The Fighting Plate was blown across the field with a flash of light, the Plate rolling and crumbling as it slid along the ground. When it finally came to a halt, steam rose up from its battered and destroyed form, not being able to contend with a Hyper Beam.
"****!" Blue screamed, kicking a rock, but not bothering to watch it sail a few feet. "Damn it!"
It was a fake! Just a useless fake!
All that work for nothing! He went to all that trouble- boarding the S. S. Anne, studying the routes throughout the ship, going against Agatha's ghosts, nearly getting caught– just for some rock!
He felt humiliated. No wonder Agatha didn't show up; she didn't have to since she wasn't losing a thing.
"Dammit!"
Starmie hovered closer to him, its jewel flashing a light pink, as if trying to offer comfort.
Blue sighed, shoulders slumping, and ran a hand through his hair. "Thanks, Starmie, but that's not going to help."
His other Pokemon tugged on his pant leg, its tail waving back and forth in the air. A faint breeze blew across the field and Blue breathed in, smelling the slight sweet scent.
He smiled slightly. No matter how bad life got, his Pokemon always managed to keep his hopes up.
"Thanks to you too," he said, patting the Pokemon on the head and rubbing his ears. Then, he turned to Starmie. "Green's coming here. Make sure she gets here all right, okay?"
Starmie was still for a moment before the blue glow around it intensified as it suddenly spun into the air and flew over the trees.
Blue sighed and looked down at his other Pokemon. "Well, I guess it's just you and me now, buddy."
No matter how much his Pokemon tried to cheer him up, however, the fact that he failed again wouldn't leave his mind. Once was bad enough, but twice? That was just terrible and no excuses would be acceptable. He underestimated the Elite Four both times and paid for it; one with his arm and that other with his dignity. And if that wasn't bad enough, he also managed to miss his chance to kill that girl who kept showing up.
It was rather a coincidence, actually. This girl appeared on both Seafoam Island and the S. S. Anne and met him both times. The first time, she screwed up both his plans and himself, and in the second, she distracted him long enough for Agatha's Gengar to appear.
Damn that girl.
Actually, the girl would probably still be in Vermillion City, though he doubted that he would find her if he decided to look. He didn't know her name, or even much of her face (he was a bit preoccupied at the time). Those details were something he should fix as soon as he could. Sooner, the better; sooner, the faster he could track down and get rid of the problem.
Honestly, it was like the girl was bad luck charm or something…
"Blue!"
Turning, Blue look out into the woods as Green appeared from the shadows.
Since Blue was stupid, and before he had even taken a close look at the Plate, he had called Green to tell her of his supposed success. Of course, she had quickly decided to teleport down to Vermillion at the soonest chance she had, which was right after he found out the Plate was a phony.
'Why didn't I check it before I called her?' he groaned to himself. He did not like meeting Green in person. In real life, she was much pushier and shrill-ish than over the phone. The only good thing about meeting her in person was that she served as some nice eye candy, which was an understatement if he ever saw one.
The woman brushed off a stray leaf that had clung to her shirt and then, crossing her arms, she looked at Blue with narrowed eyes.
"Where my Plate?" she demanded, stepping forward.
Blue's eyes darted over to the broken piece of rubble meters away and Green followed his gaze.
She gasped and she started for the broken rock. "M- My Plate!"
"Calm down," Blue said, grabbing her arm to stop her. She whirled around, pulling her arm away and scowling at him.
"What's going on? What happened to my Plate?!"
"Oh, that's not your Plate," he replied, waving her demands off. "That's just the dummy that the Elite Four created."
Green looked at the rock.
"A dummy…?" She turned back. "Blue! Did you get my Plate or not?"
"Nope; it wasn't there in the first place." He frowned at her, and in the corner of his eye, he noticed that Starmie had reappeared.
"Why did you call me then?" she demanded.
"I thought it was real at first."
And that was true. Blue had never seen the real Fighting Plate before, so there wasn't any way he could tell it was a fake. It was only when he decided to test it by kicking it around a bit did he figure it out. The only other way he could have possibly told it was a fake was by the weird writing on its surface, and that was extremely hard when you couldn't even read it. Apparently, the writing was some type of written Pokemon language, but Blue doubted it. He had tried to get his Starmie to read it, but it couldn't. No humans or Pokemon could read it.
Well, maybe one Pokemon…
"I thought you researched these things!"
Blue felt a bit of annoyance at Green's shrill tone. "I do, the whole convention was pretty much an excuse to trap me. I wasn't supposed to notice."
"That's not good enough. What am I paying you for?"
"To get you a Plate," he replied, standing his ground when Green took a few steps forward, apparently trying to intimidate him. Really, who did she think he was? Did she really think a ditzy looking blond like herself could possibly scare him?
Green growled and Blue starred at her with a raised brow.
"You know, I really think you should calm down." He motioned to his Pokemon, who looked up at him. "Stir up some Sweet Scent."
Taking a few deep breaths, Green said, "Don't bother."
"If you insist."
Apparently calm now, Green looked over to the broken rock and then looked back at Blue.
"This is the second time you've messed up," she said. "You know, you're really starting to disappoint me."
Blue sighed and ran a hand through his dyed blond hair. He really didn't feel like talking to Green at that point. It had been a long day. All he wanted to do was to go home and sleep.
"Live with it. You just can't go hire someone else, you know. You'll have a very hard time to find someone like me."
She eyed him coolly. "You're not that special. Someone who has well-trained Pokemon, who doesn't mind killing and stealing- I can buy whoever I want. People will be lined up to steal a Plate for me. And I bet they can do much better than you."
"Oh, yes," he rolled his eyes. "And the minute they get their hands on one, they'll run off. A Plate is worth twice of you, Green. I, at least, won't purposely try to take one for myself."
"… What did happen?" she asked, seeing that continuing that line of conversation would lead to no where. "The news is all over it, you know. For all your talk of staying in the shadows, you sure get a lot of limelight."
He shrugged. "I panicked a bit. I honestly didn't think ghosts would be that weak to light. It tends to be stereotyped a lot, so I just assumed it was exaggerated."
"And you said you knew lots about Pokemon." She laughed.
"You're the one who approached me," he replied, trying to look like he didn't care.
"Mhmm. Well, what did happen? Did Agatha trick you into running in circles?"
Blue grimaced. "Something like that." He paused. "That girl was there."
"What girl?"
"The one on Seafoam Island, that made me lose the Ice Plate and did this," he patted his weak arm, "to me."
"Really?" Green looked a bit distracted, like she was thinking. "… Blue?"
He looked over. "What?"
"I think you should speed up your search for the Plates," she said. "You've gone after two, and have gotten away with one. The Elite Four will be on their guard more than ever now. I know you like to take months just planning a heist, but I think you should go after another one as soon as possible."
"What's the rush?"
"Hmm?" Green looked at him confused as if not knowing why he wasn't agreeing with her. "The Elite Four are going to do everything in their power to protect the Plates. I'm surprised they haven't shipped them out of the country yet."
Blue gave her an amused look. "That's impossible. Think about it. If you had a Plate- and weren't going to do anything with it immediately-" he quickly added, seeing Green open her mouth, "then would you actually send it out of Kanto to sit in some vault miles and miles away from you? Think how many people the Plate would have to go through."
"No," he continued. "The Elite Four are stuck in their own paranoia. Haven't you wondered why the Ice Plate was on an abandoned island, only guarded by Pokemon? The Elite Four is so paranoid that I really doubt they'd let any human, other than themselves, near it."
"I suppose you're right," Green said reluctantly, looking away when Blue smirked at her. "Though I still think we should speed things up. No one will expect you to go after one so soon."
Sighing, Blue replied, "The problem is that I don't know where the other Plates are. Though, I do have an idea where another is, but I'm leaving that one alone."
"Why's that?"
"Trust me on this one."
Green, however, decided that wasn't good enough.
"If you know where a Plate is, Blue," she said, scowling. "Then I expect you to go get it." She paused, something occurring to her. "You know, this is the first time that I've heard that you know where another Plate was. When did you find out?"
Replying truthfully, Blue said, "About a month ago."
"And you didn't tell me?"
"I'm not going after it," he told her, and suddenly, Green was right in his face.
She jabbed him in the chest with her finger as she looked up at him, eyes narrowed.
"I'm paying you a lot of money, and you haven't returned the favor yet," she said in a high voice. "Is this Plate really that hard to get? You went up against Lorelei and Agatha, and it's this one Plate that scares you off? What, is Lance there or something?"
Blue pushed her away and in a sharp voice, said, "I'm not your dog, Green. I didn't just decide not to go after the Plate. I researched, I went up to where it was, and then I decided that it wouldn't be worth it to go after it. That's my final decision."
There was silence, and Green stood still, her face going steadily red.
'Oh, great', Blue thought to himself. It looked like Green was going to have a temper tantrum. As long as he stayed patient, he would wait until it blew over…
However, to Blue's great surprise, Green didn't explode, but calmed. She smiled coyly, like she had a plan in mind, and sauntered back up to him.
"You know," she started, tilting her head. "If you don't start turning in results, I'm going to have you killed."
Blue made a short laugh. "You kill me? Come on, you can come up with threats better than that."
"I'm completely serious. All I have to do is go up to the Elite Four and point right at you. I know your name and your face. They'll easily track you down and then your life is ruined." She finished with a small shrug, as if it meant nothing to her.
"… Is that it?" Blue asked. "Is that all you can come up with?" He shook his head. "Green, Green, Green; you disappoint me. How are you going to explain to the Elite Four on how you came across this information? You have no proof and it's more likely that they'd suspect that you're tied to this whole mess, which you are."
Green scowled. "I can easily get proof. You're definitely not a human anymore and I can tell just by looking at you. Your eyes are much too pale and your skin is too cold." She eyed his long blond hair, which had streaks of brown showing at the roots. "And your hair grows too quick."
He waved if off. "That isn't evidence. I can explain that in a lot of different ways."
"Then what's your explanation, then?" Green asked, but then paused. After a moment, she smiled and looked at him. "I just thought of something. You're not a human anymore; you're part Pokemon…"
"Go on," Blue said, waving his hand with a roll of his eyes. "Let me hear your wondrous realization."
"You say you're not my dog," she continued, reaching into her pocket and taking out a black Pokeball with a yellow design; an Ultra-Ball. "But… I can make you my dog, right? What are the chances that you're Pokemon enough for me to catch you?"
Green gasped, releasing the Ultra-Ball as Blue violently grabbed her wrist, pulling him towards her. She tried to push him away, but he changed his grip, grabbing her arm instead and holding a knife to her throat.
"Catch me?" he asked with an awkward grin, trying to mask on how much the idea completely disturbed him. "Nah… I think it's more likely that I'd kill you. I completely outclass you, in strength, in Pokemon- I don't even need to use weapons or my fists."
Green could only watch and struggle in horror as her arm started to freeze up, the tips of her fingers gaining a blue tinge and the skin around Blue's hand becoming frostbitten. An icy feeling spread up her arms and Green couldn't help but shiver a bit as she suddenly felt very, very cold.
"I can't really control it," he said casually. "It just kind of happens when I want it to. Other than instantly freezing my tap water into ice cubes, it's pretty useless, so I don't use it that often." He looked at her terrified face. "Though, I think it's kind of you to volunteer to be my test subject. I've always kind of wondered what my new powers do…"
"I get it, Blue!" Green said, breathing heavily. "Let go!"
He didn't let go.
"Do you really understand?" he asked. "Because I would hate if you didn't."
"I get it!"
Blue leaned in slightly, tightening his grip.
"Don't forget, Jade."
Then, he released her and Green stumbled back, holding her frostbitten arm and breathing heavily. Her eyes darted to Blue, to his two Pokemon that were loyally standing by their trainer's side, to the shadows of the trees, and then back to Blue.
'Green was always so paranoid,' Blue thought to himself with a mental sigh. She absolutely hated it when he called her real name, even if it was just her first. She always thought that she was being watched by someone.
But at least she had the excuse at being a highly televised Pokemon Master. Jade Rouge was one of the youngest Pokemon Masters in Kanto, having been the winner of the Indigo Tournament two times in a row. Of course, it didn't help that Green flaunted her victories to the media like throwing a stray dog a bone.
"I'll call you when I find another Plate," Blue said and the woman stared at him with wide eyes. "Now get going, okay?"
He waved his hand, dismissing her.
Jade gave him a glare as she walked past him and said, "I won't forget this."
"Sure, sure," Blue said, rolling his eyes and watched as she disappeared into the shadows.
He wasn't worried about Jade, truthfully. She was all talk and no bite. And it wasn't like she knew his real name, so it was all good.
"I think that went rather well, under the circumstances," Blue said to both his Pokemon. Then, he sighed and relaxed his tired body.
He didn't feel like thinking anymore. It was getting late and he wanted to go to bed as soon as he got home. Luckily, he had a Pokemon who could teleport, so he didn't have to move much.
Just when Blue was going to speak his intentions, a sound made him pause.
At first, he thought it was his imagination, but as the sound got louder, it was obviously anything but. It had a haunting quality to it and faded in and out of his hearing like a snake, but it still got louder and louder, like the one who was making the noise got closer.
The sound could be called a song, but there was something about it that made Blue's skin crawl. To his ears it was rather pretty, but somewhere in him, something was covering its ears and screaming for it to stop.
"What-" Blue looked down at his Pokemon and noticed there was something wrong. He looked over at his Starmie and noticed the same problem.
Both were unnaturally still and Starmie's aura was loosing its glow as the psychic-type slowly lowered to ground until it finally fell over onto its back. His other Pokemon also laid down, its eyes drooping close and its tail wagging to a stop.
"Guys?" Blue said quietly, kneeling down and picking up his limp Pokemon. It lay in his arms, curled into his chest and its tail almost touching the ground when Blue stood up.
Blue went over to Starmie. "Star?"
The psychic-type, however, was still conscious as its jewel flashed a few time with a dull red glow before it finally stopped.
Suddenly, the noise that was apparently causing his Pokemon's problems got very loud and Blue had a feeling that whatever was doing this was right behind him.
Blue turned.
The Swablu's small yellow beak opened and closed with the faint beat of the noise. Its fluffy white wings were kept close to its blue body as it sat on its trainer's shoulder. Though, its song was apparently affecting it too as the trainer's hand was kept up to the Pokemon, shaking it whenever the noise wavered.
"I've wanted to meet you for a while," Giovanni started, gently shaking the Swablu awake again as he walked into the clearing. "I'm glad I finally can now."
"You…" Blue didn't know what to say, especially since he seemed a bit screwed at the moment. "… What have you done?"
Giovanni smiled. "Just a Perish Song," he said. "Unfortunately, Swablu is still having a few problems with it, as you've probably noticed."
Perish Song.
God damn it.
Slowly, Blue put his Pokemon back on the ground and stood back up, one of his hands reaching for his knife. Unluckily, he had left his gun back home since he couldn't bring it to the convention. The only weapons he could possibly use were his two Pokemon and his knife. And with only his knife, he didn't really feel like a threat.
'Why now?' Blue moaned to himself, wondering where it all went wrong. 'How did he find me? I didn't leave any tracks!'
Like he was reading his mind, Giovanni said, "It wasn't that hard to find you. I put a tracker in the Plate, but since you destroyed it, it took me a while to find you in this forest."
He gave the thief a wry grin.
"I don't think that knife is going to be much of a help to you," the gym leader said.
Blue gripped the knife tighter.
"You can calm down," Giovanni said to Blue, finally letting the Swablu stop its tune. The little flying-type seemed to sigh and then would have fallen off its trainer's shoulder if Giovanni didn't hold it there.
After returning the Swablu, Giovanni looked up to see Blue returning his Pokemon too.
"You're not going to get away," Giovanni said, noticing Blue glancing towards the trees. "I've released my ground Pokemon. I'm not going to let you get away after all the effort I put in to finding you."
Blue clenched his hands into fists. What options did he have? Knife Giovanni? Hah, like that would do anything. He probably had a Nidoking around somewhere to gore him with its horn if he even tried that. And it wasn't like his minimal ice powers could do anything. If Blue was a Pokemon, he would guess he'd be somewhere around level one. Yeah, like that would do any good.
Giovanni eyed him. "You know, I'm not here as a gym leader. The Elite Four don't even know where I am. I'm not here to arrest you."
Now that gave the thief a pause. Not arrest him? What?
"I want you to calm down," Giovanni continued. "And listen to me, alright? I just want to talk; that's all."
What other choice did Blue have? He was quite confused at what Giovanni's intentions were, but he supposed there was no harm in listening. And if he didn't like what he was hearing, then he'd run.
Blue took a deep breath, not letting go of the knife. He looked at Giovanni with narrowed pale eyes.
"Then what do you want with me?"
-
A/N: Damn it, I wanted this to be a short chapter!
*sighs*
I'm a bit nervous about this chapter, probably because of the Leah-Agatha reveal. It's something I've been planning since chapter one and I hope that I've pulled it off right. The Green-Jade reveal was rather obvious in my opinion because of her name, but I liked her name too much to change it.
Anyways, no update next week because I need to plan stuff.
Thanks for reading!