Zachary Black leaned on the bar, smiling as he slid a glass across the smooth surface. That smile, if anything, broadened as the vole woman it was intended for picked it up and brought it to her lips, the canid’s white-furred tail wagging. She didn’t even spare him a glance.
<<< Go back to Cascade of Kindness
Darren sat in the grass at the top of the steep slope, Fox and Tiger on either side of him, watching Heather lose her footing and slide back down in a small cascade of sand and gravel for the third time. “Are you still sure you don’t want a hand?”
<<< Go back to Discomfortingly Comfortable
Darren woke on his own the next morning; a novel thing in itself. The small guest room was windowless, tiny dim Starmie-shaped nightlights spaced along the walls, just a few inches from the ceiling, providing just enough light to let someone navigate the room without walking into the furniture, so not even the rising sun had disturbed his rest. A glance at the clock hanging on the wall, even in the room’s artificial twilight, confirmed that the sun had definitely risen some time ago, by an almost embarrassing margin. When he rolled over and sat up in bed, Fox stirred at his feet, instantly rising and stretching.
Fox had eventually tired himself out playing with the Gym’s mascot Pokémon in the pool, though he stayed in Vaporeon shape as he settled in by Darren’s feet. Darren couldn’t be sure without asking — and was wary of doing the asking in front of so many strangers — but he guessed that the Eevee was remembering how Darren had cautioned him about letting others know about his ability.
<<< Go back to Onix-Pected Developments
The Onix made good on her promise, letting Darren, Heather and their Pokémon off along Route 4. The entrance to her tunnels was hidden among trees and tall grass just south of the actual path. Heather claimed she recognized her surroundings, however, so they bid the wild Onix farewell and made their way through the vegetation after Heather recalled her Charmander.
<<< Go back to A Crack in the Shell
The character of the tunnel changed as Darren and Heather proceeded further down it. The difference was subtle, and though it prompted Darren to move with extra caution the more certain he became that there was something different about this stretch of tunnel, he wasn’t sure whether Heather had noticed.
“Hey, Darren?”
<<< Go back to Treasure in the Rubble
“So you’re saying that Team Rocket are doing experiments to try to make… some sort of obedient half-Pokémon supersoldiers, and that’s how you came about? And that your Eevee is another of their experiments?”
Darren nodded, grimly. “Fox can evolve into any of Eevee’s evolution forms at will, but I warned him that we’d be separated if they knew, so he never let it on to them. They think we’re both failures, and Starlit, my Blissey, was a disappointment since she refuses to come out of her Pokéball. They were just humoring me to let me have them.”
Darren caught up with his companions considerably sooner than he’d expected, even slowed down by not being able to see the uneven rock floor. They’d stopped to wait when they’d heard the rumble of falling rocks, and far as he could tell in the flickering light from the Charmander’s tail, the girl looked relieved to see him. Her eyebrows pinched together a bit, however, when she saw him limping.
“Are you hurt?”
<<< Go back to Fifteen Feet Under
They hadn’t run far when Fox flew up and landed on Darren’s shoulders, where he reverted to Eevee form — drawing a gasp of surprise from the girl — and settled down to rest, draped with his forelegs on one side of Darren’s neck and his tail on the other. So far, no sound but their footsteps carried down the corridor, and Darren almost dared hope that they’d managed to shake his pursuer.
<<< Go back to Mareep in Wolf’s Clothing
Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for someone to take up pursuit. The chase lead away from the Pokécenter, away from the delivery truck where Darren’s supposed trainer was probably still waiting, and towards the eastern road out of the city. Having offended the city’s police force, making himself scarce seemed like the best thing he could do.