Final Moments of Calm
The nine trainers were now entering Celadon City just as the sun was giving off its final rays of light, but the trainers were not afraid of the dark, they were confident and bold in their walk, but on the inside they were unsure as to who might be watching them from the shadows. But to their luck, they reach the Pokemon Center, the bright red and white ball with a pink P in the middle white button on a Pokeball.
Robert enters with their group behind him, Ethan having taken his human form… only his hair was Umbreon black, and he was wearing sunglasses to hide his red eyes. He still is wearing his Charizard shirt that his started out with, but the outside color was now black. His skin color had tanned a little bit, but not enough to draw attention, but they knew that his time was running out before he would have to stay hidden from society, a prospect that Matthew wasn't looking forward to.
Robert goes up to the Nurse and politely interrupts the Nurses typing. "Sorry Miss, but we are asking for a room for the night, I am wondering, do you have any rooms available?"
Nurse Joy looks up and smiles and nods her head, "Of course, I do have some rooms… I assume that you are all together? I have three rooms next to each other; I'll let you all decide who gets what." She smiles and nods to her Chansey who waddles up and happily chimes "Chansey Chan." She however stops upon seeing Matthew, Becky and Ethan, but she puts on another smile and leads them to the three rooms.
Ethan, Becky, Matthew, along with Ruth, Eve, Matt, and Firestorm who where out of their Pokeball walked past the Chansey and picked the furthest Room from the lobby, and the Nurse station. As Matthew walks past the Chansey, Matthew speaks only a few words. "Thanks for not throwing a fit." The Chansey only nervously nods her head, unsure of how to take such a sentence.
The Junior Police had split up as well, into what looked like a well grouped and rehearsed break of who sleep where. A perk that was surprising to Matthew, Becky and Ethan, was that the window that was over a plain wooden desk meant mainly to hold items, like a back pack or breakable items… or to write letters or in one's journal. But it was outside the window that was the surprise, they were looking into what looked to be a Pokemon Garden, that is, an outdoor resting place for grass types during the day, but the night had fallen and the garden was empty, but the flowers and plant life was beautiful.
Ethan, looking out the window, smiles but then he stops, puts his bag down and with Eve still walking next to her trainer, Ethan then bends down, starches Eve behind the ear and then pulls out a lined notebook, he goes to the desk, opens it up to a marked page by a sticky slip and begins to write.
Matthew looks up from his own writing and smiles, "I see that we all had the same idea, we should write down what is happening and our thoughts, these are strange days…. Days that will bring strange things to the light of day, and some people will not like having them in sight." Matthew then falls silent and everyone is left to their nightly ritual of writing in a notebook, a hard bound blank paged book, or a small lined hard cover spiral pad. All of them writing their personal thoughts and feeling about just what was going on around them.
The day was dawning, the sun had only an hour before fully emerged from its sleeping bed and risen above the eastern horizon giving its light freely to the inhabitants of the world. The group of nine trainers was now eating breakfast in the main dinning room of the Center; they had just now gotten their food and were digging in to eat. All of them were eating eggs and a stack of four Pancakes. The Pokemon, well those that could fit in the center, were eating the Pokechow. Well, Matthew's, Becky's, and Ethan's, they having gotten up latter then the rest, so they had missed what Pokemon the Junior had in their teams.
Nurse Joy came up to the group just as they were finishing their meals and had a serious look on her face, "I have an important note for a Robert L. Lead. It's rather important… I don't know what it is, but it just arrived by Physic Mail." She didn't go on, for Robert had snatched the sealed letter from the Nurse's hand and gave her and one hundred Pokeyen note in her hand, enough to pay for the expense of the mail.
Everyone was holding their breath, Physic mail was the fastest mode of mailing something, but it was reserved for very serious information, information that couldn't be risked by normal transport. Robert looks at the letter and stares at it, then, he slowly folds it back into its original shape, a rectangle that folded out to make three sections and handed it to Kirk, a barely seeable nod to Kirk tells some type of unspoken word.
As Kirk slowly unfolds the piece of paper Robert takes a deep breath, but then slams his fist down upon the table, causing the table to shake and caused the plates and glasses to rattle a little.
Kirk looked over at his leader with a sad look before looking around the table and realizing that they were alone, a good chance to perform what Kirk knew what he had to do. He cleared his throat and began reading the letter.
"To the Junior Police, I am offering you a position among us, you see kids as resourceful as yourself could be very powerful in my organization, I wish us to not be enemies but friends, I would love you to command my elite, but I am more them willing to delegate you to my special forces, however, remember this, I doubt you would like fur as a uniform along with any tail, claws or scales that go along with the job. Oh, and please tell those every watchful Hybrid Patrol group that I will have my new Recruits back, that is once they clear customs and disembark from their cruise, sincerely signed, Giovanni." Kirk as soon as he read the name stopped cold in his reading and looked around; they all realized that they had finally gotten a name upon the mysterious leader of Team Rocket. However Matthew and Becky were not fazed at all.
Matthew Vixen only smiled, "It fits, you see two Team Rocket grunts or former Execs tried to capture me on Halloween two years back, they called their boss Giovanni, but as you know there are many Giovanni's, including three business tycoons. So we are not even close to really narrowing down the real Giovanni."
Robert then smiled as well, "Well, we might as well pay his recruits a visit, but as for his offer… I rather have the checks of a Pikachu before I every willingly work for TR." Robert then gets up and with that, the small impromptu meeting was adjourned and they all set out upon the road again.
After returning their keys back to the Nurse who once again typing at her computer, once in a while looking over at a boy who was having a Pidgy with a bandaged wing upon his shoulder. The group didn't pay any mind to this and they exited the Center and headed west, walking past the huge shopping center along with a few people already out for an early morning shopping or a walk around the city.
They soon reached the city outskirts and soon they were once again out in the wild again, all nine of them were happy and soon they reached Cycling Road, which an entrepreneur had set up a rental shop at the top and bottom of the hill to rent bike to either desperate trainers who want down the hill or those that can't afford to buy one. At five hundred Pokeyen notes a bike.
However, from the bushes a lone figure watched the nine trainers, it was round, pink, had big blue eyes and a Microphone in its left paw. It giggled to itself and waddled out from the bush and smiled at the audience in front of her. "Jigglypuff," She giggled and without further ado, she closed her eyes and put the microphone to her mouth and began to sing a certain song.
All Nine trainers looked shocked at seeing a Jigglypuff… but then when it began to sing, they all freaked out, and they turned around but only began to fall to the ground and soon all nine were asleep, the Jigglypuff halfway through her song opened her eyes and stopped singing, at seeing all nine trainers sleeping soundly. She puffed herself up twice her size, and twisted off the top of her microphone and revealed a black marker, she then with fast reflexes and knowing what to draw went to work.
Just as she finished her work a worried voice rings out. "Jigglypuff…. Oh no, not again…. How many times have I told you, you can't go around singing expecting people to stay awake through your song… now look what you did, you messed up all these people's faces," The trainer, a young girl by the sound of her voice, then sighs. "What am I going to do with you, you really are a handful." The owner of the voice appears and she is dressed in a long skirt in the color of pink, along with a pink T-shirt, as well as a pink bow in her brown hair.
However at seeing the drawing, she couldn't help but giggle. "You are so funny sometimes, you know that Jiggle?" she then giggled again and picked up the happy Jigglypuff and left the road, not bothering to leave any note or explanation, she was just too happy to find her Jigglypuff again. "Promise me you won't run away again?"
The Jigglypuff only nods her own head and smiled happily, wondering when she would meet an audience that wouldn't fall asleep during her beautiful song.
A few hours pass and soon, Ethan is the first to wake up, he looks over and blinks, he couldn't believe his eyes, their were marking on everyone's faces, Matthew and Becky had fangs and angry eye brows, as well as a goatee on Matthew, Becky was wearing a monocle, or a glass circle that fits over a persons eye. Robert had whiskers and what looked to be black electric check sacs of a Pikachu. The others had only wavy lines or hearts, along with dots dashes, and other shapes and lines that didn't catch Ethan's attention that much.
Soon the group of nine trainers all were up and about, as well as using a towel to wash off the permanent marker on their faces.
"I never did encounter a Jigglypuff before…. But why did it do this?" Robert asked it was the same question that Ethan and Matthew were wondering as well.
Becky only looked up, "Maybe it is an artsy type of a Pokemon?" She smiled at her comment, only to have Kirk to clear his throat and respond to Becky's claim.
"That is not true." Kirk stated in a voice that the other three had never heard used before, but did remind them of a professor about to launce into a lecture about something. However the other six trainers only groaned as if having heard this one tone of voice so many times that it was very old. "You see… most Jigglypuff do not carry around a microphone… but those that do…. Watch out, because you will listen to their singing which is almost always a lullaby, and when the person falls asleep, the Jigglypuff will then unscrew the top of the marker and usually have a permanent marker underneath the top and then draw on the faces of those that fall asleep."
"Thank you so much laptop, we didn't need that much information. We were asking rhetorical questions." Sarah was the one that said that and she wasn't too happy about hearing Kirk's voice like that again.
"Now, don't fight among us, if we do, Team Rocket most likely will capture us, and then… then we won't be able to rescue anyone at all. Not even us." Robert's voice showed that he was giving a warning to everyone standing around.
Matthew only blinked his eyes, "Err…. Then shouldn't we get to the Bike Rental store and get through Cycling Road then?" This was met with blank stares as if he was speaking in a foreign tongue.
"Well of course we are going to go their, just hold your tails in a bundle till then." Sarah said with an irritated tone of voice. "Now we go at Roberts command."
Robert was the only one not giving Matthew a strange look. "Well, let's get going then, time is a-wasting, so let's go." Robert then takes a step forward and the others follow behind him.
Matthew, Becky and Ethan only look at each other and return their Pokemon that are out all the time, seeing how they couldn't easily transport them on a bike. Eve looked a little dejected but she did look at Matthew and s spark of some plan was in her eyes just as she disappeared into a red beam of light.
The nine trainers soon were crowded into the rental bike shop and all were waiting for the two elected buyers to hurry up so they could all get to Fuchsia City.
"Now let me get this straight," The man behind the counter said. "You want six bikes because three of you already own a collapsible bike, yet you want a discount for a group…. Sorry, but either you rent nine bikes and use them…. Or no discount at all." The man then folded his arms across his chest and stared at the two as if daring him to change his mind.
Matthew looked back staring right into his eyes and just held the glare. It soon became apparent that the two were in a staring contest and neither one was willing to blink and loss to the impromptu contest that seemed to be thick with concentration from those around as they silently urged on Matthew to try and win.
A full thirty seconds pass before Matthew blinked, the bike renter only smiled and laughed, "I win, I win… now…. Where is the money to rent the bikes?" He grinned and looked at each of the six trainers that didn't have a bike. All six trainers then slowly walked forward and paid for the bikes at full price, as well as a one hundred Pokeyen fee for being troublemakers in the beginning. But finally they all had a bike and they wheeled them out of the shop one at a time, and in single file they exited the shop and turned north and soon arrived at the entrance to Cycling Road and as each one passed through they soon were ready for their trip down the hill and towards Fuchsia City.
"Okay, so who wants to get on the road and reach Fuchsia City and our goal that resides in that city?" Robert asked, he got as a response was something unexpected to him… the rest of the group pushed forward on their bikes and took off allowing gravity to take hold of them and they went down the hill picking up speed.
"YE-HAW, Full speed ahead." Ethan shouted out in a yell as he zoomed ahead and was soon in the front of the pack of nine bikers. They were enjoying themselves greatly and were excited to be on a fast down hill run. During the run down the hill, the group of nine bicyclists were not interrupted for a battle, they did see a few bikers but they were already busy with other trainers in a battle, soon the gatehouse was in sight and amazingly their were no other bikers, something that all nine trainers were glade about.
Soon they were through the gatehouse and at the bottom of the hill; they then walked their bikes to the rental house and entered the air conditioned front room.
"I see you had a fun time on my brother's bicycles, let us see now… nine bikes checked out, so nine bikes that need to be returned, along with a two thousand Pokeyen fee for cleaning and readjustment." The man smiled as he held out the piece of paper.
"Wait a minute." Robert shouted as he took the paper and scanned it line by line. "I can testify that only Kirk, my younger brother Dirk, and myself had bikes already, where as Matthew, Becky, Ethan, Sarah, Freda, and Richard rented bikes from you, I have the sheet of paper to prove that, we paid full price instead of your advertised group rate." Robert then pulled out his copy of the receipt and showed it to the man, while at the same time keeping a firm grip of the receipt.
The man, looking like an identical twin to the man at the other end of the route leaned forward and peered at the piece of paper in Robert's hand. "Hmm… I see, so I guess there is only one explanation for this…. This is a forgery." With that the man leaned back and smiled. "Do you know what we do with those that try to forge receipts?" the man now had a serious tone to him and he looked like he wasn't kidding at all.
"Now see here, my parent's paid…" Robert growled back, sounding like he wasn't having a good day know.
"Hold on, let me finish." The man said back. "The punishment is…. Smile, you've just been caught on hidden film." He smiled and pointed behind the teens at a picture of a generic male riding a bike down Cycling Road, they all assumed that behind the picture was the camera.
"We'll I'll be a Mankey's Uncle." Richard muttered at seeing the joke that had been pulled on them.
Ethan only choked at hearing that catch phrase, "You've got to be kidding me." He looked around him as the others only stared slacked jaw at the person in front of them.
"So, care to be on television? After all, you don't want to miss out your five minutes of fame now do you?" The man smiled once again, this time instead of a creepy and insane one, it was one of joy and happiness at bringing to those around him laughter as well as a few people's moment's of fame.
The group only huddled together and began to have a whispered conversation to try and figure out rather to do this, or not.
"I say let's go for it, when else will be get to show something like this to our parents?" Richard said in a hushed voice, but still one could hear his excitement a mile away.
"Why should we? We would only be forgotten when the next person shows up." Sarah moaned in her typical way of saying that it was going to fail horribly. She was almost always snapping at someone or complaining about something. But to Matthew, Becky, and Ethan, this was really the first time they heard something like this from her.
Kirk was the next one to speak, "I really don't see the harm of this… but if we succeed at our plans, we may not be world famous, but those that we help will forever remember us, good or bad I honestly don't know.
Dirk was next to spoken after Kirk, "Can we please say yes big brother, and I mean dad and mom are always watching the show, wouldn't they be so surprised if we were on the T.V.?" Dirk was showing what energy a ten year old would show at realizing that they might be on the Television, there is not ifs ands or buts, and they were going to be T.V. stars in their young minds.
"How about you three, what do you think we should do?" Robert asked the so far three silent ones, he wanted to know their opinions before saying what they all wanted to do.
Ethan was first to answer Robert's question. He too was showing wonder and excitement at being able to have his face on T.V. "I agree with Richard and Dirk… we should say yes and be able to show our parents what we have gotten into this year besides the usual gym badges." Ethan was shaking with excitement and pent up energy.
Becky was next one to be speaking; her voice was cool and collected, as well as calm, showing no emotion either way. "I would have to say that to me it wouldn't matter one way or the other, Giovanni will find us sooner or later, seeing how he knew we were at Celadon, he knew that we would have to pass through Cycling Road… and if he had any traps lay out over the hill, and we got through them…. I say by all means let's put our faces on the T.V."
Finally all faces turned to Matthew. "First off, don't stare at me, it makes me nervous." Matthew said before speaking his mind, "Frankly, I don't want to, I fear it will give those that are after us a jumping off point, however, this is random, and not even rigged to follow people so… frankly my mind says no, but my gut says go for it, after all, this may be the last bit of fun we have for a while to come."
Neither Matthew Vixen nor any of the other knew just how true those words were going to be. So they all turned around and agreed to the terms of the contract, they would allow the use of their reactions and comments during the filming, but wouldn't show the discussion of rather to say yes or no. Once all the legal issues were taken care of, the nine trainers exited the bicycle shop and noticed that the sun had moved a little more to the west. They realized that they had spent an hour in the shop longer then they wanted. But still they were making excellent time and so they moved forward into the beginning of the late afternoon, early dusk.
When the group had gone a fair amount of distance, Matthew, Becky, and Ethan all pulled out certain Pokeballs and soon standing next to their respective trainers were, Matt, Firestorm, Ruth, and Eve. With the standard guardians of the group once again out and ready to assist them, they moved out once more, still heading east, towards Fuchsia City.
They reach the outskirts of Fuchsia City by nightfall and soon they saw the Pokemon Center lights in the distance and with that, they picked up their pace to arrive at the Center sooner. But when they finally reached the Center, a small sign was tapped to the inside of the sliding glass doors.
"We are terrible sorry, but due to a Poison Type Convention going on all this week, all of our rooms are booked, however, Koga has kindly opened up part of his gym for sleeping quarters, don't worry the Gym will still be open during this Week." The sign was then signed personally by Nurse Joy.
"Well," Dirk said with a sigh, "I guess I won't be able to enjoy Center Food anytime soon… I wonder what Ninjas eat." Dirk's stomach then rumbled indicating that he was hungry. The others only laugh lightly because they too are hungry. But they don't stand around for long; for once again they are on their way to the Fuchsia City Gym. They soon arrive at the building itself, the doors to the three story building were wide open, the feeling was of an old traditional Japanese semi-mansion, but still it help an eerie feeling to it, even though all the windows were lit.
"This is bogus… an old Ninja temple…. Baa… just a bunch of over the top dramatics if you ask me." Richard was the one that spoke those words upon receiving a piece of paper warning about traps and other oddities that might lurk around the building.
"I wouldn't discount a thing just because you cannot see it at first, just like a season, you don't see it, yet you know it is on its way." A smooth and silky voice that seemed to be reprimanding Richard, a voice that sounded as if it was coming from behind them, the grouped turned around and just stared at the man now standing where their wasn't a man before.
The man that was standing behind, now in front of them since they had turned around to find the source of the voice was wearing a black shirt, black pants and cloth shoes, he also had jet black spiky hair as well as a black cape to round off the appearance, only one person wears that kind of clothing daily. It was Koga, leader of the Fuchsia City Gym.
Koga only smiled at the group of nine Trainers, "Tell me, are you looking for a match? You see, I was hoping to get in some late night training, so come, let us go to the gym and meet each other on the field of battle, my Pokemon against each one of yours individually, the winners may sleep the losers… well, and they must fight me again. But first, we will eat in the Gym, to be a great trainer, one must always either have the battle field in his or her mind… or be near it as much as possible" Koga then turned and vanished from sight.
Dirk stared wide eyed, "Wow a real live Ninja…. This is going to be so cool. I will be fighting a real Ninja as well, how cool is that going to be?" He looked happy and excited.
Indeed this match between Koga the Fuchsia City Gym Leader against the Junior Police Force along with Matthew, Becky, and Ethan will be one that none of them would forget for the rest of their lives.