DELTA – Chapter 3; The luncheon

Read from the start

Characters: Zinnia, Steven, Renee, Wallace

Warnings:

Implied stalking.

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The bright 90’s tune played on loop for a while before the alarm was hit with a graceless thwap of a hand. Renee rubbed her eyes before checking the time on her alarm clock, before bolting upright upon realizing the time.

“Crap!” she cried out to herself, before stumbling out of bed, causing her pokemon partner Izzy, a vaporeon to awaken in a panic as well.

Renee was visiting her parent’s house for the next few weeks, as her father had become increasingly ill. The place hadn’t changed much, including Renee’s old room, which she had effectively abandoned since she turned 17, old pokemon league posters still plastered all over her walls.

Today, she was supposed to meet her friend Steven at noon to go over some things his father had requested the two of them go over, being the sitting champions of Hoenn and all. But it was 11 am and Renee had overslept, which prompted her frantic rush to get ready in the morning.

Renee was brushing her teeth while checking her phone, seeing Steven had texted her quite a bit the night before – requesting she turn on the news. Renee was worried, but didn’t think much of it and continued on, until the ringing of her doorbell caused her to quickly wrap up what she was doing and bolt to the door in her pajamas.

It wasn’t uncommon for visitors to come by; it was a small town, after all – but this was the last thing Renee wanted to deal with right now. She scrambled down the stairs and opened the door, where a woman who looked about as messy as Renee did was waiting for her. She appeared to be in pain and smelled faintly of smoke, but Renee didn’t pay much mind to it – she’s seen stranger trainers. By her side, there was a whismur, hiding behind her leg.

“You’re Renee Markov, champion, yeah?” the woman asked, her voice exhuming confidence. Renee assumed she must’ve practiced this beforehand and assumed she got her address off the internet to challenge her. Renee then began to ponder how the woman knew she’d be at her parents house, but her thought was cut off.

“You… are her, right?” she asked again.

“Uhm… yes, that’s me. Renee Markov, sitting champion and head of the Hoenn League.” Renee replied formally.

The other woman gave a smirk. “No need for such an official introduction! I already know who you are – and who I am doesn’t matter. I’m here because I-” 

She was cut off by an annoyed Renee who had already felt she knew where the conversation was going.

“Look, sorry, I don’t do battles out of the blue, and I’m busy this morning. I hope you have an alright day.” Renee said back, her tone tired and grouchy. The woman had a shocked look on her face as Renee closed the door on her.

Grumpy from the encounter, Renee continued on her morning routine. She texted Steven that she might be late, to no response – which Renee assumed meant he couldn’t feel his phone. She got dressed, recalled Izzy to her pokeball, and grabbed all her things before leaving. 

Outside her house, Renee still thought she could smell the rather pungent smell of her morning’s visitor nearby, but she couldn’t spot her and just shrugged it off as the smell lingering.

When Renee finally arrived at her designated meeting place with Steven, she had to look around to find him. Normally, it was easy for Renee to pick him out of a crowd, but this time, he seemed hunched over and was wearing a large hoodie. Renee assumed it was to avoid avid fans, so she approached him energetically anyways.

“Sorry I’m late, Steven! I, uh, slept through my alarm.”

Steven only offered a meek wave as a reply, which got Renee worried. She promptly sat down in the cafe’s booth across from him and looked him in the eyes.

“What’s wrong?”

“Someone…” Steven rubbed his temples. “Someone broke into my dad’s office last night and set it on fire.”

Renee was shocked, but held her composure. 

“Is that why you asked me to check the news?”

“Yea. It’s just… a lot to take in, especially with the other thing…”

Renee contemplated asking why, considering she knew Steven’s relationship with his father was anything but alright, but she decided to take another route.

“The other thing? Is that what we were here to talk about?”

Steven just groaned and put his head in his arms. He shuffled in his bag for a folder and slid it over the table to Renee, which had a big red CONFIDENTIAL written on it.

“We can’t talk about it explicitly out loud, not here, at least. I just wanted to have a normal meeting with you but my dad, he… UGH.” 

Steven motioned his hands in the air a bit before returning to sinking his head in his arms.

“Don’t worry, I’ll go over it! And I’ll go ahead and order when the waiter comes by.” Renee responded.

The file wasn’t large, and only had a couple of pages – it seemed it was only from last night. Skimming through, it detailed a situation involving a rocketship to destroy… a meteor?! Renee had to do a double-take.

“Are you serious?” she muttered to herself. Hearing her, Steven shifted a bit.

“Yea.” He replied, while still in his lethargic state.

Renee continued to read through the file, noting certain points of the device meant to rid of the meteor and the method of disposal as outlandish sounding. When she was done, Renee put down the file, and looked at Steven, before slumping over herself.

There really was another threat to the world, and nobody seemed to have told anyone. Her reaction would have been larger had the location not been public, and now Renee understood why Steven was seeming so down. 

The waiter eventually came by and Renee perked herself up as much as she could to order for the both of them – but Steven stopped her. Renee requested the waiter give them a bit more time.

“I can’t do this Renee. Everything… it’s all too overwhelming right now. I need to go home.” he confessed.

Renee felt bad that she didn’t get the hint sooner. The two of them left without ordering anything, but Renee still left a generous tip for the waiter.

Renee offered to drive Steven home, seeing as he was so shaken. He was quiet the entire drive, and Renee didn’t push it. As Renee pulled up to the place Steven had been staying, he stopped her.

“No, I meant… home home.”

“You want me to drive you to the docks? Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure – we have business in Mossdeep anyways.”

Renee cocked her head at Steven’s statement – business in Mossdeep? This was the first she had heard of it. But she guessed that it was something Steven had forgotten to go over because he wasn’t in a good mood. Renee didn’t have much else going on that day, and agreed to drive Steven – under the condition he tell her more about the situation at hand.

So, Renee learned the truth – there was a meteor on a direct collision course for Hoenn, and time was running out to do something about it. Renee seemed confused as to why the problem was left this long, but Steven told her it was because of the method that was to be used – the method that Renee had thought was some kind of impossible joke.

Devon was nearing completion on a groundbreaking device that would open a gap in spacetime to another dimension, to safely dispose of the meteor. Renee still couldn’t wrap her head around it, even when it was explained directly to her – how? Why? Steven explained that the meteor was too big to destroy, and unless there was a way to theoretically vaporize it, sending it through a gap in space was really the only option.

Renee and Steven were quiet for the rest of the ride back to his house. To herself, Renee thought about how she was one of the only people on the planet who knew about this danger, and the feeling almost became overwhelming – but Renee put a lid on it until the two friends arrived at their destination.

The trip was long, in part due to the distance between Rustboro and Mossdeep – but Hoenn was a small region. Renee and Steven arrived at Steven’s house, tired – but the two were greeted by a friendly, familiar voice.

“Welcome back! I can only imagine it was a long trip here.”

It was Wallace, and he was sitting on the couch nearby the door, with his milotic curled up around his feet. Steven walked over to him and greeted him with a kiss on the cheek, before letting out an impressive sigh and sinking into the couch next to Wallace.

“This entire situation is a nightmare!” Steven said in a sing-songy tone, before groaning again and rubbing his face with his hands.

 “My dad’s on my ass more than usual! I’ve ignored like 20 texts from him in the time it took to get here – why did he have to put the weight of the world on me?!”

Renee moved to sit down next to Steven, not quite sure what she could do to comfort her friend. She knew Steven never had a good relationship with his father; as if anybody did; but it still hurt her knowing he had been hiding this stress from her.

“Steven…” Renee said quietly. “We’re in this together, ok? I’m here to work with this too – if you’re feeling too stressed out, I’ll take the work off your hands.”

Steven sighed again, moving his hands off his face just enough so he could look at Renee sitting next to him.

“Thank you… I’m sorry.”

“There’s no need to apologize, Steven – nothing here is your fault.” Renee replied.

The group was silent for a moment before Wallace chimed up;

“If you’re both feeling exhausted, I can go grab takeout, if you’d like!”

“That’d be wonderful, babe; thank you.” Steven said, fixing his posture on the couch.

“It’s no problem! I understand that whatever task you two have been assigned must be frustrating. Let me know what you’d want me to pick up…”

Wallace slowly got off the couch, being careful as to not disturb the sleeping pokemon curled around him much.

Renee remembered. Right. Wallace doesn’t know about the meteor. She tried to stay optimistic anyways and watched TV with Steven until Wallace returned.

When Wallace eventually returned, the three sat down to eat together. The group talked about benign things, mostly about the league. The conversation took a turn when Wallace brought something in particular up – a trainer he saw in line behind him. 

He said they had a whismur that wouldn’t be quiet, and that offhand statement hit Renee like a jolt. She remembered the trainer with the whismur she had seen earlier, and her mind involuntarily made a connection between the two.

“That must’ve been annoying,” Renee said, as she took a sip of water. She didn’t feel like saying anything, and wrote it off as just a coincidence – whismur was a popular starter pokemon, after all. But deep down, Renee could feel something was coming.

Renee stayed at Steven’s house overnight, as the two had to attend a meeting at Mossdeep’s space center regarding the device to dispose of the meteor. She had trouble sleeping, as Wallace’s statement got her thinking about the trainer who visited her earlier more and more. Who was she? Why how did she know that she was staying with her parents? What did she want?

She was about to get her answers.

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March 31st, 2005

12:05am

4 days

I know where she is now, which is a good thing. Though, I wasn’t able to find any information through the person who left the house sometime after she arrived (which is what I get for stalking someone to a fast food chain – god, am I acting like a freak lately or what? Desperate times call for desperate measures I guess.)

I’m hoping I’ll be able to get more info today – the paper I saw back in Devon mentioned one on the 31st. At this rate, I’ll break in if I have to. I have to let them know.

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