And then the sensation of flying stops suddenly as the ground hits, or is hit... it hurt!
Jessica woke up with a shock, breathing heavily. I'm sorry... It wasn't fun, I know... I was there, after all. You did want to know...
"At least I understand what's going on..." Jessica managed to whisper. Her heart was racing, adrenaline pumping... she'd just been treated to an explanatory dream sequence from Suikun's point of view, which had - until the amulets had been created - rested within Houou's point of view. It had been quite a ride.
"So... how many others are there?"
Um... I don't actually know. We weren't exactly active inside Houou... I don't think anyone ever counted... And I know for sure that not all of us made it out...
"What do you mean?"
Houou was killed shortly afterwards... A Scyther slash. He lived only long enough to create his own amulet, which he infused with the powers of the remaining spirits...
"So... who holds that amulet?"
Only Houou knows that. And if he hasn't made it to his host yet, maybe not even him... I didn't know who it was going to be until you picked me up.
"So where would I go, to find another amulet holder?" She asked, hoping this question might get an answer.
There's one nearby.
"What? Where?"
To your left. A couple of miles or so. I don't know, it's quite inaccurate, but if you keep following my directions you should find him or her eventually.
"Do you know who it is?"
Who who is? The person or the guardian?
"Either."
I don't know who the person is, but I think I might know who the guardian is... but we'll find out when we get there, won't we? Get moving!
"Alright, geez, no need to be pushy. I'm going!"
She hastily packed up her belongings and set off. "I take it if I'm looking for them, they'll be looking for me too?"
Should be...
"Well, that makes my life a little easier." She said, walking through the forest. Quickly becoming bored - she'd usually keep at least one of her Pokémon out for conversation during travel - she decided to try to spark up a conversation with the amulet. "So... you were once human, then became a Pokémon? I would have loved to try that... I've always wondered what it would be like to be a Pokémon..."
Heh... You never know, girl. You might just get that wish...
"What?!"
Yeah, I don't know what'll happen when the fighting gets heavy... you're technically part Pokémon now, because of me. You saw those attacks you did. Who knows, you might even evolve...
"I didn't do those attacks, you did!"
Wrong, sweetheart. I have some minor control over this body and, obviously, the elemental attacks are probably the most susceptible to my workings, especially when you don't know how to control them. If you can't control them, you can't resist my doing them. Which leads me to my next po-
"You're going to teach me how to use the attacks myself."
'sright...
"So, let's get to it..." She said, then listened for the next hour or so as Suikun explained it to her, putting in her own comments here and there. It would have looked strange, had anyone been watching.
And someone was watching.
A Mankey watched, in some confusion, as the girl wandered slowly down the forest trail, apparently talking to herself. It couldn't make out the words. But it almost fell out of the tree in shock as it watched her unleash a Water Gun.
When she used Ice Beam, it did fall. Jess snapped her head towards the noise, and saw the long white tail.
A Pokémon... it saw you. Here's some target practice for you - you can't let that get away!
"Right. Ice Beam!" Mankey jumped up, the cold energy beam freezing the area it had been standing a moment ago. "Damn, that felt good. Water gun!" She yelled, watching the attack hit the Mankey, forcing it to slide along the now-muddy ground...
Bubblebeam! Suikun shouted, but nothing happened. Hey, see, you're getting better... I don't have control over it, when you're concentrating on attacking... but use Bubblebeam anyway...
"Right! Bubblebeam!" The pressurized stream of explosive bubbles hit the Pokémon, obviously hurting it, but it kept running.
Not so loud... we don't want more Pokémon in the area... But get running!
"Got it!" Jessica started running, amazingly catching up with the Mankey fairly quickly.
"Maaannkeeey!" It screamed, running as fast as it could. Jessica aimed an attack as she ran, and hissed it more quietly as she ran.
"Water Gun!" She shot the attack. It came within an inch of hitting the Mankey, but it jumped up and started climbing a tree...
Oh no, just what we didn't need... it'll be even faster now...
Jess didn't reply, shooting an Ice Beam at the Mankey, but the dense foliage shielded it, and it paused for a moment to taunt her before bounding away!
"Oh, you are not getting away from me!" She hissed, shooting elemental attack after attack into the tree, but not hitting the Mankey.
No, aim for the trunks... if you can bring down the tree, you'll bring down the Mankey!
Jess pointed a finger at the trunks of the trees Mankey was jumping from and to, and watched with satisfaction as they froze, cracked and toppled. But Mankey had somehow managed to jump to the next tree in time...
"Damn!" It dodged yet another Water Gun, and ran off...
...Right into an outstretched foot!
"Yah! Take that! And that, ya durty Mankey!" A white blur was pounding the Mankey in the treetop, and before long a stunning kick threw the creature down in front of Jessica's feet... Followed by it's attacker.
"You... you're a..." She said, looking at it. The last thing she'd expected - a Meowth.
"Yeah, ya wanna make som'tin' of it?" The Meowth snarled. Suikun snorted at it's poor attitude, and aimed a low-powered Ice Beam just beside it. Jessica stopped the attack.
"It's a Pokémon... should I take it out?"
"No, don't worry..." Said another voice from the shadows. She whipped around, and a young man with lavender-coloured hair, probably in his late teens or early twenties, dropped down from a treetop.
"For some reason, Meowth wasn't affected like the other Pokémon. He's more human than Pokémon, really."
"Who are you?"
I think he might be our amulet holder... Suggested Suikun.
"Now, this voice that seems to be following me around..." He suddenly cringed, then continued. "This voice by the name of Sati, seems to think you have one of these..."
He held an amulet out, hung delicately on a long, crimson ribbon. It was mostly identical to Jessica's, except where she had a deep blue sapphire he had a shining whitish-transparent diamond, and although the scratched-in figure was unclear she thought it looked a little more feline than hers...
Ha! I knew it, it's Sati! Go on, show him your one... Jess felt her hand automatically digging into her pocket for the amulet, and she held it out. Something deep in her mind was shrieking about this guy... something familiar.
"Hmm... what do you know, she was right!" He shrugged, and held out his hand. "I'm Ja-"
"You're from Team Rocket!" She suddenly blurted out, figuring out what had been nagging at her mind the past few minutes - his white clothing with the blazing crimson 'R' on the front... But all the others she'd seen had been dressed in black. He looked mildly annoyed at her mention of this.
"Yes... well, was from Team Rocket. Think about it, there's not much use in being a Pokémon thief if there aren't any Pokémon or pokéballs."
Just because he's from a criminal group doesn't mean he can't help you... there's no telling what you might need in the future... takes all kinds.
"Anyway, as I was about to say, my name is James. Previous out-of-luck Team Rocket employee, and now apparently protector of the world."
"And... your Pokémon can talk?" Jess looked down at the Meowth, who was giving James a funny look.
"Yeah, he's been around with our group for a while now... don't worry, it's a long story involving a certain female friend..." Meowth blushed, snarled and leapt at James' face to give him a hard scratching... but James ducked and moved underneath with grace you'd expect more from the cat Pokémon. "Anyway, you are?"
"My name's Jess..." She said carefully. He certainly seemed in control...
He looked a little suprised. "Another Jess, eh? Well... I guess I should take you to meet my partner... we left her behind a while back. Make sure nothing nasty has happened to her..."
With an amazing leap, James grabbed a tree trunk and scrabbled up... Jess watched in amazement as he scrabbled up apparently without handholds, finding a sturdy branch and looking down on Jessica and the Meowth. "I'll be at the campsite, catch me up. You know where it is, Meowth." And he leapt off through the branches, the sound of his laughter tinkling down to them as they stood there.
Showoff... Suikun mumbled, apparently to herself.
"Hi there." Meowth took a leap and landed on Jess's shoulder. "It's good to have some company around... Jessie's been sulking ever since... you know, the Pokémon ran off. She was heartbroken... And James ain't been much good either, he's been acting really weird since he found that diamond thing..."
She resisted an urge to chuckle at the pokémon's strange accent. "What do you mean, acting strange?"
"Get walking, that way." Meowth commanded, in the content tones of someone who knows a free ride when he sees one. But his tone soon flicked back to concern and worry... "James used to be whining, naive... He would normally have been as badly off as Jess when the Pokémon ran away. But he found that thing... and shrugged it off, like nothing had happened. And he's been acting so... posh, careless... it's just not like him..."
That'll be Sati... Bit of a pompous one. Very dignified, unless she has to fight. Persian genes... Tell the cat not to worry, his friend is fine.
Jess relayed the message to the talking Meowth, who hissed at the word Persian. "Ah... Stupid things... Ruin everything for me..."
She continued to talk with the pokemon until she finally reached the campsite. James was frying some eggs, but there was no sign of his partner, that he'd been speaking of.
"Oh, hi, about time you got here. These'll be ready soon, just sit down and wait..."
"Where's your friend?"
"Jessie? She's over in the tent." He guestured to a tall green tent, half-unzipped.
"Well... Meowth's told me about her... Not in a good mood..."
"Well, I'm sure you were a pokemon trainer too before it happened. Were you estatic?"
"You're right..." She was suddenly reminded of her pokemon again...
"I reckon I know why I was chosen for this thing..." He held up the diamond amulet, hanging from the ribbon around his neck. "Has yours explained what happened? I mean, with Ash and all that? Hello?" She jumped out of her melancholy memory sequence again and ran back through what he'd said.
"Yeah..."
"I know Ash."
That got her attention. "You know him? The guy who's apparently trying to take over the world?"
What do you mean, 'apparently'? Suikun asked, slightly miffed. Don't you beleive me?
Before she could answer, James started talking again. "We were assigned to him, to try to steal his pokemon... I personally don't beleive he has it in him to be an evil overlord, but Sati insists it's true."
That's because he's not an evil overlord... He's just a little insane. He believes what he's doing is for the good of all pokemon, and technically he's right, but he's not taking humans into account...
James began to say something but suddenly turned around, hearing a noise from the tent. A girl, about his age, came out... She was in terrible condition.
Long red hair flowed sideways from her head, but then drooped sadly down. Long red marks trailed down her face, suggesting that she'd been scratched; Her eyes were bloodshot and red-rimmed, her uniform - white rocket, but quite different from james - was ripped and torn. James suppressed a shudder.
"She looks awful..." Meowth whispered to Jessica. "Back before... you wouldn't see Jess looking anything less than perfect. But not anymore... It's killing her, and it seems to be the only thing that bothers James recently..."
"Jessie..." You could hear the pain in James' voice as he called to his partner. "This is Jessica. She's going to help us find the pokemon..."
Jessie gave her a quick glance, but nothing more. She looked enquiringly at the frying pan of eggs.
"They'll be ready soon. Go back to the tent and get cleaned up, I'll bring them to you..."
Jessie shook her head gently. Meowth whispered to Jess again. "She hasn't spoken since it happened, either..."
Poor girl... I wish she didn't have to go through this... see, this is what we're fighting for.
"I think these are ready..." James said, to break the uncomfortable silence. He shared out the eggs between everyone, and they all ate quietly for a while.
Finishing his egg, Meowth put the plate on the ground, stretched... and suddenly froze.
"Hmm... wht's 'p M'th?" James asked through a mouthful of egg, but Meowth waved him to silence. Everyone stopped eating, suddenly listening intently...
It's a Spearow! Don't make any sudden moves... just slowly look up, just a smidgen left... Suikun advised. Her eyes flicked to it immediately, seeing the patch of brown among the leaves, then to James sitting across from her. He nodded, almost imperceptively.
Just a water gun, to get it in the air. James should be able to take care of it then...
She stared directly at the bird, and took a deep breath... and blew as hard as she could. A stream of water gushed from her mouth, knocking aside everything until it hit the bird pokemon. It squawked loudly, taking flight, and James had already jumped up and turned to face it. He flung out a hand, and what appeared to be an etheral dagger flew out and slashed through the bird's tiny wing.
Good aim... Suikun commented. Jess just looked to James. "What was that?"
Sati's power. Suikun answered for her. She's a normal type, which means she didn't have much in the way of elemental attacks. She developed a way of creating physical objects, sort of psychic-ghost maybe but just as solid as the real thing, though it might not look it.
"Speeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaarrrr!" Cried the injured bird. Meowth ran off in the general direction, there was another loud but somewhat shorter squawk... and he came back holding the corpse.
"Hmm... maybe we might have more of a meal after all." James said thoughtfully. Jessica was horrified.
"You're going to... eat it?"
"Girl, when you're outlawed from most cities and eating venues you learn to live off the wild. There's nothing wrong with eating pokemon, other pokemon do it all the time."
Listen to them, Jess. Think about it, soon most of the cities will be all but off-limits to humans. Get it into your head, pokemon are the enemy now!
"Yeah... I guess..."
"Hmm?" James looked at her curiously, then realised she was talking with her amulet. "Well, this bit is a little messy... If you don't want to see it, you should take a little walk."
"I'll go too." Meowth said hurriedly. Jessie snorted and went back to her tent as the two left, and James got on with preparing the bird...
