Poisoned Heart

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon, blah blah blah, belongs to Nintendo, blah blah blah, my OCs are mine, blah blah blah, cannot be used without my permission, blah blah blah. Boring boring boring.

Pallet Town, 0258 hours, 01/13/2011

The door wasn't even locked.

How pathetic was that? Kanto's greatest professor, and he didn't even lock his lab doors at night.

Oh well. Made it all the more easy to steal the Bulbasaur.

He didn't let himself be lulled into complacency, though. He knew that no one was awake and watching the door, but any number of alarms and/or video cameras could be inside the lab itself. Time for the EMM.

He pulled out a small metallic ball with a large red button in the middle of its side. It looked rather like a silvery pokeball.

Its real use was quite different, though.

He pressed the button and every electronic device in Pallet Town stopped working. No more alarms or video cameras to worry about. Of course, everyone's heating systems and lights would cut out as well, but he planned to be long gone before anyone noticed. After all, who was awake to notice that the refridgerator was off at 0300 hours? Plus, he only needed them off long enough for a quick in and out. Grab the Bulbasaur and make his escape.

He opened the doors, wary but confident. The lab wasn't all that big. All the better. No need for a prolonged search. Oak had even placed the balls on a table in plain view. His Pokedexes, too, lay in plain sight on another table. How idiotic. Anyone could just walk in and take something. Like he was.

The balls remained closed; all his device had done to them was keep them from releasing their occupants. Now, which one was the Bulbasaur?

Time for another device. Naturally, he had kept them from being affected by the EMM. A simple matter of preprogramming the EMM not to affect anything in his pack. And so his PED, a device that looked rather like the Pokedexes on the other table, worked perfectly. Waving the device near the balls, he watched the screen intently.

Water. That must be the Squirtle, then.

Fire. Charmander. That meant…

Grass and Poison. Bulbasaur.

He grabbed the last ball and walked towards the front door…and stopped.

He had forgotten. How could he have forgotten? The plan required Oak to know who had done the deed, quickly enough that news would get out. Oak would figure it out eventually, but that might take too long. He had to give the professor evidence.

He pulled out some paper and a pen and wrote a note. Leaving it pinned to the space where the Bulbasaur had been, he left the lab.

Pallet Town, 0718 hours, 01/13/2011

"She was right."

Not the usual response to finding that one has been stolen from, but then again, Professor Oak was not exactly usual. Specifically, he wasn't one to lose his temper. He actually endured his grandson's rudeness with not even one word of reprimand, a considerable feat considering who his grandson was and his usual temperament.

At the moment, though, Gary wasn't wasting time being rude. "Who was right, Gramps?"

Sighed, the professor shook his head. "She didn't give me her name, Gary. But she told me. She told me who, and which Pokemon would be stolen, but I had thought that he was above stealing, so I ignored her…" He handed the note to Gary, who scanned it quickly, reading it out loud to himself.

"'Get a better security system, professor. It was far too easy to steal this Bulbasaur. At least lock the doors.

-Vincent Mark Smith'"

Gary looked up. "Isn't that the kid next door to the lab? The one who was adopted from Fushcia?"

"Yes," Oak agreed, staring morosely at the empty space where his Bulbasaur had once been. "I would never have imagined him doing something like this…such a well-behaved young man." He came to a decision. "Gary, find Red and bring him here. You two can have my remaining Pokemon. Not that you wouldn't have gotten them anyway, but…" He trailed off, apparently lost in thought. Gary had to poke him to bring him back on topic.

"Sorry. I'll give you a device that can track the Pokeball in question. Find Vincent. Get the Bulbasaur back safely, and if possible, Vincent as well. Perhaps there is a perfectly reasonable excuse for this…"

"Hey, Gramps! Was this here before?"

On the note, under Vincent's signature, were three words in florid purple ink:

I told you.

Viridian Forest, 0725 hours, 01/13/2011

After stealing some Pokeballs and other supplies from the Viridian City Pokemart, he had fled into the forest. He had then found a Beedrill hive and, using some honey, bribed them to guard him while he was in the forest. Once he knew that he was safe, he had napped until 0720 hours. Not much sleep, but he'd survive. For now, he just needed to let any pursuit go on ahead. They'd assume that he'd run as far as possible, so he'd do the opposite. He'd hide until his pursuit was a little less heated. After all, it wasn't as if he had an appointment to be anywhere.

He did have one time-sensitive issue to deal with, however. He was one of the few trainers that knew that individual Pokeballs could be traced to their owner. Which meant that as long as he kept Bulbasaur in this particular ball, his location might as well be printed in neon letters on every billboard in every city in the world.

With that in mind, he opened the Pokeball and released the creature that he had broken the law to get.

The Bulbasaur looked around, obviously confused at the different surroundings. Still, he looked comfortable here. If he were to lie down and go to sleep, he'd just be another plant in a forest full of them. Bulbasaur had lived here long ago, before poaching had driven their numbers to practically zero. Some idiot had spread a rumor that their bulbs had magical healing powers and suddenly the previously-superior Bulbasaur species had a predator. They bred so slowly that the loss of their babies had taken a great toll on them. He now had one of the few Bulbasaur left in the land.

"Over here," he said to the creature, shaking himself out of his thoughts. "I have something for you to wear." And he pulled out a collar with a muted green light on the front from his pack.

The Bulbasaur looked his new trainer over critically. Pale skin: the human didn't get much sun, apparently. Dark hair: contrasted with the skin. Somewhere between adult and youngling, as he had expected. Serious expression on his face: good, very promising. If he had been assigned to one of those idiots he had seen outside the window, laughing about stupid things, he would have strangled Oak first chance he got for giving him to a moron. This one looked like he meant business.

His clothes: a jumpsuit in various shades of green and brown, very good for camoflauge here in the forest. Very sensible, thought the Bulbasaur. He didn't know what the collar was for, but Oak, unintelligent though he may be (He could be so dense! The Venusaur OldFlowers were revered for wisdom; human Oldflowers just got senile), he wouldn't give a Pokemon to a bad trainer. So he loped over to the trainer without any hesitation, trusting Oak to know what he was doing and trusting the trainer not to do anything harmful.

As the human tried to fasten the collar onto Bulbasaur, he didn't move at all, cooperating with the human. There must be a good reason for the collar, he was sure, even if he didn't know what the reason was. Why resist? That would just make it take longer to find out what the purpose was.

Finally, the collar was on. The human leaned back. "Okay," he said, "time to try this out. Bulbasaur, say something. Anything at all."

"Why?"

Bulbasaur was the only one surprised when the collar said "Why?" in the Human dialect. The human smiled triumphantly. "So it works. I thought it would, but I didn't know for sure until now. Thank you, Bulbasaur. Now, if you would be willing to do me a favor…"

Now Bulbasaur was a little wary. "What is it?"

"Don't run off immediately when I break this."

"Break wha-?" Bulbasaur was cut off by the human smashing his Pokeball with a rock, shattering it into pieces.

"There," he said. "Now they can't track it. And now," he turned to Bulbasaur, "time for you to hear your options."

"The way I see it, now that you're no longer bound to the ball, you have three choices. Choice number one: you could stay here in the forest. It's where you would be living if humans hadn't messed things up for you, so you'd be able to survive here."

Still surprised from the demolition of the ball, Bulbasaur didn't comment.

"Alright then, choice number two is go back to Oak's lab."

Here Bulbasaur shook his head adamantly. "No way. I go back to Oak's lab, I may get stuck being Gary's Pokemon. Or worse, no one's Pokemon. I'd be sitting around all day, bored out of my wits. No thank you!"

Not bothering to conceal his amused grin, the human went on. "I guess number two is out of the question then. Choice number three: stay here with me."

"Why wouldn't I stay with you? Adventure, travel, battle, companions, what more could I ask for?" Bulbasaur replied.

"A trainer that isn't a wanted thief," he responded. "I stole you from Oak's lab. It didn't seem fair that one of you stay in the lab while the other two travel. So I chose you." He stood and began pacing. "I won't deny it, I'd love to have you with me. But it'd be a dangerous life. We'd be in hiding, fighting the law all the time, never able to even stop by a Pokemon Center for a quick healing. You might get arrested. Unless you're recognized, in which case it's Oak's lab again."

"Also, I'm not a harsh taskmaster, but I am an exacting one. I prefer to have everything planned in advance, so you'll have to know what I want and do what I want when I ask you to do it. Even if it makes no sense at the time. I won't tolerate disobedience. Initiative will be limited, but you'll still have some. Mostly when I'm getting a sense of the opponent's weaknesses."

"So I won't compel you. It's your choice." He set a Pokeball down on the ground. "If you're interested, let yourself in. Just push the button. If not, please wait here and I'll remove the collar before you go. In the meantime, I want to make this same pitch to some of the Weedle in here. If you accept, you may have to deal with a Beedrill for a companion eventually." With that, he stood and left, leaving Bulbasaur to stare at the Pokeball and decide.

It was an easy choice, really. He didn't know how to survive in the wild, even here in a low-level area. Like it or not, he needed a human, and this human, though a thief, had gone to great pains to give him the facts and let him decide. He respected that.

And so he let himself into the ball.

He grinned when he saw that the ball was occupied. It wasn't hard to tell; the white part glowed softly when the ball had caught something. So it had worked. He had expected that, but certainty never came until after the fact. That, plus the fact that he had gotten himself a Weedle as well, had put him in good spirits.

He picked up the ball and let out both Bulbasaur and Weedle.

"I see that you accepted, Bulbasaur. I thank you for that," he said as he crouched to fasten another collar on Weedle (female, he noted). Weedle was less cooperative than Bulbasaur at this. Not that she was resisting, she just had a lot of energy and didn't want to hold still.

Bulbasaur scoffed. "Easy choice. Lab or you. You win, paws down. Especially since you seem surprisingly considerate and intelligent."

"To Pokemon, perhaps. To humans, not so much. After all, I just stole from Oak," the young thief replied as he finally got the collar on. "There, I can understand you now, Weedle."

"The name's Bloitch, thank you very much!" The Weedle seemed less surprised than Bulbasaur had been, but then again, she had witnessed Bulbasaur's collar in action.

The teen blinked. "I suppose that I shouldn't be surprised that you name yourselves." Looking at Bulbasaur, he asked, "You have one too, I gather?"

"Bulbasaur's fine. I don't think humans can pronounce my name," said Bulbasaur.

"What's yours? Can't really call you "Human", can we?" Bloitch asked enthusiastically.

"Hah! Suppose you're right." He stood, stretched, and told his companions, "Call me Vin."

Viridian Forest, 1042 hours, 01/13/2011

"Hello?"

"This is Red, Professor."

"Ah, Red! Any luck?"

Red shook his head, then remembered that he was on the phone. "Bad news, Professor. We lost the signal. However, we're fairly sure he's still in Viridian Forest. I'm blocking the Pewter City exit, Gary's covering the Viridian City exit in case he doubles back, and the gate guard tells me that no one's been through here today. One way or another, we'll catch him."

"Splendid! Just one thing…try not to get anyone seriously hurt if it comes to battle."

Red chuckled. "You know me, Professor, so you know that's not my style. Gary's, maybe, but not mine."

Oak chuckled, thinking that Red was joking. "Well, I won't keep you. Make sure you call me when you catch him." With that, he hung up.

Red hung up as well. "If we catch him," he said to himself. After all, the thief had traveled a day's journey in less than twelve hours and managed to break the link on the Pokeball's tracking device. If he was smart enough to do that, would one brand-new trainer be able to stop him from leaving?

He had to try, though. He had to get the Bulbasaur back.

Whatever it took.

You have been reading:

Stage One: Outwitting and Outdistancing Oak