Chapter IX: Spark of Hope
The next morning they were awakened by the smell of breakfast. Professor Oak had already started to feed all of the Pokémon. Gatomon and Meowth sat down by the kitchen table and started to eat. When Oak returned he looked tired but happy.
"The Pokémon are on their daily exercise walk," he said. "I let you sleep a bit longer since you seemed so tired yesterday."
"Tanks, Professor," Meowth said and stuffed another pancake in his face.
"Did you have any luck last night?" Gatomon asked. "Finding a way to my home, that is."
"As I said, it is a longshot," Oak said. "You see, back in the University I had a friend named Wolfgang Schoultz. He was something of a genius and unlike the other of us not very interested in Pokémon. He had some very… controversial ideas regarding the space/time continuum. Last time I heard he was doing experiments in the field, but that was a long time ago. Yesterday I managed to track him down and sent an e-mail. I was hoping he would answer it today."
"Sounds great," Meowth said. "Wat's da catch?"
"He's mad," Professor Oak said.
"Excuse me?" Gatomon said.
"A complete lunatic," Oak nodded. "Mad as a hatter, so to speak. He's a genial madman, no doubt about that, but a madman never the less."
"How mad are we talking?" Gatomon asked. This did not sound good.
"On a scale of one to ten, one being mildly eccentric and ten being locked up in an instetute, I give him a four," Professor Oak said. "During our time at the university he was obsessed with the idea of building a time-machine to bring Napoleon to our time."
Meowth blinked. "Why on Earth would he wanna do dat?"
"I'm not sure, I think he wanted to ask him something."
"And why do we put our trust in this person?" Gatomon asked.
"Because," Professor Oak said. "He might very well be the only person on the planet who can get you home."
"There it is," Jessie said. She and James were currently hiding in the bushes close to the house of the good professor. "Professor Oak's laboratory!"
"Yes," James said. "We finally made it here."
"We would have made it here allot faster if it wasn't for those helicopters," Jessie added. "The boss won't spare any expenses to get a hold of Meowth."
"And that is exactly why we have to find him first," James said. "But how are we going to get in? The old man hates Team Rocket, and he's probably not so keen to talk to us."
"We'll just have to make him listen," Jessie said. "This is important. Besides, he cares about Pokémon, even Meowth. Now come on."
They left the bushes and quickly walked up to the house.
"I don't like this," Jessie said. "It's a little too quiet."
"I suppose we should ring on the door," James said. "To show our good will and all." He pressed the little button next to the door.
Immediately a panel on the door opened and a robotic eye stared at them. The eye was mounted on a long, mechanical tentacle that expanded, allowing the entire construction to move like a snake, taking a good look at the two of them."
"Welcome to the humble home of Professor Samuel Oak," it said in a cold, robotic voice. "State your business."
"We would like to talk to the professor," Jessie said. "We are looking for a friend of ours."
"Processing request," the robot said. Immediately afterwards it said: "You have both been identified as Team Rocket members Jessica, alias "Jessie" and James, no alias. Members or affiliates of Team Rocket are not allowed on this premesis. I must ask you to leave."
"Now wait a minute," James said. "We are not here to steal any Pokémon, we just want to talk."
"I am afraid I have to insist," the robotic gatekeeper said and suddenly a hidden door opened in the lawn. Something large appeared from within the opening and revealed itself as a really, really big cannon. "You have twenty seconds to comply."
"James."
"Yes, Jessie?"
"Run"
With the speed that only comes with years of experience Jessie and James ran from the house as fast as they could. The gatekeeper watched them run and the huge cannon silently pulled back. The robot took a nanosecond to report the incident and the retreated back into the door as if nothing had happened.
"Well," Professor Oak said and went over to his computer/phone/TV. "Let's see if Wolfgang has answered my message."
"Professor," the computer said. "The door-unit has reported that two members of Team Rocket tried to enter the building, but they were stopped by the security system."
"Oh no!" Meowth said and started shaking and sweating of fear. "They've found Meowth! I'm done for!"
"Don't worry," Professor Oak said. "There is no way they are getting into my house."
"Yeah," Gatomon said. "Get a hold of yourself."
"Computer, raise security to level three, do not let anyone unknown into the house," Oak ordered.
"Affirmative," the computer said. "All security systems on-line. You have one new message."
"That has got to be Wolfgang," Oak said and clicked on the e-mail. The message appeared on the screen, large enough for them all to read.
Dear Sam.
Your problem sounds intriguing. Coming right over about 11.05 PM. Do not move until I do. Then we will talk more of this.
Wolfgang.
Ps. I really mean that thing about not moving.
"Why doesn't he want us to move?" Gatomon asked.
"Oh, I'm sure he means that we shouldn't leave the house," Professor Oak said. "Well, the time is 11.04 now and he were usually very punctual back in the university so I guess he should arrive any minute." He left the computer and headed for the other room. "This is exciting. I better…"
SHAZZA-POOOFF!
I a huge flash of light a large refrigerator appeared right next to the professor, who jumped high of fear and surprise. The door of the fridge opened and a bearded head stuck out.
"Aaooowf!" it exclaimed. "Mental note: add oxygen tanks!"
A very strange man stepped out of the fridge. He was somewhat stocky and dressed almost exactly like Professor Oak but was almost a whole head shorter. He had a huge, straggy brown beard that turned into a equally straggy mane of uncombed hair on top of his head. He wore a pair of glasses on his large nose with spiral-patterns hiding his eyes and enhancing the feeling of insanity that the man seemed to radiated. "Whahaha! It worked! And they called me mad!"
"Still the same old wacko, eh Wolfgang?" Oak said and struggled to overcome the shock.
"Sam?" Professor Schoultz said. "I told you not to move! Do you realise that you could have been depolarised or merged with the machine?" He stared at his old friend. "Hey, you've grown older!"
"So have you," Oak said and pointed at Schoultz' head. The brown hair was ticked with silver and had begun to retreat from his forehead. "It was a while since we saw each other. But tell me, what on earth is that?" Oak pointed at the refrigerator.
"It's my Trans-Space Teleportation Device," Professor Schoultz said ecstatically. "I managed to isolate and duplicate the Teleport ability of my Kadabra and with the help of Pokéball technology create this, the TeleFridge! Sure, it still has some minor bugs right now, but it works!"
"I'm sure it does," Professor Oak said and sceptically eyed the machine, which, aside from some funny antennas and wires looked pretty much like a normal refrigerator. "But… why did you use a fridge of all things?"
Professor Schoultz frowned. "And you are a professor? Because it's cool, of course!"
"Oh," Oak said and sweatdropped. "I see."
"So, this is the man who is to help me home?" Gatomon said with a tone that indicated that she wasn't exactly hoping for a yes.
"Hey, what is that?" Schoultz said and pointed at Gatomon. "Some sort of Pokémon experiment of yours?"
"I like him more and more for each minute," Gatomon growled sarcastically. "Meowth, next time he says something like that, stop me before I do something unforgivable."
"Eh, sure," Meowth said.
"This is Gatomon," Professor Oak hurried to explain. "She is the reason I contacted you. It's actually a long story."
"Good," Schoultz said and smiled. "Then I can fix my TeleFridge up while you tell me. Do you by any chance have some oxygen lying around?"
Ding-Dong!
The robotic gatekeeper was immediately activated. The two stranger standing in front of Professor Oak's door were both dressed in cheap suites, hats, very silly fake moustaches and glasses. They were both holding a suitcase.
"Good day, Mr Robot!" one of them said and smiled. "We are perfectly normal salesmen."
"Yes," the other one said and smiled even larger. "We would like to show some of our products to Professor Oak. Could you please let us in?"
"Initial scan completed. Voice patterns matching unallowed subjects," the robot responded. "Targeting…"
With the speed of lighting two robotic arms shot out on each sides of the eye. They immediately remove the hats, glasses and fake moustaches, revealing the two would-be salesmen as Jessie and James in disguise.
"Oh no," James sighed. "Not agaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain!"
The word became a scream as the very ground they stood one transformed into a large catapult, sending them flying though the air!
They landed far from the house and hit themselves pretty badly, but since they had experienced bad falls before, they soon shrugged it off. However, their moral was going down with the speed of light.
"That was the third time," Jessie said. "Plumbers, electricians, salesmen. We've soon run out of disguises."
"I'm beginning to doubt that this was a good idea," James said. "I mean, we're not even sure Meowth is in there."
"Team Rocket does not know the meaning of the word 'surrender'!" Jessie cried defiantly and stood up.
James followed suit, albeit without the same enthusiasm. "How about the words 'pain' and 'defeat'?"