There's just silence. A horrible, extremely loud silence. I don't know what's going to happen to me now. Ghetsis is crazy. He's intimidating and evil and for some reason, I just feel sorry for him. Why I would feel sorry for this creep I have no clue. I suddenly have a crazy idea. I walk towards him and stand right in front of him. "Ghetsis, like I said, your quarrel is with me," I state, looking up into his hard real eye and bionic eye.
"You have some nerve, Miss Stark," he booms down at me. "You are merely a girl, not yet a woman. And besides, didn't you realise that this world is patriarchal? You have no chance. Haven't you noticed that none of the Team Leaders you see before you are female?"
"That is precisely my point, Gitsis." There's a collective gasp from the surrounds. Why has this stupid debacle descended from ransom to the patriarchal nature of this society? And of the Teams for that matter? "Mate, I would love to trounce you in a Pokémon battle over this matter, but I gave all my Pokémon to a friend for safekeeping while I'm here. So I can't. But instead, please take me in return for Pikachu. Alive, I am more than gold. Even gem-grade diamond. But dead, well, let's just say that you bought a lemon. Capiche?"
Ghetsis is about to start speaking again, but there's suddenly a loud cry at the back of the Pokémon Centre.
"Lord Ghetsis, we have brought to you Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town, the Trainer of the Pikachu being held for ransom!" Aldith calls out.
"Bring him to me."
Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! This can't be happening! Ash… what on Earth are you doing?
Instinctually, I begin feeling my pockets. You have to be kidding me! They took the stone! That must've been what that earthquake was earlier! Reshiram and Zekrom took N and Hilda back to Pinwheel Forest… but how the heck did Hilda and N get the pumice stone? It must have been when we were back at the top of Celestial Tower!
"What have they done?" I whisper. Crap! I just realised that Ghetsis's bionic eye can see through and possibly even remove all disguises! Just like that waterfall at Gringotts Wizarding Bank in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! I know this is gonna sound cliché, but… I don't know what to do! Mei was so much better at coming up with plans than I am.
Suddenly, I hear a voice. "Rosa…" it whispers. It's telling me what to do. "Mewtwo's on his way to your family's graves. He wants Nate and Hilbert to take you to the castle. You have to hurry! Now!"
I turn away from Ghetsis and use a karate chop that I was taught long ago to cut through the String Shot that has Pikachu helpless, grab Pikachu out of the threads and run to the front doors, where Ash is.
'Thank you, Mistress Stark,' Pikachu says weakly. His voice is so frail it seems almost as if he'll snap in two. 'Thank you for saving my life.'
"You're very welcome, Pikachu. I only wish I could've saved you earlier."
I reach Ash and gently place Pikachu in his arms. Pikachu climbs to his normal spot on Ash's shoulder and Ash embraces me so tightly I can't breathe for a while. "There aren't any words with which I can thank you, Rosa," he says, his voice breaking a bit. "And I have no way that I can actually repay you." He slowly loosens his grip so I can talk. "But I believe there is still one thing left for you to do."
"Yes." I paraphrase what the voice told me.
"Well, you'd better obey it. I have a good feeling about this for you, Rosa. Now go get those Grunts to take you to the castle!" He lets me go and I walk backwards a few steps. He bows to me. I bow back. He straightens and puts the middle three fingers of his left hand to his lips and extends them towards me. The Hunger Games' three-finger salute. No – friggin' – way.
I bow once more. Then I straighten, turn and run to Ghetsis. "Ghetsis, take me to the castle. If I am to die, I want to die there."
"Aldith, Glen, Ky ōhei and Tōya, take her to the castle. I'll follow alone in twelve hours. Understand?"
"We hear and obey, Lord Ghetsis," the four of them chorus. Kyōhei and Tōya? Those are the names Nate and Hilbert chose?
"Everyone else, clear out and wait at headquarters until further notice. Giovanni, Archie, Maxie and Cyrus, you'll be coming with me."
"We hear and obey, Lord Ghetsis," all the other Grunts chorus.
Nate and Hilbert come in front of me and tie my wrists together. The ropes are a little too tight so I wince a little. Other than that, I don't make a sound. Finally I am fulfilling the plan! It is such an effort not to smile.
Suddenly I notice Nate and Hilbert's uniforms. They're not unlike the new Team Hell getups, but they aren't unlike the old Team Plasma ones. The uniforms are made of a dark sort of chain mail, maybe like onyx or something? But it's the same style as the Team Plasma uniform from 2012, so I dunno. The rest of the uniform is actually pretty much all the same.
Once they've tied me up, the Aldith and Glen phonies come towards us and tie ropes around our waists. We walk out of the Pokémon Centre, certainly not the same people we were before.
Once we're outside, Aldith gets one of her Poké Balls out. "Gothitelle, come out and use Teleport to take us to Humilau City!"
Bright white light beams straight from the Poké Ball and my Gothitelle comes out! She uses Teleport immediately. I have the sudden feeling of going through a vacuum, I can't breathe, and I spin around so quickly I feel like I'm gonna puke. Thank goodness I don't.
We land and Gothitelle is told to use Teleport again, just to the entrance to the Giant Chasm. Again, I experience that horrible vacuum like feeling. This time, it really is a miracle I'm not puking.
I embrace my Pokémon. She starts crying tears of joy. 'I never thought I'd see you again, Rosa,' she sobs. Her tears soak into my shirt.
"Me neither, Gothitelle, but boy am I glad you're here." We pull out of our embrace.
The Aldith and Glen lookalikes take off their hats and masks, revealing themselves to be – "Brock and Misty? Are you two absolutely insane? And where did you get my Gothitelle?"
"Hilda gave her to us, along with Lucario," Misty answers. She starts untying the ropes. "N and Hilda really wanted to come, but they knew that they'd be recognised far too easily. And Hugh is already at the castle, so we've gotta hurry. Here's her Poké Ball," she adds, handing it to me. I get her to return. "And who are these two?"
Nate and Hilbert take off their hats and wigs and introduce themselves. "We were captured by Team Plasma in 2010," Nate adds. "You see, we have these crazy powers. Prophecy, control over nature, you name it. But we can't understand Pokémon language. Ghetsis saw a major use for us and he started using us for evil."
"We predicted the rise of three heroines who would save Unova," Hilbert continues. "The first ended up being my twin, Hilda, and the other two were Mei and Rosa. Two years after the Aspertia City twins defeated Iris together, Ghetsis started using our powers again. We were the cause of that tsunami in Castelia City and the cause of the fire in Aspertia. Even though we lose all sense of self, it's been so hard to forgive ourselves after what we did." The two hang their heads down in shame.
Misty places a hand on Hilbert's right shoulder and Nate's left. "Don't be so hard on yourselves!" she admonishes gently. "Just be glad that this whole kerfuffle is almost over. You've done stuff that you wouldn't normally do, both good and bad. And how did you escape from Ghetsis?"
"Substitute."
"Excuse me?" Brock asks quizzically.
"The move 'Substitute'. Another of our powers. The day after the fire, we caused a blackout and created these dummies of ourselves that could do everything we could do. Then we stole some of the old uniforms and made them look like the newer ones. And we pretended to be new recruits, with the names of Kyōhei and Tōya."
"Nice one, you two," I laugh. "But now, we gotta hurry if we want to beat Ghetsis."
Wow... I'm finally nearing the end of this story... This has gone so quickly.
