Chapter 16

Sam was determined to make the trip back to Canalave City as miserable as he could for Carlos. It was not even a small percentage of payback for what Carlos had cost him, but it was the only way Sam could stop himself from putting his own fist through the windshield in frustration.

“First of all, I have no idea why you went in there and decided to set off explosives. That had to be the dumbest damn idea I can imagine. You think you’ll find three skittish, hiding pokemon, and your genius solution is to try and blow up half the cave. You’re a god damn idiot. Then–then!–when you get out of the cave after we were actively trying to keep you inside so you could maybe not ruin everything ever, you charge ahead like raging Tauroses and scare them away a second time. And that time, for good. So yes, now they’re gone, and we have no idea what our next move is. Congratulations, Sideburns! You’re the worst person in history.”

Carlos snorted. “We thought they was attacking you.”

“Oh, you’re about five seconds away from seeing what an attack looks like so next time you’ll know.”

Carlos pumped hard on the breaks, jerking Sam forward into his seat. The seatbelt jammed into Sam’s sternum, pushing the air out of his lungs and bruising his chest. Sam realized that Carlos did it out of aggressive frustration–some kind of manly posturing to show Sam he couldn’t be spoken to that way–so Sam reached into his pocket as a threat.

“Do it. Come on, Sideburns. I’ll give you a hint, we already played this game, and–spoiler alert–you lost. But go ahead and threaten me. I could use a big, dumb idiot to bang my pokemon against for a few minutes. Let’s go.”

Carlos, who was breathing heavily and audibly, glared at Sam for a few seconds before simply clearing his throat and turning back to the wheel. Sam was quietly thankful; he was more angry than he could ever recall being before, but once Carlos’ crew realized their foreman was being attacked and came to back him up, Sam would really not have liked the way that confrontation ended. For the moment, though, he had successfully alpha male’d Carlos, and that would have to do.

“God, I can’t wait to tell Mr. Alonzo how this went down. I hand him the guardians’ location on a silver-freakin’-platter, and then it all goes to pot. Everything’s screwed up, and I–” Sam felt an air pocket in his throat and knew he needed to redirect his emotions before he showed weakness in front of Carlos. “Damn it!” He slammed a fist down onto his side of the dashboard so hard, it knocked their walkie talkie free. Not wanting to acknowledge his outburst, Sam scooped it off of the ground without a word and placed it back. 

Sam turned to stare out the window at the feeble guardrail and the valley below. He would not be in Canalave for several hours at best, and the last thing he wanted was to be once again cooped up in that truck with Carlos. He had been so close; the trio had been right in front of him, and they seemed to be willing to help him out. Over a year of searching had brought a solution to his fingertips, and it was gone again to who-knows-where over the bumbling of some idiots with whom Sam had been stuck. Sam rubbed his eyes so hard that when he pulled his fingers away, black spots danced in front of him. The construction crew made Barry look like a baron of foresight and careful planning; when Sam got back to the Phoenix Shipping Corporation offices, he was going to insist on a new group of men to work with, or he was going back on his own. The choice might have been out of his hands anyway since he no longer had anything to offer Mr. Alonzo in exchange for their help (help of course being a term used extremely loosely in their case). Now that the guardians were on their own, Sam had no insight into where they could possibly be. 

His mind flashed to the girl and her grandmother. Who were they? Cynthia’s Spiritomb was amazingly strong, and the strategies she used were nearly flawless. On top of that, she had wrecking balls like a Garchomp and a Snorlax? Crazy, he thought. Sam wondered if she was in the Sinnoh division of the WPL, and, if so, if that was how hard the championship tiers were. He knew Bree would be disappointed that she did not get to battle, even against a monstrosity like that Garchomp. She hated not getting to be involved, and the next time he released her, he knew she was going to be high-strung and still battle-ready. He felt the multitude of pokeballs bulging in his pocket and wondered if any of Barry’s pokemon would have fought for him should it have come to that. He suspected the high-energy, affectionate Monferno might have, but Empoleon and Torterra were bigger x-factors. It was probably for the best to keep them all contained for the moment. Eventually Sam knew he’d have to make his way to Twinleaf Town and drop the three of them off. At the moment, he could not bring himself to think of facing Barry, though.

Sam remembered the empathetic feel of Professor Carolina’s hand on his shoulder. It was not just the guardians that felt Sam’s anguish and came to trust him in his moment of pleading. The lady who had just moments before been so forceful and aggressive with Sam felt something, too. He took a look at Carlos, his face full of sideburns and a scour. Sam could not help but think he had made the wrong choice leaving Celestic with the crew with which he came. But no…he could not have stayed behind with Carolina and Cynthia; no matter whether they were sympathetic to him or not, they were firmly entrenched with Rowan’s belief that the legends were to be protected from humanity. They would never help him find them again. Mr. Alonzo was still the only real avenue Sam could pursue. He would have liked to have depended on the professor and her lovely granddaughter, but they would surely only seek to dissuade Sam from his purpose. Just like Rowan.

Sam’s head felt full, and the fog going back down the mountain hid the sun successfully enough that it felt much later to him than it was. His eyes rebelled against his attempts to keep them open, even as he considered how unwise it might be to doze off with Carlos around. The world of thinking about how close he’d been to getting the trio and whether going back with Carlos to Canalave was the right idea just seemed too arduous at the moment, though, and he let his eyes win.

When they opened again, the first thing Sam noticed was the large cranes. He thought he’d somehow slept all the way to Canalave and its piers, but he also knew he could not have been that tired. When he looked over to Carlos for a clue, he saw that traffic on the other side of the road was a string of dump trucks. A look out his passenger side window showed him a large, rocky hillside with what seemed to be a covered waterslide jutting out of it. The tube was propped up on the outside of the hillside by reinforced pillars and disappeared off in the distance behind the tree line. Sam’s sleep-adled brain finally recognized it as a coal pipeline. They must have been in the coal-mining town of Oreburgh. Sam surrendered himself to a yawn as he tried to regain his bearings after the uncomfortable truck nap that left him feeling worse than he did before.

“I thought you would sleep all day,” the man next to him said.

“It felt like I did,” Sam responded, his anger from earlier feeling less important while his mind continued trying to find its focus. “Oreburgh?”

“Yes.” 

“So we’re close to the strait then,” Sam noted rhetorically. It was going to be a chore getting all of the Phoenix Corporation equipment back onto a cargo ship just to get across to Canalave, but it was hardly his concern; Carlos and his men would handle that. Sam briefly wondered if they resented him for that but discounted the thought. It was probably fine with them that he did not touch anymore of their stuff. They tended to end up in fissures or at the bottom of the sea when he did. 

Sam’s eyes wandered back out his side window. They stared up past the nearby mills’ smokestacks that rose into the Oreburgh sky. He resented the steam and smoke they released as he looked to the clouds. The odds were slim that he would see the guardians here (and he knew even calling the odds “slim” gave them far too much credit), but he knew he had to look. They were somewhere, after all… why not right above his convoy? With no conversation to be had from Carlos, Sam lost track of how many minutes he’d watched the sky. Occasionally he’d catch sight of a Starly or some other bird and think it was one of the trio before realizing his folly. Sam sighed as he lost sight of the world above him because the truck entered the Oreburgh Gate Tunnel; how long would it be before he saw them again? Would he see them again? These were pokemon that only a handful of people had seen in the last several centuries, and Sam was hoping to find them twice in his life. He knew it was unlikely, but what other choice did he have? He’d given up too much to quit now. The hope that he’d find them was almost all he had left. 

Sam’s phone rang when the truck was mere feet inside the tunnel; it was Rowan’s name on his display again. Sam thought it over–Rowan did not seem the sort to call just to mock him for failing to get the legends. Maybe Professor Carolina told Rowan about Sam’s encounter and what she witnessed; maybe Rowan knew now that Sam’s heart was in the right place. He decided to answer.

“Professor?” 

“Sam? Sam, you answered. Thank goodness. Sam, we need to talk.”

“Is this about Celestic Town? Do you know what happened?”

“Celes– –No, I– –were even there–.” 

“Professor? Can you hear me?” Sam began speaking more loudly into his phone. This caused Carlos to give him an annoyed look. “I’m in the Oreburgh Gate, and I’m losing you. Can you hear me?”

“Yes, I– –you. Is something– –hear me?”

“I’m in the Gate! Oreburgh Gate! I can barely hear you!”

“Well I’ll– –then. I– –voicemail and I need– –Barry– –home. He– –and I– –is. I don’t think– –with it– –Phoenix–”

“Professor Rowan, I have no idea what you’re saying. I–damn it.” Sam put a hand over the transmitter end of his cell phone. He was going to ask Carlos if they were almost through the tunnel, but then it occurred to him: Professor Rowan was not calling about how Sam had gained the trio’s trust at all. He was talking about Barry and the Phoenix Corporation. He was just calling to talk Sam out of this again. No faith. No trust. Just another lecture. “Are you still there, Professor?”

He heard Rowan still talking right through the question. Rowan must not have been able to hear Sam any longer, either. “–please, I– –help and– –care for– –doesn’t deserve–” Finally, Sam’s phone emitted a beep, and he knew the call was lost entirely. 

He growled as he pocketed his phone again. If the professor was not going to be helpful, why couldn’t he just leave Sam alone? Sam looked out ahead of the truck; the tunnel seemed to stretch for miles. 

“You lost your call?”

Sam nodded, though he was initially shocked at Carlos’ words. He could not tell whether Carlos was mocking him or simply asking a question. He decided it was not worth challenging him. “Yeah. Didn’t matter, though. Whatever.”

The tunnel did eventually end, of course, but Sam never got the return call he was expecting. He briefly considered calling Rowan back, but he figured it was not worth the hassle to put himself in position for the likely scolding. Without any more calls, the ride continued in silence as they passed through the crowded streets of Jubilife City. Ever since he had arrived at Jubilife Airport weeks ago, he’d only felt more and more hopeful with every passing day. It had been a roller coaster climb of anticipation he had been on, and the pinnacle of it was Celestic Town. Unfortunately, when he reached the top of the track, he found that there was no station in sight where the roller coaster would end. There was only another rapid descent with his heart in his throat. Sam tried his best to ignore the city and continue looking upwards and around the skyscrapers for any sign of the legends.

When the route west through Jubilife City was halted by a broken down city transit bus, Sam began wondering what bus deity out there resided in Sinnoh, and why he hated Sam so much. Carlos sighed angrily and repeatedly sounded the horn from his truck. Angry foreign voices shouted through the walkie talkie, and Carlos responded to them in kind. For all Sam knew, they were exchanging pie recipes; everything in their native language sounded harsh and bitter. Getting a headache from their roaring voices, he opened the passenger side door.

“Where do you go?”

Sam waved his arm ahead of them to the stalled bus and the Jubilife police officers arriving on the scene. “Who knows how long we’re going to be stuck here, but I’m kind of over the whole sitting-in-a-truck thing. I’m just stretching, Sideburns; don’t worry. I shouldn’t be far.”

Sam distanced himself from the crowd on 8th Avenue that had gathered to gawk at the bus and the mayhem of traffic it was causing. He pulled his three pokeballs from his pocket; Vlam and Chispa should have been healed enough by being in their energy stasis, but Sam wanted to make sure. He could always buy them medicine now that he had time to kill. With three squeezes, his friends emerged to the street. Bree cut rapidly through the air in a zig-zag pattern; just as Sam expected, she still had plenty of energy to burn, despite having been in stasis, since she had been so psyched up to battle the Garchomp. Vlam’s legs and tails were stiff, and she sniffed the air with determination. Sam felt guilty that the last few times she’d been free from her ball were to battle, and now she was apparently beginning to expect it. He promised to himself to give them all more time free to relax. Chispa was, as usual, nonplussed by anything that had previously happened to her, and immediately began assailing a pebble she found on the sidewalk. She swatted it a few feet away and then wriggled her rear end and pounced onto it.

“Are you girls okay?”

Chispa’s attention was grabbed first; she immediately forgot about her enemy pebble and rushed to Sam’s legs, winding herself between them. Bree chirped a response in the air, though the sudden, darting movements of her antennae told Sam she still thought the Garchomp was around. Vlam let out a huff of air and did a circle on the sidewalk before lying down. 

“It’s okay, Bree. You’re okay. No one is here. It’s just us, okay?”

Bree tilted her head and hummed abruptly. Apparently settled somewhat, she flittered towards Sam and settled on his shoulder. He coughed as a smattering of her spores invaded his sinuses. He flicked her wing gently to get her attention. “You’ve got to be careful with those things, little girl.” He wiped away water that was welling in his eyes as a reaction to her scales, and she rubbed her round head against his in a form of apology. 

Chispa nipped at his ankle, probably upset at the lack of attention from him. He leaned down, careful not to shift his weight so much that Bree fell from his shoulder, and scratched the back of her neck. Doing so increased the pace at which she was intertwining his legs. Chispa and Bree seemed contented enough, but there was something off about Vlam. She lay inattentively on the sidewalk, moving only enough to look from left to right and let out a yawn. 

“All right, what’s the matter with you?”

Vlam dodged Sam’s attempt at getting into her line of sight by turning away from him. He moved over to where she shifted her head, but the fox pokemon turned to face the other direction. She was clearly giving him the silent treatment. “Oh, whatever it is, I’m sorry,” Sam sighed. “Just let me know, okay?”

Vlam slowly pushed up to her feet and butted the crown of her head into Sam’s left pocket. He felt Barry’s pokeballs bobble there. “Is that what it is? You want to see Barry’s friends?” Vlam continued staring intently at him. Sam shrugged. “All right, fine.” He reached in his pocket with mild trepidation; he had no idea how Barry’s pokemon would react to him. Still, it was not as if he was gambling on their battling for him, so they should be safe to just let free for a bit. With a gentle squeeze to each red-and-white sphere, he released them.

Monferno emerged much like Bree had, with his head shooting from left-to-right and obviously wound up. He seemed disoriented at first, but upon noticing Sam, that faded. He leapt upwards, causing Sam to have to catch the fire-type in his arms to avoid a collision. Monferno grunted in a high voice and patted Sam’s face. Bree, seemingly perturbed by Monferno’s playfulness, flew off of her trainer’s shoulder. Barry’s Empoleon and Torterra were apparently less excited to be with Sam. They each stood stoically next to the other shooting Sam looks that he could only discern as unpleasant disdain.

“So… hi there.” Sam rubbed Monferno’s chin more for the benefit of Empoleon and Torterra than for Monferno. He wanted them to see that he was not an enemy. “Sorry that you haven’t been out for a while.” Empoleon replied with a throaty cackle that didn’t sound happy and caused some of the on-lookers to turn their heads to them. 

Sam contemplated saying something else, but before he could, he felt a paw swiping at his leg. He looked down to find Vlam staring up at him. “Be my guest,” Sam said to her and moved his hand towards Empoleon and Torterra. Vlam walked over to Barry’s pokemon and barked softly. They were unfazed. She tried again, this time brushing her tails gently against Torterra’s leg, but again was given no visible reply. A third attempt to communicate something to them was met with a loud growl from the immense tortoise, and Sam decided that was enough. He recalled Torterra and Empoleon into their balls. 

“Sorry, Vlam. I know you were trying, but they clearly weren’t buying what you were selling.” Vlam cooed in response and wiped her muzzle with a paw. Monferno, at least, was not swayed by his family’s reaction; he continued crawling around Sam’s shoulders and trying to find a comfortable position. “I’m going to get you guys back home, I promise,” Sam pointed out to the fiery monkey, “I just need to find the opportunity. I’m not sure Barry would love seeing me right now.” Monferno grinned and clapped his hands together, and Sam could only assume he was just happy to hear his trainer’s name. 

A few yards ahead of him, he could see that the bus was finally mobile again and was getting pulled off the road. He promised the four friends around him that when he was out of the stuffy truck, he’d let them free again and recalled them into stasis. With that, he rushed to the truck before Carlos could leave without him.