Previously on Oranges to Grapes...

While Ko and the other students wake up to another day at the Academy, Rosita's patience for Conner to come back starts to wear thin. After she gets real with the other Hell-Sent girls, they decide to go the long way around to their next destination...

-

Using her Girl Scout tracking skills, Eartha led Rosita and Jessica up the hill from the cave, climbing to a steep, but stable path up the side of Mount Glaseado. After a certain amount of distance, it dipped back down the mountain to a rocky slope, the bottom of which became more grassland that led to another Pokemon Center.

Deciding to make that their next stop, the girls walked up to the kiosk and sat down together at the padded chair to rest their footpaws. But as they raised their pads and wiggled their beans, Rosita still couldn't stop thinking about Conner not being back. He didn't come back during their climb up the hill, Leopold didn't come back on the snowy mountainside, Anton didn't come back on the rocky mountainside, and Conner still didn't come back on the way here to the kiosk... Taking out her Sealing Ball, she gave it a good, hard look, and saw the slight glow. "Huh. That's new."

"What is, Rosie?" Jessica asked.

"Has my Sealing Ball always had a slight tinge of light, or did it just get that way?" the caracal asked. "Maybe this could be a clue as to why Conner hasn't reformed yet. Quick, check yours!"

After Jessica and Eartha took out their Sealing Balls, the snow leopard said, "Huh. Mine's doing the same thing."

"Mine, too," the fennec fox added. Sure enough, their trinkets were emitting a tinge of light in different colors as well. "Maybe they're still charging?"

"Well, that doesn't make sense," Rosita argued. "They've had hours to charge!"

"Well, in fairness," Jessica countered, "the three of us only got these Sealing Balls a few days ago, and there's still not a lot of things we know about them. And out of the three of us, you had yours the longest, so..."

"Oh, so it's my fault our partners are gone and didn't come back?!" Rosita shot back. "Oh, you'd like hearing that from me, wouldn't you? 'Ooh, we're the greatest Paldean anti-heroes, but I didn't read all the instructions to our suits! My team and I can't harness our superpowers!'"

"Hey!" Eartha barked, "We're all facing the same problem you are, so don't go snapping at us!"

"Well, I'm sorry, Eartha!" Rosita bickered. "It's bad enough that I can't transform or climb walls anymore, but I'm still a LITTLE emotional over the thought that I may have lost Conner forever!"

"Both of you stop!" Jessica intervened. "Okay! Now listen! We didn't lose anyone forever, and no one's emotions are being invalidated! Now, I know we're all a little frazzled right now, but putting each other's throats in the crosshairs is not going to accomplish anything. I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but until the Spirits of Ruin reform, we'll just have to avoid any domes or Diademons and search for the fourth Cure without them, meaning we may have to rely on our Pokemon from this point on. Now, Rosita, where's the closest Pokemon Center from this one? Maybe we can start there."

"Jessie's right," Rosita admitted with a sigh as she took out her Rotom Phone. "When she's right, she's right. There's a reason she's the blue Cure of the team, after all."

"Because ice is blue?" Eartha guessed.

"Because she's smart and level-headed... most of the time," Rosita admitted as she pulled up the Map app. "And to answer your question, Jessica, the closest Pokemon Center from this one is located in... Area 2 of the North Province."

"Then that's where we'll go!" Jessica proclaimed. "Onward ho!"

With a new destination in mind, the girls headed deeper into the grasslands of the north... unaware that someone else was watching them go. Hidden behind a boulder along the path was an anthro axolotl: pink-fleshed with three fuschia fronds on each side of her face. She wore a pink jacket over a purple shirt, a purple skirt down to her knees, and white flat shoes. "Well, those three don't know it, but if they think they can avoid a scrap with a Diademon or two, they are in way over their soft, fuzzy heads going that way," the amphibious girl said.

"Do not be so quick to judge, Dina Goldman," a second female voice said in response. This voice belonged to what looked like a floating goldfish made of fire, hovering next to the axolotl's shoulder. "They may be what is needed to turn the tides in our favor, having faced these Diademons before elsewhere."

"Perhaps too much," the girl, apparently named Dina, said. "They said that their spirits haven't come back for who-knows-how-long, and I thought you could pop up anytime you wanted as long as I had your Sealing Ball. Could they have done something so awful that they... don't want to come back?"

"Perhaps I could help them if they would let me," the goldfish said. "They may not know of the reboot switch that our Sealing Balls come with. But they can learn of it only if the bearers were to know that you are the last member... and are okay with it."

"That's a lot to throw out of nowhere, Bea," Dina said, "but I guess you have a point. I'll have to find a way to introduce the topic tactfully if that's the case."

"Good to know that you understand," Bea said with a smile, "but one thing at a time. If we want to keep an eye on these three bearers, we'll need to catch up with them first."

"Right," Dina said as she took on a running stance. "Let's light it up, Bea!"

With that, Bea swam through the air down to Dina's ankles and extended her fins. Two small balls of flame appeared behind her heels, and the axolotl took off running... and was gone in a flash.

-

To be continued...