Previously on Oranges to Grapes...
Determined to get to the bottom of how his code got leaked, Ko calls up Camilla, who confrences in Pico and Balto, but they don't have any idea how anyone could've found out, so he decides to let the students who know join in...
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Now, while the students at the Academy sort out their day, let's get back to the Hell-Sent girls to see how they're doing.
Fortunately, cramps are temporary, so Eartha already had her bandages off... but Jessica was still in no mood to talk, so she, Eartha and Rosita were only walking up the mountain path to Montenevera in silence alongside each other... with no spirit partners. But, if worse came to worse, they still had their Pokemon to protect them; Rosita's Maschiff, Jessica's Grimer, and Eartha's Rotom.
However, amidst all the silence, something seemed... off. Usually there would be wild Pokemon along the path, but for some reason, all that the girls saw during their trek... was a long line of candles in the snow lit with purple flames, decorating Mount Glaseado like a giant birthday cake.
Not only that, but as the girls climbed higher and higher, they started to get fatigued. "Whew... anybody else getting tired?" Rosita dared to ask.
"Not me," Eartha said as she sipped from the water bottle she kept while Jessica had the other.
"You know," the snow leopard piped up, "something just occured to me."
"If it's something like 'you told us to not talk to you because you don't feel right,' we don't want to hear it."
"No, I'm past that now," Jessica said. "Doesn't Montenevera have its own Gym? Because if my memory serves proper, other than Titan Dens and Team Star bases, if the town has its own Pokemon Gym, chances are-"
But before Jessica could finish her sentence, the group stopped at the bottom of another ramp in the path, only to look up and see the curvature of another crystal dome at the top of it, this one in lavender tanzanite.
"-it'll have another one of those domes that apparently, nothing can break," Jessica finished.
"That's okay, I can just get Conner to make a- oh, right," Rosita said.
"Then maybe Anton could get us- oh, right," Eartha said.
"Okay, I screwed the Poochyena... again!" Jessica spat. "I Mulched the bed! I shot us in the footpaws! I attatched us to another object by an inclined plane wrapped helically around an axis! Is that what you want me to say!?"
"Whoa, Jessica!" Rosita said. "What's gotten into you lately?"
"The truth's gotten into me, that's what!" the spotted feline girl said. "I'm bad luck! Every time I try to put my two Poke in when it looks like we're going to move forward with confidence, something happens that throws the joy down the crapper! Case in point, my crap attack that cost us our lifelines because I thought Conner would land us in hot water, but it turns out he didn't! I did! Now he's not here to make a vine ladder for us to climb, Anton's not here for us to catapult us around the dome, and Leopold's not here to do a third thing to help us, but you don't need to know that to realize we're hosed, right!?"
"Get ahold of yourself!" Eartha said as she threw a snowball at Jessica... but it only landed on her boot. "We are not hosed! And you are not bad luck!"
"Well, something's gotta give here!" Jessica lamented as she collapsed onto her knees. "Because I don't want to be someone who's the reason we're always getting the rug pulled from under us! Either way... I'm sorry!"
"That's all we needed to hear," three voices said in unison as the girls' spirit partners reformed.
"Conner! Leopold! Anton! Are we sure glad to see you again!" Eartha exclaimed.
"So, you heard what I said, or do I have to repeat myself?" Jessica asked.
"No, we're good," Leopold assured. "We got it."
"Okay, good."
"So," Conner said, "does that mean you're ready to hear what my plan is to help us with these domes?"
After a nod, Jessica answered with, "Oh, I'm gonna do more than hear the plan. I'm gonna listen."
"Well, you heard the lady, Conner," Rosita said. "We're all ears! No offense, Eartha."
"None taken."
"Alright, listen up," Conner stated. "What do we know about those domes so far?"
"They cover towns with Gyms, Titan dens, and Team Star bases," Rosita stated.
"They make anything with a life force instantly vanish on contact and create monsters from Pokemon Materials called Diademons," Jessica added.
"They're practically impossible to break from the outside," Eartha tacked on.
"Okay, all correct observations," Conner said. "But the main one I'm getting at is what Jessica stated: they make Diademons from Pokemon Materials. Now, recently we've discovered that these Diademons are able to communicate, but they haven't been given (or taken) the chance to. But this time, I say we find a dome, which we have, and let it make a Diademon for us to force information out of."
"Well, that's s-" Jessica started, but a stern look from everyone else quickly changed her tune. "...omething I can get behind, but we haven't been seeing any Pokemon the whole climb up here. How are we going to goad a Pokemon into touching the dome to make a Diademon if there aren't even any Pokemon to goad?"
"Well," Anton chimed in, "then do I have good news for you!" He then trotted up to the side of the mountain and kicked the wall, knocking loose a line of snow chunks to crash onto the ramp softly. "Wait for it..."
Suddenly, the ground started vibrating as the fallen snow piles began to tremble. Sparks of purple flames began lighting up on the surface of the piles, melting it enough to reveal candles attatched to them... and attatched to the candles was a pack of Greavard, digging themselves up and bounding around on the snow to look for what tried to snuff out their flames!
"Yoo-hoo! Greavard!" Anton called down from the top of the ramp. "Here, puppies! Here!"
One of the shaggy canine Pokemon heard whistling from up the ramp, and called the charge for the rest of the pack to follow. With a haunting bay, the whole horde was storming up the ramp to the top, kicking up snow along the way.
"You know," Rosita said as the pack got closer, "I know I told Jessica that I love puppy Pokes... but this looks like too much of a good thing."
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To be continued.
