"Before I Turn this Tassel," written by Freedom Fighter Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon or any of the characters associated with the show. All names and likenesses are copyrighted by Nintendo, 4Kids Entertainment, and anyone else who had a hand in creating the show. ====== Chapter Four - Chivalry is Not Dead (10.28.02) "Victrebel is unable to battle! The match goes to the Viridian City gym leader!" The Pokémon League referee announced the final result of the match loud and clear. For the mysterious gym leader of Viridian, it's another easy victory for him. For the challenger, it's off to train some more, hoping that he will win another day. As the challenger heads out of the gym, the lights in the room go up to full power. The brightness of the light begins to reflect off of the challenger's well-gelled light brown hair. He was wearing a navy blue vest over a white short sleeve Oxford shirt and a pair of black slacks. It was normal for him to dress up for a gym battle. It reminded him of the days he spent as a Pokémon Tech student. As he left the gym building and headed off in the direction of the Pokémon Center, he reached into his right pants pocket and pulled out a picture. One that reminded him of the only reason he'd ever go back to the school where he learned to become a trainer. In that picture... was a then-twelve-year old Giselle Gravelpot. And holding it in his hand was thirteen-year old Joe Jameson, deep in thought over what could have been had he stayed at the school. "It's been three years and I still haven't won an Earth Badge," Joe thought. "Most trainers only take a year and half, two tops, to get all eight badges. Maybe I made a mistake going out on a journey of mine own." Joe remembers that he had only become friends with Giselle after her battle with Ash and just before he left to start over from scratch. He had come so far since then, despite how long it had taken to win some of the gym badges. But now he was in Viridian, trying to win an Earth Badge. But after losing for the seventh straight time... the most he had ever lost to a single gym leader thus far, he was starting to feel down in the dumps. He didn't think he could do it. Once again, he believed that this would be the gym at which his life as a Pokémon trainer would come to an end. But then he'd pull out his photo of Giselle and become inspired all over again. "The first thing I ever learned from you is that to get noticed as a trainer, you have to prove that you can surpass any challenge on any given day. Giselle always won her battles because she believed in herself and her Pokémon." Joe sighs as he reaches for his left pants pocket and pulls out the Pokéball containing his Victrebel, who had fainted in the battle against the gym leader. "I wonder what she'd say right now if she found out I lost again," he wondered. ====== "You call yourself a Pokémon trainer?" Giselle was in the middle of insulting Joshua even though she wasn't in a position to do so. She was sitting in a wooden chair with her arms tied behind the chair's back. It was placed in the center of the boiler room, which she could tell that she was in because the complicated heating system was visible over in one of the corners. The room also doubles as a storage hold, thanks to the assortment of tools, cleaning materials, extra beds, and other assorted things in there. But none of that mattered right now to Giselle. All that mattered was that she was tied to the chair and that Joshua was staring a hole right into her head as he sat backwards in a second wooden chair, waiting impatiently for William to return. "That wasn't a rhetorical question!" Giselle yelled again, jarring Joshua's brain to attention. "Why should I even answer it?" Joshua shot back. "It's a stupid question with an obvious answer." "One that I bet you don't even know." "I wouldn't talk like that, especially in the position that you're in right now." "And who's gonna stop me? You? I doubt that!" "If you weren't so pretty, I'd slap you right now." "Go ahead! I can take it!" "You'd want me to do that, wouldn't you?" "What's wrong? Afraid that if you slap me you'd be expelled for attempting to injury a fellow student? It's in the Pokémon Tech On-Campus Decorum Handbook, if you didn't know. Then again, you probably didn't know that kidnapping me for your own sadistic pleasure is actually a crime." "Will you shut up already?" Joshua yelled, getting annoyed at Giselle again. "So," Giselle smirked, "you didn't know? For something like this, you won't just get expelled. You and your friend will most likely go to prison as well. What would your parents think about that?" Fed up with Giselle's arrogance, he manages to restrain himself long enough before yelling at the top of his lungs. "WILLIAM!" Joshua got up and threw his chair off to the side. Giselle winces as she hears the chair hit the ground hard, one of the legs partially coming apart in the process. The sound of the noise was more than loud enough to bring William running over. And he had some more rope in hand. "It's still the middle of the day!" William exclaimed. "The janitorial staff are still in the building cleaning, you know. You want to get caught?" Joshua grabs William's head and turns it to the left, straight at Giselle. "Can you tell me what's wrong with this picture?" Joshua asked his companion-in-crime. "Um... she's still got clothes on?" Joshua lets go of his friend's head and then gives him a quick jab to the stomach. William doubles over as he clutches his stomach in pain. "She's awake, dumbass! That Butterfree of yours was to put her to sleep for an hour, not ten minutes!" "Excuse me," William winced, "but who had to carry her down here? Alone, I might add?" "Because of you, she knows what's happening! How am I supposed to do her if she's awake?" "What's wrong with that? It's more fun if you can hear her scream." Joshua grabs the rope from William and then smacks him across the face with it. "Didn't you just say that we have to keep this quiet? The moment she screams, someone will come running in, and we're busted!" "So? I'll just have Butterfree put her to sleep again." "Forget that! Just find me a roll of duct tape!" William looks around and immediately spots one in an open toolbox nearby. He grabs it and then hands it to Joshua. "Now," William began, pointing towards the exit, "go outside and make sure nobody comes in." "What? You mean I can't stay and watch?" "Certainly not! I told you to do one simple thing and you failed! You don't deserve to watch! Now, out!" William grumbles under his breath as he heads for the exit. "Your friend doesn't look too happy about that," Giselle commented. "It's a lesson he's got to learn. Anyway, why are you analyzing us? Shouldn't you be cowering in fear or something like that?" "Do I look like a damsel in distress to you, buddy?" "In case you've forgotten, your hands are tied behind you." Joshua then began to approach Giselle, with another long string of rope wrapped around his left arm. "And soon enough, so will your feet!" ====== Angela was wandering about the second floor, still scratching her head in confusion. "Where could she be? She promised!" She then spots two young teenage girls walking in her direction, coming from the elevator lobby. She ran up to the two of them, who could pass off as identical twins. The one on the left had red hair while the one on the right had aqua-blue hair. They both shared the same hairstyle: the double ponytail look. "Hi!" greeted the red haired one. "Is something wrong?" asked the aqua-blue haired one. "Have you two seen Giselle anywhere?" Angela asked them. "She used the stairwell about ten minutes ago. We saw her head in that direction because we were talking downstairs in the lobby with some friends." "We all saw her go in. You sure she's not in her room?" Angela shook her head. "No. I checked already. I'd better check the stairwell. I hope nothing's happened to her." Angela ran for the stairs as the two girls look on, wondering what's going on. ====== William was standing outside the double doors that led into the boiler room. He was sulking, unhappy that he couldn't stay inside and watch Joshua 'play' with Giselle. Not that he wasn't used to it. Besides, Joshua had pulled something like this before while visiting another prep school about year ago. Somehow, they had managed to get away with it. "If we ever get the chance to do this again," William thought to himself, "I'll make sure that I'm the one having fun and he's the one stuck out here!" "Hey!" a voice yelled. "You're not supposed to be down here!" William looked like as if he was going to panic as he glances down the hall to see who the voice belonged to. It happened to be a light brown skinned man dressed in a blue jumpsuit and brown work boots. He was pushing a cart filled with cleaning materials such as sponges, disinfectants, and air fresheners. "What are you doing here?" the man asked William. "Cascade Hall is an all-girls' dormitory! Do you have an escort?" "Shouldn't you have one?" "I have a reason to be here! I work with the janitorial staff." The janitor is now standing right in front of William, who continues to stand in front of the door. "I will call the resident director if you don't get out of here right now." "Go ahead. I dare you." "Oh, a wiseguy, eh? We'll see who's still smiling when the RD gets here." He starts to walk off, but when he hears a yelp of pain from inside. "What was that?" "That? Well..." Another scream of pain, this one even louder. "Somebody's in there," the man said, turning around and heading for the door. William tries to block the door, but the janitor easily pushes him aside. He runs in and hears a third scream, this one the loudest of all. ====== Giselle is still sitting smugly in her chair, so far unharmed and her feet still free to move around. About ten feet away, Joshua is kneeling on the floor, holding his hands over his face. He removes them as he looks up at Giselle. She smiles as she notices the matching set of footprints that now adore either side of Joshua's face. She also sees the damage she's already done to his lower lip, which is now bleeding in two different places. "I'm not a damsel in distress!" Giselle told him once again. "If I were you, I'd run before I really kick it into high gear." "That's it!" Joshua screamed. "Forget the damn foreplay! Let's just go straight to the main event!" Obviously enraged over nothing going right so far, Joshua gets aggressive. He drops the rope on the floor and charges right at Giselle. Before she could defend herself, Joshua jumps right into her, sending them both to the floor. When all was said and done, Giselle was still tied to the chair. But she was now gritting her teeth as she tried to keep from screaming. It was because she was now facing straight up at the ceiling and the back of the chair was against the floor, nearly crushing both of her arms. To make matters worse, Joshua was now lying on top of her and was staring right in her face. "I'm in control now! And now, you shall become mine!" As Joshua leaned in for a kiss, a number of thoughts were running through Giselle's head. "I'm trapped! I'm losing all of the feeling in my arms, the sleeping powder seems to be taking effect again, and this jerk's about to take away my first kiss! I don't want him to, but there's no way to stop him. For the first time in my life, I feel... weak." And then, for the first time in Giselle's life, Lady Luck would make an appearance. In the form of one of the building's janitors, who appears out of nowhere and pulls Joshua off of her. "What's the big idea?" Joshua yelled angrily as he turned around to see who had picked him up. "You're in a lot of trouble, young man." "William! Get in here and help me!" William then appeared, but he wasn't alone. Angela was right behind him, and so were the two girls she had talked to upstairs. "Forget it," William said. "It's over." "Giselle!" Angela exclaimed worriedly, running over and lifting Giselle's chair off of the ground. "Are you okay?" "It's nothing... I couldn't handle." And after that last spew of witty banter, Giselle fainted. For Joshua, he couldn't be more happier. "Finally! I thought she'd never shut up!" "I have a feeling that she won't be quiet for long," Angela told Joshua. "Once she tells the dean what happened, you two will be kicked out of Tech for good!" The other two girls watch William carefully as one of them, the red haired one, takes out her cell phone and starts dialing the number for campus police. ====== After Joshua and William are taken away by the campus police, they are immediately taken to the dean's office, where they await a meeting from him. "If your Butterfree would've done it's job," Joshua began, "we wouldn't be sitting here up to our necks in trouble!" "Oh, shut up!" William shot back. Eventually, the dean called them in to his office. The two reluctantly went in. ====== The next thing Giselle knew, she was lying in a cot in the school's mini-hospital. She attempted to get up, but the second she applied pressure to her arms, she lied back down. Teary-eyed and trying to keep from screaming her head off from the excruciating pain, she immediately gave up trying to leave. She was wondering how she had gotten here in the first place. And then, she remembered what had happened in the boiler room. Joshua was about to rape her, that's for sure. But he never really got started, thanks to her own defensive manuevers and the strange man who had pulled the creep off of her. She then remembers Angela being there, righting the chair and relieving the pressure off of her arms. But nothing after that. She had blacked out. And now she was in the hospital, unsure of what to do next or just how bad she was hurt. Although the inability for her to use her arms to get up was a good sign. At the same time, Giselle immediately ruled out rolling out of the bed as well. After all, she'd still have to use her arms to get to her feet. Either that, or wriggle like a worm out of the room. No chance of that happening. Suddenly, the door into the room opens. Giselle turns her head to the left and sees Angela enter the room, along with the man that had saved her. She was torn between boasting that she could've escaped by herself and thanking him for saving her when she powerless to do anything. It was a decision that would change her life forever. Preview of Chapter 5: "Mad About You" - How will Giselle react to meeting her 'savior' personally? - After recovering, Giselle tries to find a way to pack the janitor back for helping her. - And what will happen when she gets a surprise call from none other than Joe? Special Note: If you haven't caught the message on my profile page already, "Before I Turn This Tassel" moves to Thursdays beginning with the next chapter. But this fanfic will take next week off, which means that Chapter 5 will not be up until November 14th. Come back then and see how much Giselle has changed after this chapter's events.