Writing Project: Johto Journeys (Part 4)
Day #19
This morning I woke up in Ecruteak's Pokemon Center and found mail which had reached me. Vicki sent me a postcard showing her and her own Feraligatr posing on Indigo Plateau. Scribbled on the back was a hasty: "I'm here before you! Hope you make it soon!" I hope she does a good showing, but I'm not rushing. The second piece of mail was actually a phonecall on the Pokegear from Professor Oak complimenting me on the state of my Pokedex. The call didn't last too long, it was just a compliment, and a comment about how nice it was young people were devoted to learning things about Pokemon.
I went back to Mount Mortar, and found Suicune standing on one of the upper cliffs serenely. As though waiting for me. Then it bounded off, leaving a chill in the air. Eusine was behind it, rushing after and telling me he was destined to chase it and witness its glory. I almost spoke up about what happened in Sinnoh with the mythic Pokemon there . . . but I realized it would probably not be too bright to do so. After he departed, I got a call from one of the trainers who had my number, saying there had been an interesting disruption of the radio waves. I tried my Pokegear radio and didn't even get static; what I did get was something like dead air with a small beep now and then like a test.
I continued across the cliff paths until I reached Mahogany Town, and noticed the Gym was closed. Furthermore, someone had seen men in black uniforms heading north into the hills towards a place called the Lake of Rage. Followed by a man in a cape; it didn't sound like Eusine, and he likely wouldn't care unless Suicune had gone that direction. This felt like something else. There wasn't a Pokemart here, just a souvenir shop which seemed a little odd to me. All they sold were standard Pokeballs and Potions, and they had what looked like an artificial tree outside.
Something is definitely not right here.
Day #19, part 2
I headed north towards the Lake of Rage, and noticed a crowd gathered to look at a red-scaled Gyarados rampaging around in the lake water. Feraligatr ferried me out there to stop it, though it took a couple tries using a Net Ball to do it; trying to throw a Pokeball on a violently turbulent body of water with a raging Gyarados in front of you is not easy. I wound up in the water, and Feraligatr helped me to shore where I found myself pulled out by a man in a black and red outfit. With a cape billowing in the wind. He introduced himself as Lance, "just another trainer like yourself, concerned about the Pokemon at the lake." He led me to a stone to sit down on and I noticed his partner Pokemon nearby, a rather large Dragon-type I hadn't encountered before.
Lance said the raging red Gyarados was a sign of unnatural and forced evolution, but couldn't understand just how it was done. He remembered aloud about seeing something suspicious back in Mahogany Town and asked if I would like to help. I thought it over, and decided I wasn't going to try to take this one alone. I barely got time to ask him what the plan was before he had his partner Pokemon fly him off. "I'll see you at the souvenir shop!"
I hurried back amidst a rainstorm which made it rather dark . . . and heard a commotion in the town. A beam of energy punched through the door of the souvenir shop and threw the clerk out ahead of it. Lance was standing there in the door, looking annoyed at the figure. He noticed me, and motioned me into the building. Inside I saw his Dragon-type pushing aside a large bookcase. "It was hidden, but not well enough." He stated. "I'm going down there, cover my back."
I didn't even have time to protest, considering my Pokemon weren't in any shape for taking on the challenge right now . . . but what else could I do? He was relying on me to cover him, and if I wasn't there . . . I walked down the staircase into a steel corridor lined with Persian statues. An alarm was going off in the distance, but as soon as I crossed the line of sight between two statues a closer alarm went off. Two Team Rocket members rushed out to attack me, and I had to defend myself rather hastily.
The corridors were all alike, and I got turned around and lost while finding out Team Rocket really was more numerous than they had let on. Almost a dozen grunts were staffing the top floor, fleeing deeper in after they were beaten. I finally reached a stairwell, and found Lance there waiting for me. He offered me some medicine and mentioned the transmitter room was locked tight and needed a password from a man named Petrel. He went on ahead again, but I noticed a passed-out Rocket member in the corner tied up. This man was not "just" a trainer, though he likely was a great deal like me. We both seemed to be very good at raising and training our Pokemon.
I worked down lower into the building, and was stopped by seeing Silver come out from a stairwell. He didn't look surprised to see me, just annoyed. "So you can't leave them alone, can you?" He ranted for a short time about not needing any help dealing with Team Rocket, only if it hadn't been for the man in the cape with Dragon Pokemon. "Who is he? Nevermind, I'll find out myself." I hurried down the stairs, knowing Lance couldn't be too far ahead if he just beat Silver. I found Lance waiting for me at an office with a man shoved into a chair and tied down. This was Petrel, who looked completely unassuming but I noticed Lance didn't have his partner Pokemon following him anymore. Instead he was holding a Pokeball in one hand, looking more agitated. Petrel calmly surrendered the password, then laughed. It wouldn't do any good unless it was in his voice, and he had no intention of helping. Lance cut him loose with a stern warning to abandon Team Rocket.
Petrel didn't want to help, but it turned out his Murkrow was an accomplished mimic, and flew out of the room when Lance opened the door. We realized what this meant, and hurried past while Petrel frantically tried to get the Murkrow to shut up. The mimicry triggered the voice analysis for the door to the transmitter room, and we hurried inside intent on shutting it down. Inside, a woman in a white uniform was waiting.
"I had hoped the intruders wouldn't make it this far. But just in case, I wanted to be the last line of defense. You're not turning off our machine!" A Team Rocket Grunt slid out from the side of the door, and both drew Pokeballs. Lance lifted his, and grimly called forth his Pokemon - a Dragonite. I had only heard about these before, it was a huge privilege to see one . . . let alone watch a fully trained one in action! It very handily made this easy, but the lady in the white uniform scoffed and claimed this didn't put as much of a dent in their plans as we might hope. She disappeared around the corner while Lance checked out the transmitter - it had no control for turning it off, only for tuning it. It seemed to run off six Electrodes, which seemed brilliant to me, but I saw Lance very upset over the prospect of having to knock them out in order to shut it down. I checked my supply of Pokeballs, and told him I'd try to capture and release instead of hurting them too badly. After the deed was done, he handed me a copy of the HM for Whirlpool (a move I've never heard of, to tell the truth) and told me I might find a use for that sometime.
At the Pokemon Center, he asked me if I was intent on challenging the Elite Four. After choosing to explain matters to him, about how I had lost the challenge in Sinnoh, he just smiled and nodded. "Perhaps your luck will be better this time, you seem to have a good grasp of what it takes to be a great trainer." He left, having his Dragonite fly him off; I wasn't sure but I had the feeling of several subtle undercurrents running through our conversation.
Just what WAS Lance, anyway, if not "just" a trainer?
Day #20
The Mahogany Town Gym was cold inside, frozen over and slippery floors being the obstacle to surmount here. I had to carefully move about or else fall down. Along the way some trainers stopped me for battling, but I managed to get through; as much as they were purportedly Ice-type trainers, they were using Water-types with access to Ice moves. This meant Flaafy managed to plow her way through. Pryce, however, had much more durable Pokemon at his call and was a patient trainer. He let my Pokemon throw devastating attacks, only to command a Rest and heal up.
I had to let my team rest considerably after this Gym Battle, it was indeed quite the challenge for all of us. I began to plan about where I would need to go next, which seemed to be further east through a tunnel. This could take a while . . .
A phone call came in from Lyra later this evening, asking if I was listening to the radio. I turn on my radio to hear a broadcast from Team Rocket out of Goldenrod City. They're calling for their former leader Giovanni to come out of hiding and return to leading them. Vicki called shortly after, saying she was heading back to Goldenrod to help deal with it; we both agreed Team Rocket was too much trouble to leave alone or wait for someone else to handle . . . I get the sense Lance wouldn't get involved yet, not unless it gets more serious than this.