THE LUGIA CHRONICLES

Chapter Seven

Parallel Lives

By R. A. Stott

Based on FanFics by Anni Ruecroft & R. A. Stott

Jesse had 'had it.'

It had come to everyone's surprise, especially James and Meowth. No one had expected the results of the latest test.

Of course, no one had told Jesse or James just what they were up to. This was one of their surprise tests, to see just how they would respond to an emergency.

Both Jesse and James were in the tower, moving towards the ghost Pokémon's lair. They had been told that they were to try and sense the ghosts, and to report their findings.

Professor Oak and Bill had Meowth station himself in the tower's staircase just below the lair. To him, this was going to be a bit of fun!

Jesse and James turned the corner below the doorway to the lair. This was Meowth's cue.

"Emergency Haunter warnin'!" he yelled as he jumped out of the shadows. "A Haunter - class 90 is about ta get you's from behind!"

Meowth had taken both of them by total surprise. James shrieked and nearly jumped into Jesse's arms. Jesse, who had been paying attention to Meowth's yell, held her husband back and looked behind her.

"Da Haunter is going ta do a Soul Eater attack! What do ya's do!" Meowth continued to yell.

From out of the wall across from Jesse and James appeared a red Haunter. It wasn't a projection, it wasn't a fake – it was a REAL red Haunter! They could 'feel' it as it slowly approached them. The two Rocketeers both started to slowly back away from the apparition. They had not seen this red Haunter before 'live'. The last one they had been witness to had been in the replay of their blocked memories – which was the reason why they had not remembered what a Lugia was. Red Haunters had been sent to delete those memories. Now they had one right in front of them, and they were petrified.

Just what Oak and Bill had expected.

Bill keyed his mic. "Okay Meowth! NOW!"

"Right!" the cat Pokémon said, and he pulled out two PokéBalls. "Emergency Escape Plan A-4!"

Jesse managed to snap-to enough to recognize just what Meowth had said. E-E-A-4!

She was just about to turn towards Meowth when it hit her - A hot red beam of light, searing into her. Her entire form tingled. She felt as if she were being drawn into a pit. Suddenly she was seeing memories flashing before herself - Vivid colorful memories. Some were pleasant. Some were not. But all seemed to be drawn, reduced, and extruded into a mass of red energy. Had the Haunter actually attacked? Was she seeing her soul being removed?

Suddenly, Jesse found herself in a cramped round room. A black band ran around the center of it. Six 'windows' were above this band. The 'roof' was red. The 'floor' was white. Light seemed to come from no specific place. As a matter of fact, there didn't seem to be any light emitting devices, so technically, she should not be able to see anything.

But Jesse knew exactly where she was. She had seen it before in the palm of her hand. Fear swept through her. To her, the sphere was beginning to close in on her. Panic welled. Sweat poured. Her heartbeat... a HEARTBEAT! She had not felt a heartbeat since becoming a spirit! But right now, she wished it were anything else. It was hammering her. The pounding got more intense, and now was banging inside her head. Louder - Louder - Bursting!

Oak and Bill were surprised to hear anything but success from Meowth. What they heard was more a scream of terror and pain. A quick glance at one another was quickly replaced by running feet. Pikachu Ketchum had just returned from yet another meeting of the Stratus League and was spun about by the departing scientists.

"Now what?" he mumbled as he joined them racing out of the trailer.

Just outside the tower's entrance were Sabrina and Ash. Both were looking into the stairwell with concern. They turned to the approaching group.

"I told you not to do this!" Sabrina scolded the Professors.

"What? What?" barked PK. "What's going on?"

"Testing E-E-A-4," Ash said.

"Oh no!" PK moaned as he felt around in his mind for any signs of the two Rockets.

"We needed to test it!" Bill said in defense. "If it didn't work, we stood the chance of loosing them in the first wave! And YOU," he added, angrily pointing at Sabrina, "refused to tell me WHY we shouldn't do this test!"

"Professor, I treat those who I have had mental contact with the same respect that a doctor would have with a patient. The matter is... WAS PRIVATE!" Sabrina's eye flashed her anger at the Professor, but just in case anything had been in that burst of energy, PK had placed a barrier between them. As it was it had not been needed, and Sabrina was a bit surprised to find it there in the first place. The scowl on the Pikachu's face gave her reason to calm down.

A hoot and howl came from the tower. The Haunter came bursting out of the wall towards Sabrina.

"It's RED!" PK yelped, surprised by the vision.

"My doing," Sabrina said, moving her hands in a sweeping motion. The Haunter changed back into its deep purple color.

"She's lost ALL control!" the Haunter yelled. "Humm, that sounds like a song..."

"Haunter, what's going on in there," Ash demanded.

"I think it's called a tornado!" it replied.

"What?" was all Ash got out before a high window blew out, spewing smoke, dust, Meowth and the two PokéBalls.

"Banshee!" Sabrina yelled. She was about to attempt to rescue Meowth when she saw PK airborne catching the unconscious cat. Ash was doing his best outfielder imitation, catching the two line drive PokéBalls.

One of the balls was dancing about in his hands - he was really having trouble with it. He quickly tossed the resting ball to Professor Oak, while trying to get a handle on the pixilated one. Finally, he managed to hit the release button.

"Hang onto something, folks!" yelled Ash as he tossed the ball, and grabbed a tree.

The ball popped open, and out came the Banshee in full wail. PK retreated with his bundle to a window sill on the tower. The Professors cowered behind Sabrina, who was using a psychic shield to protect them and herself. Ash hung onto the tree, feeling it shift slightly.

Finally, Jesse exhausted herself. She collapsed to her knees, then to her back, out cold to the world.

"Professor, when Sabrina says that something should NOT be done, I would LISTEN TO HER!" yelled PK from the window sill.

"But, what happened?" Bill said meekly from behind Oak. "It was simply a PokéBall!"

Sabrina turned and looked down at the Professors, who were still cowering behind her. "Claustrophobia!" she said then walked over to Jesse. She raised a finger, and the spirit body of the ex-Rocket floated off the ground. She then walked her to the trailer, where she placed her on a cot, reinforced by a psychic field to prevent the spirit from falling through it.

It had been a rough and nasty couple of days for the training crews. Starting with the GassyBall incident earlier in the week, where they NEARLY, as it turned out, 'killed' a resident of the tower. The results prevented the Pokémon League and the SPCP from licensing the manufacturing of the balls for the time being. Modifications were in the works, but Bill was not sure whether it would be ready in time for Lugia's coming. Then a series of troubling errors cropped up, mostly around Jesse and her rather abrupt way of attacking a situation. She was having trouble listening to the Professors' orders. She was getting miffed, and they were getting riled. This probably helped making the final decision to go ahead with the E-E-A-4 test - literally having a PokéBall store the spirits, whether they wanted to go into one or not.

Sabrina stayed by Jesse's side for the afternoon. It was not until Ash noticed roughly three or four hours after the incident, that no one had let James out of his ball. When released, the snoring Rocket nearly deafened everyone. Sabrina moved him to another cot in another room then returned to Jesse.

Meowth had finally awakened. He was a bit bruised and beat, but nothing he had not been through before. He was just getting too old to be tossed about like that!

Jesse had settled into a peaceful state. Deep within her memories, she stayed with what she felt was her best kept memory - A house - A rocking chair - and two silhouetted figures, slowly rocking back and forth, all bathed in a peaceful yellow light.

She leaned against a wall, quietly watching the scene. Sabrina had joined her. She was leaning against the other wall across from her, also watching the pair. She smiled.

"A good choice to relax with," she said to Jesse.

"More than a good choice," Jesse said. "I want this!" She looked over at Sabrina, who was giving her an examining look. "I mean it! And I'll go through hell and high water to get it!"

"I'm sorry for the Professor's persistence on the E-E-A-4 test. I should have told them about your claustrophobia..."

Jesse shook her head. "No, we would have needed to do it anyway. I just wished that they'd listen to me more. You know, I think they think I don't really know what I'm doing most of the time... Probably because of my Team Rocket background..."

The psychic shrugged in agreement. "Well, that's probably true... You do leave a rather dubious worry within their minds..."

Jesse looked at Sabrina. "You've read their minds?"

"Not as such..." Sabrina said. "I try not to enter anyone's thoughts unless I am allowed to. But I still sense their feelings. Those are very hard to hide."

"Humph!" Jesse half laughed. "And these two are supposed to be the best of the best when it comes to Pokémon, humm? Well, maybe they are, but I sure could teach them a few things!"

"Such as?"

"Well, look at what we've been doing lately... GassyBalls, Electro-Psychic Paralysis Fields, Trans-Dimensional Phase Shifts... do you know how many of these have been worked on by Team Rocket? Tech Lab One alone... what?"

Sabrina blinked. She looked at Jesse with a surprised awe.

"Jesse, that's it! That's the answer!"

"What is?" Jesse said looking confused at Sabrina.

"Team Rocket! Jesse, you're a genius!" Sabrina faded out, saying "Excuse me!"

Jesse shrugged, and continued to watch the peaceful scene.

But then the light changed. It turned from the golden yellow to a blood red.


Meowth was looking extremely bored. He was barely awake when Ash came up to him. "Any changes?" the Twerp asked.

"Naa," Meowth answered. "Dey'r still zonked out. An' old spooky lady there still has dem glowin' eyes turned on! Dat's gotta hoit after awhile, I would tink!"

Suddenly, Sabrina was awake from her trance. "Ash! Jesse's come up with an idea! Come on!" she said, taking him by the arm, half dragging him along. Meowth, bemused by Sabrina's towing of the Twerp and the fact that watching a prone spirit was about as much fun as watching paint peel, followed along.

PK's ears jumped. He sensed something. He quickly got up and headed for Jesse.

Jesse sat up. The sight of the red light frightened her. But why? The vision she had chosen was a memory... right? Right?

Oh god, no it was not.

Jesse stood, crossed her arms, knitted her brow in thought, and vanished in a blink of kinetic energy. PK had seen the last millisecond of her departure, and quickly followed.

This was not like the time the Pikachu had taken the group to the house in Jesse's thoughts. They had simply gone from the honeymoon suite to the outside of the house in the woods. But here she was floating in a yellow space. This was a void of nothing. Well, not totally nothing. A rodent had joined her.

"And just where do you think you're going?" PK asked.

"This is not your problem, rat!" she growled.

"You'd better MAKE it my problem! You're stuck in the Trans-Dimensional Barrier Zone! You're libel to get run over in here without knowing it!"

Jesse sadly had to agree with that bit of information. "I felt..." she said, nearly sobbing, "...I felt... Pikachu, there's something wrong with my other self!"

"Other self?" He looked about trying to sense what Jesse had seen. "You mean the one I took you to with the baby?"

Jesse nodded yes.

PK looked 'down' and stared hard. "No... no, they're fine. Living in the woods, all is well there."

"But... but I saw..."

"What you saw could be any NUMBER of dimensional levels! There are many themes and variations running within the time-lines. And right now you're stuck between them. Give me your hand."

Jesse was not ready for that. She had never actually touched Pikachu's hand before - the rest of him, sure - usually stuffing him into an electric-proof bell jar or such. Tentatively she reached out and touched the mouse's paw.

PK concentrated hard.

"Ah! You were in the house six point four levels below us now! And you're right... something IS going on there. Let's check it out!"

Jesse nodded in agreement and followed PK's lead.

"Okay, since we're here in the TDBZ, we're in a sort of 'Manual Control' zone," he explained. "We literally have to measure our movements to get where we need to go."

"So, where do we go?" Jesse queried.

"Just about... so!" PK said, tugging at Jesse's hand enough to drag her along with him. "Okay... now think of the house!"

"Okay," she said, once again knitting her forehead and concentrating.

A baby's wail.

A gasp of breath.

A sudden realization that this was not Kansas anymore, Toto!

Jesse opened her eyes and saw Jesse. She was holding the baby from her dreams. But, unlike her dreams, this Jesse was SEEING her! AND PK!

"Where did YOU come from?" the mother said in shocked worry and surprise. She had obviously been looking out the bay window in front of them, trying to figure why the light had turned so red. "Are you Team Rocket?"

"We're the cavalry, ma'am!" Pikachu said, giving a slight salute.

"But... but... You're ME!" the mother stammered. "And you're Ash's Pikachu! But you're SPEAKING! And what's with the eye-patch?"

"No time to answer! Come on!" PK yelped, pulling his Jesse along.

"She called him Ash! Not Twerp or something!" Jesse muttered.

"Twerp is a registered trademark to our dimension, Jesse!" PK grunted as they headed for the front door. "The dimensions don't always correspond with one another!"

"Yea, but she almost sounded like she liked the Twerp!"

Jesse found herself being spun quickly to face PK, who was now hovering point-blank at her face. "We - need - that - Twerp! Work with it!" he sneered. "Come on!"

PK, his Jesse and the Jesse and baby from that level exited the house and stood on the porch. What they saw chilled them to the core.

The sky was crimson- A crimson made of Red Haunters, Gengars and Gastlys. Flight after flight, wave after wave they flew by. And in the middle of the horde was a massive flying creature. It was a deep dark blue with gray highlights around its eyes and belly.

"By Zapdos' bolts!" PK whispered. "Lugia!"

Jesse stared at the creature. It was huge! It was massive. It was immense. It was... wrong.

"Wait a minute, Pikachu! What's with its colors?" she said.

"What do you mean?" the mouse asked.

"Remember, I just had my memories returned to me! Lugia should be gray! What's with THIS Lugia!"

"You hit the nail on the head right there, Jesse! It's not OUR Lugia that's coming! I told you that before! It's an EVIL Lugia from another dimension!"

"Black Lugia!" Jesse gasped. "And it's attacking this dimension first?"

Before PK could answer, the other Jesse yelled, "JAMES!"

Running up the hill was James and Meowth, followed by Arbok, Weezing and a Growlith. Further behind was a massive throng of Haunters descending on them.

"Get inside!" yelled PK.

"But, James!" the mother Jesse cried. As she did, the wave of Haunters overtook him and the rest that had run with him in his final moments.

"We're out of here!" PK said as they dragged the hysterical mother and child back into the house.

"What about her?" Jesse yelled over the crying. Her answer came in a flash of white light. PK, the mother Jesse, and the baby vanished. She was in the house alone.

SHE WAS IN THE HOUSE ALONE WITH A GAGGLE OF RED HAUNTERS COMING STRAIGHT FOR HER!

She knitted her brow once again, thought of where she wanted to go, and went, just as the house blasted into splinters around her.

Jesse expected a mess, but not this type. She was back in the house. But all was turned over, junked, wrecked. A struggle had occurred. But why?

Obviously, she thought to herself, she had once again missed her targeted landing zone. But, what gives here?

A rustling behind her caught her attention. The kitchen was back that way.

There, from the doorway, she saw herself. Bound, gagged and trusted up like a Christmas goose! What was going on here!

Heavy steps were coming towards the house from outside. Jesse made sure she was invisible to the coming body.

James entered the front door carrying a badly bloodied Meowth. He placed him on the sofa then headed for the kitchen, passing right through Jesse. Well, at least it was James this time!

James saw the tied body of his Jesse on the floor, and leapt to her side.

"Jesse!" James called to her.

A groan came from her. Spirit Jesse's blood was beginning to boil. She went over to Meowth. He was torn to shreds. And the spirit knew just how.

She heard James say from the kitchen, "Jesse, what happened... where's Rose... are you okay?"

The weak answer Jesse heard caused her to nearly erupt in hatred.

"Team... Rocket..."

Jesse looked into the kitchen. James and his Jesse were clutching each other sobbing.

Then, they were still.

"Hey!" came a small voice from behind her.

"What happened here Pikachu?" Jesse snarled.

"You just witnessed yet another dimensional variance," the yellow electric mouse said. "In this universe, Team Rocket came and took the baby away to keep this Jesse and James quiet about Rocket activities. Granted, they probably would have never said anything about Team Rocket, but your father wasn't going to take any chances. Plus, the fact that he didn't believe you two were competent parents for his only grandchild..."

Jesse was starting to turn beet red.

"The story gets better! I've counted two or three universes where this scenario plays out to this point. But this is where they all diverge. In this particular universe, your father's bosses weren't very happy with his appropriation of THEIR granddaughter as well."

Jesse though a moment. Then her eyes turned to beads. She slowly looked down at PK.

The rodent scratched the side of his head. "Well, why do you think, when you first met them, they gave you a version of the Team Rocket motto?"

"James' parents?"

"THE founders of Team Rocket - in this dimension at least. The Sakaki's created it on our level... you see, there's almost infinite variations."

Jesse went from fury to feeble in a matter of seconds. Normally, transitions like that would cause something to crack. In Jesse, it caused only questions.

"What about MY universe? What about James' parents there?"

PK crossed his arms and shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe, you should ask your father when we get back there, hmm? Besides, we have a pair of visitors that need some care..."

Jesse looked hard at the Pikachu. "You didn't!"

He shrugged. "What was I suppose to do, let them get wiped along with their planet? They're back at the base camp, waiting for our return."

Jesse cocked her head at the rodent. "Just how many Stratus League rules did you bend just now saving them?"

He dropped his head and kicked the ground. "There's a pile of messages waiting for me when we get back... SIGH!"

Jesse reached down, picked up PK, and kissed him on the cheek.

"Thank you."

"T'wernt nothin', ma'am!" he saluted. "Com'on, let's get back. We now know where Lugia is - Black Lugia that is... And we've actually SEEN what he looks like. The advantage may have just moved a bit towards OUR SIDE!"

oOo

Characters from Pokémon ©2000, 03, 05, 07, 18 The Pokémon Company/Nintendo/Creatures/GameFreak

©2000, 03, 05, 07, 18 R. A. Stott/The Lugia Project/DMS

Edited 0706.20 - 1807.12


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