Don't own it. Tell me mistakes and I'll fix them.
Professor Oak peered through the magnifying glass at the smooth round stone. Flawless. Not just the stone, but the atmosphere as well. It was so peaceful. Crystal and the others were in some other room, looking over the newly arrived specimens. Well, except for Blue. She had weaseled out of work by stating that she had to go take care of Green-sweetie's gym. It wasn't that much of a loss, but the fact that he didn't have his hard-working and down to earth grandson to help out still rankled the professor. Still, it was better than the alternative. Speaking of Green, he and the others must have arrived at their respective job sites. Professor Oak found himself hoping that everything would be okay. He had told Crystal to give them all a job they liked and would do well. The last thing he needed right now was to have to pay off another fire damage insurance price. (A long story. Don't ask.) But then again, he had put Crystal; one of the most mature people he knew, in charge of work division. She wouldn't let anything happen, surely! Professor Oak returned his attention to the colorful sphere, his mind once again at ease.
"What?!" Crystal grimaced as Red's cry sounded. She was having trouble identifying one particular mega stone, a pale blue with black streaks. Emerald had gone off to do the identifying process "somewhere else". She had sent Sapphire after him half an hour ago, and she hadn't come back either.
"Yes, I let Blue divide up the jobs. Look, it's not like I had a choice." She recalled the brunette's evil smile and her feeling of absolute terror.
"But why?" Red asked. He didn't seem to be progressing much with the pile of mega stones he had yet to identify. Crystal gave him a look. "Oh, right. It's Blue." Red fell silent for a few moments, and Crystal managed to finally place the Charizardite X in the identified pile. "But nobody will do jobs Blue suggested. It would be hell on Earth."
"Blue just told me the jobs she wanted everyone to do," Crystal confessed, avoiding Red's gaze by examining a pink mega stone. "I gave out the addresses of their locations." She recalled the she-devil's snickering as she circled jobs on the list.
"You're telling me that they don't know what they'll be doing?"
"Yeah." Red was silent for a moment.
"What's Yellow doing?"
"Nothing dangerous."
"Is it as bad as I think it is? Do I even want to know about it?" Red asked, apprehension in his voice.
"Yes, it is, and no, you don't."
"Should we tell Professor Oak?" At that, Crystal looked up to see the professor hurry by in the hall, a blissful look on his face.
"If I'm right, he'll find out soon enough."
Ruby stared through the crowd, looking in vain for a "Large man in purple, with a beard." He was waiting in Viridian station, the paper with it's address in Crystal's handwriting crumpled in his hand. Whoever it was should hurry up. If Ruby had to witness one more fashion disaster like the woman who just walked by, he might go crazy. He had been shocked to see: overcoat, bright red hair, a bandanna around the mouth, and an orange fedora. Really? It had been almost as bad as wild-girl's tastes. In fact, the whole station clashed, the upholstery on the chairs didn't go with the floor tiles at all.
As he contemplated this, a hand on his shoulder made him turn around. Ruby gaped up at the huge man looming over him. The stranger grinned down at him, his smile showing through his abnormally shaped, snow white beard. But it was not the beard that made Ruby almost have a second heart attack in as many minutes. The man wore a vivid purple T-shirt with faded words over his potbelly, and black cargo pants. A baby blue coat with, God help him, ORANGE shoulders, cuffs, and pockets hung over his shoulders, and a silver locket hung around his neck.
"Hey, are you Oak's kid?" The man said still staring down.
"…What?" Ruby said after a moment, still struggling to comprehend the man's state of dress.
"Are you the kid Oak sent out here?" The man asked again.
"Uh, yes sir. I'm Ruby."
"Outstanding! How's it going kid? I'm Wulfric." The man's bear-paw like hand reached down and crushed Ruby's in its grip as Wulfric shook vigorously.
"Well, best get moving! " And with that, Wulfric turned abruptly around and strode toward the exit. Ruby stared for a moment before jolting and hurrying after him.
"Excuse me, but, where are we going?" Ruby asked, as he tried to keep up with the big man.
The man laughed. "Beats me. They're always moving it around. I hear that they put it somewhere in the forest this year." Ruby paused to absorb that piece of information.
"…Put what in the forest?"
"Oh, I almost forgot!" Wulfric said, coming to an abrupt halt that caused Ruby to crash into him. "I've forgot to give you your shirt. Here you go." Wulfric pulled from his coat pocket the grimiest and ugliest purple shirt Ruby had ever seen. Before he could mouth a word of protest, however, Wulfric had shoved the shirt down onto Ruby, in all its repulsive glory. Ruby glanced down, and found the type on his shirt was also to faded to read.
"Gahh! Sir, I can't wear this!" Ruby wondered if the dirt stains would ever come out of his jacket. He could feel the grime from the rag rubbing off onto the clothes he had underneath.
"You know what, you're right! It is a bit big." Mused Wulfric; observing the sleeves that stretched long beyond Ruby's arms. "I'll get you a new one when we get there. But we better hurry or we'll be late for the bus." And with that, Wulfric dragged a still protesting Ruby over to the bus platform.
A bus ride sitting right next to a sweaty big guy was not on Ruby's list of favorite ways to travel. Wulfric kept grumbling about the heat, saying it was colder where he came from. Ruby's eyes scanned the other passengers. Surprisingly, a majority of them were young children wearing purple T-shirts. Most of them were hopping up and down excitedly, both amusing and annoying the adults on the bus. Though Ruby tried to make out the lettering on the T-shirts, they were moving too much. In the back, Ruby could see bad fashion lady. He looked again incredulously. The lady, at least it looked like a lady, was still wearing an overcoat in the middle of June! Whoever they were, they still had that blue bandanna tied over their mouth too. Wait…a blue bandanna?
Before Ruby could pursue that disturbing line of thought, some of the children let out shouts. As far as Ruby could tell, the bus was in the middle of nowhere, but everybody was climbing off. Following Wulfric, Ruby stepped down onto the ground where he had his third horrible surprise of the day, and this one was by far the worst. In the current clearing, tents were pitched everywhere there was room, situated around fire pits. Adults in purple T-shirts went through the kids, reading off names from clipboards. Ruby realized with horror he could finally read the lettering on the horrid purple things: CAMP CATERPIE, in all caps. "Now where is the counselor sign up?" Wulfric wondered from beside him.
Gold looked up at the building and then back at the paper in his hand. Yes, he was in the right place. The building was nestled in the Viridian city suburbs, very out of the way. The place was plain and gray; almost nothing about the inside could be gleaned from looking at it. Never one for hesitating, Gold strode through the front door.
The inside had polished floors and white walls. Nearby, a man in a white coat sat behind a counter, reading. The man looked up.
"Hello are you Professor Oak's understudy?"
"Uh, …yeah! Sure."
"Excellent!" The man hurried out from behind the counter, a large smile in place. "It's such an honor to meet you! I'm told all of the professor's Poke-dex holders are brilliant! True masters in their fields!"
"Well, not ALL of us." Gold replied, thinking of a certain red-haired individual. "But I certainly am! In fact, I'm the best of all of them. Well, maybe Red's a better battler, but I'm definitely the greatest after him!" The man did not seem put out by Gold's bragging; in fact he looked delighted.
"Splendid! Now, if you'll just follow me." Gold trailed after the man down a side hall stemming from the rear of the room. "I guess I had better explain your duties, but a bit of background information would probably be helpful too. As you most likely know, our original facility was destroyed on Cinnabar Island, so we had to relocate…"
Gold felt his mind drifting. The only decorations on the walls were diagrams spouting science gibberish. Too bad there weren't any pretty girls here. Although he had to admit, not many girls could look good in a lab-coat. Kris pulled it off, though. Boy did she ever.
"…long time to build. We even got a special consultant to visit from Sinnoh! But anyway, the fossil reanimation process is often more…"
Gold was starting to wonder when lunch was. He had come straight here from prof's, and it was almost noon. He really needed some fuel. Exbo and the others would probably want something too. Then maybe he could see if Viridian had a game corner.
"…radiation speeds the carbon dating. Ah, this is where you'll be working primarily." The man stopped at a room filled with machines. A caped man stood by one of them, monitoring one of the devices. "Hello Byron! This is the young man I mentioned to you. Gold, this our special consultant, Byron." The caped man turned around, revealing construction pants and a tank top. His purple hair stuck out all over the place.
"Gwahahaha, so you're one of the professor's prodigies, are you?" The man grinned at Gold, hefting his shovel (Why did he have a shovel?) to his shoulder.
"Yes, and this one's great!" The man in the white coat replied. "He didn't have a single question during my explanation. Understood everything perfectly!"
"Really?" Byron looked interested. "And you are?"
"The name's Gold."
"That's great. It's nice to see young people getting into fossils. Why I remember my son, Roark…"
How were the others doing? Their jobs had to be more interesting than this one had been, so far. Kris would eat this stuff up though. Oh man, Kris would kill him if she found out he wasn't listening!
"…better be taking my leave. They want me to make an appearance at Camp Caterpie. You know, gym leaders supporting the children and all that. Anyways, good luck with your work, Gold." Byron gave one final nod and left the room. The man in the white coat turned back to Gold.
"I should probably let you get to work, too. Those rock layers aren't going to oxidize themselves!" Then the white-coated man left too, leaving Gold in a room with dozens of expensive machines, and no idea what he was supposed to be doing.
Yellow looked with relief on the building that she would be working in. It didn't look that bad. It was a townhouse style building in the heart of Viridian City, and was painted a nice lavender color. Several circular tables with chairs sat outside the open door. Upon entering, Yellow found more tables, though most were empty.
"Hey, are you the new employee?" Yellow looked around to see a smiling woman leaning on a counter.
"Y-yes ma'am."
"That's great. The name is Suzanna, and I'm the owner." Suzanna had walked around the counter and now clomped Yellow on the back in greeting. "What's your name kid?"
"Yellow ma'am." Yellow replied. "Is this a restaurant, ma'am?"
"Well, technically, it's a café. You'll be working as one of our servers. Let me show you the back." Yellow followed her new employer to a door leading into what she assumed was a kitchen.
"Where is everyone?" Yellow asked, looking around at the near empty place. Indeed, the only customers were a trio in the back who seemed to be finishing off a buffet, at least according to the number of dirty dishes piling up. Well, the one in the red burette was finishing up. The dark-haired girl and the blond boy were just watching him.
"The lunch rush usually happens around one-ish, so the staff is busy preparing." said Suzanna, leading Yellow through the kitchen to a door in the back.
"Ms. Suzanna!" A girl, maybe two years older than Yellow, hurried from the seating area. "I think we're all out of salmon! Veronica forgot to pick some up when she went shopping. While Suzanna and the girl discussed the intricacies of preparing their dishes without salmon, Yellow stared at the girl's dress. Black and white, with ruffles and lace. She looked like one of those cleaning ladies Yellow had glimpsed in one of Gold's magazines. What were they called? Oh, maids.
"…back to work!" Suzanna called as the girl rushed off to fulfill her employer's demands. Sighing, Suzanna turned back to Yellow.
"Well, here's the changing room. You better get dressed." And with that she grabbed a dress similar to the girls of a nearby hook, and shoved it into a flustered Yellow's arms.
That's it. Someone was going to die. Silver's eye twitched as he gazed up at the tackiest building on the street. It was bright purple, with bright orange window frames, though none of this particularly bothered Silver. No, what he took issue with, was the sign plastered over the top of the shop in bright red letters. "BINKY BASTIODON'S ARCADE AND PIZZA PARLOR" Next to the off-putting letters was a cartoon caricature of the Pokémon, looking sickeningly happy. The whole display made Silver want to lose his breakfast. Yes, there was going to be blood. Whose it would be was still up for grabs.
Silver turned and was prepared to turn around, head back to the lab, and tell Crystal and the professor where they could stick their $#*&ing address, when his pokegear rang. Looking at the caller ID, he recognized Blue's number. This left him with a new dilemma. Silver loved his sister-figure more than anything in the world, but the fact that she was calling him did not bode well. Love and common sense fought bitterly within Silver's mind as he decided to answer.
"Silver, sweetie," Blue purred. "I just wanted to ask you, you've been in Green's gym, right? Where do you think the best place for a ball pit would be?"
"…The north-east corner?"
"Excellent! What about a trampoline?"
"…Somewhere along the south wall."
"That's perfect!" Blue exclaimed, self-satisfaction seeping from her voice. "By the way, are you working yet? We don't want to let Professor Oak down, do we?" Silver considered his options. Tell the truth, and most likely be forced to go inside the horrifying structure, or lie and avoid it for at least a little while.
"Yes, I'm there." He replied. Not even a lie, technically.
"Yes Silver, you are there, but you are not 'inside'. Get in there, or Gold might accidently find out that you talk about skitties in your sleep." Silver closed his eyes from the realization that she could see him, before once again considering his choices. Total humiliation in front of his arch-nemesis, or total humiliation that hopefully no one but Blue would ever find out about. Plus option one included crossing Blue. He wisely decided on the second course of action.
"Fine." Silver ground out. Blue stated her approval with a delighted squeal before hanging up. Silver turned back to face the building. Slowly, he started for the door. He honestly considered running, but Blue would find out. She always found out.
The inside was almost worse than the outside, if that were possible. Booths lined the walls, and an arcade section was roped off at the back. A man with black hair and glasses and wearing overalls with a green shirt, stood at the front counter and glanced up as Silver entered.
"You look a little old to be coming to a place like this, son." The man stated good-naturedly. The withering look Silver gave him would have made a stampede of Tauros beeline back the way they came. The man suddenly seemed interested in the buttons on his shirt. "Y-you m-must be the…the new employee. I'm Dan… n-nice to…meet you." Silver's glare didn't let up. Dan gulped. "Lyra! Get out here and get this kid a uniform!" Something zoomed from the back rooms and nearly crashed into Silver. Upon second glance, it became apparent that the object was actually a girl with brown hair pulled into pigtails, chocolate brown eyes, (Though why did he notice?) who was also wearing overalls, though hers were cut-off at the thigh, and a red shirt.
The newcomer beamed at Silver, completely oblivious to the 'don't come near me' vibe he was giving off. "Hi! I'm Lyra!" She said holding out her hand. "Who are you?" Silver continued to glare. Lyra continued to smile widely, not letting her hand drop.
"Silver." He finally stated, because quite honestly, her unfaltering smile was starting to creep him out. He made no move to shake her hand though.
"Great! It's so nice to meet you! Well, we better get you dressed!" And before Silver could blink, she had grabbed his jacket and pulled him into the back. Once there, she hurriedly selected a pair of overalls from a hanger and a bright orange T-shirt and held them up to him.
"Yup! These will fit!" Silver looked at the wardrobe choices with disgust.
"I'm not wearing that." Lyra looked crestfallen.
"But why?" She asked as though she couldn't believe anybody wouldn't want to dress up like an idiot.
"Because."
"Please?" She gave him puppy-dog eyes that had absolutely no effect on him. Really.
"No."
Silver exited the room a few minutes later wearing an orange shirt with overalls, and by the look on his face, was ready to eviscerate someone. Dan scooted away with a whimper. "Awesome! I'll show you the register!" Lyra said excitedly as she dragged Silver off, completely oblivious to the dark aura surrounding him. Yes, someone was definitely going to die.
Green looked down at what appeared to be a fairground and almost had a brain aneurism. Booths and rides were set up in a clearing a little ways onto route 22. Posters advertising Viridian's summer festival were posted everywhere physically possible. Deciding he might as well check with the information booth before flat out leaving, he started into the clearing. People traveled all around, goggling at the attractions. The smell of fat-fried food was pungent in the air. At the desk, a young lady chatted on her cell phone. Her eyes widened when she saw Green, and she quickly ended her conversation.
"Hey, you're Green Oak right?" The girl smiled at him. "We were told you would be coming to help."
"And…who said that?" Green asked quietly.
"Your girlfriend. She called ahead." Girlfriend, huh.
"And what did she sound like?"
"Sound like?" The girl looked confused. "Uh, nice voice I guess. She giggled a lot." Giggled a lot. Damn. "Anyway, I should give you a tour of the fairgrounds." The girl got up and started out of the tent, looking at Green to follow. Green briefly wondered how counter-productive it would be to go in the opposite direction. But if he was reading the situation correctly, he was going to be doing whatever he was here for anyway. Might as well accept it now.
As Green followed the chattering girl, she started to explain some of the new features of the fair. "I know you live around here, so you probably know all of the usual attractions. Well, this year, we've got Sabrina, the gym leader of Saffron doing a fortune telling booth. We were lucky to get her! Let's see, a man named Brawly was in town and agreed to do a test-your-strength booth. We even got a company of Pokémon actors and their manager to come from Unova! And, I just want to say, it is such an honor to have Viridian's gym leader working at the city's fair." The girl abruptly stopped, causing Green to look at the structure in front of them. "This is the ride you'll run, at least for today. Your girlfriend told us you would like it." The building was long and pink, with a long line already waiting to enter. The sign said 'Tunnel of Love'.
Damn.
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