His Pidgeot waddled to stand beside him and looked through the window. "What is this? The bird project?"
"No... I've put that on hold while I develop this one..."
"What is it?"
"You never could stand having secrets kept from you, could you?" Ash laughed. "Well, you'll just have to wait and see."
The pokemon looked hurt. "Don't you trust me?"
"Actually, it's because I don't know what it'll be myself..."
Pidgeot looked closer. "Hmm... looks familiar... hey, isn't tha-"
"That's right."
"What are you doing?"
"Experimenting."
A look of fear and mistrust flashed over the bird's face for a second (Although it was difficult to read, 'cos of the beak...) and Ash laughed when he saw it. "Don't worry, I wouldn't experiment with you... unless you really wanted me to, that is... And in the end, you might..."
It looked doubtful, and began to say something, but suddenly a Spearow flew in through the window and promptly collapsed. They both rushed up to it, and saw just how hurt it was. Ash scooped it up.
"What happened to you?"
"Humans... powers... burnt city... death..." The Spearow fainted before it could get another word out. Ash shook with rage, and placed the Spearow on a mat. He whistled loudly.
"Chansey!" A cheery pink egg pokemon waddled in, took one look at the crispy Spearow and immediately scooped it up and carried it out of the room. Ash walked up to his Pidgeot.
"Ready for a nice flight?"
"Yes, master..." Pidgeot offered the Guardian his back. The two flew off, to search for the burning city.
And back in the lab, the forgotten experiment began to change, painfully slowly, but fast enough...
The four humans and Meowth ran blindly through the
night, running from the city and all it's inhabitants. But even if they
could distance themselves from a retaliation by the angered creatures,
they all knew they would never get away from the sounds... the awful screams,
dying calls...
There was no telling whether the screams were still
caused by the pokemon of the city, or their memories and guilty consciences
ganging up on them...
But on they ran...
In the darkness, Jess tripped over an upraised root
and fell flat. The others slowed and yelled at her to get up.
But she couldn't. She almost laughed when she felt
the tears falling down her face, although it took her a moment to realise
why...
Deja vu... now isn't this scene familiar? She
thought back to the time when she'd first met Suikun... Less than a month
ago...
The pain of the fall had shocked her clouded
mind into clearer thinking, but that was no great relief at all.
One month... about one month since the pokemon
ran away, and now we're killing them to survive...
She sighed and retreated into an even deeper depression.
Liam, growing impatient, grabbed her arm and roughly pulled her to her
feet, but she simply collapsed again.
"Don't worry... go on." She sighed again. "Leave
me to the pokemon. I don't want to live in this new world... I don't deserve
to live either..."
Everyone was shocked momentarily. Suprisingly, it
was James who recovered first, and with a show of anger he would normally
never give.
"Now you listen to me!" He snatched her up by her
collar. "I've already lost one Jess through this! You've got no right to
just give up on the rest of us!"
Jess was somehow annoyed and angered at him. "Is
that right?" She argued back. "Well, think about this - what if one of
your
pokemon was in that city? What if your Victreebell just burned to death?
What if your Weezing was caught in the fire?"
James was stunned into silence. "I... hadn't...
thought..." His grip on Jess loosened and he slowly keeled over. Keira
turned very pale, but the insensitive Liam just looked around for any pokemon
who might be near.
"For god's sakes, we'll never get anywhere with
this..." He grumbled, and slammed a foot down. A crack traced it's way
around the group in the ground, and suddenly they were plummetting deep
underground...
And presently, the chunk of rock replaced itself
above ground with barely a slit to show what had happened...
Liam was just getting plain frustrated.
It had been a couple of hours since they'd come
down into the underground cave. At least he'd managed to convince Keira
to conjure up some plant matter to use to light the gloomy atmosphere.
But Jess was still in a sulk, sobbing softly, James was right next to her,
and Keira looked like she was going to be sick. Meowth was faring a little
better, and idly chatting with the cat was all Liam could do to keep his
sanity in his impatience.
He looked up when Jess's sobbing stopped. He was
optimistic enough to think that she might have recovered, but soon realised
she'd cried herself to sleep...
Hmm... she's asleep? He thought. An
idea formed in his mind. It was cruel, but then, this was Liam we're talking
about...
He conversed breifly with his Guardian, then
made his way to talk to Keira and James.
"Listen... in this state, Jess is never going to
be able to fight with us."
"What?"
"I've got an idea... it's not very nice, but I think
it might be the only way to solve this..."
Jess awoke in the cave, yawned and stretched, and
looked around. It took her a couple of seconds to pull together what was
wrong: there was no-one else there.
She panicked breifly, and instinctively grabbed
for the sapphire amulet at her neck. She sighed with relief as she felt
it.
"Suikun!"
Yes? What is it? The amulet half-yawned.
"Where are all the others?" She hissed. "They're
gone!
What? Suikun screeched. Jess leapt up, scanning
the cave once again for any sign of life. Something caught her attention
- the torch had been mounted on a rocky mound, and a piece of paper appeared
to have been attached to a branch sticking out of the heap. Jess scooped
it up.
...Hadn't she?
"They... left me behind..." She said, barely believing
it. "They... left me... behind..."
Well... I do seem to remember you saying to leave
you behind to die at the hands of the pokemon... Suikun pointed out.
"What? Whose side are you on?" She growled at the
amulet...
I'm not happy about this either... Suikun
said, the tone of her psychic voice making this all too clear. But let's
face it, there's only one person to blame...
"Hey!" Jess snorted. "Some help you are!"
In her rage, she actually pulled the amulet off and flung it across the
cave before collapsing back into a sulk.
You're never going to get anything done like
that. Suikun lectured. And I really don't appreciate your throwing
me like that.
"Oh, just shut up!" She yelled back.
Hmph! Suikun took minor control of her body,
even from all the way across the room, and forced her to Water Gun herself
in the face. Wake up, Jessica! The only way you're gonna survive out
there is to get back with the others! You can't just sit here moping forever!
Jessie was too down to even think of a retort
for that one, let alone move, so she just shook some of the water out of
her hair and continued to mope. She could hear the guardian growling impatiently
within herself, but paid it no mind.
Nevertheless, she jumped in suprise when the water
wolf roared, GET OFF YER ASS AND GET MOVING! Or I'll go and find someone
else to bond with, and we'll go beat Ash!
"Okay! If it'll shut you up, for god's sakes!"
She pushed herself up, annoyed as ever, then muttered "Not like you could...
you're nothing but a little amulet, how could you go anywhere? And where
are you, anyway?"
By the time Jess had found the amulet and the tunnel
entrance, she'd calmed down a fair bit, much to Suikun's relief. She actually
apologised as she scooped up the torch sitting nearby...
That's okay. I'm sorry I had to do that, but
you needed something to get you moving...
"How far do you think they will have gotten?"
Jess set off into the tunnel mouth.
They're a few miles away. Either that, or they're
so far away it isn't funny and there's another trio of amulet-holders there...
"I hope I'm not too late to catch up with
them..." She whispered fearfully.
Don't worry...
Jess stopped talking, because the tunnel
had reached a sharp uphill curve and she had to use her hands to help her
climb.
Look! Daylight! Suikun whispered. Indeed,
the torch she carried was no longer necessary as weak daylight filtered
through. Heartened by this sight, she doubled her efforts to make it to
the top...
She practically leapt out of the small tunnel entrance,
gulping in the beautiful fresh air after so long in the stuffy cave. She
reached for her backpack for some food - she hadn't eaten since before
they'd gotten to the city - and before she knew what was happening, she
was in a world of pain.
"Aaarrrgghh!" She screamed, as electricity ripped
through her body. She tried to turn over to see just what it was that was
attacking her, but even as the convulsions caused by the electric attack
faded, she knew the attack had paralysed her...
"Heheheh... Looks like we caught one of them at
last..." A voice laughed, and if she could move she would have cringed
just at the horrid sound of it. "Back to base!"
Suikun gave a fearful moan. It's Ash...
Before Jess knew what was happening, she was hanging
limply over the shoulder of a pokemon, enraged at the helplessness she
felt...
The trip back to the base seemed to pass by in a
blur. Jess attributed this to the paralysis. When she finally found herself
able to move again, she got up... and immediately collapsed onto the floor
again...
What's happening? She thought to herself.
She tried to get up, but felt so tired she could barely lift a finger.
It's an energy-drain room. Advised Suikun.
Remember,
like the one Ash trapped Houou in.
"Great..." She did, indeed, feel drained. She couldn't
call up enough energy to move, let alone escape or defend herself. "Now
I understand how Houou felt..." The very effort of talking was making her
even more exhasted, and for a moment she must have blacked out, because
the next thing she knew she was being hoisted up by a Machoke and carried
out of the room.
"Don't suppose you've got enough power to call up
an attack?" She mumbled to the pendant now hanging down from her neck.
I don't if you don't. Suikun said sadly.
Sorry.
The Machoke carrying her sniggered. She looked
a little annoyed, but didn't do anything because she couldn't. Two more
pokemon - she couldn't tell what - joined them as two doors opened to show
a huge hall, and the Machoke let her slump down to the ground, and now
out of the energy-draining room she felt some of her strength return.
"Well, well, well. Nice to meet you... what was
your name again?" Ash's voice came from further up the room, but his body
was hidden in shadow, only a faint outline showing.
Don't even dignify him with a response...
Suikun said, hatred warping her voice. Jess agreed silently, and just glared
angrily at him.
"Not in a talkative mood, eh? Well, maybe we'll
just have to torture it out of you... What would be the most powerful torture
we could afford to give such a guest?"
Suikun growled lowly. That does it. Think we've
got enough energy for an attack yet?
"I dunno..." She muttered under her breath.
She wanted to freeze and then shatter the freak, but still felt awfully
lethargic.
You do now. Suikun said, concentrating. Jess
felt a sudden surge, like a splash of ice-cold water on the face, and a
burst of energy... She threw out her arm towards Ash, unleashing everything
she had in an Icebeam...
Ash gave a sharp laugh, waved his hand and the beam
simply dispersed into the air. Jess collapsed, seeing the despair of fighting
one so powerful...
"She's obviously not going to be co-operative. I
think I'll have a little fun with her... Throw her in an ordinary cell.
Let her build up her energy; she's going to need it for this..."
The Machoke, along with the other two pokemon who
she now saw to be a Vileplume and an Arcanine, saluted to the best of their
ability and marched out, taking Jess with them...
Why did I have to be such a baby? She wondered. I should have just gritted my teeth and gone on, gone with the others...
Suikun was silent. She had been since that failed attempt on Ash, but Jess could feel her depressed attitude at the back of her mind, furthering her own depression...
She thought of the other three, and hoped they were having much, much better luck than she...
At least I'm strong enough to actually attack now...
As if the thought had triggered it, she heard a key being fiddled with in the lock, and the Machoke opened it. "Ash wishes to see you. Please do not waste your energy trying to escape, or you will be killed." It said, without emotion. It motioned her out of the cell, and as she left she saw just how many high-powered pokemon were standing around here.
It's not worth it. Do as the Machoke says. Suikun advised, speaking up at last.
Angrily, Jessica followed the Machoke down various corridors, until they got to the huge double-doors that had led to Ash's cavern before.
Again, the doors swung open, and she looked across the huge room to meet the eyes of the shadowed figure.
"So, Jessica," He accentuated the name, showing her he knew it. "Are you prepared to tell me where the others are? Or must we beat it out of you?" His tone clearly indicated that he'd prefer the second.
"They left me." She spat out. "They ran off and left me by myself."
"Left you? Ha!" He scoffed. "They wouldn't do that. The guardians aren't stupid enough to disband such a valuable asset. Nice try."
Jess refused to argue.
"Unless... you refused to come with them." He said. Jess immediately snapped her head towards him; he knew he'd hit a nerve.
"That's it, isn't it? You chickened out. You refused to fight pokemon... oh, this is brilliant." He started laughing. Jess was getting really angry, but didn't dare attack him; she knew that he was far more powerful, and along with the Machoke, Arcanine and Vileplume that were there before was a Persian and a Venusaur, and they all looked ready to attack her.
"Well, that makes our little training session all the more fun. Bring out our challenger!"
The huge double doors opened once again, and a huge blue pokemon came out; the fearsome form of a Nidoqueen could not be mistaken anywhere. It let out a mighty roar, then set it's sights on Jess.
Jess crouched, ready to fight. Sure, if Ash wanted to challenge her, she'd play. What sort of idiot would send a half-ground type pokemon against something that specialised in water and ice anyway?
Not waiting for the Nido to make the first move, she unleashed an Ice Beam... which was countered as the beast unleashed her own Ice Beam, and as the two collided a huge block of ice formed and fell to the ground between them.
The strange reflections caused by the too-quickly formed ice meant that she couldn't clearly see the pokemon through it, and she waited for an attack...
Almost too late, she noticed the crack running from under the ice to her feet, and jumped away just in time before the ground split in a fissure attack. The ice structure managed to remain standing, even as the fissure slammed closed again. Jess shuddered to think what might have happened had she been caught in that gap...
Suddenly, the huge ice block shuddered under a tremendous impact, cracking everywhere... and a second impact shattered it into several distinct pieces. The Nidoqueen landed from the Double Kick attack, and immediately proceeded to use Strength to throw one of the huge iceblocks at Jess.
She ducked out of the way in time to avoid the block, but not the icy shrapnel produced when the thing hit the ground. She was forced to avoid two more pieces, getting cut up fairly badly, but then slipped on the icy surface to unfortunately land right in front of the Nidoqueen.
The pokemon grabbed her and started squeezing her, a deadly submission attack. Jess heard her bones creak as the pressure got higher and higher... and she managed to turn her hands to be facing into the Nidoqueen's stomach, powering up an attack as she found herself unable to breathe for the pressure...
"You wouldn't do that..." A voice grunted in her ear. It took her a moment to realise it was the pokemon talking to her.
"I... will..." She managed to gasp.
"What? Don't you recognise me?" Suddenly, the pokemon threw her to the floor, and she looked at the pokemon even as she gasped for breath...
Oh no... don't let it be... The icy blue power drained from her hands as realization dawned....
It was her Nidoqueen!
"Not so eager to fight now, are we?" Ash taunted, laughing. Jess was too shocked to even defend herself as the huge creature kicked her across the room, and that only proceeded to shock her even more...
"Nidoqueen... why?"
"You're not my master anymore..." Nidoqueen grunted, almost smugly, as she charged at the puny human who had once trained her. Jess managed to pull herself together enough to create an icy barrier for her protection, but it was promptly shattered.
"So all those years I trained you... for this? Now you're going to kill me?" Jess jumped out of the way of a fearsome double kick, but it was obvious her heart wasn't in the fight...
"Ash knows... training pokemon is evil. Pokeballs are evil. Trainers should be punished for keeping pokemon captive like this..." The tone of her voice was bordering on religious fervour... "And after all, you claim you love your pokemon, but I've heard of your story... you've been killing pok-"
"Enough talk!" Ash said. "Just beat her up."
"Right." The Nidoqueen charged once again, and this time Jess wasn't fast enough to dodge the heavy punch. She flew back, landing heavily and hurting all over.
Well, this just keeps getting better and better... She moaned to herself. She managed to raise herself up to see the pokemon charging an attack in it's horn, and suddenly what looked like blue-white electricity flashed towards her in an Icebeam.
But when it hit, the energy was absorbed into her and she suddenly shot up like a rocket, feeling strong as an ox. The Nidoqueen growled in suprise.
"No use using ice attacks on her." Ash's voice called. "Try something else!"
"Come on, Nidoqueen..." Jess gave a final plea for her pokemon. "Queenie? Remember the good times? I never treated you badly. You were part of the team! How many trainers did you single-handedly defeat? Who spent almost her entire savings on that Moon Stone to-"
Jessie was cut off as the pokemon launched a foul-smelling Toxic attack, and she only just managed to keep the poisonous goop from her face. But even as it touched the bare skin on her arms, she could feel the awful effects of the poison starting to sink in...
"No..." She gasped, as she felt herself once again running short of energy... she began to sway, and stumbled, but managed to keep on her feet.
"Well, human?" Nidoqueen laughed gruffly. "Aren't you going to fight back? Weak creature..."
"Ah, go ahead, Nidoqueen. Finish her off." Ash's voice came from the shadows. The world around Jess began to swirl.
"Hyper beam!" Cried the pokemon, and the stumpy horn began to glow a brilliant yellow, powering up and growing brighter until it was too bright to look at directly...
Not even Jessie was certain why it was - whether it was the effects of the poison, the culumnative stress since the city had burned, the humiliation and frustration of having to fight one of your best friends to the death, or some combination of the above - but she knew, even as she released the attack, that it was a lot stronger than it should have been.
The high-powered Ice Beam slammed into the Nido's stomach, and she gasped at the icy blast to which she was so weak and keeled over. The energy drained from her horn as she lay moaning on the ground. Even through the poison haze, Jess gasped in horror at what she'd done and raced to her ex-pokemon's side.
"Nidoqueen, no..."
"I'm sorry, Jess..." It whispered. The poison's effects were getting worse; Jess felt like she was going to be sick, and wasn't sure whether the words came from the pokemon or a hallucination.
"Don't blame me... don't pity me... it's Ash, remember..." The pokemon gasped. "Sorry... stop Ash, save the others..."
Suddenly, Nidoqueen's dying speech was cut off as a bolt of lightning arced down and ripped through her chest, burning her horribly. After the electric convultions stopped, her head hung loosely to the side as blood began to drip from her mouth...
"Hmm... maybe you do have some promise for your friends, too bad you won't be able to help them now..." Ash gloated. "Weak pokemon... see if you can find her Blastoise somewhere, I'm sure she'll have fun with that. Take her back to her cell."
Even through the poison's detrimental effects, Jess could feel her anger growing, and with it her energy. The Machoke, along with the Arcanine and Venusaur, moved towards her, ready to take her back to her cell.
"YOU BLOODY FREAK!" She suddenly screamed, and suddenly the area around her swirled with icy energy. The three pokemon were thrown back, Arcanine and Venusaur taking the worst damage since they were vulnerable to ice.
The energy vortex became stronger, as Jess's vision faded into a mix of angry red and icy blue, until she couldn't hold it any longer and unleashed it at Ash!
Every surface in the room was instantly frost-rimmed as the temperature dropped as if dropped off a cliff. The pokemon shuddered and shook, trying to clear off the ice covering their skin or fur. But Ash had no such luck; the icy energy swirled around him with the power of innumerable icebeams, the temperature such that frostbite would set in within a second, and even before the attack climaxed he was frozen stiff.
But then the real power kicked in. Swirling not unlike a Dragon Rage attack, the vortex froze into position, forming an incredible ice sculpture around the unlucky would-be world ruler which she knew was many times harder than any metal, simply by the cold still radiating off it.
But it still hadn't finished - the temperature difference, even within the frozen room, was too great to keep the structure steady, so a huge crack raced around it with a noise like a hundred sledgehammers hitting stone. A second followed soon after, then another three in quick succession.
Five seconds later, the entire structure exploded.
A fairly heavy chunk of the ice managed to hit Jess's form, and along with the rather draining attack she'd just done and the poison she'd been enduring, it was enough to knock her out...
Wait a minute...
A quick check confirmed it - she was back in the cave. And the others were there too! It'd been a dream...
But I don't have dreams... What about that dreamscape thing?
Maybe it was another vision... Suikun suggested.
"You saw it too?" She asked quietly.
Yeah...
"Too bad... I would have like to do that to Ash... One hell of an attack, that one..."
Don't worry, we'll get our chance. And this time we'll stick with those guys, no matter what it takes!
"Yeah!" Jess cried, then realised she might wake the others, and sat in quiet contemplation of the vision while she waited for them to awaken...
Suddenly, a plume of flame shot up from one area of the room, the ice melting to water then evaporating to steam within seconds. The Arcanine, panting heavily, shook himself of the water that still clung to his coat.
The melting spread, until slowly but surely the room was cleared of the icy debris. The pokemon, laying around everywhere, began to painfully stretch and slowly get up.
"She's a little stronger than I thought..." Muttered the Vileplume, in a voice that sounded quite strange for one of it's type.
"Agreed."
"I think she'll fight now." A voice came from the other side of the room. They all looked as the shadowedfigure of Ash limped towards them.
"I won't argue."
"Me neither."
As Ash emerged from the shadows which had hidden his form since the start, the light revealed his true visage - Liam.
"Too bad I was a part of this." The Arcanine said, as it's form glowed as if evolving. But it shrunk, and it's form changed, until James stood there, holding his chin in thought. "I could have used something like this myself, but the effect would be rather ruined now..."
The other pokemon also glowed and changed - Vileplume became Keira, Persian and Venusaur into their respective super-powered guardians, and the Machoke elongenated into Carnak's huge form.
"You play a pretty good Ash." Commented Keira to Liam, as she stretched her once-again human body. "That was a strange experience..."
"Thanks..." Liam grinned, and leapt backwards to stand with his upper body in the shadowed section, posing dramatically. Everyone looked at him and laughed...
...except James, who suddenly fell backwards in surprise. This, of course, brought more laughter to the others, but before they could ask what it was that had spooked him, another groan came from nearby.
A greenish-pink light surrounded the dead Nidoqueen, and the fatal injuries faded away. She slowly got herself up...
And transformed quickly to Suikun.
"I really hope I don't have to do that again." She moaned. "It goes against every code, attacking your own charge with intent to kill."
"You couldn't have killed her. After all, you died, didn't you?"
"Not my point. And anyway, did you have to throw that thunderbolt or whatever? That really hurt..."
Liam waved aside the comment. "How's Jess doing?"
"Fine. She's waiting for you lot to wake up, and thinks the entire thing was another vision. She's rearing to go."
"Great. Remember, we had nothing to do with this."
"Right."
"Uh-huh."
The seven of them faded from the frozen room as they woke up, and the room followed suit as there was no-one there to keep it up...
