Renny: I just had this thought- I should probably write down all my ideas for this fic.
Green: Might help with actually writing it if you know where half of it's going.
Renny: Well, I managed fifty-odd chapters of Redemption before I gave up entirely, so I should be able to get to about twenty before I lose the plot.
Green: As in lose your mind?
Renny: No, as in lose the plot. Of this story. Disclaimer!
Green: Renny doesn't own pokemon.
Renny: On with the show!
OOOOOO
Green had finally figured out what the glass ball was.
First of all, it was pretty tough to break into. There were several small holes for the pokemon to breathe with, and the top where Tick had been shoved through.
It also bound him, so Tick couldn't use any of his attacks or abilities- limited though they were- and Green couldn't break the thing open without hurting Tick. He needed the key. That was the only safe way to get the stupid thing open.
This was annoying him. Greatly.
Also Red wouldn't stop staring at him, and Blue kept glancing at him every now and then.
That was annoying too, but at least he could do something about that.
"What?" Green snapped, half an hour after they'd been captured.
See? Told you he was annoyed.
"Nothing, it's just . . ." Blue trailed off and glanced at Red.
"You're perfectly fine." Red finished.
"So?" Green demanded waspishly.
"So . . . you were hit on the head with the bottom of a sword hard enough to give someone a concussion, and you're perfectly fine." Blue said. "How are you perfectly fine?"
"He didn't hit as hard as he thought he did." Green muttered, not even taking his eyes off Tick, who was huddled up to Green as close as the ball would allow him. "I acted. Pretended I was hurt more than I actually was. Made them let their guards down. Do I need to say it in Latin?"
"Okay, okay, calm down!" Red snorted. "Who even speaks Latin, anyway?"
"Ego facere, vos stultus asinus!" Green snapped. "Ego simulata ut laesistis!"
"Apparently he does." Blue said. "Fair enough."
"Fine, so you acted. But I've seen pain, and you looked pretty much in pain to me." Red went on.
Shut the hell up already, Green thought angrily.
Red looked like Green had slapped him. Wait, did he say that out loud or-
No, he hadn't said it out loud. So . . . did that mean he said it with telepathy?
Huh. Well okay then. Looked like he was getting better at it. Or maybe it was just anger fueling his power. That was probably the case, most people and pokemon got a hell of a lot more powerful when anger was a crutch for them. Not a nice crutch, but it helped.
Toni came back over from some small joint room she'd been checking out, because this was a storage room and for all they knew it might hold a few pokeballs that weren't empty- hopefully something powerful.
"I don't wanna alarm anyone," she began casually. "But there's a body in there."
Green's head snapped up. "You what?" he demanded.
Okay, maybe there wasn't any pokemon.
He, Red and Blue got up to go and look.
"Well, I said there was a body." Toni shrugged, following them in.
There was a cardboard cut-out of some dude, crumpled in most places and ripped in a few more, lying on the floor near some cardboard boxes.
Green turned to glare at Toni.
"I didn't exactly specify what kind." she went on shamelessly.
"You," Green practically growled. "Are hopeless."
"No I'm not, I'm T- Phoebe."
"You've been waiting this whole time to make that joke, haven't you?" Green sighed.
"Yep."
Despite himself, Green smiled a little bit- and Toni whooped in celebration, throwing her arms into the air.
"Hah, I knew that would work!" she cried happily. "You're smiling again!"
"I was smiling on the inside." Green informed her.
He gently placed Tick's glass ball on top of one of the boxes. Tick looked out at him with wide eyes, scared out of his mind.
He said something but Green couldn't hear what he said, because of the glass. As well as being bound, it was also soundproof. Tick could basically scream at the top of his lungs and no one would hear.
"I could try picking the lock." Blue offered, suddenly beside him. "I'm good at that."
"I've already tried it." Green said quietly. "Didn't work."
He wasn't gonna ask why she knew how to pick locks.
"Why don't we break it open? It looks pretty weak. I could get Aero to-"
"NO!" Green yelled, whirling around and finally losing his patience with Red. "That's a horrible idea and it'll get Tick killed, you understand? This stupid thing's bound! I don't think I need to say that in Latin!"
"Oh." Blue breathed, a hand over her mouth. So she'd finally figured out what the damn thing was too.
Toni had already known. She looked away, and busied herself with looking through the boxes- there was nothing she could do anyway, it wasn't an electrical lock.
Red seemed to be the only one who didn't get it.
"So?" he asked.
"So? So?" Green shook slightly and then stomped his foot on the floor as a way to channel some of his anger. "If a pokemon gets bound, they can't use their attacks, their abilities, whatever! He's been cut off! We open this forcefully and it'll kill him!"
Red took a step back in shock.
"I've seen it happen!" Green went on ruthlessly. "A friend of mine had a Shinx that got caught in one these things, and he didn't have the key- it'd been destroyed. So he tried to open it by breaking it and . . . the pokemon just died. That's the failsafe in these things. It was originally built for criminals- pokemon or human. The failsafe was in case they managed to break it, even the smallest of cracks can set it off. It's just instant death, nothing else! We don't even know if it's painless, but since it was made for criminals, my guess is no!
"You open that thing with whoever Aero is and you'll be murdering him! You want that on your conscience? Or are you actually thicker than I thought you were, and nothing I've said has gotten through to you!?" Green came to a stop, panting. His fists were clenched and there was a burning sensation inside of him.
He needed to break something.
Preferably soon.
"Get out, now." Toni said to Red and Blue. "Both of you."
"But I didn't even-" Blue started.
"OUT."
The other two Trainers left hastily. Toni went over to the door and checked that they actually were gone (or as gone as they could get when they'd been trapped in the same room) and then shut the door, turning back to Green.
Who had sunk down with his back against the box, and had buried his face in his hands.
Toni sat next to him.
"We'll get the key." she said, as if it was just a simple fact and not a slim possibility. "My bet is that the idiot in charge of this stupid op is the one who's got it. So, how about we go out and make him give us the key?"
"What about the hostages?" Green mumbled. "Our first . . . p-priority is to them."
"Them's the rules." Toni shrugged. "But since when did we actually give a shit about rules anyway?"
Green looked up. Toni was grinning at him, her eyes sparking with power and- and anger.
He wasn't the only one pissed at the glass ball.
oooo
One of the knights- or grunts, probably- tried to run away, but Green caught him with a blast of Psychic and he hit the man off the side of a nearby building.
Something cracked, and Green wasn't sure if it was the wall or the man's bones.
Actually, he didn't care.
"Please!" one of the only conscious ones begged. "D-don't hurt me!"
"Should have thought of that before you put this adorable little baby into a murder ball." Toni said sweetly.
"Where's the key." Green demanded, stalking over. He was levitating the glass ball beside him, in case he accidently dropped it. Despite how sturdy the balls were, Green didn't want to take any chances.
"I d-don't have it, r-really!" the grunt cried. "Y-you want- you want the boss, Merek! He's the one who's got the key, I-I swear!"
Toni glanced at Green, whose eyes flashed purple.
" . . . He's telling the truth." Green said eventually.
"Good for you." Toni told the grunt.
"Oh . . . oh thank you so much, c-can I go now? Will you let me go?"
"Who said anything about letting you go?" Toni wondered, then knocked him out with a Shock Wave-reinforced kick. Then paralysed him for the police when they would eventually get to Azalea.
"Who indeed." Green muttered darkly.
He glanced at Tick to make sure he was okay. For the most part, the Togepi seemed fine- except he'd curled into the leftovers of his shell and now looked like some sort of weird Easter egg.
"Togepis do that, right?" Toni asked, looking over as well.
"Yeah, as far as I know. It's their own version of Defence Curl or something." Green told her. "I just hope the glass is soundproof on both ends . . ."
He didn't want Tick hearing what was bound to be a bloodbath. Despite the whole 'not gonna coddle him' thing, Green felt that . . . maybe a little coddling was fine.
"Have you noticed none of these idiots seem to be surprised?" Green asked, a few minutes and about fifty knocked-out-possibly-dead grunts later.
"This dude seems surprised to me." Toni answered. She held up one of the grunts she was currently beating the shit out of, and kicked him in the nuts when he tried to pry her fingers off his neck.
"No, I mean, when we use our powers." Green explained, flinging another grunt twenty-odd feet away. He landed in a crumpled heap and didn't get up. "Sure, they run away and all that, it's a normal reaction to crazies on a warpath. But they don't seem shocked when we chuck, oh say, lightning at their faces or something. Why?"
"They're dumb?" Toni suggested, shrugged. "Honestly, who gives a Raticate's ass anyway? Let's just focus on finding this Merek guy. Oi, you, where's your leader?"
"W-wha . . .?" one of the fallen grunts mumbled.
Green rolled his eyes and gripped the front of the man's shirt, or the undershirt since he was wearing armour. For some reason.
"Merek. One of the other morons down that way," Green gestured in the vague direction of the pokemon centre. "Told us about your leader. Said his name's Merek. We can't appear to locate the bastard. Tell us where he is or I'm letting my sister here Thunder Beam your ass into the next century."
"H-he's near the Gym!"
"Thank you for your consideration." Green said, and then hit him with a Psywave. The grunt whimpered and collapsed into a heap.
"You may wanna try not frying their brains." Toni suggested, looking back at all the grunts Green had taken out. "Police'll wanna question them. Also, nice reference."
"Glad you caught it." Green thanked her.
"Just don't start chucking psychic tridents at people."
"I make absolutely no promises whatsoever."
But that was a good idea. He could make tridents out of psychic energy and throw them at the grunts . . . and since it was his energy he was using, he could probably make the tridents able to essentially smash anything- bones, armour, whatever.
He'd get to that as soon as he figured out telepathy.
Green and Toni knew exactly where the Gym was, well, Green did anyway. After the incident in New Bark town they'd gone to a store in Violet city and had found some maps. Naturally, Toni just waited while Green looked them over, because she couldn't read a map to begin with and Green could just look at the maps through his memory.
Needless to say, they left the shop owner very confused. Why look at fifty-odd maps of Johto and it's cities and towns and not buy anything?
Oh well.
Trouble was, even if he could see the maps anytime he wanted, Green still didn't have much of a sense of direction. So basically the maps were useless to him unless he had some sort of . . . anchor, so to speak, to tell him where stuff was.
All pokemon centres were marked clearly on the maps, so he was using that as an anchor. The Gym was in the Southern part of town, so they needed to head directly opposite to the pokemon centre and then, if they didn't find the Gym before they hit the edge, start going right.
Luckily they saw the Gym through the trees before long, so they didn't need to start going right. That would have resulted in an argument about directions and perceptions that Green really, really did not want to get into again.
"Should we get out the pokemon for this?" Toni asked, as their training kicked in and they started sneaking up behind the Gym.
"What's the point in that?" Green replied. "They're strong, sure, but we only got them like two weeks ago. It takes more time than that to get to the point where we don't need to worry about them, three or four months at least."
"Damn, I wish Sparkless was here." Toni cursed.
"Well, he isn't- hopefully he'll turn up soon though."
Green cut off the power holding the murder ball and caught it gently as it fell. Tick bounced lightly with the movement but otherwise he didn't move.
He allowed himself to be worried for a few seconds before steeling himself to confront this Merek guy.
"- fine by me, you little brat."
"Of course it's fine by you, we're more important than a bunch of random people! Now let them all go and you've got yourself a deal."
"Oh no." Green sighed, slapping a hand to his face.
"Is that who I think it is?" Toni frowned, one eye narrowed in confusion.
They snuck around to the corner and peeked out.
Red and Blue were standing in front of a tall and weedy-looking man with an ugly grin on his face. There were several grunts surrounding them, two of which were holding Red and Blue.
The weedy-looking man was wearing black and white armour, in contrast to the grunts' solid white armour. Green didn't really need to read minds to know that this guy was probably Merek.
"What in fuck's name are they doing here?" Toni whispered harshly.
"Beats me." Green grumbled. "But whatever it is they're doing, it seems to be working. Kind of."
"Sure, we'll let them go- as soon as we've done what it is we need to do here of course." Merek shrugged.
"And what exactly would that be?" Blue scowled.
"Why would you think I'd tell you?" Merek chuckled. It was an ugly sound, like his grin but worse. "Trying to catch me off-guard?"
"Well, that was the plan." Red shrugged. "So, if you could just explain why you're holding the entire town for ransom . . ."
"How about no, boy." Merek scoffed. "Learn to show some respect to your elders."
"The last person who said that to me was trying to kill me, so, no."
"And this last person couldn't have succeeded?" Green muttered.
"That kinda makes me wonder who he is really." Toni said.
"Well, duh." he replied.
"I'd love to stay around and chat, but I have something to do." Merek said, turning to leave.
An Arbok slithered in, making him stop in his tracks. At first Green thought it was gonna attack him, but then Merek broke out into another ugly grin and cooed.
Ugh. Sick. And not the nice definition.
"Oooh, Arbok!" Merek practically gushed. "How are you, mm? Did those mean, mean children hurt you?"
"No KILL . . . capture Rotommm." Arbok hissed. Now that he wasn't in the middle of trying to get away from the snake, Green could see that his eyes were kind of wide and blank.
Oh dear Mew, what in hell's name had been done to that poor Arbok?
And then he saw Sparkless held captive in the snake's tail, barely keeping his eyes open.
Toni gasped and started forward, but Green held her back. Luckily it seemed no one was paying much attention to the corner, so they went unnoticed- for now, at least.
"S-Sparkless- he's- come on, we need to-"
"Shut up and listen to me!" Green snapped. "I've got a plan."
"How does that help Sparkless look at him fuckdamn you-"
"Toni for the ever-loving fuck shut up."
She shut up.
"Thank you. Now- what are you looking at?" Green asked, suddenly noticing that she wasn't actually paying attention to him.
Toni just pointed.
Green turned around and saw one of knight grunts standing behind them.
"Ah, piss." Green muttered.
They were quickly shoved over to Red and Blue, who were understandably shocked. Tick was snatched away from Green, and he almost lost it then and there. But then he took his own advice (for once) and reluctantly turned away from the grunt holding the murder ball.
"And who would you be?" Merek asked patronisingly.
"No one!" Blue said, before Green or Toni could answer. "They're just beginners, leave them out of this!"
Green shot a glare at her. She was a beginner to, albeit somehow with a goddamn Blastoise, but that gave her no right to treat him and Toni like little kids.
What the hell made her and Red so special?
"I think not." Merek scoffed. "Not when you react so strongly."
"Sir, status report." one of the grunts nearby suddenly spoke up, putting away what looked like a more advanced version of a PokeGear.
"Go ahead."
"Police are on their way, along with this town's Gym Leader." the grunt said. "Scouts advised us to leave as soon as possible, sir."
"Great, and I was just getting into this too . . ." Merek sighed. "Oh well. Looks like you won't have to bargain with our team today, boy."
"And what team would that be?" Green demanded, before he lost his chance.
"Why, Team Sovereign of course!" Merek exclaimed, sounding surprised that he'd asked.
"Like the Digimon?" Toni asked.
Green snorted and turned away, and Merek turned slightly red.
"No!" the man snapped. "Not like the- why does everyone keep saying that!? You know what? I was going to be nice and let you all go, but after that insult . . . Arbok, kill them!"
The snake reared up and hissed. It would have been terrifying had Green not faced more terrifying things, and on a regular basis as well.
But for the sake of maintaining their cover, he and Toni acted like they were scared.
"Stop!" Red snapped. "Blue said to leave them out of this!"
"They insulted the Team!" Merek stubbornly barked back.
3.
Arbok's grip loosened on Sparkless, who slid to the ground.
2.
"Gunk Shot!" Merek shouted.
"No, wait!" Blue cried.
1.
"NOW!" Green screamed.
"Thunder Beam!" Toni shouted.
Sparkless shot up behind the Arbok, sparking like crazy, and then all the sparks turned into a small ball- which then pretty much exploded and shot out in a massive beam that looked more like a lightning lazer than anything else.
The Thunder Beam went straight through the Arbok's body, and Arbok disintergrated. It carried on and did the same to several grunts.
Sparkless moved the Beam so it wouldn't hit Green, Toni, Red or Blue and it ended up hitting the Gym instead. Half of it disintergrated just like Arbok and the grunts, and the other half just crumbled into rubble.
The Thunder Beam fizzled out and died, and Sparkless turned to the rest of the Sovereign grunts and Merek.
"Boom boom BOOM MOTHERFUCKERS YOU MESS WITH MY PARTNER I'LL MESS WITH YOUR ARCEUS-DAMMED LIVES YOU WANNA GO CUS THAT'S WHAT I'M THINKING YOU WANNA FUCKING DO C'MON-"
"R-retreat!" Merek called, panicked. "Retreat, now! Before that thing fires again!"
"Hold it!" Green shouted.
Sparkless got in the Team's way before they could get anywhere. Green walked up to Merek.
"Give me the key for the murder ball." he demanded. The ball had been dropped when the Thunder Beam had gone off, but from what he could see, there weren't any cracks on it and Tick seemed fine.
"Or else." Toni added unnecessarily.
Merek stared at them for a second, and then he jerked when he heard the sparks starting up again.
"Alright, alright!" he cried, chucking a small piece of grey metal at Green. "Now let us go!"
Funny how the tables have turned, Green mused.
"Thank you." Green said. "Sparkless, let them go."
The Rotom hissed and cursed without taking a breath as Team Sovereign left. If Green had actually cared, he would have laughed at how they pretty much just ran like little girls. No offence to actual little girls. It was just an expression. Stop glaring. Please.
He walked over to the murder ball and pressed the metal against the top, and it beeped at him. Then he removed the top and gently took Tick out of it.
Green stepped away from the murder ball and nodded at Toni.
"Have at it, mate." Toni said to Sparkless, who squealed and started zapping away merrily.
" . . . What in the hell was that?"
Oh, right. Red and Blue were still there.
"Thunder Beam!" Toni grinned. Only she could pretend that everything was totally fine when it kind of wasn't.
Oh well.
"But- but that isn't an attack!" Blue exclaimed. "What the hell!"
"You just killed ten people!" Red shouted. "And a pokemon! And you're acting like everything's perfectly fine!"
"They were gonna kill us." Green shrugged. "Fair play, right?"
"Not fair play! That was very much not fair play!"
"Um, I'd like to point out that you're homophobic and pretty much hate me because of that. You wanna talk about not fair play? Come back when you're not a complete hypocrite." Green told him. "You'd be a great politician. Oh, and I think the words 'I win' are appropriate here."
Red didn't have anything to say to that. Blue, on the other hand, did.
"I know I'm the last person who should be saying this, but why?" she asked, somewhat calmer now. "You could have just shot a Thunder Wave at them. Why shoot off an attack that can basically vaporise everything it touches like that? That was just . . . wrong, and overkill too!"
"There is no kill like overkill." Toni cackled.
No one said she was sane. Actually, no one ever said Green was sane either. So there was that.
"Mama?"
He glanced down and gave Tick a gentle smile. Or as gentle as he could manage given the circumstances, of course.
"You're okay now." Green told him.
"I-I kept still. I didn't break it." Tick whispered. "Cus I heard what you said about the failsafe."
Oh, shit. So the soundproof thing wasn't two-way.
Green couldn't exactly answer him at the moment, what with Red and Blue standing there, but he hugged Tick a little harder. That seemed to comfort the Togepi a little.
"You killed a bunch of people for the sake of that?" Red suddenly snapped.
Green's eyes narrowed and he glared at Red. "That has a name." he replied icily.
"I don't care! You two are insane!" Red went on. Blue hit him on the shoulder, but he just ignored her. "You should be locked up in some mental place! You're unnatural! Insane, unnatural, whatever! When the police get here, I'm turning you both in!"
"Oh for fuck's sake . . ." Toni sighed. "Green, stop growling, you're supposed to give Tick a good role model."
"The lesson here is that sometimes violence is the answer." Green said darkly.
Red pulled out a pokeball. "I'll show you violence, you freak of na-"
A pokeball flew down from somewhere, and it burst open mid-air.
The Aggron inside- which was now, of course, outside- reared up and Roared at Red and Blue, making them take a step back in fear.
"SURPRISE BITCHES!"
"Is that-?" Green broke off as an Altaria flew by gracefully.
The blue Dragon bird landed without a sound, and a blue-haired woman jumped off and ran to the Aggron's side.
"The day has been saved!" Rena exclaimed, throwing her arms up into the air. "The great and powerful Rena has come to rescue the-"
"Rena!" Toni squealed, and threw herself at the young woman.
If it had been anyone else, they would have stumbled, but Rena wasn't anyone else. She did, however, stop in her tracks and twist around to stare at Toni.
"Uh. I'm saving you here, hugs can come later." Rena said.
"We don't need saving." Green informed her.
Rena stared at him now. "You what." she said flatly.
"We kinda did it ourselves." Green shrugged apologetically. "We sorted it out. Kind of."
Rena blinked a couple of times and then gently pulled Toni off her.
"You mean, I missed all the action." she said calmly.
Green nodded, slightly uncertain. Toni giggled and gestured behind Rena, who turned around and stared at the broken Gym.
Rena put her hands on her face and yelled, making several of them jump. "YOU MEAN I MISSED ALL THE ACTION!?" she screeched.
"Um, sorry?" Green tried.
"For the love of Mew, Luci!" Rena carried on shouting. "You said we'd get here in time, you goddamn liar, why would you do this to me!?"
"Luci?" Red whispered to Blue, who shrugged.
"AAAAARGHH!" Rena fell to her knees in a classic form of despair.
"So, uh, why are you here anyway?" Toni asked, with her usual tact. Green elbowed her and she shrugged at him.
Rena jumped up and spun around, suddenly perfectly calm and fine. Wow. And Green thought Toni switched moods fast.
"Mom and Dad said you guys might need some help." Rena shrugged. Neron called me in, said you might need a bit of backup, was what she sent to Green, Toni and presumably Sparkless.
"Aw, what?" Toni whined. "But we're doing just fine!"
"The hell you are, look at the mess you've gotten into!" Rena scoffed. I know you don't actually need the help, but the prick insisted.
"Alright, fine, whatever." Green sighed, like he was pissed at her and not Neron- or their fake parents.
oooo
"So, you're their big sister." Blue said, somewhat doubtfully, a couple of hours later.
By now, the hostages had been freed and everyone was mostly going back to normal routine. Of course, since the police and the Gym Leader arrived, basically everyone was being interviewed for their own version of events.
Green was just thankful that Rena had somehow managed to convince them to leave Green and Toni alone. She must have used her police alias or something. Or the princess one. Or maybe . . . okay, he was gonna confuse himself.
"That's right, little miss." Rena leaned back in her seat and rested her hands behind her head. "Name's Rena."
"Are you aware that your little brother is a crime against nature?" Red asked.
"Say that again and I'll rip out your tongue, fucker." Rena replied, like she was talking about the weather.
Red jerked back.
"Are you all incredibly violent or are we just lucky to get three of you at the same time?" Blue frowned.
"Hon, you have no idea what violent is." Rena laughed. "But, no. Not all of us in the Menny family is as violent as we are. Probably. I dunno, I've been travling a while and for all I know some long-lost cousin who happens to be a pacifist has turned up in my absence."
"No one's turned up." Green assured her.
"Oh, good, we're still number one for craziness."
"Menny?" Red blinked. "Is that even a name?"
"Well, it's better than saying Menoetius." Rena shrugged. "For one thing, it's a damn mouthful. For another, half the people I meet can't even pronounce it. So, Menny. You've met the awesome trio of the Menny family, congrats, be happy, kids."
"I don't feel happy." Red remarked.
"Too bad, so sad, go stick your head in a furnace."
Red looked kind of scared. Good, at least he was gonna shut up for once.
"So how come none of you look alike?" Blue asked them. "I mean, I get why you," she pointed at Rena. "Look different to them, but Tommy and Phoebe are twins. Shouldn't they at least have the same eye colour?"
"You ever heard of fraternal twins?" Toni replied, leaning back lazily. "That's what we are. I can assure you we are definitely twins. Unfortuntely."
"One day, she'll wake up and find that she's dead." Green said. "And I will have absolutely no sympathy. Mainly because I'm the one that killed her."
"I don't know violence, do I?" Blue dryly said to Rena.
Rena just grinned.
Red and Blue were called away to give their statements to the police, so the three Deviants took the oppertunity to talk properly.
"So, Neron sent you." Green said. "Does he think we're incompetent?"
"No, he just wants me around as insurance or some shit." Rena sighed, sliding down in her seat until she was practically lying on it. "And I ruined my chance for a Big Damn Heroes moment too . . ."
"Is Luci still trolling you?" Toni asked incredulously.
"Uh-huh." Rena muttered. "Arceus-damn Latios."
"How'd you get Cas to evolve anyway? Last time we saw you, he was an Aron. This was, what, four months ago maybe?" Green asked her. "Even you can't work that fast."
"He was pretty close anyway, and from there it was a matter of beating up unsuspecting Trainers. This old dude with a Manectric was persistant . . ." Rena mused. "It got me rich though, I can tell you that now."
"This coming from someone who can't even be arsed to pay for her own rooms at a hotel." Toni smirked, crossing her arms.
"Well, being rich means I can legally be a total and complete bitch, so whatever. Screw the rules, I fucking make them." Rena puffed out a lazy breath. "So how's it going with you two? From what I know, you're incognito. Yet I just got told that Sparkless evaporated several people, an Arbok and half a building."
"Well we couldn't exactly use our new teams, could we?" Green shrugged. Tick squeaked happily on his lap. "No offence to them, but they're not exactly trained up enough for the kinda crap we get into on a regular basis."
"Maybe you should challenge the Gyms." Rena suggested. "It'd be a good way to train them up."
"You shitting me?" Toni scoffed. "I ain't doing nothing that's on TV. There's overkill and then there's pure stupidity."
"And incognito means we stay hidden, not be well-known celebrities on TV." Green explained. "Unlike you, we don't exactly have hundreds of aliases."
"Eh." Rena shrugged, not particularly bothered. "What're you doing here then?"
"There's two Deviants in this town, and we would have been done with this dump ages ago had we not been taken prisoner by a bunch of Digimon-wannabes." Toni told her.
"Be nice, it's a cool place. For an obscure town, that is." Green muttered.
"Well, I could help with one Deviant search." Rena remarked. "She's over there."
Rena pointed to a random eight year old girl with a Slowpoke in her arms. She was being interviewed by a policewoman and didn't seem that terrified for a little girl who'd been held hostage for . . . some reason.
Dammit, he should have asked what Team Sovereign were doing in this place. Though since they were apparently terrorists, and they were stealing nuclear stuff . . . they probably needed the money from the ransoms they would have gotten from Red and Blue (he still didn't know what was so important about them, and everyone seemed to know but him and Toni) to get fuel or something.
Which probably wasn't a good sign, but so long as it was over and no one died.
Well.
Besides those grunts, that crazy Arbok and half the Gym building, but that was beside the point.
"Oh, that was easy." Toni blinked. "Should we go grab her or what?"
"Toni, these things require tact and diplomacy." Green chastised her. "Have some respect."
Rena suddenly held up a DataGear. "Here." she said.
Green took it from her. "What is it?"
"The kettle. He wanted to know if you were also black." Rena grinned.
Green glared at her and chucked the DataGear at her. It hit her stomach and she slid off the rest of her chair with a breathless 'oof'. Didn't stop her from cackling madly though.
In the end they decided to wait until the policewoman was done with the girl. The mother didn't seem to be anywhere nearby, so the three of them- plus Tick, because everyone else was being healed by the Nurse- wandered over.
"Hi kid." Rena greeted, waving.
" . . . Hi." the little girl said.
Well. Not that little, at least not compared to Green and Toni. In fact she wasn't actually that much smaller than them.
"You know about mutants right?" Rena asked the girl. "Them peeps with the superpowers and awesomeness that no one but the readers and viewers can love?"
"Of course I do." the girl said quietly. "I like superheroes. So does Pokey."
Someone needed to tell kids that naming pokemon silly things like that just made them seem less lik a threat and more like a cuddly little- oh wait, this was a kid, she probably wouldn't care.
Nevermind then. It was still a stupid way to name them though.
. . . Says the dude with a Togepi called Tick.
Ugh.
Kettle indeed.
"Well congrats kid, you're now officially part of our superhero club." Rena told her. "Wanna go somewhere private? You parents won't care, right?"
"They're currently lying in a grave, so, no." the girl said.
Um.
"Okay I think we've had enough death and despair for one day!" Rena exclaimed, at an awkward attempt to make the situation less depressing. "C'mon, I got a room in this craphole and we're using that as a base. No cameras or anything."
"Did you pay for it?" Green asked, as they walked to the lift.
"Dude. It's a pokemon centre, no one pays for rooms unless you're not an active Trainer. Or something." Rena shrugged. "I dunno. If I did have to pay for it, I'd just manipulate them into giving it to me for free. Or maybe I'd make them thing I've already paid . . . now that I think about it, there's so many ways to commit fraud-"
"Rena, please, kid." Green snapped. "Don't give her the wrong idea about us."
"Mutants sometimes do illegal things to do the right thing, so I don't mind." the girl said.
Yeah but mutants weren't Rena.
"See? I can murder someone and it would be totally fine." Rena stuck out her tongue.
"Real mature." Green muttered.
"Alright, we're at my floor now!" Rena cried, walking out of the lift.
"Wait, why are we on the top floor? I didn't even know pokemon centres had top floor rooms!" Toni exclaimed, rushing after her. "What is this, the grand sweet or whatever?"
"Grande suite, I think you'll find it's called." Green corrected her.
"That's what I said. Grand sweet."
"No, you said- nevermind."
"Are all of you superheroes this strange or is it just you?" the girl asked.
Green never thought he'd have two people ask variations of the same question in one day. Today was full of surprises.
"There are some normal Deviants, but we call them paper-pushers and suck-ups. They're boring. The more exciting ones are like us but maybe not as awesome." Rena told her. "You know what?"
Rena came to a stop at some random door and swiped a card on the lock. It beeped and opened.
"We never got your name, kid." she went on as she walked into the room.
Wow, it was a fancy room. Green didn't know rooms like this existed in a pokemon centre.
"They normally reserve them for celebs." Rena explained. "So most people actually don't know they exist. But since I've got several aliases who happen to be celebs . . ."
"Stop reading my mind." Green sighed, putting a hand on his face and gritting his teeth slightly.
"My name's Cloe." the girl replied. She wandered over to one of the oversized armchairs and curled into it, hugging her Slowpoke close. "And I've already introduced Pokey."
"S'up." the Water/Psychic type said.
"You called yourself a Deviant." Cloe recalled. "Why?"
"Okay, here comes the best bit. We get to show off and stuff." Rena grinned. "And since you're half Psychic that means Green can bond with you. Or however these things go."
"She half what now?" Green said. Toni was similarly surprised.
"You didn't check?" Rena sighed, looking mildly disappointed. "Ugh. Her partner's Pokey there, and she's a Water/Psychic kid. Sammy was Water too, right?"
"How do you- you know what, I need to stop asking stupid questions." Toni grumbled.
"Yes, yes you do. But sometimes stupid questions are the only ones worth asking." Rena told her. "So anyway, Deviant basically means you have types. Think of mutants but with pokemon types. Green over there is a Psychic/Ghost Deviant, hence why I said about that bonding thing."
"We're not bonding." Green scowled.
"Okay, so he's a sourpuss, but all the best Psychics are." Rena shrugged.
"You're not a sourpuss." Toni pointed out, taking a seat on a giant cushion. Green plonked himself down next to her.
"I'm the exception to just about everything. But anyway, this isn't about me, it's about little Cloe here." Rena said.
"How is he a Ghost type?" Cloe asked, peering curiously at Green. "Did he die?"
"No." Green explained. "No one's actually sure how Ghost Deviants come about, but sometimes there's a massive event- obviously a traumatising one- that turns them Ghost or half Ghost. That's one way of becoming a Ghost typed Deviant. There are other ways, but no one's actually sure and some of the Ghosts themselves don't even know. Some are just born like that. For all we know, they could have been stillborn or something, and they came back as a Ghost Deviant. Or half Ghost. You get the point."
"Did you have a traumatising event?" Cloe asked.
Green looked at her for a few seconds, then he looked away. "Yeah." he mumbled. "Yeah, I did."
Cloe was quiet as well for a little bit, and then she nodded slowly. "I won't ask. It would be rude, especially when you've been so nice to me. So, what did you mean by Pokey being my partner?"
Well, at least she was nice. And pretty calm- Green was kinda hoping that all of the Deviants they were gonna find would react like this, but then again, that was way too much to hope for.
Ten to one, the next Deviant in this town was gonna react badly or something.
Aaand now he'd just jinxed it. Great. Well, at least Cloe was pretty fine with it all.
OOOOOO
Renny: Huh, this chapter ended up being longer than I thought it would. I thought I'd have to get to the second Deviant halfway through.
Green: You just had us kill several people and we're acting like it's totally fine?
Renny: Well, you've been through worse things. Let's not forget FORESHADOWING. I love doing that but I think I may be being a little bit too obvious about it. Oh well. Read and review people! Please? I need to know if this ain't actually a piece of shit like I think it is.
