The Mole: Pokemon/Digimon Edition
By: Gomamon
Disclaimer: I don't own it.
Episode 7 – Vile Villainous Victory
Inoue, Yolei/Miyako (Digimon 02) --- EXECUTED THIRD
Ishida, Matt/Yamato (Digimon 01) --- EXECUTED SIXTH
Jessie/Musashi (Pokemon) --- STILL STANDING
Katou, Jeri/Juri (Digimon 03) --- STILL STANDING
Ketchum, Ash/Satoshi (Pokemon) --- EXECUTED FIRST
Kitagawa, Kenta/Kenta (Digimon 03) --- EXECUTED FIFTH
Oak, Gary/Shigeru (Pokemon) --- STILL STANDING
Sketchit, Tracey/Kenji (Pokemon) --- EXECUTED FOURTH
Takenouchi, Sora/Sora (Digimon 01) --- EXECUTED SECOND
Waterflower, Misty/Kasumi (Pokemon) --- STILL STANDING
It was the following morning after Matt Ishida's surprising execution from the game. While the sun was ambitiously rising in the cloudy skies of Toronto, the three women were still sleeping cozily in their beds. The only person awake in the house was Gary Oak, sitting calmly by the fireplace and reading the newspaper.
Gary had always been an early riser. It was a usual habit for the young perfectionist professor to be the first person up and awake. This was the period of time when he was in absolute solitude. During the early hours of the day, nobody could disturb him or his analytical thoughts. So naturally, this was also the time when his brain functioned with the most clarity.
He may not be the most humble player at times, nor was he hardly a pleasant person to be around with. But nobody could deny the fact that Gary was a very intelligent competitor. He was careful, he was thorough and he was observant. With these attributes, it would seem like Gary was on a cakewalk to win this entire game.
After all, he already outlasted all his male competitors. Gary Oak was the last man standing.
"I don't think it matters if they are male or female, I'm going to beat them all. It's just that the other guys were either too soft or too stupid," Gary said in a matter-of-fact voice. And then with a smarmy smirk, he added, "Or in Ash's case…both."
As the game progressed, the young professor grew more and more confident about his standing in the game. He thought he had already figured out who the Mole was. And the only thing standing between Gary and the money were two more quizzes. How hard could it be?
Jeri Katou was certainly not a fan of the conceited professor who talked down to her like a foolish little girl. She took out her hand puppet and started to imitate Gary in a camera confessional.
"Jeri, do you know what you are doing? Jeri, if you don't know what you are doing, then don't get involved. Jeri, didn't I just tell you to scram?"
She pouted a little, brushing strands of hair out of her face and continued with her confessional.
"I don't think 'modesty' or 'humbleness' is in Gary's vocabulary. He has a bit of an ego problem. A huge ego problem, that's for sure."
Regardless of what the other players thought of him, Gary was very confident about his chances right now. He widened the conceited smirk on his pointed face.
"The Mole might be doing her thing as if nobody knows who she is, but I'm on to her now and watching her every move. I am certain that I will win this game. I don't even care who is in the finals with me. Two more quizzes and you can officially name me as the winner who defeated the Mole. Thanks for handing me the victory on a silver platter, everyone. Nice tries, but you never really stood a chance against me."
Just by the way he talked with such a dynamic self-belief and delusional confidence, it would almost seem Gary Oak would be the pretentious winner of this competition.
And if he lost…?
No, Gary Oak would not lose. After working so hard to make the Final Four, losing was not an option. No! He came too damn close to lose now! He didn't deserve to lose! He was not a loser!
Gary Oak was only destined to be the winner of this game…
Losing was for other people.
Jessie was slowly striding down the staircase like a queen walking down the red carpet. She was wearing her usual outfit, a tight black tank top and a short revealing skirt. The lusty camera lowered down to her waist, capturing the tempting motion of her hips shaking left and right, left and right…
"Well damn, girlfriends! This game just lost a major piece of eye candy, so there will be no more joy in this world. Now I'm left with three whiny bitches, and yes, that includes you, Mr. Oak."
The camera slowly leveled up to Jessie's face again. She sneered mockingly and continued to walk down the stairs while conducting her camera confessional. For maximum effect, the sassy diva placed a finger below her left eye to fake a tear trickling down her face.
Known for her sharp venomous tongue and bitter words, Jessie simply wasn't afraid to say what was on her mind. It could be rude or offensive to some, but Jessie simply didn't give a damn. She faked a yawn in front of the cameras.
"The players left are all so boring but me. Gary is an asshole. Misty is a twerp. Jeri is basically a non-entity. Where are all the interesting people? I can't be expected to carry on the show by myself. I think this game just died a little."
Placing her foot on the last step of the staircase, Jessie could see the other three players waiting impatiently in the living room. Yamaki stood emotionlessly in front of them, although he had a hint of irritation at the lateness of Jessie.
I love it when they have to wait for me. Jessie smirked to herself as she took a leisure stroll to join them on the sofas.
"Thank you for being fashionably late, Jessie." Misty muttered, rolling her eyes.
"For our next task, I need the four of you to divide into two groups: three people with good minds and one dummy," said Yamaki.
"I'll be the dummy." Misty raised her hand to volunteer. "The three of you are probably smarter than me."
"Damn right about that," Jessie smirked.
"Are you sure you want to be the dummy?" Gary arched his eyebrow. "I'd much rather nominate Jeri for the position instead."
"Hey, what do you mean by that?" Misty narrowed her eyes.
Jerk. Jeri thought, although she kept her thoughts to herself. The sensitive girl wore a faint frown on her face, with her head pointing dejectedly on the floor.
"If we are going to isolate one person, I'd want Jeri to take on the responsibility because I trust her more than you." Gary replied.
"Oh!" Jessie smiled mischievously. "So you don't think the girl has it in her to sabotage a challenge?"
"No comment." Gary was always tight lipped when it came down to revealing his suspicions in public, especially when there were only four players left.
"Jeri, do you want to be the dummy instead?" Misty asked, shrugging her shoulders. "I don't really mind being in either group."
"No, everything is fine."
"I take it that Kasumi is the dummy and the three of you are the smart ones." Yamaki clarified. "Come down with me to the basement, all of you."
The four players followed Yamaki to another set of staircase descending to the basement. The small basement was surprisingly cleared of any objects. The only items in the room were a stationary bike and a laptop. There were some mysterious looking cables and wires connected between them.
"There are four CDs scattered and hidden somewhere in this house. The three smart people's task is to find these CDs and insert it into this laptop." Yamaki slowly walked over to the computer desk where the laptop was placed on. "Then you will have to download the contents into the laptop, which will take exactly three minutes. Once completed, a clue to the location of your next CD will appear."
"How much time will we have to complete this?" Gary interjected.
"That's where the dummy's role comes in." Yamaki answered, smiling delicately. "The battery of this laptop is low, and it will continue to lose one percent of its power every fifteen seconds. It is up to Kasumi to ride on this exercise bike to cause a charge and pump energy into the laptop battery. If you move the pedals fast enough, you will be able to maintain the battery life at a steady level, or even extend it."
"Does this challenge end when there is no more battery to the laptop?" Misty asked.
"Precisely. If the laptop runs out of battery, it will shut down and the challenge will end right there. You have as much time as long as the battery does not die out." Yamaki then pointed at a tiny status bar indicating the amount of power on the screen. "Since there are no more questions, let's begin."
At the start of go, Misty swiftly hopped on the bike and kicked her feet to the pedals. Jessie immediately started to race up the staircase, with Gary following closely behind. However, Jeri remained behind in the basement.
"Wait! Don't go anywhere yet!" She yelled. That stopped Jessie and Gary in their tracks, as they quickly ran back down the stairs to join Jeri.
"What is it?"
"Shouldn't we start looking at the basement first? It is the most obvious place!" Jeri said.
"Jeri has a point, you should listen to her more." added Misty.
"But there's nothing in here!" Jessie argued as her eyes quickly scanned the empty basement. "There is only a bike, a desk and a stupid laptop! There's nothing else!"
"There is one more place that you haven't looked at yet…" Jeri said, as she pressed a button on the laptop. The CD drive mechanically opened and there it was - CD number one.
"H-how did you know?" Jessie stammered in awe.
"Slow and steady wins the race, guys." Jeri grinned, inserting the CD into the laptop again. A new window suddenly appeared that read: Download Status: 1 completed
"I'm not just going to stand around here and wait for a damn clue to show up in three minutes. This house isn't that big!" Jessie said, running for the staircase again.
"Wait! You should at least stay around to see what the clue is first!" Jeri shouted.
Jessie shot Jeri a deadly silencing glare before racing up the stairs, and for a few seconds, their eyes locked with each other. A little frightened and intimidated, the little girl quickly turned her head the other way to avoid the glare. Jessie had won the showdown again. Nobody messes with Jessie.
"How the hell did she know where the first CD was?" Jessie vented to the cameras as soon as she was in the living room. "The girl is so the Mole, I tell you."
The tall Team Rocket villain jogged over to the coffee table, where its surface was covered by dozens of newspaper and magazines. She rummaged through the pile, searching for a CD with little success.
"The house is not that big! It can't be that difficult!" She exclaimed furiously.
At the basement, the players still needed to wait one more minute for the downloading process to be completed. Gary, however, was paying more attention to the power status bar on the screen. It was moving shakily between 97 and 98.
"You have a lot of responsibility on you. Don't mess up." He said, without turning around to face Misty. The athlete only rolled her eyes behind his back, as she continued to pick up her speed on the bicycle.
"I'm glad Misty took on this task. I doubt I'll be able to ride on this bike that long." Jeri giggled nervously.
The downloading process finally finished. Gary quickly opened up their first clue, while Jeri removed the CD from the drive.
"It's a riddle," said Gary as he read the screen:
Thirty men with
ladies, two,
Standing around with nothing to do,
Dressed in formal, black and white,
Yet when they move it begins a fight.
"Umm…how is this going to help us about the location? I don't get it at all." Jeri laughed nervously, reading the riddle as well.
"It sounds like a ball or some kind of dance party," commented Gary.
"Well, it has to be something found in this house." Jeri reread the question again. "Why are there only two ladies?"
"Thirty two people." Gary muttered to himself. "Thirty two…what has the number thirty two in this house?"
"Should I call Jessie down to read the clue?" Jeri asked. Gary nodded his head and sent the girl on her way.
"You know, this sounds more and more familiar." Gary put both his hands behind his head. "I should know this!"
Gary moved closer to the screen to read the question one more time. Suddenly he leapt back, with a big smirk on his face.
"I think I've got it. This sounds a lot like chess! There are sixteen white pieces and sixteen black pieces, and two queens."
"There is a chess table in Kenta's old room, if I remembered correctly." Misty pointed out.
Gary immediately dashed for the staircase just as Jeri and Jessie were hurrying down.
"I've got it! It's the chess table in Kenta's room!" Gary exclaimed, running away like an escaped convict. Jessie groaned and began to climb up the stairs again.
Yamaki looked on with interest as Misty continued to ride her bicycle. Although she is putting in a lot of effort, the power of the battery is slowly decreasing. It was now down to the 88 level.
"How are you hanging in there, Kasumi?" Yamaki asked.
"I'm just getting warmed up!" Misty laughed and flicked a thumb up. "I will not give up."
"I can tell you are able to do this for a long time. But how confident are you in your teammates?" Yamaki asked.
"Are you trying to offer me an exemption or something?" Misty narrowed her eyes in suspicion.
"No, no." Yamaki waves his hand in dismissal. "I just want to hear your opinion about things right now."
"Well, I think it was a stupid idea for Jessie to just run upstairs instead of waiting for the clue. She doesn't even know where she is looking at! It was definitely very impulsive." Misty said. "She could be sabotaging."
"Interesting…do you think she is the Mole?"
Misty smiled impishly at Yamaki for a few seconds as she thought over her answer. Yamaki smiled back.
"No, I don't think she is the Mole. Jessie is too emotional to be the Mole. Judging from her angry outbursts throughout the game, she doesn't strike me as the type of player who can keep a calm and leveled head during challenges."
Misty shrugged, closing her eyes as she continued her answer.
"But of course, I could be wrong. Now that I think about it, that personality is the perfect cover-up for the Mole…"
The door to Kenta's room, which was normally locked, was now opened for access. The trio of players rushed in and immediately spotted the chess table by the east wall of the room. Gary ran up to it and opened the drawers.
"Found it!" Gary grinned as he pulled out the second CD from the chess table.
"Good job! Let's go back to basement and download it!" Jeri said.
"I can't do this much running," complained Jessie. But nevertheless, she followed the pair into the basement, albeit begrudgingly.
"We've got the CD!" Jeri squealed as soon as she saw Misty in the basement.
Misty laughed in glee, and then for a second, as if the excitement had caught on to the athletic gym leader, she had removed her feet off the pedals of her bike.
"Don't stop! What are you doing?" Jessie alertly shouted out. Misty gasped in panic and immediately started to kick her feet on the pedals again.
Jeri quickly turned her head to the laptop screen. The battery had suddenly dropped to a shaky 83.
How could it have dropped so much? Jeri wondered to herself. Unless she stopped biking as soon as we all left the basement…
"I wished the download would hurry up," muttered Jessie as she tapped her fingers on the desk impatiently.
"Be patient." Gary scolded.
Three minutes later, their second clue had popped up on the screen. Yet again, it's another riddle for them to solve:
I heat up almost everyday,
but it's not that I am sick.
I can burn occasionally,
but to watch me is the trick.
"These riddles are harrrrrd!" Jessie bitched, pounding her hand on the desk in frustration.
"This sounds like the fireplace!" Jeri yelled out.
"I'd say that sounds about right! Let's take a look!" Gary had already run to the staircase by this time, as the other two ladies followed.
Gary was the first to arrive at the fireplace. He leered inside, but he could see no CDs anywhere under the burned logs and coal. Jessie suggested they look up the chimney, but Jeri insisted that it was a stupid idea.
"May be it isn't the fireplace," said Jeri. "There are other things in the house that heats up."
"That kind of sounds like human temperature," commented Gary. "May be we are looking for a thermometer?"
"That doesn't make any sense." Jessie shook her head. "I'd say we are looking for a stove or something in the kitchen."
They raced to the kitchen and started rummaging through all the appliances. Jessie went straight to the stove. Seeing as there are no CDs, she picked up a nearby kettle and shook it.
"Hey guys, I could hear something inside this kettle. The CD might be in it," she said. She reached her hand instead, but immediately pulled her scorched hand out of the hot water.
"Is the water really hot?" Jeri asked, looking at Jessie's bright red hand in fright.
"What do you think? Shit!" Jessie waved her hand around. "I don't know, but I'm pretty sure there's something in there."
Gary took the logical approach and emptied the kettle by pouring all the water out from the sink. At last, he pulled out a tiny penny out of the kettle.
"It was a coin. Coins and CDs make very different sounds, Jessie." Gary said in a matter-of-fact voice. Jessie just rolled her eyes.
"Let's look through other appliances!" Jeri said as she leered inside the oven.
"There's nothing in the microwave," said Gary as he quickly opened and shut the microwave.
"I found it! No wait, that's a saucer!" Jessie groaned as she opened up drawers. Beside her, Jeri and Gary were going through plates and dishes in the sink to find any CDs.
"There's none in this pot either…" Jeri leered inside a big pot sitting mysteriously on the counter.
"May be it's in the furnace!" Jessie suggested.
"What furnace?" Gary asked suspiciously.
"I don't know. But I just have an instinct that the CD isn't in the kitchen."
"Alright, let's go then."
Before they left, Jeri curiously opened the microwave one more time. There was a box of frozen pizza inside it. Jeri looked at it with bafflement, and then slowly lifted the pizza box out of the microwave.
"I found it!" Jeri yelled to her departing teammates, pulling out the CD. "It was under the pizza box the whole time!"
"What?" Jessie gasped and then she turned her head to face Gary. "I thought you said there was nothing in the microwave!"
"There wasn't anything! It was just a pizza box! I didn't see any CDs!" Gary argued.
"Gee, don't you think it could be under the pizza box?" Jessie smacked her forehead with her hand. "How dense can you be?"
"Stop arguing! I found the CD! Let's go down to the basement!" Jeri said.
After inserting the CD into the laptop, the group once again had three more minutes to wait until their next clue. Jeri couldn't keep her eye off the status bar, which is now at 66. She looked over at Misty, who was sweating on the forehead and showing signs of fatigue. She wanted to say something, but she didn't want it to discourage Misty at all.
"I thought it was very suspicious you said the CD wasn't in the microwave when it actually was." Jessie folded her arms to confront Gary. However, the conceited professor was always prepared for a verbal showdown.
"I thought it was very suspicious when you said that the CD was in the kettle, but it actually wasn't," Gary countered back.
"Why you little big mouthed twerp!" Jessie shook her fist at the smirking professor.
"I'm getting really tired. You might have to hurry up" Misty smiled weakly at the three players.
"Why is it so low?" Gary pointed at the status bar on the computer, which is now at 55. "I thought you were supposed to maintain the power at a steady level."
"I don't know why it is dropping. Nothing seems to work!" Misty cried in exasperation.
"Had it ever went up? You look all sweaty and all, but I don't see any work being paid off." Jessie asked.
But before Misty could answer, the CD had finished downloading and the final clue now appeared on the screen:
A teller of truth and lies.
History is told by me.
Wonders and mystery I shall show.
For the world can be reached when I am held.
"This sounds like a book," Jeri stated. Gary nodded his head in approval and the group set off to find the fifth and final CD.
"Where's the bookcase?" Gary asked as he darted up the stairs.
"There's one in every room!" Jessie groaned. "And how do we know which book we are looking for?"
"Let's just go through each and every book quickly. We will have to find out eventually," suggested Jeri.
They made their first stop at Misty's bedroom, where they rummaged through her glass bookcase. They took books from the shelves, do a quick examination before tossing it on the floor. After the tens of books had been declared empty, they moved on to the next room.
But after unsuccessful searches in Gary and Jeri's rooms, Gary knew something was not right with their method.
"I don't think it's a book." Gary put his arms on his hips, inhaling a deep breath. "It's too general. We have to be more specific."
"Then what is it?" Jessie grunted, slightly frustrated in her tone.
"May be the answer is in the newspapers?" Jeri asked. "I remembered seeing some on the coffee table in the living room."
"Of course! That makes perfect sense!" Gary hit himself lightly on the head with his fist. The group quickly ran back to the living room to look for the CD.
"I've looked over there before. I don't think it's here," said Jessie.
"Are you certain that you didn't miss something?" Gary asked, lifting up various magazines and newspaper on the table.
"Yes." Jessie said, "I don't think it's here..."
After doing a quick search through the books and newspaper on the coffee table, they found nothing. For the first time, they were out of ideas. They decided to look in the closet for a clue, searching through pockets, jackets and other articles of clothing.
"I'm still pretty sure it's at the coffee table," said Jeri. "My gut instinct tells me the answer is newspaper or book."
"But we looked everywhere, and we can't find it!" Gary calmly replied.
"I don't know. I'm just sure that it's here…" Jeri said, as she marched toward the coffee table and inspected it one more time
"Little one, stop wasting time and help us look!" Jessie angrily wagged her finger at Jeri.
"What's this?" Jeri kneeled down and pulled out a CD under the coffee table. "Hey, here it is!"
"It was under the coffee table! I knew it!" Gary grinned. "Let's go to the basement to finish this challenge!"
"We so have the challenge in the bag," said Jessie.
"Unless the laptop runs out of battery…" said Gary in a tone that definitely resembled ominous foreshadowing.
"Don't say that!" Jeri scolded Gary as she took her steps down the staircase.
"Doesn't anyone find it odd how the battery is going down so gradually low?" Jessie asked. "I think she is slacking off when she is alone at the basement."
"No, Misty will never do that." Jeri shook her head.
"May be we know the redhead twerp better than you do, little one…"
Power Remaining: 20
That was the current status bar shown on the laptop screen. Gary anxiously looked at the laptop. They have waited for three minutes already…shouldn't the downloading be completed by now?
"Don't give up yet, Misty! This is the final stretch!" Jeri said, and Misty smiled weakly in response. Truth was, she was getting really exhausted on this bicycle. The challenge had carried on almost thirty minutes now and she hadn't stopped since.
Finally a new window appeared on the laptop.
Congratulations! You have added $40,000 into the pot!
"Yes!" Jessie raised her arm in triumph. Beside her, Misty hopped out of the bicycle and embraced a squealing Jeri in a big warm hug.
"We did it! We did it!" Jeri giggled. "We worked together as a group and did it!"
"Congratulations," Yamaki finally spoke up. "You have added $40,000 into the pot. The group pot now stands at $303,000."
POT: $303,000/$670,000
Gary nodded his head in satisfaction, and in a rare moment, there was a genuine smile on his face. It felt good to be a winner.
"I'm sure you were all wondering why the battery was dying so quickly," said Yamaki, wearing a devilish smirk on his face.
"Oh hell yeah!" Jessie folded her arms across her chest. "What was up with that?"
"Kasumi kicked this wire right at the beginning of the challenge, and therefore disconnecting the power transfer between the laptop and the bike."
The players all kneeled down to see where Yamaki was talking about. Indeed, there was an unhooked wire hanging nearby the pedals. Misty made a loud groaning noise as soon as she saw it.
"Does this mean I did all that work for nothing?"
"Precisely," Yamaki nodded. "But you've won this challenge anyway, but this is some nice food for thought. Enjoy the rest of the day!"
"I feel so, so, so, so stupid now." Misty shook her head and almost laughed at herself. Jeri gave the gym leader another comforting hug. "Oh well, as long as we won the challenge!"
But all of the players have other thoughts about this topic. Gary immediately retreated to his room to record a camera confessional.
"We would have definitely lost the challenge if the three of us didn't complete everything so quickly. Misty had disconnected the wires right at the beginning of the challenge, so that was the cause of why the power was decreasing so rapidly. Shouldn't she have noticed it or something? Luckily, we didn't lose the challenge, but she really screwed up. May be it was an accurate label to call her the dummy."
Jessie was also in her room, relaxing on her bed after a glorious win.
"There were lots of suspicious sabotages in this challenge. Gary overlooked a blatant clue. Jeri often gave us misleading leads. And then there's the whole bicycle thing with Misty. I tell you, you just can't rely on those twerps. But no matter what, we won this challenge. I'm happy as hell that I triumphed over the Mole this time."
She winked at the cameras playfully and blew an air kiss with her hand.
"Take that! I defeated the Mole."
Jeri Katou was sitting on an armchair, gazing dreamily at the fluffy white clouds through the window of her room. Big comfy white clouds that she could imagine wrapping herself in. In that ideal scenario, there would also be birds chirping merrily above her and a beautiful radiant streak of rainbow across the blue endless sky.
The cameraman cleared his throat, forcing Jeri to snap back into reality. Oh right, she was supposed to be giving her confessional about her thoughts on the previous challenge.
"It feels great!" Jeri flashed the most genuine and innocent smile to the camera. "We haven't won a challenge in so long. This one really meant a lot to us. It was like a morale boost."
Jeri leant back on her chair as her eyes slowly drifted back to the window again. The dreamy girl could picture herself sleeping in a bed of clouds, tossing all her worries away and just going into a long relaxing sleep.
"I've had a lot of fun in this game and I think I really got out of my comfort zone in some cases." She smiled, without turning her head to the cameras. "But as fun as this is, I just can't wait for this game to end. Just unveil who the Mole is already and get this whole thing over with."
She added, after a brief dreamy sigh,
"I want to go home…"
Shaking her head softly, Jeri knew now was not the time to soften up. It was only in Gary and Jessie's perception of her that she would crack up at this stage of the game and give up altogether. In their minds, Jeri was just this foolish naïve little girl who didn't deserve to stay in the game.
"I'm surprised she isn't in her room and crying right now," Jessie had said in a confessional, rolling her eyes in mockery. "Or may be she has to cry in front of everyone because she wants them to feel sorry for her. Please, the others might have fallen for her act. But I saw through that phony sweetheart since day one."
Jessie never had any sympathy for her. Simply put, the two of them didn't get along with each other. Their personalities were too different and their styles were too glaringly opposite. They were destined to hate each other in this game.
"I know I'm going to look like a big bad villain when this whole thing plays out." Jessie admitted, rolling her eyes again. "Here is this mean nasty woman tearing apart the sweet innocent village girl. The whole audience is going to feel sorry for her and hate the trash talking bitch. But guess what…"
Jessie pulled herself closer to the cameras and lowered her voice to a soft sexy whisper.
"On the episode of her execution, where everyone is weeping their little eyes out for poor Jeri Katou, I would be the only person laughing in glee. I won't even keep my laughter in discreet. I would be laughing as she strut her phony ass out the door."
She smirked, tossing her long flowing hair behind her shoulder.
"And I'd grab my cup of wine and salute to the camera, because evil would have finally triumphed over good. It would be a vile villainous victory."
"Hello players. I hope you enjoyed your lunch," Yamaki walked into the dining room, breaking the awkward silence amongst the reserved players. "I have a very special gift for you."
The players turned their attention to the host's hand. He was holding four black laptops, which were slim in size and did not weigh very much. The blonde host carefully placed them on the dining table.
"These aren't for us, are they?" Misty asked, with her eyes widened out in surprise.
"Since you have made it so far in the game, this is my present for each of you. Everybody take one please."
"Get out!" Jessie exclaimed in astonishment.
"Thanks Yamaki!" Jeri beamed, taking the first laptop from the stack. She then blushed as she added, "I don't think I know how to use one though."
"They are very easy to use, relax." Yamaki placed a hand on the young girl's shoulder. "In fact, you will all be familiar with how to use your brand new laptops in your next challenge."
"This should be fun," said Gary with a cocky smirk on his face. "I'm good with computers, given all my researching background in laboratories."
"Anyway, in your next challenge…" Yamaki ignored the professor's remark like an unpleasant sneeze. "There is a program in each of your laptops that contain four puzzles. Now, these puzzles are not just run-of-the-mill puzzles. They are very difficult and tricky to solve."
"Even better!" Gary rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "I was always good with brain teasers and such."
"You will have to solve the first puzzle in order for the program allows you to proceed to the next one. Once you've entered a correct answer for all four puzzles, the program will automatically download another program. Once that is completed, you will add $80,000 into the pot."
"That's a lot of money." Misty whistled.
"You will have three hours to complete this challenge. And in order to prevent you from cheating, you will each be taking this little quiz at separate locations." Yamaki said, "One of you will stay here. One of you will go to the public library. One of you will be at the park. One of you will be inside a classroom. Take your picks."
"I'll stay here," Jeri volunteered. "I don't feel like moving around that much."
"I guess I will go to the library," said Gary, shrugging his shoulders.
"I call the classroom!" Jessie grinned.
"And that means Kasumi will be at the playground," Yamaki nodded his head. "Great, in a few moments, you will be blindfolded as we drive you to your location. None of you can start the challenge until all of you arrived at your destination."
As the three players walked to the front door, Yamaki suddenly stopped them. Gary frowned when he caught sight to a mischievous smirk on the host's face.
"Oh, and one more thing that I didn't tell you about…there is a trap somewhere in this challenge. Watch out for it and be very careful."
"What trap?" Misty asked, slightly confused.
"You will see." Yamaki coyly replied back. "All I can guarantee you is that it will add a whole new layer to this challenge…"
Tapping her fingers on a desk, Jessie took a quick look at her surroundings. She knew she was in a vacant classroom of some elementary school, surrounded by rows of desks and chairs. There was a small carpeted area with a bunch of toys and dolls on the floor. As Jessie sat behind a tiny desk, it sure brought back some sentimental memories back when she was young.
There were three blackboards in the tiny classroom. Two of them were empty, but the third one caught Jessie's attention. There was one phrase written on the board in bright yellow chalk: 60 seconds 1 minute.
"I wonder what that means…" Jessie muttered to herself. She did see a multiplication table poster on the wall, so she figured it might be a math classroom. After all, she also saw a few calculators on the teacher's desk.
"You may start the challenge now," said the voice of a producer, interrupting her thoughts.
Immediately Jessie turned on her laptop. There was this long dreadful logging on process she had to endure though, and when it reached the menu section, the laptop requested for a username and a password. Key by key, she slowly typed in the words "mole" in the password bar, a password that Yamaki had given them beforehand.
After a minute of long loading time, the computer was finally turned on. As instructed earlier, she clicked on the shortcut that read "Challenge", and a new window popped up on the screen. Yamaki's face suddenly appeared in the window.
"Hello," said the mechanical voice of Yamaki. It was a pre-recorded video clip from the host.
"Hello there, Yamaki." Jessie laughed.
"You will be solving a series of brain teasers that will be displayed on your screen. As you could see, there is a tiny bar on the bottom of the screen for you to type in your answer, type in your answer in that bar with proper spelling and capitalization.
If the answer is correct, you will move on to the next question. If the answer is incorrect, this program will close and your laptop will automatically restart. You will have to start over again. Also, you may not leave your seat in this challenge until you finished."
"Hmm." Jessie said, tapping her finger rhythmically on the table. The window featuring Yamaki slowly faded to black as the first question appeared on the screen:
Decipher this phrase: Oerto
Jessie hesitated as she reread the question again. Nope, she still didn't get it. The Team Rocket villain had no idea what it meant or even what the brain teaser was asking for.
"I'm just not meant to solve these mind puzzles," Jessie said. "These are more in Gary's field or something, as much as I hate to admit it."
Jessie moved her mouse to highlight the answer bar on the screen. She lingered her fingers on the keyboard with uncertainty. She knew that if she answered incorrectly, her computer will restart and will waste a lot of time loading up again. Ugh, she hated waiting.
Finally she typed in the answer "Ontario" and clicked the enter key. She crossed her fingers, hoping that was the correct answer for her to move on to the next question.
The laptop beeped and the screen turned black - it was restarting again. Jessie wrinkled her nose and mouthed a soft cuss word under her breath.
"Hopefully the others are having better luck than I am."
"Yeah, I got the first answer." Jeri giggled as she explained to the cameras. "I knew the word was Operation, but four of the letters are missing. P, A, I and N. Without these four letters, the phrase becomes a painless operation. Get it?"
Jeri turned her head back to the second question and read it out loud:
What is the sixth letter of this series: B, C, E, G?, Q, S, W
Reading the question one more time, Jeri quickly deduced that the answer must be a letter between G and Q. She could definitely try typing all of them out one by one, but that might take her a very long time if she answered incorrectly.
"There must be a pattern. There is always a pattern." She murmured to herself as she wrote down the sequence of letters on a piece of paper. As a visual learner, she could absorb ideas better if she wrote them down. "May be the letters represent for something? What could they be though?"
She pulled her head away from the computer screen and searched around the room for clues. Jeri was seated on a chair in the dining room, having never left the comfort of the house like others. Yamaki sat right across from her, merrily typing into his laptop and minding his own business.
Turning her head back at the screen, she finally decided that it would be a quicker method if she just randomly typed the letters in one by one. There were only twenty six letters in the alphabet after all. How hard could it be? She hit the key "H" on her keyboard and entered, hoping for the best.
But it was an incorrect answer. The program closed down and the laptop forced itself to restart again.
This is going to take a while. Jeri sighed softly to herself.
After a minute, the menu showed up and requested for her username and password. Jeri was not an experienced typist, so she had to look down at the keyboard constantly as she punched in the letters. She typed in the password "mole" into the laptop to continue.
"I'll have to wait this long every time I get an incorrect answer." Jeri explained to the cameras glumly. "Now I have to wait for everything to load, and when I click on the program, I have to listen to this really long speech by Yamaki before the program actually launches itself. If my next letter "I" is not the correct answer, then I will have to start this whole process again. It is very repetitive."
"Hello. You will be solving a series of brain teasers…"
Misty Waterflower was sitting on a park bench in the playground, but she was not alone. There were lots of children around her, laughing and running around the playground like unleashed animals in a zoo. Little boys and girls flopping on see-saws, soaring in the sky with swings and gliding giddily down the slides. Misty almost envied their carefree spirits.
The menu screen finished loading for the Cerulean gym leader, and Misty swiftly punched in 'mole' as the password. Like Jeri, she was forced to restart her laptop after entering an incorrect answer on a question.
As the screen loaded, Misty drifted her eyes back at the happy laughing children. Just seeing them play so merrily brought a smile to her face. Being the youngest sibling in a big family, she had always loved little children. She wanted to take on the responsibility of an older sister for once.
Misty turned her attention back to the laptop and clicked for the program to start. A new window popped up on the screen and the clip of Yamaki explaining the instruction was played again.
"Hello, you will be solving a series of brain teasers..."
"I wished there was a fast forward button," joked Misty. "I've heard him say this for at least five times already."
"…also, you may not leave your seat until you have completed."
The video clip stopped and the first question appeared on the screen. Having figured this rebus in the first few minutes, she typed in "painless operation" in the answer bar with ease. She moved on to the second question.
"M for Misty!" Misty laughed as she entered the letter M. She had figured out the answer to this question a few minutes ago. She was now on her third question:
An employee named Jane works in a secret laboratory. To gain access into the lab, she must enter a password into the computer outside of the door. One day, she found out that she could not log into her computer terminal. Her password didn't work. Then she remembered that passwords reset every month for security purposes. She went to her boss for assistance.
"Boss, my password is out of date," said Jane.
"Yes, that's right." The boss smiled. "The password is different, but if you listen carefully you should be able to figure out the new one. It has the same amount of letters as your old password, but only four of the letters are the same."
"Thank you, sir!"
With that, Jane went and correctly entered the password into the computer to gain access into the lab. What was the new password?
"Huh?" Misty scratched her head in puzzlement. "Did I read past a few lines where the answer was?"
"I know the answer is right in front of me. I just can't see it…and when I finally figured this out, I will be smacking my forehead and wondering why I can't find such an obvious answer."
Then the gym leader chuckled in amusement.
"Kind of reminds me of this game in general."
BEEP!
"Shit," muttered the professor when he realized that he had typed in an incorrect answer. His laptop was restarting again.
That curse word got him a few nasty glances from people hanging around the bookshelves, but he couldn't care less. He sat in a slouchy posture around one of the many tables in the library. People everywhere around him were reading or browsing through books, it was a studious atmosphere.
When the menu screen showed up, he typed his own name in the toolbar to log on. After everything was set, he started the program, and tuned out of Yamaki's opening speech. After a minute of listening to his recorded instructions, Gary quickly typed in the answer to the first puzzle.
"The first answer is painless operation," he said. "The four letters missing from the word operation is pain, so it's a painless operation."
He moved on to the second question, and Gary pressed the key M.
"The second answer is M. This is actually a sequence of prime numbers, but letters replaced the numbers instead. B is the second letter, C is the third letter, E is the fifth letter and so on. Since it asked for the sixth "prime" letter, it has to be letter number thirteen – which is M."
Now on his third question, Gary did not hesitate as he typed in "different" in the answer key bar.
"The third answer is different. If you read the question very easily, the boss actually says what the password is. This one was extremely easy, I got it right away."
And finally, Gary arrived at his fourth question, the one that stumped him the most:
In a faraway country, there are over one hundred adjacent streets. Street 1 is named First Street, street 2 is named Second Street. This trend continues on and on.
A traveler decides to walk through all of these streets in the country. He could find all the streets except for Street 62. No matter how hard he tried, he could not find it. When he asked a local to help him identify the street, he learned that the street was given another name.
What is the name?
"Not to brag or anything, but I breezed through the previous three puzzles like wind. But the fourth question…it's very challenging." Gary scratched his head and winced. He didn't like being stumped at a question. After all he was a self-proclaimed puzzle king.
"What is the name of the sixty second street?" He asked himself. "It seems like there is a twist in this question, but I'm missing it. Why is that number singled out?"
He closed his eyes and dropped his head to the table to think, mumbling words to himself. Spectators beside him looked at him with funny glances, wondering what the young man was up to.
"Sixty second street…sixty second street…sixty second street."
There has to be a connection! Gary thought, bringing his head up from the table. He repeated the phrase a few more times under his breath.
Is this a play on words?
"Sixty seconds…" Gary then started to grin, as if an imaginary light bulb lit above his head, "…equals to one minute. The street is called Minute Street!"
The young professor typed in "Minute Street" into the answer bar, and indeed it was the correct answer. A new window popped up on the screen, featuring another video clip of Yamaki. In a cold mechanical voice, he announced:
"Congratulations, you have solved the brain teasers in the allotted time. You add $80,000 into the pot."
POT: $383,000/$750,000
However, Yamaki's video clip did not stop as he would have expected. Instead the message continued on. Just from the devilish tone in the host's voice, Gary sensed that something was going to happen out of the ordinary.
"You may remember that I mentioned something about a trap in this challenge at the beginning of the challenge. By downloading this program, you have triggered the trap.
"Starting as soon as this message is completed, this program will be replaced by a virus. When the other players download this program after they finished their four puzzles, they will obliviously download a virus instead of this message shown to you. For every infected laptop, $25,000 will be removed from the pot. It is up to you to abort their programs before they download a virus, so go immediately, for you do not have much time."
Gary sat still on his chair for a few seconds, staring at the motionless laptop. The tides have turned and the challenge was far from over. He now had to stop the other players from finishing this challenge, or they will remove $25,000 from the pot – each! The reversal of order had begun and now Gary needed to make sure the money he worked so hard to earn stayed in the pot.
"I don't know where Jessie or Misty is, but I do know that Jeri is at home. I'll contact her first," explained Gary as he rushed out of the library with impressive speed.
The challenge could end almost any second, as soon as the players downloaded a virus in their computers, it would be too late for recovery. He was not racing against a set clock or a defined period of time. Instead, he was competing with how fast their brains worked.
Suddenly Gary flashed a tiny arrogant smirk to the camera, because if that was the case, he had absolutely nothing to worry about.
Jeri Katou was reading the final question of her quiz.
"This question doesn't really make sense," the girl murmured to herself. "How am I supposed to know the sixty second street's name?"
Feeling a little bummed out, the little girl dropped her head on the dining table and stared at her laptop emotionlessly. She was stumped and with her brain was fizzled out, she simply couldn't handle any more brain teasers for the day.
Tic…tac…tic…tac…
She could hear heavy keystrokes Yamaki was typing on his laptop, and in the background, she could also hear a faint sound of the clock ticking second by second. Even the most common sound was driving Jeri's brain insane, she wanted everything to be silent! She can't think with so much noise!
Wait a second…Jeri slowly raised her head from the table and widened her eyes. The clock?
"I could give it a try…" Jeri smiled impishly to herself as she typed in "Minute Street" in the toolbar. Taking a deep and final breath, the little girl entered her answer into the laptop. It was the correct answer, but the computer laptop instantly shut down. Even worse was, it wouldn't even restart.
"Hey!" Jeri gasped in panic. "What's wrong? Why won't it restart?"
She pounded the laptop lightly with her fist a few times and glanced at Yamaki for help. The host offered an empty shrug and returned to his laptop, ignoring the little girl's shock. Just then, there was a knock on the door, pounding heavily for attention.
"Gary!" Jeri gasped in surprise as she opened the door. "What are you doing here?"
"Stop whatever you're doing, Jeri!"
"Why?" Jeri looked at the professor with a confused face. "Anyway, can you help me with this laptop? I typed in an answer and it won't restart again! What's wrong with it?"
Gary winced and slowly made an evasive glance at Yamaki, knowing that he was about to say two words that he would have regretted hearing.
"Too late."
"What's going on?" Jeri asked.
"It's a long story, I'll explain to you on the bus." Gary grabbed Jeri's hand and pulled her to the main door. "We need to get Riley to drive us to the school and playground where the other two are, before more money gets taken out of the pot."
"Taken out of the pot? Gary, can you explain this before we leave?" Jeri shook off Gary's grasp. "I want to know what's going on first."
"Jeri, why are you stalling time?" Gary let out an irritated sigh. "I finished the puzzle, triggered a virus program and you downloaded it. Now we lost $25,000 out of the $80,000 that I earned."
"Oh wow…I'm sorry," said by Jeri in a remorseful tone.
"Yeah, yeah." Gary grunted as he opened the door. "If we are lucky, may be we could stop them before it's too late."
The pair raced outside to the garage where the mini tour bus was parked at. Riley, the bus driver, was sitting behind the steering wheel, ready to go at command. Gary instructed her to drive them where Misty and Jessie were.
"Sorry, I don't know where that is." Riley innocently smiled at them. "Be more specific."
"But you drove them there, how could you not know?" Gary sneered. "Fine, there probably aren't many schools around. Let's go to the most nearby neighbourhood elementary school." With that, Riley grinned and finally started the bus ride.
As soon as they made their arrival outside of an elementary school, Jeri and Gary hopped off the tour bus and ran inside. They knew their objective was to find Jessie as quickly as possible and stop her before she finished the challenge. The school was not too big in size, but they decided to split up in different directions as they made classroom searches for Jessie.
"Jeri just lost us $25,000." Gary muttered to the cameras as he stormed through the school hallways, searching for the Team Rocket member. "She could easily use an excuse that she didn't know what was going on. That's what Jeri does best, making important mistakes and then pretending to be oblivious to what's going on."
On the other side of the school, Jeri Katou was quietly walking through the halls as well, going through various vacant classrooms. She almost cleared up the eastern hallway of the school, except for one classroom at the end. She slowly marched toward that direction and knocked on the door.
"Who is it?"
"Jessie! Let me in!" Jeri replied back, smiling softly as she recognized Jessie's annoyed voice. She looked around to find Gary, but he was nowhere in sight.
"Two questions: why are you here and what do you want?" Jessie shot a snobby glare at the little girl after opening the door. "I'm in the middle of the quiz here."
"You aren't finished with your challenge yet?" Jeri asked in a hopeful manner.
"No, I'm still on the second question," Jessie crossed her arms across her chest. "You got a problem with that?"
"You have to stop the quiz now!" Jeri said, "Gary said that you will be taking money away from the pot!"
"So Gary told you all this?" Jessie questioned curiously. "How do you know he isn't bullshitting you?"
"It's my gut instinct. We have to trust each other," Jeri's voice sounded slightly exasperated as she continued to make her plea.
"Whatever, little one. I'd be a fool to actually believe you," Jessie turned around and began to walk back to her desk.
Jeri winced a little and took a deep breath before dashing past Jessie. Before the Team Rocket member could do anything about it, Jeri reached the laptop first. In one swift motion, she pressed a few keys on the keyboard to shut the laptop down.
"I'm sorry, but I had to do it." Jeri looked at an awestruck Jessie with a sheepish smile. "You will be happy that I did it when you know the whole story."
"How do I know Yamaki didn't offer you an exemption just to stop me from taking the quiz?" Jessie asked, with her hands on her hip and looking very angry.
"You'll just have to take my word on it! Trust me, please!"
"Trust you?" Jessie scoffed in ridicule at the innocent-looking girl. "This is coming from the same person who lied about bidding on the auction for an exemption!"
"Jessie," Jeri looked at her archrival very seriously, not about to back down from the intimidating bully any longer. It took all the courage in her tiny body to muster up a three word response back, "I never lied."
The four players returned to the living room with their laptops and took seats in individual armchairs. Yamaki was standing across from all of them, with a black briefcase in his hands. Like always, he had a stoic look on his face that revealed nothing and his eyes were hidden behind a pair of black shades, even if they were inside the house.
"The challenge was simple at first," he began. "In nine minutes, Shigeru was the first person to answer all four questions on the quiz correctly and added $80,000 into the pot."
Jessie shot a glare at Gary, who was looking very proud and wearing a satisfied smirk on his face.
"But there was a trap and he triggered a virus in all of your laptops. Anybody who finishes the quiz after Shigeru would take away $25,000 from the pot. He ran all the way from the library back to the house to stop Juri, but he was a few minutes too late. At twenty-three minute mark, Juri downloaded the virus. Your earnings now drop to $55,000."
Jeri sat nervously in her own armchair, twiddling her finger with her bangs as Yamaki continued to make his announcement.
"Next, the two of you took a ride on the bus to go to the school where Musashi was located. Juri managed to stop Musashi before she finished the challenge, so therefore no money is subtracted from the pot. However, I do have a penalty to give out."
"What?" Jessie exclaimed, almost leaping out of her seat in surprise.
"As I instructed in the challenge, nobody could leave their seat when they are still doing the challenge. Musashi, you left your designated seat to open the door for Juri, which was unlocked by the way, and broke the rules. So because of that, I will have to take away $5,000 from your earnings. You are now down to $50,000."
"That's bullshit!" Jessie angrily snarled at Yamaki. "And you know it!"
"Last but not least, the three of you arrived at the park and realized it was too late. Kasumi was actually the second person to finish the challenge, and she was only a few minutes behind Shigeru in time. But in this challenge, finishing quickly doesn't mean good. She fell in the trap and also removed $25,000 from the pot."
Misty sighed softly and shrugged as if to say "Oh well, what can you do?"
"So in total, you have only added $25,000 out of a total $80,000 into the pot. The finalized pot now stands at $408,000."
POT: $408,000/$830,000
"You will be taking your seventh execution quiz after dinner," Yamaki concluded his speech. "Good luck to all of you."
Gary Oak was the first to leave the living room to prepare for the upcoming quiz. To be honest, he was slightly irritated at losing the money he worked so hard to earn in the last challenge, but at the same time, it also helped him confirm his suspicions about the Mole. The young cocky professor now entered the quiz with a bloated ego and confidence that he perfectly knew who the Mole was.
Misty Waterflower followed after him, carrying an equally strong confidence in her stride as she walked. Having never lost sight of the prize, the determined Cerulean gym leader was now wearing a fierce smile on her face. Her competitive nature kicked into gear and now all gloves were off. It was the final stretch and she was one hundred percent motivated to kick some butts.
Jeri Katou went next, but she did not bear the same aura as the other two. Every step she took was shaky, as if it was an indication to her uncertainty of who the Mole was. Distracted by homesickness and other emotional distresses, the big-eyed innocent girl was not too sure of her chances at the next quiz. But she shook her head to clear up those thoughts, because after experiencing so many highs and lows in this game, she didn't want to go home just yet.
The last to leave was Jessie, taking a slow and stylish departure from the living room. Out of all the players here, there was no question that she was the most ruthless and would do anything in order to win this game. Her bitchy demeanour made her the villain of the group, but at the same time, she also became the underdog. Heroes can't win every single time, and there was a shimmering amount of hope in her that sometimes, just sometimes, villains could also be winners.
The players, isolated in different rooms of the house, were now taking their seventh execution quiz on their laptops, ten questions about the identity of the Mole.
Pouting her lips a little, Misty answered No to a question on the quiz.
"Gary might have added $80,000 into the pot, but he was also responsible for triggering the trap and causing us to lose more than half of the money. He didn't put too much of an effort trying to warn us about this virus because his true intentions wanted us to download the virus. He wanted us to do his dirty work for him and remove money from the pot."
Gary shifted his mouse cursor along the screen as he read the third question of the quiz: What role did the Mole play in the CD challenge today?
"It was quite unambiguous to me that Misty tried to sabotage the CD scavenger hunt. She volunteered to take on the task and ride on the stationary bike because she wanted to meddle with the wires. That way, no matter how hard she pretends to be riding on the bike, she is actually just watching the battery die and doing nothing about it. Misty was actually very close to losing that challenge for us. The work of the Mole? I think so."
Stumped on the sixth question, Jessie hesitated before clicking on an answer with her mouse.
"I noticed one thing in the CD scavenger hunt this morning. Out of nowhere, Jeri would just shout out a spontaneous answer to where the CD was and guess what, it was there! She would just magically have all these answers and locations to where the CDs were, and I think she did it on purpose. She knew where the CDs were before this challenge, and it was the Mole's tactic to win this challenge so she would look less suspicious in all of our eyes."
Jeri Katou was on the final question of the quiz: Who was the Mole?
"Throughout the course of this game, Jessie went through a series of penalties that chipped away a fair amount of money from the pot. This time, she happened to get out of her seat to open the door from us. Just like that, she took $5,000 from the pot even when she must have heard Yamaki's instructions over ten times. Look how easy it is for the Mole to sabotage challenges…it's that simple."
The four players entered into the living room where Yamaki was sitting behind a desk and his laptop. Beside him was the fatal screen that would broadcast one of their executions.
"Welcome to the seventh execution players. For one of you, the journey ends here. I will randomly begin typing your names into the computer. When your name comes up, if the screen flashes green, you are safe. If the screen flashes red, you are the Mole's seventh victim."
Yamaki scanned his eyes across the four players, all in various states of nervousness. The most nervous was obviously little Jeri Katou, shaking slightly in her armchair.
"Juri."
The brown haired girl brought her face into her hands, covering it up as Yamaki typed in her name.
tic.
tic.
tic.
tic.
The screen flashed green.
Jeri still had her head buried in her hands. Misty patted the little girl on her back to let her know about the good news.
"Shigeru."
The young professor was slouching in his seat and looked quite comfortable in his armchair. It didn't seem like he was ready to leave it any time soon.
tic.
tic.
tic.
tic.
The screen flashed green.
"I will now enter Musashi's name into the laptop," announced Yamaki. "If the screen is green, then that means Kasumi is executed from the game."
Jessie clicked her heels together to anticipate the intensity of this execution. She turned her head to look at Misty, who was just staring straight ahead at the screen.
"Musashi."
tic.
tic.
tic.
tic.
The screen flashed red.
Nodding her head slowly, Jessie slowly and reluctantly rose from her seat. Misty let out a soft sigh of relief under her breath.
"Musashi, you are the Mole's seventh victim. You've been executed from the game. Please follow me."
As Jessie marched toward the door, the others silently looked at her make her departure. They were expecting for a dramatic exit or an angry outburst from the beautiful Team Rocket diva. But alas, Jessie wasn't going to give them that pleasure. As she marched out of the door, she never looked back at them.
And then she was gone.
"I have to give her props that she left on a high note," said Gary. "I thought she was going to be a total bitch before she left, and I'm glad she didn't make this an unpleasant exit."
"If only she acted that way during her stay in that game…" Jeri muttered softly. "I would have liked her a lot better."
"So…" Misty grinned as she turned her head to look at Jeri and Gary. "Who is the Mole?"
"I am the Mole," said Gary with a little dainty smirk on his face.
"No, I am the Mole and you know it," giggled Jeri.
"The two of you, stop lying!" Misty wagged her finger at her two teammates, "It's so obvious that I am the Mole!"
"I can't believe one of us is going to emerge as a winner," Jeri said giddily. She was feeling a lot more relaxed now after surviving the execution.
"It's unbelievable," Gary echoed.
Wearing a huge grin on her face, Misty sprang up from her seat in excitement.
"Rock on! We are the Final Three!"
Feeling a few snowflakes falling on her head, Jessie looked up at the sky to realize that it was snowing. She stuck out her tongue to taste them, while Yamaki looked on with amusement. It was a side to Jessie that he wasn't used to seeing when she was still in the game. Even underneath all that rough talk and bitchiness, he realized there was a softer and more humane side to Jessie.
"Everybody thought you were going to give some kind of outburst before you left," said Yamaki.
"They might think I'm a bitch and that's fine, but I'm going to leave on my own terms, not based on what their vague impressions are of me," Jessie smiled faintly.
"How does it feel to just miss out in the finals?" Yamaki asked.
"It sucks. I was really hoping that a villain could pull of a victory just for once, just to see the looks on the faces of those squeaky-clean twerps."
"No vile villainous victory?"
"Sometimes, villains may win," Jessie snickered. "But most of the time, they just fall flat on their sorry asses."
"A wise quote to remember," Yamaki laughed.
After bidding a short farewell to Yamaki, the Team Rocket member slowly walked onto the bus. The doors closed and the bus drove away, carrying the seventh Mole victim into the lonely streets of Toronto.
END OF EXECUTION #7
Next Episode: Guess Who
It's down to the last stretch for the three remaining players as they complete their final challenges to fill the one million dollar pot. Will the Mole succeed in making the ultimate sabotage?
Author's Note
If you feel familiar with some of the challenges used this episode, you will know that I got inspiration from the Season 1 Mole DVD I got a few weeks ago. Just watching that gives me warm and fuzzy memories of what the real show is about. If you don't have one in your collection yet, get one!
We are down to the Final Three, and even I can feel the excitement leading into the finale! There is one more episode before the grand finale where everything is revealed, and I just can't wait to get started on it. For those of you who are faithful readers, thanks for not losing hope on this project even during its rocky times. It's finally coming to an end!
These are the official poll results of Who is the Mole from Episode 6. The majority thinks it's Misty, but will your opinions waiver after reading this episode?
32 percent – Misty
23 percent – Gary
23 percent – Jeri
21 percent – Jessie
Just for this chapter, there will be a new Mole poll up. Instead of asking who you think is the Mole, I want to know who you want to see win this game, because the winner is just as important as the Mole! So go vote in the Mole Poll for Episode 7!