Blade of Destiny
Chapter 6: Taking Back What's Mine
Misty took a deep breath as she pressed herself against the wall, next to the door. With a silent gesture, she signaled for her comrade to come forward across the bushes and stand in front of the door. "You ready, Gary?" Gary nodded and pulled his pistol out of the back of his jeans, nodding solemnly.
"Yeah. I just hope I don't have to use this thing," he said as Misty retrieved her own weapon.
"Me neither. Where are Tracey and Harrison?" He nodded his head towards the rear of the house.
"They're gonna be coming from around the back, to make sure they don't escape that way." Gary himself took a deep breath and raised his gun next to his head, preparing to enter the house. "All right, let's do this." With a grunt, he viciously kicked the door open, swinging it wildly into the residence.
Instantly, Gary rushed inside with Misty right behind him, their weapons drawn and ready to fire. The house was small, as the entrance they had created for themselves gave them a perfect view of the living room, along with the kitchen in the back of it. "Living room and kitchen are clear. Misty, go check the rooms in the back. I'll go scope out the garage," Gary ordered. With a nod, Misty turned and headed down a hallway near the television set, cautiously keeping her weapon ready.
Slowly, she peeked around the corner, making sure it was all clear before she rounded it. As she turned to go down the next hallway, she froze as she heard a sound behind her. Instantly, she whirled around, cocking back the hammer, aiming the figure behind her.
"Whoa, whoa! Misty, calm down, it's me!" the man exclaimed, raising his hands in surrender. Misty sighed deeply and smacked him on his shoulder, prompting a laugh from him.
"Damn it, Tracey! Don't sneak up on me like that; I was about to shoot you!" she shouted as Tracey brought his hand down. "Do that again, and I will pull the trigger, punk." Slowly, she brought her handgun down and placed it back in its holster on her hip. "Well, did you at least find anything?"
Tracey shook his head, scratching his head through the red bandanna that covered it. He had been wearing that thing since she had first met him; it seemed he never went anywhere without it. He even wore it when he was called into duty by the LSF, much to Chief Azusa's chagrin. The Chief had tried to make him get rid of it, but in the end he decided to let it go, since he was the highest ranking agent in the organization, save for the Chief himself. He and Harrison were the only two people ranked as Omega Agents in the LSF; the highest rank it had to offer.
"Nah, we haven't found anything yet," he replied, still scratching his head, causing a stray black hair to fall from the bandanna's trappings. "Harrison's looking in some room in the back now."
"And you?" Misty questioned. Tracey grinned and pointed behind her.
"I was heading to the kitchen, see if they had anything good to eat." Misty let out an exasperated sigh and rolled her eyes. Even though he was the highest ranking agent in the LSF, he certainly didn't act like it. Tracey had had a bit of a reputation as a slacker in the Forces, and it didn't help that he hardly ever seemed to do any real work of any kind around the organization. Many of the younger, fresh recruits still didn't understand how he had attained such a high rank.
"Tell me if you find something interesting, Mist!" he yelled behind himself as he passed her up and headed towards the kitchen. Misty rolled her eyes again and turned the corner, pushing open the door that was in front of her. Misty chuckled to herself; the room looked as if a hurricane had swept through. Clothes lay everywhere, shoes were on dressers, various sheets of paper and other random objects were sprawled out all over the floor. Even in eight years, he hadn't changed a bit.
Stepping through the cluttered room brought back memories; memories that she thought were long buried were beginning to resurface in her mind. Yelling at him constantly about his junky habits, arguing with him constantly over the dumbest things just to be able to make up with him again...she hated thinking about the way things were back then. All it served to do was depress her; it had taken her a lot of time to get over the fact that he had left her. Opening all of these old wounds was one thing she didn't need.
Misty closed her eyes, trying to clear her head. You are not here to dwell on the past. Ash is no longer the same man he was when you last saw him. He's a criminal, and one that needs to be brought to justice. Let it go, she scolded herself internally as she opened her eyes and swept them across the room. Just search the room for any evidence and get the hell out of here.
Finally, Misty pulled herself together and began her search of the room. Slowly, she waded through the piles of clothes and items, opening dresser drawers, looking for anything that would give them a lead. Absently, she shoved her hand into a drawer, feeling her fingers brush against something cold and metallic.
Raising an eyebrow, she pulled the out the items of clothing and finally got a glance at what she had found. Lying in the dresser was a large black handgun, hidden under a pile of clothes. Slowly, she grabbed it and pulled it out, examining the model. Instinctively, she brushed her finger against the magazine release and pulled out the clip. The gun was fully loaded, as she thought. Swiftly, she slammed the magazine back into the weapon and cocked back the slide, hearing the bullet load into the chamber with a loud click.
With a sigh, she placed the gun on top of the dresser and continued her inspection of his belongings. Randomly, she yanked drawers out and emptied them on the floor, seeing if she could find anything else. Quickly, she pulled out another drawer and dumped its contents on the carpet below, preparing to reach out for another drawer as she took a second glance and stopped.
Reaching into the pile she had just emptied, she pulled out a lace bra; feeling her heart sink as she brought it up to the light. It was obvious to her now; he had long forgotten about her and moved on with his life. She didn't even know why she was feeling some kind of loneliness, some sense of rejection. Why was she hurting like this? She shouldn't; she had gotten over him and the fact that he had left her and moved on just like he had. Or at least she thought he had.
"Goddamn you, Ash," she whispered to herself as she threw the clothing to the ground. She wanted to hate him; she wanted to just despise his very being. But in the midst of her desire to hate him so, she knew deep down that she couldn't. She knew she had every right to; he had abandoned her without even so much as a goodbye, reduced her to a shell of her former self, wracked with depression and confusion.
If it wasn't for Gary and the lucky string of events that placed her in the League Special Forces, she had no clue where'd she be right now.
"Misty?"
The voice snapped her out of her trance, bringing her back to the world as she turned to the door. Gary stood there with a concerned look on his face. Quickly, she tried to erase any trace of the thought process that going through her mind from her face, stretching her lips into a smile.
"Did you find anything?" Misty nodded and tossed him the pistol she had found in his drawer.
"Found that in his dresser. It's loaded, so be careful," she warned as he turned the weapon over, examining it. With a click, he removed the clip before cocking back the slide, catching the bullet that popped out in one smooth motion.
"Anything else?" Misty shook her head.
"Nothing big. Just some clothes of his and his girlfriend's," she said, almost choking at the last part of her statement. Gary raised his eyebrow in surprise.
"Girlfriend?" Misty nodded and picked up a pair of lace panties.
"Can't get much more obvious than that, unless he spawned a cross-dressing habit over the past few years," she flatly stated, tossing the lingerie back to the ground. "Did you guys find anything?" Gary shook his head and leaned his head against the doorframe.
"Nope, not a thing. They cleaned out everything that would have been of any use to us. Looks like we're back to a dead end again," he sighed. Both of them fell silent for a moment before Gary turned his head back to Misty. "Are you okay, Misty?" Misty faked a chuckle and stood up.
"Of course, I'm perfectly fine," she lied. Gary raised his eyebrow again.
"You're a horrible liar, you know," he said bluntly. Misty opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted as Harrison burst through the room.
"Guys, let's go. We gotta get back to HQ as soon as possible," he said quickly as he shoved a cell phone into his pocket.
"Why? What's the rush?" Gary questioned, straightening up from the doorframe. Harrison shook his head.
"Somebody broke into HQ and stole the sword," he answered, causing both Gary and Misty's eyes to open wide in surprise.
"What!" she exclaimed. "How did they break into LSF headquarters? That's impossible!"
"Not to mention the fact that the sword is in that Level 4 Security Vault," Gary added. Harrison turned to walk out from the room before turning around to face the two of them.
"Well, according to Jenkins, they broke in alright. They blew the vault right out of the damn floor and sent it flying down seven stories. Nobody there knows who did it, but I got a good idea."
"What? You don't think Ash did it?" Misty said incredulously.
"Well, the guy has survived a car crash where his car has flipped over on one of the busiest freeways in Kanto, and escaped from a hospital that had you two and the Cerulean Police Department in it," he pointed out, drawing a scowl from both Gary and Misty. "Right now, I wouldn't put anything over him. Let's go."
Ash's eyes snapped open fiercely as he awoke with a jolt. Where the hell am I? With a groan, he pulled his body up from the cold stone ground that was beneath him. He blinked, trying to force away the blurriness in his eyes. Slowly, the world around him began to come into focus and he gasped as he took a closer look at his surroundings. A gigantic stone temple stood in front of him, dwarfing the size of even that of Indigo Plateau's Pokemon Stadium. Various pillars that held up the granite rooftops were either cracked or completely obliterated, sending rubble to the ground below, crushing the stairs that led into the building.
Just about five feet in front of lay an overturned statue of a large bird, its head completely crumbled into almost a fine dust as its wings lay broken all around it. The entire city around him was in complete ruin; something had come through here and had laid everything in the metropolis to waste. He tried to take a step forward and almost collapsed to the ground as a sharp pain raced through his left leg, almost paralyzing him. He glanced down and observed his body, only to find that he was no longer dressed in the work outfit he was in when he had left for the LSF headquarters in the morning.
He was clad from head to toe in a thick, heavy maroon cloak that was ripped and tattered in many places; one of his sleeves was ripped off completely while the other was barely hanging on by a single thread. The fabric parted near his thigh; it was obvious that something had cut through the cloth and had just barely missed his flesh. The only thing that felt intact was the hood that hung over his head, which felt heavy, as if someone had dumped it in water and dropped the soaking wet garment on top of him. Slowly, he gripped the hood and pulled it back, feeling the fierce winds around him whip his hair across his eyes.
Ash crinkled his brow as he felt something warm on his hand and pulled it closer to his face to inspect it. His palm was caked in a red, thick liquid; its slightly metallic scent wafted up to his nostrils and caused his heart to skip a beat. Quickly, he patted himself down, feeling small drops of the substance splashing off and onto the stone below. Am I hurt that bad? What the hell happened to me! Why is there this much blood and there's only pain in my leg? Ash suddenly froze as the realization dawned on him; the blood that soaked the cloak he was wearing was not his own. With a frightened and disgusted gasp, he wrenched off the heavy garment and hurled it to the ground, hearing it hit the earth with a wet slap.
Underneath, he was wearing a pair of cotton pants, yet nothing covered his bare chest and back, save for a row of bandages that covered his abs. Both were covered in blood, which had soaked through the cloak onto his skin and pants along with the bandages.
"Go, go, go!" Ash quickly whirled around, spotting a small group of men clad in battle armor and carrying assorted weapons, such as broadswords, katanas and battle axes. They were sprinting down an adjacent street behind him, the metal of their weapons and armor clinking loudly. "Hurry up! The creatures have breached the city!" one of the soldiers yelled at his comrades. "We must give Master Stryker and the other Guardians our support at once!"
"Hey!" Ash hollered, trying to catch their attention. His voice echoed across the street, bouncing from stone building to stone building, yet it seemed that the men didn't hear him. "You guys!" he called again, even louder than the first time. None of them never even tossed a second glance in his direction as they disappeared behind another stone building.
Quickly, Ash started to jog to the men, hoping to find some kind of answers, or at least to figure what was going on. He turned the corner and froze as horrified screams of the men echoed off of the stone walls of the city. "Stand and fight, men! No one will take this city without killing every single of us first! Attack!" the voice yelled as he rallied his men into attacking whatever it was that Ash was staring at, paralyzed in fear.
The ground rumbled as it moved closer, followed by a deafening roar that caused the very walls of the buildings around him to shake and rattle from its awesome power. Suddenly, a shattering explosion rocked the city around him, the shockwave sending him hurling backwards a few feet onto the ground. The screams of the men were blended with the crashing of stone against stone as Ash opened his eyes in time to see the soldier's bodies hurtled into the air like rag dolls from the force of the blast.
Another roar shook the city, causing Ash to desperately scramble to his feet and take off down another abandoned street. Ash's labored breathing echoed within his own skull; all other thought processes inside his head were shoved aside as only one word blared through his mind: survival. The ground rumbled again and Ash tripped with loud cry, colliding with the cold stone road fiercely. He could feel his head throb with pain as a thin sliver of warm liquid slid down the side of his face. It was closing in, he could feel it.
Whimpering, he closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable to come. "Ash, what the hell are you doing!" a voice yelled at him from above. Slowly and cautiously, Ash opened his eyes, only to be assaulted by an overload of light that flooded his pupils.
"W...what the hell?" he said incredulously as his eyes adjusted to the light. A head covered with blazing red hair was hovering over him, its feminine face giving an annoyed look at him.
"Why am I not surprised that your lazy ass is just lying around here?" She turned her head to the side and frowned. "You're not any better either, you lazy mouse!"
"Misty?" She turned to him and smacked him in the forehead.
"Did you not hear a word I just said? Get up, both of you! We're late!" she exclaimed as she grabbed his arm and jerked him upwards onto his feet. Again, she reached down and yanked up the small yellow mouse by its jagged tail, eliciting an angry growl from the creature, the red spots on its cheeks beginning to emit small sparks of electricity. Misty gave a harrowing glare towards the Pikachu, which stopped it in its tracks. "You shock me Pikachu, and you will regret it for the rest of your life, I promise you," she said menacingly.
"Pika...," the pokemon whimpered quietly as she set him down on the grass below. Ash took a look around him; he was standing on top of a grassy hill, with a large city stretching out in front of him.
"This is the last time I'm gonna tell you, Ash! Move your ass!" Misty yelled again as she began to run down the city towards the city below. He gave Pikachu a puzzled glance, which shrugged and scampered down the hill after Misty. He didn't know what was stranger, that strange and horrible ruined city that he was just in, or the fact that after closing his eyes for just a moment, he was transported here.
"What the hell is going on?"
May ran a hand through her hair and sighed as she plopped onto the couch in the living room. "Well, how is he?" she asked as Ritchie finally appeared out the room where Ash was resting. He shook his head and took a seat on a chair, wincing slightly as he did so.
"One cracked rib, two completely broken ones, mild concussion, bruised windpipe, and severe whiplash. And those are just the most serious injuries he's got," Ritchie rattled off. "Chansey's in there now doing her best to heal him. I think it's safe to say though that he won't be going anywhere for at least a month."
"Well, he doesn't look anywhere near as bad he looked when we first grabbed you guys out of that pile in the building," Max commented as he leaned back against the chair and cracked his own spine. Ritchie nodded.
"Yeah, that's the weird thing. When we first got here, I could have sworn he was in worse shape than that. I didn't even think that Chansey would be able to help him; and I still don't think she'll be able to help him much," he added before leaning back in his chair.
"How are you doing?" Brock questioned, prompting a chuckle from Ritchie.
"Surprisingly, I'm doing a hell of lot better than I thought I would be, too. All I've got is this huge bruise on my chest and a sore shoulder, but other than that, I'm fine. I'll tell you, I felt a whole lot worse when we decided to make our own elevator shaft in the middle of the building." Brock shook his head with disbelief.
"I'm still shocked at the fact that either of you even survived a fall like that," he said disbelievingly.
"Well, Sasquatch took the brunt of the fall since he was the one who actually fell onto the ground before us. The debris and what he did before then was what did the most damage to us." Ritchie shook his head. "I still don't know if I was delusional or what, cause I saw some stuff in there that makes absolutely no sense."
Duplica brought her head up and directed her gaze towards him. "What kind of stuff?" Ritchie scoffed and shook his head again.
"Take what I'm about to tell you with a huge grain of salt, because like I said, my mind may have been playing tricks on me," he stated before taking a deep breath. "Ok, you know that door to the vault?" All of the others nodded. "From my warped recollection, the explosive wasn't what opened that door. It looked to me as if he...punched it open."
Max scoffed loudly. "Excuse me? That door is two and half feet of solid steel. Even if you placed one of your little bombs on the door, it would barely open it, if that. Nothing but the shock of the fall could open that vault, and you're telling me that somebody punched it open? That's insane!" Max exclaimed.
Ritchie rolled his eyes. "Did I not just say two seconds earlier that it might have been my mind playing tricks on me? Geez, for such a genius, you sure are stupid."
"What!" Max yelled as he rose from his seat. "You better watch your mouth, you idiot!" Ritchie gave him a look and scoffed.
"Max, I think you'd better sit down. I might be injured, but I can still take your scrawny ass any day of the week," he snapped angrily. May suddenly stood up from her seat on the couch and pointed at Ritchie.
"Hey, that's my little brother you're talking to! You better watch what you say about him when I'm around!" she retorted. Ritchie rolled his eyes and tossed her an annoyed look.
"Who the hell was talking to you in the first place? As a matter of fact, why are you even out here when your boyfriend is lying in the other room barely hanging on to life? Some girlfriend you are," he said sarcastically. "Bet Misty would've never left his side," he muttered under his breath.
May narrowed her eyes at the young man sitting in the chair across the room. "What did you just say?"
"I don't have to repeat myself to you, little girl. You know damn well that you heard what I said. What, am I supposed to be afraid of you or something?" he said matter-of-factly.
"Oh, you will be when I get through with you," she threatened as she began to make her way across the living room to him.
"That's enough!" Brock suddenly yelled, silencing everyone in the room. "I will not sit here and watch you guys fight like a bunch of six year olds! The last thing we need is for us to be at each others throats! May, Max, sit down and relax!" he exclaimed, pointing at both of them as they sat down. "Ritchie," Brock said as he turned his head in his direction, "Right now, the last thing we need is your smart-ass comments. We have a friend who is badly hurt right now, and we still have not decided a course of action about this sword."
Duplica threw her hands up in the air. "Isn't it obvious? We let it go. First off, we don't even know for sure where it is. Secondly, if by some kind of a miracle that we did have an idea as to where it is, what good will sixty million dollars do us if we're dead?" she explained.
"Well, it'll get us a really nice funeral," Ritchie quipped, prompting the whole room to turn on him. "What? What did I do now?"
"Ritchie, kill it. No more remarks right now, got it?" Brock said, his patience slowly running thin.
"Whatever. The sword is probably with those other guys now." Max shook his head.
"No way. The LSF definitely have it. There's no way we'll be able to get it now."
"Nuh-uh. Brock himself said that when he dug us out before the rest of the building got there, that guy and the sword were gone."
"That's because they were most likely buried in that huge pile of rubble, genius."
Ritchie cocked an eyebrow at Max. "No, that sword was not buried under the rubble."
"Oh really?" Max questioned. "And how would you have any clue of that?"
"Because the damn thing was this close to slicing off my friggin' face when it fell right in front of me! I even placed a tracer on it before I passed out!" Ritchie exclaimed loudly.
"And how do we know that this isn't another instance of your mind playing tricks on you?" Ritchie growled and stood up, walking across the room and picking up a small handheld computer.
"You configured Dexter to pick up tracer signals, right?" Max nodded slowly. "Then activate it," he said, shoving the computer in the young man's chest. "Then we'll see who knows what they're talking about."
"Fine," Max snapped as he clicked on the miniature computer and pressed a few buttons. Max's brow suddenly furrowed as he pressed a few more buttons on the device.
"What's the matter, Max?" Duplica inquired as Max shook his head.
"Well, Ritchie was right...for once," Max bluntly stated. "But that sword is nowhere near here."
"Well, where is it, then?" Brock asked.
"It's in Johto. More specifically, it's right outside of Goldenrod City." Ritchie suddenly jumped up and began to head upstairs to his own room. "Where are you going?"
Ritchie stopped halfway up the stairs and turned around. "I'm going to get ready. I'm getting that damn thing back."
"Ritchie, are you insane?" Duplica asked in a surprised tone. "Every time that we've tried to get this thing either somebody almost gets killed or they almost get caught. Let it go."
"The hell I will. If those assholes think that they can pull that crap they did at the LSF building today and get away with it, they've got another thing coming. They're gonna wish they never screwed with us."
Dr. Leto could barely contain his excitement as he poured through the mounds of data files on his computer screen. Not only had Steadman recovered the sword, but his team had finally completed the translations on the stone tablets that were found in an abandoned temple in the Hoenn region. The ancient language inscribed into the rock took almost six months to crack; yet it was completely worth the wait.
They told in excruciating detail every aspect of the Guardian Spirits that he needed to know; while they were explained in somewhat cryptic riddles, he had already developed an understanding of how they worked. Now all he had to do was find these hosts, and all of his research would finally come to fruition.
A loud knock on his office door caused him to jerk his head upwards, annoyed at the interruption. "I'm busy. Come back later," he snapped and quickly returned to his study of the ancient legends. With a loud creak, his door slowly opened and a young technician stuck his head inside of the office. "What did just tell you! I'm busy!" he barked.
"Um...I...I'm sorry to disturb you sir, but the Directors would like to have a word with you in the lab. Agent Summers is with them, too." Dr. Leto let out an irritated groan and rose from his seat, clicking off his computer screen.
"Have you gained any new info about the weapons, yet?" he asked as the both of them left his office and trekked through the white hallways of the facility. The young technician nodded vigorously and smiled.
"Those things are amazing, Doctor!" he exclaimed, "First we were just curious about the level of sharpness that the sword possessed, so we ran some tests. That blade is quite possibly one of the sharpest on the planet, sir. It cut through any kind of substance we threw at it: steel, titanium, it even cuts through diamond! There's something strange about the colors inside of the blade, though."
Dr. Leto raised an eyebrow as they rounded another corner. "How so?"
"Well, some of the colors seem brighter than the others; specifically gold, silver, red, brown, and that very light brown. The others are very dull. We still don't get what they're for, or what the substance that they seem to be floating is, either," the technician explained with a shrug.
Dr. Leto's lit up at the information that he'd just be given. So, some of the hosts have already been found. I'll need to find them as soon as possible, he thought to himself. "Have you found anything new with the shield yet?" The technician shook his as he moved behind the Doctor to let another person pass them in the hallway.
"Other than the fact that it's pretty much indestructible, no we haven't. We're still stuck at square one." The technician stopped in front of a pair of large steel doors, the words "Research Lab #1" emblazoned on the front of them. "After you, sir."
Dr. Leto stepped forward, causing the doors to slide open, and pandemonium to escape behind it. The entire lab was in a panic, with scientists and technicians rushing through the area as if a bomb had gone off in the laboratory. A scientist dashed past the Doctor, only to be stopped as Dr. Leto grabbed his arm. "What's going on here?" he demanded in a loud voice, trying to talk above the commotion in the room.
"We don't know, sir! The Directors and Agent Summers were just taking a look at the weapons when the shield suddenly went haywire! It started vibrating like crazy; it eventually got so bad that the glass case we had placed the weapons in had shattered!" he exclaimed, pointing behind him.
Dr. Leto tossed a glance in the direction the scientist was pointing, spotting a large container that held the sword. Its counterpart, a large crystal disk was lying on the floor, surrounded by the remnants of the glass container on the floor. "There was this loud humming, and this flash just came out of nowhere. When we could finally see, the Directors and Agent Summers were on the ground, out cold."
"Where are they now?"
"They're in the infirmary. I heard they're running tests on them right now." Dr. Leto nodded and placed a hand on the scientist's shoulder. "I need you to do something for me. I need you to contact the Board at once; tell them Dr. Leto has urgent news and he must speak with them at once."
"But, why-," he stammered before Dr. Leto cut him off.
"Don't ask questions, do it immediately! And I want to know the instant that any of them wake up, do you understand!" he exclaimed loudly. The scientist nodded and dashed off to carry out the orders that had just been given to him as Dr. Leto chuckled to himself. The technician at his side gave him a puzzled look.
"What is it, sir?"
"We've finally come to a breakthrough with our research. You should be happy; Team Ultima is about to rise up from the ashes once again."
"What did you guys find in the rubble?" Gary asked as he took a seat next to Misty at the table. The Chief, Tracey, Harrison, and Jenkins were all huddled together in a small conference room as Jenkins sighed deeply and ran a hand through his hair.
"Well, we found five bodies. Three of them were men we'd never seen before, so we're assuming that they were a part of the group that did this. The other two...," he said dejectedly, "were two of our own men who were placed to guard the vault. They weren't killed by the explosion though; forensics said that all of them died from broken necks."
"Still think Ash did all of this, Harrison?" Misty asked, prompting a look from him.
"Misty, it's been eight years. People change; we have no idea what he's capable of doing now. He could be a serial killer for all we know. All I know is that he's a wanted criminal who's opened fire on LSF agents, including Gary," he stated bluntly as he gestured towards Gary. "Not only that, but we've got video surveillance that puts him here at this very building at the time of the break-in."
Tracey shrugged. "That's true, Misty. There's no way around it; if we find him, we're going to have take him down, regardless of what we think. Just because you don't believe it doesn't make the truth any less true."
"Don't let your feelings for Ash cloud your judgment, Mist. He's not the same guy we knew all those years ago," Gary added.
"I do not have feelings for Ash!" Misty snapped loudly, slightly startling Jenkins. Gary gave her a skeptical look and leaned back in his chair.
"Remember what I said about you being a horrible liar? That still applies here. I can read you like a book." Misty opened her mouth, about to give an expletive-laced retort before being stopped by the Chief.
"I take it you guys have known this Ash guy before?" he questioned, eliciting a slow nod from them. "What about you, Jenkins? You part of this little family reunion too?" Jenkins shook his head.
"I have no clue who this guy is either, Chief," he said. Gary sighed loudly.
"I grew up with him in Pallet Town. He was our neighbor; our parents were best friends. Tracey traveled around with him and Misty in the Orange Islands. Harrison was one of his many rivals in the Hoenn League, and the reason he was eliminated from the tournament," he clarified. "Even though I knew him pretty well, Misty is probably the only person in the room who knows more about him than all of us combined."
The Chief raised an eyebrow. "Why's that?"
"Because she was his girlfriend for two and a half years before he just suddenly disappeared." Misty suddenly slammed her hands on the table and rose from her seat quickly.
"I have to go to the bathroom. I'll be back," she snapped before leaving the room, slamming the door behind her. Azusa glanced at the door, then back at Gary.
"I take it that she doesn't like to talk about it very much." The three of them nodded.
"This is the first time she's actually talked about this since he left her eight years ago," Tracey said.
"Well, we need to run this Ash through the database, see what of criminal record he's got," the Chief said as Jenkins cleared his throat and tossed a few sheets of paper onto the table.
"Well, Gary gave the names while they were on the way back from his house, and I've already checked it out."
"Well?" Azusa questioned.
"Nothing; save for a couple of traffic tickets, he and this Brock guy are completely clean. Either that museum job was their first, or they've got an exceptionally great talent for saying under the radar."
"What about that other guy that was with Ash earlier today? Did you run a search on him yet?" Jenkins nodded.
"Yeah, I ran a search on him, but you guys know how long it takes to sift through all that data. It'll be at least another hour or two before it's done. But what do we do now?"
"We start the cleanup and repair of this building," Azusa stated. "After that info on that other guy comes through, I want an immediate search of his residence, understand?" The others nodded. "Good. Now let's get to work."
Max glanced out of the window from the kitchen, seeing the sky ablaze with a multitude of colors as the sun settled from the sky, shrouding the world in darkness as night approached. With a yawn, he scratched his head and closed his laptop. Smacking his lips, he yanked open the refrigerator and grabbed a can of soda.
"Where did Ritchie put those glasses?" he asked himself aloud as he opened and closed the cupboard doors.
"They're in the cabinet on the far right, Max," a voice said from behind him, making Max jump. Quickly he whirled around to find an extremely disheveled looking Ash standing at the door of the kitchen, scratching his head.
"You're finally awake, huh? It's about time you woke up; I nearly thought you were in a coma with the injuries you sustained," Max said as he grabbed a glass out of the cupboard and opened the freezer, dropping a few ice cubes in the glass with a series of loud clinks.
Ash took a seat, yawning loudly. "How long have I been asleep?" Max shrugged as he poured the soda in the glass before tossing the can in the trash and taking a seat.
"About three, maybe four days. How you feeling?"
"Pretty good, actually. My chest and back are really sore and still hurt a little bit, but other than that, I feel fine." Max gave him a surprised look.
"Really? I'm surprised; how can you even walk after all those wounds you got? It's almost impossible that you're up and walking around like this. That Chansey must have really helped you out," Max said with a chuckle.
"So where are the others?" Max cleared his throat suddenly, and placed his glass on the table.
"They're, uh...out." Ash raised his eyebrow in suspicion.
"Out where?"
"To the Pokemart," Max said hurriedly, hoping to fool Ash.
"Stop lying, Max. Where did they really go?"
"I don't want to tell you. If I do, you'll just go after them, and in the condition you're in, I don't think you'll be able to handle it."
"Max, you're my friend, so I don't want to have to do this. You either tell me, or I'll take that computer and figure out where they are. It's your decision." Max sighed deeply and ran a hand through his hair, cursing silently.
"Well...when you and Ritchie were at the LSF headquarters, Ritchie somehow slipped a tracer on the sword. It's somewhere outside of Goldenrod City in Johto; they went to go get it. I told them it was stupid, but you know how Ritchie gets when his pride is damaged."
Ash chuckled and rose from his seat, grimacing slightly from the soreness of his body. "Ash, what the hell are you doing? You're not seriously thinking of going after them!" Max exclaimed. "You can barely walk out of this damn kitchen; what in the hell makes you think you can fight whoever the hell these guys are! Don't be stupid like Ritchie and let your pride get in the way!"
Ash stopped at the doorway and turned around. "This isn't about pride or revenge, Max. I've got a lot of questions, and that sword and those people hold the answers I'm looking for." He suddenly grinned from ear to ear.
"Besides, I stole it first. I'm just taking back what's mine."