RE: Mewtwo's Revenge (Chapter IV up!)
Wordcount for this chapter is 2,173! A bit shorter than my other chapters, but hey!
Chapter V
A hollow whistle emanated from the creature that had just attacked Red. The bone beneath his chin twisted around as the creature stepped off the young Trainer's body. This gave him an opportunity to see who, or what, his attacker was.
This creature was a small, brown, almost dinosaur-like being. Its stomach was a lighter brown, and there was a spike at the end of its tail. But the one thing that was most interesting about this creature, and probably the most disturbing, was the fact that it was wearing a skull of another Pokémon. Its eyes were glaring at him through the skull's eye sockets.
Finding an opportunity whilst this creature was walking to the right of him, Red knocked the dirt-coated bone to the right of his neck, giving him room to use his other hand to push the Pokémon down. Scrambling to his feet, Red struck an intimidating pose with an attempt to scare off this small Pokémon.
"Red! That is a Cubone!" Emma said, placing her hands on her hips and glaring at Red.
"Great! What's a Cubone?!" Red said, irritated. He found it difficult to understand how Emma could be so cool under such circumstances.
"It's literally called 'The Lonely Pokémon'. Ever wonder what Pokémon's skull its wearing? That's its dead mother! Look, Red," Emma walked to the Cubone and took it in her arms, "See? Harmless!"
Red leaned forward with a look of disbelief.
"Harmless? That Pokémon tried to kill me!" the trainer said looking at Emma, then to the Cubone, with shock.
The pink-haired girl looked down at the Pokémon, who was looking at her with tears in its eyes. It handed her its bone with a whistle through the hollow nasal cavities of the skull. Blowing some of the dust off the bone, Emma squinted for a moment, then looked at Red.
"Red... This Pokémon isn't a wild Pokémon. Look at this," Emma said, stepping forward and handing Red the bone.
Wiping more dirt off the bone, Red felt a rough surface in a familiar pattern. Looking down at the bone, he noticed inscriptions on it. It read as follows: "PTOWER. FUJI. HELP." Taking a sharp breath in, Red looked at Emma. Could this be the same Fuji that they were looking for? If so, what was he doing in a "Ptower"? Why was he sending for help?
Ptower... P-Tower? P... Hm. The only tower in Kanto that starts with a "P" is- Red thought until he said aloud.
"Pokémon Tower! Dr. Fuji is in Pokémon Tower and he needs help!" Red snapped his fingers with a grin at Emma and proudly began to march forward.
"... You do know what Pokemon Tower is, don't you?" Emma followed him, placing the Cubone back unto the ground, who promptly snatched its bone from Red's hand.
"Not entirely," Red replied, not even braking pace.
"It's a graveyard," was the blunt answer from his companion.
It was then when his march came to a halt. He turned around, held his stomach in a hunched position and groaned in a pain-filled tone.
"Ow! Ow! My stomach! It must have been that energy bar you gave me...! I-I can't go on..." Red's pained voice and face faltered.
Emma smirked with a chuckle. She stared into him with her piercing blue eyes, amused.
"Are you sure you can't go on?" Emma asked with a flirtatious tone.
Red stopped groaning immediately, looked down at his stomach and then back at his companion.
"Uh... I think I might be able to manage," the trainer replied, blushing.
She smiled and placed Cubone next to him, who snatched the bone out of Red's hand. Then, Emma moved forward on the path, taking the occasional opportunity to glance behind her at Red, who was now quickly following her with Magikarp under his arm. There would be a time for the important questions, but Red decided not to ruin the moment.
The two of them walked until the sun began to sink beneath the peak of Mount Moon. Again the shadowy claws of the mountain seemed to grasp at the two of them. The two of them walked a bit further until a horrible growl reverberated from Red's stomach. A startled Magikarp tried to flop away from the growling form next to it, but was to no avail due to the arm holding it in place.
"Hungry?" Emma asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Can you blame me? I did skip lunch, you know," the trainer replied, famished.
"It's getting late anyway," she responded as she stopped walking forward, "Let's make camp for the night."
Red couldn't agree more. He looked about him for a nice spot to lay for the night. First a cluster of bushes, then a small tree in the road that was seemingly placed there for inconvenience, but then he saw a cluster of trees in a horseshoe pattern. Perfect.
Taking a seat on the grassy ground, he crossed his legs and laid Magikarp onto the ground. Then, he dispensed Charmeleon's Pokeball from his pocket and pressed the button on the front, releasing a beam of plasma, and with it, Charmeleon.
"Charmeleon, you'll take the first watch," Red said as he sat down, feeling relief course through his legs.
The two of them proceeded to lay down across from each other in the heat of the flame at the end of Charmeleon's tail. After all, why would one need a camp fire if you have Charmeleon? Happy with his reasoning, Red closed his weary eyes and almost instantly fell into a deep sleep.
It felt like Red had just closed his eyes when a harsh heat woke him. A tired and rather irritated Charmeleon had just held his tail to Red's face in order to wake him. Feeling the side of his face to see if sprouting facial hair wasn't the only thing he was missing, Red stood up, groggy, and motioned for Charmeleon to sleep where he had lain previously.
Standing up, Red moved to a tree at the opening of their camp and sat by it, light-headed. The dark was thick around them. The light from the bustling city that was Cerulean was missing due to the fact that Ditto actually prefer the dark and haven't turned the street-lights on. The normal moonlight was also missing along with the stars. Red assumed that it was merely cloudy and thus blocking the view of the sky.
It felt like hours dragged on. Whenever the trainer felt like he was going to fall asleep, he busied himself with playing small mind games or imagining something to keep his focus from tiredness. Subconsciously, he found his gaze drawing itself to Emma, who lay in a bent position, Cubone by her side who were both snoring loudly.
Suddenly, Cubone had adjusted itself in a manner that his bone knocked over Emma's bag, spilling the contents over the ground. Not wanting to wake them, Red sighed and moved to the bag and began to put the contents back inside the bag. Medical supplies and food were the first to be placed in, but something caught Red's eye.
It was a plastic card like a driver's license, but attached to a crimson ribbon as if to be worn from the neck. Taking interest in it, Red moved it to the flame of Charmeleon's tail for light. Red took a sharp breath in horror; it was a Team Rocket badge, and on it was a picture of Emma with her name beneath it, scratched so her first name could only be seen.
Red couldn't believe it. He didn't want to, but the evidence was right before him in all of its impossibility. Rage began to build inside of him. How long was she going to keep this from him? She was a spy all along? Turning to Emma's sleeping figure, Red moved to the tree next to her. Anger and the feeling of betrayal would keep him awake more than any caffeine, so he waited there for hours, card clenched tightly in his hands and ready for answers.
*****
The whole world was about to become his, and he just sat there, smoking a pipe. The large, brown leather chair was comfortable, and it was the best money could buy. The imported tobacco was smoking slowly from the end of the amber-tipped pipe. It would have been better if the bite-marks in the amber end of his pipe weren't filled with metal, for it left a certain metallic taste in his mouth every once in a while.
The window in front of him spanned the entire back wall, which was what the chair was facing. The view was grand. Trees below his tower were waving about like grass, the ocean looked as if a lake and the people below him looked like ants, scrambling about their business. The man in the chair puffed on his pipe thoughtfully at the notion of others as ants.
A knock came from his door.
"Sir, you asked for me?" came a muffled British man's voice from the opposite end of the door.
"Come," he replied with his light Italian accent.
The man came in through the large double doors behind him quietly. Only the minor creak of the floor was heard when he slowly made his way from the doors to the front of the desk. Once these sounds stopped, the large chair turned.
The light from the windows behind the chair were engulfing any feature of its occupant. Only the dim glow of his pipe was seen.
"Any news, my friend?" his voice was as cool as ice.
"Y-yes," the man's skin flushed of all color, "We... Haven't found it yet. It wasn't in Pewter."
"I thought you said that there was a large spike on the equipment," the shadowy figure responded, colder than ever.
Looking as if he was going to choke on the air around him, the man gulped and strained his muscles.
"T-there was... We'll find it next time, sir," the man said, brown eyes darting to the exit and back to the shadowy figure.
"'Next time', doctor? I think we have a misunderstanding," with this, the man stood up from his seat and stepped over to the table to the left and to the collection of whiskeys and brandies in ornate bottles.
Uncorking a glass bottle concealing a golden liquid, the man, still encased with shadow, held the neck of the bottle to his nose and took a long whiff of the sweet aroma.
"I've been saving this one. My grandfather made this as part of a project fifty semod years ago. I've been waiting for the occasion to taste it," the shadowy man said as he began to pour it into two ice filled cups.
"W-what's the occasion?" the nervous man asked, taking a step back.
Carrying the drinks forward, the shadowy man held one out. The nervous man tried to take the glass.
"No no no! this isn't for you, it is for him," the shadowy man said, stopping the nervous one's reach for the glass cold.
Doing an about face, the man jumped aside, startled by the large man standing behind him.
"This is my cousin, Geoff. He is quite the scientist, you see, and he has taken a look at your research. He tells me that you have calibrated it wrongly; that you have made major errors in calculations! My goodness, I am disappointed!" the shadowy man handed the larger man the glass, and the large one took a swig.
"I'm sorry! I-it won't happen-" the man began, pleading with the shadowy man not to punish him.
"It won't happen again? Right. I'm sorry to say, doctor, but you are fired. My cousin will be taking over for you," the shadowy man said with a snap of his fingers.
Suddenly, out from a hole in the wall, a large purple snake quickly slithered through across the room and coiled around the now screaming man. He fell to the ground and was slowly being pulled backwards into the hole, being struck at by the giant snake on the head. Soon, he was pulled into the hole, and the screaming stopped.
"Poor thing. Bones always make it vomit..." the shadowy man said with pity on the snake, taking a swig of his own glass.
The shadowy man held his glass up to the other man in a show of a toast.
"A toast to your new position, Geoff," the shadowy man said through a devilish grin.
Geoff replied shortly thereafter, "Cheers, Giovanni."
