Chapter Two


Mitchell slowly walked to the large metal doors with bulky guards on either side. He stopped for a second, took in a deep breath and approached the men. "Um... Excuse me..."

"Yes?" the guard on the left grunted.

"Uh, I need to see the boss. I'm on the Feraligatr project..." Mitchell stammered, his hands fidgeting behind his back.

"What's your access code?" the second man demanded.

"03286."

The men looked at each other, then back at Mitchell, and opened the doors to the office. Mitchell slunk into the room, hearing the doors shut as soon as he was in. He looked around the huge office, looking for his boss.

"Who's here?" a deep voice called from behind a large, dark red leather chair behind a mahogany desk.

"It's, uh... Mitchell, sir."

The chair spun around to face him, putting Mitchell face-to-face with the person that intimidated him more than anyone, adding to his already submissive nature. "Did you get the Totodile?"

"You see, sir... I couldn't exactly..."

Giovanni narrowed his eyes at his minion. "You didn't get it."

Mitchell glanced at the Persian beside the desk. She seemed to be mocking him with her naturally sly look. He brought his eyes back to his boss. "No, sir," he said simply, trying not to start anything. It didn't work.

"I left you with the easiest mission on the project," Giovanni growled. His voice suddenly grew loud. "But you couldn't even do that! It belonged to a little kid! He just got the damned thing! How hard could it be to capture it?!"

"But he had a friend with him, sir... He had a Houndoom and--"

"I don't care who was with him. You were supposed to get that Totodile and you failed again!" Giovanni rubbed his temples, trying to soothe the pain that screaming gave him. "But it doesn't matter. I think we have all of the DNA we need. Some of your colleagues were a little more efficient on the job. As for you... You're off the project."

Mitchell swallowed hard. "But, sir... I need the job. You told me I needed a position this month, and this is all we have..."

Giovanni sighed hard and began stroking Persian. "We'll see what comes up. If we need another man, you're back on. You're excused, Mitchell."

"Thank you, sir," the shaking man bowed as a show of respect, then went to the exit. Giovanni pressed a button on his desk to open the closed doors.

Mitchell didn't look back, not wanting to see his angry face. Once he was far enough down the hallway to escape the guards' site, he leaned against the wall and sighed. He thought for sure he'd be fired. In three months, he had failed every mission he was given. He knew he could do it if he set his mind to it, but he always let his cowardice get the best of him. He knew he was lucky to get another chance, and he promised himself that he wouldn't screw up this time.

__ __ __


Giovanni leaned back in his executive leather chair. Despite the usual weak points in his lineup, the Feraligatr project was going fairly well. His only concern was if the samples he already had would be enough. Combining the DNA of different evolutions of the Pokemon--strong wild ones or well-bred domestic ones--along with other strong water-type Pokemon would make it one of the most powerful Pokemon ever to be contained by man.

As he was involved in his own thoughts, the phone on the desk in front of him began to ring. He sighed to himself and turned the picture on, praying that it wasn't bad news.

"Sir, we have a problem."

Wonderful.

"What is it?" he snapped to one of the head scientists of his project.

"The Feraligatr! It..."

"It what?"

The young woman swallowed, knowing very well how angry he'd be. She closed her eyes and realized that the more she hesitated, the worse it'd seem. "It escaped."

__ __ __


Great, he thought, flipping the phone line off as leaned his head against the screen. He had called every hotel and Pokemon Center in and around Olivine, but Gary wasn't anywhere. Maybe he's using an alias or something...

A car suddenly pulled in to the side of the lab. He looked out the window to see the Professor stepping out of the passenger's door and heading to the front door. Shit, he's back. What am I supposed to tell him?

"Tracey? I'm back," Professor Oak called into the housing part of the structure. He stepped into the main room where he found Tracey standing by the phone. "Was everything all right while I was gone?"

"Yeah, of course," Tracey nodded. "I, uh, recorded the messages, so... You can just..." he gestured to the phone system he was in front of. He decided he'd made enough of an ass of himself and retreated to the kitchen.

"What happened?" the Professor called to him, knowing him too well to overlook that he was hiding something. He heard clattering from the kitchen, but no answer. He assumed it had to do with the messages, so he flicked the volume on and began playing back the recordings.

__ __ __

He let himself slide down the wall and fall onto the floor, hearing the muffled voices from the phone messages. The first one from Gary had already passed, but that wasn't what he was concerned about. As he rubbed his forehead, targeting the spot of his already growing headache, he heard the familiar voice come up. "Yeah, well I wanted to talk, too."

Tracey pulled himself to his feet and peered out of the door frame, trying to see the Professor's face.

"Tell him I'm not calling anymore. Tell him that if I'm not worth his time, if I don't match up to his expectations..."

He sighed quietly and shut his eyes as Gary's words combined with his nasal voice intensified the throbbing in his head. He heard the click of the last message ending, then looked up at Oak. He was staring down at the console attentively, as if he was studying it. Tracey knew he wasn't actually paying attention to it.

"Professor?" he uttered, emerging from the doorway.

Oak turned his attention to the teenage boy, who seemed somewhat intimidated. He knew what he was trying to say, though. "He'll come around," was all he said, then walked into the hallway.

Tracey just stood in front of the kitchen for a minute. His reaction was exactly what Gary was talking about, and Tracey knew that all too well. He let out a loud groan and banged his head into the wall, regardless of his headache.

__ __ __


"That looks good. What do you say, Eevee? Should we head to Cianwood?" Gary looked down from his map and to the Pokemon sitting in his lap.

Eevee responded with a perky "Ee," and jumped onto Gary's shoulder.

"Okay, then. We'll head down Route," he slid his finger along the trail on the map. "Forty, then we'll camp out for the night. We can ride on Dewgong to get to the city tomorrow," Gary folded up the map and stuffed it into his bag, getting back on his feet. Eevee let out another excited yip as they headed out of the West side of Olivine.

As they left the city, Gary set his view out to the shore that sided Route Forty. The waves were fairly calm, and the sun was setting on the water. His eyes were hypnotically set on the waters, so much that he didn't even hear Eevee calling to him. When he felt Eevee's bushy tail whipping against the back of his head, he finally turned to the dog.

"Eevee, what's your pro--" he was cut off when another body smashed straight into him. Gary fell straight down and Eevee jumped off of his shoulder, as he had seen the person coming long ago.

"I'm sorry! Here," a male voice apologized and a hand was put in front of Gary.

He allowed the person to help him up, rubbing his sore back. "It's all right, I wasn't paying... attention..." he finally looked at the person he had run into, finding himself standing in front of Brock with Ash and Misty setting up camp a few yards behind him.

"Ee, vee ee eev," Eevee grumbled, as if saying, "I told you so."