Recommended Music: Nothing. Sometimes there isn't anything. In the future, if I don't have anything on mind, I just won't do this part. On the other hand, if one of you guys has some good music to listen to get yourself into a writing mood then let me know.


Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 20: Search.

"Miss Angie!"

The only female amongst Team Rocket admins was taking one of her scheduled breaks which were the only times during which she forced herself to stop thinking about the matters concerning the organization. She didn't do it in order to have a time to herself, but because it was necessary to replenish her energy with food and water. Those 15 minutes of calm were also helpful in clearing her head, which could allow her to get some new ideas.

The base she were currently in was far enough in the mountains for it to be built without caring about keeping secret whom it belonged to. That also meant that it was the only one which could have wide balconies with a view of a beautiful lake. The other Team Rocket members knew that Angie preferred to eat alone so even though the balcony she was on had several tables, there was no one there besides her.

It's been almost a month since Peter found Mewtwo and allowed him to escape. Angie spent all that time trying to find some clue about its whereabouts but her search didn't bear any fruit. That annoyed her to no end since she felt like she was wasting time and resources that could be used in a better way, but if she gave up after so long she would feel even worse.

The person calling her name was one of her immediate subordinates, a girl slightly younger than her. Angie spun around on her rotating chair after putting down the fork with a piece of tomato still impaled on it. She looked at her underling but seeing that the girl was standing in the door with her head lowered, Angie understood that she was probably trying to catch her breath. When the other girl was finally ready to lift her head and speak, she was surprised to see the admin handing her a glass of water.

The girl glanced at the table to confirm her suspicion that it was the only glass and by gauging the amount of water in it and in the bottle from which it came, she understood that Angie must have already drank from this glass. Her first instinct was to refuse, since she like many others admired the admin too much to ever try to feel like someone in any way equal to her, but after looking at Angie's face, she realized that the few seconds of hesitation were already considered a waste of time. She took a quick sip before putting the glass on the windowsill behind her.

"What is it?" the admin asked.

"One of my subordinates has located M2." she answered while lowering her gaze in order not to disappoint her boss any more.

To her surprise there was no response. Even though she knew it to be foolish, she allowed temptation to get the better of her and took a peek at Angie's face. Her mistake was bigger than she thought. The thing she saw was not only unexpected, but also something that she would have preferred to have never seen. It was the first time in all her time working under Angie that she saw the admin with a smile. The reason she regretted seeing that wasn't something as stupid as her seeing it somehow causing Angie's cold image to be destroyed. No. That smile seemed so unnatural that the only thing she could feel at that moment was pure fear.

. . .

In a park somewhere in Cerulean City, Red was carefully following the movements of a Dratini belonging to the trainer he was currently battling against. Although Eevee's specialty was his speed, the dragon's body allowed him to move in such way that even when it wasn't fast enough it could still avoid long-range attacks. Running after it was also pointless since it was able to travel by air, even though it looked more like swimming than flying. The only option left to them was to wait. This cemented Red's belief that Eevee was the best choice for this battle. Aside from having no type disadvantage, he and Oddish were the only ones of whom the boy would expect to remain patient for an extended amount of time. The opponent tried to have his Pokemon use Dragon Rage a couple times, but each one was easily avoided by Eevee. They were already at a point where he looked frustrated by this stalemate. That's when he came up with a quick strategy.

"Another Dragon Rage!"

The Pokemon listened and shot out a stream of blue, fiery balls in Eevee's direction. The dog did a quick jump to avoid the attack, giving the trainer a chance to issue another order.

"Slam!"

"Bite!" Red shouted even before the other one had a chance to finish his command.

The opponent blinked, unsure of what just happened but a second later everything became clear. When Dratini approached Eevee to attack him, the dog was already prepared to sink its teeth into the dragon's body.

"You must escape!" the boy yelled to his Pokemon, but his order proved useless, since it was clear that Red's partner had too much strength in his jaw to allow the foe to escape.

He was about ready to give up, but at that moment he realized that Eevee bit into the middle of Dratini's body, leaving the end of its tail free. That meant that they still had one move in their arsenal.

"Use Twister!"

Red wasn't prepared for such a development, already being sure of his victory, so he didn't immediately knew how to react. Dratini had a short while to spin its tail, creating a strong wind which transformed into a miniature tornado. The opponent hoped that the wind would help by knocking Eevee over and causing him to release the dragon. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't strong enough. That is why he decided that they should increase its power.

"Even more!"

Even if Red wanted to do something, most of Eevee's attack would be useless if his opponent was in his mouth, even if the wind didn't make it easier to keep it in there. Dratini kept rotating its tail, causing the tornado to grow in size. Soon it was big enough to lift up both of the Pokemon into air.

"It's over! Tell your Eevee to let go!" Dratini's trainer shouted louder than before, realizing that the sound of rippling air was making it hard to hear him.

Red didn't respond. He was still considering his possibilities, even while looking at his Eevee spinning a couple meters above the ground. He could certainly tell him to let go, but that would mean he would have to be sure that there wasn't a way for Dratini to escape without removing Twister. Otherwise, it would mean that Eevee would remain trapped in there and they would be the ones that would have to give up. And even if the tornado would disappear, there was the case of having Eevee land on the ground without receiving any damage, while also making sure that Dratini wouldn't recover before him. All these factors were making it hard to decide the best course of action. As it turned out, he didn't have to, since right at time, somebody did it for him.

"Stop this immediately!" shouted a familiar voice.

It was loud enough to get through the wind and to the Pokemon, and authoritative enough to cause them to abandon their previous orders. Eevee let go of Dratini and at the same moment, the dragon stopped spinning its tail, causing the tornado explode, sending strong gusts of wind in all directions. While Dratini quickly regained balance and flew down towards the ground, Red was momentarily worried about Eevee. That is until he saw a Staryu come flying through the air, catching the dog, before making a turn and landing right next to its trainer, the Cerulean City Gym leader, Misty. She was wearing white sneakers, navy tights and buttoned up denim jacket. The girl returned her Pokemon to its pokeball before kneeling down to pet Eevee. Red had to take a second to understand what just happened before walking up to her.

"Hi." he said.

"Don't "hi" me." she said in an annoyed voice "The next time you decide to have a Pokemon battle, either do it somewhere else or make sure not to scare people with a tornado."

After saying that, she pointed over to a couple people standing a distance away and looking at them with irritation.

"But I wasn't..."

"Doesn't matter!" she didn't give him a chance to defend himself "You should know better than that, Red."

He wanted to say another thing but stopped himself when he realized that she just said his name.

"You remember me?" he said while pointing a finger at his own face.

"Yeah. I mean... There isn't that many trainers who use an Eevee. There's also all the other stuff I learned about you from Brock and Lt. Surge. It seems like you're trying to take on all the criminal organizations in Kanto one by one." she explained.

"Not really. It just feels like trouble always finds me." he said while bending down to also pat his Pokemon before returning him to his pokeball.

"Yeeeah... Wanna grab something to eat? It's my free day so I went for a walk but I still didn't have lunch." she asked while pointing backwards, towards the entrance to the park, with her thumb.

The boy nodded and proceeded to pick up his backpack from the ground before going with the girl. His opponent stood there, trying to hide how sad he was about being ignored by both of them, while his Dratini was rubbing against his leg in order to cheer him up.

. . .

"What?! How could you do that to her?!" Misty yelled while standing up and almost knocking over her glass of juice.

After seeing that some of the people in the restaurant were staring at her, she immediately sat down.

"Didn't you listen to anything I was saying?" Red asked, while pointing at her with a knife dirtied by food.

"It just seems you don't understand women at all!" she raised her voice yet again.

That was enough to attract the attention of one of the waiters, who came up to their table and after looking at their emptied plates, asked them in a cold voice "Will that be all?"

Red grabbed his forehead in embarrassment, since the man's tone suggested that it took all the tact he had not to kick them out and to ask politely instead. Misty looked like she was about to order something again, not realizing the situation, but the boy didn't want to go through any more shame.

"No. That'd be all." he said as quickly as possible.

The waiter bowed before taking away the plates. He sighed with relief on his way back to the kitchen. Misty looked a little disappointed by not having a dessert, and it made Red feel bad enough that he offered to buy her something sweet from a sweet vendor. In little to no time, they left the restaurant and were walking through the streets of Cerulean.

"The thing you should have done..."

"I...!" Red already grew tired of that topic "Look... I know you mean well, but it's already done. I know that Blue can deal with it. I said and did whatever I thought was best at the time and I hope it will all work out somehow. Getting advice about this... It's not like suddenly some other girl is going to fall for me."

He stopped and looked at her while taking a stop bad, his face showing that he was a little suspicious.

"What? Me? No way." she responded after understanding what that look meant "I don't have anything against you but since I'm a Gym leader, I limit myself to dating people who live in Cerulean... Even if most of the guys seem to be intimidated by me..."

"Alright. So, where do you want to go? I've only been here for one night the last time so I don't know my way around."

"Let me think. There's this really good..." when pondering about where to go for dessert, Misty's eyes wandered after seeing a person she recognized "Is that...? Come on. Let's go!"

She grabbed Red's arm and pulled him towards a side alley leading to an older part of the city. She let go after he started following her willingly.

"What is it?"

"I think I saw a friend. Oh, there he is." she said after looking around "Heeey, Biiill!"

The person turned around and it was in fact the young scientist responsible for inventing the Pokemon Storage System. He was wearing a long, grey coat, beige trousers and rain boots. It seemed like he wasn't alone since a pair of children, each about 8 years old, hid behind him after seeing the trainers. Bill let the kids know that everything was okay in the time it took the other two to walk up to them.

"Hey, Misty. And you are..."

"I'm Red."

"Curious."

Red didn't seem to understand that remark "W... What are you curious about?"

"Oh. No, no. I mean that's it interesting that you're the second person I met this year who is named after a color." the scientist explained.

"So you probably met Green or Blue." responded Red.

"I... Do... Are you like a band? Or some secret agents?"

"Why would you ask that?" Red wondered while tilting his head to the side.

"Ah... Don't worry. But anyway, I don't have a lot of time to talk so unless it's something important I can't stay too long."

"I was just wondering what you're doing in this part of the city, especially since you rarely visit Cerulean." said Misty.

Bill looked at the kids accompanying him before signaling the pair of trainers to come closer so that they could hear his whisper.

"I'm on a secret mission. These two walked all the way to my house to ask me for help since they think they discovered a new Pokemon species."

"A new Pok...!" both of them were about to yell out what they just learned due to being shocked but Bill quickly blocked both of their mouths with his hands.

The few people travelling through the alley looked in their direction but quickly returned to whatever they were doing.

"Don't you understand that I'm whispering for a reason?" he asked, visibly annoyed.

Red raised his hand, signaling that he wanted to say something, since his mouth was still covered. Bill hesitated for a second but let go of both of them.

"What is it?" the scientist asked.

"Can we come with you?" Red spoke quietly, but was clearly very excited.

"I'm not sure. I'll probably already have to share the honors with the young ones. But if I take you with me..."

"If you don't take us, we'll just follow you." stated Misty.

"I..."

"Like ninjas." added Red.

Bill let out an exasperated sigh.

"Alright. You can come."

. . .

They were walking for about 20 minutes. As they travelled further into the old part of the city, the alleys grew tighter while the buildings looked worse. Some were already in complete ruin which made Red wonder if there was no historical value there, since it didn't seem like anyone ever attempted to restore them.

"Are we close?" Bill asked the kids who suddenly stopped.

They looked around and at each other. They nodded to themselves before turning to Bill.

"I... I'm not sure. We think it's somewhere around here. All these buildings look the same." said one of them.

"Should we split and search for it?" suggested Misty.

"No! Don't split!" one of them cried out while hugging the Gym leaders legs.

The girl pulled the child away before kneeling down to speak with it face to face.

"What's going on?"

"We... We think it's dangerous. It's weird. Different from any Pokemon we ever saw." explained the young one.

"How about one of us stays here with the children to protect them in case it shows up while the rest go search for it." said Red.

"I'll do it." announced Misty "I care more about the wellbeing of these kids than about finding this thing. But I still think you and Bill should go together. He's not a Pokemon trainer after all."

"That's not true." the scientist stated "I have a bunch of Pokemon. That still makes me a Pokemon trainer. I'm just not a... Pokemon battler."

"Did you come up with that one yourself?" she asked sarcastically.

"Let's go." Bill said while quickly turning around to hide the blush he got after being ridiculed by the leader.

Red followed the scientist. Both of them started slowly searching through the buildings. When at first they didn't find anything, Bill started to look worried. He considered that the Pokemon may have left the area. He looked at his watch and at the sky. They had only about 3 hours until the sunset. The old city was a labyrinth during the day. He didn't want to have to look for a way out after it would get dark. After some time, they found a big church, with a lot of its windows broken, and with a hole in one of the walls. The main doors wouldn't budge so they carefully got inside through the opening. As he helped Bill land safely on the floor, and not slip onto shattered glass, Red decided to ask him a question that was bugging him.

"Since you said you don't do Pokemon battles, what was your plan if this thing attacked you or the kids?"

"This." he said while taking out a device similar to a pokeball, but more unrefined and full of edges and wires "It's based around the same principle as my Pokemon Storage System. I'm doing research into creating a machine that will allow people to teleport over long distances and this is something I came up with by accident. It can be quickly activated and if I do that, it will make the surrounding space a kind of pocket dimension which could trap anything or anyone inside of it. But I have to be careful..."

"Why is that?"

"If the device is destroyed, the pocket dimension still remains. And it's still a prototype, so if I used it here we would become trapped in this church. If the device got destroyed somehow after doing that, we would have to stay here forever."

"There's nothing that could break the "barrier" or whatever you wanna call it?" Red was a little worried after hearing how dangerous that small thing was.

"Not that I know of."

"Why?"

"What do you mean "why"? Do you want me to explain how..."

"I didn't say that." Red stopped him.

Bill looked at him with confusion "Well... If you didn't then who di..."

"Why won't you leave me alone? Everywhere I go, you humans must follow me."

It was only after hearing those words that they realized they weren't spoken but somehow appeared in their heads. They immediately looked around, and after turning towards the ceiling, they saw someone, or something, sitting on one of the wooden beams. Mewtwo rubbed its eyes, probably meaning that it was asleep until they arrived in the church. After that, it jumped off and landed at the altar, knocking over a statue of some god. Both of the people remained too shocked to say anything after witnessing the artificial Pokemon. Meanwhile, it looked at them and after understanding that they didn't seem to be members of Team Rocket, it felt the need to give them a chance.

"Leave."


Sorry. I started writing this on like the 30th but then a lot of stuff piled up. I had a dentist appointment but my toothache got so unbearable that I couldn't sleep for 2 days. I couldn't write anything during that time, and then I felt like I was hungover for the next couple days. (I also took some time to finish Daredevil). I was sure that I would be able to finish this arc in the first week of the year but I only finished about half of it and decided that I'll put that out for now, finishing on a cliffhanger. I can't reveal too much of what the plans for this chapter were originally like without spoiling the next one, but Misty and Bill were always in it, while the Dratini fight is a new thing.

I'll try to release the next chapter soon. My tooth doesn't hurt anymore so there shouldn't be anything to interrupt me. I also made sure not to begin too many anime series in this new season. I still have ongoing stuff like Jojo and Pokemon. The only things I added are Dororo and the Shield Hero. Especially Dororo got me with that dope opening.

That's all. Leave a comment if you have any prediction how Red and Bill are going to deal with what they just got themselves into.

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, ?.