I was prepared. I was prepared for anything.
A large bouquet of pleasant roses was stolen from some suspicious man that I don`t think to be very honest with his customers. The good place in restaurant was organized by faking the voice of one rich man and changing the time. He was going to go there with his lover, not his wife. I don`t appreciate such things, especially in his age.
Everything was ready… Except for me to wear a suit that I acquired from one very-very drunk gentleman. Gentleman don`t drink that much, so he is not worthy of this piece of rag. It still stinks a little, but I hope that very strong perfume that I secretly took from a girl that stole it from the shop and that even gives me a headache will be good enough for Erika. This woman seems to like luxury, so I have to endure this event with all my will and make some affection on her. Just then my plan will work.
The time slowly moves to its main point. I still have some time to make sure the second part of my plan will succeed too. Finally I found some real use of PokeDex.
"Hey, Bill?" I called the bizarre inventor. "Does this thing work?"
"Oh, Ven, hello!" He happily replied through the Dex network. "Yes, I hear you loud and clear. I have just finished the process of restoring the broken data from scanner for you…"
"It took some time…" I suddenly remembered about the scanner. The latest days were too busy for me to remember that. "Great, but let`s talk about it a bit later. I need your help… Do you have among something like… quiet alarm among your inventions? Something that I can install right now?"
"An alarm? Well, I had something like that on my own house. But what do you need it for?"
"I want to install it on the Celadon City gym so it will notify me from the distance."
"You`re into something, huh?" Bill`s voice sounded not very suspicious or accusing. On the contrary, he was actually interested in this. "I can find the pack and send it to you with Ramos. You`ll understand, I`m sure."
"Great! I will wait for your pokemon in the central park, but… can you send anyone… else?" I looked up at the dark sky imagining the approach of Aerodactyl. This could not be good, actually. "The appearance of such rare pokemon in the middle of the city will definitely attract unnecessary attention to this place. Who knows – maybe someone will even try to battle and catch him. Send a Pidgeot or Fearow… Do you have those in your… collection? I`ll give you details on my plan later."
"Okay, dude, I got you. BeakBreaker the Fearow is on his way!" Bill replied with determination and put the Dex down.
BeakBreaker? That… surprisingly fitting name for a Fearow.
Well, at least, I was right to connect Bill for this cause. Maybe his alarm won`t be needed at all, but if it will… I won`t lose my target. Whatever it is…
This hour passed pretty quickly. The instruction to the device was actually understandable and useful… after I installed it by incorrectly myself and almost broke it. But in the second time I succeeded and made a step back from the doors of closed gym. It`s really hard to see the wires around the entrance, and the small bracelet on my wrist now slowly flashes green. Too bad I can`t check whether it works or not right now, as I can`t enter the gym without the keys. Maybe installing it on the main entrance would be better… But no, who the heck enters the gym through the main door at night?
I thanked the patient Fearow, gave him a piece of chocolate bar and sent back with the small box with the remained parts. There were suspiciously lots of them…
And now I have nearly half an hour to reach the PokeCenter and meet Erika. Maybe, I have more if the is a respectable girl that is always late for dates. Maybe, my pokemon are already healed up there, but this night is not about them. I`ll let them have some more rest for now. I keep just Harry with me now, ready for anything. He also just NEEDS to be with me on this night.
So I called a random taxi and reached the point of meeting just in time.
To my real surprise Erika was already there. Her hair were styled in some interesting hairdo, a long blue dress fit this very well. Even the lipstick was blue. For some reason I remembered Misty and our recent date with her… I wonder what would she say if she was here? Probably she would just kill me.
"You`re late." Erika said to me playfully. She didn`t seem to be angry at all, but she was staring at me with strange look on her face. What`s wrong with me? Did I stain the suit while working with the alarm? Or is it the shoulder belt with one lone pokeball sticks out so badly? Maybe I should actually put the pokeball into a pocket.
"And you`re not." I replied to her trying to keep the smile on my face.
"So, what did you prepare for us tonight?" The gym leader approached me and raised her elbow for me to take.
"You will be surprised." The cunning smile on my face grew even larger. And I saw that she likes it.
For a couple of seconds my companion looked around us.
"Where`s your car?" She asked with interest.
"Um…" I was lost for a second there. She wouldn`t be fond of my car even if it wouldn`t be stolen. "We don`t need a car to have fun!"
I took Erika`s hand and together we headed to the Victoria Street.
Have to say, this was really enjoyable night. We spent a lot of time and fake coins playing in the Game Corner. Maybe the negative luck of recent days tried to compensate here – and I won lots of new real coins, which we exchanged for a large Porygon plush toy and a place in restaurant on top of building.
It was just me, her and large purple-blue thing near her. Maybe all this would sound crazy for a normal person, but that`s not me. And my lady seemed to enjoy the night. I really doubt that her previous admirers dared to take her in a damn casino for a date, so she was really excited to taste something new.
The dishes served to our table on roof were really interesting too, so interesting I couldn`t let myself taste them for some time. I actually was afraid to discover a slowpoke tail or something like that in here. Meh, I still don`t know what that was, but it was delicious.
"Well, the night was really good, I have to say." Erika said with pleasing smile on her face. Yeah, she already drank some wine and started to look suspiciously at the fence around and send kisses to the antennas on the nearest building.
"I enjoyed that too, my dear." I moved the dish away and looked at her. She is enjoying the time, she is drank and she is much unfettered now. It`s time to begin the interrogation.
I stood from the chair and slowly headed to the ladder down while Erika is sticking her finger into poor Porygon`s eye. The ladder could be closed by chain on a lower level to ensure our privacy for some time. This is what I need.
"Don`t go away-y-y!" Erika shouted to me. "I have just started to like your… s-stupid suit!"
I have to say; in the drunken state she looks a little bit… less attractive now. I hope this won`t end bad for me and her. So I turned back to her and quickly approached from behind when she returned to the table and the vine.
"Tell me, please, how your gym works actually?" I carefully asked her and gently hugged her shoulders from behind.
"What do you mean? It takes challenges… Gives challenges… Hic! And all that…" Seems like she has already drank too much, so I slowly put her hand with glass of vine away and looked in her eyes.
"No, what does it do… besides the challenges?" I asked her straighter this time.
"We train our pokemon… And take on parties! Woohoo!" Suddenly Erika escaped from my hug and started to dance near the table.
Maybe I chose not the best moment to interrogate her. I should do this in the morning, when she wakes up and sees me near her, remembers the night outside and inside… Damn, that could be much better than just give her to drink.
I carefully caught her in dance and pulled to me.
"Why the grass pokemon disappear all over the region?" I questioned her looking straight in the eyes.
"Why? I don`t know… But do I want to know…" She suddenly lowered her head and replied with a very cared tone. "Why do you ask?" Erika raised her head up to me and asked in reply very carefully. I think she has just sobered in a second. This makes me think about my second theory.
I carefully stepped back and kept her shoulders in grip. Erika continued staring at me despite that.
"Tell me about Team Rocket… Erika Anderson." I seriously ordered her. Woman`s face immediately changed to the feel of disgust, and she looked away angered.
"These bastards steal pokemon. Wild pokemon, owned pokemon – they don`t care. I just don`t know what do they do that for, but I`m sure that they have base somewhere in Celadon City."
Judging by her voice she actually hates them. Hates them too much for a person working for them.
"How about… in your gym?" I asked her mysteriously.
"My… gym?" Erika looked at me very scared. "It can`t be!" I would trust her in another life, but right now I just think she is just a good actress.
"Don`t fool around with me!" I raised my voice a bit to show her my serious intentions. "All the traces lead exactly to your damn gym and to you! To a person who ordered Cerulean hunters to poach wild grass-type pokemon. To a person who left a note in a secret garage in Lavender town. To a person with the initials 'A.E.'!"
"'A.E.'?" Erika thought deeply for a moment but then shook her head and stared at me again. "Waaaait! You think that I work for Team Rocket, don`t you?"
"What else should I think? Too many evidences are against you, my dear."
"Why would you care about grass pokemon so much in the first place?" Suddenly she questioned me.
"Huh… Just because of this guy." I slowly unzipped the top of my suit revealing the scratched pokeball and took it in my hand. The capsule opened, releasing the energy outside and forming a pokemon on the floor. Very angry pokemon.
"I… think I know you…" Erika slowly crouched before him and raised her hand. Harry perfectly knew that she could be connected to the disappearance of his friends, but… he didn`t attack. Even when she carefully touched his scar near the eyes, my Weepinbell was standing there motionlessly and just looking at her.
"How could you know him?" I asked the woman.
"I`m a grass-type gym leader. I show interest to all remarkable species of our region… And, of course, I knew about the scarred Bellsprout of Route 24."
Harry closed his eyes and simply let her caress his head. I just don`t understand this.
"Do you trust this woman, Harry?" I questioned my pokemon this time. He slowly looked at me and nodded with all his body.
I made some steps back, looking down at the floor with misunderstanding.
"But then I don`t understand. All trails lead to you… To you and your gym, which is…" And then I suddenly noticed the red light from alarm bracelet on my wrist. "…is being robbed now!"
"What?" After that statement Erika returned completely to sober state. "How can it be?"
"I… I have installed the outside alarm system on the backdoor of your gym to make sure that my trails are correct."
Erika just gave me an absolutely lost look in reply.
"Erm… Never mind, let`s go. Someone has just rushed into your gym, and you`re just standing there and doing nothing!" I grabbed her hand and ran to the ladder, but she suddenly stopped me.
"Hey, wait a second!" She shouted to me partly turned around. "Close your eyes!"
"What for? There`s no time…" I questioned her with misunderstanding.
"Just close!"
I really didn`t want to argue with her in a moment like this. Maybe when I`ll open my eyes, she will be far gone, but I didn`t think about it. I just closed my eyes as she asked.
And when I opened them, she already had an ultraball in her hand.
"Where did you get it from?" I shockingly asked. No, really, her dress is so light and tight there is no chance of hiding even a pocket capsule in it.
"Woman`s secret. Let`s go…" She threw the capsule on the ground and released her Vileplume outside. When did she manage to restore him? I thought that full recover of pokemon from a complete fainting will take some more time.
Erika jumped on her Vileplume and sat right on his head. Large pokemon didn`t even twitch under her weight. Then woman turned back to me and pointed at the place near her.
"Come on!"
"Do you want us… to ride him?" I was still confused by her actions.
"Quickly!"
At this moment I have completely lost the control over the situation and just let myself follow her on the top of this strange pokemon.
"Hold tight!" Erika advised to me. And just now I realized what she`s up to and actually clang myself to the Vileplume with a solid grip.
The flower pokemon charged to the edge of roof and… jumped down. The whole life flashed before my eyes in a second after we fell off the huge building and crushed into the ground.
But Vileplume seemed to be perfectly fine after the jump from the forty-meter height and just slowly lowered his head for Erika to climb down from him.
"Hey, snap out of it!" The woman clicked her fingers before me a couple of times to recover me from the shock. "It`s like you have never jumped from a building before…"
"H…hey! I have. I have… I`m fine…" I shook my head to make order in brains and then got down the Vileplume too. The cracks on the road from his fall will remain there for quite long…
The effect of dizziness will remain for some minutes after this, but I tried to follow Erika as she runs across the street with her pokemon.
"Come on, this way!" She hurried me and grabbed my hand again.
"Slow down, woman!" I shouted to her but didn`t release my hand from her grip and just tried to accelerate too despite my head still going wild. "We have just jumped from the top of the building! Show some respect to my vestibular apparatus…"
"No time for that. We need a ride…" Erika suddenly stopped and took out her phone to call someone.
I had some time to take a rest and maybe pull myself together but then suddenly one nasty thought appeared in my mind.
"Who has the keys from your gym besides you?"
Erika stopped dialing a number and shockingly looked at her phone. After some seconds she switched her sight at me.
"Just my assistant Lori… And she asked to stay in gym for some more…"
The girl with Exeggcute? I knew something`s not right with her, I didn`t like her from the very beginning! Then, maybe it`s not Erika who works for Team Rocket but her assistant! And she uses the gym to keep the pokemon. But the initials – A.E. don`t match her at all…
Erika lowered down her phone and thought for some seconds. Then she raised it again and began to call someone else.
"Bridget!... We have an emergency. Can you get us on the Victoria street?... Great, hurry up!"
Woman took her phone away and then looked at Vileplume. The pokemon looked very worried about the happening events and sometimes gave me serious looks.
"We will need you, Vileplume. Have a rest for now." Erika said while returning him back to pokeball and… hiding the capsule in her decolette. When she noticed my surprised look she just looked away like nothing happened.
"How well do you know Lori?" I asked her.
"Maybe, I know her not enough… But she is a good and responsible student. She trains at my gym just for a couple of months and makes very good progress. I wanted to present her a Leaf Stone next week for her Exeggcute. But if you`re right…" She angrily looked down below. "I`ll tear her apart!"
Now I realized that having Erika at my side isn`t the best thing, actually. If Lori actually works for Team Rocket, I need her alive and well to get to the core. I already came up with a main plan and three additional ones, but all of them include stealth operation and following her to the place of unloading. Erika seems to be pretty impulsive woman, and she may spoil my plan. I need to think of something about it.
"Your other student is going to pick us up?" I questioned Erika.
"Yeah. Looks like I can`t trust Lori now… Well, I can`t trust you too, you know." She looked at me suspiciously.
"Then why you`re listening to me?"
"Just the intuition. I feel something is actually happening. And I have some of my own thoughts about the other… deals of my gym." And she lowered her head in deep thoughts. I can`t disagree with her now – I have a bad feeling now too. And THIS is never wrong.
Just in a couple of minutes a red cabriolet appeared over the corner and rode to us. The driver appeared to be one of trainers that I battled in gym – this girl had two Bellsprouts and two Oddishes in her team.
"So, the date was so awful you decided to leave him?" Bridget mockingly asked Erika. I just had to give her a serious look after that.
"No, we`re going to the gym. Right now." Erika quickly explained the plan and took her place in the car on the front seat. I followed her and sat on the back seat. "Do you have your pokemon now?"
"No, they are all on treatment…" The girl replied and looked at me through the rearview mirror. "After HIM."
"Too bad. We might need them. But there`s no time, let`s go!"
The car accelerated and rushed through the city to grass-type gym.
We arrived on place in some minutes and parked on the nearest street so the car wouldn`t be easily seen from the inside of the gym.
"It`s her car…!" Erika noticed two vehicles parked near the gym. "You were surprisingly right, Ven." I felt the bit of disappointment in her voice. She understood that Lori betrayed her and simply couldn`t believe that.
"What`s the plan?" Bridget asked us.
"Erika, where are the rest of your team?" I questioned the gym leader.
"In my office… Why do you ask?" Erika replied confusedly.
"We might need them. Bridget, keep the car here and control the situation from somewhere higher." I exited the car and looked far forward. "Erika, you need to get to your office and grab the pokemon. Right now we have just Harry and your Vileplume, the reinforcements would be nice."
"And what are you going to do?" Woman asked me.
"I`m going… through the main door."