A Reminiscence

Chapter Thirteen

Defeat and Victory

()()()

It was obvious that we could not possibly get to Greybeard's ship in time; there was no way to get a boat down fast enough, and it would be pointless to anyway, as Wolfgang was doubtlessly prepared for such an event. As we ran down the docks and towards the beach where he would likely return, I cursed myself for inebriating the crew and halting an avenue of opportunity. That, however, was in the past, and I knew that we had no choice but to do what we could in the present.

Soon, we took up a position on the very small and oddly empty beach, save for some fellow to the side that was ranting and raving about his stolen boat.

"All right, everyone," I said. "He will likely be returning soon, so…be as prepared as you can."

"Here he comes!" Jack said, pointing out to the ship. Indeed, though it was very difficult to see, Wolfgang was climbing down the side of the ship upon a rope, seemingly carrying something. Greybeard scowled, recognizing the severity of the theft, especially since it was from his own ship.

"He has Celebi!" I cried. "Be ready, he will probably come back here just to gloat at us."

"This guy is kind of a dumbass," Jack noted.

"Certainly," I agreed. "Evidently, he does not watch very many movies."

"Either that, or he just never figured out why the Bond villains always lost," Anne suggested.

"Here he comes!" Slick said, as the runabout drew ever nearer. "Oh, we've got this dork now!"

"I wouldn't be too sure about that, Slick," Jack said. "This guy is tricky."

"Ooh, I like that in a person!" Slick leaned towards the boat, trying to see what he could see. "Hey, what's that red tube he's holding?"

"That's a goddamn flare gun!" Jack shouted. "Duck!"

We broke formation and ran from our position, as Wolfgang stood up and fired a piercing red flare at us, very nearly setting me on fire.

"What the hell?" the man off to the side yelled. "My flare gun!"

"Indeed, he—Clive Warren?!" I cried, now recognizing him.

"Oh, hey, you again!" he greeted cheerfully. "Finally getting to Unova, are we?"

"Wait, Unova?" Slick asked. "I was trying to get away from that place, and now I'm going back?"

"Hey, come on, you agreed to come with—look out!" Anne pointed to the boat, now much nearer and showing no signs of stopping. We dispersed even wider as Wolfgang and his two Pokémon leapt out of the boat, landing elegantly on the beach as the boat crashed very hard into it, sending bits of wood everywhere as it tore apart against the sand, soon colliding with the rock wall and collapsing entirely.

"Goddamnit, my boat!" Clive yelled, clutching his head in horror.

"Forget your boat, he nearly killed us!" Jack yelled, getting back up and dusting himself off.

"Oh, relax. I had no intentions of harming you," Wolfgang said, smiling and pulling a PokeBall out of his pocket. "Now, then, I really must be off to the past so that I might defeat you. Cheerio!"

Once again, Gliscor and Tyrranus grabbed his arms and flew him in the air, laughing all the while.

"Honestly, Larch, are you to be my rival? You barely put up a fight at all!"

"Why don't you come down here and I'll show you a fight!" Greybeard yelled. "I ain't about to let you get away with stealing from my ship!"

"You make your living off of stealing," Slick pointed out.

"Ye—shut up!"

"Oh, I would gladly come down there and play with you, dear Greybeard," Wolfgang said, "but unfortunately, I have a rather tight schedule. Of course, considering I have the secret to time travel in my possession, I could easily take as long as I wished down here. I am somewhat impatient though, so once again, cheerio!"

Just as he started to fly off again, a welcome face appeared behind the railing above the wall.

"What the hell is this?" Ralph said, very confused.

"Oh, another interruption?" Wolfgang said, grinding to a halt and looking down. "Can't I ever just get going?"

"Where did you come from?" Ralph looked down. "And what the hell happened to that boat?"

"I crashed it, what else?" Wolfgang sneered. "Please just go away so I can complete my plan in peace."

"Let me think…" Ralph faked a pause, and then climbed onto the railing, leaping forward and barely grabbing onto Wolfgang's legs once more, his Pokémon again straining under their combined weight.

"What? Get off, damn you! I will not have this happen again!" Wolfgang attempted to shake Ralph off, but his grip was true, and he stayed fast.

"This is not how I wanted to spend my day!" Clive yelled.

"Join the club," Jack drawled.

"Enough of this foolishness!" Wolfgang yelled, quite annoyed by now. "Tyrranus, Gliscor, away!"

Still carrying Ralph with them, they all flew off, leaving us quite bewildered.

"That was utterly absurd!" I cried, wiping off my glasses.

"We have to go get them!" Slick said. "Who knows what the hell is going to happen with those two?"

"But…my boat!" Clive said. "Look at what he did to my boat!"

"Surely you have insurance?" I asked.

"Well, yes, but…"

"There you are then! Quickly, after him!"

My group ran off, trying to chase after them once more, leaving Clive Warren behind to handle his rather ruined boat.

()()()

All through the city, we desperately tried to catch up with their increasingly erratic movements, no doubt caused by their attempts to shake each other off, making it quite difficult to fly in anything resembling a straight line. Although we soon found ourselves getting tired and annoyed, luck was on our side as we neared to the police station, a fairly bland blue building with a fair garage next to it, both of which seemed quite abuzz with activity.

"What?!" Wolfgang cried as they drew near. "Not the police station, you idiots, they will arrest me!"

"Hold on!" I cried, and we all stopped. "I think we should let this develop on its own."

"Sounds good to me," Slick said. "I hate police."

"Come on, you two, go to the nice blue building!" Ralph said. "They have…uh…birdseed! And poffins, plenty of those!"

"Do not listen to him, you fools! He is trying to deceive you so that we might go to prison!"

"You talk like an asshole!" Jack shouted.

"Oh, do I?" Wolfgang asked. "At least I talk as if I had an education, unlike certain among us!"

"I resent that!" Slick said, shaking his fist. It seemed we had reached an impasse, with the tension so thick it might have required a jackhammer to get through, but luckily our jackhammer soon arrived to cut through it.

"Freeze!" shouted Monroe, running into the scene with his handgun drawn, alongside several other officers. "You're under arrest!"

"Can somebody help me down? My arms are kind of starting to hurt." Ralph moaned, carefully looking down below him.

"Sir, tell your Pokémon to come down to the ground," Monroe warned, stepping slightly closer. "You have ten seconds to comply!"

"Ten seconds?" Wolfgang grinned, clearly up to something. "Not very much…time, is that?"

"Oh god, not again…" I muttered. Monroe tensed, and Wolfgang pressed the button on the PokeBall he was holding, finally releasing the infamous Celebi.

"There it be!" Greybeard yelled, trying to run and catch it. It was, alas, no use, as Wolfgang shouted for Celebi to take him to the middle of the seventeenth century, disappearing with a bright green flash. We turned away, but it did not take a genius to figure out what happened next, Ralph shrieked as he was sent hurtling to the ground below, but Slick managed to run over and catch him just in time. He held him for a moment, then quickly released him, whistling awkwardly.

"Damn it, not again!" Monroe cried. "That asshole is gonna get my paycheck docked!" He turned back to his own group and began discussing what to do, which I paid little attention to.

"So, there it is," I said, turning back and staring at the spot Wolfgang just disappeared from. "Celebi can indeed travel through time. This…this may well be the greatest scientific discovery of our entire generation!" I said excitedly. "Do you all realize what this means?"

"Emo Mozart just got away a second time?" Jack asked.

"By the way, please, please do not explain to me what the hell that was," Slick said, shaking his head. "I really, really do not want to have context for whatever the hell just happened there."

"You're in luck, Slick," Anne said. "I don't think any of us could properly explain it."

"I'd certainly believe that. So…now what?" Slick shrugged. "He just went to, like, 1650 or something. How do we stop him if we were born centuries after where he is now?"

"He raises a point," Greybeard interjected. "Even I was barely a lad in that year. There's no way to reach him now."

"I would not be too sure," I said, deep in thought.

"Not too sure?" Jack questioned. "Did you invent a time machine at some point?"

"No, but if I got a chance to study Celebi, I might as well." I closed my eyes and began relaying the thoughts I was having. "Jack, he came in at some point during his attempt to jeer at us in the boiler room, correct?"

"Well…yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?" he asked, confused.

"Simple. He would only have done that after he was absolutely confident in his victory, after he had successfully set up his little puzzles for us. We may still have a chance to catch him up!"

"But that already happened!" Jack cried. "How does this brilliant revelation help us at all?"

"When he disappeared, he had to have gone somewhere," I said. "And very likely, it was in that same place, just later in the day so that he could make his escape assured."

Jack considered this, and realized the point. "Larch, may I say again that you're a genius?"

"I would not object," I said, grinning.

"Wait, you're saying there's still a way to catch this guy?" Monroe asked, curiosity now piqued.

"Indeed. We must all return to the ship and begin a plan to catch this fellow once and for all!"

"Hell yeah!" Slick yelled. "Let's kick this guy's ass!"

"I like the way you think," Anne said. "About how thoroughly are we talking, here?"

"Oh, don't worry, I definitely meant as thoroughly as we possibly can."

"Will you two calm down?" I warned. "We do not actually have him yet, we still have to find him once he returns in the future."

"What happens if he doesn't show up again?" Monroe asked. "We'll have just wasted our time!"

"Don't worry, he will show up," I assured him.

"And just how do you know that?" Monroe seemed very unconvinced indeed.

"I have a feeling that, in his own confidence, he has caused nothing but his own downfall. Now, then, if we all are to catch this person, we must have a plan. I was thinking…"

()()()

I shall spare the exact details of the plan, since it involved much discussion and contradiction that is not likely to inspire great interest, and instead shall move straight to when we got a chance to enact it.

Naturally, I was situated in the boiler room where we expected Wolfgang to show up again, Slick by my side to help me when the time inevitably came.

"Right here, you said?" he asked, pointing to the space beside the door.

"Indeed. And he will not be prepared for our little plan…"

"I still say this idea is ridiculous," Slick said.

"Oh, who asked you?" I said. "This is going to work excellently, I assure you. We shall be victorious yet!"

"If you say so." Slick rolled his eyes and leaned back against the wall, seeming very ready to fall asleep. "Wake me up when he decides to come back."

I smirked and turned back to the spot, and my eyes widened as I noticed an impressive gleam starting to form.

"Slick!" I cried, shaking him out of his nap. "Here we go!"

Soon, Wolfgang materialized once more, Celebi by his side, and he honestly seemed quite pleased with himself until he noticed us.

"What are you doing here?!" he yelled, recoiling in horror.

"You're not the only one who can figure out how time works, buddy," Slick said, grinning and rushing towards him, claws out. Wolfgang, to some credit, dodged the blow, but his attempt to counter it failed as Slick turned suddenly, smacking Wolfgang with his tail, and with impressive force as well. Wolfgang recoiled, but soon enough recovered and produced a quick series of devastating strikes, which Slick was barely able to counter. After a few moments of this combat, Wolfgang fumbled slightly, allowing Slick a chance to punch him square in the gut, and retrieve a few items from with his pockets as well.

"Good going, Slick!" I cried. "Quickly, officers, in here!"

Wolfgang stopped in shock, giving Slick a chance to grab Celebi and put it off to the side.

"You just stay there, you…thing," he said. The creature complied, seeming confused about its surroundings.

"Hey!" Wolfgang yelled, looking at him and the door several times, soon deciding it was better to make his exit. He rushed down the hall, and I smiled, as he would soon find out what was going on. I glanced at slick, and we walked out into the hall to watch the proceedings.

"Damn it!" Wolfgang cried, finding Monroe, whom we had put at the end of the hall. They quickly started a chase, Wolfgang desperately trying not to get caught. We moved to the side as he ran past us, and after Monroe did as well, we joined in.

"You shall never catch me!" Wolfgang cried, looking back at us. He soon reached the hallway's end, but since he was still facing back at us, he failed to notice that Bill, ever imposing, had just stepped into the doorway at the other end. "I am absolutely brilliant—CHRIST!" Noticing Bill at last, he ground to a halt, realizing there was no way out.

"Give it up, Larry!" Monroe demanded, pulling out his gun and taking aim. "You're surrounded! Come with me peacefully or I will use force!"

Wolfgang merely sneered in response. "Do you really think I am just going to give up now, you fools?"

"Given that there's a fire-breathing dragon right behind you," Slick said, "I would think so."

"You think I fear this great idiot?" Wolfgang started to laugh, strangely amused by this business. "You are the most incompetent band of nincompoops I have ever known in my life! With all those-trumped up stories about how you saved Kanto time after time, I was expecting you to be some great, accomplished individual! But I give you the slightest challenge, and you crumble like a dirt house! You are an utter embarrassment and I am ashamed to have ever called you my rival!"

"Is that so?" I asked, feigning innocence. "Well, what are you going to do about that, what with your great genius and all?"

Wolfgang smiled. "I still have one smoke grenade left, Larch!" He reached for his pocket, but found it terribly empty, and soon realized his PokeBalls were missing as well.

"What—where—how did you…"

"Looking for these?" Slick asked, holding up the stolen items. "I took 'em in our little scuffle back there. Sleight of hand is a useful thing indeed!" Wolfgang's eyes widened in shock as he realized he was now missing his greatest advantages.

"Return those at once, you filthy cretin!"

"Well, if you're going to insult me, I don't see any reason why I ought to give you these back. In fact…I'll just get rid of them!"

"What?" I asked. My answer came in the form of Slick turning around and throwing the objects as far down the hall as he could, eliciting gasps of shock from not only Wolfgang, but me as well. The grenade went off very quickly, filling the hallway with that damnable smoke. Luckily, however, we were far enough away that the smoke did not much affect us. Still, it provided a great distraction, not to mention a massive deviation from the original plot.

"Slick!" I cried. "What the hell are you doing? This was not in the plan!"

"Your plan was stupid!" Slick said, grabbing the shocked Wolfgang by the collar and slamming him against the wall. "We have him right here, let's just arrest him already and get this whole thing over with, once and for all!"

"Set him down!" Monroe demanded. "I'll take care of this from here."

Slick reluctantly complied, putting Wolfgang on the floor, allowing Monroe to put a pair of handcuffs on him at last.

"What do we do about those Pokémon of his?" I asked, looking back at the cleared smoke and the two PokeBalls lying there.

"I'll take those into police custody," Monroe explained, pulling Wolfgang back up. "We can handle this from here."

"I will escape!" Wolfgang cried as Monroe read out his rights. "Do not try to deceive yourself otherwise!"

"Oh, don't worry, Wolfgang von Whatever, you're getting an extra-special cell for sure. Illegal possession of weaponry, assault and battery, resisting arrest…you're going away for a while, if you get my drift."

"Wait, that's it?" Bill asked, scratching his head. "I didn't even get to do anything!"

"What'd he say?" Monroe asked.

"He was saying he did not actually get to take his part in the plan, Slick."

"Hey, I just saved us a lot of time and trouble. You really ought to be thanking me for that."

"Remind me to give you a medal later," I said, frowning. "Honestly, it was a very good plan!"

"It was way too complicated and he probably would have just gotten away again if we did it your way!"

"You have absolutely no way of knowing that!" I cried, stepping closer.

"Maybe we ought to use that Celebi thing and see!"

"That would not work! We are in a stable time loop, the plan would always go the same way! Do you people just not understand how this works?"

"What the hell is going on here?" Jack asked, pushing past Bill with the mop he was holding and stepping in next to us. "Wait, you caught him already? I didn't even get a chance to beat him up with this mop!"

"See, completely unnecessary," Slick admonished. "There was absolutely no reason for Jack to beat him up with a mop, Monroe just arrested him without it!"

Jack looked at the mop, then back at me. "Hey, yeah, that's a good point, Larch. What the hell is this for?"

"You were going to hit me with that?" Wolfgang asked, his true voice coming through in his fear.

"Well, now I'm not. I kind of wanted to." Jack threw the mop to the ground, scowling. "Damn it, that would have been fun!"

Wolfgang gaped in horror, but shook it off and looked to me. "I shall let you have your victory for now, Larch, but mark my words, I shall return to you in Unova."

"We'll see about that," Monroe said, pulling him away.

"Did we get him?" Anne asked, pushing inside the corridor as well. "Because I really don't see what point that whole 'bucket full of paint' thing offered to the table."

I attempted to stammer out some defense, while Jack and Slick crossed their arms and glared at me.

"Okay, I admit it!" I said at last. "A fair amount of this plan was just so I could humiliate him because I was a bit annoyed."

"A bit?" Jack asked. "He's been fucking around with you since, what, Silph Co.?" He stepped closer to me and put his hand around my shoulder, looking me dead in the eye. "Quite frankly, Larch, if making him look like an idiot was your intention for most of this plan over catching him…well, it's pretty redundant, given the costume, but that would definitely be something I can get behind. I assumed everything in this whole plan of yours was aimed at getting him arrested."

"Well, now he has been arrested, thank god, so we can at last put this behind us and go to Unova."

"I already told you, I'm trying to get away from that place!" Slick yelled. "I don't want to go back!"

"Well…look, how bad can it possibly be?" Anne asked, genuinely confused.

"Hm…it's not so much 'bad' as it is just…weird, actually. Really, really weird. Maybe I can deal with it, I dunno…"

"Look," I interjected, "the point is, we won, this is behind us now, and we would do well to get to Unova so I can finally deliver my presentation. By the way, where has Ralph ended up?"

"Guys?" the aforementioned called from somewhere in the ship. "What's going on? Where is he?"

"Never mind, Ralph, we have him already," I called back. "I shall go talk to the captain, and then return Greybeard."

I immediately set off, heading back for the boiler room to retrieve Celebi. To my eternal relief, it was still there, and seemed somewhat distraught.

"I'm sorry!" it, or more properly, he cried. "I've been really confused these past few…uh…look, I've just been out of it ever since I ate those bad berries in the 1600's!"

"I see." I smiled, attempting to reassure him. "Look, I have no qualms against you for this whole business. We have all made mistakes, though I must ask why you followed that man's instruction."

Celebi shrugged. "I dunno, I just thought he knew what was going on and that he would be able to help me. Who was that guy, anyway?"

"A very strange person, I think would be the nice way to put it. Come, you really ought to put Greybeard back in his proper time period."

"Oh, yeah, that," Celebi agreed. "Where is he?"

"Waiting above deck, for you."

"Oh, that's good." He slowly floated to the door, but paused and turned back to me. "You don't seem that interested in me. A lot people would absolutely freak if they found me, even just a glance, and you're holding a conversation! What gives?"

I smiled. "Oh, believe me, I am quite fascinated by this, but unfortunately, I have business elsewhere, as I am sure you do as well. I do fully plan on studying you at some point, though. It would be a terrible shame to let such a vast scientific opportunity go to waste."

Celebi huffed. "You wouldn't be the first to try. I've never once been captured, so what makes you think you'd be able to?"

"I spent several months catching a Shaymin. Quite the achievement, if I may say so."

"A Shaymin?" Celebi nodded in approval. "Not bad. Those guys are pretty tough to find. But I'm not going easy on you if you do come back."

"I would have it no other way. Come, we should really get Greybeard back as soon as possible."

()()()

After getting the whole group back together and talking to the captain of the ship, who had kindly provided one of the lifeboats to take Celebi and Greybeard back over to Greybeard's galleon, we five were leaning against the bannisters, alongside a few other people who had come out to see the antique ship's return, waving as it sailed off into the distance. Of course, some of us were more enthused with the proceedings than others…

"Bye!" Anne called. "We'll miss you!"

"We will?" Jack asked, turning to her.

"I didn't really know you so I have no frame of reference at all!" Slick yelled.

"This was ridiculous," Ralph said, quietly.

"Well…it's over." I said. "Wolfgang is in prison, Greybeard is finally going back to his time, and we are on our way to Unova at last. I would say this has been quite a productive day."

We were all silenced as the old galleon disappeared in a massive green flash, Greybeard finally back where he belonged. The crowd dispersed, but we remained there, looking out on the boundless sea for some time, wondering what new opportunities would await us soon.

"I think we should retire," I said, as the sun was beginning to set. "The ship sets off again in the morning, and we should all be rested in the event something should happen."

"Sounds good to me," Slick said. Although everybody else left for their rooms, I stayed a bit longer, as did Jack, both of us staring out at the sunset.

"So, now what?" he asked.

"Easy." I answered. "We head to Unova."

"Is anything involving you gonna be easy?"

"Likely not, but frankly, I am glad if it would not be. These past few days…I have never felt more alive, or accomplished. I thought I had lost my drive, my muse, but now, with all that has happened, I feel like I can do anything."

"You probably could, if you wanted to. By the way…it is pretty goddamn sweet that you caught that Shaymin, I have to admit."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I'm not sure if I could have done that, I just got lucky with that Latias."

"Come now, Jack, you sell yourself short! Catching such a thing is no small achievement, not even slightly. We have both accomplished fairly impressive things in our time."

"Yeah, but you've done more in the past week than most people do in their lives."

"Worry not, Jack, if you stick around with me, your chance to shine is frankly inevitable."

"Probably is. I'm going to my room. You coming?"

"Soon. I think I shall stay out here a bit longer."

Jack made his exit, leaving me to stand there and consider all that had happened and would happen. Next was Unova, and even I was not prepared for what would happen there…

END OF PART TWO