Previously on Oranges to Grapes...
Ko and his friends at the Academy have just completed the first phase of finding Ko's treasure: the answer to the Mystery of... They Who Come and Go During Shift Change.
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Back at the base of Glaseado Mountain, though, Rosita, Jessica and Eartha were snuggled up together under the roof of the Pokemon Center for the night, sharing their body heat for warmth. If anyone was passing by, they'd see the three girls and thought they were being so cute that they didn't want to disturb their sleep.
But eventually, the sun was starting to rise, shifting the night sky from dark indigo to lavender, then pink, then orange as its light peeked over the eastern horizon, rousing the girls from their peaceful rest.
"Mmm..." As the girls' eyelids fluttered, their bodies were starting to move apart from each other. Groggily, one by one, they got up from their seat and stretched. "Morning, girls."
"Good morning, Rosita," the other two said.
"Boy, did we sure make some progress over the past few days," the caracal remarked. "Just a few days ago, I had just set out on my Pokemon journey throughout Paldea to gather the spirits of the Treasures of Ruin, and already I've made two new friends and gathered three spirits!"
"Not to mention that said spirits have helped us get around the region more easily," Jessica tacked on, "and allowed us to transform into magical girls to fight off crystal monsters coming from crystal domes."
"I haven't transformed yet," Eartha pointed out.
"Give it some time, you're hanging with the right crowd," Rosita assured. "Speaking of which, where's the rest of it?"
"Here we are!"
As the girls faced the direction of the voice, Conner, Leopold and Anton took form from the environment. The weasel came from the fresh mountain snow, the snail came from the sparse vegetation, and the moose came from the loosened earth.
"Good morning, girls," Conner said happily. "All ready to put the plan into action?"
"We don't even know what the plan is yet," Rosita said.
"Well, for the sake of giving the plot a good kick in the pants," Conner explained, "we're going to try and attempt to fight back against the domes."
"And how exactly are we supposed to do that?" Jessica asked. "Because last time I remember, those things make Pokemon vanish on contact and turns their materials into those monsters... apparently with a different head ornament for each one. Like some kind of... demons... wearing diadems."
"If I might interject, Jessica," Leopold responded, "that sounds kind of hackney'd."
"As I was saying, if everyone will let me," Conner cut back in, "the idea came to me after I recalled an old saying from the past: 'When two work together, they are stronger than one.' Think about it. When Anton and I combined our powers of grass and ground, we could create a ladder that could bypass the Principle of Ruin. And of course, when Leopold and I combined our powers, we could create an ice slide that could help us off of high ledges quickly and safely. But then I got to thinking, what if Leopold and Anton combined their powers?"
"Well, I must admit, I'm not exactly sure how that could work," Eartha weighed in, "but I am curious to know."
"All in due time," Conner said, "but first, we'll need to locate another crystal dome down the mountain for the plan's maiden voyage."
"Found one!" Anton called out away from the Pokemon Center, and everyone walked up to him and looked down... to find a dome of rose quartz around the Ruchbah Squad's base!
"Good eye, Anton!" Eartha praised.
"Yes, good eye indeed," Conner said. "Now, here's what I'm thinking: Leopold, you get on Anton's back, and on the count of three, he stomps and you breathe an ice-sigh onto what gets dislodged from the ground."
"Okay, now I see where you're driving at," the weasel said as he scampered up to the moose.
"How can he drive without a car- Ooh, cold paws!" Anton said as Leopold got into position.
"Just wait for the countdown," Leopold said. "One... two... THREE!!"
On three, Anton stomped his hoof as hard as he could, and Leopold sighed. Three pieces of dirt got dislodged from the shockwave, but only two were caught in the breeze and frozen. Those bits of ice then landed onto the slope of the mountain and collected snow that stuck to their surfaces, rolling into snowballs that grew bigger and bigger the further down they rolled. But while their trajectory was taking them right towards the dome, the path they were on also held...
"Oh, no! They're headed right towards another Pokemon Center! Oh, I can't watch!" Eartha squidged, folding her ears over her face to cover her eyes.
But right when she did, something unexpected happened. One of the snowballs bumped into the other and stuck them together, turning them into a snow-pill. With its former roundness disrupted, the snow-pill bounced over the red-and-white kiosk and spared it from a frosty fate... then CRASHED with all its gathered mass onto the crystal dome, covering its front side with snow!
"Wow! It didn't vanish!" Rosita exclaimed.
"Well, at least we learned that the domes don't make matter without life forces disappear instantly," Jessica said, "but give it a minute. The snowballs are past the snow line now."
"Is it over?" Eartha asked as she uncovered one of her eyes.
"TLDR, dome got hit, Pokemon Center didn't, snow still there," Rosita said.
"But it seems the dome is still holding solid," Conner said. "Let's try agai-"
"Wait!" Eartha cut in. "We just got lucky the first time, but if we roll another snowball down there, the Pokemon Center could get hit!"
"Are you saying we let the enemy win!?"
"What I'm saying is there has to be another way that doesn't put innocent lives in the crossfire!"
"Both of you stop it!" Rosita interjected before she pointed at the dome again. "Look!"
Everyone looked at the dome, and just as Jessica predicted, the snow splat had melted into rivulets that trickled down its surface and irrigated the ground for the flowers it stood among. But it turned out that the snow-pill had accidentally rolled up a few mountain Pokemon upon its descent, and they had been subject to the dome and its converting materials into a group of Diademons, these with ribbons on their heads tied into fancy bows and adorned with different materials that the girls couldn't identify because they were too far away. But one of them simply looked up and pointed up the mountain, and the rest of them saw the girls!
"Great! More of those monsters than just three or five at a time!" Rosita said.
"Probably not my fault this time!" Jessica defended, "Maybe..."
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To be continued.
