Chapter 11
James, of Team Rocket, sniffed the rose he always carried with him. "So let me get this straight. You want us, the Great Team Rocket, to sneak into the police station, go into the evidence room, and steal two pokéballs containing a Dugtrio and an Onix, then sneak back out. Correct?"
Professor Oak and Dr. Jones were interviewing various members of Team Rocket for "A very sophisticated theft! The defining challenge for any member of the Golorius Team Rocket!". At lest that was what the ad they sent to the HQ said. They had seen 24 members just today.
It had been a week since they first sent in the ad. They just hadn't seen any members lousy enough to do the job.
Then Jesse, James, and Meowth had came into the office. Things were looking up. Or in the case of Team Rocket, looking down, rotten in fact.
Prof. Oak hadn't stopped grinning since they had entered. Dr. Jones looked pale. He had passed medical school, for what? To be sitting in the back of his store, with a team of gangsters? This just wasn't for him. They weren't even GOOD gangsters, for crying out loud!
But that's what made them perfect.
"You're hired." Oak said after a few moments of silence. The Team grinned. They had gotten a Job. They walked out the door the same way the had come in. Very suspiciously.
Jones looked over at Oak, who was still grinning, "It'll never work and you know it. How can THEY get Mark's pokémon back? Their complete Nimrods!" Oak suppressed a laugh, "I know. That's why I hired them. They will fail. They'll get caught. But you see, that's the point. We send in Mr. Roboto and Gaveler to actually get Dugtrio and Onix. While the Rockets fail horrible, attracting all of the police, our two will get the balls. It can't fail!!" Then Oak broke into hysterics. Dr. Jones soon joined him. Maybe this would work after all!
It was a week later...... All the preparations had been made..... Dr. Jones had even tipped the police in that the Rockets would be raiding the station.
Suddenly there was a knock at the door. It was raining outside, a perfect night for a robbery. Who would be out now? Jones slowly got up and answered the door. What he saw left him in shock. It was Joe Peterson.
He looked haggard. He had dark circles under each eye. He had not slept in days. He was also very thin, from not eating in over a week. Joe stumbled inside and collapsed on the bed.
His life had been made a living h#ll since the accident. People had hunted him, accusing him of giving pokémon a bad name forever. Activists had began to take legale action against him and his mom. She was forced to throw him out, after the threats had started.
He looked weakly up at Dr. Jones, "I....want....to-o help-p-p-p......" He then passed out.
And that was when Professor Oak whelled Mark in the room. Hatred flashed in Mark's eyes. He clenched the fingers of his still broken arm. "I'm going to kill him" Mark growled. Graveler, who had entered right behind them, seemed to echo Mark's words. "Graveler, attack." Those words seemed to sum up all the rage and pain Mark had gone through in the last month.
Graveler sprung into the air, preparing to smash Joe's skull, forever silencing the boy who had done so much damage, without even thinking about it..........................
Chapter 12
"GRAVELER!!" the great rock beast was crashing down, about to smash Joe Peterson's head in.
Suddenly at the last moment Joe awoke and rolled aside, just missing getting killed by a ton of rock. Joe was then aware of a great mass sitting on his back crushing the life out of him.
"STOP!" the commanding voice of Dr. Jones caused Graveler to get off of Joe. It went to stand in the corner, looking sheepish. Joe sat up, before Graveler could try to kill him again.
"Joe, you said you wanted to help us. Help us do what?" Dr. Jones played dumb to the plan with Team Rocket. "You know. The Rockets. You were going to try to sneak in to the police station, and get back Mark's pokémon. I want to go with Graveler and the robot. You'll need a real person there to help. I have no home. I have nothing. I need to prove myself, both to you and myself."
"No!" Mark cried out. "You don't want to help. You only know how to hurt. Both me and my pokémon. Mr. Roboto has a remote mounted on him, we can control them that way. I won't let you help. You ruin my life, then walk in here expecting everything to be fine and dandy, Right? Isn't that the way it goes?"
Mark paused, trying to catch his breath, "When I was unconscious, I had dreams. One of them was of you. You were a black demon, commanding your Venusaur to target me instead of Graveler. After all that, and you're surprised that the world hates you. I hate you. I wish you were in my position, instead of me. Get out of here, you're not wanted."
Joe looked as if he was crying, "No. I'm not going to leave. You can have Graveler try to kill me again, or what ever. I'm not leaving. Let go of your hate for me. Maybe it WAS my fault. But no matter. Maybe it was fate's way of telling you that you were destined for better things then just Gym Leader." Joe then dug something out of his pocket, "Like maybe... Master?"
He reveled what he had got out of his pocket. It was the Boulder Badge. He set it down in Mark's lap. By this time Mark was crying too. Even Graveler had slightly smoothed spots near it's eyes. "I-I....for.. ...give.....you." Mark said so quietly, that almost no one in the room heard him. He rolled around the Badge in the "good" hand of his broken arm. His leg was almost healed. He felt like walking on it right there.
Mark looked up. His face looked softer then it had in weeks. "Lets go save Dugtrio and Onix." He said at last.
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EPILOGUE:
To blind men in a cave far away from Pewter City stared into nothingness, seeing nothing, yet seeing all.......
"And the cycle of the Thirty has begun." One said breaking the silence. "He has passed the tests life has put in front of him. And he survived. He has faced the assassin of the Cult with a blind eye. And he survived. He is without a doubt the one of prophesy. The other Thirty will come soon enough. Why, he's already met three of them......."
Chapter 13
*NOTE* This one takes place about half-way through Chapter 14, until about half-way through this one. Then it takes place in "regular" time.
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WHIP-THUNK.
James, of Team Rocket, shot his grappling hook up to the top of the police station. It held. After a few yanks on it to make sure would stay, he started to pull himself up. Jesse and Meowth were right behind him. The plan was simple. Get in, take the balls, get out. It was so simple, it was......scary. But it was a job, and maybe one they could actually pull off........
They had made it to the roof. The was supposedly a grate that they could pull off and it would drop them right in the evidence room. James scanned the surface. There it was! And no security cameras either! This was almost too easy!!
James secured a rope to the corner of the now-hole in the ceiling. After scanning the area for guards, they swung in. It was a long way down. Longer then the rope, by about five feet. Not good. The slightest noise could set off any amount of alarms.
They would have to chance it. Jesse was the first to drop, her long crimson mane flailing behind her. She landed with the grace of a cat. God, she was beautiful, James thought to himself. If only they had not been cursed to meet in this lifestyle...... but no matter.
James suddenly felt six sharp scratches on his face. Meowth, again. The talking pokémon growled at him, "Quit ogling her. We're on a mission!" James did a fancy flip, landed safely on the floor, making almost no sound.
Meowth was the last to drop. He, too, landed without a sound. They had made it this far. Now to find the balls....
The Rockets grabbed three cans of infrared spray. Within moments the area was filled with a light mist, reviling many laser sensors. If they tripped one of those, well, they'd be finished. Now there was nothing to stop them.
"G-g-g-g-growl!" The all-too familiar sound came from behind them. A Growlith guard dog. No problem. James just grabbed another bottle of spray at his waist, and blasted it the puppy-pokémon's face. Within seconds, it was out cold.
Carefully walking between the lasers, they Rockets finally found what they were looking for. Two pokéballs, each marked "Mark Dillion" Just as they were about to grab them, another familiar voice came from behind them.
"Stop! Or we'll shoot!" It was a squad of Jennys! They must have been called in from the other cities! Someone had ratted them out! They were done in now!
"I don't think so." Jesse's strong voice called out from beside him. She held one of Team Rockets gas-canisters. She threw it down, spreading gas everywhere! Now they could escape! But in the confusion, they had dropped the balls! No matter, all that counted now was the escape!
The three scrambled back to the rope. "Wait," James said, "The rope was to short. I can't jump that high!" He was right. Now they were caught, Jennys and Growliths surrounding them. They were dead now......
Then just at that moment, five men garbed all in black, leapt through the place where the grate had been the ceiling. They land in a circle, surrounding the Jennys surrounding the Rockets. Then from the mist that Jesse had spread, stepped a huge man. Unlike the others he wore no black mask. He had a black hood turned up over his head. His face was dark, and had strange markings all over it. His eyes were also a ghastly white.
He finally broke the silence, "I appears that we have each other in a stand off. We have you where we want you, and you have what we want." He crossed his arms. They seamed to glow. "Hand over the pokéballs. Or die. By they way, my name is Edger. I will be your assassin." He grinned, and it sent chills all through the Rockets and the Jennys.
The black shirt and gloves he was wearing were ripped into shreds. He had a shining, silver exoskeleton attached to his body. It ran from a cap on the back of his head, down his spine, forking at his arms, and running down to form a covering on his hands. It split, too, at his legs, although they were covered by his black pants.
On the ends of his fingers, were long claw-like blades, designed for ripping through flesh. He flexed his hands. James noticed that there were tubes running all about it. A clear-green liquid was running through them.
"And now," He finally said, "give us the balls containing Mark Dillion's Onix and Dugtrio. Or die."
At that moment, three other figures were breaking in the back way of the station. They were Joe Peterson, Mark's Graveler, and Professor Oak's Mr. Roboto, about to walk into the biggest fights of there lives so far....................