Sleepless in Saffron City

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Shay Miniwa was out very early that morning. Normally she wasn't allowed out this early in the morning, but today the tiny pre-teen had a train to catch. Apparently, it wasn't safe for her in Saffron City anymore, and Shay was honestly fine with the move to the Johto region. Specifically, the much healthier town of Azalea Town. Good riddance to this smelly city, Shay wanted to have some fresh air for once. Air that didn't make her randomly explode.

The line for ticketing stretched out into the streets of Saffron, meaning the tiny green-haired girl with the white dress and white sunhat could be very easily picked out among the not-so-colorful full-time city dwellers around her. She had been using the "I'm just a pokemon cosplay fanatic" for as long as she could remember, and people had been eating it up for just as long. No one ever seemed to question her, although the funny looks never seemed to go away.

Shay didn't hesitate in following the stranger this time, now convinced that the reason that he was in such a rush was because feral pokemon predators like that were prowling around. She wrung her hands a bit in a fit of nervousness; the sun was starting to sink lower in the sky and another run-in like that might not go over as well if repeated a second time. She was biting her already-damaged lip again and it was starting to puff up a bit now along with the fresh bleeding from the wound becoming re-opened. Shay barely noticed with her mind so distracted by other things.

"...There sure are a lot of big pokemon out here, huh mister....." Shay commented absentmindedly after a while, looking at the shadowy trees around them as she spoke. She felt like she was going to go out of her mind from all the anxiety she was storing in her chest; it was quite the traumatizing ordeal for even a normal kid. The stranger may not have exactly been Shay's top choice on her list of people to have a conversation with, but she had a lot of adrenaline-fueled thoughts consuming her mind. She really needed an outlet so that she could relax a bit. "......Say.... Say, Mister......" Shay continued with a bit of hesitation, despite not knowing the guy's real name, "Mister, when do you think I can go home?"

One could practically hear in her voice the grim hold on her hopes that she was putting on the line by asking that question. She didn't sound completely certain that she wanted to ask that question herself, but she was desperately and even unconsciously seeking comfort from some source, no matter what or who that source happened to be. Shay dared to look up at the stranger as she waited for his response, although her eyes revealed her grave knowledge that she may never even get to see the smelly city ever again. In her mind, she pleaded and pleaded that he tell her otherwise, that he tell her she was wrong.

Ori smirked a bit as Shay followed behind without hesitation, glad that the encounter had given her a bit more trust in him.
"Huh? Yeah, there are a few big ones around." He decided to try and make conversation, but honestly the girl had picked a strange topic. Of course there were larger sized pokemon out here, and some smaller ones that were equally as dangerous. Did she really not go out that much to even know that? As she continued to ask questions, he kept a stoic expression, not wanting to give away any information.

"I don't know. When it's safe for you to go back, then you can." Orion told her, before coming up with an explanation. He would have to remember what he said later.
"There are people looking for you, and I don't know why. You've got to stick with me until I can figure that out, and once I do we can make sure they won't go after you. Then, you can go back home." It wasn't a total lie, there were people after her and he didn't know why. That gave him a bit of solace as he continued to walk, watching as the sun nearly dropped over the horizon.

"We should be getting back to Pallet Town, I've been staying there with a coworker of mine. You should be safe there, and we can clean you up a bit." He said as they walked through the woods, hoping that they would come across the town eventually.

"You're pretty scary yourself, mister..." Shay mumbled quietly. Had Sister Marci really sent her such a frightening bodyguard? Shay didn't really think she would. Sister Marci always looked out very carefully for the younger kids like Shay and her roommate, and she wouldn't normally send people who would scare them to... Hey, come to think of that subject... This guy hadn't even mentioned the Sinnoh Sisters.

"Mister, did Sister Marci send you to get me?" Shay questioned. "If she did, why didn't she send a warning, too? She told me I was supposed to be moving to Azalea Town, but why didn't she tell me you were going to take me to Pallet Town first?" she continued, trying to make sense of it all in her head. It was really starting to give her a headache. She tried to remember back, back before this whole fiasco. Did Prim ever mention any extra mail about the move...? No, Prim was very good about making sure Shay got all her mail.

All the signs were screaming that this guy was double bad news. He didn't have any connection to the sisters, it seemed, and that meant the sisters had no clue she was supposed to be taken off the train. Boy, he was going to get a scolding for not alerting them to his activities ahead of time.

He couldn't help but chuckle a bit at her first comment, a small smirk appearing on is his face before it returned to a more neutral expression. Good. It helps for certain things. The boy thought to himself, pushing a few lower branches out of his way as he kept up his own pace.

The next few questions took him by surprise, hearing what she had to say and not knowing most of what she was talking about. In situations like that, Orion found it was best to revert to telling some truth and some lies. After all, it made things easier to remember and made the lies less noticeable. Hopefully it would be enough to keep her coming along easily.
"She didn't send a warning because she probably doesn't know. I got a call, and somebody told me that sending you off to Azalea Town was a bad idea, it wouldn't be as the others thought. So, they don't know about it. We can let them know about the situation when we get back, until then I can't contact them." Ori finished his explanation, his eyes flashing once more as he looked through the trees, picking up on the familiar shape of smaller sized houses nearby.
"Speaking of, we're almost at Pallet Town it seems." He commented, trying to change the subject.

"You sure seem to be out of the loop, mister..." Shay commented. To be fair though, Shay herself couldn't claim to know very much about what was going on either. She originally thought that her moving to Azalea town was just an ordinary move, but now... well now she just wasn't so sure. Sister Marci had been taking care of Shay since before Shay could toddle, so Shay knew the move had to be for her own good...

The whole situation made Shay's aching head throb more.

As Pallet Town came into veiw, Shay felt a bubble of relief float up in her chest. She hadn't yet realized just how tired she was, or how hungry she was; she hadn't noticed anything, really. She just wanted to get somewhere more friendly and welcoming. Her pace picked up a bit; her enthusiastic relief shining in her eyes.

Yeah, just as out of the loop as usual... Orion sighed as he stepped out into the small area that was Pallet Town, looking around. It had grown a bit in the past years, but was still rather small and quaint. Several houses were around the area, with a few larger buildings for amenities such as food shopping and other things.

"Alright, just over here is a library. We can rest here and figure stuff out, so come on." He told Shay, stepping towards the closest building. The Luxray turned to make sure she was still with him, not wanting to lose track of the girl before turning back to the door. Great, hope Nora doesn't kill me... Ori thought to himself, before opening the door for him and Shay to walk in.

Despite being what it was, the Library wasn't quiet. Of course, Christina had come to expect that with the two who had been using the upper rooms as their own apartment, especially when the girl was down in the Library looking around. A quick glance over the counter showed that said girl was running down the various rows, searching the books on the shelves for a specific one. The girl, dressed in a white and some sort of dark blue coloring finally found the book she had been working on for the past week, pulling it from the shelf. She sat down, leaning against it and immediately turning to the final pages.

It was nice to see someone with so much interest in books, but Chris had hoped that when she finally found someone with such an interest, they would be a bit less...well, rambunctious. And someone with a more honest occupation.
"Oi!" The Ninetails gijinka flinched slightly at the loud calling breaking through the Library as Nora stood up after several minutes, book in hand as she walked to the counter.
"How come the book doesn't have an ending?" Chris raised a brow at the question, looking up at the girl who wore a frown on her face, looking angered at having been cheated out of a resolution.
"Is it missing any pages?" She calmly asked Nora, looking back down at her cataloging. The younger girl grumbled in annoyance, opening the pages and flipping through.
"No-"
"Then it has an ending." As she spoke Chris found the book being shoved in her face, lifting her head back up out of mild surprise.
"Look, see? No ending." Nora smirked, keeping a smug appearance and figuring she had proved the librarian wrong. Chris took the book in her hand and read through the final page, fondly remembering the book herself and chuckling.
"There's another book that continues it. You see, this is called a cliffhanger. Authors do it when they want their readers to suffer." She explained, handing the book back to Nora. The girl frowned, narrowing her eyes a bit at Chris' now smug expression as she turned away, walking off to find the next book. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the teen giving a middle finger gesture to the book, getting some personal satisfaction in her ineffective revenge against the author.

Both women paused a moment as they heard the door open, glancing over at the entrance to see who it was that was entering.
"Library's closing, should have come sooner." Chris called out, looking back down at her desk as she got back to work.

Shay was so happy to finally see civilization she could barely stand it. She was walking with a little more pep in her step now; just seeing the cozy little townhomes in Pallet Town gave her a warm feeling. She had never actually seen Pallet Town before, for some reason Shay had been told she was never allowed to go to the suburban 'burg, but she had always assumed it was a nice place. It far exceeded her expectations.

Shay loved books, so she was even more thrilled when she heard they were going to a library. There were plenty of ways for her to take her mind off this confusing and scary situation. However, she flinched when she heard the librarian shout at them. Darn it. Closed? Shay's eyes flicked over to the strange man distrustfully for a second. She really didn't want to have to keep hanging right by this guy's side forever. Not at all.

"Umm..." Shay whispered, "...what now."

Orion gritted his teeth, a low grumbling sounding almost like a growl able to be heard as he opened the door anyways, stepping inside and motioning for Shay to follow, catching Chris and Nora's attention.
"It's me, assholes. What, did you forget what my voice sounds like already?" He rolled his eyes slightly, walking over to the reception table Christina was at. She didn't even look up from her work, continuing to catalogue books.
"I figured if it was you, then you would open the door anyways. As it turns out, I was right, as usual." The librarian commented, her voice crisp and words pronounced precisely. With a sigh, Ori turned to Nora as she walked over.
"Hey, we've got stuff to talk about." He said to her, meeting her halfway as she nodded and pointed to Shay.
"Yeah, yeah, sounds good, but who's plant lady?" She asked. Ori turned and looked over at Shay, three sets of eyes on her now.

Shay was already hesitant to follow this weirdo guy around, but now with all the growling going on she was certain he was leading her into some kind of death trap. She really waned to just say "nope" and scram, but she knew that was a terrible, terrible idea. She flinched as the guy cussed and her hands flew up to where her flowers were; Shay really didn't like cussing.

"Jeez, that was necessary..." Shay thought to herself as her nose crinkled up and her eyes squeezed shut. She just barely caught the plant comment, to which she instictually responded: "I'm- I'm not a plant lady!" She didn't move from her spot in the doorway.

"That's Shay, she's the one I was picking up on the train." Orion nodded his head, walking past Nora and heading to a door to the back.
"Chris, mind keeping an eye on her? I have to talk about Nora about something." Hearing him talk, Nora took another glance at Shay before turning away, following Ori to a back door. The two of them stepped inside, closing the door behind them, leaving Christina at her desk in the library. The woman blinked, looking over to Shay with a somewhat dull expression.
"Well...that was interesting." She muttered apathetically. "And what's your story, miss?"

Heading through the door, Orion found himself in a small hallway with a few rooms shooting off of it. He turned around to face Nora and was immediately met with a punch to the face.
"What the hell was that about? Hanging up on me, then all of a sudden there's some crap about an explosion in the side of a train-"
"Alright, alright, calm down!" He quickly interrupted her as she angrily ranted at him, rubbing his face somewhat. While it hadn't been that bad of a punch, she still hit hard, one of the many things he had discovered through working with her.
"I think we've got a problem. Our clients set us up to cause that explosion." He went quiet for a moment, waiting to see if Nora would interject. Seeing that she didn't, he went on to explain the events that had occurred during the day.
"...so, what I'm thinking is that they told me to bring some cigarettes with me and light one near her. That seemed to be what caused the explosion in the first place. For whatever reason, they wanted that to happen."
"That's a pretty sound theory," Nora commented, nodding in thought. "If they wanted to off you and still get the girl, they would probably have someone nearby to collect her. Considering you survived, I'd say the next step would be to have them follow you and keep tabs. Did you check for anyone tailing you?" He shook his head.
"No, nobody was there. We can always give them a call though, did you take their number?" Nora snickered, nodding her head and walking down the hallway to a door at the end on the right.
"Of course I did. When don't I trace a call?"
"Well, I guess you are useful for something." She gave him a gentler punch to the shoulder as the two opened the door.

Shay looked at the woman at the counter. She was really pretty; Shay almost wished she herself looked more like the lady. She cautiously took a few steps towards the counter, still a little wary of where she was.

"...That guy blew cigarette smoke at me in the train and made me blow up, then he kidnapped me and tried to get me eaten by a big dog." she slowly answered. "I really wanna go home but nobody will let me..."

The term "home" was begining to feel more like a distant goal and less like a place to the little gijinka... She flinched as the door opened; she was feeling pretty sick and tired of that guy's face.

Chris seemed to simply stare at Shay as she spoke, the only expression she showed being an eyebrow raise as the girl talked about wanting to go home. Before she could respond to the younger girl, the doors the other two had gone through opened as they came back into the room. Ori opened his mouth to speak but hesitated slightly, looking at Shay. ...maybe we should at least fill her in on what's going on.

"So...I think it's time for us to have a chat about this." He commented, walking over to Shay. It was awkward, going to talk to her about everything. But, it was something he felt like he at least owed her. Nora seemed to cross her arms, leaning against a book shelf as she watched.
"The situation has changed a bit." The gijinka stuck his hands in the pockets of his jacket, taking a breather to think about how exactly to go about the topic.

Shay saw the guy coming back from the other room and flinched. It seemed like he was friends with just about everyone there and it made her nervous. She was starting to feel horribly outnumbered and it made her want to run from the strange place... But to where would she run? And how could she hide? Maybe if she could find a lawn with some long grass she could blend in... Her thoughts of escape were interrupted by the guy mentioning something about a talk.

".........A chat? About what?" Shay asked quietly. Her voice quivered, and she drew back a bit. Her nerves were telling her something wasn't right here.

"Well, you see, I was hired by a group of people to bring you to them. To be fair, I was pretty sure they were reputable, and they were pretty convincing that they were looking out for your well-being. And then they gave me advice that caused you to blow up a train, and let's just say now I'm not so sure if they're actually looking out for you with all of this." Orion explained rather casually, pacing a bit back and forth in the room as he did so. He seemed to pause for a moment, before perking up somewhat, as if he had just remembered something.

"Oh, right! Chances are, all things considered, since the last the public saw of you was causing an explosion on a train with such a small trigger, there are two options here. One, they think you were with me, and we just attacked a train full of people. And two, that even if you weren't with me, you're too dangerous to leave hanging around. And so, ironically, it seems like I was actually telling the truth before, and for now this is the safest place for you to be at the moment. So...yeah..." He finished speaking, rubbing the back of his head and going silent for a few moments to let everything sink in. Nora and Chris simply watched, taking it all in and waiting to see how Shay would react to everything. Pulling her phone out, Nora began to scroll through it, clicking a few buttons and looking for a number.

Shay was initially confused by what the guy was saying. His words bounced around in her head for a moment before she actually began to make sense of what he was saying, and when she finally put it all together, it hurt her a bit. So, he really had just kidnapped her for his own personal game. Was her life nothing but a bartering tool to him? She knew she should have expected nothing less from a kidnapper, but she couldn't help but feel sick to her stomach as she thought about. Shay lifted her head and stared at the guy with sadness and undertones of anger in her eyes.

At the same time... Shay couldn't bring herself to hate him. Not even a little bit. She hated his actions, yes, but she just couldn't hate him for some reason. He HAD thought twice, after all. She sighed and let her head droop down again. She crossed her arms; her body language told plenty about her internal confliction. "Should I hate him? Do I have the right to hate him? I don't really feel like I need to hate him... and I really shouldn't be wasting energy on hating him." Shay lifted her head to look at the man again, her expression one of being flustered.

"...You're not the brightest, are you....." Shay remarked with another heavy sigh, this one punctuating her decision to let the whole ordeal go. "Look, I know you think it's safe here, but it's actually not... There are other people who will come to look for me. Sister Marci will call them." She paused before sharing the next bit of information. "...There's... well, I've been told there's a very, very, very, very, very distant relative of mine living in Mt. Silver. If it's true, Sister Marci will probably call them and they'll come looking... That would be bad. I should really go home, they probably already noticed the train wreck."