Breathless
Broken Diamond
By
the Davids (DK and Darth David)
Chapter Three:
Breathless
Cerulean screamed in
pain. It had been violated by Team Rocket.
And now a single
scream inspires vengeance: Ash Ketchum ran as fast as his body
would allow towards the fortified city, seeking to liberate it,
and knowing that Misty had come some time before with the same
solid purpose. He pursed his lip as he realized that he may be
too late. Nevertheless, he was being powerfully driven by
something he couldn't resist, some unseen force that forced
him to ensure her safety. But he is but one man.
~~~~
Jup chose neither to
be fighting alongside his men against legions of resistance, nor
did he choose to sip lemonade in an office miles away. He was
apprised of every development by his executives, for a newly
revamped organization, Team Rocket, was
surprisinglyorganized, and he prided himself for knowing
those developments before they ever told him. He stood atop the
tallest building in the entire city, his jet-black hair streaming
out behind him in long strands, the crisp, cool breeze whipping
his sharp, well-defined face. Peering into a pair of high-power
binoculars, he focused upon a lone figure running towards the
city. He smiled inwardly. He had spotted the rogue trainer thirty
seconds before his men.
Jup lowered the
binoculars from his piercing brown eyes and issued a command.
"Let him get as far as the PokéCenter, and no further. I
will personally lead a team against him."
His official nodded.
"Affirmative, sir." There was a pause. "Permission
to speak freely."
Jup eyed the man
icily, but also with interest. "Granted." While
awaiting a reply, he turned his gaze back towards the speeding
Ash, watching him as a Fearow would a plump Weedle.
"The redhead
girl, the gymleader," the executive began. "She's
caused yet another guard to be hospitalized, sir. It's a
little more serious than it was the last time."
Jup rubbed his hand
across his chin, wincing as he felt coarse bits of stubble. He
hadn't had a wink of sleep ever since the defeat of former
leader Giovanni and his rising to the throne, and he hadn't
had a chance to shave, either. He decided to take a long break as
soon as he had the Pokémon Master within his grasp. "And
you're wondering why I don't just have her killed,
hmmm?"
"Well"
The executive was in a precarious position; one word from Jup and
his life would be negated. "Yes, sir. If you'd like, we
coulderhm, round up some other girls that would be much
more" The executive seemed to be having
trouble finding his last word. But Jup, getting the meaning,
raised his hand, silencing him.
"You don't
understand. I'm keeping her alive only as a bargaining chip.
It won't be long until Ash Ketchum comes to rescue her.
Using her as bait, we can lure him into our open arms, then use
him to destroy the Elite Four, one way or another."
The official was
slightly baffled. "Sir? How do you know the Pokémon Master
will come for the girl?"
A cruel smile curled
up the corners of Jup's lips. "Because he already
has."
~~~~
They came, huge
trucks armed to the core and built for speed and size, engines
roaring and machine guns popping. There were three of them, all
hurtling towards Ash at roughly 60 miles per hour. Alarmed and
caught by surprise, he backed away a few meters, then tried to
dive for cover behind some shrubbery.
RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT.
The shrubbery was nothing more than a neat pile of shredded twigs
and leaves. Ash danced as gunfire erupted at his feet, missing
his sneakers by inches. He turned angrily upon the trucks. He
knew they could have easily killed him by now, but it seemed as
if they were only toying with him. What exactly did they want
with him?
Before he could
figure out the answer, the trucks circled and skidded,
surrounding him and covering him with a tan cloud of dust.
Temporarily blinded, he wiped at his eyes with his jacket sleeve
as he collected his thoughts. They obviously wanted something
from him, as they had passed up the opportunity to end his life.
Likewise, he wanted Misty, so he'd refrained from using his
power Pokémon to launch a direct assault. But now his life was
in jeopardy, and he'd foolishly allowed himself to be
surrounded. But it wouldn't happen again. He resolved to go
on the offensive.
Pikachu tugged on
his trouser leg, longing for the same, his cheeks crackling with
building electricity. Ash nodded, coughing from the dust.
"Pikachu,
Thunder Wave each of those trucks!"
"PIKAAAA!"
the little yellow rodent responded, letting loose with a powerful
wave of electric energy, directing it towards one of the trucks.
The electric-based attack was generally used for paralyzing or
slowing down the opponent, but Ash hoped that in this case it
would render the vehicles immobile, stopping them from running
him down and also from their occupants escaping. Pikachu could
only manage one at a time, and by the time it reached the third,
its windscreen was breached by a strong kick, and a swift,
dark-haired figure leaped to the ground.
Jup's eyes
narrowed, sizing up the so-called great Pokémon Master. He
didn't look tough at all, despite an unmistakable,
determined look in his eyes that Jup had seen in only a few
trainers. Including himself. Huge fists clenching, Jup decided to
just take him down quickly, knock him senseless and carry him
back to station before he had a chance to whip out some other
Pokémon besides his little Pikachu. He charged, like an enraged
Tauros, towards a confused and surprised Ash.
Ash froze in his
tracks. He battled with Pokémon, not with fists. Pikachu,
sharing the Pokémon Master's feelings, looked to him for
instruction, but the leader of Team Rocket simply kicked the
electric mouse away with a sweep of his powerful leg, then threw
three Poké Balls in the same direction, containing Sandslash,
Electrode, and Gengar. After rolling a short distance, Pikachu
flipped up to his feet with an angry cry to face these three new
opponents. Gengar and Electrode appeared, each grinning their
blinding grins, followed by an expressionless Sandslash,
midnight-black eyes boring into Pikachu's own.
Jup's firm,
confident voice reached their ears. "Electrode, Thunder Wave
it, and Sandslash, keep hitting it with your Earthquake! I want
it dead! Gengar, back them up!"
"Hey!" Ash
yelled. "That's three Pokémon against one! You
can't do that, it's not fair!"
Jup stopped his mad
charge long enough to sneer, "And just who is going to
enforce that? This isn't civilized battling, Mr. Pokémon
Master. This is Team Rocket. And Team Rocket never plays fair. We
play to win, and that only." Ash glanced worriedly at
Pikachu, and saw that he would be overwhelmed in a matter of
seconds if he didn't take action. Ash turned his attention
back to Jup. "If that's the way you want to play, so be
it!" he yelled. Ash wouldn't fail to act again. He had
let himself be surrounded and put himself at a disadvantage, but
it stopped here. He threw two Poké Balls towards Pikachu's
enemies, containing Venasaur and Snorlax, then rolled out of the
way of Jup's tackle. His Pokémon would act on their own and
need no orders from him, so now he could concentrate on the
four or five
years older fighter built like a brick wall. Ash had never been
in a fight before, and he didn't know how to throw punches,
let alone take them. He'd only seen this type of things in
movies, and had never experienced them in real life until now.
The first blow, quite real, hit him on the side of his face, and
for a handful of seconds everything immediately turned black
before returning to normal, and he realized the loud noise like
bending metal was his head, against the cold, concrete barrier
that surrounded the city.
The Pokémon Master
was being thrown around like a rag doll.
Jup hit him again,
then as Ash crumpled, began to pound with both hands clasped
together. Ash shook and bled, and tried to fight back, as much as
a fourteen-year-old could against a nineteen-year-old that was
about three times his size. He saw the opportunity for a single
kick, one that could make all the difference, and as
consciousness began to fade he aimed his kick at the weakspot
every male possesses, between the legs. Jup bellowed in pain, his
head spinning, as Ash tried to get back to his feet. But it only
took a matter of seconds for the elder of the two used his body
weight to slam into unconsciousness Ash from above, still
cradling his bruised privates. Straightening up, he produced a
gun from the inside of his jacket and aimed it towards Ash's
Pokémon, still battling with his own. The gun cocked.
~~~~
David stood staring
at the door yet again. Like every other citizen in Cerulean, he
was under house arrest. The already awkward situation was even
more uncomfortable because this was not his house, but his
laboratory at which he worked. Under the false alias of Chris
Hanz, he was a scientist in Cerulean. Along with his name, his
hair color had been changed and he wore, Clark Kent style, a pair
of glasses he didn't need. He had basically done everything
short of plastic surgery to change his appearance.
A long time ago,
David Ketchum was a famous trainer.
In fact, he was,
once, the Pokémon Master.
And then life
happened, the world changed him, and he left everything he had
for everything he has. It broke his heart. Yes, he had been a
trainer once, and was told long ago that some things never
change. Should he make a stand against Team Rocket? He still
possessed a powerful team, but it was just as out of date and
practice as he was. Again, some things never change.
He still had the
courage and the will. The strength was his and the love followed.
All the years had only blanketed his heart, which had remained in
hibernation, until now.
Still, David stood
at the door, on the brink of two decisions that could change two
lives forever.
He reached out, and
turned the knob of fate.
His family. His
career.
His life.
~~~~
Jup tried to keep
track of whose Pokémon were whose, but the blur of attacks and
the clouds of dust kicked up by the battling Pokémon were
preventing a clear shot. He didn't want to hit one of his
own, that would be unprofitable. He decided to call upon them to
return. "Electrode, Gengar—"
Sandslash had
fainted.
"Both of you,
to me!" Following his command, they withdrew from the
battle, and Jup now had a more than clear shot of the towering
Snorlax. His men, confined to their vehicles either by a Thunder
Wave or Jup's orders, watched in fascination. Perhaps they
would learn a thing or two from their leader.
A wicked smile
curled up the corners of Jup's lips. His index finger
squeezed the trigger.
Snorlax turned as
the loud crack echoed in his ear. The well-aimed bullet sped on.
Too late to dodge.
Milliseconds before
the bullet had reached its destination, an unfamiliar voice
shouted, "REFLECT!"
Jup was shocked by
the noise and instinctively swung his gun around to aim at the
direction the sound had come from, to find the source of the
voice. Meanwhile, Snorlax threw out a Reflect, covering all of
Ash's Pokémon and protecting them from the high penetration
bullet. But still, slower and weaker, it managed to fly through
the screen of armor and plant itself in the large Pokémon's
side.
A furious Jup Zing
examined each vehicle, and found neither a change nor person to
be responsible for the cry that saved three lives. He reminded
himself that he was in complete control of their every action. He
controlled the city. He controlled Team Rocket. He controlled
everything. But again, sound rebelled against him as he heard the
click of a Poké Ball open. It made him look to the broken,
battered body of the "Pokémon Master", assuring
himself that he was incapacitated.
Perhaps if he'd
looked up, he would have spotted the ball fall from the sky, as
if the heavens were launching an offensive themselves. But if he had
looked up, he would have seen the giant silhouette of a Dragonite
before it tore the ground open with a steady bombardment of Hyper
Beam.
The Poké Ball
opened, and an Alakazam made good use of the distraction by
teleporting Ash away while Jup's frightened men ran from the
trucks, incinerated to molten steel moments later by the
devastating attack. The figure atop the Dragonite's back,
who must have been its trainer, jumped off as the dragon Pokémon
flapped closer to the ground to recharge. It was masked,
deliberately so, that wherever the figure may run, Jup
couldn't track down the individual's house or
headquarters by name.
Jup was cold, the
gun still raised. "Identify yourself."
The figure was
silent for a few minutes, then slowly replied, "You
wouldn't believe me if I did." The stranger's
gravelly speech was slurred even more by the coverings over his
mouth.
Jup frowned.
"Tell me, or die." The gun clicked as Jup readied to
fire another bullet.
With a single glance
from the trainer, Ash's Pokémon knew to return to their
balls. He held up a hand, and each ball flew toward it. Jup was
powerless to stop the Dragonite from swooping down and catching
the stranger. He simply looked on, and his brain began to
register the dark figure's last words.
"I am the
Pokémon Master."