Melody of the Flute Chapter 2:
Meeting
Emiko and Gary kept walking, until they reached a clearing. "We should take a break, the Shieldon are getting tired," Gary said.
"Okay," Emiko said. She watched as Gary took a small laptop out of his pack and opened it. "What's that for?" she asked.
"I need to contact Professor Rowan and let him know how it's going," Gary explained. He typed something, then pressed a button. A man with white hair came up on the screen and said, "Gary, how's it going?"
"Good, I have some help," Gary said.
"Help?" Professor Rowan asked.
Gary pulled Emiko over and said, "This is Emiko, she offered to help me after she found a missing Shieldon."
"I think the Shieldon found me," Emiko said.
"Well, it's nice to meet you, Emiko," Professor Rowan said. He then turned back to Gary and said, "How long until you reach the rendezvous point?"
"About another two hours, unless we run into trouble," Gary said.
"Very good, we'll meet you there," Professor Rowan said. The screen went blank.
Just then, Emiko heard footsteps, and said, "Three people are coming this way."
"You've got good hearing," Gary commented as they turned to the sound.
Surprisingly, the three people who came out of the woods were Ash, Dawn and Brock. "Gary? And Emiko?" Ash asked.
"Hi," Emiko said.
"What are you two doing here?" Ash asked.
"I'm trying to get these Shieldon to Professor Rowan," Gary said. "One of the Shieldon ran off, and I found it with Emiko. I think it heard her crying, and went to comfort her."
Ash and the others immediately looked worried. "Emiko, what happened?" Ash asked.
"Mint broke the flute my mom gave me, and I was really upset, so I teleported to the forest here," Emiko said. "Then the Shieldon and Gary found me, and Gary repaired the flute, so I decided to help him and the Shieldon."
"Are the Shieldon in danger from something?" Brock asked.
"We have reports that Pokémon Hunter J is after them," Gary said. "I need to get them to Professor Rowan without running into Hunter J."
Before Ash could respond, they heard rumbling. "There's a group of four big trucks coming," Emiko said. "I think we might be too late to avoid J."
"That's bad," Gary said. "If the Shieldon get scared, they'll run off, and it'll make them easy targets. Let's try to keep them calm and stay out of sight."
"The trucks are really close," Emiko said. "We should hide in the bushes if we don't want to be seen."
"Got it," Gary said. "Come on, guys."
They herded the Shieldon into the bushes, and crouched down as the trucks came crashing through the trees. A bunch of men got out of the trucks, and one who seemed to be the leader said, "Spread out and search!"
The others obeyed. "Shouldn't we fight?" Ash whispered.
"No, we can't," Gary said. "It will only make things worse. We need to get out of here."
"How?" Dawn asked.
Before Gary could answer, they heard a man shout, "I heard something over here!"
Emiko grimaced. "They're coming this way," she said. "Should we run?"
Before Gary could reply, someone shouted, "Beedrill! Pin Missile!"
"Let's go!" Gary said, pointing in the opposite direction from the men. Gary picked up two Shieldon, and everyone else picked up one. Then they got up and ran, just as Pin Missile hit the bushes.
"There they are!" the guy in front said. "Beedrill, use Pin Missile again!"
Emiko saw Beedrill start to do Pin Missile, and quickly said, "Ash, take this Shieldon and keep running! I'll hold them off and find you later!"
"Got it," Ash said. He took the Shieldon and kept running. Emiko, meanwhile, stopped running and spun. She held out a hand as Pin Missile sped toward her, and stopped the attack. Then she reversed it, and Beedrill got bombarded with its own attack. The man it belonged to recalled it, and nodded to the others. They all threw Poké Balls into the air, and their Pokémon came out- momentarily. Emiko sent them back and said, "Fight me yourselves, or go home, cowards."
"You seriously think you can defeat all of us?" the lead guy asked incredulously.
"Well, I'm at least going to try," Emiko said. She formed an energy ball, and sent it at the men, who scattered, except for one guy. He got fried, and fell to the ground, smoking.
The other guys looked nervous, until their leader said, "If we don't defeat her, you know what's going to happen, don't you?"
"What is going to happen?" Emiko asked.
"We'll all get killed by J!" one man wailed. All the others glared at him.
"Well, since I can't kill you myself, that might be for the best," Emiko snarled. "I'm not going to let you get the Shieldon." Then she shouted, "BIND! Spell, self-maintain. Time limit, five hours." All the men froze in place, and Emiko said, "Okay, you're all set. Five hours from now, you'll be able to move again. And maybe you'll think twice about messing with my friends."
"HEY! You can't just leave us here!" one man shouted.
"Watch me," Emiko said, and teleported off.
She landed next to Ash, who jumped slightly. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Emiko said. "All the guys are frozen for the next five hours. Now I guess we just have to deal with their leader."
"Wow, good job," Gary said. "We're about two miles from the rendezvous point with Professor Rowan and Officer Jenny, so I guess we should get going."
They rounded the next corner- and ran right into a large dragon-like Pokémon who had a woman standing on its back.
The woman turned to Ash and said, "I thought I told you to stay out of my way."
"Forget it," Ash snarled. "As long as you treat Pokémon like things to sell, I'll stop any of your plans I know of."
"Ash, you know her?" Emiko asked.
"That's J," Ash said. "And she froze Pikachu one time."
J turned to Emiko and said, "So, you have the ability to freeze people and Pokémon as well. Although your method is different than mine…"
"What are you here for?" Emiko asked. "To taunt us, or to fight?"
"Neither," J replied. "I'm here to get those Shieldon, for my latest client."
Emiko focused her thoughts on Ash and said, Get the Shieldon out of here!
Ash nodded to the others, who were carrying the Shieldon, and they started to run. J started after them, but Emiko flew in front of her, causing the dragon-like Pokémon to stop. Before either of them could make a move, however, Emiko heard Ash cry out, and one of the Shieldon scream. Emiko teleported back to the ground, and saw the Shieldon falling down the cliffside.
She immediately flew after it, and managed to catch it in midair. "Hold still," she told it, and flew back up, where she saw J confronting Ash. The others seemed to have gotten away-but one Shieldon was incased in brown stuff, unable to move.
"This time, I'm showing no mercy!" Ash shouted.
"You don't know the meaning of no mercy!" J snarled back.
Emiko teleported the Shieldon to its friends, then went back to help Ash. She saw J release a Pokémon that looked like some kind of giant scorpion, and shout, "Drapion, Cross Poison!"
Emiko flew down, and as the attack came toward them, she simply held out a hand, then pushed it back. "Drapion, dodge it!" J said. Drapion tried to obey, but wasn't fast enough. J was forced to recall it.
Before she could do anything more, Ash called out, "Pikachu, Iron Tail!" Pikachu ran, bounced off a rock, and then attacked J, who held up the arm with the machine thing on it. Pikachu bounced off, and snarled at J, who aimed the machine at him. Emiko teleported, formed a shield around Pikachu, then said, "Try it and I'll blow that thing up while it's still on your arm."
Emiko noticed the muscles in J's shoulder shift, and said, "You asked for it." She snapped her fingers, then formed a barrier around herself as the thing on J's arm exploded. Through the cloud of black smoke, she heard J scream.
Finally the smoke cleared, and revealed what had happened. J was on her knees, and half her arm was missing. There was no sign of the machine. Emiko let the barriers around herself and Pikachu drop, and walked to J. Her visor thing was destroyed too, and she looked up at Emiko with an emotion close to fear in her eyes. "What are you going to do to me?" she asked.
"Nothing," Emiko said. "I think I've done enough today, and it's entirely possible that you'll die of blood loss soon anyways. While Ash may not know the meaning of 'no mercy', I do. I've killed before, and if I wasn't worried about disturbing the balance between this dimension and mine, I would kill again."
Emiko then turned and walked back to Ash, who was looking slightly freaked out, as was Pikachu. "What?" Emiko asked.
"You blew up half her arm," Ash said. "Was it really necessary to go that far?"
"Yes," Emiko said. Then she sighed. "Well, J was right about one thing, at least. You don't know the meaning of no mercy. Let's get going."
"What about the frozen Shieldon?" Ash asked.
"I'll unfreeze it on the way," Emiko said, going over and picking it up. Then she walked off, followed by Ash and Pikachu.