Project: Titans -- A Pokemon Story (OC x Piers)

Chapter 38

I sat, numb with shock, as I waited in the Pokemon Center for Skrelp, Toxie and Meowsie to recover. Two Team Yell grunts stood on either side of me, on their guards in case I tried to make a break for it, but I never did.

The entire population of Spikemuth was crowded in the tiny Pokemon Center, but all 27 of them fit inside snugly. Piers was waiting by the main reception desk, watching for Nurse Joy's return. Marnie slowly walked up to me, gave a silent look of what looked like apology, and handed me some beat up hightops. They weren't my Converse--not by a long shot--but they would be better than nothing. I took them and slipped them on without a thank-you.

They weren't too large or too small; on the contrary, they fit well without suffocating my feet. And they were surprisingly comfortable, though I suppose any type of shoe would be comfortable after walking around a ghost town for a day in nothing but socks.

The telltale ding of Nurse Joy's return made me look up to see Meowsie, Toxie and Skrelp return; Meowsie and Skrelp getting wheeled on a cart, with Toxie walking behind her. As soon as she was in the lobby, Piers' Toxtricity burst out of his dusk ball to say hello again. Piers didn't even notice as he grabbed the luxury balls from the tray Nurse Joy offered him.

As soon as we were close enough, Meowsie leapt off the cart and into my arms, where I squeezed her tightly against me. "It'll be okay," I whispered in her furry ears. "We're going to get out of here. I promise." Meowsie looked up to me with hopeful eyes, before they widened in surprise as she was sucked back into a luxury ball.

Piers' expression was devoid of emotion as he handed the capsule to his little sister, who opened it immediately after he walked over to where I was standing. "Come on," he gestured to the door. "This ain't a vacation any more, girlie. Your agreement officially starts now."

*********

Instead of immediately starting on repairs like I had anticipated, we ended up walking down the now empty streets until we reached a dusty old apartment complex. "It ain't a paradise, but it's home," Marnie explained as Meowsie leaned forward from her perch on her shoulder. She had taken up permanent residence on Marnie's right shoulder after some adjustments, and was now fairly content messing with her pigtails. I felt strange seeing her with someone else.

"Well, come on. You girls waitin' for an invite?" Piers asked, pushing open the rusted door with a grunt and horrific screech. "Isn't that the polite thing to do?" I asked, stepping inside. "Ask someone to move in with them instead of--oh, I don't know, forcing them to live in your abandoned shack of a city after you've kidnapped them?"

Piers ignored me as Marnie trotted through the door he was holding for her. "Elevator's broken," he warned his little sister before she made her way to a bunch of rusty, cage-like doors. "Again?" she groaned, and I noticed from the way her eyes reflected annoyance that this was a regular occurrence for the pair. Piers just shrugged in response. "Landlord's runnin' out of funds to keep this place goin'. Be lucky we still got hot water, the way we're goin'. C'mon, up the stairs."

As it turned out, Piers and Marnie's apartment was on the fifth floor. That meant climbing five flights of rickety old steps that threatened to crumble and send me tumbling to the basement (or the concrete base of the building, considering how weak the building's foundations were). And calling the place an apartment was being exceedingly generous.

The carpeted floor of the living room, once white or light grey perhaps, was stained and yellowed with age until it was the color of a dying buttercup. The couch was old and weathered, with rips in the cushions revealing fluff and the occasional loose spring that might poke someone somewhere important if they sat down wrong.