By: Shadow
"Guys! I found a city!" Sky yelled.
"That's nice." Volcano said. Looking over his shoulder at Slasher. All of a sudden BOOM! Slasher fell down, clutching his chest as if he had a heart attack. "Hey! Sky! Get over here!" Kneeling down, Sky felt Slasher's heart.
"Still beating." Sky said. "We need to get to the nearest Pokemon center fast!"
Calling Slasher into his Pokeball, the two friends started running as fast as they could.
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At the Pokemon center in Pewter City, Sky, Slasher, and Volcano, were sitting in a booth.
"Whoa! I can't believe you got hurt! If it wasn't for me…" Volcano said, letting everyone finish the sentence. "Well, we've gotta find out…"
"Yeah. I know. You just collapsed." Sky said.
"Now that I'm out of the ER, you don't need to worry." Slasher said, pointing at the metal bandage that was permanently sown on his chest. "Besides, this thing will protect me."
"I wouldn't be so sure." Nurse Joy said, stepping beside the booth. "That's just a plate so no infection will get in that small gash you gave yourself."
"I'll say." Volcano said.
"Well, we've gotta find out who or what did this to me! Come on. I'd never get hurt." Slasher said, waving his claws over to the door. "We gotta get going!" Reluctantly, everyone followed. They didn't know where they were going or how'd they'd eventually get there. All they knew is that they'd find something, good or bad.
"Good-bye!" Nurse Joy called after them. "We hope to see you again!"
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"Can we rest for awhile?" Volcano said. "I gotta get some rest." He fell down, clutched his heart, and then opened his eyes. They seemed really red. Almost evil, maybe.
"Hey, man, you ok?" Slasher said, looking over at Sky. "Sky, I don't think he's himself anymore. This happened to me." Backing away, Sky and Slasher watched what Volcano would do. Volcano got up, brushed himself off, and spoke in a deep, strange, voice.
"Hurt of wrongness, hurt thou who open the wrong gateways to life. Forever night will blind thee, and the world will fall to a great doom." Volcano said. Then he fell, limp, to the ground.
"Hurt of wrongness, hurt thou who open the wrong gateways to life… That sounds like it falls upon you guys." Sky said. "But what are the wrong gateways to life? And how'd you open them?"
"I dunno Sky, but whatever it is, it hurts us. It might hurt you. Go! Leave us to die." Slasher said, bending over the hurt Charmeleon. "I can't risk your life for ours."
"Why shouldn't I risk my butt? I've already lost my family, I won't lose you. You have people who love you. I don't." Sky said. "I'll help you, whatever it may bring. Got it? And don't try and stop me either!" Looking at the clouds, he said a few words to himself.
I know what's happened. I opened their gates. I told them whether or not they were light and dark. Bad or good. I didn't do that on purpose. It just seemed…so right. I was wrong yet again. I have to learn. "Then I won't." Slasher said. "But if you die, I'll feel bad about myself. Now, do you have a way that this whole word puzzle thingy works out?"
"I might have a theory."
"Spit it out."
"Remember when I called you dark and called Volcano light? Maybe, just maybe, I opened your gateways for you, but they were the wrong ones. Maybe you are the light guy and… he's the dark guy. I don't know. I don't think there is such a thing…" Sky said. Blushing, he pulled out an old book. Its spine was falling apart, and it was made of rusty metal. Pulling open the iron lock, and turning the page to Ancient Legends, he started reading.
"The light and dark Pokemon Gods, Rasp and Musk, fought. Together they fought against an evil force, Mewtwo, another ancient God. Fighting about the battle, they became mortal enemies. Yet, their descendents will somehow bring together their courage to become friends and save the world from total destruction."
"That's all?" Slasher asked. "That will not help us, you know."
"I know. But there's more." Sky said. Turning the page, he read more ancient words. "Ok. Right here… If the two descendents choose their own path, they will be hurt. Rasp, the dark God, will speak through a nearby body, afterwards leaving he/she limp. He will speak few words, and when the time is right, will set on obstacles for the dark descendent while the light descendent will be spoken to by Musk after an unknown test." Sky read. "Happy now?"
"That means that I'm light, the descendent of Musk, but it doesn't prove anything about Volcano." Slasher said. "Am I correct?" Trying to connect the limp body and the one sentence Sky read. "And now, we're lost in another jungle or forest or whatever you wanna call what we're lost in, and we have a hurt body, PLUS all that, we have no map. Where does that all lead us?"
"Uh. To this underwater hideout maybe?" Sky said, peering into the murky water of a lake. "Or whatever this might be."
"Maybe. Wait! Did you just say 'underground hideout'?" Slasher said, looking in the lake for himself. "Hold on!" Then swimming to the bottom of the murky water and opening the door, or something that appeared to be a door, to the hideout, he swam back up. "Looks that way. And pretty much deserted. Bring the body and yourself down and come in!"
After swimming down with Volcano on his back, he stepped inside the hideout, amazed at what he saw.
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He woke in a lab bed. He was strapped down and had wires suctioned onto his head. He was an experiment. No. It couldn't be. He was just with Sky and Slasher a second ago. How'd he get here? Putting his head up, Volcano could see a worried Slasher and Sky as a computer went to work on him. Sky got up and walked to a computer. The line in the middle was flat. Sky put his hand up to his forehead and ran his hand down. He could hear something Slasher said. I'm sorry he died. Really sorry. What did that mean? Looking down at his own body, he could see he was turning an awesome blue. But what did it all mean? Was he dead?
"No!" Volcano said, straining against his dying body. "I can't die!" Suddenly, he felt a surge of power, and broke the bands that held him down. He stood on the bed, chanting the same words over and over. I will not die. I cannot die. Then looking down at himself, he realized that he was still an icy blue. He saw Slasher look up, and poke Sky. "I'm not dead." Volcano said walking slowly toward his two friends. The heavy metal armor held him back from going faster. "I'm not dead."
"He's not dead!" Slasher echoed in awe. "Check the computer Sky. Now!"
Sky ran to the computer and the middle line went up and down steadily. Then the screen went black as Volcano tore the last wire from his now armored body.
"Told ya I wouldn't die." Volcano said. "Don't lose faith in me."
"Next time, I won't. How'd you do that?" Slasher asked curiously. "I mean that was fantabulous!"
"Well, um. I just sorta thought of all the bad things that's happened to me and how I didn't want to die now so I could maybe show those bad things a lesson or two." Volcano said. Seeing that Slasher and Sky were wide eyed, he asked them what was wrong.
"Oh. Nothing. Nothing at all. Nothing, nothing, nothing!" Sky said, hoping that Volcano didn't already know his origin. "We're just amazed is all." Seeing that Slasher's mouth was still wide open, he hit him.
"Ouch." Slasher said dully. "Ouch."
"So. What should I do about this…thing?" Volcano asked gesturing towards his armor. "I don't wanna wear it all the time." Then growling something, the armor was gone.
"What'd you do?" asked Sky. "I mean, it just disappeared right now." Then touching Volcano's chest, he realized that there was a metal patch almost like Slasher's. Then reaching over and touching Slasher's chest, he noticed that the metal patch had changed. It was now a yellow/red color. Volcano's was a blue/purple color. He wondered what it meant.
"Well. If you'd stop touching us, I'll tell you." Volcano snapped. "Oh. Sorry about that. I'm just tired is all. Well, just now I mumbled that I wanted the armor to go away. If you want exact words, listen carefully. I said, 'New Armor Shield O.'" Then Volcano mumbled something else and the armor appeared. "For that I said, 'Armor Activate'."
"Wow. I've never seen anything so perfect in my life!" Sky said in a robotic like voice. Then when Volcano took his eyes off of him, he returned to normal and said the same exact thing in his normal voice. Slasher realized that Volcano must have done it, because he always liked to brag. It'd show him… When he got something special for being a descendent, he would do something really special. Maybe to protect them from something evil and bad. But he knew he would. There was a rumbling noise coming from another room in the hideout.
"I'll cover it!" Slasher said jumping up to duty. Running around the hideout, he wondered why he'd volunteered. But he knew he should be watching his back instead. There was a low rumbling noise and then a voice.
Slasher.
"Yes?"
Do you know who I am?
"No. Am I supposed to?"
You should.
"Really?"
Yes.
"Cool."
Who am I?
"Er… Musk?" Slasher said. "Eh, don't be offended, I'm just kidding."
Good. You know who I am.
"What do you want?" Slasher said, prepared to fight for his life if he really needed to. "If you're here to hurt me…"
NO! I mean, no. Ok. You have earned a special power. Do you know why?
"Stumped. But you can tell me anyway."
Because you would save your friends, you dingdong!
"That easy? Why does it have to be easy? I thought you were supposed to be the light God… Now I'm confused." Slasher said. "What is it?"
I must leave you now! Toodle-ooes! Oh, and by the way, that's the only easy one.
"Future Walk. Allows me to walk on all walls, even ceilings. Too bad I didn't get armor."
That's for the dark guy dimwit! Now go back to your friends!
"Geez. Ok anyways. I'll try out my new little ability. Future Walk!" Nothing happened. So Slasher started walking, and not watching where he was going, he almost bumped into the wall. But, he started walking up the wall, and to his surprise, was soon hanging from the ceiling. "Yippie. How do I get down?"
At that same moment, Volcano came in to see if Slasher was all right. "Oh my Lord!" he shouted, astounded at what he was seeing. "You're up on the ceiling!" He ran back into the medic room where Sky was looking something up on the computer. He tugged at Sky's sleeve, gesturing for him to come into the main hall. When Sky saw Slasher himself, he started shouting stuff. Stuff like: What the… and Can you get down? It was a pain to listen to so Volcano told him to shut up.
"Why are you yelling? It's just me… up on the ceiling!" Slasher yelled down. "My new ability." He realized that in order to get down, you had to walk down another wall. He hurried in doing so, for he felt like he was going to -
"BLAHUH!"
--throw up.
"What a pretty sight." Volcano joked. "I'll need all the armor I can get my hands on to get this smell out!"
"You're just jealous." Slasher replied after 10 minutes. "And that, that is the truth."
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Present Day, Same Forest/Jungle
"This oughta be a grand picture!" a 16 year old boy said, snapping a picture with his brand new cam-corder/camera/computer like product. "And right on my mini computer. Yummy."
"What's yummy?" snarled 3 weird looking people.
"Prepare for trouble."
"And make that triple!"
"To protect this world from devistation."
"To unite all peoples within our nations!"
"To announce the evils of truth and love!"
"To extend our reign to the stars above!"
"Jane!"
"James!"
"Howard!"
"Blast off at the speed of light!"
"Surrender now or prepare to…"
"Fight, fight, fight!"
"Pidgeot!"
"That's right!"
"Thanks, but no thanks guys. I don't need any products right now. Look me up as Hald. Seeya!" and the 16 year old male, pushed back a stunned Team Rocket and Pidgeot, just to stumble into a lake.
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Hideout
There was a pounding sort of noise coming from the closest underwater door (the one that they entered the hideout through).
"I'll check." The 17 year-old male ran up the stairs to the camera. He activated the security system and then getting to the main screen imported the camera picture to the computer. He zoomed the camera around until it landed right under the door. A 16 year-old clung onto part of the door, and pounding his fist on the unseen wall, looked like he was drowning. "I'm going to let him in guys. Prepare to attack. Don't attack 'til I say 'Now'."
"Right." The two Pokemon saluted. "Rock on."
Sky entered the code in the door, hoped that the water door kept shut afterwards, and opened the heavy metal door. The teenager was dumped in right in front of Sky's feet.
"No bowing. I just saved your life." Sky said. "Who are you?"
Scrambling up to his feet, the visitor and worthy swimmer of the lake, shook himself off. He stared at Sky.
"If you will not talk…" Sky started. He almost said 'Now', when the visitor started to speak.
"I-I-I'm Hald. Nice to meet you. I must be going. I'm…" said the teenager, obviously named Hald.
"Silence. You can't go until I see some ID." Sky demanded. Watching the visitor, Hald, pull out a wallet and open it to his ID, he knew that this guy was trouble. Taking the ID, Sky read it over. "Hmmm… Rocket Rangers? Dark Agent #100 eh? Sorry. You must… NOW!" After the sounding gun went off, Slasher jumped from the ceiling and in two great big jumps, knocked Hald down. Out of nowhere, the Icy Blue Charmeleon speeded toward the two, and just as Volcano hit, Slasher jumped out of the way and ran up to the ceiling and down the other wall where he kicked Hald's head.
"Sorry sucker." Slasher said. Then, having Sky open the door, tossed Hald into the dark, murky, water. "We'll not be seeing much of him." But somewhere deep inside, Slasher knew he did the wrong and right thing. He protected his friends, yet, what if this Hald guy was innocent? He'd never know.
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Bolivar Town, Same Time
Nicky threw some punches at a wall. Apparently, her town was a ghost town. Even the murderers left. But she was pretty sure she wasn't alone. Just a day before, she was sure she heard voices coming from her deserted home. Well, it wasn't deserted. She had picked up most of the bodies and buried them. Some in her home, some in others.
"What the…" Nicky muttered as a whip just missed her hand. "Who's there?"
"Wolf! Wolf-fully-fu!" her wolf like Pokemon unleashed another sudden attack.
"You're just training I hope." Nicky said, nodding her approval. "I'll move over here." She moved over, and noticed something on the dirt ground. It was mostly dark in Bolivar Town since everyone was either killed or fled. "A note. Maybe it's from the murderers. Too bad I can't read it. Too dark. I'll go fetch myself a flashlight." She ran inside Sky's house, too lazy to go into her own, partly because of the buried dead bodies, and searched for a flashlight. Scanning the area, she opened a drawer. She scrambled through it. "Got one."
Turning around, there was a snarling noise.
"Rocket Rangers? What stupid name did our boss pick? We're going around killing people and we're only Rocket Rangers? It's like we've come out of Team Rocket!" a man in a black coat with dark sunglasses and a backwards, black hat said. The other one, just like him, replied. He had more of a raspier voice.
"It's the boss. Boss's orders are boss's orders after all. Just let him be. He just found out we lost his best agent. I was the runner up. I sent him towards that lake, saying the boss wanted him to. That piece of dirt thinks it's for real, and goes down there pretending to be a stupid photographer! Run's into Team Rocket, pushes them away, just to fall into a lake."
"What if Sky's there?" Nicky whispered to herself. Running around the living room to get a better look at the Rocket Rangers, she stepped on a remote. The TV turned on, making a noise. She ran to the remote and turned it off in time to hear footsteps coming her way.
I better scat.
She ran out of the room to the back door where she stepped outside, got all Pokemon in their rightful Pokeballs and ran off.
Of course I'll call Sky on behalf of the Rocket Rangers… I wonder if I'll be seeing the last of them soon. I'll make sure none are left.
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Hideout
"I'm angry." Sky said.
"A quote often said. Heh." Slasher remarked. "Are you always angry, sad, or depressed."
"Thanks for telling me. Like I needed to know." Sky snapped.
"Let me start a new, cool, conversation." Volcano suggested. "I think you might find it interesting."
"Fire away…" Sky and Slasher said. "Go ahead."
"Well… Here's one! Why were you named Sky? I mean, there are plenty of perfectly good names like Joshua, ect., ect." Volcano asked.
"Oh no…"
RING…RING…RING!
"It's my cell!" Sky said, reaching into his back pack and pulling out the ringing device. "Hello?"
"Sky? Hey! It's Nicky!" the voice one the other line said.
"Nicky? It's been a long time, hasn't it?" Sky said.
"Where are you?"
"In our new underwater hideout. Why?"
"Because, um. Something bad has happened. This place is deserted. My dad ran off, and a few others did so too. Um, the murderers Rocket Rangers or at least agents, have killed everyone else off. I just got there yesterday."
"You mean Dark Agents like Dark Agent #100? I've heard of them! And did they copy Team R or something?"
"Well, um, they wanted you to kill that guy. I think you did. If you didn't, excuse me. But that's good. The less around, the safer it is. Now we've got two teams to worry about. And watch out you guys! It's a rough ride from here! Bye." Then they heard a click and the line was dead.
"Hmmm… Strange." Volcano muttered. "First we're super guys then we have to save the world from two evil teams."
"She didn't even care about our underwater hideout?" Slasher yelled. "You didn't even mention it all that much!"
"Jeez. How low can you go?" Sky asked. "This isn't some great palace everyone needs to know about. I mean this is our hideout. Take it apart and what have you got left? Hide and out. Okay? Now it's 9:00 and I want to get some rest. Maybe I'll find my meaning when I'm asleep."
"I wish I could find mine." Slasher said, kicking the floor with his foot. "You guys go on ahead and pick rooms for this section. I'll go to sleep in a while."
"Whatever dude." Volcano said, yawning. "See ya in the funny papers."
Walking around for a little while, he decided to go into the computer lab nearby. He didn't really decide. He stumbled into it.
"Ouch?" Slasher got up and went to the nearest computer. "Lets see what these claws can do." He put himself to the test and typed in a command.
Map.
A map of the hideout came up. He could see it went probably all the way around the world. He wanted to know how you could get around from one section to another. He typed in another command.
Get Around.
An info box popped up. It read:
To get around you locate the transporter device in each area. Hook up to computer and click on area you want to transport to. Anyone touching the transporter at the time will then be transported into the area of choice. You will be transported into that area's main room. All computer labs are located in the same spot in every area. Press 'M' for more info.
Slasher decided not to press M. He wasn't going anywhere for the next couple of days. He'd just do a bit of research every night. He'd be the smartest one in the alley. Or at least in the building.
I wonder if anyone really does live here. And who he/she is.
Clicking on the exit button, Slasher realized that there was an email and his computer had been making noises that whole time.
"Might as well see who it is."
He clicked on the message title: Good To See You. It was dated January 1, 1990.
That doesn't make sense! It's way past the 90s! It's 2001! Seesh!
He stared at it. Just stared and stared like it had read his mind. It was an ad. An ad from… who? He couldn't see the name. He got dizzy and fell down…
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A very old Sandslash held a bleeding wound. It had been shot with a human gun. It got up and attacked the human standing over it.
A young Sandshrew ran alongside his father, who had been badly wounded too. But he was still alive and still standing. Taking the shot in the leg had been painful, yet he could still run.
"Where are we going?" the young Sandshrew asked. "I want my Mom!" It sat down and started crying.
"Son! Hurry up! Your Ma is dead, and she ain't coming back!" his father yelled. The young Sandshrew almost got shot if it wasn't for his father. He leaped in the way to protect its son from harm. "R-r-run…"
No Daddy! No!
The Sandshrew ran through the fields alone, running, running. He ran right into a Charmander.
"Where ya going?" it asked the Sandshrew.
"Just run!!!!!" the Sandshrew yelled back. "Run!"
Run. Run. Run. Run. Run.
The two could hear gun shots as a Sandslash's cry could be heard.
Daddy!
The young Sandshrew felt like running back to help his dad, but he couldn't. He knew he couldn't stand a chance against those guns. Not a chance.
They kept on running. Just kept right on running and running, until out of sight in a cave, where they were safe.
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"He was reunited with his Mama and Papa!" Slasher yelled. "Some kid, I know, he was reunited with his Mama and Papa! I think…" He looked at the computer screen. The email was still open. What it had said. It was gone now. Even the picture. It was gone. Completely blank. And nothing would bring it back.
To Be Continued…
