Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 36: Masterball Run.

"Aren't you afraid that we're making too much sound?" Red asked Peter as they quickly moved through the building, looking behind him as they climbed the stairs to the next floor.

"Don't say foolish things. We only met that one guy so far. Either these guys are very confident about their security measures and they decided that they don't need that many guards... or they are stupid."

"It's also possible that your info was wrong and that masterball isn't here at all."

Peter stopped suddenly and looked at the teenager with his mouth open wide.

"You... You never considered that idea?"

"Damn it. I know that my subordinates wouldn't lie to me but if the Silph employee we got that info from purposely lied..." Peter started talking to himself, with even a drop of sweat appearing on his forehead.

"Alright, alright. Calm down. We won't know until we get there. Let's just go."

"Yeah, you're right." the Admin regained his composure, and he did so at exactly the right time.

"Hey? What are you doing he...?" a guard approached them from below but the Admin made him go quiet by jumping down the stairs and kneed him in the face, although catching him before he would fall on the floor.

Red wanted to interpret to as a sign of there being a good side to the Admin but he suspected that he did so because he didn't want the falling body to make too much noise.

"Hmm... Why didn't you use those flying fists this time?" Red asked after Peter caught up to him.

The Admin answered although he decided against taking any more unnecessary stops "It's not something I can just do all the time. When I combine with Haunter, he connects with my soul so that each of his attacks is stronger. The setback is that he powers up by draining my energy. I... wouldn't pass out from using it but I could get slower... That can be inconvenient."

The teenager noticed that Peter paused to keep part of the truth to himself but, after spending a bit of time with him, he understood that trying to ask him further questions about this topic would be useless.

After making their way through another 2 floors without attracting any more attention, they arrived at a spot where Peter put his hand in front of Red in order to stop him from advancing. He moved his head to let the boy know that it was okay to peek and what he saw were two cameras on either side of a reinforced door. This must have been the place they were looking for. Peter took a step back and allowed Haunter to leave his body before taking another look as if he wanted to confirm something before putting the next part of his plan into action.

"This can go two ways but either one will be good for us." the Admin stated before taking one of his pokeballs and rolling it on the floor in such a way that it would cross the cameras' view.

Meanwhile, Haunter flew and disappeared into a wall as close to the door as it was possible without being seen. Soon after, the door opened slowly and a man peered from inside the room. He was holding an electrically charged baton and it seemed like he was ready to use it since he looked around to learn if someone was observing him, before approaching the pokeball.

Red couldn't tell if what he saw on Peter's face could be called a smile but it was the closest thing so he felt really anxious about not being able to see what was happening. From where they were standing, he could hear the door open and the guard's footsteps but he was clueless about how Peter wanted to go about this situation. One clue was that he sent Haunter but that part was mostly self-explanatory. The thing he couldn't understand was the pokeball. Was that just a precaution in case Haunter failed?

Suddenly, what sounded like a roar could be heard. It was followed by what was clearly some Pokemon using a fire move. The next thing was the sound of the pokeball opening but Red couldn't understand what happened in the following seconds. The fact that they could hear the guard struggling for some time put a look of disappointment on Peter's face. He took a quick step forward, already reaching for a knife he hid in the lab coat. Red followed him just to be safe. The clothes didn't exactly make it hard to move but he began to question they purpose after having them be useless in their two previous encounters with the security.

When they made it around the corner, Red stopped after seeing something he didn't recognize trying to attack the guard. Peter kept moving and when he got close enough to see the inside of the room, he understood that Haunter was stopped by a Growlithe which shot out an attack that slightly blackened a part of one of the walls. His other Pokemon, a Gengar, must have been too confused about what was happening to the other Ghost Pokemon to act properly. However, when it saw its trainer running towards them, it reminded itself what was its task and by taking advantage of the guard's surprise attacked him. Although he didn't understand what was happening, the man swung his baton around, making it hard to get a good hit on him.

Growlithe left Haunter after sending another attack its way and turned around to help its trainer but the other Pokemon quickly followed. Peter reached towards the man with knife but his attack was blocked but his opponent blocked it with the baton. Red was observing this fast exchange and began to worry that it would attract too much attention. He looked towards his belt and decided that it was the time to use the Pokemon he brought along on this mission. He threw the Pokemon and immediately ran towards Peter in order to tackle him and cover his mouth. He had to act quickly since the Admin would probably assume that it was an attempt at betrayal.

"Sleep Powder!" he shouted before pressing his face against Peter's chest since his other hand was busy with keeping away the knife that the criminal immediately pointed towards the boy.

The Pokemon Red commanded was Gloom who, although not sure what was happening since he was as sleepy as always, followed the order and released a cloud of spores that put the guard and the remaining Pokemon to sleep.

Red felt that Peter stopped trying to stab him after noticing what was happening. After Gloom's attack ceased, the teenager got up and rolled to the side to give the other person space. Before addressing him, Peter put his Pokemon inside their pokeballs since he didn't bring along anything that could allow him to wake them up. He got up and glanced at Red who was still on the floor, wondering if the Admin was going to get mad at him for deciding to act on his own accord.

"I'm not someone who says things like "I could have done that myself" but we'll see if this was the best course of action once we figure out if we're going to need my Pokemon to enter wherever the masterball is hidden. Until then, I won't praise or bash you for your actions." the Admin explained before going into the room while avoiding the Growlithe sleeping in his way.

Red couldn't help but wonder if that was actually a way for Peter to act nice while keeping up his harsh persona but his thoughts got interrupted when Gloom jumped into his lap and hugged him. It looked like even though he was in stasis, he realized how long it has been since they last saw each other. After the greeting, Red stood up and let Gloom sit on his head so that he wouldn't waste time to release him from the ball if he needed his help again. When he walked into the security room looking like that, Peter glanced at him only to immediately turn his gaze away. Red couldn't know that it was because he looked so ridiculous that even someone like Peter couldn't help but smile a little when seeing him.

The Admin calmed down and the two of them began surveying the contents of the room. Red noticed a big shelf containing various tapes and books. Since Peter was already examining the camera feeds, the teenager quickly looked through the contents of a couple books, hoping that one of them would contain plans of the building. He found a couple books that could be what he was looking for but it looked like some of them were outdated. He needed space to compare them since holding them all in his hands would be impossible. He stood next to Peter and put them next to the control panel, making sure not to press anything by accident. After looking around a bit, Peter noticed what looked like the right room on a couple of the monitors. Using that and the data gathered by Red, they were able to find out where they needed to go and even a quicker escape route than if they just went back the way they came from.

"It looks like we can turn off the laser grid if we do this..." Red pointed out to the Admin while holding up one of the books "...but there's this other security room in a completely different part of the building. They can't see inside here but they'll notice that something is wrong."

"That's going to be a problem. Seeing how things have gone so far, I can't exactly say that we were lucky so far. The guard from the other room has too many options. They can't immediately turn on the grid again since there's a cooldown but we can't tell if they're going to go check it out personally or just raise an alarm. They could also try coming here and that would be the best for us but we can't just count on them being foolish."

"Wait!"

"What?!" Peter turned around, suspecting that someone was about to attack them from outside the room but he quickly noticed that Red was pointing towards the screens "What the hell? Did you turn off the f #$%&g lasers?!"

"No!" Red protested when the man grabbed him by the collar, while Gloom looked like he was about to attack him "They must have been turned off by someone in the other security room!"

"Damn it! What the hell does that mean?! Are they just checking up on it or is there some asshole that's trying to steal it before we do it?!" Peter shouted before throwing down the pokeball containing Dodrio so that he could get on the Pokemon's back "I'm going ahead!"

Red looked at the screens to see if something was going to happen but he determined that waiting there would be a waste of time. He thought it was irresponsible of Peter to leave him there by himself but he didn't have some great betrayal in mind so he left the room shortly after the Admin's departure.

. . .

After running up several sets of stairs and taking numerous turns, Red began to worry that maybe he didn't properly remember where the room he was looking for was situated. He stopped running to catch a breath and look around and, as if to calm his worries, Peter appeared out of nowhere, riding on Dodrio. They zoomed past the boy but when the Admin noticed him, he signaled the Pokemon to turn around and approach him.

"Where is it?! This the right floor but we've been moving so fast that I'm not sure which way I was headed!" the criminal shouted while impatiently shaking his arms.

"I have the same problem as you. What's more, I'm surprised that we managed to get here without attracting any more attention."

"Wait! Who is that?!" Peter asked while pushing away Red's face in order to point out a mysterious figure he saw at the other end of the hallway.

Without giving the boy a chance to look in that direction, he gave Dodrio a signal to rush towards the suspicious person.

"Drill Peck!"

Even though the other party didn't seem to know that Dodrio was approaching them, they managed to easily avoid the attack with a backflip. The bird's beaks pierced the wall but it managed to quickly get them out. Meanwhile, Peter got a good luck at the mysterious person but the fact that they were wearing completely black clothes. and didn't make any sounds, made it hard to even tell their sex. The only things he could tell was that they were fairly short and slim. Even the face of this someone was hidden behind a black mask that looked similarly to the one representing the comedy part of theater. The one detail that stood out was something attached to their belt. Even though it was a short time, Red already managed to run a fair distance of the way towards them and noticed what that object was.

"It's the masterball!" he yelled, making the other two turn their head towards him in shock.

"Give it back!" Peter screamed with Dodrio understanding that it was supposed to try attacking once again.

The other person tried to avoid the attack but Peter's disguise must have worked for the first time since they weren't prepared for someone who looked like a scientist to suddenly jump towards them with a knife in hand. The Team Rocket member was able to get a good slice at the person's face, cutting the mask in two and revealing their face. Since he could already see the face, the other person seemed to decided that there was no sense in trying to cover themselves up. They reached for the material covering their head and ears and tore it off, revealing flowing blonde hair. After arriving next to them, Red stepped to the side to get a good look at their face.

"Treating a fragile maiden in such a way... Have you no shame?" the voice that said these words sounded like someone pretending to be sad.

The person definitely looked like a female and one could want to say that it was an adult based on her face but the pink lipstick, long eyelashes, exaggerated voice and movements made it seem like she wanted to seem younger than she actually was. Red was about to ask for her age but when he noticed that Peter was similarly surprised by how she looked, he remembered what was their goal. He lunged forward, reaching with his hand towards the female's belt but she quickly moved towards him and spun around before leaning back and passing under his arm as if she was playing limbo, before getting back up and using a leg to trip him up.

Peter was ready to make a follow up, hoping that the girl's guard would be down for even a moment after dealing with Red. He barely started moving his legs when another surprise stopped him in his tracks. The loud sound of an alarm pierced his ears and red lamps, protected by small cages, one on each stretch of the wall, started flashing quickly. The sensory overload seemed to affect the girl in the same way as him since he noticed after a couple seconds that both of them were just standing there, looking dumbfounded, instead of doing anything.

Meanwhile, Red already got off the floor and proceeded to throw Gloom at their opponent's face while himself doing a sliding tackle. This two-pronged strategy made it impossible for the girl to come out completely fine. She lost her balance and although the boy wasn't able to reach the masterball, since she turned around when falling down in order to protect it, Peter joined in at the right time and snatched it from her belt. Even though he didn't look at her for longer than a second, he was surprised by the fact that she apparently had no Pokemon with her as signified by lack of any other types of pokeballs. The Admin moved in a flowing motion that allowed him to grab Red with his free hand and get him to a standing position. The girl wasn't about to give up and tried to make them fall with her by kicking them in the ankles right before touching the floor, but even though she struck Peter's leg, he endured the pain and gave Dodrio a meaningful look. The girl had to roll away to avoid another Drill Peck before she was able to get back on her feet while still being pressured into dodging the bird. The fact that she was able to follow her quick decisions with equally fast movements made even someone like Peter a little impressed.

When she moved away to a distance that he deemed to be a safe one for them, he asked her a question "Who the hell are you?"

"There's no need to reveal my name to you since you'll never see me after I make it away with the masterball but if you want to brag then tell people that you've been robbed by the fourth best thief in the world!" she said while striking a pose that reminded the Admin of a flower vase.

"Wait... I feel like I heard something familiar before..." Red said to himself after hearing how the girl described herself.

"Don't..." Peter couldn't find a right word and he was angry at the fact that he was technically responsible for Red losing his focus "She's just making fun of us! We have to make it out of here before this damn alarm brings a bunch of security guards!"

"Hey! I see someone!" a shouting voice of a guard could be heard even among the annoyingly loud ringing of the alarm.

"Well, f #k..." Peter commented before jumping onto Dodrio's back and pulling Red along with himself.

The thief started running towards them but it turned out that she was the one spotted by the security since a Growlithe jumped at her from one of the side corridors. She managed to bend her back to the point where the dog would fly over her but in doing so she lost the momentum and, the moment she got herself back up, her opponents were already gone. Growlithe's trainer appear shortly after and although he couldn't tell what was going, the girl was the only person he could see that could be responsible for the alarm going off, and her black outfit made her look even more suspicious.

"Pin her down! But don't hurt her!" the man commanded.

Before the dog could follow the order, the blonde slipped past its trainer put him in a hold that made it hard to breathe, not to mention trying to get out of it. Even though it went through training that was supposed to make it prepared for unexpected situations, the Fire Pokemon couldn't see a way that would allow it to attack the girl without striking the guard. It tried quickly jumping to the sides, hoping to see an opening but the girl reacted to every movement, waiting for a moment where the dog would try to switch up its tactic. When it finally calmed down in order to come up with another plan, the thief threw the guard's body at it after chocking the man to the point of making him unconscious. In the time it took Growlithe to avoid its trainer and make sure that he was fine, the girl managed to a distance that would make it pointless to follow her. The only consolation was that there were still multiple security guards searching the building for the cause of the alarm. However, it was clear that the female would be able to get herself out of any situation as long as the number of her opponent's wouldn't be too big.

. . .

"What the hell was that?!"

Three members of the security turned their heads when something made its way past them at an incredible speed. Only after seeing its back could they recognize that it was a Dodrio carrying two people and a Gloom.

"They're wearing lab coats but I don't recall any scientist with a Dodrio!" one of them pointed out.

The other two silently agreed and the group started following the runaway bird and even though they quickly saw that it would be impossible to keep up, they didn't want to give up.

"Wait! If we can't stop them, let's leave it up to the building."

"Oh, boy. I've been waiting to see this thing in action!" one of them blurted out, attracting curious glances from the other two "I mean... I didn't want someone to rob us. I just... Stop looking at me like that and call someone who can do it!"

. . .

"It looks like we'll be able to make it out of here!" Red yelled happily while leaning forward to keep Peter's lab coat from flapping in the wind and obscuring the boy's vision.

"Damn you! Don't say stuff like that! You're going to f #$%^g jinx us!" the Admin replied angrily.

"Jinx us? Who are you? My mother when spills salt? Everything's going to be alright! We just have to use one of the other exits!"

"Do you remember all of them?"

"Don't you?"

"I... I tend to forgot things when I get heated up over something."

"Isn't that like always for you?"

"Do you remember them or not?! Answer the question, you clown!"

"Calm down. I remembered some of them."

"They probably already blocked some of them so we have to be... Is the ceiling getting closer?"

"Wha-? Is the ceiling..." the question was so sudden that Red didn't immediately understand what it meant but after a second or two he decided to look up and found out that the Admin seemed to be right "It is! Wait! It's not the ceiling! The floor is rising!"

"Damn it! Are they really trying to do us in with these movie villain traps?!"

"Looks like it!" Red replied while lowering his head since they were already dangerously close to getting squished.

"I refuse!" Peter announced while simultaneously putting Dodrio back in its pokeball, giving himself and Red some more room.

They moved as fast as they could since they could see that there was a part of the hallway further ahead that looked normal but it didn't seem like they were going to make it.

"Go, Nidorino!" Red let out his other Pokemon out of the ball "Use Shock Wave!"

Even though the rest of them was also affected by the attack, it was a small price to pay for allowing the electricity to find its way to the mechanism controlling the rising floor and disabling it. The group made it out safely and Peter decided that it would be safer to forgo using Dodrio unless absolutely necessary. Them moving too fast would make it easier to run into another trap. Although that way of thinking seemed logical, it didn't matter when soon after they were found by another group of guards who were ready to let their Growlithes attack them.

"It's going to be one of these, isn't it?" Red commented with a grumpy voice.

"What are you on about?" Peter asked while observing their opponents who didn't seem too sure about how to proceed.

"How do you say it? Out of the drying pan and into the fire?"

"I... I'm not even mad. I'm just amazed at how someone who acts so stup... casually... when faced with such a situation, could survive so long."

"Well, you're talking to me right now. What does that say about you?"

"I..." Peter began but he quickly realized that the others didn't intend on letting them continue when they gave their Pokemon an order to attack.

"Grass Knot!" commanded Red.

One of the Growlithes got its foot stuck in a trap created by Gloom. The remaining ones looked at it and tightened their formation to cover the gap it left behind while continuing their attack.

"And a Double Kick!"

Nidorino jumped straight at them, causing the two Growlithes left to jump to sides in order not to be struck by its attack but the Poison Pokemon spun around and still managed to graze them which was enough to incite their instincts and make them attack him.

"Shock Wave!"

By trying to physically attack their opponents, the dogs made it impossible for them to avoid the following move and both of them fell down in pain, however, from where he was standing, Red couldn't see that the last Growlithe broke free from Gloom's hold and was about to launch a long distance attack. That could be a big problem if not for the sudden movement of the floor that drew everyone's attention away from the battle.

"Hey! What the hell are they doing?! They know we're here, right?!" one of the guards looked at his co-workers in panic but they were equally astonished by what was happening.

"Is it the same thing again?" Red asked while looking up and then to Nidorino in case he would have to stop it once more.

"Doesn't seem so." Peter replied while pointing out that the floor wasn't raising in a normal fashion but instead the hallway was turning into a slope.

It was steep enough to the point where standing straight was a little hard. Seeing that Gloom had trouble with it, Red picked him up.

"But what's the point? It's not like we're going to fa..." Red stopped himself when he saw something appear on the other side of the building and understood what was happening.

A huge stone ball rolled down from a higher floor and the way they came from became blocked by a metal sheet, meaning that the only way they could escape it was by going down.

"Are you f #$%^g kidding me?" Peter lamented the idea of having to deal with another ridiculous trap but he nevertheless turned around and started moving down.

"It looks like it's moving fast." Red commented while following the Admin together with Nidorino.

"I noticed."

"But if we start to run, we'll probably fall down and crush into a wall."

"I realized that."

"Then what are we to do?!"

"I don't know!"

At that point, the both of them were already moving as fast as they could without slipping up but they had to speed up since the ball was very close. The only relief was that it had to go through the guards and their Pokemon before it would crush them.

"I wonder how close... Huh?! They're gone?!"

Peter turned his head after hearing Red's words and saw that their opponents were in fact not there. That gave him hope that there was some way to escape. The guards were probably helped by someone on their side but there could have been another way to deal with this problem so the Admin started looking around for a way out. He looked up and then back at the ball and seemed to realize something which didn't go unnoticed by Red.

"What is it?"

"There's space. Not much but it's there."

"What?"

They already made a couple turns which meant that this trap probably went on through the entire height of the building and Red was worried by the fact that they were probably already getting to the bottom so he didn't understand what Peter was trying to point out.

"Just have your Gloom use Grass Knot! Multiple if needed!"

Red thought about what he heard for a while before understanding what Peter wanted to achieve by doing that.

"Do you really want that? Doesn't seem your style."

"If it increases the chances of me not dying in this stupid building then I'm all for it! Now shut up and do it!"

"You heard him Gloom. Use Grass Knot to knock that ball up!"

As soon as the Pokemon nodded and made and jumped on the floor in order to use the move, the rest of them stopped. Nidorino didn't understand why the humans dropped on the floor but it also lowered itself. For Peter, his knife was enough to keep him from sliding down but Red decided to keep one hand on the Poison Pokemon just to be more sure of himself. They closed their eyes after hearing the sound of the ball being lifted up but curiosity got the best of the teenager and he opened them right as the ball was flying above him. In order not to get stuck in the hallways of the building, the ball had to have some space. Normally it was about half a meter from the ceiling but thanks to Gloom's move it raised into air and the gap was instead between it and the floor, allowing the group to avoid it as long as they weren't standing up. The main worry was that it would fly too high and fall down on them after bouncing off the ceiling but everything went according to plan and it soared above them and soon disappeared behind another corner.

"That was good. You're actually smart." Red said to Peter after getting up.

"Do you want me to stab you?"

"Whyyy? That was compliment."

"I don't..."

Peter stopped since while getting the dust off the lab coat he felt that something was missing. He quickly took it off and examined his belt and when he didn't find what he was looking for, he did the same with Red's.

"Where the f #k is it?" he said while holding the knife up to the boy's face.

"Wha-?! You mean the masterball?! I don't have it!"

"Yeah?! Then who the hell...?!"

"Ahem!" they heard a third voice coming from below and immediately turned their attention towards its owner.

It was the same girl they fought before. She seemed to be taunting them by holding the masterball in a hand outstretched in their direction.

"See?! It wasn't me!" Red yelled since Peter didn't immediately move away the knife.

"What's your plan, you b #$h?! What's the damn point of showing it to us if you could just run away and leave us here to beat the crap out of each other while arguing over who has it?"

"First off, I don't want this guy's death to be on me." she said while nodding towards Red "My motto is "Make love. Sweet, passionate, cleansing love. Not war"."

"I just learned more about her than I would have liked to..." the teenager stated while checking his neck to make sure that Peter didn't accidentally cut him a little.

"The second reason is that just stealing it wouldn't be enough. Even before you interfered I had a plan to send Silph Co a video about how I managed to get away with it. You see, if I want to live up to the name of the fourth best thief in the world then I have to make it flashy. My own life comes before that but that's about it."

"Now I remember!" Red announced, surprising the other two "Venin also kept mentioning something about him being the third best thief in the world! How do you guys even come up with that? Is there like a ranking or some..."

"You've met him?" the girl asked while getting uncomfortably close to Red so fast that it almost seemed impossible "Wait. Even if you did, how dare you address him with such familiarity? It's "Phantom Venin" you scum!"

Peter took the chance at swung the knife at her but she avoided it by treating Red like a shield and placing him between the assailant and herself.

"You goddamn c #t! It must have been you who dropped that ball!"

"You got that right, ugly." she admitted while smiling mischievously and pushing Red towards him so that she could jump back and start escaping.

"There they are!" someone shouted above them and after looking that way, they saw a huge group of guards and Growlithes approaching them.

"We have to run!"

"Not without the masterball!" Peter protested and reached for a pokeball "Go, Dodrio!"

"Everyone, let's use Flamethrower to defeat them and ask questions later!" a man who looked like he was in charge commanded the rest of the guards who agreed and simultaneously gave their orders.

Peter and Red jumped onto Dodrio's back. The boy returned Nidorino to his pokeball while Gloom once again jumped onto his head. Even though the thieving girl was a good distance ahead of them, the bird Pokemon managed to catch up with her even when carrying two humans on its back. She wanted to dodge them but stopping for even a fraction of a second didn't seem like a smart idea when she could see the Flamethrowers combining into what looked like a giant wave of flames. This made it easy for Red to grab her even though she kept on struggling. He suspected that she was fairly light because of how she was able to move but he was still surprised a little.

"Well, you have me. What now, you brainiacs?"

"Yeah, Peter. At this point it's impossible to tell where we are and how to reach any of the exits." Red pointed out.

"Then we'll just make our own! Don't they say that where there's a wall there's a way?!"

"I... I seriously think both of you are idiots." the girl said while thinking about how dying in such a way would only be spectacular as long as her corpse would still be recognizable after she was burned alive.

"Dodrio, use Tri-Attack on that wall!"

Each of the bird's head shot out a different type of elemental beam which connected at one point and hit the wall. It seemed to crack a little but they were getting closer to it and it wasn't breaking.

"Damn it! He's wasting too much energy with all of us on his back and can't put all of his strength into it!"

"Oh. We can solve that." Red responded before giving the girl a sly smirk.

"Wait. What are you...?"

He threw her. They were already at such a distance that if they managed to bust through the wall, she would fly through it but she couldn't help panicking as she moved through the air and observed Dodrio putting as much strength as he could into his attack.

"Do it!" the three humans encouraged the bird at the same time and that was the push he needed.

They made a huge hole in the wall and Red managed to grab the girl by her ankle and drag her down, as they were falling down, in order to get her out of the way of the giant Flamethrower that followed them outside the building and stopped only 30 meters away from it.

It turned out that they weren't too high but they still felt a small shock run through their bodies when Dodrio landed on the ground. Peter ordered him to keep moving despite the fact that he was already worn out. The rest of them were also tired and he was their only option of creating some distance in case the guards would want to continue their pursuit. The bird managed to get them above the fence and covered a big distance before running out of strength and falling down in some alley far away from Silph Co. Red looked concerned about the bird but he also seemed concerned about Gloom's wellbeing since he took him off his head and even looked inside his mouth. Peter didn't concern himself with that since there was still only one thing on his mind.

"Give it back!" he said while grabbing the girl by the throat.

"Ghh. Just take it yourself you moronic brute!" she responded with some trouble.

"I mean, where did you hide the damn thing?! It's not attached to your belt!"

"It's not?!" the female sounded genuinely surprised and managed to push the Admin away and land on the ground before checking if he was saying the truth.

"Well, if you don't have it and I don't..." Peter once again became suspicious of Red, especially since the girl's clothes didn't look like they could hide the ball anywhere.

The Admin was a little less forward this time and decided to check Red's belt as well as his pockets instead of going for the knife approach.

"It's not here. Don't... Don't f #$%^g tell me that we did all of this and this stupid b #$h dropped the damn masterball when she was flying around!"

"If it's anyone's fault then it's this guy's!" she pointed at Red "He's the one who threw me!"

The girl noticed Peter reaching for the knife and jumped back before he even did anything.

"Aaanyway... I guess I'll be going. Let's hope that we never get in each other's way again. Okay?" she said while trying to cheer herself up by taking pleasure in the fact that Peter seemed even more disappointed than her.

"Wait. What's your name?" Red inquired before she could disappear behind a corner.

"My alias is Meteor. But don' go around saying it casually. Make sure to say "Miss Meteor" when you brag to people about the amazing beauty you met." she stopped and looked unsure about what she wanted to add to that "Well... Not that I care but what do they call you?"

"I'm Red."

"Red. Hmm. Yes. A fitting name for someone like you." she said before walking away and talking to herself "I guess I'll have to ask honey what he has to say about this boy..."

"Hey, Peter." Red turned to the Admin "Now that's the mission is over, will Gloom have to go back into stasis?"

"I don't care. I'm still dealing with disappointment."

"Well, for now you'll be going inside your pokeball." the boy stated before putting his Pokemon to rest and standing up in order to help Peter do the same "Come on. No use crying over dropped milk."

"I thought the saying went "crying over spilled juice"?"

"Did it?"

Peter stood up and stretched his legs and arms a little before turning to the boy "I can't say that I trust you but I can promise that as long as you don't get in my way I won't try to slice your throat again."

"I... I guess that's a start."

. . .

"Hey? Have you seen this?" one of the guards called to another who was busy trying to wake up their friend who was lying unconscious on the floor.

"Whatever it is, we don't have time. We have to wake him up in case he has some clues about the intruders.""Just come and see it." the first one insisted.

"Alright. Just so you will shut up." he said before standing up and walking over to peer inside the security room they were standing next to "Huh? What the hell happened here?"

"That's what I've been wondering. It looks like the bottom part of this shelf rotted away and that made it fall down. All the too."

"But why would it rot? The rest of the shelf looks fairly new. Hmm? Guess what. One of the books fell on the switch that activates the alarm."

"Is that why it turned on?"

"Well, we did have actual intruders. I saw them."

"But maybe that's connected somehow."

"Are you crazy? What kind of thief would pull an alarm on themself?"

"Hmm. Yeah. Forgot I said anything."


"Gee, I wonder if this chapter will end up too short. Let's put a third character in it." And then it ends up too long. Well, no too long but it definitely took a couple more days to finish it. But I'm happy with how it came out. I almost forgot to write that last part and it's only one of several similar things I scattered through the chapter. In this case, I wrote Red leaving the room in such a way that didn't describe if he did anything before leaving but that he also didn't leave the second Peter left so there was still time to do something, even if it was only seconds. I hope that I don't have to spell out what he did more than I already did.

Peter's last Pokemon is revealed. It's a shame it didn't get to see much action. With this, all the ghosts from Gen 1 made their appearances.

The new character, Meteor. Or that's what she wants to be called. You'll see more of her once Phantom Venin returns. If it wasn't obvious so far, I don't like keeping the story to stricte traditional Pokemon battles and I want the humans to get involved in them instead of just giving orders. Well, here's a girl that doesn't even have any Pokemon and can still fight it out pretty well. I'm not sure if her personality got across well but when she appears again you'll understand her better. Her name is actually related to Venin's true identity but it's such a weird connection that I doubt anyone will figure it out. I'll explain it once we learn more about the two of them.

Peter was good. Red's infectious. He has an aura that makes everyone want to like him but the Admin managed to stay true to himself and it'll still be some time before I reveal the reason for his hostile behavior. I think I made him a little too talkative but it wouldn't make sense if it was Red talking to himself with Peter just standing there.

The title is a reference to Steel Ball Run manga and how there's a lot of running in the chapter itself.

I don't know if I can use views to quantify popularity but, without talking specific numbers, I basically got the same number of views in not even two weeks this July without posting anything as I did the whole July last year while posting 3-4 chapters. But numbers aren't everything. I don't want to sound like I'm begging but if you can spare some time leave a review. Seeing even one word from my readers would mean a lot to me. While you're at it, try to get your friends to read this thingie if you think they may find it interesting. No pressure though.

The next chapter will follow Green and Alex on their mission. Depending on how long it'll be I have a scene or two in mind that I could add to that.

Red. Team: Nidorino, Gloom.

Stasis: Eevee, Charmeleon, Gyarados, Raichu, Pidgeotto.

Badges: 4

Green. Team: Jynx.

Stasis: Venusaur, Nidorina, Jigglypuff, Hitmonlee, Vulpix, Horsea.

Badges: 3

Blue. Team: Weepinbell(Bell), Blastoise(Tori), Zubat(?), Graveler(?).

Badges: 3

Alex. Team: Ditto, Vaporeon, Jolteon, ?.

Angie. Team: Dragonair, Sandslash.

Peter. Team: Dodrio, Haunter, Gengar.