Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: Infrared

Chapter 23: The Space-Time Rift

"Mornin', Arven, it's time for school." Sada's crystals shimmered in the morning sunshine. She chuckled and shook Arven with her good hand. "No, no. I mean, it's time to wake up." She liked that joke, though.

Arven snorted and lifted his cheek from her bed. "School?" he groggily asked. He spent the rest of the night sitting in a chair beside Sada after she asked Miraidon to let him.

She was starting to think that the Pokémon was beginning to tolerate him. Maybe not like him yet, but tolerate him.

Arven rubbed drool from his lips. "Hey, Mom," he said, yawning. "Oh, you are bad." It looked like he just remembered he was in the past. "Di-Did you manage to fall asleep?"

"Don't worry about me," Sada said. "As long as you slept, I'm okay." Truthfully, she had been too scared to fall back asleep. What if she had another night terror and did more than throw a chair at Arven?

"Go get some breakfast," she continued. "Your friends and the Pokémon are in the kitchen."

"What about you?"

"I still have some juice in my battery; I'll be fine. I'm more concerned about you, Arven, than me right now." Sada especially was after the talk she had with Penny.

She gestured at the kitchen. She noticed that Penny had stepped out of it, and she approached Arven's back. "Go on."

"I'll look at her, Arven," Penny stated. "FYI, Nemona burned the sausages a little bit, but they're still edible. We're gonna head out after breakfast."

Arven got up from his chair. "Where're we goin'?"

"On a walk." Aside from those three words, Penny tilted her head toward Sada.

"Oh, right," Arven said. "Thanks, Pen." He walked by her and patted her shoulder.

She blushed under his touch but quickly came to her senses (although it was cute seeing how much she liked Arven). "Excuse me, Miraidon." Penny stepped over him and shuffled to Sada's left side. "Morning, Sada. How are you feeling?"

She tittered. "Like a Future Pokémon fried me."

"I'm just gonna look at your arm." Penny grasped it, and Sada winced. "I'm sorry. I know it hurts. I'm going to see if I can check your motherboard."

"Is that the main concern here?" Sada inquired, glancing at Penny.

"It's one of them, yeah, aside from Infrared," she answered. "You've got a bad break here, Sada, but I'll see what I can do. The only problem is, all of my computer parts are back home."

"That may make it difficult. I supposed it's not every day you see an AI unless it's the future." Sada flinched again when Penny removed the sleeve of her lab coat.

"Oh, dang it," was the only thing she said.

"Great. It's bad, isn't it?" Sada peered down at her arm.

A batch of infrared-colored Tera crystals had started to grow over her wound like a blood clot, and Penny could not break them, no matter how hard she tried.

"Stop, stop," Sada begged. "It hurts."

"Sorry." Guilt flashed across Penny's face. "Sada, I can't do anything without my computer parts."

Sada removed her arm from her and put it back in her lab coat. "It's fine. I'll just learn to tolerate it." She sighed. "At the end of the day, Penny, this is my fault. I should have never trusted Turo in the first place."

***

Sada walked alone on the rock-free hiking trail and read. A fresh batch of crystals emerged on her right cheek. She felt them but tried to ignore them and thought, Just read, to herself.