The Marine Cave Mystery
Kate's POV
I woke up to Elaine's alarm clock blasting the chorus of, "This is War". I flopped out of bed and into the shower to get ready. I left the room about 20 minutes later to discover that I was actually the only one up, besides Elaine. I found her tinkering with her electric drill, "Morning, Elaine."
"Morning, Rider." She didn't even look up from her drill.
I went into the kitchen to get breakfast and some coffee-cocoa. I made a fresh pot, a common courtesy if you're the first one up, and saw a sign that said, Luana can't touch this or any other kitchen appliance without proper supervision. I chuckled slightly as I poured the coffee into my cup which had the hot chocolate mixture.
"Rider, where are you?" I heard Barlow's voice.
"I'm in the kitchen drinking coffee, sir." I saw him walk in the door.
"Ahh okay, just making sure you're awake." I saw him walk over to make a new pot.
"Wait, sir, I already made a new pot just 5 minutes ago." He looked over and smiled.
"Thanks, Rider." He sat down across from me.
"So tell me about your family, I know I met them yesterday, but I want to know more about them." I set down my coffee cup.
"Well, the little girl you saw was my 4 year-old sister Jamie. The older man was obviously my father; he and Uncle Spenser inspired me to become a Ranger. My mom just isn't in the picture, but that's okay, Elita was kind of my motherly/aunty figure." I resumed drinking my coffee mixture.
"Ahh, so what are your hobbies?" I set my cup down again.
"Well, I ride Rapidash professionally, but I can ride just about any other type of Pokémon there is. I can sew decently, and I can fix almost any problem the base may have." I rattled off my few talents before Crawford joined us.
"Mornin' Chief, Rider," He sat next to me, "What's on the agenda today, Chief?"
Barlow looked at him, "I want you and Rider to deliver the newspaper, show her around town and introduce her to people. Make her feel welcome and that this is her home."
Crawford then proceeded to pick me up fireman-style and carry me out of the base.
"Warning, people here may have a small-town mentality and won't take too kindly to a new Ranger, let alone a deaf one."
I looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "Bring it on, I had to deal with Kincaid for 5 months."
We stopped by Chicole Village where I saw the house my dad almost bought. Although the family living there were so nice and sweet to us, they were a newly-wed couple with a 2 year-old daughter that reminded me of Jamie. After that, we went back to Vientown and delivered the rest except for 1. We stopped by Mr. Woodward's house, but he was out.
"He's probably at Nabiki Beach on one of his walks, let's go out there." I followed Crawford out of the woodcarver's house.
When we got to Nabiki Beach, a small Pachirisu came up to me and stared circling around me. I couldn't help but giggle and laugh at her actions, then I heard Mr. Woodward chuckle.
"My, my you must be that Ranger lass who came 2 weeks ago." I nodded as Crawford gave him his newspaper.
"Yes sir, I guess she missed me." Mr. Woodward smiled at me.
"Y'know, Rider, since you're a certified Ranger, you can now have a Partner Pokémon."
I looked over at the little gal, "Say, want to be my Partner Pokémon." The little thing jumped up and down.
I thanked Mr. Woodward profusely while Crawford explained how a Partner Pokémon works. I sprinted back to the base, eager to tell the rest about my new achievement.
When I finished telling them about Pachi (the Pachirisu), Luana looked over at Barlow and said, "Chief, she's definitely a keeper."
Barlow rumbles with laughter, "Yes she is, Lulu."
I spent the next hour figuring out what tricks Pachi could do until Barlow called me and Crawford over.
"Afro and Rider, come here." We showed up in front of him in 2 seconds flat. "There have been some complaints about a strange noise in Marine Cave on Nabiki Beach, go check it out."
Crawford whooped, "Man, I've been itching for a mission like this for a while. We'll be right back, Chief."
We ran outside and didn't stop until, "Watch out for that-"I slipped and fell on my back, "Shellos slime."
He helped me up and we jogged to the entrance of Marine Cave. When we got inside, my hearing aid went on the fritz like it did during internships. I waved my hand to get Crawford's attention.
He looked over to see me struggling with my hearing aid, "What's wrong?"
I looked back at him after I turned it off, "My hearing aid was bugging me like it did at internships. I think it might have to do with the noise people are complaining about."
Right after that, 2 Zubats swarmed me and I executed a damn near perfect capture; but after the capture, they just flew away like nothing happened.
I looked to Crawford for and explanation, "Do you know what happened?"
He looked puzzled, "No, but captured them right, I saw the whole thing. C'mon, let's go see what's going on."
We came into some crudely built fences that we just kicked down, and then we saw a red machine that Crawford signed that it was the source of the noise. I saw a spare pipe lying beside it and swung at it like a baseball bat, it made a medium-sized hole that I could see into. I saw a bunch of wires and then something black towards the center. I could tell that it would take a pretty strong water-type to break this machine. Crawford went to go capture a Gastrodon, showing me my record with Shellos slime and a Gastrodon is 10x worse slime-wise and he didn't want me to get injured on my first mission.
I stayed with the machine and saw a note attached at the top, Gi-mo #45- The rest was too watered out to read. Soon after, Crawford came back with the Gastrodon, the Pokémon fired at Water Pulse and soon the machine's top exploded off. Crawford and I tried to pick it up, but it was too heavy for the both of us.
"Don't worry, I'll call Almia's strongest person. Someone who can beat Chief in an arm-wrestling contest in 3 seconds flat," Crawford smiled mischievously which slightly worried me.
He told me to go back to the base, of which I gladly obliged. On the way to the base I ran into Big Bertha, Little Tim's wife. She said something about Crawford calling and a date, I prayed I read her lips wrong. When I got back to the base, I explained everything to Elaine through sign while she interpreted for Barlow.
About 15 minutes later, Bertha came in and dropped the mystery machine in the center of the base floor. After some interviews about what happened in the cave, Barlow promoted me to Ranger Rank 1. The operator did some updates on my styler and then Barlow gave me permission to either rest or explore the town more. I decided to rest a bit and retired to me and Elita's shared room.
Just when I was about to fall asleep, I got a face time request from Keith on my laptop. I opened and decided to answer.
"Hey, fuzz ball; what's up?" Keith looked slightly offended at his new nickname.
"Fuzz Ball? Where did that come from?" I laughed out loud.
"Well, right now your hair looks like Crawford's afro. And you still didn't answer my question."
"Ugh, fine. Nothing really, just got my new Partner Pokémon yesterday" He lowered the camera so I could see a Buizel on Keith's lap, "Meet Zeal, he's my Partner Pokémon. Be jealous, Alley Cat."
I raised my eyebrow, "Well, Fuzz ball, it just so happens that I have a Partner Pokémon too." I help up Pachi to the camera, "Meet Pachi, she's my absolutely adorable Partner Pokémon."
Keith just scoffed, "Whatever. So what's new in Vientown?"
I sighed, "Same old, same old. Although, Crawford and I found this machine that hypnotizes Pokémon and makes them impossible to capture, it's kind of creepy."
Worry crossed over Keith's face, "That is weird, did you destroy the machine?"
"Yeah, but not completely, I mean it won't hypnotize anymore Pokémon, but it's not blasted to smithereens. I think Barlow wants Prof. Hastings to analyze it."
"Wait, what do you mean by 'I think' were you listening?"
I pulled out my hearing aid, "The machine made my hearing aid go on the fritz, so I couldn't hear the conversation about the machine very well." I put my hearing aid back in.
Keith looked more concerned now, "Does your hearing aid work now?"
I smiled, "Yes dummy, otherwise I wouldn't be in this conversation."
Keith laughed, "True, true. But even so, are you sure you're going to be okay?"
"Yes, mother; I'm sure I'll be okay." Then I yawned.
"Tired, Alley Cat?" I nodded my head
"Yeah, a little bit, I'm going to take a nap and I'll face time you later."
"Alright, sleep well, Alley Cat."
"Bye, Fuzz Ball," then I closed my eyes and journeyed to Dream Land.
A.N. So what did y'all think? I tried to type throughout the week, but the evil monster called homework kept me from writing to my beautiful reviewers! I'll try to make the next chapter a little longer, but I can't make any promises. Oh and before I forget, I saw Frozen last week (Insert squealing and fangirling) so I may throw some references into the story, but I'll make sure to not throw in spoilers. Now it's time for (dadadada) The DISCLAIMER! Crawford, take us out!
Crawford; scubagirl13 doesn't own Pokémon or the characters! :)
