A Reminiscence
Chapter Seven
Progress
()()()
With the power of the Horizon and over one thousand brake horsepower, reaching Vermillion City within the hour became absolutely trivial. Of course, considering that we were going at astonishing speeds over the poorly-paved (Route Whatever), which was, in short, very uncomfortable, even in the Horizon's expertly designed comfort.
"I say, slow down, you madman!" I yelled, trying to keep myself stable against the road's many bumps.
"This is the fastest production car in the world!" Ralph responded. "What the hell would I slow down for?"
"My safety?!"
"Hey, it's not like it matters much, here we are now." I looked ahead, and saw that we had indeed come to the tollbooth outside of the city. Ralph finally began decreasing his ludicrous speed, coming to a perfect stop right beside the booth.
"Hello?" he asked, rolling down his window and looking at the completely disinterested teenage girl sitting within.
"It's a dollar to get in," she said, crudely popping her gum. "And before you ask, we don't take checks or credit ca…is that a Vincentio Horizon?!" She quickly perked up, looking the car over very thoroughly indeed.
"Why, yes, it I,." Ralph answered, likely putting on a cheesy grin. "A dollar, you say?" He then, rather snidely, retrieved a twenty from his wallet and threw it in, driving off quickly, leaving a cloud of dust and a very confused girl in his wake.
As we finally ended up on paved road, I decided to ask a fairly important question.
"What in the hell did you just do back there?!"
"Come on, Larch, if I have the best supercar in the world, I've gotta act like it."
"By throwing twenty dollar bills into toll booths at random?"
"That's what rich people do, throw money around at everybody!"
"You are hardly as rich as Silias Silph," I noted.
Ralph blinked and looked away, pulling up outside of a diner.
"We should probably get something to eat," he said, getting out.
"Are you sure?" I asked. "Perhaps you might try a five-star bistro for your foie gras, Mr. Moneybags!"
"Okay, okay, I get it already!" Ralph yelled, walking inside.
"Are you sure? Perhaps you could hire a team of analysts to…" My sentence was cut short when Anne slapped me on the back of the head, shooting me a very dirty look.
Saying nothing more, we both walked inside, where Ralph was already observing the (questionable) menu above the counter where the (questionable) food would be collected. A woman of about sixty was washing this counter, occasionally glancing up at us with a very unpleasant stare.
"Okay, what do we have here?" Anne wondered as she observed alongside him. I, however, looked past them and observed the area behind the bar, noticing a very peculiar set of stairs, leading down to some sort of basement.
"This breakfast menu is terrible," Anne muttered as I continued my observations, "who eats fried chicken for breakfast?"
"White people with no money?" Ralph answered.
Their attention was quickly drawn to that staircase as a door at its base slammed open, and a fellow dressed like some sort of seventeenth-century composer, with waistcoat, coat and breeches, all of them black with silver highlights.
"Silence, Mother!" he cried in a terribly fake British accent, turning back dramatically. "I shall find success, and this is where I shall find it!"
"You're a moron, Larry!" a woman, presumably his mother, cried back. "You'll get shot if you go out looking like that!"
"The world will forever fear my name! You will see! All will see!"
"Ooh, I'm so scared!" his mother answered back, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Please, anything but a dime-store composer outfit!"
"I made this myself and you know that! I'm very proud of it!" He crossed his arms, and quickly stormed out, throwing the door open hard enough to almost take it off its hinges.
"What the screaming hell was that?" Ralph asked, scratching his head.
"My grandson," the woman at the counter answered. "Ignore him."
"Rather difficult to, with that outfit," I noted.
"You'll just encourage him," she continued, "he's trying to be some sort of 'mega-villain' or something. He never made anything of himself and he's trying to prove he can, so he's trying to take over the world or something stupid."
"Oh, good," I muttered. "I already know how this is going to end."
"Hm?" Anne asked, looking away from the menu.
"Nothing, nothing," I said. "What shall we order?"
"I'm really not sure." Anne looked at the menu once more, as did I. Indeed, it seemed that no matter what we ordered, it would be either fill in our arteries, choke us with toxic fumes, or perhaps even poison us.
"Excellent choice of a diner," I said to Ralph, who looked quite frightened for once.
"How do they get away with selling this crap?" he asked. "Doesn't the health department know about this?"
"I might almost contact the Homeland Defense Department about this," I answered. Ralph stifled a chuckle, while Anne merely glared at me.
"Can we just go somewhere else?" she asked. "This place is going to kill us!"
Perfectly on cue, a fair sized rock shattered the front window and knocked her square on the head, sending her sprawling to the floor. Ralph immediately kneeled down to care for her, while I looked to see who it was, and saw that it was that strange fellow from earlier, Larry. He bit his thumb, presumably at the whole establishment, and then ran off, trying and failing miserably to be discrete.
"I'm okay, I'm okay," Anne said, getting up with Ralph's assistance. "Who the hell was that?"
"Damn it, Larry!" The woman from behind the counter quickly made her exit, trying to chase after her incredibly strange grandson.
"Can something normal happen for once?!" I yelled. "I just wanted breakfast, and now some pretend villain dressed like evil Mozart is throwing rocks about! And not to mention how much of a step backwards this is! I mean, yesterday we re-enacted Die Hard with the richest man on the planet, for goodness' sake!"
I started breathing heavily, while Anne and Ralph stared at me.
"You okay?" Anne asked.
"Yes, that helped." I looked back outside and carefully observed the direction that Larry had run. "If we are some team of national heroes, I think it would be wise to at least look into this. That sort of obsession cannot ever end well."
"What's that nerd gonna do?" Anne asked. "He's some dork in a lame Halloween costume, there's nothing he's gonna do."
"I would not be so sure, Anne," I said. I looked outside, and started as he ran by the window yet again. Ralph ran out to grab him, but before he could, he took out what appeared to be a set of keys and vandalized the driver's side door of the Horizon.
"Damn it, my car!" Ralph yelled, ignoring as Larry ran off in favor of the mutilated door.
"Oh, dear, that is not good," I said, looking at the affected area. It appeared that he had quite finely, given his limited time, carved "LWVG" into the door. What it stood for must wait until later, but for now, it was a very ugly scar on a work of sublime beauty.
"Not good! Look at it! He's ruined it!"
"Relax, would you?" I demanded. "I believe Rembrandt can mend this affront, he is quite the talent. While he does so, we shall go looking for...him. Perhaps we shall find some relevance for this defacement."
Ralph looked at the scratches, unconvinced Rembrandt could mend it, but then conceded to me anyway.
"Rembrandt, your turn!" I cried, releasing him from his digital slumber. He rubbed his eyes for a moment, adjusting to it, and then gawked at the work of art before him.
"Holy shit!" he yelled, closely observing the subtleties of the car. "Is this a Vincentio Horizon? How the hell did you get this?"
"It was a gift from Silias Silph after we saved him from Team Rocket," I explained.
"You've been on top of things, huh?" Rembrandt continued his intense study, but came to a grinding halt as he saw the vandalism.
"What the hell is this?!" he yelled, pointing at it as if it had just killed hundreds. "Who did that?"
"Somebody very strange, and we are going to look for him and seek justice. Could you fix this?"
"I can't let this stay here!" he yelled. Ralph gawked as the paint on his tail changed from green to black, and he quickly started painting over the scratches.
"That's incredible."
"I told you he was a talent. Come along, now!" I ran off in pursuit, Anne and Ralph following me.
()()()
It was not terribly difficult to trace Larry's steps, given how noticeable he was; all we had to do was occasionally ask people if they had seen someone who had prepared for Halloween well in advance, and we were easily able to find him sitting on the rim of a lovely water fountain in a park on the edge of the city.
"So, you have managed to find me," he said, crossing his arms and smiling slightly.
"You wanna tell me why you scratched my car up?" Ralph asked, getting into a fighting stance.
"I wished to give you reason to chase after me. After all, I would be no villain without some rival, and who better than the three recent heroes of Kanto?"
"What are you playing at?" I demanded. "What are you trying to accomplish?"
"Going down in history, of course!" he answered, pointing at the sky. "I shall easily take rule of Kanto after I defeat you, and from there, I shall take control of the entire world!"
"Because that worked so well the last time someone tried it…" I muttered. Larry glared at me, and made an impressive leap right in front of me.
"The last man who tried it was a fool!" he cried. "I have no intention of failing as he did. No, I will succeed in all the parts where he did not."
"I'll see about that!" Ralph raised his fist, running at him with full intention to take him down. However, Larry simply leapt away, producing a PokeBall that soon revealed a massive Gliscor, which stopped Ralph right in his tracks.
"Now is not the time for our battle," Larry said, hiding behind his Pokémon. "You wish to go on the S.S. Anne, correct?"
"Yes…" I said, staring at the terrifying beast before us.
"Then we shall do battle there. I would suggest you hurry, by the way. Else there might be…consequences."
Before any of us could react, he leapt onto his Gliscor's back, and they flew off with impressive speed, leaving us behind on the ground.
"What did he mean by consequences?" Anne wondered.
"Nothing good," Ralph said. "We need to hurry."
We all nodded, and quickly ran back to the car to find an impressive sight: Rembrandt sitting atop the car, the scratches perfectly covered and many other improvements besides.
"Hi, guys! I added some flame decals onto it. I think it really adds to the dimensions."
Indeed, atop the bonnet, roof, and front wheels, he had painted large gouts of highly realistic blue flame.
"That's…impressive." Ralph looked the flames over, evidently pleased with their introduction. "You did all this while we were gone?"
"I could have done more, but you came back too soon."
"Say, Rembrandt, how would you like to ride in this?" I asked. Rembrandt practically exploded with joy at this proposition, and immediately burst into a tirade of confirmation.
"Very well, then. You shall come with us, we might well need your help."
Rembrandt paused, his brows furrowing. "What's this about help, now?"
"Do you want to ride in the car or not?"
Rembrandt crossed his arms. "Oh, fine."
"Excellent! Get in, we should make haste." Upon my suggestion, we entered the car, Ralph turning the key and bringing it to life.
"Hold on!" he yelled, pulling out and pressing upon the gas pedal. We reached the legal speed limit almost instantly, and he carried on as such until we reached the pier where the S.S. Anne was waiting. Immediately, we knew something was up: Larry's Gliscor was keeping a crowd of people at bay, leaving him in the center of a makeshift circle. Clearly, he wanted a fight of some sort, and would not rest until he received one.
Ralph hit the handbrake and turned into a perfectly clean stop, stepping out just as the car halted.
"All right, you, let's do this!" Ralph yelled, pushing through the crowd.
"Bring your friends in and we shall," Larry answered.
"…Sure." Ralph gestured to us three, and we exited, standing together before him.
"Excellent!" Larry cried. "I can finally face my greatest foes, and now they and the world shall forever know my name! All shall quake in fear before Lord Wolfgang Von Genocide!"
"Lame!" Anne yelled, cupping her hands to her mouth to emphasize.
Larry, or rather, Wolfgang, stumbled, balking at her mockery.
"You dare mock me?!" he yelled. "You will pay for your impudence! Gliscor, destroy them!"
The Gliscor leapt at us, but Rembrandt expertly leapt up and deflected his blow with his tail, smearing his opponent with green paint. The crowd gasped at this display, while we flinched backwards and Anne and Ralph instinctively pulled out PokeBalls of their own.
"Carolus, you're up!" Anne yelled, revealing an Arcanine. Ralph, in the meantime, threw his without announcement, which produced his Serperior.
"Ah, now the games truly begin!" Wolfgang announced, taking out yet another PokeBall. "Tyrranus, destroy them!"
The red light coalesced into a Murkrow, who glared at us with vicious fury.
"How did you get all of these?" I asked. "I was under the impression you stayed in your basement all day?"
Wolfgang frowned, and then began laughing. "I do go out sometimes, you know! My foolish family assumed the same as you, so it was trivial to sneak out occasionally and ready myself for this confrontation. Catching, training, making my outfit, all done right under their nose!"
"Clever," Ralph said, "but why?"
"Why?" Wolfgang asked, looking genuinely surprised. "To prove them wrong, of course! Everybody told me I would amount to nothing; my teachers, my 'friends', even my own parents, and for a time, I thought they were correct. But then I realized something in my basement: I could organize things fairly well, and more importantly, I was entirely under everyone's radar. Who would ever think stupid layabout Larry would ever do anything dangerous? None of them, and look at me now! I will accomplish more than any of them ever did, and I will start by wiping you three off the map!"
Gliscor and Tyrannus launched at us again, and Rembrandt and the Serperior responded in kind, while Carolus stayed behind with an uncomfortable look on his face.
"Three on two?" he asked. "Isn't that kind of unfair?"
We observed the battle, and indeed, our Pokémon seemed to have an obvious upper hand, even without Carolus' help.
"What was that?" Wolfgang asked.
"Carolus thinks the odds aren't fair!" Anne shouted over the din of the fight before us.
"Then I shall even them myself!"
The crowd gasped again as Wolfgang leapt into the fray, producing a silver dagger and separating his Pokémon from ours in an instant, leaving them standing opposite each other, panting from exertion. Carolus decided this had evened the odds enough to justify his entrance, and he quickly stood alongside the others.
"Stop this at once, Wolfgang!" I cried. "No human can possibly stand up to a Pokémon, especially not these three!"
Wolfgang smirked. "Perhaps you are right. Gliscor, Tyrannus, let us leave this place!"
He leapt up to an impressive height, his two Pokémon flying up and grabbing onto his shoulders to fly him away. By the time we had all gathered beneath him, he was much too high for us to do much of anything, but rather than leaving us immediately, he decided to properly part.
"Farewell, my nemeses!" he cried, smiling in glee. "Please, enjoy this parting gift!"
Tyrannus lowered slightly, allowing Wolfgang to shake free a small black cylinder from his sleeve. Anne immediately recognized what it was, and she yelled for everyone to clear out. As we all did so, Wolfgang pulled the pin from the smoke grenade and dropped it to the ground. A thick smokescreen was immediately produced, but luckily the crowd had managed to escape from it. Unfortunately, as a consequence, it was trivial for Wolfgang to make his escape, flying off and laughing the whole while. By the time it dissipated, he was long gone.
"Damn it!" Ralph yelled. "Who knows what he's going to do now?"
"Where did he get that smoke grenade?" Anne asked, before remembering what she had in her pack. She started sifting through it, counting out a handful of smoke grenades and coming to a disturbing conclusion.
"He stole one of mine!"
"How did he know you had those?" Ralph asked.
"He must have been following us around and noticed them," I said. "Now what?"
"We should get on the ship," Ralph suggested, "so we can get to Unova. He won't be able to come onto the ship, and he'll have to go there as well. That way we can be waiting for him."
"It is very unlikely that he will be able to get ahead of us with just those Pokémon," I pointed out. "His speed would be abysmal, and he would need to stop frequently to rest and eat."
"What if he finds another way there?" Anne asked.
"Travel into Unova is still quite restricted," I explained. "The SS Anne is still the fastest way there, and the only other way in is through the ground checkpoints. No matter what he does, we would be there long before he is."
"What if he snuck aboard?"
"Unlikely, with what he was wearing, not to mention the splash he made out here."
"Speaking of which, what the hell happened out here?" a voice came from behind us. We turned around to see none other than the captain of the ship, who looked somewhat annoyed. We quickly recalled our Pokémon and turned to face him, preparing our explanation for the recent events.
"Some idiot attempted to attack us under the impression we were his nemeses, but we quickly put a stop to that," I said.
"And the smoke grenade?" he asked. Anne looked away for a moment, but Ralph came to her rescue.
"He threw it so he could get away," he said, not bothering to add who he had taken it from.
"I see, can we get a description on him?"
"Think what Mozart would wear," I started, the captain nodding in understanding, "if he were a goth nihilist."
"I…see?" The captain looked confused for a moment, but shook his head and looked us over.
"Hey, aren't you those guys that went into the Silph building yesterday?" he asked, finally recognizing us.
"Why, yes, we are!" I said.
"Huh." He scratched his head, quite stumped. "Can't you go anywhere without saving everybody?"
"It seems not." I pulled out my wallet. "Can we get some tickets? We really should be getting aboard."
The captain paused. "Certainly, certainly, give me the fee and I'll sort it out for you."
"Actually, I have the tickets already!" I pulled out the tickets and handed them to him, before I recalled something else.
"How about our car?" I gestured towards the Horizon, sitting there in all its glory.
"Jesus, is that a Vincentio? I'll get someone to bring that aboard. Will there be anything else?"
Anne, Ralph, and I looked at each other for a moment, and then turned back. "I do not believe we will require anything else."
"Alright, then, I'll get this all sorted and then you can come aboard." The captain walked off, leaving us behind, hoping that between then and the ship's departure later that afternoon, nothing else would happen…