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.
!
Chapter 18– Happy harbour
!
I woke up early the next morning and had a light breakfast at the pokécentre. I was eager to go to Vermillion to find out if they had anything that could help me. At the gates there was no sign of the accident from the previous days so I could pass without any problem. Two hours later I arrived at Vermillion and made my way to the police station since I still had to report there thanks to my little… oh what the fuck, because I threatened a nurse in Pewter with a knife. Anyway, the lovely niece of officer Jenny took note of my arrival and I took the opportunity to inform where I could find information about any shipwrecks.
"Shipwrecks? From a long time ago you mean?"
"No," I smiled, "just last week."
"There weren't any shipwrecks last week," officer Jenny shook her head, "and I would know, I'm the head of the harbour police."
"No shipwrecks involving boats starting with the letter 'A'?"
"No, last week the S.S. Atomic, S.S. Anne and S.S. Allayambam all reported in without any problems."
"I'm sorry, Allay…"
"Don't ask," her look told me enough, "what makes you think there was a shipwreck concerning any of these ships?"
"Well, I woke up last week on an island near Cinnabar with part of a life belt which held the letters S.S. A. So I thought there was a shipwreck."
She looked pensive at me and started to type in a few commands on her computer.
"The S.S. Atomic and S.S. Anne both sailed close to Cinnabar but… no, all their passenger lists were complete. I'm sorry."
"That's okay," I reassured her, but not succeeding in reassuring me, "are there any other shipping routes near Cinnabar?"
"Not from here, I don't have access to the ones at Fuchsia, maybe it was a ship from there."
"Maybe, thanks anyway."
"You're welcome." She smiled.
!
Fuck, this was not good. I thought I had a lead in finding out who I was, turns out it's not a ship from Vermillion. That meant I had to get as fast as possible to Fuchsia then. Fuchsia, that sounded familiar. I reached into my breast pocket of my jacket and took out the only picture of me. Oak had said it was taken in the Safari Zone in Fuchsia. Hmm, when you think about it, it does make sense the ship might have set sail from there. But hey, Vermillion had a bigger harbour and was closer. Now, was there another reason to go there? Oh yeah, Alex his Ditto. When I got there I could catch one and bring it to him so he could also start to breed his pokémon. World, look out for his Magikarp! Heh heh. Anyway, since I didn't have anything to do here anymore, I should… hey, wasn't that Angela? That redhead I had last seen in Cerulean? Well, since I had nothing better to do, maybe I could catch up with her. No, I don't have a one track mind. I find that very offensive, there are more things on my mind than sex you know. Fuck, you try to be polite… I mean, how many people I know do I run into, huh? Except for Alan, none! And now I'm going to change that.
!
Man, this was boring. Tiffany hated working in the store. Nobody interesting would ever come in. Well, that's the curse you have for owning a fishing shop. Either there was nobody here or only some old fishermen bragging about the size of the Magikarp they had caught. Sigh, if only somebody cool would come in… The doorbell made her sit up straight. Oh my gosh, that was a quite guy, finally someone cool. The quite blonde guy smiled at her and walked to a rack with various fishing rods. His friend had a short buzz haircut and seemed a bit bothered by entering the store.
"Remind me why we are here?" he asked his blonde friend.
"Well, as long as we have no news of our friend, we might as well do something, so let's fish."
"Fish…" the other repeated, nodding his head as if he was forced to agree.
"That way, we stay in town and can keep a look out for… what was that for?"
The blonde guy looked angrily at his friend who had just nudged his elbow and then followed his gaze.
"Well I'll be damned, when you speak of the devil," he started laughing.
Quickly the two men left the store to run after whoever they had seen. Sigh, and again no luck for Tiffany…
!
Officer Jenny had just finished her shift and was ready for some deep sea diving when she noticed Tony running after a redheaded girl while being pursued by two guys in black. She quickly turned around and ran back to the police station…
!
"Hey Angela!"
Fuck, she didn't hear me. I ran after her but stopped when she entered a warehouse close to the docks. Maybe I shouldn't follow her in there. On the other hand, why not? I mean, she had left the door open, I just happened to pass, and saw her, so… I was confident I would bullshit my way out of it when the time arose. I was going in.
!
The door led to a huge storage space filled with large boxes. Angela was there talking to two guys in black suits. Maybe I was overstepping my boundaries here so maybe I should leave. As I was ready to turn around I heard a click, which made me turn around faster. Some big ugly looking guy had just closed the door and glanced at me.
"Uhm, I know Angela." I tried.
I was trying to think of good excuses to explain my presence here that I almost neglected the tingling sensation in the back of my skull, warning me for something.
"Tony? What are you doing here?"
I turned around and grinned as Angela approached.
"Well, I saw you in town and I tried to call you but you must not have heard me so…"
The tingling came stronger and my glance wandered to the guy at the door. That black suit wasn't a suit, but a uniform. Oh shit.
"Oh shit."
I tried to dash forward and punch him in the face, but the two guys that had been talking to Angela were faster and pinned me down. I tried to struggle free but the big guy kicked me in the stomach and I went limp.
"Tie him up!" Angela shouted, "he's valuable to us."
The goons threw me up a chair and tied me up, hitting me in the process.
"This is a major step up for the Dark Squad," Angela grinned as she slapped me and then kissed me, "now we'll get that old fool to his knees."
!
"This is bad!"
The blonde guy shook his head and looked through the window again.
"This is very bad!"
"I know," the other Rocket snapped, "we can't let him in their hands, we got to do something."
"But the boss told us to keep low profile, so we can't call in another chapter."
"There aren't many Rockets around here anymore, most of them deflected to the Dark Squad."
"This is bad!" the blonde guy repeated, "what do we do now?"
His friend breathed loudly as he thought. He seemed to reach a conclusion.
"We call the cops."
"We can't do that?"
"You got any other idea?"
The blonde guy sighed.
"Let's find a payphone. I don't want them to trace my cell phone."
!
I was tied to a chair and slapped by a beautiful woman and, on a bad note, it wasn't some sex game. I don't know how I got in this situation. I honestly don't. All I know is I saw Angela somewhere in Vermillion, and since I met her the first time in Viridian I think and have seen her recently since, I thought I would catch up and chat a bit. Well, whooptee fucking doo. For some reason she taught I was valuable to them. Probably because I know Oak, but it's not like we're best friends or something. I mean, I know him, but I hardly know the guy, know what I mean? It has to be Oak, I don't know any other old fool they want to bring to their knees. Or she knows something about me I don't…
"Mind telling me why you've tied me up?" I asked and eyed Angela.
She laughed without humour and tossed her red hair back.
"Don't act like we are fools. We know who you are and you're just the boost our organisation needs."
Okay, they know I'm Tony Hunter and know Oak or they know who I was. A little clearer please?
"I have no idea what you are talking about. I'm somebody special?"
Hey, it was worth a shot.
"Now don't play coy," she smiled as she got up and slapped me in the face, "it insults our intelligence."
"You guys have intel-"
Another hard slap interrupted my sentence. You would think they let a guy complete his witty remarks, don't you? She turned and started to walk the stairs, leading to the upstairs office, only stopping at one of her goons to give him orders.
"Keep an eye on him, I'll let headquarters know the good news."
!
Outside were two men eagerly looking for a working telephone booth. When they reached a booth the blonde one picked up and thanked God when he heard a dial tone. Just as he was to dial 911, his cell phone rang. He looked at his friend to decide which to do first and checked his cell phone.
"It's HQ," he glared back at his friend, "what do I do?"
"Pick up. Maybe we can still have some back-up."
The blonde guy nodded and picked up.
"Yeah it's us… what? You're kidding right?… No wait… We got…No but we got … What? What do you mean "no longer a priority"?… But he's right… You're shitting me!… Right now?… Oh come ON… When the boss hears… Oh, he decided, heh? Well he doesn't know… … Fine, we'll come back but you better tell him we're following YOUR orders… Don't worry, they'll be your orders… Fine, we'll come right back."
With a curse he hang up and dropped his head.
"Well?" his friend urged.
"They're calling us back."
"What?"
"They're fucking calling us back!" he shouted, "he's right in our grasp and we have to let him go!"
"What… what do you mean?"
"He's no longer a priority! Orders from Giovanni himself. Come back to Celadon and shut the fuck up."
"Giovanni said that?"
"Giovanni said that!" the blonde guy nodded.
"But he's… Oh I can't fucking believe this!"
"So now what do we do?"
"Well, go back to Celadon I suppose."
"No, I mean about Tony?"
The blonde guy seemed to think for a while.
"Well?"
"We call the cops," he seemed to reach a conclusion, "if we don't get him, they don't get him."
He picked up the phone and started dialling.
"Hello 911 emergencies, how may I help you?"
Just as he opened his mouth to speak, he heard the sirens.
"Hello?"
He put down the receiver and turned around. A dozen police cars passed with flashing lights and loud sirens, all heading for the warehouse complex.
"You think…" he started.
The trimmed one got out a photo camera and zoomed in at their destination.
"Yep."
"But how…"
"I don't know, but they're busting in at the warehouse of the Dark Squad."
He put the camera back and nudged his buddy.
"We got to go. Now."
Both men turned and walked away as fast as possible without seeming suspicious.
!
The goon right in front of me was cracking his knuckles and it was really annoying me. Remind me to do it when I get the chance. He grinned and came up to me, raising his fist to smack me. I braced for impact but when nothing happened I dared to open an eye, suspecting him grinning even wider for making me flinch and then hit me, but instead he was looking at the door. Then I suddenly realised there were sirens. The door got busted in and several guys in black and blue swarmed in with guns ready. Somewhere I realized they were cops and I eased a bit. Just a bit. Before any of the Dork Squids had time to blink, each one had at least three cops on his back, reading them their rights. Only the one that was "attending" me tried to put up a fight but was quickly put down by the handle of a shotgun. While one of the cops placed his knee in his neck to keep him down, another one loaded his gun and placed it against the guy's temple.
"Blink, and I'll blow a hole in your head, bigger than the one in the ozone layer!" he shouted.
Fuck, I have to remember that line, that was fucking awesome!
"Tony, you okay?"
I looked up from the cop that untied me and saw officer Jenny walking up to me in full battle dress, packing a shotgun. Remind me never to mess with the woman. Was this? Yes, it was the Jenny of Vermillion and not Pewter. Fuck. Hey, it's just because I know Susan better, that's all.
"How did you know I was here?" I asked as she helped me up.
"We got an anonymous phone call." She said.
I had no idea who had called but I was grateful.
"Now what?"
"We'll get you back to the station where you can testify against these guys and we can lock them up."
"Cool."
"Yeah, that's what I thought." She grinned.
!
"Okay, let's recap. What just happened?"
The two Rockets were sitting in the back of a bar near the shore.
"Either the cops raided the place because of a stake out…"
"Not likely but still."
"Or somebody tipped them about Tony."
"Who?"
"That I don't know. As far as I know, we were the only ones who knew he was there."
"So what do we do know."
"Go back to Celadon and relax for a while. I'm tired of running after the little brat."
"Fine, we go back, but I still wanna get to the bottom of this. For Marc's sake."
"Yeah, I can't believe Giovanni seemed to forget what he did. Either way, it's out of our hands now."
His friend nodded and finished his glass.
