I do not own Pokémon, and to be honest, I 'm glad cause the real owners of Pokémon wouldn't let me do the stuff I have written here.
The explosion had made any tree or shrub that they had made into a significant marker disappear. They trudged in silence; they had initially started running but Dawn was lagging behind, so they had stopped to let her catch her breath.
The suffocating darkness of the night made it impossible to measure whether they were getting closer to the town or not. A cloud of paranoia followed them with every step they took; the slightest rustle in the bushes caused their gazes to turn in unison in that direction. Ash gingerly carried Pikachu with both arms, relieved to see him breathing gently.
No one bothered questioning the strange event that had just occurred, each of them knew just as much as the other in terms of that subject, which was next to nothing. All of them struggled to contain their emotions, knowing that becoming frantic would not help the situation or their Pokémon, the latter being their first priority.
Ash insisted on wearing his tattered and scorched cap, as did Brock with his vest. Dawn had lost more than the others in terms of accessories; her cap had been completely destroyed and her backpack had been equally shredded, as well as all the contents in it; leaving her literally with nothing to wear other than what she wore now.
After hours of walking though the woods they found what they had searched for. The town that stood before them was slightly different in the state that they had left it in: it was completely decimated, looking as though it had been hit by a hurricane. Eerily enough, any sign of life from the town's dwellers was absent.
"What happened?" Dawn whispered as clutched her torn remains in her arms tighter and closer to her chest.
"I…don't know" Ash replied, looking for someone in the ruins of the once tranquil town.
"Maybe…" Brock seemed at a loss for words from seeing the destruction, but quickly recuperated. "Maybe the town's Pokémon went through the same thing we just did?" Brock suggested.
"Explain the houses," Ash pointed to the rows of homes across the Pokemon center. Several doors had been left ajar, upon closer inspection one could tell that they were forcibly opened.
Brock's visage became stone faced; he uttered not a single comment in rebuttal.
"It looks like someone raided the place," Ash and Brock nodded, Dawn's observation making the most sense. Immediately images of Team Rocket flared up in their minds, only to be quieted down. The devious trio had become synonymous with trouble and annoyance.
" But this can't be Team Rocket's doing. This isn't their style?" Ash pondered.
"But then…who?" Ash whispered aloud, the question almost rhetorical. They began heading towards one of the houses, stopping at the welcome mat. Ash took a step towards the entrance.
"Hello? Is anyone there?" Ash yelled, waiting for a reply that would never come. Ash started making his way inside, Dawn and Brock hissing his name in disapproval only to end up following him inside. They saw him standing in the middle of what appeared to be the living room.
Everything seemed crooked and battered, signs of struggle clearly evident. Proud Chinas that once adorned the wall now lay shattered across the hardwood floor and rug, Tables and chairs were turned over, but it seemed as though nothing of value was missing. Save the people that lived there.
Ash, Brock, and Dawn searched the houses, unable to find a single soul. Brock opened the fridge to find it flooding the room with light, Dawn turned on the faucet, hot water pouring onto her hands. Ash peered into the oven, a dinner meant for two still marinating in its juices. Brock was just about to open the door leading to a basement when he heard Dawn's voice call out.
"Guys, the Pokemon center's lights are still on…I think!"
As they began to head towards Pokémon center, the ominous, flickering lights from within beginning to perturb them.
A piece of glass shattered in the distance making the hairs on the back of their necks stand on end. They froze, waiting for a new sound to fill in the gap of silence. When nothing came, they continued. The trio reached the entrance, awaiting the automatic doors to open; but the doors refused to budge while the three of them stared back at their reflections in silence.
Brock walked over to the doors, his fingers prying in between the gaps down the middle, forcefully wrenching the doors apart. Ash looked over to Dawn, their eyes met, both nodding before heading into the building.
The interior was trashed, cushioned seats overturned, holes in the chairs bleeding out fluff. Potted plants were smashed across the ground; gashes crisscrossed the room, going hand in hand with scarlet smears. Wires hung lifelessly from the ceiling through tilted ceiling panels, some of them severed, blooming sparks every few seconds.
The three of them weaved back and forth through the downpour of sparks as they made their way to the medical counter. "I'll see if I can get the machine working" Brock said, sliding over the counter to the medical bay of the Pokémon center, he visibly tensed as his feet touched the ground.
"Brock? What's wrong?" Ash said, walking around the counter, standing at his side and seeing what he saw tensing up as well.
"Guys, what's wrong? You're scaring me" Dawn watched from afar, waddling closer to them once they didn't answer her.
"Dawn, wait. Don't come any closer, you won't like what you see" Ash warned, breaking contact with Dawn to continue looking at what he and Brock stared at. Dawn's curiosity overwhelmed her, slowly inching towards them. Ash and Brock could hear Dawn's sharp inhale, knew her hand absentmindedly coming to cover her mouth, her other hand gripping her other arm and digging her nails into her skin.
At the far end of the room was a nurse Joy, her body leaning against the wall. Her hair was a mess, hanging down to her shoulders and her hat was missing. The wall she leaned against splattered with blood, the white from her outfit now stained red as well. Her eyes were still open and unblinking; as for her breathing: nonexistent.
Brock slowly trudged towards her as if in a trance, seeing one of the women he constantly idolized dead before him. His breathing became ragged and shallow with every trembling step he made closer to her, every foot revealing an elaborate detail that wasn't there before the step.
He reached her, bent down and stared at the whites of her eyes. Brock raised his hand over to her face, doing the courtesy of the dead and for himself of closing her eyelids. The edge of his hand had barely reached her skin when she gasped for air and shuddered violently, her eyes now sown shut. Ash reacted quickly, slapping his hand across Dawn's mouth and muffling her scream.
"Hey, it's okay now. We're here to help, but what t happened here?" Brock softly whispered, smoothing his hands onto her shoulders to reassure her.
"Th-they attacked, b-burst through doors, flashing lights, everyone was sleeping…and the screams."
"Who did this? Team Rocket? Who? We're Pokémon tra-"
She immediately cowered at the word; attempting to turn her wounded body to a corner of the room, make herself small and insignificant. She pretended to be dead but Brock held her wrist, her own heartbeat betraying her. "Was it trainers who did this?" Brock asked, shaking her gently, his fingers turning her chin towards him, her quivering eyes staring back.
"No it was the wild Pokémon, the Luxrays, Luxios, and Shinxs. They came and attacked everyone. They took them away. They took everyone away."
The three of them froze, letting it sink in at first, but still unable to comprehend it.
"I-it was the electric Pokémon, electric, Pokémon, Pokémon, …poke…mo-" Her eyes suddenly lost the sparkle of life. Brock noticeably shuddered; gradually removing his hand from her wrist, now placing it over his eyes, tears streaming down the gaps of the flesh-laden barricade. Ash looked away and lowered his cap over his eyes, removing his hand from Dawn's mouth.
Dawn started to wring Ash's shirt in her white-knuckled hands. Brock shuddered, his gasps shallow at first but then unexpectedly ceasing in a second. He wiped the tears from his eyes and went over to pick her up; he held her in his arms, like a husband would do to his bride.
"I'm gonna give her a proper burial" Brock muttered, exiting the building swiftly but calmly. Brock had made it halfway across the dirt road when he stopped suddenly and froze. Ash stared at him, noticing that he no longer moved or made any attempt to look back at him. Ash's interest grew, his legs slowly making their way towards the entrance of the building.
Brock made the subtlest gesture to tell Ash to stay away but they remained unnoticed. Walls from the entrance had blocked Ash's field of view no longer as he exited; he flinched immediately at the sight. Dawn had nuzzled into Ash's arm, to clear the nausea before looking up to see what they all stared at.
Standing before Brock were three Shinx, four Luxio, and one large Luxray, growling menacingly, daring anyone to cross them. They slowly began to surround Brock, leaving him cornered. Brock was frozen by fear with the exception of his legs that refused to cease trembling at the sight of the blood-drenched fangs. In unison the pack began to buzz, currents of electricity began to surround them as they approached nearer.
Ash could no longer stand by and watch, his voice projecting across the entire town, "HEY, GET AWAY FROM HIM!" Their attentions suddenly turned in unison towards Ash and Dawn. Ash chuckled nervously as Dawn squeezed his arm tighter and whimpered softly, "you idiot, what did you do that for." Ash himself didn't know why he did it, if anything it seemed kind of dumb to him now.
Maybe it was because some of them preferred fresh and living meat; maybe they wanted the excitement of the chase and the hunt rather than eating two morsels that were cornered and already dead. Half the Luxio and all of the Shinx left their ranks to chase Dawn and Ash. Luxray roared in disapproval at the inexperience of the rashness of the young ones, but his bark was left unheard.
Brock burst running with a speed the hunters had not encountered with their victims. One of the Luxio became excited, launching an electric attack to the Luxray's dismay. Brock bent his legs, and barely dodged a lightning bolt that flew above his head and set fire to one of the houses.
Ash and Dawn were already running, the Luxio's electric attack prompting the others to do the same. A lightning bolt missed Dawn's head by centimeters as Ash yanked her with him, his free arm carrying Pikachu. The both of them running towards the house that Brock was heading to, the pack of electric cats at their heels.
One of the Shinx pounced at Dawn; its claws bared and prepared to sink into Dawn's calf. Ash took notice and stopped briefly, his leg shooting out and slamming into the Shinx's face as it swiped at Dawn.
One claw managed to make a deep cut on Dawn's leg, drawing blood instantly and making her stumble. Her face grew pale as she stared down at her leg, seeing the deep cut nearly reaching the muscle, the warmth of it seeping down her leg and into her sock, staining it.
"KEEP RUNNING!" Ash yelled, squeezing her hand tighter and tugging at her arm even harder. Adrenaline surged through her veins and numbed the pain, fighting against the mental image proving harder than fighting against the pain.
The night grew brighter as their eyes met the glow of the flames that danced along one house. They had run along the side of the once crescent moon formation that the Pokémon had cornered Brock with. Brock was at the door at one of the unburning houses.
He kicked the door down and turned in time to have another lighting bolt from Luxio strike him. The bolt hit nurse Joy's body, the shock transferred to Brock's body causing him to tremble painfully and drop her onto the ground as her body set aflame.
Ash quickly ran past him, grabbing him by the wrist and dragging him into the confines of the house they had opened up earlier. They ran past the dining room, glass shattered behind them as a few straw bolts missed the sides of the house. It grew noticeablely hotter inside as they ran down the basement stairs and shut the door behind them and locked it.
Dawn crawled over to a corner, taking Pikachu into her arms as she watched Brock and Ash pile furniture against the door. They both wheezed, barely holding themselves up. Ash slowly slid down the brick surface and sat while Brock held himself up and stood with both his hands against the wall.
They could hear the rumble of destruction above; a deafening roar of wood snapping and glass shattering told them that the house had collapsed on top of them. They seemed unfazed by this; they would deal with that later when they had caught their breath. Ash looked over at Dawn who cradled Pikachu in her arms, his eyes widening at her wound. "Whoa, lets get you fixed up" he said, struggling to barely stand and searching around the room with haste.
"What's wrong, is she okay?" Brock asked, maintaining his position towards the brick wall.
"She's been cut, there's a lot of blood, help me find something" Ash said.
Brock took a deep breath and tore himself from the wall to help search, giving up to let Ash do it and going over to check on Dawn himself. He reached into his vest pocket and pulled out some gauze tape, quickly wrapping it around her thigh.
"We have to keep pressure on this wound so that you stop bleeding, let's just hope that it isn't infected. Was it one of the Shinx of Luxio that cut you?" Brock asked and saw her nod in response. "Ash you find anything?" Brock asked as he tended to Dawn.
"Yeah…but I wish I hadn't" Ash said, making their attentions shift to him rapidly. The old couple that had waved goodbye to them lay propped up against the wall of the basement corner; they remained unmoving as Brock left Dawn to approach them. He took their wrists and held them for a while.
He drew back his hands, his head sunk softly muttering, "they're dead too, I don't know if it's from a heart attack since there's no wounds on them, but they've got no pulse."
Ash tried to find some sort of surface but his hands clutched the air futilely and he landed on his rear. This had been a bit much for him to take all at once; He didn't have any experience when it came to seeing so much death and blood. He slowly pushed himself away from the scene and against an opposing wall.
Brock found a blanket that was large enough to cover them, but nothing could be done to take away the sensation of sharing a room with the dead. Dawn began to cry softly, after a few minutes Ash went over to comfort her. Her tears subsided shortly and she remained quiet and apathetic to everything. Ash looked over at Brock who seemed to be brooding in a corner.
"Hey Brock, I could use some help here, we need to think of something, like how to get out of here, how to fight those things" Ash suggested, but Brock remained silent. "Hello? Earth to Brock, can ya hear me?" Ash grumbled.
Brock looked up, staring at Ash for a while before lowering his head again and saying, "not now Ash. Just…just let me get over her death."
"Who? Nurse Joy? Wha…I-I can't-" Ash was at a loss for words, his face had turned red with anger, he was so flustered his sentences weren't cohesive at first. "Y-you've gotta be freaking kidding me, I-I mean I'm sad that she's dead, I'm sad that this old couple's dead too, but we have to get over it. We need to find a way out of here and I can't do it without you, so forget about her, we barely knew her anyways, I've understood what your obsession is with her but THERE'S HUNDREDS OF THEM AND THEY ALL LOOK THE SAME" Ash screamed, the room going silent except for his panting.
"Besides, you always flirt with any cute girl that you see, what's the difference if one of them died?"
"You just don't understand" Brock said calmly, not even attempting to raise his head and make eye contact.
Ash was enraged, storming over to where Brock stood, leaving Dawn shaken from the sudden dash. Brock remained unresponsive as Ash pulled at him by his collar and yelled at him.
"Snap out of it!" Ash yelled, his fist swung at Brock's face but never made it. Brock reacted quickly, slamming his knee into Ash's gut, forcibly bending him over in pain. Ash's head lifted up shakily, scowling at Brock as he met his gaze.
He lunged forward, swinging his fists in every direction but each a clear miss. Brock grabbed Ash by the throat, shoving him into the brick wall and holding him up with one arm. Ash struggled, his face turning purple as his feet kicked futilely and dangled from the floor.
"STOP IT!" Dawn pleaded from the corner of the room; her eyes welled up with tears as she clutched her leg. She had not attempted to get up due to her leg wound even though it had stopped bleeding. "Please don't fight, this isn't helping." Dawn said staring back at the both of them.
Brock lowered Ash back to the ground and released his hand from Ash's throat. Ash quickly moved away and turned from Brock but stopped. He stood there for a moment before turning slowly to meet Brock's gaze and mumble, "I'm sorry."
"Why am I so angry and frustrated? This isn't like me, I've never fought with Brock like that before."
Brock reverted back to his spot on the wall while Ash went over to Dawn's side seeing if Pikachu had awoken yet. Pikachu's pulse was regular, it wasn't faint and Pikachu didn't seem to be in a coma but more like a deep sleep that no amount of noise or movement would wake Pikachu from until it was ready. Ash stared at the wall, it wasn't his first time dealing with a Luxray, capable of seeing past walls.
"It's probably out there, staring at us right now, it knows that we're alive. If it's so smart, then it already knows and has already probably made a plan in case we try to escape."
Brock left his post on the wall and began inspecting every nook and crevice of the basement.
"We'll have to make our way up through where we came" Brock's forehead forming creases.
"We need to have a plan to get out of here quickly," Ash refuted. Brock was quiet for a few minutes, thinking deeply in silence that Ash understood and left him uninterrupted.
"There's…a teleportation device in the Pokémon center, every Pokémon center has one because it makes transferring pokeballs from center to center easier. We can't place ourselves into pokeballs since they only receive Pokémon DNA and it's too risky to tamper with them. The power's out inside the Pokémon center, but if we can overload it with electricity from Pikachu, then we can make it transport us to another Pokémon center where the situation is hopefully better" Brock suggested.
"Has that every been done before?" Ash replied bitingly.
"...no..." Brock muttered.
"Why not?" Dawn inquired innocently.
"Teleportation technology can be unstable. Sending something by teleportation doesn't always mean it'll come back in one piece. It's easier to send something small and simple, like a Pokeball, takes less energy. It's used a lot in Saffron, but it isn't safe enough for humans to where they can widely distribute it throughout the regions. The further it is to teleport, the more unstable it is" Brock informed them.
"So it's die instantly or die slowly," Ash bluntly commented.
"Pretty much" Brock replied, defeated. "We can't outrun them, but at least we can try and teleport ourselves. It's better than doing nothing. It's better than starving down here and getting mauled up there. I know it's crazy, but..." Brock didn't know what else to say or how to convince them. He could barely convince himself that this would work.
"-But it's just crazy enough to work" Ash concluded, the fire in his eyes burning again. "There's the matter with whatever's up there. There's a chance that they'll be inside the Pokemon center, waiting for us. From the way the Luxray made all of the others corner you, I guess it lives up to its name as the smartest large cat Pokémon. If anything, it probably has someone guarding our exit out of here. We need to distract them somehow. I think I know a way…but you're not gonna like the idea."
Two Luxio were guarding the ashen remains of the house that they had burned down. In their spare time they had proceeded to burn down most of the other houses for fun, despite the disapproval of their pack leader Luxray, telling them that burning down all the houses would give them less cover to hide behind if more humans came.
Luxray had told them that the humans were still alive beneath the rubble, wherever they had hidden. It had been a few hours and dawn was beginning to peek through the trees as the strolled casually about the wreckage.
They had been ordered to start digging through the ruins of the house to uncover and corner the humans, but listening to the alpha male of the group didn't seem to be on their agenda.
The majority of them resented Luxray. They hadn't bothered to dig as they were ordered to, preferring to listen to Luxray's other thought that the humans could not stay down their forever as they would run out of air or starve to death.
Luxray's pompous attitude began to annoy the pack; his sudden ascension to leadership did not go unnoticed. He began commanding them what to do; defending his role as leader by reminding them he was smarter and stronger. Everything was to go according to plan; any deviation meant less food for them.
Luxray had ordered them to mark their targets before they attacked, to strike as quickly and quietly as possible. He had ordered them to only use Scary Face to slow them down and Thunder Fang to immobilize. Once they had done so, they were to drag the bodies back into the forest where they would be divided up equally.
"And by equally you mean you get the biggest share for just coming up with the plan, not even really doing anything" the Luxio glowered.
Luxray had wanted to create less of a ruckus for the sole reason of giving the illusion that the town could still provide safe passage to the next. Humans would travel through here, they would not have to hunt as hard for their meals now, and their food would come to them.
By burning down the houses his plan had been ruined, the Luxio responsible were not allowed a share in the morsel they had gotten and were sent to guard the mound of rubble where the humans had escaped under. Luxray and the others were still by the Pokémon center, waiting for another chance at getting new prey.
Suddenly, a rustle was heard from the center of the broken wood mound they surrounded. They immediately circled the area of movement and held their position, ready for their new meal.
They tensed, the hairs on the body standing on end, an electrical current surrounding their bodies, humming to life as a figure crawled from the wooden debris. It was a wrinkled human hand, rapidly leaping from the hole, flying three feet away from the Pokémon center.
The body had yet to touch the ground when two lightning bolts struck the body, it burst into flames as it hit the ground. Lights from the fire reflected and danced off their eyes as they watched the spectacle before them. They would wait until they could smell the meat cook to the temperature they liked. Both of them agreed that it would better for them if they neglected to alert the others of their catch.
More figures rose from the burnt wood rubble, catching their attention. The Luxio turned; the previous humans and a new addition to the group ran towards the Pokémon center. Both of them turned back to their meal, caring not if the humans escaped them or not, they would be captured later. Why should they capture a moving morsel if one was prepared before them; the human fools were already headed towards the area where the others were hiding.
Brock had opposed the idea immediately, spending another couple of hours debating over a better plan until he surrendered. They spent the next several hours removing the debris from their path as quietly as they could. Pikachu had yet to wake up as Ash and Brock picked up one of the corpses.
With every ounce of strength, they threw the body upwards through the ruin hoping to use it as a distraction. After a few minutes of waiting, they went back, Brock picking up the other corpse and Ash picking up Dawn who held Pikachu. As they exited their scorched burrow, Brock was able to pull both Ash and Dawn up at the same time. As they ran towards the Pokémon center, Brock's eyes stumbled upon something; Ash on the other hand was unfazed and kept running.
Brock watched as Ash hopped over a dismantled skeleton, every ounce of meat and skin gone, the black dried blood the only grave marker given. The clothes had been torn so much it was indistinguishable, but each knew whose bones they belonged to, the spot Nurse Joy had been dropped was etched into their minds.
Brock swallowed hard, holding back the nausea as he ran. Darting through the automatic doors and weaving through the wreckage, they reached the spot where they saw the dying Joy.
"The room behind the counter is the transporting room," Brock said as he walked slowly towards it. Several shadows blurred along the walls catching their attention instantly. Luxray and the lower evolutions plunged from the ceiling and landed on the counter in front of them. There seemed to be no end to the choir of growls and snarls surrounding them.
Luxray's body began to glow as the electrical current traveled along his fur. Brock immediately ducked, the bolt of lightning missing him by mere inches and striking the poster on the wall behind him. Ash ran and slid across the slippery bloodstained tile. Bolts flew past his and Dawn's head as they passed the side of the counter. Luxray turned towards them while his minions' attentions were on Brock who was sprawled on the floor.
It took everything that Brock could muster to not puke from the smell of the old woman's body; not only did she reek with the smell of old but the fact that she had begun fester with the smell of death. Brock noticed Luxray's shift in attention; he quickly reacted and charged at Luxray. Luxray continued to ignore Brock's attack; in response, the others fired their attacks from the side of the room.
Brock's body quickly turned, putting the plan into action and using the old woman's body as a shield. Each bolt impaled her from the front as Brock let go and continued his tackle. Seeing as the others had failed, Luxray turned his attention to Brock, annoyed at the persistence of his prey.
Shimmering waves of heat had been steaming off of his body and rising into the sky as he had stared at Ash and poised to attack. The rising heat was fast, reaching the clouds quickly and turning them dark. Ash struggled to get up and move while still carrying Dawn, getting behind Luxray and entering the room with the teleportation device. Brock continued to sprint towards Luxray, leaping over the counter, sliding and rolling into the next room where Ash and Dawn were.
Luxray had been wearing a toothy smile, thinking that the foolish human would have fallen in the trap due to his rash actions, only to have his eyes widened at the surprise that it wasn't his attention at all, watching Ash close and lock the door to the Pokémon teleporter.
A large lightning bolt plummeted from the blacked clouds directly above Luxray that he had charged with heat. Ash had moved far away enough from the door when the electrical currents bombarded across its surface as well as the floor. The wave of electricity spread across the room, scorching all the surfaces it touched.
Luxray turned to see what had happened to his subordinates, shocked and angry to see them feasting on the elderly woman they had recently roasted. His barked orders fell on deaf ears, the sound impaired by their gluttonous hunger. He turned his back on them; he didn't need them to do this, the meat would all be for him. His mouth opened wide, his teeth glistened as he bared them at the wall.
Brock reacted quickly, heading straight for a communication device that they had to contact the areas that they were transferring to. The computer had an internal battery in case the Pokémon center and the backup generators lost power. A map of Sinnoh blinked onto the screen, each town highlighted on the map a bright red dot. Dawn had been sitting against the side of a wall, holding Pikachu, watching Brock and Ash hurrying around while she sat there, she felt useless.
Ash ran over to her, holding Pikachu in his hands, talking to him gently to try and wake him up. For good measure he gave a few gentle shakes, when Pikachu was still unresponsive to his calls he began to shake and talk louder and harder. A loud crunch was heard across the room, a crack across the door snaked along its surface. It violently shook again, a dark glow leaking through the cracks of the door.
Luxray opened its mouth wide again, and rapidly snapped it close, a meter away, the aura of dark fangs glowed in their ajar state. As they crunched together, it grazed along the side of door, slowly weakening it. Some material within the door seemed to divert electricity and dampen the shock; the only other move in Luxray's arsenal was Crunch.
"I've got the coordinates. Theoretically, I just need a very large input of energy to get it to teleport us" Brock yelled from the computer.
"I know, I know, I'm trying" Ash replied, refusing to shake the living daylights out of his beloved Pokémon for fear of hurting him. The door splintered inwards, the jagged edges jutted towards them menacingly. Luxray decided that he had done enough damage to the door, hopping down from the counter and tackling the door head on.
The door shuddered on its hinges but remained intact; Brock, Ash, and Dawn all released a sigh of relief, but it was short lived as the door shook again. The steel bolts were beginning to bend, loosening from the hinges. Luxray stopped, seeing it as futile, stepped back; high pressure from the rapid closing of his jaw created a set of serrated teeth made of dark aura.
Now from a closer range, a large gaping wound punctured through the door, a cloud of splinters sprayed at Ash, Pikachu and Dawn. They shirked away from the blast, quickly looking back at the hole in the door, staring back at Luxray's golden eyes. Ash dragged Dawn to a corner behind the computer next to where Brock furiously typed.
Lances of electricity branched from the door, the range that it passed was limited as it reabsorbed into the door. Luxray snarled at the persistent obstacle, ramming his skull into it one last time. The door gave way, flying off the wall, the bolts pinging off the ceiling and skittering across the floor and rolling into some dark corner. Its surface slammed into the tile, Luxray stood on it and glared.
It was a stand off, the four of them frozen in each other's eyes. They were cornered; there were no escapes now, no way to get past Luxray and to the door. Volts of electricity jumped from hair to hair on Luxray's mane. Sparks danced from his pores, a rising heat wave filtering through the skylight in the ceiling. Clouds blackened again as the heat seeped through the broken ceiling tiles.
Ash recognized what Luxray was preparing to do, taking the moment to try and make the plan still work out. It had been initially decided that Pikachu would supply the massive, nearly overloading, surplus of power to the teleporter, they had thought Pikachu would have woken up by then. That was not the case now, but the plan could still work, but on a fool's luck, and on a risky gamble.
Brock and Dawn had scrunched into a corner behind the computer where they were ignored; Ash had taken shelter behind the transporting mechanism. Luxray began to scan the room when a pokedex bounced off his face. It snarled, finding Ash's arm still in the air from the throw and ducking behind one of the machines. Luxray sent a bolt of energy at the machine, the bolt dissipating and absorbed into the walls before it even got close. A stronger bolt was launched, only to be absorbed once more as Luxray was rewarded with another object bouncing off his head.
The air was scalding above Luxray now, placing all of his power into this attack. Ash's head slid into view, realizing that while Luxray used Thunder it could not move, before retreating behind cover and barely dodging a stray lightning bolt that would've melted his face, charring a spot on the wall.
Light that had once filtered through from the dawn dimmed and finally darkened from the blackening sky. Creatures from miles away turned their heads towards the ominous heavens directly above the Pokémon center.
Ash slowly began to back away from the inactive teleporter; the fear that he had held down as best he could rapidly overtook him. His legs shook, he tried to talk but couldn't help but stutter inaudibly. The black clouds above Luxray froze; branches of electricity all struck down from the cloud, converging into one single point and plummeting onto the Pokémon center.
A pillar of lightning poured over Luxray, enveloping its entire body; the sight of the tree made entirely out of lightning hypnotized Pokémon from far and wide. Luxray continued to stand there; his fur heavily saturated with thousands of volts of electricity and prepared to skewer the machine and the human behind it.
Silence flooded the room for an instant before evaporating completely as Luxray released his attack with all of his strength. Ash instinctively jumped backwards, his arms guarding his face from the blinding light. His body slammed against the wall, hard; sliding down to the floor with his arms still locked in position. The room was silent with the exception of Luxray's pants.
Warbling and beeping noises gradually grew from the teleporter and computer in unison. Brock reacted quickly, carrying Dawn and setting her down before the teleporter. Ash watched as Brock darted to him, forcefully yanking him off the wall, flinging him next to Dawn.
He threw himself at them as the beeps became more and more frequent to the point where they began to sound like a long drone. Luxray was too tired to move at this point, merely watching in disbelief that the object had not been destroyed by his thunder attack. He tried to move; his legs quivered for a second and gave up.
Luxray attempted to crawl towards his prey that was being bordered by a blue spotlight from the object he had failed to destroy. A few more inches and he too would fall within the sapphire circle. Brock had lunged himself next to Ash and Dawn at the last second when the teleporter's drone reached a loud, high pitched squeal, a flash converted the room to something similar to purgatory.
Next, chapter 4: Not Far From The Tree