Leon hadn't followed Amber. Charizard landed outside the Krabby Klub. Raihan, already tipsy, scrolled through Rotogram at the table he shared with Olivia. Abbey was nowhere to be seen. She'd left for Gateon Port early to make sure she didn't miss watching Fayiz's exhibition match live... but that finished hours ago. Leon knew from Olivia's expression that she wasn't in the bathroom. Forgetting the van, he went straight to their hotel.
Fayiz's voice echoed from tinny laptop speakers when Abbey opened the door. She was watching the locker room interview. Leon sat beside her to watch in silence. Their son recited a perfectly rehearsed speech about how hard his opponent, Marnie, tried.
'Fuck's sake,' Abbey tutted, 'I keep thinking about challenging him. Just to get him out. But I'm not even sure I could beat him.'
'I've thought about paying someone to rig it. Not like he'll need my money when I pop my clogs, is it? But I can't do that to my own son.'
'Yeah... how is Amber?'
'She's made a new friend. Wes's boy. Seth.'
'Oh, good! That's a relief.'
'She chose Eevee. Oh... and they're walking here. The van got stolen. Cassia forgot to lock it.'
Abbey sighed. 'Do Olivia and Raihan know?'
'Better tell them.'
Leon picked up his backpack, because it was never entirely safe to leave Poké Balls in an Orrean hotel room. Abbey covered her pyjamas with his long coat. She regretted it when a lurking woman, overdressed in a thick coat herself, snapped a furtive photo.
'Wasn't she at the lab?'
When Leon looked, she was gone. 'You'd think they'd find someone more exciting than ageing parents to spy on...'
After a few too many beers, Raihan was on the Krabby Klub's stage with local singer Kandee. Olivia filmed him, smirking. She claimed his Rotogram obsession annoyed her, but she secretly loved live streaming his drunken escapades – which he usually regretted the next morning – to his loyal followers. Raihan secretly loved her for it, too.
'Lee!' he yelled, a little too loudly, into the microphone, 'Come on! Join us!'
Leon leaned to shout over the music into Olivia's ear. 'Bad news...'
'Poor Marnie.'
Leaning back, she ended the live stream. 'If only my husband didn't get so nervous battling you and your relatives, Leon, he might still be Champion.'
'Well, yeah, we've been talking about that, but...'
'The van's been stolen,' Abbey announced bluntly, 'Cass forgot to lock it. They're walking here.'
Olivia blinked. 'Silly girl... she thinks she's still in Alola. Raihan!'
He stood like a soldier to attention. Kandee thanked the 'interesting man from Hammerlocke.' He stumbled off the stage.
'That lovely new van's been stolen... because our lovely daughter forgot to lock it.'
'What?!'
Raihan gaped. 'That didn't take long...'
The keys for Olivia's rental car jangled in her hands. 'Looks like we've got ourselves our own little quest.'
Her friends followed her to the parking lot. Raihan's Flygon flew after the car, keeping an eye on the roads, as they made their way around the city's car shops and garages. Outside the centre, many were still open to furtively sell drugs. Olivia wasn't afraid of approaching them. One man claimed he'd seen the van heading east out of town. They had to trust him. There was no sign of it anywhere in Gateon Port.
They cornered a man who owned the same model outside a diner. It wasn't theirs. Their apology wasn't enough. He drove off in the other direction after losing to Leon. They continued on towards Mt. Battle. It was a three-hour drive in traffic, but with the roads mostly empty, Olivia ignored the speed limit. They reached the dimly-lit parking lot within an hour and a half. The Pokémon Center Nurse inside thought she'd seen the van. She checked the CCTV. Just over two hours ago, a young couple indeed parked the van, rushed inside to heal their Pokémon, then drove south. They hastily thanked the nurse and piled back into the car.
Potholes dotted the highway. The couple had to be heading for Pyrite Town. Olivia was about to pass the last exit for miles when Flygon yelped. She swerved. Wheels screeched. The car threatened to tip. A silver van was indeed parked at a gas station. Leon took out the DSLR he bought to take photos of his children's battles to zoom in to the plates.
'PXY-241...?'
'That's ours!'
Raihan waved before his friends could stop him. 'Hey, dickheads! You don't wanna cross the mighty Raihan!'
They were alerted. A pair of Chasers dashed back to the van. The doors slammed. It sped away. The van was designed with Orre's harsh terrain in mind. Their rental car was not. They fell further and further behind.
'Thanks for that, darling.'
'Sorry...'
A jeep careered around them. Olivia grumbled.
'Now what? Can you tell if that's another Chaser, Leon?'
The camera's long lens captured a woman with a sleek brown ponytail.
'Definitely not. She looks too smart to be driving like that...'
'What the...? It's like she's after our van! Is it those silly plates?'
Abbey and Leon giggled. Raihan couldn't resist that van when he saw his uniform number, 241, in the plates.
'Nah,' Olivia decided, 'You're not that important.'
The van skidded off the highway. Dust billowed behind it. The jeep followed. Olivia gritted her teeth and turned.
'I'm not looking forward to this bill...'
The car juddered. It struggled through flying sand. The van's lights switched off. Leon shuffled over for Raihan to release his Torkoal onto the back seat. Its Drought summoned sunlight. The thieves must have thought they were hidden, because they stopped. Flygon landed in their path. Abbey hurled her Cinderace's Poké Ball. It sprinted with Olivia's Lycanroc to help Flygon. They surrounded the van. Leon's Dragapult flew after them with the spare keys. It mischievously stabbed at the button to unlock the doors. Cinderace yanked them open. Olivia abruptly braked. Her passengers were thrown forward. One of the Chasers sent out Gloom and Maractus. Cinderace's Pyro Ball scorched them. Leon and Charizard caught up to finish off his third Pokémon, Tropius, with Fire Blast. His partner's Flying-types couldn't stand up to Olivia.
Wheels shrieked. The jeep's driver abandoned her vehicle. She sped off in the van. Olivia sprinted back to the car, but the woman had slashed their tyres. The Chasers leapt into the jeep. Its driver hadn't bothered to remove her keys. It screeched away.
'Get back!'
An Electrode grinned in their car's back seat. The Pokémon spread wings and limbs to protect their Trainers. It was too late to fight. Electrode exploded. The car went up in flames. Debris flew. Flygon's wings blocked a flying pipe. Cinderace kicked a chunk of metal back at the car. When Abbey and Leon dared relax their protective grips, they saw Olivia and Raihan, too, were clinging to each other. Their rental car was a crumbling silhouette. Abbey's Vaporeon helped Leon's Inteleon put it out before it spread. Olivia hastily let go of her husband. They were all ashen.
'What,' Abbey said, 'The fuck was that? I'd get it if that woman had been with the thieves... but she clearly wasn't.'
Raihan shook his head. 'So much trouble for one van...'
Leon was palest of all. He zoomed in to the blurry picture on his camera.
'It can only be because it was ours. But she wasn't dressed like a Cipher Peon...'
'Cipher?!'
Abbey groaned. 'No! They have to be gone by now. What the hell would they even want a fourth time?'
Leon warily returned his Pokémon. Abbey took his hand. He wasn't scared of much, but he was terrified of Cipher trying to steal his precious Charizard again, or somehow ending up in another coma.
'I'll buy them a new van. I don't think I want them wandering out here.'
Their closest acquaintance with a car was Hebon, Agate Village's Gym Leader. He didn't pick up. They tried Michael. He gladly drove immediately from Gateon Port. It was still a two hour wait in the pitch-black desert until he arrived. He was pale and concerned.
'You guys really don't have much luck here in Orre. I'm sorry.'
He drove them to Abbey and Leon's house on the outskirts of Agate Village. It was abandoned and crumbling when they bought it. They renovated it while Leon relearned how to live after his long coma. The dust sheets covering furniture wore thick brown coats. Flyers drowned the doormat. Fayiz had only used his room once. Abbey offered his single bed, with fresh Sobble-print sheets from the airing cupboard, to Michael. She was fed up and exhausted. Seeing that empty room and feeling it sink in that both of their children had flown the nest didn't help. At least she was already in her pyjamas. She was about to call Leon when his voice floated upstairs.
'Abbey, love? Can you come down?'
She wanted to protest, but after 16 years of marriage, she was one of the few people who could read 'unreadable' Leon. She knew from his voice something was wrong. He held a copy of her most popular book, Landscapes of Alola.
'This was in the hall.'
'Maybe it fell...'
Her voice trailed off as he opened it. Someone had drawn a beard, red eyes and fangs on her photo inside. Scrawled over her bio were messages.
'BITCH!!!!!!! YOU ABANDONED HIM! YOU DON'T DESERVE HIM OR HIS KIDS!'
She squinted at the bio's text they covered. 'When Professor Hawthorn isn't admiring rocks, she's running Wyndon's Battle Tower with her husband Leon. Their kids, Amber and Fayiz, are also budding Trainers.'
'Some fan...?'
'I thought so, but this was there, too...'
He dropped the book as if it was poisoned and unfolded a piece of paper. It was a letter.
'To the owner of PXY-241,
I have your van. Meet me at the Mt. Battle Kar-Mo-O petrol station at 5PM tomorrow. You must come ALONE or I'm afraid I can't give back the van. I don't mean any harm. I just want to talk to you privately.
See you soon... I hope. 💛💙'
Abbey frowned. 'Petrol station? Are they Galarian?'
'I recognise that handwriting...'
Leon stared at it, but sometimes the mental blocks left by the accident still refused to budge. He shook his head.
'It's so frustrating... it's so familiar... but it's no good.'
'If it's familiar, it can't be a fan. So who the hell do you know who'd try to blow us up?'