EGOSHIP – Marionette

Chapter 1: Prologue

CERULEAN GYM:

Misty sat by the edge of the gym's Olympic sized pool with Psyduck in her lap.

"C'mon Psyduck, I know you can do it, you're a natural. You don't need these," Misty said while holding up her Pokémon's old floaties. But of course, it was useless. Her Psyduck was just peculiar that way. If it weren't for it's incredibly powerful confusion attack, the young gym leader would have given up completely. Yet, despite what she thought while she was traveling with Ash, her Psyduck has come to be one of her best Pokémon. When it cooperated, anyway. It had even helped in winning her last gym battle that day, leaving another stunned eleven year old.

"Psii," the yellow duck tilted it's head at her, looking as stupid as ever. One could only assume that it had no idea what was going on and thought his master was somewhat insane. At this point, she just might be. Sighing, she lifted the Pokémon from her lap and jumped into the pool. She had taken hold of Psyduck and dived to the bottom as usual. Misty has been going to extremes lately just to get the poor thing to swim. After a moment or so, her orange hair bobbed to the surface, followed by a terrified yellow mess who was quick to scramble on top of it. Misty's head had become something like an orange sanctuary. Her temper was rising though, and had it not been for the arrival of her sisters, the girl would have screamed until no foreseeable future.

Daisy walked into the room, followed by the other two sensational sisters, Violet and Lily. Misty had surfaced fully now, Psyduck clinging to her hair for dear life.

"Like, baby sister! We, like, need to talk to you," Daisy announced, her eyes racking the waters' surface until she spotted little Misty with Psyduck.

Seeing the look in her eldest sisters eyes, Misty tensed. She narrowed her eyes.

"So, like, Lily Daisy and I are going on a six-month trip around the regions and, like, need you to watch the gym." Violet stated casually. Misty's jaw dropped while she treaded the water and she shook her head violently. They had finally worked out a schedule that evened out who did what in the gym only last week; now they're leaving again? Unbelievable!

Psyduck had fallen off of her head at this point but the redhead was too enraged to notice.

And so she voiced her thoughts:

"WHAT?" Misty screeched. She started screaming at her sisters but half of the stuff she said came out sounding like gibberish. No matter, all three of the older girls just watched her, with not even one cringe. They had seen Misty like this a million times, as they had become accustomed to doing this, and once more was not about to break them. It didn't even cross their minds if that made them bad sisters or not; it never did. After a few more minutes when Misty had finally run out of breath, Lily and Violet began to retreat.

"Like, bye baby sister."

Misty glared at the back of the blonde angrily, hiding the envy and hurt on the inside, like always. She had mastered the ability to hide her emotions.

"Psyyphiphh,"

The brooding girl would have jumped in shock had she been on land; she'd forgotten that she wasn't alone. She turned to see that her poor Psyduck was flapping its feathers furiously in its attempts to stay afloat.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," the redhead picked up the Pokémon as it scrambled back onto her head. Then her eyes sparked with realization. "Good job, Psyduck!"

She lifted the yellow duck one last time and held it in a close hug.

Then she heard it. Ring ring ring! . . .

ACROSS THE REGIONS:

Ring ring ring! Ring ring ring! Phone call! Phone call!

The young professor jumped from his seat and almost ran for the phone on the other side of the room. He'd been expecting a call ever since he'd seen the news report yesterday strait from Pallet Town. He'd been enraged at the time. Being Gary, he should have been the first to know about the situation, or at least one of them. Gary Oak was the last person who was supposed to find out about this by simply watching TV, and everyone knew it. He had promised himself that he would stay calm because being a mad mess was only going to delay things. Even so, as he picked up the phone, he couldn't help the anger that took over him when he saw May's image appear on the screen.

"What," May visibly cringed at her brothers tone from wherever she was, but was quick to recover. She deserved this.

"Well, hi to you too," May retorted, biting her lip. Gary was loosing his control, and their conversation had barely even started . . .

"Why didn't you tell me?" he seethed, causing May to flinch again. She had never been good at delivering bad news. As a matter of fact, she was almost as bad at it as she was under pressure. Doing both, towards her short-tempered brother no less was not going to be easy. She avoided his glare.

"I only got out of questioning now. Gary, look . . . hear me out, okay? Please don't be mad with me," May continued before holding her breath and lifting her gaze. Their eyes locked. Gary sighed and visibly relaxed. Good, she thought, it's going to be okay.

"So, as you know, Gramps was supposed to come home tomorrow. Initially, we thought he was still out, we figured he got sidetracked-you know how he is. Hey, don't give me that look!" Gary had shot her a look of annoyance, telling her to get on with it. He rolled his eyes, urging her to continue.

"Fine. So anyway, turned out he'd already gotten back-Gramps! Early! Who knew, right? Oh, right, sorry-I mean, certain Pokémon had been let out, but it was down in the examination room, so nobody had known. It was nighttime, after all . . ." Gary rolled his eyes again, same message as before. Girls, he thought. They can't stay focused unless it's at a mall.

" . . . turns out Gramps was taken from the lab sometime before 6:50 in the morning-I'd know, I was in the kitchen, I had the photo shoot to go to, remember? They had it in Johto so I had to be up early," enough of this.

"MAY!" Gary put his hands to his temples in an effort to calm himself down. She's trying . . . Either way, she hadn't told him anything new; that much he couldn't deny. He lowered his voice. "Get on with it, please."

"Fine. Long story short, it had to be between approximately 1:00 and 6:50 in the morning. Couldn't have been earlier because the locks in the lab door would've proven it, not to mention the Pokémon, plus everybody was asleep, so- Okay! Moving on. So, they're still looking through prints and stuff, trying to find a match to find out who broke him outta here. It's a start. Main point, Gary, is we need you to come home." Gary was expecting several things. He was expecting the unsettling feeling that came with the knowledge that Professor Oak has officially been declared "missing". He was prepped for the feeling of anger and impatience towards the officers and media. He was not expecting his sister to ask him to come home. No, force him. He knew his mouth was wide open, but couldn't focus on closing it while many crazy, worst-case-scenarios came and clouded his mind. This unsettled his older sister somewhat, so she cleared it up to the best of her abilities before she had to watch her little brother go into freak-mode.

"It's the Pokémon." She watched ad waited as he regained composure and focus. Gary nodded her on. "They're going insane, more so than usual. We think they might know at least a bit of what's been happening, but no one really knows them enough to understand. You're good with Pokémon, Gary; one of the best. We think that, you know, you might be able to . . . " track down Gramps, the infamous Professor Oak. They both finished the thought in their minds and nodded; they finally had an understanding of what was about to happen. They both simultaneously hung up their phones.

Gary was in a daze for the rest of that day, not even knowing what he packed. His mind was racing so fast that the bits of thoughts that he managed to catch didn't even make any sense, especially when pieced together. It was all such a rush. Next thing he knew, he was standing in front of their mansion.

"Never thought I'd be back in Pallet."

CERULEAN GYM:

"Um, wow. I-Thank you, Thanks so much. I guess I'll see you then," Misty ended her call absentmindedly. The information she had just received was enough to make her forget what had gone down earlier, even Daisy. I can't believe it, she thought in awe. The Pokémon League had called to inform her that during their last evaluation, The Cerulean City Gym had been moved up once again; it was now the number one, hardest gym to defeat throughout the region of Kanto. It had even beaten out Giovanni, despite his amazingly powerful Pokémon. It was quite a feat, they told her. "We are going to hold a parade this coming Sunday in your honor, Miss Waterflower, in the heart of Cerulean City. More likely than not, you will have many visitors from not only other cities and towns, but regions as well. Feel honored, for you are the first gym leader ever to climb from easiest to hardest leader to defeat, and all in a matter of four years." People would come to see her, Misty Waterflower, from all over the world. Misty was overjoyed and oblivious; it felt as time simply ceased to exist. Me, the greatest gym leader in Kanto, she thought. It was almost impossible to believe. Then, out of nowhere a sly smirk crept onto her face as she realized why, exactly, it had been the worst in the first place. Her ego just boosted sky high and she ran back over to her phone to dial a number she knew by heart.

"I've got to tell Daisy."