Chapter 4

Hopenol

"No more illusions, Ash. Open up." The beast dug her claws into Ash's skin. It spoke with Misty's voice. "Come on. Open up." It said. Ash kept his mouth closed. He didn't want to scream. It would have meant opening his mouth. The beast roared. "Open your fucking mouth!" It jammed its tentacle straight into Ash's stomach. Ash had to scream. The moment he opened his mouth, the beast slid her tongue into Ash's mouth. It slurred down his through like a snake sliding down a river. Ash felt like he could choke. He held his mouth as he coughed and gasped for air. "Ash?" A voice said.

Ash woke up. He saw Brock, Misty, and Pikachu looking down at him. "Ash, you were screaming in your sleep. What happened?" Brock said. "Sorry… It was a nightmare. I've been having the weirdest dreams lately." Ash said. He looked to the sky and saw that it was morning. He got up. "Right. Celedon should be close. Let's go!" He said.

Ash and his friends ended up camping on Route 7, the road between Saffron and Celedon. Like the day before, Ash woke up from a nightmare. He wasn't sure why he was having nightmares lately, but he tried to ignore them. They continued on to Celedon City. The walk wasn't very far.

Upon reaching Celedon City, Ash looked around. He didn't see any signs or flyers for the huge tournament that he was invited to. "Huh. The invitation said that it would be in the casino, but it doesn't look like anything was there that was out of the ordinary. Well, maybe it's a big deal inside." Ash said. "Are you sure? I mean, casinos are bad news, Ash. They'll take everything you have." Brock said. "I'm willing to take my chances." Ash said.

Ash led Misty and Brock into The Game Corner. They were met by Jesse and James, who were in poorly put together disguises. Naturally, Jesse was dressed as a male waiter and James was in a carnival style female dance outfit. "It's the twerp." Jesse whispered to her partner. "I know. Remember, stick to the plan." James whispered. They turned to Ash. "Welcome to The Game Corner! We've got plenty of games for you to play! Come on in!" Jesse said. Ash shook his head and smiled. "Naw. I'm here for the Tournament of Legends. I read somewhere that it was going to take place in here?" He said. "Are you sure this isn't a scam, Ash?" Brock said. "Positive."

Jesse smiled. "Oh, you mean that tournament! Right this way!" She said. Team Rocket led Ash, Misty, and Brock to the Game Corner's basement. As they went down the stairs, Ash looked around. He noticed that no one else was here. "I have a real bad feeling about this, Ash." Misty said. A horrible sensation welled up in Ash's gut. "Maybe they were right." Ash thought. He tried to shake those thoughts of doubt out of his head.

Team Rocket led Ash into a dark room. They locked the door behind him. "So, are we ready?" James said. "Ready." Ash said. "Good. Good. I've been waiting to see you for a long time, Ash." A voice called out for the darkness. Ash wasn't sure why, but that voice made him feel uneasy. There was something malevolent about it, something that shook him to his very core. Jesse cackled. "Your first opponent is… Your daddy!" Giovonni stepped out of the darkness with a sinister grin on his face. "It's been a while, Ash." He said.

Upon seeing his father, Ash felt like he could faint. "Dad? How…? Mom told me you were dead!" "Lies. All of it, lies! I hold the truth, Ash Ketchum. I know the secret to you, the secret to the world, and the secret of that electric rat you have with you!" He pointed to Pikachu. Fear crept into the pokemon's heart when this happened, a dark, harrowing fear that cut into him like no other fear had ever done before.

Ash regained his composure. "Right. If I'm going to have to fight you, then I'll fight you! I'm a living legend and I'll prove it to you!" Ash said. Giovonni laughed. "I see where this is going. Go on and use every pokemon you have on you. I'll defeat them all at once." Giovonni said with a smug grin. "Isn't that agaisnt the rules?" Ash said. "There are no rules." Giovonni said. Ash reached for his belt, but Misty and Brock stopped him. "No, Ash. Don't." "Why? I know who you are, Misty and Brock. You're a couple of washed up low-level gym leaders. I could take you two in my sleep!" Giovonni said.

Ash pulled out a pokeball. "Right. I choose you, Galie!" Glalie popped out of his pokeball. He laughed, as usual, and stared down Giovonni. "Activate." With that one word, Giovonni's pokemon appeared before him. They looked kind of like Mewtwo, but they were made entirely out of metal and had huge needles between their legs.

"What… What are those?" Ash said. Giovonni smirked. "They are Hopenol Units, robotic replicas of Mewtwo. Do you ever wonder what we do with all the money Team Rocket makes stealing pokemon, Ash? We funded it into these, the ultimate weapons!" One of the Hopenols thrust its pelvis forward. Green liquid oozed from its needle. It stepped forward. The battle had started.

"Glalie, use headbutt!" Ash commanded. Glalie rammed into Hopenol. It knocked the artificial pokemon back, but it seemed undamaged. "Hopenol, use your psychic grip." Giovonni said. Hopenol moved its arm and lifted Glalie with its powers. It looked like it was in a lot of pain, like it was ready to pass out at any moment. "Do you like it? It's not as good as Mewtwo, but it uses the same kind of psychic energy." Giovonni said. Glalie started to scream in pain. Ash started to hear some cracks. "Glalie, return!" Ash said. He tried to call Glalie back, but another Hopenol blocked the ball's power. "What? You can't do that!" Ash shouted. "I told you Ash, there are no rules."

Hopenol's psychic grip strengthened. Glalie screamed even louder. Blood started to drip from his body. The pokemon began to shake. "Stop! You're hurting it!" Ash shouted. "I know." Giovonni said. He nodded, giving Hopenol the command to finish the job. Glalie exploded into a shower of gore. Half of his body was completely destroyed. All that was left was half of his mouth and one dead eye, staring off into oblivion.

"You… You killed him!" Ash shouted. He tried to hold back the tears. Brock and Misty only stared off in horrified silence. "Yes. I wasn't kidding when I said there were no rules." Ash tried to reach for another pokeball, but one of the Hopenol Units used its psychic powers to stop him. "Right. Enough games. It's time to end this." Giovonni said. One of the Hopenols began to move toward Ash. Its needle stood erect and dripped green liquid as it walked.

Thinking fast, Misty and Brock sent in their pokemon. "Go, Starmie!" "Go, Crobat!" Starmie and Crobat appeared before them. The Hopenols noticed this and ran over to them. Starmie spun like a shuriken and slamed itself into one of the Hopenol Units. Its razor sharp edges tore the artificial pokemon's head clean off. Crobat soared through the air and sliced another Hopenol with its wings. It was cut in half. "Hold on, Ash! We're coming!" Misty said.

One of the Hopenols tried to fire a psychic beam at Starmie, but it flew out of the way and blasted it with water. The pressure was so high that it tore the robot's arm off. It tried to jump forward and stab Starmie with its needle, but Crobat swooped in to knock the Hopenol off course. It slammed itself into a wall and fell apart.

There were only two Hopenol Units left besides the one that holding Ash. It was even closer now, trying to find a decent place to stab Ash with its needle. "Guys, help! Help!" Ash shouted. "Hold on, Ash." Brock said. His Crobat bit into one of the Hopenol's necks and ripped its head clean off. Starmie blasted water at another one, the force from the blast destroying the Hopenol Unit.

The last Hopenol was ready to jam its needle straight into Ash's neck, until Pikachu jumped forward. It blasted the robot with so much electricity that it exploded. Every last one of the Hopenol Units were gone. Ash was released from the psychic grip and fell down to the floor. He looked up at Giovonni and smiled. "Looks like you're out of pokemon." He said. Giovonni laughed. "Oh no? Hopenols, recover."

The green liquid that was located inside of the Hopenol's bodies oozed out of them. They grabbed every piece and part that was dismantled from the robots. Burnt parts were restored. Dismembered limbs reconstructed. The Hopenol Units stood up as though nothing had happened. Misty and Brock gazed in horror at what they were seeing. "Kill them." Giovonni said.

One of the Hopenols grabbed Brock by the arm. He tried to reach for his pokeball, until another grabbed him. Piakchu and Crobat noticed this and tried to shoot lightning and air cutters at the robots, until another Hopenol stood in the way and used is psychic powers to bend the attacks away. They missed. "Brock, no!" Ash shouted. The Hopenols grabbed him by both arms and pulled. They were both torn off, leaving an armless Brock to fall onto the ground, bleeding. Crobat tried to attack another one by swooping in, until it was torn apart by psychic force, just like Glalie.

Ash saw what had just happened. Giovonni killed his friend, right in front of him. The time for pokemon battle was over. This was no longer just a game, a competition that trainers had to see who was the best. This was a real battle with real lives on the line. Ash did something that had didn't think he would ever do. "Pikachu, use thunder!" He pointed to his father. Pikachu had to think for a moment over what this really meant. Giovonni smirked. "You don't have it in you, you little rat." Pikachu gave a pissed off squeal and shot his most powerful bolt of lighting he had ever shot. It was enough force to execute a man in an electric chair. Giovonni felt the lightning surge through him. He felt his flesh and clothes burn as the pokemon shocked him.

During that attack, Giovonni was honestly scared. He never thought that his son would have the courage and audacity to actually attack him. He always viewed Ash as just a child, the kind that obeyed his parents and feared anyone with authority. Ash wasn't a child anymore, though, and he had just realized that. "A mistake… I underestimated you, my son." Giovonni thought. He started to feel like he was going to explode, until a Hopenol jumped in. It used its psychic powers to bend Pikachu's attacks away from Giovonni. Pikachu started to try to shock the artificial pokemon, but instead it grabbed him. Pikachu was seized by the Hopenol Unit's bare hands and was squeezed.

Ash was angered and horrified upon seeing this. "Let him go!" He shouted. Giovonni stood up with smoke wafting from his body after experiencing Pikachu's full force. One of his eyes had melted and he was covering the hole where it once was. "That's a very special Pkaichu, Ash. I can't do that." Giovonni said. The Hopenol reached toward Ash. He tried to run away, but it was no use. The psychic robot levitated Ash right into its hands. "I'm going to kill this pikachu and extract its phylactery so that you may finally awaken!" Giovonni said. Ash had no idea what Giovonni was saying, but he did understand the part about killing Pikachu. He struggled to break free. "You can't do that! I won't let you!" He shouted. The Hopenol grabbed him tighter. Giovonni laughed. He started to give the next command to Hopenol, until a blast of water knocked him against the wall. It was Starmie. Misty stood in front of a dead Hopenol with a determined look on her face. "Hands off my fucking boyfriend."

Another one of the Hopenol Units tried to attack Misty, But Starmie sliced through it like a razor edged shuriken. Giovonni got up. "It's no use, Misty. My robots will regenerate instantly. If you kill them, they will come right back. She gave Giovonni a devious smirk. "Not if I kill you. Then no one can control them." She said. Starmie spun towards a Hopenol, until it grabbed it out of the air and snapped its arms off. The bloodied razor blades fell to the ground. Satmie was reduced to just its core. The light in the center faded. It was dead. "Good. Now kill her!" Giovonni said.

One of the Hopenols tried to shoot a psychic beam at Misty. She jumped out of the way and grabbed one of Starmie's severed arms. She used it to slash through a Hopenol. Another freshly regenerated one tried to stab her with its needle, but she rolled out of the way and slashed through it too. She moved like a ninja. Ash wasn't sure how Misty could do all of this. It was like she had gone insane.

"I'm coming to save you, Ash!" Misty said as she sliced through two Hopenol units at once. There was only one left, the one that was holding Ash. She ran toward the final Hopenol and sliced right through it. It dropped Ash and Pikachu. She turned to Giovonni. He had a terrified look on his face. "You… You wouldn't truly kill a man, would you?" Giovonni said. Before he could answer, Misty screamed. She slashed the blade across Giovonni's chest with tears in her eyes. She started to follow it up with a stab into the ribs, until she heard something behind her. It was a Hopenol. It had regenerated and had charged its psychic beam. It fired and blasted her into the ground. She fell down and coughed up blood. Before she could get back up, more of the Hopenols regenerated. They all fired their beams at once. She exploded, leaving only a charred, bloodied stain on the floor. "Misty!" Ash shouted. Both of his companions were dead.

Giovonni stood up. He was holding his chest to keep himself from bleeding out. He barely had enough strength to stand. "Ash, you need to wake up." He said. "Wake up?" He said. A Hopenol grabbed held him down with his mind. Pikachu started to shoot a thunderbolt, until it was held down with psychic force. "This isn't the real world, Ash. It's nothing but artifice, a fabrication made by your mind. It's time to wake up." Giovonni said. One of the Hopenols used its needle to tear into Pikachu's body. A ball of light was seen within. It was the world's phylactery, the one thing that kept the world from dying. The Hopenol Units drove their needle penises into Ash's body. He screamed in pain as he felt green liquid enter his bloodstream. Giovonni coughed up blood as this happened. He fell onto the floor, presumably dead. The phylactery crumbled. With that, the world melted away.

Ash could feel his world returning to nothingness. He felt a deep sense of sadness in him. It was also mixed with a lot of other feelings. Anger. He was angry at himself for not being able to save anyone. Fear. He was afraid of what this meant, of this new world that he really lived in. He didn't remember any of this true world, the one that wasn't a dream that he was being plunged into. There was also another feeling. He wasn't sure what it was, or how he could describe it, but he felt it. He heard a voice in his head. It was Misty's. "I… I'm so sorry, Ash. Really, I am." Memories came flowing back to him. He remembered back in the pool in the Cerulean Gym. He remembered everything, his mind no longer having the strength to suppress them anymore. "Oh… Oh God!" Ash shouted. He felt like he was going to vomit. "Please, Ash. Forgive me. If you can find it in your heart, please. Forgive me." She said. That was the last thing he heard in his imaginary world. All returned to nothing.

-o0o-

Tears

-o0o-

I remember when you cried

I remember when I died

Seeing everything and nothing

Seeing it all through clouded eyes

My world is decaying fast

I don't know if I can last

And all the repressed memories

Are rising from my past

There is nothing I can do

I just want to embrace you

I can't see past my own lies

Goodbye forever, Pikachu.