Ash stared in wonder at the young woman standing at the rear edge of the warehouse, dust swirling about her as her Alakazam dropped the building's entire back wall with a lazy flick of its silver spoons. Her pale eyes shimmered in his direction, but the tiny smile that appeared in the corner of her mouth made him uneasy. He could hear the kidnapper talking to her, almost as though the two were old acquaintances, and he bared his teeth.
"Who are you?" he roared, pointing towards her.
"You talking to me, Ash?" she asked innocently. To his surprise, she gave him a high-pitched giggle and placed a hand on her hip, the other flicking through her caramel hair. "Well… for now you can call me Bronte Clemens."
Ash was caught off-guard by her response, but this only made him all the more suspicious of her. "What are you doing here, and what do you want?" he questioned, as Pikachu ran over to stand in front of his Trainer, staring daggers at Bronte and the Smoochum on her shoulder.
"Enough of this," growled the kidnapper. He snapped his fingers once, the clear sound ringing through the building as everything fell silent, and he extended a bony hand towards the new arrival.
Ash cursed under his breath. 'I knew it…' he thought, resigned to the truth. 'They're in this together! This isn't good… I'm almost out of Pokémon, and I don't know how much longer I can stand up against that kidnapper's ones!'
The kidnapper's next words snapped Ash from his thoughts as cleanly and quickly as an electric shock. "Haxorus. Destroy her."
Haxorus roared ferociously, flexing its small arms at its sides and charging over the ground, crimson claws already shining a piercing shade of silver. Bronte smirked knowingly as she watched the Dragon-type come closer, and Alakazam leapt over to stand in front of its Trainer, aiming the bowls of both spoons at its opponent as blue sparks twinkled in its eyes. Instantly, Haxorus was encased in a cocoon of blue, its body trembling as it tried to fight against the psychic hold, but it was no use, and Alakazam was merciless as it sent its prey rocketing across the warehouse.
Ducking out of the way as his Pokémon flew past, the kidnapper bared his teeth and fired a foul curse at Bronte before turning to Spiritomb. "Don't just sit there like a garden gnome!" he snarled, making the Ghost-type quiver and hiss. "Snap up that Alakazam with your Shadow Sneak!"
For the first time since it was called out of its Poké Ball, the green spheres orbiting around Spiritomb's face changed colour, glowing a hellish red as black fronds appeared at the edges of its hazy shadow. Spiritomb's shadow flared outwards in all directions, the dark tentacles slithering up from the surface of the ground and undulating through the air before lashing out, whipping towards their target with frightening speed.
Alakazam quickly turned towards the incoming attack, but it was beaten to the punch by Bronte's Smoochum, the pint-sized Pokémon hopping down from her Trainer's shoulders and spreading her stubby arms wide past her chest. A bluish glow outlined the Ice-type's body, but the kidnapper cackled as he recognised the attack it was about to use.
"A Confusion attack?" he shouted mockingly. "And here I—" he broke off suddenly, his mouth just having fallen wide open as a wave of energy pulsed around Smoochum, reaching Spiritomb's tentacles and shredding them into oblivion. "WHAT?" he screamed, eyes bulging in their sockets. "How—?"
Bronte gave another high-pitched giggle, hands on her hips. "Don't underestimate me," she tittered, a fiery glint appearing in her eyes. "I had Alakazam and Smoochum use Miracle Eye to see inside the warehouse before you saw me come in. Don't think you can rely on Spiritomb's Dark-type to just shrug off my psychic attacks whenever you please!"
The kidnapper clenched his fists in anger at her words, but across the warehouse, Ash's eyes widened with surprise, not at her strategy, but at what it meant. "She's trying to protect us…" he whispered in complete shock, and Pikachu gave his Trainer an uneasy squeak from his shoulder.
"Pii…"
Ash looked from Bronte to the kidnapper, weighing his options. If she truly was on his side, then the two of them could team up and use their combined strength to knock out the man's powerful Pokémon. He gave Haxorus a quick glance; seeing it clumsily pulling itself out of a pile of rubble and shaking its head, he slowly nodded his own as though agreeing with the thoughts running through his mind. Turning back to the battle at hand, his eyes flitted over Brock, and a nerve in his jaw twitched violently.
"Time for some payback," he muttered to Pikachu, who pumped his tiny, balled fists like a boxer ready to fight.
As he eyed Bronte going toe-to-toe with the kidnapper, he felt a lump rising in his throat as Spiritomb, Smoochum and Alakazam fought in a tense struggle. Bronte's Pokémon launched twin blasts of psychic energy at the Forbidden Pokémon, but the latter effortlessly parried the attack with a spiralling mark of glowing back rings. A large explosion erupted between the three combatants, but the kidnapper fluidly went from defence to offence in the blink of an eye. Not even waiting for the smoke to clear, Spiritomb loosed colossal black shockwaves from its jagged mouth, only for the blast to be countered in kind by blades of white light fired from Alakazam's arms, splitting the dark waves cleanly down the middle.
"Look at that…" gasped Jeanne, watching the spectacle unfold from the warehouse's collapsed entrance. "Are you getting this?" she asked the cameraman, who looked just as captivated by the battle as she was, his mouth hanging slightly open as he kept the camera trained towards the two Trainers.
"Every second…" he replied vacantly.
"Hey, Bronte!" Ash roared. All eyes turned towards him, and the cameraman focused his lens away from the battle. "I don't know who are you, or why you're doing what you're doing, but I figure any enemy of his—!" he jerked a thumb towards the kidnapper, who scowled in return, "is a friend of mine! Pikachu, hit that guy with Thunderbolt!" he shouted, the corners of his mouth curling into a fierce grin as Pikachu launched himself from the former's shoulders.
"Pii…ka…!"
"Not so fast!" cried the kidnapper, running to his left and wrapping an arm around Misty's neck. He saw the bright sparks flying from Pikachu's cheeks, and sneered triumphantly when the Pokémon's small eyes widened. "You fry me, you fry your friend," he warned, tightening his hold despite Misty's choked gasps as his arm pressed into her windpipe.
"No!" yelled Ash, starting forwards, and the electricity quickly faded from Pikachu's body as it fell lightly onto the ground, landing on all fours with teeth bared. "Let her go, you bast—"
"What, and lose my leverage?" the man asked, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Fat chance. If any of you—" he swept his gaze over all his foes, including Derek and the news crew, "make one more move against me… then my Spiritomb will be more than happy to cast a Will-O-Wisp on this girl and make her insignificant little life a living hell. We all clear?"
"Tooooomb…" hissed the Ghost-type, its eyes glinting with malice.
Ash froze in horror, jaw clenched as he saw Misty's eyes silently pleading with him. 'Don't worry, Misty…' he thought, 'I'll think of something… but I'd better do it quickly!' He looked this way and that, trying to think of some way to get her out of their latest predicament. But nothing came to mind, and a draconic roar from over his shoulder told him that Haxorus had finally managed to break free from its bindings.
"Relax, Ash," said Bronte, and his head snapped around to look at her so quickly that he twinged a muscle in his neck. "I said relax," she repeated, rolling her eyes a little as he rubbed the sore spot. "I'll get us out of this."
"How?" asked Ash, exasperated.
"Just trust me," was all she said in reply. "But before we do anything, we need to get Brock to a hospital."
"How are we going to do that?" he exclaimed.
"Yes, Bronte," agreed the kidnapper, arching his eyebrows in curiosity. "How are you going to do that? The nearest hospital is far away, and you're not going anywhere… not unless you want Misty here to wind up like a sundried tomato," he added with a cruel laugh.
"Go to hell!" Misty shrieked, wincing a moment later as he tightened his grip again.
Bronte gave the kidnapper a strange look, somewhere between condescension and pity. "Alakazam, use Teleport to get Brock out of here," she instructed, and the Psi Pokémon marched towards the stricken Breeder on its clawed feet.
"I said not to try anything!" the kidnapper screeched, taking Bronte's directions as a challenge to his position. Stepping away from Misty, he turned to his Spiritomb and pointed at the back of the girl's head. "Will-O-Wisp, now!"
A deathly rattle escaped from the cracks in Spiritomb's body as the red orbs on its body began to detach themselves one by one, floating in the air above its head in a ring as each exploded into a flaming sphere of bright blue. The firelight danced across the warehouse, reflected madly in the kidnapper's eyes and flickering over his gaunt face, but the flitting embers were also mirrored in Bronte's white teeth, drawn open in a knowing smirk.
"Misty!" Ash screamed, bolting forwards with Pikachu in tow, but he only had time for his brain to register the expression on Bronte's face.
Nonchalantly, as though expecting it for the entire battle, Alakazam swung one of its arms around, pointing it squarely at Spiritomb without even looking. A bright flash of red light erupted from the point of the spoon clutched in its hands, and the eerie flames orbiting around the Ghost-type instantly turned the deepest crimson before imploding above their creator's head. Black embers were scattered in the wind as they fell about Spiritomb, and the red circles tangled within its purple haze returned to their vacant green hue, causing the Pokémon to screech and howl in disbelief.
Ash's jaw almost fell to the floor, his feet still thumping over the shattered concrete below until he came to an eventual stop. He couldn't believe his eyes, but a movement in the corner of his vision jolted his senses back to reality long enough for him to spot Alakazam clamping a hand down on Brock's shoulder. A moment later, the pair flashed with rainbow colours and disappeared into thin air, leaving a swirl of wind behind in their wake.
"Thank you," said Bronte, watching her Pokémon fade away before turning back to face the kidnapper.
"You little bitch!" he snarled, spit flying from between his clenched teeth. He heard Haxorus growling somewhere behind him, so he threw his arm towards Bronte and roared, "Haxorus, get—!"
A large shape came flying out of nowhere and collided with his midsection, driving all the breath out of his body as he fell heavily onto the ground. A large chunk of concrete broke his fall, digging into his shoulder blade, and he cried out in pain as the force of his landing pushed the rough stone down his back. The kidnapper felt a pair of arms wrapped around his ribcage, and he looked down to see Ash's face, filled with fury as he tried to pin his foe to the ground.
"You're not hurting anybody anymore!" Ash roared, scrambling over the top of the man and cocking his fist backwards. He threw a punch aimed straight for the kidnapper's nose, but the latter blocked it with his forearm, deflecting the blow up past his hairline. Thrown off-balance, Ash fell forwards, but he was brutally stopped by a piercing jab that caught him just above the waist. Ash reflexively jerked away, the pain shooting up through his chest, and he clamped his hands down on the kidnapper's arms, wrestling for control as he tried to keep the man below him.
"Get off me, you little bastard!"
Bronte bit her lip in apprehension, watching the pair as they fought on the ground, but she threw caution to the winds and turned away from them, hurrying over to Misty's side with her Smoochum riding playfully on her shoulders. The poor girl was sitting bowed in her chair, head resting on her chest and eyes screwed shut as if she was afraid to open them. Cautiously, Bronte tapped Misty on the shoulder, and she jerked up where she sat, eyes still shut as her breath began to come in ragged, panting bursts.
"Relax, Misty…" Bronte said, trying to soothe her. "I'm on your side."
From under the messy fringe of orange hair, Misty opened one eye to a sliver, her lip still trembling with fright. "Who are you, anyway?" she asked, furrowing her brow.
"That's not exactly important right now," Bronte replied. She gave a meaningful look to Smoochum, and the Ice-type dutifully hopped down onto the ground, moving up to stand right next to the chair legs. "It's time to get her out of this, Smoochum. Break it with Pound," she ordered.
"Smoo-chum!" chanted the Kiss Pokémon, puckering her large lips as she channelled power into her tiny little arms. The tip of her cream-coloured fist burst to life, shining white as it was tensed backwards, and Smoochum launched herself into the chair as she brought her fist swinging around.
The chair instantly splintered under the power of Smoochum's attack, broken into a thousand tiny pieces that clattered onto the floor with the pitter-patter of falling rain. Without the backing wood against it, the ropes around Misty's arms and legs loosened and dropped around her ankles, but Misty, unused to having to move her legs so quickly, tumbled backwards, wincing as the circulation came flooding back into her extremities.
"Ow, ow, ow…" she groaned, gingerly putting weight on her legs as she tried to stand up, but a slender hand closed around the underside of her arm and helped pull her upright. "Thanks…" she muttered to Bronte. "I'm fine, though, really."
"You should be thanking Smoochum, not me," replied Bronte with a sly wink. Down on the ground, Smoochum grinned and jumped about on the spot, waving her stubby arms about in celebration, and the sight brought a laugh out of Misty.
"Thanks, Smoochum," she said with a smile, crouching down to pat the Ice-type on the head.
Focused intently on the scuffle on the ground, Derek noticed the two girls and motioned towards the cameraman, who promptly trained the camera on the pair. "And it looks like our young damsel in distress has finally been freed!" he cheered, thumping the air with his free hand. "Thanks to the efforts of this mysterious Samaritan, it looks as though our heroes have finally managed to turn the tides on this foul villain!"
"I wonder how much of this is just Derek hearing himself talk…" Jeanne muttered to the computer technician, who rolled her eyes in agreement.
"Jackass…" she said. "Hey, that's enough sappy B.S for now! Put it back on Ash!" she called out, and Derek and the cameraman begrudgingly swung back to the pair wrestling on the ground.
Gritting his teeth, the kidnapper pushed with his forearms, slowly forcing Ash up and away from his body. Ash pressed back down with all his might, but he couldn't match the man's strength, and quickly found his hands being twisted around, the backs of his palms facing away from his opponent. With a savage smile, the man swung his arms wide open, catching Ash completely by surprise and pulling him down, only to be met with a crunching head-butt to the brow.
"Argh!" cried Ash, releasing his hold and throwing his head backwards, clutching at his aching temple and clenching his jaw at the pain.
"How do you like that, huh?" roared the kidnapper, shifting about beneath Ash's weight. "How about this—?" he dealt Ash another swift blow, this time driving his balled fist straight up into the boy's ribs. Ash's eyes flew wide open, his mouth drawn in a scream of agony that never came, the force of the punch pulverising his breathing, and he collapsed sideways onto the ground.
The kidnapper couldn't help but laugh as he saw Ash writhing about in pain on the shattered concrete. After everything that he'd been put through for his plans, it felt incredibly satisfying to return the favour, and he rose to his feet, wanting to deal out some more punishment to the little upstart.
A flash of white flew into the corner of his vision, but he barely had time to react before he was caught on the point of the chin by a sidewinding kick. His chin snapped upwards from the power of the hit, and momentum carried him backwards, tipping over like a stone and crashing onto his back. The back of his skull hit the stone with a hideous crack, and his vision briefly became a haze of red, the pain in his jaw compounded by the dull throb drilling through his head.
"How about that one, you sick jerk?" spat a voice above him.
Dazed, the kidnapper turned his head. There, standing over him with an expression of fury and disgust raw enough to make someone cower in fright, was Misty, spikes of orange hair framing her face like bursting flames. He could hear wolf-whistles and cheers of excitement some way away, knowing that they came from the news crew, and the thought galvanised the kidnapper into action, scrambling back upright.
"Don't you ever learn?" Bronte chided, stamping the heel of her boot into his chest and knocking him back down just as surely as Misty had done a moment before.
Groaning in pain, the kidnapper suddenly became aware that he was surrounded. Misty and Bronte stood on his right side, accompanied by the latter's Smoochum, while Ash towered on his left, still panting from their fight and sporting a small graze next to his ear. A pair of black-tipped ears at the top of his vision told him that Ash's Pikachu had positioned itself right above his head, and he flinched as a trio of electric sparks flew just in front of his eyes.
"This isn't over yet…!" he hissed defiantly. "Not by a long shot! You hear me? NOT YET!"
"Oh, shut up," snapped Bronte. "You're beaten. At least have the decency to admit it."
A nerve twitched just below the kidnapper's eye, and he threw his head back, pointed to the ceiling. "Spiritomb, Curse!"
In the centre of the warehouse, barely a few feet from the small cluster of people, the Forbidden Pokémon gave a deafening roar that shook the very ground on which it stood, its smoky body distorting this way and that as though it were possessed. The trio of Trainers whirled around in an instant, just in time to see a gigantic steel nail come crashing through the roof of the building, sucked down to earth by gravity's relentless grip until it drove itself straight through the keystone at the heart of the Ghost-type.
Ash stared at the Pokémon, stunned by what he'd just seen, and Spiritomb moaned endlessly as the spike was buried deeper and deeper into its body. The green orbs around its body all flew in towards the spike, attaching themselves to it as the cloud of purple smoke darkened and condensed, swirling around the metal shaft. A shadowy hand formed among the darkness, and all at once it shot forwards from the deformed Pokémon, black fingers outstretched as it cannoned towards the youngsters.
"Look out!" exclaimed Bronte, leaping at Ash and tackling him to the ground. The spectral attack sailed over their heads as they ducked down as low as they could, but an otherworldly cackle echoed through the building as the hand flexed its fingers and plunged them into Misty's chest.
"Spiritooomb…!" hissed Spiritomb triumphantly, closing its hand around Misty's heart.
A sharp noise, like the sound of glass cracking, pierced Ash's ears, and he shook Bronte's arms off his body to spin around, only to see his friend stricken by the attack. "Misty!" he roared. He rushed to his feet and ran to her, but her eyes went blank, and it was all he could do to catch her before she dropped to the ground. "Misty! Misty?"
"Oh no…!" Bronte gasped, her caramel curls in disarray as she raised a hand to cover her mouth. "Smoochum, get rid of Spiritomb with Psychock!" she yelled, pointing at the Dark-type.
On cue, Smoochum raised her hands towards the roof, and a trio of molten blue blobs appeared around her head, each one filled with purple lightning that crackled and sizzled within itself. With a graceful swing of the head, the Kiss Pokémon hurled its attack at Spiritomb, and the orbs spun around each other before merging into one massive ball of blue. For the first time, the Ghost-type's horrible grin wavered, the jagged spikes of green forming a scream of fear as the attack bore down, obscuring everything else in its vision until it could see the tiniest sparks of violet thunder arcing about inside.
The sheer destructive force of the explosion that followed tore the warehouse in two, ripping the roof apart down the centre and throwing a shower of debris and metal down on Ash and Bronte. The pair threw their arms up to protect their faces, feeling the cuts and scrapes as jagged scraps rained down upon them. The shockwave from Smoochum's attack sent them all hurtling backwards, and the tiny Ice-type flew towards the wall before it was rescued by a quick-thinking Pikachu, throwing his tail up to cushion the Kiss Pokémon.
"Is—ack!—is everyone okay?" Ash called out, holding down a fit of coughing spasms as the black smoke washed past him.
As the smoke began to clear and fade, Ash's eyes jumped towards the kidnapper's Spiritomb, and he blew a deep sigh of relief when he saw that the Pokémon's purple face had disappeared. The Odd Keystone that housed it had been knocked over on its side by the force of the blast, and the tiny purple points of light near its apex had just died out, leaving the cracked stone as featureless as the other piles of wrecked stone littering the ground.
With the threatening Pokémon knocked unconscious, Ash allowed himself to relax a little. He regretted it instantly, though, as the pain in his forehead flared up again, causing him to scrunch his face up as he tried to block it out. He turned his back on the keystone, his face cracking into a weak grin as he saw Pikachu and Bronte's Smoochum standing next to each other, both of them looking unhurt and high-fiving the other with smiles on their faces.
"You okay, Bronte?" he asked again, looking around, but he froze in his tracks when he saw a head of unmistakeable brown hair on the ground.
"My hair!" squeaked Bronte in fright, crouching down to pick it up.
Flabbergasted, Ash's eyes flitted to her face, and his jaw hit the floor. "A w—what—a—a—A—"
"Darn thing…" she pouted, snatching up the wig and holding it up to her eyes. "It must've gotten blown off in the explosion," she added, with a wistful sigh.
She suddenly became aware of Ash's presence a few feet away, and she instantly blushed a deep crimson, jamming the wig back down over her head. She hoped that he hadn't been looking, and she tentatively looked his way, but one glance at his stunned expression told her that she hadn't been quick enough, and she slumped her shoulders in defeat.
"You saw…" she mumbled. With that, she raised a hand back up to her hair, her lips drawn tightly together in a grimace, and pulled the wig off, letting it fall limply onto the ground. She watched the curls bounce around for a moment on the concrete before shutting her eyes, and she ran a hand through her short, lilac-coloured locks, trying to perk up the matted spikes. Taking a deep breath, she slowly opened her eyes again, but a tiny giggle escaped her as she saw the ridiculous expression on Ash's face.
"I—but—you—"
"It's good to see you, too, Ash," smiled Anabel, shyly tucking her hands behind her back.
His eyes as wide as saucers, Ash finally managed to pull his jaw back up and close his mouth, mind utterly boggled at what – or who – he was seeing.
"Anabel?" he exclaimed, as if still not quite sure his brain was playing tricks on him. His head whipped downwards to look at the wig before focusing on her face again, and then for a second, and eventually third time, before he gulped and shook his head from side to side. "You're Bronte?"
"Yup!" she replied, her pale eyes twinkling with a hint of mischief.
Two loud clicks behind Anabel drew her attention, and she spun around to see the kidnapper's Haxorus disappear in a flash of red light. Realising what it meant, she rounded on the kidnapper, but stopped short when she saw that he was nowhere to be found, apparently vanishing into thin air. Her brow furrowed, Anabel turned her gaze to Spiritomb, but bared her teeth in frustration when she saw that it, too, had disappeared, no doubt recalled to its Poké Ball just like the Dragon-type before it.
"Damn!" she cursed, stomping a foot against the floor. "He got away…! He's pretty quick, though; I only turned my back on him for a few seconds, too," she added, much to her disappointment and anger at being so careless.
"Can we—" stammered Ash as, on the ground in front of him, Pikachu was in a similar state of shock, slowly shaking his head free of some mental cobwebs. "I think I need to lie down…" he sighed, laughing as he raised a hand to cradle his aching head.
Anabel giggled. "Maybe so, but we need to help your friend Misty get to a hospital first," she noted, gesturing towards her.
"Right," said Ash. "Once we get her somewhere safe, you can start explaining all of this to me… because I've still got no idea what's going on!"
"Hold it right there!"
The voice boomed to them from outside the warehouse, and both Ash and Anabel whirled around for what felt like the millionth time that day. A mountainous-looking man stood on top of the broken section of wall that Anabel had torn from the building earlier, his arms folded over his muscular chest. Deep blue hair framed his thickset jaw, tied up at the back in a short, spiked ponytail. His eyes were hidden underneath a prominent brow, but Ash could make out a pair of thin white scars running over the left side of his face, cutting over his nose and stretching over his cheek.
"Who are you?" groaned Ash, wondering when his troubles would finally end for the day.
"Captain Russell Carter," the man barked in reply.
He raised a hand to sit level with his head, closing it into a fist, and a small platoon of uniformed men marched into view, pouring through both ruined entrances to the building. Quickly fencing the pair inside a human circle, each man pulled a small piece of moulded plastic from their belts, small red laser dots stretching from the tip of each weapon to a point somewhere on their captives' bodies. Ash found his jacket littered with red marks, looking as though he'd been infected with fluorescent chickenpox, and a quick glance told him that Anabel, Pikachu and Smoochum were covered just like he was.
"What do you want?" asked Anabel, walking towards the captain, but he quickly responded by aiming his own weapon at the small space between her eyes.
"Not another step, Clemens!" he warned.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Ash yelled. "What's going on here?"
"You are hereby placed under arrest for kidnapping and attempted murder," Carter informed them. He saw the news crew out of the corner of his eye and jerked his head towards them, and several of his underlings advanced on the group, confiscating all of their equipment despite the latter's cries of protest. "Submit now, or we'll detain you by force if we have to."
"Attempted murder?" repeated Ash, aghast. "That's ridiculous! Misty's my friend!" he shouted, waving a hand towards Misty, who was still slumped over the ground. "We've got to help her! She needs to get to a hospital!"
"Arrest them," Carter said to his men, completely ignoring Ash.
As the circle tightened around them, Ash felt himself longing to lash out at them and try to get away, but he was quickly shoved down to the ground before he had time to think about it. His hands were wrenched around behind his back, a cold pair of handcuffs strapped to his wrists, and he was roughly pulled back to his feet before being manhandled through the gaping hole in the warehouse's side. He could hear Anabel's raised voice behind him, and he tried to turn around to see what was happening to her, but a hand grabbed the back of his head and pushed it down, stopping him from looking anywhere but forwards.
"Commander Britton," the captain was saying, speaking into a wireless headset. "This is Carter. We have Ketchum and Clemens in custody. We're transporting them now; we'll inform you when we hand them over to Grimm."
Iato slowly tipped his head backwards, drinking in the afternoon sun as he felt it shining down on his face. Stretching his arms, he rested them on the arms of the park bench on which he sat, listening to the little sounds that trickled towards him. A small gaggle of children were running around and rolling on the grass, but he was more interested in the small Pidgey hopping its way towards his shoes, pecking here and there for a tasty worm to eat.
"Oh, to live in a simplistic world," he sighed, uncrossing his legs and leaning forwards to have a closer look at the bird Pokémon. Sensing his gaze, the Pidgey's head snapped upwards, looking back at him with its sharp eyes. "To not be burdened by the vices and struggles which bind us to our slavery…"
"I'm sure the laureates are crushed that a poet like you has been left undiscovered," grunted someone off to his right.
Iato smirked, recognising the voice, but didn't bother lifting his eyes from the Pidgey, the two now having a little staring contest. "Poets just use poetry as an excuse to sell their ramblings for money to fuel their narcotic obsessions. We merchants of death don't exactly have that luxury, wouldn't you agree?" he asked silkily.
"Well, you're in a fantastic position to speak about lack of luxury," Fiorello countered, pulling his suit jacket in a little more tightly around his chest as he sat next to his associate.
He gave a tired sigh and leaned back against the back of the bench, and Iato tilted his head at the Pidgey in front of his feet. The bird Pokémon mirrored the movement, its head cocked to the side as though surveying him, before turning tail and flying away in a flutter of feathers. The corner of Iato's mouth flickered as he sat up, and he turned to face Fiorello.
"I—" he paused, finally getting a look at his colleague's appearance. "If I might borrow a phrase… you look like crap," he said, running a cautious eye over the man's attire, and Fiorello folded his arms defensively.
"Yeah, well you'd look like crap, too, if you had to go through what I just went through," he said sharply, a small scowl playing at his mouth. "You didn't tell me that that little bitch would be such a handful."
"I did warn you to stay on your guard," Iato replied, weaving his fingers together and resting his chin atop them. "With the ease it took for you to snatch her off the street last night, perhaps you got a little complacent, and underestimated her… fiery temper," he added tauntingly.
"Fiery indeed," Fiorello grunted, recalling the terrible pain he'd experienced when Misty had spat in his eye, and he subconsciously wiped at it with the back of his hand. "Bloody hell… considering what happened after Ash arrived at the warehouse, I'd say that she was more trouble than she was worth."
Iato gave Fiorello a shrewd look. "I certainly hope that's not the case," he said, his voice nearly a whisper. "It would be a shame if our plan was brought undone by the proper pieces not turning up on the board when they were supposed to…"
Fiorello's face blanched at the danger in the man's voice, but he reached a hand inside his jacket and fished around. "Don't worry about that, Iato," he said, a triumphant smile accompanying his words. "Thanks to my brilliant performance, your mystery woman—" he drew two colour photographs from his pocket, shuffling them in his hands as though trying to tease Iato with waiting, "is a mystery no longer."
"Bully…!" Iato cheered, reaching over to take the pictures. In the first picture, he saw the familiar figure of Bronte Clemens, sitting in a café and drinking a large glass of milkshake, a hand tucked behind her ear as her fingers were tangled in her brown hair. "And who might you be, my dear…?" he wondered aloud, turning his attention to the second picture.
"Who indeed," Fiorello snickered, as he saw Iato's mouth hang open ever so slightly before he closed it again.
"Anabel Silver…!" he gasped, the two pictures slipping out of his grasp and fluttering onto the grass. He quickly reached down and grabbed them up, not wanting them to blow away, and he looked from the first to the second again. "So Miss Clemens is really the Salon Maiden…" he muttered, more to himself than to anyone else.
"Luckily for you, my Spiritomb managed to blow her wig off without taking her head with it," Fiorello said, with a shallow laugh. "It was pretty pissed after her Smoochum disabled its Will-O-Wisp, I'll tell you that!"
Iato laughed along, but he wasn't paying any attention to the man any more. Stowing the picture of 'Bronte' in his jacket pocket, he focused intently on Anabel's picture, his eyes traipsing over every detail he could make out on her face. 'Why are you here…?' he wondered, wishing that the photograph would give him the answer if he stared long enough. 'What do you want with Ash, so long after your encounter in the Battle Frontier?'
Spotting the vacant, unfocused look in his eyes, Fiorello raised a hand to his mouth and loudly cleared his throat. Iato slowly came out of his reverie, and he gave his associate a curt nod, reaching a hand down underneath the bench.
"Here," he said, handing Fiorello a large, brown leather briefcase. "Inside that briefcase, you'll find documents that will enable you to authorise a transfer of all of our dearly departed friend Simon's financial assets into any account of your choosing. The transaction will be instantaneous and untraceable, as per our arrangement."
"Good ol' Simon…" muttered Fiorello, grinning with greed as he took the briefcase and tested its weight. "He always was good for a few bucks!" he added, throwing his head back with laughter.
"He died the way he lived," Iato mused, with a mischievous grin. "Where else, but the dinner table?"
"Too true," Fiorello chuckled, slapping a hand over the front of the briefcase before standing to his feet. "Well, thank you for this lovely gift. I'm sure it will make a fine footstool later in life!" With one last raucous cackle, he strode away down the street, exuberantly swinging the case back and forth as he walked.
Iato watched the man leave, the corner of his mouth twitching in disgust. A hand drifted to the Poké Ball at his waist, and he considered releasing the Pokémon inside, ordering it to strike him in the back and tear him limb from limb.
"Soon," he told himself, stowing the hand inside the pocket of his pants. He needed to let the dominoes play their part in falling into each other, and he counted himself lucky that he had a good deal of patience to wait it out. Leaning forward on the park bench, he took both pictures of Anabel into his hands again and looked between them, wondering just what kind of domino the young woman would end up becoming.
And so ends a battle full of drama, suspense, thrills, action, and all the other cliched adjectives you might find on the poster of a Steven Seagal movie. But hey, at least the acting in this story is more believable, am I right? I've got a dinosaur as Executive Producer and everything!
If you've got any comments or questions about the latest chapter, be sure to send them in a review! Many thanks to everybody who submitted reviews last week, and also to those who'll do the same in the future. Particular thanks to "Tendou Souji" for the multi-review gift.
Keep those OCs coming! Submissions are still open, so if you have a character you want to see in the Championships, why not give them a chance! Thank you, again, to you readers who have already sent characters in.
Now, I'm glad I have some questions to answer! To "Tendou Souji" (you're making a few appearances in this author's note!), I don't particularly read any books, so I can't say which one is my inspiration - usually, my bright ideas come when I'm watching movies or listening to some rockin' music! As for my writing style, I really can't think of a basis for that either, but I've been told that my writing is pretty similar to Neil Gaiman... bonus points if you know who that is! So-yeah, I hope that's answered your question to some degree.
Unfortunately, this is the part where I have some bad news, as far as the next chapter is concerned. I'll be out of town, visiting relatives over the next week as part of Australia Day celebrations, so Chapter 18, "A Grimm Tale", will be released next Friday. That's February 3rd, for those of you playing at home. Apologies in advance for those being forced to wait, but that's how things go sometimes. I'll be sure to make it up to you by jam-packing it with good bits, okay!
So, until next time... be sure to review and, as always,
Get to the chopper!