Automatic Freestyle

Iain sat on the bus, his seat was uncomfortable and the package he had to deliver was heavy (he wondered what could weigh so much). The 3 hour journey to Cherrygrove was gonna be slow and painful. He looked out of the window at the forest just on the border of Violet city and he wondered what pokemon were lurking amongst them.

Iain let out a deep sigh, his parents insisted that he put all his time into the family business and he had no time to become a trainer, he thought that owning a pokemon would be cruel as he would be unable to devote any attention to it, he barely had time to turn round let alone do anything else.

The journey was half way done now anyway, one quick stop at Violet city and then straight to Cherrygrove. As Iain was stretching his legs however pacing back and forth in front of the pokemon centre a rustling came from the bushes just to his right, and slowly emerging from the cover of the foliage crawled a Larvitar. Iain was amazed he had read about Larvitar and how they were a mountain dwelling pokemon which also baffled him as to what it was doing in the middle of a city.

No sooner had he thought this, then he notice the Larvitar was not its usual colour either. Larvitars were usually a deep green colour, this one however was orange, more like the colour of a Charmander. The Larvitar suddenly turned to look at Iain, made direct eye contact and then continued on its way.

Iain stared after the Larvitar as it disappeared out of view through the hedges on the other side of the road. He was so busy gawping after the Larvitar he almost missed he bus. As he returned to his seat he noticed the person in the seat behind him had changed, he couldn't see the persons face but so he was unaware of the persons age or gender all he could make out was a large red letter "R" on the front of the persons jacket. The person gave him an uneasy feeling. He recognized the "R" some thing that happened 3 years ago in the Kanto Region but he couldn't remember so he pushed it from his mind and tried to bare the rest of the uncomfortable trip to Cherrygrove, tracing his finger round the initials of the person for which the large box was intended... "Mr S.O."

The young man sat behind Iain lifted his head from his sulk to show anyone looking that there was a face underneath that mess of brown spiky hair.
Dante’s Team Rocket shirt was clearly on display, he began to wonder if taking his demin jacket off (which at least hid the large red ‘R’ a bit) was a good idea… but it was so hot and stuffy on the bus he argued to himself. Besides, he had been assured that most of the Johto region was unwise to who Team Rocket were. Dante wondered about this again. It’d be silly to think no one knew of the evil organisation here though especially after so much media attention due to their actions in Kanto.
He sighed and decided to cast it to the back of his mind, he had bigger worries at the moment.

“Crud,” he mumbled quietly to himself as he looked out the window, expecting to be heading down a different route; “I think I’m on the wrong bus again.”
“Piiiiiii,” grumbled an unimpressed yellow pichu with a spiky tuff of fur upon its head.
Dante looked down to the small pichu that was on the seat next to him, curled up on his blue demin jacket; “I know, I know, give me a break.”
The pichu’s electrical sacs crackled a little, it was obviously unimpressed that it’s owner had once again got them lost. The longest the journey to Johto should have been was two days, three tops, but with Dante’s sense of direction they were already two weeks behind schedule (how he wound up in Orre for a day no one will know). The only option was to at least make it to the correct town for the meet-up with his new partner and hope that they were still there. It would have helped if his Pokégear hadn’t been broken after a certain electric rodent blasted it with a thunderbolt.
He decided not to bother anyone with asking, he would just wait to see what the next stop was to be.

Dante’s mind wandered back a couple of weeks as he stared out of the window as Plug dropped off to sleep despite the odd bump in the road…

~~~~~
Various Team Rocket grunts were busy running around inside the large warehouse on Chrono Island, also known as Five Island. They moved portable cages of captured pokemon and various electronic equipment into different rooms or onto particular convert belts.

Dante Kimachi was sat on top of some large wooden crates at the far side with a glum look on his face. He let out a deep sigh, upset over various things that had recently happened, but mostly at the ‘loss’ of his partner. Tinu was now part of the advanced science division, working alongside some of the great minds that created Mewtwo. He had no chance of following her no matter how much he wanted to be with her. With the chaos that happened in Kanto and his sudden relocation, he wondered if he’d ever see her again.

The small yellow pichu with a spiky tuff of fur upon its head seemed to mirror the human’s mood. It whined quietly, upset that his master was looking so down. It wasn’t normal.
Dante noticed this and then forced a smile; “You’re right, come on Plug, let’s stop thinking too much and get outta here.”
The TR member jumped down from the crates and grabbed his backpack. Plug happily chirped before leaping onto his shoulder.
Quietly passing the other hard-working members of the national-wide criminal syndicate, he walked towards the main entrance but was suddenly stopped by a voice calling out; “Kimachi!”
Dante turned around to see a nerdy looking scientist with bushy brown hair, wearing thick glasses and a white lab coat jogging towards him; “Huh?”
“You are Dante Kimachi, correct?” asked the scientist.
“That’s my name,” he replied cautiously.
“Hello, can you come with me please?”
“Um… sure,” he replied scratching his head.

Now in a small office room filled with computers and other high tech gear, Dante sat in a swivel chair beside the scientist who was busily tapping away at a PC keyboard.
Plug scrambled onto Dante’s head to get a better look as he asked; “So, what did ya want me for?”
The scientist turned to him; “Oh yes sorry, I was just… well anyway, my name is Maxwell, I’m an engineer here. I’m involved in creating computer systems for departments concerning the genetic experiments and the advance pokeball programs.”
Dante blinked; “And you, want… me… for?”
Maxwell snorted seeing Dante’s confusion; “Oh well, nothing in that line of work of course. I’m talking to you because I’ve also been given the job of staff administration as several admin members were imprisoned or have gone missing since a week ago.”
Dante remembered hearing about it all every five minutes last week, how the police force had enlisted the help of several trainers to storm the new TR hideout in Vermilion. He was glad he wasn’t stationed there for the new project; supposedly all the TR members there were captured. It had also been reported that Giovanni, the boss, had gone missing.
Maxwell continued; “You no longer have a partner correct?”
Dante nodded.

A Team Rocket profile appeared on the PC screen displaying Dante’s full name, ID number, rank, and various other pieces of data.
Maxwell read through most of the information on screen; “Hmm, standard at best.”
“Gee, thanks,” muttered Dante unimpressed. Plug just looked puzzled and inched closer.
The scientist ignored this; “As you are aware, Team Rocket have made plans to regroup in the Johto region.”
Dante didn’t know about this, but nodded in agreement anyway and continued listening.
“You are to go this location in Johto,” said Maxwell pointing at the screen, “and meet up with your new partner.”
Another window popped up on screen displaying a new profile.
Dante looked at the attached photos of the person who would be his replacement partner; “Very… pink.”
He had guessed correctly that it going to be another female, as most field op teams were split up into such. He tried his best not to start thinking about Tinu again.

Maxwell held out a device on a wrist strap; “This is a Pokégear, we’re using them to communicate between groups. It also has a map function. I’ve marked mission critical points on it for you.”
“Hmm, thanks,” smiled Dante strapping it to his own left wrist.
This device excited him a lot, now surely he’d not get hopelessly lost like always.
After a further briefing on a few things, Dante left the warehouse, actually looking forward to the fresh start.
~~~~~

Dante looked down to the blank screen of his broken Pokégear and wondered how much trouble he was in for not being in contact with Team Rocket and for not meeting with his new partner over a week ago at the designated time and place.
He quietly chuckled a little; “Just my luck.”

After another 30min journey on the bus, Iain finally arrived in Cherrygrove. It felt good to get some nice air into his lungs that hadn't been filtered through a stuffy bus. As with any person arriving to a new town the first port of call was to stop off at the pokemon centre in order to establish the location of the Mr S.O. that the parcel was intended for.

On his way to the centre Iain saw a commotion outside, it wasn't long before he realized that it was a pokemon battle, but before he got there to see it was already over, he didn't even get to see the pokmon. As he drew closer one of the trainers with long red hair cursed, ran and in turning round crashed straight into Iain.
"What the hell are you doing, get out of my way!" the trainer yelled as he picked himself up and ran round the side of the house at the end of the street and out of view.

The other trainer held out a hand to Iain and helped him up, he was only young 10 or 11 years old.
"Sorry about him, that's Silver he can be like that sometimes," the kid smiled as he helped Iain up "My name's Gold, Pleased to meet ya. I'm sorry I can't stay to chat, I have to go back to Newbark Town to see the Prof. but I'm starting my journey to the Pokemon League, so hopefully I'll see you around."

And with that Gold ran in the opposite direction to Silver. Iain dusted himself off and went on his way to deliver Mr S.O.'s package. . . . but where was it?

"Crap! I must have dropped it when that Silver guy bumped into me," shouted Iain, but the parcel was no where in sight "I am so screwed." thought Iain

Plug the pichu was running around in circles and diving across the ground babbling to himself for no particular reason, before standing near his owner’s left foot and scanning the new area with dramatic head movements and a look of excitement; “Pi? Pii?”
Dante guessed the electric pokemon was just happy about being off the bus, something he agreed with.
After a stretch and a yawn, Dante donned his light blue denim jacket to cover the large red ‘R’ on his uniform slightly and then looked around.
“Well,” he grumbled to himself, “don’t think this is the right place either, but that city I have to go to can’t be too far away... let’s try this way.”

Moments later Silver came running by, completely ignoring Dante, and heading north.
Dante shrugged and continued on a few steps before noticing a large package on the ground; “Huh? Ahh, that guy must have dropped this.”
He quickly picked it up, not even noticing Iain and Gold just off to the left, and started to dash back to Cherrygrove. After reaching the Pokemon Centre he then stopped dead in his tracks; “Wait, what am I doing?!”
Plug looked up and shrugged.
Dante looked down to his pichu; “I’m a member of Team Rocket, why am I trying to return this? Finders keepers.”
Sitting on a free outside bench, he studied the box; “Mr S.O? ….. Super Octopus!”
Plug was sat next to him and shot him a doubtful look.
“I’ve never really opened somebody’s mail before. I’m just hoping its food because I’m starving,” said Dante just starting to open it…

Iain looked around Cherrygrove frantically for the parcel retracing all his steps from the moment he stepped off the bus. But the parcel was nowhere to be seen. Iain wandered over to the Pokemon Centre in the hope that someone had handed something in to the lost and found.

Upon entering the Pokemon centre Iain was greeted with the usual cacophony of sound that came from excited trainers and breeders alike. Making his way upstairs to the information desk, Iain encountered several Chanseys rushing a pokemon to intensive care, unusual as there was no Gym in Cherrygrove and it was rare to see a pokemon so badly hurt from a standard trainer battle, but then thinking about it there was no trainer following the stretcher.

A mixture of sympathy and curiosity getting the better of him, Iain forgot all about the parcel and followed the stretcher. Soon enough a nurse appeared to examine the pokemon. On closer inspection Iain saw it was the orange Larvitar he had seen in Violet City (It had to be the same, how many orange Larvitar could there be).

"Excuse me," said the nurse "are you this Pokemon's trainer?" as she noticed Iain studying the Larvitar with great concern. "How could you possibly let your pokemon get into such a state?"

Iain was so taken aback by the nurse's brash defense of the pokemon that he got completely tied up. This unfounded accusation caused him to trip over his own words and all he could manage was "But, I," and "Well" over and over again.
It was after a particularly hard stare from the nurse that Iain felt a hand on his shoulder. Iain turned round to see a tall gentleman with white hair that came to a point just at his fringe and was wearing what seemed to be a lab coat.

"Now now Nurse Joy, don't be to hard on the boy," said the gentleman "I brought that pokemon in after I found it on Route 30, it had been attacked by a group of Poliwags and particularly mean Poliwhirl."
"Oh," said Nurse Joy looking quite ashamed at her sudden outburst of misguided anger "I'm sorry young man, Professor Oak I hope you can forgive my rudeness?"
"Don't even worry about it you're probably just as concerned as this young man here, you just concentrate now on making that Larvitar health again." said the Professor.
And with that Nurse Joy whisked the Larvitar away for treatment.

Iain and the Professor introduced themselves properly and for the next 10 minuets Iain and the Professor talked about the Pokemon and what was to happen. Prof Oak could see that Iain was genuinely worried about the Larvitar and it was at this point he gave Iain a Pokeball. "That's for you, we cant keep that Larvitar here for long but he's going to need someone to take care of him, make sure he doesn't end up in this state again." Prof Oak stood up "I must be on my way as i need to speak to my friend Mr. Pokemon who lives on Route 30, If you need to contact me I will be there for the next few days, Nice meeting you Iain and take care."

And without even considering what his parents would say, Iain found himself with his very first pokemon.
Iain made his way from the Pokemon Centre with some free potions from Nurse Joy for some first aid future use, thankfully Tango (the name Iain had given to the Larvitar) took to following Iain around although not paying him much attention.

As Iain rounded the corner he saw someone sat on a bench a small yellow pokemon sat next to him, both of them looking very confused as the man held what looked like a small red and black calculator in his hands and on his lap. . . THE PARCEL!

Dante opened the package, his curiosity peaking.
He pulled out a letter and quickly scanned through it; “From some lab assistant in Pallet Town. Blah, blah, blah... Whatever.”
Finding the document to be uninteresting, he quickly shoved it back into the box, but with knowledge that the content came from a lab, he grew even more excited.
Dante fully opened the four top flaps and his eyes widened; “Oh my god!”
Plug eagerly went on tip-toes, still too low on the bench to be able to see inside.
“Bubblewrap!” cried out Dante holding out the sheet of clear bubble-covered packing.
He quickly popped some and then dropped it beside him. Plug instantly started pouncing on it, excitedly chirping with each ‘pop’ sound.

Now Dante could see the contents clearly - some computer program discs, more boring papers, and two red and black devices that looked like a cross between a PDA and a calculator.
“Ah, now I know what these are, whoa, brand new,” said Dante pulling one out and pressing the button, causing it to flip open and display the trainer registration screen.
Plug had finished with the bubble wrap and was now watching his ‘trainer’ take a portrait photo of himself with the built-in camera lens.
Dante then rapidly tapped in his name and TR identification number before taking out his own rather battered (and much more clunky-looking) pokedex. It was the one he had stolen from a young girl in a Pokemon Centre in Kanto when he first started out with Team Rocket.

Holding them both up in front of Plug, he pointlessly explained; “Ya see, this is the original version of the dex…”
Pressing a button caused his old pokedex to display a screen of static and then the words ‘no data’ before an electronic voice exclaimed; [There is no data.]
“But this one must be version two with all the latest discoveries.”
He was correct, and upon scanning Plug, a picture of a pichu and several ‘pages’ of data appeared complete with a different electronic voice reading off the first line of the flavour text; [It is not yet skilled at storing electricity. It may send out a jolt if amused or startled.]
Electricity sparked from Plug’s cheeks in amusement; “Chuuuuu.”

Dropping his old dex in the box Dante then started fiddling with his new toy; “I wonder what other new features this has?”
He was just beginning to wonder how much he could sell the parcel’s content for, when he noticed Iain.

Dante had originally thought that the package was the red haired boy’s but this guy was obviously the owner, or maybe the delivery boy. The criminal could tell from the look on the lad’s face, he had seen the expression many times before in his career of stealing (after getting caught red-handed).
He decided to act innocent for now and looked left and right before looking back to Iain; “What?”


(ooc: didn’t want to control Iain’s reaction, plus Dante will act accordingly depending on what the said reaction is, hee, I wonder which way this will go)

Iain slowly confronted the man on the bench. "Excuse me, may I ask you where you found that parcel? It is addressed to a Mr S.O. isn't it?" The man on the bench looked left and right and then looked at Iain in the face "What?" said the gentleman abruptly. It was instantly that Iain realized because of this sudden defensive attitude that this person was up to no good, but at the same time Iain was not about to start a fight, unnecessarily. Iain Had to find a way of getting the parcel and the two calculator looking devices back so he could deliver them.

He thought he'd at least try playing nice first "Thanks for finding it for me may I please have it back? I need to deliver that today."

Dante thought fast. Did this guy see that there were two pokedex devices, or just the one he was holding? Could he get out of this?
“Oh!” he replied in his best innocent voice, “sorry, I didn’t notice the address, a kid with red hair gave it to me as a present, so I thought nothing of it. I guess it was pretty strange, maybe he was trying to frame me. I’ll gladly give it back if it’s yours.”

He quickly glanced to Plug who suddenly clutched at the bubblewrap, looked to Iain, and started crying like a child who was about to have his favourite toy taken away.
As Iain was at least somewhat distracted by this, Dante quickly stood up and turned, placing the box on the beach.
With his back turned it was simple for the thief to pocket the new pokedex in his inside jacket pocket and make sure his old one was acting as a ‘replacement’ inside the box. Even if there was any sort of receipt he missed, he might still get away with it.

Closing the box up he turned back to Iain and presented it to him; “Here you go. You don’t mind if my pichu keeps the bubblewrap, right?”
Although kicking himself for not getting 100% of the loot, he continued smiling and acting innocent; “So um, who's Mr.S.O? Also, you wouldn’t happen to know where… ahh, what was it called. Silver… rod… city, is?”


(ooc: lol, Plug used fake tears and Dante screws up the city name. Is Tango just following you atm btw?)

Surprised by his misjudge of character Iain took the parcel from the gentleman and thanked him.
"I don't know about Silverod but there's a Goldenrod City North West of here unfortunately the only way there is North past Violet City, past the old ruins and through National park." Iain considered a possibility "You're not from around the Johto region are you, I can tell, everyone here knows Goldenrod, its possibly the biggest City in the whole region. Tango and I are headed to Ecruteak City, it's on the way. You're welcome to travel with us if you like?"

Tango who had been walking closely behind Iain slowly peaked his orange head round the side of Iain's legs and gave a long blank stare and the man in front and the Pichu with the tuft of fir on the top of his head, clinging to the bubble wrap like a safety blanket.

Regardless of the man's decision, Iain was thinking he would head North to see Prof Oak. there was a likely hood that if he knew the area and some of the locals, he may know who this Mr. S.O. was anyway.

Dante felt like an embarrassed tourist for a second; “Er, yeah, I’m mostly from Kanto. I’m meeting someone in Goldenrod and I did have a map…”
He held up his left wrist to show the rather dead-looking pokegear; “… but it kinda got fried, so if it’s okay, I’d like to take you up on the offer. My name’s Dante by the way.”

The pichu instantly stopped it’s crying and jumped down from the bench as happy as could be, hopping about in front of Tango and giving the larvitar a little wave of introduction; “Pi pipi pii pichu.”
Plug also then went on to offer Tango some fun bubblewrap.

“And that,” said Dante pointing down to the electric yellow pokemon, “is my pichu, Plug.”
His attention was then taken by Iain’s pokemon; “I haven’t seen one of those before. Looks cool. Is it…”

Before Dante could finish his sentence, an old man wearing running shoes ran by and generally called out to the other people who had come off the bus earlier; “So many new faces in town, let me show you where the PokeMart is, I have some spare map card upgrades, just follow me!”
“Granddad!” called out a small boy, “You’ll give yourself a heart attack, you have to stop doing this!”
“Not me, I can run like the wind!” laughed the old man running around a house.

Dante threw a concerned look to Iain; “I’d like to leave as soon as possible please.”

*****

The black and red pokegear displayed exactly what it had shown all the other times along with a ringing sound; [[Dante Kimachi – Calling… Calling… No signal… Disconnected]]

A female voice grumbled; “Meh. What is that guy playing at? Gwaaaaddddd, I’m so bored just waiting here! I can’t stand it!”

A cyndaquil looked upwards in query.

“Well, I’m sure Apollo wouldn’t mind…”
There was a pause; “Foit it, come on Toasty, we’re outta here.”

The cyndaquil stood up on it’s hind legs briefly before a red beam of light hit it, converted it into the same kind of light, and then drew it into a black and white pokeball with a red ‘R’ on it.

*****