Chapter 20: Explosions, Helicopters and Exploding Helicopters

Consciousness came in a slow progression as her mind distantly registered the repeated and extremely annoying sound of a phone ringing somewhere. It seemed to go on forever. Starting and stopping whenever the sweet oblivion of sleep took her, dragging Miranda kicking and screaming back into semi wakefulness every few minutes.

"Just leave us alone," she muttered grumpily, blindingly reaching behind her for a pillow and holding it against her ear as the phone downstairs rang again, blessedly picked up on the first ring, only to be followed by the dreaded sound of footsteps coming up the staircase outside her room.

Miranda gritted her teeth, an unpleasant feeling of dread filling her as the footsteps drew nearer. "Go away, go away," she chanted under her breath, willing the phone to be for someone else, but the quiet, polite knock at her door might as well have been a sonic boom.

"Miri?" came a half familiar voice who's tone seemed distracted, "You up yet? You've got a call from some guy named Dave."

'Dave?' Miranda pondered inwardly, running through the list of no less than eight Dave's she met in her carrier as a courier. "Which one?" she called out groggily, tossing the pillow aside and sitting up.

"Um, some Sylph Co guy," the voice replied as Miranda half realized who the speaker was.

"Uncle?" she inquired, wondering what time it was and why Frank was outside her door at such an early hour.

"Yes?" inquired Frank, his voice still sounding agitated, as though there were other things on his mind.

"What time is it?"

"Half past ten."

"Tell him I'll be down in a minute," Miranda grumbled, sighing as she leaned against the headboard, glancing down at Misty who opened her eyes and smiled up at the courier.

"No rest for the wicked, dear?" she inquired with a quiet chuckle.

"Tomorrow, I'm sleeping 'till noon," Miranda replied with a weak smile, accepting Misty's outstretched hand and kissing her knuckles affectionately, "Need anything from downstairs?"

"No," Misty sighed, snuggling under the blankets almost teasingly, "Just you."

"I won't be long," the courier promised, reluctantly swinging her legs out from beneath the warmth of the covers and shivering as she searched for something to wear.

Misty made a quiet sound but was asleep by the time Miranda had thrown on a housecoat and had kissed her lightly on the cheek. "I hope this is important," the courier muttered to herself, half wondering if every morning was going to begin with some new emergency and if she'd ever get to wake up in a more pleasant manner, "Oh well, I'm sure I'll know which 'Dave' he is when I see him..."

Downstairs seemed somehow far busier than it should have for a Saturday that people were supposed to be taking off. The tension in the air seemed palatable, and the concerned look Bob cast Miranda when she passed him on her way to the kitchen seemed to speak of a crisis situation.

"Should I ask?" she inquired as he rushed out of his domain wielding a platter holding a steaming teapot and a pile of freshly baked cookies.

"Take the call first," Bob assured his stepdaughter with a wary shake of his head, "There's not much we can do at this point."

Miranda's now very worried gaze followed him into the living room where Bob vanished and the sound of her mother comforting Laurna filled her ears. "I should probably wait for the whole story anyway," she told herself, walking up to the out of date vid-phone her grandparents had once placed on the wall near the kitchen door.

The screen was flashing "HOLD" as she picked up the receiver, but quickly vanished when Miranda hit the "talk" button. It was then that she discerned which Dave was calling her. She hadn't heard from the Sylph Co scientist who'd helped herself and Misty thwart Kathy's experiments on water pokemon in quite some time. But then, she'd neglected to make the effort.

Professor Katherine had been using DNA extracted by cruel methods from a captured dragonite to make the water-types in her lab nearly invulnerable to electrical attacks. However, when the higher-ups at Sylph Co had ordered a porygon installed into the mainframe at the obscure regional office she'd been working at, whatever nefarious plans the woman had for her army of mostly lightning resistant magikarps had broken down and finally been thwarted.

"Oh, hello again, Miranda!" responded the busy looking scientist on the view screen, cradling the receiver between his cheek and shoulder as he worked on something the vid-phone's camera couldn't see, "Sorry if I'm calling you too early, but this is the only break I have today, I'm afraid."

The courier smiled at Dave's mildly embarrassed sounding tone as he glanced up sheepishly from whatever he was doing. "Well, the time difference is only half an hour, so I wouldn't worry about it took much," she assured him with a shrug, "So, what's up? Anything interesting happen since we left? And how's that dragonite?

"Alexander's doing quite well all things considered," replied Dave, a satisfied grin crossing his face as he set down a small screwdriver and wiped the sweat from his brow, "As am I. They promoted me to head of evolution stone research. It's our transposition system that seems to be having problems, though."

"Hopefully it wasn't sabotaged like the last one," Miranda laughed, moving to hold her robe tighter as it threatened to open in the front, causing Dave to blush and quickly look away.

"Oh! No, no," the scientist assured her, suddenly looking embarrassed, "It was actually just me spilling my morning coffee into the transposition pad in my office. I'd use someone else's, but I'd rather not have to explain what I'm about to do."

Miranda gave the scientist a suspicious look. "And just what are you about to do?" she inquired, quickly glancing around to make certain no one else was in the kitchen with her.

"Send you a little something, actually," confessed Dave a little nervously, "You see, I've been working on those de-evolution stones again. Trying to work the bugs out, make them more stable, etcetera. The usual crap we have to go through to line President Mordeaux's pockets."

"That could be a bad thing in the wrong hands, professor," commented Miranda cautiously, trying to keep her mixed emotions at the thought of such a thing from entering her voice.

"Yes, well, that's why I wanted YOU to test it for me," explained Dave, suddenly holding up an ornately carved chunk of polished black rock, "Is the Lilcamp transposition array working okay?"

"Err, as far as I know-"

"Great!" laughed Dave, his eyes gleaming with excitement as he set the stone down and punched some buttons on a keypad, "I'll send it right over then!"

"Hold on!" exclaimed Miranda, "I'll need to reroute the signal to my stepfather's office. I really don't feel like going into the warehouse barefoot wearing only an old housecoat just now."

Dave glanced up and blushed again, causing Miranda to laugh as she set down the receiver and hurried into Bob's office. "I hope he doesn't mind," the courier muttered, glancing guiltily over her shoulder in the direction of the living room as she sat down in her stepfather's swivel chair and hit the switch on the power-bar with her toe.

After several unpleasant rattling noises from the hard drive and a nearly two minutes of waiting for the OS to boot up, a small rectangular window appeared against the pleasant mountain range landscape that made up Bob's desktop background.

Miranda sighed as she typed in Bob's full name and clicked on the password bar. "If he was wasn't so obvious, I'd probably need Wraith's help for this one," she muttered with a laugh, smiling inwardly at her stepfather's devotion to her mother as she typed in "V-I-V-I-A-N" and hit "Enter".

The courier gave the computer a satisfied nod as it finished booting the system, and quickly accessed the transposition array's software before hitting the shortcut that allowed her to access the vid-phone from Bob's computer.

"This'll only take a second," she told Dave as the house shook slightly in response to the transposition array deploying atop the warehouse that the building was connected to.

"Not a problem," Dave assured her as a distant -CLUNK!- sound issued from somewhere outside and Miranda quickly typed in a few commands.

"Okay, send away."

The scientist nodded, smiling to himself as he hit the "Send" button and loud humming sound filled the computer speakers, followed by a peculiar crackling noise as the stone was converted into transferable energy and absorbed by the device at his end.

"Black, blacker, blackest," Miranda recited quietly during the three seconds it took the signal to bounce off the satellite in orbit and hit the Lilcamp array before the small receiving device beside Bob's monitor began to hum and crackling white light appeared between the small round receiving disk and the rather menacingly unpleasant looking device just above it. A moment later, and the energy was converted back into matter, leaving behind the fist sized round stone Dave had been so anxious to send Miranda.

"So, you want me to field test this then?" the courier inquired, glancing at the stone as she reset the system and returned the array to its holding area.

"If you wouldn't mind," replied Dave a little sheepishly, "Although I'd prefer if you didn't let word get out that I sent it to you. The higher-ups are still kinda annoyed that your aunt won't sell them the patent for those ghost-balls."

"Too bad, so sad!" Miranda laughed, picking up the stone and examining it, "But yeah, I'd be glad to test it out if I get the chance. Although, if it's anything like the last stone I tested out for you, there could be some rather interesting side effects..."

"Oh?" inquired Dave, leaning forward in his seat, his eyes gleaming with sudden interest, "There were side effects you say? Why didn't tell me, I-"

"Oh, it was nothing bad," the courier assured him with a chuckle, "But it seems Nezumi can evolve pretty much at will into a raticate now."

"What?!" the scientist exclaimed so loudly that Miranda had to turn down the speaker volume.

"You heard me," she chuckled, "Only for about ten or fifteen minutes at a time, mind you, but it's a neat trick."

"I see," Dave commented quickly, scrambling for a note pad, "Look if you get the chance, could you drop by at some point? I really like to run a few harmless tests-"

"Well, actually, I still need to bring Nezumi in for his yearly physical. I could have Joy send you the results if you'd like?"

"Oh, that'd be splendid!" responded Dave gleefully, clasping his hands together and grinning broadly, "Just please, keep me informed from now on, okay? Please?"

Miranda smiled, resisting the urge to reach through the screen and pat him on the head. "No problem," she told him, glancing over her shoulder as Bob entered the room with a questioning look upon his face, "But look, um, I have kind of a family crisis going on just now. Can I call you back another time?"

"Not a problem," the scientist assured her, glancing past her to where Miranda's stepfather was standing, "But keep in touch, alright?"

"I will," she promised, casting the cursor about to end the call, "Bye Dave!"

"If you'd like, I could get you a computer for your room," commented Bob, his tone sounding far more annoyed than the amusement reflecting in his eyes would have his stepdaughter believe.

"I'll buy you a porygon for your birthday," Miranda replied with a dismissive wave of her hand as she spun the chair around to face him, "But um... Sorry."

"It's okay," he replied sympathetically, "Look um, there's been a problem at Laurna's lab-"

"Is she alright?!" Miranda exclaimed in a sudden panic, leaping to her feet and barely keeping her housecoat closed.

"She wasn't hurt," Bob assured, quickly turning away, "But there was a small fire, and some things have gone missing."

"Really? What?"

Bob glanced over his shoulder as Miranda walked up to him, meeting his gaze questioningly. "Um, her entire supply of ghost-balls for one thing," he explained in a careful tone.

"And?" Miranda inquired, knowing that the worst was yet to come.

"Um, Miranda," Bob asked nervously, glancing around as his tone filled with dread, "You... You don't have any pokemon stored at the lab do you?"

The courier shook her head. "No, I've never sent any in," she explained, "I don't 'collect' pokemon the way some morons do. It's not exactly a secret that I hold that whole 'catch them all' mentality in contempt."

Bob nodded slowly, seemingly feeling better for the assurance. "Well," he continued with a heavy sigh, "It seems that a few other Lav'Brats don't share your perspective. Twenty some odd of the poke's Laurna had in stasis went missing as well. Who ever did it covered their tracks by setting a few small fires and trashing the lab. Needless to say, Laurna isn't happy. She feels responsible, and she has no idea what she's going to tell the trainers who owned them."

Miranda shook her head slowly in disbelief. "This town is falling apart," she muttered, "First those tourists deliberately run that dewgong over with their motorboat, and now this. Do I even what to know what's next?"

"Probably not."

The courier smiled in spite of herself. "I take it Frank's got his people looking into it?"

"Yeah, they're off questioning the two hundred or so possible suspects right now," Bob replied warily, rubbing his eyes as he shook his head, "Frank just got back from the lab a short time ago, and hi's growlithe taking it worse than Laurna is. Frank had to 'return' her least her anxiety give the poor thing a heart attack."

"Canine mentality, I suppose."

"She blames herself," said Bob with a shrug, "apparently Bow didn't notice anything until it was too late."

"They probably 'ported in," Miranda pondered, tapping her chin thoughtfully and pacing back and forth, "Probably brought a white noise generator with them to mask the sound too."

"More than likely," said Bob with a shrug as a cell-phone in the living room went off and Frank's frazzled sounding voice answered it.

"I gotta go!" the officer called out a moment later, rushing from the living room in a sudden hurry, "I'll be back as soon as I can!"

"You have a lead?" inquired Bob, hurrying into the hallway as Frank threw on his coat and flung open the front door.

"Don't know!" he called back, his footsteps sounding heavy across the porch outside as the door slammed closed.

"I-I'll go talk to Aunt Laurna," Miranda offered, stepping sideways through the doorway to get past her stepfather.

"Did you want me to make you breakfast?" he offered.

"No, that's alright," she replied with a smile, holding her stomach as though it were about to burst, "We had dinner at the Yin Tze Restaurant. I'll probably have to skip lunch as well."

Miranda chuckled at Bob's suddenly downcast expression, but as she entered the living room, the remnants of her good humor faded. Once there, the courier found her mother and aunt sitting on the couch together. Laurna still looked as though she'd just gotten up, and still had a bit of soot on one side of her face as she leaned against her sister, staring blankly at the television before them.

"Hi, Auntie," said Miranda softly, adjusting her housecoat as she came over and sat on the opposite side of Laurna, "Anything I can do to help?"

There was an unpleasant redness to Laurna's soft magenta eyes as she stared blankly forward, barely acknowledging her niece's presence with a mumbled reply.

"Bob explained what happened, right?" asked Vivian rhetorically.

Miranda nodded, putting her hand atop her mother's to help hold Laurna's hand. "Yes," she replied quietly, glancing at Laurna whose glasses were slipping off the end of her nose, "had I known I would have come down earlier-"