- N - = Nicky's part

- J - = my part

Chapter 035 - Roark's detriment

- N -

"Riley's a good friend of Roark's and his father. If what you said is true and he really wants to kill his childhood friend just because of some stupid legend, I'd be… so disappointed…"

Well, her own opinion of Riley was already at an all-time low, Serena mused, but Amy actually loved that man. She could only imagine how torn that must be.

"Look," She soothed. "you don't have to make a decision, Amy. If you feel you need to stay with Riley when the times comes, I'm not going to stop you. But I won't – I can't – leave Roark. Not when he needs me."

Amy might've been too tired to hear her, though – her voice was weak and tired when she next spoke:

"I… love him." She muttered. "Don't let him do that to Roark… but don't hurt him either… Please…"

"I know." She muttered. "Don't worry, we'll find a way to fix this. Love… tends to do that."

At least it did in legends – and if her experience with Zoroarks had proven anything, legends had a tendency to be very real indeed.

Guiding the brunette back to her room, Serena laid her on the mattress and rested the duvet over her just as Amy's breathing began to slow and sleep picked her up. She picked up the clippings off the tables – no sense in leaving them around for Riley to find – and slipped them into her knitting basket by her favourite seat.

Satisfied, Serena Joy closed her eyes and fell into an uneasy shifting sleep.

x-x-x-x-x-x-

Stephanie Brown pulled the ice lolly out of her mouth as Rodent did the same, mimicking his trainer as she rested her chin on her fist and pouted. The Raticate had been in surprisingly good form today and their prize money was more than enough to buy a packet of Rawstberry ice lollies (Rodent's favourite) but now that Brown had kicked the butt of every little kid in the town square, there was relatively little else to do than eat dubiously-blue Rawstberry flavoured ice until sunset.

She sat with her backside on the rim of the marble fountain, and leaned back to look at the statue in the centre of it. A man on an armoured Rapidash, his cape flowing behind him as he gripped the horse's reins in one mighty gloved hand and a pike in another. The tip of the weapon was shiny metal, silver from the looks of it, and in the process of plunging itself into the heart of a strange wolflike beast.

The terror on the animal's face was disturbing to say the least. Brown found herself swallowing a gulp of trepidation.

"They bring it out for the festival." A shadow fell over her and Brown looked up to see Riley, Serena's dress draped over one arm and his hat in the other. "The fountain's usually got an angel in the centre but Oreburgh's remarkably fond of that gory old sculpture this time of year – the town council likes to think the whole Black Beast fiasco boosts tourism to the town around this season."

"Does it?" She asked. Rodent tipped his head curiously to the side.

Riley shrugged.

"I can't say. It's morbid, frankly – this whole obsession with killing something. We never did kill the Black Beast, just drove her 'over the hills and far away', or so the legend goes. Every sculptor, every artist worth their salt seems to be obsessed in recreating that encounter in our favour."

He pointed to the sculpture, the Black Beast flailing in her death throes.

"Frankly speaking, we could all very well do without it."

"Why don't you just tell them that? And wait. 'Her'?! So she WAS WAS WAS a girl!"

"You can't kill a legend, Stephanie Brown." He ignored her other questions, as a tone of regret edged his voice. His gaze, however, was steely and cold. "But I intend to do the next best thing."

"That being?"

"I plan to write an ending to this sordid little tale." Riley smiled grimly and put his hat back on. Brown opened her mouth to say something more, but the man's stony demeanour was more than enough to tell her she wouldn't be getting her answers today.

"Come on, Miss Brown." He called out over his shoulder, "If you expect to beat Roark tonight, I should try my best to help – and we'd better do it quickly, if you want your Raticate needs to rest before tonight."

Saying nothing more, Brown picked up the ice lollies in her hands, Rodent helping her with his tiny arms before trotting behind the man.

x-x-x-x-x-x-

"The first three rules of battling, Miss Brown, what are they?"

"Uhhh…" She wracked her brain for any advice Gold might've given her: "Don't flirt with your opponent, don't ask her for her phone number unless you win, and dress sexy if you want to impress!"

Riley slapped his face with his hand.

"Stephanie Brown we have a lot to do."

He tossed out his Pokeball and Laelaps burst out, stretching in a mighty yawn before assuming a fighting stance.

"Rule Number One: Speed is crucial. Do NOT give your opponent the time to prepare an attack before you-LIKE THIS!"

Laelaps leapt into the air, jumping down onto the Raticate and pinning him to the ground with several tiny pin-like blue bones.

"HEY!" Brown shrieked. "That wasn't fair!"

"No, THAT was a Bone Rush attack. And it was perfectly fair – when the referee calls out "This battle will commence in…" and starts the countdown, you have to be prepared, otherwise you'll be open to the first attack."

Rodent squirmed out from under the Lucario's attack and wiggled himself free. His eyes narrowed and in a flash he was gone – reappearing on Laelaps' shoulders and biting him hard in the neck.

"Very good!" Riley clapped. "That was Quick Attack – if Rodent wants to outspeed Roark's Rampardos, you need to make sure he doesn't see your attack coming."

Rodent nodded in praise, trying hard to memorize the advice.

"Number two – might is right. Rodent strongest stat is his Attack, and so is Laelaps' and Calabash's."

Wait.

Brown raised a condescending eyebrow, "Cal… a… bash…?"

"It's what… um…" Riley fought back a chuckle. "Roark named his Rampardos Calabash. In another langauge, it's Hyouta, and that's his middle name."

"And here I thought MY parents hated me cause my middle name was 'Susan'." Brown burst out in laughter. "What kind of idiot idiot idiot names his big fat honking dinosaur CALABASH?!"

Riley opened his mouth to say 'Rodent' wasn't exactly the best nickname either, but thought better of it. He snickered lightly at the thought, though.

"Calabash has been with Roark since the both of us were children," He shrugged, a smile dawning on his mouth as he pulled out his wallet. "Look, that was us then,"

A frizzy dark-haired teenage boy was clutching his broken nose in one hand and holding hands in the other, his arm linked to a redhead with braces and a black eye. Riley was two heads taller than Roark, who came a little past his (very bruised) elbow. From the looks of it they'd been fighting, but the both of them were grinning hard at the camera – no doubt they'd completely forgiven each other. A vacant-looking baby Cranidos (his eggshell still wobbling on his head) was looking away at something more interesting off to the side.

"Gosh, look at you guys!"

"We fought over who'd get to keep Calabash when he hatched – I wanted to call him Philippe." Riley laughed, feeling a pang of guilt creep in as he realised how far the two of them had drifted since the photograph. "My mother made me keep this one. I always liked how I never needed braces."

The golden afternoon passed by into a heady blue evening as the two gawked at more awkward photos of Riley's childhood in between training battles. Laelaps spent his free time gnawing at ice pops with the Raticate instead, watching the sun slowly creep down over Mount Coronet in the Oreburgh skyline.

- J -

The word 'worry' barely described Roark's feelings that afternoon. He was already back to work, gathered with his workmates. Just like Amethyst, the Miner Boss was a mess of emotions.

Noise of rocks being moved and chopped. Roark, a pike in his right hand, started to knock a rock in front of him.

Everything had to be ready for tomorrow night's Dance.

"Riley wants to talk to me." The red-head thought, while doing his work, staring at nothing in particular. "I wonder what does he want... He's been so worried-looking ever since he arrived in Oreburgh."

Why worry about Riley's concerns when his own were worse, anyway?

"And he's so interested in the 'beast issue', it makes me mad." Roark sighed. "I doubt I'll be able to hide my preoccupation. I just CAN'T. Whenever he talks to me about it, I get so nervous... He's noticed, for sure."

"If, at least, only Serena were better than me at hiding emotions..."

Serena Joy wasn't certainly the type of women who showed constantly her feelings, as she was quite a strict woman, but yet she was as bad as Roark at concealing her emotions when the 'beast issue' popped up in conversations.

"What will be Riley thinking about it?" Roark kept wondering, bitting his lip. "He's so intelligent and bold, not to mention keen."

"It's nearly impossible to hide anything from him. And he has the power of Aura!"

They were at quite a quagmire.

"Boss."

"I hope Serena will be able to hide everything from him," Roark thought; at that time, he was simply knocking the rocking without even noticing what he was doing.

"Boss, it might be better to send out your Rampardos to destroy that rock, don't you think?"

"Gaah, it's so sad that I have to rely on Serena." The ginger was like in another dimension, ignoring the rest of the world. "My classmates' mother always complimented my intelligence, but I certainly CAN'T think of anything useful for this..."

"Boss?"

Roark broke out his own world and appeared, suddenly, in the real world. One of his workmates had approached him and was staring at him.

"Uh, sorry." Roark muttered. "What?"

"That rock is kind of too big, Boss." The miner repeated. "I'm not doubting your strenght, but time is running out. We must finish as much as we can today."

Roark flickered. He still didn't know what was all that about.

"We'll have very little time tomorrow to work before the Miner's Dance." The other miner continued. "You should start using your pokémon to go faster, if you allow me to advertise it to you..."

"Oh!" Roark exclaimed at the mention of the Dance. "Ok. True. The Dance."

The young man looked around. His workmates' pokémon -Onyx, Sandlash, Dugtrio, Donphan, Golem and Nidoking- all of them were helping their trainers to clean out the place.

"Sorry, I didn't thought of that." Roark said, with a sorrowful smile on his face. "Thanks, Edward."

Roark's subordinate nodded and went back to work. Roark took a pokéball out of his pocket.

"Okay." He muttered. "Go! Calabash!"

The red-head's Rampardos appeared in scene with a hollow growl. Some of the pokémon at the work field growled at him, but in a fond way. Calabash was a very respected pokémon.

"Rarrr... 'pardos!" Calabash growled, higher.

"Go destroy that big rock, boy." Roark ordered. "Headbutt!"

The Rampardos knocked the rock furiously, reducing it to mere dust. The youngest pokémon of the scene seemed impressed, or at least those who were still watching.

"Very nice." Roark said; however, he wasn't in the mood to work. He only could keep thinking. "Then, there's this Stephanie kid -who seems even more interested that Riley himself in the 'beast issue'!"

The miner boss planted his left hand on his face, leaving it nearly black due to the dust and the dirt.

"Who is she? Riley's subordinate or something?" Roark thought, disgusted. "It looks like it. She would be an adorable kid otherwise. But the truth is that she seems to be making her own conclusions about this whole matter."

"And being a crazy kid as she is, nothing good can come out her thoughts! And what if she shares them with Riley? What will be of me?"

Calabash kept moving, transporting and destroying -when too big- rocks along his pokémon mates. However, Roark was the only trainer who wasn't giving his pokémon any order.

"And I can't certainly rely on Amethyst to distract Stephanie either." Roark thought, scrubbing the sweat off his forehead. "Moreover, as far as I know, she's a crush on my 'buddy', so, if the fateful time comes, I can't count on her either..."

The image of Serena appeared suddenly on his mind. Serena taking notes and writing them down in her notebook. Serena healing his bruises. Serena putting a bandage on his claws. Serena hiding him from others' eyes...

"Boss. What do we do now?"

"Uh- what?"

Roark shook his head. Another miner had approached him, as well as his Rampardos.

"What do we do with all that detritus, Boss?" The young miner asked again.

"Oh." Roark looked at the amount of dust and tiny fragments of rocks. "Just... just throw it over there."

"Uh, over there?" The miner arched an eyebrow. "Oh, okay..."

"That's it." Roark thought while his subordinates and Calabash began to get rid of the detritus. "I have Serena. Riley might be intelligent, but that Stephanie doesn't seem very clever, and Amethyst has never been a very good trainer, if I remember right."

"Serena is very intelligent and, as soon as I stop being so worried," Roark looked disappointed with himself at that moment. "I'll be able to think clearly as well. There's no way Riley will beat us BOTH. Moreover..."

Roark's expression seemed nearly dreamy at that moment. Without saying a word, he went back with Calabash and his workmates to clean out the fragments of all the rocks.

"Serena will be coming to the Miner's Dance with me." Roark giggled to himself. "I can't believe an interesting woman like her fancies a weirdo like me. I wonder what does she like about me..."

"And how did I end up being in love with her?"

"Uh, Boss... What are you doing?"

Roark shook his head again. All the detritus had been thrown away down a ravine, but he was trying push a workmate's Golem as if it were a mere rock.

"Oh! Sorry!" Roark exclaimed, scratching his head under his hardhat. "I... I didn't kinow what I was doing!"

"Boss, are you feeling okay?" The Golem's trainer asked.

"Of course!" Roark said, proudly.

Of course he wasn't. But he was the Boss, he couldn't show weakness so easily.

It was hot despite being autumn. Plus, it'd been one hour since lunch time, so one of the warmest hours of the day was beginning. Roark kept working in silence, along with Calabash. He listened to his friends talk about the Miner's Dance while they worked.

"Did you find someone for the Dance?"

"Yeah! She's very beautiful! I can't wait to introduce her to you! I'm so sure she's my soulmate..."

"Awww man, you're so lucky. I haven't met such an important person yet."

"Aww man."

"I've also got to go with one of my best childhood friends! I've always liked her. I can't wait for tomorrow's night to confess!"

"Man, that's cheesy."

"Haha! I'm going to the Dance with a lady I just met! She has beautiful silver hair, and she says it won't be anything serious!"

"Oh, you."

"Do you think it will be good if you don't follow the Dance's guidelines?"

"Awww man."

Roark sighed as he kept digging.

"So WHAT if I'm going to the Dance with Serena? Tomorrow night will be full moon! No matter how shrewd Serena is, there's no human way to avoid the impossible!"

The ginger kept digging more furiously. The tiny hole he had started making began to grow. Calabash turned to look at his trainer, somewhat worried.

"Pard? 'pardos..."

Roark noticed his main pokémon worrying about him and a small, warm smile appeared on his dirty face.

"Everything's alright, boy." He said, softly, stroking Rampardos' hard head. "And everything will be all right..."

Who said ground type pokémon weren't cute?

"No... Everything is going to be wrong." Roark thought, as soon as Calabash turned back to him to keep digging on his own. "There's no plausible way to overcome this issue."

"We won't get alive out of this."

"Eh, Boss..."

Roark flinched. Another of his subordinates had approeached him, looking concerned.

"Those holes are supposed to mount a stall, Boss." He said. "I don't think you should be making them so big..."

"Oh, true that." Roark muttered. "Sorry."

"Ummh, are you sure you're okay, Boss?" The miner asked. "You've been acting pretty strangely t-"

"I'm okay!" Roark exclaimed suddenly, causing his workmate to flinch. "Don't bother me!"

Confused, the other miner walked away and went back with his mates; they were mounting what would be a small, alfresco buffet for tomorrow's Dance.

"Tsk." Roark muttered; Calabash looked at him, but turned back to him again to keep working. "This can't last any longer." The ginger looked nearly desperate. "This HAS to end."

The miner boss stared at his Rampardos, Calabash. They'd been buddies ever since he was small kid. Roark would never forget how Riley and he had fought over the Cranidos egg to see who would keep the pokémon.

"Roark! You're too young to raise a pokémon like Cranidos!" Riley had said. "Cranidos are very rough pokémon, and you can't imagine about their evolution, Rampardos."

"I don't care!" The small Roark had exclaimed, pushing his friend. "My specialty is rock! This Cranidos is meant to be mine! You can keep your steel type pokémon!"

Roark smiled with sorrow. How could he forget something like that? Riley had been his very best friend since... always. Of course he was several years older than him, but he had never taken advantage of the age difference and, instead, he had made use of it to give young Roark many tips.

"I won't be able to take it if I am to fight with Riley."

Because it wouldn't be like when they were little.

"Boss, you should finish for today."

Another of Roark's subordinates, a man who was actually older than the miner boss, had approached Roark along with his Sandlash.

"You look too tired. You should go have some rest." The miner said. "Moreover, you told us about your upcoming gym battle, so you shouldn't push yourself so hard at work anymore for today."

"B-but...!" Roark stuttered. "Everything has to be ready for tomorrow night!"

"We've made quite a big advance today." The other miner said, softly. "We're almost done. Don't worry, Boss, tomorrow everything will be finished."

"O-okay..." Roark said. "Thank you, Alexaindre."

The ginger walked back to the cloakroom, in a small bulding near their work place. He would take a relaxing bath and then he would go back home.

x-x-x-x-x-x-

Amethyst woke up. She wasn't feeling dizzy anymore, so she got rid of the pink duvet that was over her. She was at Serena's room. How long had it been since she had fallen asleep?

"Eww, my dress." Amethyst thought, looking at herself in the mirror. "I'm so dirty. I need a bath."

She went to the kitchen, where Serena was. She looked more relieved -maybe she had got a small sleep as well?- and was preparing dinner.

"Serena." Amethyst muttered, getting in the kitchen.

Would Serena imagine she wanted to talk about the 'beast issue'?

"I-I, uh... need a bath." Amethyst said, somewhat embarrassed. "And clean clothes. If you allow it, of course."

- N -

Audino was upset. Serena could tell.

She'd bought the little pink creature a set of lego blocks a month ago, and it had a habit of sitting down on the kitchen linoleum and stacking them into towers to knock down in its spare time. (Not to mention leaving them around for her to step on.) Now the Audino was doing nothing of the sort as it sat down, simply clicking two blocks together and pulling them apart, and vacant sort of worry on its simple face.

"You're worried too, huh," the Joy sighed. "Look… don't get upset just because I'm worried. Sure, I may just have divulged the most important secret of my life to someone I've only known for two days, but y'know, I'm alright with that."

That much was true. Serena stopped stirring the soup in the pot and held the spoon out for Audino to taste it.

"It's crazy, I know, but these thing's'll work out… They usually do,"

She smoothed her hair on the pokemon's head and Audino purred gleefully. Still, there was no hiding the fact that her voice was missing some of its usual conviction.

"Serena."

The Joy flinched.

"Oh, Amy," She breathed out relieved. "Sorry, I didn't think you'd wake up by yourself – you had quite the hangover."

"I-I, uh... need a batch. And clean clothes. If you allow it, of course."

Serena beamed. "Sure, why not?" My closet's in the room you were in just now. Just take what you need – I have to warn you first, though – we ran out of hot water in the shower when the mines busted our heater line. I hope you like cold showers."

She added the last sentence as an apologetic joke, but in her uneasy mulling mood, nothing she said sounded funny.

"C'mon, you better hurry," She shooed the shorter woman out of the kitchen. "It takes a little longer to bathe without hot water anyway,"

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"And Remember, Rule Number Three-"

"I won't forget Rule Three!" Brown cross her arms and huffed indignantly. Riley didn't seem to have much trust in her ability to remember things – then again, though, Riley didn't seem to have much trust in anything.

"Ratirarrr," Rodent trotted on the railing as Brown and the tall dark man wandered down the apartment hallway, his trainer hastily scooping him up before he fell.

"Rodent," She chided, holding him far away from the edge of the railing, "you're going to hurt yourself if you're not careful! Falls can kill!"

Brown considered herself an expert in falling down – she'd had more than enough firsthand experience in that regard anyway, and her numerous cuts scrapes and bruises spoke for themselves. Rodent squirmed slightly in her hands but decided it was best to go limp and wobbled off towards the apartment door.

It had taken her a second glance to notice several potted plants by the door, Serena's work maybe, which had slowly begun to wilt after the summer. The last of the dying purple flowers stretched out towards the now-faded sunlight. Riley reached out under the plant and pulled out a key.

"Hid the key under the flowerpot again," Riley muttered, "Roark's too predictable."

The key clicked in the lock and he swung the door open, just as Brown bellowed:

"WE'RE HEEEEREEEE! WHAT'S FOR DINNER?"