Pokeumans Room 181 Chapter 5

''Ello, 'ello, 'ello, what's all this then?'

'Argh!' The figure whipped round as a strangled scream stole out of its mouth.

'What are you doing here? What are you doing with that?'

'Er...' the figure shuffled nervously. '...Nothing?' he ventured.

'That's a lot of electricity to do nothing. That's possibly the biggest nothing I've ever seen.'

'Look, please don't turn me in,' begged the figure. 'Please. I'll be gone before you know it.'

'Why shouldn't I turn you in?' The owner of the first voice took a very deliberate step forwards.

'Don't do that again.'

'Don't do what?'

'Don't come any closer.'

'Why not?' He took another step forwards.

'No, please, you're making me nervous and when I'm nervous I flare-'

There was a flash of flame in the darkness.


---


'Wait,' I said, looking at the Excadrill. 'You're Jess' brother?'

'Indeed I am,' Stuart said cheerily. 'Nice to meet you. I'm sure that-'

'Ignore him,' Jess said quickly, standing in between us. 'He's not staying.'

'Aren't I?' Stuart said with mock indignation.

'No. You aren't. Why are even here anyway?'

'Oh, I'm sorry. Is it illegal to come and see how my little sis is doing?' He wasn't angry. He sounded like a joker, like he never took anything seriously.

'Your little sis,' Jess said, practically spitting the last words out and glaring at him, 'was doing fine until you showed your stupid face.'

'Well, that's good to know.' Stuart didn't even blink. 'In fact...' and with he gripped Jess' hand and held it up in his and spoke in what he probably thought was a romantic and dramatic voice, but actually made him look quite stupid, 'I'd like to make the most of this chance to re-forge the bonds that have been broken between myself and my dear sweet little sister.'

'I have a better idea,' said Jess flatly. 'Why don't I drown you in the pool?'

'Anything you want. As long as we spend some quality time together.'

'On second thoughts, go and drown yourself.'

Now that I looked at the two of them together, I could see some sort of chemistry between them, the kind that needs a new science lab afterwards. 'What else are you here for?' I said cautiously, trying not to incur Jess' wrath upon myself or another lecture from Stuart about how great he thought he was. Unfortunately, I got the second one.

'Well,' said Stuart turning to face me and dropping Jess' hand, 'I wanted to meet and help these mysterious friends of hers. Seeing as I can dig in anywhere and have a connection with you, I figured I was the ideal man for the job of looking after you little kids, naturally,' prompting Jess to darkly mutter 'Did you? Did you really?'

'So... you stole Mindy's diary? For us?'

'Yep! I figured you needed some real, clinching evidence to prove her wrong. Although,' and for the first time since he'd appeared (and, quite possibly, ever) Stuart looked awkward, 'I just can't quite remember why...'

Jess smiled at this. I just looked sidelong at Kieran and Danny, who just shrugged.

'Well,' Kieran said before Stuart could begin another tirade, 'if you're going to be staying in the base you'll need to report to Asula, the headmistress.'

'Oh, that's fine,' Stuart said casually and started to head for the door. 'No need to tell me anything, I'm sure with my wonderful sense of direction I can find the place myself! So long!' As the door swung to we could hear him saying 'I wonder if this headmistress woman is a cutie...'

'Urgh... Thanks for getting rid of him,' muttered Jess. 'Honestly, I could just slap him sometimes.'

'Do you really not like him?' I asked, then ducked back in case she exploded in anger at me. To be honest, I was hardly surprised. That guy was starting to wind me up, let along his estranged sibling.

Instead she sighed. 'The way he assumes the world revolves around him is a big problem. But, I don't know... I guess he's just a bit much for me sometimes.' There was another sigh. 'And now he's trying to 'get to know me better' and look after us. All I want is for him to just go away and give me space.'

She looked up. 'When Stuart and I grew up as humans we got on...well, like you saw then. And we haven't seen each other in a long time, because when we transformed we split up to get away from the Pokextintion guys.' She flicked her head irritably. 'Although some things don't change. He's still as much of an idiot as I-'

The door suddenly shot open again and Stuart popped his head through. 'By the way guys, nice room. But I can't say I like your other roommate much.'

My brow, or what's left of it, furrowed. 'Other roommate?'

'Oh, you know. The Golduc-'

We were out of the room before he'd even got the words out of his mouth.


---


'Nice beds, I must say,' said Alex, lying spread out over the bed-sheet.

'Hm,' Louise added, 'but I can't say I like the décor much. Too much blue.'

I stood in the doorway, desperately trying to disguise the fact that I had a massive stitch from running. 'Why *pant* are you here?'

'Oh, hello Cam!' said Alex, as if only just noticing us. 'Do take a seat.'

'What do you want?' I said, not sitting.

'Don't look so aggressive,' said Harry, sat over on Danny's bed. 'We just wanted to talk to you about something.'

'So why are you in our room?' Kieran said angrily.

'Don't look at me like that, Nose-Hair Boy,' Alex said. 'We knew you'd be coming back here soon, so we waited for you.'

'Look,' Jess said angrily, 'we've told you several times. Get out of our room!'

'Hark at Miss Sparkles,' Louise chipped in sarcastically. 'What's the matter, Precious? Run out of Joy Dust?'

'Oh, please,' Harry said, 'let's not fight. The Author's already said twice he hates fight scenes.'

Everyone in the room sweat-dropped spontaneously. 'Um, Harry?' Alex said eventually. 'What are you talking about?'

Harry waved a hand dismissively. 'Oh, never mind.'

Alex looked at me. I just shrugged, confused. Who the heck is 'The Author?'

'Anyway...' Alex started awkwardly, 'as you may have noticed, we're one man down.' He was right; as I looked around I realised I couldn't see Russel the Exeggutor anywhere.

'Yeah, so what?'

'He's in the base hospital. Burns all over him.'

'And you're accusing me?' I said indignantly. 'What do I look like, a Typhlo-'

My hands suddenly flew to my mouth. Oh no... not him. Not here.

Unnoticing, Alex plowed on. 'Well, you'd have the motive for it, wouldn't you? And we all know you can get electrical burns. Besides, you wouldn't have needed to attack him. He was found outside Mt. Chimney. And, coincidentally, the door to the Vault was open. You of all people wouldn't have much of a problem in there, would you?'

(Author's Note: Thanks for that, Harry. Not. Anyway, the base included facilities for practising battles in an area full of one particular element. These were named after locations from the games. There was one for each type of Pokemon, including Fire (Mt. Chimney), Ice (Seafoam Islands) and Electric (Power Plant, known by the kids as the Volt Vault.) By the way, from now on, instead of writing 'Author's Note' every time, I'm just going to use brackets and italics together for my speech.) (Like this. Ok, on with the story.)

'Why are you accusing Cam?' Kieran growled, defending me. I was too busy thinking. If he'd wanted some electricity, all he had to do was ask...

'Yeah, Cam wouldn't do something like that,' Danny joined in. 'He's not some sort of scumbag like you.'

'I am not accusing Cam of anything,' said Alex, in a voice in which pained patience floated like ice cubes. 'All I'm saying is I'm watching you, Sparky.'

'Hm?' I said, roused from my thoughts. 'Oh, yeah. Same to you too.'

'Hmph.' Obviously Alex was unimpressed by this reaction. 'Come on, guys.' He strode out, something he was built to do.  Louise flapped out lazily afterwards, stopping to glare at Jess, who met her glare with one of her own. Harry skittered out quickly afterwards, muttering something about brackets and italics.

'Right. We are going to go and prove you innocent,' Danny said as soon as they were out of the room.

Kieran sighed. 'We seem to be doing that a lot these days.'

'Hm? Oh, yeah,' I said, still thinking. 'Actually, could I go off on my own for a while? I have something I want to check out.'

'Um, ok,' Kieran said confusedly. 'What is it, exactly?'

'Just... an idea I'm following. I'd like to do it on my own, please.'

'Ok then!' Jess said brightly, standing up. 'We'll go one way and you go the other.' She slapped her hands together like the crack of doom. 'Let's get to it, guys!'

As their makeshift posse trawled out, I heard Kieran saying '...It's annoying, I really wish I knew who did this.'

I swallowed hard. I really wish I didn't.


-DANNY-


20 minutes later...

I was stood back from the doors at the far side, a good idea since the Vault door is opened and Steel and Electric don't mix. Jess and Kieran wandered between the two, inspecting the doors and the rooms. Occasionally as they crossed they exchanged notes and theories. Eventually they came back over to me. 'Well?' I said. 'Got anything?'

'Hm... I don't know,' Jess said. 'The door for Mt. Chimney hasn't been forced open, but the door for the Vault has been picked.'

I felt a chill go down my 'spine'. 'Picked? You mean there could be a crook hiding out in the base?'

'Possibly, but what would they be doing down here with a room full of electricity?'

'Ah,' said Kieran. 'I can help you there. It's not full of electricity. It's half-full. Someone's drained charge out of the room.'

'Why?' I wondered aloud.

'Well, it's probably the biggest supply of electricity in the base, so if you need power for a machine or something then it's the perfect place to go. But I don't think that's it.'

'Why not?' Jess asked.

'Where would Russel come into it? And why then would Alex blame us?'

'Because he hates us?' I volunteered.

'Exactly. I don't think there's an evil genius in here.'

'Oh, I see where this is going,' said Jess. 'It's a nest war.' (For those who missed the memo, this is The Author. As previously mentioned with running jumps, the concept of a turf war doesn't really apply to Flying-types.) 'Russel is a nosy sort of person, so someone draws his attention down here by messing around, beats him up and Alex automatically blames us.'

'But who?' I asked. 'Who hates Cam enough to frame him?'

Kieran drew a ring around something on the sheet of paper he was keeping notes on. 'M.S.N. On my first day here Cam beat them up, then I embarrased them a while ago. They'll want revenge. Alex beats up Cam for them and all they have to do is sit back and laugh at him.'

'So where will they be now?' Jess asked cautiously.

Kieran looked at us. 'My guess? In our room, looking for trouble to cause...'


---


We stopped outside the room door. 'Ok,' Kieran whispered. 'I can hear someone in there. On Three, right?'

'Right.'

'Right.'

'Ok.' There was a pause. 'Three!'

We burst into the room, causing the figure in the centre to look up. The lights, however, were off and the light from the corridor didn't show us the his species. 'Alright, that's enough messing around,' Jess said.

'But... but I'm just...' the figure in the room stuttered.

'Why, Scott?' Kieran interrupted. 'Why go to all the effort?'

I heard a noise in the corridor just as the figure stalled. 'Who's Scott?'


-CAM-


I closed the door behind me, took a deep breath, then ran like heck back to the room, my mind going like a Dodrio on Red Tauros.

Of course. Just as I thought. The Dream World. Designed after the game location from the fifth generation (or is it the other way round? I'll never know) it was supposed to be the ultimate R-and-R space to go and relax with your friends. But his tracks were there. He's got in - and not through the door. But that was impossible, right? The 'Dream World' thing didn't actually mean anything, did it?

But if it had never been made clear to you...

I'm very literal minded...

He could have at least said hi...

I ran up to our room just in time to see the other three standing in the door and hear a voice inside say 'Who's Scott?' I stepped past them and into the room. Cautiously, I raised the light levels using electricity.

The Quilava looked up. 'My name's Jack, isn't it?'