"We're all out, someone needs to go down to the mart-"
"I've got it... Oh no, another load..."
"We're completely full!"
"Stat!"
"Quickly, we're losing him..."
The pokemon centers worldwide were full to bursting point, bustling Nurse Joys and volunteers running every whichway.
But not with pokemon.
Almost every trainer had been damaged by the loss of pokemon, if not a physical wreck then an emotional one. Many Nurse Joys were themselves crying softly over the loss of their Chanseys as they rushed around, trying to comfort those who were in shock over the desertion of their pokemon and trying to heal those who had been mutilated. Many lives had been lost already, either through injury or broken heart, and more unfortunates were being carted in every minute. There just weren't enough people to take care of them all.
And of course, it didn't help the Joys' attitude when they figured out that those who they were trying to heal the bodies of were the ones who mistreated their pokemon...
But that wasn't the worst of it. Nobody had actually realised just how much the structure of the cities of the world depended on the pokemon... Nobody had noticed it until it was gone. Power... The majority of the power stations of the world were home to hundreds of electric pokemon, rarely even needing a human there except for maintenance, kept up their output through the constant energy aura put out by the pokemon inside. Security... Most large shops or buildings had no alarm systems, just a Growlithe or two or maybe a fighting pokemon on premisis keeping guard, and burglary had added more problems to those already there... Transport... Few cars existed in the pokemon world, most letters and packages were sent by Pidgeot transport by those who couldn't afford teleportation, and the loss of such pokemon had led to some places being completely cut off...
And nobody, not even the nurses, had realised just how much they needed those Chanseys...
Nobody had ever expected something like this to happen before. Pokemon simply running away or attacking their trainers. And so nobody had set up secondary measures, a backup system, and now they were paying for it...
Sitting in the middle of one such pokemon center
was a black-haired teenage girl. Pretty much everyone else was either bustling
around or sulking... but she just sat there silently, ignoring the bustle
and noise around her, staring into nothingness, tears brimming but never
falling, lost in the past...
Why... what have I done, to make them run away?
She blamed herself, although for what it
wasn't sure. A mind in pain can do strange things to memories... Images
of herself, playing with her pokemon, happy memories... Swimming with Squirtle,
her first pokemon; Running around in the field with her Eevee; Training
her Pidgey by throwing apples in the air and having it spear them or slice
them; Playing hide and seek with her Nidorina...
And one by one, they disappeared. Squirtle dove
and never surfaced, Eevee simply speeding away far faster than she could
chase, Pidgey grabbing an apple in it's mouth, then ignoring her call to
come back and simply flying out of sight, Nidorina finding her, tackling
her down playfully, then getting off... and by the time she'd gotten up,
Nidorina was nowhere in sight...
And then there was the times as they evolved...
She watched as the white glow faded, and a new pokemon was revealed...
and then it would blow an attack in her face, chuckle mockingly, and run
off...
A single tear fell, and traced it's way down her
cheek, but she didn't notice...
Why... why... WHY?!
What have I done to deserve this?!
"Are you alright, Jessica?" Said a kind voice
by her ear, and a hand rested lightly on her shoulder. She didn't register
either, or pretended not to.
"Jessica?" She felt whoever it was shake her, and
she moved out of her nightmare world. She looked up into the concerned
face of Nurse Joy, and despite her sorrow couldn't help but force a smile.
She was good friends with all the Joys she'd met, she helping them out
whenever possible and they giving her good advice and occasional presents
like potions, revives and the like, and sometimes even the odd maltreated
pokemon...
Pokemon... everything came back to them... Damn...
"Are you okay? You're being quite quiet..."
"Don't worry, nurse, I'll be fine... there are others
more in need of help than me..."
"No. Tell me what you're thinking about." She said,
sitting down next to Jessica.
"I... I was just wondering... what did I do?"
"What did you do?"
"To make them run away? I must have done something,
treated them wrong, I don't know... maybe it was the pokeballs..."
"Oh... Jess..." Joy hugged her. "It wasn't you!
Noone treated their pokemon with more care and respect... Everyone's lost
their pokemon, not just you. Everyone is feeling horrible. But it wasn't
something you, or me, or any one of these trainers did. It's the pokemon,
not the trainers. No, I'm not trying to blame your pokemon now, but all
we can do is hope that someday they'll come back to us... and until then,
find out just where they've gone..."
"Everybody! Be quiet! We've..." A voice could be
faintly heard shouting over the bustling and yelling that was the center,
but it was quickly drowned out. Whoever it was paused a moment, then screamed
over them all, "SHUT UP!!!"
Surprisingly, everyone did. Some of the nurses continued
to tend to their charges, whispering lowly, but over the room there was
an expectant silence.
"We think we've found out where the pokemon have
gone!" He said, with a grim look on his face. "And it doesn't look good..."
He showed a picture taken from the town's observatory...
A huge fortress, sheer stone walls, a vortex-like
storm swirling oppressively above throwing lightning bolts randomly down
around it. And here and there, climbing around the walls, flying nearby,
were many dots of brown and a couple of other colours.
"Are they..."
He held up more images, zoomed in from the first.
They were indeed pokemon, flying pokemon of every shape and element...
"Then..."
"Whatever the pokemon are doing there..." The guy
said slowly, getting ready to give the news that would drive them even
further into despair, "They don't look like they're eager to come back
any time soon..."
People lept up as cries of dismay and disbelief
rent the air. Nurse Joy left Jessica's side, trying to calm the masses.
Like before, Jess simply sat, her mind encompassing this new information
slowly, tears welling further and further before finally running freely
down her cheeks...
Standing up, still crying silently, she pushed through
the enraged mob to the door, and wandered down the near-deserted street.
She walked slowly, unseeing, blinded more from her complete absorbtion
into the good memories gone bad than from the tears filling her eyes, but
it didn't stop her from tripping on a curb and falling face-first onto
the grass...
"This is just getting better and better..." She
muttered, crying harder, pulled out of her dream sequence by the pain.
She stayed there for some time, lying on the grass, eyes closed, crying
softly, losing track of time...
In a world without pokemon... that was really all
there was to do...
Finally, she decided she might as well move on,
and opened her eyes, pushing herself up... then stopped.
Lying on the grass in front of her was the most
beautiful thing she'd ever seen.
It was a pendant of some sort, oval-shaped, about
two inches long, maybe one and a half wide; with gold lining around the
edges in extremely intricate patterns, weaving and twisting, until you
couldn't tell where any of them started or finished...
And in the center, an incredible sapphire, a deep
royal blue, perfectly carved into a smooth dome without an edge anywhere
(If it had been carved) reflecting the light in all sorts of strange
ways... In fact, it almost seemed to glow...
Slowly, almost reverently, she reached down and
touched it. She gasped and pulled away; it was freezing cold.
But it was calling her, too beautiful to be ignored.
She reached down again, and touched it, gasped again... but for a different
reason...
It was warm to the touch...
She slowly picked it up and stood up, examining
closely. Now that she looked a little closer she could see something on
the crystal, what appeared to be a series of scratches, but if she ran
her finger over it it was completely smooth, not even a dent. She examined
it from various different angles, trying to see something within the marks...
And then it became clear suddenly... what appeared
to be a wolf, the blue colour of the gem making it remind her slightly
of a Vaporeon, but apart from the basic shape and colour it bore no resemblance
to the Eevee evolution. It looked strong and powerful, and she could almost
see it move, it was that alive...
"Jessica, how are you?" Said an insinuating voice
from behind her. She jumped slightly, tightening her fist around the sapphire
pendant and whirling around. It was Randall, one of the locals, who wore
a large smile on his face. This took a moment to register - Randall was
one of those who hated pokemon and everything they represented. He was
obviously delighted at this disappearance. Jess wouldn't trust him as far
as she could throw him. She hid the crystal pendant behind her back.
"Randall, you certainly look perky."
"Of course. Why wouldn't I be?" The very words,
along with the smug overtones, were like a slap in the face. "What's that
you were looking at before?"
"Nothing."
"Let's have a look." He said, grabbing her arm forcefully,
twisting it. She struggled, but he was much stronger. "Heh, haven't got
your little poke-ey-mons to protect you now, have you?" He laughed cruelly.
"Let go of me, you bastard!" She cried, letting
fly a kick, but missing. He grinned, forced the arm around to the front
and opened the hand, while she struggled, and removed the item.
"Amazing... I'm sure I could sell this for a small
fortune. Or maybe keep it for myself... Thank you, my young friend, for
this gift. You don't mind, do you?"
"Yes I do!"
"Really? Sure it's no trouble?"
"Give it back!"
"Oh, I really don't think so... hey, what the...
aaaah!"
He suddenly dropped it, looking in shock at his
hand. It seemed to be turning blue, frost rimming the edges... frozen solid,
frostbite setting in within seconds.
"What did you do to me, you little bitch?" He cried,
staring at his frozen, useless hand. "I'll kill you!"
He attacked with his frozen hand, hitting her hard...
and watching as the brittle ice snapped, leaving him with a stump, broken
just above the wrist. He stood there in shock for a moment, and Jess used
that moment to duck down, grab the amulet and run like hell.
That asshole... She thought, I'd never liked him - hell, noone had - but I'd never expected him to do something like that...
Just glad I didn't meet him in an alleyway at night...
Once she'd managed to get a normal breathing pace up, she looked around at where she'd ended up. What luck... she was just a couple of blocks from her house.
Massaging her wrist where Randall had twisted it, she walked slowly, a little waveringly, back to her empty house, upstairs to her bed, fell down upon it in exhastion from a difficult day... All thoughts of the sapphire amulet forgotten, she again fell into the series of half-memories of her pokemon, sobbing silently, until she cried herself to sleep...
But not even sleep can offer any protection from the mind...
"Squirtle!" Cried the pokemon in front of her.
"Oh, it's so cute! I love it! I want this one!"
"Certainly! Here, I'll go get your pokedex and these pokeballs, and leave you two to become aquainted..." The shape, still a hazy grey blur, left the room.
I remember this... the start of my pokemon journey... so long ago...
Slowly, the view grows sharper and sharper, until the shapes are easy to make out from one another... But it's from a third-person perspective... did I really look like that back then? I can't believe they never took a photo of me when I got my first pokemon...
And she watched herself lean down, and play with her new pokemon, getting to know it... instant friends, they'd been, she'd always loved water pokemon... well, she'd loved almost all pokemon, really...
But then the scene suddenly changed... Blurring suddenly, the sounds dropping away as if they were travelling away from the laboratory at speed... And she found herself in a sea of green, too blurry to make out anything, but rapidly clearing...
"Squirtle, I choose you! Water Gun!"
"Squirtle!" It cried, unleashing the pressurised water spray. The target became obvious as it recovered, shaking off the water.
"Nidorina!" It cried, unleashing a Take Down. Squirtle pulled into it's shell, and was thrown back... skidding across the ground. It emerged, a little dizzy, but retaliated with a fearsome Skull bash. Nidorina was ready, however, and used a double kick straight to Squirtle's extended head, knocking it out no problem.
"No... Return, Squirtle! Pidgey, get it! Quick attack!"
Pidgey flew up, flapping frantically before diving... orange bands of energy swirling back, Pidgey blew so fast to be little more than a blur, slamming the Nidorina hard.
"Nido..." It snarled, jumping up at the Pidgey's back, and stabbing Pidgey in the wing with one paw. Pidgey flipped and, in a rage, unleashed a powerful gust. Nidorina dug her claws in deep, struggling hard to not be dragged away... but failed, being thrown into a tree... struggling to get up, having no luck...
"Great, Pidgey, now finish it off with a Wing Attack!"
"Pidgeeeeoooowwww..." Pidgey flapped towards it's opponent... but suddenly dropped slightly, nearly hitting the ground, flapped hard to regain itself... and then just stopped, falling upon the ground, breathing with difficulty...
"Pidgey, no!" She cried, horrified. She ran towards the bird pokemon, as fast as she could... in her bid for her pokemon's safety, not seeing the thick root half-buried within the autumn leaves...
She tripped, flung her hands out wide, accidentally throwing Pidgey's pokeball forward as she just managed to prevent herself from falling on top of her pokemon... the ball flew, bounced off a tree and, by an amazing coincidence, hit the Nidorina full-on... instant catch.
But she barely paused to even pick up the pokeball as she raced off, Pidgey slung in her arms, to find the city and the pokemon centre... the view blurred once again, and the fleeting images of her sprinting and the forest flying by faded into a long stretch of green, which then changed again, to grey...
"Pidgey, no!" She cried, as Pidgey was cleanly picked out of the air by a flying rock - more like a small boulder - hurled by the Rock Master's Graveler. Luckily, Pidgey slipped away from the flying rock before it hit the stone wall, but the fall to the floor was still pretty tough on the tiny bird.
She ran to the bird, scooping up the battered form. "Are you okay?" She whispered to it softly. It struggled in her arms, gave a look of hatred to the Graveler, then suddenly flew out, calling as loud as it could.
"Piiiddgeeaaaww!" It cried, and it's body was suffused with a blinding white light. Jess watched in shock and pride as Pidgey grew larger and stronger...
"Yeah! You can take it down now!" She cried. However, she was proved wrong when another well-aimed rock throw knocked her pokemon out. Her opponent chuckled mercilessly...
"No! Pid-" She suddenly realised she didn't know the name of her new pokemon. "Ah, just return!"
Heh... that was embarrassing... I don't think I beat this guy on that try...
But she didn't have time to check this before the scene melted away again, to show another scene from her long, long pokemon journey... And another... And another... Winning badges, Evolving and catching pokemon, fighting off Team Rocket's attempts at theivery... faster and faster they flashed by, until it was a literal blur of memory, barely pausing on each scene before reaching the next...
But then it stopped, so suddenly she almost felt the memory slideshow skidding to a halt... She was in a battle with a boy not much younger than herself, with short, spiked brown hair and an overconfident attitude...
Oh no... She whispered to herself in her mind, realising what this scene was. Please, not this...
But the memory remained, and she saw herself starting to battle the guy... By this time, her Nidorina had been evolved into a Nidoqueen, and that was battling his Sandslash...
"Sandslash, Fury Swipes!"
"Nidoqueen, Ice Beam!"
The Sandslash was fast - the Icebeam didn't even come close to hitting. Several long scratches were cut in Nidoqueen's tough hide.
"Tail Whip!" Jess cried. Sandshrew curled up into a spiny ball, but Nidoqueen still spun and delivered a powerful blow. Sandslash was catapulted into a tree, sticking in by it's spikes; Nidoqueen's tail had a few holes in it, but wasn't too badly damaged.
"Now, Mega Punch!" Jess called, tasting victory. Nidoqueen powered up for a moment before unleashing the attack, tearing the ground pokemon from the tree - with wood still sticking to many of it's spines - and sliding it across the ground to stop near its trainer.
"What do you think you're doing, laying down on the job?" He snarled. He marched up to the Sandslash, which was struggling to get up... and kicked it, not too lightly either. Jess gasped.
"What do you think you're doing?" She cried. "You can't do that to your pokemon!"
"Why not? They're my pokemon, I'll do what I like!"
The Sandslash finally managed to get up. He nodded. "Now, take out that Nidoqueen."
But Sandslash turned from Nidoqueen and simply stared at him. "What are you waiting for? Attack!"
Bad choice of words.
Sandslash dove at him, it's first attack leaving him with a ripped shirt and a nasty scratch across the stomach, as well as snapping his belt. His other pokeballs scattered across the ground, then started shaking and opening... Revealing a host of pokemon, ground, rock and fighting mostly, that layed into him without a thought. He cried out for help from Jess, but she couldn't really do anything much... and anyway, he probably deserved it, if he'd been treating pokemon like objects like he had before...
Then, after the beating continued for a while, quite a bit of blood became apparent... there were several sickening snaps... she realised that the pokemon might actually mean to kill him. She pointed to him.
"Could you fend them off, Nidoqueen?" She asked. Nidoqueen just stood there, looking off to her right. "Nidoqueen?"
She suddenly felt her pokeballs begin to vibrate as well, until one by one they fell off her belt and popped open. Her pokemon looked around, before each taking one careful step (Or attack, for the smaller ones)... and crushing the pokeball like paper.
"What do you think you're doing, guys? Pokeballs cost money, y'know..."
But they weren't listening... and the other group seemed to be finished with the guy... and as one, they all simply started running or flying away!
"Hey! Where are you going? Come back! Return!" She called after them, and then set off herself... but they were too fast for her. She soon slowed down, waiting for them to come back... but they never did.
Then she started walking back to the guy who had been mauled by his pokemon...
Once again, the scene blurs... but this time it blurs to darkness... At first a night-time scene is expected, but there is nothing but a blank, empty void...
Suddenly, Jess found that she could move... She slowly sat, then stood up lethargically. Looking down, she found she could see herself clearly, despite lack of a light source...
"Jessica..." A voice whispered behind her. She jumped, spun around and fell over in quick succession, then looked up at the being in front of her... Backing off in fear...
"Don't be afraid, Jess. Don't you recognise me?" It chuckled softly. It was a wolf... deep royal blue, and so big... Jess guessed she might reach the top of it's forelegs... but lithe, thin. The head was long and canine, but had a long straight crest stretching back off it's head, several times longer than the head itself; trails of blueish-purple fur or hair streamed back in some unseen wind.
"You're... the pokemon on that thing I found!"
"That's right... That thing is, well... me. Technically, I'm dead... In that amulet is my spirit." It sounded a little embarrassed, for some reason. "Anyway, that thing with all the memories, sorry if it was painful for you, I was just checking out what my protectee is like with pokemon..."
"Protectee?"
"Well, apparently I'm supposed to look over you... and I couldn't have picked a better person. My name's Suikun. Anyway, it's nice to meet you and all, but I'm afraid I have some bad news for you..."
"Is it about the pokemon?"
"Yes... but I can't explain that to you now. It will take too long, and you're in danger..."
"Where?" Jess asked, looking around. She seemed to have adjusted to the extremely strange situation rather quickly.
"Not in here." Answered Suikun gently, calmly. "That guy, what was it? Randall? He's gone down to the pokemon centre and told everyone you're the cause of the pokemon leaving."
"No... they wouldn't believe that, would they?"
"People that desperate are willing to believe anything, Jess." Suikun leant down, rubbing her face against Jess's. "The fact that his hand froze and snapped off won't help either, of course. I really shouldn't have gone that far, but I've never seen anyone with more hate for pokemon in their hearts... he deserved it..."
"Nurse Joy would never believe it, she'd-"
"I'd love to convince you of the power of the mob, but there's an even bigger problem than that. Ash is beginning to attack-"
"Ash? Who's that?"
"As I said, I'll explain later. Pokemon will return, but under Ash's command. They'll be stronger, faster than before, and this time they're against humans, pokeballs, the lot. They'll round you up, hold you prisoner... or kill you. And you can't afford to let that happen."
"The pokemon... against us? My own pokemon?"
"Yes, I know it's hard to understand, I'll explain later..."
"Shouldn't we warn the others?"
"If you try to warn them, they'll simply hold you prisoner until the pokemon get here and hold them prisoner. And what's more, they'd take the amulet away. Look, Ash doesn't know about me and the others yet-"
"Others?"
"Yes, you'll have to find them too. The longer we can keep Ash in the dark, the more time we've got. But if Ash finds you now, then that's one less fighter and a whole lot less time we've got... Look, there's nothing you can do for the others, the best thing you can do is run and find the others, and defeat Ash."
"So... I've got to leave my family... Nurse Joy..."
"I know, logic sometimes hurts, but you've got to get out of here... I'm sorry..." Suikun said. Jess looked up, and saw a tear run down one side of Suikun's muzzle...
"Alright, I understand... where should I go?"
"Just try to make it away from the city, get into the forests if you can. But don't head west... that's where Ash's fortress is..."
"Ash's fortress? Is that..."
"Yes. Now go! Before the others get here..." Suikun blew lightly on Jess's face, and suddenly she was awake in her bed... she looked at the clock, she'd only been asleep for a couple hours, but felt completely refreshed. She got up, looked into the streets illuminated by the sunset sky, and saw a large crowd of figures several blocks off... headed by one figure, who looked a lot like Randall even from this distance...
"Alright... I'll do it..." She said, holding the amulet close to her heart as she steeled herself... then ran quickly down the stairs, grabbed her pokemon gear (Glad I never threw it out, might be worth keeping some of it, even if there are no pokemon...) and out the back door, jumping a fence and running a shortcut through various she and her friends had used many times before they'd all set off on pokemon journeys...
Her friends... how must they be now? Without pokemon, she hoped none of them had been beaten up... No, concentrate on the job at hand...
Without looking back, she ran through the city streets... ran and ran, endlessly, but somehow not getting tired...
Don't worry, I'll give you all the energy you need... She heard in her mind. Suikun! No, not that way! Wait, keep going, take this next street on the right...
She turned the corner and kept running... following Suikun's directions as she was guided through the town... until she took a wrong turn and hit a dead end...
Oh no... they're coming this way too... Jessica turned around and saw a couple of scouters at the end of the short court. They yelled, saying they'd found her...
Look, just keep running, don't worry... The calm, steady voice called in her head.
"Are you kidding?" She hissed. "These people have a solid brick fence in their backyard, all around, every house. I'd never get through!"
Trust me... just run... Jess shrugged and ran around the side gate of the house to the backyard, in which there was indeed a strong-looking brick wall, unclimbable for all intents and purposes...
"See what I mean? There's no way I can get past that?" Jess pointed at the wall.
Right, Ice Beam! Suikun called. A beam of blue-white energy flew from Jess's fingers to hit the wall, which froze solid quickly, then simply collapsed into a pile of frozen masonry.
"What? How did..."
Don't worry, that's for later. Now we run! Jess agreed, and ran through. Hang on, I've got another idea... turn around and point at the hole... both hands.
"What..."
Watergun, Icebeam! The voice within her head cried. From one hand, a blast of water shot at the ground while the other shot another beam of energy which froze the water solid. She slowly moved her hands upwards, creating a wall of ice just as impenitrable as the brick wall had been. One of her chasers ran in, and saw her just finishing off the attacks, and gaped at her through the translucent wall of ice.
"It's true!" He cried, and ran back through the gate. Suikun urged her to run, and run she did... until she finally found herself out of the town.
No, don't stop now... you need to get to those trees! Jess sighed, more exhausted mentally from trying to work it all out than physically, and ran on.
When she reached the forest, all the energy seemed to abandon her and she collapsed.
Thank you, Jessica... You should be able to rest for a while here, they won't expect you to have left the city...
"Now..." Jess held the blue amulet in front of her. "I think I'm owed an explaination?"
Well, yes, but I don't think we should stay here too long... unless you want to watch your town being taken over... speak of the devil! Quick, get down...
Jess instinctively ducked. "What?"
Look a little to your right... now, up a bit... see that brown cloud?
"Yeah, sort of..."
Don't you have some binoculars in that bag?
She hastily got them out, with a bit of fumbling, and held them to her eyes. Thousands of them... Pidgey, Pidgeotto, Pidgeot, Spearow, Fearow... as well as a few of the half-flying types...
"No..."
I'm afraid so. Look, you're probably safe here, but you should move on. May as well get going in our search for the others, right?
"Who are these 'others' you keep talking about?"
Ones like you... People who have received these amulets. You'll have to find them... you certainly don't stand a chance against Ash by yourself...
"Could you please explain this to me? I'm still confused..." Jess said, repacking her binoculars and hoisting up her bag to leave.
Next time you sleep... it's easier to manipulate dreams than explain like this. Don't worry, they'll be searching for you too, and as long as Ash doesn't catch any of us you should be fine...
"And if he does catch one of us?"
Then you'd better be on the lookout for pokemon, hope you have a friend by then... and really hope it isn't you he catches...
