Writing Mewtwo's Revenge (Update: Chapter 9)
- Thread starter Kecleon-X
- Start date
RE: Mewtwo's Revenge (Chapter VI up!)
How exactly do we pronounce that?
(It's a serious question: How do you pronounce it???)
Kecleon-X said:
How exactly do we pronounce that?
(It's a serious question: How do you pronounce it???)
RE: Mewtwo's Revenge (Chapter VI up!)
Sorry about the wait, I have been busy with my own Werewolf game.
Anyway, without further ado and hopefully no mistakes, it is...
...
Wait for it...
...
Chapter VII...
_____
Wordcount for this chapter is: 4,015!
Chapter VII
It was dark. There was a faint dripping sound echoing throughout the tunnel and making its way out the entrance like a creature trying to escape an inevitable fate. The ceiling literally crawled with Zubat, and the floors reeked of their droppings. The long-abandoned mine shaft still had its wooden support structures, but they were rotted and sometimes in pieces. It was as if Mount Moon had an offspring, and it was named Rock Tunnel.
Red felt a shiver go down his spine as he stepped foot in the tunnel, trying to avoid the layers of Zubat guano. Taking a quick glance behind him, he saw that the rest of his companions had the same feeling, save Cubone, who seemed to like it. It was, after all, where it probably used to live, considering the proximity to Lavender Town and how Pokemon don't stray far from their homes. Red snorted at the thought. How homey.
"How far do you think it is to Lavender Town?" Red asked quietly, trying not to disturb the Zubat.
"Dunno." Emma replied quietly, taking ginger steps.
They proceeded onward, flinching at every movement the Zubat made, who were still dangling from the ceiling. All was going well, until suddenly, a loud crash was heard from farther down the tunnel, and it echoed throughout. Red flinched, Emma jumped back out of being startled, Charmeleon pressed his hands to his ears, whereas Cubone simply sighed. It knew of this sound.
Being scared out of their minds, the colony of Zubat took flight down the cave to attack whatever source this sound was coming from with extreme prejudice, squealing and chirping all the while. But their flight was short lived, for suddenly, as soon as they turned a corner, there were flashes of blue light and the chirping was no longer there. An electric hum emanated from the rocky corner.
He couldn't tell if he was daring, or just stupid, but Red crept forward and turned his head around the corner, only to see a large room with an equally tall pedestal, glowing with energy. The ground was littered with fallen Zubats, and dark-clad figures were loading them up into small metal bags, and then tossing them into a cart.
"Do you think we have enough, now?" one of them asked the other, tossing a bag of Zubat into the cart, his higher pitched voice somewhat reminiscent of a hawk's cry.
"Pro'lly. We'll get these to the others, then we'll bring t'all back to base." the other stated gruffly, grunting every now and again whilst tossing a bag of Zubats into the cart.
Looking past the gruff members of Team Rocket, Red noticed a light pouring in from a tunnel just past the large pedestal. This was no doubt the exit. The inner tactician of the trainer quickly formulated a plan, and the desired outcome. The trainer nudged Emma on her side, careful not to make too much noise, and pointed at the light. With a quick acknowledgement, Emma leaned in closer to Red's ear and began to whisper into it.
"What is your plan?" she whispered softly.
"I'm gonna distract them while you release the Zubat." Red whispered plainly.
"Uh, what?" Emma seemed a bit startled at this.
"The Zubats still remember what happened to them, and who did it. If I'm right, they'll leave us alone." he explained to both his companion and Charmeleon, who was also showing a horribly puzzled look on his face.
Emma seemed to understand, but she couldn't help to feel worried about Red. He was too rash and hot-headed. He was going to get himself hurt eventually, and Emma was sure she couldn't do a thing about it, either. Ugh.
"Alright, Red, but if things go sideways..." the pink-haired girl began, creeping forward raising her finger at the final notion.
"I'll get out; I know. One more thing, though," Red replied, a smirk on his face that turned into a rather dire glare, "Take Charmeleon. He's the only one that can pull apart the bags."
Charmeleon squinted and gritted his teeth for a moment. Red was either suicidal or was way to hot-headed for his own good. I mean, people in a healthy state of mind don't usually do these kinds of things... Right? Either way, Charmeleon nudged Emma on her thigh and gave her a nod, showing his compliance.
Cubone shook it's head and a hollow whistle emanated from the nasal cavities of the skull. It then turned away, obviously not wanting to fight. Red reached out and pat the Cubone on the top of its skull as a show that he wasn't disappointed with Cubone, and that it was alright not to want to fight. The skull-wearing Pokemon made no move to either help them or to leave, but instead sat down on the rocky floor and sighed.
"Ready?" Red held up his fist to Emma so she could do the same.
"I think you were always Redy. But there is something you-" Emma said jokingly, nudging her fist with his, but before she could follow up with what she was about to say, Red grabbed out a Poke Ball from his pocket and leaped down the ledge.
The two Rocket members quickly turned to face Red, their own Poke Balls drawn from their black leather belts. The Rockets were startled, but the looks on their faces were obvious; they knew that they could take Red on and take him down, and Red wasn't so sure that the Rockets were far from the truth.
"This is, ah, private property. There is a small fee for passing through," one said, readying his Poke Ball, "All of your Pokemon, please!"
"Two can play that game! Alright, Paras, go!" Red ordered, grabbing one of the Poke Balls on his belt.
Readying his own Pokemon, Red tossed out the Poke Ball containing his combatant, and unfortunately for Red, he chose the wrong Poke Ball. In a flash of plasma, Magikarp came out of the red and white sphere instead of Paras. Instead of a fighting pose, it just sat there, flopping weakly.
The Rocket's Ball exploded in a flash of yellow plasma, and a brown and yellow colored ball fell to the ground at the feet of a certain scarred Onix. It glared down at Red, right eye white with blindness, surrounded by the half of a shattered face emanating from a point that was shaped juts big enough for Charmander's fist. It recognized its old foe and snarled.
"... Great. I should have labeled those..." Red mumbled, staring up at the massive stone snake.
For a few moments, the two of them were silent, sizing up each other and formulating a strategy to take on the other. Suddenly, the Rocket called out an unusual attack; Bide. The Onix braced itself, waiting for Red to make a move. Red responded with a flash of plasma from the end of his Poke Ball, the disappearance of Magikarp, and the replacement of the weak fish with Paras.
"Stun Spore!" Red cried, trying to avoid whatever Bide was with an attack that he didn't exactly know Paras knew.
Paras gnawed at her bandage, ripping it off and exposing a new and recently hardened claw. Then, she leaped forward at the Onix, and shook her mushrooms violently. Yellow spores began to spread through the air towards the Onix, who was trying to relax its muscles in order to flee from the spores. Its efforts were futile. The snake couldn't help but to take the necessary breath in, and the spores with it.
The massive Pokemon began to tense up again, and not due to the effects of the Stun Spore; it was preparing to use Bide.
"Scratch!" Red ordered, preparing to leap out of the way of whatever Bide was going to do.
Paras scratched furiously up and down the massive stone body of the snake, chipping off bits of rock as she went. But this only seemed to anger the Onix, who was beginning to nashville hot chicken back its head.
The stone snake twirled its torso in an unnatural manner, tossing Paras off the massive Pokemon and sending her flying into the wall. Scrambling into a foothold, Paras glared with intense insectoid eyes at the Onix, who was lurching forward in a quick striking motion. Red acted fast and aimed Paras' Poke Ball at her, then sending a burst of plasma towards her. Almost as soon as the Onix would have made contact with Paras, she was gone, safely inside her Poke Ball. Magikarp, as to stay with the rules of conduct in a Battle, was now flopping about again on the guano-covered floor of Rock Tunnel.
Onix's head struck into the wall of the cave, burying its head into the wall, tail flopping about. The massive snake was stuck in the wall, rendering it incapacitated. Red balled his hand into a fist and pulled it to his side in a reverse fist-pump in a sort of small victory celebration. The Rocket began to bark orders at the Onix, who was beginning to suffer the effects of the paralyzing spores, making removing its head more difficult than before.
"Hey boys..." called a familiar female voice from over to Red's left side.
Unbeknownst to the battlers, Emma had sneaked up behind the other Rocket and knocked him over the head with a large rock, knocking him out cold. She was holding him by the crimson letter on his shirt, standing by the cart filled with bags of Zubat. Charmeleon hadn't exactly been idle, either. Whilst the battle was happening, he had deactivated -- and by that I mean threw a punch at the control panel -- the large pillar in the center of the room. Charmeleon now stood beside Emma, holding a large number of bags in one hand and claws ready in the other.
"Onix! Bind! NOW!" the Rocket Red was battling began to yell repeatedly to an unresponsive Onix in a panic.
The Onix began to pull and yank at the stone it was stuck in, trying to free itself from the wall that held it captive. During the struggle, boulders fell from the wall and smashed onto the ground, crashes echoing loudly throughout the chamber, just barely audible over the howl that the snake was calling out with.
Picking up Magikarp, Red looked to Charmeleon and gave him a quick nod. The Pokemon slashed at the bags at the top. And for every bag, it seemed an entire colony of Zubat took flight. One bag after another, the roof of the cave began to flood with a mass of blue and purple.
The Rocket began to become more and more panicked with every bag of Zubat released.
"OBEY ME!" the Rocket shrieked at the top of his lungs at the Onix.
With one final yank, the Onix finally freed itself from the clutches of the wall, rock crumbling as it exited.
"Kill them, you fool! They're letting the Zubat esca-" the Rocket was suddenly engulfed by a mass of Zubat, flailing about and shouting for help from the Onix.
Squinting for a moment and considering whether or not it respected its trainer enough to warrant an assist, it decided that it was simply not worth it, and it was a better idea to attack Red and Emma, its old foes. Onix prepared for a vicious Tackle, this time aimed at Charmeleon, remembering how their last encounter ended and who gave the beginner trainer enough time and means to defeat Onix.
Leaping out of the way in a skilled slide, Charmeleon quickly grabbed dust in almost superhuman reflexes, tossing it into the Onix's one good eye. Charmeleon prepared his fist and began to bring it down upon the other side of the Onix's face, but the fist met nothing but the floor as Onix was expecting this attack. Charmeleon was now in trouble; it was now he who was stuck in the stubborn stone.
Even though the sand was caked upon its eye, Onix pulled to the side, just narrowly missing the fist of Charmeleon, then it cocked its head back and roared in triumph, preparing to lash out and destroy the helpless Pokemon in one final blow. One final blow, until a bone struck him directly in the forehead, that is. The stone snake howled and turned to face its new attacker, only to be met with the same bone slamming into its back and jamming itself there.
Charmeleon's rescuer leaped from below, then clambered upon the raging Onix, grabbing the bone and held on for dear life. Onix howled, roared and flailed about, snapping Zubat out of the air every once and a while, but it was unable to release the bone from its back. But then, grabbing ahold of the Onix, Charmeleon's rescuer pulled the bone from the stone for a moment, then brought it down upon the same place, nearly impaling the Pokemon with the bone, then twisted it. The snapping of a spine echoed throughout the chamber, even over the incessant chirping of the Zubat, and then, the Onix fell to the ground, limp.
Emma, who was struggling with more bags of Zubat, was seemingly unaware of the titan being falling down behind her. Red, noticing his companion in danger, leaped forward and grabbed hold of her in a split second, pulling her to the floor along with him. The head of the Onix crashed over the cart, slamming into the ground in a cloud of dust directly where Emma would have been, if Red had not noticed his companion's danger.
"Thanks, Red! You're... Fantastic!" Emma cried out, adrenaline clearly pumping through her system.
It was funny, really, Red didn't want to leave this position. It was kind of nice, if not for the threat of guano stuck in one's clothes. It was then when something wiggled out of Red's hands and pushed into view. Red and Emma laughed; Red hadn't put down Magikarp yet.
Charmeleon threw another Rock Smash at the seemingly Pokemon-hungry rock, setting his arm free. Then, he leaped up onto the Onix, gazing forward in astonishment at his savior. It was Cubone, now wielding its bone proudly. Silently, they regarded each other. A thank-you with no words spoken. Charmeleon held out his hand in a gesture of peace, and the Cubone took it and shook hard, savoring every moment.
Suddenly, out of the cloud of Zubat above them, several Zubat carried down a pale, bite-riddled and unconscious Rocket then dropped him down by the demolished cart. They hovered there for a moment, staring at their rescuers, then flew off to join their colony. Standing up, Red put his hands on his hips, and to his surprise, he smiled at the bane of all Trainers across the globe.
It seemed that nothing could go wrong in this event. Two defeated Rockets and a rescued colony of Zubat, it seemed things were going right for them for once. But things were not over in the mind of Onix. It had been unable to move, rendering all its attacks useless. All but one. The stone snake began to build energy inside its body, and every crack and crevice in the giant body began to glow.
"Red... Move! Now!!" Emma cried out while running forward, grabbing Charmeleon in one hand and Cubone in the other.
Red followed her as fast as possible, Magikarp in hand. Running though the exit tunnel, Red heard a deafening explosion. The Onix had just overflowed energy on purpose, destroying itself in a last-ditch effort to kill its old foes. A fireball was now chasing them. Red closed his eyes and ran as fast as he could. He could feel the heat on his back, the rush of hot air flowing through his hair and rushing past his jacket, and a hand on the back of his head thrusting him down to the dirt.
Red rolled over and saw a flurry of fire whooshing overhead like it had a mind of its own. Bits of flaming stones rained down upon them, pelting their skin and scorching their clothes. Magikarp flailed about, trying to avoid being struck by a piece of stone. Even though it seemed that it took minutes, it merely took a few seconds for the fireball to subside.
Standing up, Emma pulled the two Pokemon from her torn denim jacket and placed them onto the ground, rubbing their heads gingerly. Walking over to her companion, Emma held out her hand in an offer to help Red up. The trainer took her hand and stood up, lightheaded. He looked back into the tunnel, listening for any Zubat. He heard no chirp or flutter of wings, only the crackle of flames and smelled a foul odor. For now, it seemed nothing made it out of the explosion... A tug at his arm led Red to look back at Emma, who motioned in the opposite direction.
Red turned away from the cave, flustered and stomach overturned. He would prefer any other place but here. He had always seen these kinds of things in movies, but the amount of death that just took place there...
"Don't worry about it, Red. They met their end happy," Emma said reassuringly.
"How do you know?"
"I just do."
Red left it there. He knew that Emma was just trying to help, and he wasn't going to get angry over a vague reply. He didn't like the Zubat, but no one deserved that fate. No one.
Beginning to walk forward and seeing what was just a short ways down the road, the trainer decided that there were other less desirable places. He wanted to be anywhere that wasn't straight ahead, as well.
"Dang." Red stated.
"Eeyup. You sure you're up for this?" Emma replied, dusting off her peach-pink hair.
Turning to Charmeleon and Cubone, they nodded and took a fighting stance. Red smiled, then turned to Magikarp, who he forgot to put back into a Poke Ball. Magikarp stared at him, and even though this wasn't exactly a "ready when you are", it was all he was going to get from his Pokemon. Red put on a fighting smirk and turned to Emma.
"Let's do this." Red replied, turning to face a small town, painted in a purple hue.
This town would actually be pleasant if not for the tower that rose up from the top right corner. Rest assured, this town is not a normal town, for no other town would be named the infamous Lavender Town.
*****
The soft clink of ice in a brandy-filled glass was heard from behind the large chair. A Russian opera song was heard through shallow, quiet speakers. It was his ancestors who started everything, and needless to say, the music records they left him were fantastic. It was up to him to keep everything running, and the music reflected his every mood. This song was a happy one, thankfully.
The man who sat in the chair turned and got up, revealing his face. He was a young man, brown hair in a mess, giving him a rather "bedhead" look. His green dress shirt and black suit pants were wrinkled and had oil and grease stains in long streaks along the sides, as if he had mopped his grease-covered hands on them. He was unshaven, mustache darkening and stubble sprouting. His brown eyes were somewhat bloodshot, as it was a late night for him.
When he walked through the large wooden door a woman, sitting at a wooden desk, looked up and greeted him with a pleasant smile.
"Late night, Mr. Silph?" she inquired, continuing to type on her keyboard without looking.
"Yeah," said the surprisingly American-sounding Silph, "Up all night working on that new ball-thing."
"Shall I clear your schedule for the day so you may recuperate?" she asked politely.
"Nah, Barbara, I'm fine." Silph replied, striding forward to the end of the room.
At his feet was a circular, glass pad. It pulsated with green energy as Silph stepped upon it. In a blink of an eye, Silph was in another place entirely. He was just teleported to another place in his company. Better than using an elevator any day. Though he did think that perhaps he could take time out of his schedule and just label them... Either way, it was one of their prototypes; one of the many Silph made himself.
Looking about the room he was now in, Silph noted that the walls were made of a mirror-like glass. When one investigated further, one would notice the laser drawers behind the glass. When activated, they would hyperactively etch in the air a three-dimensional model, that, due to cameras programmed to read the light from the lasers, was fully manipulatable. This was something that the man, dressed in the usual lab coat, was working with.
As the man moved, drew, tweaked and manipulated the hologram of the object, robotic arms did the same thing in the room ahead of them, separated by a pane of glass.
"How's it coming, Doc?" Silph asked, noticing the cold cup of coffee on the workbench that was placed in the corner.
"Well, we think we fixed the mechanical glitch that prevented the ball from closing." the man answered, turning to face Silph, who was now drinking his subordinate's coffee.
"So it's ready, then?" Silph asked, striding up to the scientist, sipping on the other man's coffee.
"Yeah it is... You know that is my coffee, right?" he asked, a little taken aback.
"Yup. How long do you think it will take to get this to marke-" Silph began, but was cut off by a loud crash and the earth rumbling beneath his feet.
Wrenches and whatnot fell from the walls and tables. Crashes, screaming and explosions were heard outside the door. Shouts of orders and the roaring of Pokemon were heard as well. This was no earthquake.
"Hide the Master Ball! We're being attacked!" Silph cried, rushing to the door and locking it as fast as he could.
Turning to the Master Ball, the CEO saw the blast doors closing in front and behind the pane of glass that separated them from the Master Ball. A blink of purple was the last Silph saw of the powerful Poke Ball. Turning back to the door, all he saw was a large, glassy eye. A snort of hot air emanated from the Pokemon's nostril, fogging up the glass on the door.
A loud crash; the Pokemon had just pushed its foot through the door. Then, its fist, head and along with it, its torso. What stood before him was a large patchwork boulder but with arms, legs and head. The scaly skin of the Pokemon was a light tan, and pearly white canine teeth hung out of it's mouth, highlighted by the snarl present.
"Golem, please, don't startle our friend," an Italian man said, stepping through the doorway, "We don't want him dead of a heart attack!"
Silph recognized this man. He had past dealings with him.
"Hello Giovanni. Up to your usual insane terrorist ways, I see?" Silph asked leaning casually against the work bench.
"Hmhm. It depends on your definition of 'terrorist'. How's business?" Giovanni asked as he entered the room, flanked by at least ten of his subordinates, all dressed in black.
The building shook again with a crash, leading Silph to respond with a simple, "Booming. Simply... Booming."
Silph knew what Team Rocket was there for; the Master Ball. The Master Ball had the power to catch any Pokemon without fail. There had been some technical difficulties beforehand, but still, it had the ability, and that is what they were after. Thing was, Silph knew Giovanni. He had even asked Silph to join and supply Team Rocket with weapons. He knew the ruthlessness and the cold heart behind the black eyes the Rocket leader had. Chances were, they weren't going to make it out of this situation alive.
Sorry about the wait, I have been busy with my own Werewolf game.
Anyway, without further ado and hopefully no mistakes, it is...
...
Wait for it...
...
Chapter VII...
_____
Wordcount for this chapter is: 4,015!
Chapter VII
It was dark. There was a faint dripping sound echoing throughout the tunnel and making its way out the entrance like a creature trying to escape an inevitable fate. The ceiling literally crawled with Zubat, and the floors reeked of their droppings. The long-abandoned mine shaft still had its wooden support structures, but they were rotted and sometimes in pieces. It was as if Mount Moon had an offspring, and it was named Rock Tunnel.
Red felt a shiver go down his spine as he stepped foot in the tunnel, trying to avoid the layers of Zubat guano. Taking a quick glance behind him, he saw that the rest of his companions had the same feeling, save Cubone, who seemed to like it. It was, after all, where it probably used to live, considering the proximity to Lavender Town and how Pokemon don't stray far from their homes. Red snorted at the thought. How homey.
"How far do you think it is to Lavender Town?" Red asked quietly, trying not to disturb the Zubat.
"Dunno." Emma replied quietly, taking ginger steps.
They proceeded onward, flinching at every movement the Zubat made, who were still dangling from the ceiling. All was going well, until suddenly, a loud crash was heard from farther down the tunnel, and it echoed throughout. Red flinched, Emma jumped back out of being startled, Charmeleon pressed his hands to his ears, whereas Cubone simply sighed. It knew of this sound.
Being scared out of their minds, the colony of Zubat took flight down the cave to attack whatever source this sound was coming from with extreme prejudice, squealing and chirping all the while. But their flight was short lived, for suddenly, as soon as they turned a corner, there were flashes of blue light and the chirping was no longer there. An electric hum emanated from the rocky corner.
He couldn't tell if he was daring, or just stupid, but Red crept forward and turned his head around the corner, only to see a large room with an equally tall pedestal, glowing with energy. The ground was littered with fallen Zubats, and dark-clad figures were loading them up into small metal bags, and then tossing them into a cart.
"Do you think we have enough, now?" one of them asked the other, tossing a bag of Zubat into the cart, his higher pitched voice somewhat reminiscent of a hawk's cry.
"Pro'lly. We'll get these to the others, then we'll bring t'all back to base." the other stated gruffly, grunting every now and again whilst tossing a bag of Zubats into the cart.
Looking past the gruff members of Team Rocket, Red noticed a light pouring in from a tunnel just past the large pedestal. This was no doubt the exit. The inner tactician of the trainer quickly formulated a plan, and the desired outcome. The trainer nudged Emma on her side, careful not to make too much noise, and pointed at the light. With a quick acknowledgement, Emma leaned in closer to Red's ear and began to whisper into it.
"What is your plan?" she whispered softly.
"I'm gonna distract them while you release the Zubat." Red whispered plainly.
"Uh, what?" Emma seemed a bit startled at this.
"The Zubats still remember what happened to them, and who did it. If I'm right, they'll leave us alone." he explained to both his companion and Charmeleon, who was also showing a horribly puzzled look on his face.
Emma seemed to understand, but she couldn't help to feel worried about Red. He was too rash and hot-headed. He was going to get himself hurt eventually, and Emma was sure she couldn't do a thing about it, either. Ugh.
"Alright, Red, but if things go sideways..." the pink-haired girl began, creeping forward raising her finger at the final notion.
"I'll get out; I know. One more thing, though," Red replied, a smirk on his face that turned into a rather dire glare, "Take Charmeleon. He's the only one that can pull apart the bags."
Charmeleon squinted and gritted his teeth for a moment. Red was either suicidal or was way to hot-headed for his own good. I mean, people in a healthy state of mind don't usually do these kinds of things... Right? Either way, Charmeleon nudged Emma on her thigh and gave her a nod, showing his compliance.
Cubone shook it's head and a hollow whistle emanated from the nasal cavities of the skull. It then turned away, obviously not wanting to fight. Red reached out and pat the Cubone on the top of its skull as a show that he wasn't disappointed with Cubone, and that it was alright not to want to fight. The skull-wearing Pokemon made no move to either help them or to leave, but instead sat down on the rocky floor and sighed.
"Ready?" Red held up his fist to Emma so she could do the same.
"I think you were always Redy. But there is something you-" Emma said jokingly, nudging her fist with his, but before she could follow up with what she was about to say, Red grabbed out a Poke Ball from his pocket and leaped down the ledge.
The two Rocket members quickly turned to face Red, their own Poke Balls drawn from their black leather belts. The Rockets were startled, but the looks on their faces were obvious; they knew that they could take Red on and take him down, and Red wasn't so sure that the Rockets were far from the truth.
"This is, ah, private property. There is a small fee for passing through," one said, readying his Poke Ball, "All of your Pokemon, please!"
"Two can play that game! Alright, Paras, go!" Red ordered, grabbing one of the Poke Balls on his belt.
Readying his own Pokemon, Red tossed out the Poke Ball containing his combatant, and unfortunately for Red, he chose the wrong Poke Ball. In a flash of plasma, Magikarp came out of the red and white sphere instead of Paras. Instead of a fighting pose, it just sat there, flopping weakly.
The Rocket's Ball exploded in a flash of yellow plasma, and a brown and yellow colored ball fell to the ground at the feet of a certain scarred Onix. It glared down at Red, right eye white with blindness, surrounded by the half of a shattered face emanating from a point that was shaped juts big enough for Charmander's fist. It recognized its old foe and snarled.
"... Great. I should have labeled those..." Red mumbled, staring up at the massive stone snake.
For a few moments, the two of them were silent, sizing up each other and formulating a strategy to take on the other. Suddenly, the Rocket called out an unusual attack; Bide. The Onix braced itself, waiting for Red to make a move. Red responded with a flash of plasma from the end of his Poke Ball, the disappearance of Magikarp, and the replacement of the weak fish with Paras.
"Stun Spore!" Red cried, trying to avoid whatever Bide was with an attack that he didn't exactly know Paras knew.
Paras gnawed at her bandage, ripping it off and exposing a new and recently hardened claw. Then, she leaped forward at the Onix, and shook her mushrooms violently. Yellow spores began to spread through the air towards the Onix, who was trying to relax its muscles in order to flee from the spores. Its efforts were futile. The snake couldn't help but to take the necessary breath in, and the spores with it.
The massive Pokemon began to tense up again, and not due to the effects of the Stun Spore; it was preparing to use Bide.
"Scratch!" Red ordered, preparing to leap out of the way of whatever Bide was going to do.
Paras scratched furiously up and down the massive stone body of the snake, chipping off bits of rock as she went. But this only seemed to anger the Onix, who was beginning to nashville hot chicken back its head.
The stone snake twirled its torso in an unnatural manner, tossing Paras off the massive Pokemon and sending her flying into the wall. Scrambling into a foothold, Paras glared with intense insectoid eyes at the Onix, who was lurching forward in a quick striking motion. Red acted fast and aimed Paras' Poke Ball at her, then sending a burst of plasma towards her. Almost as soon as the Onix would have made contact with Paras, she was gone, safely inside her Poke Ball. Magikarp, as to stay with the rules of conduct in a Battle, was now flopping about again on the guano-covered floor of Rock Tunnel.
Onix's head struck into the wall of the cave, burying its head into the wall, tail flopping about. The massive snake was stuck in the wall, rendering it incapacitated. Red balled his hand into a fist and pulled it to his side in a reverse fist-pump in a sort of small victory celebration. The Rocket began to bark orders at the Onix, who was beginning to suffer the effects of the paralyzing spores, making removing its head more difficult than before.
"Hey boys..." called a familiar female voice from over to Red's left side.
Unbeknownst to the battlers, Emma had sneaked up behind the other Rocket and knocked him over the head with a large rock, knocking him out cold. She was holding him by the crimson letter on his shirt, standing by the cart filled with bags of Zubat. Charmeleon hadn't exactly been idle, either. Whilst the battle was happening, he had deactivated -- and by that I mean threw a punch at the control panel -- the large pillar in the center of the room. Charmeleon now stood beside Emma, holding a large number of bags in one hand and claws ready in the other.
"Onix! Bind! NOW!" the Rocket Red was battling began to yell repeatedly to an unresponsive Onix in a panic.
The Onix began to pull and yank at the stone it was stuck in, trying to free itself from the wall that held it captive. During the struggle, boulders fell from the wall and smashed onto the ground, crashes echoing loudly throughout the chamber, just barely audible over the howl that the snake was calling out with.
Picking up Magikarp, Red looked to Charmeleon and gave him a quick nod. The Pokemon slashed at the bags at the top. And for every bag, it seemed an entire colony of Zubat took flight. One bag after another, the roof of the cave began to flood with a mass of blue and purple.
The Rocket began to become more and more panicked with every bag of Zubat released.
"OBEY ME!" the Rocket shrieked at the top of his lungs at the Onix.
With one final yank, the Onix finally freed itself from the clutches of the wall, rock crumbling as it exited.
"Kill them, you fool! They're letting the Zubat esca-" the Rocket was suddenly engulfed by a mass of Zubat, flailing about and shouting for help from the Onix.
Squinting for a moment and considering whether or not it respected its trainer enough to warrant an assist, it decided that it was simply not worth it, and it was a better idea to attack Red and Emma, its old foes. Onix prepared for a vicious Tackle, this time aimed at Charmeleon, remembering how their last encounter ended and who gave the beginner trainer enough time and means to defeat Onix.
Leaping out of the way in a skilled slide, Charmeleon quickly grabbed dust in almost superhuman reflexes, tossing it into the Onix's one good eye. Charmeleon prepared his fist and began to bring it down upon the other side of the Onix's face, but the fist met nothing but the floor as Onix was expecting this attack. Charmeleon was now in trouble; it was now he who was stuck in the stubborn stone.
Even though the sand was caked upon its eye, Onix pulled to the side, just narrowly missing the fist of Charmeleon, then it cocked its head back and roared in triumph, preparing to lash out and destroy the helpless Pokemon in one final blow. One final blow, until a bone struck him directly in the forehead, that is. The stone snake howled and turned to face its new attacker, only to be met with the same bone slamming into its back and jamming itself there.
Charmeleon's rescuer leaped from below, then clambered upon the raging Onix, grabbing the bone and held on for dear life. Onix howled, roared and flailed about, snapping Zubat out of the air every once and a while, but it was unable to release the bone from its back. But then, grabbing ahold of the Onix, Charmeleon's rescuer pulled the bone from the stone for a moment, then brought it down upon the same place, nearly impaling the Pokemon with the bone, then twisted it. The snapping of a spine echoed throughout the chamber, even over the incessant chirping of the Zubat, and then, the Onix fell to the ground, limp.
Emma, who was struggling with more bags of Zubat, was seemingly unaware of the titan being falling down behind her. Red, noticing his companion in danger, leaped forward and grabbed hold of her in a split second, pulling her to the floor along with him. The head of the Onix crashed over the cart, slamming into the ground in a cloud of dust directly where Emma would have been, if Red had not noticed his companion's danger.
"Thanks, Red! You're... Fantastic!" Emma cried out, adrenaline clearly pumping through her system.
It was funny, really, Red didn't want to leave this position. It was kind of nice, if not for the threat of guano stuck in one's clothes. It was then when something wiggled out of Red's hands and pushed into view. Red and Emma laughed; Red hadn't put down Magikarp yet.
Charmeleon threw another Rock Smash at the seemingly Pokemon-hungry rock, setting his arm free. Then, he leaped up onto the Onix, gazing forward in astonishment at his savior. It was Cubone, now wielding its bone proudly. Silently, they regarded each other. A thank-you with no words spoken. Charmeleon held out his hand in a gesture of peace, and the Cubone took it and shook hard, savoring every moment.
Suddenly, out of the cloud of Zubat above them, several Zubat carried down a pale, bite-riddled and unconscious Rocket then dropped him down by the demolished cart. They hovered there for a moment, staring at their rescuers, then flew off to join their colony. Standing up, Red put his hands on his hips, and to his surprise, he smiled at the bane of all Trainers across the globe.
It seemed that nothing could go wrong in this event. Two defeated Rockets and a rescued colony of Zubat, it seemed things were going right for them for once. But things were not over in the mind of Onix. It had been unable to move, rendering all its attacks useless. All but one. The stone snake began to build energy inside its body, and every crack and crevice in the giant body began to glow.
"Red... Move! Now!!" Emma cried out while running forward, grabbing Charmeleon in one hand and Cubone in the other.
Red followed her as fast as possible, Magikarp in hand. Running though the exit tunnel, Red heard a deafening explosion. The Onix had just overflowed energy on purpose, destroying itself in a last-ditch effort to kill its old foes. A fireball was now chasing them. Red closed his eyes and ran as fast as he could. He could feel the heat on his back, the rush of hot air flowing through his hair and rushing past his jacket, and a hand on the back of his head thrusting him down to the dirt.
Red rolled over and saw a flurry of fire whooshing overhead like it had a mind of its own. Bits of flaming stones rained down upon them, pelting their skin and scorching their clothes. Magikarp flailed about, trying to avoid being struck by a piece of stone. Even though it seemed that it took minutes, it merely took a few seconds for the fireball to subside.
Standing up, Emma pulled the two Pokemon from her torn denim jacket and placed them onto the ground, rubbing their heads gingerly. Walking over to her companion, Emma held out her hand in an offer to help Red up. The trainer took her hand and stood up, lightheaded. He looked back into the tunnel, listening for any Zubat. He heard no chirp or flutter of wings, only the crackle of flames and smelled a foul odor. For now, it seemed nothing made it out of the explosion... A tug at his arm led Red to look back at Emma, who motioned in the opposite direction.
Red turned away from the cave, flustered and stomach overturned. He would prefer any other place but here. He had always seen these kinds of things in movies, but the amount of death that just took place there...
"Don't worry about it, Red. They met their end happy," Emma said reassuringly.
"How do you know?"
"I just do."
Red left it there. He knew that Emma was just trying to help, and he wasn't going to get angry over a vague reply. He didn't like the Zubat, but no one deserved that fate. No one.
Beginning to walk forward and seeing what was just a short ways down the road, the trainer decided that there were other less desirable places. He wanted to be anywhere that wasn't straight ahead, as well.
"Dang." Red stated.
"Eeyup. You sure you're up for this?" Emma replied, dusting off her peach-pink hair.
Turning to Charmeleon and Cubone, they nodded and took a fighting stance. Red smiled, then turned to Magikarp, who he forgot to put back into a Poke Ball. Magikarp stared at him, and even though this wasn't exactly a "ready when you are", it was all he was going to get from his Pokemon. Red put on a fighting smirk and turned to Emma.
"Let's do this." Red replied, turning to face a small town, painted in a purple hue.
This town would actually be pleasant if not for the tower that rose up from the top right corner. Rest assured, this town is not a normal town, for no other town would be named the infamous Lavender Town.
*****
The soft clink of ice in a brandy-filled glass was heard from behind the large chair. A Russian opera song was heard through shallow, quiet speakers. It was his ancestors who started everything, and needless to say, the music records they left him were fantastic. It was up to him to keep everything running, and the music reflected his every mood. This song was a happy one, thankfully.
The man who sat in the chair turned and got up, revealing his face. He was a young man, brown hair in a mess, giving him a rather "bedhead" look. His green dress shirt and black suit pants were wrinkled and had oil and grease stains in long streaks along the sides, as if he had mopped his grease-covered hands on them. He was unshaven, mustache darkening and stubble sprouting. His brown eyes were somewhat bloodshot, as it was a late night for him.
When he walked through the large wooden door a woman, sitting at a wooden desk, looked up and greeted him with a pleasant smile.
"Late night, Mr. Silph?" she inquired, continuing to type on her keyboard without looking.
"Yeah," said the surprisingly American-sounding Silph, "Up all night working on that new ball-thing."
"Shall I clear your schedule for the day so you may recuperate?" she asked politely.
"Nah, Barbara, I'm fine." Silph replied, striding forward to the end of the room.
At his feet was a circular, glass pad. It pulsated with green energy as Silph stepped upon it. In a blink of an eye, Silph was in another place entirely. He was just teleported to another place in his company. Better than using an elevator any day. Though he did think that perhaps he could take time out of his schedule and just label them... Either way, it was one of their prototypes; one of the many Silph made himself.
Looking about the room he was now in, Silph noted that the walls were made of a mirror-like glass. When one investigated further, one would notice the laser drawers behind the glass. When activated, they would hyperactively etch in the air a three-dimensional model, that, due to cameras programmed to read the light from the lasers, was fully manipulatable. This was something that the man, dressed in the usual lab coat, was working with.
As the man moved, drew, tweaked and manipulated the hologram of the object, robotic arms did the same thing in the room ahead of them, separated by a pane of glass.
"How's it coming, Doc?" Silph asked, noticing the cold cup of coffee on the workbench that was placed in the corner.
"Well, we think we fixed the mechanical glitch that prevented the ball from closing." the man answered, turning to face Silph, who was now drinking his subordinate's coffee.
"So it's ready, then?" Silph asked, striding up to the scientist, sipping on the other man's coffee.
"Yeah it is... You know that is my coffee, right?" he asked, a little taken aback.
"Yup. How long do you think it will take to get this to marke-" Silph began, but was cut off by a loud crash and the earth rumbling beneath his feet.
Wrenches and whatnot fell from the walls and tables. Crashes, screaming and explosions were heard outside the door. Shouts of orders and the roaring of Pokemon were heard as well. This was no earthquake.
"Hide the Master Ball! We're being attacked!" Silph cried, rushing to the door and locking it as fast as he could.
Turning to the Master Ball, the CEO saw the blast doors closing in front and behind the pane of glass that separated them from the Master Ball. A blink of purple was the last Silph saw of the powerful Poke Ball. Turning back to the door, all he saw was a large, glassy eye. A snort of hot air emanated from the Pokemon's nostril, fogging up the glass on the door.
A loud crash; the Pokemon had just pushed its foot through the door. Then, its fist, head and along with it, its torso. What stood before him was a large patchwork boulder but with arms, legs and head. The scaly skin of the Pokemon was a light tan, and pearly white canine teeth hung out of it's mouth, highlighted by the snarl present.
"Golem, please, don't startle our friend," an Italian man said, stepping through the doorway, "We don't want him dead of a heart attack!"
Silph recognized this man. He had past dealings with him.
"Hello Giovanni. Up to your usual insane terrorist ways, I see?" Silph asked leaning casually against the work bench.
"Hmhm. It depends on your definition of 'terrorist'. How's business?" Giovanni asked as he entered the room, flanked by at least ten of his subordinates, all dressed in black.
The building shook again with a crash, leading Silph to respond with a simple, "Booming. Simply... Booming."
Silph knew what Team Rocket was there for; the Master Ball. The Master Ball had the power to catch any Pokemon without fail. There had been some technical difficulties beforehand, but still, it had the ability, and that is what they were after. Thing was, Silph knew Giovanni. He had even asked Silph to join and supply Team Rocket with weapons. He knew the ruthlessness and the cold heart behind the black eyes the Rocket leader had. Chances were, they weren't going to make it out of this situation alive.
RE: Mewtwo's Revenge (Chapter VI up!)
Old habits die hard, I suppose!
I don't think so... I mean... It's personal preference, really.
Thanks for the tips! 'Twas a pleasure writing it!
Luckyfire said:Corrections in bold.
A few mistakes, but you're still doing great with the description. Keep it up!
Old habits die hard, I suppose!
I don't think so... I mean... It's personal preference, really.
Thanks for the tips! 'Twas a pleasure writing it!
RE: Mewtwo's Revenge (Chapter VII up!)
The pacing in the prologue is marvelous! I was drawn into the story, without being fatigued by too much rambling. I love it ^.==.^ ! Seeing Mew speak made me laugh and kinda broke the serious tone, though. It didn't happen in the Anime, after all.
The pacing in the prologue is marvelous! I was drawn into the story, without being fatigued by too much rambling. I love it ^.==.^ ! Seeing Mew speak made me laugh and kinda broke the serious tone, though. It didn't happen in the Anime, after all.
RE: Mewtwo's Revenge (Chapter VII up!)
OH MY GOSH IT'S DONE
OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH
Anyway, the wordcount for this chapter is: 8,490! Longer than both of my longest chapters combined and almost 1/10 of a standard book, which averages out at 90,000 words! :O
_____
Chapter VIII
Stepping into town, Red felt apprehensive. Be it tales of this place haunting his memory, psyching him out, or just plain a spooky feeling, he couldn't tell, and needless to say, he didn't want to stay in Lavender Town long enough to find out. See, there was a reason people didn't go there unless they needed to, and one of the many stories seemed to reflect why; people had gone missing in Lavender Town, and no one knows why, where or how they disappeared. They were just gone without a trace.
Due to this fact, no one went there on tourism or on business. The streets were deserted, and the houses that actually were still there were shut up tight at the far end of Lavender, ivy growing on their sides, unkempt. There was a glimmer of hope, however, a Pokemon Center was off to their right, becoming the only pleasant looking place there. However, off to their left was the tower. Literally a graveyard tower, looking ancient near the bottom, yet seeming to get newer as it went further up. Clearly, they ran out of room several times.
"Uh, let's head to the Pokemon Center first..." the crimson-clad trainer said, beginning to walk towards the Pokemon Center.
"Wait!" his pink-haired companion replied, grabbing his shoulder.
Red looked back, shocked, "What?"
"Look."
By the entrance of the Center was a small box with a red light blinking. It was not standard for Pokemon Centers to have security cameras, especially since it was a non-profit organization that ran on donations, kept safe in a digital bank account. This was clearly not what it seemed.
"Trap?" Red asked, taking a cautious step back from the Center.
"Doubtful. I'd say they just want to watch us. Let's... Not indulge them, shall we?" Emma replied with a joking expression.
Red couldn't agree more. Even though he had felt that he had been watched since the beginning, he didn't want to deliberately expose himself to the Rocket's fiery all-watching glare if he didn't have to. However...
"Guess there 'aint no rest for the weary." Red stated, walking toward the entrance to the wooden tower.
"Not until we close our eyes for good." Emma replied with a wink.
Loathing, Charmeleon led the way into Pokemon Tower with the flame at the end of his tail. Even under the dim light, Pokemon Tower was clearly unkempt. Loose and broken floorboards were littering the ground as a poor excuse for a floor. Dust was at least a half of an inch thick on everything; it even seemed as though it was a sentient being that was trying to consume everything. Off to the side of the room was a crater, though it wasn't any surprise to Red to find something collapsed, he thought he saw something shiny in the center of it.
"Hey Charmeleon, could you shine your tail over there for a minute?" Red asked, walking toward the crater.
Feeling around instead of relying upon vision for the moment, Red made his way to the center of the crater. Spying the shiny object, Red moved closer to get a better look at it with Charmeleon's light following. Red wished it hadn't. It was an old and sun-bleached skeleton of a man in blue garb, shiny badge on the left half of his collapsed chest. It read in bold lettering, "Police Chief Striker". The trainer was taken aback by this, but not as much as before, which only disturbed the trainer even more. Had he just seen so much death that this was something normal to him?
"Chief Striker... The real Chief Striker." Red stated aloud as he looked up at the ceiling above him, seeing a series of holes in the floors above, coinciding with the skeleton of Striker, "Must have fallen through the floor. Heck of a way to go..."
Red sighed and looked away. He didn't know the real Striker, Red mused, but if the Ditto was anything accurate to the real one, they would have gotten along well. Either way, they had a mission to get back to, and it was better not to dwell over someone you didn't know and instead try to save someone who was (hopefully) alive and well: Fuji.
Striding up and out of the crater, Red gave a quick nod to Charmeleon and moved on, walking up the seemingly brand new stairs. It was odd; the stairs seemed to be literally brand new; not even stained like the rest of the place. Perhaps Fuji was doing some renovations before he got trapped? Not really becoming of a doctor, but then again, everyone has to have a hobby...
The two of them were silent for a while. All that was heard was the incessant whimpers of Cubone and the creaks of the floorboards treacherously warping beneath their feet. Several floors later, Red began to have an odd and encroaching feeling. A tingling at the back of his neck and a slight chill brush by his ankles. He was being watched with sinister intent.
"Emma, do you feel like you're being watched?" Red asked, turning to face where he thought his companion was standing.
No one was standing there, and no reply was heard.
"Emma?"
Panicking slightly, Red turned around and tried to locate her. Turning to his left, Red saw a figure standing in the shadows, watching him. Without warning, it lurched forward and yelled at him. Red jumped back, howling out of fear and bracing himself. Suddenly, laughter echoed throughout the room.
"You are way too easy!" Emma said with a giggle and a nudge to her companion's shoulder as she stepped into the light of Charmeleon's tail.
"I-I'm not scared!"
"Teehee! Never said you were!"
Red didn't reply, but scratched the back of his head with an embarrassed expression. Even Charmeleon was holding up his arms, twiddling his fingers and making a groaning sound in a form of friendly mocking.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up! You try not getting freaked out when a shadow comes and tries to eat your soul!" Red said with a sneer at his Pokemon, still clutching Magikarp in his right arm, white knuckled.
"Souls are delicious when put with scrambled eggs, I hear." Emma joked with a low chuckle.
Moving forward, Red still couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched. Every now and again, he thought he heard something behind them, walking towards the group. The trainer wrote it off as the old building settling in the wind. I mean, why wouldn't it settle every now and again? It is an old building, after all...
Floor after floor, there seemed to be a joining factor. Nearly every floor had at least one skeleton in it. They were all near broken graves, but the odd thing was they were all wearing modern clothing; heck, even Red recognized the brand, considering it was one of those "hip and happening" styles. Many of them seemed to hold a box of some sort about them, as well. Red tried to forget about it. They were probably just part of a grave that fell apart or something and the boxes were probably just valuables. But one thing in particular caught Red's eye that was clutched in the hands of one of the skeletons. Something that was all too familiar.
"Wait." he held his hand up and to signal the group to stop.
Red walked forward and knelt down in front of a baseball-capped skeleton. Clutched in it's hands and broken ribs was a small, silver box. Pulling it softly out of the grip of the dead person, no more than Red's own age, he walked back to the group and held it into the light to confirm his suspicion. It was a silver tin box with a Poke Ball engraved in the center. The exact same box that Red pulled from his pocket and held along side it.
"That is a Badge Case. That skeleton was a trainer who," Red opened the case and saw three different colored and shaped badges, "Who only had three badges. He had no place here. This can only mean he came here for other purposes. I noticed that some of the other skeletons had the same box or something like it. They were all trainers."
He met every single one of his companions gaze to emphasize the importance.
"I first thought that they were valuables buried with the bodies, but then I saw this," Red said, motioning with the deceased trainer's badge case, "And it only confirmed my suspicions."
Red turned to face Cubone and gave the Pokemon a devilish glare as he continued, "We weren't the first ones that you called here, are we?"
Cubone looked down and sobbed, shaking its head. They were not the only ones that it had led to Pokemon Tower, leading Red to sigh as Emma held her hand across her lips in deep thought.
"If you can count the number of people you led here on one hand... Nod yes." Red interrogated firmly, yet softly, kneeling down next to the Pokemon.
The Pokemon responded with a shaking of its head "no", leaving Emma to kneel down next to her companion and look the Pokemon deep in it's eye with her piercing blue eyes. She knew where Red was going with this, and now came the important question.
"Did you know you were luring people into a trap?" she asked Cubone, placing her hand on the Pokemon's shoulder.
Looking up with a start, the Cubone's tears poured out of the holes in the dusty skull it wore. Meeting Emma's gaze, it shook it's head "no" and sobbed. Emma rubbed the skull it wore with her thumb thoughtfully as she stood up.
"It thinks it's trying to help." she stated as Red stood up to converse with his companion.
"That doesn't make it any less important to stay on our guard. I don't want to end up like those guys." Red replied, jamming his thumb at the skeleton he obtained the badge case from.
His companion nodded with a quick glance to Cubone. Emma couldn't agree more. They needed to find Fuji and get gone.
Charmeleon offered a purring growl at Cubone as some sort of sign that he wasn't upset, then walked forward ahead of the group. They were nearing the final floor and he needed to be ready for whatever killed the trainers and Striker. Even though Charmeleon was certainly a bit worried and adrenaline was pumping through his system like blood, he was loyal to his friends and right now, they needed his aid. There was no doubt about that fact.
Finally, after seemingly hours later from when they first stepped into the dreadful place, they made it up to the top of Pokemon Tower. It was a surprisingly well-lit room, new boards stacked in the corner, leaving parts of the floor unfinished. Some nails were half driven into the planks, others were simply lying upon the ground, seemingly only just moments after they were taken from the box. A chandelier was hanging atop the room, encircled with candles that leaked wax upon the ornate surface and puddled below it. At the far end of the room was a man standing with his back against the wall, frozen.
"Get back! Go! It isn't safe here!" the balding man yelled, white mustache quivering.
"Are you Fuji?" Red asked, stepping forward.
Before the man could answer, a shadowy cloud seemed to appear in front of Red. Emitting a low groan, the shadow darted back, then forward and into the air. Red took a breath in to ask just what this thing was, but without warning, the thing shot forward with a rod of darkness protruding from the side like a sword. Jumping out of the way just in the nick of time, the boards where Red once stood were obliterated with a loud thoom.
Darting to the side of the room, Red turned to face Emma and finished his previous thought, "What the heck is that thing!?"
Suddenly, the shadow tossed its weapon at the crimson-clad trainer like a boomerang, narrowly missing the side of his head and demolishing the wall behind him. Red stood up and began to order Charmeleon to fight back, but then the weapon came back through the wall and clipped Red on his right arm, knocking Magikarp out of his hands and over the edge of an unfinished part of the floor.
"Magikarp!!" Red howled, grabbing his right arm in pain.
You'll pay for that... Whatever you are...! Red thought, jamming his finger at the cloud while taking a breath in.
"Charmeleon, Ember!" Red ordered, making sure not to use Rock Smash just in case that the creature is a Gastly, a known Ghost Type Pokemon that lives in Pokemon Tower, which are immune to Fighting Type moves, such as Rock Smash.
Jumping up from behind -- or what seemed to be behind, that is -- the shadow, Charmeleon let out a wheeze of smoke and embers, coating the area where the shadow was floating. But the shadow was not affected whatsoever. In fact, it emitted a hollow wheeze-like snicker, like it was amused by Charmeleon's feeble attempt to antagonize it.
Midair, the shadow knocked Charmeleon aside and into a wall with a crash. Charmeleon leaned up and rubbed the back of his head, irritated. Jumping up once more and without an order from Red, it bellowed out an inky black smoke, covering the entire area with a smokescreen.
Great! Now I can't see a thing, either! Red thought, irritated at Charmeleon's insubordination.
"Kid! Take this! You can see through the smoke and what you're fighting with it!" the man called out, tossing a small cylinder over to the trainer.
Through the smoke, the cylinder blindsided the trainer on the side of his head with a heavy klunk. Irritated, Red was about to say something, but then he realized that would give away his position to the angry... Thing. So he decided against it, pressing the cylinder to his right eye. Peering through the scope, what the man said was true, it did make it possible to see through the smoke. Panning left, Red saw what they were fighting, and it shocked him to his core.
It was a flying Marowak -- this Red assumed, as it looked almost identical to Cubone, but a bit more mature -- but it was pale and transparent. It looked as if it was a corpse still decomposing, chunks missing from its skin and from its skull that it wore on it's head. It's eye glowed a deep purple-red with no discernible pupils. At it's right hand was its bone club, much like that of Cubone's, but it was longer and it was double-clubbed. It's tail was boney and a good majority of it was missing skin, leaving muscle and bone exposed.
"It's... It's a ghost of a Marowak!" Red exclaimed, not being able to hold in his shock any longer.
Through the scope, Red saw Emma's head peek up from behind some boards across the room. She turned to Cubone, who was standing next to her and began to talk to the small Pokemon. The crimson trainer tried to lip read, trying to understand what was being said, but suddenly, a wheeze came over his right shoulder.
The trainer turned, frightened of what he might find. What he feared the most at this situation was directly behind him, snarling with dead and missing teeth. Leaping out of the way of a bone aimed for his temple, Red made note of the fact that it wasn't looking to hurt and scare, but it was aiming for the kill-shot! Rushing out of the smoke, Red leaped over a gap in the boards, turned and skid to a halt.
Now knowing the ghost's type, Red called out to Charmeleon, "Rock Smash!"
Charmeleon jumped out of the pile of now broken boards and prepared his fist, howling a battle-cry. But suddenly, coming out of the opposite side, came yet another Marowak. This one was living instead of dead, and it slammed a bone onto the forehead of Charmeleon with savage accuracy and skill. The fire lizard was thrust down to the floor, where he thankfully landed on a stable and finished part of the floor.
But instead of attacking Red like the ghost was about to, it howled at the ghost and, just before it tried to slam a bone into Red, parried the shadowy bone with its own. Turning midair, the ghost repeated the same howl, but softer and more of a purring sound. Floating down to the other Marowak, it rested it's head on the living one as it began to fade. Lowering the cylinder, Red noticed that it could be seen even without the aid of the scope, and due to the smoke clearing through the holes in the walls, it was clear to be seen by everyone in the room.
"What... What is...?" Red summed up his thoughts in three words.
"Cubone evolved. It turns out that the Marowak was its mother, and now that Cubone can take care of itself, it can move on without the protection of its mother..." Emma said thoughtfully as she strode over and stood by Red's right side.
"How do you even know that? I'm not complaining, but seriously, how?" Red asked, watching the mother Marowak begin to fade away, purring softly.
"A girl's gotta have her secrets." Emma responded with a wink.
Charmeleon watched as the mother Marowak faded away into nothing, leaving the newly evolved Marowak alone, standing in the middle of the room with its eyes closed. It opened them and turned to face Charmeleon with a quick and almost mocking nod that reeked of the words, "gotcha". Charmeleon ground his teeth and almost took a step forward, but then he realized that the Marowak was just toying with him, and a smirk grew over his face.
Turning back to face the man, Red began, "Are you Dr. Fuji?"
The man did not answer, as he was gazing into the spot where the Marowak once stood, aghast. Irritated, Red raised his voice, unhappy on how the man they rescued was not even paying them any mind.
"Hey, dude! Would you quit staring off into space and tell me who you are, already!?" Red growled, irritated.
"Eh? Oh, sorry. I just haven't seen anything like that before... But I digress. My name is Mister Fuji, and I assure you, if I were a doctor, I would not be as poor as I am!" the man responded, giddy.
Red's shoulders drooped. All this work for nothing...?
"I think you might be talking ab- Say, who sent you?" Mr. Fuji caught himself and squinted at the two of them, and at Emma quite scrutinizingly.
"Well, to here we were sent by that Cubone, or Marowak, that is," Red began, taking a quick glance to Marowak, who was sparring with Charmeleon, "that is to say that we were sent here by another in a dream. She said she was... The Original."
Fuji took a sharp breath in, then placed both hands on Red's shoulders and squeezed them rather tightly.
"Are you sure? Absolutely positive that it was a female voice and that she said 'the original'? Furthermore, how was her voice? Any... Reactions?" Fuji interrogated, locking a firm gaze with Red.
"I'm sure. And another thing, she sounded like... She was in pain. Like she had touched something hot or stepped on a tack or something." Red said, trying to get out of Fuji's grip.
Fuji let out an exasperated yet relieved sigh, like he had been carrying a load for a while and he had let it down to rest. He released his grip and turned to Emma with a quick fiery glare, then back to Red, where he grinned.
"Did you come all the way up here by using the stairs? You didn't think to use the elevator?" the man asked, thoughtfully spinning his mustache.
"Elevator...?" the trainer replied, shocked and disappointed.
"Of course! It's right over- Oh. That's right, I forgot to put it in. Nevermind!" Fuji was pointing to a hole in the wall and a wooden box that was large enough for a casket and at least two people, but the rope was missing and there was still a floor to the hole in the wall, making it impossible to even repel down.
"Gee. Wouldn't that have been convenient... But anyway, I think it's time to get out of this place, don't you agree, Red?" Emma asked, deliberately leaving Fuji out of the picture.
"Agreed. But first," the trainer replied as he began to walk across the room, and over to Marowak, where he knelt down and continued, "I'm sorry to have ever doubted you."
The Marowak growled, then nodded as a show of forgiveness. Stepping out of the way, it pointed its bone and motioned for Red, Emma and Fuji to go on their way. It had a few things to mull over, and it decided it's place was not with their group, anyway.
Standing up, Red led the group down the stairs and the tower at a much more rushed pace. Noticing a few floorboards missing from when they first walked up the tower, the trainer decided to peer down the holes. Far down and barely visible was Magikarp, flopping at the center of a crater and very much alive.
"Don't worry, we're coming for you!" Red called down, silently remarking that he had actually come to be attached to the little fish.
The group hurriedly made their way down multiple levels, over precariously warped and rotten boards. Finally, after several floors, they made it to Magikarp, who was still in the same position, flopping weakly. It was actually impressive, considering the fact that the weakest Pokemon in existence has survived for so long.
Picking up Magikarp, Red placed him in his left arm for safekeeping. He didn't put him in his Ball for fear of a random Ditto encounter, meaning that Magikarp would be the first Pokemon that they would see, making it an easy battle. Magikarp was out of his Pokeball and water for longer than normal, leading the fish to begin to reek.
"Yeesh. Could you keep that to yourself? I am the one carrying you, after all." Red looked to the stinky fish with a raised eyebrow and flared nostrils.
"No kidding. Not saying anything, but if I had known you were going to have a Pokemon that reeked so bad it made a Koffing weep, I would have stayed behind..." Fuji remarked, bringing a part of one of his white robes to his eyes, which were watering.
Red let out a laugh. Koffing was well known to be a nuisance around neighborhoods. They smelled something like gasoline-dipped old, filthy shoes, and the sad part was, they liked to live in the sewer under your house. Naturally, this led to complaints all around the neighborhood of foul-smelling drains and toxic tap water. There was a roundup that Cerulean City put forth several years back that had the idea of gathering up the nuisance and moving them to a much more suitable place, but alas, no one wanted to go into the sewers to retrieve them.
"Speaking of which, why was the Marowak keeping you there instead of killing you?" Red asked, walking down another flight of stairs.
"I used to take care of their tribe of Marowak. It kept them happy and no raids on the town ever took place. I had a special bond with their leader, who was unfortunately killed in a Rocket attack in an effort to capture them. I believe that ghost was of such leader, and that is why I was kept alive." Fuji responded, following Red down the stairs, followed closely by Emma.
"Wait... Doesn't that mean...?" Red began, stopping in place and turning to Emma for affirmation.
"Marowak has just inherited a monarchy!" she cried, placing her hand behind her head, shocked that she didn't realize it before.
"In the presence of royalty and didn't even know it." Red stated, nudging Charmeleon in the side, who stood there with his mouth drooped, suddenly regretting every tease he ever did to the Cubone.
The group was silent for a while, save the snide comments about Magikarp's foul odor or the general "this place creeps me out" and like comments. They all walked down the Tower at a hurried place; even Fuji wanted to get out of the place as fast as he could. Finally, after a few more floors down, they finally made it to the ground floor, exhausted.
Leading the group forward, Fuji walked out of the Tower and shaded his eyes; it was awhile since he had been outside. Motioning with his hand, Fuji led the group to a small house, half covered in purplish ivy, which gave the town it's name. Reaching inside his white robes, Fuji dug around in a pocket for a few moments before exclaiming a loud "aha", pulling out his hand from his pocket and with it, a small silver key. Jamming the key in the doorknob, he twisted it and revealed a small cabin with a small couch, two chairs and a coffee table at the center of the room with a kitchen in the back.
"Welcome to my humble abode! Please, make yourselves at home!" Fuji waved his arm in a grandiose way, presenting his shabby abode.
Making their way in, Emma lifted the strap of his messenger bag off her shoulder and tossed it onto the table with a huff. That must have been heavy, Red mused as he took a seat on the couch and sprawled his arms with a sigh of relief. Fuji stared at him for a couple of seconds with a gentle smile, then glanced at Emma for a couple of seconds with a scrutinizing glare, then back to Red as he closed the door and locked it behind them.
"Ah... Before I begin to explain myself, could you do me a favor, my boy? There is a kettle next to the stove with some water in it, could you make us some tea? It's in the cabinet above the stove..." Fuji asked, taking a seat next to the exhausted trainer.
"Sure." the crimson trainer replied with a hint of disappointment as he stood up and walked out of the room and into the kitchen.
Fuji took a moment before addressing Emma, squinting for a moment. Leaning forward, the old man pointed toward a box resting atop a shelf that was built into the wall.
"Could you do an old man a favor and hand me that box?" the old man asked, resting his weary legs while relaxing back into the chair.
The pink haired girl looked at him for a couple of moments, then offered a slight smile before standing up, moving across the room to the box and taking it off the shelf. It was an ornate wooden box, at least one hundred years old. It must have been a family heirloom, considering the age of the glossy wood. Emma walked back across the room and reached the box out to Fuji, who, without warning, grabbed both her wrists.
"Don't think I don't know who or what you are, Emma. You think I wouldn't know one when I saw one? You are quite foolish for trying to hide it..." Fuji said in a low voice, barely audible to even Emma, who was nearly a foot away from the old man.
"I know you know," Emma said, eyes turning into dangerously dark slits instead of their usual bright and open selves as she leaned into Fuji, "And if you tell him anything, it won't be a ghost you'll have to worry about. It will be me."
And with that, Fuji released her wrists and took hold of the box, where he sat it onto the table, just as Red walked in with three cups of tea, Magikarp noticeably missing from beneath his arm. Charmeleon strode up behind him with a slight growl, noticing the tension in the room, something Red was oblivious to as he sat the tray down with the steaming cups of tea.
"I hope you don't mind, but I filled up the sink with water and put Magikarp in so he would stop smelling so bad. Anyway, you were going to explain something?" Red said as he took a seat across from Emma, who was hostilely staring at Fuji with a fiery gaze.
Fuji unhooked a small golden lock that was keeping the box shut, then opened the lid to reveal a large quantity of cigars. Grabbing a rather rare one with the words "Redolens Maerorem", Latin for "Sweet Smelling Gloom" -- which was fitting for it was made from the flower petals of Gloom, an usually foul smelling Grass Type Pokemon -- and twisted it. A soft click was then heard, and with a soft pull, a board that was filled with the cigars was pulled out of the box, and placed onto the table.
"No problem. Better a water bill than a cleaning bill to get the smell out of the carpet... But I digress," Fuji stated as he took a cup of tea, smelling the sweet aroma, then taking a sip of the tea, savoring the flavor, "You see, I am not the man you seek. The man you seek is my son."
Grabbing the contents at the bottom of the box, Fuji placed several pictures of his son and his colleagues on the table, as well as a large file, marked "Condemed" in large, red ink. It was a sign that whatever was in that file was to be burned.
"My son was -- and still is -- a scientist; he was the lead researcher in the field of genetics. Thing is, though, twenty years ago, his daughter -- my grand daughter -- died in a freak accident, leaving him broken from his research and his entire family. He wrote me a couple of times a year, never stopping by to say hello or anything, just writing letters, and that was enough. From what I gathered from his letters, he was trying to bring Amber, his daughter back to life through genetics. Lack of funding and resources made it especially hard to do the project, and that is when Giovanni came to him. I shall never forget the look on his face... Giovanni needed a clone and so did my son... The two were almost like brothers off the bat. But Giovanni's clone was not human." Fuji paused to flip open the file, and rough and blurry images fell from it, "He wanted to clone a certain Pokemon named Mew, said to have the purest genes of any Pokemon... A perfect specimen to clone. Anyway, fast forward a couple of years and a clone of Mew was in the works, nicknamed 'Mewtwo'. Things were going well, that is until it began to differ from Mew in key ways, noticeably a violent temper and an almost freakish look to him. My son considered it a failure, keeping most information if not all from Giovanni. But when Giovanni arrived to check on things himself, it was already too late. Mewtwo had awoken and killed almost everyone, save my son, who followed Mewtwo in an effort to stop it's rampage..."
Fuji took another sip of tea as Red leaned forward, very much intrigued by this story.
"Long story short, Mew came forth, boxed up Mewtwo and sent him into parts unknown, leaving my son to watch over Mewtwo's prison while Mew regenerates." Fuji finished, relaxing into his chair.
"Wait, in my dream, she said that she was 'the original'. Was that Mew herself who was talking to me? And she said that your son was in Celedon... Does that mean that is where Mewtwo is being held?" Red asked, trying to comprehend what was being said.
Fuji let out a laugh, nearly dumping his tea in his lap and all over the floor.
"No, no. It seems even Mew is misinformed! My son says he moves around to someone he knows will get the word out, he even buys a hotel room in a town for the amount of time he says he'll be there, but no, he stays in Saffron City, the next town over, and watches over Mewtwo with his extensive security feeds. He even has a job at Silph Company. Good man, that Silph... Quirky, but a good man nevertheless..." Fuji said thoughtfully, rubbing his mustache.
Red paused for a moment. Mew came to him in a dream and told him to go to Celedon City, telling him that Fuji was there. Instead, they were misinformed and sent to a place that would have been a dead end. Who should they believe?
"Say, Emma, could I... Talk to you for a minute?" Red asked as he stood up and beckoned her into the kitchen.
She stood up and followed him into the kitchen, where it became obvious how cluttered and shabby the place was. The sink was not built into a tabletop like most homes, a table was at the far side of the room, but was filled to the brim with random junk and bits of worthless trash. It was like no one had lived, or cleaned it for ages. Magikarp was in the sink, splashing around happily (or what seemed to be happy, due to it not having eyelids it was hard to tell) in the partially deep water. Emma wondered what kinds of toxins were even in the water.
"What did you want to talk about?" she asked, standing in the middle of the room and trying to stay away from the sink and the table alike.
"Fuji. I'm not sure if we can trust him. I mean, how do we know this isn't some sort of trick? Isn't it kind of odd?" Red asked in a low voice, trying to be quiet enough so that Fuji couldn't hear him.
"I know what you're saying, and in all seriousness, I'm more apt to believe Mew instead of some guy we just met who may or may not have a bad memory, considering his age. But defacto the matter is, Saffron is on the way to Celedon, so there isn't much hurt in stopping there before we head to Celedon..." Emma explained, reminding herself to keep her hands at her sides, as she didn't want to touch anything in the kitchen.
Red nodded in agreement.
"See? I knew I kept you around for a reason!" Red said with a chuckle, only to let out a laughing "ouch" when Emma punched him in the arm.
"Well," Red continued, peering out the window overlooking the tower and the sun setting beside it, "Looks like it's getting late. I say we should get going now and make up some of the time we lost in Pokemon Tower."
"Agreed." Emma replied, picking up an unhappy Magikarp from the sink, making sure not to let the wet fish touch her clothes with its struggles.
Stepping back into the room, Red turned to Fuji, who had already packed up his files and pictures, hid them inside the cigar box and placed it back on the shelf during the time the two companions were talking. He greeted them with a kindly smile.
"Well Mr. Fuji, it's been a pleasure, but we have to go. It's getting late and we need to make up some lost time that we had in the tower." Red stated, peering out a window at the setting sun.
"What do you mean? Didn't I tell you I have a car?" Fuji asked, surprised as he stood up.
"You... Didn't." the trainer said, stepping forward and grabbing Emma's bag, then handing it to her in exchange for Magikarp.
"Follow me! I'll drive you there!" the old man said happily as he stepped forward to the door, battled with the lock for a few seconds, then opened it.
Together they walked around to the side of the house, where an old car was present. It was a white sedan, looking as if it hadn't been used in a year, it was rusted around the wheel wells, head and tail lights as well as doors. It was amazing how the thing had even been kept together, it seemed. Lavender ivy was already growing on the hood of the car, only to be yanked off by Mr. Fuji, who jammed the same key he used to enter his home into the door of the car, where is ground against the rusty lock until it opened the door.
Red didn't know why he even kept it locked. I mean, what, is someone going to steal something as shabby and run down as Fuji's car? Not likely.
Fuji gently pressed a button on the inside of his door which proceeded to unlock the other doors. Emma grabbed hold of the handle and opened the door, where she sat on the rather uncomfortable seat that seemed to be missing a good deal of its padding. Red looked from the front seat and the back, then from Fuji and to Emma and made a quick decision on where to sit. Closing the door behind him, Red placed Magikarp on the leftover seat to his left while Charmeleon clambered over and curled up in his trainer's lap. Just before closing his eyes, Charmeleon let out a growl of good night to the person next to them, Emma.
The old man let out a silent sigh and jammed the key into the hole and began to turn it. The car let out a few whimpers and pops, but the car wouldn't start. Fuji tried again and again, but to no avail.
"Do you think you guys could get outside and give me a push start?" the balding man asked as he grabbed hold of the key again and tried to pump it some more.
The two companions didn't move. There wasn't much rest that was had in the house, and they weren't about to go pushing a car that willingly. Sighing, Red sat up and began to open the door to get out, when suddenly the entire car lurched forward and the engine sprung to life.
"Wow! You kids are strong!" Fuji remarked as he began to adjust the seat and whatnot to his liking.
But they didn't do anything. Turning back, they saw a familiar boney face. It was Marowak, bone resting over it's shoulder and smile curling over the left jaw of the dusty bone helmet it wore so proudly. As the car began to pull forward, it held up its free hand's two fingers to its forehead and pulled them away in a waving salute.
"Cubone's... Grown up." Red remarked to his companion thoughtfully, who was seated next to him and also watching the Marowak wave goodbye.
"Don't get sentimental on me." Emma replied, nudging him in the shoulder.
The only response with grin and silent chuckle.
Suddenly, Emma grabbed Red by the back of his red ball cap and pulled him forward so far his head collided with the back of the seat in front of him. Charmeleon was startled by this sudden guillotine and let out a few choice barks while trying to push his way out of being sandwiched together. Magikarp was also startled by this development, but was pinned to the side of the door so all he could do was struggle. Emma ducked down with him, though she was far more graceful than the startled Red when she ducked. She pointed at the window and shook her head.
"Cameras; their eyes and ears. Remember the one on the Pokemon Center?" Emma explained, keeping her blue eyes fixated on the window.
"Right. Are we past it? I think Charmeleon is suffocating." Red asked as he began to rise up.
Emma released her firm grip on his head and crossed her arms. She knew that it was going to be a long road ahead of them, and not just in length. She then turned to Red and placed two fingers on his shoulder.
"You should get some rest. You barely got any when we last camped out." she said, returning her hand to beneath her other arm.
Red couldn't agree more. Hearing the low crumble of loose pavement beneath the car and the light crackle of Charmeleon's dim flame, Red began to doze off, head falling back on the old, blue leather seat. He lowered the bill of his cap and turned to Emma for a moment.
"Wake me," he said, beginning to doze off, "When you need me."
Turning back, Red let his exhaustion overtake him and then, he fell asleep.
*****
An explosion of pain coursed through the right side of Silph's face as the gloved fist collided with it; a sensation he was beginning to get used to, for this punch was only one of many. The man behind the fist was none other that Giovanni, leader of Team Rocket. The two of them had known each other a while back before things went sour, and something told Silph that this was not just about business anymore and a little bit about payback from old times; and with Giovanni, a little bit goes a long way.
"Now, old friend," Giovanni turned away and shook his gloved fist, which was now moist with the saliva from Silph's mouth and blood from his bloody nose, "Where is it?"
"Where is what?" Silph asked, no longer resistig the tug on his arms by two Rockets, who were holding him in place, "I might have remembered, but you know all of this punching might give me brain dama-"
Another punch from Giovanni cut him off, this time tailed with a scream of rage from the Italian. Silph let out a hollow "oof" as his vision blurred and he went limp; clearly he couldn't keep this up for long. The CEO stiffened again and looked up to the Rocket leader with a bloody grin.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Silph said, bracing for another punch, when he suddenly exclaimed, "Wait! I remember now!"
"Excellent."
"Oop. There it goes again; you really should be more careful when it comes to punching peop-"
Another vicious punch to the face. This time it felt like he was punched so hard that part of the glove tore. Well, at least there would be evidence, mused the CEO as he spat the blood out of his mouth.
"If you won't tell us... Then you haven't use to us anymore! Golem, rip him from limb to limb; let's see how his memory works when he is missing an arm!" Giovanni scowled with a snap of his fingers, his deep brown eyes blazing with rage.
It felt like an earthquake with each footfall. From the shadow behind him, it was Golem, coming in for the kill. But that was okay with Silph; just as long as Giovanni didn't get the Master Ball, his death would be justified. Two stony hands grabbed the CEO from his arms, the grunts relenquishing control to Golem, and he was lifted off his feet by the Pokemon. Silph closed his eyes, feeling the subtle tug on his arms, preparing himself for... Nothing? The quirky scientist opened his eyes to see what the hold up was.
It was the man; the scientist from before that was working on the Master Ball. But this was no ordinary scientist by any means, and what he was doing was stupid beyond recognition.
"I'll show you where it is, Giovanni." the man said, white lock of hair getting in his eyes.
The CEO let out a silent "no" and a sigh at the same time as he was lowered by Golem, but the rocky beast did not let him go, only held him there. Probably for a hostage.
"Ah! John always comes through for me in the end." the Rocket leader said thoughtfully to Silph, jamming his thumb at the scientist, "It seems someone is cooperative with me. You could learn a few things from him."
Bringing up the hologram of the Master Ball, the scientist activated the controls for the doors to open. They opened in a quick snap, revealing the glass pane and the Master Ball in pristine condition, sitting upon a pedastile.
"Good... Good! Now, bring it to me... I want to feel it in my hands!" Giovanni said, excitement and adreniline obviously coursing through his body.
Grabbing the hologram and giving it a squeeze, another, blue pixled hologram built itself around the scientist's arm, giving him control over the robotic arm in the room. The arm moved toward the Master Ball with the man's every move. At first, it seemed as though this man was going to comply with Giovanni, but suddenly, the scientist thrust forward his arm, and along with it, the robotic arm, bursting through the window in a shower of glass. With a clench of the man's fist, a cutting laser fired from the top of the claw and cut a hole through the floor and the one beneath it. The Rocket leader looked upon the man with rage as he put his hands in his pockets confidently.
"Nobody move, or I will not hesitate to remove you from the equation!" the scientist called out, brandishing his own arm as he moved around the room.
"John, what you're doing is stupid! If you kill every single person in this room, what then? Will you try to escape through the front door? Wrong! This is a full-on siege! There has to be dozens more of his people just outside that door! It's suicide!" Silph called out, trying to regain his strength.
"More stupid than letting someone die, even though one has the power to change that? We're friends, Michael; you gave me a home, a freedom that I did not have when I was in Cerulean. You gave me a second chance at a life! The least I can do is repay you!" the man stated, stepping forward and firing another laser, this time whizzing by Giovanni's hair, as the leader was beginning to step forward toward the distracted scientist.
A dark, yet satisfactory look came from Giovanni's face when suddenly a loud crack and a flash of light came from the Italian's pocket, leaving a scorched hole that was pouring out smoke. Almost instantly, the scientist doubled over in pain, clutching his kneecap with both hands, causing the mechanical arm to literally punch the ground, as it was copying the man's movements.
"What joy!", exclaimed the Italian, "Old friends and colleagues coming together... Silph, Giovanni and Doctor John Fuji! We're... We're like the Three Amigos, eh?"
Giovanni laughed as he knelt down next to Fuji, who was looking at his former advocate with his silvery grey eyes in pain and anger.
"I'll let you in on a little secret: Keeping watch over Cerulean City is obsolete now. We've already found it. Our instruments thought it was in Pewter, and we drilled there, but now... Now we have confirmed data on where it is... Where he is. You have failed." Giovanni whispered into the scientist's ear with a voice so sharp it could cut trees if it wanted to.
The Rocket leader snapped his fingers at Golem, then pointed at the Master Ball. Without a word, it was clear that the Italian wanted his Pokemon to get the Master Ball for him. Dropping Silph, the boulder with legs walked forward and grabbed hold of the robotic arm, which was twitching in the floorboard feebly. With a yank, the mechanical arm spewed sparks from its joint just outside the window and detatched. Then, Golem used the arm like a limb-cutter one might use for yard work to grab the Master Ball and reel it in.
The stone Pokemon held the arm steady as Giovanni removed the purple Poke Ball from the claw and took it into the palm of his hand. The lavender bulbs on the left and right side of the sleek and shining ball pulsed with energy so much that it shined through Giovanni's fingers as if he put his hand to a flashlight. There was an "M" above the button at the center that was chromed, leaving it to reflect not only the pulsing bulbs, but also Giovanni's face. The amazing craftsmanship was amazing.
"Truly... Truly a masterpiece. I've never seen anything that can compare to it." the Rocket leader said thoughtfully as he rubbed his fingers across the sleek ball.
Treading over to a group of grunts, one of them revealed a silver suitcase. Giovanni rolled the combination into place and flipped the lock, revealing a foam cutout just to hold and keep the ball in pristine condition. Placing it inside the cutout and closing the case, Giovanni spun the lock and presented it to one grunt.
"Don't drop it."
The grunt nodded as he walked out of the room and headed toward the elevator, no doubt to stow the case in whatever mode of transportation they had chosen. Almost as soon as the grunt left, however, another, more stocky man walked in. He leaned in close to Giovanni and jammed his finger behind him.
"We have a couple. Says they've been married for a couple of years and by the looks of the man, he'd do anything to protect his wife. They good enough?" the man asked, black hat covering his face.
"Hmhm. Of course. I trust your judgement. Bring them to me." Giovanni replied with a smirk.
The man nodded and walked out of the room, tailed only by his shadow. Giovanni turned to his men and began to issue orders to them.
"Men, grab Fuji and clear out. Our work here is done." Giovanni barked as Golem grabbed the limping doctor by the shirt.
"What? You're just gonna go?" Silph asked, trying to stand once more, but only winding up collapsing onto a table, where he grabbed and held on for support.
"No; we're going to blow the building on our way out." Giovanni turned to face the stumbling CEO, "It's been fun, but I must bid you... Adieu. Oh, and by the way, you have ten minutes."
And with that, Giovanni strolled out of the room briskly, tailed by his grunts, leaving Silph slumped against a table, weak, helpless and in horror.
OH MY GOSH IT'S DONE
OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH
Anyway, the wordcount for this chapter is: 8,490! Longer than both of my longest chapters combined and almost 1/10 of a standard book, which averages out at 90,000 words! :O
_____
Chapter VIII
Stepping into town, Red felt apprehensive. Be it tales of this place haunting his memory, psyching him out, or just plain a spooky feeling, he couldn't tell, and needless to say, he didn't want to stay in Lavender Town long enough to find out. See, there was a reason people didn't go there unless they needed to, and one of the many stories seemed to reflect why; people had gone missing in Lavender Town, and no one knows why, where or how they disappeared. They were just gone without a trace.
Due to this fact, no one went there on tourism or on business. The streets were deserted, and the houses that actually were still there were shut up tight at the far end of Lavender, ivy growing on their sides, unkempt. There was a glimmer of hope, however, a Pokemon Center was off to their right, becoming the only pleasant looking place there. However, off to their left was the tower. Literally a graveyard tower, looking ancient near the bottom, yet seeming to get newer as it went further up. Clearly, they ran out of room several times.
"Uh, let's head to the Pokemon Center first..." the crimson-clad trainer said, beginning to walk towards the Pokemon Center.
"Wait!" his pink-haired companion replied, grabbing his shoulder.
Red looked back, shocked, "What?"
"Look."
By the entrance of the Center was a small box with a red light blinking. It was not standard for Pokemon Centers to have security cameras, especially since it was a non-profit organization that ran on donations, kept safe in a digital bank account. This was clearly not what it seemed.
"Trap?" Red asked, taking a cautious step back from the Center.
"Doubtful. I'd say they just want to watch us. Let's... Not indulge them, shall we?" Emma replied with a joking expression.
Red couldn't agree more. Even though he had felt that he had been watched since the beginning, he didn't want to deliberately expose himself to the Rocket's fiery all-watching glare if he didn't have to. However...
"Guess there 'aint no rest for the weary." Red stated, walking toward the entrance to the wooden tower.
"Not until we close our eyes for good." Emma replied with a wink.
Loathing, Charmeleon led the way into Pokemon Tower with the flame at the end of his tail. Even under the dim light, Pokemon Tower was clearly unkempt. Loose and broken floorboards were littering the ground as a poor excuse for a floor. Dust was at least a half of an inch thick on everything; it even seemed as though it was a sentient being that was trying to consume everything. Off to the side of the room was a crater, though it wasn't any surprise to Red to find something collapsed, he thought he saw something shiny in the center of it.
"Hey Charmeleon, could you shine your tail over there for a minute?" Red asked, walking toward the crater.
Feeling around instead of relying upon vision for the moment, Red made his way to the center of the crater. Spying the shiny object, Red moved closer to get a better look at it with Charmeleon's light following. Red wished it hadn't. It was an old and sun-bleached skeleton of a man in blue garb, shiny badge on the left half of his collapsed chest. It read in bold lettering, "Police Chief Striker". The trainer was taken aback by this, but not as much as before, which only disturbed the trainer even more. Had he just seen so much death that this was something normal to him?
"Chief Striker... The real Chief Striker." Red stated aloud as he looked up at the ceiling above him, seeing a series of holes in the floors above, coinciding with the skeleton of Striker, "Must have fallen through the floor. Heck of a way to go..."
Red sighed and looked away. He didn't know the real Striker, Red mused, but if the Ditto was anything accurate to the real one, they would have gotten along well. Either way, they had a mission to get back to, and it was better not to dwell over someone you didn't know and instead try to save someone who was (hopefully) alive and well: Fuji.
Striding up and out of the crater, Red gave a quick nod to Charmeleon and moved on, walking up the seemingly brand new stairs. It was odd; the stairs seemed to be literally brand new; not even stained like the rest of the place. Perhaps Fuji was doing some renovations before he got trapped? Not really becoming of a doctor, but then again, everyone has to have a hobby...
The two of them were silent for a while. All that was heard was the incessant whimpers of Cubone and the creaks of the floorboards treacherously warping beneath their feet. Several floors later, Red began to have an odd and encroaching feeling. A tingling at the back of his neck and a slight chill brush by his ankles. He was being watched with sinister intent.
"Emma, do you feel like you're being watched?" Red asked, turning to face where he thought his companion was standing.
No one was standing there, and no reply was heard.
"Emma?"
Panicking slightly, Red turned around and tried to locate her. Turning to his left, Red saw a figure standing in the shadows, watching him. Without warning, it lurched forward and yelled at him. Red jumped back, howling out of fear and bracing himself. Suddenly, laughter echoed throughout the room.
"You are way too easy!" Emma said with a giggle and a nudge to her companion's shoulder as she stepped into the light of Charmeleon's tail.
"I-I'm not scared!"
"Teehee! Never said you were!"
Red didn't reply, but scratched the back of his head with an embarrassed expression. Even Charmeleon was holding up his arms, twiddling his fingers and making a groaning sound in a form of friendly mocking.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up! You try not getting freaked out when a shadow comes and tries to eat your soul!" Red said with a sneer at his Pokemon, still clutching Magikarp in his right arm, white knuckled.
"Souls are delicious when put with scrambled eggs, I hear." Emma joked with a low chuckle.
Moving forward, Red still couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched. Every now and again, he thought he heard something behind them, walking towards the group. The trainer wrote it off as the old building settling in the wind. I mean, why wouldn't it settle every now and again? It is an old building, after all...
Floor after floor, there seemed to be a joining factor. Nearly every floor had at least one skeleton in it. They were all near broken graves, but the odd thing was they were all wearing modern clothing; heck, even Red recognized the brand, considering it was one of those "hip and happening" styles. Many of them seemed to hold a box of some sort about them, as well. Red tried to forget about it. They were probably just part of a grave that fell apart or something and the boxes were probably just valuables. But one thing in particular caught Red's eye that was clutched in the hands of one of the skeletons. Something that was all too familiar.
"Wait." he held his hand up and to signal the group to stop.
Red walked forward and knelt down in front of a baseball-capped skeleton. Clutched in it's hands and broken ribs was a small, silver box. Pulling it softly out of the grip of the dead person, no more than Red's own age, he walked back to the group and held it into the light to confirm his suspicion. It was a silver tin box with a Poke Ball engraved in the center. The exact same box that Red pulled from his pocket and held along side it.
"That is a Badge Case. That skeleton was a trainer who," Red opened the case and saw three different colored and shaped badges, "Who only had three badges. He had no place here. This can only mean he came here for other purposes. I noticed that some of the other skeletons had the same box or something like it. They were all trainers."
He met every single one of his companions gaze to emphasize the importance.
"I first thought that they were valuables buried with the bodies, but then I saw this," Red said, motioning with the deceased trainer's badge case, "And it only confirmed my suspicions."
Red turned to face Cubone and gave the Pokemon a devilish glare as he continued, "We weren't the first ones that you called here, are we?"
Cubone looked down and sobbed, shaking its head. They were not the only ones that it had led to Pokemon Tower, leading Red to sigh as Emma held her hand across her lips in deep thought.
"If you can count the number of people you led here on one hand... Nod yes." Red interrogated firmly, yet softly, kneeling down next to the Pokemon.
The Pokemon responded with a shaking of its head "no", leaving Emma to kneel down next to her companion and look the Pokemon deep in it's eye with her piercing blue eyes. She knew where Red was going with this, and now came the important question.
"Did you know you were luring people into a trap?" she asked Cubone, placing her hand on the Pokemon's shoulder.
Looking up with a start, the Cubone's tears poured out of the holes in the dusty skull it wore. Meeting Emma's gaze, it shook it's head "no" and sobbed. Emma rubbed the skull it wore with her thumb thoughtfully as she stood up.
"It thinks it's trying to help." she stated as Red stood up to converse with his companion.
"That doesn't make it any less important to stay on our guard. I don't want to end up like those guys." Red replied, jamming his thumb at the skeleton he obtained the badge case from.
His companion nodded with a quick glance to Cubone. Emma couldn't agree more. They needed to find Fuji and get gone.
Charmeleon offered a purring growl at Cubone as some sort of sign that he wasn't upset, then walked forward ahead of the group. They were nearing the final floor and he needed to be ready for whatever killed the trainers and Striker. Even though Charmeleon was certainly a bit worried and adrenaline was pumping through his system like blood, he was loyal to his friends and right now, they needed his aid. There was no doubt about that fact.
Finally, after seemingly hours later from when they first stepped into the dreadful place, they made it up to the top of Pokemon Tower. It was a surprisingly well-lit room, new boards stacked in the corner, leaving parts of the floor unfinished. Some nails were half driven into the planks, others were simply lying upon the ground, seemingly only just moments after they were taken from the box. A chandelier was hanging atop the room, encircled with candles that leaked wax upon the ornate surface and puddled below it. At the far end of the room was a man standing with his back against the wall, frozen.
"Get back! Go! It isn't safe here!" the balding man yelled, white mustache quivering.
"Are you Fuji?" Red asked, stepping forward.
Before the man could answer, a shadowy cloud seemed to appear in front of Red. Emitting a low groan, the shadow darted back, then forward and into the air. Red took a breath in to ask just what this thing was, but without warning, the thing shot forward with a rod of darkness protruding from the side like a sword. Jumping out of the way just in the nick of time, the boards where Red once stood were obliterated with a loud thoom.
Darting to the side of the room, Red turned to face Emma and finished his previous thought, "What the heck is that thing!?"
Suddenly, the shadow tossed its weapon at the crimson-clad trainer like a boomerang, narrowly missing the side of his head and demolishing the wall behind him. Red stood up and began to order Charmeleon to fight back, but then the weapon came back through the wall and clipped Red on his right arm, knocking Magikarp out of his hands and over the edge of an unfinished part of the floor.
"Magikarp!!" Red howled, grabbing his right arm in pain.
You'll pay for that... Whatever you are...! Red thought, jamming his finger at the cloud while taking a breath in.
"Charmeleon, Ember!" Red ordered, making sure not to use Rock Smash just in case that the creature is a Gastly, a known Ghost Type Pokemon that lives in Pokemon Tower, which are immune to Fighting Type moves, such as Rock Smash.
Jumping up from behind -- or what seemed to be behind, that is -- the shadow, Charmeleon let out a wheeze of smoke and embers, coating the area where the shadow was floating. But the shadow was not affected whatsoever. In fact, it emitted a hollow wheeze-like snicker, like it was amused by Charmeleon's feeble attempt to antagonize it.
Midair, the shadow knocked Charmeleon aside and into a wall with a crash. Charmeleon leaned up and rubbed the back of his head, irritated. Jumping up once more and without an order from Red, it bellowed out an inky black smoke, covering the entire area with a smokescreen.
Great! Now I can't see a thing, either! Red thought, irritated at Charmeleon's insubordination.
"Kid! Take this! You can see through the smoke and what you're fighting with it!" the man called out, tossing a small cylinder over to the trainer.
Through the smoke, the cylinder blindsided the trainer on the side of his head with a heavy klunk. Irritated, Red was about to say something, but then he realized that would give away his position to the angry... Thing. So he decided against it, pressing the cylinder to his right eye. Peering through the scope, what the man said was true, it did make it possible to see through the smoke. Panning left, Red saw what they were fighting, and it shocked him to his core.
It was a flying Marowak -- this Red assumed, as it looked almost identical to Cubone, but a bit more mature -- but it was pale and transparent. It looked as if it was a corpse still decomposing, chunks missing from its skin and from its skull that it wore on it's head. It's eye glowed a deep purple-red with no discernible pupils. At it's right hand was its bone club, much like that of Cubone's, but it was longer and it was double-clubbed. It's tail was boney and a good majority of it was missing skin, leaving muscle and bone exposed.
"It's... It's a ghost of a Marowak!" Red exclaimed, not being able to hold in his shock any longer.
Through the scope, Red saw Emma's head peek up from behind some boards across the room. She turned to Cubone, who was standing next to her and began to talk to the small Pokemon. The crimson trainer tried to lip read, trying to understand what was being said, but suddenly, a wheeze came over his right shoulder.
The trainer turned, frightened of what he might find. What he feared the most at this situation was directly behind him, snarling with dead and missing teeth. Leaping out of the way of a bone aimed for his temple, Red made note of the fact that it wasn't looking to hurt and scare, but it was aiming for the kill-shot! Rushing out of the smoke, Red leaped over a gap in the boards, turned and skid to a halt.
Now knowing the ghost's type, Red called out to Charmeleon, "Rock Smash!"
Charmeleon jumped out of the pile of now broken boards and prepared his fist, howling a battle-cry. But suddenly, coming out of the opposite side, came yet another Marowak. This one was living instead of dead, and it slammed a bone onto the forehead of Charmeleon with savage accuracy and skill. The fire lizard was thrust down to the floor, where he thankfully landed on a stable and finished part of the floor.
But instead of attacking Red like the ghost was about to, it howled at the ghost and, just before it tried to slam a bone into Red, parried the shadowy bone with its own. Turning midair, the ghost repeated the same howl, but softer and more of a purring sound. Floating down to the other Marowak, it rested it's head on the living one as it began to fade. Lowering the cylinder, Red noticed that it could be seen even without the aid of the scope, and due to the smoke clearing through the holes in the walls, it was clear to be seen by everyone in the room.
"What... What is...?" Red summed up his thoughts in three words.
"Cubone evolved. It turns out that the Marowak was its mother, and now that Cubone can take care of itself, it can move on without the protection of its mother..." Emma said thoughtfully as she strode over and stood by Red's right side.
"How do you even know that? I'm not complaining, but seriously, how?" Red asked, watching the mother Marowak begin to fade away, purring softly.
"A girl's gotta have her secrets." Emma responded with a wink.
Charmeleon watched as the mother Marowak faded away into nothing, leaving the newly evolved Marowak alone, standing in the middle of the room with its eyes closed. It opened them and turned to face Charmeleon with a quick and almost mocking nod that reeked of the words, "gotcha". Charmeleon ground his teeth and almost took a step forward, but then he realized that the Marowak was just toying with him, and a smirk grew over his face.
Turning back to face the man, Red began, "Are you Dr. Fuji?"
The man did not answer, as he was gazing into the spot where the Marowak once stood, aghast. Irritated, Red raised his voice, unhappy on how the man they rescued was not even paying them any mind.
"Hey, dude! Would you quit staring off into space and tell me who you are, already!?" Red growled, irritated.
"Eh? Oh, sorry. I just haven't seen anything like that before... But I digress. My name is Mister Fuji, and I assure you, if I were a doctor, I would not be as poor as I am!" the man responded, giddy.
Red's shoulders drooped. All this work for nothing...?
"I think you might be talking ab- Say, who sent you?" Mr. Fuji caught himself and squinted at the two of them, and at Emma quite scrutinizingly.
"Well, to here we were sent by that Cubone, or Marowak, that is," Red began, taking a quick glance to Marowak, who was sparring with Charmeleon, "that is to say that we were sent here by another in a dream. She said she was... The Original."
Fuji took a sharp breath in, then placed both hands on Red's shoulders and squeezed them rather tightly.
"Are you sure? Absolutely positive that it was a female voice and that she said 'the original'? Furthermore, how was her voice? Any... Reactions?" Fuji interrogated, locking a firm gaze with Red.
"I'm sure. And another thing, she sounded like... She was in pain. Like she had touched something hot or stepped on a tack or something." Red said, trying to get out of Fuji's grip.
Fuji let out an exasperated yet relieved sigh, like he had been carrying a load for a while and he had let it down to rest. He released his grip and turned to Emma with a quick fiery glare, then back to Red, where he grinned.
"Did you come all the way up here by using the stairs? You didn't think to use the elevator?" the man asked, thoughtfully spinning his mustache.
"Elevator...?" the trainer replied, shocked and disappointed.
"Of course! It's right over- Oh. That's right, I forgot to put it in. Nevermind!" Fuji was pointing to a hole in the wall and a wooden box that was large enough for a casket and at least two people, but the rope was missing and there was still a floor to the hole in the wall, making it impossible to even repel down.
"Gee. Wouldn't that have been convenient... But anyway, I think it's time to get out of this place, don't you agree, Red?" Emma asked, deliberately leaving Fuji out of the picture.
"Agreed. But first," the trainer replied as he began to walk across the room, and over to Marowak, where he knelt down and continued, "I'm sorry to have ever doubted you."
The Marowak growled, then nodded as a show of forgiveness. Stepping out of the way, it pointed its bone and motioned for Red, Emma and Fuji to go on their way. It had a few things to mull over, and it decided it's place was not with their group, anyway.
Standing up, Red led the group down the stairs and the tower at a much more rushed pace. Noticing a few floorboards missing from when they first walked up the tower, the trainer decided to peer down the holes. Far down and barely visible was Magikarp, flopping at the center of a crater and very much alive.
"Don't worry, we're coming for you!" Red called down, silently remarking that he had actually come to be attached to the little fish.
The group hurriedly made their way down multiple levels, over precariously warped and rotten boards. Finally, after several floors, they made it to Magikarp, who was still in the same position, flopping weakly. It was actually impressive, considering the fact that the weakest Pokemon in existence has survived for so long.
Picking up Magikarp, Red placed him in his left arm for safekeeping. He didn't put him in his Ball for fear of a random Ditto encounter, meaning that Magikarp would be the first Pokemon that they would see, making it an easy battle. Magikarp was out of his Pokeball and water for longer than normal, leading the fish to begin to reek.
"Yeesh. Could you keep that to yourself? I am the one carrying you, after all." Red looked to the stinky fish with a raised eyebrow and flared nostrils.
"No kidding. Not saying anything, but if I had known you were going to have a Pokemon that reeked so bad it made a Koffing weep, I would have stayed behind..." Fuji remarked, bringing a part of one of his white robes to his eyes, which were watering.
Red let out a laugh. Koffing was well known to be a nuisance around neighborhoods. They smelled something like gasoline-dipped old, filthy shoes, and the sad part was, they liked to live in the sewer under your house. Naturally, this led to complaints all around the neighborhood of foul-smelling drains and toxic tap water. There was a roundup that Cerulean City put forth several years back that had the idea of gathering up the nuisance and moving them to a much more suitable place, but alas, no one wanted to go into the sewers to retrieve them.
"Speaking of which, why was the Marowak keeping you there instead of killing you?" Red asked, walking down another flight of stairs.
"I used to take care of their tribe of Marowak. It kept them happy and no raids on the town ever took place. I had a special bond with their leader, who was unfortunately killed in a Rocket attack in an effort to capture them. I believe that ghost was of such leader, and that is why I was kept alive." Fuji responded, following Red down the stairs, followed closely by Emma.
"Wait... Doesn't that mean...?" Red began, stopping in place and turning to Emma for affirmation.
"Marowak has just inherited a monarchy!" she cried, placing her hand behind her head, shocked that she didn't realize it before.
"In the presence of royalty and didn't even know it." Red stated, nudging Charmeleon in the side, who stood there with his mouth drooped, suddenly regretting every tease he ever did to the Cubone.
The group was silent for a while, save the snide comments about Magikarp's foul odor or the general "this place creeps me out" and like comments. They all walked down the Tower at a hurried place; even Fuji wanted to get out of the place as fast as he could. Finally, after a few more floors down, they finally made it to the ground floor, exhausted.
Leading the group forward, Fuji walked out of the Tower and shaded his eyes; it was awhile since he had been outside. Motioning with his hand, Fuji led the group to a small house, half covered in purplish ivy, which gave the town it's name. Reaching inside his white robes, Fuji dug around in a pocket for a few moments before exclaiming a loud "aha", pulling out his hand from his pocket and with it, a small silver key. Jamming the key in the doorknob, he twisted it and revealed a small cabin with a small couch, two chairs and a coffee table at the center of the room with a kitchen in the back.
"Welcome to my humble abode! Please, make yourselves at home!" Fuji waved his arm in a grandiose way, presenting his shabby abode.
Making their way in, Emma lifted the strap of his messenger bag off her shoulder and tossed it onto the table with a huff. That must have been heavy, Red mused as he took a seat on the couch and sprawled his arms with a sigh of relief. Fuji stared at him for a couple of seconds with a gentle smile, then glanced at Emma for a couple of seconds with a scrutinizing glare, then back to Red as he closed the door and locked it behind them.
"Ah... Before I begin to explain myself, could you do me a favor, my boy? There is a kettle next to the stove with some water in it, could you make us some tea? It's in the cabinet above the stove..." Fuji asked, taking a seat next to the exhausted trainer.
"Sure." the crimson trainer replied with a hint of disappointment as he stood up and walked out of the room and into the kitchen.
Fuji took a moment before addressing Emma, squinting for a moment. Leaning forward, the old man pointed toward a box resting atop a shelf that was built into the wall.
"Could you do an old man a favor and hand me that box?" the old man asked, resting his weary legs while relaxing back into the chair.
The pink haired girl looked at him for a couple of moments, then offered a slight smile before standing up, moving across the room to the box and taking it off the shelf. It was an ornate wooden box, at least one hundred years old. It must have been a family heirloom, considering the age of the glossy wood. Emma walked back across the room and reached the box out to Fuji, who, without warning, grabbed both her wrists.
"Don't think I don't know who or what you are, Emma. You think I wouldn't know one when I saw one? You are quite foolish for trying to hide it..." Fuji said in a low voice, barely audible to even Emma, who was nearly a foot away from the old man.
"I know you know," Emma said, eyes turning into dangerously dark slits instead of their usual bright and open selves as she leaned into Fuji, "And if you tell him anything, it won't be a ghost you'll have to worry about. It will be me."
And with that, Fuji released her wrists and took hold of the box, where he sat it onto the table, just as Red walked in with three cups of tea, Magikarp noticeably missing from beneath his arm. Charmeleon strode up behind him with a slight growl, noticing the tension in the room, something Red was oblivious to as he sat the tray down with the steaming cups of tea.
"I hope you don't mind, but I filled up the sink with water and put Magikarp in so he would stop smelling so bad. Anyway, you were going to explain something?" Red said as he took a seat across from Emma, who was hostilely staring at Fuji with a fiery gaze.
Fuji unhooked a small golden lock that was keeping the box shut, then opened the lid to reveal a large quantity of cigars. Grabbing a rather rare one with the words "Redolens Maerorem", Latin for "Sweet Smelling Gloom" -- which was fitting for it was made from the flower petals of Gloom, an usually foul smelling Grass Type Pokemon -- and twisted it. A soft click was then heard, and with a soft pull, a board that was filled with the cigars was pulled out of the box, and placed onto the table.
"No problem. Better a water bill than a cleaning bill to get the smell out of the carpet... But I digress," Fuji stated as he took a cup of tea, smelling the sweet aroma, then taking a sip of the tea, savoring the flavor, "You see, I am not the man you seek. The man you seek is my son."
Grabbing the contents at the bottom of the box, Fuji placed several pictures of his son and his colleagues on the table, as well as a large file, marked "Condemed" in large, red ink. It was a sign that whatever was in that file was to be burned.
"My son was -- and still is -- a scientist; he was the lead researcher in the field of genetics. Thing is, though, twenty years ago, his daughter -- my grand daughter -- died in a freak accident, leaving him broken from his research and his entire family. He wrote me a couple of times a year, never stopping by to say hello or anything, just writing letters, and that was enough. From what I gathered from his letters, he was trying to bring Amber, his daughter back to life through genetics. Lack of funding and resources made it especially hard to do the project, and that is when Giovanni came to him. I shall never forget the look on his face... Giovanni needed a clone and so did my son... The two were almost like brothers off the bat. But Giovanni's clone was not human." Fuji paused to flip open the file, and rough and blurry images fell from it, "He wanted to clone a certain Pokemon named Mew, said to have the purest genes of any Pokemon... A perfect specimen to clone. Anyway, fast forward a couple of years and a clone of Mew was in the works, nicknamed 'Mewtwo'. Things were going well, that is until it began to differ from Mew in key ways, noticeably a violent temper and an almost freakish look to him. My son considered it a failure, keeping most information if not all from Giovanni. But when Giovanni arrived to check on things himself, it was already too late. Mewtwo had awoken and killed almost everyone, save my son, who followed Mewtwo in an effort to stop it's rampage..."
Fuji took another sip of tea as Red leaned forward, very much intrigued by this story.
"Long story short, Mew came forth, boxed up Mewtwo and sent him into parts unknown, leaving my son to watch over Mewtwo's prison while Mew regenerates." Fuji finished, relaxing into his chair.
"Wait, in my dream, she said that she was 'the original'. Was that Mew herself who was talking to me? And she said that your son was in Celedon... Does that mean that is where Mewtwo is being held?" Red asked, trying to comprehend what was being said.
Fuji let out a laugh, nearly dumping his tea in his lap and all over the floor.
"No, no. It seems even Mew is misinformed! My son says he moves around to someone he knows will get the word out, he even buys a hotel room in a town for the amount of time he says he'll be there, but no, he stays in Saffron City, the next town over, and watches over Mewtwo with his extensive security feeds. He even has a job at Silph Company. Good man, that Silph... Quirky, but a good man nevertheless..." Fuji said thoughtfully, rubbing his mustache.
Red paused for a moment. Mew came to him in a dream and told him to go to Celedon City, telling him that Fuji was there. Instead, they were misinformed and sent to a place that would have been a dead end. Who should they believe?
"Say, Emma, could I... Talk to you for a minute?" Red asked as he stood up and beckoned her into the kitchen.
She stood up and followed him into the kitchen, where it became obvious how cluttered and shabby the place was. The sink was not built into a tabletop like most homes, a table was at the far side of the room, but was filled to the brim with random junk and bits of worthless trash. It was like no one had lived, or cleaned it for ages. Magikarp was in the sink, splashing around happily (or what seemed to be happy, due to it not having eyelids it was hard to tell) in the partially deep water. Emma wondered what kinds of toxins were even in the water.
"What did you want to talk about?" she asked, standing in the middle of the room and trying to stay away from the sink and the table alike.
"Fuji. I'm not sure if we can trust him. I mean, how do we know this isn't some sort of trick? Isn't it kind of odd?" Red asked in a low voice, trying to be quiet enough so that Fuji couldn't hear him.
"I know what you're saying, and in all seriousness, I'm more apt to believe Mew instead of some guy we just met who may or may not have a bad memory, considering his age. But defacto the matter is, Saffron is on the way to Celedon, so there isn't much hurt in stopping there before we head to Celedon..." Emma explained, reminding herself to keep her hands at her sides, as she didn't want to touch anything in the kitchen.
Red nodded in agreement.
"See? I knew I kept you around for a reason!" Red said with a chuckle, only to let out a laughing "ouch" when Emma punched him in the arm.
"Well," Red continued, peering out the window overlooking the tower and the sun setting beside it, "Looks like it's getting late. I say we should get going now and make up some of the time we lost in Pokemon Tower."
"Agreed." Emma replied, picking up an unhappy Magikarp from the sink, making sure not to let the wet fish touch her clothes with its struggles.
Stepping back into the room, Red turned to Fuji, who had already packed up his files and pictures, hid them inside the cigar box and placed it back on the shelf during the time the two companions were talking. He greeted them with a kindly smile.
"Well Mr. Fuji, it's been a pleasure, but we have to go. It's getting late and we need to make up some lost time that we had in the tower." Red stated, peering out a window at the setting sun.
"What do you mean? Didn't I tell you I have a car?" Fuji asked, surprised as he stood up.
"You... Didn't." the trainer said, stepping forward and grabbing Emma's bag, then handing it to her in exchange for Magikarp.
"Follow me! I'll drive you there!" the old man said happily as he stepped forward to the door, battled with the lock for a few seconds, then opened it.
Together they walked around to the side of the house, where an old car was present. It was a white sedan, looking as if it hadn't been used in a year, it was rusted around the wheel wells, head and tail lights as well as doors. It was amazing how the thing had even been kept together, it seemed. Lavender ivy was already growing on the hood of the car, only to be yanked off by Mr. Fuji, who jammed the same key he used to enter his home into the door of the car, where is ground against the rusty lock until it opened the door.
Red didn't know why he even kept it locked. I mean, what, is someone going to steal something as shabby and run down as Fuji's car? Not likely.
Fuji gently pressed a button on the inside of his door which proceeded to unlock the other doors. Emma grabbed hold of the handle and opened the door, where she sat on the rather uncomfortable seat that seemed to be missing a good deal of its padding. Red looked from the front seat and the back, then from Fuji and to Emma and made a quick decision on where to sit. Closing the door behind him, Red placed Magikarp on the leftover seat to his left while Charmeleon clambered over and curled up in his trainer's lap. Just before closing his eyes, Charmeleon let out a growl of good night to the person next to them, Emma.
The old man let out a silent sigh and jammed the key into the hole and began to turn it. The car let out a few whimpers and pops, but the car wouldn't start. Fuji tried again and again, but to no avail.
"Do you think you guys could get outside and give me a push start?" the balding man asked as he grabbed hold of the key again and tried to pump it some more.
The two companions didn't move. There wasn't much rest that was had in the house, and they weren't about to go pushing a car that willingly. Sighing, Red sat up and began to open the door to get out, when suddenly the entire car lurched forward and the engine sprung to life.
"Wow! You kids are strong!" Fuji remarked as he began to adjust the seat and whatnot to his liking.
But they didn't do anything. Turning back, they saw a familiar boney face. It was Marowak, bone resting over it's shoulder and smile curling over the left jaw of the dusty bone helmet it wore so proudly. As the car began to pull forward, it held up its free hand's two fingers to its forehead and pulled them away in a waving salute.
"Cubone's... Grown up." Red remarked to his companion thoughtfully, who was seated next to him and also watching the Marowak wave goodbye.
"Don't get sentimental on me." Emma replied, nudging him in the shoulder.
The only response with grin and silent chuckle.
Suddenly, Emma grabbed Red by the back of his red ball cap and pulled him forward so far his head collided with the back of the seat in front of him. Charmeleon was startled by this sudden guillotine and let out a few choice barks while trying to push his way out of being sandwiched together. Magikarp was also startled by this development, but was pinned to the side of the door so all he could do was struggle. Emma ducked down with him, though she was far more graceful than the startled Red when she ducked. She pointed at the window and shook her head.
"Cameras; their eyes and ears. Remember the one on the Pokemon Center?" Emma explained, keeping her blue eyes fixated on the window.
"Right. Are we past it? I think Charmeleon is suffocating." Red asked as he began to rise up.
Emma released her firm grip on his head and crossed her arms. She knew that it was going to be a long road ahead of them, and not just in length. She then turned to Red and placed two fingers on his shoulder.
"You should get some rest. You barely got any when we last camped out." she said, returning her hand to beneath her other arm.
Red couldn't agree more. Hearing the low crumble of loose pavement beneath the car and the light crackle of Charmeleon's dim flame, Red began to doze off, head falling back on the old, blue leather seat. He lowered the bill of his cap and turned to Emma for a moment.
"Wake me," he said, beginning to doze off, "When you need me."
Turning back, Red let his exhaustion overtake him and then, he fell asleep.
*****
An explosion of pain coursed through the right side of Silph's face as the gloved fist collided with it; a sensation he was beginning to get used to, for this punch was only one of many. The man behind the fist was none other that Giovanni, leader of Team Rocket. The two of them had known each other a while back before things went sour, and something told Silph that this was not just about business anymore and a little bit about payback from old times; and with Giovanni, a little bit goes a long way.
"Now, old friend," Giovanni turned away and shook his gloved fist, which was now moist with the saliva from Silph's mouth and blood from his bloody nose, "Where is it?"
"Where is what?" Silph asked, no longer resistig the tug on his arms by two Rockets, who were holding him in place, "I might have remembered, but you know all of this punching might give me brain dama-"
Another punch from Giovanni cut him off, this time tailed with a scream of rage from the Italian. Silph let out a hollow "oof" as his vision blurred and he went limp; clearly he couldn't keep this up for long. The CEO stiffened again and looked up to the Rocket leader with a bloody grin.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Silph said, bracing for another punch, when he suddenly exclaimed, "Wait! I remember now!"
"Excellent."
"Oop. There it goes again; you really should be more careful when it comes to punching peop-"
Another vicious punch to the face. This time it felt like he was punched so hard that part of the glove tore. Well, at least there would be evidence, mused the CEO as he spat the blood out of his mouth.
"If you won't tell us... Then you haven't use to us anymore! Golem, rip him from limb to limb; let's see how his memory works when he is missing an arm!" Giovanni scowled with a snap of his fingers, his deep brown eyes blazing with rage.
It felt like an earthquake with each footfall. From the shadow behind him, it was Golem, coming in for the kill. But that was okay with Silph; just as long as Giovanni didn't get the Master Ball, his death would be justified. Two stony hands grabbed the CEO from his arms, the grunts relenquishing control to Golem, and he was lifted off his feet by the Pokemon. Silph closed his eyes, feeling the subtle tug on his arms, preparing himself for... Nothing? The quirky scientist opened his eyes to see what the hold up was.
It was the man; the scientist from before that was working on the Master Ball. But this was no ordinary scientist by any means, and what he was doing was stupid beyond recognition.
"I'll show you where it is, Giovanni." the man said, white lock of hair getting in his eyes.
The CEO let out a silent "no" and a sigh at the same time as he was lowered by Golem, but the rocky beast did not let him go, only held him there. Probably for a hostage.
"Ah! John always comes through for me in the end." the Rocket leader said thoughtfully to Silph, jamming his thumb at the scientist, "It seems someone is cooperative with me. You could learn a few things from him."
Bringing up the hologram of the Master Ball, the scientist activated the controls for the doors to open. They opened in a quick snap, revealing the glass pane and the Master Ball in pristine condition, sitting upon a pedastile.
"Good... Good! Now, bring it to me... I want to feel it in my hands!" Giovanni said, excitement and adreniline obviously coursing through his body.
Grabbing the hologram and giving it a squeeze, another, blue pixled hologram built itself around the scientist's arm, giving him control over the robotic arm in the room. The arm moved toward the Master Ball with the man's every move. At first, it seemed as though this man was going to comply with Giovanni, but suddenly, the scientist thrust forward his arm, and along with it, the robotic arm, bursting through the window in a shower of glass. With a clench of the man's fist, a cutting laser fired from the top of the claw and cut a hole through the floor and the one beneath it. The Rocket leader looked upon the man with rage as he put his hands in his pockets confidently.
"Nobody move, or I will not hesitate to remove you from the equation!" the scientist called out, brandishing his own arm as he moved around the room.
"John, what you're doing is stupid! If you kill every single person in this room, what then? Will you try to escape through the front door? Wrong! This is a full-on siege! There has to be dozens more of his people just outside that door! It's suicide!" Silph called out, trying to regain his strength.
"More stupid than letting someone die, even though one has the power to change that? We're friends, Michael; you gave me a home, a freedom that I did not have when I was in Cerulean. You gave me a second chance at a life! The least I can do is repay you!" the man stated, stepping forward and firing another laser, this time whizzing by Giovanni's hair, as the leader was beginning to step forward toward the distracted scientist.
A dark, yet satisfactory look came from Giovanni's face when suddenly a loud crack and a flash of light came from the Italian's pocket, leaving a scorched hole that was pouring out smoke. Almost instantly, the scientist doubled over in pain, clutching his kneecap with both hands, causing the mechanical arm to literally punch the ground, as it was copying the man's movements.
"What joy!", exclaimed the Italian, "Old friends and colleagues coming together... Silph, Giovanni and Doctor John Fuji! We're... We're like the Three Amigos, eh?"
Giovanni laughed as he knelt down next to Fuji, who was looking at his former advocate with his silvery grey eyes in pain and anger.
"I'll let you in on a little secret: Keeping watch over Cerulean City is obsolete now. We've already found it. Our instruments thought it was in Pewter, and we drilled there, but now... Now we have confirmed data on where it is... Where he is. You have failed." Giovanni whispered into the scientist's ear with a voice so sharp it could cut trees if it wanted to.
The Rocket leader snapped his fingers at Golem, then pointed at the Master Ball. Without a word, it was clear that the Italian wanted his Pokemon to get the Master Ball for him. Dropping Silph, the boulder with legs walked forward and grabbed hold of the robotic arm, which was twitching in the floorboard feebly. With a yank, the mechanical arm spewed sparks from its joint just outside the window and detatched. Then, Golem used the arm like a limb-cutter one might use for yard work to grab the Master Ball and reel it in.
The stone Pokemon held the arm steady as Giovanni removed the purple Poke Ball from the claw and took it into the palm of his hand. The lavender bulbs on the left and right side of the sleek and shining ball pulsed with energy so much that it shined through Giovanni's fingers as if he put his hand to a flashlight. There was an "M" above the button at the center that was chromed, leaving it to reflect not only the pulsing bulbs, but also Giovanni's face. The amazing craftsmanship was amazing.
"Truly... Truly a masterpiece. I've never seen anything that can compare to it." the Rocket leader said thoughtfully as he rubbed his fingers across the sleek ball.
Treading over to a group of grunts, one of them revealed a silver suitcase. Giovanni rolled the combination into place and flipped the lock, revealing a foam cutout just to hold and keep the ball in pristine condition. Placing it inside the cutout and closing the case, Giovanni spun the lock and presented it to one grunt.
"Don't drop it."
The grunt nodded as he walked out of the room and headed toward the elevator, no doubt to stow the case in whatever mode of transportation they had chosen. Almost as soon as the grunt left, however, another, more stocky man walked in. He leaned in close to Giovanni and jammed his finger behind him.
"We have a couple. Says they've been married for a couple of years and by the looks of the man, he'd do anything to protect his wife. They good enough?" the man asked, black hat covering his face.
"Hmhm. Of course. I trust your judgement. Bring them to me." Giovanni replied with a smirk.
The man nodded and walked out of the room, tailed only by his shadow. Giovanni turned to his men and began to issue orders to them.
"Men, grab Fuji and clear out. Our work here is done." Giovanni barked as Golem grabbed the limping doctor by the shirt.
"What? You're just gonna go?" Silph asked, trying to stand once more, but only winding up collapsing onto a table, where he grabbed and held on for support.
"No; we're going to blow the building on our way out." Giovanni turned to face the stumbling CEO, "It's been fun, but I must bid you... Adieu. Oh, and by the way, you have ten minutes."
And with that, Giovanni strolled out of the room briskly, tailed by his grunts, leaving Silph slumped against a table, weak, helpless and in horror.
RE: Mewtwo's Revenge (Chapter VIII up!)
As a reminder to future posters, please use the PM system for "thank you"s. Otherwise, your post will be unapproved and you will receive a minor spam warning.
Thank you.
(See what I did there?)
In reply to your fanfic, Kecleon X, I have, so far, really enjoyed it! When I finish reading, I will add to my rather short post detailing what I care for and what needs a little work. Until then, happy writing.
As a reminder to future posters, please use the PM system for "thank you"s. Otherwise, your post will be unapproved and you will receive a minor spam warning.
Thank you.
(See what I did there?)
In reply to your fanfic, Kecleon X, I have, so far, really enjoyed it! When I finish reading, I will add to my rather short post detailing what I care for and what needs a little work. Until then, happy writing.
RE: Mewtwo's Revenge (Chapter VIII up!)
As a matter of fact, no, it is not a joke. As previously stated, thank yous are to be handled via PM. A minor spam warning is 1+ anyway...
This rule has been implemented in most other forums, and TWC is no exception. Thank you posts are short, choppy, and unproductive; they add absolutely no discussional value to the topic.
Kecleon-X said:
As a matter of fact, no, it is not a joke. As previously stated, thank yous are to be handled via PM. A minor spam warning is 1+ anyway...
This rule has been implemented in most other forums, and TWC is no exception. Thank you posts are short, choppy, and unproductive; they add absolutely no discussional value to the topic.