Marril
10/31/2004, 03:56 PM
Edit: Oh yeah, this one kind of skirts the PG/PG-13 borderline. Just to let y'all know. Very slight swearing (you've seen it in SS before) and people biting it, but it's not very graphic at all.
It's Halloween today, and it's time for the SS Halloween Special. You people are going to love it—it's got action and stuff that makes it all scary-like. Or at least it should. Keen readers will note that this story's main antagonist is from Stephen Huxman's story Hitmonchan's Diary, and I've even written it so that it flows perfectly into HD, despite the time discrepancy and all. This is set in the OAV-verse, and is also canonical to the series. How's about THAT? :p
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“Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten,” Kenneth counted.
“That’s wrong on two levels,” Mikhail crossed his arms. “One, we aren’t doing anything that requires counting. Two, you started counting at two.”
“Oh,” Kenneth grinned. He turned into a side street, nearly hitting another car in the process. He’d stolen the car during a job in Cerulean about a year back, and why he kept it was a mystery to everybody but him.
“So we robbed that breeding center,” Mikhail recapped the day’s events. “Why aren’t we just heading straight back?”
“Because,” Kenneth explained. “We’re picking up Yamato.”
“Why?”
“To drive him to the airport. Me ‘n Yamato are heading off to his friend’s wedding-like.”
Mikhail arced an eyebrow. “Didn’t peg you for that type.”
“Hey, Yamato’s doing this for Rei, and I’m doing it for Yamato.”
“Izumi’s going to kill you.”
“You two are too serious. It’s like you’re married, but only not.”
Mikhail groaned.
“Why am I going along?” Mikhail wondered several minutes later.
“Fun. Excitement. Things you really lack.”
“Oh.”
Its eyes opened for the first time in years, the Pokémon knew what to do. It knew the ones responsible for its plight, and was already formulating plans in its brain. It was ancient, and knew patience was a virtue… but its patience was almost up.
“Team Rocket,” the words passed through its lips. “But first, to perfect my… image…”
“Bad news everyone,” Izumi walked into the meeting room. “Miyamoto’s confirmed to be dead.”
Yuusuke’s face was stunned. “How?”
“Frozen to death in the Andes,” Izumi said. “She died some time ago along with the two others we sent after Mew.”
Yuusuke looked crestfallen. “She was the best Rocket we had. Heck, she actually saw the danged cat.”
“We’re all a bit saddened,” Izumi nodded. “Schuler?”
“It’s sad to hear she died,” Schuler said. “Never knew her, just of her.”
“Thompson?”
Thompson nodded. “Should I arrange a funeral?”
“Not needed,” Izumi shook her head.
“Why’re we here?” Yuusuke asked. “This can’t be just it.”
Izumi grimaced. “I wish. That psychic kid working for us, Sabrina, she’s warning us that something’s coming. Something that is, to quote her verbatim, ‘very evil.’”
“This is a pretty impressive collection we’ve got here,” Yuusuke commented. “You and me being with the Rocket’s elite unit. Thompson being a technical genius, Schuler being a financial genius.”
“I know,” Izumi said. “You’d rather we sent one of our elite agents. Surge or Koga, yeah. Thing is, our group has better experience in this sort of field.”
“Where is it?” Yuusuke asked.
“Vermillion,” Izumi said.
“That’s near where Kenneth, Yamato, and Mikhail are going,” Thompson said. “Interesting coincidence.”
“I have it,” said the Pokémon. It struggled to awaken its full intelligence. It considered itself ancient, and as such its intelligence was deeply asleep. Only the most rudimentary thought processes—far more powerful than the human standard but infinitesimally less than its true potential—had thus far awakened.
A psychic presence intruded on its mind. Ah, so the cat was intruding again, attempting to halt the presence. The other ancient Pokémon was powerful, as far as it could go, but its true presence was less than that of the ancient Pokémon…
Xnyj.
“Here we are,” Kenneth said. “Finally. So when’s this wedding of your friend’s?”
“Tomorrow at two,” Yamato verified.
“Lovely,” Mikhail commented. “Let’s go get something to eat.”
“First sensible thing he’s said all day,” Kenneth grinned. “And I was sitting in the plane beside him for hours.”
The announcement came that some flight or another had been delayed yet again. Kenneth snorted in amusement, though he didn’t take a shot at the airline.
“Remind me to never again fly commercial,” Mikhail muttered.
“Can’t always fly business,” Kenneth said. “Case in point, we can’t always be laughing at that Irish pilot who flies the main Rocket helicopter.”
“Come on,” Yamato said. “Break it up. Taxi’s waiting anyways.”
“Just hours ago I was driving a car that must’ve cost millions upon of yen,” Kenneth said dramatically.
“You stole it,” Mikhail interrupted.
“Well, can’t all be winners. Now I’ve gotta ride like the common folk.”
“Maybe if you’re lucky someone’ll steal it,” Yamato said. “Really hammer in the irony.”
Rei paced back and forth, nervous. He’d felt unnaturally uneasy for the past few days. He couldn’t imagine any reason to; after all, he’d gotten himself into this. He was the one who’d proposed.
His father had just left after giving some rather noncomforting, generalized advice. His mother, conversely, had spent the previous part of the day crying that her small child was already getting married.
The phone rang.
“Great,” Rei said, answering it. “What else’s going to go on?”
Rei listened for a few seconds.
“Oh, hi Yamato,” Rei said. “Nah, I’m only slightly on the way to destruction. I have plenty of chance to survive make my time.”
Yamato’s retort was short.
“Har har,” Rei groaned. “Yes, I’m going through with this for great justice. No, I’m not going to shut up with the clichés.”
Yamato talked for a while longer.
“No, no,” Rei said hastily. “Though I appreciate the gesture. No, I’ll be fine by myself, no need to help when it’s really not needed and you’d be going out of your way anyways… yeah, I know. Okay. Bye.”
Rei hung up. He paced about the room, wondering what he’d gotten himself into. He knew it was just cold feet, but nobody had warned him just how unpleasant a feeling it really was.
“So we’re here,” Yuusuke announced as they departed the now-famous Team Rocket helicopter that was piloted by a now-surly Irish man. “Now what?”
“Sabrina told us that we’d know what’s going on when it comes to us,” Izumi repeated what she’d heard.
“That’s very helpful,” Thompson muttered. “Please let me know when you have more on the subject.”
“Will do,” Izumi nodded. “All right everybody, listen up. The head unit is operating at only two out of five members, which means that we’re at reduced efficiency. Therefore—”
Yuusuke cut her off. “Look, we brought along five normal Grunts just because you’re needed. Don’t do anything heroic, just let us know if you see anything—and I do mean anything unusual. Tell one of us, and by us I mean me, Insertion Girl—come now Izumi, don’t groan so loudly for stealing Kenneth’s joke—or Thompson here.”
The group nodded to Yuusuke.
“Now depart, do us proud, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.”
Izumi jabbed Yuusuke’s ribs with her elbow.
“Ow,” Yuusuke said intentionally, not out of any pain.
“I hate that name enough when Kenneth calls me by it,” Izumi explained. “You’re lower than me on the food chain here in Team Rocket, so don’t go using it.”
“Just had to keep the joke alive,” Yuusuke shrugged, which earned him a painful elbow to the face. “Now that one hurt.”
“Come on, we’ve got work to do,” Izumi ordered. “Sabrina told me some things to look for.”
Yuusuke followed Izumi as she walked off. “So why not tell everyone else?”
“Not everyone else could handle it,” Izumi explained.
“Oh. I see.”
Izumi looked back at Yuusuke, still walking. “This new presence that scares even Sabrina… it’s something to be feared. There’s going to be some signs. Killings, maybe.”
“You think this isn’t out of our league?” Yuusuke asked. “I’m not channeling Kenneth or anything, but… damn. I’m actually scared—I’ll be the first to admit it. There’s nothing quite like a mysterious thing that makes the most powerful psychic on earth scared. Really.”
Izumi chuckled.
Aha, there it was. Though not related to the source of its true anguish, the fact that it was in a moment of joy should be adequate.
The Pokémon just had to concentrate.
The wreck of the taxi was horrific, able to draw any stare, or so Kenneth might say, had he not been the one to cause it. Mikhail had tried to stop him, but he was kayoed in relatively short order.
Kenneth laughed at Yamato as he—Yamato—crawled out of the wreck.
“What the [bleep] are you, possessed or something?” Yamato shouted.
Kenneth smiled wryly. “As a matter of fact I am.”
“It’s not funny!” Yamato shouted, hitting Kenneth across the face.
The reciprocal blow was loud, to say the least.
“What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking that I’m going to have some fun before actually coming back to Earth. I’d say don’t bother getting up, but I can see that you’re going to come at me again uselessly.”
Yamato gibbered and stood up. Despite the fact that a crowd had gathered, he took another run at Kenneth, who clotheslined him effortlessly.
“Xnyj,” Kenneth said, pronouncing it ‘zineej.’ He frowned. “That sounded better when I thought it up ages ago.”
Several people from the crowd tried to stop Kenneth, but a short glare kept them away. He chuckled before glowing slightly.
“I’ve wanted to do this for years,” Kenneth smirked, strolling down the street.
“I’ve wanted to do this for years,” his mouth uttered though he tried to stop it. In reality, he’d done several things against his will for the past while. This Xnyj fellow who’d possessed him was certainly a very annoying bugger. Taking his body from him indeed!
This had indeed, though, given him some time to think. Xnyj, when he’d spelled it out in a very stupid manner (at least to Kenneth), was Jynx backwards. A Jynx possessing a human body would be something to see, if it wasn’t him being possessed.
Oh, and his left eyebrow itched slightly, and Xnyj simply refused to scratch it.
Xnyj sighed and relaxed his control of that human. It was fun while it lasted, but it had bigger things to do, namely get rid of that gaggle of morons the human psychic had sent after him.
“This is a Vision indeed,” Xnyj uttered, seeing another future where one man’s child would kill him after an age of darkness. It was an age where simply possessing knowledge of Pokémon was illegal. This would have to wait for the moment, as there were things to do.
Xnyj focused his Vision—he loved the irony of using the name of his enemy—on the here and now. He saw darkness and silence, after a brief violence.
“Yes,” Xnyj smirked. “This will be a short fight.”
Izumi grumbled. “We’ve been waiting here for hours. It’s almost nightfall. I don’t want to sound like Kenneth, but… it’d be a cliché if this thing waited until nightfall.”
“It’s too bad that Silph Company’s ghost detection scope isn’t ready for general use yet,” Thompson said, detached. He produced a telescope-like object from his pocket and looked around through it. “I’ve modified a prototype into a relative working order, but it’s hardly reliable.”
Yuusuke interrupted, “Don’t worry. There’s eight of us here and we’ve got the place covered.”
“Sounds like a horror movie,” one of the Grunts called out.
“Looks like someone’s acting like Kenneth,” Yuusuke muttered. He noticed that the Grunt had a point. He’d have to get the guy’s name.
“Hey,” Izumi called from across the room. “Thought I saw something.”
“What?” Thompson asked.
“Looked like some silver darting thing.”
“Silver?” Yuusuke wondered aloud.
“Flew right past me,” Izumi elaborated. “I don’t want to make it sound like some fleeting report written by Miyamoto, but…”
“It looked like a Phantom Pokémon?” Thompson asked.
“Mew,” another Grunt said in awe.
“It wouldn’t be here in Vermillion,” Izumi asked. “Would it?”
Kenneth ran to where he saw the crash had been. Mikhail was unconscious inside the overturned cab, and Yamato lay on the ground beside it. Kenneth’s heart wrenched knowing he’d been the one responsible for it.
“It’s him!” One of the members of the crowd shouted, pointing.
Kenneth swore. He’d forgotten that the common person wouldn’t understand that demonic possession was a perfectly viable excuse when it actually happened to him. Sure he might not believe it if someone else pulled it on him, but… oh.
“Hey, I was…” Kenneth tried. He knew that the crowd wouldn’t believe him and would probably turn violent. His best bet would be to meet up with Yamato and Mikhail later, assuming that they didn’t try to kill him on sight or something.
Kenneth grabbed a pokéball from his belt. “Quilava, Smokescreen!”
Quilava crouched down and breathed a deep, black smoke from its mouth. It amplified this with a black gout of soot from its flames.
“Come on, we’ve gotta run,” Kenneth motioned for Quilava to follow him as he ran.
Thompson fell to the ground. Izumi rushed to see what had happened. Yuusuke motioned for the Grunts to set up a perimeter of sorts—really, Mikhail was better at that sort of thing, but Yuusuke had seen Mikhail in action enough to know how to parrot the motions.
“This is it,” Izumi said. “And I do mean to be this dramatic.”
Yuusuke grinned. His face was then deadpan as he looked around.
One of the Grunts—indeed, the same one who’d made the cliché comment—uttered a short scream. The other Rockets turned around to see what was the matter.
“Oh… my… Goddish,” Izumi gasped. “You’re on fire!”
“I’m… what?” He asked, looking down. Then he screamed. His body was covered with small blue flames peppered over his limbs. The fire was, however, spreading like a normal fire.
Yuusuke’s jaw dropped. He didn’t believe that the poor guy was on fire. There weren’t any sources.
The Grunt hit the ground, writhing. The blue flames had engulfed his body.
“Anybody else think that someone’s going to burst in right now?” Yuusuke asked.
“No,” Izumi shook her head, unable to stop starting at the burning Rocket.
“Oh Goddish!” Was the last thing the poor Rocket shouted before he lost consciousness. The fire kept burning until he’d died.
“I think I’m going to go now,” another Rocket said, edging out of the building.
“Hold it,” Thompson raised his hand. “Just stick with the group. You’ll thank me for it later. You’ll be able to thank me for it later, I might say.”
“Did he just make a joke?” Yuusuke whispered to Izumi.
“That would imply it was funny,” Izumi whispered back. “But it was true.”
A yelp came from behind the three experienced Rockets. They all turned around. A charred remain was all that was left of another Rocket.
“Let’s all leave,” Yuusuke called, his voice surprisingly stable. “Now!”
“We can’t leave,” Izumi said. “We have too much to do here.”
“Stop being a damn cliché,” Yuusuke slapped Izumi hard.
“We’ve seen something that resembles the Phantom Pokémon,” Izumi reminded him, rubbing her cheek where Yuusuke had slapped her. “We’ve seen two men die! We have to get to the bottom of this!”
Yuusuke frowned. “Everyone, get going.”
Izumi watched the rest of them leave. Not wanting to be left alone in a place where two people had already died, she followed.
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That's just the first half. Stay tuned for Half Number Three!
It's Halloween today, and it's time for the SS Halloween Special. You people are going to love it—it's got action and stuff that makes it all scary-like. Or at least it should. Keen readers will note that this story's main antagonist is from Stephen Huxman's story Hitmonchan's Diary, and I've even written it so that it flows perfectly into HD, despite the time discrepancy and all. This is set in the OAV-verse, and is also canonical to the series. How's about THAT? :p
------------------------------------------------
“Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten,” Kenneth counted.
“That’s wrong on two levels,” Mikhail crossed his arms. “One, we aren’t doing anything that requires counting. Two, you started counting at two.”
“Oh,” Kenneth grinned. He turned into a side street, nearly hitting another car in the process. He’d stolen the car during a job in Cerulean about a year back, and why he kept it was a mystery to everybody but him.
“So we robbed that breeding center,” Mikhail recapped the day’s events. “Why aren’t we just heading straight back?”
“Because,” Kenneth explained. “We’re picking up Yamato.”
“Why?”
“To drive him to the airport. Me ‘n Yamato are heading off to his friend’s wedding-like.”
Mikhail arced an eyebrow. “Didn’t peg you for that type.”
“Hey, Yamato’s doing this for Rei, and I’m doing it for Yamato.”
“Izumi’s going to kill you.”
“You two are too serious. It’s like you’re married, but only not.”
Mikhail groaned.
“Why am I going along?” Mikhail wondered several minutes later.
“Fun. Excitement. Things you really lack.”
“Oh.”
Its eyes opened for the first time in years, the Pokémon knew what to do. It knew the ones responsible for its plight, and was already formulating plans in its brain. It was ancient, and knew patience was a virtue… but its patience was almost up.
“Team Rocket,” the words passed through its lips. “But first, to perfect my… image…”
“Bad news everyone,” Izumi walked into the meeting room. “Miyamoto’s confirmed to be dead.”
Yuusuke’s face was stunned. “How?”
“Frozen to death in the Andes,” Izumi said. “She died some time ago along with the two others we sent after Mew.”
Yuusuke looked crestfallen. “She was the best Rocket we had. Heck, she actually saw the danged cat.”
“We’re all a bit saddened,” Izumi nodded. “Schuler?”
“It’s sad to hear she died,” Schuler said. “Never knew her, just of her.”
“Thompson?”
Thompson nodded. “Should I arrange a funeral?”
“Not needed,” Izumi shook her head.
“Why’re we here?” Yuusuke asked. “This can’t be just it.”
Izumi grimaced. “I wish. That psychic kid working for us, Sabrina, she’s warning us that something’s coming. Something that is, to quote her verbatim, ‘very evil.’”
“This is a pretty impressive collection we’ve got here,” Yuusuke commented. “You and me being with the Rocket’s elite unit. Thompson being a technical genius, Schuler being a financial genius.”
“I know,” Izumi said. “You’d rather we sent one of our elite agents. Surge or Koga, yeah. Thing is, our group has better experience in this sort of field.”
“Where is it?” Yuusuke asked.
“Vermillion,” Izumi said.
“That’s near where Kenneth, Yamato, and Mikhail are going,” Thompson said. “Interesting coincidence.”
“I have it,” said the Pokémon. It struggled to awaken its full intelligence. It considered itself ancient, and as such its intelligence was deeply asleep. Only the most rudimentary thought processes—far more powerful than the human standard but infinitesimally less than its true potential—had thus far awakened.
A psychic presence intruded on its mind. Ah, so the cat was intruding again, attempting to halt the presence. The other ancient Pokémon was powerful, as far as it could go, but its true presence was less than that of the ancient Pokémon…
Xnyj.
“Here we are,” Kenneth said. “Finally. So when’s this wedding of your friend’s?”
“Tomorrow at two,” Yamato verified.
“Lovely,” Mikhail commented. “Let’s go get something to eat.”
“First sensible thing he’s said all day,” Kenneth grinned. “And I was sitting in the plane beside him for hours.”
The announcement came that some flight or another had been delayed yet again. Kenneth snorted in amusement, though he didn’t take a shot at the airline.
“Remind me to never again fly commercial,” Mikhail muttered.
“Can’t always fly business,” Kenneth said. “Case in point, we can’t always be laughing at that Irish pilot who flies the main Rocket helicopter.”
“Come on,” Yamato said. “Break it up. Taxi’s waiting anyways.”
“Just hours ago I was driving a car that must’ve cost millions upon of yen,” Kenneth said dramatically.
“You stole it,” Mikhail interrupted.
“Well, can’t all be winners. Now I’ve gotta ride like the common folk.”
“Maybe if you’re lucky someone’ll steal it,” Yamato said. “Really hammer in the irony.”
Rei paced back and forth, nervous. He’d felt unnaturally uneasy for the past few days. He couldn’t imagine any reason to; after all, he’d gotten himself into this. He was the one who’d proposed.
His father had just left after giving some rather noncomforting, generalized advice. His mother, conversely, had spent the previous part of the day crying that her small child was already getting married.
The phone rang.
“Great,” Rei said, answering it. “What else’s going to go on?”
Rei listened for a few seconds.
“Oh, hi Yamato,” Rei said. “Nah, I’m only slightly on the way to destruction. I have plenty of chance to survive make my time.”
Yamato’s retort was short.
“Har har,” Rei groaned. “Yes, I’m going through with this for great justice. No, I’m not going to shut up with the clichés.”
Yamato talked for a while longer.
“No, no,” Rei said hastily. “Though I appreciate the gesture. No, I’ll be fine by myself, no need to help when it’s really not needed and you’d be going out of your way anyways… yeah, I know. Okay. Bye.”
Rei hung up. He paced about the room, wondering what he’d gotten himself into. He knew it was just cold feet, but nobody had warned him just how unpleasant a feeling it really was.
“So we’re here,” Yuusuke announced as they departed the now-famous Team Rocket helicopter that was piloted by a now-surly Irish man. “Now what?”
“Sabrina told us that we’d know what’s going on when it comes to us,” Izumi repeated what she’d heard.
“That’s very helpful,” Thompson muttered. “Please let me know when you have more on the subject.”
“Will do,” Izumi nodded. “All right everybody, listen up. The head unit is operating at only two out of five members, which means that we’re at reduced efficiency. Therefore—”
Yuusuke cut her off. “Look, we brought along five normal Grunts just because you’re needed. Don’t do anything heroic, just let us know if you see anything—and I do mean anything unusual. Tell one of us, and by us I mean me, Insertion Girl—come now Izumi, don’t groan so loudly for stealing Kenneth’s joke—or Thompson here.”
The group nodded to Yuusuke.
“Now depart, do us proud, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.”
Izumi jabbed Yuusuke’s ribs with her elbow.
“Ow,” Yuusuke said intentionally, not out of any pain.
“I hate that name enough when Kenneth calls me by it,” Izumi explained. “You’re lower than me on the food chain here in Team Rocket, so don’t go using it.”
“Just had to keep the joke alive,” Yuusuke shrugged, which earned him a painful elbow to the face. “Now that one hurt.”
“Come on, we’ve got work to do,” Izumi ordered. “Sabrina told me some things to look for.”
Yuusuke followed Izumi as she walked off. “So why not tell everyone else?”
“Not everyone else could handle it,” Izumi explained.
“Oh. I see.”
Izumi looked back at Yuusuke, still walking. “This new presence that scares even Sabrina… it’s something to be feared. There’s going to be some signs. Killings, maybe.”
“You think this isn’t out of our league?” Yuusuke asked. “I’m not channeling Kenneth or anything, but… damn. I’m actually scared—I’ll be the first to admit it. There’s nothing quite like a mysterious thing that makes the most powerful psychic on earth scared. Really.”
Izumi chuckled.
Aha, there it was. Though not related to the source of its true anguish, the fact that it was in a moment of joy should be adequate.
The Pokémon just had to concentrate.
The wreck of the taxi was horrific, able to draw any stare, or so Kenneth might say, had he not been the one to cause it. Mikhail had tried to stop him, but he was kayoed in relatively short order.
Kenneth laughed at Yamato as he—Yamato—crawled out of the wreck.
“What the [bleep] are you, possessed or something?” Yamato shouted.
Kenneth smiled wryly. “As a matter of fact I am.”
“It’s not funny!” Yamato shouted, hitting Kenneth across the face.
The reciprocal blow was loud, to say the least.
“What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking that I’m going to have some fun before actually coming back to Earth. I’d say don’t bother getting up, but I can see that you’re going to come at me again uselessly.”
Yamato gibbered and stood up. Despite the fact that a crowd had gathered, he took another run at Kenneth, who clotheslined him effortlessly.
“Xnyj,” Kenneth said, pronouncing it ‘zineej.’ He frowned. “That sounded better when I thought it up ages ago.”
Several people from the crowd tried to stop Kenneth, but a short glare kept them away. He chuckled before glowing slightly.
“I’ve wanted to do this for years,” Kenneth smirked, strolling down the street.
“I’ve wanted to do this for years,” his mouth uttered though he tried to stop it. In reality, he’d done several things against his will for the past while. This Xnyj fellow who’d possessed him was certainly a very annoying bugger. Taking his body from him indeed!
This had indeed, though, given him some time to think. Xnyj, when he’d spelled it out in a very stupid manner (at least to Kenneth), was Jynx backwards. A Jynx possessing a human body would be something to see, if it wasn’t him being possessed.
Oh, and his left eyebrow itched slightly, and Xnyj simply refused to scratch it.
Xnyj sighed and relaxed his control of that human. It was fun while it lasted, but it had bigger things to do, namely get rid of that gaggle of morons the human psychic had sent after him.
“This is a Vision indeed,” Xnyj uttered, seeing another future where one man’s child would kill him after an age of darkness. It was an age where simply possessing knowledge of Pokémon was illegal. This would have to wait for the moment, as there were things to do.
Xnyj focused his Vision—he loved the irony of using the name of his enemy—on the here and now. He saw darkness and silence, after a brief violence.
“Yes,” Xnyj smirked. “This will be a short fight.”
Izumi grumbled. “We’ve been waiting here for hours. It’s almost nightfall. I don’t want to sound like Kenneth, but… it’d be a cliché if this thing waited until nightfall.”
“It’s too bad that Silph Company’s ghost detection scope isn’t ready for general use yet,” Thompson said, detached. He produced a telescope-like object from his pocket and looked around through it. “I’ve modified a prototype into a relative working order, but it’s hardly reliable.”
Yuusuke interrupted, “Don’t worry. There’s eight of us here and we’ve got the place covered.”
“Sounds like a horror movie,” one of the Grunts called out.
“Looks like someone’s acting like Kenneth,” Yuusuke muttered. He noticed that the Grunt had a point. He’d have to get the guy’s name.
“Hey,” Izumi called from across the room. “Thought I saw something.”
“What?” Thompson asked.
“Looked like some silver darting thing.”
“Silver?” Yuusuke wondered aloud.
“Flew right past me,” Izumi elaborated. “I don’t want to make it sound like some fleeting report written by Miyamoto, but…”
“It looked like a Phantom Pokémon?” Thompson asked.
“Mew,” another Grunt said in awe.
“It wouldn’t be here in Vermillion,” Izumi asked. “Would it?”
Kenneth ran to where he saw the crash had been. Mikhail was unconscious inside the overturned cab, and Yamato lay on the ground beside it. Kenneth’s heart wrenched knowing he’d been the one responsible for it.
“It’s him!” One of the members of the crowd shouted, pointing.
Kenneth swore. He’d forgotten that the common person wouldn’t understand that demonic possession was a perfectly viable excuse when it actually happened to him. Sure he might not believe it if someone else pulled it on him, but… oh.
“Hey, I was…” Kenneth tried. He knew that the crowd wouldn’t believe him and would probably turn violent. His best bet would be to meet up with Yamato and Mikhail later, assuming that they didn’t try to kill him on sight or something.
Kenneth grabbed a pokéball from his belt. “Quilava, Smokescreen!”
Quilava crouched down and breathed a deep, black smoke from its mouth. It amplified this with a black gout of soot from its flames.
“Come on, we’ve gotta run,” Kenneth motioned for Quilava to follow him as he ran.
Thompson fell to the ground. Izumi rushed to see what had happened. Yuusuke motioned for the Grunts to set up a perimeter of sorts—really, Mikhail was better at that sort of thing, but Yuusuke had seen Mikhail in action enough to know how to parrot the motions.
“This is it,” Izumi said. “And I do mean to be this dramatic.”
Yuusuke grinned. His face was then deadpan as he looked around.
One of the Grunts—indeed, the same one who’d made the cliché comment—uttered a short scream. The other Rockets turned around to see what was the matter.
“Oh… my… Goddish,” Izumi gasped. “You’re on fire!”
“I’m… what?” He asked, looking down. Then he screamed. His body was covered with small blue flames peppered over his limbs. The fire was, however, spreading like a normal fire.
Yuusuke’s jaw dropped. He didn’t believe that the poor guy was on fire. There weren’t any sources.
The Grunt hit the ground, writhing. The blue flames had engulfed his body.
“Anybody else think that someone’s going to burst in right now?” Yuusuke asked.
“No,” Izumi shook her head, unable to stop starting at the burning Rocket.
“Oh Goddish!” Was the last thing the poor Rocket shouted before he lost consciousness. The fire kept burning until he’d died.
“I think I’m going to go now,” another Rocket said, edging out of the building.
“Hold it,” Thompson raised his hand. “Just stick with the group. You’ll thank me for it later. You’ll be able to thank me for it later, I might say.”
“Did he just make a joke?” Yuusuke whispered to Izumi.
“That would imply it was funny,” Izumi whispered back. “But it was true.”
A yelp came from behind the three experienced Rockets. They all turned around. A charred remain was all that was left of another Rocket.
“Let’s all leave,” Yuusuke called, his voice surprisingly stable. “Now!”
“We can’t leave,” Izumi said. “We have too much to do here.”
“Stop being a damn cliché,” Yuusuke slapped Izumi hard.
“We’ve seen something that resembles the Phantom Pokémon,” Izumi reminded him, rubbing her cheek where Yuusuke had slapped her. “We’ve seen two men die! We have to get to the bottom of this!”
Yuusuke frowned. “Everyone, get going.”
Izumi watched the rest of them leave. Not wanting to be left alone in a place where two people had already died, she followed.
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That's just the first half. Stay tuned for Half Number Three!