11.
Snacks With Candles
Just plug in and go-go-go, I'll be your human dynamo!
Signals in my power cord, impulse on my circuit board!
"AWESOME!"
"What's awesome, Ash?"
"Candice had snacks with Flint of the Elite Four!"
"They had what!?"
"They had snacks! Looks like some cheese and chocolate chunks and crab dip and a jar of olives! It's a whole spread o' yummy stuff! What, you haven't seen this yet?"
"I didn't know Flint posted personal photos!"
"What's up, Goh? You wanna have snacks with Candice too?"
"No I don't want to have snacks with Candice!"
"We should go to Snowpoint City again and challenge Candice to a Normal Class battle! I didn't see her last time! Although Flint tagged this as being in Sunyshore City. Hey, we should go there and visit Volkner!"
Marcell banged his head against the top of the ventilation shaft he was currently crawling through. The boys' voices below fell silent, and his teammates squeezed in single file ahead of him gave a too-loud shushing.
It was another mission day. Steal Pikachu Attempt Two: Electric Boogaloo, as Marcell had dubbed it. The others only laughed. It was nervous laughter, through their teeth, as if they doubted naming it would make it any more successful than the last.
In a previous life, when he wore a blue jacket and was called The Solar-Powered City Planner, he'd presented blueprints at some community forum for a public housing project right on the beach. It was a giant thunderbolt-shaped complex decked out in green paint and gears. "Vista Village," he'd called it, the name scratched in hurried all-caps under diagrams of self-making beds and open-air elevators and the smartest environmental controls money could fund.
"It's… very you," the community told him, "but we're strapped for cash, and you'd never get a variance for that much LED rope. How about you build some more walkways and generators?"
He remembered arguing. Someone named Flint argued too, a little too passionately on his behalf. It was Vista Village, then Vista Hall, Ginterson-Perilla Hall, Perilla Village, Sunyshore Heights, and so forth. When negotiations settled, the project was realized as the Ginterson Building, a boring boxy white highrise on the beachfront plaza with a website full of champagne glass stock photos and single suites that cost more than his renovated gym. He supposed stealing Pikachu was like that: a daydream fleshed out in exorbitant detail, then stifled and hidden beneath white marble countertops and behind nervous white teeth.
Not that stealing Pikachu demanded public forums and environmental impact statements.
They were crawling through a ventilation shaft in the Sakuragi Institute, one of Vermilion City's Pokémon research facilities. It was based in an old stone building. The place was gothic yet modern, with tall pointed steeples balanced out by blocky columns of living space and charming dormer windows along the outer walls. The squad had been there before, they told Marcell, because the twerps lived there while they "ran about willy-nilly" to research Pokémon.
"That Candice seems eager to reel you back in," James whispered when the distinct sound of twerps brushing their teeth was heard beyond the thin veil of metal.
"Never heard of her," Marcell grunted.
"You've heard of Flint," said Jessie.
"Who's Flint?"
"Well dat's some big turnaround," Meowth noted, swinging around to pat Marcell with a paw. "Better ya drop those old chums by da wayside so dey don't weigh ya down any. Dey sound happy at least wit'out ya."
Jessie hummed. "Flint's got a fiery temper on him. Do you even think he'd make a good boyfriend?
"I'd tell you if I knew him."
"Well somebody knows him."
"Not me."
"I think that girl's trying to make you jealous."
"Well, what guy wouldn't be? She's cute. She's bubbly. And she's having snacks with Mr. Elite Four, so no more questions asked."
They continued crawling aimlessly, listening to whatever intrigue was going on below. According to James's data, they'd left the residential side of the building and were now headed into the research facilities. It was quieter here. Dr. Sakuragi hadn't yet arrived to analyze any new data.
"I got a question," Meowth rasped. "How d'ya get to become a Gym Leader, anyway?"
"I can't answer that."
"But I'm a curious cat. You can drop da play-actin' for a second and be honest. Is dere a test ya have to take? D'ya just have to be da strongest trainer in town when the old one retires?"
Marcell shrugged in the darkness.
"You can become a Gym Leader whenever you want. You start by putting on mismatched socks and crab-walking up to a current Leader. Then you cup your hands around his ear and whisper that you want to challenge him in The Old Ways. If he accepts your challenge, he presses a special lever in the back of the gym, and the door to a secret stairway opens up. Both of you descend, taking only your strongest Pokémon. At the bottom there's an arena lit by torches. It's not even painted. Just dirt. Both of you strip down to just your shorts and have a battle. If your Pokémon loses, that's fine. You just have to wrestle the other guy yourself and pin him for ten seconds. If you can do that, you're the new Gym Leader, and the old one has to dump sand in his pants for a week and then leave town and never come back."
"Dat's total baloney!"
"That's the best explanation I can give when I've never been a Gym Leader."
They sat in silence then, as James unscrewed a vent cover large enough for each of them to fit through. One by one, the squad dropped down into the main computer lab. The same wood paneling of the residential side covered the main floor. To the left were a few monitors on a desk behind a world map, and to the right were a sectional beside a coffee table and a tall bookshelf. Raised above three stairs was a smooth, metallic flooring, criss-crossed with silver tape to make square patterns. Two pairs of imposing black computer modems, taller than a grown man and connected by machinery between, framed the floor with the tape. In the center was a circular divot glowing a dull blue-white — a futuristic contrast to the delicate flower motif of the stained glass window above.
"Hologram computer," Marcell remarked, a grin beginning to form on his face. "This place is high-tech."
"We're not here to steal the tech," Jessie reminded him.
"I wouldn't dare. Holograms are cheap. Now, constructing a few simple tesla coils and programming an image to form out of active plasma, that's some real impressive engineering."
"Like the lightning lightshow you wired up in the Sunyshore Gym?" James asked.
"Mmm, yeah. Whoever renovated the Sunyshore Gym is one sexy son of a Bidoof. That set-up is insane."
James shook his head. "I feel we should settle this before we're tangled in semantics. You seem… changed… from last week. Your attitude is jagged and you're perpetually performing as your persona. It's perturbing."
"Well, before last week I wasn't an arsonist and I still had Electivire. I'm a bit perturbed myself, James. So knock it off with the prying. All of you. Stop asking about my past and just talk to me about the directive."
"We'll find Electivire."
"It's… fine. My Electivire's powerful, but it's well-trained. It'll be safe with whoever finds it. I left my other partners behind anyway. And I have Visquez's Raichu now. I scrambled the metadata in its Poké Ball and re-registered it under my Rocket ID. I'm not defenseless."
Jessie ran a gloved hand down each of his arms. She felt his muscles tense and remembered the shock burns still healing beneath the sleeves.
"Don't hurt yourself," she told him. "James may look like a lowlife, but he's the son of millionaires. He felt a lot of anxiety when he first joined Team Rocket, about his identity being compromised. And he wasn't in such a unique situation as yours. We all chose to be criminals, but we're also family. When we're feeling worried, we talk about it."
"I'm not worried."
"You just said you were!"
"Maybe it's best to leave him be, Jess. He's still in shock," said James.
The woman broke away, but not before giving Marcell a quick hug and re-fluffing his hair, yelping at the static.
"Still in shock is right," she muttered.
The sudden rush of footsteps down the nearest hallway startled the squad, and they all leapt behind the sectional in the front right corner of the room, cramming their bodies together as tightly as they could. Four pairs of narrowed eyes peered up above the cushions to see the doors slide open and a man in glasses and a lab coat emerge. This was the handsome and esteemed Dr. Sakuragi, followed by his young research fellows. Ash was floating along in some childish daze, Pikachu on his shoulder. Goh's eyes were glued to Ash's Rotom Phone. He gripped the poor symbiont with his fingernails and scrolled through his newest obsession.
"Candles. He gave her a pet name and it's Candles," the boy huffed.
The doctor approached the computer monitors, quickly typing out commands that brought the hologram emitters to life. The modems rumbled. A ghostly blue net phased out from the circular pad in the middle. Four floating tablets shimmered into existence above the modems, displaying codes and information.
"Man, don't tell us we gotta stay in again today," Ash whined. "There's gotta be something we can check out. Maybe something in another region? I think Goh really wants to go back to Sinnoh."
"It would be productive if I could catch more Sinnoh Pokémon," Goh clarified.
"You wanna have snacks with Candles."
"I do not!"
Dr. Sakuragi yawned and nudged his glasses up further on his nose. "Boys, don't shout," he grumbled. "You know what happened was serious. Team Rocket operatives were audacious enough to destroy Indigo League property and assault a Gym Leader. It's best we follow the advisory and limit our activities in the field until the police track down the perpetrators."
"We could find the perps!" Ash retorted. "Seems we run into Team Rocket every few days anyway."
Goh nodded. "It wouldn't be wrong for us to help out. We might find some clues if we head to the Vermilion Gym. Although, I'm not sure my parents would like it if I crossed the police tape."
Ash slapped him on the back. "You don't have to cross the police tape, Goh! I'll do it for you! You can just take notes!"
"Boys, you are not setting foot anywhere near the Vermilion Gym. It shouldn't be long before all the damage is assessed. In the meantime, you can continue observing how the Pokémon in Sakuragi Park are interacting. There's such a large variety of Bug-Types, you should be able to learn something new."
Both boys were in the middle of groaning when the computer monitors chirped and the holograms began to whirl, new data springing up upon the glowing tablets and threads of light reconnecting within the net. The doctor leaned in close to see what was the matter.
"Oh, how interesting"
"What's up, prof?" Goh asked.
"Huh. According to Ren, a mass outbreak of Luxray has been reported at the city's edge. Luxray is an Electric-Type Pokémon native to the Sinnoh region. Its golden eyes can see through anything."
Four pairs of eyes rose slightly higher above the sectional cushions. The blue eyes behind the purple plastic went particularly wide.
The holographic net parted, and several images were displayed of big cats, huddled together in a patch of grass. A good number were the typical blue-and-black Luxray, while many others had golden fur on their muzzles and abdomens. This latter group faintly twinkled in the pixels of the projection.
"This is even odder," continued the doctor. "There are shiny Luxray here. The ones with golden fur are extremely rare. This is incredible! Sinnoh Pokémon, and multiple shinies!"
The Luxray in the holograms opened their jaws and yawned, showing off gleaming, sparking teeth. One of them launched an impressive jet of blue plasma from its jaws that roasted the grass around it.
"Those are…" James whispered.
Marcell smirked. "Robots? I went and built 'em last night during your turn in the bed."
"They look real though. That training bot was a metal skeleton."
"That training bot was made out of wire hangers and peanut butter."
"Did you have to make half of them shiny?" Jessie asked, nudging him.
"Hey, my brain is doing weird artsy things lately. I can't help it. You wanted something cool enough to lure them out, there it is."
They hushed and ducked, then, just missing the backward glance of Ash.
"I must see these Luxray for myself. Despite the circumstances, it is imperative that they be studied," Dr. Sakuragi said. "We'll leave at once."
"Amazing! I wanna catch a Luxray in both colors!" Goh cheered.
Ash crossed his arms. "Ya know who has a Luxray? Volkner."
Four hands and two paws had to grab Marcell's head before it could bang against anything.
They waited a further fifteen minutes. James's quick pry at the monitors found the security display to confirm they left the building in search of the lucrative Luxray.
Marcell remained by the sectional, gazing into the patterns of past fingers brushing swirls of light and dark in the brown suede covering. And the few bite marks where a Pokémon had gotten cocky. He knelt down and assessed the small lamp on the side table. One tug on the cord unplugged it. Then, with a quick snip of the wire cutters, he severed the plug from the cord a few inches down from the prongs. He twisted the exposed wires tightly around each other and into a plastic cap.
BREAKER LOCATOR V-3000, he scratched in permanent marker on a piece of masking tape, and wrapped the fraying plastic of the cord.
"Yo, team. If you need anything short-circuited or suddenly on fire, this small doodad's a handheld Electivire. Just plug it and feel the thunder."
The other Rockets praised his rhyme but politely declined. Jessie had to jerk him around the middle before he could start cutting plugs off computer cords.
"So here's our plan," James said as they marched through darkened hallways, shadows weaving a wicked veil about his silhouette… until the motion sensors perceived his presence and lights buzzed on. That was the one downside to motion sensors. They could really kill a dramatic moment. Of course, tripping a breaker or two would solve the problem, but just one blue-eyed glance at the new toy and it was immediately confiscated.
"So here's our plan," James said, gripping Marcell's right hand while Jessie gripped his left. Together they marched down the brightly-lit hallway. "That sweatpants twerp has caught a whole herd of Pokémon which are kept in the Sakuragi Park, an indoor habitat just up ahead. With them out of the way, it's all too simple to snatch what we can."
"All too easy," Jessie affirmed. "And once we've got enough in our nets, we load them up and wait for the twerps to return. One confused little Pikachu padding into our pit."
"Or instead of waiting around, we could cut the city's power and they'd have a little more urgency in getting back. Obviously my Luxrobots aren't the real thing up close, but they're gonna demand the twerps' attention for a bit."
"Eeh, you wouldn't know how you'd deliberately blackout a city, wouldja?"
"Which city?"
"Well… "
"'Cause you know, I have felt changed lately, and some parts of being a villain are clicking well with whatever nuts and bolts are leftover from my past life. Like how it's a crazy boredom buster. I had one cup of coffee yesterday and then filled a notebook with a thousand and seventeen easy ways to put Sunyshore City's lights out. For Vermilion City I've got about fifty-seven so far. Two or three just within this building. One of them's an electrician's existential nightmare and the other one's just plugging severed prongs into the wall and listening for little crackles."
"So. Here's. Our. Plan," said James with Marcell in a headlock. He kicked open the door to the upper observation deck of Sakuragi Park. Down below lay patches of green grass, rolling rocky ledges, miniature fields of flowers, and a scattering of shady trees. It was an entire ecosystem of plant life and Pokémon contained within a great glass dome and enlivened by artificial breezes. A Scyther hacked at bamboo shoots and a Dewgong burst from the surface of the big pond to splash and play.
"We are using our net guns. Do you understand?"
"This is a net gun, Marcell," Jessie said, slow and gentle. She placed his hands on the device and demonstrated how to aim and shoot a pellet that exploded into a net to trap a wandering Scatterbug. "Can you handle it? Using the net gun and trapping the Pokémon in the Park?"
"Why are you being weird?"
The two other humans cringed. Meowth tapped Marcell's right leg with a knowing paw.
"I t'ink the deal is we've been t'ird-rate villains for years and suddenly a lazy Leader's got more evil bones in his body dan the t'ree of us combined. Your quick commitment is intimidatin' dat's all. And even if ya wanna pretend ya never was a jolty-haired jean-chain junkie genius Gym Leader named Volkner, dat's still who you are when ya take off those breeches ta sleep at night. Disguises are funny dat way. Dey make ya look different but dey don't change who you really are. Why, da world would go all kooky if we really believed you could be a brand new person just by cuttin' your hair and callin' yourself by a different name… Eh? Where'd you guys all go!?"
Jessie was down on the nearest rock ledge, shooting nets at every Bug-Type Pokémon in sight. James was by the pond, hurling buoyed nets out at the creatures twisting through the water.
Marcell, having escaped their grasp, had gone back through the door into the darkened hallway.
Brightened hallway. Motion sensors. Luckily he'd pilfered back his plug. He shoved the dicey device into an outlet. A crackle. Hot plastic melting onto his fingers. A quick whiff of ozone.
The lights all went out.
"It was back here. I know I saw it," he muttered, trailing gloved hands along the wall until he felt the first metal doorframe on his left. A glow caught the corner of his eye, and a cold string of static trickled up his arm.
Yes.
He took off his glasses and pressed one eye up to the crack between the door and the frame. There was no mistaking that ghostly blue-white glow. It was all he'd dreamed about the past few weeks. Sometimes it was hazing up the sky, sometimes sparking beneath his feet, or flickering in his skin. It was warm, burning even. So hot he couldn't handle it. Much hotter than summer sand on his heels or the nasty blister from touching a sunlit cell. Only once was it cold, and that was the dream with the black-haired girl in it. The woman. He called her a girl. She'd been reaching for him. He reached back, but the glow was too thick, and he gave up. It was a tangible fog, roaring in his ears like a cataract of lightning.
He gripped the door's handle, bracing his muscles for electrocution. Nothing. Lucky, he supposed, and disappointed. He jerked his wrist to find it locked tight. Of course it was, when he could taste the ions seeping through the cracks.
"Let's see if you'll listen today," Marcell said, taking a Poké Ball out of his pocket. A squeeze and a press of the button released a hefty Raichu, which whirled around and glowered up at him.
"Use Volt Tackle on that door."
Raichu crossed its stubby paws and refused.
"I'm your trainer, and you'll do what I say."
"Rai-rai."
"Don't be like that. Did you think Visquez was gonna make you strong? I bet she didn't even have a Leader gimmick. You have no idea how strong you're gonna get now that you're with me."
Raichu puffed out its yellow cheeks, which began to flicker and spark. With a sharp "chuuu," its body brightened and yellow plasma arced through the air. Lightning quick, Marcell splayed out the fingers on both hands and intercepted the blast. Electricity coursed through his veins and made his heart jump in his chest. Even his eyebrows spiked up from the charge. His cheeks went warm. His internal ammeter blipped.
[This Raichu is newly evolved and hardly trained. Threat negligible. Deny challenge.]
He slipped off his gloves and patted the angry Raichu on the head, smirking at the static weaving through his fingers and tickling his palm. Slowly, Raichu stopped emitting and looked with wide eyes at the man who was not afraid. The man gave narrowed eyes back.
"Do you know who I am, Raichu? I'm a thunder god cursed into a human body. You can try any electric attack you like, and I won't feel it. So use Volt Tackle on that door, or I'll send you to the Rocket stores like Electrode."
Hanging its head, Raichu turned toward the door. One shocking hit was enough to dent it, and Marcell used his trusty screwdriver to pry it open the rest of the way. He squeezed himself through and took in the darkened room before him. Brightened room. The motion sensors took him in. These lights weren't connected to the earlier breaker. But even so, the blue-white glow was so much brighter than any buzzy incandescence. It was a healthy light, evenly pulsing before him, surrounding him, taking him in and returning his awe. The screwdriver slipped from his fingers and clattered on the concrete floor.
"Hello," said Marcell, lips parting to reveal nervous white teeth.
"Hello," said the lanky man in glasses hunched over a computer monitor in the corner.
Someone screamed.
~N~
Went with Dr. Sakuragi just 'cause it sounds way cooler than Cerise.
A classmate of mine brought a "breaker finder" he made to dinner one night. Genius. Pure asinine Volkner-level genius.
Published by Syntax-N on FanFiction . net April 9th, 2022. Reposters cursed. Reviews ride the lightning, feel the thunder!