Disclaimer: Welcome to the wonderful world that is Pokémon. Of course everything related to Pokémon is owned and licensed by Nintendo, and I'm sure the author of this story will do his best to treat Nintendo and Pokémon with as much respect as possible. Now, the characters in this story are all original except for professor Oak, Ash, Gary, Misty, Brock, several Jenny's and Joy's and some other weirdo's that wander around in the game and/or series and of course, the Pokémon.

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Chapter 13 – The mansion

I

It was cold. No, actually, it was FUCKING cold. Not even twenty four hours ago, I was baking on a beach in the seething sun, and now I was on some pebbled beach with a cold wind blowing and a pale sun that probably never gave off any heat, high in the sky. I already hated Cherrygrove. I checked the address I was given and asked for directions in the police station.

"The Kuller house?" the girl behind the counter asked, "are you sure? That place has been deserted for years."

"I was asked to go there," I responded truthfully, "by Mr. Kuller in fact. Would you mind telling me something about it?"

"There's not much to tell, really," she said, "about fifteen years ago, the Kullers lived there, but they're son left for Kanto and they died shortly afterwards. The house has been abandoned ever since."

"What has?" a cop asked as he passed us.

"The Kuller house," came the reply.

"Not anymore," the cop said, "I saw a car drive up there yesterday. And according to Cally, no one has come down since."

"Well," I said, "since I have an appointment with Mr. Kuller, I think the son came back from Kanto. Oh, and Miss? Could I ask you a question? It may sound strange, but do you have any relatives living in Kanto?"

The officer looked strangely at me and shook her head.

"No, I'm sorry, but all of my family lives here in Johto."

Hmm, I could have sworn… the resemblance was remarking.

"Anyway, if you ever need anything in Cherrygrove," she told me with a smile, "I'll try to help you. Just ask for officer Jenny."

Okay, this was getting creepy. I bid my farewells and took the mental note of, if I ever returned to Kanto, asking officer Jenny (any Jenny) to see if they had any relatives in Johto.

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The house was located a bit outside of town, placed on top of a cliff overlooking the sea. As I approached the house, I couldn't help but thinking I came at the wrong time. It was an old mansion and I had the feeling it would come to it's full right in a stormy night with a full moon. I mean, this thing had haunted house written all over it. But since it was just past 10 am, there was nothing frightening about it. Just an old, neglected mansion. Pity really. A brand new Mercedes (Mr. Kuller apparently did good in Kanto) was parked near the entrance of the mansion and I parked my bike next to it. I rang the doorbell and waited for someone to open. I took the opportunity to look around a bit, and saw the house was actually ready for demolition. It would cost way too much money to restore everything to it's former glory. But money wasn't something my client hadn't enough from. If he could quadruple my price, then he was loaded. I just wondered what kind of pokémon he wanted… ah, the door.

I

The man opening the door filled the doorway even more. I mean, he was fucking HUGE. And I don't mean fat, I mean BIG. This wasn't the kind of man that hired me, this was the kind of man that worked for very rich people, very non-legit rich people. Something told me to turn and run, but I had already come all this way, and I was getting paid.

"Mr. Kuller?" I ventured.

The door understudy moved backwards a bit, just enough to let me pass.

"In the den," came the reply.

I squeezed myself passed the thing I could only name minion and proceeded to the den. There a young man sat in a large chair. He smiled as I came in and straighten his suit as he got up.

"Mr. Kuller?" I asked.

"No, not really," he smiled, "Mr. Heckburn."

"Heckburn?" I frowned and it dawned to me, "like in Heckburn…"

"Real estate, yes."

I just knew the large body guard blocked my way out of the room, without looking back. This was bad. I stopped their scam in the Alpha Ruins and now this appeared to be payback.

"I'm sure you know why you're here?" the man asked.

"No idea, sorry."

I decided to play dumb while I thought of a plan.

"The Alpha Ruins?" he grinned.

Good, he really thought I was dumb, that gave me an edge.

"Oh, THOSE Heckburns," I nodded, "right…"

"Right indeed, and as you may expect, this is retribution for interrupting our plans, not to mention giving trouble to Hayes and Feelding."

"…and killing Sam," Tony mentally added.

He paused a second in an attempt to repress the reminder of his uncontrolled killing of the third goon of Heckburn.

I spurted towards the closest door next to the one to the entrance hall before they could react and came in the dining room. I closed the door and ran to the other side of the room. Behind me the ogre was kicking in the door. I had to get out of there. There was no telling what they would do to me. Well, actually there was. They would kill me. Eventually. It was the part before the killing that had me worried. I had to find a place to hide so I could think of a decent plan. Maybe try to phone Thomas and David, although they were probably too far away to help me. Call the cops? But then Heckburn could tell them abou…

Tony stopped and looked at the rest.

"About what?" Gary asked.

"Never mind." Tony replied.

"About what?" Oak urged on, a bit worried.

"I'll tell you later… maybe," Tony said, "now pretend I didn't say anything."

"But if it's important…" Misty continued.

"WELL, IT IS FUCKING IMPORTANT!" Tony shouted, causing people to look at their booth, "BUT FOR THE MOMENT IT'S A BIT TOO PERSONAL IMPORTANT, OKAY? NOW LET ME TELL YOU THE FUCKING STORY AND MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, I'LL TELL YOU, OKAY?"

Everyone went quiet and looked terrified at Tony.

"Alright," he calmed down, "now where was I?"

I

Calling the cops was out of the question, considering… my past. I darted through a doorway and found myself in the kitchen. I heard four gunshots behind me, but no sign of impact. They were shooting somewhere else. No time to worry about that. I sped through the kitchen and slid towards what appeared to be a large cabinet. I ducked into the cabinet and hoped that goon wouldn't check in here as I took out my knife. Fuck! I should have checked the kitchen for more weapons. I was going to need everything I could find as a weapon to stand a chance against that goon's gun. Wait a sec! I had another weapon! It would mean a confrontation with Heckburn, but it was better than nothing. I heard the door open and someone enter. I sat motionless in the cabinet, listening to the footsteps. Surprisingly they went passed me and I heard a door open. After a couple of minutes, I opened the cabinet and found the kitchen deserted. A bit further of the cabinet was a door that lead further into the mansion. I never even saw it. I set up my secret weapon and after a quick examination of another cabinet, I took out a meat cleaver. Now I was armed with something better than my knife. I took the other door. I knew the goon had entered it, but since Heckburn was probably still in the den, I decided to follow him. Do what they last expect. And it could be a way out. I entered a small staircase that held a door to the garden and one back into the mansion. I suddenly saw the door open slightly. I decided not to take any chances and pulled the door open, my meat cleaver ready.

I

"What the…" came the startled response, and I held my meat cleaver back.

"Officer Jenny?"

"What's going on here?" she asked me, eyeing the meat cleaver.

"Sssh, be quiet," I pulled her inside and hid in the closet under the stairs, listening for any other sound, but apparently the goon hadn't heard us.

"What's going on?" she hissed.

"It's a trap," I told her, "some time ago, I did something to piss Heckburn off completely, and now he's going to kill me for it."

"Heckburn? Of Heckburn Real Estate?"

"The same."

"That's ridiculous. Why would he ever do something like that?"

"Because I caused him to lose a million dollar deal. I just need to get outside, although he probably has some guard up front, and get to my bike."

"The one that's shot up?"

"Huh?"

"That's why I didn't rang the front door," she explained, "I came to see if Mr. Kuller had indeed returned, but I saw someone had shot the motorcycle that was upfront, so I decided to sneak up the back."

"They shot my bike? Bastards! Can you radio for help?"

"No, Mike's gone home, I'm the only cop in duty right now."

"Do you have his phone number? We need help," I said as I pulled out my cell phone, "Fuck, no reception. Do you have a gun?"

"I have," she nodded.

"Perfect, 'cause so do they."

"And you have a meat cleaver."

"No way in hell they're gonna do me in."

"So, what's the plan, besides that?"

"Try to get to safety, what else?" I shrugged, "how did you get here?"

"My police scooter," she told me, "after I saw that bike, I put it out of sight."

"Can it hold two?"

"Barely."

"Better than nothing." I said and opened the door of the closet.

The coast appeared clear and we sneaked to the back door. Just when we reached it, we heard a loud voice booming.

I

"There you are! Hold it!"

Jenny turned, with her gun ready, and aimed it at the big goon standing on top of the stairs.

"Freeze!" she yelled, "police! Drop your gun and keep your hands where I can see them!"

The goon ignored her and shot. I dove out of the way, dragging Jenny along with me. I heard the guy coming down the stairs, so I got up and ran for the door leading back in. As I opened the door and pushed Jenny in, I threw my meat cleaver to the goon before shutting the door.

"Aargh! You bastard!" I heard through the door.

"This way," Jenny told me and dragged me along a dark corridor.

A few moments later we came to another staircase, and I decided to try my luck upwards.

"Why?" she frowned, "we need to get out, and upstairs we'll only get trapped."

"This is a big mansion," I told her, "there are more staircases than you'd think. That guy will only be looking downstairs for us, so we'll be a bit safer upstairs. Common sense."

"But that guy was upstairs just a minute ago."

Fuck, she had me there.

"Let's just go upstairs, alright?"

I

We made our way through the second floor without any problem, although I was completely disorientated and had no idea which way was front and which way was out. Just as we reached another staircase we heard a voice coming from downstairs.

"Mr. Hunter! You sure love to postpone the inevitable, don't you?"

"Fuck off, Heckburn!" I yelled back.

"Thank you for revealing your position," Heckburn laughed, "and here I was, thinking I was up against an intelligent adversary."

Fuck! I grabbed Jenny and ran upstairs again. I pushed a door open and found myself in a large room with large windows on the side.

"Yes! A way out! Now quickly before he gets here."

I ran to the windows and grabbed an abandoned chair. I threw the chair through the window and found a nice big balcony. It was still a long way to the ground, but if that drainpipe could hold it a bit… no, wait, better idea. Since we were in the open…

"We have to get out," Jenny told me.

"I know, and we're almost out."

"No, out of this room! They'll be here any second."

"Reason for us to hurry," I said and motioned her closer.

"You're not serious about jumping down, are you?"

"We have to go now!" I hissed as I heard people coming up the stairs.

"I would rather stay a bit," Jenny said and stepped back.

"What?" I frowned, but quickly raised my eyebrows as I looked into the barrel of her gun.

The goon kicked the door in and entered, his right hand clutched against his bleeding left arm, where I hit him with the meat cleaver. Heckburn followed right away.

"You didn't think you'd get away, did you?" he grinned.

"Jenny was in it?" I asked, "you worked for Heckburn the whole time?"

"Sorry Tony," Jenny shrugged, "but do you know what a cop makes these days? It's very hard to resist a lot of money."

"I know," I nodded, "I have the same problem. Guess it was you that shot my bike?"

"I'm afraid so," Jenny sighed.

"Bitch! So whole this set up," I asked Heckburn, "breaking in this abandoned mansion and bribing a cop, was all to kill me?"

"Indeed," Heckburn nodded, "that Alpha ruins scam could have made us billions, but you ruined it all. You proved those fossils were fake, you prevented the killing of those birds…"

"Those endangered Natu," I nodded.

"…indeed, those…" Heckburn said as his eyes narrowed, "anyway, this is the end, Mr. Hunter, now you die."

"Not really," I shook my head and dropped a pokéball.

I was planning on using it outside because I had no idea what the effect inside would be, but now Arctic materialised and spread his wings, causing all windows to shatter. His gushing breath was freezing cold and ice was forming on Heckburn, Jenny and the goon.

"Enough!" I shouted and Arctic turned around, going out on the balcony.

I followed him and jumped on his back.

"Oh! Heckburn!" I shouted, "one more thing!"

I reached inside my pocket and took out my pokédex. I hoped it had indeed worked, because I had never tried it before.

"Did you knew these new models can record as well?"

I pushed the rewind button and pushed play.

"-ut you ruined it all. You proved those fossils were fake, you prevented the killing o-"

I stopped the recording and laughed loudly as Arctic flew away.

I

I stopped at the police station from Cherrygrove and gave a copy to Mike, who immediately set up an APB for Heckburn and Jenny. I then went back to Goldenrod and also gave a copy to the police then. Hey, better safe than sorry. Mike could work for Heckburn as well, you know? I made sure a lot of people got a copy of that recording, so I could be safe. And indeed, in the evening, when I turned on my television, there was a news special about an attempt of fraud by Heckburn Real Estate and that the young Heckburn was arrested. Ah yes, life is good, and you don't fuck with Tony. This should keep him away from me for some time.

I

"I can't believe officer Jenny would work with a gangster like that," Brock said, "I mean, it's not like her, such a pretty girl."

"Well, she did." Tony shrugged.

"I know," Ash suddenly said, "I bet she was working with the cops in an attempt to expose that Heckburn guy!"

"Uhm, no," Tony shook his head, "she was one of the bad guys."

"But it's officer…"

"Just accept it, kid," Tony sighed, "deal with it later."

AN: To be honest, this was supposed to be a multi-parter in Resident Evil style (the first game obviously) but, well, I won't say inspiration cut it short, it was just that I couldn't make it plausible. I honestly didn't have it in me to make two chapters on how about one goon and one biljonair chased Tony around a deserted mansion. I think it still worked out fine (better even than my original concept) so just accept it, deal with it later (damn that sounded good, wonder where I picked it up).