Finally! This part of the story takes place a week later. . . between chapter three and four of Intertwine Dreams. Enjoy!
Chapter 2
The Hunter
There's a job to do, and I must do it now. Course, no one ever said I couldn't have fun while doing it. . .
". . . CAUSE HE LOVES YOU CHEESEBURGER WITH ALL HIS HEART! AND AIN'T NOTHING GONNA DRIVE YOU TWO-OH APART! AND IF-"
"Rick? Mind keeping it down?" Xavier was infringing on my singing territory in the kitchen. Even if the mop handle was a microphone, my voice carried farther than it might ever.
I was there in the kitchen doing my clean-up duty cause I accidentally dropped my Pepsi bottle on the floor, and in a rare and equally annoying instance, it busted open. Stupid clumsy new fingers of mine.
Actually I finished cleaning the kitchen about six lines ago. I still gotta finish the song.
"I can hear you from across the house." He finished. I continued my singing at a much lower decibel level.
". . . THE WORLD SUDDENLY RAN OUT OF CHEESE, HE WOULD GET DOWN ON HIS HANDS AND KNEES-"
I like singing obscure lyrics, or even just emulating music noises. Not that I ever wanted to be a musician, just that, I just like music. Almost as much as I liked games.
That reminded me. I still needed to buy myself some memory cards of my own for Xavier's game stuff. Mental note. . . check. Time to go shopping. And even this being an alternate reality and all, Gamecube was still scheduled to come out later that year. Note, check. And another Pepsi. Note, check. And another T-shirt, maybe. This one was starting to tear in several places. Note, check. While I'm at it, I might as well get myself a small wardrobe because these clothes were the only ones I'd worn for, what, five weeks? Letsee. . . last week of August. . . yeah. And the only part I even considered washing was the shirt. Note, check. Hmm. . . everything?
I'd need my own house after all of these new things. Or maybe just get my van back. I didn't have the keys, so they were probably still in the van, which means anyone could've taken it. Crap. Well, I might never see it again. . .
Now that I thought about that, I wondered whether I was intruding too much in Xavier's home. . . nah. He invited me, I was just planning on asking a few questions.
I heard Xavier again, only this time it sounded like thunder as he rushed down the stairs. "I need to go to the Pokémon Center right quick." He told me as I went to see what all the ruckus was about, "I'll be back later."
Hmm. . . this wasn't a workday. . . "Eh, um. . . I'm coming, too." I said, because I could only hold info for so long in my brain before I had to do a data dump. Long term memory on my behalf only works if it's not useful.
"Well. . ." He said, going over who would be left in the house, ". . . Amber's still here, so alright."
Doc Chris Bradford had left earlier that morning for a family outing. Nice guy, huge family. And not even all of them were here at the same time. For the .1% maybe ratio of hybrid population in America, I think his extended family might cover half of it.
Amber was a nice girl too. And the funny thing was, all four of us were fire type hybrids. Weird coincidence, I suppose.
Now that I thought about that, (Whoa, deja vu!) I did remember back in the old me-old life, I was still playing the computer gameboy adapter thing before everything went black. Yeah, I remembered that I had selected Typhlosion as a pokémon right before. . . well, best dwell on things of the future.
I grabbed my wallet (Containing now a total of $360 from my efforts) and my green backpack that I take places now and followed Xavier out the door.
The bus ride was uneventful like most, and luckily I had a notepad with me and a mechanical pencil (.05 mm lead never steers me wrong!) to doodle on the way to town.
When we arrived, I had a great collage of the suburbs in general, and wished I brought a notebook without lined paper.
I found a electronics store, sure enough, but the nearest clothes shopping place was a few miles away. . . So I decided to stuff the memory cards and copy of Final Fantasy IX in my pack and take a different route. In the nearest patch of green, I decided to see how fast I could get there for the fun of it.
"Marksetgo!" I slurred together in a fashion worthy of a baseball coach, and started running.
It's an odd trait of mine in new me; I never seem to get tired. That said, I found it less of a challenge until I tried it from tree branches. Wished there were larger trees around. Maybe I was in the wrong place.
Record time of twelve minutes and ten seconds, never even caught my second wind. Don't know if I had a second wind to catch. . .
The clothing store was as all clothing stores are like: full of clothing. But my particular brand of vanity didn't have a section of it's own, so I spent at least ten minutes looking for a few 'Typhlosion' shirts, one of which I found was a 'Typhlosion' Band T. It seems as though Typhlosion was the name of a semi-popular rock band.
The clerk looked at me funny as she ringed up the price of my clothes. I didn't know why, just probably because all the T's said 'Typhlosion on them, or because I was only buying T-shirts and winter was coming up, but whatever the reason, she gave me the, 'You're a screwy one' look.
Maybe I should have my T's personalized.
Pokémon Center. This place is a gift from the gods. I mean, the entire place reeks of this New World, and makes me happy just knowing that it's there. And. . . there's reading material on the subject I would like to look into: Pokémon training.
Shame that 80% of the books very dry through and throughout. It takes at least thirty minutes to find something worthwhile to read, and then three minutes to skim through all the important stuff. (I've always been a fast reader.) Realizing that I was almost back where I started an hour later, I decided that I'd best look in a real library.
Smack self on forehead. That's what I forgot! I had been thinking throughout most of my time here that I should really find a library to learn about the New World. Now I remember. . .
Xavier passed by. Only he wasn't Xavier, he was Fire Storm right now. Wait a second. . . I don't recall him being in hybrid form on the job. . .
"Fire Storm!" I called him for an answer.
He turned around and was startled to see me. "Oh, hey, Rick."
"Awfully strange. . ." I broke into one of my I've-got-a-cunning-thought speeches, "I thought you were human while on the job."
Fire Storm was immediately cornered, "Look, I was just. . ."
"You're going on another 'adventure', aren't you?" I was completely miffed when I had heard about all his daring escapades, and not one of them included me, technically because I wasn't there at the time. And. . . I had this intuition. I don't think I had intuition before. Or maybe it's sheer random luck.
"Alright!" He said, "Yes! I am! Now what?"
"Well, I wanna come!"
"You can't!"
"Why not?"
"Want me to list off the reasons? I'll list off the reasons! One. . ."
"Let's put it another way. . ." I interrupted, "Either I go with you OR I tell you mom. . ." I really wouldn't, but then again I also get mad when I don't get to see a movie at least weekly.
"You are really making this difficult. . ."
"The lowdown, please."
Fire Storm sighed, "I have a secret job as a bounty hunter."
"Cool beans! Here?!"
"Yeah. Keep it down. . ."
"Ok!" I whispered loudly.
Fire Storm sighed again, "Yes. If you insist on coming along, there's several things you must know. Number one: Do not mention anything about my home to my partner, Phoenix."
"Partner?"
"Yeah. She's an Arcanine hybrid."
"She hot?"
"She's my mom!"
Large jaw drop, "And no discussing home because. . ?"
"She doesn't know I'm her son!"
Larger jaw drop. "This is starting to sound like a soap opera."
"But with nobody getting pregnant."
"Well. . . at least not yet. . ."
Fire Storm's shoulders sunk, "And don't mention anything about sex to her, either. . ."
"Why's that? She can't find Mr. Right?"
"Because SHE'S IN LOVE WITH ME!"
"Ohh. . . kay. I think I got it all down. No sex to the chick cause it's sick."
"Umm. . . yeah. Basically."
"Now how do we get this across to Phoenix without explaining anything?"
Fire Storm looked around a bit. Seeing, as I could probably tell, Phoenix was up by the registry desk. "I've got it." He said, "I'll unlock the basement door, and we'll both go downstairs. Phoenix will most likely blame herself for leaving the door unlocked, and you can excuse yourself by saying you were looking for the bathroom. I'll say I couldn't hear you because I was taking a shower. Then, to make sure you won't talk. . . we take you on a mission. Bada-bing, bada-boom. Got it?"
"Yeah. But, make sure to wet at least you upper body down. I used to pull stunts like this all the time and learned that the hard way."
"Hurry up!" I fell behind, but soon caught up to him at the door I didn't notice before.
Fire Storm inserted the key, flicked his wrist, and we went down into the basement.
Phoenix didn't come for a while, so Fire Storm decided to actually take a shower. I would have liked one right then, though I was becoming notorious for not bathing. Ironically, I do like showers. . . almost as much as the rain. But I never actually have time to take them. I'm a busy man, though don't recall doing much of anything lately besides drawing for my supper, watching television and starting to write a novel.
"What are you doing down here?"
Bingo. Time for the dramatics.
"I was. . . looking for the bathroom."
"Pheonix? Is someone down here?" Fire Storm yelled from inside the shower.
"It's not down here!"
"Oh? Is this place restricted or something?"
"Yes. . . and I seem to have left the door unlocked. . ."
"What are you doing?" Fire Storm came out of the washroom with a towel around his waist.
"What's so restricted about this place?"
"Er. . ." Phoenix tried to answer me, but couldn't think of anything off the top of her head.
"Can't tell you! It's a secret!"
"Does this have anything to do with it?" I held up a black leather jacket I found, "'Bail Enforcement'. What's that mean?"
Fire Storm raised his eyebrows as if to say, 'Good one!'
"I'm sorry." I fake apologized, "I probably should leave. . ."
"Now wait a minute. . ." Fire Storm fake scowled, " If you leave then you'll be asking your friends what 'Bail Enforcement' means, and when they ask why, you tell them about your trip down here, and at least one of them will be both smart enough to know it means 'Bounty Hunter' and stupid enough to break in here!"
"It means Bounty Hunter?"
"Oops. . ."
"Fire Storm!" Phoenix yelled.
"Well. . ." I continued, "Now that I know it, I guess I'll have to make an offer."
"What's that?"
"I get to go on the next mission with you, and I swear by my tail fire that I'll keep this between us."
"Umm. . . ." Phoenix had picked up her jacket from the table I left it on, "Well, you seem to be big enough. Do you know how to use a gun?"
"Absolutely."
"Alright."
"Woohoo!" I thrust my arms up into the air, which I brought instantly down when Fire Storm threw a spare uniform at me. "We leave in thirty minutes. Before you put those on, please please please take a shower. I can smell you a mile away."
Might as well.
"Spandex? You have got to be kidding me." I climbed into the back seat of the car. Luckily there wasn't only the spandex. It looks like a normal shirt under the leather jacket and blue jeans.
"I'm not the one to ask. . ." Fire Storm said prior to Phoenix getting in the driver's seat.
"Here's the situation:" Phoenix stated promptly, "There's five fugitives hiding in a warehouse on the other side of the city. There's a Rhydon hybrid, a Magmar hybrid, and a Lapras hybrid."
"The other two?" I asked.
"Humans, what else?"
"Humans?. . . oh yeah, them." I can be so disillusioned by New Me sometimes.
Phoenix looked at me strangely before starting the vehicle, "They're wanted for fraud, so things might not be too messy."
Fire Storm disagreed, "If they have a Magmar and a Rhydon hybrid on their side, there's probably a good reason."
"Either way, we'll need some really big guns, cause they're not going down without a good fight. And we're outnumbered." I said, "What's this gun?"
"That's a Zap Cannon 3000, and I have permanent dibs on it." Fire Storm said flatly, and took the gun.
"Rats. What's your second biggest gun?"
"There's quite a few back there. Keep looking."
I'm a connoisseur of guns. And swords, but guns are much more useful for combat when the objective is to win. None of these seemed to be real guns, just modified ones for shooting clay bullets, but they were guns nonetheless. I particularly liked the lock-and-load style shotgun one. And two longbarrel pistols, definitely. And a sniper rifle. But I really can't carry all of them. I have two holsters on my bet, and I need two hands to use the other guns. . .
I realized I had put my backpack in the car. So I just unlatched the belt on it and strapped that around my back, on which I mounted the sniper rifle. Then I just had a cunning thought. . .
"There it is." Phoenix parked two blocks away from the intended large box-storage facility. Fire Storm turned around to look in the back seat, "What are you doing?"
"T-shirt ninja." It was a thing I knew how to do. Make a ninja mask out of a black t-shirt. "I thought it would look more like a Tom Clancy novel based game this way."
"Oh, in case you ever come back to reality, this isn't a game."
"What? You think I'll get hurt or something?"
"More than likely than not."
"Come on. Punch me, right here." I pounded my chest.
"Let's just go!" Phoenix yelled. We all scrambled out of the car and down the block quickly.
"I'll go in first." I said, when Fire Storm stopped me, "You're not properly trained for this!"
"Neither are you." I mouthed so Phoenix couldn't hear. I went inside.
As most hideout warehouses are, this one had lots of big brown crates stacked in appropriate maze-like patterns on the sides, and a large corridor down the middle. I quickened my pace to get to the overseer's deck at the other end, and hoping all the meanwhile I wasn't being watched. It might have been very hard to miss me if I didn't have my neck flame covered by the mask and my tail flame by the. . . er, tights.
Quietly going up an old loose metal staircase is not an easy task to accomplish, but it was performed more or less haphazardly. No one was up in the office, though. I could see the entire blackness of the warehouse at night, which was a good or bad thing, depending on how you looked at it. There were five badguys in this warehouse, and I couldn't see one of them. Or I might. . . I set my shotgun down and took out the sniper gun.
The window creaked a little bit as I opened it, and it was a lot easier to see a whole lot of dark without the dust getting in the way. But the sniper had a night vision function on it, so I propped it on the sill and started my scanning.
I saw Fire Storm and Phoenix, who didn't seem to have much trouble getting around in the dark, (I wish my hearing was about as good as theirs. . .) carefully checking every corridor. The second anyone of us fired a gun, our presence would be made known.
Unless. . . they already knew we were here.
They were con artists, after all, or at least the ringleader was. He wouldn't be stupid enough to hide in a warehouse and hope to not get caught. He has a plan of some sort. . .
And then I saw one of them. The Rhydon hybrid, standing on a stack of crated, waiting for Fire Storm and Phoenix to come up to him. My first instinct was to shoot, but that wasn't going to help any, especially since the tranquilizers weren't going to pierce his hide.
My next instinct was to shotgun, but I wouldn't be able to find him again without the scope. SO there had to be a catch.
Well, Rhydon's senses are all dulled because of its thick armor, so there was not chance in a million that he was doing this by himself. Someone faster was going to signal him, and someone who could signal without too much noise. That ruled out the Lapras hybrid, so it was either of the humans or the Magmar. Just finding them might be a little tough.
There's one. He was one of the humans, in the typical theif black outfit. Time to break the silence. . . it was driving me nuts.
KTHAP! Went the rifle. Almost as soon as I shot the lights went on.
What the. . .?
"They're here, boys!"
The Rhydon hybrid abandoned the plan A and moved onto B, which did not involve the crates.
"Bail Enforcement! Put you hands in the air!" The Lapras hybrid, the Rhydon hybrid, and the other human were standing out in the large corridor where Fire Storm and Phoenix were.
Where was the Magmar hybrid?
Out of nowhere, the intended perpetrator appeared from behind and kicked Fire Storm in the back. I aimed my rifle. . .
No good. Phoenix had to dive for cover as the other three started shooting. And Fire Storm was too close to the Magmar for me to shoot. Phoenix was probably having the same problem.
If I could stop the other three, Fire Storm would have a much easier time bringing down the Magmar. But if I didn't get all of them quickly enough, I'd be dead, too.
I've read mysteries like this before. There's something I probably hadn't thought of. I withdrew the Sniper and took out my shotgun. What to shoot?
Cunning thought. I chanced to glance at the print on the many crates. The bottom said packing peanuts and the top said refrigerator (What a novel way of stacking.). And they were perpendicular with the three-man team in question.
I pointed the crosshairs at the uppermost portion on the bottom crate and filled all my hope on the idea that the box was weak enough for clay to break through. Everything rested on this one shot.
I was getting scared. I might have rather kamikaze my way down there instead, because they didn't see me. But I was also scared to die.
And if this one shot didn't work, I would have. I couldn't have even been able to subdue them afterwards, or had a chance. There was always the sniper. . .
No. It's all or nothing.
I squeezed the trigger.
. . . I might have passed out then from fear of failure.
New me, on the other hand, wasn't going to have any of that. I was conscious to witness the entire rest of the event. I say witness, because I wasn't there. Well, I was there, but it wasn't me moving my body. I was kinda looking at myself from the outside. And everything went fast.
The box falling. . .
The human dodging. . .
Fire Storm subduing the Magmar hybrid. . .
Me pulling out both pistols. . . rushing down the steps. . .
Capturing the human. . .
The law enforcement officers coming. . .
I didn't feel my body until after it all transpired. That was the best part. . . and I got to see it all like a movie. The really slow part at the end where slow piano music is playing where they show multiple slow-motion images of what happens, only none of us got hurt in it.
"Good job." Fire Storm said to me, "If I ever figure out how I got this job in the first place, I'll let you know."
"Actually. . ." I said, "That was enough."
"Really?"
"For the week."
We both stared at each other, until Fire Storm finally chuckled.
I might not mind a job like that. But where does that leave my plans to own a comic book shop? There's not enough time in this world for everything. Maybe if life were really perfect. But where was the fun in perfect?
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Ugh. Please please please send me your submissions for Final Fantasy: The Last Hero so I might be able to get started on it before the summer ends. See my author bio for more details. Until next time, Ciao!