Chapter 16: The Crack Of The Whip
Pandabot: Wow. It's been waaaay too long since I posted on here. Sorry y'all. However, Peppy and I are back again after some pretty horrendous computer issues stalled any writing. So read, (hopefully) enjoy and, if you want, leave a review. They really do keep us writing.
Two weeks later
"Sir? One of the lower ranks wishes to speak with you. He says it's important"
Sazo raised his head, brushing his black hair away from his gaunt face; his intense grey eyes locked onto those of one of his bodyguards. In the darkened room, lit only by a small wall lamp, the youth looked almost demonic, his eyes glinting through the gloom.
"Is that so? And what, may I ask, is so important?" he said quietly, the usual smooth voice holding unmistakeable menace. Combined with the demonic visage of Sazo, the bodyguard was barely able to repress a shiver; sometimes he forgot how scary the teen could be.
"I don't know, sir. He says he will only speak to you. He says it's about..." the burly man paused, clasping the door shut behind him and lowering his voice, "He says it's about the fugitives". Sazo eyed the bodyguard carefully,
"...Perhaps we should hear what he has to say" he said slowly. The bodyguard nodded then turned to go; he paused with a hand on the door,
"Sir? We?". Sazo smirked, reaching out of sight behind his desk,
"Oh, yes. He may need a bodyguard" he said, a clear threat in his voice.
(Line Break)
Once the man had sat himself comfortably before the desk, settling into the plush seat with a sigh, Sazo pulled out a knife casually and began to spin it on the desk. His eyes never left the Rank Four Rocket's as he spun the knife over and over.
"So," he began with a small smirk, "what is so important that a grunt like yourself must see me in person?". Though the words were polite enough, the Rocket had enough experience in the organisation to recognise a clear threat; This had better be worth it. He didn't waste any words,
"I have some information about the two newest fugitives, the ones who escaped from the Slowpoke Well operation". Sazo narrowed his eyes, continually spinning the knife,
"Go on". The man sat forward, resting his elbows on the arms of his seat,
"I don't know where they are. But we don't need to know that; I know where they're from. We can get hold of any family or friends and blackmail them" he said in a rush, eyes flicking between the knife and Sazo's face. The knife stopped, pointed threateningly at the man,
"And where would that be?" Sazo asked smoothly.
"New Bark Town". Sazo frowned,
"Interesting..." he mused, spinning the knife again. The man spoke up bravely,
"It has no trainers to speak of and it will be easy to-"
"And what of Mount Silver?" Sazo snapped angrily, the knife suddenly clutched in his hand, knuckles white around the hilt. The man froze, choosing his words carefully,
"Sir, it has been years. I don't think that it will still be there". Sazo raised an eyebrow, glaring at the cringing man,
"I do not care for your opinion, you worm. Get out of my sight" he said angrily. The man scrambled to his feet and hastily stepped out of the door with a rushed bow. The door slammed behind him, leaving Sazo alone with his bodyguard. Sazo broke the silence, sliding the knife back into his desk drawer,
"Ensure that Mr. Takeshi obtains his just reward" he said tiredly. The bodyguard nodded,
"The usual, sir?". Sazo seemed to consider the question for a long second,
"No, I think we can make a little event out of this. We can try to flush Blue out and if he doesn't bite, Takeshi will be no loss"
"Yes, sir". The bodyguard slipped from the room, moving deceptively quietly for such a large man, leaving Sazo alone again. He began to drum his fingers on the desk,
I'm coming for you, boy.
(Line Break)
"Bayleef! Use Razor Leaf!"
"Noctowl, blow it back with Gust!"
The commands echoed over the empty slate expanse, bounding over the grey rocks and sweeping back to the battlers like the wind that erupted from JT's newly evolved Noctowl. The owl pokemon flapped rapidly, the concentrated gust of wind scattered the storm of leaves that had been fired in his direction by Lyra's stauch grass-type.
"Lyra, this is what we were talking about. Adapt" JT called, watching with a small smile as his Noctowl circled overhead, feathers ruffling in the light breeze. Lyra frowned for half a second, watching Noctowl's progress through the sky,
"Bayleef! Let's get under it and try a Stun Spore!". Almost as though she had been waiting for the command, Bayleef launched herself forward, pounding over the slate. She flicked her leaf upwards, sending a stream of glittering, orange particles towards the swooping Noctowl. JT smirked,
"Now! Air Slash!" he shouted, giving Lyra a triumphant look. The owl pokemon reared up, giving a powerful flap of it's wings with a strained cry; two scythes of wind erupted, cutting a path through the orange powder and slamming heavily into Bayleef's back. She gave a pained cry, losing her footing and crashing to the ground.
"Alright, that's enough". Noctowl swept out of the sky, coming to land next to JT as Lyra approached her pokemon; Bayleef had already gotten back to her feet and was looking apologetically in Lyra's direction. As Noctowl landed, JT once again marvelled at the size of his pokemon.
The over-large Hoothoot had not lost it's mutated size when it had evolved; now the teen only reached up to the wing joints of his pokemon, the large eyes peering over his head owlishly. He looked away as Lyra reached her Bayleef, patting her head gently and giving a few words of encouragement,
"That was better. You changed your angle of attack and forced us to go on the defensive. Much better" he called. Lyra glared over her Bayleef's back at him,
"And yet you still beat us easily. You said you were gonna train us, JT!" she yelled over the intervening space. JT raised an eyebrow at her outburst, moving away from his Noctowl's side to meet her,
"What do you think this is?" he asked her condescendingly. Lyra shook her head, her brown hair swinging about her face wildly,
"We aren't learning anything!" she snapped angrily; she knew she was taking out her frustrations on her friend but, frankly, she didn't care. JT's second eyebrow joined the other, raised in suprise,
"Not learning anything? Your pokemon are stronger than ever, you're battling intelligently. What more do you want?". Lyra turned away in frustration,
"I wanna beat you!" she cried out, throwing her hands into the air. JT reached out after her then dropped his hand before he could make contact,
"Lyra," he began, tilting his head, "I've been doing this ever since I got Zero. That's, like...three, four years ago? You've been doing this for two weeks. Be patient, you're making a lot of progress". Lyra huffed, keeping her back carefully turned to him as she refolded her arms angrily. JT watched her for a long second, clicking his tongue thoughtfully,
"I'm gonna go have a look around, give you some time to yourself" he said, turning away. He took Lyra's continued huffy silence as agreement, so he walked back to his Noctowl and returned him after giving him a pat.
"I'll be back later" he said simply, walking across the slate and disappearing almost immediately as he dropped onto a lower level.
Lyra gave an odd, angry noise, glancing at where JT's voice had last been; yes she was being childish. Yes she was treating her friend poorly, but she was just too frustrated to care; she had thought that she would immediately become some sort of master trainer after a bit of practice. She snorted now at her own naivety.
She caught her Bayleef giving her a reproachful look and threw her hands into the air with an incoherent annoyed cry. She stomped back up to the cave that she and JT had made their home, Bayleef following quietly in her wake.
(Line Break)
JT had been walking for a couple of hours, moving carefully in a sweeping perimeter around the cave that he and Lyra were currently inhabitating; he wasn't just giving her space, he was also making sure that there was no-one suspicious hanging around. However, careful as he had been, he had found nothing worth noting and had just decided to turn for home when he heard the faint sound of shouting voices.
He frowned, brain jumping immediately to the worst scenarios; a large group of Team Rocket trailing them, Sazo leading the group, whip in hand. He stood frozen for a second, thinking furiously, before he accepted the inevitable; he had to see who the voices belonged to, that was the whole point of this little excursion.
He slipped forward, crouched low as possible, finally crawling up to the edge of a small cliff in the slate and peering down. Below, the slate had all but disappeared, green grasslands sweeping up towards the distant city he could just about make out against the horizon. The grasslands below were occupied by numerous caravans and tents; people moved between the temporary buildings, some shouting instructions.
As JT watched a much larger tent was erected, yellow and red stripes decorating the top; a grin crossed his face. A circus!. He looked around for the pokemon acts, his sharp eyes quickly spotting a few brightly coloured shapes moving through the maze of tents and caravans. The group cleared the tents and JT was afforded his first view of a portly man, dressed rather extravagantly in a purple waistcoat over a black suit with a purple top hat on his head. In his hands, covered by white gloves, he carried a midnight blue cane and the other hand carried a silvery whip.
Trailing behind the colourful fellow were three pokemon, a Hypno, an Exeggutor and another pokemon that JT couldn't make out properly. Each was dressed in some form of hideously coloured outfit, the Hypno wearing an orange suit that clashed horribly with it's natural yellow colour. The Exeggutor, luckily enough, was less humanoid, so had managed to escape with just a tacky gold-coloured waistcoat; at least the colours didn't clash.
Looking at the last pokemon, JT had to begrudgingly approve of the clothing. A simple red bow perched on top of a blue body with a small red waistcoat; a simple outfit and a colour scheme that worked. The trainer led his pokemon to a small open area and directed the mystery pokemon (he was sure he had seen a pokemon very similar to it before) to stand around ten feet away from him; the other two pokemon took up places just behind the trainer.
"Come on now, Raven," the ringmaster's powerful voice, echoed easily up to JT's perch, "Let's see your acrobatic skills now!". 'Raven', the strange dog-like pokemon merely gave the colourful man a look before turning away and folding it's arms defiantly; JT frowned at it's behaviour.
His gaze moved to the trainer and he almost shouted a warning, barely managing to stifle himself; the ringmaster had drawn back the silvery whip with an angry grimace. A flash of silver, glinting in the mid-afternoon sun, and the small pokemon cried out in pain, falling to the floor. JT watched on, horrified but unable to look away, as the ringmaster stepped closer, drawing the whip back again.
"Get up, you useless creature" he snarled at the shaking pokemon. When it didn't move, he let the whip fly again, connecting with the collapsed pokemon. JT was just about to stand and unleash Zero on the cruel man when he saw the sheer amount of people working in and around the circus; he'd never get the pokemon and then get away and not lead the entire group back to Lyra.
He growled angrily, clutching the edge of the cliff until his knuckled turned white, promising himself that he would save the poor, abused pokemon tonight. Until then, he watched and waited.
(Line Break)
A stone bounced over the piles of slate, kicked by the restless foot of a stewing teenage girl as she stalked across the landscape. The blue, mouse-like pokemon waddling along in her wake looked the exact opposite of her trainer, a vacantly happy expression ever present on her face as her large, circular ears twitched this way and that.
Lyra huffed and puffed with her arms folded tightly over her chest; even after returning to the cave she called home, she had continued to stew over her apparent lack of progress, finally stalking out of the cave in an attempt to burn off her anger. Now she was just tired, sweaty and angry.
Her Marill froze, unnoticed by the teen, ears cocked and head tilted slightly. She bounced forward with a happy cry, tugging insistently on Lyra's skirt.
"What is it, Marill?" Lyra sighed, glancing down at her permanently happy pokemon. The water-type gave another happy cry, waddling happily to the left of the path that they had been following. Lyra closed her eyes, begging for patience, before she followed her pokemon off the beaten track (if any such thing existed in the slate wilderness).
As the pair moved, Lyra began to see sparse vegetation, all dead from the harsh sun, scattered across the slate pieces. She also noticed that the flat rocks were becoming more damaged and cracked, slowly edging towards the gravelly rocks of the hills. Finally, she was able to hear scratching sounds coming from up ahead; she crouched lower, peering over the edge of a sharp rise in the slate.
On the higher plateau, a dirty Eevee dug sadly at the roots of a dead plant; it looked like the kind of plant that carried the berries that pokemon loved, maybe a Pecha berry bush. Lyra's involuntary intake of breath at the sad state of the pokemon caused the Eevee to jump, crouching ready to take flight. It's deep brown eyes found Lyra's and it froze. After almost a minute of staring at each other, Lyra decided to risk speaking.
"Hey there," she said softly, soothingly, "You look hungry. Do you want some food?". The little brown dog-like pokemon stared suspiciously at her, still half-crouched. Lyra moved very slowly, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a sandwich she had tried to distract herself with earlier.
Under the Eevee's watchful gaze, she tore a chunk of bread from the sandwich and placed it gently halfway between the two. She then backed away, allowing the Eevee space to eat; the deep brown eyes never left her as it took cautious bites. Lyra tore off another piece when it was done, moving back to the edge and placing the bread a little closer to herself. This time the Eevee moved in and began to eat before Lyra could move away; she took this as a sign that she could stay where she was.
She repeated the same process a few more times, noticing that the Eevee occassionally glanced away the last two times that she fed it, leaving the pokemon comfortably within arm's reach. She placed her empty hand softly on the slate, allowing Eevee to see it before she slowly began to reach towards it. The pokemon froze, baring it's teeth; Lyra stopped her hand's movement, hovering awkwardly in place. She took a deep breath and began to move slowly again.
The Eevee watched fearfully as the hand moved closer, though it made no move to get away. Lyra paused with her hand centimetres away from the flank of the Eevee, reaching out with a finger to touch the pokemon's side.
It leapt off the ground in fright, dancing away out of arm's reach and sniffing at it's side where Lyra had made contact. After it had made sure that she hadn't hurt it, it cocked it's head at her, intelligent brown eyes searching her own curiously. It trotted confidently back into arm's reach, sitting down facing the girl, paws together primly.
Lyra almost laughed at the expression on it's face, unabated curiousity mixed with just a hint of confusion; she almost squealed at the cuteness of the little fox-like pokemon. She risked making more noise,
"You're a funny little one, aren't you?". Eevee cocked it's head at her voice, apparently deciding that it liked her voice, as it trotted over confidently and nudged her hand with it's wet nose.
"Why don't you come along with me and we'll get you some real food? Hm?" Lyra said, nudging her hand into it's nose gently. The Eevee gave a short, happy cry, bouncing on the spot.
"Alright then. Let's go" Lyra laughed as the Eevee leapt onto her shoulder, curling it's fluffy tail around her neck like a scarf. She had to deflect Marill as it jumped up, attempting to touch the Eevee, turning back towards the caves.
(Line Break)
"JT? Are you here?"
Lyra frowned as her voice echoed into the late afternoon without an answer; he should've been back by now. She stood in the entrance to their shared cave, staring thoughtfully out of the entrance; behind her, she could just about hear the snuffling of the Eevee as it searched curiously around the cave. Lyra ventured out of the cave, stepping across the slate to the elavated chunk that she had found on the second day; she trusted Bayleef to keep Eevee and Marill out of trouble.
There was no sign of him. The slate piece that she had chosen gave an unparalleled view of the slate wilderness so he was either miles away or hidden in a trench somewhere. She bit her lip, thinking.
She was going to have to go after him. He could be injured and unable to move, he could be lost.
He could be captured.
She turned and made her way back to the cave quickly, mentally going over the things she would need to take. As she came in sight of the cave entrance, she couldn't help but laugh at the sight that met her.
Her Bayleef had wrapped up the Eevee in her vines, lifting him from the ground and giving him a severe look. Dangling from the pokemon's mouth was a pair of shorts, ones that she recognised as being JT's borrowed clothes. Her laugh stopped abruptly as an idea jumped into her mind.
She approached and stole the clothes from Eevee's mouth; she held them up to the pokemon,
"Can you follow this smell?" she asked hopefully. The pokemon cocked it's head as Bayleef lowered him to the ground, responding to a look from Lyra. Almost as soon as he touched the ground, Eevee began to sniff around the entrance, following his nose in circles for a moment.
He turned away from the cave and began to head out into the wilderness, nose down, before he turned back to Lyra excitedly. She had ran into the cave and grabbed her pack, returning Marill in a rush.
She motioned to Bayleef to follow as she left, following Eevee as the pokemon followed his nose away from the cave.
[Ovidian Log K07:
K07 - It is only through pushing the boundaries that we can expand our minds. Only by going to places that the blinded cannot fathom can we bring ourselves forward.
Soon. Soon I will bring light to the blinded. Soon I will illuminate our world with my genius.]