Sorry for taking so long to update. I have other stories that needed updating, along with other plans. So, here is the fourth chapter. Enjoy.
Chapter 4: Iris Joins the Dark Side
With Iris, Cilan, Eleanor, and Theodore…
They were panting and moaning. Iris motivated the others, "We have to get away. If it was just the ninjas, we wouldn't have a problem, but Edward is here, too!"
"Can't we stop for just a second?" Theodore begged. They all stopped to catch their breath.
"Edward seems more powerful than the last time we've heard about him, and the last time was on the radio when he blew up Twinleaf Town!" Cilan pointed out. "It's like I can feel it. And it feels rather sour."
"You're making me hungry," Eleanor told him. Her stomach growled. At first, she thought it was a Squealer, but was embarrassed to find it was her own stomach.
"There they are!" a ninja shouted in the distance.
"We have to move!" Iris panicked. Everyone launched forward, but they were tangled in a net after moving five feet ahead. She had an idea. "Axew, come out here! We need you to use Scratch on the net!"
"Axew?" Axew poked its head out of her hair and asked. Translation: Huh?
"We can gnaw through the net, too!" Eleanor and Theodore volunteered.
"If you value your lives," Edward said as he stepped out into the open, "you won't think about touching that net."
"I smell a recipe for disaster," Cilan announced to his companions.
"Possibly. It depends on how much you resist," Edward smirked. His hand shimmered as he held it up, and everything went black to the trapped minors. They woke up. Iris noticed something; she was deprived of her Pokémon. Axew was gone, and so were her Poké Balls that had contained Excadrill and Emolga. She was at the center of a large room. In front of her was a curtain of shadows.
"Iris!" Cilan called out. She turned around to find him, Theodore, Eleanor, Axew, Excadrill, and Emolga trapped inside of an iron ball that looked like it was made of prison bars.
"Cilan! Everyone!" Iris rushed to the iron sphere her friends were trapped in.
"Their fate is in your hands, young lady," an evil voice snickered. A hooded figure wearing a tattered black robe stepped out from the shadows. His skin was an unhealthy looking white. Red eyes glowed from within the shadow of his hood. Otherwise, his face was concealed.
"Who are you?" Iris demanded with rising fear.
"Ah, yes. You've been fighting my forces for almost two years, yet you haven't met me…" the hooded figure chuckled.
"Y-you're the Shadow Master?!" Iris gasped in realization.
"Yes…and I have a deal for you that you can't turn down," he approached her slowly. "You may not realize it, but we are several hundred feet in the air right now. That iron cage won't save your friends from the impact. I will spare them…if you will join my side."
"Iris, don't do it!" Theodore and Eleanor begged.
"Emol!" Emolga pled. Translation: Don't!
"Excadrill, Excadrill, Drill!" Excadrill added. Translation: You don't have to do this!
"Axew, Ax, Axew, Axew!" Axew begged. Translation: No, Iris, don't!
"Iris…" Cilan managed.
Iris looked at their pleading faces, and then back to the Shadow Master. "It's a deal. But you have to let my friends go if I join your side."
"Done," he assured and placed a bony finger on her forehead. Blackened aura swirled around them. When the aura faded, something about Iris seemed different. Everything was different. She was now wearing a flowing black dress, and her hair style was completely different. Her canine teeth became longer and more pointed.
"Iris, no!" Eleanor shouted.
"It can't be true!" Theodore sobbed.
"Iris, p-please…" Cilan started to beg, but it was too late. Iris turned around, and Cilan saw it in her eyes; she was no longer the Iris he knew. This was a new, sinister Iris. She no longer seemed gentle and fun. The Shadow Master snapped his fingers and the floor below the iron ball opened up. The ball fell through the sky. Cilan could see that he and his friends and Iris' old Pokémon had fallen from a tower. Theodore and Eleanor were screaming.
"I got you!" someone had declared. Everyone had recognized Staraptor's talons as they gripped the iron bars. Summer was on Staraptor's back, and she winked at Cilan, Theodore, Eleanor, and the Pokémon. She said, "You see? I told you that I got you. Now, I'll get you out when we land."
"Yay! Thanks, Summer!" Theodore and Eleanor cheered.
"You can do it, Staraptor. That's it. Nice and easy," Summer motivated Staraptor. She asked Cilan, "Where is Iris?"
Eleanor burst into tears at the question. Theodore hugged her, and Cilan couldn't look anyone in the eye. Summer got the message. But what gave her the message was that the Pokémon in the iron ball looked just as distressed, if not more. It was kind of like a link between Ranger and Pokémon.
With Dawn and Chris…
"I really think this is a cruddy idea," Chris declared as he and Dawn stood before a tall tower.
"No need to worry," Dawn winked at him. Ironically (but not surprisingly), he worried more when she said that. Her wink was even less reassuring.
"You don't even know what the heck is inside that thing!" Chris tried to reason with her.
"I know Lucas and Barry are in there, so I'm going in," Dawn shot back and squirreled (no pun intended) her way inside.
"I know I'm going to regret this," Chris groaned and followed her in. "Dawn, slow down! The only reason I'm following you is because I don't know where Ben, Thomas, Hannah, and Summer are!"
"Try to keep up!" Dawn called back to him. "I'm not slowing down until I find Lucas!"
"What about Barry?!"
"Oh, yeah. I forgot he was in this rat hole of a tower."
"How do you know they're even here?!"
"Call it Space-Time Warrior's intuition."
They ran around the tower and up several flights of stairs. They stopped at a large room filled with vials of strange liquid. But what grabbed their attention was a purple syringe that was elevated higher than the other serums via a long mechanical claw sticking out of the floor. Chris went inside, got up close to it, and read the engraving on the glass, "'Cure to the Poké Virus'. I think this is the neutralizer."
Dawn ran in, swiped the needle, and urged, "Come on. Let's go. I need this vial."
"How do you know it isn't a trap?" Chris asked.
"Well, if it is a trap…Mesprit will have to find a new Warrior. Now, let's go."
With Ash, Misty, Thomas, Hannah, Simon, and Jeanette; by a river in the forest…
"Uh, we're missing people…" Ash announced.
"WE KNOW THAT!" Misty yelled at him.
"Pikachu," Pikachu held its yellow head. Translation: Oh, boy.
"Let's see. Who are we missing?" Ash asked.
"My brothers," Simon started off.
"My sisters," Jeanette added.
"Summer and Ben," Thomas added onto that.
"Chris, Dawn, Cilan, and Iris," Hannah finished.
"So 10 out of our 16 person…" Misty started to say when Simon and Jeanette gave her a certain look, "…and chipmunk army. At least we have each other."
"We do? Yay!" Thomas cheered. "Let's go find the others!"
"Let's preserve our own lives first," Simon suggested as a dragon flew overhead.
"Iris would get a bang out of that if it was a Pokémon," Ash commented.
"Pika," Pikachu agreed. Translation: Yeah.
"Sewa?" Sewaddle turned around while atop Hannah's head. Translation: Huh?
"What is it, Sewaddle?" Hannah asked. She turned around and saw a roaring wave coming at them. "Run!"
"Eek!" Jeanette shrieked as she and Simon darted off. Thomas and his Vileplume were right behind them, and they were followed by Ash, Pikachu, Misty, Azurill, Hannah, Combusken, and Torchic.
"Why the squish does this happen while we are trying to figure stuff out?!" Thomas asked as he ran.
"Vileplume?! Vile, Vile, Vileplume!" Vileplume shouted. Translation: Who cares?! Just keep running!
"Since when do rivers have tidal waves?!" Ash demanded.
Suddenly, Thomas and Misty both had the same idea, as they both shouted, "JUMP IN THE RIVER!"
"Why?" Ash asked.
"If we jump in and stay under the surface for a few seconds, we won't be hit by the wave! We'll only feel it above our heads!" Thomas explained. He and Vileplume jumped in the river. They were followed by Misty and Azurill. Simon and Jeanette held paws as they jumped in. Ash, Hannah, and Pikachu jumped in. Combusken, being a Fire-type, didn't like the idea, so it grabbed Sewaddle and made it use String Shot on a tree branch hanging overhead. The tidal wave just kept rolling. In seconds, those who dove into the river re-emerged.
"Hannah, your Combusken is a chicken," Misty remarked.
"Was that pun intended?" Hannah asked. They all climbed up onto the riverbank when a glowing woman walked out of the brush. "Haon?"
"Where is Brittany? Is she safe?" Haon immediately questioned.
"I-I-I was h-hoping you'd know," Jeanette stammered, partially because she was cold and shivering, and partially because she was worried about her sisters.
"She's with Ben and Alvin. She'll be fine," Thomas assured. "I'm pretty sure."
"They're competent to say the least," Hannah added.
With Ben, Alvin, and Brittany…
Brittany had fallen asleep earlier. When she woke up, she was with Alvin, surrounded by some sort of red clothing material. Alvin was wide awake. He said, "Good. You're up."
"Where are we?" Brittany groggily asked.
"We're in one of the pockets of Ben's Ranger uniform," Alvin explained. Brittany then saw that the upper half of his body was poking out of the pocket, meaning she was curled up deep in the pocket. "Are you cold?"
"No. I should be asking you that," she replied.
"Well, it has gotten cooler out," Alvin responded. He brushed her bangs out of her face and smiled.
"Now, let's see," they heard Ben say. "If I was Summer, Hannah, and/or Thomas, where would I be?"
"Al, do you think my sisters are alright?" Brittany asked.
"I think they are. They're probably wondering the same thing about you, Britt," Alvin replied.
"Whoa!" they heard Ben exclaim and emerged from his pocket. With Ukulele Pichu being on Ben's head, Alvin and Brittany each claimed one of his shoulders. Before them stood a girl with dark skin, a black dress, a gray whip, and long dark hair that was in an indescribable fashion. Ben noticed that they whip was shaped like a dragon's head. "Iris?"
"Yes and no," Iris smirked evilly. She swung her whip, and the spikes on the end just barely missed Ben. "Well, Ranger, are you ready to meet your doom?"
"Okay, that is not Iris!" Ben exclaimed. He pulled out his two and a half foot Blade of the Hero from its four inch sheath (the sheath is magic so Ben an easily and undetectably carry his sword). It glowed with multiple colors. Alvin pulled out his chipmunk sized sword. The metal blade radiated a red aura.
"Give it up! Hand over the planet talker!" Iris demanded.
"You'll have to pry her from my cold, dead paws!" Alvin spat. He climbed over to the shoulder that Brittany was on and stood in front of her defensively.
"And that's after you deal with me," Ben added.
"I'll take you all out with great ease and pleasure," Iris sneered and swung her whip at them. Ben deflected it with his sword.
"It's time for attack pattern Omicron 6," Ben decided. He ran around Iris, slowly making his way towards her. Each time she flicked her whip, he deflected it and kept going until his blade was centimeters from her neck. "Iris, I don't want to do this. Whether I do or not is your choice. I'm not going to let you take Brittany. Now, why are you doing this?!"
"I've been given the opportunity of a thousand lifetimes, Ben. Would you pass that up?" Iris asked sweetly.
"If it came to this? Yes, I would pass that up! Iris, we're your friends! You don't have to do this!" Ben insisted, trying to reason with her.
"You don't know the half of it. I did this so Theodore, Eleanor, my old Pokémon, and Cilan wouldn't get killed."
"Theo?" Alvin gasped.
"Ellie?" Brittany managed to say.
"Bye," Iris smirked. She turned into a shadow and vanished.