In Tune

Juniper

The delicate tweet of a chipper Fletchling woke Juniper in the morning. She opened her eyes and yawned, waking up her Spewpa. She hazily stood up and looked out her window to breathe in the fresh air of Santalune. 

"Good morning, Kalos," she whispered with a smile. Spewpa wriggled onto her windowsill and squeaked. Juniper smiled.
"I'm sure I'll get the job this time, Spewy," she reassured it with a smiled and gave it a hug. With that, she quickly slipped out of her pyjamas and into a shirt and shorts, before tying a leather coat over herself. Spewpa squeaked at her, she smiled sympathetically,

"Sorry, We've run out of food. I spent my food budget on the tax raise, when I get a job then we'll get some real food," she promised and slung her handbag over her shoulder, gesturing for Spewpa to hop in. As it did, Juniper jogged out her flat's door and locked it behind her. She ran past the Pokémon Centre and fountain before slipping into one of the cafe's.

She wandered up to the counter and smiled,
"Hi, I have a job interview here?" she asked sweetly. The barista nodded and swung his head around the staff only door and called for someone. A short lady wandered out and smiled at Juniper, then gestured for Juniper to sit down with her. They took a seat at the back of the café and the old woman sighed and clasped Junipers hands,

"I'm extremely sorry for troubling you, but ever since the tax raise we've had to budget cut. I've had to fire some of my employees, and I can't afford to hire anybody else. I'm extremely sorry for wasting your time," she whispered. Juniper blinked.

"You- but... what?" she looked down at Spewpa, "but what about my Spewpa?" The only lady shook her head.
"I'm extremely sorry. How about I apologise like this, here," the woman stood up and grabbed paper bag with three croissants and handed them to Juniper, "a small apology for disappointing you." Juniper smiled and stood up, grabbing her bag before leaving with a forced smile.

"At least we got these," she whispered to her Spewpa and fed it a croissant. It squeaked happily and munched it down, while Juniper just nibbled at the ends. She sat down on a bench out side of the Café and looked longingly toward Lumino City. The city of light. What she wouldn't give to live there and fufill her dreams. 

She looked back down at her croissant. Yet here she was. Stuck in the cheapest little village possible. 

"How are we going to get out of here? Look at us. All our belongings can be fit into my handbag, how are we ever going to get into Lumino City?" she whispered and stood up. She began walking toward the entrance of the city of light and stroked the archway standing between her and her dreams.

"There's no point of even looking around if I know it will never be home," she said. Spewy squeaked and gestured for them to venture into the city just to take a look. Juniper had to fight back tears before listening to her Spewpa and stepping in. Immediately, she was blinded by the lights and flashes and sounds.

She smiled slightly and looked toward the one-star café she met Kafu in. The only thing she could afford. But that was years ago. Now she couldn't even afford that. As she looked around the city that had changed so much, with new giant, card billboards hanging onto the tall buildings advertising the latest brand of computer (a slightly quicker and smaller version of the giant computers you couldn't carry), and new cafe's- she didn't notice the shadowy figure begin to follow her from behind.

Juniper settled for a small view of Lumino tower on a small bench near a few alleyways. A tall man wearing an expensive-looking suit and fashionable fedora sat next to her and marvelled at the tower. She didn't take notice but did wonder why he didn't just sit down on a different bench.  And then he caught her off-guard.

"Juniper, is it? Saw you lose that job in the café, absolute drainer, isn't it?" he asked without looking at her. Juniper scowled and looked at him.
"What? Uh- yes! That's me. Yes, it was pretty sad, especially since I really needed that job," she sighed and shifted away from him slightly. He didn't respond, instead looked at her,

"You're looking for work? Easy, I can offer you a job," he offered with a smile. Juniper started getting uncomfortable.
"Sorry, I don't take work from people I've just met. Besides, I don't even know what the job is or how much it pays," she said as politely as possible, wanting to run away but couldn't bring herself to.

"Relax, girlfriend. It's nothing dodgy. Well, it's not that dodgy," he reassured her and pulled a couple of papers out of the giant satchel he was carrying around over his shoulder. Juniper raised an eyebrow. He lowered his voice and leaned in to hand her the papers,

"See, there's this man. He and I aren't on good terms, so I couldn't do this myself. But he's discovered something huge that I could turn into a massive industry. But I've got no info besides word on the street! And he's a pretty secretive guy. I need someone to get in there and figure out every last thing about the little project of his and report back to me," he whispered. That's when Juniper got a good look at his face, and you could happily compare him so some kind of super-model. She blushed slightly but kept her head focused.

"And the pay? How much upfront and how much when the job gets done?" she asked, Spewpa wriggled in her handbag in anticipation. The man smiled and pulled a check out of his bag before showing it to Juniper, and her jaw nearly fell out of her face.

"That's two hundred thousand pokedollars up-front and ten hundred thousand upon completion. If you're up for it," he said and crossed his legs, "I'd obviously pay for the flight to where he's staying and for hotel bills, etc. You in?"

Juniper's fists clenched. This was her last chance to pick herself off of her feet and achieve her goal of living happily with her partner pokemon.
"I am. Who's the guy?"

The man immediately grinned and held out his hand, a silver ring around his middle finger.
"Glad to have you on the team! Name's Josh Méchant. All the info is on the papers, here's you check, "he handed her the two hundred thousand pokedollar-check, "and my address and email are on the back sheet, now I gotta scram, I'm not on good terms with a lot of people down here and better safe than sorry. Au revoir, Juniper!"

But Juniper wasn't listening anymore, all she saw was him leaving. She was just staring down at the money in her hands and squeezed her Spewpa in delight, who was squeaking in happiness.

Then she glanced down at the information sheet and who she was going to be fishing information from.

Kafu Iosua.