Thank you to my new Patrons: Mystical Myst, Thanh Michael Giang, TheHoblit, Winterfern, Gorgrath177, Nik, Eric Hicks, David, Pechy, Philip a Schmidt, Zachary Anderson, Ian, IronPavlo,
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Inside a van, three young teens, a Rattata and a Kadabra were driving on their way to Cerulean.
"Kadabra…" the human-sized fox-like Pokemon muttered grumpily, scratching at the black cloth covering its face.
"The outfits are non-negotiable," Joey replied coldly, hands gripping the steering wheel as he sped down the road towards Vermillion. He had to concentrate as he hadn't turned on the lights so as to preserve stealth.
"Kaka…" the Kadabra muttered sullenly and crossed its ninja mesh-covered arms, twiddling its spoon.
"Kaka. You calling me a piece of shit?" Joey muttered with a twitching eyebrow as he wildly swerved to avoid an Ekans crossing the road. He refrained from the instinct to blast his horn and shout profanities at the dumb snake as he would have done to a human in a city.
"Kaka, kaka, kaka," Sabrina's starter said decisively.
It seemed that it really didn't like the ninja outfit.
Sabrina, the trainer, did nothing to stop the complaining of her Pokemon simply sitting there sullenly, having a glaring contest with Rattata.
Diglett was in his Pokeball while Misdreavus and Metapod were stuck to the top of the truck on interception duty. Misdreavus would hypnotise any approaching Pokemon while Metapod would send a string shot web at the occasionally occurring swarms of Zubat.
"We could really just teleport," Sabrina said sullenly.
Joey's grip on the steering wheel tightened.
"We stole the van fair and square, and we're going to use it," he replied. "It's part of the plan©. Also, we need your stamina for emergencies."
"Look, Sabrina," James interrupted. "I know that driving in a van is slightly pedestrian, but teleportation is a much rarer form of transportation. We don't want to leave any energy tracks unless it's absolutely necessary. My parents have a lot of connections. I don't know what kind of investigators they might hire."
Sabrina finally seemed to listen to that and shrugged. "Alright, I just wanted to contribute since you're paying me 50k to be here as well," she said in a calmer voice. "It's a lot of money."
Joey and James shared a complicated look over the girl's head at that, which almost caused Joey to fly the car off the road.
People said you never forgot how to drive, but Joey hadn't driven anything in more than a decade. He especially hadn't driven a stick-shift in a very long time.
Their solution to getting caught by Sabrina had been simple. Hire her to help; that way, she'd be similarly implicated in whatever they did.
Unfortunately, she didn't have their training, didn't know their codes and didn't know how to rock that fit. She looked rather awkward in her ninja outfit, rather than badass, as they did.
Thankfully, Joey had known that the girl also did jobs from the fact that he'd helped her with the Murkrow all the way back when they were still young. Money truly could solve most problems.
The mission had gotten harder since Sabrina might cause them to deviate from the plan, but on the other hand, they had a powerful get out of jail free card with her teleportation.
As the night progressed, ticking past midnight, they finally arrived in the south of Vermillion, having to take a lengthy detour through the woods to avoid going through the city and doubtlessly getting flagged by the traffic cameras there.
Joey parked the van in the woods a few hundred meters in front of the estate. They shuffled out of the car and gathered around.
Releasing Diglett, Joey turned to the mole-like Pokemon. "Next one's on you," he said, recalling Misdreavus and Rattata but leaving Metapod to protect the van.
"I'm counting on your girl," he said to the black-clad Metapod. "If something comes up, call in; we have emergency teleportation personnel now." He jutted his chin towards the unimpressed-looking Kadabra and Sabrina.
"You remember the plan?" James asked the psychic girl, causing her to nod.
"You've been telling me about it for the past three hours," she grouched. It seemed that someone had missed their bedtime and was a bit grumpy. "We'll enter the estate with Diglett's tunnel. Diglett and I will then be responsible for sensing any approaching threats while we approach the dog house. Joey and Misdreavus will sneak in, hypnotise and carry out Growlithe. Then we leave."
"Good, we've covered everything again," Joey said in an annoyed tone of voice. "Code names on!".
The group warily approached the estate, eventually reaching a cement wall topped with barbed wire.
"Camera on the wall," Future Champion confirmed.
"Camera in the wall," Young Master added.
"Camera on the ground," Future Champion said.
Future Champion frowned and turned to Future Champion. "You can't also call yourself Future Champion," he chastised.
Future Champion stared back with narrowed red eyes. "I'm not calling myself Diversity Hire," she growled.
"Fine, you can use Psychic's Rule," Future Champion muttered.
"Good," the Psychic's Rule said.
"You two done?" Young Master asked, obviously nervous. "Anyway, the cameras are stationary, covering all possible approaches. We have to pick one and cover it."
"On it," Future Champion muttered and released Rattata on the ground.
"Initiate plan Zeta Delta X, Tough Guy."
Tough Guy quickly shed his ninja clothing, leaving behind a Rattata. Future Champion flicked down an Oran berry, which Tough Guy gently held in his teeth in a way that obscured his face.
Without needing additional prompting, Tough Guy then seamlessly weaved through the viewpoints of the cameras in and on the wall and laid down in front of the camera peeking up from the ground. A large Oran berry obscured its view, only letting it glimpse the general outline of a Rattata behind it.
The team stepped forward, paying attention to stay in the space that Tough Guy was hiding away.
"Speedster, your turn," Future Champion ordered, causing Diglett to seriously nod his black-clad head and disappear underground.
Obviously, they could have dug a tunnel beneath the wall from further out, but that would extend the tunnel Speedster had to dig. That meant more noise, more seismic activity and a longer crawl for the rest of the team.
"Seismic activity should be kept to less than 10 seconds to not raise suspicion," Young Master muttered, gaining a nod from the rest of the group.
"Small mistakes eventually evolve into big ones," Future Champion replied, counting down in his head. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 -. His radio crackled.
"Dig, dig," Speedster said over their private channel.
"Move it!" Future Champion whispered, pulling out a rope to bite, dropping to the ground and sticking first his head, then the rest of his body into the tunnel that Speedster had left behind.
It was tight, it was cold, it made him want to sneeze. He persisted and crawled his way through the space, rope clenched in his teeth. It took longer than he'd hoped despite the practice. He'd counted 120 seconds, which meant two minutes before he silently emerged on the other side, quickly checking that there were no cameras that could see them. He pulled a green tarp from his pocket and unfolded it, covering himself and Speedster. Then he tugged at the rope he'd left behind. A tug came back. Future Champion started pulling heavily, channelling miniscule amounts of ghost TE to strengthen himself.
Young Master emerged from the hole, letting go of the rope and joined him under the green tarp meant to camouflage. Future Champion kept pulling, eventually causing a harshly breathing Psychic's Rule to emerge as well.
"I, I hate, both of you," the girl gasped, her words spreading harshly underneath their cover.
"Man up, soldier," Joey said harshly, before pausing. "Woman up, soldier," he corrected himself. "This is life or death, a bit of exercise and dirt is nothing when considering the successful escape of private Growlie."
"Speedster, you're protecting the escape route, Psychic's Rule, you're extending your senses, Young Master, you're moving into position to potentially distract," Future Champion said, looking out from underneath the tarp and finally fully glimpsing the mansion of James' parents and the smaller, mansion-sized dog house next to it.
He paused. The mansion was… Huge. As big as the Cologne Cathedral, in fact. This was ridiculous.
"What do your parents do, exactly, Young Master?" he asked.
"Uh, they have a few boats. Shipping?"
"Roger," Future Champion muttered. "Move out!" He and Young Master pulled out another camouflage tarp, leaving one for Psychic's Rule and Speedster. Then they covered themselves and started crawling towards the mansions.
The dog house was most certainly the most trapped area, as Growlie was the goal that James would have inevitably returned for in the eyes of his parents. This was why, as Joey approached the small mansion, he prepared his Ghost TE for the move only he and Misdreavus were capable of.
"Splitting," he whispered harshly so that Young Master could hear him, his eyes focused on a dark window around which several cameras were pointing in different directions.
He melded into the shadows, leaving his tarp behind and reappeared inside the mansion. He promptly threw himself on the floor and rolled into a corner.
His eyes warily observed his surroundings. A tap at the Pokeball at his belt released Misdreavus, or rather, Ghost.
"Find the target, then report back," he whispered to the Pokemon.
Ghost nodded at him and melded into the floor. They were currently on the fourth floor, considering the size of the mansion, it would take a while to find anything. Future Champion patiently waited, taking solace in the fact that his comms weren't reporting anything, which meant that everything was going according to plan.
Ghost returned after several points. "Mis, mis," she said quietly, and pointed downwards with her head before turning around and leading Joey off. He followed silently, like a… ghost. The corridor was long and dark, rooms upon rooms spread out on the left and on the right. But eventually they reached the end, a square sort of interior balcony letting him see down. This part of the roof was glass, so the space was relatively well illuminated. Down, on the first floor, in a large entry hall, was a sleeping Growlithe on a blue fluffy pillow.
"Ghost, hypnotise," Future Champion muttered as he pulled some material from his pockets. Ghost went down while he did his work. A few quick latches of equipment on the walls and the looping of a thin string around his waist made the next move possible.
Future Champion ran towards the bannister of the balcony and jumped off.
The string looped into the belt on his waist and on the latch on the wall caught him mid-air, from which point he slowly but surely let himself down by the string.
It was as he reached the first floor and Ghost was successfully hypnotising Growlithe that he paused. Something didn't smell right.
It was certain that the space around Growlithe would be the most protected, but this was still one floor up from where the dog seemed to usually sleep.
He couldn't sense what was making his hackles rise, however.
A dip into his pocket brought up a non-branded aluminium can of paint. A whooshing spray around him revealed a hideous truth.
'Fuck,' Joey thought as he beheld the tight web of red lasers, revealed by the spray, which covered the entirety of the entrance hall in which Growlithe was still happily sleeping away. A cage of red light surrounding the fire Pokemon.
'All those air acrobatic practices will finally come in handy,' Future Champion decided as he started twisting around, contorting his body. He eventually ended up face down with one hand on the string around his belt and one hand pulling the soles of his feet so they rested firmly on his lower back.
Then he let himself down gruelling inch by gruelling inch, swinging just right to avoid the motion-detecting lasers. He started sweating halfway through, his mask slipping just a bit below his nose.
Almost at the end, he noticed an issue.
A drop of sweat had gathered at the end of his downward-facing nose. It trembled, and Future Champion's blood froze in his veins. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
He tried to suck the sweat back in, move it with tongue, but nothing worked.
The droplet detached itself from his nose and fell down. It missed a red laser by a nanometer.
Joey breathed a sigh of relief and let himself drop further. Once he was past the cage, he pressed a finger to his earpiece. "Future Champion to all units. Prepare for extraction, over."
"Dig, ig."
"Young Master reading, over."
"Psychic's Rule reading, over."
"Mis, dree!"
"Ratta."
"Meta, met."
"Kaka."
Joey gently unfurled himself from the string until he was hovering right above Growlie, recalling Misdreavus as he did so. His hands grasped the puppy Pokémon and lifted him.
Four things happened at that point, all together, in less than a second.
The ground beneath Growlithe surged upwards a millimetre when the Pokemon was lifted. Pressure plate.
"Start extraction, over", Future champion said into his earpiece.
Blinding lights in the entry hall suddenly turned on.
"You got farther than we thought," an older male voice said suddenly from an unlit corridor, before the person speaking took a step forward into the light.
A blue-haired man with a moustache dressed like an aristocrat. Next to him stood a purple-haired woman in a dark red dress.
"Extracting in progress, over," Future Champion's team sounded from the comm.
"You really gave us a scare, running away like that. But you're still a child, we knew you'd come back for Growlithe, the idiotic mutt," the man continued.
Future Champion remained silent.
"But son, it's time to let go of these foolish dreams. We all had to marry for convenience, but even then, love can blossom, you know?" The blue-haired man suddenly laid a gentle hand on the cheek of the woman next to him and tenderly looked into her eyes before turning back to Joey. "Come back, son," he implored.
Joey shook his head. He knew what James wanted and he wouldn't budge and give his parents even a chance of misinterpreting the boy's ardent will to be free.
"Well, you don't have a choice. We just didn't want it to come to that," the man eventually sighed. "I see you've chosen to be stubborn. An attribute that you will grow out of."
"We've missed you, James," the woman said lovingly. "The estate has just entered a psychic lockdown. Nobody can come in or leave. You'll learn to love Jessebelle, she's a charming young woman."
"Just like your mother," the man joked, causing his wife to giggle.
"Oh dear!" she said breathlessly.
"Extraction complete, we took the rough way out, over," the voice of Young Master suddenly sounded in Joey's ears, and it was balsam for the soul.
Joey turned to the grinning duo of husband and wife who were looking at him triumphantly.
"Brute force, no matter how strongly applied, can never subdue the basic human desire for freedom," he said, his mask changing his voice enough he wouldn't be id'ed, but just enough for the parents to notice…
"You're not James!" the woman suddenly shrieked, eyes widening.
"James did the smart thing," Joey said calmly. "He hired a professional." The Shadow Sneak was prepped, and a finger went up to the string connecting him to the fourth floor.
He cut it. He fell. A brief release of a Pokeball, a brief sight of Misdreavus before she was recalled again. Better make them believe a ghost Pokemon helped him escape.
One last line.
"You should consider hiring one as well, maybe of the therapist variety," were the last things James' parents heard before the intruder and Growlithe with him disappeared straight into the floor.
-/-
"They really went all out, huh?" Joey asked as he emerged back at the van amongst his nervous team.
The estate was lit up by a bright purple barrier covering it in its entirety. That was several dozen hectares, mind you.
"How many psychics does that take?" he asked as he handed Growlithe to a beaming James.
"It's twelve, Mr. Mimes," Sabrina rasped from behind her mask.
Joey recalled all his Pokemon, but released Misdreavus for scouting purposes, and the group hopped into the van.
A quick reverse brought them back onto the road at which point they sped away.
"No offence, James," Joey started while possibly breaking every traffic law in existence as he went 120 km/h on a rural road through the forest. "But your parents are dumb as shit."
"None taken," James muttered as he petted his unconscious Growlithe. "He's not waking up," he eventually commented.
"Misdreavus is really good at hypnosis, wait another 30 minutes," Joey replied, before cursing as Misdreavus popped in from up top and gave a cry.
Five seconds later he could see why. "Fuck, blue lights ahead, let me dodge into the forest."
"It won't work," Sabrina commented idly, tapping the Pokeballs at her belt. Three Kadabra materialised into a very cramped space. Joey recalled Misdreavus and reigned in his ghost energy.
He could hear the sirens now. The van was as silent as a grave as the Kadabra awkwardly shuffled around, all dressed in ninja outfits. One was sitting in Sabrina's lap, one in James's lap, and one on Joey's lap. They put their spoons together, glowing a bright blue.
"- Hold on," Sabrina warned with a stutter, before a bright blue flash enveloped the van.
Joey braked as he suddenly found himself riding on a different section of the road.
The sirens were now coming from behind them, getting ever more distant.
Joey continued tilting his head to see past the Kadabra sitting on his lap as he started driving again.
Sabrina recalled her team.
"That was close," James muttered, which was exactly the moment that Growlithe decided to wake up.
A bark, a growl, a yip. Joey couldn't turn to see, but the reunion sounded pretty heartwarming.
"Are we done here?" Sabrina asked in a drained voice.
"Tired?" Joey asked.
The girl was silent for a few seconds before nodding.
"We just have to refill the gas, the principal will notice if the fuel tank is empty. We'll do it closer to the academy," Joey muttered in reply, before pausing. "Thanks for your help." It would have been much more difficult to escape without her, although he was sure that they'd manage.
Sabrina remained silent.
A few minutes of quiet driving passed, interspersed only by the yipping of one very happy Growlithe.
"I'm happy…" the girl finally muttered, pausing. "To help." She eventually added.
"Glad to have you," Joey replied tiredly. The night was dragging on. They'd be done soon.
-/-
Joey watched the pimply faced gas attendant awkwardly tank their car. They'd actually had a plan and had hidden a gas canister on the way, but it had disappeared, likely taken by a curious Pokemon, or someone who liked huffing benzene.
The teenager dressed in a bright yellow peppy uniform of the Pokegas conglomerate finished refilling and came to the window of the driver's seat.
He looked awkwardly at Joey, seemingly unsure of what he was seeing.
They hadn't had a choice, the sun would rise soon, and if the car wasn't back by then they'd be screwed. Because they'd hidden the gas canister on the way, they hadn't checked the gas stations to find one at which they could pump anonymously. Desperate and in need, they'd simply rolled into the first one they saw.
"Would you like to come in and get a membership card, 10% discount?" the youth offered as he stared down the three darkly clad ninjas in the van at four in the morning. After he made his offer, he looked to the side and groaned. "That was probably a stupid question," he muttered quietly. "They make me say it."
Joey glanced at Misdreavus blocking the camera of the gas station with her cloth-covered body.
There would be no footage, but hypnotising a random gas station attendant would probably draw more heat than what he was about to do.
He pulled out a crisp clip of notes. One-fifth of what Sabrina would be earning on this job. He handed the money to the attendant.
The boy looked down at the ridiculous amount of cash. "Uh, I don't have enough change for this much," he said.
"Kevin, can I call you Kevin?" Joey suddenly started, the first words he'd said since rolling into the gas station.
The boy blinked in surprise before realising he was wearing a name tag. He paled. "Uh, sure thing, sir."
"Alright, Kevin," Joey said. "Two things. First, keep the change and buy yourself something nice, alright?"
The boy nodded, dumbstruck. Trainers earned a lot of money, civilians didn't. What Kevin was holding right now was probably his entire month's salary. "And the second thing, sir?" the boy asked.
Joey channelled some ghostly energy to cast their surroundings into a darker pall and to make his eyes glow a sinister red. "Tell anyone, and I'll kill you," Joey rasped.
Kevin locked up even more than before and tremblingly put the money in his pocket.
He looked like he got the message.
Joey nodded satisfiedly and drove off. They'd covered the logo of the van and the license plate once they'd noticed they had to tank. That was all they could do about that.
He started whistling as they approached the academy before he noticed how silent the van had gotten. He turned around to see Sabrina, James and the Growlithe underneath James' feet looking at him with wide eyes.
"What?" he asked.
The trio quickly turned away to look elsewhere.
"I fucking thought so," Joey grumbled.
-/-
"I can't believe we did that," James muttered with wide eyes as the sun started peeking over the horizon. He seemed dumbstruck, glomping his Growlithe and not looking like he'd ever let go.
"All in a night's work," Joey muttered, throwing another stick into the fire they'd made behind the academy.
The last part of their plan.
The party. A small hand grasped into a cooling bucket and pulled out a can of beer. It opened with a satisfying crunch.
"Uh, should you be drinking that?" James asked dubiously as Joey took a big swig from the.
"It's non alcoholic cider," Joey replied. "Here, have some." He threw a can at James and one at Sabrina.
At a nudge from Rattata he also gave one to his starter.
At a deadpan look from Sabrina's Kadabra, another can travelled through the air only to be caught by a psychic grip in front of the upright fox pokemon.
"I want to propose a toast," Joey suddenly said seriously as everyone opened their cans.
"Can I go first?" James asked, drawing a shrug from the others.
"Go ahead, buddy," Joey said lazily.
James stood up, looked around a bit lost, as if he didn't know what to talk about. In the middle of winter in a forest clearing with a fire pit and surrounded by other people's Pokemon probably wasn't how he'd imagined this would end.
"When I ran away that day, I never thought I'd see Growlie again," he started. "But you guys undid my biggest mistake, leaving him behind because I panicked. Thank you, you're real friends," he said before sitting back down.
Joey laughed, pulled a steak from the cooling bucket, unpacking it, stabbing it with a stick and hanging it over the fire.
"I don't have friends," he said, causing the mood to drop. Then he grinned lopsidedly. "I got family." He raised his can. The others joined him in the air. "And if there's one thing I know, it's that you never turn your back on family. Cheers!"
-/-
AN: our little happy vacation interlude before the start of the next season, hope you liked it. We'll be off to Pewter soon to beat Flint's deadbeat ass (no this is not a way to channel my rage against my own deadbeat dad, fuck off.) Anyway, read ahead and help me edit on Patreon :)