The guilty and the Innocent
Chapter 7
Cost of Defense –Oak and Giovanni
A/N: Long chapter, I want to answer the question how much does Oak know along with a few other dynamics of their relationship. Probably only three more chapters until the end, and don't worry this all wont be retrospective brooding on both men's parts I'll break away from the flashback style, there will be a fight (maybe two), and other goodies. After last chapter I'm kina iffy on the ranking, does anyone with some knowledge on the ranking system know if I've hit the Mature ranking yet?
Little conversation came as the first and last game wound down to its forgone conclusion. They'd talked for hours already and once all conversation was done they focused on the game in full.
"Check mate."
"Excuse me a moment," The loser set his hand to a pulse point. "I'm not dead, I'm not dreaming…"
"I won," Leo said smugly. "And it's been a long time coming."
Samuel laughed at that, it was Leo's first win since they started playing long ago.
"So you have been practicing? Well it shows, and the lack of opponents on my end has made me lost my edge."
"Excuses excuses…"
"It's getting late." Oak said apologetically as he checked the electronic clock in the wall. "I need to tend to the Hoot-hoot and other nocturnal Pokemon now so that when they wake they'll have something to eat."
"You're raising Hoot-hoot now?"
"I'm tending and studying the ones Gary brings to me." Oak stood and he could feel Giovanni's eyes boring into him. He knew the man was probably wondering if Samuel was making an excuse to get him to leave. Sighing Oak gave the younger man a long hard look. "Leo, I don't play head games, politeness games, or any other types of game except a good round of Chess. The world you're up to your ears in, the lies, and backstabbing, it stops at my door. Don't ever forget that."
Giovanni nodded, was justly rebuked and accepted the rebuke.
Giovanni would do nothing to offend or anger Samuel, would accept rebuke and so much more from him then he would from any other man. If their friendship ever broke Leo would lose his last sanctuary against the world he lived in. While Oak didn't know had deep Leo was in, he knew that their friendship was perhaps the last thing keeping Leo from turning into his father. It was chilling to see the hope drain out of a man, to watch as the years went on to see hope, and joy slowly die. When you got older you accepted your lot, slowly detached yourself from the burdens of your duty and found things outside work to take pleasure in and become more focused on those. As youth fell to time you accepted it, let loose the reins and let others take a turn at the charging Rapidash that was ambition and gracefully stepped into the background. You tended the last dreams; you fulfilled the last wishes, and settled to enjoy the leisure that took the pain off of aching joints and backs.
If Samuel knew Leo, a stubborn somewhat power hungry man, it would snow in Blaine's volcanic Gym before he settled down for five minuets much less the tail end of his life time.
He was surprised when Leo stood, held open the door for him to pass through, then followed him outside.
"Leo," Oak blinked. "Don't you have business or something to take care of?"
Leo rose an eyebrow, a humored smile quirked his lip.
"I may be a distant, vicious, underhanded, entrepreneur, but I have lines, limits to how cold I allow myself to be towards others, and I'm certainly not cold enough to leave you to do heavy labor when you're obviously hurt."
It had been a long time since Leo had actually helped him outside. He avoided walking the grounds where the Pokemon walked for many reasons. Leo frowned, his dark eyes flicked over a stand of trees, the trunks were slashed by claw but only the experienced could see that as the trees were doing a good job on healing themselves. The ground around them was dead; poison types had left their marks here long ago and still the earth was recovering. Giovanni saw that old odd cluster of trees clinging to life, surrounded by death, and looked away. Samuel knew why, and found it hard to pass this area, but he did every day to get to the feed sheds because he had to.
X
"Samuel listen to me, I'm not pulling a joke, why do you think I'd ride my Fearow to exhaustion to play a prank on you?"
"Leo, I don't know how you know about something that is a private affair, I don't appreciate you spying on me."
"I didn't mean too..." Leo blushed. "I didn't, but you have to believe me."
"Look, I'll admit those interested in the land were a bit harsh, and about as prickly as a Jolteon on edge, but there is nothing to worry about. I am perfectly safe; you can see that for yourself."
"You won't stay safe if you don't lis-"
"Leo," Friendship was strained by the boy's sharp tone; he slid out of his role of friend and adopted his teacher stance. "Don't use that tone with me, it's disrespectful."
"Disrespect…" Leo sputtered, eyes blazing. "Haven't you been listening to me at all?"
Samuel decided enough was enough. He let some fire come into his eyes and met those black eyes squarely.
"You have barged into my lab, unannounced, trespassed on my lands without permission, all to break into my house and trot out some wild tale that the Rockets are actually going to kill me if I don't sell my land. Leo you've stepped over too many lines with this stunt, much less broke more laws then I care to think about…"
"This isn't a game! I'm serious; I know it sounds crazy but…"
Taking a deep breath Oak crossed his arms in front of his chest.
"Leo, enough! You've never lied to me before this, and you are pushing things too far by starting now. You can stay the night if that will make you more comfortable with the fact that I'm not going to spontaneously combust because some hostile people tried to bully me into making a rash decision. Then after that you will continue your journey. What were you thinking just up and running out from Celadon to fly your Fearow this hard to get here? Are you insane? You nearly killed your Fearow to play some stupid prank, I expected better from you Leonardo Giovanni."
"Why don't you believe me?"
Oak flinched from the pained tone in the boy's voice; he obviously believed himself, thought this was going to happen and had nearly broke young his neck he'd flown in so hard to get here.
"I'm touched by your concern." Samuel knelt so he was eye to eye with the thirteen year old. "But it's so illogical that they'd bother me at all. I don't have any rare Pokemon, I'm smart enough to not get any of those. So long as I use only a bit of the land for myself and leave the rest to go natural's way I won't have enough wealth to be worth bothering. I've protected myself with common sense, live humble and they don't bother you, so long as I keep doing so why should they bother me?"
Samuel was disturbed to see the pain in Leo's eyes, desperation warred with… who knew what it was? Even for a child Leo was distant, withdrawn, and incapable of honestly expressing more the amusement or calculation. Rarely had the boy show any hints of joy as way of a small smile, only once could Samuel even recall Leo even acting excited like any other child, and even then it had been subdued by some dark thing in his eyes.
"If I prove it, will you believe me? If I prove it will you listen to me?"
"Can it wait until morning?"
Samuel really looked at the boy, black rings were under those eyes, the pale face was pasty. He was probably coming down with something nasty, that or he hadn't slept for days.
He wondered, with a faint chill, if Leo had been sleeping at all, the boy was on his last legs, and the cause had to do with this near hysteria state this strange threat he had heard.
"Yes, they'll strike in three days, so it can wait."
At those words a chill slid up his spine.
"Alright then," Samuel tried not to shiver. "You can take the bed then and I'll…"
"No, they have spies on this place, I can't stay here tonight. I disabled the bugs they planted temporarily, but they'll be back on any minute so we can't meet here. The park, by the gazebo there is a bench." Leo sighed, put a hand over his eyes as he thought. "After you do your morning routine you take a walk right, by the river?"
Samuel nodded; a little chilled that Leo would know his routine that well. Questions boiled in him but Leo gave him this look that commanded him to remain quiet and he obeyed.
"He never goes to the park, none of them do, so I want you to make sure your walk bring you by there, I'll talk to you when you get to the bench. Do you know where it is? The park is rather large."
"I know where it is."
"Good, if you get turned around someone can help you. Just say you're curious to see if they painted it a new color or something."
Leo went to the front door, a door Oak knew he'd locked.
"What about you?"
"I've slept in worse placed then a park at night before. Don't talk about this to anyone, not even yourself, the bugs will be back on line five minuets tops, you were going to bed, by now you'd have checked all the locks already so just head straight to bed. Don't worry, I checked the rest of the locks before coming in, they rest of the house is set. Don't forget the front door."
Then he was gone, stepped into the shadows and disappeared.
X
"I'd have torn it down years ago, but the Pidgy roost in it during the summer and then when Gary sent me a Murkrow it took a liking to the place and now has a nest there."
"Ah." Leo grimaced, rubbed his shoulder as if it pained him.
Little wonder he did.
X
"Finally!" Small feet stopped drumming the bench, and Leo looked up. If at all possible he looked even more rumpled and worn down then last night. "It can't take that long to feed a bunch of…" The words were cut off by a yawn. "Never mind, you're here, let's go off a little ways."
"Leo," Samuel was chilled; his heart felt like it was filling with cold at the boy's almost professional manner. "We aren't going anywhere until you explain several things."
"Life or death Sam, if you follow me I promise no matter what it costs me, it'll always be life, but if you don't trust me right now…. The Rockets want something you have, you didn't give it to them, and they hate that sort of thing."
"Leo." Samuel quirked his lips into a humored smile. "How would you know what the Rockets want?"
Leo looked around, then met his eyes squarely, pain, indecision fell away, he took a deep breath.
"When I was little, I asked you to not hate me, not for my father, not for what I am. Even though I bet things are really scary from where you are right now, do you still hold to that?"
"Yes," Samuel said without thinking it over for a second, and that honesty broke one of the walls he could see in the boy's soul. Tears burned in those eyes, but refused to fall.
"Raphael is one of them, one of the most powerful Rockets ever. Now come on, if he finds out I'm here he'll know, and then… He'll kill us both."
Shaking Oak did so, wondering what in God's name he was getting into.
X
"You won't be doing any lifting with that leg, honestly Samuel, were you going to just drop the bag down and kick it over to the reserve and slash it open with a pen?"
"Err…" Oak blushed, tried to look innocent.
"Samuel, you are a good man, but God you can be a stupid man as well. You give too much without even thinking it over that it costs you."
"Good thing I didn't go into business, I'd be… in the black?"
"It's called in the red, being in the black means you aren't losing money, in the red means you are losing money of in debt, in the green means you are making significant profit."
"So then you'd be in the gold."
"I prefer platinum personally."
"Was that deliberate, that play on words?"
"Not exactly," Leo grimaced, though that might of come from lifting the bag, it probably wasn't however, as Leo was still very much in his physical prime. "Soon I'll be inflicting my bad poetry on my subordinates. Then you'll have every man in all my companies not so quietly planning your demise."
"I'll just merely say that your sudden adopting of poetry as a past time comes from all those charming social evens where the youngsters talk on hour and hours of nothing else. At least you'd never have to deal with that ever again if they turned off of me and onto..."
"The social Butterfree's?" Leo supplied with a chuckle. "Brilliant, may I worship the ground you walk upon?"
"No, just keep up."
"How do your internees survive training period?" Leo puffed, as Samuel set a very fierce pace for a man who was walking on crutches.
"Most of them quit before the month is out and take less labor intensive jobs."
"Like what, construction work?"
X
"Your father…" Oak squeaked, he honestly squeaked.
Leo laughed, though there was a hint of hysteria to his voice, that hysteria was firmly clamped down on.
"How did you figure he'd got rich so fast? Oh wait… you wouldn't know about that would you? Alright I'll start back in the beginning and explain all of this as much as I can, obviously I can't tell you everything but I'll tell you what I can."
"How did you find out about?"
"He told me." Leo said simply with the candor of a child explaining a fact of life. "I've known since I was old enough to understand. After all if someone kills him then I need to be able to tell if it was a Rocket job or not, and to go into hiding if it is."
Leo leaned against a tree, ran a hand nervously through his hair, Oak couldn't take it, he sat down, mind reeling.
"My great great great grandfather founded the Rockets, after he died my family stepped down from running the Rockets, it wouldn't be a dynasty since those don't last and tend to go bad. If there was power to be earned and someone in our family wanted it we'd earn it the hard way. Raphael, earned it, he killed almost everyone above him and made himself really powerful."
Oak was shaking at the matter of fact tone Leo was talking in, he'd answered and asked questions for a class in that tone.
"No one in our family knows but me, Mother doesn't know, and neither do any of my Aunts or Uncles on her side."
"What about the rest of the family on his side."
"There isn't any left."
Oak swallowed hard and Leo looked away from him.
"I wasn't supposed to know, about them wanting your land. But I guessed, Raphael has a Gym here after all, and he gripped about how it was an inconvenience to go to Vermillion all the time and leaving the Gym. It was too conspicuous to leave and then have the Rockets run an attack right after. He knew someone would figure it out, so he wants to make a headquarters here, but not in the city, the police find those, and the parks ground is too unstable."
"My research facility…" Oak whispered.
"Bingo," then Leo blushed. "Sorry I don't mean it to sound like that."
"I understand, to you I must seem rather stupid for not figuring this out."
Leo refused to answer that one.
"You won't sell; they gave up on that, so now they deal with the problem. They'll kill all your Pokemon, discredit you by poisoning the food. After all a researcher who kills all his Pokemon off isn't ever going to be trusted ever again."
"I'd lose the land, I'd probably sell it to make medicine if the poison was slow or rare, or to cover damages if I couldn't save any of them…" Samuel felt sick, yet under the sickness was a bit of humor, it was strange to talk about himself like this, like he was a pawn in some sick man's game.
"Yep, that's it." Leo looked relieved that Oak had caught on.
"But then… what can I do, I can't starve them. And I wager if I dump the food they'll get suspicious."
"That." Leo grinned, looking very much like a child who was getting a reward. "Depends on how you dump it."
X
"Oh stop grousing, you've probably lifted heavier weights then that sack." Oak looked up from taking his notes on the feed, he was sitting on a large boulder watching the Hoot-hoots, Murkrows, and the facilities sole Pidgeot come to eat.
"No, I haven't, that thing must way a hundred…" Leo crumpled the bag, and was going to toss it aside.
"Hand me that, I need the barcode number on the side."
"Still doing that?"
"It keeps good habits going, and the incident was not the only time in which I had a bit of bad food on my hands, or as a matter of fact people who've tried to give me too little food."
"Finally, some hint of organization and record keeping."
"Come a little closer." Oak grumbled, "You're just out of reach."
"I believe, I will remain where it is safe." A calculating look came onto his face. "So long have you had that Pidgeot?"
"It's not mine, it's Ash's, and no, he's not for sale. Ash would sooner curl up and die then give up one of his Pokemon, even for any amount of small fortune you'd care to offer. He'd find the very idea insulting enough to challenge you for bringing it up."
"Is it me?" Giovanni said at last. "Or do you seem to gather all the hotheaded over passionate trainers?"
"Are you implying something?" Oak gave the younger man a long hard look
"Me?" Leo's expression was bland, far too bland.
X
"Do you understand?"
"Take the notes, leave the older versions on the bench, you'll age those then the night they do the poisoning. Check the food the next morning then call in to report abnormalities in quantity and texture, call the local Center to supply food until an expert comes out in two days then hand it over to him."
"I'll leave you the older notes in an envelope under the door mat after you make the call."
"And that will be the end."
"I don't know." Leo shivered looking scared. "I really don't know."
"Leo, how did you find this out? All you ever said was that you weren't supposed to. Are you in danger?"
"Even if I am… you can't protect me, so what does it matter? You better get going now; it'll be a while till I see you again, until its safe."
The boy then ran off before Oak could say anything.
X
Samuel was looking well for a man who just came back from the hospital. But then he'd stayed there much longer then was his want, as a number of papers got mixed up preventing him from leaving right away. Leo had arranged that mix up, had spent many sleepless nights juggling Sam's records, his legal businesses, and his illegal one. He had been pushing himself, even as he basically forced Samuel to not do the same. He closed his eyes wearily; at least with this nearly done he could drop one of his tasks and perhaps now sleep a little easier.
"Leo," Oak looked at him in concern. "Are you alright?"
"Fine," He dredged up a smile and looked at his watch. Six-o-clock, the night was creeping up on him; I would have been eleven in the Orange Isles, where he had been staying over seeing a number of less then legal acquisitions. "It's just a little late for me; since I flew in from the Isles on helicopter to get here I have time shift strain to contend with as well."
"You flew here on a what?" Oak straggled. "You have a 'copter?"
"I have the means to rent them, but I value my privacy so I have one of my own, and I can fly it on my own if the situation is pressing enough."
"So that invitation about the yacht wasn't a joke then?"
"No," Leo chuckled at Oak's pale face. "It wasn't."
"What don't you have?"
"A stealth jet," Leo teased, deciding not to tell Oak the horrible truth that he actually did have a jet, and was very skilled at flying it as well.
"Hmmm…" Samuel looked at him for a long moment, took in the somewhat pale face. "You've been over exerting yourself again."
"Too many damned jobs." Giovanni said at last. "Let me tell you my friend, despite the fact that I am wealthy, one of the wealthiest men alive today, there are times I envy you."
"And of course I, being a specimen of poverty because I have no business sense?"
"You don' know poverty until you leave these small communities and see it in the cities Samuel."
There was no graceful way to answer that bitter comment so Samuel did not bother to try.
X
"What, let me go!" Hands grabbed him, he kicked out blindly behind him, was thrown to the ground.
"Well what do you know; all white coats really are bugs under their fancy know it all crap. You didn't pay attention when we were nice, and you're too damned smart to trick, so we're gunna end this the right way."
There was a click of a gun, Oak froze in terror, knew that it was aimed at him.
"Don't move." Sneered that hard voice, "Don't even breath. Casi pat 'em down."
"Sir!"
"So, you're Rockets I take it?" Oak blurted, mentally kicked himself for saying that.
"How'd you guess?" One of them roared, he couldn't see them as the person patting him down had tied a blindfold over his eyes.
"Such juvenile mindsets like yours, the melodrama, the callous disregard for life, isn't it obvious?"
"Shut up old man!" A hand smashed into the back of his head and the dark over his eyes was pierced with flashing points of light.
There was another click and he froze, cringed back when there was an ear splitting explosion and a thud.
"What the H-"
"Nido!"
Something light padded over him, a small claw sliced through the blindfold.
He ripped it off even as his ears warned him of the bone breaking under the rush of something heavy slamming into a human. A scream arched through the air as his eyes adjusted the remaining rockets reached for their Pokeballs and found a steel hued hand clasped over their own. Using two hands the Machamp stopped the human's from grabbing their Pokeballs, the other hands descended and two well timed punches to the throat made them slump forward.
"You, you double crossing bastard! Arbok, poison needle this twerp!"
"Meowth!"
A blur of white sped off into a grove of trees, rubbing his head Oak staggered after it, ignorant that he had to step over his dead searcher to do so.
What he saw froze his blood. Holding a gun like he knew how to use it was Leo, he rolled to the side as a rain of black needles spilled from Arbok's jaws. Lazily he lined up a shot with the massive snake that was twice his size and pulled the trigger. A mess of scale and blood went flying into the dark, the creature hiss yelped and swung its tail around and knocked the young man of sixteen into one of those trees.
Limply Giovanni slid down the trunk, the gun falling from his hands.
"What a weakling crush this runt I'll contact his Father, bet he'd love to hear you… Well well, screw the kid Arbok, the prey's just walked into our clutches."
"Char-bocka!"
Paling, Oak took a step back, tripped over a root, the creature leered at him, it's massive hood fanning out. Blindly he groped behind him, his hands closed on a branch even as the tail snaked around to engulf him. He couldn't aim for the head; those jaws could open and close shockingly fast. He swung for the fanned out span, the skin was stretched out, the scales separated slightly, it would be the most sensitive area.
"Ar!" It staggered back, well slithered back, and shook his head hard, dazed by a hit that would not have even dented its other scales.
Groaning Leo cracked open his eyes, flinched as he saw Oak staring at him, or rather the red mark on his uniform.
"Damn it you weakling! Use toxic on him!"
"Arr!" The poison glands along the snout swelled as the command was enough to stimulate them to overproduction. Black dripped from those jaws.
"Nido!" Like a thunderstorm the Leo's Nidoking charged into the grove, his eyes crimson as he bore down on the Rocket.
"Tangula, deal with it!"
Poison needles bristling the Nidoking ducked into a ball and the thorns along it's back sprayed out in the Tangula's general direction. The Rocket snarled, and dodged the barrage.
"You're really something else kid," the Rocket grunt growled. "You screwin' over wealth and power to save one old man. Arbok finish…"
Leo gripping his shoulder in pain with one hand snatched up the gun. Somehow both nursing and ignoring his wounded arm, Giovanni managed to fire.
The Arbok screamed, whirled onto Giovanni, cringing back in fear Giovanni tried to get another shot in, the tail swatted the gun aside and the head descended. The young man managed to scream, Oak shivered in horror paralyzed by that pathetic wailing of agony.
The Arbok pulled away, licked the blood off its lips with forked tongue and began to turn away. A silver arch that was lead by the trembling Giovanni's hand descended, smashed into the poison types skull with a wet crunch. Switchblade buried to the hilt in its brain the Pokemon spasomed once and died.
"Holy shit, you can't still be alive…"
Giovanni managed a grin, a cold blooded barring of his teeth, and turned the gun on the human.
"Took some anti venom 'fore I came here…" His voice was slurred and his eyes glazed. "Rot in Hell bastard."
"You're one of us kid, on our side…" The man pleaded as he cringed back from those empty cold eyes.
"I am on no ones side but my own."
Leo fingered the trigger.
"Leo don't!" Oak gasped, wanting to get sick at the hate he was seeing in the boy. "Please, let him go, isn't this enough?"
The poison was making Leo shiver, made those eyes shine with an unholy light of madness.
"You have your life, for now." Leo hissed, "Run, don't report to anyone, or I will know and you'll beg for death when I'm done with you."
The man bolted, abandoning his wounded Tangula to the wraith of Leo's infuriated Nidoking.
"Merow?" A small white form rubbed against Leo's leg, then hissed as the legs buckled.
From standing to his knees he fell, the gun fell to the earth from numb fingers. With a whimper Leonardo Giovanni collapsed, venom roaring through him, a poisons tide that had, for a time seemingly destroyed his sanity. Meowth looked up at Oak mewed helplessly then nuzzled Leo's face.
X
"Do you ever regret, not picking a simple life, something not so… opulent?" Oak asked as they –rather he- hobbled back to shed Giovanni carrying the small ream of papers. "You're a… target your whole life, for the Rockets and every other sociopath with a gun. Is it worth it?"
"Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. Power allows me to be aware of many things, in control of all around me. That is something I cherish, control. Primarily over myself, but secondarily over the world around me, power attracts me, I'll admit that freely." Giovanni chuckled darkly at some jest that Oak would not understand. "Most people would call me an evil man for being ambitious, for thirsting for power, but it's not how much you have, but what you do with it."
"What have you done with it Leo?"
Something flashed in Leo's eyes, something dark, secret.
"Many things, many actions, some good, some bad, but my friend, what the secret of it all is… What I do doesn't matter, what they believe that's what will make it in the history books. And by then I'll be dead, who will know or care at that point what the truth is?"
"Your friends. Your family."
"My family is dead." Leo said quietly, "and in all probability I will outlive you. So I ask again, who will know or care."
"Someone might, some day."
"I hate uncertainty."
"Life is filled with them."
Giovanni said nothing; for once he had no witty response.
X
He wasn't a doctor, not a human doctor, but he had to gamble now that his knowledge of Machoke specie would give him enough. He'd worked out as much of the venom as he could; thank God he had enough human anti-Arbock-venom to dose Leo for the Arbok's bite to not prove fatal. But when Leo had rolled to dodge the attack he'd taken a few poison needles in his shoulder, most were easy to pull out. A few others though, were in deep, very deep. He should take Leo to a hospital, should call an ambulance, but the phone lines were dead. They were probably cut by the Rockets, thank God the power wasn't out or he'd have been in even more trouble then he was now.
"Easy." Oak whispered, trying to hold the knife steady. He'd done dissections before, but this was a thousand times worse because his subject was still living.
And he was not under any form of pain killer. One, because it was too dangerous with all the chemicals already saturating Leo's blood, and two because what few he had were either too weak to do any good, were designed to slow blood clotting, or were not for human consumption.
The poison though was doing some sort of service; it had numbed Leo and knocked him out.
"Merow!" The Meowth head butted him, looked pathetically up at him with hope and concern shining in its crystal eyes.
"Alright, keep him calm for me if he wakes up."
"Meo!"
With shaking hands he made the first incision, and the white gloves that covered his hands were stained red as he worked out the first needle. It took only a few moments, a few hours in his mind but in truth it was only a few seconds. He put the golden needle aside in a tray, tossed it in and spotted another one. It seemed as if there were a hundred of them.
X
"You haven't had exactly the safest career either. I've been here a number of times after one of your subjects of study hurt you; it's not always the Rockets that get the one up on you."
"Could we not discuss the Dodrio incident?"
"Of course." Giovanni grinned. "But I wasn't referring to that, but if you'd recall the accident with the Snorlax, and the Blastoise, or dare I mention the Weedle incident?"
"You swore to me you'd never mention the Weedle incident ever again, that was not funny!"
"Now class, be very careful, this is a poison type very common in Pallet so it's mandatory that you all attend this safety meeting." Leo began trying to make his voice as close to Samuel's as he could. "Now as you can see this little one has a very pointed head, that's where he keeps the venom and while not fatal except those who are allergic to it, for the majority however this point packs quite a sting and itches like crazy for several days. Now they like certain types of plants, primarily broad leafy ones so avoid those, and never ever ever call them cone-heads they hate that like…"
Oak picked up one of his crutches and swung, the younger man dodged easily enough.
"At that point you ran around screaming because while you had a Weedle in its glass cage you failed to notice the other one by your foot."
"Leo, look down you dropped your wallet over there by that rock."
"Of course I did."
X
"Ummm where am I?"
"My lab," Samuel said softly, he was pealing off two gloves, and focused on the task before him.
"My arm hurts…"
He sounded so normal innocent even, when he was anything but. Samuel swallowed, turned on the faucet and ran his hands under the stream of water. There was so much red… he wanted to get sick at the sight but couldn't.
"I had to perform surgery on you." Samuel said at last when he was certain his dinner wasn't going to make a re-appearance. "You had five needles in your arm, it was too deep for me to pull them out by hand so I made a cut, and worked some tweezers in, and removed them.
"You weren't supposed to see that, I'm sorry…"
"I wasn't supposed to see that?" Oak turned on the younger man, anger filling him. "What more is there that I shouldn't see Leo?"
"I can't tell you that, you know that."
"My God, I should throw you out! I should just call the damned police!"
"You can't do that, they cut the phone lines."
"You're one of them!"
"I didn't have a choice you know what my father is, or you know enough to guess!" Leo shook from sickness or from rage Samuel couldn't tell. "I didn't have a choice, I don't have a choice."
"You could turn away from it," Samuel croaked, turning back to the sink. "Just be a trainer, like you were supposed to be."
"What do you know about supposed-to-be's? Nothing, that's what! I was supposed to join the Rockets when I turned thirteen, I wasn't supposed to 'play trainer' as Raphael called it. I didn't have a damned choice, I swore I'd protect you and this is the only way I could!"
"Don't. Don't you dare drag me into a choice you made for yourself young man!"
Leo flinched, flinched back from Samuel's rage and sank weakly back on the bed.
"I'm… sorry…"
"Tell that to the people outside you killed."
"They weren't people, you don't know what they did, and you don't want to know what they did." Leo whispered to the ceiling. "There are no sins to describe what they did, no laws to capture it in all its twisted glory." Leo took a deep breath. "Anyways I didn't kill them, my Pokemon did."
"The gun shot…"
"She fainted from fright." Leo said soothingly.
"Your Machamp is digging a grave for them, I don't know where Nidoking is, and Meowth is sleeping in the corner their by the swab bottle." Samuel swallowed hard. "The second you are able… I want you to leave."
Leo only stared at him, pain in his eyes, but mixed in it understanding.
"They won't bother you again, after this mission goes down as a total failure, when they find out that the Rockets were killed, they won't bother you again for a long time. They'll assume that you trained the Pokemon here as guards." Leo closed his eyes. "The only reason I'll come back is if I hear that they are coming back, that or if you need me for anything else."
Samuel tried to remember if the girl had died, if there was blood around her, but he could not, and there was no way to tell now. And there was no way he could remember.
As if reading his thoughts Giovanni whispered. "I didn't kill her."
"You would have killed the leader."
"In my condition, I couldn't have killed a fly. It was all bluff Sam, all a bluff."
"You expect me to believe that."
"No," Leo sighed. "It's what I believe, what I have to believe."
X
"You always get the upper hand on me." Oak sighed, as the Weedle jokes ran their course.
"Professionalism, after all that's what being a business man is about, taking and keeping the upper hand is the name of the game."
"First with Chess, then with verbal jabbing, you have defeated me, and I yield."
Giovanni chuckled; Oak was walking with him to the door.
"Leo, you made a promise to me long ago… are you going to keep it?"
"Samuel, have I ever betrayed you yet?"
"No, but if you consider it, it's been almost as much as betraying yourself as if is betraying me in those circumstances."
"Then if I must, to keep my word to you, I will betray myself." Leonardo Giovanni whispered. "Samuel, you only doubted me once, and I came through for you that time despite the pain your doubt caused me."
"I never knew."
"That was one of the things I never wanted you to know. Your approval, your friendship, means the world to me. Now I have three odd favors to ask before I leave on my helicopter, whose existence you so doubt."
Oak snorted. "I don't doubt it, not from you. You'll go down as being the strangest eccentric millionaire in all known history. Flying in helicopters, at your age…"
"So says the man who rode a Fearow last year in stunt flying on his birthday."
"Well you were right, it was worth it, even if I did it just once…. And are you spying on me again?" Oak sputtered. "I thought I told you…"
"The newspaper, several websites had pictures as well, you were, after all, hardly discreet."
"Alright, I am a stubborn strange old man, what do you expect, after all I was exposed to you a great deal."
"Hugely funny," watching Giovanni make it closer to the door you could almost see the man picking up his arrogance and pride he'd left behind, fitting it into an armor that nothing could crack. "Concerning the favors: One, I would like to know when Ash and Gary are in Pallet, tell them a Leonardo is interested in a fight with them and then call me up, it's not too far from here to my Gym, so I expect that the longest they'll have to wait for me to arrive is a day at most, persuade them to wait. The second… After today I am going to be making some preparations to withdraw from the... various organizations I am involved. For your safety only call me to tell me the trainers have arrived, to do otherwise might put you in serious danger. The third, will not make sense until after I fight those two younglings of yours, do not dwell on it now, and tell any one of it on your life."
"Leo, I don't like all this mystery."
"I'm asking you to trust me, one last time Sam, then I'll never ask again so help me God."
"Alright, one last time." Samuel sighed.
"When they say their lies, when they say I am dead, don't believe them until they find my Persian."
"Leo," Oak firmly grabbed the younger man's shoulder. "You're scaring me by talking like this."
"I don't mean to, and as I said earlier, don't worry about it."
"What are you going to do?"
"I can't tell you that, and I can't stay a moment longer. Goodnight old friend, take care of yourself."
"You too."
"Don't I always?" Leo said a bit bitterly. "Don't worry Samuel, I'll be back again sooner then you would probably like."