Author's Note: I live on! Somehow, magically. I am not sure. I think I need another story to kill time while I write this one. Maybe an OC story. What do you guys think? Maybe even an SYOC? I dunno, I'll make a poll. See what you guys think? Okay, well, I won't keep you! Thank you for submitting your movesets for Arbok by the way! I think I've gone with Anonana Banana's for an Adamant Arbok!
Also I made a mistake last chapter: There is a Shadows of Almia reference, but there's also a Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness/Colosseum reference.
Anyway, on we go!
Chapter Eight: Clouds of Doom
-"That moment when you screwed up? Ignore it. Deal with the moments in front of you."-
Ash couldn't stop cursing. He was expecting to have a knot on his head from his brief slam into a tree, and we can all guess that that wasn't helping him think any. This was bad, this was very bad. They had to get out of here now. They had to get out of the Beginner Trainer Death Trap.
If there was anything that Ash hated more than Spearow, it was Beedrill. If the two species killed each other at this very moment, it couldn't be too soon. He didn't care two whits about the ecosystem.
"They still coming?" he managed to ask, lungs burning and readjusting his sweaty grip on Amber's hand.
Anabel looked back, hearing the sound of buzzing wings get further and further away. "They're still moving towards the Rockets. You sure we shouldn't go back?"
"Hell yes we are not going back!" Chase squeaked. Anabel glared at the little mouse and he stuck out his tongue. "They caused this mess, they can be bug food and tree mulch!"
Anabel agreed in the back of her mind, but that was about all. Death by Beedrill and Pidgeotto was not exactly painless. She wouldn't wish that on people, but whatever they had been stupid enough to do, it was on their own damn heads.
"This forest is endless!" Ash groaned, stopping behind a tree to catch his breath. Anabel heard varying degrees of Pokemon cursing and almost glared at Chase. he didn't even pretend to look contrite.
Her family's gift was a curse. It really was.
She sighed and kept running. She could hear the Beedrill too, screaming rage and disgust at the sound radiating from whatever the Rockets were doing. Elfie and Chase didn't seem much better, but they were too busy clinging (and in Chase's case, making oaths of retribution to the Pokemon gods) to engulf themselves in homicidal violence.
The Rockets were heard screaming in the distance. That was one thing going right today.
"Sludge Bomb."
Oh damn. She had totally jinxed it.
Years of training in the wild kicked Anabel into the air, flipping her to the side and dragging Eifie with her. The sludge splashed a tree, making it hiss and melt. She tossed a berry for the kit to catch in its mouth. "Natural Gift!"
Elfie zigzagged and leaped, spraying flames. The assailant slithered to the side, the tip of its tail struck with embers. It hissed and made to smack her aside. Elfie caught herself in the grass, glaring and hissing just as fierce. Good little baby.
"Well, well." A woman's voice spoke, low monotone, blue eyes detached. "You've got a Fae in the making. How droll." Anabel's eyes flickered and Elfie swung her tail, alighting the tree the voice was coming from. "And a clever one at that. As expected of a Frontier Brain. Or, former, according to the news. Why did that happen, mm?"
"Why indeed?" Anabel asked her, agreeably enough. Then, she dropped to the ground and scooped up Chase, who had been catching his breathing beside her. "Wanna fly?" she asked the little mouse.
Chase smirked. "I'm always all right with blowing things up."
"Tuck and roll then, you little nut." Anabel threw him in an arc towards the tree just as Ash had half-carried Amber to catch up. Ryuko coiled by his head, hissing and spitting at the serpent above. She watched Ash reach out and stroke her scales. Then her eyes widened and her head swiveled to look for the Charmander. It had waddled after them, flame swishing, eyes dark with anger. She tensed, prepared to reach into her sleeve.
However, with a paralyzing shriek, it lunged for Ash. Ash ducked and rolled, and the Charmander smacked into the tree with a loud thunk.
Ash swore. "Now is not the time for me to pull a friendship beam out of my butt!"
Amber clutched her Shinx, helpless despite all of her power. Chase smacked something and nearly burst with electricity, only for a large, violet tail to throw him into Charmander, hard. They hit the tree again. There had to be a concussion in there somewhere.
Ash swore and flipped out his Pokedex. "Arbok," it chimed unhelpfully as the giant purple cobra slithered from the tree. "The Cobra Pokemon. It evolves from Ekans."
"Gee, couldn't have guessed from the color and the etymology," Ash sniped, whistling for Ryuko. As if Charmander's still homicidal streak wasn't enough, there was a trainer with one of these death traps running around. "How about something useful?"
"It is said that if an Arbok loses anything but its head, it can regenerate in a matter of a few weeks."
"Arbok's scales are also good for creating antidotes." The speaker from the trees did not leave the shade, her voice amused and dry. "Arbok, with great training, can prevent status conditions from changing the pattern of its face. Arbok have the strength to crush oil drums with a squeeze." She waved a gloved hand. "Why ask a toy when you could just ask me for more accurate information?" The cobra hissed its agreement, coiling around the tree trunk.
Ash pocketed the device as Chase hurried back to him, glaring more at the rising Charmander than the woman. "Well, you did just try to kill me, lady."
"Viper," the woman corrected. "And it was actually to stop the fools behind you and that little lizard of yours. You're welcome. By the way, get down."
"Get dow- shit!" Ash ducked and pulled Amber down with him as black flames roared over their heads. Charmander let out another screech. It would have been adorable if it was slightly less murdery. "Anabel, where's his ball?"
"Little busy at the moment!" she replied, eyes on the Arbok moving closer to her. "He sounds too angry to stay in his ball anyway! What if he breaks it?"
Crap, there was that. Ash glanced at Amber. "Stay down, oka- Amber?" He moved to get a better look at her. She was staring, frozen, up towards the tree, up at the Viper woman. Her mouth was open in slight terror. Ash paled. "Anabel, you're better with kids, I think she's having a panic attack!"
Anabel swore, and Ash couldn't help but think that hearing that was the best thing in the world. "I… give her space and focus on Charmander, Ash. Is, Is her Shinx okay?"
"Yeah!" Ash looked up at the little hissing cat and his flesh eye throbbed. His voice dropped to a whisper. "Chase, light this place up."
Chase leaped and howled annoyance, body glowing yellow as the clearing burst white. Honestly, it was dangerous and stupid maneuver, but it was better than nothing. The trainer in the tree covered her eyes and kept her balance, but moving her arm uncovered the red R on her chest.
Now. Why in the name of the upside down waterfalls of the Reverse World was a Rocket fighting other Rockets? And why was this one giving Amber the shakes?
And why is a Rocket helping us to begin with?
All of these were very important questions for Ash to think about, but they weren't as important as getting the hell out of there. And beating up Charmander. Ash grit his teeth as the light faded. Charmander was still shrieking pain. Even Anabel was rubbing her eyes. Amber, to his fear, had not reacted at all.
He so did not have time for this shit.
Charmander, being raised by apparently a complete asshole with no sense of boundaries, of course didn't care. He lunged for Ash again and Ryuko threw him down with a slam of her tail, making for his neck. Charmander sank his teeth in and met air. Chase slashed at him with his tail. Ash glanced at Amber again and picked her up, noting the utter terror that just had not let go. He suppressed his own shivers, thinking of the insignia, the angry Pokemon overhead, the screaming… He swallowed it all.
"It'll be okay," he said, trying to sound like the tough guy he knew he was. "I won't let them get us again. I promise."
Amber's lips couldn't lift into a smile but she managed the focus to cry out in warning. Her Shinx leaped, throwing a feeble thundershock at the rising Ember. It dropped, wailing pitifully. Amber pulled it into a hug and then its pokeball, body shaking like a razor leaf thrown off course.
"Looks like you're all having a tough time of it." The woman chuckled a little. "I suppose that's not a surprise. That Pokemon is at a high level and you can't just capture it and hope it goes away." She snapped her fingers and her Arbok belched another Sludge Bomb. "As for you, Miss Maiden… don't you wish you had a Psychic Pokemon about now? Where did yours run off to?"
"That..." Anabel made a swiping motion with two fingers and Elfie rolled under the massive snake body to avoid the attack, springing on top and slamming glowing paws onto its middle. The Arbok howled rage. Anabel didn't cheer. This wasn't that kind of battle. "Is none of your business! Elfie, again, but up!"
As the creature raced up the tree, the woman scoffed and called back her Arbok, jumping away at the last second. "Sorry, darling, I'm only here to observe… a little. And play around. I don't have time to waste attempting to kill you. Even I'm not that good." She moved to disappear into the foliage.
"If only you were a little less self-observant while you were at it!" Anabel moved to chase after her, only to catch a falling Eevee. Her little one panted in her arms and she winced, pulling one of her few Pokeballs out and returning her. Nothing was worth killing the baby, not even information. She whirled to check on the others. "Charmander," she called, somewhat desperately. They could not risk a forest fire any more than they already had.
She went ignored. Charmander didn't even look at her, a black and red aura beginning to emanate from his scales. Ash swore.
"Anabel, get ready to return Charmander! Can you cover Amber until I get him down?"
Anabel raised an eyebrow at him. "Who do you think I am? A greenie? Don't worry about her. Focus on what's in front of you."
Ash grimaced and wiped the sweat out of his eyes. "All I'm good at anyway. Ryuko, Shadow Rush!"
The Dratini shot forward, hitting Charmander right in the face. Charmander swung and hit her with his tail. However, Dratini really were all tail, and that made it easy for her to dodge and Shadow Rush him again, this time into a tree. Charmander howled. Ash winced.
"We are so lucky the Forest is busy with Team Rocket," he muttered to himself. Then, he looked up, expecting the loud beating of wings and the angry buzzing. When it didn't arrive, Ash had to duck from purple flames anyway. "The crap kind of Ember was that?"
"It wasn't," Anabel deadpanned, rolling Amber to the side.
Charmander screeched victory and lunged for Ash's remaining eye. He didn't account for Chase, who sank tiny teeth into his throat and exploded. Charmander yowled and struck him with his tail. Chase rolled with the blow and zapped out electricity again. It flew wildly and struck more trees than scaled flesh. Charmander crowed and flew forward, back towards Ash. Ash moved to the side. He wasn't sure if he needed to be praising the salamander for his tenacity or not. He'd be a great partner once he wasn't trying to kill him and his friends. You know, little things.
If only the clearing they were in had a little more room. Not that it seemed to bother the Pokemon any. Charmander rushed forward, over Chase, dodging Ryuko, mouth wide open and flames flying towards Ash's head.
So what did this hero in training do? Duck and punch of course!
He ducked under the flames and swung his fist up. What he didn't count on, however, was the rush of energy to go tingling up his mechanical arm. It smoked but the punch connected regardless, sending Charmander flying. Anabel returned him in midair, eyes wide. Ash could only look down at the smoking piece of technology.
Meanwhile, Viper, smiling to herself, stopped recording. She disappeared towards the screams of her former comrades, Arbok slithering through the bushes.
Ash never thought he would be happy to see Pewter City in any way, shape, or fashion. Rocks, grey, and more frozen in the past than a captured Celebi. Yet the sight of that Pokemon Center was heaven on Earth. He collapsed onto a bench, for a few moments, content to focus on sucking in air. Then Chase whined into his stomach, both hungry and tired. Ash groaned and glanced for the other two. Amber was already at the desk. None of her funny, half-baked smiles or casual playfulness in sight. There was just fear there. Fear for her burned kitten, fear from the Rocket lady, whoever she was.
And it was the lady. Not the idiots who set angry monsters on themselves, but the lady. From experience, Ash could pick out maybe three Rockets in a line up, and that was because they had changed his bedsheets and put the needles in his neck like clockwork and made Chase cry. He could remember those.
So was that woman who did those things for Amber? Or were they someone worse?
He couldn't ask now, he realized, not while she was stock-still at the line for her Shinx. Not while her eyes looked so haunted and dull. Not when they all probably looked the same.
Instead, Ash got up and went to the phone. He dialed his house and waited. His mother popped up on screen, and he winced at the cross look on her face. "Hey… sorry Mom."
She made a noise of irritation. "You're lucky the roads are a mess right now or I'd have you in a headlock by now."
Ash flushed, and thought of Chase, sleeping on his bag, guarding the two Pokeballs with his tail. "Yeah… sorry."
She continued to frown at him for a moment, then she sat back a little on the stool. "What is it?"
Ash grimaced. Now that he was not moving or under the adrenaline rush, he became aware that his whole body hurt like hell. "I um… I used Aura today. Twice. I… it broke the arm."
His mother stared at him. Her jaw would have dropped if it could have. Then, Delia Ketchum straightened. "I'll be there by tomorrow. Be ready."
Ash swallowed. "Right..."
The call clicked off and Ash let out a heavy sigh. This… was not good.
