Things are really getting chaotic around here! We've got relationship chaos in the form of Sango's wicked (meaning "cool") stepmother, and regular old chaos in the form of Caelia going John Connor on the machines. How will these issues be resolved, I wonder? Remember to review!
We've got a decent amount of girls nominated, but there's always room for more! If there are any other girls you think deserve a chance at the title of Pokemon Academy Best Girl, nominate them here! Caelia has been added for her domestic terrorism.
Currently Nominated: Alcea, Ayame, Carrie, Caelia, Cynthia, Dakota, Elaina, Julia, Kate, Kitty, Maddi, Marion, Nikita, Olivia, Sango, Sylvia
Aquahaze675: That's just what a state-of-the-art laboratory needs, giant rocks flying all over the place and crashing into machinery.
KedharS: That's definitely one possible reason.
Just a Bad Writer For Fun: Well, you've definitely gotten more stuff right on the money with this one, that's for sure. And yes, we're splitting focus, for reasons that will eventually become clear.
Rowlets and Oshawotts: Elizabeth's personality was definitely created based on how well she suits Sango's needs for a maternal figure in her life (as reluctant as Sango might be about it)
JoshGamerV: Should have said so, you could have been bragging that you called it lol.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 616
"Elizabeth, what are you doing here?!" Sango asked, not sure why her dad's fiancé had come all the way to the Pokemon Academy. Last she'd heard, Elizabeth and her dad had returned to the Johto Region to continue Elizabeth's work with the Ruins of Alph. "I thought you were still looking into the Unown back in Johto?"
"I am, I am," Elizabeth said, nodding. She turned and patted Silver on the head for good measure. "But right now I'm here on business! You remember Professor Reinhart? He was your guardian for the Galar trip we met on? He called me in, saying he needed my help translating something!"
"Okay…" Sango said, remembering a little. That's right, Elizabeth was an archaeologist and a philologist, meaning that she was an expert on ancient languages. That had been how they had been able to figure out what that writing in the ruins on Stow-On-Side meant, and why Elizabeth was studying the Ruins of Alph in the first place.
"When I heard what it was he needed my help with, I got on an overnight flight all the way here!" Elizabeth gushed. "I get a chance to study something that I've only ever read about, first-hand! And when I got here, I realized that since you were here, too, I could come see you and we could hang out together, you know, like a girl's thing! Since, well… we didn't really get to do much of that in Galar, what, with everything that happened…" A sheepish expression crossed her face but she quickly bounced back, smiling brightly. "I was hoping we could get to know each other a little better."
Sango paused. She wasn't sure how she felt about that, if she was being honest. Her feelings towards Elizabeth were… complicated, to say the least. The older woman was lovely, there wasn't a mean bone in her body. But at the same time, she was also engaged to Sango's father, which made things a little awkward for Sango.
And that was when things were normal. With Blake being gone, she wasn't in the mood to relax and hang out with her stepmother. She opened her mouth to reject the offer when a hand clapped her on the shoulder.
"She'd love to!" Marion gushed, Sango glancing at her friend in surprise.
"Oh, really? Oh, that's just great! We can go get an early dinner!" Elizabeth giggled like a schoolgirl, pulling Sango into another hug that brought her uncomfortably close to the other woman's breasts. Sango mumbled something, glancing back at Marion while Elizabeth nearly suffocated her. But Marion didn't seem all that guilty.
"I'll go tell the professor I'll be a little late!" Elizabeth said, rushing outside and making a phone call. "Be back in a second!"
With Elizabeth gone, Sango turned and turned back Marion, shooting her a questioning look. "What the heck was that about?"
The serious expression on Marion's face was surprising, though. She was used to the fishing girl being all smiles.
"I think it would be good for you if the two of you spent some time together, that's all," Marion replied, shrugging her shoulders. Sango disagreed.
"Now's really not a good time," Sango grumbled. "Look, you don't know about our relationship, but the two of us…"
"Do you remember when you told me about your mom?" Marion interrupted, catching Sango off-guard. She looked at Marion, stunned. How dare she bring that up?!
"My mom has nothing-"
"You told me about how since your mom died and your dad was never home, you had to take care of yourself, and grow up early," Marion said solemnly. "I never lost my parents, but that's something I had to go through myself as well, as I'm sure you remember."
Sango averted her eyes in shame. Sometimes she forgot about Marion's past with the Children of the Oracles.
"Elizabeth isn't a replacement for my mom," Sango replied as soon as she could find the courage to speak again. "We've already talked about that, she's-"
"I never said she was," Marion said, raising her hand. "But right now, I'd say that she's someone you need."
"Huh?" Sango didn't have a response to that. Marion… Marion was being weird. Marion was always weird, but this time she was being weird in a way that was distinctly un-Marion. "I don't understand, Marion, what are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about this," Marion said, pointing at the bags under Sango's eyes, which were just slightly red and puffy as well. "I'm talking about the fact that I don't think I've seen you eat all day."
That was true. At her breakfast with Ayame, Sango had been too uncomfortable to order anything, and for lunch she'd decided to give that one a pass as well, she just wasn't in the mood.
"And most of all," Marion continued, "I'm talking about the fact that Silver has been radiating concern for you since you came in today."
Sango turned to Silver, stunned, the small pokemon glancing away and blushing.
"Okay, so today's been kind of rough, but-"
"Sango, you're falling apart," Marion said, crossing her arms over her chest and narrowing her eyes. "You're like two minutes from a meltdown, you realize that?"
"Marion, I'm fine, trust me," Sango assured her. "Yeah, I'm depressed because of what happened to Blake, who wouldn't be? But I'm not falling apart! I'm dealing!"
"Nope. Meltdown. You're like the Chernobyl of high schoolers, Sango," Marion said, shaking her head. "I know you 'think' you're dealing, because you're doing what you always do when something bad happens to you, let out a burst of emotion, cry for a little, and then say you're over it, put on a tough face, and push those lingering emotions down. Right?"
Sango didn't have a response to that, either. That was exactly what she'd done. But that was how she dealt with stuff, so-
"That's toxic, girl. You aren't dealing, you're repressing. And you keep doing that, and it's all going to come back up on you."
"It's, it's not, it's…" Sango's voice trailed off as she caught Marion staring at her, the tan girl raising an eyebrow.
"It was the same thing with your mom, remember?" Marion asked. "You've been pushing it down so much, convincing yourself you were over it, but remember what you told me the last time you met Elizabeth? How you just had that huge blow-up with your dad, because you hadn't actually worked past anything, you just said that you did?"
"Okay, yeah, but I don't see what your point is!" Sango protested.
Marion let out a sigh, reaching under her hat to scratch at her hair.
"Sango… you need a release. You always put so much more on yourself than you need to, sometimes without even knowing it. Right now, with everything that happened with Blake… that's something else weighing you down, isn't it? For me, I let all that tension out when I fish, but you aren't the same. I think that Elizabeth could be really good for you, because she's someone who you can pass some of that burden off onto."
Sango opened her mouth to tell Marion she was wrong, but she couldn't think of the right way to do it. Could… could Marion be right?
"Sango, I can't tell you what to do, all I can do is ask that you not bottle everything up, okay?" Marion pleaded with Sango, those big blue eyes of her shining hopefully. "Go with Elizabeth, and just… just let yourself go. Try and be honest with her, and maybe she'll be able to help you work through some of this stuff."
"You don't even know the first thing about her!" Sango protested.
Marion shrugged. Sango wasn't wrong about that. She looked past Sango and out the large glass doors of the aquarium, at the woman chatting on the phone outside.
"I know she's a harmonia user," Marion replied quietly, startling Sango. "I can feel it from her. And what I feel from her tells me… I know that just like you, she's experienced great losses herself. If anyone in your life would know what it's like to go through what you're going through, if there's anyone who could be a helpful ear to listen to, I think it would be her, don't you?"
Sango understood what Marion was trying to say, but even then she still couldn't bring herself to go along with it.
"Fine, I'll have dinner with her," she muttered. "But we aren't going to talk about Blake or anything like that, okay? I told you, I'm fine. I'll just be going out to eat with her because that'll make HER happy, do you understand?"
"Righty-o!" Marion chirped, her jocular mood returning instantly, flashing Sango a big thumbs' up. Sango grumbled, feeling like she'd been tricked, and trudged out of the aquarium to where the exceptionally-perky language expert was just finishing her phone call.
Marion watched the two depart with a wistful expression on her face.
"Good luck, Sango," she murmured.
Across campus, certain meetings were not going so pleasantly. Caelia and her Charizard were in the process of destroying the Sandbox, and everyone there was scrambling for safety. Fire alarms were blaring, people were screaming, electronics were burning, and throughout it all Caelia stood where she was and radiated anger, yet the expression on her face hadn't moved an inch.
"Well, what can I do for you, Caelia?" The Phantom asked, strolling up to greet the volatile girl in front of him. "If this is about fixing that body of yours, I believe I already told you that would take some time, and that you needed to be patient."
"Blake Harker," Caelia growled.
"…That will take significantly more time," Valon replied, his smile not faltering for a second. "Right now, he's happily in love with Ayame Toujou, so progress in that direction would be-"
"Blake Harker," Caelia cut him off. "Where. Missing. Where. Now. Sylvia. Blake."
"…Caelia, if you don't speak in complete sentences, I find it hard to understand what you mean," Valon replied calmly.
"Where is Blake?!" Caelia roared, her face darkening in anger. "Sylvia took him, I know it! They're both missing, where are they?!"
Valon raised his eyebrow, surprised.
"…I'm afraid I don't know," he replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "I haven't seen Sylvia around all day, she's probably off enjoying herself somewhere."
That was the wrong thing to say.
"Kara," Caelia growled, her Charizard letting out a roar, preparing to blast the Phantom with a head-sized fireball. Misato was already moving to intercept while Gerard stared at the situation in shock, not sure what was happening. What had Caelia just said?
Sylvia was missing? And so was Blake? Gerard had heard something about that, he remembered in the fog of his memory from the day before, Callie calling him up and demanding he show up for the meeting because Sylvia was gone too. He had dismissed her, thinking too much of his own problems, but now that it was back at the forefront of his mind…
"Hey, hold on a moment," Gerard said, stepping up between Caelia and the Phantom. Like it or not, he probably had the most experience here dealing with women who weren't entirely there mentally, which he hoped would translate into being able to get through to Caelia. If it didn't work, whatever was left of him could be used to light a barbeque with the other briquettes.
Not like a failure like me has any value left anyway, he reminded himself.
Caelia turned her focus on him next, but Kara kept her eye trained on the Phantom.
"Come on, so what's this whole thing about, anyway?" Gerard asked, frowning. "Because I know damn well that Sylvia is in fact missing. And what, you think that she abducted Blake or something, is that it? That's why he's missing, too?"
"Boat," Caelia growled, shooting Valon a look filled with murderous rage.
Gerard vaguely remembered that last semester when Blake's father was visiting, their boat had caught on fire. So that had been the Phantom too, huh?
"Come now, you don't think that I had anything to do with this, do you?" The Phantom asked. "It's all Sylvia, after all, and she's not here. But I promise, I'll do everything to help you track her down, sound good?"
Caelia considered this.
"No. Hiding her. Bring her. Now."
"She's not here," Gerard countered. The Phantom was used to manipulating people, sure, by giving them what they wanted. Even Gerard understood how easy it was to manipulate someone like that. But right now, manipulation like that wasn't going to work on Caelia because he could not fundamentally give her what she wanted!
Whatever rational part of Caelia's mind that hadn't been burned away by her accident had checked out, leaving a blob of emotional chaos that not even pain would be able to stop. And he would honestly prefer not to get dragged into the center of it.
Then, Gerard thought of something.
"What about her pokemon?" Gerard asked.
Valon blinked. "What about them?"
Caelia stared at him silently, at least she was giving him the chance to talk, and not blasting them to pieces right now.
"Look, we'll go see if we can track down Sylvia's pokemon, right?" Gerard suggested. "If we can't find them anywhere, then that means she took them with her, and in that case we can probably assume she took Blake. But if we manage to find them, then she could be a victim too, right?"
"Oh, good thinking," Valon said, clapping his hands. "I heard that she was working late the night before last, so if her pokemon would be anywhere it would be in the private workspaces of the Sandbox. Shall we check? Caelia? Would that be acceptable?"
Caelia considered this, and nodded her head.
"Excellent," the Phantom smiled. "Unfortunately, your Charizard won't be able to fit in the halls, so you'll have to call her back if you want to come search with us."
Caelia nodded again. "Return," she whispered, recalling Kara to her pokeball.
The Phantom smiled at her encouragingly, then turned over his shoulder. "Begin cleaning up all this stuff, everyone. She won't be a problem anymore, don't worry!" Several emergency experts began using smothering blankets to put out the fires, and the Phantom turned back to Caelia.
"Misato, restrain."
"Affirmative." Before Caelia could react, Misato shot forward and grabbed her arm, twisting it, Caelia dropping the pokeball when her grip was broken. She struggled against Misato but due to the state of her body she had no idea just how tightly Misato was gripping her.
"Let me go," she demanded.
"Why, so you can burn down my laboratory? No, I think not," the Phantom said, shaking his head. He sighed. "Caelia, I thought we were making such good progress. You'd really throw it all away for that boy Blake? Over Sylvia of all people?"
"Pokeballs. You promised." Caelia demanded. "Find Sylvia."
"Now you see, that isn't my concern," the Phantom said, shrugging his shoulders. He knelt down and picked up Kara's pokeball, showing it to Caelia. Her eyes widened and she tried to grab it, but Misato's grip was too strong. She couldn't fight. Valon sighed, shaking his head. "You've cost me a lot of damage, you know. It's going to take time to rebuild after this. This is the second time one of your tantrums have caused us problems, Caelia. I think we should take some steps to ensure you're more compliant in the future, what do you say? When you're ready to behave like a grown-up, you can have this back. Is that okay?"
"Kara!" Caelia shouted. "Blake!"
"Misato, take her to a dark room and lock her inside for the night, she can come out when she's ready to be a good girl," the Phantom ordered.
"Affirmative," Misato nodded.
Caelia's face went pale and she began to tremble. "N-No," she stuttered, shaking her head, her eye widening in terror. "Not… not the dark, please, NO!"
"Hey, hey, hold on a minute," Gerard said.
"What is it? This doesn't concern you any longer," Valon said, turning back to Gerard. "Although I suppose I should thank you for helping calm her down, she could have caused a lot more damage if she had been left out."
"You can't just lock her away," Gerard protested.
"Compliance is essential," the Phantom replied, raising an eyebrow. "I've tried carrots of all sort, and they've only served to curb her more violent impulses, not stop them. I have no use for a pawn who won't move where I order it, so I'll be resorting to more aggressive forms of persuasion."
"That's…" Torture, Gerard wanted to say, but he knew that the Phantom wouldn't care about that. "Unnecessary."
"Oh?" Valon inquired, raising his eyebrow. "Interesting. What do you mean?"
"I think Caelia's outburst is to be expected, considering what's happened," Gerard said, knowing he would need a superb amount of guile to get through this. "Think about it. From her point of view, you guys are traitors, right? Now I wonder, who was it that pointed her in your direction to begin with? That girl doesn't leave her room, how does she know that Blake and Sylvia are both missing?"
Valon's eyes widened, and he turned back to Caelia. "Good question. Tell me, who exactly was it that told you to come attack me?"
Caelia glared at him angrily, staring at Kara's pokeball. The Phantom sighed and lifted it up to her face, her eye widening.
"If you want her back, then you'll tell me," he threatened.
"Empress," Caelia spat. "Empress. Ayame. Said Sylvia took Blake. You know Sylvia. Where is she?!"
"Oh, so that's what it was," Valon laughed, shaking his head. "I should have known, that manipulative bitch… Fine. You've made your point, Gerard. It seems that someone was conspiring to send her here. I suppose I owe her an apology, then."
He didn't give one though.
"Sylvia might be a traitor," Gerard replied. "Working with the Empress. They all pretend she kidnapped Blake and use it to turn Caelia into a weapon against you."
Valon shook his head, laughing. "No, no, Sylvia would never betray me, she's not as much of a loose cannon as this one. She's far easier to control. No, this is just those girls playing a bit of trickery, that's all."
"Either way, we should try and track down her pokeballs, just to be sure," Gerard urged. "If they're there or not, then we'll probably know for sure. Whether or not she's working against you, or hell, maybe the Empress herself abducted Sylvia to weaken you, you never know."
The Phantom considered it, and that's how Gerard knew he'd got him. He'd managed to resolve the situation without excessive violence. The Phantom wouldn't take any action that he saw as useless, he would only act in his own interest. So by making "confirming Sylvia's disappearance" out to be in his interest, he would be motivated to act.
And with that, Gerard thought, glancing at Caelia and resisting the urge to smirk, I've managed to put this girl into my debt.
"Okay then, you make a good point," the Phantom nodded. He turned to Caelia.
"Misato will hold onto you until we get back, in the meantime, try to behave yourself. Or this," the Phantom said, reaching up and cupping the side of Caelia's face, running his fingers over her mask and feeling the ruddy burns that scarred her emaciated features, "will be the least of your injuries."
Caelia said nothing, she just gave him a vacant stare as he laughed, turned, and headed towards the rooms where Sylvia had been working, tossing Kara's pokeball back and forth between his hands. Gerard glanced back at Caelia and followed after him.
If Blake really has gone missing… I wonder how that will effect Elaina, he mused.
Heck, Gerard was almost half-decent in this chapter, who knew he had it in him?