Despite the beginning of day spent among a bunch of poisonous pokemon, the rest of it was good… Really good. I have left my team in a Pokemon Center for treatment and then returned back to Misty`s house. Until the very evening I was just lying on bed with my thoughts focused on inventing new strategies and maneuvers. Also I had some time to do some notes in my diary and finally finish reading the professor Oak`s guidebook. I guess it`s about time when I already defeated two gym leaders.
I wonder what`s Bill doing now… I bet he is working on that gravity-something of his right this moment. Maybe when I… acquire… his scanner, I will return back to him. For some reason all those machines in his warehouse impressed me a lot. I should know this guy better, a friend like him could be useful.
At last, Misty returned back after her hard day of beating the trainers. And getting beaten by them too, of course.
"So, how many dreams of becoming a pokemon master did you crush today?" I asked playfully.
"You know… Six." She replied while undressing. "Just you were able to beat me today. You can be proud of yourself"
"Well, that sounds cool. And also raises my self-confidence a bit. But just a bit." I closed my eyes and stretched myself over the bed.
"Well, you`re a special man. You have always been." Misty`s voice sounded extremely near me as I started to feel her breath on me. I opened my eyes so see my friend in just her lingerie bended over me.
"Oh yeah, I completely forgot… You`re going to do this right now?" I asked her modestly.
"No, not now…" She stepped away from me and turned to her wardrobe. "After all these years and the last few days you owe me at least one decent date." She started to sort out her evening dresses.
"A date is a date, why not? But I don`t wear suit. Don`t even ask."
"I will not." She replied finally choosing her red long dress. I noticed that I like it. "Wear whatever you like. Just… don`t wear underpants."
"Meh, as you wish, milady. I will not."
"I mean, wear at least something BESIDES them." She finally managed to put on this tight dress and turned her ass to me. I sighed, approached her and smacked it nicely.
"The zip, you idiot!" Misty shouted at me.
I just shook my head and helped her to zip the dress. Misty turned around to check whether this fits her well and then playfully turned her ass to me again.
"And just now a gentleman is allowed to touch the beautiful."
"Nah, I already did. Let`s go." I straightened, fixed my imaginary bowtie and headed to the exit. Misty frowned behind me and followed after.
We had an excellent evening. Misty led me to our lake where we spent our time on the shore, telling jokes and old stories, eating ice cream and watching over the night pokemon. Everything around at this moment makes me think that life is great and there is absolutely nothing to worry about. I constantly look at Misty. Each time she smiles I feel harder to hold back. And this is a girl that smiles a lot. Damn, she is doing this intentionally.
Shortly speaking, in the end I couldn`t resist her charms and threw her on ground right there and did my dirty but very pleasured thing four times. And four more times when we returned back to her house. I can say the lady remained satisfied as she was breathing loudly while I finally fell asleep.
Another morning in a bed… Not in the car, not on the ground or in a sleeping bag. Not even on a tree branch. I guess I will never get used to it as I tried to get up immediately in the second I opened my eyes. But Misty`s strong hand threw me back on bed.
"How about a goodbye kiss?" She said through the pillow.
"This can be done, for example, during the breakfast."
"That one will be the third one. I want at least four." Misty just pulled me to her and kissed. I start to think she likes to dominate in relationship sometimes… I also start to think that I don`t like it.
I hardly managed to separate my lips from hers and stared deep in her eyes. I could clearly see both hope and despair in her eyes. She didn`t want me to go, but she knew that I can`t stay too. I wish I could stay longer, but the circumstances don`t let me. And some other facts too.
"Someday I will return... To challenge you to a full six-on-six battle."
"I will be waiting for that. And training a lot!"
"I know you will." I replied and made another attempt to get up from bed, but again Misty grabbed my shoulder and returned back.
"Be here some more time…"
Damn, this girl is insatiable. We were laying in silence for some minutes until Misty suddenly broke it.
"So… Where are you heading now?" She asked me with interest.
Actually, this is a very good question. I should think it through.
"I have some places to check now. The first one is the hideout in Celadon City that Team Rocket recruiter was talking about."
"The hideout, huh? Straight into the Beedrill nest?"
"Exactly. All usual grunts I have interrogated before said the one key thing. One squad does not aware of other`s task. That means it is useless to look for other usual grunts – they will know nothing anyway. But capturing a commander or someone like that… This could work."
"Are you sure you can handle them alone?" Misty sounded really worried. Well, she was definitely right about one thing – it`s too early and dangerous to fight Team Rocket right now. I have no idea what monsters they could have in their lair, and my Team isn`t ready yet to this challenge.
"No, not now. This will be the last place I go. There are two more – and these two are limited by the time."
"Ah yes, the Bill`s scanner in Vermillion City and the warehouse in Lavender town."
"Right. The scanner is onboard the ship that sails away in… four days already. Just barely enough time for me to acquire it."
"But the captured pokemon in Lavender town are important too! You have to find them before the Team Rocket!"
"I know, I know… There`s not enough time to do both things, and I have to choose."
"Choose?" This particular word really pissed her off. "There`s no choice! You have to save those Bellsprouts from Team Rocket. Who knows what they are going to do with them!"
"This trail will lead me to their supply… service. Whatever this does. But the scanner will lead me straight to the incident with my car."
"You`re thinking just about yourself! Do you care just a bit about those pokemon?"
"I do care, but…"
"You`re so heartless, as always." Misty mumbled and turned away from me.
"Can`t argue with that… You know, it`s hard for me to get used to pokemon. Even with a team of them I still can`t start actually trusting them."
"But what will happen of your team when it`s over? When you beat the shit out of Team Rocket and return your car? What will you do when your pokemon will be no use to you anymore?"
Damn, I didn`t even think about it. From the very beginning I just wanted to return my car back and continue my mission, that`s all. If I will be able to continue after that at all… But now I have become too attached to my pokemon. To Dumpling, in the first place… And to all the rest, of course.
"I… I don`t know." I replied to Misty with grief sadness.
"Maybe you will tell me where have you been all these years?" She gently touched my shoulder. If she wanted to calm me down – it didn`t work.
"No, sorry. I can`t." I just got up from the bed, this time Misty didn`t try stop me.
After a quick shower and a nice, but awkwardly silent breakfast, I finally headed to the exit.
"It was nice to see you, Misty." I said to her. As much as I want to stay here, the circumstances give me no chance to do it.
"I was glad to see alive too. Stay alive until our rematch, okay?"
I nodded to her and looked deep inside her eyes. It was too hard to say goodbye, so I didn`t.
"Tell me you will be okay!" She shouted behind me.
I stopped for a second and replied without a turn.
"I am sorry, Misty. Sometimes… I just don`t want to lie."
The door creaked as I left the house with its host completely alone, again. But this time the conscience devours me a bit slower.
So, four days remain for me to reach Vermillion City and steal the device. I already made my choice a lot of time ago – and the egoistic nature of mine told me to follow the trail of my precious cargo. We will be fast enough to save those forest pokemon later as I don`t think Team Rocket is going to kill them or something. Damn, those thoughts in my mind woke up the conscious again.
I crossed the street and got to Pokemon Center again. This visit was absolutely boring and uneventful that I didn't even want to make fun of the local nurses. I think I have grown of it. With nothing more to do there I just left the building and headed to another place. A place I keep in mind for some time already.
Finally I got to the street that I wanted to visit – this is where the police was cordoning some days ago. Something not very lawful happened here, I`m sure of it.
This place is no more cordoned off, but a lone cop is still standing near the house. I have to find out what happened and get some use of it. My intuition literally tells me that I can find something here, so I have to risk. I fail my intuition a lot lately, but my intuition never fails me.
I walked the area too look around. This mansion had a nice garden, surrounded by fence. Front of the house was fenced too, but the space was too small. Some trees grew very high and over the fence itself, so it is quite easy to climb up and get inside the area. So I looked around and carefully hopped over the fence.
Judging by its appearance, I have to say, this mansion had better days. Garden was overgrown too much in some places and, I guess, I saw a wild Oddish wandering around. The owner of this place should take care of it.
Suddenly some voices reached me from the side - someone was coming this way. I quickly looked around to find some place to hide, and a small storeroom seemed to be very fitting for me. To my unbelievable luck and extreme surprise it was opened, so I ran inside and locked the door behind me. It was too narrowly here for me, but I had no more time to choose.
Steps were quickly approaching and soon they were close enough for me to understand what they say.
"But dad, aren`t we going to tell the police?" A young girlish voice sounded from outside. She was worried about something.
"No, Elise." The second voice definitely belonged to a middle-aged man. And he sounded quite angry and serious. "The police will release him sooner or later. Team Rocket can arrange that. No, we will send this bastard right to where he belongs!"
"May I see him? Maybe… bring him some… food?"
"I will send the officers away. Take the key but don`t go there without me! I`ll be back soon."
Quiet keys jingle sounded as the man handed over his key to the girl. This sounds pretty interesting and suspicious, I should say. Who the hell are they talking about?
I made a deep breath and got some courage to look through the crack in door.
There were two people in front of me – a teenager girl approximately of seventeen years old, with lightly brown hair and a pin. She was wearing some sort of school uniform – a white shirt and very short skirt. Well, she also had some pretty face, a bit scared but so determined. Still too young to do suspicious things.
The other one – her dad, obviously – looked like a hard-worker man, in his brown vest, shabby jeans and a strange hat that usually hikers wear. He was already leaving as I looked out, so I couldn`t see his face. As he walks away, the girl stays motionless, keeping the key in her hand.
Some pretty strange thought come to my mind and created at least three explanations of this. All of them are logical but terrible. I need to know what does this key open and who were they talking about.
The girl slowly headed away from my small hideout, letting me quietly open the door and come out. She didn`t hear me approaching, so I had a perfect chance to grab her from behind and close her mouth with my hand.
"Quiet, quiet, girl… Don`t rock the boat, we don`t have much time." Actually, she stayed absolutely motionless and didn`t even try to escape from me. I guess, she was too scared. Not good, I don`t like to scare girls…
I took some second to keep my ears open. There were some very distant voices, but no one closely to us.
"Listen, Elise, I mean you no harm. I just want to know what happened here. Maybe, I can help. You understand?"
She tried to mumble something, but then just nodded.
"Okay. Can you tell me the story? Won`t you run away or call for help if I release you? But I warn you – if you dare to scream I will just leave you and you will never see an awesome guy like me again, got it?"
She silently nodded again.
"Okay, I hope I can trust you." I slowly took my hand away from her mouth, preparing my legs to run away. To my surprise, she really didn't shout.
When I released Elise, she turned back and looked at me with her wet eyes.
"Who are you?" She asked cautiously.
"A bad guy that does good things. So, can you explain me why the police are cordoning your residence for some days?"
She looked away, sniffing. I tried to listen to the distant voices to make sure I still have some time. Looks like I still do.
"Come on, girl, snap out of it! I don`t have the whole day for you to calm down."
She opened her mouth trying to say something, but then suddenly stopped like changed her mind. After some seconds of thoughts she turned back and quickly headed in the opposite direction from me. At first I couldn`t understand if she is running away or leading me. Well, when she approached the entrance to house basement and looked at me, inviting with her eyes, I made sure about the second one. I followed her as she cautiously opened the basement and invited me inside with a jest. I narrowed eyes, suspiciously looking at her and shaking my head in the basement direction. Of course, damn it, I don`t want to enter first so the door will close behind me. I know this very well. Elise understood me, sighed and put a stone to block the door from closing and entered first. I made sure everything is okay, and followed her down the stairs.
I have to say, the basement looks much better than the house itself. Damn, I could to live in a basement like this! Wood-covered walls, carpets, some pictures hanging, a stone statue of some unknown to me humanoid pokemon… I suspect this is somehow related to the evading taxes… Maybe the victims are not that innocent as they seem to be.
Elise led me through the corridor and then suddenly stopped. There was an old renovated chair, so she sat on it and raised her eyesight up to me.
"For days ago… A man came to our house…" She finally found the courage to talk to me. "He looked awful, like after a fight. He asked to help him. I was alone, so I let him in. My father wouldn`t do that in a million years."
She stopped for a moment to make another deep breath and calm down. I crouched before her and looked in her eyes.
"Please, continue."
"This man needed help very much, so I helped him. He was barely moving… I gave him a place to sleep, to rest a bit until he will feel better. I helped him secretly from my father. But… Two days ago, when I and father were not in the house, our neighbors caught him escaping our house. We couldn`t stop the police from coming, but father… He was very angry at me and wanted… to punish him in person. So he… locked him in this basement and told the police the burglar escaped."
What an interesting turn of events! Well, actually that was the second of my versions. But something doesn`t make sense here.
"What about neighbors? They didn`t tell the truth to police? And why the heck they caught him in a first place? Just because he was leaving your house? Empty-handed?"
She gave me a very guilty look. I think she missed some details from the story. But instead of finishing it, she just stood up and headed to the end of corridor and I had to follow her.
Elise came to the heavy wooden door and slowly opened the lock. As the door creaked while opening I began to hear loud human breath in the room. We entered inside and the content of this place made me smile widely with all my ability to make a scary cunning look.
This room was really different from the others and actually looked more like a prison cell. I guess, the owner wanted to make repairs, but didn`t have time or money. The walls were covered with very old wallpapers, and the floor wasn`t covered by anything at all, just a naked concrete. Some ancient furniture was there – a wardrobe, chair, a table and a mattress where the prisoner was sitting.
There was a guy wearing a Team Rocket`s uniform, with his right hand chained to the tube. His clothes were torn badly. Some places on opened body were covered with bandages, soaked with blood. Huge bruises were shining under both eyes, pleasuring me quite a lot. The left ear was literally bitten off. His left palm had a very strange wound – I guess from a pokemon attack. Looked like something burned and poisonous. And in this very hand he was holding some object. Small fresh scars covered the face.
And what a coincidence. I remembered this face. As he raised his eyesight to me, he remembered me too even with the sunglasses.
This was the one of grunts that stole my car.