Act 2: Chapter 23

Act 2: Chapter 23

Grass clippings and fallen leaves whip wildly around in the gale Corviknight's wings kick up as the mammoth bird touches down just outside of Slateport's Pokemon Center. Around the landing site, several people let out startled exclamations and raise their arms, shielding their eyes from the dust.

Astride the raven's back, Lee takes off his flight goggles, pulls down the scarf around his face, and rubs his arms to help chase away the high-altitude chill.

It gets damn cold several thousand feet up in the air, regardless of how tropical Hoenn is.

Once some feeling has returned to his limbs, Lee looks down at the clock in the instrument panel of Corvi's saddle, raising a brow. "We made good time."

Corviknight croaks deep in his throat and looks over his shoulder as Lee dismounts as if to say, "Was there ever any doubt?"

"You're right, I guess I shouldn't be surprised," Lee easily agrees, smirking. "Aarons was, though. I don't think he expected us to show up only a few hours after calling, and he certainly didn't expect to see you."

Corvi haughtily chortles.

With deliberations between the Draconid elders on whether or not Lee and Brendan would be allowed to accompany Zinnia into 'The Crater' expected to take several days, Lee decided to take the liberty of clearing up his outstanding obligations. After informing his friends that he would be leaving for a day or two, Lee saddled Corviknight up and flew to Mauville, stopping at the Silph Co. office to speak with Alec Aarons, his Ugh. His account manager. Since Corvi can leisurely cruise well over a hundred miles an hour, the raven swiftly got them to Mauville before midday.

After demonstrating and letting Silph Co copy an unnamed Ember shotgun blast technique from Ninetales, and signing an agreement for another run of Seed Blast and Seed Sniper, Lee left the Silph Co office and came to the realization that, in only a few hours, his errands were finished.

'Flight really opens up the world, just like in the games,' Lee muses. 'Only flying is much more fun here.'

With so much time and freedom suddenly in his hands, the zoologist wondered for a moment if there was anything else he had to do before returning to the Draconid village; then, his eyes fell on the empty sixth pokeball on his belt.

With both time and spare credits available, why not tour around and see if any pokemon breeders in the area have a pokemon who would fit the team? Naturally, his mind went to Leo, the breeder who he had adopted Shinx from, and who had a pair of Eevee brothers.

"Raising your team limit to seven is easy enough," Nigel had said on a call earlier that morning. "The limit of six is actually just a traditional safeguard; did you know that? It's so young trainers don't collapse under the strain of a large team. Distinguished trainers can have their limit increased by the League or whoever is offering ranch services to them, though six is still the maximum you can use in competitions. Hang tight, and I'll adjust your account."

If the pair of Eevee don't want to be separated, then that's just fine to Lee. He'll get them both.

'If I'm being honest, I don't want seven pokemon,' Lee thinks to himself, returning Corviknight to his ball for a rest. 'Shinx is more or less recovered from all the side effects of her premature birth, but she's really gunning for the position of "biggest handful" out of all of the cubs I've raised. More pokemon to split my attention between has some definite downsides.'

'The Eevee duo, assuming they wish to be adopted, could function as more eyes to keep watch of Shinx,' Ninetales offers from within her ball. 'They seemed fully mature last time we met.'

'That relies on the assumption that the brothers themselves aren't troublemakers,' Lee sends back.

'True,' Ninetales concedes. 'Perhaps you should have Shinx walk with you today. Both as an exercise in discipline, and to surprise Leo when you arrive at his market plot.'

'Not feeling up to walking with me today?'

The click of the fox's tongue is mental, but Lee still hears it within his ears. 'I stayed up late into the night reading up on the lore and law of the Draconids. If it is all the same to you, Beloved, I would rest for now and enjoy a midday siesta.'

The hand hovering over Nine's pokeball instead grasps Shinx's. 'You know I was joking when I asked you to become an expert on Dragon politics overnight, right?'

'Joke or not, it's valid and worthwhile preparation,' Ninetales replies, her thoughts slowly growing lethargic as she settles for her nap. 'Wake me if you need me.'

'I will, love. Have a nice nap.'

Ninetales sends back a warm, slow flow of love, before nodding off.

Taking Shinx's ball from his belt, Lee taps the pokeball button and lets it pop open. In a flash of light, a blinking Shinx takes form at Lee's feet. After the kitten looks around and gets her bearings, she turns her bright yellow eyes up to Lee with a tilt of her head.

"We're back in Slateport, babygirl," Lee says, kneeling down closer to her height. "I'm going to go visit the market and see Leo, the man I adopted you from. Do you remember him?"

It takes a moment for the name to click, but when it finally does, Shinx's face lights up with a smile. Behind her, her star-tipped tail flicks back and forth eagerly.

"C'mon." Lee offers an arm. "Let's make tracks."

Needing no other encouragement, Shinx leaps up and drapes herself across her trainer's shoulders like Ninetales used to do before her evolution, purring all the while.

Together, man and kitten begin the trek to Slateport's famous outdoor market. As they walk, Shinx's head is on a constant swivel, turning all around to take in all of the unusual sights, sounds, and smells. More than once, she tenses as if to leap off of Lee's shoulders and go investigate things that pique her interest, like a group of wild Taillow chirping back-and-forth on a public bench, but each time Lee gives her a firm look and she reluctantly settles back down.

Once they pass the outer boundaries of the Slateport market, Lee glances around and finds it much the same as the last time he visited. There are a few new vendors here and there, but it seems like most have retained their places. He even spies the phony TM merchant from before, who gives Lee a sour look as he and Shinx pass.

Once they walk past all of the common wares and back into the corner where all of the breeders have set up shop, it doesn't take long for Lee and Shinx to find Leo, the breeder who raised Shinx for the first few weeks of her life. The man is leaning on his truck next to his pen of young pokemon, humming a tune as he jots something down on a small clipboard.

"Hey, Leo!" Lee smiles and raises a hand in greeting as he approaches. "Long time, no see."

The pokemon breeder looks up briefly, then back down to his clipboard. A second later, his eyes widen and his head shoots back up in a prodigious double take, looking at Lee with barefaced surprise. "Mister Henson?" he asks, his eyes then falling to Shinx. Leo gasps. "Oh my stars, is that?"

Shinx leaps from Lee's shoulder into Leo's arms in one deft motion, forcing the overall-clad breeder to drop his clipboard with a 'clack!'

"Is this her? Is this little Shinx?" Leo asks again, looking down at the kitten nuzzling her face into his chest with disbelief. "She's so big"

'Big? She's only now hitting a regular size and weight.' Regardless, Lee smiles in pride. "Yeah. She's certainly grown like a weed, the last few weeks especially."

A laugh bubbles out of Leo's mouth. "A weed? Ain't no weed that can hope to match this!" he exclaims, stroking Shinx's head and earning himself a purr. "I'll be and here I thought today was gonna be a boring one! How did you bring her back from such a state, Lee? I thought for sure little Shinx was going to spend the rest of her life small and sickly."

Lee rubs his chin, organizing his thoughts. "Nightly physical therapy, a diet rich in protein and calcium, plenty of play time around other pokemon, and her own willingness to go through with it. The last one is the most important, I think. You can't force someone, human or pokemon, to recover from an atrophied condition if they themselves aren't willing to work at it."

"I get the feeling that you're oversimplifying things," Leo replies, smiling. "What brings you back to Slateport? You said you were going to Mauville last time you were here, right?"

"Indeed," Lee confirms. "We've been through both Mauville and Lavaridge, and now the rest of my group is back in Fallarbor." He hesitates slightly, unsure if he should talk about the Draconid village. "I flew back here with the help of my Corviknight so you could see Shinx's progress, and because I wanted to see about adopting that pair of Eevee you have."

Leo winces. "Oh, the boys? About that"

'Shit...' Lee turns and looks in the pen of young pokemon all playing about. There is a Poochyena and a Houndour roughhousing, a Meowth dozing in the corner, a Silcoon hanging in a faux tree near the back, and several others, but not a single Eevee in sight.

"A gruff but nice kid all the way in Orre contacted me a few weeks ago, saying he's been looking for a pair of good pokemon who work well together," Leo explains as Lee turns back to him. "When I told him about the brothers, he was interested and wanted to adopt. The boys liked him after a little video meeting and agreed to go with 'em. Either the kid or his parents have some deep pockets, because he put up the money without any trouble."

Lee blows out an exasperated breath. "That's what I get for not calling ahead, I suppose"

The breeder looks down at Shinx, who is still in his arms.

The kitten blinks sadly back, mirroring Lee's attitude.

"If it's an Eevee you want, I can give you a referral." Leo looks back up towards Lee. "A friend of mine runs a mighty professional operation in Verdanturf. Evelyn is her name. Sweet gal, and a whiz when it comes to working with rare or difficult pokemon. Heck, she advised me through the first couple of days after Shinx was born. She's usually got a few Eevee on hand."

Lee's smile is restored almost instantly. "That would be fantastic."

After passing Shinx back to Lee, Leo bends down and picks up his dropped clipboard. He takes a blank paper from the pocket of his overalls and jots a quick something down, before folding it and handing it to Lee. "There ya go. Evelyn doesn't really like parting with her rare ones unless she's sure a trainer can actually care for 'em. That should convince her to let you adopt."

Lee shifts Shinx up to his shoulders and takes the note, tucking it away into one of his pockets. "Thanks, Leo. I've got a couple of other breeders on my short list, but it's nice to know that one of them is guaranteed quality."

"Merow!" Shinx agrees.

Leo snorts. "Think nothing of it, pal. You two take care now, you hear?"

The flight to Verdanturf doesn't take too long, as Corvi flies low and fast. When they touch down outside of a spacious rural residence with a fenced backyard on the edge of town, it's only half past two in the afternoon.

"This should be it," Lee says, looking at the house number on the mailbox. It matches what Leo gave. "Let's go say hi."

After dismounting Corviknight, Lee recalls the great raven to his ball for a rest, then walks up to the large home. Stepping onto the raised porch, Lee reads the sign in one of the windows.

"Greener Pastures Boarding and Breeding Services?" Lee reads with a raised eyebrow. "Sounds premium."

The door bears a sign saying 'Please Come In!' so Lee does just that and steps inside, closing the heavy wooden door behind him. Turning back around, he's greeted with a startling sight.

Sitting a little ways away in the entrance to the foyer of the house is a Sylveon, one who stares back up at Lee with a neutral, practically dead expression.

Lee, despite trying not to, tenses slightly.

Sylveon is the rarest of the eeveelutions by a wide margin, and arguably the most dangerous. The strange ways that pure Fairy pokemon look at the world are at odds with the mindset of most others, both human and pokemon, making a Sylveon unpredictable at best. The amount of reliable information about them is only slightly greater than what is available for a Ninetales.

Which is to say, very little. The expression on this Sylveon's face and the disheveled, sickly look of its coat do nothing to inspire confidence, either.

"Hello, there." Lee smiles, steadying his nerves. "Is Evelyn in? I was given a referral by another breeder, and I was hoping to speak to her."The source of this content nov(el)bi((n))

When the Sylveon tilts its head, Lee reaches into his pocket and presents the note given to him by Leo. He steps closer to give it to the Fairy, but one of the Sylveon's ribbons extends out, stretching across the distance and taking the offered note. Reeling its ribbon back in, the Sylveon opens the note and reads the contents with a raised eyebrow.

Upon finishing the note, the Sylveon folds the paper back up, then turns and begins to walk, looking over its shoulder with a beckoning expression.

"Coming." Lee hurries along.

The Sylveon leads Lee through the spacious, if a bit rustic, home. On the way, they pass several bedrooms furnished for pokemon, with appropriately-sized beds, toys, and food bowls as well as decorations that simulate a natural environment, among other luxurious accouterments. Past those doors are several closed ones. On one of the closed doors hangs a sign saying, 'Mother and newborns inside! Please be quiet!'

Past all of that, Sylveon leads the way to a double set of doors leading to the backyard. Reaching up with her ribbons, Sylveon pulls both doors open and steps outside, letting Lee follow.

Stepping out into the sunlight, Lee looks over the huge backyard and feels his jaw drop.

Outside in the huge backyard is a medley of rare and unusual pokemon.

Lee narrows his eyes. That is a bit more tempting, but ultimately he's forced to shake his head. "She sounds wonderful from a purely statistical view, but my point on the potential instability still stands. I have serious concerns about Sylveon butting heads with my Ninetales. Like many Ninetales, she has..." Lee hesitates, trying to think of a better phrase. "She has possessiveness issues," he finally admits.

Out of curiosity, Lee silently probes Ninetales' mind, only to find the vixen still asleep.

Evelyn is quick to respond. Smiling mirthlessly, she says, "Honey, I don't think you need to worry about that. After such heartbreak, Sylvy's refused to look at any male, human or pokemon, the same way again. I talked to a Fairy expert after weeks of false starts, and you know what I was told? Sylvy is going to pine after her first love until the grave."

A shiver runs down Lee's spine.

"That doesn't mean that she has to be miserable, though." The breeder leans forward, reaching across the table and taking one of Lee's hands in her own.

Her grip is shaky and weak.

"Please, Lee. She can't stay here, not with so many bad memories tainting the place!" the woman begs, her composure beginning to break down. "My baby needs to go out and find a new reason to live! I wish I could make it all better for her, but I can't! I've been sitting here, biding my time and hoping she would work her way past it so I didn't have to let her go, but I've waited far too long! Every morning, it's a little harder for her to get out of bed, and it's all I can do to get her to choke down one meal a day!"

Lee's face screws itself up into a grimace as guilt gnaws at him. "Evelyn" Dammit, there really is no good way to answer. "I" Lee stops himself short again. "I want to help, I really do, but why me? Am I really the best choice?"

"I don't know." The answer is immediate, with the woman reaching up to wipe at her moist eyes. "I can't afford to wait any longer, though. I want her to go to a good, talented trainer who will treat her kindly, one who will give her a rich life, and you're the first trainer that happened by that I feel confident about."

Lee sits back and looks down at Shinx.

The kitten stares back with wide, yellow eyes, unnerved by the tense atmosphere.

'A Sylveon would shut down Dragons, which is useful considering where I will be for the next few weeks.' Lee closes his eyes and tries to see the pros and cons from a neutral place. 'A Fairy also provides resistance to Dark and Fighting. Wish works a bit differently than from the games, and is more along the lines of a generic healing ability, so that would be nice. Pixilate would also be wonderful to study. That might reveal some interesting relationships between the different types of TE. If I remember correctly, Sylveon is also deceptively bulky when it comes to defense, especially when it comes to taking energy attacks. On the flipside'

He frowns. 'On the flipside, there is a whole lot going on here. Sylveon has a lot of baggage which I guess isn't unusual for my pokemon. Geez, that's a bit of an unpleasant realization. Is Octillery really the only normal one around here? I also don't have much personality-wise to gauge from Sylveon. I really don't want to take her in only for her and Ninetales to maul each other.'

'If she behaves, then I will as well.'

The telepathic words are groggy as Ninetales slowly returns to awareness in her pokeball.

Lee sighs in relief. 'Did you have a nice nap? I was just about to wake you to ask your opinion.'

The vixen grumbles slightly. 'My sleep was pleasant, yes, though your introspection woke me. No matter, I suppose, if you were about to wake me anyway.' Pausing for a moment, Ninetales scans through Lee's most recent memories, and the man can practically feel the frown on her face. 'Let it never be said that the dilemmas this team faces are not interesting.'

'What's your take on the matter?'

As the fox thinks over Sylveon's plight, Lee is silently surprised to feel a pang of sympathy from her. The irritation at potential competition for his time is far more mild. 'Perhaps it would be best to bring Sylveon into the conversation. As you told Leo regarding Shinx, one cannot become better if they themselves do not wish to be better.'

Lee smiles. 'Sounds like a good idea.'

'I would like to be present as well.'

'Easily done.' Lee reaches for his belt, unclipping both Shinx's ball and Nine's ball, before pointing one at the tense kitten in his lap. "Why don't you take a rest, baby girl? Sorry for stressing you out with all the adult talk."

Shinx doesn't protest, so Lee returns her to her ball and puts it back on its magnetic clip.

With his other hand, Lee releases Ninetales, setting her next to him with a flash. Once the light fades, Lee turns back to Evelyn, who is sending Ninetales a wary look. "Since this is such a big decision, I want Ninetales to sit in on it. Is that okay?"

"No problem, honey" Evelyn replies, looking between Lee and Ninetales with a calculating eye. A sudden realization seems to hit her, as it's visible on her face. "Oh. Telepathy? Well, I certainly get your concerns now."

'How did she?' Ninetales shakes her head.

Lee smiles thinly. 'We both moved our eyes in-sync, and she noticed.'

The fox pokemon huffs.

"Anyway," Lee continues, "At Ninetales' suggestion, I want to include Sylveon in this conversation. I don't think it would be a good idea to suddenly spring it on her. It could just make her resentful of both of us."

Evelyn nods and laces her fingers, leaning back tiredly in her chair. "That's a good idea."

After a moment of waiting, both Wally and Sylveon reemerge from the house, with Wally carrying a pair of tall glasses filled with a yellow liquid and ice cubes. "I'm so sorry about how long it took!" the boy apologizes, sheepishly setting the drinks down before Lee and Evelyn. "We were out of aspearade, so I juiced a few Aspear berries and made a fresh batch."

"Don't you worry your cute head about it, Wally," she replies, a smile returning to her face. "Could you go check on the big laundry machine in the basement? We need a few minutes to talk, and those bed covers are probably due to be dried."

"Yes, Miss Evelyn!" Wally dutifully turns back around and walks back inside.

In the meantime, Lee lifts his glass of aspearade and gives it a sip, finding the refreshment pleasant. The fresh made kind is definitely better than the canned stuff in corner stores.

Across the table, the pokemon breeder takes a swig of her own drink, wetting her throat for the unpleasant conversation to come. Setting the glass down, she gives her Sylveon a smile. "Sylvy, my baby, I've been talking with Lee here, and he's quite the trainer! Traveling around, taking on the gyms, seeing all sorts of new things" She pauses and gauges her pokemon for a reaction.

She gets nothing in return. Sylveon's blue eyes stare blankly back.

"And I think, Sylvy," Evelyn continues, picking each word carefully, "that that this would be a really good opportunity for you. You're hurting here, so I'd really like it if you went with Lee and his pokemon. What do you say? Can you do that for me?"

That elicits a reaction. Sylveon's face twists into hurt, and a growl begins to build in her throat. Her ribbons, which were placidly limp, bend themselves into zigzags.

"Do not mistake this as me kicking you out because I don't want you. Don't you dare ever think that." Evelyn's eyes grow misty again, and despite how quiet her words are, the commotion in the yard stops as all of the pokemon watch pensively. "Look at yourself, Sylvy. You're letting yourself waste away. If I could keep you in my arms forever and fix what hurts you, I would, but every day you stay here you die a little more!"

Sylveon flinches, but despite being told in plain English, she still doesn't seem to understand. Her ribbons pull themselves into more rigid zigzags, and her growl turns into a snarl, one unfitting for a cutesy, pink creature.

"You need to go, Sylveon!" Evelyn insists, standing from her chair and growing more emotional. "I won't let you sit here and torture yourself! Please, I want you to live and be happy!"

The breeder gets a hiss in reply.

'This doesn't seem to be working' Lee watches the back-and-forth with some frustration.

Ninetales is silent, but Lee can feel her brain working, watching both the pokemon breeder and her pokemon argue. 'Perhaps you should step in, Lee. I don't foresee this ending on its own. Both of them are too emotionally charged.'

Emotionally charged.

Lee blinks as an idea comes to him. 'Nine, be ready to help if need be. I have a bit of an idea.'

'Typically one should approach dangerous situations with a whole idea,' Nine quips, but nonetheless, she stands and takes a protective step closer to him.

'Just like your pyrokinesis was a little tidbit from the game pokedex that no one knew' Lee begins, standing out of his chair and crouching down 'How well-known is a Sylveon's touch-based empathy? Did this Sylveon ever get the opportunity to use that empathy before she was heartbroken?'

Both Evelyn and Sylveon watch Lee kneel down to Sylveon's level, and Sylveon growls when Lee slowly reaches out, stopping halfway to her.

"I really believe that Evelyn means what she says, Sylveon," Lee begins, keeping his voice low and gentle. "She cares so much about you, and it's tearing her apart. Can you take my hand? Maybe I can put it in a way you understand."

The Fairy looks at the extended hand distrustfully. Instead, she looks over Lee's shoulder to Ninetales.

The fox replies with a warm purr deep in her throat.

With great reluctance, Sylveon extends one ribbon out and wraps it around Lee's hand with a featherlight touch.

Taking a deep breath, Lee exhales and prepares to muster everything he has for the coming conversation.

"Evelyn loves you like you wouldn't believe," as he speaks, Lee closes his eyes and imagines the face of each of his pokemon, each one smiling at him. Warmth and meaning blooms within him, and the ribbon around his hand flutters.

"If you died, the pain of your death would never go away," he continues, his veins growing cold when he remembers the sleepless nights after the disaster on Mount Chimney, and how Ninetales' life hung in the balance. "She just wants to do what is right for you, even if it hurts her. Love is strange like that."

Lee hazards a look through his eyelids, and Sylveon is intently focused on him.

"My pokemon and I, most of us relate to the loss of something precious like you do," he says, his memory cycling.

Grovyle losing his home.

Corviknight losing his trainer.

Lee losing everything.

"Some of us never even knew the precious thing we lost."

Shinx living without her mother.

Ninetales living without an identity.

"But" Lee smiles and closes his hand around the ribbon in his grasp. One by one, the struggles he and his pokemon have faced flashed before his closed eyes, and each time, they came out of it stronger and closer than ever. "That doesn't mean you can't find something new to live for, you get what I mean?" He opens his eyes and looks at Sylveon.

Wide blue eyes leaking tears stare back in disbelief.

Taking deep, shuddering breaths, Sylveon breaks her stare and looks down at her other three ribbons. Slowly, almost unsurely, she reaches one out to a watery-eyed Evelyn.

Without hesitation, the pokemon breeder takes the ribbon in her hand, and the instant she does Sylveon stiffens, fresh tears springing into her eyes. Lee can scarcely imagine what Sylveon must be feeling from the woman.

"If you want to try the 'new lease on life' thing," Lee finishes with a smile. "We're willing to help. Friend in need, friend indeed, and all that, right?"

The Fairy sniffles and shudders, tearing her eyes away from her trainer of thirty long years to stare back at Lee. With a shaking breath, she nods, the ribbon around Lee's hand tightening.

Lee squeezes back, sealing the deal and securing his sixth pokmon.