GREEN (Mature)

[Buoysel]

Wow, great story, that only took me about 8 hours of reading. >.>

I really like cretin parts of this story, the alcoholic minor is hilarious for instance, and the way you merged the game with the anime is truly great.

 

[hamguy4456]

Wow! This is a really great story! I can't stop reading it... how often do you plan to update?

 

[Greenmaybeaguy]

I plan to update hopefully once a week. The first half of chapter 12 is up, waiting for the other half to finish to post it.

 

[hamguy4456]

great. that will definitely be one of the highlights of the week for me

 

[fordjon88]

I will be looking forward to the rest and will also be grateful when the next installment(s) come out.
It's like Crack only without the negative side effects

 

[Greenmaybeaguy]

Chapter 12-Portentous Night


Green had her feet up on the coffee table in their apartment as she drank a beer in one hand and ate chocolates with the other. This was the real way to spend a vacation. Marta had suggested that since she wanted to give Jeffey a makeover and the others probably didn't want to sit around and wait, they should all go their separate ways for a bit. Green had agreed, and after deciding where to go for a while had just opted for the most obvious choice. If they had a luxury room, why not abuse it a bit? Red had gone right back down to the Arena Deck looking to see if someone would make a trade for his Shedinja.


To her left was the egg Clair had given her, wrapped in a blanket. Honestly, she didn't know what else to do with it. What did you do with Pokemon eggs when you kept them in the game? For that matter what was she supposed to carry it in all the time? It seemed sturdy enough, so until someone told her different she just decided to keep it nearby. There was a pouch in her bag that seemed to fit it well, so for the time being there was no real concern.


When Green looked over at the wall clock and saw that she only had a half hour before the tournament began, she scrambled up and rushed around the room to get ready. She had taken off the damn skirt again, and there was a few minutes as she reassembled her outfit. Before she left the room she stumbled a bit to the couch for her bag, and lifting it up heard something clatter out. She bent down and picked up the TM that Misty had given her. It looked like a bluish disc that reminded Green of a blu-ray disc. However, she did notice that though she'd left the thing bouncing around in her bag it hadn't got scratched at all.


Taking out her pokedex to see if it could help her out with some information, she was astounded when a hatch at the side of the pokedex slid open, like a CD tray in a laptop. Sliding the disc in, the thing snapped closed and there was a moment as the pokedex processed the information. Finally, it reopened with a ping and the hatch slid open again, only to reveal a blackened disc. Green scowled as she pulled it out. "What in the flying ****? You worthless piece of ****!" she yelled as she began to bang the Pokedex angrily on the table.


The screen blinked, and Green stopped the pounding for a moment to read it. 'Loaded Technical Machines' was at the top of the screen, and 'Water Pulse x1' was underneath. Curious, Green pressed the entry, and two metal prongs snapped out of the front of the machine with a faint sliding noise. 'Press to Pokemon's head gently or press cancel' now shone on the screen. She considered trying it out for a moment, but she wasn't even sure which of her pokemon could accept it. Hitting cancel, she saw the prongs shoot back in with that same sliding noise. Now that she thought about it, the Pokedex worried her just a little bit. For one, any normal electronic object would need to be plugged in nightly, right? Especially when this thing apparently worked as a bank, a move teacher, and a detailed log of her pokemon. She supposed she shouldn't worry about it, but there was also the fact that she'd just beat it viciously against the table and it didn't even have a scratch. This thing must be made of Teflon.


It was only twenty minutes until the tournament now, and Green picked up her pack with a huff. She slid on the sunglasses she took the previous day and double checked to make sure she still had that extra cigar and her hat stowed away in her pack. That was everything. She wondered vaguely if Francis would get upset that she technically wasn't wearing exactly the same thing, seeing as she didn't wear the sunglasses yesterday. She considered at the same time that she couldn't give a **** what he thought.


Right before she left, Green looked out one of the small, circular windows into the wall and was surprised to see black clouds boiling in the sky. No rain was falling, but already she could hear the faint noise of wind blowing heavily against the side of the ship. At least she'd be below deck all night.


As she rode the elevator down, Green absentmindedly looked out of the windowed walls of the elevator cab and watched the promenade come closer and closer. The cab halted for a moment and let a few more people in, and Green only looked forward when the promenade went past. In front of her she saw the back of a woman, with long blue hair that came past her shoulders. She was wearing an open backed silvery dress that hugged her shape nicely. Green had that feeling of recognition again, and this time she could pinpoint it. It was Cairo, that Team Rocket woman that was trying to capture Regirock in Mt. Moon. Green's hands balled up into fists as the elevator doors to the Arena Deck opened. How dare they just wander on this ship! As the woman walked out of the room briskly, Green darted in pursuit, weaving through the crowd to close in on her. Grabbing the woman's wrist with one hand, Green pulled out a pokeball with the other. "Hold it there lady! You got a lot of **** to answer for!"


Even as the woman turned a horrified look on her assailant, Green could tell that this was not Cairo. The woman had a completely different facial makeup, and Green dismissed the possibility of prosthetics after a few moments as the two of them stood in silence, people slowing down curiously all around them.


Realizing she had been holding this woman's arm for at least a minute, Green finally let go quickly and put her pokeball away. "Um, I'm real sorry. I thought…" Green thought quickly. "You were my mom."


The other woman smiled back in a consoling sort of way, and took a deep sigh of relief. "Oh, I know how you feel honey. My mom's a ***** too. You give her hell if she deserves it."


Waving at the woman who was now walking away from her briskly, Green couldn't help but feel a bit like a fool. She was just jumping at shadows. It was all this damn alcohol. It made her a bit… edgy. Deciding to have a black coffee to calm her nerves, Green ducked into the café Interchange.
After waiting in the line for her coffee, Green was just noticing she had five minutes before the start of the tournament when Red appeared next to her in the shifting crowds. He had a huge grin, and waited patiently for Green to ask why. Green couldn't help but smile a bit as well. "Well, Red? What's got you so excited?"


"I traded Shedinja!" Red said excitedly. "I got some more versatility now, like you were talking about. Plus, I think he really likes me."


"What really likes you?" Green asked patiently as the two of them walked up to a huge table set up near the double doors. There were a number of smiling young ladies behind the table, and the one that helped them quickly found and handed out their numbers, 74 for Red and 75 for Green.
It was only when the two broke away from the madness around the table that Red responded. "My new Torchic. He's a pretty quiet guy but I have a fire type now at least!"


Green stared back in quiet astonishment for a moment. "You got a Torchic? Really?"


Smiling hugely, Red basked in the moment. "Yup! There was a breeder who had been looking for an interesting pokemon for his new team. His Blaziken made a couple of eggs lately he says."


There was a minute where Green fumed about not going down to look for potential trades herself. In hindsight, perhaps being a lazy ass back in the room had only left her slightly inebriated and wishing she'd brought a bottle of water. Maybe going down with Red and trying to get Beedrill traded off for something with a little more oomph would have been a better use of her time.


Marta rounded a large group of trainers all comparing pokemon and approached, smiling hugely and waving as Janine followed along in her wake. "Hey guys! I'm glad I found you in time! This is so exciting, isn't it? Look at all of these people!"


"Let's grab a table! Quick!" Janine shouted over the slowly building hubbub. Extra tables and chairs had been arranged along one wall, and while most of the trainers stayed near the front doors craning to see the action up close Janine took the opportunity to secure a table with both a good view of the still-blank tournament charts and of the Battle Coliseum doors.


As everyone sat down, Green hesitated next to her chair, gazing into the crowd. Sure enough, she spotted Blue after a moment, staring fixedly at the tournament board near the edge of the crowd and frowning in concentration. She snorted and sat down, summoning Charmeleon from her pokeball. The fire lizard yawned widely, and curled up under the table with a satisfied grunt.


Marta's gasp caught Green's attention, and following her momentary gaze Green found Francis at a nearby table, Marie at his side and another pair of trainers sitting across the table. They had a bottle of champagne, and Francis was already noticeably a bit drunk as he told a vibrant story, making over wide motions with his arms. Marie had one hand on his thigh as he spoke, and she drank casually from her cup as she scanned the room. Their gazes locked for a moment, and Marie flashed her catlike grin as she leaned over and whispered in Francis' ear. He perked up, said something to his audience that seemed to humor them greatly, and stood up to show her his shoes one at a time. They looked a bit less shiny than yesterday, she had to admit. Green turned away in disgust.


"Green…" Marta said softly, looking upset again. "Maybe I can go and talk-"


"I meant it what I said" Green stated evenly as she looked Marta in the eye. "Seriously." Marta let the topic drop without another mention or glance. Green looked down at Charmeleon, who was glaring at Francis and his laughing crew and growling under her breath. "Patience, girl" Green patted Charmeleon soothingly. "You'll get your chance."


Finally, a good ten minutes after the tournament should have begun, the lights were dimmed in the room and an immediate hush fell over everyone in the room. The wall above the PC terminals slid open, revealing a number of huge screens that all flicked on. They showed a single image; that of an official-looking sort of man in a black suit. Lights turned on in the ceiling, swinging around to meet the man and illuminating the televised image. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the singles tournament! Featuring more than one hundred different trainers from all over! We would like to start off tonight with a note of regret: it seems that Bruno will not be making it to the tournament this evening due to a pressing engagement." The grumbles this brought up ripped through the crowd, and the man went on quickly. "Of course, we have another unexpected guest judge this evening! Hailing from the Orange Islands, Danny, the Gym Leader of Navel Island!"


Green's face fell, and she turned away disinterestedly. "Oh, I thought it was a REAL guest. Just tell me when they put our names on the board." Judging by the halfhearted applause from around the room, the audience felt the same way.


Her interest was pulled back before that, and she turned back to the screen when the word "prize" was used. She could see a tall and fit man in a nice khakis and a collared shirt and sweater vest combo. In one hand he held the microphone, and in the other he was showing a golden pokeball to the "ooooh"-ing crowd. "The exact type of pokemon will, of course remain a secret" Danny was saying in a calm and pleasant voice. "Remember, these matches will be two-on-two battles. We will be calling out numbers in periodic groups of four. Be prepared when your number is called, because you will have ten minutes before your match begins. When you reach your battle rooms, you must give the attendant the two pokemon you wish to use. Strategy plays a bit of a part here as well, because you will not have the luxury of all of your pokemon. Of course, if both parties agree to alter the terms of their individual battles, they may do so as long as they receive an ok by an attendant. Parties can choose to fight with up to six pokemon if they wish. I believe it goes without saying that any unauthorized alterations in battling procedure will be viewed in a very harsh light."


There was a murmur in the group, and many turned to see the tournament board light up, names zooming down the slots on the narrowing board. Little numbers stood out next to the names, and after a moment's search she found her own. She was going to be fighting someone called David in the first round, but not for a little while. She was the first of their trio to have a battle, it looked like. Janine was near the very bottom, and Red was shoved somewhere in the middle. Looking at the first match, Green was surprised to see Blue's name, paired against someone called Gibbles. The booming voice of Danny washed over the crowd again, and the buzz of conversation subsided again. "To speed up the progress of the tournament, remember that only the winner's pokemon will be healed at the desk, simply in the interest of time. After the tournament ends we will assist everyone with the healing of their pokemon. The monitors on the wall will provide up-to-date progress on all of the matches, so please enjoy yourselves, and good luck to all you contestants!"


Even Green joined in on the applause. The guy was taking the disappointment most of the crowd felt with grace, so she felt he deserved something even if his league was a stupid and pointless shitfest. She guessed that wasn't his fault after all. Danny waved back and entered through the double doors, and the golden pokeball was placed inside of a glass case and brought in after him. Almost immediately after the doors shut, a cool and calm female voice announced a series of numbers. People began getting up and shuffling around the room, heading eagerly for the doors into the Battle Coliseum. Green watched evenly as Blue strode right up to the doors, never breaking his stride or his gaze as he walked through the doors as they opened to allow the trainers entry.


After a bit of waiting, as other numbers were called out, the screens went from showing nothing to showing six different battles. Blue faced off against a short dark-skinned kid in a blue jumpsuit with yellow stripes and an ostentatious blue hat with a red feather that must have been Gibbles. They couldn't hear the words as the two spoke to each other, but both hurled pokeballs as soon as the attendant signaled them to begin. Wartortle came out against, predictably, a Gible. The two pokemon began to fight nearly at once, Wartorle leading off decisively with a Water Pulse while Gible leapt in to chomp at Wartortle. The ball hit the thing out of mid-air, and it fell with a thud to the ground. The Gible recovered quickly, and rushed in to slash at Wartortle, but it missed horribly and hit the ground at a dead run. The attack had made it confused, and now Wartortle rushed in with a glowing tail and slammed the downed baby dragon. It shrieked, and went limp as Gibbles returned it amidst a hail of cheers from the watching crowd.


Green just didn't watch the second half of his match. The guy had a couple good pokemon, but had probably spent more time looking for the rare pokemon and getting his wardrobe than actually battling. She offhandedly watched the other screens as trainers buzzed around the room, nervously talking amongst themselves or standing silently, watching the screens. In one corner of the room she was sure she could see a couple of guys passing money to a man with a notebook, who was eagerly taking notes down. People were betting on the outcome already. Green settled back and tried to rest her eyes for a few minutes, but suddenly her number was called on the overhead speakers. Standing up, Green stretched and returned Charmeleon. "Well, see you on the other side folks" she said as she pulled on the sunglasses from yesterday.


Janine actually got up and gave Green a hug, which was so sudden it made her blush. "Good luck, Green" was all she said, but she gave an extra squeeze before letting go. It left Green speechless.


Standing up as Janine sat down, Red walked up to Green, seized her limp hand and pumped it a couple of times with a smile on his face. "The only one you gotta worry about in this tournament is Francis. You'll do great. Even if we all lose and you beat him it'll be all worth it."


Marta simply waved a little forcefully, because Red and Janine were now giving each other cool, calculating stares. She looked as if she wanted to send Green off before anyone got upset. "Good luck, Green!"


As Green pushed her way to the doors of the Coliseum, she passed Blue coming the other way, smiling. All he did was flick his eyes to the tournament board and wander off towards the coffee bar with a smirk on his face. Looking over, Green could see he had beaten Gibbles, and had thus advanced to round 2.


As Green entered through the opened doors, an attendant checked her number, and motioned her with a smile to door number three. Danny was further down the hall, watching one of the monitors with a serious look on his face before turning to march down to the next. Green opened the door to room number three, and stepped inside to face her opponent and the judge.


"Ah, number 75. Excellent. May I see your two pokemon, please?" asked the judge, holding a hand out towards Green, who paused before handing over Charmeleon and Snorlax.. The judge smiled, and scanned the two pokeballs with a pokedex that he took out of his pocket. Green had thought long and hard about using Regirock in the tournament, but had eventually decided not to. Who knew if there was some sort of law about using legendaries. Plus, she had enough confidence in Snorlax, Charmeleon and Breloom to take care of everything on their own. He handed them back and took a step towards the far wall of the battle floor. "Excellent. On the count of three then"


David, who was scowling in concentration, looked intensely down at his own pokeball as the countdown commenced. He put Green in mind of someone trying hard to remember his lines for a play or something. He threw out his pokeball on the count of three, finally looking up as his Sandslash faced off against Green's Snorlax.


Snorlax turned to glare at Green, as if saying that next time there'd better be something tangible to drink the next time it showed up. It turned to Sandslash as the thing darted forward, and caught the smaller pokemon with a wicked Headbutt. Even as the other pokemon staggered away, looking dazed, Snorlax braced itself and shoulder slammed Sandslash with a powerful Body Slam. The other pokemon didn't get up, and the exasperated David returned it with a groan.


David's next pokeball, nervously grabbed out of a pocket, released a Toarkoal, which appeared and blew out a blast of fire towards Snorlax. The fat pokemon frowned and barreled straight through the licking flames, slamming the turtle pokemon over with another body slam that actually sent it skidding across the floor. It groaned and lay there, paralyzed and unable to move. Snorlax looked smug and smacked its' belly with a slap as it laughed.


"The winner is number 75!" The announcer yelled, coming over to raise Green's hand in the air. Green grinned around, feeling happy but not too worked up. This kid had been… well, a kid. He'd been nervous and stammered his orders out, and he probably hadn't been ready for a pokemon as offensively-focused as Snorlax, who didn't even look too winded by the battle. The kid hadn't the air of a professional trainer, just an enthusiast.


David nevertheless came to meet Green in the middle of the battleroom floor, and shook her hand with a gracious smile. "Wow, your Snorlax is amazing! I didn't even get much of a scrape on him, did I?"


Green looked over at Snorlax, who was yawning and looking bored as he stared around at the empty arena. He didn't look hurt at all. "No, guess not. He's a tough pokemon though."


The two trainers parted ways at the front of the coliseum, Green staying behind for a moment as David took the walk of shame back into the crowd. Green received her pokeballs back almost at once, and she took them graciously as another couple of trainers were lead out of their room, one of the men heading eagerly for the counter. Leaving through the double doors, she came out into a wave of cheering voices. People were patting her back all around, and by the time she made it back to the table she felt she'd had enough of people saying "good job". There were also a number of trainers who merely watched her as well, whispering to each other or making notes with neutral expressions on their faces.


As she walked through the crowd, Green passed a grinning Francis. He smiled and stopped, waving a hand after her. "I look forward to watching you in the tournament more! Your first round was interesting." Green ignored him and continued to the table.


Plopping down at the table, Green sighed and glanced around at her smiling companions. "Well, that was a little easier than I was expecting. I kind of felt bad for the guy, really."


"I'm so impressed, Green! You should have heard the cheering when you won!" Marta exclaimed excitedly as Green reached into her bag for a bottle of water.


Red nodded quickly. "Yeah, it was amazing! Your Snorlax is really strong."


"I wouldn't have even expected you to lose" was all Janine said, and the two of them shared a grin. She pointed up at the wall. "Hey, look, Francis is battling."


Turning, everyone saw Francis facing off against a man with a white suit on one of the screens. They both let pokeballs go, and Francis' Quilava was up against the other man's Tauros. The bull rushed the four-legged creature, but it was too nimble. Quilava breathed in and blew out a line of fire that seriously damaged his opponent.


Green revolved back in her seat to face away from the screen. She didn't really want to watch Francis win. She noticed suddenly that Marta also wasn't watching either, but staring up at the tournament tree with a frown on her face. "Hey, what's wrong Marta? You look distressed or something."
Looking up, Marta tried to brighten her smile. "Nothing at all! Why do you ask?"


Flicking her eyes back to the tournament tree, Green scanned again for something that would cause Marta concern. She spotted it fairly quickly. The next round she was supposed to battle someone named Torgo, but then the round after that she would be pitted against Francis if he won his match. Glancing back at the screens, she could see Tauros being returned. The man in the white suit sent out a Chansey, and Francis returned his Quilava even as he threw out a Metang. It quickly became clear that Chansey had no chance as it slapped the floating creature to no effect, and Green turned away from the screens.


"Marta, you don't have to worry you know." Green said, reaching across the table to pat Marta's trembling hands. Green put on the bravest face she could. "I already told you I'm gonna win for sure."


Marta looked like she wanted to respond, but the next series of numbers were being called and Red was standing up. She opted to smile at him instead. "Oh, good luck Red! I know you're going to do well!"


Red grinned around as everyone said their pleasantries and went off into the Coliseum. Luckily, the first round for him was as easy as it had been for Green as Ivysaur defeated a man's Gyarados and Machoke.


Janine's first round battle ended up being much tougher, because the man sent out an Aron against Janine's Golbat. Most of the bat's attacks simply didn't do much damage to the little metal thing, but once Golbat used Confuse Ray the little pokemon eventually knocked itself out. The man's second pokemon, a Clefairy, was substantially easier, and was defeated by Nidorina.


The second round for the group turned out to be a much more intense affair than the previous round, all except for Blue who faced off against a kid with two Luvdisc. Green faced off against a trainer by the name of Tyson, a black-haired older kid with a thick red leather jacket. He battled Green's Breloom with a Lanturn that left the fighting mushroom knocked out, and Charmeleon had to sweep up before she was given quite a workout by her opponent's Dodrio. The guy was gracious enough, making small talk as they walked up to the front counter, but Green could already see Francis coming down the hallway and could only smile and nod along with Tyson.


Francis stopped by the counter for a moment to stand alongside Green as she took her pokeballs back stiffly. He made Green uncomfortable with his eyes, the way he looked her up and down. As Rudolph he'd never worried about people undressing him with their eyes. "Well I'm very glad you won. We finally get a chance to see how you measure up. By the way, if you win then you'll have to take the sunglasses off. You have beautiful brown eyes."


Green didn't watch him as he walked into his next battle room. Her hands were trembling as she balled them up into fists on the countertop. Nurse Joy looked at Green with a worried expression. "Are you alright dear?"


Heading towards the door with sudden swiftness, Green only had a moment to look back over her shoulder. "Fine, thank you."


That bastard has completely thrown me off, Green was thinking to herself as she walked out of the double doors, and through the cheering crowd. As the table came in sight, however, there was a commotion there that was looking to possibly turn serious. Red and Janine were both standing up, hands on the table as they glared at each other. Marta sat to one side, looking helpless and afraid as the two said things to each other far too low for Green to hear. Green walked up to the table swiftly and dropped her bag down hard with a bang, making both Red and Janine jump. "What the hell is going on?"


It was like a switch was flicked. Both Red and Janine's expressions slid into embarrassed grins, and they both lost that intense look. "Oh, nothing, Green. We were just arguing about what type is best" Janine said brightly.


Red nodded in agreement all too quickly. "Yeah. I said… fire." It didn't take a genius to see he had just picked a random type. His number was called out over the loudspeaker however, and he stood up gratefully. "Well, wish me luck!" he called before rushing off towards the opening doors.
Looking bewildered, Green glanced to Marta to see if she could make sense of this, but Marta was staring fixedly at her cup of iced tea and humming in a distracted kind of way. Green got the impression she was avoiding her gaze.


Green eventually decided to just watch Francis' match, which was already half over. His Quilava was fighting a Swellow and winning, but it was better than dealing with the sudden embaressed silence that had fallen over the table.


"Well, that's me." Janine said evenly after another batch of numbers was called. It brought Green's attention back from Red's match as she stood up to go, and she glanced at the tournament listing to see who Janine was battling next. It turned out to be someone called Jimmy, but what more immedietly drew the eye was the listing for round five. If Red and Janine continued to win, they'd both be fighting in round five. Come to think of it, according to the listing above that, if Blue kept winning Green would have to fight him come round five. When Green turned to comment on this to Janine, she was gone.


Looking to Marta, Green could see her glance up and down again in a quick movement of panic. They were the only ones at the table now. "So. Marta. What was that all about?"


Rubbing the back of her head, Marta looked as if she'd rather be anywhere else. "Well… they were just taking about… extra terms for their match. If it happens." Marta explained in hesitant chunks.


"What sort of extra terms? Like, six pokemon on six pokemon?"


"More like… someone would win something" Marta explained, still not raising her eyes above Green's chest.


Frowning, Green was about to just demand to know what she was avoiding when Red plopped down in the chair next to her, making her jump. She'd been so focused on Marta she hadn't been watching for her other companions. Last she'd seen of Red's match he'd been using Torchic to fight his opponent's Butterfree. "Oh, Red. How are you? Did your match end well?"


Red's face fell a bit. "You didn't see it? Torchic beat Butterfree, but lost to the guy's Yanma. Then Pikachu beat him. Why weren't you watching?"


Looking at Red, Green had a moment of flaring anger where she just wanted to ask him plainly what the changes to the terms of his and Janine's match had been. Seeing Marta's terrified expression softened her resolve though. She must have been made to promise not to tell, and all of this was probably tearing her up inside. Fine, she'd confront Red and Janine later about all of this. The fact that she was being kept out of some kind of secret deal made her edgy. "Oh, um, once we saw you beat his Butterfree we knew you were gonna win. And I wanted... Marta's ideas of who to use against Francis."


"Oh, right! Well, do you know who you're going to use then?" Red asked eagerly, all annoyance slipping away as he grinned over at the pair of them.


"Sure do" Green assured him, and pointed to the screen. "Hey look, Janine!" Marta shot a grateful look at Green that she pretended not to see.


They all watched in grateful silence as Janine's Koffing battled against a lady in a fabulous white dress and her Seel. Koffing didn't seem to have the advantage because it kept fleeing, but it soon became apparent this was only because Seel was poisoned. Eventually, the Seel slowed down to catch his breath, and Koffing hit it with a blast of gunk that drove the aquatic pokemon back against the ground. The lady in the elegant dress huffed as she returned her Seel, and sent out Jynx. Koffing's next blast of gunk hit it right in the face as well, and the spectators cheered as Jynx wiped a hand across its' face jumped at the flying ball, smashing it with a blue glowing fist. Koffing glowed white, and let loose a huge blast of energy that took the Jynx off its' feet. Koffing was returned as it fell to the ground, and Nidorina sent out, but Jynx didn't get up.


Even as they all cheered for Janine, Green could hear the overhead announcement stating that there would be an hour break between rounds two and three. People in the middle of the room were already heading for the sandwich shop and coffee bar, and even more were heading for the restrooms. This left a surprisingly clear floor open for when Janine came out, and she had no problem making it up to the table.


Janine strolled up and took a seat casually. "Well, what did you think?" Green noticed that while she smiled at her and nodded to Marta, she ignored Red entirely, and Red did the same in return.


"You did a great job in there, Janine. You were two for one there at the end! We should go and have some lunch to celebrate our wins. If we all keep on a winning streak we're gonna be battling each other soon, after all. Might as well eat some more free food, right?" Green asked the table jovially.
Everyone agreed readily, and they all headed off towards the elevators. Green got on the phone once they entered, ordering a tray of sandwiches and relaxing on the couch languidly as she released Charmeleon. Leaning back against the back of the couch, she sighed heavily as she slid a hand into the waistband of her pants. It was kind of a shame they'd be in Olivine tonight. It was great, being able to lounge about and eat however much they wanted in this glorious room.


Their sandwiches came quickly, and the man who brought the tray had at least four trays full of food on a cart. It looked like everyone was taking this time to get some food in. They all ate slowly, talking easily about the tournament as they consumed the food slowly. Snorlax was let out halfway through the meal, and given a bottle of vodka to quiet down.


The first boom of thunder boomed outside of the ship, making everyone pause for a moment in their eating. Then, the soft hiss of rain could be heard through the ship's walls. They could all see the outside of the ship, dark as more clouds boiled across the sky and let loose the rain that was falling in sheets. The ship didn't churn, probably because it was much too big for that, but there was a deep noise like the settling of a house. Marta looked worried as the watched the beating rain. "Oh my, that's not good! I hope the Captain can steer us through this well. In fact, I hope he's not still feeling ill. Maybe we should go and see if he's alright?"


Nodding vaguely, Green attacked another sandwich. "Yeah, the captain. Nice guy. Um, why don't we maybe wait until later tonight. Or tomorrow sometime. I'm sure he's doing just dandy."


Marta looked like she wanted to argue the fact, but after a moment of hesitation let it drop. Red and Janine were exchanging a very stiff dialogue, and Marta kept an eye on them to make sure it didn't dissolve into arguments.


Green contented herself with giving Snorlax another bottle of vodka and letting Charmeleon out of her pokeball. She watched the two pokemon interact, Snorlax leaning drunkenly over to pat Charmeleon happily on the head while Charmeleon stoically accepted the drunk pokemon's affection. Green smiled happily as she got herself a glass of water. Even though she'd given her large friend a solid quarter of her remaining liquor stash, it didn't bother her. Snorlax had pretty much earned its' keep and then some, so letting it get drunk as a skunk seemed fair.


It. That actually bothered Green. What gender was Snorlax? In the games there had been that little convenient symbol next to the names, but in here things weren't so expressly stated. Green took out her pokedex and flipped it open, choosing Snorlax and opening the profile the little computer had. The symbol for female stood there at the top of the page. Flipping to the next pages, she could see that Beedrill and Breloom were female as well. Ralts turned out to be the only exception as the only male in the group. Regirock had no symbol denoting his sex. As Green watched Snorlax and Charmeleon both eating at the remaining sandwiches, she wondered if they both got along well because they were both chicks. She supposed she'd never know.


Flipping back to Snorlax's profile, she scanned down to see what else she could glean from the Pokedex. It told Green about her weight and height and the relation of these numbers to the average of all Snorlax on file, a list of the moves it knew and a number of rough graphs telling Green about statistical values associated with her Snorlax, probably contrasted with the others on file once again. Then, at the bottom of the page there was a curious little option. Under "Available TMs" there was a glowing option for Water Pulse. Choosing it, Green was unsurprised to see the metal prongs pop out of the front again. Figuring that it couldn't hurt much, Green walked over to Snorlax and gently placed the prongs against her head.


There was a jolt of bluish electricity around Snorlax's head, and she jerked up suddenly as if she'd heard a noise. On the screen of the pokedex, Water Pulse faded away, and it went back to Snorlax's profile. Sure enough, Water Pulse was on her list of moves now. Green nodded agreeably. That was a thousand times easier than she thought it would be. Sure, had she actually thought it through Snorlax didn't exactly have a huge special attack, but at least she had coverage against rock types now, and maybe even Quilava if it came to that.
Feeling a tap on her shoulder, Green turned around to see Janine smiling at her. Red and Marta were talking casually as they cleaned up the mess they had made from lunch. "Are you ready to go? We only have fifteen minutes or so to get downstairs" Janine asked, reaching down easily to give Green's hand a tug.


Though her first instinct was to resist and say they should wait for the other two, another part of her realized that this could be the only time to confront Janine before her match with Red. It would just be too awkward to try to confront both of them about this whole subject, and quite frankly Green felt a little more comfortable talking plainly to Janine. She was a bit more like Rudolph than Green in some indefinable way that made Green relax in her presence. "Yeah. Let's go right now. Guys, we're gonna go try and get a table! Meet you downstairs!" Green said as she gripped Janine's hand, and pulled her along behind as they swept out the door past a confused-looking Red and Marta.


Not looking back until she had pressed the button for the elevator, Green wasn't surprised to see Janine smiling happily as she maintained her grip on Green's hand. Even as Green dropped the embrace, Janine maintained her good mood as she rocked back and forth on her heels, whistling a tune as they waited for the elevator.


"Janine, what changes did you agree on for your match with Red?" Green asked, wanting to get this over with. She had considered stepping lightly around the subject, but that just wasn't her style. The way that Janine's face darkened made Green add quickly, "it wasn't Marta. It's just pretty obvious. You and Red have been all weird even since my second match, and when I happen to mention to her that you and Red will be fighting come round five and she falls to pieces. Now come on. Just talk to me here."


Shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot, Janine looked resigned. "Well, it's not even a big deal… we weren't even going to mention it to you unless Red won, really. When you left for your second round match, he happened to mention that he wanted to be in the doubles tournament with you. He said that he wanted that to be the stakes of our match."


Blinking, Green processed this quietly as the doors to the elevator opened and they both stepped inside, feeling the cab moving down towards the Arena Deck. "I see. That's why you're so upset with him then, is it?"


"I'm upset with him because when he suggested the terms he also suggested I was scared and wouldn't take the deal. I don't like being called a coward. I don't tend to back down." Janine looked put upon as she scowled at the doors.


As they stepped out onto the Arena Deck and looked around at the slowly filling room, they could see that at least for the moment there weren't too many people around. There was still a good ten minutes until the tournament, and judging from the last time there's probably be another ten minute grace period before the event actually started up. The two of them managed to find a table easily, and Green sighed before speaking further. "Why didn't you guys want to tell me about this? I'm involved and everything."


"Red said that he didn't want to tell you unless he won. I just didn't think about it, really. I've been having a little bit on my mind."


"Well, do you want to tell me about it? What's on your mind, that is" Green prompted gently, feeling bad as she looked into Janine's hesitant face.


"I probably shouldn't be this angry with Red. I realize that, all right?" Janine snapped, looking annoyed at this sudden concern. She looked as if she regretted bring the whole subject up. "Let's just drop it."


Green reached out and gripped Janine's hand again. For a moment Janine tried to pull away but Green redoubled her grip and spoke gently. "Please tell me what's on your mind. I swear I'll help if I can."


Squirming, Janine gripped Green's hand back and looked her straight in the eye, but as she went on she slowly slid her gaze, so she wasn't quite meeting it at the end. "I like you, all right? That's the short version. I can tell that Red does too, and it annoys me. I know I shouldn't be annoyed with him but I just can't help it. We only kissed because we were drinking, like you said."


Instead of feeling touched, like Green felt she probably should be in the situation, she just felt exasperated. She made an effort not to let it show on her face, however. The recent meeting with that weird shadow guy had sort of driven a spear in her sex drive. The facts had been hurled at her like knives, and now it was just hard to summon up those kinds of feelings right away. The part of Green that was Rudolph could justify the drinking. After all, this was a traumatizing experience, and who wouldn't want to get ****ed up after realizing that not only are you suddenly less than half your previous age, but also of the opposite gender?


The Janine problem was more complicated. Green wasn't dumb, and could of course tell that Janine had feelings for her. Green had just been hoping that those feelings would eventually pass if they weren't reciprocated. It looked like there wasn't going to be a simple way out of this however. Ignoring this problem now would probably result in some emotional scars for Janine or something.


"I'm… going to be frank with you here" Green said slowly after a very long pause. Janine looked into Green's eyes again, and the expression on her face was hopeful yet a bit worried. "I don't know how I feel about you, alright? I might like you and I might not, but I guess I'm going to need some time to think about this."


"You said you were attracted to me that night." Janine drew Green's hand in closer with hers, and drew gently on Green's palm with her free hand's index finger. Green could feel goosebumps erupt all over her body. "I think you were telling me the truth. I can wait a little while if you need it."
Opening her suddenly dry mouth to make some sort of comment, Green never had the chance to say anything before Janine abruptly released her hand and smiled up at their approaching comrades, pushing through the crowd that had become much thicker in the few minutes they'd spent in conversation. Red simply sat down in the chair next to Green, grinning and asking some question that went completely over her head. Marta took her time sitting down, glancing back and forth from Green to Janine in a curious way before taking her seat.
Deciding to break the silence, and realizing she had created said silence by not answering Red's question, Green looked at him and smiled widely. "So, what took you guys so long in the room?"


"Just cleaning up and stuff. Marta also asked me to show her Torchic" Red explained, looking around the room obliviously.


Marta was giving Green a searching, curious look that was making her squirm a bit. "Yes, I hadn't seen Red's new pokemon yet. What were you..."


"Ladies and gentlemen!" boomed a voice over the room's sound system that quieted Marta as well as the hubbub in the room. The screens all flicked suddenly to life, and instead of the host from earlier, there was a new smiling man with a top hat and cane. He looked positively swanky after the last host, with a dazzling silver threaded suit, and brilliant golden monocle. He was smiling up at he camera, and speread his arms wide. "Welcome to round three! Remember folks, from here on out this is going to be a nonstop fighting fest! That's right, no more breaks until we have a winner!"
As the audience cheered, Green frowned in confusion. "What happened to the first announcer?" But Green never had her questions answered as the first round of numbers were called out. Green's number was announced in the first wave, and with a start she realized that she hadn't even been paying attention to her upcoming match. Now that it was right here, she didn't know what to think. Standing up without looking at anyone at the table, Green marched off towards the opening doors of the coliseum. She heard the faint noises of her companions wishing her luck, but her attention wasn't on them anymore.


Francis was getting up from his table, and didn't so much as glance over in Green's direction as he strode towards the doors, leaving Marie behind. Marie, however, spared Green a slow smile as she drank a glass of wine. Green glared back, though her anger was slightly undermined as Rudolph couldn't help noticing the low cut of Marie's dress and the impressive measurements she sported. There was an awkward moment between the two, as Marie seemed to look confused as the stare went on just a bit too long. Rushing on, Green shook her head to clear the thoughts. This was like torture or something. It was like taking a tiger, (alright, not a tiger, Rudolph hadn't been THAT impressive, but at least some sort of small hunting cat) suddenly giving him nothing to eat but soy, and then dangling meat just out of its reach. Well, maybe not quite that dramatic, but it certainly felt near to the truth. Even when she was thrown a bone (so to speak) in the form of Janine it had been a double-edged sword once that shadowy bastard had accused her of taking advantage of the fact that in some small way she was technically a step ahead of everyone. Glancing back over her shoulder at Marie, Green noticed her frowning as she stared back, as if trying to decide what to make of the younger girl.


Hurrying inside, Green was ushered down to room number eight, though she could have found the place without the help of the administrators. Francis was near the end next to the door, grinning widely as he opened the door for his opponent. "After you, ma'am."


Green brushed past him into the room without so much as a glance, and walked right up to the coordinator to hand over her pokemon. Francis, with his longer legs, kept right up and handed his pokeballs over only a moment after for inspection. The man solemnly handed back the two balls as they took their places on either side of the arena. Green had just a moment to wonder if she chose the right pokemon as the coordinator held up a hand dramatically. "On my mark! Three! Tw-"

 

[Greenmaybeaguy]

"Just a moment" Francis said, turning to Green with a positively indecent smile on his face. "Green, I have a proposal for you. A change in the wagers. An extra stipulation for the match."


Looking shocked, Green was uncomfortably aware of the coordinator watching her reaction with a curious eye. "I'm going to win here. Name it."


Smiling even wider, he spun the pokeball he held gently in his fingers. "The loser gives one pokemon from their current team to the other."


Green felt hate surge through her body, and took a deep breath to calm herself before continuing. "Fine."


"And remember, off with those sunglasses!" Francis chided, and Green was sure that when she flipped them up he licked his lips appreciatively. Green shuddered.


Both trainers let their pokeballs go, and suddenly Charmeleon was facing off against Francis' Metang. Green wasn't surprised, as he'd tended to lead with the steel-type in his matches. Charmeleon was quicker than the larger pokemon on the uptake however, and before it could react properly Charmeleon had sprung up on its' back and sunk a flaming maw of teeth into the metal pokemon's shoulder. The Metang shrieked, but didn't fall as it glowed blue, and flung Charmeleon away with a blast of psychic energy. Charmeleon rolled upright, hissing and brandishing his claws menacingly at Metang, who did the same.


"Bullet Punch!" Francis shrieked in glee, and Metang suddenly zoomed at Charmeleon with surprising speed. Its' arms glowed, and it began pummeling the lizard with a flurry of blows that even sounded painful to Green. Charmeleon breathed in to blow a line of white-hot fire at the other pokemon, but a punch in the mouth sent the stream harmlessly up into the air. "Take down!" Francis screamed, fists clenched a he watched the match with an almost manic glee. Metang stopped the punches, hovered backwards for a moment and then hit Charmeleon with a blow that sent it tumbling aga


Feeling the bottom dropping out of her stomach, Green lifted her pokeball, meaning to return the fallen Charmeleon. However, she slowly began to get up, and this time its' tail was burning with an intense blue-white flame that made Green hesitate and put Charmeleon's pokeball back. There even looked to be some of that fire in her eyes, as the lizard glared hatefully at Metang, who was quickly closing the distance for another take down. Even as Green cried, "Flamethrower!" Charmeleon spewed a cone of intense red fire, tinged with wisps of blue and white flame. Metang hit the ground, but even before the metal beast could get up Charmeleon was on top of it, snarling as it bit into the thing again and again with a mouth of flaming fangs.


Francis returned Metang, looking a bit off kilter. "No matter. I have a little more faith in this one anyhow. Go, Quilava!" Charmeleon met it head-on, blowing another huge gout of fire that drove the fresh Quilava backwards, yelping wildly. "Brick break!" Francis encouraged, and once Charmeleon stopped to take a breath, Quilava ran on all fours at her, quickly closing the distance. Quilava reared on its' hind legs and caught Charmeleon in the throat with a glowing blow from its paw. Charmeleon gagged and stumbled, letting Quilava deliver a vicious blow to the back of Charmeleon's neck. She went down like a sack of hammers.


Even as Green returned Charmeleon and threw out her next pokeball with Snorlax inside, she could feel that this could be a very bad turn of luck. Even worse was that while Snorlax was being let out, Quilava was shining bright white like a beacon. As Snorlax drunkenly got to her feet, Quilava had evolved into Typhlosion and now apparently had no trouble standing on its' hind legs as it stared the heavier pokemon down. Snorlax went from looking pleasantly inebriated to vastly concerned as Typhlosion bellowed a challenging roar at her.


Typhlosion rushed at Snorlax, dropping down to all fours as it enguled itself in fire. It collided with Snorlax, who stumbled back and frowned at the fire pokemon. Snorlax leapt right back, catching Typhlosion in the chin with her shoulder as it bore the other pokemon down to the ground. Typhlosion skid away from Snorlax, yelping as it hit the ground. Clearly, Snorlax wasn't overly concerned with fire.


"Forget fire attacks, use brick break again!" Francis yelled desperately as Typhlosion got up painfully from the attack, and sprinted forward. With glowing forepaws it slammed Snorlax once low, and then once high with a blow that knocked the heavier pokemon clean over. She groaned, and struggled to get back up.


"Rollout!" Green screamed at Snorlax, feeling equally as desperate as Francis looked now. Snorlax turned her slow stand into a tuck and roll, and went on spinning at Typhlosion like a bowling ball. She struck the flame pokemon in the gut and rolled over it bodily as she sped forward, barely missing the coordinator who leapt out of the way as it hooked around to come back.


"Brick break! Knock that fat bastard out!" Francis screamed, and Typhlosion's hands glowed white again as it got up and faced the approaching rolling pokemon. Both pokemon struck, and both pokemon hit. Typhlosion's blow did hit the ball, and Snorlax did get hurt, but the inertia couldn't be undone so suddenly. Snorlax still bowled over the flame pokemon, sending the two sprawling along the arena together, bouncing along the floor with notable thuds.


There was a long moment as the two pokemon lay there, both unmoving. Typhlosion was the first to move however, and got up triumphantly as the coordinator began to speak. "It looks like the wi-"


Snorlax sat bolt upright, and summoned a ball of water that smashed into Typhlosion's head, sending it sprawling to the ground where it didn't get up. Snorlax stood up very slowly and began to dust herself off. Green cheered and clapped her hands as Snorlax smiled at her.


Clearing his throat, the coordinator went on again. "The winner is number 75!" he smiled a bit as Green danced around, pulling her sunglasses back on as she gave Snorlax a relieved hug. "Congratulations."


Nodding happily and returning Snorlax, Green exited the room past an unconscious Typhlosion and past a shocked Francis, who hadn't moved to follow as she swept out of the room and into the hallway. Skipping once she had the room to do so, Green began singing happily as she got up to the front desk and handed over her pokemon. While she had a few minutes singing "We Are the Champions" by Queen, she had a moment to mourn the absence of all the rock and roll that would properly convey the emotions to Green's current mindset. Looking up and down the hall while waiting for Francis, Green's face fell slightly as she realized something. Danny wasn't anywhere in sight. The other times he'd always been in the hallway, watching a match through the monitors or moving to the next. His absence made her uncomfortable.


"Say, do you know where Danny went, Nurse..." Green began and silenced once she actually paid attention to the woman she'd given her pokeballs to. It clearly wasn't Nurse Joy. Instead of the normal short pink hair, the girl had nearly horizontal purple hair. Green simply boggled for a moment. It went to a point. It looked a few feet long. How did she keep it standing up? How did she get dressed?! Most importantly, why did this woman suddenly seem so familiar and unfamiliar, those dark spaces in her mind welling up when Green pulled close to the relevant memories. Only snippets of other memories persisted.


"Nurse Jessie" the woman supplied pleasantly, handing over Green's pokeballs and a brittle grin that told Green to get moving.. Next to her, a thin man in a white coat and shoulder-length blue hair was working at a desk, but in a preoccupied way of moving items around that made it look as if he was doing a lot of work when he was really just... arranging items on the desk. Without thinking, Green's eyes flicked around until they landed on a Meowth, who was cleaning itself slowly. She had suspected a cat would be around somehow. There was a definate moment of awkwardness as Green simply stood there, looking at the nurse's new companions before turning to stare back at the nurse.


For some undefined reason Green had the urge to make sure the pokeballs actually contained her pokmon, but she couldn't fathom why. "Do I know you three?" Green asked suspiciously, leaning slowly over the counter to stare Nurse Jessie in the face. She realized she must be making a fool out of herself, but she was sure if she could just place the face...


Someone else slumped onto the counter next to Green, making her jump. Blue handed his pokeballs over wordlessly to the Nurse, who tore her eyes away from Green and graciously bustled off. The spell broken, Green turned to Blue and scowled. "Oh, it's you. Guess you won your match."
"Yeah, the guy was tough." Blue responded in his level tone of voice, shrugging. "He requested we do a four-on-four match. He must've thought I didn't have a real team, only a couple of trick ponies. You know better, don'tcha Green?"


Turning away from the counter, Green marched towards the doors. "Six-on-six."


As Green pushed her way through the crowd, all thoughts of the strangeness inside the Coliseum was forgotten. In there it was almost reverentially silent most of the time, with only a couple of whispered conversations between trainers as they moved to their destinations. Out here, with the pounding crowd, it was harder to think what was so weird about those people behind the counter. It was driven from Green's mind completely once she got back to her table. Francis was standing there, unhappily handling a pokeball and pointedly not looking at Marta. Marie was standing next to Francis, arms crossed below her chest as she stood frowning and rigid. There was a bit of a crowd already, much to his chagrin, and they all watched eagerly as Francis held out the pokeball.


"My Krabby." Francis said evenly, not smiling as he handed it over.


For a moment Green considered being the noble one here and not take it, but after a split second snatched the pokeball, which disappeared after a moment's pause. "Thanks buddy! Now, I think you have an apology to make before we go any further" Green commented sternly, gesturing over to Marta who blushed a deep crimson. "Go on. We can do the shoe stuff after."


As Francis slumped his shoulders and marched into the crowd and towards Marta, Green could notice Red and Janine standing nearby Marta giving Francis stern looks. With the majority of the crowd flowing to follow Francis, Green was given a spare moment to flop into a seat with a grateful sigh. The others would take care of the apology deal with any luck. She was surprised when Marie walked out of the crowd and sat down next to her, the woman sliding her legs into a more comfotable position in a slow series of movements as she stirred a mixed drink. Neither spoke for a moment, and then Marie smiled wanly down at Green, leaning in close. "You know you're a very bizarre little girl. I don't just mean about beating Francis, though that's very impressive."


Green saw the curiosity in the beautiful woman's eyes. She also didn't lean away, and Marie's face stopped only inches from her own "Well, what do you mean then? I don't have time for games and stuff."


"Well, I saw you staring at me that time just before the match for one. And on the deck. You like girls, don't you little girl?" Marie asked teasingly, taking a large sip of her drink and grinning wickedly. "I know when someone's staring. You do it like a man."


Green's eyebrow twitched. This woman was just ****ing with her, playing a game. Well, Rudolph had a great idea for a game.


"It could never have worked, you know. I like a man in my life. You can't exactly fill-" Marie began, stopping only when the wrist holding her drink was seized by Green's hand.


Taking advantage of the momentary lapse in balance of the larger tipsy woman, Green leaned in and ran her lips along the nape of Marie's neck and up to her ear, feeling the skin prickle into goosebumps. Green's hand unoccupied with Marie's wrist went to her thigh and ran up to the hip as she simultaneously nibbled gently on the earlobe with her teeth, and then whispered, "I can assure you I'd satisfy you more than that that kid you're with." Green was close enough to hear Marie's breathing quicken. "I'd leave you begging at my feet for more."


Letting Marie's hand go, Green was satisfied when she stood up suddenly, and plucked Marie's drink out of her hand. The older woman just stared back, blushing faintly and looking bewildered. "But you're too old for me" Green said nonchalantly as she waded through the crowd and on to her friends.


Making her way to Marta, she could see a decent sized crowd gathered around Marta and Francis as he was finishing his apology. It was stiff and more than a bit forced, but it seemed genuine enough to Marta, who accepted the apology in full and even shook hands amiably with Francis. The expression on his face told Green that he found this public torture very irksome. Francis turned when Green approached, and smiled again in that crooked sort of way that made Green sure he was thinking of something disgusting. He completely ignored Marta as he walked up to the smaller girl with a smile on his face.


"Well, I suppose all that's left now is the shoes then?" Francis asked, and he seemed just a little bit too eager as he dropped down to one knee.


Green put her foot in his face, not in the mood right now for this. "No dice, creepy. Move along."


Wiping his nose slowly, Francis looked to Green with a glare. "I hate you. You're going to pay for this" he said, so angrily and sulkily that Green found it a bit childish. Francis was ignoring the laughing of the crowd as he took off his glasses, and wiped off the footprint that Green had made on one of the lenses.


As Francis scurried back to Marie's side, Green glared after him until she was swept up in a bonecrushing hug. Marta was laughing gratefully as she gripped Green tighter. "Oh, you were great Green! I'm so proud of you!"


Smiling back at Marta's collar bone, the only party of Marta Green could see, Green patted the larger girl absentmindedly on the shoulder. "Yeah, well. It's no big deal. Stop hugging me so much, I have a reputation to keep now" Green suggested as Marta slowly put her down.


"Congratulations, Green!" chimed Red and Janine at the same time. They both froze, and glared at each other as they realized what had happened. Green rolled her eyes and ignored them both. It was probably easier.


Round three passed without much more concern. Red and Janine's matches were difficult, but they both managed to barely pull through against their opponents. Green was a bit annoyed that neither of them lost and solved that problem themselves, but on the other hand she didn't have to seem like she was favoring one over the other. Green was focused more on round four already anyhow, and couldn't spare extra concern.


Found four was fought against a factory worker named Corey, who battled using a Skarmory and a Magneton that were tough, but both fell to Charmeleon and her powerful new fire attack. Red battled a hardy mountain man named Rowsdower who fought with an Onix and a Machoke, barely winning as Ivysaur took out the man's Machoke with some well-placed razor leaves. Janine battled Jimmy, a sailor that fought with a Scyther and Gyarados and won with Golbat and Nidorina.


Almost before Green realized what was happening, the fifth round was beginning. the tournament boards shone down at Green the knowledge that she'd be facing off against Blue in a few minutes. Getting up and stretching, Green was ready for her number to be called as she glanced casually around the room.


That's when she saw him. Giovanni. He was watching her from the back of the crowd, and smirked as he turned and walked off towards the stairs. A large man walking past Green's field of vision, obscuring the stairs for a precious few seconds, and by the time she had ducked around the man to get another look, the mob boss was gone.


Hesitating for a few moments next to her chair, Green watched the spot where Giovanni had been. Well, supposedly been to be fair. It was another one of those moments where your mind played tricks on you, and suddenly it was hard to be absolutely positive that she'd seen Giovanni, and not some guy with a thin mustache and a suit who had ducked out to take a pee.


"Um, Green they're probably waiting for you." Marta said brightly, a bit of uneasiness creeping into her voice as she looked into Green's faraway expression.


"Right... the match..." Green said slowly, feeling suddenly completely uninterested in the tournament at all. She tried to just get herself to move towards the Coliseum, but each time something kept her feet rooted to the ground. It couldn't have been Giovanni. But if it was then that was really bad and serious. It couldn't have been though. Right? "Um... I think I'm not gonna do this. I just saw Giovanni."


The other three turned to follow Green's gaze at once, and they all looked back with confused expressions. "Just now? That's silly Green, why would he be here? This is such a crowded ship!" Marta said pleasantly, smiling indulgantly at Green's scowling face.


"Danny's not here either. And Nurse Joy wasn't there. Even that announcer was different. I think it was Giovanni." Green looked back towards the stairs and back to her group. Red and Marta looked unconvinced, but Janine looked as if she was thinking the situation over seriously now.
"But the whole SHIP is full of pokemon trainers! Why would Team Rocket be here? You only have a few more minutes until you're disqualified, Green! I don't want you to lose to Blue!" Red encouraged, making an attempt for logic.


"A ship full of trainers that are all right here in this room" Janine interjected in a hollow voice. Her face was turning a bit white. "...and they haven't been healing the loser's pokemon."


Everyone considered this quietly for a moment. Marta looked wildly around the room. "Well, we should go tell someone! There's got to be a coordinator we can discuss this with..."


Janine's eyes snapped to Marta. "No. Absolutely not. They'd have told someone already if they weren't in on this. We have to go and talk with the Captain. We should have seen this earlier. Bruno not coming back was something we should have been more concerned of. Alright, we need to leave right now if we're going to do this. Just head for the stairs. Don't stop for anything."


As Green grabbed her bag and released Charmeleon, she was turning to leave when a hand grabbed her wrist, stopping her fast. Green turned, and started in surprise to see Blue. He looked confused as he frowned into Green's face. "Where are you going? Our match is going to start in a minute or so. You need to hurry if you don't want to lose." Blue smiled in that antagonistic way, but it faltered once it met Green's intense, angry look.


Pulling her wrist harshly out of Blue's grip, Green scowled fiercely at Blue. "You know what Blue? I don't ****ing care. You win. We got something important to do."


Green had only gotten a few steps, slightly catching up to the rest of her group when a hand grabbed her shoulder and spun her around. Blue looked concerned and annoyed. "Look, tell me what's going on. If it's serious then let me know."


Hesitating at first, Green relented after a moment. "Team Rocket. We thought we saw the boss of Team Rocket going up. We're gonna go and tell the Captain. It may be bad, since all those tournament people are missing."


Blue nodded once, and set his face into a serious straight line. "Alright. Let's go."


That surprised Green more than she let on, but this wasn't the time for more conversation than necessary. Green simply nodded back and rushed after the rest of her group. Blue ran behind, and Green could hear his Wartortle let out a "tort!" as it ran along behind its' master.


As they made their way up the flight of stairs and into the promenade, it was clear already how dead the rest of the ship was in comparison. There were three other people on the floor, one janitor that was using the opportunity to mop up the marble floors, and a young couple on a bench that were obviously using the opportunity to make out. They all took a moment deciding where to go before a map was located, and it was discovered that the Captain's Suite was located across the deck, near the helm of the ship. They found the nearest doors and came out into a whipping wind that was rocking the ship very slightly from left to right. They could hear the distant jangling of chains across the completely abandoned deck of the ship.


Crossing the deck as quick as they could, there was another one of those moments where Green felt a little bit foolish. There was absolutely nothing out here. She wouldn't be surprised if Danny was dining with the Captain or something. Then, there were two men, stepping out from behind a smokestack. They were both dressed as sailors, but that only proved to be reassuring for a second. The tall man was bulky and blonde, and Green remembered the name Gutman coming to the forefront of her mind. The smaller guy had that familiar shock of white hair, and Green remember his name as Cook. With a sinkin feeling she turned around, and saw both the young couple and the janitor running up the stairs, pulling on the black hats with the red R on them. Charmeleon was hissing at them, gums pulled back from her fangs as she snarled defiance. Wartortle and Ivysaur stood to her left and right, glaring fiercely at the two Rocket grunts.


"Hey hey, it's those two! The girls that ruined out chances of getting good with the boss!" called down a mocking voice. Cairo swung down on a rope dressed in a sailor suit, her blue hair done up in a bun. She grinned nastily at the kids now caught in a ring of Rockets. "Sorry, but we need all of your pokemon everyone. If you don't comply we'll just take them by force."


As Cairo reached for her pokeballs, everyone else present did the same, so for a moment there was just the rustle of cloth. Everyone threw out pokeballs, so that there were two circles of pokemon facing off against each other for a moment. Charmeleon broke the standoff first, snarling as she launched a stream of fire at Gutman's Arbok. Ivysaur snagged Cook's Mightyena as it started for the fire lizard, and Wartortle charged Gutman's Makuhita.


As the battle raged on, neither side having a clear advantage over the other, Green let out al of her pokemon except for Beedrill and Ralts. Now that the Rockets were tied up here with the battle someone needed to slip away and get up to the helm. Everyone else was so intent on the battle that Green didn't think about trying to get one of them to assist. There was a gap on the starboard side of the ship, between cook and the side of the ship. There was a ladder there that presumably led to the raised part of the deck that housed the helm and captain's quarters. She waited until there was an opportune moment, and then she ran as fast as she could for the exposed ladder. Reaching it with no problem, Green turned around to see no Rockets following her, though Janine and Red were looking after her with expressions of shock. Green climbed the ladder as quick as she could, heaving herself up and over the ledge at the top.


Having barely gotten to her feet, Green had just turned around to scout around this raised section of deck when she noticed a person, standing there and watching her. She didn't even get to yell as he said, "Poison Jab."


A Croagunk, standing in the shadow of a pipe, leapt down in front of Green and jabbed her with a glowing purple hand. There was the physical pain of a blow from the creature, but there was also the poison. It felt terrible, as if someone had injected scalding lead into her guts. The pain drove Green to her knees, and her hands flew to her stomach.


"Well, I'm not surprised." Gloated a voice full of smug superiority. Giovanni stepped out next to the figure that Green was dimly aware of as Harper now. "It's our little friend who stole our legendary pokemon."


It was only then that Green realize that she was in a lot of trouble. Her only chance now was to keep talking as long as possible. Her eyes flicked down to her pokemon. Charmeleon was too busy fighting with Arbok and now Seviper as well to notice anything. Regirock was swinging huge lumbering blows against his opponents, missing as often as not. Breloom and Snorlax had apparently decided to team up, and they fought back-to-back against the young couple of rockets from downstairs. Green considered reaching for Beedrill, but decided against it when she flexed her fingers. The pain was seeping through her body now, making every muscle movement ignite when flexed. "Not to sound stereotypical, but you're totally not gonna get away with this. There's too many trainers down below for that to work!" she managed to yell. Geez, it even hurt to speak.
"Two of your top pokemon being unconscious really doesn't help any trainer out. Plus, we'll be locking the entrances soon. I'll be surprised if anyone else even makes it off that deck." Giovanni lit a cigar, and puffed at it appreciatively in the whipping winds. He gestured to something in the water. "Look out there, girl. Tell me what you see."


Turning her head slowly, Green could see what looked vaguely like a tornado on the water. It was staying perfectly still however, save from the occasional ripple as the cyclone shook like a rickety Jenga stack. It looked like it was just a fixture in that spot of the ocean. Green managed to nod, and started reaching for her pouch. "A stupid whirlwind."


Harper stomped on Green's hand, making her howl in pain as Giovanni roared with laughter. "Close. It's a fortune waiting to be had. It's really too bad you didn't want to see sense. I liked you." He turned to Harper, and jerked a thumb at Green before walking off. "Kill her."


With a mirthless grin on his face, Harper reached down and grabbed Green by the front of her blouse, yanking her off of her feet. Green's hand managed to slip into the pouch as he walked her slowly over to the edge of the ship, where they could clearly see the churning black ocean over the hand railing. Green's questing fingers found a pokeball, and she gripped it tightly.


"You made me look like a damn fool down there at Cerulean City kid. I'm gonna enjoy this..." Harper reached for Green's throat with his free hand, and Green lunged for his hand with her teeth. Harper howled in pain as Green sunk her teeth into his hand, and as she refused to let go Harper was forced to drop the girl to her feet, using the hand formerly holding the front of Green's blouse to punch the girl across the face.


Green was driven to the ground by the blow. She felt horribly sick and disoriented as she tried to scramble upright; but Harper grabbed her blouse in one hand, yanked her up to eye level, and threw her bodily over the handrail without any more fanfare. Green's shoulder bag slipped off and hit the deck with a soft thump as her body soared over thin air.


There was a long moment before Green dropped out of sight. Green saw Charmeleon, who must have noticed Green's plight. It was screaming and running, snarling unintelligably as it began to shine with a brilliant white light. Green saw Harper, laughing, turn in confusion as he heard something approaching behind him. Green saw Janine and Blue, both staring back in horror as they rushed towards the ladder leading up. As Green dropped out of sight, there was a horrible scream that must have come from Harper, and that was the last thing she remembered before hitting the water.
Waking up slowly in a dark, crushing space, Green felt oddly peaceful. She figured she must have blacked out for a moment, because the surface was nowhere to be seen. As she also observed a few bubbles slide lazily out of her mouth, Green also figured that she must not have taken a breath in a whole minute or longer. While her whole body was on fire now, however, there wasn't the urge to do anything particular about it. There'd be no way to swim back to the surface now. Part of Green just told the rest that there was no reason to worry anymore. If she would close her eyes now, then that would be the end of the game. Death was in every rulebook.


Something dislodged itself from Green's hand. It began to slowly float to the surface, and it was only a strange curiosity that made Green reach up painfully and grab the thing before it floated away. A pokeball. Moving a finger slowly, she pushed the button in the center. A flash of light, and a pokemon appeared. Ralts. Oh, good, Ralts. Green smiled and began to close her eyes as Ralts looked confused, and then began thrashing after Green, reaching for the slowly sinking girl. It looked too small to swim well however, and as Green's eyes closed there was that flash of white light once again.


The next time Green awoke, she was hacking and breathing wildly as a pokemon jumped up and down on her chest. Hacking and spitting, Green knocked the offending pokemon off and looked around wildly. They were back in their suite. Turning to the pokemon, Green was shocked to see Kirlia standing there, looking concerned as it bustled around her. Indeed, it took a good five minutes to get to the point where Green felt she could stand. Feeling dry as a bone she stumbled to the small kitchen's sink, and drank the strange-tasting tap water right from the faucet. It felt like salt was coating her throat. Green had the urge to vomit, and ended up spewing much more water than she'd taken in. Seawater, probably. Goddamn Harper. Green looked around to give Kirlia a weak smile. "Thanks. I think I owe you one there."


Kirlia stood patiently as Green cleaned up a bit. Once she was sure that she could walk properly again, Green pulled a sandwich and juice from the mini-fridge as she left the room. She drank the juice gingerly as she ran down the hallway, eating bites of the sandwich when she was sure she could stomach it. Kirlia barely kept up, running full tilt after his master.


When Green reached the edge of the balcony overlooking the promenade, she saw people hustling about all over. Rockets for the most part, though there were small pockets of trainers scurrying here and there, trying to get away from the mayhem or at least retreat to a more advantageous position.


Summoning Beedrill as well, just in case, Green found a stairwell and ran down flights of steps until she reached the bottom, breathing heavily. Green looked around for a moment, orienting herself before dashing towards the wide-open doors leading to the deck. A Rocket jumped in her way, pulling out pokeballs and grinning, but as Green yelled "confusion!" Kirlia flung the man out of the way, sending him careening onto a table and rolling off onto the floor.


Even as the man groaned, two more Rockets stepped out to meet Green, blocking her way to the doorway. The hairstyle on the woman alone told Green that it was Nurse Jessie, though she had on a small, tight shirt with a large red R and a very short skirt with high black boots. Her partner held a rose, was dressed in a much more modest outfit with a large red R on the chest, and he had long blue hair that fell over his face. Even the Meowth from earlier was standing there on its hind legs, grinning as it brandished its claws.


"Who the hell are you guys?!" Green barked, annoyed at the constant stream of distractions.


All three figures grinned widely. "Well, since you asked... prepare for trouble..." began the woman in a smooth voice.


"And make it double..." the man chimed in, sniffing the rose dramatically.


"To protect the world from devastation!"


"To unite all peoples within our nation!"


"You're Jessie and James!" Green said, the knowledge slamming into her mind before their stupid motto even ended. Both Rockets stopped, and scowled at Green in annoyance. She didn't notice, and pointed to Meowth. "And he talks! He talks!" Green felt ecstatic. Some of that lost knowledge had come back! True it was only about these two, but it had come flooding back! It had been that stupid motto that had done it. Green couldn't help but smile wide.


"Well, thank YOU for ruining the best setup to use that speech we've had in a while!" James whined, looking sulky as he crossed his arms.


Jessie narrowed her eyes. "Well, I suppose we'll have to teach her some manners."


"Everyone says that. Geez, don't you people have any non-cliche sayings?"


"How about, we're gonna beat you up and take your pokemon?" James said, pulling out a pokeball. His action was mirrored by Jessie.


"Yeah, we're gonna make you pay for not lettin' me say my one line!" Meowth remarked, looking upset.


"Well that's kinda cliche too. But whatever. If you wanna fight, I'm ready" Green stated, stepping back to allow her two pokemon to come forward.


Jessie and James both threw their pokeballs, releasing an Arbok and a Weezing that faced down Green's Kirlia and Beedrill. Both sides eyed up their competition, and there was a long moment of silence before either side made a move.


"Smokescreen!" James commanded, and Weezing obliged with a cloud of fumes that billowed about, making the area dense with a blinding smoke.


Green could barely see Jessie as she laughed. "Poison sting!" Arbok sprayed the Green's pokemon with tiny needles, though they didn't seem to do much damage.

Beedrill didn't wait for an order but instead zoomed in towards Arbok, arms flashing as it jabbed at the snake furiously. It seemed thrown by the smoke however, and the snake had no problem flowing evenly out of the way of the blows. Kirlia surrounded himself with a blue glow, and suddenly Weezing stopped its smoke bellowing as it was slammed into the ground, hard.

Wrapped up in the action as she was, Green didn't notice Meowth until he leapt out of the smoke at her, teeth flashing in a wide grin. "Myaah! Hand over dat Regirock kid!"

Lashing out with a fist, Green caught Meowth in the face and sent him tumbling to the ground. "If I had the damn pokemon I'd be using it to beat your asses! Don't be stupid you little bastard!"

Wiping the blood from his nose with his front paw, Meowth managed a grin. "Well, judging from how your pokemon are doing, we'll probably take the rest of 'em anyhow!"

Green could see that Meowth's momentary distraction meant that Team Rocket had teamed up on Beedrill. Wven as she watched Weezing sprayed a wave of purple bile that knocked Beedrill out of the air. Kirlia tried to help the other pokemon but the smoke made him miss and smash a random fallen chair against the ceiling instead of Weezing. Arbok moved in and struck the fallen insect with a powerful crunch of the jaws, and Beedrill's frantic buzzing stopped. Green felt bad for the bee as she returned it. Beedrill had some bad luck in battles.

Both Jessie and James grinned as their pokemon both turned to Kirlia, who began shaking with fear as the larger pokemon advanced. Arbok lunged as Jessie commanded it to use bite, while Weezing rushed in to tackle its trembling opponent.

Kirlia had his arms over his head and was screaming in terror, but when his eyes opened next they were glowing a dark red, quite different from the faint blue his Confusion attacks had been making. Both advancing poison pokemon stopped suddenly, a foot away from Kirlia. They both looked confused, as a pulsing blood red aura held them motionless as Kirlia used Psychic. Then Weezing was slammed into the floor, Arbok into the ceiling, and then both pokemon were brought sharply together in mid air with a thump that sounded deep and painful. Both pokemon collapsed into a heap on the ground. Kirlia glared at Meowth, who had been inching up behind the psychic pokemon, but Meowth knew when to back off and laughed nervously as he slunk away.

Jessie and James both looked a bit unnerved by the Kirlia as they returned their pokemon. They looked towards each other, shared a grim expression and glanced back at Green. "Fine, I suppose we'll have to use our secret weapon!" James said gleefully, pointing behind Green with a triumphant expression.


"Yes indeed, the thing behind you!" Jessie agreed, pointing as well.

Even as Green turned to look she realized how stupid it was to do so. Looking back towards the duo, she wasn't surprised to see that the two had taken the moment to sprint down a hall and out of sight, returning their pokemon as they fled. Meowth ran behind them, stopping and glaring at Green as he held his bleeding nose with a free paw. "Just you wait kid. We'll be giving those pokemon of yours to the boss soon enough."

Green considered chasing the Rocket trio down, but it seemed a shame to let the oldest trick in the book NOT work after so much setup, plus there was pressing business on the deck of the ship. Exiting through the doors, Green saw that it had begun to rain again, sending sheets of rain across the gently bobbling surface of the ship. Nobody was in sight, and so Green returned Kirlia before sprinting towards the helm with her arm held up to block the rain.

Making her way up the rickety stairs she had used earlier, Green searched frantically for her bag but it was nowhere to be found. The bottom of the ship's handrail was solid, with small holes to let out excess water, so there was no chance it had slid into the ocean. Letting out a frustrated grunt Green decided to just forget about it and continue to the helm. She found the large iron door unlocked, but still struggled to get it open in the storm. Her whole body still ached, and all of this strain was making her moan with pain as it creaked open, allowing her to slip in before it boomed close again. There were stairs, which Green took as quickly as her body allowed before reaching another door that she flung her shoulder against, banging it open as she burst into the room. "Alright mother****ers, who's ready for an ass kicking?!"

It was only after she'd spoken that Green scanned the room properly. There were technically two Rockets, the fake young couple from earlier, but they were tied up into chairs with Regirock and Breloom guarding them silently. Red, Marta, Janine and Blue were staring at Green open mouthed. The Captain looked a bit roughed up, with a jagged gash across one cheek and a bloody nose, while Danny was lying nearby with a nasty looking head wound. Nurse Joy was tending to Danny, and there were a couple of sailors standing about looking concerned. Everyone was looking at Green now, and she could only blush at the silent attention.

"Green!" Red yelled first, pushing past everyone else to rush forward and grab her in a huge hug. "We saw that guy throw you over the edge! Charmeleon…" he broke off as if he'd touched a sensitive subject. "How did you survive?"

Janine was a step behind Red, and as soon as he let go she scooped Green up in her own hug. "We were scared to death. Please don't do that again." Green considered ribbing Janine that she couldn't help being thrown over railings, but once she saw the tears Janine was shedding she just smiled bravely and accepted it.

Marta just smiled and wiped her eyes as she watched the reunion, while Blue just huffed and looked away as soon as he could see Green was alright. Breloom covered the room quickly to be next to her master and made a contented noise when Green reached down to pet her on the head. Green grinned around at her friends, but looked serious when her eyes fell on Danny again. "So, what's going on? Shouldn't we be gathering up and searching the ship for Team Rocket members or something?"

"The members of Team Rocket have begun to leave the ship. Some have taken the life rafts, others flying away and still others using teleporting pokemon. We have begun a search of the ship, and have ordered all remaining crew and passengers to go to their quarters." The Captain said as he gained his composure. "The assistance of you five trainers has been invaluable, and I thank you, but I'm afraid I must insist that you return to your quarters as well. We shall perform a sweep of the ship soon, and hope to be back up to normal working order within the hour."

Looking around the room for Charmeleon, Green answered without looking directly at the Captain. "That's not good enough! They're going to be doing something out on the ocean! Giovanni mentioned it before he ordered me killed!"

"She's right" moaned Danny. He sat up, clutching one arm with the other painfully, and looked to the Captain. "They were asking me about the Whirl Islands. They're not far from where we are now. There was a rumor about nights when cyclones sang into the sky. I think… if those rumors I heard were true then they may be trying to do something much worse than steal valuables."

"I will take that into due consideration" the Captain responded smoothly. "For now, I must insist that yo-"

"Christ, is everyone deaf and stupid?! Team Rocket took the time to invade a cruise liner JUST to get a shot at those Islands! If you won't get off your fat ass and do something about Team Rocket, I will!" Green yelled, and stormed out of the room after grabbing her bag from an open chair and returning her pokemon.

Green had only gone about halfway down the steps before someone caught up. "Wait, Green! Don't do anything reckless! You just got thrown into the ocean!" Janine called as she managed to put a hand on the rushing Green's shoulder, stopping the girl.

Looking through her bag in that moment, Green pulled out what she recognized as Charmeleon's pokeball and opened it up. It simply creaked open, revealing only the interior of the ball itself. "I'm fine Janine, really! Now where's Charmeleon?"

Looking awkward, Janine opened and closed her mouths a couple times as she tried to form the right answer. Blue supplied it for her. "She killed the man who threw you overboard after evolving into Charizard. Then she flew off. We've seen her tail flame around the ship. We think she's been looking for your… body."

Not waiting for another word, Green pulled herself out of Janine's grasp and sprinted down the stairs with renewed vigor, pushing the large door open with hardly a thought to the pain as she ran out into the pelting rain again. She ran to one edge of the ship and began looking frantically out into the storm, hoping to catch a glimpse of a flame. Sure enough, there was a flash of red light that Green noticed diving towards the water, skimming the surface before rising again. Green screamed out into the raging storm, but for all the good it did she could have been spitting.

"I think I can get Charizard's attention." Blue released a Growlithe, and leaned down to whisper an order in to the dog's ear. Growlithe nodded, concentrated for a moment, and then belched a stream of fire straight into the air. There was a moment where Green was sure Charizard hadn't seen anything, but then the flame noticeably swung towards the ship, and Green could see Charizard skimming slowly over the water. Once she saw Green, she let out a roar and pounded both wings in an intense blast of speed.

Blue, Janine, Marta and Red had to dive away hurriedly as Charizard crashed down furiously onto the deck between them and Green. Green could see Charizard's back to her, wings spread wide to shield her from the others. Raindrops hissed off Charizard's blazing tail as she bellowed out a roar of rage, teeth bared and flames licking from her mouth and nostrils. Everyone slowly backed up, and as Charizard checked that the others were at a safe distance, turned to look at Green with gentle concern.

Green could see at once why the others had backed away. Charizard was matted with blood in the front, where the stains had run from her jaws all the way down to her white stomach. Even as she reached out her maw towards Green, she gently dripped red as the rain washed off the color. Charizard had a curious expression of fear on her face as Green didn't immediately respond, and her whole body drooped. Green, having only paused because of the shock of it all, reached out and grabbed Charizard's head and pulled it into a hug. "Oh, I'm so sorry that you had to do that. I'm sorry I scared you" she whispered gently, and the two just sat there for a moment in silence.

Patting Charizard on the head, Green dropped her hand, and began to climb on Charizard's back even as the dragon leaned down to let Green climb aboard. "Alright, we need to go right now, Charizard! You guys, follow me if you can!"

There were cries of protest, but Charizard kicked off before Green could say another word. Then there was only the whipping winds and stinging rain that sucked all noise into a crashing crescendo of sound. As Green tucked her bag in between herself and Charizard, she could tell that the dragon was obviously having some trouble navigating the storm. She bucked and dived through the buffeting gale, and Green could only shut her eyes and hold on for dear life as the world spun and weaved.

After a few heart-pounding minutes, there was a sudden stop to the rain and wind. So sudden it made Green sit up, expecting some sort of foul play as she looked around wildly. The air was hot and balmy, not to mention dry as a bone. It looked as if the rain ended where the cyclone began, and the water was calm rather than raging. It was almost as if the cyclone was doing the exact opposite of what it was supposed to do, keep warm and calm air in while disrupting the air around it. That was impossible though. As Green wiped off all the excess water she could with one hand, she looked down and saw what must be the Whirl Islands, four huge lumps of rock arranged in a vaguely square shape. She began scanning the water for a boat of some sort. Spotting glimmers of light from the furthest island, Green urged Charizard forward.

"You couldn't just wait up, could you?!" yelled a voice that made Green jump. She looked around to see Blue, dripping wet and scowling as he came up fast on his Staraptor. She could see Red, lagging behind as he was carried by Pidgeotto, and Janine grabbing onto Golbat's legs as it flapped desperately to keep up. The other two pokemon looked much more worn out after the trip.

Shrugging, Green threw him a grin. "No, not really. Where's Marta?"

"She's riding on Gyarados." Blue said gruffly as he pulled level with Green and jerked a thumb down. Sure enough, Jeffey was plowing through the water while Marta stood atop his head, riding the calm rapids. "You didn't have to act foolish like that. You're acting like a reckless idiot! I'm really sho-"

With a snort, Green stuck her middle finger up at Blue, who looked shocked at the gesture. "Oh, **** you buddy. I could honestly care less what YOU think." Charizard grunted, and dipped lower as they began to pass over the targeted island, leaving a speechless Blue rushing to catch up.



That's the end of part 1. I'll post part 2 of chapter 12 as soon as it's done

 

[Buoysel]

I love the length of your chapters, took me a solid hour to read it.

<3

Oh, I have a correction this time.

The Metang shrieked, but didn't fall as it glowed blue, and flung Charmeleon away with a blast of psychic energy. Charmeleon rolled upright, hissing and brandishing his claws menacingly at Metang, who did the same

Charmeleon is a girl, wrong gender here.

 

[hamguy4456]

Wow, what a great addition
i cheered when charizard saw that green was alive

 

[Greenmaybeaguy]

Charizard landed with a thump on the beach, and let a grateful Green off. It wasn't terrible riding on Charizard, but it made your back stiff holding on so tight. Now that Green had a chance to look around at the beach properly, she could see a covered boat with an engine pulled up onto the sand. Whoever had left it had obviously not bothered with concealing the boat's location. There was a few minutes as everyone caught up, landing on the sand and stretching for a moment to get the soreness out of their muscles. Green was personally curious how Golbat and Pidgeotto managed to carry their trainers, especially considering how Pidgeotto must have weighed seventy pounds, and Red seemed like he weighed at least ten pounds more. That was even being generous. Green decided not to pursue the topic however, as it could only end in more confusion. At least Janine wasn't riding a Zubat.

Marta was the last to arrive, and she returned Jeffey after giving him a pat on the nose and assurances that he had been a good boy. "So, let's go right?" Marta asked, glancing to the large and foreboding entrance to the cave.

"Yeah, let's go show Team Rocket what we're made of!" Red cheered, returning an exhausted Pidgeotto and letting out his Ivysaur.

Green rolled her eyes as she caught her breath and headed for the cave mouth. The others sprinted along after as they neared the edge of the cave mouth, but two figures detached themselves from the darkness around the cave mouth and barred their path. They were both men, dressed in the black Team Rocket uniforms and boots that were considerably nicer than the white uniforms Jessie and James had worn. One was black skinned, with a small afro that looked comical given the situation. His mouth was set in a serious scowl, and he adjusted his sunglasses with a touch of annoyance. The other man had pale skin and long black hair, slicked back in a way that made him look sleazy if his posture didn't accomplish the task on its' own.

The Rocket with the afro dropped his hands down to his pockets, taking out a cigarette and a silver lighter. The lighter clinked audibly even out here as he lit the cigarette alight. "I'm sorry, but you'll have to leave your pokemon here and turn back."

Snorting, Green rolled her eyes. "Dude, we've been steamrolling Rockets like you all day. What makes you think you two douchebags have a chance?"

Both men threw out pokeballs at once. "We're not grunts, kiddo" said the man with the slicked back hair, grinning as his Skuntank hissed and snapped at Ivysaur. "I'm General Vincent."

A Donphan appeared in front of the afroed man. It scowled at Charizard, growling deep and low. "I'm General Jules. The boss contracts out assistance when little bastards like you butt in. When we beat you I'm gonna break you in half little girl, unless you give me your pokemon."

"I'm not scared of you! Charizard, Flamethrower!" Green cried, spurred on by pure adrenaline.

"Light Screen!" yelled a voice, and as Charizard's flame careened down towards the enemy pokemon it hit a shimmering golden wall and dispersed harmlessly. A woman with shoulder-length black hair leapt lightly from a palm tree where she must have been watching. A Grumpig leapt out of the bushes to stand next to the other two pokemon, looking smug at Charizard's outraged expression. "You didn't introduce me! I'm Mia."

"You're not a General too? You're old enough to be one!" Green mocked, even as she started to get a sinking feeling. These guys all looked thirty at least, and their pokemon were practically begging to get a shot at their opponents. They really needed to get past these guys and get inside, but these guys were blocking the only entrance. If that Grumpig could stop Charizard's flamethrower dead then these guys were no joke. Behind her she could hear Marta and Janine releasing pokemon. Bayleef and Nidorina ran past and stood next to Ivysaur, joining the faceoff.

"I don't feel the need to inform people of my status when they won't give a damn." Mia smiled, and though she was obviously trying to remain calm a vein twitched in her forehead. "And I am not old. Now, what shall it be?"

Ready to crush these new Rockets and test out Charizard, Green was surprised when Blue grabbed her shoulder. "We need to go. Right now. I think these three are just a distraction for what's going on inside. There's got to be another entrance to this place."

Nodding in agreement, Green looked to Red. "Hey, think you can hold these guys off for us for a little bit?"

Red smiled, his Ivysaur lashing out at Donphan as the elephant pokemon tucked in and sped towards the plant pokemon. "We'll be alright, Green. Go! Hurry!"

Green motioned to Charizard, who bent down to let her climb aboard again as she threw a smile to Red. Mia scowled, and threw out another pokeball. "Oh no you don't! Xatu! Barrier!"

Mia's Xatu came soaring out of the pokeball as Charizard took off, but before it could summon a wall to impede their path Janine's Golbat had soared out and chomped down on its' side. The bird screeched, turned to Golbat and blasted it with a brilliant multicolored beam that knocked it to the ground. The momentary distraction had given Charizard time to fly away, and Green was sure to give a grateful look to Janine as she soared off with Blue trailing behind on Staraptor. It already looked as if the guys were at a disadvantage, as Bayleef was attacked by a frothing Skuntank.

It only took them a half-circle of the island to find something. Near the top of the island, around the back there was a dark crack in the stone that turned out to be large enough to allow Green and Blue to slip in, forcing both to return their pokemon before they could go on. Charizard didn't seem to like the idea of letting Green out of her sight, but didn't put up too much of a fuss once it was promised she'd be let out as soon as there was room.

Crawling on their hands and knees, Green and Blue pulled their way deeper into the crack, and for a few minutes they were both certain they'd made a bad move as the light faded gradually. Finally, Green's questing foot slipped into a large open area, and she found herself cautiously dropping down into a dark and horribly humid hallway. The sheer hot moisture in the air was making her break out into sweat at once as she tried to let her eyes adjust to the darkness around them.

Charizard was let out, flooding the corridor with the light from her tail as Blue dropped lightly into the corridor. He released his Wartortle, and took a minute scanning the hallway before speaking. "Do you feel something?"

"Yes, I feel like it's hot enough to boil an egg or som-"

"No, no. Just be quiet and feel the air." Blue snapped.

Standing still more out of anger than willingness to comply, Green could feel what Blue was talking about almost at once. The air wasn't still, but gently moving in one direction, namely deeper into the caves. It seemed to be actively pulling in the balmy air from outside. "That's weird… is it sucking the hot air down inside? Whatever, let's follow it" Green said, not thinking any more about it as she sprinted down the hall, Charizard keeping up as best she could in these cramped spaces while still trying to provide light. Wartortle ran ahead of Green, scanning the hallway for dangers and looking back occasionally to make sure he wasn't leaving everyone behind.

As they ran down the corridors, taking turns and weaves depending on how they felt the air flow, they needed to turn back and correct course a number of times. Green was sure that there were pokemon in the caves, but she got the strange impression that all of the pokemon were purposely staying out of the way. Eyes watched the four moving figures, and noises sometimes followed the group out of rooms, but no creatures even showed their faces. At last, Green turned a corner and saw Wartortle staring down a huge shaft. There were a number of different openings all around the lip of the shaft, and Green could feel that heat as each opening funneled out a constant stream of hot air. It all combined to give this hallway a horrible, wavering quality to the air that made the both of them pant like dogs.

"Let's go. It must be down there, whatever it is" surmised Green as she looked over the edge. There was a sort of spiraling rim of rock that went down into blackness, and Green was trying to decide how best to get down when a voice cut through the air.

"You?! Will you not just die? It was cute at first, but now it's a bit frustrating" Green stiffened and turned quickly to see Giovanni glaring at them as he walked out of the adjacent cave mouth. Next to him walked a Nidoking, and the thing barked a challenge at the other two pokemon. It began scanning for the best way to get over to the opposing pokemon even as Giovanni walked to the edge and glared across. "How did you get past the others in front?"

Charizard looked like it wanted to fight Nidoking as it snarled and roared an answer to the challenge, and Green barely held her back before answering in a calm tone. "Our friends are dealing with them out front. You're beat, Giovanni."

He glared back, and Green was uncomfortable to see the hate in his eyes. He had been so joking, so indulgent at Mt. Moon. Of course, he didn't seem like a man who enjoyed being crossed. "You're a fool. Your friends will lose. There's a reason I pay those three so highly. As for you two, I will have no mercy. I will give you one chance to turn back now."

"Wartortle, Water pulse!" Blue yelled, even as Green shouted, "Charizard, Flamethrower!" The water ball hit Nidoking first, driving the pokemon back and making Giovanni scramble out of the way. The cone of fire flowed over it next as Charizard flew into position, making the thing roar in fury as it thrashed in the intense heat.

Nidoking looked furious as it didn't even wait for an order from his master, but instead took a standing leap at Charizard. Green was sure the large purple pokemon would just fall to its' death, but the jump carried it straight into Charizard and right into the opposite wall with a sickening crash that made Green actually cry out in shock. She could see that Charizard was still fighting, struggling against the larger pokemon and snapping at his face with her jaws, but she was obviously tired and wounded. Her breathing was labored, and when she blew another gout of fire to drive the large pokemon off it was noticeably smaller than her last.

"You need to recall Charizard, you idiot! You need to get down there!" Blue shouted as he grabbed Green's shoulder and spun her around to face him. Wartortle was attacking Nidoking with a glowing blue tail, but the thing seemed much more intent on the large prey as Charizard snarled at it.

"Hell no! She can still fight, right girl?" Green shouted back, turning to look at her pokemon. Charizard looked up at Green's questioning tone, and Nidoking took the opportunity to deliver a wicked blow to Charizard's exposed face. The pokemon teetered slowly on the spot, and then dropped slowly over the edge, wings fluttering uselessly as the pokemon lost consciousness.

Green screamed again, and a cold numbing fear gripped her gut. She ran and jumped out over the edge, dodging Nidoking's tail even as he swung it to trip her up. Her jump had been long and meant to get as much as distance as possible, and so Green was surprised when she hit the wall right above one a rim of stone on the far side. As she struggled to her feet, she marveled that she hadn't just dropped to her death, but realized she had more pressing matters. She now had a clear shot to return the falling Charizard. Green pulled out the pokeball, and after one awful moment where she fumbled to get the thing the right way up managed to return Charizard before she hit any sort of floor. Green sighed in relief.

"Get moving, you idiot! Don't you know an opening when it hits you in the face?!" Green looked up wildly to see Blue, glaring down angrily as the sounds of battle raged up above. From Giovanni's side the sound of another pokeball opening was heard, and Blue reached wildly to his belt and threw out another pokemon to counter. "Go!"

Green ran down the steps as fast as she could, and tried to ignore Wartortle's cries of pain and Nidoking's screams of rage. Damn, Giovanni's pokemon were ****ing tough! Thoughts of the battle quickly left her head however as she descended down into complete darkness rather quickly. The heat here was incredible, and the rim here was so tenuous that Green eventually had to pull out her pokedex, using the small screen to light the floor as best as possible.

The angle of the steps evened out. Slowly and carefully, Green reached a leg behind herself and felt around. A solid durface tapped under her toes. Green released the wall and looked around wildly as she wiped the sweat out of her eyes, and pulled her completely soaking hair out of her face. She was regretting the fact that she never changed out of this damn dress. It was practically in tatters now, pink strips of cloth only loosely separating her legs from the open air. One of her shoes had gone missing, probably back in the ocean come to think of it, though her sunglasses had stayed. Odd that. Her blouse had ripped in a number of places, and her underwear was soaked complete through and scratchy with the dried ocean salt. It also felt like there was gonna be quite a bruise on her face from Harper's punch, come to think of it. She blamed skirts in general as she looked around the room, smacking her lips and feeling how dry her own tongue was. It was positively baking in this room, and the thirst from all of this heat was nearly driving Green to her knees. There were two noises here; a rush of water that must have been an underground river or something, and a steady dripping that came from a small pool of water nearby. Dropping to her knees next to it, she tasted the water out of a cupped hand experimentally. Deeming it fresh enough, if a bit sour and hot, she drank deeply.

Something in the water caught her eye. It was oval-shaped, silver, and sticking above the surface. Green stared at it for a moment. Then, unexpectedly, a crack ran rapidly across the surface and splintered into a spiderweb of fractures. The air in the room, which had been churning slowly, stopped at once. Fragments of the shell began falling away, and a small creature pulled its' way out of the shell, blinking in the vague light let off by Green's pokedex. It was large, around two feet, and it was already blinking its' eyes as it glanced around. It was unmistakably a Lugia.

Numbly, Green lifted her pokedex to scan the thing. Sure enough, a Lugia. Well, this was considerably more awkward than the Regirock situation. The thing lifted its' head and let out a sharp cry, and the air in the room began to noticeably flow the other way. It cooled the room, as if the arrival of the baby creature had caused this change in air currents.

There was a light that caught Green's attention. There was someone coming down the spiraling lip of rock. who had some sort of light. "Your friend fled, girl! You're mine!" yelled the voice of Giovanni.

Her gaze flew to the small creature, who was extending its head to inspect Green closely. It made a happy noise in the back of its throat as it looked eager, probably for food. "Look, I feel like a dick for this, but my hand is forced, kid." Green said, patting the small pokemon gently on the head before pressing a pokeball to it. The Lugia looked surprised as the red light engulfed it, and the newborn didn't put up much of a fight before the thing stopped shaking, and the pokeball disappeared. Green felt like a bit of a shitheel.

A crash from across the room made Green whirl around. Giovanni was hopping to the floor next to a Nidoqueen, who looked fresh and ready for battle. Green reached to her belt and whipped out Regirock as she stood up to face the leader of Team Rocket. He looked furious as he glanced around the room, eyes falling to the shards of shell as he placed a small lantern on the ground. "You have it, don't you? The Lugia?!"

Setting her face into a scowl of defiance, Green folded her arms. "You bet I do! It's already sent off too, so good luck getting it now!"

Giovanni's face became so suddenly and completely smooth and charming that Green was taken aback. "Listen, Green. These creatures have a unique and celebrated control over weather. Do you realize what we could do with that power?! This night was the most perfect opportunity for this operation to succeed. The parents of the egg apparently swim around these islands, making the unique reverse whirlwind you saw. The conditions it creates are the proper ones to hatch a young Lugia. Once the child is born it halts the storm. We're already feeling the effects! Don't you see the possibilities of this kind of power?!"

Face set into a scowl, Green's answer was quick and to the point. "You tried to kill me, you ****! Eat my dick! Ancientpower!" Regirock glowed, and sent rocks slamming into Nidoqueen, sending the thing off balance.

"Earthquake! End this nonsense!" Giovanni screamed in a furious rage. Nidoqueen stomped heavily, and it send a noticeable surges of energy rippling through the ground. The whole room began to boom and shake furiously, and Regirock was caught off balance as it was shaken violently, bouncing it around viciously. Regirock couldn't seem to get up, and Green was forced to return it. She sent out Kirlia, not liking these odds as Nidoqueen eyed up her opponent, the tremors coming to an end. "I'm not going to stop with you now. Once I get that Charizard it's being given to a lab and it won't see the light of day again. They'll suffer what you can't."

"Psychic!" Green cried, not liking where this was going. Nidoqueen was surrounded by a dark red aura, and roared in pain as it thrashed on the spot. It rushed at Kirlia, and gave it a vicious shoulder slam that sent the smaller pokemon flying into a heap. She tried to get up slowly to face Nidoqueen, but it was obvious that the psychic pokemon was outgunned. Kirlia hit the rushing pokemon with another psychic blast, but Nidoqueen stayed upright and delivered two quick kicks that knocked Kirlia to the ground. She moaned, and slowly got to her knees even as Green took out her pokeball, about to return it.

Nidoqueen was suddenly returned, a move that made Green feel completely thrown. She hadn't even used Snorlax yet. Giovanni had released Claydol, and has his hand on the thing. "Good luck with the parents" was all he said as the two vanished.

The silence of the room caught Green off guard. There was still the dripping and the sound of the wind, but something seemed to be missing. Turning slowly, Green turned around to look at what had happened to the underwater stream. Even in the small light left behind by Giovanni, Green could see two huge Lugia looking down at her. They were both making faces that told her that they were less than pleased. Green's mouth felt dry as paper as she smacked her lips. "Look, I know this looks bad, ok? But hear me out. We're going to Olivine City. I'll release your kid as soon as we get there. I promise. Look, if that guy would have caught your kid then… um…" Green's voice faltered as the two continued their silent glare.

The left Lugia's white and blue head shot forward, whether to sniff her out or simply snap her head off she never found out. It was certainly big enough to do so. Kirlia got between the two, and smoothly pressed her head to the incoming Lugia's. It paused, and considered the small pokemon for a bit. It pulled its head back, and it exchanged a glance with its mate. Then, silently, the two sank back into the water and disappeared from sight with only a quick glance from the left Lugia. That glance told Green that her word was considered accepted for now. Emphasis on for now.

Green let her heart stop thundering as she sank down to the ground, breathing heavily. Two quick saves. Kirlia was looking at Green with concern, and she patted her head pleasantly as she got to her feet. "I'm fine. Just a bit of a tricky situation. I'm gonna return you, I think you're more beat up than me."

Kirlia tried to brush off the implications, stepping away and standing up straight to prove she wasn't hurt, but it was undermined as a twitch in the leg made Kirlia stumble. Green smiled, genuinely touched. "C'mon, I won't hold it against you" she said as she returned the small pokemon back into her ball even as she started to protest.

Green had grabbed the small lantern and was nearly halfway up the corridor before she heard anything. A faint voice called something up near the surface. "I'm here!" Green shouted, not caring if it was Blue or even one of those new Rockets, Jules, Mia or Vincent. Whoever it was she really just wanted to get it over with.

After a moment, a couple of heads popped over the edge of the drop. "Green?" Janine's voice called down. "Are you ok? Green!"

"I'm coming up!" shouted Green as she continued to shimmy along the rock ledge.

"We're lowering you a rope!" an authoritative voice Green didn't recognize called, and a knotted black rope fell with a thump onto the cave wall. Green shimmied to it and grabbed hold, and almost immediately felt the pull of the rope as the people up top heaved her slowly up.

Janine was smiling so brightly at Green that it lifted her spirits considerably as she was lifted out of the drop. "You're ok? Where's Giovanni?"

"He got away. I… he was angry that there was no pokemon down there like he thought." Green said, opting for A truth, if not THE truth. She noticed a man there in a blue wetsuit, standing next to Blue, who spoke before she could speak.

Blue was frowning at Green's expression. "You got out ok? I barely made it out in time. His pokemon were incredibly strong."

Nodding, Green looked away. "He said I wasn't worth it and left after he beat Regirock and Kirlia with his Nidoqueen." Glancing around quickly to avoid any more awkward questions and stares, Green changed the subject. "Red? Marta?"

Letting the subject drop though he still looked suspicious, Blue answered the question. "They're back at the entrance of the cave. They left once these guys showed up."

"Officer Goode" the man said, flashing a badge he fished from under his wetsuit. "We had a bad feeling when it was announced Team Rocket was coming here. You said you found nothing, girl? Are you positive? It's very important to tell me if you found anything down there."

There was a long moment as Green pretended to think for a long time. "Well, there WAS some weird shards of silver..."

The man summoned a Pelipper. "I'll be right back. Stay here until I return" he ordered, and was gone down into the dark before anyone could say anything. There were a few minutes as they all stared down into the hole, and then he came back out, his Pelipper flapping evenly as they rose back into view. "I see" was all he said as he returned his bird and motioned down a random tunnel. They all silently walked down the side passage, until they could all see the approaching light of the cave mouth after a few minutes.

There were a few people milling around on the rain-strewn beach. There were a couple of sailors that Green recognized as being from the ship, and a couple more trainers in those blue wetsuits, both male and female. Two of them were questioning Marta and Red, who looked harangued as they answered question after question. The man that was with them walked swiftly up to his comrades and whispered something to the two of them that made them both nod and leave their charges alone. The guy motioned for Green to come and see her allies.

"Green! What happened in there? They keep asking if we saw anything! You look terrible! Are you hurt? What happened to your dress!?" Marta asked, her eyes wide as she looked to Green for some kind of answer. She looked so terrified that Green reached up and grabbed her firmly by the shoulder, and waited until Marta's breathing had calmed a bit before speaking.

"I'm fine, Marta. Really. I'm fine. Team Rocket's done with this place I think."

Marta smiled back after a moment of indecision, and grabbed up Green in a rib-grinding hug that made her wheeze. "I'm sorry Green. I just get scared whenever you run off like that."

Even as Marta let her go, Red walked up as if he was going to give a hug as well, but he turned it into a shoulder pat at the last moment. He coughed awkwardly as he nodded, trying to look tough and confident. "You did great, Green! I knew you'd stop Team Rocket!"

"Well, we'll bring you back to Olivine City whenever you're ready to go" explained Goode, smiling at the display of affection. "We've got a man with a boat waiting to take you back."

"You mean to the ship?" Green asked curiously, accepting a blanket that someone offered her and wrapping it around her shoulders.

Goode looked uncomfortable for the first time as he tried to find words. "Well... it seems like the five of you may not be let back onto the ship. The captain's very upset at the fact that you left, and he does have permission to kick you off the ship after all." Seeing the looks of outrage on their faces, he quickly added, "Look, I'm sure he'll see sense once the situation's been explained. Even if not, I can assure you that we'll find you a ride home one way or the other. Now, I'll go and make sure your transportation is ready. By the way, on behalf of the Johto Coast Guard, we have to thank you for what you've done here. It could have been... very bad if Team Rocket had managed to complete their goals. Whatever they were."

As Goode walked away, Green let her face drop from the blank expression she'd had on into a wash of relief. Marta, Red and Janine began grumbling to one another about the unfairness of life in general, while Blue just sat down and leaned against a rock, closing his eyes and letting out a long sigh of relief at finally resting for a moment. Green wished she hadn't let Snorlax drink the rest of the alcohol as she looked out over the ocean and realized how sober she was.

Eventually a woman in one of the blue wetsuits walked up, smiling down at the five of them as she adjusted her blue-green hair. "Hello, I'm Officer Jenny. Goode tells me that you need a transport to the shore?"

"Yes indeed. Sorry, for a moment I thought you were Officer Jenny." Green said, nodding to herself.

"That must be my cousin over in Cerulean City! My, I haven't seen her in forever. Please, give my love the next time you head through. Ready to go?" asked the Officer.

The trip to Olivine City was completely uneventful. Officer Jenny chatted amiably about various topics, mostly to Marta, who was the only one really paying attention. Red and Janine had taken up seats to the left and right of Green, and she was uncomfortably aware of the two glaring at each other whenever they thought she wasn't watching. Blue entertained himself with his pokedex, which he didn't look up from until they docked at port around an hour later.

Hopping off the boat as Officer Jenny tied it to the dock, Green marveled at the sheer amount of people. They could all see the SS Anne docked further along, and while some of the people were people from the ship, most were obviously either people from town that were curious or authority figures keeping order in the milling crowds. "Wow, there's really quite a turnout! How did everyone hear about the situation anyhow?"

"Well, I think your friend Red could explain that." Officer Jenny said with a wry smile. "We were watching the seas tonight, what with the cruise ship out and typhoons about. Then, we get a sudden five-second transmission on the emergency channel on our radios." She smiled at Red, as if inviting him to tell his brave story to Green.

Red looked as if he would have been much happier if this story had never gotten out. "Um, I told them that the ship had been taken over and they killed you" he mumbled quickly. "I only had the radio a second before that guy Gutman smashed it."

When Green didn't respond, not knowing what to say, Officer Jenny seemed to realize she'd just made a really awkward situation. "Well. Um, let's get you to the police station. The hotels here are booked, but we made you up a little room in the back. Plenty of room for sleeping bags!" she exclaimed brightly, smiling in an overly cheerful sort of way. Everyone exchanged a miserable glance, and trudged along behind, none mentioning that their sleeping bags were technically still on the ship.

As they all pushed their way through the crowd, Green wondering how early she could slip away from the group and get to a pokemon center, heard a voice that made her jump. "You! Ruffian! I want a word with you!" The Captain pushed his way forcibly through the crowd, face completely red as he glared down at Green, who had frozen in place like a deer in headlights.

The others slowed at the voice as well, and looked on silently as Green composed herself, putting her hands on her hips and glaring up at the Captain. "Yeah? Well I'm here. Say your piece."

"Captain!" shouted a reproachful voice as Danny pushed his way out of the audience in pursuit of the larger man. He was walking normally again, though he did have a large bandage on his head. A couple of the sailors followed behind, looking uncomfortable at the behavior of their boss. Danny placed a restraining hand on the Captain's shoulder. "I must protest this attitude. Members of your own crew went out after-"

"After I told them to. Be SILENT. It is my ship and I have privileges as such. I have no qualms with leaving you behind as well. I will not be denied my words here by you or anyone." Captain Malcolm let the words sink in, and he waited for Danny to remove his hand before speaking again, turning his full gaze on Green. "I knew you were a little hellion from the moment I saw you" he hissed through his teeth. The sheer anger in the words made Green falter just a bit. "But after my ship has been nearly taken over you decide to… play vigilante and subvert MY authority in front of MY crew?!"

A number of people had stopped to watch the scene now, a fact Green was uncomfortably aware of even as she struggled for something to say. "Woah, there was Team Rocket, they were trying to-" she started to say, but her voice just wasn't strong enough to even be heard over the Captain's bellow.

"If there is a problem on MY ship I will deal with it as I see fit!" The Captain was completely red in the face now, and a vein throbbed on his neck.

"Sir, I think you're being a bit unreasonable…" Marta hazarded, stepping forward and holding up her hands consolingly.

"I have nothing to say to you, only your friend. Stand back, or-" he began, waving a finger and making Marta take a step back in terror.

"Or what sir? I'm sorry I just can't hear very well." The Captain turned on the newest interruption, but froze as a camera looked back. Even Green hadn't noticed the presswoman push her way through the crowd, but she was certainly here now. She had long, blonde hair and a blue suit that screamed 'professional woman' almost as much as her confident stance. "I'm Alyssa, with Johto News. I'm glad I was able to find both of you at once." The woman smiled as her cameraman silently filmed the Captain's response switching to Green and Marta every now and then as the man just stood there, the red draining from his face.

"I… was just telling this young lady that she broke a direct order, and she is being ejected at this port" The Captain responded smoothly after a moment's hesitation. Green was impressed. His face was flat now, and even. No trace of the anger was there now.

"Some would protest that were it not for these children no warning transmission would have ever been sounded." Alyssa spoke coolly and without a hint of hesitation, her microphone moving smoothly to her mouth and back towards the Captain again.

"While it is true that these children DID send the message, should my crew have been given a bit more time they would have accomplished the same task." The Captain seemed to realize how ridiculous those words were after a moment, but Alyssa was already moving on.

"If they weren't being rescued you mean?" she asked innocently.

"Not ALL of my men needed saving!" he shouted back, a twinge of annoyance entering his voice. He went red once he reviewed his words.

"I see. Green, is it? I hear you're the young girl that ended up assisting the Johto Coast Guard with the incident at the Whirl Islands. Would you care to comment on the situation?" Alyssa asked Green, turning away from Captain Malcolm.

"I am shocked and saddened, but I understand that sometimes one must be punished for the mistakes of others in this cruel world. This will not stop me from doing right when the time arises, however." Green looked as sad as she could as she gripped her hands behind her back and let the blanket open a bit, just enough to let the camera catch the state of her clothing. She'd been thinking of something to say since the cameras arrived. It may have been a bit melodramatic, but that was ok. The media thrived on melodramatic..

"We could all learn something from your perseverance. Tell me, are you trying for the Pokemon League challenge?" Alyssa inquired, smiling gently as she proffered the microphone.

"Well, yes ma'am. I have three badges, and I was going to get my fourth when I got back to Vermillion City." Green was acting as meek as possible, looking at her remaining shoe as she traced circles on the ground

Alyssa was grinning to herself as if she could smell the ratings as she turned to the camera. "There you have it, viewers. Sometimes a good deed does go punished. With the next boat to Kanto not leaving for up to three weeks, young Green has lost precious time on this year's Pokemon League Challenge possibly even denying her a chance at the Elite Four. Truly-"

"Wait, hold the ****ing phone!" Green shouted, and Alyssa even stopped suddenly as the focus of the audience shifted back towards her. Green looked to Marta, wild-eyed. "What does she mean, denying me a chance?!"

Marta looked uncomfortable as the focus of the audience shifted to her. She stared around at the faces before responding. "Well… the Pokemon League Challenge only happens every three years. That's when they open the doors up and let people who have eight badges come in and fight each other and try fighting the Elite Four. The doors stay open for three months, then close until three more years, and a new Pokemon Champion is formerly announced."

Green turned a furious glare at the Captain, and took off her sock with a slow and deliberate motion. She reached into her bag, pulled out an empty pokeball, and slowly fed it into the neck of the tube as the audience watched, stunned into silence. When the ball reached the bottom, Green spun the sock experimentally. The ball gave the sock a little bit of weight at the end. Perfect. "Let me back on your ship." Green demanded.

"Young lady, I will not even conside-umph!" The males in the audience, and even the cameraman, winced as Green swung the thing up and around and cracked the man square in the crotch with the weighted end of the sock. The ball probably weighed around a pound, but that's all you needed when you had it swinging at the end of something spinning. The man dropped to his knees, bringing his head around level with Green's. His eyes swiveled around, apparently looking for some sort of assistance, but everyone just stared back as if silently asking the man what sort of assistance a full grown man needs against an 11-year-old girl.

Green was spinning the sock slowly, and she grabbed the front of the man's shirt. "Let me back on your boat right now. I've had the roughest day imaginable, and I swear to god I will do my best to bash out one of your eyes if you tell me no right now. They'll take me away but you'll have no ****ing eye" she snarled through gritted teeth, spittle flecking the stunned man's face. "I just found out I got less than three months and you wanna shave off three weeks?! You *******, you… you!" Green was spinning the sock faster and faster, her eyes getting bigger and fuller of insane hate with each word. Green hadn't been stopped yet probably out of a combination of shock and the fact that she was half the size of the Captain, but that spell broke now, and people were moving now. Danny grabbed her wrist and yanked the sock out of her hand, while Red and Marta grabbed her bodily and pulled her struggling furiously from the Captain's sight.

"Green… that…" Red struggled to find words as he watched a couple of sailors help the Captain to his feet. Danny walked up and began to speak to the man, as Alyssa gleefully filmed every moment and asked questions to the two. "That was the coolest thing I've ever seen. I think he was crying a little bit.

Grinning at Red, Green gave him a sheepish thumbs up. "I'm pretty sure I just didn't get punched because I'm a girl. But thanks, it's good to know you're a fan. Well, let's go. I'm sorry I ruined getting back on the ship." Now that the adrenaline was rushing out, the voice telling her that was a bad idea was coming in. Damn. "I probably wouldn't have even beat out his eye anyhow. He'd have gotten away long before that."

"I don't know. Johto News comes on over in Kanto… I don't think we should leave just yet." Janine was smiling as she watched Alyssa talking rapidly to Danny. "I mean, think of it. Unless they suddenly paint you as being some lunatic, which wouldn't be far from the truth apparently…" Janine grinned as she shot a glance to Green, who made a face at her. "The Captain has no choice but to let us back on board. You know how bad he'll look for stranding the kids that saved the ship? Even if he would have eventually saved the ship, the fact is that we did."

Sure enough, after a few minutes Captain Malcolm was helped off towards the ship by two sailors, and Danny walked purposefully up to the group with a smile on his face. Alyssa followed behind, and the rest of the crowd surged behind the newswoman like a flock of sheep. "Green, I'm pleased to inform you that the Captain has decided to reverse his decision. You and your friends are of course let back on the ship. You are required, however, to stay away from the Captain for now on." Danny said pleasantly, handing over Green's sock with the pokeball inside.

"Done!" Green reached out and shook Danny's hand heartily. "He won't even see me."

As Danny walked back off towards the ship, smiling the smile of a job well done, Alyssa came in for one more question. "Wow! You're quite the little firecracker, Green! Can we expect you to be the next Pokemon Champion?"

Green snorted at the question as she turned to leave. "Hell yes." The audience surrounding Alyssa had mixed reactions, some mumbling disapprovingly at the violence or the swearing, but she could hear a couple of people cheering and whistling. It made her smile.

The group found out that even though they were allowed back onto the ship, they'd still have to bed in the police station for the night due to the ship getting a complete sweep for anything suspicious. Green didn't even care. She needed to release that Lugia, but she also just wanted to lie down for a little bit, or at least until the tumult died down. She was steadily getting more and more exhausted now that she was getting the proper chance to slow down, and she ended up summoning Snorlax and riding on her shoulders the rest of the way to the station. While everyone else talked amongst themselves, Green set her alarm even as she assured a grumbling Snorlax that she'd get a drink later.

By the time they got into the room they were to all be staying in, a rec room, they were all so tired they just didn't care. Blue and Red grabbed a couple large and cushy chairs near the television and appeared to doze off almost at once. Marta took one end of a couch, and Janine took the other. Green flopped gratefully down onto Snorlax's stomach, who had laid down in the middle of the room and begun to snore gently, and curled up into a ball. Before she could even think about it too much, she was asleep.

The electronic beeping of the pokedex drove Green back awake and blinking around. The room was completely dark, save for a vending machine in the corner, letting off a soft light to illuminate the treats inside. Feeling hungry as hell, she stumbled to the vending machine and inserted a bill. She bought a few different items, and began scarfing them down hungrily. Snorlax woke up at the smell of snacks, but Green returned her before she could make her way to Green. As she did so, a thought ran through her mind. The Lugia.

Making her way out of the room as silently as she could, Green walked down the silent hallway leading to the front doors. There was an officer on duty, but he looked deep into his phone conversation, and didn't seem to notice as Green slipped out. The town was nearly as quiet as the inside of the building had been. Four hours had turned the packed streets practically empty.

The pokemon center was quiet, and surprisingly empty as Green entered. She stopped and got her pokemon healed up, except for Beedrill. Walking to the computer terminal, Green logged on and deposited the bug pokemon. After a moment, she found and withdrew Lugia. She expected Professor Oak to appear, but unlike last time it was silent. Perhaps the Professor hadn't the chance to check the new incoming pokemon yet. Green retrieved her pokeballs before heading out again, this time to look for a suitable spot to release the Lugia at.

Along the port wasn't possible, as there were always people walking about. So Green found herself walking a ways away from the hustle and bustle of the city and towards a large lighthouse situated near the shore. Finally, she found a spot near the base where even someone inside the lighthouse wouldn't be able to see. Taking the pokeball out, Green released the baby Lugia. It blinked in the light and looked around, letting out a soft warbling cry. Green stared at the pokeball for a moment, and then dropped it to the ground and crushed it with her heel. The ball cracked apart. "You're free."

"What are you doing?!" Green jumped as Blue walked out of the woods, strolling up and standing in front of Green and the curious Lugia. "I knew you captured a pokemon in there. Why are you letting it go?!"

"Hey… I promised I would, ok? I can't go back on word, especially to a huge psychic bird." Green glanced out over the woods. A noise had surprised her. "Anyone else there?!"

"Just me" admitted Janine, stepping sheepishly out from behind a tree and waving a hand dismissively. She walked up to the baby Lugia and bent down, interested. "So, you did find something, Green. Wow, he's a cutie, isn't he?" Janine tickled it under the chin, and it chuckled as it tried to keep away, swiping playfully at her hand like a cat.

"This isn't a huge psychic bird!" Blue yelled, motioning to the baby. "It's only…" two figures lifted themselves over the edge, so suddenly and quickly that Blue didn't notice them. "…two feet long at the least!" As Janine and Green just stared at him for a moment, Blue turned around sharply. He went white and stepped back as far away from the baby as possible.

The Lugia on the left reached out and plucked up its child like a kitten. Both parents had a moment as they both let out soft cooings, and they fawned over the child in a way that was very nearly human in its' tenderness. Then, the parent that had taken the child nodded at Green and leapt back down towards the ocean. The one left behind smiled down at Green, reached around to its back and plucked out a silvery feather. It passed the glittering feather down to Green, who took it carefully. It wasn't anything like a bird wing. It was like a combination of a scale and a feather, something light that would also transition well to water. It felt more solid than a feather, but it was still wonderfully soft. Green just held it for a moment, and looked up at the creature still smiling at her inches away. Reaching out slowly, Green stroked the head of the Lugia. It made a deep, throaty and contented noise as Green marveled at the feel of the creature's coat.

"Thank you" said a voice that Green realized had gone directly to her head. She looked up in surprise at the Lugia, who smiled, and with a swish of the body was gone. There was only a faint splash in the ocean.

Green turned slowly to look at Blue and Janine. Blue snorted. "Well, all I know is that I would have kept it."

Nodding, Green conceded the point silently. "Thanks for all your help yesterday Blue. Are you gonna keep coming with us to get the badge in Vermillion once we get back?"

Blue flushed red, and scowled angrily. "Don't get the wrong idea, Green. I was doing what I was doing to stop Team Rocket. I already got my badge from Vermillion anyhow." Blue turned and started back for the city. "I won't battle while we're on the ship. Fair's fair and I want a break too. The next time we meet after that you'd better be ready for a fight."

Green sighed at Blue's retreating back. "I don't think he's ever gonna be completely cool with me." She glanced at Janine and grinned. "That was cool with those Lugias though, huh?"

"Yes," Janine replied, smiling back. "I was impressed you let it go."

"I didn't earn it." Green pulled out the silvery feather, and ran it through her fingers. "Maybe one day. Hey, I don't wanna go back just yet. I kind of like it here in the dark, with the wind."

 

[Greenmaybeaguy]

Janine's hand reached down and intertwined in Green's. "Do you mind if I stay with you? We can watch the ocean."

Pulling her hand out of an astonished Janine's grip, Green glared at the taller girl. "Look, I need some questions answered. I mean, we hardly know about each other."

Smiling slyly, Janine grabbed Green's hand again and pulled her over to the lighthouse. They both sat down next to it and laid their heads against the cool stone surface as they watched the dark ocean. Janine let Green's hand go, and ou see. turned her full attention upon Green. "That's true."

"Well for one thing, how old are you anyhow?"

"Fourteen. I know you're eleven."

Nodding, Green went on. "So, you were my age the last time the Pokemon League Championship went on, right?"

"Yes… that was shortly after I started my journey and got my starter… I went travelling with my father." Janine still answered in a jovial tone of voice, but it was obvious that this was somewhat of a painful subject to her. The smile on her face fell almost at once.

"You mentioned your dad before. What does he do?"

Narrowing her eyes, Janine studied Green's expression for a moment. "Fine, I'll tell you but you've got to promise not to make a big deal of it." Green nodded eagerly, motioning for Janine to continue. "He's Koga. The poison gym leader."

Green didn't see what the big deal was, but nodded as she considered. "That's pretty neat, right? Having your dad as a gym leader?"

"You'd think so. It was neat once. My mom died when I was nine, and I remember how dad used to be before that. He'd only leave the Gym open on weekdays, and we'd go to the safari zone or to Celadon City on the weekends. Mom liked to shop, and she always said that the department store had everything a human or pokemon could need." Janine had her arms wrapped around her knees, and Green reached over and gently took one of her hands. Janine looked surprised, as if she didn't expect Green to do that.

"Go on" Green encouraged.

Taking a deep breath to settle her beating heart, Janine continued. It was obvious she hadn't talked about this much, maybe ever. "Well mom died from some rare illness she got. She was in bed one day, and we thought she had the flu. Then, suddenly we were calling the doctor because she wouldn't wake up from her nap." A tear rolled down Janine's cheek, and Green moved in closer. Janine laid her head on Green's shoulder gratefully. "Dad changed after that. He had the Gym open every day. At night he'd go into the Safari Zone looking for more poison pokemon. He challenged a lot of people who came through town, even if they weren't there for a Gym challenge. He was obsessed with getting stronger. I think he was trying to honor my mother. Mom was always a pretty good battler, after all. She always said she was gonna get the rest of her badges one day and try for the League, but she never got around to challenging dad in a formal match."

Letting the words sink in for a moment, Green gently prompted, "So, when you and your dad went travelling?"

Smiling, Janine looked wistful and happy as she remembered better times long ago. "Yeah. He brought me my Nidoran home one day, and asked me if I wanted to come with him as he went on a trip. Even Gym Leaders need to have eight badges to challenge the League. I agreed, since it was the first time my dad had really asked me to do something significant with him in a while. He left the place in the care of my aunt Aya as we set out on foot. We went all around, and that's when I caught Scorupi, Zubat, and Koffing. I wasn't so focused on completing the challenge back then. I was mostly content to cheer on my dad as he beat the gyms. He was so confidant back then. Then we went to the Indigo Plateau." Janine's face became glum again. "He was beaten by some guy who only used three pokemon against his six. We hadn't even reached the Pokemon League. I just remember dad turning back, and when I asked him if we could still go try he shouted at me not to ask stupid things. We went home, and we hardly talked the whole time. When dad got back home he continued running the Gym seven days a week. He was always upset that I hadn't taken more the time to train my pokemon, and I remember when I was thirteen he told me he wasn't even considering me as a successor to the Gym."

"So, that's why you're going around to the Gyms now then. You want to get further than him?" Green asked, listening closely. It was interesting to her to hear about screwed up pokemon families.

"I want to beat him" Janine said fiercely. "Not the team he uses to fight people who come to the Gym. His team."

"I thought Gym Leader used their personal pokemon to battle anyhow?" Green inquired, looking puzzled.

Janine considered. "Well yes, for the most part. You don't need to be an incredibly strong trainer to be a Gym Leader, just a consistent and intelligent one that gives challengers a chance. Some of the Gym Leaders have other pokemon that they keep in their Gyms that aren't meant for battling challengers. They're from the old days when they might have attempted the Pokemon League or something. Hey, that's enough of answers for me." Janine lifted her head off Green's shoulder. "Your turn. Tell me about your family."

Green paused for a long moment before responding. The simple fact was that she knew nothing about her parents here. She decided to just go for the facts she was sure would be there. "Um, I live with my mother. My father's been gone on a pokemon journey for as long as I can remember. My mom apparently makes a living sitting at home and offering for me to take a rest."

"What?" Janine looked confused as hell.

"Look I'm not very close to my parents. I've always been looking forward to this pokemon journey for that reason. I just… don't have strong ties with them." Green had a moment to regret not even speaking to her mother in this world. In hindsight, it would probably turn out badly in that regard. She'd probably be pissed that Green didn't stop by to see her before leaving, and also stealing her alcohol. She decided to change the subject again. "Well, it's nice to find out more about you. I thought you were older than 14, honestly."

Janine drew Green's hand in close again, turning it palm up and tracing lazily on the surface with the tip of her finger. It made Green shiver again. "Is that enough answers?"

"No" Green said, and though she considered pulling her hand back she just couldn't. Janine looked very serene as she traced the lines of her palm delicately. "Why do you like me? Why do you keep travelling with me?"

"Well you're the first group of trainers that I've bothered trying to come along with. I travelled alone on a ferry to Pallet Town and I hiked north to Pewter City. I never really knew the other kids very well in Fuchsia City very well, and the ones I did left town at eleven. Plus… I dunno, I can tell you think I'm attractive. Even before that night. I feel… connected with you."

"Am I the first girl you've liked?" Green shot back. It was true that she felt comfortable with Janine, but she didn't exactly know about connected. She got the impression that Janine might not have known many kids even before the others left. Janine was nice, but judging from how she treated Red she could be quite a ***** to the right people.

Stopping her tracing for a moment, Janine looked up at Green as if judging the question at multiple angles. "If you're asking if I've liked girls before you then the answer is yes. I've also liked boys too, I'll have you know." Seeing the questioning expression on Green's face, she elaborated. "Your friend Blue's cute, for example. A bit of a snob when t comes to the company he keeps, but cute."

"Blue?! Geez, I think he's a huge dick. Anyway, look, I might like you too. Granted. But what do you want to do about it? Become… girlfriends or something?"

Janine shrugged, and intertwined her fingers into Green's hand. "Do we have to call it anything? Can't we just… enjoy the company? Watch the sunrise?" Her eyes were burning for an answer, but Green could think of no response.

As Janine turned away and faced out over the ocean, she draped her free arm around Green, who blushed heavily as her head was rested against Janine's shoulder. Green wanted to say something, but everything that came to mind sounded either harsh or just insulting. Finally, she gave up, and let her body unwind as she enjoyed the body heat in the crisp early morning air.

Green was sure she could see a silvery flash out over the ocean, like a huge dolphin, and smiled to herself as she closed her eyes. She was asleep again before she knew it.

END ACT 3




There we go, the thrilling conclusion to Chapter 12. There's probably gonna be an intermission chapter before Act 4.

 

[Lycaeus]

Awesome (: The length of your chapters really make it worth reading, and your writing style makes everything flow really well.

When I first started reading I thought the story would stick mainly to the games, but now Green and company are in Olivine!! Truly an amazing story, and one of the best fan fics I've read.

Can't wait for chapter 13!!

 

[Greenmaybeaguy]

WOW COOL Y U WRITE SO MUCH

Wow, you make my brain hurt.

On another note, Chapter 13 should be done soon. It's a much shorter one than Chapters 9-12, but it's packed with awesome.

 

[DK114]

Good read. Im not an expert at writing fan fics so Im not even going to bother attempting to review it but overall its really good and funny. I found it funny how the guy is stuck in a female bodybecause he chose the girl option in the game. Shouldve listened to the instruction manuel that came with the game :)

 

[Fishyman]

I was trying to make myself look cool with that post? You learn something new everyday, I guess.

On-Topic: As I think it was said before, you're doing a really good job of stemming away from the games. Keep it up, this is really good.

 

[Greenmaybeaguy]

Chapter 13-Are Made of This

Green woke up slowly, stretching out and yawning as she pressed her face into the soft pillow. After a long moment of silence, Green realized she couldn't hear the breathing of her two bedmates. Rolling upright, she glanced around for some kind of explanation. She was in the plush, king-sized bed in their room aboard the S.S. Anne, but both Marta and Janine were curiously missing. Now that she looked around, all of the luggage was gone as well. Even the shopping bags Marta and Janine had brought aboard from the few hours they'd had in Olivine were gone. The room felt eerily quiet and empty. They had all gotten back on the ship the previous day, and they were supposed to be getting back to Vermillion that night, so there was some chance that the luggage was just in the living room.

The faint hiss of the shower from the bathroom drew Green's attention. She remembered there being a shower curtain on the large ornate tub, and felt relieved. Someone was just taking a shower. Green flopped bodily out of bed with a smile on her face.

Two more differences registered at once in Green's mind as she touched down. For one, she was naked. Secondly, she now unmistakably had a penis. Reaching up frantically to her head, she could feel the short hair that was unmistakable as Rudolph's. Her… his mind hadn't noticed somehow, apparently. He must have been used to it subconsciously. Running to a mirror against the door of the room, he confirmed the strange facts. He was definitely now a he, except everything wasn't quite back to normal. Rudolph had been twenty, but the boy looking back out of the mirror was eleven, the same age as Green. Rudolph had mixed feelings as he touched the mirror slowly with his fingertips; confusion was most prevalent, followed by relief and finally a pang of regret. This was unexpected, and it changed the situation for better and for worse.

The sound of a faint melodic voice drew his attention. Rudolph looked around the room and in the closet for any clothes at all, but apart from the furniture there was nothing. Shrugging, he walked softly to the door leading into the living room and opened it a crack. A light was on, showing a completely clean and empty living room. The door to the bathroom was half open, and he could hear that low and melodic humming over the hiss of the water. Walking quickly from the master bedroom to the guest room, Rudolph opened the door just enough to peer inside. Maybe if Red was there he could steal a pair of pants or something. The room was dark, the beds made and the whole place had a feeling of disuse. Where had everyone gone? How had they taken everything in the place like that and just left without waking him up?

Realizing there was only one place left to go, Rudolph cautiously glanced at the open bathroom door. That incessant melodic humming was throwing him off. He walked towards the door, paused at the threshold, and then steeled himself and just entered.

The steam was heavy as Rudolph glanced about. The shower must have been turned up to the hottest setting, because steam filled the whole room, fogging up the mirrors and making a fine mist fill the air. He could see the figure of a woman in the bathtub, slowly running her hands through her hair as she hummed to herself. The curtain hid her from view, but she was too tall to be Janine. Rudolph smacked his dry mouth in the wet air as he thought of what to say. "Marta?"

The girl's humming stopped at once. There were a few moments where the only sound was the steady hiss of the showerhead. It was shut off a moment later, and the erratic dripping was now the only noise as a questing arm came out, groping for a towel. It looked paler than Marta's skin tone, and Rudolph had a confused moment as the rustle of cloth on wet skin went on. He wondered why he was so calm, any why no other things to say were entering his mind.

There was something… subtly erotic about the form. She moved evenly; drying her body with slow, smooth movements that accentuated the curves of her body. Rudolph could make her out vaguely through the shower curtain, and he was uncomfortable to feel his erection growing. He was sure that he was intruding on something, yet the woman hadn't screamed out upon hearing his voice, so he probably knew her. Plus, with all the clothes gone what was he SUPPOSED to wear? Still, Rudolph conscientiously moved one hand to cover his genitals. An erection was just hard to stop happening, especially when you were near such temptation.

The towel suddenly went soaring over the top of the shower curtain, where it fell with a wet thwump to the ground. Rudolph picked it up eagerly, and wrapped it around his waist, grateful to have something to hide himself. The woman didn't seem to care about being seen, because she flung the shower curtain aside with a swift stroke, revealing her nude body to Rudolph.

Rudolph's eyes opened wide in horror, and his mouth fell slack. It was Green. Unmistakably Green. She looked around twenty, but while her body was beautiful and well-proportioned, her face was a mask of pure hate. The eyebrows were drawn together, lips pulled back from the teeth in a snarl, and eyes blazing with fury. Rudolph's erection wilted at once as the fear spread through the whole body. Before he could move, Green's arm shot out and grabbed him by the throat, turning his head to get a good look at him. He squirmed, furiously trying to get away, but Green's other arm lashed out and punched Rudolph square in the nose. He could feel warm blood flowing down his face as he stopped thrashing about, and he watched with a horrid fascination as the blood dripped onto Green's arm. She didn't seem to mind as she climbed out of the shower, teeth gritted as she spoke. "YOU! You stole my life!"

"No!" Rudolph managed to gasp, one arm reaching up to grasp Green's. He felt so weak all of a sudden, and Green's nails were digging painfully into the flesh around his neck. "I… I just made a wish! I didn't have a choice!"

Green's other hand slapped away Rudolph's, and then went to his throat as well. She began strangling him now, shaking his whole body back and forth even as he dropped to his knees. Her voice had risen to a voice so full of rage that it made Rudolph wet himself in terror, a dark stain spreading over the towel and dripping onto the tiled floor. The urine mixed with the blood running off Green's arms and onto the floor, and now Green was standing in a horrible spreading puddle. She didn't seem to mind as she shook Rudolph like a rag doll and spoke through gritted teeth. "You think you can just make wishes like that?! You think you have the right?! You couldn't just take the wish back?! You think you're clever, living out some sick fantasy with MY body?! I'll ****ing…" She increased her grip, and Rudolph gasped weakly as lights popped in front of his eyes. "KILL YOU!"
Rudolph realized that he could do nothing to the woman as his arms flailed uselessly against her arms, strength sapping away as his vision went dark. Soon he couldn't even hear Green's continued furious ranting anymore, and awaiting the coming blackness with a gratefulness that scared him a bit, Rudolph closed him eyes and succumbed to unconsciousness.

Green awoke then, sitting straight up in bed and letting out a scream, but quickly controlled herself. She was back in her bed on the S.S. Anne, and dressed in her pajamas. To her left was Janine, smiling in her sleep and with one hand reaching out towards Green. To her right was Marta, who had kicked off her covers in the night and was now sprawled out across her part of the bed, looking pleased. Neither had woken up at her outburst, and Green sighed in relief as she tried to slow her thundering heartbeat. It had been a nightmare.

After a few quiet minutes where Green let her body relax, she tried to settle back down to sleep. The nightmare had touched her deeper than she'd like to admit however, and she found herself slipping out of the bottom of the bed once it became clear she wasn't getting back to sleep anytime soon. Deciding that some television would settle her mind, Green slipped out into the living room and closed the door behind her as quietly as possible.

The living room was blessedly dark and quiet as Green sat down on the couch and put her head into her trembling hands. Yes, it had been a nightmare, but reminding herself of that fact was doing very little to put her mind at ease. Normally for Green dreams faded away when she awoke, disappearing like fog even as she tried to remember what had happened. This was the exact opposite. Green was trying not to think of everything that had gone on, and the facts solidified more in the mind. Green heard a faint drip from the bathroom, and for the moment it sounded so like the blood from the dream-Green's arm falling onto the urine-covered floor that it made her clap her hands over her mouth to stifle the small cry of terror.

The nightmare had done more than make Green afraid of some woman she couldn't see. Once again this new body was raising questions. Had Rudolph entered into this body, pushing out the person who had previously inhabited it? Green had been under the impression that this world had sort of been created around her, but now she was just confused. It made her lean back against the couch, leaning her head against the headrest and rubbing her palms into her eyes as she groaned in frustration. This had to be part of the game these stupid shadow guys were playing or something. Messing with her head to throw her off the game. That had to be it.

Green stared at the television screen for a moment, and even picked up the remote as if to turn it on, but dropped it after a moment of indecision. Television didn't have the spark it used to have back as Rudolph.

Her eyes fell on a half-empty bottle of champagne, sitting on the counter in a bucket of melting ice. Marta had bought it once they'd gotten back on the ship to toast their good luck in the recent Team Rocket attack. Walking quickly over to it, Green pulled it out and poured herself a glass with a shaking hand. She hadn't drunk more than a single glass of champagne today, (There had been a quick shot of vodka before sleep but that could hardly count) and she hadn't even thought about it, but now she wanted to get drunk. No, she wanted to get hammered. After downing the first glass of champagne, Green hesitated before grabbing the rest of the bottle. Might as well.

It was nearly an hour later when the guest bedroom door opened up and Red came wandering out, yawning and stretching in his pajamas as he walked to the bathroom. He completely failed to see Green's hunched form in the dark of the living room and entered the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. When he came back out, shutting off the light and sighing contentedly, he was about to reach the door when the silver gleam of a can in the moonlight caught his attention. Now that he was paying attention, he could see that there was an empty bottle and at least three cans strewn across the table. Green was sitting on the couch, swaying back and forth as she slowly sipped at a fourth can.

"Green? Are you alright?" Red asked cautiously, sitting down next to the obviously inebriated girl.

Turning her eyes in Red's general direction, Green tried to focus. It was hard; in fact, trying to make just one Red was making her feel kind of sick. She had certainly overdone it on the alcohol. "Wuzzat? Red? M' fine. What're YOU doin' up?" She mumbled, never being able to keep her head level or even as it bobbed up and down.

Frowning, Red reached over and pulled the nearly full beer out of Green's hand. She scowled and tried to resist, but Red firmly and unexpectedly grabbed her wrist with his other hand and looked her in the eye as he put the drink down on the table. "I woke up because I had to pee and needed some water. Green. You can't even sit still. You look like you're about to throw up any second. I'm gonna get you some water, and then you're going to tell me what's going on."

As Red turned away Green stubbornly reached for her beer, but Red stopped and picked it up, scooping up all of the rest of the garbage with his other arm. Green scowled after Red, but he was also right about some stuff. For one, she couldn't sit still. Even now, it was much easier to lean against the back of the couch. If she sat up the whole world churned dangerously, making bile rise in the back of her throat. Maybe Red was right. A glass of water wouldn't be bad right now. Red came back after throwing everything away, handing Green a glass of tap water that she still gulped down gratefully. He took the empty glass and filled it up for Green without speaking, who sipped easily at the water this time.

"Can I ask you a question, Green? I feel like we haven't got much a chance to talk for a while." Red was watching Green's face easily, a calm look on his face. Green nodded rather than speak, and Red went on. "Why do you drink? You never used to."

Green stared into Red's eyes, sobering up slightly at the question if only for a moment. "I drink because…" and she stopped. She didn't know how to answer. The comment after the question had drawn all her attention. She reached out and grabbed Red's hand with her own, and looked into his eyes with a pleading look. "Red… Red, PLEASE let me ask you a question firsht." Red looked about to object, but there was a desperation in Green's eyes that made him relent, closing his mouth as he squeezed her hand. "You have to promishe me first. Promise me you won't tell anyone a word of what I'm about to ask you. "

Nodding back encouragingly, Red was suddenly looking nervous. He was also smiling faintly, as if thinking of some sort of internal joke. "Of course."

"What was I like before we went on our journey? Before that day we got our starters."

Looking back blankly, Red tried to understand the question as the smile fell off his face. "Well… you used to never wear pants, for one." Smiling at his joke, his face slowly fell once it became clear that Green wasn't in the mood for jokes. "I don't really know. You never hung out with us a lot. You mostly hung out with Gary's sister, May. You… well; you never seemed much into battling, if I remember right. At least, you never talked about it much. You seemed more interested in the experience of going around and seeing all the pokemon."

While Green was drunk, she could see the smile on Red's face. Normally it would make her feel exasperated, but now it made her furious. She tried not to let it show on her face as she spoke slowly. "Why didn't May come with us?"

"Well, she's a few years older than us. She's studying at the Professor's Lab…" Red looked suspicious now. "How do you not know that?"

Green looked around wildly, and opened her mouth as she thought of what to say. Her whole body jerked, and Green shut her mouth quickly as she felt bile shoot up her throat. Rushing to the bathroom, Green barely made it in time to throw up into the toilet. She sat there, gripping the edge and throwing up what felt like everything she'd just drunk in the last hour. Eventually she was reduced to retching once her stomach was empty, and finally she gratefully slid to the floor where she curled up onto the floor mat. She glanced up at Red, who had wandered into the bathroom behind her. He looked horrified, but still rushed over and helped Green to her feet, supporting her weight by shrugging her arm around his shoulder. Red brought her to the sink and let her clean up.

Red carried Green back out into the living room and put her down gently on the couch. His suspicion had evaporated, and was once again replaced with concern. "I'm going to go get you something to eat, alright Green? I'll be right back. I'll refill your water before I go."

Green watched silently as Red bustled around the condo, not even bothering to put on shoes as he dashed out of the door. She picked up the glass of water and sipped at it slowly. Once she felt like she had a little bit of strength in her limbs, Green got up painfully and wandered to her pack, pulling out Charizard's pokeball after a moment of rummaging. She looked at the ball blankly as she sipped at her water and listened to her empty stomach grumble. Well, this was going to be awkward. Green had just been hoping that Red would ask a few questions and then go back to sleep, but he really seemed to be adamant about getting some answers.

The door was flung open again in just a few minutes, and Red entered carrying two slices of pizza on paper plates. "The pizzeria on the ship is open 24 hours! I didn't know that" he said conversationally as he passed the first piece to Green. It was lukewarm and the cheese was a bit hard, but Green was grateful to put anything in her stomach besides alcohol right now. She scarfed down the pizza eagerly, and Red wordlessly passed her the second piece before settling down. Once Green started on the second piece, much slower this time as she actually took the time to chew her bites, Red seemed to think Green was ok enough for him to continue. "Well... how do you not remember May?"

"I don't know how I don't know May. My memory's a little fuzzy in some areas. I mean, I can still think clearly about some stuff... like my name..." Green trailed off. She had been referring in a roundabout way to Rudolph, her 'true' name, but now there was something horrifying she realized.

What had been Rudolph's last name?

That thought did something that even the nightmare hadn't been able to do. It broke Green. She let her head drop into her hands as she began frantically sifting through her mind for facts about Rudolph. Both parents had been alive, right? Did he have brothers? Green had a vague idea that the answer was yes, but no exact memories floated to the surface. There were snippets of thought and memory left. Rudolph going to church as a kid. Graduating... some sort of school, might have been college or high school, the details were gone. Rudolph's first kiss and first time making love were there as indistinct memories, and Green couldn't even place their names. When had this happened? All along when she had been walking around had memories of Rudolph been evaporating away like mist in the morning sun? Was she going to become... no, don't think that way. Was she going to lose who she was? Had Rudolph... ever been really real? Now, looking back on it, there was nothing REAL about Rudolph in her mind anymore. Memories and phantom experiences were all that was left.

Green felt something wet fall onto her legs and saw that there were tears coming from her eyes. Stupid alcohol was making her incredibly emotional. She looked up into Red's shocked and uncomfortable eyes, her face a mask of horror and misery. "I think I'm losing my mind, Red. Oh God, I think I'm going insane."

Tentatively reaching out to Green with a hand, Red was surprised when he was pulled into a tight and vice-like hug from Green. She was sobbing against his shoulder, and Red could think of nothing to say as he just let her finish.

After an awkward five minutes, Green pulled back and hiccuped gently as she wiped her eyes. "I'm sorry. I won't do that again... there's just... so much bearing down on me suddenly. It seems like it's me versus the world."

Red tried to smile consolingly, yet it was obvious he was a little disturbed by the insanity comment. "Oh Green, you know you've always got friends on your side."

Nodding and smiling gently, even though she still felt terrible, Green lifted up Charizard's pokeball again. "I guess I do, don't I?" She released Charizard, who stretched gratefully in the darkness of the condo before turning to look at Green with a smile on her draconian face. Charizard nuzzled her head against Green once the pokemon took in the red eyes and general state of the girl, and Green just wrapped her arms around Charizard's neck and sat there enjoying the body heat. Turning to face Red, Green was about to ask him some question or another, but when she saw Red's reaction her words died.

Red was leaning back from Charizard, and was giving the pokemon and Green an uneasy look. He looked away once he saw that Green had noticed, but the damage had been done. "Red, do you have something you want to say to me?" Green asked, her voice coming out soft and dangerous.

Looking like he'd rather be anywhere else right now, Red coughed hurriedly. "No, no! Nothing at all! Um, hello Charizard!" Red smiled weakly at Charizard, and the lizard lifted its head from Green's lap to look curiously at Red. He seemed completely on edge suddenly.

"It's about Charizard, isn't it Red?" Green asked, the smile completely disappearing off her face now as she felt the anger sweeping away all other emotions.

"Look… it's just… she killed that guy on the boat earlier, Green! She… she… tore him apart." Red swallowed, and closed his eyes a moment before continuing as if to gather his composure a bit. "We watched, you know. She just tore him to shreds right there, and threw the pieces into the ocean. I mean… if a pokemon hurts a human… it's supposed to be… reported…" Red's composure faltered completely as he stared at Green's hands, which were balled into fists on her lap, the nails digging into the palms enough to draw tiny drops of blood.

"Charizard did that because she thought I was dead. She is NOT some horrible monster. I swear to God…" Green reached out and grabbed Red by the front of his pajama shirt, curling her fist in the material to hold him fast. "If your plan is to go behind my back and report my pokemon as… as some sort of murderous psycho, then I'll brain you. Right in front of the other two if I have to." Green hissed out the last words between clenched teeth. "Do you hear me?"

Red looked bewildered and terrified. "What? No, Green! Please, I wasn't going to tell anyone! I…"

Releasing Red and sitting back, Green turned her head away and buried it in Charizard's side, shutting her eyes tight. "Go away, Red."

Sitting there for a minute, Red tried to find something to say that would make the situation better. He really hadn't meant to show Green that he was afraid of Charizard, mostly out of fear of such a response. He looked into Charizard's eyes, who stared back with a neutral look on her face as Green continued to be still. Finally, with a heavy heart at how the exchange had ended, Red got up and walked silently into his room, closing the door behind him softly.

The guilt was already beginning to tear Green up. She didn't REALLY blame Red for anything. It was perfectly logical, her slowly calming mind told her, for Red to be afraid of Charizard if she tore a human apart in front of him. If they'd been warned before to watch out for pokemon who attack humans, it especially made sense. But… well, Charizard had tried to save her. She'd evolved just trying to get up there in time. Green felt that turning her over to the authorities would be close to a traitorous action. Red probably wasn't going to inform any authorities, Green imagined. Of course it did nothing to ease her swirling pot of emotions.

Charizard merely stood there, making a soft noise in the back of her throat as Green cried again, as if to console the girl. The part of Green's mind that was still Rudolph tried to berate this action, telling the rest of the mind it was being silly for being so emotional, but nothing that Green could do would stem the flow. Green was sure it was just the alcohol making her so weepy, but whatever it was Green didn't think about it again as she sobbed her way into a deep and warm sleep, blessedly void of dreams.

After Green was well asleep, curling up with her arms around Charizard's midsection, the dragon gently settled down into a position where it could wait the night out next to her master. Flexing her wings gently, she draped them around the girl and closed her eyes slowly as she drifted off to sleep as well, and soon it was silent again in the living room. Only the faint creak of the boat could be heard as the two dozed in the dark room.

 

[hamguy4456]

just got the chance to read this...
very nice! i can't wait to see how this affects the story

 

[Greenmaybeaguy]

I took a bit of a hiatus from this, but I've come back and have started chapter 14. I'll post it as soon as I'm done.

 

[Denali]

Hey Green just finished Chapter 10, and I have to say I'm impressed! I like how you have the creepy things come back, and how you present the story's goal; its cloaked in mystery. I also like how the chapters are long.
Good luck to you Green,
Denali

 

[Greenmaybeaguy]

Chapter 14-New Complications

Green awoke slowly the next morning, feeling a bit sweaty as she struggled out of the embrace of Charizard, who didn't seem to notice as she kept dozing. It was very warm next to Charizard, and her wings had trapped in some of that body heat as well to make sleeping against the pokemon nearly sweltering. Green returned the large slumbering pokemon as she stretched and looked around the room, feeling her head pounding furiously like a drum. There was someone in the bathroom and the shower was running, but after a moment Green determined it was Janine. She could hear Janine's voice faintly as she sang to herself in the shower. After a moment's hesitation Green got up and walked over to Red's room, entering and shutting the door behind her with a snap.

Walking over to the edge of Red's bed, Green sat down heavily. Red sat bolt upright with a little snorting noise, and looked around wildly before laying his eyes to rest on Green. His face tightened at once, and there was a moment where Green wasn't sure if Red was going to scream or apologize. "Red, look. I wanna have a talk with you."

Red avoided Green's gaze as he slid his legs out of bed and got up. "Look, I know I made you upset last night. I'll leave today. Don't worry."

A hand grabbed Red and pulled him back onto the bed. Green held his shoulder down and glared into his eyes. "No. You're going to have a talk with me." Once Red was let up he didn't try to crawl away, but instead crossed his legs and looked towards Green intently. As Green marshaled her thoughts, she took a deep breath. "It was completely reasonable for you to be afraid of Charizard. I'm sorry. I won't say that I was just angry because of the alcohol, but it certainly didn't help my mood. Can you please forgive me?" Green felt miserable as she finished. It was hard for her to apologize here, but she felt she was firmly in the wrong. "I'm... sorry if I'm irritable too. That alcohol hasn't.... left my system yet."

Red looked taken aback, and nodded after a moment of silence. "I'm also sorry. I didn't mean that about Charizard, she's not sca-"

Now Green glared at Red, and he stopped his apology at once. "You have every RIGHT to be afraid of her. Do not give me that ******** about how she's not scary! If I'd watched her tear that dude apart I dunno if I could have fallen asleep there in her arms. That's part of why I'm apologizing, because I didn't have to watch her killing someone. Now, granted, I did nearly die myself. Still, I only heard about Charizard afterwards. It's probably a lot different when you watch her ripping off a guy's arm at the shoulder." Green had sort of been rambling there at the end as images popped into her mind, but she stopped when she saw Red's face go a chalky white. "The point is that it's understandable. I don't blame you for being afraid. I'm sorry Red, I messed up."
Red's face softened almost at once. Before it had that wooden expression of someone who was determined to listen, but now it fell to concern again. "Ok, I'll admit I am a little afraid of Charizard. It was just… just… so terrible to watch. We all did, even Janine, Marta, and even those other Rockets. I remember we just… stopped fighting as… as…" Red was beginning to shake a bit, and stopped his sentence.

Reaching out tenderly, Green touched the side of Red's face. Green's face held no tears, but Red could see a deep sadness there. "I'm so sorry you had to see that, Red. I really am. You're a kind kid. You think the best of your pokemon and others, and you didn't need to witness such a violent act." Green pulled Red's head in towards her chest, and could hear his surprised intake of breath. Red didn't cry, but he made no effort to break the embrace as he reached around behind Green's back and pulled her closer. He was still shaking occasionally, but the embrace did seem to be calming him down.

The door opened. Marta poked her head in, smiling around before resting her eyes on the huddled pair. "Are you two getting ready? We need to start heading out soon. Green, I already packed your things and laid out your clothes."

Green pushed Red away from her and turned to beam at Marta. "Thanks, Marta. I'll be there in a sec." She was a bit annoyed to see Marta smiling in a knowing way as she closed the door gently, but shifted her gaze back to Red, who was sprawled against the pillows where Green had shoved him. Green leaned in close, and was annoyed to see Red blush a dark crimson. "Look, I was serious about what I said last night. It's hard for me to… remember things. Please promise me that you'll keep that from the other two. At least for now. I've told them about my memory problems, but... don't mention the part about me thinking I'm going crazy."

Swallowing heavily, Red nodded. "Of course, Green. I swear."

Springing onto her feet, Green smiled down at Red. "Thank you. Anyhow, I'm going to go and take a shower! Once we get to port we have to get another badge, after all." Green skipped out of the room, Red smiling after her faintly as he tried to make sense of the encounter.

Shutting the door behind her, Green let out a huge sigh of relief. That was over with, and with a lot less fuss than she would have imagined possible. She wondered vaguely if it would have been a better idea to just let him go looking back on it. After all, Red obviously had some sort of feelings for her. She may be just setting him up for a future heartbreak much worse than is she had just let him go now. Sure, he would have been angry with himself and her, but he would have gotten over it. Green walked to her room to grab her clothes, passing Marta with her mouth set in a frown.

As Green was gathering her change of clothes, the door to the bedroom opened and Janine came into the room, towel wrapped around her head as she shut the door softly behind her. Green turned back to pick up a pair of socks, but dropped them along with the rest of her clothes when Janine wrapped her arms around Green's waist. Janine rested her chin on top of Green's head and grinned down at the annoyed expression. "Good morning. Did you get enough sleep last night? I noticed you preferred the company of Charizard last night." Green snorted and tried to pull out of Janine's grip, but the larger girl tightened the hold and grinned wider. "No, I don't think I'm going to let you go right now."

Green huffed and crossed her arms as Janine chuckled. "I had a... nightmare last night. I just kinda fell asleep on the couch."

"Marta says that someone drank most of the remaining alcohol last night. It must have been one hell of a dream." Janine's voice was light and casual, but it also carried that tone of voice that invited Green to enlighten her more.

"I... had a dream about getting thrown over that railing." Green felt a bit guilty telling Janine a lie, but in the circumstance she felt that Janine would simply not understand at best, or get angry at worst. Her guilt didn't relent when Janine gasped, and pulled her in for a tighter hug.

"I'm not going to let anyone hurt you like that again" Janine said fiercely. Green looked up into Janine's fervent expression, and Janine slowly ran her fingers through Green's hair. "I promise."

"I don't NEED protecting" Green insisted as she tried to squirm out of Janine's grip, a furious glare on her face.

"Nevertheless" was all she said as she gave Green a peck on the cheek.

The two stood there for a moment, Green feeling comfortable in Janine's arms as the two enjoyed the long embrace. Janine ended it first, suddenly dropping her arms and stepping back from Green with a huge sigh. "You've gotta go and take a shower. Your hair stinks, bad dreams or not."

Green turned around to glare at Janine, but she had already picked her bag up and was heading out of the room, waving lazily over her shoulder. The door clicked shut, and Green couldn't help but smile. The two of them had decided not long after Olivine that their "arrangement" would be kept out of the group's limelight. They both didn't know how Marta would react, and Red would probably take it badly no matter what. Green had mostly kept her hands to herself for the most part, but Janine was a very touchy-feely person. When they were alone Janine seemed to enjoy holding hands, long embraces and soft kisses. Green had been hesitant whenever the two began getting a bit physical, remembering the shadow men and their accusations of rape, but it was also clear that for the time being Janine was the aggressor in this relationship. She couldn't be blamed much for that.

Turning to her bag, Green focused back on what she now considered the more pressing problem, the facts about Rudolph disappearing. The problem was that Green wasn't sure if her memory had just always been like that and it just wasn't noticed, or if the memories from her 'previous life' were now just drifting away the longer she was in this body. Frankly the second option scared her a lot more, because… Green couldn't explain it. Maybe Rudolph would be dead then, and the body would reclaim the mind his intrusion had caused. Did she have a clock ticking down the minutes of her existence?

Green frowned and dug in her bag, feeling a surge of anger. "Not gonna let that happen. Not gonna let that ****ING happen." There had to be something to take notes on in this bag. There was a pen after all, there had to be some paper. Feeling around down in the depths of the bag she had never really explored, Green's questing fingers eventually brushed something hard wrapped in a sweatshirt. Pulling the cloth out, she unrolled it to reveal a small book, bound in soft red leather. Opening the front cover carefully, Green was unsurprised to see that it was a diary. Flipping through it, she could see that only five pages were written on, leaving the rest of the book free for notes. Good. Green picked up a change of clothes and a pen, hid them in her change of clothes and set off for the bathroom for some uninterrupted privacy.


As Green ran a hot shower, she sat down on the toilet seat and watched steam slowly fill the room. After a moment of thought, she began to write in the notebook. There she transcribed every fact about Rudolph she could remember. His name, his favorite food, his family history, whatever. Anything at all that Green could link as being a memory of Rudolph she wrote carefully down in the book, until she had a couple pages filled with scribbled facts. Feeling satisfied that she had, for the time being, written down all the important facts she went and got gingerly into the shower. The bruises across her body hadn't faded completely yet, and the black eye Harper's punch had given her was actually kind of terrible looking. Still, after a moment the warm water made the muscles slowly lose their tension, and Green got used to the mild pain as she bathed, leaving the distressing ideas of Rudolph behind for now.


Stepping out of the bathroom after the shower, Green saw her three companions sitting around the living room, Marta chatting away as Janine and Red pointedly ignored each other. Red got up first as he saw Green, and grinned shyly. "H-hey there Green. I was think maybe you wanna go to the Arena..."


"Green!" Janine called, standing up as well and silencing Red for a critical moment. "You said you'd come with me to help check out of the room. You want to go and do that now?"


"Well, I've got to..." Green began to protest, but Janine took her hand, and was dragging her out of the room before she could complain much more. Apologetically smiling at Red, Green followed along as Janine pulled her from the room. "Checking out?" she asked once they were out of earshot.


"I was hoping we could walk around the ship a bit before we had to leave. It's a nice ship." Janine didn't drop Green's hand, but instead twined her fingers into Green's grasp. "Unless you have somewhere to be?"


Green shrugged, and the two walked through the halls of the ship, making their way slowly towards the deck in comfortable silence. That was one thing Green really appreciated about Janine's presence. She was fine with just staying quiet if there was nothing to be said. When on the deck, the two found a place near the railing's edge and looked out on the slowly approaching city of Vermilion.


"Ah, ladies" toned a voice that made Green's flesh crawl a little bit. Turning, Green could see Francis strolling up to the pair of them. Marie was following behind and looking not too happy to be seeing Green. "It is indeed depressing that we must part soon. Green, I must say that the battle you gave me was a most thrilling one. Of course, I now consider you a rival of mine in the route for the pokemon league. Please believe that your win this time was merely luck. Next time I'll crush your team into the ground."


Snorting, Green turned away from Francis. "Yeah sure. I'll beat your ass next time too, you cocky *****." Grinning up at Marie, she continued on. "I can do something to YOUR ass if you'd-"


Marie's hand was quick. She struck Green scross the face and made her stumble, eyes wide as pain re-exploded through her bruised face. Marie had slapped her bruised eye pretty much directly. "You little... pervert! I swear if I see you again I'll-" Marie began, but her voice was cut off almost at one with a little strangled noise. Looking up, Green could see that Janine had Marie by the throat. It apparently surprised Francis as much as it did Green, because he just stood there with his mouth open.


"Apologize to her right now." Janine said cooly to the woman she was gripping by the throat. Green could see Marie try to pull away, but Janine's grip tightened. "I have two fingers on each of your carotid arteries. If I squeeze harder, you're going to lose consciousness. If I squeeze longer than that you won't get up again. I said APOLOGIZE."


"Sorry!" Marie screamed, looking terrified. "Let go of me!"


Janine pushed Marie away, letting the woman take in a large and grateful breath. "Go away right now. Both of you." Francis and Marie seemed at a loss for words, and settled for walking away silently as Janine turned her attention on Green. "Did she hurt you? That ***** slapped you right in the bruise. I should've squeezed..." Janine ran a worried finger along Green's bruise that made her shiver.


Green took Janine's hand and squeezed it. "Look, I'm fine. Like I said, you don't need to protect me. I might just have deserved that slap, after all."


"What? Why? What did you do?" Janine asked, her eyebrows raised.


"Well I felt her up a little bit. Plus, I technically stole her drink too." Feeling Janine's hands tense up, Green felt as if she should elaborate. "Well, she was drunk and making fun of me. I just did it to shut her up. Plus, she's attractive but she's kind of an old ***** also. Who knows what diseases she has."


Janine looked a bit off-put. "You... felt up a woman? You're eleven!"


Realizing she'd maybe been a bit too forward with her comments, Green tried to elaborate. "Look, I didn't DO anything. Plus, just because I'm eleven doesn't mean I don't know about sex. I know what feels good too. I did it purely to shut her up, I don't have any feelings for her."


"Well, maybe I wouldn't have helped just now if I'd have known you groped her." Janine said, her cheeks flushing a deep red as she tried to pull her hand away.


"Janine..." Green said soothingly, keeping a firm grip on Janine's hand and pulling it close. She drew slowly on Janine's palm with her fingertip. "Please don't be like that. I'm sorry, I was just doing it to make a point. I thought you wouldn't be bothered because you know how I felt about you."


There was a pause, and Janine's shoulders lost their tension as she took Green's hand again. "Damn. I can't stay mad at you." Janine smiled, which made Green smile in return. Janine swept in for a sudden kiss, and Green was surprised enough by the mood swing that she didn't shut her eyes right away.


What Green saw made her heart sink. Red was standing there in plain sight, a grin falling off his face even as she watched Janine's kiss. He stared for a moment, then turned around and walked briskly away. Green broke the kiss, making Janine open her eyes in surprise, but Red was already out of sight. Various emotions flicked through her brain, and for a moment Green considered chasing after Red. Try and explain all of this.


"Green? Is something the matter?" Janine looked worried as she studied Green's face, and even followed her line of sight to see what was bothering the girl.


As Green looked at Janine, all of those cares about chasing Red just didn't seem as important. He couldn't unsee what he's seen. Why try and explain what only had one explanation? Why not cultivate this chance for happiness? "Nothing's the matter" Green said simply as she reached out, wrapped her hand gently around the back of Janine's neck and pulled her in for a long and deep kiss. Janine seemed surprised at Green's aggressive move, but she also relaxed into it after a moment, and soon they were lost in each other.


It was nearly an hour later when Green and Janine began heading back to the hotel room. Janine was in high spirits, and Green suspected she was the cause. Janine hadn't said anything yet but Green could tell she had been concerned that the physical part of their relationship was one-way. Today had been the first day Green had really gotten into a kiss since that night in Cerulean before the cruise, and Janine seemed to have taken it as a sign that Green had gotten over whatever it had been.


As they got back to their room, Green hesitated before opening the door. Would Red have told Marta about their kiss? How would Marta even react? Would she find traveling with Green and Janine uncomfortable? Taking a deep breath, Green opened the door wide. Marta was sitting on the couch, reading a magazine as Bayleef lay stretched out on the couch. Red sat near the door with his bag packed, and stood up quickly as Green entered. "Green! ...Janine! Nice to see both of you... um, Marta was telling me you were gonna go east out of Vermillion City and up to Lavender Town... um... I think I'm going to go north. To fight some extra trainers, maybe run into some more pokemon."


Green shot Marta a look, but she just shrugged helplessly. Apparently Red hadn't said anything to Marta, for which Green was grateful. "Red... can I talk to you for just a minute?" Red looked as if he'd much rather not discuss anything right now, but he nodded glumly and followed Green as she walked into the room he had been using. Green sat down on one bed, while Red sat parallel on the other, and both remained silent for a minute as each sought words. "Red, if you're leaving because..."


"No..." Red quickly interjected, and the way he shook his hands and head told Green that he didn't want to talk about the kiss he'd seen just yet. Green relented, and Red took a moment to marshal his thoughts. "I was thinking about heading off soon by myself anyhow. It was good traveling with you guys, but... I'd just like some time alone for a while."


Nodding after a moment, Green stood up and smiled at Red in a vaguely apologetic way. "I'm sorry you have to go then. Look, we'd all like you to stay. If you want to come back and travel a bit, just say so. We're gonna head to Celadon City for the next badge. I imagine we're going to stay there for a day or two, so I'll see you then." Green turned and left the room. She saw that Red's expression had fallen, as if he'd been expecting her to do something before she left.


Entering the living room, Green could see a happy Marta chatting away to Janine, whose eyes were fixed on the door she had just left. Janine smiled once Green smiled at her, and looked away to respond to Marta. Green hadn't missed Janine's unmistakably jealous expression for that moment however. Red exited out of the room as well, and silently picked up his bag.


"Well, goodbye Red." Marta said as she got up to give him a hug. "You can always come back and travel with us."


Janine was there as Marta let go, and Red actually took a step away from her. She held out a casual hand, and Red hesitated for just a moment before shaking it. "See ya, Red. We never got to have that match. I'm looking forward to it." There was an awkward moment where Red met Janine's eyes, and the two shook hands forcefully as they grinned at each other. Finally, Red broke the grip and walked off towards the door leading out into the hallway. He took one last look back, waved, and was gone.


There was a long moment of silence. Green took a moment to realize that they'd always been a group of four since that night at Mt. Moon. Now there was only three of them things seemed a bit... lonely. Attempting to lighten the mood, Green smiled around at Marta and Janine. "Guess we'd better get ready to go ourselves, right?"


It took at least two hours for them to get off the ship. Every person leaving was checked by police stationed at the exit of the ship, making for an almost painfully slow exit. Green was hoping to see Red one last time, but though she scanned the crowds for him she didn't spot his hat anywhere.


Janine and Marta were chatting animatedly as they were finally allowed to disembark, allowing Green time with her thoughts. Green was grateful for the silence. While she felt bad for Red, she also felt that the whole situation was a huge pain in the ass and that it was over with for the time being. Now there was the issue of Marta discovering that the girls she was traveling with were secretly together of course, but Green could already tell that probably wasn't going to be a big deal for Marta, at least for very long. Still, this whole situation made her want to drink. Fighting the Gym Leader here would clear her head.


They found the Gym in short order, the building the same general shape and size as the previous two. It reminded Green of the Pewter City Gym, because while the town was still bustling with people, this place was placed near the edge of town, so that only people who had business here would wander by. Nobody was in sight, and the faint sounds of many people talking could still be heard on the wind. It gave the place an ominous feeling. Without checking with her companions, Green boldly walked up to the front doors and pushed them open.


The inside of the gym had a smooth metal finish, and Green could see a couple of huge poles jutting out of the floor, making the outline of a box in the center of the room. A huge man stood there, watching with arms folded as two trainers battled. Both were guys, and looked to be around sixteen, and both were using electric pokemon. The boy on the right was using an Electabuzz, while his opponent was using a Luxio. Neither battler noticed the girl's entry, but the huge man looked up and grinned wide at the three of them before turning back to watch the end of the match. It looked to be a close one, and the Electabuzz ended up barely coming out on top, panting greatly as it was returned to its pokeball.

"Another round?" Asked the kid who had lost, pulling out another pokeball. He had long blond hair, and was dressed in loose-fitting clothes that made him look like he was going to a concert.

"Guys, guys..." The huge man said, stepping into the middle of the ring and breaking both concentrations. "We have challengers. Don't be so rude." Green was unhappy to see both boys look up and ignore her completely as they focused their attention on Janine and Marta. Both boys also seemed to immediately forget their quarrel as they grinned nearly at once. "I'm Lt. Surge, the Gym Leader here. This here is Dwayne..." he motioned to the blond-haired guy, who was leering at Marta. "...and over here is Horton." The other boy, a tall lad with brown hair and a bandanna, smiled warmly at Janine. "Tell me, girl!" Surge yelled, pointing a finger at Green, "How did it feel getting all that attention on the news the other day? Betcha feel like you can take on the world right now, eh?"

Green blinked in surprise. For some reason she hadn't figured others here would know about the whole S.S. Anne debacle. She still wasn't happy about being talked to like that. "Shut up meathead. I'm here to challenge you for a badge. These two are as well. You need a moment to get ready or can we start?"

The two trainers snickered as Surge turned a bit red in the face. He scowled down at Green as he pulled a couple of pokeballs from his belt. "No, we can start right now. Step into the ring here. The matches will be three-on-three. How many badges to you have, girl?"

"Two." Green replied, and carefully selected three balls of her own as she stepped into the ring. Janine and Marta were starting to follow, but Dwayne laid a gentle hand on Marta's shoulder.

"Sorry there. Only one person in the ring at a time. It's like a test and stuff." the guy said as he tossed the hair out of his eyes with a flick of the head. "We'll keep you company while she's gone though."

"Um..." Marta looked hesitantly over at Green, who frowned back and shrugged. "I guess so."

Horton, who has wandered over to stand next to Janine, waved happily at Green. "We'll take good care of your friends! Don't you worry!" He tried to put a hand on Janine's shoulder, but she stepped away with a frown on her face.

"I'll be done in just a minute!" Green promised, and she was about to wave when suddenly there was a whirr of electricity, and the poles all sprang to life. Thick, coiling bands of electricity surged around them, making a fence that was hard to see and hear through. Turning her attention to Surge, Green went ahead and released Charizard. She took out a bottle of alcohol, and took a quick swig before she did anything else. Already she could feel the alcohol relaxing her muscles. "Let's get this over with."

Surge raised his eyebrows. "That's... a mighty impressive feat for someone your age. No mixers at all?"

Shaking her head, Green took a moment to answer. "I just want to get drunk, I don't want to be drinking."

Nodding, Surge tossed his pokeball out. Seemed he didn't care much what Green did. "Well let's get this match finished then, miss cocky. You've got two badges, which means I can go a little tougher on you. Lanturn!"

Green swore as Charizard kicked off from the ground and began to circle her opponent slowly, making sure to avoid the crackling beams of electricity arcing from rod to rod. This was a terrible matchup for Charizard. Green wondered for a moment how much energy this whole elaborate getup wasted, but quickly focused back on the task at hand. "Charizard, Slash!"

As Charizard swooped in, Green was sure this was going to be easy. The thing looked to have difficulty staying upright on the floor, and Green doubted it could fight well at all out of the water. She was surprised, therefore, when the balls atop its' head began to crackle with electricity. As Charizard swooped in for a swipe with her claws, Lanturn dove forward and touched Charizard's chest with a sparking antenna. Charizard got the slash off, cutting a deep would in the thing's side, but Green could tell by Charizard's roar of pain that it had taken more damage by far.

"Return!" Green yelled, returning Charizard as it stumbled away from Lanturn. There wasn't a moment's hesitation as Green threw the next ball. "Breloom!"

Even as Breloom came out of the ball, Lanturn was already striking. It released a burst of electricity, a thin yellow wave, that collided with Breloom and made the mushroom pokemon squeal in pain. Breloom glared back, and a green stream began moving from Lanturn to Breloom, making Breloom's wounds fade even as Lanturn slumped to the ground. Surge didn't look all that concerned as he returned the pokemon and fished out a new ball. "Good job! I thought you were gonna give me an easy KO with your lizard there. Electrode! Spark!"

As Electrode came out of the pokeball and began rolling towards Breloom, sparks began kick up all around its body. Breloom stood her ground however, and narrowed her eyes at the ball. She hardly needed Green telling her to use counter as she grabbed Electrode, winced in pain as it shocked her, and brought it around for a sharp "crack" against the ground. The momentum of Electrode's roll had worked against it, and now it looked nearly out of the game. "Alright!" Green cheered. "Finish it off with Mach punch!"

Breloom just stood there. It took Green a second to realize it had been still right after attacking Electrode. It was paralyzed. Green could only cry out as Surge commanded, "Selfdestruct!" Electrode glowed white for a moment, and then exploded, knocking Breloom off her feet and sending her sprawling in a heap. Both trainers returned their pokemon, and Lt. Surge was laughing. "Things aren't looking so good for you, eh girl?"

"I'm ahead by two pokemon, you bastard!" Green yelled back, and wordlessly sent out Charizard. The pokemon jumped off the ground and hovered there, slowly beating her wings to stay afloat as she roared a challenge to Surge.

"Don't count on it. Always save the best for last, kid! Go, Raichu!" Surge yelled loudly, sending out his last pokemon.

Both trainers commanded their pokemon nearly at the same time. "Flamethrower!" Green shouted, as Surge yelled "Lightningbolt!" While Charizard had to take a long breath in to ready her breath however, Raichu simply let off a bolt of lightning bolt with a flick of the tail, striking Charizard and making her jerk in midair. The line of flame she let out missed Raichu by inches, and Green had to return the falling dragon as she dropped from the sky.

As Surge laughed and his Raichu danced a little victory jig, Green slowly took out her third pokeball. This was the hardest Gym battle yet, Surge didn't screw around. She had to win though. There couldn't be any other way. "Snorlax!" she cried, and released the huge pokemon out to battle. It appeared, and soundlessly caught the bottle Green tossed to it. "Kick that rat's ass."

Snorlax took a long pull from the bottle as it turned an eye on Raichu. The two pokemon just glared at each other for a moment, then as Snorlax finished the bottle it tossed the thing aside. Surge, who was just grinning and watching, acted as soon as she tossed the bottle aside. "Thunderbolt!"

Raichu's lightning arc made Snorlax roar is pain, and take a step back. She glared when Raichu took a breath, and as Green commanded "Body Slam," rushed the smaller pokemon and caught it with a mighty shoulder slam that sent Raichu flying. The rat landed gracefully enough however, and Green swore to herself.

"Agility!" Raichu fell down to all fours and began running around Snorlax, slow,at first but picking up speed until Snorlax was having a difficult time keeping track of where the mouse was going. "Quick attack!" Raichu suddenly sprang at Snorlax, hitting her with a swift blow to the back that made her stumble. When Snorlax looked back Raichu was already off again, zooming around and readying for another strike.

As Snorlax began to look confused, trying to follow Raichu desperately, Green had an idea. "Yawn!" Snorlax immediately complied, letting loose a huge yawn and forming a light blue bubble out of her mouth. The bubble eventually dislodged, and floated gently away as Raichu continued his assault. It looked for a moment like the attack had done noting as Snorlax covered her head with her hands and just waited out Raichu's quick strikes, but the lazily floating bubble eventually drifted down and with a soft "paff" popped against Raichu as it sped past. Raichu slowed down to a brisk walk, then a trot, finally collapsing in a snoring heap. Snorlax wasted no time and simply sat on the unmoving rat.

Snorlax looked very pleased with herself as she got up off the unconscious Raichu, and Surge snorted in annoyance as he returned his last pokemon. "Fine kid, you've earned these." The man dug in his pocket and flicked a small star-shaped badge at Green, who plucked it deftly out of the air. Surge walked over to the grid for the electric fence and shut it down, letting Green see the relieved faces of her friends, who could see Snorlax still upright. He dug in another pocket and produced a yellowish disc, which he also tossed to Green. "Thunder Badge. I have to admit I'm surprised kid. You've got some tough pokemon. That TM's for the move Shock Wave by the way."

Grinning, Green returned Snorlax and bowed a bit. "Thanks. You're not so bad at battling yourself." As she skipped out of the ring, Surge scowled after her but said nothing,

Marta was first to speak. Dwayne was leering at her in a way that was obviously making her uncomfortable, and she gratefully hurried up to Green. "Congratulations! I guess it's my turn then right?"

Dwayne looked disappointed, and tried to act nonchalant. "Well. Um, good luck and stuff. Hey, I was going to ask you..." he began, and Green could already see Marta's face falling.

Green smiled at the boy and grabbed a free arm. He stopped suddenly, and turned wild eyes on Green, who was already waving Marta away. "Don't worry Marta! I'll keep your friend here busy." She grinned up at Dwayne, showing him all of her teeth. The boy looked severely off-put, and could only look hopelessly back at Marta as she turned and walked towards the match.

"Yeah.... great." Dwayne muttered, not bothering to shake Green off. As he watched dejectedly Marta disappeared behind the crackling bands of electricity.

Looking to Janine, Green could see she looked just as annoyed with her host. Horton was juggling two balls with one hand, evidently to show off a bit to Janine, and asking her questions about her pokemon. "So, which pokemon are you going to drop Raticate for? I'll bet you're going to get a Croagunk. You know, we might be able to go and look for one if you're staying in town long. I hear there also could be Grimer around..." the guy faltered as Janine gave him a long, silent stare without changing her facial expression.

"Green, congratulations on your match." Janine said happily once Horton had quieted down, her face going from neutral to beaming.

Releasing Dwayne's arm, Green smiled back. "Thanks. Good luck on yours too. I hope Marta is doing alright."

"Oh she'll be fine. Marta's a good battler, she just doesn't trust herself very often. Can I HELP you?" Janine asked, obviously annoyed as Horton tapped her on the shoulder.

Horton backed up a step and waved his hands at Janine. "Sorry, sorry! I'll just... stand over here." He backed away from Janine and went to go stand by Dwayne, where the two began a whispered conversation. Every now and then one would look over at the two girls, then lean back in for another exchange of words.

Green sidled up to Janine, who smiled briefly down at her before turning to watch the electric fence. Green reached out and took Janine's hand, and the two silently watched the crackling fence as the two boys behind them began whispering more urgently. Both girls pretended not to notice.

Finally, after another five minutes, there was a sound of slowing turbines and the crackling bands began to slowly fade. Green dropped their grip as Marta came into view, smiling widely and waving a badge over her head. She ran up to Green, and presented it like a child showing her mother a good grade as her Heracross ran along behind. "I did it! I really did it! Look, Green!" Marta giggled and hugged Green tightly to her chest, lifting Green's feet off the ground and spinning her around. Green could only hang there helplessly as Marta laughed.

Smiling, Green freed an arm and patted Marta on the shoulder. "I never had a moment's doubt. I'll bet you were amazing. We should still celebrate though! Congratulations!" Marta blushed at the compliment and mumbled a few words of thanks as Green looked over to Janine, smiling widely to invite her to praise Marta as well. Green's grin died as she caught Janine's expression. Janine had her mouth drawn tight and was glaring daggers at Marta, and it took Green a moment to register that Janine was jealous. Almost as soon as Green saw the expression however, it was gone. Janine flashed her teeth in a brittle smile before hurrying forward to participate in her own match. Green watched her go off with a frown. That just made things a lot more awkward.

"Is something the matter?" Marta asked uneasily as she watched Green's expression. Marta loosened her grip a bit, letting Green's feet touch the floor again.

"Nothing. Just... gas." Green finished lamely. As Marta let her go and Green let her mind wander again, she found her mind drifting back to odd places. Images of her time underwater floated to the top of Green's mind as she closed her eyes. She found herself suddenly longing for those calm, silent waters. At least down there this complicated drama wouldn't exist. There was just darkness, and the silvery shimmer of the surface. There wasn't this constant urge to check the notebook either, to see if her mind had degraded further, maybe lost Rudolph's date of birth or favorite food.

Marta considered shaking Green after a few moments. It seemed like she had zoned out. After a minute however, Marta shrugged off the idea. Whatever Green was imagining, it had to be something pleasant. Best to not disturb her at a time like this.