Razgriz let out a low growl as he bared his teeth and clenched his paws at the mentioning of Team Rocket. Anger flooded through his veins for a brief moment as he slammed his paw against one of the metal crates next to him. He left a visible indent on it before he calmed himself down and took a breath.
Jack glanced over at Razgriz, surprised at the hybrid's violent reaction. "You okay Razgriz? You look like someone just mentioned your worst enemy."
"Not my worst enemy, but I have had the mispleasure of being under their ownership before," Razgriz ground out as he glanced over at Jack. "Out of all of the people that experimented on me, they were probably the worst."
Jack felt a familiar chunk of ice form in his stomach, and the world started to blur before his eyes. "I… I see," he managed to croak out, although his voice sounded like it was coming from far away. "So then… can you t-tell me anything else about them? Like… where their main base is?"
Razgriz's glance became more of a glare that lasted for a few seconds before he turned away. He was silent for a few seconds as he closed his eyes.
"It was many painful years ago… So no, I don't know where their main base is," Razgriz answered in a slightly aggravated tone.
Jack couldn't respond except by nodding his head slowly. The chunk of ice in his chest had frozen his throat, leaving him unable to speak. He swallowed in an attempt to clear it, but the chill refused to go away. It was spreading through his entire body, a million icy tendrils clawing at him.
Unbeknownst to Jack, the air started to glitter as the moisture in it froze into thousands of tiny crystals that hovered around him like a cloud of mist. A thin crust of frost spread under him across the crate on which he was sitting, as though he were leaking ice.
Both Nova and Razgriz looked around them at forming cloud of frozen mist. It didn't take long for Nova to swipe her paw through it like a child and she spun around for a bit. Razgriz was a bit more curious than Nova as to the cause of the strange phenomena. After a bit he realized that it was centered around Jack.
"Novus…" Razgriz muttered, coming to the conclusion that Jack was indeed the source. Though he had never seen anything like this before. Even Nova had noticed at this point.
Jack gritted his teeth, completely oblivious to his surroundings. It was so tempting to just let the ice consume him completely; freeze his fear, his anger, his desperation, everything. He didn't want to feel them any more. He couldn't just freeze though, not until his friends were safe. Until they were free, he couldn't afford to give up. He had to keep going, no matter what.
The cloud of ice around him shrank rapidly inward as the ice crystals evaporated. Eventually even the ice in Jack's veins thawed, allowing to take a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. The chunk of ice in his stomach shrank a little, but it refused to go away.
Jack sighed and looked up from the floor, noticing Nova and Razgriz looking at him funny.
"What?" Jack asked, his expression unreadable.
"Ummm… the fact that you were just surrounded by a cloud of ice?" Nova replied with one of her ears falling sideways.
To be honest, Jack wasn't surprised in the slightest. Still, it was disconcerting to know that other emotions besides anger could affect his abilities. It made sense, but it also meant he'd have to be even more careful.
Jack sighed again and hopped down from the crate. "Never mind that. We should head back to the dojo. Or at least, the two of you should. I have to stay here and pretend to have taken J's ship down single-handedly, otherwise the police will get suspicious."
Both Nova and Razgriz glanced at one another before Razgriz spoke up.
"But what was the reason you came down here exactly?" He inquired.
"Good question. Actually, I came here for this," Jack replied, patting the metal crate he'd just been sitting on. It was a cube that came up to his waist. "And I'd appreciate it if you took it with you when you leave. Just put it in my room, if you don't mind. I'll take care of it when I'm done here."
"You are killing me with curiosity…" Nova mumbled as Razgriz opened a portal back to the dojo. Nova picked up the crate and carried it through the portal before Razgriz followed behind her. The portal then closed with a muffled bang leaving Jack by himself in the cargo bay.
Jack sighed yet again, wondering briefly if he was doing the right thing.
"Oh well," he muttered to himself. "If she doesn't want to come with me, she'll be no worse off. I just wonder how much she remembers..."
Pushing those thoughts to the back of his head, Jack figured it was about time he met up with the police. No doubt they'd be very eager to hear the details of his encounter with Hunter J, and he had the story all planned out. Of course he'd have to include Razgriz and Nova somehow, just in case they interrogated some of the crew, but he could just say they were two of his Pokémon. Now that the whole world had seen what his Pokémon were capable of, they'd have no reason not to believe him.
Jack groaned as he fell out of a rift in the fabric of reality and landed directly on his bed. He was glad to finally be back at the dojo, although it had taken a lot longer than he'd hoped. The police were very curious, and it had taken so long to explain the situation to them that Jack was actually worried J might wake up and escape in the meantime. Fortunately, that didn't happen. Another fortunate turn of events was that when Jack told them two of his Pokémon took down J's airship, no one so much as batted an eye.
By the time everything was said and done, and J was finally in police custody, it was almost dinnertime. Jack didn't really care though. He felt no satisfaction at seeing J locked away, no sense of accomplishment, no relief. The fight wasn't over, his friends were still in enemy hands. He was in no better a position now than he had been after storming Alpha's main base; he still only had a vague idea of where to look next, and no guarantee that it would be the last page of his search. In fact, compared taking down Alpha's main base, this fight with J seemed depressingly insignificant.
And so Jack just lay and stared at the ceiling for several minutes, trying to come up with some way… any way of finding his friends now. He'd have to go to Kanto, that much was obvious. After that though…
At that point, Jack became aware of the metal crate sitting at the foot of his bed. As to how he hadn't noticed it before, Jack blamed the crushing weight of the world resting on his shoulders. Now that he had noticed it however, he couldn't just ignore it.
"Guess Nova and Razgriz put it there," he thought to himself. "I should probably let her out."
Jack sort of flopped out of bed and shuffled towards the crate, his feet dragging and his shoulders slumped. He put a hand on the cold metal of the box, and undid the clasp holding the lid shut. Then, he just stood there; one hand on the lid, one hand hanging limp at his side. He tried to open the crate, but his arm refused to move.
Jack stared down at his arm with a blank expression, as if he could will it into motion, but it wouldn't budge an inch. A moment later, the dinner bell tolled out loud and clear from downstairs causing Jack to look up. Everyone would be expecting him to come down for something to eat.
"Maybe… I should wait until after dinner to release her," Jack muttered to no one in particular. "It would be awkward to introduce her to everyone without explaining everything to her first, and I couldn't just leave her up here while I ate. Yeah… I'll do it, right after dinner…"
Having convinced himself, Jack let his right hand fall to his side. He took a step back from the metal crate and, after staring at it a moment longer, turned away and walked towards the door. As he stepped out into the hallway, Jack's feet felt even heavier than before although he had no idea why.
Jack closed the door behind him, then turned his head to see Nova and Razgriz leaving their room as well. Jack raised the corners of his mouth in what he hoped looked like a smile.
"Hey Nova, Razgriz," he greeted them. "You heading to dinner?"
"Yeah, we were waiting on you. You made quite the entrance," Nova said with a small laugh.
Jack scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "You don't say… Well, sorry if I disturbed you then. I was just really, really tired."
"I wouldn't say you disturbed us, though it did take Nova a bit to calm down," Razgriz stated as he closed the door to their room.
"How are the two of you doing?" Jack asked. "I mean, I doubt anything on that ship could've actually hurt either of you, but still…"
"Well… I was momentarily caught in one of those statis blast things…." Nova replied as she rubbed the back of her head.
Jack nodded. "I see. You're alright now though?"
"Yeah, nothing a little stretching out didn't fix," Nova said as she looked over at Jack.
"Yeah… though I might have had a bit of an adverse reaction to that happening…." Razgriz muttered in a low voice.
"Well, I can personally attest to the fact that, aside from being really inconvenient, the stasis blasts have no lasting side effects," Jack commented.
"That is good to hear," Nova said with a warm smile as the three of them walked down the hall towards the dining room.
The three of them met up with Maylene at the dining hall and, after a brief round of toasts to the successful capture of Hunter J, dinner was served. Jack was pretty much the man of the hour at the dojo, and everyone wanted to congratulate him. None of them knew Jack's real objective, or that he was back to square one, so they saw J's defeat as a major triumph; especially when, after much persuasion, Jack gave a detailed account of the fight. Of course, not all the details made it into his story.
Jack didn't really attend much to the meal, despite it being essentially a feast in his honour. Even while telling of his oh-so-glorious battle with J, Jack's mind was elsewhere. He kept a smile on his face at all times, but he didn't feel much like smiling. He couldn't get over Razgriz's description of Team Rocket, and the knowledge that his friends were in their hands. The students of the dojo may have been celebrating his victory, but Jack had never felt so defeated. How many times would he chase after his friends, only to have them slip through his fingers?
Jack excused himself as soon as politeness allowed, and headed back up to his room under the pretext that he was exhausted from the fight and wanted to get some rest. This was entirely true of course. Nova and Razgriz followed him, and the three of them were soon back at the dormitory.
"Well," Jack said, putting a hand on the door handle, "G'night then."
"So… about that crate?" Nova asked before he could enter his room.
Jack sighed, a wry smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Curious much?"
"Yep!" Nova yipped happily, a wide smile adorning her muzzle.
"Trust me, I live with her. She won't stop bothering you about it till you tell her," Razgriz said with a small laugh, remembering how persistent she could become.
"I'm surprised you didn't take a peek inside when you had the chance," Jack remarked.
"We certainly could have, but that would just be rude," Razgriz countered.
Jack shrugged. "Alright then, I'll show you. Come on inside."
With that, Jack opened the door and stepped into his room with Nova and Razgriz following him. The crate was right where Jack had left it, and still unopened. Jack walked around to the front of the metal box, and put a hand on the lid. With two sets of eyes following his every move, Jack undid the clasp yet again; and yet again, he was suddenly rendered motionless.
Jack gritted his teeth and scowled at the box, as if he could scare his problems away. He knew why he didn't want to open the box; it was a simple, selfish reason, and he hated it. The fact was that Jack just didn't want to deal with this right now. He was exhausted, emotionally and physically, and he just wanted to curl up on his bed and go to sleep. He didn't want to have to smile, to put on a brave face, to act like nothing was wrong…
Still, he had to at least show Nova what was inside the crate. So, with a sigh of resignation, Jack lifted the top off the box; allowing the other four sides to fall outward, revealing a glass dome on a round metal base. It was a stasis chamber, and inside it was a small, fox-like Pokémon with six fluffy tails; a Vulpix.
"Kind of looks like me before I evolved…" Nova said in a soft voice as she gazed at the motionless Pokémon.
"Except I'd wager she's a lot less mischievous than you were at that age," Jack remarked wryly, although his smile wasn't quite as wide as before.
"Probably," Nova replied with a mischievous grin.
"I can say that she is still rather mischievous," Razgriz said with a slight smile.
Jack didn't reply to that. He couldn't tear his eyes away from the tiny fox Pokémon in front of him. He still didn't know exactly what possessed him to spirit this Vulpix away before the police could find her. For all he knew, she might've been adopted by a nice family or something. Was he just lonely? Maybe…
At any rate, now that he'd gone this far he couldn't stop halfway. Exhausted or not, the thought of the Vulpix spending any more time in stasis revolted Jack. He hated himself for not freeing her as soon as he got back to the dojo. So, before he could make any more excuses, Jack flicked a switch on the base of the stasis pod. The bronze shell coating the Vulpix faded. She was free.
However, no sooner was the Vulpix out of stasis than she collapsed to the floor of the pod, unconscious. Jack quickly scanned her aura, and was relieved to find everything normal. The Vulpix must just have gone into shock from being in stasis for too long; her body needed to recalibrate. In other words, she was sleeping; a healthy, natural sleep for the first time in who knows how long.
"She'll be fine," Jack said, for the benefit of Nova and Razgriz. "She's just sleeping."
"Still… poor thing…." Nova stated, her ears drooping down as she looked at the sleeping fox.
Jack pushed a button on the base, and the plexiglass dome came unsealed from it. Jack gingerly removed the dome, placing it off to one side, then even more carefully picked up the sleeping Vulpix. Cradling her in both arms, as someone might carry a baby, Jack carried the Vulpix over to his bed and gently set her down on the pillow.
"Alright," Jack said, turning to Nova and Razgriz. "Out, both of you. She needs to get a good night's sleep."
"Pft, you're likely to make more noise than we are," Nova said with a quiet laugh before turning around.
"Yeah yeah," Jack replied. "Out you go."
Once the two Pokémon were out the door, Jack shut it behind them. With that done, he let out a sigh of resignation and glanced back over to his bed where the Vulpix was sleeping peacefully.
"Now what…?" he muttered to himself.
Jack walked over to his bed and stroked the Vulpix's ear with one finger, eliciting a small twitch from the sleeping fox, and he chuckled slightly as he realized how much like Lucy the little Vulpix looked sleeping there. Lucy loved it when he scritched her behind the ears too…
Jack retracted his hand slowly, unconsciously curling it into a fist as he gritted his teeth. His eyes and throat hurt, as if there was a pressure building behind them. His emotions were swirling around so violently inside him that he felt like he would explode. What was he doing getting attached to this Vulpix when he still hadn't saved his friends?
With a growl of frustration, Jack teleported away. He needed to be alone, so he went to the only place nearby where he could be. The clearing where he'd spent so much time practising with his sword. The wild Pokémon had long since learned to avoid the area, so he didn't have to hold anything back.
For a second though, he just stood there in the middle of the clearing. The charred husks of trees he'd felled with a single stroke surrounded him like ghastly spectres, full of malice. They whispered to him, accusing him of failing his friends. His blood was turning to ice in his veins, threatening to paralyze him. He tried to force the ice back, but the more he thought about his friends in the hands of Team Rocket for all this time, the more helpless he felt.
Now though, the accusations cut even deeper than usual. Not only had he failed his friends, he felt like he'd betrayed them. It felt, although he never would've thought this in his right mind, like he was trying to replace them somehow with that Vulpix.
"You… idiot..." he growled, clenching his fists; his self-pity turning to anger. "You arrogant… self-righteous… IDIOT!"
The air around Jack started to shimmer with heat. With each word the area around him heated up, until with his last shout the grass at his feet burst into flames. Even so, despite the flames licking over his body, the ice within him refused to melt.
With a cry of desperation, Jack tried to stoke the flames of his anger even higher. He needed to rid himself of this paralyzing feeling of helplessness at all costs. At least anger could be focused, anger could help him save his friends. Giving up would not.
A column of red-hot flames rose into the night sky, with Jack at its center. The heat was so intense that Jack was starting to have trouble breathing. Gradually, the ice retreated from his limbs and shrank back into a cold lump inside his stomach. It wouldn't pull back any further though, and Jack gritted his teeth at the knowledge that all the anger in the world couldn't completely erase his doubts.
Jack sank to his knees, the flames dying away into wisps of smoke; black as a nightmare. His bonfire had almost caught the surrounding trees on fire, and a few of the fallen trunks had been badly scorched. Much longer and he might have caused a forest fire, but even as he knelt there he could feel the cold fingers of despair clawing at him again.
"How can I save my friends," he growled through clenched teeth, "If I'm at the mercy of my own emotions?"
"You're right you know, you're gonna have to get that under control."
Jack looked up quickly to see Maylene walking towards him. She smiled at him reassuringly, kneeling next to him and placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Still," she said quietly. "Like I said before you're not alone. You have friends who care about you, and would happily share your burden. All you have to do is ask."
Jack lowered his head, unable to look Maylene in the eyes. "There are some burdens I have to carry alone…"
"Try me," Maylene replied, not unkindly.
Jack hesitated a moment, then sighed. He told her about everything he'd learned from Hunter J about his Pokémon. Maylene just listened silently, absorbing the information with a solemn expression.
"I did wonder whether something had gone wrong," Maylene said once Jack had finished. "All through dinner you looked like you wanted to curl up in a dark corner."
Jack sighed. "That pretty much sums it up…"
"Look at it this way though," Maylene continued. "It'll be much easier to track down a whole organisation, and they won't be able to run away."
"Don't you get it?!" Jack almost shouted. "They've been in the hands of Team Rocket for a month now, who knows what might have happened to them. For all I know, I might already be too late…"
Maylene shook her head. "Give them more credit than that. Your friends are strong, and they have each other. Do you really think that Jason would let any of them get hurt? Because I don't."
Jack blinked and looked up at Maylene. The gym leader's expression was devoid of doubt, and her tone was one of utmost certainty. As Jack thought about it, he realized that she was right. His friends were more than capable of taking care of themselves; they'd keep each other safe.
"That's not all though," Jack continued grimly, proceeding to tell her about the Vulpix.
"So you feel guilty for spending time and energy rescuing another Pokémon while your friends are still in danger," Maylene summed up.
Jack nodded.
Maylene just sighed. "And do you think Jason, or Lucy, or any of your friends would see it that way? Would they have wanted you to ignore that poor Vulpix?"
"Of course not!" Jack exclaimed. "But it not just that. It feels like I'm… trying to replace them somehow!"
"And I know for a fact that you'd never do that," Maylene replied without missing a beat. "But even if you were, do you think your friends would want you to be lonely while they're away?"
Jack gritted his teeth. Once again, Maylene had hit the nail right on the head. He felt like an idiot for worrying so much, and beating himself up for it. Jason, Lucy, Wendy… none of them would want him to worry; or beat himself up. They wouldn't want him to destroy himself trying to rescue them.
A few tears ran down Jack's cheeks, the first he'd allowed himself to shed in a very long time. Maylene pulled him close to her, wrapping her arms around him tightly in a comforting embrace. She patted his back gently, not even minding as Jack's tears soaked her shoulder.
"You really are a mess, Jack," she said quietly, smiling ruefully as her own eyes started getting teary as well. "So emotional. It's good for you to have someone to care about, someone to protect. Someone to love…"
As if on cue, a bolt of lightning split the sky. A moment later, the dark clouds above them opened and they were drenched by a sudden downpour. Jack didn't mind though. It was a warm rain, and it helped hide the tears streaming down his face. Deep inside him, the chunk of ice had finally started to melt away properly. All that pent-up emotion had to escape somehow though, and so he cried.
He cried just for the sake of letting it out. His shoulders shook as he sobbed, clinging to Maylene as if she were his only lifeline. It was strangely refreshing to let the tears flow freely, he felt like a weight had been lifted from his back.
After a while however, Jack became aware that both he and Maylene were soaked to the skin. So, an exhausted smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, he finally broke the hug and looked at the gym leader.
"Thank you, Maylene," he said quietly. "I needed that."
Maylene chuckled. "No problem, that's what friends are for. Now then, let's get out of this rain before we both catch a cold."
Jack nodded, and with a crackle of energy the two of them disappeared.
Jack woke up, and immediately became conscious of something warm and fluffy tickling his nose. He tried to hold it in, but it was an effort in futility.
"Atchoo!"
Opening his eyes, Jack saw a furry snout and a pair of deep, chestnut-brown eyes. Those eyes, he quickly noticed, had a mischievous glint to them.
"I thought you'd never wake up," the Vulpix commented wryly, grinning at the look on Jack's face.
"You're awake I see?" Jack groaned, trying his hardest to merge with the bed.
The Vulpix snickered. "Nope, I sleep-walk."
Jack snorted and buried his face in his pillow. "Ha ha, very funny."
The Vulpix blinked, staring at Jack blankly for several seconds. Suddenly, her eyes widened in realization and she tumbled backwards; falling off the bed with an "Eeep!" and a thud. Jack quickly leaned over the side of the bed to look at her.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
The Vulpix lay on her back and looked up at him. "If I said you look real funny from down here, what would you say?"
"I'd say so do you," Jack deadpanned.
With a yip of alarm, the Vulpix rolled upright and backed quickly away from Jack. "You can… understand me?" she asked in a mix of shock and disbelief.
Jack sighed. "It's… a long story."
The Vulpix blinked. "How long?"
"Probably around a forty-chapter book."
"Oh…"
"Anyway," Jack continued, sitting up on the bed. "Did you sleep well at least?"
The Vulpix hesitated a moment, then nodded. "Yeah, I guess I did. So… are you gonna tell me where I am? Because last I remember I was in the middle of the forest, and this looks like some kind of human building."
"There's a very good reason for that," Jack replied with a straight face. "As for why you're here… do you remember anything about what happened to you?"
The Vulpix shook her head. "Nope. One minute I was wandering through the forest, and the next minute BAM! I felt something really cold, then I woke up here. Did you kidnap me? 'Cause that'd be kinda weird..."
Jack sighed and shook his head. "Actually, I rescued you from the one who kidnapped you. I don't suppose you've ever heard of Hunter J, or the Predator?"
The Vulpix shook her head. "Nope. Whoever he is though, he sounds mean…"
"She was very mean," Jack replied. "Fortunately for you, when I took her down I ended up finding you."
"Oh… okay then," the Vulpix said with a shrug. "And you are…?"
"Jack," he told her. "Jack Storm. I'm a Pokémon trainer."
"Aha!" the Vulpix exclaimed triumphantly. "So you are gonna kidnap me!"
Jack gave her an odd look. "And… that makes you happy?"
The Vulpix shrugged. "Eh. You seem nice enough, and I've been looking for something to do anyway. Might as well tag along with you while I figure out how to get home."
Jack's expression must have let on more than he intended.
"I'm not going to like the next words out of your mouth, am I?" she said.
Jack sighed. "You… might have a hard time getting home."
"Why?"
"Hunter J wasn't the one who initially captured you," Jack said. He then hesitated a moment, steeling his nerves before continuing. "You were in suspended animation, so you haven't aged at all, but you were captured almost fifteen years ago."
Me: Dun dun duuuun…
Jack: You just had to, didn't you.
Me: Yup.
Razgriz: Cliffhangers are the norm here. This ain't the only cliffhanger either.
Me: *shrugs* What can I say? I find a strange satisfaction in keeping my readers in suspense.
Nova: Probably because both you and Osean are massive trolls.
Jack: I agree wholeheartedly with that assessment.
Me: ...I can't even deny it.
Razgriz: I doubt Osean can either.
Me: Anyway, I hope you two had fun doing whatever you were doing while Jack was away.
Nova: Actually, we just kind of had a heart to heart moment.
Me: Ooh, do tell.
Razgriz: You have eyes, read it yourself.
Jack: He's got you there.
Me: *head disappears*
Jack: ...Dangit.
Razgriz: I call dibs on his stuff.
Me: *crosses his arms*
Jack: Where has this author's notes even gone?
Nova: They are rather silly at this point.
Jack: This is the silliest sketch I've ever been in.
Nova: Shall we stop it?
Jack: Yeah, alright.
Me: Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
