Well another episode up and ready. I would have had it up about an hour earlier, but the site was spazzing out so I couldn't. But better late than never, eh?
Anyway, an emotional(ish) episode with still a little humour thrown in for good measure. And a cliffhanher ending, because I have not had one of those for a while (last episode excluding) This arc sure is Squirt heavy, lets hope that there is a next one. So I can rememdy that.
Comment away, or the suits will come after you!
Episode 110: Psycho Therapy
We had finally carted Flame back to the Center, him fighting us every step of the way. I dragged my heels, ever so slightly depressed by the chain of events.
"What do you think caused him to flip like that, do you reckon that Frank did something to him?" Scout asked as he hopped along beside me.
I choked back a sob at that, I knew exactly what has caused him to go crazy. But not why. Scout wasn't stupid, dispite appearences, and noticed my hesitation.
"You know, don't you?"
"Yeah," I muttered, refusing to say anymore dispite Scout's prompting.
Eventually we got back to the Pokémon Center, hauling him through the city with Humans staring. Moron was pacing back an forth by the doorway, Joanne was sitting inside and looked a little stunned. I guessed that she had only just heard the news.
Moron spotted us approaching, it would have been weird if he hadn't, and ran up.
"We've only got an hour to snap Flame out of it," he said, worried about something that I knew he was about to tell us, "that idiot Frank phoned the Pokémon Control Unit. If they think he is still psychopathic when they get here," he suddenly broke off in mid sentance, we all could see why. Frank was standing reight behind him. Moron clenched his fists and spun round, smacking the red head in the face.
Frank went down, blood pouring out of his nose. Moron managed to restrain himself and not hit Frank again, which was good from a legal point of view. And the only reason I didn't hit the red head myself was that it'd make the situation worse.
"You bastard," Moron muttered to Frank as he headed back inside, we all followed behind in silence. Well, all except Flame. He was making muffled yells out of his makeshift muzzle.
"What the hell was that for?" Frank spluttered as he got back up, I was watching him out of the corner of my eye in case he tried anything of his own. If he did, he would get a water blast to the face.
"What do you think that was for?" Moron yelled, spinning around to face his rival. Joanne was staring at the two, looking a little shocked at Moron's outburst.
"Oh, so you're upset that I followed the law and called in the exterminators on your precious Charmander," Frank said with a smirk, wiping his bloody nose on his sleeve.
"I should have let him gut you. I will next time," Moron retorted, giving Frank a death glare.
"Well, you lost that chance. And there definatly is not going to be a next time, the lethal injection will take care of that," Frank chuckled, trying to goad Moron into a fight.
He almost got one. I could see Moron fighting the urge to smack Frank another one, but he managed to keep control.
"We'll just see about that," Moron told the red head between gritted teeth as he followed the others into a side room, where we would commence Flame's fixing. I stared at Frank for several more seconds, wondering if I should hit him, before heading after my trainer.
Scyther and Cresent had managed to prepare ahead, aquiring some rope to keep Flame tied down with. he almost broke free when Bellsprout released its hold on his muzzle but I managed to hold his mouth shut untill the others bound it completely.
"That was hard," Cresent muttered, adjusting the ice pack that had been strapped around her head. Scyther didn't have any bandage of any kind, I guessed that his ninja skills stopped him feeling any pain. Or his armour had actually held, but that didn't sound as cool.
"Now, maybe we oughta figure out what made him snap in the first place," Pika suggested, "the we know what we are working with."
"Squirt knows," Scout piped up, "but he wouldn't tell me."
"My name is not Squirt," I muttered, feeling uncomfortable that everyone was staring at me. So I did the only thing that I could think of and added, "Cresent can explain. I'll go check on Blacky," before legging it out of the door.
I wandered the corridoors for a few minutes untill I found the right room. I knew it was the room we were given because of the stained floor in front of it, a relic from the bezerk chase that had happened only a few hours previously. I slowly pushed open the door and stepped inside, only to be confronted by Spiral.
"You are a complete idiot, you know that?" She burst out, almost waking the Umbreon that slept in the corner.
"It's kinda hard not too," I replied, feeling more and more awkward by the second.
"You can't hide behind stupid comments forever," Spiral sighed, "I can read your mind, after all."
"Well then maybe you can come and give us a hand with Flame?" I suggested, hoping against all the odds that we'd be able to fix him before our time ran out.
Spiral muttered something quietly and left the room, me following along behind. As we found the room where Flame was being kept, Cresent was waiting for us. I noticed that she'd moved the ice pack across her eye. She spotted my confusion and grinned before explaining, "Pika got a little mad."
"She's always mad at something, usually at either Flame or me," I replied as I opened the door.
"Which gives you another reason to keep Flame around then, to draw some of her wrath," Cresent suggested as she and Spiral went in first with me closing the door behind them, after entering the room myself of course.
"Squirt has issues," Scyther muttered as he spotted me.
"Great, even you call me Squirt," I replied with a smile, trying to disfuse the tension with a little humour. It didn't work.
"I've figured out why he went so crazy," Cresent spoke up, "while most Pokémon are plant-eaters, the bigger ones like Flame's final evolutionary stage have too eat meat to survive. While their younger stages can eat plants, there is still a basic instinct programmed into them about meat-eating. When he flipped, he activated that hidden instinct and went after blood."
We all stared at her in silence, wondering where she knew all this.
"What?" She said eventually, "I used to know a few scientists so I learnt these things."
"We should focus here," Scout interrupted, "we've only got half an hour left before trouble gets here."
"No we haven't," Spiral muttered, "I read Frank's mind on the way here. He gave us the wrong time of arrival. We only have five minutes."
Everyone burst into action, voiceing their suprise, even Moron did and he was sitting in the sidelines and completely unable to understand us. I assumed that Spiral had broadcasted that into his head, so he heard that little piece of information. I guessed this because he suddenly legged it out of the room and I heard him yelling Frank's name a lot.
Flame was watching us, still looking slightly pissed off about his situation. He probably didn't realise the danger he was in.
"How are we going to fix him in five minutes?" Pika yelled, "this could take days for all we know!"
"We'll think of something," I sighed, "we have too. We didn't give up in Vermillion, we won't now."
"Scyther has a suggestion," the ninja piped up suddenly, "what if Squirt and Cresent ceased their partnership? Reversing the cause may reverse the affects."
Me and Cresent looked at each other for a few seconds in silence before nodding simultaneously.
"For Flame," I muttered, "well. Ladies first."
"Okay," Cresent coughed before taking on an angry tone of voice, "I hate you! You're a cheating, lying bastard !"
"You ain't no angel yourself," I replied, "you're a bitch who tried to use me to get close to Scyther!"
Now our act was impressive, Scyther looked as though he was close to fainting and Scout was watching the 'fight' through shocked eyes. But it didn't work, Flame was still making muffled cursed beneath his muzzle and fighting to get out of his ropes.
The door opened and Moron stepped in, followed by a guy in a black suit with a matching tie and sunglasses.
"At least you managed to restrain him," the newcomer said, we all realised that he was from the Pokémon Control Unit that Frank had called for, "we better take him into the lobby. So, just incase he panics and managed to get out of those ropes, our Pokémon can help restrain him."
"Whatever," Moron muttered, his face was downcast. The 'suit' picked up the bound Flame and carried him away, leaving us all alone again.