Author's note: Okay, so I normally don't do these, but this time I need to make an exception in order to thank Orangen for lending me the use of Team Shadow, Claire's family, and Missy from your story, "Darkened Skies." I hope you like my take on your characters! Now, without further ado…
The Sparks Family Reunion
Paula smiled when she saw the first tell-tale sign that she was nearing her childhood home: A rock. But it wasn't just any rock… it was a rock that sparked and crackled with electricity. She was never really sure what made them do that, especially when lightning storms were so rare in the forest that they only occurred at a specific time each year.
…Now, that she thought about it, those storms were probably an offshoot from the ones that usually plagued Amp Plains earlier in the year. Did that mean that the storms just traveled around the world…?
Anyways, the point was that she had never figured out why the rocks kept their charge for so long. She figured it had something to do with the shiny, metallic bits embedded in them, but she'd never really taken the time to find out. Perhaps she could ask Uncle Lenny. He was brainy, so maybe he'd know.
The thought of her uncle brought a smile to her face. She was more excited about this reunion than she'd let on to Laura. She hadn't had the chance to see her family (excluding Ricky) since she left to become an explorer, and since she'd wasted a lot of time in her attempts to join the guild before that fateful encounter… well, she just figured that a visit was probably long overdue.
She was especially looking forward to seeing her cousin Felix again. Shortly before she'd left on her own journey to become an explorer, her Uncle Orange (whose real name was Frank, but who everyone called "Orange" because he was a shiny pokémon and had orange fur) and Aunt Genny (his infernape wife) had written to tell them that he'd taken a page from Ricky's book and had set off to become an explorer as well. She was eager to see if he'd achieved his goal and—if he had—to swap stories with him.
She heard the babble of happy voices, and she eagerly scampered towards it.
"There she is! There's our little girl!" Paula's raichu mother exclaimed, pulling her into a fierce hug.
"Perhaps not so little anymore though, eh? Just look how much she's grown!" her father, also a raichu, said proudly as he ruffled the fur on her head.
"Hi Mom, Dad!" Paula greeted with a content smile on her face. "It's so good to see you again!"
"Oh… Just let me get a good look at you," her mother said, pulling away slightly from her daughter. "After all, I haven't seen you in over two years!"
Paula winced at that and sheepishly gave the excuse, "Yeah… I'm sorry about that. It's just, I've been so busy with exploration work that I…"
"Exploration work! So you did meet your goal, Sweetheart?" her father beamed. "I'm so proud of you! To think! Our family has a member of the illustrious Wigglytuff Guild!"
"I hope this time off doesn't inconvenience your training…" his wife said worriedly.
"Oh, no, Mom, it's no problem," Paula assured. "Actually, I've already graduated from the guild."
At her parents' surprised looks, she frowned. "Ricky should be here already, right? Didn't he tell you this?"
"Nope! He was too embarrassed by the girly sounding team name!" a familiar voice from afar—but steadily coming closer—called out.
Paula's eye began to twitch, and she growled. "Adam, what are you doing here?" she demanded of the snickering jolteon who was coming into view, flanked by Eve, his leafeon sister, and Ricky, Paula's brother.
"Isn't it obvious?" Adam asked in a condescending tone. "I'm here for the party!"
"But this is a family reunion! You aren't even related to us!" Paula spluttered.
"Not yet," Adam snickered.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Paula demanded.
"Oh, nothing…" Adam said nonchalantly before glancing slyly at his sister, who blushed before pointedly looking away.
Paula frowned, but before she could comment, Ricky laughed. "Gee, you're more forgetful than I remember. I told you that you were allowed to bring friends!"
Paula's jaw dropped before she all but yelled, "No you didn't!"
Ricky blinked. "Oh. I didn't? Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure!"
"Oh," Ricky frowned sheepishly. "So… I guess this means you didn't bring any of your cute, female friends with you?"
"No!" Paula bristled.
"Not even that adorable treecko partner of yours?" Ricky asked hopefully while Eve rolled her eyes.
"I already told you, Laura's way too young for you!" Paula chastised. The she sighed sadly. "Besides… I doubt she would have enjoyed herself."
Eve frowned. "Oh? Why is that?" she asked. "She did seem a bit shy, but surely that wouldn't…"
"No," Paula shook her head. "I mean, that's part of it, but—"
She was cut off with her mother's joyous exclaim of, "Oh, look! Felix has arrived!"
Paula turned around and, sure enough, there was her cousin: Felix the chimchar. She was surprised that he had an entourage with him, made up of a cheery glameow, a rambunctious-looking machop, a cubone who looked as though her reserved nature could rival Laura's, and a heavily scarred meowth who—honestly?—looked a little intimidating.
"Aunt Lily! Uncle Michael!" Felix eagerly called as he caught sight of Paula's parents and dashed the rest of the way towards them, lunging into their awaiting arms which were open for hugs. "Oh! And Paula and Ricky, too!" he exclaimed when he caught sight of his cousins.
"Hey there, Cousin. Who are all your cute friends?" Ricky greeted, immediately focusing in on the fact that the group Felix had brought with him was—with the exception of the glameow—made up entirely of females.
Felix rolled his eyes, recognizing Ricky's usual tactics, but he nonetheless stepped back to introduce his friends.
"This is Bruce," he began, indicating the glameow, who inclined his head cordially as a greeting. "And that's Rin," he pointed at the cubone next. "Next is—"
"I'm Iris!" the machop brashly interrupted, causing Paula to giggle, as the girl's antics reminded her of a certain loudred back home…
Felix resisted the urge to roll his eyes, and instead turned to the meowth and said, with a hint of pride in his voice, "And last but not least is Claire."
Claire smiled warmly, greatly reducing the intimidating effect caused by her scars, and said, "It's nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Sparks. Felix has told us a lot about you…"
"Yeah, but he never mentioned your species!" Iris suddenly cut in. "At least now his last name makes sense. I mean, really? Sparks? That's no name for a Fire-type! But it's the perfect last name for a family of Electric-types!"
"Thank you…?" Lily, Paula's mother, responded, a bit puzzled by the machop's personality.
Felix gave a rather harried sigh. "Anyways, I hope you don't mind that I brought my friends with me…"
"Of course not! After all, friends were invited to this gathering!" Michael, Paula's father, exclaimed, surprised that his nephew would think of his friends as being impositions on this merry occasion. At Felix's look of confusion, Michael gave and aggravated sigh and kneaded his forehead. "Did Richard neglect to mention this in his invitation letter?" he asked wearily.
Everyone turned to Ricky who sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck and gave a nervous chuckle. "Heh heh… whoops?"
Paula rolled her eyes, "And he calls me forgetful…"
Eve studied Felix thoughtfully for a moment before saying, "If I may be so bold… if you didn't think friends were allowed, then why did you bring them with you? You never struck me as one who would easily ignore the rules…"
Felix gave a glance in Iris' direction, but, surprisingly, it was Rin who answered, "Iris here insisted that he take us with him."
"Oh, come on! How could I resist?" Iris asked, throwing her hands in the air. "It's not often that the five of us get to go out together since he," she thrust her thumb in Felix's direction, "is such a stickler for the rules of explorers about how many team members can go on an exploration at once."
"Wow! So you did become an explorer?" Paula asked happily.
"Yep," Felix responded, nodding proudly. "We're Team Shadow."
Adam started snickering, and then Claire turned to him and, in a huff, demanded, "Do you have a problem with the name I came up with?"
Adam laughed harder and shook his head. "N-nope!" he assured, gasping for breath between the chuckles. "I just find it amusing how little Felix and Paula's team names are polar opposites!"
Feix looked over in surprise at the fact that his female cousin had also formed a rescue team while Eve groaned. "No, Adam, if they were opposites, then Paula's team would have to be named something like 'Light.'" That shut Adam up. As he gaped and his mouth worked up and down as he tried to think of a retort, Eve turned to the visitors and said, "Please excuse my brother's juvenile behavior."
Claire shrugged. "It's fine," she assured, her temper cooling.
"Yeah!" Iris exclaimed. "Now let's get this party started!"
Paula observed the reunion from her place at one of the picnic tables. Felix was hesitantly introducing Claire to his parents, who were standing nearby a large cluster of sparking rocks that many of the pichu had gathered around, declaring that it was the perfect place for a contest. They were taking turns producing sparks to see whose electrical pouch could form the biggest ones, and they had somehow roped Bruce into being the judge.
She watched him place a paw on the latest round's winner, and winced when the residual energy shocked him and caused his fur to stand on end. Honestly, Rin would have been a better choice for a judge, seeing as her Ground-type status rendered her immune to electrical attacks. But her cousins were so young that they probably didn't know that. Besides, Rin had wandered off about an hour ago to chat with Bradley, her third cousin twice-removed. Rin seemed shy, but Bradley was a marowak, so he'd probably spiked her interest.
As she looked on from afar, Paula was surprised by how many pokémon were there who weren't of the raichu species-line. Oh, sure she knew that there were a few members of the Sparks family who were of a different species (take Felix and Bradley, for example), but there weren't that many, which meant that everyone else had gotten the memo that friends were allowed.
Paula sighed and thought of Laura. Maybe she shouldn't have left her alone like that… Felix had brought friends, despite not knowing whether or not they would be welcome. Then again, given Laura's reaction to the much smaller party of Wigglytuff's, and then the absolute fiasco that followed after her own Birthday…
An unexpected growl from beside her caused her to jolt, and she jolted again when she realized it was coming from the normally composed Eve. She followed the leafeon's gaze to see what had her so upset and rolled her eyes when she caught sight of Ricky flirting with Iris. But then she blinked when, to her great surprise, Iris began flirting back. She looked back to Eve in confusion and asked, "Eve? Are you okay?"
But Eve didn't seem to hear her. Instead, she was mumbling, "…rule-breaker. She's not supposed to flirt back… can't she see that he's not serious…?" Her eyes narrowed when Ricky laughed. "He's not supposed to laugh… that flirting isn't supposed to serve as more than a quick burst of amusement…" Her fur stood on end when Iris touched Ricky's arm and he blushed sheepishly at some comment or another. Paula looked from them to the enraged leafeon beside her several times before her mouth formed a small "O" of surprise and something clicked.
"Eve is jealous!" she realized. "That's what Adam meant when he said he wasn't related 'yet!'"
Eve's growl deepened, and Paula began to slowly edge away from the table when the leafeon's glare turned murderous…
"What am I doing?" Paula suddenly asked herself, pushing her plate of food away. After leaving Eve she had felt hungry and headed over to the buffet tables... but here she was, an hour later, and she was still nibbling on random snacks as she stared distractedly out at the festivities! She groaned and placed her head down on the table when she realized something and muttered, "If this is how Laura felt at Guildmaster's party, then it's no wonder she ate herself sick…!"
"Laura?" a voice came from beside her, causing her to jolt. She looked up to see that Claire had sat down next to her, facing backwards so that she could lean on the table.
"Is that a friend of yours?" she asked.
"Yeah," Paula said warily. "She's my best friend—and my exploration partner."
"Is she here?" Claire asked curiously, glancing around.
Paula sighed, "No… I didn't bring her." Claire's cocked head prompted her to further explain, "I didn't know that I could bring guests."
Claire nodded. "Yeah… Felix wasn't planning to bring us either. Actually, he wasn't even planning to come until Iris demanded that he bring us…"
Paula snorted. "Yeah… she reminds me of my friend."
"Laura?"
Paula burst out laughing. "No way! Laura is more like Rin. She's very quiet…" she trailed off with a sigh.
"What's the matter?" Claire asked in concern.
"I just… I feel kind of bad for leaving her alone. I mean, she's only thirteen…"
"Jeez! She's only thirteen? I'm surprised her parents let her become an explorer…"
"…That's one of the reasons that I probably wouldn't have brought her even if I had known that I could bring guests."
Claire frowned. "What does a family reunion have to do with being an explorer?" she asked in confusion.
Paula shook her head. "It doesn't, really, it's just… I think she'd feel kind of left out. I mean, Laura… she doesn't have a family. At least… not anymore."
Claire looked like she had been punched in the gut. Her eyes widened before they creased in… was that empathy? "…What happened to them?" she asked softly.
"It's complicated," Paula began, "but I guess the easiest explanation would be… have you heard about Team Rainbow?"
Claire blinked in confusion at the seeming non sequitur before drumming her paws on the table in thought. "Let's see… Team Rainbow… weren't they the ones who prevented Temporal Tower's collapse?" she asked. At Paula's small smile and nod, Claire frowned again. "But what does that have to do with…" she trailed off when it hit her and she snapped her paws. "Oh! Team Rainbow is your team, isn't it? And since you are obviously the one who was born in the past, then that must mean that Laura is the one from the future that got changed and no longer…" she trailed off again and winced. "Ah… yeah, that explains a lot."
Paula snorted. "Yeah, it does." Then she sighed, "But even with that… I'm not really sure she even had a family to begin with. I mean, Grovyle didn't tell us (or, me, at least. I'm not so sure what he told Laura…) much, but… I only heard him use the word 'guardians,' never 'parents' or 'siblings.' So I really don't know…."
"And she hasn't told you anything?"
Paula shook her head. "She can't. She has amnesia, and is just now getting over it."
Claire again had the feeling of being punched in the gut. "That's just freaky…" she muttered as she crossed her arms.
Paula stared in surprise and asked, "What's freaky?"
Claire frowned a bit and shook her head before explaining, "How similar Laura's story is to mine."
At Paula's incredulous stare, Claire sighed and licked her lips. She glanced around at all the happy, family memories being made around her. "You see… I think that part of the reason Felix wasn't planning on coming here today was because he was worried that it would upset me," she finally said. "In a way, I guess he's sort of right. I mean… I am glad that he's getting to see his family again, but… seeing everyone here so happy, it just… it makes me miss my own family and remember how I'll never get to see them again…"
Paula gave a small gasp and spun around in order to place a comforting paw on Claire's back. "Why not…?" she tentatively asked.
Claire brought her legs up to her chest and put her chin on her knees before saying, "My family… while I'm sure it was a far cry from the dark world that your friend came from… the island where we lived was pretty depressing. There was a lot of anarchy and mayhem everywhere. My dad… he was part of the police force, so he had a lot of enemies. And there was this one gang in particular… it was led by a misdreavus named Missy who was…" she shuddered. "Well, my nickname for her was 'Evil Incarnate.'
"Dad and his squad had finally decided that enough was enough when it came to her gang, so they made a plan to capture her. He'd brought my entire family to the police station so that we would be safe, but… Missy had an inside man. They ambushed us, and they ended up killing my parents and my half-brother, Jack. One of Dad's friends managed to save me and Andrew, my twin brother, and he took us to the house of one of my friends. We lived there for a while, but… well, Missy was extremely vindictive. She didn't like the fact that we had gotten away.
"My friend, Andrew, and I knew that it wasn't safe, so we ended up being basically fugitives as we scrounged around, trying to collect enough money to buy a passage out of there. Eventually we'd saved up enough money for two passengers on the 'Wailord Express,' but… by that time, Missy had us cornered. We didn't have time to get more money, or figure out another plan, so Andrew… he sacrificed himself so that my friend and I would be safe. I… I watched his murder while Wailord swam away from the shore…"
Claire gave a humorless laugh before shaking her head and continuing, "It was a wasted effort, though. The other passengers… well, once they realized that it was Missy who was after us, they… they forgot that they would never be seeing her again, and they turned on us out of fear of her retribution."
"Is… is that how you got those scars?" Paula asked.
Claire nodded. "Yeah," she said. "At one point I took a blow to the head and… well, I guess they must have tossed the two of us overboard, because the next thing I know, I'm waking up on the beach with a killer headache, no memories, and this stranger frantically shaking me and telling me to wake up. That stranger, of course, was your cousin."
Paula just stared at her. "Uh, Wow," she finally said after a moment of hesitation. "That's… that's a lot to take in… um… but how do you know all this? Didn't you just say that you had amnesia when Felix found you?"
"Yeah. But I got over it."
"How? I mean… was there something special that you did? Something that could maybe help Laura, too?" Paula asked eagerly.
Claire shook her head. "Nope, sorry. The method I used… well, it seems like it already failed for your friend."
"Huh?" Paula asked in confusion.
"You said that she met up with her old friend, Grovyle, right? And that it didn't jog any memories of her past?" Claire confirmed. "See, that's how I remembered. My friend ended up surviving the attack as well, but we had gotten separated, so he went out to find me. The instant he did… everything rushed back."
"Oh…" Paula said, feeling downcast. Then she perked up. "Well… at least you still have your friend, right? I mean, if he found you again…"
Claire sighed wistfully, "No… unfortunately, he's gone now. Growing up on that island had made him a really vengeful pokémon, and since he'd grown a lot stronger during his search for me, he… well, he decided to go back and confront Missy."
"So… so what happened?" Paula was almost scared to ask. "Did… did she end up killing him? Or did he…?"
Claire shook her head. "…I don't know," she admitted. "And either way… well, it doesn't really matter. The island… it turned out to be volcanic. It erupted, and the tremors caused an earthquake that made it sink into the sea. It was so quick that only the Flying- and Water-types with enough endurance made it to the mainland. My friend and Missy… well, my friend was a Grass-type, and I know that Missy didn't have the endurance."
"…I'm sorry," Paula said quietly. "That's… that's really sad."
Claire shrugged. "Yeah… but that's all behind me now."
The two sat in silence for a few awkward moments before Claire cleared her throat and said, "So, anyway… I can see where Felix and you are coming from, with worrying about us being upset by seeing a family experience which we can't have for our own. But… I really am glad that he brought me. I mean, no matter what my life used to be, this is what it is now. Felix is my closest friend, so I want to know as much about him as I can. But that's just me. I don't know if Laura would feel the same way… but I think that, as your friend, she'd at least be supportive of you."
"I know that, but… even without the whole 'family' thing, it still probably wouldn't have been a good idea to bring her here," Paula said, gazing out at the crowd.
"Oh? Why's that?"
"Well…" Paula trailed off and glanced over at the chaos that was her family reunion:
Some of her older pikachu cousins had joined in on the "spark" contest, and, because of all the static electricity in the air, Bruce resembled a giant fuzzball that was continually twitching and sparking sporadically from the residual energy. Adam was laughing hysterically while Bradley and Felix were at least trying to stifle their laughter. They weren't having much luck, however.
Ricky, meanwhile, was being chased around by Iris—who had not realized that he no longer had interest in flirting—and Iris, in turn, was being chased by Rin—who was brandishing her bone in a highly threatening manner—while Eve looked on maliciously as she cheered Rin on and giggled, "Heh heh heh… That'll teach them… that'll teach both of them…"
That was just a glimpse of what she saw.
Paula turned back to Claire and said, "Given her reaction to our Guildmaster's much smaller and only slightly less insane Birthday party… I think that if I had brought her here, she would have either eaten until she exploded, or she would have passed out from fear."
Claire laughed. "Oh, that's a good one! That's so…" then she caught sight of Paula's serious face. "…Oh. You're not kidding?"
Paula snorted. "Nope. She's not good with parties. Seriously, the guild waited a few days after her actual Birthday out of respect for her culture… but then when they attempted to throw her a surprise party… well, let's just say that I'm glad that grass is soft."
Claire laughed again. "Oh, man! She can stand up to someone like Dialga, but she freaks out at a surprise party? I have got to meet this girl!"
"Of course! And I'm sure she'd love to meet you, too! We'll have to hook up the next time you guys are exploring near Treasure Town! We could all get a drink at—"
She was cut off when Ricky—who was still being chased by Iris—slammed into their table due to his inattention to his surroundings and knocked himself out.
When Iris caught up to him, she gleefully exclaimed, "Whoo hoo! Now you're all mine for the—!"
She, in turn, was cut off when she was hit simultaneously with a Bonemerang and Magical Leaf attack and promptly fainted on the spot. Her two assailants—Rin and Eve—looked at each other and grinned.
"Nice work," Eve commented, seeming back to her usual, sane self.
"Thanks," Rin said. "It's all in the wrist. And your Magical Leaf attack seemed much stronger than any others I've ever seen."
"Aw… Thank you! I've been practicing a lot lately. I find that it's useful for..."
As the two talked, Claire and Paula both shook their heads. Then they jolted when the sky went dark and a giant flash of light and a huge "KABOOM!" came from the contest grounds. They whipped around to see that the raichu cousins had joined in the fun, and their efforts had left a deep crater in the ground with a very singed-looking Bruce lying unconscious at the very bottom while a stunned Bradley gaped at the sight from the edge of the crater and a frantic Felix climbed down to rescue him. Adam showed no concern whatsoever, and had doubled over with laughter.
Slowly, Claire turned back towards Paula and said, "…Okay, I agree. Bringing her with you would not have been a good idea."
Paula swallowed before faintly saying, "Yeah… an angry Dialga is nothing compared to a Sparks Family Reunion…"