You Can't Handle the Truth

Daphne and Conan woke up early the next morning. They had both woken once prior to this, although it had been at different times. Upon seeing their partner still asleep, they had both gone on short walks around the town without really taking anything in. They'd both arrived back at the Pokémon Centre to find their partner hadn't stirred and gone back to sleep themselves. But now they were both awake, and after some quick thinking and even quicker thievery, even had a change of clean clothes to wear. Daphne and Conan checked on Massimo and Vivian's room and were surprised to find that they had already left the Pokémon Centre, without even saying goodbye. It was probably for the best, as they would have had to go their separate ways at some point and it wouldn't do well to rely on the other team for companionship. Daphne and Conan didn't want to run the risk of bumping into the two teenagers whose clothes they had stolen and so speedily made their way downstairs to return the room key to retrieve Amina, who was happy to see them now she was feeling fully refreshed. After a brief reunion, the trio left the Pokémon Centre without any real plan in mind. On Conan's suggestion, they went around the town as they were already at its centre.

They had been instructed to find the field agents who would be their mentors but it hadn't crossed their minds how exactly they were going to do that. They walked aimlessly through town, struggling to come up with a plan to find the field agents that would help them become ones themselves. When Amina complained that she was hungry, Conan directed the group's attention to a market stall selling fresh fruits. The owner was an old man with grey hair and a slightly hunched-over back. He looked perfectly harmless. Grinning wickedly, Conan shared the idea that sprung to mind as soon as he caught sight of the old man. It didn't take Daphne long to fine-tuned the plan and work out all the minor details. Amina watched her two trainers use their combined skill to come up with their first misdeed on their own. She was impressed, to say the least.

Once she was told her part in the plan, Amina got to her position next to Conan and got comfortably into her role. They watched as Daphne approached the stall. Just before, she had plaited her long green hair into two and adding that to the fact that she was wearing a t-shirt with a smiley face emblazoned on the front, Daphne came across as a sweet and innocent teenage girl. Oh, the irony.

"Excuse me sir, but could I ask you a question?" Daphne spoke politely so as to get on the man's good side. He looked up, hoping for a customer and was a little disappointed to see a little girl. Still, she looked rather upset to him and he put a smile on his face to ask her what was wrong.

"You see the thing is..." Daphne looked down at her hands and startled fiddling with her fingers – which was Conan and Amina's cue to come in. They didn't let her down and made their way over to the stall, looking around shiftily as if they were scared someone was going to stop them. The old man saw them approaching out of the corner of his eye and was immediately on guard. He'd been robbed plenty times over the years and had learned how to defend his stock against pesky teenagers. There was no way he was going to allow Conan and Amina to slip the wool over his eyes.

"...the thing is, sir, I'm new in town and I was supposed to meet my mum near the gym and I don't know where it is." The old man was now giving Conan and a rather vicious-looking Amina his undivided attention. They hovered over some of his pricier fruit that had been imported from abroad, Conan licking his lips for effect. Conan picked up an exotic-looking pink sphere with relish, and after steadily keeping his eyes on the old man for a while, asked how much it was. The man replied with a number that was probably double the price of the fruit originally and Conan reluctantly replaced the fruit.

Well, he was about to.

He quickly changed his mind and took a great bite out of it, the pink juice dribbling down his chin. It was sweeter than he anticipated, but not bad. The old man turned completely away from Daphne and began yelling at Conan, ordering him to pay up. Conan ignored the old man and lazily reached for another fruit of the same type. The man stepped forward with the intention of grabbing hold of the boy's wrist and dragging him single-handily to the police. However, that was when Amina got involved. She bared her teeth at the old man and used Mean Look, rooting him to the spot as he froze in fear. The old man kept calm under these conditions though, and began shouting for help. Before anyone could heroically show up with the intent of being the old man's saviour, Conan urged Amina to follow him as he raced off, weaving in and out of buildings until he came to the place where they had entered Dearborn Town two days ago. After checking that no-one had followed them, Conan relaxed and sat at the foot of a nearby tree. He bit into the pink fruit he had managed to take with him and relished the taste of it.

"We were good, weren't we Conan?" Amina asked, excitedly bouncing up and down. Conan grinned.

"Actually, we were great," Daphne replied, stepping out from behind the tree Conan was resting at with her arms filled with a vast variety of fruit. Amina's eyes lit up and she swooped down, eating five fruits whole as she did so. She licked her lips messily, and thanked Daphne. Daphne smiled in return and joined Conan at the foot of the tree. She handed him some fruit and he wordlessly took them from her.

While the old man had been eyeing Conan and Amina warily, Daphne had grabbed as much fruit as she could handle and fled the scene before the old man had even called for help. He would later look back and guess that the innocent little girl had wandered off to find directions from someone else, not suspecting her of stealing from him. Although he would wonder if he had more stock before she showed up...

The three team mates ate all the fruit they could manage and lazed around, their hunger now satisfied. They still had no idea how to find their mentors but things didn't seem so hopeless now – if it came to the worst and they couldn't find them, then at least they knew they could look after themselves for a while. Somewhere in the distance, a school bell rang and the unmistakable roar of happy school children was heard. From those two sounds alone, Conan deduced that it was break time at Dearborn Primary School.

It had been a while since he had been in his hometown. He hadn't planned on returning so soon, but it couldn't be helped. Conan could remember when he used to go to the local primary school, and how miserable he had been because of the state of his family. If it wasn't for his sister, Conan might have given up altogether. As it were, Tate gave Conan a reason to actively do something about their family's current situation, and everything he did at the peewee training school, he did for her.

Daphne took her clothes out of her bag and checked them over. They definitely needed a good wash, make no mistake. She wished that wasn't the case though: her new t-shirt irritated her. Why couldn't the person she had 'borrowed' the top from been more mature with her clothes? It was just Daphne's luck to get stuck with a t-shirt that had a huge smiley face across the middle. She hated it. It was so bloody cheerful – and what did Daphne have to be cheerful about? The first chance she got, she was going to throw the t-shirt in the bin.

The excitement of their misdeed was wearing off of Amina and she began to calm down from her childish high. She was bored and had the urge to play a prank on someone but there was no-one around to be a victim. She could trick Daphne and Conan, however she distinctly remembered promising not to do such a thing. Then again...maybe that had been a prank, and Amina just didn't know it yet?

Chuckling quietly to herself, Amina worked hard to come up with a good prank to get her trainers with. They stared at Dearborn Town, completely oblivious to their Pokémon's cruel thoughts.

A loud, high-pitched voice interrupted their quiet reflection, and all three averted their attention to the direction from which the noise had come. A girl was running towards them; calling out loudly, closely followed by a small, pink Pokémon. Conan and Daphne quickly got to their feet, immediately on their guard. They had just committed a crime and someone to be chasing after them while shouting sounded highly suspicious to their ears. They were poised and ready to flee the area if necessary. Plans to prank Daphne and Conan flew out of Amina's mind as she advised herself to keep calm. She wouldn't be much use if she panicked.

The girl ran closer and the trio realized she wasn't a threat – mainly because she looked no older than nine years old. Daphne and Amina began to relax, although Conan seemed to grow tenser. The girl raced right into him and enveloped him in a hug with a cry of 'oh Coney!'. Daphne and Amina smirked at his embarrassed expression, his cheeks turning a light red. When the girl stepped away from Conan, Daphne wasn't surprised to see that the girl was the same one from the photograph Conan treasured. His little sister, Tate. Seeing her face-to-face, the resemblance she had to Conan was striking: they had the same eyes, the same complexion and the same nose. They were nearly identical, except Tate had glasses and was – obviously – a girl. Although, she was a really girly-girl, which Daphne could tell from the way she was dressed entirely in pink: from a pink t-shirt to pink sandals. Conan turned to Daphne and Amina.

"This is my little sister, Tate. Tate, these are my team mates, Daphne and Amina," he introduced them. Tate beamed.

"It's nice to meet you two! Oh, and this is my Jigglypuff..." Daphne stared hard at the round Pokémon, and thought she recognised it from somewhere. It looked like any other Jigglypuff, apart from a dark pink bowtie just below its mouth that made it look rather dressed-up. When Daphne finally connected the dots, she turned to Conan in fury.

"This is the same Jigglypuff that put me and Amina to sleep, isn't it?" Conan didn't know what to say, so he didn't say anything. It hadn't occurred to him what he would say in the event that Daphne figured out that he and the Jigglypuff were connected. Amina also turned to him, backing up Daphne with an angry glare. Conan looked around shiftily.

"It's not his fault! Well, actually that's not true...Uhm...Jigglypuff had to put you to sleep, or else you would have seen me help Conan catch the Ponyta!" Tate interjected, rushing in before she had time to think about what she was saying. This admittance only made matters worse for Conan. Daphne shot him a dark look, filled with a new found hatred.

"So you mean to tell me that you favoured your kid sister's help over mine and Amina's?" Daphne hissed accusingly. Conan managed to find his voice eventually and decided to defend himself, rather than leaving it up to his sister who hadn't exactly done a good job of it in her first attempt.

"Look, it wasn't like that." Daphne raised an eyebrow and folded her arms, not yet convinced. Amina hovered by Daphne's shoulder and bared her teeth at Conan.

"Should I use Lick on him?" she offered nastily.

"Hey, let's not do anything rash here! Can I explain myself?" Daphne and Amina looked at each other, seeing what the other thought. Tate watched the three of them interact, fascinated. The last time she had seen her brother was over two weeks now, and he hadn't been getting ganged up on by a teenage girl and a Gastly. Tate found it interesting to watch, and did so without speaking. Daphne and Amina nodded, giving their permission so Conan could try to defend himself.

"Before you two arrived, Rachel and Paras were my partners. Rachel was so feeble and good-natured, and she encouraged Paras to be the same. Every time we were sent on a mission, Rachel would find a way to mess it up on purpose. I was so frustrated with her that I made an arrangement with Tate to have her put to sleep every mission we went on together. Rachel soon figured it out and felt betrayed, so she left with Paras. Then when you two came along, I didn't have time to let Tate know that there would be a change in the arrangement we had." Daphne's arms dropped to her sides. So that was why Conan's partner had left so suddenly. She regarded the Jigglypuff, now running in circles around Tate's legs. It was oblivious to the fact that it had been the cause of so much tension. Daphne considered all that Conan had told her. It wasn't actually intentional that the Jigglypuff had put them to sleep, since Tate had no idea that Conan had gained new partners. It was all one big misunderstanding, and Daphne would be stupid to hold it against her team mate. She sighed and gave in.

With that issue now resolved, the three humans and two Pokémon found a hush come over them, as they all waited for someone else to cut in before they spoke. They looked at each other awkwardly, until Daphne took it upon herself to lead them in conversation.

"So how old are you, Tate?" she asked conversationally. Being an only child, Daphne hadn't had much experience with talking to people younger than her and she had concluded long before that she didn't really like children. She could tolerate them, yes, but most of the time they were so sticky and noisy that she wished they all lived somewhere far away from her.

"I'm gonna be thirteen in a few weeks," replied Tate proudly. Daphne was shocked. To her, Tate looked no older than nine! How could she be twelve? She had a childish face and was on the short side, too. Daphne found it hard to accept that Tate was only two years younger than herself. She knew that it wouldn't look good if she insulted her partner's little sister straight after meeting her for the first time and held her tongue, praying she wasn't showing her inner thoughts on her face.

"No way! You don't look older than ten," Amina said bluntly. Daphne shook her head; she should have known Amina would say something like that. Tate fixed the Pokémon with a cold stare and stuck her tongue out at her. Conan suppressed his laughter and suggested that they go home.

"Why?" asked Tate, staring up at her older brother.

"Two reasons: one, you're supposed to be in school and if Officer Jenny catches you then we're going to be in trouble and two, we have nothing better to do." Tate grumbled 'good point' and they set off in the direction of Conan's house.

Note: It's really long and nothing really dramatic happens, I know. But the next chapter, I think that's when it gets more exciting. Just remember I have exams and whatnot, so updates won't be frequent XP I'm happy though, coz even I can tell my writing has developed a lot since I first joined this site. I'm actually not relying heavily on talking to move the story along! Yay!