Fourth chapter; Woo! Sorry it took awhile, but I'm having exams.
Any questions, I'll answer them. Any requests or tips, I'll try put them to good use!
DISCLAIMER: I OWN NONE OF THE CHARACTERS USED, THIS IS PURELY FAN-BASED.
After that, Red wandered the area and stumbled into an Apartment block known as 'Celadon Mansion' so he investigated it thoroughly and at the very top, a nice man handed him a new member of his team known as an Eevee and a drink for later. It was a cute, normal type Pokémon that Bill had told him about and Red laughed as it sat on his head, its tail whipping Pikachu in the face constantly much to the Pikachu's irritation.
"Well, I can't keep you around right now little guy... You mind staying with Porygon, Mankey, Drowzee and the others?"
The Eevee chimed with an adorable 'meow' –like sound and Red took it to send to Professor Oak.
Afterwards, Red just laughed out of pure joy, surrounded by his Pokémon and soon he found himself by Celadon Gym next to a perverted man, whom was staring into the gym muttering about pretty girls.
Red shrugged, and took down all the Gym Trainers, with the goal in mind to take down Erika and obtain the Rainbow Badge.
"Hello, lovely weather isn't it...? It's so pleasant."
Red smiled, Erika was a pretty lady.
"Yes, it is... but I came not to discuss the weather with you, Miss Erika."
"Oh, dear... I must have dozed off a little there. Welcome."
"Thank you very much."
"I am Erika of Celadon City Gym, I am a student of the art of flower arranging, and reigning gym leader over grass-types – I didn't realize you wanted to challenge me... so be it, but I shall not lose."
"I'm afraid you'll have to!"
Pikachu jumped from behind Red's back, startling Erika's first Pokémon; Weepinbell shuffled back slightly and lashed its whip-like tail at the small mouse-like Pokémon. Pikachu growled and its attack came quick and swift, in the form of a Thunderbolt knocking the Weepinbell back but the Weepinbell's tail wrapped round the normal-type and coughed up purple particles, poisoning him before tossing the Pikachu aside.
"Pikachu!" Red stumbled for an antidote, grabbing it and healing his Pikachu.
"Come on buddy, let's finish her Weepinbell!"
Red whispered to his Pikachu, and gave it a high five before letting the electric mouse jump from his arm into the air.
"Go Pikachu! Use, um... Use Thunder!"
The electricity scorched the Weepinbell tremendously, and was scarcely breathing until Erika returned it.
"Well done, Red... but can your little spark beat this one?"
A Tangela entered the beautiful indoor garden arena, only to be greeted underneath with another Thunder attack followed up quickly by Slam before it had a chance to attack.
Because of frying the second Pokémon Erika had, she only had her ace in the hole left and Pikachu was poisoned once again in the second battle. Red thought carefully, before returning his comrade back to his shoulder and threw a second pokéball into the air revealing a fearsome fire dragon – Charizard – into the garden arena, the flame on its tail scorching a few of the plants.
A grass–type, Gloom, stared up and clenched itself before without warning, Erika barked out an order.
"Acid, Gloom!"
"Dodge it, Charizard!"
The fire-type soared down off the tree but as it flew ahead and past the Gloom, out of the flower came a burst of violet purple acid burnt the skin of his friend.
"Damn, recover using Flamethrower!"
Fearow, still in pain, glided in a U-Turn and then breathed out an immense amount of fire at the Grass-Type with a Flamethrower attack, blowing it backwards as it squealed in pain before picking it up.
"Gloom, stun it with Stun Spore!"
Orange-yellow dusty particles now spurted out of the flower centre, stunning the wings of the Charizard as it glided towards a crash, the dragon's grip on the flower Pokémon was slipping.
"Use Slash, don't let it go!"
The Charizard slashed at the grass-type before crashing with Erika's Gloom into the ground, causing dust to fly everywhere.
Charizard, paralyzed still, spread its wings weakly and flew towards Red and was absorbed by the red beam into the pokéball; When the dust cleared, Gloom was there, knocked out. Erika returned her defeated partner and looked towards Red with a gentle smile, accepting her defeat graciously.
"I concede defeat; I confer the Rainbow Badge to you, Red." – "Thank you, Miss Erika..."
"Oh, Red, take this with you too – I could sense you had a grass-type in your team and this will be handy – it's Mega Drain."
Red took the TM, slowly walked out before teaching it to his Ivysaur.
Black cap, black uniform, bright red 'R' embodied onto his shirt. He dashed past, like a Rapidash, and caught Red's attention automatically.
"Team Rocket!"
'Oh, so you give chase then?'
"Well, they're criminals and that is reason enough to chase him down!"
'You've grown mature...'
Red stopped giving chase as he entered the automatic doors of the arcade. He peered round to see the grunt near a poster. Approaching, he startled the grunt with little effort.
"W-What are you...? Stay away from this poster!"
"Poster? Why?"
"Go away now, or else!"
Red sent out his Ivysaur after a Raticate launched towards his face, fangs angrily bared but not anger towards Red but towards the pain and abuse, it felt from its trainer. Red's Ivysaur tangled its vines around the brown rat's body and squeezed tightly as two more emerged from the bulb and whipped it but this only proved more aggravation on the Raticate's part.
It struggled but Red took the opportunity to shout a command, trying not to concentrate on the Scary Face the normal type was making at them both.
Ivysaur took his time draining energy out of the Raticate until it hit unconsciousness, in which he dropped it gently to the floor using Giga Drain, and then as soon as it was returned and a lowly Zubat was sent out, it knocked it out cold instantly with a Vine Whip attack.
"I better go run and tell the Boss!" yelped the Grunt as he ran off into a hidden passageway.
Red stared at the poster, and fumbled around before noticing a button and pressing it instantly; it revealed a stairway down to a basement.
The boy looked round and explored the place, confused by the maze, which was the Team Rocket Hideout. Encountering and alarming many of the grunts turned out to be a bad idea.
"You broke into Team Rocket's operation?"
"I didn't break into anything!"
"Who are you? How did you get here?"
"I... I don't know anymore..."
"Boss says you can see ghosts with the Silph Scope..."
"Do ghosts even exist?"
"Why did you come here?"
"I... It felt like the right thing to do..."
Red battled his way through grunts, and when turning round to pick up an item nearby that may prove useful a bright light engulfed his Ivysaur. A sharp pain went through Red's neck as he spun round swiftly to encounter the final evolutionary form of Bulbasaur... His Ivysaur was a Venusaur.
"Wow... You're a Venusaur now! Sweet, I have all three fully evolved starters!"
He praised and petted the head of his fully-grown companion, and returned him to his pokéball before continuing to take down grunts in hopes of getting to the bottom of this Rocket mystery.
Red turned his attention back to the grunt he just defeated.
"Now, how do I get to your boss?"
"O-Okay, I'll talk, I'll talk; you have to take the elevator... but you need a card key to get it working..."
Red nodded, thanked him for the information and left to wipe out all the other grunts on the floors.
"Intruder alert!"
"You intrude on the peace of Pokémon and humans alike!"
"We got word you were coming from upstairs!"
"Doesn't make no difference though, does it?"
Red approached another grunt, he looked anxious and paranoid.
"You, do you have the way to get the elevator's working?"
The grunt jumped, obviously startled.
"The elevator isn't working? Who has the lift key? It isn't me, oh no, not me, definitely mistaken but it's okay – your journey and trouble-making must end here!"
"Don't think so."
Red released his Venusaur again, and almost instantly, it sliced scars into the Koffing's body but poison from a Sludge bomb etched into Red's Pokémon, causing him to grit his teeth.
"Use Mega Drain!"
Venusaur lashed out his whips, and eventually latched onto the floating gas chamber, draining it all of its energy, causing it to faint.
Red's Pikachu nudged Red with its tail before launching forth into the air above the now released Zubat, then with the absorbed energy of the surrounding electrical appliances, shocked it with a rippling Thunderbolt.
"No!"
Red stepped forward to the collapsed grunt, which fell backwards, and held his hand out.
The grunt scrambled upwards and ran off, before realizing, he had dropped the key but when he turned back, to see Red holding it he just gave up and ran off.
Red went down to the second floor again, and took the elevator to the fourth floor.
Red ran out of the elevator and onto the fourth floor. He was just about to advance when two figures, familiar ones, gave chase.
"You!" yelled the male with a blue jaw-length bob grabbed Red's wrist while his partner with long red hair down to her rear grabbed his other arm.
"How dare you humiliate us at Mt. Moon!" He continued yelling only to be silenced by his partner.
"It's payback time, you brat!" spat the woman, like venom.
Sending out Koffing and Ekans again, like last time, made it easy for Red to predict their moves. He sent out his Charizard and Blastoise to fight them off.
"Charizard, Flamethrower and Blastoise, Skull Bash!"
Koffing covered it and Ekans in smoke using Smokescreen, confusing the Pokémon before using Sludge Bomb on Charizard but Blastoise took the hit for its comrade.
"Blastoise, are you okay? Charizard! Flamethrower again!"
Charizard helped Blastoise up, before blasting an intense river of fire at the poison-type Pokémon.
"Wrap attack, Ekans!"
"Bash its skull in, Blastoise!"
Blastoise waited for the Ekans to wrap tightly around the giant water-type and smashed its head into the serpent causing it to fall into its partner, Koffing. The two fell into their trainers and fainted.
Jessie and James, as they were known, helped each other up after pushing aside their Pokémon as they sent their Meowth out.
Red and his Pikachu exchanged looks before Red threw him Pokémon in the air onto the back of the Charizard that hovered in the air above them all.
"Pikachu..."
Jessie and James gulped.
"Use thunder!"
Pikachu summoned all the electricity it could, and launched it out in a mass Thunder attack, knocking out not only the Pokémon around them, minus Red's team, and Jessie and James.
"Let's go, I need to know what is going on..."
Red led his team towards the final room. The big boss. He was going to find out what was happening.
Red stole his hat back from his Pikachu's head, which had shocked both the grunts guarding their Boss, but only a mild shock so they and their Pokémon were paralyzed.
One of them stared at Red.
"You... are going to ruin our plans again... Damn you..." he murmured, and eventually passed out from pain. Red kneeled down and put his bag underneath the grunt's head that he remembered from Mt. Moon.
Opening the door after tending to the passed out Grunt, and approached a middle-aged man with short brown hair that was receding slightly at the sides was seated on a large sofa, one arm overthrown on the back with the other resting on the top of the couch holding a Pokéball.
"So! I must say, I am impressed you got here." He said with a tone of actual surprise, as he rolled the pokéball between his large, rough fingers.
Red glared at the smug expression on the face of the Team Rocket Boss.
"What are you trying to accomplish?"
"Oh... well, I'll let you know since you've come this far. Team Rocket captures Pokémon from around the world, my boy as they're important tools to keep our criminal enterprise going..."
"Yeah well, who are you to do this?"
"I am Giovanni, Team Rocket Leader. Yourself?"
"Red of Pallet Town!"
'Take him down, Red.'
"And I'm going to stop your plan, I'm going to destroy Team Rocket and save Kanto from your schemes!"
Giovanni frowned, and stood up.
"How insolent... For that, you will feel a world of pain!"
The pokéball hit the ground, almost smashing with the brutal force, it was treated and slowly, with the same angry force came out a Pokémon known as Onix. Red's Venusaur from behind him stepped forward and kept steady, wise eyes on the stone snake as the rigid body slithered around the living plant.
The Venusaur wait until it was aiming to attack, and as it charged forward, horn first, a burst of razor-sharp leaves attacked it, cutting and slicing up the face of the rock-type. A barrage on the Onix's body followed as it attempted to tackle the blue-green Pokémon but unsuccessfully in its blind rage.
The angered man's frown creased further back into his skull, his eyes burning with irritation and frustration beyond Red's true understanding of the emotions; His dream was been pushed back by a mere child and his companions – impossible, had thought Giovanni. He had thought this child would show cowardice but instead he was familiar, a lot like the son he abandoned. Giovanni chuckled, seeing his redheaded son in the eyes of Red; Brave to stand up to the elder, and yet in fear of the unknowing.
He did not notice a Rhyhorn pop almost casually and confidently out of its holding place in the red-white ball, and seemingly threatening a big turtle with cannons in its shell. The two circled each other, dodging random attacks of pressurized water and charging rotating horns.
The Blastoise charged forward and glided past the Rhyhorn unexpectedly, Blastoise blasted it onto its feet using Water Gun.
"Blastoise, Skull Bash then Water Gun!"
The Blastoise started a strong run-up before smashing his skull head first into the Rhyhorn. The Rhyhorn was forced into the air by the impact.
Half way through the process, it started to thrash hitting the Blastoise in the face with a large Stomp of its armoured foot when it got too close. The Blastoise fell backwards, as Rhyhorn kicked it in the stomach. The Rhyhorn dropped down heavy, injuring itself and the floor underneath it, making a miniscule crater that almost dragged Red and Giovanni down into it with the steel armoured Pokémon.
"Blastoise, Bubblebeam!"
Blastoise glared before coating the room around Rhyhorn and Blastoise in bubbles, popping each one with a blast of water causing them to explode, knocking the armoured Pokémon about. Blastoise, almost consumed by power, repeatedly set off the explosive bubbles that sent the Rhyhorn into the surrounding walls despite Red's protests.
"Pika, Pi!" Red's Pikachu attempted to soothe the water-type.
"Blastoise! Blastoise, please stop now!"
Tears trickled down Red's face, and the Blastoise dropped the Rhyhorn from its grip turning to his trainer and looked almost apologetic in its unreadable eyes. It returned to Red's side, crying almost and tried to make comforting noise to stop Red's trembling as he stared at the half-dead Rhyhorn that lay before him in the crater it made beforehand.
"Pathetic creature... but yours..."
Red's sad eyes turned angry, almost like fire.
"Blastoise..."
The turtle looked up, in curiosity.
"Throw it. Make sure it hits him." Mumbled Red so only the Blastoise could hear; His eyes were fired up, full of rage and anger. Fire seemed to be in control of Red's actions, he seemed to be a Hero – he was going to protect the Pokémon of Kanto from this monster, Giovanni. At least, Fire was.
'You can call upon me for strength, Red.'
"You are insane..."
'Insanity is the key to my strength, and besides, for you to create me you must be insane.'
"That makes sense..."
'Of course it does, embrace your insanity and release me; I'll take you places you wish to be – I will make you the person everybody wants to be, and the person Blue wants for himself. I will make you his and I will make you strong.'
All it took was those words.
"Okay."
Therefore, Red unlocked the doors to his mind, and allowed insanity to take over.
FLASHBACK – FLASHBACK – FLASHBACK – FLASHBACK – FLASHBACK – FLASHBACK- FLASHBACK - FLASHBACK - FLASHBACK - FLASHBACK - FLASHBACK - FLASHBACK
Red lingered in Vermillion City a bit longer, sitting with his legs swinging off the docks next to the person who made his heart both race and ache; Blue.
Blue was watching the S.S. Anne in the distance, a look of loss in his eyes but replaced quickly by a sturdy, cold gaze as he tilted his head back at an angle to see Red's smiling face.
"Thanks for sitting here with me, Red..." he muttered, his eyes focusing on Red's fingertips and how warm they were compared to his own as they grazed against one another.
"Not at all! – I did beat you in our battles every time, so this is the least I could do!" a chorus of laughter filled the empty tension between them before Red's smile fell only a bit. "But really, it's nice doing this... it's like we're kids again."
"We aren't kids, Red."
"I know, I know... it's just... I feel like I've lost you a little, you know?"
Blue stared, a layer of surprise under his ice mask, with intensity before turning away with flushed cheeks.
"I wouldn't know."
Blue and Red continued to stare at the sunset, in complete silence with no tension and no emotion passing between them.
Until Blue felt warmth clutching his hand, Red was holding his hand. Why was he holding his hand? Why didn't Blue pull away?
Blue's mind raced with questions, his face flustered red.
"Hey, Blue..."
Blue turned, stammering for a response or an excuse or something to get Red to let go. His stutters and incomplete sentences were pulled from his mouth and tossed into the air as Red's lips brushed against Blue's in a chaste, sweet kiss that made Blue's chapped, icy lips tingle ever so slightly like static electricity... no, raw electricity – pure heavy voltage.
"Blue, I-" Red muttered against Blue's lips until he was pushed onto his back, sprawled on the deck.
"You freak! What do you think you're doing?"
Blue's face with flustered, with embarrassment and rage, as he wiped vigorously at his mouth to prove a point to Red.
"I just thought..."
"You thought wrong! I'm not some fag, and definitely not for you!"
Red sat upright and reached for Blue, in hopes of maybe reaching for his heart, but was swatted away angrily. He let his hand drop and his eyes glazed over, full of sorrow and rejection.
Blue left him there that night.
Red was left rejected, hurt and broken.
Blue ran away confused, enraged and...
In denial?
END OF FLASHBACK – END OF FLASHBACK – END OF FLASHBACK – END OF FLASHBACK - END OF FLASHBACK - END OF FLASHBACK - END OF FLASHBACK
The Blastoise captured the unconscious Rhyhorn in its clutches and upon 'Fire Red's command' threw it towards Giovanni, but he dove out of the way and a sly looking cat Pokémon, Persian, popped out of its pokéball protectively shielding Giovanni. Red panicked slightly, pushing Fire back into the depths of his mind and returned his Blastoise, allowing his Charizard to be released and stand against the large monster.
The Persian growled slightly, before whipping its tail towards the fire dragon only for it to be grabbed, tossed and a Slash attack to bring it further into the flooring.
The luxury cat-type confused to the whereabouts bashed its furry tail into the dirt only to make the Charizard burn it with Ember, as Persian shook it off but was greeted by a tightened grip, and a dizzy flight into the air before kissing the ground with its face again in a Seismic Toss.
The Persian smirked, withstanding the fighting style just before breaking through dizzy feeling and using Pay Day attack on Charizard. Charizard stumbled back, shielding itself from the coins and created a miniature crater, where he stood his ground.
"Don't worry, Charizard! You can do it!"
Grabbing the Persian as it dodged and bit at the fire dragon, before critically burning it with Ember again, singeing its fur to a black colour.
Red panted slightly, letting out the breath he had been holding in as he returned his Charizard; his gaze met Giovanni's enraged but impressed one, not that the man would admit it.
"What? This can't be..."
Giovanni shook his head, and returned both Pokémon to their respected pokéballs giving a slight growl at the devices before casting his eyes on an uneasy, exhausted Red.
"I see... you raise your Pokémon with the utmost care. A child like you would never understand what I hope to achieve..."
"What do you hope to achieve, Giovanni?" Red resorted, trying to get on the same level of understanding.
"I shall step aside for now, I just hope we meet again... this was an amusing source of entertainment for me. I hope we meet again... Red."
Red went to grab the man, his hand outstretched but never reaching.
"Hideout base escape defensive system, active – Smokescreen."
"Smokescreen activated."
Within a couple of minutes, the entire of the hideout was encased in smoke; as it began to clear, Red's coughing ceased to see a scope of some sorts, it had SILPH CO. painted permanently on the side in white so it would stand out against the yellow-orange colour of the scope's body. He obtained it, remembering something about Silph been in Saffron City and it been able to see ghosts or something...?
Ghosts.
"Pokémon Tower..."
Red wandered into Pokémon Tower, ascending the first set of stairs; He wanted to try out this Silph Scope to see if it really worked and if ghosts were real – after all, he was sure Giovanni had left it intentionally for him to use.
He looked up to see Blue, he was fairly surprised and was just about to greet him with joy when he saw tears streaming his face which looked exhausted, and pale. Almost sickly green.
Blue jumped a little when Red hissed, having hurt his foot against a dent in the floor and almost tripping; "Oh hey, Red!" he tried to sound confident, and cocky but sounded rather broke. His voice cracking a little.
He wiped his tears, almost looked like they were not there to wipe to begin with.
"So what brings you here?" a sneer. "Is your Pokémon dead?" Red heard him click his tongue, almost like a repeat in his brain as it echoed.
"Well hey, look at that, it's alive." He laughed, almost bitterly as Red's Pikachu made its presence known.
His laughter died out and he took out his pokéballs, two in each hand with the exception to a fifth still attached to his belt; "At least, I can make them faint... Let's go Red!"
Blue's Fearow flapped its wings immediately, and sent a gust at Red's Pikachu knocking it backwards off Red's shoulder.
"Pikachu, are you okay?"
The electric rodent stood on its hind legs and charged an electric current before mass-producing a shockwave that shocked everything, even the trainers, in the room. The Fearow became paralyzed and before it could even try to react, was met with a small furry body to the beak, jolting its neck back so hard that it passed out.
Blue gritted his teeth as Red called back his Pikachu.
Venusaur versus Shellder was next up; a simple battle between the weakest members of either party. It ended rather quickly on Venusaur's part with a quick Razor Leaf fainting the poor water-type. An instant win.
Blastoise went up against Blue's Vulpix, a battle that interested Blue knowing the water-type was a huge powerhouse in Red's team.
"Vulpix, focus!"
The Kadabra's eyes gazed and it focused on its target carefully.
However, Red had other plans – "Use Bite then Water Gun!"
The bite made the vixen Pokémon flinch and run away only to be caught in a vortex of water, but still standing – only just – the Vulpix sent a spiral of weak flames at the Blastoise that just shook them off.
"Try again, Blastoise – Use Water Gun!"
Blastoise sent out a large burst of water from its cannons and as it hit the Vulpix causing it to swing out of focus, the two trainers witnessed it been smashed into a wall and tombstones, damaging the tower even more with their battle.
Blue resorted to his ground-type Pokémon, while Red kept out his Blastoise – It was another quick battle that consisted of Blastoise powering down the Sandshrew with multiple blasts of Water Gun attacks.
"Okay then, my last resort; Eevee!"
Red released his Charizard out, and gulped; Blue's entire team had changed – their faces once filled with innocent curiosity of other Pokémon and the world around them was morphed into a great distrust of Red, and an unleash on its strength.
Charizard, standing taller than the feline, pushed through his fears and with Red's orders flying about the room, wrapped its hands around the tiny, darting Pokémon eventually and as the Eevee whom thrashed recklessly kicking out at the fire dragon Pokémon, Charizard scorched an immense amount of health from the normal-type that it was unfair.
"Venusaur... put Eevee out of its misery, use Slash!"
The sharp cutting claws like daggers, sliced at the normal-type but only enough damage to knock the Pokémon into a slumber.
Red looked on, ignoring Blue's anger and pent-up frustration, and stared at the Pokémon that lay defeated at his hands, unable to look Blue in the eyes.
"I'm sorry; Blue... forgive me, please."
"I took it easy on you... that is all!"
Red mumbled an apology, both to Blue before standing up, stumbling over to Blue exhausted and leaned into Blue.
Blue coughed slightly, a blush spreading on his cheeks as he pushed Red back but steadied him by holding him upright by the shoulders.
The orange-brunette sighed, and sat Red down in his lap as he slept without really thinking after he seated himself against his Rattata's tombstone.
"You're an idiot, Red..."
By the time, Red was deep into his sleep to the point of mumbling; Blue was released of most of his anger and enjoyed the moment. He would not admit it though.
When Red awoke, Blue had left him to sleep in the cold tower alone. Red smiled, blushing slightly as he found a note addressed to him scribbled quickly and the ink still not fully dried up.
It summarized Blue's feelings towards the moment they had together, and how he wished he could return to those times. Red frowned, frustrated by that but as he read on, he lightened up.
Blue had also put that his Pokémon were in good care – not as they had seemed before, and he would tell stories of their times together, and how maybe – just maybe – the two trainers could keep in contact when Blue became champion. Red laughed, knowing how confident Blue was about their shared goal.
A howl and feminine cackles echoed throughout Pokémon Tower, and so, Red ascended upwards defeating all human foes in a Pokémon battle in where no harm was truly done to reach the top of the mystery known as Pokémon Tower.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter; I tried hard since it is difficult but yay, Blue is returning some of those feelings to Red admittedly!