Event 6: Roots - Part 2

<<<PREVIOUS PART

Part 2: …What’s a Girlfriend?

“Guys? Guys? Jeez, you were in here this whole time? What’s going on?”

The Elgyem had just teleported down from his ship only to find that this morning, his fellow Rescuers weren’t in the agreed-upon meeting spot like they usually were. Ever since all of the Rescuer Guild’s major leaders left to be replaced with a bunch of incompetents, upon successfully completing a mission for the first time pretty much on his own, Rigley took it upon himself to help organize and motivate his fellow Rescuers. Every morning, he would help them decide where to explore next to find missing Pokémon, and it seemed like that, since the village had been rebuilt, they were finally close to completion.

But what were they doing in the new and improved Rescuers’ guild? There was a crowd of them, packing the main living room to the brim, all chatting excitedly about…something.

“Rigley? Haven’t you heard? Mike’s back! He’s really back!”

“WHAT!?”

Rigley could barely believe his ears. Chill the Mincinno and Mike the Charmander were the original leaders whom he always looked up to and who motivated him to do his best. Unfortunately, Chill had to leave for good in order to take care of his disabled sister, and then Mike for reasons that no one was able to figure out. Since Chill’s leave was more or less permanent, Rigley had a sinking feeling that when Mike left, it would be the same. That was part of the reason why he willingly took up the responsibility to motivate his fellow Rescuers, after all. But now…Mike actually came back?

He had to see for himself. He teleported to Mike’s office, and upon doing so, was greeted with the sight of a giant purple snake who appeared right in front of his face.

“WHOA!” Rigley teleported back a few steps to give himself some breathing room so he could figure out who that…thing…was. It appeared to be a female Seviper who was sitting on a…weird-looking chair. “Who are you!? Where’s Mike!?”

“He—”

“Whoa, Rigley! Is that you? Jeez, I haven’t seen you in a while! How’ve you been?”

As it turned out, the Charmander with the cowboy hat and green bandanna around his neck was already sitting at his usual desk like he never left it. Well, it would have been usual if it weren’t for the fact that it was so new-looking and obviously upgraded. Not quite to the standards that the technology of Planet Paion had, but Rigley had gotten too used to the technological level of Tao Village to worry about such trivial things.

“MIKE!” Rigley zoomed and tackled the guy into a full-on hug, barely leaving any room for poor Mike to breathe. Luckily, he backed off and said, “I missed you too! Ever since you left, this whole guild got sucky leaders like your sister, and Treble stole my money, so I had to go perform in an evil magic show, bust out their conspiracy, get their money, and lead this whole guild all by myse—”

“Whoa whoa whoa, slow down there! I didn’t get like half the things you just said.”

The Seviper’s voice timidly spoke up. “Um…your name’s Rigley?”

Rigley turned around swiftly, apparently having forgotten about the Seviper for a second. “Yeah, I forgot to ask…who are you, and what are you doing here?”

“M—my name’s Opal! I came here with Mike because I had nowhere else to go.”

“I can explain.” Mike cleared his throat. “She’s from my hometown of Gambitville, which all the way up north in the Sandsong Desert—”

“Sandsong Desert!?” Rigley exclaimed, too excited to hear about a place he already knew about to worry about interrupting Mike. “That’s where me and my sister crash-landed a long time ago, before we joined the guild and everything! You guys are from…THERE?”

Mike’s eyes widened in confusion. “Crash-landed…?” And then he remembered. “Oh yeah, I remember now. There was that one day when all those Elgyems and Beheeyems rained down from the sky, and you said you were with them, and—”

“Th—they’re not mean people, are they?” asked Opal nervously. Not that one could blame her; Poison-types had enough reason to be concerned of Psychic-types to begin with.

“No, no! Rigley’s a nice guy, and so are his people. He’s one of my top Rescuers!” Mike explained proudly.

“W—wow…” Opal’s eyes widened in amazement.

“Well, uh…” Rigley fidgeted for a bit, not sure how to take the compliment. “I—I try.”

Mike smiled. “If you were wondering why I disappeared, Rigley, it was because I thought I couldn’t pay PK enough to rebuild this treehouse, so I ran away to get some advice from my mom. It really helped. Of course, it turns out that Fresnel got a lot of money to rebuild it anyway, but my point is that I feel like I can do anything now. What about you, Rigley? I’ve got a bit of time to kill, and it sounds like you had a lot of fun while I was gone.”

So Rigley proceeded to tell Mike and Opal about everything that had happened since Mike left, from Amy and Chikorita getting a new Golurk member named Darren that turned out to be a friend they had lost long ago, to Bisharp, Ralts, and Lipless choosing to live in the castle for some insane reason, to that “evil magic show” that he apparently got enough money as compensation for performing in.

By the time Rigley was finished, Mike nodded his head in approval. “Good job, man! Looks like my absence actually helped you just as much as it helped me. Now all you need is a girlfriend, and you’re all set!”

Rigley stared at Mike questioningly for a few seconds before asking, “Uh…what’s a girlfriend?”

For a second, Mike’s jaw dropped, and the next, he was struggling to contain his laughter. The same could be said for Opal as she slithered off the chair and behind the desk. She twisted her body around Mike and grinned widely at Rigley, as if she was trying to give a hint.

“…Wait…” Rigley pointed at Opal. “You mean her!?”

Opal winked and chirped, “You got it!”

Mike finally let his laughter out, and then added, “I was just kidding, man. If you want to know, she’s basically someone that you really really like, and the two of you go out on dates and stuff. I’ll admit that you’re a bit young for a *real* girlfriend, but hey, I guess it’s never too early to start looking or something. For practice, so you don’t mess up on the real thing, so to speak.”

Rigley began to think. “Hmm…someone I really really like…”

“Like I said, don’t worry too much about it!” said Mike. “Just go help everyone else plant the flowers and stuff. It’s just an option to consider, that’s all.”

“Flowers?”

“Yeah. Some weird green floating onion called Jasmine said that if we planted a bunch of new plants, she would have them all bloom at once or something. That’s what everyone’s doing right now.”

“That seems…pretty easy…” guessed Rigley. “Well then, thanks for everything, Mike! It’s good to see you back.”

“Likewise!”

The two of them bumped fists before Rigley teleported out of there.

“Good luck!” said Opal after him.

NEXT PART>>>

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I'm participating in #PMD-Explorers' Event 6: Temporal Terraforming with all three of my teams:

Team Pecha, the Merchants
Team Elgyem, the Lone Rescuer and
Team Nighty Knights, the Rogues



Part 2 of 10. Rigley finds out how Mike has changed since his reprieve, and decides that it would be cool to pick out a girlfriend for himself after seeing how well Mike gets along with Opal. But who will he choose? Find out on the next part!

That's all the pictures I've drawn so far. Wait until tomorrow or so for more!

Mike the Charmander and Opal the Seviper are NPCs belonging to #PMD-Explorers.