Chapter 21: (Act Three) The Di-Vine Dance

Blaring music, dimmed lights, another victory, and several hot girls dancing beside me—this was the life! I skimmed the giggling group of girls surrounding me for one in particular, one redhead among these blonds and brunettes.

Ah, there she was—not amid my crowd, but in a small cluster of her own, one adjacent to mine. No matter, I would go to her.

I pushed through the several girls, excusing myself gracefully. When one girl with a particularly strong grip latched onto my shoulder, I twirled her away into another lucky gentleman's arms.

Erin, said beautiful redhead, was laughing and appeared to be having a dance off with a blonde girl I had seen in the battle tournament. The blonde girl performed a series of complex jumps through her Chikorita's vines. She then snatched the vines and spun them, causing her Chikorita to roll through the air and land on her shoulder. The blonde gave Erin a "beat that" look.

Erin smirked and nodded to her Taillow. The bird hopped to the ground and Erin began with a series of unusual dance moves—all of which her Taillow imitated perfectly. When Erin folded her arms and square stepped, the Taillow folded his wings and square stepped. It was quite amusing to watch the Taillow imitate everything Erin did exactly.

Erin ended with a double back flip (causing several nearby dancers to back away/move out of the way in surprise) up to the blond girl and then whirled the girl into a waltz position.

The Taillow did the same, only ending up in a waltz position with the Chikorita.

Both girls burst out laughing.

I strode up to the pair of hyenas and slipped my hand between theirs. The laughing came to an abrupt stop.

"May I intercede?" I asked. Erin looked up and blushed. Upon seeing Erin's expression, the blonde girl winked and disappeared into the crowd of dancers toward the wall. Erin's Taillow whistled a cat-call before flapping off after the blonde.

I took Erin's light hand and twirled her closer to me. When I heard her breath catch, I smirked slightly. "That was quite a dance," I complemented. "Do you and your Taillow practice regularly?"

Erin looked up at me with those lovely hot-chocolate-like eyes. "Yeah…I—uh… I mean no."

"No?" I asked. This was unlike Erin's usual quick and witty response… interesting. I touched Erin's other arm and trailed my finders up to her hand.

Erin stared at her hands for a moment before firmly repeating, "No." We moved slowly together despite the upbeat music. She closed her eyes for a moment and when she opened them, she was smiling widely.

"Then how, may I ask, was your performance so perfect?"

Though I didn't believe it possible, her smile grew. "What can I say, I'm astounding."

So cheeky Erin was back after all. I rolled my eyes and spun her again, considering the Taillow. "Mirror

Move?" I guessed.

"You caught me," Erin replied, literally falling into my arms. She blushed and quickly spun away. "Tweal's father was a Pidgeot."

I was about to comment on the strange nature of her Taillow's name when Erin peered over my shoulder and said, "Oh look, there's Liam." I turned my head and saw the pesky kid leaning against the wall, talking to the blonde girl Erin had been dancing with before. Actually, I think the two were flirting from the way the girl kept laughing and moving closer to the kid. "Why isn't he dancing?" Erin mused.

Irked, I replied, "Who cares?"

Erin ignored me. "This is totally unacceptable! That boy must dance! He doesn't know what he's missing out on!" She pulled away from me and made her way toward the irritating teen.

I felt like I was the one missing out.

Seriously, what was with that kid? Why was Erin so interested in him? Perhaps, she liked… no I didn't want to consider that. Perhaps, she wanted to make me jealous. Yes, jealousy… well, two could play at that game.

I turned around to locate one of the girls I had danced with earlier, only to come face to face with a frantic looking Anita Parkwood.

This situation could not be more perfect.

"Jake, have you seen—"

I leaned in—

o o o o o o o o o o o o o

—and kissed me.

So much for being a psychic. I certainly didn't see this one coming.

The instant his lips touched mine, all thoughts and worries about finding Apple fled my mind. I had kissed once before, but it was nothing like this.

If I had known he was going to kiss me, I would have slapped him. This is Jake Veneer we're talking about. The evil, annoying… sexy, delicious… G-d help me.

He had one arm wrapped around my waist and another hand cupping my chin. His lips were soft and gentle, paralyzing my body and shutting down my brain. All I wanted was to get closer to him…

Was he enjoying this as much as I was?

There were just too many feelings—so much yearning to close the distance between our minds, emotions, souls. I couldn't help myself; I slid into his mind…

He watched Erin. He was enjoying himself; in fact, he seemed surprised that he was enjoying this more than his several other kisses… but it was almost all physical. Not nearly as much emotion as I was feeling…

He watched Erin. This was for her… he wanted to be kissing—

I abruptly shoved him away, disgusted.

"You…you… What have you done?" Anger flooded my mind. I was vaguely aware that a nearby light fixture exploded into a billion glass shards.

About to completely maul Jake Veneer, I was stopped suddenly by a shocking sight.

Erin was making out with Liam.

Mia, who had just been talking with Liam, looked like she might puke. Feelings of betrayal radiated from her; she stomped away angrily.

I watched in complete disbelief. And I thought our traveling group was already messed up…

Erin finally took a step back, but instead of smiling at Liam, she grinned evilly at Jake, snickered, and marched in the opposite direction of Mia. I noticed the restrooms were in that direction.

Remembering I still had to kill Jake, I turned around—only to find he had already disappeared.

Leaving me and Liam.

For a second we watched each other with a mixture of confusion and astonishment, trying to understand what had happened in the past five minutes. I'm not sure we ever would.

Distantly, I heard the DJ say, "And now a slow dance, dedicated to our birthday girl, Carly Goldenthrill…"

I blinked, feeling like I was forgetting something.

"Apple!" I exclaimed. Right, I was looking for Apple. She did not seem to be with Liam… "Liam, have you—" I started before realizing Liam's attention was not on me.

"Anita, will you dance with me?" Liam asked, his eyes darting across the crowd to his left.

"What?"

"You heard me; will you dance with me?"

"Why would I do that? I think you've had enough girls for the day—"

Carly appeared out of the crowd of people to Liam's left, her eyes focused on him. "Because," Liam quickly replied. "Otherwise I'll have to dance with Carly and you'll have to dance with Reece." He nodded to the right. Reece's tall figure could be seen pushing past teenagers in this direction.

"Oh, Liam," Carly sang. "It's my birthday! Will you dance with me?"

Liam smiled frostily. "Sorry, I already have a dance partner." He slung one arm around my waist and used his free arm to place my hand on his shoulder. I took a step closer to him so I could easily put both arms around his neck (to strangle him if necessary, of course).

Carly frowned and stomped away to Reece.

"Has it been like this all night?" I asked, amused.

"You don't know the half of it," Liam muttered darkly. "Actually, the only time I've been able to avoid her completely is when I'm with you." He raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

"Psychic barriers," I reminded him. "Though right now, I can't exactly do that."

"Believe me; nobody is sorrier than I am." He peered around. "She's not around anyway."

"Probably sulking…" I suddenly stopped swaying with the music, remembering my missing Pokemon. "Liam, where's Apple? Did you take her to be healed?"

"No, I did not see her after the battle. I assumed you picked her up."

"Shit," I said, starting to pull away.

And that's when the music stopped and the lights went out. Several people screamed.

Double shit.

Something flung me forward, into something hard. I tried to reach out with my psychic powers to figure out what all these "somethings" were, but I found that I couldn't. A thick rope seemed to bind me to the hard thing in front of me. My arms were tied around it, and I was helpless to stop whatever was holding me.

I managed to tilt my head upwards, and yelped in surprise when I found a pair of glowing green eyes staring down at me.

"Liam?" I asked.

"Yes," a voice above me replied.

"I'm tied to you."

"So I've noticed."

"What's going on?" I asked hesitantly. It was oddly comforting to have somebody to talk to in the midst of all this panic.

"I suspect we are being abducted. We can conclude that our abductees know of your psychic powers, as they most likely tied us together to stop your gift from working," Liam answered robotically, as if he was reading it out of a text book.

"Can you see what's happening?" I asked. Shrieks filled the air. Somewhere off to my right a couple of trainers were ordering their Pokemon to attack. I let out a yelp of fear when my feet came off of the ground.

"Obviously. We are currently tied together by thick green vines, and I believe there are a few others who have been tied by these vines. The vines are numerous and strong enough to lift us into the air, making me suspect the vines belong to a Tangela. A few trainers are attacking the vines, but I believe they are encountering problems because their vision is impaired. The rest of the teenagers are panicking."

"A Tangela?" I asked. I knew one person with a Tangela…

There was a flash of fire somewhere below me. The vines did not explode into flames as I expected. "That was Protect…" Liam muttered.

"Are these people idiots? If they use a fire attack, the whole place could burn down." I could tell we were being moved through the air from my hair rustling into my face.

"We're moving towards a doorway," Liam informed me.

"Lovely," I replied. I started to struggle, seeing if I could wiggle my way out of these vines.

"Ow!" Liam yelped. "Stop it! Are you trying to strangle me?"

"Well, you figure out a way out of this!"

"I've concluded that there is no way out, and therefore have decided to save energy by not moving."

"So you're giving up?"

"No, I'm waiting for a more opportune time—you need to duck," Liam warned.

"How the hell am I supposed to—" something hit the back of my head. The world spun. I saw about forty green eyes. "Crap, that hurt," I said, dazed.

"The Tangela… miscalculated how high that doorway was."

"No shit."

The screams began to fade behind us. I supposed we were being reeled in to wherever the Tangela was. My stomach plummeted, indicating we were going downwards.

A few dark minutes later, we finally stopped moving. I felt my feet touch the ground.

The lights flickered on. Unused to the light, I had to blink several times before I could properly see. When my eyesight returned, the first thing I saw was a blur of bleached hair and amber eyes. "Reece," I hissed. "I knew you had a Tangela…"

Reece shrugged. He bent down out of my sight. I looked around. We were in some sort of storage room, probably in the party center's basement. There were several cardboard boxes along the white walls, and the ceiling was cracked. A small wooden doorway was in the corner of wall I was facing. It was hard to see much more because Liam was in the way…

"Anita! Liam!" I heard Erin's voice behind me.

"Hey Erin, how's it going?" I asked sarcastically. Liam rolled his eyes. "Who else is here?"

"Jake's tied up in the back corner. His mouth is covered with a vine though. Other than that, it's just us, Erin, Tweal, Apple, and Reece."

"Apple's in here!"

"Yes, but she is knocked out on the floor." So that's what happened to her…

"Tweal's tied up, too?"

"Yes."

"Can you see what Reece is doing?"

"I'm snapping Tangela's vines and tying them so he doesn't have to hold you," Reece answered. I felt my shoe being taken off.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Ensuring that you will not be able to use your powers." I felt my bare foot touch Liam's bare foot and shivered at the awkwardness. Reece was tying them together. Highly unnecessary, if you ask me. My hands were already tied around his neck.

"What do you want with us, Reece?"

Reece did not respond. He was apparently done tying us up and moved away, probably to Erin. The wooden door in the corner of the room opened.

Carly stepped through.

Figures.

"I knew Reece was too stupid to figure all of this out on his own!" I mock exclaimed.

Carly ignored me and walked out of my line of sight. "Excellent work."

THUMP

"You bitch! Don't touch my hair! Do you know how long it took me to style it like this? Fu—mmmhmmmmmmmm. Mmmh. Mhhhm!"

"Carly touched Erin's hair. Erin fell over in an attempt to bite Carly. A vine is now covering Erin's mouth," Liam explained before I could ask.

"What do you want, Carly? People are going to notice we're missing. They'll call the police!"

"By then, we will be long gone."

"Why did you take Apple before the rest of us?" I asked to see if that was indeed what had occurred.

"I assumed you would come looking for her. You were supposed to come down here yourself, but apparently you don't care about your Pokemon enough," Carly snickered. "We were forced to resort to more disruptive plans…"

Anger broiled in my blood. "What do you want?" I repeated. "Our Pokemon? Money?" My eyes flickered to Reece. "A blow job?"

"Nothing," Carly said.

"Nothing?" I asked in disbelief. "So you just decided to tie us up for fun?"

"Pretty much."

I felt a yank at the back of my head. "Ow! What was that for?"

"Too many questions." Carly walked back into my sight. She placed a hand on Liam's head and ran it lovingly through his hair. "Can't avoid me now, can you?"

Liam narrowed his eyes and with precise aim, spat in her face.

"Nice one," I commented cheerfully. Carly used the sleeve of her dress to wipe her face, disgusted. I smirked. "Hey, Carly, if there is one upside to this situation, it's that I get Liam here all to myself." I leaned my head on Liam's shoulder to enforce the point. "Too bad you—"

Carly snapped her fingers and my mouth was covered with a vine instantly. Ah well, I knew I had it coming. Carly put her face close to mine. "I've always wanted to do this." I saw her raise her hand and I immediately closed my eyes. I winced as her hand connected with my face.

I saw stars again.

"Our work here is done," I heard Carly say. "Come on Reece, let's go." I watched the two leave the room, Reece holding his Tangela. We unfortunately were all still tied up by the Tangela's snapped-off vines, and Liam was the only one who could talk.

A few moments after the door slammed shut, Liam said, "Jump." He tried to jump, but because I didn't we ended up falling to the ground with a loud thump. Of course, my back landed on the hard floor. Liam, on top of me, was at least cushioned by my body.

I glared at him.

For whatever reason he started kicking the ground. "Make as much movement as possible," Liam ordered. I had no idea what he was trying to do, but Erin complied and started thumping the ground with her legs. Jake, I noticed, was too tied up to move any part of his body.

About five minutes later, something suddenly burst out of the ground.

"Diglett!"

"Diglett, slash these vines," Liam ordered. The Diglett obeyed, releasing Jake first, of course, because Jake was her trainer.

Finally, we were all free of the vines. I scooped Apple off of the ground as Jake explained, "—so then they tied me up when I was calling out for Diglett." He looked at Liam. "Man, if you knew to call Diglett by thumping around, why didn't you do it sooner?"

"They had a grass Pokemon," Liam answered coldly. "Calling Diglett while it was around would have been pointless."

Erin tried opening the door. She had been extremely quiet, and avoided even looking at Jake. Jake pretended that nothing was wrong. "It's locked," Erin announced.

"Slash," Jake ordered his Diglett. The door… well, it fell away in chunks. We climbed through the doorway. In front of us was a long spiral staircase, but to the left there was an elevator. I pressed the up button.

"What I don't get is why they captured us in the first place," I muttered as we clambered into the elevator. I closed my eyes and reached out with my mind, trying to see if I could locate Carly or Reece. I couldn't find either. I did, however, find—

{Fiery!}

{So you are alive. The police are looking for you.}

Through Fiery's eyes, I saw he was sitting in the large ball room the dance had been held in the party center. All of the lights were on, and the room was mostly empty. Napkins, cups, dead vines, and even a few shoes were strewn about the room. A couple of police were inspecting the area. One of the officers had a Machamp that was holding up a large metal gate—

The elevator door opened, and down the hall, I could see the Machamp. As we passed under the gate the Pokemon was holding up, I heard a nearby policeman mutter, "I don't understand why this gate came down…"

Mia and Andrew were waiting by Fiery, looking worried. When they spotted us, they ran over exclaiming, "Are you okay? What happened?"

Officer Jenny, her turquoise hair bobbing, walked over to us and grimly said, "I think we'd all like to hear that." Several police officers gathered around us.

I explained everything, leaving out the bit about my powers. When I was finished, one police officer said, "But that's impossible. Carly Goldenthrill was the first person to call the police. Several people said they saw her run out of the building for help."

"Are you sure it was Carly?" Officer Jenny asked.

"Yes, it was," I replied.

"Maybe she didn't see correctly?" one of the police officers suggested.

"We saw her, too," Erin answered. "It was definitely Carly Goldenthrill."

There was a murmur among the police officers. "There have been rumors of Team Glop'emm using hypnosis…" a policeman said. "Could it be?"

Angry that the police were so unwilling to listen, I yelled, "We weren't hypnotized!"

"How could you know?" the policeman retorted.

Because one of us isn't affected by any form of psychic energy, I wanted to scream. Another light fixture exploded.

Liam grabbed my arm. I glared at him and tried to tug away. He held steady and glared right back at me. "Control. Your. Emotions," he hissed, before releasing my arm.

Officer Jenny put a hand on my shoulder and said, "That's enough." She frowned at the police officer muttering about hypnosis. "It is extremely unlikely that these children have been hypnotized. There little proof of anything at the moment, except that there was indeed a Tangela in this room. We will continue investigating, but now it is time for these children to return to the Pokemon Center."

Officer Jenny lightly pushed us toward the door.

We took the cue and left.

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / /

The Pokemon Center was crowded, but because Apple only needed a simple heal, we were able to get back to our rooms fairly quickly. I left Apple with Nurse Joy and had to pick her up in about ten minutes.

As we walked down the austere hall back to our rooms, I made a request. "I think we should leave tonight."

"Are you insane?" Mia asked. "Do you know what time it is?"

Erin yawned. "Anita, it's one in the morning. Isn't it reasonable to just stay the night?"

In Erin's and Liam's minds, I said, {I'd like to see if I am able to locate Carly and Reece.}

Liam nodded slowly. "I'm with Anita."

Erin scowled. "Fine, I'll go pack." She turned to Mia and gave her a quick hug. "It was nice meeting you," she said. Then, in barely a whisper, she spoke: "And I'm sorry. I didn't know." Her voice was so quiet I may have been hearing it telepathically.

Mia nodded.

Erin shook hands with Andrew, ignored Jake who was standing with us, and backed into our room to pack.

Liam simply nodded to everyone, giving a particularly long look to Jake. They seemed to have developed a mutual respect for one another. Liam turned and exited into his room, next to mine and Erin's.

Mia and I hugged, promising we'd keep in touch and she and Andrew went off to bed (not together, to their separate rooms, people).

Which left Jake.

Jake sighed. "Anita, I need to talk to you."

I jumped into his mind before he could say anything. {…feel bad about having to break it to her, but its best not to have any confusion in the future. I don't enjoy breaking hearts…}

I snapped back into my own head and glared at the twit. He was so arrogant he believed that just because he kissed me, I like-liked him! I mean, he was a good kisser, but that does not make him a decent person! Ugh—he deserved this—

I thrust my fist forward in a well-practiced punch.

CRUNCH

I think that was his nose! Ooh, that had to hurt.

To add insult to injury, I declared, "Jake Veneer, you are an arrogant ass. Remember, that is what I have always and will always think of you, moron!"

I slammed the door in his face, feeling pretty good about myself.

Erin spotted my grin. "What are you so happy about?"

"I think I may have broken Jake's nose."

Erin smiled. "That is something to be happy about."

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / /

"Here's your Eevee. Have a good evening," Nurse Joy said tiredly. Apple jumped into my arms. There were less trainers waiting to get their Pokemon healed in the Pokemon Center's lobby when we exited the building. We quietly walked down the street.

{Where is everyone else?} was Apple's first question.

{Depending on who you are referring to, either in the Pokemon Center or in a Pokeball. Either way, they're probably sleeping,} I replied.

{Where are we going?} Why was Apple so inquisitive this late... oh wait, she was just knocked out for about five hours. That'd do it.

{We're going to find Carly and Reece.}

{Why would you want to find those fruitcakes?} Apple asked.

{To eat them alive.}

{Good point. Fruitcakes are quite delicious.} Apple paused. {I think I must be missing something.}

{A few brain cells?} I suggested.

{So you finally admit I have a brain!} Apple exclaimed. {Thinking of which, can I have a peek into yours? I need to catch up…}

{If you must.}

{Thanks.} Apple sniffed the air. {I have one last question.}

{Ask away,} I replied dryly.

{Is there a reason I smell like an overgrown, tangled weed?}