Dangerous Liaisons
by paintedbynumbers
Summary: When Gary unwittingly saves Misty's life one night, he gets hurled into a web of mystery and danger he never expected. Why is Misty on the run? Who are her sinister masked assailants? And was their unlikely meeting more than just co-incidence?
Disclaimer: If I owned Pokemon, Gary Oak would have his own theme song. In simple words, I don't. All rights reserved to Nintendo and Gamefreak.
Though many of the mentioned gameplay features and storyline have been roughly adapted from FRLG and HGSS, there is no strict chronological orientation or place for the settings of this story. The known characters and Pokemon rosters here are a relatively big amalgam of anime, game and manga counterparts, and intentionally so.
Come on, Misty, faster! You can't slow down! You can't let them get you! If you go down …then so does any hope of finding him…
A million of these thoughts echoed around Misty Waterflower's head, urging her to push through the invisible walls of exhaustion closing in around her and keep her wearied feet moving. The unfamiliar streets of Goldenrod City spiraled round her in a whirling maze; the sharp screech of a nearby vehicle skidding to a halt to avoid running her over cut through the air as she frantically dodged a red light. She could hear the two men shouting behind her, still incomprehensible but each footstep and occasional puddle splash echoing louder and louder. Like a pair of Zubats unleashing a Leech Life attack, they seemed to be feeding directly off her own rapidly dwindling energy.
She had discarded her heels long ago but there had been a scarce second to relish the feeling of sweet relief in her feet; each desperate step made her more aware of the frigid sweat trickling down her neck and increasingly parched throat. Her pounding heart was setting the perfect accompaniment to her frantic pace; but soon, very soon, she would no longer be able to keep up...
Surely she must have reached the other side of the city by now—physically she felt as if she had completed a marathon around the entirety of Johto. She was now at a fork in the road, with a few precious seconds to bet on which one could potentially determine her fate. If she made the wrong choice, there would be no second chance; it was the middle of the night on the outskirts of town and the streets were completely deserted. Those who weren't dancing the night away at Goldenrod's many famous nighttime hotspots were safely tucked away at home, blissfully unaware of the dangers roaming the city in their sleep.
"There she is! Grab her!" she heard one of the men yell out, far closer than she had hoped anticipated.
Clueless as to where either of the two identically bleak and uninviting roads would lead, she hopelessly dived to her left, hoping the darkness at the very least, would provide her with some coverage to hide. Either way, she was physically incapable of running anymore- her head was spinning wildly from dehydration, and she was sure she was starting to see woozy doubles of everything around her. Already her left thigh was throbbing painfully from severe cramp; a few more steps and her knees would surely buckle. Swallowing painfully, she quickly scanned her surroundings.
No, this can't be happening...
She found herself in an empty alleyway, surrounded by solid grey walls that enclosed her in a narrow vertical prison, without so much as a dustbin to provide any means of ample cover. The place would have been too desolate to fit in even with the cemeteries of Lavender Town. And straight ahead, she realized with a sinking heart, lay a tall barbed wire fence, pinning up the gruesome remains of a poor Pidgey that had flown too close. It was a dead end, and she couldn't turn back, but she was so close, if only she could just get over the other side of that fence. Whoever these men were, they wouldn't dare follow her into National Park, where plenty of night time police officers patrolled the area. If she could just find a way to propelherself off the ground and over the wire…
Propel myself…
The idea itself was risky, defied common sense and sounded absolutely ridiculous. In fact it sounded exactly like…
Something Ash would do.
The thought of his goofy grin filled her with a new burst of adrenaline needed to take this final step. Gritting her teeth, she threw out a Pokeball from her bag. A giant Gyarados burst out with a huge roar.
"Shh, Gyarados, you have to be quiet!" Misty hissed. There was no way the two men would've missed that cry—she was cutting her own lifeline by several precious seconds. "Now listen to me. I'm going to get up on your tail, and when I do, I want you to fling me as hard as you can, up into the air."
Gyarados looked at her as if to say, Are you crazy?
"Look, I want you to aim over that wire fence into the grass over there…" Misty said, pointing. "Once I'm safe, I'll recall you and we can both escape unharmed. I need you to just trust me right now, okay?"
Gyarados didn't look reassured about the plan- or its owner's sanity, for that matter- but nodded obediently.
"Right…" Misty clambered onto the giant dragon's tail. She gripped the scaly surface tightly, bracing herself for the launch. But it never came.
"Going somewhere, poppet?" a too-familiar male voice sliced softly through the air. "No one likes to play tag with a cheater..."
" Oh. My. God. Is that really him?"
"I know. Check out his gorgeous hair! I swear, those photos in The Daily Star totally do not do him any justice at all!"
"I'm going to go talk to him."
"Ohhh my gosh Katie, you wouldn't!"
"I will. And I'm going to give him my number. No sharing!"
Within perfect earshot of the girls, Gary Oak sighed tiredly from his private booth in whichever exclusive Goldenrod bar the Kanto PR had booked out for this year's annual Elite Four Johto Tour afterparty. It was like being constantly stalked by a bunch of love-sick Growlithes. He was getting terribly bored of hearing how ohmygod totally hot and and ah-mazing he was by the same inane group of attractive but vapid girls seeming to share exactly the same hairdressers, wardrobes and unnecessarily high-pitched shrilling after every damn sentence. For one thing, it's not like he wasn't already perfectly well-aware of their observations.
Tonight he had already received – and tossed out – four different phone numbers on napkins. He could now see the girl named Katie making a beeline for him, tossing her hair about like she was deliberately trying to bring on a neck strain and fluttering her painfully obvious false lashes at him most ridiculously.
"Need some air," Gary muttered, swigging the remnants of his beer and excusing himself from the circle just as Agatha began her usual rant about his "old duff" of a grandfather, as she was frequently inclined to do after one gin and tonic too many. More often than not in these situations his godmother's walking cane ended up doing most of the talking, and he quickly dodged out the back door before he could be attacked by either of the over-enthusiastic females.
Inhaling deeply and contentedly taking in the crisp autumn air, he began absent-mindedly wandering down the dark streets of Goldenrod, nonchalantly kicking the stray pebbles off the road and not really paying attention to where he was going. It was a much-needed refresher from the glaring lights and stifling heat of the densely packed club.
Another night of the reminder that he had all the fame, girls and looks every guy could dream of—and the realisation that it was all just so pointless. It wasn't even like he'd earned the credentials himself—take away the Oak name, and he was just another anonymous, handsome twenty year old researcher drifting along life until a more profitable job came along, except then he would actually have needed to work for the money. Tonight, as with most of his professional and social circumstances, he was just Gramps' stand-in for when the old man had better things to do, tonight an important research seminar in Cinnabar University. Any established celebrity event in Kanto or Johto needed an attending Oak on the guestlist, but it hardly mattered which one.
Since discovering the goal of Master Trainer was no longer his destiny, he had struggled to find out what was. He liked to think he had made the right choice with professional research; certainly it was something he enjoyed and at least good at – though he supposed in his case that obviously really applied to a lot of things – but did he really have what it took to become Professor Oak, and not just Professor Oak Junior?
By instinct he always refused contemplating anything that might potentially signal failure, so he refocused his mind, as he had with increasing frequency within these past few months, with what new thing might really be able to quench his thirst for a purpose-driven goal in life—something to live for, to fight for…
And that's when he heard a piercing scream in an alleyway nearby.
"Sorry sweetheart, we're not about to let you go just yet," the man snickered, his eyes burning Misty with scornful mockery through his balaclava hood. "Crobat! Toxic!"
The purple bat burst out of its Pokeball with a shrieking cry, and immediately hurled a huge mound of filthy sludge directly into Gyarados' eyes. The great dragon Pokemon howled in anguish, its whole body writhing wildly in pain. Misty was flung violently into the stone wall, the tremor of the force rattling through her entire body.
She collapsed in a heap on the floor, her right ankle exploding with pain as her whole body weight fell onto it. Biting back tears, she twisted round to see her Pokemon still thrashing around manically in agony. It had managed to shake off most of the sludge from its eyes, but the poison was clearly doing its job.
"Come on, Gyarados! Fight back! Flail Attack, now!" Misty urged, wiping the dirt out of her lashes.
Gyarados tried to lash out at Crobat with its massive tail, but the speedy bat nimbly dodged it without much trouble.
"Again, Gyarados! Don't give up!"
Again, Crobat effortlessly darted out of the way.
"Keep at it, Gyarados!"
Each flail attempt was noticeably less vigorous than the last; every movement seemed to be draining Gyarados' energy at an alarming pace. Finally, after a feeble, final swish of its tail, its eyes buckled and it collapsed onto the floor with a resonating crash, fainting.
"Gyarados, no!" Misty cried out in horror.
"Clearly we overestimated your intelligence, little girl," the second man drawled. "Everybody knows the power of Toxic increases the more your Pokemon stays in the fight. You practically did half our job for us."
Misty glared up furiously at the two men smirking down at her. "You'll pay…for what you did to Gyarados…"
Frantically she rolled onto her side, reaching for her dropped bag where the rest of her Pokeballs were. She wasn't about to let them get away without a fight…
"Woops," said one of the men, snickering, as he casually kicked the bag out of the way. "Mind me."
Misty's fingers clawed thin air as it skidded off the sidewalk. Her ankle still throbbed painfully, her head was spinning from physical and mental exhaustion, and her eyes began brimming with tears of frustration as she lay there on the ground, realising the utter hopelessness of her situation. It was finally over…
"Sweet dreams, poppet," whispered one of the men, bending over her. Misty saw the glint of a needle and whimpered in pain as she felt the sharp point pierce her neck.
"Hey, you two! What the hell do you think you're doing?"
The voice was vaguely familiar, and seemingly nearby. She could just about make out a blurred figure running towards her…a blurred figure with spiky hair…was it…could it be...Ash?
"Beat it brat, who do you think you are? Crobat, go!"
No, Ash! Save yourself…you…can't… Misty's eyelids were fighting a losing battle, being pulled together by some unknown magnetic force. Her vision became hazier still, the world around her disintegrating into mere blobs of colour…
"Blastoise! Hydro Pump!"
Blastoise…Blastoise…Ash doesn't have a Blastoise…Then who…?
But before she could recall anything more, her drained body finally gave way, her vision and consciousness falling into nothing more than a chasm of black.
Misty's eyes flickered open, squinting against the glaring rays of sun streaking through the blinds. She groaned and rolled sideways, burying her face into the sanctity of the snug, feather down pillow. Much better.
Wait a minute- my pillow isn't this soft…and these sheets…my sheets aren't white…what's going on?
Her head snapped round to take in the surroundings. The minibar in the corner, the walk in closet, the silver chandelier glittering above her…None of this was hers. This wasn't her room—and she was in a stranger's bed?
She tried to recall her last memory of the previous night. The Elite Four afterparty...a dark alleyway…and a boy…a boy with spiky hair…
"Glad to see you're finally up," said a figure seated on a couch across the room.
Misty blinked. "A-Ash…?"
Had the whole thing been just a bad dream?
"Sorry to disappoint, Scarlet, it's just me," he said cheerfully, carefully folding up his newspaper and laying it on the sofa before moving into the light.
Misty gasped. "Gary…Gary Oak?"
"The one and only," Gary grinned. "How're you feeling?"
"Um. Confused," Misty said truthfully. What the hell are YOU doing here? she had wanted to blurt out, but rudeness could hardly help her confusion now. "What...what time is it?" she settled for instead.
Gary glanced down at an expensive looking watch on his wrist. "6:30."
"In the evening?" Misty yelped out in shock.
"Yup. Quite the sleeping beauty you are, eh?"
Misty shook her head. "But…but it can't be the evening…I woke up because of the sun…"
"Yes, it's called sunset, Scarlet," Gary said amusedly.
"But why-"
"Geez Waterflower if you're this inquisitive half-asleep, I'm not sure I want to see you fully awake...Look, how about you get dressed and we go grab some dinner, then we'll talk it out over there. You must be starved, no?" He gestured towards the floor next to her bed, where her travel bag sat beneath a freshly pressed towel next to her trainers. How had that made it here from her hotel room?
"All the Gym Leaders and VIP guests were booked into this hotel for the Elite Four party. I was standing in for Gramps, you had your key in your bag," Gary answered in a bored voice. "Can you hurry up and shower so we can go eat already?"
Misty was too befuddled to think of any logical reason to refuse. She shrugged, threw off her covers, then yelped in surprise as she caught sight of both her sister's dirtied and now rather untastefully torn party dress – Do you even have ANY idea how much this designer cost? she could almost hear Violet shriek—and her right ankle, which had been bandaged and raised up on a few cushions. There was a melted ice pack lying next to it.
"Did you…?"
"Oh yeah damn, forgot about that...the ankle obviously, not the dress," Gary winked. Misty immediately yanked the covers back up. "Guess it's room service then. You fancy a cheeseburger or something?"
Gary took Misty's silent grimace to mean a yes, and sat himself down on her other side, facing the wall to dial the phone. Misty took the opportunity to finally chance a quick peep at her apparent rescuer – who'd have thought—and grudgingly admitted there could've been worse things to wake up to. Despite her sisters' very best efforts she still hadn't really embraced the significance of boys as anything more than slightly more acceptable targets for her mallet. Save for the occasional unmemorable sighting at a Gym-related event it had been nearly four years since she'd last seen him properly, at the Silver Conference back when she'd still been travelling with Ash and Brock, but even Misty could see the difference the time had made to his stature and arm muscles – not like he's the type to not already assume it all himself, shut up brain! Of course he'd look different after four years, she had changed too, it was only natural, though at the moment his case was being quite annoyingly enhanced by a just-loose enough white tank top...
"…Yup, that's all, Room 1302. Cheers." Gary hung up the phone and rolled round onto his stomach to yank the sheets off Misty's legs. She flinched and instinctively tried to pull them up out of sight – the unexpected breeze reminded her just how uncomfortably exposed they were in Violet's dress – but relaxed when it became obvious Gary was only trying to inspect her injured ankle.
"By the way Scarlet, I know it's hard to resist and all, but d'you mind not staring at me like that when I'm on the phone? It's kinda creepy."
"What?-I wasn't-You..." Misty spluttered, flushing with embarrassment. He hadn't turned around once during the entire phone conversation. Why was he being so annoyingly cool?
"Don't beat yourself up about it, can't really be helped I suppose," Gary shrugged, not really caring whether Misty took it as a joke or not. "Now let's see..."
He carefully peeled off the bandages on her ankle to reveal a small blue-black bruise on the underside of the bone, and gently pressed a finger to it. Misty hissed in pain at his cool touch.
"Still hurts, huh?" He frowned sympathetically. "Well, it's lucky I managed to get you here before it really started to swell up…nothing's broken though, so you should be able to walk in a day or two, I'm sure Alice can arrange for you to stay here a few more nights on the tour budget—"
"Oak," Misty cried, unable to control her curiosity any longer. "What the hell am I doing here?"
Gary raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry Scarlet, were you asking me for answers?"
"What? You just said you brought me here—"
"Well yeah, not much else I can do when I'm going about just minding my own business and I get interrupted by the shrillest scream known possible to mankind—and lucky you have it too," Gary cut in before Misty could protest. "When I got there all I could make sense of were two unidentifiable men injecting a collapsed girl with something, next to a fainted Gyarados—"
"My-my Gyarados! Is it all right?-"
"Fine. I took it to the Pokemon Center already-you can visit it later. Anyway, my Blastoise sent those guys packing and then I realised who you were, but you'd already passed out by then...those bastards admitted it was just a sleeping sedative in that needle before they scarpered and I could tell you were still breathing fine, so I just brought you back here to sleep it off."
He hadn't, though. Sure they'd occasionally run into each other in various capacities these past few years, and given his complicated relationship with Ash they must have no doubt exchanged words or at least insults at some point, but they were still not really anything more than acquaintances and he could just as easily have left her alone in her room or with one of the Gym Assistants to sort out her luggage and ankle and gone on with his presumably busy day guilt-free. Most of yesterday's party guests would've had to bring hired chauffeurs or taken the first train back to their cities to resume their leadership duties for the week.
She only now noticed the scrunched up blanket and dark suit draped over the back of the sofa opposite her; he must have given up his bed for the night too. Misty had formulated various opinions of Gary Oak these past few years, but gratitude was never something she really expected or wanted to feel towards him.
"I don't really know what to say. I mean...thanks, I guess. Especially for the bed," Misty said, gesturing towards the couch. "Hope you managed to get some sleep at least."
"What, on the sofa?" Gary asked, bemused. "I managed a good seven hours, I only had to move there once you started snoring..."
"What? I do not snore!"
"Like a Granbull," Gary shook his head, with a barely suppressed smirk. "Well?"
"Well, what?" Misty snapped disdainfully. She might not have been the most graceful or ladylike of her sisters, but she most certainly would never have done something as horrendous as snoring loudly enough to wake up a boy! A virtual stranger in her bed!
Dammit Oak!
"Well," Gary continued, unfazed. "Given that I may have just saved your life and all, you mind telling me what's going on? I swear that must be the first time I've seen you at a League black-tie event...no complaints mind, I can see why those men were after you, though the whole sedative thing's a bit extreme"—there's that stupid cocky smile again, Misty thought—"but seeing as the big sis trio returned to Cerulean months ago I just assumed you'd have jumped at the chance to ditch the red-carpet side of Gym Leader duties and get back on the road with Ashy boy? Gramps said he reckoned you could fill up an entire pokedex on the undiscovered Pokemon roaming the new Unova region alone—Scarlet? What is it?" he stopped, noticing Misty's face fall.
"Ash…" Misty whispered hoarsely, lowering her head.
"What about him?"
"Gary… Ash…I think—I think something's happened to him," Misty whispered, her voice trembling.
"Something…happened…?"
"Gary, Ash has disappeared! Nobody has heard a word from him in two months!"