Twenty-Four: It's A Beautiful Day

Amara woke up the next morning and slowly climbed out of bed. She tugged on her clothes and left a note for Penny about getting the free breakfast in the lobby and made her way downstairs. Elaina was still catatonic, but Amara knew that the only way out is through. She walked out of the elevator and grabbed a plate to serve herself. She was sitting there for about fifteen minutes when her phone rang. Rotom leapt out of her pocket to reveal her father calling. She sent the call to voice mail and shot a text message back.

In public, can't talk. Eating breakfast.

Her father responded with Progress update?

Nothing yet. There's a pretty busy shipping port up north I will investigate if I can take control long enough to check the place out. As far as where we've been, no dice. Elaina has been giving me trouble.

Her father sent back a thumbs-up emoji and Amara deleted the voicemail, call log, and text messages. Then she let out a huge, exasperated sigh. "Hey, 'Mara." Penny sat next to her with her own breakfast platter. "How are you holding up?"
Amara chuckled. "Better than Elaina, but still not great. I texted Arven to see what he was up to, and he told me he was looking into the flying titan or some shit. He's over in eastern Paldea right now. I told him we'll head his way after I get the Levincia gym badge and pick up Nemona. You want in on that adventure?" She stabbed a sausage patty with her fork and put it, along with some egg, onto a biscuit.

"Yeah, one of my friends is over there. That's where I was heading to next." Amara smiled as she took a bite of her improvised breakfast sandwich. "I also need to stop back at the academy and write up a draft of the first part of my report. Has Mr. Vaughn asked you for any documentation?" Penny cut into her pancakes and dipped the pancake strips in her ramekin of syrup. Amara decided to check her phone after the last twenty-four hours of psychological explosions and found she did indeed have an email from Mr. Vaughn.

Elaina and Headmate,

This is just an email reminder that our first meeting of the term needs to happen by the end of this week. Come on by during office hours and we'll chat. Hope to see y'all soon.

-Mr. Vaughn

Amara blinked twice and showed Penny the message. "Vaughn has never seen us switch. He's been working with Elaina in ABS. How does he know about me?" She sat the phone down onto the table and stared into her breakfast sandwich. "I mean, unless he happens to be best friends with someone who got ahold of my personnel file." She grumpily took another bite. "Don't know how the hell that would work though. Only three people got ahold of it." Amara paused before uttering a "fuck."

"What's fuck?" Penny asked as Amara put her sandwich down. Amara looked through the emails from her last week to find Markus's next email. "Here," Amara showed Penny. "He went to Orre last week and one of the people with a copy of my personnel file lives in Orre. Shit. Fuck. Shit. Damn."

Penny sat there, a confused look on her face. She waited for Amara to catch her breath before she asked. "'Mara, what personnel file?" Amara took a long drink of the juice she'd poured and looked back up to Penny. "My personnel file for my dad's crime organization." Penny blinked twice and nodded. "The one he forced me to be a part of."

Amara grabbed her phone and composed a short introductory email and sent it to Mr. Vaughn. "I'm so boned." Penny put her hand on Amara's shoulder as she started to dissociate. After a minute, Amara shook her head. "Alright, since we're passing through Mesagoza anyway, I suppose I should go talk to Vaughn. But first I'm finishing breakfast." Amara looked down at her sandwich and took another bite. The rest of the meal was silent, and before she knew it, Amara was on Miraidon's back, Penny in tow, on their way to Levincia.

"I feel like you're going to be fine meeting with Mr. Vaughn, 'Mara." Penny noted as the two walked through the city. "I mean, you didn't choose to be involved with your father's shady business." Amara thought for a moment as they walked. After a few seconds, she heard a loud "'Layna, 'Mara, Penny, wait up!" as Nemona jogged over to them. The group exchanged tales of their previous few days, though Amara wasn't exactly forthcoming about Elaina's current condition. "And now we're here and my distaste for the academy's previous state is growing by the second. It's kinda like digging for treasure in the septic tank. We just keep finding more and more layers of shit."

"Full disclosure, I was thinking hard about dropping out before the staff was turned over." Nemona muttered as the group walked toward the gym. "Alright, this should take like thirty minutes, max. I'll be back." Amara walked into the gym and was told she would need to participate in the gym leader's livestream. Amara just rolled her eyes. "Alright, let me sign into my Twitch." Amara said as she pulled out her phone. The receptionist scratched her head and asked, "What's Twitch?" Amara put her phone on the counter and looked up to the receptionist.

"Where does Iono stream?" Amara asked, nervously finger drumming on the counter. After a quick search on the computer, the receptionist replied with a "Oh, that's Twitch, ok." Amara put her head in her hands. Then from behind her she heard a peppy voice.

"Is my staff making it sound like I do porn again?" Amara wheeled around to find a woman with bubblegum pink and blue hair smiling at her. "Let's just skip that whole topic. You're looking for my gym badge, right?" Amara nodded and the woman, Iono Amara guessed, Smiled wider. "Awesome, gym battles bring in the big numbers and the big tippers. We're gonna make some sick bank, challenger."

"Call me Amara." Amara said as she pulled out her own phone. "Can you put my Twitch in the stream description next to my credit?" Iono nodded. "Are you going to host the stream?" Amara and Iono had made their way out of the gym and to the battle court in central Levincia. Penny and Nemona were both on a bench and waved as Amara walked by. "Alright, you ready to get this party started?"

Iono let Rotom fly out of her hand, and several drones flew onto the battle court, each piloted by its own Rotom. Iono's phone connected to the drones, and she tapped a few buttons before shouting "Hello, 'Ello, Ciao and Bonjour! Welcome to the Iono Zone. You may have noticed the label in the corner that says 'Cam 5'. That's because I'm joined by our lovely challenger, Amara!" Rotom whipped around and paired with Amara's phone, and her camera ticked on as Cam 6. "Hello, 'Ello, Ciao and bonjour, internet. Call me Amara, soon to have taken down your lovely streamer to get my next gym badge, hashtag Paldea league, hashtag Iono Zone, hashtag feminism. Follow the conversation on Starly at hashtag Amara and Iono." Amara flashed a peace sign as the stream flipped back to cam 5.

"Go ahead and hit up Starly and cast your vote for who you think is coming out victorious, and Amara, since you threw down the gauntlet, we're going hard today!" The women took their places, and the battle was on.