October 12th (Lilycove City, Hoenn)
(Dawn's POV)
I was sleeping soundly until I heard my alarm clock go off causing me to groan. After a few days of rest, I was finally well enough to come back to school whether I liked it or not. I had to because we were given so many days to miss school and I had to save the few that I had left.
I aimlessly reached out to find my clock and turn off the alarm. After feeling it for a few seconds, I finally found it and shut it off. I sat up and touched my hair to feel bedhead, great. I reached for Piplup's pokeball to call him out and help me with my problem. He turned around to see me pointing to my head. He nodded and chirped before using a light Bubble Beam to dampen it so I could brush it out. I patted his head in thanks and returned him.
After changing and sneaking a few knives in my jean jacket pocket, I grabbed my backpack and went downstairs to find that everyone else already there, "You ready to come back to school?" Leaf asked.
I gave her a flat look causing her to laugh, "Still can't talk?" Misty asked.
I sighed and shook my head causing Misty to smile sympathetically, "You'll get it back soon," she said optimistically before grinning. "Then we won't get you to shut up."
I rolled my eyes as I started to eat while listening to the little conversation that was going on. After we were finished, we left for homeroom where I mentally prepared myself for any verbal assault that the drama queens might throw at me. Surprisingly, the early morning went by smoothly enough with only the whispers and rumors, nothing by the drama queen's causing me to be suspicious.
At lunch, I sat down with my food when they finally showed up, "Hey bitch, what's with the new hair, trying to goth up are ya?" Francesca sneered.
I rolled my eyes, having your hair cut short doesn't make you goth, what do these idiots know.
"When my friend asks a question, you answer it," Brandi hissed.
I said nothing as I continued to eat, now I know how May felt when she lost her voice and had to deal with these lunatics.
"Go away Brandi and take your over puffy posse with you," Leaf muttered annoyed.
"Why should we, we wanted to ridicule your friend's hair," Francesca mocked as she fingered a lock.
Without looking up, I grabbed her hand and applied a pressure point to her hand causing her to kneel in pain. I then gave her a glare equaling 'don't touch the hair'.
I then let her go causing her to hold her hand in pain as I glared at the rest of them challenging them to pick on me. Melinda looked scared while the others glared before walking away.
"Nice one Dawn, I think you've mimicked Paul's scowl perfectly," Misty commented.
I gave her a grin as I continued to eat, "Where did you pick up the technique for that?" Gary asked out of curiosity.
I quickly wrote down that it was a lucky shot causing him to look at me in disbelief. I inwardly laughed at his surprise and continued to eat with no other disturbances. The bell than rang ending fifth period and we all walked to the battle arena because our classes were converged today. We took seats on the bleachers and I looked over to see Francesca glaring at me. She then smirked evilly causing me to frown, she was definitely going to pull something.
"Alright class, today's lecture is still continuing the topic of using different strategies," Solidad announced before looking over near our direction. "Yes Francesca?"
"Dawn still has yet to do her double battle test," she pointed out.
I froze and then silently facepalmed at forgetting that I had to make that up, figures the bitch wanted me to do it now.
Solidad then looked at me, "Solidad, Dawn is still recovering from her injuries, can't she make it up another time?" Leaf asked in my defense.
"It's up to Dawn as to whether she's ready or not," Steven answered.
All eyes then turned to me and the gang looked at me in concern. I couldn't blame them, I wasn't much in a position to do a double battle especially since I couldn't speak. May would be able to because she had a telepathic connection with her pokemon, something that I didn't have. Yet, I wanted to do this as a challenge to myself. Over the few days I was resting at Paul's, I practiced with a few of my pokemon in secret and created a system so that I would still be able to give them commands without speaking. The problem was that I created the system for when I was battling one on one, not when it would be a double battle.
"Even if Dawn wanted to battle, who would battle her? Everyone else but Leroy has done the test and he's not here," Misty pointed out.
"I'd be willing to step in," a familiar voice said cunningly causing all eyes to turn to them and whispers to start.
My eyes widened as I looked to where the voice came from. In the doorway stood Ursula with a smug grin on her face. What the hell was she doing here? I thought she was competing in contests in Johto.
"Glad to see you stopped by cousin," Francesca shouted.
I mentally facepalmed again, figures those two would be related.
"Dawn, it's up to you," Solidad called again.
Again all eyes were on me and I looked at Ursula to see she was smirking right at me piercing me with her eyes daring me to battle her.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before I stood up and smirked challenging her right back. If I could beat her before, I could do it again.
I then walked to my end of the stage with eyes on me as Ursula did the same while a ref came up to the side, "This will be a double battle, the battle will be over when all of one side's pokemon are unable to battle," the judge announced. "Trainers, release your pokemon."
Ursula took out her pokeballs, "Plusle, Minun, let's go!" she shouted as she threw their pokeballs.
They came out and did their little dance before ending in a cute pose. Figures she'd treat this like a contest battle. I smirked, two can play at that game.
I picked my two pokeballs and threw them out releasing Piplup and Quilava who posed as if they were in a contest as well. They froze slightly seeing who they would be battling, they then turned to me in concern and came to my feet.
I knelt down and smiled while petting their heads. I then grinned in determination and showed Piplup my left fist while I showed Quilava my right signaling for them to watch their respective hand for their commands.
They grinned and nodded in understanding while gently hitting my fists with their head/flipper in a gentle fist bump before racing out back to field and took their battle stances.
"Battle begin," the ref called.
"Plusle, Minun, use Spark," Ursula called giving me no time to call the first attack.
My pokemon braced themselves and dodged just in time following the rules that I laid out for the system which included dodging all attacks since I wouldn't be in a position to call out a counter.
My pokemon then looked at me and I showed one finger on my left hand and two on my right hand. They quickly did Bubble Beam and Flamethrower with no hesitation.
"Dodge them and use Helping Hand," Ursula shouted with a grin.
Plusle and Minun jumped up to dodge and connected in midair to use Helping Hand.
I frowned and showed four fingers on my right hand for Quilava to use Smokescreen hoping to separate them.
Smokescreen hit causing a bittersweet situation. Plusle and Minun were separated, but now my pokemon couldn't see me meaning I had to think of something quick.
I then remembered May using her feet to feel vibrations in the ground, maybe my pokemon could hear my tapping and come toward me.
It was a long shot, but I didn't have much of a choice. I started to tap my right foot hoping they could pick up on the vibrations.
A few seconds later, I could see Quilava's outline through the edge of the smoke. I sighed in relief knowing that at least one of them heard me. Quilava then shouted its name causing Piplup to soon appear as well.
"Plusle, Minun use Charge Beam," Ursula ordered and the attack came hitting not only Piplup and Quilava, but also me as well.
"Dawn!" my friends shouted.
I felt the attack fade and noticed my hair sticking out all over and covered in sparkles as the Smokescreen disappeared.
"Looks we get the opportunity to see Diamond Dandruff again," Ursula taunted.
I stood up and made fists, I overcame this years ago when she did this to me the first time, I would not fall to humiliation again. I smoothed down my hair and quickly put my fists together in front of me before swinging them out signaling Piplup and Quilava that it was time for a combination. I then showed one finger on my left and three fingers on my right.
Both pokemon nodded in understanding and got into place. Quilava then used Flamewheel while Piplup used Bubble Beam to surround Quilava.
"Dodge it," Ursula shouted.
Plusle and Minun jumped up, but so did Quilava causing them to be hit by the attack.
Quilava looked at me as well as Piplup and I quickly signaled for another combination except with Bubble Beam and Swift. Both pokemon nodded and did as told causing Bubble Beam and Swift to circle around Plusle and Minun. I grinned as the stars and bubbles bounced around and went to the center to hit the duo.
Ursula frowned, "Use Spark to destroy the circle," she called.
The duo did as ordered and destroyed the Swift and Bubble Beam.
"Now use Encore," she ordered with a smirk.
I grit my teeth in anger as I watched my pokemon get hit with the attack. This was now the real battle.
(Leaf's POV)
I was impressed with Dawn's battling, it seemed she created a system so that she could order her pokemon's attacks giving her some control of the battle. I was also impressed at her determination and acting calm when her hair stood up from that Charge Beam. A while ago, she told us the story of how she used to have a fear of Plusle and Minun when she was young, but that she outgrew it having faced them before in a contest battle. Now I watched as her pokemon got hit with Encore causing her to look anxious and mad.
"She's in a tough spot now," Misty said tiredly with a frown.
"No kidding, at least this isn't timed, otherwise it would be an incredible nightmare for her," Drew commented while frowning as well.
I looked at the battle to see that Quilava understood what just happened because of having experienced this before and was acting calm, but Piplup was looking at itself fanatically in seeing himself covered in sparkles. Quilava shouted for Piplup to calm down, but it did no good as Ursula ordered a barrage attack of Spark causing both pokemon to be hit over and over again. Dawn just watched in anger before a look of remembrance came across her face and Dawn smacked her forehead.
"Now she's got a plan," Paul muttered.
Both of Dawn's pokemon stood up weakly and looked at her she then pointed to the both of them and then swept her arms to cross them. Quilava shouted in understanding while Piplup looked confused. Quilava then explained causing Piplup to chirp and nod. Both then used their attacks on each other causing Ursula to grit her teeth in frustration.
The attacks stopped and both pokemon look exhausted, but Encore was gone and her pokemon were surrounded by blue and red light surprising everyone .
"That was nuts, she used the only attacks she had and broke down Encore," Gary said amazed.
"Not only that, Torrent and Blaze were activated," Ash said excitedly.
I grinned as Dawn did a motion to signal a combination and showed her numbers. Piplup and Quilava then used Flamethrower and Hydro Pump to create a swirling vortex toward Plusle and Minun. The duo couldn't dodge causing them to get hit with the attack and knocking into the back wall. Both of them then fell with swirls in their eyes ending the battle.
"Plusle and Minun are unable to battle, the match goes to Piplup and Quilava," the ref announced causing Dawn to jump up excitedly and run to her pokemon.
Ursula frowned, but thanked her pokemon's efforts as she returned them.
After Dawn hugged her pokemon, she returned them and walked back to sit on the bleachers.
"Well done both of you," Solidad praised before looking at Dawn. "Dawn, you passed your test with flying colors."
She nodded as she sat down where I hugged her like crazy, "That was awesome, you are so telling us how you did that after school," I said firmly.
She made the motion of laughing and nodded before we listened in on the lecture. After waiting impatiently for school to finish, the bell rang and I dragged Dawn out to the front where we waited for Gardevoir to appear.
"Okay spill, how did you create that system?" I demanded as we started to walk back to the house.
"I created it a few days ago when I was resting at Paul's house. I was bored and figured that I should create a way so that my pokemon could protect me in my state along with having a backup way of communicating in a pokemon battle. Unfortunately when I created the system, I only planned it for using one pokemon at a time, not for double battles," she explained.
"So you literally winged that battle hoping that it would work," Misty concluded.
"I would say I BSed it, but winged it works too," Dawn agree.
Misty and I laughed while the guys rolled their eyes, "That was still a good battle," Drew said with a smirk as we got back to the house.
"Thanks," Dawn said with a grin as she went into the kitchen and grabbed a couple of Oran berries.
She then called out Piplup and Quilava and praised their battling causing them to smile as they ate their berries. Dawn then attended to their wounds before returning them and joined Misty and I in my room to work on homework.
After an hour or so, Misty and I had finished though Dawn was swamped since she missed a lot of school.
"Argh, how the hell do you do this?" she complained in frustration.
Misty and I felt sympathetic as we watched her struggle with the Physics homework we had last week.
There was then a knock on the door, "Enter," I called.
"Hey guys," Misty called as I put away my textbooks and binders in my backpack.
"You finished your homework already?" Gary asked in slight surprise as the guys walked in.
I rolled my eyes, "Does that really surprise you?" I asked sarcastically.
"Actually, it doesn't. You're always the goody two shoes who does their homework right off the bat," he teased.
I rolled my eyes as Dawn growled in frustration as she erased something causing the guys to look at her, "Physics homework from last week," I explained causing them to nod in understanding.
Dawn then slumped forward resting her head on her book before shutting it, "I give up, I surrender to the evilness of circuits and electricity," she said overdramatically.
"No need to dramatic Troublesome," Paul muttered as he grabbed her backpack and Physics book. "Come on."
She gave him a confused look as he grabbed her arm and pulled her up before dragging her out.
"Looks like she's getting a forced tutoring session," Misty observed.
"Wanna bet they'll make out instead," Gary said with a smirk.
I rolled my eyes, "You would think that," I muttered before smirking slightly. "And they won't for the entire time, just part of it."
"What makes you guess that," Gary challenged.
I gave him an 'are-you-serious' look, "Remember, this is Paul we are talking about, not you."
"Burn," Ash coughed causing Gary to glare at him.
"That explains a lot," Misty teased.
I then blushed at what she was getting at and tried to hit her, "Shut up."
She laughed and dodged, "Nice Mist," Ash praised as they high fived.
(Dawn's POV)
"You can stop pulling me," I huffed as we reached his door.
He dropped my arm and I saw that it was a little red, "What was that about?" I asked annoyed.
He muttered under his breath, but I didn't catch what he said.
"What did you….," I said only for my mind to go blank by his lips on mine.
"If you wanted to make out you should have said so," I said with a slight laugh as we broke apart.
"We're not," he said as he handed me my Physics book.
"Seriously," I whined before trying to hit him with my textbook. "Jerk."
"You don't get anything until you finish," he huffed as he sat in his desk chair backwards.
I smirked, "So…you want to help me so that we can make out later?" I guessed.
"Sit Troublesome," he grunted as a light pink covered his cheeks.
I laughed and kissed his cheek before sitting on his bed and began to attack my homework. Not before I heard running and a "get back here" from an annoyed Gary and Leaf.
(Misty's POV)
After dodging Leaf and Gary, the four of us played video games while Drew went out to meditate much to our surprise though we didn't say anything. Time passed quickly til my poketch showed that it was 10:30 and I was yawning.
"I still think you girls cheated," Gary huffed as he stared at the TV screen showing that the winning results.
"How can you cheat on a racing game?" Leaf asked with a slight laugh.
"I don't know, but you did," Gary accused childishly as he pointed a finger at her.
Ash then leaned over to me, "Wanna bet they'll leave and make out," he whispered with a goofy grin causing me to snicker.
I then felt a pillow hit the back of my head, "I heard that," Leaf snapped.
I rolled my eyes, "Get over it, we're just teasing."
Leaf glared and pointed at me, "I will get you back."
I again rolled my eyes and fake shivered, "I'm so scared," I said sarcastically.
"Go ahead and laugh, but I will the one getting the last laugh," she said determined.
"You are so overreacting," I muttered as I walked toward the stairs to go upstairs.
My poketch then beeped along with Leaf's and Dawn's causing us to freeze, "You have got to be kidding me, now?!" I groaned.
We opened it and read the message causing us girls to groan, "Goodbye sleep," Leaf muttered as the three of us trekked to our small headquarters to gear up.
"Where are you going?" Drew asked as the guys followed us.
"We have a stealth mission of breaking into some corporation and snoop around for information due to an anonymous tip that there have been some shady dealings," Dawn said as she grabbed her gadgets of a barrette, three inch heel boots the color of her catsuit, eye shadow, and a pencil.
"In other words, no sleep," Leaf muttered as she got out her compowder to change into her catsuit.
"Okay, I'm stumped. What do these things do?" I asked as I looked at the gadgets after putting on my catsuit.
"The first gadget is the barette camera, perfect for sneaking photos. The second are suction cup bottomed boots allowing you to climb up walls. The third is eye shadow, once applied, becomes a pair of glasses to hack any computer along with x-ray vision. And the last gadget is a motion alarm which alerts you to when someone is nearby," a computer voice explained.
I raised my eyebrows impressed as I clipped the barrette to my hair and put on the boots.
"Always knew that eye shadow was useful. Ooh, it's in a nice smoky blue theme," Dawn said in awe.
I rolled my eyes, "Alright princess, let's go," I said as I put the other gadgets in a pocket.
Dawn glared at me, but I ignored her as we walked outside, "Have fun," Ash called as the guys stood by the door.
"Enjoying sleeping," Leaf called as Gardevoir appeared.
"Can you teleport us to the place I'm thinking of?" I asked.
She nodded and we found ourselves in Celadon City, "Thanks Gardevoir, you can go home and rest," I said with a small grin.
Gardevoir smiled and nodded before teleporting out.
"So…..where is this place?" Dawn messaged on a holographic keyboard displayed above her poketch since she couldn't speak telepathically.
"I'm not sure," I said while looking around.
"Hang on," Leaf called as she started to press buttons on her compowder. "The building is a few blocks from here."
"So who owns it?" I asked.
"Some guy named Oliver Richards, his deals with importing and exporting medicine and medical supplies. His record's clean along with his company's so I'm not sure why we need to snoop around?" Leaf said thoughtfully.
"Clair said that there rumors that he was doing shady business," Dawn typed.
"Well, I guess we'll have to see if we can find anything," I said determined.
"I still can't believe we have to do this now," Leaf complained with a yawn. "I'm tired."
"We all are so the sooner we find something, the sooner we can go to bed," I said as we peered around the corner and saw the building.
"Guess we better go through the roof," Leaf concluded.
"Let's go through this apartment building and hop to the other side on the roof," Dawn typed.
"Good idea," I agreed.
After sneaking up to the roof of a stingy apartment, we jumped over to the other side.
"How are we going to get in?" Dawn asked.
"Let's see if makeup will save us," Leaf said with a smirk as she put on the eye shadow.
A pair of glasses then appeared on Leaf's face, "Not hard at all," she said with a smirk as she typed in the passcode and got in.
"We should find the security room and mess with the video feed to mask our snooping," I said as we snuck down the stairs.
"And that would be where exactly?" Dawn typed.
"Hmm…maybe I can hack into the building's wifi and snag the blue prints," Leaf suggested as she pulled out her compowder.
"Great idea," I called as she began to press buttons.
I saw her smirk, "Give me ten minutes."
She then closed her compowder and ran down the hall leaving Dawn and I on the stairwell, "Can she really do it that fast?" Dawn typed in question.
"It wouldn't surprise me, she'll probably spike the system with a code to mess with the current feed," I theorized.
Dawn nodded in agreement as we waited for Leaf to report that it was safe to go snooping.
"The video is now tampered with, but there are guards stationed throughout the building so we need to proceed with caution," Leaf reported.
"Got it, you tackle the first two floors, I'll tackle floors three and four while Dawn does floors five and six," I directed.
"Sounds like a plan," Leaf agreed as Dawn nodded and gave a thumbs up.
"Dawn's in agreement," I quickly relayed. "Report anything you find and don't get caught."
"Roger," Leaf called as Dawn nodded again.
Dawn and I then split up and I made my way to the fourth floor. After snooping through the lab to find it clean, I began to snoop in the few offices that were on the floor. I activated the pencil and placed it underneath the door in the corner before putting on the eye shadow. The glasses then appeared and I began to scan the computer for anything suspicious. Nothing weird was found causing me to start searching the few file cabinets in the office.
Suddenly I heard voices causing me to freeze, crap! I quickly and quietly shut the file drawer before looking around the room for a place to hide. I saw a small closet and quickly went inside.
I heard voices and saw a beam of light through the crack under the door. A minute later, I heard the voices leave and I let out a sigh in relief as I stepped out and continued to snoop around. I then paused for a moment as I remembered the motion alarm pencil, it didn't detect the security guards' presence.
"I think the anonymous tip is a bust," Leaf muttered in annoyance.
"In saying that, I'm assuming you aren't finding anything suspicious?" I guessed as I went to the last office on the floor.
"No kidding, these records seem to be flawless and I can't find anything sketchy on their computer," Leaf muttered. "So far, the second floor is a bust."
"Same with the fourth," I reported.
"Along with the fifth," Dawn messaged us.
"Since we can't find anything, can we report to Clair that we found nothing and go to bed, it's 12:30 in the morning," Leaf whined.
I sighed, "We can't until we've searched the whole building. If we find nothing, then we'll leave."
"Fine," Dawn and Leaf agreed.
As communication ceased, I couldn't help but think about the motion alarm pencil and how it failed to work. Guess this means I better up my guard since it's not working.
(Leaf's POV)
I yawned as I continued to search one of the few offices on the first floor. Curse Lance and his "leave no stone unturned" policy, I want to go to bed.
I then noticed a beam of light nearby and froze. Crap, why didn't the pencil pick up the security guards.
I quickly shut off the computer screen and looked around for a place to hide. As I heard voices, I drove under the desk in panic.
"I thought I heard somethin'?" a gruff voice said.
"You're hearing things," another guy muttered.
I heard their voices argue some more before fading away. I sighed in relief, that was close.
"Anyone annoyed that these motion alarm pencils aren't working?" Misty asked annoyed.
"I am," I muttered as I tried to get out from under the desk and banged my head in the process. "Ow."
"What happened?" Dawn messaged.
"I bumped my head cause I had to dive under the desk to avoid getting caught," I said annoyed as I rubbed my head. "I say this anonymous tip was a dud, I'm not finding squat."
"Did you finish searching the first floor?" Misty asked.
I sighed, "Almost, I'm in the last room for the floor," I reported as I looked around the room and frowned at the size.
I pulled out my compowder to look at the blue prints. This office was about a third smaller than the measurements on the blueprints.
"Well, Dawn and I found nothing, we're waiting on the fourth floor for you," Misty reported tiredly.
I sighed, "I think I found something, well...at least something odd."
"What do you mean?" Misty asked.
"The office I'm in is a third smaller than what the measurements on the blueprints say," I said as I walked to the edge of the office that seemed to come up short.
"We'll be there in a few minutes to look," Misty called as I looked at the wall.
I kept inspecting between the blueprints the wall and drew the conclusion that there was a room on the other side that was hidden.
A few minutes later, Misty and Dawn came in and then compared the room to the blueprints drawing the same conclusion that I did.
"Let's see if x-ray vision can help us out," Misty said as we applied the eye shadow and the glasses appeared.
I looked at the wall and noticed that it looked like a small office was in there.
"The opening is behind the shelving," Dawn messaged before pointing at what she was talking about.
"But how do we activate it?" I wondered as we looked for a switch or button.
"Maybe pull out a book," Dawn typed before she leaned against a nearby desk and tipped over a picture frame causing a door to swing out from the wall with shelves.
"Nice one," I complimented. "Who knew that a picture frame would be the opener."
"Now let's look around, it's getting incredibly late," Misty said before she yawned.
I went to the computer and began to read the files. After ten minutes, I let my head drop on the desk.
"Let me guess, nothing weird?" Dawn typed.
"Correctamundo," I muttered before thinking in my sleepy state. "Actually, don't you think it's weird that this office is hidden yet there is nothing suspicious on this computer?"
Misty sneezed, "You have a good point, the files that Dawn and I went through showed nothing funny either. So if nothing is suspicious, why hide this office?"
Dawn shrugged her shoulders as she fiddled with rotating a pencil container on the desk to trigger a hole in the floor.
"Okay, did not see that coming," Dawn typed hurriedly.
"No kidding, the blueprints don't call for a basement," I said. "Maybe there is truth to the anonymous tip."