Chapter 39: Counterbalanced - An Unovan Tale

WARNING - From now on, if you haven't read the rest of the chapters yet,
I suggest reading those first. There are important things happening/coming up in the story,
and reading those before the rest of the story just isn't as much fun as the other way around.

Counterbalanced - Chapter 39

Yena couldn't quite see his face, but she could hear the young man's voice as he shook her, and loudly screamed in her ear:

"The Pokémon…! Give them back right now…!"

If he had planned on yelling anything else, he wasn't given the chance.
Spurred on by the screams and loud noises, Alex flew through the tree house like an arrow shot from a bow. With a wild growl, she grabbed the young man's vest, and ripped him away from Yena, rolling around him before kicking him away from her. The girl's two-year training with Chase clearly showed as she immediately followed up on her actions, jumping after the man. As soon as he turned around to defend himself, she swung her arm around and punched him in the face.

Helplessly lying on his back, with Alex sitting on his chest, pinning him down, the young man was now loudly crying out for mercy. As he seemed to be too scared for another attack, Alex turned her head to Yena, at the other side of the tree house.

"Are you okay…?"

The blond girl had watched the short fight with wide eyes.

"Y-yeah…"

Alex nodded, before grabbing the front of the guy's shirt, shaking him.

"Well…? How about apologizing to my friend for attacking her…?"

The nosebleed caused by Alex' well-aimed fist was only making the cowering young man look more pitiful.
Shaking, and his hands held out to protect his face from any more blows, he stuttered:

"S-sorry…! Sorry! I didn't mean to…! It… It was a mistake!"

Alex raised her eyebrows, surprised by his immediate obedience.
This guy wasn't as tough as she'd thought.

She took a moment to study him more closely.

He was wearing a light brown shirt, mostly covered by a sleeveless, hooded vest in camouflage colors. There seemed to be two fake ears attached to the hood, making him appear younger and more childish than Alex had anticipated.

The lower half of his face was covered in blood, but Alex could see his wide, gray eyes staring at her through a pair of glasses.

Alex almost forgot to breathe as she began to recognise him. Moving fast, and causing him to yelp in fear, she stretched out her arm and partly pulled back the hood that had been covering his head.

Short, blond hair.

Not knowing what to say, Alex stumbled back. She knew this guy.

"M-Martin…?"

The young man stopped shaking and cringing when he heard his name.
Moving slow, and wiping his bloody face with his arm, he sat up to stare at Alex.
The long, red stain left on his skin didn't seem to bother him.

After a moment, his mouth fell open.

"…L-Liz…! It's… It's you, right?"

He scrambled to his feet, and soon, a wide grin spread across his face.

"Your hair, it's so short…! And your voice, it sounds different…
But… Yes! I'm sure now…! It's you! You… You came back!"

He looked ready for a hug, but Alex was having none of that.
Bewildered, she took one step back, and seemed relieved when Yena appeared at her side.
The blond girl looked back and forth between Alex and Martin.

She pulled out a tissue from her backpack, and carefully handed it to the young man.

"This will do better than your arm… Do you guys know eachother…?"

Impatiently wiping his face with the tissue, Martin nodded excitedly, as if he hadn't just been beat up.

"Yes, of course! We used to hang out in this forest together all the time!"

He kept looking back at Alex, who seemed unsure on how to behave around her old friend, and was still eyeing him closely. But she relaxed a little when he asked:

"Did you go back to the house? …I try to put fresh flowers up every two days, at least when the guards don't catch me. I've really tried taking care of the place, until you'd come back…"

He seemed relieved when Alex finally spoke up.

"You were the one that put up the message in the living room."

Martin nodded fast.

"I hope it's okay… If you want to make your own, you can just replace mine…"

But Alex quietly stated:

"No need for that, Martin. It was beautiful."

The young man smiled, intensely happy with the compliment.
Then, he suddenly seemed to remember something.
Hurrying towards the hole in the floor that Yena and Alex had come through, he gestured at the girls to stay put.

"I saved some of things from the house for you, Liz. I'll go and get them! Wait there!"

He routinely lowered himself on the nearest tree branch, and as he disappeared from sight, they could still hear his voice as he called out to Alex:

"I'm so glad you're back, Liz! This will be great!"

He continued to express his joy on the ground, even though they couldn't quite hear what he said anymore.

And then silence.

Alex was the first one to break it. She sighed.

"…Wow."

Yena was slightly overwhelmed as well.

"He's… quite the character."

"…He's not the same as before."

Yena studied Alex' confused expression.

"Is anything wrong, Alex?"

The short-haired girl stared at the hole Martin had disappeared through.

"He just seems so… odd."

"Ah. What was he like, before?"

She shrugged.

"I don't know… He was shy, and did everything I told him to... That part of him always annoyed me. The only reason I spent any time with him at all, was his imagination. He could just think up complete stories on the spot, so we always had something to do. We'd pretend to be pirates one day, and legendary Pokémon the next. But now, he-…"

She abruptly stopped talking when she heard a noise outside, and a few seconds later, Martin's hooded head appeared through the hole in the wooden floor again, the ears on his camouflage-vest moving as he climbed in. He was carrying a plastic bag, that was covered in dirt, as if it had been just dug up.

He energetically kneeled down in front of Alex, and shook the bag to empty it.
Books fell out, some of them falling open as they hit the wooden floor.
Hesitantly, Alex followed Yena's example as the blond girl sat down to take a closer look.

She picked up one of the books, staring at its contents.

"These are…"

Photo albums. Martin had brought back some photo albums.
Breathing fast, Alex quickly closed the one she'd opened, not ready to look at the pictures of happier times.
But she held it close, nonetheless.

Martin proudly declared:

"You're happy with these, right? Found them in a bookcase in one of the backrooms. Took them just in time, too. A week later, people came over and took just about everything else."

He frowned and shook his fist, expressing his anger about the injustice done to the place.

"And as if that wasn't enough, they started to take away the Pokémon here, as well!
I tried stopping them, but my Deerling just isn't strong enough to fight them off…"

Then his face cleared up, and he smiled.

"But it'll be alright now."

His voice grew softer.

"Finally, you came back to fix everything, Elizabeth…"

Alex looked slightly taken aback, both by his words and the use of her full name.

"Fix everything…? Martin, we're just passing through here…"

But he didn't seem to register what she was saying.
He dreamily muttered:

"And you, fighting like that… It'll be perfect. You trained with some mysterious martial artist, right?
You'll easily chase away the intruders from the kingdom…"

Alex' frown deepened.

"Kingdom? Martin, what are you talking about…?"

He seemed keen on explaining.

"The story, Liz… Don't you know it…? We made this story up more than 10 years ago, and it all came true…
Princess Elizabeth she saw her kingdom burn, and had to disappear for years…
When she returned, her land had gone to ruin…"

Moving slow, Alex started putting the books Martin gave her in her own black backpack.
In the meantime, she exchanged worried glances with Yena.

"Martin, I think you're mixing things up…"

But Martin wasn't done. He seemed determined to tell the whole story.
There was a feverish look in his eyes.

"…But the princess discovers that not everyone had abandoned her.
One loyal servant had guarded her belongings with his life."

His wide, gray eyes went back to Alex, who had slowly gotten to her feet.
He got up, talking louder and faster now.

"…The princess and the servant decided to save the kingdom by working together, and along the way, they fell in love…"

Alex had heard enough. The dude had obviously lost his mind.
She abruptly turned around to the treehouse's exit.

"Alright, that's it. Martin, thank you for the albums, but we're leaving. Let's go, Yena."

Martin's response to her words was more frantic than she'd thought.
He wildly reached for her, and got a hold of Alex' wrist.
He pulled her arm, and pleaded:

"Maybe you don't feel that way yet, Elizabeth… But we can do this!
Let's save the land that is rightfully yours, together!"

Alex ground her teeth, twisting her arm and trying hard not to punch the young man in the face again.

"I'm sorry to tell you this, but I'm not some princess that's about to save her kingdom. Nor am I about to fall in love with a completely delusional guy that has ridiculous ears on top of his head."

Her words had success to some degree – he let go of her wrist to touch the green ears on his camouflage-vest.
He looked a bit hurt as he told her:

"My mom thinks it makes me look like a cute Deerling…
But I could… I could take them off if you want me to…!"

But Alex wasn't even listening. Closely followed by Yena, she had already started to lower herself through the hole in the floor that would lead them to the other side of the fence.

Finally realising that the girl was actually about to leave, Martin gave a desperate, maniacal scream.
He leaped across the tree house, completely ignoring Yena at the side of the opening in the floor, and wildly reached for Alex.

Alex was lucky to be an experienced climber. She was nearly shoved from the highest tree branch as the young man forcefully got a hold of her black backpack. One hand still holding on to her belongings, she managed to regain her balance by grabbing a nearby, thinner branch.

Hating to be caught in this vulnerable position, she loudly screamed violent swear words in Martin's face.
It turned out to be quite effective. His expression shocked, she could see how the words she picked up in Castelia City punched a hole in his fantasy story, and she couldn't resist adding a sneer:

"Oh, I'm sorry. Is that not something a princess would say…? Well, I'm glad we solved that one.
Now let go of my bag…!"

She gave a powerful tug, but Martin wasn't about to let go.
He started pleading again.

"Please stop this, Liz… Let's talk about this inside…!"

But the more he held on, the harder Alex pulled and swore.
Martin desperately looked around.

"Sssh, ssh! Keep it down, keep it down! The guards have Pokémon that can hear you!"

It was this moment that Yena, still inside the tree house, decided on interfering.
Catching the young man by surprise, she shoved Martin away from the opening.
Her push made Martin let go of the bag, but the sudden lack of resistance completely threw off Alex' balance.

Her wild scream caused both Yena and Martin to yelp, and they hurried back to the hole in the floor.

…But Alex was alright.
She only tumbled down two branches, before successfully regaining her grip on the tree. But she'd needed both hands to save herself, and the bag she'd been so eager to pull from Martin's grasp had fallen down, landing on the ground with a thud.

Alex looked up at Martin, her glare deadly.

"You really are insane…! You could've killed me! And if anything in that bag is broken…"

"Sssh!"

Hushing sounds from Yena made her look down.

There was a Pokémon next to her bag, inspecting it closely.
The small, red and dark gray creature was covered in sharp blades.
It looked back, and soon, its owner appeared.

The muscular man, wearing a security uniform, was clearly one of the ground's guards.
He picked up Alex' bag, and glanced around through the trees.

Don't look up.

Don't look up.

Don't look up…

It had gone completely quiet in the treehouse – Yena and Martin were holding their breath.
Trying not to make a sound, Alex slowly moved into a better position.
If the man would look up, or tried to walk off with her bag, she'd jump down and… and…-

"Hey! What do you think you're doing…?"

It wasn't the guard that had called out. There was someone else nearby.
And even though she couldn't see him yet, Alex instantly recognised his voice.

The guard quickly looked around, turning his broad back on the tree they were in.
He shook the bag, and his low voice bellowed:

"Is this yours?"

The second person on the scene finally stepped forward.
Her muscles protesting, Alex froze in her awkward position, and kept herself from moving.
Her dark eyes closely followed what was going on below.

"It is. And you have no business going through my belongings.
This side of the fence isn't a restricted area."

The guard wasn't convinced yet.

"Do you have any way to identify yourself…?"

The person on the ground rolled his eyes.

"Come on man, is this really necessary? I was just going to put up my camp here."

He paused.

"But if you insist… My Pokédex is in there. It's yellow. Just check it."

The guard reached down into the backpack, his Pawniard staring at the man in front of them.

"What's your name?"

"Alex. Alex Zenouveau."

---

"This Pokédex is programmed by Professor Juniper for Pokémon Trainer Alex Zenouveau. The function of this Pokédex is to provide Alex with information and advice regarding Pokémon and their training."