Chapter 11: It had to take a lot more than just luck to do what you did!
Sera smiled as she woke up, still feeling rather proud of herself for helping retrieve one of the missing crystals just yesterday. Her parents and siblings had been pretty surprised to hear of what she had done, and weren't even sure if she was telling the truth until she had let her oldest sister, Amethyst, look into her mind and confirm that she was indeed telling the truth.
The young Eevee happily stepped into the dining room, where her siblings were already eating breakfast.
"Good morning!" Sera said, taking her seat at the table.
"Oh, good morning, Sera," Amethyst responded, telekinetically pouring herself some tea. "Did you sleep well, little sister?"
"Pretty well," Sera replied, happily eating some berries off her plate. "One probably does tend to have a good night's sleep after finding a missing artifact and bringing it back to town."
"Ah, yes," Amethyst said, taking a sip of her tea. "It is really great that one of the crystals has been found, even if there are still seven more out there."
"Yeah," Sera replied, looking around and noticing that their parents weren't present. "Mom and dad already went off to work?"
"Yes, they did," Amethyst responded. "They did tell me to tell you that they're very proud of you before they left, though."
"Really?" Sera asked, wagging her tail. "Well, I suppose that's only natural after finding and bringing back such an important item."
"Oh, big deal!" Volt said, with his fur bristling and giving off sparks of electricity. "You and your rescue team just got lucky!"
"Excuse me?" Sera responded, glaring at her Jolteon brother.
"He does have a point," Sirena commented, waiting for Amethyst to refill her bowl of water. "It was only luck that you were in just the right place at the right time to learn the location of that one crystal."
"Still, we still did retrieve the thing," Sera said, feeling rather annoyed at the Jolteon and Vaporeon's comments. "You can't deny that."
"I got the impression from your story that it was Blitz who did most of the work," the Umbreon responded.
"Yeah, if anything, Blitz deserves most of the credit for being the one to deal with the plant," Volt said, smirking at Sera. "Maybe he should be the rescue team leader instead of you?"
"Do you really want to mess with me?" Sera asked, growling at her brother. "I swear, if I had had a Silence Orb on me right now-"
Before the fight could escalate any further, both Sera and Volt found their ears telekinetically being pulled at by Amethyst.
"Sera, don't threaten to muzzle your brother," Amethyst said, before turning to Volt. "And Volt, stop bothering your little sister."
She then let go of their ears, before refilling Sirena's water bowl a third time.
"Fine, whatever," Volt responded, resuming eating his breakfast.
"Amethyst, you think it's pretty cool that my rescue team found one of the crystals, don't you?" Sera asked, looking over at her oldest sister.
"Well…" Amethyst said, trying to think of how to respond to the question. "There was a certain element of luck involved; I can't really deny that…"
Sera sighed and finished eating her breakfast, before deciding to head out. Surely the other rescue teams would treat her with the respect she deserved. As she prepared to head out, Flare, who had been quietly watching the whole scene during breakfast, walked up to her.
"Heading out, I see," Flare said. "Good luck today, sis."
"Thanks…" Sera replied, looking up at the Flareon.
"Oh and… don't be too disappointed if things don't go your way," Flare said. "Okay?"
"Okay, I guess," Sera responded, unsure what exactly her brother was referring to. "See you later!"
Sera's mood lightened a bit as she entered the main part of town, feeling that the other rescue teams would probably treat her the way she felt she deserved to be treated. She told herself that her older siblings were probably just jealous, and that she would eventually show them that she was so much more than just their little kid sister. She smiled as she saw her two teammates just ahead.
"Good morning, guys!" Sera said, cheerfully walking up to Blitz and Chiaki.
"Hi Sera," Blitz responded.
"Sera, look!" Chiaki said, holding up a newspaper. "We're in today's newspaper!"
"Ooh, really?" Sera asked, grinning. "Let me see! Let me see!"
Chiaki laid down the newspaper on the ground, and the three of them all looked at the relevant page while Blitz read the article out loud for them.
"For the last few days, the rescue teams of Fenix Town have been putting in their best efforts to find and recover the stolen crystals of Axis Tower, but it was not until now that one of the crystals was found by a local bronze rank rescue team, following a tip from Fenix Town's own town oracle. And with a bit of luck, and the help of the local Pansage, Pansear and Panpour tribes, the crystal was retrieved from Harmony Forest, while at the same time also dealing with a mysterious plant that was threatening to destroy the balance of the forest. The origins of the mysterious plant and the location of the other seven crystals remain unknown. The Axis Tower guards will further investigate the case with the help of the local rescue teams. Until then, a big thanks to the bronze rank team that brought the crystal back. Keep up the good work!"
"… That's it?" Sera asked, ears drooping down slightly in disappointment.
"What do you mean?" Chiaki responded. "I thought it was a nice article."
"… Never mind," Sera said. "So, what are we doing today?"
"Chiaki and I are heading down to the dojo for some training," Blitz explained. "Chiaki wants to practice his Fake Out attack some more. Do you want to come along as well?"
"… I'll catch up with you guys later, okay?" Sera replied. "I feel like taking a walk around town."
"Um… Sure," Blitz responded. "Let's go, Chiaki, and see you later, Sera."
"Bye, Sera!" Chiaki said, waving to Sera as he and Blitz headed off to the dojo.
Sera waved back, before she started wandering around town. She figured the Pokémon that wrote the article hadn't had all the details when they had to write the story, and did their best with what they had to work with. She wanted to hear what the other rescue teams thought.
There were several rescue teams near the various stalls, some just going about their business, while others were talking about how one of the crystals had been retrieved. Sera smiled and confidently walked up to Mirage and her two teammates, who were depositing some money into their team bank account.
"Oh, hey there, Sera," Megara said as she noticed the Eevee approaching them.
"Hi!" Sera responded, wagging her tail.
"Hello, Sera," Mirage said, smiling at the Eevee. "So, we heard you and your friends brought one of the missing crystals back from Harmony Forest yesterday?"
"We certainly did!" Sera replied, feeling rather proud of herself.
"Well, congratulations on being the first rescue team to get one of those crystals back!" Mirage said. "Not bad for a bronze rank team."
"Why, thank you!" Sera responded, grinning.
"Yeah, didn't expect a rescue team at your rank to beat us to the punch," Megara commented, winking. "You were lucky this time, but next time, we're going to be the ones to get there first!"
"The mushroom would like to point out to Megara that we have just the same chance of finding a crystal as anyone else in town," Cordyceps said. "So the mushroom thinks you shouldn't have too high expectations, because we are very likely to be beaten to the punch again by a different rescue team."
"… You're no fun," Megara responded, crossing her arms.
"Why does everyone keep saying that?" Sera asked.
"There are other Pokémon saying Cordy is no fun?" Mirage responded, looking a bit puzzled.
"No, I meant the part about our rescue team being lucky," Sera replied. "I mean, it took more than luck to retrieve that crystal."
"Of course it did," Mirage said. "But still, you did have luck on your side, and that's good for you!"
"The mushroom would like to object to the claim of not being any fun," Cordyceps said. "The mushroom can in fact be quite the fun guy."
The other three Pokémon stared in complete silence for a few seconds.
"Get it?" Cordyceps asked. "It's funny because it sounds like fungi."
"… Let's go find some missions," Megara said.
"Good idea," Mirage responded. "Bye Sera."
"Where are you going?" Cordyceps asked as his two teammates started heading off without him, before crawling after them. "Wait up, the mushroom doesn't want to be left behind."
Sera watched the other rescue team leave, and continued her walk.
"… If having luck with this was a good thing, then why does everyone make it sound like a bad thing?" Sera muttered to herself. "Maybe I'm taking this the wrong way…"
While her annoying siblings had certainly meant it in a bad way, maybe the other rescue teams didn't see it as such.
At the dojo, Blitz and Hercules watched Chiaki sparring against Lotus, practicing his Fake Out attack. While he was having difficulty catching Lotus off-guard, he seemed to otherwise have gotten the technique right.
"Not bad," Lotus said. "You seem to be more focused than last time you visited here."
"Thanks!" Chiaki replied, trying to charge at Lotus, only for the Meditite to sidestep him.
"Seems Chiaki has his new attack under control," Hercules commented.
"Yeah," Blitz responded. "He figured out how to do it during our last mission."
"Ah, yes," Hercules said. "I heard about how you and your teammates found one of the eight missing crystals in Harmony Forest."
"Oh…" Blitz responded, rubbing his forelegs together. "You heard about that?"
"Yes, I did," Hercules replied. "You know, if I had known all the details about what you were asking about the other night, I probably would've told you not to do it."
"Oh… Is that so?" Blitz asked, looking down at the floor.
Hercules smiled, and gently petted the young Shinx.
"I don't really know if you and your teammates made the right choice," Hercules said, getting Blitz to look up at him. "But hey, you did bring back an important artifact, and that's pretty good."
"Thanks," Blitz responded, smiling at his mentor.
"So, how is Sera today?" Hercules asked. "I noticed she's not here with you and Chiaki."
"I'm not sure," Blitz replied. "It kind of seemed like she had something on her mind, but she didn't seem upset or anything…"
"I guess everyone has those days once in a while," Hercules said.
"I suppose…" Blitz responded, continuing to watch the sparring match between Chiaki and Lotus. "Should I go check on her?"
"For now, I'd say just give her some time to herself," Hercules replied. "If she hadn't wanted some time to herself to think, she probably wouldn't have gone off on her own."
"If you say so…" Blitz replied, rubbing his forelegs together.
"You can talk to her later," Hercules said, smiling at the young Shinx. "For now, how about we do some training?"
"Sure!" Blitz responded, following the Heracross to another part of the dojo, while Chiaki and Lotus was left by themselves to continue their training.
After walking around town for a bit, Sera had decided to head over to the café for something to drink. On the way there, she had passed by Sting and his rescue team. They did compliment her for having helped bring back a crystal, but they hadn't had the time to talk because they had decided to help the Axis Tower guards with their investigation.
"Hey, Sera!" a familiar voice called out, and Sera turned to see Azure bouncing over to her.
"Oh, hey Azure," Sera responded.
"We read about you and your rescue team did in the newspaper today," Azure said, grinning at Sera. "It's totally awesome that you were able to get that crystal back!"
"Oh, thanks!" Sera replied, smiling at the excited Azurill. "We were pretty lucky with that one."
"It had to take a lot more than just luck to do what you did!" Azure said, bouncing a little.
"I know, right?" Sera responded, sitting down at a table. "For some reason almost everyone seems focused on the luck part, though."
"Let me guess, the grown-ups not giving you the respect you deserve?" Azure asked, sitting down next to Sera. "The grown-ups are always like that, treating us like we're too young to do anything awesome!"
"I guess…" Sera replied, ears drooping down slightly.
"And that's why I've been eating a lot of gummis and drinking juice made from gummis to increase my IQ skill!" Azure said, bouncing happily. "Because the sooner I get that IQ skill up high enough, the sooner I can evolve!"
"You really think evolving will make the adults take you more seriously?" Sera asked.
"Well, I know mom will let me go on adventures on my own when I've evolved!" Azure responded. "What about you? Have you thought about evolving?"
"… Not really," Sera replied. "And in my case, I haven't really thought about what I would want to evolve into."
"Well, if you had to choose right now, what would you become?" Azure asked.
"Hmm… I'm not sure," Sera replied, thinking about it. "Maybe I'd become an Espeon, like my oldest sister Amethyst?"
"Any particular reason why?" Azure asked.
"Well… Amethyst has always been like the perfect sister," Sera explained. "She's my role model."
"Good for you, I guess," Azure responded. "I imagine living up to your sister's perfect image would be pretty difficult, though."
"What about you?" Sera asked. "Do you have any role models?"
"Not really," Azure responded. "I don't need to be anyone else. I'm me, and I'm proud of that!"
Sera couldn't help but smile at Azure's statement, finding it quite admirable. While most adult Pokémon probably thought Azure was perhaps a bit too overconfident, there was still the fact that Azure seemed to have complete faith in herself. Sera thought it had to be nice to have that kind of self-confidence.
"We should go on another adventure together sometime," Sera said.
"Yeah, we should definitely do that!" Azure responded, bouncing excitedly. "If you ever need my help, I'll be there!"
"Thanks, Azure," Sera replied, wagging her tail.
"So, did you come here to get yourself something to drink?" Azure asked.
"Oh, right," Sera responded. "I'd like some Oran berry juice."
"Okay," Azure said. "I'll ask Frederick to get us some juice when he's done serving those customers over there."
The two female Pokémon glanced over at the Deino in question, as he tried to find the customers he was supposed to serve the drinks he was currently carrying on a tray he was holding in his mouth. At the table were the Servine and Minccino rescue team, and this time they had a third team member with them. The new member was a blue Pokémon that appeared to have long ear-like arms and a big smile on its face.
"You're getting warmer," the Servine said, the grass snake trying to help guide the dragon Pokémon. "It's just a little bit further now!"
Frederick nodded his head slightly, only to remember what he was doing and stopping himself before the drinks spilled out.
"Be more careful!" the Minccino said, watching the Deino while dusting off the table with her tail. "If you drop those drinks, I will smack you with my tail!"
"Relax, he's doing fine," the Servine said to the chinchilla Pokémon, trying to calm her.
"Relax? One wrong move and those drinks will spill all over the floor!" the Minccino responded. "There's no way I can just relax in a situation like that!"
At that point, Frederick gently set down the tray of drinks on their table without spilling a single drop.
"Here you go!" Frederick said, giving a friendly smile. "That's one Leppa berry juice, one Rawst and Nanab berry smoothie and one iced Pecha tea!"
"See?" the Servine said, picking up the glass of Leppa berry juice with one of her vines. "I told you there was nothing to be concerned about."
"Well, I suppose there weren't any disasters this time…" the Minccino responded, picking up her smoothie. "Now I just need a straw so I can drink this without worrying about spilling anything all over my fur…"
"I'm on it!" Frederick said, and started making his way back to the counter, while Sera and Azure were still observing him.
"So, how is Frederick doing?" Sera asked. "Is he anywhere close to paying off his debt?"
"I have no idea," Azure responded. "I know he's been doing a good job, but I haven't really been keeping track."
"Oh," Sera replied, scratching behind her ear with one of her hind legs.
"Hey, I just thought of something!" Azure said, bouncing on her tail. "You want the grown-ups to take you seriously, right?"
"Of course I do," Sera replied.
"Well, your team was able to track down one of the crystals, which got you some compliments and stuff," Azure said, smirking. "But to truly prove yourself, you should try to find the other seven crystals as well!"
"Whoa! That's a really great idea!" Sera responded. "How would I pull that off, though?"
"Ask Stella if she has anymore visions of the other crystals, of course!" Azure said. "Oh, and you could help out the Pokémon investigating the case too!"
"I guess," Sera replied, thinking for a moment. "Not sure if I'd be able to get Blitz to go along with that, though."
"You're the team leader, right?" Azure asked. "Your teammates have to do what you want?"
"It's not that simple," Sera responded. "According to other rescue teams, and big sister Amethyst, a good leader needs to listen to and always take their teammates' opinions into consideration."
"Well, if that's what the grown-ups do…" Azure said, balancing on her tail.
"I wonder how those investigations are going," Sera wondered, resting her head on the table, while Azure called Frederick over to take their drink orders. "Wait... Azure, why don't you just go get us some drinks? You help out in the café sometimes too, right?"
"It wouldn't be polite to just leave in the middle of a conversation, would it?" Azure responded, winking at Sera. "So, what were you saying about the investigations?"
In Harmony Forest, the Mienshao guard from Axis Tower was asking the leaders of the elemental monkey tribes some questions, while a rescue team duo consisting of a large four legged Pokémon seeming to be composed of blue metal and a silver colored X on its face and a yellow humanoid Pokémon with a long mustache and a spoon in each hand were examining the spot where the mysterious plant had been.
"Hmm, very interesting," the Mienshao commented, taking a few notes. "Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions."
"So, do you think this will really help you guys find some clues as to the location of the other crystals?" Mizu asked, while polishing her Skarmory feather sword.
"We hope so," the Mienshao responded. "We haven't yet come across any distortions caused by the crystals' disappearance, but we still need to aim to find those crystals as fast as possible."
"Of course," Kojin replied. "At least there's no reason to panic just yet, since there hasn't been any apparent distortions anywhere yet."
"And you can count on us to help out in any way we can!" Haru said, grinning. "Of course, due to our tribe leader duties, we can't really help much outside of the forest."
"I understand," the Mienshao responded, before turning his attention to the Metagross and the Alakazam duo. "What about you two?"
"There seems to be traces of some kind of dark energy left in this plant," the Alakazam said while focusing psychic energy through his two spoons to analyze the plant. "We haven't been able to identify just what it is, though."
"I don't think we've ever come across anything like this before," the Metagross added. "But it is very likely that this energy is what caused the plant to grow so fast."
"So, we still don't know anything about where it came from, or who planted it here?" Mizu asked.
"I'm afraid not," the Metagross responded. "However, we intend to find out."
"There are many rescue teams helping investigate this case, so one would expect more clues to be found fairly soon," the Alakazam said. "For some reason I get the feeling that we have may have overlooked something…"
"Well, I suppose we should just keep an eye out for anything unusual," the Mienshao suggested.
The Pokémon gathered in the area continued looking for whatever information they could find, before eventually deciding to call it a day. The tribe leaders went back to their tribes, while the Mienshao and the assisting rescue team decided to go find the other guards and rescue teams investigating the case so they could compare notes.
On her way home, Sera again thought about the idea of evolving. If she became an Espeon, would she be anywhere as amazing as her big sister? She then thought about the other options she had, considering what the benefits of the other possible forms she could take might have.
Umbreon were pretty cool looking, but she wasn't entirely sure what benefits she would want from that form. The first thing that came to mind was to be able to illuminate dark places, and Blitz already had that covered when it came to rescue team missions. The only other thing Sera could really think of that she would consider a benefit was to get to stay up longer at night.
As for Vaporeon, Sera knew that Sirena had some pretty cool abilities that she showed off whenever she wanted to take the attention away from Amethyst. Vaporeon were able to breathe underwater, use several strong water moves and could even make their own bodies melt into water. Sera imagined there had to be some pretty cool ways to travel that way, but also found the idea of being able to change her body like that somewhat scary.
She thought Glaceon were pretty, but hadn't really seen much of what her mother was capable of doing with her ice powers. While freezing stuff was probably a neat power, Sera didn't particularly like the cold. She preferred being warm and fuzzy.
With that in mind, maybe Flareon was a better option? Flare did sometimes let Sera sleep next to him and use his tail as a blanket on cold nights, and that always felt really nice and cozy. Then again, she also didn't like getting too warm.
As for Leafeon and Jolteon, she wasn't too sure she would want to be either of those. Sure, her father could use photosynthesis and use cool grass type attacks, but she couldn't really think of anything she would want to do in that form. And sure, Volt could run pretty fast and zap other Pokémon with lightning, but she just couldn't imagine herself as a Jolteon.
Evolution seemed like something one had to put a lot of thought into, especially as an Eevee. She wondered if her siblings had gone through the same routine when deciding on what they wanted to evolve into back when they were Eevee. For now, she figured it was better not to worry too much about it.
As Sera finally made it home and stepped inside, she noticed Amethyst lying on the floor. From what she could tell, Amethyst looked very tired and almost a little… sad. Sera had never seen her big sister in such a state before.
"Amethyst, is something wrong?" Sera asked.
Amethyst's ears perked up in surprise at Sera's voice, and the Espeon quickly got up. She seemed rather tense as she turned to face her younger sister.
"Oh, Sera," she said, putting on a smile. "I was just… meditating."
"Meditating?" Sera responded, skeptically tilting her head.
"Yes, when I had finished up all the chores, I realized I was ahead of schedule, and I thought I'd meditate a little before mom and dad comes home," Amethyst replied, although Sera noticed that she seemed to be hesitating to make eye contact.
"You didn't look like you were meditating," Sera responded.
"Don't worry about it," Amethyst said, trying to remain calm. "There's nothing to be concerned about."
"Are you sure?" Sera asked. "You don't sound sure."
"I'm sure; there is nothing to be concerned about," Amethyst responded, before hastily leaving the room.
"… What's wrong with her? Why is she lying to me?" Sera wondered out loud, before noticing Flare peeking out from behind another doorway.
"I've seen Amethyst a few times when she thinks no one is watching," Flare said.
"Do you know why she was acting so weird?" Sera asked.
"Well, have you ever thought about how much it must take to be the perfect daughter?" Flare responded. "Or how much effort it must take to maintain that perfect image all the time?"
"I… never really thought about that…" Sera replied, her ears drooping down slightly. "But, why doesn't she just ask for help if that's the case?"
"I guess she's afraid of letting us know how she really feels," Flare responded. "While she may feel overwhelmed by everything that is expected of her, she doesn't want us to worry about her and keeps it to herself."
"Isn't there anything we can do for her?" Sera asked. "It's not right for Amethyst to be so sad!"
"I don't know, Sera," Flare responded, petting the Eevee with his paw. "Maybe the two of us can think of something, but try not to worry about it too much. I have a feeling Amethyst wouldn't want that."
"Okay, I'll try…" Sera said.
"Also, I think Amethyst would probably want you to enjoy being a kid while you can," Flare added. "She probably misses the days where she could just be a kid, and not have to worry about what everyone expected of her."
"Hold on, you're saying Amethyst might be jealous of me?" Sera asked, tilting her head.
"Well, it's possible," Flare replied. "I wouldn't know anything for sure, though."
"… I'm going to go to our room," Sera said. "I have some thinking to do."
Sera walked up to the bedroom she and her siblings shared, unsure what to think about everything. She still thought that Amethyst was better than her in many ways, so even if she had a bit too much work on her paws, there was just no way that her big sister could be jealous of her. How else did this possibly affect their relationship? Was it possible that Amethyst didn't want to be Sera's role model? Would Amethyst stop giving her advice?
Sera hoped that wasn't the case. While she would still have other rescue teams to ask for advice, she still wanted to have Amethyst as a role model too.
"Maybe it's enough to just not ask her for advice for a few days…" Sera said to herself. "That at least gives her one less thing to worry about until I can think of something more to do for her…"
Sera thought about what Azure had said at the café earlier, and once again wished she had that kind of confidence that the young Azurill had. She then thought about Azure's suggestion that her rescue team help search for the remaining seven crystals. Technically, they were already involved with the crystal search, even if all they could do was gather information, if anything at all.
After all, with other rescue teams on the case, the odds weren't too good for them to find more of the eight crystals. But who knew? Maybe luck would be on their side again.
End of chapter 11.