-Chapter 4-
-VS. Tangela!-
Orange, Lemon, and Professor Oak emerged from the leafy green forest laughing, the three Snubbull and the discolored Granbull attached to Professor Oak's belt. Buzzgo, Milton, and Slowgo followed behind as well, giving off 'Bi bi bi's and 'Mi mi mi's and occasional 'Ya ya'. Eventually, the laughter died down.
"Professor Oak, why did you come to Valencia Island anyway?" asked Orange curiously as he looked up at the old man. Oak scratched his head.
"Actually, I don't remember right now," he said, then laughed. Orange and Lemon nearly fell over.
"Professor, you were coming to see my mom, remember? She sent me to pick you up" piped up Lemon. Orange looked at her, surprised.
"He came… to see your mom?" he asked.
"That's right! I came to see Professor Ivy!" said Oak, "I got so caught up with the Granbull I almost forgot". Orange's heart dropped, and his face flushed pale.
"P-P-Professor Ivy?" he stuttered. Surely not the woman who kicked Orange out of her lab? Orange and Buzzgo's eyes met, and they both fidgeted nervously.
Sure enough, a moment later, Orange, Professor Oak, and Lemon had arrived at the place Orange had dreaded they were going to, the large white lab. It actually looked quite cool, shaped with delicate curves made of shimmering silver metal. Orange feared it anyway. Lemon took the lead, and reached her hand out to open the door, a band around her wrist. Orange picked up Buzzgo in his arms and closed his eyes as the door slowly opened with Lemon's touch. He opened one eye into a wink, and saw Professor Ivy look toward the door, then jump four feet into the air as she launched into explanation about not being ready.
"Oh my god! Professor Oak! So sorry! Lost track of time! Completely forgot! Caught up with some idiot b-" she stopped. Her eyes fell on Orange, and she sneered at him.
"What is HE doing here?" she said, rudely.
"This boy? Mom, he helped save the professor's life. How could you forget that he was coming? You told me just a little while ago to go get him…" Lemon said, a hint of amusement in her voice.
"Oh - Er… that was before, um… That was before this boy distracted me with healing my Raticate!" she fidgeted, then waved her arms during the second part of her alibi. She turned away with a "Hm!" Orange shuffled his feet sheepishly.
"I'm sure this is all just a misunderstanding," said Oak, then hopped as he saw the mentioned Raticate. "My goodness, that Raticate is red! Two shiny Pokémon in one day!?" he shouted happily.
"Er… the climate of the Orange Islands makes shiny Pokémon much more common than in other places…" said Professor Ivy quietly. She fidgeted her shiny red shoes as she did this, obviously upset at having dampened Professor Oak's excitement.
"Well, that's just as good! This is the sort of thing I came to the Orange Archipelago to learn!" he cried, grinning. He dug in his pocket and pulled out an orange device, a lot like the one Professor Ivy used to check Buzzgo's attacks.
"Felina, it's done!" he cried ecstatically. "The Dex is complete!" Oak and Ivy chattered quietly among themselves about the orange Pokédex, Ivy had obviously forgotten about being furious with Orange for the time being.
"The other was just a prototype," said Lemon, easing Orange's confused expression, "It was only made to give data about the Pokémon in the lab, and the three starters my mom usually gives out," she explained.
"Your mom… usually gives out Elekids?" wondered Orange aloud. His own in his arms smiled, and Orange smiled back at it, then at Slowgo, who had followed behind them into the lab with Milton at its side. Oak had finished talking about the changes and bugs he had worked out from the Dex, and moved on to the main order of business, straightening the tie around his neck and fixing his posture to sound more official.
"Professor Ivy, could you fill up this Dex of the Orange Archipelago for me?" he said deeply. Ivy was stunned, she sort of stumbled of words for a moment, then announced "I'm sorry Samuel, I can't." Oak was taken aback, but Ivy continued. "I've got to take care of the lab, and Lemon, and -" She probably would have continued, had not the door shattered with a deafening crash and a twinkle of falling glass.
Three men in white uniforms stepped through the jagged and sharp doorway, gas masks on their faces. A blood red symbol was on each mans shirt, one that made Professor Oak's heart freeze. Elekid's fists sparked, and Orange quickly set him on the ground, where he stood ready to defend his trainer if necessary. Slowgo stepped up next to him, followed by Milton, the three forming a wall in front of the two trainers and the two professors whom watched gaping at the scene. The intruder in the middle smirked from behind his mask, then, in a deep, booming voice, shouted 'Go, Tangela!'. He chucked a black Ultraball into the air, where a Tangela appeared, lashing its tangled purple vines dangerously, a look of fury in his dark eyes.
Elekid lunged forward and swung his fist down for a Karate Chop on the Pokémon, but the blow never hit. A vine snapped out and whipped itself around the Elekid's arm, disarming it. Elekid tried his other arm, but it ended up tangled in a knot like his right.
"Bi! Bi!" it shouted, struggling to free itself.
"Buzzgo!" Orange bellowed, and gritted his teeth.
"Slowgo, Psychic!" shouted Orange. Nothing happened. He looked at his Slowpoke, and realized that its eyes were glazed, even more so than usual. He followed the deep stare to the source, and gasped. The Tangela's trainer laughed as Orange realized in horror that the Tangela was swaying a few of its vines slowly in front of its hidden face, hypnotizing Slowgo.
"Psychic!" Orange cried again furiously. Slowgo didn't move. Buzzgo struggled more, and got his arms tangled more. Suddenly, Orange had an idea.
"Buzzgo, Thunderpunch!" he cried. Buzzgo grinned, and sparked his hands, wrapped entirely by Tangela's vines. Electricity coursed through the Tangela, but it managed to hang on, and to avoid another blow, it's vines loosened, and then the Tangela jumped back in a rage of twisted vines.
"Hm" said its trainer, angrily. He nodded at the man to his right, then the one to his left. From an Ultraball, Each sent out a Weepinbell, their gaping mouths twisted into a cruel smirk. The Weepinbells simultaneously wrapped the brown vine topping their bell shaped bodies around a vine on Tangela, then all at once, the three trainers shouted 'Stun spore!' The Weepinbells spewed a nauseous yellow powder from their mouths, and Tangela shook its body, releasing the spores from its core as its vines wriggled like snakes in the air. The spores joined, and a toxic blanket fell over Orange, Lemon, the two Professors, and their Pokémon. Lemon and her mother shrieked, and then the four of them fell into darkness as the gas mask-protected men wickedly laughed…
The three men returned their Pokémon to their respective Pokéball, and signaled out the shattered glass door to more uniformed men outside. They clambered in, and began snatching things from Professor Ivy's lab. In the middle of the room, a boy clad on orange, a girl clad in yellow, a woman with purple hair and a lab coat, and an old guy in a lab coat, lay next to an Elekid, a Slowpoke with a King's Rock, a Miltank, and a red Raticate, all of them unconscious from a powerful Stun Spore attack.
One uniformed boy stood outside, concealing his deep fear of what he would see inside behind his neon green eyes. His eyes held no kindness, only bitterness, to the core. He kept them locked in a glare, the more anger he held in them, and the less fear he could show in them. He bit his lip angrily, until he almost bled, then stepped into the cool metal lab. He tried to keep his eyes away from the center, where he knew that if what he feared were in the lab, it would be. He examined the outer perimeter, half-looking for anything to snatch. He pulled several specially designed Pokéballs from his uniform and captured several Paras, shaking with fear, from the habitat the professor had made them. He continued to skulk around the walls, capturing a pair of Nidoran, and a shiny Vileplume. The man had patrolled the perimeter. Dread filled his mind as he slowly turned his head toward the center of the room. His face turned pale. The two people there… They couldn't be…? He rushed back outside of the lab and waited for his colleagues to finish looting it.
Moments later, they emerged from the lab as well, carrying the bodies of the unconscious victims over their shoulders. Their arms dangled lifelessly in the air, and their legs dragged pathetically along the sand. The trainer's Pokémon now lay stored in their Pokéballs on the belts of stranger trainers. The uniformed men dragged their hostages onto a sleek black cruise ship waiting in the bay. A blood red skull was painted on the side, identical to the one on each man's uniform. The skull was strangely shaped, surely not human. The inside of the ship was basically the same as the outside, black and metallic, though with computers, robots, and other technology crammed into every inch of it. It was a wonder it stayed afloat. The man with the Tangela had his grunts drop off the two trainers in a dingy cell in their brig. The two professors were locked in another on the main floor. Their Pokéballs and other items of value were taken to their boss on the central control room. He stood in a black leather chair, obviously more comfortable then the cold metal ones the grunts around him sat on. The boy with the neon eyes stood in a dark corner of the room, then snuck from it to the brig where the two unconscious trainers were being imprisoned. He knew what he had to do. For his sister.
-Chapter 5-
-VS. Zubat!-