Untitled Ash looked at the sheepish-looking Scyther in front of him, an angry look on his face. "Destroyed?!"
"Competely, sssir." The bladed bug cowered. "Flamesss and Lightningsss... No sssign of any humans..."
"There's no way it could have been natural, though?"
"Sssertainly not, sssir... the ssstorm appeared in a matter of minutesss, thunder ssstruck the towersss, killed the Kakunasss... The Beedrill went mad, sssir... The rainsss may have taken the firesss, but they ssstopped as sssoon as the sssity wasss flaming..."
"Casualties?"
"All of them, sssir." The Scyther just looked miserable.
"WHAT?!"
"All the Beedrill, all the Kakunasss, all the little Weedlesss... The Beedrillsss could have fled, sssir, but they were trying to sssave the othersss..."
"And there was no ss... sign of the Vaekar?" Ash said, trying not to be infected by the hissing lisp of the pokemon
"I flew to the Sssafari Sssone, and warned them, then came here, sssir. I did not ssspot the Vaekarsss, and there isss no way of telling if anyone elssse did..."
"Safari Zone..." Ash pondered. "So the pokemon should be ready for them?"
"Yes, sssir."
"Good. Then we shall wait for word from the Safari Zone." Ash seemed very annoyed, and went to the window to find his Pidgeot looking right back at him.
"Sir, I've got a Butterfree here who claims that the Vaekar have been captured at the Safari Zone!"
"Or we won't wait. Let's go and meet these humans, then..."

~-~-~-~

It hadn't been long before they'd run into the wind and rain.
Jesse, Keira and Liam were reminded of the time they'd first met Rob. They'd been forced to charge through gale-force wind and rain to find where he was fighting off pokemon in an effort to save James. Although with him, the rain had gone from not there to there with the force of a hailstorm - here it hazed in, getting stronger the further they went.
"I'm guessing it's because there you've got a large amount of comparitively weak electric forces, wheras I'm a single very powerful force." Rob theorized, then shrugged. "Lots of power spread over a large area, lots of storm spread over a large area."
Damian had called to them just before they'd entered the rain, flying just out of range of the rain. "I'm not going in that." He'd said, quite firmly. "Rain and thunder aren't exactly the perfect conditions for me. Meet you on the other side." And he'd flown off before any of them could argue, leaving them to fend for themselves.
The rain got heavier and heavier, and everyone except Jess and Keira was crouching and covering their faces. They were nearly at the outskirts of the city, and they'd yet to see a sign of an electric pokemon - or any pokemon, for that matter.
A bolt of lightning crashed down right behind them, causing them all to jump. But in the fading flash, they realised that the house behind them was topped by a tall, silver structure. A lightning rod... as they looked around, they saw that almost every building was equipped with such a device.
"I suppose they want to keep the buildings standing..." Liam half-yelled over the rain.
"Where are all the pokemon?" Jess asked.
"Inside?" Rob suggested. "Thunder isn't something you use in heavy rain when surrounded by friends."
"Then let's keep moving!" Liam said, before pressing on into the pouring rain, the dark streets lit by the occasional lightning flashes. The others followed after him.
They'd been walking through the city for about five minutes when Liam suddenly stopped, holding the others back. When they looked at him questioningly, he pointed towards a house not too far ahead... light shone through one of the windows.
"I'd say we avoid being seen by that one." Rob said. "I think we should probably go to the rig-h--t..."
He trailed off as he looked to the right. A lightning flash had lit a huge tower located vaguely in the center of the town, reflecting off a huge collection of reflective surfaces. Through the rain, they could see a large quantity of dim lights shining in that direction...
"What do you lot think you're doing, standing around?" A voice hissed to them. They all started and spun around to see a hunched figure with a green, water-proof raincoat that reached down to his toes. "You're going to get in trouble! You know they don't like us socializing, or being late... are you lost or something? Where do you work here?"
"Huh?"
"You don't even have coats on?" The hood shook side to side, annoyed. "You recent captures, or..." One hand reached out to brush Jess's long, soaked hair aside. The hand froze as lightning flashed, illuminating her.
"You... you're not prisoners, and you have... follow me. Quickly!"
He spun around and set into a crouching run. They looked at each other, confused and shocked to see a human wandering around freely, then set off after him.
The green form was almost invisible in the gloom, and they nearly lost him once, Pat calling them back down a side street which they'd all passed after seeing him in a lightning flash.
He came to a door, threw it open, waved them inside urgently before following himself. He flicked a light switch on, taking off his soaking coat and hanging it on the handle. Beneath it was a skinny man of fairly average height, with short curly black hair and heavy grey clothes. He looked scared, but curious, as he reached out towards Jess's neck...
She grabbed his hand in an iron grip before he got close. "What do you want?"
"Your... that thing around your neck..."
She looked down to see the brilliant sapphire amulet that was Suikun's soul. The guardian gave out a slight feeling of mock pride.
"What about it?"
"You're the ones that are attacking back, aren't you? Vaekar... 'Humans with amulets and the power of many pokemon'... The pokemon have been talking about you... they don't care what we hear."
"Yeah, that's us..."
"You can fight the pokemon?"
"Ask those in Fuschia... the entire place was razed to the ground." Liam grinned, though there was little humour in it.
"A-amazing..." The man suddenly clapped a hand to his neck and groaned. "Not now! Oh damn... Listen, you lot have to stay here. I've got to get going, my master wants me... I'll have someone sent to you. Don't leave this house, don't touch anything, leave the lights off... I know you lot can fight, but this place is full of traps and the entire city's on maximum security... it's a wonder you got this far. Someone will be with you soon; I'll be seeing you later, I hope." With that, he swung the coat back on, switched off the light and closed the door. They could hear his footsteps for a moment, but they were soon lost in the endless, pattering rain.
"Umm..."
"I think we should do what he says." Pat piped up.
"Yeah... I'm sorta curious about this..."
We can afford to take a break... we're not in any great hurry. The amulets agreed. So long as Ash doesn't know that we're here...
"Okay... We'll take a break, get some rest." Jess ordered. "I'll take first watch. Get some sleep..."

~-~-~-~

Ash ran up to the devastated wall of the prison, looking inside and seeing the carnage. Two Pinsir stood inside, looking rather suprised at Ash's arrival.
"Master Ash, sir." They both bowed.
"What... what happened here? Did you not capture the human attackers?"
"We did, sir." The larger one replied, rather hesitant. The second cowered - scorch marks decorated his brown exoskeleton.
"And they escaped?"
"Y-yes, sir."
Ash's eyes narrowed. "Where is-" and then gave out a nearly unpronounceable series of hissing, high-pitched syllables.
"O-over here, sir." The Pinsir, shaking and with head bowed, led Ash to one of the cells where the bodies of the bugs slain by the attackers lay. He waved inside - the great Scyther warrior lay apart from the others.
Ash moved over to the bug, taking in the horrible hole in the torso, the missing blades. "How did this happen? Which of the humans did this?"
"No human did that, sir."
"What?"
"There was another... A st-strange creature c-captured in the Safari Zone... I-it walked like a human, b-but had wings and a-a tail like a Ch-charizard and was black all over..."
"WHAT?!"
The Pinsir cowered and stuttered. "I-it charged into the Zone and b-began killing everything in s-sight... I'm told the B-butterfree used S-sleep p-powder to neutralize it. They d-dragged it in and designed a ch-chamber to hold it... Th-th-they put its t-tail in a s-small chamber, i-in a tank of w-water, so that if i-it tried to e-escape the f-flame would be extinguished... W-we sent a messenger to you, reporting this..."
"And what happened?"
"The Ch-charizard-human e-escaped somehow... He did th-that to the Scyther... Th-then he released the r-rest of the h-humans, including the V-vaekar... We set off the al-larm, every p-pokemon in the S-safari Zone took chase..."
"And?"
"We haven't heard from them since, sir."
"How long ago was this?"
"Only a few hours... We couldn't keep up with the charge, so we came back to clean up around here. We assumed someone would be back sometime to take a message to you, but there's been no sign..."
Ash growled and turned away, muttering. "Damian... this was not what I had in mind..."
"They ran that way, sir." The Pinsir pointed, a direction slightly diagonal to the hole blown in the wall. "The rest of the humans escaped too..."
"I'll send a team to take care of that." Ash strode out of the half-destroyed prison. "Pidgeot!"
"Yes, master?" The huge bird fluttered down beside him.
"Get back to my castle. I want a small group sent down here to recapture the humans immediately."
"Yes, master. Anything else?"
"Send a small attack team to Vermillion. The Vaekar should be there soon."
"Small attack team?"
"Just enough to make them nervous. Let them know that I know where they are."
"How do you know they're in Vermillion?"
"I don't. But they seem to be heading north... and they're going to recieve a nasty shock anyway when they get to Saffron..."
"Yes, master. What about you?"
"I have some business to attend to down here... I will call you when I need you."
"Yes, master." The bird flapped powerfully, before shooting off over the treetops back towards Ash's fortress.
Ash stood still, sniffed the air carefully. A second later, his eyes snapped open and he was gone, leaving nothing behind but a trail of broken branches and a heavy gust of wind where he'd stood...
Travelling at the incredible speeds he was capable of, following the scent given off by angry Butterfree and Venomoth, the traces of powder scattered in preparation for battle, he found the field where the battle had taken place. A huge pile of bodies lay over one area, and the entire place was rather scorched - although there was a section that was still frozen solid.
Ash scanned the pile of bodies, and several others that lay scattered around the clearing. There was no sign of any frozen bugs. That didn't prove much, Damian's fire attacks would be more than enough to melt any frozen corpses, and there were plenty of crispy bugs in the heap... but most of them seemed to have been killed by some sort of blade, cleanly chopped in half.
He looked sadly across the carnage. "You will pay for this, humans. I will not forget the destruction of so many of my pokemon..."
Speeding off, back to the prison, Ash slowed to normal pace and walked up to the Pinsir still walking around. "This strange Charizard-human you speak of... did it have any sort of weapon?"
"It had two swords." The Pinsir nodded. "We found them when he was captured, took them off him. No point in giving him a way to attack..."
"And where are they now?"
The pokemon pointed. They had been put in a wooden case, which was broken and covered in scorch marks. One sword remained in it, the other embedded in the wall nearby.
"He didn't take them?"
"He went over, picked one out, then threw it into the wall."
Ash suddenly looked interested. "So he didn't have any sort of weapon when he left?"
"Y-yes he did, sir."
"He did? What weapon?"
"He killed the Scyther, took its blades, sir. Then left."
Ash was crestfallen. "It can't be... he would never..."
"Do you know who... what that creature was, sir?"
"Yes... And I feel I've either changed him too much, or not enough. Either that, or he's a lot more intelligent than I suspected..." Ash sighed. "You've done well. Not too many survive direct encounters with the Vaekar, as you've seen. The team should be here fairly soon... The safest place will probably be around here for a while. They're heading north, and I can't see them being eager to return here for any reason..."
"Thank you, sir." The Pinsir bowed again, as much as the still exoskeleton would allow, as Ash slowly walked once again out the hole in the wall... then suddenly called out, "There was one more thing, sir..."
Ash turned back. "Yes?"
"There was a pokemon with the Vaekar when we captured them. A Meowth. He was co-operating with them..."
"Really?" Ash looked bemused, then suddenly suprised. "Did you see him yourself?"
"Yes, sir."
"Did he have a strange accent, a bit of a drawl...?"
"Umm... I didn't hear it speak, sir. Sorry."
"Damn... In the group of Vaekar, was there a tall, thin woman with long red hair, pushed off to the side somewhat?"
"No, sir. There were only two females, a tall black-haired one and a short yellow-green haired-one."
"A man with purple hair, then?"
The pokemon brightened somewhat. "Yes, there was one like that. He had long purple hair, tied at the back."
"Tied..." Ash shrugged. "I suppose it has been four or five years since I last saw him... Where is the Meowth?"
"We sent him to you, sir. Two Beedrill, and a Butterfree to make sure he didn't wake up... They would be flying slowly, with that weight, but they should be at your fortress sooner or later..."
"Meowth and James... How very interesting."
"Glad I could be of some help, sir..." The Pinsir said as Ash set off once more, pondering these events, before heading south to see the wreckage of Fuschia City.

~-~-~-~

They were up to their third watch, Keira, when Florasaur's gargantuan form entered the dreamscape, saying "They're here," before fading again. The others quit their training session and leapt back into reality, where two people stood, taking off coats identical to the ones their other guide had worn. One was a tall, thick-built man with thick, curly grey hair, including beard and mustache; the other was a somewhat shorter but still thick-built woman, with an even thicker mop of curly, bright red-orange hair.
"Frank told us you'd be here." The man said, setting a heavy sack on the ground. "My name's Russell, and this is my wife Judy..."
"Liam." He shook the local's outstretched hand. The rest of them introduced themselves, there was an expectant silence, then Judy spoke up.
"Frank... he said you were the Vaekar. Is that true?"
"Wha... Vaekar?" They all looked rather confused.
"Yeah... the other guy called us that too. What does it mean?"
"You don't know?" Russell was slightly suprised. "It's what the pokemon call... well, you, I'm assuming. Humans that can attack with the powers of pokemon, but far more powerful. It means something like 'feared enemy' in one pokemon language or another, I'm not sure. Some pokemon are really afraid that you'll come here, some use the name sarcastically, not believing that humans could ever resist..." He trailed off, looking at them hopefully.
"Uh... yeah, I guess that's us."
"Good, good... Maybe you can help us while you're here..."
"I think we'd need a few questions of our own answered first." Rob put in.
"Oh... yes, okay. What do you need to know?"
"Why do the pokemon let you walk about freely, when you could escape?"
"...Ah, that. They don't, as such."
"Hmm?"
Russell pulled the collar of his jumper down, showing a thin band of metal around his neck. "The pokemon made these. Look, this entire city is one giant power plant. We're supplying the power for Ash's operations practically everywhere, between the lightning bolts and the electric pokemon that live here. Because of this, there's a huge aura of power just hanging over the entire place. If we wander outside the city, the collars sense that we're leaving because we're moving out of the aura, and electrocute us..."
Judy shuddered. "We've seen what happened to someone who tried to leave the city. It's a long, painful death. He was screaming and twitching for over an hour before he finally died. The pokemon made us all watch, to make sure we knew what would happen if we tried..."
"They've also got a calling device, and a homing device." Russell said sadly. "We've all been assigned to pokemon. If they want us, the collars tell us about it. If we don't come, they can tell where we are, or they can just make sure we know where our loyalties lie..."
"We both work in the main tower, but Frank is the personal slave of some lazy Raichu. He always looks nervous and jumpy, and it's for a reason..."
"I'm guessing they've got defences against taking the collar off?"
"Touching the collar gives you a mild shock. Holding on to the collar is rather painful. Trying to pull the collar off?" Judy shook her head. "You'd be dead before you got close. Even if you managed to break it, it'd sense that it was broken and administer a Thunderwave-sorta thing to anyone touching it, and would inform the pokemon who controlled it. And even if you managed to get past that, if you were seen in this city without a collar, you'd be in huge trouble... We're lucky Frank spotted you before any pokemon did."
"The pokemon don't like going out into the rain, so they send us to do everything. We've got a fair bit of freedom... and one thing the pokemon have luckily failed to do is set up some sort of security network around the city."
"That's a relief."
"So we've managed to keep ahead of them. We've got a plan that'll bring the entire operations here grinding to a halt..."
"Really? What sort of thing do you have in mind?"
The two of them grinned, and Russell held out the bulky sack he held over his shoulder, the same colour as the coat they'd worn. "Take this, and go down here." He kicked aside a rug, revealing a rough trapdoor in the floor, which he pulled open with some effort. "The less we go down there with the collars on, the less likely it is we'll be found out."
"What?"
"Don't worry. There's a friend down there. He'll explain everything. We don't want to be found here. Go!"
They did as the duo said, one by one moving down into the hole in the floor. Russell lowered the sack down after them, then closed the trapdoor.
Dim lights ran across the walls of the corridor before them. Seeing no other alternative than to investigate further, they set off...

~-~-~-~

Ash stood at the boundry of where the great beedrill hives had once stood.
Now, it was a black and barren wasteland.
The black ground was sticky and sickly, thick burnt stringshot. Not a single structure had survived, not even a stump. A few burnt Beedrill husks could be seen some distance from the city, but none within the black landscape. Stringshot burns hard and well, and anything in that inferno could never have survived...
Ash swallowed as he walked back and forth, surveying the damage... but there wasn't really much to survey. The city stretched further than he could see in both directions, but the fires had been fierce and had taken the entire place...
"This is awful... how could anyone do such a thing?"
"S-s-sir master Ash!" He looked up from the horrible ground to see a Pidgey flying erratically towards him. He held out an arm for it to rest on, and it flapped suddenly back.
"Oh, no, sir, I couldn't!"
"Don't worry about it." Ash smiled kindly.
"Th-thank you sir!" It babbled, shivering with the honour of doing this.
"What do you want, little one?"
"Please sir... there's a Sandslash, further south. It's badly hurt. It's body is healed... well, not completely, but as much as we can, it still looks a mess... but it seems insane... It doesn't move much, just lies there chanting that it needs to see you... 'Must go to Ash, must go to Ash...' I think it ran into the humans, the Vaekar... I heard that you had come down here to see what happened, and I just thought you'd like to know..." The bird looked frightened, almost guilty, as if it might be in trouble for suggesting that the master and god of all pokemon take time out of his life to see this one pokemon...
Ash looked concerned. "Where is this?"
"Follow me, I'll show you..."
"No, just tell me. I'll have us there in no time..."
The Pidgey looked around. "That way." He pointed with a wing.
"Hang on tight..." Ash grinned and cradled the bird close, before setting off at the incredible speeds he was capable of, to see this injured Sandslash...