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When Darcy gets to baggage claim in Albuquerque, Pikachu is perched on top of her backpack, front paws clutching the girl’s beanie hat as the Pokemon takes in their surroundings. “Hey, Pikachu, I showed you Doctor Foster’s picture, right? So if you see her, let me know,” Darcy asks, and her Pokemon squeaks an acknowledgement. She knows it’s a bit spoiled of her, but she does see others with Pokemon following them around, particularly the children – maybe it’s good to get away from her parents and the rigors of the gym they follow. There, almost nobody lets their Pokemon out of storage unless they’re in training.
Darcy had always been a bit of an odd bird. Pikachu was actually the closest thing her family could call normal about her – they were in the circles of an electric-specialized gym, and Darcy never felt the need to be that exclusive. It wasn’t like she didn’t like the Pokemon that her family had captured and trained, but was it so wrong to want to have different types of Pokemon? For cripes sake, not everything had to be about the electric type.
Aaaaaand this would be why Darcy was avoiding going home for the summer with an internship to an astrophysicist in New Mexico. Well, she had applied for a legal internship in Chicago, too, but she was too late for it, and she was short on science credits, so when she saw Dr. Foster’s flyer in the cafeteria she jumped at the chance. Just as she was hauling her neon purple suitcase from the baggage carousel, Pikachu poked her in the skull. “Pi-ka! Pika pi!”
“Oh, you see her?” Darcy snapped the pull-along handle up and looked around to the side Pikachu was tugging her hat on, and sure enough, there was a slender woman holding a sign that said ‘Lewis.’ “Excellent.”
As she approached, Jane met her eyes and smiled tentatively. “Darcy?”
“In the flesh! You must be Doctor Foster.” Darcy offered her a hand, and they shook. “I hope you weren’t waiting too long; we were a little delayed at the layover.”
“No, it wasn’t a problem at all. And please, call me Jane. It’s gonna be close living quarters, like I said on the phone; I don’t think we need to be all that formal,” the scientist said, turning and gesturing that Darcy should follow her. For a short little thing about Darcy’s height, she could move. Darcy was walking quickly to keep up.
“Can do, Jane,” Darcy agreed. “I’m totally down with informal.” She caught the Jane’s eyes drift up towards Pikachu, still happily observing everything from its perch on her back. “Oh, yeah, probably obvious, huh? I can’t bear to keep Pikachu closed up all the time – or any of my Pokemon, actually. I know, I know, the storage system is totally humane and comfortable, but,” Darcy shrugged, “I just don’t like it.” She paused. “I mean, unless it bothers you-”
“Not at all,” Jane interruptede, as they walked through the airport doors and were immediately blasted by a wave of arid desert heat. “I didn’t expect the flexibility, you said your family is part of a gym. I’ve actually adopted some Pokemon – or rather, they’ve adopted me – and they’re free to roam the lab. Yours will be more than welcome to do the same, provided everyone can get along.”
“Pi-pi!” the squeak was both happy and affronted, Pikachu’s ‘who, me?’ sound.
“Oh, they’ll behave, or I’ll know why,” Darcy said with dark humor, the voice of a trainer who had experienced more than a few battles in disciplining her Pokemon. Jane laughed aloud at that, and gestured to an RV who had seen some better days.
“I’m sure everything will be fine,” Jane said.
Surprisingly, everything was fine. The Pokemon settled into each other pretty well, and Darcy was fascinated by the oddball trio Jane had collected – her Chansey had defected from an ex-boyfriend, her Magneton had come with her from a grad school lab, and a Pidgey had adopted her here in New Mexico. Darcy was thrilled to see they did, truly, wander around the lab and grounds as they pleased. Pikachu was tickled pink to see a Magneton, and they were an odd sort of fast friends. Nidorina was loving the heat of the desert, but Vulpix more preferred the desert nights; Oddish most definitely did NOT care for the weather of New Mexico, but stayed indoors and took happily to the large ceramic pot she filled with cool topsoil for it. Butterfree seemed to enjoy the sky, and having room to roam without some idiot newbie trainer shocking its poor wings by an accidental misplaced move. They all, humans and Pokemon alike, had about two weeks to get along before Dr. Selvig joined him, adding four more to their midst; Kabuto, Kadabra, Parasect, and Porygon. Darcy had never seen a stranger collection of Pokemon in one place – the dormitories at school were, obviously, restricted to maybe one Pokemon apiece out at a time for safety concerns. And the gym was obviously only mostly ever filled with electric types.
This was fascinating. So was Jane’s work, in a really abstract way; Darcy didn’t understand a single thing the woman was saying half the time, but Jane was so passionate about her work. After Dr. Selvig got there, though, things got really weird, really fast.
It was cold, it was dark, it was past midnight, and Darcy was tired and hungry and bored. Pikachu napped on the dashboard, but most of the other Pokemon preferred staying at the lab, sensible things, and sleeping at night. “Can I turn on the radio?”
“No,” Jane snapped back. Darcy sighed, going back to drumming her fingers on the steering wheel. Next time, she was chugging an energy drink or something. This was boring. …And then the sky started to light up. She heard Jane and Erik talking quietly in the back, but she craned her neck up to see more of the sky through the windshield. “Jane? I think you want to see this,” she called back.
“What is that?” Jane exclaimed, staring up at the sky.
“I thought you said it was a subtle aurora,” Erik accused, also staring, as the desert sky filled with clouds flickering with a rainbow hue of colors. Jane dropped down into the van and slammed herself into the passenger seat across from Darcy.
“ Go!” Jane commanded, and Darcy reacted, turning the key in the ignition and hitting the gas as soon as the engine turned over. Pikachu woke up, and the hair along its back stood up as it observed the storm, its ears twitching back and forth. Jane was hanging out the window with a camera. “Get closer!!”
“Right, good one!” Darcy snarked back, adrenaline rushing through her. Then she realized Jane was serious.
“GO!” Jane shouted again, just as the crazy rainbow-cloud-space tornado touched down. Dust choked the air and lightning was circling the funnel, and Darcy jerked the steering wheel to the side. “What are you doing?!” Jane protested, hauling herself back inside the RV to fight with her over the steering wheel.
“I’m not dying for six college credits!” Darcy yelled back, trying to keep the RV from cruising straight into the twister. They fought for control for a minute, Pikachu now clinging desperately to the vents in the dashboard, before Darcy finally had the foresight to just stomp on the brakes, sending their monster van into a terrible, shuddering slip-slide of a stop – accompanied by the loud collision of something hitting the side of the van, just as the storm funnel vanished, leaving dust floating through the night air in the headlights. In the headlights, a prone figure lay. Darcy and Jane looked at him, and looked at each other wide-eyed, and dove out of their respective doors. “I think, legally, that would be your fault,” Darcy called out, on her boss’s heels, Pikachu on hers, and Erik just behind.
“Get the first aid kit!” was Jane’s only reply. Did Jane seriously not know that after three weeks with her, she just kept the first aid kit in her messenger bag? So much easier.
“Please don’t be dead,” Jane breathed, kneeling beside the stranger’s prone form. He seemed to jerk awake, and hoo boy, even in the dark of night and lit by headlights, he looked fine.
“Does he need CPR? ‘Cause I totally know CPR,” Darcy suggested hopefully, in what she thought was a helpful manner.
“Where did he come from?” Jane wondered aloud, looking around. Erik spread his arms and shook his head. She had a point. They were literally as close to the middle of nowhere as you could get without going to the Sahara. The stranger got up, limbs swinging uncertainly. “You alright?” Jane asked.
“Hammer… hammer!” he repeated, his voice a guttural thing, growling.
“Yeah, we can tell you’re hammered, that’s pretty obvious,” Darcy said, the second part more toward herself than anything. Maybe … maybe this was some Greek prank? Dude was pretty ripped, but maybe he was like, a football player or something, and his friends dropped him out here as part of a prank?
“Oh my god, Erik, look at this!” Jane’s gone full-on scientist again, dropping to her knees. Darcy looked down – it did appear that they were standing on the edge of some sort of crop circle, except made out here in the desert. Oh God. Aliens? Jane was talking to Erik but Darcy was eyeing the strange dude, uncomfortable. He was big, drunk, and unstable. Neither of their three were going to be able to subdue him if he got violent.
And now he was talking to the sky. Great.
Then he turned on Jane, and Darcy’s heart clenched anxiously. She finger-motioned to Pikachu, hoping it was watching, and was relieved to feel it press against the side of her calf, a little paw on her jeans.
“You. What realm is this? Alfheim? Nornheim?” the stranger was shouting at Jane.
“New Mexico?” Darcy announced loudly, swinging her flashlight up to aim at his face directly. Pikachu jumped in front of her, growling.
“You dare threaten me, Thor, with so puny--”
“CHUUUUUUUUUUUUU!” Pikachu growled out, lightning blazing out of its cheeks to jolt the man, who shook the whole way as he fell to the ground.
Erik and Jane turned towards her, Erik’s face stunned, and Jane’s mimicking the person from The Scream painting.
“What?!” Darcy snapped back. “He was freaking me out!”
They had to lug him to the van, and Darcy was regretting that she hadn’t exactly been keeping in Trainer-shape. “Next time,” Erik panted as they loaded him into the back of the RV, “you sic Pikachu on someone, do me a favor and make sure they’re already in the van.”
Well, at least Erik had forgiven her. “Next time, how’s about we bring all the Pokemon, so when we encounter strange drunk men in the desert, we don’t have to fend for ourselves?” she replied as amiably as she can, yanking on the dude’s arm to finally get his torso inside.
“Piiii-kaaa,” Pikachu agreed.