E4 Part 3: That's Chill for you, I guess

“I think that’s about it.”

They had spent the whole afternoon trying to decide different sorts of gifts for everyone they knew. Luckily they had enought money from their last mission even after Team Trample had taken ¾ of it. Now they only needed to get up to the Rescuers’ clubhouse to pass Chill’s package to Mike. Next to the treehouse they found one of the Drifloons from Barty’s Bluff.

“Good afternoon! There has been quite a lot of traffic to the treehouse recently, so I’m here to help out all the Pokemon who would have trouble climbing up otherwise”, the Drifloon explained.

Delighted, Chloe and Myra were glad to be transported up. They had never got the chance of going up to the clubhouse before. Once they were both at the top, Myra proceeded carefully to Mike’s office.

“H-hello? We heard that you could bring gifts for Chill here…”

Mike was sitting at the other side of his desk. “Oh. Yeah, you can do it here. You have a good timing; I was just about to get these out to be transported with Barty.” He pointed to the big bag of letters and packages next to him.

Myra took the present out of her wool and handed it to Mike. “Umm… Both of us have a bit of trouble in writing anything… Could you maybe help me to write a letter to Chill?”

Mike looked slightly uncomfortable. “Uh… I am kind of busy at the moment…” Then he seemed to notice the look on Myra’s face. “Um, okay then. But don’t make it too long, okay?”

Myra nodded and Mike took out a piece of paper and a pen. Myra took a breath and started wording the letter; first slowly, as if trying to find the right words, but as she went on, she spoke more confidently.

“Dear Chill, Team Rowanberry wants to thank you for everything you have done. I know we met you only recently, but you have been an inspiration for me for a long time. I became a rescuer wanting to be like you, and I still feel the same way. I hope that you get to visit us sometimes, but if you can’t do that… remember that we’ll keep trying to be rescuers that you would be proud of.”

Chloe noticed that Myra had started speaking of both of them and then moved on to only herself. She didn’t mind. After all, it was Myra who had always spoken of Chill as her hero.

Mike took the letter and slipped it into an envelope. “Man, Chill really has been an inspiration for a lot of Pokemon. Many others have already told me how they have become rescuers because of Chill. I guess it kind of applies to me too.” Mike looked into the distance with empty eyes. Then his mouth curved into a small smile. “…Well, that’s Chill for you, I guess! Always dazzling everyone with his coolness. Aha ha ha…”

Chloe looked thoughtfully at the Charmander. Mike was obviously really attached to Chill, too. He was probably taking this a lot harder than Myra was, he just didn’t show it as openly. Chloe suddenly felt really bad that they hadn’t given a present to Mike as well.

Myra also glanced at Mike with a surprised look on her face. Then she looked down and started giggling. “Yeah, Chill really is the best at stuff like that! Hehe hee.”

Chloe found herself smiling as well. Myra had never paid attention to Mike, but they actually had pretty many things in common.

A silence followed after Myra’s words. Myra’s smile faded slowly as she looked up again at Mike with careful eyes. “I’m sorry”, she said abruptly.

Mike didn’t seem to know how to react to that. “W-what are apologizing for, so suddenly?”

“Maybe we could’ve stopped this from happening”, Myra said. “We were there. We should have been able to protect Chill’s sisters better. I’m sorry if we have disappointed you.”

Mike looked down again, as if not wanting to be reminded of the events that led to this. “N-no, I… I’m sure you did your best out there. I mean, Chill wasn’t certainly blaming you about it. That Shiv just wanted to get back to Chill, you know? I don’t think it’s like you could’ve stopped him completely. Some bad guys just are like that.”

Myra looked thoughtful. “You think so?” she asked and some light came back into her eyes. “Well, thanks, Mike! For writing out the letter and all that.”

“Oh, well… It wasn’t a problem, really. Heh, you know us rescuers, we always have to help each other out!” Mike said and smiled carefully.

“That’s right”, Chloe grinned. “I want to thank you too. But I guess we should be going, you said you were quite busy.”

Mike jumped out of his chair. “Oh yeah! I was going to take these letters to be delivered and prepare for the party and…”

As the Charmander started hustling around his desk, Myra and Chloe turned to leave. Chloe smiled. Mike really was a very nice person.

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Gosh, I didn't mean to write that much... But it just kind of happened. I enjoyed writing lines for Mike, I hope he's at least mostly in character.

I'm very positively surprised how well the colors came out in this picture, even if most of the background is just brown. I'm aware that Mike is slightly too big though.