Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon. In Soviet Russia, Pokémon do not own me.
Heh… a new reviewer; Mossstar! Glad you're familiar with the Russian Reversal Theorem. In Soviet Russia, Pokémon catch you!
Anyways… sorry for the late chapter update; somehow my computer entirely screwed up… and I only got to get it up just now.
Anyways, the roads to different cities are rarely short; else there wouldn't be much point in having roads. The characters will be on the road quite a few days, though there'll obviously be rest stops along the way. The villains have arrived in earnest now; though it still remains to be seen exactly what their plans are.
Ah well… I'll keep you wondering as I start writing my next chapter of Pokémon Go! And so… chapter 31, begin!
Erynn sighed as yet another cyclist passed them by.
"Oh come on… it's not like we had that much money…"
The four of them were still walking; the sun hung in the middle of the air, a golden ball exuding the mildest of warmth. The temperature was neither too hot nor too cold, but they couldn't stop to enjoy it at all.
"The Great North Road… they call it," Dave said, reading from his handbook.
"Pokémon common around this area are those of the Caterpie, Zigzagoon, Oddish, Rattata, Spearow and Hoothoot families. Less common are Pineco, with rare sightings of Yanma."
Ash looked around; the grass was certainly think enough to hide any Oddish or Zigzagoons, while the trees were definitely habitats for any of those others.
"No rare Pokémon…?"
Dave shook his head.
"You wouldn't expect to find any unique Pokémon so near a manmade path, would you…?"
The conversation was joined by Michelle, who had a hand on her Pokéballs as she walked. Erynn shook her head, stroking Griven's fur absentmindedly as she walked beside her. Ash was bringing up the rear; his pace seemed a little slower today.
Dave had a hand on an empty Pokéball, while his other held the Trainer's Handbook from which he read by. Espeon was on something like a hunting-mode; she was deadly serious as she loped along by Dave's side.
They passed another group of trainers, their conversation animated as they passed our heroes by. Ash turned to look at them as they passed; none of them he recognized.
Even as they did, Michelle broke off the random conversation she had been having with Erynn; both of them fell silent as they felt that strange lack of society within the group.
"Hey Ash… anything wrong back there…?"
The two of them noticed his vague discomfiture. Michelle turned as well, so the two of them were staring at him. Which was pretty impressive, since they were still walking.
"What…?" he said uncomfortably.
"Do you know something…?"
Ash shook his head no.
"Nothing; I just… feel maybe we shouldn't leave things lying down like that…"
Erynn released a breath as she stopped walking, letting him catch up.
"You can't… in the first place, the Tentor Fog are dangerous. Secondly, you know next to nothing about them, and thirdly…"
"…thirdly we're not heroes. And we don't have to as though we are." Michelle finished, rather realistically.
"Fine…" he sighed, "I don't think I saw anything… anyway."
Or thought I did…
T E N T O R F O G
"We've got it running…"
The brightly lit room suggested a hospital, or perhaps some scientific laboratory; it was sterile to the point of being asphyxiating. The air was cold; it hung, dry; its tang was almost metallic. There were only four people in the room, but only two of them were breathing.
"Downloaded… and complete," the other one said, as he detached the Pokéball from the mainframe of the computer which took up a large portion of the room.
Plugging it into his own PokéNav, he waited as his Porygon transferred the information. The other one was still hunched over the controls, which hummed gently under his touch. They were dressed in lab coats that were almost identical to the still, seated figures which lay on their respective swivel chairs.
Almost identical; theirs didn't have blood or a bullet hole in them.
Even as the man pocketed his PokéNav, he sighed. It had been too easy. A single bullet; silenced, of course… two flashes of light, and it was over.
A bright blue light began to pulse softly from the console. The one hunched over the controls made a slight motion with his shoulder as his fingers flew across the screen, motioning for his partner to check it.
"Systems… online… specs checking…" he murmured as he ran his finger across the touch screen. In an instant the printer to a side began to whir into action; it churned out pages after pages of paper, each one written on in minute fonts.
He turned as a soft pneumatic hiss sounded; the man who had been manipulating the controls gave the OK.
"It's done."
He walked over to a panel by the side, which had just opened. Reaching in, he removed a small machine from it; barely the size of a good novel.
"You've got the data…?"
The other man nodded, holding the sheaf of papers in his off-hand. The PokéNav was in his pocket.
"Fine… now that's done with, we can –"
He never got to finish his sentence. There was a sharp spurt, slicing through the silence like a knife. He pocketed his gun as his ex-partner crumpled to the ground. Silently he walked forward, taking the box-shaped machine from him.
"Ember, Houndoom…"
The large hound materialized from its Pokéball, immediately sending a stream of scorching flame at the corpse. With cold precision, it attacked until there was nothing left of it but a fine, white dust. The man's face was expressionless as he incinerated the papers together with the man.
"That'll do…" he whispered, returning the Pokémon to its ball.
"All we needed… was this."
He cracked the box open, removing from the mass of circuitry a small fragment of what appeared to be crystal; it was barely the size of a fingernail.
His gloved hands calmly placed the crystal in his pocket as he set the rest of it down on a table. Maintaining the same composure, he carefully removed the two Pokéballs from his former partner's belt.
"No doubt he won't be missing them…" he said to himself, releasing one of the Pokémon.
"Alakazam; get me out of here."
The Pokémon didn't seem surprised at all to be ordered around by a different man than the one he'd known. After all, he'd been trained to obey orders. How could he think otherwise…?
The man blinked out of existence with a Teleport, leaving the place in a state of disarray. The door swung loosely on its hinges; of course there was no one there to close it. It was not until the next morning that it would be closed; but by that time, another door had just opened.
T E N T O R F O G
The four of them sat at a rest stop, awaiting the arrival of their food and drinks. The table they sat at was one of those booths, built for six people to eat in relative privacy. With Espeon, Leon and Ditto sitting at the table with them, though, it was relatively cramped.
Their seats were by the window, so they could see the trainers going past pretty clearly. Ash didn't recognize any of them that had passed so far; RJ was probably a lot further ahead, while his fellow beginners were probably still a bit of the way behind.
I've come pretty far… haven't I?
Ash looked thoughtfully at the Synchro and Atmos badges he'd collected.
Only eight more to go…
The Elem Region was relatively large, which fifteen Gyms in total. While one only had to go to ten of them, there was no clear path to choose, since none of them were based strictly on type.
He looked around at the three friends he'd met. Erynn; he was stuck with her because of Seryn. Dave… he was a chance encounter in the Rubidide Forest… and Michelle was there just because Erynn had chosen her for a friend; though possibly it was her natural cynicism which had brought this upon him.
Dave was watching the trainers as they walked past; once or twice they would step in, but relatively few had their Pokémon out of their Pokéballs. Dave had Espeon, Michelle had Leon, and Ash had Ditto, but they were the exception rather than the norm.
I sure have come a long way…
Thirty and a half chapters, to be exact.
Ash shrugged off the buzzing sound as the feeling of fatigue. After all, he hadn't eaten in hours.
Erynn was humming some tune to herself, while Michelle was drawing in her sketchbook. Ash and Erynn had always wondered what exactly it was she drew in it. If either of them had to make a guess, they'd pick on something dark-themed.
"And then there's the Tentor Fog…"
As though in response to his question spoken aloud, the television placed against the bar flickered off its rerun of a Pokémon Docudrama and went onto a live feed from the Magnes Television Station.
"We interrupt your incredibly boring television schedule to bring you some breaking news. The long arms of the Tentor Fog, recently reported breaking and entering the Immaterion Corporations Headquarters in Fluoride, have recently struck again.
"This time, the target has been a R&D Laboratory located on Radya Island, located to the southwest of Fluoride. If any one has spotted any suspicious figures recently, please do not hesitate to dial…"
The report faded off into the background as Ash turned his gaze away. The Docudrama came back on; to Ash, it sounded remarkably refreshed, as though the short break had done something for it. As he dug into his food, he tried not to think about it.
The Tentor Fog… they're never good news…
A/N: The next chapter is done at last! I know it's short, but I've been gaming for a bit of a stretch today… anyways, my mum's given me her old PDA, so from now on I'll be able to write away from home! Testing it out tomorrow, so I hope to get to write more for the next chapter!
Oh and I really hope you enjoyed this one. It was dark, and pretty short, but it does add atmosphere…