CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
"Look Owen, it's that Larvitar again," I looked beyond my shoulder and trotting behind us was that same Larvitar that followed us to Lavender Town and back.
"I have no sympathy for followers," Owen said harshly.
"How can you say that? Look how cute he is!" I stopped to face the cute ground pokemon.
"Lar," he spoke in a soft, mumbled tone.
"Awwwww!" my heart melted when I saw the innocent face of the Larvitar. He looked up at us with his big, blue eyes, and his cute, little, stubby, arms swung at his side. "I think we should help it!"
"Help it do what? Find its mother? What is the chance of us finding its mother?" Owen said negatively. He was not warming up to this little guy like I was. I can fall in love with any pokemon, even if they're not fire type.
"Let's get moving," Owen mumbled.
"Bye Larvitar. Good luck," I waved to the tiny, green pokemon as we continued to walk towards route 7.
"Come see the great Drowzee and I, his master, Vincent McMagic!" a man with an Italian accent, in a purple cape, was shouting in the middle of the street. He had glasses and blue eyes that could be seen from a mile away. His slimming, black pants went down to his newly shinned, black shoes. He had short brown hair and a thin, Italian mustache. Next to him on a waist high table and a purple table cloth, sat a gold ant eater, looking pokemon. His long noise dangled from his big head and he looked tired.
"What is that?" I said walking up to the man.
"Why it be a Drowzee," Vincent smiled patting the head of his pokemon.
Drowzee is a pokemon that has the ability to make other pokemon and humans fall asleep. It can tell what people are dreaming by sniffing with its big nose.
"I need two volunteers!" the man cried into the city streets. A crowd began to huddle around the magician and everyone was whispering and wondering what trick he would perform. "Don't be shy! It's a simple trick that will cause no harm! Just fascinate others by the reversal between two minds!" he explained with fancy vocabulary.
"Yeah right, you can't really make two people switch bodies," Owen mumbled to me.
"You doubt the power of my Drowzee, boy?" he asked Owen with an eye brow raised. The entire crowd focused on Owen and waited for his response.
"Um…" Owen was speechless and became nervous.
"You and your friend there! Come on up and I will show you the great ability Vincent McMagic and his Drowzee have!" he waved us over the middle of the crowd.
Owen rolled his eyes doubting this magician real power and dragged to over to Vincent.
"Now how would you describe this young lady's personality?" Vincent asked Owen.
"Annoying, irresponsible, and obnoxious," Owen answered like it was the easiest question in the world. The words traveled through my ear canal and made it all the way to my brain and I felt them stab at it repeatedly. The anger grew inside of me and I prepared to say some, not so nice, things about Owen. Sweet, sweet revenge!
"What about your friend here?" the man asked me.
"First off he's not my friend!" I stuck my tongue out at him and he scowled. "Owen is a selfish, arrogant, unkind child who doesn't care about any one else but himself!"
"Oooooooh!" the crowd echoed.
"You can't even read a map!" Owen remarked.
"At least I don't read at a second grade level!" I argued.
"Alright, let's get on with the show shall we!" Vincent changed the topic to make us stop. I was so infuriated! How can one kid be so obnoxiously selfish and inconsiderate!? He just makes me want to pull my hair out!
"Drowzee will now switch the minds of these two humans and then switch them back!" Vincent announced. "Drowzee its slumber time!" he boomed enthusiastically.
"Drow-zee," the pokemon yawned. We both starred into Drowzee's eyes and grew tired. My knees started to wobble as I put my hand up to my mouth and let out a big yawn. Owen rubbed his eyes and we both suddenly collapsed to the ground.
We awoke again moments later totally clueless of what was going on. We must've missed something because everyone was clapping.
"What happened?" Owen asked.
"Is this so called "trick" finally over?" I yawned.
"Now for all to see and hear, the minds of these two teenagers were switched, before your very eyes!" Vincent McMagic exclaimed. The crowd which was twice the size as before roared with excitement and enthusiasm.
"I bet everyone is cheering for me!" I said dusting off my shoulder.
"No one would cheer for a looser like you," Owen teased.
"You are both wrong," Vincent said placing his arms around our shoulders. "They are cheering for me! For doing a trick that has never been done before! For switching the personalities between two people!" Vincent shouted in glory.
"What do you mean?" Owen asked.
"Like we really switched personalities," I doubted.
"That Drowzee is so powerful! I can't believe it can transport so much information from one body to another!" Owen was fascinated.
"Yawn," I said.
"Why do you always have to doubt everything? You're so negative you could make the world explode!" Owen stated meanly.
"You're insults is as bad as your training techniques," I smirked.
The crowd began to depart from the fight.
"What is that suppose to mean?!"
"The only reason you won the KPFT is because you got lucky!" I looked at my finger nails full of myself.
"I don't need you by my hip, trailing behind like a puppy!"
"The KPFT is over moron! You don't need to travel anymore!"
"If you feel that way maybe we shouldn't travel together anymore!" he screamed.
"FINE!" I agreed.
"FINE!" he exclaimed angrily and we both stormed off.
"Looks like we missed the opening act!" a boy's voice said from above.
"But we're about to bring out our next performer!" a girl's voice said giddily.
I turned around to see Team Rocket's Meowth balloon floating above the street.
"Team Rocket!" Owen and I both exclaimed.
"For our next trick Team Rocket will make a volunteer disappear!" Meowth chuckled mischievously.
"Our volunteer will be Drowzee!" Jesse sneered. Meowth pressed a giant red button and a claw extended from the bottom of the balloon and grabbed Drowzee from the table!
"Drowzee!" Vincent cried in terror.
"Lickitung use roll out to break the claw and free Drowzee!" Owen instructed while Lickitung appeared from his pokeball.
"Lick-i-tung!" he cried as he curled up into a ball and rolled rapidly into the arm of the claw. The impact from the tackle didn't do anything ,the metal arm was still sturdy. The metal arm brought Drowzee up to the balloon basket. The claw disappeared back into the bottom on the basket while Team Rocket stuck Drowzee in a clear box. Drowzee didn't look concerned or worried at all. His same old, blank and tired look was plastered across his face. Vincent began to sweat nervously and didn't know what to do. I stood there watching the show like I could care less. The remaining crowd screamed and ran away in fear, while I thought to myself "Team Rocket is nothing to be afraid of."
"Lickitung use thunder bolt!" Owen told him.
"Seviper, stop these twerps from ruining our beautiful plan!" Jesse cried as she tossed Seviper's pokeball down to the ground. Her black, poisonous, snake pokemon appeared from the red light with a concerted look in its eyes. The bolts of lightening that came from Lickitung's body struck Seviper with tremendous force and made him tumble to the ground.
"James, don't just stand there! Do something!" Jesse commanded.
"Carnivine boo these twerps off the stage!" James exclaimed and his green, venus fly trap like pokemon popped out of its pokeball. Carnivine launched into the air a bit the top of James's head.
"Carnivine please!" James begged. "Attack them, not me!"
Carnivine leaped down from the basket and faced Lickitung to fight, for once.
"Alright Carnivine, use vine whip!" James instructed determinedly. Thick, dark green, vines unleashed from Carnivine's shoulder and extended towards Lickitung swiftly.
"Lickitung dodge then use slam!" Owen shouted.
Lickitung speedily jumped out of the way of the fast moving vines then launched towards Carnivine. Vincent and I watched consumed in the battle. Lickitung full out body slammed Carnivine and made him faint.
"Oh no!" James cried.
"Get your pokemon and let's step on it!" Meowth told them in a hurry.
"Right," they agreed. Jesse and James returned their pokemon to their pokeballs and then started up the hot air balloon's engine.
"They're getting away!" Vincent exclaimed starting to chase after the rapidly moving balloon.
"It's no use. We'll never be able to catch up to them!" I remarked.
"Can't your Lickitung use a thunder bolt and pop the balloon?" Vincent asked, trying to think of anything to get his Drowzee back.
"They're too far away now," Owen told him.
Out of no where, we heard soft foot steps from behind. We all turned around to see Larvitar was standing behind us, looking up at Team Rocket's balloon with a determined glisten in his eye.
"Look it's Larvitar!" I tapped Owen's shoulder and pointed to him.
Suddenly, the ground began to shake like an earthquake. We all almost lost our balance and fell to the ground. Chunks of rock up lifted from behind Larvitar and levitated in the air. All of the sudden, they were hurled towards Team Rocket's balloon and slit a giant hole right in the middle of their Meowth Balloon. The hot air caused a giant explosion and Team Rocket was propelled into the air.
"Looks like we're the closing act!" James said.
"But next time we'll have a sold out show!" Jesse cried.
"It looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!" the trio shouted as they disappeared off into the blue sky and created a twinkle like a star.
Vincent sprinted over to his falling Drowzee and caught the plump pokemon in his arms. He carried Drowzee over to me and Owen with a pleasant smile on his face.
"That is one Larvitar you have there," he complimented.
"It's not ours," Owen told him.
"Any trainer would be lucky to have such a powerful pokemon like that one," he smiled. "I just remembered, I must switch back your minds,"
"Huh?" we both were clueless.
"Just stare into Drowzee's eyes and you'll be back before you know it!" he told us. We both did so with out questioning, suddenly we both became tired and let out huge yawns, then collapsed to the ground.
We awoke once again moments later and didn't know what was going on.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Where are we?" Owen questioned looking around.
"You both just saved my Drowzee and I would love to reward you," Vincent beamed in delight.
"We did?" I asked still dazed and confused.
"I sure did," Owen boasted.
"He said WE Owen. That means we both helped him!"
"He just didn't want to be rude and exclude you. I really did all the work. The reason you don't remember anything is because you were sleeping like a Snorelax,"
"Mmm hmmm, sure," I sarcastically agreed.
"For the great deed you have done I would like to give you this," Vincent lifted up the deep purple table cloth that appeared to have nothing under it at first. But when he pulled it off a light violet, oval shaped egg sat on the square table. Vincent placed Drowzee on the ground beside him and handed me the egg carefully.
"An egg?" I said holding it out in front of me.
"Yes, if you keep that egg warm and healthy, it will hatch into a pokemon!" he told us.
"Thank you, sir!" Owen said excitingly and seized the egg from my hands. He cradled it in his arms like it was his, when Vincent handed it to me!
"Owen, that's mine!" I exclaimed.
"He said both us helped him! And you are too busy with your pokemon training to take care of it. Don't worry Kylie I'll take great care of your egg!" Owen called to me as he ran with it in his hands down the road.
"Owen that egg is mine! He handed it to me! Give it back! Owen!" I shouted to him chasing him down the road.
I continued to chase after him out of Saffron City. Next stop, Celadon City, where I'd get my newest badge!