September 11
Tracy wiped his glistening brow, the sun burned fervently above them as they traveled the rocky terrain. Ash recalled traveling through this area before, being chased by his old Primeape due to the incident with his hat. Everyone stared at a colossal boulder that blocked their path.
Sabrina stood before them, aiming her hand at the boulder and lifting it with her psychic powers. It hovered above the ground, floating over to her gently before briefly touching the tips of her fingers. Everyone reeled back when the boulder that was about the height of Brock's Steelix, disappeared. The moment of silence was short lived when Ash walked over to Sabrina.
"What did you just do?" He asked.
"Oh, I just teleported it back to Saffron city, more specifically the battle chamber of my gym."
"You can teleport!" Tracy cried out.
"Yes?" Sabrina replied; sounding almost surprised that they didn't already know that about her. "It used to be easier to teleport people, but the loss of my dampeners seemed to have changed my powers a little in that aspect."
"If you can teleport, then why do you have to bother with walking, can't you just go instantly into the next city, or at least send us there?" Jessie suggested.
"I can only teleport to places I've seen and memorized well enough. On top of that, if I happened to teleport anything and the spot where it rematerialized had something there already, the object that I just teleported would fuse into the object already there. Could you try to imagine what would happen if I teleported you too close to the ground and fused your feet to the floor, or if someone just happened to walk past the area where you rematerialized and you fused into them? Not a pretty site" Sabrina explained.
"Can't you just see into the future and look where you'll end up before you teleport?" Brock inquired.
"I doesn't work that way," Sabrina corrected, "I can only see things that my future self wants me to see. Somehow, in the future, I will be able to selectively choose what I want myself to see in the past. I think what I'm technically doing is reading my own mind in the future, but I only get to read a specific thing from my mind, rather than all of your memories like you guys" Sabrina elaborated.
"Sabrina, since you've seen into the future, mind telling us a few things" Ash asked eagerly.
"Sorry Ash. I can't do that. I was told by your future selves not to reveal anything about the future" Sabrina apologized.
"Why?" Ash moaned.
Sabrina smiled and winked at him, "Sorry, that's classified."
Misty looked at Ash's distress, watching him futilely beg and prod Sabrina for clues or hints to the future. She would've told him to give up since she herself tried, but withheld the advice, feeling that it would lead back to what she had wanted to know from Sabrina.
Although Sabrina hadn't specifically told her not to say anything, Misty felt that the fact that Ash would one day defeat Sabrina in combat was better left unsaid. Misty understood where the fear of telling people knowledge of the future came from. If Misty did tell Ash what Sabrina told her, it would influence Ash in such a way that might make him deviate from decisions he would otherwise have made had he not known and change the future entirely, possibly for the worst.
She cast a side glance at Dawn when she wasn't looking, still surprised to see that someone else was attracted to Ash. Sure, after being so long with him, Ash had grown on her. He was brave, not fearless, but full of courage. The constant walking made him thin, and he had some muscle, enough to help him climb a mountain when they were at the Orange Islands.
He was smart when he needed to be; she had watched him grow from an idiot novice, to a weathered trainer, able to think on his feet and adapt to any situation. He had many faults, what person didn't, but one of his biggest ones was his obliviousness to the people who were attracted to him.
That part of him hadn't changed, maybe in that aspect he hadn't matured. There was one thing that worried her about Ash, his plan she had overheard to seek revenge on the Pokemon that killed his mother and destroyed his hometown. Like Tracy, he had changed in such a way that wasn't to be unexpected from all that was happening, but shocking nonetheless.
Misty considered herself to be naïve to think that her friends would stay the same forever like she imagined them to be, but then again, was that so wrong?
Dawn was quick to avoid having her eyes meet with Misty, thinking back on their conversation back at the Saffron gym. They had woken up early to help prepare breakfast for the others. Dawn had set the timer on the Pokeglov to wake her up, but her internal clock managed to strip her of her slumber just before it rang.
She proceeded into the kitchen, finding Brock and Misty already there and preparing something. Brock had left to go use the Pokeglov to drop a call to his mother, something he had been doing for the past several days after he had left Pewter city, leaving Misty and Dawn alone. There was an uncomfortable air between them; they had been so preoccupied with work that they hadn't thought back on what had happened the night before they went to sleep. Now that they were no longer busy, they had time to think, that moment they had with Sabrina suddenly coming to mind.
"So…you like Ash?" Misty asked, working up the nerve to ask Dawn.
"I think…I think what Sabrina said might've been right. I kind of have a crush on him" Dawn admitted, turning as red as the Tamato berries they were cutting.
"Well, everyone's gotta start somewhere, right?" Misty said encouragingly.
"But, Ash is yours, I have no right to-"
"Ash doesn't belong to anyone. In the end, it's going to be his decision on who he goes out with. Whether you like him or not is not what's important, it's about him. Sure, you're gonna be extra competition to win his heart over, but that's what makes winning all the more worth it. I'm used to having to compete with my sisters for things, this'll be the first time I've fought for love.
"I'm used to trying to live up to my mother's reputation. She was a really good Pokemon Coordinator and I always feel like I'm being compared to her, even though people may not say it or even know I'm her daughter" Dawn confessed.
"Now we have a bigger rival to deal with," Misty reminded.
"Someone who's better built than the both of us, and can read Ash's mind, knowing exactly what he wants" Dawn grumbled hopelessly.
"But we've got something that she doesn't. We've spent more time with him than she has, at least in the past. She may have spent more time with him in the future, but that doesn't matter if she can't use the time she has now to make the base for what's to be the future. Not to mention that Ash has to get to know her better, unlike her where she can get to know him almost instantly. He's gotten to know us pretty well after all the time that we've been with him" Misty pointed out.
"I think you're right. We totally have a chance. Just because she's got a bigger bust, is older than us, and has some abilities doesn't mean that we can't fight back" Dawn cried out, holding out her hand to Misty. Misty took her hand and shook it, both of them casting smugs at each other, the fires of rivalry now sparked.
"Ah, to be young and in love" Brock sighed teasingly.
Both girls jumped and began to blush, releasing each other's hand and staring towards the ground at the thought that Brock had heard their conversation and declaration of their love war.
"How much did you hear?" Misty asked meekly.
"Oh nothing" Brock lied, giggling to himself as he meandered into the kitchen, waltzing with some invisible dancer, his pink cooking apron flowing around him. Brock quickly hit the ground when two fists slammed into his skull. Steam rose from the twin bumps on his head.
"That felt pretty good" Dawn declared, rubbing her knuckles that had become a bit sore, seeing as she had never used her hands to be violent.
"Now you're speaking my language" Misty smiled, "and don't worry about the soreness, that'll go away after a while and you'll stop feeling it if we keep this up."
Dawn couldn't help but unconsciously smile, staring at Ash's back while he walked ahead of the others.
Samurai walked in silence, trying to ignore the fact that he was practically being cooked inside his own armor. Ash had suggested earlier that he take off his armor, which was out of the question. There were no clouds in the sky so that any of their water Pokemon could use Rain Dance, but if the situation really became drastic, they could easily ask their Pokemon to use Water Sport. Everyone felt it was better to have their Pokemon at full strength and to use the Water Sport as a last resort.
Samurai continued to stare at Sabrina, thinking back on the message that Surge had conveyed from her to him the second that he woke up. It was not a pleasant awakening; bruises painted his body a different color until Misty's Chansey healed him.
He felt odd around her, he resented her and wanted to keep his distance, but at the same time he felt attracted to her. Not sexually, but attracted at the fact that she held the answers to his changes. If he could find out what was going on with him, then if it turned out to be something that would be detrimental to his health, he would simply have Tracy try and cure him of it. Then again, if Chansey's healing abilities hadn't ridden him of it, then what could?
Sandslash grumbled as he walked next to his master, AJ decided to walk over to Sabrina once more.
"Hey, Sabrina. Can Sandslash go inta the dirt again?" AJ asked politely for what seemed like the umpteenth time.
Sabrina thought about it for a moment and nodded, AJ gave thumbs up to Sandslash who proceeded to gladly dive into the dirt. Sandslash took the opportunity to do recon; the slightest tremor below or above ground would reach his whiskers and alert him of anything coming their way.
Sabrina had forbidden Sandslash to dig within Saffron city, afraid that he would find the bodies that she had buried. She hadn't told the group what had happened to the people of Saffron; afraid of what they would think of her if Sandslash found the bodies that were deep underground.
Sandslash sudden sensed a presence above ground, moving in the group's direction. The movements were not heavy, nor were they very fast, Sandslash wondered whether or not to attack whatever was heading their way. Then again, it was only one Pokemon; Sandslash felt that with their army of Pokemon, and the scary human woman that that his master called Sabrina was with them.
He decided to go back and alert the others, easily making it back to them with a minute before whatever advanced towards them could make it there. Sandslash popped out of the ground in front of the others, taking an offensive stance. Sabrina quickly announced what Sandslash had discovered, much to Sandslash's annoyance at having his mind read so easily.
Ash and the others prepared to summon their Pokemon, remembering which finger summoned what. What they saw surprised them, Sabrina had neglected to say it was only one Pokemon. That, and the fact that it wasn't very big, and seemed to be wounded.
It shuffled towards them, or to be more precise, it used its every ounce of strength to get away from wherever it was coming from. The figure stopped and looked at them for a few seconds before collapsing and falling onto the floor. No one made a move, but was curious as ever to find out what had just happened.
Even so, no one dared to let their curiosity get the better of them just in case the Pokemon before them was faking death to get the upper hand when they approached it with their guard down.
"He's not dangerous" Sabrina announced, heading over to the Pokemon while everyone stood back.
It was hard to fight with someone like Sabrina; someone that could see into the future and read peoples minds. So when Sabrina said that the Pokemon was not dangerous, who could argue with her? Just to be sure, Tracy used his Pokeglov to scan the fallen Pokemon, seeing that the readings correlated with Sabrina's announcement.
"She's right, this Pokemon's dying. It's been poisoned" Tracy explained, walking over to the Pokemon, now with confidence as he was near Sabrina. When they got closer Sabrina gasped, something that Tracy thought was impossible for someone who had the power to constantly be in the know.
"Ash, Misty, get over here quickly!" Sabrina yelled.
Misty and Ash ran forward without hesitation, as they drew closer, Ash recognized the Pokemon on the ground. It was a Primeape; his body seemed to be covered in bruises. Once they got closer, they realized that was not the case. The Primeape's hair was falling out, bleached white. The exposed sections of skin had turned a sickly green and purple, the colors spreading from the veins.
It quickly clicked into Ash's mind what was going on, but part of him could not believe it.
"Misty! Heal him quickly! Please!" Ash shouted.
Misty ignored the pain of Ash practically yelling in her ear, pointing her pinky to the side of the Primeape. With a flash, her Chansey appeared, knowing that the only reason that she would be summoned, was to heal someone. She quickly used Soft Boiled on the Primeape, but after a few seconds, nothing happened.
"We're losing him" Tracy inserted as Chansey continued to use her attack, but nothing seemed to work.
"Hold on" Sabrina said, waving everyone away to give herself space. She placed her hand near the Primeape's body and closed her eyes. Purple steam seemed to gush from every pore in the Primeape's body. The gas collected into an orb of gas the flowed in place above the Primeape's body.
"I'm getting readings from the Pokeglov that this thing has traces of methane and chlorine in it" Tracy said as he read from the screen on his Pokeglov.
"Ash, summon something that uses fire and burn this gas," Sabrina ordered, levitating the ball of gas higher into the air.
"Monferno, use Flamethrower on that ball of gas in the sky" Ash commanded as he spoke into his Pokeglov. The monkey Pokemon complied quickly, sending a torrent of fire at the orb of poison. A small explosion came from the uniting of the fire and the gas, their contact igniting a chemical change that caused for a volatile result.
The Primeape blurred into motion, wrapping his arms around Ash who was now screaming. Samurai was unsheathing his blade, only to have his sword psychically sheathed back by Sabrina.
Ash ignored the pain of being crushed by the burly arms of his old Primeape, unaware of his own strength when hugging Ash and nuzzling into him. Pikachu smiled at the sight of a brief, but old friend.
"No way! Is it really Ash's old Primeape" Misty asked in disbelief.
"Yes, I read his mind when we got closer and saw that he had memories of Ash catching him and giving him to Anthony" Sabrina enlightened. Primeape set Ash down, his eyes landing on Sabrina who was currently talking to him inside his own head. The mental exchange of words lasted no more than a few seconds, which is how long it took Sabrina to frown.
"What's wrong Sabrina?" Brock asked.
"What I just saw in Primeape's mind worries me and is pretty depressing" Sabrina sighed.
"What happened?" Ash asked.
"When the dampeners were taken off, the fighting Pokemon that were part of the fighting ring suddenly started attacking randomly. Some killed their own trainers, others killed the trainers of other Pokemon, and some managed to kill the Pokemon around them. When the Pokemon came to, seeing the deaths of their masters, they went on a rampage. Some Pokemon snapped out of it only while in the midst of fighting each other and while killing someone else's trainer.
The fights lasted for weeks, no one slept, stopped to eat or drink. In the end, your Primeape won and left to explore Celadon City. The city was overrun with Muk and Grimer. With every exhale they let out Poison Gas, everywhere they slid, they left an acidic trail that slowly ate through the concrete or whatever it touched.
People started to attack them and the Muk retaliated, killing everyone they saw. Each day the territory of the Muk expanded to the point where it has now enveloped four cities, Celadon City to Fuchsia City. Everyone is dead, including Gym leaders Erika and Koga. The very air of that place is poisonous and can slip the toxin into your bloodstream through your pores since literally hundreds of Muks have been breathing out poison.
It would be very difficult to go around, since the rate of expansion rivals that of the Beedrill that most of you survived through. Only, this time it will be harder, seeing as the poisonous air will reach us before the Muk do. Given a few months, if this is left unchecked, the Muk's territory could cover the entire continent of Kanto. If the Muk reach the sea…" Sabrina actually shuddered.
Everyone's jaw dropped, with so much revelations being piled on top of them, it was hard for them to comprehend it all. Surge's idea of gathering all the gym leaders together was suddenly dashed now that two of them were dead.
Ash felt that the responsibility of the entire continent had been thrusted onto their shoulders. They were only eleven people against hundreds of Muks; no one else was going to help them.
Samurai knew that the odds were against them, this would be possibly just as hard as when they were running away from the giant Dragonite, if he had called it a fight then he would've been lying.
"Our only option is to wipe out all the Muk. If we don't now, then we'll have to later, and it'll only get harder then" Sabrina suggested.
Brock reluctantly nodded while thinking about how his family would be affected by this if they sat and did nothing, "She's right guys. We need to do something about this, if we don't then it'll just get us anyway."
"Can't we just use fire attacks to blow up the entire city, everyone in there is already dead and we could just wipe out Muks" Jessie suggested.
"I know how that could seem like an easy option, although a bit crude. But there are many problems with that plan. Essentially all the air in the towns between Celadon and Fuchsia has been replaced with the toxic and combustible gas. If we were to ignite it, the explosion would kill us if the toxins in the air didn't do that already. Plus, fire requires air, so the second that one of our fire Pokemon tries to create a flame; the toxins would kill them before they could bring the embers up their throat" Sabrina refuted.
"We can't fly over it or blow it away, so what can we do?" Tracy asked.
"Like you guys did with the Beedrill, we will have to go through it" Sabrina said.
The others looked at her dubiously, wondering if she had become insane.
"Don't look at me that way. I wouldn't suggest this if I hadn't made a plan for this already. Just like I extracted the poison out of Primeape's body, I can repel the poison in the air and let in the air, it's like a psychic filter" Sabrina clarified.
"Couldn't we just go underground? Sandslash wouldn't have any trouble make a tunnel big enough for us to go through" AJ recommended.
"Wouldn't work. The acidic slime that the Muk leave has probably made its way through the soil and will it continue to go down. Your Sandslash would end up having his claws melt off just by trying to dig through the soil. No matter how far you dig, the acidity of the soil will only spread at us eventually. You'll have to take the amount of air that reaches us in the tunnel into account, not to mention the distance you would have to traverse, the density of the earth if you were to actually-"
"All right, all right I get it genius boy. Damn, why ya gotta be such a negative Nancy about it" AJ grumbled.
Tracy scowled but looked over at Sabrina, she was staring off into the distance.
Everyone had hung on her every word, now that she was silent and staring off, all attention was on her.
"Sabrina? What's wrong?" Misty asked.
"I don't know if the explosion brought us some unwanted attention or that Ash's Primeape was followed, but something's here," Sabrina mumbled.
Everyone prepared for battle, Primeape situating himself next to Pikachu who was in front of Ash. Tracy had Scizor, Surge had Raichu, Dawn had Prinplup, Misty had Politoad, Brock had Steelix, James had Carnivine, and Jessie had her Seviper.
The smell reached them before they could see the Muk; it was more pungent than usual, more potent than Ash's Muk. A single Muk approached them, leaving trails of purple gunk that bubbled and sizzled on the ground; the trails seemed to extend for miles. Politoad and Prinplup fired Water Guns, the threads of water pierced through the Muk's head, but the Pokemon continued to move forward.
Carnivine fired a barrage of Bullet Seeds, the organic pellets passed through the Muk's body, the seeds melted in mid-air after passing through the Muk. The Muk seem unfazed by the attack, moving relentlessly towards them. Steelix and Scizor had wanted to use their physical moves against the Muks, but Brock and Tracy held them back. Although steel types were unaffected by poison types, the rules might've changed when the dampeners were removed.
Steelix slammed his tail into the ground; four boulders shot out of the ground and encased the Muk in a prison of stone. Steam began to rise from the boulders, everyone watched as the rocks dissolved, the Muk pouring out of his earthy cell. It was then that Steelix and Scizor knew, that their old immunity to poison had now expired.
Sabrina lifted her hand and aimed it at the Muk, easily lifting it off the ground. The Muk seemed surprised at the sudden turn of events, Sabrina's eyes turned crimson as she closed her open palm into a fist. The Muk's body began to shrink into itself until it converged into a single tiny ball.
Sabrina's grip on the air was released; the condensed droplet of Muk plopped onto the ground. Her smile was quickly replaced with an expression of shock when the bubbling droplet grew gelatinously back into the Muk's original size. Sabrina thrust her hand in the direction of the Muk's head, its face exploding instantly.
The gunk that was the Muk's head landed several meters behind the Muk's body that continued to trudge over to them, a new head reforming in the absence of the other. Sabrina could feel everyone's eyes boring into her, it was a rare sensation. They had expected too much of her, she had been the one that they had considered all powerful, and right now, her powers were useless.
"What the hell is going on?" AJ yelled at Sabrina, throwing caution and politeness to the wind.
"I…I can't find his heart, his brain, or any of his vital organs. It's like their in every single one of his cells. I'd have to kill every single one of them to truly kill it. I can read its mind still, but I can't kill it" Sabrina said, still trying to convince herself of what she was saying.
"Okay, Sandslash. Use Fis-"
"That won't work. They can eat their way through the dirt and come back up above ground" Sabrina interrupted.
"Then what the hell can we do?" James asked hurriedly, swearing under his breath.
Sabrina lifted the Muk once more and threw it as far as she could, it landed with a splat, but reformed quickly and moved faster than before, the poisonous lubricant trail it left helped it move faster as long as it stayed on the trail. The Muk opened its mouth, launching a wave of opaque purple gas.
"Staraptor, use Whirlwind" Ash yelled into his Pokeglov, summoning a blast of light that outlined itself into Ash's newly evolved Staraptor. With several flaps of its wings, the poison gas that headed towards them was blown back at the Muk. The Muk charged past the wall of poison, opening its mouth wide.
The wretched gurgle could be heard across the field, the gunk in its mouth bubbled and swirled. A giant globule of poison was spat from the Muk's mouth and closing the distance between them with surprising speed. Sabrina was so absorbed in the shock at her powers being useless at the moment that she didn't notice the Sludge bomb.
Everyone began to scurry off in different directions, Sabrina stood rooted to the same spot. The poisonous slime landed inside the general area that they had been standing around; the collision burst the bubble of muck and sprayed it in every direction. Everyone turned in horror to see the rain of poison descending upon them, there was no way for them to escape.
Just before they were pelted with poison, the drops froze in mid air, Sabrina's hands both outstretched to each of her sides. Every ounce of poison was pulled back into a single floating orb and thrown back at the Muk. Sabrina had put enough force in the poison blob to push the Muk back, but was surprised once more when the slime that she shot back melded right into the Muk again, the momentum of the hit did not slow it down.
Ash rolled along the ground as he had tried to jump out of the Sludge Bomb's range. He flattened himself against the ground, "Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!" Ash screamed. Pikachu had been waiting for Ash's command to attack, firing a lance of lighting at the Muk.
The effect was instantaneous; the bolt that rivaled the temperature of the surface of the sun ignited the Muk. A wet and fiery explosion came, chunks of burning Muk splattered in every direction. Waves of relief washed over everyone in the group, confidence began to fill them again.
Other than fire, they could use lightning to kill the Muk, and with them was one of the most powerful Pokemon on their team that just happened to use electric attacks. Sabrina quickly lifted the patch of earth where the Sludge Bomb landed and threw it into the fiery remains of the Muk. She cleared the air of the poison that wafted through the area, exposed to the poison for only a few seconds. The others began running over to her happily.
Sabrina was not smiling, the joy quickly being stolen from everyone by just looking at her.
"Sabrina, what's wrong? We just won. We-" Brock began.
"That was not a victory. Lightning still sets the Muks on fire, which will ignite the combustible air in the city and still blow us up" Sabrina sighed.
"What if we just have Pikachu fire a lightning bolt at the city from far away?" James suggested.
"Wouldn't work. I've measured the distance from here to Celadon, and if Pikachu were to attack from here, the explosion would still reach us. If we went further away, I doubt that Pikachu's bolt could even make it" Tracy said as he stared at his Pokeglov and showed the 3D model to everyone.
"Areas that have been touched by the Muk will not return to normalcy after three years. So we can't do anything about what's been done now to the city, but we can at least stop it from spreading" Ash said, reading the description of Muk in his Pokeglov's database.
"What about Ash's Muk, can't we have it be our ambassador or something and talk to the other Muk for us, kind of what Ash's Kingler did with the other Kingler…before AJ killed them all that is" Dawn recommended.
"That won't work either. When we were fighting, I was at least able to read the Muk's mind. The Muks resent humans for ruining their natural habitats and making them smaller. These Muks are determined to expand their territory as much as they can; they care nothing about how this will affect the ecosystem or other Pokemon. Muks have never had very large territories or had them for very long. The idea of having endless fields for themselves to roam freely is a paradise, a dream. Muks have never been able to dream up such a thing because it was ludicrous. Now that they have the chance to, they are not going to let anyone stop them" Sabrina replied.
"AHHHH! This is bullshit! Why is it like the whole goddamned world's against us? Every suggestion we have is just another kick to the teeth; I know ya don't mean ta be so negative, but this is so frustrating. Barely anything works against those things, and we're about to go into a place where there's an army of them. They're poisonous, the air's poisonous, I bet even the damn ground is poisonous too and'll kill us the second we step on it!" AJ yelled.
For once, everyone agreed with AJ. The odds were against them, it seemed as if there were no hope for them.
For anyone.
For humanity.
"We've got to try" James insisted.
"If we don't, then no one will. We have the power to do something; we have a responsibility to do something. We didn't ask for this, but we're going to have to deal with it since we are the first and only people to get here. We've survived through so much; this might be one of the hardest things we've ever had to face. With all these Pokemon, with all these people here with different skills and abilities, there's gotta be a way for us to win" Jessie declared.
Everyone stopped and stared at the people who were the stupid, but once somewhat devious criminals out to cause trouble. James, Jessie, and Meowth had been reserved ever since they joined the group, watching but never talking or putting much input. Now they had spoken, not only that, but spoken when it counted. No one would've ever guessed that something so inspiring could've come from the former rockets.
Surge nodded, "They're right. We've got to do something, otherwise, everythin that you've all worked for will be for nothing, and doomed if we don't do anything."
"I…have a plan, remember?" Sabrina mumbled, hooking everyone's attention and reeling it back to her.
Usually, Tracy was the one that came up with the plans. Sabrina didn't feel like explaining, transferring her thoughts into everyone's heads. Everyone was shocked about the plan; it was risky, extremely risky.
"This…this might work" Tracy commented, revising the plan over and over again, not minding that Sabrina had stolen his thunder with regards to plan making. As long as it got through alive, they had to take a chance; otherwise, they were only prolonging their deaths.
They followed the trail of poison that the Muk had left behind when it was chasing Primeape. Sabrina stood in front, moving the poison away from their path and around them. Ash's Pokeglov was already full so he had to let Primeape go into Brock's pokeglov. Over the next several miles, Sabrina and Tracy went over their plan in great detail.
Tracy explained that unlike certain Pokemon, Muks had lost their sense of smell entirely, probably due to evolution so that it could withstand its own smell. To compensate, Muks reacted to movement and relied heavily on sight and touch to catch their food, which consisted of garbage. They also lacked the ability to hear, but could feel vibrations against the ground since their entire body was touching the ground.
Sabrina reminded them that while she would be concentrating on filtering all the poison around them, she would be unable to help them too much against the Muks, not that her powers would be of much help against them. For the time being, the key to their success would be stealth.
Mr. Mime, Mime Jr., Alakazam, and Noctowl would also be helping her repel the poison. This meant that she would also be able to aid them somewhat by sharing the load with the other Pokemon. To be stealthy enough, they would have to have no Pokemon out. This would help to not consume their air supply so quickly, and it would make their group somewhat smaller and easier to creep.
Brock summoned his Crobat, commanding it to use Haze. Noctowl gently blew the haze in the direction of the city also psychically moving it with the assistance of the others. Tracy had the entire city mapped out in his Pokeglov, finding the tallest building in the city.
Everyone crept quietly through the mist, hearts beating rapidly, wondering whether every second would be their last. The Muks seemed unsuspicious about the sudden mist that flooded the city. Everyone could see the formless blobs move in the distance.
Poison that hung in the air had turned the city into an eternal night, clouds of poison made the sky a dark purple and hid the sun from them. The entire city was dank and dark, the perfect habitat for Muks.
AJ had been right about the ground, Sabrina did her best to psychically move the poison away from them on the floor, otherwise it would eat through all their shoes and poison them once it reached their feet. The only Pokemon out were the four psychic Pokemon, Pikachu, Raichu, Meowth, and Ash's Muk.
Although Muk was incapable of dissuading his brethren to not kill the humans, he made a great cover for them when Muks began to look in their direction and see another Muk there. Sweat alone drenched everyone's outfits as they tiptoed through the misty city. They knew that the Muks could not hear them, but that was not enough to calm them in the slightest.
Ash's Muk would often casually use his large body to shield the others from the other Muk's sight. The Muks were too busy to notice Ash and the others, eating the garbage that littered the city and the rotting carcasses of their victims. Luckily for everyone, Sabrina had managed to also keep the stench at bay as well.
Although the Muks paid no mind to the fact that they were essentially blind, it was still difficult for the others to see through the haze. Sometimes, the others would resort to holding the other's hand. Eventually, Sabrina began to read the minds of the surrounding Muks and built a map of the city from their collective memories, implanting the thoughts into everyon's mind. In only a matter of seconds, it was as if everyone knew the city like the back of their hands, like they had been living there for years.
Sabrina's work of keeping the poison at bay from earth and sky was not difficult, but did require a certain amount of concentration. She was one of the few that did not need to worry as much. There was no doubt in her mind that she could possibly escape this if she really needed to, but to go back to solitude if her friends died was worse than death.
After an excruciating two hours of silent darting from building to building, they found the building they were looking for. They had amazingly managed to traverse nearly half the distance of the infected area. The building before them towered over the surrounding tall buildings.
The air itself was slowly eating away at its very foundations. Sabrina silently opened the door, everyone quickly ran inside before Sabrina closed it behind them. She wondered whether or not she should even lock it, if the Muks were to make it to the doors, a lock would not stop them from melting through the door.
The others quickly made their way up the stairs, the other psychic Pokemon had learned from Sabrina on how to repel the poison without her help. They had learned just by watching her. After a few flights of stairs, Sabrina decided to take her own way to the top floor. There were an abundant amount of holes through the building, Sabrina levitated herself and flew to the top story of the building. At the very top stood a house.
Four quadrants of once lavish gardens before the mansion were now dead and withered by the poisonous air around them. From the memories she had collected, Ash, Brock, and Misty had been here before. They had accompanied an Officer Jenny to find out why a large group of children were going missing.
It turned out that several wealthy men and women were using a Hypno to psychically relieve tension while they had parties. The side affect of that is that it caused the young children of the area to become hypnotized and believe they were Pokemon and head over into the woods.
The Muk had not neglected this area either; the mansion up top was barely standing. A fountain to the left of her was full of slime; Sabrina recalled that a single drop of Muk could contaminate an entire swimming pool. Sabrina lifted the thick layer of slime that coated the floor, letting it ooze off the sides of the building, eating away at the windows as it slid down.
"You can fly!" James managed to hiss as he was out of breath from going up all those flights of stairs. Ash, Misty and Brock immediately recognized the building; Sabrina had chosen this building for the specific reason that it was very tall.
"Yes, I can fly" Sabrina replied plainly while the psychic Pokemon went straight to work.
Alakazam, Noctowl, Mr. Mime, and Mime Jr. went to the four corners of the buildings and began to encase it in barriers, light screens, and reflects. Sabrina made her way to the center of the garden, sitting down into a meditative stance. She expanded the area of air filtration, going down as far as the base of the building, within the barriers, which helped her know where to draw the line.
It was within several minutes that a skyscraper of glass encircled the building they were in. The top was entirely open to allow more air to come in, not that the Pokemon would've had enough energy to create more barriers. They had exhausted their energy to make barriers by overlapping the sides multiple times. Noctowl had learned how to make barriers as well; Mr. Mime and Mime Jr. had mastered the ability to make barriers from long distances.
They quickly went over to Sabrina sitting around her and meditating as well, helping her increase the flow of oxygen. The group had been traveling inside the same cloud of Haze that Crobat had produced, having it psychically moved along with them, the haze still lingered at the base of the building. Crobat began using Haze repeatedly, blowing it down the rest of the building until it completely masked its presence.
The others summoned nearly all of their Pokemon, more specifically the ones with long-range attacks that wouldn't ignite the Muks. Ash summoned his Ivysaur, Glalie, Swellow, Sceptile, Grotle, Floatzel, Staraptor, Snorlax, Kingler, and Feraligatr. Dawn summoned her Prinplup, Lopunny, and Piloswine while Tracy summoned his Azumarill and Venomoth.
Brock had his Steelix, Sudowoodo, Golem, Ludicolo, and Swampert as Misty released her Corsola, Azumarill, Gyarados, Politoad, and Starmie. Sabrina brought out her Gengar, Jessie chose Yanmega, and James picked Carnivine. The poison that Sabrina had moved off the edge had come a quarter of the way down the building now, leaving the top three levels of the building without windows.
On the those same levels were everyone and their Pokemon. They faced out of all four sides of the building, the only ones still on the top were Sabrina and the psychic Pokemon, as well as the Pokemon that would not be needed, like Pikachu, Meowth, and Raichu. They had been equally divided amongst each level and side so to attack from any direction.
Sabrina had put almost all of her strength in to boosting her own defenses by permanently erasing certain memories and keeping the poison in the air away. She would not participate in the fight; her psychic abilities would be useless against an enemy she couldn't kill. The most she would've been able to do was to push and throw the Muks, which would only last for so long until she ran out of strength and could no longer attack. There were too many for her to handle at once.
She had to dedicate herself to the plan she had concocted; she would have to work as fast as she could. Samurai and Surge watched as a ghostly little girl materialized out of thin air before Sabrina. It was the same little girl that Ash had said he'd seen before they met Sabrina in Saffron City.
She carried a red ball, her skin was ghostly white, so white that it seemed that a pallid glow seemed to radiate from her. Samurai had to shield his eyes from how bright it was. The little ghost girl was only so bright because everything around her was so dark.
"What is that?" Samurai asked.
"It's a psychic astral projection. While I meditate and keep the poison away from here, I can multitask and go out in this form. Consider it a psychic version of the Pokemon move Substitute, although with a few advantages and downsides. This projection can't be hurt, but it can't attack." Sabrina's projection replied in the voice of a little girl.
The plan was simple, for the most part.
Once they found a large enough building and fortified it, Sabrina would send her projection to find cities past the infected area and away from the possible blast radius of the infected area. Meanwhile, the others would hold down the fort while she was searching. Once she found a suitable area that was safe, she would come back and teleport them to that area before they ignited the infected cities, getting out safely and destroying the Muk and their plan for world domination.
Simple, right?
Surge had suggested before that since Ash and his friends had been all over Kanto, why not use their memories to visualize the place and teleport there. Sabrina replied that would get them killed since those places could have changed during all that time and be filled with dangerous Pokemon. If it looked different from what the memories showed, then trying to teleport them there would only get them killed, as they would be trying to teleport to a place that technically did not exist.
"You have to make sure that nothing bothers my body while I do this, otherwise my projection will go back into my body and I'll have to start all over" Sabrina warned.
Samurai, Surge, Meowth, Pikachu, and Raichu nodded in response. They would do everything in their power to protect Sabrina. It would be the least they could do since they could not actually fight.
"Sabrina…" Samurai began.
"Don't worry about it, I forgive you. You too Surge" Sabrina filled in.
"Did you-!" Surge began to say, already starting to fume angrily.
"No, I didn't read your mind. It was a lucky guess," Sabrina answered back.
Surge and Samurai smiled back at her, "Have a safe trip."
"I will, no one will be able to touch me physically since I'm a ghost, I'll be too high for any attacks to reach me, and since I don't have any weight, I'll be moving too fast for anything to catch me. I will be worrying about you the entire way though," Sabrina admitted.
Surge wanted to tell her to not worry because they would be fine, but he doubted that, and he didn't want to lie.
"Sabrina, about that. What are our chances at surviving this?" Surge asked.
Sabrina was silent for a moment, she slowly began to float up and prepare for flight.
"You won't last more than thirty minutes…at max" Sabrina replied solemnly.
Surge flinched at the harshness of the words, part of him wanted to know but still regretted having the facts to bluntly facing him. Their survival would depend entirely on Sabrina finding a suitable, safe place outside of the blast radius to teleport them to, or to be more precise, how quickly she found it.
Surge doubted that there was anything truly safe for them to teleport to, but they had to try, and anything was better than this. He wondered if she doubted whether or not she would succeed or if they would survive.
"Is that a guess as well, or a information from the future?" Samurai inquired.
Sabrina flew off without a word; the meaning behind her silent action spoke volumes, and did not make them feel better about their predicament. Yet, they knew what they had to do, regardless of how the odds were stacked against them, they would not falter.
The Muk instantly recognized her bright ghostly body as they stared into the murky sky and saw the contrast in brightness. Some of the Muk began to try and follow her, throwing attacks at her that didn't even reach; she dodged, or went right through her. The other Muks went in the direction where the ghost came from, noticing the barriers and starting to attack. The word amongst the Muks spread quickly; Muks from every corner of the city came to attack the tower.
Surge watched as a purple tsunami came towards them, the wave itself was half the size of the skyscraper. Samurai could feel the thousands of eyes that gazed at him from the Tsunami of Muk. Surge opened a flap in his pants, pulling out a steel canteen and taking a long drink.
He handed it in to Samurai, who took a whiff and reeled back at the smell of the whiskey, shaking his head in polite refusal. Surge shrugged his shoulders and downed the rest of the drink, throwing the container over the edge of the building. He smiled crazily at the sight of the Muk tsunami heading towards them from miles away, still looking enormous and swallowing entire buildings, disintegrating them instantly, like a wave of water on a sand castle.
"So it begins. This is gonna be fun" Surge chuckled, licking his lips as Samurai closed his eyes and unsheathed his sword.
Next, Chapter 3: ToxiCity
