As they approached Black City, Gideon was beginning to get the feeling that he’d hate the place.
Buildings towered over the surrounding forest, which seemed paler than normal. Every building was black, indicating that the name was accurate, and large strips of light went up the corners of a lot of the buildings, mostly green or blue. In the distance, a very tall, blue building loomed above the rest, seemingly piercing the clouds. Another strip of blue light shot up the side of it, as unnatural looking as the rest of the city.
Valerie folded her arms as they walked towards the gate. “Wow. Dreary.”
Keo snorted from the front of the group. “Wait until we’re inside the place.”
The gate was a simple hallway with a turnstile in the middle, a Charmeleon tapping the counter in boredom. “State your business,” it said in an equally bored tone.
“Supporting the economy,” Keo replied.
This seemed to be the expected answer, the Charmeleon pressing a button underneath the counter to unlock the gate. “Go on through. Enjoy your day or whatever.”
They each walked through the turnstile, the bars making a clicking noise as they turned. Gideon didn’t like the sound.
Black City itself was far more imposing on the inside than it was on the outside. The buildings seemed to loom above them, the lights doing nothing to dispel the lack of light coming from any of the windows. Despite their seeming emptiness, though, there were tons of Pokemon.
Gideon was a little overwhelmed. He wasn’t sure he had ever seen this many Pokemon in one place, let alone been among them. They were all hurrying, talking, walking along the black concrete tiles that took up any ground space that wasn’t already built on by skyscrapers.
“Would it have killed them to add some greenery here and there?” Valerie mumbled.
“It’d be unprofitable,” Keo replied, somehow hearing her above the noise of the crowd. “Come on, let’s get through this place.”
Keo seemed oddly familiar with the city, for a child. He navigated around buildings, taking the quickest possible route to get through the towering maze of black buildings. There were so many Pokemon that Gideon’s head began to spin. How had Pokemon built this?
Keo came to a stop and muttered something under his breath. There was a gate similar to the one they had entered from, but this one had a shutter across the entrance. A few Pokemon were standing around, looking at it in consternation. The sign on the front read “CLOSED FOR MAINTENANCE.”
Gideon put the flight recorder down and sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose the best he could without thumbs. “Okay, so that way’s blocked. What’s our other options?”
“Nothing, unless you want to circle around the entire region,” Keo said, emphasizing his last two words. “This city is built on a regional chokepoint, which means a lot of money flows through here. A lot of money. And they know it.”
Dexter, whom had been quiet since they had arrived, suddenly said, “It will be open in two days.”
He caught their attention. Keo whirled around and glared at him. “And how did you come to know that?”
“There is a free inter-network source provided by the city,” Dexter said, shuffling in place. “It is very slow, but I can connect to it easily enough. I keep getting notifications to pay for faster speeds,” he added in a digital mutter.
Keo rolled his eyes. “Sure. Whatever works.” Gideon got the impression he didn’t know what the internet was.
Valerie looked around fruitlessly. “You’re sure that we can’t just go the other way?”
“Depends on how long you want this trip to take,” Keo replied. “If we wait here for the two days, then we’ll be able to get there in… ugh, probably around a week and a half. The other route is liable to take most of a month.”
Gideon glanced at the flight recorder. “I think I’d rather wait the two days.”
“It wouldn’t be so bad if you took help,” Valerie said persistently. This was beginning to become a topic of debate between the two of them.
He picked it up again, somewhat protectively. “It’s fine, Val. I don’t want to make you have to carry this.”
Valerie wavered before letting out a sigh, indicating the argument would be continued in a more convenient location. “I’m just worried. It’s not good for you to be carrying that all the time.”
“What are we going to do about shelter?” Dexter asked.
Keo began pacing back and forth. “That’s a good question. We can’t really stay anywhere— nowhere near enough Poke for that— and sleeping out on the streets is a bad idea because the petty crime gets so bad.”
Valerie looked around, suddenly feeling unsafe. “Um, are there any other options?”
Keo considered the question. “Well, there’s White Forest, but I’m not too keen on being watched the entire time.”
“Besides,” Dexter chimed in, “the White Forest gate is also closed for maintenance. Though there is not an estimated date of reopening, unfortunately.”
Keo muttered something under his breath that Gideon was very sure a child wasn’t supposed to know. “So unless we want to get mugged, we’re sleeping outside the city limits.”
“I guess we’re doing that, then,” Gideon said resignedly. He wasn’t too big on the idea of sleeping outside on the grass, but it was better than being robbed. They needed everything they had.
Valerie yawned. “How late is it, anyway? I’m tired.”
“6:33 PM,” Dexter said. “We have all had a long day.”
Gideon let out a whistle. “I knew it was late, but I didn’t think it was that late.”
“Mystery dungeons can really mess with your perception of time,” Keo said. “Come on, let’s get out of this place.”
They did, the bored Charmeleon letting them out with nary a word at all. Outside the city, which was vibrant compared to the rest of the buildings, it was starting to get dark, the sun casting a vivid pink among the cloudy pattern of the sky. Gideon wanted to stop and stare at it, but Keo was leading them somewhere.
It wasn’t too far away from the gate, but it was off the beaten path, among a clump of trees. Gideon set the flight recorder down in relief and sat back against a tree, watching the sky fade as the sun set beneath a horizon blocked by trees.
Valerie joined him, sitting down and leaning her head on his shoulder. Their hands— paws, whatever— found each other, and they simply sat there in silence, watching the darkening sky. After a while, another layer of clouds seemed to appear, but these ones were made out of black and white stardust, swirled together by some great cosmic wind.
“Sid,” Valerie asked after a while. “Where did the other humans go?”
Gideon hadn’t thought about the question too deeply until then. The sudden realization that he had not seen a single human since they had woken up was simultaneously shocking and not surprising in the least.
“I don’t know,” he replied. “I’ve been so busy that I haven’t… thought about it. Or wanted to think about it.”
“It’s just something I’ve noticed,” she murmured. “I thought there were… a lot more humans on Earth. But there aren’t any, and I’m starting to get a little worried. The longer I’ve been awake, the more stars I’ve blessed that we haven’t told anyone.”
Gideon nodded. “It would probably be a hard pill to swallow.”
They continued to sit there, dozing off in each other’s company.
Dexter didn’t need to sleep— at least, not by conventional definitions— so he was determined to find out as much as possible.
Outside the city, the wi-fi connection was spotty at best. He kept losing connection and having to reconnect, being bombarded by ads as he did so. He made a mental note to find some sort of ad blocker he could install that wasn’t also predatory- he had gone through five already.
The amount of information he learned during that night was a lot less than he would’ve liked. He found a massive website that claimed to have information on everything, but it seemed to be woefully outdated, and much of the information he found he had to discard as useless.
The only interesting thing he found was an article on The Veil.
It looked vaguely similar to Black City, but it was far more hi-tech looking. The few pictures Dexter could find all prominently featured glowing neon signs, the concrete buildings looking as imposing as the black steel ones in the city they had just left.
But, oddly enough… it felt familiar. Almost like home.
Dexter scoured the website for any information on The Veil. There wasn’t much, but he was able to make out that it contained the tallest building in the world and that most of its culture revolved around music, music the humans had left behind when they had all departed for the stars.
Wait. What?
He read and reread the one line in increasing shock. There were no more humans left on the planet? But that wasn’t right at all! He glanced at the sleeping Gideon and Valerie, his emotional center beginning to be overloaded with far too many different feelings. Why did he have to feel…?
“Hey.”
He jumped and looked around wildly to see Keo, who was watching him with a vaguely freaked out expression. “Oh, just you,” Dexter said in relief. “Um, did you need something?”
“What are you doing?” Keo asked bluntly. “Your— face— keeps disappearing and then coming back with weird expressions.”
Dexter sat down again. “Oh. Well, I am trying to learn anything I can. My memory has been corrupted, so I cannot remember anything before waking up in your home.”
Keo cocked his head. “Wait, so, like amnesia? I didn’t think androids could get those.”
“It is a little more complicated than that,” Dexter admitted, “But the general concepts are the same.”
Keo scrutinized him before looking up at the sky, which was full of nebulae. “Okay, look. I don’t like you. You keep acting like you’re a Pokemon when you— really aren’t.”
Dexter looked down at the brown leaves littering the pale grass. “I know,” he said, somewhat dejectedly. “There is nothing wrong with you disliking my presence, but I cannot help existing.”
Keo opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again. This happened a few times until he let out an irritated sigh. “Going all philosophical on me isn’t going to help.”
Dexter’s mouth twitched upward in a sheepish grin. “Ah. I apologize.”
Keo stared at him for a minute. “I don’t get you.”
Dexter blinked. “Huh?”
“You’re-“ He searched for the words. “You’re not real, but you’re almost real, and it keeps freaking me out. I don’t know why, either, considering the circumstances. My brain goes, ‘hey, that’s a Pokemon- oh wait no it isn’t’, and then I kinda start to just see you wrong.”
“That would be uncanny valley,” Dexter said humbly. He didn’t add that he had been doing research on the anti-robot sentiment that was present before the humans left. “You can suppress it if you try hard enough.”
Keo rolled his eyes. “And how would I go about doing that?”
Even though his tone was mocking, someone beneath the surface had genuinely asked the question.
Dexter closed his eyes for a second. “Okay,” he said as he reopened them. “So, you see me, right?”
Keo nodded. “Far too well.”
“You are going to want to try and completely ignore how I look,” Dexter said. “Pretend I do not physically exist. Replace my appearance with a substitute, if you have to. Instead, try only seeing me as the person.”
Keo looked down at the ground for a second. “But you’re not a person.”
Dexter shuffled uncomfortably. “What is a ‘person’ to you?”
Keo couldn’t answer that. He stared up at the sky again for a long while before yawning and letting out a sigh. “It’s far too late for this. I’m going to sleep.”
Dexter sighed as well. “Alright, then. Good night.”
“G’night.” Keo laid down and was asleep pretty much instantly.
Dexter resumed his internet crawling. It was quite a bit like crawling, considering how slow the connection was. He almost wished he had any money at all, but everything wanted digital currency. It was quite annoying.
The one topic he kept circling back around to was The Veil. The more tidbits he read about it, the more he was enamored with the city. A place with more robotic Pokemon like him sounded incredible. He had noticed people staring at him in Black City, even if it was only for a few seconds, and it made him uncomfortable. Constantly. A place where no one would give you a second glance sounded incredible.
He mentally shook himself. No, they had to get to Mistralton City. A place of airline-driven commerce, it seemed. And a great place for any kind of information regarding planes.
His gaze strayed to the flight recorder that sat next to Gideon. Why had he even brought it along, anyway? Most likely the data was useless to him. And it seemed to cause more trouble than it was worth with his significant other.
Unbidden, a though floated through his processors. Why didn’t you delete your corrupted memories?
He waved it away, but as it disappeared, a few new thoughts occurred to him.
Why do I not have any combat capabilities? His lack of slates was worrying. They weren’t usually removed until the unit was actively being scrapped, but the rest of his faculties seemed to be in order.
Why am I following Gideon and Valerie? He had an answer to this one, but the more he thought about it, the less it made sense. Was it because they rebooted him, and now he owed them a debt? What compelled him to keep following them? Surely he could set off on his own, right? But that idea made him feel wrong inside. It just felt wrong.
Why was Keo such a jerk? This one was a hard question. At first he chalked it up to being a child who hadn’t seen much of the world yet. But as he thought about it, multiple things started not adding up. The child was far more intelligent than he let on, and despite his seemingly utter contempt for the group, he had come along anyway, bringing a bag of supplies along with him. That wasn’t something you did for people you despised.
Why was he thinking?
This question was the hardest, and the worst. His earliest logs were a pain the slog through— full of warnings and error messages. But he kept landing on the same message.
“Nearly reached sapience threshold! If this is a development environment, please shut down the machine.”
He wriggled uncomfortably on the grass. He wasn’t ever meant to have thoughts, was he…?
His deep pondering session was interrupted by a raindrop.
It startled him quite badly. He jumped up and looked around before realizing it was just rain. Rain was mostly harmless.
And then another one landed next to him. And another one.
He quickly shook Keo awake, even as he waded through his agonizingly slow internet connection for a weather report. “Wake up! It’s raining!”
Keo was awake surprisingly quickly. “Oh, you think I didn’t notice?” he growled, pushing himself up. The rain was already beginning to fall hard and fast.
They ran over to Gideon and Valerie, who required a bit more rousing. Gideon automatically picked up the box before he was fully cognizant of what was happening before they dashed inside the gate.
The light was blinding compared to the dark outdoors. Sometime during the night, the gate had traded shifts, replacing the bored Charmeleon with an Audino who seemed to be rocking back and forth on her heels with anticipation. “Oh, hello!” she exclaimed as the dampened Pokemon ran inside. “Reason for entry?”
“Getting out of the rain,” Keo grumbled.
The Audino laughed. “Well, I’m afraid that there’s not really a roof over the city unless you plan to find a hotel of some sort.” She reached under the counter and pressed the button to unlock the turnstile. “I’d let you stay here until the rain clears up, but I can’t risk my job over a little water, sadly.”
Dexter vaguely wondered what she meant by “a little”. The sound of the rain roared on the roof like it was trying to tear its way into the building. None of the Pokemon were particularly in a hurry to get through the turnstile, Dexter frantically searching for anywhere they could stay that was “cheap”.
He finally found a promising location as they stepped back out into the rain. “Follow me!” he said, starting off at a run. The other Pokemon followed, just trying to get out of the rain.
His GPS led them to a smaller building, something more akin to a house than a skyscraper. The inside was pleasantly dry, if a little chilly, and everyone relaxed a little as the sound of the rain didn’t let up.
They wandered to the front counter, which was vacant. A little note had been left on the counter, which Dexter quickly scanned.
“Ello! Not at home right now had to take care of some business crap
Rooms are 1,000 Poke a ‘mon, don’t care what kind
If you don’t pay then I will know, room keys are underneath the counter
-owner”
Dexter groaned, which sounded a lot more staticky than he had thought it would. “How much Poke do we have?”
“Slightly over a thousand,” Keo said, worriedly reading the note. “Wow. Terrific prices.” He paused before a devious grin spread across his face and he quietly took out a thousand Poke, leaving it on the counter. He collected a key without another word and headed down the hall that they presumed led to the bedrooms.
“Isn’t that a little dishonest?” Dexter asked in a low voice.
Keo snorted. “With any luck, we’ll be out of here before they get back.” He opened the door to their room and went inside.
It was a very simple room, a window looking out over the dark, rainy city with a bed against the wall and a couch slightly removed from the other. Aside from a nightstand, there wasn’t much else.
Gideon, seeing the room, groaned. “Great. Bedding arrangements.”
Keo solved this problem very easily in an annoyed manner. “You and your fiancé take the bed, mister robot takes the couch, I take the floor. Good? Great, lights out goodnight everyone.”
They took the spots with alacrity, Gideon and Valerie resuming their sleep surprisingly fast. Keo wriggled behind the couch and was hidden from sight, presumably falling asleep quickly as well.
Dexter felt his internal battery getting low and sighed, turning off the room’s lights before returning to the couch and initiating sleep mode.
They had shelter, at least. Hopefully nothing bad happened while he was dozing.
“GOOD MORNING, COWARDS!”
This was accompanied by the door slamming open. Gideon jolted upright, breathing very fast and looking around wildly. Next to him, Valerie also awoke, gasping from fight or flight.
A Weavile stood in the now very obviously open doorway, grinning at them. “Quite the company!” he stated, his eyes roving around the room. “How’ve you been enjoying your stay so farrrrr…?”
He drew out the last word. Gideon stared at him for a second before rubbing his eyes. “Um, it was fine until you broke down the door.”
“Force of habit,” the Weavile said, waving him off. “Came home last night and found a good thousand Poke on the counter, but when I came in here, I saw a whopping four Pokemon.” He laughed appreciatively. “So close and yet so far.”
“In our defense, we weren’t the ones who left the money,” Valerie said sleepily. “That was Keo, and he’s-“
“The one behind the couch?” Weavile asked. “I figured, he’s the only one with any sort of carrying capacity.”
Keo dragged himself out from behind the couch, looking very miffed. “Hey, buddy, it’s like six in the morning and some of us were trying to sleep.”
Weavile grinned wider. “Should’ve paid the full price if you wanted to sleep in, chump.”
“We didn’t have that much,” Keo grumbled. “The wording was vague enough that I just thought that it was a thousand for a room.”
Gideon and Valerie knew that he was lying, but the Weavile seemed to take this at face value. “Hmm, loopholes. Never been my strong suit. But anyway!” He whirled around in the doorway and looked over his shoulder. “Breakfast is at the end of the hall, show up at your leisure. Or don’t and let me have a decent breakfast for once, either or.”
He slammed the door, causing Dexter to jump and look around. “Huh!? What?! Who slammed the door??”
“The proprietor,” Gideon said dryly. He climbed out of the bed and stretched— when was the last time he’d slept in a bed?— and looked around.
The room had sunlight streaming in, a square puddle of light on the floor indicating that the storm had cleared up during the night. There was a faint sound of city noise, but Gideon had the impression that it had never stopped. “Well, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m gonna go get some food,” he said.
Valerie scrambled out of bed with surprising speed. “I’ll join you! I feel like I haven’t eaten anything in days.”
“The last time you ate was as Ninetails’ house,” Dexter said. “I am not too surprised.”
The four of them made their way down to the end of the hall, where there was an open door. Gideon inhaled deeply— something warm and delicious was just beyond that door.
He peeked inside and blinked. It looked like a classic dining room, one that you would find in a hotel. An overly fancy chandelier hung over the table which was ornately carved, surrounded by chairs that looked like they would be more at home in a museum than here. A sort of kitchen lined the entire back wall, with Weavile expertly darting around it, cooking all manner of incredible looking breakfast foods.
Valerie pushed her way into the room and looked at a mountain of fried toast, her mouth beginning to water. “Woah.”
“Take a seat, any seat,” Weavile said, partially distracted. “I’ll throw it at you in a moment.”
“He means that literally?” Dexter asked in a worried tone.
Keo snorted. “Doubt it.”
“He does seem the type,” Gideon said. But he was sure that they weren’t going to have food thrown at them.
Weavile walked over to the table and expertly slid plates and silverware across it, all of them coming to a stop in front of the respective Pokemon. As Gideon wondered how much control this Pokemon had over throwing things, Weavile slid the larger plates of food onto the middle of the table in much the same way. “Buffet style, take as much as you think you can eat,” he said.
The three Pokemon did. Dexter watched with a faint longing look on his face as the Pokemon grabbed all kinds of breakfast foods: fried toast, scrambled eggs that were soft enough to spread, fresh fruit, and a parfait even made a surprise appearance halfway through the meal. Weavile took a seat at the head of the table after this and watched them eat, his claws clasped in front of his face.
“You staying long?” he asked.
Keo shook his head before swallowing. “Nope, we’re headed to Mistralton. Gotta deliver something.”
“Huh!” He watched the food slowly disappear with a contented smile on his face. “I assume you’ll be taking the East Gate, then.”
Valerie paused. “Oh, right. It’s still closed for another day.”
Weavile laughed. “Oh no, it’s open. Opened last night because of the rain. Pretty sure that ‘maintenance’ is just to annoy the hell out of people. Had to go through it both ways, that’s why I was delayed.”
“Huh.” Gideon looked down at his empty plate, feeling full. “I don’t feel like I’ve eaten that much in a while.”
This was echoed by Keo and Valerie, who pushed their plates away contentedly. “How did you even make any of this?” Keo asked curiously.
“Looooots of practice,” Weavile said. He registered that they had all finished eating and sat up straight. “Oh, sweet! My turn!”
He pulled all of the plates towards himself and began to eat as if he had never eaten a thing in his life. Gideon watched as all the food disappeared in fascinated horror before Weavile leaned back in his chair. “Overestimated how much food four people would eat!”
Dexter yawned. “That is truly fascinating.”
Valerie looked at him. “Are you alright?”
“Low battery,” he said tiredly. “It’s fine, I can wait until we find a charging port.”
Valerie scrambled over Gideon’s lap to sit next to Dexter. “Here, hold out a hand.”
He did, looking faintly confused. “Sure…?”
She took his paw in both of hers and stared intently at it for a few seconds. Dexter jumped violently, stumbling backwards a little. “Ow! Ow ow ow!”
Valerie stared blankly at him before she realized what happened, clapping her hands to her mouth. “Oh. Oh my gosh I am so sorry! I didn’t think it would hurt!”
Dexter’s holographic eyes had turned into cartoony swirls as he swayed back and forth a little. “You… it is fine,” he said distantly. “Maybe a little warning next time…?”
“Are you okay?” Valerie asked.
Dexter shook his head, his eyes returning to normal. “Yeah. I… feel great, actually. Battery fully charged.”
“When did you last charge him?” Weavile asked curiously.
They had forgotten his was there. Valerie jumped before laughing a little nervously. “Um. About a day ago? Maybe?”
Weavile gestured at the android with a fork. “Faulty battery, you’re gonna need to get that replaced.”
Dexter blinked slowly. “Faulty…? There is nothing in my systems…?”
“Trust me,” Weavile said. “Anyways. Where are you fine folks headed?”
“Mistralton City,” Gideon replied.
Weavile whistled and leaned back in his chair. “Oooh, fun. City of planes, aircraft, what have you. Not used that much anymore since the convergence, and it’s more of a tourist destination nowadays.”
Gideon didn’t like the sound of that. “Does anyone still have, like, the equipment…?”
“Oh, someone always does,” Weavile said, twirling the fork among his claws. “They probably know how to use it, too.” He sat up straight again, seemingly taking new interest in his guests. “When’re you leaving?”
“Probably in a few minutes,” Valerie said. “Thank you for the breakfast, by the way! It was wonderful.”
Weavile grinned. “Aw, you’re makin’ me blush. Sucks to see you going so soon, though. You seem like a fun group.” A sudden thought crossed his face, but it was replaced with a grin before Gideon had thought he’d seen anything. “Welp, you should probably get going. They’re liable to re-close the gate for another who-knows-how-long, and the prices in Black City are exorbitant, to say the least.”
Keo grumbled something that no one heard, but he nodded. “Yeah, we’ll get going.” He leapt down from his chair and paused in the doorway. “I should probably get my stuff,” he said thoughtfully. “Meet you at the gate.”
Gideon collected the nearby silverware and dishes, pushing them into a pile. “Well, thanks again for letting us stay here, even if we did kinda… stiff you three grand.”
Weavile waved him off. “Eh. I’d be more miffed if you were stiffing me repeatedly. You should probably follow that Keokeo, though. Seems a little young to be wandering around Black City. Alone. With no parents.”
Gideon, Dexter, and Valerie escaped from their chairs. “Thanks again!” Valerie called as they went through the doorway.
They arrived at their room just in time to see Keo dragging his bag across the floor, like it was heavy. “Oh, it’s you,” he said, panting. “Can you carry this?”
Gideon and Valerie blinked. “What’s wrong with it?” Gideon asked.
“Heavy,” Keo panted. “Look, just- just carry it.”
Gideon picked it up. It was certainly far heavier than it looked, but it wasn’t too bad. It was just like carrying the flight recorder.
Which wasn’t in the bedroom.
Gideon’s eyes frantically traced the room. “Wait, where’d it go?”
Keo groaned, making his way towards the front entrance. “In the bag, dummy.”
Gideon and Valerie both immediately peered inside the bag. Sure enough, somehow the entire flight recorder was shoved inside, with barely any room to spare. Gideon tested the bag strap and found that it held secure, despite the extra weight. “What in the hell…?”
Dexter trotted past them. “Gonna follow Keo to make sure he refrains from getting into trouble. Try and hurry, maybe?”
Gideon and Valerie followed Dexter into the main room, where Keo was waiting impatiently. “Okay, now that we’re done gawking inside of bags, we can get going,” he said irritably. “Come on.”
The walk through Black City was unremarkable. Pokemon went about their daily business, evaporating puddles of water on the ground indicating that there had been rain the night before. The gate was also uneventful. A Zangoose waved them through, looking bored, and then they were out on the road.
Valerie sighed in contentment as they stepped out onto the dirt path. “This place is beautiful, isn’t it?”
It was certainly a sight. Large cliffs loomed over the road, the path they would have to follow winding its way down into a canyon. The sun barely crested a cliff to the east, casting a simultaneous shadow and glow over the entire route.
Keo, unburdened, lightly hopped down the stone stairs into the shaded canyon. “I don’t see it. Come on, let’s get going.”
They navigated through the canyon, Gideon’s eyes drifting upwards. There had been a building there once— some kind of lab, if he had to guess— but the ways to get there had been smashed, the large concrete chunks scattered across the canyon. Some of the chunks were burned, like there had been an explosion. Gideon scooped one up and investigated it as they walked around various boulders and bends in the path. Yep, some kind of explosion. Pieces of it fell away as he fiddled idly with it, cracks spiderwebbing their way through the concrete.
Valerie held out an arm that he bumped into. He looked up to see Keo pensively staring down a pit, the sun not yet high enough to pierce the utter darkness that filled it. Just the look of it gave Gideon the creeps. A single ledge skirted the side of the pit, barely wide enough for one of them to cross at a time.
“So who’s going first?” Valerie asked, laughing nervously. She didn’t like the pit either.
“The robot,” Keo volunteered. “If he falls, he’s the least likely to get badly injured.”
Dexter rolled his holographic eyes. “I have a name, you know.” But he obliged, very gently treading across the ledge. It seemed sturdy enough, but there were a few cracks that formed in the ledge that Gideon didn’t like.
“Any other routes you can see from over there?” he called.
Dexter went out of sight behind more rock for a moment before reappearing. “Unfortunately not,” he called back regretfully.
Keo sighed. “Well, here goes nothing.”
He very, very slowly made his way across the ledge, stopping and shivering whenever the ledge crumbled or so much as made a sound. After he had gotten two thirds of the way across, Gideon had the firm impression that Keo was afraid of heights.
He finally made it to the other side, sighing in relief and sprawling across the ground. “Hate that hate that haaaaaate thaaaat.”
It was Gideon’s turn. He was determined to make it to the other side of the pit faster than Keo, but he still paused whenever the ledge made nerve-racking noises.
As he was halfway across the ledge, the ground crumbled.
Gideon tried to jump away, save himself, anything, but the bag weighed him down, causing his jump to fall just short. His paws clumsily scrambled at the ledge before the bag dragged him down towards the pit. Valerie dove after him, horror in her eyes. He reached for her, just barely managing to catch ahold of her tail.
Valerie somehow went up.
Gideon blinked as the dark pit below them didn’t grow closer before he looked up at Valerie, whom had her arms spread wide, the membranes catching the air and keeping them from falling.
As fast.
Despite the sudden airtime, they were still falling. Gideon held onto Valerie’s tail for dear life as they soared towards the cliff face, watching the pitch darkness of the pit grow closer.
Valerie scrabbled at the wall for a few seconds before finding a hold. A very loose hold. Her hands slipped somewhat and she desperately hauled herself up on the one little hold she had found. Gideon still held onto her tail, the bag dangling from his shoulder precariously.
Valerie, in desperation, reached up for another hold and found a claw, instead.
She looked up sharply. There, grinning down at her, was Weavile, his claws dug into the rock in a much more sturdy manner. He hoisted her onto his back and rapidly scaled the cliff, reaching the top in less than a minute.
Gideon let himself fall to the ground, gasping from the adrenaline rush. Valerie followed suit, gasping from sheer exhaustion.
“Saw the whole thing,” Weavile remarked casually, shouldering a backpack he had left on the ground. “Surprised you didn’t take the high ground! Much safer than the canyon.”
“Bridges… broke,” Gideon gasped.
“Sounds like you’re just a wimp to me,” Weavile said lightheartedly. “We should reunite with your friends, they’re probably scared out of their minds.”
Gideon pushed himself up, the Treasure Bag feeling like an anchor. He took it off and left it lying on the ground as he helped Valerie to her feet. She looked pale, even more so than usual, and her ears drooped as she had to lean on him.
“You’re insane,” he whispered encouragingly. “You saved us both.”
She nodded before letting out a shuddery sigh. “Don’t do that again. Please.”
Weavile slung the Treasure Bag over his shoulder as if it weighed nothing at all before leading them to a set of stairs. Gideon and Valerie carefully made their way down before they were standing on grass again, Keo and Dexter running up to them.
“Oh god, they’re not hurt, are they?” Keo said worriedly. “They need to be able to walk, at least.”
“They’re a little rattled, but they’ll live,” Weavile said. He was somehow the tallest of the group, standing head and shoulders above Gideon. “The girl had some insane intuition.”
Dexter walked up to them. “Are you alright?” he asked. “Did you break anything? Any bleeding?”
Gideon shook his head. “Like he said, we’re just… rattled.”
“I want to sit down,” Valerie murmured.
They found a relatively calm spot and sat down, Valerie leaning against Gideon. They held each other’s hands tightly, as if they never wanted to unclasp them again.
“How the heck did you just happen to get here?” Keo asked Weavile at length. “I thought you had a business to run or something.”
Weavile grinned. “Not anymore. Closed the building sale as of this morning and withdrew my entire balance.”
Dexter blinked. “But why? That seemed like a pretty profitable business. And it was the most affordable place in the city.”
Weavile shrugged. “It’s been in the red for a looong time. I figured that I might as well close everything up and leave. Nothing left for me there, anyway.”
“So you followed us?” Keo asked incredulously. “Or what? Just serendipitously passing by? What’s the play, here?”
Weavile’s grin grew wider until it looked like he had eaten a bird’s nest.
“I’m coming with you, of course.”