Title: Grit and Ground
Summary: Following a failed audit, Misty finds herself at the mercy of the League to restore her gym's standing. Forced to leave friends and family behind, she's sent undercover to unveil answers about the organization behind the Kalos attack. Along the way she questions whether her newly forged relationship can survive the secrets, and it doesn't help that an old flame is brought into the mix. Sequel to "Snow-Where to Go." Pokeshipping
Note: If you didn't catch the last chapter of SWTG, go ahead and check it out. While it's not necessary to have read the previous story to understand what's going on here, it definitely helps with details :)
Fissure
"You have got to be kidding me," Misty grumbled in frustration while shooting pointed glares at the panel of people sitting in her living room.
She expected to have some frustrated feelings upon returning to Kanto after everything that had happened in Kalos. In preparation, she'd taken Ash up on the offer to spend a few extra days in Pallet Town before heading back to Cerulean. As far as she was concerned, her gym had already failed the audit, so the work needed to repair it before the follow up audit wouldn't change with another minor break.
Still, the two days she'd spent in Pallet couldn't have prepared her to face the predicament that she found waiting in her living room.
"Listen, Miss Waterflower, we're really not giving you a choice in the matter. We're shutting down your gym either way, so if you want it reopened you'll have to help us," Agatha flatly explained.
The icy atmosphere almost made Misty wish for the frozen tundra of the previous week's cold ravaged Kalos, as this environment felt substantially harsher. The skin on the side of her face was still an angry pink from Kyurem's attack, and the three elites facing her, several of whom had previously held a soft spot for the youngest Waterflower sister, may as well have slapped her across her still healing face.
"And if I refuse?" Misty indignantly asked, bringing a defiant hand to her hip.
"Then Cerulean City Gym will be closed permanently," Agatha replied apathetically.
Of the four she was the only one with enough venom to deliver the threat, though Misty was certain if Agatha hadn't stepped up then Champion Lance, would have.
Misty shot a pleading look at Lorelei who couldn't seem to make eye contact with her. It was then Misty realized how devastatingly serious this undertaking was. Lorelei, who had long defended the Waterflower sisters and helped them maintain the gym in the wake of their parent's passing, was powerless here. Misty felt a prickly feeling of betrayal from her former mentor, the woman who upon Misty's permanent return to the gym leader lifestyle had spent many Tuesday afternoons sparring with her to help her refine her skills and proximally turn Cerulean into the powerhouse it now was.
"Bruno?" Misty quietly mumbled, cyan eyes looking at the fighting type specialist who used to vacation with her family in the Sevii islands when the sisters were young and their parents were still alive.
He didn't have a hometown and, as far as Misty remembered, he didn't have family. She recalled the quiet man joining their family for holidays when he found himself in or near town, which happened often before her parents passed.
"Lance, can't we reconsider? She's just a kid," Bruno appealed taking pity on her predicament.
Lance glared at Bruno with a look that implied this conversation had already been had, and Misty felt her hopes dwindle. She was at the mercy of the League.
It was an unwritten rule that once you were in, you were as much militant soldier as you were figurehead and role model. If you wanted to stay in, that meant you had to complete the tasks they asked of you, no matter how veritably insane the request. It wasn't surprising that many of the other gym leaders, especially the one's who'd been in the League much longer and had suffered at the hands of unspeakable missions, had frayed mental health as a result.
For the most part Misty had been lucky to be left alone until this point. For many years the elite members, especially Lorelei and Bruno, had used their sway to keep her protected, but as she aged and the gym's reputation grew, it became harder to make the case that she couldn't handle the danger.
"She's seventeen. Besides, the gym closure is the perfect cover. She'll be fine," Lance argued with a finality that let the other's know this was not a discussion.
'Fine aside from whatever unspeakable horrors I have to witness,' Misty thought with an inward groan. They'd broken Sabrina at a much younger age than her, and Misty had no desire to know what horrible things the psychic trainer had been through to get to that point.
"So what was the major finding that caused my gym to be shut down until further notice?" Misty reproachfully snapped.
"We're citing it as a water contamination issue," Lance replied firmly with pointed glances at the remaining members to hold their tongues.
"Which isn't actually a problem, now is it? Given we pump in and filter clean water from the cape for our pools?" Misty bit back with a steely glare.
"Our testing labs will corroborate that it is in fact a problem," Lance tactfully retorted.
"So they'll lie for you...probably chalk it up to a mislabeled sample when I complete what you're asking of me, right?" Misty griped staring daggers at the dragon master.
"The choice is ultimately yours, Miss Waterflower, either the gym closes permanently in disgrace, or you go undercover for us."
"Okay," Misty relented, her hands forced, "but I want my sisters left out of this."
"We weren't planning on involving them. We need experienced battlers only," Agatha explained dismissing the ditsy older sisters who weren't present anyway as they'd stepped out for a post-holiday modeling gig.
"So what do I need to do?" Misty sighed, and noticed again that Lorelei refused to make eye contact with her.
At Lance's nod, Agatha began to explain:
"We've had suspicions that the project you stumbled upon in Kalos was underway, but with that definitive proof, along with the two lab books collected, we've been able to more properly pinpoint what the next steps will be. Unfortunately we still don't have an idea of which specific organization is behind this, but rumors point to multiple groups involved. We've also been hearing chatter about an underground pokemon fighting ring where the succeeding, non-legendary pokemon will be tasked with trying to survive the experimental stimulant treatment matching the prototype you found."
"If you know all that, why do you need me? Can't you just shut down the fight club yourself?" Misty asked absorbing the information numbly.
"Even if we shut down one ring, another would pop up. We need boots on the ground to keep an eye on what type of pokemon is likely to be part of the next experiment given it will ultimately mean lives saved. Ice and snow are natural phenomenons; poison gases or walls of fire could be more costly," Agatha added.
"So I have to what...just attend and watch? That's horrible!" Misty protested, her stomach turning at the thought.
"Listen to the gossip at the fights, see if anyone knows who's behind it, and yes, keep an eye on the fights. If you can manage it without blowing your cover, then you're free to save whatever pokemon you're able," Agatha stoically stated.
"But…" Misty began to protest; she'd never been good at inaction in the face of injustice and self-preservation wasn't her strong suit.
"We lost a lot of lives, pokemon and human, in the old war. If that is what they're trying to start up again, this is just the beginning," Lance reasoned.
"Someone's going to recognize me. Even if it's another region, I'm fairly well known from my time spent traveling with Ash. Besides, there was a camera feed in the cave where I faced Kyurem; whoever set that up likely watched me battle. They know my face and they'll know my pokemon, and they'll connect the dots if you declare that my gym is closed," Misty pointed out.
"Of course you won't be going undercover looking as you are now," Lance explained pressing a button on his cell phone and letting whoever was on the other end know to enter the room.
Misty's mind already whirring with anxiety over the task at hand, so she wasn't sure anyone walking through that door would be competent enough to put her at ease, but found herself pleasantly surprised at who entered.
"Dawn?"
"Oh, hi Misty," Dawn greeted shyly.
Normally she was bubbly and effervescent in her greetings, but the severity of the mission seemed to leave her reserved.
'Or maybe it was just the present company,' Misty mentally noted as Dawn's eyes flicked nervously over the three elite four members and Lance in the room.
"You two know each other?" Lance asked with a calculating tone. This was new information to him, and he was factoring in how that might affect the mission.
"We're both friends of Ash. Well, I'm his friend...Misty's always been a little bit, um, more to him," Dawn fumbled with a slight blush.
"Will this be a problem?" Agatha asked Lance, turning a curious eye toward the trainers.
"I don't think so," Lance replied, mentally cursing Paul for either leaving out or failing to find out important details.
Still, Dawn had demonstrated proper costuming abilities and likely would have more reason to keep a friend disguised as a protective measure, and Misty was unlikely to try to abandon the mission with her gym on the line.
"What are you doing wrapped up in all this?" Misty asked curiously, ignoring the remainder of the group.
"I volunteered to be an agent handler. The coordinator circuit hasn't been going especially well lately so Paul suggested a change of pace," the bluenette evasively answered.
Two days prior:
The rain in Sinnoh had been constant since New Year's eve. Dawn arrived at the doorstep of Paul's studio apartment in Veilstone City drenched despite having the foresight to bring an umbrella. She was surprised it wasn't snowing, but the chilled rain only added to the ominous feeling that something was off. She hadn't exactly told her mother she was seeing anyone and since the relationship with Paul was fairly fresh, the pair had agreed to spend the holiday's apart with plans to make time for one another afterward.
"I hate to ask this of you…" Paul's regret filled his words as Dawn hung up her raincoat by the door, "I just know he'd do the same if it were you…"
"What're you talking about?" Dawn puzzled thinking for sure Paul was going to try and end things. He'd been a flight risk from the beginning and it had taken a lot of coaxing to even convince him that she wanted to date him.
"What do you know about Misty Waterflower?" Paul probed cautiously.
"She's Ash's first traveling companion, why?" Dawn quizzically answered, debased by the randomness of the topic.
Last Dawn had heard, Misty had been doing some soul-searching over the holidays in Kalos, but she hadn't heard back from the redhead as to how that went.
"Is she in trouble?" Dawn asked, noticing the internal battle Paul seemed to be having.
"Something like that," Paul answered vaguely, "can we go for a walk?"
"Are you crazy? It's pouring out there," Dawn incredulously stared, "frankly, if you're going to break up with me, can you at least not make it more miserable?"
"Break up?" Paul stammered, looking at her like she'd grown a second head, "I'm not breaking up with you."
"Oh...Okay," Dawn blinked in surprise, relenting and putting her rain gear back on.
When they got outside, Paul called forth his weavile and mimed to the pokemon that he wanted it to go for a walk after handing the pokemon his pokenav.
"What's this about?" Dawn asked as weavile disappeared around the block.
"I don't need the League spying on me since I'm not supposed to be telling you this, but there was trouble in Kalos last week," Paul explained pulling his hood over his face as a disguise, though no one else was out in the terrible weather aside from them.
"Misty was in Kalos last week," Dawn quietly added hoping Paul would explain what the redhead had to do with the situation.
"The League shut down her gym," Paul sighed. He knew he wasn't supposed to share the information he'd been told as it was 'for League ears only,' but he felt Dawn needed to know, "they're sending her undercover as a result. How certain are you that Ash cares for her?"
"Positive," Dawn defended quickly, "Mew, you should have seen how worked up he got over a fishing lure she'd given him when I tried to borrow it."
"So how likely is it that he lets the League make her disappear for several months without him barging into her mission?" Paul hypothetically posed.
"If he knows she missing and no one tells him why, he'll find her," Dawn knowingly answered.
"Then she's going to need one hell of an agent handler and a stellar disguise. What's about to happen is going to be really bad," Paul alluded cautiously.
"You want me to go?" Dawn inferred.
"I don't want you to, but I know if the roles were reversed he'd send whoever he needed to keep you safe as his friend. Plus I do feel a bit of pity for the girl…getting attacked by a legendary pokemon wasn't enough for the League apparently."
"I'll do it," Dawn agreed with a wink, "but of course I didn't hear any of this from you."
"Promise me you'll be careful. I can't stand the thought of losing you," Paul sighed sadly.
"I thought you liked being alone?" Dawn teased, stealing a kiss from the generally grumpy trainer.
"I did; well, that was until you came along," Paul smirked.
'Paul,' Misty thought, 'of course Dawn would have some intel from her budding relationship with the Sinnoh elite member.'
Of the friends that Dawn had told about her relationship with Paul, Misty had overwhelmingly been the most supportive as a lot of their other friends didn't understand how someone as sunny as Dawn would want someone as misery-driven as Paul. But Misty had simply shrugged and accepted it, allowing the bluenette to excitedly share how the relationship had started and what she'd hoped from it.
"Okay," Misty conceded, realizing that if anyone could completely alter her look, it had to be someone on par with Dawn's skill set, "but that still leaves me with one glaring problem: I'm a water pokemon trainer. You closed down a water pokemon gym, and a strange girl showing up to these fights bringing only water pokemon? That's bound to raise a few eyebrows."
Lance pressed another button on his phone and directed someone else to enter the room.
Stiffly and unsure, another familiar face entered her living room.
"Hiya, Red," Gary greeted, though his posture told her he was being strong-armed into the situation as well.
"Gare," Misty met his greeting with a fake grin and pulled the dark eyed researcher into a firm hug so she could try to get a quick word with him.
"What the hell is going on?" she whispered sharply.
"What you found in Kalos was small potatoes compared to this," Gary whispered in response, "I'm going to help you, but we can't talk here."
Gary reset the space between them and stepped back, earning a frustrated eye-roll from the redhead.
"She doesn't like that I'm setting boundaries since she and Ketchum started dating," Gary nonchalantly explained, "he's a hothead and I have no desire to get punched for hugging his girlfriend."
Gary had little fear of his former rival on and off the battlefield, but it made a convincing enough story to explain the pattern of events. Dawn raised an eyebrow at the two of them, but the remainder of the room seemed to buy it.
"Speaking of Ash…" Misty sighed sadly.
She was all too familiar with the rumors about previous missions where a gym leader could anticipate being away from friends and family for extended amounts of time. Most recently she had heard that the elites had forced Erika into a time intensive mission to shut down a poaching outfit that took her away from her ailing mother. By the time Erika had returned, her mother had passed.
"Mister Ketchum is too well known. If you and Miss Berlitz go missing for a while, it's not even a blip on the radar of whatever crime syndicate is behind this, but the Ketchum boy is a household name," Lance explained with his face set in an impassive manner, "that also brings up another major point. To keep your cover intact, you will not be allowed any contact with friends or family."
Reading between the lines, Misty also realized that they had no intent to send Gary for the same reason as he routinely collaborated with labs across all regions.
"My sister gets married in two months…" Misty explained, though she knew if they didn't allow Erika to see her mother, they likely wouldn't let her attend the wedding.
"Then I suggest you try to wrap this up quickly, Miss Waterflower," Agatha countered.
Further facing the realities, Misty turned her attention to Gary, "You'll let Ash know I had to go away for a while?"
"I'll let him know you'll get in contact when you can," Gary reassured trying to add in some humor to lighten the mood, "he's been carrying a torch for you for years, so a couple of months won't change that. Besides, maybe he won't even notice you're gone...he is rather dense."
"I know I'm not that forgettable," Misty shot back with a playful glare, "just let him know I miss him. I'll try to wrap this up quickly...whatever this is…"
"Yeah, yeah. Here's your pokemon for the mission. Each one is holding instructions with their attacks and levels, though knowing you, you'll work with each of them before you go into the lion's den. Just do me a favor, will ya? Don't go getting all mopey and soak the instructions with your tears. I know how emotional you can be, Red," Gary taunted, displaying a subtle tell that Misty recognized.
Dawn, not recognizing the tell, looked on confused as it certainly wasn't like Misty to get weepy over things; angry maybe, but not sad.
"Don't worry about that, Oak, I'm not the kind of girl that sits crying over a guy when the world needs saving," Misty spat back, "besides, how many tears do you think I'd shed to ruin your notes anyway?"
"Given you'll be missing Ketchum, me, and that delightful little psyduck of yours, I figured you'd about drown the pages in sorrow," Gary teased.
She glared at him in response, but the message was received: soak the pages; get more information.
"But really, be safe. This also means we won't be able to talk for a while," Gary relented pulling the redhead into a quick hug before exiting the room.
"Well Misty, are you ready?" Dawn timidly smiled holding out a hand to the redhead.
"I don't really have much choice in the matter, do I?" Misty sighed letting Dawn lead her out to the craggy cliffs of the cape behind the gym.
A perwinkle haired woman rose up from behind the cliffs on a dragonite and motioned for the trainers to climb on.
"Long time no see, Misty," Clair greeted in a friendly tone, "wish we were meeting under better circumstances."
"As do I," Misty acknowledged letting the dragon expert lead them onward.
They landed in a clearing in front of a small, single-story house. The house itself was recessed from the main roadway by a dense smattering of pine trees that spread out endlessly in every direction. Given her track records with woods, Misty was less than confident she'd be able to find this place again should she step away from it.
"Welcome to the safe house," Dawn enthused as Clair and dragonite dropped them off and rose once more into the sky.
"This is...remote…" Misty settled on, as they pushed open the entryway door and found a two bedroom, one bathroom structure with limited windows.
"Well, it's going to be home until you do what Lance asked for," Dawn shrugged, "tomorrow we'll try out your new look, but for now I need a nap. I'm not exactly adjusted to the regional time difference yet."
"Where are we, anyway?" Misty asked as Dawn claimed one of the bedrooms.
"Somewhere in Johto," Dawn yawned, "I think somewhere outside of Ecruteak City from what Paul told me."
As Dawn shut the door to the room Misty sunk down into a seat at the kitchen table. After everything that had happened today, the events of the prior week in Kalos felt like a long forgotten memory save for the ice burns that still graced her face.
'From one adventure to the next,' She sadly thought, 'it would be easier if Ash at least knew I was safe.'
She was brought out of her thoughts by a sudden knock at the door.
-Chapter end-
Hope you're ready for another adventure! I've been eager to put words to paper for this one since midway through SWTG. It's going to be a bit grittier, darker, and still have a good dose of pokeshipping along the way! I'll try to sneak in some of my normal humor, but it definitely won't be as lighthearted as SWTG especially since Gary (who's dialogue I love writing) is basically out for the remainder of the story.
"But FWFT – then who is the old flame?!" You'll just have to wait and see, friends!
Let me know what you think! I always appreciate follows, favs, and reviews. It'll be my normal three week update metric (which I know sucks, but I'm also working on pokeshipping week oneshots for you to enjoy in November so I'm having to balance what I write).
-FWFT