Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon and am in no way affiliated with Nintendo or Gamefreak, or other companies that write or produce pokemon. Now that that legal stuff is out of the way, on to the story!
Pokemon Legends: Kanto Saga
Chapter Twenty Nine
Burnt Out
"Anytime you two want to visit the islands you can use that Tri-Pass and board the Sea Gallop in Vermilion." Bill said to Ashley and Rina. They had arrived at Cinnabar Island and Bill was seeing them off before the Sea Gallop left again. As usual, Pippi and Bulbasaur were out of their pokeballs.
"I'll have to thank Cyril the next time I'm there then, now I can visit the hot springs anytime I want!" Ashley replied, showing off her Tri-Pass.
"Giving that to her might not have been such a great idea." Rina muttered and sighed.
"Well if either of you ever need anything, just let me or Cyril know! We'd be glad to help you out!" The Sea Gallop's whistle blew, letting Bill know it was ready to leave. "Looks like its time for me to go, I'll be seeing you two around!" Everyone waved, and Bill boarded the Sea Gallop to head to Vermilion.
"Well now that we're in Cinnabar, what do we do next?" Rina asked.
"What else? Head to the gym!" Ashley replied, turning around and heading off toward the south end of the island.
"Ashley! Wait!" Rina called out after her. Ashley stopped in her tracks and looked back at her. Rina pointed north of them, where a building clearly labelled 'gym' stood in the distance.
"J-just testing you, thats all!" Ashley said, smiling sheepishly. She quickly walked past Rina, heading back to the gym.
"She's way too excited about this." Rina said to Bulbasaur and Pippi before following after Ashley.
"-I couldn't agree more. There's nothing exciting about yet another gym battle I won't be participating in.-" Bulbasaur grumbled.
The group followed behind Ashley until she was near the door, at which point Rina remembered Ashley's preferred method of opening the gym doors.
"Ashley, STOP!" Rina ran to try to stop her, but was too late. Ashley pushed on the doors to throw them open...but they wouldn't budge.
"What the..." Ashley pushed against the doors, trying to open them, but they still wouldn't budge. "What gives?! The gym shouldn't be closed now!"
"Oh...guess that solves that then..." Rina stated, blinking and staring blankly at the door.
"-Gee, I'm so disappointed to.-" Bulbasaur muttered, rolling his eyes.
"-Oh, grow up already.-" Pippi said to him. Bulbasaur quickly extended a vine and hit her in the back of her head. "-Ow! Rina, Bulbasaur hit me!-"
"Both of you behave yourselves!" Rina scolded them.
"That does it! We're just going to barge in there!" Ashley took a pokeball from her belt, but Rina quickly grabbed her hand.
"Ashley! You can't just go breaking into the gym!" Rina said to her.
"Why not?! Its supposed to be open!" Ashley shot back.
"Thats no reason to break in! They could be closed for a perfectly valid reason!" The two girls struggled, with Rina using both hands to keep Ashley from releasing her pokemon.
"Just what do you two think you're doing?" Ashley and Rina stopped struggling with each other and looked up to see an older man in a brown coat standing nearby. His eyes were concealed by a wide brim hat and his face by a beard. "Don't you know about Blaine's test?"
"Blaine's...test?" Ashley blinked in disbelief and Rina let go of her hand.
"What kind of test is it?" Rina asked him.
"You can just go into his gym like that." The old man said to him. "Blaine takes his role as a gym leader very seriously. If you want to challenge him, you first have to prove your worth by finding the key to his gym."
"Key? Where are we supposed to find that then?" Ashley asked him.
"These days he hides it in the burnt down mansion." The man replied. "Its in the north-west end of the island."
"Burnt down mansion? Well in that case, I'll find that key right away!" Ashley said enthusiastically. "Thanks, mister."
"Don't go thinking it'll be that easy." The man cautioned her. "There's a reason he chose the mansion, afterall..."
"A burnt down mansion..." Rina thought to herself. "Could there be fire-type pokemon living there now?"
Ashley and Rina hurried over to the burnt down mansion, but were surprised to find it mostly intact. They opened the front doors of the mansion and stepped inside. They found themselves in a large foyer with what used to be a red carpet leading across a long hallway. Several pillars lined the room, and there was a flight of stairs leading up to the next level.
"You know, when that guy said it was burnt down, I expected to be sifting through debris for a key." Ashley said once they stepped inside.
"Me too...but this place looks like it could practically be refurnished and would be as good as new." Rina said in agreement.
"-Does it actually matter what condition the place is in?-" Bulbasaur asked nervously. "-Lets just find the key and get out of here already. There's something about this place that I really don't like.-"
"Well, if this is what we have to deal with, then we should probably split up to find that key." Ashley suggested.
"No way!" Rina quickly replied. "There's no telling what might happen in here, we better stick together."
"You have a point I guess..." Ashley said, imagining a wall collapsing on herself with only Bulbasaur to help her and him ignoring her cries for help. She shot Bulbasaur a dirty look from the corner of her eyes.
"What would be the easiest way for us to find that key then?" Rina wondered aloud.
"-Its too bad none of us have a special key-finding ability.-" Pippi noted in dismay.
"-Yeah, cause it'd be perfectly normal for a pokemon to have an attack called 'Find Key'.-" Bulbasaur rolled his eyes.
Unknown to the girls, a man and his pokemon were observing the two from a hole in the ceiling. The pokemon opened its mouth and breathed out a cloud of smoke down onto the group.
"What the?!" Ashley cried out in surprise as the smoke obscured her vision.
"I can't see a thing!" Rina said. The smoke shrouded them, clouding their vision. They both coughed as they breathed it in. Neither of them heard the sound of someone jumping down from the ceiling and landing near them. They quickly opened the mansion's door, letting the smoke get sucked out into the open air.
"Where did that come from all of a sudden?" Ashley wondered aloud.
"Ashley! Your bag!" Ashley blinked and looked down at her side, where her travel bag was usually hanging. Somehow, until she had looked, she didn't notice it was gone.
"What?!" Ashley looked around on the floor where they were standing, to see if she dropped it when the smoke descended on them. "Where did it..." Looking up again, Ashley caught sight of a man running toward the stairs at the opposite end of the room. He had Ashley's bag in his hands.
"HEY! GET BACK HERE!" Ashley yelled and took off running after him. By then, he had already gone up the stairs.
"Ashley! Wait up!" Rina called out and took off running after her.
"-We're certainly off to a good start.-" Bulbasaur muttered, rolling his eyes.
"-Come on! We have to follow them!-" Pippi said to him then chased off after Rina and Ashley.
"-Guess there's no helping it.-" Bulbasaur shrugged. "-Still don't like this place.-" Bulbasaur sighed and took off after them as well.
Ashley was the first to reach the top of the flight of stairs and stopped to look around. The stairs lead into a small room with another flight of stairs next to an opening leading out into a corridor, a pokemon statue, and an opening to an equipment room half blocked off by rubble. The thief she had been chasing was nowhere in sight
"Great...where did he go from here now?" Ashley muttered bitterly. Rina, Pippi, and Bulbasaur soon caught up with her at the top of the stairs.
"Is that supposed to be a pokemon?" Rina wondered, looking at the statue. It looked somewhat like a hairless cat with a long tail.
"-Anyone else notice it seems unusually warm in here?-" Bulbasaur asked, shuddering. "-I don't like this at all.-"
"There's probably fire pokemon making their home here now." Rina said to Bulbasaur, turning her attention away from the statue. "Anyway, where do we go from here?" She then asked Ashley.
"We'll check upstairs first." Ashley said to her. "But I'll go first, just incase it isn't safe."
"-Here's hoping.-" Bulbasaur said quietly.
"-That was just mean.-" Pippi said to him.
Ashley went up the flight of stairs that stood before them, making it up without any problems but finding herself at a dead end. The room she found looked like it had been completely open at one point, but now it was enclosed entirely in rubble from burnt down walls, furniture, and equipment.
"There's nothing up here at all..." Ashley said to Rina when she got to the top of the stairs with Pippi and Bulbasaur. "Back down then..."
"Wait! Whats that?" Rina ran over to the table and picked up the book. "It looks like someone's journal..."
"What?! Rina, we need to get my stuff back!" Ashley said to her indignantly.
"There could be something interesting in this though!" Rina shot back, holding up the journal. "Maybe even why the mansion burnt down like this!"
"I'd hardly call this burnt down..." Ashley replied. "If you want to read it so badly then just take it with you, I want to get my stuff back already!" Rina nodded, slipping the journal into her backpack and then going back down the stairs. When they reached the bottom, they found themselves immersed in another cloud of smoke.
"Not again!" Ashley cried out in dismay. "Bulbasaur, quick! Use your vines and clear this smoke somehow!"
"-What?! How the heck am I supposed to do that?!-" Bulbasaur demanded with a growl.
"EEEEK!" Rina screamed from within the darkness.
"-Rina!-" Pippi started running around frantically, trying to find Rina but ending up running around in circles instead.
"-Oh hey I just learned GUST!-" Bulbasaur extended two vines and began twirling them around above him like a fan, trying to stir up the smoke with little effect though it soon dispersed on its own. A loud bang could be heard nearby, but the girls and pokemon were too preoccupied to notice.
"Rina! Are you ok?" Ashley asked her once the smoke was clear.
"I'm fine but..." Rina looked over her shoulder. Her backpack was gone, and this time the thief was nowhere in sight. The thief had already grabbed her backpack and rounded the corner by the time everyone could see again.
"-Ok, now this is personal!-" Pippi declared, slamming her fists together while sparks shot out from her cheeks.
"I can't believe we let him get us again!" Ashley growled in frustration. "He didn't even leave any footprints for us to follow! Just who is this guy?"
"-Someone good at stealing things apparently.-" Bulbasaur muttered, glancing around the room. "-Trainer too, thats definitely a pokemon's Smokescreen attack.-"
"So whoever it is, they're a trainer and they're using their pokemon to help them steal things." Rina noted bitterly. "Just another criminal for us to bring to justice!"
"You didn't care this much when my bag was stolen." Ashley muttered quietly. "Anyway, lets try in there." Ashley pointed to the door south of them, the one partially blocked off by burnt rubble. They moved closer, but were quickly greeted by three pokemon. Two Weezing floated out in front of them, accompanied by a fiery humanoid pokemon with a duck bill.
"There's wild pokemon here?" Ashley said in disbelief.
"Oh, hey! Maybe one of you saw a thief running around here?" Ashley asked the pokemon.
"-You's trainers are on our turf!-" The duck billed pokemon said. "-We dun like you, so we gonna burn you's good now!-" The two Weezing nodded in agreement with the fire pokemon.
"I wonder what pokemon that is..." Ashley took out her pokedex and scanned the lone fire pokemon.
"Umm, Ashley, I don't think you should be worrying about that right now..." Rina said to her. Ashley ignored her plea, but Pippi quickly moved in front of the two trainers.
"Magmar, the Spitfire Pokemon." The pokedex read. "Its body always burns with an orange glow that enables it to hide perfectly amidst flames." Ashley looked up from the pokedex to look at Magmar and raised an eyebrow.
"Doesn't look like its glowing to me...really, who writes these things?" Ashley sighed and put her pokedex away. The group of pokemon began to advance.
"ASHLEY!" Rina yelled at her.
"Fine, fine..." Ashley sighed. "Ok, Bulbasaur, attack with Razor Leaf!" Ashley called out.
"-I'm going to regret doing this I KNOW I am!-" Bulbasaur ran out in front of Ashley and fired a barrage of sharp leaves at the opposing pokemon. The trio barely flinched as the leaves cut across their bodies. All three pokemon responded by blasting Bulbasaur with a cone of fire, leaving Bulbasaur completely scorched.
"-Totally...called...it...-" Bulbasaur wheezed out before collapsing.
"Pippi, use Thunderbolt now!" Rina called out. Pippi fired a bolt of electricity from her cheeks, hitting the Magmar and even shocking the two Weezing hovering near it. Magmar staggered and nearly collapsed from the bolt, but both of the Weezing easily shook it off. Rina quickly grabbed another pokeball to send out reinforcements for Pippi while Ashley recalled Bulbasaur.
"Knight, lets go!" Rina held out the Great Ball she had put Knight in and released him in front of Pippi. The two Weezing and Magmar attacked with Flamethrower again, spewing out a blast of flames toward Pippi just as Knight appeared to take the attack instead. The three pokemon focused their fire attacks on Knight, but when it was over he only had a minor scorch mark to show for it.
"-Fire attacks mean nothing to me.-" Knight said to them. He grinned to himself and cracked his knuckles as the opposing pokemon stood back in fear. "-So, Rina, which ones should I take down first?-"
"So thats Rina's Dragonite?" Ashley thought to herself. She had taken another pokemon's ball in her hand but decided not to release it. "Well, looks like she has everything taken care of then in that case..."
"Knight, attack Magmar with Dragon Claw!" Dragonite raised one hand back, allowing for a set of orange, glowing claws to extend from his hand. He slashed Magmar across its body with his draconic strength, sending Magmar flying back until he hit the floor and slid into the far wall of the other room and was knocked out instantly. The two Weezing fled to check on the Magmar.
"-Well that was almost too-URK!-" Suddenly a pair of orange claws raked across Knight's body, causing him to stagger back. Looking up in bewilderment, Knight saw another Dragonite, looking exactly like him, standing at the entrance.
"Another Dragonite? Where did that come from?" Ashley wondered aloud, blinking in disbelief. The enemy Dragonite rushed toward Knight, tackling him past Rina and Ashley. The two quickly jumped back to their feet after hitting the stairs and turned to face each other.
"Knight!" Rina called out in concern. Both pokemon looked at her as if expecting a command. "I can't tell which is which!" She cried out in dismay. She lost track of which one was Knight while they were tumbling across the ground. Both Dragonite even had dark green skin, making it impossible to tell them apart.
"-I could help if I knew which one to shock!-" Pippi said.
"Hypno, go!" Ashley called out, finally releasing her pokemon. The rather buff looking psychic pokemon appeared facing the two brawling Dragonite and looked around with a rather confused expression on his face.
"-What the? Where am I?-" Hypno looked behind him at Ashley and Rina with an even more confused expression. "-Who the hell are you people?!-"
"Ashley, I don't think he's going to be any help..." Rina said to her. "He seems kinda confused...where did you catch him anyway?"
"Oh, I found him unconscious after a battle with my Beedrill and decided to catch him." Ashley replied. "Maybe that wasn't such a good idea afterall..."
"-Th...th...that was HER Beedrill?!-" Hypno exclaimed in shock, slowly stepping away from Ashley in fear. "-I still remember those eyes...those cold, soulless eyes...-"
"-I don't care how exact of a duplicate of me you might be, I am Knight! I won't lose to you!-" Tired of waiting, the two Dragonites went on the attack. Both of them raised one hand back, extending claws forged from draconic power and then attacking. Their claws collided and they pushed back against each other, finding themselves easily matched.
"-I am the real Knight! I will never lose to any imposter!-" The other Dragonite said as he raised his fist back. The first Dragonite followed suit, focusing energy into their hands and then unleashing a powerful Focus Punch attack upon each other. Again, their attacks matched up, sending out a powerful shockwave as their fists collided and pushed against each other.
"Look! We don't have time for this!" Ashley growled at Hypno in frustration. "There be Dragonites!" Ashley pointed at the two Dragonites locked in combat. "You go Hypnosis both of them!"
"-R-right!-" Hypno stuttered in response and turned back to the two Dragonite's. "If I don't listen she might sick that Beedrill on me again! Here goes nothing..." Hypno started waving his watch from side to side, using it as a focus point for hypnotic energy waves. Hypno focused his attack on one of the Dragonite, causing it to grow drowsy and lose strength.
"-Damn it...I woulda...had him...-" The Dragonite mumbled, slipping into a deep sleep. He fell toward his opponent but was quickly pushed down as the other Dragonite connected with its Focus Punch attack. The affected Dragonite was knocked to the floor by the punch and slept through it.
"Good, now the other one!" Hypno focused its Hypnosis attack on the other Dragonite now. The Dragonite turned toward Hypno, its body starting to ripple as if it were a liquid. Its body began to change until an exact duplicate of Ashley's Hypno was standing opposite of it and started to wave around the pendulum that formed. The doppleganger Hypno was using Hypnosis now as well.
"-HOLY SON OF A SNORLAX!-" Hypno shouted, staggering back in surprise and dropping his pendulum. "-What IS this thing?!-"
"Ok, that one is definitely NOT Knight!" Rina said and then gave an exasperated sigh. "We put the wrong one to sleep..."
"Well its not like we could tell, we kinda lost track when that...thing suddenly attacked!" Ashley said to her.
"-Whatever that pokemon is, its seriously creeping me out!-" Pippi said, growling at the fake Hypno. Ashley took out her pokedex to scan the other Hypno, hoping it would have the answer.
"Ditto, the Transform Pokemon." The pokedex read. "Capable of copying an opponent's genetic code to instantly transform itself into a duplicate of the enemy."
"Well this time we know which one is the imposter." Ashley declared with a smirk. "Ok! Lets both attack it at the same time and take it out!"
"-What?! You want me to attack that...thing?!-" Hypno asked in disbelief. The other Hypno was still trying to put him to sleep with Hypnosis, but with no effect. It was clearly starting to become frustrated as a result.
"Right, lets do it!" Rina said enthusiastically as she nodded in agreement. "Pippi, attack the Ditto with Volt Tackle!"
"-I was waiting for those words!-" Pippi grinned as she began charging electricity around her body.
"Hypno, get ready to follow it up with Headbutt!" Hypno blinked in disbelief and nodded slowly. He was still trying to grasp the situation and the transformed Ditto wasn't helping him any.
"-Volt...TACKLE!-" Pippi cried out, a surge of power flowing through her as she shot toward the transformed Ditto. The Ditto didn't look until it was too late. Pippi plowed into him, creating a shockwave that sent a pulse of electricity through the Ditto's body. The transformed Ditto staggered back from the impact while Pippi dropped to the floor. One of Ditto's flailing arms struck the nearby pokemon statue, seemingly knocking its head off.
"-Ow...that thing is actually pretty tough...-" Pippi mumbled as she picked herself up off the floor.
"Hypno, now!" Ashley called out.
"-R...right!-" Hypno stood up and then lowered his head. Hypno charged toward its doppleganger, raising his head at the last second to strike his opponent in the jaw. Ditto staggered back again, hitting the wall near the top of the stairs. It then lost its balance and tumbled down the stairs, getting knocked unconscious when it hit the floor and reverting back into a pink blob.
"Well, guess that takes care of that! Good job, Hypno!" Ashley said, congratulating him. She took a quick glance back into the other room, where the Magmar and two Weezing were. The Magmar was conscious again and all three were huddled together, cowering.
"-You're congratulating me now?!-" Hypno said, turning to Ashley with a confused expression. "-You're insane! You're all insane! This whole world is insane! I just want to hide in that pokeball thing and never come out again!-"
"Whats he saying?" Ashley asked Rina.
"He...he wants to go back into his pokeball..." Rina replied hesitantly. Ashley nodded and promptly recalled Hypno.
"-Wait, what WAS he saying?-" Pippi asked. "-I didn't understand that at all.-"
"Rina, aren't you going to recall Knight?" Ashley asked her.
"No, I'm going to keep him out to fight off that thief's pokemon when we find him." Rina replied. She looked over at the sleeping Dragonite and happened to catch a glimpse of the statue in the process. "Hey! Look at that!" Rina pointed to the statue. The head was seemingly snapped off, but was hanging on in the back. A red button sat at the top of the statue's neck.
"It looks like there was a button hidden in the statue..." Rina said to Ashley. "Should we press it?"
"Who wouldn't?" Ashley replied, grinning from ear to ear. She eagerly pressed the button and heard a loud bang nearby. "What was that?!"
Rina quickly ducked around the corner near the flight of stairs leading up, the only direction they hadn't gone yet, and saw an opening in the wall to the left of her. There was another loud bang as the door suddenly shut. "Ashley, press that button again and hold it down!" Rina called back to Ashley. Ashley did so, and the door opened again.
"If I was a thief, a secret room is definitely where I'd hide." Rina said, smiling to herself. She looked back toward the stairs, about to call for Pippi, but noticed Knight was starting to wake up.
"-Damn it...had that guy right where I wanted him...-" Knight mumbled groggily. He slowly scanned the room, looking for the other Dragonite. "-Guess I missed it...-"
"Knight, over here! Pippi, you stay there and protect Ashley!" Rina called to them. Knight slowly got up and walked over to where Rina was standing. "That thief is in that room there I know he is!" Rina said, pointing to the open door. "We're going to go in there and grab him. Knight, you go in first and I will follow behind."
"-Got it, this time I won't get caught off guard.-" Knight slammed his fists together and walked over to the opening with Rina following behind him.
"Guess I'm stuck holding this button..." Ashley said with a sigh and looked down at Pippi. "Trade places?" She asked her. Pippi shook her head.
In the room, meanwhile, Rina and Knight found a man in a white shirt, brown jeans, and wearing a baseball cap backwards. He had two fire lizard pokemon, a Charmander and Charmeleon, standing next to him while he hurriedly emptied Ashley and Rina's bags into a large burlap sack.
"D-d-damn it! Busted!" The thief quickly hid behind a table. "If I knew they had a powerful pokemon like that I woulda swiped their pokeballs too!" He whimpered. "Charmander! Charmeleon! Attack!"
"-Its nothing personal...-" The Charmander raised one hand and extended its claws as a metallic coating formed on them.
"-Our trainer has to make a living somehow...-" The Charmeleon added as he likewise raised a claw-tipped hand and prepared to use Metal Claw. The two fire pokemon charged toward Knight to attack. Once the two were in arm's length of Knight he reached out, grabbing their heads and slamming them together. Both pokemon slumped to the ground in a heap, knocked out instantly.
"-Too easy.-" Knight said, rubbing his hands together.
"Ack! Please don't hurt me!" The thief ducked under the table, cowering against the floor.
"This...is the guy who stole our stuff?" Rina said, blinking in disbelief. "He's...pathetic..."
"-So what do we do about him then?-" Knight asked Rina.
"I don't know...I kinda feel sorry for him now..." Rina replied and slowly started to walk toward him.
"-Feel sorry? For a thief?-" Knight folded his arms over his chest and rolled his eyes. "-You're like your father, way too forgiving.-"
"I'm willing to let you go, but on one condition." Rina said to the thief.
"R-really?!" The thief peeked out cautiously. "What? What is it? I'll do anything just don't turn me in!"
"You have to train your pokemon and become a proper trainer." Rina said to him. "If you're willing to do that then I'll let you take two of my great balls to start."
"DEAL!" The thief jumped out from under the table and shook Rina's hand. "I promise I'll lead an honest life from now on!"
"Wow, that was easy..." Rina thought to herself. She reached into the burlap sack and took out two great balls, which could have been either her's, Ashley's, or someone else's for all she knew. "You'll have to get them reset but they're empty anyway so that shouldn't be a problem." She said as she handed them over to him.
"Thank you! I promise I'll try my best as a real trainer!" The thief said gleefully as he took the two great balls in hand. He took two pokeballs in hand and recalled his Charmander and Charmeleon.
"I won't ever forget this act of kindness!" The thief said to Rina and then bolted out of the room.
"See, Knight, sometimes all people need is a little forgiveness!" Rina said, smiling brightly.
"-Somehow, I don't believe he's going to change his ways so easily.-" Knight replied with a snort.
"Anyway, now I can finally read that journal!" Rina opened the sack and sorted through it. There were all sorts of items in the sack along with those belonging to her and Ashley. She found the book easily enough, though the back had fallen off it from the rough handling. She also noticed a key burried in the bag and grabbed it as well.
"This key..." Rina held up the key and looked at it. It looked like a typical key, only the top of it had the Cinnabar Gym's badge on it. "This must be the key Blaine hid here. So all this other stuff must be things the guy found around the mansion..."
Knight raised an eye at her. "-Journal? Key? What did you guys come here for anyway?-" He asked her.
"Ashley needed to find the key so she could challenge Blaine." Rina replied, holding up the key for Knight to see. "That thief must have found the key here somewhere. There's a bunch of evolution stones and TM's in there too, even ones Ashley didn't have."
"-You're not really going to take that stuff are you?-"
"Well, most of it is our's anyway, and the rest he probably just found here so I don't see what the problem would be..."
"-You really don't think its all...-"
Ashley suddenly burst into the room, brushing past Knight and cutting him off. "Rina! What did you let that guy go for!?" Ashley asked Rina, looking a bit upset. Pippi casually walked in behind her.
"-I'm curious about that too...what about his pokemon?-" Pippi asked.
"I felt kinda sorry for him..." Rina replied sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head. "So I told him he could go if he promised to go straight as a trainer."
"-I say once a criminal, always a criminal.-" Knight muttered to himself.
"What about our stuff?" Ashley asked.
"Its all in that sack there..." Rina replied, pointing at the sack on the floor. "We'll have to sort through it though. There's some other stuff there too, including this key." Rina held up the key for Ashley to see. Ashley quickly approached her and took the key out of her hand.
"This...this has to be the gym key!" Ashley said, grinning widely. "Hey! What else is in here then, I wonder?" Ashley picked up the sack and sorted through it. "Oh wow! A water stone! I could evolve Poliwhirl with that!"
"I think he has every kind of stone in there..." Rina reached into the bag and pulled out a green stone with a lightning bolt on it, then held it out toward Pippi. "This Thunder Stone would evolve you into a Raichu if you want, Pippi."
Pippi looked at the stone curiously for a moment and shook her head. "-Nuh uh! Not evolving!-" Pippi replied. "-I don't want to evolve before my mother does.-"
"We'll just hold onto it then." Rina placed the stone back in the bag. "Moon Stone too...I wonder if Clyde would want to evolve?"
"We can worry about all that later." Ashley said while grabbing her empty travel bag from the table. "I'm going to sort through the bag and find my stuff."
"I'll do that in a minute..." Rina sat down on the floor and placed the journal in her lap, opening it to the first readable page.
"-I really think you should turn over anything there that doesn't belong to you to the proper authorities.-" Knight said to them. His plea seemed to fall on deaf ears. Knight let out a sigh. "-Kids these days...-"
"Says here this place was some kind of lab and that they found a legendary pokemon called Mew." Rina said as she read over the journal. She flipped through a couple more pages, stopping at a nearly unblemished entry. "It says here that they tried to clone Mew and made a new pokemon called Mewtwo..."
Ashley stopped and looked over at Rina in disbelief. "Rina, there's no way that can be true. Mew's existance isn't even confirmed for one thing, so how could they try to clone it?"
"I guess you're right..." Rina sighed and closed the journal. "I think I'd like to keep this with me though, could be something interesting in it." Rina put the book aside and then grabbed her backpack to sort through the sack and find her things.
After sorting through the sack left behind by the thief, Ashley and Rina left the mansion and headed over to the pokemon center. They everything into their bags, leaving the empty sack behind, and sent any items they didn't need off to storage once they got there. When they were done storing items, and their pokemon were healed, they left the center and stopped just outside. Both girls took a pokeball in each hand and released their pokemon.
"Bulbasaur! Poliwhirl! Come on out!"
"Pippi! Clyde! You too!"
The four pokeballs opened up, releasing their respective pokemon.
"-I seem to be getting my butt kicked a lot lately...-" Bulbasaur muttered to himself and looked around. "-Whats the deal anyway? Why are those two out?-" He asked when he saw Clyde and Poliwhirl with them. Ashley and Rina put the empty pokeballs back on their belts and then each took an evolution stone from their bags.
"We managed to get ahold of these..." Rina explained, holding a rock in the shape of a crescent moon. "They will evolve you guys to your final forms, if you want to evolve that is."
"-You can count me in.-" Clyde replied with a nod. "-Evolution means getting stronger, so I am certainly not going to refuse.-"
"-Poliwhirl wants to be stronger too!-" Poliwhirl added, nodding enthusiastically.
"Ok then, here you go!" Ashley said as she held out a blue stone to Poliwhirl. Rina followed suit, holding out the Moon Stone out to Clyde. Poliwhirl and Clyde absorbed energy from the stone and a white glow surrounded their bodies as they began to evolve.
"-I could evolve anytime I want to, you know.-" Bulbasaur said smugly. "-I just choose not to.-"
"-Yep, you just choose to get your butt kicked repeatedly instead.-" Pippi added, nodding.
Clyde didn't appear to go through any major changes as he evolved, short of growing. He became twice as tall, his tail and wings grew larger, and his ears longer and more pointed. Poliwhirl, likewise, only appeared to grow about a foot but became a lot more buff looking. Both pokemon then ceased glowing, revealing a fully evolved Clefable and Poliwrath.
"-Poliwhirl strong! Hat now!-" Poliwrath announced when his evolution was complete.
"-I have to say, I feel quite a bit stronger in this form.-" Clyde said, taking a few punches at the air to get a feel for his new form.
"Now, this isn't quite a hat..." Ashley reached into her travel bag and took out a red and yellow, flame pattern headband. "But I found this in that thief's sack, and I think it'd suit you better." Ashley tied the headband around Poliwrath's head. Poliwrath looked up at it curiously and then nodded.
"-New hat! Poliwhirl's hat feels kinda funny.-" Poliwrath said.
"You're actually a Poliwrath now." Rina said, correcting him. "So what about you, Clyde? How do you feel?" Clyde unleashed another barrage of punches upon the air before responding.
"-As cliche as it sounds, I can apparently use the power of love to attack.-" Clyde replied, smiling lightly. "-It seems like I've gained a powerful new technique in this form.-"
"-Bleh...when I finally evolve, I better get one heck of a kickass technique.-" Bulbasaur muttered.
"Ok! Now we're definitely ready to face Blaine!" Ashley announced, taking the gym's key in hand. "Lets go!"
Ashley and Rina recalled their newly evolved pokemon and headed off to the gym. Bulbasaur and Pippi followed behind. When they reached the gym, Rina stayed back and whispered to Bulbasaur while Ashley unlocked the door. Once the door was unlocked she grinned to herself and stood back.
"Now to do this the right way! I'm..." Ashley moved to push the door open, but a pair of vines wrapped around her arms and pulled her back. "H-hey! Let go!"
"Not a chance." Rina said to her.
"I see you noisy kids are back again." The stranger from before stepped out from around the side of the gym. "I see you found the key too. However, the gym leader is not inside."
"What do you mean he's not inside?!" Ashley growled, clenching her fists. "We went through a lot of trouble to find that key and now the gym leader isn't even here?!"
"You must now find the gym leader if you want to get inside." The stranger said to them.
"Find the gym leader now? This is getting ridiculous..." Ashley grumbled.
"-For once, I agree with her.-" Bulbasaur said, releasing his grip on Ashley's arms and retracting his vines. "-First we have to find a key in a burnt down mansion, and now we have to find the gym leader himself?-"
"Where do we have to look for him then?" Rina asked him.
"I can't tell you that." The man replied.
"I see...hmm..." Rina thought for a moment and a smirk spread across her lips. "Well of course you couldn't tell us...that'd give it away, wouldn't it?"
"Huh?" Ashley blinked in disbelief. "Rina? Do you know where he is?"
"I have a pretty good idea." Rina replied, nodding. "Ashley, doesn't it seem odd to you that this guy knows so much about Blaine and seems to always be outside the gym?"
"Huh..." Ashley thought about it for a moment. "Now that you mention it, that is odd." Ashley looked over at the stranger. "It could just be a coincidence...but it also seems likely that he could actually be Blaine in disguise."
"So you're smarter than you look..." The man grinned and took his hat in one hand and his coat in the other, simultaneously throwing them off. His hair came off with his hat, revealing it to be a wig and himself to be bald. He then retrieved a pair of sunglasses from the pocket of his jeans and put them on.
"I am indeed the gym leader, Blaine." The man said to them. "You have passed my tests and have earned the right to face me in battle."
"Well at least that was easier than the key test..." Ashley said, sighing in relief. "Ok! Then lets battle already!"
"I see you're still as eager as you were before." Blaine said to her, grinning widely. "Good! Then lets go inside and begin our fiery showdown!"
"Looks like they're both fired up." Rina said, giggling quietly.
"-Yep!-" Pippi smiled and nodded in agreement. "-Looks like we're in for one hot battle!-"
"-I swear if this battle becomes one bad fire pun after another I'm going to unleash my burning rage and...-" Bulbasaur stopped himself and hung his head sadly. "-Nevermind...-"
Author's Notes: Second week in a row I'm late. No doubt I could blame lots of things but, really, procrastination pretty much sums it up. There's no excuse for only having had 4-5 pages done by Friday. Not even Christmas excuses that I don't think. By the way, Poliwrath's new 'hat' is a Focus Band. You don't see pokemon with items often in this fic but I have plans to change that when I'm writing the Sinnoh saga and beyond.
Fun fact: The original Mew journals (and possibly the updated ones too) mentioned finding Mew in South America. At this point in time, there's a small problem with this. The pokemon world is clearly not Earth. While its likely it was originally meant to take place in Japan, particularly with each region being based on a region in Japan, the regions are all split up and their distance/directions to different regions means there's no way they're sticking with that.
We've also had too many regions now to say they're all some kind of lost world either. This means that South America doesn't likely exist in the pokemon world or, if it does, its likely just a part of the world that happens to be called South America and has no actual relation to real world South America. There's really no point to this fact, its just something I thought about recently. The more I look back the more I can see how Pokemon's unexpected popularity changed how they planned to handle the series.
On another note, related to the glowing Magmar thing, the pokdex seems to have a tendency to either exaggerate or have information that couldn't possibly be true. The people who come up with those entries clearly have no scientific knowledge of any sort and just throw logic out the window, though I suppose they're not exactly paid for either anyway. They're probably just told to come up with something interesting that'd go well with that pokemon.
Using Magmar as an example, again, its body heat is supposedly 2100 farenheit according to one entry. If its body was that hot, then you couldn't realistically find Magmar in any sort of building. Wooden buildings would catch fire and other materials would likely start to melt or burn as well. Then we have Slugma, a pokemon who apparently has magma serving the same function as blood (ie. transporting oxygen) The first you could probably excuse by saying the surface of Magmar's body is much cooler and thus the heat is kept mostly inside. The Slugma thing though? Whoever wrote that fails biology forever.
To be fair, not many people likely pay attention to pokedex entries anyway. If you did, you'd just end up confused in terms of where a pokemon's power lies in relation to each other. In-game statistics are much better for that.
I think thats enough random thoughts/rants for now...
