Theme Song: 'I Am' - Inuyasha
"No, s'ok Todd. No, don't worry – just…ring me if anything comes up, okay? 'Kay, bye." Ash hung up the vidphone receiver, and the image of the boy with the wavy brown hair disintegrated into black. Ash sighed as he flipped through his address book. He didn't know what he was so concentrated on, because he sure as hell wasn't paying the correct amount of attention to the address book, but he didn't hear the door slide open. Misty slipped into the room unnoticed, making him startled slightly when she placed her hand on his shoulder.
"Any luck?" she murmured. Ash shook his head.
"Looks like we're the only people to have these girls," he answered. "I've tried almost everyone. Hey, can I borrow your address book?" Misty nodded.
"Sure – why?"
"Cos you have some people's numbers that I don't," he stated simply. Misty nodded, and went to retrieve her book from her backpack upstairs. As she passed through the sitting room, the front door shuddered as someone banged on it. Misty frowned – it was quite late in the evening. Brock stood up from the sofa yawning, and wandered over to the door, scratching his back lazily.
Gary was leaning against the white door frame in the twilight outside, a smirk on his face that made Misty want to slap him.
"What?" chorused both Brock, Richie and Misty at the same time. Gary arched an eyebrow as he gazed into the sitting room, seeing Erin and Karlie leaning on each other half asleep as they gazed at the television, unaware of anything else.
"Nice little party you've got going here," Gary snorted. "I've got one more." He gestured behind him to where they could barely make out the figure of Tracey in the dusk, coaxing somebody in his gentle voice.
"Another girl?" asked Ash, popping up from nowhere, and being smacked down by Misty's balled-up fist as he got in her way. "Is she from the same place as the other two?"
"We dunno," sighed Tracey, suddenly. "She's kinda in shock – keeps mumbling something about her throat and the spikes on your hair Ash." Everyone sweatdropped.
"Did she fall from the sky too?" Misty practically whispered, her eyes intent on the distant spot in the gloom outside where they could make out the figure of the girl.
"I was mucking out the Ponyta…" began Gary, but he was silenced by an extremely tired and seemingly irritable Tracey.
"He was watching me muck out the Ponyta," he corrected. "And this girl came hurtling down towards me, screaming her head off just like Erin…and I was gonna catch her…but Gary shoved me out of the way and caught her…" All eyes turned to Gary sceptically. He sweatdropped.
"Hey, I just knew those pansy girl arms of yours would never be able to support her, Sketchitt! And hey, what can I say?" he continued, shrugging. "I have a thing for blondes," he lied. By now, they seemed to have caught the attention of the 'weird girls', who were watching intently from their perch by the television. It was quite amusing the way they seemed to be frightened of everything around them, and in awe of him, thought Ash, smiling.
As if on cue, the group by the front door was interrupted by the 'new-comer'; a slim, young girl with short, blonde hair. Everyone's eyes automatically went to the crystal clear gem pendant around the girl's neck, but Tracey beat them with the answer before they could ask.
"Soul. Rach," he stated, simply. The blonde girl looked up at them with frightened eyes, and seemed to swoon slightly under their gazes. Brock sighed impatiently.
"If you're gonna faint then you might as well go over there," he snickered, jabbing a finger in Erin's general direction. She stood up, glaring. Suddenly, her eyes took on an all-blue colour, and her mouth hung open slightly. Karlie was the only one who seemed to notice this.
"Be nice to me, Brock," Erin murmured, in not her usual voice. "I am your Protector…" Suddenly, Karlie slapped Erin around the back of her head. Her eyes cleared, and she reached up to pat the back of her head, glaring at Karlie. What was that for? she mouthed.
"Could have fooled me, Erin," Brock continued to tease. "If I remember rightly, I was the one who caught you after you plummeted!" Erin looked at him, in confusion.
~*~
Author tapped the end of the biro against her teeth impatiently. Where was Hope? She should have been transported to the one who needed hope, and then they should have joined up with the others. Author whined suddenly, a pathetic, pitiful sound.
Why do my stories never turn out right? Why are they never, ever good enough? There's always a problem…always something that spoils my perfection, she thought, disgruntled.
Well, dinner soon, she thought, happily. One more author disbound before food? she thought. She extracted the biro from her mouth, and surveyed the half full piece of paper in front of her. There had almost been a disaster – Soul had almost gone to the one who was bound to Sincerity – but Author had managed to fix that one.
"Page end," she murmured, feeling a chill of excitement course through her as the paper cleansed itself. Just like I'll have to start cleansing my perfect story of certain characters soon, she thought to herself, watching someone in her mind's eye. Ah well, that came later. Back to business.
"Reality," she murmured, her hand drawing the kanji of its own accord now. Author briefly noticed this – what does one think when one realises that ones own hand is writing by itself? In a different language? With a different alphabet? Author didn't have much time to think, as the power of her decisions ripped through her veins, and she began to laugh, loudly for no reason.
"Reality!" she commanded. "Disbound!"
~*~
"Am I okay?" repeated Rachel, a slightly crazed look in her eyes. "Am I okay? Let's see here – I've just taken like a bazillion mile drop through the air…downwards…I almost landed in a pile of what 'Tracey' calls Ponyta manure – but I get caught by who? Gary Oak. And what does Gary Oak do? He puts his friggin' HAND UP MY SKIRT! UP MY SKIRT!!" she repeated. There was silence, as the three other pairs of female eyes turned to Gary. He sweatdropped again.
"Erm gotta go! Muck out some, um, Swinub or something. Yeah. Yeah, bye er, ladies!" Gary disappeared within seconds.
"Pervert…" Karlie murmured, crossing her arms across her chest disapprovingly.
"Riny…Kaz…" murmured Rachel, in a teary voice. "W-why are we in the Pokémon world? I-I thought I'd never say this but-but I wanna go home…" Erin and Misty pulled the younger girl into a cuddle, whilst Karlie congratulated Tracey on 'being brave'. Erin noticed with slight distaste that Rachel, a year younger than her, was the same height – maybe even half an inch taller. Rachel shuddered suddenly.
"I'm glad he's gone," she mumbled "I mean, I know Arrow loves him and all but….ugh," she shuddered again. Karlie's ears pricked up at Arrow's name.
"I don't think so Rachel," murmured Misty thoughtfully eying Erin carefully.
"What do you mean?" asked Erin nervously.
"Nothing," Misty smiled. "I just have a feeling that Gary's gonna be involved in our new little adventure."
"I don't wanna be in an adventure!" wailed Rachel. "I wanna go home! I wanna watch it, not live it!"
"Do that for another 6 hours," smiled Erin, "and you'll be where I am right now; scarily calm about things." Rachel smiled back.
"Okay, Ash I'll go get that address book for ya," Misty said, walking towards the stairs. She paused at the foot of them, looking back at Rachel. "Come on then! I'll introduce you to Mrs Ketchum – she's reading in her room – and I'll get you some nighties, okay?" Rachel nodded gratefully, and followed the redhead up the stairs.
"Rin," whispered Karlie, urgently.
"Wha?"
"This is gonna sound totally paranoid but- but if this, this thing that's bringing us here…it seems to be picking off people from our little, well, 'group' of Fanfiction.net authors…"
"Which would make Mia…Arrow…the next rhetorical 'target'," murmured Erin.
"Wouldn't she be transported to Gary?" Karlie asked. Erin shook her head.
"Were you transported to Tracey? Nope. Was Rachel transported to Richie? Nope. Do I see my Shingo anywhere at all?? Nope! I don't think it's working that way…"
"Well…we need to find out-"
RING RING RING! RING RING RING! PHONECALL! PHONECALL!
Ash passed to answer the vidphone, shooting strange looks at the two 'weird girls' who had burst into laughter at the sound of the telephone ring.
It was Todd.
"Man that was totally freaky! Is this some kinda joke Ash?" he babbled in awe as soon as Ash picked up.
"What?" Ash asked.
"How did you know that a babbling girl was gonna fall out of the sky on me?" Todd asked excitedly. Ash groaned; noooooo not another one…
"GET ME OUTTA HEEEEEEEEEEEERE!" screeched a girl's voice. In the other room, Erin sat bolt upright, turning around rapidly, almost taking Karlie with her.
"Mi-" she began…before stopping, and walking curiously into the study where Ash was on the phone. She stood behind him, and peered into the monitor, before raising her hand to her mouth in silent shock.
"Michelle!" she gasped.
~*~
That's it, thought Author. I can't be bothered to wait around for Hope to get her act together. She picked up her biro, and scribbled a few lines of prose onto the page. There, she thought, admiring her work. That will get them there.
~*~
"Erin, calm down. Todd's on his way over; we'll meet up with him tomorrow!" soothed Brock as the distressed girl flitted around the room, while Delia chased her patiently, holding out a nightgown which Erin completely ignored. Already in nightwear, Misty, Karlie and a calmed-down-Rachel sat expectantly on the sofa.
"I finally got a hold of Duplica," Ash rambled, running excitedly into the room. "She has a girl too. This actually makes the search harder cos now we know that not only guys may catch them…"
"No offence girls, but…why are we 'collecting' them Ash?" asked Brock. Ash stopped, and shrugged.
"I dunno, it just seems like the best thing to do. Anyway, Duplica's traveling down – but she's all the way near Saffron City, so we'll have to be patient. Um, Duplica says the girl has a really dark green pendant, kinda like your hair Trace (Tracey: O.O;;; ) and her name is-"
"Mia?" the three authors chorused, expectantly. Ash sweatdropped, and nodded. Karlie sighed.
"Erina-chan; Kaz-Ohki, pf14, Arrow, *Hotaru_Firefly*…" she murmured. "Who's the next one gonna be?"
"Trish?" Rachel shrugged. Karlie nodded, slowly.
"Probably."
"Anyway," spoke up Delia, in a cheerful voice. "It's very late, I think you should be getting back to the lab now."
"Kay," smiled Tracey, waving a hand in goodbye and faltering as he saw a heartbroken looking girl with glasses gazing at him. "Um, night girls – nice, nice meeting you! See you tomorrow!"
"Richie dear, you're welcome to stay here tonight," smiled Mrs Ketchum. "You can sleep in Ash's room upstairs with him and Brock, as Misty and the girls are going to have a little slumber party down here in the sitting room! Goodnight, off to bed with you!" Delia skipped up the stairs, humming happily.
Misty and the others glared round at the line of boys who stood behind the couch.
"May we help you?" asked Karlie, grinning. Ash stubbornly folded his arms.
"What if we don't want to go upstairs yet – this is my sitting room!" Erin could feel that Misty was about to explode, and touched her lightly on the arm to silence her.
"Okay," smirked Erin. "How about we all play Spin the Bottle?" Richie squealed, and babbled something about being tired, practically pole-vaulting over furniture to the stairs. One down…
"Oh look, I'm not in my nightie yet," said Erin, grinning. Rachel and Misty were in fits of giggles. Karlie looked deep in thought about something. Erin began to fiddle with her dungaree straps, and Ash looked in horror, following much the same tactics as Richie. Two down…
Returning from the bathroom in her nightie, Erin realised that Brock was still standing there. Well – Brock was Brock. Whatever you'd say to get rid of a normal guy would probably only turn him on. She sighed. Suddenly, Karlie spoke up.
"Hey guys, I was just thinking about, you know, necessities. Did any of you happen to bring any tampons?" There was a sound that resembled a bird being throttled, and suddenly there was a Brock-coloured blur rushing up the stairs. Karlie smirked. "Women have the power," she quoted, sticking her tongue out as Rachel slapped her a high-five.
The girls settled down for the night – two girls on each sofa.
"Dammit Misty you have cold feet," grumbled someone, accompanied by the sound of covers rustling.
"Hey Misty…" came another voice, softly; more recognisable as Erin's due to her soft Irish accent. "Are you getting a little jealous with all these new girls showing up?" Karlie, Misty's couch-companion giggled.
"She stiffened up! She's jealous!" she teased in a sing-song voice.
"You don't have to worry," came Rachel's voice, out of the darkness. "Karlie'll be infatuated with Tracey throughout her life; Riny's obsessed with you and Ash getting together; Michelle, who you'll meet tomorrow…well I severely doubt ASH is her type (silenced giggle from Riny)! Oh, and Mia is hopelessly devoted to Gary. I on the other hand, think Richie is the sweetest thing ever!"
Erin and Karlie groaned, throwing pillows in Rachel's general direction.
"Well…" spoke up Misty, suddenly. "To tell you the truth, I'm more worried about Duplica turning up…" Misty sounded miserable. Erin thought of Mia's ideal pairing with Duplica and snorted with laughter, drawing attention to herself. She sweatdropped, then almost fell off the couch in fright at this giant teardrop thing appearing on the side of her head.
The girls' laughter and banter faded into peaceful sleep in the little white cottage in Pallet, under the stars. And under those same stars, on a route south from Cerulean, Duplica and Mia lay sleeping by their campfire. On another route, the other side of Pallet, Michelle was too scared and aggravated to sleep; keeping a watchful eye on Todd as he cleaned his camera lens like any moment he was going to jump at her.
Todd sighed. It was going to be a loooooooooong trip…
~*~
Ah good, thought Author. They'll all be together soon. Maybe it was time to start messing with their heads? One more author, she cautioned herself. She was leaving the youngest, the 'special key' till last after all. There was still the adult card to play, before she began injecting the first girl with the dreams.
Clearing the page as simplistically as if it were wiping a window, Author began her ritual of moans, and kanji writing. She was getting more skilled; it only took a few moments before her will and thoughts began to resonate with the paper.
"Wisdom," her voice echoed. "Disbound!"
~*~
"Meowth hates slumming in de forest," grumbled the cat Pokémon, as he sat eating out of a tin of tuna. The lavender haired man glared at him from where he sat underneath a tree, admiring his collection of bottlecaps.
"Well this isn't my idea of fun either Meowth!" he snapped, in his upper-class voice. As her two team mates argued, Jesse blew on her nails, in a bored fashion. Suddenly she stopped, and peered up at the sky.
"What in the world is that?" she mused.
