A day after the incident in the Safari Zone, there was
a very wide range of opinions pertaining to the strange creation that had forcibly joined
their team.
Rob, it seemed, didn't particularly care one way or the other - an ally
was an ally, not really worth thinking about. Patrick seemed rather curious about him, but
was far too timid to go anywhere near the huge being, almost twice his height and many
times his weight.
Liam had made it quite clear that he didn't trust Damian, and never
would, not in a million years. Keira's avid fear and disgust towards Fire pokemon didn't
help her opinion of him. James was too busy grieving for the loss of Meowth, who Damian
claimed had been flown off to Ash's castle immediately. Jess was possibly the most
amicable towards him - he'd gained some trust when he'd stopped that punch he'd nearly
used on her, which probably would've snapped her in half.
But none of them were quite willing to just accept him as part of the
group. He noticed this very quickly - you'd have to be blind not to - and had taken it
upon himself to scout ahead, flying, after he'd led them back to the prison. The people
imprisoned within had long since escaped, but they were fairly sure that they'd end up
being rooted out by the pokemon in the end.
"We're just about out of it now." Rob said, staring into the
screen of his computer. "There's an area of water separating the Zone and
Vermilion... but that shouldn't be too hard to manoeuvre around, so long as there's nobody
there waiting for us..."
"How far ahead?"
"Not too far." Rob looked up. "It's hard to get a
pinpoint in this thick foliage, but I think it shouldn't be more than half an
hour..."
That estimate turned out to be a little optimistic. It was nearly an
hour before they found themselves standing at a small slope which quickly sunk underwater.
The opposite shore was in sight, but it didn't look to be a fun trip - the water was
choppy and treacherous.
"This is inland... why is it so rough?"
"The owners wanted it to imitate the real world. It's run by a
machine that churns the water... there's a huge whirlpool in the middle, off that
way." He pointed off to the left. "It's not hugely strong, so the pokemon have a
great time spinning around in it..."
"Okay. So how do we get across it?"
"I can fly it, easily." They all spun around as the huge
black wraith that was Damian floated down behind them, landing heavily and folding his
wings around him. "I could probably carry one of you, too..."
Liam narrowed his eyes. "I'll dig."
Rob nodded. "It's not too deep, around here... this is the shallow
end, technically. I'm not sure why this thing was never bridged... probably the pokemon
didn't like it. I suppose nobody's supposed to be in the Safari Zone anyway."
"I can swim it." Jess said confidently. "There wouldn't
be any pokemon down there, would there?"
"I've been hovering over the place for a while now. If there are
any pokemon there, they're under strict orders to keep hidden." Damian assured her.
"Okay... Does everyone know how they're going?"
"Wouldn't it be easier for us all to just go underground?"
Liam asked.
"Suit yourself. Does anyone want a ride?" Damian offered.
They all hesitated, looking away. "Come on, it's not like I'm gonna drop you."
Suprisingly, Patrick stepped forward. "I'd like to try..."
"Hmm... scrawny little kid. Come on, then." He strode
forward, scooped up Patrick and held him there lightly with one huge hand. "I'll
barely notice you're there. Do you want me to carry you, or ride on my back?"
Patrick was frozen with fear and was regretting speaking up. Damian
lifted him, one handed, until his rather scared face was level with the hood. Patrick hung
there for a moment, before a snort of hot air came from the hood and he was put down.
"Sorry... didn't mean to scare you like that." He didn't
sound like he meant it, though. "Still want to fly?"
Pat gathered himself together and nodded. "On your back."
The hooded form shrugged and crouched, turning his back, for Pat to get
on. He hesitated a moment, but made up his mind and scrambled on. Damian straightened.
"See you on the other side." He said, then the hood turned to
the side. "Hang on tight, kid."
The wings unfolded, Damian leapt, and they were airborne. Flapping
slowly but powerfully, they gained altitude... and then shot across the ocean.
The others watched on with various expressions. "We should get
going, then?"
"Right." Jess took off her backpack. "Would one of you
mind taking that?"
"Uh... okay. You gonna swim still?"
"Suikun wants to have a splash around. And anyway, I should
probably be there before you lot." She took off the fairly heavy jumper she wore and
stuffed it into the pack, then handed it to Keira.
"Seeya there."
"Bye."
She charged up to the choppy water and dived in. She hadn't had a good
swim in months. The water was freezing... for a second, then warmed suddenly. Testing the
water for depth, she found that it dropped off fairly steeply and was soon beyond walking
in.
Once she started swimming, she discovered that the waves were a little
stronger than she'd at first thought. She hadn't swum for about a year now... the familiar
strokes were coming back to her, but too slowly. The waves were choppy, the undercurrent
strong, even though the sea was artificial. She felt herself pulled underwater.
Choking, struggling, and clawing from the surface, she recieved a
mental whack to the head from Suikun. Breathe, girl. What do you think you're doing?
The shock of this message caused her to gasp with realisation.
Water flooded into her mouth... and she found she could breathe it as easily as air, if
rather thick.
You should've been able to figure that out, water-type. Her
guardian chided her. Have some fun while you're at it. Liam's not a bad digger, but
it'll take some time, I'm sure...
Not a bad idea at all, I'd say. Jess replied, kicking. She soon
found that she didn't even need to do that - her power over water allowed her to simply
fiddle with the currents and be pushed wherever and however she wanted. Some part of her
mind was protesting that this was cheating, but the rest of it was having far too much fun
to pay attention.
However, it was forced to pay a fair bit of attention when something
slammed into the water above her. She panicked and thrashed, and something sharp tore
along her arm. Then the presence was gone, leaving little more than a lot of turbulence in
the water above her, which quickly faded.
She tried to paddle upwards, then remembered that she could simply will
it and it would happen, and did so. Once her head broke the surface, she pushed her long
hair back from her face and scanned the skies for whatever had attacked her, and finding
nothing.
A loud screech from behind warned her, and she quickly spun around to
face a Fearow, which had been just about to rake her skull open. She threw her arms up to
protect her face.
The creature's talons hooked around one arm, scratching it badly and
yanking it backwards painfully... and pulling it fully out of it's socket. Jess yelped in
pain as the arm slipped from the talons to hang limply and uselessly at her side. She used
her other arm to aim an icebeam at the Fearow, but her arm was shaking with the shock and
pain and she missed. The pokemon made a long sweep before coming back to dive again.
She managed to strike it with a Water Gun, but it didn't even slow
down. In desperation, she dived underwater, desperately trying to ignore the pain
radiating from her arm, flopping around in the current. The claws raked her back, but not
deeply. The cuts stung in contact with the salt water.
She swam desperately towards the shore, mildly deranged from the pain,
didn't think to go deeper. The Fearow missed her completely on the next attack, though she
felt the turbulance pushing her back.
It seemed to change tactics after that. No further attack came. She was
beginning to think it had given up when the water around her began to churn a little
stronger.
She felt herself being pushed to one side. She fought against it, but
her endurace wasn't at its height at the time and her powers were weakening. She found
herself moving anyway. Suikun was yelling something, but she couldn't make it out. Taken
out by a little Fearow, how embarrassing. The waters were moving faster now. She felt
herself being dragged upwards too, and swirled around... Even through the pain haze she
realised that the Fearow was using a whirlwind to churn the waters, in an effort to either
bring her to the surface or putting her in rather deep trouble.
She made some effort to struggle, but this only tired her out more. She
found herself being pulled closer and closer to the surface...
She felt her body seem to fade from her grip, and realised Suikun was
taking control, concentrating her entire power on increasing the power of one part of the
whirlpool. She was spun around once more then shot out like a rock from a sling, flying
through the water at incredible speed away from the whirlpool.
The downside of this was that it finally brought her to the surface.
The Fearow screeched in triumph and shot down towards the helpless
prey. Her face was up, she could see it coming, but she couldn't move. Didn't have a drop
of energy left in her body. Suikun let out a low moan as the beak shot towards her...
It was only a couple of feet from her face when the bird simply
exploded.
The blast pushed her underwater a bit, but she still saw quite clearly
the flames as blood and smoke splashed everywhere. Half a wing flew off to her right. She
fought the urge to throw up, but felt her body slowly floating to the surface. Seeing her
enemy defeated gave her a little strength, and she twisted slightly to see what had
happened.
She was only about twenty metres from the bank, where a tall
black-cloaked figure stood, one four-fingered hand held out. The fingers still flamed
slightly. Lowering his arm, Damian's eyes flashed once, then his wings spread and he took
off towards her.
She felt herself sink into unconsciousness, and never felt the huge
hand wrap around her wrist, pulling her to safety.
~-~-~-~
"Ah, she's waking up." She heard Liam's voice as her
unconsciousness faded away. She struggled to open her eyes, but still saw little more than
a blur.
"Just lie there for a while. You're not physically hurt, but
Damian says you took quite a beating back there." She thought for a moment, then
registered the voice as Patrick's. She closed her eyes, checked herself over... her arm
was still aching somewhat, but it was nothing like it had been.
She heard Damian's deep, quiet laugh, from some distance away.
"You're lucky I grabbed your right arm. If I'd pulled your left I probably would've
torn it off." A pause. "I put my hand in the water for you. Be very, very
grateful."
Jess nodded weakly. She opened her eyes again, blinked... the blurs
took a little more form, but she still couldn't see enough to make out anyone...
A blur with blonde-green hair hovered right in front of her. Keira,
She thought, even as she spoke. "We've got to stop letting you go off like that,
Jess. This is the second time we've had to rescue you."
She gave a half-groan, half laugh, rather weakly. A low grunt sounded
from the other side of the clearing, and a rush of hot air signalled Damian taking off.
"I'm going scouting. Be back once you start moving."
"How long do you reckon she'll be, Pat?" She heard Rob ask.
"Dunno." There were sounds of shuffling feet, then his voice
sounded much closer to her. "You should probably get a bit of rest. No point in
waiting around. I can't cure fatigue."
She smiled and nodded, though she felt so weak she wasn't sure if she'd
actually moved her head or not. Slowly but surely, she felt reality fade into the
dreamscape, where she quickly jumped up, full of energy.
"Really, Jess... taken out by a Fearow." Suikun said, her
voice oozing with mock shame.
"Well, sorry... Some of us are still alive enough to feel
pain."
"Still." Suikun looked down on her, then her muzzle twisted
into a canine sly grin.
"What're you up t- whoa!"
Her last words were cut off as she suddenly found herself immersed in
water.
I'm not helping you this time, Jess... it's all up to you. And
she felt something plunge into the water above her, felt talons scrape along her arm.
She surfaced hurriedly, automatically turning behind her to where she
knew the Fearow to be. However, nothing was there... she spun around again, to see it
coming from the direction she'd originally been facing.
Trying not to panic, she aimed an Icebeam... and the Fearow dipped
suddenly. The edges of its tail feathers frosted over, but it didn't seem to notice.
The pokemon slammed into the water... and kept going, barely slowing
down. Jess, not expecting this, was taken by suprise as it rammed her in the stomach, beak
first. There was a sickening crack as its fragile neck snapped, but she barely heard it,
distracted by her own scream, as the beak had rammed through her stomach like a knife.
The scene faded, and she was once again in the endless black of the
dreamscape. Suikun looked disappointed.
"Really, that was pathetic." Jess looked down to see the
mortal wound had vanished, but a memory of the crippling pain remained. "Best idea
would've been to freeze the water around it. You own the water, Jess! You are a goddess of
liquid and ice. In the water, of all times, you should be able to take on anything that
attacks you. Now, let's try it again, and you'd better get it right this time..."
~-~-~-~
Jess slowly awoke after training with Suikun for some
time. She found she was in a rather uncomfortable position, and was moving. Her vision
cleared a lot faster this time, and she looked up to see that Liam was carrying her.
"Ah, you're awake again. Think you can walk? You're heavier than
you look, y'know."
"Thanks, Liam..." She grinned as he carefully put her on her
feet again. She stumbled slightly, but managed to keep her footing. "Where are
we?"
"We've only been walking for about ten minutes." Rob said,
looking at his watch. "Vermillion city isn't far now. I'd be guessing it's populated
by electric-types."
"Hmm? What makes you say that?"
"Firstly, the fact that the city used to be rather electricity-mad
before Ash turned up." He continued. "The gymleader was-"
"Lt. Surge, the 'Lightning American', old war veteran and quite a
contender." Jess finished. She remembered going up against him. She'd actually had to
go on and get other badges and pokemon, as most of her pokemon at the time had been
electricity-weak. She had finally beaten him with Nidoqueen, by memory...
"Exactly. And secondly, because of that." He pointed into the
sky ahead.
It seemed to be a concentrated storm. Lightning arced down out of the
heavy cloud cover continually. The low rumble of thunder was almost constant, so much so
that she hadn't noticed it.
"Oooh, that can't be good."
"Well, we've got no choice. We decided to come this way, we go
this way. Let's move."
