(Note: Coarse/inappropriate language)

Interlude Seven: Anger and Anticipation

Darkness had set across Saffron City, but Buzz Bolton was not staring at his beautiful view for once. His back was turned as he stared angrily at the phone, giving the piece of technology a look so nasty you'd think the phone had done something to personally upset him. His laptop lay at his feet in pieces, broken glass, wires and keys scattered over the carpet. The last thing it had displayed had been the latest blog from Alaska Acevedo, a site Buzz had not expected to be updated again.

His body tensed up as he waited for the phone to ring. Buzz's anger was consuming him, and the fact Amanda had not picked up only increased his rage. In fact, he was furious at her: why hadn't she personally phoned him herself to tell her about Alaska and the Power Plant, rather than leaving his easily frightened assistant to pass on the news. And why were they only learning now that Alaska was alive when the Electrode they planted should have killed her. Too many questions were filling Buzz's head, and the only person with the answers was at the other end of the line.

The second it began to ring Buzz marched over, his feet stomping hard against the ground, and he snatched the phone up before the second ring, already beginning to crush it like a Bug type.

"Hello?" Buzz roared, his usual calm, silky voice being taken over by fury.

"Buzz, y-you need to calm down and let me explain," Amanda replied timidly from the other end, her stutter creeping in once again. Buzz let out a laugh, a loud, short sarcastic sound that he roared into the phone.

"Calm down? You seriously expect me to fucking calm down?" Buzz yelled. "I think that everything is going to plan and we are well on a way to getting our revenge, and then Alice comes in telling me that there's been an accident at the Power Plant. I get sent a $200,000 bill to pay, and if that wasn't bad enough, I hear that whore is back in our lives! WHY ISN'T SHE DEAD!"

"I don't know!" Amanda shouted back, though her voice was still weak. "Our systems show that the Electrode did indeed detonate, so I could only presume –,"

"Oh of course, just presume one of the biggest threats to our plan is dead, that's some great work there," Buzz hissed in angry sarcasm. "I want people to get to the Underground Tunnel and find out everything they can about what happened there, namely being how on earth she managed to escape."

"Yes sir," Amanda responded briskly, trying to compose herself.

"Now, tell me my dear, if she did survive, why weren't we alerted to it earlier?" Buzz growled, sitting down on his desk and staring out to the neon glow of the city but not truly taking the view in. "She has posted a blog since Vermillion City, why weren't we told?"

"I told you, I thought she was dead, I did not bother checking!" Amanda said in defence, but her voice showed she was merely finding excuses. "I-I-I-I-I-I'm s-s-sorry Buzz, I should have done better!"

"And if that wasn't bad enough, you let her get involved in our competition?" Buzz said, getting angrier with every syllable as he brushed aside the stuttered apology. "What the fuck were you thinking you stupid woman? We already know she is stronger than our three trainers, so why let her show them up once more, and then let her destroy a fucking generator?"

"Chloe insisted, and I thought it was best to try and hold her up in case I thought of anything," Amanda explained quietly. "Chloe nearly killed her Pidgeotto and Nidoran though, which I think is a positive."

"A positive?" Buzz hissed. "A positive would be watching Alaska as she wiped blood and feathers off the floor: nearly is not a positive, make a note of that." He sighed angrily, rubbing his head as he wondered what to do next. "Why didn't you answer earlier?" Buzz asked, thinking it was a simple question, but Amanda suddenly fell silent. He didn't notice at first, but after nearly a minute without a response he picked up on it. "Amanda, I can tell your still there, I can hear your breathing. What happened? TELL ME?" Amanda gulped audibly at the other end, and Buzz growled as he waited for her response.

"I told the kids they could go out and relax for the night, just for a change of p-p-pace," Amanda explained quickly. "I didn't think it would do any harm, but after half an hour I hear sirens outside and go to have a look. It turns out Alaska was there, and –" but Amanda never finished her sentence: Buzz roared into the phone, letting out a murderous, blood curdling cry that would be enough to frighten anyone that heard it. The producer could usually reign his anger in, but today he was losing it: Alaska Acevedo had escaped them too many times and was causing more problems than they had originally anticipated, and he was getting sick of it.

"Make sure that whore bitch is dead by the end of the week!" Buzz yelled back into the phone. "I want her head to hang from my wall, you hear me? BRING ME HER HEAD!" And with that, Buzz grabbed the phone and threw it angrily at the window. The phone shattered into broken black plastic, and the window was now cracked, but Buzz didn't care in the least. He angrily grabbed his desk and flipped it over, sending his contents spilling to the floor and cracking the wood.

For the next hour, Buzz let his anger out. He kicked and punched the wall, knocked over his mother's flax plant and tipped over both of his couches. The scarcely decorated room looked as if a bomb had gone off, but Buzz continued to vent his fury, smashing and throwing his photographs and diplomas around. Each thing he broke, each thing he tipped, each item he destroyed, Buzz imagined Alaska's face breaking into tiny pieces and covering his floor. He stamped down in sick glee, imagining screams of pain sounding around him with each stomp. The metal beneath his Persian skin rang with each furious stomp, and Buzz started to laugh maniacally as he crushed every piece of glass and plastic within sight.

The end of many long years of planning was finally coming to an end. Buzz would soon crush everything else in his path, not just the irritating little girl that constantly got in their way. Buzz would leave her, Oak, Bill, the bloody lot of them to fight things out with Gideon, and it would leave the path clear for him to destroy the world around them.

Buzz laughed at this for many hours yet, the stars and the artificial lights twinkling all behind him, unaware of the sadistic plans unfolding within the Silph Co. Building at that very moment, and the citizens unaware of the dangers that were soon to come…


The mountains that Alaska had noticed earlier in the day around the Power Plant carried on for miles, their towering peaks and paths of gravel and stone stretching on seemingly for as far as the eye could see. The rocky mountains went down to the very end of Route 10 and carried on around Lavender Town, trapping the small and quiet town permanently by a wall of rock.

At the bottom of the mountains was the hilly and nearly as rocky southern half of Route 10, split off from the top by mountains and the Rock Tunnel that lay between it. A bitter wind blew through here, coming down from the mountains and roaring through towards the town with dust and small rocks in tow.

It was this wind that whipped up Gideon's coat as he stood silently near the mouth of the Rock Tunnel.

He had taken a short time to recover and map out his plans, taking in the reaction from the bombing of Chrono Island and the destruction of Vermilion City. Charred bodies were still being removed from the island, while reports said it could cost up to one billion dollars to repair the city. These reports had made Gideon happy, but he had bigger things to worry about than fret about the past. He waited until Porygon-Z had recovered from the destruction caused, and now was ready to continue his plan.

Gideon stared towards the small, dark town before, the long black coat he wore flapping around him in the breeze. Possibly the biggest part of his plan involved getting a single book that he knew was hidden within the town, and he would stop at nothing to get it.

Nothing, Gideon thought to himself as he began to descend the unstable hill before him. I will tear this town apart if I must: nothing shall prevent me from getting that book.


That's what you think

Charlotte purred to herself as she stared towards the dark hill of Route 10 before her, managing to hear Gideon's thought even from this distance. The wind was threatening to blow the ghost away, but she sat remained still with her legs crossed, hands resting against her knees, sitting on the pitifully small building that now made out Kanto's main Pokemon graveyard.

She knew exactly what the scientist wanted, and she knew exactly how he planned on achieving it. Charlotte had savoured the peace for the past three years, enjoying the time to relax, not sure if it was passing by too slowly or too quickly. Yet another challenge was being forced upon her, and the ghost felt compelled to deal with, whether it fell within her duties or not.

"We shall see Mr Gideon," Charlotte whispered into the night, her lifeless body beginning to descend through the roof, "we shall we how it all works for you in the morning." The ghost decided quickly that she was up for the fight that was surely going to unfold, and decided that three years was far too long.

It was time to save the world again.


Rock Tunnel/Lavender Town Arc next. I will hopefully get one chapter up about next week before moving onto Galactic, which will take a while, but there will be more updates from now on as A Wish on Freedom concludes tomorrow(!), giving me more time to focus on 8ES. Also, you may be baffled over Charlotte, but I decided I am not going to give her a detailed introduction every time she first appears in a story, as she already has detailed explanations in Galactic and The First Warriors, and will have detailed ones in future stories as well. There will be some explanation when Alaska first sees her in the next arc, but reading the TFW prologue will shed some light on her before then.