This guy stared at me with a whole mix of emotions. He was impatient, scared and disgusted at the same time. When he saw me, contempt, suspicion and confusion were added to the list. He quickly switched his sight from me to Elise.
"What`s going on, Elise? Who is he?" He tried to play like he doesn`t know me. But he was a terrible actor, and I didn`t want him to continue the play. I made some steps towards him and put my hands in pockets.
"Oh, you know me… Appearing sometimes before you… Doing crazy stuff."
"Do… do you know him?" Elise was extremely surprised.
"Elise, why did you bring him here?" The grunt angrily shouted at her.
"He wants to help us, Jim!" The girl suddenly tried to explain my presence. How naïve…
"Yes, yes, of course… Jim…" I specially made an accent on his name to put him out of countenance. That worked, and I made sure this is his false name. "I want to help. To fix your past mistakes."
I slowly unzipped the top part of my greatcoat to reveal the shoulder belt with four pokeball fixed to it. The sight of it made the bandit worried a lot more than he was before. Elise noticed this jest of mine, but didn`t do anything.
"So… Why did you come to this girl`s house, called yourself a false name and then tried to escape?"
"False name? What do you mean – false name?" Elise screamed loudly. I hope we are deep enough for anyone else not to hear her.
"Yeah… Josh… What did you want to mean by that?"
He just angrily looked at me and squeezed hid ID card in his free hand. I noticed this thing a bit before, when he was nervously turning it in his hand. And just now I realized why he is holding it ready – his damn card is actually the sharpest thing in this room.
"Stand behind me." I raised my arm before Elise, covering the girl behind me.
"What… what is happening?" She continued asking with a trembling voice.
I took out a package with Mark Steam`s card and threw it to the grunt before me. He didn`t expect this to happen, and with caution and curiosity looked on the floor. When he realized what that was, he looked again at me, with even more anger and contempt.
"You can`t scare me, bitch!"
"Hey-hey-hey! Don`t swear in the presence of children…" I warned him and made a step forward. "Give your tongue a good use. Tell me what happened on Route 3."
He just frowned even more.
"Damn it! Why do you all keep it that secret so diligently?" I spread my hands in a question manner. "You have just a couple of hours to live, why do you care? Just tell me what happened so I can return my car and go forward!"
"So… You killed Mark just because of your stupid piece of junk?"
"No, I didn`t kill him. I just found your friend in the cave, dying from wounds. You know better who killed him. He told me about the courier you attacked. Why did you attack him in the first place? What so valuable he was delivering? And what did he do to you all?!"
"Screw you, asshole!"
Damn it, how more stupid it can get? Again with this crap, these morons are actually afraid of nothing. They all say the same thing and instead of talking just insult me. Are they so fearless?
I raised my finger for Elise to be on guard. Actually, this is a very risky move – to trust this girl. She is scared and confused, so she can do literally anything. I have to be cautious.
With a couple of steps I approached Josh. I had his free hand under the gaze of my side vision. I don`t want him to cut me with that stuff. I came closer and squatted to look at his eyes. Well, he`s definitely not all right, but I don`t know why. The closest thing I could think of is drugs.
"Where. Is. My. Car?" I demanded an answer from him.
But instead of a polite reply he just raised his hand with a card to hit me. I managed to grab his hand and beat the card out of his hand. Suddenly he swung his another arm to hit, looks like he managed to unlock the handcuff before. I absolutely didn`t expect this hit, so after the punch I fell on the floor. What I expect even less – Elise hit me with something too, causing my eyes to darken. In some seconds I could hear the grunt running away and hitting something else.
When I came back to senses in a few seconds, I noticed Elise sitting near the wall, holding her head. Looks like that grateful piece of shit decided to thank her for escaping with this way. The girl looked more hurt mentally than physically with her eyes already wet.
"Love can be cruel." I said to her, collecting the two fallen ID cards. "Don`t trust Rockets. Trust Vengeance."
I quickly rushed from the basement and chased the Team Rocket grunt. He was in not a very good condition to run, so I could reach him sooner or later. But as I got outside, he was already near the fence, looking for something under the tree roots.
He took out two dirty pokeballs from the ground and turned to me.
"Team Rocket is unbeatable!"
He had some seconds while I run across the garden to jump over the fence. For a second he sat on the fence and shouted in my direction.
"Machop, Drowzee, hold him!"
He jumped off the fence from the other side. Two pokeballs flew over the fence as two pokemon were released from my side.
The first one – is a small grey humanoid-like creature, skinny and muscular at the same time. He had some short plates on head and a real belt. The intuition says this is a Machop.
The second pokemon is mostly yellow-colored, quite fat and very creepy looking. I guess this is the Drowzee himself.
Machop and Drowzee prepared themselves for battle despite their trainer running away.
"I have no time for you!" I quickly ran around them to the tree near fence and started climbing up. Suddenly something struck into my mind, causing heavy headache. Vision gone dark again and I fell on ground, where something punched me pretty hurtfully in the stomach.
"Damn it…" I could just swear. As I quickly recovered, I realized they won`t let me pass without the battle. I will lose the bandit if I will battle them. But I don`t want to leave this battle just to my pokemon. I will not abandon them as this damn Josh did.
I took out three pokeballs and threw them on the ground. Moment, Reaper and Dumpling were released outside, taking battle stances and distracting the opposing pokemon as I get up.
"Reaper, follow the man in ragged clothes over there!" I pointed at the fence, commanding my Reaper to chase him. "Try to catch him as fast as you can!" The Beedrill nodded to me and flew away. I turned myself to the remaining pokemon in fight.
Well, this is something new for me - a two-on-two battle. Could be hard to control two at once, but I need to try. And do it quickly.
"Dumpling, use Ember on Machop! Moment, attack Drowzee… with Bite!"
My pokemon charged to perform their attacks. Moment attacked Drowzee with his jaws, causing the opponent to squeal from the pain. But foe pokemon was too fat to easily keep him in the jaw, so he hit Moment with his head and freed himself, slowly retreating back after a super effective move on him. Meanwhile my Dumpling`s attack burned Machop a little, dealing some decent damage. The opponent didn't even try to dodge it. Instead he just stretched his arms and tensed a lot, causing some bright red aura to cover him, but he didn`t attack in return yet. He was just warming up, and this can`t be too good.
Wait a second! Flying-type attacks are super effective against fighting-type pokemon! And this one definitely looks like a fighter to me.
"Switching targets! Moment, attack Machop with Wing attack! Dumpling – to Drowzee, with Metal Claw!"
Moment`s Wing attack was quick and strong, and also super effective on Machop, as I suspected, dealing pretty good damage. Dumpling was fast too and managed to hit that Drowzee with his sharp steel-powered claws, but hitting him not as hard as I wanted.
Opponents recovered pretty quickly after our attack. Machop, despite being almost on his edge, rushed to Dumpling and kicked him in the leg. My pokemon lost balance and hardly didn`t fall.
"Shadow retreat, Dumpling!"
Quick switching to defense mode could save us from unnecessary damage. My Charmeleon was very close to Machop as he exhaled a huge cloud of dark smoke right into the fighter`s face, blinding him for some seconds and retreating back.
But as I was busy with controlling Dumpling`s maneuver, Drowzee and Moment had a fight of their own, totally without my control. While my Golbat was trying to find the most painful spot on Drowzee to bite, the opponent made some strange signs with his hands and caused a small pink energetic explosion on Moment`s head. That looked quite painful for him, throwing him back to the ground. For a second I thought this move looks familiar to me. Yes, some bug catchers used it when fighting with Butterfree. Confusion! A psychic-type move. Which is super effective against poison types like my Moment...
Damn, controlling two pokemon at a time is quite hard. But I need to pull myself together!
"Moment, finish Machop with Wing attack! Dumpling, keep Drowzee away from Moment, use Metal Claw!"
This time we used all our luck and strength. Moment hit poor Machop with all strength he could gain, and finished him with a powerful swipe of wings. But immediately he was hit by another energetic attack from Drowzee, and that was almost the end for him. Just a second after that my Dumpling, angered from this, hit the last opponent with a very strong Metal Claw, knocking him far off and making him faint.
"Damn it, hold there…" I said to Moment while running to him and searching for a potion in my pocket. I healed him quickly, threw away the empty bottle and looked at the two unconscious pokemon lying on grass. Abandoned by their miserable master. I can`t even call him trainer after this.
This exact second Elise showed off from the basement. I gave her a serious look and pointed at the fainted pokemon.
"Take care of them."
I didn`t have time to return my pokemon back to pokeballs, I just waved my hand to command them follow me and headed to the tree near fence. Moment flew over it, while me and Dumpling climbed up and jumped over.
Just when my legs touched the ground, a sudden idea appeared in my mind. I could just cover the whole area with Dumpling`s Smokescreen and easily escape while opponents are distracted! Damn, good ideas always come the last…
I quickly looked around and tried to find any trace of Reaper. Far away on the road I noticed something yellow on the ground and rushed to it.
My worst fears were true – this was my Reaper. Beaten, burnt and fainted. The Team Rocket grunt has escaped. I don`t know whether he had help or just hid another pokeball nearby. The fact is that this piece of crap escaped!
"Oh crap… I hope I have something to revive you…" I found a Revive in my pocket and used it on Reaper. Soon he came back to senses and raised his head to me. Well, it was quite hard to define by his insectoid eyes, whether he was sorry or not, but by intuition I somehow felt he is.
"What happened? Who attacked you?"
Reaper tried to explain something to me, swinging his sting in the air and buzzing loudly and very emotionally, but I understood nothing. Dumpling and Moment commented his story with their own bark and screech, but I still didn`t understand anything. They seem to understand each other perfectly. Too bad they can`t speak on our language.
"There was another one, right? With a fire-type pokemon?" I asked him a leading question. Reaper nodded in agreement and turned away.
"Meh, don`t worry, we will find both of them." I calmed down my Reaper and looked at the direction of road that leads to Route 5. Our next destination. Somewhere near was the road that led to hunters` lair. I hope these bastards got what they deserve.
I turned back to the mansion behind me. There is definitely something suspicious about this entire story… And this girl Elise and her father don`t look innocent too. Something bigger is happening behind them. Maybe I should learn more about them, but… I don`t have much time. And this will not help me on my investigation.
So I returned all my pokemon back to pokeballs and headed to Route 5. This is another nice countryside just like Route 1. Some small private houses are situated near the road, a lot of greenery mixed with edge of dense forest. Such a peaceful place to be.
I passed another house near the road, but this one looked a bit different. Behind the house there was a huge yard with lots of different pokemon – known and unknown to me.
The tablet on the house stated "Daycare center". Interesting place, I`ve heard about those. There trainers can leave their pokemon to raise instead of training them by themselves. I still don`t understand what`s the meaning of giving away your pokemon to another people? How the heck does this help the talk about strong bonds and friendship?
For some reason two specific pokemon attracted my attention and I know them to be Cubone and Marowak. These two were standing near the fence, looking far beyond the high fence. They didn`t look too happy about their life, as everyone around them do. Well, maybe someone likes freedom more.
Another thing that usually this place can be used for is breeding. I know some people are crazy about breeding a perfect pokemon that is strong, beautiful, fast, and tough. Sometimes some generations of pokemon are needed to be bred to get a result. Well, this looks senseless to me too. I don`t need exactly a strong pokemon from the very beginning – I can make my own pokemon stronger.
But the biggest mystery about this place is connected to pokemon themselves. Despite they breed there every day, no one in the world saw them mating. No one. Ever. Even the pokemon professors like Oak don`t know how the heck pokemon mate and where their eggs come from. Too bad there is no talking pokemon to tell us people about it.
I threw away all such thoughts and soon passed this Daycare center, continuing my way. The sunny day slowly moves forward as I approach the end of my road – Saffron City.
Actually, I don`t like this city very much. There always was something uneasy about it. I heard some people with psychic powers born here, and that scares me a lot. But, maybe, there is a gym in this city, so I could spend some time on challenging it. I still have some time in reserve to reach Vermillion City before my ship takes off.
But all my plans were ruined by a huge police cordon at the entrance of city. A bunch of police cars, officers and service pokemon were blocking the road to the city. I just wonder what happened there?
I already made a note for myself – the police are always where the Team Rocket is. Previous happening have already led me to my actual goal as I found the second of three of my offenders. This could be useful too. So I fixed my black glasses, lowered my cap and cautiously approached the blockade.
"Good day, gentleman… Why the road is closed?" I asked them.
"The whole city is closed and is no more passable. Secret operation, no civilians allowed!" The policeman replied to me in his own and quite rude way.
"But I need to get to Vermillion City!"
"Use the underground over there." He pointed at a building standing nearby. "It goes straight to Route 6."
I was convinced that these guys are very serious and will not let me pass. And I had no intention in attracting any unnecessary attention to me, so with a very sad look on my face I turned away from them and headed to the building.
This was just the usual entrance into the underground. I have no idea who built an underground passage, coming from Route 5 to Route 6 under the whole Saffron City, but this is quite convenient right now. Fortunately, there were trains moving from one station to another, and they weren`t as expensive as I could expect.
Some next hours I spent inside a train, looking at the window, watching the dark walls of the metro. I think I saw a Zubat flying near the train for some time before I fell to sleep.
The dream was, as always, another nightmare. Dark clouds, heavy rain, large blank space… The war is coming. People shooting at pokemon and pokemon shooting at people. Rivers of blood come from both sides. Then suddenly everything changes and both pokemon and people unite and divide into two new sides – pokemon and people fighting other pokemon and people. I was in the middle of it and tried to stop it somehow, but just was shot in the crossfire to death...
I`m so used to it that this shit doesn't even scare me anymore and each time I woke up like a usual man would. Some people say that constant and the same dreams mean the madness. Can`t argue with that – after a saturated life like mine it becomes even harder not to go mad. Sometimes I catch myself with a thought that all my previous nicknames – all my previous personalities – stay in my mind and sometimes show up. Does that mean I have split personality? Twenty times? Well, maybe.
Others say this dreams could mean something important; and even be a prophecy of some sort, the future. A terrible future, I have to say. I don`t want one like this.
But the truth is actually much, much worse as only I know this is a lot more than just a dream…
Finally the train came to end station and I headed to the surface. Bright sunlight blinded me immediately, even the cap can`t help it. This has always been my problem – my eyes react to the light very hurtfully. But I can better in the darkness. At least this has some sort of natural balance.
After a couple of minutes of coming back to senses I found the city silhouette far away and headed there. The Route 6 is starting right here.
My way is coming through the lake near the city. There were quite a lot of people around the area resting, having picnics and training pokemon near the forest. Some of them challenged me to a battle, and I had some quick and suspiciously easy battles. Most of them had common pokemon from Caterpie, Weedle, Rattata and Pidgey families. One of them even had a Pikachu, and another also had a Squirtle, but he got him from father, not professor Oak. Why was I so sure this was Oak`s pokemon?
My team had a lot of fun beating these guys, but Harry didn`t seem to be enjoying it that much. He still obeys me, but he does that without any enthusiastic mood. I guess he just wants to find his forest friends as soon as possible, and I can`t judge him. I`m going to search the ship first, so after that I`ll own him a lot.
Well, after finally getting away from the lake and the trainers I stepped on a city territory feeling the strong fresh wet air. So close to the sea, the only city in Kanto with the port.
Vermillion City.