“Y'know, I bet’cha da only reason Brock set dat salon up was so he could meet more women,” Errol smirked as the group entered the gates to a large expanse of parkland known as Mayni Falls.
“I couldn’t be happier to leave a
place” Adam remarked bluntly. “What a loser…who needs girls? They just get in
the wa-”
It was at this point Adam realised
he was talking himself into rather hot water, as every other pair of eyes in
the group were trained sternly upon him. So he fell rapidly silent.
“Well, Caley…” Denise brushed aside
the previous incident like it never happened while patting the new D-Ball upon
her belt. Following her time with Caley and the others, Li had taken a
particular liking to Denise and consequently opted to tag along with her instead. “What’s next on the agenda?”
“Besides trying not to get our necks
wrung by those Team Rocket Elites,” Adam cut in.
“Some lunch?” James suggested.
“James!” the majority of the group
exclaimed.
“Heh…I’d hafta agree wit’ Jim on dat
one,” Errol grinned sheepishly, as his stomach rumbled on cue. “We were only
given a coupla biscuits
an’ some coffee after all.”
“Yeah…and he didn’t even offer me
any cream either,” Rose snorted in annoyance.
“And how are we supposed to get
anything to eat when we have no money, hm?” Adam asked them, as he dumped his
stunted body on one of the park benches they just happened to be passing. It seemed to have a domino effect,
as everyone decided, without words, to sit on the bench also.
“That’s the biggest problem, as
usual,” Caley sighed. Errol shrugged in a sort of acceptance.
“It ain’t nuttin’ we ain’t
experienced before though, hm James?”
“I’m hungry!” he complained, like no
one had spoken.
“Sorry Jimmy” Errol said simply. “We ain’t got any cash, an not even
bendin’ ova backwards would make da situation any diff’rent…
…but den again…”
The others turned their heads in
Errol’s direction, puzzled as to his unusual statement. It just so
happened that the man’s sights had lit upon a figure surrounded by a small group
of people, not too far away, who was skilfully juggling several Exeggcute. He had also noticed the open
briefcase in which the audience was throwing their tokens of appreciation. And with
a singular exclamation,
Errol leapt from his perch on the bench and sprinted over the grass toward the
activity. The others exchanged puzzled glances.
“Now where’s he going?” Adam
muttered.
“You don’t think he’s going to…steal
that guy’s earnings, do you?” Denise gulped, as Cory looked rather anxious.
“I don’t know…” James replied with a
small sigh. “But we’d better go and find out.
I know how hunger can affect that
guy’s mind sometimes”
Caley and his companions arrived at
the scene to discover Errol had wasted no time in removing his layers of upper
body clothing and tossing them in a pile at his feet, so as not to get
overheated, and was now standing with one of his typical wide grins on his
face, a few metres away from the performer he had spotted just minutes before.
“You call dat performance?” he
called tauntingly. “I’ll show you performance!”
And with that he leapt into the air
with no sign of effort, and somersaulted before landing lightly upon his bare
hands in the grass. This caught the interest of the
figures that had been watching the dexterity of the juggler. They began to edge
closer toward Errol as he continued his act of cheeky competitiveness.
“I was born ta perform,” he
muttered slyly under his breath, balancing upon one of his hands while removing
a few strands of his blonde hair that were in the way of his vision. “An’ if dat amateur can get some
pocket change jus’ by tossin’ a few eggs in da air, den I can certainly get somt’ink decent wit’ my skills.”
The travellers watched as the
growing collection of spectators ‘ooh-ed’ and ‘aah-ed’ at Errol’s every
acrobatic gesture, and exchanged similar expressions of disbelief.
“He always has been a show-off,”
James remarked in a matter-of-fact way.
“But he sure has got energy,” Denise
exclaimed with wide eyes.
“And talent,” Rose nodded in
agreement. James added his seal of approval with a warm smile.
“I have to admit that was a good
idea.” He then took off toward the action,
waving his arms and yelling, “Knock ‘em dead, Errol! But not literally…ok?”
This Denise and Rose both found very amusing. Attentions were so strongly fixed upon Errol’s inhuman movement that the juggler had packed his briefcase and left in a huff, along with his Exeggcute, which had stuck all their tongues out at the guy before tagging after their owner. Not that Errol had noticed; he was far too occupied with forward-flipping, cartwheeling and creating spectator approval in any way possible. He could see the audience beginning to fish about in their pockets even now.
Jus’ a little longa… he
thought
He closed his
eyes and chuckled at his almost imminent success.
I knew I still had it in me!
Yeah…I’m still da same guy I always
was…
Sadly it was that momentary lapse of
concentration that caused Errol’s downfall. Upon reopening his eyes Errol
realised, to his horror that he had taken a massive leap backward without
knowing whether he was going to land in a good spot or a bad one. Or at least he didn’t know until
James’ frantic cry echoed through the air.
“ERROL! WATCH OUT FOR THAT…!”
The guy
rebounded off the tree trunk and fell to earth, clutching at his face.
“Are you ok?” came a worried female
voice from above his head. Errol lifted his hands away from his eyes to see
Denise and the others peering over him, all wearing concerned expressions. Except for Adam. He was snickering
quietly to himself.
“Yeah…” Errol muttered slurringly,
rubbing at his forehead. “Dis head’s hit a lot woise things dan trees, I can tell you dat.”
He sat up, turned round to see that
his audience had rapidly dispersed upon witnessing his humiliating error then
swung his head back to administer Adam a warning, narrowed glare.
“Don’t you say a woid.”
“At least he was trying to get us
some money
instead
of just standing around and moping about everything!” Denise snapped, upon realising Adam was displaying yet another act
of careless hilarity at someone else’s expense. Adam looked rather hurt for a
second, Then he frowned
“Oh yeah? Well I never saw you
doing anything!”
“Heeheeheeheehee.”
The group looked up upon hearing a
completely unrecognisable voice and found the source of the laughter had been a
young boy who was wearing a pair of worn jeans, a black t-shirt with a blue and
white short sleeve jacket, a pair of green, fingerless gloves and a red and white
cap. Upon first sight of the child and
his attire, James let out an amusingly high-pitched yell.
“AUGH! The twerp!”
The others looked round to find the
spot where their companion had been standing in was empty. After further
searching they discovered James was now clinging to a branch in the tree above
their heads. This caused the boy to laugh all the
more, while Errol got to his feet and gazed, half-witheringly, up at his
friend.
“James…dat ain’t da Ketchum kid. He’s
too young fer a start an’ he’s
got da wrong colour hair.”
After taking another look, James
realised his friend was right, and came back down to earth.
“Well it’s not my fault I mistook
him for the twerp,” he muttered, brushing the splinters of wood from his
sweater. “He’s got his awful fashion sense.”
“Hey!” the boy cried out in upset.
“Well at least he hasn’t got hair
like a woman,” Adam replied, thumbing his nose in James’ direction. The boy stopped his pouting and
began to chuckle again as James dived for Adam only to get his hair grasped in
the adolescent’s hands and yanked in the opposite direction.
“Aieeeeeeeeeeeee!” the man
screeched.
“Maybe we should shorten your hair
for you, wussy,” Adam replied in turn, only to have the breath knocked out of
him as Errol attempted to remove the figure from his companion by pulling him
round the waist. Only this made poor James yell and
gesticulate all the more, as with each tug Errol gave Adam the more the boy
tugged on the hair of his victim.
“Errrollll! That’s not helping!”
As this ridiculous foray continued
Denise’s eyes flicked from the struggling trio to the laughing boy watching
them, and a spark of realisation flickered across her face.
That laugh…
…I recognise that laugh…
Caley opened his mouth to ask Denise
the meaning of this passing thought but before he could do so Adam looked up
and released his grip, causing the figures to tumble to the floor in unison.
“Wait a sec,” he began as he lifted
himself from the grass. “That kid looks a lot like you,
Denise.”
This caused the rest of the group to
examine the boy’s appearance also.
“Yeah…he’s
got the same colour eyes and hair as you have,”
Rose agreed.
“What’s ya name, kid?” Errol asked
the boy, putting on his shirt.
“Evan,” he replied, wasting no time
in answering. Denise just stood there gazing at
the child as a mixture of disbelief and horror descended on her face.
“Why are you staring at me?” the boy asked in puzzlement.
“I just...can’t believe how much
you’ve changed,”
Denise murmured, bringing herself down to Evan’s height and looking at him,
almost proudly.
“What do you mean?” Evan blinked. “I don’t even know you!”
It was at this point that an
expression of alarm emerged upon Denise's face. As the others looked on in silent confusion, Caley
was drawn to her anxious thoughts.
Has it really been that long? Three years ago I was roped into joining Team Rocket…Evan must have only been 3 at the time I ran away from home. Poor little guy…he doesn’t even remember me. His own sister.
“Sister?” Caley
blurted out loud, then frantically covered up his mouth. But it was too late;
everyone had now turned their attentions to him.
“Denise has siblings?” James raised
his eyebrows in semi-surprise.
“An’ ya never even told us about
him,” Errol added, somewhat hurtfully.
“I was worried that Team Rocket
might try to recruit him too,” she replied, her head lowered.
“You’re not my sister” Evan sniffed
bluntly
“I’m an only child…my mom and dad
told me so.”
The statement cut like a knife.
Denise’s lower lip trembled as she struggled to hold in her upset.
“I can’t believe they would do such a
thing,” she spluttered, slowly sinking to her knees. “Making out to my little brother
that I never even existed!”
“Why would they do that?” Rose
asked. Denise stood up and faced her, a
sullen expression had appeared on her face.
“Because…” she began irately. “…a certain ‘Upper Intermediate’
gave me the wrong impression about a heartless corporation I was forced to work
in for three whole years. I was so desperate to prove myself, I
threw away my parents’ trust and faith in me for it!”
“Don’t blame me for your choices,”
Rose frowned. “Besides…I was only following
orders.”
“Well you didn’t have to!” Denise
snapped in return. “Didn’t it ever cross your mind that
the little nagging feeling you call your conscience might be there for a reason?”
Evan, now bored of this argument,
had decided to move onto more interest-holding matters. Ignoring the equally-absorbed figures of Cory, Adam, Caley and James he approached Errol who had
moved away from the excitement and was busy arranging his hair with a few flicks
of his hands.
“You look like a cat Pokémon,” Evan
stated bluntly, causing Errol to splutter unintentionally.
“Well…how about dat…” he replied
nervously after a second had passed, wondering if Evan was too young to catch
on to the implications of his own deduction. The boy continued to circle him,
counting on his fingers.
“You’re a man…who looks like a cat…so that makes you a…
…catman!”
Errol breathed a slight sigh of relief, then began to wince as the young boy's high-pitched exclamations cut through the air.
“CATMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!” he yelled at the top of his lungs in none too tuneful a manner as he continued to circle. “Nana nana nana nana CATMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!”
Errol ground his teeth but didn’t
make a move.
He'd
just had a nasty encounter with a tree, which meant that his head was ringing
like a room full of PokéGears. The last thing he needed to hear was any kind of
loud noise.
But Evan didn’t intend to stop there. He brought out an empty Pokéball from his
pocket and began throwing it repeatedly into the air as he continued singing.
“I’ll give him ‘catman’” Errol
grumbled, taking a glance over at his companions and wishing one of them would
remove the child from his hearing range. Though with a hearing like Errol’s,
being ‘out of range’ would mean taking Evan a good mile or so away. At this point
in time he didn’t think that was a bad idea.
“Catch!”
As Errol swung around, his mouth
opened slightly as he saw a spherical object rapidly bearing down on him.
It was so sudden, that Errol didn’t even get a chance to work out what he was
meant to be catching, and the article made
impact with surprising accuracy. Errol staggered backwards clutching at his
nose, unaware that, just above his head the Pokéball was beginning to open.
Without warning, the device had projected its dazzling light over its victim,
causing him to vanish from sight.
“Ooooooooh,” Evan murmured obliviously as the caught the Pokéball from the air and looked at it.
“I didn’t know you could catch
people in these things as well.”
Unaware of the events that had
transpired, the other members of the group had continued squabbling.
“I don’t believe you!” Denise raged. “All those years and you didn’t even
think once about the welfare of others?”
“Well sure I did” Rose exclaimed. “Its just when my nutritional
welfare came into the equation I bypassed everything else to achieve my
task. Even my conscience.
Hey, a woman’s got to have her cappuccino, you know.”
She shrugged, as Denise seemed to
become redder with each passing second. Caley and Adam managed to grab
the girl before she threw herself at Rose.
“All those years of pain I went
through and you tell me you were only drafting me in to get MORE COFFEE?”
“Cah-puh-chino” Rose pointed out
loftily. “There is a difference…”
“AAAAAAAAARGH!”
Caley and Adam strained as they
tried to hold Denise back. She wasn’t going to calm down, at least not without
a decent distraction. And they were about to get one.
“Uh, guys?” James spoke up worriedly. “Where’s Errol gone?”
Immediately everyone swung round to
see Evan, still curiously examining his Pokéball. James gave a frightened yelp
and ran to the child’s side.
“You haven’t…!” he stammered. Evan held up the device for him to
examine.
“Catman’s stuck in there” he stated.
James snatched the Pokéball and stared at it wildly.
“Errol! You ok, buddy?”
“Just open it, you moron,” Adam
muttered as
the
sphere began to shake violently in James' hands.
The man looked at him irritably.
“I was just about to-!”
Before he could utter another word,
the Pokéball had sprung out of his hands and began to bounce across the grass.
“Follow that ball!” James yelled,
and sprinted after it. The others exchanged similar expressions of ‘here we go
again’ and tagged along after their companion, Denise grabbing Evan’s hand to
keep him in tow. No one had taken note of the
crumpled mass of garments and a pair of black boots that had been scattered on
the grass behind them.
“At least that dispersed the tension…”
Caley nodded to Cory as they ran after the bounding sphere.
“Ok?” he asked, waving in the
direction of the escaping Pokéball. Caley bit his lip.
“I hope so…I do hope so…”
James swiped at the device as it
rolled and leapt not too far in front of him. Its speed had rapidly increased
since the Pokéball had hit a slope and now James was
finding it hard to keep his balance as he chased.
“Trust you to be…difficult!” he
snapped. “Come…back…HERE!“
With that he threw himself, in one
final effort, at his target. Only it happened to evade his grasp and continue
rolling towards its inevitable destination.
“It’s heading for the lake!” Denise
cried, clasping her hands to her face. The Pokéball
hit the shallows and erupted in a flash of bright energy, throwing Errol out
from the blaze of light and straight into the water.
“Dat kid needs ta be taught a little
respect...” he growled, shaking the droplets from his hair. “He went and got my clothes all we-
…wha?”
At this point Errol had looked down and realised why his watching friends had been looking so uncomfortable, and why Evan was giggling profusely. He was standing there with the water up to his knees, wearing absolutely nothing except for the charm that dangled about his neck.
"Well whaddya know," Errol blinked, looking no more perturbed as a result of the discovery. "I t'ought it was a little colder down south dan it shoulda been."
"Would you sit down?" Adam complained nauseously while Denise covered her face and blushed deep red. "My eyes are trying to wrench themselves from their sockets!"
"Not to mention people are starting to stare..." Rose glanced over her shoulder while Cory left the scene to look for his friend’s attire.
"I don't care," Errol folded his arms in a rather spoiled fashion. Having been a Pokémon and thus naturally naked most of his life, he couldn't understand what the big fuss was all about. "Dis water's chilled enough as it is wit'out me dousing more of myself in it."
“Can anyone explain what happened
there?” James muttered confusedly, as Rose groaned and took off her coat before
handing it to him. Denise took him by the shoulder, away from the others.
“That was just an ordinary
Pokéball, right?” the man asked in his puzzlement.
“Yes, James” Denise nodded. “But Errol isn’t an ordinary
guy…he’s still has some Meowth genes, remember?”
“How could I forget?” James
exclaimed in self-disbelief. “Of course…I remember you saying
Pokéballs capture anything with Pokémon DNA.”
“Uh huh,” Denise
Caley looked up from his overhearing
and raised his eyebrows somewhat. He knew Errol had once been a Pokémon, but
never once considered the notion that having been mutated from that to a human
would mean his DNA would now be a mixture of both. He turned his view to
Errol’s sodden but clothed figure now sitting on the grass, and pressed the
scan button upon his Pokédex glasses.
Meowth, the screen read. The scratchcat Pokémon.
Then in a matter of seconds the information that had begun scrolling upon the screen in front of Caley’s eyes flickered out and was replaced by a completely new message, framed in a red box.
DNA Read-Error, it said. Just as he had thought it would.
“We’ve got to do something about
this” Rose stated, five minutes later. The majority of the group were now
assembled in an impromptu conference. “Evan shouldn’t be here.”
“Ya damn right he shouldn’t be here,”
Errol muttered, wringing out his shirt and glaring behind him at where the
child happened to be, not too far away, now being watched by Cory and a
reluctant-looking Adam. “He’s a walkin’ disaster area!”
“He’s just a kid,” Denise
protested, but Errol’s stern expression confirmed he wasn’t ready to change his
mind on the matter.
“Exactly,” Rose continued. “Evan is probably meant to be with someone. Most likely his parents, as he doesn't have any other siblings besides you, Denise. We need to return him to them-
...what’s
wrong?”
It had been upon hearing the word
‘parents’ that Denise had suddenly turned extremely pale.
“I am seriously not in my parents’ good
books,” she murmured. “They wanted me to be a Pokémon
nurse, but I longed for an occupation where I could build strong bonds with my
Pokémon as well as help them out. After a conflict with them over my future
career I met a ‘mysterious woman’…” She said this as she eyed Rose,
rather accusingly. “…who told me about a place I could
work where there would be plenty of new Pokémon to see. In my overexcitement I
forgot to look over the details of this offer and signed the contract
immediately.”
A few minutes passed, after which
Denise gave a little sigh.
“It wasn’t your fault, Rose. You were
only doing your job. I, on the other hand, was thoughtless to rush into
something like that. My parents were right to be angry
with me. No wonder they never told Evan about me. I would just be setting him a bad
example anyway…”
Adam yawned dramatically as he
watched his young charge pulling up blades of grass in quick succession not too
far away from him. A minute later, Evan had become bored of this and sidled over
with a lopsided grin spread across his face.
“I have a Pokémon,” he bleated.
“Oh wow,” Adam muttered with
great sarcasm.
“Do you wanna see it?” Evan
continued. Adam raised an eyebrow at this.
“If it’ll make you shut up,” he
said. The trainer immediately leapt to his
feet, a blue Pokéball held high. “Come out, Whistler!”
Adam watched disinterestedly as the
device hit the earth and came apart in its usual blaze of light. It didn’t take
long for his half-closed eyes to shoot wide open when he spotted the little
brown form on the grass in front of him, staring with curiosity.
“Prrrrrgii” it said. The adolescent backed off with a
yelp.
“Get it away…” he stammered. “Guh-get that th-thing away from me!” But the Pidgey chirruped without a notion of Adam’s terror, and hopped forward to examine him more closely. The boy gave a horrendous scream and dived for the nearest bush, leaving the Pokémon to peer into the foliage in puzzlement.
Evan simply creased up with laughter.
“It’s not too late to go back an’
smooth out da wrinkles of your past,” Errol continued, placing a hand on
Denise’s shoulder. “You’d be surprised at how much it
raises ya spirits - sortin’ out ya differences wit’ dose ones ya love.”
James let out a little sigh at this
thought, and how Jessie still refused to drop her grudge, but Denise looked up at
Errol with lightened eyes.
“Really?” she asked softly.
“Yeah,” Errol nodded with a warm
smile. Denise then passed her gaze over the other figures in the circle. They
were each wearing expressions of encouragement, even James, though his one
seemed more distant than the others.
“I guess you’re right,” was the final
outcome. “It’s been far too long, and besides
I have nothing to feel bad about…I’ve ditched my old life after all. Not to mention I feel Evan is in
more danger staying with us than being elsewhere.”
Denise thumbed over her shoulder,
prompting the others to take a look for themselves. And sure enough Adam was
still shivering and cursing under the bush, while the Pidgey continued to stare
in its confusion and Evan rolled about on the grass in fits of giggling.
“If you don’t remove that smarmy
little snot ball out of my sight in the next ten seconds, I shall be forced to
remove him myself,” the adolescent snarled, as James joined Evan in his
amusement. Rose groaned.
“I agree, Neesee,” she muttered. “Let’s get the little guy back to
his mom and dad before Adam uses him as a target board for his fists.”
***~~***~~***~~***~~***
On the other side of the park, a
great fuss had been set up by a tall, scarily-thin woman wearing a long blue
summer gown, heeled sandals and a wide-brimmed hat, accompanied by a
wide-shouldered, well-built middle-aged man with blue-grey hair dressed in nasty-looking
tourist gear who was the woman’s husband.
“You have to find my baby!” she
screeched at the poor park warden, who was now squinting from the verbal
assault.
“Please calm down, Mrs. Nichols,” he
exclaimed hurriedly. “I have the police out looking for
the boy, one of them is bound to find him soon enough.”
“Yes Joanne,” the man next to her
cooed placatingly. “Worrying won’t bring our Evan back
to us any quicker.”
“I’ve told him time and time again not
to run off on his own, Gabe!”
Mrs. Nichols snapped furiously. “That young man has put himself
right in it this time…he’ll be lucky to still own a backside when I get
through with him!”
In that split second, the woman’s
angered countenance brightened in relief and joy as her son scampered round the
corner, looking unphased despite his wanderings.
“My baby!” she wibbled,
before throwing her arms around the boy and clutching him tightly to her chest.
“Aww, moommm!” Evan complained as he
wriggled in her grasp.
“Oh no you don’t,”
Mrs. Nichols snapped,
returning to her original motives. “You’ve been very very bad,
disappearing and worrying me like that. Anything could have happened out there!
You could have got lost, you could have got hurt, you could have been abducted by…
…strangers?”
Mrs. Nichols had spotted the group of
figures standing in witness to her outward show of emotion. Rose’s eyes were
creased at the corners and watery with her happiness for the mother and son’s
reuniting.
“That’s so adorable,” she sighed. Joanne leapt to her feet in a
defensive stance and narrowed her eyes at the group.
“Get away from us you…street
trash!”
The figures stepped back slightly at
the sound of this insult. It was obvious not one of them had taken kindly to
it.
“We are not street trash, you
old bat!” Adam yelled.
“We’re respectable people just like
you,” Caley insisted, lowering his glasses so Joanne could see the sincerity in
his eyes.
“An’ dat’s da tanks we get fer
bringin’ back Denise’s brudder to ya,” Errol sniffed in disbelief. The parents
both shifted uncomfortably.
“Deh-Denise?”
“Yeah,” James replied. “With that
sort of gratitude I’d rather go without. You tell ‘em, Neesee”
Mr. Nichols frowned as the figures
turned and looked behind them expectantly, then stepped aside to reveal the
slightly hunched form that had been standing there for the past few minutes.
After a pause the form shuffled forward and lifted her head slowly.
“I…” she said. There descended a strange, unwelcome
silence. Father and daughter gazed into each others eyes, each trying to figure
out what the other was thinking at that moment in time. Eventually Denise
decided to valiantly attempt to make contact.
“Please hear me out,” she began. “I know how thoughtless I was to
have simply run out on such a promising lifestyle. But in my error I learned
many new things I would have never discovered in my previous path of life. One of the hardest lessons for me
to learn was that you can’t do everything alone. And these loyal and caring friends
helped me to understand that.
I am so sorry for any angst and pain
I must have caused in my absence and I am willing to make it up in any way
that I can. But I just want you to know that though it was wrong of me to
ignore your advice, my actions have not ruined my future. In fact they have
improved my vision of life itself!
Could you find it in your hearts to
forgive your only daughter?”
Caley and his companions stood with
bated breath, each of them willing Denise’s parents to understand. And it
seemed, after a pause of contemplating on his daughter’s words, that Mr.
Nichols' stern expression had softened a little. It looked as if the passing of
time had caused animosity to wear away, and now all the man wanted was to have
his beloved daughter back once more.
But, sadly, the same couldn’t be
said for Denise’s mother.
“Forgive you?” she almost exploded
as she left Evan beside her husband and stormed forward, grasping a hold of
Denise’s arm so tightly she squeaked. “You have caused us nothing but
heartache since your disappearance! Evan wouldn’t stop crying for weeks after
you left. Eventually we had to persuade him that you had been a figment of his
imagination just to calm him down!
Can you imagine how terrible that
must feel to a parent to have to block out one of their offspring from their
lives? We had spent fifteen of the best years of our existence bringing you up and
teaching you the morals of society, and how do you repay us? By simply walking out without a
goodbye and joining a bunch of long-haired hippies and freaks!”
There was a visible ripple of anger
arising from the figures behind Denise’s slowly crumpling form, but her mother
hadn’t finished.
“All we wanted was for you to make us proud! That wasn’t too much to ask…
You cast away your opportunities,
Denise. And I can’t let you back into our lives to mislead Evan.
It had been one of the most
shattering experiences the poor girl had ever gone through. Watching in
despair, unable to say a word to redeem herself as her family began to wander
into the distance, Denise fell to her knees and broke down in tears. Adam looked on in misty-eyed fury as
the rest of the group dashed to comfort her.
“You don’t need them any more,
Neesee,” Rose told the sobbing mass.
“Not with that attitude, anyway,”
Caley added agreeably.
“Fancy calling me a ‘hippie’,” James
muttered. He was deeply insulted, and it was clear to see Errol felt the same
way.
“Dat woman has no concern fer uddas' feelin’s. She’s more t’oughtless dan she considered youse ta be, Denise."
Her companions moved back a little
way, awaiting a response. And they got it. Denise sat up so the others could
see her tearstained cheeks.
“Maybe so,” she replied, ever so
softly. “But she’s still my mom. And if she
can’t forgive me then I’ll never see my little brother again.
I’d hate to lose him…”
There came a horrendous crashing and
the sounds of frightened voices from the direction that Denise’s family had
disappeared in. It caused Caley to swing round, the others following his action
instinctively, toward the source of the noise. An enraged
animalistic screech echoed into the sunny sky, causing birds to flutter in
panic. It was followed by a yell of terror.
“MY BABYYYYYY!”
Denise’s eyes widened quickly.
“That’s my mom’s voice!”
“Who wants to bet that’s another
genetic Pokémon?” Adam muttered.
“Co copi coh coh copi copi co!” Cory stammered. James looked at Errol for a translation.
“Dis critter sounds like a real head
case,” he explained. “Its sayin it
wants to destroy everyt’ing!”
“It has my brother” Denise stated
bluntly. It was in a focused, monotone way that was most unlike her. “I have to save him”
Before anyone had a chance to protest, she was gone.
***~~***~~***~~***~~***
“Right
then”
Brock stood
tentatively beside the chair that Jessie was sitting upon, a pot of pinkish gel
in one hand and an unusual cosmetic tool shaped like a tiny trowel in the other.
It was obvious from the shakiness of the stylist’s
shoulders that he was nervous about admitting his doubts that there would be
positive results from anything he tried. And his
customer’s narrowed glares didn’t help.
“This better work, boy” she muttered. “Otherwise…”
At this
point Jessie paused. Brock took a step back, half-expecting an explosive motion
from the woman. But instead he got a completely different reaction. Her eyes
welled with tears, her lip trembled and Jessie once again disintegrated into
another fit of sobbing. Only this time it was more emotional than before.
“I can’t
live with it!” she wailed. “Every day
this scarred monstrosity stares back at me, never fading, always stark
and without remorse! I’m sorry
for what I did! And I don’t want to wear these marks of my past mistakes any
longer…”
Brock
nodded slowly, and began to unscrew the lid from the jar he was holding.
Although he hadn’t a clue what had happened to drive Jessie and her companions
apart, he could see she badly wanted to bring the shattered pieces of her
friendship back together. There was an unusual desperation in her eyes that had
never been visible before.
With that
acknowledgement, Brock set to work with gusto, laboriously applying the
pink solution to the woman’s face with the trowel. After making sure the amount
of plaster was level all over, he brought out a small lamp and turned it on. It didn’t
take long for the unnatural sheen to melt away into transparency.
“So?”
Jessie began softly as Brock removed the lamp and fished about in one of the
pockets of his apron.
“Did
it…work?”
The man
gave a small smile before producing a mirror and handing it to
her.
“See for
yourself”
Jessie let
out a breath of alarm and amazement. The plaster had gone, leaving nothing but
a soft, smooth, flawless complexion. It was like
the damage had never been done.
“I have to
say” Brock remarked, folding his arms. “Those
results impress even me. I never thought such scars could be…
-gack!” The
sentence choked out as Jessie leapt up from the chair and threw her arms round
Brock’s waist in a surprising show of gratitude.
“Steady
on!” he exclaimed, at which point Jessie realised what she was doing,
unexpectedly released the figure and coughed in a semi-embarrassed fashion. Brock
opened his mouth to say something but upon seeing Jessie’s more recognisable one-comment-about-the-way-I-just-acted-and-you’ll-be-getting-the-large-end-of-a-mallet
expression, he closed it again.
“Good work, squinty” the woman remarked, picking up the mirror again to admire her reflection for a little longer. "What exactly did you use for the job?"
Kyieeeeeerrraaaaaaanaaaaaaaaa!
The
piercing monstrous shriek echoed through the upper window with such terrible
harshness that it caused Brock to cover his ears in pain and the mirror in
Jessie’s hand to shatter. She swung round, eyes wide with a thread of petrified
realisation.
“I’ve heard
that noise before…back in
that creepy old tower in
“What is
it?” Brock questioned, but Jessie didn’t answer. Instead she ran to the window
and peered out at the scenery beyond.
“MATTHEWWWWWWWS!”
Cassidy
stood on the pavement below, glaring up at Jessie with an expression of
volatile ferociousness.
“So it was you,
was it?” Jessie murmured with a slight smirk.
“You know
full well it wasn’t me!” Cassidy yelled. “How dare
you just waltz off when you feel like it, I’m the Team Leader! I make the decisions! I decide!”
Jessie
smirked as the woman below put her hands on her hips and continued to mutter
under her breath.
“So where’s greeny then?”
“I don’t
know!” Cassidy snapped. “The
thoughtless ingrate left when my back was turned! What is
it with you people?”
Brock
furrowed his brow and moved forward slightly upon hearing the voice.
“That
person sounds familiar,” he said. Jessie raised a hand behind her.
“Back off!”
she hissed. “’Pigtails’
down there considers you to be the enemy.”
The young
man didn’t continue to wander any closer but folded his arms sceptically.
“And you
don’t?”
“I never
considered you to be an enemy” Jessie replied under her breath. “Just a
pest.”
“Thanks a
lot,” Brock muttered sarcastically. At this point Cassidy’s paper-thin patience
tore.
“WHAT THE
HELL ARE YOU DOING, MATTHEWS?” she exploded.
“GET DOWN
HERE NOW!”
“Guess I’d
better get going” Jessie said, rolling her eyes. “Cassidy is
a right miru but at the moment keeping
her amused is the only chance of keeping the half-decent life I have, while I
figure out the problems in my head”
Brock’s
mouth opened in surprise.
“You mean
you’re still with Team Rocket?”
Jessie
gritted her teeth, but didn’t say any more. Brock bit his lip apologetically.
“Sorry.
Forgot I shouldn’t say anything about…”
“It doesn’t
matter” Jessie mumbled. “I have to
go.”
And with
that she disappeared out of sight, down the stairs. Brock shook his head in
silent misunderstanding as he listened to the volley of shouting below broken
only by the occasional cries of the mystery creature in the park. Jessie, to
him, had become some sort of anomaly. Before he had thought she was a
one-track-minded fireball, intent on bringing misery to anyone that crossed her
path. Now he wasn’t sure what the woman was.
Truth to
tell, Brock doubted Jessie knew either.
***~~***~~***~~***~~***
The
petrified face of Denise’s young brother peered out from amongst the fingers of
the enraged winged monstrosity as it thundered across the park. It had
impulsively snatched the boy from under the eyes of his parents as they had
been strolling dismissively away from their past source of pain, and taken him
high into the air. Mrs. Nichols
was now simply standing there and screeching wildly as the creature stormed
headlong into the trees.