Chapter 12: Team Rocket get Ash's Pikachu
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"Whose gonna tell the blooming boss the BAD NEWS!?". One uniformed NERV guard with short dark hair nervously asked as he and his trio made their way hurriedly down the stairs of the observation tower they had been patrolling from in shared duty. He knew that chief Ikari did not like lateness and the same was known by all his companions.
"Don't look at me. I ain't saying nothin. You tell him" His taller, thinner blonde accomplice anxiously replied, looking like he had just seen a ghost as they continued to run down the stairway almost tripping over each other.
He had been through enough abuse for a lifetime already in his childhood where his father beat at him with a belt each time the old man came home drunk or after a business deal gone wrong. All with no regard for his infant son whatsoever. He did not like working for NERV in the slightest but the only alternative was to go back and feel the belt on his already crimson back again. His first year's paycheque had to be spent entirely on fixing the bones fractured by his father's belt and he did not damn well appreciate the idea of going another entire year on the verge of starvation, only able to eat cabbage water as his source of sustenance.
"Me? I told him last time you silly twit, and I don't believe in doin it twice" barked the shorter raven hair as they bumped painfully into each other as they made it to the outside waiting room of their commander's office.
He knocked with a shaking hand as his heart went into his mouth, all his usual bravado snatched from him and his face deathly pale.
He and his taller friend looked to one another nodding before turning in unison to regard the shortest member of their group. An emaciated albino boy who had not said a word since they had first seen the awful sight of Sailor Saturn stealing both NERV's most advanced device the masterball and it's strongest living weapon the clone of Rei Ayanami along with it.
Gendo Ikari would most certainly not be pleased.
The boy shook his head but nonetheless bowed before his two guardians who had picked him from the filthy streets and rescued him from the violent beggars who had always been eager to crush his windpipe the second they caught him with a scrap of stale bread or a drip of sewer water. The economical crisis of Japan had only worsened following the second impact, and it was the richest country on Earth remaining.
"Enter" a soft yet dangerous hiss sounded from within, to which the three workers modestly goose-stepped into the sight of NERV's chief who did not so much as grace his three underlings with eye contact as they entered and presented themselves before him as if he were a deity before his humble followers.
He instead looked down at a photo of his late wife Yui which he was smoothing with his sleeve even as he motioned with a brief wave of his arm for them to speak or be punished without mercy for wasting his precious time.
A carpet of exquisite velvet draped the fine elm floor of the room , and a diamond chandelier hung from the ceiling to further emphasize commander Gendo Ikari's wealth and status as the owner of one of the only two businesses still big enough to be listed on the NASDAQ.
The two taller guardsmen took a step back recoiling in great fear as they did so. They pointed down at their far younger serving boy.
"He has something to tell you boss" They intoned in perfect harmony as they averted their gaze so as not to see the bloodlust in their commander's eyes.
"It better be good news" The commander harshly responded, still looking at the photo of Yui with clenched teeth.
"How dare you leave me, my dearest darling. HOW DARE YOU" He snarled under his breath, unheard by his legion of devout followers.
"You will not go unpunished for your disloyalty to your dearest husband once I have you in my grasp once more"
He clenched a hidden fist beneath his ornate mahogany desk as he uttered this threat.
The youngest worker stepped forward and took a deep breath looking skyward for the blessing he knew would never come.
He wondered if perhaps it would have been better if the other beggars simply crushed him to a pulp so that he would never have sold his soul to a monster he was certain even the devil would run in terror from.
"Sir. Your new Rei known by the serial number 127-MEW is gone and your prized masterball along with it. These two most holy relics were stolen by a former Rei clone you decided to discard due to its faultiness. It's serial code was officially SAT-URN, but most people now know it as Mewtwo instead on account of the immense power it has unlocked after its theft of the powerful Saturn crystal from which you intended to extract great energies to expedite your operations from."
Then unable to contain himself any longer even as his two guardians begged him not to say it, he continued even in the presence of the commander's frothing mouth and reddened cheeks.
"Mew defected to the side of Mewtwo. Your plans have gone belly up and the end times are near. The two most powerful Pokemon in the world have united against you and soon we are all going to die."
"That's enough you cheeky little runt." The raven-haired guard of middling height weakly croaked, but the boy continued anyhow.
The one thing that kept him from killing himself during his days on the cold streets of Tokyo-3 uncared for by anyone was not the hope of his next meal.
It was the animated Series called Pokemon that he caught sight of from behind the Television store window until the security guard came to beat him black and blue for loitering outside.
"Furthermore. We have reports that your enemies in the rebel base of WILLE are regrouping under the banner of a new and brilliant warlord whose astonishing skills in leadership far outshine yours." He bared his teeth in a devilish grin even as his taller blonde guardian forcefully slapped his mouth hard enough to draw blood.
"Be afraid great leader. Be very afraid. The sins of the father will soon come back with full force to bite you in the butt, and on that day I will rejoice even as I too am purged from my undeserving life of sin."
...
Red was now munching a delicious box of popcorn provided to him generously by the steward at Team Rocket Leader James's command.
He never believed that one day he would have the sincere pleasure of hearing Erika's complete and unabridged retelling of her rise to power.
...
"Erika...What are you doing next to those three jerks. Get away from them" Ash fearfully ordered, wiping his mouth of chocolate from the donuts he had been scarfing down prior to Erika's arrival alongside his three most despised antagonists. "And why are you saying that stupid motto? It's stupid."
"It's not stupid Ash. I find it rather fine myself. But that's beside the point, Ash. Please hand over your Pikachu now please" Erika retorted, ruthlessly disregarding his attempt to shift her concentration.
She could tell from a glance that Jessie, James and Meowth would not live more than a few days if they didn't eat something that wasn't rubbish from the bin or drink something other than river water from a polluted river used to dump industrial factory waste. They needed Pikachu and they needed it quickly.
"Pika...Pi" Pikachu menacingly spat, demonstrating through limited vocalization his complete agreement with Ash that this was not right. It loosed a few sparks from its body in readiness for Ash's order to electrocute each and every one of these lowlives on the spot.
But as eager as he first appeared to be to discharge a deadly thunderbolt, one glance at Erika's fresh and innocent face smoothed by a lifetime of humility and charity work forced it to cool his ardor ever so slightly. He did not, however hard he tried to pretend he did, want to end up hurting this nice girl whose virtues could never be summed up by words alone. Such was the indescribable quality shared by all Rei Ayanami's, or at the very least those who had not fallen to the original sin of corruption yet.
"Erika..." Ash tried to say only to be beaten to the punch once again by the one gym leader of Kanto he thought for certain would never stray from the path of righteousness. Her gym was directly next the Celadon game corner, a cabel of lies and a nest of vipers. Surely she of all people knew not to trust a team that validated gambling and the exchange of money for fun and happy prizes.
"Ash. I know what you're about to say and I don't want to hear it. I also know that it doesn't matter how badly I beg or plead for you to see your evil ways. So let me instead tell you a little story about myself. After all, if you don't trust team Rocket, at least you trust me right?"
"Well I don't trust you either. Not after what I've seen today." Ash growled in a low voice.
"When I first came to Kanto, I had no money of my own either. I was a runaway slave who had just escaped her evil master. By all rights, I had no human rights. I was not meant to be free. I was meant to let myself be beaten and smashed like a toy when my master felt like it. So no one gave me a job. They told me that I was a slave. That there was no job for a slave. And if I did work, I'd work for nothing because that was what a slave did."
Ash was at a loss for words for once. He did not really know what to say. Pikachu was also too puzzled for once to make any noise. Jessie and James held each other worriedly as Erika continued her determined diatribe.
They really wished they had just drowned themselves in the filthy river they went to drink to spare Erika of her impending demise she did not deserve in the slightest. "Ash. Getting a job is all well and good. But if there are no jobs, then what choice did I have but to steal?" Erika demanded, somehow not raising her voice even as she furrowed her brow.
"I couldn't hunt food in the wild because NERV polluted the environment too badly and fenced off all the wilderness areas. I couldn't get a job because people saw me as a slave. So I had to steal. I tried begging for food but everyone just laughed at me and told me to go starve and leave the world a better place. Do not tell me therefore, that I do not know team Rocket for what they really are. Because no offense intended, I probably know my saviours better than you know yourself."
"Don't lecture me like that, Erika. You've no right to lecture me on anything" Ash finally piped back after a tense silence of about ten agonizing seconds.
He stamped his foot.
"You're not Misty. You don't understand me."
He choked a sob back on this last sentence. His sweetheart Misty's untimely passing was a jarring tragedy he'd yet to recover from completely. May and Dawn had made decent mistresses for a time but they never matched the charm and lively playfulness as his first and only true soulmate. When he said to his friends that his Misty was one of a kind, he meant it truly.
Their relationship had a rocky start but what followed were the only days he felt as if he was not simply living a living death in which everything became meaningless. Or to put it more simply, Misty introduced herself before him as an Asuka Langley Soryu but almost seamlessly morphed to become another Rei Ayanami once he demonstrated the resolve to patiently assist her through her own battle with depression. His fervent wish that he and Misty would one day meet the oh-so-pretty blue-haired star pilot of NERV in shared company had been dashed along with his heart when she passed away like the clearing of a misty fog.
"Well knowing what I know about Misty before NERV hunted her down for being a traitor (and an adored heroine of the common people who gave hope to the populace), I can all but promise that what you are about to do will not please her in the slightest."
Erika crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. "I see your thoughts Ash."
"No you don't." Ash almost burst out laughing.
"I see them. And I see that you once wished to meet Rei Ayanami."
It was at this point that Erika abandoned her cleverly disguised falsetto to speak in the plain and near monotonous tone of mortification that was characteristic of the conversations she once held with her dear Shinji prior to their forceful separation.
She unsheathed a garden shear, and when Pikachu readied itself to shock her in self-defence if necessary, she merely instead used it to cut away her two pretty bangs.
She looked at the incredulous James who merely grunted in pain as he handed to her a pot of blue paint from his art set.
He originally wanted to be a great painter who legally sold paintings for a living to make others happy, but since no one would take his paintings he had to eat them instead.
Erika's next motion was to the great awe of everyone, Team Rocket included even despite her having told them she wanted to do this during their trip to this place.
She splashed the pot of blue all over her hair so that while not all of it was doused in its former color, the resulting appearance was nonetheless undeniably that of the admired part-Angel homunculus who every member of humanity owed their lives to several times over.
"As the first child of NERV and the first Evangelion pilot, I hereby order you to give your Pikachu over this very instant for the greater good of mankind." Erika imperiously stated, despising the fact she had to reuse her old way of talking but knowing it had to be done if she was going to maintain her promise to Shinji to always help those in need.
"Obey this order, or face a court martial. Your choice, citizen of Pallet town."
Now Ash was mad. He clenched his fists so tightly that his fingerless gloves nearly tore from the immense strain and stared at all those who stood before him with a look of pure hatred. "Get out of my sight right this instant all of you. Or I'll have Pikachu shock the lot of you. You're all scum. You don't deserve fair treatment or equal rights."
"Not even me? I'm not a Team rocket Member. Not yet at least." Erika inquired, using all her willpower to prevent herself sounding sarcastic or judgemental.
"I'm just a nice gardener who was given the second chance to live when these nice people you call criminals gave me Ho-Oh's feather and cured my lung cancer. They could have sold it, but they gave it to me. No strings attached."
"You're a criminal too. Erika. If you stole without asking, then you too don't deserve rights." Ash was cold as ice now.
"It's true that I had to steal seeds from the garden centre. But everything I did after that was perfectly legal. And as I stated, I did try to ask honestly for some money or a job, but no one gave me one. If the good book states that saving life is a good deed, then surely my life counts too? Surely everyone's lives count. Surely if justified self-defence is a highly praised law, so should taking what is necessary to stay alive in the most extreme circumstances? Especially since as soon as I could afford it, I paid back the garden centre and the food shop of everything I stole and double. They made more money than they would have if I never stole anything and let myself starve."
"Please Ash. We are sorry. Deeply sorry. Do what you want with us. But let Erika go. She's only a child." James begged with tears in his eyes.
"No James. You do not need to apologize. If you did not try to take Pikachu, Giovanni would have killed you and harvest your organs on the black market. I know about Team Rocket's illegal practices and how Officer Jenny has been doing nothing about it all."
Erika commanded with surprisingly fury, forcing James silent once more.
"Please. Ash. Please give Pikachu over so Jessie, James and Meowth don't get tortured slowly and brutally to death. I'm pleading with you from the bottom of my heart now. If you have any admiration for what me and Shinji accomplished as Evangelion pilots who gave our freedoms for your life and the lives of your world, then as both Rei Ayanami and Erika Nice I appeal to your mercy."
Erika knew exactly what would unfold. She had long predicted it would come to this no matter what actions she chose to undertake.
She knew from her brief time with Shinji that there was a stark difference between justice and plain, causeless prejudice.
She could despite her lack of empathy, tell a desire to enact positive chance from twisted sadism and a perverted addiction to the suffering of others.
Being witness to Shinji's problems with Asuka had taught her well.
"Enough. Stop interrupting my donuts and get away from me. Pikachu. Use Thunderbolt."
Ash hotly ordered, pointing a jagged finger at the yellow mouse in question.
Pikachu hesitated.
Surely his trainer hadn't gone this far. Surely his most trusted comrade couldn't have sunk so low as to...
"Thunderbolt. NOW! Get these criminals out of my sight. Blast them off again. Do it now Pikachu before I get really cross."
So Pikachu, with the sharpest heartache he had felt since the loss of Misty silently aquisced as it charged its signature bolt of thunder and aimed it as well as he could for the three Team Rocket members he'd despised for so long after they tried time and time again to catch him.
Now that he knew what he knew however from Erika, he could not bring himself to feel the same hatred. He closed his eyes to fully concentrate the energy required for the devestating electrical assault he was about to unleash with great relucatance.
"Pi...Ka"
He'd have done the same in their position. The exact same. Not one thing different.
If he could simply direct the electric strike so that it didn't miss and...
"Chuuuuuuuuu!". It launched the bolt, still with closed eyes. He just wanted to get it over with so that the kind and reasonable Ash he was used to came back.
"Oh thank you. Ash. Thank you." Erika giddily sung as she stretched her arms out far and wide so that her body mimicked the shape of a cross.
She jumped directly into the way of the sparking bolt as Pikachu opened its eyes too late to see that his worst fear had fully materialized before him.
The world was truly ending now. It didn't when the second impact struck but it did now.
The electrical bolt hit the former Evangelion pilot with full force so that the three members of Team Rocket were completely unharmed.
"It feels good" Ash, Pikachu, Jessie, James and Meowth could hear her muttering even as she was electrocuted inside and out by the deadly electricity.
"Oh so good. Just like when commander Ikari tranquilized me to make me a slave on the Yakuza market also run by Giovanni."
The yellow jolt was beginning to fade as Erika clutched her chest, still smiling.
She posed dramatically, causing everyone to gasp.
"I can't breath." She painfully breathed, beginning to cough up vile plumes of spit that were characteristic of when lung cancer had brought down her death penalty upon her. "I can't breath. Your unmatched love of violence leaves me breathless." Despite being hurt, she posed dramatically once again causing everyone, Ash included to shrink back in terror.
"Ow my heart. My heart is breaking." She joyfully intoned as the yellow bolts of thunder continued to fade from around her. "Looks like you were too distant for a heart to heart with me Ash after all. How I pity you." Despite being wounded, she posed dramatically a third time. Now they were all breathless and nauseatingly giddy. They never expected anyone to be so excited about dying, especially having been rescued from death so narrowly barely an hour before.
"The punishment for attempted manslaughter. Or I guess in this case, Waifu-slaughter. I hear it's ten years." She coughed a mouthful of blood which fell messily onto the grey gravel below. "Ten years. About how long you've been alive Ash." Erika staggered about clumsily as she continued her verbal assault on a now very scared Ash. Jessie tried to catch her as she fell, but she evaded the Team Rocket woman's grip to let herself collapse onto the rocky ground below.
"They just wanted to eat and not starve. Not starve. Is that too much to ask, Ash? Not starve." She closed her eyes in weakness. "Well. I tried. I did all I could and it was still not enough." Another wheeze of agony. "Sorry. Shinji. Sorry Mari. Sorry Kaworu Nagisa, my sole surviving brethren. Sorry Dr Akagi, or mom as I should call you. Best...mother...ever."
Then with her final breath, she staggered to her feet once again to the disbelief of everyone including the crowd of citizens who had been drawn to the site by the bright spark of Pikachu's thunderbolt visible from several leagues away.
She let off a few final gasps and with the last of her strength, posed dramatically to blow everyone's minds in a way they never knew it could be blown. It really was divine. She looked down at the now guilt-ridden Pikachu who had burst into a teary fit in which he refused to let his once beloved trainer Ash anywhere near him.
"The regret and remorse in your sorrowful eyes as you lament your unintended murder of me. It fills me with determination." She whispered so that only Pikachu could hear. Then darkness took her back into it's loving embrace once more.
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