Chapter 11: Relaxing at the Sunshine Spa

Location: Brotherhood HQ, Room 160

Rita and Lloyd waited in their room, nothing to do but sit on their beds and wait for Ewan to come talk to them. Rita still stunk from all the things that happened to her in the sewer.

After what felt like hours, Ewan quietly came into the room and closed the door behind him. He waited a few seconds before speaking.

"I'm sorry for all this sneaking around and being quiet and such, but I really don't want there to be and panic in the headquarters about this."

"What happened Ewan? Why did he devolve like that?" asked Lloyd.

"I have no idea specifically, there are numerous reasons for it to happen, none of them good. Luckily it doesn't seem to be anything that'll effect any other pokemon, like a virus or something, but its still not good."

"What's going to happen to Zar now?" This time, Rita was the one who asked.

"Well, he was going to be taken directly to the towns jail, but the de-evolution has taken quite a toll on him. You see, typically when this happens, the pokemon in question loses almost all his power, not just the power they gained from evolving, all of it, like they had been thrown off a cliff, or went through the longest mystery dungeon in the world without food, or..."

"We get it Ewan." Interrupted Lloyd. "What's going to happen now? Do we still get the reward for his capture? And what about the exam?"

"Don't you worry about the exam, this whole mess doesn't change anything, a little bit of paper work you gotta do tomorrow and you're official."

"That's great but Ewan..." Rita saw he was avoiding the other part of the question. "What. About. Zar's. Bounty!"

"Well... the thing is, I found out that you won't be getting any reward from his capture. It turns out you can't get rewarded unless your members, which you guys currently are not yet. There's nothing I can do about that."

"You're kidding me... But Lloyd and I worked so hard..."

"I'm really sorry, but hey, the good news is the money gets donated to local charities, so some good came out of it right?"

Lloyd and Rita said nothing.

"Well anyways, you two are free for the rest of the day. Nothing you guys can do until tomorrow. Go ahead and tour the town, I'm sure you two haven't looked around it yet... What's that smell?"

Lloyd held back a laugh. "Rita, she fell in the sewer, and got chewed on by a Muk."

"Wow, you stink Rita!" Rita gave Ewan a threatening glare. "Ahh, but I have the perfect solution. In town there is a spa you can go to, have you clean and smelling great in a flash. Its just down the street, tell them I sent you and they will charge the whole thing to me."

"Well that sounds good I guess. What about Lloyd?"

"Well, he kinda stinks too, so you can join her."

"Hey!"

"Oh, before you leave, what did you get on the tenth floor? I'm dying to know!"

"We don't know either." Lloyd went over to Rita's bag, which was thrown aside once they got back to their room. He rummaged around and found the object. "It just looks like a rock to me."

"Hmm, nope, sorry, I don't know what it is either. I guess..."

"We could ask the captain?" interrupted Rita. "We thought of that already, we'll see him tomorrow."

"Actually you won't, the captain left this morning for personal reasons, said he wont be back for a while."

"Oh." Both Rita and Lloyd said together.

"Don't worry about it, go on and relax at the spa. It'll do you two good."

---

Location: Unknown

"Sir, we just been informed that Zar has been captured by the brotherhood, shall we send a team to get him out?"

"Don't, he failed me for the last time. I have plenty of others who would gladly hunt down the specimen for me."

"Who should I contact?"

"Hmm, send Gastly and Raticate to Maverick, have them tell him that there is a huge poke reward if he can capture the specimen."

"Yes boss, contacting them now."

---

Location: Wasteland, Hideout

Raticate and Gastly had found this place soon after Zar dismissed them. Without anywhere else to go they decided to hide here. The place wasn't all that nice, it was an old human house still intact after so long, it smelled awful and looked like it would collapse at any moment.

The two of them were just sitting around, relaxing in what used to be a living room, when the radio began to activate, creating a static sound that gradually became clear.

"Hey Rat, answer it will you?!"

"Don't call me Rat!"

Raticate got up and picked up the radio. He began to speak into it.

"Hello? Who is it?"

He was expecting Zar, calling to tell them he had succeeded and that they were useless morons or something of that nature.

"You two, I've got a message from the boss..."

It wasn't Zar, it was the bosses assistant or whatever, she usually was the one to call and pass on messages not important enough for the boss to pass on himself.

"... He wants to go and assist Maverick in the capture of the target. Zar has failed and is now in custody of the Brotherhood."

"So Zar failed huh?" Hahahahahaha! Who's the moron now? "That's terrible. We'll go right away."

"See that you do. Tell Maverick that the reward is one million poke if the target is alive."

"Wow, that's a lot. We will go right now. Over and out."

The radio then turned to static, raticate turned it off.

"Was it Zar?"

"Nope, he's in jail, the boss wants us to go work with Maverick to continue the mission."

"Ahahaha, I hope Zar stays in that prison for the rest of his life. Lets go."

---

Location: Havok city, Sunshine Spa

Lloyd and Rita didn't have to walk far from the headquarters to reach the Spa, a five minute walk down the road and they were there.

When they entered, the entire place smelled wonderful, like an entire field of flowers. It even covered up most of the smell coming off of Rita and Lloyd.

They were soon greeted by a pokemon, a Chansey, but unlike most Chansey who worked as nurses and doctors, this one was not wearing any uniform.

"Welcome to Sunshine Spa." She said. "How can we revitalize you today?"

"Our friend Ewan sent us, he said you guys would send the bill his way."

Chansey smelled the air around them.

"I see, so you guys are new recruits huh?"

"How did you know?" Said Lloyd.

"Ewan sends us lots of recruits who have just gone through the exam. Now, you're a Chikorita, so you'll be getting the grass type treatment, and you are... electric?"

"Uh, yeah, I am."

'Ok, your treatment is upstairs. Just wait a moment I'll have another employee come get you while I bring the young lady with me."

"Ok then, see you later Rita."

"Yeah, see you later."

---

Chansey lead Rita down a short hallway and opened the second door to the right. Inside was a bath tub full of what looked like mud.

"Sooooo, I'm taking a bath in mud? Won't I get more dirty?"

"The mud is specially made to kill bacteria and eliminate bad aromas. It is as well warmed up, to relax sore muscles. Grass types find it very soothing, some believe its because of there, pun unintended, roots as plants, who got their nutrients from the earth. An hour in their and you'll find yourself cleaner then you ever have been, as well completely in a state of relaxation."

"Well if you say so, thanks a lot."

"It is no problem, please enjoy yourself."

Chansey left the room and closed the door behind her. Rita was now alone for the first time in a while.

Rita was a bit unsure that mud could really do all the things the Chansey had said. He tip toed up the stairs beside the tub, stood at the edge and looked in, the surface was smooth and brown, with the occasional bubble rising and popping around the edges.

She placed her foot in, and instantly she could feel the effects, it felt wonderful. It felt like her leg was going to just melt off her body, it was so relaxed. She stopped hesitating and walked right in, she didn't sink right down like she would with water, she slowly sank until she got to the bottom. Every inch the mud crawled up her body multiplier the amount of pure joy she felt inside her.

"This is amazing!"

When she finally stopped sinking, she was sitting on the flat surface at the bottom of the tub, only her head poking out, the leaf on her head limp. Rita had never been so relaxed in her entire life, she could stay here her entire life.

The whole experience only got better when the tub got hotter, bubbles started to rise and pop more frequently.

She couldn't help but to close her eyes, she fell asleep in the mud bath as it worked its magic.

---

Lloyd decided to take a seat in a chair in the waiting room. Rita had left only a minute ago, but Lloyd was kinda jealous she was already getting ger spa treatment.

Out a different door came another pokemon, another Chansey (or the same one, he couldn't really tell.)

"Greetings, if you'll come this way sir." Lloyd got out of the chair and followed the Chansey upstairs.

"We don't get many electric types, may I ask why you have come?"

"Ewan, from Team Torrent, sent us here."

"Oh yes, I know him, very nice fellow."

At the top of the stairs there was two doors, both on the left. Chansey went to and opened the first door. Inside was a sight Lloyd didn't expect, it didn't look like what he imagined a room of relaxation to be. Inside was a lot of machinery, the centre piece to it all being a large horizontal tube.

"So what are you going to do that'll relax me so much?"

"This device is very simple, the first phase is a simple shower of water, this is to get to wet and to remove a majority of the dirt and things off your body. The second phase is the machine creates an electrical current that targets the muscles in the body, the process replicates the feeling of a full body massage. Because of the use of electricity, it is only safe to use the machine on electric type pokemon such as yourself. Once you get in you will be closed off from the rest of the room, I will be here and operate the machine."

"And this whole process wont hurt right?"

"Most certainly not, quite the opposite in fact, your whole body will feel very good during and after the machine does its thing."

Chansey went over to one of the other machines, one covered in colourful buttons. She pressed a big red one. The door of the tube opened and a metal staircase used to get in slowly came out of the floor.

"Please enter the machine now sir."

Lloyd went over to the stairs and climbed up, the bottom of the tube was covered in what looked like a thin mattress, the rest was a plain, grey metal, except for several black circles lining the top, going from one end of the tube all the way to the other. Lloyd climbed in and Chansey pressed the red button again, closing the tube.

It was dark inside, Lloyd couldn't see anything. A moment passed and a faint blue light turned on at each end of the tube, barely enough to see with, it made it look as though he was somewhere at the bottom of a pool or something.

The black circles at the top retracted themselves, each replaced with a large disk covered in holes. Out of them sprayed a gentle mist of water onto Lloyd, it was slightly cool, which made it rather refreshing.

When it stopped, he was stripped of all the dirt and dust from his body, or at any he could notice. The disks retracted like the black circles did, and were replaced with what looked like lightning rods.

The machine began to hum, charging up electricity. It kept going and going until it sounded like the machine was about to explode. The little lightning rods glowed with energy, looking like little pieces of coral at the bottom of his little ocean.

The machine stopped humming. A moment later the little rods began to discharge the electricity into Lloyd, targeting everywhere on his body. He expected the sensation to hurt, but instead it felt like dozens of little hands were rubbing the sore spots on his body, the feeling was wonderful to Lloyd.

The thin mattress he was laying on began to heat up, warming his back, this greatly added to his enjoyment. His whole body was totally relaxed and felt great.

The calming blue light and feeling in his body began to make him tired. He closed his eyes and eventually went to sleep, the machine still pumping electricity into his body.

---

Two hours passed, feeling completely clean and calm, both Lloyd and Rita (Rita showering off the mud first,) walked back into the waiting room, both the Chanseys were waiting for them.

"We both hope you enjoyed your stay with us."

"Please come again."

Both Rita and Lloyd sleepily said thank you. And left, walking towards the Brotherhood HQ.

"That was amazing." Said Lloyd.

"We have to come back again."

"Agreed."

It was night time, and both had to go to bed so they could be well rested for tomorrow. Everyone had already gone, the halls of the Brotherhood was empty, even the Lopunny was off to bed.

---

Location: Brotherhood HQ, Room 160

Even the elevator didn't bother Lloyd, he was feeling too good for a little motion sickness to bother him. Rita had already fallen asleep.

Lloyd was laying in bed, just about to sleep. He layed down without another thought in his mind and quickly drifted off.

Before he lost all consciousness, he heard a voice, a faint, deep voice, belonging to an unknown person or pokemon in his head.

"Activate... destroy everything... kill everyone... immediately."

Then, Lloyd fell asleep. Ignoring the voice, thinking it was just his imagination.