November 28
"Took me a whole day to find you, Ash," Laina said. "That's what's gonna make killing you so worth it." She cracked another sinister grin, and pressed her foot harder on Ash's stomach.
"I never had personal attention from the regional head of a syndicate before." Ash grunted, struggling against his bonds. He darted his eyes toward Pikachu and Dragonite, who were still trapped and gagged in the mass of string. He turned back to Laina, pine needles and mud molding his hair into a Christmas tree. "For a government that wants to kill me so badly, this seems awful personal."
"Like hell it is," Laina spat. "I'm just taking orders, is all. That's all this job is, orders." Ash could barely see her angered expression in the pale moonlight.
"From who, that Jasper psycho? Because you don't have to-"
Ninjask's blade pushed closer to his throat, a dot of blood oozing from under his chin. Ash wiggled his right hand, testing the string that plastered it to his leg. The webbings felt thick, but he found a weak spot that allowed him access into his pocket. "If only I could reach one of my Poké Balls," Ash thought.
"Don't give me that shit!" Laina stood unfazed by the blistering winter breeze. "You're right, I don't have to. But this is personal with Jasper, and if it's personal with him, it's personal with everyone. I don't wanna kill you, Ash, really, I don't."
"You don't have to! He doesn't have to know that this ever happened!" He pleaded.
"That's the problem, though. He knows everything. Everything."
Ash noticed the twinge of desperation and fear in her eyes, and he believed her. He could see in those glimmering, personified eyes that Laina wanted nothing but to get away from the Empire, from Jasper. And her definition of that was to give him Ash's head.
"Well, you managed to spend another minute pleading for your life," said Laina, cracking an evil, albeit ersatz grin. "That was a waste, wasn't it? It's not like it's gonna matter."
In a suicidal move, Ash surged his arm forward, breaking his bonds and hitting Ninjask square in the jaw.
"It matters," Ash said. He couldn't help but grin cockily.
Laina stood for a minute, shocked, before swinging her fist at him. Ash grabbed her fist, blocking it from his face. From the corner of his eye, he saw Ninjask flying back toward them. Ash pulled Laina toward him with all of his might, causing Ninjask to ram into Laina at full speed. The mercenary and her pokémon slammed into a tree, knocking the wind out of both of them.
Grabbing for his knife, Ash sawed frantically at the string that bound his other arm, severing it only when Laina broke into another run for him. He managed to break the bindings off of his legs before diving to avoid Laina, her knife drawn and ready for battle.
They both stood with knives in hand, eyes locked. Ninjask sat on the ground, waiting for someone to make a move.
"It takes two to tango, sweetums," Laina said. Ash couldn't tell, but was…was that fear in her eyes?
"In that case, may I have this dance?"
Laina charged at Ash full force, teeth bared, knife aimed at his heart. He swallowed and charged back, ducking just before Laina could cut him. She tripped, but got up before Ash tackled her back down.
They struggled for control of each other, throwing each other around with knives in hand. Ash reached for his pocket and flung out one of his Poké Balls without seeing who it was. A sudden blast of heat signaled Torkoal's release.
"Torkoal! Take down that-"Ash began, but a kick to his face cut him short, causing him to cry in pain. He threw Laina off of him once more and ran toward Pikachu and Dragonite. He only made it a few meters before Laina's knife grazed his leg, creating a gash that downed him. Torkoal, meanwhile, launched a Flamethrower at Ninjask that hit him directly.
Panting, Ash looked up to see Laina, her gun drawn and pointed at him. In a last ditch effort, Ash threw his backpack at her. It flew at breakneck speed toward Laina, who couldn't react fast enough to prevent the pack from hitting her arm. A loud crack could be heard, and Laina dropped her gun, clutching her broken arm.
"The egg was in that pack," Ash realized, "and it broke her arm, like it did that tree…"
Ash seized the opportunity and, with knife in hand, threw Laina against a tree. She swung her foot towards his gut, but Ash blocked it with his wounded leg, pinning her against the tree. From the corner of his eye, Ash saw Ninjask fall to the ground, his fighting energy completely obliterated.
"Funny," Ash said, "I thought you were a top-notch mercenary. I don't know about you, but this is the first time I've seen a fighter like you go down so easily." He put the knife to her neck, the same way that she had earlier.
Laina squirmed weakly, the look in her eyes recognizing that she lost. She smiled another evil grin, but even Ash could see that it was forced, with no meaning to it. "Alright, then. If you beat me, then why don't you just kill me?" she said.
"Doesn't work like that," Ash returned. "Unlike you, I don't kill because I'm told to. I will do it, though, if you can't cooperate with me."
"What the hell do you mean by that?"
"You're gonna tell me where Dawn is," Ash said. "You're gonna tell me where she is, and where you came from this morning."
"And what makes you think that I'd just tell you all of that?" Laina retorted. She continued to struggle, but Ash held her firm against the tree.
"With all due respect, Laina, I'm not the one with the knife to my throat anymore."
Laina laughed hysterically. "You're bluffing, kid," she jeered. "You're no killer. I can see it in your eyes. You couldn't kill if your life depended on it."
"That makes two of us. You coulda killed me on the spot there, but you chose to talk. You chose to admit that you didn't wanna kill me."
She continued to squirm, but he only pinned her harder against the tree. "Maybe I was lying," she coaxed, "maybe I was just playing you. "
"No way. I could tell that was genuine. You meant what you said, and we both know it." He paused. "That's why I'm not killing you. Because you wouldn't kill me."
Laina stopped struggling, taking a moment to breathe. She took out her cell phone and threw it on the ground. Ash gave her a confused look before she pointed to her gun. "Shoot it," she mouthed.
Ash wanted to ask why, but reserved it. He did as he was told, taking her gun and shooting her phone half a dozen times. "Why'd you have me do that?" he asked, throwing her gun aside.
"So that Jasper can't hear what I'm about to say. He'd kill me if he heard this, and that phone transmits everything to him. Dawn's at Headquarters, in Jubilife. I don't know how you're gonna get there, because neither of us have any idea of where the hell we are."
"Jubilife, huh?" Ash said. "One more question. What city did you come from, when you came for me this morning?"
"Eterna," she replied quickly. "I was there on business when I found out where you were."
"Alright, then. Was that so hard, now?" Ash asked.
"I didn't give you that information because you have the knife to my neck," she said. "I did it because I chose to. But this doesn't make us friends or anything."
"Never said it did. But maybe now we're not enemies. Sorry for this."
Before Laina could respond, Ash delivered an uppercut to Laina's chin, knocking her out. She slumped to the ground, unmoving. "That was a bit too easy," Ash thought. "Almost like she let me beat her…"
He turned to his pokémon, who were still struggling inside their webbings. Ash limped over to them, careful not to put too much pressure on his bleeding leg, and started cutting at their bindings. When he finished, the two pokémon tackled him in a bear hug laced with muffled cries of relief from both Ash and the pokémon.
"Guys, I'm not done yet!" Ash exclaimed, "I still gotta get that stuff off of your mouth!" They got off of him and allowed Ash to remove their gags.
"Pika pi chu?"
Ash called back Torkoal and turned to Laina, who still lay unconscious. "I don't think she's dead. But she won't be out for long," he said. He grabbed for Laina's bag, sighing in relief at the sight of half a box of granola bars. He took one for himself before handing the rest of Dragonite. "Eat those up," he said. "We're gonna take off in a minute."
Dragonite looked at him curiously. "Gon nite gon?"
Ash grinned. "I know where Dawn is," he said, "and where we gotta go. We're flying there, and you'll need your energy."
The dragon pokémon wolfed down the granola bars, tearing the wrappers off of them madly. Ash did the same to his, devouring the whole thing in two bites. He went back to Laina's bag, finding a coil of rope, some ammunition, and an empty Poké Ball. He returned Ninjask to his Poké Ball and shoved him into Laina's bag.
Grabbing the rope, he tied Laina's wrists together. After pausing for a minute, he brought the rope down to her ankles and tied those together, too.
"Pika?"
Ash turned to Pikachu. "We're- well, I'm gonna use her as bait. That's how we're gonna get Dawn back. If the Empire doesn't wanna give her up, then we might have to off her."
"CHA!"
"No, I don't wanna do it!" Ash argued. "But if we can't rescue Dawn, then we might have to!"
Dragonite finished the last of his granola bars and walked toward Laina. He looked at her for a second before slipping her hands over his neck, carrying her like she was a messenger bag. Ash couldn't help but chuckle.
"You'll have enough strength to carry her to Jubilife, then? It's gonna take about an hour to fly there." Ash warned.
Dragonite nodded, a look of determination on his face. Ash saddled onto his back, his two backpacks slung over his shoulder. Pikachu climbed up and perched himself on Dragonite's head.
"Pikachu, I want you to stay in the bag, like we did before." Ash said. Pikachu turned to him with a mild look of disappointment. "I'm sorry, but I can't risk something happening to you while we're in the air."
Pikachu sighed, but retreated into Ash's backpack. He poked his head out of the slit at the bottom with a "Pika!"
"Ready to take off, Dragonite?" Ash asked.
The dragon pokémon snorted, sending a small puff of smoke into the air.
"Alright, then. Just, uh…kick off whenever you-"
Dragonite took off suddenly, soaring into the air faster than Ash had prepared himself for. He nearly fell off, grabbing Laina's leg just before he could plummet to earth. Dragonite stopped in midair to pull him up, Ash thanking him as he mounted himself back on the pokémon.
Ash turned to his right, where both Eterna and the destroyed cabin lay. "If Eterna is due north, and Jubilife is directly south, then I'll wanna go left. Right?"
"Only one way to find out," he said to himself. "Dragonite, head left. That's where Jubilife is, I'm sure."
Dragonite nodded, making a sharp left turn as he flew higher over the forest canopy. Ash looked down, then back up quickly. He hadn't been so high up in the air for almost a month, and having to do it now felt disorienting. Sickening, almost.
He shook it off, willing himself not to beg Dragonite to fly back down. "Straight ahead, Dragonite!" he shouted instead. Pikachu voiced the same command as Dragonite flapped his wings, surging them forward in a boost of speed.
"I won't kill her," Ash thought suddenly. "Even if it came to it, even if Dawn ends up dead, I wouldn't kill her. It's not what she deserves."
Dawn no longer saw the dying, or the tortured. All she saw now was the dead.
Ash, dead. Zoey, dead. Brock, dead. Every single one of their pokémon, dead. Lance, dead.
She couldn't help but laugh. Lance had been dead for a while now, but what did that matter? They were all dead now. Everyone but her. Isn't that what she deserved, to be the last one alive? To watch everyone suffer and die before she could have the privilege?
Another electrical current hit her, but the pain wasn't there. She could just make out Jasper, standing in a corner, grinning. Was it him that was shocking her? Couldn't be. But what was?
She could feel the electricity strike her, but she couldn't feel the pain. The pain wasn't there anymore, she noticed. All that was there was madness, insanity.
Her laughter turned into cackles, her misty eyes darting around the room. Short, rapid breathing sporadically interrupted her screams of laughter. Jasper began to walk toward her, his grin turning into a leering smile.
"Little Man!" Dawn exclaimed madly. "Little Man!"
Jasper chuckled. "Little Man, darling? Why, you look ever so troubled."
Her eyes locked onto Jasper's. He couldn't help but wince at the madness, the crazed look in her eyes. "Little Man! Little Man! Littlelittlelittlelittlelittlelittle Man!"
Jasper grabbed for her neck and faced her, their eyes mere inches apart. "What's Little Man? Who's Little Man?"
Dawn shrieked in laughter, causing Jasper to step away a few feet. "Little Man, Jasper, Little Man! The Big Man climbed on our backs, and we just b-b-boosted him on our shoulders!" She was practically shouting now amidst her laughter. "Little Man was flicked off of Big Man's back, flicked, like a bug on a windshield! But Little Man…he's gonna climb back up, Jasper!"
Jasper steadily backed away from her, his face aghast with fright. He turned to the grunt that stood by the doorway, who looked equally frightened. "Bring me that Zoey girl, now! That might shut her up."
The grunt walked out as Dawn finished her tirade. "Little Man's gonna climb back up, he'll r-rise back from ash, and what'll he do? What'll he do?" Her eyes turned bloodshot, rolled over almost. Her head started twitching, blocked only by the vice. "He'll just fall back down, like any other bug on a windshield, but Big Man's gonna go with him. They're both gonna fall, and Little Man will get his vengeance."
Jasper felt sick when Dawn started cackling again.
Jubilife City first appeared as a speck on the glowing horizon, growing with the morning sunlight. Ash had to shield his eyes from the intensifying brightness, his other hand holding tightly onto Laina's bindings. He could just make out the Rocket Headquarters, its mammoth penthouse window and blood red "R" barely distinguishable from the skyline.
"That's it, Dragonite," Ash said. "That's Jubilife." He grinned nervously. "Pikachu, when we...do whatever we end up doing, you're to stay in that bag. I can't risk those Grunts shooting you on sight."
Ash heard a snore come from the bag. He moved to wake him up, but the whirring noise of a pair of helicopters blasted behind him. He turned to see the choppers, advancing toward him swiftly, with a distinct air of authority. Ash gulped and, grabbing for Laina's unconscious body, pointed his gun at her head, his finger hovering over the trigger.
Dragonite looked behind his shoulder, quickening his pace at the sight of the helicopters. "No way this will work," Ash thought. "They must be able to take me down and salvage Laina, right?"
Apparently, they couldn't. The choppers hovered in place for a moment before flying off in the other direction, leaving Ash with a clear path to Dawn. He grimaced at the blood trail from his leg, which painted itself down Dragonite's spine, but he willed himself to push forward.
"Get up, shitface!"
Brock felt a hard impact on the side of his head. He howled in pain, rolling off of his cot and onto the cement floor.
"Get up!"
Brock looked up to see Leon, anger upon his face. "What the hell's your problem?" he bellowed. "You can't just wake me up like a sane person?"
Leon violently kicked Brock in the leg before dragging him up by the collar of his jacket. "Commander Morawski needs you in the Briefing Room, and I don't have all day to wait for you to get off of your ass!"
Brock swatted him away. "I can get there on my own, thanks!" Leon shot him a furious look before walking off, Brock following far behind. The hallway smelled faintly of copper. "Probably from the mines," Brock concluded
He found himself in the Briefing Room, the same, white room that they first entered last night. Sitting at a large, round table were Algernon, Sanus, Leon, and about five other G-Men agents, their hoodies forming a semicircular wave of blue.
"Alright, I gotta ask," Brock said, "what's with the hoodies? All of you guys are wearing them."
"Downgraded uniforms," Sanus replied. "Before the invasion, we all had uniforms similar to Lance's. We switched to these, so that we didn't stand out as much. Lance was the only one who didn't make the switch. You can pull up that chair, the one that's in the corner."
Brock spotted the metal folding chair and sat down, making him the only one not a part of the semi-circle.
Algernon rose. "Brock, before we get you into weapons training we're gonna debrief you on everything that's happened since October 29th of last year."
"Wait, what happened then?"
Algernon's expression went from stern to grim. "That was the day the Rocket Empire invaded Kanto. But before we begin, I think that introductions are in order." He pointed to the agent on the far left. "That there is Barkson Rousseau, Mara Totten, Leon Shinji, myself, Sanus Trine, Alicia Garraty, Tabitha Escobar, and Charles Decker. The eight of us make up what's left of the Sinnoh's G-Men Executive Board. The other twelve, Lance included, have died in the past two weeks, most of them in the invasion."
All of the agents except for Leon gave Brock a curt nod as their names were called. Leon continued to stare at Brock menacingly, his attention only partially fixated on Algernon.
"Alright then, let's begin," Algernon said. He sat back down in his chair.
"We're not gonna wait for the other agents to get here first?" Brock asked.
"They already know everything. Besides, it's only six AM, much too early for any of them to be up for anything else."
Brock nodded. Algernon gave a low cough. "Alright, then. When the Empire first invaded Kanto last year, the G-Men were - well, everyone, really, was caught off guard. No one expected them to come back with that much firepower, let alone under Jasper's command.
Brock raised his hand sheepishly, sparking a ripple of nervous laughs across the room.
"You don't have to raise your hand, Brock, just speak if you have a question," Sanus said.
He lowered his hand. "What about Giovanni? What happened to him that lost him his job?"
Algernon beat Sanus to the punch. "Giovanni Vittore supposedly died of a heart attack three years ago. That's the cover story, anyways. Some people, the G-Men included, think that Jasper killed him and his son for power."
Brock shuddered, his heart lurching suddenly.
"Anyways," Algernon continued, "Kanto was so unprepared and so unarmed that they fell to the Empire in no time flat. Johto went down a week later, on November the 4th."
The man on the right, Barkson, stood up. His dark skin stood out starkly against the white interior. "If you will, Commander Morawski, I'd like to interject here." He turned to Brock. "I'm in charge of the technological systems within the division."
Brock and Algernon nodded.
"As Sanus might've told you, no one warned Sinnoh of the impending invasion ahead of time. The Empire killed Kanto's satellites, electrical grids, everything, before invading. This pretty much stranded them from the outside world."
"Lance said something once about censorship, too," Brock said. "Any communication that does get through to the other regions is staged."
Barkson nodded. "That's pretty much how they're running things. But we're baffled by how they were able to obtain so much weaponry. Never before did they use them, and the Kanto and Johto forces couldn't defend against them."
"But how did you get them?"
Algernon jumped back in. "We've had a fair bit of support from Team Galactic when it comes to arms." Brock raised his eyebrows as Algernon laughed, his laughter sounding as old as him. "Surprised? So were we. Apparently they were ruined by the Empire's plans. Better to help someone else than keep it for your dying self, right?"
Brock shrugged. "Does the Empire know we're here?"
"They know that we're planted somewhere in the region, but where they have no idea. They've only killed so many of us because they're killing anyone that looks shifty to them."
"So where does all of this leave us now?"
"At this point, with what defenses and men we have," Algernon said, "pulling off a successful counter offensive will be a long shot. Before the invasion, we had two hundred and twelve agents in the region. Seventy seven of those are alive today, thirty nine of which are here. We're trying to get everyone safely to one of the two bases we have in Sinnoh, but not everyone has survived the journey."
"But do we have enough weapons? And what about pokémon?"
Mara spoke up. "It's not the weapons that are an issue. Team Galactic has given us everything that we could ever need." She smiled suddenly. "My name's Mara, by the way."
Brock nodded.
"But it's the pokémon that are a bit more of an issue," she continued. "We have to use every pokémon that we can to some extent in battle. When you start training with Leon, he'll see what your pokémon can do."
Groaning at the prospect of training with Leon, he saw him shoot a look of protest toward Algernon, who refuted it with a stern stare.
"That's pretty much all we've got," Algernon said, "but we need to know why The Empire is after you. We haven't heard anything from the inside on why they want you."
Brock breathed, forcing himself to retell the story of the egg that fell from the sky. He covered everything, from the egg to Ash's kidnapping that night, to the invasion, and stopping at Lance's death. He didn't want to admit it, but it felt soothing to get all of that off of his chest, almost like it had no longer happened to him.
"And the three of us have been split up since then," Brock finished. He purposely left out how he ditched them in favor of his family. "At this point, I have no idea if Ash or Dawn are alive, or if Ash still has the egg."
"We can't speak for Ash. The radio broadcast we sent out hasn't returned anything. As far as we know, he's still alive. One of our insiders reported that he might've been spotted outside of Eterna yesterday, but he couldn't confirm."
"And Dawn?"
Algernon bit his lip. "Brock, I'm sorry, but Dawn's bounty was removed yesterday morning. Same goes for Zoey McHale." The look in his stone eyes revealed a hint of sadness, one that Brock took to be genuine.
Brock cast his head toward the tiled floor, his heart and stomach sinking rapidly. "Could Dawn and Zoey really be dead? They might be alive if I hadn't ditched them…could they? He felt a tear generate in his eye, but he blinked it away. It wouldn't do any good to look weak in front of these guys, he reasoned.
He stood up. "When do I start training?"
The executives laughed. "Eager, are we?" Sanus said. "Don't you wanna eat breakfast first? Forgive me, but you don't exactly look well-fed to me."
"Touché. But where will Leon and I be training, anyways?"
"There's a junkyard just outside of the mines. We have hidden manholes in there that lead straight down here. Leon will show you after breakfast."
Brock kept his focus on Sanus, but saw from the corner of his eye a mischievous grin from Leon.
Jasper could only watch in horror as Dawn went on cackling, going on about "Little Man". That couldn't mean anything, right? No, it had to be from the Succubus Syringe. But it all sounded so...haunting. She couldn't have come up with something so chilling in her madness…could she?
"Little man! Little man!"
The grunt that he had sent out entered, dragging Zoey by the scruff of her neck. She looked like she was putting up a fair fight, too; the Grunt was nearly choking her, he was holding on that tight.
"Liiiiiiiiitle Maaaaaann's gonna climb baaaack up! He was flicked off, but he'll climb back up! Up, up, up, up, uuuuuup!"
"Whataya want me ta do with 'er?" the Grunt asked.
Jasper thumbed toward the wall facing Dawn. Her cackling grew louder, and Jasper had to restrain himself from bursting into tears of fright. The grunt dragged Zoey to the wall, just within Dawn's view.
"Liiiiiiiiiiiii-"
He grabbed for the pistol in his drawer and fired it into the ceiling, silencing Dawn. She strained her eyes to look at Jasper, the madness and insanity still visible in her irises.
"I've dealt with your resistance long enough, girl," Jasper said. "But you quit with this Little Man shit right now, or the redhead's gonna get it." His Scyther walked in the room, sharpening his blade on the doorknob as he did so.
Zoey looked at Dawn with determination. No fright, Jasper noticed. She tried to say something, but all that came out was a low groan.
Dawn fixated on Jasper still, slowly breaking a toothy grin before bursting into laughter once more. "You can't kill her," she laughed. "She's already dead, like everyone else."
Jasper gulped, clenching his gun. He mentally recoiled at the thought of killing Zoey, but this…this bitch was essentially making him do it. He raised the gun to Zoey's head, but before he could fire the wall-sized window suddenly came crashing in. Jasper was knocked off his feet, his sling hitting the floor as he screamed in pain.
An orange blur flew across the room, creating a path of destruction that tore through Dawn's chair as well as the rest of the furniture. She slid across the ground, freed from her restraints yet unmoving. The grunt raised his gun, but Jasper shouted for him to hold his fire.
The chaos subsided just as quickly as it started. Debris and glass littered the lavish carpeting, turning the royal Executive Office into a sheer warzone. The orange blur, whatever it was, stood up as Scyther picked Dawn up, holding his blade-like arm to her neck.
It wasn't the towering Dragonite that made him gasp. Nor was it the sight of Ash, dressed in dark clothing with a gun in hand. It's what he was pointing the gun at that alarmed Jasper. For slung around the Dragonite's neck was Laina, her uniform tattered, body bloodied, wrists and ankles bound. Her eyes were closed, and it didn't look like she was breathing, either.
Ash took one sweeping look around the room, hardly fazed by the sight of Dawn's ravaged state. "Stalemate," he growled, pushing his gun closer to Laina's temple.
Jasper didn't argue with him on that one.
A/N: Alright guys, so as you can tell I'm off of my hiatus. I still haven't gotten back into the full writing swing yet, so it could be a little bit longer before the next chapter. In any case, be sure to review and tell me what you thought of the chapter! Thanks for reading!