Chapter 7
Dangerous Dilemma
Sasha was running out of breath as she raced after the black semi-truck and trailer.
"Oh, please don't be much farther," she thought as her lungs began to burn.
Finally she saw the trucks break lights and a right turn signal. The trailer disappeared around a corner.
Sasha made to the corner to see the semi stopped at a security gate.
The semi driver and the security officer talked for a few minutes. The driver handed the security guard some papers. The guard began looking the papers over. Another guard stepped out of the guard house followed by a dog-like creature.
Sasha quickly pulled out the PokéDex from her pocket and activated it.
The device gave a slight hum and then let off a small chime. The female robotic voice then began its explanation.
"Houndoom, an evolved form of Houndor, is a quadruped, canine Pokémon that is mainly black with a long orange snout and an orange underbelly. It has small, red eyes and a black nose. Around its neck is a white band with a small skull-shaped pendant on its throat. There are two white bands on each of its ankles, as well as three rib-like ridges on its back. Houndoom has a long, skinny tail with a triangular tip and three clawed toes on each paw. On top of its head is a pair of long, curved gray horns. These horns are smaller on the female than the male. Houndoom's eerie howl is said to cause those who hear it to shudder in fear."
The Houndoom began sniffing its way around the exterior of the truck with the security guard following behind. The pair finished their inspection and the security gate was raised, and the semi rolled through.
Sasha had been peering around the corner of a building, which appeared to be a warehouse of some sort, when the semi-truck was let past the security gate. Suddenly Gastly jumped out with a furious look on his face.
"What are you waiting for?! The master said to follow those trucks!" Gastly's enraged thoughts filled Sasha's head.
"No, wait!" Sasha called out, but Gastly was already moving to follow the truck and trailer.
Sasha's voice alerted the Houndoom who turned toward her voice, its tail slowly moving back and forth. The two security guards also turned toward her voice. The Houndoom lowered its head and barred its fangs. One of the security guards shouted something and the Houndoom rushed at the oncoming Gastly.
Gastly just kept going forward, seemingly oblivious to the dark hound rushing at him full speed.
"Must obey the master, must obey the master." Sasha could hear Gastly repeating those words over and over.
The Houndoom then jumped into the air and seemed to disappear.
Gastly finally slowed when the other Pokémon disappeared. He looked around with a confused look on his face.
Houndoom then appeared behind Gastly and, with dark smoke beginning to slowly drift out of its mouth, its jaws closed on the Gastlys form.
Gastly let out a piercing cry and turned towards the Houndoom.
Sasha noticed Gastly seemed to be having trouble staying in one place. Instead of hovering, Gastly seemed to be slowing working very hard to stay above the ground.
The security guard who had come out with the Houndoom had had gotten closer.
"Houndoom, Ember attack!"
The Houndoom released a small ball of flame and it collided with Gastly.
The ball of flame exploded into tiny flame fragments and Gastly slowly sank to the ground, the gases slowly beginning to dissipate.
"Stop! Please stop!" Sasha cried as she took off running towards the pair of Pokémon.
The security guard didn't seem to notice Sasha running towards the battle as he gave his Pokémon another command.
"Alright Houndoom, finish it off."
Liquid fire began dripping out of the dark canines' mouth.
"Now finish it off with Fire Fang!"
Sasha dove and landed over Gastly, who now just resembled a purplish ball with only a few puffs of gas lazily drifting off him.
The Houndoom gazed down at the young girl who was now blocking his prey.
The first security guard ran up, "Hey! That's enough!"
He pushed the other security guard back towards the checkpoint, the Houndoom spat the flames that it had been gathering in its mouth onto the cement, which left the cement black, and followed the guards back to the checkpoint.
"Gastly, Gastly wake up." Sasha whispered.
Then she heard footsteps approaching. She looked up to see the security guard who had stopped the fight.
"Miss, you need to leave. You have no business being here," he looked down at the fainted Pokémon, "And you better get to the Pokémon Center. Not a good idea to mess with these Johto guards. They take their jobs very seriously."
Sasha nodded and held out her necklace, Gastly disappeared.
The guard sighed, "I am really sorry about this. Things have gotten strange ever since those guards arrived on that new ship and those black trucks showed up…" his voice fell silent like he realized he had said too much.
Sasha had an idea. She stood up and smiled at the guard, who appeared to be actually pretty young.
"Why would they need more guards if they already have guards like you here?" Sasha asked.
"Oh, well, they just have some really expensive cargo I guess. It's nothing that I haven't handled before." The guard puffed up his chest a little.
Sasha looked behind the guard and could see three large ships. One straight back and two that were on the left and right hand sides of the cement docks.
"Wow, so you guard those big ships? Seems like an important job." Sasha said, with big eyes and a shocked look on her face.
The guard beamed, "Yea, it is a pretty important job. See that ship right there?" he pointed toward the ship on the left, "That's the S.S. Anne. It was salvaged and is being repaired after it sank a couple years ago. The one straight back, the S.S. Kaijo, that one is from Johto where all the new guards came from."
"Wow…sounds like you have a tough job. Well, I guess I'll let you get back to work. Thank you for your concern." Sasha gave him a smile and started walking away. She was just about to turn the corner when the guard called out behind her.
"Miss, wait just a second."
The guard came running up, "Here, use this on your Gastly. Just be sure to tell him to stay away from places he is not supposed to be."
He handed her a pink spray bottle with an orange top.
"Hope this Super Potion helps. Maybe I'll see you around?"
Sasha smiled, "Yea, maybe you will. Bye!"
Sasha walked around the corner and kept going for a little while to be sure she was not far enough away then ducked down a small alley. She quickly held out the ball Gastly was inside and he popped out, still lying on the ground. Sasha quickly took the bottle and started misting the potion all over Gastly.
After a few seconds Gastly started stirring, while there was still no gas appearing around him like before, he did appear to be waking up.
"Gastly?" Sasha whispered, "You ok?"
The ghost Pokémon slowly opened its eyes; confusion covered its face for a second before he finally focused on Sasha. He stared at Sasha for a few minutes before the eyes closed again.
"Gastly? Hey, are you ok?" She asked with a hint of worry in her voice.
Gastlys eyes stayed shut.
Sasha sat down next to him, not sure what to do or say.
"I failed," Gastlys sad thoughts slowly drifted into Sasha's head, "I tried to do my masters bidding and I failed."
"What are you talking about?" Sasha asked, confused, "We just got here. You can't just expect everything to go the way you want it to right away. Things take time, especially something like this. Like my mom always said, 'You can't grow a garden, without first planting the seed'."
Gastly let out a coughing noise, "You wouldn't understand. The master expects only the best of the best and I failed," Gastly opened a single eye and looked at Sasha, "And I do not understand that, 'You can't grow a garden, without first planting the seed'. If you would have acted we could have completed the masters' mission." He closed his eyes again.
Sasha scrunched up her face, a little annoyed at Gastlys obvious disgust with having to work with her.
"Well, for your information, Mr. Gas-for-Brains, after you charged after the truck and got knocked out I did some investigating of my own."
Gastly opened both eyes and looked at her, "You did what?"
"I just asked the guard some questions," she told Gastly what she had learned.
Gastly seemed even more awake now, "Impressive, we must go back and make sure that it is the S.S. Kaijo."
Gastly tried to move, but he could only get a couple inches off the ground.
"I need to get you to the Pokémon Center; you are in no shape to go sneaking around anywhere."
Gastly looked like he was about to protest, but he remained silent and just disappeared back inside Sasha's necklace.
Sasha began making her way back to the Pokémon Center. She pulled out her PokéDex and brought up her contact list. She scrolled until she found Mr. Sasaki and hit the call button.
After a few rings someone picked up but it was full of static.
"He…lo…is…someone…r…Hell…"
Sasha pulled the phone away from her ear as a loud burst of static came through the phone. She put it carefully back up to her ear.
"Mr. Sasaki? Is that you? I have some information about the mechas you sent me to find."
"That's…gr…Sasha…," the next few sentences were extremely garbled and covered with static until finally some words came through, "You are the…ly…on…that I can send…The H.P.L.I.S…found us…"
Sasha was confused, "H.P.L.I.S? What's that?" Sasha asked.
"Peo…res…sible…for…parents…" the call went dead.
"Mr. Sasaki? Mr. Sasaki are you there!?"
No answer.
Sasha pulled the PokéDex away from her ear and stared at it. The blue screen was blank; the call was no longer there. She tried to call back but her PokéDex stated that the device she was trying to reach is off or no longer functioning.
"Terrific." she thought, throwing her hands up into the air and slapping her thighs when they came back down.
Then she heard someone calling her name.
"Sasha! Hey, Sasha over here!" a girls voice came from down the street.
Sasha looked up from the PokéDex and saw a girl jogging towards her. Putting the PokéDex away, Sasha took a small step back, unsure of who this girl was.
The girl made it to Sasha and put her hands on her knees taking some deep breaths. The girl was about her height, tanned skin from a lot of time in the sun. She had bright blonde hair held back in a ponytail and blue eyes. She was wearing a bright pink tank top with what appeared to be a pink tube top underneath. She also wore a pair of blue jean short shorts with a pair of pink tennis shoes.
"Hey Sasha, its Amy. You met my grandfather earlier today." She girl said through taking a few breaths.
"Yea, I remember. Nice to meet you, how did you find me?"
Amy laughed, "Oh, it wasn't easy. Had to do a lot of asking around. Luckily you aren't wearing what a normal tourist would wear."
Sasha looked down at her sleeveless hoodie and jeans.
"It's the darker colors Sasha. Most people who are here for a while are wearing brighter colors like pink or orange."
Sasha nodded, "Well, I was just on my way back to the Pokémon Center. Gastly kinda bit off more than he could chew."
"Alright then, back to the Pokémon Center it is! So what did Gastly fight that beat him so bad?"
"A Houndoom." Sasha answered.
"Oh, wow. No wonder Gastly got beat. Houndoom is a dark Pokémon and can really do a number on ghost and psychic-type Pokémon. Read that in a book somewhere. My Pokémon could have beaten Houndoom though. He's also a fire type and my water Pokémon rock against fire…"
Sasha listened as Amy kept talking. The girl sure had a lot to say and spoke so fast you would think she would run out of stuff to talk about, she didn't.
They finally made to the Pokémon Center and Sasha walked up to the desk.
Nurse Joy looked up, "Oh, hello there again. What brings you back so soon?"
Sasha held out her necklace and Gastly appeared on the counter.
"Oh goodness," the nurse covered her mouth, "He looks pretty bad. What happened?"
Sasha explained about the battle with the Houndoom, leaving out the part of where she was exactly.
"Well, you need to be more responsible young lady. Your Pokémon look to you to keep them safe. Please be more careful next time."
Sasha was just about to defend herself when Amy spoke first.
"Of course, Nurse Joy. My friend here is just starting out and I'm going to teach her everything I know. She will be a Pokémon Master by the time I'm done."
Nurse Joy giggled, "Alright Amy. Make sure you don't forget your Pokémons check-up next week."
"I won't." She answered with a smile as she led Sasha over to a booth.
She sat down and Sasha sat down across from her.
Amy put her elbows on the table and put her hands up under her chin and stared at Sasha.
"You're pretty."
Sasha opened her mouth to respond but nothing came out. Amy's comment caught her off guard.
Amy laughed, "Well, I can tell you haven't been told that often enough. So what brings you here to Vermillion?"
Sasha was quiet for a second then answered, "Just wanted to look at all the big ships that come through here. I've never seen ships that big before."
"Then why would you go down to where they load the cargo onto the ships? You can go right down Main St. and see the ships up close."
Sasha shrugged, "I don't know the city that well I guess."
Amy smiled, "It's alright. You're with me now. I'll get you started in the right direction."
Sasha smiled. She liked this girl. She just wished things had been different and she would have met her before the fire. Maybe her mom would have even liked her too. Maybe her mom would have changed her mind about Pokémon training.
Sasha sighed, "No point in 'maybes'. I'll never know."
"Are you alright?" Amy asked.
Sasha quickly looked up, Amy had a worried look on her face, "Uh, yea. Yea, I'm fine. Just tired."
"Hmm," Amy looked at her for a few seconds, then her smile came back, "Well, what's your plan for tonight? Like, where do you plan on sleeping?"
"I…I hadn't really thought that far ahead."
"Well you are going to sleep at my place tonight. No arguing, it's already decided. I got some extra blankets and my couch can fold out into a bed. And, personally I think my couch is comfier than my bed. I know I may look young to own a house here in Vermillion, but I happen to have won quite a few competitions around here and work as a lifeguard too. The house isn't very big but its home."
Sasha smiled. She realized she could not say no, but she also realized that she had a job to finish.
"Alright, that sounds great."
Amy smiled and walked up to the front desk.
"Nurse Joy? You out here?" she called out.
The nurse poked her head out the back room, "Yep, what do you need Amy?"
"Sasha is going crash at my house tonight. Can we take Gastly and head out? You know I'll make sure he gets his rest."
Nurse Joy thought about it for a minute, "Well, As long as you promise no activity for Gastly till morning, it should be ok."
"Great! Alright Sasha, let's go!"
Amy went outside to hail a cab while Sasha retrieved Gastly.
The cab ride to Amy's house was uneventful, except for Amy's tutoring of Sasha in what she called "The art of Pokémon Training".
A few hours later, Sasha and Amy were sitting on the couch watching TV, Gastly was sleeping in the golden Poké Ball, and the news had just begun.
The reporter was a man in a grey suit that was standing in front of a crowd of people who were holding signs and who looked to be waiting on a speaker.
"I'm standing in front of a protest which has assembled next to a house which was reportedly burned down a few days ago, claiming the lives of Pokémon researcher Charles Sa-Rya and his wife and daughter. A group of Pokémon is being blamed for the attack, more specifically; a small group of Charizard who are now the prime suspects after investigators discovered several impressions resembling Charizard footprints and investigators have found no evidence pointing toward an electrical fire or even arson. This group behind me claims to represent the people who have suffered at the hands of Pokémon and are saying they have had enough. Right now we are waiting to hear what this speaker has to say."
There was movement behind the reporter as a man, pale skin, bald, had a goatee and was dressed in an expensive white suit with a red tie, walked up onto a recently built wooden stage.
The reporter quickly motioned for his cameraman to focus in on the man.
The man picked up a bullhorn and held it up to his lips.
"I stand here tonight, at the scene of a tragedy. Three lives lost because the world has been blinded by the extremely popular trend of…," the man looked like he was about to lose his dinner, "…Pokémon training. People have foolishly thought that Pokémon can be trained and controlled as pets and equals and as a result the true nature of Pokémon has remained hidden. Many times in the past, Pokémon have changed the climate, destroyed populated areas, left thousands homeless, and injured and killed hundreds others. It is time humans took control of this world. It is time that humans stand up and prove that we are the dominant force and that this is our world."
The people gathered were all cheering and applauding, soaking in every word that came out of the man's mouth.
The man smiled and continued, "I stand with all those who have lost loved ones to our so-called friends and give a warning to the rest of the world. Beware, things are changing and I am afraid that it is too late to do anything about it. I call on everyone whose eyes have been opened to join my organization for human advancement. The H.P.L.I.S, which stands for the Human Power Located InSide, welcomes all and will give support and aid to any who feel they are being threatened and oppressed by Pokémon."
Amy scoffed and turned the TV off.
"What a moron. I don't know what made him jump on the crazy train, but I hope no one listens to that bunch of crap."
Amy stood and stretched, "Well Sasha, I'm going to go to bed," she turned to look at Sasha, "Hey, are you ok? You look like you are about to be sick."
Sasha did feel like she was going to be sick. That man on the TV was responsible for what her life had now become. She turned to Amy.
"Where's your bathroom" she asked, her voice shaking slightly.
"Down the hallway, first door on your left. There are towels in the closet if you need them if you want to take a warm shower or something."
Amy watched her new friend walk down the hall. She looked back at the TV for a moment, then shook her head and walked down the hallway to her bedroom.
Sasha closed the bathroom door and turned on the faucet, cupping her hands under the running water, she splashed the cool water on her face. She leaned over the sink letting the water drip off her face. The words of that man on the TV kept ringing in her ears. She wondered how many other "victims" there were who may have lost people because of that mans hatred of Pokémon.
She looked up at her reflection in the mirror. There were deep circles under her eyes; she could not tell if the liquid still dripping off her face was water or tears. She knew what she had to do. Since she had not been able to reach Giovanni, she was going to go back to the docks and make sure she knew exactly where those mechas were and if she was able get ahold of the police so that the H.P.L.I.S could be stopped.
Sasha turned the light off in the bathroom and tiptoed into the living room. She unclasped her necklace and laid it down on the couch. She quickly found a pen and paper and wrote a small note telling Amy that she would return for Gastly and explain everything, and quietly snuck out the front door. She hailed a taxi and stepped inside. Sasha looked out the window at Amy's house until it disappeared from view.
