Chapter 9
Land Of Confusion
The next morning, the trainers woke up to find Silver's Haunter in Jasmine's living room.
"Haunter? What are you doing here?" Jasmine said.
"Haunter!" Haunter said.
"Silver must have released Haunter to come to visit me," Jasmine said.
Haunter went over to Gold and began to sniff him.
"Haunter! Haunter!" Gold said.
"What is it, Haunter?" Jasmine asked.
"It seems like Haunter smells something on Gold," Whitney said.
"Wait a minute," said Gold. "Remember when I suddenly got thrown to the ground by an invisible force? That must have been some type of ghost, and now Haunter is smelling it."
"Maybe that ghost was in charge of that hot-air balloon," Whitney said.
"But what type of ghost Pokémon would do that?" Gold asked. "Why would a ghost just start throwing bombs like that?"
"I don't know," Whitney said. "There are a lot of questions that we have yet to be answered."
Meanwhile, back at Saffron City, Will was busy questioning many of his fellow workers, none of which knew anything about Team Rocket's information. Will became frustrated and went to his boss.
"Do you know anything about the information that Team Rocket had stored on these computers?" Will asked.
"No, I don't," the boss said.
"Are you sure no one else besides us workers has been in this building?" Will asked.
"Besides the police when they made sure the building was safe to work in- it's been just you workers," the boss said.
"Okay," Will said. "I would know if people are lying, and they aren't, and neither are you. I don't understand it."
Will went back home to see Sabrina that afternoon, telling her about this information.
"And they were all telling the truth?" Sabrina asked.
"Yes, as far as I could tell," Will said.
"Something's not right," Sabrina said. "I also think that the Anti-Silph Scope you mentioned may have been used."
"Why is that?" Will asked.
"Last night, I was thrown to the ground by an invisible force while exploring the disaster at Mahogany Town," Sabrina said. "I should have fought it, but I decided just to teleport away."
"You think someone used that Anti-Silph Scope to turn himself into a ghost?" Will asked.
"Yes, and I think it was Blaine of Cinnabar Island," Sabrina said.
"How could we catch Blaine?" Will asked.
"That's the thing I'm still trying to figure out," Sabrina said.
At Indigo Plateau, the Elite met together to try to figure out what to do about the Mahogany Town situation.
"What do you think we should do to help?" Giselle asked the other Elite.
"I don't know, why don't you figure it out, Miss Expert?" asked Lance.
"Come on, Lance, a town got basically wiped off the map of Johto," Lorelei said. "This is no time for arguing."
The others gave no response to Giselle.
"I guess it's up to me, then," she said. "I think that we need to catch whoever is responsible for this and bring them to justice. After all, we are powerful enough to stop them."
"Stop who?" Bruno asked.
"Whoever caused this," Giselle said.
"Exactly my point," Bruno said. "We have no idea. We can't go into battle if we don't even know our opponent."
"Does anyone know who bombed Mahogany Town?" Giselle asked.
"No," Karen said. "Even the people who inspected the explosions found no one there… there's no way of knowing who did it."
"Maybe we should just go there and explore ourselves," Giselle said.
"You go ahead and do that," Lance said. "We're not risking our lives."
"Some Elite you are," Giselle said. "Isn't the job of the Elite to keep the Pokémon League under control?"
"The job of the Elite has nothing to do with putting ourselves in harm's way," Lance said.
"I think it's better that we don't go out there just yet," Lorelei said. "I think some facts will come out eventually if we wait a little while."
"Okay…" Giselle said.
After the Elite meeting, Giselle went back to her room, finding a video message from Joe.
"Roxanne gave the class a pop quiz, and the entire class failed," Joe said. "I got the worst score in the class, so she decided to make fun of me in front of the whole class."
"That's it!" Giselle said, after watching the message. She called up Pokémon Tech from her apartment.
"How can I help you?" a secretary said.
"This is Giselle," Giselle said.
"Giselle! Our star student who has brought fame to Pokémon Tech by winning the Pokémon League championship!" the secretary said.
"That's right," Giselle said, giggling. "Now please, put me on the phone with the dean of Pokémon Tech."
"Right away," the secretary said.
The dean came on the video screen.
"Giselle! It's so good to see you," the dean said.
"I have something to talk to you about," Giselle said.
"What is it?" the dean asked.
"It's about a teacher at your school, who I have heard reports of her bringing down the quality of the teaching at Pokémon Tech," Giselle said. "Her name is Roxanne."
"Roxanne?" the dean said. "You're joking, right?"
"No, I'm not," Giselle said. "My boyfriend Joe-"
"He was here yesterday," the dean said.
"That's right," Giselle said. "And he's been publicly humiliated by Roxanne, and she's also been promising to fail at least half the class."
"I don't believe it," the dean said.
"Well, it's true," Giselle said.
"No, I mean, I really don't believe it," the dean said. "Roxanne is a very high quality teacher, and she would never do things like this. If this is a joke, it's not a very funny one, Giselle. I'm sorry, but Roxanne is not being fired or punished."
"What?!" Giselle said. "How dare you not listen to the Pokémon League champion!"
"What rights does that title give you?" the dean said. "Not the rights to tell Pokémon Tech what to do. I'm sorry, Giselle, but I have something to do. Good-bye."
The dean hung up on a furious Giselle.
"Joe wouldn't lie to me," Giselle said. "There's something wrong with this school. It's gone downhill fast. What can I do to help Joe?"