#to figure that one out. it looks like cascoon from pokemon so that means its a cocoon or eggsac. and it took me another solid

[aria0fgold]

Just remembered my brain getting stuck in gamer mode yesterday where I was watching one of Sean's videos (Scariest Videos on the Internet #3, I think?) and he said something like, "how are you supposed to leave the catacombs" and without missing a beat, I said: Just dig upwards, like in minecraft. And it took me a solid 2 seconds to realize that... you can't dig upwards... you can't stack dirt and stone on your feet in real life.

[ashiversary]

Summer Camp

Nine heads bent together over the puzzle, arguing softly while they passed pieces to each other, trying to fit it together to read the riddle before the other teams.

Well, team. Candela glanced sideways where a certain obnoxious Rocket executive and their slightly-less-obnoxious-but-almost-as-dangerous assistant were grouped with another eight kids and their own puzzle. Theirs was the only other group that had made it to this obstacle yet. Spark’s group was still trapped at the previous obstacle of this obstacle course-slash-scavenger hunt, patiently helping nonathletic children through the ropes course.

Candela and Noire both had the fortune of being assigned a larger number of athletic kids to their groups, and Candela had lucked out that her cabin was a group of girl gymnasts who were all friends with each other. So not only did they whip through the zip lines, conquer the tight ropes, and blast across the rope swings in record time, but they also had excellent team work and the natural competitiveness of young athletes.

Despite Candela’s advantages, Rocket’s group had arrived just behind hers. Their group was comprised of rowdy boys who made up for what they lacked in finesse with guts and ingenuity. More than one boy sported a rope burn on an arm or a face, but all were happily tackling the puzzle with only the occasional scuffle. Under Noire’s direction, they were nearly finished.

Candela gritted her teeth when they caught her looking and smirked at her, and returned her attention to the puzzle with renewed vigor. Losing would be bad enough, but she could stomach it if it were to Blanche or Spark. But Rocket? She wouldn’t allow it.

She helped the blonde-ponytailed girl, Caitlin (she had been informed that it was actually spelled Kaitelynne, but the girl didn’t seem to mind her cutting out superfluous letters when Candela prepared nametags), fit all the edge pieces together, while Parker and Genevieve transplanted the section they had put together and attached it to the border.

A whoop to their right caused all the girls to turn as one to watch Noire’s group surge to their feet and race across the field, Noire in the lead and Amelie trailing behind, still hollering as they disappeared into the trees on the other side.

“They solved the puzzle and figured out the riddle already?” Jessa demanded, scowling down at the scattered pieces that she couldn’t seem to make fit together.

“They must be really smart,” Kenzie added.

Candela’s eyelid twitched, but she smiled at the girl. “Don’t worry. We’ll figure this out, and then we’ll kick their butts,” she assured them. She got tentative smiles in return, and the girls threw themselves back into their task with admirable energy.

“Even if we lose first, we can still come in second!” another girl said. Candela’s eyelid twitched again, and it was just was well that she had been examining the puzzle and hadn’t seen who spoke. Second! As if she would allow herself to come second to Noire.

She’d rather kill them, but that didn’t seem sportsmanlike.

Their puzzle was two-thirds complete when Sophia, the dark, quiet girl who sat on Caitlin’s other side, reached across her and begin frantically patting Candela’s arm. “Miss Candela! The other one’s coming!” she cried in despair. While Candela and the other girls turned to look, she dove at the puzzle and began slapping the remaining pieces together while Blanche’s group approached rapidly.

Galvanized, the group joined Sophia’s frantic attempt to put the puzzle together before Blanche reached them. If her adrenaline hadn’t spiked, Candela might have enjoyed the novelty of seeing them covered in mud from the top of their head to the bottom of their boots. Their group had stalled out three obstacles ago because Blanche had refused to crawl under the net through the mud, claiming that getting dirty wasn’t in their job description. Apparently the boys had convinced them to do it by some method that Candela would love to learn, since she couldn’t talk Blanche into anything, and they had overcome the other obstacles fast enough that they had overtaken Spark and caught up with her.

She couldn’t help sneaking another glance at them as they dropped to the ground next to one of the unopened puzzles, the boys fanning out around them. So she saw their green eyes glance around and their lips thin as they noted that one puzzle was complete and Noire was nowhere in sight.

When it came right down to it, Blanche didn’t like the idea of losing to Noire any more than she did.

Parker slapped the final piece into their puzzle and the girls leaned forward eagerly to read the words. Kenzie and Sophia read it out loud:

“I am at the early stages of my life

What I’ll grow to be, you cannot know

I have poison spikes, but not poison’s type

Until two stages down the road

If I go the other way

I’ll fly so beautiful and free

Find me and take me to the stage

If you know what I might be”

“At the early stages of its life?” one of the girls asked.

“It’s gotta be a pokemon,” Parker said. “A base evolution, I think it means.”

“That’s good,” Candela agreed. “And one with a branched evolution, since you don’t know what it’ll evolve into.”

“But does it branch out in the second or third evolution?” Genevieve asked.

“I think the second, since otherwise it would know what it would turn into next,” Caitlin said.

“Okay, and which pokemon branch at the second evolution?” Candela prompted.

“Eevee!” Caitlin said immediately. It was the obvious answer, since Noire’s eevee had been riding on their shoulder since the challenge began and was at the top of everyone’s minds.

“Gloom? Oh, no, that branches out for the third evolution…”

“I think we can forget any that are poison types for the first evolution,” Sophia said, examining the riddle again. “But include any pokemon that can be mistaken for poison types by an untrained observer, or who gain poison as a type at a later evolution.”

“Like grass, or bug!” Jessa said.

“I think it’s a bug pokemon,” Corrie, who had been quiet until now, spoke up. “I think it’s Wurmple. No one knows what a Wurmple will evolve into until it does. If it evolves into Cascoon and then Dustox, it gains poison as a type. If it evolves into Silcoon and then Beautifly, it matches ‘I’ll fly beautiful and free.’ We have to catch a Wurmple, and bring it to the stage.”

Everyone latched onto this with enthusiasm, and looked to Candela for agreement, which she gave. “I think Corrie’s right. Do any of you know where we can find a Wurmple around here?” she asked. She had only arrived that morning, and hadn’t had time to explore before the leaders (and Noire) were introduced to the camp population and set to participate in various activities to entertain the students and educate them about pokemon. As publicity stunts went, it was exhausting, though Candela suspected that she minded way less than Blanche.

“Let’s go catch one,” she told the girls, who got up, cheering.

A glance to the side told her that Blanche had almost singlehandedly put together their group’s puzzle while Annie broke up a fight among three of the boys. She had to hurry.

“We see them sometimes behind the arts and crafts tent,” Caitlin whispered to her while the other girls nodded. “C’mon, follow us!”

They ran in the opposite direction Noire’s group had gone. Maybe the pokemon that had to be caught were different for each group. If not, Candela hoped that her group was right and Noire’s was wrong.

Caitlin was right. The woods behind the arts and crafts tent was crawling with Wurmple at this time of day. Candela doled out all the empty pokeballs she had on her, and the group of ten-year-olds went at it with childlike enthusiasm. She noted that few of them seemed to have any experience catching pokemon, most of them being sheltered wealthy kids who only interacted with tame house pokemon. Parker proved to be good at it, and she was the triumphant child that caught a Wurmple.

“Leader Candela, Leader Candela, look! I did it!” she crowed, running up to Candela as she was giving Genevieve tips on improving her throw.

“Good job!” Candela said while the other girls cheered and clapped Parker on the back in congratulations. Jessa, however, jumped up and down, pushing at the other girl’s shoulders.

“C’mon! We gotta go! Maybe Mx. Noire’s group hasn’t caught their pokemon yet!” she was yelling.

That got them all moving, and they ran full tilt toward the stage.

##

Well, Candela mused, coming second sucked, especially to Noire, but at least the Rocket Executive was focused on gloating over Spark, who hadn’t even finished the race. Which meant they were leaving her, and more importantly Blanche, alone. Not that Blanche was paying her any attention. They spent most of their time in their labs or in the pool, and had gotten more sun in the last four hours than they had probably gotten in the last four years of their life. Annie fanned them while they lay flopped down in the shade of a tree with their head in her lap, eyes closed and with every appearance of being dead.

“Aw, Noire, leave it be,” Spark finally said, patting the shoulder of the crying girl next to him, who had been the cause of his team’s downfall. Poor Lainey had bravely climbed when told to, concealing her fear of heights up until she was hooked up to a safety lead and expected to cross the rope bridge 20 feet off the ground. Then she had dissolved into hysterics, unable to cross the bridge, climb down, or do anything other than curl up on the platform and cry. She wouldn’t allow Spark to carry or lower her down, and so his team hadn’t been able to proceed.

Candela was uncertain on the details of how they’d finally gotten her out of the tree, but suspected that Go had been the one to finally accomplish it. Lainey hadn’t left his side since Spark’s team had arrived at the area in front of the stage and was still gripping the sleeve of his hoodie while the rest of her team rolled around on the grass before dinner, not too bitter about their loss to avoid playing with the other teams.

Noire was just turning their attention to her to say something nasty when Candela’s phone rang, sparing her from the unwanted interaction. She got up and moved away a little. “Charles! Still disappointed that you didn’t get to come?” she said cheerfully.

“Miss Candela, I was never the least bit upset,” Carl said. “I am perfectly happy to miss out on dirt and children.”

“Aw. We could have used your help, though! You’re better with puzzles than I am, and if you’d been here to help, I wouldn’t have lost to those Rockets!” she protested. She glared back at Noire, who was back to tormenting Spark, and Amelie, who was gently holding her team’s Castform for the children to inspect.

“A lamentable outcome,” Carl agreed, since he didn’t like them any more than Candela did. “Alas, since you didn’t go through with your threat to make the camp wheelchair accessible, it was impossible.”

“You didn’t let me!”

“It wouldn’t have been done in time. And I am happier here. I wouldn’t have been able to do half the obstacles you were texting me about.” It annoyed her, but he was right.

“Still, I wish you were here,” she grumbled.

“Thank you, Miss Candela,” he said, a pleased note in his voice. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have one of your meetings to cover. Do try to enjoy the rest of your stay.”

He hung up without waiting for her to respond. She frowned at her phone, then put it away and flopped on the grass next to Blanche. “You might wanna shower before the mud hardens. There’s still time before dinner,” she told them.

They didn’t bother opening their eyes. “It’s too late for that,” they sighed. “Though a shower does sound like bliss.”

“Come on then. Annie, help me get them up,” Candela said.

“No,” Blanche said.

“No?” Both women stared down at them, Candela annoying, Annie obliging.

“I don’t want to move. I’m staying here for the next year,” Blanche said.

“Blanche! We’re going back to Opal City after dinner. You have to be up, and you have to be clean.”

“No.”

“I’ll get Spark over here to help,” she threatened.

“…Getting up.”

At least that was one victory for the day.

Or so she thought. Blanche made it to a sitting position, then flopped back onto the grass. When she nudged them with her mud-splattered shoe, their only response was to groan.

The sight of her muddy shoe reminded her that Blanche wasn’t the only one covered in mud. Mud that was rapidly drying and becoming itchy.

An idea occurred to her. It wasn’t strictly kind, but it would solve two problems quickly. “Hey, Spark!” she called, waving him over. Blanche, thinking she was only making good on her threat to have Spark haul them to their feet, didn’t move.

Spark looked up from where he was wiping Lainey’s face with a damp cloth. He passed the cloth to Go and walked over while Lainey looked on curiously.

“What’s up?” he asked, and began to grin when she whispered in his ear.

Annie looked suspicious, but didn’t stop them as they each seized one of Blanche’s arms and hauled them up. By the time she realized their intent, they had slung Blanche over their shoulders and were running across the field to the stairs that led down to the lake.

“No, come back!” Annie yelled, and cringed when Candela and Spark ran with their struggling burden down the dock and plunged into the water.

Blanche struggled, but between Candela’s and Spark’s strength they couldn’t break free. Candela released them as soon as the three of them hit the water, and surfaced with a hearty laugh. The first thing she saw when she blinked the water from her eyes was Blanche’s green ones, blazing with fury. Too outraged to speak, they seized her shoulders and shoved her under the water.

Laughter and being submerged were not a good combination. Candela choked and might have drowned if Spark hadn’t come to her rescue. Blanche was pulled off her shoulders and she broke the surface, coughing. A strong hand closed around her bicep and pulled her through the water. Still coughing and blinking water from her eyes, she found herself pressed against the dock ladder.

“There ya go, Candy, you’re all right,” Spark crooned from behind her. “Blanche give her a hand up.”

“I should leave you both to drown,” Blanche grumbled, but their cold hands found hers and pulled her onto the dock with a strength that was surprising from their slim frame. They released her the instant her knees touched the sun-warmed boards. They whirled and stalked toward the beach, whacking her with their wet ponytail as they turned. The sudden sting made her flinch back and she nearly toppled off the dock again, but a hand on her shoulder steadied her.

Spark had climbed up behind her while she knelt on the dock, wiping her face. “Worth it,” she choked, and he grinned.

“If ya say so, Candy- What’s going on?” Spark frowned as the sound of girlish shrieks, a man’s yell, and raucous laughter drifted to them. His hand dropped off her shoulder as a voice that they both recognized carried above the others, laughing wildly.

“Uh oh. What’s Noire done now?” he sighed.

The three leaders raced back up to the field in time to see a strange sight. Noire, cackling like a mad-person, had an industrial sized tub of ice cream held aloft. Amelie was on their heels, similarly burdened but not sharing their euphoria. Her face was expressionless as she lugged her tub of ice cream and tried to keep up with her boss. Noire could apparently corrupt the hearts of little boys along with the minds of pokemon, for their small band of boys surrounded them, carrying cones, scoops, their Castform, and sprinkles. One had found a flat of pop somewhere and was holding it above his head like a victory trophy.

They didn’t go without resistance, though. Candela puffed up with pride to see her girls shouting and hollering, led by Go as they chased Noire’s retreating figure. Shy little Sophia tackled the boy with the flat of pop and brought it down on both their heads. Before anyone could wonder if she was all right, she grabbed it and ran away from the boy, who sported a bloody nose.

The boy moved to chase her, but Noire yelled back at him, “Leave it! Come on!” The boy turned and followed them.

Noire stopped at the tree line, facing the pursuing girls with a grin. “Join me and I’ll share with you!” they shouted, holding out the ice cream tub for all of them to see. “It’s Rocky Road!”

The girls slowed and looked at each other, considering. Then they nodded and followed Noire, leaving Candela and Sophia behind.

Candela’s mouth fell open, unable to process this betrayal.

“They left us!” Sophia gasped. “For ice cream!” Her small fingers flexed on the flat of pop, looking like she wanted to throw it after her traitorous friends.

Go turned and wandered up to them, stopping in front of Spark. He pressed his hand to his heart, looking melancholy. “I’m sorry, Spark. I failed in my duty. Noire took Blanche’s group prisoner and raided the snack shop while I was in the washroom,” he said. His head bowed forward, the very picture of melodramatic sadness. “If you want to fire me, I understand.”

Spark blinked. He placed his hands on Go’s shoulders and leaned forward. “Never fear, Go, we can still redeem ourselves. I think I know where they’re headed. We’ll gather our girls and defeat them. Are you with me?” Spark said, pumping his fist.

“Yes, sir!” Go said, straightening and thumping his chest.

“Then let’s go, Go! Where can we find our forces?” Spark began, but Blanche interrupted.

“What do you mean, Noire has taken my group prisoner?” Their voice, low and dangerous, came from behind the pair.

Games forgotten, Spark and Go turned and gulped in unison. Candela couldn’t blame them. She was standing next to Blanche, and she could feel that the chill that radiated off them as a physical force. Sophia looked uneasy at the look on Blanche’s face, clutching the pop to her chest and shifting against Candela’s side. Those little brown eyes looked up at her trustingly. ‘You won’t let anything bad happen, right?’ they seemed to ask.

Candela wouldn’t let her down.

She grabbed Blanche’s shoulder and squeezed. It wasn’t much, but it reminded them that there were children present and not to lose control. They took a deep breath and let it out slowly. It came out foggy, but they sounded calmer when they spoke.

“Where are the boys of Cabin 9?” they asked, quoting the cabin number they had been assigned.

Go didn’t look reassured. “Noire and their band of hooligans tied them up in skipping ropes and left them in the snack shop,” Go said. “Lainey and the girls are trying to untie them. Annie went to help, since she’s best with knots. Look, they’re coming now.”

Sure enough, a contingent of boys and girls, led by Annie, was approaching from the group of buildings that comprised the snack shop, dining hall, bathrooms, infirmary, and staff quarters. “Chief! Are you all right?” Annie asked, darting up to Blanche with sympathy in her eyes. “Look, you’ve frozen your clothes. Do you want to go inside and get warmed up?”

“No, I want to go get revenge,” Blanche told her.

“Okay, we can do that too,” Annie agreed, always ready to bend to Blanche’s whims.

They formed a circle. Candela still smarted from the betrayal of her team, who had seemed so loyal and so capable up until they had deserted her for Noire, and mostly let the others talk.

“I think they’re headed to the tree houses,” Spark said, pointing. “They’re behind the girls’ cabins and are an easily defensible position.”

“Then let’s go flush them out,” Blanche said. They led the way, marching stiff-legged down the trails. Candela walked beside them, Sophia’s hand in hers.

“It got cold all of a sudden,” Sophia whispered to her. Other than the occasional whisper the rest of the group was quiet, not wanting to alert Noire of their approach.

Candela squeezed her hand. “Yeah, it did,” she agreed, not wanting to explain legendaries and bonds for fear of frightening the girl. For now, the kids seemed to view this as a great game, but she knew it could tip easily if Blanche gave into their rage and lost control. And since Blanche’s control was so close to snapping, she would keep a tight hold of her own.

She glanced back at Spark. He smiled and nodded at her. He understood. He would make sure the children stayed safe while she focused on Blanche.

She slipped her free hand into Blanche’s, forcing some warmth into their chilled fingers. They must have forgiven her for their unplanned dip earlier, because they squeezed her fingers gently. No, not forgiven her. They were just more angry with Noire than they were with her, so they were channeling all their anger at their twin.

Rocket was good for something after all.

They turned down the path, and the tree houses loomed before them. Unlike what Candela had expected, they were large structures of white canvas. It looked like someone had stuck big white tents in the trees. Luckily they weren’t too high, so it was unlikely that anyone would get hurt during this exercise.

It was easy to tell which one Noire and Co. had taken refuge in. The giggles and muffled voices gave them away.

The invaders huddled together to talk strategy.

“Only cabins who score highest at Cabin Cleanup get to sleep in the tree houses, as a prize,” Sophia whispered. “I always come to camp with the girls, and they’re kinda messy, so I’ve never gotten to sleep in them.”

“I have,” whispered one of Spark’s girls. She had densely curled black hair gathered into a pouf. “There’s one main entrance at the end of the rope bridge, there,” she said, pointing. Candela could see it, a little wooden trapdoor in the base of the tree house. “There’s also an emergency exit on the second level. The smaller tree houses each have two levels. The big tree house has three.”

Noire was in one of the smaller tree houses. Their group split. Spark and his girls would storm through the emergency exit while Blanche and their boys, plus Candela and Sophia, charged the main entrance. Go and Annie would be hovering below to rescue anyone who fell.

On the count of three, the two sides charged in. Blanche kicked the trapdoor open with enough force to splinter the wood and heaved themself inside. Candela was right behind them, and was gratified to hear Noire’s shriek as Blanche tackled them to the floor. Blanche seized a handful of ice cream from the nearest open tub and shoved it down their twins shirt. Noire shrieked again and flailed, managing to knock Blanche off enough to retreat to a corner of the tent.

Globs of ice cream flew from both sides while the invading force followed Blanche’s example and the defending force retaliated. Candela ducked a handful of mint chocolate chip and raised her eyebrows at Jessa, who smiled at her sheepishly.

“I mean, it was ice cream!” the girl said, as though this explained everything.

“I hope you’re good at ducking,” Candela said, grabbing two handfuls of Rocky Road.

Jessa yipped and dove behind Parker, who caught the ice cream square in the face mid-yelp. “Yum!” she said, licking her lips and grinning at Candela.

She grinned back, and just like that, they were on the same side again. Caitlin helped Sophia pin down one of the bigger boys while Genevieve gave him a whipped cream swirly. Corrie giggled manically and threw sprinkles in all directions, and soon everyone was covered in a rainbow of candy. Cones got crushed underfoot and rolled on until children resembled ice cream cones themselves.

Candela looked around for Blanche and found them in the corner, pinning Noire down with a knee to their chest while they liberally applied ice cream to their protesting twin’s face with malicious glee. Castform, picking up on the chilly atmosphere around Blanche, had taken on Snowy Form and was spraying snow over both twins.

Grinning, Candela grabbed the container of sprinkles from Corrie. She crept up to the twins and upended it over Noire’s face. They spotted her just before the container tipped.

She would cherish the look of horror on their face forever.

The moment was short-lived. “Guys, pull out!” Go yelled from outside. “The camp counselors are coming!”

Heads whipped around as everyone realized how much trouble they were in. Candela wasn’t sure who yelled “Run!” but suddenly everyone was. Blanche abandoned Noire and grabbed one of the tubs of ice cream, now only half full. Two of their campers grabbed the other one and the invaders climbed up to the upper level and streamed out the emergency exit and into the forest, leaving Noire and their group to take the blame for the mess.

Noire would tell on them, of course, and there was no way they were going to get 24 campers cleaned up before the counselors caught them. Still, it was satisfying to leave Noire to take the initial fall as they fled down the trails.

They took refuge behind the arts and crafts tent, everyone laughing and digging into the tubs of ice cream with their hands.

“It’s so cold!”

“Did you see the looks on their faces?”

“Best. Summer. EVER.”

Candela secured the seat next to Blanche, and the two of them watched as Spark grinned and talked with the children, quickly becoming the favourite.

“Feel better?” she asked, leaning her head on Blanche’s shoulder.

“No. I’m sticky,” they said petulantly. They had the tub of mint chocolate chip in their lap and refused to let anyone move it. Watching them try to each ice cream delicately with their fingers was hugely entertaining. Candela leaned over to scoop out a handful for herself.

“We could toss you back in the lake,” she suggested. “It would solve that probl-AHH!” She screamed as Blanche’s handful of ice cream collided with her ear. Her flailing arm sent her ice cream flying. It landed on Go’s head with a splat, much to his dismay.

“I was joking!” She said, diving off the bench and scrambling to the other side of the table. “It was a joke! Blanche!”

She crawled under the table. Her brave campers came to her defence, making up for their earlier defection by hurling handfuls of ice cream at Blanche. Blanche’s campers responded in turn, and the war began anew.

Unbeknownst to the warriors, Spark and his campers retreated under one of the far tables with the other tub, polishing it off while the others fought.

“Who do you think will win?” asked Lainey, tucked in her favourite position between Spark and Go and attempting to wipe the ice cream out of Go’s hair with her sleeve.

“Probably Blanche. Look, it’s a hailstorm!” Spark laughed as pellets of ice began to rain from the sky, mysteriously missing Blanche and their boys and forcing Candela and the girls to take shelter under the tables or be pummeled.

##

The camp counselors found them, and the ice cream-covered leaders and their young followers were forced to join Noire’s group in receiving a blistering lecture. Then they were released to get cleaned up before dinner, which was now over an hour late. The children agreed that it was worth it, even though they were itchy and sticky and in the biggest trouble of their young lives.

After they were cleaned, dressed, and had finally eaten a dinner that everyone was too full of ice cream to enjoy, they bid goodbye to the leaders. Candela got a hug and a tearful promise to email her from each girl, and wouldn’t she please email them back? She promised she would.

It didn’t miss her notice that while everyone else got hugs from their own cabins (some received more eagerly than others. Blanche was currently running across the field to flee the boys who wanted to say goodbye to them), all the campers found their way to Spark for a hug.

She chose to ignore that fact that nearly everyone also chose to hug Noire. Her own girls stayed loyal this time, and that’s all that mattered.

(Jessa was still a filthy traitor though. Candela saw her blush and hand Noire a little slip of paper with her email on it. If she thought there was any chance Noire would actually email the girl, she would have done something violent.)

Once all the goodbyes were said, the team leaders piled into the car with a last wave. Parker tearfully tried to give Candela the Wurmple to remember them by, but Candela told the girls to keep it as a mascot for their gymnastics team. Then they were on the road. The exhausted silence lasted all of five minutes before Spark broke it.

“That was so much fun!” he said.

“We are never going to be invited back,” Blanche replied.

Candela agreed with both of them.