Chapter Eight

He stood in front of the Boss's large expensive oak desk, sunlight poured onto him from the large glass windows behind it, reflecting the light off his dark green hair. He was in one of his favorite morphs, a young man of about twenty, brown eyes staring at nothing at all, while he stood in attention, waiting for his Boss to turn around in his large black leather chair and face him. His amazing hearing told him that the Boss was thinking, his soft breathe inhaled deeply as he sat in thought. He could hear the Boss's Persian, as it relaxed lazily in his lap, half asleep. A normal listener would have heard nothing, and the large room would have seemed empty. But science had done its job well, enhancing the Rocket's already sharp hearing a thousand fold.
The green haired man's Ditto sat attentively on his shoulder. The little pokemon's heart seemed to pound in the green haired man's ear.
Finally, Giovanni swung his leather chair around, facing his most competent and successful Rockets. As usual, the leader of Team Rocket wore his expensive brown suede suite, a ruby ring decorated his middle finger, as he stroked his Persian.
"Welcome Vincent, Acko. I have summoned you here to ask you about your mission."
Vincent's stare was unwavering, "It is coming along fine, soon, I will befriend the girl, then I will destroy her,"
Giovanni tapped a finger onto his chin in thought, "Aah that. That is partly the reason why I have summoned you here." He gazed at the duo, then continued, "I want you to scrap that plan. It will take too long, and we may not have that much time, I want you to assassinate her swiftly, as long as she is alive, she is a hindrance to my plans, and I am too close to my goal to have it snatched away."
Vincent looked confused, he had been following the girl for nearly seven years, cunningly and stealthily, yet always with the risk that if she ever found out someone was stalking her, she would turn around and retaliate, possibly kill him. "Sir with all due respect, the girl, she is dangerous, she could-"
"Yes, she could kill you and destroy the world with it, yes I know," the Boss interrupted. He suddenly stood up, spilling the cat from his lap, with an indignant, "perr", it padded away. Walking around the table, Giovanni stood in front of a glass cabinet, opening it up, he unrolled an ancient parchment. The Rocket could see that it was incomplete, ripped in half at the bottom.
The boss read it quietly to himself, but as he came to its end, where the parchment had been ripped in half, he turned to Vincent. "I should have made you annihilate the girl from the start. But I was too caught up in my own self pride to realize that she might become a nuisance in the future,"
He stared at the Rocket with penetrating blue eyes, "Do you even know why you must kill her?"
Vincent shook his head, "All I know, and have known, is that she must be illuminated with the greatest subtlety, and that she has a great power, but I don't know what,"
The boss nodded, replaced the parchment back in its cabinet and walked over to one of the large windows.
"There is a creature," Giovanni paused in thought, "Who sleeps under the caverns of the world, under a dome of ocean water. This creature is the only one of its kind, the power fullest and rarest of beasts. It is said on this parchment, that he who captures and tames it, receives everlasting life, yet it comes with a price," He looked up, "And that is where a gaping hole has managed to place itself, I cannot see what else it has to say about the beast, but in the next paragraph, it talks about a guardian. No, it is not Lugia, it is something else quite extraordinary. A child born on the night of the sea god, when the planets and moons are arranged in such a way that the powers of the elements are given unto her. She is the Pokemon's keeper, and to make it easier to tame the creature, I must defeat her."
He looked at the assassin, "She is Katiral. I thought I'd be able to handle her, because, well, she is only a kid. Yet now, I am so close to finding the hiding place of the pokemon's cavern, I'm not so sure, and I do not want to be stopped."
He turned and stared at Vincent, "I want you to kill her as soon as possible,"
The Rocket and his pokemon nodded, "But, what is her power? How can she destroy the world?"
The Boss shrugged, "I don't know, I've only got half of the parchment, the other half has the rest of the information," He looked out the window, "and it's out there, somewhere,"

* * *

A figure sat hunched over a piece of old manuscript, dim light poured from a small lamp, just above his head, lighting up the windowless room gloomily, the furniture scattered across the cold tiles of the floor cast long shadows across the room. But he hardly noticed them, his eyes poured over the piece of parchment.
"And so the child of Lugia shall step forth, guardian of the apocalypse," the man murmured, "With the power to unite the elements of fire, air, earth and water, and create the storm that will end all storms..."
He frowned, that was where the parchment ended a great gaping hole in its place. In fact, there were many holes throughout the manuscript, preventing him to know the whole information, all he did know were bits and pieces. He sighed and leaned back against his chair, blonde curls falling away from his aristocratic face. The prophecy was vague, and he hardly understood it at all. Picking it up gently he rolled up the torn manuscript and placed it in a clear glass wine bottle, putting it away in a drawer underneath the table.
It was a pity that he only had one half of the parchment, if he had both pieces, it would be a damn lot easier to understand.
But no matter, the creature beneath the caverns of the earth was as good as his anyway, he had been searching for a long time to find it, ever since he had found the manuscript, and he had a hunch that he was close to where it slept, he could feel it in his bones. He knew that it was his destiny to capture the rarest of all pokemon on the earth, so rare was this pokemon, that no human had ever laid eyes upon it, ever.
But he was determined to be the first, determined to capture it and add it to his wonderful collection of rare pokemon.
Lawrence the Third got up and climbed the stairs of the dark basement, which led to a hallway of his great giant Dome Ship, that hovered above the crashing blue ocean, fifty miles in the air.

"It's a pity they got away," Topaz remarked, taking a bite from her chicken and mayonnaise sandwich, "I would have enjoyed kicking their asses,"
Katiral smiled, and put a spoonful of noodles into her mouth.
Glancing at Adam, who lay snoring on Falkner's living room couch, she shook her head in amazement saying, "And despite everything, this boofhead manages, by some useless miracle, to sleep through it all," She sighed in disbelief, 'Pitiful, absolutely pitiful,"
Katiral could only agree with her, after Team Rocket had managed to escape in an air-car, the two trainers and gym leader had returned to the city-boy, where, in spite of everything, still slept.
Now they were crashed at Falkner's large house, resting in the living room having lunch.
Suddenly, Adam's eyes snapped open, his red irises were blurry and unfocused, "Guys!" He shouted frantically, leaping off the sofa, "Team Rocket's here! They've got our, like, pokemon! We have to stop them. We have to do- !"
He looked at the room in surprise, "huh?"
Topaz got off her armchair and patted him pityingly on the back, "It's a long story,"
She guided him back onto the chair, where he sat, an expression of confusion planted on his face, like a lost little boy on his first day of school.
"It's all right, I'll tell you the whole story..."
Katiral smiled, "Welcome back to the land of the living, Adam." Then getting up she announced, "I'm going to find Falkner, I'll be back soon."
Topaz only nodded and continued with her story. "And so after I woke up......"
The Gym leader's house was more of a maze-like Avery than anything else, trees and bushes grew everywhere, sprouting from cracks in the house. Vines of all shapes, sizes and colors clung to the marble walls and pokemon birds flew and chirped in the leaves overhead, it seemed that the only place that seemed clean and normal was the living room and kitchen. Katiral wondered the hallways, listening to the birds sing and chatter, she could understand why a person such as Falkner would want to live in a place like this.
She stepped over a flourishing weed growing in the middle of the hallway from a crack between the tiled floor.
The house gave a sanctuary from the roaring city-life, it was a place of peace and beauty amidst a jungle of ugly concrete buildings and polluted air.
She found him sitting beside an old bubbling fountain, overgrown with weeds, bush and vines. Moss covered the edges of the stonework, and the statue of a bird pokemon spilling water from it's beak, was chipped and dusty.
Without turning around to see who it was, the Bird trainer said, "Welcome to my humble abode, do you like it?"
Katiral walked over and sat next to him, he was cradling a baby pidgey in his arms, stroking its soft newly sprouted feathers.
"I love the place. I never would have thought that something so beautiful such as this place could exist in a city like Violet,"
"The world is full of surprises."
She watched, fascinated, as the blue haired Gym Leader kissed the bird gently upon the beak and sent it free. It flew through the air to rejoin its family high in the branches of a tree which partly covered the ceiling.
"You have a way with birds," the little marital artist admired, "but of course you would be, you're Falkner Lord of the Skies,"
The Gym Leader glanced sideways at her, his shoulder length blue hair covering half of his face. "Where'd you hear that?"
Katiral shrugged, "That's what you're renowned as. Didn't you know?"
He shook his head and smiled wistfully, "So that's what they call me,"
She nodded then stood up, facing him. She studied his clothing, it was identical to that of Topaz's Gym uniform, a light blue gee top, which folded across one another, and a long, darker blue, ankle length pleated skirt. His pale blue hair covered one side of his face, and blue eyes, cool and penetrating stared at her from beneath it.
"I challenge you to a match for the zephyr badge," Katiral said quietly. She wasn't the type to announce it rather loudly, or hotly. She preferred to keep things civilized, calm.
Falkner cocked his head to one side, his blue hair shining in the sun from a stream of light which flooded from a window above them. "You want to battle me eh?"
He shrugged his shoulders, stood up and dug a hand into one of his pockets. He handed her a small pair of silver wings, connected together by a beautiful turquoise stone. "It's the new badge design, here, take it, you've earned it."
Katiral looked at him in surprise, then stared at it dumbly as he placed it into her hand, not believing her eyes, she couldn't speak, although she wanted to say something in gratitude, but nothing would come out of her mouth, all she could do was make a surprised little squeak.
Falkner grinned, "Thank me later,"
Then he turned and walked through one of the vine strewn doors. Disappearing into the shadows of its hallways.
The little martial artist clutched the Zephyr badge tightly in her fist, quietly quoting a saying she had heard from her father when she had earned one of her first belts, "This is the sign of the first step of a million miles, which is always, seemingly the hardest,"
She had never felt so happy in her life.
Adam trudged casually through Falkner's kitchen, opened a fridge, helped himself to a coke and a cold slice of pizza and trudged back into the living room. Topaz had gone to find Katiral and had wondered off down one of the many corridors. Taja close beside her.
Alone, he flicked the switch on the T.V remote and made himself comfortable on the leather armchair. Taking sips and bites now and then from the coke and pizza, he channel surfed. Nothing interesting was on, documentaries on the history of pokemon, old movies, cartoons, soapies, cartoons, news, telemall shopping, aerobics....
"Oooh!" He flicked back to the channel where the aerobics show was held. Snuggling himself down more comfortably in the padded leather chair, he contented himself to watch the five, fit-looking blondes who each wore an identical skimpy red uniform.
As it came to the part where the ladies started working on their lower torso, a smell drifted through the air from one of the hallways. Adam sniffed curiously, the exercisers momentarily forgotten. He caught the whiff of something strange, like.....cheap cologne.
The padded sound of boots running along one of the corridors caused his head to turn in alarm. He briefly wondered whether it was Falkner, but dismissed the notion, the Gym Leader didn't wear cheap Cologne, hell, he didn't wear any at all. Katiral was out of the question, she wore Chistian Dior's 'Hypnotic Poison', and Topaz? Well, he didn't know what she wore, but it definitely wasn't what he was smelling now.
The sound of smashing glass made him jump suddenly to his feet, the coke spilled in his lap.
"Oh shit!" He groaned, as he watched the drink slowly soak into the front of his pants. He kicked the coke can across the floor and stumbled into the corridor where the smell was strongest. He saw a dark shadow hurriedly disappear around the corner, "Hey man, like, stop! Who the fuck do you think you are, sneaking round this joint? Hey! Did you like, even here a word I said?"
Adam ran after the shadow, turned the corner, and collided into Falkner.
"Whoa! Hey what are you doing running around like an idiot?" The Gym Leader asked, brushing himself off as he got up.
"Oh, nothing." The trainer shrugged, pushing himself up off the floor, 'Thought I heard somethin' that's all,"
Falkner narrowed his eyes at the city-boy, "Y'know, I just heard someone swear a minute ago, that wouldn't have happened to be you by any chance, would it?"
Adam held his hands in the air, widening his eyes in innocence, "What me? Not a chance, like, I'm freaking religious,"
The bird trainer raised an eyebrow, "Well, you be careful running around this house O.K? You could hurt someone." Then he quickly walked off, calling over his shoulder, "What happened to you anyway? Piss your pants or something?"
Adam gave him the finger as the back of Gym Leader turned the corner.
He realized that there was something different about the man, wasn't he wearing the Violet City Gym Uniform a few minutes before, when he had last seen him? He shrugged his shoulders, whatever, maybe Falkner had a thing about black clothes and had changed when he got home. But Adam wasn't quite so sure, he swore he had smelt a faint trace of that cheap cologne clinging to the Gym Leader's clothes. Walking up the corridor, he was too engrossed in his thoughts that he didn't notice the broken glass scattered across the weed strewn floor until he stepped in it. His foot made a crunching noise, snapping him back to reality. "Huh?" He looked down curiously at his feet, shiny clear glass sparkled in the light, looking around he discovered it was everywhere, spread all the way up the hallway.
"Man, Falkner's going to have one hell of a cleaning job, with all these, like, weeds here and stuff." He murmured to himself.
Then everything blew up.
Vincent stepped out of the front door and shredded his new morph. He was tired, damn kid had made him morph the fastest he had ever done in his life. He cursed himself as a fool, for doing such a sloppy job, letting the boy see him was a stupid mistake which he swore he would never make again. Oh well, he wouldn't need to worry about it in a minute, he felt drained of energy, but he was pleased, soon the house would blow up, and Katiral and her friends would be history. His Rolex wrist watch slowly shifted, and changed into a ditto.
"Acko, we're almost done," said Vincent, merging into the shadows of an alley behind an old Chinese restaurant. The sound of honking horns and busy people filled the his ears. It was an average day in Violet City, behind him a cat spilled over a garbage can, the high pinging noise of it's lid as it rolled around on the concrete, echoed up the alley.
"Soon, we'll give them something to make their lives, just a little bit more interesting," Vincent chuckled.
Acko could only agree.
Suddenly, an explosion rocked the city, its sound waves and vibrations caused loose items to stumble around, but it didn't effect the Rocket, he just smiled, "And there it is now,"

Well, there's the second part of the story. Hope you've enjoyed it so far, sorry about all the gory stuff in the first part. But I can assure you, that's not going too happen often. What do you think of my characters? If you've got anything to say about the story, I'd really love to know, so drop me a line sometime. By the way I've changed my E-Mail address, my new one is; q9920891@mail.connect.usq.edu.au
Disclaimer; I do not own pokemon, never have, never will.......or at least not yet. (Hee hee hee). SO DON'T SUE ME!!!!
If you'd like to use my made-up pokemon and characters, I'd appreciate it if you'd ask me first. Thanks.