Day 246

[based on Pokémon xTreme]

With Brandon and Emma gone, Seth was forced to lead Taylor and Kieran out of Mt. Moon himself, with his Skarmory brushing aside the few wild Pokémon foolish enough to attack. “Hey, you said you wanted some Grass-type Pokémon, right, Taylor?” he said. “There should be some out on Route 5, south of Cerulean. They might be a bit tough, but I'm sure you can take one down and catch it.”

“Thanks, Seth,” said Taylor. “I'll head out there after lunch and take a look.”

“No problem,” said Seth. “There might be a few Electric-types there as well, so you can sample the obviously superior type for yourself.”

Taylor chuckled. “Thanks,” she said. “But Brandon reckons a Grass-type will help me with the third Gym as well.”

“Well, he's not wrong there,” admitted Seth. “Third Gym's a Ground-type Gym, so Electric Pokémon… not a good idea.”

Before long, the trio were out of the cave and stood blinking in the sunlight of Route 4. On the other side of the hilly traverse lay Cerulean City, a large, pristine metropolis, and their ultimate destination. Brandon and Emma, it seemed, were long gone. “Well, I guess we'd better start walking,” said Seth.

“How far is it?” asked Taylor, a little apprehensively.

Seth shrugged. “Few miles,” he said. “Hey, you wanna be a Pokémon trainer, you gotta get used to doing a whole lotta walking.”

“Well, it's better than flying, I guess,” said Taylor. “Alright, let's get going-”

Before the trio could set off, however, there was a sudden flash of light nearby, and Claire Voigt and her Gardevoir stepped out of thin air onto the grassy hills. “-at his fly is undone,” said Claire. Then, realizing that she had teleported mid-sentence, she turned to scowl lightly at Gardevoir. “I told you to stop doing that,” she said.

“My apologies, mistress,” said Gardevoir, curtseying politely.

Claire swiftly zeroed in on Taylor, who seemed to be rather confused by the woman's sudden arrival. “You must be Taylor, Brandon's student,” she said. “It's a pleasure to meet you.” She then turned to Kieran, who looked equally confused. “And you must be Kieran, Seth's student. It's a pleasure to meet you as well. I'm Claire Voigt, one of the Elite Four.”

Taylor was still rather taken aback by the woman. “How did you-”

“-know your names?” Claire interrupted. “Easy. I'm a psychic. I can read people's minds and predict what they're going to say before they say it. For example, right now you're both thinking, 'I want to get away from this crazy lady so I can go and have lunch'. That's perfectly fine, I've got stuff to do anyway. I came here following a distress signal from Brandon, he wants me to rescue him from his date with Emma.”

“He does?” said Taylor.

“I dunno if you've noticed,” said Seth, “but Brandon isn't exactly the dating type. He's more of a hit-and-run kinda guy.”

“Thank you for that elegant summary, Seth,” Claire remarked. “But yeah, a serious relationship has always been the last thing on Brandon's mind, and I was getting some serious negative vibes from him just now. Wherever it is Emma's dragging him right now, he doesn't wanna be there. Or at least, not with her.”

Taylor couldn't help feeling a little conflicted by this. On the one hand, she was relieved that Brandon wasn't too keen on dating Emma and wanted to get out of it; presumably this meant he was as eager to get on with their training as she was. On the other hand, the fact remained that Emma was carrying his baby, and she wanted him to do right by her. “I thought he'd be enjoying the attention,” she remarked.

“Not the kind of attention Emma's giving him, by the sounds of things,” said Seth. “She's probably acting all lovey-dovey with him, and he hates that shit.”

“Fair enough,” said Taylor. “So, what are you gonna do, just teleport in there and crash his date?”

“Well, I would do, but I don't know where he is,” said Claire. “This was where he was when I picked up his thoughts, but I don't know where he is now. I assume the two of them are headed to Cerulean, though?” Once again, Claire picked up the answer before Taylor or the others could provide it. “They are? Great. Let's head over there together and then you can go have lunch while I go rescue him from Emma. Your Pokémon are all beat up, right? Here, hand them over and I'll heal them for you. I have plenty of Max Revives spare.”

“But you're not carrying a backpack,” said Kieran.

“I don't need a backpack,” said Claire. Reaching into the pocket of her jeans, she pulled out a handful of Max Revives. Taylor and Kieran glanced at each other, shrugged, then started to hand over their fainted Pokémon for Claire to revive.