The Master Six

Chapter 12

Jeffrey.

Burned down the town.

Killed Aunt Janet.

Jeffrey.

"Jeffrey!" I shouted at this nightmare, "what the hell are you doing here?!"

"Poor little Heather," he said in a soft voice as he walked towards me, "how simple you are.  How simple you have always been.  Yes, it was I.  I did it all, the entire plan was mine.  All to get at you."

"Why!?" I shouted at him again, "what...what?  Oh my God!  I just can't believe it.  You killed everybody!  Everybody!  For what?  For what!"

"For me," was his answer, "you don't know what it was like!  You remember life back then.  I was the poor kid.  My parents were unemployed, and so I didn't have the latest clothes.  I didn't have the premium TV channels.  I was ridiculed for something I had no control over!  They hated me for something I could not help!"

"What kind of answer is that."

"Maybe it means nothing to you, but to me it is everything.  I had a horrible life, horrible!  I could have killed myself at the age of ten except that suicide was the coward's way out.  I wasn't a coward.  I was strong, stronger than anybody knew, but then nobody wanted to know.  I was Jeffrey, the poor kid.  But then, a chance.  I was going to be a pokemon trainer, with the richest kid in school, and a cool, nice girl.  I finally had a chance.

"Then you talked about splitting up and going separate paths.  That was sad, but I wasn't going to say anything.  Nobody would listen to me anyway, I was the poor kid.  Then, heh, we end up going together.  We stick together, and I'm happy, I now have friends.  I finally feel accepted.  But what is the first thing you and Cid do?  You fight amongst yourselves.  I fled because I knew we couldn't be together after something like that.  And so I was truly on my own."  He paused for a second.

"Are you finished?" I asked with darkness.

"Shut up!" he screamed at me, "you have no idea!  You lived a wonderful life, friends, family, you had everything.  I had nothing, and when I left you two fighting I didn't even have that.  All I had was a weak little Caterpie who never seemed to win.  I played it slow and safe after that, not wanting to be important or make a scene.  Then, just before I broke, I was offered a chance by Team Rocket.  And I took it."

"Oh la la," I mocked.

"Would you let me finish!  Then you will see my side of the story.  Then you might actually understand."

"I will never understand why you would burn down our town!"

"Be quiet!" he shouted as he backhanded me in the face.

Then Velocity spit in Jeffrey's face in retaliation.

"ENOUGH!" Giovanni shouted breaking our little reunion, "enough Jeffrey!  I have allowed you too much time to stand here and whine to the girl.  But the fact remains that she is here, and therefore your services are no longer needed.  Clean off your face, no, leave Miss Mason's spit on your face and go check on how Dr. Chambers is doing."

"But I..." Jeffrey protested.

"I SAID GO!"

Jeffrey quickly ran out the door that the scientist used when he took Lindsey.  I hope she is okay.

"Finally, we are alone again," Giovanni said when Jeffrey was gone, "and now we can get down to business."

"What happened?" I asked him, "Why did you have Jeffrey burn down my home?"

"Please my dear," he answered, "those are questions for another day.  Now, I have some questions to ask you."

"Don't expect straight answers you monster," Velocity spouted.

"Ah, Miss Mason," Giovanni stated, "always the tough one aren't we?"

"You don't know anything about me," she responded.

But I didn't pay any attention to their little verbal war.  Velocity had a mouth on her, and she wasn't going to back down to the leader of the organization we were formed to destroy.  But none of that mattered to me right now, my attention was elsewhere.

My attention was drawn to a little pink line forming on a wall to my left.  There were guards standing in front of that wall, also their pokemon, and they blocked part of the line.  But I could still see it.  A little pink line drawing a rather large circle on the wall.  Nobody seemed to notice it, only me.  Maybe I was delusional, or maybe, just maybe, it was really there.

I guess my interest in something other than his pretty face upset Giovanni.

"What are you looking at Heather?" he asked me.

"The wall..." I awed.

He turned.  "What is that?" Was all he could get off before the little pink line completed its drawing of a large circle.

Then it started to shake in the wall.  The circle just seemed to rumble a little bit while sitting in the wall.

And all of a sudden the circle in the wall erupted from it.  It smashed into the two guards standing in front of it, and passed over the Muk.  The circle and the two guards flew through the air and rammed into the far wall and the guards standing in front of it.  So a total of three guards and two walls were now destroyed.

"Wha..." Velcoity questioned.

The answer appeared out of the shadows on the other side of the hole in the wall.  There was a boy my age, wearing a backwards, black cap on his head.  He had on an orange t-shirt with black sleeves to match the hat.  He also had on cargo pants two sizes too big, but that was his thing.  On his outstretched arm was a mouse-like little creature that looked almost like a cat.  The most powerful pokemon in the world waved its arms around in a circle, and the boy floated through the hole and into the room.

"I could give a corny line about crashing your party," Psycho said as he touched down on the ground, "but I'm too high on the adrenaline rush to worry about it.  So please forgive me if I don't make you laugh."

"What is that thing on his arm?" Giovanni shouted spotting Mew, "if it is what I think it is, then I want it right now!"

"Psycho!" Velocity shouted from beside me.

"Let's kick it up a notch!" Psycho shouted.

Instantly a pink wave washed through the room.  Mew was creating a powerful psychic wave to attack the guards.  All the human guards in the room were knocked to the floor before they could open fire on Psycho.  To his credit, Giovanni remained on his feet.

"What are you doing!?" Giovanni screamed at his men, "Get up and get him!"

One of the guards was on his feet, and he sent a rather large Dodrio at Psycho and Mew.  Then Psycho and Mew zoomed towards the Dodrio for pokemon combat.

Through the hole in the wall that Mew had made, Shooter and Specks leaped out.  Shooter had the largest gun he had made, and was shooting little darts at both guards and pokemon.  Specks had a smaller version of the gun, kind of like the one I had earlier.  Stryker, Shooter's Machoke, came through the hole and used the blowgun that Shooter had made for him.  Specks' Venusaur followed Stryker, and the Venusaur was using Vine Whip Attack to take down various pokemon.  When all of The Master Six were out of the way, a rather large Rhydon erupted from the wall, and it charged everywhere.

Wherever they had come from, my Master Six had just arrived to save the day with power.

 In all the confusion of guards shooting bullets, Shooter and Stryker shooting various darts, Mew throwing all sort of psychic powers around, and the Ryhdon smashing through everything, Specks came over to me and Velocity.

"Hey fearless leader," he said as he produced a key, "hope we're not late."

"No problem Specks," I answered as he unlocked my shackles, "just glad you made it at all."

He lowered me down to the ground, and then he moved on to release Velocity.  I rubbed my wrists, those shackles really hurt, I guess.  Not to look weak or anything.  In a second, Specks and Velocity joined me.  I looked around the room to see the destruction my team had done.  Guards and pokemon were strewn everywhere.  The Venusaur was busy Vine Whipping one last remaining Ekans.  Psycho and Mew were heading over to where I was, Shooter was coming my way too.  Stryker was gone; I guess Shooter took him back into a pokeball.  The Ryhdon was trotting over as well, and only now did I realize that it was Lindsey.  She had transformed into a Ryhdon.

I watched Lindsey as she turned back into her normal form.  It was kind of mesmerizing.  I hope someday she finds out what is up with her.  I wish I could help somehow.  Lindsey is such a mystery.

"Gee Heather," Lindsey spoke up noticing my stare, "do you find me attractive or something.  You seem to be very enthralled with me."

"Hah!" Psycho burst, laughing at the joke.

"I'm sorry Lindsey, it's just...never mind."

"It's okay Heather.  I don't mind."

"Hey Whistler," Shooter spoke up, "here's your pokemon and your flute.  We found them while we were looking for you guys."

"Thanks Shooter," I said accepting the items, "but what happened to you earlier.  You just left..."

"AHEM!"

I took another look around the room after I heard the sound.  Giovanni was still in the room.  He stood off near the doorway with his arms behind his back looking a little perturbed.

"Well, well, well," he said to me and my team, "look at what we have here.  Six little children trying to save the world and do the right thing.  It's kind of funny."

"I don't see you laughing," I shot back at him, "all I see is six of us and one of you.  You have a lot to answer to you monster."

"I have a lot to answer to, me. The great Giovanni, leader and creator of Team Rocket.  I have a lot to answer to.  Hah.  What a foolish little girl."

"What are you talking about," I questioned.  I moved closer to him.  My team stayed behind.  I got closer, and stood face to face with my enemy.  Well, actually, he was taller than me.  So I had to look up.  But I was still very angry.

"Look at you little girl," he told me, "so bold, so brave.  You stand face to face with your enemy, and you don't back down.  Even though I made you everything you are.  I created your magical flute that has earned you the name Whistler.  I made you, will you destroy me?"

"My father made my flute!  You didn't make me, only in the sense that you killed my family and sent me on the mission to destroy you.  And that is exactly what I plan on doing."

Giovanni started to say something, but his mustache came off.  It just fell of his face, and onto the floor.

This wasn't Giovanni.

"Hah!  Hah!" the fake Giovanni shrieked, "I fooled you!  I did it!  I did it!  I fooled you!  Hah hah hahahahaha!  The real Giovanni escaped when all the fighting started.  I was just to delay you a little.  Hah!  What will you do now Whistler, what?!"

"Finish you, you fake," I said as I punched him square in the face.  I didn't know I could hit that hard, but somehow I found the strength.  The Fake Giovanni went down hard, and stayed down.

"Now what?" Specks questioned from behind me.

I heard a noise from behind the door where they took Lindsey before.  Someone was still in there.

Jeffrey.

"Jeffrey!" I said silently, answering Specks.

"What did you say?" Velocity asked.

I looked at the door, and heard another noise.

"C'mon," I said over my shoulder to my team.  I walked to the door, and put my hand on the knob.  I looked over my shoulder at my team, my Master Six.  Five young...children.  Fighting my cause with me.  A lot of them had some kind of grudge with Team Rocket, but they knew my story.  They fought for me a lot; they did a lot for me.  I was proud of them, so very proud.  We had just been though our first official battle against Team Rocket, and we had won.  Now, they were lost as to what to do.  They waited for me to give an order.  I didn't.

I opened the door.

I stepped inside and took a quick look around.  The room was about as big as the one I had just come from, and had a number of scientific tables around.  I guess this was some sort of laboratory.  I hope they didn't operate on Lindsey or anything.  The most important thing in the room was a scrabbling little boy fighting to get a key.  I stepped totally into the room, and my team followed me in.  Velocity closed the door.

"Hello Jeffrey," I said in a quiet voice, "long time no see."

"Heather!" he shouted in a hush as he stopped fiddling with the key and turned to face me.

"There is nowhere to go Jeffrey," I told him, "there is only death."

"Listen to you Heather," he said to me, "are you going to kill me?  Can you bring yourself to kill me?"

"Yes," I said quietly.

"Oh yeah!" he shouted as he lifted a pokeball into the air, "Poliwhirl!  Go!"

He launched the pokeball through the air, and a Poliwhirl came out ready to fight.

"Bring it on Heather," Jeffrey tempted.

"Give me a break," I chuckled at him, "Raticate!  Let's do it!"

 My Raticate jumped out and faced the Poliwhirl.

"You're a fool Jeffrey," I told him as I brought my magical flute to my lips.  He just smirked, but I played my little tune designed by my father and apparently Giovanni.  It was designed to knock that Poliwhirl out, but it didn't work.

It didn't work.

"Surprised?" Jeffrey questioned, "You shouldn't be.  Giovanni helped create that stupid flute.  You have made your pokemon immune to its affect by plugging their ears; you think I couldn't do the same.  Who's the fool now?  Poliwhirl, Water Gun Attack!"

A jet of water shot out from the Poliwhirl, and hit my Raticate dead on.  This was going to be a real pokemon battle now.

"Raticate!  Quick Attack!"

My Raticate slammed into the Poliwhirl and sent it flying a ways.  But it was right back up, and was on the move."

"Body Slam Attack!"

The Poliwhirl body slammed Raticate.

"Hyper Fang Attack!"

Raticate hyper fanged the Poliwhirl.

"Whistler!" Shooter screamed over the noise of battle.

"Water Gun Attack!"

"Focus Energy!"

"Water Gun Attack!"

"You're not going to win Jeffrey!" I shouted at him.

"Bring it on Heather!" he shouted back.

I smirked at him.  "Super Fang Attack!" I shout, and Raticate carries out my orders.

The Poliwhirl goes down for the count with the Super Fang.  The battle is over.

"Poliwhirl, return."

"Raticate, return."

"You haven't won yet Heather!" Jeffrey shouted at me as he reached for another pokeball, "what?  Where are my pokemon?"

"Are you looking for these," Psycho spoke up as he held out Jeffrey's pokemon.  Mew must have brought them to Psycho with his mind.  Mew floated them away from Jeffrey.  My team was watching out for me.

"No," Jeffrey whispered as he realized what had just happened, that he lost.  He quickly spun around and pulled out the key.  He fit it in the door, and he took off through the door.

No.

He was getting away.

"Let's get him!" Velocity shouted heading for the door.

"NO!" I shouted at her, "he is mine!  All of you, there is a restaurant across the street from the Game Corner.  It may be hard to believe that we are still under the Game Corner, but we are.  I want you all to leave, and head to that restaurant.  I am going after Jeffrey," I shot a look at Shooter, "alone."

"But Whistler?" Psycho questioned.

"No Zak!  This is my fight, now all of you go!"

I ran to the door, flung it open, and ran after Jeffrey.  I hoped that my team trusted me enough that they wouldn't follow, they didn't.

The fight with Jeffrey was my own, not theirs.

Giovanni had escaped, but he didn't kill my Aunt Janet.

Jeffrey did.

He was my enemy, and I would make him pay.

I ran down a long hallway following the sound of his footsteps.  Luckily when running in fear Jeffrey made a lot of noise.

But then I heard a door slam, and the noise stopped.

I ran faster down the hall, and I found a set of stairs leading up.  I took them, and at the top I found a door.  The door that slammed.  There was a very strong light coming from the sides of the door.  I put my hand on the knob, and I opened the door.

It opened into harsh sunlight.  A blinding sunlight.  Apparently we weren't as far underground as I thought.  But when I looked at my surroundings, I could tell that I was still behind the Celadon City Game Corner.  My team would find the restaurant, they would be safe.  I would have to fight.  I quickly surveyed my surroundings.

I was in an alley, with trash on the ground and dumpsters against the wall.  The most important thing in the alley was a scrabbly little boy standing in the middle of the alley looking down towards the open end.  He had his arms crossed, and didn't acknowledge me when I stepped into the alley and closed the door.

"Hello Heather," Jeffrey practically whispered to me without turning around, "long time no see."

"Cut the crap Jeffrey!" I said to him, "you have got a lot to answer to."

"Do I?"

"Shut up!  Jeffrey, you killed everybody!  My family, the people in the town, your family.  YOU KILLED EVERYBODY!"

"Keep it down Heather, this is a city.  People will here you."

"You jerk!" I shouted as I moved closer to him.  He was right there, I could pounce on him and rip him apart.  I hated him so much, and yet, something kept me back.

"Jerk Heather?  How harsh, have you know feelings?"

"Jeffrey," I pleaded.

"You don't understand Heather!" he shouted as he fell to his knees almost in tears, "you never did understand!  Nobody did, that is why they had to die!"

"What...what are you talking about?"

"They all hated me, but nobody knew me.  I was poor, which was all that mattered to anybody.  They never saw past my family's financial problems, they never saw past my shabby clothes.  I was poor, and therefore I was unworthy of friendship or anything else."

"Why did you burn down the town Jeffrey?"

"Let me tell my story!" he shouted at me through heavy tears.  Still on his knees he turned to me, his face covered with tears, "I've told you a lot.  I ran from your fight with Cid, and Team Rocket reached a hand out to help me, to save me.  I joined Team Rocket, but I was a nobody.  I never really understood why the even accepted me; I only knew that they did.  And that feeling of acceptance was enough for me."

I stood there, listening to him.  In a way it was sad.  But, he was still evil.

"Then, then something came up.  Talk was going around that the people in charge were now all in an uproar about some girl causing problems.  They started asking if anyone knew anything about a young girl with brown hair and other features that all matched you.  This girl also favored a Pidgey, named Max.  And suddenly, I was the most important guy in Team Rocket.  Giovanni now had a lot of use for me.  I had everything I could want.  The people needed me, they praised me.  I was told that I could do anything I wanted to do in order to get you to show yourself.

"Burning down the town was just an extra little perk.  But don't think me insane; burning it down was never really my idea.  It was actually the idea of a boy named Mathew.  He joined Team Rocket around the same time as I did, and we became friends.  He was my partner; Team Rocket members usually fight in two's.  It was Mathew that suggested I get the ultimate revenge on everybody by burning down the town.  Mathew was evil, he had a dark soul.  But he was my only friend, so I listened to him."

"It wasn't your fault?" I asked him in a hushed whisper, but he didn't her me.

"Mathew was...disturbed.  The town was burning, and he ran into the thick of it.  He told me that he had some more things to do for me.  I followed him into the town, and found him at my house.  He...he killed my family Heather.  I didn't do it, I barely did anything.  It was all Mathew, he killed my family."

"Jeffrey, I...I.  But you still killed my Aunt Janet," I pleaded.  He still didn't hear me.

"I wouldn't let him get away with it though.  It was really dramatic, I guess.  I chased him through half the town before I finally caught up with him.  He thought too little of me, he thought I was weak.  He thought I was afraid, but I'm not afraid.  I'm strong Heather.  I avenged my family, I killed Mathew.  Then I returned to Giovanni with the news that you would react shortly.  He wasn't very happy that I burned down the whole town, but whatever.  He asked what happened to Mathew.  I told him that he died in the fire.  I took full credit for the fire, the deaths.  I wouldn't be weak."

"Jeffrey, you killed them all.  Mathew or no Mathew, you killed them all."

"I know," he whispered, "and I will not be weak.  It's a beautiful world Heather.  I'm going to miss it."

"What are you talking about?"

"You're going to kill me Heather, so come on, get it over with."

"What?" I questioned, unsure of whether I could pull off this hateful act.  Wasn't I full of hate?

"Don't act stupid around me Heather," he said boldly as he once again got to his feet.  Jeffrey now stood facing the end of the alley again, "I'm not going to fall for it.  I don't have any pokemon, anyway to defend myself.  I can't go back to Team Rocket now, Giovanni would kill me himself.  I have no future Heather, only death."

"I...I don't think I can kill you Jeffrey."

"Not is not the way to talk Heather.  You can't show weakness to the enemy.   You must kill me Heather, there is no hope for me.  Please free me Heather, free me.  I wrote that note Cid found in Cerulean City.  I burned down the whole town.  I killed your Aunt Janet!  I'm a bad man, I need to be killed.  I won't kill myself, suicide is the coward's way out."

"Kill...you," I whispered barely audible.  I don't even know if I said that out loud.  Could I kill Jeffrey?

"Kill me Heather.  Please.  Release me," the strong little boy begged.

Could I kill him?  What was I to do?  Was I a killer?  The decision was mine to make.  Shooter wasn't here.  Velocity wasn't here.  Aunt Janet wasn't here.  Would Aunt Janet want me to kill Jeffrey?  No.  She wouldn't want me to.  To kill Jeffrey, to release him and myself.  Could I do it?

Could I?

It would be so easy.  Look at him, scared, yet strong.  I couldn't help but pity him.  That was the problem to begin with, people pitying Jeffrey.  I felt sorry for him, for all of us.  Look at what the world had done to us.  It had been less than a year since the three of us left Cerulean City in search of our futures.  And already one of us had killed a lot of people, and another one had become very powerful.  I was the powerful one, Jeffrey was the murderer.

Yes, that is all that he is.

A murderer.

He deserves anything I would do to him.   But this has been a cruel world, on all of us.  He wasn't the only victim.  But he was possibly the most hurt.

But he killed Aunt Janet.

But in many ways a person can't blame him for what he is.

He is what the world has made him.

A murderer.

The enemy.

A crying little twelve-year-old boy standing in an alley asking to die.

I had to do the right thing.

But Could I?