Chapter 13
Lake Verity
It had been roughly three weeks since Dawn and Saturn had stolen the final orb from the Vanderbilt estate using brute force. People got hurt in the incident; ending up in hospitals, severe injuries, and things of that nature. Dawn felt terrible considering Lucas just barely escaped harm, but knowing that she hospitalized many people ripped at her conscience. Nightmares plagued her sleep, depriving her of precious energy. She hadn't learned much from Team Galactic, but she continued on her mission...
Mars gritted her teeth in frustration. This boy was sure proving to be a very tough opponent.
Grabbing her video communicator, she shakily dialed a number she had hoped that she would never have to resort to. Saturn was busy, Jupiter already didn't answer her call, and Charon was useless as far as Mars was concerned, so that only left one final option.
"Rhea its Mars!" She shouted as a slight explosion went off behind her. One of the grunt's Drifloon had been knocked out resulting in an explosion from its Aftermath ability.
"Mars what's wrong?" Came the worried, digital sounding voice from Dawn.
"Get to Lake Verity fast! I need backup. Some pesky trainer is giving me a rough time!" she ordered, receiving a nod from Dawn before the screen went black.
Within thirteen minutes a large shadow of a large bat pokémon carrying a human appeared over the lake.
The Golbat that had been given to Dawn surprisingly evolved within a week of her owning him.
Saturn told her that in order to get a Crobat they needed to like their trainer and that he was amazed that Golbat had warmed up to her so quickly.
"Cro?" Crobat seemed to ask as Dawn used her free hand to move her loose hair away from her face. In her haste to leave to assist Mars she had no time to fix her hair to where it wouldn't go everywhere.
All the grunts were busy making sure that none of the local residents got into the lake, but when Dawn got a closer look, she noticed that Mars was busy battling someone: Lucas.
"C'mon Crobat, I need to land right behind him," Dawn ordered, with a determined look. Though, she was a little nervous at the prospect of having to battle Lucas.
Crobat flew her just to where she could drop safely behind the male then quickly flew to her side.
"Sorry it took me so long, Mars. Crobat had a little trouble getting over the mountains," Dawn said with a blank expression, making Lucas look back at her.
It was easy to see that he was having a hard time battling Mars, but from the looks of it, Lucas was winning for the most part with Magmortar looking a little weak, but not as weak as Mars's Bronzong.
"No problem. You're just in time to watch me take down this little punk! Bronzong, use Payback!" Mars said confidently.
The giant bell Pokemon's bluish body seemed to be encased in a black light before ramming into Magmortar, knocking him out completely.
Lucas winced as he recalled the spitfire pokémon.
Then, without anyone noticing beforehand, Mars walked up to Lucas and grabbed him by his collar, dragging him to her level. "Now, leave unless you would like me to rearrange your face!" She threatened, making Dawn furious.
"Mars, let him go," She threatened.
"Pardon me Rhea, what was that?" Mars asked in a mocking tone.
"Let. Him. Go," Dawn said putting emphasis on each word.
Mars paused for a second before giving Dawn a cat-like grin. "Oh ho-ho! Do I sense a past romance here?" She mocked, making Dawn and Lucas blush slightly. "Never mind this then. Bronzong, take care of him with Faint Attack!" Mars ordered, tossing Lucas aside a bit enough to where Bronzong could attack him.
In the blink of an eye Bronzong had hit Lucas hard enough to make him fall to the ground, wincing in pain.
"Lucas!" Dawn shouted in dismay. Then anger took over. How dare Mars hurt Lucas...she would pay. "You bitch," she mumbled, making Mars look back at her.
"What was that?" Mars asked, obviously frustrated.
"You heard me. You're nothing but a cold, low-hearted, old bitch! I can't believe you would even hurt him! I'll make you regret the day you joined Team Galactic!"
Mars only giggled. "And what are you going to do, dear?"
Dawn stood her ground and glared at the sassy commander. "Just leave before I make you!" She threatened.
But now their argument had attracted the attention of a few of the grunts, and even Aria who was assigned to this mission.
"Just take the damn lake pokémon and leave!" She continued as she walked behind Lucas and bent down on her knees, making sure that her dress didn't get too much dirt on it.
"And what if I don't?" Mars asked, still wearing a smirk.
"This won't help much but it'll be better in the long run," Dawn whispered before placing her hands over Lucas's ears. "It hurts when a pokémon move is used on a human, so let's see how you like Crobat's Uproar!" Dawn ordered, flickering her angry gaze over to the bat pokémon.
At first Crobat didn't seem to be making much noise, but soon, his soft noise became louder than an air horn.
The loud screech made everyone in the lake's vicinity stop in their tracks and almost break down in pain. The smirk was completely wiped off of Mars' face and replaced with a look of pain.
In only a few short seconds Mars had admitted defeat, but now held a deep hatred for the young commander. "Ugh, Master Cyrus will hear about this! Head back to headquarters, we have what we need!" Mars ordered, and in the next minute, the whole area became mostly clear of the galactic grunts.
Aria and a few other grunts had stayed behind to make sure that Dawn was alright. "Miss Rhea, we should probably leave now," Aria said cautiously once Dawn stood up along with Lucas.
"You know that I can't. Part of the rules state that commanders are not to leave until defeated or until they have defeated the opponent. Head back to headquarters, this'll only take a minute," she spoke lightly, shocking Lucas a bit.
He really didn't want to battle Dawn, especially after her little display of anger.
The grunts nodded before leaving, all except for one, who decided to wait on Dawn outside of the lake's entrance.
After she was sure that all of the grunts were gone, she turned back to Lucas. "I'm...so sorry," she mumbled.
Lucas smiled at her. "It doesn't matter. You kinda had no choice really. But where'd you get the Crobat from?" he asked, looking over at the purple bat that was giving him an angry look from the pine tree that he was now resting on.
"He's my transportation pokémon. I don't like using him as just that, though. As you saw, he does have good moves, but yeah...I probably have to get going, though. I'll get in trouble if I don't get back soon."
Lucas's smile turned into a bit of a smirk. "Well...we still haven't battled yet," he said, sounding almost hopeful. Really, he was just trying to buy time with her.
Dawn returned the half-smile, half-smirk. "I guess you're right. One-on-one should do," she replied, backing up a bit so they could battle.
Now, Dawn's dress wasn't equipped with any sort of space where she could hold her poké balls, so one of the grunts had devised a way for her to carry them. On the back of her Galactic pendant were six minimized-pokeball slots, and out of the four occupied spots, Dawn grabbed Stunky's poké ball.
After clicking the center to maximize it size, the little purple skunk was released and ready for battle.
"Hmm...still a Stunky eh? Hope nothing will change between them because of this but let's go, Camerupt!" Lucas called, releasing the giant fire camel pokémon.
Instead of a single volcano on his back, he now had two actual volcano's on his back; three blue fur circles stood out against his shaggy orange fur; and now instead of his drowsy look, he looked fierce and ready for battle.
"Stunk...e?" Stunky called, cocking her head to the side in confusion.
"Camerupt," the eruption pokémon mumbled.
"Okay Stunky, let's start off with Night Slash!" Dawn ordered with newfound confidence.
Stunky's claws began to glow purple as she ran at Camerupt, only to stop before hitting him. Now that she was close enough to him, she could really catch his scent. "Skyuu!" She hissed with joy, realizing that it was her Numel after all.
Camerupt gave a grunt that sounded like a laugh before shaking his head a bit. Stunky then began to feel a bit nervous since Numel was now Camerupt and was now three times the size of her.
A funny feeling began to stir inside of her, making her feel a bit woozy.
"Come on Stunky! Night Slash!" Dawn ordered, but before Stunky could even blink, a bright light surrounded her, signaling evolution.
Stunky grew roughly to the height of three feet, her tail now curled above her body and flared over the top of her head like a wig; white fur tipped her tail and covered all four of her legs. "Skuntank!" She hissed in a proud manner.
"Camer," Camerupt mumbled in an interested tone.
Dawn just stood there in amazement. Little Stunky was now a powerful Skuntank. All that training with Saturn finally paid off.
"That was interesting," Lucas commented as Camerupt began to sniff at Skuntank.
"Skun!" She hissed in a sassy manner, turning away from Camerupt. He stood there shocked. What had he done to ruffle her fur?
Skuntank then chuckled as she turned around, batted his nose, then rubbed her side to his, making them both blush. "I guess I can just say that we battled," Dawn said, smiling at her pokémon.
"Fair enough, but okay another question for you: what's with the dress?" He asked, looking Dawn up and down, making her blush a bit.
"Commander clothes. I don't understand why the dress had to be so long though. Flying just doesn't feel right and escapes aren't all that easy," she commented, the latter statement worrying Lucas a bit. How much thievery had she resorted to in the last few weeks?
He sighed, "are you sure you still want to do this?"
Dawn looked up at him, her blue eyes filled with sorrow. "I wish I didn't have to, but something tells me that I'm the only one who can stop them..."
"Well...can you at least stay a little longer? I haven't seen you in quite some time," he asked nervously.
"Sure."
The two sat on the lakes dock, with Camerupt and Skuntank sitting on the grass away from the dock since Camerupt was afraid of falling into the water.
Crobat was sitting on the single lamp looking down upon his master and the boy that angered him. Crobat was happy however to see Dawn this comfortable around another human since she was usually on edge around everyone else in Team Galactic, except for Saturn, who finally seemed to warm up to her a bit. But even then, she was still a little nervous around him.
Another thing Crobat never figured out was the effect that Dawn was under. He could still tell that some odd pokémon move was affecting her, but he couldn't tell which it was.
"So, what else is going on?" Dawn asked, leaning on Lucas's shoulder.
"Not much really," he said, putting his arm around Dawn. "Selene sent Damion and Barry to lake Acuity to guard Uxie." When he explained that urgency shot through Dawn like electricity.
"Oh no! I have to leave now! That's my next mission! Me and Saturn have to go get Uxie!" Dawn said as she began to stand up.
Lucas gave her a slightly worried stare as he stood up. "Okay, I don't want to sound like a completely jealous idiot, but I've noticed that you do a lot of work with that Saturn guy. You aren't getting involved with him are you...?" he cautiously asked.
Dawn gave him a confused look. "Of course not! Why would I completely destroy whatever it is we are?" she asked in a defensive tone. Why would he think that? Sure, all of her missions were with Saturn, and she was his apprentice, but that didn't mean anything!
"I-I'm sorry, I was just asking..." Lucas mumbled, a bit embarrassed.
"It's fine, don't worry about it. I do tend to hang around him a lot, but it's only because he's my mentor. Now I really need to go! I'm sorry..." she hurriedly explained, ending on a sad note.
Lucas smiled at her, pulled her close to him and lightly kissed her forehead.
Just before Dawn could take two steps away from him, her shoe got caught in the gap between the dock boards, making her fall, and dragging Lucas down on top of her.
"Oh yeah, put me in heels because I'm perfectly coordinated when it comes to walking in them..." Dawn grumbled, before realizing the situation they were in.
Lucas smirked a bit. "This is convenient."
At first Dawn was blushing considerably, but then a cheeky idea came to mind. "Oh, you have no idea." Dawn said, grinning as she raised her hands and moved them down to Lucas's pants.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Lucas said, wide-eyed and blushing madly.
Dawn giggled at his reaction. "I love teasing you, you just make it too easy."
"I think you'd react the same way," Lucas replied, his blush toning down.
"I doubt it," Dawn said in almost a challenging voice.
"Oh, is that a bet?" he asked in a mischievous tone.
"I'll leave that up for you to decide," she said with a playful wink.
Lucas laughed a bit before leaning down to kiss Dawn, and after a few seconds Lucas began to deepen the kiss, much to Dawn's liking. She tried not to give any verbal reactions knowing that Lucas was trying to get her to just that, but after she wrapped her arms around his neck, she lost their little bet.
Dawn stifled a few light moans, and when Lucas finally pulled away, they both seemed out of breath.
"So," Lucas began, moving down to kiss her neck. "What was that about no reaction?" he asked.
Dawn shivered a bit as he continued to kiss her neck. "Guess I was wrong..."
After a little longer of their goofing off, Dawn finally returned to the Galactic Headquarters but found that the atmosphere somehow seemed different.
When she walked in the building, she noticed that none of the usual grunts were hanging around.
"Commander Rhea?" The receptionist Marie called.
"Yes?" Dawn answered.
"Commander Saturn has requested that you go to your assigned room because he needs to speak with you shortly," she said in an unsure tone.
Dawn blinked in confusion but complied and quietly made her way up to her room. When she got there, she walked in and sat at her desk.
After turning on the small lamp he began to read over a few papers that had been given to her about her upcoming mission with Saturn.
When she heard a knock at her door she stood up, but before she could answer it two male grunts barged in with Saturn right behind them.
The grunts then grabbed both of Dawn's arms and put them behind her back as if she were about to be handcuffed.
"Saturn, what's going on?" Dawn asked, trying to break free from the grunts grip.
"I could ask the same for you, missy," he said in a hateful tone. "According to one of the grunts that stayed behind after the Lake Verity mission, you were seen fraternizing with the enemy. You know that is strictly forbidden, and we now have reason to believe that you are leaking information to unworthy sources. I'll ask you this only once: who are you giving information to?"
Dawn looked at him as if he were crazy. "What? That's ridiculous! I wouldn't do that!"
Saturn gave a loud 'ha' after she said that. "You two may leave, I'll deal with this myself," he said, looking at the two grunts.
Once released, Dawn began to rub her arms a bit since the grunt's grip had been very tight, but then took a step back when she realized that Saturn was getting closer towards her.
"Who have you been giving information to?" he restated, backing up Dawn to the wall.
"No one!"
His glare only intensified. "You're not a very good liar, you know that? Now tell me who it is, because if I have to find out myself, it will be worse for you!" He yelled, slamming his fist into the wall just above Dawn's head.
Dawn began to tremble a bit. She had seen him angry, but never like this. His anger also began to resurface old memories...
"H-his name is Lucas," she admitted.
A devious smirk made it's way across his face. "Good. But now tell me, what else have you been lying to me about?"
"I couldn't stop it, but I got placed under the effect of Destiny Bond from a Gardevoir so I could be monitored."
Saturn's expression softened as he stepped away. "I'm giving you two options. I can severely punish you for not telling me about all of this and for fraternizing with the enemy, or you can prove yourself loyal to Team Galactic by helping me bring in your friend for questioning. Now, which will you pick?"
She remained silent.
"I warn you the punishment will be severe. You could possibly end up hospitalized, but then again, who said anything about taking you to the hospital if you get injured?"
"...I don't want to hurt Lucas..."