They had agreed to have a rest - this had been an exhaustive episode for them all - then search for their final missing comrade. Keira finally put aside the remaining scraps of the wing, and their eyes met. They seemed to be actively avoiding talking, but they each knew what the other was implying.
Jess pointed at the fire, and it was promptly extinguished. The three of them silently lay down, and closed their eyes... and seconds later were getting up again in the blank void of the Dreamscape.
This was what they'd been waiting for - seeing each other's stories as they'd traveled... Soon all three of them were lost in seas of each others' memory...
"Sorry, don't have the time..." Liam called, bursting
into and through an extremely suprised group of pokémon, sending
a Vileplume spinning and accidentally kicking a Weepinbell into a tree.
"Love to stay and chat..." Keira added as she swung
down all Tarzan-style, while hooking an Ivysaur's flower between her feet...
"But places to go, friends to save..."
The unharmed of the group looked on in shock as
the Ivysaur was thrown in the air, and fell upside-down to the ground,
as the two humans vanished into the forest beyond. They stayed unmoving
for a moment, then with a shrill yell of protest charged after them.
"That went better than expected." Liam called on,
running hard.
"Keep this up and we'll catch her in no... whoops!"
The branch she was swinging on broke, and she only just managed to save
herself in time by throwing up another vine... But her knees were scraped
bloody as she skidded across the ground.
Liam slowed down, and ran back. "You okay?"
"Keep going, I'll catch up..."
"Yeah, just like James is..." Liam looked doubtful.
"Look, our first priority is getting Jess out of
their hands, right? We can find each other later."
Liam didn't look thrilled at leaving her behind
too, but turned and ran on anyway. Keira pushed herself up painfully and
went to find some of the right plants... one couldn't be a grass master
for years without learning some herbal remedies...
Suikun had worked herself up into a fit about one
of the amulet-holders being captured. Jess was somewhat more concerned
that she was the amulet-holder being captured.
"For god's sakes, Suikun! Who cares!"
"You should! Every one of them is precious! Ash
has millions of troops, we probably don't even have a hundred!"
"And what can we do about it? Wouldn't it be a better
idea to come up with a way to prevent him getting two?!" She said,
gesturing to herself.
That seemed to shock Suikun into silence for a moment,
at least. As they both considered their next move, they realized they could
hear the voices of the pokémon faintly, echoing though the void.
"Make sure you hold her tight..." Came the Sandslash's
voice. "If she starts to wake, squeeze her. Don't kill her, unless you
have to..."
"Well, that's a relief at least..." Jess muttered,
as the Pinsir grunted its agreement.
"It's a good thing they told us that... we're nearing
the surface, and I'm not sure what we'd do otherwise..."
Both of them immediately cried out in protest, but
it was lost on the pokémon in the next realm of consciousness over...
"Nearing the surface... it tricked me!"
"I didn't think he'd do that..." Suikun said thoughtfully,
but anger could still be heard in her voice. "If he's planning to surface,
he's feeling pretty confident... he'll be able to move faster, but he'll
be out in the open. Maybe he's gonna pass us on to some other pokemon?"
"Just great... we'll probably be at Ash's place
before they even work out which direction I'm in..."
"Put a little more faith in your friends." Suikun
bent down, and nuzzled Jess's downcast face up until they were looking
eye-to-eye. "After all, we can always tell where the others are. You know,
sense other amulets."
Jess perked up a bit. "You can tell where they are
now?"
Suikun looked a little sheepish... "Well, no, actually...
They're somewhere off in that direction." She tossed her head back and
to the right. "But that's not much use, is it? We don't know what direction
that is in the real world, and distance is all weird here, so nup."
"Got my hopes up for a moment there..."
"Don't feel down... they'll find us before Ash does,
don't you worry..."
It was caught somewhat by suprise as something large grabbed it by a couple of spikes and hauled it to the surface. It yelled in shock and suprise, but was cut off as its face hit the rocky ground.
Sandslashes are a hardy breed, however, and it slowly got up, not much more than a slightly flattened snout to show for it. It looked around for the hidden attacker, but it was unnecessary...
"Where is she?"
It spun around, seeing a shadowy form in the trees some distance away, one that it easily identified. It sneered. Human...
But no human could have moved that fast... it chanced a glance behind, and two long, rocky hands sunk into the ground.
Another one of the amulet-holders! Come for his friend!
The tall, thin human strode confidently from the shadows, and the pokemon knew he was doomed. He had no threat to hang over the head of this one... or did he?
The Sandslash leapt backwards and curled up into a spiky ball, rolling back towards the hole. Liam shouted in annoyance and broke into a run after it. The Pinsir had popped up its head to see what had happened to its partner, and in one smooth move the Sandslash unrolled, snatched her out of the Pinsir's claws and held her up for Liam to see, waving his claw threateningly near her neck.
"One step closer, human, and she dies." The pokemon gave the ultimatum. Liam skidded to a stop, a good twenty feet from the pokemon.
"Now, you're going to turn around and leave peacefully..." The Sandslash's words died away, he didn't look like he was going to do anything of the sort, but actually... confident. The Sandslash moved to an even more threatening position against the unconscious hostage... but couldn't move its arm!
Frantically looking behind as far as the stiff skin and spikes would allow, the pokemon saw a heavy rock column holding his arm back, and before he could see more several more rose up around him, and carried him into the air...
"Not a good move, pokemon."
The Sandslash was silent, except for grunts of effort and frustration as it tried to escape the spires it was stuck between. Liam gave an evil-looking grin, held out a hand, and began closing it into a fist; as he did so, the spires began to lean together, crushing the pokemon.
It screamed in agony as the life was crushed out of it, breaking off spikes... one of its claws, caught in a shrunken gap, simply broke off as it tried to flail.
It waved around with the other claw and hit one of them with an Earthquake attack. It was enough to break the column and give the pokemon a little breathing room, though not enough to escape.
Liam grinned wider, and loosened the grip a bit in anticipation for the final crush... He slowly prepared himself, then...
PTTSSEEEEWWWW! A huge blast of bright yellowish-green energy slammed into his side, catching him completely off guard and propelling him through several trees. When the Solar Beam had slowed enough to not have enough force to break through the next tree, it simply exploded, lighting the late-afternoon sky up like a small bomb...
Several more grass and bug-type pokemon ran/flew into the clearing - the pokemon who they'd run past had given chase, and finally caught up. Two Glooms and a Vileplume collapsed, having exhasted all their combined powers unleashing the super-powered Solar Beam.
"Help!" Gasped the Sandslash, still stuck up in the rocky trap. Several of the pokemon complied, some of the grass pulling with their vines while Beedrills hacked at the rock spires. It wasn't long before the Sandslash tumbled from where it had been entrapped, quickly scooped up by an Ivysaur.
But when they slowly lowered him to the ground, they found it wasn't much use - one leg had been completely destroyed, crushed almost beyond hope of repair. The other wasn't in very good condition either, nor was the rest of its body. They left him to lie on his back for the moment.
"Riiight!" A Victreebell took charge, squealing in it's painfully high voice. At its instruction, a couple of pokemon took up the immobile bodies of the Sandslash and human, and several more wandered off in search of Liam.
"Watch her..." The ground-type grunted through the pain. "If she wakes... squeeze... too strong..."
The Ivysaur nodded, and began to wander off. The Tangela holding the Sandslash followed. But both stopped when a cry of suprise was heard from where the pokemon had gone to find the other human.
Fearing the worst, the pokemon tensed themselves. But a little Oddish came speeding out.
"Gone! He's gone! Not a sign of him!"
They all burst into a fit of conversation. Could the attack have completely vaporised him? It probably would've to any pokemon, let alone a human, but these amulet-bearers were rumoured to have powers surpassing those of any bar Ash himself...
"One less for Ash..."
"One's better than none, let's take this one in!"
"But what if it's alive?"
"It'll be too injured to attack... nothing could stand up to that!"
After a fairly large argument, they began to move... but a small earthquake stopped them in their tracks. They all looked fearfully around for the source...
A shrill scream sounded. A Vileplume was struggling, but was being pulled underground, by something a lot stronger than it was. The pokemon's cylindrical body meant that it was pulled under fairly easily into the hole, up to the flower, where it stuck.
It's shreiks still sounded, muffled by the earth. The flower trembled, its petals starting to edge up, as if whatever it was was trying to pull the entire flower under along with the pokemon. But Vileplume flowers were very strong, and that would be impossible... right?
The pokemon around simply watched on in horror at the flapping petals. Suddenly they stopped, along with the screaming... but then they flapped up powerfully once, and another scream sounded. Whatever it was was giving sharp tugs now... and then there was a tearing sound, one last dying scream, and the flower flopped aside, sans Vileplume.
The others simply continued to look on in horror. One of them managed to pick up the courage to speak. "Tha... that's the one who did the Solarbeam..."
They saw the hand this time, as it emerged from a rapidly-forming hole to latch around a Gloom's leg. It was pulled under, but not before releasing the horrible gas that Glooms are infamous for. The other pokemon coughed and choked, and by the time the thick gas had cleared the Gloom was nowhere in sight. But it wasn't long before it was shot from the hole again, tiny legs and arms torn off, flower scratched beyond recognition, and impaled through the eye and out the other side with a long Stalagmite.
The third of the Solarbeam team had the sense to start moving, and so the hand missed as it reached up to grab the other Gloom. But instead the hole grew larger, and the hand pulled up the rest of the arm, then the body.
Liam was looking rather the worse for wear. His clothes were blackened and crisp, as was his flesh, burnt very badly by the super-charged Solarbeam. He was panting heavily, and shaking, with his face contorted in pain.
Wait, no... that wasn't just pain. That was anger.
"That... really... really... hurt." He growled through gritted teeth. He made a slow slicing line with his hands, lining up the Gloom... and suddenly the earth split in two, leaving the terrified pokemon in a crevice it couldn't hope to escape. It made an attempt, and miraculously managed to grab one of the edges... hanging on with its tiny arms...
Liam simply smiled mercilessly, and brought his hands together. All the pokemon winced as the fissure snapped back together. A little bit of green, sap-like blood began pooling around the area where the weed pokemon had last been...
Liam seemed rather satisfied with this result, and stopped panting so hard. "Now... if you hand over the girl... you might not suffer the same fate..."
The pokemon sized this offer up. He was far more powerful than any of them... but he was injured, outnumbered and with an elemental disadvantage...
Several grass-types let loose with Razor Leaves, but they never came close to their target - Liam shot up on a pillar of rock not unlike those he'd used to trap the Sandslash, but somewhat thicker...
It became a perilious balancing act as the injured rock master threw down rocks at the multitudinous grass-types as they fought back with Razor Leaf and Vine Whip. He unleashed an Earthquake to unbalance them, followed by a hefty rock, almost worthy of the title of boulder.
The pokemon swarmed, but not all of them. The pokemon holding the Sandslash and Jess were wandering away as fast as they could under their heavy burdens. Liam spotted them, and threw a fairly large rock in their direction - but his aim was off due to his worry of hitting Jess, and only managed to hit the Sandslash, knocking off its arm, shoulder, and part of its lower jaw. It screamed in pain.
The other pokemon were starting to demand his full attention again, Razor Leaf attacks hitting as often as not and Vine Whips coming ever closer to toppling him off.
It was far too late by the time he saw the blinding, bright light of the Solarbeam being charged.
The Victreebell unleashed the attack, not towards the human but halfway up the spire he was perched on. The entire rock structure exploded, and Liam wasn't fast enough to leap off. He fell, battered by the rocks as they flew around him, before landing painfully on the ground, on his arm. The pain bloomed, flying through his body in waves until it became one with the pain he'd already endured from the last attacks... And a heavy chunk of rock landed right on his chest, winding him and furthering the pain, possibly breaking ribs...
Another one clapped him on the forehead, and everything went black...
~-~-~-~
Keira was very suprised to find the pokemon scooping
up not only Jess, but a charred and bruised figure that looked remarkably
like Liam. They hadn't thought of that possiblity. Maybe they'd become
a little overconfident after beating so many pokemon...
She crouched on a sturdy branch, silently counting
the pokemon. Hmm... she might be able to win, if she managed to wake one
of the others...
No, wait... she smiled grimly as an idea formed
inside her mind. The pokemon weren't that smart. She'd give them a row
of bad luck they'd live to regret...
~-~-~-~
Half an hour later, the pokemon were thouroughly
confused, riddled with fear and completely demoralised.
Not long after they'd set off with their two prizes,
they'd discovered a number of pokemon missing from their number, which
many swore had been there when they'd begun. A huge falling branch had
killed one and crippled two. The foilage above seemed to have grown closer
together, and the sunlight was blocked out - a terrible thing for any grass-type,
who sucked their energy (not to mention the power for their ultimate attack)
from the sun.
Two more of their number disappeared shortly afterwards
- this no-one could deny. All the pokemon were now keeping an eye on each
other, to make sure nobody disappeared unnoticed again.
Nothing had happened for ten minutes, then a Pinsir
let out a shrill cry. Some sort of spike had embedded itself in the bug's
foot - through the exoskeleton armour - and judging by the way he was slowing
down, growing quiet and falling over, it had been poisoned.
The Pinsir, weak to poison attacks, was dead within
a minute.
And now this. An entire huge tree had uprooted itself.
Flung itself right on top of the rear ranks. At least three pokemon had
been crushed; another two were half-stuck under the huge trunk; and now
there was no doubt in the pokemon's mind that this was no freak accident,
or set of.
The remaining pokemon numbered six - A Pinsir carried
Jess, an Ivysaur Liam, and a Tangela carried the Sandslash. A Vileplume,
a Beedrill and a Weepinbell followed.
But they weren't going anywhere, so scared were
they. Keira laughed silently from her viewpoint, thinking of the pokemon
hanging helplessly from vines back before, tied completely and many knocked
out. The pokemon had never noticed.
She picked a target. A long, thin thorn formed on
the tree next to her, and she plucked it off.
It had worked on the other one, she thought, gently
touching the tip of it, coating it in poison. Taking very careful aim at
the Pinsir so as not to hit the human it carried, she threw the missile.
It hit the pokemon in its gaping mouth, embedding
it in the back of its throat. The Pinsir choked and fell, and Jess tumbled
as the claws relaxed.
If the pokemon didn't know where she was from that,
then they probably got the hint when vines snuck out and hooked Jess's
sleeping form, dragging her into the trees.
"Wake up!" Keira hissed in Jess's ear, shaking her.
"C'mon, I need your help here!"
Jess began to mumble and stir, but Keira's attention
was torn when the Ivysaur started threatening to kill Liam. "Get down here,
human!"
Keira dropped, and faced the final five pokemon.
Their eyes narrowed when they saw her, and they immediately started to
attack.
The Weepinbell acted first, unleashing a spray of
Razor Leaves. Keira held up a hand to protect herself from the storm...
and they parted around her, burying themselves in the trees and ground
behind her.
The pokemon were shocked beyond belief, but quickly
rallied when they saw that she was just as suprised. The Tangela sent some
of its innumerable vines to move towards her... and found that it simply
couldn't move them any furthur. Keira, using her power over plantlife,
was controlling their attacks.
Jess quickly revelled in this newfound power. The
Ivysaur panicked when its vines developed a mind of their own and deposited
Liam behind Keira, before beginning to attack itself.
The Tangela dumped its injured pokemon load and
ran like hell. Keira's Vine Whip took care of the Weepinbell, throwing
it heavily into a tree. Keira hoped the Vileplume would follow Tangela's
example, but it had other ideas.
It began absorbing solar energy, the centre of its
huge flower glowing a brilliant yellow, fading to pure white. Keira's power
over plant matter wouldn't stop this attack... But this would.
The energy was unleashed, in a beam wider than either
Keira or the 'plume was tall. It lasted some time, as the Vileplume expended
all of its energy to take out this last arrogant human.
When finally the blinding light faded, the pokemon
looked up. It expected to see nothing but a long, burnt trail of destruction
through the forest. What it saw was somewhat unexpected.
Keira had countered the attack by beginning a Solarbeam
of her own. All the energy had been absorbed, and Keira was glowing with
power, giving her a somewhat angelic look.
The Vileplume had no time to appreciate this, before
its attack was thrown back in its face. It didn't last long.
Keira slumped in relief. Finally, they'd saved Jess...
now finally they could get on with things. It wasn't until she heard the
tell-tale buzz that she realised she'd forgotten something.
The Beedrill dove down in a deadly Twinneedle attack,
with intent to run her through. She was too late to do anything, and it
would have succeeded had a blast of ice not blown it across the field,
freezing it in mid-flight. It shattered upon hitting a tree.
Keira turned around to see Jess, yawning loudly.
"Silly girl. I thought you were supposed to be the cautious one."
Keira would have retorted rudely, but she was just
too glad to see her friend was okay.
~-~-~-~
"And then we patched Liam up. I happened to have
a bottle of Burn heal in my beg, and while you're not perfect, you'll live."
"We found a camping spot, and the rest is history."
The three of them sat in the dreamscape, having
finished with each other's memories. Liam didn't look physically injured
in any way in this world, but he certainly wasn't looking pleased.
"Oh, cheer up. At least we got back Jess." Keira
said.
"Now all we've got to do is find James again, and
we'll be a full team." Carnak put in from the shadows. The three guardians
had been watching the memories too, off to the side.
"And I hope you won't be running off ahead again,
Jess?" Suikun stared at her.
Jess gave a smile, halfway between embarrassed and
apologetic. "No, I promise, I've learnt my lesson..." Suikun nodded, satisfied,
until she heard Jess mutter under her breath, "...mother."
Suikun gave a shout of mock indignation, but whatever
she was about to say or do next was cut off by a sudden image.
James wandered unseeingly through the forest,
lost in greif. Meowth was dying, growing weaker by the second - he wouldn't
last long now.
Bushes rustled nearby. Someone was there! Somebody
who could help! He stumbled as if drunk in the direction of the sound.
A group of figures appeared in his sight; in his delirious state he didn't
realise who they were, or heed his amulet's warning.
"Help! Meowth... Poisoned... Death... Help him...
help me..." His voice faded and he promptly collapsed. Suffice it to say
the group of pokemon were quite suprised to have one of the ultra-powered
humans they hunted deliever himself unconscious to their feet...
The image faded and was replaced by the dreamscape
once again. Everyone sighed.
"Great... Looks like you get to help us on this
one, Jess..."
"Yup... we've spent long enough in here. We don't
know whether that's in the future, or a memory of James reaching us...
let's get moving."
The trio woke up, the dreamscape being replaced
by the forest floor. Not long afterwards, there was nobody there - they
were off on James's trail.
~-~-~-~
Ash looked up at the huge being standing before him.
It had changed much since the night it had destroyed a good section of
Ash's castle, and now stood at
attention, waiting for Ash's command.
"You're the first in a line of ultra-powerful pokemon."
Ash said. "And to test your worth, I want you to go out and find me those
amulet-holding humans. The main
group is floating around somewhere south of Fuschia right now, I believe."
The huge creature nodded. "And when I find them?"
It growled, in a voice so low it was barely audible.
"I leave that to you." Ash grinned evilly. "Kill
them if you want. Then hunt down the others. You've heard the reports,
you know where they've been sighted..."
"Yes, master." It nodded once again, and slowly
left the room to hunt out the amulet-holding humans which were causing
it's master so much greif.
Ash watched as it left. "Well, that's that little
problem taken care of. I'd like to see them get out of this one..."
His laughter echoed out into the night...
