The Secret of Celadon

It had been a whole day since Akio had entered Celadon City. Sierra had took him shopping at the Celadon Shopping Center, though he wasn't one for big stores. He was able to get many things for his Pokemon, however, helping them to grow even stronger. Akio had attempted to go into the Celadon Gym, but it seemed to be closed for the time being. With that done, Akio had rested the night in an INN within the city. It was now the next day.

Akio woke up with a yawn. His Pokemon were all out of their balls in various areas of the bed. He smiled as he looked at them all. His Pikachu, Light, his Fearow, Spearhead, His Wartortle, Aqua, his Vulpix, Tails, and the newest member a Gastly he had named Specter. Akio gave a loud whistle in order to wake everyone up. Most of them jumped up with joyful energy, while Specter had seemed to want to sleep more. "Oh, come on, Specter," he said as he walked over to the gas Pokemon. "We've got a whole day of seeing what's around. Sierra should be here any minute too." The Pokemon seemed unwilling, but did rise and beginn floating into the air to show it was awake.

A whole day has passed...leaving a tired, battered, and confused Zeiro just entering the city of Celedon. In his arms he held his Nidoran Male - a rather unconcious, sickly, and bruised pokemon. After the little tournament on the S.S. Aqua, the ship started to move, leaving him in a state of confusion. Soon, he was assaulted by many rockets and pokemon. He spent all the way till nightfall fighting them and spent the rest of the time from then to now heading to Celedon City. If he were to stay in Vermillion, they would surely track him down with ease. The pokemon center was closed and the way to Saffron was blocked. He arrived at Cerulean, but he wanted to stay as far away from this place as possible. Lavender town gave him an unsettling feeling.

He sighed as he started walking again. Many people were staring at him. AFter all, what would you do if you saw a tattered trainer covered in dry blood. Normally, one would ask if he needed any help, but they all simply stared. Zeiro grunted as he contineud, trying to locate teh Pokemon Center.

"Morning~!" Calledo ut Siera as her head popped out onto his shoulder. "Did you check out the gym yet?"

Near the Pokemon Center, a man dressed in black clothing was carrying a box. He seemed to be going to the Game Corner and no one seemed to be questioning it at all. It was a strange thing, but apparently common for this place.

Akio turned to her and blinked lightly. "Oh, well I did but it seems to be closed off," Akio said before giving a light sigh. "Its probably for the best though. Having everyone fight after what happened in Lavender Town wouldn't be right. I'm glad they got some time to rest."

Zeiro's eye twitched at the sight of the man in black. His gaze followed him until the man disappeared into the game corner. After a mental debate, he sighed as he tosses a pokeball, revealing his Bulbasaur. Teh grass pokemon blinked with a worried face. Sure he had a few scars, but nothing compared to his trainer and friend.

"Ivysaur, I need you to take Nidoran to a pokemon Center." He said as he put the purple pokemon in Ivysaur's vines. "I can't let him out of my sights, but I dont want to drag him into this..." Before the bulb pokemon could protest, his trainer dashed away and into the arcade known as the game corner. With a sigh, Ivysaur's vines wrapped gently around Nidoran before he started to run off in an attempt to find a pokemon center.

"Rest is always important." Sierra said with a smile which soon died away. "I'm just hoping you'll get some rest..."

Near the game corner, a man walked out slowly, looking completely down and glum. He grabbed onto Zeiro's shirt and said, "The slots... they take everything from ya! You try to get out, but they're so addictive! I wanted a rare Pokemon as a prize, but I lost all my money trying... Kid, take my advice and don't go in there!"

Akio nodded lightly and replied to her by saying, "You don't have to worry about that. I got plenty of rest too. Besides, today I gotta get Brooke's Gyrados to the Pokemon Center and transport it. That Max guy made the Storage System, so he should be able to take it to her."

Zeiro was taken aback by the random man, his eyes widening at his words. "Slots...? Damn...Gambling." he hissed under his breath, shsaking his head and giving the man a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "Don't worry. Sltos and I don't really work out together anyways." With that said, he walked pass the man and entered the Game Corner.

Siera tilts her head before grinning. "That's the spirit! Although I'm sure this Brooke kid doesn't mind a few more minutes...why not take a walk through Celedon?"

AT that instant, Akio's door flew open, revealing a now worn out Ivysaur. With the grass poekmon constantly trying to dodge out of the sights of the various black men he was seeing, he found Akio's scent and ran towards the young boy, findhimg in in his room and utterly tired. Ivysaur collaspes onto the floor and its vines released the badly injured nidoran.

Inside, the staff seemed to all be wearing black uniforms. Everyone inside was glued to their seats and playing the slots. Anyone who wasn't was at the front counter, using their money to get coins. Inside, a smiling man greeted Zeiro and said, "Welcome to the Celadon Relief Game Corner. We welcome everyone from all ages to come and try our wonderful games! If you win enough coins, you can exchange them for a rare Pokemon like Eevee, the Evolution Pokemon!"

Akio looked down and saw the familiar Bulb Pokemon on the ground with a purple friend. He rushed to the Pokemon and said, "Bulbasaur! What happened? Is Zeiro hurt like this too?!" He rose up quickly and said, "Sierra, help me get these two to a Pokemon Center! We've gotta hurry!"

"Uhhh...maybe next time..." He muttered as Zeiro waves his hand off to the man as he glances around. His eye twitched in annoyance with how people were obesesing over this.

Siera gasped and rushed to the two pokemon. Ivysaur managed to catch its breath, shaking before grabbing Nidoran with its vines and handint it to Siera before walking up to Akio and tilting its head. "Ivy?" UUnlike Nidoran, Ivysaur was barely hurt minus few scratches.

Near the back, there was a man standing in the corner, not appearing to be doing anything. The smiling man continued his cheerful tone as he said, "Are you sure? All you need is a Coin Case to hold all your winnings. It's even provided at the shop next door. Unfortunately, you won't be allowed to stay long if you don't intend on purchasing a Coin Case."

Akio smiled lightly to Bulbasaur, seeing now that he was closer to it that it wasn't as harmed as it seemed. He had no way to know what the Pokemon wanted, though. He stood up and said, "Can you take me to where Zeiro is? I got a feeling he's in trouble again if you came all this way to find me."

Zeiro growled under his breath, his eye noticably twitching in annoyance before forcing a smile. "Are you sure I can't just get a coin case here or something? Besides, i won't be here for long...A friend of mine dropped something here. He went off to train so I was going ot look for it. Can't you cut me some slack?" He then direct the man's attention to his clothes. "I mean...I walked all the way here from Vermillion with no sleep for over 10 hours due to a situation...and this thing is really important to my friend." God...Zeiro hopes the twitching of his fake smile wasn't noticable.

"Saur!!" Ivysaur siad, frowning before pushing Akio's leg as if to say no. "Ivy Ivysaur!!!" He nods his head tot he Nidoran in Siera's arms. Nidoran's breathing grew ever so weaker, give or take a few coughs.

The man looked at Zeiro, noticing his twitch and fake smile, but when he said he'd come from Vermillion City, he thought that it must be the reason he seemed annoyed. Annoying a potential customer would be bad for business, especially if he made a scene. "Very well then..." he said lightly. "I need you to come back in ten minutes then. If not, I'll nave to have security come and find you. I'm sorry, but that's the rules."

Akio looked down at him and said, "My friend Sierra here has Nidoran and I know she'll take good care of him and get him to the Center while we go to help Zeiro. Also, she can bring him back. I know Zeiro enough to know he'll go rush in no matter how hurt he is, so we need to help him. You want to as well, right?"

"Thank you very much." He said before rushing off behind a few slots, pretending he was loooking for something. He glances up at the man who was standing against the wall doing nothing. Raising an eyebrow, he sidled closer to the point he could hear anything strange.

Bulbasaur looked down on the ground. OF course he wanted to help his trainer, but his trainer wouldn't want Akio involved. Shaking his head, he tries to push Akio back further, even biting on his pants to prevent him from moving.

"Well now...I better get this fella to a pokemon center." Sierra said, cuddling the Nidoran. "You two be careful!"with that said, she dashed out of Akio's room.

Near the man that wasn't doing anything, faint talking could be heard. "Is the Eevee responding as expected?" one of them said. "It seems we can't induce the evolution, but the data will be perfect for Project Mewtwo," a different voice said. "Two Leaders are here to observe, so we can't let anything happen. I heard the trainer from Lavender Town is here. That was gonna be our base." "Yeah, that kid with the red outfit's gonna pay if he shows up here."

Akio picked up Bulbasaur with his hands, holding him with a grin and said, "There you go. Its all taken care of. Now if you won't tell me where Zeiro is, I'll go find him myself!" Holding onto Bulbasaur, he dashed out of the room with his backpack still in the room, meaning he had no items with him.

Zeiro narrowed his eyes at the voices, poking his head out to hear more clearly. ~Eevee...? Evolution? Mewtwo?~ He thought. There were too many questions to ask.

"Looks like there's a pest here..."

His eyes widen at a rough, deep voice behind him before he felt a jolt of electricity hit him, causing him to fall to the floor with a thud. A man behind him walks up and picks up Zeiro before walking over to the Rocket Grunt standing there for no reason.

"How many times do I have to tell you grunts...you're not suppose to be standing next to the item you're suppose to keep an eye on." He said with a grunt. "At any rate, open the door...the kid heard the two idiots behind the door. We can't let him loose."

The Grunt blinked ant looked at the boy. "S...Sorry boss. I didn't see him there," he said before he moved the poster out of the way and pressed a button underneath it. The wall next to it opened, behind the gaze of all those glued to the machines who could not notice. Inside was a dark laboratory area that held many Team Rocket members who weren't even trying to hide who they were.

At the doorway, a Vulpix was watching the events. It recognized the black uniforms and its eyes began to glow with a hint of anger. The fox Pokemon turned and rushed out the door, meeting up with Akio who wasn't far away. "You find anything, Tails?" Akio said, still holding the reluctant Ivysaur. (I remembered yesterday that Bulbasaur had evolved) The Fox nodded and started to dash towards the game corner with Akio not far behind.

The man just sighed as he walked in the doorway. He glances at the entrance and sees Tails running off. "...Go outside. I have a feeling that pest from Lavender Town and the Power Plant is here." With that said, he ducked away in the hidden entrance, pressing a button inside to close the wall door behind him. He made his way to the scientists in the room, glancing around. "How's the experiment going?"

Ivysaur let out a small sigh, cuddling itself in Akio's arms. He was really worried that something might have happened to his trainer.

The scientist turned to the male with a smile of respect and said, "Yes sir... Well, we've found quite a bit of interesting data. Through simulations, we've determined that the Pokemon Mewtwo that escaped last month will return to use when provided with an opponent worthy of facing its power. We have also determined that Eevee, the subject that was brought in not long ago, cannot become that opponent as it is now. Its ability to evolve into one of three elemental Pokemon is great, but once it evolves, it remains in that form for the rest of its life. If we could change its genetic coding, however, it may be able to revert back after evolving."

A woman with green hair and a flower Kimono walked into the area as well, grinning slightly as she said, "I've already given a lot of money to this program, you know. Are you saying you couldn't do that much with what was given?"

The man gulped and said, "That's... not what I meant, Lady Aki. Its more that... it will take time to do such a thing and... I wanted you to know beforehand..."

The grunt was outside, sighing lightly as he had already made a mess of things as he thought. All he could do was look out for a boy wearing red. As he waited, his eyes started to grow heavy. It was mere seconds before he had fallen asleep. Akio walked past quietly with a ball of floating gas near him. "Nice job, Specter," he said in a whisper as he went inside. "Okay Tails, where's Zeiro?"

"Hmph...thank you for the nuisance of closing down teh gym again, Aki." The man hissed, slightly glaring at the woman in front of him. "At any rate, we have more urgent matters to focus on." With that said, he tosses the dazed Zeiro, causing the boy to grunt in pain as tries to sit up. "This kid overheard you guys talking. Ironically enough, this looks like the same kid that made a mess of things back on the S.S. Anne."

Ivysaur looked around in slight confusion. Why would Zeiro be in a place like this. He struggled out of Akio's arms and walked around, tilting its head at the strange machines.

Aki sighed lightly as she moved to the nearest chair and sat down within it. She grinned at the male and said, "You do know that good help is hard to find within the team. Closing the gym allowed me to have an apprentice of mine go out and meet the red boy. Unfortunately, I haven't heard from her and I really can't contact her here since she doesn't know of my involvement in Team Rocket. All the same, I should be able to assess his power from the data we gathered at Lavender. As for this boy... he's revealed an interesting ability in the past. My men have seen it once or twice. Let us keep him locked up so my scientists can run some... tests."

Akio lost his grip of the stubborn Ivysaur as his Vulpix moved to the back. It pointed its nose at a poster. Akio started walking towards the poster, unaware that he wasn't meant to be there.

Ivysaur saw Akio and Vulpix looking at a poster and started to run after it. Suddenly, it's shadow grew bigger until purple hands reached out form under Ivysaur and grabbed teh grass pokemon. His eyes widen and he opened his mouth to cry out to Akio, but he was quickly dragged into the shadow and disappeared.

The man sighed, rolling his eyes. "Yes...keep the boy locked up in this room where the walls are so thin that he overherad these guys in the first place...that's a very smart idea." He turns around and looks at the hidden door. "Not only that, I believe that pest is here...saw a Vulpix run off earlier with a rather angry look in its eyes..."

Before he could continue, his shadow grew larger as the purple ghost pokemon, Gengar, appeared before him, holding on to Ivysaur.

"Ivysaur!" Zeiro cried out, stumbling to stand up only to wince in pain. "let him go!"

The young woman grinned and said, "If the boy is here, then let's open the door and give him a warm welcome. Unlike you, I'd rather take care of the problem before it gets any worse." She snapped her fingers once and called out, "Don't lay a finger on the red dressed boy until he's in the facility. Once he is, eliminate him with full force! Don't underestimate him because he's a child!"

Akio looked under the poster, seeing a button. He pressed it and the wall began to open next to him. His eyes widened as he began to see the facility open up right before his eyes. He turned to Vulpix and the area Ivysaur was suppose to be, noticing for the first time that the Pokemon was not there. "Wait, where did Ivysaur go? Did he run in as soon as the door opened?" Akio then turned to his own Pokemon, taking out its Pokeball and returning it inside along with his Gastly. "We can't have you guys out in the open in a place like this. Now, let's find Zeiro." With that said, he went down and into the facility.

Ivysaur was thrown into a cage in front of Zeiro's eyes. The woman grinned lightly and said, "Oh we will, but not before we rough it up a bit first. Executor!" She threw a Pokeball and a large pine tree with coconut-like heads appeared next to her. "Use Psychic on that Ivysaur for me..." The Pokemon's eyes started to glow and the seed Pokemon was hit with a powerful attack meant to destroy its mind.

As soon as he stepped inside the facility, the door slammed shut behind him. Almost immediately, a bunch of Persians started to jump on him with their claws extended

"NO!" Zeiro shouted, his eyes widening as Execcutor using Psychic. Ivysaur cried out, shaking its head as it tried to rid of the attack. "Stop! Leave him alone!" A flash of red light escaped one of his pokeballs as Pidgey flew out and repeatively used Peck on the grass pokemon.

Akio glared at the Persian all before him as he moved his hand to his back. "Didn't think it'd be easy..." he said lightly to himself. "Light, use Thunder Wave!" he called out as he tossed a Pokeball. His Pikachu emerged, sending waves of electricity out at ll the Pokemon to stop their movements. "Fighting you guys would take too long, so could you just wait here?"

The young woman then moved her hands quickly, the Executor left the field into its ball and flower-like Pokemon took its place. "Vileflume, use Stun Spore..." she called out as if she wasn't phased at all. The Pokemon closed its eyes and spewed out a large amount of yellow power in Pidgey's direction. "Nice try, young trainer, but that Pidgey is far too weak to withstand my Vileflume's status attacks." She then snapped her fingers and the boy was released. "If you care for your Ivysaur so much, run to it and heal it. I've heard that you have the ability. If you don't, I may send Executor out again. I wonder if the poor thing's mind can take another Psychic attack."

A few of them stop dead in their tracks, unable to move. However, two remain with their gaze fixed on Akio and Light. They both shot out to the trainer and pokemon, one slashing down with claws while another opens its mouth to bite.

"Tch!" Zeiro glared up at Aki as he was released. Glancing from her to his paralyzed Pidgey (who was trying to peck at Vileplume) and finally to his injured Ivysaur, he cursed under his breath before staggering up and running off to Ivysaur, holding the grass pokemon in his arms.

"S-Saur!!" Ivysaur protested, trying to struggle out of his trainer's grip.

"I don't want to do this...but I don't want to see you hurt." Zeiro tried to calm his pokemon as he closes his eyes. A small aura surrounded the two as Ivysaur started to heal.

"Thunderbolt!" Akio called out as the remaining two were met with a powerful bolt of Lightning that branched from one of them and moved to hit the other as well. "Persian are known for speed, but Thunder Wave slowed them down. I hope that's it..." he said as he looked around to see if there was more.

"Begin collecting data," Aki called out as she saw the aura around them both. She grinned as the scientists all had portable scanners decoding the energy and attempting to figure out where it came from. "Good boy. Now we'll just need you to keep that long enough for us to get the data we need. A skill to heal Pokemon without a machine is quite useful. If we had it, our Pokemon could fight indefinitely. And its all thanks to you, little boy."