Pokémon
Hiya! How's everybody doing? I feel great since it is now March break, and I got my beginners licence! *Does little happy dance* Ahem, well then, I found this quite amusing to write, so I hope you think so as well. I might (and don't hold me to this) get another chapter up over the break as well. If I'm prompted enough then most deffinately xP I already have it written, it just needs to be checked over a few times. So...yeah.
Thanks to the lovely people that read, favorite, and most of all review! I love you guys; you make me feel happy :)
And enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 26 – The Incomprehensible B word
Alex was lost in thought as she sat a bench while snacking on a piece of bread with peanut butter slathered healthily onto it, which was the making of the purplette beside her. She had just been told of Xena's devious plan, and despite her trying to set her and Paul up, she was willing to go along with it. Why you ask? Because she was just informed that Paul's Birthday was the following day and she was going to help throw a spectacular surprise party. She did say she would be a better friend, and a party seemed like a good way to start. They were now planning their trip and battle strategy to A) get to Veilstone earlier than Paul, but still get Paul there and B) how to keep Paul out of his own house until they were ready.
"We could take Kite!" Xena offered over-willingly, stuffing her third PB sandwich down her throat and cleaning off the knife with her tongue.
"I am not flying on your flygon ever again," Alex retaliated quickly, shaking her head furiously.
"Aw, why not?"
"Just because," Alex mumbled, "and stop giving me the puppy dog eyes because it's not going to work."
"Fine," sighed Xena dejectedly. "Do you have any flying pokemon?"
"Er…" Alex scratched her head, remembering the inconsolable dragon she had released upon her arrival back in Hearthome, who had refused to do anything for her until she agreed to make him an extra large batch of her special red-hot spicy poffins and an afternoon of sunbathing, plus a battle in the next gym they arrived at (which happened to be the Hearthome but after a humiliating defeat he demanded to be called upon first in Canalave). And since the weather wasn't satisfactory for a charizard and Alex didn't have the right ingredients to make the poffins, it was a dangerous favor to ask. "I'm thinking not at the moment.
"Breee!" eevee chirped innocently, trotting up and jumping on the spare place on the white bench in between the two girls, wagging her bushy brown tail back and forth. She snatched the last corner of bread and spread from her trainer's hands, and tilted her head at the brunette as she frowned at the little fox.
"Aww," Xena cooed at the small pokemon, "so cute~!"
Not far behind the fox pranced an elegant, lavender feline, who stopped in front of the black and purple clad girl's feet with the same expression as its prevolution. She casually licked her slender paw and rubbed it against her face, mewling at the duo.
"Aww, double cute…wait a darn second, what did you do?" Alex turned to her partner, shooting the pokemon an accusing glare. "You never turn on the extra cuteness unless you've done something bad."
Xena laughed hysterically, pointing at a group of people running down the street and past them. They all were clutching paint brushes and rollers, wearing light jean overalls and looking like a rainbow just barfed all over them. "I think they went that way," shouted one of them as they charged down an alley, leaving little specs of blue, red and yellow behind them.
"Ahaha, what a silly fashion choice. Let's point and laugh!" exclaimed the purplette, several seconds too late as the group had already disappeared.
Alex glanced between the two troublemakers scornfully, but lackadaisically, as she couldn't help a smirk. She flopped her head over the back of the bench, staring at the puffy cloud shapes leisurely crawling along the misty blue sky. Her ears tuned into the hum of an engine speeding in their direction. Inquisitively, looking for some sort of emergency of predicament, the brunette lifted her neck, expecting to see a blue-haired Officer Jenny whiz past. That was not the case.
Xena's gem-like eye got a cheerful sparkle as a motorcycle pulled to a stop in front of them, and a young man got off, slowly pulling his navy helmet off and shaking his hair out like you always see happen in the movies.
The young man with dark, spiky, slightly unruly purple hair stopped his movement, greeting the two ladies with his metallic yellow eyes on his fair face. His thin pink lips were pulled into a smile as he leaned against the seat of the bike. "Hey," he inclined his head competently, looking directly at Alex while popping the collar of his black leather jacket.
"You've come for me!" Xena enthusiastically yelled, bouncing off her seat as though it were on fire and doing one of those slow motion runs with her arms spread wide like wings.
The attitude of the boy changed immediately, rushing to the girl with the same passion and calling, "Xena, my darling!" ready to catch her in an embrace. Just as they met in the middle, the girl continued past the boy and wrapped her long arms around the body of the bike, causing the boy to continue as well, eyes closed and not expecting to trip on the bench Alex was on and flip over the back.
"My motorcycle. Oh, I missed you so much! Did you miss me?" the girl rubbed her cheek along its sleek, purple side, going so far as to give it a kiss.
"My little sister is so mean to me," cried the man from his withering position on the grass.
Alex peered over the side. "Are you okay?"
The man pounced up leaning against the rear, bent over to rest his arms where Alex had been but had moved before as his face took the spot, with a sly grin on his face. "I am now, my dear flower. Tell me, beautiful, what is your name?"
"Big brother!" whined Xena, pulling herself away from her 'baby' to throw him a pout, "Don't embarrass me in front of my friend."
"Don't worry, any friend of Xena's is a friend of mine!" he waved foolishly towards the girl. "Especially one so pretty. My name's Xavier," he simpered, taking the hand closest to him and laying a kiss on the back of it. He had somehow slithered his way onto the bench next to Alex, sitting quite close to her.
"You're Xena's brother?" Alex blinked at him, noticing eevee glaring and growling at the young man.
"Ah, yes. I have such a lovely little sister, don't I? Isn't she the cutest little thing? I'm so lucky."
"Brother!"
Alex was relieved that her breathing room had been restored as Xavier turned to gaze lovingly at the purplette girl, who was skipping back to join them.
"Brother, I need the keys to my baby," she stated bluntly, holding out her hands in a cupped manner expectantly. She had returned her espeon, the purple kitty, to its pokeball, and grabbed her bag from the foot of the bench as well. And as the jingling objects were plummeted to her awaiting hands, she grinned like a madwoman. "Thank you. Make sure Paul gets to Veilstone City tomorrow, but don't let him come to the house. We'll take turns keeping him busy, and your first on duty. Now go soldier! You have a mission to complete!"
Xavier stood perfectly straight. "Yes, ma'am!" he saluted, marching away.
The girl turned back to Alex, dragging her to her feet and dangling the silver object in her face. "We have found our way there."
"Return, Isis," Alex said, taking the fox into her confines, as she was roughly being manhandled and tossed on the back of the vehicle. A helmet was shoved into her gut as Xena scrambled on in front of her. "Xena, you do have a license for this, right?" the brunette asked hopefully.
The purplette flipped on the ignition and pulled in the clutch. The bike growled like a fierce tiger as she revved the engine confidently. "Nope," Xena replied unconcernedly releasing the clutch and letting the tires spin before they took off, a shriek of fright being left in its wake.
Alex held onto Xena's shoulders with a vice grip, hesitantly peeking at the path ahead of them. They were still increasing their swift pace, having passed the borders of the city minutes ago. To her utmost surprise and relief, the crazy girl was astoundingly good at piloting across the curved dirt road. She maneuvered the machine like a pro, assertively taking on the bends at their hasty speed.
They had left East out of Hearthome City, meaning they would have to also go through Solaceon Town, which would be around the halfway point, before landing in Veilstone City. They would make their destination before nightfall, as long as they didn't run into some sort of dilemma. Xena noted that they would need to refuel the motorcycle when they reached Solaceon since her brother had drove it all the way from Sunnyshore City. So, as they stopped in the small town around mid-afternoon, they paid a visit to the pokemon center for a more proper lunch (Alex's idea) before returning on their straightforward journey.
The area ahead was a specifically rainy part of Sinnoh, much to Xena's pleasure. Water from puddles and mud splashed up on the two girl's rear as the tires sped over the soggy terrain. Alex was even pretty sure they drenched a few unlucky travelers as the purplette skidded into her turns.
Alex thanked everything she could think of that Xena was an extremely good driver and didn't come in a fraction close of crashing them. She had been scared stiff for the first half of the ride, especially since the driver didn't seem to have any cares in the world about speed limits, but apparently it was a controllable pace. The brunette got of the machine as her companion turned the engine off, and shook her hair free as a light drizzle fell from the clouds.
She recognized the house instantly as Reggie's, with the fence in the back holding in all sorts of pokemon. Following Xena, the two made their way to the door. While Alex had a notion to knock first, Xena strutted right in as if she owned the place, leaving the soaked brunette out on the doorstep, wondering what she should do. Finally, she gave in and did the same as the other girl, closing the door subtly behind her.
Her black running shoes, the mud having been washed away with the rain and now were just heavy and waterlogged, making them slosh with each step, were disposed of along with her ankle socks at the doormat with a pair of black combat boots. The brunette felt really rather bad that she was dripping everywhere, but tracked the faint voices to the kitchen where a distraught purplette man was fussing over his sopping wet cousin before turning and seeing her, the second victim.
"Alex too?" he asked hysterically, watching her as she let loose a light sneeze. "You two, go upstairs to the guest room and change this instant before you catch a cold. I'll make a cup of tea." The darker-haired man shooed the girls out of the kitchen as he moved to the sink to put some water on to boil.
Alex clambered up the narrow, carpet-clad steps and into a room with a double bed, a desk, a window looking over to the mountains, and a door leading to the bathroom. She shrugged off her bag, hoping severely that her clothes hadn't fallen prey of the downpour. She recovered a dry pair of pajamas – a lime green tank top and darker, baggy pants – and changed in the room while Xena bolted into the bathroom chanting, "I have to pee, I have to pee!" repeatedly. Throwing her probably disastrous hair into a messy, loose bun, she hopped back down to the kitchen with her eevee hanging off her folded arms.
"Thank you, Reggie," Alex smiled as she found the boy seated in the living room on a leather couch. Two steaming cups of tan liquid were set up on the glass table in front of him, a third in his hand. "And sorry for the intrusion," she added, taking the place on the other end of the furniture, daintily taking a sip of the warm drink and giving a shiver as it warmed her insides.
The young man gave her a carefree laugh. "It's no trouble. Besides, I know Xena and what she's like. You likely didn't have much of a choice." He patted her damp head with a smile on his face. "Anyway, it's good to see you again. And I'm rather scared to ask but where's my little brother?"
"In Hearthome City," Alex replied with a shake of her head. "Xena and I are planning to throw him a Birthday party, so we need to keep him out of the house until we get it ready. Xena told Xavier to bring him here tomorrow, but make sure he stays out of the house until we're ready for him."
"Sounds like fun," Reggie nodded happily. "I'll help in any way I can."
"Reggie! Do you have any peanut butter?" bellowed a voice from the next room.
Alex giggled while Reggie rolled his onyx eyes good-naturedly and set his teacup down to aid the girl in her search. When she had drained her cup completely not many minutes later, she bid goodnight to the family and retired to the guest room with her already sleeping eevee next to her on the pillow.
"Hmmm." The purplette knit her brows, squinting at the contents of a small black box. "I don't get it." She pursed her lips, placing her hands on her hips and leaning to the right, making her low ponytail dangle off the side of her head.
"Well," Alex drawled doubtfully, running her index finger down the column of brown, stained, worn pieces of paper all placed in alphabetical order. "What kind should we make?"
"…Chocolate?"
"…Does Paul like chocolate?"
"Who doesn't like chocolate?"
"Well, Paul doesn't seem like the person to have a huge sweet tooth," Alex answered speculatively.
Right after breakfast, at the crack of dawn (which, for them, happened to be about 10:30am) Xena and Alex stood in the rather spacious kitchen with their long hair tied back, aprons hanging off their fronts with their pajamas showing underneath, and staring at a little black box labeled Family Recipes. Reggie said he was going out to buy a present for Paul and some decorations after Xena insisted that she and Alex would take care of the cake and decorating. Xena was twiddling with a whisk between her fingers and a big, white chef's hat on her head as she stared at the box like it was some odd, alien contraption, while Alex didn't really know where to start.
"Let's see, carrot cake, devil's food cake, German chocolate cake, chocolate cake…what the hell's the difference?"
"I've never heard of German chocolate…" Xena said perplexedly, as if questioning everything she knew. "Wouldn't it be hard to get Devil's food?"
Alex shrugged thoughtfully and continued, "Black forest cake – mmm, sounds yummy – Molten chocolate cake, Nanny's special double fudge cake… Aunties Ding Dong cake…?" She glanced inquisitively to the girl, who shrugged unknowingly. "Ummm, vanilla bund-t cake-"
"You mean burnt cake?"
"Why would anybody want burnt cake?" Alex demanded rhetorically to the card and the girl.
Xena read it over Alex's shoulder and made a confused noise. "Who wants a bunnn-d-t cake?" she debated back, sounding out the word.
"Good point. 'K, moving on. Coffee cake – mmm – Granny's homemade fruitcake, fishcakes – uh, ewwww – gingerbread – what's that doing with the cakes? – Lemon cake, marble cake, moon cake – oh my…" Alex's head fell to the table top with a resounding smack, the papers fluttering down beside her.
It was silent for a few minutes. "Wanna make the vanilla one and leave off the bunnn-d-t?" Xena finally asked, having trouble pronouncing the word.
"Sureeee," groaned Alex, peeling her bemused face from the table slowly and picking up the card. "First, we need a large mixing bowl."
The duo looked at each other, and then to the kitchen was rather large as was said before. Alex stood from the table and both cocked their heads at the room with searching expressions. "Where would a mixing bowl be?"
"Let's try the cupboards," suggested the brunette. So the quest commenced of opening and closing the small doors, occasionally scrambling onto the counter if they needed one higher up.
Finally, Xena yelled, "Found one!" from her standing position on the counter. She produced a large, silver bowl from the darkness within with a childish grin as she jumped off the counter, forgetting the ceiling was only a few inches above and hitting the top of her head. She yelped, landing on her butt with a large pout and watery eyes. "Ow-chie." The bowl crashed to the floor and vibrated like cymbals.
Alex picked up the ringing utensil and blew on it to get rid of any stray dust as Xena picked herself off the floor. "Now we need four, sugar, milk, eggs, oil, baking powder, and vanilla."
"Arg," Xena grunted, "this is going to take forever!"
Neither of the girls were particularly experienced cookers, Alex usually only baking for her pokemon and just warming things up that Mrs. Ketchum had brought over for her and her brother when they were little, and Xena…well, Xena had her peanut butter and bread. Regarless, they scoured the kitchen high and low, eventually finding the ingredients and measuring utensils and covered the counter space with their tools.
"Now what?" Xena asked the recipe holder exhaustedly, looking stingily at the mess.
"We…mix together the dry ingredients." Alex responded dismally, reading the card. "Do you want to, or shall I?"
"We both will, of course!" the now chipper purplette cheered, a newfound energy pushing her ahead. "I mean, it's just a cake. How hard can it be now that we've found everything?"
"That's true," Alex nodded logically, agreeing and picking up the sugar and dumping the required amount in, sticking a spoonful into her mouth for good measure. After Xena put the flour in, she added a few teaspoons of baking powder in and stepped to the right to lean over the card. Pulling the sugar free spoon out of her mouth, she said, "Now we mix it, I guess."
"We can use the electric beaters, then it will be mixed faster," Xena said, staring at her newfound friend, plugged in and ready to go. She held it up like a gun ready to shoot, flicking it on and of so it would give a loud vrrumm, vrrumm, vrrummm.
"Mhmm, go for it," Alex waved her off distractedly, mumbling under her breath, "What the hell is a bundt pan?"
Suddenly the noise of the beaters roared to life, and a poof as Alex turned around to watch. She blinked owlishly as Xena cursed and coughed. The buzzing stopped a moment later.
The entire kitchen looked like a winter wonderland with freshly fallen snow in every crevice. Xena's golden eyes were wide, and her lips were in the shape of an 'O' while everything from her waist up was pure white powder clinging to her skin. Alex, who was only about a meter away, looked about the same, perhaps more peppered than completely coated.
"Maybe that wasn't such a good idea," stated Alex, trying to shake some of the residue off, creating a dust cloud and sputtering the white dust with each word.
Xena began to laugh. "You look like the Pillsbury dough boy." She tried wiping at her face without much headway.
Sighing, the brunette said, "Let's start again, no mixers this time."
Xena bobbed her head up and down with a grin as it began to snow in the room again.
Alex sneezed lightly as both girls put in each ingredient again, stirring sluggishly slow and fearfully as if the concoction was a ticking time bomb, and then adding the liquids.
"Whose going to crack the eggs?" she asked, glaring at the four, dusted objects with disdain.
"I'll do two and you'll do two," Xena explained, plucking them from the carton and handing two to her ashen friend. She flounced over to a knife holder and unsheathed the biggest, sharpest one there with a gleam in her eyes. "Eggies, you are going down," she cackled evilly.
"No, no, no, no, no!" Alex repeated horrendously. Gently, she took the knife away from the smirking girl and tossed it incautiously somewhere behind her, out of Xena's eyesight.
They got the eggs cracked…and the shells out of the batter eventually, and Xena put her whisk to use, nearly beating it to a pulp and speckled anything nearby with the cream batter. Alex found a normal pan for their cake, and poured the batter in and putting it in the oven. After the deed was done, they collapsed to the floor.
"Damn, stupid, evil little cake…" Xena mumbled curses towards the oven, and Alex patted her head consolingly.
The kitchen door was thrown open by a panting and sweaty purplette. He directly flashed over to his sister, now looking completely fine as he sang, "My little sister, whatever is the matter? Big brother will fix it for you! …Why is there flour all over you?"
Xena continued her mutterings with even more fervor as if the male wasn't here.
"Xavier!" Alex exclaimed, bolting up.
"Yes, my darling?" He grasped her hand.
"If you're here then Paul's here too. Why aren't you with Paul?"
"Oh," Xavier grimaced, "he got really annoyed at me for some reason and was coming back to the house, so I had to stop him but I made him really angry so I ran back here to tell you two."
Xena smirked evilly. "What did you do to little cus?"
"Well, when I tried to stop him and tell him to stop, he wouldn't listen and I got nervous so… I kind of stole his pokeballs and threw them into the bushes a little piece away," he uneasily explained while rubbing the back of his neck. "Never knew he could look so murderous," he whispered to himself.
"So that means that nobody's with him to prevent him from coming to the house?" The two siblings shrugged and nodded in an 'I-guess-so' way. With a slew of profanities, Alex scuttled and tripped up the stairs, crashed about the room for a few seconds before she was back and barreling out the door, shouting back, "I'm on it!"
The brunette jogged along the streets with her big brown eyes on the lookout for the purplette. Accompanying her was the little riolu, Aura, sitting on her shoulder serenely. It didn't take long to find a fuming purplette with a black, icy gaze stomping through the road, and she promptly ignored his irritated glare and bowled into him with a hug, nearly knocking them both off their feet.
Paul was not a very happy camper. He was emitting waves of darkness, he was sure, and began to shoot a mental dagger as he heard the rushed footsteps of what he believed to be his infuriating cousin. It most certainly was not him. His eyes widened as he was forced back by the pressure of another body and a whirl of brown hair. His hands flew out of his pockets and held onto the person unwillingly and righted them both as a flustered brunette grinned at him. He let her go, since they were no longer threatening to fall.
"Hey, Paul!" Alex gasped, not meaning to use as much force as she had. Clasping his arm in hers, she turned him in the opposite direction and walked back into town.
"Hi," he replied uncertainly. "What are you doing? I was going back to the house," he informed her, tossing his head back in the other way.
"Yeah, well, I'm running away from the house. Xena is there," she said, quite honestly. "And now, so is Xavier."
"Yeah, well I'm looking for Xavier," Paul grumbled, throwing a look over his shoulder, also somewhat relieved that the purplette hadn't been lying when he said Alex and Xena were heading for Veilstone City. "But if Xena's there…"
"Come on, let's have some lunch," Alex spontaneously decided, unintentionally sounding quite exasperated. Keeping Paul preoccupied might be more of a troublesome task than it seemed when it was pushed onto somebody else. So without giving the boy a moment to retaliate, she pulled him into a small little café on the side of the road, hoping that the siblings wouldn't do anything too drastic without the presence of herself or Reggie…
Well, hopefully Reggie would get back before the house got destroyed.
I'm throwing a Birthday Party for Paul! :D
Paul: *Grumbles* I don't want a party.
Aha, well that's just too f*cking bad xP Love ya, Paul~y. Anyway, if you have any ideas on how to make Paul's Birthday super-fantabulous, then leave a comment or send me a note! And in case you don't read the memo at the top, reviews might get you a chapter within the week! Doesn't that sound exciting?
Okay, so the super secret agent Alex is all mine, as is Ryan, but the crazy, amazing Xena and her flirtatious brother Xavier are the creation of the awesome Crimson. light. of. Death ! A round of applause, if you please.
And that's all for this afternoon folks. Remember, reviews are loved very much. So I'll see you next time!
