Author's Note: Hey guys, I'm back! Sorry, it took so long! Chasachu is best 'chu, my guest friend! It's great! Welcome new fans, thank you so much! thor, the super powerful, awesome Ash won't really appear here. Two year gap or not, he's still twelve, and still lacking a fair amount of experience. Give him time, however. It will be well worth the wait. Enjoy!
Chapter Seven: Death Row Stingers
-"Someday you're going to realize the "hit it until it breaks" strategy doesn't work. But not today, I guess."-
Anabel had barely managed to finish pulling her shoes on by the time Ash was long out of the room. Amber hovered, not literally for once, by the door. "You can stay here if you want," Anabel said with a small smile. She mentally noted that she needed new clothes. She would have to stop in Pewter at least. Pollution central or not, the clothes there were as durable as the stones.
Amber shook her head no. "Ash is crazy enough to do this by himself. I need to make sure he's okay. Chase will be having too much fun."
Anabel laughed. "Somehow, I can believe you. All right, let's get going." She went to the front desk. "Nurse, is it possible that I could take that Dratini off your hands?"
Joy nodded. Maybe it was her reputation, maybe it was Ash's stupidity, but she handed her the Dratini without any complaints. "Be careful."
"It's a Shadow Pokemon, you can't be." She hurried out the door, Amber on her heels. "Does he always do stuff like this?" she asked as they ran.
"I just met him yesterday," she said with a shrug. "But probably."
Meanwhile, Chase was sniffing just ahead of Ash. His tail was in the air, and he made a couple snorts of irritation. "Ash, can you take away my hearing? That alarm is seriously ticking me off."
"Better yet, let's blow the thing making it scream to smithereens," Ash crowed, striding as fast as possible. He paused. "Chase, get ready, lettin fizzle boy out."
"Rightyo." Chase paused and spun, front paws raised and Ash popped the Pokeball open. He grinned with slight trepidation. He didn't exactly have experience with Shadow Pokemon. Most didn't. Then again, that was the best part.
Out came the Charmander, who looked around in bewilderment. Ash scratched his head. Well, it wasn't pissed. Good start. It saw Ash and Pikachu and narrowed its eyes. Ash raised his hands. "Easy, psycho fella. We're here to help."
Charmander yowled and lunged for Ash at the sound of his voice. Chase jumped between them and swung his tail down like a sword. Charmander scrambled back, bristling.
Ash thought fast. Shadow Pokemon were reduced to their basic survival instincts to the point of inter-species camaraderie being like someone's idea of a cartoon parody. 'Closing the heart' was the equivalent of a death sentence, according to the professors. That said, they understood hierarchy. "Hey, Charmander," he said, squaring his shoulders. "I'm the guy who beat you. You gonna attack me now?"
It hissed and the hearing aid let out a garbled screeching sound. Well, that was helpful.
"Pretty sure that was a "hell no", Chase muttered and his cheeks sparked. The Charmander lunged and an Eevee smacked it into the ground with water at its paws.
"Return that, if you don't mind." Anabel stepped into view. "If I keep a hold of it, I'm less likely to get arrested than you. Former Battle Frontier host and all that mess."
Ash paused. "Wait, what?"She's a what?
Chase stared at him. "Dude, even I knew that."
"You act like I keep track of celebrities." He crossed his arms and sighed, throwing the Pokeball to Anabel. "I figured having him lead the front charge would be easier."
"Would be," Anabel agreed, grabbing Amber's wrist to keep her from running off. "Easier on the charge, harder on you for the command."
Ash flushed. "It'll be easier with the Dratini? They're both Shadow type and all."
"You caught it," Anabel replied. "Instant override of the "rip to pieces" command."
Ash hesitated, then released the Dratini. It hovered in the air. At the sight of the Charmander, it let out a squeaking growl. Its eyes glittered with malice until they alighted on Chase and Ash. It relaxed, if only minutely.
Ash had never thought he'd equate a Shadow type with territorial instincts. Learn something every day. He checked the moveset with his Pokedex. "Twister, Shadow Rush, Shadow Storm… that explains the other day… do these bastards learn Extremespeed?"
"Occasionally, from the Dragon Masters."
Ash muttered a curse word to himself. Amber blinked at him, but he shook his head and squared his gaze onto the Dratini. "All right, you can understand me, right?" It stared and the Charmander started hissing at them, knees bunched. Eevee hit it over the head again. Ash kept his eyes on the Dratini, who stared back without blinking once. "I guess that's a yes. Let's go!"
He strode off into the deeper woods and Chase rolled his eyes. "Your eye doesn't have night vision, screwbrain." He raced after him.
Anabel groaned. "I wish I had a resume right now. Or at least a working video camera."
"I don't think 'death by Beedrill' should go viral," Amber chirped with a tiny giggle.
The air began to ring once more and the forest rippled with shrieks. The Charmander began to hiss, tail lashing. The Eevee let out a warning murmur and it glared.
Anabel chortled. "Like trainer, like shadow I suppose. Elfie, let's get moving."
Amber moved to follow her, when something rubbed her leg. "Oh, hullo." The Shinx purred and trotted ahead of her. She sighed. Everyone but her had no sense of self-preservation.
Then again, she was still here. She raced after the fading footfalls.
In the Viridian City Pokemon Center, over the rush of Chansey and Audino and the nurse calling backup and soothing anxious trainers, one of which was only kept from going after "his" Charmander by the aches in his bones, the injured Pokemon heard the buzz. They watched through the open window. They sat in their beds or stood from their resting places by their trainer's feet, ears perked, eyes focused.
They wanted to go. They would not go. The sound was an itch that needed scratching and a sore that needed to be pinched. It would be great to destroy its source.
The source was surrounded by enemies. Their trainers would not escape the Gauntlet unscathed. They could not go.
However, a certain wild Pidgey didn't think of anything of this, nor of its dead flock being burned by the barking dogs nearby. All it thought of was the sound and the human boy that had cradled its burnt wings.
The source of the sound and the human were in the same place.
It alighted from its perch and flew away. The beats of its wings were slow from healing. However, it was a bird, a bird blessed with wings that loved the air. It would reach, and then it would soar.
Further in, Ash ducked a stray spark. "Chase, careful. Remember the eyebrows."
"You don't need them," the Pokemon muttered grumpily under his breath, but leaned away from Ash, tail raised away from the backpack.
Of course not even a kilometer in Ash had found himself in the darkening parts of the forest. The noise still rang out like Zubats out of hell and he had to cover Chase's ears whenever it sounded. The air would buzz once in a while, but that was all. That told Ash everything he needed to know though. He was near a Beedrill hive, and if he thought
A slippery tail tapped his cheek. The Shadow Dratini didn't even seem to care about the sound over their heads. It was almost docile with it. It may have helped that Ash occasionally pet her like an Ekans as they went. He grinned at it, and its tail swished, but little more. Ash paused and squinted. "I really need night vision…."
"Would it really help ya to only have one eye with night vision?"
Ash almost answered but then he heard a loud buzz and a wail. He grimaced. Really wish I had that Mankey right now…
But he had been stupid and left it behind for the sake of firepower only. God, he was older than ten, right? Right?
He didn't have time to think about it after that. The buzzing grew and Ash grimaced. "Duck!" When he dropped, Chase's light went out and Dratini squeaked.
The air let out a strangled groan as the beating of Beedrill wings rent the air, rustling the trees and shattering branches. Three foot bees… and he thought a Fearow was scary. Okay, it was. It ate the bees. Within seconds, ash heard the sound of footsteps, human footsteps, from up ahead. Ash rolled and pulled Dratini back, Chase clinging to the back of his head.
"Hurry, capture them!"
"Are you nuts? They stung Jervis!"
"That's the point, idiot! Catch them!"
He heard the familiar whirr of Pokeballs and Ash grimaced. If he moved, they would hear him and turn their attention on him, but if he didn't, whoever these idiots were would have an army of pissed off Beedrills… and he'd heard Kalos was finding some weird stones that could make them even stronger. Not a chance in Reverse World.
"Chase," he muttered. "Start chargin'..." Ash paused, then looked up at the hovering Dratini. "Ryuko, use Shadow Storm."
"Oh crap." Chase muttered, and began to spark as quietly as possible.
Dratini seemed to sway, then lifted herself to the air and flew silently towards the sky. She took to chasing her tail in a halo of a circle, dark clouds blooming about her. Within seconds, it began to rain, the sky grumbling and flashing with the rage of the titan Pokemon of old. Ash grimaced. Yeah, he was glad he didn't have to fight this again.
Unfortunately, he didn't calculate into this that the idiots would look around like drunken Pidgey until they did. Chase, however, did. He leaped and the energy burst, electricity sending each grunt off and screaming. Ash rolled to his feet as Dratini flew back to coil around his frame. Its black eyes were almost glowing in the purple of the storm. One of the grunts recovered at the sight of him. He raised a Pokeball and someone struck his wrist. Anabel swung a kick as Embers burst from Charmander's mouth. The thump of the man's unconscious body alerted the rest and Ash felt his lips quirk.
"These odds are shit," he declared. "Let's do this. Dratini, Shadow Rush!"
"That's illegal!" Pokeballs flew through the air, Pokemon popping up in the mess of the clearing. Ash snorted and whistled to Chase. Dratini didn't even care, slipping around like the air was the sea and smashing into a grunt's stomach. The breath whooshed out of his chest and Amber threw a rock at the human's head.
Ash grinned. "Release the Chaos!"
"WARRRRRR!" Chase squeaked, dashing from tree to tree and bursting with electricity as he swung his tail into a Raticate.
One man stumbled away and managed to catch him by the tail. Elfie lunged from the darkness and sank her tiny teeth into his wrist. He snarled and swung his arm, throwing them off. The Pikachu and Eevee grinned at each other.
"Chaos?" Chase asked.
Elfie yowled her agreement and the two burst into action, flames leaping from the Eevee's paws as she following the spark of Chase's cheeks. Within minutes the underbrush had started to smoke. Amber's tiny Shinx dashed through the smoke, sparking Thunder Wave into the fallen Pokemon until all were twitching in the flames.
Ash groaned. "We aren't trying to burn the forest down."
"You honestly think that wouldn't help a little?" Anabel quipped, picking her Eevee up. The men on the other side of the clearing had regrouped, grabbing their fallen men and rummaging together. Ash called his Pokemon back, noticing Amber staring at the sky from her perch in a tree. "Come on, lass, we need to hurry before the fire spreads!" She could put it out with Eevee, but it would take too long even with the rain helping things along, and every second would get that group's horde of Pokemon more time to pick themselves up.
Chase and Eevee both twitched and looked to the sky. Dratini began to coil about, as if determined to wrap herself into a knot.
A cloud had been slowly growing over the tips of the trees, the low buzzing changing to a dull roar. The trees had begun to rumble and small shadows had begun to creep into view.
Ash covered his mechanical eye with his free hand. He didn't shout this time. Instead, he began to back away, returning Dratini and grabbing Chase under one arm. Amber flew to scoop up Shinx as Anabel pulled Charmander from where it was straining to rip into a man's face. The group had begun to look around, but by then it was too late.
The Viridian Forest woke from its nap.
Viper sat at the border between Pewter and Viridian, watching the cloud over the tips of the trees. James had warned her off the forest before she had left the compound. New blood had been assigned to test the upgraded portable devices they had ripped off of those Mimireno-whatever-the-heck they had tried ripping off of Altru Inc's former president. Judging by that purple storm and the way the forest trembled, it had gone badly wrong.
She had to hope the targets weren't in there. According to the file, they would survive, but they'd still need a Poison detox and days in the hospital to make sure they had no spore diseases and she didn't know if she had the patience to bide her time through that and the inevitable gym battle. Because one of the little idiots was a trainer, which meant, well, they would like the circuit.
Not for the first time, Viper considered quitting Team Rocket and going back into one of the many careers she had tried and failed over the years. It wasn't too late to try again, except for Coordinating. Never again.
The thunder from afar boomed loud enough to make her jump. She let out a sigh as the buzzing reached her ears. She had to get involved, didn't she?
Viper looked at the gleaming ball on her waist. She examined it. It looked no worse for the wear than when she had last held it. In fact, it looked better, a sign of James and his sentimentality, she guessed.
"Arbok, let's go."
She resisted the instinct to jump away as her Arbok coiled around her feet, making a hissing noise that would be a purr from any cat. She remained still, though Viper felt her lips twitching towards a smile. She crossed her arms over her chest to avoid it and spoke. "We can't have a repeat of last time."
It was a vague, simple statement. Nevertheless, her Pokemon's head dipped, a slow drop to indicate depressing. His tongue flicked out twice, a gesture Viper vaguely remembered to be guilt.
"You're smarter now, and so am I."
A nod.
"Let's see what we can do."
Author's Note: Any suggestions for a new moveset for Jessie's Arbok? He's a lot stronger than he was two years back in anime canon. Also, that was a Shadows of Almia reference there, Viper doesn't really think too much on that. Please leave a review if you can! Even a couple of words helps.