Well I have just one chapter left to write so far as I can tell, so you can expect this story to end with Chapter 10. Whether I get it done any time soon depends on my time management with four final papers, a presentation, and an exam. Joy. Anyways, here's the chapter. I hope you enjoy and, as ever, reviews are very much appreciated!
Question of the update: What are your top three favourite Pokémon ships?
Ash burst into the room, Glaceon in his arms and Pikachu and Beautifly right behind. He didn't slow down, he didn't call out an attack, he simply charged forwards past the surprised Mirage Rhydon, threw back his head and yelled "NOW!"
Pikachu leapt into the air and sent out a weak bolt of electricity. But it wasn't the strength of the attack that mattered, it was the brightness. Beautifly manoeuvred behind the beam and began to glow with a dazzling light; Morning Sun. Ash and Glaceon closed their eyes tightly as they ran, but the Rhydon were not so lucky. The flash from the Morning Sun blinded them, the brilliance of the light dazzling their retinas and stunning their minds. As the dangerous rock-types began to topple harmlessly to the floor, Ash and Glaceon had already reached the door that would lead on to the next level. One more well-aimed Thunderbolt from Pikachu and yet more of the Mirage System was taken down, the Rhydon fizzling out of existence.
"Great," he said when Beautifly and Pikachu had joined them in the stairs, the bug-type settling on his head again. "We're almost half-way there guys; I know it hasn't been easy so far, but if we keep this up and stay one step ahead of the Mirage System, we should make it okay." Glaceon squirmed out of his arms and began to lead the way up the dark stairwell. She waited expectantly at the door to the ninth floor, but was surprised when Ash motioned her to the side.
"I think it's time to confuse them," he grinned. "If the System has been keeping track of our strategies, it knows that we use them two or three times in a row before changing them. Sooner or later it will realize our plan and predict what we will do the second time around. I think it's time to shake things up and go back to our first plan. Sound okay?"
"Grah," Glaceon nodded, her eyes gleaming with excitement; she had loathed being carried around since her evolution. Pikachu nodded his approval as well and Ash grasped the door handle in readiness.
"Three... Two... One... Go!" he shouted, wrenching the door open. Straight away Glaceon fired off a slew of Ice Beams in random directions while Pikachu aimed for one of the black discs. The Mirage Tyranitar inside had vanished in a stream of data before it was able to get off even one attack. The group ran across the now empty room, each giving the monitor only the briefest of glances to reassure themselves that May was still unharmed.
"This time, let's do the Morning Sun charge again," Ash said as they toiled up the stairs. "If we keep changing our plan, they won't know how to react." He picked up a reluctant Glaceon again in one arm and grabbed the door handle in the other. "Ready... NOW!" he shouted, wrenching the door open and running in.
Glaceon gave a yowl of pain and Ash fell back heavily, cracking his head against the stone floor. He let out an involuntary gasp, his vision swimming as he felt numbly for the back of his skull. A feeling of sickness washed through his stomach as his fingers encountered the sticky blood oozing from the cut he had sustained. Glaceon was pawing at her nose, which was luckily not bleeding but felt distinctly squashed.
"Pikapi! Pikapi!" Pikachu shouted, forgetting the Thunderbolt and running to his trainer's side in concern.
"Forget me, get the Pokémon!" Ash yelled, batting him away. Pikachu looked around; there were no Pokémon in sight. The room was empty.
Ash gingerly climbed to his feet and felt around cautiously. His hands encountered a solid object in the air, but there was nothing visible. A simple feel to the right and back to the door confirmed his worst suspicions.
"It's a Mr. Mime's Barrier," he said, flashing back to his mother's Mimey in Pallet Town. "I'm guessing that this is some sort of invisible maze we have to get through. Glaceon; we need to see the walls. Can you use Ice Beam in a general direction?"
"Grah!" Glaceon nodded, turning to the left and firing off the attack. The attack flew five feet and rebounded, forcing Ash to dive to the ground to avoid being hit by the attack. Glaceon looked at him in chagrin.
"My fault," Ash panted, climbing to his feet again. "I should have remembered that a Mr. Mime's Barrier reflects attacks like that. He closed his eyes with a wince, trying to shut out the incessant throb in his head. Sickness swirled through him again as he leaned against one of the Barriers. He did not feel too well at that moment.
Pikachu had left his trainer's side and was beginning to sniff around the edges of the Barrier; he moved past all three sides but there was no opening to be found. "Chah," he sighed; it looked like they were finally stuck.
"No," Ash said, opening his eyes and watching Beautifly hover above them. "There is a way out of this. We can't go forward, we can't go to the sides, and we definitely can't go back. The only way to go is up."
"Pi?" Pikachu asked in surprise.
"Yeah; look at Beautifly," Ash said, his eyes still trained on the bug-type. "I don't know how high up the wall goes, but I'm pretty sure she's hovering right above it! Staraptor, I choose you!"
"Star?" Staraptor asked, landing on the floor and looking at Ash with a quizzical look.
"We're trapped here by a Mr. Mime's Barrier," Ash explained. "We can't move anywhere, but I think you'll be able to fly over it. Take Pikachu with you and destroy the Mirage System. But please; fly slowly just in case."
"Star," Staraptor nodded, beckoning Pikachu over. With the electric-type safely on its back, the Pokémon took off, winging its way along the ceiling at a much reduced speed. Ash closed his eyes again, leaning more of his weight against the wall. This was ridiculous, he shouldn't be feeling so weak and tired; it was only a little cut on the back of his head...
The breaking of glass interrupted his reverie and the slight sizzle of electricity confirmed that the job had been done. He took two steps forward, cracked his head against the Barrier and grasped his forehead with a hiss of pain.
"I don't get it," he muttered, squinting at the seemingly empty air with an aggrieved eye. "The Barrier should have been taken down with the Mirage System, unless..." A chuckle above his head diverted his attention, and he growled angrily at what he saw; lying ten feet above him in mid-air was the Pokémon itself.
"A real Mr. Mime," he said. "Looks like Cal wasn't quite as confident in his system as he made out. Okay then! A real Pokémon won't be much of a challenge after what we've been through today. Gallade, I choose you! Get up there and use Brick Break!" The Mr. Mime continued to smile calmly down at them as Gallade leapt into the air, one blade glowing white. The smile turned into a look of panic as the attack swept through the Barrier as if it was nothing, shattering it into pieces and sending the Mr. Mime plummeting earthwards. It landed headfirst with a groan and collapsed. Ash looked at it with a mixture of anger and pity, but there was no time to help the injured Pokémon. Gallade moved forwards to the door, the blades scything through the Barriers in their path easily.
"I should have thought of this before," Ash grunted when they reached the opposite side of the room and were reunited with Pikachu and Staraptor. He looked back at the Mr. Mime thoughtfully. There was nothing to prevent it from chasing after them once it recovered, and he'd rather not have to worry about what was behind them as well as what was in front.
"Gallade, use Reflect," he said, beckoning all of the Pokémon into the stairway with him. "I don't want that Mr. Mime following us and slowing us down."
"Er," Gallade nodded, closing its eyes and concentrating. A small golden blob appeared in front of the Pokémon's face and quickly expanded so that it covered the entire doorway.
"Good job, Gallade," he said. "Now return. You too, Staraptor. Okay guys, back to the first strategy; I don't want to hurt my head again." He swayed slightly as he said this, and all three Pokémon looked at him in concern.
"I'll be fine," he reassured them, grabbing the doorway for support even as he said it. "It's just a little bump." The Pokémon didn't look convinced but they took him at his word and began the ascent to the next level, Glaceon in the lead.
Drew was in trouble. Now on the thirteenth floor he had begun to feel a bit more confident at reaching May. But to compensate for his strategy the Mirage System had provided the worst kind of counter imaginable. Once again the room was covered in water, but this time ice floes also sailed around. Three Lapras patrolled in a circular pattern, each one singing continuously as they set up a Safeguard to shield themselves from both GrassWhistle and Sleep Powder. He couldn't fly across because they'd shoot Flygon down with Ice Beam. He couldn't swim across because they'd drown him.
He was stuck.
Mentally he ran down the Pokémon he had on him: Roserade, Flygon, Masquerain, Absol, Butterfree, as well as May's Ledian, Munchlax, and Venusaur. He realized that he likely had just one chance to get across that room, but it would be risky.
"Okay, Munchlax, give me something useful," he said, calling out the gluttonous normal-type. "Use Metronome."
"Munch," Munchlax nodded before closing its eyes and beginning to waggle its fingers back and forth with a monotonous call of "Munch-lax-munch-lax-munch-lax-munch-lax-munch..." Drew gingerly placed his hand on the Pokémon's shoulder and waited. Munchlax's eyes opened with a gleaming yellow glow and then the Pokémon shot across the water at a speed too fast to follow, dragging the hapless Drew behind him. They smashed into the door and broke through into the stairwell, with the Lapras not even realizing they had gone past. Munchlax had been lucky and given Drew exactly what he needed: ExtremeSpeed.
Unbeknownst to Ash, Drew, and even Cal, a stranger had entered the grounds of the Trainer House. Ash had arranged to meet him there for his challenge, but the trainer was nowhere in sight. The stranger began to feel worried; where was he? Could something have happened? He did one more quick search of the grounds, and of the forest immediately outside, but Ash was nowhere in sight.
A large explosion caught his attention and he twisted his head in time to see a monstrous fireball erupt from the side of the building three-quarters of the way up. His eyes narrowed as the roiling fireball floated upwards and consumed itself. If trouble was about then Ash couldn't be far from the source. He flexed his muscles eagerly, searching for a quick entry point. It looked as if it was time for him to enter the fray.
It should have been simple, Ash thought with gritted teeth, the sweat pouring off his brow. This was never supposed to happen... so how have I ended up in this situation? He raised a hand to his brow, trying to wipe away the blood which threatened to slide into his eyes and obscure his vision, peering into the inky darkness as he did so. The thick smoke swirled around him and stung his wounds harshly. He coughed, feeling his knees shudder underneath him as his strength began to fail.
"Pikachu!" he shouted desperately, his voice echoing emptily. "Glaceon! Beautifly! Sceptile! Can any of you hear me? Are any of you there?" He coughed raucously again, his body shuddering with pain and fatigue.
They had made it through the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth floors with relatively little difficulty. The Morning Sun technique worked just as well without him and Glaceon in the way, so they had taken advantage of the Mirage System's inability to predict his change in strategies for those next few levels. On the fourteenth floor they had reverted to the blind charge, with Sceptile leaping past the Bagon inside with ease, destroying every one of the black discs with Bullet Seed. And then, just when the hope was rising again in his chest, disaster had come.
Electrode on the fifteenth floor. Dozens of them. There were far too many for Glaceon, Pikachu, and Sceptile to hold off even if they worked together. It had been a desperate struggle as the three tried their best while Beautifly frantically tried to break the discs on the walls. For one brief moment it had looked like it was working; and then an Electrode had exploded.
When one went off they all did. The whole room had looked like it was lit by gigantic Christmas lights. The force of the one massive explosion ripped a hole in the wall behind them and destroyed the system within the room; the ceiling bowed upwards, and parts of the floor had collapsed. Pikachu, leaping in front to shield the rest of them, had borne the brunt of the blast. Blinded by the smoke and thrown back from the blast, Ash had not seen or felt Beautfly, clinging desperately to his head, get swept off May's bandana and knock into Glaceon, sending them both flying through the hole in the wall and out into the open air where they plummeted to the ground. Sceptile, on the other side of the room, had vanished entirely.
He ignored his weakening state, looking for a way, any way, to make it through. On the other side of the building he knew was Drew; possibly in the same condition, or even worse off as they both tried vainly to make their way through and save their friend. He coughed dryly again, feeling his Adam's apple bob against the irritated and raw skin of his parched throat, trying not to think of what would happen if one or both should fail. Trying to recall his courage he took a step forwards and his knees buckled under the strain, sending him crashing to the ground.
It should have been simple, he thought as he went spiralling into blackness. It was supposed to be a friendly challenge to test my strength; not this struggle to save a friend's life. It should have been simple. It should have been simple...
He did not feel the two strong arms that gently fastened around his torso and lifted him from the inferno.
