Chapter 14

Out of the Frying Pan

Charles was currently immersed in a fiction novel, snuggled in an armchair. It wasn't completely comfortable, but it was comfortable enough. As he read, he vaguely became aware of Potato staring at him from across the room. She stared at him, transfixed. He cursed whosever's idea it was to bring her along.

"So…" Charles dog-eared his book. "Want me to turn on the TV?"

She stared at him.

"…okay…" He was about to crack open his book when loud bangs suddenly rattled the room's door. Charles hopped up from his seat. "Who is it?"

"It's Edie and Feolan! Now open the goddamn door!"

Charles unlocked the door and stumbled backwards as Edie and Feolan rushed in and slammed the door behind them. Both were splattered with dried blood and Edie clutched a large black trash bag in her hands.

"It's not what it looks like," she said quickly.

Charles gaped in shock. "It looks like you murdered someone!"

Feolan and Edie exchanged glances. "Well…" Feolan said hesitantly, "if it looks like that…then you might be right..."

"YOU MURDERED SOMEONE?" the Charmeleon shrieked, clutching his face in horror. "Oh my God…so, so the body is in the bag?"

Feolan and Edie looked at one another again. "No," Edie said slowly. "It's…her clothes."

Charles stared at them.

"You explain everything to him," Edie said to Feolan, inching her way to the bathroom. "I'm going to go wash off these clothes bye." She ran into the bathroom, locking the door behind her.

She slammed her cell phone down on the counter, flecks of blood dried on the screen. She turned the sink faucet on to boiling hot water, tepid water soon filling the plugged sink. Holding her breath she upturned the trash bag into the sink, clogging the water flow with the heavy black uniform. Specks of blood flew from the bag and she crumpled it up hastily, stuffing it in the trashcan. The thick, cloying smell of blood filled the air and Edie fought to keep her breath. Suddenly, it hit her: she had just killed a woman with her bare hands. Somehow, the feeling was less overwhelming than she had expected. She figured it would hit her at some point.

The sink water turned a pale red. She poked at the uniform, more red blooming in the water, before tossing a bar of soap into the concoction as well. Her process was interrupted by a banging on the door.

"Edie, let me in! What is going on?"

She opened the door to face a livid Charles, staring up at her in shock. He bustled past her and she closed the door behind him; he gaped at the bloodied uniform resting in the sink.

"Edie. What the hell is this?"

She swallowed. "Feolan and me ran past the Game Corner. We just wanted to check it out, and we saw a Grunt staring at us. We chased her into an alley and…I killed her. I had to! She had a communicator and was probably about to tell them I was alive!"

He looked to the uniform and then to Edie again. "And then you two striped her and left her naked body in a trashcan. Edie, I'm starting to think you're a psychopath."

She closed her eyes, sighing. "No. No, that's not it, I can explain." She shakily pulled Lola's ID from her pocket, handing it to Charles.

He took it from her, reading it, and then looked back up at her. "You have her ID."

"…She looks a lot like me."

He stared at her, instantly knowing what she was getting at. It was a blank, decimated stare.

Words suddenly burst from her like a flood. "We can walk right into Silph. Blend in. Work up the ranks. Then we get an opportunity to kill him and we go for it. It'll work. It's perfect."

"Edie, are you serious?" He threw the card down. "Is this some kind of sick joke? Wanting to engage in this madness again?"

"I have to," she shot back. She scratched her shaved head. "I can do it. I know what they are now. I'm not a little girl."

"You almost died. Giovanni beat you with a baseball bat within an inch of your life." He sighed. "I'm just glad I wasn't there to see it. Thrown out back."

"I need to get back at him. Charles, I realized that we need to do something. They're too evil to—"

"We're talking about a massive criminal corporation!"

She threw her hands out. "You said it yourself— the path of the, the good man, is— is whatever; you said something about fighting for good and that's what I'm trying to do!"

"That's not even the right quote! And furthermore, we are not righteous men! We're three Pokémon and a teenage girl!"

"But—"

"It's just a quote, Edie! It's not real! It can't always be that way!" He sighed and covered his face in his claws. "I'm sorry. We're not superheroes. And, frankly, I don't even think that's the reason you want to do whatever it is you want to do."

She cocked her head at him, challenging.

"I think you're feeling sorry for yourself. You're bitter. You're a very bitter person in general."

She was about to respond, to snap at him, to tell him it wasn't true when she knew it was, but Feolan nosed his way through the door. "Uh…everything okay?"

Charles whipped around to face him. "I can't believe you two murdered someone!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Feolan stumbled back from Charles's glare. "First of all, she did the murdering. Second of all, that Grunt went at us first. Not our faults."

Edie flashed her gaze to Feolan. "He doesn't like my plan," she muttered.

He shrugged at her. "I mean, I thought it sounded balls-to-the-walls crazy, so it's not like I was optimistic or anything. No offense."

She rolled her eyes and went back to washing the uniform.

Charles touched her arm. "I'm sorry, Edie, but we'll die."

A sudden ring cut through the air. The three of them leapt at the sound and Edie grabbed the phone from the counter, answering it. "Hello?"

"Howdy, Grey!" It was Russell. His voice had a mask of cheer, but his attempt was slightly pathetic. She sensed the hesitance below his voice.

"Hi, Russell."

He didn't even correct her on codenames. "How are you holding up?"

"Fine."

"What have you been up to?"

"Oh, the usual. Sitting around. Watching crappy movies. Eating bad Chinese food. I'm not allowed to scratch my own head. Stitches. Apparently they dissolve by themselves. I think that's pretty cool."

He hesitated slightly, not knowing how to react. "Are there any more medical expenses? Hotel expenses?"

"Nope, all paid off. Tell Marylyn I said, 'thanks'. I'm good to go."

There was a lull in the conversation, and then:

He sighed. "Edie, I'm sorry. Again."

During her recovery, Russell had become a champion of apologizing for what had happened. She could tell that he felt that it was his fault, and in that first week when she was confined to the hospital he spent the most time with her out of all the KDF members. He prided himself as her segregate parent, as "father" was still on a business trip and "mother" was bonkers, stuck in a mental institution.

She tried not to look at the blood-filled sink. "Russell, it's okay, you didn't know, no one knew…but you got there in time."

"Not soon enough."

"Well, if Miguel hadn't coded that location tapping thing into the phone, I'd be dead. He said I should keep the phone, and he was right."

He sighed again, pausing, before changing the topic. "Edie, it's time you got home. You should've gone home a week ago, but with the medical stuff it was tough. You need to go back with your parents."

Charles, overhearing this, gave her a knowing look. Her heart sunk. "Home?"

"Yes, home. Tell your dad to come back. I'm sure he'll understand. Get back into your schooling. Forgot about all of this."

"Drop everything?" She stammered for words, unsure. "I mean, I don't—"

"Edie, you don't know how absolutely terrifying it was to answer a call from you and hear Giovanni's voice on the other end. My first thought was that you were dead, and God knows I wouldn't be able to live with that guilt. This entire situation is absolutely crazy— it was always crazy, but now with us losing ground and you in the situation…things are not looking good."

She paused. "What do you mean?"

He sighed, sounding tired. "I mean that there's not much we can do anymore. I mean that I'm a terrible leader. The KDF has crumbled under my leadership. People have been dying for years for this cause, and now it's only three people left."

"It's not— I mean, it can get better."

"We're losing hope. Kanto is going down the tubes and I don't think we can stop it. There's not much we can do anymore. Team Rocket has too much manpower."

Panic began to crawl in her voice. "No, Russell, sure there is. I'm sure there's something."

"I really don't think so, Edie. I think we've failed this one. We almost let you die and now that we're active again Team Rocket will be looking out for us. I don't foresee this ending well." He paused. "Just make sure you get back home. Really. You need to go home. In fact, get out of the region. There's no hope for Kanto anymore."

The tone in his voice scared her. It sounded absolutely defeated. She tried to brighten her voice. "O-okay. But I'll keep in touch, you bet!"

The line went dead.

The three were silent for a few moments as Edie placed the phone back on the counter.

"Oh, God," Charles said, looking at the phone in horror. "He sounded like hell."

Edie pinched the bridge of her nose, squeezing her eyes shut. "He's the only thing stopping Team Rocket. And he's hopeless."

"But that means Kanto…Kanto might…"

Feolan cut in. "Team Rocket takes over Kanto. We run away to Jhoto. They take over Jhoto. We run to Hoenn. And so on." Feolan flattened his ears back against his head. "We're screwed."

Charles looked at Edie as if looking for some kind of comfort. She shrugged hopelessly.

When that was her only response, he picked up Lola's ID from the floor and stared at it. He studied the picture of Lola, and then peered at Edie from over the card.

"First," he said, "you're going to need a makeover."

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! These next few chapters are my absolute favorite, so I hope you enjoy the next group of chapters.