Chapter 4- Lisbon

Isaac exhaled. His breath became a fine mist before him. He was enjoying the cold weather tremendously. It was a welcome change from the hot subtropical climate of Pallet town. Dark gray clouds hung overhead and he could just make out the ocean, dark and swirling, before him. He heard the rest of the group following close behind him.

They had spent the morning exploring Seaclasp. Ezra had directed them from store to store pointing out small parks and music venues throughout the city. He had then guided them to a small café where they had a magnificent lunch. They were now on Lisbon Avenue a narrow street full of curiosity shops and pubs that lead to the ocean.

Isaac tucked his hands in his pockets and shivered. He felt a bit guilty. He had barely said a word that morning, his mind still on the events of the previous night.

Mere minutes after the second robber had teleported

away the police had arrived on scene. They had handcuffed the incapacitated thief and escorted everyone in the pokemon center to the police station.

Isaac had spent a good half hour in the crowded waiting room before he was called in by an elderly officer. The officer sat him down in a small, low lighted room that Isaac guessed was used for integrations. This fact unnerved him for a few moments before he reached out his consciousness towards the officer. He felt no feelings of ill will, only of slight confusion and exhaustion. The officer sat down across from him.

"Name?" his grey moustache bristled as he spoke.

"Isaac Entore."

One gray eyebrow shot up.

"So you're the kid I've been hearing so much about. From what I heard you were pretty impressive."

Isaac blushed as the officer continued.

"A friend of yours… ah black hair, excitable, what was his name?"

Isaac chuckled. "That would be Zack."

The officer snapped his fingers. "Right! Zack. Any way he said that you were right next to him one moment and then gone when the robbers came in. What happened?"

"I saw them coming in and I knew they were trouble. Before Hypno's powers got me I used my Abra to teleport to the rafters and caught Hypno off guard with confusion and took one robber down with my Peakfang's razor leaf."

"Impressive kid!"

Before Isaac could reply the officer reached under his seat and pulled out a manila folder full of papers. The captured robber's picture was paper clipped to the front.

"Hudson Jones. Local thief. Notorious for using his Hypno's powers to help him in crime," he flipped open the folder reveling numerous newspaper clippings. Isaac scanned the headlines "Pick pocketer found" "Petty thief arrested".

"You may notice," said the officer. "That Jones here had been in and out of jail for most of his life," he paused. "But all for small crimes, mugging, pick pocketing, so forth and so on. And then this," he said, shuffling through the papers before finding a large headline. "Three injured one killed in Bank robbery".

The officer continued to show Isaac headlines much like the last one as he spoke. "Over the course of the last six months there has been a string of major robberies. Over thirty million dollars have been stolen from banks all over Saigo and dozens of pokemon have been taken from their trainers. The crimes have always been conducted by two or more people… and this man," he said showing a grainy photograph of the second robber. "The number of people and the people themselves have changed at every crime… except for him. The other robber is the real mastermind Jones is just the newest lackey. So far Jones has refused to talk. Can you tell me anything about the other robber?"

Isaac thought for a moment. "Pale skinned, wearing a gray cloak, he had a Ditto with him… His eyes were deep brown and half closed it looked almost like he was tired or something. But before he escaped his eyes opened real wide and there was this kinda insane gleam in them. That's all I remember seeing."

The officer sighed. "That's what everyone else has said… the gleaming eyes are new but something tells me that won't be that helpful," he rubbed his temple before getting up and shaking Isaac's hand. "Thank you very much for your time…"

Isaac walked out of the room and into the waiting room hoping to find Zack and Sara. He felt terrible for lying to the officer. But there was no way he could say how he actually knew what the robbers were doing. Isaac shuddered. For a split second he had let his consciousness wonder and had touched the second robber's mind. He felt a chill run down his back. That man's mind was full of dark and twisted things. He had known immediately what the two men were up to.

Now the newspaper stands were full of headlines about the robbery with Jones' mugshot filling up the front page. "Crime wave stopped. Mastermind still at large" the same fuzzy picture of the second robber that the officer had shown him filled up a side column on the Seaclasp Times.

Isaac passed rack after rack of newspaper stands to find himself in front of a massive building. The structure took up the ground space of three other buildings. The building was made from beautiful, carved marble. A large sign was prominently displayed just to the right of the entrance.

Seaclasp Natatorium and Gym

Leader Lionel Rush

The rest of the group caught up with Isaac just as he finished reading the sign.

"Wow," said Zack. "I've never seen a gym this big."

"Most gyms in Saigo double in function, meaning that the "gym" part of this building is only a small section," explained Ezra.

Johnny grinned. "So. Who's up for winning a badge?"

The Natatorium was made of four pools with title in between each pool. The largest of the four took up most of the floor. It had large watersides connected to it and a huge assortment of people were swimming in it. A children's pool took up a small space in the front and a diving pool was located to its right. In the very back was a large pool where a cacophony of sounds was coming from. Isaac could see waves being splashed back and forth and a few people yelling from the side of the pool but, as far as he could tell, no one was in the water.

"Can I help you? The changing rooms are toward the back."

Isaac turned around to see a large man in a lifeguard uniform. Even though he was in his fifties or so he was quite muscular. His body was very tan, almost sunburned in a few areas. He had neatly cut grey hair and had a fuzzy, gray goatee. His eyes were a bright sparkling blue that looked a bit like the harbor water.

"Oh sorry sir. We're not here to swim we're here to challenge the gym leader," said Isaac.

A huge grin broke out on the man's face. He shook Isaac's hand. "Fantastic! Well my name is Lionel and you'll be challenging me."

Lionel led the group to the pool that Isaac had been looking at earlier. As they came closer Isaac could see that this pool was used of battles. The pool was about twenty feet deep and had long floating platforms scattered about. A group of kids were shouting at a lifeguard and another boy who were battling. In the pool Isaac saw a Tentacool and a Horsea. Isaac thought that they were both shiny pokemon at first but their coloring was off. Tentacool's usually red spots were a deep violet blue. The Horsea was not a light blue but instead a light green.

Isaac's concentration on the two pokemon was broken by Lionel. "OI! You lot move out!"

The trainers returned their pokemon with looks of dismay on their faces. The lifeguard tried to sneak away but Lionel caught up to him.

"TIM! What are you doing? You're supposed to be on duty!"

Tim mumbled something. Lionel frowned. "You can be the judge for this battle then you and I are going to have a little talk."

Tim was muttering darkly under his breath as he walked to the left side of the pool.

"This battle will be between the Challenger and Seaclasp City Gym leader Lionel Rush. Challenger, Leader, when you are ready… BEGIN!"

Isaac tossed out a pokeball, releasing Abra onto one of the floating platforms. Lionel tossed his pokeball into the water releasing a beautiful fish pokemon with a small flat head and large wing like fins. The fins were a patchwork of colors ranging from bright yellow to navy blue.

Isaac took out his pokedex as Ezra spoke. "A Raywash! Its water flying type."

Raywash swam gracefully around the pool as Abra stood watching from the platform.

"Raywash use flash!"

Isaac watched as Zamora's beautiful fins changed color, steadily becoming brighter until a massive burst of light shot out from the fins and blinded Abra. Abra was too dazed to notice Zamora poking its head out of the water.

"Now water gun."

A sport of water shot out at Abra, knocking it on its back. Abra was dangerously close to the edge of the platform, its head nearly in the water. Isaac quickly made a connection with Abra.

We need to be careful. If you drop into that water it's over.

Abra staggered to its feet.

Got any ideas?

Isaac watched Raywash's fins return to their normal patchwork of colors.

Maybe…

Lionel was growing bored. "Let's finish this. Raywash use flash again."

Wait for it…

Zamora's fins began to shine brightly, radiating light.

Wait for it…

Lionel chuckled and Raywash released the beam of light.

NOW! Reflect!

An orb of see through hexagons suddenly surrounded Abra. The ray of light, upon hitting the orb, bounced back at Raywash. Raywash was dazed, swimming around the pool in erratic circles.

Good work. Now finish it! Thunder wave!

Abra concentrated and small sparks started running up and down its arms. Abra exhaled and the sparks jumped off Abra, onto the platform, and into the water, electrifying the pool. The confused Zamora was instantly hit by a surge of electricity. Lionel growled as Zamora fainted and returned it to its pokeball.

"Good work taking advantage of the dual typing," said Lionel. "And as a reward you get to see my best pokemon! Go Sharabite!"

Lionel threw another pokeball into the water releasing a small shark pokemon. Its top half was a light blue color and its underside was a creamy white. Its tail was long and curving ending in a sharp point. It was nearly three feet long and two feet wide. Its razor sharp teeth glimmered as it sank into the water.

Abra was feeling quite confident.

Ready to finish this battle?

Before Isaac could reply Sharabite dived deep in the water and disappeared.

Lionel laughed at Isaac's stunned face. "A little move called camouflage. Now use swamp!"

With frightening speed Sharabite launched itself out of the water and came down with a mighty splash. The waves caused by Sharabite's attack completely swamped the platforms knocking Abra into the water. Abra franticly tried to tread water as Sharabite swam closer. Isaac returned Abra to its pokeball just before Sharabite attacked. Isaac drew his second pokeball out and threw out Peakfang on the side of the pool. Isaac was now at an impasse. The platforms were now underwater and Peakfang had nowhere to battle from.

"Challenger your pokemon must return to the battlefield."

Isaac saw it. Peakfang's foot was in a puddle of water on the side of the pool. As he watched the water turned to solid ice.

This is going to sound crazy…

Lionel couldn't help but laugh. This poor kid hadn't brought a single water type. This battle was as good as his.

"Ready to give up?"

"Not yet."

As Isaac spoke Peakfang stuck one paw out over the water.

"Peakfang, Frost Breath."

A cold mist began radiating around Peakfang as it stepped out on the water. The water under Peakfang became pure ice. There was an odd crackling sound as Peakfang put another paw on the water. The ice was spreading out at a rapid pace. By the time Peakfang had put its final paw on the water the entire pool was solid ice. Sharabite, for a moment, was franticly swimming around at the bottom of the pool and then was frozen solid. With a grunt, Lionel returned Sharabite to its pokeball.

"The challenger wins!"

Lionel and Isaac met at the center of the pool (still frozen over) and shook hands.

"Fantastic strategy! You're pretty remarkable Isaac. I present to you the Harbor badge," Lionel handed Isaac a small badge made of two circles. One circle was a bright blue the other was an emerald green. "Oh and this," Lionel handed Isaac an aqua colored disc. "It's the technical machine for that move Sharabite used, swamp," He bent over and petted Peakfang's fur before quickly retracting. Isaac saw a bit of ice on Lionel's fingers. "Anyway you wouldn't be interested in trading that Peakfang would ya?"

Isaac shook his head. "No offence sir but I would never trade Peakfang."

"Probably a good idea. After all it is one of the rarest pokemon in Saigo."

"It is?"

"Sure is. Only found in two places in all of Saigo. Mt. Frost and the arctic planes… um what are you doing?"

Isaac was franticly trying to press "record" on his pokedex as Lionel spoke.

"Sorry sir. I, along Zack and Sara," he said, pointing at them. "Are gathering data on Saigo's pokemon for Professor Spruce."

Lionel gave out a long hearty laugh before speaking again. "That old fool Spruce is still working on that silly project of his?" he clapped Isaac on the back. "Tell you what. I'll give you and your friends as much information about pokemon as you want… as long as you MAKE SURE that my name is somewhere on this little project."

That had been over an hour ago. Lionel offered to take them to a restaurant on Lisbon to talk. Ezra, Johnny, and Val had declined. The trio and Lionel now sat on the patio of the restaurant, watching the sun set. Lionel told them about the pokemon of Seaclasp town, his own personal pokemon, and why he and Spruce were not on the best terms.

"When Spruce moved here I offered my help with his pokedex project. He got offended! Said that he was going to do it by himself! Said he didn't need any help! And now look. He's got you three doing the dirty work," an evil grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. "I would love to see Spruce's face when his little project is complete and my name is on the front page!"

The group's food arrived as the restaurant became full of patrons. Calming piano began to play from inside and waiters started to light candles. Lionel munched on the salad he had ordered before he spoke again.

"Where are you three headed off to next?"

"Well after Zack and I challenge you to a battle," Sara said as she pulled the map from her backpack. "I guess the next stop is… Gemlight town."

She pointed to a small city surrounded by rugged mountains.

Zack groaned. "That's gonna take forever!"

"Not if you take a short cut."

Zack looked suspiciously at Lionel. "A shortcut?"

Lionel slid the map over to his side of the table. He pointed at a small section of beach with white cliffs on the ocean side of Seaclasp.

"This area has huge caves running through the cliffs," he said tracing a path. "These caves lead all the way to Gemlight. You'll completely avoid the mountains… it should take you about a day to make it. My friend is the gym leader over there. I'll call him up and see if he'll be your guide."

The four talked, finished their meals, and went their separate ways. Isaac was feeling refreshed and quite happy about his first Saigo gym battle… but something was bothering him. As he, and the rest of the trio, headed to the pokemon center he saw the picture of the mastermind robber on the newspaper stands. He shuddered and continued walking. He didn't notice a small security camera following his every move…