After moving away from Sinnoh, I was more than certain I would never see my old friends again. Our falling out was awful, but it made it easy for me to accept the inevitable move from one region to another.
However, being here now, my forest green irises making contact with Reese's jade irises, I had come to realize that the past would never let me be. I didn't know how I felt at this very moment, staring into the eyes of my best friend. I didn't care that Jay and Lucas were looking at us with much confusion. All I wanted to know was why this always happened to me.
Why won't the past just stay where it belonged?
"Oh my god..." Reese mumbled, releasing an uneasy breath from her lips. "Em, I can't believe it's really you."
She took a step forward, and then another one, and another, and I soon found myself in a tight embrace. I was trying to process what was going on, so I couldn't return her embrace even if I wanted to. How could I after all the awful things I've said to her before disappearing?
Realizing I didn't move an inch, Reese pulled away from the embrace and held me at arm's length. A pang of guilt hit me when I saw that rare frown on her lips. It wasn't my intention to make her sad; I just didn't know how to react.
"Um... h-hey," I stuttered. Jeez, this was the first time we've met since I moved and that's all I had to say? Ugh, I wanted to slap myself.
"It's good to see you, Emilia," Lucas spoke up. Reese dropped her arms from my shoulders, which allowed me to turn and face him. That signature smile on his lips eased the tension I had.
"You look different," Reese inputted as she peered at me. Her eyes perked up when she figured it out. "Ah! You colored your hair and cut it. Not to mention you've acquired a different taste in fashion."
"Y-Yeah..." I laughed uncomfortably and looked away. When Jay came into view, I pulled him into our small circle to become a distraction from the past. "Guys, this is my friend, Jay."
The blond simply smiled and waved as a greeting. Lucas shook his hand, which he always did whenever we met someone new, and Reese waved back. Both seemed interested in my Kalonesian friend instead of my sudden change from the girl they once knew.
"Jay, these are my friends from Sinnoh, Reese and Lucas," I introduced to him.
"So, where are you guys headed?" Jay asked them.
"We were on our way to Lumiose City to see Professor Sycamore, but..." Lucas trailed off and looked down at the road where they had came from.
"Some assholes wouldn't let us pass." Reese rolled her eyes in an annoyed manner.
"Why's that?" I questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"I guess the Kalos Power Plant is up ahead and it's been having problems. The officers guarding that area said that it's been causing blackouts in Lumiose City," Lucas informed us.
"And to make things worse, they're not letting anyone go on any further," Reese huffed. "Honestly, this is fucking dumb."
I suppose that explained why construction workers in Lumiose City stopped me at certain areas when I first arrived there. It was strange that they weren't allowing anyone passage in most places because of the blackouts. The fact that it hadn't been resolved after so long was certainly suspicious to me. It couldn't have been an accident at the Power Plant. No, I had the feeling that there's something else going on and I needed to know what.
Grabbing Jay's wrist, I pulled him with me further down the route. Reese and Lucas followed me as well. Whatever happened, it had to be dealt with one way or another.
"W-What are you doing, Emilia?" Lucas questioned nervously.
"Something's off about this, Lucas," I confessed with a stern expression. "I'm going to get to the bottom of this."
"Oh jeez, you're starting to sound like Reese," he complained.
"Hey!" The auburn-haired girl smacked his shoulder.
What the hell could be happening?
Reese and Lucas weren't joking when they said officers didn't let anyone pass. With much reluctance and a warning from the officer as a result of Reese's assault attempt, we decided to find another place to get through. Unfortunately, the other area was closed off with yellow caution tape and a warning sign that told people to not trespass. While the situation wasn't favorable, it was sheer luck that there was no one behind the yellow tape. If that's the case, then what was stopping us from going further? Some measly tape? No way.
I pulled the yellow tape up and crossed over to the other side. After crossing over, I held up the tape for the others to do the same. Reese was the only one who crossed; Lucas and Jay were very hesitant. Lucas's hesitation was understandable since he's always been a goody-two-shoes, but I was surprised that Jay wasn't comfortable doing this kind of thing.
"What the hell, you guys?!" Reese scolded the two boys. "C'mon already!"
"This is trespassing, Reese," Lucas argued with a pointed expression. "We can get arrested for doing this! What are we going to tell Professor Rowan when that happens, hm?!"
"Oh, c'mon!" I hissed. "Nobody's around to see us trespassing, so just get over here!"
"I agree with Lucas on this, Emilia," Jay complained. An annoyed sigh escaped my lips. "I'm not sure we should be doing this."
"This is fucking ridiculous!" Reese smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand before motioning to the empty plain desert. "We're already here anyway. If anything, the authorities would get in trouble for letting trespassers by."
Despite all words of assurance Reese and I threw at the boys, both were still hesitant to cross. I looked over at the auburn-haired girl with a pleading expression in hopes of figuring out a way to convince them. Out of the two of us, she usually knew what to do when we're stumped.
Her eyes perked up as if she suddenly got an idea of what to do. Reese leaned over to me and whispered her idea in my ear. My eyes widened as I gave her a bewildered look, but she simply smiled reassuringly at me. It wasn't the best idea in the world, certainly the strangest, but it could get at least Jay to cross.
Reese reached over to Jay and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt before roughly pulling him toward her. Their noses barely touched as a mischievous and flirty smile rose on her lips. Her eyes stared at Jay's blue eyes sensually. I looked over at Lucas to see his reaction and was not surprised to see him baffled.
"You look like the kind of guy who knows how to show a girl a good time." She licked her lips seductively, causing Jay to gulp. "If you come over and help us investigate, I'll let you show me a good time when we get to Lumiose City."
The wink she gave him at the end sealed the deal. Jay stood up straight, all signs of nervousness from before completely vanished away, and returned Reese's gesture with his signature flirty smile.
"It's a deal," he agreed.
Lucas and I blinked, dumbfounded as the blond crosses the tape and Reese suddenly latching herself onto his arm with a giggle. What the hell just happened?
Actually, it would be better if I didn't dwell on it. If it got Jay to do this, then it didn't matter.
Seeing as he was the only one left on the opposite side, Lucas groaned and reluctantly crossed. He was the kind of guy who didn't like being left out, so Reese saved us the trouble of convincing him by targeting Jay first. As I've said before, she knew what to do when the rest of us were stumped.
Now that we were all on the other side of the tape, we began to explore the area as trespassers. There was not a single person in sight the further in we went. In fact, it made it all the more difficult to find the entrance of the Kalos Power Plant.
A solution to this predicament was to split up and find the entrance. I originally proposed we split in pairs, but Reese suggested we all looked individually to cover more ground. The idea was unpleasant, but she had a point. Now here I was walking through the desert terrain while occasionally shielding my eyes from stray sand carried by the wind. I was thankful for my black fedora because the sun shined way too bright for my liking. My only concern was the tan that was inevitable after being under the sun for a certain about of time.
I felt my foot accidentally kick a hard rock, causing me to trip on my feet. When I regained my balance, I glanced down to see what I tripped on. It was some kind of reddish brown rock, but it was shaped abnormally. I knelt down and picked it up, dusting the excess sand off of it. My eyes peeled up when I recognized it as a Sun Stone. This could be useful down the road.
After putting away the Sun Stone in my bag, I stood back up and continued exploring. Up ahead, I spotted a metal door not too far from where I stood. Surprised, I jogged toward it right away. The shape and size of it, I assumed it was some kind of elevator that would lead to someplace underground. Perhaps this one that I found was one of many entrances.
"Oi, Em!"
I turned around and found Reese jogging toward me. Jay and Lucas emerged as well from different directions, eventually leading us all to meet at this spot. Reese held this urgent expression on her face that concerned me.
"What's up? Did you find anything?" I asked her.
"I think so." She nodded before turning around. "This way!"
Lucas, Jay, and I followed her at a fast pace, leading us to the opposite side of where we just were. By the time we arrived at where Reese led us, we were out of breath and sweaty because of the hot weather. Oh, how I wished I had a large jug of water with me right now.
Once I recovered from my loss of breath, I looked up and noticed a large metallic door in front of us. It was different from the one I found; it was attached to a rocky wall, which led me to believe it was the main entrance. I approached it and leaned forward to study it carefully. My eyes landed on a pad that had a card slot in place of a doorknob.
"We need a keycard to get in," I informed the group.
"That's going to be a bit of a problem," Jay commented.
"Where the fuck are we going to find a keycard in this desert?!" Reese complained with a groan.
"This is not ideal at all." Lucas shook his head in disappointment.
There's no way of getting in without a keycard. We could always have our Pokémon try to bust it down, but this door looked like it could withstand anything. Asking someone for help was out of the question. How were we going to explain what we were doing trespassing?
"What now?" Jay wondered.
Honestly, I didn't know what would happen next. It felt wrong to just give up and walk away from something this suspicious. Even if we left for Lumiose City right now, there's no way we could get into the closed-off areas of the city because of the blackouts.
Dammit, I guess there's not much of a choice.
"I guess we-"
"Those Team Flare people in those red suits..."
We all turned around at the sound of a new voice. I was startled that someone might have found us trespassing. Slowly, I looked over my shoulder only to see a scientist angrily walking around from where we were.
"Nobody who's worth anything hangs out with a group wearing garnish outfits like that!" He angrily shouted.
"What crawled up his ass and died?" Reese mumbled under her breath.
That's one way to put it.
"Emilia, what do we do?" Lucas whispered to me to not attract any attention to us.
"I guess we wait for him to leave."
We had done exactly that and waited for the angry scientist to continue his ranting somewhere else. He was rambling about Team Flare, leading me to believe they had something to do with the blackouts in Lumiose City. I was right thinking that something wasn't right. Thinking about it more, Team Flare was beginning to cause a lot of trouble lately.
I motioned for the group to follow me the further away the scientist went. He was too busy cursing Team Flare to notice us. The guy was practically pulling out what's left of his hair from sheer frustration. Perhaps it was better not to disturb him at the moment.
Even though we got away from him, we ended up in a worse situation.
I slowly came to a halt when I caught sight of a person in bright red garb. My eyes hardened when he noticed my friends and me in front of him. His lips turned up into a cocky smile, the air of arrogance radiating off of him.
"I'm the member of the stylish Team Flare and I'm gonna win in style!" the grunt declared as he showed us a PokéBall in his hand.
"Yeah, sure you are," I scoffed and took out a PokéBall that contained Frogadier. "You won't be saying that when I kick your ass!"
We then engaged in a battle. It shouldn't have been a surprise that his Houndoom didn't stand a chance against my Frogadier. All it took was one powerful Surf attack and it was all over. It was only a matter of time before he evolved.
The grunt returned his fainted Houndoom with a nervous expression. Frogadier was also returned to his PokéBall. The grunt squirmed under my harsh glare while the others began to surround him.
"A-And now, I'll stylishly run away!" He broke out into a run toward the opposite direction.
"Get back here you piece of shit!" Reese shouted.
We all ran after him, but he was unbelievably fast. He was a great distance away from us. However, I noticed he was paying his suit as if looking for something. We all heard him curse out loud before running for his life again. I slowed down, the others doing so as well when the grunt was completely out of sight.
"Dammit!" I spat in annoyance. "He's gone!"
"He also dropped something."
I turned around and found Jay picking up a plastic card from the ground. He stood up and inspected it, the rest of us surrounding him to look for ourselves. The "Kalos Power Pass" words were in bold red letters on one side.
My annoyance melted away as a sense of relief calmed me down. I guess there was one good thing that came out of the encounter with that wimpy Team Flare grunt. Before I could congratulate Jay, Reese tackled the poor blond into a tight hug.
"Oh, what a lifesaver! I could almost kiss you right now!" she gushed.
"I wouldn't be opposed to the idea, but at least let me take you out to dinner first." Jay laughed.
Oh no, what have I done?
I looked over at Lucas for his reaction, and I wasn't surprised to see that disturbed expression since it was similar to what I felt. As much as I wasn't comfortable with the idea, Jay and Reese seemed to get along pretty well.
"Okay, lovebirds," Lucas interrupted the two teenagers. "Let's get that door opened."
The group and I walked back to where we found the main entrance of the Power Plant. Luckily for us, the angry scientist was no longer in sight; there was no reading for us to continue being sneaky. I swiped the card in the keypad. A green light emerged along with a beeping noise that authorized the card. The door unlocked and opened on its own, allowing us to walk in.
We walked up the staircase that led to another room. Jay opened the door and exclaimed when he saw a Team Flare grunt standing there with his arms crossed over his chest. We all joined him and eyed the grunt cautiously. The door behind us closed and locked. I guess there's no turning back now.
"Knock knock. Who's there?" He sarcastically asked.
I narrowed my eyes into a glare. It was painfully obvious that this guy was stalling us from going further. Also, what the fuck was he trying to achieve with a stupid knock knock joke?
"Knock, knock. Who you?" He snickered in an obnoxious manner. "Knock, knock. You who? Knock knock knock-"
Reese walked up to the grunt and threw her fist at his face. The impact made a nasty crack echo in this large room, followed by the sound of his body falling on the floor. I looked up at the auburn-haired girl with an impressed expression, but Lucas was bewildered.
"Holy crap, Reese!" Lucas scolded. "Was that necessary?!"
"What?" Reese shrugged without a care in the world. "He was getting on my nerves."
"I wasn't opposed to the punch, but now we don't know what these idiots are planning," I explained to her in disappointment.
"Shit," she cursed before giving up an apologetic look. "Sorry guys."
"Let's split up and look around," Jay suggested. My eyes shot toward him.
"I'm not sure we should," I disagreed. "What if one of us gets-"
"We'll be fine," Reese assured me. I looked over to Lucas, who nodded in agreement. "We have Pokémon. Besides, I can always let my fists do the talking."
I hesitated, but I couldn't bring myself to argue with them. A sigh left my lips as I glanced at each of them.
"Fine, just..." I looked away from them. "Be careful, all of you."
With that, I dashed off to the room where the grunt had attempted to block us. Once I threw the door open, my eyes widened at the sight of all the scientists and engineers in the room. They all jumped at my sudden intrusion, but relaxed upon realizing that it wasn't a Team Flare member.
We're all of these people workers of the Power Plant?
"Oh good, a trainer!" One female scientist sighed with relief.
"Please, help us and get rid of those people!" an engineer demanded. "They're absolutely mad. They want to take up many of Lumiose City's electricity supply!"
"Those people are stealing electricity for something strange," another scientist added.
"Do you know what for?" I asked. He shook his head.
"No, they didn't say anything," he replied
"Right," I mumbled before turning at my heel. "I'm gonna get to the bottom of this. Until this blows over, I advise that you all stay here where it's safe."
Nobody argued with my advice after that. I left the room and closed the door behind me. Of course, I knew something was wrong here from the beginning.
I made my way toward the right wing of the building. The amount of Team Flare members threw me off at first, but their weakling Pokémon and incompetence made them easy to manage. Through each victory, Frogadier gained enough strength to evolve into Greninja, his final evolution form. Plus, he learned a new attack!
Once I reached the end of the large hallways, I spotted a door that most likely led to the boss's room. Without warning, I twisted the doorknob and opened the door. My eyes widened upon seeing two Team Flare members with Jay and Lucas tied up and gagged. The white suit and red dress shirt led me to believe this guy was a little more important than those useless grunts. However, the woman was different from him and the grunts.
She was decked out in red of course: red dress and red boots to match. Her ginger hair was tied back into a ponytail. What distinguished her a little was the strange decor she wore as sunglasses.
"How much longer?" the male questioned
"If you're just interested in the facts, I'd say we already have enough energy to power the device," the woman informed him.
"Good." He smirked in satisfaction. "Let's finish up here and move out. There's still more work to be done."
"What other work do you mean?" The woman's gaze hovered over to me, a smirk forming on her lips. "Perhaps you mean taking out that annoying little Pokémon Trainer over there?"
"Yeah, that's right," the male confirmed. "I didn't think anyone remained here after we dealt with the workers and these little punks here."
To prove his point, he kicked Lucas's side and held up Jay's head by his hair. Both boys groaned from the pain inflicted on them. I glared daggers at the man for hurting them that way. He simply smirked in amusement from my anger.
He dropped Jay's head and looked over at the female Team Flare scientist. I kept my hand close to the PokéBall containing Greninja just in case anything happened.
"Scientist, take care of this pesky intruder!" he ordered.
"It would be my pleasure!" The woman chuckled.
The man nodded and took his leave, but not before giving the boys one last kick. Watching him hurt my friends only made me hate Team Flare even more. I had half the mind to punch him right then and there, but the ginger woman took a step toward me and stopped me from advancing.
Of course, she would get in my way.
"Come on, little trainer!" she obnoxiously beamed with a PokéBall in hand. "Let's see what you've got!"
She tossed the capsule in the air and released a Mightyena. If I had a PokéDollar for every Mightyena I've seen since I got here, I'd be filthy rich. I released Sylveon to take care of this Mightyena quick and easy. Trash like Team Flare deserves no mercy.
"Allow me to introduce myself, intruder," she said as her Pokémon got into a battle stance. "My name is Aliana. As you can see, I'm one of Team Flare's scientists. I'm researching a certain something that you wouldn't understand."
"I'm so close to punching all of you assholes that keep calling me a child!" I scowled at her. "You have such an awesome gift, but you're wasting it on trash like Team Flare. You can do so much better!"
"Unfortunately for you..." she sneered, clearly taking offense to what I said. "I've been charged with the simple task of your elimination."
A menacing growl came from her Mightyena. Sylveon stared down at her opponent with her innocent baby blue eyes that made it hard for anyone to know what she was planning to do.
"Good luck with that." I smirked smugly. "You shouldn't have messed with me."
Aliana's Mightyena didn't last long against my Sylveon. Two consecutive Moonblast attacks were enough to take it down. Mightyena landed near the woman's feet, completely fainted and unable to battle further. The ginger gasped in shock while Sylveon stood at my side. She scowled deeply at me before returning her fainted Pokémon back into the red and white capsule. In my defense, I had warned her not to mess with me. This was what happened when she refused to listen.
"You're quite strong," she muttered bitterly. It must be hard for her to compliment the enemy. "Oh yes, very strong indeed."
"Well, you shouldn't have messed with me," I taunted further. Rather than going ballistic, Aliana simply smirked at me.
"Well, I certainly didn't expect you to be so interesting!" She turned to the direction where the male Team Flare member left. "I do hope we can meet again!"
When she was gone for good, I ran up to the boys and removed their gags. They both gasped for air as I began to untie the ropes that bound them. I had a feeling Jay would be the one that managed to get caught, but Lucas? I expected better from the logical one of the group.
After I successfully untied all ropes, both boys stood up on their feet. Jay rubbed his wrists and Lucas simply dusted himself off. Both had bright red wrists from the tight bindings of the thick ropes. Maybe I'd treat them later with some ointment.
"Are you both okay?" I asked them.
"Yeah, I'll survive," Jay responded.
"I've been through worse," Lucas replied with a shrug.
"Good." I nodded, deciding it was better not to question what he meant by that. "I'm glad you're both okay."
"Let's go look for Reese and get out of here," Lucas suggested. "I really hope she didn't accidentally kill anyone."