"Hey, Mist?" Dawn grabs everyone's attention.
"What's up?"
"Why do they call it Mount Moon when it's actually a cave?"
"Probably because there's a friggin' MOUNTAIN OF ZUBATS!"
"Starmie, use swift for the one millionth time..." Misty's Starmie defeats its one-hundred and twelfth Zubat of the day.
"Rotom, thundershock..." Hugo groans. Another Zubat goes down.
"Yay." Misty and Hugo say sarcastically.
"You are an IDIOT!" Exclaims Misty. "Who trades their repels for a SANDWICH?!" Misty yells accusingly.
Hugo tries to defend himself. "Oh come on! Who can resist a nice cheese sandwich?"
"Everyone except you!"
"Fair point..."
"Unbelievable… It would've been faster to go all the way back to Pewter, buy more repels, then come back." Misty groans.
"Hey, it's all a bonding experience!" Hugo says optimistically.
"You're KIDDING me?!" Misty is not happy.
Dawn and Leaf are looking exhausted. On her crutches, Dawn can only move at a slow pace, giving the endless swarms of Zubat plenty of time to attack the gang over and over and over…
After what seems like a thousand Zubat battles, the gang can finally see sunlight…
"The exit!" Exclaims Dawn.
"Finally!" Exclaims Misty.
"Yay!" Adds Leaf.
"Not so fast!" A familiar man appears, blocking the exit.
"We meet again, my non-bug catcher mate. We're going to battle, it's not up for debate."
"Ugh… Jeffrey, is it? Now's not a good time..." Hugo groans.
"Nonsense! And I thought you'd remember my name. It's Johnny, and soon I will have worldwide fame."
"To be the world's greatest bug-catcher is my goal. I can defeat you if I'm on the ball."
"Come on then..." Hugo sighs.
"Venonat is impressive, I'm sure you'll agree. I trained it all the way from a level three."
"RAAAAAAAAA!" Hugo sends out his Tyranitar.
Venonat charges towards Tyranitar.
"Wait for the moment to attack, my friend. We'll emerge victorious in the end."
Tyranitar sees the pathetic bug-type and sighs heavily. So heavily, in fact, that the force of its breath knocks Venonat off its feet, launching it into the air. The pokémon slams against the rocky wall behind it, and lands with swirly eyes.
"Darn it! We suffered a narrow defeat. We'll battle again the next time our eyes meet..." With that, Johnny dashes out of the cave's exit.
"Yay! Well done!" Leaf congratulates Hugo with a smile, causing the other three to give her a confused look.
"And here we are! The glorious Cerulean City! What do you guys think? The best city you've ever seen, right?" Misty has cheered up after making the short walk from Mount Moon to Cerulean City.
"Meh." Shrugs Dawn.
"Seen better…" Hugo agrees.
"Um… it's not as good as some other places I've been..." Adds Leaf.
"WHAAAAAAAAAT?!" Misty is highly offended. "Look around! I insist! You'll soon change your mind!"
"Good idea. In fact, I see a shop that sells bikes over there… I'll check it out. I could really use one. Apparently there are special ones that can fit inside your bag..."
"Wouldn't they be super heavy?" Dawn wonders aloud.
Hugo glares at her. "I'm carrying around a rock dinosaur and you're asking that..."
"Oh yeah, silly question..." Dawn apologises.
Hugo goes inside the bicycle shop while the girls wait outside. They can see him having a discussion with the shopkeeper until his eyes widen.
"HOW MUCH?!" He storms out of the shop immediately.
"This is ridiculous! Who would ever buy one of them?"
Misty grins. "Yeah, the bikes here are pretty pricey..."
Hugo glances up at the sign at the top of the store. It reads 'JIM'S SUPER BIKES'
"How do they sell any bikes with those prices? I bet we don't see ONE person with one of those bikes the entire time we're here..." Hugo snarls. As he says this, a family of three ride past on bikes with the words 'Jim's Super Bikes' engraved on them.
"So, uh, Misty… how can I find this 'Cerulean Cave'?"
"That's easy!" Begins Misty. "But first, I wanna show you my favourite place in the whole world..."
"Please don't tell me it's that sex shop over there..." Says Dawn.
Misty is stunned. "Dawn! You've spent too much time with Brock!" Dawn blushes a little.
"I'll show you. Come on." Misty marches off ahead, forgetting that she should be travelling slowly for Dawn's sake.
"Wait a minute..." Hugo realises. "If you've never been here before, how could you possibly know what that shop sells?
"Um… no reason..." Dawn looks a little embarrassed.
"Hang on! Earlier, when you were searching online on your phone, you must've searched for..." A smug grin begins to form on Hugo's face until he receives a hard slap in the face.
"How dare you! I'm a lady!" Dawn snaps.
Hugo rubs his cheek that now has a fresh red mark. "A lady with hormones..." He chuckles to himself.
"Ta-da!" Misty reveals. "I present to you the Cerulean Gym! Home of the tomboyish mermaid. That's yours truly!"
The gym looks pretty much like any other swimming pool, with coral decorations and Pokémon references scattered throughout. Where the gang are, though, is a small waiting room scattered with seats with a glass wall and door separating it from the main area.
"Wow Misty, this is amazing." Leaf is in awe.
"Haha! Knew I could win you guys over." Misty smirks.
"I mean, did you design it so badly to intimidate challengers?" Leaf asks. Misty's ego is instantly deflated.
"B-but… I worked hard on..."
"Ow!" Dawn exclaims, sitting down on the nearest seat. "My foot..."
"Uh-oh." Misty says worriedly. "Looks like you'll need to rest for a while..."
"Maybe we can stay here tonight? It's getting dark anyway. I should be good to go come morning!" Dawn suggests.
"Sure thing!" Misty answers. "I live here. Through that door at the back leads to my home. There's plenty of food, and four beds total for when my sisters are all here, which isn't often..."
"Great idea!" Leaf declares. Her stomach has been rumbling for a while now, but she's refused to acknowledge it.
"You girls go ahead. I have business to attend to..."
"What? Now?" Asks Dawn.
"Yeah. Gio… I mean, that trainer really sounded eager for me to do this as soon as possible. And that cave sounds dangerous, I wouldn't want any of you getting hurt..."
"Aw, that's sweet." Misty says in the most sarcastic tone possible.
From her seat, Dawn grabs Hugo's arm. "Hugo, be careful. I don't want to find you in the same state as Lake Verity..."
"Relax, when do I ever mess things up… actually, don't answer that. Take care of Leaf for me!" Hugo makes his way out of the building.
"Okay, according to this map, I need to head up Nugget Bridge." He mutters to himself.
Hugo makes his way to the north of town, and arrives on Nugget Bridge.
"Alright contest trainers. It's quitting time!" A man yells from the other side of the bridge.
"Finally!" One trainer yells.
"It's been a long day." Says another. "Hey Fred, how'd your day of battling go?"
"Eh, I did my best. I have no regrets." Says Fred.
The squad notice Hugo as they make their way off the bridge.
"Hey, how'd you like to join Team Rocket? We're a group of professional criminals specialising in pokémon." A man tells him.
"Um… I already work for them… kinda..." Hugo explains as he makes his way past.
Hugo makes his way to the top of Nugget Bridge. In the distance, he can see Cerulean Cape. He turns around and accidentally catches a young couple in the act. The male notices him and just gives off a smug grin, not seeming to care.
'So I just have to surf down here…' He thinks, noticing some water beside Nugget bridge.
Moments later, Hugo and Kabutops successfully surf across the water, finding themselves outside
the entrance to Cerulean Cave.
"Excuse me, sir." A young man immediately approaches Hugo. "Let me see your badges. You must have 8 badges to enter- OOF!" Hugo punches the man in the gut really hard, causing him to collapse to his knees.
"Sorry kid, I'm a rookie trainer just beginning his journey. So now I'm gonna go catch Mewtwo!" Hugo feels a bit guilty, but oh well, he was never good at persuasion.
Upon entering the cave, Hugo realises how stupid he has been. He hasn't brought anything to provide him with light, and does not own any fire type pokémon. In other words, he can't see a thing. He tries to make his way through the cave by holding onto the cold, rocky walls. He trips over things he can't see several times, but eventually he makes it around a corner. All of a sudden he can see! Someone is lighting up the room he's staring into.
"Mewtwo! I know you're in here! Come out!" A man yells, standing beside his Ponyta.
This person is not a sight for sore eyes. It's the same mysterious man that killed two of Hugo's pokémon, murdered his own Pikachu, killed Brock's Onix then shot Brock! Needless to say Hugo does not thing highly of this person. However, he decides to wait and see what this man does.
In a flash of light, a psychic pokémon appears. It looks very powerful and intimidating. That must be Mewtwo! It raises its hand, and with its powerful psychic attack it lifts Ponyta into the air and slams it against the floor, instantly making it faint.
"So you're not as cowardly as I thought. Excellent." The man sends out his Snorlax, leaving the fainted Ponyta on the floor to provide light with its fiery mane.
Before the man is able to command an attack, Mewtwo strikes again. It raises its hand, attempting to lift Snorlax into the air. However, the psychic type was obviously not expecting Snorlax to be so heavy. A grimace is visible on its face as it struggles to pull off the attack.
"Perfect." The man springs into action. He runs towards Mewtwo, raising his mysterious walking-stick like weapon into the air, preparing to hit Mewtwo with it.
"No!" Hugo cries. Instinctively, he breaks his cover and sprints towards Mewtwo. Despite having been stood further away, Hugo is much faster than the man and catches up to him with ease. Just as Mewtwo is about to be hit by the strange weapon Hugo dives in front of Mewtwo, putting his own body between the legendary pokémon and the powerful weapon. All of a sudden, everything goes white.
When Hugo's vision is clear again, he looks around. He is in a large, almost empty room. To his right, there are some stairs leading downwards. To his left, Mewtwo is levitating just above the ground, an emotionless expression on its face. Hugo is in awe of this pokémon's incredible power. He'd seen the move teleport used before but Mewtwo just teleported itself out of a seemingly impossible situation. And who knows where they are now? A typical Abra can teleport a few hundred yards every now and again at best. Alakazam might be able to take you to the next town, but would require massive periods of rest. Mewtwo, however, is very powerful. It could probably go straight from Cerulean Cave to Johto if it wanted to.
"Hi, Mewtwo. Thanks for saving me. And I'm really really sorry about this, but I need to catch you for somebody else."
Tyranitar, let's do this!" Hugo gives out his battle cry.
"We need to be quick, use-"
Mewtwo's reflexes are much much greater. It instantly uses a powerful aura sphere attack. The blue ray of energy engulfs Tyranitar. Within three seconds, the rock and dark type is on the floor, fainted.
"Master ball go!" Hugo attempts to take Mewtwo by surprise. He launches the ball, but Mewtwo intercepts it midair. With its psychic powers, it launches the ball back at Hugo. The ball hits him in the head and sends him sprawling backwards. In his daze, he grabs Tyranitar's ball and returns it. As he does this, he stumbles backwards and falls down the stairs.
"OOF-OW-GAH-ARGH-OOH-OUCH!" Hugo makes a lot of noise as he tumbles down an especially long flight of stairs. By the time he reaches the bottom, he's in agony.
"OW! MY SORE ARSE!" He bellows at the top of his lungs. As soon as he says it, he notices a crowd of people glaring at him with disapproving expressions. He's in a large, dull room with a few small stones scattered around the place. He can see another flight of stairs to take him further down at the opposite side of the room. He stands up, and begins to make his way across the room. It's totally silent. All of the people are glaring at him. Some look like they've been recently crying. They're all dressed in black.
"Gee, why do you all look so miserable?! It's like somebody's died!" His loud voice echoes around the room.
"Ahem." The priest grabs his attention and gestures towards the gravestone they're gathered around, making it exceedingly obvious that this is a funeral.
"Oh, oh geez, I'm so sorrry. I didn't realise..." Hugo walks backwards towards the stairs while apologising. He's so busy expressing how sorry he is that he fails to notice that he's arrived at the next set of stairs, and proceeds to trip down them once again.
"OOH-OUCH-OOF-GAH-WAH-ARGH-OOOOW!" Are his words as he takes his second tumble in two minutes.
Hugo lands at the bottom of the stairs feeling well and truly defeated.
"Excuse me sir, do you have anything to say for your behaviour upstairs?" A woman in a smart suit asks.
"My arse hurts so much..."
"AND STAY OUT! DON'T LET ME EVER SEE YOUR FACE IN HERE AGAIN! IGNORANT PRICK!"
A bulky looking security guard tosses Hugo through the door outside. Hugo lands in a cold puddle to see that it's dark and raining heavily.
"Oh yeah?! Well what sort of weirdos hold a funeral at NIGHT?!" He exclaims in protest.
"Do you believe in ghosts?" A voice asks from behind, startling Hugo. It's a little girl.
"Why, of course I do! In fact, I'm worried my friend might turn into one if she doesn't start eating properly…"
"Interesting. So that white hand on your shoulder, I'm not imagining it?" Asks the very young girl.
"What the- WAAAAAH!" Just for a moment, Hugo thinks he feels something touch his shoulder. He leaps up from his sitting position and sprints away as fast as he can. Just ahead, he sees a Pokémon Centre. He dashes through the doors into the warm, dry buidling.
"Hello, welcome to the Lavender Town Pokémon Centre. Would you like a room for the night?" Nurse Joy asks. This particular Joy does not give off the usual warm, welcoming smile.
"Lavender Town?! How did I get here?"
"Well you put one foot in front of the other and then put the other foot in front of that one, and repeated the process a few thousand times until you arrived at your destination." Explains Nurse Joy.
"Believe it or not, I know how walking works…" Hugo laughs at the nurse's humour.
"Is that so? So why run through the room so quickly, getting your muddy footprints all over our nice, clean floor?"
Hugo looks behind, and sees that the floor is now very dirty.
Nurse Joy sighs. "Look, my shift ends in an hour. If you can do me a favour I'll forget your reckless behaviour."
"A favour? Apparently I'm not so great at doing favours..."
"Look, I've had a shit day. I'm stuck working in this shitty town while all the other Joys get to enjoy places like Celadon, Safron, Viridian… yet they assign me with Lavendar town. Unbelievable. As if I wanted to be cursed by a ghost or something..."
"Look, I've just been banned from a place I'd never even heard of. It's not been the greatest for me either…"
Nurse Joy opens her counter and stands close to Hugo.
"But you're happy to come in here and give me more work to do by making the floor so dirty..."
"More work? But the place is deserted. Have you had anything to do at all until now?"
"Look, either I report you for your attitude towards staff or you do this favour for me." Joy stands even closer. "My husband's been cheating and I want to get back at him..."
"WHAT THE HELL?!" Hugo exclaims. "No no no. No thanks. I'm gone. I guess I won't be sleeping tonight… AGAIN! I told Misty, everyone in Kanto is a pervert..."
"So you're just gonna dirty my floor and leave?! Well fuck you! You're banned! Banned for life!"
"Oh no, not the Lavender Town Pokémon Centre! It's soooo popular! What will I ever do?" Hugo remarks sarcastically as he makes his exit.
Upon exiting the building back into the cold, wet night, Hugo is immediately jumped by a man dressed in a Team Rocket uniform. The man grabs Hugo's arms and attempts to pin him against the wall and overpower him. However, this man of average height is completely outmatched and soon finds himself lying on the floor.
"Look, I'm sorry, aggression is the only way I know. Here. Take my phone. The boss wants to talk."
Hugo takes the grunt's phone.
"Greetings, young Hugo. How goes operation: Capture Mewtwo?" The voice is obviously Giovanni's. He sounds surprisingly friendly and upbeat.
"I tried my best. No ordinary Pokémon can touch it."
"So I see." Giovanni tells him. "You forced it to teleport to the spot it likes so much atop Lavender tower. People seldom go up there and when they do, they must get a big surprise to see Mewtwo. I must say, I'm impressed."
"Um… yeah. Thanks." Hugo decides not to mention the fact that it teleported because of the strange man.
"Even more impressive is that you were able to get close enough for it to accidentally teleport you with it. I got quite a surprise when my tracker showed you in Lavender Town."
"Yeah, sure. So how's Hubert?"
Giovanni chuckles at the other end of the phone call. "You can relax. Your brother's journey will be a safe one and that will remain the case as long as you continue to co-operate."
Hugo frowns. "You can send me back there a hundred times. Mewtwo is uncatchable."
"Well, there is something we can do to even the odds a little more. But I shall not discuss it over the phone."
"What do you want me to do?" Hugo asks.
"Meet me in our headquarters. Tomorrow, 8PM. Don't be late."
"Headquarters?! How am I supposed to find-" The call is cut off.
"Here pal, your phone." Hugo hands the grunt his phone back.
"At least you didn't smash it, like the boss probably would..." The grunt mutters as he makes his exit.
"Well… looks like I'm stuck out in the cold and rain… wearing shorts." Hugo begins to wander aimlessly around town, searching for somewhere to shelter him.
"Young man, please! Get out of the rain! You'll catch a cold!" An elderly man calls out to Hugo.
Hugo wanders towards this man, who is poking his head out of his front door.
"Come inside. It's not good being stuck out there."
Normally, Hugo might be suspicious of someone like this, but by now he's too tired to care. He follows the man indoors.
"Goodness. You're soaking wet. Stay there, I'll go get a towel for you." Without even introducing himself, the old man disappears into another room.
Stood in the hallway at the entrance of the building, Hugo looks around. He sees pictures on walls and desks. Most of them depict the same man Hugo just met. He looks very cheerful in all of them and is seen with a large variety of people and pokémon.
"Here you go." The man returns with a towel, wrapping it around Hugo. "Now take off your shoes. Come in and take a seat. He puts his hand on Hugo's back as he guides him through the hallway.
"I-I'm Hugo. Pleased to meet you, and thank you for your hospitality."
The man, who upon closer inspection, is fairly old with a bald head, wearing a white dressing gown and nothing on his feet, smiles at Hugo.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, young Hugo. You can call me Mr Fuji."
They arrive in what appears to be the living room, and there are four other people present, two women, one man and a little girl. There's also some small pokémon; Mankey, Pikachu and Bulbasaur are playing with the people.
"Come, take a seat." Mr Fuji gestures towards a comfortable looking dark green leather chair and himself takes a seat on a red leather sofa.
"Anyone for tea?" A third woman walks in, with several cups of tea at the ready.
"Please give one to our newest guest." Mr Fuji asks.
The woman smiles as she hands Hugo a cup of tea. "Typical of you, Mr Fuji! Inviting in yet another total stranger."
"So… thank you for inviting me. But I do not want to trouble your family. I will leave soon..."
Mr Fuji chuckles. "No, no, no. Stay the night. And none of these people are family by blood. They are all friends who like to hang around here. Same goes for the pokémon."
Right on cue, a male Nidoran enters the room.
"Why, if it isn't Sammy the Nidoran. Come on in!"
"Nido!" Nidoran remarks happily.
"So, people and pokémon just come and go in your house?" Hugo sips his tea and instantly regrets it, as it's REALLY hot.
"You haven't heard of Mr Fuji? He's the nicest guy in the world! He'll go to extreme lengths to help out anyone in any way." Explains one of the women.
"Yeah, he really is a great guy! I've stayed over five or six times. I try to repay all of his kindness but it really is impossible!" Says another woman.
"I visit him as often as I can along with my daughter." Explains the man.
"Why, thank you, but really I am not as great as you make me out to be." Fuji blushes slightly.
"So tell me, Hugo. What brings you to Lavender Town."
Hugo feels kind of embarrassed. "Well, honestly, it's a long story, and you wouldn't believe me even if I told you..."
"Nonsense!" Fuji exclaims. "Why, none of us have any reason not to believe you now, do we?" Everyone in the room shakes their head in agreement.
"Well, okay, it all started when I was visiting my friend Brock in hospital..." Hugo explains the whole story of his encounter with Giovanni and then Mewtwo. The whole time, Fuji is listening and reacting to his every word. He shows no sign of believing the story to be false.
"Well Hugo, that's quite a story." Fuji says after Hugo has finished.
"Incredible! You met Mewtwo today?!" The man asks excitedly.
"Yes, believe it or not. It might still be in the tower. We could go and see if I weren't banned."
"Hmm… so Giovanni asked you to visit him in his base, did he?"Fuji asks.
"Y-yes. Not that I can. I have no idea where it is…"
"You are not aware? Hohoho. It is a little known fact that Team Rocket's base of operations is over in Celadon City."
Hugo's eyes widen. "Wow, you're an intelligent man."
Just then, the door to the room is swung open and a woman rushes in. She wears a plain red dress, her long, curly hair is soaked.
"Mr Fuji! I can't do it! I can't do it!" The woman talks loudly. She sounds upset.
"Oh dear, Lauren. Still having trouble with Haunter, I see?" Mr Fuji replies.
"It just doesn't listen to me. It doesn't like me!" Lauren complains.
"Hmm..." Fuji appears to be pondering something.
"Lauren, this is Hugo. Please show him your problem."
"Oh… hi Hugo." Lauren blushes a little, embarrassed that a total stranger has seen her current predicament. "Here, take a look." Lauren releases her pokéball, revealing her Haunter.
"Haunt Haunter!" The pokémon glares angrily at its trainer.
"Oh no! It's really pissed off with me!"
"HAUNT!" Haunter uses bite on its trainer, bruising Lauren's leg.
"Ow! Stop it! Stop it!"
"Hugo, I believe you should attempt to connect with Haunter." Fuji tells him calmly.
"Hmm… just a minute, I'll be right back." Hugo exits the room, entering the kitchen. A moment later, he returns.
"Now come on out Rotom!" He calls. From the kitchen, a floating fridge enters and begins levitating in front of Haunter.
"Haunt! Haunt! Haunter!" The pokémon appears to be ecstatic, seemingly thinking Hugo is magic.
Rotom exits the room, and returns moments later, this time possessing a microwave.
"Haunt! Haunt! Haunter!" The poison and ghost type is loving this.
Lauren looks stunned as she sits on the carpet with Hugo and Mr Fuji. "A- a Rotom?! Aren't they legendary?!"
Hugo shakes his head. "I think some people mistake them as legendary, but I guess they're just pretty rare."
"Th-that's unbelievable!" Lauren now has a big smile on her face.
"Haunter!" The happy pokémon is jumping for joy in Hugo's face.
"Y-you're incredible. How'd you manage to win over my stubborn Haunter so easily?"
"It wasn't me, it was Rotom." There is now a fan floating around the room.
"I wish I had a Rotom. They're incredible!" Lauren exclaims.
"Well I'm very glad how this all worked out." Mr Fuji smiles.
"Hey, I just had a great idea!" Lauren exclaims.
"Go on. Tell us all about it." My Fuji responds.
"Why don't we trade pokémon? Your Rotom for my Haunter?"
"Oh geez..." Hugo replies. "I don't think so. Sorry. I like my Rotom."
"I didn't think you'd want to. Oh well. Sorry to bother you, Hugo, and Mr Fuji. May I make you two a drink?"
"No trouble at all, Lauren. And yes please. I'd love one." Fuji is very friendly as always.
"Yes please." Hugo agrees.
Lauren heads into the kitchen, and a moment later, she's back with drinks.
"Ooh, thank you." Hugo reaches to grab one.
"Ah, no, no, this one is for you." Lauren explains. "Mr Fuji has his made in a certain way."
Hugo takes the drink and downs it in one go. Something tastes a little off, but he thinks nothing of it.
For the next half an hour, the people in Mr Fuji's house make small talk and have a laugh. As it's very late, however, they soon decide to head for bed.
"Lauren, you can sleep in this guest room as you often do." Fuji explains. His house is massive. How many guest rooms does he have?
"Thank you very much, do you mind if Hugo comes in with me for a moment, I wish to discuss something with him."
"Sure. Hugo, you can have the room across the hall. I'm heading for bed. Goodnight."
"Goodnight Mr Fuji!" Hugo and Lauren say together.
Hugo follows Lauren into her room. It's quite large, and she gets a big double bed all to herself.
"Hey, nice room! Mr Fuji is awesome, isn't he?" Hugo asks.
Lauren smiles slightly. "Yes, easy to manipulate too."
"Huh? Why would you want to… ugh..." Hugo's sentence is cut off as he begins to feel faint.
"Good. It's taking effect. What a bonus for me that you happen to be so hot!"
Before he can contemplate what she means, Hugo feels his muscles give up on him as collapses to the floor.
Hugo wakes up. He doesn't remember going to sleep… wait a minute. Where is he? As he comes to his senses, he realises he's still in Mr Fuji's house. In fact, he's still in that same room… Lauren's room. Crap! He realises his clothes are missing, and he turns over to see a content looking Lauren laying beside him on the luxury double bed. Of course, her clothes are missing too.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" Hugo exclaims, louder than intended.
"Huh?" Lauren opens her eyes, glancing at the clock beside the bed. "Wow, you're awake already. Guess I should've given a bigger dose to a big guy like you. Usually I'm long gone by the time they wake up."
"You arsehole." Hugo glares at Lauren.
"Heehee. Yeah, you did put it in there last night." Lauren looks pleased with herself.
"You're disgusting!" Hugo is horrified. He leaps out of bed and rushes to grab his clothes scattered around the floor.
"Why rush?" Lauren puts her hands behind her head, spreading out her elbows. "I've already seen it, and used it..."
"What have you taken?" Hugo asks, wondering where his wallet is.
"Relax. I hadn't gotten around to taking any money. And now I can't. There's one thing you can't undo though..."
"What the hell did you do?!"
"Remember that trade you didn't agree to?"
Hugo is putting his belt back on, and notices that one of the pokéballs looks a little different.
"Enjoy your new Gengar. I've done you a favour. You know, they evolve when traded.
"Fuck you!"
"You already did!"
Not wishing to spend any more time with this woman, Hugo takes a mad dash out of the house. It's early, so everyone else is still sleeping and not there to notice him leave. He leaves a note thanking Mr Fuji for his generosity, along with a bit of money. He doubts the old man needs it, but he'd feel bad not to leave something.
He begins his walk west, towards Cerulean City. A quick check of the time shows him it's almost 7AM. That gives him barely 13 hours to get where he's heading. Shouldn't be too bad, surely?
Just then, Hugo walks past a wooden sign with an arrow. 'CERULEAN CITY 60 MILES'
"DAMN IT!" Hugo yells aloud. "How do I cover 60 miles in half a day?!"
Hugo begins to jog. He's pretty fast, and manages to cover 10 miles within the next hour. The effort is leaving him exhausted though, and he decides he needs to return to a walking pace. Luckily, there is a water fountain along the path where he can take a drink. He is just in the process of bending over to take a drink when- OOF!
"Hey, watch where you're going, dick!" A woman has tripped over Hugo. She appears to be around his age, maybe a little older. She has black hair and wears a red headband. She dresses kind of similarly to one of those famous kimono girls from Johto.
"Me?! But you're the one who tripped over me."
"Not my fault your lanky body blocked half the path… ew! You're sweaty! Disgusting! Why were you running just now? Running's so retarded. It makes you all gross and stinky."
"I'm off to Celadon. I'm in a rush. Goodbye." Hugo tells her.
The woman sticks her tongue out at him. "Why not just teleport, or ride a flying type, fucking idiot?"
"Because I don't have a flying or psychic type. Durr!"
"Well you're fucked then, aren't you? It's miles away."
Hugo begins to realise how foul-mouthed this woman is.
"Hence why I was running." He explains.
"Wow, fuck me, I could never run that far. You're shitting me if you think you can make it all in one go! Let's see your pokémon, wonder if any of them can help?"
Hugo sighs. "Ugh. Here. Take a look."
Hugo sends out his four pokémon: Shinx, Kabutops, Tyranitar and Ro- um… Haunter. Upon being sent out, Haunter begins to glow.
"Fuck yeah! It's evolving!" The woman exclaims.
"Uh, yeah… that's cool I guess." Hugo frowns.
"Hey, if you didn't want a Gengar, why did you agree to trade for one?" The woman asks.
"I didn't..." Begins Hugo. He is interrupted by a pokémon's cry.
"Gengar!" The newly evolved pokémon yells.
"Yay!" The woman delights.
"Okay, so what are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere?" Asks Hugo.
"Well, you see, I was merely enjoying a stroll..."
"Yeah right. You're 10 miles from the nearest civilization. Some stroll?"
Suddenly, the woman looks highly offended. "Well fuck you if you don't wanna believe me, dick!"
The woman begins to march onward, towards Celadon.
"You're in the same position as me, haha." Hugo laughs as he returns all his pokémon and continues his own walk.
"Yeah, well maybe I dumped my boyfriend and he refused to fly me back home. And maybe I left all my money at home. And maybe my phone's dead and I don't have a charger with me."
"Not the best time to dump your boyfriend by the sound of it..."
"Fuck off!"
"Hey, can't you use your pokémon to get home?"
The woman sends out her pokémon all at once. Vileplume, Venusaur, Cradily, Exeggutor, Tangrowth and Abomasnow.
"See?" She returns them all just as quickly as she sent them out.
Hugo is simply in awe of her powerful team. "Wow. That team's almost like..."
"…A gym leader's?"
"Yeah, how'd you..."
"I'm Erika."
"Oh, I get it. The grassy woman."
"Please don't call me that."
"Sorry grassy woman."
"Look, I've had a bad night, I'm tired, I'm hungry, I'm supposed to be back by dinner time, and you're fucking annoying."
"Well, sounds like we're both equally screwed."
"So what's your story?"
"Well, I've been blackmailed by a criminal mastermind into capturing Mewtwo or he's gonna kill my brother and probably all my friends and family too. Now I've gotta meet up with him by 8 or I'm a dead man. So, y'know, standard stuff."
"Huh, Giovanni… he's getting YOU to do his bidding? You know you're not the first, right?"
"Huh?"
"I've been involved with that shit before. He tried getting me to do all sorts of shit. Guess he overestimated the Gym Leaders…" Erika pulls out a packet of tobacco and begins rolling a cigarette.
"How'd you get out of it, then?"
"Get out of it? You think I got out easy? You know what he did?"
"No idea."
"He killed my father."
"Crap."
"Why do you think I smoke? Helps me cope with the stress. I've been royally fucked throughout my life. Life's a bitch. People screw you over again and again then you die."
"Hey, you should lay off those fags, they ain't good."
"Like I give a fuck. Death could appear before me right now and I'd welcome it with open arms."
Just then, an Alakazam appears out of nowhere. There is a woman standing beside it. Blue hair, a strap-on shirt, and she wears some strange looking green and black rings around her wrists.
"Sabrina." Erika recognises her instantly.
"Erika. And Hugo." Sabrina replies.
"Wait, how did you-" Hugo begins.
"I'm psychic." Sabrina explains.
"Oh yeah, of course."
"We have to go. Now." Sabrina tells them. Most psychic pokémon need a lengthy rest between each use of teleport, and cannot teleport very far. Sabrina, though, is a master of psychic pokémon.
"We need more power for this distance." The ring on her left wrist begins to glow. "ALAKAZAM! MEGA EVOLVE!" She cries loudly. Alakazam begins to glow, and before their very eyes it becomes mega Alakazam.
"Incredible!" Hugo is in awe, witnessing mega evolution for the first time.
"Teleport!" Sabrina commands. In a flash, they vanish.
The group reappear in a small woodland area within a city. Just over a hundred metres down a mud path is the entrance to a pokémon gym.
"Fufufufu. Can't wait to stare at all those women through the window again..." An old man mutters to himself as he walks past them, along the path. He arrives at the window "Hehehe… WAIT, WHAT THE HELL?!"
"Your gym is under attack." Explains Sabrina.
"Who the fuck dares to attack? I'll take the bastard down!" Erika looks furious. She sprints towards the gym's entrance.
"BRING IT ON, BITCH!" Erika gives out her battle cry.
"She'll get herself killed. We have to help." Sabrina tells Hugo.
Hugo and Sabrina chase after Erika. They are able to catch up just as she enters the building.
"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Erika screams in horror.
The Celadon Gym is in ruins. There is blood scattered on the floor. Several of the gym trainers are sat in the corner, cowering in fear. A familiar face is standing there. The same man who crippled Brock and tried to attack Mewtwo. His Snorlax is beside him, he holds his 'walking stick' in one hand and his pistol in the other. Unfortunately, he notices the trio the instant they enter the building. He points his gun towards the helpless Gym trainers.
"You don't have the balls!" Erika threatens.
The man raises his arm. Without even turning around, he fires a bullet at the gym trainers in the corner. One of them is hit in the shoulder.
"OWWWW!" She cries in pain.
"STOP RIGHT THERE! POLICE!" Three armed police officers burst through the door. In an instant, the first one receives a bullet straight into his skull. He instantly drops dead. The second officer fires a bullet at the man. His surprisingly agile Snorlax gets in the way though. The bullet recoils off its stomach, hitting the officer in his stomach, causing him to collapse to the floor. The third officer rushes in, sees what has happened, then instantly turns around and runs away screaming "Fuck this shit!"
"Oh dear, no need for such strong language. I'm only here for the Gym leaders anyway." The man laughs as if nothing has happened. He fires a bullet at Sabrina. However, Mega Alakazam causes it to freeze in mid-air. Having lost all its momentum, the bullet drops harmlessly to the floor.
"So you wanna play that game, do you? Come on out Giratina!" The man launches a pokéball summoning the powerful ghost.
"What is that thing?!" Erika exclaims in surprise.
"We'll just have to defeat it." Sabrina calmly tells them.
"Okay, Venusaur, come on out!" Erika summons her grass and poison type.
"Tyranitar, let's do this!" Hugo sends out his rock and dark type.
"Giratina, use shadow ball!" The man commands. Giratina launches the powerful attack. Alakazam manages to narrowly avoid it.
"Alakazam, psychic!" "Tyranitar, crunch!" "Venusaur use petal blizzard!"
Tyranitar launches itself at Giratina while Alakazam and Venusaur launch their attacks. All three hit, yet the ghost type doesn't even seem slightly hurt.
"Shadow ball again!"
Giratina launches a second shadow ball attack, once again aimed at Alakazam. This time, the mega evolved psychic type is unable to get out of the way in time. It's knocked onto the floor, its mega evolution disappears and it is unable to continue.
"Don't worry. This bastard is going down! VENUSAUR!" Erika's headband begins to glow. Within seconds, Venusaur begins to glow too. In a flash it has changed into Mega Venusaur.
"Venusaur, sludge bomb!"
"We're done here." The man decides. "Dragon breath."
Giratina quickly sprays out a powerful breath, spinning around so it flies out in all direction. While this is happening, it's easily enduring Venusaur's attack.
"Quick, dodge!" Hugo orders, but to no avail. Both Venusaur and Tyranitar are hit by the attack. Tyranitar is flung onto the ground, landing unconscious. Venusaur just barely manages to hold on.
"Damn it!" Hugo returns Tyranitar, feeling frustrated.
"Venusaur, use-"
"Shadow claw."
Giratina grabs Venusaur with its shadow claw attack, and throws it against a wall. The mega evolved pokémon is knocked out, losing its powered up form.
"SHIT! Venusaur, re-" "Not so fast!" Snorlax puts itself in-between Erika and her fallen ally. It blocks the red beams intended to return Venusaur to its encapsulated home. The man calmly strolls over to Venusaur's fainted body.
"Wh-what's going on?" Erika begins to panic.
"Not so fast!" Sabrina, having obviously predicted what is about to happen, somehow manages to get Alakazam to use teleport a second time. This is practically unheard of, as most psychic types usually need a lengthy rest between each use of the move. They quickly warp themselves beside Venusaur, ready to protect it.
"Try to think before you act." The man advises. With reflexes too fast for Sabrina to handle, he points his gun towards her and lets off a powerful blast. The psychic gym leader's skull cannot withstand the powerful momentum of the bullet.
"SABRINA!" Erika screams.
Realising what's about to happen, Hugo sprints towards Erika, desperate to help her. As he runs he turns his gaze towards the man, who peeps his head around the side of Snorlax's huge body and fires another bullet. Hugo uses all the strength in his legs to dive into Erika, he manages to push her sideways, getting her out of the way less than a second before the bullet would have gone straight through her head.
"COME ON, LET'S GO!" Hugo yells over the sound of the gym trainers who are now screaming in terror. He grabs Erika's arm and makes a run for the gym's exit.
"HE'S GOT MY FUCKING VENUSAUR!" She screams, attempting to shake free of his grip with no success. By this point, Venusaur has already fallen victim to the man's 'stick'.
"WE HAVE TO GO! NOW!" Hugo manages to drag Erika along with him, out of the gym's front doors. Now putting up less resistance, Erika is pulled by Hugo well out of the woods, as they continue into the city. They stop outside the game corner, and Hugo finally lets go of Erika's arm. The two of them pant for breath.
"Fuck my life! This is horrible!" Erika is almost in tears as she gasps for breath.
"We need to blend in. Let's go." Hugo tells her. The pair make their way into the game corner.
"My Venusaur! My poor poor Venusaur!" Erika struggles to hold back tears as they walk through the building.
"You have to calm down. It's gone. Nothing can be done."
"GAH! FUCK THAT GUY! MURDERING CUNT!"
Everyone in the games corner is staring at Erika disapprovingly after this outburst.
"Ms Erika, is there a problem?" One member of staff asks.
"N-no. Apologies." Says the grass type gym leader.
"Come on Hugo. There's somewhere you need to go."
Erika leads Hugo to the back of the games corner, there is a shady looking character leaning against the wall with his arms folded. He wears a Team Rocket uniform and has sunglasses covering his eyes.
"We're here to see the boss." Erika tells him.
"Name?" The shady dude asks.
"He's Hugo. Y'know. The really tall one."
"Ah, of course, a bit early, but come in and make yourself at home."
Next to the shady character is a poster on the wall. Erika removes it to reveal a secret lever. She pulls it, revealing a secret staircase leading downward. She hands the poster back to the shady character and follows Hugo down the stairs.
As Hugo gets to the bottom of the stairs he sets foot on a strange looking panel. "WOAH!" He cries as he's sent spinning uncontrollably towards a wall. "Oof!" He slams into the wall face first. Erika is careful to step around the panel. The building they are now in appears fururistic, with a mainly white colour scheme. There are corridors both to the left and behind, but in front there is a large screen. The screen turns on, and a woman dressed in a Team Rocket uniform appears on screen. She's sat at a desk.
"Ah, Hugo. You're here rather early. As your meeting concerns a rather urgent matter, however, I'll push it forwards. It will be in 5 minutes. Please proceed along the corridor to your left."
Hugo and Erika make their way along the corridor.
"Thanks, dickhead." Erika mumbles quietly.
"Thanks for what?"
"Y'know."
"No I don't."
"For saving my life and all that."
"Oh… ok."
Luckily, their awkward conversation is ended when a door is opened in front of them. The same female who'd appeared on the screen earlier is standing before them.
"Ah, what a surprise. You brought the lovely Ms Erika with you. However, I will have to ask her to stay out- OOF!" The woman receives a hard uppercut fist to the face. She is immediately knocked unconscious. Erika continues walking as if nothing has happened and Hugo decides he's now just a little bit scared of her.
Erika and Hugo proceed through the door and each take a seat behind a desk. At the other side of the desk, a chair spins around to reveal Giovanni, stroking a Persian on his lap.
Giovanni wastes no time in getting straight to the point of the meeting."Impressive work making it out of there alive, young Hugo. Now I'd like to give you something that will change your life forever."
My longest chapter ever! Hope you enjoyed.
