Secrets Exposed
Part 9 : Lilja's New Companion
By Freakachu
Giovanni stared down at the young boy before him. Draigh had been one of the top Rockets, despite his young age. Now he was given the chance to become more.
"I assume you know what your task is?"
Draigh nodded, and bowed. His once dark brown hair was now the same shade as the inside of Dragonites wings, as a result of the splicing. What worried Giovanni the most was if Draigh would stay loyal. He had no doubts that he could take care of Nyarthashi, but there was a nagging thought in the back of his mind that wouldn't leave him alone.
Clearing his throat, Giovanni dismissed Draigh. "Remember, bring her back alive. And if for some reason you cannot, then do away with her. We cannot have her ruining anything. As for the Freakachu, we want their trainer as well."
The half-Dragonite boy turned and left the room. Stopping in the arsenal room, he selected a handgun, which he didn't think he'd have to use, and a knife, that he strapped into his boot. He figured he could take her by hand if he had to.
After reaching the top of the building, he spread his wings and leapt into the air, destinatinon, Nyarthashi.
Upon arrival at Ivory City, Lilja had been as awestruck as she was in Ebony City. While Ebony City had wowed her with it's dark beauty, Ivory City was so white, and clean. Everything dazzled her, especially the tall buildings. The structures in Ebony had been large, but they weren't as big as the ones in Ivory. Lilja had waged battle on the gym leader Roscoe, who used Psychic and Ghost type pokemon. He had been the second gym leader she had lost to, the first being Skye. Roscoe was the younger brother of Bill. He looked alot like Bill, except Roscoe was blonde, and only 16.
Having seven official gyms, the Rainbow league qualifications is at least five badges. Lilja owned only three of those badges. With only two gyms remaining, Lilja had to absolutely, positively, get both of the final badges or no league compititions for her. Which is why she was now on her way to Tangerine Island. The map she had gotten from the Pokémon center in Ivory City told her she had a long way to go. She concidered teleporting as far as she could, but she didn't know the terrain any better than the map could tell her.
About a days walk from Ivory City, Lilja came across a very tiny town. It wasn't even big enough for a pokemon center, and the only store was practically a small shack. It was almost dusk, and she didn't need to stop, since the town didn't seem like it could afford to have even a small motel. What caught her eye was a building just outside of the town. It was very old, and it was about three stories high. When she reached the building, Lilja saw that it had no doors, just a stairway in the back to get to the very top of the building. Upon reaching the top, she sat down on the flat roof, a waist high white railing around the edge.
"Don't know why I bothered to come this far." Lilja whispered into the darkness. She laid back on the roof and watched the stars come out. Remembering almost three years ago when she first met Ash, she suddenly became sad again. She didn't really care for him as much then, they were just friends. After a few months of tagging along with the group, she began to feel attatched.
Lilja stood and leaned over the railing to look at the ground.
"I told you I loved you..." She closed her eyes as a tear slid down her cheek, "...and you didn't seem to care."
She climbed up onto the tottery old railing and swayed back and forth. A light came down the road, and the engine of a motorcycle could be heard. The bike stopped a few yards away, and the driver jumped off.
"Hey! What you doing up there?" The light from the person's motorcycle were still on, and from the glow, Lilja could tell the person was male.
Lilja put her arms out for balance. "Nothing." Although she was trying to act calm, she was trembling like a leaf.
The guy scratched his head. "That doesn't look like nothing. Maybe you should come down. That building doesn't look very safe."
Nodding vigorously, Lilja leaned down to jump back onto the roof. The railing on which she was balanced snapped, and sent her hurtling towards the ground.
Nyarthashi slipped into the quiet stillness of TRHQ. Being the middle of the night, there was hardly anyone around. She decided to go straight to Giovanni's office to see if it held any information on who her mother was, and where in the world she lived (if she still lived). Making it to the office door without incident, she tried the knob, but realized it was locked.
"Obviously he's not in there. This is a good thing." With one swift movement, she pulled the doorknob right out of the door, lock and all. Nyarthashi had never been inside Giovanni's office, and she let out a sound of approval. The room was so neat, you wouldn't be able to hide a paperclip. Everything had a place, and everything was in that place. It was a large, modern room. Leather chairs, and a glass desk, most everything was glass and the room itself was white. Although it was completely dark, she could see almost perfectly.
The young cat-child went straight to the filing cabinet, and broke in. There was lots of useful stuff in there, but nothing she could benifit from.
"Unless I take these secret formulas for pokemon items like Rocket Industries brand potion and sell it to Silph." She dismissed the idea immediately. She wasn't here to get rich, she was here to find family. After much searching, she found a file way in the back. It was labeled with her name on it, and for a moment, Nyarthashi thought she had scored. Upon opening the folder, she saw it was completely empty. She banged her head into the filing cabinet in disgust, and turned to leave.
A very massive, dark man, made even more dark with lack of light stood in the doorway.
"Well Nyarthashi, seems you decided to come back on your own."
Still being only a few days behind Lilja, Ash and Misty were on their way to Ivory City. If Ash won the battle against Roscoe he would only be needing one more badge. He decided that if he won, he would go to straight to Spectrum City to get his final badge. If he missed the badge from Ivory City, he could always go to Tangerine Island. A few problems persisted. To get to Spectrum City, both him and Misty had to get over the Magenta Mountains. The second problem was, Pikachu was sick. The last battle Ash had fought, Pikachu had been poisoned, and if they didn't reach Ivory City soon, Pikachu might not make it.
The guy rushed forward after seeing Lilja slip from the top of the structure. He dove, and caught her while landing on his knees. It was then that Lilja could see that the person wasn't a full-grown man like she had thought, but rather a boy not much older than herself.
"Do you usually go around catching people when they fall off of things?" Lilja muttered sarcastically.
The boy nodded his head. "Sure, you're the fifth one today." He grinned, and put her on her feet.
Lilja made a face. "You aren't serious."
"Of course not! So, you going someplace?" He asked her.
"On my way to Tangerine Island."
The boy picked his motorcycle helmet up from the ground. "Need a ride?"
Backing up, Lilja coughed. "I don't know you."
"Oh, well fine then. My name is Kohji Hakumi," He mock bowed. "and you are?"
Lilja blinked. Kohji's personality was very outgoing it seemed. "Lilja." She replied.
"You have a last name?"
"Yeah, but it doesn't matter,does it?"
Kohji shrugged, although it was hard to tell in the dark. "Not really. Now that we know each other, I'll take you where you're going." He tugged on her jacket sleeve and motioned toward his bike. "I can be your personal chauffeur."
Nyarthashi took a step back from the towering man in front of her.
"My dear Nyarthashi, did you think you could outwit me?" He replied to her silence.
She crossed her arms in front of her chest. "I figured I could attempt it."
Giovanni snorted. "You are an insolent child." He walked into the room and snapped on a light switch with such a tremendous force, it seemed as if he'd rip it off the wall.
"I take after my father."
"You don't even know who your father is."
Nyarthashi shrugged. "Sure I do, and you might know him. He's tall. With short dark hair. And he always wears suits. Orange ones." She paused. "You know anyone with that description?"
Giovanni remained silent.
"Oh! I almost forgot," Nyarthashi continued, pacing around the room, "he owns a company called Rocket Industries, which also happens to be performing illegal activities lately."
With that, Giovanni let out a small cough, as if he were clearing his throat. "Why are you here?"
"I wanna find out who my mother is."
"If I tell you, you must stay and work for us." Giovanni replied.
Nyarthashi blinked. "Fine." She lied.
Giovanni went to his desk and pulled out a stack of papers. Nyarthy slapped her forehead. The desk! Why didn't she think of that? In moments of tension, one tends to forget the most obvious things. He dropped the documents on the desk in front of her. Quickly, she skimmed the first page. It was exactly the same notes that she had read on the computer disk with Lilja. Disgusted, she pushed all the papers aside except for a few bottom ones. One of the pages was the final page that had been on the disk, and then there were a few more after that. As she read, her eyes grew even larger than they were naturally, and she dropped the paper.
"How come these last pages weren't on the computers in the lab?" Nyarthashi flared.
"Because I wrote them afterwards." Giovanni was stern.
Nyarthashi rose to her feet. "You mean, you were the only one who knew who my mother was and where she lived?"
"That is correct."
"Where is she now?"
"None of your concern. You are for Team Rocket purposes only. You have no need to know this woman who you wish to call your mother."
Suddenly, Nyarthashi felt a burning anger inside. "TELL ME WHERE MY MOTHER IS!" She grabbed his arm. "Tell me, or I will destroy this building, and you know I can!"
Nyarthy expected Giovanni to show fear, but instead he chuckled. "I have no worry in that, you will be taken care of if you do not wish to participate. We have created another hybrid to do my bidding, and he had proved to be twice your strength. Kill me if you must. Draigh will get you in the end."
For a second, Nyarthashi just stared at him. Then she hauled her arm back with her fingers and nails pointed straight at him. Still, Giovanni showed no fear, and still, Nyarthashi hesitated.
"I've killed many in the past, so why can't I kill him?! Surely he's the one who enrages me the most! I can't bring myself to kill my own father."
She released his arm, and ran out of the room, down the hall, and out the building. Running away from the pain she felt. Running anywhere she ended up, but mostly, running to where she hoped she would find her mother.
"Pikachu...." Ash looked down to the small yellow mouse in his arms. "You'll be okay , I promise." Ash and Misty had made it to the Ivory City pokemon center, but the waiting room was full, and there were seven other people in front of them who all needed treatment. Two Nurse Joy's were busier than Ash had ever seen them, trying to help as many patients as possible.
"Ash Ketchum and Pikachu?" One of the nurses addressed them as she approached.
Ash nodded, and Misty looked worried. Nurse Joy took Pikachu from Ash. "Don't worry, we'll help your Pikachu." She said softly as she turned and walked away briskly.
Misty looked at Ash and sighed. "Nothing to do but wait then." She muttered, and leaned back in the chair.
Kohji poked Lilja in the arm while she slept, half hanging off the couch at a pokemon center, in some small town.
"Hey, do you sleep like this all the time?" He grinned, as he kept poking her in hopes to wake her up.
Lilja flopped over onto her stomach and muttered something, narrowly missing a fall to the floor. After a few seconds, her eyes fluttered open, and she sat up. Kohji was watching her, with his deep teal green eyes. She blinked a couple of times and looked surprised.
Looking offended, Kohji replied to her stunned silence. "What, you don't remember me?"
"Huh?" Remember him? She hadn't even met him before!
"From last night, silly!"
"Oh, yeah." She remembered that she HAD met him the night before. It had been dark, and she didn't see much of what he looked like. Now that she saw him though, she realized he was younger than she originally thought. Lilja had guessed him to be about seventeen, but really looked younger. "Kohji, right?"
He smiled. "Yep. And you're Lilja."
Lilja nodded. She looked him over, and noted his hair. It was a reddish brown like hers, only a few shades darker and was tied in a mid-back length ponytail. "So, where are you from?"
Kohji leaned back on the couch, and put his hands behind his head. "Spectrum City, and you're from? No, wait! Let me guess, Cinnabar right?"
Falling off the couch, Lilja lay on the floor twitching. "How on earth did you know?!" She glanced up at him, still sitting in the same position looking at the ceiling. Then there was that grin again, only this one was quite sheepish.
"Weeeell, I'm just psychic I guess." Kohji grinned, still more sheepishly.
To be continued...