Frontier Town Main Street

[Cresselia92]

Witch’s hour had fallen in Frontier Town by the time Silver returned from the secret hideout and his final meeting with Giovanni. With his muscles still aching from the fight with Alexander and his mind atwitter from the rapid succession of events, it was mostly through sheer willpower that Silver could wander through the much quieter town.

Alexander, Cipher, and Giovanni were gone. Words spread faster than wildfire and the folks around him were once again breathing with relief. Things were finally looking much brighter after so many days of anxiety.

So why, why did he have that weird gnawing emptiness drowning whatever elation he should have felt? Why couldn’t he simply join in the celebration like a regular person? Why did he feel like something had torn a gaping hole in his chest?

It didn’t make any sense! Nothing about his current mindscape made sense! He should be happy, dammit! So why wasn’t he happy?

A sudden gust blew across the town, and a piece of the tattered black suit flew out of his bag. His eyes widened in shock, and without fully knowing why, he raced after the fleeing fragment. He turned around a corner, and with a few swift dashes, he caught the piece of fabric into his claws.

The young Sneasel panted, utterly confused. He sprawled nearby a wall, too tired to even bother with social norms and customs, and his bag slid gracelessly to the floor.

“…What the hell is wrong with me?” he mumbled while tilting the fragment in his claws, and his gaze drifted to the opened bag, which showed the pile of remaining tatters. In a sense, that jigsaw of high quality black fabric reflected the state of his own mind.

That was yet another oddity he couldn’t explain: the sudden attachment to that torn suit. One of the few reminders that Giovanni had ever been in that world, aside from the two Ultra Balls still in his possession.

Overwhelmed by fatigue, Silver closed his eyes and buried his head between his crossed arms, trying to shut off all sensory input. Colorful phosphenes danced in his blackened sight. Sparks floated toward the sky. A Nidoking with a tattered suit melted into flakes of light, leaving Forlas behind. A black man with a black suit and a suitcase walking away, toward Victory Road, never to be seen again…

In his tiredness, he couldn’t stop a question from barging into his troubled mind: Where are you, Dad?

That was it. Silver uncurled himself as those words flooded through his system. He had always done all he could to avoid asking himself that question, fueled by his spite and resentment toward his father, but now that those words had been laid bare in his brain… he still didn’t know what to think and feel, but something had definitely clicked deep inside his spirit, even if he didn’t have a word to define that tangle of sensations.

Was that nostalgia? Longing, perhaps? Or something much more profound?

Silver gazed again at the tattered suit. For some reason, the more he stared at it and the more the storm in his mind quieted down. The vague idea he had formulated in the hideout was brought to the top of his priority list, and a new wave of determination filled his heart.

Slipping his bag back on his shoulder, Silver made a mental note to visit the tailor in the morning and resumed his walk, directed toward his room.

The truth about his past and his father’s whereabouts could wait a little longer, and once he tracked down the old man, Silver would be ready for it.

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[Chibi Pika]

It hadn't really been that long since Jade had last been in Frontier Town. A few weeks at the most, after a bunch of time spent hopping between Novelux and Magna City (plus a few more to account for the time apparently spent drifting through timespace before appearing in the Walled Gardens in Auranosa. Still, the place had come to feel like home in a funny sort of way, and she'd missed it. She'd missed training on the riverbank and making runs through the ravine and doing deliveries around town and curling up in the corner booth of the saloon with a hot drink at the end of the day with the usual satisfying soreness.

Once the Betelnet had been restored, it hadn't been too hard to locate a tame mining rift in the vicinity of Paydirt to use as a Waypoint, and from there she found herself on the trail south from Silver Ravine. Familiar as ever, albeit with a much fuller river and more plants sprouting than the last time she'd been there. Winter really was coming to an end, huh.

Sada had stayed behind in Paydirt to do a few additional tests and checks with Betel, and after that? Seemed like she planned to make her way northeast to collect her research materials from the congress and inform them of her recent conclusions. Which would probably involve either a letter of resignation or some big changes in the CDE. Time would tell. As for Betel, well... it wasn't as if they couldn't warp to Frontier Town whenever they wanted now. That was a plus.

Now the main question left was how many others had made it back to Frontier Town before her?

'So, this is where you and your allies reside,' Virga said. The Rookidee was presently flying far above taking in the details of the town, and its setting.

'I know it doesn't look like much,' Jade replied, 'but it sort of feels like home after a while.'

Virga glanced around the environment, from the still-snowcapped mountains to the west to the dry grasslands to the east. 'This place is even further from the sea than our previous destination.'

Jade bit her tongue to keep from laughing. 'Well, you're not really aquatic anymore either, so...'

'There is no need to remind me of that.'