Chapter 42: To Catch A Thief
"Yawn!" I yawned as I remained hiding in the spot I had chosen to hide in, waiting for opportunity to strike at hand. Who knew waiting could be so boring? Not to mention exhausting. But perhaps that's from what sleep I was able to gather the previous night. It didn't help any that I was woken up only after about an hour or so after finally falling asleep after being upset by those D.C.A. goons. It was because of them that I barely heard whatever crazy plan Laura had cooked up in that brain of hers. "Like you could have come up with anything better," my mind argued with me.
"Hey. We better be lucky that Ted recapped what we weren't able to hear," I argued back with it. "I'm still quite uncertain why he set fire to Skitty right afterwards."
"Wait! He did WHAT!?" my mind said in surprise.
"At least I think he did," I thought more to myself. "I could have been hallucinating."
"Maybe," my mind thought back. "I mean after all we barely got any sleep as it is." It went a silent for a moment. "Do you think he did?"
"Well if he did, then we may have a problem," I thought back.
"What do you think we should do?" my mind asked.
"We're going to need a wooden plank, some rope, a match, and a banana!" was my response. "The plank to knock him out, the rope to tie him up, and the match to set HIM on fire."
"And the banana?"
"To eat of course! I'm hungry!"
"Of course," my mind thought with a sigh. "So… for what reason of the plan are we hiding out here exactly… again?"
"I think it had something to do with that Psychic pokemon we're to capture," I thought. "Like we're supposed to ambush it or something."
"Hmm…" my mind pondered, curiosity gnawing at the forefront of my mind. Or the back of it. I couldn't really tell.
"What?" I asked. "What's wrong?"
"Well…," my thoughts thought back. "What if we, the ones who are doing the ambush, are being ambushed as we sit here?"
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Think about it," my mind said to me. "We're here trying to ambush that Psychic type when in reality we're the ones being ambushed."
"I don't see how that's possible," I thought back.
"It makes perfect sense!" my mind thought. "While we wait here in hopes to ambush this Psychic pokemon, said Psychic pokemon is the one who'll ambush us without us knowing we're being ambushed until it happens."
"I see what you're saying!"
I thought back. "We're being counteracted against this Psychic pokemon before we get the chance to jump him."
"Precisely!" my mind thought.
"Ha!" I thought. "To think we almost fell for his little trap. You know something brain, you're really smart sometimes. I'm glad to have you around."
"Aw shucks!" my mind thought back. "It's nothing really. I just do what I can to help out."
"It sure is appreciated," I said with a smile.
"Indeed it is!" a voice said suddenly from beside me, causing me to jump up in fright with a yell.
"Sk-skitty?" I said with a start as my heart raced. "Wh-what are you doing here? You startled me."
"Oops!" Skitty said. "Sworries!"
"It's all right," I said. "Though I have two questions to ask: why are you over here when you should be in your spot and what exactly is indeed?"
"The weather," Skitty replied. "Indeed it is such a beautiful day, don't you agree?"
"Uh…" I replied. "I… guess?"
"Meh," Skitty said with a shrug. "It's all the same to me really."
"What is?" I asked.
"No idea," Skitty replied.
"Oook," I said slowly. "So then, what about my other question?"
"Oh that," Skitty said. "I actually am in my spot."
"You're going to have to clarify that," I said. "How can you be in your spot when you're here?"
"Double Team!" was her reply. "Duh!" I stared blankly at her, unable to comprehend whether she just got smart with me or if her hyper randomness was just an act. "Of course, now I'm beginning to wonder which me is the real me. Am I the actual Skitty everyone knows and loves or is the real Skitty back in her spot, waiting for…" She fell silent, her sentence trailing off.
Minutes passed as she sat there, whether or not contemplating on where her thoughts were leading her. Awkwardness settled in as we sat there; I waiting for a finish and she staring blankly into nothingness. It was most unsettling; unsettling to the point I had to ask. "Waiting for…?" I questioned in hopes for a response.
"I don't know," Skitty shrugged. "I'm sure something's supposed to happen. Regardless, if I know anything about myself, which I do, I'd probably get bored quickly and leave my spot to find something to do, like come see you."
My mind scrambled for an answer as to how she functioned the entire time she spoke. It had to be the exhaustion playing tricks on me that made her appear smarter than how she seemed. That had to be the only explanation. "Hit me!"
"Come again?" I asked, making sure I heard her correctly.
"Hit me!" she said again.
"Why?"
"To see if I really am the real deal or not," was her reply."
"I'm not going to hit you!" I exclaimed. "Are you crazy? What if you turn out to be the real Skitty?"
"We'll never know until we cross that bridge," was her response. "Now hit me! Let's find out if I really am or not unless of course you're too much of a chicken to do so."
I gave her a dead panned look as she smirked, sighing in defeat a moment later. "Fine," I said with exasperation. "But just so you know, this is on you."
As I readied one Iron Tail to swing, a sudden commotion caught my attention. "Get him!" my ears managed to pick up, causing me to turn to see what was occurring.
"Don't let him get away!" I heard someone else yell out. Wait. Was I supposed to-
"Zack!" He's coming your way!" I heard my trainer shout.
"Oh snap!" I thought as I pivoted my body to intercept the Psychic pokemon.
"Huh! I guess I'm not me after all," I heard Skitty say, prompting me to look back to realize my Iron Tail was still in use and had swung at Skitty, or rather right through her as she dissipated.
"Zack!" I heard my trainer yell out again, snapping my attention forward just in time to see the Psychic type run past.
"Damn," I muttered as I jumped from my hiding spot and chased the Psychic type; who of course was quite easy to catch up to considering the entire town was after him. Maybe it was due to the fact I had four legs rather than two. Who knows? The point being is that I caught up with him in no time and tackled him from behind. Or I would have had he not turned on a dime and slugged me right in the face, sending me flying back several feet.
"Zack!" I heard my trainer cry out as he stopped to check on me. "You all right there, bud?"
"Make the world stop spinning mommy," was my reply as everything around me spun. I shook my head quickly to make it stop and clear my thoughts momentarily. I somehow recalled the Psychic having Focus Punch as a move and realized just how foolish I was to allow myself to be caught by surprise by his sudden spontaneous attack.
"That a' boy," my trainer said. "We'll have that Drowzee caught in no time. Come on!" As my trainer got up to resume the chase, he suddenly fell over. My mind barely processed what had happened in the split second as he did as I followed the passing Drowzee who just so happened to run right into my trainer, causing him to trip and fall over.
"Hey!" I yelled after him as my mind caught up. I gave chase as the Drowzee rounded a corner into an alleyway. As I went to do the same, I was unexpectedly hit by something large, sending me, once again, flying back. Only this time, I was flung against a building. Not one of my good days today was. I groaned as I stood, the object in question having broken upon contact with the building. It was mostly made out of wood, which I should consider myself lucky it wasn't anything worse. Or unbreakable for that matter.
Returning my attention back to the matter at hand, I scanned the area for any signs of the Drowzee's whereabouts, only to take note of a small group of people bunched together. "Have you found him yet?" one of them asked.
"No," a woman's voice replied. "I haven't seen him in the last few minutes."
"You don't think he got away, do you?" another guy asked.
"I don't think he did," replied a third guy. "There's no way he could have gotten away that quickly."
"Hey!" someone shouted at that moment. "There he is! He's up on the roof!" In response to that, I looked up, quickly checking each roof before spotting him running along the edge. I quizzically raised an eyebrow, wondering if he was purposely running out in the open like that.
"After him!" one of the men yelled as the group disbanded to pursue him. When I next looked back up, the Drowzee was gone. I sat down momentarily to scratch an itch behind my ear, perplexed over the fact how this Drowzee was eluding everyone. It wasn't making much sense how he could be in one spot one moment and then in a completely different spot the next. I highly doubted he could learn Double Team. He had to have some secret move that the D.C.A. goons haven't picked up. But then again, why wouldn't their crazy contraption machine lie?
As I sat there pondering these thoughts, my head turned to the right, my eye having caught movement from that direction. There, peeking out from within an alley, was the Drowzee, checking to make sure the area was safe for running. I watched as he looked right first before looking in my direction, our eyes locking with one another as we both stood there, staring at one another for what felt like hours. Then, the Drowzee shot back down the alley.
"Hey!" I called out after him, staggering my way towards the alley. I quickly recovered though and shot down after him, finding him standing not too far down. Or so I thought as I quickly slid to a halt, the pokemon I thought was the Drowzee turning out to be someone other than him. "Ted?"
"Oh! Hello there Zack!" he said in a pleasant tone.
"What are you doing?" I asked him. "Shouldn't you be helping catch that Drowzee Psychic type… thing?"
"Naturally," was his reply. "However, when he started appearing and disappearing in various places, I had to stop and observe as to how he was doing that."
"And? What did you find out?"
"I do believe that he's had the time to find secret paths to aid in his many escapes," was Ted's answer. "Which is why the townsfolk have had plenty of trouble catching him."
"That makes sense," I said in agreement. "So any ideas on how to catch him?"
"None at the moment, I'm afraid."
"Why not get Skitty to catch him?" I suggested. "She's usually known for appearing out of the blue." In response to my suggestion, Ted raised a claw in one direction to which I followed and found Skitty lying on the ground nearby unconscious. "Seriously?"
"I have to say, I'm a bit surprised myself," Ted said as my ears picked up someone yelling.
"I see him! He's leaving the town!"
"Zack! Ted! Where are you guys? I heard my master shout out.
"Looks like that's our cue," Ted said as we both ran out from the alley, bypassing several people who were in pursuit.
"So since we're chasing him outside the town, you think we'll find out where he's been hiding?" I asked Ted.
"More than likely," was Ted's response.
"How far out do you think his hideout is?"
"I'm sure we'll find out soon enough," Ted replied as we continued chasing the Drowzee well outside the outskirts of town.
Minutes later, Ted and I found ourselves in amongst a rocky terrain, the townsfolk and our trainers long behind us. One would have thought that either of us would have caught the Drowzee by now, but that was not the case. Come to think of it, I wasn't entirely sure if we were still to capture the Drowzee or let it lead us back to his hideout for us to plan our next move. "Seems to live pretty far out, doesn't he?" I asked Ted around this point.
"Not a bad idea in his case," Ted responded. "Wouldn't make much sense to live close to town on the off chance his hideout was discovered."
"Nevertheless, we should probably find a landmark or something to act as our next base point for the next time," I suggested.
"That bridge up ahead will probably be a good point," Ted stated as we quickly approached it. "That way if we lose the Drowzee now, at least we know that he's-" Ted began to say, only to stop mid-sentence as he ceased running. As had I.
"Um…," I said with uncertainty. "Why'd the Drowzee stop running?"
"Perhaps it's because of whom is on the other side of this bridge," was Ted's reply as I looked up from where the Drowzee stood. A snarl crept out from within as I recognized the sleek, white vehicle blocking the path opposite us and the two men dressed in white who operated said vehicle.
"What the hell are they doing here?" I demanded to know.
"It's obvious, isn't it?" Ted asked. "Their objective is to catch the Drowzee."
"Target is locked and ready for capture," I heard one of them say. I wasn't sure what they were up to, but the contraption they were tinkering with spelled bad news. "Capture mode is operational. Able to fire in thirty."
"So what are they saying?" Ted asked.
"They're talking about capturing him," I told him. "And I highly doubt it'll be with a pokeball."
"Any idea what they're standing around for?"
"They mentioned something about capture being ready in thirty," I answered. "Or less than thirty now. Any idea what it might mean?"
"I have my suspicions," Ted said as my attention shifted back from the way we came. I could just make out the large group of people heading towards us, but still a bit of a ways from where we stood.
"Looks like everyone's catching up," I noted.
"They won't make it in time though," Ted said. "Zack bro, mind keeping an eye on things while I'm gone? Make sure you keep everyone out of trouble, including you."
"Hmm? I questioned as I turned to look at him. "What do you mean?" No sooner had I asked that than Ted shot out onto the bridge towards the Drowzee. I watched with confusion as Ted wrapped his arms around the Drowzee, catching him by surprise.
"Hey!" I heard him say. "What the-?!" Before the Drowzee had time to finish, Ted jumped to the right, off the bridge with the Drowzee in tow.
"Ted!" I cried out as I watched both him and the Drowzee plummet into the river below.