, she knows where I live.”
“The waste? So you live in Byxbysion?”
“Uh-huh. We keep the gate locked unless we get special clearance to unlock it or I have someone coming to battle. Minimize accidents that way.”
He’d never been into the Byxbysion Wasteland before, the thought made his stomach roll. “It’s gotten that bad?”
Cain shrugged. “Yeah, it works out in my favor, I guess. Not a lot of people know how to handle my arena and it usually sends them packing.” He walked over to one of the stony walls and leaned against it. “I wasn’t making it up when I said I should probably get back home, though. Can’t leave everyone waiting!” He laughed again. It was bitter.
“You don’t sound too thrilled about that.”
“Ah, well, I came out here for a reason, didn’t I? It’s nice to get away, but I’ll always have to go back.”
Cal knew a little too much about that. “Nobody’s making you.” He also understood far too well that it didn’t work as easily as that.
Cain looked like he wanted to say something else, but he pressed his lips into a thin line and slid down the wall until he was sitting. “I’m gonna sit here for a bit and decompress. You mind keeping me company for a bit, cutie? Unless you’ve got somewhere else to be.”
He did. And he should leave. He didn’t even know this guy, even if they had similar affiliations. He had to get back and make his report. He didn’t have time for this. But Cain seemed to be one of the few decent people he’d met in the city besides Shelly, so maybe he should count his blessings. “Sure, whatever.” He sat down next to him, keeping a couple feet of distance with his back against the same wall. “You just invite any stranger to sit in a shit-hole with you?”
“Nah, just the pretty ones.” Cain angled his shoulders towards him, his tone goading and teasing like he swiped through a collection of words in his mind and selected the perfect words to get a rise out of him.
It worked, and Cal flushed pink. “Are you fucking with me?” He narrowed his eyes at him.
“Not yet.”
“What does that even mean?”
Cain shrugged, a smirk tugging at the corner of his pouty mouth. “Whatever you want it to mean.”
Cal scoffed and shook his head. “You’re weird.”
That earned him a laugh, something melodic and reminiscent of those Chimecho-styled decorations he saw when he was a kid. Cain looked at him with a smile. “You don’t know the half of it. Relax, I’m just messing with you.”
Cal didn’t have much footing to stand on there. He was pretty weird, too.
Cain sat by him for a while, breathing easy and occasionally closing his eyes and resting his head against the wall. He left around ten minutes later with a sigh and an easy smile. He gave Cal a brisk wave when he exited the Railnet, balancing on the ruined tracks like a tightrope. It was the first time Cal noticed that Cain’s shoes were taller and bulkier than any that he had ever seen. He didn’t even bother looking around the rest of the Railnet before leaving shortly after, too.
He would probably pay for it later, but that was later.
He definitely paid for it later. Blake was spinning in a worn down office chair while Sirius pinched the bridge of his nose and stared Cal down like he personally wanted to bury him.
“What part of ‘we need to know the Underground Railnet inside and out’ did you not understand, Canis Minor?”
Cal grit his teeth. He should’ve gone back after Cain left and kept looking around the area, but he just couldn’t be fucking bothered. There was something about the way Cain asked him to just sit next to him for a few minutes that made him not want to linger after. Like he didn’t deserve to.
He said none of this. Instead, he opted for, “I understood, sir. Something came up while I was down there. There were people, and had I continued they would’ve grown suspicious considering I’d already drawn their attention.”
Blake kicked a foot up on the table to stop his chair from swiveling and sneered at Cal. “You fuckin’ suck at stealth, bro. I bet you started screamin’ at them like a banshee ‘cause they looked at you funny. Idiot.”
“Shut the fuck up, Blake. Nobody was fucking talking to you!” He bared his teeth, feeling his anger set to an immediate boil beneath his skin. Blake only laughed at him and kicked off against the table to spin himself faster.
Sirius cleared his throat. “You will go back and you will get what we asked of you. If you do not, it will not be me you will have to answer to, but Solaris. Do whatever you have to, but do not come back empty handed again. We need the layout. I want every wall, every crack in the floor, every crevice. Am I understood?”
“Yes, sir. I understand.” He was two seconds from flying off the handle and going for Sirius’s good eye.
Cal went back to the Railnet regularly after, walking along the silent, abandoned pathways that would’ve allowed for convenient travel through the city before the earthquakes tore everything up. He didn’t see Cain there again for another two weeks, though. It was enough time that the other leader was finally starting to leave his mind. Any hope of that was immediately dashed when he felt around one of the breaks in the wall and saw him nestled inside, nearly entirely swathed in shadow.
He yelped and flinched back. Cain mirrored him in doing the same, pressing himself further against the wall in shock. “What the fuck! What are you fucking doing in there, you–”
“I should ask you why you’re digging around in the Railnet walls! Jeez, can’t a guy get some privacy? Find another crack if you want one so bad.”
“I don’t want a crack, why did you want a crack?”
“I wanted this crack because it gives me peace and quiet. Nobody comes over here. Except for hot fire-type leaders, apparently.” Cain might’ve winked, Cal couldn’t tell with the lights and the fact that only one of his eyes was visible with his hairstyle.
He was grateful that the blush that immediately flared up wasn’t noticeable in the dim light, either. “What the fuck does that mean?” He didn’t sound as annoyed as he tried to project.
“Means whatever you want it to mean, cutie. Now, are you gonna come in and hang out with me or keep standing there starin’ like I’m gonna give you a rash if you get too close to me?”
Cal sputtered, “W-what? I don’t think you’re gonna give me anything. Why are you so weird?” He stepped into the crevice and immediately noticed it was a little bigger than what he initially thought. Two people could fit comfortably in here even if there wasn’t much wiggle room, but a third would definitely push it to be cramped. He sat down so he wasn’t looming over Cain, still unable to read his expressions in the dim light.
“If I’m weird then what does that make you? You just crawled into a hole with me. In the dark. Ooooh, so romantic…” Cain wiggled his fingers at him and laughed as he spoke.
“Shut the fuck up, oh my god.” He couldn’t help but laugh, too. If anyone else said anything like this to him, he’d be blistering with anger and mouthing off and shouting ten seconds ago. He couldn’t place why Cain was any different.
“What, am I making you nervous?” Yes.
“No, but you’re going to piss me off in a minute.” Not quite.
“Ah, my bad. Don’t want to scare off my good company. Say, what brings you over here, anyway? I was serious when I said nobody comes down here. Not this deep, anyway. It’s been my hiding spot for a good while.”
“Uh, just… just wondered what was down here. It seems dangerous for most people, I guess I was just curious.” He’d made a mental map of the area by now. There were a couple hidden passages, hallways, twists and turns that stretched on for what felt like miles underground. All of this was going back to Team Meteor. Cal almost felt guilty about it.
He was barely able to see Cain’s smile from the way he inched forward. “The danger of this place is what makes it so safe.”
“How so?”
“Nobody can come running to track me down. Not unless they wanna break their ankle or something.”
Cal hummed in response. He didn’t really know what to make of that. Cain talked about using the Railnet as a means of getting away from everything, but to really hide somewhere to be so certain that nobody could find you tugged at something in his brain that he couldn’t name.
Cain fidgeted in the silence before speaking up again to fill the air. “No need to look so serious, it’s okay! It’s nice and quiet here, isn’t it? Calm. You don’t get a lot of this in the city.”
No, not really. Reborn City was loud, messy, and chaotic. The earthquakes devastated it beyond belief. “Definitely a big change.”
“From?”
“Oh, uh, from Ametrine. That’s where I’m from.”
Cain shot forward, his hands planted on the ground. “No way! This whole time I thought you were a local I just missed somehow. What are you doing down here? It definitely isn’t for the air quality. Or the water quality. Or the housing. Or the–”
“I get it, I get it. Yeah, I don’t really know either.” He was here because Team Meteor assigned him here and he needed to prove that he wasn’t worthless. Cain couldn’t know that.
“Heck of a choice.” Cain tried to stretch out his legs, accidentally kicking Cal with his heavy boot in the process. He barely flinched, but pulled his leg back out of the way. “Oops. Not used to having someone else in here with me. The dark usually doesn’t matter very much.”
“It’s fine. I barely felt it.”
“Oh, a tough guy? Color me impressed.”
“Not- not like that. I’ve just been around enough that a little kick doesn’t bother me.”
Cain hummed. “You get kicked around a lot?”
Cal stared at him.
His lack of a response seemed to make Cain re-evaluate. “Sorry, stupid question! Don’t answer that. I just meant, do you get into a lot of fights, then?’
“I think you can probably answer that for yourself. I nearly got into one when we first met. I would’ve, too, if they didn’t leave when I told them to.” Cal clenched his fists and resisted the urge to slam his knuckles into the stone. The thought of them was enough to make him seethe. “Stupid fucks.”
“Hey, don’t worry about them. They don’t matter. I’m here with you and not them right now for a reason.” Cain leaned in slightly, close enough that their shoulders were a hair's breadth away from touching.
Cal shook his head. “I didn’t do that because I wanted your attention on me instead. I just didn’t think you deserved to be treated like that. With fuckers disrespecting your boundaries and ignoring you when you said no.”
Cain was silent for a beat. Then another. And after a while Cal realized he wasn’t going to respond at all.
“Did I say something wrong?”
Cain lowered his head to rest it on his knee. “No,” he let out a weak laugh. “Kinda the opposite, actually.” He drew circles on the floor with a finger. “My boundaries aren’t something people care about very often. Not their fault, really, because I always want them to think it’s okay. That no matter what I’m always down for whatever.”
“But you aren’t.”
“Eh, sometimes. I like to have fun and I like when people think I’m having fun. It might sound stupid, but at least that way they don’t try to look too deep into it.”
It was Cal’s turn to be silent. He let his head rest against the wall, stretching out one leg to let his shoe bump against Cain’s boot. It was weird being this close to someone.
“I think I get it. Having to control someone's perception of you before they start trying to figure you out. Making up their mind before they make it up for you.” He understood it. He understood it in his own way, of fighting every single day to make sure he was so distinguishable from Blake that nobody could tell they were related. And every day they did well to remind him that he failed. Always being referred to as Blake’s younger, weaker brother regarding his status as a trainer, even as a gym leader. Hell, his own code name symbolized him as the lesser half of a greater whole. It made him sick.
Cain’s gaze flicked up to rest on his face. Cal suddenly felt a little scrutinized. Maybe that was a little too much. But then Cain smiled, a real smile, and Cal’s lips twitched in a herculean effort to smile back. He was so used to scowling, these days.
Cal brought the Railnet layout on a messily scrawled map back to their hideout in Yureyu HQ. Marked on it were hidden rooms and hallways, as well as notes for significant damage and which places were harder to traverse on foot than others. The power in the building was still shot, so they relied on lanterns and flashlights when they needed to read and discuss things. Cal usually opted for one of his Pokemon to stay near him and assist him as a light source, but not everyone else had that luxury.
Sirius looked considerably more pleased this time, taking his report in large hands and examining it with a hum of thought here and there. “Not terrible. Stand down and tend to your gym while we prepare your next assignment.”
“I have to go back up north?”
“What else did you expect? We have nothing that requires you at this time.”
“I figured I’d keep surveying the city. Maybe there’s something we haven’t caught yet.”
“We already have Ace on the ground, and they are much better at being discreet than you are. You are to return to your gym, Canis Minor.”
Cal frowned. Going back up north meant he wouldn’t be able to see Cain anymore. Not unless he was given another assignment in the city, at least. He also wouldn’t be able to see Shelly as much. He didn’t like either of those.
“I haven’t gotten a challenger in weeks,” he pushed.
“Are you disobeying a direct order? You aren’t needed here right now. You’d be more of a liability with how volatile you are. We’ve been over this.”
“What if Ace or ZEL need assistance with something? More hands won’t hurt.”
“We have plenty of grunts for that. Why do you insist on staying in the city?”
“I think– no, I know I can be more useful here than shuffling my fucking feet in a gym building nobody even gets to. They notify me when I have a challenger on the way, anyway, so it isn’t a problem just to fly back if it happens. I have leads and connections sprouting here you don’t even have a fucking clue about, and I’ll be damned if you make me squander those just because you don’t think I’m fucking good enough.” He didn’t like leveraging his blossoming friendships like this, but if it kept him stationed in the city… he was grasping at straws, at this point. He still felt guilty.
If it was possible for Sirius’s frown to deepen, it would have. “And is that any way to speak to your superior?”
“You don’t listen any other way.” That definitely seemed to piss him off more. There wasn’t to be any infighting within Team Meteor, but Sirius looked like he wanted to do nothing more than to feed Cal to his Seviper in that moment.
“Your hotheadedness will be your undoing, boy, but so be it. Stay here in the city, see what you can find out. Any weak spots we can exploit and utilize are to be reported to myself or another admin immediately. Any shortcomings will have you sent back to your original post. Am I understood?”
Every time Sirius asked that, Cal wanted to charge him. He resigned himself to a sigh and too much pressure on his teeth. “Understood, sir.”
Sirius waved him off after that, turning back to compile the documents into a folder for Ace to digitally process under candlelight.
Cal thought they needed better hideouts.