Keeping her hold on Pikachu as she stood up, AJ had just made it to the locker room door and opened it when-
"Maryse! Uhh, hi again," AJ nervously said to the platinum blonde."
Hello again to you too, April," Maryse responded, her fist raised as if she was going to knock on the door. Taking notice of what the shorter woman was holding, the platinum blonde pointed at the Pokémon before asking "Care to introduce me to your nouvel ami (new friend) here?"
Hello there, dear readers, and welcome back to 'All I Want For Christmas is a Pokémon'. Sorry for the slight delay (family stuff kept getting in my way which threw my update schedule off, so...looks I won't have this done by my original intended finish date, but...*shrugs*...nothing wrong with wanting to have some lingering Christmas and winter vibes, is there?) Now, for a slight recap from the last chapter: Looks like AJ's found the stowaway that's been hiding among the roster for so long (and it's a Pikachu...how cute!) and managed to slowly earn its trust after feeding it and talking to it. The talking went pretty well...outside of AJ mentioning the doctors, which seems to have been taken care of after she assured Pikachu that she'd stay with it when she takes it to the doctor. Now, carrying the Pikachu, AJ's ready to head out of her locker room...only to come face-to-face with Maryse and her Delcatty. Uh-oh! This may not be good. How will this pan out? Read on to find out, my loves. =)
(Hopefully, this chapter title makes sense enough to you all, as it's the best I could come up with for it.)
Feeling frozen in place, AJ couldn't help the sudden bit of fidgeting that came over her. While she felt of two minds on what to do here-the predominant one being that she try to run away, only to possibly get caught by the platinum blonde's Delcatty using Sing on her, which was something she would not want to happen-she decided to go with the one that would at least result in an explanation that hopefully wouldn't give away the identity of the Pokémon she was holding. "Yeah! Umm, Maryse, this is Kaitlyn's Pikachu that she calls Sparky. Sparky, this is Maryse and her Delcatty," AJ lied while she thought 'Sparky? Really, Mendez, that's the best you could come up with for a nickname?'
"Huh. I didn't know Kaitlyn had a Pokémon like this one," Maryse said, leaning in to get a closer look at the Pokémon the shorter brunette was holding. "Well, Sparky, like April said, my name is Maryse. And this beauté (beauty) is Delcatty, one of my partners. It's nice to meet you."
"Nyaa," Delcatty chimed in, her gaze still on this strange new Pokémon.
"Pika," Pikachu said, feeling a bit nervous about being around this strange new duo.
"So, what is it that you and ...Sparky were about to do? Going to find your friends, I suppose?"
"Yeah, yeah," AJ nodded. "Sparky was beginning to miss Kaitlyn, so I thought I'd take him to go see her and maybe help with the stowaway search."
"The stowaway," the platinum blonde couldn't help but click her tongue in annoyance at this mention. "I wonder why Stephanie is still keeping up the search for it. If she hasn't found it by now, why even keep up looking for it?"
"Well, it's like she's said. She just wants to find it and release it into the wild somewhere," AJ said as she thought 'Although, if I could maybe try something when I meet up with Steph….'
"N'importe quoi (whatever)," Maryse said with an eyeroll. "The sooner we can all find it, the better, I suppose."
"Yeah, the sooner, the better," the Latina agreed, doing her best to keep the true identity of the Pikachu she was holding a secret.
"Yes. Well, I won't keep you from your friends any longer. Hopefully, you all will have better luck in your searches. Come on, Delcatty. À plus tard (see you later), April," Maryse said with a wave, their gazes momentarily lingering on the two, before the platinum blonde and her Pokémon turned and walked away.
Letting out a sigh of relief, AJ looked down and said "Good Pikachu for staying calm and not zapping Maryse or her Delcatty. That would've been very bad if you did. Now, come on. Let's go see Doctor Andrew to see if he can help take care of these injuries of yours."
"Pika," Pikachu nodded as it let the human carry it to see this Doctor she mentioned, feeling pretty pleased with itself that it didn't attack that new human and her Pokémon.
...
"OK, OK, OK, you two, calm down," Stephanie said as she tried to calm down the weirdly frantic younger pair in front of her. Seeing that they seemed a bit calmer, the brunette began again. "OK, now, tell me just what is it that happened that has you both so wound up."
"Oh, you want to know? Alright, I'll tell you then. We-"
"We just barely dodged a wicked thunderbolt!" Emma interrupted Paige, with Quackie adding a "DUCK!" before it grabbed its head and shook in place as the blonde knelt down and rubbed her Pokémon's head.
"Yes. That," Paige agreed.
"A thunderbolt? Did you two see where it came from? Was it from a piece of equipment? Was it a stray attack from someone's Pokémon?"
"Well, it was a Pokémon, that much we can be sure about," Paige began again. "But the way that little bugger just attacked us…. It was not friendly at all."
"Well, did you two manage to get a good look at the Pokémon?" Stephanie asked, wanting to know more about the Pokémon in question the younger women and their Pokémon found.
"All I could manage to make out was that the powerful bugger had yellow fur," Paige said, a shiver running up her spine as she thought back to the equipment crates that took the full force of that Thunderbolt attack.
"Yellow fur, huh?" Stephanie repeated as she began to think about possible Pokémon it could be. "OK. That'll be all for now. Thanks so much for bringing this to my attention. I'm giving you both and your teams the night off, so take your Pokémon that helped you out to go see one of the medics."
"No problem," Paige said. "And thanks for this. I think poor Quackie's gonna need something for his headache."
"Agreed. Hopefully, Nurse Amy's got something for him to take," Emma said as she helped her Psyduck make its way to see the nurse.
"If you two happen to see that Pokémon again, be sure to call or text me to let me know," Stephanie told Paige.
"Gotcha," the raven-haired woman nodded with a thumbs-up before she walked off to join up with Emma and Quackie.
Walking away in the opposite direction, Stephanie thought 'A Pokémon with yellow fur? Is it possible that it's the stowaway that's been a thorn in our sides for so long? ...I should probably call a roster-wide meeting. Just to touch base with everyone about how their searches have gone and to let them all know about what Paige and Emma found. Maybe if I tell them all, this'll better help our search.'
So, it looks like AJ's unexpected visit from Maryse and Delcatty went pretty well with a big plus in Pikachu not zapping the strange new duo. Now it's off to see Doctor Andrew! Switching over to Stephanie, seems like she had her hands full a bit with Emma and Paige telling her about their encounter with the stowaway, something that has the Billion Dollar Princess feeling curious after Paige tells her that she saw yellow fur in the midst of their battle. So, being an awesome boss and giving the duo the night off and marching orders to take their Pokémon that were involved in their impromptu battle with the stowaway to see the medics, Stephanie's left thinking about just what kind of Pokémon the stowaway could be...which leads her to thinking about having another roster-wide meeting. Maybe touching base about stowaway searches will help. But, *shrugs* who knows? Will Pikachu seeing Doctor Andrew go well? And will AJ be able to keep the true identity of the cutie a secret? These questions shall be answered...next time! Until then, don't forget to RR please. =)
(Stay safe and healthy out there, lovelies. *sends love and good vibes out to you all*)
