Star in the Storm, Chapter 9

Kidnapped!

At Charicific Valley...

From his covert position behind the jagged cliff face, Shane heard the officer's laugh and easy assurance. Team Rocket, disbanded by a mere boy, never to reappear again. So unsuspecting, no questions asked; Shane was amazed at how so many people could be so naïve.

But what bothered him more was how the normally voluble Roary's words were strained and laconic with doubt. Roary would have been the last person he'd guess to have second thoughts. But with Lody -who could even presume what she was thinking? Already he was beginning to have misgivings about his earlier perceptions.

"What are you daydreaming about now, Shane?" Dissembler asked, pulling on a pair of gloves that snapped tightly over her arms. "Act now, worry later, that's my slogan. The sooner we get this done, the better. All this sun's burning my beautiful complexion."

Shane smiled; he could care less, and Dissembler knew it better than most. But that was Dissembler for you. "Bouncy golden curls and that innocent cherub's smile belie the fact that the girl's about as much of a pushover as an angry Gyarados," Gauntal had told him more than once. But the things Gauntal said depended solely on its stomach. Shane smiled to remember Dissembler and his voracious Umbreon, each yanking at half a hotdog and both refusing to capitulate to the other.

Bringing himself back the present in a fraction of a second, Shane gave Dissembler the customary TRC salute (hand shaped like a wave, tapped against the forehead three times). "Tell Reb not to rush in again. And don't waste any time reciting that…that motto thing you always do."

Dissembler sniffed sulkily. "It's a tradition!" she insisted stubbornly.

"Well, if it wasn't, maybe the Team wouldn't have come to the messy end it met in the first place," he stated with a peremptory tone. "Keep that in mind, Dissembler, and don't do anything funny. Let's go, Gauntal!" With a jerk of the leash, they were off, leaving Dissembler to finish her preparations.

It wouldn't do to show up immediately, Shane knew as he and Gauntal raced back under cliff's cover. They met the rest of the gang as they were heading back up the ridge, save for the officer, who had gone on.

"Shane!" Roary cried. He could hear that ponytail of hers as it whizzed by, nearly knocking off his sunglasses. "Are you okay? Where's Dissembler?"

Shane thought quickly. "She's calling her parents, to tell them she'll be coming home earlier than expected." Dissembler's parents were dead. He'd learned to lie long ago, and rarely felt the slightest culpability.

"That noise she heard," Roary started, apparently unconcerned with Dissembler's exit, "was the sound of a huge Charizard contest going on right here in the Valley! Pika and Amulet have told us all about it…would you like to come and watch?"

Shane smiled readily. "Cool, I'd love to!"

"Your friend, Trilody, isn't looking so happy to have us around again, Gauntal sighed, sounding hurt. "You don't suppose she suspects that we…?"

Shane shushed the Umbreon quickly. He could just imagine Lody listening intently over her shoulder. The girl knew Eonic, after all, as well as he. No sense in taking risks.

He followed the others' lead into a stand of bleachers. Below, loud roars and grunts were drifting over from the end of the second Charizard contest: the obstacle course, Pika the Pikachu informed him. Shane could smell smoke in the air, as well as some heavy tension.

"How'd Stray do?" Amulet asked Charm in a curious whisper.

"Pppi-pipes!" Pika laughed uproariously, falling out of its seat with a plop. "Sorry, I'm sorry! I didn't mean it, I swear!"

"There weren't any pipes this time," Charm assured them. "Stray made it through just fine. Oh, look! Here come the rankings now!"

The mass of people around Shane broke into a deafening cheer, and he could feel, very uncomfortably, the vibrating of the bleachers as they were stomped upon.

"Stray's tied with Ashenscar!" Pika whooped triumphantly. "Only one contest left; Stray seriously has a chance here! Go Stray, you can do it!"

With a burst of static, an announcer's voice came over the intercom system. Shane wasn't exactly sure, but whoever it was sounded rather young for the person they claimed to be: the caretaker of Charicific Valley. "Our final contest," the announcer began, pausing to build nascent tension, "will be a rescue-adventure race!"

There was a mechanical whir as something was lowered to the ground, then a chorus of squealing cries.

Roary was the first to realize what the cries were from. "They're releasing Eevee into the arena!" she cried in delight. "Cuties!" But then she paused, and Shane knew that she still remembered what had happened at the Goldenrod Gym.

"The Charizard that gathers the most Eevee within a time limit will be the winner!" the announcer declared. "Points will be awarded for number of Eevee and their contentment level! So don't abuse the poor little guys, clear enough?"

The Charizard roared in consensus.

"Ready, get set…" the announcer chanted.

Now! Shane thought fiercely.

The faint whirring he had detected moments before grew to an earsplitting level. The mass of Eevee squealed as if one, simultaneously with the shocked gasps of the crowd.

A sleek helicopter was hovering above the center of the arena, black and silver in the sun, shining in all its opulent glory. It had been one machine that put a rather large dent in the TRC budget, Shane was pained to recall. And it was about time for Reb to prove its worth.

"It's a clawed helicopter!" Pika said in amazement. "But what are those symbols on its side…TRC? What does that stand for?"

A piercing screech blasted its way over the intercom, and half the crowd stood up in their seats, like some surging wave. With Shane's help, Gauntal hoisted itself onto its hind legs in time to see the door to the commentator's office swing open. A fiery-haired boy was pushed out, stumbling onto the ground outside.

Shane thought he heard Lody catch her breath. "Drake?" she whispered. "He's the caretaker of Charicific Valley?" But she didn't have much time to muse; with a crackle of static, an irascible feminine voice came over the intercom.

"Listen up, spectators and Charizard all!" the new speaker commanded harshly. "This is a takeover by the Neo Team Rocket! I repeat, Neo Team Rocket is taking over your Pokémon!"

Shane allowed himself a small bit of relief. The break-in had gone as planned, and Ruki sounded just as intimidating as ever. Now it was up to the rest of the gang to play their parts correctly.

Roary sprang to her feet, almost tripping over Bryar's tail. "Team Sprocket again!" she was yelling angrily. "Come on, Picassy, we're gonna do something this time!"

"Amulet," Lody said in a soft, yet commanding voice. "Let's go."

Jerking Gauntal back to attention, Shane gritted his teeth as the footsteps of the two girls were lost in the shouts and screams of the crowd. Those two must not be allowed to stymie the attack attempt; it was time to play his part. "Gauntal, can you track them?" he whispered urgently to his guide Pokémon.

"That's like asking if fish can swim," the Umbreon scoffed. "Ready when you are."

Shane nodded briskly. "Go."

Minutes of being half-dragged, half-carried through a stampeding throng of spectators passed quickly for Shane; soon enough, Gauntal brought the breakneck run to a skidding stop. "There they are!" it yelped, tugging its leash forward.

Moments before, a mechanical groan had sounded through the air. Now the enormous metal claws attached to the helicopter would be plunging through the air, grabbing up all the Eevee cowering on the arena. Reb, the copter's pilot, had spent hours agonizing over the design, and now, Shane thought, the time had come to put it to the test.

"Vaporeon, Jigglypuff! You too, Picassy!" Roary was crying. "All together, attack that helicopter and its claws!"

"Pi?"

"Va-po're?"

"Puff!"

"That's right, I forgot," Roary sweated nervously, recalling her Pokémon reluctantly. "The copter's kind of high, isn't it?"

Shane wiped his forehead free of sweat in relief. Roary Ketchum, affluent in courage, but not in common sense.

The turmoil out on the middle of the arena was growing thicker. Nearly all the Eevee had been captured by now, but a squadron of Charizard was flying out to meet the TRC helicopter. Metal claws swatted most of them aside, but more determined Charizard just kept on coming and coming.

Lody, however, was taking the situation in stride. "Amulet!" she called out. "Use a Psychic attack on that helicopter!"

Shane could practically feel the skin on the back of his neck tingle in apprehension as the Espeon stepped forward, paws light footfalls on the canyon floor. A well-trained Psychic type like Amulet didn't have to travel in range of the copter's claws to deal serious damage.

"What are we gonna do?" Gauntal yipped desperately as Amulet advanced. "Wait, I have an idea!"

"Gauntal!" Shane cried as the Umbreon jerked its leash out of his hand. A split-second later, he heard Lody cry out. Gauntal had slammed straight into Amulet, taking the Espeon down with a Faint Attack.

"I'm real sorry about this," it told Amulet sincerely as it slung her limp body onto its back. Then, yelling–"Shane, hurry up and call out Ragnarok!"

With a roar, the Dragonite was out, wings beating the air into a miniature whirlwind. Shane had all the wind knocked from his lungs as Ragnarok rushed forward, tossing Shane atop its back. Hands flailing, the boy reached for Gauntal's paw…

And was thrown backwards by the force of Lody's fist. "Tell your crazy Umbreon to let go of Amulet this instant!" she seethed. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"Gotta move, Shane!" Gauntal panted, scrambling up beside its trainer and pulling Amulet after him. "Go, go, go!"

Throwing her pack to the ground, Lody grabbed up a handful of PokéCaps, ready to lob them in the retreating Ragnarok's direction. But as she prepared for the toss, a strong hand caught her arm and wrenched it backwards.

"So this is the Lody Shane's been telling me about," came Dissembler's wry voice. "She's almost more of a wildcat than Ruki herself!"

"I heard that, Dissembler!" a feminine voice snapped from behind. Long auburn hair streaming out behind her, another Team Rocket member, Ruki, had arrived on scene, still panting slightly from the brisk dash she'd just run. Seemingly effortlessly, she caught Roary, who had started forward yelling death threats, and twisted the other girl's arms behind her back. Ruki also caught a squealing Picassy with her free hand and stuffed the Pichu into Roary's backpack, all the while scowling impatiently. "Where's Reb when you need him!" she spat irascibly, staring pointedly at the helicopter above.

As if on cue, the helicopter's propellers spun themselves into a silver blur. Both Dissembler and Ruki pulled their captives back as the helicopter headed in their direction, coming to hover just above them.

With a metallic clank, one claw snaked down to grab both all four girls. Faster than the eye could blink, the captors, as well as the captives, disappeared through the hatch door. And amid the shouts and roars of the crowd and Charizard, the helicopter's propellers quickened, lifting it high into the air and over the horizon.

Dissembler kept a tight hold on Lody's arms, even as Lody decided to slacken her own resistance. Beside her, Ruki was still struggling with a wild-eyed, hissing, kicking Roary Ketchum.

"I can't believe you were part of Team Rocket all along!" Roary yelled, eyes boring holes into Dissembler's. "You knew that the Goldenrod Gym was going to be attacked! You were probably the one who set it up in the first place, in order to nab all those Eevee!"

Dissembler shrugged, tossing her golden curls over her shoulder as she and Ruki set to the task of tying the captives up. "Ever hear of infiltration?" she challenged, securing a particular knot that almost cut off Roary's circulation. "That's what Shane and I do, Rocket infiltration work. Only I was at the Goldenrod Gym and he got a last-minute assignment to some lab in Pallet Town." She winked daintily. "Where he met you guys, apparently."

"Why are you after Eevee?" Roary demanded, still thrashing about despite the ropes. "Tell me!"

"Cannot do," Dissembler informed her jovially. "Sorry, Aurora."

Roary growled, but froze as a shadow fell over the threshold of the helicopter compartment. Shane was standing there, holding Amulet in his arms. Wordlessly, the boy walked to the back of the compartment and felt around in a small cardboard box, emerging quickly with a Super Potion bottle. Amulet stirred after just several sprays of the medicine, then jumped out of Shane's arms to stand by Lody.

"Don't try anything, please," Shane told Amulet, turning away and starting back the way he'd come. "We don't want to have to hurt you, again."

Silence followed him as he stepped away, a heavy, heavy silence. Shane could still remember earlier this same day, when he'd been forced to play the part of the captive to appease the whims of the superior Rockets. Now it was Roary and Lody who were being made to suffer the indignity. Only they had not done so voluntarily.

"I'm sorry," he said finally. "Roary and Amulet, you shouldn't be here. Cooperate, and Ragnarok will take you back."

Dissembler knelt, loosening the girl's bonds obediently. Stumbling to her feet, Roary purposely averted her eyes from Shane. "Amulet?" he said softly.

The Espeon shook her head so hard that it sent her long ears waggling. "I'm not leaving without Lody," she insisted. "Can't you let her go, too?"

"I cannot. Lody is a valuable captive in our 'negotiations' with Professor Koreyu. She cannot and will not be released at this time."

Amulet's ears flattened against the back of her head. "Then neither shall I."

Lody's gaze met her Espeon's, piercing Amulet's dark eyes. "You have to go, Amulet," she said in a low voice. "Tell my father what happened to me. Please, just go! I can take…"

"Care of myself," Amulet finished for her. "Really Lody, why do you have to be so stubborn?"

"Will you go back with Roary now, Amulet?" Lody prodded.

The Espeon tore her eyes away from Lody's and sighed heavily. "As you wish, trainer," she replied submissively.

Lody bowed her head as Shane's Dragonite let both girl and Espeon mount its back. The helicopter hatch opened with a mechanical screech, admitting Ragnarok and its passengers into the sky outside.

"Mission complete," Shane said, flipping open his wristwatch to reveal a tiny two-way radio. "Mission complete and reporting back to headquarters."

Shane kept post beside the open hatch, even as Ruki, and Dissembler left to join Reb in the cockpit. As soon as she heard their footsteps fade away, Lody looked up warily. Shane was still there, still waiting, still watching.

She forced herself to keep her mouth closed; she wasn't about to say a thing to this turncoat of a boy. But something within Lody exploded violently, and all the stony resolve she had held a moment before was washing away, carried by the current of her rage.

"Whatever you want from my father can't me bought through me," she informed Shane icily. "I'll stop you any way I can. You know I'm desperate enough. I'll do anything, anything else than to be sold back to him like this, trussed up like a lost little Mareep!"

Shane didn't seem to hear her at first. But slowly, ever so slowly, he pivoted on the ball of his foot until he faced her directly. "Anything, Lody?" he said in a quiet voice. "You'd do anything?"

Lody pursed her lips together, but the wretched word burst through them anyway. "Yes. Yeah, I would," she asserted, temper still blazing high.

Shane took in this information, letting it sink in for several moments. There was a gap of silence between them until Shane finally spoke again. "I'll make you a deal then, Lody Chimera," he said. "If you can beat me in a Pokémon battle, then you will no longer be a hostage. You will be allowed to join us as a member of the TRC, the Team Rocket Castaways. What do you say to that?"

Back at the Pallet Lab...

"There has to be another way." The man's face was hard, and his dark grey eyes sparked angrily.

Professor Koreyu gazed calmly back at the screen of the phone monitor. "There is always another way," he said. "We could give in now, easily enough. And let Kayley die. But surely you didn't call just to tell me that."

The man on the monitor scowled, then starting laughing nervously. "Treachery is not the answer, Chris," he said. "You surely don't believe a word of what that boy has told you. I've been doing my homework; that Shane of yours isn't just any Team Rocket grunt. He's the leader of a specialty division called the TRC, also known as the Team Rocket Castaways. The TRC literally take kids off the streets or away from troubled families, in exchange for their services as Team Rocket members."

The man flipped through a worn notebook as he went on. "But lately, the TRC has been doing a lot of infiltration work," he said, skimming the page yet again. "Haven't you heard about the break-in at the Goldenrod Gym in Johto? Recent evidence suggests that the whole thing was orchestrated by a TRC infiltration unit, one of your Shane's lackies, who posed as a Junior Trainer at the Gym." His face was drawn as he paused, then slowly trudged on. "You can't trust that boy, Chris," he said tiredly. "Molly Hale, the Goldenrod Gym Leader, is already paying for her credulity."

"I hold Shane Rising's word as good as yours, Tracey Kenji Sketchit," the Professor replied coolly. "Shane was my student, before I ever knew he was also a member of Team Rocket."

Tracey shook his head wearily, laughter gone and face pallid. "You're mad, Chris, to trust that boy. All you're doing is grasping at something that never was and never will be there. It's a dangerous and foolhardy idea, and you're going to do it anyway, aren't you?"

Sighing heavily, Chris felt his eyelids fall into place, just for a single moment of wavering indecision. When he opened them once more, the monitor had been switched off and the call had been disconnected. And a strange, dark fog was permeating the entire room.

"Is there really no other way?" a light, collected voice sounded through the shadowy mist. Getting to his feet, Chris swerved about.

A dark, slender figure was standing between the fingers of shadow, enveloped in the folds of a hooded cape that hung just above a pair of polished black boots. There was no way to distinguish the upper part of the face, including the eyes. All of it was hidden underneath layers and layers of dark green cloth.

"You could have knocked!" Chris said, trying to belie his fear with a weak laugh. "Who are you?"

The figure smiled, and Chris thought he could just discern the glimmer of an eye underneath the top of the cape. "My name is Robin," the cloaked figure started smoothly. Pulling a photograph seemingly out of the air, he handed it to Chris and nodded. "Is the girl in this picture familiar to you?"

"That's my daughter, Lody," Chris confirmed, eyes washing over the photo in confusion. It had been taken in the midst of some kind of a crowd, outside where the blaring sunlight left a visible lenses flare in the top corner. But it was easy to pick out Lody's yellow T-shirt and mess of brown-green hair amid the mass of people and Pokémon. And then there was Amulet, sitting beside her in the bleachers.

Robin nodded and took the picture. "This girl," he said, pointing at Lody, "was abducted by an organization calling themselves the Team Rocket Castaways, or interchangeably, the TRC. The kidnapping in question took place about 4:30 PM, Johto Region Time, at the Charicific Valley Reserve. Two other individuals, the girl's Espeon and a child named Roary Ketchum, were also taken at the time of the kidnapping. They were returned to the Valley only minutes later. The girl, Lody, is still missing."

Chris felt himself sinking numbly into a chair. "The TRC? Shane…but what do they want with her?" The answer hung in the air before him as soon as he had uttered the question. "Of course," Chris whispered. "They're using Lody…to get to me." Suddenly, his eyes flashed, and he shifted his gaze to the hooded figure. "Why should I trust you?"

Tucking the picture away, Robin turned to face Chris. "I never said you should," he replied smoothly. "However, even you should have realized it was only a matter of time before Team Rocket would opt to try something as drastic. You were having negotiations with a TRC representative, the boy Shane Rising, correct? A boy who had previously been posing as your student."

"What's my answer to you?"

"Rising wanted to enlist your services in Team Rocket," Robin continued, unruffled by Chris's sharp reply. "What for exactly, he wouldn't say, but you had your hunches. You, Professor Koreyu, are a world-renown Pokémon scientist. The question is, what does Team Rocket have in mind that could possibly concern you?"

Chris sneered. "I admire your straightforwardness, but not your nerve," he said curtly. "If you're expecting me to acknowledge or refute a word you're saying, you can keep on fishing."

Robin's mouth curved into a smile. "What do you think of the name Kayley Mindstar?"

Chris was silent.

"Kayley Mindstar, a dying trainer trapped in the body of an Eevee," Robin went on calmly. "Your friend, Sabrina, has run the tests. Several times, in fact, and she delivered to you the paperwork for every single one. All of them point to the same thing –there is no conceivable way, scientific or psychically, to return Kayley to the way she once was."

"What makes you say that?" Chris challenged in a noticeably subdued voice.

Robin shrugged dismissively. "Popular opinion, Professor," he rejoined. "The world is waiting for you to prove them wrong. But…"

"But no one even understands how Kayley was trapped in the body of a Pokémon in the first place," Chris finished for him softly. "Most of it is beyond our imaginations completely. For years, we thought Kayley and her Eevee were dead. When she reappeared, in the Eevee's body, the Eevee and her, in the same body…"

Shaking his head, Chris broke off in mid-thought. "No one would have ever believed it possible," he said finally. "Human and Pokémon, so utterly interconnected than they become one vessel sharing two souls. In some twisted way, this 'Merging' may be the highest achievement of unity between a Pokémon and its trainer."

"Such a unity can achieve great power," Robin said. "Team Rocket has always been hungry for power."

"Tell me, then," Chris challenged. "What do you know of Kayley and Team Rocket?"

Robin shrugged. "Just odds and ends," he said nonchalantly. "But what I do know is that Shane Rising tried to enlist your help for Team Rocket. And you were about to say yes."

"Why do you think that?"

Robin sidestepped the question without so much of an eye blink. "Team Rocket can help you find a way to save Kayley, or so Shane Rising claims. And what proof he has, I think one in your position would be desperate enough to believe."

Chris grinned mockingly. "Would I have to be so desperate?" he retorted. "Team Rocket used have one of the best team of scientists in the entire world. Not the most scrupulous, perhaps, but skilled nonetheless. Rumor has it that they were responsible for the creation of dozens and dozens of genetically enhanced Pokémon clones."

"But they never did achieve their true purpose," Robin interrupted. "To clone a human child."

Chris stared at the cloaked man incredulously. "How do you know any of this?" he demanded at last. "Cloning humans, I'm sure even Team Rocket wouldn't go that far!"

"It wasn't popular, I'll admit," Robin said, nodding. "Ideas of meddling further with genetics lay discarded for years. But now that Team Rocket has decided to reemerge, their leader is determined to unite the scattered remnants of the old Team under one, ultimate weapon."

"What can cloned children do?"

"Not clones," Robin corrected. "Mergers. A trainer and a Pokémon, combined together into one being. Somewhat like your friend, Kayley Mindstar, and her Eevee."

Chris inhaled sharply.

"A Merger personifies the ultimate bond between trainer and Pokémon," Robin went on. "As I've said before, a unity of this sort possesses extreme power. With an army of these so-called Mergers, Team Rocket could overturn the world of Pokémon as we know it."

"They wouldn't dare."

"Why do you think Team Rocket wanted to recruit your help in the first place?" Robin shot back at him. "Your studies on Kayley Mindstar make you an invaluable player in the Merging project."

"Truthfully, can they pull it off?"

"The first Merger has already been made," Robin replied tersely. "Whether or not it survives is another story. But more are sure to follow."

Chris's eyes flashed, then narrowed. "They have no right to meddle in the lives of these children and Pokémon," he growled. "But now it is certain…Team Rocket really does hold the key to Kayley's salvation. And there is no other way to get the information that she needs."

"But this, Professor Koreyu?" Robin said. "Is this the price you'll pay for rescuing Kayley Mindstar? Will you betray hundreds of children and their Pokémon to save one person and her Pokémon?"

"Kayley is more than just one person," Chris said staunchly. "If she dies, more children and even more Pokémon will be hurt. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to make a few calls."

Turning back to the phone monitor, Chris rubbed at his eyes wearily and switched it on. Things were getting more and more tortuous by the second. Robin's information had been strange enough, but he had no other choice than to accept it, for the time being.

Or was he just fooling himself, eager to believe Robin's ridiculous assertions in order to cement his stand on Kayley Mindstar's predicament? Chris shook this nagging doubt from his head. Kayley would come later. Right now, he had to find Lody and pull her out of the mess he'd gotten her into.

"Robin?" he called, looking up and over his shoulder.

There was a low hiss, and suddenly the room was full of the same dark mist that it had been enveloped in before. Stumbling to his feet, Chris threw open the windows and doors, waiting for the shadows to dissipate into the air.

He used a Shadow Ball attack, Chris knew at last. Exactly who am I dealing with here?

Save for him, there was no one else in the room.

Atop the roof of the Pallet Town Laboratory, Robin crouched over a rain gutter. At his side, an adult Umbreon crouched, every muscle in its body tensed into a liquid spring.

"Good job," Robin whispered, and the Umbreon relaxed under its trainer's hand.

Something was tugging at the edge of Robin's mind. Pulling out the photograph he had taken hours before, he examined the Professor's daughter long and hard through narrowed eyes.

"Umb? Re-on?" the Umbreon said softly. It was a burly beast, body marked many times over by long scars. One of its eyes stood out like a blood-red ruby from in the Pokémon's dark face. It was this eye that it now turned questioningly towards its trainer. The other socket was an empty void even darker than its black fur.

"Nothing, it's nothing," Robin replied, tucking the photo away once more. "For a moment, I just felt as if…never mind."

Together, both Pokémon and trainer vanished stealthily down the wall and slunk away unnoticed.

Unnoticed, save for the attentive gaze of an invisible boy perched atop a nearby rooftop. The boy let loose a long, echoing laugh before snapping his fingers and disappearing into thin air.

Notes:

By the way, that package Roary delivers in Chapter Two is actually the test results from Sabrina Robin mentions. Heh, I must be the only one who can remember that far back.