Pokémon PrismGold

Chapter Three: "The Masked Man"

Sean felt the heat from the strange blast. The second the heat melted the webbing; he rolled onto his stomach and covered his face with his arms. The moment he didn't feel the warm wind, he peeked up over his arms. The second Dragonite was down, along with its Team Rocket Trainer and his pokemon. They had taken the full force of the blast. He couldn't tell if they were alive, but frankly... he didn't care. The only thing that he cared about was his Charizard and what had caused the blast to begin with. Stiffly rising to his knees, he winced as his ears rang and called out. "Charizard? Where are you?" A low strained roar came from somewhere to his left and he looked for her. She had been knocked farther from the tree she had been slammed into and was barely moving. Yanking her ball from his belt, he called out to her. "Suzie, Return!" With a soft roar, her body faded to red light and she returned to the pokeball. Shrinking the ball, he hooked it back to his belt and staggered to his feet.

Despite the heat he had felt, nothing was fire. Noticing a strange person laying in the center of the road, he cautiously walked over. The person was laying on their stomach with a large black cloak covering their features. Within the person's gloved hand was the weirdest pokeball he had ever seen. The pokeball was gold and white. Taking a knee, Sean reached for the pokeball. Carefully sliding the pokeball from the person's hand, Sean looked it over. It was unlike anything he had seen before. The gold top glinted like it was made of a strange rainbow. While the white bottom glinted with sliver flecks. Across the top were carved the letters 'G.S.' in perfect font. His finger lingered over the button as he internally debated about pressing it to see what was inside. Thinking against it, he shrunk the pokeball down and shrugged off his backpack to slip it in. Until he knew what it was and what it contained, he wasn't going to let it just lay around. He was just zipping up his bag when the person's hand shot out to grab his wrist in a tight grip.

Sean froze watching the person lift their head to reveal a face covered in a mask that appeared to be made of ice. Sean's eyes narrowed on the person's eyes that were barely noticeable in the dark depths of the mask. Those brown eyes glared through him as a distorted voice asked him a bit strained. "Silver? Is that you?" Sean leaned away from the man, trying to pull his wrist back as he corrected nervously. "No. I'm Sean. Who are you?" The man stiffly rose to his knees, taking in the woods around them with confused eyes. After a minute, the stranger mumbled out behind his mask. "What...? Where's the shrine? Where's-" The man released Sean to search the ground with gloves hands, stammering out. "Where is it?!" Sean discreetly slipped his backpack on, asking him as calmly as he could. "What are you looking for?" The man stopped searching and staggered to his feet, stating in a slight panic. "No... It has to be here!" Sean shrugged, trying to ask the deranged masked man again. "What are you looking for? Who are you? What team are you with?" The Masked Man scoffed, dryly stating out. "It's none of your business! Just let me think..." The Masked Man slowly turned to face him, causing Sean's heart to stop.

Did he suspect that he had taken it? The Masked Man rushed up to him to grab his shoulders, making Sean yelp and reach for his belt. He only managed to get his hand on a pokeball, when the Masked Man asked slightly terrified. "Wait a minute. Did you say 'Team?' Is Team Rocket here?" Sean blinked, putting a hand to the man's chest to push him back out of his space as he told him coolly. "Yes... Are you feeling alright?" The Masked Man stepped away from him, raising his shaking hands. Taking deep breaths, the Masked Man, started talking to himself to calm himself down. "Ok. I've got to work quickly then. Think. I just got to find the ball and go back into the Time Vortex." Sean raised an eyebrow, mumbling out mostly to himself. "You hit your head pretty hard, didn't you...? Look if you give me your name, I can call the authorities to come pick you up. You shouldn't be out here if you-" The Masked Man rushed back to him, grabbing his elbows as he asked him seriously. "You can't call Officer Jenny until I find it!" Sean narrowed his eyes on the Masked Man, stepping back from him with strong concern for his mental state.