Pokémon Mars

Chapter 29: The Deal

Larissa didn't want to scare Thalassa, but if there was any chance that she was in the vicinity of Team Genesis, she needed to know. She told her everything while Naaji monitored the line to ensure it was secure.

'To be honest, it doesn't surprise me...'

'The person Ross has in mind for getting the DNA sample...'

'Nyx. I know. But I don't think she should even risk it. I know an even better man for the job.'

Thalassa actually smiled for a moment. Larissa was so relieved to see it that her face lit up in response. She winked.

'I don't suppose there's any particular reason he's making you smile...?'

'A very particular reason... he's a Zorua.'

'Hahahaha! I love it! But... how did a Zorua get up there?'

'Imagine which Zorua it might be... and you'll know.'

'Riiight! Well, I'm really glad y'all have plenty of Pokémon friends. They'll never let you down.'

'But... since you know how bad things are now...'

Thalassa wanted to tell her parents how she felt from the moment she arrived. It all burst out then, except the one most upsetting thing she didn't admit: that she just wanted to go home. None of it was any surprise to them after their conversations with Ross, Holly, Toru and even Aiko, but somehow, hearing it from their only child made it seem more terrifying than it ever did before.

Callerya waited for Thalassa's call to end before she called her parents. Her father would listen in silence, but her mother would explode and fly straight to the Quartz Space Center to grill Ross and, probably, whip him into doing something that would put him in danger. She smiled and said she was fine. She told her grandparents how jaded she already was instead. Jin heard their call in the background of his own call to his parents. They all lived at the Pokémon HQ Lab.

All of their loved ones on Earth urged them to return to Ironville. They weren't experienced enough to tackle an evil team on the surface of Mars. Most of their Pokémon couldn't even breathe there. Joshua wanted to stay. Callerya was tempted to, since they initially imagined Clefairy living at the peak of Mt. Coronet. Even Thalassa was reluctant to go. She felt like they endured that bus ride only to achieve nothing at all. Callerya's grandpa, Jovi's son, reminded them that she and her team went on many unsuccessful adventures in their quest to reintroduce wild Pokémon to Orre. Perry reminded Jin that science was often a series of mistakes.

'But... it's not really a mistake... it's such an anticlimax that we could release Pokémon here... there's a lot of stuff we could do... and we've worked out exactly what and how, even in this shitty environment, but we can't do it just because of stupid people...'

'Yeah... that sucks. But you're not gonna be able to do anything at all if you end up on Team Genesis' breakfast buffet. Go back and regroup. Stay in touch with that Betty and work out where you can go without weirdos getting in your way. That's my advice. And you know I'm always right!'

'You just said science is a series of mistakes...'

'Well, yeah – and I'm right about that! Even when you make a mistake, you're still right as long as you admit it!'

'OK... yeah... we know we've gotta go back... so... smell ya later...'

'We love you! Smell ya!'

Perry's smile disappeared as soon as Jin hung up. He was infinitely proud of his son, but equally broken that he would never see him in person again... and that only intensified with everything he heard about the Ares program. He left everything behind for what? Then he remembered that he was terrified of Jin somehow ending up like Damson. He wanted to keep telling everyone how great his son was, but he even began to fear drawing too much attention to him, in case that somehow aggravated Rudolph or whoever he answered to. Tansy, his wife, felt the same way. They didn't need to tell Callerya's grandparents how they felt. They already knew.