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.

I

Chapter 18 – Whirl Islands

I

I raised my head slowly and blinked a couple of times. I sat up and checked my wristwatch. Still half an hour before I had to get up (which was still too soon by my standards), so why did I wake… ah, I see… good thing I woke up this early, because if time was ever due, it was now. I got up and silently tiptoed as fast as possible to the nearby bushes for sweet, sweet relief. As I was… admiring the local flora, I suddenly had a feeling someone was watching me… no, that's not right, it was as someone was… I can't really describe it, like someone was there, but wasn't… look, I just had this nagging sensation in the back of my head. All I knew was that I wanted to get out on my way as fast as possible, but I was still busy, helping nature along. When I was finished, I looked at the nearby trees and then my watch. I still had time before the wake up call, so maybe I could make a little trip in the woods. I don't know where I got that idea, but my sixth sense was tingling. But the strangest thing was, the moment I thought of going in, I thought it would be a better idea to go back to sleep! And I was getting pretty tired as well. Well, it's not a good idea to go look for bad things when you want to avoid them, and if you know where the bad things are, do your best not to be there, I always say, so I was about to turn around and head back to camp when I heard a sound coming out of the bushes. I clenched my fist by instinct and was ready to take a swing at anything that emerged from the bushes. I sighed with relieve when I saw Karen step out into the light.

"Tony?" she smiled, "what are you doing here?"

"I should be asking you that question," I replied, "you almost gave me a heart attack!"

"I got up early," she shrugged, "and since everyone was still asleep, I thought I would take a walk."

"In the dark?"

"I know these woods pretty good, I don't get lost that easily. And besides," she clicked on a flashlight and held it in my eyes, "I have this."

"Haha, very funny," I said as I tried to shield my eyes, "okay, I guess you're safe then."

"Why? Were you concerned about me?"

"What? No, of course not!" I said, "But since you're Tom's sister, he might be upset if something happened to you and he could be a very unpleasant person on the trip to Whirl Islands."

"Oh, is that so?" she tried to sound insulted and hit me in the chest, "you're only concerned about me so nobody bitches to you about it?"

"Hey, I have an image of egocentric bastard to maintain," I grinned.

"Anyway," she said, "I guess it would be better if we got back, people might get the wrong idea."

"Yeah," I said as I glanced to the woods, "I think that's a good idea."

I didn't tell her that I thought something was wrong with it, or maybe I didn't want to tell myself that. I didn't even had time to go Pokémon hunting on Whirl Islands, let alone chase some unknown evil from some woods near the beach in Cianwood. It probably was just my imagination, and if indeed it was some evil force, ready to wreck havoc, what did I care, I lived in Goldenrod!

I

Anyway, half an hour later, we were all up and having breakfast, and just as Tom said he was going to prepare the boat, Karen said she was coming along.

"What?" Tom responded, "why for?"

"To make sure you'll stay out of trouble," she replied, "and I wanna see that dragon pokémon myself."

"This could get dangerous," he said.

"Please?" she pouted, "I promise to stay safe and I won't get into the way."

"Fine," Tom caved, "you can go help me set up the boat."

Karen shrieked in joy and followed Tom.

"I'm gonna check my supplies," I said as I got up and stretched my back, "see if I got enough pokéballs and stuff."

"We already did that when I bought them yesterday and then again last night," Allan frowned.

"I know," I sighed, "but this way it seems I have actually something to do, instead of sitting on my lazy ass, waiting 'till the boat's ready, like you're doing right now."

"Oh," Allan nodded, "in that case, can I help?"

"No, it's a one man job," I grinned as I walked to my backpack, "sorry, slacker."

"Frankie's slacking too!" Allan tried to defend his position.

"No, I'm not," Frankie closed his eyes as he leaned back, "I'm mentally preparing for our trip, old hiking meditation."

I barely listened to Allan's replies to this as I picked up my backpack. Just as I opened it, I saw something in the corner of my eye. I looked up and saw Clark standing there, with the same glow in his eyes as last night.

"Don't think you can get her," he said, his voice a bit unsteady, as if he wasn't used to speaking, "she's not yours…"

"Dude, are you talking about Karen?" I asked, "don't worry about her, I like her, but that's it. Besides," I grinned, "I know her brother, and if I did something inappropriate with her, I KNOW his threats aren't empty."

"If you did something inappropriate with her, he would be the least of your concerns…"

I looked back at Clark to point out to him that, I too, am a force to be reckoned with, but I couldn't maintain eye contact. It seemed too… painful.

"Look, don't worry about her," I said, "she's just a friend, okay? Like you and her are friends, or not even like that."

"Oh, we're much more that that…" his voice faded away as he stepped out of sight.

Much more? Either Tom's info was wrong, or this guy was one step away from becoming a full time stalker.

About fifteen minutes later, the boat was ready and we were about to set sail. All the surfers came out to wave us goodbye and shook our hands.

"Go get that dragon for me, okay?"

I looked up to see who exactly was speaking to me, and to my surprise, I saw Clark, with a sincere smile on his face.

"Uhm, okay," I replied, momentarily taken by surprise.

I mean, was this the guy who looked like he could drink my blood fifteen minutes ago?

"Before we go," I tried, "what's the deal with you and Karen anyway?"

"Huh," he frowned, "nothing, we're just friends. And besides, I got my mind set on one of those lifeguards at the beach. And besides," he added with a wink, "I think she likes you."

Okay, what the fuck was going on? Where was that hidden camera? Either he had an evil twin or a second personality. Or maybe it was me who had finally cracked. I mean, from the things I had heard, or remembered even, about my previous life, before this whole Hunter affaire, I was a different person. Not a complete different person, but at least now I wouldn't cage pokémon. Or at lea… no, I can't even joke about it. That's not me anymore, but it was me, once upon a time, so maybe that mental stress broke me down?

I

"You caged pokémon?" Misty frowned.

"Do we always have to come back to that?" Tony sighed, "that was in the past! Let it go! I have."

"But…"

"It's over! Okay?" Tony sighed, "now, where was I?"

I

Anyway, Clark had been acting strange, and seemingly not like himself, so what the fuck was going on with that guy? I didn't… fuck, all that worrying caused that nagging sensation in the back of my skull to come back. That nagging sensation that seemed, not familiar, but almost famil…

"What you thinking about?"

"Huh?" I looked up and saw Karen standing next to me.

"You've been standing here like you've seen a ghost, for the last ten minutes, ever since Clark said goodbye and we set sail. Something wrong?"

"Nah," I shook my head, "'s just, thinking about stuff, you know."

"What you're thinking about?"

"Stuff," I shrugged, "catching this pokémon, going back to Kanto, my life, things like that."

"Tom mentioned Kanto, said he'd go with you."

"Yeah," I sighed, "Kanto's pretty big o' deal."

"But you're not a Rocket," she smiled.

Her smile froze when she saw the seriousness in my eyes.

"Not a Rocket," she said, a bit sterner, "but important enough for the escort of one. Guess Kanto's indeed big o' deal."

I told her how big o' deal Kanto exactly was. Suffice to say, we didn't say a lot anymore on that trip.

"What exactly did you say?" Ash asked.

"None of your business," Tony replied harshly, "it's not… I don't wanna talk about it, okay? I'll tell you in due time."

Just as the sun rose, Whirl Islands came visible in the morning mist. We were almost there.

"So, which one of the four Islands did you want?" Tom asked.

Fuck! There were four of them?

"If I'm not mistaken," Karen said, as she smiled towards me, "the dragon appears on that one, to the left."

"Okay," Tom nodded, "let's check out that one then."

About a short hour later, we set foot on the rocky beach of the island. A nosy Seel, watched us carefully but dove into the water when I threw a rock at it. What? I missed on purpose, I just wanted to scare it away. Really! Anyway, I let out my pokémon, 'cause I had a feeling I would need them. Heh, a feeling I would need them. I was going to capture a big ass Dragonite! Sure as hell I was gonna need them! I had Turtle, War and Blaster for water, Frostbite for ice and Magma, my newly acquired Entei, for fire. All of them ready for an all out offensive. I had studied all information I could find on Dragonites the previous day, and I shouldn't have any problems concerning mismatched types.

I

Tom secured the boat and swore.

"I fucking hate these islands," he said, "I wished David was here, he's the tracker."

"We'll do fine," I said, "we just have to find the cave that dragon hides in and capture it. Piece of cake."

"Which cave?" Frankie asked, "these Islands are filled with caves and tunnels."

"The biggest one," I said, "like…" I looked around and saw a large cave mound in the rock wall, "that one."

"That's one of the smaller ones," Frankie explained.

"Fuck. Okay, Frankie, you lead the way."

"Fair enough," Frankie grinned as he stepped forward, "now for a large flying pokémon to reside in, we're looking for…"

He peered around at the rocks on the island and was just about to point out a rock when a horrific roar filled the air. A large dark mass slowly stepped out of the cave I had pointed out earlier, scaring some Seels and Krabbies away.

"Hey, I was right," I said with a stupid grin when the situation hit me, "oh fuck."

A large dark blue Dragonite stood up on his hind legs and let out a deafening roar.

"Now what?" Tom asked as he looked up at the large Pokémon.

I didn't flinch. I never flinch. I've been around the block, I've seen things (too much things, the day care centre coming back to mind), I've done my share. Hence, I don't flinch. I just chose to stare at the Dragonite, not moving at all. Somewhere I was aware that Tom pulled me backwards, while a wall of blueish fire came closer.

"TONY!" he shouted in my ear.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," I assured him, "it's… it's just that it's so FUCKING big!"

"Well, snap out of it, and do something! You're the pokémon master! Use your pokémon!"
"Well, technically, I'm not a pokémon master," I said as I glanced over to where my boys were, "but in this case, I'll make an exception."

All of them seemed to be in the same state I was in (except for Frostbite, since the Articuno was slightly bigger than the Dragonite). They seemed to be unscathed by the dragon rage attack, but I knew it was just a warning. The second attack would be dead on. Emphasis on dead.

"Hit him hard, boys!" I yelled, and each pokémon launched their heaviest attack.

Okay, this should work. And it did work! The Dragonite staggered back, and I decided the time was right to throw my pokéball. Just as he fell, the ball landed. I ran closer and saw the pokéball lying on the ground, flashing red.

"And that's one Dragonite," I grinned as I picked it up.

This was fantastic, I honestly didn't expect it to go this smoothly. Well, off to Kanto.

I

AN: I know, bit of an anti-climax, isn't it. But I had a big thing planned for chapter 20 and this chapter would have been too long, so I either had to split this up in two chapters and miss my killer chapter 20 or cut the fight between the Dragonite and Tony a bit short. Hope you're not disappointed, and if you are, though luck.

I

And sorry for the long lack of updates, but I have been busy lately and suffer a small case of writers block… It seems the plan I had to end the main story arc somewhat backfired as I have no real idea how to pull it off. There for it may be that I end the story after that, with a possible return for a third part, but that will totally depend on the time. But rest assured, I will finish the story… I just don't have any idea when…