Pokémon Mars

Chapter 18: The Choreography

Beyond the malls was a plaza decorated with trees and colourful benches. Spicy, smoky and sweet scents wafted from stalls selling specialties from all around Earth. A Martian busker played a famous rock song.

For the first time since she arrived, Nyx noticed people from the same cultures sticking together in a way that made their tight circles seem impenetrable to outsiders. The Martians, recognisable by their grey skin from entire lives spent in the bubble, were excluded. It didn't matter where their parents came from. They were Martians. Most of them sat alone. The kids on skateboards and roller skates didn't care, though. Anyone could join them.

One of the two hotels for space tourists towered over the plaza. They snapped photos of everything, but after a few days in Ironville, the main attractions were the grey-skinned Martians and, to a lesser extent, any astronauts who bothered carrying spacesuits. Nyx was one of them. She joined a line at a stall selling harira, a spicy soup from the Gharab region, to have a phone on a selfie stick shoved in her face. Its owner, who was live streaming his adventure, babbled on.

'And here we're seeing a real Ares astronaut! You can see there's a big spacesuit in that backpack and the oxygen tank is here...'

Nyx had to clench her fists to stop herself slapping that man when he touched her. That put her off her food. She left the line and bought a vegan sausage roll, to eat later, instead. The tourist shrieked and dropped his phone when a manhole burst open under his feet. A Feraligatr shoved him back before he fell in. Team Aqua left it open and surrounded it with tape so that didn't happen, but a tourist broke the tape and put the cover back to get a photo of the entire plaza. Firmino looked furious when he climbed out. That was obviously unusual, because the Grunts with him looked nervous.

'Can you guys stop flushing your shit from Earth? Please?'

The tourists scattered. They wanted photos of Team Aqua, but they reeked of sewage. Then Firmino snatched a bag from one of the Grunts and emptied it out in front of the filming man. Some of the richest tourists screamed.

'Martian sewers aren't made for this. And it upsets the Pokémon.'

There was all kinds in there: tin foil, condoms, pill strips, plastic wet wipes, birthday decorations, outdated designer clothes and gadgets.

'And we could die unblocking them. What if the bubble goes to shit while we're down there? What do you think we're gonna do?'

At a safe distance from the stench, the tourists took their phones back out. They didn't care what he said. An important Martian was angry. That was a sight they would never see again. To inexperienced Earthlings, Firmino did look like a true Martian, because although he wasn't as grey as those born there, his skin lost more colour with every year he spent there. Nyx almost felt sorry for him.

'OK. This is a waste of time. I'm just your servant... OK...'

He shoved the waste back in the bag. As he walked briskly away, Nyx heard him muttering 'fuck tourists' in Kantonian. One of his Grunts added 'and the mega-wealthy.' He agreed.

Those unimaginably wealthy tourists shocked Nyx. So did the exclusion of Martians. The thing that shocked her the most, however, was the total lack of Pokémon in the plaza. While the pampered tourists recoiled from sewage, some of the residents stood with panicked expressions, poised to run, at the sight of Firmino's Feraligatr.

These were the people who preserved Ironville's image. They were so afraid of Pokémon that it reminded Nyx of her grandmother's stories of Volo's life in Hisui. So who told Primo that he could turn Mars into a utopia for Pokémon? Perhaps, like the people of Hisui, no-one in Ironville cared if Pokémon ruled the wilderness as long as they were safe in their bubble. Nyx still found that ridiculous. How had the human race come so far only to revert to the divisive fears of 300 years ago? There was a church beyond the plaza, but even religious people were apparently unaware that Arceus itself wanted people and Pokémon to live in harmony; or perhaps they didn't believe it because the story involved Volo. He was the subject of many jokes these days.