Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 13: Green's Day.
Green never gave it much thought, but if he were to say if he was a forgiving person, the answer would probably be "yes". He knew that he could sometimes come off as rude since he liked being quick and to the point, but he tried his best to never let his feelings get the better of him. It was the same that day when a stranger, a girl he met by accident refused his hospitality only to take advantage of him about an hour later. But nevertheless, he was still trying to understand the girl's point of view as a way to keep himself from getting angry. And "trying" is a good word.
"If I get my hands on her, I swear that I'll tear her apart." he said to himself while running through the streets Vermilion City in search of the mystery girl.
His Ivysaur who accompanied him as an additional pair of eyes, was slightly worried, seeing the usually calm boy act in such a way.
"We'll never find her this way." said the teenager, after stopping to catch his breath.
He looked up and had to put a hand above his eyes to stop the light coming from the sun rising behind some buildings. That gave him an idea of a better way to find the girl.
. . .
"Kids these days are so dumb. How much wallets is that so far? 7? And it's not even noon." the voice was coming from one of the 2 men that bumped into Blue, specifically the one with a cap.
"Yeah. Can you imagine that Team Rocket didn't want us to join them?" replied the other one.
"Who needs those idiots? We have enough money party for 2 weeks. I don't mind dying young if I can enjoy myself all the time."
"Ain't that the truth, brother?"
Both of them smiled as they raised cups filled with some kind of alcohol to lightly hit them against each other. They were sitting on wooden crates in a dirty back alley. The bottle was already half empty. Next to them were their Pokemon, a Marowak and a Lickitung, which were enjoying some fish burgers of which their trainers bought about 30.
"I found you!" a voice came from behind a wooden fence which isolated the alley from one connected to backdoors of various establishments.
2 of the boards suddenly shot out in their direction with Marowak using his bone to knock them down in order to protect the men.
"Hey, what's the big idea?!" yelled the dark-skinned one.
The being that appeared in front of them was emanating an aura that would make anyone tremble. It was like an incarnation of some kind of vengeful god came to pay them a visit. But after they calmed down a little, they saw that it was just one of the people they stole from that morning. Blue apparently used her Squirtle's Water Gun to get through the fence. She was staring them down while keeping her arms crossed and one of her legs placed atop a brick which must have come loose from one of the surrounding buildings.
"My day was already going bad, but then you had to come along and make it worse by stealing my wallet. I will make you pay." she declared.
The dark-skinned one started laughing. He found the situation so funny that he had to clean a tear that came to his eye.
"Who the hell do you think you are? Acting all high and mighty. Get lost before we kick your ass!" he replied at last.
The girl didn't see a point in talking to them any longer. She just wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible. She put up her right arm. It was a sign which told Squirtle to begin his attack. The turtle jumped up while rotating before it hid in its shell. While it landed on the ground, even though its limbs were hidden, it somehow was able to keep moving. It behaved somehow like a combination of a hockey puck and a homing missile. It traversed the alley too fast for its enemies to react. It approached the Lickitung and hit it right in the stomach, at the same time, sending the pink Pokemon into the legs of the man in the cap. The adult lost his footing and fell over on his Pokemon.
Seeing that the girl wasn't joking around, the other one commanded "Marowak, stop that thing! Bone Club!"
The Pokemon obeyed and used the bone it was carrying to hit Squirtle's shell. The attack didn't do too much damage but Marowak added his weight on top of it to stop the turtle in place. Its trainer took that moment to pull out a switchblade. He ran towards the girl who started reaching for one of the pokeballs on her belt. But it turned out that what she was doing was not only too slow, but also unnecessary. The man's approach was stopped by a knee that out of nowhere smashed into his face.
He fell over and while crying in pain, tried to stop the bleeding from his broken nose and dislocated jaw. Blue looked on in astonishment as the boy she met already 2 times, descended in front of her like a guardian angel. When she came to her senses, she realized that he was wrapped in something which extended upwards. She looked to the roofs and saw that the boy managed to get down from one of them thanks to his Ivysaur's vines.
"Thanks for savi..." she began, but was stopped right away when the boy turned around and pointed a finger at her.
"I will help you for now, but you better pay back for that spaghetti." he stated.
She quickly saluted him while saying "Yes, sir. Thank you for your cooperation."
The man knocked over by Lickitung managed to get up and approached his friend, possibly hoping that there was some way he could help him, but judging by his face, he was at a loss on what do. The other one reassured him by standing up and giving him a pat on the back.
"Ghu wghi to..." the dark-skinned man started to talk, but stopped when he realized that, because of the injury, speaking hurts and he can't pronounce the words properly.
"Don't worry. I will take care of them." assured him the other one.
He stepped forward and his Lickitung was already by his side, while the Marowak was looking back at its trainer, unsure on whether he should also take part in the fight, seeing that he wouldn't be able to receive commands. Meanwhile, Ivysaur used its vines to get down from the roof and both he and Squirtle were already raring to fight.
"Lickitung, use Rollout!" the man in the cap yelled out.
The Pokemon stood there without doing anything for some time before it looked at its trainer with a confused expression.
"Uh... On the Ivysaur!" he added.
Finally, the normal Pokemon executed the command by curling up in to a ball and rolling in the direction of its opponent.
Green was quick to react "Vine Whip dodge!"
Ivysaur used its vines to pull himself to a drainpipe, managing to avoid the oncoming attack. Lickitung stopped with a screech and started looking around, trying to understand why he didn't hit his target.
"Leaf Storm!" ordered Green.
The grass Pokemon began shooting out multiple leaves which spun through air while surrounding Lickitung. Marowak still didn't receive an order but, seeing that his battle partner was about to be in serious trouble, he decided to use Bonemerang, which consisted of him throwing his bone with as much power as he could in Ivysaur's direction.
"Water Gun!"
Ordered by Blue, Squirtle shot out a high pressure stream of water which knocked down the flying bone. Seeing that, Marowak started running to pick up his weapon.
"Rapid Spin!"
Without the bone, there was no way for the ground Pokemon to stop this attack, and he was almost instantly hit and sent flying towards his trainer. Meanwhile, Lickitung was already being hit by a tornado of razor-sharp leaves.
"Whi bhep thu zwof bhen!" the man with injured face was panicking, but his words couldn't be understood by his accomplice.
Marowak stood up and started to gather its strength by using Focus Energy, to be ready for his next move.
"Defense Curl!" the man in the cap ordered his Pokemon.
Lickitung formed himself into a ball again. This lessen the damage he was receiving from Leaf Storm, but also was the first step of its owner's plan.
"Now, use Rollout!"
Defense Curl caused the next move to become stronger which allowed Lickitung to break through the leaf avalanche and hit his unsuspecting opponent. On the other side of the battle, Marowak ran up to Squirtle again, but this time it jumped up in the air before attacking.
"Withdraw!" Blue ordered the turtle.
It proved to be pointless, since Marowak's Stomp hurt the water Pokemon even after it hid in its shell. Squirtle somehow managed to get up after its foe jumped back. It slowly retreated till it bumped into something. It was Ivysaur. They were now standing back to back with their enemies on either side of them.
"This doesn't look good." Blue commented with a worried expression.
"Can you keep them occupied for a little while?" Green asked her.
"Seems like you have a plan. I'll do my best." she responded before turning back to her Pokemon "Tori, it's time to use that!"
The Pokemon nodded and nudged Ivysaur while telling it something. After that, the turtle jumped up a little before going back in its shell and shooting out a Water Gun from inside in Marowak's direction. Ivysaur used it's vines to lift itself up because Squirtle's attack, aside from hitting the ground Pokemon, caused it to be propelled at Lickitung, hitting it in the head. The normal Pokemon quickly recovered from that and tried to hit Squirtle with its tongue, but its opponent jumped back. Not realizing that it was being lured, it followed. Marowak got up and started running towards Squirtle while picking up its bone on the way. It was at that moment that the men realized that Ivysaur was missing.
"Water Jump!" yelled Blue, who in this short time understood Green's plan.
Squirtle used Water Gun to shoot itself high into the air. At that moment, Lickitung turned around because of a strong light coming from behind him. Both he and Marowak looked terrified when they realized that while they were preoccupied with the other one, Ivysaur has been gathering energy in his bulb.
"Solar Beam!" shouted Green.
The energy gathered by Ivysaur was released in the form a beam which for a moment lit up the whole alley to the point where trainers had to close their eyes. After they opened them again, Marowak and Lickitung were both fainted on the ground. Squirtle used Rapid Spin in air to travel to its partner. The 2 men called back their Pokemon but still haven't learned their lesson, which could be judged by them trying to run away. Since Ivysaur was exhausted after it's show of power, Green swiftly grabbed one of his other pokeballs.
"Go, Hitmonlee! Double Kick!"
As soon as he was out of the ball, the fighting Pokemon ran after the criminals. During it's chase, it was moving so fast that it began running on the wall. When it quickly approached them, it delivered a kick to each of their faces, causing them both to faint, while also messing up their faces. Green recalled his Pokemon without a word before he walked over to the unconscious men. After searching their pockets, he returned with the 7 stolen wallets and presented them to Blue.
"Which is yours?"
"Oh. This one." she answered while taking one of them.
After looking inside, her face showed instant regret.
"What happened?"
"It's almost empty! They must have already spent all my money! How expensive was that alcohol?!"
Green put the other wallets on the ground and searched through them before saying "It seems like they haven't used the money in the other ones yet. We should probably return them to police together with those guys."
"Wait!" Blue yelled.
"What? You don't have to be so loud."
"Let me take care of this."
"Do you have some ulterior motive?" Green asked sarcastically.
"That's coming from you? You kneed that guy without hesitation just to get me to pay back for some stupid Spaghetti."
"Are you seriously trying to give a lecture about how I shouldn't have saved your life?"
"No, no. I am thankful. And I want to repay you, soooo..." while saying that, she used her eyes to point towards the wallets.
"You want to steal this money?"
"No, you dork! I want to give it to police. I just hope that the owners will give me some prize for returning it to them. I can't just tell my parents that I lost my money because they will send someone to take me back home for being irresponsible." she said with her face all red from a combination of anger and embarrassment.
Green turned around to give the matter some thought. He told himself that it was the pity he felt for the girl which made him trust her, but deep down he hid an interest for her that started to form since their first meeting. According to the rules he used with Red, he couldn't treat her like a friend yet, since all their encounters were pretty much one big thing, so he didn't even want to think about anything more than that. He considered some of the less appealing personality traits she showed so far, and that was enough to clear his mind of any thoughts he considered unneeded. Finally, he turned around and reached out to her with a hand full of bills.
"What is this?"
"If your own wallet is empty, the police may consider that it's some weird scheme, so take this for now. You can't pay me back what you owe me so let's just say that you will have more to pay."
Blue was unsure, but she took the money anyway.
"I will pay you back when I'll win the Pokemon league and become rich." she said while gathering the wallets from the ground.
"No, wait... You can pay me back before that. In fact, as soon as you can would be the best..."
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." she responded while hiding the wallets in her bag.
"And what was that about winning the Pokemon league?"
"I'll win. So if we meet in a battle, prepare to lose." she said with a confident smirk "Anyway, I'll better go find a police station. Come, Tori."
The girl and her Squirtle started running in the direction of the broken fence through which they arrived.
"Wait...!" Green reached out with his hand as if trying to stop her.
"Goodbye!"
She was already gone.
"I... I didn't even get to introduce myself... And I don't know her name. I think I just made a horrible mistake by letting a stranger run off with my money." after saying that, he proceeded to lightly punch himself in the side of the head "Stupid, stupid, stupid."
. . .
"Where to put this?"
"I told you that you don't need to help me, Red." the sailor replied while seeing that the boy was carrying a rather big package "If you drop that, I'm gonna be the one that gets into trouble."
"But if I help you out, you can use that time to look out for any suspicious types."
"The most suspicious one here is you."
"Well, that's just not very nice."
Both of them started laughing, but had to stop when Michael realized that Red was about to fall over because the weight of the package was too much for him. He grabbed the other end in time and helped the boy put it on the ground.
"See? This is what I was talking about."
Red scratched the back of his head while laughing nervously at the sight of Michael's irritated face. Both of them turned their attention towards a person whom they noticed approaching.
"Watch out." said the sailor while stepping forward "It's still 2 hours till the cruise so this one may very well be a criminal."
Red ignored the warning and ran towards the person. He turned his head around midway and said "You really should work on not being so quick to judge. This is no criminal."
"Red." declared the new guest.
"Nice to see you again, Green. I guess we are finally acquaintances."
"The pleasure is mine. Are you also gonna attend the auction. I didn't take you for someone who is into these kind of parties but I guess the looks can be deceiving."
"No, no, no." Red responded while moving his hand from side to side "You need to get a ticket and only rich or well-known people received them. I just want to take time admiring it from the outside."
"How about admiring it after going aboard?" Green asked.
"Didn't you listen to me? You need a... a..." the boy couldn't finish his sentence after seeing that Green was holding 2 tickets in his hand "Where did you get these?!"
"That's not important. What's important is I don't have anyone to give this second ticket to. Well... there might have been one other person but... So, do you want one?"
"Of course!" he answered while quickly grabbing one of the tickets.
During their conversation, Michael managed to walk over.
"So he's your friend?"
"Not yet." answered Red "But now I have a ticket so I can go on the cruise!"
"That's great news. You still have time but there is no rule that says you can't board the ship earlier."
"Shall we go?" Red turned to Green.
"Yeah. Goodbye." he bowed his head slightly to the sailor.
"Bye."
"I will be busy during the cruise as part of the security but, as long as it's nonalcoholic, we can get a drink together."
"For sure!" Red replied before heading in the direction of the ramp.
. . .
Finally aboard the ship, the teenagers were slowly touring the weather deck. While walking and staring at the docks below, Red accidentally bumped into someone. It was an old man in a dark blue uniform with several badges and plates on it.
"I'm sorry!" the boy yelled while bowing as low as he could.
"Don't worry. Nothing happened." the man had a soothing voice "Hm? I made sure to go through the names of all our guests and check their photos on the internet but I don't recognize either of you."
"I got the tickets from Bill, the famous scientist." explained Green.
"Oh. From that man? Okay then. If you see any suspicious activity, make sure to notify somebody from the securi..." the man stopped because he thought he saw something hiding around a corner.
Passing the boys, he ran over. Without a word, both of them decided to follow him. When they caught up to him, they saw that he was holding somebody up by grabbing on their shirt. They quickly realized that it was a member of Team Rocket and 2 other were standing behind him.
"Let me go, you old fart! Don't you know who we are?!" the criminal shouted while struggling to get out of the man's grasp.
"Go, Koffing!" one of his companions released his Pokemon which rammed it's body into the member of the crew, causing his hand to loosen.
The trio from Team Rocket took a quick step back, before the one who was released pointed his finger forward while saying "You better give it up! If you don't want anyone else getting hurt, you will give us all the items that are up for action!"
"That's ridiculous! As the captain of this ship, I will never agree to that!"
"Aren't you Roger?"
"Huh?" the Team Rocket member in front reacted to hearing his name by looking at the 2 boys.
When he realized that the owner of the voice was Red, his legs became weak and he fell on the his bottom. Once on the deck, he started crawling backwards with a terrified face.
"What's going on?" asked him one of the other ones.
"You know this guy?" Green looked at Red.
"Kinda. I beat a group of Team Rocket members at Mt. Moon. He was one of them."
"And you didn't catch him?"
"What? No. There was a lot of them, so even if I tried, some would escape. Why do you care?"
"I... Eeh... It's not worth explaining. Anyway, we should get rid of these 3."
"Get rid of?" Roger said while swallowing saliva with fear.
"Don't be so full of yourself!" said another one while also releasing his Koffing.
"Go, Nidorina!" Green called out his Pokemon.
"I'll help you! Go, Oddish!"
"There's really no need to."
But the 2 Pokemon were already standing side by side. The one belonging to Red was half asleep, trying not to close its eyes, while Green's Pokemon was flexing its muscles.
"Okay!" Roger finally managed to get up and call out his own Koffing "I have to be strong! For Alex! He's been dealing with that incident for quite some time. He's so busy that he doesn't even have time to insult me. We have to make use of this time by stealing the items for the auction! Are you with me?"
The other 2 nodded in agreement.
"Sleep Powder."
"What?!" Roger yelled in surprise.
Before any of the Team Rocket members had a proper chance to do something, all of their Koffings fell on the deck sound asleep.
"Double Kick." Green ordered in a rather nonchalant manner.
Nidorina used her hind legs to kick two of the Koffings with force so great that they flew off the ship and into the sea. Afraid that the same was going to happen to his Pokemon, Roger quickly picked it up.
"You may have won today, but the next time we meet, it will be us who will be..."
Before he had a chance to finish, Green gave another command "Poison Sting."
Trying to avoid the poisonous needles fired from Nidorina's mouth, all 3 members of Team Rocket run towards the railing and jumped off. After the trainers didn't hear the sound of them for a couple seconds, they recalled their Pokemon.
"Oooh! That was amazing! Who knew that some of my guests would be such strong Pokemon trainers?!" the captain yelled out while patting both of them on their arms.
"Uuh... Thanks." Red replied with an embarrassed face.
"After seeing your abilities, there are 2 things that I want to talk about with you. First is an award for helping me."
"We don't really need anything." Red answered.
"Nonsense! How about you, boy? The award is a rather amazing Pokemon I caught recently." he turned to Green.
"Sound interesting. But what is the other thing you wanted to talk about?"
The smile faded from the man's face as he adjusted his tie and hat.
"This is a serious matter. As you know, there are many valuable items put up for auction that will take place in the evening. The one that's expected to sell for the highest price is the legendary Crystal Eye, a gem that's said to show the owner a glimpse of the future."
"That' can't be true." said Red.
"What does this have to do with us?" asked the other boy.
"If even some weak fools like these Team Rocket members managed to get through our security, we will have no chance if "he" really comes. That's why wanted to enlist your help as part of the security during the cruise."
The teenagers looked at each other with confused expressions before they turned to the captain and simultaneously asked "Who is "he"?"
Even though I enjoy writing, this chapter was kind of a chore. This was the one where I had to definitely put in everything I planned for it, since the next one is the special chapter. But this one already lays "seeds". I want to have at least some plot points that can go for like a year as, I guess, part of world building? I just don't want to make the story seem to focus on only one thing. So there are some things from this chapter and from the special chapter that I will go back to. It's not really a spoiler. It's more like, me reminding you to pay attention to details, or even to eventually remind me of stuff if I forget about some plot points myself, hahaha.
This chapter's name is of course a reference to the band Green Day(I just checked if I actually know any of their songs and I think there are 2-3 I recognize) and to how Green appears throughout the whole chapter for the first time. He also got to debut 2 of his Pokemon. Nidorina is there for the same reason as Jigglypuff(which is a secret), but I'm not sure why I gave him a Hitmonlee(I thought it was a Hitmonchan). I'm satisfied by his interactions with both Blue and Red. Red and Blue have a friendly relationship where they like to make fun of one another, Red and Green can sometimes be sarcastic towards each other but they have that air of mutual respect and Green somehow makes Red act more mature, while Green and Blue is a case of opposites attracting each other. They got of the wrong foot and Blue has too much pride to forgive that, which agitates Green yet somehow they get along quite well.
We also had our first double battle so that was cool, but because it took me a long time to write, I had to be kinda mean to Roger's group.
And finally, we can talk about the upcoming final chapter. I said already that it will be longer so it may very well take a month or more to finish, depending on how much time I will ha... Wait a moment. I think here's someone in my house. I'll try to quietly get up and chedlsjiuedgfui.
Excuse me for that. I didn't want to knock the poor guy out but I just could not wait to meet you. I came to announce that I will steal the Crystal Eye at exactly 9 p.m. Look out for my awesome entrance.
This was me,
Phantom Venin
Red. Team: Eevee, Charmander, Pikachu, Oddish.
Badges: 2
Green. Team: Ivysaur, Nidorina, Jigglypuff, Hitmonlee.
Badges: 2
Blue. Team: Bellsprout, Squirtle, Zubat.
Badges: 2
Alex. Team: Ditto, ?, ?, ?.
Angie. Team: ?, ?.
Peter. Team: ?, ?, ?.
Oww. My head hurts. What was that? Phantom Venin? I created that asshole and he dares to hit me with a lamp? Well, at least I manage to get to 50.000 words so there's something to celebrate.
