The list of movies I could try out had expanded when Ricky showed them to me. I saw one by the name of "Mystery Doors of Magical Land", and chose that one due to the cool-sounding title.
"Hynden, don'tcha wanna know what it's about?" Ricky asked me, "I heard it's pretty hard to perform on the first try!"
"Pffft, nothing's too hard for me!" I assured him confidently. "Let's go!"
Ricky guided me into the dressing room and shifted through the costumes on the rack. He pulled out a burgundy princess gown with black shoulder sleeves and wrist-length white gloves. I stared at the dress with disbelief as Ricky held it in front of me before shaking my head no.
"I'm not wearing that," I told him.
"But ya gotta, li'l mama!" Ricky insisted, holding the dress closer to my repelling self. "You're playin' the role of 'Princess Hynden', a spoiled royal who gets trapped in another dimension by the eeeevil Queen Bellelba! Come on, if ya put it on this time, you don't have to do this movie again!"
"No! I don't like wearing all those poofy frou-frou dresses! They make me look silly!"
"C'mon, Hynden! Please put this fab dress on!"
"I'm not putting the dress on!"
Despite what I said 10 minutes earlier, I had just finished pulling the gown over my body and putting on the red heels when Ricky was brushing my long hair and curling it into ringlets.
"I can't believe you made me put the dress on…" I muttered angrily, arms folded after the white gloves were on my hands.
"Lighten up, baby girl!" Ricky assured me, putting my now curled hair into a high side ponytail with a black hair-bow centered with a bright red fake rose. "You look absolutely stunning!"
"Thanks. Let's get this over with so I can find a way to get to Castelia City."
I walked out of the dressing room, the rental PokéBall in one hand (the other busy with picking up the dress to avoid tripping) and Ricky returning to his post. When I arrived onset, I was surprised when I saw the actress playing Bellelba putting on her wig. I didn't know her directly, but I knew who she was.
"Hey, are you Sabrina of the Saffron City Gym?" I asked her, walking up like a child waiting to see Santa.
"Hmm? Oh! Why, yes I am! Who may you be, Miss?" she asked me.
"My name's Hynden. My mother said she faced you once. Do you know Neo-Champion Ritsu by any chance?"
"Wait, you're Ritsu's daughter?! I recall her saying she had a child the last time I saw her, but I never thought I'd meet her in person. You look a lot like your mother, save for your eye color, of course."
"I get that alot. I have my dad's eyes. It's gonna be a pleasure working with you, Miss Sabrina!"
"I look forward to it, Hynden."
"Positions, everyone! We're rolling in five, four, three and two and…!"
A beep went off, signaling the one cue for Sabrina to send out her Woobat, and for me to send out my rental Vanillite. I had to pretend to look intimidated by my "surroundings", and Sabrina appeared as menacing as she could while her Woobat fluttered excitedly in the air.
"Wh-Where am I?" I stuttered, my voice accidentally putting emphasis on the "I" part. "This isn't my glorious castle!"
"Kyahahahahaha!" Sabrina cackled maliciously, "You're right, princess! You're in my realm! Oh, if only you hadn't stumbled across my door; you'd probably be safe at home!"
"And just who do you think you're talking to, you ugly old witch?!"
"Old?! I'll teach a brat like you to make fun of my age! Woobat, sic her!"
"V-Vanilla, help ME!"
Woobat used Supersonic on my rental Vanillite, and it started losing focus quickly. But, Vanillite managed to attack with Icy Wind and leave a huge amount of damage on Woobat.
"Your WOOBAT is done FOR!" I shouted, only for the director to shout "Cut" again. The scene rolled once again, and I restated my line. "Your pitiful little Woobat's DONE for!"
"Or so you think! When I'm through with you, I'll have a brand new servant!"
"La! Me s-serving another p-person! NO WAY! The ONLY one being with servants catering t-to my every whim is me! Vanilla, use Icy Wind again!"
Vanillite's Icy Wind conquered the weakened Woobat easily, but Sabrina sent out a Swoobat to fight.
"I've got you now, wretch! Swoobat, Attract!"
From its heart-shaped tail, Swoobat conjured pink heart-shaped rays and fired them at Vanillite. In a heartbeat, Vanillite fell head-over-heels in love, and the flying Psychic-type did the same due to the Destiny Knot tied in a bow around its lower body.
"Vanilla, snap out of it, dearie! USE Astonish on SwooBAT!"
Vanillite didn't respond to my command due to its mutual infatuation. The camera kept rolling and rolling on Vanillite and Swoobat so lost in each other's eyes until the last scene came up.
"Finish up, Hynden!" the director shouted.
"Vanilla, you use Astonish this instant!" I commanded in a bratty tone.
Vanillite managed to pull itself together and use the Ghost-type move. Despite the super effectiveness of the attack, it wasn't even close to being enough to subdue Swoobat. Following the cue card, I fell to my knees and started to cry Krookodile tears in my apparent defeat.
"How… how could this happen to me?!" I wailed with feigned sadness, my face buried in my gloved hands.
"Kyahahahaha!" Sabrina cackled, walking up to me with a dark smile on her face. "Now, I condemn you to a life of servitude! Your father precious wittle kingdom will fall without his daughter!"
Sabrina quietly instructed me to follow her lead as she bound me by the wrists with fake chains and dragged me far away, cackling madly with my desperate cries for help.
"That's a wrap!" the director called. "Great job, ladies!"
"You really had me convinced, Hynden," Sabrina said to me. "But, you gotta work on your lines a little."
"Noted," I responded as Sabrina took the chains off. "I'm gonna see how the movie turned out and go."
"I hope to see you soon, Hynden! There's a little surprise awaiting you near Driftveil!"
I had no idea what Sabrina was talking about, but I was more than willing to change out of the princess dress and into my more comfortable outfit. I undid my high side ponytail and brushed out the curls before putting it back into my regular high ponytail under my cap. I looked in the mirror and pondered.
"I guess the ponytail actually did look kinda nice," I thought, "Bah, I'm just gonna see what the movie looks like! I gotta go soon!"
I left the dressing room with my regular team attached to my belt. After a pseudo-long walk, I arrived at the theater's lobby and entered the theater once I told the woman what movie I wanted to watch. I sat down in the middle and observed as the screen started playing the movie.
"Once upon a time, there lived the beautiful Princess Hynden," the announcer declared, showing the hand drawn pictures of me in the princess outfit (that could be easily mistaken for photos). "Princess Hynden was beloved by all, but on the inside, she was spoiled and rotten to the core."
"Hynden looks so cute in that dress…!" I heard a familiar-sounding voice whisper from behind me. "Maybe I can get this movie on DVD so I can watch her like this all the time!"
I turned around and squinted my eyes. The light from the screen revealed the person to be Haley, who flinched when I spotted him.
"Haley, what are you doing here?" I whispered. "You didn't follow me, did you?"
"What am I, some kinda stalker?! No, I was looking for you, and some weirdo with a yellow afro told me you were at a place called Pokéstar Studios! Listen, you gotta come back to Virbank! It's super important!"
"What's going on?"
"I'll tell you after the movie! Some people next to me are starting to get put off by my whispers. ...In the meantime, why don't you come sit next to me?"
I couldn't say no to my own best friend, so I had him help me climb to the back over the leather seats. I sat in the seat next to him, and Haley handed me the bag of buttery popcorn.
"Thanks, Hales," I whispered, taking bites of the popcorn.
As I watched the movie I was just in, I stopped chewing the popcorn kernels when Haley leaned his head against me and put his arm around my body. He started nuzzling his head gently with a sly smile until I pulled away from him.
"I'm tryin' to watch, Haley," I said to. "Please don't do that."
"Sorry, won't happen again," he whispered sincerely.
Haley unsurprisingly kept his word as the movie progressed. We shared the popcorn, but as with every past movie visit I had with him, Haley devoured 85% of it. The movie showed its final scene of my character being imprisoned for the rest of her life by Queen Bellelba, and the end credits rolling. Only a few people clapped, but the rest left the theater with indifference.
"Guess it wasn't a big hit like the first one," I sighed. "Oh well, whaddya gonna do?"
"I thought it was the best movie ever!" Haley told me boisterously, applauding as we both got up. "You were just as good as Sabrina! Not to mention, you looked really cute in that princess dress…" he added, turning florid in the cheeks.
"Aww, come on, you," I chuckled, leaving the theater with him, "that dress was the most uncomfortable thing I've ever put on."
When we returned to the lobby, Haley went up to the woman at the counter and asked for a DVD copy of the film. Much to my dismay, she complied and handed the disc to Haley before he happily paid 1500 PokéDollars for it. She also gave him a complimentary disc copy of my Riolu-Girl movie, which made Haley even more elated.
"Seriously?" I asked him.
"What? A guy can't see his cute best friend's greatness on the small screen?" Haley wondered, stashing the DVDs away in his bag. "Now I can watch you act all I want!"
We were nearing the exit when we overheard a rude guy with dirty blond hair under a backwards cap comment about the movie I was just in. He remarked on how "bland and fake" I sounded, and that he'd rather watch paint dry. The guy passed us and shoved me out of the way in an even ruder fashion.
"Watch it!" I snapped.
"I'll do that when you get some acting lessons, ya dumb bitch!" he insulted on his way to the men's room.
I let out a growl of anger, but I decided he wasn't worth my time, so I brushed it off as I fixed my chestnut peek-a-bangs. However, when I looked over at Haley, his now-dull and furious red eyes were completely fixated on the bathroom door.
"I gotta use it," he growled, stomping over to the restroom.
"Haley, don't-" I tried to say, but it was too late when he already walked into the bathroom.
Going into the men's room when you're a girl is not something to willingly do in public, so I had no choice but to wait things out. I stood near the ladies' room next to it to wait for my friend. But, my eyes widened with horror when I heard the rude guy's choked screams of pain and a slash swiftly running across a deep layer of skin. A toilet flush and long faucet run were heard after a low and maddening cackle, and out came Haley; placing his white-and-red jacket over his black tank top, which was splattered with blood just like his forehead. Haley's eyes went from dull and frightening to normal when he looked at me.
"Sorry, I've been holding it in all day," is what he told me. "And, you don't have to worry about that jackass now. We had a little talk, and now he realizes how cutthroat movie biz can be."
"Y-Yeah… let's get out of here, shall we?" I laughed very uneasily, grabbing Haley by his wet wrists and practically dragging him out of the lobby.
"Oh, I just remembered!" Haley gasped as I kept running with him to the Pokéstar Studios exit, "We need you in Virbank! They've come back…!"
"Who they?" I asked, ceasing my run once we were in the gate. "...Wait, don't tell me. Is it-"
"Yep! Those Plasma dickheads have come back to wreak havoc! Augh, they make my blood boil so damn much! You're gonna help me and Roxie take them down, right?"
"I wouldn't dream of refusing," I hissed, "I drove 'em out of Unova once, so I'm gonna do it again! Lead the way, Haley!"
Haley took me all the way past the Virbank City Gym, where we saw the group of Plasma Grunts near Roxie. I glared as my vision went crimson again and Storm's Blade reacted with the electricity emanating from my body, but I calmed myself and made the energy go away.
"I'm not gonna flip, I'm not gonna flip…" I thought as Haley and I got closer to Roxie.
"About time! What took you so long to fetch Hynden, Haley?" Roxie asked. "And why's there blood on your face?"
"Long story, and I got a little distracted," Haley stated before snarling at Team Plasma. "As for you guys! I've got an entire skeleton to pick with you! You're gonna pay for what you did to Julia!"
"Hmm, and who's that?" the Plasma Grunt asked snidely.
"Don't play dumb! I may not have been living here for very long, but I've heard enough about you! You run around filching Pokémon like they're nothing, and then you try and justify it with your 'liberation' bullshit! People like that make me fucking sick!"
"Hmph, as if we're gonna let some teenaged brat and his friends talk us down like that! Plasma Grunts, attack!"
Each of the three Plasma members took all of us on. While Roxie called out Koffing to fight and Haley used Ace, I sent out Percy against the Grunt's Patrat.
"Patrat, use-" the Grunt tried to say.
"Perseus, Force Palm," I said, deadpan.
With only one harsh toss using a single hand, Percy threw Patrat across the street until it landed into the bay. It flopped around and paddled itself to shore, and all the Plasma Grunt could do was stare in disbelief.
"That wasn't much of a challenge if you ask me," Percy remarked before I recalled him.
"W-We lost!" the other two Grunt cried.
"Just try and catch us!" the Plasma Grunt I defeated taunted as he ran off with the other two.
"Get back here!" Haley shouted, voice full of pure rage. "They're not getting away from me!"
"Are you coming with us, Roxie?" I asked her.
"Nah, I gotta stay behind and practice for my concert tonight," she answered. "But, you two have my complete thanks! If you hadn't helped, my Pokémon would be gone forever! As a reward, this is yours."
Roxie handed me the Hidden Machine known as Cut, and a slip of paper with a random assortment of letters and numbers on it. While I thanked her for the HM and put it away, I was confused at the note.
"It's the code for my newest album, 'Fill Me With Your Poison'," Roxie told me. "I don't usually give these away for free, but you've earned it. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a Scolipede Bass that's waitin' for me ta play 'er."
When Roxie left for the Virbank City Gym, Haley and I made our way back to Route 20. Along the way, the fury never once left my childhood friend's face as we passed through the gates and into the sunny forest.
"Haley-" I started to say.
"I'm peachy!" he yelled, "We're gonna find Team Plasma, and kick their teeth in! Hynden, search nearby!"
I ran down the hill with Haley and kept searching until we reached the bridge. Our search was fruitless, which made my friend even more upset. But, we both noticed someone run past us.
"It's them!" Haley shouted.
"I'll take care of this," I told him, about to follow until Haley grabbed my wrist.
"Hynden, I wanna come with you. I've got some unfinished business with these stooges that you wouldn't get."
"Oh really? These bozos ruined my life when I first faced them. Leave this to me, Haley." When Haley wouldn't let go, I had to think of some way to get rid of him for now. "I think I saw another Plasma Grunt over there! They're gonna steal some kid's Pokémon!"
"Oh-ho, fuck that!" Haley growled, running off in the direction I pointed in after letting me go.
"It's not gonna take him long to figure out I tricked him," I said to myself, running as fast as I could, "so I'd better hurry!"
Beyond the trees, the female Plasma Grunt saw that I spotted her and called out her Purrloin in defense. I sent out Tidus to fight, but Purrloin attacked with Sand-Attack, causing Tidus to try and rub the sand from his brown eyes.
"Tidus, Vine Whip!" I commanded.
Once he could see a little better, Tidus grabbed Purrloin by its tail using his vines. He tossed it on the ground several times until he left it winded. Although Purrloin managed one more Sand-Attack, Tidus defeated it with a critical Tackle.
"I… gotta go!" the Plasma Grunt laughed sheepishly, taking her Purrloin and fleeing.
When I walked away from the trees after returning Tidus to his PokéBall, I saw Haley run up to me with a frustrated expression and trying to catch his breath. He saw the defeated Grunt and couldn't make an effort to stop her again.
"You tricked me!" he panted, "There was no other Grunt here at all!"
"Hey, I had to find some way to find the Grunt myself," I said.
"Ugh, typical of you. Listen, I just heard her say something about 'boats', so maybe they're escaping by boat! Come on, let's go to the Virbank Docks!"
Haley and I ran all the way back to Virbank City, past the Gym until we found the place we were looking for. Haley hastily made his way through the door and past Roxie and Pop Rox, who were conversing.
"Roxie, honey, I'm sorry," he apologized.
"Nah, I'm the sorry one, pop," Roxie said. "Shouldn't have shot down your dreams like that."
"No, don't apologize! I was the one who nearly endangered everyone! And for what? To get a big flop in the movies?! Gah, what was I thinking?!"
"If it makes it any better, I liked your Riolu-Man movie. It rocked hard in its own way! Besides, if you wanna improve, then just practice during your free time."
"...Okay, I will. But for now, these docks need their captain!"
Pop Rox pulled his daughter into a hug, but that's when Roxie heard me from behind her. She stopped hugging her dad to face me, clearing her throat once before talking.
"How much did ya see?" she asked me.
"All of it," I answered, smiling.
"Y-Yeah. Anyways, those Team Plasma dinks got away. There's a chance they're taking to the seas, so my pop's willing to let you and your friend Haley sail."
"Really? You'd do that for us, Pop Rox?"
"Of course! If it weren't for your advice, then I'd be giving up my hopes altogether! Also, you helped my daughter, so why not? Come on!"
When Roxie left at the same time her dad went inside the building, I put my goal to get the next badge on hold in favor of this new task. Without any hesitation, I went inside of the building to begin my trip to Castelia City.
Pokémon obtained: None.
Badges earned: 2/8
Boxed/Unboxed: None.
Author's Note: TBH, the "Mystery Door" movie can go fuck itself. Sabrina's stupid Swoobat kept using Attract on Vanillite even when I tried again, and I couldn't get a good ending! God, that was annoying! Anybutt, for those of you who are actually reading this, go ahead and leave a review, and stay tuned for Chapter 10 that's coming soon!
