Slaves and Soldiers
Chapter 25: Recovery
Typhlosion sighed. He looked at Victor, who at the moment, was napping and trying to get some much-needed rest. It really amazed him at what Victor did to save the entire train, even if Victor himself couldn't remember it. He willingly risked his life to defuse that bomb and protect everyone on the train. And even when defusing it failed, he took the full brunt of the explosion. There was no doubt in his mind that Victor also saved Typhlosion's own life. He could only hope this retrograde amnesia would be over sooner rather than later.
A faint beeping noise came from Typhlosion, which stirred Victor up from his gentle sleep. He was fully awake now, but made no visible sign of it to Typhlosion. Hearing the beeping noise, Typhlosion sighed, pressing a button on the side of his metallic pack. The GPS and status screen came up again, informing him that his battery pack power was down to 10%.
"Great." he muttered. "Just when I didn't need any more drama. I think I still have that spare battery pack I took a few days ago on my first assignment with Raikou…"
He thought the events over again. So much had happened within the time span of just a few days. Meeting Raikou, his first mission with the Legendary Beasts, discovering a cult dedicated to converting Pokémon into cyborgs, Raikou himself getting converted into one, trying to reverse the effects… really, the list just went on and on. Really, he couldn't help but think of it as a miracle that he hadn't gone insane. Hopefully, this was all going to be over soon.
Typhlosion attempted to grab the battery pack, but it was rather far down into the metallic pack, and his hands wouldn't reach. He groaned to himself. "Am I really going to have to do a handstand again just to get the dumb thing out?"
As Typhlosion was busy struggling simply to get the battery pack out, he didn't notice Victor slowly crawling out of the bed, and approaching it.
"Victor?" he asked. "What are you doing?"
Not saying anything, Victor reached deep into Typhlosion's pack with the only hand he had left and grabbed the battery pack. He then gave it to Typhlosion.
"H-Here you go." Victor said, smiling.
"T-Thank you…"
Typhlosion found himself looking deep into Victor's eyes before he even touched the retrieved battery pack. It was absolutely fascinating. He had only performed such a simple favor, something that anybody could have done. But why did this one small favor coming from Victor mean nearly the entire world to Typhlosion?
"Maybe…" he thought. "Maybe it's because he still really does know who I am. He hobbled out of his own bed in critical condition, simply to grab something I couldn't reach. Memory lost or not, he still cares about me."
Typhlosion smiled a bit, swapping the nearly dead battery pack in his chest for a fully charged one, bringing the battery level of his functioning cyborg parts back to 100%. He dropped the nearly dead battery back into his pack, and put up his GPS and status screen.
Sitting back down, his brief thoughts of happiness were disrupted when he saw the metal anklet still on both his and Victor's feet. He looked at a clock on the wall.
"9:10 p.m. 2 hours and 50 minutes until these things activate." he muttered to himself. "The train's probably running behind due to the bomb attack. I just hope that Alakazam and everyone else get here soon…"
9:12 p.m.
Alakazam found himself wandering through the massive streets of Goldenrod City. He had visited Goldenrod City before with Eusine to meet Bill, but it had been such a long time that he didn't remember where Bill's house was. He couldn't afford to simply wait for Ethan to arrive, so he simply resumed his search.
"If only I had some sort of clue as to where in this giant city Bill lived…" he muttered to himself. "He's probably in the suburb area, since that is where most people live in Goldenrod. Better check it out." He then teleported to the suburb area to save time.
Arriving in the suburbs, Alakazam groaned in annoyance at how all of the houses looked exactly the same. "Great. This'll take forever."
Passing by the first house, he noted that absolutely nothing distinguished the houses, except for a sign in the front. Alakazam looked at it, reading the board.
"Conner's house"
Alakazam looked around the area again, seeing that all of the houses had signs like this in front of them. If he could just find the sign that said "Bill's house", then he'd have him.
"This might be easier than I thought." he noted promisingly.
9:22 p.m.
It only took Alakazam about 10 minutes of traversing through the suburbs to find Bill's house. And much to Alakazam's delight, the lights in the house were on, meaning that he was home. He quickly levitated his body to the front door of the house and knocked on it.
After a few moments of agonizingly waiting, a man came to the front door and answered it. His brown hair and brown eyes along with his eagerness to always invent and try new things made him stand out in Alakazam's mind. Formerly, he lived at the Sea Cottage near Cerulean City, but has since moved to Goldenrod to assist with his parents in their old age. Bill himself was surprised at what he saw.
"Eusine's Alakazam? What are you here?"
"I don't have time to explain right now. Right now, I've got to teleport you to the Pokémon Center as fast as I can."
Bill wanted to help Alakazam, but being the curious spirit that he always was, he was compelled to ask about it.
"Why do you need my help?" he asked, putting on a coat to show that he was preparing to leave anyway, regardless of Alakazam's answer.
"You're an expert on technology and security, right?"
Bill nodded. "Of course. I spent my entire life studying it."
"Well… here's the deal." Alakazam said. "I have three friends that have managed to bust out of Team Rocket's headquarters."
"Team Rocket?" Bill asked in confused. "I thought Ethan had already disposed of them when they had plans to bring back Giovanni… The only things I recalled were a couple of crimes such as Looker's murder, but there was no trace of evidence left since the scene of the crime was burnt to the ground. Was that really…?"
"Yep, they're back. They've been at this for a number of years after Ethan initially disbanded the group, and now, they've managed to keep things under wraps much better this time."
"I see what you're saying, but where do I come in?"
"Team Rocket's come up with security measures to make sure none of their captured Pokémon flee. There's a metal anklet of sorts attached to their Pokémon once they're caught. If you leave the base and don't return by midnight, a poison in the anklet injects itself into the bloodstream, slowly killing the Pokémon. The only cure is back at Team Rocket's HQ. Long story short, the point I'm trying to make is that I need your help to take off these anklets off of my friends who managed to escape. And we only have two and a half hours."
Bill, realizing the severity of the situation, nodded. "I gotcha. Just let me get my hacking tools from upstairs."
Bill left to head up the stairs, scouring and searching for every piece of hacking equipment that could be of use. He walked slowly down the stairs so he wouldn't slip and drop the giant pile of stuff he had. He soon made his way to Alakazam.
"All right, Alakazam. Just teleport us to where your friends are, and I'll get to work."
Alakazam nodded, grabbing Bill's hand as they both glowed with a pink light. As the pink glow surrounding them intensified, the two vanished from the house.
9:27 p.m.
Alakazam and Bill instantly teleported into the room where Typhlosion and Victor resided. Victor didn't seem to react while Typhlosion was caught off guard.
"Whoa!" he exclaimed, startled by the entrance of the two. He looked up at the human that Alakazam came in with. "A-Alakazam? I-Is that…?"
Alakazam nodded, with a smile on his face. "This is indeed Bill, the technological genius of Johto."
"Well, Kanto actually. I spent most of my life there before moving to Goldenrod to help my family… but I'm going off track. Alakazam already told me what's going on. Can you guys show me your metal anklets so that I can get to work?"
Typhlosion, all too willing to oblige, set his foot out from the chair he was sitting on to put his foot on a foot rest. Victor was slightly confused, but did the same, extending his foot so Bill could access both of their anklets.
"I'll get right to work." Bill declared, setting his hacking tools down on a nearby table. He approached Typhlosion first, though Typhlosion insisted that his friend should be treated first.
"Are you sure?"
Typhlosion nodded with absolute certainty. "Yes. If he can risk his life to save an entire train from a terrorist attack, then he absolutely deserves to be treated first."
Bill wasn't sure what Typhlosion meant by 'saving an entire train from a terrorist attack', but didn't have the time to question it. Instead, he immediately hooked up his equipment to Victor, which included his laptop with internet connection, a code de-scrambler, and a hex code timing system. The code de-scrambler would allow Bill to discover the 16-character code needed to unlock the anklet. With the code de-scrambler and laptop hooked up, he looked through the system for a code.
The security precautions taken with these anklets were truly impressive. The anklet did not have one permanent 'set' code, but a code that changed in real time, one code per second. Taking the code for the current time (which was currently 9:40:07 p.m.), he hooked up the hex code timing system to Victor's anklet, to search for a matching code that happened before midnight. As a miracle would have it, the exact same code would generate itself at the time of 10:03:43 p.m. that night. All Bill would have to do now would be to press ENTER on his keyboard at that exact time to input the code to unlock the anklet.
"Whoa." Victor marveled at the sight of all of the technology. "That's really interesting."
"It is, isn't it?" Bill chuckled. "Hold on a second." Before Bill took any sort of break, he set a timer on his laptop for 10:03:43 exactly. He then would command the computer hacking program to press the ENTER key at that exact time.
"And… done." Bill said, leaving the laptop on the table. He turned towards Typhlosion. "Typhlosion, I'll get to you as soon as Victor is done."
"Understood." Typhlosion nodded.
"If you'll pardon me, I need to go use the bathroom." he said, politely excusing himself and leaving the three Pokémon alone.
9:45 p.m.
The three Pokémon were left alone for quite some time. Victor was silent as he took a nap to rest his body. Typhlosion looked at the clock. "Alakazam, when do you think the others will get here?" he couldn't help but ask.
"I don't know. That bombing probably did delay the train by quite a bit, but it has been 45 minutes since the train was supposed to originally arrive."
"…"
"…Typhlosion?"
"I just hope I can fix things for Raikou and Zekrom, too. At least, before it's too late."
"Oh yeah, that's right…" Alakazam muttered, remembering that Raikou and Zekrom still had anklets keeping them enslaved.
"…I just hope they get here soon…" Typhlosion said silently to himself.
9:50 p.m.
The transit train due for Goldenrod had finally arrived at the city, 50 minutes later than planned. During the ride, the police finally became competent for once and managed to figure out who bombed the room. At arrival, the cult member was arrested and taken in for questioning at Goldenrod's police station. Ethan was glad that the train finally arrived, though he would have to hurry to the Pokémon Center as fast as he could. He had also already recalled the Legendaries (bar Zekrom) to their Pokéballs to deal with less hassle at the Pokémon Center. Once the metal anklet mishaps was all cleared up, he planned to back to the police station to see if he could get any more info.
"But that's going to have to wait." Ethan thought to himself as he made his way and dashed into the Pokémon Center. Lyra and Zekrom followed closely behind. Surprisingly, it wasn't the massive black Legendary Dragon that caught everyone's attention in the Pokémon Center. No, it was the fact that Johto Champion Ethan was here.
"Oh crap." muttered Ethan, seeing all of the fangirls and even fanboys of his attempting to run towards him for an autograph, his cap, his underwear… really anything.
"Don't touch a hair on my Master's head!" Buddy roared ferociously to the fans, shielding Ethan. "Unless you want to be torn apart and eaten by me ALIVE, you'd best back off!"
At that suggestion, most of the fans ran outside of the Pokémon Center, screaming bloody murder. Buddy couldn't help but chuckle at the chaos.
"I apologize, Mr. Champion, about all of the… fans." the local Nurse Joy muttered.
"Don't worry about it. That's not important right now. Do you have an Alakazam who came in with a Typhlosion and an Infernape?"
"Yes, we do." Nurse Joy nodded. "Just follow me into the back." she said, walking towards the hallway where patients would stay.
10:00 p.m.
Ethan and company followed the Nurse Joy until she led them to a room. She opened the room to reveal not only the Alakazam, Typhlosion, and Infernape from before, but also a human…
"Bill? What are you doing here?"
Bill has just gotten back from the bathroom a few moments ago, and looked up at Ethan in surprise. Of course, in Alakazam's rush to bring Bill to the Pokémon Center, he neglected to mention that they were travelling with Ethan.
"I was about to ask you the same thing, Ethan."
"Why don't I let all of you guys be?" said the Nurse Joy, leaving the room to go back to attending the front.
"Again, what are you doing here?" Ethan asked again. "I was planning to come get you after I checked up on these three right here."
"Well, Alakazam apparently decided to take charge and get to me first. And it seems he forgot to mention his travelling buddy, the Johto Champion."
Ethan chuckled a bit. "Bill. Seriously, we're friends. I never cared for all of that formal 'Champion' title. Just stick with Ethan."
"All right, Ethan." Bill said with a smile on his face. "You'll be happy to know that I can get those anklets off."
"YOU REALLY CAN?!" yelled an excited Zekrom, waking up the whole hospital. Both Bill and Ethan had to cover their ears to protect from any hearing loss. "Uhh… Zekrom? Inside voice?" Ethan told him.
"…Oh. Heh. Sorry. Just glad to know that this whole thing can finally be over."
"I know how you feel." Typhlosion mentioned.
"Oh, wait a second." Ethan remembered. "Let me get out the others." Grabbing his belt, he tossed three Pokéballs into the air to let out all three of the Legendary Beasts.
"Feels nice to be out of there." Entei said.
"Yeah, no kidding." chuckled Suicune.
The trio of Legendary Beasts looked at the man in front of them, recognizing him as the gadget genius who constructed the PC Storage System, Bill.
"…iT iS CeRTaiNLy NiCe tO mEEt yOu, BiLL." Raikou said.
Bill was a bit startled at first by the appearance of the Legendary Beasts, but quickly recovered himself. "So, they're back with you, huh Ethan?"
"Yep. Anyway, let's cut the small talk right now. Did you…?"
"The hacking and removal tools are all set up. In fact, the Infernape's anklet should snap off soon with the automatic timer.
Just a few seconds later, a click was heard and Victor's anklet was loosened. Before anyone else could do it, Typhlosion grabbed the anklet and immediately tossed it out the window in anger of absolutely everything he and Victor had been through. Walking over to him, Typhlosion smiled, hugging his still sleeping friend. Everyone there couldn't help but feel good, knowing that the freedom of the enslaved Pokémon was almost here. Typhlosion slumped back down into his chair, happy to have his friend free.
"Are we ready to continue?" Bill asked. The other three Pokémon with anklets still on nodded. "All right, then. I'll get back to it."
An hour and a half went by, though the clock seemed to tick painfully slow to the anklet wearers. Looking at the clock, he saw that it was 11:40, just 20 minutes before the poison would activate. Raikou and Zekrom already had their anklets removed, as Typhlosion insisted to go last. Currently, he was waiting for the codes to match up at 11:58 on the dot. Having the match up code coinciding just two minutes before the poison's activation was nerve-wrecking, to be sure.
11:55 p.m.
15 minutes passed by, though every second seemed to be a minute and every minute seemed to be an hour. He looked at the devices attached to his anklet. He hoped this worked. No, he PRAYED that this would work. Every second was so agonizingly slow, that Typhlosion just wanted to rip all of his fur out. He was so caught up in his nerves that he didn't even notice the anklet snap off.
"I just wish this would end already." he muttered.
"Uh, Typhlosion." Bill said.
"I mean, I don't how much longer I can take this."
"Typhlosion, the anklet's off."
"I almost wish that I actually see if I will… wait. What?"
Typhlosion looked down. Indeed, the anklet had snapped off. Grabbing it, he couldn't believe that this was real. All of the chaos that had happened today had finally come to an end. He could also see a vile, green liquid from the interior of the anklet, no doubt the poison that would have slowly killed him. He even noticed the small needle peering out of a small hole in the metal, as if anticipating to kill its' wearer. He took the metal anklet, and tossed his out the window as well, never wanting to see it again. He was left speechless after all this time. After so many years of being a slave to Team Rocket. After so many years of being a soldier to only further Team Rocket's goals. After so many years of being forced to commit heinous acts of thievery and even murder… he was finally free.
"Now… Zekrom?" Typhlosion asked the Legendary Dragon.
"…Yes?"
"…Tomorrow, we will go back to the Ruins of Alph. And we will free your loved one."
Zekrom couldn't help but get caught up in the moment. Right then and there, he broke down crying. Not with tears of sadness, but with tears of happiness.
Everyone's 'Happily Ever After' was almost in reach. But not if the cult's leader has anything to say about it.
Pokemon © Nintendo / Game Freak
Whoo! Yes! Finally got this done! I am beyond happy to get this to you guys. As always, and please, read and review!