The Journey of Chase CH. 8: The Shocking Truth

The road to Vermillion was mostly uneventful for Chase and his new companion. They met and battled a few trainers, and saw many pokemon. When they finally reached Vermillion they heard that Lt. Surge, the leader of the local gym, had returned from an oversees vacation, and he was ready to battle some new trainers. Chase and Misty decided to make a quick stop at the pokemon center and then head straight to the gym.
With his pokemon feeling refreshed and ready for battle, they entered the gym. It was dark at first, then stadium lights sparked and flooded the arena with light. The floor of the stadium looked like it was made of plastic, and the ceiling stretched so far up it felt like they were in a cathedral. There were lightning rods poking out from every wall and a few from the ceiling as well.
At the back of the building a few people were gathered and laughing about something. When the doors opened they all turned to see who would come in. They only saw Chase's silhouette, but they figured he was just another kid, so they turned on the lights. Upon seeing him and Misty in the light they all gasped and began hiding their faces.
"I want to see Lieutenant Surge!" Chase yelled from across the arena. They all began to shudder at the prospect of getting caught. "I have an urgent matter to discuss with him. Is he in?"  
One of the guys knocked on the wall behind them, and it opened to reveal a secret door.
From within the secret room emerged a seven foot tall Lt. Surge. He wore a grey tank top, big black boots, and jungle camouflage cargo pants. His short blonde hair was spiked up, and he had a bandana tied around his head that matched his pants.
Surge recognized Chase immediately, and his teeth clenched around the cigar in his mouth. It took a few moments, but Chase eventually recognized Surge as the Rocket leader from the other day. Chase, Misty and all of the people next to Surge prepared for battle, but then Surge lifted up his hand.
"Are you here for a gym battle, or to fight Team Rocket, baby?"
"My name's Chase, and I actually came here to battle the Gym leader, but since it's you-"
"How 'bout you shut yer trap, and listen," Surge interjected. "I'm a soldier. And a soldier's word is his bond. We'll battle right now, fair and square, as an official gym match. If you win, you get the badge, and we'll leave. If I win, the girl tell us what we want to know, and you leave us to our business. Sound like a fair deal?"
Chase looked at Misty, who shook her head violently. He looked back at Surge and nodded. Misty complained loudly, since it was her boyfriend that would be in danger if Chase lost, but he did not hear her. His mind was set on the battle, and nothing would distract him now. He was ready to go, and he knew who he would pick.
"All right then," Surge said. He signaled to one of his grunts, and one of them pulled a lever. The ground of the arena split open from the middle and both halves of the floor flipped over. The underside of the pieces were made of steel. There was very little grip and there were no obstacles to avoid incoming attacks. It was a flat field, perfect for battling with electric type pokemon.
"Now for my formal introduction. I've fought in wars, and I've seen my friends die around me as bullets and pokemon attacks flew past my head. The only reason I'm alive is because I had my pokemon with me. They never let me down, and today, you're going to see what war tested pokemon are made of. I'm Lt. Surge, and I'll zap you like I did my enemies in war! Go Magneton!"
He threw the pokeball and a creature that looked like three Magnemite merged together, emerged through the light with small jolts of electricity arcing from everywhere on its body.
Chase tossed his pokeball into the arena and Nidoran hopped out from a pinwheel of lights. At the sight of the blue Nidoran all the grunts began to laugh. Surge shot an angry glance back at them and they stopped. Chase was amazed that Surge would care about any pokemon's feelings, being a Team Rocket member and all.
"I had the pleasure of serving my country with a trainer who had a Nidoking partner. They were my family away from home. They didn't make it out... But I promised that I would never tolerate any disrespect to any trainer of Nidoran."
"Thank you. My Nidoran's had it rough, but he's tougher for it. Now, can we start this?"
"Babies first," Surge said with a smile.
"Nidoran, use Double Kick!" Nidoran quickly ran up to the Magneton, jumped over its head, kicked it down so it bounced off the ground, and then kicked it again so it would screech and slide across the floor. It floated up slowly, and shook off the hits.
"Magneton, use Shock Wave!" Magneton brought the pairs of magnets on its body together and then touched the ground. The electricity arced onto the floor and quickly searched out Nidoran, who was running as fast as it could, and shocked him hard enough to make all his muscles tense up at once. He collapsed and lay still for a moment.
"Nidoran? Are you okay?" Chase asked worriedly. Nidoran began moving his ears, then his head shook, and then the rest of him convulsed back to life. "Are you okay to keep going?"
Nidoran yapped and started running towards Magneton. Magneton detached itself from the ground and started to turn to get away, but Nidoran caught up and began to kick it again the way it did before, but this time he did not stop. He bounced on the Magneton a few times before Surge called it back.
"I didn't think such a little thing could beat my Magneton. That Nidoran is vicious."
Then Nidoran let out a battle cry and began to glow. His spikes and horn got longer and he doubled in size. The glow faded and then the bigger creature let out another, deeper, battle cry.
"Nice! Nidorino! You look awesome! Okay, show us what else you got Surge! We're ready!"
Surge tossed out another pokeball. Out of the light came a giant orange mouse-like creature with a long, thin, black tail ending in a wide, bolt-shaped scythe. It stood on its hind legs, and had a big yellow spot on each cheek. It growled at Nidorino, and Nidorino growled back.
"This is my Raichu. He's helped me through some tough times, and even saved my life in the war. Go! Use Thunderbolt!" Raichu  charged its attack, sparks flying from its cheeks, and sent a bolt of lightning up in an arc towards Nidorino.
"Nidorino, I know this'll hurt a bit, but use Dig!" Nidorino jumped in the air, flipped over to face the floor, and began to spin like a top. Just before the bolt struck him he hit the floor and his horn pierced the steel, but he did not have enough force to burrow. The bolt struck him, and flowed down through him into the earth where his horn had made contact, diverting the strike, and weakening the blow.
"Good job, now use Horn Attack Nidorino!" He popped out of the ground and charged at Raichu. Raichu began to run in circles around Nidorino really quickly, so that it seemed like he was in multiple places at once. Nidorino didn't know which one to attack.
"Okay, then spit your toxic on the ground around you!" Nidorino spat the toxic black goo all around him, and some spilled over to  where Raichu was running. It slipped on the poison and slid in Nidorino's direction. All Nidorino had to do then was tackle Raichu head first. Raichu slid all the way back to Surge, poisoned and bruised without much strength left to battle. Surge called it back into its ball and signaled to end the battle.
Nidorino ran back to Chase and they embraced. Surge had his grunts flip the arena back over, and then marched up to Chase.
"You showed some real guts coming here to face me, and your pokemon had a lot of guts too. I like that in a trainer, and despite our being on different sides, I like you, kid. Here, have the Thunderbadge." Surge handed him the sun-shaped badge, and put his other hand on Chase's shoulder. "And here's some info you should know: there are others like me. Gym Leaders that work for Team Rocket, I mean. Not all of them are, but I'd be careful of who you try to ally to your side."
"Then why don't you help me?" Chase asked pleadingly. "You're obviously not evil enough to be with them if you want to help me out."
"Don't get me wrong," Surge said. "Just cuz I don't want to see you hurt no more, doesn't mean I'm joining your Anti-Rocket Brigade, or whatever you're doing. I'm makin' good money, and the severance package for deserters is rough. I should know, I wrote those parts of the by-laws. I just want you to get outta my town, and leave me to my business."
"What about Misty? What about Ash? Are you still going to try to hurt them?"
"I gave my word that I wouldn't go after her anymore, and I'll hold to that. The Champ is a different story. The Boss called for his head, and if any Rocket member finds him, we're to take him out. Can't do anything about that. Now, get outta my gym. We're closed for the day." The grunts all stood up and began walking towards Chase and Misty. Chase lifted his hands and turned around towards the door.
"C'mon Misty. It looks like we won't convince him. So, we'll just have to find another way." She nodded, and followed him out of the gym.

Chase decided it would be best to heal up Nidorino at the Pokemon Center before going anywhere else. While waiting for his Pokemon to heal up, he figured it would be a good time to call his mom. He dialed the number, and this time she popped up on the screen.
"Hi honey! How are you? Are you eating all right? I got your message, congratulations on the gym wins! Where's Nidoran? I want to say hi to him too!"
"Mom!" Chase said a bit loudly. He looked around and apologized for being disruptive. "Geez, let me get a word in. I'm okay, I'm eating fine. And actually I'm calling to tell you that I'm in Vermillion City now, and I just won my third badge!"
"Oh! I'm so proud of you!"
"Aaaand. Nidoran is no longer Nidoran. He's Nidorino now."
"He evolved!? Already? Wow! You must be training him really well." Chase heard a knock coming from her side of the phone. "Oh, that's for me. I'm sorry, but I have to go honey! Call me when you get to Celadon City, I have some things I want you to pick up at the Department Store. Bye! Love you!"
"Love you too mom, bye!" The screen turned blank, and Chase placed the phone back on the receiver. He thought it would be a bad idea to tell her that he was starting a small army to take on Team Rocket, who have returned and are starting to kidnap people and pokemon again.
A Chansey walked up to Chase, and returned his pokeballs to him. Behind him was a group of sailors talking about their adventures on the high seas. Then one of the young sailors among them, he looked no more than 15, interrupted the man talking.
"So, when will I get to go on one of these adventures?" The older sailor stuck out his hairy arm and patted the young man on the shoulder.
"Soon, my boy. Right now the St. Anne is docked at the fishing yard, and that Surge lad is making sure all the electricals are working fine." At the mention of Surge, Chase's head whipped around. "That's why we're here instead of on the boat. He said it could be dangerous standing around while his electric pokemon work. You're liable to get shocked."
"Excuse me," Chase interjected. "I'm sorry, I couldn't help but overhear. Did you say Surge is the only person near your ship right now?"
"Why yes," the sailor said, sounding a bit confused. "He said it would be dangerous, so the whole crew is here. Why do you ask, son?"
Chase picked up his backpack, grabbed Misty by the arm, and rushed out of the Center. They headed South, and after a little while Misty yanks her arm out of his grip, and they stop.
"What is it? Where are we going? What did he say?"
"Didn't you hear him? He said that Surge was working on the boat alone. It's probably something Rocket related. I think he's doing something to that ship."
"Well, then we should check it out!" They started running again and finally made it to the docks. The St. Anne was an enormous ship, said to be the biggest ever to sail the sea. So it was not too difficult to spot. Chase looked closer and noticed that there were people loading cages onto the ship, with Surge supervising. Chase and Misty ran over to where they were, and Chase saw what was in the cages: pokemon.
When Chase saw how frightened the pokemon looked he became irate with anger. He pulled out a pokeball and threw it in the air, expecting Spearow to pop out. Instead the bird that emerged was four times larger, had a long, thin neck, and was a faded gold color. It's beak was long and pointed, and it had a light orange comb on its head.
"Woah, Fearow! You must have evolved inside your pokeball! That's awesome!!!" Fearow cried out in recognition and dived down to be at eye level with Chase. Chase, forgetting for a moment what he was there for, embraced Fearow and scratched the back of its head. After reacquainting himself with his flying partner, he turned his attention to the Rockets.
"Fearow, I want you to use Fly, and take out the guys holding the cages. Got that?" Fearow crowed in recognition and with a flap of its huge wings, ascended into the sky. It circled for a moment and dived towards the grunts about to lift a cage. One of them saw Fearow and jumped into the water, the other did not have enough time to react and was impaled by Fearow's beak. Fearow then whipped it's head around and swung the injured grunt into the sea as well. With a mighty flap of its wings Fearow flew past Surge and back to Chase, landing next to him.
Surge saw that Chase was the trainer of the Fearow, and prepared himself for battle. As Chase and Misty ran over to his location, Surge had his Magneton help the two grunts out of the water, and ordered that the uninjured one escort the other to the hospital. Chase and Misty arrived and Chase called Fearow back into its ball.
"Surge! Did you think that we wouldn't find out what you were doing here? Those Pokemon belong with their trainers, or out in the wild. I don't care where you got them, but we're going to send them back!" Surge was about to retort when a voice came from the ship.
"Hey Surge! Are all the pokemon in here yet? I don't think they like being in these cages." Delilah stepped out of the hull and saw Surge ready to face off with someone. She ran down to intercept, and then she realized that the one Surge was facing was Chase. She slowed down, turned away from them, and checked herself in her pocket mirror. Then she turned back around and strutted towards them slowly.
"Hi Chase," she said bashfully. "What are you doing here? Have you been following me?" Chase looked around to see who was talking, and when he saw her he blushed a bit and turned away.
"No! Of course not. I was just... Uh... Stopping Surge from doing something... Bad! Yeah!" Chase, after a moment of forgetting where he was, regained his composure. "Why is Team Rocket loading pokemon into the ship?"
"Oh!" Delilah squealed. "It's to bring them back to headquarters so we can give them to trainers who won't abuse them!"
"Or sell the rare ones to the highest bidder!" Misty exclaimed. Delilah, just noticing that Misty was standing rather close to Chase, scowled at her.
"Chase, why is Misty here?" She asked curtly.
"Oh, she's been traveling with me for a little while after I left Cerulean. We're kinda friends now." Delilah's eyes widened, and her nostrils flared.
"Are you telling me that you've been walking together, battling together, and sleeping together since you left Cerulean!?"
"Huh. I guess we have. Except the sleeping part. There wasn't much sleeping on the route we took here."
Of course, Chase meant that they were not able to get much sleep due to the noise all the forest pokemon made at night. Delilah, however, did not consider that option. Chase thought he could almost see an aura of fire surrounding her, but then he turned his attention back to Surge.
The entire time that elapsed during their conversation, Surge had picked up on the tension between the two of them. He laughed to himself at the normalcy of the conversation they were having in spite of the tense nature of the situation they were all a part of. When they all heard him laughing, they stopped talking and looked at him.
"What the Hell!?" Surge yelled suddenly. "I'm all ready for a battle to settle the futures of at least three people, and all of a sudden I feel like I'm in a Soap Opera! Stop yammerin' and start battlin'!"
Chase readied his pokeball, but just then a torrent of wind began blowing gusts all around them. They looked up to discern the source, and saw a police helicopter hovering above them. A woman's voice spoke from the loudspeaker on the helicopter.
"THIS IS THE POLICE! STAY WHERE YOU ARE AND PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!" Surge immediately ran into the ship and shut the gate, leaving Delilah alone. The ship's engine started up and smoke began to pour out of the smokestacks.
Chase threw the pokeball he was holding, and Fearow popped back out. Chase, knowing nothing could be heard over the sound of the helicopter, made wild gestures directed at Fearow, attempting to ask it if he could ride on its back. Fearow looked confused for a second, but then nodded and turned around, giving its back to him. Chase climbed on, and Fearow took off in a flash, while being careful to avoid the helicopter.
Fearow and Chase began to circle around the ship looking for a way to get to Surge quickly.
Misty figured to would be best to use her water pokemon to stop the ship from moving. She began searching through her bag for her pokeballs when something in the water caught her attention. It was a giant blue turtle with two cannons coming out of its shell. She knew it was a Blastoise, but she wondered why was it here. Then she noticed it lifting a pair of black sunglasses to its face, and she smiled.
The blastoise rocketed over to the front of the ship and dived under it. Then it began shooting jets of water in a circular pattern and created a large vortex under the ship. Just as the ship began to spin, Chase saw Surge through a window and ordered Fearow to tackle into it. Fearow dived and broke through the window and gave a loud cry when it's head was inside.
Surge was trying to hold onto the wheel of the ship, but the shock of seeing Fearow knocked him backwards, where he hit his head against a wall and fell unconscious. The ship spun uncontrollably for a few moments, then slowed down, and finally it stopped.

When they returned to land, Surge was arrested for smuggling pokemon, by the officers present. Delilah was arrested before they got off the boat, and was sitting in one of the squad cars. Tears were rolling down her face at the prospect of going to jail for doing the thing she wanted to prevent.
Chase saw her, and felt pity on her. He knew she wasn't a bad person, just a naive girl who was tricked into doing bad things. So he gathered his courage and walked up to the officer in charge.
"You know, kid," the officer said begrudgingly. "What you did took a lot of guts, and we owe you for that. However, that was also very dangerous, so please leave this sort of thing to the proper authorities from now on, okay?" Chase nodded.
"Sir, can I ask, what's going to happen to them?"
"Well, they're going to lockup for now, then they'll have their day in court, and probably all of them will go to the county prison for their crimes. So, you don't have to worry about them committing any more crimes for a while."
"Um, I was wondering," Chase said quietly. Then he perked himself up, and looked the officer dead in the eye. "Sir, I would like to ask if the girl Delilah can be released under my custody. I don't believe she's a bad person. I think she was duped into thinking that Team Rocket was a pokemon rescue group."
The officer looked him up and down.
"You really do have balls kid. I'll give you that. I can't just give you the girl, even if that's true. She's a part of that gang, and be it for good reasons or not, she still broke the law."
"But sir!" Chase protested. "I met her before this incident, and on top of her not doing anything illegal, she told me that she thought the R stood for 'rescue.' Can you really put away someone that ignorant?"
"I'm telling you kid, that's not the way the law works-"
"Have you seen her pokemon?" Chase said interrupting him. The officer looked taken aback by the question. All her pokeballs were confiscated before she had called any out for battle, so none of the officers had seen them. He gestured for one of the younger officers to get them for him. The officer returned and handed them to him.
Chase grabbed one of the balls out of the bunch and let it out. From the ball of light popped out Cleffa. Some of the officers laughed, others just looked at its kind face and smiled. So Chase let another out, and Elekid emerged. One by one he let them out, and the officer understood.
"See?" Chase said indignantly. "How could a baby pokemon trainer be a bad person?"
"Okay, okay," the officer said smiling and gesturing for them to be put back. Chase returned them to their balls and stood looking at him pleadingly.
"You've got an excellent argument. There aren't too many trainers with the kindness and patience to train baby pokemon exclusively. I'll let her go, on one condition: she has to quit Team Rocket, and tell us everything she knows about the organization. Also, if I'm to release her under your care, I need you to sign her out. She'll be your responsibility. Understand?"
Chase nodded, grabbed the officers hand, and shook it emphatically. Then he rushed over to the car that Delilah was in and swung the door open. She was so surprised that she jumped a little in her seat. Chase held out his hand to her. She looked at him for a moment, smiled, wiped the tears from her eyes and took his hand.
Chase pulled her out of the car, and she fell into his arms. He pushed her back a little and they both blushed intensely. Then he led her to the officer, who unlocked the handcuffs. When they were off she threw her arms around Chase and hugged him while more tears fell down her cheeks.
While Chase explained how he got her off the hook, the other officers we're leading Surge into one of the other vehicles. Misty stood outside the vehicle, and as the door shut on his face, she stuck out her tongue at him. He growled at her, then closed his eyes and dropped his head.
"So, where's he going?" Misty asked the officer.
"Downtown. We're going to interrogate him about Team Rocket's plans."
Misty nodded and then walked over to Chase and Delilah. She saw how happy they were together, and blushed a little thinking of how she and Ash have been lately. Then she knew what she had to do.
"Hey Chase!" She exclaimed. Chase and Delilah turned to face her. Delilah, frowned a bit, and grabbed onto Chase's arm. "Don't worry, I'm not here to get between you two. I just wanted to say that I have to go back to Cerulean. The Gym needs me, and I've been gone too long."
"So, I guess it's just me and Delilah, huh? Oh, make sure to tell Ash what's going on, when you see him again!" Delilah had been fantasizing about what life will be like traveling with Chase, when she heard him mention Ash.
"Wait! Who's Ash? I remember the Rocket guys talking about him. Is he someone important?" Chase and Misty chuckled to themselves, and Delilah turned from them and began to pout in frustration. Chase put his hand on her shoulder, and turned her around to face him.
"Ash is Misty's boyfriend. And he was the Pokemon League Champion for a while, too." Delilah's face brightened up at this news, and she quickly stepped over to Misty.
"So, nothing happened between you and Chase?" Misty shook her head and smiled. Delilah smiled wide and squealed. "Okay, then you have to tell me what it was like traveling with him. I need to know if there's anything I should watch out for." Misty began regaling Delilah on the many peculiarities of traveling with boys, and how to keep her girlish side from disappearing. This took all afternoon, and so one of the officers offered to drive Misty back to Cerulean to avoid having to travel at night.
Chase thought it would be a good idea to go back and let Officer Jenny know what had transpired, so he and Delilah asked if they could impose upon the officer's hospitality. So they all drove to Cerulean, and met with Jenny. After spending the rest of the evening reminiscing with her, she promised to inform all of the other police branches of their quest, and to aid them whenever it became necessary. Finally, Misty left them, wishing them both luck on their joint journey, and promising to keep in touch with Delilah.
Chase and Delilah rested for the night at the Pokemon Center, and first thing in the morning began traveling East towards Lavender Town. They came upon the mouth of yet another cave, which the locals referred to as Rock Tunnel. Chase and Delilah walked into Rock Tunnel, hand in hand, believing that everything would be fine as long as they had their Pokemon, and each other.