Chapter 7: Misleading Demeanors

Chapter 7: Misleading Demeanors

“You’ve known from the start, this melody is a lie. But these lyrics lurk, deep in the back of your mind.”

Breloom’s vocals, sloppier than her mate’s but still capable of carrying a tune, reverberated across the flat, open front yard of Minichino’s white, aged home. From the way the strums of her electric guitar, bolstered by a speaker she had hooked it up to, echoed on the walls of the cliffside surrounding Kalmwa’er, Joey reckoned that just about everyone in town could hear this. All the more volume to batter him with — that was the purpose, after all.

“Then suuuddenly…your rhythm breaks up and contorts,” Breloom kept singing. “Then suuuddenly…your style doesn’t seem like yours. Aa-ah…”

The crocodile wobbled on his toes and waved his arms as he tried to avoid falling out of the roughly circular arena, marked in the grass with tape. Minichino’s tail swings were relentless, keeping him constantly on the back-foot. There was no one else to save him from her fluffy wrath, either, as Mathew was busy playing keep-away with Politoed across from the crocodile.

“Come on, Joey!” Minichino called out as he sidestepped another strike. “When you get pushed to the brink, you gotta push back with all you have!”

“I’m trying harder than a stone in a storm here!” As he stumbled and swayed around Minichino, he kept trying to do what Politoed taught him. Search for a dampness deep in the throat, make it gargle, then launch it from the maw…that was how he described using a water attack. Even still, all Joey had managed to do so far was practice his spit-take. Was completely overwhelming him in a mock-fight like this really going to bring the attack out of him?

“Words so infectious! Wants so contentious! But you…you can still face the fight ahead!”

…well, they were certainly succeeding in overwhelming him, at least.

Hoping to put some distance between him and the chinchilla, Joey dove through the space between Mathew and Politoed, narrowly avoiding the reptile’s club as he poked bubble after bubble with the sharp end. The moment he turned and saw Politoed was facing him now, he realized that might have been a mistake.

“Gotcha!” Minichino leapt forward and tackled Mathew’s side. They scraped against dirt, both tumbling out of the ring.

Joey hardly had a second to process before he was forced to focus on the green frog. He stood tall over him, waving his right arm. “Careful, Joey,” he taunted. “Friends tell me I have a mean slap.”

“All these songs to make you dread, when all this time you could instead, have written up the song to your own head!”

As if mocking him, Breloom brought her song into a bright, energetic chorus as, one step at a time, Joey was backed towards the edge of the ring. He stared up nervously at his crowned friend as he got closer and closer to swinging distance of his maw.

There was no running from this — no friends to save him, no hidden secrets to indulge in instead. But Joey didn’t need to run. The ability to use water attacks is already present inside him, right? If he could just focus on the here and now, then—!

He hardly even had to think about it. The moment he clenched his eyes shut, he felt that dampness deep in the back of his throat. The next thing Joey knew, Politoed had been splashed right in the face.

He swiped at his cheek with his hand, then inspected it. “Not very strong…but it stings.” A grin formed on his face as he looked to Joey. “Congratulations on learning Water Gun, Joey.” Before the the crocodile reacted, he hopped right out of the ring, leaving him the victor.

“Please ignore these big, loud chords, forget the verse and all the words, just show your moves and point your song forwards!” Breloom posed, letting the last chord ring out, before she applauded him. “Heh, and you said we couldn’t get you to use that move by the end of the day.”

Joey looked down at himself in amazement. “It ain’t even that hard…”

“It’s not supposed to be!” Minichino exclaimed. As she spoke, she followed the lightly cracked walls of her home until she picked up a hose intended for a much larger pokemon. With some force, the creaky faucet turned, and soon she was spraying the dirt right off of herself. “Learning abilities like that happens all the time. Give it some practice, and I bet you’ll be as good as me!”

“Really? Wow.” Joey was amazed by how much faith Minichino seemed to put in him to navigate his situation. “I reckon Jermy and Demurke are gonna be happy to hear about this,” he said as he looked to Mathew.

“Yeah, probably,” the dirt-covered reptile said. “I wonder why they had to stay at the res—gah, hey!” Mathew brought his arms up as Minichino splashed him with the hose.

“Sorry, dude! I’m not letting you run around looking like that!” Minichino giggled as she kept the hose focused right on—

Knock, knock. “Hey.”

Stronger than any hose, that voice wiped the smiles right off of everyone’s faces. Every eye was immediately on the cat that had knocked on the unpolished wooden fence dividing the yard from the street.

Joey could only grimace. During their workday this morning, Minichino had told Mathew that they were going to meet at Minichino’s place to help Joey practice, and that he was invited. Unfortunately, she had to explain this to him right in front of everyone else, including Meowth. Joey had wondered if he’d show up, but for Mathew’s sake, he hoped not. Maybe he should have hoped harder.

“Um.” Minichino moved to turn off the hose. “I’m pretty sure I only invited Joey and Mathew to this, dude.”

“I know.” He raised his paw, revealing his medical kit. “I just wanted to offer oran berries or any other kind of medical attention, in case your practice got rough.”

Politoed promptly marched over to a corner of the yard and raised a small bucket they’d left there. “Already got some. Minichino grows berries in her back yard, remember?”

“Oh.” Meowth nodded in understanding. “Well, for the future, I can buy even more for y—”

“Stop. Just, stop.” Mathew stomped towards the fence, brandishing his club. “You’re not welcome here, and you never will be.” He got right up in Meowth’s face. Then, he flinched as if he’d just realized something and turned his head away. “So fuck off. Go bother somebody else.”

Mathew’s sharp words bounced faintly against the wall of Kalmwa’er. Distant, unintelligible echoes filled their ears before fading into the noise of daily bustle.

Meowth held firm, staying still for just a moment, before he slouched back down, his kit back at his side. “Fine. Sorry.” he turned and walked away.

Joey watched as Meowth paced down the street. The air in the yard held still in anticipation for as long as he was in view. Slowly, it fizzled away, and the moment passed.

Mathew, expression already softened, turned his head back. “So, what was that about needing to hose me down?”

That was all it took for normalcy to kick in again. Minichino tended to Mathew, Politoed pried the tape from the grass, and Breloom moved to store away her electric guitar.

Joey was the only one still looking.

A revelation came upon Minichino as she put the hose away. “Oh, Mathew, Joey! You guys haven’t tried a berry smoothie before, right?” The moment she received confused looks, an eager glint flashed in her gaze. “I’ve gotta make you two try one before you go! You’ve not lived until you’ve mixed a cheri berry into a drink…!”

Before Joey could process it, he was pulled into the small comfort that was Minichino’s house. It was clearly a home held together with a lot of love and a lot of tape — cracks snaked down the walls, and table legs were wrapped in the stuff to keep them steady. The foyer was little more than an old rug, a couch made just for pokemon Minichino’s size, a small TV, and a few drawers here and there. Flanking it were doorways leading to a bedroom and a bathroom. Ahead was a little kitchen, and beyond that, a sliding door. Minichino was already pulling it aside, making for a bed of soil sprouting plants bearing an assortment of berries.

Joey could feel the silent disappointment radiating from Mathew. This rugged place, although as spotless as a cleaner like Minichino could make it, was hardly equipped for four visitors, much less three tenants. There was no way they could move in with her — no way they could use this to escape from Meowth.

Not that Joey really wanted to ‘escape’.

The previous day still lingered in his mind. He remembered what Meowth told Minichino then — how what happened at Silvalla’s was Meowth’s only chance to find some kind of answer, and how he didn’t know a better way. What Meowth did was obviously bad, but it was hard for Joey to join the group in lauding him when it didn’t seem like he had malicious intentions at all.

It was then that he realized that sitting down at that kitchen table was never going to clear his uncertainty.

“Alright, this should do!” Minichino marched in half-dozen berries of all shapes and colors, promptly dumping them into the bucket of orans. “With these, we can—”

“Actually,” Joey forcefully cut himself in. “I really appreciate y’all offering us a treat, but I just realized I got somewhere else to be today, so I gotta get going.” He made for the door as quick as his little crocodile legs would permit. The sooner he could talk to Meowth, the sooner he could figure out where he stood in this whole—

“Dang, you’re out of here already?” Breloom shimmied around on the couch, trying to find a comfortable angle despite it being too small for her form. She nearly kicked off some kind of golden robe draped over the top. “I was gonna give you guys another serenade or two after we ate.”

“Yeah, since when were we in any kind of rush?” Mathew asked.

“Well, uh…” What was he supposed to tell them? He ain’t good at lying on the fly! “I wanted to…mosey around the neighborhood for a bit…to cool down from the training?”

“Instead of having a refreshing drink with us?” Politoed pressed.

“…Yeah.”

Joey struggled to keep a straight face as he watched the expression in Mathew’s eyes shift from confusion to grave concern. “You’re not going after him, are you?”

“No!” His tone was way too high.

“Joey…” he approached him at an urgent pace, nearly resting a hand on his arm. “Please, don’t do anything stupid.”

“Stupid?” That word lit some kind of spark in him. “I reckon the real ‘stupid’ thing here is turning away somebody trying to be nice to y’all and make up for a mistake.”

The tense air was back. Both of Mathew’s hands clung to his club, as if it were Joey’s arm. “Him offering something nice is exactly how all this started.”

“The chances he’s gonna hypnotize me are slimmer than a slip of paper!” Joey looked to Minichino, Politoed, and Breloom, who were watching the conversation with stunned expressions. “Does Meowth do that to folks often?”

The three looked among each other until Politoed spoke up. “First I’ve heard of him having that move, to be honest.”

“I mean, he probably won’t do anything to you,” Minichino said. “But like, why go after him?”

Joey’s maw quivered. “I want his side of the story here too, okay?!” he exclaimed. “I don’t know Meowth like y’all do. How can I hate what I don’t know?”

Mathew seemed perturbed by his answer, but his expression quickly sobered as he idly tightened his tie. “Joey, there isn’t any kind of ‘side’ you’re missing from people like him,” he said firmly. “He’s a waste of air who does shitty things, and will do more shitty things in the future. His kind doesn’t change — I’ve seen enough to know that. So don’t go treating him like some innocent kitten.”

“A little much, Mathew…” Politoed mumbled.

“Oh, so now you can yammer on all about how things used to be?” Annoyance bubbled within Joey. Where was this when they were talking about his home life? He decided then and there to just turn tail and make for the door. “I ain’t doing this anymore. I’d rather be with Meowth if you’re gonna act like such a stick in the mud.” In just a second or two, he was already partway to the front gate.

“What?!” The long nails on Mathew’s feet clacked against the porch, angered tone supplanted by panic. “Joey, hang on—!”

“Let him go, Mat,” Breloom called.

“On his own? Are you insane?!”

“Well, you’re not gonna convince him with your words at this point. He’s made up his mind, so…”

That was the last Joey could hear of them before he was too far from Minichino’s home. He felt a little guilty for getting so heated — he would have to apologize to everyone later. But when the crocodile felt driven, he could hardly hold himself back.

If Meowth had planned to go straight home after getting rejected, Joey knew just where to look to find him. All he had to do was look up at the thick cables and slender gondola cars running over his head. If Meowth wasn’t already in one of those, he must be waiting for one at the station.

It wasn’t long before the crocodile arrived to the elevated platform where pokémon were let in and out of the gondola car. Blue stanchions formed a winding path towards the platform, shaded by a high-hanging ceiling. There was only one person standing in line, waiting.

“Meowth!” Joey called to him he ducked under the stanchions and joined him at the front of the line. “Hi.”

The cat’s eyes widened in surprise. Then, they softened as he turned away and crossed his arms. “Where’s Mathew?”

“He ain’t here. They were gonna fix berry smoothies.”

“And you didn’t stay?”

Joey shook his head. “I wanted to talk to you instead.”

His long whiskers flicked as he watched one of the cars approach the platform. “If you want to tell me off yourself, you could save it for when you come back to the condo.”

“Not that kind of talk!” Joey exclaimed. “I ain’t here to tell you off. I just…wanna understand what’s going on with you.”

The crocodile had anticipated that the cat would probably just shrug and say “Whatever.” At best, he might even nod and agree to it. What he hadn’t expected was for Meowth to look at him with…real, genuine surprise. It was as if the very question was foreign to him.

As the whir of machinery filled their ears with the arrival of a gondola car, he shook off that expression. “After we board,” he said, before climbing up the ramp to the slowing car. The doors opened on their own, welcoming them in so long as they watched their step.

Joey carefully leapt in, hopped into one of the cushy seats — and then, out of the corner of his eye, a brown figure dashed between the gap of two buildings surrounding the platform. Was he seriously…?! Well, at least Mathew was looking out for him, he supposed.

It took a moment for Joey to gather his thoughts, long enough for the gondola to make its ascent. In the meantime, he looked down at the down as they climbed upward, leaving the ground behind. From up here, Joey could see the market and the marina, and what looked like the makings of a college campus…and Kalmwa’er Resort, towering over it all.

Meowth didn’t seem nearly so interested in the view below. Instead, he stared straight at Joey, as if he wasn’t there and the full view of the ocean behind him was on display. “So…what do you mean by ‘what’s going on with me’?”

“Well, I just wanna know why,” Joey told him. “Why you took us all in, why you hypnotized Mathew…why folks don’t like you.”

Meowth raked a claw against his chair in contemplation. “You wouldn’t understand. Most people don’t. I’m not sure an explanation would help anything.”

“No, Meowth, an explanation would help everything!” He scrunched up in his seat, pouting. “Everyone else never wants to talk about things, either. It’s annoying.”

The car rattled a little, mildly swaying. Meowth gave a long sigh. His tail shifted from one side to the other, pointing in the direction of the campus below. “When I was thirteen, my father paid so that I could attend the Kalmwa’er School of Higher Education, over there. I graduated last year with an official medical license last year, so I can act as a medic or physician in various fields.”

“That’s real cool!” Joey said. “You must’ve worked like crazy.”

“Sure.” Meowth’s expression was contemplative — it seemed like he was struggling to decide if he should say what’s on his mind. “You know… I don’t really remember a lot about Higher Ed. Just studying all the time and getting into arguments.” He gave a weak laugh. “Kind of sad, right? Six years of my life and it all feels hollow now.”

“Hollow?” Joey cocked his head.

“In all that time, I never saw my father once. The moment he could, he took me out of his life and buried himself in that Resort. Then when I finally saw him again, all he wanted was to hire me into this mediocre trash-cleaning job.” He slouched in his seat. “I thought this might be my chance to find out what changed. What he did, or I did…so I can make him answer for it.”

Joey brought a hand to the closest thing he had to a chin. “And you see me and Mathew as the way to your dad?”

He tensed up, seeming taken aback by the deduction. “That’s right… Hypnotizing Mathew wasn’t my plan, but I was desperate to find out anything about my father — I didn’t mean to make him spill his big secret. But no amount of apologies are going to fix this.” He slumped against the glass. “Something like this always happens with my connections. That’s how it went with everyone else.”

“Oh…” Joey could only listen in sympathy. If he had made stupid mistakes and lost all his friends, Joey reckoned he’d be a pretty sour person with a one-track mind, too.

“I know why you came to talk to me.” He leaned in. “You think you can help me out of this rut? I wouldn’t bother. You’d be wasting your time, just to probably end up despising me too.”

Joey couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Meowth hardly knew who he was, and already he was ready to write him off as another hater. “This is all just a bunch of quitter talk, Meowth!” He tried to stand, but promptly sat back down when he felt the gondola car swing a little.

“Am I wrong to think that way?” Meowth asked. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not exactly the kind of person who changes opinions easily.”

“Well, if you’re in the business of finding answers about your dad and wanting to patch things up with Mathew, you came to the right croc,” Joey said. “We’re both looking for the same thing here!”

“Answers about your father?” Meowth asked, curiosity piqued. “This is the first I’ve heard of this.”

“I don’t remember anything about my life before I became a croc. Nothing about myself, or my mom, or my dad. Mathew apparently knows everything, but he ain’t saying a peep about it. I got fewer leads than a dog in a spooky house.”

“Amnesia…” Meowth hung his head. “That’s unfortunate.”

“It is. But I reckon that, if we put our noggins together, maybe we’ll be able to fix things up around here.” Joey tightened his hands, feeling more determined than ever.

He gave him a solitary ‘heh’. “You make it sound so easy. I didn’t mention this until now, but we’re also on a time-limit here. The Kalmwa’er Service Guild wants to take my license away for what I did to Mathew. If things don’t change soon…”

Joey gawked. “They can do that?!”

“Seems so.”

The crocodile was concerned…at least, at first. “Well, I reckon we were already on short time already. We’ll probably only be hanging around in Kalmwa’er for as long as this recruitment takes, after all. What’s a little less time?”

“You’re awfully optimistic.” He shook his head, but for the first time, Joey could see a weak grin on his face.

Joey smiled back. “Ain’t worth being anything else, if you can help it.” Their ride was almost over now — the gondola was sliding in to the platform at the top of the cliffside. He stood up and offered a fist. “Help Ourselves Squad?”

Meowth slowly rose up met his fist with his own. “Sure. Help Ourselves Squad.”

“This is outrageous!” Jermy slammed the desk in frustration. Before him and Demurke was a formally-written statement handed down from the business division — and what it said was unpleasant. “Do they think we’re miracle workers?!”

Demurke lifted herself from the chair and pulled the sheet towards herself. “F-Friday of next week? I-I’ve never seen a turnaround this…short. It’s usually a m-month, at least.”

Across the office desk, David was firmly planted in an Earth-style office chair, peering at the large window where the late-afternoon sun gleamed through. As far as Jermy knew, this was the first time his boss had been in Mr. Persian’s top-floor office. Due to the urgency, they were using it as a makeshift, short-notice meeting room. Seeing the ocean from this high up while not in the middle of berating Jermy in his talons must be nifty to him.

“If it makes you two feel better, this doesn’t have anything to do with how the recruitment’s going,” he told them. “I hear they’re temporarily freezing the recruitment program. No more new humans, and every recruit’s getting their plan accelerated.”

“Freezing it?” Jermy’s ears flicked as a wave of concern came over him. The last time they froze recruitment… “What’s going on?” he asked seriously.

David sighed. “I can’t tell you that, unfortunately.”

The whir of the ventilation filled the air between them. “’scuse me?” Jermy was used to David being a stick in the mud, but this? “Aren’t I your trusted assistant?”

“Yes, I know, it’s irritating, but it’s not my call to make. It’s her…” David looked away from him. “Demurke?”

She flinched, eyes from the window to David as if she’d been woken up from slumber. “S-Sorry! I…”

“But I’m a part of this whole thing too!” Jermy exclaimed. He was. “Don’t I deserve to know?”

David shook his head, letting Demurke be in favor of addressing him. “How so?”

He grimaced. Already he could feel his own argument withering. “I’m your assistant, and—!”

“And he is currently acting as a recruiter.” ORB, sitting up against Jermy’s chair, was there to rescue him. “While he is a part of the science division first, at the moment he is doing the work of a business division member. As a result, he has a right to know.”

His boss leaned back in his chair. “Well, I’ll give you that much. But this is tight-lipped even with some of the recruiters. And after what happened yesterday, unfortunately, there’s a pretty good reason for that knowledge to stay out of your wings — er, hands.”

Crud. He’d almost forgotten about the whole debacle with Meowth. That information had passed quickly up the grapevine, and now the whole organization might as well know about it. It didn’t mean squat that there was Hypnosis involved — it made Mathew look untrustworthy, and even worse as a candidate for their pursuits. He buried himself in his chair. “This is going to take…so much work to course-correct.”

David gave him a stern nod. “Do you see why I was worried about them living with Mr. Persian’s child, now?”

Jermy and Demurke sat in silence. They didn’t have any retort to give this time. This risk of theirs hadn’t paid off at all.

He shook his head, rising up from the desk. “Well, if we want to redeem Mathew in their eyes, we’ll need some kind of plan. I’m going to head back to my lab and draft something up. We’ve crawled out of deeper pits before…”

Demurke fluttered out of her seat. “I-I’ve had to improvise a…thing or two for some of the people I’ve recruited. Maybe I c-could help?”

David’s gaze softened. “I’d like that, yes.”

“Wait, what about me?” Jermy flopped out of his chair. “Shouldn’t we all work on this together?”

“Unfortunately, one of us needs to keep an eye on the recruits.” As the two of them moved for the door, David’s eyes squinted. “Somebody has to keep things like that from happening.”

Geez. Way to rub salt in the wound.

“Sorry, Jermy…s-see you later, okay?” With Demurke’s parting, Jermy was left alone to stew in the office.

The pikachu grit his teeth as he paced around the room. This whole thing was Mr. Persian’s fault. If the Club owner hadn’t brought him into their business, then…!

His tense arms slacked, the desire to blame fading fast. It wasn’t reasonable to pin it on him. When he saw the makeshift bed in the corner of the office and the stack of food cans filling his trash bin, Jermy knew that he couldn’t blame Mr. Persian for doing what he did.

With ORB in the corner of his eye, Jermy wondered if, given the chance, he’d have done the same.