Yeah, I know I said this would come out on Monday, but both Monday and Tuesday were quite busy. Also, for the first time since I've started writing fanfiction, I have more of a plan for the beginning than the end. So, this may be a drawn out mess, but we'll see how this goes. Speaking of drawn out messes, I've changed the number of chapters in this fic to 15, because I realised that 2 chapters I had planned would've both either been really short, or really drawn out, so I combined them together instead. Anyway, enjoy.
Chapter9:
Preparation and Unreadiness
When Penny sent out that message, she'd expected a small number of people to show up wanting to help. She certainly wasn't expecting THIS many people to be standing outside Uva Academy the next morning. It looked like almost all of Paldea were standing in front of the school, all showing support for Penny's message. As Penny stared down in amazement at the large crowd, Eri burst into her room and picked her up, spinning her in a circle. "You did it!" she cried. "Well done! Your message worked!" "Th-Thanks Eri," Penny replied. "Now, could you please put me down?" Eri did as she was asked, apologising. "Mela's gone to fetch the rest of Team Star's Admins," said Eri. "And I think there's a large buzz from the other students about helping us as well." Penny's head spun from this. She couldn't believe her hack had sparked this much determination. She had no idea that people of Paldea cared so much about Florian and his sister. "Well," Penny said, staring down at the crowd below, "let's go and find the others, then address this mob."
When the two got down to the entrance hall, they found Giacomo and Ortega already there. "Your message sparked a lot of buzz," Ortega commented. "And not just from those who want to save Florian and Juliana." At Penny's confusion, Giacomo added, "Most of the people there were appalled by Gina's bigotry. Especially when she claimed to speak for all true Paldeans. I'd say they want to show her just how wrong she is, more than they want to save the twins." "You know, that makes more sense" Eri commented. By this time, Arven and Nemona came bounding down the stairs. Nemona caught sight of Penny and barrelled into her, hugging her tighter than Eri did. "Eres la mejor!" she exclaims. "Your message worked! So many people showed up!" Noticing how uncomfortable this was making Penny, Arven managed to pry Nemona off of her.
By now, the rest of the group arrived. Carmine and Kieran were both staring in amazement at the large crowd outside. Mela stood by Eri's side, which prompted Ortega to do the same with Giacomo. Atticus walked over to Penny and also told her how impressive her message was, thankfully not hugging her this time. Bringing up the rear were Director Clavell and Chairwoman Geeta. "Well, I'm sure you've heard this a few times now Penny," Clavell told her, "but well done on mustering this many people together." Geeta nodded, then began walking towards the door. "Don't worry," she told the Galarian girl, "we don't expect you to talk to all of them now. We've got that part." Penny felt immensely relieved to hear this. Clavell nodded in agreement and followed Geeta towards the door. "Quite right," Clavell said. "We can't have our students do everything for us. I think it's time we did our jobs properly." Then, they stepped outside to address the crowd.
As they did, other students of Uva began to trickle into the entrance hall from the rest of the school. The gang joined the large crowd as they all gathered around the windows to hear what the two adults had to say. "Greetings everyone," Clavell began. "Thank you all for coming to aid us in our mission to bring these two students back." There was some mild applause at this. "But more than that," Geeta continued. "This girl Gina believes she speaks for all of Paldea when she says that no foreigners or people of the LGBT community belong in this school. Do we truly believe this?" A chorus of denials rang through the crowd at this. They all seemed affronted at the idea. "Well, then let us prove this to her, and to Team Eclipse!" Geeta continued, this time with uproarious approval. "But of course," Clavell interrupted. "That means going down into Area Zero, which is something we'd like to avoid as best we can. So, The Chairwoman and I have come up with a solution to this."
Geeta nodded. "If you recall, Cassiopeia gave Team Eclipse the chance to back down," she reminded the crowd. "So, we have decided to wait until they respond to her warning before we act. If they back down and release the twins, there will be no need to enter the Crater." "But we still want you all to prepare yourselves!" Clavell warned the crowd. "For if they do not back down, and accept Cassiopeia's challenge, then we will have no choice but to meet them in Area Zero!" A feeling of unease washed over the crowd at this, but every face was one of determination. "Area Zero is a dangerous place!" Geeta warned. "So, make sure you have your strongest teams, and as many items as you can carry! If Team Eclipse accept the challenge, we'll be ready to show them who the unwelcome ones really are!" More uproarious cheering filled the crowd. Both Geeta and Clavell finished up by telling everyone to be ready, then the crowd dispersed and headed off to make their preparations. "That was good," Carmine commented. "Makes me pumped to head down there." Everyone else nodded in agreement, none more so than Nemona. "I don't care what Gina's response will be," she says. "If I ever lay eyes on that Hijo de Puta, I'll battle her myself, with or without my pokémon!"
As it turned out, they didn't have to wait long. Gina's response to Penny's message came just 2 days later. That morning, all news channels and websites were hacked into, and Gina's face was plastered everywhere in Paldea. Very disappointed to hear your decision Paldea!" she said. "I thought you would all agree with me on this. But it appears you are all still blind to the dangers these people pose!" At this, she revealed the unconscious forms of Florian and Juliana. "Or, perhaps you are aware, but you are terrified of being called racist, or homophobic," she continued, stepping back in front of the camera. "But I am not afraid to speak the truth! We cannot allow these people to continue coming into Uva, or our region for that matter! It's only a matter of time before they start replacing us! Soon, our region could be overrun with immigrants, and native Paldeans will die out! I will not allow that to happen! Team Eclipse will not allow that to happen! We accept your challenge Team Star! And don't worry, I'll keep these filth around a little while longer! Let's see just how many true Paldeans there really are!" Then, her hack ended.
Watching this, Penny can't help but smirk. "Their hacker was pretty terrible," she said. "She normally has a lot more to say on this matter than that. Clearly that was all they could fit before their hacker was kicked off." Some of the other Team Star members chuckled. "But still, that's some pretty horrible stuff they said," Kieran pointed out. "How many people do you think will believe them?" Ortega put a reassuring arm around Kieran's shoulders. "That's the funny thing about bigots," he said. "They live in an echo chamber, which means they think there are a lot more people who agree with them than there actually are." "Ortega's right," Carmine told him. "She's confident that her ideas are the universal way of thinking. Which means she'll be caught completely off guard when everyone shows up in Area Zero to kick nine layers of ass!" No one can help but laugh at her wording. "Well then," said Nemona, picking up one of her pokéballs. "Why don't we get ready to do just that!"
Over the next week, the region is buzzing with trainers preparing for the upcoming battle against Team Eclipse. While everyone was concerned for Florian's and Juliana's fates, what really drove their vigour was Gina's words. The way she claimed that only she and her possie were true Paldeans angered them. All across the region, people everywhere were preparing to show Team Eclipse who the true Paldeans were. Team Star's bases became full of trainers, new and out of practice ones, who wanted to use their training bases as a means to become accustomed or reacquainted to battling. Eri was also showing some people basic fighting moves, in case things got particularly ugly. Mela would join her sometimes to help her demonstrate the moves properly. Ortega and Giacomo also teamed up during this preparation time. As well as regular training for pokémon battles, they also showed some people how to cause distractions using sounds and lights. Atticus mostly worked by himself, demonstrating stealth on top of pokémon battling.
They weren't the only ones doing a bit of teaching, however. Carmine and Kieran were also teaching people a few things. Namely, they were instructing new and retired trainers in the Blueberry Academy style battling. On top of that, they even taught anyone who was interested double battling. As for Arven, Nemona and Penny, they didn't have much time for teaching anyone anything. They spent pretty much all of their time with Clavell, Geeta, and anyone else who would be a leader of this battle against Team Eclipse. Since the 3 of them had been in Area Zero before, especially the Zero Lab, they sat in on many of the meetings, and helped write down the directions to the Zero Lab on a map of Area Zero. Carmine and Kieran also joined in a few of these meetings, as they've been down there as well, but they didn't know how to get to the Zero Lab.
When they weren't helping fill the map or discussing strategy for the battle, the three of them occupied themselves with their own form of preparation. Arven showed a few people how to make sandwiches that boosted all kinds of stats, and how to do it in the most efficient way. Nemona could be found either training up her team rigorously, or joining in on Eri and Mela's fighting tutorial, hoping to get a chance to use the latter. As for Penny, she spent her time keeping an eye on Team Eclipse through hacked cameras, making sure they kept their word. She also monitored the Zero Lab's defence system, to see if she could disable it in any way. As the latter two worked, they kept having worrying thoughts in their heads, wondering what would happen if they failed. But they pushed those out of their minds and kept working. They couldn't do anything to help the twins when they got captured, so by Arceus they were going to do something about it now! They were going to save them, or die trying.
Whew, I'll be honest, I genuinely thought this wouldn't get out until Thursday at least. But hey, I did it. Now, I'd like to say that you'll see me in 2 days for the next chapter, but I don't know if I'll be able to keep that promise. Afterall, I did promise this'll be out by Monday, and it's Wednesday now. But I will try my best, so I'll see you whenever I get the next chapter out.