Chapter 19: Sibling Rivalry
"Rita, you still haven't told me what's going on!"
"I don't really know either, just read the letter."
Rita had dragged Lloyd to a boat without any explanation at all except for repeated, useless stuff like "It's important." or "You'll see, just hurry up."
Lloyd already read the note she gave him, what he picked up from it was a royal family was looking for Chikorita's, and that they were going to a place called Oasis Island.
What ever was going on, Rita was in a hurry to get to Oasis Island, what would have been a two, maybe three day journey to the boat became an afternoon, as Rita had forced Lloyd to run most of the way, and the only thing even close to a break he got was a few minutes where he could walk instead of run.
They currently were in line to board the only boat to Oasis Island, they're tickets bought, and their packs still full of supplies they took from their room.
"Come on Rita, were stuck in this line, it's the perfect time to explain."
"Fine, fine. Lloyd, think about it, what do you think it is a royal family would have?"
"Ahh... A castle?"
"And?"
"Umm... Servants?"
"And?"
"Oh, I don't know, what?"
"Money. You saw the reward for bringing me their right? You bring me in, get the reward, they get what they need from me, we leave. Simple yes?"
"And what if it's a trap? What if its Maverick or those other two or a completely different fugitive out to get me?"
"Then why would they ask for me?"
"Because asking for me would be to obvious?"
"Gah, you're unbelievable Lloyd, just trust me, every thing is gonna be fine."
They got to the front of the line, and gave the pokemon their tickets, they got on board and were told to go to room 7, which was close to where they got on.
"Listen, if this is a trap, and we do get captured, you have to buy me dinner when we get back or something, as compensation."
"Fine! And if its not a trap and everything goes smoothly, you only get %10 of the reward!"
"Deal!"
It didn't take long to get to their room, the inside was cold, damp, and smelly. The only thing in their was a small wall mounted mirror, and two beds, each with a paper thin blanket and a flattened pillow.
"How much did those tickets cost?"
"20 poke each."
"Figures."
Lloyd could already tell this was going to be a glorious voyage, no way to entertain themselves and a room that looked less comfortable to sleep in then a cave. Lloyd went to his bed and got in, making himself as comfortable as possible.
"Wake me when we get there, running here made me exhausted."
"Ok, I guess I'll sleep to then, need all out energy when we get there."
Rita went to her bed as well, finding it to be just as uncomfortable as it looked, and the both of them went to sleep.
---
Isaac was in the back room, still no sign of Jennifer at all. He looked at the clock, it was already two in the afternoon.
He went down the stairs, to see if she was still sleeping in front of the database computer where he left her. He went straight to the computer and found she was indeed still asleep, although she had fallen off the chair and was now face first on the ground, still asleep.
"I'd better wake her."
Isaac kicked her gently with his foot, she didn't react, he did it again, she didn't react, he put his foot under her and flipped her over, no reaction at all.
"Wow, impressive."
Isaac didn't want to hurt her, so he decided to try making some noise to wake her. Hey yelled "Hey!" Into one of her ears, still nothing happened, he stomped the ground, slapped the top of the computer desk she was sleeping on, he picked up the chair and threw it into the darkness, nothing woke her up.
Then Isaac got an idea, he hoped it worked because the only other thing he could think of was splashing a bucket of water on her. He grabbed one of her feet, and tickled to bottom of her, unlike his other ideas, this got an immediate reaction. Jennifer woke up giggling hard, and she continued to do so for a few seconds after Isaac let go of her foot.
"Mmm... Oh, hey Isaac, is it time to go to the movie now?"
"Umm, Jennifer, its two in the afternoon, the next day."
"What!? Oh no, I over slept, what about the mail? I, I..."
"Don't worry, I did it all for you already."
"I... Wait, really? Wow, that's the nicest thing anybody's ever done for me."
"It was no problem really... Ok, its not as easy as I thought it would be, but the fact I helped out a friend made it worth while."
Quit wasting time you idiot, ask her already!
"Umm... Jennifer... I was wondering..."
"Yeah?"
"Would you like to come with me on a mission? My teammates had something else very important to do and I thought it would be a good way to get to know each other... Or something..."
"Well.. I guess if I asked my parents first, and got someone to do the mail for me tomorrow in case we don't get back... Yeah sure I'll go with you!"
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! All right!
"Ahem... Yeah, that's great, I'll meet you outside then?"
"Ok, see you in a bit."
Isaac walked up the long dark stairs with a great feeling of pride, and triumph. Not only had he built up the nerves to ask her to go with on a mission, she actually said she would!
I wonder if I can convince her to join Team Valiant? That couldn't be more perfect!
Isaac went from the mail room straight to the main entrance of the HQ and waited there for awhile. About fifteen minutes later he saw Jennifer, carrying a bag similar to the one he and Rita had.
"I'm all ready."
"Ok, where do your parents live?"
"Just outside of town."
"Ok then, lets go!"
"Wait one sec, what's the mission anyways? You never did tell me."
Isaac realized for the first time he never looked either.
You idiot, you brought her on a mission without knowing if it was dangerous or not!
"Uhh, we'll read it together, at your place."
"Ok then, whatever, follow me then, its less then 10 minutes from here."
---
The Buneary's home was easy to spot, Isaac never saw anything like it in his life. It wasn't really a house, but actually a hole in the ground, surrounded by a patio like wooden floor and decorative wooden fence. In front of the only gap in the fence was a light red mailbox with painted plowers on it and the words "Buneary Family" written is bright green.
"So, you guys live in that hole?"
"Its not really a hole, its kinda like a big basement, all Buneary live in holes like that, we just made ours more civilized, like a normal house."
Without warning she jumped down the hole, Isaac looked down and could see the bottom quite clearly, Jennifer looking up at him.
"Need me to catch you or something?"
"Nah, I got this!"
Isaac jumped down, falling only about eight feet before landing very ungracefully in front of Jennifer. He landed on his feet, then immediately fell forward, going face first into the ground.
"Haha, nice jump Isaac."
Jennifer helped him stand up. When Isaac recovered from the fall, he finally took notice of his surroundings. The small square he was standing in was what you would typically find inside a hole in the wasteland, dirt and sand. But he saw the rest of the home was quite different, the main room was completely round, the floor, ceiling and walls all made of wood, and many doors lined the walls. In the middle was a huge table, one that could hold at least forty pokemon their size.
One of the many wooden doors that lined the wall opened, out of it came a Lopunny, who greeted the two of them with a warm smile.
"Hello Jen, I wasn't expecting you back this early, who's your friend?"
"My names Isaac, I'm a friend of Jennifer."
"Oh how lovely, its nice to see you making friends Jen Deary. I'm Jennifers mother, Lara, I'm afraid almost everyone is away right now. What is it you two came for?"
"Isaac wants me to go on a brotherhood mission with him! The rest of his team left for something else and he asked me to join him."
"Oh, well have you finished working today?"
"Yeah, and I was gonna ask Rina if she could cover for me tomorrow if I don't get back by then."
"Well, I don't see why not, you're certainly old enough. Rina is in her room right now."
"Thanks mom! Come on Isaac."
Jennifer grabbed onto Isaac and gently lead him to one of the doors and knocked. "Rina! Open up!"
A voice, presumably Rina's, called out from the other side of the door. "What do you want fuzzball?!"
Isaac could see the name annoyed Jennifer quite a bit, she banged on the door much harder. "I told you not to call me that, now get your butt out here!"
The door swung open, the pokemon predicably was another Buneary, this one had a tuft of fur covering one of her eyes partially, she leaned against the door with her arms crossed.
"Well?" She said. "What do you want?"
"I covered for you all weekend last week so you could go out with your boyfriend, I need you to do the mail room duties tomorrow."
"Fine, but this pays back for Saturday and Sunday."
"That's not fair! I only need you to cover me for one day, you ow me two!"
"Tough, take it or leave it fuzzball."
Isaac stepped back, he could see the fire in Jennifer's eyes when Rina repeated the word she used to bug her, he didn't want to be nearby if things went sour.
"Grrr, fine, but don't expect me to do you any favours anytime soon."
Rina didn't say anything else, she just stepped away from the door and closed it. Isaac stood there awkwardly, Jennifer kick the door and turned away.
"Come on, lets go."
Isaac prepared to follow, but another door opened behind him, out walked another Lopunny.
"Ok mom, I'm going now!" She called out, then she looked beside her and spotted Isaac standing there. "What are you doing here?"
Isaac recognized the voice, it was the secretary from the front entrance, the one Rita and Lloyd didn't know the exact name of.
"He's coming with me." Said Jennifer. "Were going somewhere."
"Ha, why would anyone wanna go out with you fuzzball?" There was that name again. Isaac expected flames to shoot out of Jennifer's ears or something.
"Don't call me that Eva! Its none of your business! Isaac, we're leaving, NOW!" Jennifer stormed off before the Lopunny, Eva, could say anything else.
"Uh, bye." Isaac said to Eva, trying to sound polite, then he ran after Jennifer. She stood at the dirt patch below the hole, waiting for him. He realized that there was no ladder or anything they could get out of the place with. Before he could ask, Jennifer grabbed him and pulled him towards her.
"Hold on." She picked him up suddenly, holding him tightly, cradling him like an oversized baby. She leaned forward slightly, Isaac knew what she was about to do, she was about to jump.
"Wait a sec Jennifer, have you done this be..." He didn't finish, Jennifer sprang into the air, but not just out of the hole, they kept going five, ten, fifteen feet into the air. The sudden burst of speed startled Isaac. They came down almost as quickly as they went up, Jennifer landed perfectly on the patio floor.
She put Isaac down on his feet, but he fell forward, dizzy from the jump.
"Sorry bout that Isaac, I usually jump a little too high when my sisters tease me like that."
He laid there in front of her, still dizzy from the jump. "Its no problem, really..."
"Now, lets read that mission shall we?"
Isaac once again forgot about the letter, he didn't feel like reading it right then, so he rolled onto his back, rummaged through his bag, and pulled it out, giving the letter to Jennifer. She read it aloud to Isaac.
Dear Brotherhood
I have found an egg of a pokemon, but I don't recognise what it hatches into, I think its best that you travel to my home and pick it up. Consider the egg itself your reward, I'm sure you would take care of it better then I could. You can find me on top of Mount Justice, which you can get to by going through the mystery dungeon in the tunnels of the mountain, you'll see the house I live in as soon as you're out of the mystery dungeon. Please hurry, the egg sounds like it could hatch soon and I'm no good with children.
From: Davis the Geodude
"This shouldn't be too hard, Mount Justice's mystery dungeon is nothing to worry about, I even know the way their. You ready?"
Isaac stood up, shook off some duct, and nodded.
"I'm ready."
"Great, can't wait to get there, I'm so excited!"
"Heh, me too."
---
Together they walked through the wasteland, not going particularly fast. Isaac decided to try to strike up a conversation, to get to know Jennifer better.
"So, your family seems interesting."
"Interesting's not the word, most of them are down right evil."
"Your mom was nice."
"Well, my parents are nice, of course, but my brothers and sisters, especially my sisters, just pick on me."
"Don't worry, that's normal, I heard sibling rivalry is very common in large familys."
"Yeah, I guess, but I wish they'd stop."
"How many brothers and sisters do you have anyways?"
"Nineteen sisters, three who have moved away, and four brothers, one of them also moved away. So right now its me, my parents, and nineteen siblings."
"Wow, is it normal for Buneary to have such large families?"
"Large?" Jennifer laughed. "You should see my uncle and aunts family. They have forty seven kids."
"Forty... Seven?"
"And that's with no twins or triplets or anything. All Buneary families are large like that, the average sized Buneary family is thirty people, counting the mother and father."
"That's amazing, I just lived with my father all my life, I don't even know what having a brother or sister is like."
"Trust me, it sucks, especially if you're one of the youngest, everything I own I get from my parents is a hand-me-down, that's why I got a job in the mail room, I needed the money to buy my own stuff."
"What kind of stuff?"
"Books mostly, you should see my room, there's nothing in there except for my bed, and hundreds of books."
"That's awesome, I had quite a few books to, I love reading."
"Had? What do you mean had? What happened to them?"
"My home was burned down by... someone. This villain, Maverick, burned down the only home I ever knew, and killed everyone in Pipton."
"That's terrible, what happened after? Did you catch him?"
"No... No, he got away."
"I'm so sorry, that's terrible."
"Don't worry about it, ever since I met y..."
Don't tell her that! Its to early to reveal your feelings to her.
"Even since I met Rita and Lloyd I haven't thought about it that much, they really supported me when it all happened. I wasn't really happy anyways, I never really made friends there."
"Well, that's good, I don't know what I would do if that happened to me. You're a real cool guy Isaac."
Wow, a compliment!
"Thanks, you too."
They walked over a hill and saw their destination. The large, brown mountain was only fifteen minutes away.
"There it is." Said Jennifer. "Lets continue our discussion later, shall we?"
"Right, lets kick some wild pokemon butt!"
Isaac ran towards the mountain, Jennifer ran after him, trying to catch up.
"Haha, wait up!"