Chapter 13: Lucky Number Thirteen

Eric continued to wander down the hallways behind the always-sniffing ferret Pokemon and in front of the only light source that he was going to get in this place. No matter where he was in the headquarters, for he could only assume that this was what this place was, he saw that ugly rainbow painted diagonally along the wall wit the same 17 repeating colors: white, a scarlet red, a deep ocean blue, a sickly pale yellow, a dark, forest-like green, a cold, frosty light blue, a tan color, similar to the color of skin, a deep dark brown, a slightly lighter brown, a sickly dark purple, off-white, a lighter purple than the one seen before it, a light green similar to the color of grass, the lightest shade of purple that could ever be seen, the purest black, and a silver with the most distinct glint.

Just as Eric's mind finally shifted from the disturbing colors, he ran right into a door with the same design as everything else. After whispering a curse under his breach and rubbing his nose, he noticed that the firelight had gone out. While trying to contain his laughter, Blaze had put a hand to his beak. Unfortunately, that was the hand holding the spherical blaze that lit the way for the trio. Blaze suffered little damage, to a Pokemon of its element, fire was quite easy to withstand. Blaze did not screech in pain, and nor did he feel like laughing anymore. Silently Blaze lowered his hand back to his side and made the small light in his hands again.

Florina was scampering in circles near the door, insisting that Eric open it, but Eric could hear voices coming from the other room. Through the door, Eric heard of the Beta testing of Delta Pokemon and something about another project being pushed off due to errors in the Alpha phase. By the tone of voice these people were using, one would think they were speaking of computer programs, but to Eric's now slightly trained ear, it was just greedy humans treating living things as if they were material possessions. Going through that room unnoticed would require even more stealth than a Kecleon could handle. "Are you sure that this is the only way to get to Roxie?" whispered Eric to the restlessly fidgeting Pokemon at his feet.

"Furr furret furr … furret furret," Florina whispered back while standing on her hind legs, pointing to the door with one of her forelegs and flexing with the other. She then pointed down the hallway that had lead the trio to the door and purposely fell over. For a while, Eric just stood with one eye open, the other twitching, and elevated eyebrows. Slowly the brows dropped, the eye fully opened, and finally a look of comprehension finally settled over his face.

"So the scent is stronger this way and if we backtrack than we'll probably lose it?" Eric asked the ferret. Surprised, Florina got back up and nodded. "So we have to find some way of getting through that room without getting noticed…" mumbled Eric, more thinking out loud than actually meaning to say anything. The idea obviously registered somewhere with Blaze though, for he extinguished his light and snatched the PDA out of Eric's backpack.

For a moment there was only silence and darkness, but a low fizz of light emitted from the PDA as Blaze turned it on. After opening up a text-editing program and a few keystrokes, Blaze handed the device back to Eric. The message read "The Black Coloron should not be out of that closet any time soon. Just go into the room as him. Use the Costume Editor on your PDA to make a recreation of Bleon's guise."

Eric did not bother to switch off the PDA, he knew that Blaze would soon need it again anyways. "That would be a good idea… but what am I going to say about you two and this backpack?" retorted Eric in a hush. Blaze took but two seconds to think before pilfering the mechanism back from Eric.

Even less time elapsed before Blaze was able to hand the PDA back on this instance. There was no pesky power switch to fumble around with this time. The husky rooster's memo this time was "Just say you got the backpack when you met 'you' in the hallway and that 'you managed to sneak away, but that you were able to snatch 'your' backpack. As for us… just return us before you go into the room." Blaze took a few seconds to explain the plan to Florina as Eric read it over.

Florina and Eric gave only a nod of consent before the two Pokemon companions were returned. Luckily after having a traumatic experience with it and seeing it various times in multiple colors, Eric was able to quickly recall the Team Rainbow costume makeup. When Eric was finally done with the Costume Editor he linked it up to the PDA and the Morph Suit responded. In no time flat, Eric was covered in black latex and black metal helmet, gloves, shoes, and chest plate. Also there was a scarf on his neck… but Eric wasn't wearing any type of neckpiece before. Concerned, Eric looked out the readout on the Suit change, and found that a necklace had been taken out of Eric's backpack and changed into the silky white scarf. Obviously the Costume Editor was very versatile…

Uneasy, but not exactly frightened, Eric tossed open the door and walked into the room. The inside looked exactly like any other boardroom with a long rectangular table, people sitting around it (no one was at the head), and charts scattered everywhere. The only difference was that all i5 of the people had the same costume design as Eric and that everything other than the charts and the people had the same hideous rainbow design that was seen everywhere else in this godforsaken location. "Ah, you're just in time. So, did you take care of the Raticate problem, Bleon?" asked the woman in pale blue sitting closest to the table dryly. "And why do you have that backpack?"

For a long period, there was only silence. Eric was not used to being referred to by the name Bleon, but eventually he realized that he was the person being addressed. Imitating the silky-smooth voice that he heard Bleon use earlier, Eric replied "It was just a pest from Abrakazam. He managed to squirrel his way out of here after I defeated him, but he forgot to grab his backpack."

A man in purple responded "Ah, so there was a battle, that explains the noise earlier on. Well, head on to the Pokemon Center, one of those hostages finally knows how to heal Pokemon and not just how to screw them up. You might as well drop the bag down in the examination room too. Don't worry about the meeting, I'll brief you later," and by his voice, Eric could tell that he was on in years compared to the others. Before walking out though the other door of the boardroom, Eric could have sworn that he way the old guy wink at him.

As he walked down the hallway and into the next room, he found a stereotypical Pokemon Center; a semicircle shaped room with a few computers and chairs near a counter where the nurse stood, in front of the ER. Like all of the other rooms that would have otherwise been normal in this headquarters, it had the annoying rainbow print. At the counter Eric saw not the stereotypical Nurse Joy, but a girl with glowing, long, amber hair and that perfect petite yet frowning face. With a sigh she asked, "What do you need now?" and under her breath added "You schmuck."

Eric once again forgot his disguise and was almost offended that Roxie would say something so offensive. Once he mentally scolded himself for forgetting, he was slightly offended by that fact that she didn't notice him. So, he decided that he would have a little fun with her. Slowly he walked up to the counter, put his folded arms up on it, and leaned over it. "I don't know, why don't you tell me, cutie?" replied Eric, once again recreating that silky dark voice that Bleon had.

"Why you little perv!" shrieked Roxie at the top of her lungs. Quickly she pulled her hand into a fist and thrusted her arm right toward the pseudo Coloron's face, but the fist never made direct contact. Eric tugged the helmet right off his head with his right arm to reveal his smugly smiling face. This time Roxie gawked, the hopped over the counter and threw her arms around Eric, sending them both to the floor. They both blushed as they got back up and tried the hug again, no more diving involved. "I can't believe you fooled me like that," Roxie said as the embrace broke away.

"I'm getting pretty good at fooling people today," Eric said, still blushing. "So you've been in here for a good," Eric took looked at the PDA that he still had in his had (he must have forgotten to put it away in all the nervousness) " 5 hours… Whoa, what have you been up to?" Eric was amazed that he had wasted that much time, but from the growl in his stomach he could tell that it had been at least that long.

Roxie took a silver disk out of her pocket and smiled. "They pretty much threw me in this room, told me I had to heal their Pokemon, then went off for some 8 hour meeting. But a Pokemon Center is also for accessing Pokemon Storage Systems… So I used the computer to copy down some important data files." Roxie looked around Eric, confused. " Speaking of Pokemon, you did find Florina after they threw her out of the truck, right?" Roxie was worried, Florina did not agree to go into her Pokeball often…

"Oh yea," Eric mumbled as he pulled 8 Pokeballs out of the backpack and handed them to Roxie. "There's Florina, the Normal Pokemon, and S: 001. I have Blaze, Buzz, and 2 guys that I picked up today," Eric said with a smile while showing the Pokeballs to Roxie. "By the way, this was supposed to be a data retrieval mission, so you did your part perfectly. Wes just happened to leave that bit out," Eric added admiringly.

Roxie face flushed once again while she released Florina from her Pokeball and while Eric did he same with Blaze. Once Roxie forgot about the flattery, she came up with a few more questions "Hey, wait, you were carrying eight Pokemon with you… and why are dressed up as Bleon?… and why did that guy set me up to be caught?…and why did you keep Florina in the ball?" She had to admit that the questions were asked very hastily, but they were all immensely valid.

While Eric quickly summarized what had happened with Gabe, the battle, Florina's tracking, and Florina, Eric, and Blaze's collective planning, Florina hopped up onto Roxie's shoulder and gently sat down on it. Roxie just nodded the whole time, she did not even look awe-struck. Maybe just because she already though it was within Eric's capabilities to do all of these things? "In any case, we need to get out of here now that we have the info. The only problem is how…"

"I bet there's a map of this place somewhere on the computer," answered Roxie with a mischievous smile. She went over to the PC and in only a few seconds came up with a map of the entire building. "I could print it out, buy if it's still dark in the halls like you said, then there'll be no light to read it all by."

Blaze smashed his head into his forehead; sometimes humans needed help with everything. At least he had a way to communicate his brilliant ideas to them. Once again he snagged the PDA away from Eric, went into the still-running word processing program, and tapped away. When he handed the electronic to Roxie its message was short, sweet, and to the point, "Just upload the map to this thing, duh." With a giggle, Roxie did as the chicken commanded.

Roxie shut off the computer and looked over the map on the PDA. There seemed to be a switch that lifted the large entrance door on the inside as well as the outside, but that would require going through the board rood again. The only other way out would be to bust a wall. Conveniently, a wall that would lead them right outside was a wall in the Pokemon Center. It should have been very easy too, for Eric had said that a hole was made in the ceiling was made during Bleon and Eric's battle. Still, there had been a whole Pokemon flying through and not just the fist. Then it came to her. "Okay guys, listen up, we only have one good shot of getting out and this is how we're gonna do it. Florina, give Blaze a helping hand. Blaze, Sky Uppercut that wall," se said confidently while pointing to the wall.

However, the Pokemon did not need to waste the effort. The elderly man in the purple outfit stormed into the Pokemon Center, but his face didn't look flushed from exertion as one would expect for someone at his age. Maybe he was used to running that fast, exerting that much energy. Either way, a Victreebel appeared out of the Pokeball that he threw; it was obviously an experiment in the S-Series for with a clink Eric's shadow visor flew out before his eyes and revealed a weak dark aura over the Pokemon. As if this was not enough evidence that the leafy Pokemon with an outrageously large mouth were the top of its head should have been and small, piercing eyes right under them was partially purified, the man in purple shouted out "S:010, dissolve the wall with acid!"

Slowly that large mouth worked, as if gathering up spit to chuck out the biggest lugie ever seen. In a way, that was pretty much what it did. With in milliseconds, there was a large hole in the metal. Quickly the acid dripped down and dissolved the rest of the wall with ease. When it was all done, there was just enough room for Eric, Roxie, Blaze, and Florina to leave, but they were all immobile in their confusion. "…Well, get on before the others find you," said the aged man with a hint of annoyance and urgency in his voice. The urgency was really what got to them, though, so they all scurried out of the door without another word.

Eric was the first one out and he could see Gabe snoozing and leaning on one of the Coloron vans. His Alakazam, however, was wary and recognized Eric when he waved it over. The Alakazam quickly levitated its trainer away from the van (for if he teleported while Gabe was still touching the van, the van would also be teleported) and vanished into thin air. It reappeared just long enough to gather the rest of the group together, than pop them out of existence as well.

When they all finally reappeared, once again in Wes's living room, Gabe was finally awake and alert because he fell to the floor with a smash during his reappearance. Waiting with bowls of food for the Pokemon and hamburgers for the humans was Rui. She set the food down on a table and helped Gabe up. "So, what happened?" she asked with an air of humor. As the Pokemon devoured the delectables, Eric, Roxie, and Gabe explained their admittedly confusing adventure; taking pauses only to eat and recap when Wes entered the room. When it was finally over, Gabe left; claiming that he had some new team recruits that he needed to train and Eric and Roxie's Pokemon had been taken away to be healed.

"Another good job you two. I'll take a look at this disk, but we might not get that much. Eventually we managed to wriggle it out of Whiteon that hers was only the lowest ring on the totem pole in that team. They therefore probably have the least exclusive information. I should take a look at it anyways," Wes said as Roxie passed the disk to her. "Either way its going to take a long time for me to process, so I'm sending you on another mission gathering mission in Holon. There's a vigilante crime fighter there right now that calls himself the Holon Phantom. It's rumored that he has a team of Delta Pokemon. I just want you to see if you can pin him down and investigate him, figure out what he's all about."

"What about the Coloron in purple? Don't you want us to find out more about him?" Eric asked, confused. The man certainly was a mystery; why would he help out his opposition and hinder his own team? Wes did not show any recognition of him when the story was being recounted.

"I would try to get you guys on his case, but as of now we have no idea where he could be. I would think that the Colorons are at least smart enough to change location when an enemy has discovered their hideout. Meanwhile we have an equally mysterious nutcase for you to investigate," answered Wes with a warm smile.

"It sound good to me," Roxie said before she yawned. "I just want to get to sleep." That was probably the only thing right then that seemed obvious. There were black rings around Roxie's eyes and she was having a hard time keeping her eyes open, aside from the yawn. She looked as if she would collapse right where she was sitting.

"Head off to bed you two, we'll see you off tomorrow," said Rui as she shooed Eric and Roxie off. They all said their goodnight and retired to their separate rooms. Eric sat up in bed for a few hours, contemplating when all these mysteries would finally link back to his parents. Eventually his lack of sleep caught up this him and the cozy bed was just too hard to resist. So Eric finally slipped under the covers and instantly slumbered off.

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Side Notes:

-Who is the Holon Phantom? Who is the mysterious Coloron in Purple? I'm not telling you, I'm just trying to keep up your anticipation. P

-This chapter was named Lucky Number Thirteen because it was the 13th chapter, 13 is normally thought of as an unlucky number, and I've noticed that Eric and friends get pretty lucky in many places of this chapter. I think it's the name of a movie too.

-The next chapter will be named The Holon Phantom after my new character who is named after the newest English TCG set.