Chapter IX
Shadows of Evil
Even with blond hair, I couldn't mistake that face. The same face I had seen in my dreams. Then, I realized that in the dreams, she had had blond hair.
I almost laughed, but that wasn't right at the time.
"You are Jessica!" I said. "Who?" She was confused.
Brainwashing!
She didn't remember me. "What has Giovanni done to you?" I asked. "My father?"
Her father?
It suddenly made sense to me. He kidnapped her as soon as he found out about my meddling. But when it didn't throw me off, he used her as a pawn.
I pulled out a photo I kept all the time, and held it up to her.
"This is me, and you, and you!" she said, pointing at me and Ryan. "Yes." I said.
The picture was of me with my arm around Jess, and Ryan sitting next to me at the Goldenrod Train Station, before we took a trip to Seafoam Islands. Jess's dad had taken the picture.
"I...remember..." said Jess. "We were going...somewhere, but Ryan got sick. You insisted we wait until he got better to go to...the beach! That was it! The Islands!"
"Yes!" I cheered.
"But...I haven't known you, have I?" she said. "And we weren't all...friends...were we? I'm so confused!!!"
She turned and ran into the street. A car came at her, but screeched to a halt as it came at her. She screamed, and kept running.
"Jess, come back!"
I ran after her. Ryan had disappeared into the shadows. It started to rain.
I forgot how fast and athletic that girl was!
But I was fast, too.
Too fast.
I ran into her. We fell, and she then got up and began to run again, but we had gotten run into a dead-end.
"Jessica, stop." I got up and walked to her. She huddled down in the corner, crying. "Is that my name? Or are you lying to me, too?"
"No! I wouldn't lie to you. You're my closest friend in the world. Jess, I care about you. I wouldn't hurt you. Giovanni has messed with your mind, caused you to think differently than what is real."
She looked up. "Jim?"
"Yes! Do you remember?"
"I remember...a football game. White Wigglytuff against the Goldenrod Golbat. We won, but I didn't see half the game. Paul...Hope...Megan...Emma...they were all there, the game was packed. Most of us didn't watch the game. We were behind the bleachers in the field, talking, messing around. Paul came up to me...and the rest is history."
* * *
It looked like Jess was back. We went back to the hotel, and we tried to help her get her memory back totally.
Jack, Rob, Ty, Phil, and May had all stayed out of the way so we could get reacquainted. Ryan was still missing. I decided to introduce Jess to them.
"This is Jack. He's Lt. Surge's nephew. He also helped me against Brock in Pewter, but you may have known that." She nodded. "Rob here is the leader of the Cerulean Gym. Ty is the new Karate King of Saffron. Philip, well, you know him."
She shook her head. "You look familiar, but I can't place your face. It's foggy," she said. "I'm your cousin...remember?" said Philip. "Yeah, now I remember." Jessica hadn't fully retained all her memories about her family.
"Anyway, this is May. She worked at the Celadon Gym, and ran away. Then she joined the Kanto Pokemon Federation, but decided to turn them in, and joined us," I said.
Jessica held her hand out to May. "Hi. I'm Jessica, Jim's girlfriend." May's eyes widened, then went into a look that said, "If looks could kill, and I wish they could..."
I realized what Jess was thinking. "No! It's not like that, Jess! We just met. She wasn't moving in on me or anything!" I hadn't realized that Jessica was the jealous type.
"Okay. Just makin' sure." Team Rocket had done something to that girl. She was almost a different person.
* * *
We decided to go on to Celadon. We headed east. There was no sign of Ryan. Good thing, too. He could've messed up Jessica's mind again.
That idiot! Why had he joined the enemy? He thought I was a backstabber?!?
I was jolted back into reality when Jess asked me what I had said about May. "The Federation, right? They were spies for Team Rocket! At least the leader was. And they're in jail? That's great! They were guarding the entrance to my fath-- Giovanni's base under the Game Corner!"
"The Game Corner? I thought they were kicked out?"
"No, they got back in after the Radio Tower incident! They destroyed the switch, and now the only way in is the underground!"
"I'd better not try to get in now, I still need to train!"
We continued, until we came to the building housing the underground. A redheaded figure jumped off the roof in our path!
Harris!
"May, remember me?"
I stepped in front of her. "Stay away, Harris."
"Is that Giovanni's daughter? What the...?"
Jess jumped behind May. "What do ya want, Red?"
"Red? Did you just call me Red? You piece of..."
He attacked me. Rob, Philip, and Jack all jumped in, too. We were all rolling around, punching, kicking and having a wonderful time.
May pulled Harris out and socked him. He fell, unconscious. "He didn't deserve death. I let him live, for now."
This girl was a psycho!
We continued on to the Saffron east gate. We headed through, and Ty and the rest of us had to split our separate ways. We continued off to the west gate, while he headed north to the Dojo. We said our good-byes, then left.
On the other side stood the other end of the underground. The route was pretty short. On the other side was Celadon City.
Everyone split up. May went to her house to tell Amy she was all right. Jess headed to the Game Corner to see if there was any sign of Team Rocket's base entrance. Philip and I went to the Department Store to stock up on supplies. Rob and Jack went to check out the Gym.
* * *
Later, Philip and I realized we couldn't afford any Pokeballs. I headed to the Game Corner to see if I could borrow some of Jessica's money.
May had gone there after talking to Amy. She had begun to play on the Slot Machines. "So, how you doing?"
"Not too hot. I'm losing my money, and Jessica is playing the Card Flips, and winning."
I went to see Jess. "May says you're on a winning streak."
"Not anymore. I just lost half my money. Blast it!"
"Come on, I need to borrow some cash for Pokeballs."
"No, I can't leave!"
I looked at the machine. Something was wrong.
Suddenly, I felt dizzy. I walked over to the next machine and sat down. The game looked pretty easy...
I inserted some coins and began to play.
* * *
"Sir, the Houndour has escaped!"
The yell ran clear in my mind. After Jim had brought Jessica's memory back, our security had slipped a little, and Houndour escaped.
We had genetically altered it, also. Whenever it howled at the moon, its howl would become a radio signal to my satellites orbiting the moon.
The satellites would send a wave of energy to the satellites orbiting Earth, and that energy would block out the moon's light. The darker the moon was, the more powerful Dark Pokemon became. When the moon's light was fully blocked, we would attack.
Our army of Dark Pokemon would sweep the nation, terrorizing the citizens of Johto. We would then move to White City and Kanto. Jim was the only thing stopping us.
But the Houndour escaped. We no longer had access to my satellites. The plan was failing.
"Well, you imbecile, get it back!"
"All right, Team Shadow, move out to block exits at the underground tunnel under Saffron. Team New Moon, go to the routes around it and make sure it doesn't get past there!" said Agent Roberts.
* * *
"Jim, wake up!"
A slap across the face brought me out of my trance. "Dude, you've used most of our money!" yelled Rob.
"Huh? Where am I...? Oh, Celadon. What did I do?"
"Look, you've lost every game!"
I looked at my screen. There were only a few chances left. I had lost every time. My money bag was very light.
"Oh, man! I went into some sort of a trance, and couldn't stop playing! I used all our money."
"So did I," said Jess. I looked at my machine. I started feeling dizzy again. I tore my eyes away.
"It's the machine. It hypnotizes people into playing, then they lose. This place is still secretly run by the Rockets, remember?" said Philip. He was an expert on technology.
I was about to go tell the manager about this, when Jack burst in the door.
"There's a Houndour out there, attacking people at the hotel!" We all ran outside.
There, in the middle of the street, a Houndour was blowing fire at the huge Celadon Suites hotel.
"Go, Bubbly!" "Go, Feraligatr!" "Go, Power!" "Go, Growlithe!"
Growlithe?
Apparently, Jessica had acquired her favorite Pokemon from Giovanni. One thing she had remembered there.
We all attacked. Then, right when it was almost gone, Jess cried out.
"That's Giovanni's Houndour!"
I threw a Philip Ball at the thing right when she yelled that.
* * *
"But, how did I capture it if it belonged to the Rockets?" We were all at the restaurant, where there was an eating contest going on. Philip had joined in.
"Let me see that ball," said Jack. He took it and opened it up, letting out the Houndour. "No, boy, stay," said Jessica. "Remember me? I was Giovanni's daughter."
It sat. "Aha! This Pokeball can capture already caught Pokemon!" exclaimed Jack. "How?" asked Rob.
"I'm not sure, but Phil must've done something to the identity mechanism that prevents stuff like that."
Philip almost choked on some pizza. "I bib bwhat? (Gulp) how did I do that?"
"You must've hit this laser scanning device when you put this little doohickey on top of that thingamabob," said Jack, examining the inside of the Philipball.
"Oh. Well, I didn't know that."
"Now you do. I suggest you stop making those," I said.
"Wait a minute. Does that mean..."
"Snorlax and Gastly may belong to someone else," said Rob. Jessica jumped in.
"Gastly did. It was also Giovanni's, but he sent it out to make trouble for you."
"The Mirror Spirit? Giovanni unleashed it?" I asked.
"Uh-huh. So those custom Pokeballs are how you got Darkning, but I don't know about Goldark."
"Darkning and Goldark, huh?" I said. She looked a little embarrassed. "Yeah, well..." she said quietly.
"Oh, man! That's it! The Pokeballs I sold you at the Mt. Moon square Pokemart had been some of my first prototypes! My uncle must've accidentally put them on the shelves!" Philip had given me one of his Philipballs?
I laughed. "Well, that solves that."
* * *
Later, we were looking at the Houndour, which I had nicknamed Shadow, when Philip ran up to us. "Guys, the last of my Philipballs were stolen!"
This had Team Rocket written all over it.
Shadows of Evil
Even with blond hair, I couldn't mistake that face. The same face I had seen in my dreams. Then, I realized that in the dreams, she had had blond hair.
I almost laughed, but that wasn't right at the time.
"You are Jessica!" I said. "Who?" She was confused.
Brainwashing!
She didn't remember me. "What has Giovanni done to you?" I asked. "My father?"
Her father?
It suddenly made sense to me. He kidnapped her as soon as he found out about my meddling. But when it didn't throw me off, he used her as a pawn.
I pulled out a photo I kept all the time, and held it up to her.
"This is me, and you, and you!" she said, pointing at me and Ryan. "Yes." I said.
The picture was of me with my arm around Jess, and Ryan sitting next to me at the Goldenrod Train Station, before we took a trip to Seafoam Islands. Jess's dad had taken the picture.
"I...remember..." said Jess. "We were going...somewhere, but Ryan got sick. You insisted we wait until he got better to go to...the beach! That was it! The Islands!"
"Yes!" I cheered.
"But...I haven't known you, have I?" she said. "And we weren't all...friends...were we? I'm so confused!!!"
She turned and ran into the street. A car came at her, but screeched to a halt as it came at her. She screamed, and kept running.
"Jess, come back!"
I ran after her. Ryan had disappeared into the shadows. It started to rain.
I forgot how fast and athletic that girl was!
But I was fast, too.
Too fast.
I ran into her. We fell, and she then got up and began to run again, but we had gotten run into a dead-end.
"Jessica, stop." I got up and walked to her. She huddled down in the corner, crying. "Is that my name? Or are you lying to me, too?"
"No! I wouldn't lie to you. You're my closest friend in the world. Jess, I care about you. I wouldn't hurt you. Giovanni has messed with your mind, caused you to think differently than what is real."
She looked up. "Jim?"
"Yes! Do you remember?"
"I remember...a football game. White Wigglytuff against the Goldenrod Golbat. We won, but I didn't see half the game. Paul...Hope...Megan...Emma...they were all there, the game was packed. Most of us didn't watch the game. We were behind the bleachers in the field, talking, messing around. Paul came up to me...and the rest is history."
* * *
It looked like Jess was back. We went back to the hotel, and we tried to help her get her memory back totally.
Jack, Rob, Ty, Phil, and May had all stayed out of the way so we could get reacquainted. Ryan was still missing. I decided to introduce Jess to them.
"This is Jack. He's Lt. Surge's nephew. He also helped me against Brock in Pewter, but you may have known that." She nodded. "Rob here is the leader of the Cerulean Gym. Ty is the new Karate King of Saffron. Philip, well, you know him."
She shook her head. "You look familiar, but I can't place your face. It's foggy," she said. "I'm your cousin...remember?" said Philip. "Yeah, now I remember." Jessica hadn't fully retained all her memories about her family.
"Anyway, this is May. She worked at the Celadon Gym, and ran away. Then she joined the Kanto Pokemon Federation, but decided to turn them in, and joined us," I said.
Jessica held her hand out to May. "Hi. I'm Jessica, Jim's girlfriend." May's eyes widened, then went into a look that said, "If looks could kill, and I wish they could..."
I realized what Jess was thinking. "No! It's not like that, Jess! We just met. She wasn't moving in on me or anything!" I hadn't realized that Jessica was the jealous type.
"Okay. Just makin' sure." Team Rocket had done something to that girl. She was almost a different person.
* * *
We decided to go on to Celadon. We headed east. There was no sign of Ryan. Good thing, too. He could've messed up Jessica's mind again.
That idiot! Why had he joined the enemy? He thought I was a backstabber?!?
I was jolted back into reality when Jess asked me what I had said about May. "The Federation, right? They were spies for Team Rocket! At least the leader was. And they're in jail? That's great! They were guarding the entrance to my fath-- Giovanni's base under the Game Corner!"
"The Game Corner? I thought they were kicked out?"
"No, they got back in after the Radio Tower incident! They destroyed the switch, and now the only way in is the underground!"
"I'd better not try to get in now, I still need to train!"
We continued, until we came to the building housing the underground. A redheaded figure jumped off the roof in our path!
Harris!
"May, remember me?"
I stepped in front of her. "Stay away, Harris."
"Is that Giovanni's daughter? What the...?"
Jess jumped behind May. "What do ya want, Red?"
"Red? Did you just call me Red? You piece of..."
He attacked me. Rob, Philip, and Jack all jumped in, too. We were all rolling around, punching, kicking and having a wonderful time.
May pulled Harris out and socked him. He fell, unconscious. "He didn't deserve death. I let him live, for now."
This girl was a psycho!
We continued on to the Saffron east gate. We headed through, and Ty and the rest of us had to split our separate ways. We continued off to the west gate, while he headed north to the Dojo. We said our good-byes, then left.
On the other side stood the other end of the underground. The route was pretty short. On the other side was Celadon City.
Everyone split up. May went to her house to tell Amy she was all right. Jess headed to the Game Corner to see if there was any sign of Team Rocket's base entrance. Philip and I went to the Department Store to stock up on supplies. Rob and Jack went to check out the Gym.
* * *
Later, Philip and I realized we couldn't afford any Pokeballs. I headed to the Game Corner to see if I could borrow some of Jessica's money.
May had gone there after talking to Amy. She had begun to play on the Slot Machines. "So, how you doing?"
"Not too hot. I'm losing my money, and Jessica is playing the Card Flips, and winning."
I went to see Jess. "May says you're on a winning streak."
"Not anymore. I just lost half my money. Blast it!"
"Come on, I need to borrow some cash for Pokeballs."
"No, I can't leave!"
I looked at the machine. Something was wrong.
Suddenly, I felt dizzy. I walked over to the next machine and sat down. The game looked pretty easy...
I inserted some coins and began to play.
* * *
"Sir, the Houndour has escaped!"
The yell ran clear in my mind. After Jim had brought Jessica's memory back, our security had slipped a little, and Houndour escaped.
We had genetically altered it, also. Whenever it howled at the moon, its howl would become a radio signal to my satellites orbiting the moon.
The satellites would send a wave of energy to the satellites orbiting Earth, and that energy would block out the moon's light. The darker the moon was, the more powerful Dark Pokemon became. When the moon's light was fully blocked, we would attack.
Our army of Dark Pokemon would sweep the nation, terrorizing the citizens of Johto. We would then move to White City and Kanto. Jim was the only thing stopping us.
But the Houndour escaped. We no longer had access to my satellites. The plan was failing.
"Well, you imbecile, get it back!"
"All right, Team Shadow, move out to block exits at the underground tunnel under Saffron. Team New Moon, go to the routes around it and make sure it doesn't get past there!" said Agent Roberts.
* * *
"Jim, wake up!"
A slap across the face brought me out of my trance. "Dude, you've used most of our money!" yelled Rob.
"Huh? Where am I...? Oh, Celadon. What did I do?"
"Look, you've lost every game!"
I looked at my screen. There were only a few chances left. I had lost every time. My money bag was very light.
"Oh, man! I went into some sort of a trance, and couldn't stop playing! I used all our money."
"So did I," said Jess. I looked at my machine. I started feeling dizzy again. I tore my eyes away.
"It's the machine. It hypnotizes people into playing, then they lose. This place is still secretly run by the Rockets, remember?" said Philip. He was an expert on technology.
I was about to go tell the manager about this, when Jack burst in the door.
"There's a Houndour out there, attacking people at the hotel!" We all ran outside.
There, in the middle of the street, a Houndour was blowing fire at the huge Celadon Suites hotel.
"Go, Bubbly!" "Go, Feraligatr!" "Go, Power!" "Go, Growlithe!"
Growlithe?
Apparently, Jessica had acquired her favorite Pokemon from Giovanni. One thing she had remembered there.
We all attacked. Then, right when it was almost gone, Jess cried out.
"That's Giovanni's Houndour!"
I threw a Philip Ball at the thing right when she yelled that.
* * *
"But, how did I capture it if it belonged to the Rockets?" We were all at the restaurant, where there was an eating contest going on. Philip had joined in.
"Let me see that ball," said Jack. He took it and opened it up, letting out the Houndour. "No, boy, stay," said Jessica. "Remember me? I was Giovanni's daughter."
It sat. "Aha! This Pokeball can capture already caught Pokemon!" exclaimed Jack. "How?" asked Rob.
"I'm not sure, but Phil must've done something to the identity mechanism that prevents stuff like that."
Philip almost choked on some pizza. "I bib bwhat? (Gulp) how did I do that?"
"You must've hit this laser scanning device when you put this little doohickey on top of that thingamabob," said Jack, examining the inside of the Philipball.
"Oh. Well, I didn't know that."
"Now you do. I suggest you stop making those," I said.
"Wait a minute. Does that mean..."
"Snorlax and Gastly may belong to someone else," said Rob. Jessica jumped in.
"Gastly did. It was also Giovanni's, but he sent it out to make trouble for you."
"The Mirror Spirit? Giovanni unleashed it?" I asked.
"Uh-huh. So those custom Pokeballs are how you got Darkning, but I don't know about Goldark."
"Darkning and Goldark, huh?" I said. She looked a little embarrassed. "Yeah, well..." she said quietly.
"Oh, man! That's it! The Pokeballs I sold you at the Mt. Moon square Pokemart had been some of my first prototypes! My uncle must've accidentally put them on the shelves!" Philip had given me one of his Philipballs?
I laughed. "Well, that solves that."
* * *
Later, we were looking at the Houndour, which I had nicknamed Shadow, when Philip ran up to us. "Guys, the last of my Philipballs were stolen!"
This had Team Rocket written all over it.
