More disclaimer: Joanna is © Nidonocu. And up until the posting of this chapter, he has no idea what I planned for his character. Some might say he was better off not knowing. n__n

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Day 4 broke, rather suddenly, a higher tide than before covering Reka in a nice and smothering saturation of water. Which, as it could be quessed, caused a frenzied blackcat to wake up with a yelp, which she did. "Heyy!"

It was only mid-morning. No problem. But then, Reka remembered within the grogginess of just-woken consciousness that.. she had this television thing to go do. Quite soon, in fact. It wouldn't do her to be wet, but.. she'd dry off. That sun was still gracing the sky with its presence, and ousting away all the clouds. A few people were on the beach, even now; there were portions of the sand the tide had not yet got to.

So, standing up and shaking off her fur and clothes as best she could without feeling like a Growlithe.. Reka, defiant, stepped along the dryness of the untouched sand, and off towards the city itself; and the way to the television station, which she guessed as being somewhere up North.

She had no idea where her map was, but she felt the want to ask someone where she was going. However, people seemed more keen to ask her things. Such wonderances as 'Hey wow, it's that Reka girl!' and 'You've got my vote! Such a cute girl..' and the occasional 'A nine year old in office? You must be joking'.. Such people revised their opinions.

In fact, they really wanted to all along. Reka told them so, so it must be completely true, of course.

Eventually, Reka decided that wandering in circles listening to praise and complaint wouldn't do, and she (in her infinite wisdom) randomly strode up to the nearest person taller than five feet she could find - which, conveniently, was an Aerodactyl, a stout grey fellow with some ill-fitting clothes and a whole mop of black hair, and shades. He didn't look like much, Reka thought; but as long as he knew anything at all..

"Hey, mister? Do you know where the TV studios are?"

The odd gaze came back at her; and it pierced, but her disposition and her pristine cuteness softened the blow. "Do I.. know you?"

"Probably. I'm Reka. Soon to be Governess Reka, if you're really being picky over it. And I wouldn't mind if you were.."

"Ok then.. Governess." Whether he was being patronising, or whether Reka's statement was having an accidental effect.. didn't matter. "Yeah, I know where the TV studios are. I could give you directions, or.. I could lead you there."

She liked people who knew where they stood with kids, generally. Unless the kid was her, in which case Reka would take some offence and sparks would fly. Here, though.. it was just passive, and she accepted that. "Lead the way then." she said. He complied, and she followed. He walked fast.. but she skipped, so it made the defecit up quite well.

He took a sudden left turn down an alleyway. "Shortcut." Reka didn't feel the want to argue; after all, she wasn't sure what time it actually was. Anything to increase speed.. and besides, he was probably just being helpful.

The alleyways that were networked off this one.. it was almost like a maze; except the way streets were organised made it a rather cubic one, and one that crossed a lot of roads quite often. It was somewhere up north.. that's all she knew; they -were- approaching the mountain, so that was okay.

He stopped, in a slightly large area. The problem is that the area was blocked off, only having one exit. "Drat. Wrong turn." Reka immediately homed in on a problem with his tone of voice just then.. And, as well as that.. it was too loud. Loud is bad, and unnecessary; it was so quiet, so hot.. nobody was even awake yet, really.

She spun around. Well, nobody except this guy and those.. three.. fairly unsavoury and large looking... blackly and bluely dressed morphs... Err...

"So it's a wrong turn. We go back that way, right?" Reka queried, even though her overly experienced road of thought told her the sort of response this would get.

"Nah. We reached a dead end. Generally you stop at one of these.. after all, going backwards just wastes time, no?"

"Well..." Reka was insistant. "We're not at the studios yet."

"I noticed."

"Stop acting like a pansy, Kep, and just tell her why she's standing in an alley with us four." One of the morphs that approached.. it could only be a Nidorina, and a rather.. metal-covered one, at that. Not in the form of skin or anything, just.. earrings, and various other trinkets. Stereotypical, but noted perfectly, even so. Reka didn't see her carrying much of harm.

"Yeah, yeah." The Aerodactyl turned; he was ahead of everyone, so he could see them all when he did this. And he was smiling. "Well, miss governess.. I'm Kep, as you just heard. My c.. um. My -associates-.." That got a slight giggle from a couple of them.. ".. and me, we have a business proposition."

"I'm a nine year old Meowth, what the hell would I need with a business proposition..?" crooned Reka, in her best rendition of an 'I'm just an innnocent girl, you can let me go now and I won't terrorize the world honest' type of tone. If such a tone even exists, then this is it. That got a snigger from all four of them. Quick to humour, hm?

"More then you might ever have to find out." the Aerodactyl said, cryptically. Reka just gave the 'yawn bored' look, and the conversation progressed. "At this moment.. there is no Governor. Now our 'superiors', they would not want a governor they didn't put up there in the first place. It's bad for morale, and it makes things go slow. And when that happens.. well, people get nasty."

"We need a reason to get nasty..?" came the voice of the only guy in the coup, a Cubone morph. At least 6'6 and pulling in more weight than Reka wanted to know; such people did not think, they did. And when they did, the world watched. Without fail. The kittygirl cringed, openly.

*Just remember that you have the ultimate power, and they haven't. In case you were thinking 'hey, I'm going to die!'.* the bell said. Reka thought back at it, slightly disbelieving. ~This isn't the sort of thing you forget you've got in a situation like this...~

"Hey, she's a schizo." called the last member of the trio. A Xatu-morph, and the one Reka thought was most bothersome.. because.. she was quiet. The voice was quiet, and her look and demeanour was just silent, and foreboding. Black robes that split occasionally to let shades of green, blue, and various other things, come through. The look.. well, Reka just wasn't looking -at- her directly.

"Wazzat, Sparz..?" Kep asked the Xatu. From where he was, he wouldn't hear her. Her tone didn't change, just.. everything else seemed to not drown her out this time. "She's a schizo. I'm serious. I can see two things instead of one. Are you sure it's ethical to torture and maim someone who's mentally-"

"I'm not mentally ANYTHING! Except mentally cyuuuute.." Afterthought. "Maybe you're just seeing things wrong, miss .. starey birdie thing." Reka winced on the back of her face at that; perhaps she was trying just a tiny bit too hard. It worked, though; the Xatu went to quiet again. All is right with the world.

"Enough of this. You have a few choices. Blato there has been awake at least five days and hasn't smashed anything into a bloody mess on a hard surface yet. We're hoping to keep him cold turkey, but that's your choice, not mine." Reka yawned, and Kep moved on, slightly surprised. "Or perhaps Kuss wants to share some piercings.. trouble is, she's bad at putting them on other people-"

"The last guy is where I left him, I think." the Nidorina said, triumphantly. "With a few nails strewn about his gastric cavity. He'll either be torn apart from the inside, or slice himself up trying to get free. I don't mind which." Reka's stomach lurched, but she didn't show much of that.

"Let's skip the rest. Just tell me what you want. And I'll tell you what I want." Reka said, cockily. And Kep.. being receptive, gullible, and very easy to mislead as to whether his tactics are working or not; "Pull out of the election. The Slowbro is ours anyway; but you're not."

"Uhh.. No. Over my dead body." said Reka, intentionally, but covering it up with nervous glances about, as well as giggles of slight embarassment. Blato, the brute.. he just looked at the meowth girl, and shrugged. "Is that an in-vi-ta-shun?" Enunciating the syllables, too. Eugh.

"Sparz might want her; I don't think you're very fond of my little bird friend, are you governess.." Kep said, wandering over to Reka, to which the result was Reka moving a different way.

"I'm going to give you one chance to leave now, before I start getting upset." Reka said, fakely making the motions of barely holding her nerve. This was quite fun; the Bell wouldn't -let- her be nervous, and was actually encouraging her to play with them first. Which they ate up most delectably, laughing in such anticipated manners. Such fools..

"Can I break her now Kep?" Brato said, amiably. Such a friendly guy. So.. well, so easy. Reka's plan was set in motion just then. The group closed in on her, and that prompted her to speak again.

"Hey, big guy. I want you to realise that the bigger the person, the more mess they make."

Blato's mind failed to accept the command. "Uhh... what?"

Jeez! I want you to start breaking the decorated Nido you're standing next to. Big 'n heavy, and messy. Mess is good. I want you to remember you like mess. Hm?"

Kep stared at Reka after this comment, then to the Cubone. "Just ignore it. You're here to do a job."

Blato.. well, was beyond it, very quickly. No resisting the allure of the Bell for you, sir. "I must break Kuss." The Nidofemme shrieked as she was, indeed, plucked off the floor by this guy, by a leg, and even Reka winced, as the banging commenced. Whack, whack, whack...

Kep's eyes turned into dinner plates, as far as Reka could care. "Stop that!"

Reka, meanwhile, was not done yet. "When you're done that, I want you to realise that.. well, you're damn big and heavy, too. So slamming yourself against the floor will cause a really big mess. And what is mess?"

"I like mess." came the already-rote response from the big guy. The Nidofemme wasn't making much of a noise any more.. but then, she didn't have much of a head any more. Reka could only be rather pleased the Bell was doing overtime on her physiology.

"This is absurd." Kep said. "Sparz! What's she doing?"

"Well.. she did warn us, I guess." Sparz said, her eyes pretty much staring.. although, there's a difference between the Xatu brand of stare and a completely impressed-semi-manic AAAHHHH stype stare. This was nearer to the latter. "I don't know what she's doing, or how she's doing it. I do know that it's working, and that I'm not going to get let off by this thing."

"You're smart, miss starey birdie." was Reka's response. Slightly hollowed, and it surprised the kittygirl herself about the tone she was within. And the banging didn't help her concentration, either, but at least that was out of her line of sight, barely. "But I should let you go since you didn't do anything."

"It's not within you." said the Xatu. "You know this, and I know this. So do what you're doing and I'll remember you in my next life." Said like a true contemplator. Reka took a quick look at her thoughts... and was not surprised when it was discovered that Sparz was.. correct. She was going to make this next command.

"I want you two to think about the difference between the mind and the body.. In the green corner, we have the mistress of mental might.. The lady of lethal looking... The Xatu. And on the right, we've got the aerial Aerodactyl. The maestro of masterful manoeuvering, and.. I'm sure there's another alliteration, but.. I could care less. Beat each other up. No stopping at all."

The Bell orchestrated the thought and the saying as clear as a crystal cup, and Reka could only watch, as the two squared up. Sparz nodded; and suddenly her task was to prove the worthiness of the mind against.. well, this pithy flying thing. At which she stared, as he flew up in the air, with a swapped objective in his eyes and his thoughts, as well.

Trouble is, -she- knew that 'no stopping' meant one was to die, and the other was going to beat the corpse past submission until they exhausted themselves dead, also. No fatigue; just.. action. Still. Somewhere in her common sense.. Sparz had -always- wanted to know the answer to this. And now it was what she lived for. Funny thing.

Blato, in Reka's eyes, needed another mention.. Being out of Nido to apply to hard surface, he'd started on himself.. and, some force was just lifting him up, and dropping him. The skullmask had long since shattered, but the proper skull of his - and it was probably a thick one, thought Reka - that still held. But it was a sight to witness, that much was known.

Except she didn't want to witness it, and she wandered to the edge of the open area, facing away from the carnage being done behind her.. and she sat, staring away; attempting to ignore the sounds, the shrieks, and the yells, and just focus on waiting until this thing was done with. Which.. she did.

***

The bugmorph ran down the alleyway. As someone who is late is inclined to do. Joanna - that was her name, of course - was not often late, but today was one of those exceptions. She didn't particularly like these sort of missions, but.. whatever was said, she did. Like the good little Ledian she was.

It was utterly beyond her understand -why- they needed five people to interrogate a nine year old, but she'd been told to go along anyway. Her latecomings would be just another footnote; either she'll comply, or she'll be a smear on the floor. Either way, she was actually surprised that they hadn't come back the other way by now. This alley only went one way, and that was forwards.

But something was wrong. The air smelled horrible, and this only caused the blue bug to up her pace. Running ever quicker; not really noticing the lack of sun, or the lack of cloud, or the lack of any decent view.

--

Reka was just staring in the direction of the narrow alleyway. The noises behind her had long since stopped, but she didn't want to turn around. She wouldn't have to. Someone would be along, maybe. And if they weren't, the Bell would make her walk away eventually - but it didn't have so much hold on her that she couldn't realise what had happened, anyway.

Which made it all the more purposeful when she -did- eventually turn around, anyway. To be greeted by a lot more red then she'd have liked, and her stomach curled up into a ball and awaited further instructions, but none were given.

It had become impossible to tell where one started and the other began as far as the wasted puddles of morphic matter that used to be a Cubone and a Nidorina were concerned. Although the presence of pieces of the shattered skullmask as croutons in the bloody soup of what was left.. they didn't help either.

In fact there was only one corpse, such as it could be called, and that was the Xatu, missing two wings, one arm, half of her head, and most of her left leg.. Very dead now, but with the look that says, since she's the only thing remotely identifiable left.. what happened to the Aerodactyl?

That honour rested in the black mass to the back of the area. There was absolutely nothing to identify any more. Sparz had very defiantly annihilated what was left after his mortal coil snapped, as Reka had told her to do. The Bell, such as it was.. wasn't surprised in the slightest.

*I would have won my bet with the deity had he not agreed with me.* he commented. Reka's stomach.. emptied, spontaneously, and the meowth girl finally reacted to the carnage that -she- had wrought upon the area.

"I was never capable of this.." Reka wondered, aloud, staring at her hands.. Her hands, yeah; hands that had been shaped.. by the Bell. That bell.. "Sneaker was not capable of this. I'm still not..? This isn't me! What have I.."

Inane ramblings of an upset nine year old. And things were being allowed to progress normally. Or maybe they weren't; perhaps she was getting off lightly. The thought hurt; Reka was not inherently evil. Or maybe Sneaker wasn't. She didn't know any more who was who.

"But.. I'm just a girl.. I'm too young to be evil! I won't accept that..." Reka shouted. Shouted at the Xatu, anyway; the nearest thing she'd seen to a 'voice of reason'. Hey, she could even go speak to her mouth separately, it was kinda lying with the rest of her face over there some-

"Stop it!!"

And that's when she started running.

Generally someone is unable to see where they're going if they're upset and wiping tears out of their eyes as they're moving along. This was the problem Reka faced, although she didn't notice it.. until she ran into a telephone pole. Out of the way of the public, just so it could be in the way of Reka, at this particular moment in time. She slid ungracefully off it, almost bouncing.. coming to a stop in a rather pale heap on the floor, and making a rather loud noise while doing so.

A loud noise that Joanna, conveniently, managed to hear. And see, partially; a blur of something black spinning into a large vertical block of wood and landing in a heap. No idea who it was.. but over she went. Very quick now. She was a number of feet away from Reka in a matter of seconds there.

She wondered if this was the girl the others were supposed to have gotten by now. Evidently, it was; this was the young candidate for the governorship of the Isle, if TV was to be trusted. So, she spoke.. aware Reka was not exactly knocked out by the blow. "Hey.. Where would you be going in such a hurry..."

Reka heard a voice. That meant someone. That meant anyone. In the assumed ways of her form as it was, she needed comfort, and the best place to find comfort for someone of this age.. is in the embrace of someone. Anyone. So Joanna found herself latched onto by a mass of crying and screaming fur, which buried its face in the bug's clothing, and sobbed, lightly.

.. What could the Ledian do? She wasn't at all sure if this girl had actually agreed to concede her candidacy.. but Joanna could offer no real explanation for how she'd gotten away if she didn't. Simple deduction; an asset to herself, really.

So maybe she should play the good citizen for once. The kid probably deserved something that wasn't oppression; and hey, nobody was looking, right?

"Aww, would you look.. What's up with you, then..?" she asked, plainly, offering a caress to the back of the meowth's head with her lower right hand. Clammy. They must have really shook her up..

Reka didn't reply, unless incoherent and unhappy mumblings can be counted as a real reply, so Joanna asked again. "Can I do anything?"

"Everyone asks me that. But I have no answer now. Just keep that hug up. You're helpful if you do that." she said plainly. Rather simple and blunt, Joanna thought; but there is plenty of excuse for that here.

Unfortunately, the nature of her being made her not a very good hug. But she had four arms, so perhaps that would help, so she tried hugging with all of them, and Reka seemed to settle a small amount, not quite shaking as much. The bugmorph took this as a good sign.

Trouble is.. the bell wasn't quite finished right now. It seemed to know the real purpose the Ledian had come out here.. and, of course, intent is nine tenths of everything to some people. Or some inanimate objects, to be picky.

"It's good, but I think you could be better." Reka said. It was a strange way to phrase the compliment, but she, in her infinite naivity, noticed no problem with it. Until a response was given. "Um.. sure?"

This bothered the adult morph a lot. How could she be -better- at this..? .. Actually, what was more strange is why, suddenly, the calibre of her ability to be a conforting embrace target was the height of her thoughts right now.

After all.. she was an Agent, not a plushie. Hugging was not under her job description.

At which point the Ledian's balance started to sway a little. Reka squeezed, just so she wouldn't fall over. To Joanna, however.. the force of this embrace was lessening, and she had no idea why. Until, eventually.. she didn't feel it any more. But the meowth girl seemed to be getting more content..?

Reka noticed something was wrong there. Just a feeling she had, though this kinda solidified into pure truth when the thing she was latched onto suddenly felt a lot softer and more malleable than before. Pulling her head away a second, she opened her eyes. There appeared to be no difference between the clothing and the being she was clinging onto. And then.. then it dawned on her. "Oh jeez.. I'm sorry.."

"You're not actually clinging on any more..? I'm right here, I'm not going anywhere.." Joanna said, smiling. Happy voice. But.. why? She wasn't wanting to try this hard.. this was just business right now, and her feel-good-for-self playing into the equation.

"I won't forget you!" Reka said. And then Joanna .. ceased to think, really. Though she'd make this one happy if it was the last thing she did, and as it turned out, it would be the last thing she did. As skin and clothing came together, and became just material, an outer layer.. and softness within. The bug also became rather less supple, but that's just cause her joints were fixing in place via stitching and so forth.

Reka had stopped crying just to take in the new situation.. and, in that slightly young way.. she poked at the eyes of the now-plush Joanna. Who was quickly dwindling in size.. as arms became little more than Ledian ones. Reka stared. The plush was going nonmorph on her, right here.. But those eyes felt strange, they weren't even buttons..

"Funny eyes.." she said, slightly blankly. There was something about this situation that -should- have bothered her, but the Bell was chewing up memories, so that such things didn't matter. Reka had forgotten, quite genuinely. "Hey, miss, you're .. shrinking." she said to the plush, which didn't speak back, really.

It kept its blue complexion, although that blue covered all where clothing used to be; nonmorph Ledians didn't need clothes, and plushies especially didn't. Down, and down.. and eventually Reka had decided that cuddling the plush was a good idea, and by then it was a properly blue Ledian plush, just right to give the full Soopa Meowth Hug o'Doom to. Which made Reka feel much better about whatever she was upset about. Whatever that was.

The kittygirl flicked at the wings a little. Well, that was a stroke of luck, finding this real neat plush just lying here.. She had to get away from the realbadevilthing behind her, anyway, and besides, she was going to be late for her television meeting!

"You can come too.." she said to the stuffed toy, which just blankly glanced back without saying a word. ".. We'll call you Bluewings! Because I've never seen a blue Ledian before, and you're just too cute, you know that.."

Feelings dissipated back to the default glee, as Reka wandered away from the alley, and hopefully to someone who would direct her properly to where she wanted to go.