Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon. Nintendo does. This story isn't written to make profit, or even to get attention from girls. It is simply written for entertainment and to keep myself busy. The main characters are mine however (except for professor Oak and some Jenny's and Joy's) and I would appreciate it if you wouldn't use it without my approval.

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Chapter 14 – Limited options

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Ah, Saffron city. Home of the Sylph company and psychic pokémon. I parked my brand new motorcycle at the karate gym and decided to wander around a bit. Now here there were good stores. Finally I could get my hands on some decent CD's. Apparently there was a huge mega store in Celadon but here you had the 'obscure' stores, the kind of stores you find the things that aren't yet mainstream or even completely underground as well as plain commercial, in other words, anything you want. And hey, didn't Susan tell me there were Growlithes here? That gave me another reason to return to Pewter and see the lovely officer again. But first I needed a Growlith for that. How hard could that be? But that had to wait until tomorrow, it had taken me a lot of time to walk to Alex and Bill I first was afraid I would have to spend the night in Cerulean, but now that I had my bike, I just rode to Saffron so at least I could sleep out. After a few inquiries I was able to find my way to the police station to inform those good people I had arrived. The automated glass doors opened before me and I entered the well lit police station. Behind the counter was not the nice female shape I got to know as another family member of officer Jenny. If this little goblin was related to Susan or Katie, I was to reconsider my whole relationship with Susan. Oh yeah, what relationship?

"What do you want?" the little critter behind the counter shrieked as he looked up from his computer screen.

I raised an eyebrow as I checked out the little mutt. His beady little eyes glared at me and his mouth was twisted in a crooked angry grin. A patch of blond hair grew on top of his head right between a couple of ears that seemed to jump out on the side.

"I'm Tony Hunter, I am to report to the police station each time I enter a new city."

"What on earth for?"

"Long story." Well, not really, but I didn't want to retell the tale to that… thing.

"Hm, I will find it out if you have to report… where are you staying?"

"At the pokécentre normally. If it changes I will come and tell you."

"Why don't you check in there, and if you get in, come and tell me, okay?"

"Uhm, okay."

The goblin leaned closer.

"I don't like you, there's something fishy about you and I'm gonna keep my eye on you."

Sure whatever.

"Uhm, okay, anything else?" I asked.

"Not for the moment, but stay close," The goblin sat back in his chair and motioned to the door, "now go the pokécentre and report back here."

I nodded and turned around. I quickly made my way to the pokécentre and reserved a room for the night. After I left all my stuff there I returned to the police station to inform the goblin were I was staying. I just hoped he wasn't gonna do anything with that information. When I exited the police station I greeted the arriving officer Jenny. Well, at least my night wasn't a complete bust.

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"Who was that?" Jenny asked Max.

The little cop twisted on his seat while he got some papers from the printer.

"Tony Hunter, bad news, I just printed his file."

He offered her the pages but she shook her head.

"I know who he is, Susan already told me about him. Don't give him a hard time, do you hear me, Max?"

Max grumbled and returned his attention to his computer screen.

"And why's that? It's damn obvious he's trouble, I mean, what person would pull a knife on a nurse?"

"There's more to him than you know, Max, more than you need to know."

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"Okay, that was something I needed to know."

The rocket threw his glass against the wall. The Persian that was in the corner of the room looked up.

"Fuck man, you knew we were looking for him, and you let him go?"

"Hey, you two guys had him and you also let him go." The guy in the smooth suit reacted.

"Don't fucking start." The trimmed rocket hissed.

"He had a lot of luck, getting a way from us," the blonde rocket shouted, "and now we have the luck of him walking in, practically gift-wrapped and you let him walk away?"

"He had a check signed by Bill Masters," the bike shop owner defended himself, "I think it would be a little suspicious if he came to buy a motorcycle and disappeared."

"Fuck that! He came in here yesterday as well and then you didn't do a thing. Nobody knew he was here and you let him walk out."

"I didn't know who he was."

"Everybody in town knew who he was. Come on man, your bike shop is the only Team Rocket hide out in Cerulean, we spend a lot of money in this shop, money that probably even wouldn't be necessary if you lowered your prices a bit, but you can at least can do something to earn that money."

The blonde rocket threw another glass against the wall.

"Fuck! Where is he now?"

"Saffron. We go after him?"

"I'm getting tired of this, you know?"

"So am I. But we're gonna have our payback."

"For what he did to Marc," the blonde rocket nodded, "we'll go to Vermillion, he's bound to stop there."

"To Vermillion it is then."

The two rockets gathered their stuff and left the bike shop with the Persian right behind. The shop owner started to clean up the glass left by the rockets.

"Damn rockets, and what did they mean by lowering my prices?"

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I slept in late the next day. I didn't really mean to but I thought I had earned it. I had arrived late and somewhere in the night I woke up when I heard a lot of sirens passing by. After I got up, I heard there had happened something at the Sylph company. I didn't know what it was, and I didn't really care. Hey, it had nothing to do with me, so… But first things first. I checked my finances and I decided to best get some more cash if I wanted to make some serious expenses. I of course head out of town to battle some trainers and sucker them out of their money. Well, that was the idea. Unfortunately with that thing at the Sylph company, there were roadblocks and lots of them. Apparently Team Rocket had broken into the company and stole some things. Well, it could also be the Dark Squad, since nobody knew of them yet. Either way, I didn't really care. Why you ask? Because I'm not stupid. If I can avoid guys like that, I will. I fought them at Mount Moon, but only because I had to pass. And don't forget those two guys who are after me, like they aren't trouble enough. No, I'll just try to get a Growlithe and be on my way to Vermillion.

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Fuck, just my rotten luck. The road to Celadon was blocked. Apparently the ones that broke into the Sylph company passed through there. And Growlithes could only be found on that road. Oh well, might as well go to Vermillion first.

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"What do you mean? Nobody can pass?"

"Like I'm telling you, nobody can pass!"

The goblin grinned as I cursed and looked defeated to the car wreck that blocked the path to Vermillion.

"Okay, then tell me, how can I get to Vermillion?"

"You wait," the little guy shrugged, "you'll have to wait until tomorrow when they tow the wreck away."

"Why can't they do it now?"

"Because everyone is on the road to Celadon due to the robbery."

I sighed. I looked one last time at the wreck blocking the road and shook my head. Hey, as Trent Reznor sang, I tried, I gave up. I turned my motorcycle and went the only way I had left, Lavender…

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Fuck, this was a little town. If it wasn't build next to a big mountain I would have passed it without noticing. Well, if you ignored that huge tower I would. Anyway, I had arrived in Lavender. Things of interest? Well, that huge tower obviously. Anything else? I had no fucking idea. What am I, a travel guide? Okay, first check out some pokémon and train. After about half an hour I had learned that the big tower was some sort of burial place for pokémon and everyone was too grieved to fight. Fuck. It's not like I wanna sound insensitive and disrespect those dead pokémon, but they're dead! Forget about them! I suddenly felt watched and glanced down. War and Blaster were staring at me and I sighed.

"Don't worry guys, when you… IF you die, I'm gonna bury you guys on the island I found you and not in some huge tower where there's such a media circus about dead pokémon."

The two Wartortles glanced at each other and decided I had a point somewhere. Somewhere. Oh well, I had nothing else to do, guess I could wander around town a little more.

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"Excuse me, you're a visitor, aren't you?"

Strange choice of words, but hey.

"Yes, I am. Who might you be?"

A small laughing bald man came nodding towards me.

"I'm Mr. Fuji. So, tell me, how do you like our little town."

"Well," I thought for a second, "little. There really isn't much around here."

"Well, there is the tower," he glanced me over, "you have seen the tower, haven't you?"

"My pokémon aren't dead yet, and I know no pokémon who are buried there, so I didn't really think I had any business there."

"Oh, but you should visit," he urged me, "if you're a trainer, you are a trainer, right?"

I nodded, "something like that, yes."

"Good, there's something you should know about it, come with me."

He guided me to the tower and we entered. He trailed me along the second floor and were on our way to the third as I suddenly saw something in the corner of my eye. Nothing.

"Saw something?" he smiled.

"Nah, thought I did, but… nah."

"Ah, you did," he nodded, "you see, the tower isn't really build to bury pokémon, but to gather ghosts."

"Ghosts?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Well, ghost pokémon. They aren't really ghosts but they do have sudden similarities to the folklore of real ghosts. And for some strange reason they seem to swarm a place were the dead are gathered."

"This tower." I said.

"Exactly," he nodded, "but of course something went wrong."

"Doesn't it always?" I sighed, "what went wrong?"

"Too much ghosts, since more people buried their pokémon here, more ghosts have come, more than trainers can catch."

"You're kidding right? I mean, I've only seen one for sure and I think two more, although that last one could have been some old lady."

"Ah, but we repress them," he interrupted and pointed at some metallic boxes at the ceiling, "you see? Those are special devices made by the Sylph company to keep the ghosts under control. If it wasn't for that, this place would be swarming. Now trainers have as much chance of catching a ghost pokémon as they have catching another one in the open."

"Practically ziltch," I nodded.

"Precisely," he grinned before his face became serious, "is it my imagination or did it get darker in here? Yes, the lights went out."

"Not only the lights," I pointed to the ghost repressor thingy, "that little red light went out."

"Oh dear, that means it doesn't work anymore."

"Is that bad?" I asked.

Then I saw how the shadows crept closer and surrounded us. Vague shapes became visible in the dark.

"Oh yes."

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AN: Now THIS is a cliff hanger. And unfortunately I won't be able to update next week or for the remainder of next month to be honest… Yeah, right, like I really would do that. I may be a sadistic bastard but I still have some humanity left (I think). See you guys next week and don't forget to review.