The Other Side of the Coin

The quest to look for basic information had been almost immediately derailed.

It started with some of the ladies that had cleared an area of the plaza so they could do tricks on their bikes. Balancing on beams, hopping between them, riding on their front wheels, a lot of balancing it looked like. More than a few took some pretty nasty, or gnarly if Hailey had her slang right, spills. It was kinda funny how the Pokémon in the crowd seemed to wince more than the humans at those.

Speaking of, the crowd that had gathered did make it a bit hard to roll around so, she reasoned to herself, it would be easier for Gem and Pomona to find her if she didn’t move around a lot. So out came the Dex.

The lenses left something to be desired. Back when she was still prepping her escape, she’d actually indulged in doing some research. The sticker shock for a basic DSLR had just about sent her into another attack. Even if the gift shop had, for some reason, carried them, she couldn’t have justified ‘borrowing’ one of those.

Still, they did take nice pictures.

The Dex was reasonably good. It had multiple cameras, but digital zoom only, among other things. Still, the thrill of digital storage over limited film had her fingers jittering.

The first few action shots came out pretty blurry, and not a little overexposed as well. Still, if the Dex had one thing, it was a lot of options to flip through, though she ignored the filters for now.

It was about the time she was contemplating crawling out of the chair to try and get some low angle shots that she became aware someone was shouting at her.

“Hey! Hey! You wanna give those wheels a try?” A tanned girl in some rather tight biking gear was looking down at her.

“Tryyyyyyy what exactly?” They may have both been on a set of wheels, but unlike Hailey’s, this girls actually made her taller.

“Some tricks of course, could try balancing on one wheel, ooh, or maybe we could, like, set up two parallel boards or something. Lyla, by the way.”

“Ok, hi Lyla, but I… don’t think that’s a great idea? Not exactly a paragon of balance over her and I just got this chair, wouldn’t want to break it or anything.” The fact that anyone would look at her, her, and think to themselves Ah yes, this is a lady that should try some sick tricks was honestly sending her spinning with confusion.

“Don’t be so modest! Anyone can do a trick or two, actually, we’re trying to get more people into em! And while it’s not a bike, that chair of yours looks pretty sturdy, not to mention real flash. Actually… hey Sprocket! This one of your jobs?”

Arceus, more people were getting involved now. A Mon this time and somewhat embarrassingly, it actually took Hailey a second to recognize that it was the same Lucario that had handed the chair over just a few days prior. Her little canopy had been hidden behind the crowd but from this new angle is was visible in all its blue glory.

RIDE SPROCKET! Big yellow block letters proclaimed! The ‘Bicycles’ below that was in suspiciously small font. Still, it definitely was a bike tent, what with all the gears, and tires, and an oil covered Lucario beneath it.

“Huh?!” Her head shot up, only just missing winging off a frame. Hailey could see her raise a paw up to shield her eyes as she squinted across the courtyard. “The chair? Yeah, just made that actually? Did someone already ditch it?”

Oh Arceus, here they went again.

“What? Your eyes need a tune up Sprocket?” Lyla wasn’t exactly pushing her over to the tent, more like dragging. “Someone’s sitting in it, uhhhh.”

“Hailey.”

“Hailey, yeah! Was seeing if she wanted to try some tricks in it! I know you build em tough.”

“Hailey? That’s who the chair was supposed to… go … hmm.” The Lucario reached out feeling the air around the chair, or at least, what she thought was air. Her paw was rough, and not a little bit calloused, but the fur was soft, and luckily Hailey managed to avoid getting any grease on her as Sprocket reached toward the back seat… and accidentally copped a handful of chest.

Thankfully, shame seemed to travel faster than confusion as the arm jerked back, a faint red forming under the Lucario’s fur. “Ah! You must be… Hailey then? Arceus I must have been out in the sun to long.”

“No no, it’s just a… thing, with me, my thing.” And frankly she’d kinda hoped having the two gremlins around would have changed it. “Actually, I was there when Carita picked it up. You, uh, do good work! Very fast I hear.”

“Oh! Thank… you.” The blush wasn’t receding back under her fur, if anything it was growing. “So you were there… when…”

“Mercifully, Carita doesn’t bring me to her booty calls.”

“Carita? So that’s the name of the dragon that blew your back out the other day!” Lyla jumped in. “Though I was going to have to wheel you to the Pokémon Center before you could walk again after I saw her leaving your shop. Still, you perked right up when I wrapped my lips around your…”

“Ahah, yeah, no need to get into that while I’m working Lyla.” Hailey couldn’t help but notice that Sprocket’s denim overalls were conveniently baggy. “But, yeah, nice to meet you… Hannah?” Hell, she was already losing focus.

“Hailey, and yeah, I don’t think I’m going to be trying any stunts, I already can’t walk, I don’t need Carita locking me up after falling three feet. I was just taking some pictures while waiting for my partners.”

“Pics? Show show!” Lyla was making grabby hands while Sprocket was looking at her with a mix of shame and lust. Why did everyone have to have such complicated relationships?

“They’re nothing much, was just fiddling around with my settings.” Which was true, but once she scrolled past the first ones, and under the shade of Sprocket’s tent, she had to admit, she liked them. There was still a thrill in being able to shoot anything, any time. She’d mostly just been doing buildings, hills, Gem when she posed and started begging with here eyes, but there were a few good ones of the bikers.

One in particular caught the eye, a girl with seafoam green hair had just pulled a hard stop after dropping off the end of a balance board. Front tire planted, rear in the air, long hair going absolutely everywhere, she looked like she was about to faceplant. Good thing she’d been in complete control or else it could have gotten real messy.

The pic wasn’t the best, even with her amateur eye she could see the lighting could be better, her angle was low just from sitting but being lower would make the whole thing even more dynamic, the focus could be tighter.

Still, it had an energy to it, so it was the one she decided to stop on.

“Hey, Nisha! She looks really rad!” The two of them were now leaning over her shoulders, a bit intimate for the vibe she usually went for, but showing her pics off was creating an almost giddy feeling.

“Yeah, though if she keeps taking hard landings like that I’m going to have to replace that tire pretty soon.” Sprocket commented.

“What do you care, just more work for you? Hey! Speaking of business though, Sprocket you should totally put these up on Chattr! Look, you can totally see the logo!” Said logo was a… pictogram of a Lucario head inside a gear, not totally visible, a bit of Nisha’s knee was covering a bit, but it was there.

“You think so?” Hailey got the sense that Sprocket got, or had to be, bullied into a lot of things. “I mean I guess, I don’t really keep that thing very up to date. Uh Han-Hailey, maybe you could post it on yours and I just… rejigger it or whatever they call it?”

“Good with a wrench, great in bed, not so much with computers.” Lyla whispered in her ear.

“I mean, neither am I, and I can’t even use a wrench or, well… anyway, I don’t even have a Chattr account.”

Hailey thought that would be the end of it, or she’d just find a way to transfer the photo to them, didn’t matter to her if someone used it for advertising.

Apparently that was not good enough though, Gem was going to be so annoyed she missed someone forcing Hailey to enter the world of social media.

---

“…ok, so hashtags are these things that let people search certain words so you just add this little grid symbol before a word like ‘biking’ and… no not that symbol, that one.”

Entering the world of social media was proving not just a little bit frustrating and arcane. So many unstated rules and practises, who the hell was even going to see her photos or care anyway? Hailey figured she wouldn’t bother keeping this up after today anyway.

Still, it wasn’t like she had anything better to do. Gem and Pomona were still nowhere in sight, and she didn’t want to make it hard for them to find her. This Bond trail thing might be well and good for them, but she still didn’t trust it yet.

Wasn’t all bad though, with Lyla doing most of the talking, she’d managed to get a pretty big drink in exchange for taking a few pics of a woman’s booth. Help with the heat as she sat in the shade of Sprocket’s tent. Let the ladies on bikes do the sweating.

Not a bad way to spend an afternoon all in all.

At least till the drama started.

It started slowly, but a group had been congregating on the far side of the plaza. They were easy to spot, all decked out in sweaty looking black leather, weird hairstyles, and these half transparent green visor things.

Most of them were just milling around, but others had bikes of their own. Not pedal, and they didn’t seem to be motorbikes, electric perhaps? Some of the stunt girls went over to chat with them, only to be quickly rebuffed.

Hailey couldn’t hear what was going on over the crowd, but the Dex’s zoom function allowed her to get a better look. The newcomers seemed to be… laughing at the stunt bikers? And not in a shared joke way if the looks.

Several members on their weird bikes were crowding forward, pushing the others back. And from the middle emerged what must have been their big dog, at least if their cycle was anything to go by.

It stood half again as tall again as the others, all shiny black carbon fibre with glowing green lights, hollow tires fitted to struts. Sleek, dangerous, and utterly out of place in a sunny brick plaza.

The woman, or perhaps girl given her stature, on the back looked totally out of proportion with the big bike, but even from here Hailey could see her cocky face through the camera.

“Newcomers seem to be causing a stir.” Hailey said, still looking through the viewscreen. “Haven’t seen a bike that fancy except on scifi shows. You ever work on something like that Sprocket?” A question she had to repeat more than once to get the Lucario’s attention.

“Huh, no, no, I’m a mechanic, not an electrician. I hear those over designed pieces of crap break down every week, can’t even take a single pothole, not that I’d ever work on one.”

There was something in Sprocket’s voice there that make Hailey want to dig deeper, despite her natural quiet. “Had run ins with them before?”

“Yeah” Sprocket sighed, setting the wrench she was holding down. “First time was… a couple of months ago? A few of them, including grass-head over there, came by close to closing. Didn’t think they’d be interested in any of my bikes but hey, maybe they were looking for accessories or something, a customer is a customer right? Well they, uh, weren’t.”

Despite the sun the Lucario’s mood had turned stormy, even her ears drooping. Hailey was prepared to leave it at that, not pick any further, but Sprocket seemed to want to talk.

“Just ran roughshod over the whole store, surprised they didn’t slash any tires. Could tell the whole time they were laughing at me, insinuating only kids rode pedal bikes, that my welds were passable ‘for a Pokémon’, nearly had to call the Rangers to get them to leave. Run into them a few times since, and so have a few other business friends.”

“You’d run into me a whole lot more Blue if you ditched the baby toys, but then I suppose they are more your speed.” The engine must have been electric because the green haired girl had snuck up on them almost silently.

“Hello Oxana, I suppose you would know a lot about children’s toys. Does your mother know you’re out without supervision?” Sprocket kept her voice even but her ears said everything anyone would need to know.

Still, Oxana looked like she’d just smelled something foul. “Who gives a fuck what the old cow thinks. She and her tree humpers know better than to mess with the real natural order of things!”

“Big words for a bunch of kids who’d probably still need training wheels if it weren’t for gyro-stabilizers.”

“Just like you to not appreciate technology.” Oxana sneered.

“At least I know how mine works.”

“Simple things please simple minds, won’t be long till people realize your little toys are totally obsolete. Human tech is leaving you far behind. Maybe if you realized where you really belong you might actually get so…”

“Ok, you can knock that the fuck off.” She might have technically been an adult, but this kid was annoying the hell out of Hailey. Who went and picked a fight with a bike mechanic?

Oxana actually looked startled for a second, glancing around like Pokémon sometimes did with her, as if she couldn’t quite believe someone was sending that level of backtalk her way.

“Who the hell are…” She stopped for a second when she finally laid eyes on Hailey, her face going through a strange series of rapid twitches before settling back into a scowl.

“Eugh, you’ll suck up to anyone, won’t you Sprocket? You pull those wheels out of the garbage dump?”

“Shouldn’t be surprised someone that wears all black in the middle of the day can’t tell quality. Why don’t you and your little friends run along before you all faint from heat exhaustion.”

“Ha!” Oxana seemed almost exhilarated at that, “Heat? Nature bends under the will of technological marvels like built in air cond-”

“Nobody cares.”

The amusement she got seeing the puffed up girl visibly deflate was almost enough to lift Hailey’s mood, but the girl was really annoying. She sat there for a moment, as if debating whether she should retort.

“Whatever, don’t know why I even bother with Luddites, already obsolete and soon to be completely irrelevant, crushed under the Natural Order of things!” She yelled, before wheeling her bike around to head back to her cronys.

“Nothing like volume to prove you don’t care.” Was all Hailey had to say on the matter.

“The sad thing is, she really does. Might just be ego talking but I think she’s actually sweet on me, only reason I can think why she keeps popping up, but Arceus does she not know how to do things. I’m not desperate”.

Hailey felt like side-eyeing her for that after seeing how she ‘greeted’ Carita, but stayed silent.

“… I’m just not ready to settle down yet, certainly not with someone like that.”

“Let me guess, your type is more someone with thick, powerful thighs?”

“I mean, an appreciation for mechanical craft would also be nice!” But Hailey could see her staring back out at square, as the regular group filtered back in, there was practically drool swinging from her blue maw.

“Heh, speaking of, since the other way got blocked, we were planning on taking your handiwork out on the bike path, think it can stand up to it?”

Sprocket practically huffed at the thought. “Of course it can! You could throw it down Mt. Cornet and it would still roll at the bottom! But, uh, please don’t do that.”

“I’ll try to remember that if I’m ever at the top and want to make it even harder to get down.” Hailey laughed, “anyway, just have to figure out where we get tickets to get on this, then collect my weirdos.”

“Ticket? Hailey, it’s a road, you just go through the gate over there.”

Well, now Hailey felt like the one huffing.