Pokeumans Room 181 Chapter 3

When we come in for breakfast in the morning the room is full of Pokeumans, chatting away about anything. At least, it is usually. They were still chatting, but today there was one subject on everyone's lips.

'...Lopunny, I think...'

'...Turned up in the middle of the night...'

'...Damn, she's HAWT!'

'...Said she'd escaped from a base!'

'Sounds like something big happened,' I said, taking a seat. 'Do you guys know what?'

'Nope. No idea.'

'Haven't a clue.'

'A new girl arrived late last night. A Lopunny called Mindy. She was in a bad condition because she apparently escaped from a Pokextinction base. However, she has made a very quick recovery. Oh, and apparently she is 'hawt'. Why do you ask?'

I grinned. I'd long ago found out that the best way to find something out is to stand next to Kieran Hart the Kadabra and say, loudly and clearly, that you don't know it. 'Oh, I'm just nosy. If there's news, I like to be on top of it- What are you doing?'

'Hm?' Kieran opened his eyes and looked at me. 'Well, I figured that since I was gathering information it may well have been worth, er, practising mind-reading. No Psychic is complete without it.'

'Any luck?' Jess asked conversationally.

'Um... no... I think I've just reserved myself a headache for later...'

'It's made me go all tingly,' I said in a voice of joking complaint. 'If I get a headache too, I'm suing, or something.'

'Same,' came a groan from Danny. Well, he's only young, so it can't be that comfortable for him.

'Yeah, well when you've stopped talking about me is this seat taken?' I looked up. There was a Lopunny standing at the end of the table, a tray of various breakfast food in her hands.

'Oh! Sorry! Yeah, it's free. So,' I said as she sat down 'you must be Mindy.'

Mindy sighed exaggeratedly. 'Jeez, I only just got here and I'm an instant celebrity. Yeah, I'm Mindy. And you are?'

'I'm Cameron, this is Kieran,'

'Hi,'

'Jess,'

'Nice to meet you,'

'and this is Danny.'

'Awww, hello there Danny!' Mindy said, in the patronising voice of someone who thinks 10-year-olds are still at the age where they shouldn't be left alone with pointy things. 'I'm Mindy!' and she bent down over him with a cottony hand extended.

'Yeah, nice to meet you too,' Danny said, rolling his eyes and stretching out one of his short limbs. 'I'm Da-'

And then it happened.

Danny's eyes shot wide open, staring into nothing. His seemingly tentative hold on Mindy's hand became a strong grip.

'Uh, Danny? You ok?' No response. His eyes were wide open, staring at something invisible.

'Um, is he ok?' Mindy asked nervously.

'I... think so. Here, hold on...' I said and tried to pull them apart, but it was no use. You'd need a jackhammer. He had a grip like, well... iron.

'Huh?' Danny suddenly muttered, without letting go. 'What's this?'

'What's what?' I asked. Behind me, Jess was leaning over, a look of huge and real concern on her face. I swear, they could be siblings.

'Is he...what is this place?' Danny muttered again, almost as if to himself. 'Are they the... what? What do you mean by convincing? What are you going to-'

Then as suddenly as it had happened, the connection was broken. Danny released Mindy's hand and fell backwards, dazed. He slowly got himself up, looked at his hand, took a long hard look at Mindy as if puzzled, muttered a confused 'Excuse me,' and slipped away, followed shortly by 'Danny! Wait up!' as Jess clamoured off to chase him.

'What... was that?' said Mindy confusedly. 'Does that... happen often?'

'No... I hope he's ok. Excuse us for a moment. Come on Kieran.'

Mindy watched the two of us hurry out of the room with a faintly bemused expression, then muttered 'Good grief, the freaks are weirder than I thought', before sitting down to eat breakfast.


---


The trail led back to our room. '...So don't worry about it, ok? I'll help you deal with this.'

'Deal with what, Jess?' I asked, standing in the doorway.

Danny opened his mouth to answer, but Jess beat him to it. 'Nothing. You don't have to worry about it. It... it takes too long to explain anyway. Now come on, we've got classes to go to,' and she brushed out of the door. I looked imploringly at Danny, but he just shook his head. No telling.

I just couldn't focus through the rest of the lessons. I was too busy thinking about what the problem could be. Why do they feel the need to keep it from us? Although, as Jess told me the first time we met, they do go back a long way... I'm sure they must just feel more comfortable with each other. But still... It's disconcerting...

Because of the nature of our timetables, I didn't get a chance to speak to either of them.  Finally we met up after Pokemon History. 'So, are you guys doing ok?' Jess spoke in a carefree tone of voice, but the look in her eye said 'If you ask me about earlier, I will drop you at 10 paces. Serious.'

I was about to try my luck anyway when an announcement came over the PA. 'Attention students this is Asula speaking. All Pokeumans report to the auditorium for an announcement in ten minutes. Thank you.' I shrugged. It would have to wait.


---


The auditorium was absolutely packed by the time we got there - everyone in the base was there. As a Flying type Jess had to take the seats near the roof, but me, Kieran and Danny managed to find some seats near each other in the front. 'Excuse me, can you stop talking behin- oh, hello Lizzy!'

'Er, hi!' the little Deino replied. 'Have you seen Luke anywhere?'

'There you are you idiot!'

'Oh! Luke! Over here! Coo-ee!' Lizzy stood up on the back of the chair and started yelling, much to the annoyance of the row behind. Eventually everyone settled down and Aslua came on.

'Attention students, as some of you may know we have a new recruit. She was brave enough to escape from a Pokextintion hideout herself!' There was a lot of clapping and cheering at this, including Lizzy who started whistling really loudly, much to the annoyance and embarrassment of her brother. 'It is an honour to introduce you to our newest recruit, Mindy the Lopunny!' There was a lot of cheering and several Mightyena whistles (Author's Note: Like wolf whistles, but more embarrassing for the other person) as Mindy stepped on stage.

'Restrain yourself Danny,' I said sarcastically, 'she's probably already got a boyfri... Danny?'

Danny wasn't paying attention to me. Instead his eyes were fixed on Mindy, giving her the kind of Glare that could Paralyze you in the games.

'Thank you, I have a very important announcement to make,' Mindy said on stage, bringing my attention back. 'As Ms. Asula explained, I had escaped from one of the main headquarters of the Pokextintion organisation and I overhead some interesting news from Mr. X himself!'

'Well, what did you hear?' someone shouted.

'I've overheard that the Pokextintion group has sent a spy to steal important information to use against us!'

Everyone gasped, except for Danny, who darkly muttered 'Oh, did you? Did you really?'

'Who is it?' Asula asked.

'His species is Lucario.' Mindy answered (unhelpful, as there are about 3 billion Lucarios around these days.) 'And his name is... BRANDON!' she shouted, pointing into the crowd. 'He's a spy!'

Everyone's head turned, mine included, to Brandon, who protested, in a very squeaky voice, 'Wait! What are you talking about? I'm not a spy!'

Suddenly everyone was trying to get him, shouting. It was absolute chaos of movement and noise until eventually Asula shouted 'QQUUUUUIIIIEEETTTT!!!!' and everyone somehow managed to settle down. 'Mindy? Are you sure Mr. X said Brandon was a spy?'

'I heard the words come out of his mouth.'

Asula slithered off the stage and towards the stunned Brandon. 'Brandon, I don't want to do this, but the rules of the base say that all traitors and spies are to be held prisoner until proven innocent. I'm sorry Brandon, you're under arrest.'

As the Graveler and Medicham dragged him away, all I heard was him desperately saying 'No, please, I'm not a spy...'


---


'Wow,' I said once we'd met up outside and Jess had descended from the roof. Everyone was thronging around, talking about the news. 'A spy! It's hard to believe that he's-'

'Brandon isn't a spy.'

I turned my head. 'Well, yes, I find it hard to believe too but-'

'BRANDON ISN'T A SPY!!!' Danny yelled, making heads turn in the corridor. 'I know it.'

'Danny's right,' Jess said firmly. 'Brandon is not a spy. There is a spy though, and I reckon can take a running glide at who it is, too...' (Author's Note: The concept of a running jump never caught on with Flying types, who could easily make it last a bit further.)

There was a pressure on my shoulder. 'Yes, do tell me what you're thinking of.' I turned to see Mindy leaning on my shoulder, a grin on her face. 'But please bare in mind that I am very sure what I heard.' She stood back, which at least meant she wasn't leaning on me.

'I-'

Suddenly Jess pulled me back and whispered harshly in my ear 'Keep her talking. Ask her questions, pretend to be interested, just make her talk!!' and she pushed me back forward again, into the frowning face of the Lopunny.

'Are you ok?'

'I, er...I...ummm...What makes you think Brandon's a spy?' I asked desperately, as much to stop looking like an idiot as anything else.

'What makes me think? I know he is!' Mindy answered, not seeming to notice. Plowing on, she said 'I saw Mr. X's lips move as he said it! And,' and here she leaned forward and whispered, as if sharing a huge secret, 'I wasn't going to show you this until the trial, but I swiped a black-box from the hideout and it says, on there, Mr. X's voice, that he's Mr. X's nephew! So there.' She grinned victoriously, then seemed to deflate a bit. 'Now can we please talk about something else? Please? How are you guys doing? Are you ok now Danny-'

'Daniel.' You could have sculpted a thousand Glalies out of the frost on Danny's tone. 'I'm fine,' he said curtly.

'So, Mindy,' Jess said to distract her from this little detail, 'I never actually saw the Pokextintion guys. I just ran away from home when I transformed,' which was true - that was apparently when she first met Danny. 'What was it like?'

'Oh, it was terrifying,' Mindy replied dramatically. 'When they arrived in the big red van, I was just so scared, especially when my friend went all dead-eyed on me.'

Something about that made me frown. It was said very enthusiastically, but also strangely... mechanically, like someone reading a script.

'So how did you escape?!' Danny asked excitedly.

I turned, stunned. He'd gone in seconds from staring daggers to wanting to talk to her as much as possible. What was going on here?

'Well, when I plucked up the courage I just jumped out of a window,' Mindy continued, oblivious.

I played back in my head the list of injuries she was supposed to have had. 'You don't get those injuries jumping out of a window.'

'No. You get those injuries by landing four floors below.' Ouch. 'Well, bye-bye! I've got a prosecution case to write!' and with that she skipped off.

'Hm...that's not much to work with...'

'Jess?'

'Hm? What?' She looked up.

'What was that about?'

'Oh...nothing. Look, we've wound up back at the room. Have you got anything on later?' A quick survey revealed we hadn't. 'Oh, good!' she said in that excited tone of hers that inspired dread in our hearts. 'In that case can you try and find things out about Mindy, since we've got time, if you're not busy.'

'What?' Kieran asked, sounding as surprised as I felt. 'You want us to pry about Mindy? Why? I don't think we should-'

'I said can you try and find things out about Mindy, since we've got time, if you're NOT BUSY!!'

'Er... ok... I'll try and find her roommates...'Kieran said tentatively and ran headlong away from Jess' glare of doom, which then turned on me.

'And I'll...go and see...if anyone knows anything...yeah...' I stumbled out.

'Great!' In an instant Jess' cheery smile was restored. 'Off you go then!'

'Why? Aren't you going to do anything?' a brave part of me questioned.

'Oh... I was going to... do something here... see you later,' and Jess slipped into the room before I could respond.

I got as far as 10 paces before leaning my head on the wall heavily. What have I got myself into now?


-JESS-


(Author's Note: Hi, me again. Just so you know, this thing here means I'm now writing from a different character's perspective, Jess' here. Just so we aren't getting confused. Ok, on with the story.)


'Oh... I was going to... do something here... see you later,' I said and slipped into the room quickly, pulling Danny in behind me. The look on Cam's face made me feel guilty. I've just roped them into my cause without even telling them what it is. Yep, I feel bad now.

'Why didn't you tell them about what I...saw?' asked Danny with a surprising amount of tact at the end.

'Because it would scare them,' I said smoothly and with frank honesty. 'If this is what I think it is, it'll just make Cameron confused and Kieran guilty. I want to check a few things first. And if they do find anything, then all the better.'

I smiled to myself. Thank goodness for people like Cameron. It's not that he insists on doing it himself. It's just that he wants to. So, so badly. He'll take advice, and that's a fine thing in a person, but he still likes to be the one that solves it all. So it's probably best if I let him then, because it will make him happy. With just a little, you know, assisted guidance.

That's the thing about humanity. Even if you don't have it anymore, it's an incredibly hard thing to give up.

I produced the tape recorder out from my down that acts as a pocket and started feeling under the pillow until my 'hand' found my notebook and a small pen.

Yes. Thank goodness for Cameron's desperate, earnest and almost entirely misplaced confidence. If he takes much longer to find this spy then I'll have to start giving him hints.