Secrets Exposed
Part 10 : Mother
By Freakachu
A cell phone ringing broke the early morning silence where a young boy slept, cozy in a warm tent. The half dragonite boy turned over onto his back and checked his watch, grasping the phone at the same time.
"It's eight in the friggin' morning," He muttered, still half asleep, "what do you want?"
"Don't take that tone with me." The voice on the other end snapped.
Draigh sat up abruptly, exposing himself to the coldness of the air. "Giovanni?! Oh, I'm immensly sorry, I thought you were someone else!"
"Yes, well, you don't seem to be doing your job."
"M-my job? I can't find the bitch, I've looked all over the place! Do you know where I am now? A few days walk from Ebony!"
"You're obviously not in the right location then. Nyarthashi was just here, in TRHQ last night. YOU are supposed to apprehend her." He bellowed. "Get yourself here now!" With that, the phone went dead.
Draigh looked at the phone and blinked. "Phhbbbbtt. I'm going back to sleep." He yawned, as he crawled back under his warm blanket and closed his eyes. "I'll go when I'm good and ready." Draigh obviously wasn't worried about what Giovanni would have said to him if he had heard what Draigh had just said. Draigh just wasn't scared of Giovanni. He never had been, but with his new strength and Dragonite power, made him feel like he could destroy the world if he wanted. And yet, he didn't want to destroy anything. Before his transformation, he was a nasty guy. Draigh took on the chance to become stronger via Dragonite so he could be the most powerful Rocket in the world. Lately though, the thought of killing things made his stomach hurt. It didn't neccesarily make him sick, but it bothered him. Draigh worried he was becoming soft hearted for some reason.
Lilja and Kohji had taken off on Kohiji's motorcycle after eating breakfast in the Pokemon center. Lilja had never rode on one before, and she loved every minute of it. They rode for a while before they stopped at another small town that didn't even seem big enough to have a name, which was situated near a large mountain range.
"What are these mountains called?" Lilja asked Kohji when he had parked, and they were both standing outside another Pokemon center.
"They're the Magenta's. Oh, you know what? I haven't asked you how old you are yet. But I'm not going to, I'm going to guess. 12?"
Again, Lilja facefaulted. "How do you know this stuff? Have you been stalking me? I didn't know where YOU were from, and I don't know how old YOU are!" She replied heatedly, empasizing the "you" by pointing at him.
Kohji held up his hands in mock defense. "I'm 14. Actually, closer to 15. Come to think of it, we don't really know that much about each other."
"Well duh!" Lilja remarked. "We only known each other not even a day!"
Grinning again, Kohji motioned toward the Pokemon center door. "Let's go in, and we can talk properly. I'm interested to see what kind of pokemon you have, although something tells me you have some that are rare."
Lilja raised her eyebrows. "Stop that!" She complained, sticking out her tongue at him, and they both walked into the center.
Kohji went to one side of the PokeCenter where there was a small food bar, and a few tables. He grabbed two bowls of noodles, and tossed the lady some change while singing, "Thanks, Cafeteria Worker Jane!"
The lady at the food bar looked disgruntaled. Jane was obviously not her name, and Kohji just called her that because all the other "important" people's names started with J. Joy, Jenny, etc, he told Lilja.
Kohji rambled on about himself for a while, his hobbies, and other stuff..
"...and I live with my aunt. I'm not too fond of her either."
Lilja looked up at him. "You live with your aunt? Why?"
He laughed. "I wish I knew! No, seriously, she's the only living relative besides my cousin who happens to be her daughter."
"Same here, only I live with my Uncle. But I don't mind him. He's a good guy." She replied to him, and then told him about Blaine, and the gym, and about how things were back on Cinnabar. She told him about her first pokemon journey, but she did not mention the part about meeting Ash and then leaving the group, because it hurt too much.
Kohji could hear something in Lilja's tone of voice. It must have told him something because for a moment, he was quiet "Well," He finally stated, "you seem depressed or upset or something. You want to have a pokemon match?"
Sighing, Lilja looked down at her feet. "Okay, I guess."
"Well, don't over-exert yourself over it." Kohji joked. "Come on, lets go outside."
Rapping on the lab door irritated the middle aged scientist who was trying to complete some paper work.
"What do you want?" He yelled at the noise. Still, the banging continued. "Go away!"
Suddenly, he heard a crunching noise, and then another as if someone had punched through the wall. He jumped up from his seat to investigate, and something flew out and grabbed him.
"Wh-who-what..." The scientist was panicked, and could barely get any words out. "Nyar-Nyarthashi? What are you d-doing here? Please don't hu-hurt me!"
Nyarthashi loosened her grip on the scientist, and let him go. "I'm not here to listen to you stammer. Please, I need to ask you the location of one of your workers."
Shaken, the scientist dropped to his knees and quivered. "Anything you want, just please, don't hurt me!"
"What are you doing, Zeke? What is that you have?" Cassidy asked.
Zeke held out a porcelain ornament shaped like a dove. "It's fer my ma. I miss her, I do. Gonna sen' her this."
The group of former Rocket members stood near the washrooms in a strip mall, in some small city between Aqua and Azure city. Each was showing off something they had bought with the pay-off they had recieved from Giovanni. Jessie had bought a couple of outfits that she claimed were the latest style. She said she had to pamper herself to keep her mind off of being fired. James bought a pokemon. He wasn't tricked into buying a Magikarp this time, what he picked out was his own Pikachu. "Ha, now I have Pikachu, and the boss does not!" He had laughed. Butch hadn't bought a single thing, nothing in the mall really interested him. Radio Shack was where Sergio had been, and bought himself a gameboy, along with Pokemon Pinball. "I always wanted to play this, but never had the time! Too busy stealing pokemon for the boss." Cassidy had bought a cosmetic case. A HUGE one with about five million shades of lipstick, and even more shades of eyeshadow. Vera didn't buy anything either, she preffered to save the money so she could get a house in Lavender Town. Cletus had bought a banjo, of all things. He said it was because his current one was "all ta bits an' pieces."
"You know what? I miss being part of Team Rocket!" James wailed into his Pikachu, as he hugged it. "I have nowhere else to go! I can't go back home, my parents'll force me to marry that wretched Jessibelle!"
Cletus was happy for some reason, and it wasn't just because he had a new "banjie".
"What are you smiling for?" Jessie glared at Cletus. All the members of the group, except for Cletus, were upset in some way, they just weren't the same without Team Rocket.
Cletus grinned. "I gets ta go home now!"
Everyone blinked. Vera's chansey hugged Sergio by the leg, and Sergio's chansey sent the other nasty glares.
"I gets ta go back home an' live wit' my ma an' pa again! They's mad at me because I joined Team Rocket, an' now that I don' anymore, I kin go back home an' stay there!"
Suddenly Sergio grabbed Cletus by the shirt. "Wait a second, you guys! Who needs Team Rocket? We're fine on our own!"
Vera put down the bags she was holding and put her hands on her hips. "What are you talking about? We're nothing without Team Rocket."
"Yeah, what she said!" James whined.
Sergio released Cletus. "Listen you guys! Lets start out own team! We can still steal Pokemon, and sell them, and other things! Come on. And Cletus, you can stay here with us and become part of the team. Are you guys in?" He stuck his hand into the center of the group.
"Weeell," drawled Vera, "sure." She put her hand on top of Sergio's, and was soon followed by James, then Zeke, Cassidy, then Butch, and Jessie.
"Cletus, are you in?" Sergio pursued.
Cletus hugged his banjo. "I dunno, I wanna go live wit' my ma and pa agin." He looked up at the rest of the group, all giving him pittiful looks. "Aw, now don' look at me that way." They continued to pout. "Well darn it, I jus can' say no ta you guys." He finally agreed.
Sergio smiled. "That settles it, from now on, we're our own team! To hell with Giovanni and Team Rocket!"
Pikachu, still being unwell, had caused Ash more battle losses than he liked. Of course, Nurse Joy had healed Pikachu as best as she could, and even given Ash some medicine for Pikachu but it was still very weak. It wasn't in any contition to battle, and the poison had weakened it enough for it to catch pnemonia. The pokemon trainers around the mountains and near Spectrum City were very tough and competitive, and his Pidgeot and Wartortle were used often. Charizard still wouldn't obey him, and Ash had dumbly sent it out during times when he was desperate and hoping for a fluke. Most of the time though, Charizard was hurt in the process of disobeying. He had ran into a trainer from Tangerine Island, and both of them were engaged in battle because of Ash's stubborness. Pikachu couldn't battle, and the trainers mighty grass Pokemon had knocked out his Butterfree and Wartortle. Still hoping for Charizard to listen, Ash called it forth and ordered a Fire Blast. Charizard Fire Blasted, but not toward the opponent.
"Charizard!" Ash whined, black from head to toe. "Why don't you ever listen?"
The Island trainer's Venusaur was top notch, and even with the element weakness, it Vinewhipped and Solar Beamed it's trainer into another victory. Ash pouted, and fussed over Pikachu, while Misty stood there with Togepi and watched.
"I'm losing it, running around here in the daytime. I must be insane!" This was but one of many thoughts that ran through Nyarthashi's head as she stood on the porch of a pretty blue house. On the other side of this door, she knew, would be the one she should be calling mother if she hadn't been taken away. Nyarthy took several deep breaths and tried to gather the courage to knock. She didn't know why she hesitated, she'd done things before that would have gotten her arrested. That is, if the police could ever catch her. Why was simply planning to knock on a door leave her nervous? "I can't do this. What if she isn't happy to see me? What if she didn't want me to begin with?"
Shaking her head, she turned, and leaned against the house beside the door. Somewhere inside the house a faint chime was heard.
"Shit, I leaned on the doorbell." Nyarthy cursed. She was about to turn and run away, but something stopped her. Curiosity. She hadn't come this far just to run away now. The sound of footsteps running towards the door became prominent, and a second later, it was flung open.
Standing in the doorway was a young child about six or seven with blonde hair that fell to her shoulders, and bright blue eyes. Nyarthashi instantly became worried. Was this the right house?
"Mommy!" The child called, turning around facing the indoors "someones here!" She then faced Nyarthashi again and looked her over. "Hello! What's your name?"
"Darling, it's not good to talk to strangers." An older female voice called, and then the owner of the voice appeared at the door. The woman was about an inch or two taller than Nyarthashi, with the same blonde hair as the child, and the same blue eyes except hers were framed by glasses. As soon as she saw Nyarthy, her eyes went wide, and she paled.
"Y-you..." She pulled the girl close to her and was about to back into the house, but Nyarthashi held the door open.
"Please, I notice you recognise me. Is it true, Phoebe Woodrow, that you're my mother?"
Phoebe looked scared. "You killed all those people. Please leave, I-Idont know if I can trust you."
"No, wait, I wouldn't hurt you! Please let me in, I want to talk with you!"
Reluctantly, Phoebe let Nyarthashi into the house, and into a nicely furnished livingroom.
The little blonde girl was confused as to why her mother was so upset. "Mommy, who is she?" When Phoebe didn't answer, the girl went over to Nyarthy. "Hey, you have a meowthy tail!" She reached out and touched it. Nyarthashi looked down at the girl and smiled, and she seemed to notice Nyarthy's ears as well as her charm.
Nyarthashi nodded to Phoebe. "Are you really my mother?"
"Yes, and I suppose you know who your father is." she said to Nyarthy, who nodded again. "Your father had some crazy idea of making pokemon hybrids, and took you away from me to test his theory. I hated him for that!" She began weeping. "I didn't know if I would ever see you again, they wouldn't let me around you while you were in the lab. And then, when you went on the rampage and broke out, I became scared of you. I didn't know if you had turned mean." She took a few steps back and looked Nyarthashi over. "You've grown so much! You're alot bigger than you should be."
The small blonde girl had taken a great interest in Nyarthashi's tail, and was petting it. Phoebe picked her up.
"Shay dear, do you know who this is?"
Shay shook her head. "No, that's why I asked you."
Nyarthashi had to grin. This kid was almost as cocky as she was.
Phoebe bit her lip. "She's your sister."
Nyarthy fell over. "I have a sister?!"
"My sister? I really have a big sister? That's cool!" Shay squealed with excitement and wriggled out of her mothers grip.
"Now you go play, I want to talk to her for a minute, okay?" Phoebe led Shay to a door, which when she opened proved to be a toy room. "Nyarthashi, would you like something to drink?"
"No, it's alright."
"I must tell you, "Phoebe mumbled in a low voice, "that you and Shay are twins, and your real name is Casey. But it's for the best if Shay thought of you as her older sister. It would be very difficult to explain how you look so much older than her if she was to know. Can I trust you not to tell her?"
"I won't say anything to her." Nyarthy vowed.
Suddenly Phoebe looked frightened again. "I can imagine Giovanni has most of his men looking for you. I'd ask you to stay here with Shay and me, but it would be risking both us and you as well. In fact, he is the only one who could have told you who I was, and so he'd be expecting you to be coming here sometime."
Nyarthashi wasn't surprised that Giovanni didn't live with Phoebe. After actually meeting the man a few years back, she had come to the conclusion that nobody would want to live with him. He wasn't a pleasant man, and the only dedication he had was to his corporation. "You aren't married to him are you?"
"Heavens no. It was really just a...a one time thing. I just happened to be one of his many lovers at the time, although I didn't know it. It was stupid, really. If I had known he was a player and used women like that, I'd never have gotten involved with him." Phoebe replied bitterly. "Anyway, you better go now."
Nyarthashi stood up. "Yeah, thanks for letting me in. I appreciate you tellng me all this stuff." She nodded to Phoebe again, and exited out the door. She was halfway down the block, when someone called "heeeere kitty, kitty, kitty!" and Nyarthy assumed it was intended for her. She looked around frantically for the source of the sarcasm and noticed someone sitting on the roof of a nearby house. It looked like a boy, but he had wings.
"I guess I found you at last."
Kohji and Lilja's battle couldn't very well be classified as an even match. For one, Lilja wasn't too enthused in the fight, and didn't really try to hard. Another reason was that Kohji's pokemon handling was excellent, and only one of his pokemon had taken down all six of hers. He had been inpressed by her Freakachu, Taichu and Liquiot, and asked her where she had gotten such amazing pokemon. She told him how the Freakachu and Taichu were sort of an accident, and Liquiot she had found.
"If any pokemon are amazing, yours are. I haven't been beat this bad ever before." Lilja told him, and meaning it.
Kohji laughed. "Well, to become a good trainer, you have to battle often, and get to know your pokemon. I guess I spend alot of time with mine. Seeing as how it's November, it could start snowing soon. The Rainbow League competitions aren't until May, that's about six months. Gives both of us lots of time to train for it."
Lilja stooped to pick up one of her Freakachu. "You're competing in the league too?"
"Sure, why not?"
"Well, are you collecting badges?"
Amused with her, Kohji shook his head. "I already have them all. From last year. As long as you have the required badges when you enter, it doesn't matter how many times you use them. Last year, the requirement was four because there were only that many gyms. Then the Ebony Gym opened, and I needed that badge. So that's why I'm not still in Spectrum."
Lilja nodded slowly and shivered. The weather this far north in November was too cold for her liking. Cinnabar was always warmish all year round, and it never had snow. The only time she had seen snow was in and around Cerulean City when passing through on her journey during a very freezing December. She told Kohji this.
"Yeah, it does get cold around here compared to where you're from. Anyways, maybe we should continue on to Tangerine Island. I don't know about you, but I want to get some training in before Christmas. And it'll probably take until around Christmas before we get there." Kohji picked up his backpack from the ground and walked over to his motorcycle. Lilja noticed something on the ground where his backpack was and went over to it. It looked like a wallet.
"Hey, Kohji? I think you dropped your w-" As she picked it up, a plastic card fell out. She recognized it, the card was a trainers license which was pretty much the same as hers. It had his picture in the left hand corner, and beside it was the information where he got it from, the date, and stuff like that. Under the picture was his trainer number, name and birthdate. For a second, Lilja was confused. This license was obviously Kohji's, but the name wasn't. It was spelled "Koji Meitoku" instead of "Kohji Hakumi" as he had told her.
"You call my name? Oh, hey you found my wallet, I was just looking for that!" He chuckled. Lilja passed him the wallet and waved his trainers license in his face.
"Why is the name you told me, not on this?" She demanded.
He took the card from her. "Aw, this? Well my aunt is such a controlling person, she wouldn't allow me to get my pokemon license. I begged her, but she wouldn't let me. She said I had no need to train, and that I was to stay home. I told her she wouldn't ever know if I got one or not, and she told me it was easy enough to call PKMNHQ and ask if I had registered. I registered anyway. Fake name on the card, she'll never know!" Kohji laughed for a second. "Oh, and as for the first name, I was creative enough to just take the 'h' out of mine." He winked at her. "Well, lets get moving, before hell freezes over!"
Lilja accepted his excuse as valid, climbed on the motorcycle behind him, and they were soon on their way to Tangerine Island.