Land of the Roses
Interlude 2: Moving On
"Uuuuuuuugh~" Andrea let out a long and contented groan as she stretched and opened her eyes. "
My god... it's been so long since I slept on a nice bed..." she thought to herself.
She pushed the covers off of her and rolled out of bed. Immediately drawn to the light bleeding through the curtains, she unraveled them to a wonderful view of the morning ocean. The majesty was spoiled a bit; a single puffy cloud acted as a blemish upon an otherwise picture perfect, clear blue sky. An airplane drifted just a few hundred feet above the ocean, making its final adjustments as it approached the airport on the northern edge of the city. It all combined to form a relaxing atmosphere and it put her at ease.
She wandered back to her bed and unlatched her empty water bottle from her backpack, then retreated to the bathroom to fill it up at the sink. With her bottle filled, she returned to the bed and turned the TV on. As she dug through her backpack to retrieve a small bag of trail mix, a twenty four hour news broadcast appeared on the TV. The soothing atmosphere of the morning was shattered almost instantly; the main headline emblazoned across the bottom of the screen grabbed her attention:
'ACCOMPLISHED POKÉMON CHAMPION MISSING: FOUL PLAY SUSPECTED'. She grabbed the remote again and turned the volume up.
"...many details yet, but local police have not ruled out the possibility of foul play," a reporter said.
"Have they given any details as to why this may be treated as a kidnapping?" the news anchor asked.
"The police have told me that several of Ms. Dahl's personal effects were discovered abandoned at a convenience store just a few blocks from the Colwyn International Airport, including the likes of her purse, her identification, her collection of Pokéballs and a large amount of silver and bronze coins. The fact that nothing appears to be missing is leading investigators to believe this was a kidnapping rather than a robbery gone bad."
As the anchor and the reporter continued their commentary, the weight of what was happening begun to sink in. "Oh... that's not good..." she muttered.
"And what about the rumors going around that Team Rocket may be involved in her disappearance?" the anchor asked. "Our viewers may remember that, last year, her heroic actions put an end to one of the largest trafficking rings in history, a ring that was spearheaded by Team Rocket. Is it possible that this is a form of payback?"
"There's no evidence of that so far. The fact that her Pokémon were left behind, Pokémon that she used to dismantle the trafficking ring, has led the police commissioner to surmise that they may not even be involved, but it's still too early to have any hard facts."
Andrea leaned back onto the bed in disbelief. "This is really happening, isn't it..." Thoughts rushed like a river in her mind; if it were foul play, who would want to harm her? She'd made a number of enemies over the years, from rivals to criminal organizations, but who would really go out of their way to harm her? Worse yet, why now? She felt bad for thinking it, but she vocalized it anyway, "At least I wasn't with her, I guess..."
The more she thought, the more she reasoned that it'd be wise to get in touch with Dr. Reiland. She pulled her phone out of her purse and turned it on; there was a single unread text message waiting for her.
'Fr: Rebecca Reiland, 6:26 AM
'Police commissioner got back to me about Ms. Dahl, it doesn't look good. He said more details are coming soon. Message me back when you get the chance.'
She began to type out her response:
'yeah just saw the news. terrible! what should i do?'
She hit send, set the phone down, sighed, then buried her face in her hands and rubbed away. "I was actually looking forward to this assignment... now I can't do it..."
Several moments passed by in relative silence as she thought about the situation some more. She was snapped back into reality when her phone started to ring. The noise was incredible and felt like the loudest thing she'd ever heard. She looked down at her phone as the screen lit up: '
Incoming call from Kimberly Fairbrooke'.
"Wait... What? How the hell did she get my number..." she asked. The thought of ignoring the call crossed her mind, but curiosity about how her new friend was feeling got the better of her. Moreover, she needed a distraction. She pressed the answer button. "Hello?"
"Good morning, Andrea!" Kimberly's voice responded. "How are you?"
"I'm okay... how about you? Feeling any better?"
"A little... I took quite a tumble last night, it'll take some time before I'm on my feet again."
"You were really sure of yourself, weren't you?"
"Like you wouldn't believe..." she said, starting to trail off. "I was curious if you'd be interested in joining me for breakfast? I'm leaving the city today, this might be our last opportunity to see each other..."
"Umm..." she started. Something about the words that Kimberly chose made the question feel incredibly awkward to her and almost prompted her to say no. But the tone with which she spoke also sounded to her like a plea for the comforting presence of a friend. "Sure, why not? Did you have anywhere specific in mind?"
"Oh! I half expected you to say no... Umm... You said you've lived in this city, perhaps you have a recommendation?"
"Anywhere but the Crimson Crawdaunt is fine by me. Got some bad blood there with one of the other waitresses." she started with a laugh. "Are you a big fan of noodles? Rice? We could visit The Golden Lantern."
There was an audible gasp from Kimberly's side of the line. "The Golden Lantern? I like the sound of that name, let's check it out!"
"Heh, you make it too easy. I have a friend who lives here and he always wanted to go out to restaurants, but it takes him so long to figure out where to go that we never actually go!" she laughed. "It's on Zhuan Street, near the north end of Little Shinikara."
"Zhuan... Little Shinikara... Understood, I'll see you there!"
She hung up and tossed her phone onto the bed with a sigh again. "She must have a very good memory if she figured out my number..."
- - - - -
"Welcome to the Golden Lantern! Table for one?" A sharply dressed young lady of Shinikari descent asked.
"I'm meeting someone, actually. Is someone named Kimberly here yet?" Andrea replied.
The hostess looked at the registry on the podium in front of her. "We have a Kimberly Fairbrooke and a Kimberly Kensington. Which are you looking for?"
"Fairbrooke."
With a courteous nod, the hostess beckoned for Andrea to follow. "Very well. Follow me."
Kimberly was seated at a table far in the back of the restaurant. In front of her was a notebook, covered from top to bottom in words, doodles and thoughts. From her vantage point, Andrea couldn't decipher the exact meaning of the ink on the page, but the drawings painted the picture of a coordinator hard at work, designing a new routine.
What caught Andrea's attention the most, however, was how stunning Kimberly looked compared to the previous night. While she herself had just rolled out of bed and walked to the restaurant with little preparation, Kimberly was the opposite; her hair was neatly combed in some places and tightly braided in others, her eyelashes were well manicured, her eyeliner was broad and masterfully applied and her lips were covered in a thin layer of red gloss. She looked as if she had just returned from a professional makeup artist.
Kimberly broke her attention away from her notebook and looked up. A warm smile appeared on her face. "Andrea! So good to see you!" she said. "It means so much that you came."
Andrea pulled out the chair across the table. "Does it? Or are you just being polite?" she asked.
"Why not both?" she asked.
The hostess dropped two menus onto the table and pulled out a small notepad. "Would you like to order now, or do you need a moment?"
"I'll look over the menu first, thank you," Kimberly said.
"Very well, can I start you off with some drinks?"
"I'll have some pink lotus tea," Andrea answered.
"And a glass of water for me, please," Kimberly added.
"Pink lotus tea and water..." the hostess said as she wrote down the requests. "I'll be right back with them."
As Kimberly began to browse the menu, Andrea felt almost captivated by her appearance. She cautiously approached the subject. "Couldn't help but notice, but... I thought you said you were bad at this makeup business." she said.
"Hmm?"
"Don't take this the wrong way, but you look incredible! It's barely 8 AM and you look like you've had a full crew of professionals working on you for hours."
Kimberly looked up for a brief moment, offered a smile, then returned to the menu. "Oh! Thank you... Maybe I am better at it than I thought. When I'm nervous, I lose faith in myself, I suppose. Last night was... well, it was a nerve wracking disaster."
"Why doll yourself up so much?" she curiously asked. "It's not like you have any important meetings to attend or anyone to impress."
"To hide my imperfections, of which there are many. I'm pretty sure I didn't do myself any favors by going out on stage looking as badly as I did."
"Ah," she awkwardly offered. She wanted to disagree with the statement, but didn't feel like getting into an argument so early in the day over something that amounted to nothing. However, she had many thoughts about what her friend just said. "
So she's one of those types, huh? Already better looking than most of us combined, yet it's still not enough for her..."
Much to Andrea's relief, the hostess returned with a tall glass of water in one hand and a mug of tea in the other and placed them on the table, then pulled her notepad out again. "Ready to order yet?"
"Could I get the bacon salad wrap with brown rice?" she asked.
"Very well," the hostess said as she wrote down the order in her notepad. She looked at Kimberly next. "And for you?"
Kimberly folded her hands on the table and said, "I would like the veggie dumplings over white rice with some mango sauce on the side, please."
"I'll be right back with your orders, ladies!" the hostess said before returning to the kitchen.
Kimberly began to write some more words in her notebook. "So... Has your partner arrived yet?"
She shook her head and buried her gaze in her tea. After a brief moment of silence, all she could say was, "No."
Kimberly was concerned about the melancholy tone with which she spoke. "Is there trouble?"
"I'm hoping it's nothing, but... They found her belongings abandoned in a convenience store on the north end of the city, just outside of the airport. Money, Pokéballs, ID... It's like she just disappeared."
"Oh dear! Do they have any clues as to where she may have gone, or if anyone was responsible?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. They said it looks like another kidnapping, but they don't have any idea of who did it."
"That's terrible! I hope she's safe."
"Yeah... Hard to believe, isn't it? You'd think a three-time league champion would command some powerful Pokémon, right? And she couldn't defend herself? That's a scary thought."
"Maybe they caught her unawares? She might not have had the opportunity to call on a protector."
"Surely she put up a struggle, then? Wouldn't the store employees have noticed something? Something's definitely fishy."
Kimberly shrugged "I suppose the only thing you can do is wait until more details are released."
"Well, in any event, she's missing, and I'm stuck here waiting to hear from my boss about what to do. Hooray..." She took a big gulp from her tea and was ready to move onto a lighter subject. "What's in store for you, now? Are you still going to try this coordination stuff?"
"I'm not sure... I have to think it over for a bit. There's a small competition happening in Rustlode Bluffs that I was thinking of attending. If I don't do well at that, perhaps it's time to find something else to do with my life... yet again." she said, then let out a light chuckle. "Heh... Never thought I'd be back there..."
She tilted her head inquisitively. "You got some history with that city?"
"Not the city itself, but the minor competitions. I took part in one just before I joined my mother for her work in Glastonfell and I crushed my competition, but that was five months ago. Perhaps I've gotten rusty in that time."
She snickered.
Kimberly was mystified. "What? Did I say something funny?"
"You've gotten rusty, so you're visiting Rustlode Bluffs?"
"Oh!" Kimberly said before bursting into a fit of laughter. "Oh dear... that was dreadful!"
"Sorry, continue."
"Umm... yes, that's my plan. I'm not sure what else there is to say."
Andrea brought the map function up on her R-Kit. "Where is Rustlode, anyways? I know it's on the southern coast..." After finding the location of Rustlode Bluffs on the map, she asked it to plot a route for her. To her surprise, the map plotted a route directly through Doranshire.
"Oh, are you passing through Doranshire, then?" she asked.
Kimberly paused for a moment to think. "I hadn't planned on it. I was going to follow the coast and pass through Tradewind. Why, is it a quicker route?"
"According to this it is."
"Are you saying you'd like us to travel together?" A smile appeared on her face.
"If you wouldn't mind detouring," she shrugged. "Besides, maybe it's not a bad idea to stick together, what with the nationwide murder rate skyrocketing in recent months."
Kimberly's eyes widened. "Excuse me?"
"You don't watch the news much, do you?"
Kimberly shook her head. "The news is depressing. It's a constant cycle of fear mongering and rabble rousing designed to pit us against each other. Besides, I haven't had much of an opportunity to, I've been busy working alongside my mother."
"Oh right, you've been out of the country... We've had a sharp increase in violent crime since the year began, a large majority of it targeted at young women like us. Murders, kidnappings, robbery, you name it."
"Oh... Umm..." Kimberly mumbled, her voice wavering.
"We don't have to travel together, but it wouldn't be wise to travel--" Her words were interrupted by the shrill tones of her phone ringing. A look at the screen showed an incoming call from Dr. Reiland. "Hold that thought, it's my boss." She accepted the call and placed her phone to her ear. "Hello, doctor!"
"Good morning, Ms. Dennison," Dr. Reiland's voice replied.
"Have you heard anything new from the police commissioner yet?"
"No, not yet. We're both in the dark here..." Dr. Reiland said. A long pause followed. "Here's what I want you to do. I want you to stay in Aughrim for a few days, until we know what's going on. Obviously something's not right, but I fear its worse than anyone realizes at the moment. The circumstances of her disappearance are... they're just too bizarre. Don't worry about finding a place to stay, I'll get your hotels sorted out, unless you can find a friend to live with for awhile."
As a new hire, she was cautious about suggesting it, but figured it wouldn't hurt to ask. "What if I found a friend to travel with, instead?"
"What are you suggesting?"
"What I mean is... what if I found someone else to take me to Doranshire? I don't mind getting started without Tamara."
"I appreciate your enthusiasm, dear, but you weren't intended to be the expert in this matter, Ms. Dahl was. You were to assist her, as she is the one with experience in these circumstances."
She ignored the voice in her head that urged caution and continued to push the subject. "You said it yourself, this isn't something that can wait for too long. Lives could be at stake here if there's actually something wrong in that town."
"I suppose that is true..."
"And even if I don't know a thing about this paranormal stuff, what if it
is something as simple as a gas leak or something in the water, like you suggested? Problem solved, with or without Tamara."
"But if it isn't that, you've wasted your time, then."
"I'd rather be wasting my time there than here," she answered back. "But if you want me to stay here, I will."
There was another long pause and the sound of papers being shuffled in the background. "You might have a point, actually. There's definitely something wrong in that village, and it might be something that you could handle yourself. You did well enough in Nettlefield, perhaps you can surprise me again?"
"Thank you! I'll get to work as soon as I can!"
"Hold on, not so fast. I'll only give you the go ahead if you can find someone trustworthy. And I want you to clear them with me before you go anywhere."
"I'm actually sitting right next to her..." she said before locking eyes with Kimberly. "If she wants to, at least."
Kimberly did little more than offer a nod.
"Oh, really? Tell me a little bit about her."
She paused at the realization that she didn't know much about Kimberly other than she was an aspiring coordinator who'd just recently returned from a trip abroad. Trustworthiness hadn't even crossed her mind, but she seemed harmless and innocent enough. "Maybe she can tell you a bit better. Want to talk to her?"
"Yes, put her on the line."
She handed the phone across the table. "Here, my boss wants to talk with you. Her name is Dr. Reiland."
"Oh, Dr. Reiland! I've met her before!" Kimberly said, her face lighting up. She grabbed the phone. "Hello, Dr. Reiland?"
"Who am I speaking with?"
"Kimberly Fairbrooke."
There was a short pause in the conversation. "That name is familiar..."
"I can understand if you don't remember, but you and I met almost two years ago. I received a Squirtle, from your institution's Gifts for Girls program."
"Hmm. I don't quite remember that... Heh, my memory isn't what it used to be. Anyways! My employee said she's interested in travelling with you. Are you okay with that?"
"I am. It sounds like it could be fun!"
Dr. Reiland let out a chuckle. "I don't know about fun. Ms. Dennison will be doing a lot of sample gathering and in-depth analysis of her findings... She could be there for some time, are you okay with staying for... say... four or five days?"
Kimberly paused to think. "That might be cutting it a little close with the schedule I'd like to keep... I have prior obligations I need to attend to in Rustlode Bluffs."
"I suppose you don't have to stay with her for the entire time... She doesn't have any Pokémon of her own, so I don't want her travelling the roads alone. But if you can get here there, you can be on your way and I'll send another one of my employees to pick her up when she's finished."
"Whatever happens in the end, I'd be happy to help!"
"Do you have much experience with travelling yourself?"
"I do! I spent a little over a year with a friend of mine while she pursued a career as a competitive Pokémon trainer."
"And are you familiar with the area?"
"Yes ma'am! My friend and I passed through Doranshire at the tail end of our time together. I think I remember the town enough to show her around."
"And your Pokémon? You said you received a Squirtle from me. I'll assume you've picked up more since then?"
"My Squirtle is a Blastoise now, and I also have a Skitty with me as well," Kimberly answered. "While it's true that my Skitty isn't the most proficient fighter, my Blastoise will have no trouble defending us from whatever trouble we may run into on the road."
"Well then, you sound like a good candidate for getting Ms. Dennison started. I'm not sure I'll be able to pay you for your time, but--"
She made a negative hand gesture as she shook her head. "Don't worry about payment, Dr. Reiland! I would be doing this because I want to, not for the money."
"Are you sure?"
She nodded. "Positive, ma'am."
"Very well, then. Thank you. Could I speak with Andrea again?"
She handed the phone back to Andrea.
"So what do you think, doctor?" Andrea asked.
"She's very polite and from the sound of it, very experienced with both travel and the areas you'll be visiting."
"Are we good to go, then?"
There was another short pause. "Do you trust her? This may just be a bit of paranoia, considering the circumstances regarding Ms. Dahl's disappearance, but... She seems a little too good to be true."
Andrea looked up at Kimberly and received a warm, friendly smile from her. "I... I do. Yes."
"I'll take your word for it, then. You two can get started whenever you're ready. Do keep in mind that if Ms. Dahl does resurface, she'll be taking the reigns from you, understood?"
"Understood, and thank you, doctor. You'll be proud of my work, I promise!"
"We'll see. Talk to you soon."
"Good bye!" She ended the call and put her phone back into her purse, then slung it over her shoulder and stood up. "We're good to go!"
"Wondrous! But perhaps we should wait for our breakfast to arrive before we leave?"
She stopped in her tracks and turned around, then sat back down. "That's probably a good idea."