Warning: This is not standard Pokemon fanfiction. It contains scenes of violence and some inappropriate language. ************************************************************************* Pokemon Master Fanfiction by Ace Sanchez. All parts of this story may be found at the following address: http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/acey/pokemon.htm Note: Pokemon and its associated characters are copyright by Nintendo, Game Freak, Creatures Inc, and 4Kids Productions. ************************************************************************* Part 8 - Repercussions Melvin yawned and then opened his eyes as he lay in bed. The first thing that he thought about was, why was it still dark? Was it still night time? He leaned over to the bed side table to see what time it was on the old clockwork time piece. The metal of the small clock was cold in his hand as he peered at it by bringing it close to his eyes. Seven in the morning, it looked like. Yet it was so dark, he couldn't see his hand in front of his face. For a moment he felt a cold rush of fear. Was he going blind? He already had to wear glasses. He quickly twisted himself around on the bed to face the shadow of his wife. "Martha?" he whispered. "What is it?" she groaned. "Can you see anything?" For a moment there was silence. Then her voice came back, grumpy. "Of course not. It's the middle of the night. Go back to bed." "But my clock says it's morning." "Then it's broken." Melvin felt intensely relieved at that. "Yeah, it must be." He rolled back over on to his back and tightened the covers around himself. But there was still a nagging feeling that something was wrong. For one thing, he was fully awake. He was a morning person, not a night person. By all rights, if it really was still the middle of the night, then he should be dead to the world. He tried to go back to sleep by closing his eyes. It didn't work. "This isn't working," he grumbled. "I'm getting up. It must be insomnia." "Fine," his wife answered. Melvin gently slipped sideways out of the covers and out of the bed. He felt around on the bedside drawer for his glasses and put them on. It was still dark. Clumsily, he navigated his way to the bedroom door. He hit his shins a couple of times but he kept silent. Martha would get annoyed. After a couple more collisions, with Melvin promising himself to lose some weight, he reached the door. He touched the cold metal of the handle and twisted. The door opened with a squeak and he slipped out. The wooden floor was freezing underneath his bare feet, but the living room was a bit brighter, not as dark as inside the bedroom. He walked slowly in the darkness to the table and picked up the flint. Using it, he lit the lamp. Immediately he could see better, the flame in the small lamp dancing, causing the shadows to move eerily from side to side. He pikced up the lamp by its handle and walked over to the kitchen. The clock on the wall read seven twenty in the morning. "Huh?" Melvin mumbled to himself. He walked quickly over to the windows and drew the curtains back. Outside, it seemed as if it was still early evening, the tall lamp posts still lit up. The sky looked like a moving sea of blue-black clouds. They seemed to cover the sun from letting down any light at all. In fact, it didn't even look like there was a sun behind all those clouds. "Honey, I think there's a problem with the weather!" he shouted out as he ran over to the cupboard and removed his pokemon belt. There wasn't an answer. She must have gone back to sleep, he thought, as he strapped the belt over his pyjamas and around his considerable waist. Then bringing the lamp, he ran over to the front door, opened it with a light click and stepped outside on the porch. There were a few other people walking around in the town, looking confused as they stared at the sky, with a lamp in each of their hands. "What's going on?" Melvin called out to one of his neighbours. He was the man who owned the farm out back towards Celadon, but lived mostly in the town-house next door. He was out on the dirt street in front of their house looking at the sky. In his hand he carried a lamp of his own as well as a long pitchfork in the other. On his head he wore a wide-brimmed, yellow straw hat. "Don't rightly know!" his neighbour replied. "Dark clouds blocking out the whole darn sky!" Melvin looked to the east where the sun should have risen. All there was, was a dark blue glow on a midnight black horizon. None of the stars were even visible. "Darn it!" the farmer continued. "If these here clouds don't clear by noon time, my crops'll go bad!" Melvin studied the clouds up above them. "They look like they're moving on though." "Look again! Those dang things are just swirling about, moving on nowhere." Then the ground seemed to tremble. Vibrations that began to get stronger and stronger beneath their feet. Melvin's house began to shake and dust fell from the roof on to his head. "What the shadows is this? An earthquake?" the farmer yelled. A growling interrupted them. Melvin whipped around, shining the light of the lamp towards the source of the sound at the foot of the porch. Red eyes flashed, and Melvin jerked back, startled. "Oh, it's only a rattata! Them critters are always scarin the life outta people!" Melvin studied it. It certainly looked like a rattata. Yet it didn't look like one either. Its skin tone was darker than usual and instead of square front teeth, it sported a pair of wickedly sharp fangs. It seemed to glow a dark blue colour similar to the hue of the clouds covering the sky. "It looks kind of weird," he cautioned. "Nonsense!" the farmer scoffed and began to approach it. He extended out his pitchfork to poke at it. "Watch out!" Melvin yelled. But it was too late. The rattata hissed and suddenly leapt on to the pitchfork at an ungodly speed. It ran up the long handle and then seemed to rip right through the farmer's wrist. The pitchfork clattered to the ground with the hand still attached to the handle. The farmer screamed in agony and bent over from the pain as the dark rattata turned around to attack him again. "No!" Melvin shouted. He ripped a poke ball from his belt and enlarged it in his hand. "Exeggcuter, go! Barrage now!" His Grass Pokemon shifted outward from the thrown ball in a haze of red light and then began to attack. But before it could do so, the Rattata sensed the threat and seemed to flash in some sort of Quick Attack. It shot into Melvin's walking tree pokemon and then began to melt it from the inside out. The Exegguter began to bubble up as the Rattata inside it seemed to feed off its very life force. "No, Exeggcuter!" Melvin cried. He began to remove his wand from his belt to execute his Raging Fire spell when the Pokemon suddenly exploded in dark chunks. A chunk of it landed upon Melvin's shoulder and it began to hiss like burning acid. Melvin screamed. "There's more of them!" Melvin's neighbour shouted. Sure enough, along the horizon it looked like a living tidal wave of Rattatas. The only sound they made was the scampering of feet upon the earth. It was what was causing the ground to tremble. It looked like they would reach the town soon. People yelled in fright as they noticed the flood of rats. "Let's get out of here!" Melvin cried quickly, rushing back into his house. He ignored the pain in his shoulder as he stumbled through the house towards the bedroom. "Martha, we've got to evacuate quickly!" Suddenly he tripped, stumbling slightly and the lamp in his hand jerked and went out. Instantly he was left in total darkness. No matter, he thought as he opened the door to their bedroom. "Martha?" There she was, a dark shape on the bed. "Martha, get up!" He ran over to the shape and pushed the covers aside. A pair red eyes flashed at him. Then more and more red eyes appeared so it seemed like the whole room was lighting up with them. "Darkness, no!" Melvin cried as he stumbled backward. The rattatas hissed and then leapt upon him. <><><> The tapping of the keyboard was unnaturally loud within the small makeshift lab. The small flames from a single candelabra lit up the metallic surfaces of the room, the shadows dancing in tune to the candle flames. Monitor screens and switches along the walls flashed like fireflies in the darkness. Sitting in a small corner of the room in front of a computer, a lone scientist in a white lab-coat worked quickly. Seymour studied the furious readings showing up on his monitor. He frowned as he noticed something particularly strange. Jumps in the world's power balance were fluctuating madly. Almost like the disaster of five years ago. But that was impossible wasn't it? "Cle-fairy!" His rounded pink pokemon seemed to move about on the table restlessly. "Quiet, Clefairy, your master is working now!" he said, his fingers dancing agilely over the keys. "Lessee, if I ambulate the triangulators ..." he mumbled to himself, "I should see what is causing the disturbance ... Good heavens above!" "Clefairy!" the pokemon said again, this time more agitated. "Dear heavens, what is wrong with you? Here we have the end of the world coming and you ..." He turned around. His eyes widened. All along the floors, it seemed like hundreds - no, thousands of snakes were slithering along towards them. But directly in front of him a huge black Arbok reared its head. Its eyes glowed malevolently in its serpentine face and its forked tongue darted in and out as it stared at him. Its razor sharp fangs dripped thick venom which hissed as it met the steel floor and melted right through. "Clefairy you should have warned me ..." was the last thing that Seymour said. <><><> At the edge of a forest and the bank of a slowly moving river, a group of five people were running rapidly to the east. In the lead was a woman with shoulder length, blue-black hair held in place by a red hair-band. Her long, green cloak, that matched her eyes, trailed behind, flapping in the wake of her sprint, as she brightened the way forward with a small torch held in her left hand. The small group of people leaped over various debris that lay in their path quickly and efficiently because any lost speed would most likely mean their death. Behind them, and gaining rapidly despite their efforts, was what seemed like a total black tidal wave of hostile flying insects, knocking over forests and whatever lay in their path like dominos in the short distance. There were so many, the sheer number of them seemed to absolutely cover the land and the river in a total blanket of darkness. The buzzing noises they emitted were so loud that only the sounds of the destruction they caused were comparative. "Hurry up, people!" Erika shouted, as she whipped a loose fold of her cloak over her shoulder with a free hand. She lifted the brightly glowing torch in her other and deftly navigated the group over a fallen tree. "We've got to make it to the coast where the Rebel base is!" Just her luck to be attacked when they had just been separated from Koga and Aya's soldiers after the battle the night before and were exceedingly vulnerable. The bugs also held them at a distinct elemental disadvantage. And if that weren't enough, it was obvious even at this distance that the beedrills looked so huge, each being about ten feet in length, that it was as if they were not ordinary pokemon but some sort of unearthly and deadly new species. In fact, they also seemed to emit an evil blue-black glow from their bodies. Erika had taken one look and knew they were bad news. It may have been cowardly to flee like this but heck, sometimes cowards were the wisest people of all. "They're catching up!" Joy cried. Erika took a brief look behind and realised that it was true. The wave of huge insects were only about two dozen feet away now, destroying everything that lay in their path like some sort of horrible plague. She turned back to the young girl running behind her and felt profound sadness. She regretted ever bringing the young nurse with her. She was just a kid! "Do you think we should stop to fight them?" one of her guards asked, fingering the poke-ball at her side. "Don't be foolhardy!" Erika hissed. "They'd overpower us in seconds! Keep your pokemon to yourselves." Then the buzzing seemed to grow louder. "That sounds like it's coming from right in front of us!" Erika spotted the trees at the edge of the forest ahead of them begin to quiver. Then they splintered and a small group of about five beedrills flew out and charged them directly. Their antennae seemed to quiver in excitement and hunger. "They are!" she shouted. "Stay back!" After throwing the torch to young Joy behind her, she sped up her foot speed and summoned her long black staff to her hands with a wave of green energy. As the weapon materialised along her palms, it lit up the darkness even more than the torch had. The first beedrill swooped down, seeming to aim its three huge stingers at her head and upper torso. As Erika approached she felt the wind created by its rapidly moving wings blow over her face and through her hair. Thrusting her staff to the ground, she used it to pole-vault up above to meet the insect in the air. Once airborne, she completed her downwards staff movement into a full overhead circle-strike to crack the the huge insect on the head. The beedrill seemed to cry in pain and flew crazily of course before it splashed into the river. Then Erika, still airborne, dispatched two more of them, by rotating once with a strong horizontal swing of her staff before she landed, still running, with a thump of her boots upon the dirt path. Behind her, her group of following guards leapt over the two quivering bodies which fell, and kept up with her pace. The last two beedrills blocking their way were slightly trickier to take care of, one of their stingers scoring a bloody path down her arm, but Erika hadn't achieved her title of Grass Master for nothing. The group jumped over the last two Beedrills smashed and quivering bodies soon enough. But it was useless, Erika thought, as she checked the distance of the massive swarm still chasing them with a flick of her head. They were still about a mile or so from the base and meanwhile the beedrills would soon overcome them. However there was a chance to save her guards ... She dropped to the rear of the group and then suddenly stopped running, her boots scratching twin furrows in the dirt as she skidded. She turned around with a flap of her cloak to face the oncoming swarm and recalled her staff away with a flicker of emerald light. Joy and her guards also stopped running when they realised Erika wasn't following any more. "What are you doing Mistress Erika?" one of them shouted. She lifted her arms and crossed them over each other. "Keep going people! I'll buy you some time!" Numerous green leaves and pink flower petals began to float out from the wrists of her long sleeves. Soon the air in front of her was a veritable wall of floating greenery and soft petals. It spread outward in a circular shape and then swirled around in the air like a protective barrier. When the first Beedrills hit it, they fell confusedly on the ground, their legs twitching as if they had been swatted. As more hit the wall, the pile of insects began to grow higher. Erika closed her eyes and a thin line of sweat dropped from her brow as she concentrated on spreading the poison barrier. "Now, go!" she cried to her watching guards. "But you can't keep this up forever, and then what?" a guard exclaimed. "We just can't leave you here to save us!" Joy cried. "We'll all make our stand here!" Erika sighed. "Stubborn! Fine! If you all have a death wish!" She concentrated harder on the barrier, making it thicker and more impenetrable. It looped around to their back and completely closed them off from harm in a protective bubble. Hundreds and hundreds of beedrills continued piling up outside. "Chansey, go!" Joy cried releasing her poke-ball. "Ivysaur, go!" "Victreebel, go!" "Tangela, go!" "If you see any part of the barrier weakening, you know what to do," Erika called out still with her eyes closed. "And perhaps you won't have to ..." a voice interjected. Erika immediately opened her eyes and looked around. "Who said that!" In the corner, within the barrier, stood a figure dressed in a blue Master's cloak. Artic eyes flared within the hood. "Misty?" Erika laughed. The figure whipped the hood off revealing a head of long red hair reaching to the back of her waist and a beautiful, smiling face. "The one and only!" "How did you get here? Where did you come from?" "So many questions, so little time!" she said. She pointed to what looked like an opening in the ground by her feet. The edges of the hole looked blackened and melted. "I came by tunnel express!" "It seems like you're always saving me in the nick of time," Erika said, overjoyed. "Misty, you're great!" "And don't I know it!" Erika blinked. "My, aren't we modest today?" "And don't I have enough reason to be! Now everyone get in the tunnel, single-file," she ordered. "Erika goes last since she's the actual person maintaining the barrier." Soon, out of her group, it was only Erika who had to enter the tunnel. "Misty, you're going after me?" she asked as she was about to step into the hole. "Of course. I'll have to close up the tunnel after us." Erika took one last look at the horrific numbers of beedrill trying to get inside. "Then watch out when I release the barrier," she cautioned. "Get in quick, understand?" Then she released her hold over the poison barrier and ducked into the dark tunnel after the rest of her group. The blue-cloaked woman stepped over the hole and watched as the barrier of petals and leaves began to fall to the earth. As soon as it was breached, the horrible ear-deafening buzzes of the beedrills leaked through and then it seemed like a whole black sky of insects were closing in from all directions. Their eyes flashed red and their antennae quivered hungrily. Uncountable stingers were all aimed and pointed directly at her. "Stupid bugs," the woman said to herself. She lifted her right arm and extended her fingers into the air. Lasers of white light exploded forth from her palm and disintegrated all the beedrills in range to fine ivory ashes. The swarm was startled enough that it left enough time for the woman to jump into the hole and escape. <><><> The stone wall cracked against Brock's back and he gritted his teeth as another bone-crushing force of unseen energy squeezed him against it. His feet dangled uselessly above the floor as he struggled to gain his balance. "How could you let them escape?" The calm voice came from the shadows at the end of the room. Brock thought about turning his body into rock, but then thought better of it. "The-the psychic hold we held over him was broken, my Lord." The shadow sighed. "If you had just killed them before trying to show off..." The strength of the power squashing Brock against the stone doubled and he grunted as a trickle of blood began to leak from one nostril and down his chin. "I-I'll get them now, my Lord," Brock gasped, finding it hard to breathe. "I know where they are!" "Do you now? Well see that you do." The voice chuckled. "Nothing fancy like what you tried earlier, though it was certainly amusing." The voice grew serious and flat. "Just kill them dead. And just so you won't bungle up matters this time, I'm sending two more Masters with you that I've just ported in." "I can get them myself..." The voice turned mocking. "If you think you can kill Ash all by yourself, you're certainly overconfident. Just like last time. The difference is that he may be forewarned now of just who it is that he's up against." Abruptly, the force crushing Brock to the wall intensified for an agonising second before it suddenly gave out, dropping Brock to the floor like excess garbage. He lay along the ground on his hands and knees, brown cloak draped over his body, coughing and choking a mixture of saliva and blood. Then the voice startled him again. "I'll be waiting at Indigo Plateau. Bring tangible evidence that you've disposed of them. Preferably their heads." And then the room was silent in the wake of the League Master's exit. For a moment, Brock was content to stay still on his hands and knees before a different voice startled him. "It seems Lord Garrick was most displeased with you." It was feminine and emotionless. Brock looked up to find a tall but slim figure in a cloak the colour of twilight. "Gary always was a hot-head," he said softly, not because he wanted to, but because the force that had just crushed his throat left his voice weak. He stood up casually and wiped his bloody nose with the back of his hand. "Let's go." He turned around with a whip of his brown cloak and left the room. Sabrina looked at his back and the emotionless mask of her face dropped into a frown. <><><> Darkness. Pain. Anger. Loneliness. Sadness. Those were the first few frames of mind that Ash went through as he regained consciousness. He regretted it. He felt cold and wet, yet hot at the same time. Underneath his back and legs, it felt like a floor of hard, damp stone. In contrast, something warm and soft was lying on top of him. It felt heavenly, that warmth in the moist coldness. He opened his eyes, his eyelids feeling like they were weighted or tied down to his cheeks. His flesh itched as if something was wrong. Why was it so dark? His night vision was perfect. Was perfect. Then a thought came to him. Pikachu? He immediately began searching out for the awareness of his one true friend in the world. There. Pikachu was okay, but still asleep, and about a half dozen feet away from him. He took stock of his surroundings as best as he could gather even with his decreased vision. He realised he was lying in a cave of some sort. There was a dim light coming from the rocky, glittery walls. Something dark red was resting underneath his chin. It was soft and ticklish. Hair. It was red hair. Who had red hair? His mind felt as if it were shattered glass, broken, confused and disassembled. Then the red hair rose upward, and suddenly, large blue eyes, softly glowing a dim azure in the darkness, were staring down at him. She blinked once. It was a woman lying on his chest, he realised. Her face was familiar ... They said nothing to each other, just staring in the mutual silence. And then the woman pushed herself further along his chest so that her face was inches from his own. A lock of long red hair fell so that it caressed his cheek. It tickled like a feather, but he didn't move, just stared at the brilliant orbs of her eyes. Her arms, encased in blue material, rose to hold the sides of his head. Her full weight pressed upon him so that he could feel the twin mounds of her chest upon his own. Her eyes began to glow brighter, and a brilliant blue aura began to emit from her body. Ash felt her turn hot, almost too hot. But the warmth was a lifeline from the cold, uncomfortable air. Her face lowered, as if seeking a kiss. Her pink-tinged, exquisitely shaped lips descended to his own. He couldn't move. But did he want to move? And then her warm lips touched his, first a light touch as if they were the petals of a rose, then heavier. He couldn't help but begin to return it. His arms lifted to caress her back. The feel was familiar. And then the fog in his mind seemed to lift. Misty. She was Misty. The girl he had loved. But the girl who had broken his heart. He started to push her away, but found he just couldn't. It felt too good. The feelings he hadn't felt in a long, long time. It was like the first point of light to a traveller lost in the darkness. Yet he was still lost, wanted to be lost, but in these feelings. She rolled him over so that they were both laying on their sides, all the while kissing. But then a sharp rock poked him in the waist. The small pain lifted the hazy fog of sensations from his mind and suddenly, rationality returned to regain control over his feelings. He broke the kiss abruptly and rolled away from her. He lifted himself to a sitting position. "What do you think you were doing?" He felt ashamed of how rough his voice sounded. He hoped she couldn't hear the loud beating of his heart. How could he still have any feelings for her? Her face seemed to pale in the darkness. Then it darkened. "I'd think that was obvious," she said dryly. "But then you always were a tad slow." At the insult, he felt on more familiar ground. "You enjoy one-night stands?" he asked sarcastically. "Going to run away in the morning?" Her eyes glared at him. "I've never had a one night stand in my life." She sniffed condescendingly. "Most probably unlike you." Ash felt his face redden in the darkness. "And so what if I have? It's not like you still had a claim on me." "But what about when I did?" she fired back at him. "What are you talking about?" Ash said, puzzled. "You know as well as I do that I was always faithful to you." "Do I now? Look, let's get this right into the open right now," she said, her tone turning frosty. "You were as much to blame as I was for our break-up back then. You didn't love me." She looked down, not meeting his eyes. "You loved being a Pokemon Master and the popularity it gave you." Ash crawled over next to her, sat down and sighed. "I can't believe that you would even think that." He played with a fold of his cloak over the knee of his trousers. "How many times have I told you it would have all been worthless if I hadn't had you with me every step of the way? You didn't have to just leave me without telling me anything, like our being together just wasn't worth the effort." She lifted her head and stared at him with accusing eyes. Abruptly she shot forward and grabbed him about the shoulders with shocking strength. She flipped him around and slammed his back into the cave wall. Ash's teeth clicked together at the impact. "Don't lie, goddamn you!" she shouted. "You were playing with my feelings just like you've always been accusing me ever since we met again!" A tear trickled a little way out of the corner of her left eye. "I could see you were losing interest in me. Otherwise you wouldn't have, wouldn't have-" She choked not finishing the sentence. She let go of him and turned the other way, no longer facing him. "Wouldn't have, what?" he asked softly at her back. "Nothing." "Nothing?" Ash asked, his voice rising higher. But then a piercing pain skewered his head and suddenly memories assaulted his mind like boulders against a stone wall. He groaned, falling over forwards, with his hands tightly clutched around his temples. The tower. Sabrina. Vague impressions of him fighting. But not who with. Then a blank. The gate. The gate! He had failed to stop the League from opening it. Failed! He felt it. Had felt the sheer wrongness in the air from the start. When he became aware of his surroundings, he found Misty holding his head against her, strongly concerned. Her hand was threaded through his hair. "What's wrong Ash? Speak to me!" Her voice was panicked. "I-I'm okay," he said, lifting himself away from her. He wiped a thin line of sweat from his brow with a sleeve. "I-I want to know what's happened. My memory's not so good." Her soft voice was hesitant. "You were captured." She paused as if trying to decide what to say. "We were unable to stop them from opening the gate." She told him about the vortex and all that she had seen atop the tower. "I thought so," Ash confirmed weakly, lowering his hands to the damp stone floor. This was bad. Very bad. "I-I managed to take you from them," her voice continued over his punishing internal monologue. "We were lucky to escape with our lives." He looked up. She had sat herself down in a kneeling position, her blue cloak falling around her body in disarray. "Why am I still alive? They would have killed me. They would have been furious with me." She hesitated. "Maybe they needed you for something." "Needed?" He laughed without any humour. "Needed me dead more like it. I'm sure Gary would have enjoyed having revenge on me for 'killing' him. He probably would have liked to cut me up in lots of little bite-sized pieces." "It was someone else who wanted revenge." Her expression grew troubled. "Someone else?" She closed her eyes. "Brock's alive." He felt happiness lift his soul. "Brock's alive? Why didn't you tell me sooner? How is he?" He laughed, feeling on top of the world. "I knew it! That guy is tough as rock. Should have known he was way too hard for Gary to beat." Then he noticed Misty's serious face. "Hey, how come you're not happy for him?" "I'll say this plainly so that there's no misunderstanding," she said, her voice even. "Brock is one of them. He's one of the League. And he's never been on our side. He was a double agent." Ash felt the floor of his happiness drop from underneath him. Shock replaced it. Then denial. "No ... you must be mistaken," he said flatly. "I know Brock. He's a good guy. Hell, if after all the time we spent travelling with him when we were kids, you still didn't know that, then I don't know what kind of friend you are." "Ash," she said tiredly. "I know that. I honestly believe that he's a good person. At heart. But he is the one who was taking revenge." She opened her blue cloak allowing him a glimpse of the large white bandage wrapped around her upper waist, just underneath the dark-blue tank-top she wore underneath. The bandage was slightly pink, the blood beginning to soak through. "My God," Ash said, instantly moving over to her side. "What the hell happened to your side?" "He did this. To knock me out so he could have his way with us." He ignored her and began unwrapping the bandage. The wound must have been pretty deep to soak through this much fabric. "Ah! Careful!" she hissed as the last of the bandage tried to stick to her wound. "What do you think you're doing? You want me to bleed to death?" "Just shut up for a second, Misty, and let me take care of this," he said authoritatively. "This had to be changed anyway, as it was beginning to soak through." The cut was a medium-sized circular puncture located just above her waistline. The wound was beginning to bleed freely in the open air. Thank the heavens, he thought, as he studied it. Any more inches above or to the side and whatever pierced her side would have hit something vital. He sensed out Pikachu with his mind to wake him up. He knew from the low power level emanating from him that he needed the rest, just like he did, but this was an emergency. "Pika?" Pikachu said sleepily as a short shadowy form in the corner, laying against what looked like his backpack, stood up and stretched. "Pikachu, hurry over here. Misty needs help." "Chu!" Pikachu said, folding his paws against his chest. His cobalt blue eyes were narrowed as he looked fiercely at Misty. Ash sighed and sent a telepathic thought to him. I know what you think about her, he thought, and yes I'm still practically her slave since she can kill me any time she wants with that damn elemental enchantment, but this is Misty here! And don't forget, if she dies, I die. "Pi," his pokemon said, nodding reluctantly. It scampered over to his side on all fours. "What were you talking about?" Misty asked curiously. "Nothing important," he said nonchalently. "Now stay still. Relax. This will sting a bit." Then he concentrated his power and rapidly thrusted his open palms on top of her wound. His hands glowed a dark blue-black over the wound and Misty screamed. Now, Pikachu! he thought. When he felt his pokemon adding his will to his, they both concentrated on healing. He probed the wound with his mind's eye and began to knit the flesh together again. Using the stray elements of power given off by Misty's body, he strengthened his efforts and soon he lay on his side, finished and resting. Pikachu just scampered back over to his backpack and nodded off back to sleep. Misty was examining her side. She would find nothing there but recently healed pink flesh. It wouldn't even leave a scar in a couple of days. "Thanks," she said, looking down at him. He continued to lie down, breathing hard. Perhaps he shouldn't have expended this much effort when he was barely alive enough himself. "Now about what you were saying ... maybe it wasn't Brock. Maybe it was someone who just looked like him? Couldn't you have been mistaken?" Misty sighed. "Stubborn is what you are ... I'm telling you, it was-" "So why did you kiss me?" She choked. "That again?" "Well you didn't answer my question before." He waited, smiling slightly to himself while she seemed to flounder around for an answer. "You have to be cleared of the blood-bond I put you under," she finally said. "Otherwise, the effects of the water mastery will kill you very soon." "What?" "Don't you remember? It was what I used to persuade you to come with me in the first place." "I know that, but I fail to see what that's got to do with kissing me," Ash said, rubbing his forehead. "Besides, I would have thought you enjoyed having me under your control ..." She stayed silent for a moment. "Well, obviously I don't have to 'control' you any more, now do I? Unless you want me to control you?" she added in a humorous tone. "Ha, you wish." "As for the kissing part, don't count yourself a stud just yet. The power I used, fused your very being with mine so that you would die without more of it." Ash thought about it for a while. "So in some crazy way, my body's addicted to you?" he asked with an ironic look on his face. She smiled, her pink lips turning up at the corners under a lock of red hair. "I suppose you could say that." "So, I also suppose, that to cure me of this addiction, we'll have to-" "Join our spirits, body and soul," she finished. He stared at her, then groaned. "Maybe you should have just let me die." <><><> In a totally different cave some miles away from where Ash, Misty and Pikachu were recovering, Duplica was just beginning to wake up to the sound of soft voices talking. She opened her eyes and grumbled low in her throat as the various aches and pains of her body all decided to voice their complaints at the same time. Her eyes gradually adjusted to the dimness. It was dark, but a campfire crackled nearby and she was grateful to the light and the warmth. It wasn't smoky inside the cave so she realised that there must have been an opening in the roof somewhere to let the smoke escape. As she regained her bearings, she recognised the voices which had woken her up as Laselle and Junior's. She turned her head slightly and spotted them on the other side of the fire. The young girl looked weary, her green mantle ripped in several places and her long black hair messy, while Junior looked about the same, tired, with bags underneath his eyes and his cap at a low angle on his head. And the big maroon lump over by the wall was most probably Bruno. "So, why do you admire Ash so much?" Laselle was saying softly as she patted her caterpie on the head which was sitting in her lap contentedly. "Shouldn't you have been going for your boss?" "Well, Master Bruno's a tough guy, but don't you know who Master Ash is?" Junior voiced back. "Ash Ketchum was the youngest trainer to attain the title of Pokemon League Champion ever! He was battling real pokemon while we were battling with stuffed toys." He paused. "And also, according to rumour, probably the best darn Master there ever was." "He's that Ash?" Laselle sounded reverent. "I can't believe this!" "Yep," Junior said proudly. "Of course he gave up his title to become an explorer. If he didn't he'd probably still be Pokemon League Master. But no one ever knew if he did discover any new pokemon on his journeys. When the Dark Wars erupted about five years ago, he came back a totally different man. At least, that's what Master Bruno told me." Duplica finally spoke up as she pushed herself up to a sitting position. "Well, I'd say, having your heart broken could make you act strange. Trust me, I know." Laselle spun around so quickly she almost fell into the campfire. "You're awake!" she exclaimed. "We weren't sure if there was anything seriously wrong with you," Junior explained. "But you and Master Bruno got busted up pretty bad." Duplica shifted her hand into a small mirror and examined her bruised face. "Tell me about it," she said dryly. Her hair was an absolute fright and was caked with so much dried mud that it looked as if she were a brunette. And not just her hair, her cloak and face also resembled a mud wrestling battleground. "I hope the smoke from your fire isn't announcing our whereabouts to everyone in the area." Junior looked at the fire. "I don't think so. Laselle said she fixed it up outside so that the smoke would be hard to see." "Yep," Laselle confirmed. "I did get first in my class for survival training!" "That's good." Then as Duplica was examining herself with her literal hand-mirror, she was suddenly startled by Bruno letting out a low groan. "Did anyone get the number of that Snorlax?" the big man said as he sat up slowly, rubbing his head. Duplica gave a small smile. It looked as if he had also been swimming in the mud. His crusty cloak was more brown than maroon. "Master Bruno!" Junior said excitedly. "You're okay too!" He grunted one of those male grunts. "So, where are we, sport?" "Well after Master Ash took off after Mistress Misty, we dragged you guys over to the nearest shelter we could find." "And where is that?" Duplica asked, as she continued to try to rub away some spots of dried mud from her face with a finger. But it felt like the damn things were super-glued to her face. "As far as I can tell, we're in a cave somewhere around east of the Saffron ruins," Laselle answered. Bruno grunted again and seemed to think about something. "But do you think Master Ash and Mistress Misty are okay?" Junior suddenly voiced in a worried tone. Duplica gave up on cleaning herself up the hard way and shifted her hand back to normal. "Of course they're okay. Even if Ash was acting a little ... how you say, weird, I don't think he could ever harm Misty even if he wanted to." "Besides, if anything happened, we would feel it in here." Bruno thumped his chest. "And right now, I feel they're fine." "So what are we going to do now?" Laselle asked. Duplica stood up, bits of dust and dried mud cracking off her violet cloak and falling on to the ground. "Well right now, I'm getting myself cleaned up." She concentrated and felt the familiar warmth of her body's metamorphosis. She felt herself liquefy as she shifted her body to water and then expelled all the dirt that clinged to her. The mud flowed down from her liquefied torso and fell to the ground. Then she changed her body back to its solid state. She opened her eyes and looked at them all staring at her with amazed expressions on their faces. She shrugged. "I should have just done that from the beginning." Bruno clucked his tongue. "Show off." Then he too cleaned the mud off his cloak, but by recalling it away, then calling it back with a flash of light. Although, Duplica thought, smiling to herself, his skin and underclothes were most likely, still dirty. "I wish I could do that," Laselle said as she picked sadly at her dirty forest cloak. "Me too," Junior added, looking down at his muddy jeans and jacket. Bruno stood up and stretched his big arms. "Well we can all have a bath when we get to the Rebel base on the coast, east of the Vermillion ruins and south of Lavender. I'm sure that's where Misty and Ash would be headed and we might even meet up with Erika, Koga and the rest. Let's go." Duplica frowned as she felt the air with her senses. "Only one problem with that." "What?" She sighed. "You are so dense, Bruno. Can't you feel that the balance of power has shifted? We'd be murdered if we just went outside along our merry way." Laselle gasped, covering her mouth. "Murdered? And I've been scouting around outside too!" Bruno snorted. "What are you talking about?" "In case you didn't notice, the little scuffle last night with Ash playing tag with Misty means that the League must have succeeded in what they meant to do. They've put the prophecy of Armageddon in motion." "The End of the World?" Junior exclaimed. "Great, just great," Bruno grunted. "In case we're going to be doing a little travelling, I want no use of elemental power at all, that means no use of Pokemon special abilities or," she looked directly at Bruno, "your own," she finished. "Unless we want to be attracting some uninvited guests from that little place they call Hell." "Forbidden Pokemon. I thought we had enough of them during the last Dark Wars." "The difference this time is that these one's objectives are to wipe the earth clear of all life." She folded her arms as Junior and Laselle stood up and gathered their things. She looked at Junior. "Now that you're okay, I expect you to use your Ponyta and double with Laselle. No way am I letting all three of you work my poor back again. Just be careful not to use any of Ponyta's flame attacks and you should be fine." Junior threw up his palms. "Fine with me!" Then she turned to Bruno. "What?" he asked, scratching his stick-up brown hair encrusted with mud. She lifted her arm and after liquefying it, drenched him in a steady stream of water. Bruno spluttered and stumbled backwards as she soaked him thoroughly. When she was finished, Bruno looked pitiful, wet and bedraggled, his hair plastered to the sides of his face and his cloak resembling a filled up sponge. "And just what did you do that for?" he inquired in a dangerous tone. Duplica lifted her hand and sucked the moisture from his body with it, leaving him dry and clean. "Well if you're going to ride me again, I expect an immaculate rider." She stuck her tongue out at him and then marched off to the cave entrance. <><><> The forest was a tapestry of dark shadows, seeming to be tailored exclusively of gloomy shades of black and grey. It was so deathly quiet, not even the sounds of insects or any animal at all interrupted the strange silence. Misty hoisted herself up from the cave, or more precisely, hole in the ground at the edge of some stony ground in a small clearing. When they had crash landed last night, the fireball they created melted a solid tunnel deep in the rocky forest floor. Which was quite fortunate really, since it gave them a place to stay for the night. After she lifted herself out, she used her remaining momentum to take a quick forward roll with the dried vegetation crackling underneath her. Then she hunched down on her ankles, ready. It was dark, but she could see quite well even in the dimness, and she did so now to search for any sign of danger. Her eyes took long and quick sweeps all around the tall, rough trees, that seemed more black than brown in the absence of light. Then she stood up and dusted her blue cloak off from dead leaves and grass that had clung to it. "No sun at all, and it's supposed to be mid-morning," she called out. Behind her, Ash leaped out of the hole with a backflip. She turned around to watch him as he settled his black cloak around him and surveyed their surroundings. "And lo, there shall be darkness," he quoted in an eerie tone. "Pika," Pikachu said as he leaped out as well and stood by his master's feet. Misty shivered. "Let's get to the base quick. We can figure out what we're going to do once we get there." She lifted a hand and felt there was absolutely no breeze either. Except for the three of them, everything was silent and still. "I don't like this one bit at all." She was about to reach for Starmos pinned on her cloak when Ash suddenly leaped over and grabbed her wrist tightly. "Don't use it," he warned. "If your Pokemon uses its special ability to fly around, that will attract them." "Them?" Misty suddenly remembered the millions of tortured voices coming through the vortex when she was atop the tower at Cerulean. She shuddered and immediately dropped her wrist when Ash let her go. "So how are we going to get to the base then?" Ash snapped his finger and Pikachu leaped up to ride in his backpack. He looked up at the nearest tree. It was thick and gnarled and so high, she couldn't see the top of it from here. "Like this," he said, as he suddenly crouched, then sprang up off the ground in a tall leap. In midair, he twisted around so that his feet struck the trunk, and landing upon the vertical plane, he jumped again with a scattering of bark, to the next tree. Then he simply grabbed on to the lowest branch and hoisted himself up. "You mean jump from branch to branch?" Misty asked. Then she followed his lead, by also thrusting herself upwards and using the first tree as a springboard to jump over to the branch like him. "You're a quick learner," Ash said, smiling. "Now let's go higher." He jumped to a higher branch on to a different tree and Misty followed him upwards until they were at the upper canopy of the forest. They were so high up, that she could no longer see the ground but instead could stare at parts of the swirling black clouds in the sky that weren't covered by the uppermost branches and leaves. For a moment, Ash, standing on the branch next to her, also looked at what they could see of the sky. "You know, I don't see how we're going to get out of this," he said in a hopeless tone. He combed his fingers through his black hair, then covered his head with his hood. "I've failed again." Misty arranged her red hair around the back of her neck, then also covered up with her hood. "What do you mean, again?" He looked at her, his brown eyes shining golden in the darkness. "It should have ended when I killed Gary." He paused, thinking. "Maybe if I stuck around for a while and made sure, this wouldn't be happening. Hell, maybe if I hadn't gave up my title and let Gary be League Master in the first place, a lot of suffering would have never have been." Misty held his cloaked arm. It felt warm and strong. She wished he would just hug her without any of the past interfering with the present. "Don't bother with the 'maybes' or we'll be here forever." She thought about it. "Besides, if Gary hadn't been League Master, there's also a chance that Giovanni would have won the Dark Wars and then where would we be?" He looked down at her hand clutching his arm. "You're right, I guess." Then he reached around with his other arm to hold her. For a moment they just held one another. It felt almost as if they were the only ones on the world. Misty missed the special closeness they had like this. Then Ash spoke up again. "It was about three years ago. He was planning to use the prophesy of Armageddon. Not the partial one that Giovanni used to further his own ends, but to actually use it for its true purpose." He let go of her arm and rubbed his fingers through his hair. "So arrogant, he wanted to rebuild the world to how he wanted it. I found out and challenged him. He should have died and that would have ended it. It was the reason I left the League in the first place. That and other personal reasons..." "So this is the true end of the world," she said softly. "Why didn't you tell us back at the meeting?" "I-I didn't want to cause a panic. I didn't want a repeat of what happened last time ..." He paused for a second. "But now, something far worse will happen." "But is there a way to stop the Armageddon?" His voice was flat and dead. "No." "What do you mean, no?" she protested. "There's always a way. What if we destroy the towers at the focus points?" "Once the prophecy has been set in motion? The only thing that would do would release the others that much faster." She paused. "Others? What do you mean by that?" "When the barrier was opened, all of the Forbidden could not come out at the same time. Think of unplugging a bath tub full of water, with the water in the tub lying in three layers. Right now, only the first layer has flowed out and it will take several days for the others to escape too. But If we tried to destroy the towers currently, that would be like tipping the whole tub over letting everything go at once." He shook his head sadly. "But anyway we take it, if all of them manage to come out, you don't know what kind of terrors will be free to cause destruction." Misty stared at him. "You're just filled with good news today, aren't you, Ash?" she said dryly. He abruptly stepped away from her with a flap of his black cloak and turned to the next tree. Misty already missed his warmth as the cold, still air replaced it. "This doesn't mean I'm giving up," he said determined. "Even if I have to destroy every single damn Forbidden Pokemon in Hell myself, you know I'll do it, or die trying." That was her Ash speaking alright. "Never doubted it for a second." "Now, as far as I can tell, we're north-east of Fuchsia State County. You know where the base is. Lead on," he waved his arm eastwards. The tall treetops and branches stretched out before them, dark and still. "My night vision isn't back to a hundred percent yet anyhow." "I was wondering why you were being so chivalrous," she said, before she crouched and jumped off, the branch creaking beneath her feet causing the leaves to rustle. Ash followed and soon they were making quite good time as they leapt from branch to branch, moving steadily eastwards. <><><> Hours later, Misty's boots thumped as she landed on yet another branch and crouched, keeping her balance with a hand grasping the rough wood. She had stopped counting how many she had jumped along, but it had to be in the hundreds. The branch shook a few times, causing a few leaves to fall around them as Ash landed next to her, his cloak billowing around him, like her own. "Seems like a wind has picked up," he said softly. "Strange." She felt the air brush against her skin. "It's getting colder too." And then Ash was suddenly jumping in front of her, his black cloak obscuring her vision. Something flashed orange and red like fire around his body. "Watch out, argh!" He fell backwards upon her and Misty quickly grasped his waist and desperately tried to keep their balance on the precarious branch. When Misty saw what happened to him, she expelled a breath as she found what looked like the shaft of a burning arrow in his shoulder. She quickly grabbed the end of it in her hand and extinguished the still-burning fletching with her fingers. "Not now!" Ash shouted as he grabbed her around the waist and then leapt off the branch. As Misty turned her head to look back at the branch they had just jumped from, another flame arrow shot into it. Upon contact of the arrow, the whole tree glowed red and simply disintegrated into black ashes which floated around in the air. Misty grunted as Ash landed roughly on a branch still carrying her in his arms. The tree limb began to shake hard and Misty abruptly felt Ash's feet drop from underneath him and they began to fall. Quickly Misty reached up with a hand and grabbed on to the branch, the rough bark scratching her palm. She roughly grabbed on to Ash's hand in the other. They were left dangling up high and swinging dangerously with only Misty's arm to support the both of them. Misty gritted her teeth as she strained to keep her hold upon the branch. "Ash, what's wrong?" she called down to him. "I-I don't know," his voice said weakly. "I just suddenly felt so tired, that I slipped." She looked down at him. His hood had blown off letting his hair get blown back by the wind. He had his eyes closed. Misty frowned as she noticed the arrow still sticking out of his left shoulder. Blood had begun to leak out of the wound. "Is it the arrow?" "No, I've actually been feeling pretty bad ever since I woke up." He coughed. "Of course, the arrow's not helping any." And then a loud laugh interrupted them. Misty looked up at the direction of the source. On a different tree some two dozen feet away, a covering of leaves and branches suddenly flared red and disintegrated, as dark orange flames erupted outward in a fierce blaze of heat. When the ashes cleared, it revealed a figure in a long red cloak leaning against the bough of the tree. Whoever it was, had covered their head with the hood so that their face could not be seen. "Blaine?" Misty exclaimed. "But I killed you!" The red cloaked figure walked along the branch like a tight-rope walker, cloak flapping around in the high altitude winds. "And that's why *I* have ta kill ya, darlin." She whipped off her hood, revealing a pretty woman's face with blue hair tied in a bun at the back of her head. Her eyes flared the colour of fire. Ash grunted from underneath, still hanging on to Misty's arm. "Lara Larame. I should have known you would show up sooner or later." "Yup. Can't just let ya'll go after having gone and offed my husband." She clicked her tongue. "O' course, Ash here bein an ol friend o' mine means I have to spare him, no matter what Lord Gary-boy says, but you my dear," she stuck her thumb in Misty's direction, "you my dear gets ta be the first one killed by tha new, improved Fire Master." She lifted her hands which burst into flame when she pointed them at Misty. Out of the fires in each hand, a long bow emerged made completely of flame. An arrow materialised inside it and she nocked it, preparing to fire. Ash coughed. "Sorry, Lara, but I can't let you. Pikachu, Quick Attack!" "Pika!" Ash's black electric mouse leapt from his backpack and shot forth like a bullet. Lara was startled as it smashed through the join of the branch she was standing on, completely removing it from its connection to the tree. As she was distracted by having to jump off the severed wooden limb, which began to fall down to the ground like a rock, Misty quickly swung Ash up on to the branch with a flick of her arm. Then she followed him, swinging around and hoisting herself up. Lara did a half twist in the air and landed upon a different branch. "Sneaky lil people, aren't yas?" Her hand began moving in a blur as she shot fire arrow after fire arrow at them with loud whooshing sounds as they streaked forth. Misty leapt right, while Ash leapt left, after Pikachu, who had landed on another tree after its attack on the new Fire Master. The tree they had been standing on, glowed red before it disintegrated as a volley of arrows thunked into the wood. Misty dived as she fell through the air and caught on to a lower branch with her hands and pulled herself up. She reached within her cloak for a poke ball. Then Ash startled her as he suddenly jumped on to the same branch with Pikachu following, causing it to sway up and down. "Don't bother fighting," he said quickly. "Let's just get to the base. The coast is only about less than a mile from here where you said it was. If we expend more power, you know what that attracts." Misty stopped reaching for a poke ball. "I suppose you're right." "Counter attack only, and only with physical blows." He turned his head. "Jump!" They jumped and scattered as another volley of arrows vapourised the tree they were standing on. Misty kept going and leapt from tree to tree, fleeing east, her blue cloak flapping behind her at each jump. "Of course, that doesn't stop her from using her powers," she said jealously as each tree behind her flared and disintegrated with Lara using her as target practise. Ash and Pikachu followed her a bit to the side using different trees and branches to jump from as the ones Misty was using were quickly destroyed in her wake. "I'm sure they've protected themselves from it happening to them," Ash called back, grunting as he leapt and ducked from low-hanging branches. "Or maybe they just don't care." An angry voice shouted from behind them. "So we're playin it this way are we?" Lara said as she stopped following them and suddenly halted her stream of arrows. "Well far be it for lil ol me to get tired from chasin you! Rapidash, darlin, stop them!" "Uh oh," Ash said as he stopped and crouched on a branch while Pikachu landed by his side. Misty also paused upon a branch and crouched low to the tree limb. She looked back at him, one eyebrow raised. "Uh oh? And what's a Rapidash going to do when we're way up here?" "Lara's Rapidash is different ..." "How different?" The sound of a horse neighing and fire roaring from in front of them interrupted her. She turned around and widened her eyes. A wave of fire seemed to be sweeping directly towards them along the tops of the trees. "Jump!" Ash shouted from behind her, and she was happy to do just that. As she leaped up into the air, the horizontal stream of flames just missed from melting her boots. When the flame cut out and she landed back on a different tree, she spotted the offending fire horse, looking for all the world like it was running through air towards them, its single sharp horn lowered in a charge. Its mane of orange and red flames flickered in the wind and its elegant white body thrust powerfully as it moved its legs. Then as it came closer and directly into her line of sight, Misty realised that it wasn't actually running in midair, but was flying, using its two large, red feathered wings that were attached to its torso. The wings beat strongly up and down as it began flying faster. "Poor Rapidash was just crushed when y'all went and killed her mate! Reminds me I have ta find the blue-haired harlot as well! But you'll do to whet our appetites in the meantime, Mistaria, darlin gal!" The winged Rapidash let out a cry of hate as it dived at Misty, red wings rearing back so that it sped up. But then it stopped short and tried to fly away as a severed piece of a tree trunk came flying up at it and skimmed it on the leg. Misty turned and saw Ash punch through another tree top with a loud splintering sound, knocking it up at the flying Rapidash, who this time dodged it cleanly. "Keep going!" he yelled. "I'll distract it! Pikachu, Agility now! Combine with Swift!" He picked up his pokemon in one hand and then threw it up high. In the air, Pikachu blurred so fast, it resembled a miniature black comet. The Rapidash neighed in pain as Pikachu shot through the tip of its left wing, breaking off a chunk of red feathers. It stalled in the air and was about to fall when it regenerated its wing with a burst of flame and managed to recover. "Drat," Ash cursed. "I forgot it could do that." Misty looked at him. "If you're going to stay, then I will too!" she shouted. Ash began jumping from branch to branch towards her. "Don't be a fool! Let's just get out of here then!" The Fire Master clicked her fingers in a pique. "Land sakes, I was hoping you would stand and fight! Good one, Ash," she called out sarcastically. Then she whistled. "Rapidash, c'mon darlin!" At her call, her pokemon snorted a cloud of smoke before it flapped its wings and flew over to her. Lara jumped on to its back as it passed and then wheeled her mount around to attack. "Fire Spin!" she ordered. Misty dropped off the branch she was standing on and hung down low with her arms letting the circular tornado of fire pass harmlessly above her. Then swinging around like a professional gymnast, she swung herself upwards directly at Lara riding the flying Rapidash. She reached into the folds of her cloak and grasped a blue poke ball and threw it. "Go Vaporeon! Quick Attack!" The ball split open in midair with a flash of cold artic energy and revealed the blue four-legged and sharp finned marine pokemon with black circular eyes. "Vee!" it shouted as it used the momentum of Misty's throw to launch itself up at the Rapidash. "Rapidash, Flamethrower!" Lara countered. But Misty's Vaporeon seemed to shrug off the tongue of flame that the horse expelled, before it got a solid strike at its mid section. The Rapidash floundered in the air and began to weave out of control. As it lost altitude so that it began flying around the level of the branches that Ash and Misty were standing on, Misty ordered her Vaporeon to attack again. She pointed. "Vaporeon, Tackle that tree!" Her pokemon complied and it knocked the tree directly at Lara and her Rapidash. The flying horse, still out of control, was unable to burn the thick trunk of wood before it hit, sending it further of course. "Good work, Misty!" Ash said as he saw what she was doing. "Pikachu, Quick Attack those trees!" Then he too joined in, sending trunks of wood like spears with massive double handed swings of his arms. "No fair, that's cheating!" Lara yelled as a veritable avalanche of wood landed on top of her and her pokemon. She, along with the tangle of her horse and trees began to fall to the ground like a torn paper aeroplane. "That should keep her busy," Ash said as he leaned over the edge of the branch he was standing on to watch them fall until the darkness below swallowed them. "Now let's get to the base," Misty suggested as she lifted her hand. A blue poke ball materialised on her palm in a flash of light. "Vaporeon, return!" After she recalled her pokemon, the two of them continued east until the forest began to thin out. Then they jumped down from branch to branch until they reached the ground and ran the rest of the way. <><><> Lara grunted to herself as she rubbed a bruise on her breast. "Of all the dirty tricks," she grumbled as she wheeled her Rapidash around in the air to retrace her path yet again to search for her quarry. Then she noticed three cloaked figures standing on an upper branch. She spurred her mount onwards and floated in front of them, the wings of her horse beating up and down steadily. It caused the branch to sway up and down, rustling the leaves from the wind it was creating. "So y'all finally made it," she said impatiently. The Master in brown looked towards the edge of the forest where it ended and the coast began. "You could have waited before trying to do it all yourself. Not all of us can fly." The giant in the yellow cloak and the slim woman in the dark purple one stayed silent. "I think I lost them, though," Lara said, a bit embarrassed. Brock closed his eyes and felt the air. After a few minutes he opened them. "No matter. I know where he is." <><><> Ash stared out at the huge black waves of the ocean as they crashed upon the rocky shore off in the distance. There used to be a massive fishing wharf here, he remembered. But now, all it was, were sharp rocks that would slice you to ribbons if you foolishly tried to walk along them. Trying to fish there at present times were only for people with death-wishes. They were in a small clearing within a grove of trees with Misty kneeling down on the sandy ground by his side. She was still fiddling around with what seemed like an ordinary seeming shrub. "I could have sworn it was this one," she mumbled to herself. "What do you mean?" he asked. Suddenly the shrub slid to the side and a metallic, circular trapdoor revealed itself underneath. Misty placed her hand on a square panel on the top of it and he heard a beeping sound. "Identification scan confirmed. Welcome Mistaria," a small electronic voice said. It reminded Ash of his pokedex. Then the steel door hissed with steam as it made a clicking sound. Misty grabbed the edge and roughly forced it wide open with a creaking of metal. "You first," she announced, waving him in. "And I thought chivalry was dead," Ash said dryly as he walked over and looked inside the opening. There was a ladder that he saw was attached to the side of the shaft leading all the way down into the narrow vertical passageway. "Well I've got to close the hatch afterwards," Misty explained. She noticed him looking hesitantly at the dark entrance. "It may look like you're climbing into Hell, but trust me, it gets better at the bottom." "Trust. That's a good one," he said sarcastically. Soon, Ash lay against the metallic wall at the bottom of the shaft, tired and breathing hard as Misty climbed down from the ladder herself. Pikachu leaned against his feet also panting heavily. He looked around the narrow corridor they were in. Amazingly, there was electric lighting brightening up the underground hallway, the light reflecting off the shiny floor and walls. Misty threw her hood back and freed her long red hair from its constraints. She looked exhausted and vulnerable. "Do you think we lost them?" she asked, blowing away a strand of hair that fell in her mouth. "I hope so, or we just led them directly to us." He frowned as he looked down at the shaft of the arrow still sticking out of his shoulder. Then gritting his teeth, he grasped it firmly in his hand and yanked it out. The sharp knife of pain that stabbed through his shoulder was terrible but he resisted making any sound. He threw the red shaft on to the metal floor where it clattered around rolling until it hit the wall. His shoulder bled profusely until his healing factor kicked in and stopped it from flowing too heavily. Misty leaned forward and examined the wound. "That looks bad. But I'm sure we can have a medic look at-" "Cease and desist!" a rough voice shouted. "Up with your hands, you two!" Ash sighed as he spotted the group of guards dressed in purple uniform come running down the passageway toward them with a pair of Venomoths flying silently at their sides. Their boots hardly made a sound on the hard floor but he still should have been able to detect them. It seemed his senses were still dulled like when he failed to detect Lara's presence earlier. Misty turned to face them, with an annoyed look in her blue eyes. "Don't you recognise me?" The guards stopped in front of them and looked confused. "Mistress Mistaria?" "Who were you expecting?" They rapidly lifted their weapons to the ready. "Imposter! Sound the alarm!" the lead guard shouted. A guard at the back, broke off from the group and ran back the way they came. Ash lifted himself up from leaning against the wall. "What's going on?" he asked as Misty was forced backward by pointed spears. The Venomoths hung in the air looking as if they were ready to attack them at any given moment, their powdery wings flapping threateningly. "Imposter?" Misty said, confused, as she lifted her hands, palms first, to show that she meant no harm. "That's right. The real Mistaria already arrived a half-day ago, hence. Right this moment, she is dining with Master's Erika, Koga and Aya. Therefore, you can't be her." Misty began to glow blue, her body giving off a cold arctic aura. "This is preposterous, is what this is! Get Erika here at once, she'll straighten this out!" Ash held his bleeding side with his hands, applying pressure. "A thought just came to me. What would Valdera look like with red hair?" Misty's eyes widened. "Now if someone could just lend me a medic," Ash said, just before he felt too weak to stand and fell backward in a faint. His mind descended blissfully to darkness. *** End Part 8 _________________________________________________________________________ POKEDEX _________________________________________________________________________ SHADOW PIKACHU Type 1 - Shadow Type 2 - Electricity Attack : Agility Swift Type : Psychic / Normal An attack combined of the two ordinary attacks, Agility and Swift. Pikachu gains godly amounts of speed and uses it for a powerful charge attack. _________________________________________________________________________ Notes: Comments & Criticisms would be much appreciated! Ace Sanchez Emails : jsanchez@bigpond.net.au : aceywacey@hotmail.com : acey@i.am WWW : http://i.am/acey : http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/acey