A Tale Told in Winter
By TheKnightWhoSaysNi
Part II

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Kazami~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Officer Kazami had been waiting in line for an hour. He was patiently killing the time by playing “Minesweeper” on his cell phone, when Sergeant Kaozu called out of his cubicle, “Next in line, hurry up, don’t have all day!”

Startled, Kazami tripped in to Kaozu’s office. “Well,” Kaozu exclaimed, “If it isn’t Officer Kazami!”

“Hello Sir,” Kazami replied immediately.

“What’ya got for me?” Kaozu asked.

“Well Sir,” Kazami started, and then went on to tell Kaozu about the unlikely story of the girl. He even told him about the strange and freezing aura around her. As the story began to end, with many more personal things entwined into it, Kaozu abruptly stopped Kazami’s report.

“I—” Kaozu began, but then broke off. “Let’s just say this girl is not like many others out there. We have to keep an eye on her. Rather, you have to keep an eye on her. Get it? Got it? Good.”

Before Kazami could ask a question, Kaozu shoved him out of the office. Behind him, Kazami could hear the Sergeant call out to the next officer, “Next in line, hurry up, don’t have all day!”

In a daze, Kazami walked down the stairs all the way to the lobby for two simple reasons. One, he didn’t want to wait for stupid interns to go up or down 2 bloody floors, and two, he wanted to make sure he had enough time to figure out what he was doing. Was that a command, an assignment? Was he supposed to track her to her father, or a foster home? While he was walking down the stairs, he was pushed over by a teenage girl. Was that? Nope. Must have been an intern.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Naoko~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Evading the police. That was my only goal. Well, at the time. I was walking through Fallarbor Farms, trying to figure out what to do. I already knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to burn down Team Rocket, and then burn down the police station. But of course they had to make it against the law. I basically had two options. One, I could run away from the police forever. Two, I could get sent to a foster home and get adopted by just about anyone who was rich enough. I took number one.

Shi trailed behind me, (Shi being the nickname I gave Shikuku) as I walked in circles around the snow-laden acres that my mom used to own. With bitter remembrance, I strained to think about what my mom said before. I knew she warned me about something like this, but I couldn’t remember exactly what she said. Shi chirped behind me. His extra sensitive ears had noticed something. I lifted my head from its looking-at- the-ground position, and I intently listened for police sirens. Instead, I heard nothing. Give it to Shi to think he hears something. He can be a bit stupid at times.

But, Shi was actually right. Upon straining my ears, I actually head voices talking in the edge of the forest. I went over slowly and silently. Peering around one of the trees, I took a look at who was talking.

I was almost scared to death when I saw a man clad in dark black with a red R in front. He was pacing around, talking on his cell phone. After fear came anger. I plotted ways to attack him from behind with a strong Psybeam, or even confuse him with a Teeter Dance beforehand. Again, it was illegal. What was with all this law anyway? I slowly drew out my cell phone, and was about to dial, but then the Rocket Grunt left.

I weighed the options. I could either go after him and find his potential hiding place or next attacker, or, I could call the police.

What do you think I chose?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Grunt Venemoth~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He was angry with all of the waiting. 3 days was too long to wait for such a big assignment. As soon as he exited Conference Room #3, Venemoth went out for a stroll in the commons. It was just too long a wait.

Thinking over the conversation with the Boss seemed to be the best idea. Of course, there were some things the Boss said about careful action and thinking before even making the slightest twitch, but then there was RAI. Being a gossiping Rocket himself, Venemoth had heard of RAI through rumors and such, and how it was such a big corporation that Team Rocket needed to take it over, but he had never really thought about it. He hadn’t even questioned what it stood for.

All he knew about RAI at the moment was that all of the targets were RAI employees, and the one he killed was one of the keystones to the organization. He also knew that RAI was not exactly in cooperation with Team Rocket, although it had been in the past. And then there was the Amazing Point.

He had no idea exactly how he was going to get there, considering it was so well hidden not even a map could be supplied for his journey there. And then there was the tight security that encompassed it. He hadn’t been around for the last attempt at conquering it, but he knew that it was such a failure because of RAI. With control of the Amazing Point, there was control of RAI, and with control of RAI, there was world domination. He smiled.

“Venemoth!” a voice called, an angry tone slightly startling the relaxed Grunt.

“What is it?” he demanded, irritated that such a rare time of rest was being interrupted.

“We’re in trouble,” the voice responded, turning out to be Grunt Golbat. He strolled into the room, holding a portable camera in his hand. His face was red, and it looked like it was going to explode. “It’s Haunter. He’s being followed.”

Haunter was possibly the best Grunt in Venemoth’s hall, with his top-notch battling skills and amazing stealth, he was the best in his class. “Followed?” Venemoth asked sincerely, “He doesn’t notice? That’s not like him.”

But, upon looking into the camera, he could see that Haunter was indeed being followed, by a girl and her Spinda. They looked slightly familiar…and yet they were so distant. Venemoth couldn’t exactly remember who they were.

“So, does he need help?” asked Venemoth, looking annoyed, but ready to do anything to keep Team Rocket’s plan in line.

“You know his phone number! Call him!” Golbat commanded, pointing to the cell phone hanging off of Venemoth’s belt.

Without hesitation, Venemoth whipped his cell phone up to his hand and dialed Haunter’s number, holding it to his ear and pacing around quickly. The ring seemed to drag on forever, but when he looked into the portable camera, he saw the Grunt stop, pick up his cell phone, and answer.

“Hello, Grunt Haunter greets you with his utmost respect, if this is His Majesty speaking,” answered the grunt.

“It’s me, Venemoth.”

“Only Venemoth? Why are you worrying me now? What, you can’t figure out a jigsaw puzzle or something? I got something to deal with, so you can just do your crap somewhere else.” Venemoth could see him holding up his hands in anger.

“Well,” Venemoth responded while peering into the camera, “we have a camera following you, for safety precautions, and you might want to look behind the tree behind you.”

Haunter stormed over to the tree, and was surprised to find the girl and her Spinda there. “Thanks,” he responded, and promptly hung up.

Venemoth sat back down. ‘Ah well,’ he thought, ‘it could be more exciting. But it’s my day off, so who cares?’ And then he drifted off to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Naoko~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So, what’s a girl like you doing out in the big bad woods?” the Rocket Grunt asked me.

I wasn’t fazed. I looked him straight in the eye. “What’s a criminal like you doing out in the big bad woods?” I asked in response.

In truth though, I was really scared. After my first encounter with a Team Rocket Grunt, I didn’t really want to run into another one. I hadn’t considered that burning down their headquarters would involve seeing one of them again, but oh well. I wasn’t one to think things through. “I asked you a question,” I repeated, “What are you doing here?”

“None of your—” he stopped in mid-sentence and took a closer look at my face and smiled. “You look just like your mother. Too bad I’ll have to kill you.”

Surprisingly, the only thing that I noticed was that he compared me to Mom. “How do you know my mom?” I asked, backing up and looking at Shi, signaling him that he should be ready to attack at any moment.

The Rocket Grunt laughed. “Long story, one that you won’t hear,” he told me, and then he pulled a Pokeball off of his belt.

I looked at Shi. “We can do this. Just stay calm,” I tried to comfort myself more than him.

“Haunter!” he shouted, his shrill voice echoing through the woods, “Let’s go! You get your butt out here, now!” He threw the Pokeball, and I thought it was going to hit the tree far behind me, but there was a glowing light, and the red and white orb opened, releasing the ghoulish Pokemon. I had never seen a Haunter in person up to that point, and let me tell you, they are absolutely hideous and disgusting. Oh yeah, and they’re scary.

”Shi, get in there!” I commanded, my courage shriveling back in a corner of my stomach.

And so, my first battle with a Rocket Grunt began.