Chapter 7: Parfum Palace & Jessie's Disappointing Reward
The next morning I awoke refreshed and headed back outside of town to hit up the Parfum Palace and see if I could figure out a way to stea-, um, rightfully acquire a PokéFlute to wake up the dumb sleeping Snorlax. I originally intended to go to the Palace immediately, but I saw some trainers lurking to either side of the trail heading up to the Palace's entrance gates, and I couldn't resist taking a quick detour for a few battles.
To the western side of the path, I had my first difficult trainer encounter, a double battle with a husband and wife who used a couple of headbutting Furfrou. James and I had grown skilled at double battling together, but this was my first time controlling two of my own Pokémon against two skilled trainers, and it was exhausting, though I did manage to eventually take them both down.
After a quick rest and restoration, I continued challenging trainers, though none of the others were as challenging as the Furfrou couple. After an encounter with a backpacker, Riolu also started to evolve! There must be something wonderful about the air around here that makes Pokémon want to evolve. Lucario was still shorter than me, but very fierce-looking, much more ferocious than his cuter pre-evolution form. It made me a bit nervous to be in charge of such a powerful Pokémon, but at least she was on my side...
After I tested myself against all of the scattered battlers, I finally made my way to the entrance guy, pausing only shortly to have my photo taken. The photographer guy wanted a tip, but I plead poverty and stiffed him, heading up to the gate. Good thing I saved my cash, too, because the butler at the entrance wanted ¥1000 just to enter into the Palace; what a ripoff! I angrily paid him, vowing to swipe some butlery or something from inside to make up for the lost funds.
Inside, I met up with James who was chatting with a guy in the entrance who had lost track of his Furfrou. James quickly offered both of our services in finding the lost Pokémon and wandered off in search of it. Rather than following him immediately, I decided to scout around the Palace, looking at the sights and finding things to steal. The upper balcony had some beautiful Dratini statues that I would have loved to take, but they were too heavy and bulky for me to make off with easily, so I settled for stealing a good luck charm that would help me win more money from battles; maybe if I used it long enough, it would eventually pay for my entrance costs.
Exploring the Palace actually proved to be rather boring. While I loved looking at the expensive furniture and artwork, everyone seemed to want to talk about this ancient Kalos king, but I didn't really give a rat's ass about him. Who really cares what some old dead guy ate, or where he slept, or what kind of life he led? Yawn. It wasn't long before I simply gave up and head to the courtyard to help James look for the guy's lost Furfrou.
The courtyard itself was huge, and while hunting down the Pokémon, I managed to find a few cool items, including a special Hidden Machine that would teach one of my Pokémon to effectively cut down small trees. I remembered about some trees blocking off a few pathways earlier in my travels, so I eagerly snatched it up and taught the move to my Frogadier. Exploring the mazes, I could picture myself as a princess, living in the Palace.
My dreams were shattered when I heard James calling to me from the topiary maze in the back left corner of the courtyard. It seems he'd found the Furfrou but couldn't catch it on his own, so he needed my help to devise a plan to corner it. I immediately came up with a brilliant plan, of course, and the owner rejoiced, promising to immediately throw a celebration of fireworks as a reward for our deed.
Wait, fireworks? Just who was this guy? And who wants stupid fireworks as a reward, where's the money?! But before I could protest, he ran off to get ready for the show, leaving me to sigh grumpily and trudge up the stairs to the balcony, James skipping behind me. Who throws a fireworks show in the afternoon, anyway?
As James and I sat on the balcony, waiting for the fireworks to begin, I stewed unhappily. This whole day was proving to be a waste, looking for that guy's Pokémon for nothing, paying to enter into this stupid Palace in the first place. I was about to complain to James, but when I turned to face him, he actually looked... happy? He looked kind of ridiculous, sitting there in that goofy brown wig with the frilly pink shirt, but he looked at me earnestly, his smile wide,
"Jessie..." he began, his voice full of emotion. "We haven't even seen them yet, but I know I'll never forget these fireworks, because I watched them with you."
I pursed my lips and snorted. "It's a stupid reward for wasting our time. I thought the guy would give us some cash, or at least give us the dumb Poké Flute so we can wake up the Snorlax blocking the path."
"I know it's not really special in and of itself, but, it's kind of a symbol. Me and you, Jess, these past few days in Kalos... it's been so different these past few days from all the time we spent together in Team Rocket. I've seen you battling with others, you're really enjoying being with your Pokémon, and you're a good trainer, too. We're both learning a lot about ourselves in this assignment."
"Well, you always were the sentimental one," I replied, perhaps a bit harshly, but with a smile on my lips. I might not be ready to admit it out loud, but part of me really was enjoying this time in Kalos, and not just because of the shopping. Being a Pokémon trainer, a real one, actually was rather fun, and I was winning battles pretty soundly.
"I never want to forget this," James concluded as we watched the fireworks blossoming across the sky, reaching over to grab my hand in one of his, "so I'll keep this memory in an album in my heart."
I turned to face him, a blush climbing over my cheeks, when we were interrupted by the arrival of the Furfrou trainer and one of the Palace butlers. It turns out that arrogant jerk with the Furfrou was actually the owner of the Palace, and yet he couldn't even pay us a measly reward for finding his Pokémon; what a cheapskate! James did, however, remember about getting the Poké Flute, so we managed to snag that before the guy disappeared. The butler, too, was able to give us a bit of information about mega evolution, not enough to actually be useful, but a few phrases about a mysterious stone. Perhaps this was a hint there was something else we needed to unlock the power of mega evolutions? He also gave James and I a TM and headed on his way.
I turned back to James, still a bit flustered from our previous conversation, but he was back to his jovial self, offering to race me to the bridge on Route 7 where the Snorlax was sleeping. I snorted and let him go ahead, taking my time as I headed back down the path, admiring the scenery. I stopped by the berry farm and saw that the trees I had planted were finished growing and already had berries, so I quickly swiped the berries and ran off without replanting. A scientist tried to stop me on my way out, mumbling something about berry mutations, but I didn't really care so I brushed her off, heading back towards the bridge.
James was already there, along with the caretaker from the manor house in Camphrier. We gave him the Poké Flute and he woke the Snorlax up, freeing up the path for us to cross. As we were about to leave, the dude from the Palace came back and told the caretaker he could keep the flute. That stupid guy gets to keep the Poké Flute just for playing a dumb song, and here I am, still sitting here without a proper reward for having caught the Furfrou. I was beginning to wish I let the thing stay in the gardens.
Eventually everyone headed off on their own; I waved goodbye to James as he continued on down Route 7. I was about to follow behind when I felt a buzzing in my pocket; another Pokémon from HQ! Once again, I didn't have much time to look at it before it was sucked up into the PC storage, but I did catch a glimpse of some familiar antenna-like whiskers and tail...
Could it be...?
Regardless, it wasn't doing me much good now sitting in the PC, so I put the transporter back in my pocket and headed back down Route 7.