Chapter 12: Rare Encounters

The warm waft of coffee filled my nostrils as I stared out the window at the hoards of people moving through the bustling street. It was much quieter in here than it was on the street. I picked up my pink cell phone and dialed.

I tapped my nails against the table as I waited for someone to answer my call.

"My dear, to what do I owe this pleasant surprise?"

I snickered silently. This man on the line was full of such bullsh*t.

"As you said, Mr. Arkle, I was supposed to call you if I found any information."

"Ah. And what information might that be? You cannot have already met up with Anita; neither of you could have reached Nelcorn City in just two days."

I leaned back in my chair and glanced at the teen sitting across the table from me.

"No, Mr. Arkle. I ran into a friend when I went to stalk up on supplies in Azul City, and we were talking in a coffee shop when he mentioned some interesting information about Anita." I smiled widely.

"Who is this friend, exactly?"

I stared into the amber eyes of the teen.

"Reece Dracuta."

"Who?" The voice asked through the phone.

"Reece. He's a friend of mine from elementary school."

"And how did the topic of Anita Parkwood come up in your conversation?"

"I started to tell him how all my dreams were coming true; how if I completed this mission involving Anita I would be—"

"You told him about tracking Anita!"

"Well, duh—"

"You g-ddamn idiot! This mission was supposed to between you and me. Not another soul is supposed to know about it. Now I'm going to have to—"

"Don't worry. Reece can be trusted. He hates Anita as much as I do, and he wants to come with me on my mission."

"Fine. If you tell one more person, I swear I will have you murdered. What information did you find?"

"A couple of days ago, Reece was by Peepin Pond and he saw Anita in the water…err… taking a bath." I held a hand over the phone and hissed, "Pervert!"at Reece. He shrugged and grinned. "Anyway, he tried to walk over to the pond to greet Anita and he hit an invisible barrier. Then Anita shouted at him and he was flung away from the pond. Reece swears he saw no Pokemon and Anita never commanded one anyway."

"She has the gift…" The voice trailed in the phone.

"The what?"

"She's a psychic. That explains— Never mind. As I promised, you, as well as Reece, shall be rewarded for this information."

"You'll get me into Acceber's beauty pageant!" I screamed in excitement. Other customers in the coffee shop scowled at me. Reece snickered.

"No. That's only if you complete the mission." I growled angrily, but kept listening. "I would give you money, but we both know you have no need for that. Thus, I would like to offer both you and Reece one Pokemon each."

"Any Pokemon?"

"I can get you nearly any non-legendary Pokemon. We have quite a selection. It will have to be a pre-evolved Pokemon because you may have trouble controlling a very strong Pokemon without badges."

"Reece, if you could have any non-legendary, pre-evolved Pokemon, what would it be?" I asked Reece casually.

"Bagon."

"Reece wants a Bagon, and I'll have a Dratini."

"Excellent choices. I'll have them delivered to you personally by my Yanmega. Do not hesitate to call if you find more information. Goodbye, Carly."

The line went dead.

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

I walked slowly through the silent hall of basement number seven toward the single door at the end of the hall. I placed my hand on the door. After a quick scan of my DNA, the door opened.

Only a select few members of Team Glop'emm that were permitted through this door. As far as I knew, only I, the Master, and Rita Teal were allowed to access this room.

I breathed in deeply and grinned. I was one of the few trusted.

I had access to any and every Pokemon Team Glop'emm had captured or stolen.

The dragon aisle was to my right. I walked toward that isle. Each isle was filled with thousands of Pokeballs. In each Pokeball, of course, was a Pokemon. Before the Pokemon arrived in this room, its memory was wiped through several intense cycles of psychic waves from psychic Pokemon, such as my Hypno.

I passed the aisle filled with Pokeballs containing dark Pokemon. Dark Pokemon were the one exception to the mind wipes. However, there was rarely a demand for such Pokemon as there were so few of them, and those we did sell were dealt with by the Master. With the Master's affinity for dark Pokemon, these Pokemon were really not an issue.

I reached the dragon aisle. The Pokemon were sorted by type and then alphabetical order. The shelves containing Dratini and Bagon were relatively easy to find, as these letters are near the start of the alphabet. I chose the least experienced of the Dratini and Bagon for my spies. No need to waste the good Pokemon on such fools, though successful fools.

The information they had given me was golden; it was the jackpot. Who would have guessed that Anita Parkwood was psychically gifted? It had to be fate that this piece of information stumbled into my hands.

It explained everything. Of course the Master suspected Anita of being Mew. It was completely obvious that this had to be the case.

And of course he would not want Anita being taken in and tortured. He wanted Mew for himself. He did not want to risk anyone getting the power before he did. He needed Anita to stay away from Team Glop'emm so there was no chance that the most cunning and powerful people could capture Mew before he captured the legendary.

Plus, to capture Mew, he needed her to transform back into a Pokemon. That explained the device he needed to be made and the Pokeball Rita threw at the Ditto. He wanted to capture her safely away from Team Glop'emm.

Wow. He must really trust that relative-detective-whoever-it-was of his. He trusted that sneak more than his assistant! Grr…

He had threatened the rest of Team Glop'emm to stay away from the detective and the girl.

If only I had the power to override that threat…

If only I could overthrow the Master…

I stared at the Pokeballs in my hands.

I smiled widely.

Perhaps there was a way.

Now that the Master was gone, the team's income money was not being wasted on hundreds of useless research projects.

We had a surplus of money.

And a surplus of Pokemon.

That I was currently in charge of.

If I could bribe Carly and Reece with a few Pokemon…

How many Glop'emm members could I win over with a pocket of gold and a handful of rare Pokemon?

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

I woke up hating the world.

This happened to me sometimes.

I was unhappy, and I didn't know why.

I had everything. I was a psychic, I had friends who cared for me, and I was going on an adventure.

So why did my life suck so much?

Why was I unhappy?

{Hormones,} Apple answered in response my thoughts. {I mean, you're not always angry. You just have mood swings sometimes.}

I shook my head.

{Come on, Anita, stop moping! I want to go battle the gym leader!}

I sighed, got out of bed, and changed into my regular clothes.

Erin burst out of the bathroom attached to our room surrounded by the steam of her hot shower.

"Where's Liam? I want our breakfast now!"

{Me too!}

I rolled my eyes. After Liam and I had practiced again a bit this morning, Erin had woken up and demanded that Liam pick up breakfast from the pancake restaurant a few blocks away from the Pokemon Center. I had gone back to sleep.

Liam had been gone for nearly an hour now. What could he possibly be doing?

{Maybe he's looking for or making that delicious candy you spit out yesterday,} Apple suggested.

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

Erin answered it, and Liam walked in holding several delicious smelling bags.

Of course, Apple immediately tackled Liam to the ground, any wariness towards the boy completely forgotten.

{FOOD!}

"What took so long?" I asked sharply.

Liam got up and took out our breakfast. Well, what breakfast Apple had left for us.

{You should just be grateful he brought food!} Apple commented, her mouth bulging from her attempt to swallow about ten pancakes at once.

"There was a long line."

Erin and I sat on Erin's bed and Liam sat on his cot as we ate breakfast. Erin chattered on about some nonsense, I pouted, Apple timed how long Erin could go without a breath, and Liam ignored us all.

The usual.

Finally, Erin asked, "So, Anita, do you think you're ready for today?"

I nodded absentmindedly.

Erin smiled and squealed, "I can't wait to watch! Liam and I will be cheering for you!"

Liam shifted… almost uncomfortably. "I will not be watching. I have some… research to do at the library here."

"What research?" Erin asked curiously.

"None of your business," Liam answered harshly.

Maybe I wasn't the only one in a bad mood today. Then again, Liam was always in a bad mood.

Erin looked offended.

I shrugged. Maybe if I beat the gym leader today I would be able to somehow force Erin to leave town without meeting up with Liam.

After we ate a rather quiet breakfast, Erin and I released the rest of our Pokemon so they could eat as well. Liam sat and watched.

I asked him, "Why don't you ever let your Pokemon out to eat? Actually, why don't you ever let them out? Do you even have Pokemon?"

"Of course I have Pokemon," Liam sneered. "When inside their Pokeballs for a prolonged period of time, Pokemon have no need for food to survive."

"Don't you want them to be happy and free! To enjoy their lives!" I retorted.

"They are perfectly content."

"But are they happy?"

"Nobody can ever be truly happy."

"I'm happy," Erin and Splash objected at the same time, though no other human could understand Splash.

"Let me rephrase that. No intelligent being can be truly happy."

"Ouch," I interjected with a grin on my face. This was just the conversation I needed to put me in a more cheerful mood. Maybe it wouldn't be so hard to convince Erin to ditch Liam.

"Hey!" Erin's voice changed from the usual high and whiny to serious. "I've written several research papers for Acceber's world reknown Scientific Daily. I was also the valedictorian of my class and I won the academic actress of the year award from my after-school acting class."

"So what if you are book smart? If you have no ability to take and use that information on a deeper level, it does not matter. You're too… shallow to qualify as intelligent."

Erin looked like she was about to start yelling but I cut in. "You haven't known Erin for long enough to judge her. She may look shallower than a child's pool, but it's a façade. She's really a profound and clever person."

Erin beamed at me. Liam snickered.

Erin grabbed our Pokeballs, returned our Pokemon, took my hand, and sprung to the door. "C'mon, Anita!" she yelled, angrily stalking from the room.

Erin calmed down a bit once we left the Pokemon Center.

"Anita… thanks for standing up for me."

"No prob."

"But I have a question for you: What did I do to make you understand I'm not shallow?"

For a moment, I considered telling her that she was one tricky b*tch. Then I thought better of it. "Well, once I realized you were purposefully talking a lot, I knew you were more than you appeared to be. It also help that I'm a psychic. Mostly though, it was that despite your obnoxiousness, I know you care about me and your Pokemon. You're not self-centered."

"Hmm…" Erin murmured thoughtfully.

"Why do you care so much about what he thinks?"

"Grr… I always make a good impression. Always! I thought I did a good job when I first met Liam. We discussed our research for hours!"

"Erin, you should really forget about it. In fact, forget about him! I'm all for ditching him after the gym. He's the self-centered, shallow, *sshole!"

Erin rolled her eyes.

"I'm not kidding!"

Erin sighed. "Believe me, I know. But we can't just abandon him! He's not a bad person. I just need to think of a way to prove… well, I'm me, I guess."

"I think you're taking this whole thing too seriously. You should forget it."

"I'll think of something," the red-head mumbled.

{She's as stubborn as I am,} I noted to Apple.

{Yup! Can't wait to see what she comes up with,} Apple answered cheerfully.

We stopped walking down the narrow street. On our right, only a block away from the Pokemon Center, was the gym in plain sight. The building, like the road and the sidewalk, was made of red brick. Above the doors, there was an indent in the wall of bricks that held a small flame.

The most important feature of the gym, however, was the sign that read OPEN on the giant metal front doors.

Apple, Erin, and I ran up to the doors. As I slowly cracked the door open, I heard a booming laugh. If I didn't know better, I would have classified the laugh as borderline evil.

The room I entered was pitch black.

Or at least it was until a bright spotlight blinded me.

I blinked several times, but couldn't force my eyes to focus.

"Muwahahaha," a loud voice boomed from somewhere in the darkness. "Welcome, Anita Parkwood, to Tinted Town's gym of fiery doom! I have been expecting you. Muwhahahah!"

{Oh boy, this guy is a freak,} I said to Apple.

"Please give the Pokemon that you will not be battling with to your friend. You may not use these Pokemon in your prelim today, but they, along with your friend, may watch from a distance from behind a thick layer of heat-resistant protective glass. After your friend has your Pokemon, she must exit the room."

A red exit sign lit up to my left. I handed the Pokeballs of the four youngest Eevees to Erin and she walked toward the exit sign. After I heard a door close, the loud voice spoke again.

"Your prelim today must be completed alone. Release the two Pokemon you will be battling with… should you actually pass my prelim—a doubtful occurrence! Muwahahaha!"

A blue square illuminated in front of me as I released Fiery from his Pokeball.

"Ah, Eevees. Expected. Well, Eevees, step onto the blue square."

{How can he tell what Pokemon you are?} I asked Apple curiously as I sensed her trotting toward the blue square.

{This gym leader is gifted with fire and heat. He can sense the temperature of people, Pokemon, and objects… almost as if he can see in infrared.}

{What will happen when you touch the blue square?}

Apple and Fiery touched the square.

My question was never answered.

They had disappeared.

I panicked and reached out to them with my mind. "What did you do with them!" I yelled. I could vaguely feel they were still alive so they couldn't have gone too far. However, it was too much of a strain for me to attempt to communicate with them. They were just beyond my psychic range.

"Muwahahaha! I have transported them to me for safe-keeping! Or rather, unsafe-keeping!"

A screen appeared just above my head. This whole being kept in the dark thing was starting to get on my nerves. I got the feeling that the gym leader only did it for effect…

Fiery and Apple appeared on the screen. They were in a metal cage being held over a bowl of bubbling lava. How the gym leader managed to keep the lava from burning through the bowl is beyond me. I squinted to see their expressions. Fiery looked angry and kept trying to break the cage open with iron tail. Apple was just rolling her eyes… maybe at the whole situation. Her expression calmed me. If she was not worried, then they probably weren't in any real danger. Probably. Maybe she had read the gym leader's mind and knew something I didn't know.

"Is this really necessary?" I asked mildly. For goodness sake, this was supposed to be a gym. Threatening my Pokemon with death seemed a little extreme.

"Of course it is!" A red-headed man appeared on the screen. "I have not had the chance to formally introduce myself. I am Aden Flarrent, master of fire and leader of the Tinted Town gym."

"Congratulations," I said dryly. As an afterthought I added, "Is it even legal to hold my Pokemon hostage?"

"Well, seeing as the gym leaders make the laws in the first place— yes."

"My Pokemon could die!"

"So could you. So could I, for that matter. You don't see me complaining about my mortality though."

I opened my mouth to retort, but Aden held up a hand to silence me. "I would prefer it if you held your questions and comments until the end of my prattle. Let me explain your prelim for this gym." Aden paused. "Tell me, Anita, have you ever played a Mario game?"

What the hell?

"Err… I had a Gameboy Color that I could play Mario on… but what the heck does that have to do with anything?"

Aden chuckled loudly. "Let me show you."

Suddenly, bright lights blinded me. I blinked for about a minute before I could finally see straight. Then I had to blink several more times to verify the reality of what I was seeing.

Large stone bricks were stacked everywhere. The wall to my right, the ceiling, and the floor were all stone. The wall to my left was entirely glass, except for a metal door directly next to me. Beyond the glass there were wooden stands. Erin waved to me from her seat; she was the only person in the stands.

I could see now that the screen above me was hanging from the stone ceiling. Aden was smiling brilliantly on the screen. Beyond the screen there was what looked like… a Mario level. To be precise, it looked like one of those Mario castle levels from my Gameboy game. Fireballs hurled in every direction and there were several twirling sticks of fire. At times there were gaps in the floor, and I did not doubt that between these gaps was hot lava or fire, just like in the games.

I strained my eyes to see if this hall of stone and fire ever ended, and I swore I could make out a brown bridge at the end of the tunnel.

My eyes stared at the scene in amazement.

Another booming laugh came from the screen.

"Welcome to the Tinted Town Gym."

No doubt about it. This guy was insane.

"The prelim is very simple. You just have to make it to the end of this tunnel and defeat Bowser. Then I will release your Pokemon and you may battle me."

I shook my head. "Did you just say defeat Bowser?"

The camera shifted so I was looking at a Torkoal. "This is my Torkoal, Bowser."

"I have to battle him!" I exclaimed. I didn't have my Pokemon; how was I supposed to do that?

"I never said battle. I said defeat. There is, of course, the standard button on the end of the bridge that will cause the bridge to collapse and Bowser to fall."

"Are you mentally stable?" I asked seriously.

"Stability is a funny thing…"

"You can't have put other trainers through this! Nobody would pass!"

"Of course not. You, however, are a gifted trainer. I can put you through whatever I want—including this brilliant setup."

I shook my head in disbelief.

"Oh, I didn't mention: there's a time limit," Aden casually said on the screen. "Your Eevees are being lowered toward the lava bowl about six inches every minute. I'd say that gives you about ten minutes before—"

"They'll be fried!" I interrupted.

"Nah. Just severely burned. Actually, in your case, they might evolve. It's been known to happen."

That should have been a relief. Should have. But Apple was not really an Eevee, and thus, Apple could not really evolve. So if I did not reach them in the next ten minutes…

Apple would not only be burned…

She could be exposed.

"Time's a-ticking."