Chapter 10

Nidorina and Nidoking

Viridian City-

            They arrived relatively late at night and headed straight for the Pokemon Center.  Green was already waiting for Red as soon as they walked in the door. 

            “We’ve got our Gym match in two days,” Green said to Red with his arms folded.  He was standing up next to the entrance doors expectantly. “We’re going to use all the time we can so I can show you how I want to win the match, and how you can stay out of my way.”

            Blue just yawned and continued to make her way towards the upstairs, checking out a room in the process.  She heard Red behind her try to follow. 

            “Right, we’ll be at it first thing in the morning,” Red said, yawning also.

            “No,” Green grabbed hold of his rival.  “We’ll be at it starting right now.” 

            Blue turned around and shook her head at the two boys.  “Well I’m going to bed.  See you later, boys.”  She walked up the stairs and into the empty room that she checked out.  This will be good for Red, she thought.  He can learn a little bit from his rival and get a little bit more serious.

            She began to unpack her things and get ready for bed.  She was excited as she reached into her bag and pulled out the thing she had wanted to look at since Pallet Town.  The purple Poke-ball with an M engraved on the top part seemed to sparkle in her hands.  She closed her eyes, trying to remember.  She had seen this object somewhere before… but where?

            Everything was a foggy, and her memories of Saffron City were a blur.  She gave up trying to remember and put the purple ball down and got ready for bed.  She liked it when she finally had a bed to sleep in, it had seemed like forever.  Fuchsia City was the last place she had one. 

            She released Nidorina so that she could sleep with her.  Her partner Pokemon had been with her for as long as she could remember.  They had grown up together, sharing so many memories battling in the streets and made new ones along the way.  She began to doze off thinking about the times she and Nidorina had stood up to Team Rocket…

            Suddenly in her dream, it all came back to her.  She was in the room with the screens inside the Silph Tower again.  Two of the screens were fuzzy in her mind, but two stood out clear as day.  One was the cute pink Pokemon with a long tail she had recognized when Blaine had showed her on Cinnabar Island.  Mew, she said to herself.  The other suddenly jolted her memory. The purple Poke-ball was rotating on the screen. 

            She heard a voice behind her.  “It looks like all the shipments going in and out of Silph Company…”  She saw Lorelei again shifting through papers.

            Maybe Team Rocket is looking for something.  Instantly a large figure came out of nowhere and slammed Lorelei into a wall.  The building began to shake and dust started to fall from the ceiling.

            “Run, Blue!  Get away from here!” Lorelei said before the big man hit her again.  Blue turned her back on Lorelei and ran.  She heard the breaking of glass, and a scream of someone falling through the air.  She couldn’t look back, though. If she did, Blue would surely fall the same way towards the cold ground that would crush her.

            The building began to shake violently as she ran as fast as she could.  She went down stairs, up some stairs, ran along a hallway that spiraled around and spun.  All the while she knew that the building was collapsing around her. 

She saw him, the Rocket Boss.  She sent out Nidorina to fight, but her partner wouldn’t obey her commands.  The man in the suit laughed at her and sent out Nidoking.  The purple spiked beast knocked out her partner with one hit before smacking Blue in the head.

            The dream morphed around her, she saw daylight and the collapsing building was nowhere to be seen.  She was in a hole in the ground.  Above her was sunlight and freedom.  In front of Blue was the Rocket Boss and his Nidoking, laughing as the tunnel began to collapse on top of them.

            Wait, Blue called out to them. I have to arrest you and bring you to Lance. You can’t escape like this, it’s not fair…

            “It’s not fair!” she called out with a start.  She was sitting up in her bed and Nidorina looked up at her questioningly.  “It was just a dream,” Blue panted.  She was sweating. 

            Her Pokedex began to beep.  It was the cell phone application, with a number she didn’t recognize.  She recognized the voice at the other end, though.

            “Blue, I know you’re in town,” her mother said calmly.  “You need to come home and see me.”  Her mom left no wiggle room, and hung up immediately.  She didn’t seem mad, which surprised Blue.  The last time she had seen her mother she had run of with Nidorina (who was Nidoran at the time) against her mother’s wishes. 

            Blue quickly got ready.  She kept Nidorina outside her Poke-ball, much to her Pokemon’s delight.  As she walked down the stairs, she saw Red and Green still talking at one of the tables.  They had also released their Pokemon, Charizard and Blastoise, who were looking over their shoulders at a piece of paper that Green was drawing on.

            Red had bags under his eyes and a hot coffee in front of him.  Were they up all night, or did they get up early?  Green was still talking fast.  They were drawing up some kind of battle plan.  She said good bye to Red, who lazily threw up his hand and put it down again, barely acknowledging her.  He’s just tired and trying to focus.

            “Come on, girl,” she called to Nidorina as they exited the Pokemon Center.  Viridian City was much the same as she remembered it. Some of the old shop owners who had once been annoyed with her running around lawlessly had waved their hands and smiled at her. 

            She found her mother standing outside her little house.  She didn’t look well either.  Her mom had the same bags under her eyes that Red had.  Blue started feeling nervous.  There’s no way she can tell me off after all this time.  I haven’t been home to break any of her rules anyways. Maybe she’s still mad about Nidorina.

            All her doubts were put to rest after her mother slowly walked over to her and embraced her in a big hug.  Her mother sniffed back a tear and held her tight.  She pulled back from her daughter and said, “Blue, I can tell that you’ve grown so much.  Oh, and hello Nidorina.”

            Nidorina was noticeably happy as her mother scratched her behind one of her big ears.  She turned back to Blue and the nice smile faded.  “You need to come inside, now.  We need to talk… as a family.”

            Blue was confused but consented.  She followed her mother inside the front door, and a short turn into the kitchen a tall man stood up from the table, waiting for them.  He wore a suit, and Blue recognized him instantly in a fit of anger.

            “YOU LEAVE MY MOTHER ALONE!” She screamed as Nidorina jumped up onto the table and stalked up to the Rocket Boss growling and baring her fangs.  The Rocket Boss didn’t even flinch, and in a flash of light, one of his Poke-balls opened on its own and the five foot tall purple Nidoking appeared and stood in front of its master, protectively.  Blue’s voice got a little smaller.  “Whatever problem you have, you can take it up with me.”

            “Blue, sit down,” her mother lightly touched her shoulder.  “Is that anyway you should speak to your father? After all this time?  Giovanni, I’m so sorry.  She must be confused.” 

            The statement hit her like a shockwave, and it alone was enough to make her fall into a chair her mother had pulled out for her.  She began to look with her eyes instead of looking with her expectations.  Nidorina was staring into the eyes of Nidoking, and the purple Pokemon was touching her partner Pokemon behind the ear, as if it already knew where its favorite spot was.

            “No,” Blue felt tears in her eyes as she put her face in her hands.  She remembered everything the man in the suit had put her through, had put Kanto itself through, had put Blaine through, and every evil thing he had done.

            “Leave us, Jess,” the Rocket Boss said.  “I need to talk to our daughter alone.”  His voice was soft, not like she had remembered it.”  When her mother had left the room, she spoke again.

“It can’t be, you’re the leader of Team Rocket.”

            “Was,” he said, never breaking eye contact with Blue.   “Don’t you remember the note I left you after the Silph Tower?” 

            Blue searched her memory and she repeated the words she found.  “‘Forgetabout the offer until we meet again. You win this round.”

            “Signed, the former Team Rocket head of operations,” he interrupted her.  “When you found me in the Silph Company Chairman’s office, I was ready to crush you and escape, just like I did in Celadon City.  Only this time, you were alone, away from that boy you follow for some reason.  I finally had the chance to see you up close, and I began to wonder.”

            Blue couldn’t believe what she was hearing. How can this man in front of her just quit being an evil boss of a crime syndicate?  Her father was nothing like him.  But it’s starting to make sense, she thought.

            Giovanni, the former Rocket Boss, continued.  “I tried to stay the way I had molded myself to be after I left your mother and you.  But when I saw you, and began to wonder who you might be, I felt myself begin to change.  I wanted to bring you with me, to do what I had set out to do all those years ago: make you a Princess.  If my plans would have succeeded, Team Rocket could have conquered Kanto, with me as their king, and you would have lived happily for the rest of your life with anything you ever wanted.” 

            It sounded too good to be true.  But there was no way that the Rocket Boss had any pure motivations for what he did.  Blue put her anger aside, she wanted answers.

            “How did you know it was me?” she asked.

            Were those the beginnings of tears in the Rocket Boss’s eyes?

            “When we first met, I had no clue,” he began.  “But when I saw you up close in Saffron City, I recognized your face.  It was like I was looking in a mirror… you always had my features, but your mother’s hair of course.  Then I remembered the Nidorina you fought my Kanghaskan with in Celadon City.  That’s why I offered you the chance to join me.

            “Much to my disappointment, you refused.  That was the breaking point for me.  At that moment, all that concerned me was your safety.  I released Nidoking who grabbed hold of you, and raced its way to the bottom of the building through the floors using its Dig attack.  We tunneled our way through the ground, but we were too slow  If we took too long, the collapse of the building could have triggered an explosion.

              “I held your Pokemon, Ivysaur, in my hands while you were unconscious.  I instructed it to help us tunnel, but it was too shocked… until it realized that your life was at stake.  Its flower bloomed and it evolved, just like you have bloomed into a strong young woman.” Blue audibly sobbed, but Giovanni, her father, continued his story.

            “Venusaur and Nidoking quickly cleared a large tunnel, and I quickly set you up once we emerged, far away from the city and the collapsing Tower.  I didn’t yet know for sure that you were who I thought, but there was enough evidence for me to investigate and not take a chance with your life.

            “I found a Pokedex in your bag.  I have seen such devices before.  I had a scientist that was working for me once tell me how Professor Oak was creating such a thing. I figured out how to operate it, and found the Trainer ID screen.  That’s when I knew for sure.  Blue, my little girl, had risked her life to stop me.”  A tear fell down his face and Blue’s heart broke, too.  They cried together.  Nidorina and Nidoking had gone into another room where Blue’s mother was making some food for them.

            Giovanni got up to embrace her.  She was about to accept the fatherly hug she longed for as long as she could remember, but one final memory stopped her.

            “Mewtwo,” she said quietly.  “You killed a Pokemon.  A Pokemon you had given life to, and then tossed it away like it was a piece of trash not worthy for you.”

            Her father’s face turned dark.  “So you’ve met Blaine, and he told you… You must understand Blue, while it may have been wrong to not deem it strong enough, it was not the Pokemon I had desired… In truth, it did not possess all the abilities we had tried to engineer into it.”

            Blue was disgusted, her voice began to raise again.  “Then why not let it live? Why not just release or let someone else take care of Mewtwo?”

            Giovanni squatted down to eye level with his daughter.  “Just because it was released, doesn’t mean it could fall into the wrong hands.  We learned of a certain Poke-ball that can catch any Pokemon without fail, and force it to follow anyone’s orders.  What if the Mewtwo fell into the wrong hands?”

            Blue didn’t understand.  “You were the wrong hands.” Tears kept falling down her face, but the man who was her father wiped them away.

            He smiled curiously, disgustingly.  “There are other forces in this world, Blue, that thrive on chaos.  They strive to take power away from all those who wield it.  People need order, they need control.  I could have controlled them, and then you could have too.

            “Look at me,” he said.  Blue glared at him as their eyes were close now.  He continued, “I decided to end Team Rocket the day you risked your life to stop me.  I realized that everything I had done, I had done against what you really wanted.  I had deceived myself all these years about who you were, and what you wanted.  I’m sorry, I was wrong about so many things.”

            Blue slowly reached into her bag that was hanging on her chair.  Her father seemed genuinely sorry, but there was one test that he had to pass before she could forgive him.  She pulled out the Poke-ball she had taken out of curiosity from Professor Oak’s lab, and set it on the table.

            Her father stared at it for what seemed like hours.  Is this the Poke-ball that he was talking about? Does he still want it? Now that it’s finally here in front of him? Will he toss me away again, like he tossed away Mewtwo, for his twisted dream again? She could see the emotional struggle on his face.  Blue felt her heart drop when Giovanni reached out and held the Pokeball up to his face, smiling. 

            A glimmer of triumph was seen in his eye.  Had she made a terrible mistake? What had she just done?

            “The Master Ball,” said Giovanni in a whisper. “Finally, its here with me, the thing that can capture any Pokemon…” He looked down at Blue, and knelt down to her eye level again.

            If he was looking at her to gloat about his betrayal of her trust and her mothers, Blue was ready to spit in his face.  To her shock, he put the Master Ball back inside her bag. 

            “I told you,” he said, another tear finally falling from his eye.  “I’ve given up that life, now.”  He stood up and straightened his suit.  “Tomorrow, when the time is right, I will turn myself into the police.  I can tell there is no way you can forgive me for my crimes as long as I’m free. I hope that you will come visit me. That is all I want now that I have you again.”

            Blue cried as she threw her arms around this man she had wanted to know her whole life.  Sure, he was a scumbag: a man who had stolen, terrorized, and murdered.  But he was her father, and he had saved her life.  She would visit him in jail, and she could finally talk and have a father as long as he really atoned for his crimes tomorrow. 

            She had no doubt he would turn himself in.  After all, he had put the Master Ball back.  In his arms she cried and cried and cried.  The tears made his suit wet, but Blue knew her father didn’t care.  He had her, and she had him.  She closed her eyes, and her memory strayed back to a time when she was younger than she should remember.  She and her father were watching fireworks.

            “I like the ones that go really, really high, daddy!” she had said while stroking her pet Nidoran, who was asleep in her lap.

            “The rockets have to be really strong to climb that high, my dear.  The colors are pretty, too, aren’t they?”

“Yes, daddy,” she remembered saying.  “I love rockets.”  Blue had never cried so hard in her life.

Cinnabar Island-

            Blaine knew where he would find him.  A little ways past his ruined lab, he came upon Junior, robed in grey with his boots on.  Blaine had washed his favorite outfit for him earlier.  The Phantom, he thought, now I can see how he got that name.  To Blaine, though, he would always be Junior.

            “Still remembering, my friend?” Blaine asked him, as he approached and stood next to Junior.  They gazed at the flowers they planted together, on top of Mewtwo’s grave.

            How could I forget? Junior’s voice sounded in his head.  I swore that day I would seek justice for our innocent friend.  Yet, the Rocket Leader eludes me, still. 

            A glint of light caught Blaine’s eye.  He looked at one of the gloves and two Gym Badges, from Pewter and Fuchsia Cities, were pinned to the black leather. The scientist pulled out a volcano badge and handed it to his friend. “I brought it, just like you requested.”

            If I want to be a Pokemon Trainer, I must battle you for it. Those hauntingly blue eyes were obviously confused.

            Blaine laughed.  “I know you’ll win, Junior.  You still think this is the best way to battle Lance? At the Kanto League Championships?”

            Yes, Junior’s voice answered.  I am curious about the bonds between other Trainer’s and their Pokemon.  Without Psychic abilities, how can they control their partners so well?

            “You’d be surprised,” said Blaine as he watered the flowers on top of the grave.  “Pokemon and their Trainer’s make each other strong.  They-”

            His voice was cut off by a loud noise and Blaine stopped watering the flowers and turned to see a fancy black helicopter land.  He could feel Junior glaring at it. 

            I don’t like what’s inside, Junior’s voice said.

            Blaine saw a man in a gold-trimmed suit hop out of the helicopter.  He recognized the money man, Team Rocket’s investor, when he saw him.  “Neither do I.”

            “Magnificent!” called the banker.  “I knew I’d find you eventually.  They’re calling you the Phantom, did you know?”  His golden-trimmed suit sparkled in the evening sunlight as he approached Junior and the Gym Leader.