Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 39: No Love Among Thieves.

Around five years before defeating Linhart, Alex was still living a normal life in Saffron City, not suspecting that he could ever become a high ranking member in a criminal organization. He was an university student. Since he didn't originally come from Kanto, he rented a small flat. In his first year of studies he lived somewhere else with a bigger group of people but after meeting the person who would become his boyfriend and starting to date him, they agreed to share a flat during their second year.

Back then Alex took their meeting as a stroke of luck since they met by accident at a party. He was a student of literature and his boyfriend's courses concerned cinematography so they would never meet just by attending the same school. What's more, both of them were shy to the point where they preferred to stay in their rooms even on weekends. At least that was the case until the two of them met and started spending more and more time together.

. . .

"Hey, Parizi. Do you have some time?" Alex asked one day after knocking on the kitchen doorframe since his boyfriend seemed occupied with his morning coffee and a newspaper.

The other man, a blonde with pleasant facial features, put down his cup and raised a finger in order to show that he was about to hear him out.

"Yeah, sure. Just let me make a mental note where I stopped aaand... Alright. What's up?"

"Actually "some time" is probably a wrong way to say this. I'll need a looot of your time."

"Just say what it is... You didn't get into some trouble, right? Should I be worried?"

"Why would you assume the worst? It's actually something good. Well, we'll see if you'll be as happy as me about it once you hear what I want from you. Without beating around the bush, I think I finished my book."

Parizi was silent for a while, staring at Alex as if he didn't understand his words. Finally his face lit up and he stood up to quickly embrace his boyfriend.

"That's great news! Why were you acting so fidgety?" he said while trying to lift Alex up but quickly realizing that he wasn't strong enough to attempt that.

"Because of the "think" part. I wrote it, as in there is an ending, but there's still a lot of parts that I'm concerned about. You know how it is. I probably needlessly worry about parts that actually came out good while not seeing how terrible some other parts are. I need someone to read through it to help me realize what works and what doesn't before I even think about sending it to publishers."

"Oh. That's why you meant by needing my time." Parizi said after letting go of him.

"Yeah." Alex seemed to still be embarrassed by his request "I realize that you would probably rather focus on your studies but I just finished writing and you were the first person I could think about. i know you won't probably be the most objective but I don't have anyone I trust more than you."

"Don't worry about it. I actually don't have anything major going on so I don't mind helping you out. It isn't too long is it?"

"Around 500 pages?"

"I could probably read that in 3-4 days but since I'm supposed to analyze it then it'll probably last a little longer. Like a week or so."

"That quick?"

"Well, yeah. What were you expecting?"

"I... I was probably just too worried. Is there something you'd like me to do in exchange?"

"Don't be silly. Just promise me that you're not going to break up with me once your book is published and you become famous, haha."

"I see that your jokes are as terrible as always." despite saying that, Alex also started to laugh.

. . .

"For what I think is the twentieth time, where are you taking me? You know that I don't like surprises." Alex said to Parizi while being pulled along as they walked through the city.

"Just a couple more steps and you'll see. At least I didn't blindfold you this time."

"Because I didn't let you!"

"Here we are." Parizi said after stopping and nodding towards the building next to them.

It looked like an office building but it didn't have a sign that would signify what company it belonged to. Instead there was a list of names next to the door. Parizi left Alex for a while and went to check it before using an Entryphone on the opposite side. He signaled his boyfriend that they were allowed to go inside.

Alex tried to decipher the meaning of their visit by looking around and at first he didn't understand. They used an elevator which had two security guards on the ground floor as well as on the fourth floor which was the one that seemed to be their destination. While looking at names on the office doors Alex began to think that he recognized some of them but he wasn't completely sure. As they went on, he started grasping what place they were in. At least part of the offices must have belonged to film producers. Could it be that Parizi began working on a movie without telling him? Taking aside why he would try to hide it, there was the mystery of how he could have enough time to help him with his book if he was already busy with whatever else he was doing.

"Alright. We still have some time. I was afraid we would be late." the blonde man said after stopping in front of the office belonging to Guilherme, someone whose name was immediately recognizable even if one wasn't really into movies.

Alex stood there in shock after seeing the name on the door but his attitude quickly changed when he realized that there was more to the uneasy feeling that he all this time besides Parizi being secretive.

"Um... I'm not sure what you're doing here but I'm even less clear on why you brought me along."

Parizi smiled from ear to ear before responding "This is our big break."

He knocked on the door without waiting for Alex's reaction and once they heard the producers voice, he pulled his boyfriend along when going inside.

"Ah. Yes, yes. I've been waiting for the two of you." Mr. Guilherme, a chubby, balding man in a suit said, noticing them entering the room, although it was clear that he was actually using tweezers to adjust his eyebrows although he tried to cover that up by quickly hiding the mirror he was using for it.

"Alright already! Will someone explain to me what's going on here?" Alex couldn't keep it in any longer.

The producer seemed to be slightly displeased by that as signified by him side-eyeing Parizi while gesturing towards the two chairs in front of his desk "Have a sit. Everything will become clear soon."

"Alright. I'm sitting. What now?" Alex said after taking the man up on his offer, although his reason kicked in and made him calm down since he probably was getting too worked up judging by the atmosphere.

"You should have explained it to him before bringing him here." Guilherme told Parizi.

"I don't mean to offend you sir, but i really think he wouldn't have come along if he knew where we were going and for what reason. I know him well enough."

"So it's something that wouldn't sit well with me?" Alex interjected, his eyes jumping between the two men's faces, trying to analyze their expression even before getting to know anything about the purpose of this meeting.

"I was hoping that I could convince you but..." Parizi stopped talking for a moment, looking like he needed to gather his thoughts "...Well, let's start from the beginning. Remember that book of yours you wanted me to check out?"

"How... Is everything okay? The way you asked that made no sense. Of course I remember it. Also, it's not a book yet since it hasn't been published yet and what's mo..."

"Wait..." Parizi seemed worried about what he wanted to say "...What if it never became a book?"

"What?" Alex was confused by that question and his first thoughts about why his boyfriend would ask it weren't too pleasant "Oh no. You don't mean that it's so bad that there's no way it would be published no matter how much I would change?"

"No, you fool. It's the opposite!" Parizi blurted out "Look around you! Where are you? Who's that sitting in front of us?!"

Alex became so occupied with thoughts concerning his writing that he didn't immediately consider how the place they were in factored into it but once Parizi pointed it out everything started to become clear. Pieces of puzzle fell into place and Alex's mind fell into disarray.

"No!" he shouted while standing up.

Mr. Guilherme was taken aback by this reaction, quite literally in fact since he pulled himself away from the desk.

Alex gave Parizi an angry look, completely ignoring the producer, before he stormed out of the room.

"Damn it!" the blonde student said while scrambling to follow his boyfriend "I swear I'll convince him, Mr. Guilherme!"

. . .

"How about a juice?" Parizi asked while already holding a couple cartons of different juices since despite knowing the brand Alex liked, he could never tell what flavor he was in mood for "Your favorite."

"I will take it..." Alex responded while reaching for the pineapple one "...only because I don't want it to go to waste. If you're really thinking that you're going to cheer me up with something like this after what you just tried to pull. I would of said no either way but how the hell would you come to the conclusion that trying to pressure me by doing this in front of a famous producer was better than just asking me to my face... Actually, you still haven't said it properly."

"Is there a proper way to say it?"

"Yes, there is. Just go "Hey, Alex. Can I shit on your dream"?" he responded in a mocking tone before taking his first sip of the juice.

"You acting this way is exactly the reason I didn't just want to ask you. No one else would see it as something bad!"

"I'm not "no one". I'm me. I would have no problem with my work becoming a movie... eventually... somewhere down the line, but I didn't write a movie. I wrote what's supposed to be a book. How did this even happen? I asked you for help, you agreed and then went on to do something completely different."

"I'm trying do what's best for us!"

"For "us"?! It doesn't look that way! You're just doing what you want and completely ignoring me!"

Parizi noticed that they were attracting attention of passersby so he tried to calm down Alex "Could you not make a scene?"

"No! I've never been this angry at you and you still don't seem to get that you should be regretting what you did!"

"I don't regret it!" the blonde man shouted louder than either of them did before.

His breathing started to get heavy and sweat was dripping down his forehead which showed that he was maybe even more worked up about the situation than his boyfriend.

"Why are you wasting this chance?! Is it some dumb sense of pride?! Are you really that adamant about getting published that you'd rather stay a poor fool than use this opportunity to get rich?!"

"What about you?! Wouldn't you care if someone tried to destroy a dream movie you made?!"

"No! Because i don't have one! What are you on about?! No matter how much I enjoy filmmaking what will always take priority is money! If I can get rich thanks to this then I don't care about anything else!" his face started to look more deranged as he tore down the image of him that existed in Alex's heart.

Slap. A quick, sharp one, delivered to Parizi's chick. He was so blinded by the thoughts of becoming rich that he didn't see it coming and even after receiving it he needed some time to process what happened before he started to notice the pain in his cheek.

"If you're so obsessed with becoming rich then go do it. But you're not going to do that with my work. I want no part of this... and after seeing your other side I also don't want anything to do with you. Wait here for an hour or go crawling back to that office but unless you want me to hit you again don't come anywhere near our apartment for now. I'm going to pack up my things."

. . .

Alex managed to find a new place to live. It was a small flat but after breaking up with Parizi he lost a little of his faith in people and felt the need to live alone as he tried to further improve his manuscript. It was around 2 months later when he was spending time with a bunch of other students, reluctantly allowing one of them to see what he wrote, when something even worse happened.

"So? What do you think?" Alex asked anxiously, his biggest worry being that he maybe changed the story too much just to make it different from the version Parizi tried to make into a movie.

"I don't want to be mean but... You're old enough to know not do stuff like this. No one will publish fanfiction. Unless you've got yourself a deal and this is the official novelization? But then you wouldn't be allowed to show it to me, would you?"

"I... What? You're not making any sense."

"Are you trying to be funny? I don't know about the story itself but title, the names and the premise... It's all taken from that movie they're working on right now at..."

"Stop!" Alex shouted while grabbing the other person's arms "What are you talking about?!"

"Yeah. I knew I heard the title somewhere." another student noted "He's talking about it."

Alex looked at the phone that was held out towards him and he witnessed what looked like an announcement of a new movie by Mr. Guilherme. The article which showcased it noted that it was weird to announce the premise of the movie and names of the characters without having any actors or a release date.

"Those bastards!" Alex said while stopping himself from punching the phone which contained an image of Guilherme's face "Sorry. I need to go!:

He took the manuscript and started running as fast as he could. Even though it was far away, his rage didn't drop even a bit on his way to the building housing the producer's office. He tried to get inside but it didn't seem like he could enter without using the Entryphone. The voice that answered him belonged to a female that served as the link between visitors and the producers. After seeing which one Alex wanted to visit, she immediately checked the list but since he wasn't on it there was nothing she could do besides asking him to come back in four months.

"Fou... Are you insane?! It'll be too late!"

"Please stop yelling, sir. Leave now or I'll inform the security."

"There'll be no need for that." both Alex and the woman were surprised to hear Guilherme's voice.

The student turned around and saw the producer with two guards next to him. Parizi was also there, standing in the back, chewing a gum and seemingly avoiding eye contact with his ex-boyfriend.

"Look what the Meowth dragged in. I'm sorry boy but you passed up your opportunity at fame and wealth. There's nothing here for you." the balding man said in a mocking voice.

"You won't get away with this! I'll reveal that you plagiarized my work and..."

"You can't." Parizi surprisingly spoke up "You know what's copyright? The thing you created now belongs to us and there's no way you'll be able to convince anyone otherwise. You'll only make a fool out of yourself if you try to. Well... a bigger fool than you already are."

"You...!" Alex tried to get to Parizi but one of the guards blocked his way before looking at his boss who gave him a nod of approval.

That was the sign that the producer was okay with his men using force to stop Alex. The camera pointed at the building already recorded what looked like him trying to attack them so even if someone wanted to complain about him getting beat up there was proof that he was the one who instigated the fight. Two punches from the guard, one to the jaw and another to the abdomen, were enough to make the student regret coming there. The group passed him by and went inside the building.

. . .

In the following months, Alex tried different approaches at trying to get back what belonged to him. Him trying to convince people through internet made others believe that he was either jealous or seeking attention. Even the person he showed his manuscript to didn't want to listen to his explanation and soon his friends started to avoid him. He was so focused on getting justice that he started missing lessons. Attendance wasn't a problem but without learning the necessary things he barely managed to pass the tests that allowed him to continue his studies. He asked around about Parizi, hoping that he could catch him alone but it seemed like he dropped out. Either way, Alex wouldn't know what to do once he found him. He never fought anyone but the way he acted last time they met had him worried that he could go too far if he did encounter him. The movie was set to release in the summer, with many famous actors amongst the cast. Alex felt helpless enough that he didn't know what to do anymore and just kept on waiting for it to come out.

. . .

"This is wrong! They changed this part completely! What the hell do they think...?!"

"Sir! We received complaints about you. Please lower your voice or we'll have you leave the theater."

Alex stopped yelling and looked at a member of staff who watched him with a concerned expression and only then did he realize how loud he was. Noticing angry stares from other moviegoers he decided to leave of his own accord.

"I lost. I don't have anything. No friends, barely any money and I'm lucky that I didn't flunk out. Meanwhile Parizi became famous. He's probably swimming in cash and laughing at me. Or not. With how big he's become, he probably completely forgot about me." these were the thoughts on Alex's mind as he approached his flat.

He turned the key and opened the door but something immediately caught his attention. He almost stepped on an envelope someone must have pushed through the crack beneath the door. He picked it up and went to the kitchen in order to use a knife to open it carefully. Although he never used his real name while on the internet he still feared a little that someone may have found out who he was and where he lived. His first thought was that whatever was inside was supposed to bring him harm.

"A USB stick?" he said while making sure that it was the only thing inside.

He took some time ponder whether he should see what it contains but there wasn't really anything he cared enough about anymore. Even if it contained a virus or something there could be nothing he would do about it nor would he try to. He put it into the computer and saw that it had only one audio file on it.

"Don't turn this off!" Parizi's voice yelled at him immediately, although hearing his voice was enough for Alex to consider doing exactly what his ex-boyfriend didn't want him to.

He paused the file and looked at how long it was "I'll probably feel worse than if someone sent me a bomb but it's short... Damn it... I'll try..."

"I realize that you don't want to hear my voice so I'll try to be fast. You may think me a coward for not wanting to show my face but that's fine. I tried acting though when we met these couple months ago but despite how shitty I treated you... I never actually abandoned my feelings toward you. That doesn't matter anymore. I know you won't forgive me and I should probably try to move on too... but I feel that you won't be able to move on yourself, in a different way. You don't value money the same way I do but this is the only thing I could think of. Check your account. I sent you 100.000 gold. If... If that's not good enough, I'll send you more when I make my next movie... and the next one after that and... Ugh. Just text me. You know my nu..."

Alex closed the file before Parizi could finish sitting and just sat there in silence for some time. He opened his phone to check his account since it would be faster than doing it through the computer. It seemed like his ex was speaking the truth. He stood up and stretched his arms and neck a little. He reached towards the back of his monitor and unplugged any cables that would interrupt his next move. He lifted it over his head and through it towards a wall that was close enough where it would reach but far enough where he wasn't in danger of any shards hitting him.

"That f #$ asshole!"

He walked around the room for a while, trying to come up with what he was supposed to do. Even though his first thought was to send the money back he also considered the ways he could use it to help him get revenge.

"I was almost ready to give up and maybe I would get over it somewhere down the line but he had the gall to pull a move like these. He knows this doesn't make things okay yet he's prepared to send me more money with every new movie, each time reminding me of the time he f #$ me over... Wait... Now that I think about it... My manuscript being good was only half the reason for him stealing it. The other part was him not being able to create a story that would make a good movie by himself. He said that he had nothing else to do. If he didn't take my work he maybe would never be able to get Guilherme to produce this and that means he can't repeat the success of this movie without imitating my style... I thought he was completely blinded by money but what he did means that he must have begun to rethink everything. Will he realize what he got himself into?" Alex noticed not only that he was saying all of this instead of thinking it but also that he sounded like he was worried at Parizi "No. He doesn't deserve my pity. If he's going to crash and burn then I'll gladly watch him do it. That leaves Guilherme. I know I can use this money to get back at him somehow. I can't do it alone but hiring someone to beat him up would make no sense. I don't know how good his guards are or even where I would find someone who would work for me. There has to be a different way. It'll probably take some time before I can come up with... Hmm? What's that sound?"

Hearing some noise coming from outside through the slightly open window, he decided to check the origin of the sounds. He looked down into the alley his window pointed towards but at first couldn't see anything since it was already the evening. He still could hear it and something in his mind made him think that waiting to find out what was going would be better than just closing the window. After a while, the ones responsible for the ruckus came into the light cast by the only lamp post in the alley. It turned out that it was an Eevee fighting against a Raticate for some scraps.

"This is it! That's how I'll do it!" he raised his voice in excitement, drawing the dog's attention and allowing the rat to deliver the finishing blow before it could run away with the food.

Having realized that he was the one responsible for Eevee's loss, Alex made his way downstairs as fast as he could in order to check if it was alright.

. . .

"I wonder if he even listened to the message." even though he was in the middle of a luxurious dinner with Guilherme and some other important people, Parizi's thoughts still wandered towards Alex.

"Is the food not to your liking?" an actress playing one of the main roles in the movie caused him to come back to reality, while chuckling about how bewildered he looked.

"He's probably not accustomed to fine dining." someone else commented, making Parizi wonder if he should interpret the words as an insult "Don't worry. As long as you keep on writing movies as good as this one... Well, I played in it but I didn't watch it. The critics definitely like it. What i was saying was that if you keep this up, you'll eat it at places like this more often and you'll get used after some time."

"Are you working on something else right now?" a third person asked.

"N-no." Parizi answered, sure that Guilherme was observing his every move as if he was worried that he would suddenly reveal the truth about the movie "I'm sure I'll be able to write something as great as this."

Betraying Alex was a lot easier because his ex didn't learn about what he did until months later but trying to lie to a group of people he idolized in the past made him more stressed out than he's ever been.

"I wonder if it will get nominated for the Grand Movie Awards." the woman pondered.

"I'm sure you yourself will get an award either way." said the second person.

After that most of the group started laughing. Parizi didn't understand what was funny about that.

. . .

Months later, the day of the Grand Movie Awards arrived and Mr. Guilherme together with Parizi and the main cast of the movie attended the ceremony. Even though the young man struggled to come up with something that could be a good follow up to Alex's creation, he still couldn't make anything he would be satisfied with so he didn't even bother discussing his ideas with Guilherme.

"I don't feel good about this." he said to himself, knowing that the main award would be announced soon.

The movie already received three different awards that evening so winning the title of the Best Picture was definitely possible. Knowing that they weren't included in the category for the Best Adapted Screenplay made him feel even worse. He was so excited about creating a movie a year ago but with each passing day his enthusiasm lessened. While other people were having fun or praying to win an award, he kept thinking about what Alex was doing at the time. After not hearing anything about him for a long time he even had someone check up on his ex a couple times just to be sure that what he did didn't drive Alex to suicide.

. . .

In another part of the audience there was a duo of people who actually had no part in creating any movies that were nominated for award.

"I don't mean to sound rude but why are we here?" one of them, a woman, asked while adjusting her glasses and glancing around, hoping that they weren't drawing attention by standing out.

"You're too cautious. You should know by now that I can remain hidden even in the brightest light. We're here because even I like to enjoy myself from time to time. I'm not talking about watching the ceremony. It's observing people that gives me pleasure and everyone, especially trying to figure who dislikes whom and if someone is jealous of someone else. Well, that's why I'm here. You're here because me sitting alone would draw more attention."

Resse felt like her bosses comment should have calmed her down but she still was paranoid about someone recognizing him. Meanwhile, Giovanni took a sip of wine while observing someone from a nearby table sweating a little as they waited for the next announcement with an expression that showed that they weren't too confident about whether they would win this particular award.

"Laughing would be too much but seeing someone worry so much about something so meaningless. I hope they will be grateful once they won't have to worry about awards anymore." the boss of Team Rocket thought to himself while switching his attention to another table.

. . .

After Guilhereme's movie received a bunch of other awards, it was finally time for the most important one of them all. The audience went quiet in anticipation as the person on stage opened the envelope containing the title of the movie which would receive the Best Picture.

"And the winner is..."

"We won." Parizi managed to say before everyone at the table started exploding with excitement.

People were saying various things to him but the added noise of the audience cheering for them made it hard to hear anything. All of it was so overwhelming that he didn't immediately remember that they were supposed to go on stage in order to accept the golden statue that signified their victory. Someone pulled on his arm and he followed, but the fact that he didn't want to be up there made him feel like he was an animal led to be slaughtered by the butcher.

"Before I let our writer and co-director, Parizi say his thing, I'd like to get a few words in. I hope that no one minds." Guilherme said while walking up to the microphone after taking the statue from the announcer's hands "It's just so exciting. While you mostly know me as a producer of many successful movie, you've probably heard about the few movies I tried to direct in the past. None of them did too well but once I got the screenplay for this one..."

The man stopped, acting like he was about to cry, making even Parizi unsure whether he was pretending or actually overwhelmed.

"... I knew it would be a thing of beauty." the producer continued "This is the first movie where I was a director that managed to do so well and there's so many people I would like to thank. All of the people who went to see the movie, the amazing cast, our hardworking crew but most importantly... There's someone I would like to call out."

"Call out?" someone from the cast whispered.

"Maybe he meant "shout out"?" another person wondered.

"Parizi!" Guilherme raised his voice while dramatically pointing at the young man "You didn't write this movie!"

Everyone went completely silent for a couple seconds needed to process what Guilherme just announced. Audience quickly started discussing what they just heard but everyone on the stage still kept quiet, probably expecting an explanation before making any judgements regarding Parizi. The man himself was the one most surprised. He was thinking about maybe trying to reveal the truth himself but there was no point in the producer throwing him under the bus. Him and Alex reaching some sort of agreement wasn't a possibility so this sudden turn of events seemed completely random.

"The one who wrote this movie is actually with us. I'm sure everyone here would like to meet him. Come on stage!" Guilherme said while motioning towards the crowd.

A man stood up from a smaller table he occupied by himself and made his way towards the stage. He wasn't Alex and what's more he wasn't anyone that Parizi recognized. Guilherme glanced towards him in order to see his reaction. He was overjoyed at seeing him completely clueless. With how he's been acting for some time, there was a chance that he would try to sabotage the ceremony by revealing the truth. Seeing as he wasn't able to come up with any idea for a movie by himself, Guilherme decided that there wasn't a reason not to betray him preemptively. After that, even if Parizi tried to make a statement, no one would believe him.

"Hmm? His clothes seem kinda loose. They were tailored to fit him so what's up with that?" the producer thought to himself after getting a closer look at his mysterious accomplice.

The man moved past him and approached the microphone stand.

"How are you doing, everyone? Read any good books recently? Definitely nothing I wrote. But, wow... I mean... wow! This sure has been an exciting evening, hasn't it? Many surprising wins, that's for sure."

"What the hell is this ad-lib? We went over it several times." Guilherme started to get angry but he couldn't say any of his thoughts or even move towards the man without seeming suspicious.

"Truth be told, I'm not too happy about the movie receiving such a prestigious award. My vision was rather butchered and even though they some good actors to play the main characters I still think that the changes they made resulted in a shitshow that doesn't convey what I wanted it to."

He looked around and saw many concerned faces which brought a smile to his face.

"I see that you're surprised. Well, think about it. Since the idea was stolen I had no influence on what the final product would be like. Let me just clear something up... Or maybe this will confuse you even further?"

Guilherme didn't know what was happening but he somehow felt that he couldn't let it go on any longer. Parizi instinctively grabbed the producer's wrist, stopping him from moving for the short while needed for the mysterious man to finish talking.

"This was never supposed to be a movie. I wrote a book and I'm rather disappointed that you weren't able to read this because my manuscript was stolen. Two misunderstandings though. Firstly, Parizi wasn't the only one who stole it. Guilherme helped him and made sure that I wouldn't be able to do anything about it. Secondly, it wasn't stolen from me..." while speaking, the man's face started to change before revealing that it was a transformed Ditto that covered his face "...but from me."

While his identity remained unknown to most, since he was wearing a carnival mask around his eyes even below the fake face, there were two people there who immediately recognized Alex's face.

"Y-you!" Guilherme shouted while managing to get free from Parizi's grasp, not realizing that he was giving Alex exactly the kind of reaction he wanted.

While a lot of people were still confused by the constant surprises, some started to consider that what the young man said could be the truth.

"Not only did you still my manuscript but you also told two different lies concerning who wrote it! I kept calm since I wanted everyone to listen but I'm done being nice you piece of shit. Go, Jolteon!" Alex detached the microphone from the stand in order to deliver these words.

After the Electric Pokemon was summoned, everyone besides Guilherme quickly moved away from the center of the stage. The producer saw that and yet somehow his instinct was to move backwards rather than to try blending into the crowd.

"Pin Missile!"

Jolteon shot out a bunch of her spiky hair at Guilherme who couldn't do anything besides trying to cover his face and crotch. The attack still hit him, cutting through his clothes and drawing blood. Most of the spikes only grazed him but one pierced his body directly, getting stuck in his belly and making him cry out in pain as he fell to his knees.

"I'm sorry to do this to you but this will be the best punishment..." Alex addressed Jolteon "...Thunder Fang where it hurts the most!"

The producer was in so much pain that he was more concerned about pulling out the spikes, leaving his crotch unprotected. Seeing what was going to happen, a lot of people closed their eyes or turned away their heads. Guilherme didn't even make a sound. He passed out from the overdose of pain, not even realizing that any sex life he had was completely doomed.

Alex looked around. It took a while but the security finally got on stage, although seeing the blood dripping from Jolteon's mouth made all of them hesitant about doing anything.

"We're getting out of here! Let's do this, Ditto!" Alex shouted and the Pokemon immediately reacted by transforming into Jolteon before the two of them sent some warning shots of Pin Missile in the direction of anyone who seemed like they wanted to try anything.

He gave Parizi one last look. This made two things clear to his ex-boyfriend. The first one was that Alex didn't consider him worth his time. The second was that this was the last time they would ever meet.

Running away wasn't too hard since the security didn't want to pursue Alex in fear of him taking someone hostage or them accidentally hurting someone while trying to catch him.

. . .

"That definitely wasn't what I was expecting." Resse said to her boss who made the decision to leave the award ceremony soon after Alex pulled his stunt since he felt that most people would soon try to leave anyway and he wouldn't like to shove through a crowd.

"I want him."

"What?"

"We need to find out who that man was and make him a part of Team Rocket."

"You saw what he did, right? He made his Pokemon bite a man's..."

"I don't care." Giovanni responded while giving her a stern look "He reminds me of that man. Even though everything I'm doing was influenced by what happened back then, I still have trouble adjusting myself to predicting what others want. Even though you doubt me from time to time I feel that you would never try to disobey me without saying it to my face. While we're not sure about the details, we know that he was played by these other men. He's not going to trust anyone easily. Having someone who's not only a strong trainer, but also has a strong personality, will help keeping me in check. He probably won't listen if I just say something like "I want to get rid of things you hate" so I will have to think about a good way to convince him. In the meantime, you're the organize our people and find out who he is."

"Yes, Sir."

. . .

A couple years later, sometime after escaping the laboratory on Cinnabar, Alex and the rest of his group reached their boat and started escaping towards the island where Blaine's house was situated. Most of them were confused about what they just did. It didn't seem like the Admin actually stole anything but they were too afraid to ask what happened.

The man himself was sitting as far from everyone as he could, at the back of the boat. Green and Mary shortly joined him. He judged from their faces that they wanted some kind of answer but he wondered if it was better to give them one that would satisfy them or one that would work best for him. They didn't ask any questions yet so he wasn't even sure if they wanted to know about his present or past, even though the way he acted was influenced by the memories that came back to him after he tried to repress them for a long time.

"You know... I wrote a book once. Well... It never got published. I think it could have been popular. Maybe I should start writing again."

Not knowing if what he was talking about was connected in any way to what he wanted to know, Green decided to ignore what Alex just said and ask his question "Why did you decide against stealing the fossils?"

"There was more to be gained by helping Daniel deal with Linhart."

"Like what?" Green raised a brow in surprise.

"Satisfaction." Alex responded in a playful tone.

"That's not..."

"Give it a rest. It's better that we didn't steal it, isn't it? What would be the purpose of you learning?"

"We want to see you happy." Mary said at exactly the same time as Green uttered "I want to know your weakness."

They looked at each other and then back at Alex who started laughing, leaving everyone else on the ship wondering about what happened.

"You know the saying "there's no honor among thieves", right? Let's say that I stole one of your Pokemon. Would you be more angry if I released it into the wild or if I trained it to have it listen to my orders?"

"Probably the second one." Green answered.

"Well then, there you have it."

Green tried to decipher what Alex wanted to achieve by asking him this question. He thought back on everything that happened that day and felt like he reached the truth.

"Are you really going to start writing a book?"

"Maybe... You interested?"

"While not travelling or training Pokemon, reading was the way I would pass time. I think there are some ways I could help you."

"Hmm. That would be nice..." Alex said while looking into the distance "...to try and trust someone again."

It looked like the conversation was over but Green and Mary both decided to stay, sitting there with Alex and looking at the night sky.


It took almost 4 weeks but this chapter is finally here. Truth be told, I spent like 2 of these weeks playing Smash and Fire Emblem but I also had some time off work so I spent some time with family and even went to the biggest amusement park we have in my country so I wasn't really thinking about writing too much until a week ago when I finally got to it.

This in like top 5 longest chapters. While I initially wanted Alex's story to be just part of the chapter while the rest would be what's now will be known as chapter 40, when I realized that it would come out longer I decided to go all in, adding scenes that would flesh out both him and Parizi. I don't really want to talk about the contents of the chapter. If you don't care about Alex's past, you won't want to hear it but even if you were interested in his past there's enough stuff in there that you should be able to tell how you feel about it without me trying to guide you by pointing out what I wanted. I probably will never be able to write something truly deep but compared to stuff like Red's backstory, you can see that there is much more to Alex. If everything goes alright then in some time you'll also get a better understanding of the remaining main characters.

I still would like to talk about something though. What? No, not about Bede(although we finally got a good male design for the new games). I got a review at the beginning of the month. It wasn't from a user and it wasn't positive but I get them so rarely that I decided to leave it, even though the site was giving me the option to get rid of it before it would get published. I answered a review, this one from a user and I didn't like how my answer was private instead of public. It's better if I try to answer here and with a guest comment that's actually my only option so let's do this.

To be honest, I couldn't stop laughing while reading it. The fact that I would unintentionally make some stranger so mad at my writing made me really... excited... I guess? The funniest thing is that it looks like it's written by someone who read the whole story yet seems to have no clue what I'm all about. It's pointless to make any demands of me. You can suggest some stuff and I'll probably think about it as long as it doesn't interfere with my overall plan for the story but outright telling me what I should write will get you nowhere. I mentioned several times that this story won't get erotic yet this review is like "I want Red and Blue to bang". Okay? You know my stance on this, mate. I'm sure there are several stories out there that have exactly what you want.

Another complaint is how Blue doesn't appear enough and that the story is dragging because I write about my OC's. See the list down below? I think it's been pretty obvious for a long time that all of them are main characters. Red gets more focus than the rest but besides that I try to create a living, breathing world. There's already a large cast of characters, each working towards a certain goal, and it's going to stay that way. Some characters will get more focus at times and you won't see other ones for a while but they're still all part of the story and the world.

Next time, for sure, we'll go somewhere else. I'm trying to envision how many chapters are left in this arc and I don't think we'll be done with it this year, mostly because it's the most story heavy arc. That doesn't mean there won't be action. This chapter didn't have a lot of it but you can expect more from the next one. See ya.

Red. Team: Nidorino, Gloom.

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

Badges: 4

Green. Team: Jynx, Jigglypuff.

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

Badges: 3

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

Badges: 3

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

Angie. Team: Dragonair, Sandslash.

Peter. Team: Dodrio, Haunter, Gengar.