January 23rd (Lilycove City, Hoenn)
(May's POV)
I yawned as I was walking back to the dorm from gymnastics practice. Even though I was finally getting used to waking up at 4:15 AM, it was still a pain in the butt. I checked my poketch to see that it was 7:05, better hurry up. I quickly jogged the rest of the way and snuck into my room through the window. I switched my gymnastics stuff with my stuff for ballet and stuck the bag out of sight before grabbing my backpack and made my way to the kitchen.
"Hey May, where were you? I woke up and you weren't here at all," Dawn said worried.
"Sorry about scaring ya, I went to meditate on the beach," I lied.
If I did have time, I would meditate because finals are going to my head giving me a headache. Who knew the teachers here were insane with their tests?!
"You ready for the first part of the English final?" I asked Leaf.
She looked at me scared, "No, I think I'm about to have a panic attack."
I sighed, "Leaf, it's only a test, calm down."
She still tensed up and had a panicked look in her eye. I sighed as I stood over her and started applying pressure on points of her head and neck causing her to relax.
"Thanks May," she said gratefully as I went to grab a granola bar.
"No prob," I said. "Now if you quit thinking about it and use the test technique from before, you'll pass the test with flying colors."
"I'll try," she said as we left the dorm.
"Also think positive, it'll help," Dawn added cheerfully.
"Aww…are you freaking out about finals, what a wimp," Veronica jeered. "Here I thought you were smart enough to do good. What a major disappointment, but then again, I always knew you were."
Leaf looked upset by her comment causing me to get mad because I knew what it felt like to be jeered at when I was down and I wasn't gonna let this crap go by unnoticed.
Veronica then had her back on us and walked down the hall. I smirked as I formed my aura into the shape of a small knife in my hand. As she turned the corner, I threw it so that it would cut her hair funny. I then snapped my fingers and the knife vanished.
"Lin, are you crazy? You could have hurt her," Drew whispered in shock.
"Don't worry grasshead, I've been working on my aim and I wasn't gonna let that crap go by without some punishment," I said before I smirked. "Let's see her focus when her hair looks funny and she's self-conscious about it."
"I appreciate the gesture Lin, but don't you think that was bit extreme?" Leaf asked.
"No, I went through a week of humiliation from comments like that. I'm not gonna let that crap happen to you guys," I said determined as we entered homeroom.
For homeroom and Math, both classes were pointless because nothing happened and all we did was review. My mind was turned to Leaf and I was a tad bit worried about her and her test anxiety.
When the bell rang, Drew and I walked to English to find Leaf sitting at her desk with Gary standing next to her trying to calm her down.
"You doing okay?" I asked.
She didn't say anything; she just sat there tense with a blank look on her face. I sighed as I pinched her arm causing her to snap out of it.
"Ow, what was that for?" Leaf complained.
"You needed a wakeup call," I said as Veronica walked into the room with her hood up trying to act invisible as she walked to her desk.
"Veronica, please put your hood down. You aren't allowed to have them up in class," Mrs. Roberge said sternly.
She did so slowly to show that one side of her fair was chopped at a funny angle causing some snickers to be heard, "Quiet down class and clear your desks for the test," Mrs. Roberge announced sternly.
The part of the test that she gave us was easy, it was only multiple choice. The hard part would be on Wednesday with the huge essay.
Within twenty minutes, I finished the test causing some stares as I walked up to hand in my test. Since we couldn't do anything after finishing in fear of cheating or something, I rested my head on my desk and took a short nap.
"Lin wake up, the bell rang," Leaf said as she shook me awake.
"Huh," I said tiredly.
"Time for history airhead," Drew teased.
I rolled my eyes as I stood up while grabbing my backpack before walking with Drew to history.
I then got a message on my poketch from Nurse Joy saying that she needed help in the Pokemon Center.
"Looks like I'm needed at the Pokemon Center," I told Drew.
"Alright Nurse Lin, I'll see you later," he teased before we kissed and I walked to the Pokemon Center.
When I got there, I saw that Brock and Nurse Joy looked exhausted, "What do you need help with Nurse Joy?" I asked.
She looked relieved when she saw me, "Oh thank goodness you were able to come. Brock and I are trying to patch up some pokemon, but these Plusle and Minun keep messing around causing trouble. Could you watch them til their trainer shows up?" Nurse Joy asked tiredly.
I nodded, "Sure, where are they?"
She didn't say anything because they scampered out into the open area chasing each other. Let's just say the next hour and a half of watching them was very tiring. After the trainer came to pick them up, I left for the cafeteria to eat lunch for the few remaining minutes.
"How was the Pokemon Center?" Leaf asked as I sat at the table.
"Tiring," I said as I took a bit of my sandwich.
"What did you have to do?" Dawn asked.
"Watch a very hyper Plusle and Minun 'til their trainer came to pick them up," I said causing Dawn to shiver in fear. Oh…right, she has a rough history with them.
I then tried to cram the rest of my sandwich as the bell rang, "Geez Lin, just bring your lunch to class," Drew said concerned.
"Can't," I said once I swallowed and stood up. "Mr. Elias has banned food from his classroom after the stunt Ash pulled a few months ago."
"Oh right, forgot about that, heh heh, sorry," Ash said sheepishly.
We shook our heads in disappointment as we split up for our next class. For the rest of the afternoon, it was review and for coordinating, it was practicing appeals. At the end of class, Solidad held us up for ten minutes explaining details for the final.
Ugh, at this rate, I'm gonna be late for ballet. Finally she let us out and I burst out of the room dodging the gang to race to the dorm. I quickly swapped bags and snuck out the window and ran to class, I hope Madame Ashley doesn't kill me.
(Drew's POV)
What the….?
Solidad just dismissed us and May bolted out of the room leaving Dawn and me confused and concerned.
"Wonder why she's in a hurry?" Dawn asked curiously as we left the arena to meet up with the gang.
"Hey, where's May?" Leaf asked.
"We don't know, she burst out of class as we got dismissed," I said.
"It's strange, she always disappears after school for two hours. I wonder what she does and why she's so sneaky about it," Dawn wondered as we started walking back to the dorm.
"Now that you mention it, she has been acting suspicious lately," Misty agreed.
"I'm wondering where she's going in the morning too. I woke by accident at 5:00 one day and she wasn't in bed sleeping," Dawn added.
"Well, we'll ask her when we see her," Leaf said. "Right now, we should be studying like crazy."
"Hopefully your brain doesn't explode," Misty teased.
"The chances of that happening are highly unlikely," Leaf said firmly.
As we walked into the dorm, the computer monitor appeared and showed Max, "Hey Max, what's up?" I asked.
"Nothing much, is May around?"
We shook our heads, "We don't know where she is, she bolted from class and we haven't seen her. She should be back in a few hours though," Dawn said.
"Good, because I didn't want her to hear this. I just got a call from Professor Birch saying that his lab was robbed yesterday when he was out for a few days."
"Doesn't May normally handle this type of stuff?" Ash asked.
"Normally I would tell her, but Professor Birch mentioned a part of a map was stolen," Max said seriously.
"Guess that means that Team Rocket is behind it. We better investigate to see if they left any evidence," Leaf said. "But how are we going to get there?"
"Your ride will be outside your balcony….now."
We walked onto the balcony to see one of the hover jets that PHPA uses. We quickly climbed up the rope ladder to find no one flying the jet as we started moving.
"Surprised no one is flying the jet?" Max's voice asked appearing out of thin air.
"Yes, can we start panicking?" Dawn asked worriedly.
Suddenly a life-size hologram appeared, "Don't worry, it's on auto pilot."
"Did PHPA send the jet?" Gary asked.
"Uh….I actually hacked into the system and flew it here using cloak mode. There's a hologram in the hanger so no one will know that this was taken," he summed up sheepishly.
"Max, we're so dead if Lance finds out we have a hover jet without permission," Paul said angrily.
"Calm down, he won't know," Max said with a wave of his hand. "Now on to business. Something that's different about the case this time is that Professor Birch was smart enough to scan the piece of the map before it was stolen."
A huge touch screen appeared with the piece of map on it. Unfortunately, the map piece was a corner with hardly anything on it.
"Well, I suppose this is a good new bad news situation," Ash decided.
Max nodded, "You can say that again. I've run this part of the land through a topography scan to match to any place in the world, but the number of possibilities is too big."
"Right, but for now, keep this secret. We should also warn all the professors secretly to do the same. That way we can also figure out where the location of Arceus is and stop Team Rocket," I said.
"Another thing we should be doing right now is look for the next gem because the pattern goes map, gem, map, gem," Misty said. "I'm wonder what the next gem is?"
Leaf squinted at the map before her face lit up, "Max, zoom in on the bottom top right corner."
Max then magnified the image to where a small 't' was located, "Nice catch Leaf," he complimented.
"The only problem is, what does it mean?" she wondered.
After a few minutes, Dawn's face lit up, "Max, is this plane protected from anyone hacking it like sound, video, or data?"
"It should be, why?" he asked.
Dawn grinned, "Because I think I just cracked this thing wide open."
We starred at her in surprise, "Care to explain Troublesome?" Paul asked.
"With pleasure," she said happily as she walked up to the smart board.
"Okay, the easiest way to explain this is that there is a pattern or multiple patterns hidden within this whole thing," Dawn started off.
"How do you know that though? All of this could have been done irregularly with no pattern at all," Leaf argued.
"This has been planned for centuries, there's a pattern here. I bet my whole collection of clothes that there are multiple patterns here."
Leaf then became quiet. When Dawn bet her collection of clothes, she meant serious business.
"Anyways, since the next thing to be stolen was a gem, I started thinking back to the one that was stolen by Domino a few months. To start, I'm thinking that the gems are to be collected in common color order and that each gem is a different basic shape that represents an element," she stated.
"How do you know that this is the pattern?" Paul asked.
"One, it said in the prophecy that the gems are tied to elements, my guess is six. Two, my sense and love of fashion gives me the skill to figure this out," Dawn said before smirking. "And three, I bet the first gem stolen was a heart shaped red ruby that represents fire."
Paul smirked slightly, "There's no way that the first gem is that," he scoffed.
"Bet ya $20 bucks," Dawn retorted.
"You're on," Paul smirked back.
"Max, do a search for a red heart shaped ruby in the Kanto region," she called.
"On it," he said as a window popped up on the touch screen showing multiple museums at a fast pace before it then stopped at a website page for a museum in Vermillion City that had a red heart shaped ruby on display.
"Pull up the security footage of the gem," Dawn called.
Max did so to show a red heart shaped ruby was in a display case causing Paul to smirk, "Pay up Dawn," Paul called.
Dawn then studied the screen seriously, "Call up the curator of the museum," she told Max.
"Why?" Max asked.
"Just do it," Dawn said seriously.
Soon Max initiated a call to the curator who answered with a video window, "Hello, can I help you?" he asked.
"Hi, I'm agent Dawn Berlitz with PHPA and I was wondering if you could do a test on the authenticity of the heart shaped ruby that you display at your museum?" she asked.
"May I inquire as to why you would like me to check it?" he asked curiously.
"I have reason to believe that the one sitting on display is a well-crafted fake and that the real one was stolen," she said.
The curator looked concerned, "But that's not possible, we have the best security system possible," he argued.
"I would still like you to check," Dawn urged.
"Alright, but I highly doubt it's a fake," he said again before he left to grab the gem.
"Face it Dawn, you're grasping straws so save yourself the pain and pay up," Paul called.
I felt a dark aura coming from the bluenette as she stomped over to Paul, "Let's get one thing straight bucko. I am NOT grasping at straws. If you think I'm the person who makes a carefree bet, then you're crazy. I know my line of work so don't test me," she said darkly before walking back to the smart board leaving everyone shocked.
The curator came back on the screen looking scared, "I don't know how you discovered this, but the gem in the display case is indeed a fake," he said concerned.
"Thank you for conducting the test of the gem's authenticity," Dawn said politely. "You might want to call your insurance company about the gem theft."
"I will do that, thanks again for the tip," the curator said before signing off.
Dawn then turned to look at Paul with a smirk, "I believe you owe me $20," she said gesturing with her hand.
Paul frowned as he got out $20 and handed it to her, "Pleasure doing business," she said as she kissed his cheek.
"Anyways, now that we know that the ruby was stolen, we can conclude that my theory is correct," she said as she drew a six by three box table to keep track of her theory with what the gem looked like in the top row, the type and color of gem in the middle row, and the element in the last row. "So we have red and orange gems that were stolen. So, the other four are yellow, green, blue, and purple. For the elements, it's obvious that red is fire, yellow is lightning, green is earth, and blue is water."
"How do we know that these are the right match of colors and elements?" Leaf asked.
"We know because it makes sense, the elements match the colors and vice versa," Dawn said shortly. "Moving on, the two that are hard to determine are orange and purple, but in theory, purple normally represents darkness and shadows so orange has to be its opposite, light."
Dawn then paused, "Before I continue, any objections to my theory?"
We shook our heads, "I think you've got us convinced so far, might as well continue," Misty said.
Dawn nodded, "As for what shape and type of gem the orange one is, we'll have to find that out from May or try to find video footage that shows us that. For the gem about to be stolen, we know that the color is yellow so that narrows down the possibility of what type of gem it is which is most likely a topaz, but we don't know what shape it could be or where it can be found," she said before bringing up the piece of map. "For my theory about the map, I have a feeling that each piece of map along with the gem associated with it tells the location of the next gem because how else would Team Rocket keep finding them."
"That theory is a bit unstable compared to the gem one," Gary pointed out.
Dawn sighed, "On that, I agree, but how else could Team Rocket find the gems?"
"Hmm, this whole thing has to do with an unknown force. Maybe that's what Team Rocket uses to find the other gems. Maybe it's all a factor of that force connecting the gems and pieces of the map together," I proposed.
"That theory also seems unlike," Paul pointed out.
"It would help if we had a piece of map and a gem," Dawn said frustrated. "We need to find that gem before Domino can get her hands on it."
We all sighed, "You guys will figure something out," Max said. "In the meantime, I'll document your work on the board and the sound recordings of our conversation so we can access them later. For now, here are the sunglasses to help look for clues and we'll be over the lab in five minutes."
"Thanks Max," I said as his hologram disappeared along with the touch screen monitor.
We then grabbed the glasses and our parachute gear before we jumped out over Professor Birch's lab. After we landed, we went inside to see that the lab was a mess with Professor Birch standing over the wreckage tiredly.
"Professor Birch," I called out.
He turned around and walked toward us, "We're here to investigate the robbery at your lab," I explained.
"Ah, did May send you?" he asked.
"No, Max did. May had some other things going on."
"Ah yes, I forgot that I asked her to do a favor for me," he said thoughtfully. "Anyways, I'll show you where some important files and the piece of map were stolen."
We walked down a hallway to a steel round door. He entered the passcode and we stepped inside after the door opened and Professor Birch turned off the laser beams. Papers were scattered, but all the file cabinets were shut.
"Let's see if we can pick up anything," I said as we put on the sunglasses Max gave us and split off to search the room.
"Same burn marks on the file cabinet as before," Dawn called.
"No prints are visible, everything's been wiped clean," Paul announced.
I didn't come up with anything, but I saw that Professor Birch wasn't looking too concerned. As if he was hiding something, "Professor Birch is there anything you haven't told us?" I asked as we put away the glasses.
He looked around nervously before he motioned for me to follow him. He walked to a file cabinet and opened the top drawer, he sifted through the files and pulled out the piece of map.
"Wait the map was never stolen?" I asked surprised.
Professor Birch nodded, "I put a fake one in its place."
"So that's why the piece I took earlier seemed odd," a voice behind us said angrily.
Crap! I turned around the see an angry Domino. I put my hands behind my back and pressed a button on my poketch to alert Max to listen in.
"I'll take that piece of map if you don't mind," she said while gesturing with her hand.
"Like you're gonna get it," Dawn said angrily.
"Wrong answer," she hissed as she grabbed Dawn and held a black tulip with the stem pointed at Dawn's neck.
"Dawn!" Paul shouted.
"Ah ah ah," Domino tsked. "If anyone moves, she gets hurt."
We froze with Dawn looking scared and Paul looking ready to kill, "Now Professor Birch, give me the map," Domino demanded.
He looked hesitant, "Don't do it!" Dawn yelled only to be poked in the neck and have blood start flowing.
"Shut up!" Domino hissed. "Now Professor Birch, give me the map or I'll slit her throat."
Professor Birch looked defeated as he walked forward and handed Domino the map. She grabbed it and pushed Dawn on the floor.
Paul quickly rushed to Dawn's side, "Don't move," Domino threatened as she pointed her flower at him.
She kept her flower pointed at him as she walked to Professor Birch and took a small remote from his hand, "Thank you for the fun, but I have to leave now. Unfortunately for all of you, you're gonna play an uncomfortable game," she said evilly with a smirk as she walked out of the room still pointing the flower at us.
Professor Birch then looked scared as Domino pressed a red button causing red laser beams to shoot everywhere, "Don't touch the beams!" he shouted.
We quickly had to move limbs to avoid getting hit but in the end we all wound up in uncomfortable positions.
"Have fun," she snickered before she tossed the remote into the room and walked away.
"Dawn, are you okay?" Paul asked worried.
"I'll live," she said quietly and Leaf gasped in shock, blood was slowly dripping onto a small pile of blue hair that lay on the ground. "A laser cut my hair didn't it?"
We didn't say anything causing tears to silently flow down Dawn's face. From where I was at, I could see Paul's face showing anger, concern, and pain. It was scary to see him with this much emotion at once.
"Curse that stupid bitch! Next time I see her, I'm gonna bash her head in!" Misty roared angrily.
"As much as we would like you to do that Misty, we're kinda stuck here," Leaf said annoyed.
"Maybe my lab assistants can get us out," Professor Birch said.
"They probably can't, Domino most likely knocked them out," I strained to say. "Max, did you catch all that?"
"Yea, I've got enough vocal to put a voice print on Domino and I took the security footage for future reference. I've also got Domino tracked for a short period, quick thinking on your part Dawn," Max complimented.
"I try," she said quietly.
"Max, can you shut the beams off?" I asked.
"No, they can only be shut off by the remote device."
"Can you get May?" I asked.
"I've tried reaching her for the past half hour and she hasn't responded," Max said concerned/annoyed.
"Great, so we're stuck like this," I huffed in annoyance but filled wi
(May's POV)
That should do it. I just finished editing the information that Professor Birch wanted me to collect for him as a favor. I came back from dance half an hour ago and no one was around causing me to feel concerned. Actually, my inner self felt like something was wrong.
"I feel your unease, you should investigate," Gardevoir suggested.
I nodded, "You're right, I'll look for them after I drop off this stuff to Professor Birch," I said as I stood up. "We'll leave as soon as I change."
I quickly changed into my mission outfit and dyed my hair black while putting in blue contacts to hide my red eyes. And to be on the safe side, I grabbed some gadgets just in case.
I walked out of the room and grabbed the file, "Gardevoir, use Teleport."
Soon I found myself at the entrance of Professor Birch's lab. My feeling of worry heightened and the place looked eerie in a sense.
"This place has an odd feeling, not a good one either," Gardevoir commented.
I nodded in agreement and used my aura to detect people's auras, but they didn't seem well, "Something's wrong," I said quickly and ran inside with Gardevoir following me.
When I entered the lab, I saw that it was trashed and the lab assistants were knocked out on the floor, "Keep an eye on them, I'm gonna turn on the power and investigate," I told her telepathically.
Gardevoir nodded and I made my way to the electrical room. I found the backup power switch and flipped it on causing lights to turn on all over.
"How'd the power get back on?" a voice said from down the hall to the vault.
I stepped out and followed the voices, "I don't know, I think someone found the electrical room," Professor Birch strained to say.
I peeked inside to find everyone in an uncomfortable position and Dawn looked pale and ready to pass out, "May, thank Arceus you're here! Go find a small pokemon so that they can reach the remote," Drew called.
"I can get you guys out right now," I said as I put my hair in a ponytail.
"May, it's too dangerous," Drew argued.
"Don't worry Drew, she can do it. She did it four years ago," Professor Birch said.
"But….," he said.
"Calm down grasshead, have a little faith in me," I teased.
I backed up and dived into the beams where I did a bunch of hand springs, flips, dives, and bounce backs while everyone watched in shock. It took a bit, but I finally reached the remote and pressed the button causing the beams to disappear and everyone to collapse in relief.
"That's how you do it in style grasshead," I teased before I looked at Dawn who went unconscious and became concerned.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Domino came back because the map piece she stole was a fake. She held Dawn as leverage and stabbed her neck," Drew strained to say as he stood up.
I quickly ran over to Dawn as Paul held her and checked her aura causing me to be concerned, "She's drained, but she'll recover," I said quickly and raced into the hall to grab the first aid kit and gave it to Paul.
"Take care of Dawn, the rest of us need to help the lab assistants," I told him who nodded in understanding as we left the room.
Once all the lab assistants were taken care of, we met back in the vault and I put my poketch in the middle to have a shield appear around the eight of us to prevent anyone or anything from listening in on our conservation. I was probably being paranoid, but I didn't want to risk Team Rocket having the chance to listen. Drew then summed up what they had figured out for the gems and the different theories as to how Team Rocket has found them.
"Congrats on figuring on the majority of it," I told Dawn before talking to Max through my poketch. "Max, you said that Dawn put a tracking device on Domino?"
"Yes, but the tracking device is about 500 feet away from the lab. It must have fallen off as she was escaping."
"Okay, put the route she took on my poketch. Drew and I will go get the tracking device back."
"Will do May," he said before he signed off and I picked up my poketch.
Drew and I then left the lab and started following the trail that Domino used to escape. To help find the tracking device, we put on the infrared sunglasses to help search in the dark. We reached the point where the tracking device fell and split off. After a few minutes, Drew shouted that he found it. I turned around and was about to leave when a small case caught my eye. I picked it up and looked inside to find the orange diamond shaped gem from months ago and the red heart shaped ruby.
I closed the case and raced back to Drew, "What do you have there May?" he asked.
"It's the gems," I said showing him.
He looked surprised, "Someone has butter fingers."
"I'll say," I said. "We should hurry and get back to the others. Once Domino figures out she lost the gems, we'll wind up in a ton of trouble."
Drew nodded in agreement and we quickly raced back to the lab, "Did you guys find the tracking device?" Dawn asked.
"Yea and we found these," I said showing them to everyone.
"So the second gem is an orange diamond, those are extremely rare," Dawn said in awe.
"Now we might have a way to figure out how to find the yellow topaz," Leaf said.
I nodded, "We'll figure that out tomorrow. Right now, we should head back to the dorm. It's getting late and Dawn is still tired."
I then called Max on my poketch and explained what we found. After filling him in, I had Gardevoir teleport him the gems so he could put them in a safe place where Team Rocket couldn't trace them. Then I finally had Gardevoir teleport us back to the dorm where the girls and I fixed up Dawn's hair which took a while because she was incredibly picky about it.
"I'll admit, you guys did a good job," Dawn complimented after we finished trimming the singed edges making her hair at chin length.
"At least we fixed it, now we should all go to bed. We have studying and searching to do tomorrow," I said with a yawn.
"I'm with ya there May," Dawn agreed.
Leaf and Misty then left for their room across the hall and we got ready for bed.
"It feels so weird to have my hair this short," Dawn complained.
"You'll get used to it," I said with a yawn before I fell asleep.
January 24th (Lilycove City, Hoenn)
I was sleeping nicely until my bed vibrated waking me up. I blinked sleepily to see that my poketch was blinking with a message saying to wake up so that we could search for the gem.
After everyone was done eating, we teleported to Max's home base to find him typing at his computer, "So Nurse Joy made you move down here?" I asked.
"Yea, she didn't want me to have this much technology in my room so I had to move command central elsewhere," he said as he put up a shield before pulling the gems out of the safe.
"Now the question remains, how are we going to find the next gem with these two?" Ash asked.
"After May teleported the gems to me, I did a few scans and I'm picking up a strange signal. It's really weird," Max said as he pulled up images of the signals frequency. "They aren't electromagnetic waves, it's like it's an unknown force."
"Maybe May has to do something in order for something to happen," Gary suggested.
"It's worth a shot since we don't have any other ideas," I agreed.
I placed the two gems in my hands and started to meditate, I focused on my aura and began to feel a weird connection. Suddenly I felt like I was struck by lightning and saw images of the gem along with entrance of a cave before waking up collapsed on the ground with the gems hot in my hands and glowing.
"May, what happened? You started to float above the ground with the gems glowing and your eyes opened with a blue light," Drew said concerned.
I groaned as I sat up, "I felt a weird connection and then it felt like I was struck by lightning. I saw the gem and the outside of the cave of where it's located."
"What did the gem look like?" Dawn asked excitedly.
"It was a yellow triangle shaped topaz."
"Yes!" Dawn cheered throwing a fist in the air. "My theory was right!"
"Any idea what cave the gem is in?" Misty asked.
"I'm not sure, my only guess is Granite Cave because that's the only known one in the region," I said. "Max, can you pull up an image of the outside of the cave?"
"Sure thing May," he said as he started to type like crazy and a picture appeared.
"That's the cave I saw from meditating, the yellow topaz is in there."
"Well, let's go. The sooner we find the gem, the sooner we can study for finals," Leaf said.
I then called out Gardevoir as I picked up the gems and had her teleport all of us to the entrance of the cave.
"I sense a strange power coming from inside," she said as I put the gems in my pocket.
I nodded in agreement. There was a very funny feeling about this place, it must be power radiating from the gem.
"Wonder how we're gonna find a small gem, this cave is said to be huge and that people can get lost," Max said.
Max did have a point, I started to look at the outside of the cave and saw something that stuck out. I walked up and pushed on the bump to have a small panel of rock move down to reveal two empty places that looked like the shape of the gems.
"Hey May, what are you doing?" Leaf asked.
The gems began to feel warm in my pocket and I placed them in the empty spots. They began to glow and the cave started to shake slightly.
"What's happening!" Dawn cried.
The shaking then stopped and writing appeared above the gems,
Only one may enter here to retrieve what you seek
A time limit is on you so chances look bleak.
You must navigate your way and avoid the traps
Or be stuck here when the cave will collapse.
"So much for the welcome wagon," I huffed as I walked to the front of the cave.
Suddenly a timer appeared in my head that said seven minutes, "Max, put seven minutes on your poketch. That's the time limit."
"How do you know that's the time limit?" he asked.
"Because the cave knows I'm the one that's going to enter," I said causing a few worry looks to appear. "Don't worry, I'll be fine."
Drew walked up and gave me an earbud communicator, "Just be careful."
I smiled gently, "Don't worry, I will," I said as I kissed him before facing the cave, taking a deep breath, and walked inside.
The timer activated and I focused my aura on the location of the gem causing a map to appear in my head. I ran forward only to fall down a shaft into a room with a huge head on an electric pokemon on each wall.
"What happened May?" Max asked.
"Fell down a shaft into a room, at least the…," I started to say as the walls started to move.
I gasped and jumped onto one of the heads, "I just had to set myself up," I muttered.
"The walls are closing in on you aren't they?" Max asked flatly.
"Ding ding ding, give the computer genius a prize," I said sarcastically as I crawled up the shaft using all fours.
I made it up and over the ledge just as the hole closed. I stood up quickly and continued to run forward, five minutes and thirty seconds left. As I walked down the hall, I saw more heads of electric pokemon on the walls and they started to shoot lightning at me. I quickly cartwheeled and back handspringed my way through to dodge them.
Then I took a turn to the right and continued my way through to find a pit full of spikes, lovely. I noticed the walls were pretty close together so I took a few steps back and then ran forward to jump from one wall to another to dodge the spikes, two minutes and fifteen seconds left.
I walked down the hall to find the gem in the wall. I pulled it out to find that the room started to shake and the floor lifted to one slide causing me to slide down a shaft while doing a bunch of somersaults. After regaining my balance and vision, I saw that the entrance was a couple hundred feet away. Suddenly the cave started to shake violently and rocks were starting to fall from the ceiling as well as spikes appearing from the floor.
"May, get out of there! The cave is starting to close up!" Max shouted.
I bolted forward dodging the rocks, but one then fell on my head causing me to fall and drop the gem which slid a few feet away. I touched my head and it felt sticky, crap. I stood up clutching my head and ran to grab the gem, twenty seconds.
I ran forward as fast as I could and dived out of the cave just as it closed and somersaulted into a rock that was nearby causing me to land on my back.
"Ow," I muttered as the gang raced up to me.
"May, are you okay?" Drew asked concerned as he helped me sit up.
"Yea, just a cut on the head," I reported.
"That was too close for comfort," Max said as he got a first aid kit and cleaned up the cut on my head.
"I'll say, that place was a death trap, but at least I got the gem," I said as I pulled it out of my pocket.
Drew then went to the outside of the cave and grabbed the other two, "Now that we have three of them, we better lock them up so Team Rocket can't find them."
I nodded, "Since this business is over with, time to study for finals."
Dawn groaned, "Why did you have to mention that," she whined.
"Because we do have to study, at least we can be at ease since we found the gem instead of Team Rocket," Leaf agreed.
Drew helped me up, "Do you feel okay?"
I smiled and squeezed his hand meaning yes. Knowing that I had friends to help me out through all of this gave me a comforting feeling, but a lot more is yet to come and hopefully we'll figure it out.
Team Rocket Headquarters
"You've failed me Domino, you got us the map, but you lost the keys in the process," Giovanni said angrily.
"It's not my fault, it's those stupid PHPA idiots who keep getting in the way," she retorted.
"Still, you had the keys and you dropped them! The best agent drops them!" he roared.
"Sir, Dr. Sebastian is on line one," his sectary called over the intercom.
Giovanni pushed the lit up button on his phone, "What news do you have?"
"We haven't been able to decipher the piece of map retrieved because the keys are missing so our research has halted," he said nervously.
Giovanni smashed his phone with his fist, "Domino, you are suspended from field work until I call you back," he said through clenched teeth.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door, "Who is it?" Giovanni asked scowling.
"Agent Tyson," a voice answered.
Giovanni pressed a button to open the sliding doors allowing Tyson to walk in, "Sir, we have received reports from our members in Hoenn that those PHPA agents have found the next gem."
Giovanni looked intrigued, "Hmm…...perhaps your fumble will do some good for us Domino. We'll let those brats find the gems for us," he said evilly with a smirk.
"I'll get the gems back," Domino said determined.
Giovanni scowled, "You're suspended from the field 'til I say so. Besides, we'll let those punks do the hard work for us. Tyson, report back to your post. Domino, you will be training new members til further notice."
Both nodded and left leaving Giovanni to pet his Persian in thought and smirked. Perhaps those brats will prove usefully to us in the future.