Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 37: Misadventures of Mary the Matchmaker.
"Is this really where we're going to be staying?" Green asked with disbelief soon after they reached a small island near to Cinnabar and saw that the only building there didn't look like a an actual base but more like a normal house.
"Don't complain. We kinda had a base nearby but it got pretty wrecked in the not so distant past. Doctor Hum... Blaine... Yes. Still not used. Blaine allowed us to stay at his house before and after the mission." Alex explained the situation while making motions towards the other people who came with them on a boat "There's probably no reason to say it since you're a reasonable guy but don't imagine that you'll be able to trick us in some way and escape just because we're in a... less organized environment. You wouldn't be able to reach your grandfather in time and Red is essentially our hostage... Although I can't keep worrying about how his mission with Peter went."
"We're finished, sir!" a female Team Rocket member announced while saluting the Admin.
"Oh. Alright then. I'm not too good with long distance sea travel so, even though I'm the best cook here, someone else will have to go visit Blaine's freezer and prepare dinner."
"Is there even a point in us staying here?" Green questioned his decisions "It's almost night. We're not going to use that to sneak into the laboratory unseen?"
"Damn. Sometimes the stuff you say is so unbelievably stupid that I hate myself for allowing our fight to end in a draw." Alex responded while adjusting his glasses "There's several reasons for why we're not doing that. We don't know these waters and it's going to be cloudy so trying to sail under these conditions while relying only on technology would be pretty foolish. We're going to visit Cinnabar during the day and the laboratory we're trying to rob actually allows people to take tours. We'll use that to get acquainted with the interior, come back here, prepare and return before nightfall to commence our heist."
"Now that you explained it like that... Yeah. It sound reasonable."
"Of course it does. It was I who came up with it after all." Alex said before starting to laugh because of how proud he was of himself "Now that everything's clear, let's eat something. And don't forget something for the Pokemon!"
. . .
"I still can't get over the fact of how quick you got after evolving. But then again, you were never big enough for me to travel on your back."
Blastoise made a sound that seemed to give off the vibe that he was happy that there was new way in which he could prove himself useful to his trainer so Blue decided to reward him by caressing his head. It was still early but she already wasted enough time and wanted to make the best of each day while trying to catch up with Red and other people who continued their travels while she allowed herself to stay at the camping grounds for so long. That's why she decided to try out a water route in order to get to Fuchsia City instead of travelling to Celadon through Lavender. Thanks to Blastoise she could get there in a matter of days instead of weeks and she was already getting close, although they had to keep fairly close to the shore in order to take regular breaks. She was a little worried about the fact that she wouldn't be able to have any Pokemon battles during that time but she put those thoughts aside and decided that all the battles she had with the guardian were more than enough to prepare her for another Gym battle.
"Let's just hope that it doesn't get too cold. On Sevii Archipelago there's almost no snow during winters but Kanto is more to the north so I'm not sure how often it snows over here. I've been wondering if we would be able to visit my parents once Zubat evolves, especially since Bonding Day is coming up but fly through snow would probably be too hard."
Blastoise didn't completely understand everything she said but he could hear in her voice that she was saddened so he tried cheering her up by giving out a roar. The girl understood that the Pokemon was worried about her and chose to cheer up in order to calm him down.
. . .
Green felt a splash of water on his face and woke up in panic, immediately assuming the worst and trying to breathe only to realize that there was nothing preventing him. He looked up and saw Alex standing over him with an empty cup and a smirk on his face.
"Aren't you getting a little too relaxed? It seems that when we were in our base you would wake up early to get in as much training as you could but now that you think you've proved your worth you're allowed to become lazy?"
"What do you want?"
"Breakfast is ready. Go wake up the rest."
"Breakf..." Green had to stop himself mid-word because the initial shock and the following anger turned his attention away from how the Admin was dressed and he only just noticed it.
Instead of the usual Team Rocket uniform and a muffler, Alex was wearing a simple white shirt and denim pants with some tears here and there. The surprising thing was an apron he wore over his clothes. The whole look was completed by bed hair, bare feet and a pan with some eggs frying on it that he had in his other hand.
"I have to wake up the others as fast as I can." Green thought to himself before quickly standing up.
It wasn't that he wanted the others to see Alex in his get-up. It was more the fact that the Admin looked like a typical movie boyfriend who was nice enough to wake up before his partner and prepare his favorite breakfast. He felt like someone could misinterpret the situation if they saw the two of them staring at each other.
"I got something good." the same female grunt from the previous day said to herself while hiding her phone and pretending that she was still asleep before Green came up to her.
. . .
After everyone finished eating, Alex once again took advantage of the hold he had over Green and assigned him to be one of the people in charge of the dishes. He was about to pick another person but someone volunteered. The rest of them went on to clean up themselves before a tactical meeting. Green let out a sigh but, since there was nothing he could do at that point, he approached the table and started picking up the empty plates. The girl who was to assist him did the same. He quickly realized that instead of doing it in an organized she was moving rather slowly although while lessening the distance between them after every move she made with her hands. Finally, she was so close that he got a little uncomfortable and decided to confront her.
"Excuse me?"
"Oh, no. Excuse me."
"What are you playing at... umm...?" he was sure that she introduced herself to him before the mission began but he couldn't recall her name at all.
"I'm Mary. But you don't need to remember that."
"Alright." he responded before moving away and picking up another plate before deciding that he wouldn't be able to reach the sink if he tried to carry more.
As soon as he put them down and rolled up the sleeves of his uniform, he noticed that the girl was once again beside him, looking with such intensity that he felt like she wanted to shoot lasers out of her eyes.
"You want to talk about something?"
"Do I want to talk about something? Hmm... Maybeee..." she wanted to tease him a little before saying anything concrete but Green was having none of it and started filling the sink with hot water.
"Alright, alright. I see that you're one impatient guy."
"So? What is it?"
She leaned closer and whispered even though there was no one besides them in the kitchen "I saw the two of you."
Green forgot what impression he got from seeing Alex in his casual clothes after listening to various conversations during the breakfast so he didn't immediately understand what she was referring to but a couple seconds of thinking were enough to remind him. It was clear what she was talking about but he still wanted some confirmation even after seeing a big smile on her face after she took a step back.
"What are you talking about?"
"Don't look at me with those angry eyes. I'm on your side."
"My side? My side in what? What's the other side?"
"Darn it. Am I really not being clear enough. I don't think I interpreted what I saw the wrong way..." she said while looking worried about her judgement before settling on revealing what she meant all this time "...You're into Alex, aren't you?"
"What?!" Green jumped back in shock "Are you insane?!"
"Huh?"
"Someone like him... I'm not into him. I don't even like him. I would be the happiest person in the world if that bastard got thrown into a prison."
"Then what's this about?" she asked while showing him the picture she took earlier.
"Wha-?! I knew that someone could see this and get some ideas but I didn't think someone actually did." Green reacted before gathering his thoughts and proceeding to explain "I was weirded out because I haven't seen him in casual clothes before. I was also a little disoriented because that asshole threw water in my face to wake me up."
"Hmm. I don't know if I can believe you. I would ask him but he's... Maybe I should give up?"
"Give up on what exactly?"
"I was ready to ship you two so hard but you're both quiet guys so I was afraid neither of you would take the first step. Hmmm... Just to be clear, you're not gay?"
"No, I'm... Wait. Is Alex gay?"
"Isn't it obvious?"
"How would that be obvious?"
"I... Hmm. I guess you're right. Unless...!" she suddenly raised her voice and pointed a finger at him.
"Nope. Completely straight. The fact that I have a better sense of style than most male Pokemon trainers doesn't automatically make me homosexual."
"Alright, alright. I get it."
The two of them went silent for some time. Green noticed that the sink was about to overflow and turned off the water before letting some of it go down the drain.
"Why are you interested in Alex's love life anyway?" the boy couldn't help but be curious.
"I get the feeling that whatever relationship he was in previously went terribly wrong and I've been wondering if that's what made him so cold. He's always just reading his books and drinking juice. He got excited about that Red guy but that was more about him finding a worthy opponent. He's still distant to the rest of us. He treated you differently so I thought that maybe finally he found someone who would cheer him up."
"Cheer him up, huh?" Green couldn't find it in himself to feel even a bit of sympathy for the Admin.
"Don't you want to help him too?"
"Didn't you hear what I said? I couldn't care less about his happiness."
"I don't know why you're so angry but maybe if we help him, he'll become nicer and even try to make amends."
"Imagining him acting nice to me... I don't want to say that it's creepy but... Ugh... What do you want to do anyway, now that you know that there's nothing between us? You don't want me to pretend, do you?"
"No, no." she said while gesturing with her hands "But even though you two are connected by something negative, you're still closer to him than any of us. If you could casually bring up his past, then you may be able to learn what went wrong with his past relationship and then using that I'll be able to find a suitable match for him."
"Hmm..." Green pondered what she said and although he wasn't interested in Alex's love life he felt that there could be some benefits to knowing more about him, like something he could exploit "...Alright. I'll try."
"Great. Let me finish the dishes as a show of gratitude." the girl answered while pushing him aside.
"Wait. I have one question."
"Yes?"
"You're not doing this for Alex, are you?"
"I..." it looked like she was considering what answer to give but Green's serious expression made her feel bad about even thinking of trying to lie "...I'm doing this for myself. Well... I do think that Alex and everyone else can benefit from it but it's mostly about my own conscience that I care about. I seriously messed up my previous relationship because of a stupid joke and I couldn't do anything to solve it so I felt like I should try to help other people instead. I realize that I'm still too pushy but I really have good intentions."
"Good intentions, huh?" Green repeated before walking away, leaving her to finish the dishes while he himself started putting away condiments "If everyone in Team Rocket is like that and yet the organization is so rotten then there's some truth to that saying."
. . .
When Green and Mary joined the rest, the girl was able to convince the Admin to let her join them even though he didn't intend to at first. He thought that she probably wanted to show off by volunteering for everything possible and he couldn't fault her for it but he wasn't exactly impressed. Green kept quiet in order not to rise any suspicion and soon the three of them, and two people needed to man the ship, set off towards Cinnabar Island.
They got there in about 10 minutes but with various rock formations around them, Green saw why it would be unwise to try and get there without being able to see the way. Another reason for them travelling between the two islands three times was allowing the person in charge of the ship to remember the way since they would have to escape after dark.
"Alright. We should be back in 1-2 hours depending on how things go." Alex spoke to the two people they were leaving on the ship "Nothing should happen but be prepared for an escape if things somehow go south."
They saluted him before he left together with Green and Mary. As the group made their way through the island, Green kept looking around, impressed by its size. Knowing that it had only one city somehow made him imagine that it couldn't be too big. He also took time to admire the clothes he was given by Alex. It seemed like Team Rocket's based in Celadon had a big section filled with various outfits that anyone could rent out for free. That made him think about whether the members were getting paid or if they just had everything provided to them like their rooms, food and clothes. Was being a part of the organization like an actual job where everyone had to do certain things or were most of them just going along with it in order not to be punished? There must have been people who wanted to quit at some point or another and if they hid that fact, they could very well reveal the location of the base to the police. The fact that nothing like that seemed to ever have happened had him a little worried.
"Here we are." Alex announced in order to gain the others' attention since both of them seemed preoccupied with something else.
The laboratory was in front of them and even without the sign reading "Pokemon Lab" one would be able to tell that it wasn't a regular building. The walls varied in color and were sticking out in weird places making the place look like some modern work of art. No one in the group was particularly impressed by it and the trio quickly went inside. When Alex approached the reception desk in order to get tickets, Green leaned towards Mary and stared at her while trying to make her talk with how intense he looked.
"What are you doing?" she asked confused.
"No. What are you doing? You want me to find out about Alex's past, so what's the point of you coming along?"
"I... Emotional support?"
"Don't joke around."
"Fine." she threw her arms up while saying that "I just wanted to make sure that you wouldn't mess this up."
"Thanks for your vote of confidence."
"What are the two of you talking about?" Alex asked when coming back with tickets.
"Oh. No. i mean... Nothing." Mary was too worried about him possibly hearing what they talked about to come up with a good lie.
"She was reassuring me about how we're going to easily do what we came here for." Green quickly saw that the girl needed help and gave what he thought would be a satisfying answer.
"Remember not to talk about it too loud." the Admin said, mainly addressing the boy as suggested by the annoyed look on his face when he looked at him.
"Then let's talk about something else..."
Mary looked at Green with worried eyes, hoping that he didn't plan a direct approach.
"...Do you like science?"
Alex seemed as surprised by the question as the girl, even stuttering a little while trying to make sure that he heard the right thing "S-science? I guess I like it as much as the next guy. What kind of question is that? Are you asking because we're in a laboratory or are you generally curious and decided that now would be a good time to bring this up?"
"You're always reading books." Green pointed out while gesturing towards Alex's pocket where he saw him hide one of said books not too long ago.
"I don't follow your train of thought. You think they're scientific books? They're not even science fiction. Most of what I read is just stories about regular people."
"Regular people? Are you trying to bring a feeling of normalcy to your life since what you're usually doing is the opposite?"
Alex stopped himself from lashing out since he didn't want to draw attention to himself but he still approached Green to show him how serious he was about upholding his authority "Don't try to analyze me. You're too simple to understand my thoughts."
Mary got between them, even though she would prefer to stay back, in order to make them understand that they needed to relax. Alex understood it as her being worried about their mission but the thing she was actually concerned about was keeping what connected the two of them from changing into something that would make it impossible for them to learn about the Admin's past.
"Let's do this already. I said that we didn't want a guide and instead bought a map of the facility. Of course it doesn't show anything that they would want to keep secure but it still has some clues about where we should start our search." Alex explained while showing it to them an pointing out that the laboratory had multiple sections, each focused on different type of research "We shouldn't head towards our goal right away. We don't know how tight the security here is. Let's just go through each section and try to take in as much useful information as we can before we get there and try figuring out where the fossils we're looking for are hidden."
. . .
After about half an hour of walking around and pretending to be interested in other things, even if some of them actually piqued their curiosity from time to time, the group finally reached the part of the lab responsible for analyzing and reviving fossils. There were various signs that warned visitors against interfering with the people working there which wouldn't be even possible since the busy parts of the facility were actually separated from what the outsiders could see. Luck would have it that they met a scientist that seemed very excited about seeing guests. Alex took note of the fact that there were barely any visitors besides them but the place wasn't a museum and if it somehow got too popular they would probably reconsider having guests. However, the person that noticed them couldn't seem more happier about having someone visit the part of the laboratory he worked in.
The scientist was a short man with a shaved head, a cleft chin, and was wearing what one would expect from a scientist, maybe aside from the fact that he wore flip flops instead of shoes and a tank top beneath his coat that had the silhouette of a Pokemon the three of them were unfamiliar with printed on it.
"Welcome everyone. I hope that you're as excited about fossils as me since I always like to hear people's opinions instead of just lecturing them. Unless you'd prefer that I shut up and let you go about this thing how you want to?"
"No, no. If there's one thing I respect it's someone who's passionate about their craft. I do however have doubts about whether you'll be able to tell us what we would like to learn... even if you wanted to."
"Try me. We'll see how it goes." the man responded while smiling from ear to ear "Oh. by the way, my name's Daniel."
The best explanation for why this took over two weeks to finish is that I've bought Xenoverse 2 and I've been spending a lot of my free time playing that. That's not a good excuse but it's the truth. I cut off the chapter at a point that I imagine would have been the middle had I released the whole story. It was bugging me that I released four chapters last month and only one in July so I finally put myself to work but I knew I couldn't finish the whole thing.
I guess the thing that will have people the most surprised in this chapter is that Alex is homosexual, or maybe the way in which it was revealed. I've been thinking about a backstory for him since he got introduced and when I got like the skeleton of what made him join Team Rocket it somehow became clear to me. I was like "Oh, of course he's gay." I don't know how to explain that better. But the fact that he is isn't ever going to be important. Even Green in this chapter is only surprised about it for like a second since there are other things about Alex that concern him more. It will matter more than Erika being lesbian since you're actually going to learn about his previous relationship but in my version of the Pokemon world, even if there are various shitty people, there are no people who actually have a problem with someone elses sexuality. Or they exist but are much less common than in reality.
I hope that this doesn't feel forced to anyone. I actually have a couple lgbt characters planned for much later in the story but this isn't me trying to cover any bases. I don't want anyone getting angry at me for doing something similar to Voltron. I will never have token characters in order to fill quotas. If I feel like writing a gay, lesbian or trans character then I'll write them and that's that.
But enough about Alex. Let's talk about the other characters in this chapter. I didn't give Mary a description aside from being a girl which is a thing I've done a couple times in the past. I put an inside joke about it when she says that Green doesn't need to remember her name but basically any character that's not taken from the games and doesn't have a description isn't going to be in the spotlight for too long. You can just take her personality and use that to imagine how she would look. I don't I ever described Roger even though he appeared multiple times so I'm not going to waste time on any other Team Rocket grunt.
Then why did I describe Daniel who appeared at the end of the chapter? He's probably not going to appear beyond this story but he's a character based on one of my best friends. I've been thinking about priniting out this fanfic and go to a place where they would make it into a book so I could give it to him as a present since he recently got into books. I just thought it would be neat for him to suddenly see someone named after and looking like him. They personalities are different and he's most definitely not a fossil specialist but I think that will be enough of an easter egg for him.
I guess that's all. We'll hopefully finish this story in the next chapter and then once again move focus to a different character.
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.
