Chapter Five: Noises and Redheads

a/n: Well, I'm not crazy about this chapter. I thought I made Yellow a bit of a flat character in this particular chapter, but I hope you all enjoy it anyhoo. :)

"… and you see, I think someone set this up," Blue finished. He had told them all of his suspicions, and now his friends were quiet.

"I don't get it," said Red, "why would someone do that? I would say you're paranoid, but after the Arbok incident I've got to believe you."

"Yeah," Green added, "but the immediate question is: Who planned the Professor's attack? I bet that if we clear that little mystery up, everything will fall into place."

They arrived at their rooms and said goodnight. Blue checked on his grandfather, but Professor Oak was still unconscious.

Red went into his room. He shut his door, hesitated for a moment, and then locked it. He was startled to hear someone jiggling the doorknob of his door. Red opened it, deciding that with his pokemon he had nothing to be afraid of.

He opened the door and smiled. "Yellow!" he said. Then he noticed the girl's worried expression. "What's wrong?"

"Oh good, I got the right room. I had to ask around to find out where you're staying… Anyway, yeah, you know how I was there when the concierge busted into the dining room. I was just wondering if Professor Oak was ok. Is he? I mean, I heard something about poison…." She nervously shifted her weight from one foot to the other, "and that can't be good…"

"He's fine," Red reassured her quickly, "we got a doctor to him in time. It was close, though. Prof Oak was bitten by a trained Arbok." Yellow let out a small gasp. "I told, you, though, he's ok…"

"That's good," Yellow responded eagerly, "did you find out who did it?"

Red shook his head sadly. "No," he replied, "that's what Green, Blue, and I are trying to figure out."

Yellow nodded again. "Well, I better go, I'm getting pretty tired. You must be exhausted!"

Red chuckled in reply. "You've got that right," he said, "where's your room?"

Yellow made a motion with her hand. "It's just down the hall, room 38. Isn't that funny, we're really close to each other!"

Red felt a chill go down his spine, but decided not to tell her about where Green and Blue were staying. "Goodnight!" he said, trying to muster some cheerfulness. Yellow looked at him doubtfully, seeing through his false tone, but waved goodbye and scurried out of the room.

Red lay down on his bed and turned out the lights. He tried to sleep, but his mind wouldn't calm down…. Who hurt the Professor? Were Blue's suspicions correct? Finally, he drifted off into a fitful sleep.

The next morning, Red woke up earlier than his friends. He knocked on their doors, but all he got was silence from Blue… and some yelling from Green for disturbing her. So he headed down to the dining room alone to eat breakfast.

Yellow was there, but she looked awful. The normally cheerful girl looked lethargic and tired, with huge dark circles under her eyes.

"'Morning," Red greeted. Yellow mumbled something in reply, and then went back to staring lifelessly at the eggs and bacon on her plate. Red looked at her curiously, and then asked:

"What's wrong? Did you get enough sleep?"

Yellow shook her head sadly. "No, some noises kept me up."

Red's curiosity was piqued. "What kind of noises?"

Yellow shuddered. "I don't really remember," she confessed, "but I know that they frightened me, for some reason."

"Are you sure you don't remember them at all?" Red said anxiously.

She gave him a curious look and then said, "No. Why do you want to know so badly?"

Red sighed. "It's a long story, Yellow. But to make it short, thing have just been… odd. What with Professor Oak being hurt and everything…"

Yellow sympathetically agreed, "I understand."

Green and Blue came in, laughing about something and looking around for him. "Hey!" Red shouted, "What's up?"

"Why didn't you wake me up?" Blue asked.

Red shrugged. "You were still sleeping. Besides, Green screamed at me."

"Hey! This girl needs her beauty sleep!" Green informed him.

Blue said, "I made her get up. I just knocked on her door till she opened the door… ready to kill me, of course."

Both boys looked at her curiously. "How long do you usually sleep in, Green?" Red asked.

The girl stuck her nose up in the air. "Untiltwelve, normally." They both stared unbelievingly. "Don't look at me like that!" Green said nervously.

"Do you sleep in that long?" Red asked Yellow incredulously. Yellow shook her head ferverently.

But Green wasn't paying attention. "Hey!" she interjected excitedly, "do you remember that pretty redheaded lady I pointed out last night?"

Blue raised an eyebrow. "Not particularly, why?"

"Well, I told you she was familiar! She's over there," Green subtly pointed to the right.

The four turned their heads in the woman's direction. The woman looked at them and smiled, but then a horror-struck look came to her face, and she rushed from the dining room. She had red hair pulled back into a bun, and dark eyes.

"She doesn't look familiar-" but suddenly, Blue realized something.

Red stared, and said, "Is that-"

"It's Lorelei," Green declared, even stunned a bit herself, "but it's like she's traveling in disguise…"

Lorelei met up with our heroes during FR/LG series, and they teamed up to save the islands (Lorelei's hometown) from Team Rocket. She's definitely friendlier with our heroes than during the Yellow arc, where she put Sabrina and Green together with ice.