Couldn't get away

Couldn't get away Title Card

**Couldn't get away** is a side story to the Eeveelution Squad comic. The story explains Alfred's reason for kicking his daughters Lazuli and Leaf out of his house and what he is doing now. It was originally published on December 1, 2018 by PKM-150.

## Plot

Walking ten miles from Terra Town for his new job, Alfred arrives to Tower-7 and climbs in. He is met with a bed and other supplies for living. He gets a transmission on his walkie-talkie from a *Ninetales* on Tower-6 and introduces herself as Ashia. She asks what Alfred's story to take this job, as other residents join to get away from town, but Alfred diverts the question by asking her story. Ashia says she ran from to avoid an arranged marriage with someone she didn't know and asks Alfred to stop stalling from telling his story. Alfred said he was imprisoned for ten years for the count of murder and that was just released a few weeks ago. He got his job back as an Explorer, demoted to normal rank, but quit because it brought back memories. Ashia makes a half-heart response and regrets her comment. Alfred turns stern and says that he killed an outlaw, a *Bisharp*. Ashia asks what the outlaw did to drive him to kill him and Alfred says that the outlaw killed his wife and everyone close to him for almost capturing him, and mentions how he drove own the only thing he had left, his daughters Lazuli and Leaf. Ashia apologizes and mentions how she remembered hearing about the case and they could've been found easily if they had the technology to do so earlier. Alfred gets frustrated after questioning where his daughters were after they ran away and thinks they might be dead. Alfred tells her that he tried to make it look like he didn't care about his daughters so that he wouldn't kill them, but his emotions got a hold of him and made it too convincing. He says that he killed the outlaw on the same day and lost an eye from him, and he got sent to prison. Ashia apologizes for asking him his personal life, but tells him that she will listen to him anytime he wants to. Alfred apologizes for bringing Ashia to his drama, but Ashia says she doesn't mind. Alfred gives her advice in life, life your best life and don't do something you will regret later. Ashia says she will keep that in mind and says she can look for his daughters while on watch. They briefly exchange about the fate of Alfred's daughters and if it is okay to give on looking fo them; Alfred mentions that they probably see him a terrible father if they are alive. Later, Ashia explains that Fire-type, Rock-type, and Ground-type pokémon are selected for this job due to their fire resistance and the forrest near Terra Town usually gets caught on fire about once or twice a year. She says that they are to look for smoke or wildfire and contact the Explorers to stop, if the fire gets in town they the watchers have to evacuate the town folks themselves. Ashia that Alfred's duty in patrol will start tomorrow and tells him that he can talk to her for company, and they end their communication for the day. Alfred sets up his shelter and finds a family. He stares at it for a long minute and proceeds to rest, ending the story.

## Credits

* Alfred
* Ashia
* *Bishop* Outlaw (Mentioned)
* Lazuli (Mentioned)
* Leaf (Mentioned)
* Lazuli & Leaf's mom (Mentioned)

## Trivia

* This is the first appearance of Ashia.
* PKM-150 confirmed that the side story is a reference to video game *Firewatch*.
* Terra Town has many towers for fire lookout around town down to fires starting in the forest.
* It turns out that people were searching for Lazuli and Leaf after they ran away, but gave up after a few weeks.