Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Placing The Pieces ❯ Promise ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Part Two
"Promise"       Sky gripped the steering wheel in her hands so tightly her knuckles turned white, as if the more she pushed, the faster she'd go. Damnit, the one day I'm late has to be the one day we all have an important meeting, of course, she thought to herself, frustrated with the ways of the world at that moment. The previous night had been another excuse for lack of sleep after she had returned home from visiting James. Even the tiredness wasn't enough to let her rest peacefully, not with the all the guilt weighing her down. Even in the hurry she was in to get ready, she could still notice the rings under her wary eyes when she glanced at the mirror in her rush.

      Her thoughts were so tense that Sky barely noticed when a medium-sized slouching figure suddenly stepped into the middle of the road. She slammed her foot down on the brakes, her car skidding to a stop merely inches away from the boy with a loud screech. Breathing heavily, Sky recognized the boy as Jason. He was now clothed in something other than his old Team Rocket uniform, though now he looked worse for the ware. His hands were stuffed into his ripped jean pockets, pokeballs visible hanging on his loose belt. The expression on Jason's face was as disgruntled as ever as he stared out at Sky, finally making eye contact for the second time.

      Sky rolled down her window and stuck her head out. "Jason, what are you doing?! Are you crazy?! I could've ran you over!" she shouted.

      "But you didn't," Jason pointed out the obvious, not answering her question. He turned his head to the side to stare someplace else. "Not that you or anyone else would care if you did." His stare into the distance turned into a glare.

      "Look, I don't have time for this right now.. I'm already late." Sky quickly glanced over at the car's digital clock. "But James told me to visit you sometime. So just wait. And next time don't walk into the middle of the road like that!" And with that, she rolled her window back up and drove her car in a curve around Jason, not bothering to wait for him to move.

      Jason turned around to watch the car zoom off into the distance with another screech as it quickly picked up speed. He honestly didn't know what he had been doing. But then again, when had he ever? Jason kicked an empty soda can across the street to vent some of this small frustration, listening to it go clanging across the ground.

      Walking back towards the sidewalk, he took one of the pokeballs from his belt and lazily tossed it up into the air. A Fearow emerged cawing and flapping its wings from the bright light. "Fearow, go and find some food. You know what to do," he ordered. The pokemon gave another loud cry before it pushed off from the ground and flew away, leaving a trail of brown feathers behind. Jason picked one of them up and rolled it between his fingers and he collapsed down to sit against a wall. Sky's words echoed in his ears. "...Told me to come visit you sometime." A visitor. Jason dropped the feather and watched a small gust of wind send it twirling. A visitor... was that a promise or not? But she's only coming to see me because someone told her to, Jason thought grumpily. As if he had anything of importance to talk about with anybody.

      Half an hour later, a short girl with small features except for her round eyes noticed a trail of soft brown feathers lining the ground. A pokemon, she thought instantly, interrupting her wonders for a moment. She stood still and raised her head to observe where the trail led. Stepping slowly and quietly, she following the trail of feathers to the corner of a building and stuck her head around. In front of her was a large Fearow carrying an assortment of edible fruits in its beak, facing away from the girl. She narrowed her eyes and took out a pokeball. *****************************************************

 &n bsp;    Jason's mind was somewhere in the state between waking and sleeping, unable to distinguish the difference between thoughts and dreams, his head resting on his knees in his slouching position against the wall. Snapping his head back up, Jason broke away from this state by the sound of small footsteps in the distance echoing off the walls surrounding him. Accompanying this was also a strange scraping noise. Jason kept his head up, warily waiting as the dark silhoette came closer and slowly became recognizable.

      It was a small girl with large round eyes, her eyebrows raised with curiosity. Her layered hair went no farther than her chin, enhancing her already small childish features. Jason couldn't tell whether her hair was blond or brown - she appeared to have dyed thick highlights of one color or the other. But the girl was not what Jason was staring at for long. It was the unconscious Fearow she was dragging across the ground on her back - his Fearow. The scraping noise had been the Fearow's talons dragging across the cold cement.

      In one quick jerky movement, Jason leapt to his feet. "Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing?! That's my pokemon!" he shouted.

      The girl didn't seem fazed by his anger. "Good, I was wondering how much longer I'd have to keep dragging it along!" she exclaimed with a tired laugh, carefully setting the Fearow on the ground. "Since it already belongs to a trainer, my pokeballs wouldn't work on it. I found that out when I tried to catch it." She looked back up at Jason, narrowing her eyes with a small smile, as if he were a child she had caught in trouble. "Though I already figured it belonged to somebody anyways.. when I saw it with the food."

      Well aren't you a talkative one, Jason thought, trying to stare her down to wipe the annoying smile off her face. "So you go and attack it?"

      "Yeah," the girl replied, never changing her expression. She leaned in closer. "Did you steal that food?" She asked sternly.

      "No! In case you didn't notice, they're all fruits. I know where all the edible fruits are around here, 'cause I've wandered around enough."

      The girl relaxed, a more cheerful smile spreading across her mouth. "Well, that good. You didn't look like a criminal to me," she told him.

      Jason raised his eyebrows in disbelief, angered once again by her cheerfulness and her complete lack of any intimidation of him. "I used to be a part of Team Rocket, you know!" he replied.

      "But you're obviously not anymore!" she retorted. Her smile turned into a grin as she extended her hand forwards to shake hands with him. "My name's Clara. What's yours?"

      Jason stared at her hand raised in front of him like it was something poisonous. What the hell is with this girl? "Why would I want to tell you that?!" he spat. "What are you, ten?"

      "I'm thirteen," Clara replied, looking only slightly offended. Apparently she was used to people thinking she was younger than she was. Clara lowered her hand back down when it became apparent Jason wasn't going to shake it. "And usually the first thing people like to know about someone when they meet them for the first time is their name."

      "I don't give a crap about what other people like to know. I don't know if you can tell or not, but I don't like talking to people. And usually people don't like talking to me." On the word usually, Jason quickly glanced at Clara, but then stared back down at the ground. "The only person who's coming to talk to me is some police woman. Sky or whatever her name is."

      Clara raised her eyebrows. "Well that's something, isn't it?"

      "Why should it be? Besides, she's only doing it because her boyfriend told her to." Jason smirked. "She's stuck in a job she hates because of him. Sucks for her, I guess!" He leaned back against the wall once again after returning his Fearow to a pokeball.

      "Yeah, that is sad," Clara replied, staring at Jason wonderingly. She turned around, but looked back over her shoulder at him. "Well, I guess I'll go now and leave you in peace. But it was nice meeting you!" she exclaimed with another smile. Waving goodbye, she ran towards the direction she came from, her footsteps drifting off into the distance.

      "What was that?" Jason muttered to himself, long after Clara was out of sight. *****************************************************

   ;    Sky collapsed into a leather chair with heaving breaths, her heart still thudding quickly from running. She had only just barely made it to the meeting room in time. Small black tables all faced a large projection screen, and the room was dark so that it could be seen more clearly. As Sky adjusted her uniform slightly, the talk amongst the other officers in the room sitting at the tables quickly died down as the few lights that had been still be on turned off, leaving the screen towards the front as the only source of light. Sky straightened up in her chair, staring intently at the screen. She was just barely able to resist lying her head down on the cold jet-black surface of the table to let sleep take her over once more.

      A live image of their boss's face - a stern-looking middle aged man with slightly graying light-brown hair - appeared on the screen. Once the image was clear, he began to speak to the officers, welcoming them to the meeting, going on about the importance of their roles. Sky was only truly listening for the first two minutes until her mind wandered off. She was no longer staring at the screen. Instead, she was gazing through the screen, imagining running, leaping, flying, tossing a pokeball into the air...

      Sky snapped back into attention in reaction to a name spoken for the first time during that meeting from their boss's lips. "Crescent." Sky leaned forward to rest her elbows on the table and her head on her fists as her thoughts intensified. "As you all know, a select choice of you have been assigned to try to put an end to this new criminal organization," the man told them. Had he already mentioned it during the meeting? Sky silently cursed herself for not paying more attention. "Well, now I believe a responsible action would be to assign even more of you to this task. I'm disappointed to admit we have not made much progress in extinguishing this organization, and it has only grown stronger since we came to know of them. Or should I say, him or her. We don't know the identity of the leader of this organization, but from the organization's symbol of a blue crescent moon that you all have seen, we've dubbed the leader the name 'Crescent' for now."

      "For those of you who were not previously assigned to this task, arresting the leader and followers of this criminal organization has been one of our top priorities for a while now because they have proven much more aggressive and ill-moraled than Team Rocket, ultimately making them much more dangerous. While Team Rocket usually steals pokemon to perform illegal experiments on and sell them on the black market, Crescent's organization uses stolen pokemon to take over important government buildings and industries, often times in the form of killing."

      Sky's mind was clouded over with determination in the form of hatred. Someone on the ground, not breathing. Blood. A Scyther. Shouting, leaping. Sharp clanging of scythes. A cry that pierced the night. More blood. Someone else falling to the ground. Brown hair visible through the blood. No, it couldn't be... no, no, no...

      Sky's attention raced back to her boss's words. "This organization has grown too large. The only way to fully penetrate their defenses is to find and arrest the leader, whom we first must find the identity of. I will assign some of you to the task of using data to try to figure out Crescent's real identity."

      Sky had a philosophy on the ways of good and evil. But the only thing she could hear being shouted in her mind was, the enemy, the enemy, the enemy... That was a promise to James. As Sky closed her eyes and took a deep breath, she knew it was for him. *****************************************************

  & nbsp;   Sky dug her fork deep into her pork chop, twirling the handle of the fork slowly between her fingers. Only a few small bites off her plate had actually been eaten. Through her distance gaze through the plate, in the corner of her eye she could spot James across the table, staring at her intently. She looked up and into his eyes. He appeared to have been waiting for her.

      Once eye contact had finally been established, James spoke up. "There's something on your mind." It wasn't a question.

      Setting her fork down, Sky sighed. "Yeah, I was just thinking. Even if you don't love me, I'm still going to put an end to Crescent's organization." Her gaze turned soft. "For you."

      "And why wouldn't I love you?" he asked, no trace of amusement in his voice.

      Sky liked that James knew when she wanted to be serious. "Besides the obvious? Maybe because you're only in love with love itself. I don't know."

      Besides the obvious. James knew what she meant by that. Besides the fact that I wasn't able to protect you, he knew she had wanted to say. James could hear the guilt soaking in Sky's voice.

      But he also knew what she was trying to do. "You're trying to give me more reason to realize you don't deserve me. Don't. This isn't about what you do or don't deserve," James told her calmly.

      "But is it true?" Sky asked warily.

      "Which part?"

      "Any of it."

      James didn't answer. He only gazed at Sky with longing. Longing for her guilt to vanish, longing for her to have the satisfaction of completing her task, longing for her to feel happy. But James searched desperately inside himself for the longing for her.

      James's observations inside himself were interrupted by the shrill ringing of Sky's cellphone. "Just a moment," she murmured, quickly flipping out her phone. James was used to her frequently getting calls from police officers even when her shifts were over. She held it to her face. James watched her sullen expression turn into a surprised one. "Really? Yeah. Uh-huh. Okay." Sky glanced over at James for a moment. "I'll have to talk to you about it in person. Should I come over? Alright. Bye," she finished, turning off her cellphone and setting it carefully down on the table.

      "Who was that?" James asked.

      "Somebody I know," Sky replied simply. She stood up. "Sorry I couldn't finish the dinner, but I need to leave right away now."

      "Why?" James was surprised and curious. Even when the police called Sky after her work was done, she usually didn't have to go anywhere.

      "For something important. No time to explain now." Sky gave him a quick kiss on the cheek as she quickly walked past him and towards the front door of his house. She paused to take her jacket off the coat hanger and quickly shoved her arms through the sleeves. Sky opened the door to a sudden gust of wind and glanced over her shoulder at James one last time. "Bye!" she told him, before turning her head forwards once more and shutting the door closed behind her.

      James was left still sitting in his chair, gazing at the closed door. He was only too used to Sky's sudden disappearances. He sighed, gazing back down at his half-eaten pork chop, and the almost completely uneaten one on Sky's plate across from him. He was only faintly aware of her cellphone still left on the table. Is any of it true? James asked himself.

      Even he wasn't quite sure.