The Failing Light - PG-13 (a darkish pokemon fic) Chapter 6. It's long...

[Kinglerlord2]

*wanders in*

*cough*

Uh... hi! ^^; Some people may actually remember me, most won't. I was prominent in fanfic way back in '02. Posted a fic called 'One Will Fall' that did ok and one called 'Silva' that i just found on the old Ez-board and discovered that it won 4 awards in the summer awards that year. I'd completely forgotten about that. ^^;; Given the (surprising and very odd) popularity of that fic I may repost it here and continue and hopefully finish it but for now I have something new.

Now. My knowledge of the Pokemon canon is a bit shaky of late so things might go a bit haywire but here's hoping for the best. This is gonna be a bit dark and nasty but not too bad. Nowhere near as gorey as One Will Fall for those who may remember it. I think a PG-13 rating will suffice.

So here it is... my hopefully triumphant and successful return to fanfic...

tentatively (and poorly) titled:

The Failing Light
-------------------------

By Kinglerlord 2


Chapter 1

Two hearts were beating wildly. One trembling hand found another and their fingers intertwined, as arms with goosebumped flesh brushed against each other. The two young girls stared at each other, emerald eyes meeting brown, desperate for the other to do something.
"Over here!" A voice close by called excitedly. The girls gasped as the forest around them came alive with the noise of several people pushing their way through the trees. Without words the two moved as quickly as they could without making too much noise, away from the approaching voices, their hands refusing to part.

Another voice sounded, it's tone was angry and scolding, both of the girls knew the voice, knew it's owner, had met her in the past, and neither of them were eager to repeat that meeting. They stopped again and listened for the voices. The forest had suddenly become a lot quieter.
The brown eyed girl, Andy, tugged at her friend's arm insistently who nodded in agreement and the two broke into a run. For a few minutes the only sounds they heard were their footsteps crunching through the leaves. Finally Andy pulled up beside a large tree and leaned against it breathing heavily. She looked up at her friend, Kate, whose long black hair was falling out of its holdings and was littered with twigs and leaves.
"What now?" She said breathlessly.

The other looked at her with eyes that were bordered with scared tears and shook her head.
Andy tilted her head back and tried to collect her thoughts; unconciously reaching up with her hand to remove some twigs from her own brown curls.
The undergrowth rustled nearby and both of the girls turned their heads quickly as a huge purple cobra shot out of the vegetation. Andy felt Kate's weight collide with her and she hit the ground with Kate on top of her, both narrowly avoiding being hit by the Arbok as it collided with the tree. In a flash of light a large Nidorino emerged beside the two girls as they scrambled to their feet.
"We need to escape!" Kate called to it as she broke into a run. "Keep it occupied and then go to Misty! I'll get you there!"

Andy followed Kate through the forest; making noise no longer mattered so they were both running as fast as they could. Behind them they heard Nidorino let out a battlecry.
Andy unclipped a ball from her belt and released its occupant. A gleaming metallic red soldier emerged and buzzed along beside her as she and Kate continued sprinting.
"Scizor, we're being chased!" She said between gasps. "I need you... to hang back... and slow them down. After that go to Misty, she'll look after you... until I can pick you up." The scizor nodded in understanding and turned around. Andy pulled another ball from her belt and hurled it backwards.
"Take Persian with you!" She called back, catching the empty pokeball that returned to her. "And be careful!"

In front of her, Kate released another pokemon. "Murkrow, we need a way out!" She ordered. The small flying type shot up through the trees and returned a few moments later, cawing and swerving slightly to the left. Kate followed after it and Andy followed close behind her, her side was burning in pain from the constant running and her breathing was thin and ragged.
Behind her the rapid approach of hooves sounded and she turned in time to see a streak of white and flame before a strong arm hoisted her from the ground.
"Run Kate!" She screamed in panic, struggling to get free. The arm around her middle tightened causing her ribs to ache. She tried to reach her belt for another pokemon to help her when she heard the sound of Murkrow's battle cry racing towards her. Andy's captor gave a grunt and the arm around her relaxed, causing her to fall. She hit the ground hard, slid for several meters and then lay there winded with her skin burning with scrapes and grazes. She felt Kate's hand grasp her arm and haul her to her feet, gasping as a strong, sharp pain shot through her wrist. Looking up she saw her Scizor standing between them and a large Rapidash glaring down at them. Some distance behind the Rapidash was its rider lying on the ground, unmoving.
"Move!" Kate whispered urgently, pulling Andy along and causing more pain to shoot through her wrist.

Murkrow had once again taken the lead and cawed urgently at them. Andy let herself get dragged along by Kate, she was in a lot of pain now and doubted that she'd keep going if her friend let go of her hand. Suddenly the trees disappeared and they were on a roadway. If it had been the main road they could have easily hailed down a vehicle to help them out but this was a back road and there was no one. Kate continued to pull her through to the other side of the road back into more forest. They ran for a few more minutes before Kate slowed to a stop and let go of Andy's hand. Kate doubled over, drawing shallow breaths.
"Keep watch Murkrow." She managed to wheeze.
Andy cradled her aching wrist and stepped up to Kate, putting her unhurt arm around her friend's shoulder. Kate wrapped an arm around her waist and looked up at her. Her face was covered with tiny scratches from the trees and her emerald eyes were wide and scared.
"That was too close." She said, her voice cracking.
Andy nodded and drew a shuddering breath. As much as she wanted to, now was no time for crying. They were most likely still being hunted so they needed to think quickly.

"Did you see anyone important in that group?" She asked, keeping her voice soft.
"Besides Cassidy?" Kate shook her head.
"We've got to get out of here and tell the professor." Andy said determindely. "Cassidy isn't supposed to be here."
Kate nodded in agreement. "We should head back to the Princetown center." She looked back fearfully from where they had run. "But with them back there I don't know how far we'd get."
Andy looked at her pokegear and sighed. Just as on the other side of the road in the woods, she was getting no signal for her phone.
"Let's try and get close to the road again, maybe we can get a signal and have someone pick us up."
Kate nodded and started picking her way back through the trees to the road. When they could see the clear stretch through the trees Andy checked her gear again. There was a very weak signal that dropped in and out.

"Are we clear Murkrow?" Kate called quietly to the bird sitting on a branch at the road's edge. The pokemon gave quiet, affirmative caw. Slowly the two girls crept forward, Andy could hear her heart beating and she tried to kept her breathing slow and light. She checked her gear again right next to the road. The signal was still weak but it was steady. Breathing a sigh of relief she keyed in the number for the pokemon center in Princetown, wincing as pain continued to shoot through her wrist.
"This is the Princetown pokemon center." Nurse Joy's voice filtered through the small speaker. "How can I help you?"
"Joy, it's Andy. We need someone to pick us up, we've got a Team Rocket squad hot on our tail."
"Where are you?" The nurse's voice became suddenly hard and serious.
"We were on the main road heading towards Fuschia." Andy replied. "The one that runs alongside the forest. We had to cut through the trees to escape and now we're hiding in the trees next to some back road." She checked her compass. "I think we're roughly southwest of the main road but I can't say how far we've run." Her eyes flicked nervously to the other side of the road.
"Hang on, let me pull up a map." Joy said.
Beside Andy, Kate had removed another pokeball, this one a lureball and was standing ready to throw it in an instant.
"Ok, got it." Joy's voice said. "Had you passed the turnoff to Vermillion City?" She asked.
"No."
"You're on one of two roads then, you shouldn't be hard to find. I'll call Jenny straight away and have you picked up. Until then stay out of sight, have some of your pokemon keep an eye out for Jenny's motorcycle."
"Tell her that Murkrow will guide Jenny to us when she's spotted." Kate murmured, peering at the trees on the other side of the road.
Andy relayed the message.
"I understand." Joy said. "Don't worry, we'll get you out of there."

The pokegear beeped once to indicate signing off and then the only sounds to accompany the girls were the faint cricks and chirps of bug pokemon, hidden in the depths of the trees.
"Murkrow, circle above and keep an eye out for Officer Jenny." Kate said quietly, her eyes never shifting from their scan of the forest.
Murkrow cawed quietly again and hopped from branch to branch up to the peak of it's current tree sending brown and red leaves tumbling around them.
Andy had her lips parted slightly, breathing through them quietly, vainly trying to calm herself. After so much exertion the sharp autumn air was burning in her chest. Her uninjured hand hovered over the remaining pokeballs on her belt, ready to act at the slightest movement; Kate was still gripping her lureball tightly.
"I think... I think we're going to be ok." Kate said after a few moments. She looked at Andy with uncertain eyes. "If they were still looking for us they'd have found us again by now right?"
Andy nodded and her chest tightened as she looked at the trees. "I hope Scizor and Persian are ok."
"Nidorino too." Kate added quietly.

-------------------------------------------------------------

"Still got him?"
"Right behind him. He's not acting like he's seen me, I think I'm still clear."
"I can't see anyone following you from up here. I wish he'd walk a bit faster though, it's damn cold up here and the back of a fearow isn't the most comfortable place in the world either."
Renault Sander smiled as he heard the fearow 's disgruntled response through his earpiece. In front of him his target turned a corner and he hurried to catch up, not wanting to lose him. The massive Vermillion harbour panned out before him, at this end of the city mostly luxury liners could be seen but in the distance the cargo ships, being loaded by giant cranes, were visible as well. The breeze coming off the harbour was cool and salty. He waited at the corner for his target to gain some distance between them again.
"He just turned right onto Harbourview Avenue." He reported into the tiny microphone hidden under his collar. "Looks like he's headed right where we expected him to. Are Stuart and Amanda in place?"
"Ready and waiting." Amanda's voice entered his earpiece, we got a table with the best view of the door that we could, we should see him enter just fine."
"All the same." The operation leader, Kayla said. "Let us know when he's almost at the door Renault. Stuart, at that point get up from the table and give yourself a better view of the door. I'm not taking any chances here."
"Watch the alleys coming up on your right Renault." Nathan on the Fearow warned. "He could duck down one or someone might attack you from them."
"Roger that." Renault replied. He walked at a steady pace, his eyes constantly watching the short, well kept brown hair that donned the target's head. His target led him past large colourful posters of several travel agents, under the parasols of the harbourside cafeterias and past the tinted windows of expensive jewelry and clothing stores on the right while the harbour expanded endlessly on the left, the blue grey tiling being tramped by hundreds of tourists embarking and disembarking from the liners. Wingulls harrassed those with food, swarming around the ones foolish enough to offer scraps and cawing demandingly.
“Did you see the comp on TV last night Nathan?” Renault asked, watching his target closely.
“With the Cerulean girl?” Nathan replied. “What was her name, Vanessa?”
“Vessa.”
“She was unreal. Definite Indigo champion material.”
“Too young.” Renault replied. “She could maybe get as far as round 6 but her pokemon aren’t high enough to go all the way yet.”
"Can we pay attention please?" Kayla's annoyed voice snapped.
"Sorry boss." Stuart said.
"Yeah, sorry boss." Renault added. "He's almost at the entrance now, he just climbing the - what the?"
"What's wrong?"
"Son of a bitch!" Renault cursed as the last of his target literally disappeared as if being blown away in a breeze. "It was an illusion, Nathan, can you see anything from up there?" He turned in every direction looking for the real thing.
"Nothing, he's nowhere to be seen. But I swear you were following him the whole time! I had my binocs on him right up until he went out of visual range near the entrance!"
"No pokemon could have affected Nathan up there." Kayla said. "Stuart, Amanda, anything?"
"He hasn't come in."
"Damn it!" Renault snapped. He heard Kayla sigh heavily.
"Keep looking." She ordered. "Stuart, Amanda get outside and help Renault as soon as you can without looking suspicious. I'll call this in."
"Kayla, I'm sorry."
"Not your fault Renault. Just keep looking."


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It's 1:48 am, it's hot, i'm sick and i can't sleep. I've done my best to edit/correct but i may have missed quite a bit. Hope you enjoy it though.

[mr_pikachu]

Hey, Kinglerlord! Good to have you back at TPM! Hopefully we can see some of your classics eventually, but this is looking quite interesting so far.

It's interesting how the roles of the characters aren't very clear right now. It would seem that the action is taking place in Kanto, but beyond that, it's difficult to say who's who and what these conflicts are about. (Although "Cassidy" might be a reference to the Team Rocket member by the same name in the anime...) I'm hoping to see more about them in the coming chapters, as well as some more background information to explain the action we just saw in the two scenes. Good characters for the most part, especially the two girls at the beginning.

You might want to be careful with some of your sentence structures; the first sentence of the second paragraph, for instance, was a massive run-on. Also, some background would be nice to have very quickly, because while some vagueness can be nice, you don't want to leave your readers frustrated early on due to being left completely in the dark. And there were some punctuation and related minor points that could be cleared up, as you made reference to at the end of your post.

I still think this has some definite potential, though. Again, I really like your characters as well as the intensity you spread through this chapter despite our lack of knowledge of the situation. I have a feeling that once it emerges, the plotline will complement the character interactions nicely. It should be interesting to see how this develops. Anyway, I'll see you next chapter! Until then!

[Kinglerlord2]

Mr. Pikachu: Yeah the vagueness is a problem i thought of after I posted it. This chapter is an alternate opening to a fic i started ages and ages ago and i forgot that there's no background info at this point ^^;;

I think the next chapter will start to demonstrate what's going on and after that it should become very clear that things aren't well.

Thanks for the reply.

[Gavin Luper]

Hey, Kinglerlord2. Welcome back!! Long time no see! It's really good to have you back here!

I liked Silva back in the day, so I assumed that I would like this too, and I do. It took me a bit to get into it at the start, with the whole Andy-Kate thing, but you set the atmosphere very nicely and drew me in completely, so now I'm really curious as to what they were up to there. Similarly, the whole Renault thing was very interesting too, although obviously I don't have a clue who they were after, or why. It's only the first chapter and you already have me hooked on the mysteries of this fic. I'll be waiting for the next chapter with bated breath!

Oh, and I don't think the title is poor, to be honest, especially compared with some of the crap titles I've churned out in the past (eg. 'The Chain of Destiny', 'The Risdon League', etc). It's a good title!

Anyway, this is a good start to what seems like a really promising fic. Please post more. And also, if you can/want to, repost Silva! I really loved that fic, it inspired me a lot for other things I've been working on ...

Cheers!

[Kinglerlord2]

Gavin: Thanks for reading mate. For various reasons the opening chapter is a bit all over the place and the next few do clarify to an extent what is going on. Unfortunately i did a little bit of backwards writing here so things don't make sense to anyone but me :p. My bad.

As for Silva I do think that there'll be a re-post. Buggers me why you think it's so good though and looking back at the old board i'm still trying to figure out the popularity of it back then :p. If the re-post happens it'll be once i've got a little ahead here so that I can post two stories and keep them updated simultaneously.

[Kinglerlord2]

Hmm... in hindsight I should have started posting this fic *after* my Japanese proficiency test tomorrow...

Anyway! Here's chapter 2. It's Dialogue heavy unfortunately, and so is 3. Sorry about that but it's the best way to set up what's going on. I hope the content is at least interesting enough to keep you interested. :redface:


Chapter 2

Professor Samuel Oak seated himself in the chair in front of the phone, checked the destination of the incoming call and pushed the answer button.
"Professor Oak here."
"Hello Professor, how are you?" The cheery voice of Nurse Joy filtered through the speakers as her face appeared on the screen.
"I'm fine Joy, and yourself?"
"Things here are good." She replied glancing to her left. "Actually I'm calling because I have two of your charges with me who want to speak with you."
Oak raised an eyebrow. "Really?"
"Try... try to stay calm with them." She added before moving aside. Kate's face appeared on the screen and Oak shot out of his chair.
"What the hell happened to you?" He demanded, seeing the scratches and bruises on her face.
"Relax Professor, we're fine. Well... Andy sprained her wrist and we're missing three of our pokemon but we're ok."
"What do you mean missing! How are you missing three pokemon?"
Kate hesitated. "We were walking towards Fuschia City and we got a bit waylaid... by Team Rocket."
"Oh really?" Oak said filling his voice with sarcasm. "And why the hell were you walking anywhere? Don't you have bicycles?"
Kate hesitated again. "We... we sold those."
"What!"
"They make too much noise when we want to catch pokemon." She added hastily.
"That's not the point!" Oak retaliated, raising his voice. "Two Pallet trainers walking around when Team Rocket is on the hunt is just... just stupid!"
"Hey! Professor, seriously, you're going to give yourself a heart attack." Kate snapped, her emerald eyes flashing angrily. "We're alive aren't we?"
Oak sputtered. "That's not-"
"We called you," Kate said, interrupting, "To give you some information." She eyed him seriously. "The group that attacked us was being lead by Cassidy."
Oak's attitude changed at once. "What? Are you certain?"
"Andy and I have both met her up close before, if you remember." Kate replied with a cold vein running through her voice. "I doubt we'd forget her."
Oak nodded. "Quite." He sat down and pulled a writing pad towards him. "Where were you attacked?"
Oak took notes as Kate told him what happened. Once she was done he set the pad aside. "Very well, I'll let Misty know to look out for your pokemon; hopefully they're ok. Are you going to head for Cerulean City then?"
Kate nodded. "We'll stay here until Andy's wrist is ok then head out."
"How are you going to get there?"
"Walk."
Oak ran a hand over his face. "I'm going to send two Pidgeots to the center when I get a chance. You'll use them to get there." His tone left no room for argument.
Kate sighed and rolled her eyes. "Fine, whatever."
"And one more thing." Oak said, conscious of the girl's readiness to hang up the phone.
Kate looked at him expectantly.
"Don't tell Giovanni that you saw Cassidy." He said, looking straight into her eyes.
Kate hesitated at this and Oak felt he could understand some of the conflict going on in her head. Eventually she nodded, setting her jaw. "I understand. We'll call you later." She hung up before Oak could respond.

The professor sighed and muttered under his breath about teenage girls.
"Everything alright Professor?" The voice of Tracey Sketchit came from behind him. Oak turned to look at his assistant.
"Is everything done?"
"Everything's locked up and the other assistants are on their way home. I came to see if you were ready to head to Delia's for dinner."
"I should be ready shortly." Oak replied with a sigh. "I just need to call Misty first. You should probably sit in on this too."

Tracey nodded and wheeled a chair over beside the professor and sat down as the professor dialled the number for the Cerulean Gym. It was Ash Ketchum's face that appeared on the screen, he looked exhausted but still cheerful. The wild hair from his youth had gone, replaced by a much shorter cut that sat close on his head. His favoured wear had changed to a sleeveless black vest hemmed with red over a black t-shirt. The fingerless gloves had remained but were now black with red at the wrists. A reputation had evolved around him that whenever he battled, his tall, handsome and solid figure intimidated many opponents into making serious errors.

"Hi Professor Oak!" He said cheerfully. "Misty's actually in a gym battle right now, is there anything I can do to help?"
"You're probably actually better than Misty right now." Oak said, aware of the relief escaping into his voice.
Ash's smile lessened. "What's wrong?"
"Kate and Andy were attacked."
"What?" Tracey exclaimed.
Ash scowled. "Where are they now?"
"They're at the Princetown pokemon center." Oak replied. "Apparently they're relatively unharmed but they left three of their pokemon behind to cover their escape. They told them to go to Misty."
"I'll let Misty know." Ash said, taking notes.
"There's more. The person that attacked them was Cassidy."
Tracy inhaled sharply and Ash's eyebrow raised.
"Now that's interesting." Ash said, taking more notes. "She shouldn't be in Kanto."
"No, Kate said the same thing."
"I'll ask Ritchie in Johto for more information." Ash said. "Or Gary if I can contact him."
"Is Gary alright?" Oak asked, eager for any information on his grandson.
"His location is top secret." Ash replied, not looking up from his notepad. "But the last report I received from him indicated that he was fine."
Oak nodded.
"Where were the girls attacked?" Ash asked.
"Just outside of Princetown, before the turnoff to Vermillion City."
"Huh."
"What?"
"I was contacted by Renault a short while ago and told that David Carrada was in Vermillion. If Cassidy's in the area too then something might be about to happen. And considering how quiet the Rockets have been recently, that can’t be a good thing."
"Renault told you this?"
Ash nodded. "He was on assignment for the Gym Leaders and Trainers Organisation, tracking Carrada. They lost him again, the slippery bastard. Still, I suppose that’s why he’s a high ranking Rocket agent. Do you know Kayla? She won the Indigo Championship two years ago, she was leading the group. She obviously reported in to Erika straight away but Renault felt that I probably needed to know too so he contacted me as soon as he could."
"I see."
"It can't be coincidence that they're both near Vermillion." Tracey said.
"No." Ash concurred, tapping his bottom lip with the pen. "I'll contact the girls and see what details I can get from them."
"Ash, I want them both off assignment." Oak said flatly.
"Not possible." Ash replied.
"Why?"
"Because the Pallet Front barely has enough members as it is to pick up after the Gym Leaders' incompetence." Ash replied, ticking points off with his fingers. "Because those two are not members of the Gym Leaders and Trainers Organisation and therefore have much greater freedom than those of us who have to cover our tracks so that the GT don't find out about the Pallet Front. Because it's thanks to trainers like those two and Renault that came forward and asked to be involved that the Pallet Front even started." He pushed his last finger down. "And because I have confidence in their abilities and know that they can do what I ask of them."
"Ash, they're sixteen years old! They've only been training for three years! They aren't experienced enough to be doing this!"
"I've been fighting Team Rocket since I was ten." Ash argued calmly.
"That's different! The Team Rocket you fought sixteen years ago and the Team Rocket that exists now, the one that hunts Pallet Town trainers are two different teams. Giovanni doesn't control the team anymore and it's so much more dangerous because of it! Have you forgotten that Cassidy kidnapped them last year?"
"No I haven't." Ash said bluntly, it was clear from his voice that he was getting angry. "But you seem to have forgotten that they got out of that one almost completely on their own-"
"You were assaulting the place at the time!" Oak interjected.
"And," Ash continued loudly, "they were the ones to come to me after it was over and asked to be allowed to continue."
"They'd each just lost six of their best pokemon! They were out for revenge! They weren't thinking straight!"
"They're more intelligent than that and you know it!" Ash argued.
"If they're that smart then how come they were almost captured again today?" Oak snapped angrily.
"Clearly they're smart enough to get away!"
"What about Kate? As long as she and Giovanni are connected she could leak information to him!"
"What are you talking about? Giovanni's in the Pallet Front!"
"So you're intending to tell him that Cassidy's in Vermillion are you?"
Oak felt a vicious grin spread across his face as Ash's momentum came to a halt as he tried to splutter a response.
"That's a special circumstance and you know it!" Ash said finally. "I will not take them off assignment and as Gary and I lead the Pallet Front there is nothing you can do to affect that!"
"I'm having dinner with your mother tonight." Oak said rising out of his chair quickly. "I need to go and get ready." He stormed from the room leaving Ash with Tracey.

"He's just worried." Tracey said gently.
"Does he think I'm not?" Ash snapped. "Even if I did take them off assignment they'd just get themselves involved on their own. With Team Rocket running around like they own the place and attacking whenever they’re just bored there’s no way to avoid them getting involved! At least this way I have some measure of control over how much trouble they get into."
"I'll talk to him."
"Whatever. Is the security ok?"
"Pokemon covering every inch of the perimeter as usual."
"Good. I need to call the girls now and find out about Cassidy."
"Go for a walk or something first to calm down." Tracey suggested.
"Yeah, sure. I'll talk to you later." The screen went blank as Ash hung up and Tracey sighed heavily. Ash and the professor had been arguing a lot recently; it was getting out of hand. He rose from the chair and went in search of his mentor. Professor Oak was usually a very mild person but when he got really angry it was very unpleasant, Tracey wondered which room he'd find the Professor throwing things around in.

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Ash leaned back in his chair and ran a hand over his face. He hated how he and the professor were arguing so much these days. The stress of combating Team Rocket was getting to everybody. It had been five years since the coup that had ousted Giovanni and even though the information Giovanni had provided on base locations and members had been crucial (and was the reason that he wasn’t incarcerated), whoever had taken over was ruthless beyond words. Giovanni’s information had severely hampered the new leader and Ash shuddered at the thought of what would have happened if they hadn’t been given the opportunity to raid all of those bases and disrupt the Rockets’ plans. For almost two years they heard or saw almost nothing of the remnants of Team Rocket and then during the fifth round of the Indigo Championships three years ago… Ash had the newspaper clippings stuck up on his wall as a reminder of the people he was fighting against. 9 people died in that attack and so did quite a few pokemon and amongst the chaos and confusion 187 pokemon went missing presumed captured. The worst of it was that the Rockets left almost no trace to follow, nothing that could give a clue as to where they had come from and where they were hiding out. It had been planned and executed perfectly. That attack occurred in the year that Andy and Kate had started training and after that Professor Oak had refused to sponsor any more trainers.

The violence and crime in Kanto, and to a lesser extent Johto, was now on an unprecedented scale and with no clues as to who the new leader was, even after five years of intelligence gathering, the end did not look to be coming any time soon. The only saving grace was the dedication of the Gym Leaders and a select group of skilled trainers who had formed the Gym Leaders and Trainers organization as a special group to combat Team Rocket. And behind them as a final line of the defense (though unknown to the GT) was Ash and Gary’s own little group: The Pallet Front. The very best of the best in the eyes of Ash and Gary made up this group, Pallet town trainers and their closest friends and allies. Ash’s connections in particular were crucial in this little group and had led to trainers like Drake from the Orange Islands and even Lance joining up. Many of the trainers worked as members of the GT as well which caused complications at times but, for the moment at least, both groups seemed to be able to operate simultaneously without Erika, the leader of the GT, finding out about the Pallet Front.

He heard the door behind him open gently and looked up to see a pair of turquoise eyes looking into the room.
"You were arguing with the professor again." Misty said, stepping into the room. Her long red hair was held back in a damp ponytail.
"Everything's fine." Ash muttered.
"I could hear you from the other end of the hall through a closed door." Misty replied. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and hugged him. "That tells me a different story."
Ash eyed the promise ring on her finger that he'd given her over a year ago and scowled. If not for the chaos of the last few years that ring would have been an engagement ring. He had settled for the next best thing until things were brought under control and it angered him that it was taking so long for that to happen.
"The girls narrowly escaped being captured today."
"They're ok though right?"
Ash nodded. "They're fine. Apparently three of their pokemon are headed this way after they were called out to slow the Rockets down." He leaned into her. "The professor wants me to take them off Pallet Front duty."
"That's understandable." Misty replied. "They're only sixteen."
Ash growled. "I'm aware of that!" He snapped angrily, rising from his chair and turning to face her. "Do you think I want them doing this?"
Misty's eyes flared. "Don't snap at me Ash Ketchum." She said fiercely. "I'm fully aware of the situation thank you very much!"
In an instant, Ash's anger disappeared. Getting Misty angry wasn't worth anything. "Sorry." He mumbled.

Misty pointed at the chair. "Sit."
Ash did as instructed. He felt Misty's hands grip his shoulders and tried to relax as she kneaded his flesh.
"You're getting too worked up." She said gently. "You should try and relax. The stress of this all is turning you into someone you're not."
Ash sighed. “Carrada slipped away again. On top of that I have no idea where Gary is and he hasn’t contacted anyone in over a week as far as I’m aware and now the professor is on my case about the girls, which means I have to lie to him about Gary because he’s stressed enough as it is.” Ash took a breath. “And now I’m going to have to keep an eye on Giovanni as well because Cassidy is back in the region.”
Misty’s hands tightened on his shoulders when he said Cassidy’s name. Ash looked up at her face, her eyes were narrowed slightly and her jaw was set. He reached up and grasped her hand, kissing it once.
“We’ll get her this time.” He said. Misty looked down and her eyes locked on his. “Before she does anything.”
Misty gave him a weak smile and nodded. “Is Butch with her?”
Ash shook his head. “Last reports had him in Johto. That said, Cassidy was supposed to be there too so it’s anyone’s guess who’s where. I’m going to try and contact Ritchie or Casey and get them to try and determine who’s still in Johto.”
“Maybe Carrada will go to Johto.”
Ash snorted. “There’s as much chance of that happening as there is of a caterpie using hyperbeam.” He sighed in frustration. “I wish he would disappear for a while, then we’d be able to make some ground against Team Rocket.”
“Unless the leader is better.”
“I don’t want to even consider that. If the boss of Team Rocket is better than David Carrada then he’d fall just short of being a god.” He sighed again and leaned forward in his chair, pushing the button to activate the phone. “I’d better call the girls and then inform Erika that Cassidy’s back. I can’t wait to see how she blames me for it.”

--------------------------------

So... much dialogue. But! At least you have a handle on what the crap is going on. Sort of. Look out for chapter 3 when Renault returns and we get a proper look into his character. I like him a lot.

[Kinglerlord2]

No comments? Oh well! Chapter 3 anyway! I like Renault in this chapter he's a favourite of mine. I'm not sure what the future holds for him yet.


Chapter 3

"Not your fault Renault. Just keep looking."
Erika pressed the stop button on the tape recorder and silence fell over the room. Beside Renault, Kayla shifted in her chair and he stole a quick glance at her before returning his gaze to Erika’s icy stare.
“I think it goes without saying,” Erika said with a voice as cold as her stare, “that I’m not impressed.”
Kayla shifted again and Renault simply turned his gaze to the legs of the solid wood desk, unable to think of anything else to do.
“Your actions have the potential to hamper months of surveillance and preparation.”
“To be fair,” Kayla spoke up quietly, “I don’t think Renault’s comments are in any way a cause for us losing Carrada.”
”I never took my eyes off him.” Renault added quickly. “The only time he could have switched was when I lost sight of him around a corner but Nathan had us covered from above.”
“I don’t care.” Erika snapped. “Your unnecessary radio transmissions were foolish and could have compromised the mission in ways that I don’t want to even think about. What if in that moment of inattention you were attacked and captured?”
“There was-“
“As a trainer from Pallet Town, you, of all people, Renault, should know better than to compromise yourself when dealing with Team Rocket.”
Renault fell silent. He hated to admit it but she did have a point.
“In any case several other big targets have apparently turned up in Kanto and your actions have lost us our best chance to find out what’s going on.”
Renault and Kayla both looked up quickly. “Who else is in Kanto?” Renault demanded.
Erika shot him a level gaze. “That’s on a need to know basis. I’m taking both you and Nathan off assignment until further notice. So you won’t need to know anytime soon. Nathan has already been informed.”
Renault felt as is a forretress had been dumped in his gut.
“Isn’t that a bit much?” Kayla asked.
“That’s my final word. The rest of the meeting no longer concerns you Renault. You’ll be contacted if your services are ever needed again.”
Renault nodded and rose from his seat. Kayla looked bewildered and ready to argue his case but he shook his head and left the room quietly.

He stepped into the hall and looked around briefly. Nathan wasn’t around, he was probably getting really drunk right now; the GT had been his whole life. It didn’t seem like such a bad idea actually, getting drunk. Renault’s involvement in the GT had given him some measure of importance in his life. Sure he still had the Pallet Front but it wasn’t the same. The Pallet Front was a behind the scenes group that almost no one knew of. He had had some small degree of public recognition as a GT member, now that was gone. He chuckled and shook his head. When had he become so self-centered? Public recognition could wait. Right now Team Rocket still had to be fought and he was still able to fulfill at least that want with the Pallet Front. Nathan didn’t even have that. He headed for the exit of the Celadon Gym determining that he would suggest to Ash that Nathan be invited to join the Pallet Front.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Misty was waiting for the girls at the entrance to the gym when the two Pidgeots touched down. She hugged both Kate and Andy tightly.
“Have our pokemon shown up yet?” Andy asked hopefully.
Misty shook her head. “It’s a fair distance to Cerulean from Princetown. They’ll show up in the next week.”
“I’ve closed the gym for today.” She explained, guiding them through the front doors. “We’ll just plough through the business before lunch and then have a relaxing afternoon. Are you in a hurry to go anywhere else at all?”
Andy shook her head. “We’re going to fly to Viridian tomorrow and walk to Pallet from there.”
“Are you planning on staying there long?” Misty asked.
“In Pallet?” Kate asked with a skeptical look. “With Professor Oak nagging us about being safe all the time? We’ll be there a week at most.”
Misty smiled. “The professor can be a little overprotective at times. But he means well.”
They were walking along a corridor with glass windows looking into the massive tank where Misty housed her pokemon. Andy watched a pair of dewgong swimming quickly around the tank and maneuvering around each other in a kind of syncronised dance. She didn’t need to look up at where she was going. The Cerulean gym was like a second home to her and Kate. It had even been their prison once before.
That thought brought her back to her senses and the reason that were at the gym once again.
“So Ash is here then?”
Misty nodded. “And Renault too. There’ve been a few changes in the last couple of days so he wants to go over some things with the three of you.”

She opened a door at the end of the corridor that led into a spacious room that Ash had converted into his office. Ash was leaning back in his chair with Pikachu in his lap and was scratching the pokemon gently behind the ears, chatting to Renault who had spread himself out on the couch.
“The suspension won’t be long.” Ash said to Renault, waving an acknowledgement as the girls entered. “Erika can’t afford to keep anyone off assignment.”

Andy had developed a large crush on Renault when she had first met the lanky blonde. She had thought that his long hair, which he left out, his sharp blue eyes and his goatee were the epitome of cool. His choice of attire, usually a pair of black trousers and a long sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled to the elbow had definitely helped that impression. She had gotten over the crush, mostly, but she still though he looked damn cool.

Renault twisted his head to look at the newcomers and gave a wide grin, leaping from the couch. He gave Kate a quick hug and then turned to Andy, engulfing her in a massive bear-hug, complete with groans and cricking backs. Andy laughed and pushed him off her, settling herself on the couch. Kate rolled her eyes amusedly and joined her, Renault flopping theatrically on the other side of her. His bouncy personality had been another contributing factor in Andy’s crush.

“So!” Renault said, still grinning, as Misty took a seat. “Ash tells me you two ran into the bitch queen herself! Did you kick her in the pants for me?”
Andy smirked as Ash gave a tired sigh and rolled his eyes.
“No, it’s good that you ran.” Renault said seriously. “Now that those Rockets know how fast we can run they’ll think twice about challenging us to a running race.”
Kate snorted and Andy grinned and shook her head at him. “You’re such an idiot.”

“Come on guys.” Ash said with a sigh, leaning forward on his chair. Pikachu leapt off his lap and moved over to Misty, resettling himself on her legs. “Let’s get this stuff out of the way so we can relax.” He shuffled some papers aside and put his arms on the desk. “As Renault just said, I’ve filled him in on your encounter with Cassidy. Now, with you spotting her near Vermillion and with David Carrada shaking off the team the GT had on him there too we’re thinking that something big could be going down soon.”
“Like what?” Kate asked.
“I have no idea.” Ash said honestly. “For all we know there could be nothing at all, just some re-shuffling of personnel. But frankly I’m looking to prepare for the worst and given certain reports I’m getting out of Johto the worst could be really nasty.”
“What’s happening in Johto?” Andy asked.
“Let’s just say that the Rockets are no longer the only people with their eyes on the place.” Renault said.
“The Rockets now have competition in Johto and as far as I’m concerned, what that means is that the Rockets will squeeze harder in Kanto to make up for the resources they start losing out on in Johto.”
“And if they want to reclaim Johto they’ll probably squeeze harder than that to pull the resources they need for a counter attack.” Renault added.

“Essentially it means that there are a lot of signs pointing towards a large build up of Rocket activity within the next few months.” Ash continued. “I’m not convinced that I can make Erika and the other Gym Leaders see sense in this argument and even if I do the Gym Leaders and Trainers Organization has yet to prove itself to be an effective countermeasure against the Rockets anyway. So I’m working on the unfortunate assumption that we’re going to have to rely on the Pallet Front to pull up the slack.” Ash ran a hand over his face and sighed. “The professor is never going to talk to me again after this but because most of the Pallet Front’s big guns are also members of the GT I can’t just call them to our aid without bringing our little group out into the open so it’s going to fall on trainers like you three to do what you can. There are some non GT operatives with some heavy artillery that I can call in from other regions but still, you guys are going to be needed for some potentially heavy stuff.” Renault’s face had become grimly serious and he nodded in understanding.

“Believe me, I’m going to do my best to keep you out of danger,” Ash said, “but then you’re never really out of it are you? Being Pallet trainers makes you prime targets to put people like me and Gary on the back foot. So, over the next couple of weeks I want you three to get into some serious training. You’ve got to train like you’re going for the Indigo Championship. I’ll help you whenever I get a chance and if you talk to Forest or Sabrina I’m sure they’d give you some help too.”
”And me too of course.” Misty added. “But if you girls are headed for Pallet town then at least Renault should be able to accompany you and train with you for a week or so?” She looked at him questioningly.
“Of course!” Renault said happily. “I haven’t been home in a while, truth be told. ‘twould be nice to see the old codger and ma again. Besides,” He looped an arm around Andy and hugged her to him tightly. “I haven’t spent time with the girls in ages!”
Andy struggled to get free but Renault held on tight and started tickling her. She squealed and thrashed wildly to shake him off while he laughed maniacally.
“Guys.” Ash said wearily.
”Sorry Ash.” Renault said, letting go and sitting up unnecessarily straight. Andy, out of breath, had to shove her fist in her mouth to smother a new round of giggles.

“Has Giovanni been told that Cassidy is in Kanto yet?” Kate asked, ignoring her companions.
“No he hasn’t.” Ash said after a moment’s hesitation.
“He needs to be told.” Kate said with the slightest touch of anger in her voice.
“I know.” Ash said wearily. “I’m still trying to figure out how to do it without him tearing half the region up in a murderous rampage.”
“Did you consider an interpretive dance?” Renault asked.
Misty coughed to cover a laugh and Andy let out a shriek and shoved her fist back in her mouth, shaking hard with suppressed giggles. Even Ash smirked. Kate was the only one who didn’t seem to find it funny.
“He has to be told.” She demanded. “I’ll do it.”
“No, don’t worry.” Ash said calmly. “I have to meet with him anyway so I’ll do it then.”

“So!” Renault said leaping to his feet. “Meeting adjourned?”
“I guess so.” Ash said with a wave of his hand. “Let’s do nothing all afternoon shall we?”
Renault held out his hand to Andy.
“M’lady.”
Andy looked suspiciously at the proffered hand before eventually taking it. Renault gave a victorious grin and hauled her towards him. Andy managed a surprised squawk as he hoisted her over his shoulder.
Laughing maniacally Renault loped out the door with Andy protesting loudly and thumping him on the back. Her protests rang through into the office.
“Where are you taking m- oh no! No you don’t Renault! I will kill you if you-“
There came the sound of a large splash from the pool area just above them. Renault appeared at the door a few moments later with a huge grin on his face.
“I threw her in the pool.” He said unnecessarily. He turned and loped down the corridor letting out ridiculous whooping noises. Andy appeared in view a moment later and sprinted after him promising all kinds of vengeance.
Ash shook his head. “My home town is full of crazy people.”
“Well aware dear.” Misty replied with a grin.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

whee! 3 is done! more soon!

[Kinglerlord2]

Sorry about the delay, Christmas related issues.

If people are reading can they please reply. While I do this out of a love of writing it certainly encourages me if I have some kind of input into it.


Chapter 4

The Viridian pokemon center was usually a quiet environment. Many young trainers, still early in their careers, stopped by before venturing into the forest in search of bug types to add to their teams and veteran trainers preparing to battle in the Viridian Gym or, at the right time of the year, to take part in the championship were also regular guests. In the late afternoon, just as the sun was beginning to fall below the horizon the quiet, lazy atmosphere was disrupted.

“Helloooo Nurse Joy!” Renault called out, marching through the sliding doors with a grin on his face. Andy followed behind him shaking her head in amusement and Kate, looking stony faced, came in last.
Renault marched up to the desk and leaned on the counter.
“I’d like three of your best beds, a gourmet meal and um…” he looked around at the desk and grabbed a pen, “this pen.”
Joy behind the counter shook her head and smiled. “I can offer you a single bed each with all the other trainers and your gourmet meal is either in the vending machines or a nearby restaurant.”
“Oh come on Joy!” Renault said, leaning in to her. “Don’t we get special treatment for being special friends?” He gave her a wink. “Surely fellow members of the Pallet Front deserve something?”
Joy sighed and gave Renault a resigned smile. “Fine, you can keep the pen.”
Renault grinned and slapped the counter top enthusiastically. “You drive a hard bargain lady! But I accept!”

Andy and Kate placed their pokeballs on the counter.
“What’s going on across the road Joy?” Andy asked. “There’s a lot of police around.”
“The one-on-one Fall Speed Tournament starts tomorrow at the Indigo Stadium.” Joy said with a smile. “Giovanni’s hosting a dinner for the competitors in the hotel across the road. Security is tight for obvious reasons.”
Andy nodded and stole a sideways glance at Kate, wondering if Giovanni had told her anything about it.

“We’re going to go out and get some dinner.” Renault said to Joy. “I’ll keep my pokemon on me just in case.” He lowered his voice slightly. “When we get back I have some information to pass on to you from Ash.”
“Farewell sweet maiden!” Renault called out to Joy as he backed out of the door, drawing stares from other trainers. “’tis a sad fate that our time together was so short! This poor bleeding heart will have to settle for but two gorgeous young women!”
“Curfew is 9:30!” Joy called out to him as the doors closed. Renault bowed and hurried after Andy and Kate.

------------------------

The trio returned by 8:30 and while Renault discussed business with Joy, Andy and Kate joined the other trainers in the lounge area and watched a documentary on the attempted clean-up of Team Rocket after the coup quite lamely called ‘Rocket Misfire’.
Kate eyes burned angrily as she watched and she threw annoyed glances at trainers who made comments on what happened.
“Even though Giovanni told the police where to find the bases, most of the people got away.” A young boy was saying. “Doesn’t that make you think that Giovanni might have secretly told the Rockets-“
“Oh please!” Andy interrupted, mainly to cut Kate off who looked as though she was dangerously close to verbally abusing the kid. “That’s such an old conspiracy theory and a completely ridiculous one at that! Why would Giovanni set up a coup to oust himself and expose himself to the world as the ex-leader of Team Rocket?”
“Maybe the police were getting too close to finding out that he was the leader?”
“And naturally, instead of going underground and continuing his operations he decides to expose himself and risk spending the rest of his life in jail.” Andy quipped. “Come on, use some common sense. The police had absolutely no idea that Giovanni was leading Team Rocket. He was a Gym Leader and a respected member of the public.”
The boy didn’t seem to have a response for that and the room fell into an unsettled silence.

Kate stood up after a few minutes, gave Andy a reassuring smile and disappeared into the bunk room. Andy stayed and continued to watch the program for another half an hour before she too decided to head to bed. She waved goodnight to Renault who excused himself from Joy long enough to bound over and hug her tightly until she couldn’t breathe and then bounded back continuing the conversation as if nothing had happened. Andy shook her head and headed into the darkened bedroom.

It felt as if she had just drifted off when she was violently shaken awake.
“Get up!” Kate said hurriedly.
And sat up and saw Kate pulling on a large hooded cloak.
“Kate, what are you doing?” She asked sleepily.
“Listen.”
Andy fell silent and the sounds of combat drifted through the windows.
Andy swore and tore the bedsheets off her bed, hastily shoving her shoes on and pulling her own cloak from her bag. She fastened her pokeball belt around her waist and pulled the hood down over her face.
“Ok?” She asked looking up at Kate whose face was obscured by her own hood.
“Good. Me?”
“Perfect, can’t see your face at all.”
Without another word the two raced from the room and headed for the front door.

“Joy?” Andy said pulling up beside the nurse who was at the top of the stairs watching the street with several other young trainers.
“Rockets.” Nurse Joy said grimly.
“Where’s Renault?”
“He’s already fighting.”
“Why the hell didn’t someone wake us up?” Kate spat angrily, charging down the stairs.
“Renault said to keep you two from fighting.” Joy said laying a resisting hand on Andy’s shoulder. Andy shrugged it off. “There’s no way I’m letting Renault fight alone.” She ran after Kate.
“He already has help!” Joy called after her.
“He’ll need more!” She called back.

Andy pulled up beside Kate and quickly surveyed the situation. In front of the hotel where Giovanni had been hosting his dinner several police officers were battling the members of Team Rocket in their trademark black jumpsuits and many more were on the sidelines tending to their fallen pokemon which were mostly Arcanines and Persians.

Closest to them two police officers stood facing up against a group of three Rockets. In front of officers two large Arcanines stood ready. The three rockets each threw a pokéball and two Raticates and a Vaporeon emerged.
Without waiting for a command the Raticates shot forward, each one heading to one of the Arcanines who stood ready to take the direct hit. When they were inches from the huge fire dogs they disappeared simultaneously, presumably in a quick attack and Andy didn’t dare blink. The Raticates’ maneuver divided the attention of the Arcanines and one of the Rockets took advantage of the confusion and ordered the Vaporeon to use water gun. The Vaporeon stepped forward and sent a powerful blast of water directly at one of the Arcanines. The huge beast gave a great yelp and tumbled backwards, propelled by the blast. It came to a stop and struggled to its feet standing only momentarily before the Raticates hit it from either side. The huge dog slumped to the ground and blacked out.

The second Arcanine had attempted a take-down on the Vaporeon but the nimbler water pokémon dodged the attack, launching a jet of water at its opponent. The Arcanine deftly dodged but with its attention focused on the Vaporeon it didn’t notice the Raticates until they sunk their enormous teeth into its hide. The Arcanine shook them off, yelping wildly and then slumped to the ground bleeding heavily.

“Thunderpunch!” The command from Renault was forceful and angry and was followed by an Ampharos slamming its fist into the side of the Vaporeon which had no hope of avoiding it. The Vaporeon screamed in agony as the Ampharos pulsed electricity through its body.
“Move!” Renault snapped. “Double Team!”
The Ampharos suddenly split into twelve identical afterimages and the two Raticates who had moved in with quick attacks fell through false images.
“Tauros, use take down! Ampharos, iron tail!”
Renault’s Tauros charged in from the left and slammed into one of the Raticates from behind sending it tumbling away and out of the fight. The second Raticate barely dodged Ampharos’ iron tail and attempted to sink its teeth into Ampharos who responded instantly with a thunderwave. The Raticate squealed in pain for a moment before the Tauros slammed into it and knocked it unconscious.

Movement behind Renault sparked Andy into action and she hurled a pokeball into the fight.
“Primeape!”
The fighting type didn’t need to be told what needed to be done, it lunged forward and drove its fist into the head of the Hitmonchan that was advancing on Renault from behind. Several more Rocket members joined the fight and an array of new pokemon entered the field. Kate hurled two balls into the fight. Her Graveller and Scyther emerged and began fighting. Andy ran up beside Renault and released her Heracross as several Rockets surrounded them.

“I’m going to hurt you later.” She snapped at Renault. “Heracross, use horn-attack!”
Heracross lunged at the Hitmonchan but the faster fighting type jumped clear and went for Andy’s Primape. The Primape blocked the incoming punch but with its attention focused on the Hitmonchan it failed to see a Hitmonlee approach it from behind and the mega kick slammed hard into its spine. Primape’s cry of pain faded as Andy returned it.
Andy grabbed a new pokeball off her belt and was about to hurl it but Renault layed a staying hand on her arm.

She looked up as saw a tall figure emerging from the hotel entrance. Giovanni, wearing a black tuxedo with a carnation in the jacket pocket walked into the street, his eyes were burning with a furious rage.
“How dare you?” The cold fury and hatred in Giovanni’s voice seemed to freeze the air around him. “How dare you come here and attempt to steal pokémon from under my nose?”
He reached into his jacket and pulled out a pokéball, hurling it towards the Hitmonchan. A Nidoking emerged and immediately began bearing down on the fighting type. Before the Hitmonchan could respond it found itself in the grip of the Nidoking. The huge ground type threw the fighting type with all of its might and the Hitmonchan hit the pavement hard and stopped moving. The Nidoking then spun on one foot swinging its massive tail around and connected with the Hitmonlee’s head which had tried and failed to jump clear. The Hitmonlee crashed to the ground and was returned by its owner. Suddenly from the shadows a new pokéball flew into the battleground and landed at the feet of the Nidoking. Before ithe Nidoking could react, the Snorlax that emerged hit the it solidly in the head with a mega punch. It staggered from the blow but righted itself and turned to face its opponent again. The Snorlax’s hyper beam hit it solidly in the chest and it crashed to the pavement and lay still.

All of the Rocket members returned their pokémon as a new figure emerged from the shadows grinning maliciously.
Renault swore violently under his breath and turned to look at Giovanni who was glaring angrily at the new figure.
“Return your pokemon.” Renault said to Andy. “You too Kate.”
“No way!” Andy protested. “The fight isn’t over yet!” Kate was also protesting.
“Do as he says.” Giovanni said forcefully. He looked directly at Kate and gave her a nod.
Kate immediately did as instructed but Andy still refused to return her Heracross.
“I’m not-“
“Do it!” Renault yelled angrily at her.
Andy looked at him in shock; it wasn’t his anger that had really shocked her but the hint of panic that underlined it. She returned Heracross without further argument.

“I should have known that you’d be here Carrada.” Giovanni spat. His voice was laced with pure hatred.
“Well I could hardly pass up this lovely opportunity could I?” The other replied, still grinning. “I mean, you basically invited Team Rocket to do this by pulling all these wonderfully skilled trainers here.”
“You can never be Team Rocket!” Giovanni yelled passionately. “You’re leaving here with nothing!” He hurled a new pokéball onto the street and the Machamp had barely emerged before the Snorlax hit it with a megapunch, leapt into the air and slammed down on top of it. Giovanni returned the stunned pokémon and glared at Carrada.
“Care to try for third time lucky?” Carrada asked.
“My turn!” Came a new voice. “Ice beam!”
A beam of ice shot out of the darkness and hit the Snorlax dead on, engulfing it in a prison of ice. Suddenly a Nidoqueen charged for the frozen pokémon with its head lowered and slammed into it, shattering the ice and causing the Snorlax to tumble away.
“Finish it with hyper beam!” The voice commanded. The Nidoqueen complied with a powerful blast that drove the Snorlax back against the wall.
Carrada returned his Snorlax as a cloaked and hooded figure emerged from the shadows.
“Shall we dance Carrada?” The figure said. The voice was familiar to Andy.
“I was wondering what happened to you.” Carrada gave a chilling smile and hurled another pokéball. A Meganium emerged with a triumphant call.
“Ice beam!” The cloaked trainer called.
The Nidoqueen fired a second ice beam but the Meganium easily leapt clear. Without a single command from its trainer the Meganium sent vine whips out, caught the Nidoqueen and hauled it off the ground. The Nidoqueen thrashed in the grip of the vines as the Meganium pummeled it with razor leaves. The Nidoqueen screamed in pain and suddenly dissolved into scarlet light as the trainer recalled it. Seconds later a Fearow emerged in the air above the Meganium.
Carrada recalled his grass type. “Enough of this.” He said impatiently. “I have places to be.” He held out a new pokéball and a Cloyster emerged.
Renault uttered another profanity and recalled his own pokemon.

With speed that Andy was sure was impossible, the Cloyster fired an aurora beam at the Fearow as the flying type dived towards it. The Fearow was recalled before the beam hit and yet another pokémon emerged. Andy inhaled sharply. An Absol stood facing the Cloyster. Absols weren’t found anywhere near Kanto or Johto. She now knew who was under the cloak.

The Absol charged forward and swiped its blade down the opening of the clamshell pokémon but again with speed that was surely impossible, the Cloyster acted clamping its shell shut and trapping the blade of the Absol. The Absol cried out in distress as it tried to pull itself free and as the trainer raised his pokeball to return it, the Cloyster’s shell opened and the Absol was engulfed in a colorful Aurora Beam attack. The Absol gave a painful cry and tumbled away. The trainer recalled it and replaced it with an Umbreon.
“Faint attack!”
The Umbreon disappeared from sight and the Cloyster clamped its shell shut again. Spikes began flying out in every direction and with a yelp of pain the Umbreon reappeared and began to limp away from the water type. The trainer recalled it, no new pokémon followed in its wake.
Carrada smiled. “Next time perhaps. For now you’ll have to excuse me. I have some new pokémon to admire.”

Andy hadn’t noticed that during the spectacle of the battle the other Rockets had slipped away. Carrada stood alone and unchallenged as he recalled his Cloyster and released a Pidgeot. A surge of anger overtook Andy and she charged forward but Renault grabbed her around the waist and held her firmly to the spot.

“Team Rocket rules Kanto.” Carrada said as his Pidgeot took flight. “And always will as long as cowards like you are all there is to protect it.”
The Pidgeot quickly ascended leaving disheartened trainers far below it. The media swarmed in around the trainers and the trainer who had fought Carrada pushed back his hood to reveal the slightly annoyed face of Gary Oak.

------------------------------

In case anyone is interested, the pokemon teams for my characters so far:

Andy: Scizor, Persian, Primape, Heracross

Kate: Nidorino, Murkrow, Graveler, Scyther

Renault: Ampharos, Tauros

David Carrada: Meganium, Snorlax, Cloyster, Pidgeot

I know the full teams of Andy, Kate and Renault. The rest of Carrada's team remains a surprise to me as well.


Whee!! More soon.

[darktyranitar]

Hi there, Kingerlord2. I know I should have replied soon, but I didn’t have the time. Anyway, I understand the state of not having few reply for your fic, because I’m also experiencing it. I guess until we get reply, we can post chapters and wait for a reply… Anyway, on with the fic!

The story was a bit unclear at first, but it was cleared up now. You did a good job on giving the characters a different personality than their anime counterpart. Renault is becoming my favourite character with his funny personality. And nice battle description too. I like the concept of the GT and Palette Front, and I hope you would post more chapters, even when you get only a few replies.

[Kinglerlord2]

Hey darktyranitar, thanks for replying to this. I've started reading your fic but I want to catch up before I reply. Just letting you know. I really need to do a full rewrite of the opening to this fic to make it a little clearer what's going on. 4chapters is a lot to bring the basic idea to full understanding.

The battle scene you see in this chapter is one that I wrote a long time ago for an abandoned trainer fic. Well some of it is at any rate. Andy was a beginning trainer called Jason in that version and Renault didn't exist at all. His Ampharos was a Raichu called out by Nurse Joy. Also in that version Carrada was working for Gio who was still the Rocket leader. All very different now.

Thanks for reading!

[Kinglerlord2]

I know this has been a long time coming. I'll appreciate if people don't enjoy this fic as much. There's a lot of dialogue. It's the kind of thing I like though.


Chapter 5

Several Chansey shoved their ways through the crowd with stretchers collecting fallen pokemon and Andy felt a light hand fall on her shoulder.
“I’ll get the girls inside.” Joy said to Renault, indicating to Kate to follow her. Kate looked up at Giovanni, who had probably moved up beside her to stop her from trying to attack Carrada as Andy had done. Giovanni nodded once and moved away from her, pulling the cameras with him towards Gary who was being bombarded with questions.
“I’ll stick around in case Gary needs me.” Renault said to Joy handing her his pokeballs. “I should be in in a second.”
“Keep your faces hidden.” Joy said calmly, guiding them through the media crush. She guided them through the doors of the pokemon centre and the girls pushed back their hoods. Several of the other trainers staying in the center looked impressed that they had joined the fight.
“I don’t imagine either of you have any chance of sleeping.” Joy said looking at them as a mother would look at a reckless child and taking their pokeballs from them. “I imagine Gary might want to speak to you anyway. Get the cloaks off and wait for them to come in.” She cast a dark look outside at the media and then disappeared into a room behind the counter. Moments later the Chansey burst through the door wheeling the wounded pokemon on stretchers.

Andy and Kate dumped their cloaks in their room and returned to the foyer, sitting themselves down in the lounge area with the other trainers.
“You guys really went out there?” One of the trainers asked, looking awestruck.
Kate shrugged. “Sure.”
“Are you guys members of the GT or something?” One of the others asked.
“Nope.”
“So how come you fought then?”
“Because it’s Team Rocket.” Kate said simply, almost snapping the words. “Everyone has a duty to fight them.”
“Nurse Joy and that tall blonde trainer told us to stay by the pokemon center.” One of the trainers said. “Then the blonde guy ran off to join the fight.”
“We’ve never been very good at listening to him.” Andy said
“How come you were wearing the cloaks?”
“It’s not really safe to show our faces when we’re fighting Team Rocket.” Andy said.
“How come?”
“We’re from Pallet Town. We might have value to them.”
“The Rockets think that kidnapping us will stop trainers like Ash Ketchum and Gary Oak from doing as well as they do against them.” Kate spat the words out. “In short they’re cowards who target weaker opponents to get what they want.”
“So why fight if it’s so dangerous?”
“I already answered that.” Kate said shortly. “It’s our duty to. We have to stop them from doing what they do to us to other people.”

As she listened to the conversation, Andy felt very old. Aside from unfortunate random encounters most of these trainers would probably not have to face off against Team Rocket. They were able to enjoy the simple pleasures of being a trainer of pokemon, competing for tacky little shiny objects and fighting off the butterflies before they enter the Indigo stadium in their first tournament. But Andy and Kate and Renault and all the other Pallet trainers faced the danger everyday that there was a Rocket ambush around the next corner. Simply by being born where she was Andy had been robbed of those simple pleasures. Her training was to ensure that she would survive an encounter with Team Rocket; that she could flee if necessary. All of her pokemon understood that, if it came to it, they might be required to stand and fight alone to give her time to run. She had seen and experienced things that she wouldn’t wish on anybody and as these trainers watched Kate and Andy with a mixture of respect and awe, she knew that they would probably never really appreciate how amazingly simple their lives were.

Renault came up behind them and placed a hand on Andy’s head.
“Gary’s almost done out there. We’re going to go and talk in Joy’s apartment out the back.”
“We’ll be here.” Andy said, turning to look up at him.
“No, I mean we’re going to go and talk, you, me, Kate, Gary and Joy.”
“Wait.” One of the trainers spoke up again. “You mean you guys actually know Gary Oak?”
“Know him? I shared a room with him once.” Renault said. “Never again. Snoring that could wake a Whismur. He also talked in his sleep. Mumbling mostly, but occasionally he’d let out random calls like a Mantine. I’d love to see what he dreams to come out with that stuff.”
The trainers looked at him as if trying to figure out if he was telling the truth or not.
Andy sighed. “Yes, we know him well. He’s helped us train before and done some other things for us too.”
“Would it be possible to get an autograph do you think?” Several other trainers nodded enthusiastically to this idea.
“He’s just come out of a pretty hard fight guys.” Renault said. “That and dealing with the media is not going to have him in the best of moods. He should be around tomorrow morning though. Ask nicely and don’t crowd him and he’s usually pretty good with stuff like that.”

The sound of many voices drifted towards them and they saw Gary Oak stride in with a scowl as several photographers and reporters continued to trail after him.
“Get out now!” Joy snapped at them. “You know the policy of entering here uninvited. You’ve all got ten seconds to get out before I call the police.”
Apparently it was not an empty threat and they all filtered quickly back out the door, taking a few last shots of Gary.

Gary turned and acknowledged Renault’s presence and then turned to Nurse Joy, handing her his pokemon belt. She nodded and disappeared into the back room and Gary moved towards them.
“Hey girls.” He said, nodding to Kate and Andy. He turned to Renault. “Joy’s just going to get my pokemon started then we’ll talk. In the meantime, have you got a pen?”
“Yes, but it’s very special to me.” Renault said, pouting like a child. “Joy gave it to me especially. Why?”
Gary turned to the trainers. “Anyone who wants an autograph, go and grab whatever hat, shirt, pokeball or whatever and I’ll sign it. If someone has a decent pen then that’d be useful too.”
Every single one of the trainers scrambled to the bunk room chattering excitedly.
“I figured that you’d be in a better mood in the morning so I told them to wait.” Renault said.
“It usually cheers me up to be honest.” Gary said, taking a seat and dragging a small table in front of him. “As long as there’re not huge numbers of them. Besides I doubt I’ll be in a very good mood after I read the morning headlines tomorrow.”

Andy, Kate and Renault sat back and watched as Gary took half an hour to sign each trainer’s item, taking the time to ask their name, where they were from and what pokemon they had in their teams. Finally the last trainer disappeared into the bunk room and Gary stood up with a satisfied smile.
“Well it took longer than I intended but it definitely did what I wanted. I feel much better now.”
He led them behind the counter and into the back room. To the left led to the storage area where the healing pokemon were kept but Gary opened a door on his right and they stepped into a surprisingly spacious apartment. Joy had already laid out a plate of small cookies on the coffee table. Gary indicated that they should sit and the three of them obliged, sinking into one of the two large, soft, dark green couches. Gary settled himself into the other couch and Joy appeared with a tray of mugs, steaming with hot cocoa.

“Are the pokemon going to be ok Joy?” Andy asked.
“They’ll all be fine.” Joy said with a smile, setting the tray down on the table and sitting down next to Gary. “None of the injuries were all that serious.”
“Bruised egos more than anything else.” Gary said. Joy nodded in agreement.
“So,” Gary said leaning forward to take a mug, “tell me what’s been happening.”

----------------------------

For the second time in less than a day someone was shaking Andy awake. She groaned and attempted to swat away whoever was disturbing her. The meeting with Gary and the others had gone on until early in the morning which meant that sleep had been short.
“Wake up.” Kate said. “The newpapers are here and Gary is pissed.”
Andy scrambled from the bed and followed Kate from the room.
Gary was pacing rapidly reading a paper clutched tightly in his hands, his face was locked in an angry scowl.
“What’s this crap?” He snarled as Andy and Kate approached. Giovanni and Renault both had papers as well and both wore similar expressions. It was odd to see Renault angry.
“The effort that Gary Oak put into the battle brings into question his commitment to the cause of bringing an end to Team Rocket.” He read aloud. “Though he does not hold the rank of master, his duties with the Gym Leaders and Trainers Organisation mean that Oak is allowed to carry up to the master rank limit of ten pokeballs with him. During the battle only four of the ten pokemon were used. When asked about the status of the remainder of his pokemon, Oak refused to give comment. There is speculation that Oak was deliberately lenient due to his connections with Gym Leader Giovanni who some theorize is still connected with-“ Gary threw the paper sending pages spiraling through the air. “I knew that they would bring that crap back into it! Every time something like this happens they pull out this bullshit!”
“I don’t see why you’re getting so angry about it.” Giovanni said, looking furious himself. “This is the same old stuff. They’ve used it so many times you should have learned to ignore it.”
“It’s not just that it’s this other stuff about my effort in the fight! How dare they accuse me of not giving it my best shot. I’d like to see one of them take on that damn Cloyster!”

“Oh look,” Renault said looking up at the girls, “our stars.” He thrust a paper at Andy and she saw a photograph of her and Kate in their cloaks. Beneath it was a short article speculating on their identies.
“That’s why I didn’t want you to fight.” He snapped.
“They didn’t identify us, so what’s the problem?” Andy replied angrily.
“The problem is that you disobeyed an order to stay out of the fight! You two are in enough danger as it is, getting identified in the middle of a melee like that is the last thing you need right now!”
“I wanted to help you!” Andy snapped, her voice catching slightly in her throat as she began to get upset.
“I didn’t need your help.” Renault countered, though his voice had lost a lot of its angry tone. “I’m quite capable of looking after myself.”
“Oh you certainly showed that when Carrada appeared. Returning your pokemon.”
Renault fired up again instantly. “That’s because I have a brain in my head and I know when I’m outmatched and outclassed! Carrada is highly skilled and incredibly dangerous. You need to stop acting like a silly little girl trying to show off her skills to impress people! You’re in this fight whether you like it or not but if you want to be trusted to carry out anything important you need to stop acting like a child and grow the hell up!”
Renault stormed out of the pokemon center leaving a ringing silence. Andy tried to take a few deep breaths to calm herself but she knew the breakdown was inevitable and fled back to the bunks, throwing herself on the bed and letting the tears flow.

After a few minutes she felt the edge of her bed sink and she felt Kate’s hand caress her face.
“He’s right.” Andy mumbled, turning to bury her face in her pillow. “I’m such a baby.”
“He didn’t mean what he said.” Kate said gently. “We were pretty stupid to get involved but Renault doesn’t think you’re a silly little girl. He wouldn’t like you if he did.”
Andy turned to look up at Kate. “What?”
“Come on.” Kate said with a smirk. “Can you honestly tell me that it didn’t cross your mind that maybe the reason that Renault is so afraid for your safety is because he likes you?”
“Yeah right. Why the hell would he like me?”
“You put up with him for one thing.” Kate mumbled, more to herself. Andy snorted.
“We’re all just stressed.” Kate continued. “I wouldn’t take anything that anyone says today with too much seriousness.” She stroked Andy’s hair. “Besides, our stay is going to be enough of a pain as it is with the professor. If you two don’t make up it’ll just make life even harder and we won’t be able to train properly.”
Andy nodded and wiped her cheeks on the bed sheet. “Am I all splotchy?” She asked looking at Kate.
Kate smiled. “It’s fine. Come on, let’s get packed up. Giovanni thinks we should leave as soon as possible.” She rolled her eyes. “He’s another adult that needs to loosen up.”

---------------------

Like i said, dialogue heavy, but it's my thing.

[darktyranitar]

It's interesting to see that Gary has a serious personality... and a group of fans too. It's unfair that the media question his act. Although the dialogues cover almost the whole fic, it does explain a few thing and showed emotions from the characters.

Things are starting to tense up. I wonder what will happen after this. Well, I hope you can continue writing once you're not so busy. And sorry if my comment make no sense, I'm not feeling very well right now...

[Kinglerlord2]

Thanks for reading dark, I like the input I get from you. Dialogue for me is a story teller. It's better for a story to play out through the characters than have it told to you in words.

This chapter is uber long, almost 3000 words by itself. I apologise for that.

Chapter 6

Ash was already sprinting towards Gary and his Fearow before they’d even touched the ground. Gary slid off the flying type and Ash engulfed him in a bone crushing hug.
“Where the hell have you been?” Ash demanded, pulling back to grip Gary on the shoulders and look at him. “I’ve been worrying myself stupid for almost two weeks!”
“I’m ok.” Gary said with a smile as Giovanni’s Pidgeot landed beside them. “We need to discuss some urgent stuff though.”
Ash turned to Giovanni and shook his hand. “How are you Gio? Let’s go into my office and talk.”

“Giovanni, I suppose you’re here to discuss what happened last night at the hotel.” Ash said as they entered his office.
The gym leader nodded. “And to hear Mr. Oak’s report, both the official and the unofficial one.”
Ash nodded slowly and settled himself in his chair. “Speaking of which, let’s get the official report out of the way so we can relax a bit.” He pulled out a tape recorder and set it on the desk.
“This is the report of Gary Oak on his recent excursion to Johto.” He said into the player. “This report is witnessed by myself, Pokémon Master Ash Ketchum…” He indicated to Giovanni.
“And Viridian Gym Leader Giovanni.” Giovanni said clearly.
“This recording is taking place on the twenty eighth of November.” Ash continued. “At eleven thirty four.” He gestured to Gary who gave his report, uninterrupted by Giovanni and Ash, who both knew that Gary would be gruelingly questioned at the next major meeting of the Gym Leaders and Trainers Organisation. After fifteen minutes of speaking, Gary’s report came to a close and Ash shut off the recorder.

“Pikachu.” Ash said, turning to his yellow companion. “Could you go and get Misty please? We’ll start the second half of this debriefing once she’s here.”
The electric mouse bounded from the room.
“In the meantime, we should figure out what to do about these newspaper reports.” Ash said grimly. “We can’t sit on it; you’ll have to give a statement of some description.”
“Perhaps if I say ‘yes I am still the leader of Team Rocket’ they might leave us alone for a change.” Giovanni said sourly.
Ash snorted.
“Don’t concern yourself with this Mr. Ketchum.” Giovanni said dismissively. “Gary and I discussed it this morning, we can handle it.”
Ash sighed and nodded. “I’m glad the girls managed to stay unidentified. I’m not so sure that I like the follow up reports of the attack though.”
Giovanni held up his hands. “As I’ve already said to Gary several times, as amusing as it was that most of the pokéballs they stole were empty I did not organize the event to lure Team Rocket out so I could play a childish game of revenge and humiliate them. Replacing the trainers’ pokéballs with empty ones was a security measure I had planned for all along in case the Rockets did show up.”
“You realize of course that he’s going to retaliate.” Ash said. “Most likely against you directly.”
“I am very aware of that Mr. Ketchum. And though I have no idea who the hell it is that took over my organization, I am very much aware of his vengeful nature. I’m sure you recall the several attempts on my life after I revealed everything about the organization in exchange for a lenient sentence. This little humiliation will hardly rate on that scale but I will increase my cautiousness for the next few weeks. My own vengeance must be sought before I’ll allow myself to die.”

Misty came through the door carrying a tray of sandwiches and drinks which she set on the table before seating herself in the only unoccupied chair. Pikachu leapt up into her lap.
“Ok, now that Misty’s here let’s hear the unedited version.” Ash said to Gary.
“I’ll fill Misty in with a quick summary first,” Gary said, reaching for a sandwich, “Since she wasn’t here for the official report.” He turned to face her. “Basically I’ve discovered one of the main reasons why Team Rocket has been a little quieter for the last six months.” He explained. “They’ve had to pull huge resources out of Kanto and into Johto to maintain the somewhat fragile hold that they have there. I’d like to say that this is a good thing for us but quite frankly it’s not. The reason why they’ve moved a lot of forces into Johto is because their hold on it is being challenged by Teams Magma and Aqua.”
Misty inhaled sharply. “From Hoenn?”
Gary nodded. “From what I could gather, Team Magma landed in Olivine City about eight months ago and set up shop there fairly subtly. Unfortunately for them, Team Aqua found out and followed them to Olivine and attempted to rout them from their new base. There was a report about a street fight in Olivine around that time but everyone assumed it was between the Rockets and some idiots who challenged them. Turns out it was a battle between Aqua and Magma but no one was aware of this because both teams were out of uniform.
“Ultimately, Team Aqua was unsuccessful in removing Magma and they set up somewhere else. Since then it looks like several more bases have been established by both teams and the Rockets don’t like this idea. It’s taken us this long to discover the existence of the two Hoenn based teams because up until a month ago they’ve been operating without their uniforms, I assume to remain incognito until they’d firmly established themselves.” He leaned back in his chair and sighed. “That’s why it’s taken so long for our agents to find out how far into Johto they’ve gotten. But the uniforms are out now and it won’t be long before there’ll be some serious fighting between them and the Rockets, as well as between Magma and Aqua.”
“So Aqua and Magma both have solid forces in place then?” Misty asked.
Gary nodded. “We know the location of the Magma base in Olivine and one of their minor outposts. We only know of a single, almost insignificant Aqua outpost.” He sighed. “Guys, this is a nightmare. We barely have the resources to fight Team Rocket! There’s no way we can handle two more teams! Ritchie and I had to battle a few Aqua members and I’m not ashamed of saying that it was really tough! If trainers like Ritchie and I have a hard time battling them, we’re already half way up the creek without a paddle.”

“On the other side of the coin,” Giovanni said thoughtfully, “There is the old saying that the enemy of your enemy is your friend. We could sit back for the moment and see what happens, if we’ve learnt nothing else about the Rocket leader, we’ve learned that he’s a very vengeful person. So I can’t see him laying down and letting Aqua and Magma walk over him.”
“That could lead to some pretty nasty conflicts though.” Ash pointed out.
“It might be beneficial though. I doubt that either Aqua or Magma has anyone as powerful as say Carrada, so if we let them harass the Rockets they might be able to weaken them or at least distract them enough for us to regain control of Kanto and then go after the other two teams.”
“Even if that would work and we get the Rockets out of the picture, we’d then be faced with two more teams to try to force back.” Gary said heavily.
“Consider the alternative.” Giovanni said. “We attempt to force back Aqua and Magma now, which would require a huge amount of resources on our part and will likely allow the Rockets to regain some lost ground here in Kanto. You said yourself, Gary, that there is no way for us to fight all three teams. The Rockets are our biggest threat and as long the presence of Teams Aqua and Magma is dividing the Rockets strength I believe we should leave them alone.”

Gary sighed. “I don’t like it, but what choice have we got? I doubt the other gym leaders will think much of the plan though.”
“Well if they aren’t seen doing anything to prevent it the media will become even more of a nuisance than what it already is.” Giovanni said simply. “And I’m inclined to believe that the Kanto gym leaders will make a final decision that will please the Johto gym leaders and avoid the necessity of holding an inter-region meeting.”
“Which means they’ll decide to go after Aqua and Magma.” Gary said.
“I agree.” Ash said. “This means that the Pallet Front will have to do the best it can to keep the Rockets under control while the GT is trying to push back Aqua and Magma. The media obviously can’t hound us about ignoring the problem in Johto because they don’t know that the PF exists.”
“The problem is though, that half of our Pallet Front agents are also GT members and unless we reveal our existence to the gym leaders I doubt that we’ll be able to prevent some of our agents being sent to Johto when we’d prefer them here.” Misty pointed out.
“It won’t matter.” Giovanni said shaking his head. “We’ll need more agents in Johto anyway and this way gives us a valid reason to send some of our PF trainers without raising suspicion.” He turned to Gary. “Who’s in Johto at the moment that we can trust to run operations for us?”
Gary shrugged. “Ritchie, Casey, Duplica I think, but I didn’t see her, and last I heard Lance was still there.”
“He is.” Ash nodded. “I was going to call him here for the championships but we can survive without him.”
Giovanni nodded. “Lance is an excellent leader; I worked against him enough to know that. If we can work out roughly what we want to happen in Johto I’m sure he’ll be able to make sure it gets done as subtly as possible.”
“And if we need any extra security here for the championships I can probably call Drake in from the Orange Islands.” Ash added. “He doesn’t accept challenges during the Kanto championships.”
“I suppose that’s the best outcome that we’re going to get.” Gary said with a sigh.
“I’ll organize a meeting for the GT members here in Kanto for next Wednesday in Celadon.” Ash said.
“Can’t be Wednesday.” Giovanni said firmly.
“Why not?” Ash peered at his calendar. “Oh, right. It’s her birthday. I’ll make it Thursday then.” Giovanni nodded in thanks. “I’ll have to call Ritchie in for that meeting too. They’ll want to interview him about this.”
“Okay, so after the GT meeting on Thursday we’ll get together and finalise the details for the Pallet Front’s activities for the next few months based on the decisions of the GT.” Ash said, scribbling a few notes down. He sighed and tapped the end of the pen on the desk. “Looks like things are about to get a lot more interesting.”

Later in the evening, Ash stood on the small bridge in the large garden behind the Cerulean Gym, with a cup of coffee, and listened to the water playing over the water feature and trickling under the bridge. His thoughts were interrupted by the subtle approach of footsteps.
“Is that you honey?” He asked
“Sure is sweetie.” Came the reply.
Ash grinned. “What’s up Gary?”
Gary moved up beside him and leaned against the rail of the bridge. “So things have been interesting while I’ve been away it seems.”
“Interesting is not the word I’d use.” Ash said sullenly. “The girls getting attacked, Cassidy back in the region and Carrada giving us the slip. And the idiocy of the GT is almost driving me to take up heavy drinking as a hobby.”
“Speaking of the girls I’ve noticed some relationships developing that I’m a little concerned about.” Gary frowned. “Giovanni seems particularly protective of Kate and she seems to be the same way towards him.”
Ash frowned as well. “Yeah I know. That’s a problem. Giovanni has been a fantastic ally but he’s still Giovanni at heart. I’m worried that he might lead Kate down a path that could be completely disastrous. Convincing her to have less to do with him is virtually impossible and seems to push her further towards him. She almost seems to see him as a father figure.”
Gary nodded. “It’s an issue. The other one isn’t so bad but could still be a problem. Are you aware of the fact that Renault and Andy seem to have something going on between them?”
Ash looked up in surprise. “As in ‘officially dating’ something?”
“No I don’t think so. Renault definitely likes her though and I know she used to have a crush on him. I think it’s something we should nip in the bud before it gets out of hand.”
Ash put a hand on Gary’s shoulder. “I’m going to give you a very important piece of advice.” He said seriously. “Don’t interfere with that blossoming relationship or Misty will never speak to you again. Hell she’ll probably forbid me from speaking to you as well. She’s been pushing very hard to get something going there.”
“She is aware of the five year age difference right?” Gary said, sounding slightly appalled.
“Andy is definitely mature enough… most of the time anyway.”
“You are both completely out of your minds.”
The two grinned at each other and fell silent, welcoming the carefree feeling that was so absent in their lives. After a few minutes Gary let out a sigh.

“Look, I realize that there’s nothing we can do about Team Aqua and Magma but I think we need to keep a close eye on them.”
Ash nodded. “I was thinking about that earlier, they’re new to Johto so we might be able to get a few moles in without putting them in too much danger.”
“Actually I was thinking about Hoenn.” Gary said. “You know more about PF agents in Hoenn, is there anyone who might be able to gather a lot of really useful information on the teams?”
“I suppose so.” Ash said, staring blankly into the water. “But both Aqua and Magma teams are fairly ruthless so gathering that kind of info would be dangerous, we’d probably need a master or someone close to that level.”
“How about, what’s her name? Haruka?” Gary asked.
Ash sighed and gave a tight smile. “There’s no doubt that she’d do it if I asked her to.”
“But?”
“But we were a couple for what? 2 years? I mean, I love Misty more than anything but there’s still a certain amount of protectiveness that I have for Haruka…”
Gary nodded. “I could ask her if you like.”
Ash snorted. “If you did that she’d know I chickened out of doing it myself and she’d hunt me down and get that accursed wailord of hers to body slam me.”
Gary chuckled. “So you’ll do it then?”
Ash sighed. “I’ll talk to her. Masato and Harrison as well. It’s pretty important that it gets done I guess. Did you run into any Rockets worthy of mention while you were in Johto?”
Gary nodded. “I saw Butch briefly, but he set his fodder on me and slipped away while I was taking them apart.”
“Was Cassidy with him?”
“Possibly, but I didn’t see her. She was probably on her way here already. I also ran into Kosuke.”
Ash whistled. “I was starting to wonder what happened to him. Kosuke’s in Johto? The Rockets must be worried.”
Gary nodded then grinned boyishly. “Unfortunately for him I happened to be with Casey at the time.”
Ash laughed out loud. “She tore him apart?”
Gary’s grin widened. “The poor bastard didn’t know what hit him. She’s got some real skill that girl.”
He turned and saw Ash grinning mischievously.
“What?”
“Oh nothing.” Ash said airily. “I was just considering how I can bring Casey over here on assignment.”
“What for… oh no you don’t Ash Ketchum! I will not partake in any match-making activity initiated by you.”
Ash grinned widely. “Come on! Casey’s great! I think you two would be good together.”
“I don’t doubt that fact.” Gary said, blushing slightly. “But I’m not sure that I want to get into anything like that right now. Maybe when all this chaos is over I’ll consider it.”
“That’s a good enough ‘yes’ for me.” Ash said victoriously.
“You are impossibly stubborn.”
“So I’ve been told.” Ash swigged the last of his coffee. “You’ve called your grandfather?”
Gary nodded.
“I hate sending you on dangerous assignments. It makes him worry and I hate to see him stressed.”
“Increasing the girls work load with the Pallet Front isn’t exactly a good way to unstress him. Don’t worry I know that we have to.” He added when he saw Ash’s furious expression. “Besides, do you think he doesn’t worry when you go away?” Gary asked.
“I never really thought about it.”
“He considers you to be his grandson as much as he does me.”
“I wish there was a way to lessen his worry.” Ash said morosely.
“There is.” Gary said, staring down into the water. “Finish this war.”

----------------------------------------------------------------

“I brought you some flowers.” Giovanni said, clutching the two roses, one red and one white, in his hands. He smiled slightly, but it was a sad, lonely smile. “I know I’ve said the same thing almost every visit for the last five years but I still wonder every day how different my approach to the coup would have been if I had you beside me.” He kneeled down and gently placed the roses in front of the small, simple headstone. “Happy Birthday Domino.”


----------------------------------------

I really like the end of that chapter. Almost all of this chapter was salvaged from my previous attempt at this fic. I've always liked the closeness that Ash and Gary have. There'll be more of it later.

[darktyranitar]

No problem, dude. The dialogues don't bother much, except that sometimes I lost track of who is talking to whom.

Anyway, I found it interesting that some characters in the fic play important roles, whereas they were simpy supporting character in the anime series. Gary and Ash closeness is also nice, it was as if they were brothers.

And I also like the end of the chapter, were we get to see Giovanni's softer side. It makes me wonder how Domino had died. And the bigger question is how would all this conflict be ended? I guess it would be a long time until that.

Well, I hope you can continue writing! See you soon! :smilie:

[Kinglerlord2]

Darktyranitar: Hey there. Sorry about the confusion in the dialogue. I can see how it would be confusing sometimes. I need to unblock some of the paragraphs a bit.

As to how Domino died there is a large clue in the fact that Giovanni has been visiting her for five years and the coup occured five years ago... more will be revealed as time goes on.