Untitled6 "Come on, I could take out the entire place with one attack."
"So?"
"Let me!"
"No. You can't do that, we'll have every pokemon within the blast radius on our tails within seconds!"
"Besides, there's gonna be a whole lot of people lying around down there... you don't want to kill them, do you?"
The five of them were on a ledge overlooking the small city north of the burning forest, a couple of days after they'd had their narrow escape. Suikun had expressed that their destination lay that way, but to go that way they would have to pass through the city in front of them.
"Can't you just dig us under?"
"I could, but it would be bloody hard avoiding the tunnels..."
"Tunnels?"
"The sewer system, the network I'm sure the ground pokemon will have built up under the city... It wouldn't be much easier than going through the city."
"We could try to fight our way through..." Meowth suggested, but didn't sound like he relished the prospect.
"No." Keira disagreed.
"No." James.
"Uh-uh." Jess.
"Hmm..." Liam considered it.
"No." The others all shot at him.
"Alright! Just an idea..."
"So how are we gonna get by this place, if we can't dig, fight or go through?" Meowth asked.
"Well..." Liam started.
"No."
"Wait, just hear me out. If we can find out where the people are..."
"Maybe we can cause a distraction?"
"On the other side of town."
"That might work... but how are we supposed to find out where the people are?"
"They'll be instantly suspiscious if they see any humans around, especially us..."
Everyone thought for a second, then as one got the same idea. They all turned to stare at Meowth.
"Hey... what you looking at me for?"
"I think this might be easier than we thought."
"Guys?"
"All we gotta do is make him act more like a normal Meowth..."
"Change the accent a bit, he should be able to talk among other pokemon but with that accent they'd recognise him any day..."
"Meowths are quiet, aren't they?"
"Not this one!"
"On their feet, I mean. He should be able to get in and out without anyone noticing..."
"Hey! I never said I'd do this!"
Everyone looked at him. "You never said you wouldn't." Jess teased.
"Well, I'll say it now!"
"Too late!"
"Come on..."
"Meowth, what's the worst that could happen?"
"I get found out and killed!"
"He has got a point there..." James said, suddenly looking dubious. "I don't want to lose Meowth too..."
"Well, we're not going to get anywhere unless we find some way through this city." Liam said, glaring at both of them. "Do you have a better idea?"
"Alright, I'll go..." Meowth resigned himself to his fate. "But if anything happens to me, I'm gonna kill you."
"Okay..." They watched him go down. "I guess we should get ready..."
~-~-~-~
Meowth slunk into the city, darted around a corner and shuffled across the wall, before realising just how stupid he was being. He was a pokemon, this city was run by the things... why would they be suspiscious of another pokemon, since for all intents and purposes treachery was impossible?
So he strode confidently onto the street, then realised he would've given himself away should anyone have been on it. Just because all the pokemon could talk these days didn't mean all the Meowth walked on their hind legs like him. He dropped to all fours, and, taking a moment to adjust himself to the now-unfamiliar stance, sauntered off...
~-~-~-~
The four humans busied themselves to get ready for battle. Or at least Liam did. There was still some hours of daylight left, and since they would probably be traversing the city in the dark the other three wanted to get some rest. The four of them lay down and were asleep almost instantly - it seemed so easy these days...
The four of them appeared on the endless blank void that was the dreamscape. It had been a couple of days since they'd left the burning forests of the Bulbasaur, and so they'd already met Carnak, Liam's Guardian. But it still didn't fail to impress.
A good fourteen feet tall when fully upright - although it normally remained crouched or on all fours - it was a brownish-grey colour, lighter on the underside. Although there wasn't much underside to speak of, since it was thin to the point of hardly being there - it could have hidden behind a reasonably thick pole, except for the wide, flat head. The head, and the series of long curved blades mounted along each long arm from elbow to wrist, suggested half Kabutops, although the body didn't match, and the head had altered slightly to give it an almost canine look, and was coloured blue on top.
Despite it's fearsome and dangerous look, it was quite friendly. It had been one of the very first Guardians - obviously, since Kabutops were extinct these days - and was quite pleased to be alive again. Or as close to it as you could be. The others had thought, at first, that Liam's ruthlessness and cruelty had stemmed from his Guardian, but it seemed that he was just an asshole.
However, he was worth having on the team - both Carnak and Liam could beat Keira, Jess and their guardians as often as not. Carnak's stick-like frame meant he was quite difficult to hit, and the blades were certainly something to reckon with. Liam had been quite a strong fighter even before he'd gotten the amulet, and combined with his fairly impressive speed he could take out the girls easily. And defence? He'd take the full brunt of a Razor Leaf attack, the only attempt at self-protection an arm raised in front of his face to protect his eyes, and not even flinch or stop his advance for a second.
They got right into their training, James versus Keira and Liam fighting Jess. The guardians decided to stand back and spectate, or chat about old times...
~-~-~-~
Meowth had almost forgotten himself and run around a corner when a Sandslash and a Nidorino walked down the street towards him, chatting casually in a strange mix of english and their own pokemon languages. But he managed to put up a confident face and strode by them, and to his delight they walked right by, giving him no more than a glance. He almost burst out laughing, but continued.
Now, let's see... I've been in this city before... Indeed, it held quite a lot of sentimental value to Meowth. This was the city in which he'd fought for the right to keep the little egg pokemon Togepi which he'd worked so hard to protect. A tear welled in his eye as he thought of the little creature, and he marched on, mentally trying to figure out where they'd keep the humans...
His first thought was the pokemon center, but a quick glance inside revealed that wasn't it - there was nothing in there but a couple of Chansey behind the desk, and a couple of slightly injured pokemon. The center was small (as centers go) and certainly wouldn't fit the population of such a city...
After several more incorrect guesses, he began to despair for ever finding them. But then he spotted, from a dark alley, a pair of Growlithe in a stance he recognised from many years opposing the police forces - on guard, and ready to attack.
But instead of facing towards the outskirts of the city, to protect them from attack, they were facing a group of houses.
Bingo!
Meowth quickly scaled a wall and looked out from a high rooftop. There were pokemon of various sorts, mostly Growlithe and Arcanine, on guard and stationed around a large residential area. Meowth grinned, but set out to confirm, taking a daring leap from the rooftop he sat on to one inside the guarded area.
He was so proud and confident in his ability to remain undiscovered as a pokemon among pokemon that he didn't even think to keep his guard up, and so didn't notice another shape, quite similar to his own, detach itself from the shadows and follow silently...
~-~-~-~
FLASH! The city below was burning, burning freely. Pokemon, especially grass, bug and other types not fire-friendly, were running around in a blind panic; Water-types were trying desperately to extinguish the flames, but there was simply too much fire to do it. As they watched, a tall building slowly collapsed, taking out the building next to it, half of the one after that and no small number of pokemon... But then it set off a chain reaction among several other buildings, and that section of the town was reduced to a glowing, flaming pile of rubble...
All four humans, and their guardians, were staggered into silence for a moment by the strength of the vision, and all the paraphenalia they'd conjured dissapated. James was the first one to moan, "Not again..."
"Again?" Carnak asked curiously.
"This happened a while ago, just before we met Liam..." Jess said, so deep in thought she probably didn't even realise she was talking. "We saw the pokemon set the forest alight..."
"And straight after we woke up, it came true..."
"Nah... I don't believe it." Liam said, pushing himself up. "Nobody saw any humans in the fire, did they?"
Everyone thought about it, and had to admit that they hadn't.
"For all we know, this could be something that happened... will happen years in the future. Or a hoax by the psychic pokemon to try to scare us into not going any further." Liam explained, but it was forced. They could tell he was trying to convince himself as much as he was the others.
"We could get through a fire." Suikun said confidently. Jess, typically, looked confident too. Of course, Keira and Florasaur were not nearly as confident...
But their conversations were cut short as a familiar voice echoed over the black void. "Guys? Whaddya think yer doin', sleepin' on the job?"
"Meowth's back." Jess commented dryly, and the darkness faded away to be replaced by the comparitively blinding light of real life. Meowth grinned.
"It was easy. The entire city's population is holed up on the west wing of the city, guarded by a whole lot of Growlithes."
"So..."
"They looked a little paranoid, though." Meowth suddenly switched to thoughtful. "I reckon if we set something up on the other side of the city, they'd all run like crazy over to there to see what was going on."
"Leaving us a clear path through the city!" James said.
"It should be easy..."
They started planning, knowing they'd be trying it within a couple of hours. The more they planned, the easier it sounded...
But the bright image of the city blazing still hung in the back of their minds...
~-~-~-~
The crashing and breaking simply couldn't be described with words. The five of them watched in shock as a good section of the east side of town shook loudly and visibly. A couple of the not-so-well constructed houses collapsed, but it didn't fail to grab a single pokemon's attention.
"Hmm... that's not bad." Jess noted.
"Maybe that thing we saw was just that part of the city?" Suggested Keira.
"What?" Meowth looked up at her.
"Don't worry."
"We'd better get going." Liam noted. As Meowth had suggested, every pokemon that was guarding the area started and sped off towards the damaged section of the city.
"This will be easy!" James gave an excited whisper.
"Don't drop your guard. We'll go through carefully, just in case..."
They stepped into the deserted streets, going as quietly as they possibly could. At one time or another, they all (even Liam) spared a glance to the houses full of the imprisoned humans of the town, longing to free them. But they'd agreed earlier that there wasn't any point in this - the people would simply be recaptured, probably with a high death toll in the process. And that wasn't something anyone wanted.
But still, it made them feel like monsters to just walk past...
"Grow-" An alarmed cry sounded behind them, but was cut off as Jess spun and unleashed an Icebeam. The fire dog was encased in ice with an extremely suprised look on it's face.
"Dammit!" Liam cursed under his breath. "Quick, we've gotta get moving fast. We don't want anyone finding that and raising the alarm..."
The five of them ran as fast as they could while making as little noise as possible. Jess was having the hardest time - James had previous experience, and so did Liam apparently. Meowth, of course, had no trouble at all, and Keira was as light-footed as any cat. But they got through the streets without any cries of alarm, except those sounding well off to the east side of town where there was still some trouble with the quake's damage.
Finally, they saw the open fields from the road. Trying to suppress their excitement, they ran towards it...
And suddenly found themselves unable to move!
What the... The amulets voiced their feelings, and the humans would've too if they could move their mouths.
So... the fool humans thought they could get away with it. A new psychic voice said with a laugh
They felt themselves being lifted into the air, and swiveled to look at their captor - a puny little Abra.
I don't believe this... Moaned Suikun. The Abra laughed aloud.
Your Meowth friend there... I don't understand how he can disobey Ash's commands. I'm sure Ash would like to meet him... He'd soon set him straight.
James cried out in anguish. "Don't hurt Meowth!" He struggled against the psychic bonds, but failed; his struggles slowed as the Psi pokemon concentrated the disable attack on him.
But just before he became completely immobile again, he sent an etheral blade spinning towards the tiny being.
It looked suprised, but wasn't alarmed, as he released the attack. The reason why became apparent when a Graveler suddenly jumped out and blocked the blade easily. Quite a few pokemon, mostly on their second evolution, stepped out from the shadows.
Really... I'm sure he'll want to meet you as well. I'll get rewarded for bringing you in... Maybe he'll even evolve me!
Evolve? Jess thought. He can do that?
Of course! Suikun answered with a snort. We all can. Comes with the job. Hardly ever used, though...
Liam suddenly struggled and stretched against the power holding him in place. With a mighty kick he managed to touch the ground beneath him.
The result? Instant chaos.
A white line zig-zagged it's way across the ground to beneath the pokemon, before suddenly glowing and splitting... And the entire street seemed to split apart!
Many of the smaller pokemon fell into the hole, screaming madly. The Abra managed to hold itself up psychically, but in the process let go of it's enemy. They leapt onto the side of the shattered street.
"Now! Everything you've got!" Jess and Keira cried together. Various pokemon were left frozen, impaled, tied up or in deep pits. The Abra teleported itself away from one of Jess's Ice Beams.
You'll pay, humans! It growled psychically, then yelled. To every pokemon in the city! We've found the amulet-holders! They're the cause of the earthquakes!
"That'll bring them all down on us!" Meowth wailed the obvious.
Jess, Keira, James and Meowth were all set to get running, but Liam had one card up his sleeve. With a loud yell, he slammed his fist into the ground.
The resulting Earthquake knocked even him off his feet. He quickly jumped up, helped up the others and yelled, "RUN!"
~-~-~-~
They were now some distance away from the destroyed city, and had slowed down when it became apparent that they weren't being chased. Looking back, they saw a very familiar scene.
The city below was burning, burning freely. Pokemon, especially grass, bug and other types not fire-friendly, were running around in a blind panic; Water-types were trying desperately to extinguish the flames, but there was simply too much fire to do it. As they watched, a tall building slowly collapsed, taking out the building next to it, half of the one after that and no small number of pokemon... But then it set off a chain reaction among several other buildings, and that section of the town was reduced to a glowing, flaming pile of rubble...
"Just like what we saw..." Whispered Jess, almost reverently.
"Uh-huh..."
But it was much, much worse. In the flash, all they'd experienced was the image of the burning city. It hadn't encompassed the deafening crackle of the flames, the occasional crash as a building collapsed...
And over it all, the horrible dying screams of so many pokemon...