Hello, all!
Sorry for the pause, writer's block always seems to strike at the WORST times.
I hope all of you will enjoy this chapter, because I know I had fun writing it! :)
"You ready to see Claire again, Pikachu?" Ash asked his friend two days later. They were setting a moderate pace in the direction of the city's Gym.
"Pika!" the Pokemon said from his Trainer's shoulder.
"So Claire is the leader of the Blackthorn City Gym, huh?" Raelin asked. "What kind of Pokemon does she use?"
"Dragon type," said Brock, "and tough to beat, too."
"Hm. Maybe I could challenge her," she mumbled, glancing at her partner. "My team and I could use some practice."
"Not much, from what I've seen," said Gary. He was walking ahead of her, in the middle of the group, and glanced behind at her when he finished speaking. It was an obvious sort of compliment, one he hoped would get through to the stubborn girl. A corner of her mouth turned up a little, but her eyebrows pulled together in an expression of confusion. He looked ahead again, not allowing her to see the brief smile on his face. He tuned out his friends' conversation, thinking hard.
It was true that he flirted with a lot of girls. They just sort of naturally flocked to him-he'd even spent a portion of his journey with a gaggle of cheerleaders following him around. That had been what, a year ago? Two? He shook his head with an almost self-admiring smile.
The thing was, he really did like this girl, no matter how many times she threw sarcastic remarks at him. Maybe that was what he liked-after all, he'd never had much of a conversation with those other girls. Maybe it was his own wishful thinking, but he thought she liked him the way he liked her. Then again, girls were hard to figure out at any given time-
He was abruptly shaken out of his thoughts by their arrival at Claire's Gym. Ash called out, "Hello? Is Claire here?"
The door of the Gym opened, revealing a young man with messy red hair and worried hazel eyes. "Yes?" he asked, frowning at them.
Ash stepped to the front of the group. "Hi. My name's Ash Ketchum. My friends and I are here to see Claire."
"I'm sorry, but Miss Claire doesn't have time for any battles at the moment. You'll have to come back later if you want a badge." He started to close the door, but Ash spoke up quickly.
"Oh, I'm not looking for a Gym match. We're old friends." He smiled, but the man at the door only seemed more jittery.
"We're about to close the Gym. No matches today. Sorry." With that, he shut the door in their faces. not seeming sorry at all.
"Hey, wait a second!" Ash tugged at the handle, but wasn't able to open the door again. He turned to look at his friends and made a face. "That was...weird."
"No kidding," said Raelin, crossing her arms over her chest. The corners of her mouth turned down-Gary could tell she'd been looking forward to the match.
"Why'd he say that they're closing the Gym?" he wondered. "It's not even noon. Something must be going on."
"Let's head back into town and ask around," Misty suggested.
When they arrived back in town, all of the stores seemed to be closed up. There were no people on the sidewalks and nothing stirred in the trees.
"I don't understand." Ash stared around at the abandoned streets. "There were people here just this morning."
"Something weird is definitely going on," said Gary, jumping down from the stoop of one of the houses. "No one's even answering the door."
"Let's go to the Pokemon Center. Maybe Nurse Joy will know what's going on."
Lucky for them, the Center was still open. "Hello?" Ash called as they group walked in. There was a small crowd of Trainers cluttering the lobby, most of whom were looking around anxiously. Ash glanced at them before walking up to the counter. "Hi, Nurse Joy."
"Hello," she greeted them. "I'll be with you in just a moment." She turned back to the other Trainer standing by the counter. "I'm really very sorry for the inconvenience, but there's nothing much I can do until the police find any more clues."
"So they still have no idea who's behind the kidnappings?" the boy asked, and the Poliwag in his arms trilled worriedly.
"Kidnappings?" Ash whispered to his friends, who simply shrugged or looked confused.
"Unfortunately, no. I assume you heard the warnings though?"
"Yeah. I wanted to get Poliwag checked out though. It got pretty worn out from a battle earlier. Think you could take care of it?"
"Of course." The boy returned the Poliwag to its pokeball and handed it over with the rest. As he moved away with a 'thank you', Ash took his place at the counter.
"Hi, Nurse Joy. Did I just hear something about a kidnapping?"
"Oh. I assumed everyone would already know..." She seemed a little uncertain, as if she thought they were trying to trick her.
"We're from out of town," he explained.
"Oh. Well, I'm not really supposed to say anything, but since you are visiting here, you should probably know..." She paused for a moment, like she was trying to choose her words carefully. At last she said, in a bit of a rush, "A few days ago, a boy disappeared from a nearby town. And this morning, a couple discovered their five-year-old daughter had been taken in the park while their backs were turned. The police are sure the two disappearances are related. And they're pretty sure both were taken by force."
"Oh." Ash blinked. "So that's why everything's quiet around here." It wasn't a question, but Nurse Joy answered anyway.
"Yes. Everyone's been advised to either stay home for now or stay here at the Center. At least until the police can find any clues as to who's behind this. And I suggest you all do the same." She frowned, clearly feeling that she'd said too much. "Do your Pokemon need resting?"
"Um, no, they're fine. Thank you." He smiled at Nurse Joy and motioned to the others. The group moved out of earshot of the pink-haired nurse.
"Kidnappings?" repeated Misty nervously as the five huddled together.
"That does explain all the weird behavior this morning," Gary mused quietly.
"What about Claire not being available?" Brock asked.
"Maybe she's somehow involved in the investigation?"
After a short pause, Ash piped up with a curious, "Well?"
"Well what?" Misty responded, not in the mood to try and decipher another one of her friend's schemes.
"What do you guys say, should we do a little investigating of our own?" he asked, looking around at them.
"Ash, I don't know. I mean, this seems like something the police should handle, doesn't it?"
"Oh, come one. We've done this sort of thing before!"
"He's got a point," Brock muttered. "Plus, I bet it'll impress Nurse Joy!" he added, which earned him a glare from the redhead.
"You're supposed to be the mature one!" she reprimanded, but nevertheless gave a very slight nod to Ash, who grinned.
"I know I'm gonna regret this," sighed Gary. "It's a dumb idea," he told Ash, who gave him a look that said 'shut up', and he continued, "But I'm in."
"I'm game for a little adventure," Raelin said. Ember gave a half-growl, half-bark of approval.
Ash pumped his fist in the air. "Then let's do it!"
Gary held up a hand. "If you make us do that 'all in' handshake thing, I swear I'll hit you."
Raelin held back a laugh. This was going to be an interesting day.
Anika skipped down the path, excited. She turned and walked backwards for a moment, calling to her friend. "Come on, Pidgeot!"
"Pidge, pidgeot!" the bird Pokemon trilled, hopping quickly up to her.
"Nah, we don't need to go all the way back. We just need to tell Cameron and then he'll come up with a plan. You know him, he likes to take charge and impress."
"Pidgeot-ot!" it chuckled in agreement.
Ten minutes of walking later, they had arrived at their destination.
From the exterior, it appeared to be an ordinary house. The three levels were painted in two different shades of yellow and trimmed with white. Flower boxes rested on the windowsills, filled with an assortment of the aromatic plants. The wooden gate creaked as she opened it and stepped onto the pathway. A fountain stood a few feet from one of the first-level windows, adding a bubbling music to the quiet summer day.
Anika knocked on the painted door three times. After a minute of waiting, the door opened to reveal a girl with chin length green hair dressed in jeans and a lavender T-shirt. She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose, grey eyes scrutinizing the girl on the doorstep with familiarity. "Hey, Anika. You're back already?"
"Well, I was already in the area-sort of. Why are you here, Janet? I thought you and your partner were supposed to be over in the Hoenn region."
"Jackson and I got a call from the base about a week ago," the girl said, leaning against the door frame. "Something about a runaway herd of Tauros. Like we have nothing better to do than to chase down those things again." She shook her head once. "Anyway, I assume you came here to meet up with Cameron?"
Anika nodded, stepping across the doorway into the cool interior of the house. "Yeah. I found something really cool and wanted to show him."
Janet cocked an eyebrow, not quite sure about her friend's intentions. "Well, it better be something good. He's upstairs in the computer room and I'm sure he doesn't want to be bothered."
"Oh, he's always working at the computer. He'll just have to take a little break, that's all!" Anika chirped, bouncing up the stairs. Pidgeot followed suit. Janet stared after them and then walked away, shaking her head.
The third floor hallway branched off in several parts, but Anika headed straight. She knocked on the door that was at the end of the corridor, but didn't bother to wait for Cameron's okay-she knew he wouldn't give one anyway. She swung the door open with a cheery greeting. "Hey, Cameron!" The sound of typing was the only response she got as she closed the door. "You'll never guess what happened today!" she sang, dancing around stacks of textbooks and papers.
"You actually shut up for more than three seconds?" Cameron asked sarcastically, not taking his eyes from the screen. He tapped out another sentence.
She rolled her eyes. "Nope! Something better!"
"It had better be good, because you're interrupting some important research."
"Janet already told me...Hey, is that stuff for our mission?" She peered over his shoulder and then reached for the notebook sitting on the desk.
Cameron spun his chair around and snatched the notebook from her hands. "If you don't tell me what you're going on about in the next three seconds, I'm going to set my Haunter on you." His violet eyes glared at her icily from under a shock of sand-colored hair.
"Okay, okay! Arceus, you're impatient!" she huffed. She brushed a wavy auburn tendril out of her face and took a breath to make things dramatic. "You remember that girl that escaped months ago? The one who was involved with Project 76?"
He grimaced in what seemed to be annoyance. "The one with a serious attitude problem? Yeah. What about her?"
"I saw her at the park a few days ago!"
Cameron glared. "Oh please, Anika. If you're going to try and make up stories, at least make them believable."
"But I saw her!" She threw her hands up in exasperation, as if that would confirm her story.
"I'm sure you did." His voice was patronizing.
"Jessie and James were there, too."
"They show up everywhere. And besides, we've got people looking for her already."
"Yeah, in the wrong region," Anika retorted. Cameron gave an annoyed grunt and swiveled his chair around to view the computer. She bit her lip for a moment and then blurted, "She had a Mightyena with her. She called it Ember."
His hands froze on the keyboard. He turned his chair half-way around, frowning. "That wasn't on the description they gave us." Anika nodded enthusiastically, hair bouncing. He looked her up and down, eyes narrow. "All right, fine. What exactly did she look like?" The paper had described the escapee simply so he'd know if she was just quoting from it.
"She had really long black hair, straight down to her waist. She had tan-ish skin and really cool green eyes-like, the kind of green that's really deep and bright at the same time. She was wearing a black T-shirt, sneakers, and jeans, just like that paper said, but the mark was below her left eye, not her right. And get this-she had the aura. Can you believe it? Like, it glowed and everything! And when her Mightyena used Hidden Power, it had an aura too! And they matched...it was so cool, just like out of those stories they used to tell us about the other projects. It was this really pretty gold and green. Do you suppose-"
"Anika? Shut up."
Her mouth snapped shut and she viewed Cameron with confusion. He looked as if someone had just poured a bucket of ice water over him.
Although he'd tried to appear calm and collected, internally he was panicking. It couldn't be...I intentionally gave out false info on that paper so I'd know, but it sounded exactly like her...If she's really still out there, if she's really still alive after that explosion near her house...Her own brother barely survived, and he was farther away... He shook his head wearily. "All right," he said tiredly, purple eyes narrowed in thought. "You saw her. But what am I supposed to do with that information?"
"Well..." It was clear Anika hadn't thought past this moment. After several long seconds of silence, she piped up with, "What if we find her and take her back to the boss? Maybe she'll rejoin us and-"
"And what?" Cameron asked, voice going cold. "We'll have a tea party and talk about the 'good old days'? I don't think so."
"But Cameron!" she whined. "She seemed so low-level, like she didn't even know how to use her powers. If we brought her back to the base, she could learn from the best and join the team again!"
"Or run away again and expose the whole project," he muttered under his breath. "I guess we don't really know what her intentions were, and the boss did say there's a big reward in store for anyone who finds her..." He studied the humming machine in the corner of the room. "Well, that wouldn't be too bad. And it would be nice to catch up with her." His grin made it clear he wasn't talking about a friendly chat. "I'll give the boss a call." He swung the chair around and pressed a button on the keyboard. The red letters 'TR' appeared against a black backdrop. "Oh, you can go," he said with a careless glance back at her.
"But...shouldn't I tell the boss the info I have?"
"No need. I'll give him all the information." He grinned nastily, speaking to her as if she were five. "You just run along and play with Janet, okay?"
"But Cameron-"
"Out. Oh, hello, Cassidy," he greeted the girl who had popped up. "Is the boss in?"
"Well, yes, but-" A crash in the background, followed by a male voice saying "oops" made her wince. She turned from the screen. "Botch, you idiot!"
"It's Butch!"
"Whatever." She looked back at Cameron. "He won't be in a good mood."
"He will after this." He smiled conspiratorially. "Connect me through."
Anika closed the door harder than usual, letting out a small 'hmph' as she did so.
"Pidgeot, Pidgeot-oo," her Pokemon grumbled, clearly annoyed with her partner.
"Don't worry, Pidgeot," she said, patting its head. "I know Cameron and he'll still let us come along. Besides, I have a ton of ideas on how to get that girl to come back to the team." She grinned. "Now, let's get something to eat-I'm starved!"
If I haven't said so before, thank you to everyone who reads and enjoys my stories. I really appreciate feedback, even if it's just a simple 'good chapter'.
(Also, why do I love writing mean characters? I don't know...)
I only own Raelin, Anika, Janet, and Cameron.
Peace!
~DarkBloodbender937