Chapter 8: Cerulean City of Blues
Tia and Tom make their way to the Pokemon Center where Tia quickly heals her Pokemon. "Okay, let's head to the gym now!" Tia says anxious as ever. Even after her battle with Team Rocket she is not ready to quit.
"Right now, can't we wait until tomorrow?" Tom on the other hand is more than content with resting.
"No way, it's still day out for crying out loud Tom." She walks out with him lagging behind with Cleffa. "What's with you?" She asks surprised to see him this depressed.
"I just realized something I'd rather not talk about." Tom slumps and hangs his head low.
Tia gets that it's best not to bug him about it so she drops the subject and treks forward to the gym with a spring in her step. She swings the doors open, "I'm here to face the Gym Leader!" Her declaration rings loudly throughout the entire gym..
"Okay, I heard you, geez make a girl go deaf." An annoyed red haired girl stands about five feet from the door. "Listen, I'm too busy right now, come back tomorrow." She says scrambling around with a few Pokeballs in hand.
"What, but I'm challenging the gym," Tia whines. "You have to accept my challenge." Tia's odd sense of self-entitlement gets Tom's attention.
"Where did you hear that? Gym leaders can deny a challenge if it's inconvenient." Tom explains from over her shoulder. He desperately hopes he's not noticed.
"Wait?" The girl looks past Tia and right at Tom. "Well look who decided to show his face!" She shouts with that same fiery temper Tom was used to.
Tom sighs, "Nice to see you too, Misty."
"You two know each other?" Tia asks, "Wait; is she your ex-girlfriend?" Tia looks on in shock that this could be the woman Tom was talking about.
"Oh god no!" Misty quickly dashes any thoughts Tia had with pure disgust.
"Thanks Mist, really necessary." He says dryly. "No Tia, but she is friends with my ex nonetheless. And this is the last we'll speak of it." He groans.
"So you found another girl?" Misty points to Tia who feels the heat shifting to her. "And stop calling me Mist!"
"No! She's a friend that all. I'm not in Kanto to pick up women." Tom explains as simply as possible.
"What about that girl you got the number from at the entrance to Mt. Moon?" Tia chooses the worst possible time to bring this fact up. Misty's eyes glare at him as she wished they were daggers.
"Thanks Tia; that really helped." He says making no effort to hide his annoyed sarcasm. "Listen, I want to make amends, but I want it to be from my mouth, so please don't tell her I'm in Kanto, okay?" Tom pleas to Misty with all the sincerity he can muster.
"Fine, only because I have bigger problems than your annoying love life." She scoffs. "Team Rocket grunts have been popping up all over the Nugget Bridge and I intend to stop them." Misty gathers her Pokeballs and runs out the door.
"You heard her Tom, let's go!" Tia chases after Misty.
"Oh no you don't!" Tom grabs her by the arm. "Mist is an expert water trainer; you're a newbie. You'll only get in the way." Tom scolds her, but out of genuine concern for her safety.
"Hey, I fought off those other grunts!" She claims.
"No, that X guy did. You softened them up apparently." He speaks the truth from what Tia told him.. "We're going back to the center, I'm not going to let you go out there and get hurt!" He scowls until she gives in.
"Fine, I don't like it, but if it will get you off my back." Tia says irritated. She wants to do more, even though she's not an expert trainer she couldn't help feel so useless sitting and waiting.
They head back to the Pokemon Center and rest in their room. Hours pass while Tia sits around wishing she could do anything at all. "Calm down, just get some sleep and you can have your battle in the morning." Tom says in a vain attempt to get her to calm down.
"But there are Rocket agents out there and we doing nothing." Tia slams her hand against the counter in a fit.
"There's nothing we can do. Face it you can't take all those guys. Just get some sleep." Tom lies down on his bed and slowly starts falling asleep. His words are harsh, but in the back of her mind Tia knew he was right.
It's the middle of the night and everything is silent in the Pokemon Center. Except for Tia. "Tom are you awake?" Tia asks quietly and gets silence in return. "Perfect," she smirks and silently sneaks out of bed and quickly gets dressed. She grabs her Pokeballs and creeps to the door.
She quickly makes her way outside in the pitch blackness that surrounded her. She silently traverse through town until she found the Nugget Bridge that Misty had mentioned previously. She sneaks around until she sees Team Rocket grunts gathered around. "Look who we found meddling around in our plans." She overhears one of the voices. She gets closer while ducking out of sight.
She sees Misty tied up and surrounded by the grunts. "You'll regret this is I swear!" She shouts as she tries to unrestraint herself.
"Quite the mouth for a captive, I guess we need to teacher her a lesson." One of the grunts call out his Beedrill. Misty stares petrified at the looming Bug Type.
"Please, I hate bugs!" She squirms around trying to escape its gaze.
"Well what do you know our intel was right. The mighty water gym leader's afraid of some simple bugs." He taunts her and laughs at her futile attempts to escape, "Poison Jab!" He shouts.
Thinking fast Tia sent out Ivysaur to knock the Beedrill away with a Vine Whip. "Who did that?" The grunt demands looking around. Tia sends Magikarp next to hit the grunt with a Tackle attack to his face. "Okay, now I'm angry!" He shouts. Magikarp continues floundering around finishing off the Beedrill. He kicks Magikarp off the bridge and grabs Misty by the scruff of her neck. "Get out here now or I swear she'll be going off the bridge next!" He demands.
Tia has no choice but to come out of hiding. "Let her go!" She demands in return.
"You, you did this?" He scowls at Tia while she nods. "Men, get her!" Instantly, a flurry Pokemon come flying out of every Pokeball covering the bridge. He laughs maniacally and tosses Misty off the bridge. "Attack!" He orders with such vigor and malice.
"No!" Tia was too worried about Misty to concentrate on the battle. Ivysaur was getting pounded on all sides by various Pokemon. "Please, Magikarp you have to save her!" She shouts in the water looking for any sign of her Magikarp.
The water under the bridge starts to ripple and rise violently. Misty rapidly surfaces and keep raising out of the water with a waterfall rushing under her.
"What on earth is that?" The head grunt shouts in disbelief.
"Magikarp!" Tia looks up in amazement that Magikarp was now a fully evolved Gyarados. The face he made was full of rage. Immediately focusing on the Pokemon that the grunts were commanding and launches a Dragon Rage at them. "That's amazing!" Tia couldn't believe it. Gyarados slowly lowers his head and drops off Misty.
"Thank you, I don't think I could have made it without you and your Pokemon." Misty coughs up water and tries catching her breath. Tia goes to work on untying her giving the grunts more than enough time to regroup.
"You better call off your Gyarados, or you'll regret it." They quickly realize that they are surrounded. Tia begrudgingly says nothing signifying Gyarados to stand down, Ivysaur as well. "Good girls, now you and your Pokemon are coming with us." The head grunt grins with a malicious smile.
Tia can't help but feel so useless. She knew she was getting in over her head from the start. She went on anyway. She may have saved Misty, but did she actually just delay the inevitable? She lowers her head and awaits her fate.
A small glimmer of hope roars in the distance catching everyone's attention.
"What now?" The head grunt notices the sound of a Pokemon run up with blinding speed.
"I recommend you let those girls go." An odd distorted voice says in the darkness.
"Oh no, you!" His face turns to pure horror.
The moonlight and Arcanine's fiery mane perfectly illuminate Mysterious Trainer X. "I said let them go!" His voice exuded such force it sends chills down Tia's spine.
"What are you going to do there's dozens of us and only one of you." He bolsters like an idiot.
"They never learn," he says with a calm deadpan voice. "Extreme Speed." In the blink of an eye dozens of Pokemon fall in Arcanine's wake. It now stood face to face with the head grunt. "I'll tell you one more time. Let them go!" His single exposed eye looked murderous as it glared at him.
"Fine, take them please just don't hurt me!" He grovels on the ground before X and his unreal Arcanine. The grunt is absolutely traumatized by fear. Almost as if X himself was forcing fear onto him. Manipulating his emotions and contorting his mind into a nightmare.
Arcanine slowly walks over to Tia and Misty. "Get on," X calmly takes them by the hand. Tia and Misty climb silently onto Arcanine's back, before charging off with incredible speed back to Misty's gym. They make their stop and dismount Arcanine.
"Thank you, we owe you." Tia smiles and rubs Arcanine's soft fur.
Misty looks concerned at X. "Who are you?" She gazes at him skeptically. X just stares back at her with little expression in his eye and rides off without a word. "I figured."
"Wait X, I wanted a battle!" Tia shouts to no avail. "What is it with mysterious men that women go crazy for?" She mulls to herself.
Misty begins to walk back into her gym, "Thank you, Tia. You saved me." She says gently, but is still a little shaken by the night's events.
"Hey, X did most the work." She humbly dismisses Misty's praise.
"I mean you saved me from drowning, I would have been a goner if it weren't for that Gyarados of yours." She turns around and embraces Tia.
Tia is surprised by Misty's affection to say the least, "Um, you're welcome. It's alright you would have done the same thing." She says awkwardly.
Misty lets go and blushes, "Sorry, I got a bit out of hand, but I mean it, I owe you. So tomorrow first thing in the morning I'll give you that gym battle you wanted so badly." She smiles.
Tia's face lights up, "Thank you, Misty!" She grabs her hands and smiles widely. "I can't wait, I'll definitely earn this badge, and without Tom's help." She adds confidently.
"Good to know, I don't want him in my gym anyways." She grits her teeth.
"Why is there so much bad blood between you two anyways? He seems like a perfectly nice guy; harmless even." Tia still didn't get why Misty was so mad at him.
"Because when he left, he upset my friend. She hasn't been the same since." Misty makes a fist.
"Okay, I have to ask; who is this girl that he was dating?" Tia finally address the elephant in the room.
"A little late for gossip isn't it you two?" Tia hears a voice speaking softly into her ear. She nearly leaps out of her skin and turns around so see Tom looking very irritated.
"Ah Tom!" Tia tries to recover, amazed how he snuck up like a ninja. "I couldn't sleep is all," she lies.
"Uh-huh sure, so you just decided to walk out of the center and to the gym." He asks feinting ignorance, "You also just happened to run into Mist and you did nothing else." He continues with is calm interrogating voice.
"Yeah..." She says shakily.
"Bull!" He shouts causing her to leap with much unrest. "You went after Team Rocket didn't you?" He asks, pissed that she's trying to lie to him.
"Fine, I did, because I didn't want to sit around doing nothing like you!" She shouts back getting in his face.
"That was stupid; you're not ready to fight like that. Luckily Mist was there to help I'm sure." He scolds her with this vicious side that Tia has never seen before.
"You're wrong! I would have drowned if it weren't for her." Misty says putting her hand on his shoulder.
He looks over surprised, "Really?" Misty nods, Tom looks back at Tia who was expecting an apology. "I didn't know, sorry." He swallows his pride.
"That's right, you didn't know." She snaps back at him, "Misty and I are having our gym battle in the morning too, and you're not allowed to watch." She says like a little kid refusing to share a toy.
"Fine, see if I care. You need to learn to walk on your own two feet anyway." Tom says insultingly. "One thing though, what happened in my past is none of your damn business. Got it?" He walks off and back into the center.
"Jerk!" Tia shouts. "Sorry Misty, I don't know what's up with him." She sighs and shrugs her shoulders.
"Its fine, believe it or not he's calmed down a lot since we last met." She laughs a little ahead back into her gym. "I'll see you in the morning." She waves Tia goodbye. Tia walks back to the center and lies down without a word to Tom and falls asleep. The excitement from the day's events still rung in her mind. She can't seem to get X out of her mind either. He's powerful beyond belief. It was almost terrifying, but captivating as well. Regardless, she slowly slips into sleep so she'd be well rested for the coming battle in the morning.
A/N: It goes without saying, but I love writing X. I hope you all enjoyed and thank you for reading. As always I welcome anyone to review and share their thoughts.
