Hidden Journey
Part Nine

§

No Worries Here

"I'm supergirl
And I'm here to
Save the world
And I wanna know
Who's gonna save me."
"Supergirl" by Krystal

Later that night, Brock found himself in for a delightful surprise. No, Lia did not beg for him to marry her. Ash turned up in Blackthorne, without Misty, and met Brock in the Blackthorne Starmiebucks. Neither of the two good friends had known the other would be in Blackthorne as Brock had left a month prior to go back to Pewter to visit with his family.

"It's really good to see you again, Ash!" Brock exclaimed, clasping the younger man in a quick hug.

"Brock, good to see you too," Ash said, smiling, "But you've only been gone a month. You were planning on joining Misty and me again, weren't you?"

"Of course," Brock said, sipping his latte. "I've missed the two of you. How's Misty doing?"

Ash shrugged, "Same as when you left. She's a little bummed though."

"How's that?"

"We were in Viridian last week and she saw a young girl with a Togepi." Ash shuddered at the mention of the little Pokemon.

"How could that be?" Brock asked. "I thought she had the only known Togepi."

"Don't remind me," Ash said. "I wish it were true. Looks like there are more around than we thought."

"What's a Togepi?" A new voice broke in.

The two young men turned around in their chairs to see two people. One was Lia, who Brock greeted most enthusiastically, and the other was a slender girl with shoulder-length hair so black that it glinted blue. "Who's your friend, Lia?"

Lia smiled over at the girl by her side. "This is Celerity Sighine. She's my best friend."

§

Naturally through all this I had been, once again, locked up in the hotel room. This time I had Lia's Porygon to keep me company. Not that it was very talkative.

I sat beside the bed and looked at the Porygon, who was currently hovering in front of the television, bobbing up and down slightly like a one of those floating things in a bay. A boo-something. Anyway, the Pokemon was just staring at the television. I suppose that PNN was more interesting than the static it had been watching previously.

The anchorwoman smiled at the camera before launching into her next story. "In Blackthorne today, a suspect was apprehended for having an illegal substance…"

That caught my attention.

"The name of the suspect will not be released by authorities, but they have stated that the young man will be getting the medical attention he needs." She smiled perkily. "The substance that he had been taken was not like any other drug seen before. The Blackthorne Police have released a statement that the substance is actually a lab manufactured version of rare candy."

Curious, I thought to myself. And just who in Team Rocket made such a substance, and why? What would the reason be for that? Probably money, like the drugs in my dimension. There doesn't seem to be any form of drug abuse here. Unfortunately it looks like someone wants to fix that. Someone, like me, needs to stop it.

Somehow, I almost wished that I could talk to Xanady. She might know something about this, or maybe not. Maybe this came after her time with Team Rocket. Still, she would know if the effects on humans would be dangerous. Or maybe the drug wasn't supposed to be used on humans at all. What if this lab manufactured rare candy was supposed to be for Pokemon after all.

Rare candy was supposed to up a Pokemon's level by one, but if there was a form of rare candy that could up it by three or even five points at a time, then it would be possible to have a high level Pokemon in no time. Especially if there was a near endless supply of that rare candy. And if Team Rocket was passing it out around Blackthorne's seedier residents as an experiment instead of experimenting on their own lab Pokemon...

This could be really dangerous. There's no telling what this could do to Pokemon. With a yawn, I laid my head down on my paws and closed my eyes. Someone, probably definately me, would have to try to find out what was going on. Not like it's any different from what I usually do. Oh what I'd give for a normal type vacation. I don't think I've had one of those in ages.

Sometimes it's rough to be the one to save the world. How does Ash put up with it?

§

Familiar laughing woke me from my sleep. I looked around groggily to see that Lia's Porygon was still hovering, but it looked to be asleep, and the lights and tv were still on. It was the seemingly sudden appearance of people that surprised me.

Brock and Lia had guests.

They were gathered around a table just a few feet from me in the "living room" section of the hotel room. Lifting my head, I could see Lia and Brock facing me, and two people with their backs to me. One was a girl and she was sitting next to Ash and had shoulder length black hair and was wearing a blue dress. She seemed familiar to me.

"Brock, tell Cel about you marvelous cooking!" Lia said with a smile. She reached over to grasp the mystery girls' hand. "Cel, this man cooks like he's a professional!"

Brock blushed and looked like he would faint, but Lia's hand on his had him perked up. "Oh, well, it's nothing really. I just love cooking a whole bunch."

"Oh, Brock," The newcomer said in a purr. "You must let me sample some of you culinary skills!"

Uh...right. I sat up, trying to think of who this person was and why she seemed so familiar.

"Vulpix!" Brock said suddenly.

No, that's not her name. That's who I am. I thought with a frown. Huh? Oh, duh, that is me!

All attention turned to me and I could finally see who the mystery girl was. It was Celerity, Matt's girlfriend.

What?

I cocked my head to the side, trying to figure out the reasoning for this. Did Matt send her here to get something? Nah, that doesn't make sense, even to me. Did she break up with Matt? That would make me incredibly happy, but still wouldn't make sense as to why she was here.

Oh well, I guess she's just here because she's here. And so was Ash.

Huh.

"Oh, what a cute Pokemon you have, Brock." Celerity said. "May I pet her?"

"She's not really the petting kind of Pokemon, Celerity." Brock said. "But if she doesn't mind..."

Oh, I minded all right.

Celerity bounded over to me and crouched down. I sat on my haunches and looked up into her green eyes. Her face was friendly and happy, but her eyes spoke another story. One of maliciousness.

It was hard to hold still while she petted the top of my head. You know, hard not to bite her, but I didn't want to become infected with Celerity oogies. Celerity awwed at how soft my fur was and then stood up.

"Brock, you take such good care of him!" Celerity cooed.

"Vulpix is a girl Pokemon..." Ash said.

"That's nice," Celerity said. "So, about this food you make?"

That reminded me of how long ago it had been since I ate. I trotted over to Brock and looked up at him with a feed me look.

"Huh? Oh, Vulpix! How could I have forgotten!" Brock slapped his forehead. "I can't believe it. Can you hang on a moment?"

I shrugged. I'd have to wait anyway and since it was only nearing ten o'clock in the evening, can you believe it...

It wasn't long of a wait, not with Brock the speedy cook. He whipped out a small dish and poured in a Vulpix amount of Vulpix-fomulated Pokechow. Then he put a small yellow placemat on the ground, put a small dish of water in the upper corner, and then put the small dish of food in the center of the placemat.

Okay, so it looks very unappetizing, but the taste was totally delish. What's it taste like? Oh well, something like a mix of the best cheeseburger you've ever tasted, a nice juicy steak, and a slight tinge of jalepeno.

Hey, firefox food. It's gotta be somewhat spicey! Made me wish I had nachos though.

"Ooh, what do we have here!" Celerity was right over my shoulder, peering down at my dinner. I would've growled, but I'm not gonna be impolite. That's Celerity's thing.

"Brock, do you think you could let Cel try some?" Lia asked, staring up at Brock with puppydog eyes. "Pwease?"

"I...I...Sure, I guess." Brock shrugged and turned back to his magical backpack and pulled out a small Tupperware type dish. He opened the lid and gave Lia a few pellets. The teal haired girl kept one for herself and gave the one to Celerity.

"Want one, Ash?" Lia asked. When the dark haired Trainer shook his head, Lia shrugged.

With grins, the two girls ate the food. After a few seconds of chewing, there were twin squeals of delight.

"Brock this is magnificent!" Celerity cried out. "You could make a fortune with this food!"

"She's right, Brock." Lia agreed. "Have you ever thought of marketing this food? Open a store?"

Brock looked astonished. "Uh, well..."

"Brock's not really the kind who want's to make money from his food," Ash broke in. "Isn't that right, Brock?"

"Yeah, that's totally right," Brock said, relief crossing his features. "Um, I don't really want to open a store."

"What?" Celerity looked surprised. "Think of all the money you could make! You'd have a monopoly on the whole market! No one could resist your food!"

"Oh, uh, well..."

"Where's Matt, Celerity?" Ash asked.

"Matt? Why would you ask that, Ash?" Celerity looked pale.

"Well he is your boyfriend, isn't he?" Ash looked closely at Celerity.

"Yes, he is and I love him dearly." Celerity said. "I left him and Cirrus all tied up."

There was a pause.

"What do you mean by that?" Lia asked sharply.

"I mean, I left them all tied up...playing a video game." Celerity laughed half-heartedly. "You know how those siblings love playing video games. And with that new big-screen tv as well. Cirrus was so enthusiastic about it all!"

"Was Gary there?" Ash asked.

"What is this, twenty questions?" Celerity laughed again. A tinkling laugh I remembered well. "No, Gary wasn't there."

"Why not? He is Cirrus' girlfriend." Brock looked curious. "I know he likes video games, too."

"No, Brock," Ash waved to his friend, "That's me. Gary hates video games."

"Oh, yeah, that's right." Brock sighed. "Gary's a tight ass."

Lia laughed. "Oh, he was probably out looking for someone to battle. I've heard of Gary Oak."

"Actually, you're all wrong." Celerity said as she inspected her nail polish. It was gold colored. "Gary went back to his grandfather's place because he was depressed."

"That doesn't make sense." Ash frowned. "Why would Gary be depressed?"

"Because Cirrus dumped him." Celerity looked up.

The hell I did! I almost choked on a piece of chow. And Vulpix wouldn't be stupid enough to dump him either.

"No way!" Ash gasped. "She wouldn't..."

"Actually, yes she did." Celerity said. "It seems that Cirrus found out that Gary was seeing a few other girls behind her back. She told him that it didn't really matter because she had been seeing AJ behind Gary's back."

Ash whistled, "Wow. That's intense."

"What is, Ash?" Lia asked.

"Well it happened the day you left, Brock. I had gone over to Viridian to try to find Gary. I thought he might be at Cirrus' house so I drove over. On the way I had to stop at a gas station and I bumped into AJ." He paused and took a sip of his soda. "I offered him a drive to Viridian since he was going to stop there for the night on his way to Indigo Plateau. We stopped at Cirrus' house and he practically fell head over heels for Cirrus."

"So what happened then?" Brock said.

"That's all I really saw," Ash said. "But later on Gary did tell me that he hadn't seen Cirrus in several days, and that she didn't return any of his calls or want to see him."

"Sounds to me like she was about to break up with him," Lia said softly. She shook her head. "Poor guy."

"Poor guy!" Brock laughed. "Gary's like a Persian. He always lands on his feet."

I sat back, thinking carefully. There's no way that Vulpix would dump Gary, no matter how much she hates him. Something fishy is going on here, or else my name is Mariah Carey...and it's not.

§

In a wooden shanty just outside of Viridian City, Matt and Vulpix were tied up back to back. Their wrists and ankles had been bound as well. Their abductor had tied bandanas around their mouths as gags, but Matt managed to slip his off.

"Vulpix, are you okay?" Matt asked, concerned. He had just come to, and with the exception of sore wrists and a headache, he felt okay. There was no response from Vulpix and that left Matt a bit concerned. They were sitting on chairs and Matt's felt a little shaky.

He looked around as best as he could. The room was about twelve feet by ten, with wooden floors, walls, and ceiling. There was a fireplace on one wall, a window on another, and a door on a third. There was no furniture of any kind, save for a rickety looking table that only had three legs. Dust covered a great deal of the room.

The window was a double-hung sash and all of the glass panels were intact. That was lucky as it was currently raining out. Unfortunately, their chairs were positioned under a small hole in the roof, and Matt was getting dripped on.

"Vulpix!" He called out again, jiggling his shoulders to try to shake her awake. This time he was rewarded by a low groan.

"Oh, did anyone catch the license of that truck..." Obviously Vulpix had gotten her bandana off.

"Vulpix! Are you okay?" Matt's voice was probably happier sounded than the situation merited.

"Yes, Matt," Vulpix said in a dry tone. "With the exception of being tied up and left under the one spot in this whole place that has a hole in the roof. This is torture."

"Tell me about it," Matt snorted. "Do you think whoever did this will be back?"

"I'm a fire type, Matt, not a psychic."

Matt sighed, "I know, but I thought you might have been conscious or something before I was."

"Or something? You are such a dork."

"Thank you, Ms. Congeniality." Matt said. Vulpix's words hurt though. He was just trying to be nice. "Do you remember anything? The last thing I thought I saw was Celerity."

"It wasn't Celerity," Vulpix said dismissively.

"How do you know?"

"Because she has a disgusting smelling scent," Vulpix said. "She should bathe more often."

Matt laughed, "That's called perfume, Vulpix!"

"No, I know what perfume is. If she thinks that's perfume, then she was ripped off." Vulpix paused, "No this human had a different scent, like cherry blossoms or something similar."

"Cherry blossoms..."

"Yes, that is what I said. Do you know of anyone who wears that scent? Or is there someone that would be out to abduct you and Cirrus?"

"Not that I know of," Matt frowned. "I couldn't imagine anyone would."

"Oh goodie, general kidnapping. Let's try to get free, I'm getting hungry."

Matt rolled his eyes, but complied.

Twenty minutes later...

"That's it," Matt said, standing up and rubbing his wrists. Vulpix also stood and stretched.

"We have to leave now." She said, turning for the door. "It took us too long to get free. We don't know if the person or persons will be returning. I don't want to be around to find out."

They walked to the door and Matt grabbed the handle.

"Wait.." Vulpix held his hand still. "What if there is someone outside?"

"In this rain?" Matt shook his head. "I don't think there will be, and quite frankly, I don't care if there is. I'm angry enough to kick some bad guy ass."

Vulpix tilted her head and smiled. "Aaah, I see the resemblance to you and your sister. So sweet. Well, let's go."

Together, they burst through the door.

***

Boy I sure hope they make it out okay! What could be waiting for Brock and Vulpix on the other side of the door? Is there anyone at all? And what about Gary?

Mysteries abound when Sakura Messenger, the purple haired girl that Cirrus called her rival, shows up in the next chapter. It seems she's looking for someone and it isn't Cirrus. All this and more in the next chapter!