Hello everybody! Yes, this is an update, an update that's been almost eight months in the making. Yeah, my life has been going crazy ever since I graduated from college. I had to enter the workforce to earn money and figure out what I plan to do with my degree. Needless to say, I've been spending that time concentrating on getting my life on the road to sustainability and have thus inadvertently abandoned this story temporarily. However, things are starting to get some sense of normalcy.
With that said, I'm very sorry for making you all wait. I know how you all really like this Pokemon story as I've seen from the reviews of you wonderful readers. Also, I'll use this moment to say that updates might not be as fast as they used to be. The reason being is because of life. As a career choice, I'm now taking more classes in college to become a certified middle or high school teacher. It's going to take a lot of my time, what with the class work and student teaching positions I'll be participating in. As such, writing might not be my top priority most of the time. However, I will continue to work on my stories on whatever free time I have. By that, I mean during my lunch breaks like I used to do in high school and during my vacation.
But yes, this story is not dead. I can assure you all about that. All I ask is that you continue to be patient with me as I continue to get my life on the road to sustainability. So let me now respond to the last reviewers before officially shutting up and letting you enjoy the story.
jakeroo123: That's actually pretty true. Ash's Pikachu is very special and is probably allowed to break the four-move rule in the anime every now and then. But at least you do understand why I made the four-moves-per-chapter-battle for my story. It's too clunky and will make the story move at a much slower pace. Now there might be moments where I'll have a Pokemon become god-like and use a flurry of moves, but I'm not sure how or if that's going to work with what I have in mind.
With all that out of the way, let me go ahead and leave you all to read this new chapter. Let me just say now that it's shorter than the others and probably not as great, but that's a result of me not having written for this story in a while. I tried to set things up for more backstory in the next chapter, but I do hope that this will be enough to get you interested again as to what will happen next. And besides, not all chapters need to be extremely long to be good. An occasional short one is okay so long as it's not purely filler material.
Sorry again for the wait, and I hope to see you all on my next chapter! And don't mind the sucky title for this chapter. I'm writing this past midnight and am tired. That and it's literally the best I can come up with.
Chapter 10: From Ship to Shore
"Have you made any progress with the repairs yet?" the suited man impatiently asked. He had turned on communications to the science department rather suddenly and caught the scientist on the other end by surprise.
"S-Sir, when did you-!"
"I want an answer," he interrupted in a dangerously low tone as he sat on his office chair. His Persian meowed lazily and glanced at the monitor before retreating to a corner for a nap. "Has your team made any progress?"
"Uh, w-we're still trying to isolate the source, sir!" the scientist replied as he adjusted his glasses. Upon noticing the frown forming on the man's face, he quickly added, "However, we do have an idea as to what it might be. We just tried to seal off a part of the program, and whatever was causing the problems weakened slightly before regaining its strength."
"Are you saying that this anomaly is able to recover from whatever countermeasures you throw at it?"
"Not exactly. You see, we've only managed to discover where the problem was while breaking the program into isolated segments. Our theory is that when it felt its presence was threatened, it moved to a place that had yet to be secured. Thankfully, there were only a couple other places at the time of the discovery that we've yet to isolate."
"So you're now able to track its movements?"
"To some degree, sir." Another scientist quickly appeared on-screen to hand off a file before retreating into the background. The main scientist opened it and perused the contents while saying, "Granted that this was a fluke. We wouldn't have noticed it had we not started the purging process early. But thanks to that, we're sure we can at least control where it'll have to go as its next retreat."
"I suppose that's the best news I'll get considering the circumstances," the man said with an irritated sigh before taking the wine glass from his desk and drinking from it. "But if you're able to control where this virus can go, can't you simply trap it in one of the isolated programs? I imagine that would be easier than playing a game of cat and mouse with it."
"It would be, but then we can't initiate the purge. You see, a piece of the program that has already been disconnected from the mainframe can't receive those orders. If we want to delete this virus, then we're forced to leave at least one route of escape open. I'll admit that it'll be tedious work, but that's the only way for us to handle it. It'd be a different story if we could isolate the virus and study it; but we can't tell where in a given piece of program it's hiding."
"And why is that?"
"Think of each section as a city, sir. In each city, there are so many places for a single person to hide. Even if the entire security force were to search the whole place, it'd take a while to find the suspect. The same can be said here. Even though we've broken the program into small pieces, each segment is still pretty large."
"Then how do you propose to make this work efficiently with your purging process?" the man asked. He was starting to sound impatient again, the contents of his glass swaying along with the motions of his hand.
"What I'm thinking is that we can create an impromptu program that would act as a security sweeper," the scientist explained as he put the file down. "We can have it scan the program in question for the virus. Once it's been located, it'll send us a signal to start the purge. However, it'll start at the spot where the security program is rather than at the point where the data is still connected. That way, we can ensure the virus is within range of the purge and thus more likely to be deleted."
"Hmm, I'm uncomfortable with the number of suppositions in your supposed remedy to the situation. Is there any way for you to give me at least one guarantee?"
"I'm afraid there isn't, sir. Everything I've said is what my team has been able to think of since you last checked on us a few hours ago." The scientist was then handed another folder, this time from a person off-screen. He then browsed through the contents and quickly closed it before adding, "However, I can say that we're making good progress on the security sweeper. I think it should be ready for use within the next hour."
"Then make its completion your main priority. The next time I come to get a progress report, I hope it'll be done. If I hear you're still blindly searching for this virus, then I promise there'll be repercussions! Is that understood?" the man asked with a violent flick of his wrist. His emphasis nearly caused the wine to spill from his glass, but he avoided it with a corrective wrist flick.
"U-Understood, sir!" the scientist exclaimed with a quick salute. The video feed was then cut off and filled the room with light white noise.
"At least their getting closer to fixing that damned program," he growled before downing the rest of his wine. He then placed the glass on the table with enough force to make a dull thud echo in the room. His Persian brought its head up in response and looked at his master. "I had expected that there'd be some problems during the testing phase. I never thought it'd be one so large enough to postpone everything!
"Tell me, Persian; do you think this really is some new development or that the scientist imbeciles overlooked it?" The beige cat merely responded by approaching the man and resting its head on his lap. "I suppose you're right, my friend," he said with a chuckle before placing a hand on the cat's head. "What matters now is that they're getting closer to fixing it. Hopefully, it'll be done by tomorrow. I'd hate to put my plans off longer than they've already been."
-Meanwhile-
"Ugh, where am I?" Ash groaned in pain as he slowly regained consciousness. His eyelids felt so heavy; it was an effort to open them. Even then, he forced them shut when a bright light assaulted his vision. "Gee, can't they turn down the lights?"
"You're finally awake," a girl's voice suddenly said. He then felt something cool being placed on his forehead and heard Pikachu somewhere to his left making a sound of relief. "I was starting to worry a bit."
Feeling somewhat refreshed thanks to the coolness, Ash tried opening his eyes again. As he had hoped, the light did not sting as much. His vision was still blurry, but he could still make out basic shapes. One of them was the outline of a person with familiar orange hair sitting next to him and a familiar yellow blob standing on what he guessed to be a dresser. Out of reflex, he tried to get up and was immediately feeling nauseous.
"Hey, take it easy," the girl softly replied as she placed her hands on his shoulders. She made no motion to force him into a particular position. Instead, she was just there to support whatever moves he was going to make. "You've been unconscious ever since you took that blow to the head."
"What blow? …Oh!" Ash suddenly exclaimed as the memories of what happened came to him all at once. His sudden realization caused his body to jerk and made him feel dizzy once more. However, he tried to ignore it as he gathered his thoughts. "Are we still on the ship? Did you manage to beat those crooks?"
"I thought I said to take it easy!" she repeated, this time in a more annoyed tone. Pikachu immediately made his way towards Ash's side to provide some visual support. "Are you trying to make yourself feel worse? Geez, just stay still while I get a clean towel."
Before he could say anything, the girl disappeared into the other room. Sensing Ash's discomfort, Pikachu closed the distance between them. He rubbed his cheek against his arm in concern, the static sending a tingling sensation on the teen's bare arm. Ash simply rubbed the mouse's head in silent assurance that he was alright, immediately comforted by the familiar feel of his Pokémon's electricity.
"Well, it's a good thing this place is stocked with water and towels," the girl stated as she came back into the room. Her hands were filled with the aforementioned towels and a bowl of water. She then said as she set down the items and sat in the chair next to the bed, "Considering that we're in here, I doubt whoever lives here will mind me using their things."
"Wh-Who are you? Do you know where we are?" Ash suddenly asked.
"Geez, is this the thanks I get for taking care of you?" The girl soaked a towel before wringing it dry and folding it. She then forced the teen to lie back on the bed and placed the cool cloth over his forehead. "Then again, I'm not surprised that it's the first thing on your mind. I guess I was the same myself.
"Anyway, my name's Misty," she finally introduced herself. Pikachu simply watched as she took care of Ash, trusting her actions but still on guard for anything sudden. "I was with Brock on the ship trying to protect the passengers."
"Huh, that's why you look familiar," he simply replied much to the other's irritation. His vision had since returned to normal and he could see that she was indeed the same person he saw fighting alongside the Pewter City gym leader. "You had a Corsola with you, right?" Almost as if on cue, a familiar pink Pokémon popped into his line of sight.
"Wow, I'm amazed you remembered during all the chaos. That and I honestly didn't peg you to be knowledgeable about Pokémon. Tell me honestly; are you a rookie trainer?"
"Uh, I haven't even gotten my trainer's license yet," Ash replied. He was confused about the question but was in no condition to wonder about it.
"That's what I thought. Nice to know the gym leader senses in me is still sharp. Either that or it was just a lucky guess.
"Anyway, I have no idea where we are," Misty replied with a shrug, taking Ash off-guard at how she effortlessly changed topics so quickly. "I think that Dragon Pulse managed to knock me out. When I came to, I was already in this place and saw you on the bed. You didn't wake up when I shook you, so I haven't left this place yet. I figured you were still recovering from that head injury and didn't think it smart to leave you alone."
"Is that why I'm still feeling kinda dizzy?"
"I'd be surprised if you weren't feeling it. Whatever hit you then managed to crack your skull open. I don't know what to be more amazed at, though; how you seem to be waking up so nonchalantly or how your head's not wrapped up in a layer of bandages!"
Ash gave Misty a quizzical look before bringing a hand to the back of his head. While he did feel a bit tender there, he found that she was right. He remembered having been struck by something heavy, yet all he felt was his hair. There was no scar left behind, no sign that he was suffering from a potentially fatal head wound.
"What the?" he murmured as he continued to touch his head. Sensing Ash's confusion, Pikachu carefully climbed onto his shoulder to take a look. He then gave a small squeak that was answer enough for the teen. "I thought you said my head was smashed open like a melon!"
"It was, and you shouldn't be as well as you are now!" the girl confirmed while rolling her eyes at the other's exaggeration. "But yes, you were losing a lot of blood," she added with a shudder, a sentiment the other also felt. "I don't know what happened to the ship or how we got here, but there's no way you could've survived the trip here!"
"Then maybe you guys just dreamed it," a voice familiar to Ash suddenly stated. "You guys didn't have any injuries when I dragged you both in here."
Ash, Misty, and Pikachu immediately turned their heads towards the doorway. Ash's suspicions were confirmed when he saw a familiar figure leaning against the frame, his brown eyes staring back at him in concern.
"G-Gary? Is that you?" he asked, trying to sit up and causing the towel to fall from his forehead.
"Yep, that's me," Gary replied in his familiarly confident tone. "I'm the one who dragged you two in here. Don't know how you ended up in the middle of nowhere, but its better in here these days than out."
"Then does this mean we're in Pallet Town?"
"Ha, hardly," the brown-haired teen scoffed. "Small towns like that were destroyed ever since the PWC was taken over a few years ago. You're right now in a camp set up for hiding Pokémon and their trainers."
"Why would trainers need to hide?" Misty asked as she reapplied the towel, this time using her hand to keep it in place.
"Did you guys hit your head or something? Never mind, I wouldn't be surprised if your attackers did that. Either that or some agent used a Psychic Pokémon to try wiping your memories.
"Anyway, let me try jogging your memories by giving you the short version," Gary continued, ignoring the confused looks he got from the others. "Basically, the PWC was taken over by the Galactic Chronos Military. Ever since then, it's been illegal to become a Pokémon trainer. Hell, it's illegal to even have one on your property regardless of the reasons."
For a couple seconds, Ash and Misty were silent. They were trying to see if Gary was pulling their leg about trainers being illegal. When it became clear he was being serious, their faces quickly changed from skepticism to disbelief.
"Are you serious?!" both suddenly exclaimed. The other simply nodded and took in stride the bombardment of questions that came soon after.
Like I said in my earlier author's note, this is a shorter chapter. I'll admit that it's definitely not the best chapter I've written for this story, but I do hope that it'll be well enough to keep you interested for the next chapter. And since I'm really tired right now, I'll keep this ending note short. But I do promise to try adding more story content in the next chapter.
Thanks again for reading and being patient with me. Please don't forget to leave a constructive review before you move onto the next story you want to read. Until the next update to this story everybody!