Driving Me Crazy chapter 7
Wow... as of right now I'm already at *74* wonderful reviews! Thank you all so so much ^-^ you people are why I keep writing the story! Lol... I know, I know, me and my evil evil cliffhangers. I would thank specific people, only I'm too lazy to do all that typing. Maybe I'll thank people at the very end of the fic, on the last chapter. Yeah, I think that's what I'll do. There are some people who reviewed every chappie! That's so nice of you! *does happy dance*
One more thing- the next few chapters will probably be more dramatic than funny, but I'm gonna leave the genre as Romance/Humor. Just thought I'd tell you.
Okay, with that said, on with the ficcie!!
***
Misty opened her mouth to answer...
...and a voice from behind her, though she couldn't see its owner, looked the lady straight in the eye and said,
"False." The lady, who read tabloids every day, didn't glance up from her article about the Pikachu, but instead smirked.
"Aww, honey, you were so close." Misty just stood there, her eyes wide, thinking how little you had to do to sit back and hear your heart break. The silence was so thick in the room, she was certain she heard it.
The owner of the voice smirked from his stance behind Misty. "I'm afraid you don't understand- I know that the rumor's not true." The lady rolled her eyes, abandoning her usually professional demeanor.
"Yeah? Prove it."
And Ash strolled up to the desk, rested his elbows on the counter, gave the lady a sweet, practiced press smile, and waited for her to look up.
Finally, seeing there was no response, she glanced up and her mouth dropped open, revealing a well-hidden piece of gum.
"Uh- uh- Mr.- Mr. Ketchum! I-I mean- if you say it's- of *course* the rumor's not true, as I was about to tell this young lady!" The lady's beam returned, and you could see her congratulating herself on a nice save. Ash's eyes held a fair amount of skepticism, but he didn't say anything. The lady turned again to Misty, who looked as surprised as anyone. Averting her eyes to under the desk, she brought out a blue bottle.
"Here you are! Congratulations!" Slightly confused, Misty took the TM.
"Um- what TM is this?" asked Ash politely. The lady smiled, not a nice smile, kind of a mocking one.
"Sorry- I don't make 'em, I just give 'em away."
"Luckily," muttered Ash.
Misty, looking at her TM, which was a pretty shade of aqua, walked distractedly out the door. Ash followed her after politely nodding to the people behind the counter.
Across the room, a man in a black suit smiled quite evilly and nodded to the man sitting next to him. Both of them watched Ash and Misty go, then they got up, stood at the door, waited for the Professor's car to start and pull out, then they walked out, got into an official-looking limousine, and it, too, pulled out.
***
"What TM do you think it is?" asked Ash, who was driving. Misty cocked her head to one side, looking at it.
"I dunno," she replied. "I've never seen one like it before. I used to have a TM book for reference when I was reporting on something, and most of them were clear. One or two were red, a couple green... I think one dark blue. Never this shade..." The yellow rodent in the back seat heard the surprisingly calm and pleasant conversation and hopped suddenly into Misty's lap, sniffing the bottle curiously.
"PI!" it cried suddenly and angrily, grabbing the TM from Misty and throwing it squarely out the window.
"Pikachu!" exclaimed Ash. "What did you do that for?" Pikachu turned its gaze to him.
"Pikapi, chu chu pika cha pikachu pi!" [Ash, if you had my sense of smell you would have done it too!]
"Pikachu," asked Misty, "what kind of scent was on that?" It looked at her matter-of-factly.
"Pika, chu pi pi ka. Cha chu pika pikachu." [Well, it's hard to explain. It was more instinct than anything.]
"It smelled dangerous?" she asked.
"Chu. Pikachu pi cha pika." [Yeah. It just didn't smell right.]
"Okay," decided Ash, "Pik, I trust you enough to believe you. Let's just forget it."
***
A man, alone in his rusty old car, picked up his cell phone. He dialed the numbers almost mechanically.
"Anderson? It's me. They eighty-sixed the Formula 16."
"Use words, Melton," the person on the other end growled. "Aren't you alone?"
"Yeah. I saw the bottle fly out the car window."
Silence on the other end. Then: "Which one did it?"
"I couldn't tell."
"Shit." Then Anderson was silent.
"It's still okay. Did you get the Pokemon?"
"No," replied Anderson sullenly. "Ketchum noticed his Pika-buddy was missing and went looking. Some guy had a rope in the back of his car."
"People," muttered Melton angrily.
"Well," sighed Anderson, "we've still got the factory."
"Yeah," agreed Melton. "Everything set?"
"I'll call Vincent after we hang up."
"Okay." He paused. "Anything else on the redhead?"
"Not as far as I know. I'll see you in 20."
"Bye." He pressed the 'end' button and smiled to himself, pushing the accelerator just a little faster in anticipation.
***
"Ring ring ring, ring ring ring, Pokegear, Pokegear!" (AN: This really wasn't gonna be part of the story, having him call, but I couldn't help myself ^-^) Ash frowned.
"I forgot I had this..." He pressed the 'on' button. "Hello?"
"Ash? This is the Professor. I'm just checking up on you... learn anything?"
"Not yet," Ash replied. "We're in main Lavender now, but since we really don't have too many specifics..."
"Well, I checked, and I have some information for you, if it would help." Misty looked over at the screen also, wanting to hear what he'd found.
"That would be great," she answered for Ash. He nodded.
"All right. A guard of the Cambridge Candy Factory, which has its corporate offices and the factory where the candy is shipped from in Lavender, was found drowned in a lake outside of the town. Lavender is a fairly remote town, with hardly any murders. The police looked into it, and by tapping a phone call, found out there were hidden transmitters somewhere in the candy factory. It was all on the local news."
"And you think it has something to do with the ghost Pokemon?" asked Ash. The Professor nodded.
"Pokemon often have better hearing and sense of smell than humans. Ghost Pokemon are notorious for hearing high-pitched frquencies. If there was an ulterior motive to this sound- like to distract the ghosts from something- it would be fairly easy to do."
"So check out the candy factory?" asked Misty.
"I'd look into it."
"We'll go now, then. Thanks, Professor."
"Take care," he said cheerfully. The small screen went black.
"I guess it's the chocolate factory, then," Ash said to Misty.
"Mmm," agreed Misty absentmindedly. After briefly checking the map, they sped off.
***
Vincent Harding heard his phone ring a few seconds later.
"I'm busy," he growled into the phone.
"'S me. Anderson."
"What?" he yelled.
"Sorry, Boss. I'm busy too, but I gotta tell you. I just got off the phone with Melton, and he said that formula stuff you made didn't pass the test of the Master's Pikachu and he threw it out the window."
"The Master?"
"No, the Pikachu."
"Oh. Well, we'll find a way."
"That's the other thing. Their car's going full speed toward the factory. I think they know somethin'." Vincent sighed.
"Daniel, listen to me. I have planned this so carefully, you wouldn't believe it. Let 'em come. You know what they'll find?"
"The transmitter?"
"They won't find a damn thing! When I plan, I plan good. Don't come or try to head them off, and whatever you do, don't hurt them. People know they're here. Just do your job."
A sigh from the other end of the phone. "Okay. I'll talk to you."
"Call later tonight. I'll give you an update." Vincent hung up the phone. He sighed, putting his fingers on his temples.
"These trainers better not mess up my plans," he muttered.
*** "I guess this is it," said Ash, pulling into the gravel parking lot of the seemingly abandoned factory.
Misty looked at him. "Is this illegal or something?"
"I don't think so," he answered, but still neither of them moved.
About ten seconds later, she looked at him again. "Ash? If Alison Jennings isn't your girlfriend... who is?"
"What makes you think I'm not single?" She gave him a skeptical smile.
"Because you're twenty, famous, and incredibly handsome." She hadn't meant to be quite so blunt, but that's how it came out, and she couldn't take the words from the air and rewind time. He gave her an amused look.
"You think I'm handsome?" She blushed.
He laughed. "Did you... always think that?"
"Pretty much," she admitted, "not that your ego needed to hear it."
"You liked me then," he said matter-of-factly.
"So?"
"I liked you then too." She leaned her seat back.
"You like me now?" He gave her an annoying grin.
"I plead the Fifth."
"Déjà vu," she muttered. "So, Ash, learned what the Fifth is yet?"
"The Fifth," he announced, "is the right to remain silent."
"That's right," she said, not very surprised. The boy had grown up.
"If you still want to know tomorrow, I'll tell you then." She shrugged. "Fair enough." He smiled at her, not conveying any emotion in particular. Then he opened his car door and together, they walked through the gates, which were wide open.
At first neither of them even thought about it. Then Misty glanced back and murmured, "Don't you think it's weird the gates were just open like that?"
"From what I gather, there was a break-in earlier, right? They probably saved us the trouble. Anyway, we could have just shocked the lock and gotten in easily." Accepting this, they continued walking up to the main doors. Misty stopped short, another worry striking her.
"What if the burglars are still in there?" His first thought was that they were most likely murderers, not burglars, but he didn't want to scare her, so he just replied,
"That's why we have our Pokemon." She smiled, the worry melting away from her face.
"Oh," she said, thinking, of course... good trainers...
"So... do you want to go in?" he said, noticing they still hadn't. She smiled again, somewhat sheepishly.
"Yeah. Let's go." Absentmindedly, he smiled back at her and slipped his hand in hers. She lifted her free hand, opened the door, which was also unlocked, and they walked into the factory.
"Wow," said Ash almost immediately, looking around. The factory was huge, with big mixers and machines all around, but all dormant. The ceiling was high and domed. Everything was white or silver, and a big sign above everything said in blue lettering:
WELCOME TO CAMBRIDGE CANDY FACTORY!
"Sure is big," commented Misty.
"Uh-huh. Do you see any doors or anything that could lead to another room? It doesn't seem like there would be anything in here." Misty nodded, agreeing with him.
"Well," she replied, "it looks like a manager's office over there up that flight of stairs." She pointed, then realized her hand was entwined with his and blushed. Immediately, she freed herself and pointed again. He bit his bottom lip, but didn't comment.
"Yeah," he replied after a few seconds of uneasy silence. She looked at him.
"Do you want to go up there?" she asked. He shook his head, loosening the thoughts about her clamped firmly in his mind, and then replied, "Yeah, sure. I mean, if you think it would help."
"I don't know, but it can't hurt to try..." And with that, she turned toward the stairs and started to ascend them. He gave a small sigh and followed her.
The door wasn't locked, but it was heavy, and Misty strained against it, trying to open it. Finally, Ash pushed on it too with one hand and it creaked open unwillingly.
The room was dark and musty. Ash felt along the wall for a light switch and, upon finding one, was about to flip it-
Someone clapped and the room was flooded with light. Ash looked at Misty and Pikachu, their eyes darting cautiously about the room. He took a step forward, defensively.
"Who's there?" he called. No answer. Misty instinctively moved a step closer to him. "Ash," she murmured, "do you think it's a ghost Pokemon?"
"It's possible," he told her, then yelled into the room, "Who turned the lights on? Come on, show yourself."
They waited, but there was no answer. Then, with no warning, they were plunged into darkness once more. Ash flipped the light switch, still under his fingers, but nothing happened. After a few more silent seconds, he had a thought. He clapped, and the lights came on again. Misty gave a relieved sigh and looked up. The sigh abruptly turned into a sharp intake of breath.
"Ash," she said shakily, "look over there..." (AN: I was gonna have it be a cliffy here but I'm not *that* mean... ^-^) He raised his head to the direction she was looking and his eyes widened slightly.
Scrawled in black ink on the wall was this:
--back of the wall-stripes are away-have a Chocoball-and 315 can't help you now
Ash looked at Misty. "That's not so scary. It's not like it's a death threat, right?" She shook her head. "But we know somebody's here," she pointed out. "I know that wasn't there before the lights turned out." Ash frowned.
"Is it... a riddle?" he muttered. "It must be- as a normal sentence it doesn't make any sense. Back of the wall..." he turned to the far wall. It didn't seem to be any different than any of the other walls.
He turned to her. "Quick- get a piece of paper and write down those words. We should go see if there are any other rooms." She nodded and reached for the door.
"I'll be glad to get out of here," she replied, "this room gives me the creeps." She turned the doorknob, pushed, and they walked out of the room.
Ash was still worried. The last thought he had before following Misty was this:
"...neither of us closed the door after coming in."
***
Daniel Anderson smacked a branch out of his way, reached into his pocket for a key, put it in the lock, turned the doorknob, pushed, and made his way into the dimly lighted room. He could hear Vincent's leather chair rocking, and noted Vincent was someone you'd see in the movies, with his chair turned back until you talked to him.
"Hey, Vincent," he greeted him. The man spun around. He had on a gray tweed suit and a red silk tie. His cheekbones were high and narrow, his voice was always menacing, he sat up straight and you could tell he was not someone you'd want for your enemy.
Vincent nodded. "Anderson," he acknowledged him. Then: "I take it you called him?"
"I did," replied Anderson.
"And?" prompted Harding. He saw Anderson's face change slightly.
"He says he'd be prepared to help us, give us access to his facilities and send some members out on guard."
"Any catches?"
"He wants a cut... I didn't tell him that wasn't it."
Vincent Harding laughed, a low, throaty sound. "Greedy bastard. I knew him once. I'm not surprised... it was always about money with him." Anderson nodded.
"I just said I'd talk it over with you and-" he grinned- "have my people call his people." Harding rolled his eyes, but quickly snapped back to attention.
"So," he said, "where's Jason?"
Anderson frowned. "Melton? Ah, he's still out there, I guess... should be here soon."
"Okay. Listen, I had to do some pest control a few minutes ago- those trainers are here. I gave them some cryptic clue message that tells them where the transmitting room is-"
"What!?" Harding held up a hand.
"Don't worry. They'll never figure it out- you don't have to be the sharpest crayon in the box to color the best, if you know what I mean. What I need you to do is freak them out a little. Mess with their heads. Go screw with the circuit breaker. Oh, and I'd appreciate that Pikachu in our hands too."
"Will do, Boss. Hey, tell me when Melton gets here, would ya? I have a score to settle with him."
"Yeah, I'll buzz you."
"Thanks," replied Anderson. He strolled out to the back hall, patting the gun in his pocket with a slightly sadistic smile.
Harding picked up his phone and glanced at the piece of paper on his desk. He punched some numbers.
"Let me talk to Giovanni," he told the Rocket executive who picked up. He listened briefly, and said, "Hello? Giovanni? Vincent Harding. Let me explain to you the specifics of our deal. No money involved, I'm afraid, but I can assure you and all of the others who side with us a seat of great power." He listened again and smiled. "Excellent."
***
Five minutes later, Jason Melton walked into Harding's office. Harding glanced up briefly.
"Anderson was looking for you." Melton nodded and walked into the hall where Anderson was. It was darker in the hall than in the office, but Melton could faintly see his outline.
"Hello, Anderson," he said. Anderson didn't answer, but took a few steps toward him.
"I know what you did," he said in a low and quiet voice. Melton frowned.
"Wha-?" He was cut off when Anderson took another few quick steps toward him.
"I know you have it already. Give it to me. It's mine. It's my job. Do it and I can promise you no harm will come to you." He leaned in. "I'll protect you." Melton closed his eyes briefly and shook his head no.
"I can't, Daniel... I need it." Anderson smiled.
"Say 'fire orb,' Melton." And in one swift motion, he pulled out his gun and blew him away.
***
BANG. Misty jumped from where they'd been inspecting a machine and trying to figure out the riddle.
"What was that, Ash?" He glanced around.
"I don't know. It sounded like it came from over there." He pointed. They walked in the direction of a wall they hadn't seen before.
"Why is this wall covered with wallpaper?" she murmured. He shrugged. The wallpaper was fairly plain, white background with red stripes, about one every inch. Suddenly Ash frowned and walked alowly down the wallpapered wall.
"Ash?" said Misty quizzically. He didn't answer. He reached his hand up to a place in the wall when-
Click. Clamp. Ching. (AN: lol! Don't you love my sound effects?) Misty whirled around.
"Ash," she said worriedly, "the gates and door just closed!" He didn't answer, just kept staring at that wall.
"Ash?" she repeated, getting worried. Still no reaction.
Then he heard it.
"PIKAPIIIIIIIIIII!"
***
*evil menacing suspense music* ^-^ This was a pretty long chapter in a pretty short time! Although it did take me longer than 4 minutes...lol. Anyways, I just got 80 reviews! Yay, people! You guys are so nice. Now if I could get 100... lol. *sigh* I'd love to have 100 reviews... it would make me feel very special. But all my reviewers are very nice already! YEAH YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME!! ^-^ Okay, well, I have some food with my name on it, sooo- until next chapter!
*lavenderespeon*
Wow... as of right now I'm already at *74* wonderful reviews! Thank you all so so much ^-^ you people are why I keep writing the story! Lol... I know, I know, me and my evil evil cliffhangers. I would thank specific people, only I'm too lazy to do all that typing. Maybe I'll thank people at the very end of the fic, on the last chapter. Yeah, I think that's what I'll do. There are some people who reviewed every chappie! That's so nice of you! *does happy dance*
One more thing- the next few chapters will probably be more dramatic than funny, but I'm gonna leave the genre as Romance/Humor. Just thought I'd tell you.
Okay, with that said, on with the ficcie!!
***
Misty opened her mouth to answer...
...and a voice from behind her, though she couldn't see its owner, looked the lady straight in the eye and said,
"False." The lady, who read tabloids every day, didn't glance up from her article about the Pikachu, but instead smirked.
"Aww, honey, you were so close." Misty just stood there, her eyes wide, thinking how little you had to do to sit back and hear your heart break. The silence was so thick in the room, she was certain she heard it.
The owner of the voice smirked from his stance behind Misty. "I'm afraid you don't understand- I know that the rumor's not true." The lady rolled her eyes, abandoning her usually professional demeanor.
"Yeah? Prove it."
And Ash strolled up to the desk, rested his elbows on the counter, gave the lady a sweet, practiced press smile, and waited for her to look up.
Finally, seeing there was no response, she glanced up and her mouth dropped open, revealing a well-hidden piece of gum.
"Uh- uh- Mr.- Mr. Ketchum! I-I mean- if you say it's- of *course* the rumor's not true, as I was about to tell this young lady!" The lady's beam returned, and you could see her congratulating herself on a nice save. Ash's eyes held a fair amount of skepticism, but he didn't say anything. The lady turned again to Misty, who looked as surprised as anyone. Averting her eyes to under the desk, she brought out a blue bottle.
"Here you are! Congratulations!" Slightly confused, Misty took the TM.
"Um- what TM is this?" asked Ash politely. The lady smiled, not a nice smile, kind of a mocking one.
"Sorry- I don't make 'em, I just give 'em away."
"Luckily," muttered Ash.
Misty, looking at her TM, which was a pretty shade of aqua, walked distractedly out the door. Ash followed her after politely nodding to the people behind the counter.
Across the room, a man in a black suit smiled quite evilly and nodded to the man sitting next to him. Both of them watched Ash and Misty go, then they got up, stood at the door, waited for the Professor's car to start and pull out, then they walked out, got into an official-looking limousine, and it, too, pulled out.
***
"What TM do you think it is?" asked Ash, who was driving. Misty cocked her head to one side, looking at it.
"I dunno," she replied. "I've never seen one like it before. I used to have a TM book for reference when I was reporting on something, and most of them were clear. One or two were red, a couple green... I think one dark blue. Never this shade..." The yellow rodent in the back seat heard the surprisingly calm and pleasant conversation and hopped suddenly into Misty's lap, sniffing the bottle curiously.
"PI!" it cried suddenly and angrily, grabbing the TM from Misty and throwing it squarely out the window.
"Pikachu!" exclaimed Ash. "What did you do that for?" Pikachu turned its gaze to him.
"Pikapi, chu chu pika cha pikachu pi!" [Ash, if you had my sense of smell you would have done it too!]
"Pikachu," asked Misty, "what kind of scent was on that?" It looked at her matter-of-factly.
"Pika, chu pi pi ka. Cha chu pika pikachu." [Well, it's hard to explain. It was more instinct than anything.]
"It smelled dangerous?" she asked.
"Chu. Pikachu pi cha pika." [Yeah. It just didn't smell right.]
"Okay," decided Ash, "Pik, I trust you enough to believe you. Let's just forget it."
***
A man, alone in his rusty old car, picked up his cell phone. He dialed the numbers almost mechanically.
"Anderson? It's me. They eighty-sixed the Formula 16."
"Use words, Melton," the person on the other end growled. "Aren't you alone?"
"Yeah. I saw the bottle fly out the car window."
Silence on the other end. Then: "Which one did it?"
"I couldn't tell."
"Shit." Then Anderson was silent.
"It's still okay. Did you get the Pokemon?"
"No," replied Anderson sullenly. "Ketchum noticed his Pika-buddy was missing and went looking. Some guy had a rope in the back of his car."
"People," muttered Melton angrily.
"Well," sighed Anderson, "we've still got the factory."
"Yeah," agreed Melton. "Everything set?"
"I'll call Vincent after we hang up."
"Okay." He paused. "Anything else on the redhead?"
"Not as far as I know. I'll see you in 20."
"Bye." He pressed the 'end' button and smiled to himself, pushing the accelerator just a little faster in anticipation.
***
"Ring ring ring, ring ring ring, Pokegear, Pokegear!" (AN: This really wasn't gonna be part of the story, having him call, but I couldn't help myself ^-^) Ash frowned.
"I forgot I had this..." He pressed the 'on' button. "Hello?"
"Ash? This is the Professor. I'm just checking up on you... learn anything?"
"Not yet," Ash replied. "We're in main Lavender now, but since we really don't have too many specifics..."
"Well, I checked, and I have some information for you, if it would help." Misty looked over at the screen also, wanting to hear what he'd found.
"That would be great," she answered for Ash. He nodded.
"All right. A guard of the Cambridge Candy Factory, which has its corporate offices and the factory where the candy is shipped from in Lavender, was found drowned in a lake outside of the town. Lavender is a fairly remote town, with hardly any murders. The police looked into it, and by tapping a phone call, found out there were hidden transmitters somewhere in the candy factory. It was all on the local news."
"And you think it has something to do with the ghost Pokemon?" asked Ash. The Professor nodded.
"Pokemon often have better hearing and sense of smell than humans. Ghost Pokemon are notorious for hearing high-pitched frquencies. If there was an ulterior motive to this sound- like to distract the ghosts from something- it would be fairly easy to do."
"So check out the candy factory?" asked Misty.
"I'd look into it."
"We'll go now, then. Thanks, Professor."
"Take care," he said cheerfully. The small screen went black.
"I guess it's the chocolate factory, then," Ash said to Misty.
"Mmm," agreed Misty absentmindedly. After briefly checking the map, they sped off.
***
Vincent Harding heard his phone ring a few seconds later.
"I'm busy," he growled into the phone.
"'S me. Anderson."
"What?" he yelled.
"Sorry, Boss. I'm busy too, but I gotta tell you. I just got off the phone with Melton, and he said that formula stuff you made didn't pass the test of the Master's Pikachu and he threw it out the window."
"The Master?"
"No, the Pikachu."
"Oh. Well, we'll find a way."
"That's the other thing. Their car's going full speed toward the factory. I think they know somethin'." Vincent sighed.
"Daniel, listen to me. I have planned this so carefully, you wouldn't believe it. Let 'em come. You know what they'll find?"
"The transmitter?"
"They won't find a damn thing! When I plan, I plan good. Don't come or try to head them off, and whatever you do, don't hurt them. People know they're here. Just do your job."
A sigh from the other end of the phone. "Okay. I'll talk to you."
"Call later tonight. I'll give you an update." Vincent hung up the phone. He sighed, putting his fingers on his temples.
"These trainers better not mess up my plans," he muttered.
*** "I guess this is it," said Ash, pulling into the gravel parking lot of the seemingly abandoned factory.
Misty looked at him. "Is this illegal or something?"
"I don't think so," he answered, but still neither of them moved.
About ten seconds later, she looked at him again. "Ash? If Alison Jennings isn't your girlfriend... who is?"
"What makes you think I'm not single?" She gave him a skeptical smile.
"Because you're twenty, famous, and incredibly handsome." She hadn't meant to be quite so blunt, but that's how it came out, and she couldn't take the words from the air and rewind time. He gave her an amused look.
"You think I'm handsome?" She blushed.
He laughed. "Did you... always think that?"
"Pretty much," she admitted, "not that your ego needed to hear it."
"You liked me then," he said matter-of-factly.
"So?"
"I liked you then too." She leaned her seat back.
"You like me now?" He gave her an annoying grin.
"I plead the Fifth."
"Déjà vu," she muttered. "So, Ash, learned what the Fifth is yet?"
"The Fifth," he announced, "is the right to remain silent."
"That's right," she said, not very surprised. The boy had grown up.
"If you still want to know tomorrow, I'll tell you then." She shrugged. "Fair enough." He smiled at her, not conveying any emotion in particular. Then he opened his car door and together, they walked through the gates, which were wide open.
At first neither of them even thought about it. Then Misty glanced back and murmured, "Don't you think it's weird the gates were just open like that?"
"From what I gather, there was a break-in earlier, right? They probably saved us the trouble. Anyway, we could have just shocked the lock and gotten in easily." Accepting this, they continued walking up to the main doors. Misty stopped short, another worry striking her.
"What if the burglars are still in there?" His first thought was that they were most likely murderers, not burglars, but he didn't want to scare her, so he just replied,
"That's why we have our Pokemon." She smiled, the worry melting away from her face.
"Oh," she said, thinking, of course... good trainers...
"So... do you want to go in?" he said, noticing they still hadn't. She smiled again, somewhat sheepishly.
"Yeah. Let's go." Absentmindedly, he smiled back at her and slipped his hand in hers. She lifted her free hand, opened the door, which was also unlocked, and they walked into the factory.
"Wow," said Ash almost immediately, looking around. The factory was huge, with big mixers and machines all around, but all dormant. The ceiling was high and domed. Everything was white or silver, and a big sign above everything said in blue lettering:
WELCOME TO CAMBRIDGE CANDY FACTORY!
"Sure is big," commented Misty.
"Uh-huh. Do you see any doors or anything that could lead to another room? It doesn't seem like there would be anything in here." Misty nodded, agreeing with him.
"Well," she replied, "it looks like a manager's office over there up that flight of stairs." She pointed, then realized her hand was entwined with his and blushed. Immediately, she freed herself and pointed again. He bit his bottom lip, but didn't comment.
"Yeah," he replied after a few seconds of uneasy silence. She looked at him.
"Do you want to go up there?" she asked. He shook his head, loosening the thoughts about her clamped firmly in his mind, and then replied, "Yeah, sure. I mean, if you think it would help."
"I don't know, but it can't hurt to try..." And with that, she turned toward the stairs and started to ascend them. He gave a small sigh and followed her.
The door wasn't locked, but it was heavy, and Misty strained against it, trying to open it. Finally, Ash pushed on it too with one hand and it creaked open unwillingly.
The room was dark and musty. Ash felt along the wall for a light switch and, upon finding one, was about to flip it-
Someone clapped and the room was flooded with light. Ash looked at Misty and Pikachu, their eyes darting cautiously about the room. He took a step forward, defensively.
"Who's there?" he called. No answer. Misty instinctively moved a step closer to him. "Ash," she murmured, "do you think it's a ghost Pokemon?"
"It's possible," he told her, then yelled into the room, "Who turned the lights on? Come on, show yourself."
They waited, but there was no answer. Then, with no warning, they were plunged into darkness once more. Ash flipped the light switch, still under his fingers, but nothing happened. After a few more silent seconds, he had a thought. He clapped, and the lights came on again. Misty gave a relieved sigh and looked up. The sigh abruptly turned into a sharp intake of breath.
"Ash," she said shakily, "look over there..." (AN: I was gonna have it be a cliffy here but I'm not *that* mean... ^-^) He raised his head to the direction she was looking and his eyes widened slightly.
Scrawled in black ink on the wall was this:
--back of the wall-stripes are away-have a Chocoball-and 315 can't help you now
Ash looked at Misty. "That's not so scary. It's not like it's a death threat, right?" She shook her head. "But we know somebody's here," she pointed out. "I know that wasn't there before the lights turned out." Ash frowned.
"Is it... a riddle?" he muttered. "It must be- as a normal sentence it doesn't make any sense. Back of the wall..." he turned to the far wall. It didn't seem to be any different than any of the other walls.
He turned to her. "Quick- get a piece of paper and write down those words. We should go see if there are any other rooms." She nodded and reached for the door.
"I'll be glad to get out of here," she replied, "this room gives me the creeps." She turned the doorknob, pushed, and they walked out of the room.
Ash was still worried. The last thought he had before following Misty was this:
"...neither of us closed the door after coming in."
***
Daniel Anderson smacked a branch out of his way, reached into his pocket for a key, put it in the lock, turned the doorknob, pushed, and made his way into the dimly lighted room. He could hear Vincent's leather chair rocking, and noted Vincent was someone you'd see in the movies, with his chair turned back until you talked to him.
"Hey, Vincent," he greeted him. The man spun around. He had on a gray tweed suit and a red silk tie. His cheekbones were high and narrow, his voice was always menacing, he sat up straight and you could tell he was not someone you'd want for your enemy.
Vincent nodded. "Anderson," he acknowledged him. Then: "I take it you called him?"
"I did," replied Anderson.
"And?" prompted Harding. He saw Anderson's face change slightly.
"He says he'd be prepared to help us, give us access to his facilities and send some members out on guard."
"Any catches?"
"He wants a cut... I didn't tell him that wasn't it."
Vincent Harding laughed, a low, throaty sound. "Greedy bastard. I knew him once. I'm not surprised... it was always about money with him." Anderson nodded.
"I just said I'd talk it over with you and-" he grinned- "have my people call his people." Harding rolled his eyes, but quickly snapped back to attention.
"So," he said, "where's Jason?"
Anderson frowned. "Melton? Ah, he's still out there, I guess... should be here soon."
"Okay. Listen, I had to do some pest control a few minutes ago- those trainers are here. I gave them some cryptic clue message that tells them where the transmitting room is-"
"What!?" Harding held up a hand.
"Don't worry. They'll never figure it out- you don't have to be the sharpest crayon in the box to color the best, if you know what I mean. What I need you to do is freak them out a little. Mess with their heads. Go screw with the circuit breaker. Oh, and I'd appreciate that Pikachu in our hands too."
"Will do, Boss. Hey, tell me when Melton gets here, would ya? I have a score to settle with him."
"Yeah, I'll buzz you."
"Thanks," replied Anderson. He strolled out to the back hall, patting the gun in his pocket with a slightly sadistic smile.
Harding picked up his phone and glanced at the piece of paper on his desk. He punched some numbers.
"Let me talk to Giovanni," he told the Rocket executive who picked up. He listened briefly, and said, "Hello? Giovanni? Vincent Harding. Let me explain to you the specifics of our deal. No money involved, I'm afraid, but I can assure you and all of the others who side with us a seat of great power." He listened again and smiled. "Excellent."
***
Five minutes later, Jason Melton walked into Harding's office. Harding glanced up briefly.
"Anderson was looking for you." Melton nodded and walked into the hall where Anderson was. It was darker in the hall than in the office, but Melton could faintly see his outline.
"Hello, Anderson," he said. Anderson didn't answer, but took a few steps toward him.
"I know what you did," he said in a low and quiet voice. Melton frowned.
"Wha-?" He was cut off when Anderson took another few quick steps toward him.
"I know you have it already. Give it to me. It's mine. It's my job. Do it and I can promise you no harm will come to you." He leaned in. "I'll protect you." Melton closed his eyes briefly and shook his head no.
"I can't, Daniel... I need it." Anderson smiled.
"Say 'fire orb,' Melton." And in one swift motion, he pulled out his gun and blew him away.
***
BANG. Misty jumped from where they'd been inspecting a machine and trying to figure out the riddle.
"What was that, Ash?" He glanced around.
"I don't know. It sounded like it came from over there." He pointed. They walked in the direction of a wall they hadn't seen before.
"Why is this wall covered with wallpaper?" she murmured. He shrugged. The wallpaper was fairly plain, white background with red stripes, about one every inch. Suddenly Ash frowned and walked alowly down the wallpapered wall.
"Ash?" said Misty quizzically. He didn't answer. He reached his hand up to a place in the wall when-
Click. Clamp. Ching. (AN: lol! Don't you love my sound effects?) Misty whirled around.
"Ash," she said worriedly, "the gates and door just closed!" He didn't answer, just kept staring at that wall.
"Ash?" she repeated, getting worried. Still no reaction.
Then he heard it.
"PIKAPIIIIIIIIIII!"
***
*evil menacing suspense music* ^-^ This was a pretty long chapter in a pretty short time! Although it did take me longer than 4 minutes...lol. Anyways, I just got 80 reviews! Yay, people! You guys are so nice. Now if I could get 100... lol. *sigh* I'd love to have 100 reviews... it would make me feel very special. But all my reviewers are very nice already! YEAH YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME!! ^-^ Okay, well, I have some food with my name on it, sooo- until next chapter!
*lavenderespeon*