Untitled8 No single word, no matter what tricks can be played with font, size or style, could really describe the explosion that rocked the countryside and lit up the night sky, causing comment among entrapped human and victorious pokémon alike.
However, none who saw the blast were more annoyed than Ash, returning from the city which the humans had destroyed, who knew almost at once that the column of fire that erupted was centered upon his fortress.
None, that is, except those pokémon who were in the blast radius at the time...
The Pidgeot flew at full possible speed as possibilities flashed through Ash's mind as to the cause of the blast. Another rogue amulet holder? No, the pokémon would have spotted it, and unless it had power beyond imagining - maybe even rivaling Ash's own - it would not be able to cause such a blast while being attacked by so many.
An accident during battling? Perhaps, although unlikely...
Then Ash realized what it must be... the experiment that he'd left when the Spearow had reported in!
Of course... making stupid mistakes like you used to, Ash...
He immediately banished the thought from his mind. I have no weakness. I am no longer the naive little child who wanted to become a pokémon master... now I am the true master, mastery beyond imagining!
You just keep trying to convince yourself that, Ash.
He ignored that thought.
The experiment had been conducted on one of the tall towers of the fortress, in case of just this happening. The tower in question... simply wasn't, completely obliterated. Several other towers nearby, and the roof of the fortress, held heavy scorch-marks, also destruction was apparent in several places.
When they finally lay eyes on the cause of the destruction, Pidgeot pulled up short. The enraged being was shouting it's defiance to the sky and attacking fiercely any pokémon foolish enough to get too close, ripping them to shreds or tossing them of the castle as if they weighed nothing, without a shred of mercy.
After watching it's incredible powers in action for a time, Ash remembered that he was supposed to be protecting the pokémon and ordered Pidgeot to fly in. The huge creature saw the bird coming in, with Ash on it's back. Recognition seemed to gleam in it's eyes for a moment, before being replaced by pure hatred.
Lightning-fast attacks were barely dodged by the powerful bird, and the retaliating whirlwind barely fazed it at all. Ash made a decision and jumped down to the fortress's damaged roof and faced off the being, although he was little more than two-thirds its size.
Although the experiment was fast, Ash's near-godlike powers allowed him to be faster still, as he dodged attack after attack with ease. A Lightning Matrix immobilized the massive creature, and Ash levitated up to stare the creature in it's hate-filled eyes.
"Listen, you. You may be changed, but you're still a pokémon, and as such will answer to me. Got it?" Ash hissed, utilizing every scrap of his pokemon-controlling ability to sway the beast. It seemed to work, as the anger faded from it's eyes and, although it wasn't readily visible in the movement-disabling matrix, untensed. Ash let the attack dissipate, but was ready to pull it straight back should the creature try any tricks. But it didn't.
"Hmm... quite an experiment, master. Although we might not have much of a fortress left should they all be this... powerful."
"True. But I simply neglected this one. It will make a fine fighter, once trained." He waved his hand to the destruction around. "You see what it is capable of..."
As always, the Pidgeot looked doubtful. "I somehow think this is a bad idea. You should kill it now, or you'll regret it later..."
"You're a superstitious fool. It's a pokémon, and pokémon can't harm me."
"Whatever you say, master..." The bird shrugged.
"Now, let's see what we need for our new friend..." Ash leapt through one of the holes in the roof to the chamber below. The experiment creature followed, and Pidgeot flew off to it's nest, knowing that tonight's flying was at an end and he probably wouldn't be needed by Ash for some time, except as an advisor on the subject of the strange creature that had been produced by the experiment...
~-~-~-~

Five days later...

"Keira! Look behind!"
"Gotcha!"
"Can't catch me, little Ivysaur!"
"These pokémon aren't very strong. Yeah, I'm insulting you! What are you gonna do about it?"
The four of them were dancing circles around the increasingly frustrated pokémon. The Ivysaur was the leader and the most powerful, but was forced to watch as again and again its vines slapped harmlessly against the stone blocks thrown up by Liam.
A Raticate tried without success to get close enough to James to use any of it's attacks, but James's etheric blades kept it at bay. Keira was alternatively blocking with her vines or flipping out of the way of any attack a Beedrill was using on her. Meowth was easily out-fighting a Pikachu - it wasn't close to Ash's one's level, and if you last that long against such a powerful electric pokemon you build some resistance to thunder attacks. Jess had already defeated two pokemon - a Sandshrew that now lay half-dissolved on the ground and a Machop that had been frozen for too long to hope of living even if thawed - and was leaning back against a tree and watching the others.
Keira and Liam had now swapped opponents, Keira winning a vine-whip wrestling match while Beedrill's poison and stinger attacks having no effect whatsoever on Liam.
"Ive! That's enough!" The 'saur growled, retracting its whips and suddenly leaping back into a stance, spreading the flower on its back to the sky.
"It's gonna use Solarbeam!" Keira warned. The others seemed too preoccupied with their own fights to notice...
...but seemed to be moving together?
The Ivysaur almost laughed. The stupid humans! They were presenting a single target, so it could take them out in one attack! The bulb on it's flower began to glow, as energy soared through its body, radiated into the air...
And then released in a beam of incredible proportions!
Second only to the ultra-destructive Hyper Beam, the legendary blast of heat and light energy that spewed from the glowing flower was many times Ivysaur's length in diameter and was virtually unstoppable, unblockable and impossible to survive unscathed. But at the last second, Liam dropped underground, Keira pulled herself up on a tree with a vine, Meowth jumped onto James's leg and James swung out of the way on a half-invisible rope...
And Ivysaur realised how it had been tricked as the beam engulfed the other pokemon they'd been fighting... Their shadows were visible in the beam for a moment as it flashed past, before blurring and vanishing as the pokemon were vaporised, and the beam continuing without even slowing down...
Ivysaur's last thought before it was crushed between James flying in from above and Liam slamming up from below was that the attack would continue far enough to warn someone of their prescence...

~-~-~-~

A steady hum grew in the distance, and two figures carefully sneaking through a deserted street of a very small town - almost a village - looked around, wondering what it could be. Suddenly a house not far away exploded as a beam of energy slammed through it with enough force to level any structure. One of them swiftly tackled the other out of the path of the beam, and they recieved only minor burns as the attack shot by, still far too close for comfort...
They let out their long-held breath as the attack finally faded, then stiffened as cries of alarm and confusion went up all through the town. As the pokemon charged out from and into every little alley to find the source of the destruction, they hastily made their exit - heading the direction the massive beam had emerged from...
The Ivysaur's dying wish had been granted, but not in the way it had imagined...

~-~-~-~

The quintet marched on, Jessica setting a cracking pace. She'd hung around only long enough to check that the Ivysaur was dead before continuing.
Since the incident they'd been steadily traveling north, and thankfully they'd encountered only stray 'wild' pokemon and the occasional band, defeating all with ease. Jess now seemingly had no problem taking out pokemon, but she was beginning to scare the others - she had become almost as hard and ruthless as Liam. All she seemed to care about was killing Ash. James felt she would wear out of it soon, since he'd gone through a similar phase when Jessie had died at the fangs of the Ekans, but the others weren't so sure.
They'd managed to convince her to go with them on this search the amulets insisted on, saying she was going to do a whole lot of good if Ash killed her. She was electricity-weak, after all...
But she pressed on, often leaving the other four to catch up... resting little and grudgingly... she was killing herself mentally, and through that physically. But she didn't notice, and brushed off the others when they attempted to stop her, even Suikun...
It wasn't long before the others, exhausted from the battle just had along with the long walk they'd had beforehand - not to mention a couple of other battles they'd been in recently - decided to slump down for a quick rest. Jess, who had been several metres ahead, snorted when she realised they had stopped and continued on. They waited until she was out of earshot, then began talking about what they'd done...
"I'm beginning to wonder whether that was such a good idea..." James moaned, for the hundrenth time since they'd done the dream sequence on Jess.
"It's a little late now. And if we tell her it was only us, that'll leave her worse off than before and pissed off at us..." Keira pointed out.
"So we've just gotta hope she calms down a little..."
Nobody could think of a suitable answer for this, and they lay in silence, thinking... Even Liam looked worried. Keira had teased him about actually showing emotion some time earlier, and he'd flushed and sworn angrily that he was concerned about the mission, not Jess herself. They weren't sure what to believe.
For several minutes they sat in thought. Meowth opened his mouth to break the uncomfortable silence...
...and was cut off by an ear-splitting shriek!
Even from where they sat, the cold hit them like an arctic breeze. They looked at each other for a moment, then as one leapt up and ran off to where they'd last seen their ally.

~-~-~-~
Jess struggled violently, but it was useless. The vines around her were incredibly tight, and she realised now it probably hadn't been a good idea to freeze them and solidify the prison around her. Quite frankly, she couldn't move.
Beneath her, several pokemon were frozen solid, many more shivering and soaked and almost all slipping on the icy veneer she'd covered the ground with. The Venusaur which had her in it's grip certainly didn't look happy about the freezing of the vines that it had wrapped around the human they'd ambushed. But it was worth it, just for capturing the icy witch.
The frozen cocoon was shaking back and forth alarmingly, but the Venusaur had wrapped all of his vines around it, and then the bug pokemon that followed had covered it liberally with string shot. There was little chance of her breaking out. And the pokemon knew it.
They were celebrating.
The pokemon - mostly grass and bug types - were yelling of their victory, shooting attacks into the air, wrapped up in their elation of having caught one of the fabled super-powerful humans that had been scything through their ranks like a hot knife through butter.
Too wrapped up to think about the others.
Their joy was cut short as a half-transperant blade flew through the air, followed by a series of razor-sharp leaves, and slashed with incredible accuracy the majority of the vines being used to hold the frozen cocoon. Not prepared and shocked, the Venusaur's immediate reaction was to withdraw all the vines, and in the process drew the huge thing right down onto it's flower, half crushing it. It roared in pain and tried to flick the thing away from it, but with it's weakened vine strength only managed to land it a couple feet from it's huge head.
Meowth jumped in and slashed the remaining vines from Jess, and then set to attacking some of the smaller pokemon about. Liam and Keira swung into the battle while James ran for Jess, since the inconsiderate pokemon hadn't thought to give her any breathing space... or had simply wanted her dead, not captured.
With several careful slashes, he managed to clear enough of the frozen mat of vines to reveal her head. It hung limply - she was unconcious from oxygen deprivation - but apart from that she seemed fine.
After making sure, James jumped into the battle with the rest of them. This was a slightly harder battle than usual - more pokemon of greater power - and they were actually holding their own...
Meowth was frantically Fury Swiping both a Tangela and a Raticate, neither of which could get close enough to the whirling storm of claws and teeth that was the small cat pokemon to attack. The Tangela had lost several of it's innumerable vines already, and the Raticate was sporting several heavy scars. The three humans stood back to back - although Keira had to be careful not to hit Liam with any stray elemental power - and unleashed blasts on any open target that they might be fairly good against...
The pokemon were having trouble attacking the trio, between Liam's rock slabs, James's Barrier, and Keira's tangled mats of vines... But a Graveler with a little more sense than the others suddenly broke out and rolled threateningly towards Meowth...
Meowth managed to see it coming just in time and kicked the Sandshrew into it's path before leaping away. The pokemon didn't even slow as the Sandshrew was reduced to fine gravel under it's incredible weight.
The more nimble Meowth managed to easily avoid the Graveler, but the other pokemon had caught on and more of them were leaving the impossible battle against the three ultra-powerful humans to take on Meowth.
"Guys! Help!" Meowth found himself guarding against far too many pokemon. A Beedrill scored a hit on the back of his head, knocking him out, and was about to finish it when a flying blade split it's thin, fragile body in two.
"Nobody does that to Meowth." James stated vengefully, watching the leg half collapse and the upper buzz and slash weakly, before the red glowing eyes faded.
The pokemon soon forgot about the helpless enemy Meowth below them as they were beseiged by the humans around them. It was a hopeless battle - the humans were enraged at the near-death of two of their friends, and more powerful than any of the pokemon. It wasn't long before most of them were hanging limply from various branches by vines, buried in pits, or simply cut or bludgeoned to death.
They glanced around to make sure they were all taken out, then collapsed in relief.
"Phew... that was a close one." James mumbled, setting Meowth against a tree.
"Maybe that'll teach Jess not to run ahead in future?"
"And that'll probably bring up yet another problem."
As one, they all looked to where Jess's body lay, still trussed in the frozen vines...
Or where it had lain a few moments ago!
They looked around frantically before spotting the icy cocoon dragging across the ground between the trees, before flashing out of sight. With a sigh of exasperation, they jumped up in chase.
They were nearly out of sight of the area when James suddenly stopped. The other two ran ahead without noticing. He looked both ways, trying to make a decision, cursed wildly under his breath, and as fast as he could ran back and scooped up Meowth's still-comatose body, before running once again towards the others...

~-~-~-~

Even weighed down by the rather heavy ice block, the Fearow was making remarkably good time. The rocks and leaves that had skimmed by it had done wonders for it's speed. It was flying rather low because of it's load, but was still getting away from the humans. Slowly, ever so slowly, but surely. The Pokemon kept one thought in its mind: Wouldn't Ash be pleased if he was brought this trophy?
But the Fearow knew it's fate. It's wings were tiring. It wouldn't be able to keep this up much longer. Wasn't there a patrol in this area... maybe if it called?
The bugling cry turned into a shriek of pain as a sharp rock slammed into one wing. It managed to steady itself after a quick dive - there didn't appear to be any bones broken, but it hurt, and reduced the Fearow's already-failing endurance further... One more hit would probably take it out.
But then, a cry in reply from below! The bird gasped in relief and dived towards the sound, and didn't see the flash of Razor Leaves... aimed for the vines by which it was holding the human, which it had dived straight into.
The leaves slashed through feather and flesh like they weren't there; one strike nicked it's long, thin, vulnerable neck... and the rest was history.
Fighting the blackness that threatened to overwhelm, the bird tried as hard as it could to ignore the pain and weakness as blood dripped and poured from various wounds and keep gliding... keep going and hold on, no matter what...
It's dangling load caught on a tree, and the weakened Fearow could take it no more - it swung down in a slow arc and slammed into the ground with force enough to break most of the hollow, fragile bones in it's body.
A long creak, several heavy cracks in succession, then a soft 'Whump' indicated the cocooned human dropping from the tree to land some way away...
Nothing happened for a couple of minutes, then a rustling of bushes nearby indicated someone approaching...

~-~-~-~

"Damn it!" Liam cried upon spotting the mangled Fearow carcass. Keira flipped out of a tree and stood next to him. The bird was well and truly dead, but there was no sign of Jess.
"Now James is gone too!" Liam complained. Keira began searching the area thoroughly, and suddenly yelled in suprise.
"Look! She was dropped from here."
Liam ran over. "Are you sure it was her?"
Keira picked through a pile of broken foilage and presented a sparkling, frozen piece of vine about an inch long. "I'd say so."
"Then where is she now?"
"She can't have rolled or anything... could she?"
"No. Some more pokemon came." He pointed to some heavy footprints in the soft grass and dirt... some broken branches further on. They'd been in a hurry.
Keira ran, following the footprints, before throwing a vine up to wrap around a branch, pulling herself up. She shouted back an back at Liam. "Meet you there. We'll find James later."
Liam gave chase eagerly, but the hunt would not be over for some time yet...