The Keeper of the Mewtwos #16, Elementary, my dear Josh
Kishi rubbed her eyes groggily and sat up. A blurred figure in a blue T-Shirt fazed into focus, leaning forward and squinting Kishi identified the figure as Justin.
Sure the guy was a nice sight to wake up to, but how long had he been in hers and Gabby's room?
"Justin," Kishi groaned, getting out of bed. "Go back to your own room!"
"Not until I have shown the two most beautiful girls in the world that I love them and I'm sorry I was a jerk."
"Wha?" Gabby moaned, waking up. She glanced around a little bit, before noticing Justin standing next to Kishi in her boxers and Pidgey T-Shirt.
"I don't want to know," Gabby said slowly, rolling onto her side.
"For you!" Justin proclaimed, handing Gabby a bunch of red roses and expensive chocolates. "And you,"
He turned to face Kishi and held out a bunch of exotic orchids and a box of chocolates.
"My, my, someone really is trying to win our affections, aren't they?" Gabby grinned "I'm won."
Kishi narrowed her eyes. "But why did you kiss Estelle exactly? You mentioned revenge or payback or something?"
Justin sighed and slumped his shoulders. "I guess Kishi'll never speak to me again if I don't explain it all?"
Kishi crossed her arms and nodded firmly.
Gabby sprawled out across her bed, sampling a Vermont Fudge, preparing for the inevitable story.
"Well when I had the Gym," Justin began.
"What Gym?" asked Gabby
"My parents had a Gym, but uh, it was repossessed."
"Oh"
"Anyway I used to attend the private school here, not Pokemon Technical, but Cerulean Grammar, and since I was so good-looking-"
"Stick the facts," Kishi interjected in a fake gruff voice.
"Yeah, well it is the truth, and anyway, a lot of girls asked me out, so well, being male and all I went out with a lot of them, but soon I had a rather unsavory reputation, thanks to a certain girl,"
Lemme guess? Monique? Mewtwo asked.
"Got it in one. Anyway she got really upset because I dumped her in favor of her best friend…er…ex-best friend, and she wanted all the girls to hate me, it didn't work though, and then…"
Justin's voice trailed off with a hurt only Kishi could detect.
"You lost the gym," she said quietly.
Justin nodded.
"Oh," Gabby said, peeling the wrapper off a caramel fudge. "Quite a story"
"Yeah," Justin said sadly "It is."
"Well…" Gabby began "As much as I would like to sit around reflecting on Justin's past, I have to say that it is probably necessary that we go get our next badge."
"Yeah," Kishi agreed heartily "I bags the shower."
"Me next." Gabby said.
"I'll use the shower in my room," Justin said, before heading the door "Meet me in the lobby in, uh, half an hour?"
"Yep," Kishi promised, retrieving her usual outfit from her bag.
I would too like a shower Mewtwo said rather shyly, unsure about himself when on human terms.
"Sure, man, after me," Justin promised with a grin, stepping outside.
Mewtwo breathed out an immense sigh of relief, thankful that no one had laughed at him. Now if Estelle had been around, she would have laughed, and Gabby would have laughed along with her. But Estelle wasn't around, and Mewtwo prayed that it lasted.
"Ow!"
"Ouch! Hey sorry!" Justin said, after showing off the fact that he could walk backwards all the way down the stairs, through the lobby and into…someone else.
"That's OK," she said, picking herself up off the ground, rubbing her backside "Be careful I don't book you next time,"
The lady straightened up so that the gang could see her police uniform. She smiled and extended her hand "Officer Jenny, Cerulean City Police,"
"Justin Kanden, Pokemon Trainer,"
"Pleased to meet you,"
"Likewise."
"I'm Kishi, and this is my cousin Gabby and friend Mewtwo, and we're all going to Cerulean Gym…any tips?"
"That it is against the League rules to give away confidential information," Jenny said lightly, smiling to herself when her new acquaintances burst into laughter. But then her face fell, her mouth setting into a tight line.
"Busy?" Gabby inquired with her typical confidence.
"Rather, robbery committed early this morning, just when I'd hoped to take St. Valentines day off to be with my boyfriend,"
"Robbery?" Justin repeated "In Cerulean? Nothing important I hope,"
"Not particularly, TM 28, containing dig, stolen from an uptown house, the couple who owned it were taking it away on holidays to teach whatever Pokemon they may catch, but it was reported stolen in the wee hours."
"Couldn't they just buy a new one?" Gabby asked, using logic.
"You don't know the people."
"Ah…like that, are they?"
"Oh yeah,"
Jenny suddenly realized that she'd been chatting too long. "Er…I think I'd better go now, talk to you later, eh?"
"Yeah…when?" Justin said foolishly, turning a little red in cheeks.
Justin has a crush Mewtwo sang in private telepathy to Kishi.
Kishi just narrowed her eyes in response.
"When I crack this case…if I ever crack this case…"
"Well," Justin began slowly, exchanging glances with Kishi and Mewtwo "How about we help you?"
"I don't really think you should be dabbling in police affairs…" Jenny said gradually. "It could get bad if they crims are big-time…"
Kishi's mind ticked over to the various criminals she'd previously been involved with. Jenna, Josh, Meowth, Jessi, James, the other Meowth, Cassidy, Butch, Giovanni… Team Rocket.
"Big time crims stealing a measly little TM?" Gabby said doubtfully "Not likely…"
Jenny tilted her head to one side, visibly weakening "Well…oh OK, but no disobeying orders, and if an officer says stop, stop."
"Yay!" Kishi and Gabby cried, slapping each other a high five. Mewtwo raised his fist in triumph, and Justin sort of blushed and made a quiet joke, to which Jenny was engulfed in a giggling fit.
"Hi Cuz!" Jenny exclaimed brightly, seeing the lady that was apparently her cousin. Or herself.
"Whoa, I'm seeing double," Gabby moaned, holding the sides of her head.
"Kids, I want you to meet Officer Jenny of Pewter City, she's helping us on the case, Cuz, this is Kishi, Mewtwo, Gabby and Justin,"
"Hi!" Jenny2 waved "Now we have two little teams of teenagers to help us!"
Kishi raised an eyebrow and exchanged an annoyed glance with her fellow travelers, "That would have to be our good pals Akira, Kaybee and Estelle," she whispered.
"And Monique," said an all too familiar voice.
Gabby clamped a hand over her forehead. "Kill me now," she groaned.
Jenny1 and 2 walked off, chatting nervously, leaving the two groups of children to play happily together.
Akira, Kaybee, Estelle and Monique stepped out from behind a group of male officers, smiling sweetly.
Gabby couldn't help but grimace when she noticed what Estelle and the others were wearing; the whole suit thang, very Dana Scully/Fox Mulder/X-Files-esque.
"We just couldn't resist helping out," Kaybee said, flipping her hair over her shoulder.
"We cannot let people like that go on tormenting us, it is time that we put an end to it," Akira said forcefully, making a fist.
Justin hung his head. "I'm afraid,"
Stifling giggles, Kishi made her verbal attack "I thought that you would be in Vermilion City by now,"
"As a matter of fact we were on our way to Vermilion, but we heard about the situation and we just had to help," Estelle simpered.
"And a good thing too," Monique chimed in "We were lucky enough to see the poster advertising the Cerulean Tournament, so we signed up for it,"
Kishi thought back to her Pewter City days, remembering Jenna, Josh and Meowth's ill-fated attempt to steal all the competitors Pokemon, which thanks to Mewtwo, had been foiled. Unfortunately the whole ball of wax had been called off.
"When does it start?" Justin asked "Remind me to rock up to kick your @$$e$,"
"Four days, hon," Monique said, placing a slender hand underneath his chin.
Justin pulled away in disgust. "Don't touch me,"
"From what I've heard you don't seem to mind a bit of that," Estelle grinned saucily, striking a suggestive pose.
"So you two are friends now? You certainly have a lot in common," Kishi hissed, jumping to Justin's defense.
"We do," Monique said sweetly, putting her arm around Estelle.
"I'm disgusted," Gabby sneered.
"Now, now," Jenny1 said with a worried frown "You are in police presence."
"Where'd she pop up from?" asked Akira "Anyway we're off to inspect the back off the house. Catchya"
"Don't worry about them, they're probably both just mad 'cos you hate them," Kishi said softly.
To her surprise, Justin turned to her with tears in his eyes "Do I hate them, though?"
There was a careful moments silence, before Mewtwo stepped in.
Do you want me to use my super-special psy powers to upstage 'em?
"That would be wrong," Kishi chided thoughtfully.
"I want to upstage them the good ol' fashion way," Gabby provided.
It's the good ol' fashioned way for me Mewtwo claimed, letting it slip.
"So let's go play detectives," Justin said quietly.
"Yeah!" Gabby yelled loudly with excess enthusiasm.
Kishi struck a knowing stance. Pacing quietly with her hands behind her back, she shared her thoughts on the matter. "In my experience, the obvious comes first, we shall scope the area,"
"Yes ma'am!" Gabby exclaimed, acting more hyper by the second.
Justin swung his backpack of his pack and fumbled inside it for a second "Extend the cliché," he proclaimed, holding out a magnifying glass "All detectives gotta 'ave one,"
"Aye guv'na," Gabby hollered, doing a little jig.
You're mighty feisty today Mewtwo observed casually.
"Wait 'til the depression sets in," Justin blurted, clearly back to his old ways.
"Just you hope it doesn't wear off while we're on the case," Gabby said cheekily.
Justin and Mewtwo laughed, but Kishi was already getting down to business, darting around the front garden with the magnifying glass being waved like a weapon.
She's getting into the spirit Mewtwo said dryly.
Gabby was about to mention something about him being her Pokemon and he should be helping her, but then she thought the better of it. Mewtwo probably didn't like to be told that someone owned him.
"I think we should too," Gabby opted for instead, leaping gracefully over the fence.
From his hiding place in the shrubbery, the sleepy yellow Pokemon watched two girls, a guy and a Pokemon searching every nook and cranny of the front garden.
It was only a matter of time before they found him, which was a shame, he wasn't quite sure what they would do to him if they found out his secret, but he didn't have the energy to run away.
Well he probably did, but he needed help, and if it meant a bunch of kids poking and prodding him, so be it.
And anyway once they'd helped him out, he could always escape if he got sick of it.
"Look what I've found!" yelled the girl with blue hair fastened in pigtails, rushing over to him "Oh it is so cute!"
Kishi pulled the bushes back to reveal a yellow and brown Pokemon resting quietly.
"What is it? The TM?" Gabby cried, squirming in to have a look. "That isn't cute!"
"What is it?" Justin asked, not bothering to get off the swing which he was so thoroughly enjoying. Mewtwo gave Justin a final push, before ambling over to see this latest find.
Kishi grabbed the Pokemon under the shoulders and lifted him up, his arms and legs dangling limply.
"Aw," she cooed "It's an Abra,"
"Abra," the psychic responded lazily.
"What are you doing here?" Gabby hollered "We've caught our crook!"
"Abra's not a thief!" Kishi cried in the defense of the newfound creature.
"Abra, abra, ab ab abra raaaaaa" Abra explained drowzily.
He says he's not a thief, he needs to go to the Pokecenter translated Mewtwo.
"Oh no!" Kishi murmured "Are you ill?"
"Ab, abra ba bra abraa," Abra said softly.
His PP is greatly depleted Mewtwo provided once more.
"Oh you poor thing! If you encountered a wild Pokemon you might not be able to battle and you'd get hurt badly. Guys? Mewtwo and I are gonna take Abra to the Pokecenter."
Me? Why me?
"Because" Kishi said, before transferring to private telepathy It had something to do with the way you saved my butt from that fire that Princess Skinless started back there
Kishi, about then, did you happen to see any kind of weird creature there? Truth is, I remember someone other than Chikara being there, but not who
I was unconscious Mewtwo, you revived me
That is what I mean, I didn't revive you
Oh
Oh
"Are you two going or what?" Gabby asked "You might wanna put this little fella in a Pokeball"
She pointed to Abra.
"You mean catch it? Without its permission…I don't know…" Kishi said slowly.
"You caught Squirtle and Magikarp without their permission," Justin argued.
"But I eventually got Squirtle's permission, and I saved Magikarp's worthless little life"
Justin looked as though he was about to blurt something out about Squirtle running away, but he had the forethought to keep his trap shut.
"Come on Mewtwo," called Kishi, exiting the front yard
Mewtwo hurried up to her and the two set on their way, that is three, the newest member huddled up in Kishi's arms.
"Kishi? Abra's completely recharged now, I gave him a quick check-up and he's fine, he's fighting fit,"
Nurse Joy emerged at the Cerulean City Pokemon Centre counter with Abra in her arms.
"Thanks," Kishi smiled.
"Now can you just sign here, please, just your trainer name, normally we wouldn't bother, but our computer is down."
Joy handed Kishi a book divided in several columns.
"Um…I'm not really Abra's trainer…you know…he's wild," Kishi said hesitantly.
"Oh…" Joy answered slowly "Been a while since I've had a wild one checked in, Cerulean Citiers are most definitely the catching type, they see anything weak or injured, 'Phjit!' straight into the Pokeball,"
Kishi nodded understandingly, noticing that this nurse had a tendency to rabbit on for a while.
"Well…what was it, Kishi Ogawa? Sign that as the trainer name."
"Are you sure that's legal?" Kishi asked slowly.
"Bah," Joy scoffed, cocking her head to one side and wrinkling her nose.
Kishi shrugged and scribbled her name on the sheet, picked up Abra and made her way to the exit, with Mewtwo at her side.
"Bye,"
"Bye,"
Josh leant on a mossy stump, tossing the machine in his hand up and down. As though noticing this for the first time, Jenna reached across and snatched it from mid-air.
"You'll break it," she hissed protectively.
"Will not! I'm not as brutal as some," he sneered with narrowed eyes.
"What are you hinting at? That my brutal nature is ruining your dream?"
Josh flicked at his red hair, tilting his head to the left in contemplation. Making his decision, he nodded briskly. "Yep"
Jenna's eyes widened and her eyebrows almost became hidden in her hair. "Do tell," she said slyly.
"It's not important," Meowth griped "What's important is that we get dese to DA boss."
"It think it is important that Jenna knows my innermost dream," Josh said, propping himself up on his elbows.
"I don't," Jenna lied hopelessly.
"I," he proclaimed with undertones of grandeur "Wish to be an author,"
Jenna parted her lips and blurted out a sensationally loud raspberry.
"YOU? As if! You can't even read, all you're good for is roughing things up!" she exclaimed, patting TM28 like it was a Persian.
"What gives you that idea? How would you know if I can read or not?"
"That, my dear Josh, is elementary"
Josh flushed a deep red. "Shut up."
"Do you even know what that word means?" Jenna taunted, hands on hips.
"Hey, watch the TM!" Meowth yelled, yanking it out of Jenna's grasp.
"You can't be an author if you don't know what you're writing about. I bet this is your incomplete masterpiece; 'Betty had feet. Big Betty feet. Betty had big, big Betty feet'." Snorted Jenna.
"No," Josh retaliated indignantly "I wouldn't let you read my private manuscripts!"
"I wouldn't want to," Jenna retorted huffily.
"Can it yous twos," Meowth scolded "I think we should go back TA base, eh?"
Josh got up haughtily and started to trot away.
"Ay Shakespeare! Wrong way!" Jenna yelled, grabbing him and tugging him back.
Josh looked up at her with hurt puppy dog eyes, before narrowing them into a menacing squint, sparkling tears fluttering out the corners and falling unseen to the ground.
"If we go this way we'll have to walk through the town," he said simply, crossing his arms.
Jenna gave an exasperated sigh, but spent a little too long coming up with a riposte comment.
"We shall have to go in disguise," Josh supplied with a self-satisfied smirk.
Jenna growled angrily, whipping the rose out from her hair. "Fine."
Then she pushed her hair away from her face, scraping it back into a ponytail. "What do you propose we go as?"
Josh twiddled his thumbs for a second, spinning around on one heel for effect. "Medieval folks."
Jenna and Meowth simultaneously dropped their jaws to the ground in disbelief at Josh's stupidity.
"Hello? Year 2000? Knights'n'castles are very seventeenth century."
"Sixteenth." Argued Meowth.
Josh stayed quiet. "Any better ideas?"
"Yes."
"Then medieval garb it is."
So Kishi, Mewtwo and Abra returned to the scene of the crime, just in time to see an oddly dressed trio waltz past.
"How suss does that look?" Gabby said in disgust.
Kishi shook her head. "Three guesses."
"Jenna," Justin replied instantly.
"Josh," added Gabby.
And Meowth Mewtwo chimed in.
"Our crims?" Justin inquired, linking arms with Kishi.
"Don't you know it!" she hooted gleefully, cuddling Abra to her chest.
Gabby, still incredibly hyper, bounced up to the Elizabethan trio.
"JENNIES!!!! I CAUGHT 'EM Red 'ANDED!"
Josh tried to act dumb. "Er…get lost little girl…you may have mistaken us for…uh…some other us."
Jenna whacked him over the head with her lower arm and turned back to Gabby. "Hamscray you little freak."
"Hold it!" Jennny1 cried, running onto the scene with her cousin at her heels.
Meowth sized up the situation. He fiddled in his left pocket for a few seconds, producing a little remote control.
"Sorry twerps, we know how to sneak bases!" Meowth exclaimed, pushing the big red button at the centre of the black box.
There was a scraping sound in the bushes of the park over the road, and then a giant Meowth air balloon popped up.
"Isn't that Jess and James's balloon?" hissed Gabby.
Jenna picked up Meowth and then leapt backwards into the basket of the borrowed balloon, and Josh repeated the motion, laughing.
Jenny1 and 2 whipped identical guns out of their holsters simultaneously.
"If you take off, we'll make a home run," Jenny2 warned, aiming her weapon.
Jenna laughed, before calling Sandshrew out to battle.
Kishi nodded at Mewtwo, but Mewtwo shook his head and motioned for Kishi to use Abra.
He's not mine Kishi argued telepathically.
Mewtwo shrugged, assuming a lazy spectating position.
Kishi placed Abra on his feet before her.
"Go Oddish!" cried Gabby, releasing the cute little weed Pokemon from its Pokeball.
"I choose you, Spearow!" Justin yelled.
"A Spearow, eh? I can match that." Josh grinned, bringing forth his own Spearow.
Justin's Spearow flew directly up into the air, gaining height for a drill peck attack.
Sandshrew charged at Oddish, who ran away as fast as her little legs would carry her.
It wasn't fast enough, Sandshrew, at a jogging pace, brought the poor creature down with a half-hearted tackle.
Justin's Spearow launched its attack, precisely aimed at Jenna's yellow ground-type. There was a disgusting crack of connection between the two, who slumped to the ground.
"Oh!" Justin gasped, praying that Spearow would get up. It didn't. "Return!"
Josh's Spearow dove at Oddish in a peck attack, and Gabby's Pokemon instantly fainted.
"Return Oddish!" Gabby complained "How come you were a good battler when you were with Barry?"
Gabby thought back to the day when she had traded her Pidgey. A pang of regret hit her, remembering that Pidgey had been such an excellent Pokemon in battle. Even more so against the insubstantial Oddish, which in reality, had never been in one good battle in her life.
"OK Abra! Under the League Rules they can't call out new Pokemon. You have to do it!" Kishi pleaded, giving the tired psychic a poke in the back.
Abra's head tilted the side and he closed his eyes.
"I hate to say it," Josh declared "But that Pokemon is crap."
"And I hate this even more," stressed Jenna "But I agree with you."
Abra lolled its head around a bit, a tiny hum emanating from within its body. Suddenly blue flashes of light surrounded it and Teleported away.
"Abra…" Kishi called "Come back!" She saw Abra raise himself up behind Jenna and Josh, who were gloating over their victory.
Abra opened his eyes and stood to his full unimpressive height, squinting in concentration, beads of sweat trickling down his face.
He Teleported again, back to Kishi.
Mewtwo could see that this was getting them nowhere, so he focused his energy on the TM resting in Meowth's paw. Suddenly it disappeared, and reappeared, floating an inch above Mewtwo's pale paw.
"AAAGH! Our TM!" Meowth lamented, cracking a small spasm.
"To plunge the world to deva-" Jenna began.
"What the HELL are you doing?" broke in Josh.
"Saying the motto," Jenna answered simply.
"NO wonder we always lose, what with you on the Team," Josh fumed.
Jenna raised an impassive eyebrow.
Mewtwo raised two fingers, and at the commencement of that action, Team Rocket were blown several feet back, where they rested precariously in the air for a few moments, before Kishi chipped in, nodding her head and sending the enemy flying.
At Kishi's feet Abra's glowing blue eyes dulled, the three of them (her, Mewtwo and Abra) had combined all of their psychic power to defeat the evil antagonists.
Mewtwo tossed the TM to Jenny2, who smiled gratefully in thanks.
"Gimme five-er three, Mewtwo, that was truly awesome!" Justin whistled.
"Wee-Hee! Mewtwo our hero!" Gabby hooted.
Thank Abra and Kishi too, but me more Mewtwo said modestly.
"Er…yeah, Mewtwo, you've saved the day once more, but I think I've saved something special as well," Kishi smiled sweetly, retrieving Abra from the ground and cuddling him close.
"Are you, like, gonna catch that?" Gabby queried.
Kishi reached for her belt and dropped the Pokeball onto Abra's belly. The Pokemon was swallowed up the light, the ball shook twice, and the button faded back to white. Ping.
Abra was caught.
Kishi twirled around on her left foot, striking a pose with her hand extended in a peace sign.
"Tryhard," hissed Gabby meanly, then shrieking as Kishi leapt at her with a raised fist.
The two girls then proceeded to chase each other around, laughing and screaming.
"I don't know them," Justin confessed to Jenny1, before thundering after them yelling "WAIT FOR ME!"
"Did you know I hate you?" grumbled Jenna, picking at her nails viciously.
"Why of course, it is elementary." Josh replied knowingly.
"You don't even know what it means," Jenna snarled, looking down her nose at him.
"Oh don't I? Basic, simple or underdeveloped." He quoted from memory, stamping off into the forest.
"Just like your brain," Jenna whispered, before picking up Meowth and following her partner.
To be continued…
Isn't that sweet? Very fun…Funky…
NEXT TIME- The Bridge Battle- Justin's Spearow gets in big trouble, and the closest venue with a Video Phone…a creepy old lighthouse…
LOVE,
MEW2