Recommended Music: Not really thematically related to the chapter but Padorulovania. Best Christmas song ever.
Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 19: Red-handed.
"Hey, waiter! Bring more beer!" a male voice called out in the corner of a small restaurant.
The worker of the establishment arrived as quick as he could, visibly worried.
"I'm sorry, Sir." he said while bowing slightly "The owner said that we can't give out any more free drinks for you and your companions. Please, understand that we're a business and we have to make money."
"And how much money do you think you'll make if people learn that you've had the hero of Vermilion City as your guest, huh?!" he answered while angrily throwing a glass, yet making sure that it didn't hit the waiter.
"I... I'll try to convince him, Sir." the man said before leaving towards the kitchen door.
"We should just ditch this place and go hang on your yacht." said a woman, one of four who were sitting at the same booth as the owner of the voice.
She grabbed onto his arm and brought it closer to her body, hoping that the feeling of her breasts on his shoulder would convince him.
"Chill out. We'll do that after I show those buffoons that no one should talk that way to the great Red." he said while trying to hide his excitement, before turning around to a ledge behind him "Isn't that right, Pikachu?"
The yellow Pokemon sat with his back towards them and didn't care to answer. Instead, he threw fishbones leftover from the meal it just finished into the face of one of the girls.
. . .
Meanwhile, in another part of town, Red was stretching his arms and legs while thinking how he looks forward to sleeping in a bed and eating some of the fish Vermilion is known for. Especially since it took him about 2 weeks to catch up with Blue, turn back and return to the city.
"Jon and Fille probably already left, but maybe I'll meet up with Michael or Lt. Surge." he said to himself while looking at one of the stands selling fresh fish.
"Oh! Mr. Red! It's good to see you again!" he heard someone speak to him.
The teenager looked up and saw that the voice belonged to the owner of the stand who until a moment ago was busy with counting the payment from a customer who just left. At first Red's intuition told him that the man was probably one of many people who heard about him thanks to Lt. Surge's appearance on television, but somehow the wording caught his attention so he decided to check this hunch.
"Have we met before?" he asked.
The stand owner blinked quickly several times in surprise. He leaned over to get a better look at the boy who stood there, feeling a little uncomfortable about being eyed up.
"I mean... Your clothes are different. And you look shorter. It's like... everything is a little bit off. But at the same time..." the man seemed to grow more confused with each glance he took at the boy.
"Do you mean you've seen someone who looks like me?" the trainer wanted to clear things up as fast as possible.
"Yeah. But even his hair and the tone of his skin differed a little. But..." he stopped to get another look at Red's face "At first, and even second, glance, he looked just like the photo they showed on the news. But now that I've seen you, it seems like the one I've met before must have been a fake. Damn it!"
"Did he do something?" the teenager asked.
"You betcha! He's a goddamn con artist! I thought it would be a good deal if I gave some of my best fish for free to him. Since he... you... are famous, I thought that he could mention how good my fish stand is on some morning show. But it seems like I was tricked! Unless..."
"Unless?"
"Unless you're also a fake!" the man yelled while pointing a finger in the boy's direction, his voice attracting attention from several passerby.
"I... Let's not get ahead of ourselv..."
"I'm calling the police! They'll sort it out!" the man declared while reaching for the phone in his pocket.
Red instinctively thrusted his hand forward, knocking the device out of the stand owner's hand, and making it fall on the ground where it broke. The man didn't understand what happened at first. Red also was shocked by what he just did. But when he noticed the other person getting angrier, he felt like there was no more room for explanation. He spun around on one feet and started running towards the centre of the city. He could hear the stand owner shouting things at him for but since the voice was steadily getting quieter, that meant that at least he didn't follow him. But he would probably call the police as soon as he would find another phone.
"I need to find that impostor and clear my name." he stated his goal, as if to reassure himself,
"Hey, you! Where's the money I lent you?!" another person shouted at him from across the street but he decided to ignore them and keep running.
"And I better do it fast."
. . .
Sometime later, the other Red was waiting on a bench in the middle of a park, looking impatiently at his watch, while smoking a cigarette. Most of the woman accompanying him got bored and started leaving. The last one was enjoying the free ice cream he arranged for but was also getting tired of waiting.
"Where the hell is that guy? He was supposed to be here already." he said angrily while grinding his teeth.
He looked around and finally his mood seemed to start getting better. The one he was waiting for was a boy, about 10 years old. He was carrying a bag while looking around as if to check that he wasn't being followed. He arrived next to the bench and was completely out of breath so the impostor Red gave him a couple seconds to rest before getting down to business.
"Do you have what I want?"
The boy looked down at the bag which he was holding close to his body. He didn't look too sure but, despite that, he nodded before reaching inside. He took a few more glances and after ascertaining that there wasn't anyone who could see what they were doing, he handed over a jar of colorful pills. The man took it and analyzed it up-close. They looked like the real deal but he couldn't be completely sure.
He reached towards the woman and swiftly dragged her over by her hand in order to shove one of the pills in her mouth. She was so surprised that she accidentally swallowed it, even though she didn't plan to. She looked worried but was too confused by what just happened and how Red was staring at her. When nothing happened for about a minute, the man turned to the boy looking more angry than disappointed.
"What is this?" he said while holding up the jar "Are you making fun of me? Are you going back on our deal?"
"No!" the boy yelled, attracting some unwanted stares.
The man shushed him before speaking again "Then what the hell is this shit about? You promised to bring me those drugs your uncle was developing in exchange for me kicking his ass and getting you out of that shithole forever. If you can't keep your promise..."
"No! Look!" the boy pointed at the woman who started behaving weirdly.
It looked like she had trouble standing straight. Her head was moving from side to side, her face was getting paler by the second and her mouth was producing an unusual amount of saliva.
"What is this shit?! She looks like she's about to collapse! I wanted something that would make the girls easier to use but thi..." he stopped after noticing that all of the people in the park were looking at him, either with disgust, or, those that were too far away to hear him, with annoyance.
"What is going on here?" asked a police patrolman who just arrived.
He was making motions with his rubber baton that suggested that he was willing to use it if necessary.
"Did you call the cops on me?!" the impostor shouted while lifting the boy up by his shirt.
"No! I swear!" the child started tearing up.
"Let him go this instant!" the policeman commanded while quickly stepping forward while raising the baton.
Before he could swing it, he felt something hit his hand. The pain was enough to drop the weapon. He grabbed the hurt spot and cried out in pain. He was quickly quietened when his throat was also hit. It made it so hard to breathe that while trying to deal with it, he fell on his knees. From behind the bench appeared a Pokemon resembling a Pikachu. It was hard to tell from a distance but the boy who was closer could tell that it was some other thing dressed like the electric mouse. It sat on top of the backrest while looking mighty satisfied with its show of power, using one of its paws to hold up two shining objects.
"Good job, partner!" the fake Red said while looking away from the boy long enough for the latter to bite the hand of the former.
The con man dropped the child who started running towards the closest exit of the park. The criminal's Pokemon looked at the man with a condescending look but it got up and ran after the boy after receiving an angry stare from the man. Suddenly, something tall blocked its way. It looked up to see a tall person whose face was shadowed because of the position of the sun.
Right after that, it noticed the boy hiding behind this person. It reached toward him but before it could do anything, an electric attack came at it from the side. It was pushed back a couple meters but quickly got up. Unfortunately, the Thunder, which came from a Raichu, was enough to destroy the fake Pikachu ears and to wipe away some of the paint, revealing a Meowth in disguise.
"Oh no." the fake Red said after realizing that the one the boy was hiding behind was none other than Lt. Surge.
Meowth slowly backed away towards his partner.
"So you're that impostor I've heard about from the cops." stated the Gym leader.
"Wha-? Nooo. It's me, Red. Don't you recogni..."
"Stop fooling around!"
Lt. Surge looked furious when he approached the con man.
"I don't know what you did to fool the other people, but I'm not falling for your tricks. I know Red and from what I see, you are nothing alike. Not only your looks, but your behavior. You make me sick."
"Speaking of sick..." the criminal said with a smile while glancing at the policeman who was trying to restart his breathing with punches to the chest, and the woman who looked like she was about to pass out from her body convulsing "...You shouldn't waste time with me."
That wasn't enough to distract the former soldier, but he decided that it was better to let the criminal run away and take care of the people around, including the boy. He called over some bystanders to help him while he himself went on to call the Police Chief and inform him that the fake Red was more dangerous than they suspected. At that time, he didn't realize that he was also inconveniencing the real one.
. . .
"There he is!" a policeman yelled to a group of his co-workers after spotting Red trying to sneak into an alleyway.
"Oh no." was the only thing boy could utter before starting to run away from the group of 6 police officers following him.
He took out Eevee from his pokeball and placed him backwards over his arm.
"Use Swift!" he ordered the Pokemon "But not directly!"
The dog listened and started shooting stars, but instead of aiming at the people following them, he used the attack knock over trash cans and to drop down clothes lines from above. This was enough of a distraction to allow Red to go unnoticed through the doors of some cheap restaurant. He wanted to wait out the pursuing party but he was immediately noticed by the kitchen staff who immediately assumed that he was someone up to no good.
"Hey! Who are you?!" yelled one of them.
"Oh boy." Red yelled while trying to escape to the front of the restaurant.
Unfortunately, a large cook blocked his way and tried to grab. Eevee jumped up and headbutted the man in the chest, giving Red enough time to grab over the counter and grab two knives. The dog followed but was grabbed by the tail by one of the restaurant stuff. He was quickly dropped when his trainer threw one of the knives dangerously close to the hand holding the Pokemon. At the moment they were about to exit through the front door, another policeman entered the establishment after hearing the ruckus. He was reaching for his baton when the boy made a couple quick moves with the knife in order to cause the officers pants to drop to the floor. The man was too busy trying to cover his shame to follow the escaping duo.
"We have to find someone to convince the police that I'm not a bad guy." the boy stated while running throughout the city "The port is closer than the Gym. I just have to hope that Michael isn't on another cruise."
. . .
Not too far away, the impostor Red was hidden in the bushes, watching and listening to his surroundings, hoping to get some clues as to how to deal with the situation he found himself in. It was at that time he overheard a couple police officers talking about how the entrances to the city were guarded by a bunch of their co-workers. For a moment it seemed like all of the escape routes were cut off and he would have to wait out until everyone would forget about the whole case. But thinking back on how Lt. Surge reacted, it wasn't easy to imagine that someone like that would ever give up.
"Damn it. It's not like I can just fly awaaaa... That's it!" while saying the last words, he stood up in excitement which accidentally made his hiding place known to the nearby police officers.
He immediately ran away.
. . .
"Alright. We're in the port." Red announced while stretching his arms and looking out to the sea.
Eevee did a similar things with all of its legs.
"Now what?" the boy was talking more to himself than to his Pokemon "We're still a little far away so I can't see if St. Anne is here. Wouldn't they have to do some repairs after everything that happened there? I'm not even sure that it was the only ship Michael worked on... I really should get a cellphone."
"Um... I don't want to be rude but could you move a bit?" a soft voice spoke up from behind him.
He turned around and saw a girl sitting on a low wall, looking at him with kind of a blank stare. She looked younger than him. Her blonde hair was tied up into two ponytails hanging around the front of her neck. She wore a white shirt and grey overalls. One of the straps was hanging down but the weirder thing was that she had spots of green and pink paint all over her clothes, skin and hair. It seemed like the reason she wanted him to move was that she was drawing the view of the sea in her notebook and he stood in her way.
"Sorry." he said before immediately moving a couple steps to the side.
"Nothing to be sorry about. It seemed like you were lost in your thoughts." she said while gesturing for him to sit next to her "I also do that a lot. In fact, I was late for my ship because I got so occupied with my art."
"Can I take a look?" he asked after sitting down.
"Sure." she answered while showing him the almost finished drawing.
"Wow. That's really good."
"Thank you. Oh! I haven't introduced myself. I'm Mina. Alola."
"Mina Alola?"
"Uuh... The second word is a thing we say instead of a greeting in the region I come from." she explained.
"What region is that?"
"Alola."
"...Doesn't that get confusing?"
"Only slightly."
"I'm Red by the way."
She looked like she was about to start laughing "Doesn't that get confusing?"
"Less than you would expect."
The girl looked down toward Eevee who was hugging his trainer's leg and smiled slightly before turning the pages of her notebook.
"Would you be against it if I tried to draw your Eevee?" she asked.
"Of course not. But let's see how Eevee feels about it."
"Out of the way!" someone yelled right before jumping through the small gap between the two teenagers, causing both of them shock that almost made them fall from the wall.
The person looked weirdly familiar. They were looking around in a frenzy, yelling about how they needed to find a boat. After taking a couple seconds to look at their clothes and the thing grabbing onto their shoulder, Red realized that it must have been the person trying to pose as him.
"Hey, Red! Can I get an autograph?" the real one said while standing up.
"I don't have time for that bullsh..." the impostor froze up after looking behind himself and seeing who the voice belonged to.
"I insist." behind a pretense of innocence, Red voice hid an anger that has been accumulating in him for the last couple hours.
"So you've returned. Is that why the police are searching for me? Well... It doesn't matter."
"How'd you even fool anyone? Besides the clothes, you don't even look anything like me."
"Hahaha! I'm the great Professor Zofiira! I designed a chemical compound that can be used as a perfume that increases the power of suggestion a hundredfold. Of course it's weaker on people who..."
"Quick Attack." Red didn't feel the need to listen anymore.
The scientist didn't have any time to react. The attack from Eevee sent him flying off the docks and into the sea. However, Meowth managed to jump off Zofiira's arms and land right behind the dog Pokemon. It used Scratch, but Eevee was too fast an easily avoided it before tripping up the opponent. After gaining some distance, the normal Pokemon stopped because it seemed to recognize the cat. Red thought about it for a short while before reaching a conclusion.
"You are the Meowth that fought over food with my Oddish, aren't you?"
The cat looked worried, as if it just in that moment realized that Red had more than one Pokemon he could use in a fight. Meowth started frantically looking around in order to find his partner but he couldn't see him anywhere.
"Eevee, Swift and then Quick Attack!"
Meowth was panicking and trying to block the attacks by using Pay Day which caused the coin on its head to create multiple copies which shot out towards Eevee, but even though it managed to stop the first attack, the dog was quick enough to slip between it all and deliver a powerful blow.
Not giving the opponent a chance to rest, Red gave his next command "Finish him with Superstar!"
The attack was enough to cause Meowth to faint. Red was afraid that he would fall into the sea, but fortunately his unconscious body stopped flying after hitting a bollard. The teenager quickly looked around and realized that Zofiira still didn't come out of the water. He ran up to the sea to check if he didn't accidentally cause him to drown but there was no one there. It was a few seconds later that he heard the roar of an engine.
He turned to the side and saw the con man aboard a nearby boat. He already managed to turn it on and was quickly trying to untie the rope connecting it to a dock. When he realized that the boy saw him, he started to panic which gave Red some time to run in that direction. The rope was untied and the small boat began moving but the trainer already jumped on. Without receiving an order, Eevee remained next to Mina. Even though he knew that Red had other Pokemon with him in case he needed help, he was still worried and the girl seemed to feel it. She put away her notebook and kneeled down to pet him.
"Don't worry. I'll help." she said before going closer to the sea and taking out a pokeball "Let's paint this town red, Ninetales!"
Eevee step backed in awe of the white, nine-tailed monster whose arrival instantly lowered the temperature around them.
"Use Blizzard on the water around the boat!"
The fox immediately released a wave of blue fog which surrounded the boat, which still didn't reach too high a speed, causing the sea around it to instantly turn to ice. Since Red and the impostor were struggling for control of the vehicle at that very moment, neither of them had time to grab onto something when they came to a sudden stop. But the boy was clever enough to use the motion of them both falling down to increase the power of his fist which travelled straight to the con man's face, knocking him out and breaking his nose.
After falling down himself, the teenager took a short while to catch his breath before wiping away the blood that got on his fist. After that, he stood up and approached the side of the boat to give Mina and Eevee a thumbs up in order to signal that the battle has been won. However, his happiness didn't last long. After getting out of the boat and trying to carefully use the ice to get back to land, while dragging the unconscious criminal behind him, Red saw the same group of police officers that chased him earlier, waiting nearby, with their batons already in hands.
He didn't look forward to getting hit but he was tired and knew it would be hard to run away so he closed his eyes in preparation. But when nothing happened, he opened them back again and saw that Mina used Ninetales' ice to stitch the officers' shoes to the ground. Red kept his distance and used the time given to him by the girl to explain the situation. Everything cleared up when he had one of them call Lt. Surge who supported the boy's case.
. . .
"Thanks for helping me out there. It was surprising to learn that there's something like an icy version of Ninetales." said Red, right after handing Mina a waffle he bought her as a show of gratitude.
She took a bite out of it before he even let go of it, after which she licked off the leftover strawberry jelly from her lips before replying "No problem. It's always great to see someone as passionate as you. It gives me more energy to focus on my art. Which by the way..."
"Yeah?"
"I will have to stay here for a couple days before the ship from Alola returns. I saw that you have multiple pokeballs attached to your belt. If it's not too much trouble, I would want to more drawings of your Pokemon." she said with a hopeful look in her eyes.
"No problem. Until not too long ago, I would probably have to refuse but I've just had a huge weight taken off my shoulders so I have no problem with just chilling her for some time."
"Then tomorrow I'll be the one treating you to waffles."
"That's a promise." he responded while smiling.
. . .
"Where is it?! Damn it! That little rat must have stolen it!"
A man in his forties was frantically searching for something in his small, dirty, apartment, full of various books, chemicals and apparatus. He was about to give up and sit down on an armchair when he heard the front door opening. He ran over there as quickly as he could, nearly tripping several times. When he turned the corner to the hallway, he saw his nephew, the same boy who brought Zofiira the jar of drugs.
The man was relieved for a fraction of a second it took him to realize that the boy didn't have his bag or any other thing inside which he could have been holding the jar, which must have meant he somehow lost possession of it. His face went red and he approached the nephew, readying his arm to slap the boy. His swinging motion was instantly stopped by a strong grab of another hand.
The man, who was until that time looking down at the boy, raised his eyes and saw the smile on the face of Lt. Surge who for the previous couple seconds hid outside the apartment. The drug maker wasn't in his clear mind so he didn't realize the clear difference in strength and tried punching the leader. Lt. Surge allowed the punch to reach his head. But when his opponent saw that it didn't do any damage, he immediately knew that it was his end. The leader released him from his grasp before headbutting him hard enough to make him faint.
The boy looked at the trainer with admiration, but the latter didn't look too excited about his deed. He was more concerned with the fact that the boy would probably have to go to an orphanage, and also with the thought that the city was probably full of people like the man he just defeated. Being a Gym leader meant he was free to act in such situations but it seemed like that much too often people were afraid of speaking about their troubles to the police.
"Hmm. I never really wondered who is the mayor of this city. But if I'm to stop stuff like this from happening, he's probably the first person I should talk to." he said to himself, ignoring the police officers who just arrived to arrest the atrocious uncle.
Hello. It's me. Still tired after eating too much on Christmas, but looking towards what the next year brings. I got some new shoes and chocolates but mostly money. I already spent it all on like 17 manga volumes. But anyway, let us talk about the chapter.
I had an idea for a chapter about a Red impostor for quite some time. At first I thought it would take place somewhere after the League, since Red needed to be recognizable enough for it to work. But then the whole St. Anne thing happened so I decided to place it here. It probably would work out better as a special chapter. Then Zofiira could be made into a more intimidating villain. I also wanted to have more antics with Red avoiding the police but then I thought about using Mina and I saw instantly that the chapter was going to be longer than I expected so I decided to go easy on other parts. The thing with the boy who has a drug making uncle was kinda unexpected. I just needed Zofiira to be caught red-handed(Hence the name of the chapter, double pun on him being a Red impostor). Other dumb jokes are the fact that Zofiira means "red" in Chewa language and the catchphrase I gave Mina. I wanted something painting related but the only things that sounded cool were the one I used and "paint it black" so I went with the one that fit the theme.
This was a one time only appeareance for her, just an easter egg. Those who know why she's here will probably go like "Huh. That's neat." while the ones who don't will go "Huh. Okay, I guess." I would add that she's my favorite Trial Captains. I judge Pokemon characters mostly on how hot/cute they are, and in that case, all of the Trial Captains besides Sophocles are great, but Mina also has the most pleasant personality. She's just kinda cool without putting much effort into it.
Anyway, this time it's definitely the last chapter of the year. Let's hope that I keep up my pace in the next year, which could be hard if I finally get a job. The next chapter or two is the first arc finale. What that means? Red faces his strongest opponent yet. So, until then.
Red. Team: Eevee, Charmander, Raichu, Oddish, Magikarp.
Badges: 3
Green. Team: Ivysaur, Nidorina, Jigglypuff, Hitmonlee, ?.
Badges: 3
Blue. Team: Bellsprout(Bell), Wartortle(Tori), Zubat(?), Graveler(?).
Badges: 3
Alex. Team: Ditto, ?, ?, ?.
Angie. Team: ?, ?.
Peter. Team: Dodrio, Haunter, ?.
