A Reminiscence

Chapter Three

Hidden Memories

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The flight was greatly impressive, and I can honestly say that having never even flown before that time. We were not especially high up, due to the great danger of falling, but still travelling at great speeds towards our destination, Vermilion City, containing the S.S. Anne, and thus, eventually, Unova.

It was about midway through the journey, however, where things started to go downhill…or rather, just down. I was explaining some of the technology behind my translator to a rather uncaptivated audience, when I noticed that Bill's flight was beginning to approach the ground.

"Say, Bill, am I boring you?" I asked, somewhat cross.

"W-wha?" He stammered. "Oh, sorry…it's just that I've never flown for this long before. By all means, continue talki—" he suddenly fell completely asleep, and we started plummeting even faster, though he was still gliding somewhat, so we were not quite in free-fall. Anne started screaming, jolting awake Ralph, who had also fallen asleep at some point. He, however, did not seem particularly fazed by what was happening.

"Jesus Christ, wake up, you idiot!" I yelled, attempting to shake Bill awake. Ralph looked at me with a look of great annoyance.

"I'm already awake, dad, jeez." He muttered, laying back down.

"Oh, forget you!" I yelled, slapping Bill on the cheek repeatedly. Eventually, just a few meters up from the ground, the Charizard rose from his slumber, and pulled up, coming to a gentle landing before falling asleep once again.

"Well, that was alarming." I said, climbing off. "Does that happen often?"

"Bill does overestimate himself a lot." Anne said, putting him back in his PokeBall, causing Ralph to fall to the ground and finally awake. "Where are we, anyway?"

"Uh…" I stopped as I realized we were actually quite lost. "Slight problem with that. I don't know."

"What? We're lost again?!" Anne shouted.

"Well, I mean, this time we are actually fairly close to our destination." I said" "Perhaps we should look around and get our bearings?"

"No need." Ralph said, looking off into the distance. "I know exactly where we are."

"What?" I asked. "Where are we?"

"Look over there." He said, pointing off in the direction he was looking. Anne and I looked at it, and lo and behold, we saw a sign proclaiming that we were near Celadon City, the largest city in Kanto.

"How convenient!" Anne said, and we all started walking there. However, we were paused when a man wearing a very odd purple suit and white cape walked out, looking quite interested in something.

"Hello there." I greeted. "What is your name?"

"I am Eusine." He greeted looking us all over. "Who are you three? You're not here for Suicune, are you?"

"The Avatar of the North Wind?" I asked. "No, we have no interest in such things. Besides, I already have a legendary."

The man stared at me for a moment, looking absolutely furious. "Which one?" He finally asked.

"Shaymin. Rather common by normal legendary standards, I admit, but a very elusive creature nonetheless. It took quite the effort to find him." I smiled, recalling the adventure I had taken to acquire it.

"How much effort?" He asked.

"Well, it did take several months to get it, and quite a bit of tracking…"

"How did you finally get it?" Eusine asked.

I rubbed my neck and gave my answer. "I finally realized it was moving around too much for me to be able to chase it down, so I simply stayed put until it came to me, and that was that. I wish I had figured that out sooner, to be honest."

Eusine looked away, digesting my words. "No…no! It can't possibly be that simple! You're lying! Show me that you caught it! Show me!"

"Hey, back off!" Ralph demanded, stepping up next to us.

"I refuse!" Eusine shouted, grabbing at my pack and yanking it off, running away with everything I had (except, thankfully, the translator).

"Wha—I say! Come back here!" I shouted. "Ruffian! Damn it, that had all of my things…" My eyes widened in horror as I realized just what that meant. "My god, he has Rembrandt! And Jon! And Shaymin! Oh, this is terrible! What could be worse?!"

"The fact that Ralph just started chasing after him?" Anne suggested. I looked at the direction Eusine ran off to, seeing that Ralph had, indeed, given chase.

"Oh, brilliant." I muttered. "What if he does not get them back? I have had Rembrandt for as long as I can remember! Not to mention Jon and Shaymin…what tragedy!"

"Oh, give it a rest!" Anne demanded. "Did you see that shit he pulled back in the base! He's got this! Relax!"

"I don't know. If that man has spent as long as he claims chasing after such a swift and elusive Legendary, he must have grown to have great skills."

"Yeah, but he still hasn't caught that damn thing. He can't be that good."

"He probably is quite good, though, it is simply that Suicune is perpetually better. I am going to go chase after him as well."

With that, I left to take back what was mine, and I glanced back at Anne, seeing she had pulled out a Pokémon I had never seen her use before…

Still, I soon ended up in Celadon, which was not like many other cities; while others may have used great gleaming towers of glass and steel, Celadon was a massive sprawl of buildings that did not rise very far at all, but spread out a very far distance indeed.

"Bloody hell, he could be anywhere!" I shouted, but in the distance, there came the sound of a shouting crowd and breaking glass.

"What on Earth was that?" I ran over to the source of the sound, seeing a small farmer's market had been set up in a plaza, and that a cart of melons had been tipped over. I looked above it to see that Ralph and Eusine both had used it as a platform to propel themselves on top of an apartment flat, upon which they were now fighting quite viciously.

"Bloody hell…" I muttered, looking around for any policemen. I saw one, but it seemed he was several steps ahead of me, since he was talking into his dispatch radio about a fight going on atop a roof. I relaxed for a moment, but that relaxation was short lived as I saw him pull out a handgun and walk towards them.

"I say, sir, wait!" I said, hoping this would not escalate much further. "That man in the purple suit stole my things, the other one has merely attempted to retrieve them!"

"The purple suit guy? You mean Eusine?"

"Indeed! He stole all of my clothes, toiletries, and most horrendously, my Pokémon!"

The officer sighed. "I should have expected he'd pull something like this one of these days. Who's the other guy?"

"A friend of mine who is attempting to retrieve them. I think he might be part of some military operation."

"Look, they're making a ruckus, and I can't have that. Look at all those perfectly good melons they ruined!"

"Yes, a real tragedy." I smirked. "I am far more concerned with my stolen property!"

"Look, sir, I'll take care of it, but that friend of yours has broken the law, and if you continue interfering, I'll arrest both of you!"

"What!" I cried. "How can you arrest me? I have broken no law!"

"You're interfering with justice!"

"Let go, asshole!" Ralph suddenly cried. I turned to face the action, and although we were at quite a distance from each other, I could tell that he had managed to wrench away the bag. Eusine ran off, leaping onto a fire escape and sliding down the side into the alley. The cop started running towards him, but the thief produced a flash pellet and threw it upon the ground, distracting the cop long enough for him to take leave entirely.

"Damn it!" Ralph yelled, running into the stairwell. A minute later, he came out of the back door, pulling out his wallet once more.

"I have this situation under control, sir," he said, flipping it open and revealing a very particular symbol: a silhouette of a Pidgeotto in front of a rising sun.

"Wha—" I began. "You are with Special Command?"

"Yes," he answered, putting his wallet back. The officer seemed rightfully content with this explanation and walked off, pulling out his radio to call for a search.

"I thought they disbanded a few years after the war ended, though?"

"Technically, yes, though the members still retained their authority. It comes in handy fairly often, I find. You know what they say: old habits die hard."

I narrowed my eyes, suddenly becoming suspicious of his exact intentions. "Why did you start coming with me on this journey? Rather odd for a member of Special Command to just head out on vacation like this."

Ralph thought for a moment. "There are several reasons. For one, I was getting bored with Kanto, two, I was interested in your technology, and three, I thought it would be pertinent to see how Unova's doing these days, considering they just opened up."

I narrowed my eyes. "One and three, I understand, but you worded number two very interestingly."

"I'm not going to steal it!" Ralph yelled. "I have no idea how it even works! It wouldn't be any use to me!"

I glared for a moment more, but then decided he was most likely right. I grabbed the bag containing my things, but soon made a terrible discovery.

"Oh, my god…" I muttered, sifting through it and hoping I had simply made a mistake. Unfortunately, I was right: Rembrandt's PokeBall was missing, and the only explanation was that Eusine had taken it, perhaps thinking it was Shaymin's.

"What is it?" Ralph asked, peering inside. I quickly pulled it away and put my hand to my forehead, unwilling to believe that this had occurred.

"He's stolen Rembrandt. Oh my god, he has Rembrandt…"

Ralph stepped back, taken off guard by this. "That's…okay, look, just remain calm and we can…"

"Remain calm?!" I burst, pointing a finger at him. "How could you possibly tell me to remain calm at a time like this! I have had Rembrandt for years! He has been by my side ever since I started my research, and now he has been wrenched away from me by the cruel hand of fate! Oh, but excuse me for not being utterly placid at every…"

"Uh, Larch?" Ralph asked, looking very uncomfortable.

"WHAT?!" I yelled, before realzing my rant had attracted quite a crowd of disturbed onlookers.

"Uh…" I stammered out. "Don't mind me, just…dealing with a minor problem. Uh, say, Ralph, would it be wise to take our leave at this point?"

"Very wise." He answered, and we both made haste out of the market.

Soon, we came across Anne, who seemed to have been running towards us, and also seemed very concerned.

"What the hell was that?" she asked, coming to a stop before us. "I could hear you all the way from the forest."

"Oh…dear, was I really yelling that loudly?" I muttered, rubbing my head.

"Well, maybe not. I do have really good hearing, and I couldn't tell what you were saying. What were you yelling about, anyway?"

"Eusine has Rembrandt."

Anne started, her eyes widening in shock. "That's terrible! What would he even need him for?"

"I know not. Perhaps he thought it was Shaymin and intended to steal him."

"Oh, man…wait, I have an idea!" Anne produced a PokeBall and threw it in front of her. As the red energy took the shape of a Mightyena, we both stepped back, somewhat shocked.

"Who is this?" Ralph asked, as the Pokémon sniffed at my bag, apparently catching the scent of Eusine off it.

"What do you smell, Henry?" Anne asked.

"Cheap polyester suit…bad cologne…hey, are you sure it isn't this guy?" He looked at me, and I glared back at him as harshly as I could. "Wait…wow, this guy really reeks. What'd he do?"

"He got into a scuffle with him over that bag, but he still has something really important from it." Anne explained. "Would you be able to find him?"

"I think. That city looks pretty big, though…wow." He started rubbing his nose, and I noticed his eyes had actually begun to water. "That's really strong."

"He must be near…" I muttered.

"Okay, hold on, we can't just rush into this." Ralph said. "He might be dangerous."

We suddenly heard something rustling in the nearby forest, and all of us quickly prepared for a fight.

"Come out, you coward!" I yelled, putting up my fists. There was another rustle, and then, surprisingly, Rembrandt popped out, holding his own PokeBall.

"Rembrandt?" I asked, quite confused. "I thought you were Eusine."

"You need to get your glasses checked," he responded, tossing the ball to me. "He let me out once he realized I wasn't that weird grass thingy."

"Shaymin, you mean."

"Yeah, that."

"He just…let you out?" Ralph asked. "That's weird…"

"Is it?" We turned around, and saw Eusine pointing an alarmingly large revolver at us, harshly glaring at me. "All right, then, hands up." He turned to me, waving the gun around a bit for effect. "It is my opinion that we can reach a fair agreement. Hand me the Shaymin, and tell me how I can get Suicune, and you get to continue living. Sounds fair?"

"That strikes me as something of a false choice," I said.

"It is still a choice. Now, if you would only just—" Ralph suddenly lunged at him and grabbed the gun, but found that Eusine's grip on it was very strong indeed. As the two of them struggled, I pulled out my phone again and dialed for the police.

"Hello, did you get that warning about that Eusine fellow? Ah, yes, good, I have him here, and a friend of mine is struggling with—" A loud retort rang out, and a bullet whizzed past my head, very nearly taking out my phone and, with it, me. "…him." I whispered.

"Where are you?" The operator asked.

"I am just outside of the western marketplace, in the forest!" I yelped as another shot flew past, and both Rembrandt and Anne dove behind me. "Goodbye!"

"Let…go!" Ralph yelled, finally wrenching the gun out and pointing it at Eusine.

"Whoa!" He yelled, putting his gloved hands up in concern. "Let's not get too hasty here, we can all work this out…"

He threw his left hand down, and with it, a small smoke pellet, which produced a thick cloud in such volume that he quite easily managed to run away.

"Damn it!" I yelled. "Again!"

"At least he doesn't have anything important this time." Ralph said, putting the gun away.

"Indeed, that is…damn it!" I yelled, noticing something missing. "He has Rembrandt again!"

"He seemed upset." Ralph said. "Rembrandt might be in danger."

"Oh, thank you, Ralph, that helped." I forced out. "We must rescue him!"

"Henry," Anne said, pointing at the direction Eusine ran off, "sic."

Immediately, the vicious creature ran off, snarling in anger. The rest of us followed quite a distance behind, keeping an eye on his movements. Soon, he cornered into an alley stuck in between two absolute dive bars, but we all quickly stopped as we saw that Eusine was holding Rembrandt up and had another gun to his head.

"Um…help?" The Smeargle implored. I was, at that point, in a severe panic, and was jittering about as I had no idea what to do.

Ralph, however, did seem to have an idea of what could be done, as he slowly approached Eusine, which he seemed to accept. "Alright, look, Eusine, we can talk about this. Just set the Smeargle down, and we can…"

"Tell the bald guy to give me the Shaymin," he demanded back. I scoffed slightly, but Ralph ignored me and continued the negotiations.

"Give us the hostage now, sir, and we'll do what you want."

"I know how this works," Eusine said, pressing the gun in harder. "You say you'll do whatever I want if I release him, and then you jump me. I've read the papers."

Ralph paused, considering his now very limited options. "Okay…uh…Larch, could you hand me the Shaymin?"

Immediately after his question, I noticeably balked. "What?! Ralph, are you mental?"

"No, look, Larch, we can all come out of this with what we want." He turned to me and held his hand out, very subtly winking. I caught his gist, and made a show of reluctantly handing him the PokeBall that held Shaymin.

"Okay, we'll do this at the same time," Ralph suggested. "I give you the Shaymin, and you give me Rembrandt."

"That's a stupid idea." Rembrandt said. Eusine shook him around to shut him up, and then walked up to Ralph to perform the transfer.

"Okay, on three, all right?" Ralph said, holding the PokeBall up. "One, two, three…"

Eusine, to his credit, did hand over Rembrandt, but I knew Ralph aimed to retrieve the Shaymin as well. I figured out his plan when, out of nowhere, he tossed the PokeBall up in the air. Eusine looked up for but a moment in shock, instinctively putting out his hand to catch it. This was more than enough for Ralph, who grabbed his forearm and, using his other arm, elbowed him in the solar plexus, then twisted Eusine's arm behind him and forced him to the ground quite hard, and, to end it, nonchalantly caught the falling PokeBall, which I quickly retrieved.

"Is he alright?" I asked, noticing that he did not appear to be moving.

"He still has his pulse, don't worry. He's just in shock. Hang on a minute." He got off of Eusine, having noticed a police car driving down the road, and yelled "Hey, officer!" It quickly pulled over, the two men inside egressed, and then walked over, nodding to Ralph as they put a pair of handcuffs on Eusine, got him up, and walked him off.

"Well, then, that was…interesting." I said. "Um…thank you very much for your help, Ralph."

"Yeah, thanks," said Rembrandt, rubbing his head. "Can we go to a hotel now or something?"

"It is getting rather late in the day," I observed. "It would be wise to set down here for today and then go to Vermilion tomorrow."

"Sounds good," Anne said. "Henry, return!"

I, too, recalled Rembrandt, and so we all went off to look for a suitable hotel. However, as we left the alleyway and went back onto the street, I could not shake the most peculiar feeling that, somehow, I was being watched…