Private/Closed Pokemon Twisted Beige: Kanto journey with a twist! Series 2 (RP)

[What Did You Do To Snoke?]

https://pokecharms.com/threads/poke...urney-with-a-twist-series-2-discussion.19524/
---
Beige awoke from a deep sleep. What had happened? Where was he? When was he? The darkness that had engulfed him suddenly disappeared but he still felt tired. Beige looked around. He was in a small box-like room with only a glass panel in front of him, with no other windows. He could see a group of men in saphire blue uniform marching past the window. A couple of them looked in. A large man, who was taller than the other two burst through the door on the left hand side of the room. Beige looked down. He seemed to have been tied to a wooden chair the whole time. He looked back up as the overweight man sat down on a chair opposite him.

"How is the patient? Are you doing alright?" He asked.

"Where am I?" Beige asked.

"You're in the compound, a place where insane patients across Kanto are held." The man spoke.

"I don't remember anything..."

"You're one of the patients. We diagnosed you with a mental disease, rare in Kanto. I'm afraid you might die if we don't give you the treatment." As he said this, a trolley was wheeled up and it had a long metal arm with a syringe attatched to it.

A man with a black cape strolled in. The inside of the cape was red and his hair was a distinct red.

"Lance? What are you doing here?" The fat man asked.

"Red has told me you must delay the final dose. Beige could be a valuable asset to our army."

"Beige?!" Beige spat. "Is that...my real name?"

"Oh no, he's remembering, what have you done?" The large man whispered to Lance.

"So my name isn't James Harrison, Lars Manford, Alexander Torn, Henry Lodgings like..."

"You...You remember the names we gave you?" The fat man asked in horror. "We injected you with chemicals that should have made you forget the name changes every time!"

"My real name is Beige. I remember! I remember I was on a journey...to destroy Red...to destroy you...Stephan."

Stephan let off a huge groan-like gasp. "How did you remember who I was?"

"This is one of the many ways he is brainwashing people, and I will not allow it to happen to me! Give me my pokemon back!"He said, looking at a table with five or six poke balls on it.

Suddenly, Lance pushed the syringe machine on the floor and a strange liquid oozed out. Enforcers soon surrounded Lance.

"What are you doing?" Stephan asked.

"Helping the boy. He needs to remember everything!" Lance exclaimed. "Sabrina and the chemicals brainwashed him too much!" Lance grabbed a syringe from his pockets and injected it into Beige's neck. Beige yelled for a second as memories flowed through him. As he remembered, in the background, Lance and Stephan fought each other in a pokemon battle.

1st Memory
Beige remembered several faces of trainers, including Chris and Hibiki. Then Beige remembered standing in a helicopter with his close friend, Leaf and men in black uniform. He remembered that these were Team Rocket and that the group of blue men were the Enforcers. These Enforcers were chasing Team Rocket out of their hideout in Celadon City. But Team Rocket stopped, they took over the propaganda centre for just a brief moment, where their leader, Giovanni, announced his return. His face was on every screen in Kanto. Giovanni told Beige about a connection they had, but didnt reveal who he was to Beige. Beige remembered the blueprints for Red's mega weapon Giovanni was building. Giovanni dropped Beige off before flying to their biggest hideout. Beige didn't know where it was, but Giovanni told him to continue his journey until he reached the right town.
2nd Memory
Beige rode down the cycling road, at top speed on his bike. He had to get away from the Enforcers. Bald headed punks and young men looked at him. They tried to bully him but Beige did not allow it. Voltaire, Beige's pikachu, quickly got rid of them.
3rd Memory
Beige entered Fuchsia city with a look of caution. If remembered correctly, this was Koga's home turf. Though he had abandoned his gym and given it to his daughter. Beige had met his daughter, Janine, in Lavender Town, who saved him from an assassination attempt Koga attempted. Beige had been to Fuchsia city before. He checked out the abandoned Safari Zone and noticed through the trees, Red and members of the elite four patrolling the area. Beige jumped. He turned round, ready to leave, when he bumped into Janine herself.

"Beige. Nice to see you again." She whispered.

"I remember you." Beige said. "You saved my life in Lavender Town."

"Name's Janine...i'm also the gym leader of this town you know. My father handed it over to me...but now he's regreting it! Because i've gotten rid of the Enforcer stronghold here!"

Beige laughed. "What's going on in here?"

"Red and the elite four members, I hear are holding a party for rich businessmen. They have hoarded rarer pokemon in there, the old Safari Zone. You can't enter it now...if I had the power, i'd evict them."

Janine and Beige looked through the trees and saw poor Safarai Zone pokemon in cages and prison cells. A man was whipping a Dratini several times in succession in order to make the pokemon stronger.

"They are hurting the pokemon!" Janine exclaimed. "It's worse than I thought!"
---
In real life, as Beige was remembering this, Lance had one of his Dragonites out facing Stephan's Nidoking. The two pokemon wrestled until Lance ordered a massive hyper beam.

Outside of the mental asylum, Enforcers ran in, as a horde of martial artists approached, from Alfonso's gym. They barricaded the door and at that point, Alfonso himself showed up.

 

[todoroki]

Franklin walked among the enforcers, a twinge of a feeling that Franklin didn't quite know struck over him- fear. He wasn't sure what he was afraid of. The confrontation? The idea that Lance could beat Stephan? Maybe even the idea that Stephan could beat Lance? What are you thinking, Franklin! He ought to head in for reconditioning, that was why he was feeling these strange things- or feeling, at all. Still, that boy... There was a familiarity to him. Something called to him.

Franklin's Kadabra, En, stood by his side, reading his mind. One thing that Red's army hadn't considered was reconditioning all of the Pokémon, and with hyperintelligent psychic types like Kadabra... He listened to Franklin's thoughts, and made a decision of what to do on his own. His paws behind his back, his spoon glowed in a purple cloak of light. Slowly, subtly, disguised so that no one but him, Beige, and Franklin could see, the restraints were torn apart. And with that major of a use of power, En fell to the ground, fainted, drawing the attention of the rest of the enforcers.

Now that emotion Franklin had felt in the beginning, of fear- it was 10 times heightened. It... hurt. He didn't know what to do, and he had a few seconds to weigh his option- he could release En, he could get demoted, or he could go or... He could help the boy.

.

What? What was he thinking? Helping a rogue? A criminal? En returned to his Pokéball.

"I believe Kadabra is going through some sickness," Franklin whispered to his superior officer. He was still aggravated by the sudden disruption, but he could do nothing but accept it after all. Franklin stared at the boy, feeling a series of unfamiliar emotion... Guilt. Worry. Excitement. The last one seemed out of place, and he felt that guilt again with that, but he wanted to see what the boy would do. The Enforcers would surely stop him, but the anticipation of what would happen next, that could be described as nothing but exciting.

 

[Pokemon Fanfiction Novels]

Hibiki's Personal Journal: Day 14 Underground

Wow, day fourteen. I've been hiding down here for two solid weeks, now. I wouldn't even know, if I hadn't been willing to risk peeking my head out twice a day to see where the tunnel's taken us now. Not that it's helped much; natural light is as blinding to me now as it was after the first night down here. Fourteen days-! I still can't quite fathom how I did it. Time works differently in the tunnel. Two weeks pass like a second, and second stretches for an eternity. Kenta once told me that Hell is actually a lot like this: not a fiery pit with devils and pitchforks, but perpetual darkness in which you wander, purposeless. I believe it now. I've been wearing the same clothes all the while, and the layers of sweat and dirt have deformed me into an overgrown maggot. It's unbearable. I cannot get used to it with time, yet I cannot work up the courage to return to the surface either. Team Rocket has returned in force, and I pissed them off good when I rooted out their hive last month. Worse, my former allies have turned on me. The Enforcers are supposed to be the good guys, the law-keepers, but that bastard Stephan named me as another target. If the Rockets hadn't distracted them back in Celadon City, I'd be hanging from a pole right now. I couldn't even phone Gold for help this time, because I was too stupid to charge the damn thing when I first hit the Pokemon Center. I was going to after my gym battle with Gale, but Stephan . . . no. That's enough. I've chastised myself endlessly about that in these underground chambers. The next time I see Stephan, I'm going to get even with that fat turd.

***

Hibiki stopped writing, sighed, and slapped his notebook shut with the mechanical pencil still inside. Who was he kidding? He would never get close enough to the Enforcer Commander to attack, and even if he could, it was doubtful he would win the fight. He held only four badges, the fifth having eluded him in Cerulean City. His team had great potential- there was no doubt about that- but they were far from presentable to Master Red, or his brother, Gold. Hibiki felt his stomach churn miserably. While he was linked with Gold, he felt untouchable, capable of anything, even after losing two gym battles. But now, without his guardian angel, all he had left was his team.

Charmeleon: his starter, and probably on the brink of evolving and becoming his best asset. For now, he lit the way.
Nidoqueen: his first catch, and a sturdy battler in her own right.
Kadabra: an accidental capture, and not really a pokemon he'd bonded to at all.
Dratini: a game corner prize, and one of his favorites, being the only pokemon on his team that Gold also once had.
The egg: another prize from Celadon, which had been making noises lately after the weeks he'd been carrying it around.
Onix: no- Steelix. He had evolved almost forcibly after eating soil nonstop as he plowed the tunnels Hibiki walked.

The dirt walls rattled slightly, and Steelix himself wiggled his tremendous bulk into view. In spite of his gloom, Hibiki smiled up at the giant snake in the glow of Charmeleon's tail light. When there had been nowhere to hide, Steelix had come through for him and created an underground escape. There was a constant toothy grin on the monster's face, which Hibiki found bizarrely charming, even comforting. It really was peculiar; how could you hope to explain the closeness you feel for an enormous steel serpent that lurks around in the dark? Most people would be terrified at the prospect. Hibiki, however, had known this creature since Mount Moon, and Steelix had been a key player in at least half of his critical battles. He was always out of his pokeball now, and while in his primary element, he pranced around happily, almost puppy-like, if that were possible. Just like a puppy, he would also sometimes bring things proudly back in his mouth. Usually dead things. Hibiki would normally wave him away with disgust, but lately, food supplies were running low. At this rate, there would soon come a day when Hibiki might have to actually consider cooking whatever Steelix had crunched in his massive jaws.

Not surprisingly, Steelix once again had something between his teeth. This time, however, it was not a carcass, but a small round stone with a curious luster. Knowing Steelix, he could have been gnawing on it for hours, but here was an adamant gemstone that apparently would not be whittled down any further. Hibiki's eyebrows raised in wonder, and he pulled out his pokedex to scan the jewel. Unlike his phone, it still retained some power.

"Mega stone detected," said the contraption in a mechanical voice. "Please report this finding at the nearest Enforcer Station."

Hibiki's heart skipped a beat. Pulse pounding in his head, he once again scanned to make certain that the pokedex wasn't acting up. It gave the same report. A mega stone. A mega stone. Here was a thing coveted for its ability to push certain pokemon past their natural limits, and into the realm of supernatural. Where the spirit was willing, but the flesh weak, new flesh could be called forth to overcome- if only for a limited time. And now, the pokedex wanted him to give it to the Enforcers.

He couldn't do that. While Stephan still headed the Enforcers and corrupted their practices with his brutish malice, he had to keep this treasure a secret from them. But now he had to return to the surface at last- this was a sign that it was time. He would find a phone somehow, contact Gold, and get himself situated until this whole Enforcer mess untangled itself. Until then, he would need to find someone trustworthy: not an Enforcer, or Gold in Johto, but someone here, whom he'd known from his travels. Chris, or Karma, or even Jackson would do, for they were the nearest to being in the same boat as himself.

Back into the light of day, he thought with a terrified thrill. Let's see where the tunnel brought us this time. God, I need a shower.

 

[What Did You Do To Snoke?]

Lance was on the floor. Stephan's Nidoking had picked him up and thrown him across the room as Lance took Dragonite back to it's old pokeball. This was insane. Lance, the most experienced member of the elite four, had somehow managed to resist the propaganda and brainwashing he had endured himself and turned against the Enforcers right on the spot here. What was even more insane was the fact that he was being beaten by the leader of the Enforcers, who was known for only collecting a handful of badges during his journey as a kid. Stephan turned to Franklin. "Well, go fix him yourself! He's a fricking Pokemon, not a human. Pokemon think differently, they are stupid." He turned back to Lance. "Can't you see i'm in the middle of battling a traitor here? Be helpful and inject more of that memory juice will ya?"

"No..." Lance said, in a weakened position on the floor. "Hyper Beam!" A Dragonite burst through the ceiling from another floor. It fired a huge blast which destroyed the remains of the syringes on the table."Come on!" He desperately shouted to Beige, who was still asleep. More memories entered Beige's mutated mind.

4th Memory
Janine and Beige crept up, as quietly as possible to the Safari Zone gate. There, they saw two Enforcer guards. They were about to say something to them when Janine's Arbok strangled both me from their necks. Both men did not have time to react due to Arbok's quick reflexes. With both men on the floor, Janine and Beige progressed.

What they eventually saw was a series of prisons, connected by a long outer stone wall. In each of the prison cells, were Pokemon from the Safari Zone. In one prison cell, were a large group of Nidoran Males, with a couple of Nidorinos inside. The opposite prison cell had the same amount of Nidoran Females led by a couple of Nidorinas. In the next two cells stood a Nidoking and Nidoqueen who roared mightily in an attempt to escape. It failed. The metal gates were too strong. Venonats stood, huddled up together in one cell; Exeggcutes and Exeggcutors tried to reassure each other everything was going to be okay; Rhyhorns and Rhydons in seperate pens trying to break out, never were successful. The rare injured Chansey stood waiting for someone to help her. A group of Scythers tried to cut down the metal gate of their pen, but it did not work. Similarly, a group of Pinsirs tried to bash the door with their stag-like horns but there was no effect. Enforcers with guns marched across the plains that had been taken up by this prison. A lone Dratini huddled to the corner of it's cell in the centre. Dratini numbers had dropped recently, because the Enforcers had started hunting them for their rare dragon fangs, which could be sold at an extremely high price to regions such as Kalos, which had very few Dratini in the region. As a Doduo pack tried desperately to kick down the doors of the gate, they were all shot. A tranquilizer bullet in the form of a syringe able to put them to sleep. The showmanship of the Enforcers as they laughed caused the other Pokemon to lose hope. The front gates opened as a group of eight Enforcers led a Tauros in. They had an electric collar put on them.

"Alright! Lead them through!" One of the Enforcer inside shouted. The Tauros was taken to a pen on the inside where about two more of them were. The horns of this beast were said to be rare. Sadly, too many Tauros herds were massacred by the Enforcers in recent years. The Tauros at one point struggled to try and break free. Its collar snapped.

"Oh shit." One of the Enforcers muttered. "Call for help!"

The Tauros pushed the Enforcer grunts onto the floor and charged at each of the gates, trying to open them, but it was no use. Enforcers try to shoot it but it was too fast. The Tauros killed most of the Enforcers. Flying in the sky on his Charizard, was Red. He quickly jumped down and made easy work of the Tauros. He had his Charizard burn him alive with a painful flamethrower. Horrified, the other Pokemon started to behave. Behind Red, stood the four members of the elite four.

A woman in a pink dress bent down to look at the Tauros. "He's done for. Well done master Red!" She cheered for him.

In a bush, in front of the prison hid Janine and Beige. "The elite four...and Red?!" She whispered.

"Thank you Pixie." Red said to the lady.

A ninja approached Red. "These rampaging pokemon...they are my fault. I should have told my daughter, Janine to..."

"Koga. You do not need to blame your daughter for anything. We will deal with her in time. Sabrina is planning to hypnotise much of the nation so that they do not remember Giovanni's attack. In the event that Beige and the Rocket learns of this, we must capture and hypnotise them."

"Beige's journey will be over soon." A ginger haired woman in a red jumper said.

"Indeed, Seraphina." Red nodded at her. "But whilst we are here, we must take the time off, to see the sights of the Safari Zone, to hunt the many beasts. It is what I did during my journey."

A strong looking man in a cape started to speak. "And the experiments, are they proving to be of good research?"

"Yes, Lance. All of the Pokemon you see here are to be taken to one of our experimental centres in Saffron City. Soon, the Safari Zone will no longer have these dangerous beasts. We can fully equip the Enforcer army with the enraged forms of them if we study them."

Lance spoke again. "Wouldn't that be a bit cruel?"

"Cruel?" Red stared at Lance. "Are you criticising me? I thought I had brainwashed you to the max!"

"Haha!" Lance laughed. "No, I wasn't challenging you."

The five of them wandered at the different groups of Pokemon. Another batch of Enforcers came through on a Jeep, holding a Kanghaskhan with it's baby on a leed trailing from that Jeep. Red starting barking orders to the Enforcers. He told them about how late they were and that he had to take down the Tauros himself. As Red barked, Lance heard a rustling sound in the bushes. He exited the prison and walked up to Janine and Beige.

"Lance, he's coming in this direction." Beige whispered, recognising the man.

Janine and Beige crept out of the way of the bush. They were about to run through the gate of the bush when Lance found them.

"What's this? Two traitors?" He said to himself.

"One traitor." Janine said to Lance. "I am a loyal member of the Enforcers." She said robotically. "This here, is Beige. I have been ordered to deliver him here."

"Why?" Lance asked.

"I was told you guys would be here. You can get it over and done with."

"You're suggesting I want to kill him? I don't. If we kill him now, he's just emphasising the point of resistance. If we interrogate him, we can find out what's causing him to behave as he's been and change the behaviours of the resistive public." At that moment, there was a Team Rocket attack. They had obviously found the location of Red and wanted to get rid of him then and there. Lance looked back. "They'll be beaten easily." He said. "I'll take you both to the Fuschia City outpost for questioning.

 

[todoroki]

Franklin obeyed swiftly, running into one of the other rooms to get more "memory juice". He hesitated for a moment, not sure what the right thing to do was. Right? Since when did right mean anything but obedience and compliance? He shook his head and took another syringe full of amnesiatic oxate and ran back into the room. He ran over by the boy, and looked in his eyes. He was only a kid after all. He felt all those emotions again, guilt, worry. Should they really be injecting a child into losing his memory? It was for Red's cause, it couldn't be wrong. But still... Franklin was showing a major lack of compliance.

Once again, he had some choices to evaluate. He could inject the boy with the amnesiatic oxate.

He could inject Lance with it, and make him reconditioned.

Hell, he could even inject Stephen.

Too many choices, too much pressure, too much individuality. Franklin stabbed the syringe into his own arm, getting woozy and dizzy. "Wait, that's the wrong liq-"

1st Memory
Franklin groaned. "How come Jared gets to get his own Pokémon and go on a journey? He's only 2 years older, and he already had Exeggcute at my age." This was a simpler time for Franklin. All that really mattered was having fun, no worries of taking care of himself, all he had to be angry about was what he couldn't do.

"Jared's also much more responsible," His mother explained, exasperated by the constant bickering, "He's secured a position making him very likely to study in the Saffron Gym, at 15, that's quite impressive. You don't even know what you want to do here Frankie."

Franklin continued to nag to try to get his way. Reluctantly, he and his mom made an agreement.

"If you can catch a Pokémon with me giving you only one Pokéball, and lending you Jynx, I'll let you keep what you catch." Really, she was more trying to get him out of the house and to stop bugging her. The one good thing about battling is it would get him actually doing something.

Franklin took the Pokéball and headed out, Jynx walking by his side. He was determined to get this Pokémon, and when he would, he'd be able to do much more than his brother. They stepped into Route 8, and searched around. They struggled to find Pokémon that Franklin felt he could catch realistically, he didn't want to waste his one Pokéball. Jynx alerted Franklin to the noise of a little sleeping psychic Pokémon.

Memory 2
Saffron City, considering it was a big city, didn't usually have major crimes. A blackout in a big city, is of course a call for looting. Glass broken in every major store, there was nowhere that wouldn't be stolen from. Franklin and his family had just gotten back from a trip to visit his grandparents in Olivine City. One looter stopped dead in his tracks, being floated up by a familiar face- Jared's boss, and Saffron Gym Leader, Sabrina. News crews swarmed around her, recording. The looter wore all black, with a big red "R" on his shirt.

"Uh, this money is for Team Rocket, we wanna, uh, get rid of you guys." The guy stumbled over his words, sounding like he was trying to remember a speech. Sabrina resisted the urge to groan- she had personally been involved in acting, and this guy wasn't one of the greats. Still, she kept a serious tone.

"You'll be stopped in the name of Red. Go back to Giovanni to continue your evildoings." Sabrina said the lines persuasively, despite the fact they were poorly written. Franklin, as well as most of the crowd, was not hard to fool. He sent out his Kadabra, En, and tried to help. With this all on camera, naturally, Sabrina had to take the young trainer "under her wing".

 

[What Did You Do To Snoke?]

Stephan's Nidoking tossed Lance's Dragonite into a wall and a crater was created. Lance backed into a corner. When Franklin injected himself with some of Sabrina's memory juice, both of them stopped. Stephan looked down. "Yep." Stephan began. "He has injected himself with the memory liquid. Take him away!" A group of Enforcers entered the room at Stephan's bidding and they tried to lift Franklin's unconscious body.

"Is he going to be okay?" Lance intervened. "Isn't he going to need medical attention? If Red finds out you treated an Enforcer this way he's going to be furious."

Stephan looked back. "Okay okay! Drop him. Let's see what the problem is. And you." He pointed to Lance. "I've got my eye on you."

Meanwhile, Beige was remembering more of his past.

5th Memory
Lance sat Beige and Janine down in an empty room in the Enforcer outpost. All in all, it seemed abandoned. It looked as if Team Rocket had attacked it months ago.

"Look, I don't want to harm you." Lance said to Beige. "I don't believe in this regime of killing people we don't like and especially with the torture of children like you."

"I am not a child." Beige responded.

"There's something I don't get." Janine blurted out. "Lance, is it true you were brainwashed heavily by Red? If so, why are you able to rebel against some of the ideas he has tried to enforce to the highest level?"

"It is true," Lance said to Janine. "That I faced Red in battle several times. I was going to become the champion but him and Blue beat me on their quest. They were strong, indeed. But when Red took over, he asked me to battle him. There, he tested my ideals during a conversation in battle. After he beat me again, he took some of the guard that he had established and had them torture me. The man who had first suggested to Red the idea of a guard who watched over the public's ideals was Stephan himself. But after a while, the torture they had endured had changed me. I knew how it worked. I became immune, though I never told anyone up until this point. For a while, I had been brainwashed...but then I saw the horrors that Red had shown me...after enough encouragement I did change my viewpoint. But I had to play along with him in order to keep my position as elite four member. I am waiting for the day that someone challenges and wins against Red and overthrows him. That's where you come in." He looked at Beige. "Beige, I believe your name is? I've been watching you for a long time now. If you get to the Pokemon League, i'll be here to help."

6th Memory
Janine and Beige looked at the prison cells in the Safari Zone. All was calm as the Enforcers left the zone. Janine's Vileplume sent the guards in one of the huts to sleep with sleep powder. They had stolen the key and were now unlocking the prison cells of each of the Pokemon. They had unlocked the second to last cell with a Kanghaskhan and her baby in it when they saw a jeep approaching on one of the hills.

"Quickly!" Janine shouted. Open the last cell!

Beige did so. A Dratini burst into his arms. "Looks like this one wants to be my friend." Beige threw an Ultra Ball and caught the creature.
7th Memory
Janine and Beige stood opposite each other on a battlefield with a large poke ball in the centre. It was time for the gym battle. "I have to say, Beige, you would make a good ninja.

"Why thanks." Beige replied. "We freed those pokemon together...but the Pokemon will only be truely free when Red is gone."
8th Memory
Despite their friendship, Janine and Beige had fought fiercely.

Janine's Koffing had faced up against Beige's Cubone, Skull. Janine showed her clever tactics here as she had ordered her Koffing to use smokescreen, which created clouds of smoke around Koffing. Skull couldn't see and had trouble attacking the Koffing. Several sludge attacks were ordered and Skull got damaged. Eventually Beige realised that, as a ground type, Skull couldn't hit Koffing with it's STAB moves because of Koffing's ability Levitate. Switching to Von Karp, his beloved Gyarados, he had it strangle the Koffing and toss it onto the floor. Then Von Karp was ordered to use a powerful new form of bite attack it had learnt, the move Crunch. The Koffing fainted before it had the opportunity to use a self-destruct attack, which Janine had ordered the previous turn.

Opening up a pool of water in the stadium, Janine threw out her Tentacool.

 

[Pokemon Fanfiction Novels]

The doors to Fuchsia Pokemart slid open, and a sopping-wet Hibiki dragged himself inside, leaving shoe marks on the linoleum flooring. His tunnel had come up just short of the Game Warden's backyard pond, and he'd taken the dive in, straight off Steelix's head. It was hardly clean water, but after all the dirt Hibiki had accumulated, he practically emerged a new man. Now, with some fear that the pokecenters were being watched, he prioritized the purchase of new clothes so that he wouldn't stand out. The cashier watched with bored disdain as he slapped past the front desk, sprinkling droplets of water before him.

"Fell off your surfing pokemon, did ya?" he mused in a gruff voice. "Yer not the first. Be a good lad an' grab the Wet Floor sign in the back left, eh?"

"Oh. Yeah, okay." Hibiki hurried to do as he was told, not wanting to give the man any reason to look twice at him. He started toward the rear coolers, in which were stacks of MooMoo Milk bottles; then he froze, as an Enforcer materialized around the corner. Before he knew it, they were both before each other, eye to eye. The Enforcer squinted at him for a moment, then took off his hat, staring at Hibiki.

"Hey. I know you from somewhere," he murmured.

The sudden hammering of Hibiki's heart skipped as the memory of the man's face came back to him. Hope rose in him. "Officer Setsuei? Kei?"

Kei's eyes widened, and he nodded. "And you're . . . T-147009, Hibiki. You saved me in Viridian Forest!"

Hibiki felt his face break into a smile. The Mega Stone had to be a lucky charm. Except for Daniel Fisher, Kei Setsuei was the only other Enforcer he had befriended, and here he was now. Providence.

Kei frowned as his eyes seemed to glaze at a thought in his mind. "Hibiki, I . . . I hate to say this, but I'm not happy to see you. I have explicit orders to arrest you if you appear. But I also know that if I do, Gold will find out who I am and . . . and . . ." He didn't finish, but chewed nervously on the brim of his hat. "Goddamnit, there's no winning here."

 

[What Did You Do To Snoke?]

8th Memory continued
A battle in the pool of water errupted as Von Karp, the Gyarados swiftly swam underneath the surface of liquid. Von Karp jumped out and gave a crunch attack towards Janine's Tentacool. The jellyfish Pokemon dodged the attack, however. Janine ordered several successive acid attacks on Von Karp and Von Karp was unable to avoid the constant stream of them. Tentacool then began a wrap attack. The huge water serpent was pulled down by the tiny jellyfish Pokemon. Von Karp was unable to move and Janine seized the opportunity to order bubblebeam and water pulse attacks. Amazed, Beige had no choice but to let this Pokemon faint. Von Karp fell to the bottom of the water and Beige returned it.
------

In the present, Beige was still unconscious. "You boys having fun?" A voice came from the door. A young woman with long black hair and a red or orange vest approached them. This was Sabrina.

"Yes mam." Stephan saluted her.

"What's that crater in the wall?" Sabrina stared at the hole Nidoking and Dragonite had made. "You did this. I can tell." She looked at both Stephan and Lance. She closed her eyes. "I know exactly what happened. I saw it, in my mind."

"One of your visions again?" Stephan laughed. "What a load of balony!"

"How dare you mock me, Stephan." Sabrina said fiercely, opening her eyes. "This is my town."

"Who's the leader of the Enforcers?" Stephan asked, knowing they knew the answer. "Me."

"I'm an elite four member. Surely I have more authority over you two." Lance stated.

"Red appointed me." Stephan stated. "I was with him...remember?"

"Red chose me...he appointed me to be an elite four member!"

"It was I who suggested to have you brain-"

"That's enough!!!" Sabrina shouted at the top of her voice. "We mustn't awaken Beige. He is sleeping." Sabrina's Alakazam teleported next to her and the two of them sent out strange psychic energies towards Beige and they were relayed back to them. "He is remembering! Soon, he'll wake up once he remembers everything."

 

[Pokemon Fanfiction Novels]

Hibiki and Kei remained where they stood, watching each other uneasily. A shout came from the front of the store: "Oi! Let's hurry it up with that Wet Floor sign, lad!"

Glancing over his shoulder, then back at Kei, Hibiki chewed his lip with nervous vigor. "What do we do, Kei? I believe you're not a bad man, and you know I'm innocent. This situation is all Stephan's fault. Can't you think of something that will save us both?"

Kei gave a frustrated sigh. "Not right off the top of my head! Look, you never think you'll be in a position like this until it happens, so I need some time to process and work out a plan." His eyes widened slightly, and he reached out, pushing the Wet Floor sign into Hibiki's chest. "How about this? The grocer didn't recognize you, and neither will most people in this town. As long as you don't enter the Pokemon Center, or linger anywhere too long as an outsider, I should remain the only person who knows you're here."

"Oi! Lad, can't you find it? It's a bright yellow sign!"

"Go challenge the Fuchsia Gym," Kei said hurriedly. "Stay inside no more than an hour. I'll manage something by then."

"The gym?" asked Hibiki, puzzled. "Won't that place be every bit as monitored as the Pokecenter?"

"Fuchsia Gym is special," Kei said. "As soon as you enter, you'll see why it's pointless to keep track of the gym leader. Now, go on."

Holding the Wet Floor sign awkwardly, Hibiki waddled back to the storefront, and the shopkeeper gave him a bemused look. As he set the sign down, Kei emerged from the aisles behind and tipped his hat.

"Sorry for the delay. Just doing a random search. You know how it goes."

"Oh." The other man scratched his balding head. "Righty, then. Kid, did ya need something?"

"Huh?" Hibiki's mind blanked for a second, then caught up. That's right, he'd come to buy canned soup. Well, also to linger in the bathroom while he dried off and his phone charged, but that would only worry Kei more now. He resupplied as best he could with the meager remains of his cash, and prayed that Fuchsia Gym was financially generous to its victors.

***

Once through the threshold of the gym doors, Hibiki's eyes were greeted with an astoundingly bizarre sight. No less than five Janines were flipping, rolling, throwing, and trading blows with the various Poison and Psychic type pokemon around them. The room appeared to be barren, yet Hibiki sensed that something was off. The noise of combat was muted, and as he walked forward, he noticed a floating smudge of purple gunk in the air. He reached his hand out, only to bump it against something solid.

An invisible wall? I've never seen such a thing- is it made of something like glass? Or is it psychic energy?

There was no time to linger on idle thoughts though; Kei had told him to be back out in under an hour, so he had to find the real Janine, and fight her for his sixth badge. He narrowed his eyes and called out Charmeleon. One Smokescreen later, he could identify where smoke flattened against the invisible wall, and he advanced onward, careful to keep below it. A minute later, he found himself facing his first Janine, who had now discontinued her training drills as if aware he'd been coming. She looked slightly peeved.

"You know, it takes the fun out of it if you don't bang your nose at least once," she said.

"I'm not in the mood for fun," he returned impatiently. "Are you the real Janine?"

The Janine put a hand on her hip, raising an eyebrow. "Spoilsport. Do you really expect me to answer that? For all you know, Janine could have already been taken away by the Enforcers, like a couple other gym leaders already were. Then again, I could be Janine. We've always made it a point of pride to deceive the public, and it's necessary now more than ever."

Hibiki felt his jaw tighten. "But wouldn't the real Janine have the strongest pokemon and the Soul Badge?" he reasoned.

"It would be in the spirit of Janine, yes," the girl said evasively. Hibiki sighed.

"So I have to fight all of you until I hit the one holding the badge, is that it? In that case, I'm going to ask each and every one of you why you think you might be in trouble with the Enforcers. I hope you all rehearsed your answers." Hibiki widened Dratini's pokeball. "En garde."

(OOC: I'd like to know what the Janines have to say about the Enforcers situation.)