****
A scream filled the chamber and Cassidy sat straight up. She looked around and realized it was her own scream that had awakened her. She felt helpless for some reason. She got up and pulled her robe tighter around her.
She suddenly felt like her head was going to explode. She grabbed the edge of the table for support. As quickly it had come, it was gone. She knew exactly what it was. She took one of the ancient spears down from the wall and opened the chamber door quietly.
Slithered along the wall in the shadows of the main room, she never took her eyes off them. They were combining powers. Cassidy could make out the red and orange but there was another hue in there.
It was gold.
"That bastard stole my power," she whispered. She was enraged. She summoned everything that he left behind. It wasn't much, but it would help. As soon as they unlocked their hands she would charge.
/Here goes nothing. I hope you die bastard!/ she screamed in her mind.
She didn't make a noise and he didn't sense her until too late. He dropped to the floor with a great echoing thud. Everything was in slow-mo for him.
He couldn't hear anything except for his own heartbeat. He couldn't hear Jesse's scream of horror. He couldn't hear Cassidy's maniacal laughter as she lay on the floor next to him. Her powers were low and she knew she would die too. She had gotten her revenge.
Soon she stopped laughing and just lay there with her eyes closed barely breathing. Ash looked up into Jesse's crying eyes. He wanted to tell her to take his power, but he couldn't say a thing. She knelt beside him and put her hands over his temples. She closed her eyes and choked back a sob. She took his energy as tears streamed down her face. When she was done she leaned over and cried into his chest.
****
Misty and Butch walked into the main room, seen as two glowing figures of green and aqua. They heard crying and went toward Jesse. They stopped a few steps from the door. Butch looked away and Misty gasped.
Ash was on the floor with his eyes shut, barely breathing. There was a gaping hole in his chest that continued to bleed everywhere.
Cassidy lay next to him in a pool of his blood, barely breathing as well - still clutching the murder weapon.
Jesse was crying on Ash's chest and hadn't heard them come in. Someone was floating above the scene.
/She looks awfully familiar/ Misty thought and strained to get a better look at the girl. She couldn't figure out who she was or why she looked familiar.
"What's she doing?" escaped her lips before her mind could hold it back.
"Freeze," Taiteki breathed as an iridescent bubble covered the blood-covered trio. She started chanting something that Butch and Misty couldn't make out. Butch silently sneezed, but Taiteki heard it. She whipped her head around toward the two and smirked. She clapped her hands and disappeared.
The bubble was broken.
"What the hell was that?"
"I don't know, but be careful," Misty warned Butch. "I'll distract Jesse while you heal the other two. And watch out for that psycho on the cloud. She looked dangerous." Butch nodded and held back. Misty walked a little closer and prepared herself.
"Oi!"
Jesse looked up at her with hate in her eyes.
"Why weren't you here to stop her!" she screamed and sent a beam of raw energy Misty's way. She easily dodged it and an aqua arrow crackled toward Jesse.
"Let's be fair," Misty yelled. "Let's use weapons." She threw a long sword at Jesse who caught it at the hilt and smirked.
"You don't stand a chance."
As the two started their duel, Butch went over and placed one hand on each forehead. He focused his energy and, slowly, Cassidy and Ash started to glow with green light. A bright flash of white shot through the room and made Misty and Jesse stop and look.
There stood Ash encased in orange and Cassidy covered with gold. Both were in their right mind.
There was nothing they could do to help Misty, though. She had challenged Jesse and had to fight to the end. Soon both were bleeding pretty badly, but that didn't stop them.
There was an unspoken agreement between the two. If Misty won, then Jesse was her prize. If Jesse won, then she would take Misty's powers and destroy her body. Misty had to win.
"Ahhhhhhh!"
"I've won. Face it - you're no match for me," Jesse sneered as she stood over Misty. She dared not to move because the tip of Jesse's sword was over her heart. Misty's weapon was too far away for her to reach it, so she tried talking with Jesse.
Nothing worked.
"We've made an agreement. You lost, now you will die."
Misty screamed as the blade entered her skin.
"STOP!" Taiteki screamed, holding a hand to her chest. Jesse pulled the tip of blade out and gawked at her. Taiteki walked over and took the sword from Jesse.
"How dare you talk to me like that!"
"All I said was stop," Taiteki stated and she stuck her tongue out at Jesse. She threw the sword up and blasted it with a beam of raw, purple energy.
Jesse hated it when people were better than her. She looked around the room. Brock had joined the crude circle that had formed around her and Taiteki. Everyone glowed a different own color.
/Apollo, Atlas, Artemis, Hestia, Helios, Aphrodite and my own dear Athena. Weren't there eight legendary powers? Who are we missing?/ Jesse thought as she did a quick inventory on who was here.
Butch was helping Misty stand.
Ash, Cassidy and Brock finished the circle. Three spaces were left open.
One for Jesse.
One for Taiteki.
One for James.
"All right Miss High and Mighty. Is this about the power that Giovanni gave you?" Jesse said. "Or is it because you were a lab experiment?"
"I was chosen to lead. My power is superior to all of yours combined," Taiteki said, pointing to all of them. Jesse snorted and rolled her eyes.
"Don't laugh! It's true. I could wipe you all out with one word that I don't even have to say. It's called a silent but very painful death, and *you* don't even know it's coming."
"Pure torture," Jesse muttered, her eyes glazing over as she stared at nothing. She shook her head and smirked. She had an idea.
"So what? If we're your people, then why would you want to kill us? Especially if there's, apparently, no way to kill you."
"I would never harm my people. Misty holds the key to my soul," Taiteki said and hopped on her cloud. Jesse's smirk grew even bigger.
/Just what I needed to know/ she thought spitefully, a plan already forming in her mind.
"What...do you mean?" Misty barely got out as a surge of pain coursed through her body. Jesse looked back at Taiteki in time to see her suffer momentarily from the same pain.
"Athena's Death Rain," Jesse whispered. Thousands of little red needles fell from the ceiling. It sliced and diced until everyone was bleeding and weak.
Everyone, except for Taiteki. She had zipped out of the way of the attack.
Jesse stood there looking at her work. She brushed her hands off and chuckled. Everyone was on the floor, dying.
Very weak and low on energy, Taiteki glowed purple and focused the last of her power on healing her subjects. Jesse was not happy at all when everyone appeared in their own box of pure energy. Each box was suspended in the air and glowed with the person's hue. The boxes started to glow brighter and Jesse had to shield her eyes from the brightness.
"What are you doing?"
"Healing them."
"Why?"
"Because true love is present and I'm not going to kill that. Besides they're part of my...company," Taiteki sighed. She slowly lowered the boxes. Another flash of light filled the room. Left in its place were six warriors, all of them healthy and striped of the strain of having powers.
They stood there in a circle with their eyes closed. They had not fully awakened yet. Taiteki was among them. She was healed from all evil and was now a real girl.
Jesse couldn't stand this power that Taiteki possessed. It was too strong. She needed to be the strongest. Jesse raised her hand high above her head. Red energy formed an unrefined spear. In a fit of rage Jesse hurled it at Misty.
Misty's eyes opened wide as it pierced her heart and kept going. The energy spear disappeared as she fell to her hands and knees. She stayed like that for a moment before she cringed and fell the rest of the way to the floor. She lay there while everyone else slowly woke.
Jesse floated above her, cackling like a witch. She turned her redhead to glance over her shoulder and saw Taiteki suffering from the same wound on the floor.
****
"Uhhnnn…what happened?" Cassidy said, joining the group and rubbing her eyes. Misty tried to call out to them, but couldn't. A tear rolled down her cheek as she silently said her good-byes. She coughed up blood and laid her head down on the cold, sticky, red floor.
"What was that?"
"Someone coughed...it came from over there!"
"IIEEEEEE!" Brock yelled as his eyes fell upon the fallen figure Ash pointed to. He ran over to Misty, but it was to late. He held her as she died in his arms.
"If I can't have invincible power, then no one can," Jesse shrieked at the top of her lungs. James ran into the room.
"I heard yelling, is everything oka-"
He stopped when he saw Misty lying, dead, in a pool of blood. Jesse was floating above the rest. Everyone else had been healed and couldn't use their powers. They had to wait for her to come down to their level before they died trying to beat her.
Jesse and James were the only ones left with any kind of power, but no one knew that James was right there. Jesse slowly sunk to the floor as she watched the helpless group. James quietly crept up behind her, grabbed her and spun her around. He kissed her deeply, truly full of love and passion.
Butch smiled. He had only see one other couple kiss like that. His smile faded as he realized that one half of that couple was dead.
James let Jesse up for air. Real tears of joy rolled down her cheeks. She was back. Her eyes smiled even more than her lips did. She looked around at everyone. She was so happy to see them that it shocked her when she saw Misty dead in a puddle of blood. She could tell Misty died a horrible death by the size of the hole in her chest.
/The bigger the whole in your chest, the more gruesome the death. That's what I learned at Team Rocket Boot Camp/ she absently thought. She turned her head the other way, trying to get away from the horrid sight, and gasped when she saw Taiteki lying on the floor with the same exact wound Misty had.
Brock was in shock and Cassidy held Ash as he wept. Jesse closed her eyes and her hands glowed. She was always the most powerful of them all. She just never knew it.
She knelt in between Misty and Taiteki and placed a hand over both girls' hearts. The room instantly filled with bright white light.
****
tbc...
A scream filled the chamber and Cassidy sat straight up. She looked around and realized it was her own scream that had awakened her. She felt helpless for some reason. She got up and pulled her robe tighter around her.
She suddenly felt like her head was going to explode. She grabbed the edge of the table for support. As quickly it had come, it was gone. She knew exactly what it was. She took one of the ancient spears down from the wall and opened the chamber door quietly.
Slithered along the wall in the shadows of the main room, she never took her eyes off them. They were combining powers. Cassidy could make out the red and orange but there was another hue in there.
It was gold.
"That bastard stole my power," she whispered. She was enraged. She summoned everything that he left behind. It wasn't much, but it would help. As soon as they unlocked their hands she would charge.
/Here goes nothing. I hope you die bastard!/ she screamed in her mind.
She didn't make a noise and he didn't sense her until too late. He dropped to the floor with a great echoing thud. Everything was in slow-mo for him.
He couldn't hear anything except for his own heartbeat. He couldn't hear Jesse's scream of horror. He couldn't hear Cassidy's maniacal laughter as she lay on the floor next to him. Her powers were low and she knew she would die too. She had gotten her revenge.
Soon she stopped laughing and just lay there with her eyes closed barely breathing. Ash looked up into Jesse's crying eyes. He wanted to tell her to take his power, but he couldn't say a thing. She knelt beside him and put her hands over his temples. She closed her eyes and choked back a sob. She took his energy as tears streamed down her face. When she was done she leaned over and cried into his chest.
****
Misty and Butch walked into the main room, seen as two glowing figures of green and aqua. They heard crying and went toward Jesse. They stopped a few steps from the door. Butch looked away and Misty gasped.
Ash was on the floor with his eyes shut, barely breathing. There was a gaping hole in his chest that continued to bleed everywhere.
Cassidy lay next to him in a pool of his blood, barely breathing as well - still clutching the murder weapon.
Jesse was crying on Ash's chest and hadn't heard them come in. Someone was floating above the scene.
/She looks awfully familiar/ Misty thought and strained to get a better look at the girl. She couldn't figure out who she was or why she looked familiar.
"What's she doing?" escaped her lips before her mind could hold it back.
"Freeze," Taiteki breathed as an iridescent bubble covered the blood-covered trio. She started chanting something that Butch and Misty couldn't make out. Butch silently sneezed, but Taiteki heard it. She whipped her head around toward the two and smirked. She clapped her hands and disappeared.
The bubble was broken.
"What the hell was that?"
"I don't know, but be careful," Misty warned Butch. "I'll distract Jesse while you heal the other two. And watch out for that psycho on the cloud. She looked dangerous." Butch nodded and held back. Misty walked a little closer and prepared herself.
"Oi!"
Jesse looked up at her with hate in her eyes.
"Why weren't you here to stop her!" she screamed and sent a beam of raw energy Misty's way. She easily dodged it and an aqua arrow crackled toward Jesse.
"Let's be fair," Misty yelled. "Let's use weapons." She threw a long sword at Jesse who caught it at the hilt and smirked.
"You don't stand a chance."
As the two started their duel, Butch went over and placed one hand on each forehead. He focused his energy and, slowly, Cassidy and Ash started to glow with green light. A bright flash of white shot through the room and made Misty and Jesse stop and look.
There stood Ash encased in orange and Cassidy covered with gold. Both were in their right mind.
There was nothing they could do to help Misty, though. She had challenged Jesse and had to fight to the end. Soon both were bleeding pretty badly, but that didn't stop them.
There was an unspoken agreement between the two. If Misty won, then Jesse was her prize. If Jesse won, then she would take Misty's powers and destroy her body. Misty had to win.
"Ahhhhhhh!"
"I've won. Face it - you're no match for me," Jesse sneered as she stood over Misty. She dared not to move because the tip of Jesse's sword was over her heart. Misty's weapon was too far away for her to reach it, so she tried talking with Jesse.
Nothing worked.
"We've made an agreement. You lost, now you will die."
Misty screamed as the blade entered her skin.
"STOP!" Taiteki screamed, holding a hand to her chest. Jesse pulled the tip of blade out and gawked at her. Taiteki walked over and took the sword from Jesse.
"How dare you talk to me like that!"
"All I said was stop," Taiteki stated and she stuck her tongue out at Jesse. She threw the sword up and blasted it with a beam of raw, purple energy.
Jesse hated it when people were better than her. She looked around the room. Brock had joined the crude circle that had formed around her and Taiteki. Everyone glowed a different own color.
/Apollo, Atlas, Artemis, Hestia, Helios, Aphrodite and my own dear Athena. Weren't there eight legendary powers? Who are we missing?/ Jesse thought as she did a quick inventory on who was here.
Butch was helping Misty stand.
Ash, Cassidy and Brock finished the circle. Three spaces were left open.
One for Jesse.
One for Taiteki.
One for James.
"All right Miss High and Mighty. Is this about the power that Giovanni gave you?" Jesse said. "Or is it because you were a lab experiment?"
"I was chosen to lead. My power is superior to all of yours combined," Taiteki said, pointing to all of them. Jesse snorted and rolled her eyes.
"Don't laugh! It's true. I could wipe you all out with one word that I don't even have to say. It's called a silent but very painful death, and *you* don't even know it's coming."
"Pure torture," Jesse muttered, her eyes glazing over as she stared at nothing. She shook her head and smirked. She had an idea.
"So what? If we're your people, then why would you want to kill us? Especially if there's, apparently, no way to kill you."
"I would never harm my people. Misty holds the key to my soul," Taiteki said and hopped on her cloud. Jesse's smirk grew even bigger.
/Just what I needed to know/ she thought spitefully, a plan already forming in her mind.
"What...do you mean?" Misty barely got out as a surge of pain coursed through her body. Jesse looked back at Taiteki in time to see her suffer momentarily from the same pain.
"Athena's Death Rain," Jesse whispered. Thousands of little red needles fell from the ceiling. It sliced and diced until everyone was bleeding and weak.
Everyone, except for Taiteki. She had zipped out of the way of the attack.
Jesse stood there looking at her work. She brushed her hands off and chuckled. Everyone was on the floor, dying.
Very weak and low on energy, Taiteki glowed purple and focused the last of her power on healing her subjects. Jesse was not happy at all when everyone appeared in their own box of pure energy. Each box was suspended in the air and glowed with the person's hue. The boxes started to glow brighter and Jesse had to shield her eyes from the brightness.
"What are you doing?"
"Healing them."
"Why?"
"Because true love is present and I'm not going to kill that. Besides they're part of my...company," Taiteki sighed. She slowly lowered the boxes. Another flash of light filled the room. Left in its place were six warriors, all of them healthy and striped of the strain of having powers.
They stood there in a circle with their eyes closed. They had not fully awakened yet. Taiteki was among them. She was healed from all evil and was now a real girl.
Jesse couldn't stand this power that Taiteki possessed. It was too strong. She needed to be the strongest. Jesse raised her hand high above her head. Red energy formed an unrefined spear. In a fit of rage Jesse hurled it at Misty.
Misty's eyes opened wide as it pierced her heart and kept going. The energy spear disappeared as she fell to her hands and knees. She stayed like that for a moment before she cringed and fell the rest of the way to the floor. She lay there while everyone else slowly woke.
Jesse floated above her, cackling like a witch. She turned her redhead to glance over her shoulder and saw Taiteki suffering from the same wound on the floor.
****
"Uhhnnn…what happened?" Cassidy said, joining the group and rubbing her eyes. Misty tried to call out to them, but couldn't. A tear rolled down her cheek as she silently said her good-byes. She coughed up blood and laid her head down on the cold, sticky, red floor.
"What was that?"
"Someone coughed...it came from over there!"
"IIEEEEEE!" Brock yelled as his eyes fell upon the fallen figure Ash pointed to. He ran over to Misty, but it was to late. He held her as she died in his arms.
"If I can't have invincible power, then no one can," Jesse shrieked at the top of her lungs. James ran into the room.
"I heard yelling, is everything oka-"
He stopped when he saw Misty lying, dead, in a pool of blood. Jesse was floating above the rest. Everyone else had been healed and couldn't use their powers. They had to wait for her to come down to their level before they died trying to beat her.
Jesse and James were the only ones left with any kind of power, but no one knew that James was right there. Jesse slowly sunk to the floor as she watched the helpless group. James quietly crept up behind her, grabbed her and spun her around. He kissed her deeply, truly full of love and passion.
Butch smiled. He had only see one other couple kiss like that. His smile faded as he realized that one half of that couple was dead.
James let Jesse up for air. Real tears of joy rolled down her cheeks. She was back. Her eyes smiled even more than her lips did. She looked around at everyone. She was so happy to see them that it shocked her when she saw Misty dead in a puddle of blood. She could tell Misty died a horrible death by the size of the hole in her chest.
/The bigger the whole in your chest, the more gruesome the death. That's what I learned at Team Rocket Boot Camp/ she absently thought. She turned her head the other way, trying to get away from the horrid sight, and gasped when she saw Taiteki lying on the floor with the same exact wound Misty had.
Brock was in shock and Cassidy held Ash as he wept. Jesse closed her eyes and her hands glowed. She was always the most powerful of them all. She just never knew it.
She knelt in between Misty and Taiteki and placed a hand over both girls' hearts. The room instantly filled with bright white light.
****
tbc...
