Pokémon
Bonjour, mes amis! I am back from Quebec and school is officially out for the summer! Now, I would like to thank everybody that reviewed, and a very special thanks to...
KitsPokePeople and .! Let's give them a round of applause, shall we? Without their help I would still be waiting for a lovely idea to come strolling by. But anyway, thanks to the extremely nice reviewers as well! ~Cookies for everyone!~
And now I present to you...
Chapter #15 – Now, we're screwed
Paul reached Hearthome City after a long day of scuttling through the trees and bushes in an unusually quickened pace. His forehead creased in a bitter frown and his brutal black eyes glared at anything that moved, basically everything. The pockets that his hands were shoved into were being stretched as his balled fists drove themselves deeper.
The city people took a lingering glance at the fuming boy before making themselves scarce at the sight of his razor-sharp, evil eye. Even the bubbly Nurse Joy was startled at the chagrin pouring off the purple-headed boy. She stuttered her greeting, wishing she could scurry away like all the others had. Everything was absolutely silent.
"Take care of my pokemon. And tell me you've seen a girl with brown hair and an eevee come by here." Paul demanded sternly, not at all hiding the fact he was pissed.
With a squeak from the nervous Nurse, she thrust the boy's pokeballs to the awaiting chansey, whom waddled off as fast as its stubby legs would allow it. She avoided eye contact by pretending to be busily typing on her computer, but replied in a high, hysterical voice, "I-I'm sorry, but I haven't seen anybody by that description -"
Paul's hands slammed down on the counter. "Think harder! She had to have come by here. Where else would she have gone?" He yelled, sure that smoke was snorting from his nostrils and his eyes were ablaze, almost like a raging bull. He was far beyond mad, or even furious. He couldn't even think of a word to describe what he felt.
With the Center so quiet that you could hear a pokeball drop, Nurse Joy chanced a glance to the glass door with watery, pink eyes. The glass doors had slid open and the squeaking of sneakers walked over the smooth, cement surface.
"M-Mr. Gary Oak? You have a message waiting for you. I-I was under the impression it was rather urgent." Said the shaking Nurse Joy as she pointed over to a phone. She looked back down to her white nurses shoes and high-tailed it to the back room to check on the purplenette's pokemon.
The Professor's grandson casually went to the green device and answered his pending call. After a few seconds a face familiar to the both of them appeared on the screen. Paul's anger diminished a fraction as curiosity took over and he strode over after deciding maybe it was beneficial to listen in as well.
The raven-haired girl arose from the coffin like a vampire, awaking as soon as the night's shadows sunk into the sky and the moon materialized from its nap. She stretched her stiff muscles from the uncomfortable position and awkward angle in which she had slept. She stepped out of the confined space and smoothed out the non-existing wrinkles from her black dress. As her eyes adjusted, she found the outline of her fluffy fox curled up in a ball beside the door like an obedient watchdog.
The torches flickered alight as she began to pace, squinting at her reflection in the cracked mirror. Her long hair was in a chaotic mess on top of her head and she looked like she actually had just managed to crawl out from her deathbed as her cold fingers brushed over the gloomy bags looming under her fatigued eyes.
She reached for the front drawer of the wardrobe to grab a brush, leaning on the side for support. Eevee's growl delayed her movement for a fraction of a second. The black fox had jolted up as Shadow's hand inched open the drawer.
"Rebel, what's wrong with you?" She snapped dangerously as her touchy mood decided to flare up unnecessarily. As her fingers closed around the object, a bolt of electricity shocked her, causing her to yell a painful 'ouch' and release her hold. A dark eye twitched, watching a tiny, red pokemon with baby blue lightning bolts on its sides and dark, buggish eyes floated out. It giggled at her with a mischievous grin.
"Rotom, the electric/ghost pokemon. Rotom loves to play practical jokes by embedding its plasma body in electronic devices." The robotic voice of her pokedex narrated from under eevee's paw, while the ghost pokemon mocked it.
Another ghost, as big as Shadow's eevee, appeared in the center of the room from thin air and began scolding the red one. Its body was a teal with purple running through the tips of its hair. Its eyes were a pale yellow instead of white with red irises, and what looked like a ruby pendant with multiple red jewels were placed around its neck.
"Misdreavus, the screech pokemon. It has an extremely mischievous nature and likes to pull people's hair and cry out at night just to scare them."
The rotom sighed and levitated through the wall just in time, as Shadow was forming a not-so-nice plan to show the little lightning rod whom not to prank. The misdreavus bobbed right behind it, still babbling away.
Shadow grunted, looking at the even worse monstrosity puffed up with static electricity piled on her skull. Taking the utensil back in her stinging hand, she tugged it harshly through her hair until it was silky smooth and her scalp hurt. Something pulled on a strand of her hair, causing her to wince and eevee to snarl.
"Just ignore it Rebel, it's not one of her pokemon. That rotom was spying on us, but it seems as though this one shooed it away. It doesn't want to cause any harm so let's go before Her Darkness gets a whole army of ghosts chasing after us." Shadow strained as she detached herself from the misdreavus and left with her fox.
"Ah, so my Shadow finally arrives, does she gengar? Well good evening. Are you ready to get started? First you should get to know the rest of the team. Follow me." The Grim Reaper whispered.
Shadow, noticing the bothersome, hair-pulling, wild pokemon had stopped stalking her as soon as she walked into the Reapers main room, briskly followed at the girl's heals until the entered a sitting room type chamber.
A chandelier hung from the high ceiling with black flames for lighting and sapphire gems dangled like crystallized raindrops. There were several black-leather sofas, the same as in her room, facing a shrine built for the ghost pokemon living in the mansion. A gengar statue was proudly perched on the very tip-top.
Two people sat lounging in the gloomy chamber, talking in hushed whispers. Shadow recognized them almost instantly as the pair that had oh- so kindly welcomed her at the gate. They stood and bowed to the 'leader' of the house, the Grim Reaper, but didn't share the same enthusiasm while greeting their new team member.
"Shadow, this is Bones," she gestured a spidery hand to the feminine one, "And this is Bull. Please get to know our newest guest." Her monotone voice echoed through the ears as they were left alone in the room.
Bull was a tall, slightly pudgy man with a hard face and rather frightening muscles. His black hair was cropped close to his head and his squinty, gray eyes scrutinized Shadow. Unlike the girls, he was actually well tanned, but still wore dark clothes, which in his case were a navy muscle shirt with dark-washed jeans and black, combat boots. "Ya look rather young teh be in a place like this." He finally said in a deep, annoyed, and heavily accented voice.
"Come on Bull, I was about the same age as her when I got in, and she looks as old as Chaos." Bones reasoned with the man. She was just a bit older than Shadow by a few years with shoulder-length, crimson hair and brownish-red eyes. Her skin on her face was almost glowing in the dark it was so pale, but her arms and hands were covered by a long-sleeved gray shirt with a black skull and crossbones, and black gloves. A short, red and black tartan skirt hung from her extremely skinny waist and red stockings clothed her legs to her black ankle-boots. Bright red painted lips smirked at the newcomer as she held out a slender hand. "Nice to meet you. Call me Bones."
Shadow cautiously took the girl's hand, not sure of what to expect. She seemed nice enough, but it could be an act. Maybe she was just being paranoid after the whole rotom incident. The man, though, gave her the creeps. After a short mental debate, she decided it was safe to sit beside the girl and let eevee curl up in her lap.
"She already knows that, Grim just told 'er." Bull grumped.
"Shut up and be nice for once! Don't mind Bull, he's always like this. You'll get used to it." Bones looked down at the pokemon in Shadow's lap, who was glaring at the man for being mean to her trainer, and gently reached out to pat it. "Nice eevee. It looks strong." She complemented.
"How does an itty-bitty eevee look strong?" The hateful man snarled.
"I thought I told you to shut up! It just looks strong, okay?" She smiled back at Shadow again.
"Uh, thanks. Her names Rebel." Shadow replied offhandedly, stroking the fox's fur absentmindedly. "No offense, but I was expecting more people than this. Is it just the three of you living here?" She asked curiously.
"Oh, no, there's also Storm but she's out on a mission. Other than that, it's just us in this house. Although, some of the other's come to check up on us sometimes." Bones explained.
Shadow frowned in confusion. "So there are other houses like this one?"
Bones nodded, "Of course. The leaders of the houses give you a series of tests to see you're abilities. After that, they'll give you a job to perform within one of the houses. There are three of them. This one we call the Phantom House. Only the leader knows where the other house is, but only the Boss knows where the Main House is."
Shadow was taking metal notes and processing the information she was being given. "So, these tests…what are they like?"
"We ain't allowed teh tell ya." Bull grinned, "So ya gotta be strong, 'cus they ain't gonna go easy on ya just 'cus you's a lil' girl with a fuzz ball." He roared in laughter, ignoring the glares he got from both females and the eevee.
"Shut up, Bull!" Bones snapped. With an exasperated sigh, she turned back to the raven-haired girl. "He's right, we're not allowed to tell you, but I can tell you that just finding us was part of it."
"You were hard to find, not to mention hardly anybody has ever heard of you." Shadow mused. "So, I'm assuming the Grim Reaper will be the one over looking my testing. Can you tell me about her or is it the same as the tests?" She asked hopefully.
Bones glanced at Bull, who looked uncaring, so she shrugged and replied, "I don't see why not, although we don't know much about her ourselves. Grim is the leader of the Phantom House. She loves ghost pokemon and can understand what they're feeling because she is so close with them. She can tame any ghost pokemon easily." She said with admiration sparkling in her eyes.
"I 'eard she was kicked outta the Ranger Academy 'cus she freaked out all a the other students an' teachers with 'er ghost pokemon. Everybody thought she was a freak." Bull added.
"I see…" Shadow whispered. Feeling something sharp prodding her shoulder, she turned to see a haunter pointing to the door with its long, creepy, purple claw.
Bones, noticing the ghost as well, said. "I think it wants you to follow it. Good luck."
"Okay then. I'll see you later?" She asked, receiving a nod in consent.
"Good luck." Came Bull's rough voice, to both Bone's and Shadow's surprise. He just grinned evilly. "You'll need it."
"Hey Gary." The voice on the screen said. Gary stared oddly at the screen, while Paul glared impatiently from behind him. "Listen I know me calling you is kind of weird…"
'Kind of?' Gary thought, looking at the face of Ryan Summers. Alex suddenly disappears, which really isn't very unusual for her, and then her brother whom he's been avoiding for the past several months contacts him; that's abnormal.
"But I'm heading back home earlier than I thought."
'And I would care because…?' Gary asked mentally, seeing the purple-haired kid looking just as confused as he was.
As if hearing their unspoken questions, Ryan continued, "I know, I know, why am I telling you this, right? Well, I just heard from Lexi in Pastoria City. She's the one that told me I should head home. She said she couldn't explain over the phone, but it was important that I leave. I probably will regret this, I usually do," he sighed, running a hand through his chocolate hair, "But I'm taking her advice. I think she got in touch with your grandfather too, and I'm telling you this so you know what's going on. You might want to consider heading home as well. I don't know if you've seen her lately, but she mentioned being gone for a while. Oh, and another thing- hey!" He exclaimed as he was pushed aside by a concerned purplenette.
"Hello, I'm Regi. Listen, if in fact you did see Alex then you probably saw my little brother, Paul. If you see him again, could you tell him to call me? Thanks!"
Ryan reappeared with a bump forming on the top of his head. He pouted up at the older boy, whining, "Regi, this is my message. Go get your own!" He turned back to the screen, "Anyways, I'm keeping my pokenav off so if you're trying to reach me you'll have to wait until I get home. Okay, I think that's it. Why does it feel like I'm forgetting something?"
"You've said enough. Just get off the phone already!" Regi blurted from elsewhere.
"Fine then! You know Regi, you seem…" The screen went black as Ryan ended his long, rambling message.
Gary stared at the blank screen for a for minutes before shouting, "Damn it, what was the other thing you were going to say?" He realized he was talking to nobody since it was just a message, and muttered, "Oh man, what did you get yourself into this time, Lexi?" It dawned on him that he wasn't actually alone and turned to speak again, his attitude resurfacing. "Your brother wants you to call him."
"I got that, loser." Stated Paul, rolling his eyes at the brunette and crossing his arms.
"Well Paul, you shouldn't be eavesdropping." He said to annoy the purplenette. "Oh, Joy!" He called across the counter only for her to appear in a blink of an as soon as he breathed, not wanting another riot from the still-fuming Paul or the Professor's grandson.
"Yes Mr. Oak?" She squeaked.
"How long ago was this message called in?" He asked, thinking he might have time to find the missing brunette before she ran off again and calculating the distance she could have gotten in a couple of hours. After all, Pastoria City wasn't too far away by flight.
The nurse was pensive for a few minutes, chewing on her lip thoughtfully. "Hmm, I suppose it would have been about…three days ago." She deduced, pleased she remembered. Her jittery chansey wobbled back to the counter with a tray of pokeballs and handed them to Joy. "And here's your pokemon as well, sir."
The two boys were awestruck. "Did you say three days ago?" Paul demanded.
Joy started sweating again as the boy's voice got stronger yet again. She nodded furiously, looking at the two boys. "I-I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help. Excuse me." Her heals clicked rapidly away and the two boys were left in their stupors.
"She was planning this. You two must have still been stopped in Pastoria when she called Ryan. If something happened or somebody called her, we were too distracted to notice she wandered off." Gary slowly added things up, coming to half a conclusion.
"But what would make her do that?" Paul questioned.
"…I don't know. Ryan said he thought she might have talked to Gramps, maybe he knows." Gary suggested, reclaiming the phone and jabbed the numbers for Professor Oaks Lab. His fingers drummed against the surface anxiously as the line continued to ring…and ring…and ring…
An automated voice blared through the speakers, "Hello, this is Professor Oak. I am out of the lab at this time but please call back later. Sorry for the inconvenience." The final beep seemed to ring on for an eternity in the boys' heads.
Gary gawked at the screen, "Man, now we're screwed."
Woah! Didn't see that one coming, did you? I think not.
Well you know the drill by now. Drop and give me 20! No, not push ups, dollars! I could really use the money. But, the alternative would be to leave a review to make Piano-girl happy. So, whichever you prefer is fine with me.
Until next time. Au revoir!
