Pokémon: Out of the Woods | A Galar, Unova & Sinnoh Fanfiction

Chapter 23: Angry & Bitter

Poppy never returned for Jigglypuff. No-one around her replied to Khalid, but her drummer did block him on Rotogram. He began to wonder if he was in on the kidnapping. She must have been kidnapped, like Allister's Gengar, because that Jigglypuff had been with her since she was four. She would never abandon it... or so he thought. She showed up to the band's next show in Lumiose City as if nothing – except the break-up – had happened.

Jigglypuff's distress grew with each day that passed. It didn't mind Khalid himself, but it was afraid of his Pokémon. It was afraid of being released. As a domesticated Pokémon, it would struggle in the wild. Khalid felt like a bitter stalker when he watched videos of the Lumiose City show to try to work out what was going on, but what else could he do? He had a frightened Pokémon on his hands. Was she simply too proud to return for anything, even her precious Pokémon?

She called me a Pokémon abuser, but abandoning your Pokémon because you're too proud to speak to your ex-boyfriend is shitty...

Khalid was bored after two videos, but he got an answer from the International Police regardless. Triton called to ask if something happened. Local police received reports from concerned concertgoers when at least 10 obsessed fans released their Pokémon after Poppy gave an impassioned speech about how humans didn't own them. At first, Khalid thought it was an extension of her calling him a Pokémon abuser, which he assumed was a knee-jerk reaction to perceived rejection; but was there much more to it than he thought? Where did she get that rhetoric from? Verbena was one of Wisteria's Frontier Brains. Lambert was no professional Trainer, but he still had six Pokémon that he loved. His husband, Poppy's stepdad, was a professional Trainer.

Oh, bollocks... that wasn't her snapping at me, was it? Plasma have got her. Did she even want to see me again, or was she just hoping I'd release my Pokémon?

She probably did want to see Khalid again. It was obvious from the original and cover songs she chose to perform that he meant something to her, at some point, because the break-up hurt her.

These people don't care about Pokémon, Poppy... they just want to be the only people who can use them...

In a long queue at immigration at Lumiose City International Airport, a phone rang. Mirabelle was going to ignore it, because she was in an even more foul mood than the one she left Sinnoh with, but it was Reira. She reluctantly answered.

'Yes...?'

'Morning, Mirabelle. I'm sorry to bother you, but we need someone to speak to the rock band My Fiery Wrath. Poppy Akihiko may have joined Team Plasma. I've added the details to the case file. The band is currently in Kalos.'

Mirabelle sighed. At least she could skip the queue if she was on duty, but did this have to concern Verbena's daughter, of all people?

'I can't go straight there... I've got to get rid of the house first...'

Once the sale of her home of 28 years was complete, she would move in with Olive, her daughter, in Motostoke. Her ex-husband was long gone. While she was busy investigating Cipher's last revival and supporting Sam, her oldest child, with the disappearance of his fiancée in Orre; Félix volunteered to help Wisteria rebuild the wrecked Battle Frontier. Both Mirabelle and Sam found it odd that he kept getting back so late, but it was only when he never bothered returning on her birthday that she began to panic; not because she suspected he was cheating, but because it was so unlike him, she worried something had happened. She called Wisteria to check.

Wisteria was baffled. It was months since she needed Félix's help. She was so wrapped up in the chaos of opening her beloved Battle Frontier that she never thought twice about the man who still visited one of her Frontier Brains. Well, she did think about it. She thought Verbena was trying to get at Toru, her ex. It hadn't occurred to Wisteria that he was cheating on anyone, but as soon as it did, she said so. She had no filter.