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Post by Ninja on Jan 25, 2008 16:26:21 GMT -5
Arc tread the path in a jovial mood. It was nice to finally be out of the gloomy tower, with all of the crazed spirits lurking about. He felt bad for leaving Ryu behind like that, but he was pretty sure Ryu could handle it. He did have some pretty strong pokemon, after all. It was still nighttime, so the stars were out, like sequins covering the sky. There were some bug pokemon out, like caterpie, weedle, wurmple, and even a couple of metapods, kakunas, silcoon and cascoon out hanging from the arboreal foliage. It certainly was idyllic.
Upon arriving at the gate to Saffron about an hour later, Arc noticed that a sign was posted right outside of the entrance. Emblazoned upon the surface of the sign, in bright red letters were the words "CLOSED, sorry for the inconvenience". "Awwww, what a bummer. I was hoping to see what Saffron was like....oh well...." He turned around and noticed a small structure a few yards away. Yet another sign out in front of this one. "UNDERGROUND TUNNEL, Lavender Town to Celadon City"
"Well, might as well go for Celadon if I can't get to Saffron! Tiedro, Pippin, over here!"
A while later, the three emerged on the route just to the west of celadon. "Wasn't that awesome? I could run around in that tunnel all day! Look! We're really close to Celadon now." Some of the buildings were practically fully in view.
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Post by Ninja on Jan 25, 2008 18:29:14 GMT -5
The three wandered into town, taking in the view. Celadon was a very large city indeed! To the immediate right there was a pokecenter and a pokemart, along with a couple of smaller houses. Arc kept walking, however, until he came to the famous Celadon Department Store!
"Heh, I've not much cash, but I guess that I could do some shopping." He entered one of the double doors and went up the escalator to a floor with some healing items. He bought a couple of potions and a revive, and then continued to the next floor. Here was a man selling miscellaneous items. He showed Arc his stock. "Hmmmmm, I dont have very much money left......I guess I'll just take a water stone then." He paid the man most of his remaining money and left the Dept. Store.
"Well, what do you two want to do next?" Tiedro and Pippin each gave little shouts of joy and gestured over to the games corner. "Hmmmmm, okay, but I'm gonna need a place to keep the coins."
They entered, and Arc went over to the counter and asked if they had any extra coin cases. "Yes, but they cost 300 pokedollars for one." Arc looked at the petty cash he had in his pack. "Uhhhh, I guess I don't have enough money for one then...." He wandered over to a poster, and asked Tiedro and Pippin what they wanted to do instead of gaming. Out of seemingly nowhere, a strange man walked up to Arc. "Hey kid, I hear you need a coin case. I just happen to have a spare one on me. Here, take it, go nuts. But stop loitering around here." "Gee, thanks! Come on guys, lets go!"
Arc managed to get some coins from a couple of amiable people, and so he started looking for a machine. The corner was pretty full today, and there was only one machine available. He sat down, and then noticed that there was an "out of order" sign above the machine. "Awwww, sorry guys, looks like there are no other machines left...." Tiedro sulked around sadly, but Pippin didn't seem to know what was happening. She took a coin from Arc's case and popped it into the machine. "Pippin! It's not gonna work! You've just wasted one of our coins!" Pippin looked sheepishly at Arc, and then at the machine, which had begun to light up. "Huh? It's supposed to be out of order though...."
The wheels spun, round, round, round they went. The first one slowed, and then stopped, followed closely by the second, and then the third. Right across the middle was a win! "Three "R's" huh, I wonder what we won?" There was a clinking noise, and suddenly the machine spit out a key into the prize tray. "A.....key? What do we do with this?" There was also a faint sound, it seemed to be coming from where the posters were. Arc looked around. Everybody was too consumed with gaming to be pay attention to him, and they hadn't been distracted by the noise. He wandered over to the posters, beckoning Tiedro and Pippin to come along. He looked around, and noticed that a new poster was hanging on the wall. Closer examination revealed that it was not a poster at all, but a door cleverly disguied as one! There was a lock barely visible that gave it away. Arc looked at the key in his hand, pushed it in the lock, and gave it a twist. Click! The door unlocked and slid open. He peered around to make sure no one was watching and entered the passage. The door closed with a dull "thunk!"
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Post by Ninja on Jan 25, 2008 18:50:53 GMT -5
Darkness....."Well, this is just great....!" The lights turned on to reveal that the passage was a hallway, and led to a staircase that went down. There were some potted plants along the sides of the hall, but they didn't improve the connotation of the place. "This place stinks of corruption....." Arc said. When he wandered out into the dome like room with the staircase, he found out why. Looking up at the ceiling, Arc spotted a large "R" painted across the dome. "Of course! Why didn't I recognize it? Those were Rocket "R's" on the slot machine! This must be one of their hideouts!" Arc's own words suddenly dawned upon him, and he realized that he shouldn't be shouting in a place like this. "Someone must be here if the lights came on..." he thought.
"But why would Rockets have a hideout in a game corner?" he thought, "Bah, doesn't really matter, something's going on here, I can feel it!" He quietly descended the stairs, realizing that he had more stealth than he gave himself credit for. Here was a larger room, with small walls built all across it. Arc could tell it was large because the walls didn't extend all the way to the ceiling, but were high enough so that a person couldn't climb them. From his viewpoint he could see over the closest walls, and the room extended a long way back.
"Great, a labyrinth.....just what I needed!" he said sarcastically, but quietly to himself. He entered the maze, turned a corner, and ran straight into a Rocket! Luckily for him, the Rocket moved his hand to his face and closed his eyes. "Ow! Hey! What....was.......tha......for.......zzzzzzz" Whilst the Rocket was distracted, Arc had ordered Tiedro to use Hypnosis on him. "I guess that move is always useful!" he thought to himself. It was a relatively short Rocket, about Arc's size. "Hmmmmmmm....."
In a couple of minutes, Arc walked out from behind the staircase, where he had stored the sleeping grunt. "Geez, these clothes are itchy..." In a rather cliche manner, Arc had stolen the Rocket's clothes and was now disguised as one. "This should make things easier...."
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Post by Ninja on Jan 25, 2008 19:15:02 GMT -5
He wandered throughout the maze, relieved on the inside that he had not met up with any more Rockets, at least not yet. He didn't think he made a very good Rocket, even if he did have a disguise.
Suddenly, around the corner came a grunt! "Hey! What are you doin'?" Arc hesitated. His cover was blown already?! "This is my patrol area! Stay outta here!" "Phew...." thought Arc. He saw an opportunity. In the deepest voice he could muster, he answered the Rocket. "Ugh, it's this darn maze! It's so hard to tell where you're going! It'll be a wonder if I'm anywhere near my patrol area!" The grunt looked strangely at Arc. "You sure do talk funny....." Yikes! Arc decided to start acting a bit dumber, to fit in. "Yeh, I only heard it from da boss, 'e was mumblin' summat about this darn maze.....well, I need d'recshuns then. How can I git to the end?" He waited a while for the grunt to determine where they were. "Hmmmm, well, I think ya just keep goin down this passage, it should take ya to the elevator." Arc was about to thank the Rocket, but he didn't think that Rockets were very "thankful" people, and he didn't want his cover blown. "Yeah yeah, I knew tha' all along! I was jus' testin' yew." He walked down the passage that the grunt had indicated. "Wow! That actually worked! I guess I overestimated the intelligence of these lower status guard grunts....."
Pretty soon Arc reached the end of the maze, and he came out into a small room with an elevator, just as the grunt had mentioned. He called it and stepped inside. The elevator only had one button, B3. Arc pressed it eagerly.
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Post by Ninja on Jan 25, 2008 19:49:27 GMT -5
The elevator door opened with a "ding!". He quickly and stealthily left the elevator. Arc had a feeling that even grunts weren't allowed everywhere inside the base. He peeked around a corner and saw two Rocket admins holding a conversation. One was obviously male, and the other female. It seemed the female was doubting the actions of team rocket. He listened intently, trying to pick up clues.
"But this thing is so powerful....I just don't see how the boss can control it." "Relax, Geovanni has everything under control. As soon as the recon group comes back with that old man, we'll have all the information we need. And we'll surely be rewarded greatly! Hahahahahahah!" "He has obviously not learned of what happened with Mr.Fuji in Lavender Town....." thought Arc. "Well, I for one think that this Mewthree thing is overkill. Why can't we just capture the other one and use that one instead?" "Because my dear, Mewthree is of course much more powerful than Mewtwo. In fact, it's practically the only thing that can beat Mewtwo. And naturally, if we have no use for Mewtwo, then we will do away with it." "You mean, kill it?" "Precisely. At least, I believe that those are Geovanni's intentions. If mewtwo were to go against Team Rocket, who knows how much destruction it could cause? But, with Mewthree on our side, we could easily remove that and any other hindrances from our plan!" Here the male stopped to laugh evilly, and Arc winced at the horrible sound.
Realizing that it was time to be getting out of there, Arc stepped away from the wall, but not before knocking over one of the tacky pots with the plants in them. It fell to the floor and broke instantly. "Crap!" Arc swore, and then quickly covered his mouth. The two Rockets came running around the corner, hands on their pokeballs. "Who goes there? What is your name, grunt?" asked the male admin. Arc stutterd and mumbled something unintelligible, while thinking of a false name. "Speak up!" the female one yelled at him. An ingeinous name came to Arc's mind, and not a moment too soon. "Butch, ma'am!" but with his adrenaline racing, he had forgotten to make his voice deep. "You're no Rocket!" "Yipes!" Arc grabbed his two pokemon and sped past the two admins. He took a left turn and found himself being propelled along a moving conveyor belt. He sprinted across it, and came to a side passage, also a conveyor belt "Geez, these people sure do have some sort of obsession with mazes....." Yells came from behind, and he sped along the side passage. The Rockets had released their pokemon by now, and they had also called for reinforcements. He could hear the houndoom (pl) and mightyena (also pl) searching for him. It wouldn't be long now......
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Post by Ninja on Jan 25, 2008 20:17:27 GMT -5
"Heh, some "non-adventurer" I turned out to be......" the thought flashed through Arc's mind like a speeding bullet. He turned and sprinted down yet another conveyor passage. What he really needed right now was a hiding place, somewhere that the Rockets couldn't find him. "Woah, woah, wait a sec...." he paused in his run. Just around a corner, Arc could hear one of the dog pokemon searching for him, sniffing intently. It seemed to grow exited, and started heralding the Rockets!
Arc quickly looked around, and discovered a small passage that seemed to be a dead end. He ran into it. At least he could surprise the Rockets when they came for him. But how long would he be able to fend them off? He rapidly began looking for a form of concealment. As he glanced to the ceiling, an idea came to him. "Pippin, use metronome!"
Suddenly, A flamethrower erupted from the side passage, and upon hitting the opposite wall, split and spread down the conveyor passage both ways. "Yes! My luck still hasn't run out yet!" Arc thought to himself. He then quickly snatched up Pippin and Tiedro and went into hiding....
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Post by Ninja on Jan 25, 2008 20:48:28 GMT -5
Flames erupted from the path in front of the Rockets and their pokemon, who had to backtrack to avoid being toasted.
By the time the Rockets arrived around the corner, Arc had completely vanished. Even the hounds couldn't detect a trace of him anymore. There were scorchmarks for a couple of feet on the passage wall, but nothing else to be found. The Rocket admins made their orders known. "Find him, capture him, and bring him to us! The one who does will be rewarded! And as for those who don't succeed, there'll be hell to pay!" This sent the Rockets scrambling all over their base, scouring every nook and cranny searching for Arc.
Arc was still overcome with himself at how that had worked so well! Granted, now he was stuck in an airshaft in the Rocket base, but the shaft probably led outside anyways. It was barely big enough for him, much like the hole Pippin had dug back in the cave. "Nice job Pippin, flamethrower was exactly the kind of distraction I was looking for! Of course, Hyper Beam would have been nice....but oh well." He kept his voice to a whisper. Now he knew some of the Rocket Plan, but what to do about it? He suddenly realized that he had no idea where Geovanni's HQ was. "Darnit! I should have asked Ryu when I had the chance! Now I have to extricate the location from somewhere inside the base.....but how? I'm currently at the top of the Rocket most wanted list! Well, maybe after Mr.Fuji." Arc thought for a while at how he could get the whereabouts of Geovanni's hideout without being captured. He decided to see where the airshaft led. It might even help his predicament.
Arc crawled along the shaft, and even though it was an air shaft, it had a stifling feeling to it. But now wasn't the time to be claustraphobic, he had to think of something. There was a vent in the air shaft ahead, much like the one from which he had entered. He peered down it. Below, a couple of grunts were frantically searching for him. Arc could barely keep from laughing, he had to jam his fist against his mouth to keep quiet. "Hey, you 'ear sometin?" That shut up Arc's chuckling in a heartbeat. "Stop lissenin' an start searchin, ya idjit!" Relieved, Arc thought of something. Maybe he could use his position to his advantage......he couldn't be too obvious though, or they would figure out he was in the air shaft. He let out a soft moaning noise, which was slightly echo'ed (lol the site keeps turning words with 'oe' in them into different words >_<) by the vent. Beneath him, the Rockets stood stock still. Another moan, this time a bit louder, sent them scurrying.
He continued on down the air shaft, shouting eerie noises at every vent he could find. After he had scared quite a few Rockets, he decided to become subtle once again. If he overdid it, surely they would find him. Meanwhile, the scared grunts were probably spreading rumors about how the place was haunted. This notion gave Arc yet another, even better idea!
He found a couple more vents and starting imitating the cry of Cubone and Marowak from the shaft. He had figured that this group was the one that had murdered the Marowak he had seen at the tower, along with its children.
The effect was wonderful! Within minutes, there was widespread paranoia and panic among the Rocket ranks, including some of the admins themselves. "Good, now to find out what I need to know.....surely I could persuade one of the admins to let me in on the secret....."
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Post by Ninja on Jan 25, 2008 22:25:14 GMT -5
Arc continued crawling along the cramped air shaft ("Man, this thing goes on forever...") until he found an important looking room. It seemed to be an Admin lounge. And guess who was there! That's right, Crazy and Crazier. The two admins whom he had had the misfortune of meeting were discussing the current situation in businesslike tones. Crazier was on a cell phone of some sort. When he hung up, Arc couldn't help but wonder how in the world he got reception down here.
"I've just gotten word, our grunts couldn't capture old man Fuji back in Lavender!" He grabbed a nearby object, which happened to be a small statuette ("How vain are these Rockets?!?") and flung it across the room in fury. It collided against the wall and was dashed into a million tiny pieces. "And just guess who the culprit is?!?!" "That little nuisance?!" "Yes! We must capture him before he escapes and thwarts our plans! They also said he was in league with someone from the Pokemon Association!" "Ugh! That just makes matters all the more worse for us! If he gets out and then Geovanni gets word, we could lose our jobs, or worse, our lives!" "Yes yes, true, but he still doesn't know the vital part of our plan. The most crucial aspect.....surely he cannot do much harm. Even if we don't have that old man! MUHAHAHAHAH!" Again, Arc winced at the insane admin's laugh. "Come on, come on, crucial aspect.....say it already!" He thought. He released his pokemon silently and continued looking below. "Stay still and don't make a single noise now, guys."
The conversation below had turned heated with excitement. They were planning what to do with Arc once they had caught him. Crazier started the conversation. "However, if we did manage to catch the boy, then Geovanni would promote us to Co-Admins! I heard that Sage turned traitor and her position needs filling." "Imagine! Us! Co-admins!" "Hahahahahah! That idea truly is phenomenal, but you do realize that there can only be one Co-admin, right?" "Hunh? Then which of us will it be?" "Or course, it would be me, due to your tragic death whilst we were battling that brat!" The female Rocket Admin had no time to react or escape, she was dead in an instant from the knife that had flown straight and true from the Male Admin's hand. She fell to the floor, blood seeping from her chest wound, where the knife had gone straight through her heart.
Upon seeing this, Arc almost retched in horror. But that wouldn't do. If he was going to get out alive then he needed the element of surprise.
"Grrrrrr, if only that boy were here right now!" Arc could think of no better time for a surprise guest appearance than this one. He decided it was time to "drop in". "You called?" In a twist of fate, the Male Admin also had no time to react as Arc began his assault. "Tiedro, Bubblebeam! Pippin, Metronome!" A jet of bubbles was loosed upon the Male Admin, who staggered backwards and fell to the floor, while simultaneously releasing his pokemon. "Go, Rhydon!"
Pippin's Metronome finished as soon as the Rhydon was out of its pokeball. It seemed to be tightening its focus.....Arc saw the opportunity. "Tiedro, shield Pippin!" Rhydon loomed up towards Pippin, as sinister as darkness. "Rhydon, Hammer Arm!" Rhydon began lifting its arm in the air, ready to strike whilst Tiedro ran in front of Pippin, determined to protect her. The arm fell, propelled by brute force onto Tiedro. "Tiedro! No!" Arc ran over to Tiedro and fell to his knees. He grabbed the little pokemon and embraced him tightly, while hot tears poured from his soft green eyes. "Tiedro, don't go!" "Rhydon, finish them off! All of them!" The Rhydon again lifted its gigantic arm, and prepared to fell all of them with a single blow. Arc was still embracing Tiedro when Tiedro's eyes slowly peeped open "Poli........Poliiiiii!" He began to glow vigorously, the blinding light caused both Rhydon and the Admin to shield their eyes. Their very souls of darkness could not stand the light that they beheld. Soon the dazzling show had come to a finale. "Poli!" Tiedro's voice was a bit deeper now, and he also had legs and arms, too! Immediately, Arc took action. "Tiedro, fend off the Rhydon with Bubblebeam and Body Slam! We need to protect Pippin!" Tiedro was now more nimble than before as a result of his new legs, and he took advantage of this by running around and around the Rhydon. The gargantuan beast could not keep up with Tiedro, and when it had become tired, Tiedro loosed his bubblebeam. Whilst it tried shaking off the hit, Tiedro gave it no mercy. He full-body slammed the Rhydon which caused it to lose its balance and tip over.
Meanwhile, when Crazier was yelling at Rhydon to "get back up and give them the beating of a lifetime", Pippin had reached total concentration, a small nirvana, if you will. It ran forward, leapt gracefully in the air, and plummeted down with its fist upon Rhydon's torso.
The "poor creature" never stood a chance.
Without his pokemon to back him up, the Admin fell apart. Arc, Tiedro, and Pippin casually strut over to where he was. Arc grabbed him by the collar of his uniform and demanded answers. "Where are Geovanni's headquarters?" The stunned Rocket opened his mouth, but all that came out was gibberish. "I'll ask you again, where are Geovanni's headquarters located?" "I'll....I'll never tell you!" "One last chance.....Where is Geovanni!?!?!?!" "Alright! Alright! Last time I heard he was in Cerulean City. He may have moved by then." "What? He may have moved since then? Give me a certain answer! Now!" The Rocket just stuttered and fainted on the spot. "Tiedro, make sure he doesn't wake up anytime soon." "Poli!" Tiedro's Hypnosis breached the Admin's mind, even in his unconscious state.
"Whew....maybe I got a bit too enthusiastic back there....I must admit, I surprised even myself....." "Fairy!" "Poli!" "Yeah, lets get out of here."
After a couple of hours spent wandering the mazes of the now abandoned Rocket Base, they finally found the staircase leading up to the entrance. Arc leaned against the concealed doorway, and realized that he must have been down in the hideout for at least a day. It was silent outside, meaning it was now night of the day after he had entered the base. He opened the door, making sure that the key was left on the other side before he closed it again.
"Now, how to get to Cerulean?"
(continued in "Rocket HQ")
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