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.

Ori blinked as the girl in front of him seemed to take things in a fairly calm manner now, and didn't even bother arguing with her remark on his brightness. He noticed that neither Nora nor Chris stepped up to argue it either. Though, at the mention of Sister Marci, Chris' eyes seemed to widen, just barely noticeably.
"You're...well, frankly you're taking this a lot better than I thought you would. But really, whoever hired me is probably looking for you around the wreck right now, and trying to head out probably wouldn't go well. I'm sure whoever Sister Marci is, or whoever she's sending after us, it won't be too much trouble-" The luxray gijinka started to speak, but found himself cut off as one of the other two women stepped forward.
"You should take her back home. Now." He paused and glanced over at Chris as she spoke, catching the tone of what she was saying. It wasn't a suggestion.

"Uh...why? Who's Sister Marci?" Orion hesitated slightly in asking the question, unsure if it was common knowledge or if Shay and Chris just happened to be in on...well, whatever it was they were in on together.
"Am I the only one who doesn't know here?" Glancing over to Nora for verification, she didn't seem to know anything either as she looked to him and shrugged, before going back to searching her phone. Chris seemed to think about answering for a second, before glancing to Shay, as if waiting for her to answer instead.

Shay just cocked her head at Ori's comment about her taking the situation well. She folded her hands behind her and twiddled them around, feeling a little nervous. "Um, well... I'm kind of used to... 'rambunctiousness'..." she commented. "And I'm not really sure how much I should say about Sister Marci... We're allowed to say names, but we're not really supposed to talk about the sister's powers or anything else. I guess... well, there's a big church in Sinnoh where we all live. I grew up there.... It's her favorite place for some reason." Shay was gripping the edges of her dress so hard her knuckles were white. Her eyes were darting all over the room, mostly the floor, and never once landed directly on anyone else in the room. She didn't know what to say, and it was clear by the long pauses in her speech that she was desperately grabbing to find a way to get the message across. It never did come to her.

"I don't know how long this place is going to be safe... if I-I-I don't check in soon, one of the others is definitely going to figure out where I am..." Shay offered quietly, looking highly unnerved, "If the others don't find me, than Sister Marci might...."

Shay closed her eyes and shuddered.

He paused, watching the obvious discomfort that the shaymin gijinka had when she spoke about whatever 'home' she had come from, and wondered for a split second if her home life was as good as he assumed it was after she'd been so wanting to get back to it. However, the way she spoke, and Chris' statement that he take her home, those two things were admittedly freaking him out a bit, though he tried to hide it.

"Right, then..." He muttered, running his hand through his hair with a sigh. "Fine. I'll take you back home, alright kid?" As he told her that, Ori turned and looked back to Nora. "Any luck on finding the guys who called us?"
"Nothing." She shook her head, looking up to the luxray gijinka with a genuinely confused expression. "Normally, I just search through the numbers, and their name pops up with it. They must have canceled that somehow..." Both Chris and Ori seemed to raise a brow at this, glancing at one another, before looking back to the girl.

"...Nora. That's not 'backtracing a call'. That's Caller ID. And anyone can do that." He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, shaking his head while Nora simply scoffed.
"Right, okay then. Thanks. Well, either way, we've got nothing on them. I can do some digging around here, while you get her back home." With a nod of his head, Ori looked back to Shay, stepping up to her and looking down at the young girl.
"So, what do you say? Up for a trip back to Mt.Silver?" He asked rhetorically, smirking at her as he crossed his arms. "...I'm just going to need a bit of help from you on where to go. You know how to get there, right?" He added.

Shay froze when she heard mention of Mt. Silver. Of course, there was no denying it would be the fastest way to get to Sinnoh and then hopefully back to a normal life, but... was it the safest? Walking directly into the territory of one of Shay's apparently fearsome relatives didn't seem like a smart plan of action. Shay didn't answer immediately as she was mulling over all this in her head, looking increasingly concerned. She wanted to get home, but... she was also a bit worried about the resulting collateral damage that would ensue. She didn't really want the guy and his friends to get hurt, despite Ori guy's actions... Well, she was more worried about his friends, but keeping him in at least one mildly damaged piece would be a great bonus.

"Well..." Shay finally muttered, "....I don't really know any area. I'm only allowed to leave the apartment for groceries, and before that.... well, I just lived in the church. But I've read a lot. And I know that there's a path over the mountain traders used to take, but....." Shay hesitated with what she was about to say. "...I don't know if the risk is worth the reward... I've heard my cousin can be pretty nasty and powerful when their angry. If they haven't heard yet, we might be able to sneak past, but..... I just really don't know." Shay sighed. She placed her hands on either side of her head and squeezed. She futilely wished that she could have just gone to Azalea... but it was too late for that dream to come true now. She had to take them to Sister Marci. It was the only way she could get them off the hook, even if it there was only a slim chance of it happening.

"....Before we go though, I-I-I just want you guys to know... You... you gotta be the ones to take me home. I can't just go with my relatives when they come for me now... I-it HAS to be you. Otherwise, nobody will understand what will happen and it will never be okay for you, even if I try to talk them out of attacking you. If you can't explain yourself, you'll be hunted by titans for the rest of your life," Shay explained fearfully, stuttering with her words as she tried to force them out of her mouth. She looked around, unsure if they would grasp the true weight of the consequences that had arisen from treading on tradition. She spewed her explanation out rapidly and tensely, as if she were forcing herself. She wasn't sure if she liked the idea of having to spend all of this extra time with the strangers, but... it was the only way. She didn't want to know what would happen to them if she didn't help them out.

Admittedly, everything Shay was saying was...well, it was more than a bit worrying. Sure, she had just been kidnapped and brought all the way to Pallet Town, but still. Even with that said, the level of panic she seemed to have about the whole situation was odd. Ori stayed quiet as he listened to what she had to say, the only sign of worry he showed being an ever so slight frown.
"Yes, and the rest of your life might not be so long, all things considered." The man blinked and glanced over to Chris as she spoke, giving her a slight scowl.
"Yeah, thanks, I picked up on that." He remarked, before sighing and rubbing the back of his head, looking back to the young girl that stood by in the library. She seemed to look small, among the three other gijinkas in the room, and the circumstances that had brought all of them together.

"Alright, kid. We've all had some bad odds before," Ori began to say, stepping over towards Shay and kneeling down in front of her to get onto her level. "But, I think things will turn out alright. I'll get you home, Nora's going to stay here and see if she can find any information on who might want to get their hands on you, and Chris...is probably going to do something." As he finished speaking, Nora seemed to nod her head as she walked over beside Orion, looking down at Shay.

"Yeah, exactly. I'll pick up your trail and come find you if I find anything, or if anything happens." Turning up to look at Nora, Ori nodded and stood back up, turning towards the main entrance to the library and starting to walk over towards it, glancing back over his shoulder.
"See? We're in good hands. Now, if you're sure you don't want to at least spend some time around here and get some rest, then we should probably get going. The whole 'hunted by titans' thing doesn't sound like a fun time." He looked back to the door as he finished speaking, opening it slightly and peaking outside, glancing around to check if anything suspicious was out there waiting.

Seeing that they seemed to be catching on to the weight of the conversation made Shay feel a little more at ease, though the discomfort in her gut still persisted. She looked at Ori with sad, tired eyes; eyes that were soft and full of emotional weariness. A tiny sigh escaped the recesses of her throat as she felt herself cave. She felt her mind allowing herself to harbor a tiny bit more trust in him, at least for the time being. How could what he was trying to accomplish outweigh the consequences that they were faced with?

"I.... I'm pretty sure it's best to leave. I think if we rested here, it'd be bad. It's an easy target," the youth agreed cautiously. "That said, it's also probably best if we stay off the main paths. But... You probably knew that." Shay wrung her hands and let her gaze fall back down to the floor boards. Her stomach flip-flopped with the stress resulting from the ordeal, as well as a growing feeling of self conciousness. "The sooner we get started, the less problems we'll have traveling. At least, for a bit. Maybe," she added, though she wasn't entirely confident in her words.

Keeping the door open, Ori glanced back at the little girl and felt a twinge of guilt at how she seemed to appear. He hadn't meant to shake her up so badly with everything. Well, he had, but he didn't exactly want to. Jobs hadn't exactly been rolling in recently, and it wasn't exactly easy to keep getting the money to continue keeping himself and Nora at the Library. Chris had mentored him since he was a kid, but even then, she wasn't going to let him stay there for free. She always told him it would look suspicious, give the potential for others finding connections between them that weren't just professional. The job hadn't seemed overly suspicious at first, but he hadn't bothered to look further into it. And here they were, because he'd screwed up.

"Maybe?" He remarked with some sarcasm and disbelief making its way into his voice. After a moment, he simply shrugged.
"Eh. Alright. Better than most of the odds I usually have to deal with." Ori decided, nodding before glancing back to the door he had opened. He waited a moment in silence, looking between it and Shay as he waited.
"Well? You coming or not?" He asked, as Nora watched from beside Shay, seeming to space out a bit for a moment.

Shay broke out of her thoughts as the guy called to her. "Uhh, okay; sorry!" she exclaimed, still in a daze. She ran over to the door and stepped out, before turning around and bowing quickly. "Thank you for having me," she announced nervously before returning to a stiff standing position. Being with a bunch of strangers was no reason to not be polite.

"We should probably start heading for Mount Silver from here..." she mused before remembering something and adding excitedly, "Oh! Do you have a map? I remember people at the church talking about an underground... uh." She paused, realizing the folly in her suggestion. "N-never mind. My distant cousin lives in an underground chamber from what I've heard. They usually come out during solstices and volcanic activity, so we should probably camp during the day... Well, there's really no good time to rest, but daytime would be preferable." Shay thought back to the books she had read, trying to remember other things that could be helpful. "...We should probably have a compass, since we're not going by any known roads."

The two women inside the library watched as Shay bowed at the door, both raising a brow at the girl's politeness. A bit confused, Nora turned to Chris, who only responded with a shrug before returning to her organizing. With a sigh, Nora shook her head and started to pace down the bookshelves, searching for anything of use.

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Ori hadn't completely been paying attention as Shay spoke, taking a few steps away from the Library, his eyes flashing gold for a moment as he took a closer look at the various surroundings around them.
"Eh?" Finally realizing that the young girl had been talking to him, he spun around towards her and smirked, crossing his arms. "Well, a map would be a good find, but a compass shouldn't be necessary. I've spent a lot of time in the area, specifically the woods and off-road paths. As long as we have a map and we know where to go, I should be able to get us there." He explained, taking a few more steps before halting, taking a moment to consider the situation. They didn't have a map yet, so where would they be able to get one? The library had some maps printed in books, but Chris didn't exactly like him of all people taking out books, or ripping pages out either...
"We can probably find a map on the way if we just keep going. I'm pretty sure I should be able to at least get us somewhere with maps available, I think." The Luxray nodded, speaking half to Shay and half to himself as he mused, sounding just a tad unsure about the last bit.