Chapter 15: Erin's Revenge

Pop.

Ring.

Scratch.

Shuffle, shuffle.

Pop.

Ring.

Pop.

Ah, the sounds of a secretary's workspace.

The shuffling of the carelessly turned magazine page. The scratching of butt, numb with overuse. The ringing of the ignored phone.

And, of course, the eternal popping of overchewed gum.

The girl at the hospital checkout counter was no exception. She sat in a well-worn chair reading a popular Persons magazine and chewing a large wad of pink bubble gum. Her dark hair was tossed in a sloppy bun with bits falling freely over her lightly freckled face. As we approached the counter, she looked up from her magazine. Her eyes, covered with a thick layer of mascara, flickered from me to Liam before blatantly returning to the magazine.

I waited in front of the counter for about half a minute before giving the girl a weak, "Ahem."

The girl made a big fuss of smoothly folding her magazine and placing it on the counter before turning her attention to us. "What do you want?"

"I'm checking out."

The girl blew and popped another bubble. "Name?"

"Anita Parkwood."

The girl rolled her chair to a computer and began typing. The phone rang.

Probably attempting to prolong our time wasted at the counter, the girl decided to actually answer the phone. I sighed wearily and listened to Liam mutter curses at the girl under his breath.

The girl unemotionally stared at me as she listened to the person on the other end of the line. Her eyes flickered to Liam for a minute. I got the feeling whoever was on the other line was speaking about us.

After a minute the girl put the phone down and continued typing. "Anita Parkwood, you're good," she stated simply. Then she turned to Liam, who had begun to turn away. "You— kid with the messy black hair." Liam turned around. "You're on bathroom duty."

Liam took about ten seconds to process what she had just said. "What did you say?" he asked darkly, giving her his cold stare.

"You heard me, kid: bathroom duty."

"And why exactly, may I ask, would I be put on bathroom duty?" Liam questioned scathingly. "Do I look like I work here?"

The girl picked up her magazine and leafed through it. "Don't know what you look like, kid."

"You didn't answer me," Liam growled.

"You're on bathroom duty cuz my manager said you were on bathroom duty. Just got the phone call that some dark-haired kid with green eyes clogged up the toilet and that if the kid came to my desk, I was to tell him to get his scrawny butt in the bathroom to unclog the toilet."

"I didn't clog the toilet, though!" Liam exclaimed. I looked at him in surprise— this was the most emotion I had ever seen him show… and over a toilet, nonetheless.

The girl shrugged and blew another bubble.

I grinned at Liam, who shot me an angry glare in response. {This is too awesome,} I told Apple and Fiery.

"Can I speak with your manager?" Liam asked, his voice surprisingly calm.

"Nope."

"Don't you have janitors in your facility?"

"Yup."

"Then why doesn't one of them clean the toilet?"

"Don't know."

"Can I please talk to your manager?"

"Nope."

"Why not?"

"Don't feel like picking up the phone. I'm too busy."

"I didn't clog the toilet."

"Not my problem."

"That's it." Liam angrily started to reach for the phone.

"I'll call security," the girl threatened.

"Fine. I'm not going to deal with this; I'm leaving." Liam started to turn away.

The girl turned the page of her magazine. "Security will just drag you back. They've also been notified that you are to clean the clogged toilet."

Liam froze. He turned back to the girl. "Give me the phone," he said slowly.

"Or what?" the girl snickered.

"I'll…" Liam glared. Apparently he couldn't come up with a good threat.

"I suggest you run along to the bathroom now. The toilet is not going to clean itself."

Liam shoved a stack of fliers sitting on the counter at the girl. Instead of flying everywhere, they mostly stuck together and landed in a pile on the floor. Liam stormed off towards the bathroom. I sat down in a waiting chair and when I glanced at the girl I swear I saw a small smirk flicker across her face. I shook my head and looked at the girl again. She sat unemotionally, looking bored. I must be imagining things…

Fiery hopped onto the chair next to me and started to curl up. Then Apple hopped onto the same chair. {Get off!} Fiery exclaimed as he shoved Apple off the chair. {Haven't you heard of personal space?}

{Personal space only applies to a person!} Apple retorted.

{Fine, haven't you heard of Eevee space?}

{Nope, but there was a movie called Eevees in Space that came out a few years ago. Plus, wouldn't it be Eeveeal space?} Apple giggled. {Hehe. Eeveeal sounds kinda like Ovule.}

{Save me!} Fiery jumped onto my lap and nudged his Pokeball attached to my belt. He disappeared in a flash of red.

While Apple was still giggling quietly, I closed my eyes, deciding to put this time to good use by meditating.

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

"Idiot!" I hissed through the walkie-talkie.

The moron, my assistant, did not reply. He did not even attempt to justify his own stupidity.

"Did I not specifically order you to stay away from Anita Parkwood? Did I not insist that you leave all of the research on Pokemon X to me? Were these demands too difficult for your midget-sized head to understand?"

There was no reply, again.

"Answer me," I commanded coldly.

"No, Master."

"Then why is it all over the news that Team Glop'emm broke into a museum in Tinted Town? Why did my detective just call me to inform me that Team Glop'emm struck while Anita Parkwood was in Tinted Town? And most importantly, why did you feel the need to steal the information on Pokemon X displayed in the museum?"

My assistant hesitated before speaking. "I was trying to help you, sir. I thought more information on Pokemon X would be useful to you. As for Anita Parkwood, I did not realize you wanted all of our normal operations to shut down if she was within twenty miles."

"You shithead. The information was open to the public. My detective called me a few days ago to supply me with the information on display. There was no need for you to steal it! Now there is a chance that the authorities will get suspicious. They might figure out that I am aft—we are after Pokemon X!"

"I apologize. It will not happen again," my assistant said lamely.

"No it will not. G-ddamn you. One more act of stupidity and I'll figure out a way to complete my research from Drape Town. Stay away from Anita Parkwood. Stay away from anything that has to do with Pokemon X. Understand?"

"Yes, Master."

I shut off the connection. That fool; it was a mistake to leave him in charge. To steal something that was open to the public… how brainless. If only my research was complete, I could return to Drape Town to resume my command over Team Glop'emm. Unfortunately, I was not even close to finished.

The various libraries and ancient book stores I had visited thus far provided me with little to no new information. I had found virtually nothing about Mew transforming into other Pokemon.

I sighed and stared at the bare wall—a habit of mine. At least I was getting results from the tests Rita and I had arranged.

Mew… such a peculiar Pokemon.

I stared ahead and recalled the first time I had seen the creature…

A boy and his father stood before the docking railway. A salty breeze swept over them as they silently observed the massive ship they were about to board. Small waves lapped against the side of the boat splashing upward to nearly where the boy and his father stood.

"Vel, wait! Vel! Velkan!" A voice called. The father turned at the sound of his name and peered past the dock to the street. His eyes settled upon a man rushing toward the dock. "You forgot the picture! You forgot it!" the man yelled. The man had a black mustache and hazel determined eyes.

The father and the boy watched as the man rushed towards them. When the man finally reached the two, he had to bend over to catch his breath.

Velkan frowned at the man. "Don, my brother…" he muttered under his breath. For a moment, he looked upon his brother spitefully, as if the man had done something terribly wrong. The father quickly recovered a calm expression.

"The—picture—here—" Don panted. He reached into his pack and pulled out a small, framed picture the size of his hand and handed the picture to Velkan.

The father's frown deepened. He and the boy stared at the picture.

Six smiling faces stared back.

Two dead.

One missing.

Two running.

One hoping.

What a family.

Tears welled in the boy's eyes as the father pocketed the photo.

"Are you sure about this?" Don asked, looking sadly beyond his relatives to the grand ship.

Velkan, the father, nodded absentmindedly. "We need a new start. It's been over a year and a half. We've waited long enough," he replied grimly. "You're sure you don't wish to join us?"

Don sighed. "I'll keep waiting."

The ship's horn sounded.

The father glanced at the ship and then nodded to his bother. "Arceus be with you."

"Arceus be with my son."

Velkan winced. "I hope so." He grabbed his own son's hand.

The ship's horn sounded again.

The boy and his father turned and walked up the rusted docking railway. Wingulls cooed atop the ship as they boarded.

The boy watched his uncle leave stoically.

The ship began to move.

The boy looked up.

A glint of pink streaked the sky—disappearing towards the future.

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

After thirty minutes, Liam finally stalked out of the bathroom carrying a wet toilet plunger. He strode towards the checkout counter and placed the toilet plunger plunger-side up in front of the secretary. He then swiveled around and marched out the front doors.

I could hear the distinct sound of bubblegum popping as I jogged after Liam.

/ / / / / / / / / / / / /

"Please?" Anita whined for the millionth time.

"No!" {No!} Liam and I chorused.

"But it's right around the corner! Can't we just check it out… Maybe try to figure out what Team Glop'emm is doing…"

I rolled my eyes. This had been our discussion since after lunch. We were now walking down the old, brick roads of Tinted Town. The town was fairly small with lots of adorable stores and great restaurants. Many of the shops looked old and worn, but not quite run-down; it actually gave the town a comfortable feel.

Liam sighed. "What they are after is always the same. They're pretty forthright with their goals. Don't you know what Glop'emm stands for?"

"No."

"G-L-O-P-'E-M-M. Get Lots Of Pokemon 'En Make Money. Glop'emm."

"I never knew it was an acronym…" Anita trailed.

{Me neither,} I piped.

"…How'd you find out?"

Liam shrugged and snickered. "I hear things," I heard the boy mumble sarcastically under his breath.

"What was that?"

"Never mind."

I looked up at Liam's expression curiously, only to find his face was blank with his usual stoicism. They walked in silence for a couple of minutes. I got bored so I began weaving between the legs of people walking in the opposite direction for fun…

…until I tripped a bulky, mean-looking man. After the man started swearing profusely at us and threatened to beat up Liam (Anita and I laughed our butts off when he blamed Liam for being tripped), Anita decided it would be better if she carried me.

I was sulking in Anita's arms when Liam randomly asked, "Why don't you talk to your mother?"

Anita and I stared. {Whoa. Did he actually initiate a conversation? Something's up,} I said suspiciously.

{Something's always up when it comes to Liam,} Anita retorted.

Liam's eyes flickered between me and Anita. "You know it is slightly disturbing when both of you stare at me with violet… or almost violet eyes," he commented dryly.

Anita smirked. "We're just surprised you are actually trying to be social."

"I'm not trying to be social."

"Then why start a conversation?"

"Will you just answer my question?" Liam asked irritably.

Anita shrugged.

I knew she did not really feel like explaining her mother's intense dislike for Pokemon. Anita loved her mother, but her mother would not want to know or talk about her journey very much. Anita had only called once thus far—the day before we met Liam, just to check up.

{He does have a bit of a valid point. I mean, you were in the hospital. Shouldn't you tell her?}

{She'll just want me to come home, and I don't want to. The less she knows, the better,} Anita replied to me. She still didn't say anything to Liam, pretty much just to annoy him.

"What kind of answer is that?" Liam narrowed his eyes at Anita accusingly.

Anita snorted. "The kind you always give me."

"Why don't you want to discuss your mother?"

"Well, that is none of your business," Anita mocked.

"I'll bet she's fictional."

Anita looked at him weirdly. "Um… that's not really possible."

"Sure it is," Liam replied cheerfully. He looked at Anita slyly and added, "I'm onto your secret." It was a bit awkward because I couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic.

Anita chuckled nervously. {Is he joking or just plain insane?}

{It's hard to tell.} How I wished I could peek into his mind. But alas, Liam was one strange cookie…

Speaking of cookies…

I sniffed the air. {Bakery!} I yelled to Anita. {Two blocks straight ahead, half a block to the right! Huge chocolate chip cookies with—}

{Hush up. We are not going to a bakery. We just ate!}

I suddenly stopped, sensing a large crowd directly down the street on my right. A sudden premonition of excitement and revenge flashed through my mind. It involved flying hot dogs.

At that point, of course, I had no option but to leap out of Anita's arms and sprint full speed down the road on my right.

o o o o o o o o o o o o o

"Apple! Wait up!" I called to the crazed Eevee.

I grabbed Liam's hand and started to run after her. "C'mon!"

Liam jerked his hand back to fold his arms across his chest. He continued to walk at a leisurely pace. I scowled at him and took off after Apple.

When Apple reached the large crowd of people, she stopped running and slipped through their legs. Seconds later, I reached the crowd. {Apple!} I called out to her. She didn't answer.

I skimmed the crowd to find a space I could slip through to reach the front, but failed to find anything. Liam finally arrived at the scene and stood beside me. I grumbled and started shoving people aside. "Excuse me! Sorry! Was that your foot? Whoops. Hey, don't you dare flick me off…" ensued for five minutes until I managed to spot a fluffy brown and white tail in the very front of the hoard of people.

{Apple!} I exclaimed when I finally pushed my way to the front next to Apple.

Apple looked up at me, grinning. {Hey, Anita. What's up?}

I started to scold her. {Why in the world you run off like that? You could have—}

{Just watch the show,} Apple interrupted.

Startled, I looked at the scene in front of me, the scene that the crowd was gathered around. A girl with brown eyes and curly brown hair in a colorful dress was juggling flaming torches. Behind her was a clear tub of water about the size of a queen-sized bed. Above the water was a tightrope, some twenty feet in the air. A ladder led up to a platform on both sides of the tightrope, and beside the ladder closest to the girl was a small table. A Kirlia stood watching the girl with brown hair while leaning against the tub of water. In the tub of water, there was a Wooper swimming.

Someone jostled me and I was shoved to the right. "Hey! Watch it!" I yelped. I turned to apologize to whoever I had bumped into only to find myself looking at the cold, green eyes of Liam. "Err… Sorry," I said awkwardly before returning my attention to the street show.

The girl had put down the flaming torches and was now announcing: "For this next act I'm going to need a volunteer!" The girl skimmed the crowd. "You, in the front! With the dark hair and polo shirt!" The girl pointed at Liam. "Yes, you. Come here!"

Liam frowned, but stepped forward carefully. The crowd whooped.

The girl nodded to Kirlia, and the Pokemon began climbing a ladder up to the tightrope. The girl whispered something to Liam and then shoved him in the direction of the other ladder on the opposite side of the tub of water. Liam eyed the tub of water and then folded his arms in a refusing manner. The crowd booed. Someone cried out "Chicken! C'mon, get up there!" Flung from somewhere in the crowd, a red tomato soared through the air and hit Liam square in the head.

Liam's eyes flashed angrily. He shook his head, causing tomato bits to fly everywhere, and he began climbing the ladder.

In the meantime, the Kirlia was dancing about the tightrope. She (at least, I thought the Kirlia was a female) did a few flips and maintained perfect balance. The girl with curly hair, who was apparently the hostess of this street show, signaled the Kirlia with her arms. She then bent under the table and pulled out three brown objects.

I squinted at the objects.

Hotdogs.

Of course.

I looked down and found Apple drooling. Strangely enough, she stayed put and did not tackle the girl to the ground as expected. I would have asked her why if not for fear of giving her ideas…

The girl tossed the hotdogs up to the Kirlia, who promptly began to juggle them on the tightrope. She performed several tricks, juggling the hotdogs behind her and even while jumping. Then the Kirlia threw one hotdog to the Wooper, one to Liam, and one into the crowd.

The Wooper jumped into the air and gobbled the first hotdog before returning to the water with a flip. Liam, now on a platform, caught his hotdog with his mouth, but spit it out in disgust. The hotdog fell towards the water and the Wooper devoured his hotdog as well.

As for the hotdog thrown into the crowd…

{Mine!} Apple yelled with a determined look in her eyes. She pounced into my arms.

Using my body as a springboard, Apple leapt into the air.

Of course, she snatched that third hotdog out of the air and landed safely in front of the cheering crowd.

And, of course, I tumbled back into some guy with a Mohawk and tattoos, meekly muttering "I'm sorry."

After a round of applause, Apple returned to my side, grinning wider than that fat cat from Alice in Wonderland. The hostess held up a hand to halt the applause.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, our final act. Our kind volunteer will jump into the arms of Kirlia!"

The Kirlia, still balanced on the tightrope, motioned for Liam to jump from the platform to her. Liam looked down for a moment at the water. He closed his eyes, squatted, and then jumped towards the Kirlia. The crowd was silent as Liam landed on Kirlia's arms and Kirlia began to raise Liam over her head…

Kirlia wobbled.

The girl with brown, curly hair frowned.

Suddenly, Liam was tumbling towards the water.

As soon as Liam left the Kirlia's arms, the Pokemon managed to regain balance. She seemed slightly upset.

A water geyser rose from the tub and stopped Liam's fall. The crowd broke into applause, believing this was all part of the show. I was not so sure.

The Wooper slowly lowered its watergun to bring Liam safely to the pool.

Apple was still smiling giddily. {Aren't you glad I dragged you to the show?}

I chuckled. {Well, I did get to see Liam get soaked. I guess so. Was it just me though, or did the Kirlia mess up and drop Liam?}

{Well, duh,} Apple responded. I looked at her in surprise. {Kirlia balance like that using their psychic powers. The moment Liam touched Kirlia, her psychic powers were cancelled. Thus, she couldn't maintain balance. She also tried to stop Liam from falling with her psychic, which obviously wouldn't work either.}

{You knew all of this, but didn't stop Liam from going up there?}

Apple shrugged. {Hey, there was water beneath him. And I knew he wasn't going to die or anything… I had a vision beforehand…}

{People with the dark gift can show up in psychic visions?} I asked curiously.

{Not exactly. He was kind of omitted from the vision… but I knew he had to be there because you were there. No one was upset in the vision so I knew nobody would die and nothing bad would happen…}

"Ahem."

I looked up to find Liam standing in front of me, thoroughly soaked. His wet black hair was unusually disheveled, falling into his face. Good thing it was currently sunny and about seventy-five degrees or he would be freezing. I smiled sweetly at him. "Hey, Liam," I said casually.

Liam walked past me and stalked through the dispersing crowd. Several people were walking the other direction to give the girl with curly hair compliments and tips.

I smirked after Liam. {I suppose we should follow him,} I mentioned off-handedly.

{We could leave him,} Apple suggested.

{Yeah, but then I wouldn't be able to make fun of him. There'd be no fun in that.}

{I suppose you're right. Let's go!}

We happily trotted after the angry, wet boy.

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

"Wait till Erin hears about your performance!" Anita cackled.

I rolled my eyes at the irritating girl. This was the girl I was investigating. The girl believed to be a powerful, legendary Pokemon.

The girl was suspicious in a hundred different ways. Her powers, her background, her mother…

Even her naïve, bipolar, annoying personality. Well, that's how Mew was rumored to be, anyway.

I closed my eyes, willing myself to relax. Today had been rough.

We stood outside an ice cream shop on the northern outskirts of Tinted Town. Supposedly, Erin had said she would meet us around here. Supposedly.

I shuddered slightly at the cool air; I was still damp, unfortunately. That obnoxious, curly-headed brunette was lucky I was on a mission and lacked time to avenge my embarrassment.

"Well, I'm going to go get ice cream! Want some?" Anita asked me cheerfully. For some reason, today she had been unusually happy. Maybe it had something to do with me having a g-d-awful day.

"No," I flatly refused.

Anita shrugged and skipped into the shop, closely followed by her Eevee.

I sighed and leaned against a brick wall of a closed clothing store. I silently watched people wander up and down the street.

An attractive girl with long straight black hair caught my eye. She was wearing four inch heels and a skimpy black dress that hugged her body and ended just above her knees. She had long legs. It took me approximately two and a half seconds to realize those long legs were walking towards me.

My eyes were naturally lured to her chest where there was a tad too much cleavage showing. I couldn't help staring for a moment. Hey, I'm a guy.

I closed my eyes. Now was not the time to be distracted by women, I tried to remind myself.

I opened my eyes and found myself staring down the girl's top. Yeah, she was that close. Heat rose to my face and I quickly looked up.

Up close, I could see the girl had dark eyes, surrounded by dark eye shadow.

"Hey, there," the girl said silkily.

I gulped and flattened myself against the wall.

I had an urge to shove her away and stalk off. She had no business doing this to me! On the other hand, if she wanted to…

The girl moved forward. My mind blanked. "I just happened to see a fine man standing here all lonely and handsome, and I thought: It's my lucky day," the girl murmured. Her breath was minty and calm. Mine was sour and fast.

The girl put one hand on my shirt and one hand on the wall behind me.

My pants tightened. Shit.

The girl leaned in, her lips hovering over mine.

I closed my eyes. I could feel her warm breath on my nose.

"Gotcha," she whispered.

The girl twirled away from me and began screeching madly with laugher. Stunned, I slowly slid down the wall, urging myself to breathe.

The girl pulled off a wig to reveal reddish-golden hair.

Double shit.

Erin.

I heard another squeal of laughter. I looked up and saw Anita had joined Erin. I put my head between my knees in shame.

"Erin, is that really you? That was amazing!" Anita squeaked.

I peeked up. Even Anita's Eevee was grinning.

Erin readjusted her dress so it wasn't so… slutty.

She strutted over to me, eyes glinting with laugher. "So, did you have an enjoyable day?"

I snickered.

"What, is poor wittle-Wiam tired of awl Erin's tricks?" Erin said in a baby-voice. I nearly gagged. Her voice returned to normal. "What, didn't enjoy cleaning a toilet? How about plunging into water?"

I looked up at her. How did she… awe, f—

"You… it… you…" I stuttered.

Behind Erin, Anita looked confused. Erin smirked. "You know, it's amazing what you can do with a wig and a bit of make-up. The bonus was I got to use this hair twice! Once for the check-out desk girl and once for this one!"

"Just wonderful…" I muttered darkly.

"Wait. So you were the check-out girl?" Anita started. Erin opened her mouth to reply, but Anita continued before she could say anything. "And the street show girl?"

Erin nodded.

Anita whirled around. "And you knew!" she barked at Apple.

The Eevee shrugged.

Erin held out her hand to help me up. I took it. "So, do you still think I'm shallow?"

Yup, I wanted to say. You're even shallower than I originally believed because you went this berserk over what a person thinks of you.

Unfortunately, that answer would have probably earned me another horrible day.

So instead, I gave her my second best answer. "Nope. You're not shallow." Erin grinned at me. Then I added, "But you are a bitch."

Anita chuckled. Erin scowled at her and gave her a death glare.

Anita ignored her and continued to smile. "What? You are."