Keith: …Momo doesn't own Pokemon.
Our heroes were getting ready for their fifth day on the job. The last four days had slipped by quietly, usually being spent patrolling or, if there was any free time, visiting with the townsfolk.
"Rhythmi, could you help me with this…?" Kate was struggling with her spiky hair. "Sure." Rhythmi came over and started on the task of getting Kate's pin straight hair to get into its usual pigtails.
"Hey, how did your hair get so spiky, anyways?" Rhythmi asked as she expertly weaved bobby pins into the spiky mass. Kate sweatdropped. "Well, I was five, and I had hitched a ride on a Lanturn," She explained, "And apparently it didn't like that so much, and it shocked me." She paused, and then added, "Underwater."
Rhythmi grinned. "And the effects never went away, did they?" Kate sighed. "Nope."
Just then, Keith came out from his washroom, dressed in his uniform. Rhythmi suddenly got an idea. Just as Keith was getting his Styler out of his backpack, Rhythmi's hand 'slipped.'
"Whoops!" She said, the smirk written all over her face. Somehow, she had managed to make all the bobby pins and the hair ties drop out of the hair, all the while making it seem like an accident. "I'm so sorry, Kate!" Rhythmi said, secretly smiling as she picked up the hair utensils. "Oh, it's fine!" Kate chirped as she pulled the hair out of her eyes. Rhythmi noted irritably that Keith didn't seem to be hearing their voices as he rummaged around for his Styler. However, right when all the hair was out of Kate's eyes…
He looked up.
Kate's hair was still spiky while it was down, but it now went down to her shoulders. Keith noted that it looked very soft and silky and why was he making mental notes on her hair?
"I'm going to breakfast!" He stood up and walked (rather stiffly, might I add), to the door. Right before he was out, though, Rhythmi noticed that his Styler was already firmly strapped to his belt. Which meant that it had never even been in his backpack.
"Well," She laughed quietly, "Isn't he the slick one!"
Once he had gotten safely outside of the door, Keith slid to the ground, breathing heavily. "Arceus!" He mumbled. "This is why I didn't want to share a room with two girls!"
Suddenly, he noticed a pale black smoke in front of him. He stood up. "Oh, no."
No sooner had he said it than Crawford was speeding through the halls with a fire extinguisher in hand, yelling, "FIRE!" Elaine and Barlow ran down soon after.
Kate and Rhythmi opened the door. Kate's hair was in its usual spiky position now. "What's going on?" She asked.
"Luana… And most likely she's tried to make friends with the toaster." Keith growled.
"Oh, no." Kate and Rhythmi said in unison. They all ran for the kitchen.
"LUANA!" Barlow bellowed as he slammed the door open. Sure enough, there was Luana, covered in ash and smoke, and also holding two incinerated slices of toast. She turned slowly and gave a sheepish smile.
"Oops."
That was the usual morning at Vientown Base.
There hadn't been that much to do, but that didn't bother the trio that much.
"When are we going to do something exciting here?" Keith complained.
…Ok, maybe it did bug them a teensy bit.
Barlow's eyebrow twitched. "Funny you should ask that, actually," He growled, apparently annoyed. "We actually got a report from Mr. Woodward just this morning that needs some looking into.
"Mr. Woodward, the town elder, spends most of his time down at Nabiki Beach, but lately, he says that he's been hearing strange noises down in the cave there. It's all rather dodgy, and we need to send some men out." Barlow finished. The majority of the staff, which were women, scowled (except for Kate, who simply looked mildly irritated) when Barlow said men.
"ME!" Keith shouted, jumping up from his seat. "I'll go! Just leave it to me!"
"M-me too!" Kate stood up. "I can go, too!" She said.
Barlow sighed. "Alright, then, you two seem decent for the job." He said. "Report back by sunset!" He turned his back on them with a wistful stare into the distance. "I remember when I was your age. A young man, always craving romance and adventure—"
"Um, Barlow?" Crawford tapped Barlow's shoulder. "What?" Barlow replied without turning around, annoyed that his speech had been interrupted.
"Kate and Keith already left."
"Wha—!" Barlow whipped around to see two suspicious clouds of dust where the two had been standing before. He turned slowly to see Rhythmi in front of a high-grade laptop, bringing up a diagram of Nabiki Cave.
Barlow sulked.
"Voicemail! Voicemail!"
Rhythmi's voice suddenly emitted from Kate's Styler. Kate was so surprised that she had to fumble with the device for a bit before finally pressing the right button. "Yes?" She panted into the speaker.
On the other end, Rhythmi raised an eyebrow. "You seem a little tense." She commented.
"Tense I'm not tense who's tense not me I'm not tense!" Kate's words tumbled out of her mouth so quickly that it took Rhythmi awhile to decipher them.
Keith shook his head and pried the Styler from Kate's (tense) fingers. "Rhythmi, can you pull up a map of the cave for us?" He asked.
On the other end, Rhythmi smirked to herself. "Already on it, lover boy." She could practically feel the phone heat up in her hands.
As they walked down the beach towards the cave, they saw Mr. Woodward, a small, little man with a white tuft of hair and beetle black eyes that seemed to be able to look through you like an x-ray. He was also the man who had teased Keith on their Field Day while they were still at school.
"Oh!" Mr. Woodward tottered up to the Rangers. "Good, you're here… It's that cave over there." He pointed towards an opening in the face of the cliff that had been unreachable because of the tide before. "There's a weird noise coming from it, don't you agree?"
Kate and Keith listened for a few seconds, but then Kate commented, "I don't hear anything." Keith nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Me neither." Mr. Woodward shook his head. "Just go, maybe your hearing's not good enough!"
As the two walked towards the cave, Keith whispered, "Says the old guy." Kate had to laugh despite herself.
The cave was dark and damp. Kate was so tense that she jumped at the slightest noise, which wasn't that great for Lyrical, who had to sit on her shoulder.
They were barely through the entrance when a Buizel ran up to them and attacked. "What the heck?" Keith exclaimed. Kate made for her Styler, but was stopped by Keith, who already had his out. "I'll do it!" He said excitedly.
Three.
Two.
One.
Zero.
"CAPTURE ON!"
The Capture Disc bounced a little as it jumped out onto the ground, but Keith was able to make the Capture easily. "Yes!" He said as the bar filled up to the top. He waited for the Buizel to come to his side.
It never did.
The Buizel shot off ahead of them, disappearing into the darkness. "What just happened?" Kate said. "That capture was flawless, that Buizel should have come straight towards you!"
"I dunno," Keith muttered, pressing a few buttons on his Styler, "The data's recorded in the Browser." Kate got out her Styler. "Voicemail, Voicemail!" She chirped into the speaker. "Rhythmi, its Kate. We've got a major problem." Kate explained the situation to Rhythmi.
"What?" Rhythmi's voice sounded. "That's really bad. The Styler was invented by Professor Hastings himself, there shouldn't be anything wrong with—"
"Professor who?" Kate and Keith asked. "Ugh, never mind!" Rhythmi yelled, her temper rising. "Anyways, something's way off! For starters, you should—"
But what they should do, they never heard. Lyrical suddenly got excited and ran off. "Lyric!" Kate cried and ran after her, cutting off the Voicemail connection as she went. "Hey, Kate!" Keith ran after her.
"What's wrong with Lyric?" Kate panted, still running. "She was fine just a second ago!" Keith grimaced. "I don't know." He said, determination rising in his voice.
"But I do know that something's seriously wrong here, and we're going to find out what!"
