Chapter Four: Battle of Wills
A/N: This is taking a while… Gah, I hate writing Drew's character. I despise him in certain parts of the anime, but in others he's a lot better than May and her little friends.
So, I guess I really hate characterizing Ash. Why? Because he's your typical shounen hero with a huge appetite and massive amounts of dumb luck, along with a mouth bigger than his skill and a head that's a good bit emptier than the majority of his Pokeballs. But then, he has one real redeeming quality – he's got a good heart. Otherwise he might have been written out of this.
Max is a bit irritating, but he's no different from the average little brother. I guess I can understand that because I have one, though he isn't average. I like to have characters with siblings to explore the typical relationship, so Max gets the seal of approval.
May is everything I'm not. I don't whine nearly as much, and arguments with my brother rarely result in my being upstaged in common sense. She is fascinated with flashy effects and girly things like her appearance compared to, say, celebrities. Still, I can see the sisterly concern that's a part of her personality, so she scoots by, too. Out of these characters, May is my least favorite.
Brock is the big brother I wouldn't have a clue how to deal with. He's a flirt, which I am not, can cook well, and has his feet planted firmly on solid ground. He does know what he's doing often, except for when the question is of directions to the next town. I'd like to have a character like him in my stories more often, but I suppose most of my ideas are too wacky for the down-to-earth, responsible one.
Michael is, well, a male copy of myself, with angst added in because it seems to fit him, and his past isn't really expanded upon at all. When sections of the story revolve around him, I can write easier. His in-game personality is what you want it to be, and he seems to be a much calmer person than the others. Best example – he does not run when the XD001 appears, when any lesser person would. Or any sane one, but that's beside the point.
On with the story!
Even if Michael had finally made peace with the green-haired Coordinator, he wasn't really at ease. He wondered about that for about a minute, then shook his head as he rejoined his friends. After all, with Lovrina gone, what could possibly happen next? It wasn't as if Cipher would send out more troops to replace a defeated Admin.
Michael thought that over, then decided that it was safer if he'd just stick by Ash and the others. There was no telling what Cipher would do if it found out that he was in Hoenn.
However, Michael had to suppress a wince when he thought of his new friends and the fact that they had no idea what Cipher was capable of. If they got hurt…the thought raised an unexpected lump in his throat, and it was then that Michael knew that, in their own way, they were just as important to him as Jovi.
Ash, he noted, eyed Drew with veiled dislike. Michael supposed that they'd had an unpleasant run-in once or twice. May wasn't glaring, exactly, but she looked as though she was arguing with Jovi over something.
Michael strode over, and listened with a vaguely detached air as the brunette vented on his little sister, to no real effect.
"What do you mean 'I've faced more danger than you ever will'?!" May demanded, her blue eyes narrow with anger. Michael wondered, just for a minute, if that was what he would have been like if Cipher hadn't showed up. A normal kid, on a normal Pokemon journey to beat all the gyms…he mentally shuddered. Though he wouldn't admit it out loud, he sort of enjoyed the action-filled life of a Snagger. A Snagger once was a Snagger forever, he decided.
Jovi, for her part, acted as if nothing had happened at all. "Jovi means 'May has never had to fight for any real reason'. This is Hoenn, and Jovi knows that Hoenn is much safer than Orre."
May looked like she was going to explode. "That doesn't tell me anything!"
"Jovi and big brother grew up in the scarier part of Orre, the east. Does May think that Jovi and big brother do not know what danger is? Does May think that her life as the daughter of the Petalburg City Gym Leader could begin to compare to the life Jovi and big brother have had?" Jovi asked with an unheard-of edge in her voice. Michael wondered if Jovi's sudden aggressiveness was because she'd been exposed to so many new people. She'd never use that tone at home, much less in front of someone older than her.
"Jovi…" Michael began in what he hoped was a placating tone. Jovi's blue-haired head whipped towards him, and as their eyes met, the angry little girl was gone, replaced by his cheerfully crazy little sister.
She smiled widely and spun on her heel, her back now to the fuming May. "Big brother, what should we do now?"
More than a little disturbed by Jovi's sudden mood change, Michael simply told her to ask Ash or Brock. Flustered, Michael watched Jovi skip over to Ash and question him in her high-pitched voice.
Clearly, Michael wasn't the only one who was letting the mental walls drop. He doubted that she was as high-strung as he had been in the recent past, but it wouldn't hurt to step lightly around the little girl who'd suddenly learned how to bite.
His little sister was growing up.
Being a Pokemon thief sucked more than James would fully admit to himself. No benefits, no insurance policy…heck, he honestly wondered why he even bothered with the entire affair.
Ah, now he remembered. Jessie and Meowth were his best friends, despite whatever problems the three of them went through. Even if he was offered a better life somewhere else, James doubted he could change if his friends weren't allowed to come along.
The aforementioned 'better life' would have to exclude anyone who handed off assignments to him. James hated the 'Boss', no matter how much the three of them struggled to please him. The leader of Team Rocket was as distant as their dreams, but far more commanding. Whoever he really was, the head of Team Rocket may as well have been his parents and Jessibelle rolled into one. He was every bit as domineering.
Today, the three of them were to report to him on any successful Pokemon captures (which never happened), to inform him of any developments on rival Pokemon thieves (which were practically absent), and to beg him for funds (as always).
This time, however, was a little different.
Jessie and Meowth were a little sore over the loss of their signature balloon, but nothing compared to the news they could give the boss now: a second hidden organization was trying for a spot in Kanto's pecking order.
It had seemed, though, that the Boss already knew about it. Apparently, Cassidy and B…whatever-his-name-was had told him of their encounter with the freaks in white already. They, however, hadn't managed to find out this group's leader's identity, or even its name.
Thus, it was with great pride that Jessie told the Boss that they knew what the name of this new criminal organization was – Cipher.
The three of them had discovered this small fact by listening in on the twerps and their friends at the Pokemon Center, though James was inclined to believe that the name wasn't the important part. He had paid a slight bit more attention than the other two and heard the redhead talk about what the group did rather than who they were.
Whatever horrific deeds Team Rocket was capable of, James feared the very idea of what Cipher did to its members' Pokemon. Perhaps Jessie and Meowth didn't quite realize what that could mean if Cipher replaced Team Rocket as the dominant evil group. James shuddered inwardly at the thought of his beloved Cacnea or Chimecho turning into heartless monsters because of a machine.
To their great shock, the Boss decided to give them two more Pokemon to try and capture their targets with. Jessie got a Crobat and James was awarded with a Golem. While Jessie and Meowth thought their fortunes were turning around, James viewed it as a sign of the apocalypse. The Boss never rewarded them for anything, nor did he hold them in any sort of regard. And the blue-haired man was getting some very bad vibes from the Great Ball in his hand, in a way he couldn't explain.
As they signed off with their Boss, Jessie and Meowth were already starting to plot their next attempt to capture Pikachu. In all likelihood, they would fail yet again, but that had never stopped them before.
"So, tell me more about this 'Team Rocket' of yours." Michael prompted as the seven of them sat down for lunch at the Pokemon Center. "Why are they after your Pikachu?"
Drew sat next to May, while Ash was on May's other side. Max and Jovi took up the innermost section of the semicircular table, with Brock directly opposite Ash and Michael between him and the youngest two. The accommodations were rather cramped, but it helped that everyone except for Brock was about five feet tall or less.
Ash scratched his head sheepishly. "Well, I started out as a Pokemon trainer about two years ago. Pikachu was my first Pokemon and we didn't really get along at first." Michael glanced from Pikachu, who was on the floor eating Pokemon chow, back to Ash, uncomprehending.
Ash continued, "I tried to capture a Spearow on my own, since Pikachu didn't feel like I should tell him what to do. Turns out I got a whole flock mad at me. Anyway, Pikachu jumped in to save me and got hurt pretty badly. While I was trying to get him to the Pokemon Center in Viridian City, I met Misty and borrowed her bike."
Since Michael had no idea who this 'Misty' was, he felt like he'd missed something very important. He decided not to ask about her, though, in case it made Ash lose his train of thought.
"Well, the Spearow ended up catching up to us. I was the one who'd bothered them in the first place, and Pikachu was injured, so I tried to protect him. I think they might have killed me if Pikachu hadn't stepped in. He got supercharged from a bolt of lightning and blew them away!" Despite the fact that that was probably the climax of the story, Ash didn't seem overly excited about it. Well, when compared to how he was normally.
Michael, however, had found a snag. "So how do those three come into this?"
Ash shrugged. "When I got to the Pokemon Center with Pikachu, they tried to steal all the Pokemon that had been healed there. Pikachu got recharged by a lot of other Pikachu that were in the Pokemon Center, just in time to send them blasting off for the first time. Unfortunately, he took the roof of the Pokemon Center out, too."
Michael, who was trying to imagine what it would be like to go through all that, was still full of questions. Apparently, so were Jovi, Max, and May. Drew didn't look like he cared and Brock seemed like he'd heard it all before.
"How did Pikachu-?" Jovi was about to ask, but all the questions she and the others had were fatally distracted by the arrival of lunch – hamburgers, hotdogs, and fries all around. Drew had even ordered onion rings.
Even as Michael set about working on his meal (a hamburger and two hotdogs), he was already thinking about switching to his primary Pokemon team and leaving the Purifying of this latest batch to Professor Crane and his mother. There was no way he was going to be caught flat-footed if Cipher brought out its A-team.
The burgers and hotdogs were finished in short order, and while the Ash, May, Jovi, and Max stuck around to fight over the fries; the other three had better things to do. Drew was off to the restroom to wash the oil from his hands. Brock had called out his Mudkip and made himself busy providing the little mud-fish with food.
Michael strolled over to the PC for the second time in two days to get into contact with Professor Krane.
The friendly professor, complete with squinty eyes and thick glasses, appeared on screen within ten seconds. He was much more awake than last time, probably because Michael had decided not to call him at eight in the morning and he'd had a chance to get his six cups of coffee into his system.
"Hello again, Michael," Krane greeted, seeming very cheerful. "Is there something you need?"
Michael nodded gravely. "Professor, Cipher has made a comeback," he said, determined to get the bad news over with as quickly as possible.
The easy smile slipped off the man's face to be replaced by shock. "Already? They required five years to regroup last time…"
"I think they had help," the redhead responded, cutting him off. "There's a criminal group that's active in Johto and Kanto called Team Rocket that may be trying to branch out into Hoenn with the help of Cipher's Shadow Pokemon. They're the same as Team Snagem was during the first Cipher's time." He paused, trying to reorganize the information and theories he'd been working off of since twenty minutes ago. "I think their primary target could be a boy named Ash Ketchum."
Krane was a calculating man, but only when no one else was looking. There was no other way he could have regrouped after the loss of his best friend and continued that friend's work. Michael almost thought of the brown-haired man as an uncle.
"Do you know this boy?" Professor Krane asked, eyes closed tightly. He never liked to hear that, sometimes, children had to be brought into an adults' conflict. He had protested Michael's participation in the Snagging of Shadow Pokemon, but Michael and most of the scientists had overridden him. Michael was living to regret all that stubborn rage he'd had when he'd said 'yes'.
"Yeah," Michael responded shortly. "I'll do what I can to keep Cipher away from him and his friends, but to do that I need my best team."
Krane blinked, but he set up the transfer nonetheless. "Is there a reason for this?"
Michael nodded. "Remember that Cipher Admin who had you kidnapped?"
"She's back, isn't she? Lovrina?" Krane asked with a shudder.
"Yeah," Michael said. "Had an unpleasant encounter with her earlier today." He set Neptune's Pokeball on the platform used to transfer Pokemon. He placed the rest of them with hers, after thinking about it for a second. "I'll need Moondance, Corona, Iceberg, Amps, Cappy, and Telemon."
"It's been a while since you called on Moondance." Krane commented as he gathered the requested Pokemon. "You had her with you until she kitted, right?"
"Uh-huh. Neptune took her place for a while, but since Moondance is her mother and my strongest Pokemon, I suppose there's no replacing my first partner." Michael answered, smiling for the first time since the conversation started. It would be nice to see Moondance again.
The switch was completed in a blaze of while light from the transfer machine, all six Pokeballs being replaced at once.
"Thanks, Professor. Could you put all the Shadows over there on the Purify Chamber?" As the professor nodded in response and turned away, Michael signed off.
"Come on out, Moondance." Michael said softly, tossing her Pokeball into the air.
In a flash of white lightning, Moondance the Umbreon materialized.
She was almost entirely normal-looking and could have been mistaken for any other Umbreon, if it weren't for the white scar along her side that was a memento of her first battle against a Shadow Pokemon.
As soon as she turned around and saw Michael, she gave a happy cry and leapt on him, licking his face. Michael laughed, struggling to keep her from knocking him over.
The black Pokemon's voice attracted the others' attention, and Jovi in particular was overjoyed to see her brother's first Pokemon again.
"Moony!" Jovi squealed, running over and hugging the Umbreon tightly. "Jovi hasn't seen Moony since Moony had little Eevee babies. Jovi missed Moony!" Moondance gave a sigh of content despite being in the nine-year-old's crushing embrace. Moondance had grown up with both Jovi and Michael, though the redhead had technically been her trainer.
"Who's this?" Ash asked. Pikachu had no problem with immediately befriending the Eevee evolution, extending a paw in Moondance's direction as soon as the Umbreon was released from Jovi's grip. Moondance purred in response.
"Oh, right. Allow me to introduce my first Pokemon: the Eevee-turned-Umbreon, Moondance." Michael said with a grin. He pulled out his other Pokeballs. "I decided to get my best Pokemon from Professor Krane so we could spend some time together." Of course, this was a lie, but Ash needed to know least of all. Unless they asked for it, boys generally didn't want help.
"What other Pokemon do you have?" May asked. Brock seemed only vaguely interested, while Max was so obviously curious that it was almost pathetic. Drew emerged from the bathroom, but he was apparently more occupied with pampering his newly-summoned Roselia.
Michael tossed the other five Pokeballs into the air, by way of a response.
Out of the blinding flash appeared five more Pokemon. One was a Breloom, Cappy, who was idly bouncing from foot to foot, the cloven hoofs on his stretchy arms pulled back as if to punch the nearest damageable target. Telemon, a male Gardevoir, swayed from side to side as if under the influence of his favorite song. Ampy the female Ampharos gave a braying call, overjoyed to be out of the Pokeball at last. The male Walrein, Iceberg, took one look around at everyone and dropped his head to the floor, asleep. The last was Corona, a female Houndoom, who walked up to Pikachu and licked him.
Everyone laughed. Houndoom were thought to be vicious because of their fearful appearance, but a Houndoom was just as affectionate – if not more so – as any baby Pokemon. The harsh natures that served them well as Houndour were almost unnecessary in their evolved forms because of the incredible power boost that came with evolution.
"Except for Moondance, all of these Pokemon were once Shadow Pokemon that I Snagged and Purified when I was just starting out." Michael explained. His friends could not be allowed to forget that he and his Pokemon were every bit as dangerous as a Gym Leader and their Pokemon. They wouldn't be allowed to forget the danger they were in. "Also, when I was facing Greevil, I had all of these Pokemon with me with the exception of Telemon and Moondance. Moondance had a litter of babies at that point, and Telemon wanted to be there with her. So instead of them, I had the Shadow Lugia and Neptune."
"It seems like it would be hard to battle without your first Pokemon helping." May said, stroking Amps's head fondly.
Michael shrugged. "There was no way I was going to bring Moondance with me so soon after she had kits. The little Eevee wouldn't have gotten along very well without their mother."
The others, with the exception of Drew and Brock, continued to bombard him with questions about his Pokemon for the better part of an hour. They ranged from 'where did you get Moondance' to 'was it hard to get them to evolve'.
When they finally let up, he was suddenly struck by an idea. "Jovi, I know it's a bit early for you to have a real first Pokemon, but your birthday's coming up, so…" Michael turned the PC on again, going to his virtual Pokemon list. "Are you going to pick which first-stage Pokemon you want? I mean, Salt and Pepper technically belong to you, but Mom raised them to where they are now, and the Mightyena was originally a Shadow Pokemon."
Jovi nodded, very solemn. Michael continued, "You don't have to release Pepper and Salt, Jovi. Mightyena can stay with you as long as she wants, too. All the same, though, do you want to try and raise a Pokemon on your own?"
Now smiling cheerfully, Jovi nodded again. Michael stepped aside to allow her to pick in private, and he herded his friends away to that same end.
To his surprise, Drew was the one who spoke first. "Are you sure that's a good idea? She doesn't even have her trainer's license yet."
"Well, I'm doing this mostly because there isn't a Pokemon Lab that starts Orre trainers on their way." Michael said carefully, thinking about how to explain the harshness of Orre without scaring any of the others. "You either have a Pokemon given to you by someone you know or you catch one for yourself. Otherwise you're out of luck."
"You mean that no one cares whether a kid gets to be a Pokemon trainer or not?" Max asked, looking surprised.
Michael shook his head. "Only partially. The fact is, there are still very few wild Pokemon in Orre because of the climate. If you don't get a Pokemon from one of those two ways, there literally is no other way. The Pokemon HQ wouldn't be able to find enough Pokemon for all the new trainers."
Brock nodded. "From what I've heard of Orre, the western half of the region was turned into a desert after Mt. Battle erupted fifty years ago. No one knows enough about the ecosystem to repair the damage quickly."
"Right." Ash said. "So what does this have to do with the lack of Pokemon?"
"There aren't a lot of Pokemon that can survive in deserts. Trapinch and Sandshrew can, but Pokemon like Oddish and Staryu could never do that." Brock explained with all the patience of a saint. "It's not unusual to find only two or three species of Pokemon in a desert compared to twenty or more in a forest.
"In Orre's entire western region, there are literally nine species of Pokemon. The eastern part has more, but they're not seen very often because of their fear of humans. Most of the Pokemon in Orre are actually from places like Hoenn and Kanto." Michael added, glancing over to where his sister was still scanning the Pokemon profiles stored in his account on the PC.
"…So everyone needs to receive a Pokemon as a gift or he has nothing. Okay, I get it." Drew summed up, returning his attention to his Roselia, who was spinning on one foot out of boredom.
At that moment, Jovi made a noise that sounded a lot like "SQUEEE". Michael's head whipped around and he strode over to his sister, wondering what she'd picked to be her Pokemon.
Duking's traded Larvitar.
Michael wondered if he should be nervous or not. This Larvitar was female, as well as being very mild and well-behaved, but that didn't mean that Michael had forgotten how powerful its fully-evolved form was. There was always the question if Jovi would be able to handle a Tyranitar if it got out of control.
Then again, people had wondered that about Michael when he had first obtained the Legendary Pokemon Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres and Lugia.
"Sure." Michael said, instead of giving the nagging feeling in his head a voice. He typed out a few commands on the computer performing the one-way transfer without further disturbing Professor Krane. The man had enough on his mind.
When her Pokeball containing Larvitar materialized in the slot, Michael picked it up and handed it to his sister. "Take good care of Larvitar, okay?" he asked.
Jovi may as well have nodded without thinking. With glee she called out her four Pokemon, giving Michael barely enough time to recall all of his except for Moondance.
The Minun Pepper and the Plusle Salt jumped and met in midair for a high-five that conjured a rain of sparks. Mightyena glanced at Pikachu, who had joined the two cheering Pokemon in their spark-making, then walked up to Michael and sat next to Moondance, who looked as bored as the black dog. The last Pokemon, Larvitar, looked up expectantly at Jovi, who complied by picking her up and hugging her.
Michael absently scratched Mightyena behind the ears as he watched his sister get to know her 'starter' Pokemon. "Well, now I know for sure that Mom won't have to give her a Baltoy or something."
Max, who had been fiddling with May's PokeNav the entire time, spoke up. "Want to go to the beach?"
And that was how the entire group ended up at the Slateport beach at one o'clock in the afternoon with the sun blazing and the shore packed.
It seemed like everyone in the city was there, which made sense in a way. If there was not going to be a Grand Festival, a lot of the tourists had decided to either enjoy what they could do or just go home. That meant that the south half of Slateport City – the half with the museum, the market, and the beach – was crowded so thoroughly that you couldn't walk in a straight line without bumping into someone. Or stepping on them, in the case of those who decided to use towels rather than the beach chairs that were already there.
Though Michael was wearing a pair of swimming trunks, he was not interested in actually going in to test the water. Seawater, no matter what time of the year it was, was always cold to him. Jovi, on the other hand, had pulled on her blue-and-white swimsuit and was currently playing with Max, May, Ash and Iceberg the Walrein in the water about twenty feet away. Brock was fishing some distance off, and Drew was lying on the beach chair next to Michael, apparently asleep. His Roselia sat on the edge of the white plastic table between them, sipping ice water while wearing sunglasses. Moondance was under the table and the pinstriped umbrella suspended over both boys. She didn't like being overheated by her black fur and amused herself by stealing Roselia's ice cubes. The Umbreon was also lying on top of the Snag Machine, which had been taken off for the occasion.
Michael was about to drift off to sleep when he felt something unusual. It wasn't like someone had dumped a bucket of cold water on him. It wasn't as if there had been a cold sea breeze, either. It took his sleep-fogged brain a minute to realize exactly what was about to happen, and as soon as he did, he was running on pure adrenalin.
He shot up out of his resting position, accidentally knocking Roselia's glass onto Drew's chest, which woke him rather effectively. Moondance sensed something as much as he did, and she shot to her feet as well, quickly informing Drew's Roselia what was happening.
Drew, for the record, was a very light sleeper. Even if he hadn't been shocked awake by the dropped glass, Michael's sudden movement and the sound caused by it would have done the deed, only slower.
"Michael?" Drew asked, already groping for his Masquerain's Pokeball in his bag. His Flygon was available too, but he didn't really want to reveal that particular secret before the Hoenn Grand Festival…screw it, he could find a new secret weapon later. He fixed his fingers around his dragon's Pokeball as the other hand found Masquerain's. Roselia was already out, and Drew would be able to command her freely if push came to shove.
"Shadow Pokemon" the redhead replied. "Can't tell what kind, so…" He tossed his chosen Pokeballs, summoning the creatures inside. Two Pokemon came out, in addition to Moondance and Iceberg, who had been there the whole time.
The Pokemon were Amps and Cappy, the respective Electric and Grass types of the team. At the same time, Drew called on his Flygon and Masquerain.
Drew's Pokemon took to the air, scouting for danger, as Moondance headed towards the swimmers, using her Screech attack to warn the swimmers of their group to get out of the water, pronto.
Jovi, who knew the redhead's ways better than anyone, predictably began herding everyone to shore, screaming to be heard over the Umbreon's frantic cries. "Get to shore, get to shore, get to shore! Hurry, Jovi doesn't know how long until something bad happens!" With that assurance, the rest of them ran as fast as they could while still knee-deep in seawater and soft sand.
As soon as they managed to reach shore (and Brock had returned from his fishing trip, having caught nothing), the water fifty feet from where they stood seemed to explode.
It was if someone had either dropped a grenade or done something very, very stupid involving water pressure over there.
Most of the people on the beach assumed it was a bomb. The mass panic that came with that was just astounding.
After about five minutes of avoiding being trampled by hysterical tourists by hiding behind the overturned chairs and the pinstriped umbrella, the seven of them emerged, covered in sand but otherwise unharmed. The Snag Machine was about three yards away, miraculously intact.
Everything else besides the important electronics was not so lucky. Most of their belongings looked like they'd been in an Orre sandstorm.
"And that is why I hate crowds." Michael muttered, though Drew was pretty sure he was the only one who heard it. Then the redhead added, louder, "Sound off!"
Various yips and grunts seemed to come from the sand itself, until Michael's Pokemon team shook the fine particles from their fur. Roselia was next to Drew's leg, which made her a very lucky Pokemon. The only other one not sandy was Iceberg, who was still in the water, eyeing the explosion's starting point with suspicion.
"Stating the obvious here, but I think that whatever's over there might be trouble." Drew said sarcastically, waving for his Flygon and Masquerain to take a closer look.
As Flygon drew close to the gurgling sea where the blast had been, a massive, red rubber glove shot from the water in an attempt to catch him. Flygon gave a screech and shot off at high speed, barely avoiding the appendage.
Hardly a moment later, the entire machine erupted from the water, spraying seaweed and wet sand over those on the beach.
The machination looked like a stylized iron crab with rubber glove-tipped hands rather than pincers, and only four legs. Even if it weren't for the bold red R stamped on the front, the three figures that emerged from its 'back' were recognizable enough.
Drew didn't deal with Team Rocket too often compared to what May and her friends had to endure, but he would recognize the costumed jokers anywhere.
"Prepare for trouble!" Jessie called, seemingly oblivious to the dragon still hovering around their heads. Drew's Flygon did not like being upstaged by anyone, or anything. He supposed it was a trait of a Pokemon who participated in Contests so often.
"And make it double!" James added. He hadn't noticed Flygon either. Flygon was charging a Hyper Beam apparently out of spite, while Masquerain hovered nearby, ready to fire her Ice Beam at a moment's notice. Drew wondered absently if he could signal for them to fire without giving the Rocket's too much time to respond. Roselia, who was still standing beside him, shook her head at the two of them, though she too had her half-active Solarbeam prepared.
"To protect the world from devastation!" Jessie cried, illustrating the grandness of it by throwing out her arm in a wide gesture.
Drew glanced at Michael's Pokemon. The yellow circles on Moondance were flashing dangerously, a sure sign that she was all set to attack in any manner the redhead chose. Amps's tail and forehead stones were pulsing and sparks were dancing along her ears, a charge-up for Thunderbolt if he ever saw one. A ball of white energy fizzled dangerously in the far-off Iceberg's mouth. Cappy's long tail lashed from side to side and his hoofs flexed as if in preparation for a throw-down.
I wonder if they know they're being hypocrites. Drew wondered.
"To unite all peoples within our nation," James continued.
Nope.
"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"
"To extend our reach to the stars above!"
"Jessie!"
"James!"
Now. "Attack!" Drew called. Roselia complied happily, sending out a stream of white energy at the machine. At the same moment, Flygon and Masquerain unloaded their beams of power onto the thieves.
The Rockets panicked, with good reason, but it was Drew's turn to gawk when the blast fizzled out before even getting within ten feet of the target.
"Roselia?" Drew asked, stunned.
Roselia shrugged. She apparently didn't know what had happened, either.
Just then, there was a beeping noise that seemed to come from Drew's right. Glancing in that direction, Drew was stunned to see a tiny computer monitor, seemingly a hologram or made of plastic, extended out from the little machine on the side of Michael's headband to cover his left eye, like a glasses lens. As he watched, something flickered across the tiny screen.
The Rockets used the time provided by the trainers' reactions to the failed attack to finish their motto as fast as they could.
Finally, Michael spoke. "There are two Shadow Pokemon present, even if we can't see them right now. One of them is using Protect." He flexed the fingers on his left hand, as if he was aching to re-arm himself with the Snag Machine. Out of the corner of his eye, he made eye contact with Drew. "Can you get the Snag Machine?" he asked in a whisper.
Drew nodded as subtly as he could, then returned his attention to the major problem at hand – finding the two Shadows before they got a chance to attack.
"Roselia, use Ingrain." Drew commanded his best friend softly.
The Grass type gave him a salute with her blue rose and set to work extending her powers through the soft sand. It was hard for her – sand was a poor soil and hard to move when it was waterlogged, but she would do as he asked because he had asked. Screw the difficulty.
Michael turned to him, the scanner on his headband still active. "I'll distract them if you can get to the Snag Machine. It's going to be a lot harder without it."
Drew didn't nod this time; Team Rocket had turned their attention back to the trainers.
"Hand over Pikachu, twerp!" Jessie called, hand out in a clear demonstration of what she meant.
"Never!" Ash shouted back. "Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!"
Many things happened at once: The little electric mouse only needed a scant second to charge, and Team Rocket's machine took advantage of that. One of the 'hands' shot out and encased the Pokemon in its inflexible grasp. At the same moment, Iceberg the Walrein used his Ice Beam to freeze the hand trapping Pikachu. Cappy leapt into the air and, as if the entire fight had been choreographed, smashed the fist to smithereens using his fore-hoofs, freeing Pikachu. Drew chose that moment to snatch the Snag Machine from its resting place ten feet away and he had tossed it back to Michael before the Rockets had a chance to blink.
Michael slipped the device onto his arm, probably relishing the return of his control over the situation.
"Rose!" Drew's Roselia called sharply. Glancing back, Drew saw that she had definitely found what she was looking for with her roots.
"Tell Flygon and Masquerain where it is and get them to attack," he ordered, watching as Roselia gestured for the dragon to whip up the beach using Sandstorm. Roselia withdrew her root system moments before the sand was torn from the ground and hurled skyward. From between his lashes and fingers that had been drawn up to protect his eyes, Drew could just make out the Rocket machine, wobbling perilously with all three thieves still inside. There was no way for them to control whatever Pokemon was lurking in the sand.
Finally, the whipping sand and furious wind from Flygon's wings drew out exactly what Drew had been planning on finding.
A Golem, monstrous in both size and the sheer menace radiating from it, burst from the ground in the midst of a torrent of sand. As soon as Drew saw it, he felt something give out inside of him.
His hands shook. Drew could feel Michael shaking him, demanding to know what was wrong, but he was too numb to respond.
"That's it," Michael snarled at no one in particular, his right arm still on his friend's shoulder. Drew had suddenly hit the ground, with no explanation. He was like a puppet with the strings cut, and Michael could already feel his insides burning with anger. "Iceberg, use Water Pulse on Golem!"
The huge blue walrus did as he was commanded, rings of blue energy bursting from his mouth and striking the Rock Pokemon with devastating force. The animated boulder fell, smashing into the ground with such force that sand was thrown up on all sides.
He pulled an Ultra Ball out of the pocket in his trunks, then charged the ball in the Snag Machine. As he did so, a second Shadow Pokemon, a Crobat, flew out from behind the machine and sped at him, clearly intent on stopping him.
This isn't going to be good.
Michael's teeth clenched and his eyes closed in preparation for the blow, but it never came. Looking up, he saw Drew's Flygon collide with the purple bat in midair.
Flygon uttered a cry that was full of an impossibly amount of rage, then slashed the hapless Crobat over and over with its Dragon Claw attack. The bat was bleeding heavily when it was finally allowed to fall by the vengeful dragon. Whoever said that Pokemon did not understand the concept of revenge was dead wrong.
Michael switched targets and flung the Ultra-turned-Snag Ball at Crobat instead. Even before the Ball acknowledged the capture, Michael had already pitched the second at Golem, hoping beyond hope that two things happened.
One: The Shadow Pokemon were Snagged.
Two: Whatever was affecting Drew was not life-threatening.
Though he was certain that the former was true, evidenced by the loud ping that a Snag Ball made after a successful capture, he was not so sure about the latter.
A/N: What's wrong with Drew? Why did Giovanni give Jessie and James such powerful Pokemon? Why the heck didn't they command them?
Find out when the next chapter comes out (if ever)!
On a more serious note, tell me if you see any canonical errors or blatant misuse of the English language. I'm still learning how to use semicolons (;) correctly.
R and R, people.
Lang Noi, out.
