It has been a while huh? Well here's another chapter just to show I haven't abandoned the story but unfortunately I won't be able to write anymore until after my exams in May. I've gotta study. Doooonnn't waaana. With these intense powers of procrastination I give you the following:
Gray's POV
"AHHHHHH!" a scream pierced the air rocketing me from sleep.
The three of us shot out of bed in surprise.
"Fire?" I asked.
"Tornado?" Asked Cliff.
"SHARKNADO!" Cried Kai. We turned to him blankly, "Sorry." He told us nervously, "weird dream."
"It came from Claire's room." Said Cliff in concern.
We stood in a moment of silence before realizing what this meant. We rushed over. I rammed the door causing it to burst open. After stumbling in, we were surprised not to see anything wrong other than a pacing Claire.
"What happened?" I asked her, annoyance clearly etched on my face.
"It's gone, it's gone, It's gone, It'sgonegonegonegone!" She began to hyperventilate. I grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her, "Claire, WHAT IS GONE?"
"My bag! It's not here!" She said.
I groaned and began to leave, "That's nothing to scream about. I'm going back to bed."
She grabbed my hand, "Wait! No! Everything I own is in that bag!"
I looked at her incredulously. That tiny bag? I highly doubted it. The most you could fit in that thing was a couple books. Shaking her off I began to stalk back to the room before I remembered. What if she, like Jack, possessed the uncanny ability to stuff a million things that should never have fit, into a single pack? I sighed and walked back.
"Alright." I said, "The first thing we should do is check all of the places you've been."
She grinned and launched herself at me, "Oh thank you Grey!"
A voice cleared their throat and we turned to an amused Kai, "Goddess Claire, you really are a daring one, to hug a semi-nude man."
It was at this point I realized that I was very much still in my boxers. She pushed away from me as if I was suddenly on fire. "Er, sorry." She mumbled. Both our cheeks had turned pink.
"No problem." I coughed.
"Don't you have work?" She asked.
"Its Thursday." I told her. She looked at me blankly and I realized that of course she didn't understand what that meant. "I don't work on Thursdays."
She grinned, "Cool."
A couple minutes later we were both outside. I being fully dressed of course.
"Are you sure you want to help me on your day off?" She asked.
"Nothing else to do in this darn awful town." I muttered.
She grimaced, "Ah, boredom. I know it well."
We walked unconsciously as we spoke and I quickly found us in the forest. "Is this where it would be?" I asked.
"It's where I spend a good portion of my time." She said. Now I was almost curious, was I about to see where she went every morning?
We stopped at the goddess pond. She looked up distractedly at the top of the falls. "It wouldn't be here." She said definitively and we kept walking. By mid-day we had gone everywhere and found nothing. We collapsed wearily on a bench in the plaza.
"This isn't working." I said. "How about we go report it to Harris?" I suggested. She nodded.
Harris seemed pretty empathetic to our cause. Trouble arose when he asked Claire for a list of missing items. She frowned, as if not sure what all was in her bag. Finally finishing the list which I swore fell to the floor in length, Harris took it and began to read through it. His smile dropped, and then he became very angry. "Are you pulling a prank on me?!" He growled.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
He skimmed through the list reading out some of the items, "Twisted spoon, thunderstone, smokeball, yellow flute, poison barb, mulches, dragon fang, exp. Share, xtranceiver, dowsing machine, berries I've never heard of… and a bike?" He looked at use disbelievingly. "What's worse is under most important is: a pair of balls." Baaaad wording Claire. He snorted, something the level-headed man rarely did and kicked us out of his home.
Claire turned to me slowly. "Maybe I should have lied about what was in there?"
"You think?" I glared. I felt the tip of my cap, "honestly, you're the weirdest person I've ever met. Who the heck carries around all that junk?"
She knocked the side of her head suddenly acting like an airhead. "Tehe?" She said sticking out her tongue. Needless to say I whacked her, not hard of course, she was a girl. Even if she was that man's sister.
Claire's POV
I was beginning to panic, if I didn't let them out of their pokeballs they'd starve! I wandered around town, growing more and more panicked as my search proved fruitless. I didn't understand, where could my bag be?! I unknowingly began to tear up.
Grey stiffened "whoa, whoa, whoa! Don't cry!" Him saying that only made it worse and I began to bawl. Grey stood by flustered, "I- what should I do?"
So this is what a Pokémon Master is reduced to without her pokeballs. Pathetic. Any self-delusion I had about being a powerful woman was shed as quickly as my tears. "They're probably lost and alone and scared!" I cried.
"Who?" Asked Grey.
"My ballllls" I whined and Grey cringed again. "What if I never see them again?"
He patted my back comfortingly
"Yup." Said a voice, "a childish ten-year old in every way" I looked up to see Jill. "You've never had a boyfriend, drank coffee or alcohol and now you're throwing a tantrum in the streets. What's the matter Claire?" She asked, her tone entirely unempathetic.
"My bag-" I started and stopped, she was grinning, she already knew. "Where are they?!" I asked and her smile faltered.
She let her manicured fingers skim through her dark hair. "I don't know what you're talking about." Said Jill.
"My pokeballs! My belongings!" I shouted. She smiled, simply waved me off and then walked away down the road. I shuttered in anger. "IF YOU'VE TOUCHED ONE SCALE OR FEATHER ON EITHER OF THEIR BODIES….!" I threatened.
Jill turned around sadly "Yes I know, you'll hurt me, we ALL know you care much more about them than us" With that she left. I switched my gaze down the other road. The farm. That's exactly where it would be.
"Claire…." Grey started tentatively.
"You can go." I said and he blinked in surprise. "You think I'm weird too right?" He didn't respond. "JUST GO I'LL WORK THIS OUT MYSELF!" I grit my teeth and stomped over to the farm leaving behind a confused Grey.
The grass was long and tickled as I walked up to the farmhouse with some difficulty. I knocked on the large wood door. There was no response. Just in case I was just being ignored I knocked again and again until a voice from outside yelled, "I'm coming, I'm coming where's the fire?"
Jack stopped as he noticed me and pull down the heavy looking watering can. "Claire…" He said uncomfortably, "Can I help you?"
There it is again, the discomfort. Honestly, I couldn't tell which form I detested more, Jill's honest hostility or Jack's suppressed emotions. "Where is it?" I asked.
He looked at me in confusion. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"My bag!" I snapped, I was in no mood for games.
"Someone took your bag?" He asked in surprise.
"Don't even try to play dumb." I snarled.
"Look I don't know what you're talking about, and I certainly don't appreciate you turning on me!" He said marching into his house only to angrily slam the door.
I sighed. I didn't think Jill would hurt them, so there wasn't exactly an immediate hurry but still… I wandered down to the forest feeling utterly naked and vulnerable without my pokeballs. Back home, stepping into a forest without a Pokémon was suicide. The forest felt so much larger and I jumped at every noise. I wondered why I felt okay earlier with Grey. Suddenly I felt at peace. I don't need pokemon here. There are no pokemon here. This is a safe place.
That's what I thought for a full three seconds, until I turned up the path leading to the Goddess Pond. I crouched into the foliage. There were some crazy suspicious people up ahead who totally gave off the bad guy vibe. How did I know? It's always the crime synadates that wore identical goofy costumes, and these were crazy goofy threds.
They were dressed in black and suits with red ties. The kicker? They were entirely made of a rubbery –plastic material. I recognized these people immediately as the ones in the mine. They had a little girl surrounded.
"Please! Let me go." She cried, "I promise I won't say anything! I didn't even understand what you were talking about!"
"But you've seen us and that's also a problem." Said a woman in sunglasses. She was acting pretty haughty for a woman in a rubber suit.
"I won't tell!" She cried, "Please! Just let me go, my grandpa will worry!"
I cleared my throat, "What's going on here?" I asked.
The women wheeled about and grimaced at me, "Tche." She clicked her tongue in annoyance. "Another nosy villager." She gestured to her men, "Grab her!"
I stepped out of the way of the man's outstretched arms and walked over to the crying girl. "Is everything alright?" I asked.
"Well now that you've seen us, we can't let you leave either!" Said a man.
"Yeah," I said condescendingly, "I've got stuff to do so…"
"Foolish girl!" The woman said to me. "You have no idea who we are and what we are capable of!"
"Enlighten me." I said dryly.
"We are…" They said in a funny pose they must of thought was cool, "Team Supernova!"
I rubbed my temple, how did I get involved in these things?
"That's great for you and all, creating a team and making friends but stick to baseball or something don't hold random villagers hostage." I said.
The woman growled. "You're asking for it!" She pulled out a pokeball and my eyes widened. "Go zubat!"
She laughed haughtily as an eyeless bat appeared out of its pokeball, the girl screamed in terror. "How do you like me now? I posses powers beyond your understanding girl!"
I wanted to laugh. A zubat? Really? Why do all grunts have zubats? She was acting like she just pulled Arceus out of thin air. Then I froze. I had nothing. I, Champion Claire, might just be done in by a Zubat. "What a perfect end to a humiliating day." I muttered crossly.
The women was unsatisfied with my weak response.
I picked the girl up and looked at the woman evenly. "I'm not scared of you." I said.
"Oh really?" Asked the woman.
"Nope" I said. "But I'm still gonna take a rain check on this battle."
"What-" The woman started.
"OH HOLY ARCEUS, IT'S A SHINY HO-HO!" I cried pointing at the sky behind them. They all turned around and I fled.
"You brat!" She yelled after me.
"Deuces!" I hollered as I turned the corner and booked it into town with the little girl still in my arms.