We did reach the PokeCenter really soon and left Harry for a healing, together with all other pokemon. Me and Leaf sighed with relief after that and headed back into my room.
I immediately fell down the chair and closed my eyes.
Shit… What can I do now? Everything is lost! Team Rocket is lost, Giovanni is lost, my only lead is lost… It have never existed! There have never been a Squad 2B in Team Rocket, because they have Alphas, Omegas, other shit…
I opened my eyes and looked at Leaf sitting on bed. She looked really deepened into her thoughts too, definitely not good ones.
"Are you all right?" I asked her carefully. "Did they hurt you?"
Then Leaf suddenly twitched like waking up from a slumber and looked at me.
"Oh, no, I`m fine." She nodded with a small restricted smile. "They knew that if they hurt me – they won`t be able to get you… and that you will beat the shit out of them for that."
"Heh… Bill told me lots of curses when heard that we decided to use you as bait with a tracking device." I positively said. "We should inform him that you`re all right."
"Yeah, I guess…" Leaf replied me quite detached like she is falling into deep thoughts again. From my point of view, she is not all fine.
I gave her some time to bring some order into her thoughts and left to have a shower, then quickly chewed a couple of apples in the fridge and tried to call Bill to tell him we are all right. To my surprise, he had an auto responder telling me that he is gone to Hoenn for some fascinating contract. Well, it`s Bill all right – he will have lots of things to tell later. So I left him a soothing message and stopped here. After half an hour of doing things I was back and Leaf was still in the same thoughtful state.
"Listen, girl I can clearly see something is bothering you." I distracted her with serious tone. "Tell me what`s happening!"
"Ugh…" She loudly exhaled and grabbed her head with hands, literally ready to tear off some hair. "I just… don`t know what to do now."
"I am in the same position, girl!" I tried to cheer her as I can and sat nearby. Nothing in the world can cheer you more than another person having problems too. "Today was possibly the craziest day in my life. I found out that I have wasted several months for nothing!"
"Well… I just… Ah! I don`t know how to tell you this…" Leaf hesitated to talk to me. I could clearly see she does want to tell me something, but somehow cannot. "Tell me what happened in the gym." She switched the attention to me.
I guiltily took my eyesight away from her, fearing she might see regret in my eyes.
"I defeated Giovanni." I honestly said. "This was to my surprise the easiest gym battle I ever had. Then suddenly Jane appeared… and tried to force me shoot him. He had his own gun, and this ended… badly. For both of them."
Leaf remained silent for some time, thinking. I`ve been thinking too.
"I… I think that this time I have to tell the truth." The girl quietly said, breaking through her mental lock. "I needed Jane alive, because I came to Kanto just because of her."
"What?" I asked her, felling the familiar surprise again. I think I began to get used to these recently. "How is that?"
Leaf sighed once again and stood up to grab something from her pocket. Very soon she handed me over… a police badge.
"I am from the International Police." She admitted and turned away. "I was sent there to investigate criminal deeds of Jane."
"Holy shit…" All I could say. Leaf appeared to be a cop in the end. The international cop, what`s more important. Unbelievable… The International Police itself is involved here. That means she can have cover somewhere here…
Then the familiar feeling of panic and paranoia appeared again. I always felt like somebody was watching me, and I was right! I was so freaking right…
Leaf stood before me, with her eyes red from salty tears, and at the same time she kept the proud posture. International Police must have known my past deeds. SHE must have known my past deeds. She did some of them together with me! Does that mean she will put me under arrest instead of Jane? She sure does more abilities for this than the other cop I know.
"No, Ven, I will not put you under arrest." She suddenly said with smile, like reading my mind. "Even in my report I am going… well… leave some details behind. Details you would not want my bosses to know."
That.. didn`t sound soothing at all. She must have a special training, maybe she knows karate or something like this… When I lost control over me and pressed Leaf in that alley in Vermillion City she could push me back… But she didn`t.
I was right all along. She IS a good actress.
Of course, I am. And not only that…
The sudden voice inside my mind shocked me and explained everything at the same time… Everything went clear…
"You`re a psychic!" I exclaimed loudly.
"Yep!" Leaf answered proudly, with her mouth this time. "And a pretty good one, the third class-psychic!"
"Wow, how cool!" I excitedly complimented her having no idea how actually cool that is. "But… Tell me what exactly you were doing here?"
Leaf went silent again, overpowering herself to tell me everything. If she is an International Police agent then her job may be classified, but she really wanted to explain herself. She may be good at her job, but her emotions sometimes overwhelm her. That`s not good.
"Well… Maybe you will hate me for that, but… I used you." She admitted with her big guilty eyes. "I came here to investigate Jane and her international crime deals. For that I applied for a journalist and watched over her… Later I met Sophia, another journalist that already had an investigation of her own. But then… she… she went too far."
Suddenly she began to whine quietly. This girl looks too emotional for a professional police agent. So I had to hug her and calm down a bit.
"Come on, come on, Leaf… Stop this, you`re spoiling the moment!" I said her. Maybe, this wasn`t exactly what she wanted to her. "What do I have to do with all this?"
"Huh…" The girl swept her nose and backed off a bit to pull herself together. "I saw you two walking across the city and so understood that you know each other. Among all the people connected to her you were… the easiest to connect to. So I decided to know you better, and thus to know her better. I carefully followed you, read your surface thoughts to find out your plans of next destination just to appear there and… well… appear to be helpful! To gain your trust."
Yes, that sounds surprisingly logical. All this time I wondered what the heck is happening to this girl, and now I have an answer. A really obvious and easy answer… Psychic. This explains everything. This even explains why Sabrina had such strange reaction on her. A psychic sees another psychic from far away…
"Aha, I see… You wanted to get your lead on Jane through me?" I asked her and waited for a positive nod. "Then, I guess, both of us screwed up and wasted our last months for nothing. I barely knew Jane in the past… And I knew NOTHING about Jane in the present."
"I think I already got it…" She sadly replied and bowed her head. "I could not find anything in your head also. I can read only the simplest of your thoughts…"
"Oh, stop it, girl! I will not let anyone read my thoughts, even a charming young lady like you!" I resented expressively. "My mind is like a large treasure room. A single post with… jeweled crown stands in the center, surrounded by a ton of boxes with muk shit. Touch one – and everything crashes on you. So… maybe, you shouldn`t even try to reach the goal. It`s not worth it."
For some first seconds Leaf had a confused face, but then she just smiled and gently leaned on me.
"Hey, girl, be careful! I`ll stand and you will fall!" I warned her playfully.
"I don`t care, I`m tired." She sighed heavily. "I have spent days in Team Rocket`s prison, remember? It's no sanatoria for you."
"Then shut up and go to sleep." I said her strictly while putting her down to bed. "I`ll take the second bed."
So, without any unnecessary talks we both undressed and headed to beds. I just wished this horrible day to end, but… I understood that I still have some work to do when someone sneaked into my bed.
"Leaf?" I carefully asked her telling that she wasn`t unnoticed.
"I just wanted to thank you… For everything." She hugged me tightly and warmly.
"But I did nothing!" I tried to excuse myself. "I appeared to be completely useless to you in the end…"
"Then just shut up and be useful now!" She sharply turned me around to herself and pierced into my lips.
Well, yeah… Even when it's over – there`s always a job for Vengeance.
The shining sun states the coming of a new day. Now I feel myself surprisingly rested and well. On the left of me lies a beautiful girl… another victim of the Red Contract. Damn, I did this again… But I guess that today our ways will divide and we may never see each other again.
I didn`t waste any more time and got up from the bed. The night was definitely some crazy shit, and I was wondering what will happen to the gym now.
So I sat on couch and began to switch channels on TV.
"YA-A-AWN!" Leaf suddenly loudly yawned and playfully fell on me. "Good morning!"
"Good morning, Leaf." I greeted her. "Did you sleep well?"
"Yeah, well… I`m great!" She replied to me calmly. "How are you?"
"I am surprisingly fine. No insomnias, no nightmares… All thanks to a cute lady accompanying me this night." I complimented Leaf and hugged her shoulder a bit. "Thanks for being a medicine for my nerves."
"At your service." She smiled and switched her eyesight at the TV. "What are you watching?"
"I want to find some morning news, to learn how journalists will play out the recent events." I explained her continuing the search. The news didn`t appear at my call – usually in movies and books they appear just when the hero need it. I need a hero to cause this, I guess.
"Gimme." Leaf grabbed the control of my hand and switched the channel where a woman was telling about today`s weather. "The 24-hour news channel. At 7 A.M. you will definitely hear what you want." There is a hero I needed.
I looked up at the clock and realized I still have some minutes before that.
"Then I`ll go take a shower." I said and headed to the bathroom.
On my way back after some time I noticed Leaf sitting on my place and eating chips.
"Hey, you`re in time! The news will begin in a minute." She funny exclaimed with her mouth full and moved aside. I sat near her, grabbed some chips and stared at the TV. Finally, after the news about explicit graffiti, missing trainers near Cerulean City and faked photos of a flying car that somehow looks familiar, the real news began.
"Today, after the anonymous call, doctors of Pokemon Center visited local gym just to see it completely desvastated." The news anchor was telling. "Upon the arriving they have found unconscious bodies of pokemon that obviously belonged to the gym leader. He himself wasn`t found anywhere…"
"What the heck?!" I exclaimed loudly and shockingly.
"How could this be?" Leaf also asked loudly. "Where did the bodies go?"
I turned the TV off and rushed back into the room to get dressed.
"What are you doing?" Leaf followed me, slowly dressing too.
"I need to check that place again." I explained shortly. "The ambulance must be the first people after us to enter the gym. There`s no way someone could have taken Giovanni and Jane."
"I see… But I guess the gym is cordoned, yes?"
"This never stopped me." I fixed my cap and headed outside the room.
I don`t know whether my pokemon are healed already or not, but I have no time to waste. I asked to give me only Dumpling, just to make sure, and ran. If I`m fast enough, I`ll be able to reach the crime scene before any of stupid investigators that will spoil all evidences.
Very soon we were back at the gym. The façade was obviously cordoned by police, but we used the same backdoor to the battlefield itself.
In general, the place didn`t change at all. Pokemon were sent to PC and, I hope, saved. The points where they were lying were marked with police signs and numbered. Cops always mark points of interest during the first observation – the place where evidences could be found later. These idiots have found only three of them – I would mark at least ten.
Of course, the very first one was the large blood pool in the middle, and it… changed. I approached this horrific place and looked closer.
There were trace of blood coming from the pool and heading straight to the door leading outside. This looked like the body was dragged across the whole field. And there were also numerous drops alongside the way, like someone was bleeding himself. At the place where the first trace ends, the second one ends too, and only the tracks of wheels remain. The amount of foot trails on the ground is huge, and they all are mixed so I can`t tell whether there was anyone else to move bodies. For some reason I feel there were no one.
"Shit…" I swore quietly. "One of them survived."
"What? How?" Leaf shockingly asked.
"Look there. The first trace is from a body being dragged. Other blood drops have definitely fallen from some height – that means the second one was walking and, obviously, dragging the second one to the place of loading."
Leaf observed the trails by herself and nodded.
"I see now. But why would he need her body?" She wondered.
"Why do you think it was Giovanni to survive?" I asked her. "I think it was Jane. She is pretty strong by herself, and Giovanni was too hurt to aim normally. Jane did have all chances to survive the shooting. Maybe she even expected that… Wore a bulletproof vest or had a crew of doctors waiting for her behind the door… Who knows what else that crazy woman had in her mind?"
This thought made me worry even more than anything else. Of these two I should actually fear Jane more. Giovanni can`t do anything without his Team Rocket as it already was crushed by us. Jane, instead… She has serious connections and she is one really scary woman if even the International Police is after her. Who could have known?
I got up and sighed loudly.
"Well, if there is any chance Jane survived, I need to make report and wait for the next order." Leaf retreated back and looked at me. "I think I`ll return back to Sinnoh for now. What about you?"
This question was even harder than all the rest.
What do I do now?
I have defeated Team Rocket, but I still didn`t find my car. I found nothing but my own stupidity… The trails end on Giovanni and with him gone even this ends now.
I sadly looked around until noticed a small green thing sparkling near the blood trail. Interested in this, I approached and carefully took in my hand.
This is Giovanni`s badge. The badge of his gym… The eighth and the last of them all.
"This is what." I determinatively said. "I know this is not the end. If Jane survived, she will be looking for me. Wherever I hide – she will definitely find me. And when that happens… I must be ready. Today I definitely acquired a new enemy that I need to fight."
"I… don`t get it." Leaf looked at me confusedly.
"What can be better than defeating a bunch of rich idiots with strong pokemon to prepare myself for a fight?" I answered her with a question and showed the badge to Leaf.
"The Pokemon League!" She excitedly said, immediately realizing my plan. "You have all eight gym badges!"
"Yep. Let`s see how many of them I can handle before being kicked out shamefully."
"It will be you to kick them all out shamefully!" Leaf evilly grinned. "You can easily defeat them all!"
"I hope I had so much faith in myself as you do…" I honestly replied and hid the badge in my pocket. "But I will think about it. Now let`s get the hell out of here."
The girl nodded in agreement, and together we left the cursed Viridian City gym and headed together to the park to have some cultural rest.
"I can`t believe…" Leaf dreamed. "I know the future Pokemon League champion!"
"Calm down, girl, I never planned to become one!" I said and gently pushed her. "And I know they will not let me to. The League has the strongest trainers for a reason, you know! It will be a miracle for me to pass just the first one!"
"You`re underestimating yourself, Ven. You are amazing. Your pokemon are amazing. And if you`re lucky, then soon I`ll have something to make your mood better."
I wasn`t surprised too much after that. I was more cautioned – this girl is a cop, in the end. Who knows what`s up on her mind?
But I didn`t show any suspicions, and we have spent the day walking around the city, chatting and teasing Dumpling – well, this looked like a large strange date for me…
…until Leaf actually got a call from someone that changed everything.
"Ven, you will never believe what I`ve got for you." The girl ran to me after the talk with big excited eyes. "Let`s go."
She grabbed my hand and dragged to her bike.
"Hey, what`s going on?" I tried to demand some answers, but she kept on pulling me after herself. I quietly followed her and took my place on a bike. The whole road I was thinking what awaits me in the end… Prison? Death? Or something worse? This suspicious girl can easily bring me into a trap, and I have only Dumpling with me… Well, Dumpling is awesome and we can easily arrange a runaway with Smokescreen and Fly, but still I would not like to get into such situation at all.
But, judging by her face, she was really excited about something. She was not cunningly smiling, not grinning, the emotion was fully positive. Maybe, a bit happy. I`m so not used to see those…
In the end, we got to the lone old warehouse somewhere on the edge of city. This reminded me of the garage I saw in Lavender. But for some reason it worried me much, much more than then. Suddenly a very strong feeling appeared, like… fear? Expectation? Excitement? Maybe, everything at the same time.
"What is it?" I carefully asked my companion looking around.
"A warehouse, what would it be?" Leaf replied and took off her helmet. "If I`m correct, this is the place."
She headed inside and opened the gates wide open. As the light reached the insides of this place and highlighted everything in it, I was literally shocked. I almost fell from all feelings that overflow me at that moment.
My car was standing before us.
I had no words to tell. I had no words to describe what I felt. I just could not even believe in what I see before me.
With shaking legs and hands I approached the machine and carefully touched it, expecting it to dissolve in the air like a mirage or illusion. But no. It was definitely my car – I felt it by my soul. Although… It changed.
The system of cables and tubes was now attached to the car with four bigger tubes heading down in front and back. They were still leaking a bit with water… Like it was used for watering or cleaning – I saw devices like this earlier.
Then I crouched to look at the suspension. It was modified into stronger springs for some reason, and even then were really worn out. Something like this happens in cars with hydraulic suspension, but… could not this mean my car was used in lowriders championships?
Two expandable mechanisms were attached to the roof. In opened form it could become a tent or something like that, but the material was pretty solid for a regular tent. Something like that is used in heavy-class parachutes, but what could it be with my car?
Everything else looked the same and untouched.
"Can you please make a photo of these things and send them to Bill?" I asked the girl and pointed at the wicked modifications. "I`ll ask him to check it when he is back."
"Yeah, sure." She took out her phone and made some close photos of tubes and mechanisms attached to my car. Meanwhile I was walking around, too afraid that I`m dreaming.
"Where did you… get it?" I questioned Leaf cautiously.
"Well, my plan of befriending you and taking the info I need had a position of finding your car… through the help of International Police." Leaf was explaining is as easy as possible for a person in my state. "We have a special department that works on searching wanted cars across the whole planet, and even for them it was challenging, and they found it just by pure luck. Once noticing it to be stored here… and forgotten for a month."
"You knew about my car for a month?" At first, I wanted to recent, by quickly changed my mind and sighed. "Ooh… I… Thank you. Thank you for everything."
Finally, I got the courage to take a look inside the trunk…
…just to find it completely empty.
"THE CASE? THE CASE! WHERE IS IT?" I shouted loudly, being shocked and terrified. In shock I closed the trunk and opened it again. I got into it to check once again, but there were none. Nothing, absolutely nothing.
"Case? We… we didn`t see any case there." The girl replied confusedly.
I kept on searching over the whole car for a silver case. I looked in the trunk, I looked under each seat, I looked under the roof and body, I looked even in the hood – the case wasn`t ANYWHERE.
I just couldn`t believe it. All that, my searches for Team Rocket, pokemon training, people saving… I made all the way around the Kanto, did so many things, defeated Team Rocket and uncovered a huge conspiracy… for NOTHING? For a damn empty car that has NO freaking case I was looking for all this time?
I finally reached my goal… And did not at the same time. Where could it be? What could happen to it? What if it goes into wrong hands? The worst possible variants began to appear in my mind and cause even more chaos.
"Oh my god, what if Rockets took it? Or the Courier… Or even worse…"
It`s gone. This is it. The end. I`m dead. I`M FRIGGING DEAD! It`s finished. No case, no hope, no chance to survival. They will kill me and literally nothing can delay it. I made a deadly fail, the biggest in my whole damn life. Finding car was extremely hard, but finding the man that escaped with my goddamn case is even harder! This is just freaking impossible!
From all these thoughts I fell on my knees, paralyzed by horror and despair.
"Ven! Ven, are you all right?" Leaf rushed to me and grabbed my hand, but nearly fell together with me.
I could not speak. I could not breath. I could not think straight…
No, this is over. No way back. No chance to escape. The headhunters will return for me and the second time I will not be so lucky.
"Can you swear there were no any cases in my car?" I asked her very, very seriously.
"I… No, Ven, no! There were not!" She answered, very terrified by herself. "We didn`t touch it at all!"
Well, there is not much to do now. I have to run. I have to run fast with no looking back
Leave no trail behind. Leave no witnesses behind. Just like the old times…
The ghost of past woke up in me. The burning soul of merciless bastard. It`s been a while…
I got up with some help from Leaf and carefully opened the front door. The familiar smell of rusty metal and old pillows struck me immediately. It was so nostalgic – remembering the days before all that begun. But now it was mixed with something… alien. The disgusting stench of thieves and possibly their pokemon.
Destroy it. Destroy it all!
I carefully opened the compartment and sighed just a bit when saw my diary still lying there, the same one I left Misty for a long time ago. It was scratched a bit – someone obviously tried to open it, failed and threw it back, no more interested. But this thing is actually one of my biggest treasures. I grabbed it, hid in my free pocket and left the machine. I did everything I need there, nothing is left here for me. However hard this could be… there is a moment when you need to throw away all that was left behind and move forward. The only difference for today is that I can`t let the past stay. This past can lead them back to me… Everything that is connected to this place no can. This past is too dangerous to leave behind.
Then what are you waiting for? Get rid of it!
Yes. I have to destroy it.
After taking a life importance decision I looked around and pretty quickly found what I need – a gas canister in the corner, almost full on touch.
"Dumpling, come on out!" I said while releasing my Charizard outside. The intuition did not fail me again – I knew I will need his help. My partner was really glad to take some action, but he does not even know yet what action I`ve prepared for him.
"Wha… what are you doing?" Leaf asked me very confused and even a bit scared.
I took the canister and silently began to pour the gas on the floor, making a long road to the exit. Dumpling followed me outside, confused too by my suspicious actions. On the way back into the building I collided with very, very angry Leaf.
"You`re… not going to burn it down, are you?!" She shouted at me, seriously demanding an answer. "This is someone`s property, and it can cause a local disaster, and this is just wrong!" I didn`t reply her on that and just made a small evil smile.
She won`t dare stand in your way.
My head quickly filled with utter chaos and madness. The darkest part of me awakened, the part that I tried to suppress for so long. The part that I was so ashamed to have. But also the exact part of me that let me survive in this dark and violent world for so long.
The Faceless.
No witnesses. Not a single one!
Very soon the girl realized that if this place begins to burn - the only way out for her is now completely blocked by me. And only then she, instead of trying to break through me, began to really worry and show fear again.
"No… No!" She cried loudly in hysteria. "This… This is wrong!"
Yes. This is how you were taught. She is not important anymore.
"Go, Dumpling." I gave a short and very strict order to my pokemon. "Launch a Flamethrower on the road!"
I did not see my pokemon behind me, but I clearly heard him. He was hesitating to fire up the building with Leaf still inside it. He was very confused by my actions, but it did not matter.
"NOW!" I roared at him, angered by the moments of hesitation.
My order was always an order for him. He knew that, whatever happens, I have something good on my mind. He trusted me no matter what. He did not know we completely. And so… he quietly and sadly growled and did it.
A quiet sparkle of fire behind me ignited the whole gas road leading into the building. The fire went between my legs and under very scared Leaf that jumped away just to look how good the large pool in the middle of the room burns. Very quickly the fire will expand and cover everything… and everyone in it.
Let it burn! Let them burn! Let HER burn!
"Ven! Ven!" The girl cried loudly in hysteria. "Please, Ven!"
I closed my eyes and put hands on the gates, ready to close it shut from the outside. But right before it I stared at Leaf and asked maniacally:
"Do you want to burn with me… or with my legacy?"