Pokemon Fan Fiction / Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Neo-Poke ❯ Dangerous Grudge! Team Rocket Reappears! ( Chapter 7 )

Neo-Poke: Episode Seven, Season One: Dangerous Grudge! Team Rocket Reappears!

After the fight at Pewter Gym, where Shinji, Hoshi, and Keiko won Boulder Badges and Takeshi's son, Doseki, joined them, we find them resting by a stream about half a mile out of Pewter.

"Jeez…why do girls need to keep resting? I could've been to Mt. Moon by now!" Shinji groused, laying his head back on the soft, green grass.

"Oh, stuff your self-righteous mouth!" snapped Hoshi, "YOU were the one holding onto a walking stick, not us!"

"Well I wasn't the one who said 'Let's stop here and rest'," returned Shinji, purposely making the last part seem extra whiney.

"No, you're right. That was Doseki. Or have you forgotten?" asked Hoshi, grinning triumphantly and crossing her arms.

Shinji turned slightly red, "Er…you see…um…that can be explained by…"

"By the fact that you looked ready to pass out," Doseki interjected cheerfully.

"No! That was a disguise! I wanted nearby trainers to think I looked bad and challenge me because they thought they could win!" the twelve-year-old boy protested.

"Yes…and a flying Squirtle just passed by, near the swimming Onix and the Bulbasaur engulfed in flames…" said Hoshi sarcastically.

"Does Hoshi always provoke people?" Keiko asked Nyasu quietly from where they sat under a large maple tree.

"Oh all da time. You shoulda been deyre when we was grown' up. Always tryin' to talk down to authority, and everyone else. Unless you was her parents you couldn't ever get her to do anything she didn't want to," responded Nyasu.

"Do you ever shut up?!" growled Shinji.

"I'LL shut up when YOU stop acting stupid and hypocritical!" she muttered, glowering, "Which means that maybe sometime in the next millennium, we might have a chance."

"What did I do to deserve being with someone like you, huh?!" he yelled, balling his hands into fists and scowling.

"You got incredibly lucky!" retorted Hoshi quickly, cracking her knuckles and turning them into fists as well.

"You've got the incredible luck. I guess when you're a jailed convict, you'll at least be able to say you knew a Pokemon Master once," returned Shinji smugly.

"Sorry, but your tiny brain has processed it all wrong. When you're sitting at a homeless shelter wearing rags because you've got no purpose in the world, can't get a job, and blew all of your cash, you'll be the one who can tell everyone you knew a Pokemon Master."

"Take it back! I've got a million more things that'd make me a better Pokemon Master than you!" shouted Shinji, getting red in the face by now.

Doseki sighed, "I can see why these kids need me…they'd murder each other if I wasn't here…" he muttered, then louder said, "Ok. I think we're all done resting now. Let's carry on…"

Keiko got up quickly, "I think you're my savior," she told Doseki quietly before going over to where Shinji and Hoshi were glaring each other down, approximately an inch from the other's face, apparently unfazed by Doseki's announcement and pulled Shinji away from Hoshi's face frowning at him.

"Fine. But I'd like you to tell a certain Mr. Ketchum that I won't be speaking to him," replied Hoshi coldly.

"I can hear just fine from over here!" yelped Shinji angrily.

"Glad to hear it. At least a part of you works like it's supposed to."

"You're the most unbearable person I've ever met!" Shinji moaned.

***

"Look at them…warring within their group…creating separate factions…we really need not intervene, Miaka. They could ruin themselves," murmured Seto smirking lightly.

"Ah, but it wasn't my idea to get revenge. It was yours," responded Miaka giving him a mischievous look.

"Mmm…so indeed it was. But, on all accounts, we cannot simply let that girl get away with sending that arrogant Pokemon Master on us. Had she not come, that man probably wouldn't have shown up," he told his partner.

"So then, what is it you plan to do with them?" she inquired.

"This is one game I make up as I go along. Ransom looks good, murdering, torture…whatever I decided most appropriate and you go along with."

"I'll have you know then that I'm not all that keen on torture," Miaka said with a troubled frown.

He chuckled softly, "Didn't think you would be, dear. You were brought up with the morals that my lifestyle barely allowed room for."

"If you call being berated and otherwise overlooked being taught about morals…well, one must wonder about you sometimes, Seto Mikuno," she finished with a light smile, brushing back some of her long forest green hair.

"Good. I'd rather be wondered about than be one of those fools who wears every single detail about themselves plainly and proudly on the outside."

***

"You know," said Shinji conversationally as they walked around Mt. Moon, "there's rare Clefairy in here, and I intend to catch one!" he proclaimed to them, striking a melodramatic pose and grinning.

"Gee, and people roll their eyes when I do this, but no one says anything about HIM," said Hoshi lightly with an air of annoyance in her voice, "It's just normal I guess. There's always s double-standard, and I'm always the one on the rotten side of it."

"Uh…you didn't give us time to say anything about him…" replied Doseki raising an eyebrow as Hoshi crossed her arms and stormed over to rock, plopping down on it.

Shinji blinked, "Hey guys, what's a double standard?" he asked innocently.

Just as quickly as she'd sat down, Hoshi flung herself up and continued walking, upturning her nose and giving a haughty sniff.

"Drama queen, much," mumbled Keiko to the rest of the group, who nodded in agreement as they also resumed watching.

After walking rather aimlessly for about fifteen more minutes, on what seemed a stroke of good luck, a Clefairy jumped out of some nearby rocks, "Clefairy! Clef!" it cried in its high-pitched voice.

"Alright! I told you I was gonna capture it! Just shows you how much of a master I'm already beginning to turn out to be!" said Shinji smugly, turning to smirk at Hoshi, who glowered in response and let a low, growling noise escape her throat.

"Clefairy!" said the fairy Pokemon lightly as it began to skip away towards a dimly lit area of the cave.

"Hey! You aren't gonna get away from me that easily!" exclaimed Shinji, with a broad smile as his adrenaline kicked in and he ran after it.

"Hey Shinji, wait!" yelled Doseki as Shinji ran towards the dimly lit area, "This sign right here says that this part of the cave is reserved for wild Pokemon!"

Shinji halted, but only for a second, "Well, I remember someone saying once that rules were made to be broken! Plus, it's not like I'm gonna cause a ruckus, just gonna capture the Clefairy and get out!" he then continued his chase.

"Hmph…and people would get mad at me for this exact same thing…here we go with the double standard again…" grumbled Hoshi irritably as she, Keiko, Doseki, and Nyasu ran after Shinji.

"Oh just shut yer mouth!" snapped Nyasu, "We're mad at dis kid too! We ain't gonna treat you any differently den we would him!"

Hoshi snorted, "As if."

"I'm over here!" they heard Shinji's voice ringing, "I can't see it!"

"Then let's get out, please Shinji!" pleaded Keiko in her most pathetic voice.

"No way! I know it's in here, I just…AAAAGH!"

"Shinji?! Are you alright?! What…SHIT!" yelped Doseki as a relatively small iron cage enveloped the area he was in. Nearby, he saw a similar cage trapping Keiko, and another holding Hoshi and Nyasu. He could only guess that one had gotten Shinji, too.

Suddenly, light enveloped the area they were in, and Seto and Miaka stepped onto a rather large rock in the center of the circle-like area they were in. Seto was holding the Clefairy they'd seen moments earlier and sneering at them.

"Hey! You can't be here, you're in jail!" protested Shinji, flailing his arms, "My dad put you there!"

"Oh?" asked Seto softly, "Funny thing about jails around here, not built that well."

Miaka nodded, "Yes. All we had to do was burn the bars off with my Flareon."

"Then we threw a bomb at the building from outside, so any officers who hadn't been inside at the time, and any survivors from the blast couldn't regroup quickly enough," added Seto sadistically. At this, Keiko cupped her hands to her mouth and looked horrified, and Hoshi, the closest to the duo, was sure that, just for a moment there, she'd seen a pained look in Miaka's eyes. Then she decided it'd probably just been a hallucination, as bad guys never show remorse. It just seemed to be a given in the bad guy handbook. At least, in her opinion.

"Then you own that Clefairy we saw, and you used it to get us here?" asked Doseki accusingly.

"No. We just asked it help us and then gave it a little extra…incentive," murmured Seto. Miaka stepped to the side to reveal a baby Cleffa trapped inside a clear machine with an ax inches from its face. There was a switch on the side that, Doseki decided, probably swung the ax.

The younger Cleffa waved its arms as much as it could without hitting the ax and motioned towards the larger one, "Cleffa, Clef, Cleffa!" it wailed.

The Clefairy looked positively miserable, "Clefairy, Clefairy, Cle!" it responded in what it seemed to hope was a comforting tone.

"H-how could you…" began Keiko, eyes wide.

Seto shrugged slightly non-chalantly, "This is the reason why it's so unnecessary to be around anyone, friends or, in this case family, who can't take care of themselves. If you're a bleeding heart, you'll always find yourself in this situation," he said silkily.

"That's not fair!" cried Shinji.

"That's right, it's not," responded Miaka, "and…it's you kids' fault, too. If you'd never have interfered with our Viridian City takeover plan, these Pokemon would be getting hurt."

"That was only Hoshi though," replied Keiko, "why are you doing this to us?"

"We wouldn't be. We have no use for you, but it just so happens that you're here with her. You may all thank her in hell," said Seto softly.

"…Y-you think you're getting away with it then?" asked Hoshi, trying to appear unconcerned, "Well…then you're mistaken!"

"Oh? Am I then?" asked Seto mockingly.

"Yeah…because well, think of it! I bet you were weak once too, and you still have some weaknesses!" Hoshi hoped dearly that she could sway them off course by rambling, "I bet there was a time when you hid behind mommy and daddy all of the time!" she added sinisterly. When she saw anger bubble ominously on Seto's face, she instantly regretted it.

He handed the Clefairy to Miaka and leapt forward and stood outside her cage, pointing a rifle, "DON'T…EVER…SAY…ANYTHING…ABOUT…[I]MY[/]& hellip;PARENTS…" he shouted, sounding almost near insanity at that moment. It was a definite contrast from his normal voice.

"Point taken," squeaked Hoshi, shrinking down in her cage. Nyasu glared indignantly and ran to another spot in the cage just as Hoshi was about to crush her.

"Well, it was taken too late then, I'm afraid…" murmured Seto, back to his normal voice.

Doseki stared up at Miaka, "Do you really want him to do this?" he demanded, hoping to take the Rocket on a guilt trip, "she's just a kid!"

Miaka faltered for a spilt second, "And we're Team Rocket, and she interfered with us! I don't care what you've heard of our organization's failures, because you're going to witness one of our wins!"

"She only spoke the truth!" Doseki shot back, "He can't have always been this way!"

"He was forced to grow up sooner then you, I gather, and he's going to do the best thing for him and us! You don't realize that your own government is probably more corrupt then the inner workings of our organization, do you?" she asked.

"That's propaganda," replied Doseki, glaring at her.

"You don't know anything about propaganda until you've looked at YOUR government in the right way! Me, Seto, and every other Rocket under the leadership of Sakaki will lead you to a better era," she snapped narrowing her eyes, "However," she stepped down, near Doseki, "I think that if you joined us, you'd be incredible assets with the right training. This has all…slightly impressed me," she said, and she let the Clefairy go. It immediately ran to help its child.

Seto turned around suddenly, "Are you saying what I think you seem to be implying, Miaka?" he asked in a slightly surprised voice.

"I think so," she responded.

"You realize…I believe you're being too rash," he said softly.

"Mmm, no, I think they will do fine. Trust me, Seto," she responded quietly.

He shook his head lightly, "I can't say there's ever been a time when you asked me to trust you that you've been wrong, my dear," he walked over to her, "Are you positively sure this is how you want the winds of our destiny to blow? There are better targets out there, much more challenging, much more worthy."

"Er…what are you guys talking about?!" interrupted Shinji with a thoroughly confused look on his face.

"It is business for us to know and you to find out," Miaka replied, giving the twelve-year-old a hard look.

"And if Miaka is right, find out you shall, in do time," finished Seto, "As for the present," he took out a controller and pressed a button that lifted the cage, "Now let's leave, Miaka."

Hoshi glared at them. She didn't take kindly this sudden brushing off, even if it had saved her life, "And you expect us to let you escape?!" she demanded, "What sort of morons are you tw-"

Doseki and Keiko ran forward to cover her mouth before she could say anymore, "Please, continue on your way out!" called Keiko nervously.

Seto arrogantly flipped his hair as he and Miaka began to disappear into the unlighted part of the cave, "Teaching your friend there manners is highly in order. I don't want to have to use the force I came close to using today on her out of pure frustration when we meet again," the group stood and waited until Seto and Miaka's footsteps faded out before attempting to move, or even speak, again.

Doseki rubbed his forehead, "I don't understand what just happened…but whatever it was, it was good luck," he went over to the Clefairy and Cleffa and took the glass cage off of the Cleffa, "You should both be safe now."

"I still want to catch one," moaned Shinji with octopus tears running down his face as they left.

"Well, at least we all know we'll live long enough to have another chance now," said Keiko. She giggled nervously.

"Hmph. I'm tired of this stupid cave, let's keep going!" exclaimed Hoshi suddenly, marching out of the area.

"Psssssst…" whispered Nyasu to the others, "Didja seem dem googly, starry eyes dat she was makin' when she first saw dat Seto guy? I tink our little Hoshi just suffered a severe disappointment!" the cat Pokemon grinned deviously.

"Oh yeah?" asked Hoshi loudly, "Well I 'tink', as you say, our little Nyasu is going to suffer a sever CONCUSSION if she doesn't shut up soon!"