A lot of things to do here, so I didn`t want to waste any more time. It is already far past the midnight, and even close to the morning, so I need to find a Pokemon Center and have some rest. It`s three days until the depart of S.S. Anne, so I think I even have some time in reserve.

Well, this city is not as big as Cerulean is, but I couldn`t see the port from the hill where I stood. The whole place is founded on the big hill slope, gradually lowering to water level where the port should be, as I think. This would sound logically to me.

I decided to continue my searches tomorrow… Yeah, it`s today already! And also a Pokemon Center was right near the city entrance so I could find it easily.

But for some reason I didn`t want to sleep yet. There was some strength in my body to have a walk around the city. Also, there was one building on the other side of city that attracted my attention. If I`m correct, this should the gym, at least it looks like one. And if it actually is, I could spend some more time on scouting it. Just to be safe I closed my greatcoat to hide the shoulder belt with pokeballs. Right now my team is quite exhausted, so I don`t want any more battles for now.

This city feels like a lot more peaceful than Cerulean. People are always busy with their own jobs – which there are mostly fish-catching or fish-selling, and not robbing people or hunting pokemon. Well, something feels uneasy in this large city-sized fish market too as I know that Magikarps here are considered as a delicacy. And… some years ago I had to try one. Actually these useless pokemon have quite nice taste, to my surprise. But I still don`t appreciate it. This is the question of each person`s morale. Nature is nature - every each of us is a wild beast inside.

On my way to the gym I finally found the way to the port – it was hidden behind the city block with high buildings. And, I have to say, I was surprised by the size of that thing – at least twenty ships were docked there at the same time. Well, I have seen bigger ports like in Castelia City, but this one impresses too. I wonder how hard it will be to find the S.S. Anne ship. How hard it will be to find exact man among all the rest. Of course, I have a plan already, but practice can show completely another results…

So, after a couple of hours of walking across the streets of Vermillion City and looking around for different local sights I reached the gym building. It is situated very close to water, divided from the city by two rivers. I even could say the gym owns an isle of some sort. The path to main building was fenced with lattice, while the main gate was for some reason heavily overgrown. I noticed that the plants have very fresh cuts; that meant they were cut not very long ago. And because of that the whole area around the entrance looked like a strange garden of some sort. The only way in.

As I came closer and got the chance to look closely at the plants, I suddenly heard a very familiar voice. A rude and strict, but always equitable voice. Despite him being connected to literally the worst period of my life I was partly glad to hear him again. But also very surprised to hear him.

I turned in the direction of voice source. It was a high mature man, strong-built, with a short messy yellow hair and an eternal pathos on his face, together with narrow sunglasses. He was wearing a dark-green sleeveless shirt, wide camo-colored pants and a notable token on his neck. Well, a soldier - former or current – always ready to battle.

"And remember, kid!" I heard from him after that. "Always count on the power of your pokemon. All the rest doesn`t matter. Only strong pokemon wins and rules!"

"Yes, sir…" The boy before him nodded and hurried to the exit from gym`s territory. The man crossed his hands on chest and watched the kid leaving his place. Suddenly he drastically changed in face when he noticed me behind the grid fence. He just stared at me for some seconds and then narrowed his eyes and nodded, inviting inside.

I waited for the boy to pass this unusual entrance, and then stepped inside. When finally I came closer to my old contact, he straightened.

"Well-well-well, isn`t this our good ol` boy GunPowder?"

I raised my right hand to head and saluted to him.

"Lieutenant Surge."

He saluted to me in reply. After a couple of seconds we brought our hands to each other and shook them.

"I`m surprised to see you alive, soldier." He greeted me loudly.

"I`m surprised even more to be alive, lieutenant. But… Now… I am Vengeance, and not a Gunpowder like I was before."

"No surprise in that. You have always been a bit unruly soldier." He made a step back and crossed his hands on chest. "Never understood that name-game of yours. But I`ll play it anyway… Vengeance."

"That`s so nice of you. Shall we find some more comfortable place to chat?"

"Yeah, soldier, follow me!"

Lieutenant led me inside his gym through the back door. We haven`t passed the main stadium, but in the end got into one of rooms that looked like own Surge`s office. The classic wooden table, relatively new couch and a lone wardrobe represent the furniture. A large collection of cups, diplomas and prize statuettes for different events decorated the wall on the left. This guy didn`t waste his time like me.

As we entered inside he literally fell on his armchair, while I carefully took a seat on the couch.

"Mr. Tucker! Stop the challengers for an hour! I`m having a guest!" He shouted to someone from the other side of the wall. Judging by the sounds of footsteps, someone obviously called Tucker slowly walked away to execute Surge`s loud and strict order.

Finally we had some time to stare at each other waiting for the right moment to break the silence. What a tense moment. And I had the courage to go first.

"This so good both of us made it out alive until today." I raised my head to observe the wall of trophies above lieutenant. "You finally settled there, huh?"

"Yup. What a nice place to have here." He nodded and looked at his collection. "Got it from a friend of mine, Wattson. Took as a prize in battle. But…" He suddenly stopped, keeping the mix of anger and disappointment in himself.

"But?" I looked at him demanding the explanation.

"…but now I see why he lost so easily, gave it to me so gladly and ran away to that Hoenn region of his so quickly!" Surge raised his fist before his face.

"And… why is that, lieutenant?"

"Because of that damned Diglett Cave over there!" He hit the table with his fist. I guess the table got used to it already, as Surge is quite emotional man.

"You don`t like Digletts?" I questionably raised my eyebrow. This is a fact I`ve never known about lieutenant.

"I hate Digletts! And I hate trainers that come to my electric-type gym with a whole bunch of them! My electricity is completely useless against these bastards!"

I smiled widely as he was becoming angrier and angrier telling me all that. At least, now I learned that his gym is an electric type. Too bad I don`t have anything against him, but I`ll think of something. I have to.

"That makes sense, lieutenant. Smart trainers use the type effectiveness to beat you. Everything is by the rules. Is that a problem?"

"Of course! Literally every one of them comes to me with a Diglett or a Dugtrio now! Every. One. Of them! And what can I do if electricity is completely ineffective? This ruins my gym`s reputation!"

"Maybe, you should teach your pokemon some other moves than just electric ones?" I replied to him with a bit of sarcasm.

"Nonsense! We are good as we are! But you know what? I invented a pretty nice strategy. We can use it against anyone to win for sure! Even against those damn Digletts!"

Erenow lieutenant has proved him to be pretty cunning during the fights. I have learned a lot from him, and some my own tactics and maneuvers actually based on his ideas. And another one could be very useful to me too.

"Interesting… And what is it, lieutenant?"

For a second he opened his mouth to tell me, but suddenly stopped and looked at me with such suspicion like at the spy.

"Why would you be interested in that? You didn`t like pokemon at all. You were the one who refused to take a partner on our mission!"

"Now I have some small interest, lieutenant. So tell me about it."

He deeply thought about my words, but then threw away all doubts and continued.

"Me and my Raicher trained a lot to perfect our agility. To learn to jump high and control the speed of our jump and fall. When my pokemon is constantly in the air and almost never touches the floor, what damage it can get from those frigging ground-type attacks?"

Actually that is a very smart thing, I expected no less from lieutenant. I remember that electric types are weak to ground. So getting no damage at all is a good start. But I decided to change the topic to hide my real interest in this.

"Raicher is still with you?" I made an accent on the familiar name of his own partner pokemon.

"Of course, this guy is with me! We`ve been together through so many crap that no shithouse in the world can fit!"

Lieutenant Surge and his Raicher the Raichu were partners since the very beginning. They have shown us, regular soldiers how strong a team can become if they act together. Later Raicher saved his master from the very death, and everyone in our squad was so damn inspired we never lost any battle until the very end. Everyone trained so hard with their partner pokemon and tried to achieve the strength of Surge and his Raicher. Everyone except for me…

"Now I think I know why you decided to make this gym an electric type." I concluded.

"Exactly! All thanks to my boy Raicher. Recent losses made him a bit unsure in his own strength. Maybe he is just getting old. But we will fight to the very end!"

As always, so proud of himself, so much self-confidence. This is our lieutenant Surge.

"You didn`t change a bit, lieutenant." I said him, leaning back on couch and crossing my hands on chest. "Even when all over, you still look for a fight."

"Oh you with your sarcasm…" He gave me a judging look. "You had been a very troublesome soldier. We could lose everything because of you!"

"Why, lieutenant?" I tried to defend myself. "I always obeyed your orders and did it perfectly even without a partner pokemon!"

"Maybe. But you, damn it, seduced all our nurses. All four of them! And when their help was needed the most, they were sleeping with you!" He continued accusing me.

"That`s not my fault. They were too good-looking just to leave them alone." I turned my head away from him, but Surge wasn`t going to stop.

"And what about the enemy general? You let her escape!"

I exhaled very loudly and guiltily lowered my head. He will remind me about that failure of mine until the death.

"I know, Surge. I know this was my fault. But in the end we won! And we didn`t lose anyone! I just… I just can`t lay my hands on a woman."

He judgingly looked at me. Let him look as much as he wants, I don`t care.

"This weakness of yours could cost us the victory. Or lives. You were very lucky or you could be judged for treachery."

I had nothing to reply. I couldn`t reply anything to him and absolutely didn`t want to. He is right, and this is the weakness that could cost a lot.

"And, I guess, I know exactly why you are here, soldier. Did you find her?"

For a second I twitched from the sudden. I didn`t tell lieutenant Surge anything about my car. But just then I realized he talks not about my car…

"No, I didn`t."

"But let me guess. You were looking for her, right? The last years you spent in searches. I can see it in your tired eyes."

I remained silent. What could I say about that? He was right, I searched almost the whole planet and gained a lot more problems on my ass that had before. And yet all my searches were completely useless.

"Maybe you will just forget it?" Surge asked me with passionate voice. This is a thing no one would ever expect from him.

"No, I just can`t. That mistake maybe didn`t cost you your victory, but it did cost mine. My family was the price. I can`t just forget it."

This time both of us remained silent. Lieutenant Surge knew that I`m very sorry for what I have done, and so did I. This is the thing I can never forgive myself for. Maybe it would be better for me if the consequences were completely another. I don`t care what, just… any alternative where my family is still alive.

Finally the traces of fatigue started to show off. Maybe bad memories and thoughts drain the energy too.

"Well, lieutenant, I think it`s enough of psychological injuries for me for today. I will not disturb you from your job." I got up from the couch and approached Surge`s desk.

"Do you want to see Raicher in battle?"

"I would like to. But I need to do some things here, in Vermillion City. Maybe I will come tomorrow."

"Well, then…" Lieutenant Surge slowly stood up from his armchair and walk around the table, closer to me. "Despite you being a horrible person, you fought well, soldier."

He saluted to me again. I was very tired even to raise my arm, but I saluted him too in return. Then we shook hands and without a word he led me out of his gym.

It was almost a day when I got outside. There was a small queue of trainers near the gym entrance waiting for their chance of challenging Surge. Two guys were standing between the trainers and gates, maybe guarding it. To my extreme surprise the gates were already overgrown by plants, completely blocking the way in. I think I should ask him about that later.

"Farewell, lieutenant!" I waved at him headed to the exit.

"I think you should pass the second gate." Lieutenant pointed at another small gate in the fence, hidden pretty well. I didn`t notice it before.

So I left the gym territory through the side door in the fence. Some trainers stared at me with angry eyes, and some of them even rushed to the small gate I just exited from. But the guards shouted something illegible to them, and the challengers returned back to the queue. Seems some of them had lost their places.

Well, this encounter was useful to me in some ways. I think lieutenant didn`t suspect me to be trainer as well, and now I know his new trick that he will definitely use if I use a ground-type attacks on his Raicher. For now my pokemon don`t have such, and this makes this information a bit less useful. But I know lieutenant pretty well, he can adapt this trick to counter other strategies I`m gonna use against him. That means we have to invent a counter strategy to a counter strategy! Damn, this gives me headache when I`m also tired and hungry…

So I returned back to the highest part of Vermillion City, to the Pokemon Center. The local nurse was happy and friendly, as always. For some reason I remembered Jane and my debt to her. Does this count as a debt if I didn`t use her gift card at all? I think the will demand percentages for this anyway. And I`m not sure if they will be measured in currency.

After leaving my team to the nurse, I headed to my room. So much have happened since the last morning… And even more is going to happen this night. The nighttime is perfect for sneaking onboard the ship and stealing the Bill`s device. I am very good at stealth operations – thanks to Surge, again, so finding the information about the device and device itself shouldn`t be much of problem.

I even didn`t undress myself, falling on bed in my greatcoat and everything. Struggling with laziness I managed to remove my boots and take a comfortable position.

Lieutenant Surge… What a coincidence to meet him here. Not as just a usual citizen but as a gym leader himself! This guy was very strict in the army, and sometimes I really wanted to punch him in the face. Well, now I can do almost the same with my pokemon.

And with thoughts about lieutenant Surge a lot of other memories returned. The events of seven years ago. The events that changed my life forever. The events that usual people call just the war.

The events that I personally call the Horror.