| Rio POV |
Well, that was a fun evening. Caught some fish. Almost drowned after Star threw me three miles out to sea.
"That was your idea," she said. "You wanted to, and I quote: 'Know how a missile feels like.'"
Details, details. No one cares about those.
What matters is that everyone had fun.
I glance at Penny, still sulking on her towel.
Everyone except the introverted closet lesbian, I guess. She's still bitter I soloed her full six-mon team.
Poor girl.
…Almost makes me feel bad.
Almost.
But I did warn her, didn't I?
No number of Flareons would ever match up to my fire.
I stretched, shaking the water out of my fur. "Well, that's our cue."
Penny didn't respond, still pouting behind her sunglasses.
"You sure you don't want to tag along? We might find another Team Rocket base to punch through. Very therapeutic."
She gave me a deadpan look. "I think I've had enough therapy for one week."
Star waved politely. Trishout just yelled, "BYE PENNY!" before sprinting into the distance with her legs on fire, and her arms on fire. And now she set fire to the tree line... Again.
I gave Penny a two-finger salute. "Take care. Don't let any Tentacruels kidnap you again!"
Oh what a sight that was, unfortunately her vaporeon was around with a very wrath fueled Hydro Pump, would love to see that again.
She groaned. "That happened one time."
"And it was hilarious," I said, already backing away. "Truly, a highlight of the vacation."
Penny flipped me off without looking. "Hope you get stung by a thousand Qwilfish."
I grinned. "Love you too."
Star floated past with a lazy wave, and a well deserved smack was administered to the back of my head, I followed after her, Fen and Grovyle joining us soon after they woke up from their naps.
Time to get May… and figure out what kind of nightmare Rocket left behind.
"Say, wanna fly there?"
"Weren't you scared of heights?"
"Yeah, but I have Nue now, worst case scenario I'd have to fight a Dragonite in the clouds. Which is more dangerous for it than us."
Star gave me a flat look. "You're not supposed to treat aerial combat like a theme park ride."
"Everything's a theme park ride if you try hard enough."
"I will push you off midair."
"Exactly. Thrill ride."
She groaned and rubbed her temples like I was a chronic migraine given form, but didn't argue further. That meant yes.
A minute later, Nue shrieked from above, descending like a bolt of judgment and bad ideas wrapped in feathers and plasma. The forest trembled under his landing, and I swear I heard a flock of Wingull evacuate the region.
Grovyle calmly hopped onto his back. Fen followed after, fur ruffled but unconcerned. Star floated. Trishout took a running leap and shouted something about "avenging her ancestors" before bellyflopping onto Nue's back and nearly rolling off.
I climbed up last, giving Penny a final glance.
She didn't wave. Didn't smile.
But she was still watching. Probably with a thousand questions swarming her head.
Good enough.
A few hours later, we hit the outskirts of the lab—what was left of it, anyway.
Smoke stains still clung to the walls. Half the security system was offline. But the lights were on, and so was May.
She looked up from the monitor as we walked in, eyes bloodshot, hair tied up in a messy bun, one leg bouncing like she'd had six too many coffees.
"Finally," she muttered, scrolling through a screen that looked way too much like a regional outbreak map. "Took you long enough."
I dropped onto the couch. "We brought snacks."
Star floated in behind me. "And a growing sense of existential dread."
May didn't even flinch. "Perfect. You'll fit right in."
"So, will the professor coalition be providing us a map or will we have to track the BBEG's layers' ourselves?"
"NO NEED FOR ANY EXTRA HELP FRIENDS! YOUR FAITHFULL COMPANION AND GUIDE, ROTOM! HAS EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW!" I forgot Rotom turned back on, kinda missed him after a while.
"Perfect! So, what mountain are we nuking first?"
"EXCELLENT QUESTION!" Rotom screeched as he materialized from May's terminal in a flash of sparks. "I HAVE CALCULATED THE BLAST RADIUS NEEDED TO OBLITERATE MOUNT CHIMNEY ENTIRELY! MARGIN OF ERROR: MINIMAL! COLLATERAL DAMAGE: ACCEPTABLE!"
May's chair snapped as she stood. "No nukes!"
Rotom flickered. "...NOT EVEN A SMALL ONE?"
"NO!"
I gave her a look. "You used to be cool."
May ran a hand through her disaster bun. "Yeah, well, I used to have hope too. Things change."
Star floated past and gave me a light zap. "Let her cope in peace."
"Fine," I muttered. "But if we get ambushed in some underground hellscape and the only way out requires nuclear force—just know, I told you so."
Rotom whirred like a jet engine. "I WILL KEEP THE BUTTON WARM!"
"Good enough for me, when are we going back to Hoenn?"
"Right... About that..."
"Please tell me Combusken didn't set the whole region on fire or something."
"Its a bit worse than that?"
"Did team magma destroy the ecosystem or something?"
"Worse..."
"Oh come on! What could have possibly happened while we were away for like 2 weeks?"
May didn't answer right away.
Instead, she turned the monitor toward me.
It was a map of Hoenn.
Most of it was red.
Not the "heatwave warning" kind of red. The "this zone has been marked a high-risk biohazard containment failure" kind of red.
I blinked.
"Oh."
May nodded, tapping a blinking cluster near Rustboro. "This one's the most stable. For now. Which is convenient, because that's also where our bird-brained friend showed up."
I stared. "You mean Combusken?"
"She has followers now."
"...Excuse me?"
Star floated closer, reading over May's shoulder. "Is that a wanted poster?"
"Yes," May said. "Issued by three different factions that all gave up trying to fight her and are now trying to bribe her to leave."
Rotom helpfully zoomed in on the image: a blurry, furious Combusken being hoisted onto a pile of makeshift offerings by a horde of ragged survivors. One was crying. Two were worshiping.
I looked at May.
She stared back.
I said, "So… normal Tuesday?"
She deadpanned, "You tell me."
"Can I get a copy of that poster? I want to hang it up when we get back home."
"She's going to burry herself in shame..."
"THAT'S THE POINT! I HAVE MADE A COMPILATION OF THE 'FIREBORN''S BEST MOMENTS! WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO RELEASE IT ONT HE POKENET?"
Never mind, we're the ones that are going to be burying her after she finds out.
(To be continued)
Don't you feel bad letting her fight for an entire region while you guys are out there taking beach trips?
MC: Eh, she probably would have preferred nonstop fighting over sand. Knowing her, she should be very happy with all the food offerings she's getting.
Food that you are not getting.
MC: ... COMBUSKEN! I'M COMING OT HELP YOU! SAVE ME SOME FOOD!