FicWad

I had a lot of fun with this chapter because it's so full of action! :D

Don't Give Me Diamonds

Diamond 08: Give me Adventure

"Damn!" Giovanni cursed loudly as the side mirror was knocked off his car after brushing against a tree.

People's screams as they rushed to get out of the way in Viridian City still echoes in Delia's head. They were pursued by the police for their reckless driving through the city, though fortunately they didn't hit anything or anyone before making it to the forest.

Giovanni knew he couldn't lead the police to the hideout, thus far from slowing down to navigate the forest, he speed up even more. "Are they still after us?"

Delia looked back, trying to perceive any trace of the police through the tick forest, too focused on the rush of the moment to care if they had already seen her face. "I don't see them, but they could catch up."

The empty warning light was bright on the dashboard, Giovanni knew he should have refueled when he had the chance, he intended to stop at Viridian City on the way back from Pallet Town, but he rushed through in his haste and didn't refuel.

Having consumed the last drop of gas, the car finally came to a full stop. "Damn it! Why now?" He punched the steering wheel hard, fortunately missing the horn.

"Because you didn't refuel!" Delia yelled back. A million thoughts ran through her head, about her life as a criminal, because that's what she felt like, about how she could have avoided this, and most of all, about what was happening at the hideout. "The others are in danger, one of the bad gangs is there; our comrades need us!" She wasn't sure where that came from, but she didn't want to picture her friends from Team Rocket or their pokemon getting hurt.

"Growlithe! Growl! Growlithe!" The barking of a pack of Growlithe echoed loudly, fast approaching.

"We have to run," Giovanni dug out a backpack from the back of the car for Delia to put the pokemon egg in it and they both ran through the thick forest.

There was nothing particularly incriminating in the car other than the Team Rocket uniforms, but that didn't matter, Team Rocket was a gang of pokemon thieves, a few driving tickets to their name were nothing.

The barking of the Growlithe became closer and came from multiple directions. "They must have alerted the Pewter City police!" Giovanni concluded; they were trapped from both sides. Maybe they could hide in the thick forest surrounding Viridian until they lost the police, but that would slow them down too much.

"What do we do? I don't want to fight the police," the seriousness of the situation sunk in like a Golem in a pool for Delia and her fighting spirit which came out when they were previously found by Machoke was gone. However, she still didn't want to give up, she didn't want her friends and their pokemon to get hurt; she wanted to help them, even if they were criminals.

"We're too outnumbered anyway, I'll have to take you hostage after all," He took out a knife, "just play along, don't be scared... actually, yes, try to look scared."

"I won't have to put up much of an act for that," Delia stayed perfectly still, allowing Giovanni to hold her hands behind her back and the knife at her throat.

"Stop!" A woman with blue hair wearing a police uniform emerged from beyond the dense flora followed by three men also in police uniforms.

"Don't come any closer or the girl dies!" Giovanni threatened.

Delia gave the officer, whose name happened to be Jenny, an absolutely terrified look, which matched her situation perfectly. Jenny would never guess the source of Delia's fear were the officers, rather than the man holding her hostage.

"Don't do anything rash now," the police was obviously under a lot of tension. Several other officers had caught up, including another blue haired woman identical to the first, who came from the opposite direction. "Just let her go." The Viridian City Jenny kept her voice gentle, hoping not to startle the criminal into slicing the hostage's throat.

Giovanni glanced back for a second, he should have slowed down in the city, but he could only think of the battle that waited against the rival gang and his hasty mistake came at a high price. There were officers and Growlithe all around them, having come from both Viridian and Pewter City. "Stay back, I'm serious!"

Dragging Delia along threateningly, Giovanni made his way out of the circle of officers and through the forest. He knew the officers were following them from a distance, but the hostage situation only allowed them to walk at a slow pace.

When they were far enough not to be seen, though the Growlithe could surely follow their scent with ease, Giovanni released Delia and they ran deep into the forest until they reached a stream.

"Can you swim?"

"Yes... Oh, I think I understand; it's to make the trail harder to follow for the Growlithe... Good idea, let's go." Her heart was pounding and she couldn't catch her breath.

"Delia, pull yourself together, you'll drown if you don't calm down," Giovanni urged.

Delia nodded, she didn't know what she was doing anymore and even if Giovanni wasn't really forcing her to follow him, she felt very much like his real hostage. "I'm alright, I can do this."

They jumped into the stream, making use of the current to move faster. They came out down stream and continued their run, exhausted, wet and cold, but with no intentions of stopping.

"Pewter City is up ahead, we'll go around it quietly steal a transport and hurry to the hideout," Giovanni decided.

"We can't steal anything; it's wrong! I found a way to justify taking the pokemon thinking they would be treated better but... oh, what am I doing here anyway?" Delia felt it was too late to question the motives she should have questioned from the start.

"When you see something you think is wrong, you can't leave it alone, you want to carry the weight of the world by yourself, that's why you won't stop following me," Giovanni had been holding her hand since they left the stream, making sure she didn't fall behind or run off on her own, but finally, he let her go. "Stay here if you want, you're just an innocent hostage after all. I trust you won't reveal the location of the hideout; it would cause a lot of trouble for everyone. Go back to Pallet Town; I'll find you when things calm down."

Delia watched Giovanni run towards the outskirts of Pewter City and take cover. She really shouldn't have followed him, every logical and sane brain cell she had was screaming at her not to follow him. Yet he was right about one thing, she couldn't leave this wrong alone, because she knew she could make it right. Thus she followed him, sneaking around, dangerously close to the police station, ready to allow him to take her hostage again if it came to that. "What are you doing?" She whispered.

"They're distracted; I'll steal a motorcycle and get out of here. They sent most of their officers to the forest and left the station almost empty." The opportunity was one of the kind and Giovanni knew it might be his only chance to get away fast. "I guess this is where we go our separates ways."

Giovanni quietly made his way to the motorcycle parking lot outside the station. Someone had conveniently left the keys on the ignition of one of the motorcycles. He slashed the tires of the other vehicles in the parking lot; that should slow them down considerably. He took the donut carelessly left on the seat and threw it away, imagining the face of the officer finding that the donut was there on the ground, but the motorcycle had disappeared.

Delia rushed after Giovanni and sat behind him, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist, which took him by surprise. "What are you doing?"

"Chill out Charmander, I just don't want to fall off. You're right, I can't leave things as they are and I'm not letting you getaway. Sorry, you're stuck with me; now let's get moving before they see us!" Delia urged. She had decided to follow her instincts and dream she could take on the world.

"Hold on," Giovanni stated the engine and the noise caught the attention of the few officers that were left behind at the station, but it was too late, they were already making their get away.

Out of Pewter City and into the mountains they went recklessly fast. They knew they were being followed, but most of the officers were probably still looking for them at the Viridian forest when they made their get away from Pewter City and those at Pewter were left to pursue them on foot without the help of pokemon to trail them.

When the terrain became too rough, they abandoned the motorcycle and continued on foot until they saw smoke. "It's on fire... the hideout is on fire!" Delia yelled.

"Tempest will pay for this!" Giovanni rushed down the mountain towards the area next to the flames, where a pokemon battle was still raging.

The opposing pokemon looked furious, but at the same time lost. What shocked Delia most was that they were wounded but didn't seem to notice and continued to push themselves being ripped apart. "What have they done to those poor pokemon?"

Team Rocket looked like they were in trouble, though Aayla kept insisting that they had to stay strong, "keep battling everyone, the boss will be here soon!"

"I'm already here," Giovanni ran towards the fight. A chorus of his name was heard among the members of Team Rocket as they found renewed strength.

"Sorry boss, the warehouse and the hideout are both up in flames," Aayla apologized. "They outnumber us three to one humans and five to one pokemon."

The odds were clearly against them, but Team Rocket somehow still looked strong after Giovanni had arrived. Some of the members even had the courage to threaten their enemies from the Tempest Gang, certain that their leader's arrival would assure their victory. Delia was both puzzled and amazed, how could they have so much faith in Giovanni?

"We can still win, we won't let them get away with this, Team Rocket doesn't retreat!" Cheers came from Team Rocket as they stood beside Giovanni with confidence, ready to continue the fight.

A man stepped forward from the Tempest Gang; he had cyan hair and eerie yet enthralling red eyes. His body was perfectly proportioned and his face quite handsome. He possessed a unique commanding aura. "Good to see you again Aayla," he mocked.

"Venom," Aayla growled in response, "The Boss is here now; Team Rocket is taking you out!"

"It doesn't look like it," Venom laughed evilly, "you Rocket trash don't know what you're up against. You should be running for your lives!"

Before Giovanni could step forward to answer to the rival gang leader, Delia's voice echoed with the command of "aurora beam!" and Venom was knocked to the ground by Cloyster's attack. "The way you people treat pokemon is terrible, I won't let you get away with it! Krabby use bubble!"

The atmosphere was covered in bubbles and Giovanni make good use of the distraction as well as Delia's strategy, calling out Ivysaur to join the other pokemon. "Everyone attack! Knock out all the trainers!"

"Alright dudes, all's fair in love and war, you know? Let's like throw the rule book out the window, man!" Luke sent his pokemon, Poliwhirl and Tentacool on the offensive.

"This is a bold move Giovanni, it will have repercussions. I take it Delia doesn't know the agreement, that the pokemon fight and the humans can't be attacked until all their pokemon are defeated," Binks complained, while holding his unconscious Rattata protectively.

"We'll do what we have to do to win," Giovanni insisted.

"If this is the choice that has been made, so be it..." Leah quietly accepted it, "Butterfree, use sleep powder on the enemy trainers!"

"It's about time we gave them what they deserve!" Aayla was pleased with the turn the battle had taken, "Ghastly, confuse ray on the trainers!"

"This is an outrage! How dare you?" Venom yelled in anger. "Rhyhorn!" He called his pokemon out of its pokeball. However, before he could command the pokemon to take revenge on Delia, Giovanni made his way through the multitude of confused and groggy Tempest Gant members and delivered a solid punch, effectively knocking a couple of Venom's teeth out. He quickly snatched Rhyhorn's pokeball and called the pokemon back, he would train it as his own later, but it was too soon to expect it to effectively obey right away.

Venom crawled away, shocked and frightened; he was used to relying on his strong chemically enhanced pokemon and had no fighting power of his own. Now his perfect face was ruined. "Retreat!" He started to run away, followed by his gang members.

"You're not going anywhere until you hand over your pokemon!" Delia chased after them, leading Cloyster and Krabby's fierce attack, which brought Krabby to evolve into Kingler during the fight. This was her mission, to save the pokemon from the bad gangs. However, her mission was interrupted by the sound of helicopters...

To be Continued

Disclaimer, I don't own Pokemon. No outlaw story is complete without a chase scene so it had to be done. ;) The presence of a rival gang was a background element in the original plan of this story, but I thought it was a topic that deserved to be developed. Look at that, it's another cliffhanger! XD