Chapter 11
Everybody cringed backwards, expecting to be riddled with bullets. Everyone but Shade, who was just sitting there happy as usual.
Nothing happened. Cynthia slowly opened her eyes, looking around at the others. They were all fine. They were starting to open their eyes too, and looked very curious as to why they weren't dead.
The bullets were floating inches in front of them, suspended in mid air.
Darrel looked at them in complete disbelief. Why weren't they dead? Darrel threw the Ak-47 at the group, and then whipped out a Desert Eagle. He aimed at the group, and fired.
BangBangBang!
Cynthia screamed as the shots rang out in the dead of the night. None of them went further than 5 feet.
BangBangClickClickClick!
Darrel also drained that clip. All of were rounds were floating in midair, with nothing around them.
Andrew stared at the weightless pieces of metal in disbelief. "What the fu-"
"Go! Go! Go!" Andrew was interrupted by shouting coming from the side. "This is the police! Drop your weapons and put your hands in the air!" Someone shouted into a megaphone.
The glade was suddenly alive with activity. A helicopter flew over head, and hovered over the clearing. Multiple armed policemen and policewomen burst from the trees, and aimed at Darrel and Andrew.
The helicopter's spotlight glared down on Andrew and Darrel, causing both of them to lift their arms up to cover their faces. It was so bright in the dark night that Cassidy, Cynthia, and James had to avert their eyes. It was too painful to look at.
Darrel and Andrew were quite quickly surrounded by nearly 20 armed policemen, all aiming their handguns at the pair.
"Get on the ground!" One shouted.
Andrew, who looked like he was about to have an accident in his pants, almost immediately raised his hands in the air, and dropped to his knees. Darrel however, was not concerned in the slightest.
"We will meet again..." He said solemnly. He then chucked a grenade into the line of police. They scattered, all diving away from the deadly device. It erupted into smoke, making the entire clearing hazy, and incredibly hard to see through. The smoke slowly cleared. Darrel and Andrew were gone.
"Are you alright?" Someone asked approaching them. Following closely behind him was an Alakazam.
"More or less." James responded, still holding his dislocated shoulder. Several others nodded in agreement.
"You can drop the bullets now." The person said to his Pokemon. The Alakazam looked incredibly relieved. The bullets dropped to the ground, no longer suspended by the Alakazam.
I'm incredibly glad that you made me practice stopping bullets Carlos. The Alakazam projected into the group's and Carlos' mind.
Most of the group stepped back surprised. All but officer Jenny.
"Who said that?" asked Cynthia, surprised.
Over here! it called. No, not Carlos, yes over- no, over he- yes! Hello! The Alakazam directed. When Cynthia's gaze landed on the Alakazam, it gave a little wave.
"H-" Cynthia couldn't even get out the first word before it started again.
Well, I'm a Psychic type Pokemon. That means that I can project my thoughts into your minds. Yes, I can also read your thoughts, and your emotions.
Cynthia opened her mouth, and raised a finger.
Yes, all psychic Pokemon with strong enough powers can do this. Yes, I have always been able to do this. No people can not normally do this.
Cynthia scowled a bit.
Stop it? Why? Because it's annoying? What do you mean? I don't see how- Oh... Sorry... The Alakazam looked down, slightly embarrassed.
Cynthia breathed a sigh of relief.
"Haha! Sorry about Amanda." Carlos said, rubbing his forehead. "She likes to show off." He said with a shrug.
"It's no problem." Said James. He was leaning to the left slightly because his right leg still had a cut in it.
"Looks like you guys had some fun here." Carlos joked, gesturing around the group at the unconscious or dead grunts.
"Funny..." Cassidy grumbled. She glanced down at the cut on her side. The fur around it was dark red, but it stopped bleeding for the moment.
Carlos smiled, and glanced over at James. He was still holding his right shoulder. "What happened?" Carlos asked, pointing to his shoulder.
"I don't know." James told him. "It was wrenched to the side, and then I found out that I couldn't move it."
"Sounds like you dislocated it." Said officer Jenny. "Cassidy, I need you to brace James. I'm going to pop it back into place." Both of them quickly got to their designated side of James.
"When you said 'pop it into place', you didn't mean that literally did you?" James asked.
"I mean it." Stated Jenny. She placed her hands on his arm.
"What does it feel like?" Cassidy asked curiously.
"Well, it feels like a tension is building, and is going to pop at any second." James described.
Officer Jenny looked relieved. "That means that it's only slightly dislocated." She told him.
"Well, that's better than having no arm at all." He joked. James inhaled sharply when Jenny shifted her position.
"Alright, this is going to hurt." She warned him. "Ready?" James nodded, cringing slightly. "Ok, one-"
Snap!
"Ah!" James exclaimed in pain.
"What happened to two and three?" Asked Cassidy.
"Yeah! What happened to two and three!?" James exclaimed.
"Two, three." Cynthia joked. James looked at her, and shook his head.
Officer Jenny raised her hands, as if to say she wasn't guilty. "I didn't do anything..." She half mumbled, staring at James. "It did it on its own."
"That's not possible." Carlos said, and looked at Jenny to see if she was joking. She wasn't.
"I'm going to have to talk to professor Rowan." James said, almost threatening.
Carlos glanced around at the rest of the group, and noticed that they all looked pretty beat up as well. "Follow me." He said. "We have medical supplies in the jeep."
Without waiting for anyone to either agree or disagree with him, he walked away, forcing everybody to follow him.
Shade jumped onto James' left shoulder, and quite happily sat there. James glanced around the glade. He watched as some of the police loaded the unconscious or injured grunts onto stretchers. There weren't that many injured to the point of no moving, save the woman that had her eyes clawed out, and the man who had his arm melted off at the elbow. James watched as the police walked around, marking the dead grunts off. First one, then another, and another, and another.
They walked through the dark, getting odd glances from police officers every now and then.
Cassidy was starting to lag behind the others. James noticed that she was going slowly, and waited for her.
"Are you feeling alright?" He asked concerned.
Cassidy gave a dizzy nod. "I'm fine." She mumbled. "Just feeling a little light headed." She started to drag her feet across the ground. Her foot caught on a rock, and fell forwards. James took a step towards her, and caught her in his arms.
"You don't look very good." He told her. Then realizing what he said might be misinterpreted as offensive, he quickly rephrased it. "I mean you look great!" He recovered, "You just don't seem to be feeling well."
Cassidy leaned on his shoulder, and smiled up at him. "Glad you noticed." She said to him with a smile. James wasn't sure which statement she was referring to.
Shade glanced around James' neck, and looked at Cassidy. "She looks tired." She sated innocently.
The lights of the jeep started shining through the darkness. The group walked towards it, and went around the back.
"Alright, we only have enough medical staff to treat one person at a time, so who's first?" Carlos asked.
James walked forwards, leading Cassidy beside him. "She doesn't look good." He said worriedly.
Carlos took one look at Cassidy, and went into action. "Quickly, get her on the stretcher!" He exclaimed. Without pause, he went into the back of the jeep, and dragged out a stretcher, which he quickly set up. He reached back into the police jeep, and brought out a first aid kit.
Cassidy was wondering why he was acting like this. It didn't feel that bad, just a little cut. She glance down at her side, and her eyes widened. It was a huge gash starting from just underneath her armpit, trailing down to her waist. The fur around it was drenched in blood, and there was a trail of blood running down her leg from the bottom of the cut.
Cassidy was laid down on the stretcher, and was quickly hooked up to a heart rate monitor, and several other machines.
"Amanda, I'm going to have to stitch the wound. I need you to numb her mind, keep her from feeling any pain." Carlos told her. Amanda just nodded, and focused. "She's lost a lot of blood, I need one of you to have some taken from you."
"I'll do it." Announced James. He was set in a chair next to the stretcher, and was hooked up to a strange looking machine. He didn't know the name of it, but he had seen it in enough movies to know that it takes blood.
Medical staff started examining the others to check if they had any hidden wounds that needed immediate attention.
Cassidy felt as if she were in a dream. She couldn't feel anything, even though she could feel the weight and pressure of it. Carlos pulled out a needle and thread, and started getting nearer to Cassidy. She shied away from the needle, and looked at James for help. He just gave her a helpless look, and shrugged.
"You need to be stitched up." He told her. Cassidy looked back at the needle in fear. "Don't worry! I'll be right here the whole time." He said to her, trying to calm her down. He took one of her hands in his, and started to rub it with his thumb. The fur on her hand tickled a little bit.
This calmed Cassidy down immensely, and she even smiled. She looked at the bag that was filling up with his blood. It was very dark red. She started to feel a tugging in her side, where Carlos was stitching her. She grimaced a little, hating the feeling of knowing it was there, but not feeling it.
James looked at her face, and noticed the tear trails running down her face. "Does it hurt that much?" He asked.
"No..." She responded, confused. She then realized that there were still tears on her face, and she wiped them off.
"If it doesn't hurt, then why are you crying?" He asked. He was extremely worried that it did hurt, and she was just trying to be tough.
"I thought you were dead." She whispered sadly, and then broke into a new wave of tears. "I thought you were dead, and I would have lost you!" She cried, and then held onto James' hand tighter.
"Apparently it takes more than landing on a knife face first to kill me!" He joked. His face became serious. "Why would you be that upset if I died? You've only known me for two days."
"Not exactly..." Cassidy sniffed, trying not to cry anymore. "You've only know me for two days. I've known you for two weeks."
"What do you mean?" he gave her a quizzical look.
"Well... You sort of, umm... Talk in your sleep." She told him. James groaned loudly.
"I really hope I didn't say anything embarrassing." He groaned.
"Well, you did." James blushed slightly at that. "You also said some interesting things."
James mentally prepared himself for what he was about to hear.
"I visited you in the lab one night. You were in the cloning chamber, and I just walked up to you, to see if you were getting any better. You were. Now that I saw that, I was about to leave, and notify professor Rowan of your condition. I was half way out the door, when you called out 'wait!'" She smiled when she said that.
"Please don't tell me I said anything embarrassing." He pleaded.
"Don't worry, I won't." She said with a laugh. James wasn't sure whether to feel concerned or relieved. "Anyways, you shouted out 'wait'. I turned around, and walked back into the room. I looked around, trying to see if anyone was there. No one, except for you. I walked closer to inspect your tank, when I heard you start talking."
James looked embarrassed, and ducked his head down a little.
Cassidy smiled, and then continued sleepily. "At first what you said made no sense, but as you kept talking, it started to make more sense. I listened to you talk for a good hour, before finally realizing that I needed to talk to the professor. I came back early the next day, and pulled up a chair beside your tank. I listened to you talk everyday, and little by little, I learned more about you." She closed her eyes, and smiled.
Some of the medical team hooked Cassidy up to another machine, and started pumping blood back into her.
Carlos stood up, and threw out the needle and thread. "Done." He announced. "All she needs now is rest. The cut shouldn't scar as long as the stitches fall out on their own."
"Please don't go and kill yourself while I'm sleeping." She mumbled. Her breathing slowed down, and she fell asleep.
"Don't worry, she'll be fine." Carlos assured him. He then left to go treat the others.
A police officer rushed towards Carlos, and announced to the whole group, "Thirty-eight dead, seven injured, and twenty unconscious."
"What!?" Carlos exclaimed. "How could there be that many members of Team Galactic, and we had no idea?"
James left the two to argue about it, and walked back to the glade. It was once again incredibly dark. The only reason he could see was because the clouds had cleared up, allowing moonlight to light up the area once again. The glade looked like nothing had happened to it, save for the large bloodstains everywhere.
He walked back to the truck that Team Galactic had used, and picked up Cassidy's clothes. He watched silently as the police examined the truck for explosives, or drugs. Finding none, they left the truck, and area.
James walked past an eyeball that the police had missed, and walked back to the jeep.
He walked towards Shade, and her parents. Shade was quite happily jumping up and down, telling her parents about her amazing adventure.
"-And then the bad guy's head went bang!" She finished happily.
"Yeah! You were awesome Shade!" James exclaimed, making her happier.
Shade's parents smiled at her, and then looked at James. "Thank you for bringing our baby back to us." Her mother said happily.
"If she hadn't shown us, or told us what happened, we couldn't have done anything." James told them.
This time, it was her father that spoke. "It doesn't matter, thank you for coming to help us."
The four turned around, slightly startled by the sound of the police jeep starting.
"James!" Carlos called. "I need you to move Cassidy into the jeep. She is fine to go now."
James sighed. "Well, I guess this is good bye." He said. He then knelt down to get closer to Shade. "Stay out of trouble." He told her, and then ruffled the tuft of fur on her head, making it stick out a weird angles. James started to walk towards the police jeep. "Bye!" he called over his shoulder. James opened the door of the jeep, and placed Cassidy's clothes in the back seat. He then went around to the back, and picked up Cassidy, one arm under her knees, and the other under her back, propping her head up on his chest. He very carefully placed her into the back seat, and then stepped out, closing the door behind him.
"Wait!" Shade cried out. "Can I go with James?" She pleaded to her parents.
Her parents looked at each other, worried. "Why do you want to go with him?" Her mother asked.
"Because him, and the dog lady, and the girl with the pretty hair, and the shark person helped me find you!" She stated happily, as if that would automatically make them say yes.
"Well, I don't know..." Her mother started.
"But they helped me find you!" She told them. "Plus I want to get really strong, so that way I can beat all the bad guys, and we won't have to run!"
"Just let her go." Her father finally said. "She's right though. She needs to learn how to defend herself somehow, and what better way than with the person that helped save us?"
"Are you actually agreeing with her!?" Her mother asked in complete disbelief. He was supposed to side with her, not the other way around.
"I am, and besides..." Her father trailed off. "If you don't take care of her..." He paused for effect, and raised his sharp claws near James' face. "I will kill you." He said bluntly.
"Y-yes sir." James stammered. He didn't want to be on his bad side.
Shade's father then began to laugh. "I was just kidding!" Then his face became serious once again. "I was serious though." James just nodded.
Shade's mother sighed in defeat. "Fine. But make sure you put her in a ball before anyone else does." She told him.
James nodded in agreement, and pulled out a Pokeball. He tapped Shade lightly on the head with it, and she was sucked into it. It shook once, and then clicked. James released her out once it had clicked. Shade re-appeared, and didn't seem fazed in the slightest.
"It was very dark, and empty in there. It made me sleepy, but I liked it." She stated. "Bye!" she called back to her parents. James lead Shade back towards the jeep.
"Wait!" Her mother called. Shade came bounding back to her.
"What is it?" Shade asked.
Her mother then bent down, and started to whisper in her ear. Shade's face went from one of curiosity, to disgust, to realization.
"So that's where babies come from!" Shade exclaimed rather loudly. Several police officers glanced over, and chuckled under their breath. Shade ran back to the jeep, while her mother walked over to James.
"I told her the babies were dropped off in the night by a large Swanna once parents kiss each other enough times. I figured it was close enough." She snickered.
James breathed a sigh of relief. "I thought you actually told her." He admitted. Shade's mother just smiled, and shooed him away. James smirked, and walked back to the jeep. He crawled into the middle seat, beside Cassidy, and set Shade on his lap. Cynthia stepped in, a red light illuminating her face, before fading away. She just held up Garth's Pokeball as explanation. James nodded in understanding. Officer Jenny got into the passenger seat, while Carlos got into the drivers seat.
The jeep started off through the forest, and quickly emerged onto the pathway connecting Twinleaf town and Sandgem town.
"Where are you guys headed?" Carlos asked. Cynthia was the one to answer.
"Just take us to professor Rowan's lab." She told him. Carlos nodded, and sped up the jeep. They were there in less than five minutes.
Cynthia got out of the car, and James followed suit. James walked around to the other side of the jeep, and opened the door. He had a little bit of a struggle to get Cassidy out. Finally, he came upon a solution. He got Cynthia to carry Cassidy's clothing, while he carried her inside.
"Hey James!" Officer Jenny called. "Drop by the police station tomorrow, we need to talk." James just nodded. The jeep sped off, and left them standing outside of the lab.
Cynthia opened the front door, and James carried Cassidy in, breathing slightly harder than normal. Shade followed closely behind them.
"This way." Cynthia called to him. She led them through a maze of hallways, and passages. They walked for a long time, and James was starting to tire. Finally, she stopped outside of a room.
"This is where we can sleep for the night." She said. She opened the door, and walked into a rather large bedroom. It had 2 beds, a couch with a 72' flat screen TV in front of it. There was a bathroom to the side, and even a fire hydrant near the door. Grunting a little, James set Cassidy on a bed, and covered her with the sheets. She groaned a little bit in her sleep.
Shade silently climbed onto Cassidy's bed, and cuddled up beside her. James walked back to the entrance, and grabbed the backpack that he had left there. He brought it back to the room, and unrolled the sleeping bag.
"Cynthia, I call the couch." James stated. He didn't actually want the couch. He just thought that it would be nice if she slept soundly. He had seen what grumpy, sleep deprived teenage girls looked like, and he didn't want to go through that whole ordeal again.
He set the sleeping bag on the couch, and just climbed in, clothes and all. He closed his eyes. He heard Cynthia crawl into her bed, and start to breathe deeply. The combination of Cassidy, Cynthia, and Shade all sleeping relaxed him. Within minutes he dropped off into a peaceful, non injury related sleep.
Authors Note:
Hello everybody! Sorry this took so long to post. After Amanda was introduced, I decided to take a break. I started once again when I realized that I missed typing this story. I really want to thank each and every one of you for sticking with me, and supporting me with this.
Thanks!
InfamousVenous
