Author's Note:
Marie's Blackmail Files updated
As always, thanks for all the reviews! They really make me happy ^^
Chapter 9: Treasure?
Equinox stood in the center of the clearing, arms crossed and looking around. Celsius copied the gesture, though it looked more cute than intimidating on the Kirlia.
Where is everyone? Equinox wondered.
Dunno, Celsius replied. We should try one of the buildings. Equinox nodded in agreement. They'd come from the boys' dorm, but no one was in the common room so they headed for the girls' dorm.
There were a few people in the common room and Equinox grinned. He hadn't had a chance to speak to many of the girls for very long, but he knew who they all were at this point. Shion was curled up in a chair in the corner with her Eevee, but Equinox decided not to bother her. He'd noticed that she was rather quiet and he didn't want to scare her.
The other two occupants of the room were more promising. Mayday was sitting at one of the tables reading something, probably one of the assigned books, and Ash was at another table clicking around on her laptop. Ash was also the only one who acknowledged Equinox's presence.
"Hi," she said.
"Hello," Equinox replied.
Hi! He heard Celsius exclaim to Ash. The girl blinked in surprise and stared at the psychic type.
"Uh, hi?" She repeated.
"Celsius likes to talk to people," Equinox explained. "What are you doing? Want to fight?"
"Fight?" Ash said. "Uh, not really. Why? Did I do something offensive?" She looked concerned so Equinox quickly reassured her.
"Not at all. I'm just bored and I haven't fought anyone since I got here."
"Well Pixie's asleep," Ash said. "Maybe another time?" Though it was clear from her voice she didn't want to.
"Fine," Equionx sighed. He looked at Mayday. "How about you?" He asked.
The girl flipped her page and continued reading. Hey! Celsius exclaimed.
Mayday glanced up. "What?" She asked.
"Want to fight?" Equinox asked.
She studied him. "Okay," she said finally, surprising Equinox.
"Really? Awesome!" Equinox and Celsius grinned at each other and ran outside. Mayday followed at a much more reasonable pace. The stood facing each other in the clearing and just as Equinox was about to ask where her partner was, the giant boulder started moving.
Oh yeah, she's a Rhyperior Pokésoul, Celsius remembered.
Equinox watched as the Pokémon stood and towered over Mayday and himself. That's a bit intimidating, he admitted.
We can take him! Celsius asserted.
I never said we couldn't, Equinox replied with a grin. Mayday and Gladius, her Rhyperior, were looking at each other in the way Equinox knew meant they were conversing. The moment ended and the Pokésoul partners turned to stare at him. He'd honestly been assuming that this would be an easy win, but the longer he observed Mayday the less sure of that he was. He didn't doubt himself of course, but the girl would probably put up more of a fight than he anticipated.
"She's gonna rock this fight," Hibi said, watching Equinox and Mayday start their battle.
"Going to smash him into the ground?" Darn asked.
"Maybe not if he psychs himself up!"
"More puns, really?" The dry voice came from Marie.
"Hi Marie," Darn said. She nodded at him.
"Where's Mariri?" Hibi asked.
"I don't know," Marie replied.
"It's okay to miss them," Darn said.
"I don't miss them!" Marie retorted.
"But you sounded sad," Hibi replied.
"Because I don't want to be in a group with those two weirdos!" Marie yelled.
"It's too late for that," Darn replied.
"He's right," Faye agreed, having shown up during their conversation. "You already have a group name."
"You could try to find someone else named Marie to replace you," Hibi suggested.
"Then it would become Quadruple M," Darn replied.
Marie made an unhappy sound and walked off. "I think we made her mad," Hibi mused.
They watched as the girl stomped off, nearly running over Cerise who dove out of the way in terror. Darn and Hibi exchanged a look, then went to help their terrified friend.
"You okay?" Hibi asked.
Cerise moved her hands away from her face to look up at him. She nodded. "Y-yes! I was just... Uh..."
"Taking a break?" Darn suggested.
"Studying the grass?" Hibi asked.
"Y-yeah! Those things," Cerise agreed, getting to her feet and brushing off her dress. "Um, what are they doing?" Cerise wondered, looking over at Equinox and Mayday who were still fighting.
"Sparring I think," Darn replied.
"That looks scary," Cerise mused.
"They've been at it for a while now," Hibi said. "I would have stopped a long time ago."
"Me too," Cerise agreed. "I don't like fighting." The three watched the fight for a while longer, then went to get some lunch.
That night
The school was asleep, it's guard was down. Now was the time to strike. The small figure swung silently down from his perch on the roof of the cafeteria, landing lightly on his feet. A large form followed, hovering behind him. The two exchanged a glance, then they snuck over to the building across the way. It was dark inside, and he carefully opened the door. It wasn't locked. They were much too trusting.
Do you think there will be anything of value here? The hovering creature wondered as the boy slipped inside. The larger being waited outside, keeping watch.
Rumor is this was a raider base before it was a school, the boy replied. This building was the vault. There must be something here.
He poked around the room, carefully examining the walls and the floors, knowing that they'd be the most likely places for treasure to be hiding. This would take a while.
Nami woke, her eyes flying open. A quick glance at her clock told her it was very early, much too early to be awake. She didn't usually wake up in the middle of the night, so she was immediately uneasy. There was no evidence of anything being wrong, but she got up anyway, trusting her instincts. Her unease drew Yuki's attention and the Frosslass woke as well.
Is something wrong? Yuki asked.
Maybe, Nami replied vaguely. She got out of bed and put a coat on over her pajamas. It was more for appearances than actual worry about the cold, with an ice type partner cold weather really wasn't an issue.
I'll check it out, Yuki said before Nami opened the door. The Frosslass floated through the door into the common room. There's someone here, Yuki reported.
Nami expression hardened and she marched over to the door. She wouldn't let anything happen to the kids here, they were under her protection. She quickly sent out a distress call to the others, a system they'd set up earlier in case of this very occurrence, then thew the door open.
It was dark, but Nami could just make out a small figure in the room. She hit the lights. The boy flinched at the sudden brightness, bringing an arm up to cover his eyes. He was wearing mostly grey, though there were some green accents here and there. His clothes were well fitted and well worn, no no frills or unnecessary pieces that could slow him down, other than the hood that was pulled up over his head. "Who are you?" Nami asked.
There was a loud crash and a Flygon burst through the door, putting itself between Nami and the boy. It was smaller than most Flygon, and there was a large tear on its wing that looked like an old wound. "Are you a Pokésoul?" Nami wondered.
The boy moved his arm away from his face, but the hood still shrouded his expression.
"We're here!" Wolf announced as he leapt through the hole the Flygon had caused. Silvia was front and center, glaring at the Flygon as if she were a much larger creature. A more imposing Pokémon showed up in the form of Zap.
"What's going on?" Pecha asked.
"Who's that?" Mira wondered.
Christopher wasn't present, but that actually wasn't laziness on his part this time, he was supposed to stay at the boys' dorm to make sure they were safe.
"I don't know," Nami replied.
"Who are you?" Wolf asked, using his best interrogation voice.
"...Tael," the boy said.
"Tail?" Pecha said confused.
"Tael," the boy repeated.
"Tale?" Mira wondered.
"Tael!" The boy corrected.
"Aren't you all just saying the same word?" Wolf asked.
"I think the problem is in the spelling," Nami replied.
"What are you doing here?" Wolf asked Tael.
"He looks like a thief," Ri commented.
"Yeah, he's got lock picks," Marie agreed.
"A thief huh," Mira mused. Then she jerked and looked at the stairs were several of the female students were watching the proceedings. "When did you get there?"
"Well, the whole bashing the door down thing was kind of loud," Faye pointed out.
"Oh, right," Pecha said. "And we'd just gotten this place finished too." She looked mournfully at the hole in the wall.
Wolf looked at the students, then back at Tael. "We'll finish this in my office," he decided.
"You don't have an office," Mira pointed out.
"I have a gym," Wolf replied.
"I don't remember saying that was yours," Pecha countered.
"It is now," Wolf said cheerfully.
He grabbed Tael, much to the Flygon's displeasure, but the two went without complaint. Mira and Pecha followed after them. Nami turned to the gathered girls.
"You can go back to bed now," she said.
"But I want to know what happens," Marie said.
"Me too!" Mari agreed. "Who was that? What was he doing? Why?"
"When we find out more we'll tell you," Nami assured. "Go back to bed."
The girls (Triple M, plus Ash, Faye and Katie) went back upstairs, but they didn't go to bed. They convened in Mari and Ash's room.
"I want to know what's going on," Faye said.
"Me too," Marie agreed.
"So how do we find out?" Katie wondered.
"We could try magic!" Mari suggested, surprising no one.
"No!" Marie protested.
"Keep it down," Ri chastised. "Nami'll be listening."
"Don't tell me what to do," Marie complained, but it was in a quieter tone of voice.
"If we don't use magic, how do we do it?" Faye wondered.
"Technology?" Marie suggested in a bit of a condescending tone.
"If there are any cameras in the gym I can hack into them," Ash said.
"Are there any?" Katie asked.
"I don't know," Ash admitted. "I haven't been in there yet."
"There are," Marie informed. "Two of them. One in the back corner and one in the front."
Everyone stared at her, and Faye finally vocalized their thoughts. "Why do you know that?" she asked.
"It was important information to have," Marie replied.
"Right..." Ash said. "Well, let me try to hack them." She went over to her desk and powered on her laptop. The others crowded around behind her.
Her fingers flew across the keys, and somehow she got into the school system. "Wow, you can hack like Kai," Marie said, impressed.
Ash laughed a bit bashfully. "I'm nowhere near as good as her," she said. "But hopefully I'll get there one day."
She pulled up the feed from the two gym cameras and everyone became quiet as she turned on the sound.
On the screen Wolf was staring down the boy who had finally removed his hood. Pecha was leaning by the door and Mira watched on, a pensive look on her face. It was clear now that the boy was extremely young. Before his hood had cloaked his features, but now his youth showed. He was younger than anyone else at the academy, probably eleven or twelve.
His hair was black and was tied into two tails,one swept to the back and one on the side. He was staring at Wolf, a terribly unconcerned expression on his face as Wolf's voice, which sounded tinny from the audio distortion, asked about him.
"Are you a Pokésoul?" Wolf asked, looking at the Flygon.
"He is," Mira replied after a moment. "The two of them are clearly joined."
"Want to introduce us?" Pecha asked.
"This is Arro," Tael said. It was pronounced like 'Are - oh', a rather odd name, Marie thought.
"And you're Tael," Wolf added. The boy just stared.
"You know Wolf's a Guardian Force officer," Pecha said. "We can easily send you to jail."
Tael looked unimpressed. "Why were you robbing us anyway?" Wolf asked.
"This used to be a raider base," Tael said. "There should be treasure here."
"Raider base?" Katie repeated, looking concerned.
"Treasure?" Mari said with a huge grin.
"This was a raider base?" Marie said disgustedly. "The more I find out about this place the more I hate it."
"But treasure!" Mari protested.
"Quiet," Faye hissed.
They'd missed some of the conversation, and somehow the conversation had gotten to this point: "Why don't you come to school here," Pecha was offering.
"Did she just...?" Faye said shocked.
"You could learn a lot here," Mira agreed.
"She did," Marie replied.
Tael and Arro looked at each other. "You're not going to arrest me?" he asked.
"No, you're just a kid," Wolf said.
"...I'll try it out," Tael said.
"Okay," Pecha said. "We have some paperwork to do then, that can wait until morning though."
"Where is he going to sleep?" Mira wondered.
"Um, we can figure that out later," for now he can sleep in here," Pecha said. "There's a room in the back there."
"But, this is my gym," Wolf protested, though it was clearly in jest.
"Sorry, we'll get you a different office," Pecha assured as she went to the back, presumably to set it up as a room.
"So, the kid steals from us and now he's going to attend classes?" Faye asked.
"Better than him being out on the streets isn't it?" Ri asked.
"Or jail," Katie added. "He's so young."
"Well... This should be interesting," Faye mused. The others nodded and looked at the screen with thoughtful looks on their faces.
Author's Note:
Sorry I didn't actually write out the fight, I was going to but I never got around to it...
Character Credit:
Taelian - mweep . inc