Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 46: Blood and Smile.

Red and Erika were standing on a sidewalk in the middle of Celadon City, preparing to fight each other, the latter one unaware that her opponent was someone she already faced before.

"The last time I fought against her Vileplume, she used a combo consisting of Double Team and Petal Dance. I wonder if she's going to try that one again." Red tried to figure out Erika's battle plan in order to develop a suitable counterattack.

"It sure would be nice if police arrived and broke up this crowd of onlookers. I can't go with my usual strategy with all these people around but that Scyther seems very fast so I will have to stop it its tracks if I want my attacks to reach." thought the Gym leader.

"Scyther, let's start with Agility!" rather than wait Red decided to preemptively increase his Pokemon's abilities.

"Petal Dance!"

Vileplume spun on one of its feet and released a bunch of pink petals that flew towards Scyther. The attack wasn't fast enough and the bug would have been able to avoid it even if didn't just raise its speed.

Red was able to understand why Erika didn't have her Pokemon create a tornado of fake petals after he noticed various people taking out their phones in order to record the battle or take photos.

"I should probably stop that." the boy thought.

"Scyther! Take out all the phones!"

The Pokemon listened and as soon as people realized what was happening they started putting away their devices but a couple still got their phones cut in half. Seeing the bug's bladed arms and what they can do up-close, some of the people started running away but even those that remained took a couple steps back. At first Erika was worried that someone could get hurt but it turned out that her opponent was focused solely on their battle. Red immediately let Scyther know that it should stop after seeing that people most likely wouldn't bother them anymore. Erika figured out that it worked in her favor since she was finally free to use her combination, not knowing that this was exactly what her foe hoped for.

"Double Team!"

Vileplume created a bunch of illusory clones, moving while doing it in order to confuse the opponent. Scyther tried to follow with its eyes but they weren't quite as fast as its legs.

"Petal Dance!" Erika issued a follow-up order.

With Vileplume and a group of its copies simultaneously using the same move, Scyther became surrounded by a moving wall of petals that was quickly approaching it. Only a small number of them was real but the bug had no way of knowing which ones and if it tried to avoid them at random it would leave itself open to other attacks. Its only hope was that its trainer would come up with an idea on how to deal with this predicament.

"I checked the Pokedex in order to learn Scyther's moves but there's one whose description doesn't make. But it could be useful if…" Red mumbled to himself for a short while before giving his Pokemon a command "Use Vacuum Wave! But reverse it!"

Scyther looked at its trainer with a confused expression but seeing how it didn't have a better plan it followed his order. When it formed a tunnel of air that sucked things towards it rather than blow them away it instantly understood what was going on after seeing that the fake petals remained untouched. The real one got sucked up inside after which Scyther stopped its vacuum and dropped them on the pavement.

"That allows Scyther to defend but in order to attack… Scyther, shoot a Vacuum Wave at the ground!"

By sending the attack downwards the bug propelled himself high above the wall of petals. While several meters above them it started moving its wings in order to slow down its descend. Thanks to where it was the bug realized something that wasn't clear when on the ground but was probably the reason why Red wanted it to go up. Even though the Vileplumes were standing in a circle there was one who was a couple steps behind the rest.

"If you see it, use Wing Attack!" shouted Red.

Even though the boy couldn't see all the Vileplumes because of the petals he thought about Erika's tactic after their previous battle and realized that having the real Pokemon hang back would be a good idea. He didn't know if what he hypothesized was true but even if it weren't Scyther still would have at least escaped the circle.

"That wasn't smart of you!" Erika declared before putting a hand over her eyes and yelling "Flash!"

"What?"

Since there was no reason to keep up the facade, the Gym leader didn't worry about the fact that this move would cause the illusions to disappear. Vileplume released a blinding light from its body for but a fraction of a second, which was enough to make Red, Scyther and everyone else close their eyes for a while in order to let them recover.

"Petal Dance!"

Realizing that giving his Pokemon an order would be pointless, Red decided to trust his instincts and do something that Erika didn't expect. Vileplume's attack hit its mark and, after making sure that it happened, the girl looked towards her Pokemon wanting to give it another command, which allowed her to witness a still blinded Red dropkicking the flower Pokemon. His attack didn't do much damage but it was surprising enough to leave it and its trainer in a state of shock for the boy and his Pokemon to open their eyes and for the latter to descend to the ground.

"What the hell was that?!" the girl asked.

"I guess you don't often meet people who would pull this kind of stunt but you didn't expect me to fight fair, did you?"

Red could hear that his mask muffled his voice enough for it to not be recognizable, especially since Erika hasn't heard it in a long while, but he hoped that his wording would be enough of a clue. Unfortunately it seemed that his plan didn't work.

"If that's what you want then after we defeat your Pokemon we'll kick your ass too!" the girl announced.

"Wing Attack!" Red ordered and immediately got off the pavement.

While Scyther started gliding through air in Vilepume's direction, the boy ran past the Grass type Pokemon and towards the other trainer. After what just happened, Vileplume became worried that Erika would also be attacked and turned around in order to stop the boy, leaving itself open to Scyther's attack. After the bug sent its foe flying by hitting it with wings, it looked towards its trainer and saw him pointing towards Erika. Scyther caught up with its trainer and was ready to attack the girl. Since Red gave it no order, the Pokemon figured that a regular slash of its blade should be enough. As its arm was coming down towards the girl who helplessly put up her arms, the bug noticed something blocking its way and halted the assault. It was a little too late for that. Red reached Erika at the same moment and put his hand in front of her face. Thanks to Scyther stopping, the boy was left with all fingers but his palm got cut open, causing a splash of blood to fall onto Erika's eyes, blinding her.

"That's all I could come up with." the boy said to his Pokemon for whom these words weren't enough of an explanation.

Red started running away and Scyther followed after him.

Things were happening too quickly for Erika to process but she wiped some of the blood with her sleeve and seeing her foes running away she gave her Pokemon an order "Solar Beam!"

"A Solar Beam? We'll have time to escape before it… Dodge!"

Red and Scyther were able to jump out of the way of the energy blast that instead left a hole in the wall of a nearby building.

"Using a Hyper Beam and calling it "solar" to fool the opponent?! Why have I never thought of that?!"

Red quickly contained his excitement and together with Scyther disappeared around a corner. Erika realized that using a move like that in the middle of the city was a mistake and, ignoring the escaping foes, she ran towards the building in order to make sure that no one was hurt.

The Gym leader spent the next couple minutes apologizing and promising to pay for the damages. Since the place she destroyed was a small cafe, she sat down on one of the undamaged chairs in order to rest for a while.

"Shouldn't you go to a hospital?" a male barista asked her.

"What?"

"Your face…" the man didn't know how to act around someone who remained calm while being covered in blood.

"Oh. Right. I forgot. I don't know they were but… Why did they do that? For a moment there I was…"

The girl suddenly stood up, scaring the barista even more.

"Is that it? Am I looking into it too much? But… what else… who else…"

The blood started to dry up but she managed to get some of it on her hand.

"Red."

Hearing the girl say that and seeing her smiling at the blood on her hand made the barista go up to his boss and announce that he's quitting, but Erika was too lost in her thoughts to notice anything happening around her.

. . .

After looking back and seeing that Erika wasn't following him, Red still ran a little bit before ducking into an alley.

"Thanks for your help, Scyther. Not bad for a first battle."

The Pokemon was more concerned with its trainer's wound than with getting praised by him.

"Don't worry. I've gone through worse stuff. I would explain to you why I did this but that would take a long time and I don't want to bleed out so for now return to your pokeball."

Red took off his jacket and tore off a part of his shirt in order to wrap his hand but the pain was still immense. After making sure that he wouldn't be seen by anyone, he started making his way towards the place through which his group left the Team Rocket base.

. . .

Blaine managed to meet up with Roger and brought him back to the entrance of the base. The grunt had several questions but after being told to stay quiet he did so. About half an hour has passed and they still didn't enter the base, making him wonder who or what they were waiting for. Suddenly, someone arrived in front of them, seemingly falling out of the sky. Roger was ready to defend himself, thinking that it might have been Erika, but Blaine put his hand in front of the man, stopping him.

"Are you alright?" the scientist asked.

"Yeah." Red replied while taking off the kitsune mask "I used the rooftops for a little bit in case I ran into… someone."

The boy made sure to change what he was about to say after realizing that Roger was there with them.

"Okay. Enough is enough. I demand answers." Roger looked angry while saying it but the truth was that he was stopping himself from raising his voice, partly because he didn't want to attract anyone to their location and partly because he was slightly intimidated by the two people he was talking to.

"But what are your questions?" asked Red.

"I… um… There were missing posters of you and Green. After I saw them I got chased by some guy and then even the Gym leader. Why would a Gym leader be looking for the two of you?"

"That's quite simple…"

Blaine was a bit nervous, thinking that Red would say something that would give away too much.

"...It was a trap." said the boy.

"A trap?" Roger didn't understand.

Blaine was similarly confused but thought it would be a good idea to listen to what the boy had to say.

"The reason me and Green joined Team Rocket… We got into a little trouble. Erika, the Gym leader wants to catch us and bring us to justice. She could put up wanted posters but what she did was a smarter move. If you meet the person from a wanted poster somewhere in the city you may call the police but you'll also try to avoid them, but if it was a wanted poster you saw, you're likely to follow them, making it easier to find that person. This is proven by the fact that you almost led her right to me. That's why I used this mask to hide my identity and helped you escape. Her targets are Green and myself but if she got us she could probably get to the rest of Team Rocket."

"So it's my fault?"

"What?"

"If I didn't stare at those posters for too long I wouldn't be followed by that person and…"

"Calm down." said Blaine "You didn't reveal anything and we managed to lose her. Just forget the whole thing or you'll be getting Red, Green and yourself into more trouble. Some other members saw Erika chasing you but if anyone asks you, just tell them it was an accident and I'll make sure that the Admins don't learn about this incident."

"Will you really do that for me? Thank you!" Roger shouted while grabbing Blaine's hands and bowing before him.

"Alright, alright. Just don't talk so loud."

. . .

"You know, somehow when I last saw you I didn't expect to see you with a bandaged hand but now that I think about it, it's something that I absolutely should have expected." Green said to Red as the latter was leaving one of the rooms in the hospital wing of the Team Rocket base.

"Oh. You're back. How did it go?"

"You're in the clear… What about your side?"

"Everything's perfect. I'll have to meet up with Blaine since I left the stuff I bought with him."

"I… You're still thinking about the party? Putting other matters aside, don't you have to rest?"

"I told Nets that I got injured so he and Otari decided to go there earlier in order to help me put up the decorations but it's not like I'm going to sit and wait just because I can't use one of my hands."

Green let out a sigh.

"I guess we can't talk about other matters right now anyway. I don't have anything to do besides wrapping the present so I'll go and help out. Maybe with my help they'll be done before you can go there so you'll don't have to overexert yourself."

"Are you sure? Can you do that without me?" Red asked with a worried expression.

"Why are you making it sound like you expect something terrible to happen because of my involvement? Go already."

"Alright, alright. I'm just joking." Red clarified before running off.

. . .

While walking towards the place where the party would be taking place, Green couldn't help but wonder what happened between Red and Blaine. Judging by his friend's reaction things seemed to have worked out but Red was often too optimistic so Green preferred to remain skeptical despite not knowing the details. He still didn't know the reason for Red's injury and was beginning to worry that if he didn't get himself more involved in whatever the other boy was planning the next time Red got injured it could be something that he won't be able to just brush off.

Thinking these grim thoughts, he reached the cafeteria and was met with an loud scream that caused him to immediately stop. He looked around and noticed that he almost walked into a ladder that was placed by the door. He looked up and saw a Team Rocket member hanging up decorations above the entrance. They stared at each other for a while before Green decided to go further into the room.

"You're not going to say anything?!" the grunt shouted.

"Umm. Do we know each other? I'm not sure if I ever met you and I didn't want to make things awkward."

"You made them awkward by not remembering me. It's me, Roger."

"Oh, that's right. Roger. The one that…"

Green fell silent for a while before finishing "...I was hoping that you would clarify since I still have no clue."

"We fought aboard St. Anne and inside the casino. That Roger."

Seeing that Green still didn't seem to have a clue what he was talking about, the Team Rocket member leaned in close and said "Don't worry about that. The important thing is that I'm on your side. I don't completely understand what you and Red had to go through but we're all part of Team Rocket now. I felt bad about what happened to Red so I decided to help out."

"Wait. So you know what happened?"

"That's right. But I promised that I won't spill the beans to anyone. I guess it would be okay to tell you since you're part of it." Roger said before lowering his voice to whisper "Red fought Erika but thanks to his mask she didn't figure anything out, although he got hurt in the process."

Green couldn't completely wrap his head around what he just heard. The fact that this random Team Rocket member seemed to know more than him was a little worrying. His response to getting this information was a little nod after which he started walking towards the other side of the room where Nets and Otari were also putting up decorations.

. . .

Red was halfway towards Blaine's laboratory when he saw the scientist walking his way.

"Oh. I was about to go visit you in the hospital wing but I see you're already up and about."

"I can't stay in one place for too long, especially on such a busy day. I wanted to take back the stuff I bought."

"About that, I left it with Nets after meeting up with him earlier. I imagine he took it to your room before he left to decorate the cafeteria."

"Hmm. I'll check it out." the boy said before turning around.

"Wait. You won't be able to wrap the present with your hand like that."

"I guess you're right."

"I don't have anything else to do today. I'll help you with it and then we can go take a look at how the decorating is going."

Red thought for a second about how other people could perceive him and Blaine hanging out together so much as suspicious but then he remembered that everyone saw him sitting at the same table as Admins during the breakfast so this shouldn't be weirder than that, although he still thought that aside from this one instance they should keep their distance from each other.

"Alright. Let's go."

. . .

Time passed and the preparations for the party finished. Red oversaw the last bit of work and realized that the group responsible did a better work than if he was the one to do that.

"Now that I think about, my father was always the one decorating the house for Bonding Day and I may not have a good eye for stuff like this." he said, more to himself than to anyone else.

"People are arriving." stated Green.

"Yeah. Even though a lot of people said they would participate I was kinda afraid that some would just take the piece of paper and not buy a gift and not come to the party."

"I know that this is a criminal organization but that's more like something that a school bully would do."

"I don't even mean it in that way. Each of these people had their reason for joining Team Rocket. I haven't talked to many of them but then ones I did speak with… at least some of them acted like communicating with other people wasn't something that they were used to."

"You mean something like "I want to go to that party but we're not friends, just co-workers, what would we even talk about? I'd rather just remain in my room"? This type of situation?"

"Something like that... But I'm glad I was wrong."

. . .

Little by little, what looked like exactly the same amount of people that was there that morning, gathered at the cafeteria. There wasn't time to arrange where people would sit but Green thought of a way to place the chairs and tables that would make it so no one would sit by themselves. While Alex, Angie and Blaine sat with their underlings, Green felt it would be best to keep Peter close to himself and Red since even his own people were afraid of him. Archer decided that he also wanted a seat close to his rival. Once everyone was there, the food was brought out of the kitchen by the cooks. Red wanted to help at least a little but the head chef stopped him. The first meal was a mushroom soup but Red noticed, after taking a couple spoonfuls, that no one else was eating it.

"Wait. What's going? Are the mushrooms bad? But they smell great, and my nose never lies." he thought as he looked around in confusion.

Suddenly, he saw Alex stand up in another part of the room.

"How about a speech?!" asked the Admin.

Other people seemed to like that idea since soon after a bunch of them began chanting "Speech, speech!"

It wasn't necessarily what they wanted but everyone felt that despite everything that Red and his team did the atmosphere was still kind of awkward. This would be a good way to break the silence.

"Alright, alright! I'll do it!" announced Alex.

The people stopped chanting but they didn't look too satisfied with what the Admin said.

"Umm…" Roger who was sitting nearby was the one to explain the situation to Alex "I think they… we… want a speech from Red."

"T… That's what I meant, of course!" after hearing Roger's words Alex immediately realized what should have been obvious and tried to save face "Take it away, Red!"

The boy didn't prepare for something like this but he didn't want everyone looking towards it to be disappointed. Thankfully the cafeteria had good acoustics and he didn't need a microphone to reach everyone as long as he spoke a little louder than normally.

"Hello, everyone. I'm Red… but you already know that. This party was my idea but it wouldn't be able without the help of my friends; Green, Nets, Otari, Roger…"

A couple people looked at the last person with surprise, which caused Roger to blush a little.

"...the entire kitchen staff…" Red continued "...but also every single one of you, since, as the saying goes, the more people there are, the merrier it is. So let's do that today. This is a day where you don't have to worry about your duties as a member of Team Rocket but that doesn't mean you have to sit in your room by yourself. Talk with other people, even those you've never had a chance to exchange words with, and you may find someone who says something that's exactly what you need right now. Of course there's other things to do. We have a lot of great food, drinks and in… 55 minutes… we'll exchange the gifts that you brought with yourself. If you haven't already done it, place them by the wall to the right."

Red wasn't sure if what he said was fine or if he should add something else but when he fell silent for a longer while, people seemed to think that that was all he had to say, and started clapping. The boy didn't know how long it would last but hoped that him sitting down would bring an end to it.

"Wow. That was stressful."

"Wait. Really? I wouldn't guess that by looking at you." said Otari.

"Did you imagine everyone naked or something?" asked Nets.

"Eww, no. Why would I do that? Although I could try to imagine them as Pokemon the next time I do that… maybe Venonats? Definitely not Metapods. They always look like they're judging you."

. . .

Some time passed.

"But what does that even mean?" asked Nets "Saying "mushroom soup: makes it sound suspicious. Like, when a salad has potatoes in it you don't go and call it a "vegetable salad". No. You call it a potato salad because that's what it is. Do you understand what I'm trying to say here?"

"I… Do you want a potato salad? I didn't ask the cooks to make one but I can go…" said Red.

"Why would you be scared of mushrooms? It's not like you're going to die from eating them." interjected Otari.

The rest of the group looked at him with worried faces.

. . .

More time passed.

"What about that one? I'm sure you two would make a great couple." Mary said while pointing towards a dark-haired girl with pigtails.

"Why do you think that?" asked Green.

"Heeey. Don't look at me with those eyes that seem to say "You probably didn't do any research". I did. I did. She's the type of person that can make anyone they talk to take a liking to her. She may not be too booksmart but she seems weirdly wise. She's also a good Pokemon trainer and likes to help others."

Alex who was next to them looked to the side while saying "That sounds kinda like…"

He didn't need to finish for Green to understand what the Admin was about to say.

"Mary."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it in that way."

"Wait. You're not…" said Alex.

"No! Why does everyone keep thinking that?"

"There's kinda this air about you. Isn't there?"

Mary started quickly nodding but stopped when Green glared at him.

"It's a shame. As much as I don't like you, you two would make a cute couple." the Admin said before leaving towards another table.

Green thought about what he heard for a while and then went "Wait! You mean the girl, right?"

. . .

Finally, the time to open the presents arrived. Nets wanted to use his Mr. Bonding costume and give out presents but people seemed hesitant to approach him so he gave up and people would go search for their presents by themselves.

"What? How did this person know my favorite brand of dumplings?" Otari was surprised after opening his present.

"You can look up data on other Team Rocket members on any computer in the base." explained Nets "Although I doubt it lists what type of snack each person likes. I got trading cards. I haven't heard about this game before but I may get into it."

"I'll have to test this out later." Green said while looking at something he attached to his arm.

"Is that one of those launchers that allow you to shoot your pokeballs much further than you would be able to throw them?" asked Nets.

"Looks like it. You can even adjust the power. I can imagine a couple situations where something like this would come in handy."

"What about you, Red?" Green turned to his friend.

"It's a little crowded right now. I'll go look for my present later. Besides, there's something I…"

"Hey, Red. Could you help me?" a female voice asked.

The group looked up and saw Tarieli.

"Yeah. I mean, depending on what you want."

"I have a friend who couldn't attend the party because they are sick and I wanted to bring the party to them, and by "party" I mean "food"."

"Oh. You want me to help you carry it?" Red asked, while quickly glancing towards his injured hand "Sure. No problem."

As they walked towards the kitchen in order to pick up some packaging for the food, Red looked around the room.

"Did Angie leave already?"

"Angie? I think she went to the toilet."

"Okay… But she'll come back, right?"

"I'm sure you'll see her again."

. . .

"Hmm? Are there any rooms in this direction?" Red asked after noticing that they were walking in the direction of a training facility.

"Oh no. I remembered I left something over here. But if I go get it now the food will get cold. Umm… How about you go look for that thing and I take these to my friend?"

"Are you sure? You needed my help to…"

"Yes. I'm sure. I suddenly feel my strength growing."

"But I don't even know what I'm supposed to be looking for."

"You'll know once you see it. Good luck." Tarieli said quickly before backtracking and disappearing behind a corner.

"Well, this is obviously part of some scheme but at this point I have no idea what… I wanted to… Oh, well. It probably won't be anything bad. I have some time to spare, besides Tarieli's lie was so terrible that I feel kinda bad for her."

The boy walked to the end of the corridor and entered the training facility. The room was pitch black but he knew where to search for a light switch. He flipped it on and, after being initially blinded, noticed a person standing on the other side. It took another two seconds to realize that it was Angie.

Red wanted to talk to her but he didn't expect that the "thing" Tarieli wanted him to find was her, so due to surprise all he could utter was "Um. Hi?"

"Do you know why you're here?"

"I…"

"Do you know why I'm here?"

"You…"

"Of course you would be able to guess. You must have realized that something was not right when you went to search for your present and didn't find it." she said with confidence, although it seemed like she was avoiding looking into the boy's eyes.

"I didn't go looking for my present yet."

"Of course you did… not?"

"Wait. The fact that you're talking about that at all makes me think that you're the one who picked my name. That would be an amazing coincidence."

"Ahh…" Angie was a little embarrassed that she assumed some things but she decided to focus on what Red was saying in order to seem more composed "I guess it would be quite a coincidence but it's not out of the realm of possibility, is it?"

"The presents were supposed to be anonymous but now that I know you're the one who's going to give me mine it feels more like… a Bonding Day spent with your family."

"Why?"

"Well, every year before this one I spent Bonding Day with just my parents. I would get one present from each of them and they would give one to each other. There was no secrecy about it. When you're dealing with a bigger group it's impossible to require of people to give presents to multiple people. There are probably people who wouldn't receive anything as well as ones who would get a multitude of them. This way was more inclusive."

"I see."

"Did you already get your present?"

"I did."

"Well, let's hope that these ones will be at least just as good as that one." the boy said while approaching her.

She didn't understand what he meant at first but as he got closer she noticed him reaching towards his pockets in order to reach for two small gift wrapped boxes that he presented to her right after.

"W… What? What is going on? I already got my… Whaaa…"

"I hope that you won't think of this as me trying to one-up you. I have a reason for both of these gifts but I figured it would be better to just give them to you. You might have not accepted them if I led with an explanation for each of them."

The girl was so shocked that she noticed that the boxes were in her hands only after the boy stopped talking. Her eyes started darting between the two presents.

"I recommend the left one first." said Red.

She took his advice and hid the other box in her own pocket, before opening the left one. Inside was a blue and white hair clip with three sticking out parts at the top.

"I wanted to get two but it seems the Dragonair one's are quite popular. Luckily I got the last one."

Angie didn't seem to mind as she immediately put the clip into her hair. She started turning around as if she expected to see how she looked with it, even though there were no mirrors around. She almost tripped and that's when she remembered about the other present. She held it up next to her face after getting it out of the box.

"We always had at least one of these at home. After hearing that you didn't experience a regular Bonding Day before I wanted to get something that made me think of a typical Bonding Day party. The food was already arranged for and since I couldn't buy a fireplace for us to sit by this was the next thing I thought about."

The second gift was a snowglobe with a miniature Celadon City inside. Angie knew how they worked but she never got to play with one before this moment. She shook it so hard that it slipped out of her hand. She quickly jumped to catch it. Her and Red grabbed it at the same time.

"I'm glad that you seem to like both gifts." said the boy.

The girl quickly stepped back, leaving the snowglobe in Red's hand, but he handed it back to her.

"Why would you do so much for me?"

"So much? Well, yes. I thought about what would make you happy but both of these things were rather cheap."

"So the reason you did it was because you've heard me say that I didn't experience a regular Bonding Day before?"

"That's what the snowglobe is for."

"And the hair clip?"

"I didn't feel like you should have felt bad enough to give me Scyther as a way of apologizing, so I decided to view that differently. You gave me Scyther. I gave you the hair clip. Friends shouldn't need a reason to give presents to each other."

Angie wanted to smile after hearing his explanation but she stopped herself once she remembered something.

"I still haven't given you your present and now… I don't feel like it would be enough."

"I'll be happy with whatever I get. Even just seeing you being happy is enough to make me happy too."

"I talked about it with Tarieli. I figured that the thing you like the most are Pokemon. I already gave you one so giving you another one wouldn't feel as special so she advised me that the next best thing would be to offer you a battle… but… When I think about it, any Team Rocket member could potentially challenge me to a battle so I don't know if that can be really called a gift if it's something anyone can get."

"Hmm. It's different enough."

"Wha… What do you mean?"

"How many Team Rocket members have you fought before?"

"Umm… Quite a lot."

"Were you always dressed like this?"

"Of course. This is the official Team Rocket uniform after all."

"Not anymore."

"What?"

"The clip in your hair isn't part of your uniform. I'm the first ever person that gets to fight you with you wearing it. That's something. I was honestly surprised how fast you put it on."

Angie blushed and reached towards the hair clip but stopped herself.

"I may look different… with this clip in my hair… and this smile on my face… but don't expect that it'll make this battle any easier!"

"Of course not."

The two of them were finally mentally prepared to begin their fight.

"Go, Dragonair!"

"Go, Gyarados!"

As they began their battle, both of them were unaware that they were being observed by someone for quite a while.

"Ahh. I should have brought a camera." Tarieli thought to herself while peeking through slightly open doors.


I write these chapters over such long periods of time that by the time I finish them I don't remember what the first 60 or so percent was about and then I look at them and go like "Huh. I guess I did write that".

So first, some comments about Red and Erika's battle. Red still hasn't had a real victory against her but I doubt I'll write a third battle between them. The main reason I had this second battle happen is so I could have her use the tactics she didn't get to use because of giving up in their previous fight. The battle also continued the tradition of Red getting injured. I don't really plan him getting hurt ahead of time but I put it in when it fits into the story, but it's like what... the fifth time? If this trend continues and he meets someone in chapter 100 or even 200, people will think that he must have went through some kind of torture because of all the scars.

The situation with Roger got resolved without need for any drama. It was fun having a small recurring enemy but maybe now he'll become an ally. In order to relive the Roger experience go back to chapters 8, 13, 21, 22, 28 and 45.

Once the party started, I included a couple small scenes with other Team Rocket members in order to make it seem bigger than it would have been with just Red and Green, even though not everyone got to talk.

I took a big break from writing when I was trying to figure out what would be the right gifts for Red to give to Angie. I can remember one time in my life when I gave a present to a girl, so I combined that with and the relationship I have with my best friend where we sometimes just give each other things. He travels to other countries a lot more than I do, well, not right now, and always brings me something. I can't do the same for him but I sometimes order stuff from Japan so when I do that I buy him some sweets. We had a thing going on for some time where we would give each other the same piece of strawberry yoghurt chocolate, but each time we would add another box of this chocolate, and we kept doing that because this chocolate is particularly disgusting. We stopped when the first chocolate went bad but at that point one of us was still left with three bars of chocolate and I have no idea what happened to them. Anyway, the point is that these felt like the right gifts, rather than having Red do something big.

I had to go with Dragonair at the end after Angie got that clip and it made sense to have Gyarados be its opponent since they're both long, blue snakes/dragons. This made me realize that Red hasn't used half of his team since he joined Team Rocket. I started giving more chapters to Green and Blue so there were less opportunities but that doesn't mean that he hasn't been spending time with them behind the scenes. Raichu and Pidgeotto are the ones that have yet to reappear so I'll try to do something about that.

I put Blaine at the bottom of the character list at the end of the chapter and in my profile since he became more active than Alex and Peter in recent chapters. Of course, like the rest of the characters, he won't stay there forever.

I kinda wanted to show how blue and Janine spent Bonding Day, and maybe Red's parents or some other characters but I'm trying to stop myself from doing too much fluff so this is it for the Bonding Day. You won't get to know the outcome of Red and Angie's battle and next time we'll focus on something else, although we'll still be staying in the Team Rocket Arc.

Oh, and we hit 300K words. That's pretty cool.

Red. Team: Gyarados, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?.

At hand but not officially his: Scyther.

At Team Rocket Base: ?.

Badges: 4

Green. Team: Venusaur, Jigglypuff, Nidorina, Hitmonlee, Vulpix, Horsea.

At Team Rocket Base: Jynx.

Badges: 3

Blue. Team: Weepinbell(Bell), Blastoise(Tori), Zubat(Ken), Graveler(?), Ponyta(Dasher), Electabuzz(Buzz).

Badges: 3

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

Angie. Team: Dragonair, Sandslash, Seaking.

Peter. Team: Dodrio, Haunter, Gengar.

Blaine. Team: Magmar, ?, ?.