"Hey! I can see the Weather Institute! We're almost there!"
Olivia closed her map and began to cartwheel down the large hill, stopping half way down to hold her head in her hands as the scenery began to spin in the opposite direction. A giggling green blur rolled past her sitting figure quickly followed by Zaku as he dashed down after his sister laughing along with her.
Olivia turned to wave down Alexza, only to see the other twelve year old placing her bag down carefully on the grassy hill and turning her back on her friends.
Olivia frowned for a few seconds before sneaking up the hill towards her blonde friend. As she was an arms length away Alexza threw her arms back around like a windmill, once, twice, before the rest of her body followed and she back flipped once down a quarter of the hill.
She nearly landed before the wind started up again and she slipped, falling onto her side from her landing crouch. She didn't move for a few minutes and Olivia worried for a moment that her serious friend had hurt herself until she saw the odd blond bang lift clear of her friends face as she huffed out her frustration.
Olivia stared for a good ten seconds before putting her bag down next to Alexza's and threw her arms back over her head and neatly back flipped, her landing finding the same problem Alexza's had. Olivia swayed for a few seconds before the wind blew her over and she collapsed next to the other girl in a fit of giggles.
"I didn't know you did gymnastics! Why didn't you say anything? You've seen me jump-kicking off of tree's all day!"
There was a pause, and it took Olivia a few moments to realize that she hadn't been laughing alone as Alexza seemed to be catching her breath with a shocked look on her face.
Alexza half smiled at the girl next to her on the hill before looking up at the clouds again and shrugging.
"Not much of a talker."
Was all she said before turning herself around to walk up the hill and collected the abandoned back-packs.
Olivia, still laying upside down on the hill, watched Alexza's retreating figure with a small frown. Every time the blond started to relax she seemed to snap out of it and whip herself back into a stoic mood just as quickly. Olivia sighed again before rolling backwards to her feet and chasing after her friends. The gifted pokeball, still buried deep in her pocket, remained unopened.
"Do you people just attract storms or something?" Olivia speculated as they ran into the dark Weather Institute as the sky opened up on them.
The clouds had just suddenly appeared as they reached the bottom of the large hill, blotting out the warm sun that had been preserving their smiles throughout the day. They made it to the Institute without a problem, finding shelter under the large overhang outside of the doors.
"Why is it so dark? They shouldn't even be close to closing at this hour…" Alexza muttered as she ran her hand over the visiting sign.
The siblings exchanged glances and reached into their bags to pull out two pokeballs each. At Olivia's odd look Zaku simply shrugged and stated;
"Better safe then sorry!"
Oliva blinked twice before shaking her head once again and shoved both her hands deep into her outermost pockets of her favorite camo pants. For once content to watch Alexza and Static hack into the electric door's control panel.
"Sometimes I wonder what I've gotten myself into…"
"We all do!"
"Cookies baked in the devil's kitchen! When the heck did you get behind me?"
The petite girl stared at Olivia for a few seconds before giggling to herself wildly,
"You –heehee- have, -tee!- some really funny sayings Olivia!"
Olivia simply held her head in her hands for a few moments in response.
"You're going to tell us where it is, how to get there, and why it's there. And then you're going to shut down this building and forget everything you know. Is that clear Professor?"
A slim woman, in a bright crimson uniform, ordered, her grey, thigh slit, skirt twitched, caught in the air conditioned breeze made as a door opened.
Two men walked through the door, each flanked by a poochyena..
"Ah, Umar. Orin. You're late."
The two men exchanged frightful glances as the woman's carnelian eyes settled on them, judging them without care.
"S-sorry ma'am. You –You see there was this incident…"
"Yeah, yeah an incident! Umar and I, we had to uh…"
The two were cut off by the woman's harsh laugh.
"Forgotten your own name have you Umar? Tch, how... unconvincing. These are the people Archie sends to face the great team Magma? Pathetic."
The woman draws a pokeball from her belt and releases the beast before either Team Aqua member could react.
"Mightyena, darling, end them and then use Odor Sleuth to sniff out the rest of these pitiful warf rats."
The screams echoed down the stairs to the rest of the captive lab assistants, effectively scaring them out of their wits as the few left alive typed frantically to recover the demanded information.
"Hmm, I think I finally got it."
Olivia rolled over to look up at Alexza with great exasperation,
"Finally, is right! Jeeze we've been out here for nearly half an hour!"
"…It's only been eighteen minutes."
"Whatever!"
Alexza sighed and stretched her limbs, sore after crouching next to and under the control panel for so long.
"I think I shut the alarm off, but I'm not sure. We should be ready anyways though."
Zaku fidgeted for a moment before turning to look at the older blond.
"Alexza… You don't think it could be- ya know, those people from Petalburg do you?"
Olivia saw the shudder travel down her friend's spine, and felt a cold ache settle in her stomach.
"Yes Zaku, I think it is those people from Petalburg."
"Hey, boss, those kids there… do think they'll be of use to us?"
The woman turned from her place crouched in the shadows to look at the stolen monitor screen, a smile spreading across her face as she recognized two of the five figures slipping in through the door, ignorant of the blue camera on the ceiling.
"Well, well, well. Looks like I'm going to get another chance boys." And with that the woman took off, her heels leaving only faint 'clicking' sounds behind her.
"Are you guys sure about this? I mean, I'm all for disregarding the rules and stuff – but really? Isn't this taking it too far?"
"Don't be such a pussyfoot Zaku!"
"I'm not! I mean, you're a field aide aren't you? You could loose your apprenticeship for this you know!"
He heard a scoff come from one of the two silhouetted figures in front of him. While the electronic doors had worked after some tinkering and good shock, it looked as though most of the building was shut down. In fact both he and his sister thought that the power was off completely – only to be corrected by both Alexza and Olivia simultaneously.
He chuckled silently to himself, 'Yeah, that had been weird.' Zaku was ripped from his musings as he stumbled into the back of one of the older girls and felt Zinita collide with his own back.
"What's going on?" he hissed.
"Shhh! Can't you hear that?"
He blinked as the twelve year olds spoke, once again, in tandem.
"Hear what?"
His question was answered a few seconds later as a light flashed on all of them and a tall teenager stood in front of them.
Alexza raised a hand to her eyes and peered out at the stranger.
"Shelly?"
Olivia looked over at the woman that only Alexza apparently knew.
She stood tall wearing little more than a small tube top, a cropped sleeveless jacket, jeans and heeled boots. On her head was a blue bandana with a strange rendition of a skull and cross bones on the front. Her hair and eyes were the same shade of bright red that contrasted greatly with her clothing ensemble.
"Alexza, how do you know this person?"
The woman, 'Shelly' she reminded herself, laughed quietly as two men crept down and fell in line on opposite sides of her. Olivia's eyes widened as she recognized the men's uniforms.
'Cookies, these are Team Aqua members!'
She cast a startled glance to her blond friend,
'How the heck is she wrapped up in all of this?'
"Oh, we met quiet sometime ago. How have you been doing Alexza? I haven't seen you since that day in the forest."
Olivia noticed Alexza tense unconsciously at the mention of the forest.
"It has been awhile Shelly. But I think the real question is; what are you doing here? This isn't your doing is it?"
Shelly paused a moment, laughing to herself and thanking Arceus for her good luck. If they hadn't been delayed that it would have been her doing. But it wasn't, and so she had another chance.
"No, it's not. But I think we both know who it is. Would you be willing to help us out, Alexza?"
She offered the young girl a glove covered hand and wasn't surprised as it was batted away.
"You know that I won't consent to that."
A smile worked her way over her face,
'No, you wouldn't be that easy would you?' she thought as she let loose a more real laugh this time.
"I know, but you can't blame me for trying can you?"
The purple headed girl standing next to Alexza glared and snarled out
"Actually, we can."
"Actually, we can." Olivia snarled as she suddenly saw what Alexza had seen in that offered hand. These people were looking to recruit.
The woman sneered in Olivia's direction before placing a hand on her hip and releasing a large mightyena.
"Mightyena, love, go look for that fire-headed twit and take out her Mightyena while you're up there."
Alexza shifted noiselessly and Static let loose a rumbling growl at the word 'Fire-head'.
"One of them is here?"
Olivia took a sudden step back, covering Zinita and Zaku both in that movement, taking in Alexza's shaded face with wide eyes. Her friend was hunched over so that her hair cast her entire face into shadow instead of just the left side.
"Alexza…"
Zaku pushed past an arm Olivia hadn't realized she had raised and reached up to put a hand on the girl's shoulder.
"What's going on?"
There was along pause, and Olivia could see the smugness flashing in the woman's eyes triumphantly. As she and her enterauge strutted down the hall to 'give them a moment of privacy' while they 'worked out their problems'.
Alexza turned to face Olivia, taking in the other girl's protective posture.
'She's doing what I should have done, should be doing.'
Alexza let her eyes close for only a moment before facing her friend once again.
"Get them out of here."
She knew her voice was broken, she knew sounded pathetic, even to her own ears. Again she looked at Olivia, saw her forming a retort, and pressed further.
"Please. Olivia, please, take them out of here. Get them to the next rest stop."
The pink eyed girl stared at her in shock, was her uptight friend actually, dare she consider it, begging her? She licked her lips, mouth dry with the suddenness of the confrontation.
"What about you?"
She managed at last, knowing she had sealed their fates with that admittance. Though, she thought, it was worth it to see all that tension drop off of her.
The girls lips twitched suddenly, 'she's trying to smile…', and their eyes met. Green clashing with pink.
"I'll meet you there in less than two hours."
Olivia stared, gaze hovering menacingly over the three Aqua members before nodding to Alexza as she picked up Zinita and motioned for Zaku.
"Now wait a minute! Why do you guys get to decide for us? Who says we're not coming!"
And the mood almost shattered as both the girls stifled a groan at the Zaku's obstinate behavior.
"C'mon Zaku, Alexza's going to go get her self in a whole truck load of trouble and you want nothing to do with that."
Zaku wretched his hand free from Olivia's grasp,
"What do you mean? What the heck is going on arou-"
"Go. Or I'll tell your mother. Everything."
Zaku gaped openly at the threat, knowing exactly what the older trainer meant.
"You wouldn't…"
Alexza shot the boy a one eyed glare that shamed most pirates Olivia had seen, TV or otherwise.
"I'm not playing around here Zaku, you need to leave. Remember how it was with the desert? Same thing applies here. I'm not going to risk you. Not here, not now, not yet."
Alexza placed a kiss to the boy's forehead before turning and doing the same to Zinita a moment later. She rose up again and looked Olivia in the eyes.
'Take care of them'
Olivia just nodded and ushered the younger trainers out in front of her, looking back only once to see Alexza turn the corner out of sight.
"Sometimes I wonder what I've gotten myself into…"
"So…" Shelly drawled as she and the short blond crept around yet another corner and stomped the pathetic pokemon 'guarding' it.
"Why did you stick with those kids?"
The glare she got in return was enough to make a few hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.
"oooh, touchy! Alright then Alexza you can have your brats… but you know that they don't play fair. They will be pulled into this eventually."
The child seemed to deflate in front of her eyes and Shelly could almost taste the rich wine of victory – before the girl squared her shoulders and pulled her hair back into a spiky bun, pulling her left bang back behind her left ear and clipping it there with a flexible lock-pick.
"Shut up, Shelly."
Was the muttered reply and the woman laughed at the girl's audicy and guts as they passed the cowering lab assistants on the second floor.
Shelly rolled her eyes at them, really people could be such mareep. She turned to look at Alexza and the two male grunts who had flanked them through the institute. She nodded and signed for them to take their place guarding the door as they walked though to the back of the second level, the electronic door opening with a loud HISS.
A slim woman stood there, towering over a fallen professor, the bodies of two grunts staining the ground red as their lifeblood seeped out onto the once pristine tile floor.
She let out a chuckle before turning to face them, her short red-brown hair shifting even under the devil-horned poncho.
"Shelly! What a surprise…" She drolled a deadpan expression plastered on her face before her carnelian eyes settled on Alexza's figure and widened in shock moments later.
Emerald eyes glared defiantly up at her, and she couldn't help but see a shadow of another stubborn stare in this one.
"So, you've shown up at last."
AN: Well, there you guys go! To make up for my bad writing and the last two chapters this one is 8 pages long... hopefully that'll become the standard length this summer! Hmm, nope not going to tell you anything here. If you recognize any characters please feel free to submit a guess as well as any villian profiles you would like to see here! Please refer to ch.11 for the entry form. Thank you for reading and (maybe?) reviewing! -Claire