Hidden In Shadows Part 5~ Phone Call

((Joyful Note: Huh. This chapter is shorter than I thought. Oh well, I'm still editing these rather than writing them, but that won't last for too much longer I don't think. Oh well. Then I have to actually think up stuff for this again. I wonder if I should actually continue after this season or go on with the next two I'd planned out... well we'll see how I feel after finishing this one off I guess. Cheers.))

Amy was talking rapidly to Jesse and Cail, explaining all about Professor Oak and his apparent wish to see his grandson and his girlfriend dead via sending them on a dangerous mission in Orre and everything about her Pokémon adventure up to this point as Gary was explaining their current situation to his grandfather over the Phenac Pokémon Center video phone. Amy had already gotten her Pokémon safely into her pockets. Gary kept his shadow Pokémon, except for Skiploom. He traded that to Prof. Oak for Socrates, since the professor wanted a Shadow Pokémon to study. Oh, and the rodent twins had run off into the city to explore. Gary secretly hoped they'd stay away, they were seriously annoying, and maybe just the slightest bit creepy.

"Wait, so, you witnessed the expulsion of inter-dimensional beings from their world into ours and saved our entire world, yet you couldn't come in first in the Pokémon League?" Cail said, raising an eyebrow. Amy glared.

"Okay one, I came in fourth! That is very hard thank-you-very-much! And two, we didn't exactly save the world, Blaine did in the end," Amy said huffily.

"And you saw a pretty much pure evil Pokémon escape from the head of Team Rocket, and have yet to alert any authorities what so ever?"Jesse said twitching.

"Well… yes… but I'm sure it'll be fine!" Amy said grinning a little too widely with a small sweat drop working its way down her forehead.

"Uh-huh," Jesse and Cail said together, both seeming slightly confused at Amy's rapid fire story-telling and her apparent following of cosmic events.

Gary meanwhile was still talking to Prof. Oak.

"So you send us where Amy is in the most danger! I am going to-"

"Now Gary, before you get into a rant, have you seen your other set of grandparents yet? You do remember that's what you were sent out to do in the first place right?" his grandfather said kindly. Gary blinked.

"Um…," he rubbed his forehead, "Well STILL… You have to send reinforcements or something! Amy wants to find her father herself for crying out loud! And... when were we supposed to visit Agate anyway? The second we get here Amy was captured, we only just saved her and got back together again!"

"Oh, well I'm sure you'll do fine! You're all 16 and 17, ten-year-olds have saved the world before! You can surely save a kidnapped man! Toodle-loo!" Prof. Oak said hanging up. Gary hung up the phone, grimacing, full of sweat drops, and twitching like mad. He whirled around, still with the same face.

"WELL! Off to Agate Town I guess," he said, looking extremely irritated.

"What, that Senior's Center? Forget it," Cail said rolling his eyes.

"Well my grandparents are there! Apparently they have something to say to me or something. So Amy, let's go," Gary said, rising. Amy looked surprised.

"What, right now? Sure we've rested a bit and eaten, but-"

"Okay but what if Cipher comes back? I think if we're going to investigate this, it's best to stay on the move don't you?" Gary grinned. Amy cocked her head to one side.

"That's… actually a good point Gary. Huh. Okay I agree then. Jesse, let's go-"

Gary snapped, "What? Why is he coming?"

"Well Cipher's after him too aren't they? If we have to keep moving so does he!" Amy growled. Jesse raised his hand.

"Um, if I'm a problem I don't mind staying he-"

"SHUT UP KID!" Gary roared. Jesse leaned back away from him. Cail shook his head.

"Gare, you need to seriously chill out."

"Yeah! Leave Jesse alone!" Amy shouted.

"You too Aims, both of you are seriously in cat fight mode and need to relax," Cail said rising to his feet. "If you ask me, Jesse could just stay here with his cousin. Heck, I'll even stay here too if it would make you feel better about it. I could stand it for a while; this is a nice place if I get free room and board. You can go see your grandparents, come back, and then you can take Jesse out of the region."

"That sounds… reasonable," Jesse sighed, "I wish I didn't have to be protected. If I still had my Pokémon at least I could be of some use, right now I feel more like a burden."

"You had Pokémon Jesse?" Amy asked, surprised.

Jesse smirked. "Well of course. You didn't think I came all the way to Orre by myself with no protection did you? But… Cipher took all my Pokémon. They turned them into Shadow Pokémon and shipped them out."

"What!" Amy said, startled, "Well, what did you have? We'll look for them!"

Jesse lowered his head. "It wouldn't matter if you did, they wouldn't know me. They wouldn't be the same."

"Even so…" Amy began but Jesse shook her head.

"No. Don't get distracted, you'll have your hands full saving your father without worrying about me."

Gary grinned. "Yeah Amy, he's right! Come on, we should get going. After we see my grandparents, well, who knows? Maybe what he has to say involves the Shadow Pokémon! So let's go!" Gary said grabbing Amy's hand and pulling her to her feet as well. Cail helped up Jesse and consented to hold his wrist to lead him back to Justy's.

Amy hesitated though. "I think we should at least go back to the Pre-Gym to make sure they'll be okay."

"Amy!" Gary whined but she was determined. They headed back to the pre-gym together. Justy seemed to have been busy.

"Jesse! Okay, come, follow me! Oh right, hang on," Justy said jumping over the variety of objects all over the floor and leading Jesse back to the center.

"Justy? What are you doing?" Jesse asked, stumbling over a fire truck on the ground.

"I think if we train you like this you'll be able to get around easily without seeing! I can get you a cane, and maybe a seeing eye Growlith, it'll be great!" Justy said happily.

"Well, that might be fun to watch anyway…" Cail said with a smirk and a chuckle. Amy glared.

"Hey! You can't just-"

"No Amy, it's a good idea, I guess. Besides, I should do something while you're gone," Jesse smiled reassuringly.

"Well… alright," Amy said, still seeming unsure. At Gary's urging, he managed to get her away from them, out through town again, past the fountain. (The little boy with the Castfoam looked scared and ducked behind the fountain as they passed, to Amy's confusion.)

At the motorcycle Amy jumped into the passenger car. Plusle and Minin appeared again and leapt into the car with her. They shrieked in delight and Gary groaned. Suddenly a thought occurred to her. "Um, Gary, where did you get a motorcycle anyway?"

"Oh, you're dad said I could use his," Gary said, revving the engine.

Amy looked at Gary in surprise. "My dad?" she faced the front. "I didn't know he had a motorcycle… I never saw him with one anyway." Gary didn't hear her over the motorcycle however, and quickly sped away from the oasis town, over the sand.

"I'M GOING TO STOP IN PYRITE REALLY QUICK TO REFUEL; DUKING CAN HOPEFULLY TAKE THESE THINGS BACK!" Gary yelled over the roaring wind, indicating the Plusle and Minin squealing in glee at the speed. Amy sighed. At least on a motorcycle Gary couldn't talk very long without going hoarse. She hoped her father was okay and this detour would help rather than hinder their quest to find him.

In Pyrite, they quickly refuelled. Duking served as something of a bodyguard. He said Amy looked just like her mom and basically left no opportunity for Gary to press the little cheering rodents back on the bulky body builder.

While Amy was politely listening to Duking reminisce, Gary was wandering around Duking's office. At the back he spied a bookshelf with a small button next to it. Not to be one to miss out on doing things he probably shouldn't, he pushed it. To his shock, the bookcase slide back revealing a set of stairs leading down. This part didn't surprise him so much as the fact that Amy and Duking seemed not to have noticed at all, despite Plusle and Minin shrieking in glee. He walked down the stairs and found himself in a small cave, with a little boy and girl gathered around a computer.

Suddenly, the little girl turned and saw Gary, letting out a yelp. "What are you doing down here?"

"Huh?" the little boy turned as well, "Yeah! This is a private club! Kids only! Aw, fine you can stay," he sighed.

"Um, right," Gary said raising an eyebrow, seeing the screen of the computer had a webcam shot of a group of boys in a dark room. "What are you kids doing anyway?"

"Oh, you want to see?" the little girl said happily dragging Gary by the arm to the computer, "This is Net and the other kids from The Under."

"The Under? I thought that was just a rumour."

The boy shook his head. "No, it's real but Cipher's been getting it wiped off the map. They took it over completely, the kids from the Under are in hiding right now, sending messages up to us. So far, Net's been able to hack into Cipher's database and got a partial list of all the Shadow Pokémon they made, right Net?"

"Sure did," the boy on the computer screen grinned, "Hey, are you fighting Cipher?" he asked Gary.

"Uh, I suppose. Actually, I'm more focused on saving my girlfriend's father, he was kidnapped by Snag'em," Gary replied.

Net seemed to be thinking. "I know Snag'em does business with Cipher but other than that I don't know much about them. I would think that Cipher would have some files on them, if you want I could do some hacking. Come back in about a day or two and I'll tell you what I find out."

Gary raised his eyebrows. "Oh, okay, thanks!" he said in mild surprise. Then he headed out of the cave room just as Amy was shaking off Duking.

"Yes Duking, I would love to hear more about my mother's 'way' with Plusle and Minin, but we really have to be going, right Gary?" Amy said grinning at Gary with noticeable sweat drops.

"Oh, yeah she's right Duking, but we'll be back in a couple of days okay?" Gary said snaking an arm around Amy's waist and the two said final goodbyes to Duking before the two headed out to the motorcycle again… with Plusle and Minin cackling gleefully from Gary's shoulders.

"Uh, you know Gary," Amy said uncomfortably as they got on the motorcycle, "originally I thought those two were just annoying, but they now seem a little… creepy…"

"Yeah, but Duking seems to be avoiding taking them back. Anyway, they haven't done anything that bad yet, and they're fair in battle I guess, so we're keeping them for now."

"Yeah, we don't seem to have much choice," she said looking closely at Plusle who flashed her an evil looking smirk and then squealed, hugging Gary's head. "Erm…" Amy looked a bit freaked as Gary revved the engine and took off onto the sand again.