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imfluentinfangirlandgay · 4 months

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A Father's Resolve - Ch 13

Ingo returns after a decade - with two extra cars in tow. Years later, his kids are swallowed up by time in the same way he was. Will he be able to find them? Will they be able to make it out alive?

Word Count: 2700

Rei ended up being ordered to stay in the village for three days to rest his elbow. The first day he spent just resting in his bed, floating along the line of consciousness. It reminded him of summer vacations when he would be allowed to just sleep when Dad and Uncle Emmet had gone to work and he and Akari were allowed to be watched by Haxorus or Excadrill.

The second day he went a little stir-crazy. He left the room to wander the village. Akari had no desire to leave just yet, but he didn’t mind. In fact, he kind of wanted some time by himself. He couldn’t leave the village without an escort and he had no desire to talk to people, so instead, he asked if he could enter the pastures. The woman who ran them raised her eyebrows, but did not ask questions.

He ended up lying in the grass, his arms stretched out in the sun. Several Bidoof, Buizel, and a couple Shinx lay beside him, all soaking up the sunshine. The alpha Kriketune from that big fight wandered over at one point and took up a position too. Rei sighed in contentment and let out his team to lay with him. While he lay, his mind wandered.

The sun crept across the cloudless expanse of blue above him. He was warm and cozy as the grass and the small sparks from the Shinx tickled his skin. He sighed. Was Dad okay? He really hoped he hadn’t noticed their absence yet. And Uncle Emmet, too. Rei had heard stories about how bad Uncle Emmet had gotten during Dad’s disappearance, though he supposed he could understand. If Akari had just vanished into thin air, Rei would have lost his mind. But then if Dad had noticed he’d lost not one, but both kids…? Rei had no idea how that would go.

Then he started thinking about teams. He needed to structure a new team for Hisui, as he only had Topsy Turvy with him now and it didn’t seem that Mandibuzz were native in this region and he didn’t want to reveal her to anyone. Campfire was a must. The Eevee, which he had taken to calling Blitz, was certainly a good idea. So long as he didn’t accidentally show it a Fire Stone, he won’t have an extra fire type. He thought about Lord Wyrdeer. Honestly, he was super cool. A Psychic type would be good too… Rei glanced to his left, at the Stantler that was trotting around the pasture, grazing. He had no idea how it evolved, but it would likely prove to be a strong ally… Spark Plug could help round things out in the meantime and take care of the overabundance of Flying and Water-types he ran into. Those Staravia were menaces.

Rei sat up and stretched his back. He stood, trying not to disturb any pokemon. He recalled his team and swapped a couple balls with the attendant before leaving. He took a deep breath as he considered the next step. Perhaps it was time to see what moves they could learn…

He made the trek across camp, running into a person or two that had a request for him. One wanted to use a Geodude as a pickling stone, whatever that was. Another asked him if she could see the completed dex entry for Starly. Finally, he made it to his destination. The gates of the dojo stretched overhead, and inside, he saw who he was looking for. He just had to play it cool.

“Hi. Uh… Zisu.” Arceus, why did he sound so awkward?

If she noticed, she made no indication. She looked around from what she was doing. It seemed like she had been polishing a pokeball with a cloth. “Hello, there, Faller! What can I help ya with today?” She smiled brightly at him as she stood, brushing off her kimono and crossing her arms. Arceus, he’d forgotten how tall she was. Rei knew he was tall for his age, and she simply towered over him.

“I wanted to teach my pokemon some new moves,” he squeaked.

“Of course! Let’s see who ya got.” She paid close attention to each and every pokemon he sent out - even if it was only four. She scratched her chin as she looked at the selection. “I bet I could teach that one Rock Smash. Look at those arms. They may be small, but I bet they pack a punch,” she grinned, pointing at Campfire. “And the Eevee is small. That’s not a bad thing, but it can play to how cute it is. Baby-Doll Eyes can make opponents lower their guard so it can sneak in some extra attacks.” She glazed over Spark Plug and the new Stantler. “Surprisingly, I feel like I can teach you Bulldozer and Swift, among other things. I know Ground moves can be useful out there,” she gestured to Stantler. “And as for you… Look at those teeth! And you are already a master of electricity. Fire Fang and Ice Fang. You’d take to it like a Psyduck to water.”

A few minutes later, Rei had new moves on his teammates, which made him feel much more relaxed. That scene of his entire team being cut down by Kleavor in seconds had been replaying over and over in his head. He had a Fighting move and a Ground move now, so hopefully Rock-mons wouldn’t be as much of an issue. “Thank you, Zisu. I think this will help a lot.”

She grinned at him in a way that reminded him of his sister. “Anytime, newbie. Tell me if you need anything else!”

Rei could feel a soft smirk coming onto his face as he began to walk away. “Say,” he began, turning back to face her, “might you be up to a battle?”

“A battle?” She rubbed her chin again. “Unfortunately I have an appointment with the Captain in just a few minutes, otherwise I would. Come back anytime and I’ll take you up on that, though! I’ll make sure to go easy on ya. My pokemon are quite strong.” Her easy smile never left her face, even when she flicked her hair out of her face. Rei nodded and left the dojo with his team in his pockets to head back home to his sister.

The third day he spent drawing. He hadn’t been able to properly draw ever since Unova, he hadn’t had his sketchbook on him when he’d been taken. For every pokemon they had registered, he sat in the pastures, this time with his sister who was now getting sick of being alone in the home, and drew them in as much detail as he could. Even though Laventon took photographs of every single species, Rei found that there was something special about capturing them by hand.

If only his sister would understand this concept. “I still don’t get why you insist on drawing every single species. There have to be like two-hundred species in this region or something. You’re really gonna draw them all?” She looked up at the sky as she asked him, only glancing down to view his latest drawing at the end of her question.

“Yeah.”

“Laventon takes pictures of them, though.”

“I know.”

“Then why? It takes forever.”

“Because I like doing it,” he sighed, shutting the book. He looked apologetically at the Burmy that had attached itself to the branch above him so he could draw it. “Though if you’re gonna throw a fit, I guess I can make more balls.”

“I’m not throwing a fit. I’m just confused,” she huffed, crossing her arms as well as she could in a pout. The bandages somewhat restricted her movement at the shoulder. “I just don’t get why you do it.”

“Because I want to, Akari. Haven’t you ever heard of doing stuff for fun?”

“You know it’s just weird for me to think of art as fun,” she retorted. Rei rolled his eyes. It was true that he was the more artistically inclined of the two. “It’s hard and takes a long time.”

“You don’t have to enjoy it, you know. No one is making you draw them,” he argued as he began to cut away at an apricorn. “All I ask is you don’t get mad at me drawing them.”

“I’m not mad,” she huffed again.

“You sound a little mad.”

“I’m going to go mad listening to you all day.”

“You’re the one who decided to come with me.”

“Yeah, and I’m starting to regret it.”

Rei looked up at her. “I’m not keeping you here, you know.”

She didn’t look at him as she continued. “Yeah, but then I’d be lonely. Your poor baby sister, all alone.”

“We’re the same exact age,” Rei retorted, his eyeballs rolling so far he thought they might escape his head.

“I’m older than you by three minutes. Dad said so.”

“Then how can you be my baby sister?”

They continued on like this for a while longer, eventually lapsing into silence. Akari settled with petting an Eevee that had curled up in her lap. She watched the sky, watching the clouds roll by as Rei carved more and more balls. By the time he had hit about fifty, he went back to drawing. The Kriketune had joined them and as it was rather aloof, he wanted to take this time to draw it properly. He had most of it sketched and was shading with the piece of charcoal when Akari spoke again. “Do you think… they’re okay? Everyone at home?”

Rei was silent as he shaded in one of the long arms. “Probably?”

“What if they did find out we were gone?” Her voice dipped in pitch as she gave in to a half-whisper. “What if we can’t get back a few seconds after we disappeared? And Dad and Uncle Emmet can’t find us? What if to them, we disappeared?”

Rei didn’t say anything for a minute. He finished the Kriketune and closed the dex. “Well… they won’t be okay. But they’d figure it out. Like Uncle Emmet did.”

“Rei, Dad was gone for ten years. That’s the only option he had.”

“Well, we won’t be gone that long.” Rei set his pokedex to the side and leaned back against the tree. “All we need to do is finish the dex and then Arceus said it would send us home. And that won’t take ten years.”

“We have no idea how long it’ll take. We don’t know how many pokemon there are,” Akari pointed out. “And what if it doesn’t mean just ancient Sinnoh? What if we get taken to another region after this?”

“I kinda doubt that,” Rei said.

“But we don’t know.”

“Then text it.” Rei sat up, pointing to her satchel that had the Arc Phone. “It texted us one time, remember? Doesn’t that suggest that we can text it back?”

Akari blinked, seemingly at war with herself. “I can’t tell if you’re a moron or a genius,” she remarked as she pulled out the phone. She tapped on the screen a couple times as Rei leaned in to look. She pulled up the chat.

Seek out all Pokemon. Under that chat, there was a textbar. And when tapped, it brought up a keyboard with the alphabet on it. The Hisuian alphabet. “Well I’ll be darned…” she muttered as she typed out a message.

Arceus, right? This is you? We were wondering… after we finish the dex, we get to go home, right? We won’t go anywhere else?

They waited for a moment. Then, a new text in gold showed up, like the first.

Seek out all Pokemon.

She blinked and then typed out a new message.

Yeah, that’s the plan. Can you tell us how many pokemon there are, at least?

Another new message popped up after it, saying the same: Seek out all Pokemon.

“Well that was helpful,” she sighed sarcastically as she put the phone away. Rei shrugged.

“Was worth a shot.”

“This didn’t really help me with worrying about Dad, though.” She nervously rubbed the Eevee’s head, between the ears.

“We can’t really do much about it,” Rei pointed out. “All we can do is what Arceus said. We seek out all pokemon. We go home. If we don’t, we raise a big stink about it. It chose us for a reason, right?”

“I guess…” Akari sighed to herself again. She was clearly not satisfied with the answer, but truthfully, neither was Rei.

—---------

Two weeks since the first time Ingo had tried going to work by himself, and now he refused to go without Emmet. It seemed Emmet's presence made other passengers back off from his brother. Perhaps it was the sharp gaze he would pierce them with. Maybe it was his looser tongue, or his lack of hesitancy to kick people out for prying. Or perhaps Ingo was just too polite. Whatever it was, focusing on Multi Battles seemed to keep unwarranted questions off.

Emmet sat in their office, Ingo at his desk beside him. His brother bit into an apple as he read some papers on his desk. Emmet was munching on some chips as he scrolled his phone. Their hats sat on their desks, their short hair allowed to breathe for a bit as they enjoyed their lunches.

A depot agent entered the room after a quick knock, asking Ingo a question about one of the electrical boxes.

A notification sounded on Emmet's phone. He tapped the message. It was from his uncle.

How have you both been? Sorry to disturb you at work.

Emmet glanced between the two people in the room. He was not a part of the conversation, and so began to type.

You caught me at a good time, its lunch. We're alright. Ingo isnt really normal but he is somewhat enjoying battles. His praise to challengers seems more genuine lately.

Emmet took another bite of his sandwich as the little bubble popped up as his uncle responded. He must also be on his lunch break.

That's great! Genuinely. It is good to hear you both are doing well.

I recently got a message from someone in that large chat Iris made for me. The one I told you both about a couple of weeks ago. She seems quite keen on speaking with you both.

Emmet knitted his brow slightly, putting down his food and typing with both hands. Is it about the kids?

The reply came quickly. Seems so. She is in Sinnoh, but offered a video call. Is there a good time I can tell her?

Emmet looked at his brother. He was laughing about something the agent had said, his apple mostly gone. The clock stated they still had five hours left of their shift.

After work should be good. We get off around 7:30 and can be home by 8. Emmet nonchalantly put down his phone and grabbed his sandwich again, making sure to smooth out his face into his normal smiling expression. He took another bite of sandwich.

Sounds good. I'm surprised Ingo isn't insisting that you leave this very moment.

Emmet glanced up one more time, typing out one last message as the agent left, then clicking the button on the side of the device and making the screen go black. Don't tell him yet. They aren't going anywhere.

“Who was that, Emmet? You seemed perplexed.” Ingo took out a packaged cookie and began to unwrap it.

“Uncle. He was telling me about a trainer he met earlier with a peculiar team.” This was not exactly a lie, as he had also mentioned a trainer with an unusual team earlier that day.

“Ah, you must tell me about it-” The alarm on Ingo's phone went off. Lunch was over. Ingo sighed as he stood, Emmet doing the same. His back popped audibly as he stretched. Arceus, he was getting old.

“I will tell you all about it after our shift,” Emmet vowed. He would ensure to tell his brother about the texts… Once he was sure the day was over.

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