The sun was high above, yet its rays were showing the first signs of weakness as the Earth began to slowly drift away from it, heralding the end of Summer. Throughout the park, a few people and most of the staff were wearing light jackets. The tourists from Cinnabar where easiest to spot, however, they were the ones who continually had to remove their Winter gloves to prove that they'd had their hands stamped. But the cooler weather failed to stop most of the local population from showing up to the End of Summer Festival, and Misty and Miranda found themselves waiting in a rather long line up to get in. Once at the ticket booth, Miranda paid for them both and led the way to the closest information booth. Behind the park representative, obviously paid not to look bored, was a huge map of the area, complete with tourist friendly large print and far too happy looking symbols for all the points of interest. According to the map, the Festival used the natural lake near the center of Cerulean City, with the entrance to the festival at the South shore near the marina, which advertised a weeklong boat show with free admission to all festivalgoers. At the opposite end, the wooded parkland area at the lake's North shore was being used as a place for people to relax and have lunch. If one could ignore the omnipresent concession stands and people shouting out the days specials, while the rest of the End Of Summer Festival encircled the lake with mostly rides games on the West side, and shows and various game booths were confined to the East side. In the lake itself, however, floated the Festival organizer's huge yacht that served as their base of operations. It was also a convenient base camp for the small group of Pokeforce Officers who mostly sat in their motorboats looking bored as they kept an eye on things, waiting to back up their land bound comrades if need be. "So, what's first on the agenda?" inquired Miranda, giving Misty's hand a squeeze. "Well, I think we should get you signed up first," her lover offered, checking out the large plague with that listed off the times and locations of the festival's scheduled activities, "We're fairly close to where the contest's going to be held..." "And that's dangerously close to that water pokemon show their having in fifteen minutes," added Miranda, giving Misty a knowing glance. "Hey, I never said I didn't have an ulterior motive!" she laughed in reply, suddenly grabbing hold of Miranda's arm and hugging herself against it, "Besides, we're here to have fun, right?" Miranda smiled, giving Misty a gentle kiss on the forehead. "How could I possibly deny you anything?" she asked rhetorically, "Besides, I don't think they have a gyarados there, and you could probably teach them a few things!" "Hey, I'm not that good!" laughed Misty, leading the way past a group of lost looking tourists, "Besides, Professor Myria is always there to do a short talk about water types." "Is she Cerulean's Poke' Prof?" inquired Miranda as they passed through the gates of the marina and followed the brightly coloured cutouts of water pokemon that lead the way to the area they wanted. "Yup, our very own para-zoologist," replied Misty with a nod, "She's the one who gave me Shadow, way back when. Although I did eventually manage to catch the other two types she had available on my own later." "The goldeen and the horsea?" Misty nodded. "New trainers in Cerulean City can only choose water types," explained Misty as they found a good seat in the bleachers overlooking a cordoned off section of lake, "Some people might call that a weakness, but I've always thought of it as something to be proud of." "Lav'Brats get a choice of a rattata, pidgey, or a bellsprout," added Miranda reminiscently. "That's an odd combination. And um, 'Lav'Brat'?" Miranda smiled reminiscently, giving Misty a sideways glance. "That's what we started calling ourselves," she explained, shaking her head at the thought, "Well, usually it's 'Lavender Brats.' I can't even remember who started it originally, but last time I checked new generations of trainers from Lavender started using the term. It's both flattering and disturbing!" "It must be interesting to be from a small town like that," chuckled Misty, giving Miranda a playful nudge, "I'll bet it's really hard to keep secrets there too." "Painfully!" agreed Miranda with a laugh, "Infact, Lavender's so small, that my aunt's our town's pokemon professor." "Wow," commented Misty, looking up at Miranda with a touch of awe, "That must have its advantages." "Oh, sure," chuckled Miranda, "If you don't mind being a guinea pig now and then." "She didn't make you spend the night in the Tower, did she?" inquired Misty in a nervous tone as several people walked out onto the small platform at the water's edge and began releasing pokemon in the lake. "Goodness no!" cringed Miranda, the Lav'Brat's tone serious as her complexion paled a little, "No one's THAT crazy! Well, maybe Zack... Oh, I see the show's about to begin." Misty turned in time to see a smiling woman with long, dark green hair that was giving way to gray and emerald green eyes, partially hidden by glasses so huge they made Miranda's seem small by comparison, step out onto the stage. "Hi all!" she called out enthusiastically, waving to the group of mostly families who had assembled in the bleachers as the wind blew the hem of the long dark green dress she wore under her official looking lab coat, "My name's Professor Myria, and this-" the woman tossed a pokeball into the water, releasing a an ancient looking kingdra, "-is Waterstorm!" "Hey, he evolved since last time I was here," laughed Misty over the applause to the crowd as Professor Myria tossed a fish to the suddenly very pleased looking water-type who snatched it out with his snoutful of razor sharp teeth. "They're allot bigger than I thought they were," commented Miranda, glancing over at Misty, "I guess that means Poseidon's going to be a match for Leviathan when he grows up." "Oh, ya!" laughed Misty, her sea green eyes reflecting future victories, "I'm going to show the world just what water pokemon are capable of. Just you wait!" Miranda put her arm around Misty, giving her half a hug. "For forever and a day," she promised as Professor Myria stopped mid- sentence and glanced at her watch. "Hey," she commented, sounding a little annoyed as she glanced out over the lake, her voice echoing as the hidden microphone caught every word she said, "They should be here by now..." "'They?' inquired Miranda, glancing at Misty who suddenly covered her face in her hands and shook her head. "I should have known..." the trainer muttered, "It's like an ancient Egyptian curse!" "Say wha-?" began Miranda, looking in the direction of the lake as a huge volume of water was rapidly displaced by large object rising out of it, "They aren't-? That isn't-?" Misty only nodded, not even bothering to look as a huge mechanical tentacruel cast a long dark shadow over Professor Myria and Waterstorm. In response the woman, who had been standing with her arms crossed and her foot tapping impatiently sighed heavily and lifted her arms above her head with a bored look upon her face. "Alright, already," she muttered bitterly as the four of five people in the crowd who began to panic were settled down by those who had started laughing, and two huge tentacles came down to wrap around the woman and her pokemon, "Let's get this fiasco over with!" "Get this over with?!" came a trio of voices, the sound echoing strangely from within the metal monster, "Whatever do you mean?" Myria sighed heavily, once more folding her arms and looking bored out of her tree as Waterstorm yawned widely and swished his scaly tail idly. "Every year it's the same old thing," she chided, seemingly oblivious to the fact that she was suspended a dangerous distance above the ground, "You guys build some new contraption that's supposed to be a pathetic attempt to resemble a water pokemon, and you march in here expecting all of us to just hand over our pokemon. Like some how the concept of being horribly out numbered means nothing to you! As if being surrounded by Pokeforce Officers wasn't a criminal deterrent-!" "You know," interrupted a male voice as small hatch on top of the giant tentacruel opened and familiar looking figure popped out, "I think she's right." "So what James!?" exclaimed an equally familiar woman with long red hair, "This is more than just our responsibility to our organization!" "It's a tradition!" added Meowth as he popped up between the two, "And you have to admit that last year's 'contraption' wasn't that half-bad." "I suppose," agreed Myria hesitantly, "But kinglers are supposed to walk sideways. I don't really think that it was realistic to have it run forward like that." "Hey, we're villains!" defended Jessie, as Waterstorm nodded in agreement with his trainer, equally serene despite their situation, "We don't have to follow the rules!" Myria opened one eye and gave the trio a sideways glance. "And what about the dewgong?" she inquired with a hint of a smirk, "Or the starmie that couldn't stand and fell flat on its face? Or the- ?!" "Alright! Alright!" the trio exclaimed, covering their ears and crying, "We admit it, we're no good at this!" "Maybe we should start paying you morons to show up and get your butts kicked," Professor Myria commented as she and her pokemon were put back down, "It couldn't hurt the show. Might even bring in a few more people." "Hmm, that's an interesting thought," pondered James as Jessie smacked him hard on top of the head. "Forget about!" she growled, pulling out a remote control that started the tentacles flailing about threateningly, "Team Rocket doesn't do legitimate business! We're a crime syndicate, we should start acting like one!" "But Jessie," continued James, grabbing the remote as well and trying to pull it away from his partner, "Don't you remember what Professor Vlad said?" "The illegal gambling is just a front?" offered Meow, "The real money's in the dry cleaning?" "I don't care!" yelled Jessie, planting a foot against James' chest and yanking at the remote with both hands for all she was worth. "Okay that's enough," commented Myria, with only mild amusement, "Waterstorm, blizzard attack." "Wow! I'll bet Umi could learn that," commented Miranda thoughtfully as the enormous draconic seahorse turned his long snout to face the mechanical tentacruel and let loose with swirling blast of what appeared to be snow and hail, accompanied by a howling wind, "But I think I'd call it 'Cone Of Cold'." "Hey!" complained Misty as she peeked out between her fingers, "Why didn't you tell me they were using a tentacruel this year?" "They do this every year?" asked Miranda, smiling in bemusement as she watched the swirling blast of Winter's might spread outwards in an ever increasing area until it enveloped most of the mechanical pokemon causing most of the surrounding water to freeze solid around it. "Every year for the last five," assured Misty as several uniformed Pokeforce Officers on jet skis sped onto the scene, lead by an Officer Jenny who seemed oblivious to the chill even though her uniform consisted of her hat and uniform jacket over a dark blue one-piece bathing suit, "Fortunately, though, I've managed to miss most of them." "Well, that about wraps that up," laughed Myria, turning back to the crowd as the Pokeforce officers tossed out ropes with grappling hooks on the ends that caught hold of the small ice-flow before towing the three wannabe criminals and their mechanical tentacruel off into open water. "Close, but not quite!" called Meowth, laughing as he pulled out a second remote and hit the overly large red button that took up most of it. Within an instant, a second hatch opened and a huge balloon had inflated. There was a loud mechanical -clank!- and part of the tentacruel's head detached, taking the three Rocket's with it. "Sorry!" the three called down laughing, "But not today!" "They'll be back," shrugged Misty warily, "They always are..."
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