Distortion
Chapter Ten – To Heal And Hurt
"We're really in the Flower Garden?" The hope in Misty's voice put Ash on edge, because if Shaymin was lying to them, he was sure he'd finally snap. He glanced at her, watching her eyes dart around eagerly towards different plants as she shifted a bit. He was glad that whatever episode she had in the Reverse World was only a temporary thing. That place was so strange, he really shouldn't have been surprised that a poison that was supposed to be slow-acting in their world seemed to hurt her a lot in that one.
"Yes," Shaymin confirmed, waddling up to the plants that were there. "See all of these? They're all gracedia flowers. They haven't bloomed yet, but you can still use the roots." He couldn't see the pokemon anymore, but the shifting plants let him know where Shaymin was. Not that it truly mattered anymore.
Leaf moved before any of them could truly comprehend Shaymin's words. It was strange how much the relief of actually getting to the Flower Garden shocked them so much. Luckily for them, Leaf knew how to stay on task, and her quick motions brought them out of her shock. She tossed two pokeballs into the air, flashes of light revealing her Espeon and a Manectric.
"Help me dig up the roots, but be careful with them," she urged her two pokemon, kneeling on the ground right beside the plants. The pokemon nodded and went to work. She brought out her tablet, clicking it on and quickly coming to the screen she needed. "Okay, what we need to do is—."
She was cut off by a loud screech echoing through the air. They all looked around towards the still-open portal that they had all been ignoring, watching as a massive form, shrouded in a strange glow, struggle to get out of the portal. Finally, it was free, it's large serpentine body flying through the air before landing on the ground, six legs growing out of its body before he truly took shape.
Ash could feel the sheer delight radiating off of Giratina as he looked around, free of his prison in the Reverse World. Seeing that he wasn't really doing much but enjoying his freedom, Ash was quick to turn his attention back to the more important task (in his mind) at hand: getting Misty better.
"Up you go," Ash said, putting his hands under her arms and tugging her off the ground in one quick motion that apparently didn't surprise her, since she just went along with it. She looped one arm over his shoulder, silently letting him know that she still needed some help walking, and he gladly obliged, helping her stumble over to where Leaf was kneeling down. "Is there anything we can do to help?" He acted as a solid object for Misty to hold onto as she sat down beside Leaf, though he let her move on her own rather than trying to push her to the ground or anything. Honestly, she looked so much better compared to when they were in the Reverse World already.
"Yeah," Leaf nodded her head. She dug through her bag, pulling out a small, metal bowl and handing it to him. She nodded towards the lake and said, "Get some water. Try not to get any other sort of plants or something in it. We're going to boil it, so microscopic things...really tiny things you can't see with your bare eye (She must have seen his confused expression), anyway, those things don't matter. Just get some water that looks clear." Ash nodded his head, taking the bowl into his hand.
He ran quickly, Ria rushing beside him. "Misty's gonna be better and Giratina's happy. Does that mean all the badness is over?" She tilted her head curiously.
"I..." Ash shook his head. "No, not yet." Zero was still there and whatever he was up to was going to come to a head soon, but right now, they were in the eye of the storm and they needed to take advantage of that. "Keep an eye on that portal for me, okay?"
"Okay!" She skipped off, closer to where Newton was watching the portal with a stern expression.
After Ash hurried off, Leaf ordered Brock to find fire wood and set up a small camp fire for them. Not for warmth, but so that they could boil the roots and the water later on. Leaf was checking over the ones her pokemon got, measuring them by their weight on a little tiny scale that she had.
Dawn knelt down beside the two girls, titling her head curiously. "Why do you have all this stuff?"
"I was specifically looking for cures for poisons," Leaf explained as she nodded her head, happy with what her pokemon found. She frowned a bit before looking at Dawn. "Think Piplup can wash these off?"
"Sure. Piplup, use a light water gun on those, alright?" Dawn motioned towards the roots, and her small pokemon complied, working to clean the dark soil off of them.
"Anyway," Leaf continued as she pulled a small, stone bowl and what looked like a club-shaped object, "the reason I have all this stuff is because I was looking for cures for the pokedex. The herbs trainers can use and how to prepare them. Often times the plants that can help you are found in the same area as the pokemon and plants that can hurt you. So I had all this stuff in case I got stung." Quickly shifting gears, she checked over the cleaned roots and nodded, wringing them out a bit and putting them in the bowl before handing it out to Dawn. "Can you mash this up for me?"
"Sure," she nodded and took the bowl. "You know, I've never used a mortar and pestle before." She giggled at Leaf and Misty's surprised expressions. "There's an old woman in Twinleaf Town who babysat me from time to time. She made herbs and things by hand and sometimes I would help her. Nice old lady."
Ash came back over to them, only spilling a little bit of water in his dash back over. He knelt handed Leaf the water, glancing from one girl to the next. "Is there anything else?" He just wanted to help in any way that he could.
Brock came back just behind him, setting the dry sticks and wood that he found to the ground. "Chimchar would be a help right now."
His small, fire-type was quick to set the sticks on fire before scampering off to where Pikachu and Ria were standing watch, staring up at Giratina with awe.
"We're good," Leaf assured Ash, knowing what he was going to ask if there was something else he could do. She dug through her bag again, frowning as she started looking at the labels she had on each pack.
Ash was going to ask another question, but before he could, a thick, red beam of light shot out of the fog, slamming into Giratina. The pokemon cried in surprise and pain, struggling against the light as a strange metal contraption loomed out of the thick mist.
Ash jumped to his feet, able to do nothing but watch as this strange, red-metal thing came off of the ship, glow red light twisting around it almost like the bars of a cage. It opened up, following the red beam of light to Giratina and surrounding it. The pokemon cried out, trying to twist away as the contraption, that was far worse than anything Ash had ever seen Team Rocket make, flighted into the air. He hadn't even noticed Zero leave from the Reverse World, but the man abandoned his stupid hover-segway (what was it really?), running over to the machine that now held Giratina captive, jumping up onto it before it got too high in the air.
"Giratina!" Zero called out. "I have been waiting such a long time for you to come here!" The cage made of metal and lasers was pulled back to the main part of the flying ship, and all they could do was watch in horror.
Ash ran, rushing as close to the water as he could and stopping alongside Newton and Brock. "What is that thing? What's he doing to Giratina?"
"I don't..."
Whatever was happening as the ship flew higher into the sky, it was horrible. Giratina's cries of pain in the night sky set everyone on edge, the bright red glow lighting up the entire valley eerily.
"I created that," Newton said slowly, regret tinting his voice. "I thought all of the blueprints were destroyed though."
"What does it do?" Brock asked him, though he sounded like he didn't really want to know.
"It absorbs all of Giratina's powers."
"What?" Ash positively exploded, his hands clenching into fists. Pikachu hopping onto his shoulder, muttering quietly to get him to calm down. "Why would you do that?"
"So I could enter and leave the Reverse World at will." Newton glanced at him over his shoulder, regret and shame mingling on his face. "I stopped as soon as I realized that Giratina would be sacrificed."
"Sacri..." If he wasn't wearing gloves, Ash was sure that his nails would have been digging into the palm of his hand. His whole body was shaking, and he was beyond furious. "Are you kidding me? Just so you could hop from one world to the next that you were never even supposed to go to? What did you think would happen to it if Giratina died?" He threw his arms up, and Ash honestly felt like he was going to cry from frustration, though that just made him more frustrated because he sure as hell wasn't going to cry. "People like you who just can't leave them alone are the reason it's so hard to keep them safe!"
"Ash!" Brock scolded him, reaching out to squeeze his shoulder. "Calm down."
"No, Brock. You know exactly what I mean." Ash swung back around to look at Newton. "How long do we have to get Giratina out of there?"
"Not long. If it's built to my specifications, it'll work fast."
Ash looked up and he had no idea how they were going to get up there to save Giratina. He was just so frustrated and his stress finally reached it's apex, and he wanted someone to blame, someone to yell at. He could feel the palms of his hands tingling, and didn't even have to look to know that his aura was threatening to lash out. If they were at a place like the Tree of Beginning, where aura flowed so free a naturally everywhere, he probably wouldn't have been able to control himself by that point of time.
Brock grabbed his arms and pushed him back a bit. "Go with Misty. We'll figure out what to do. Just go over there and check on her and the others and cool down for just two minutes before you do something that you'll regret." Ash was going to argue with him, but Brock never gave him the chance. "Well think of something. Just go."
Finally, Ash relented, taking a deep breath and storming back over towards where the three girls had been silently watching the altercation, Dawn still crushing the roots.
"That was something," Leaf commented as she tapped a syringe filled with red liquid. "The glowing hands? Neat trick."
He ignored that, kneeling beside her and staring curiously. "What's that?"
"Field kit to test for poison levels in the blood," Misty said, rubbing her arm in the spot Leaf pricked to get the blood sample. "I hate needles." This was something that Ash did know, remembering how she put up a fuss about getting certain shots before they went to the Orange Islands, since there was such a variety of different habitats and hospitals could be very hard to get to.
"You had that this whole time and didn't use it?" Ash cocked an eyebrow at his childhood friend, trying to focus on this and not whatever Brock and Newton were talking about.
"Well, after we realized she was poisoned, we were chased through a town, onto a train, onto a water pokemon, into another world and then here," Leaf spoke dryly while motioning to the field around them. "I didn't really have the chance. At least this way we'll be able to monitor her getting better."
"What's going on?" Dawn asked as she finished crushing the roots. She looked at the instructions Leaf gave her, carefully making sure everything got into the water bowl that was hovering over the fire. It took Ash a moment to realize that Espeon must have been holding it up with her psychic powers. Dawn took the ladle that was there and starting stirring it. "What is that thing and what's Zero doing to Giratina?"
The whole situation was so surreal, because there was a legendary pokemon dying just above them while they all sat in a valley, lit up with the red lights from Giratina's prison, acting like it wasn't a big thing. Ash almost wanted to laugh.
"It's going to kill him," Ash said grimly, looking at the sky. "But we have no way to get up there." How many times had he made a mental note to always keep Charizard with him in case of situations like this? Or maybe he should check in on Pidgeot again, or get another pokemon that he could fly on.
Misty frowned at him and shook her head. "So you're giving up?"
Ash was taken back by just how stern she sounded, despite the slight tremor in her voice. "No, I just—."
"I agree with her, that's what it sounds like," Leaf added as she finished with the test, setting it back into the kit after making sure that the needle was properly capped and sealed in a hazardous waste bag. "And that doesn't sound like you at all."
"Well I—."
"No." Leaf held up her hand. "I'll admit, I have no idea what's been going on with you these last couple years, league battles aside, but I've known you longer than anyone else here, and I'm going to call ts on this attitude you've had going. You've never been the type to give up, to let things really get to you. You've always been so ridiculously optimistic about everything, but you're just not right now." She pointed at him. "Worry and stress hits everyone, but my point still stands."
"Done," Dawn said after looking at the instructions. She took one of the cups Leaf brought out earlier, pouring the entire mixture in and then handing it to Misty. "Careful, it's hot. Just think of it as a green tea."
Misty reached out, taking it from her and blowing on it for a moment before sipping. Her face twisted into one of disgust as she almost gagged, but kept taking small sips of the hot mixture.
"That's not fair, Leaf," Ash scowled at her, completely ignoring the exchange between the other two girls. "You have no idea what's going on!"
"Then tell me!"
"Didn't you guess? About what Shaymin said earlier? I have to help the legendary pokemon. Like, I actually have to. I don't have a choice. It's my job to make sure the legendary pokemon don't destroy the world and themselves!"
All three girls were silent, Misty drinking her horrible brew, Dawn staring with wide eyes, and Leaf looking like she'd known all along. Maybe she had.
"Maybe you're supposed to help them, but not having a choice is a load of Tauros-crap and you know it! Since when have you ever done something you honestly haven't wanted to do? You've always been just as stubborn as you were optimistic. Seriously, do you remember that time at Professor Oak's Pokemon Camp? You were helping some girl that got hurt, and Gary was tormenting her a bit so you stood up for her again. You didn't care if he tried to tease you about having a girlfriend, because you wanted to help her and that's what you were going to do. That's just a small example, I could give you a hundred more. If you didn't want to do even your chores, you somehow managed to pawn them off onto me when your mom was babysitting." She glared at him and took a deep breath after her rant. "So if your mom couldn't make you do something you didn't want to, what's a pokemon you don't know going to do?" She shook her head. "I don't believe that for a second that you don't have a choice."
"Leaf..." He trailed off.
"So are you just going to sit here, or are you going to do something about this? It's up to you."
He looked at Leaf, then at Misty, Dawn, Pikachu, Piplup and Ria, all of whom were staring back at him curiously.
Ash looked up at Giratina and slowly got to his feet. He pressed his lips together, brow furrowing as he looked around. "Pikachu, Ria, come on." He ran towards Newton again, his pokemon bounding beside him.
Dawn watched him go, an expression so similar to his that it was almost uncanny passing across her face as she stood up. "Will you be good without me?"
"Yeah," Leaf nodded her head.
"Dawn..." Misty reached a hand out towards her, worry evident in her expression.
"You just focus on getting better. No need to worry" Dawn picked up Piplup and ran after him, her hair whipping behind her.
Ash reached Newton just as he got on Zero's floating, metal thing (yeah, he was still going to call it a hover-segway, it sounded better than floating metal thing). "What are you doing?"
"You're right for your anger. This whole thing is my fault." He finished programming the machine and stared up at Ash determinedly. "I need to make sure Giratina's safe."
"Well you're not going alone." Ash held his arms out, letting Pikachu and Ria climb up on either side, holding onto his shoulders tightly as he ran up beside Newton.
"I'm coming too," Dawn insisted as she got on, Piplup jumping on the ground beside Newton's Aron. "You can't stop me."
Ash glared at her briefly, and she just glared back, daring him to say that she couldn't help. He had no idea why the younger girl wanted to come, and the protective side of him wanted to tell her to go back with the others, but at the same time, he couldn't do it. He wouldn't have turned away from a challenge when he was younger, so what right did he have to kick her off.
"You guys are slow!" Shaymin said, appearing above them in her Sky Form.
"Huh, but...it's night," Brock commented. It was true, the sky was still dark, stars glittering above them. The place they were in would have been beautiful and tranquil, if it wasn't doused in violent, red light.
"Yeah and other Shaymin couldn't, but this is my Flower Garden," Shaymin held her head up. "We play by my rules here!" She took off into the sky. "And I'm going ahead!"
"Alright." A responsible adult who had been in the real world in the past couple of years probably would have said no to a teenager and a young girl coming with him, but Newton was a bit out of touch with other people and didn't question their decisions at all. He quickly took off into the air, forcing Ash and Dawn to grab whatever they could to stay up. "I hope you're not afraid of heights."
"Just get to Giratina!" Ash called out to him, holding on as best as he could.
"Pi pikachu!"
Shaymin flew ahead of them, faltering only briefly when she saw Zero's Magnemite and Magneton fly at them. Ash himself was seriously getting sick of seeing those pokemon pop up everywhere. He was the type to embrace almost any type of pokemon, not caring about their type or appearance, but Magnemite and its evolutions was really getting high on the list of pokemon he didn't want to catch, right up there with Tentacool, Spearow, Aerodactyl and now Shaymin.
Ash wasn't afraid of heights by any means, but flipping around and jerking roughly to avoid the pokemon attacking them was a bit jarring. He looked behind Newton's back towards Dawn, relieved to see that she was holding on well enough as they twisted and turned in every direction to avoid the pokemon and the streaks of lightning jolting by them. Magnezone flew by them, disorientated from a powerful Energy Ball that Shaymin created.
They flew higher up into the air, swerving around the strange metal pillars of the flying contraption (seriously, did all bad guys have to have some really strange flying thing? Was that required?) and flying up above it.
"Try to disrupt the beams with long-range attacks," Newton told them as he concentrated on flying.
"Lets give it a shot," Ash said to Dawn. "Pikachu, use Thunder Bolt!"
"Piplup, use Bubble Beam!"
Water and electricity surged together, combining into a particularly potent attack that slammed into the crackling red lights that imprisoned Giratina. Steam rose into the air, but the cage was completely in tact.
"It's not doing anything!" Ash yelled angrily. Giratina's distress rose up like an uncomfortable, unwanting beacon, and he had absolutely no idea how to help him.
"They bounced right off." Dawn added, for the benefit of Newton rather than Ash.
The man frowned, avoiding the attacks of several Magnemite as he said, "Then I'll have to go in and stop him myself."
"You can do that?" Dawn called to him, but didn't get an answer as they flipped and twisted in the air. It was hard to hear anything as the wind whipped by their ears, but their close proximity made it a little easier. That didn't help them as they swerved around Magnezone. Newton jerked the 'hover-segway' harshly to avoid the electric currents flying at them, but Ash couldn't breathe a sight of relief.
Instead, his heart leapt up to his chest as Dawn jerked roughly, her fingers slipping from where she was holding onto both Newton and their mode of transportation. She didn't scream, she let out a sharp gasp of surprise as her arms windmilled and she fell backwards.
Ash jerked around, flailing out to grab a hold of her. His fingers just managed to wrap around her wrists, but he was too late to pull her back to safety. Her added weight and momentum were enough to jerk him back Pikachu and Ria still clutching his collar to keep themselves attached to him, even as they all plummeted to the ground.
...
"That stuff was horrible," Misty said to Brock, nodded to the empty cup that once held the tea made of gracedia roots. The young man was only coming to join them now, haven been watching the battle in the air with horrified anticipation. Misty understood that though, she was on edge watching them all flip and fly around.
"It'll make you better," Brock reminded her, kneeling down on the ground and putting his hand to her forehead. "Huh." He leaned away a bit, looking at her curiously. "You already feel cooler. How...?" He looked towards Leaf.
"This stuff is potent, it starts working pretty quickly," Leaf motioned to some of the root she was storing in a clear baggie. "It's like...the Full Restore of natural cures."
Misty understood that much. Full Restores were expensive, but they worked almost instantly on a pokemon that wasn't injured to the point of needing surgery. It was what the Pokmon Centers generally used to heal pokemon, a free service to all trainers, but actually owning a small spray bottle of that could put a dent in someone's pocket. Many found the price worth it though.
"Good," she said, pushing herself to her knees from a sitting position. She pushed her bright orange bangs out of her eyes and looked at the two fiercely. "So lets stop worrying about me and find a way to help Giratina."
"Woah there, let me check first to make sure it's really working," Leaf said, pulling a second syringe, bandaid and the kit to hold it so she could properly dispose of it later.
"Who taught you to do that?" Brock asked, raising an eyebrow as he watched the two girls. Misty was looking away, clearly unhappy but not trying to argue. "Professor Oak?"
"Delia Ketchum," Leaf explained as she focused on drawing the blood. Her hands didn't waver in the least as she finished and went to work with the testing kit. "You see, Pallet's actually pretty close to the ocean, but you guys must know that." They both nodded their heads. "When we were younger, Ash's allergy to Tentacool poison was actually much worse than it is now. He actually had an EpiPen at the time, just in case. He knew how to use it but was a bit of a wimp so his mother taught Gary and I what to do, just in case. I mean, that's easier than this, that's just jabbing him in the leg, but she taught me how to be more careful too." She smiled as she looked at the results. "How about that, you're already getting better."
"Good," Misty repeated with a nod. "Delia's a pretty awesome person, isn't she? She's practically like my mother."
"Well, she was more 'motherly' to me than my mom, so yeah, I get what you mean." Now Misty kind of regretted the fact that she had been too sick to really get to know this girl during their adventure. She didn't even know her and still, she stepped up to help and was ultimately the one that ended up saving her, even after Misty was suspicious and a tiny bit withdrawn from her at first.
Brock made a sound and was about to comment when a loud bang and a yell reached their ears. The three of them looked up towards the sky, watching in horror as a figure started plummeting to the ground and another one reached for it.
...
Ash cried out in pain as he slammed into one of the iron bars that made up the strange structure of Zero's flying machine. He managed to wrap his arm and leg around the bar to keep himself attached, but Dawn's hand slid through his fingers and instantly forgot about his own pain. Ash scrambled to grab her again, but Dawn fell too quickly.
She screamed as she slammed into one of the bars below him, sliding down a bit but managing to get her wits about her, twisting around and grabbing onto the beam before she could fall.
Ash sighed in relief, looking up at Pikachu and Ria who managed to actually land on the metal beam rather gracefully, though they were having a hard time keeping Piplup up. They got him over to more solid part of the ship though.
A loud bang distracted Ash, and he looked up just in time to see Shaymin falling to the ground. He jerked and gasped, like he could reach out and help, but there was no need, since Newton swept in and caught the small pokemon, flying around to avoid the Magnemite. Oddly enough, the pokemon and their evolutions were completely ignoring Ash and Dawn now.
Ash kind of hated the fact that his knee-jerk reaction was instantly to help Shaymin when she was in danger, despite everything that she had done to Misty. He shook his head, not wanting to think about that now. There was a pokemon that he desperately did want to assist.
Precariously, Ash got up and started moving across the metal beams. Just below him, he could see Dawn doing the same, holding her arms out to balance herself. It was slow going, but they managed to regroup with their pokemon, both sighing with relief over the fact that they didn't fall to their deaths.
"What now?" Dawn asked him, her hair flying into her worried, frightened eyes. Ash had to hand it to her though, she was trying so hard to keep a brave face.
"We need to get to Giratina," Ash said, twisting around to look towards the front of the ship where the legendary pokemon was being held. He could feel the pokemon's agony, and would do anything he could to stop it. They needed to get across the entire ship though, and it wouldn't be easy. He relayed that last thought to her.
Dawn stared at him silently before her face scrunched into such a determined expression that it was almost like watching the videos of his younger self participating in a league. "You're the Chosen One and we've got a legendary to save!"
He stared and nodded his head, a strange smile, a mix of relief, happiness and determination, spread across his face. "Let's go then."
...
Note
Okay so maybe this one wasn't much longer than the last one, even though I thought it would be. The reason? I have the rest of the story split off between specific chapters. This is the first time I've done this, since the other ones have mostly been 'write til I'm either sick of the chapter or if it seems like a good place to stop'.
Guess what?! Distortion is officially my most reviewed story and it's not even finished yet! Eee I love you guys! You're all seriously awesome. Shoutouts go to: Intensity215, ultimateCCC, JediMasterDraco, thedarkpokemaster, thor94, Pikacraft, Kauris Azurai, NoSignalBlueScreen, awolflover2, RCPMione, Wraith Five, amandaalb4, Great and TheeFirstEvil. Sorry if I missed anyone though I'm pretty sure I didn't!
I like how most comments were about Misty getting better. Come on guys, I wasn't going to kill her this time! Leaf and Brock explained early that the poison was slow acting. That's what Shaymin meant to happen because she wasn't aiming to kill. However, it reacted differently in the Reverse World, that's why it got so bad there but then seemed better here. That WAS planned.
It's funny, I actually got three, four comments in reviews and PMs about Paul. I'll be honest, I don't plan on him appearing anytime soon but...well...I guess you'll see. We're in the middle of the end-game here!
Oh and for anyone who I forgot to tell or who read the last chapter before I updated the url that vanished, the link to the blog where you can find extra info, pics, or even alternate links to these chapters, can be found on my profile! Never hesitate to ask any questions that may pop into your head there or via PM here!
I'm glad people are catching onto things like Brock losing it because of stress, Ash thinking things are his fault and so on...wouldn't you say that they all feel a bit...distorted?
...I'm sorry I'll show myself out now.
Til next time!
Sky