***_-WARNING-_***

This chapter contains graphic content and may be over the rating of PG-13, though I don't think it is. Also, I might add that this chapter isn't as bad as the previous one in which I put a warning on.

Chapter 13

Death and Despair

We walked through the woods for the rest of the daylight. Arcanine didn't like it, but he did as he was told and carried Ricky on his back as he followed me.

The sun was just starting to set when I took off my book bag, throwing it on the ground beside a tree. "Lets make camp here." I said as I saw Arcanine slip Ricky off his back, almost like it hurt Arcanine to carry him. Ricky fell to the ground, landing beside my book bag, still out cold. When he hit the ground though, I heard something crunch in his book bag he was wearing, something metal. I wonder if I should see what it is, and if it's okay? I reached down to open his back pack, but then pulled back. "Eh, whatever it is, it's his. It's none of my business." I looked over at Arcanine. "Hey, Arcanine, can you help me?"

"Arf?" He tilted his head.

"Lets go get some fire wood, okay?"

"Pi, Pi?" Pichu climbed up on my shoulder.

"Yeah you can come too." I smiled. I turned my back to Ricky. The guy is knocked out cold. I guess leaving my stuff here would be okay. Even if he did wake up and decide to steal anything its not like he could get away, he doesn't even know where we are. We all walked away, into the dim lit woods that surrounded our camping area.

***_-Scene Change-_***

Richard was back at Mt. Silver. His clothes were covered in red stains, splatters that covered all over his white lab coat. Conner wasn't anywhere in sight, however. "He must have already left after Kyle again." Richard frowned. He held a disk in his hand, a copy of the video surveillance system, which had recorded the killings.

Richard walked over to Conner's throne, sitting down and bringing up a video phone on the massive monitor over the door. He plugged in a number as it rang.

"What is it?" Conner barked on the other end. "And why are you in MY chair?"

"Sir." Richard spoke. "I have done what you have requested, though I had to silence a witness as well."

"Really?" Conner asked surprised. "So the little lab rat found a backbone. What proof did you bring me?"

Richard held up the DVD disk so Conner could see it before he put it into a computer tray. "This is the surveillance tape, I thought it would suffice."

Shortly after Richard put the disk in a video started to play in the small corner of the monitor, one that was visible on both ends of the video conversation. Rickard fast-forwarded the disk, skipping to the part where he showed up. The camera was in the kitchen, and showed Richard walking Charles into the freezer, looking around and motioning for the cook to come in as well. It was silent for a few seconds and then a loud gun shot went off. The door to the freezer swung open as the cook ran out of there, but was quickly shot in the back as Richard walked up behind him. Blood shot from the bullet hole as the cook fell to the ground. Richard, standing over top of him at this point, then unloaded three more shots into the cook's back, at point blank range. After that Richard grabbed several large black garbage bags from a counter near by, and stuffed the cook's body into it. He then went into the freezer, then came out with another stuffed bag. He drug them both out of sight of the camera. He cleaned up his mess, putting the used rags into another bag and then walked out of the room. The camera position then changed as he took the bodies down the hall, gun drawn in all directions as he walked into the surveillance room. Then, the tape stopped.

"Hmm." Conner said, adjusting his white mask. "That does look like you killed the cook, but what about Charles? I didn't actually see him die."

Richard then held up a rocket uniform which had blood splattered all over it. "This is his shirt and hat. I shot him in the head, which scared the cook, so he ran. I couldn't get a good shot so it took several to get him."

"And what about the bodies?" Conner asked.

"After that I put them in my car and transported them to an abandoned meat packing company. They just closed down so the electric was still on. I used a saw to cut them up into chunks, grinded the pieces with meat grinder, put them in several plastic bags, poured concrete in them, and sunk them in the ocean half way between Johto and Kanto."

"Hmph." Conner smiled. "I might just make a respectable member of Team Rocket out of you, after all. Though, you were a little late with doing it, its already night."

"I had it done within 24 hours." Richard glared. "And I killed two people, double what you told me too."

"I guess I'll let that slide." Conner said, twisting his neck around as he popped it. "After all, it was your first time killing someone. I really hope you enjoyed it." He smiled. "Because I know I would have enjoyed killing your wife." Conner laughed loudly as Richard gritted his teeth. "But, it looks like I won't get the chance, this time. You did exactly what I wanted." He then looked away from the camera as he clicked it off.

Richard clicked off the video as he sat back, letting a smile cross his face. "That stupid fool fell for it."

***_-Scene Change-_***

We were lucky to find a spring near by. I took the opportunity to let Arcanine try to wade in the water as I dove down and collected several buckets full of scum and muck. I was actually kinda glad that I bought the Pokemart out now, those buckets really came in handy, as well as those item holders. I swam back up, draining out the water as I stored the slush into the holders. We had already collected several stacks of firewood so we were ready to head back to camp.

"You ready, bud?" I asked, looking over at Arcanine, who was splashing in the water.

"Arf!" He yipped.

"Alright." I said, pulling out another item holder as I sucked up the mass of firewood into one. "Lets get-"

"Hahahaha!" A loud, but blood curdling laugh echoed though the woods.

Arcanine and I stood still and listened as everything went quiet. Arcanine walked out from the creek, shaking off as he walked up beside me. "Rff." He nudged me, tilting his head up, motioning for me to get on.

"Yeah… right." I said, picking Pichu up in my arms as we climbed on to his back. Like a bullet, we shot through the woods, dodging trees, branches, stumps, roots, vines and everything else that was in our way. The wind was so intense that it was hurting my eyes. I wasn't use to going this fast, well I was, but that was on my bike, and it had a windshield.

I opened my eyes when I felt Arcanine come to a stop. We were back at our campsite. I hopped off his back as I looked around. It was strange; everything was quiet, too quiet. Every time I ever went camping in the woods, or even hiking, there were animals around, making noise, but now, it was silent. I walked a little further on, over to the large tree that I threw Ricky down at. Wait a minute! Ricky! I looked around; I saw his bag, my bag, but not him. Something is going on here… I walked around one side of the tree, stepping on a twig.

"Quiet!" I hear Ricky shuffle from the other side of the tree.

"Ricky, is that you?" I asked quietly.

"Yeah, now shut-up."

"What are you doing up?" I asked, walking around beside him. "You were out cold since you passed out in the bar." I lied. He had his back to the tree, peering around the corner of it, looking out at the forest in front of us.

"Great." Ricky said sarcastically as he began to relax. "I think you scared him off."

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "Scared who off?"

"Kyle, ever since Cherrygrove I had this feeling that we were being watched. About a minute ago I heard a loud laugh that woke me up, and then I saw a figure move in that bush." He then pointed over to a shrub that was about 100 or so feet away. "I went and hid behind this tree, and then you showed up. After that, I saw it dash into the woods."

Arcanine looked at him sternly. He snorted, blowing embers out of his nose. I just don't understand why he doesn't like Ricky. Is there something I'm not seeing? "Oh come on Ricky." I said. "We are in the middle of the woods, I'm sure you just saw a Scyther or something."

"And what about the laugh?" He turned to face me with a serious look on his face. "Does a pokemon make a laugh?"

"I heard it too, Ricky, and not only are we in the middle of the woods, we are also on a very popular trail on the Johto League Journey that every trainer in Johto takes. I'm sure we are not the only ones in the woods, and I'm also sure no one is following us. If they were, Arcanine could sniff them out." I walked over to him, placing Pichu on his back as I put a hand on his hairy head. "Aint' that right, boy?"

"Phff." He snorted again, looking at Ricky. What is up with him?

"Dude, seriously, you need to keep that thing on a leash."

"BU-AHAHA!" I laughed loud. "What? Do you really think a leash will hold Arcanine back?"

"No, I guess not." He said, looking at Arcanine as he starred him down. "But, man, it sure would make me feel better. I feel like his going to bite my head off when I'm asleep."

"Oh please." I chuckled. "As long as you don't give him a reason too, he won't hurt you."

"So…" Ricky said, changing the subject. "Where are we?"

"Well… let me see." I reached into my front jean pocket, pulling out the capsule for my bike. I pushed the button, threw it in front of me and waited for the smoke to clear before I checked the GPS. "We are about 10 miles outside of Ecruteak City on our way to Olivine."

"And how far away are we from Olivine?"

"Let me see." I clicked a few buttons, plugging in the coordination's to Olivine City. The GPS processed the information and then spoke in a very electronic voice.

"Current designation, set. Olivine City. Distance to designation is: 142 Miles and 283 feet."

"A hundred and forty two miles?" Ricky screamed.

"Yeah, so? What does that matter?" I asked as I began to dig out all the item holders in my jacket pockets.

"Well, sorry, Mr. 'Oh, I got a really cool bike that can go a bigillion miles an hour!'" He said sarcastically. "Unlike you, I actually have to ride on my pokemon, and they need breaks every now and then. Arrggg! That kind of a trip would take me a full day, at least."

"Well, I'll have you know I'm not going to be taking my bike." I said as I began to stack some of the firewood up into a little triangle shape.

"Really? Why not?"

"Well…" I stood back, letting Arcanine flamethrower the wood until it began to burn well. It was getting so dark now that Arcanine's flames were almost blinding to look at. "I realized that I have been more worried about the gym battles than I have been anything else."

"Isn't that good though?" Ricky asked as I put some bigger pieces of wood on the fire.

"Not really. Not when you consider that I haven't even trained my pokemon very much at all during this whole time."

"But come on! You're 'the pokem-"

I looked at him sternly.

"I mean," He corrected himself. "All your pokemon are so strong anyway, why would you need to train?"

"You're right." I said, putting a pot on and pouring it full of water from a canteen I had. "The majority of my pokemon are strong enough as is to take on the Elite Four, but I do have several that are not. I have some that I haven't even trained very much at all."

"Like who?" Ricky asked, not believing me.

"Like Pichu." I said motioning over to Pichu, who was now playing on the ground with Arcanine's tail. "Don't get me wrong, he's strong, but he's still not even close."

"Alright, so you got one." He said, watching me put some dried up jerky into the pot.

"There's more." I said. "Quilava needs training, and so does Scizors, Primeape, Magcargo, and Kabutops. They all need training if I'm going to use them in the league." I paused, taking a deep breath. "As well as Raticate." I looked into the pot of stew, stirring away as I thought of my lost friend. From there, my mind quickly wondered to my other friend, the one that I had lost almost seven months ago. "Shonna…"

***_-Scene Change-_***

Richard walked out of Mt. Silver through the cave exit, heading for his car that was parked a few hundred feet away from the entrance. He shoved through the bushes, making his way to the black ragtop that waited for him on the other side. He opened the door, hopping in as a voice arose from the back seat.

"Well?" Charles asked. He was in the back seat of the small car, sitting beside the chef.

"He fell for it." Richard said, starting up the car. "As of now you both are considered dead to Team Rocket."

"Vot vil ve do now?" The chef asked.

"The fall of Team Rocket is drawing near." Richard spoke calmly as he cut over to the road which lead to Mahogany Town. "Our forces in the resistance are gathering and growing. We are waiting for the time to be perfect before we strike out and revolt. Seeing as how you both are dead, I would recommend you laying low at our hide out, until the team falls."

"Thank you." Charles said as he turned his head to look out the window. "You risked the life of your wife and your own to save ours." He began to chuckle. "And you were quite crafty about it too. Having a gun loaded with red paint, as well as having the chef and I fall on a tomato for the blood splatter effect. That was very smart."

"I want to make something clear." Richard said, as he looked at them both in the rear view mirror. "You are dead, both of you. Keep that in mind, because if you make any mistakes, any at all, well, killing a dead man would be very easy. Get it?"

"Yeah…" Charles sighed.

"Good. Now, how about some tunes." Richard turned on the radio, tuning into the Professor Oak channel. "The trip will take a few hours, so I suggest you two try to get some sleep."

They drove on through the night, speeding down a dark highway.

***_-Scene Change-_***

After we all ate and packed everything up, we got ready for bed. Though we were in the woods there were enough open gaps in the trees overhead to show stars up above us. I laid in my sleeping watching as a star shot across the sky. "Heh." I smiled. If I could make a wish I already know what it would be. A thought of her face came over me. The moon in her eyes, glistening with the blue tint of their sapphire shade. She smiled, sitting on the dock with me the night that my Eevee evolved. "Shonna…" I spoke so softly. "I wonder if you are looking at the same stars I am tonight?"

"Hey." Ricky said, rolling out his sleeping bag on the other side of the open area we clamed as our campsite. "What are you talking about? You mentioned this Shonda person like 50 times. What's up?"

"Her name is Shonna." I said, rolling over. "And it's none of your business, is it?"

"Hey, I'm just trying to be a friend." He paused, then continued. "You know, if you need girl advice…"

"I don't think I need any of your advice." I grumbled. "I want to love her, not screw her."

"What's the fun in that?" He gasped. "I mean, why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?" When I didn't say anything he rolled over, facing the other way. "Sorry." He said. "So, what happened? If you love her so much, why did you leave her?"

"I didn't." I said, as I felt my heart skip a beat. "She left me. She left me and I was too stupid to follow after her."

"You want to tell me about it?"

"Sure." I took a breath as I dug out the sleeping pills from inside my jacket pocket. "We traveled together through all of Kanto. After I won the league she left, and I let her. After that, I have never seen her since." I stopped my story as I took one of the pills, swallowing it down without a drink of water.

"So, did ya get any?" He asked with a smile.

"Arg…" I groaned, rolling over. "Ricky, if you don't shut up with that I'm going to let Arcanine eat your head off while you sleep."

"Hahah!" He laughed. "You wouldn't do that! You're too soft!"

"Then why don't you try me?" I said in a dark voice, but I guess that sufficed, seeing as how that was the last words spoken that night.

***_-Scene Change-_***

For the next few weeks we made our way through the forest, fighting every pokemon and trainer we could find. Also, as an added bonus for me, I got to train with Articuno, that is, when Ricky wasn't around. That is, if you could call it training. All we ever did was talk, but she was very intellectual, and actually kinda fun to talk to.

Before long we did indeed make it out of the never-ending forest. Though time wasn't on our side, we still took our time and concentrated hard on our training. I could tell from our constant battling that everyone of my pokemon had grown several levels, reaching great heights in only a short time.

When we emerged outside of the forest we were beside a fence that ran around, what looked like, a dairy farm, or something like that. In half of the fenced off field there grazed Miltank, and in the other half, Tauros.

"Pi!" Pichu said as he climbed up on a fence post to look out at the herd. "Pi! Pi-chu!" He smiled happily as he pointed at a cow, looking back at me to make sure I was looking as well.

"Yeah, I see that." I said with a smile as I walked over to him. In a very quiet tone I spoke, "You better watch out though, they look mean."

"Pi?" He looked a near by Miltank grazing away. "Pi! Pi! Pi!" He laughed hard, hard enough to make him lose his balance on the post and fall. He hit the ground and rolled a little bit before bumping into something which made him stop. "Pi…" He said, rubbing his head from where he hit only to see that the thing he bumped into was a hoof. A sweat drop went over his head as he looked up at the large Miltank, who looked back at him. "Piiii!" He screamed in fear as he ran back for the fence, tears streaming from his eyes as he ran under the barbwire and hid behind my leg.

Ricky and I both laughed when this happened, making Pichu very embarrassed. "Hey bud." I said squatting down. "It's okay, that cow does look pretty mean. And just between you and me," I whispered. "I don't like cows either."

"What cha'll doin' on my property?" An older man on a Rapidash rode up to us on the other side of the fence. He had a stubbly beard, gray hair, and a lip full of chewing tobacco. "Well?" He demanded, spitting some of the juice out, making a few drops fall down on his plaid button up shirt.

"Well, Gramps," Ricky said in a smart-alic voice. "We're going to Olivine. How close are we?"

"Olivine!" The man questioned, then spat again. "Why ya'll goin' there for?"

"We are pokemon trainers." I said. "We have been in the forest for weeks and we are out of supplies. We need to get to the city."

"Pokamon train-a's, huh?" The man looked behind him, then back to us. "You gots pokamon ta ride?"

"Um…" I looked over to Ricky who shrugged. "Yeah… I guess."

The man turn to ride off with his Rapidash when he looked at us again. "Well, you comin'?"

"Oh yeah, sure." I scooped Pichu up in my arms as I released Arcanine on the ground. I hopped on him and looked at Ricky as he brought out his Dodrio. I nudged Arcanine's side with my foot, telling him to catch up to the Rapidash. When we were within ear shot the man began to speak again.

"Ya know, my son's a pokamon train-a."

"Really?" I asked. "Is he competing in the league this year?"

"Yep." He said, leading us over a hill. "As soon as he came back from Sinnoh he left, he didn't even stay to eat Stacy's dinner!"

"What was he doing in Sinnoh?" I asked.

"Yeah, its pretty far away for a little country bumpkin to go, isn't it?" Ricky smarted off.

"He done went up there to help his mother with some stuff."

"Wait." I started to think back to what he said about 'Stacy's dinner'. "If he went to go see his mother then who is Stacy? Is she your daughter?"

"Who, Stacy?" He looked shocked. "Naaah! She was my little lady that week."

"That week?" I asked surprised.

"That week?" Ricky also looked surprised, but in a different way. "Oh my God! I can't believe it! I have finally met someone like me!" He was so happy he looked like he was about to leap on the man. "Tell me, how many girls do you get in a month?"

"Well, lets see now." He put a finger to his chin. "I reckon last month I had me about 6 or 7."

"Does that include scoring?" Ricky looked at him intently.

"Oh, I thought that's was we were talking about. If not, then I suppose 10 or so."

"Oh brother." I said, rolling my eyes. Great, now there's two of them. "So where are we going?" I asked, changing the subject. "You never told us, you just said to follow you."

"Back to my place." He said with a smile as he spat out some juice from the tobacco. Arcanine walked around the clump of juice that almost hit his foot. "Yep, I reckon you should meet Alice. She's a right fine cook."

"Is she pretty?" Ricky asked.

"Aren't they all?" The man asked.

"So what's your name?" I asked, trying again to change the subject.

"I'm Trevor, but you can call me Trev."

"So, Trev," Ricky spoke up. "Are there any pretty girls around here?"

"Yeah, there's lots around the beach. But," he looked over at Ricky. "Supposedly my son found the prettiest girl alive in Sinnoh. She was workin' at some ol' dump of a daycare, or somethin' like that."

My eyes opened, listening to Trevor speak. He couldn't mean…

"Yep," Trevor continued. "He said he put the moves on her for months before she broke. Now this is him talkin', not me, but he said she told him that if he makes it to the Elite Four that she would go out with him."

"Do you happen to know her name?" I asked, making Arcanine ride up beside him.

"Humm… her name…" Trevor thought for a moment.

Please no, please no, please don't be…

"Shonna." He said. As he said this I felt my heart sink. I could feel the color run from my face, my skin turn pale. It was almost as if every drop of blood in my body had just spilled on the ground. "Yep!" He continued. "The prettiest ones are always the hardest to get in bed."

"Well," I glared at him as gritted my teeth, running Arcanine in front of both Trevor and Ricky, stopping them. "You tell your son that if I ever find out he laid one hand on that woman I will burn his face off." Trevor looked at me shocked. "And you better hope that I never run into him in the league, because I will give all of his party third degree burns."

"Boy!" The man yelled as he got off his Rapidash. "You better be prepared to back up those words, cause no one talks bout my son, Travis, like that."

"Back it up?" I laughed. "Trust me, I have enough fire power to set this entire ranch ablaze. One swiveled up ol' fart isn't going to do jack to me!"

"That's it!" Trevor called out. "You asked for it! Rapidash, use Flamethrower!"

Rapidash let out a small stream of fire at Arcanine, who easily dodged it. I tugged on Arcanine's fur as he used Extreme Speed to get up right on Rapidash, then he used bite, latching onto it's neck. The Rapidash cried out as Arcanine twisted his head, still latched onto Rapidash's neck, bringing it to the ground, knocked out.

"H-H-How, How did you…?" Trevor asked as he looked as his knocked out Rapidash.

"You tell your son to drop out now." I glared, looking at his shocked face. "Because if I ever see him I'll make him regret ever being a trainer." I spun Arcanine around as we ran down the hill to the edge of the ranch. Arcanine leaped the fence, Ricky right behind us, as we took a path that looked like it would lead into town.

"Dang!" Ricky said looking back at the ranch. "You really messed that Rapidash up!"

"He said his name was Travis, right?" I asked, thinking back to Goldenrod when I saw his face on the TV screen, when it showed outside of the daycare Shonna worked at.

"Yeah, why?"

I felt the anger build up inside me. The blood that had felt like it was on the ground only moments ago was now so hot it was like it was boiling inside me. So many things were running through my head. She never went on a date with me! I loved her! I thought she loved me. I though we had something. I would never treat her wrong, I would never hurt her, I would never try to 'get her in bed'. I love her, and then she goes after some stupid hick that only wants to screw her. I grit my teeth. "I'll kill him. That dick head is dead!"