Pokémon Mars

Chapter 45: The Chief

Callerya tied her cardigan around her waist. Running to the lab seemed like a good idea, because the faster she got there, the less people would see her split jeans. Her accelerated pace only extended the split. The cardigan was cropped, so it didn't cover much, but at least it covered her underwear. Her Garchomp spread its scythes behind her. That wasn't a good idea, either, because the strong, fierce-looking Pokémon terrified most passersby. She was out of breath when she reached the lab. She must have looked more distressed than she thought. All of the excited faces fell. Thalassa and Julien were gone. They were already on a rover to Team Magma's headquarters to speak to Kazuki.

'What happened?' Nyx asked, 'Was he a weirdo?'

'I... didn't think he was... but I guess he must be... but more importantly, I split my bloody pants!'

'Even more importantly,' Jin said, 'I was right! There was life on Mars – preserved in those opals!'

'...What?'

'You heard me! The Magby and Binacle families used to live here! And you know as well as I do that where there's one species of Pokémon, there are more of 'em!'

'This isn't even funny, Jin.'

'Course it's not funny! I'm deadly serious! I found life in those opals! Have a look for yourself if you don't believe me!'

Natsumi nodded. 'He is absolutely right. But... are you OK, Callerya?'

'I just... my pants... but life on Mars...? Seriously? Like, seriously seriously?'

'Seriously!'

'Magby and Binacle... wow. I guess it makes sense. If opals often form near hot springs, well, Magby live in volcanoes. And Binacle like hydrothermal vents. So some of the volcanoes out there must've been undersea ones, once.'

Jin's grin disappeared again.

'You don't sound that excited...'

'I am, but... but... those Pokémon lived millions of years ago... there's nothing here now... Joshua's dead... Team Genesis are out there, ripping open time and space... the Ares program is a load of shit... I just want to go home...'

'What happened?' Nyx repeated, 'How weird was this guy on a scale of one to 10?'

'I don't know how bloody weird he is... I thought he just was listening to me, talking about Orre and football... but when I left, I got stopped by that Hope woman... she asked me all these questions about him and ran off like he'd killed as many people as Hera...'

'Hera is out there.'

'What?!'

'Yeah. Racer left me a note. He said he saw her last night.'

'Noooo! I want to go home!'

Nyx frowned. 'What did this guy look like? I only saw him from behind, but... his hair colour was similar to–'

The doors opened. They were locked so they could only be opened from inside, but someone's key card overrode the lock. Hope walked in. She held a photo of Praise, cut out of the football team's latest photo posted on social media.

'Have any of you seen this man before?'

'Yes.'

Nyx, Mercury and Firmino all replied in unison.

'Where?'

'At the Origin Village,' Nyx said, 'Sonnet called him an "excellent explorer."'

'Explorer...?'