Part 6 : The Raging Storm
Chapter 26 : City of Freedom
Her dark coat glistening under the light of the moon and her burning mane, her hooves beating the ground in impatience, the newborn Rapidash, already most powerful than most adults, watched her mistress. She neighed once, as her mistress watched her back, reaching with the timid hand that had touched the creature for the first time only two days before.
Her mistress, too, was newborn, yet to all effect she looked like a girl who had lived many years in the world, nearly an adult already. Newborn as she was, the gifts that changed her, made her more - or was it less? - than human let her see the flow of time, her Rapidash even changing as slowly, too slowly, her life was drained away. Song, her rapidash, would not die for a long time, of course, but even now she could feel her life going away with each passing second.
"Every step in life take us closer to death." She whispered softly. "It's the ultimate consequence of being born."
Everywhere, she could see the passing flow of time, an endless ocean with waves beating away at the strongest rocks, threatening to bring them down, knowing that though it would last long, one day even the mightiest mountains would be reduced to worthless pebble by its destroying hand.
Pushing her blue-green hair off her face, Aimée sighed, a deep, sad sigh.
"What has you worried Song?" She asked softly, her eyes locked with that of her pokemon, a caring hand on the head of the female Rapidash. Unlike her brother, she had not been gifted with mind-reading, or any other such ability, or with astounding psychic powers that could harm with a single thought. Instead, she had been gifted with the other side of the balance. Nature and healing ,as well as time, had been what had been added to her, when she had been made.
The rapidash sighed, or at least it looked like a sigh to her, a long, sorrowful sigh as she turned her sad eyes toward the lights of the lotus army camp to the north. The Lotus, a name that had been taught to Aimée while she slept, before her strange birth. A name she had been taught to hate, yet just couldn't bring herself to despite enough.
"Time already do enough damage by itself...why do we feel the need to add to it with such stupid things as hatred and war?" her question was left unanswered, Song's eyes telling her that she knew no more answer than her mistress did.
"You wonder the same, don't you?" She asked the young yet old rapidash, her eyes watching the pain in that of the pokemon, a pain she knew was mirrored in her own eyes. The pain of knowing you were apart from the world, not really a part of it. The one who had made them had tried to reassure them, to get them to think it was what they did, now who they were or how they came to be that mattered, but it simply was not enough.
She looked at her hand, a hand she knew would look perfectly human to anyone, yet a hand she knew belonged to someone not really human. A hand that could make forests grow, and heal wounds with a single thought of her mind.
A hand that was not even unique, as there has been such a hand, perfectly identical, before. Just like there had been another one like her before, just like there was still another one like her brother, in basic physical characteristics at least.
It was not something easy to live with, and she imagined it had to be harder for her "brother", not only having to know that his mirror image was somewhere in the world breathing, while hers was long dead, but in her "brother"'s case, also forced to work at the side of that one being they had been made after.
Song looked at her, big eyes that seemed to mean "nothing's ever easy, and you two have a lot to do. For all pokemon and all humans of the world."
Aimée nodded, trying to forget the dark thoughts that had invaded her mind, thoughts of deserved death and undeserved life - hers.
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"Remind me again why we're going east instead of south-east?" Damian asked grumply as he tried to walk on the uneven mountainous ground of the Fuchsian range.
"Because the Safari Zone is east, not south-east, and I think we'd all feel bad if the Lotus slaughtered all the pokemon in there." Ash felt drained, tired of repeating the same few words over and over again, whenever someone in their little group started thinking they should simply have headed for Fuchsia, instead of taking the long walk through little used mountain paths.
"And why aren't we flying?" Damian pointed out sourly.
"Because the Lotus got planes in the vicinity. It's possible they'll miss a small group walking on rough mountainous ground, but I don't think for a second they'd miss us in the sky." Ash replied,
"He's got you there, as much as I hate to admit it." Tanya said. She was walking slightly ahead of them, her Umbreon walking side by side with her.
Ash sighed, wondering why he had gotten the stupid idea of going to check on the old pokemon reserve rather than making a straight move toward Fuchsia and a place from which they could run from.
"Chances are, by the time we get to Fuchsia, they'll have the city." Damian's voice was still sour as they continued walking.
"Koga isn't inept. He's probably the deadliest opponent they have faced so far, with his ninja squads...Maybe they have the numbers, but the numbers don't give you that much in a war where you can't even find the opponent..."
"I wouldn't be that sure..." Damian muttered under his breath, then walked away.
Ash signed, turning away to look at the rest of their small group, fifteen or so trainers. Elayne, Damian, Misty, Richie, Tanya and Kyle were there, as well as a few trainers who had joined them at Maiden's peak, none of them very skilled, yet a welcome addition to the team by virtues of number, as well as two or three refugees, people who lived in the wild lands east of Maiden's Peak and had joined them on their trek to the east then to the south.
Of course, Ash was very suspicious of one of the so-called refugees, as she was all-too-familiar to be anyone but Melody, and he suspected Misty knew as well. Neither of them moved against their friend or even confronted her with the truth, as it would be pointless, not to mention that even pokemon-less the young woman was extremely resourceful, with her knowledge of the sea and thus of weather, combined with various other things she knew about that had come to the light since she had joined them.
They had been on the road toward the Safari Zone for five days, five long days in the cold weather of the Fuchsian mountains. On a few occasions, there had even been snow, though only in little amounts.
"The High pass isn't too far...we should get there by the end of the day." Elayne pointed out, looking at the map they had been using for the past few days, taking her bearing on the obvious landmark, such as the obvious massive mount Kanshi in the distance, which combined with her compass, allowed her to get a current idea of their current location, and of the distance until they reached their destination.
"And once we're there, it will only be a matter of a few more hours tomorrow to get to Safari Zone, then a few hours to see about making it a bit safer, and after that we're on our way to Fuchsia." Misty added, peering at the map over Elayne's shoulder.
"Good. It's not like moving around in these mountains is the most interesting thing to do in the world." Damian said sourly, and Ash wondered slightly what had gotten the young man so annoyed and so easy to anger.
Instead of answering, something he knew now was waste of time, Ash simply looked around, having to disagree with Damian entirely. The scenery was superb, tall mountains everywhere, on one side sloping down gently toward the Valley of Vermilion and then rising again with the Saffron Highlands, on the other just as gently sloping down toward the sea, with the great jungls of the Fuschia area sparkling like a chest full of emeralds. Here and there, crystal-clear rivers ran, like streams of sapphire in the emerald bed of the jungles.
Somewhere out there, between two monstrous peaks, among the tallest of the Fuchsian range, thought nowhere near mount Kanshi, stood the protected valley that was widely known as the Safari Zone, though its proper name was the Meiling vale. There were only two ways in the vale, one through a small, little-used branch of the high pass, and through a narrow entrance to the south, between the two mountains. The rest of the vale was surrounded by tall cliffs, and hard to access even though aerial means, due to the heavily forested terrain.
Ash kept trying to come up with the best ways to defend the vale against Lotus attacks, wondering if they would manage.
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As Misty had predicted, barely a day later they were at the sparkling lake that was the source of the Meiling River, a lake that was also home to something rare beyond measure, something that was known to exist in only one other location through the whole Aysaka : a colony of Dratini. It was, of course, something that was mostly kept hidden, as trainers would swarm the area if they knew, but Ash had learned of it during his previous visit to the Safari zone, fighting against time and Team Rocket to save the dratini.
Now, he was back, and again out to fight to protect the little dragon pokemon, though this time the threat was far darker, not only capture and training by Team Rocket, but rather, an atrocious death at the hand of the worst enemy any of them had ever met. He watched around, catching sight though barely of a dratini jumping out of the water, in the middle of the lake.
Suddenly, there was a sound of crashing hooves behind them, hooves rapidly beating the ground, and a group of Rapidash appeared, a rider on the led one, all others simply following, along with a herd of Tauros and quite a few other pokemon. The rider was a woman, there was no doubt about that as she came closer, her blue hair held back by a light orange headband, clothed in a pale green shirt and pants.
"Stop!" She yelled to the herd she was leading, glaring suspiciously at their group. "Who are you, and what are y'all doin' here?" She asked.
"We could ask the same of you!" Ash replied, his eyes just as suspicious then watched as the Rapidash the girl rode on approached to him, a strange look in her eyes. Without thinking about it, Ash extended his arm to touch the raised head, only realizing too late that the mane of the rapidash would harm him as the creature certainly did not trust him, not yet anyway.
But it was too late to withdraw his hand as he moved it, too late to withdraw it without feeling pain anyway, as his hand was already in the fire. Ash suddenly withdrew it, but not in pain, in surprise, as there was in fact no pain. He reached toward the Rapidash, touching the top of her head in the middle of the flame, without pain.
Even the only other rapidash he had ever met had not trusted him at first sight, and they were in a situation were thrust was much easier to come by back then. There was no way to explain why the Rapidash now trusted him at first sight...
Unless there weren't two, but one Rapidash, unless the one from back then and the one he had in front of him were one and the same.
"Why won't rapidash burn you?" she asked, her eyes suspicious, her heavily accented voice vaguely reminding Ash of someone, and that remembrance only strengthened his newborn suspicious. "Y'couldn't gain her trust in a few seconds like that..."
"Lara? Lara Laramie?" He asked, finally remembering the name of the trainer he suspected he now faced.
"How'd y'know my name?" She answered, her blue eyes still hard as stone as she maintained her suspicious look focused toward him.
"Not far from three years ago." Ash answered, smiling. "That guy with the dodrio had hired Team Rocket to sabotage that big race to win, and had managed to get your arm broken. I replaced you in the race, and won, thanks to your ponyta evolving at the end." He told her, and her eyes came alight with recognition.
"I thought y'looked familiar, but I wasn't sure! You sure changed a lot in three years." She was now smiling, apparently accepting Ash's words, or perhaps the fact that her Rapidash trusted him.
"Well, I guess I did grow up...I was twelve back then, I'm fifteen now..." Ash replied. "You're going to Fuchsia?" He asked her, and her eyes grew somber.
"I was...though, now...could I ask y'all to do somethin' for me?" she asked, her eyes pleading.
"Depend what..." Ash answered, wondering what it was.
"Can y'take these down to Fuschia or some safe spot?" she asked. "My family an' my friends asked me t'do it when they decided t'stay behind to defend our place..." there was a single tear in the corner of her eyes. "I waited t'see if any of them managed to get out, but it looks like they all got caught...or killed." Ash winced at the words, knowing more people he knew, even if only a little, were now dead or else captured.
"But...why do you want to get us to do it?" he asked, dreading that he already knew the answer.
"I wanna pay these Lotus guys back for it." She answered simply. "I don' care if they kill or capture me, I jus' want to pay'em back." Her eyes were sad and fierce, both at once, sadness for lost family, fierceness at the thought of what she would do.
Ash looked at her. A few weeks ago, before the war, he'd have tried to convince her to do otherwise. Only, now, he knew better, knew that trying to stop her from following the path she had chosen to walk was useless. He could offer her to fight with them, in the trainer forces, but it was obvious that she wanted her revenge there and then.
"We'll do it." he finally nodded, and Lara dismounted, whispering a few words to her rapidash who neighed sadly, then moved closer to Ash, turning to face the other pokemon, telling them in the language that only Ash understood of what was happening, and though there were a few horrified cry of protests, he could feel the determination in the herd to continue on, following him. Ash himself turned toward the other rapidash, talking to them quickly, asking them to trust his friends, to let them ride.
"Oh, jus' to let y'know, I had my herd block off the back door to the zone, so that nobody can get in by there - least, no army." Lara said, then waved and left.
"I guess we should try to get to the other entrance of Safari Zone as soon as we can..." Ash said sadly as he watched her leaving, hoping that she would not be killed, yet at the same time hoping she would be spared the torture of being captured. For a brief moment, he wondered which was worst, then shrugged it off.
They slowly mounted, a few of them yelling in pain as the pokemon burned them, but soon enough being able to mount without the pain, trust established by the soothing words of the pokemon who lead the herd and set off, riding in a group south toward the second way in the zone.
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The shot came without warning, of course, and Ash stopped, trying to take cover from whoever had fired at them as the Rapidash reared, her hooves clawing at empty air. The area of the Safari Zone they were walking through was just too tree-covered for them to even ride, so they walked at the side of their pokemon, waiting only to get out to step back on them and ride as fast as they could down south toward Fuchsia.
Jumping in the thick bushes, Ash watched the rest of them doing the same as a man came out from a small track in the jungle, wearing a ranger suit and carrying a rifle. He held the weapon ready to fire, and Ash felt like hitting his head on a tree for forgetting about the trigger-happy warden.
"Stop firing!" He yelled, and the warden turned suspiciously toward him.
"Why the hell should I?" he asked, his eyes hard as he looked toward Ash, his gun ready to fire right at Ash's head. The young man shivered a little at the thought of the effect such a shot was likely to have on him, if the warden pressed on the trigger.
"We're only passing through, nothing else..." Ash replied. "And trying to protect the zone from the Crimson Lotus..." he added.
"Mppphhhh. Them bastards." The warden said gruffly. "Now that's people I'd really like to shoot a damn lot. But...there's something telling me not to kill you, that you're nice but I don't get it."
"Maybe you're just remembering that time he went in the lake and saved all those dratini from that bomb?" Misty suggested, half-fearfully coming up behind him.
"That was you kid?" He looked at Ash closer. "That's damn right. It really was you." He nodded after looking at him closer. "I remember that pikachu of yours. So you're out to keep those damn bastards out of my valley, uh?" Ash nodded once, his hand resting lightly on his Rapidash - Sora, he had learned her name was in the hours they had been travelling in the zone -, holding her steady. "All right, you and your friends just get the hell out of here, I'll take care of blocking the south door behind you. I'll stay here to kick the butt of any of those damn lotus if they manage to get in here."
With the warden accompanying them, they soon reached the southern entrance of the Safari Zone, where they waved goodbye to the Warden.
"Good luck!" Ash yelled as they left.
"Bah. The hell if I need luck to kick the ass of those damn bastards. I don't need your luck, keep it for you."
Once they left Safari Zone, the rest of the trek down south was uneventful, and they reached Fuchsia, still safely held by Koga and his troops, five days after leaving the warden and Lara. There, it was no problem to get on a ship that took them to the Seafoam Islands, out of range of the Lotus Army, where the troops and the gym leaders of eastern Kanto had all gathered.
It was time to seriously plan their next step, and to plan it right.
Chapter 27 : City of Flames
The rocky lands to the south-east of Pewter, in the Moon Mountains was not a pleasant place to be. Yet, a squadron of the best troop the city could gather was there, scouting out the area, in case Lotus troops tried to sneak that way, as impossible as it seemed considering how hard moving an army in there would be.
There was shouting in the forest to the east, the forest that was near Celadon. Lotus troops, on one of their raid through the forest to catch wild pokemon and hiding trainers. More shouting came, closer this time, definitely Lotus troops.
"We'd better think about pulling back!" Brock told the group..
"Shouldn't we check it out? From what I can make out of these voice, it's not just a simple clean-up operation. Looks like they're hunting someone." Suzie countered, behind him. She had of course tagged along.
Brock stood there, weighing the positive and negative sides of staying and going, trying to decide which was better. On the one hand, he could elect to stay, and wait to see if Suzie was right. And in doing so, he would risk his troops, needlessly probably.
On the other hand, he could go away, lead the troops to safety...and if Suzie was right, probably condemn whoever the Lotus forces were hunting in the forest to capture, or worse, death.
"Let's pull back a little and hide...that way maybe we'll be able to help whoever it is they are hunting if you're right Suzie." He finally decided, leading his troops back to a small ravine where they could keep away from sight easily.
Hidden in the ravine next to Suzie, his left arm wrapped around her shoulders, he waited for the Lotus troops to come, something which, judging from the voices in the forest, wouldn't take time. In the other hand, a pistol he barely even really knew how to use was ready, while he also just waited for the time to be right to throw Steelix on the battlefield.
A young woman appeared from the edge of the forest, running toward the mountains, keeping close to the chasm that marked the Celadon River. Brock watched, ready for action, knowing all the soldiers around him were tensing, ready to fight.
The Lotus troops weren't too far behind, appearing soon hot on the heels of the running woman, and Brock stared, hesitating. The way she was running, the woman would pass too far away from them for them to be able to do anything. On the other hand, if they signaled her, they would loose the surprise effect, and probably any hope of winning the fight when the Lotus troops caught up to them.
The Lotus soldiers fired, their guns coming close to hitting the young woman once, twice. And then, a bullet struck, and the young woman collapsed, falling in the chasm beside her.
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Brock woke up with a start, rising in the bed, trying to remember where he was, which certainly was not his house in Pewter. Careful not to wake up Suzie, whose head was resting barely a few centimeters away from where his own had been, he looked around, and remembered.
He was in a cave near Celadon, where he had been for the last week, ever since what had happened in the mountain, when Melanie - he had only found out it was her later - had been killed. At that point, he had decided to gather a small group of trainers from Ash and Gary's troops and go in Lotus-controlled territory, to try to free prisoners and generally hamper Lotus operations the best they could.
"Is there something wrong dear?" Suzie asked sleepily, her eyes slowly opening to look at him.
"No, nothing." He smiled, letting his hand rest on her shoulder. She smiled back, her eyes seemingly filled with stars. Even though they were in the middle of a war, and in constant danger of their hideout being located, there was still no denying that the recent events had pushed forward their relationship. They had been more or less going out together for nearly a year, but it was only in the last few weeks that things had really started taking a serious turn between the two of them.
Forcing his mind away from thinking about the young woman he held close to him, he tried to think about the situation instead - a situation that was far from good. All the towns east of the Moon Mountains had fallen, with the possible exception of Fuchsia. The jungle city was too far away, and the military communications, both of the league's and the Lotus', were too unclear to really shed light on the situation.
Pushing aside his worried, he decided to wait for the morning before taking care of them, falling back asleep, his arms holding Suzie close to him, as her arms held him just as close.
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"Excuse me sir, but why did you send General Starkhad here?" May asked, still not sure she was understanding right.
"Simply to ensure that we have the troops to strike two target at once." The grand master replied. "Or rather, the leaders to do so." The grand master explained.
"You think I can't handle what need to be done? Having two commanders on the frontline strikes me as a little risky..." May answered, feeling more than a little frustrated.
"I'm sorry General Oak, but I believe General Starkhad deserves a chance to show us what he can do while commanding an attacking army. He'll be in charge of taking Cinnabar."
The screen went blank, and May stared, closing her fist tightly in anger. There was no need to send Starkhad here, not while her plans were going so well. The fool was so jealous of her, he was likely to blunder and try to impress everyone just for the sake of scoring a few points in an imaginary contest between the two of them only he perceived.
With one last glance at the empty screen, she stormed off the communication room of the Bloodsword, trying to find a way to get rid of the bad feeling she head about Starkhad coming to take command.
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The massive form of the island of Cinnabar, a huge volcano standing in the middle of the sea, stood ahead of the task force as General Ethan Starkhad looked through the binoculars, trying to find signs of enemy defenses.
The bridge of the battleship Obliterator was calm around him, with no one even whispering a word, all crew members concentrating on their own business with as little noise as possible. They all remembered what Starkhad had done to the last man who had made the mistake of drawing Starkhad's attention with unnecessary noises.
Which was good, as that was exactly the point of the little object lesson he had sought to give them. Of course, loosing a crew member had created a certain stir about the ship, but this way, it ensured that there would be no problem with further distraction from crew members.
Turning his attention from the island to the ship around his own, he tried to see if there were any changes he needed to do to his plan, but knowing how pitiful the defenders were, he would have no problem striking out and taking the island, especially with the might of the army he would throw at end, nearly half the lotus forces gathered to strike.
"Begin the landings." He ordered, and watched as the transports began to let their troops loose on the island, not finding much in the way of resistance, but unaware of the two pair of eyes that watched from the top of the volcano.
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Blaine watched those landings as well, from the top of the volcano. He could see that there were still lots of forces to land, before he put his plan in action. He waited.
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Three hundred miles away from Cinnabar, a few supposedly abandoned islands were bustling with activities, troops of Saffron, Cerulean, Celadon, Vermilion, Fuchsia, and even the few survivors of the small Lavender militia going around, ready for battle, as well as the Trainer relief force that had fought at Vermilion.
Ash turned his eyes from the gathered army to the gathered gym leaders in the small room with him. Sabrina was there, recovering from the wounds she had received at Saffron, still a bit weak though nearly back to full health. Daisy was there as while, her sister near her, both of them trying not to think too much about what possibly could have happened to Lily.
Near another window, Erica, who was turning day by day to have more of an innate gift for tactics was conversing with the lieutenant Surge about their next move, Koga close to them, apparently minding his own business.
"I guess we should try to slip behind them to Pallet while they're busy with Cinnabar." Ash suggested, getting nods from both Erica and Surge.
"That's what we were about to suggest." Erica nodded, her eyes approving.
"Exactly. Lance is likely to need all the troops he can get once the Lotus get in the city." Surge added
"What about Blaine?" Daisy asked, obviously reluctant to abandon another gym leader to the Lotus.
"He'll be all right. The old fox got more than a trick up his sleeve. Don't worry about him." Surge shrugged. "We'd better hurry though. Before they get back at us..."
Soon, the troops were getting in the transports which were waiting for them, and heading north-west at full speed, toward Pallet and the last stand of the League.
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Staring again at the communication screen, May watched her rival as he looked at her, a smile on his lips - one she did not like at all.
"General Oak. I'm sure you will be pleased to learn that the operation so far is a total success. The landings will soon be over, and our enemies are such cowards that we have yet to encounter any opposition." He gloated, a smirk on his face.
"No opposition?" She asked, not happy about that at all, knowing that it just was not like the league to hide and refuse to fight.
"Not at all. Obviously our enemies are too afraid to fight back." He seemed to actually believe the words, and May wondered how he could be such a fool.
"I wouldn't say so...it's probably a trap." She tensed, a feeling of horrible dread settling in her, and she suddenly knew that a terrible price would have to be paid if Starkhad was not stopped.
"Of course. The great General Oak want to be the only one with credits, so she tries to stop me." He shrugged her comment aside, as she watched the screen, feeling panic welling up in her.
"Listen. You have to pull back. It's...I just know if you don't, we'll pay a terrible price." She told him, trying not to stumble on the words as she hurried to get her message through.
"You KNOW that, do you? Would that mean you are in league with them?" His voice was filled with barely concealed hatred.
"No, it means I have some common sense and you don't. And more important, I know the enemy, and they aren't cowards. If they aren't fighting, there's a trap waiting for us."
" Yes, yes. Of course, the brilliant general would know that. You're too perfect to be wrong..." Starkhad let it hanging, and May sighed in frustration, knowing there was no way to get through his pride. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have another message, from the island." His voice was cold as the screen went blank.
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Watching the landings from the summit of the Cinnabar volcano, Blaine could see that the landings were over, with more Lotus troops than he had ever dared to hope for gathered on the island. He turned toward the charizard that waited at his side.
"Blazier, takes these pokeball to my grand daughter. Ok?" He asked the beast, handling him the balls holding all his pokemon, then watching as the great dragon sadly nodded and took flight, carried away from the island by powerful wings.
"Goodbye Blazier. You served me well." He said as he watched.
When the beast was far enough, he turned, noticing in passing a few dark lines on the water to the north, ships slipping past the Lotus fleet, going toward Pallet town. He drew a radio from his pocket, and aimed it toward the Lotus fleet, managing with ease to slip in the command code to make the call he was sending a priority call that the Lotus commander would receive immediately.
"What is it?" The voice of the commander said. "Are you the leader of that island trying to surrender?" the man sounded sure of himself.
"I am the leader of the island, but not out to surrender, I want to ask you a riddle, and I suggest you listen."
"I have no time for games." The man answered, but before he could cut the communication, Blaine was telling the riddle he had crafted.
"Mouth of fire, Body of Stone,
For eons I sleep,
Should I wake, fear my rage,
It will surely take your life,
Though by it I feed the world. " He said, playing with the little pencil-like object he had drawn from his pocket.
"I don't see what's your point." The man said angrily.
"Then, let me show you." He answered, pressing the button at the end of the object.
All around the volcano, the hidden charges exploded, the charges he had placed just where they would create enough of a shock in the volcano to trigger an unparalleled volcanic explosion.
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Ethan Starkhad watched aghast as fire took all the troops on the island within moments, as the once-tall Cinnabar crumbled in the sea, taking those few soldiers who had not been killed in the disaster in the depths with it.
Oak had been right, as unbelievable as it seemed. Though of course, she had not known she was right, it was obvious she had simply been trying to get him to back down so that the glory of taking Cinnabar would be hers.
He turned to look at the crew of the warship, only to find a pistol aimed at his head, in the hand of a man wearing the uniform on an inquisitor.
"I am afraid I have to take you in custody General Starkhad. What happened here demand investigation, especially since you ignored the warnings of General Oak." The man told him, and Starkhad felt rage building up within himself, even as he followed the inquisitor, who turned toward the crew.
"Report to General Oak at once. You are under her command again." He told them simply, leading Starkhad away as the crew sighed in relief.
Chapter 28 : Eye of the Storm
The headquarters of the Indigo league were bustling with activity. The Gym Leaders, all of them save Lily, and of course Blaine, were gathered inside, for the first time since the beginning of the Lotus crisis. As he pushed open the door to the meeting room were most of them already were.
Sabrina was resting near one of the window of the room, still ever so slightly weakened by her injury, but now almost completely back to full strength. At the main table, Lance sat, deep in conversation with a small, black-haired man Ash did not know and Karen Strife. Apparently, she had finally managed to convince the league to send the needed reinforcements. Misty and her two sisters were also at the table, just keeping close, apparently trying to be strong together in face of the loss of Lily.
Surge was deep in conversation with Erica, Koga and Flint, while Giovanni was talking to the two black-clothed guards who had come with him - two guards who seemed all too familiar to Ash, though in the new clothes he found it hard to believe that it could be them.
A young woman Ash did not know entered the room, followed by the rest of the Elite four. The young woman had long brown hair, and her blue eyes seemed like she had wept much recently. Her long dress was a fiery red, somehow reminiscent of a burning flame.
"This is Evelyn, Blaine's granddaughter - and his only living kin." Lorelei informed them, and Ash felt a sharp pang of pain as he looked at the girl, reminded of the time after his mother had died, when he had for a short while felt so alone, without any family. Of course, now he had found his father again, and even at the darkest moment, Danea had been there, but still it was painful.
The young woman gazed at everyone, then they all took their seats, ready to start planning.
"All right. We have a lot to talk about. The situation is rather..." Lance started.
"Bad would seem to fit well. Disastrous also kind of leap to mind. Same goes for apocalyptic...I could think of others with some time." Flint muttered.
" No need for pessimism." Koga whispered softly.
"I'm not pessimistic. I'm realist." Flint continued to mutter.
"Please gentlemen, we have enough trouble with the Crimson Lotus without you two adding to it by behaving like that...we need to be optimistic if we want to have a chance..." Lance called them to order, keeping his voice calm. "We have a choice to make now. They'll strike again soon. Blaine managed to buy us some time..." He said then turned to look at Evelyn who was wiping a tear away from her eye.
"I'm sorry Evelyn..." Lance was obviously uneasy with the situation, knowing that he had just reminded the young woman of her loss.
"It's nothing Lance...Please go on..." Evelyn answered, obviously doing her best to keep her voice steady.
"Well...as I was saying, we gained some time, but they'll strike again soon - Probably a two-side attack against Pewter and Pallet. We can pull back, or we can defend these towns and Viridian..." Lance continued to explain the situation, his eyes intent on the map in front of him.
"I say we pull back and make our stand here in Indigo..." Karen offered, her eyes locked on the map.
"When do you think the attack on these towns will begin?" The dark-haired man asked, his voice heavily accented.
"I do not know ambassador." Lance answered, then seemed to realized he had not yet introduced the man to the rest of the comitee. "This is Ambassador Toru Noshiro, of the Hoshan Senate." He explained, as everyone in the room nodded. Ash wondered if the presence of the man in their planning sessions meant the Hoshoan were willing to help them in the war.
"I'd say a week, ambassador." Surge answered the former question, looking at the maps. Especially after the lesson Blaine gave them at Cinnabar.
"Our troops need more time than that to be here." The ambassador answered, his eyes concentrating. "I believe, in fact, that we need more time than you can give us, even pulling back here." He explained. "The best you can do is fight a stand and hope we can get some troops in place in time."
"I think so too..." Surge agreed.
"We should do as Karin suggested." Bruno said, his voice a deep rumble.
Giovanni rose, his face apparently angry, a deadly glare in his eyes, his hand resting on the gray chair.
"No." His voice was icy, like a wind blowing from the northernmost reaches of the world. "They took Cerulean - and we fled." He sounded disgusted, as if he could not take the way the league had fought so far. "They smashed Lavender -and we pulled back. They crushed Saffron, Celadon, Vermillion and Fushcia -
and we ran away. Enough. The line must be drawn here." He sounded more determined than Ash had ever heard, as if he was resolute to go and stop the Lotus armies alone if he had to.
"I agree with Giovanni." Sabrina's voice was barely above a whisper, but it might as well have been a triumphant shout. Of all the gym leaders present, she was the only one who had truly fought against the Lotus armies, and by that she had won a great deal of respect.
One by one, the gym leaders nodded, first those who, like Giovanni, were tired of running away, those who had lost much, like Misty, Violet, Daisy and Evelyn. Erica nodded, at the same time as Surge, both of them apparently thinking that it just would not be tactically sound to keep on running away. Koga nodded soon after, though why Ash could not fathom, perhaps simply because he could see the way the tide was turning and thought that going against things would be a waste of time.
Then, they went down to planning the defenses of the three towns, trying to decide which forces would fight better were, how to best defend each area, to slow down the advancing army at least so that there were chances the Hoshoan arrived in time, slim as even what chances they might be able to give would be.
Daisy and Violet would be at Mount Moon with their water pokemon and their troops, fighting a sabotage tactic, as their troops were those that knew the terrain best outside the mountain. They had fought there on their way back, at least some of them, and the others at least had some minimal knowledge of the region that would be useful. In addition, there would be no real naval battling in the rest of the war, so there would be no use for what they were best at.
Flint of course would stand guard with his troops in Pewter, their hometown, which they could defend better than anyone, using their superior knowledge of the terrain and their skills in mountain fighting to protect the city. They would be helped by the troops led by Evelyn, the men and women of Cinnabar using their ambush tactic at their best in the rocky, forest area around Mount Moon.
Koga's troop, and especially the hundred warriors of the Shinobi elite, would act as their scouts and snipers, as well as assassin, to take out enemy leaders. If they could only manage to take out a few soldiers, not many, only a few, there was the chance that it might swing the tides of battle their way. The rest of them would fight in Viridian Forest, best at home in a place where they could use stealth to their advantage in battle.
Further south, the best tacticians of their combined army would hold Pallet, which they all easily admitted was the weak point of their defense plan. But hopefully, the presence of the Celadon, Vermilion and Saffron troops would be enough to turn the tide. The troops of Celadon were not the best fighters by themselves, and would probably not do much, but Erica was a great leader and a skilled tactician, her presence would help the fighting. The Vermilion troopers were quite the opposite, veteran of the fighting at Vermilion, they had for the most part all intensive training and formed the best infantry force of the whole league. As for the Saffron troop, while they did not have the intensive training, they had all fought at Saffron, then again at Vermilion, making them just as deadly as the troops of Vermilion.
North of them, between Viridian and Pallet, the trainer army would way, taking advantage of the diverse landscape, in a land of valleys, cliffs, rivers, streams, narrow passages and forest, one where they could all find the best place for their pokemon to fight. Ash and Gary had suggested that it would be best for them to fight there, they both knew, at least Ash did, that otherwise their ability to fight would be severely hampered, would it be by fighting with fire pokemon in viridian forest, or attempting to use ground pokemon and their earthquake attack in the middle of a city.
Lance, Karen and Giovanni would hold Viridian proper, as a last stronghold of the league, one that they all hoped would stand until the Hoshoan could arrive to clear the board and win the game
No matter how much he tried to believe they could do it, that with the courage of their troops they would be able to hold out long enough, Ash could not bring himself to do it.
________________________
May sighed in frustration as the officer left her office, leaving a crumpled piece of paper as the only trace of the report he had been sent to bring her. Of course, the report was rather displeasing – not that many new would be pleasing in the situation, aside from the grand master somehow finding a new army to replace the one Starkahd had lost or some such.
"Something the matter May?" Eric asked from where he was standing, in the shadow not far from her desk.
"Yes. No. I don't know. If only that fool Starkhad…" She let it hanging, wondering again what had possessed the grand master to give a chance to fight on the front line to the over-eager general. "What do you think of the current situation?" She asked him, her eyes suddenly looking deep in his.
"I honestly don't know what to think of it." The young colonel answered finally, his voice and thought confirming his words to the mind's eye that May possessed. "With what happened at Cinnabar, I would say we need to wait before striking again. On the other hand, with the reports about possible reinforcements coming…I don't know May. We need to strike before they get their reinforcements, but we need to wait until our troops are ready…it's a fine line to walk." He moved closer to her and she signaled him to stop, a simple gesture of her hand. As much as she loved him, she was not in the mood for affection as it was. She had a problem to solve, and it certainly wouldn't be solved by kisses and caress..
Terrorists strikes had badly damaged most of the roads in the territory they controlled, the work of a strange group that was always one step ahead of her troops, narrowly escaping from each hide-out in turn, barely avoiding capture. With that in mind, it would be impossible to concentrate troops enough to attack only on a single front, she would have to divide her forces for the assault, forcing the opponent to divide their own forces as well, or run the risk of being overrun. It was not a military situation that she liked, but there were no other choices, none that she could perceive anyway.
"We'll have to attack now, from both sides. I know our troops need to rest, but them getting reinforcements is something we can't risk. Pewter from Cerulean, and Pallet from Vermilion, that's where we'll attack. Give the orders to get the troops in their transports." She finally ordered, then hesitated, her heart and her mind waging a dark inner war that tore her apart. Her mind told her that she needed a man she trusted in charge of the northern attack, a man that she did not need to keep a constant eye on to ensure the success of the mission. But there was only one such man, only one whom she would trust with her life, and her heart whispered to her that she would die without him.
Realizing that the assault could not even begin before the week was out, she decided there would be time yet in the future to make the choice, to decide to follow her heart or mind. In the meantime, now that the decisions were made, she definitely needed to feel safe and secure. To put aside the genius tactician, the fearless leader, the hero of the Lotus, and to remember that underneath all that she was still a young woman, barely an adult, and that sometime, just sometime she wondered what she was even doing leading an army in a war.
____________________________
Shadows were hidden in the corners of the ancient base in the mountains north of Indigo and west of Pewter. Shadows of a once-glorious past, ruined by ambition, treachery, deceit and the lure of power, the promise of a future some had chosen. The tall shapes still stood in the great hangar, waiting only for the day where they would be used again, floating in the sky. The metallic envelope were still intact, with the cabins under them still clean and ready. A simple check was enough to ensure that the propellers were still functional, ready to control the great airships rather than let the wind do so.
"What do you have so far?" Giovanni asked the group of his most trusted officers he had taken with him.
"They all seem ready to go." A young man answered, one of the few lower rank Rockets whom he had deemed worthy to shelter from justice when he had been forced to turn them all over to the League save a few. The young man pushed aside a stray dark-brown hair from his sun-tanned face, a certain light in his eyes, an enthusiasm for his task that Giovanni could only respect.
"Good job Mondo." He told him, then turned toward a nearby woman, who was trying to work on the sleek, deadly black vehicle that stood in the back of the hangar, comparable in size to the airships, but with speed and firepower so much higher that the two could not even be compared. She was ruthless, deadly, efficient, she would not hesitate to kill if asked to – but also, she was utterly loyal to him, a loyalty he had repaid by sheltering her when the team had been disbanded, and would never go out of her way to kill or any such, taking pleasure in doing what was needed to complete her missions, not in the killing itself.
"What about my ship Domino?" he asked her, and she looked up at him, her eyes filled with pride, the pride of someone doing a job, and doing it the best they could.
"It will soon be ready, sir." She answered quickly, not trying to embellish anything or to hide information, trying only to do her job at the best she could.
Turning again, he faced the two who had followed him here, the two who had turned from hopeless incompetent to actually deadly agent when they had finally abandoned their quest to capture pikachu and had stopped trying to fight for the darker cause of Team Rocket. Now, as they were, they had been useful in fighting against the traitors who had taken over Team Rocket, again and again, and had proven efficient in Saffron, intervening to trap the Lotus army and kill a good number of their troops.
"Well, you two have done a good job so far. Do you think you can handle this?"
"Of course boss." That was definitely a pleasant change, in a certain way, to no longer have them trying to lick his boot and rather obeying in a simple, efficient way. Time was always precious, the one thing they could not afford to loose, and bootlicking did just that, cause both him and them to loose time.
"Good Jessie. Felicity and Ralph will help you, of course, along with all the other remaining rockets. There aren't that many, but considering how automatic most of these are, you won't need more than one or two crew members in each. Domino is the only one who know how to pilot my personal airship, so she will have to be in charge of that, though you'll also be in it."
"Yes sir." The second one, James, replied, his voice confident rather than the old whiny voice Giovanni was so used to hearing. Again, it was a welcome change in his two underlings, to see them confident and ready for more battling rather than groveling, defeated, beaten.
Remembering something else he wished to discuss with one of the many officers present, he turned and called her to him. Of them all, Domino was the only one who knew about the many genetic engineering projects Team Rocket had been involved in.
"There's something I've been meaning to talk with you about for a while, but with all the Lotus things…" he started, eyeing her.
"What is it sir?" She stood, her own eyes alert, the look of someone who expected an attack at anytime, the look she always took.
"That Kyle Stery in the league tournament…What do you think of him, and his pokemon?" He asked, his voice too low to be heard by anyone but her.
"Too powerful to be honest – the pokemon, I mean. The young man, I have no opinion about." She answered, her voice like ice. "Someone's been toying with genetic engineering, and I'm not sure I like what it implies." Her eyes were dark, a darkness of unvoiced suspicions. "It remind me of the Mewtwo project, but as far as I know, we are the only two alive who know about it, and about how it was done." She seemed puzzled, wondering how the information of what the Fuji team had been working on had leaked out to other laboratories. "Puzzling. Very puzzling."
"Even more puzzling." Giovanni completed. "None of the company even remotely related to genetic engineering have been working on a project like that. So, who did it?" The question was on his lips as an answer, barely possible, though the only one he could see, came to his mind.
Chapter 29 : Tides of Darkness
The trainers had gathered in the hills and cliffs between the Moon mountains and the Silver mountains, ready to fight together at last. Looking at his friends, Ash tried his best to hide the worries he felt. What if one of them didn't make it, was killed in the battle? His friends meant a lot to him, loosing one would be like a stab in the chest, a pain that would never end.
He looked at his friend, Gary in his brown cloak, his eyes seeming to have lost their once-hopeful look, like they had before lost the arrogance that had been there so long. The only time he had seen his friend so dark was after Duplica had died, until the passage of time had slowly erased the pain. Richie, looking even more pale and drained than before, as if something was eating him inside, destroying him, stealing his very life, his soul as he watched helplessly. He seemed tired, as if he feared to go to sleep, as if the night held secrets that kept him from ever resting.
Misty looked not too bad, a bit worried, but nothing much beyond that, aside from the fact that her eyes had lost their usual light to be replaced by a certain gloomy darkness, eyes too serious, far more serious than he had ever seen them. The war had stolen away their innocence, had made them realize that there was more to the world that pokemon training and games. They had been forced to become older, more mature, able to handle what now stood in their way.
Damian was the only one who looked unchanged, as if he did not realize the seriousness of the situation, though a single look at the young man was enough to see that the only reason he had not lost his innocence with the onset of war was because it had already been ruined in years past, years of mental torture. Elayne looked much the same as always, though again what cheerfulness there had once been in her face had been erased. Maybe one day it would return, perhaps, if they were lucky, the horrors of the war would grow dim as time would flow and they would forget, let the dark memories rest. Ash hoped so, as the weight of command rested on his shoulders, a burden that added years to his voice, his body.
"Is everyone in place?" Gary asked, though they all already knew the answer.
"Yes." Richie answered, his voice sounding hollow, empty. As if he was dead inside, only a shell with no soul inside.
"I think I'll go fly around a little." Ash suddenly told them, deciding he needed to get away from the bustle for an hour or two, knowing they could handle thing while he tried to pretend that none of this was happening, that he was still as free as he had always been, not turned in what he had never sought to be by need.
"All right." Gary nodded, his eyes still locked on the map, probably trying to see if there was a way to improve their deployment, perhaps a single trainer which would fight better here than there, a single pokemon that would be deadlier to the west than to the east.
As Deathwing's powerful wings clawed at the sky, Ash tried hard not to think of how each single thing they did, each choice they made could influence most of the world, the fate of thousands.
___________________________
May looked at the fleet, the numerous powerful steel monsters that would lead the final assault upon Kanto, the final part of the first step of their crusade against pokemon users. Once Kanto had fallen, Johto would fall, then the Orange Islands, then the rest of the world, challenged by an ennemy they could not face.
None of their capital ships, battleships and carriers, would be directly involved in the assault, they were too precious to risk where they were not needed, too precious to let them be wasted in a battle that could be fought without them. The loss of the Anhiliator to a mysterious force in the bay of Vermilion had been a harsh blow to the pride of the Lotus and to their power, and as long as they had no idea how the league had struck, risking the warships in a battle that was not theirs to fight would be foolish.
The only thing she did not like about the battle plan she had drawn was the way she had been forced to send Eric up north, to command the assault on Vermilion, leaving her without the comforting presence he had been. Feeling alone, as if power forever put her apart from everyone else. To everyone but Eric, she had been, no, she was the general, the one person that held their fate in her hand. No one saw the young woman there, alone and, somehow, afraid of the world even though the world was just as afraid of her.
Pushing aside the dark line of thought, she tried to concentrate on the matter at hand, on the assault on Pallet that would soon start, that had to succeed.
"Any news from General Nelson?" She asked, remembering that she had managed to get Eric promoted, though he was still not as highly ranked as her or Starkhad.
"He is ready to strike, with all his troops in position." The officer nearby answered, his eyes not even moving away from the control panel in front of him, his look that of someone eager to show his devotion, eager to please. It sickened her, to see that around her so many of them, a group of otherwise competent - more than competent - crewmen became fawning fools. But to them, she was the general, the hero, the legend who was leading them to victory, to what they all wanted.
Turning her eyes from the man to the tactical display that stood in the middle of the great command room, she watched as the frigates and transports of the Lotus navy came closer to the lightly defended shores of Pallet town. There certainly was a trap waiting, that much she could be sure off, but it was impossible even to her to guess what it was, or how deadly it would be. The only way to find out would be to strike, and hope it was nothing like what had happened at Cinnabar.
"Orders the troops to begin their landing, and General Nelson to launch his attack."
____________________________
In the strange view of the world that he had, everything seemed to be shades of green, some brighter, nearly white, some darker, close to black. The lines of the Lotus warships appeared clearly, coming closer as the sun came closer to rising, the day to dawning.
The battle to beginning, as well. But his troops, the veteran that he had led in Vermilion and trained intensively for years before that, were ready.
"Is everyone ready?" He turned toward Erica and Sabrina, wanting one last time to verify that they were all set for battle.
"My troops are ready." Sabrina smiled, moving as if she had never been wounded.
"Mine are too, as well as the pokemon you convinced us to take with us." Erica nodded, her eyes locked on his, as she forgot to mention that while the idea to take along some electric pokemon had been both of theirs.
"Let's give them a shocking wake up call. Aim at the antenna and the like, that way we'll hit all their important electronic system." He ordered, and the two of them soon were relaying the order to all the soldiers.
He put down the infrared glasses, knowing that keeping them with what was coming would be nearly the same as suicide. Soon enough, a fiery volley of bright sparkling bolts left the shore, striking at the warships, fierce bolts that were aimed at the vital electronic systems, bolts that, if the plan succeeded, would make at least some of the vessels blind and deaf.
Watching, it was easy to determine that most of the warship would survive the maneuver, as the attacks were too powerful, had too poor aim. A better aim would mean a total lack of power, to have sufficient power to achieve the desired effect, they had to sacrifice the accuracy of their shots.
Still, it was not a wasted effort in any sense of the word, as more than one landing ship stopped dead in the water, unable to progress further, onboard systems destroyed by the fierce blasts of energy. Not only had quite a few landing ships been struck, but also a few frigates, the only naval support the Lotus had dared to bring near to the coast, had been struck as well. With these ships out of the way, the Lotus assault would be made weaker. Perhaps not enough, in itself, to ensure victory, that was for sure.
But maybe, with some luck, enough to slow down the lotus a few days more.
"All right, let's pull back a bit, and wait for the 'trode to do their job," He ordered, leading the troops away, knowing that under the beach, a number of Electrode waited to explode.
_______________________________
The sun that morning found the battle well engaged. At the northern limit of Pallet, the troops of the League were slowly inching their way back north, slowly drawing the Lotus army further from their ships, closer to the defenses of Viridian. They would take days to arrive there, of course, battling every step of the way, but these days, saved, would perhaps be all the time they needed to buy.
The trainers were not idle as the battle was engaged to the sought. Their Skarmory met the enemy planes in deadly combat in the sky, flanked by Charizard, Pidgeot and Fearow, fighting a slow, grudging battle, and giving no evidence of letting the Lotus gain any ground. Engulfed in flame, their system shut down by electric bolts, their wings caught in solid ice, the Lotus air force actually was fighting a loosing battle against the wrath of the elements.
On the ground, the roaring waves of flame of the Charizard were greatly appreciated, but perhaps the type of pokemon that were the most helpful were the flying bugs, Butterfree, Beedrill and Venomoth, letting loose streams of poisonous powder, or sometime instead their numbing stun spore, or perhaps even sending the opposition to the world of dreams with their sleep powder, provided a valuable asset in the battling.
Yet, it was not enough. Many of the Lotus troopers were equipped with the material needed to handle the spore attacks, and many of the bug pokemon, too slow to dodge, had been taken out in their first wave of attack by gunfire.
Slowly, inexorably, the defense lines were pushed back, toward Viridian, toward the one place where they would fight their last stand.
Ash watched, praying for a miracle, hoping that they would have to fight as little as possible, knowing that many of them would die in the battle, and that the weight of their death would be on his shoulders, and his alone.
___________________________
The traps in Mount Moon had been effective, to say the least, slowing down the Lotus army to a crawl, but they had finally managed to break through and start attacking Pewter, coming toward the town and attacking.
Only, there as one thing they did not know about, that would change the face of the battle there.
"Here they come." Ralph's voice was soft as he watched the information of the small camera they had made sure to install near the city.
"Right. I'd say it's time to give them some trouble." Felicity approved, her voice coming over the radio system from the airship she had been assigned to command.
"You know, I think that we might as well do a little motto...just for ourselves, but still...dunno, would feel like...heartening." Jessie smiled.
"Why not?" Domino shrugged, and soon they all were approving.
"They'd better prepare for trouble." Jessie started, old feelings coming back as Domino punched the command of the sleek black airship that had been Giovanni's personal mean of transportation.
"Not just any trouble, trouble that's double." James grinned as he added his line, and Jessie grinned back.
"To turn loose on their army some devastation." The voice was Thelma's, as the other airships took off below, mostly controlled by the onboard computers, but still with one of them in each.
"To protect from their madness all of our nation." Louise continued the line.
"To denounce the evil of their crazy beliefs" Ralph was definitely the one who had said that.
"To provide our allies with some deserved relief." Felicity completed.
"Jessie."
"James."
"Thelma."
"Louise."
"Ralph."
"Felicity."
"Mondo."
"Domino."
"Team Rocket, against all hope we're back and better."
"They'd better run now, we're coming for a slaughter!"
"Persssssian, that's right!" Persian's voice came over the radio from the Viridian gym, completing the motto after Mondo and Domino had spoken.
Their powerful engines roaring, the six deadly airships headed east at full speed, slaughtering all airplanes that sought to intercept them.
__________________________
Eric Nelson was almost weeping in frustration, a sense of failure deep and devastating, the sense that despite all that he had done, he had not managed to do enough.
His troops were being somehow held at bay by the defenders of Pewter, or rather, had been, until the airships of the supposedly-dead Team Rocket had appeared over the battlefield, turning the situation from bad to worst.
Now, it was all he could do to try to keep his forces from running back toward Cerulean, an hopeless attempt at escaping the slaughter, something that they could only hope to do by making it through the defense, or at worst by an orderly retreat, not a panicked flight.
Ethan Starkhad. It was all his fault, Nelson knew that. He had claimed that Team Rocket was destroyed, burned never to rise again, but somehow, they had come back. Somehow also, he had followed stupid pride rather than normal common sense, not listening to May as she had advised him to pull back, instead wanting only to increase his glory, to make her be wrong. And in the process, close to half of the Lotus army had been lost, numbers too great to be considered, troops that would have won them the day at Viridian with ease.
The battle was not going to turn, he admitted to himself, frustration bubbling deep inside, frustration and the hope that, wherever he was, Starkhad was getting some richly deserved punishment.
"Pull back." He ordered his troops finally, a single tear of frustration falling down on the ground.
______________________________
All day and all night, fierce blasts of energy to the south, each one closer than the last, reminded them of the battle they would soon be in. As morning rose again, as the second day of the battle dawned on the battlefield, the trainers were starting to fight, as the Lotus inexorable advance continued. North, they had no idea what was happening, but south, they would soon be pushed back to Viridian.
Ash watched the assault in frustration. Their earthquakes, rockslide, hydro pump and fire blasts were not enough, nothing was. For each Lotus soldier that fell to their attacks, two more rose as they pulled back toward Viridian, knowing that at the end of the day, or at best, on the next morning, they would fight inside the city, and fight a loosing battle.
Ash watched in despair.
He had gambled, they all had. And they were loosing.
Chapter 30 : The Rising Sun
All the day, they had been pulling back, withdrawing, running. Trying to move to a place where they could make their stand, until they had finally reached Viridian. During the night, as shadows had covered their world, they had still been pulling back, though not fighting for their lives every step of the way.
And now, dawn found them again, in the streets of Viridian, ready to fight one last battle, street to street, in the buildings, from the sewers. A final stand, one that would hopefully buy them the time they needed for the Hoshoan to come and save the day.
Ash turned to look at his pokemon, all of them out. Khamul was there, a glowing orb of darkness, like all other Ghastly, yet somehow different, not to mention able to be understood by humans. Sora was there also, her fiery mane burning under the morning light, as did the tail flame of Deathwing. Close to deathwing, Celes was slowly cleaning her wings with her beak. Raiken, his eyes angry, stood on Ash's shoulder, while Rafael watched warily around them all. Fenrir and Esper stood close to Ash, as if they were seeking to protect him, while Ashura, his eevee, walked lazily around them all, her eyes shining with innocence, blissfully unaware of what was happening.
Before he had even the time to finish looking at his pokemon, the sound of battle filled the air as the attack on the city began. Pulling back with his pokemon in an alleyway, Ash watched as a squad of Lotus troops went by, their guns held ready.
"Raiken, thunderwave." He ordered, the crisp command followed by a wave of tiny bolts of thunders sent in the middle of the squadron of soldiers. Raiken grinned viciously as the soldiers found themselves barely able to move.
"Esper, give their brain a good frying."
The psychic pokemon concentrated, sending a few beams of psychic energy at the squad, who soon took a dizzy look, as if they had no idea of what they were doing. Most of them did, anyway.
"Sora, Deathwing, finish them. Fire blast, now." His final order was delivered through gritted teeth, anger bubbling in him, but over all, as he started to feel fear, fear that he was no longer disgusted by killing. He watched emotionlessly as they fell, as if he no longer knew them as human, or at least, as if part of him did, the part that felt. The group of soldier was consumed by the combined wave of flame, the extreme heat being too much for them to take.
"Good job Ash!" Misty yelled from an alley on the other side of the street, soon crossing with all possible speed to join him, Damian and Gary following, as well as Kyle, Elayne and Tanya.
"Thanks. It's not over yet."
"Right, there's a larger group coming this way." Gary confirmed.
"I'll take care of it." Kyle smiled and walked in the middle of the street, soon after followed by the apparition of a group of Lotus Soldiers, much larger, accompanied by a few tanks this time.
"Uh...maybe you shouldn't stand in the middle of the way Kyle..." Ash tried to point out, but before he could even say anything, a flurry of gunfire came toward the young man.
The bullets rushed, their speed mind-numbing, but as they reached the young man, they all fell harmlessly to the ground, not even touching Kyle's skin as a screen of light came to be around the young man, a strange purple light.
"Now." He whispered, his voice low as he pushed back the hood of his cloak, revealing slightly shorter than shoulder-length jet-black hair, lavender eyes that were glowing with an holy fire behind their glasses, and an otherwise average face.
Besides him, and behind, shapes formed, indistinct at first, seemingly made of light, but soon appearing as what they really where, pokemon, literally an hundred of them, all fully evolved, all strange in shape and coloring, as if they had been altered, their very sight tugging at something in Ash's memory, something long forgotten.
Without a sound, the army of pokemon rushed at the lotus troops, swarming over them with flames, ice, thunder and water, destroying and slaying, killing and crushing. The large squad was caught aback by the fierceness of the sudden attack, dismayed b y the failure of their weapon to harm the young man. They did not flee, fighting to the last man, until all of them were slain on the battlefield as Ash and his friends watched puzzled. The pokemon scattered across the town to help in the battle, but even with them, it would not be enough to turn back the Lotus forces. A light started blinking on Ash's radio, and he picked it up, listening to Richie's voice coming from the far side of the town.
"Ash, we got a problem. A swarm of helicopter and jet fighters coming this way. Red markings, they have to be Lotus reinforcements." His friend reported, his voice hollow as always, as the face all around Ash became bleak. More Lotus troops meant sure defeat to them. Only Damian seemed not yet to fall in utter bleakness, snatching the radio away from Ash.
"Are you sure these are Lotus?" He asked. "Or are you just going with the idea that they are Lotus because of the red markings?" his voice was serious, his eyes eagerly awaiting for an answer.
"Red markings, they're too far to make out the shape." Richie replied quickly, apparently from his tone of voice wondering what had gotten Damian so excited.
"Good. Then, everyone, don't give up, we still have a chance, and fighting to do!" He yelled, leading them out in the streets.
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They had not stayed in the street long, instead pulling back in one building where they could better coordinate their forces, from the top of the tall skyscraper. From it, they had a good ensemble view of Viridian below, and could better direct the trainers. And from it, too, they could keep track of the incoming group of planes and helicopters.
"They're coming closer." Damian said, and for once no one berated him for stating the obvious, as they were all too tense to even think about doing so.
"Any idea about their markings yet?" Ash asked him in passing, watching the fighting below.
"None so far." Damian's reply was short, to the point, for a change.
The city was burning, whether it be from the explosions created by Lotus weaponry or the sizzling attacks of fire pokemon, great pillars of dark smoke now rose in the sky, half a dozen of them now, more than barely a minute before. Fighting continued, bitter battles between small groups of trainers or league soldiers facing against equally small group of Lotus troopers, sometime with a tank. Generaly, the trainers were not doing too badly in each individual encounter, yet the simple fact was that the Lotus could keep throwing away littler group of soldiers until they had worn down all the group of trainers.
There was a sudden scream-like sound, that of a jet engine pushed at full power. Ash reflexively dove to the ground, watching as a pair of fighters flew by at a screaming speed, coming from the only blind side of the room they were in.
"Where did they come from?" Gary asked in a shaken voice.
"That's not important." Damian turned with a big grin on his face. "What's important is that these red markings weren't Lotus. They're rising suns."
"So? Red markings still means the Lotus...none of our allies use red..." Gary protested, but stopped as he saw Damian shakes his head.
"If it was anything on those except rising sun, I'd agree about them being Lotus. But the rising sun means something else entirely..." he said, managing to avoid explaining.
"What does it means?" Ash asked, cutting short all the useless talking.
"That the Hoshoan arrived a few days early. The Rising Sun is their symbol." Damian grinned. Ash felt his heart, his whole being lifting with joy. Against all hope, they had managed to hold off the Lotus army long enough, to win.
All around the city, explosions rocked the landscape as Hoshoan combat jet fired their powerful missiles at defenseless Lotus tanks, shredding them. Troops-loaded helicopters landed everywhere in the city, supporting the trainers in their fight for the town, slowly, inch by inch, pushing back the Crimson Lotus, gaining more and more speed, finally forcing the opposition in withdrawing.
Everyone fought side by side, Vermilion soldiers fighting side by side with trainers, Giovanni's troops pushing back the Lotus with the help of Sabrina's psychics. The league troops of both Johto and Kanto were everywhere, and the Hoshoan army led the charge.
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May stared at the reports from the battle in rage, knowing they had lost, and that with all they had gambled, there would be no recovering from this, not for a long time. She had been defeated, overconfident, making the same mistake as Starkhad, though with much better reason to make the mistake, far fewer reasons not to make it.
Looking at the pistol that hung from her belt, she remembered the rest of the training she had been given before being taught how to led, when she had been taught how to fight. Hesitating, she drew her weapons, and turned toward a few elite soldiers that had remained near her rather than joining the battle.
They knew of at least one place where the enemy army kept its leader, and she was determined that they at least would not see their victory. The place was still close enough to the Lotus line so that they would be able to reach it without too much trouble.
"Follow me." She ordered her men, leading them out. And within her, part of her screamed in horror at what she was becoming.
Soon enough, she had reached the command center of the so-called trainers force, and was slowly inching her way up the stairs, her troops following her.
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Ash and his friends were celebrating the victory that they had obtained against all hope, the return of peace that the defeat of the Lotus heralded. He held Misty close to him, their happiness shared with the embrace, feeling her close to him.
"I can't believe we did it..." Misty whispered to him softly, keeping him close, and he felt her shivering. Even with victory, the horrors they had both seen were far from banished from their memories, and there was no telling if they ever would be.
"Yeah...it seems so surreal..." He whispered back.
Around them, may trainers were dancing, chatting, partying. They had joined them on the upper floor of the tall skyscraper soon after the victory had become obvious, and the defeat of the Lotus sealed by the arrival of the Hoshoan army.
Suddenly, with a sickening sound, the door burst open, leaving the passage open for a squadron of Lotus soldiers, and a figure he recognized all too well, one he had hoped he could avoid mentioning to Gary.
May Oak, the lotus officer he had fought at Maiden's Peak - and Gary's beloved sister. She slowly raised a pistol toward them, her hand negligently moving to send a psychic beam that threw one of the trainers who had joined them for the celebration down, out of the way.
"May..." Gary whispered, his eyes shocked, his face frozen in disbelief.
She fired once, as their pokemon rushed in to battle her few guards, two or three of them. They fought well, but were no match for the sheer elemental wrath of the creatures, and Ash watched with satisfaction as they were soon pushed back out of the way.
The pokemon, having repelled the troops, turned their attention toward the young woman who glared at them all, a look of madness in her eyes. She slowly aimed her gun at them, and started firing, with each shot killing one of them. AJ was one of those who fell early, to an unforgiving bullet in the head.
As more fell, Gary rose, his hands on the hilts of his blades, and he faced his sister.
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Grief filled Gary as his sister fired relentlessly, grief at finding out what she had become, another of his loved ones lost to a corrupting power. Duplica had been killed, his sister had been corrupted by the Lotus, both of them falling to darkness while they had been close to him.
"Stop it May." He whispered, preparing himself to draw his two sword and defeat his sister with ease.
There were no answers, and he had expected none, knowing his sister was too far gone in her rage to stop because of his words. A bitter feeling filled him, as he realized that he would have to kill his sister if he wanted the least chance of surviving. His hands hovered over the hilts of his blades...
And froze, as he fought against himself to draw them. May whirled toward him, her guns ready to fire, and aimed. Gary simply watched the weapon, unable to draw his own. If he drew, he would fall to the kai powers, and save them all from the attacks, but on the other hand, he would also loose control - and eventually, there was no doubt that he would kill his sister.
He hesitated, fighting a deep inner battle between survival instinct and the will to avoid harming his sister, and he could see the same battle mirrored in his sister's eyes, as if she was fighting to push the madness out of her mind.
"Please May...stop it..." He whispered again, his eyes pleading.
For an only answer, she moved her gun closer to him, ready to fire, her eyes closed as if she was making a supreme effort of will to stop herself from doing so, an effort that still was not enough. He tried to draw his sword, still fighting with himself, but as his mind still fought, the sound of the gun filled the room, and pain filled his upper body as he fell to the ground.
May fell too, the gun dropping near her, to be picked up by Elayne, or at least someone who looked like her, according to what Gary's vanishing sight could tell him.
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May opened her eyes, wondering for the shortest instant where she was, remembering suddenly the madness, and what she had done. And the second she did so, her eyes fell on a form lying on the ground, bleeding, friends gathered around him.
Her brother. The one person that had the most influenced her to join the Lotus in the first place, because she felt as if pokemon had stolen him - and their grandfather - from her, taking away their whole life. And now, because of the Lotus, she had shot him, and he was obviously dying.
No, he could not be dying. There was no way that he could be, she would never be able to live with that. The ruthless general was gone from her spirit now, destroyed by the horror of what she had done, only leaving behind the fragile young woman. She pushed aside the trainers gathered around her brothers, who somehow did not fight back, barely noticing that one of them, Ash she realized, was signaling for them all to move out of the way.
"Gary...are you all right?" She asked, knowing the answer, knowing that he would never be all right again, fighting against the tears that filled her eyes.
He turned back to look at her, his eyes filled with pain beyond pain, a pain so great that there was no describing it.
"Stop...stop joking Gary..." She said, her voice panicked, knowing again that he was not joking, but still trying to deny that she had killed her brother.
" You know I'm not..." His voice was a hoarse whisper, a dying breath.
"Gary...please..." She took his head and cradled him in her arms, bitter tears falling from her eyes, tears of loss. "Please don't go...please..."
"Sorry May...cya soon..." his head fell back as she felt his pulse slowly dying. The light in his eyes started to vanish, never to be seen there again, and May let out a wail of pure loss. A strange green light filled the room, it's gloominess somehow matching the feeling, and as the light lifted, her brother was nowhere to be found. Feeling empty, destroyed, May slowly rose, looking at the trainers though not really seeing them, thinking only of what she had done, of what she had lost. Some of them glared at her, murder in their eyes, but Ash seemed to be restraining them. Quickly, she snatched her gun back from the hand of the trainer who had picked it up when he had fallen.
Turning, she fired twice at a window, causing it to break, and she slowly pulled away from the trainers, keeping her gun toward them, knowing she would never fire, hoping they did not know the same, that they would not try to stop her.
Ash seemed to be the first to realize what she was up to, the first to see that she would not dare to fire at them. He raced toward her, but he was too late, the window was to close, the end too near.
With one last tear for her brother, she threw the gun toward them, and let herself fall out the window, praying that the end of the fall would also be the end of the pain, and the end of her broken life.
As she struck the ground, there was no more sound, no more vision, no more pain, no more life.
