Fifteen: We're Going on a Treasure Hunt
Elaina woke in the middle of the night to the sounds of Penny whimpering. As Elaina rolled over, she found Penny with her arms laying is if they were pinned above her head. She was writhing and her whimpers were growing louder. Elaina turned on the lamp and shook Penny awake. As Penny woke and shook herself out of the dream, she looked up to Elaina.
"Did I wake you? I'm sorry." Elaina shook her head and kissed Penny on the forehead. After a few seconds, she hopped out of the bed and began to boil water for cocoa. "You're going through all this trouble for me? It was just a nightmare, 'Layna. I have a lot of them." Elaina walked back to the bed and wrapped Penny in a hug.
"That doesn't mean I can't make waking up and shaking it off a little less unpleasant." Elaina said as the tea kettle started to boil. With a few extra minutes, she and Penny were at the table enjoying twin cups of hot cocoa. "Do you wanna talk about it?" Elaina asked. Penny shook her head. "Alright." Elaina said, and they went back to their cocoa. After a few moments pause, Penny spoke.
"Those guys that attacked us were the same ones who attacked me and Jessica. I've been really struggling with my PTSD after this new encounter with them. Hence the dreams of being, well…" She trailed off. Elaina nodded. The two girls finished their cocoa and crawled into bed. This time Penny fell asleep being spooned, and Elaina fell asleep shortly thereafter.
The two lovers woke the next morning and tugged on their uniforms. "You think they'll gather us together to start this term or just send a welcome back email?" Elaina asked as she sent a text to the group chat. A few minutes later the phone buzzed, and Elaina and Penny were off to the student center to meet their friends for coffee and bagels.
"Odds are they'll send an email since classes start at 5:00 this afternoon. Do you have your final breakout meeting today?" Penny asked as she slipped her hand into Elaina's. They met up with Arven outside MindsEye Hall and kept walking. "Yeah, I have my final breakout meeting at 5:01." Elaina responded. "Mr. Vaughn was very particular about that for some strange reason."
"It's probably because they can't schedule breakout meetings for before classes start back." Arven noted. "My final breakout meeting is at 5:02 This afternoon." Arven waved to Nemona, Trish, and Allie as they walked in with the Goon Squad in tow. The eleven people gathered around their table to discuss independent study.
"So, Allie," Elaina started. "What treasure are you looking for?" Allie paused and thought for a moment. "I'm chasing down the treasures of ruin legend. Ms. Raifort was absolutely thrilled." Nemona nodded. "Now, I'm going to go get breakfast. The meal on offer this morning looks delicious." She stood, and after a glance at the menu, everyone stood up to follow. "Fucking hell yes, I love the dining hall staff's breakfast. Easily the best meal they serve in here." The lot soon found themselves munching on a hearty omelet breakfast as they chatted and caught up after the winter break.
"So, Arven, these Herba Mystica you were talking about. What's the story?" Elaina asked in between bites. She turned to Arven, who quickly chewed and swallowed his bite of food. "They're supposed to be a kind of cure-all if you gather and eat all five. Even eating just one will have a Pokémon grow to a titanic size." He put his fork down. "I'm going to collect reports of giant Pokémon and see if I can find a vein of Herba Mystica at the Pokémon's nesting sites. If I can cook it and prove its efficacy, who knows what the plants could do for Paldea."
Elaina nodded. "You have my number. If you need some backup, give me a shout, alright?" Arven responded that he'd of course give Elaina a call. Penny sat quietly, munching on her breakfast sandwich. Elaina turned to her. "And, my love, what are you looking for on your treasure hunt?" Penny paused and swallowed her food.
"I'm reconnecting with some friends after I was gone for a while." Penny resumed eating her sandwich. "I'd love you to help me out with that, though, 'Layna. I'm sure they would love to meet you." Elaina hugged Penny and affirmed that she would love to meet Penny's old friends.
Nemona turned to Elaina. "Are you going to go for champion rank, 'Layna?" Elaina thought for a moment before responding. "I don't see why not. I'll be out around Paldea looking to fill my Pokédex. Mr. Vaughn and I have a side bet going. Whoever finishes the Pokédex last has to buy the other a suite of Apricorn Balls. I'm gonna win those off him like it's nothing." There was a pause as everyone looked to Elaina.
"I like your spirit, Miss Elaina." Elaina turned to find Mr. Vaughn with a breakfast sandwich in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. "Also, as sort of a way to sweeten the pot, have you ever heard of a Dream Ball?" Elaina shook her head. Mr. Vaughn sat down his coffee and continued. "A number of years ago, a friend of mine was working on a system to visualize and realize the dreams of Pokémon. It took her over a decade, but she got it up and running. When a Pokémon from this Dream World was manifested into our reality, it ended up in a Dream Ball. Eventually, my friend was able to reverse engineer the ball and produce them. She made a single production run back about fifteen years ago to raise money to continue the project." He pulled a pink Pokéball from his pocket and tossed it to Elaina. "Good luck, Elaina." He picked up his coffee. "We have our final breakout meeting at 5:01. Don't be late." He said as he headed out of the dining hall.
Elaina looked at the Dream Ball in her hands. "Does he, like, know everyone?" She asked as she looked up to her slack-jawed friends. "It even has the old-style port on the back…" She flipped it around to reveal a different port than what was found on modern Pokéballs. Penny squinted and looked at it. "That's a MicroPoké port. Pokémon centers still support it." She pulled a Pokéball out of her bag and flipped it over to reveal its port. "As opposed to modern Pokéballs that use a Poké-C port." Elaina looked between the two Pokéballs and muttered "Gross. It's not reversible." She tucked the Dream Ball into her bag and looked to everyone. "So, what are we doing today since nothing here happens until 5:00?"
"I'm probably going to hit the gym for a bit and work out with Quaquaval." Nemona announced. "Anyone who wants to join me is welcome." Elaina nodded. "Maybe Sprigs and I will hit the track." Penny announced her intention to start a mental health PokéTube channel, Arven was taking the day to play a bit of "Businessman Simulator" on his Nintendo Switch, and Trish and Allie were hitting the Flick and Duster's arcade in the city. "Gotta win enough tickets to get the Master Ball at the top of the prize wall." Trish announced.
The rest of the Goon Squad revealed the plans for their day and eventually Nemona and Elaina headed to the gym. They both bid each other a "See ya'" as Elaina climbed the stairs to the second floor to use the indoor track, and Nemona headed down the hall to the weight room. Nemona tossed Sprig's ball, and he burst forth onto the track. "We're gonna run some laps, alright, Sprigs? We'll call it the first round of your Super Training." Sprigs looked to Elaina and gave a snide smile before taking off at a jogging pace down the track. Elaina caught up shortly and the two ran laps until they both got tired.
"Alright, Sprigs, let's get some water and see if you can set a new hundred meter P.B.." Sprigs meowed his assent and the two filled Elaina's water bottle. Sprigs poured the bottle onto his leaves and Elaina took a gulp of the first refill. Sprigs looked up to Elaina with a determined look in his eye. Elaina led him to the starting line and opened her stopwatch app. After a quick countdown, Sprigs took off running. As he crossed the finish line, Elaina smiled. "You're definitely getting faster, Sprigs."
The two made their way downstairs to the locker room, Sprigs took a short rinse in the Pokémon shower and returned to his ball. As Elaina tugged her shirt from her body en route to the shower when Nemona stepped into the room. "Did you have a nice workout, 'Layna?" she asked as she tugged off her shirt and bra. Elaina turned bright red and quickly spun around.
"Next time warn me before you start stripping…" She muttered. Nemona tossed her clothes on the bench and made her way to the shower. "Are you coming, or are you just going to stand there in a sports bra and short shorts for the rest of the day?" Elaina's blush got deeper as she tossed her clothes onto the bench. "Besides, isn't it a little unfair that I've seen your tits more than once?" That only made Elaina blush harder, if that was possible. Nemona noticed and snorted. "I'm just fucking with you, 'Layna. It's a locker room and I need a shower."
She stepped under one of the showers and hit the button to start the water. Elaina stepped under the shower next to her. "Isn't this how you met Trish?" She asked as Nemona passed her a bottle of soap. She lathered herself up as Nemona began her rinse.
"Yeah, right over there." She pointed a few showers down as she tugged her hair out of its ponytail. "You need shampoo or?" she asked as she lathered up her head. Elaina nodded and Nemona passed her the bottle. Elaina lathered up her blonde hair and let the water run down her back. "This was a good idea, Nemona. We should do this more." She said as she turned off her shower and grabbed her towel. "I'm going to go get dressed before you make any more quips about my tits." Nemona chuckled as she finished her rinse.
Elaina quickly dried herself off and tugged on her academy uniform as Nemona walked over and sat on the bench to dry her legs. "You're just gonna raw dog the fucking locker room bench? What the fuck?" Nemona just shrugged and finished drying off before tugging her uniform on as well. "Never steered me wrong before, 'Layna." The two headed out of Bedrill Gym and spent some time at the café before Nemona announced that she had a welcome back meeting for Student Council at 1:00 and had to leave. "I thought they couldn't do any meetings until 5:00." Elaina muttered as Nemona stood.
"No official meetings. This is the unofficial "Welcome back to having to deal with student bullshit" meeting where there's cake, beer, and oral sex." Elaina went slack-jawed and asked "Did… did you make that last part up?" Nemona chuckled and nodded as she threw her bag over her shoulder and headed out, leaving Elaina by herself. She pulled out her phone and texted Silver.
Yo, Monstah, how's work?
Silver's response was fairly quick. Not bad. Claire has me in the final round of tryouts to be interim leader while she's gone so I've been putting the work in down at the Dragon's Den. I just have to beat Mitchell and I'll get the position.
Fucking rad, Elaina sent back.
Isn't today your first day back at school? How is that going?
Classes restart at 5:00. I have a meeting with my faculty sponsor at 5:01. Until then I'm just chillin'
Silver sent back a thumbs up emoji and Elaina tucked her phone into her pocket."Now, how do I kill four hours?"She stood up and headed back to her she tossed her bag down, kicked off her shoes, and fell into bed, she thought of Penny."I hope her channel goes well."She thought as she snuggled up under her covers. She set an alarm for 4:30 and fell asleep.