NOTE: This is a tie-in to a story named "Shadows Cast," which has yet to make its appearance on FF.net. If there are details you are unsure about, refer to Chapters 12 and 13 of this story; if you remain unsure after the reference, post your questions and I'll provide answers myself.

URGENT: I wrote some portions of this chapter under protest; therefore, I must reiterate that the author of "Shadows Cast," Star Wolf, holds rights to his characters (Peter/Star Wolf and Jonathan/Neo Blade), and the Pokemon they carry. (I hold rights to Tommy/Flame Viper and his Pokemon.) If at any point you consider this chapter a story killer... you're probably right. But please keep reading anyway.

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Jason Creight awoke to the sweet smell of burning clothes... and the meaty stench of burning flesh.

He forced his eyes open, found them staring at the soil.

The soil of Fuschia City.

He craned his neck upward and looked over his shoulder.

His left leg was on fire.

"Damn!" he yelled, as he tried to wrench his body sideways, tried to bury the flames in the soil.

The wrenching motion caused his right leg to flop onto his left, smothering the flames somewhat.

Then his legs flipped completely over, and the flame went out.

Jason's breathing was hard. Ragged. He turned his eyes away from the still-smoking extremity and brought them to bear on the sky above him.

The sky was red.

The red of Jason's burnt flesh.

The red of blood.

Reddish-white lightning crackled across that blood-colored sky, and thunder followed it an instant later.

The earsplitting screech and booming roar of the creature nearly ripped Jason's eardrums to shreds.

And he remembered why he was here.

***

It had taken only one word.

"Tirenza."

That one word that Wolf had spoken had served to chill Jason's spine.

It also served to galvanize Tommy into instant action.

His hand snapped to his backpack, grabbed his capture ball belt, and pulled back within a matter of a split-second. It had happened so quickly that Kelly, who had been blinking that instant, had not even seen the move. All she'd seen was Tommy without a belt in his hand, then Tommy with a belt a blink later.

"When?" he demanded of his brother.

"Not yet," Wolf assured him. "But very soon. It made Mt. Cinnabar blow, I'm sure of it. Koga told me to call you home. He wants to face this as a family. We couldn't do that last time. We're both determined not to let it happen again."

"You're not alone," Tommy replied. "I'm coming."

He hit the "end" button. Then he grabbed all of his things off the ground, shoved them unceremoniously in his backpack, and started off at a dead run up the path. Jason quickly followed suit, knowing exactly what the entire exchange had meant.

Kelly was clueless.

Tommy and Jason had chosen not to share the Shadow boys' past with her. Jason had morbidly wondered why they never could trust her with anything personal, but Tommy had assured him that if Kelly never even knew there was a secret, she wouldn't pry into it.

She'd never figured out there was a secret being kept, other than what Tommy's sixth Pokemon was.

And now, for her, the mystery of Tommy's life was becoming as complex as Jason's had been.

But before she could even ask what the exchange had meant, Jason and Tommy had already started off.

*I guess I'll have to figure it out on the way,* she thought, as she sighed and grabbed her things.

***

Jason shook his head as he rolled his wheels as quickly as he could, trying to keep up with Tommy's considerable pace. "You know that Kelly's going to ask after this now, right?"

Tommy's reply was, "After all this is overwith, she can ask after it all she wants!"

"Glad to hear you're confident about the entire situation this time around!"

Tommy glared over his shoulder. "Not like we had much of a choice then! We didn't know about it!"

"True!" Jason conceded. "But somehow, I doubt if it's the same Pokemon you encountered last time!"

"What makes you say that?"

"The way you make it sound, if it could have made Mt. Cinnabar blow up, it would have!"

Tommy shook his head, though Jason could hardly tell from the way Tommy was shifting his body as he was running. "That's something else I'm worried about! The other one was taking orders from Giovanni!"

*And Giovanni's been swearing revege on all four of us ever since we last met...*

That uncomfortable thought rolled around Jason's mind. "You think Giovanni is responsible for what's going on?"

Tommy didn't respond. He kept running.

***

Tommy thought it was a distinct possibility that Giovanni was responsible, but now he was seeing it in two lights.

The first light was that Giovanni was giving this thing, whatever it was, orders to go to Tirenza. It had to be Giovanni; he was sadistic enough. And for him to have found out that they came from Tirenza, he had to have found out who they really were...

The second light was that whatever this thing was, it may have been *created* by Giovanni in the first place. The otther one most certainly had been--*Mewtwo*, he thought grimly--and for some reason, some mysterious reason, it had spared his life and the lives of his older brothers.

Would this one do the same?

Tommy didn't know.

He deigned not to let himself be in such a vulnerable position as to find out.

He looked over his shoulder and saw that Jason, handicapped though he was, was keeping up with him. Kelly, on the other hand, was not doing so well. She was lagging behind terribly, and for a moment, Tommy wanted to take pity on her, wanted to let her rest for a minute.

He mentally shook his head. *Sparing her a few seconds might mean losing Koga and my brothers. I can't let that happen.*

Tommy wondered if he was overreacting, even as the Pokemon center loomed large before them. Again, he mentally shook his head. *Nothing is more important than this.*

He'd seen total annihilation before.

He'd be damned if he saw it again.

As they raced into the Pokemon center, Jason said, "You're thinking what I'm thinking. You think that Giovanni created whatever this thing is."

Tommy nodded, seeing no need to supplement the statement. Instead of verbally responding to Jason, he approached Nurse Joy. "Where's your Pokemon transporter, please?"

Nurse Joy smiled, always the friendly and polite one. "Right over there." She pointed off to the far right corner of the room.

Tommy nodded. "Thank you."

Then he noticed how many people were crowded into the center. Trainers, mostly; he could tell by their capture ball belts. But there were a few people of other various occupations, as well.

They were all in front of the television.

Normally, Tommy would quietly scoff at their addiction to eye-frying pixels, but now, he could understand it. He imagined the tube was showing several good photos and video images of Mt. Cinnabar blowing sky-high, and taking a good chunk of Cinnabar Island with it. He peeked over a few shoulders and saw how horribly ugly the situation looked; red-hot lava was pouring down all sides of Mt. Cinnabar, mowing over trees and small villages.

He didn't dwell on it as he approached the transporter. Quickly, he programmed the coordinates for Koga's private student collections and began the tedious, time-consuming process of transporting his relatively useless Pokemon to his collection in exchange for a few of his bigger guns.

Belatedly, he noticed Jason had positioned his wheelchair to his direct left. He had seen the names and stats of the Pokemon he'd exchanged his current ones for.

Tommy had only traded in five. His sixth one remained on his belt.

Not that Tommy especially cared what Jason had seen. He considered Jason to be completely trustworthy, and he wasn't going to block Jason's view to keep a couple of his Pokemon secret. Tommy still had reservations on Kelly, and that was partially because Jason had reservations about her.

The fact that she'd been Jason's girlfriend for such a long time served only to convince Tommy that Jason was right in having reservations.

Jason looked up at Tommy with a grim expression. "Loading for Dragonite, are we?"

"Yeah, and you'd better do the same. Something tells me that nothing less is going to do any good against this thing."

"You're probably right. In that case, move aside."

Tommy was more than happy to do so. Some of Jason's Pokemon could easily match his own, and Tommy believed Jason to be one of the strongest allies he had, aside from his brothers.

He glanced back at Kelly.

*For her sake, I hope nothing is repeated today.*

Jason apparently caught the glance as he was preparing his Pokemon for transport, because he said, "I suppose you want to leave her someplace safe."

Tommy sighed. "Yeah, but I know she's not going to stay someplace safe."

Jason raised an eyebrow. "You don't trust her?"

"You don't, either."

"About some things, no," Jason conceded. "But what I *have* told her is what I believe she will keep secret." He then grunted at the machine he faced. "Professor Oak sure is serious about rescuing as many as he can. He took a massive chunk out of my collection. Mind if Kelly and I borrow a flyer?"

"I took Fearow out because I was planning on you asking," said Tommy. "I'll take this one." He patted his sixth capture ball.

Jason raised an eyebrow again. "You planning on letting Kelly see it, after all?"

"I'm less worried about that than what'll happen to Fuschia City if we don't get there in time."

Jason snorted. "What, you think we're going to make much difference? It's not as if Koga and your brothers aren't there."

"Ever hear of the power of one?" Tommy asked. "It's something Koga taught me and my brothers. Hammered it into us day and night while we were training with him. The power of one is based on the belief that any given one being, human or Pokemon, has the ability given to them to change the world. Anyone can make a difference. And any single being might make all the difference." Tommy looked pointedly at Jason. "That being could be you, me, Peter, Koga... even Giovanni, if the powers-that-be choose to throw that little irony our way."

Tommy could see Jason thinking on it. He was almost certain his paraplegic companion was thinking about Creight, who had gone so far as to change the flow of the timeline Jason existed in to make that difference.

Tommy shook his head. He hoped Jason would be able to get over the incident, at least for the time being. They had more important things to worry about.

His PokeGear began to ring. He checked the caller ID, to see it was Peter again. He hit the "CALL" button. "Yeah, Peter?"

"Tommy..." Peter's voice trailed off uncomfortably. "I hope you're bringing Jason with you, because I think we'll need him."

Tommy grinned. *Oh, that must have hurt to say.* He remembered all too well the bad note Jason and Peter had parted ways on. He remembered the bad note they'd *started* on. It was easy for him to see how Jason and Peter thought of each other, though Jason never spoke of Tommy's oldest brother with anything but openness and curiosity. And though Peter and his brothers had been present at the destruction of the Creights' marina-- nearly ten years ago now--and though Jason had proven himself to be a formidable trainer and a great ally, Peter still seemed to regard the paraplegic as a "bad guy." If not that, then certainly an enigma.

"Yeah, I'm bringing him." He leaned closer to the microphone. "We're also bringing along another friend of his, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea to bring her into the fight."

Tommy heard Peter snort. "It's not a good idea for any of us to go into this fight, little bro. Does she have powerful Pokemon?"

"Her Pokemon are decent, but against the enemy you're talking about, hers would probably be among the first to fall, unless she has an ace in the hole that we don't know about."

Peter sighed. It came out of Tommy's PokeGear as static. "Then it's probably best for her if we kept her away from the battle. If she has an ace in the hole, then we'll keep her in reserve."

"Right. Should I tell her about...?" Tommy trailed off, knowing that Peter would know exactly what he meant.

"No," Peter tersely replied. "That's strictly for us. No one else needs to know. She might leak."

*And if she did, who would she leak to? Jason? He already knows. And if the stuff was only supposed to be for us, then I've already broken a trust...*

Tommy didn't want to dwell on that. Instead, he focused on his conversation. "All right. Anything else?"

"John's here now, and Koga's making sure that an announcement gets out informing everyone to assume tornado conditions. I can see people already clearing the streets from here." Peter chuckled grimly. "If one thing's true about him, it's that he knows how to get a job done quickly and effectively."

"Right." Tommy turned to Jason, who was tucking the last capture ball into his belt. "Listen, I'm going to have to exchange Pokemon when we get there. Since there are three of us, I had to get more than one flying type."

"Fine," Peter responded dismissively. "Just make sure you're ready before the battle comes to us."

"I will."

"Good. We'll see you when you get here."

"Right."

They both hung up.

Tommy turned back to Jason. "Time to go, I'd say."

Jason nodded. He looked over at Kelly, who was ogling the TV, along with just about everyone else in the Pokemon center. It was showing the massive damage this supposed creature had caused at Cinnabar, as well as along its way toward Fuschia City.

*And we're heading right into the middle of it...*

"Let's go, Kelly."

***

When they arrived, they were there just in time to see the sky begin to change color. From pale blue it transformed into a lavender color, then purplish. Even darker colors loomed on the horizon.

Lightning flashed in the black clouds that approached.

Jason settled himself into his wheelchair as Tommy helped Kelly off Fearow and recalled his Pokemon.

Tommy turned to Jason. "We're going straight to the gym. Koga and my brothers are waiting for us there."

"Right."

When they entered the gym, Jason immediately noticed the empty scene to it, though there were many, many different aromas that suggested there were people here. The heaviness of the air hanging around him also said there were people, but there were none he could hear or see.

"Of course you can't see us. We're trained to disappear."

Jason recognized the voice as Wolf's, but the words bounced all over the gym and made it hard to determine where it had come from.

Tommy glared into the relative darkness of the gym. "We were also trained to keep our special little secrets hidden until the time came to use them."

A dark shape dropped down from the ceiling to the floor, not moving at falling speed, but rather at a controlled speed. Jason knew right away that Wolf was putting his telekinesis to good use, and recalled the last time he'd seen Wolf use it. It had startled Jason to discover the Shadow clan trainee had this ability.

It did not startle him now.

When Wolf touched down, Tommy glared at his oldest brother. Wolf shrugged. "I've learned a few more things since we trained under Koga. One of them is to use everything you've got to your advantage."

"And let me guess," said Tommy. "You've been scanning the minds of every trainer who ever challenged you to see what they would do next. And you've won every match you've been in."

"You're catching on," said Wolf. "But for the moment, let's not worry so much about my abilities as of those of that creature. It's man-made, just like Mewtwo was."

"*Who's Mewtwo?*" Kelly whispered to Jason.

"*I'll explain later,*" Jason responded.

Wolf glanced at Jason, and his face became expressionless.

Then he turned back to Tommy. "You told him."

Tommy stood his ground. "Yeah. I did."

"Why?"

"Because keeping it to myself was too much for me. And I trust him to keep it secret."

"How do you know he will?"

Jason grunted. "You've still got a problem with me, then."

Wolf shook his head. "Less of one than before. I can tell that you've been doing a good job with helping Tommy think and train in new ways, and I respect that. And I will admit, yes, I do have a problem with you. Doubtful that it's reasonable, or that it's something you can help or change, but there it is." He turned back to his youngest brother. "No, my bigger problem is with Tommy."

"Would you have suggested I take it to a counselor instead?" Tommy pointed out. "I needed to tell someone. And Jason understood everything, and realizes that it needs to be kept secret."

Kelly sighed. "*There go my chances of finding out. Don't lie to me like that, Jason.*" She whacked him on the shoulder.

"We don't have time for this right now, Peter," said Tommy. "I need to change my team, and we need to get ready for the fight."

And then came the horrible screeching, the terrible roaring.

The screech sounded vaguely like a million nails scraping along a mile of slate. The roar was as if a million lightning bolts had struck and the thunder was rushing to answer all of them at once.

Curiously, the two sounds were in concert with each other. Both were calls, both were responses.

Two more dark shapes appeared from the depths of the darkness. One was clearly Koga; there was no mistaking his indigo robes or his vaguely spiked, jet-black hair.

Jason didn't recognize the other one. She also had jet-black hair, tied back into a ponytail. She had brown eyes and wore a green *gi*, the sign of a martial arts master. Jason found her rather attractive, then began to wonder if it was okay to ogle her. After all, he still had Kelly to think about, yet neither of them seemed to know where their relationship was going...

"Jason Creight, it is an honor to battle by your side," Koga rumbled, and he bowed respectfully to Jason. Jason recalled Koga; he'd been an extremely formidable opponent, and had beaten Jason twice in battle before Jason had finally figured out how to stop Koga's irritating and debilitating poison attacks. Jason also ruefully recalled that the wagers he'd placed, based purely on his confidence in his Pokemon, had been outrageous. Koga was only too happy to receive the money, and when Jason finally beat him, the man did not return all of it.

Jason rolled his eyes at the memory. Full refund hadn't been the wager, only more money. So the entire ordeal had been perfectly legal, if not frustrating.

If Koga noticed Jason rolling his eyes, he chose not to comment or take any outward offense. "May I present to you my daughter, Janine."

Janine also bowed to Jason. "My father tells me you were a great opponent and will be a valuable ally. That you have his respect also means you have mine."

Jason nodded his head low. "It's an honor to meet you, though I wish it were under better circumstances. This is Kelly Shields, a longtime friend of mine."

Janine bowed to Kelly. "An honor and a privilege."

"The same to you," Kelly responded, returning the bow.

Jason continued. "Because of the nature of the upcoming battle..." He gave an apologetic glance to Kelly before going on. "...and certain histories I've been made aware of... I'd like to know if there is a safe place for Kelly to wait until this is all over."

"Jason!" Kelly glared down at him. "What makes you think I'll be going anywhere but where you're going?"

"Because where I'm going isn't safe for you and I don't believe your Pokemon are strong enough to protect you from this thing," Jason quietly responded. "You'd be much better off in a safe place."

"So would you," she pointed out. "At least I've got legs I can use. What if you were knocked out of your wheelchair for some reason?"

"My Pokemon can protect me, Kelly," Jason tried to assure her. "And I have to do this because I know why these people are doing it. I'm as much a part of it now as they are. Tommy and I didn't tell you because then you'd be even more willing to put yourself on the line, and I can't let that happen."

"Nor can I," said Koga. "Mr. Creight is right, Miss Shields. We cannot allow you to put yourself at risk."

She groaned. "I want to do this."

"Believe me," said Wolf, "you don't."

"Kelly." Jason took her bare hand in his bike-gloved one. "I promise, we will do our best not to put ourselves in harm's way, but it may be inevitable with this creature we're facing." He paused for a moment. "We might use you as backup, in case our Pokemon aren't enough. There's nothing more I can do in the matter except that."

She sighed heavily. "Fine." She turned to Janine. "Got a place for me to stay?"

Janine smiled politely. "In fact, we do."

As the women walked off together, Jason turned back to Wolf. "So where's your other brother?"

"Above our heads, actually. He's scouting out for the creature," Wolf responded.

As if on cue, Wolf's PokeGear alerted him to a caller. He activated it. "Yes?"

"Peter, it's coming. I can see it now. My God, it's nightmarish. Through the scopes, I can see it's quadrupedal and it's got fur. Looks like a gigantic flying dog. Its wings look like some kind of metal; I'd guess that not even Skarmory metal could touch this stuff, whatever it is. I estimate the wingspan to be somewhere around five or six meters. Wait a minute, now I can see--reptilian skin? Yeah, it's reptilian. And... huh? Oh, man, it's looking right this way. It's coming this way!"

"Damn." Wolf hit the "end" button, then turned to Tommy. "Bro, it's time you showed your true talents. Get your Pokemon, and join us outside as soon as possible."

"Right." Tommy raced off down an adjacent hallway.

"As for you..." Wolf eyed Jason carefully, then grunted. "I guess we get to see what you're really made of."

***

When they saw the creature, Jason was horrified.

He'd never seen anything quite like it, save in his nightmares.

And now his nightmares were being realized.

The creature hovering over Fuschia City was almost too hideous to describe. No longer did it look like a "flying dog," as Neo had said. Rather, it looked like some sort of quadrupedal reptilian with black titanium wings. The feet still looked mammalian, and all four legs were shaped in that fashion, but beyond that, it looked reptilian. It had a gigantic, always- swinging black metal tail, ending in a vicious series of spikes. On the other end, a huge, Arbok-length neck swung about, holding up the head of their enemy. Flowing out from the base of the neck and down the length of its body was a dark material that none of them could begin to fathom; it had the consistency of a cloud and billowed in the harsh winds. Only Creight had ever seen anything like that material, and his assistance was beyond the ability of time itself to lend.

*And the face...* thought Jason, horrified.

The face was flat, almost stumpy. Two glowing red eyes bulged from frog- like eye sockets above two slits for a nose. The lips of the creature were too short to close over the massive, razor-sharp teeth glinting in the light of the street lamps below.

Wolf turned to Jason. "We need to interlink our PokeGears to act as walkie- talkies."

"Right." Jason activated the LAN feature on his Gear and linked it to the Shadows' Gears, as well as those of Koga and Janine.

Neo immediately spoke up. "Guys, I think we've got some more bad company..."

Jason could hear the dual blades of a custom gyrocopter whipping the air in the distance. The copter was black and sleek, large enough for three people: a pilot and two passengers.

Jason heard Wolf growling, evidence that his chosen code name lived up to its namesake.

Jason knew who it was.

The creature whirled its massive, ugly head around and stared at the gyrocopter. It shrieked a roar of defiance.

***

"It's even more beautiful than I could have imagined," Giovanni opined.

"How the hell could you call something like that 'beautiful?' It's horrendous," said his pilot.

Giovanni stroked his Persian, seated to the right of its master. "To you, perhaps. But it is exactly what I need. Now all I have to do is capture it so we can input the command recognition codes."

"Good luck," the pilot scoffed. Then he frowned. "Hey, what are those people doing down there?"

"What people?" Giovanni barked, no longer smiling. "Show me on my viewer!"

And then he saw the people of which the pilot spoke.

He saw Gym Leaders Koga and Janine, though the former had been elevated to the position of Elite Four Master a while ago. Giovanni didn't recall when.

There were three others on the ground, and one other on the roof of the gym. The one on the roof and two on the ground, Giovanni didn't recognize.

But the third one on the ground, Giovanni recognized all too well.

"Mr. Creight," he chuckled, "you're still alive after all this time?"

Thanks to his encounter with Tommy's Kadabra, he didn't recall the identities of the Shadow boys, nor did he recall that Jason had been present during that time. The last time he could remember seeing Jason in person was the first time he'd seen him in person: at the Viridian City gym. Jason had had the use of his legs back then.

Not so anymore.

Giovanni remembered the reports on Jason when he'd been involved in the accident that had crippled him. He remembered being contacted by Jason's insane father, who begged to let him deal with his son by himself. He remembered giving the man at least a dozen of his prized Tentacruel to take care of Jason.

And he remembered how angry he had become when he'd discovered that Jason's Raichu had murdered the Tentacruel with a Thunder attack misfire.

Giovanni's only consolation was that Jason's father had died with them. His scouts had found the man before dragnets had been dispatched to find the Tentacruel, and they'd dealt with the body properly.

*Time to pay the piper,* Giovanni thought.

"Move us in closer."

***

"We cannot worry about him," said Koga. "Not if we are to concentrate on defeating this creature. Let' show it what it's up against."

Koga tossed a capture ball into the air, and out came a Weezing, ready for action.

Janine, Jason, Tommy, and Wolf all followed suit.

Janine's choice was Tangela.

Jason's choice was Electabuzz.

Tommy's choice was Xatu.

Wolf's choice was Dragonite.

Jason raised his eyebrow at Wolf. "Hope you've got more of that, Wolf."

Wolf grinned grimly. "Hope you won't have to find out."

And then a voice on a loudspeaker broke in.

"*Oh, look, how wonderful. A whole cadre of powerful Pokemon for me to pick through.*"

Giovanni rose out of his gyrocopter on a raised platform. "*This battle should prove interesting. May I present to you my pride and joy. From the fires of the Tirenza experiment, I give you... Firenza!*"

*Well, at least it has a name now,* Jason thought, trying desperately to keep the conspiracy theories out of his head. He needed to focus, focus...

The creature roared, roared again...

A powerful, immense psychic attack emanated from it in a sphere. It was visible, so powerful was the attack, and Jason thought he recognized it as a Shadow Ball attack, but he wasn't at all sure...

The blast struck them all.

Jason blacked out.

***

Jason looked around for his wheelchair, couldn't find it anywhere. He tried not to become frantic as he pulled himself along the ground, inch by agonizing inch. He saw that he'd been flung at least fifteen meters from where he'd been when Firenza had attacked.

He saw Electabuzz.

It had been KO'ed.

He snorted. *No surprise there. So was I.* He recalled his Pokemon, then tried to decide what his next one should be. He made his decision, yanked a capture ball from his belt, enlarged it, and lobbed it as best he could from the position he was in.

Out came Dragonair.

"Something tells me Electabuzz couldn't do the job," Jason muttered.

[Then I shall attempt to do better,] Dragonair responded.

"I hope so, for all our sakes."

[Do you need help?]

"For now, all I need is for you to try and help take that monster down."

Dragonair bobbed its sparkling head, then moved off to attack Firenza.

Jason pulled himself further along the ground until he heard groaning nearby. He groped his way through the dark soil.

He found Neo lying on the ground, groaning and cradling his leg with one hand. He looked up at Jason. "I've broken my arm and leg. I can't get up."

Jason snorted. "Neither can I. If I can find my wheelchair, I can find a first aid kit..."

Neo shook his head, then fumbled at his belt buckle. "No, there's no time. You can help by taking this." He unbuckled his belt and held it out.

Jason gaped. "Are you sure? I'm not in any better condition than you are."

Neo lifted his chin, indicating Jason's burned leg. "At least you can't feel your injuries when they occur. That makes you a lot more valuable in this battle. If it can be called that. It's looking one-sided from here."

Jason looked up and saw Neo's meaning. Wolf was flying on the back of his Dragonite, concerting its attacks with Dragonair's. An Ivysaur was also attacking; Jason knew it to be Tommy's, though Tommy was nowhere in sight, nor were Koga or Janine, or their Pokemon.

Jason turned back to Neo and nodded, taking the proffered belt. "How will I know which one to use?"

"I meant for all of them to be used, Jason, whether one at a time or all at once. They'll know what to do when you bring them out."

Jason nodded, then crawled forward and pulled another ball from his belt. "Gengar, a little help?"

The onerous ghost Pokemon grinned as it always had and used its psychic power to lift Jason off the ground. They spotted his wheelchair in a matter of moments, and soon, Jason was again rolling toward the nightmare that battled his allies.

He could see Koga and Janine now; they were choosing the Pokemon that would help determine the fate of Fuschia City. To one side appeared a Forretress, to the other a Vileplume.

And then Jason saw yet another Pokemon getting ready to join the fray.

Coming directly from Giovanni's gyrocopter was a Porygon.

Jason pondered why, of all Pokemon, Giovanni would choose that one. His mind raced...

*What he didn't have over his last genetically engineered Pokemon was total control. Maybe he found a way to have control over Firenza by using a chip or something, something that would force it to respond to his commands. In that case, he could be using Porygon to give Firenza new commands...*

He made his decision. "Gengar, don't let that Porygon near Firenza!"

"Gengar!" It floated up and began to bash Porygon for all it was worth.

And it was worth a considerable amount.

Jason looked at the belt given him by Neo a little uncertainly. *Which do I pick? Which?

Oh, the hell with it...*

Jason grabbed three and tossed them.

And from those balls emerged a Slowbro, an Umbreon, and a Tauros.

Jason groaned. *How am I supposed to use these in battle when the target is constantly flying?* But he resolved to give them a chance.

They took the chance... and dove full throttle into the battle. Slowbro engaged in psychic warfare while Umbreon used Faint Attack and Tauros blasted Firenza with Hyper Beam.

*Hyper Beam...* "Gyarados, I choose you!"

The giant leviathan rose its head in battle once again and didn't even wait for a command from Jason. Taking Tauros' lead, Gyarados fired off a Hyper Beam in the same area Tauros had attacked--the wings.

"Dragonite, Hyper Beam attack!" Wolf yelled, and Dragonite complied, also targeting the wings by sweeping the channel of focused energy from side to side.

Firenza's screeching roar split the dark again, and Jason clapped his hands over his ears as he watched the horrific creature fall.

It hit the top of an office building...

And plowed its way through the roof.

"Oh, no," Jason whispered, praying that there was no one inside.

After tense moments of crash after terrible crash, Firenza burst through the front door of the building.

And Jason realized that it now looked much different than before.

Firenza's wings were gone. In their place were multiple barbed vine whips, the barbs immediately recognizable as meant for a Spikes attack. Its body had now become armor-plated with that same black, shining metal. Its neck was now shorter, but its tail had made up the difference by becoming longer, metal-plated, and serrated, ending with a single harpoon spike, the cloud-like substance extending along the top of the tail to end a meter away from the spike. It has also grown two extra legs, and the four it had had before were thinner, plated, and pointed at the tips. The new two matched them, giving Firenza's body the apearance of an enormous insect. The cloudy substance now began at the base of Firenza's massive, ugly head, which seemed to be the only thing that had remained unchanged.

Jason could see the disbelief in Wolf's eyes at this incredible transformation. Both of them barely had time to speculate before Firenza was once again on the attack. This time it got even more serious; Firenza sent spikes in every direction, its mouth blasted Hyper Beam attacks, and its tail whipped out to catch buildings, cars, whatever it could hit.

"Jason!"

Jason whirled around and saw Tommy running up, panting. He tossed four capture balls and din't give them another thought. He looked down at the paraplegic trainer. "Sorry I'm late, I had to change my team again. Firenza took out all my initial Pokemon."

Jason shook his head. "We need to make a concentrated effort against it, press an attack and don't stop pressing until it's down. Your brother and I just did that; now Firenza's lost its ability to fly, at least for the moment."

"Yeah, but it's pushing back," Tommy pointed out.

"Exactly, which is why we need to be on the constant offensive. We can't just st around waiting for it to get tired; I'd bet you any day that Giovanni's scientists designed it so it wouldn't tire. We have to push as hard as we can."

Tommy nodded. "In that case, we might need this."

With that, he tossed his sixth capture ball.

And a Steeliz appeared.

"You're right," said Jason. "Does it have Hyper Beam?"

"Sure does," said Tommy.

"Good. Tauros and Gyarados, Hyper Beam attack!"

Tommy supplemented Jason's order. "Steelix, Hyper Beam!"

Wolf, hearing the conversation between Jason and Tommy over his PokeGear, added further firepower. "Dragonite, Hyper Beam!"

As the four full energy attacks struck Firenza, it shrieked--whether in pain or simple annoyance, Jason couldn't tell. But it arched its head toward the sky, as if to try to look away from the painful beams.

Wolf pulled out more capture balls, tired of this game. "Time for you to shine, team! Articuno! Zapdos!"

Jason gaped as he saw the two legendary bird Pokemon dive into the fight. He didn't think it was possible to capture either one, and thought it less possible for Wolf to have done it.

Tommy also ogled the birds, apparently not knowing that Wolf had possession of them, either.

Wolf wasn't finished. He tossed another one high into the air. "One of my favorites, Lugia!"

And yet another legendary bird Pokemon appeared in midair.

It didn't speak.

It sang.

Jason and Tommy were almost overwhelmed over this turn of events. How could Wolf have captured such Pokemon as these?

Wolf dropped another ball toward the ground. "And, of course, Houndoom..."

Another neon beam of light solidified, this time revealing a barking, snapping dark Pokrmon. At first, Jason took it to be a normal Houndoom.

And then he saw the horn.

Between its two curved horns, Jason saw that Houndoom possessed a third horn. Not only was there a third horn, but the third horn was glowing a bright blue.

Just as it registered that this Houndoom could not be all it seemed, Wolf reached for yet another Poke ball and was preparing to toss it.

Then he pulled back and put the ball back in his belt. "I'm saving that one. Last resort."

Jason forced himself to concentrate on the battle. The new Pokemon certainly helped, each of them using their own special attacks against Firenza. While Articuno blasted it with a Blizzard attack, Zapdos caught it with a Thunder attack. To top that off, Lugia fired off an Aeroblast attack, sweeping it over its enemy.

Firenza screamed at the continuous fury of the attack the new Pokemon were unleashing.

And another psychic attack swept outward.

Jason held his wheelchair's armrests tightly as the blast hit. It sent him flying backward into the building behind him, and the wind was knocked out of him. Tommy was also knocked into the building, and Jason heard a *crunch* as Tommy hit shoulder-first.

As for Wolf, he was forced off his Dragonite and began a long fall toward the ground. Fortunately, he was caught by Lugia, which again used Aeroblast on Firenza.

This time, Firenza retaliated with the same attack. The Aeroblast caught Lugia squarely in the underside and was enough to knock it to the ground. It then shot dozens of spikes at Lugia as it tried to get up. Each spike lodged firmly in the armor-like outer shell that was Lugia's back. As Lugia attempted to recover, Firenza sent out numerous vine whips and snared its foe, and Wolf with it.

Articuno attempted to help Wolf and Lugia by sending a freezing attack to the vines. When it did so, Firenza turned to the blue bird and sent a Fire Blast its way. Articuno dropped like a boulder.

"*You have no idea what you've unleashed, have you?*" Giovanni sneered over the loudspeaker. "*I do not have control over Firenza. I am merely a spectator, and thanks to that Gengar, I cannot bring it under control. Your only hope is for me to capture it.*"

Jason ignored the Rocket leader and looked to Gengar, who was floating far above the battle, waiting for further instructions from its master. Jason gestured. "Go on, Gengar, get into it! Psybeam!"

Jason pulled out another two capture balls, determined to make sure that Wolf's Pokemon stayed in the fight. "Let's draw its attention, Ampharos and Quilava!" Then he plucked the remaining three from Neo's belt. "You guys, too!"

This time, a Charizard, a Blastoise, and a Fearow emerged. They needed no urging from Jason; they dove right in.

The battle seemed a horrible mismatch; almost two dozen Pokemon had been called out to defend Fuschia City and its inhabitants, against one Pokemon.

*But then again, we can't forget that this Pokemon is genetically engineered,* Jason thought. His Pokemon supply was exhausted; he'd used all of his and all of Neo's. Attack after attack battered Firenza's metal shell, but it simply wasn't going down.

Jason watched Umbreon and Houndoom make a joint Faint Attack against Firenza, only to get whipped back by their enemy's vine whips.

He looked up and saw that Wolf and Lugia were now suspended high in the air by Firenza's other vines. Wolf had squirmed his way out of the net and had pulled his sword out. He began to hack away at the vines.

The vines hardened into the same metallic substance its outer shell was made of.

There was no way to get past the shell.

Firenza opened its mouth, a prelude to another devastating attack.

That was when Tommy saw his opportunity. "Steelix, Hyper Beam straight into its mouth!"

Steelix didn't question the ethics of the order and executed its command. The reddish-orange beam went straight down Firenza's throat and caused it to choke on its own attack. Firenza lashed out with its tail and smacked Steelix sideways in retaliation. The serrated edge of the tail scraped along Steelix's metal skin and made sparks fly.

"Steelix, iron tail!"

Steelix's tail came up and pushed Firenza's away, then batted at its head.

Firenza gave ground, and then transformed again. Its two extra legs receded into its body, and the four remaining ones grew to enormous size. The body also increased in size, and began to grow spikes and razor-sharp projectiles along the back. The neck receded even further into the body, while the tail grew longer still.

And the end of the tail grew a head.

Jason was reminded of a Girafarig as this transformation occurred. Now Firenza had two heads, both looking pretty much the same. The one attached to the tail was smaller, however, but smaller didn't make it any more cute. Like its other end, this head had razor-sharp teeth and lips too short to close over them.

Wolf and Lugia remained suspended in the air, but the vine whips had receded into Firenza's body. It was holding them up with its psychic abilities.

Wolf's face suddenly became a blank.

Jason realized that he was attempting psychic warfare with Firenza.

*Is he out of his mind?!* he thought. Then he sighed. *I'd better distract Firenza to help out.* "Everyone, use your best attack and don't stop until you drop!"

Immediately, those that had Hyper Beam used it, and those with other attacks used those instead. Firenza's body became a glowing halo of converging energy beams and physical attacks.

Firenza's larger head turned to Jason, opened its mouth, and aimed a psybeam at him.

Jason threw his weight to the side as the attack happened.

He fell over.

The attack missed.

Firenza's smaller head whirled around and stared at Wolf for a moment.

Then it opened its mouth to discharge an attack aimed straight at him.

***

Tommy saw it coming, saw the small beads of energy coming to converge in the smaller head's mouth. He knew it was Solarbeam.

And it was aimed straight at his brother.

Tommy grabbed at his belt, tossed a capture ball, and was on his Fearow's back in a matter of seconds.

His life began to flash before his eyes.

*Training in the woods...

Seeing Tirenza burning...

The funeral service...

The building of the memorial...

Training under Koga...

Finding Giovanni...

Watching Jason battle...*

It all flashed by in an instant.

Tommy's Fearow flew to crash into Lugia and Wolf.

To keep them from being hit.

Tommy clenched his eyes shut.

It all came down to this.

Firenza knew that if the masters died, it could continue on its path of destruction.

Tommy knew that Firenza knew.

And he flew to stop it.

He felt the impact.

Felt Lugia and Wolf falling to the side.

And then--

***

Jason could do nothing but watch as Tommy flew straight at Wolf and Lugia.

He saw the Solarbeam attack being prepared at the last second.

He didn't even have time to shout.

Tommy's Fearow hit Lugia and Wolf. The legendary flying Pokemon and the psychic who possessed it budged to the side.

The beam flew.

And struck Tommy and his Fearow.

The beam consumed them.

The energy was enough to knock a Pokemon out.

The energy was also enough to kill a human.

Fearow dropped to the ground, burns all over it.

Tommy had disappeared.

He'd been vaporized.

Jason let his head fall to the side and wept.

He was devastated.

Tommy was dead.

***

Wolf's concentration had been broken the instant the Fearow had impacted. He'd been trying to get a read on Firenza, trying to find out if it had any weaknesses he could exploit.

And then he'd been thrown to the side.

Even as he fell, Wolf recognized the Fearow as belonging to Tommy.

And then he'd seen the blast.

He'd watched helplessly as his youngest brother vaporized in front of him.

He heard someone far away screaming a high pitched scream of denial as he hit the ground. He rolled, rolled more, and came to a stop near the Fearow. It had been knocked out and surely would not fly again for this battle.

But Tommy was gone.

There was nothing to bury.

Nothing to mourn.

Firenza had taken his brother away from him in an instant.

Giovanni and his scientists had created Firenza.

Giovanni was to blame for all of this.

Wolf heard continuous screaming as he pulled out his final capture ball and tossed it, then realized that it was he who was screaming.

The final ball opened and revealed that which had caused him so much grief in the past. That which would now be his tool for vengeance.

Pearly white body, thick purple tail. Two necks, tridigital hands and feet.

Immense psychic potential.

***

Even amid the tears that flowed from his eyes, Jason could see what Wolf was doing. He wasn't surprised at all; he would have done the same thing had he any more capture balls to throw.

And then he saw the Pokemon that emerged from the ball.

Tommy's description of it had been unerring, made it unmistakable.

Jason realized what it was.

And he felt a great sense of irony that Wolf would choose this Pokemon for his revenge.

*Mewtwo.*

***

It had watched the battle through the ball. It felt the roiling energies, both psychic and physical.

It detected the creature which seemed to hate all life.

It could compare. After all, it had itself once tried to destroy all life.

But now the creature had done something it had not accomplished during its stunted campaign against humanity. The creature had taken a life.

The life of the boy's brother.

It did not have a sense of relativity, per se. It felt somehow... "connected" with Mew, but no other. Not even the clones it had created. It considered itself more of a fatherly figure to those.

It did not know what it would do if one of those clones died, or Mew died.

It imagined it would avenge their deaths.

And now, here the boy was, using it to avenge his brother's.

It found a great irony that it had faced the same boy long ago with the same determination.

Not for the first time, it began to wonder why it had agreed to go with the boy. His potential was great, indeed, but its potential was greater still. Neither of them disputed that, at least not yet.

But for the moment, it was being asked to help the boy avenge his brother's death, and perhaps the deaths of others.

It would do so.

It began its attack.

***

The air was alive with the attacks crackling around Firenza, as the Pokemon who had witnessed the horrible turn of events were now mercilessly battering their enemy with everything they had.

Tommy's Pokemon were most likely fighting the hardest of all of them. Steelix was digging in with everything it was worth.

And then, as if a switch had been flipped, everything stopped.

Just for an instant.

Jason had seen the swift cutting motion of Mewtwo's arm.

It had caused all the Pokemon to cease their attacks.

Jason saw that the Pokemon were all exhausted.

But they were all enraged.

Enraged that Firenza would cause a human's death.

Pure adrenaline was what fueled them.

Nothing could stop them now.

Not even this abomination.

And then, as loud as a roar and as silent as a whisper, Jason heard the single command, the single word, in his mind.

*Go.*

The Pokemon dove in yet again, blasting and chipping and biting away at Firenza, which was, by this time, growing increasingly frustrated.

But nothing other than frustrated.

Or so it seemed.

And then Mewtwo began to attack.

And Wolf joined it.

Their psychic powers allowed them to insinuate themselves into Firenza's mind, to begin peeling away at it from the inside out.

Firenza tried to attack Wolf and Mewtwo with another Solarbeam attack, but this time Lugia was the one who took the impact for them. It stayed in the air with the help of its Safeguard defense. It retaliated furiously with an Aeroblast.

The noise was deafening, the light blinding. Jason squinted into the spectacle, not even bothering trying to right himself or his wheelchair.

Then he saw a small object flying towards Firenza.

He squinted even further.

It was a capture ball.

It had been lobbed straight from Giovanni's gyrocopter.

The head attached to what seemed to be Firenza's tail whirled around before the ball got close to its intended target.

And it used Solarbeam.

The devastating attack boiled out of its mouth and incinerated the ball.

Then the beam struck the gyrocopter.

The copter had been designed to take heavy damage. Giovanni was not such a fool as to allow himself to be so easily destroyed.

But the sheer momentum of the beam rocketed the copter far into the sky, blowing it like a leaf along a path that would take it far from Fuschia City, far from Kanto.

Jason knew Giovanni would survive. The man was born to survive, even if the whole world were attempting to rectify that situation.

But under that mass of unbridled energy and unleashed fury lay Giovanni's legacy.

Jason knew Wolf wouldn't stop until the creature was finished. Destroyed completely.

Wolf and Mewtwo kept pushing. The distraction of that capture ball had allowed them into a back entrance of Firenza's mind. They became a wrecking team, destroying everything they could within the foul creature's thoughts.

Wolf saw Firenza forming a plan to attack him and Mewtwo again. He shattered the thought with an ethereal fist. Mewtwo shattered yet another plan with its tail, and two more with dark psychic blasts.

More and more thoughts, now. More and more plans for destruction were being destroyed and forgotten forever.

Firenza couldn't concentrate, and its defenses, both mental and physical, began to falter and fail.

It screamed and roared defiance.

Jason couldn't take the light anymore. He looked away as the light became that of a sun, the convergence of all Pokemon attacks compressed into one--

And then came a colossal outward blast.

Jason was thrown across the ground like a pebble being kicked by a five- year-old.

The Pokemon suffered much the same fate, flying and otherwise.

Everything was bright, too bright--

*Make it stop make it stop makeitstopmakeitstop--*

The light began to fade.

It faded and faded...

The light where Firenza had lain vanished completely.

It was not replaced.

The sky was no longer red. It was black.

Black with rain clouds.

And it began to rain.

Thunder cracked across the sky. Lightning split the clouds.

All were natural occurrences.

Jason looked around at the battered landscape. Pokemon were strewn about the entire area, as numerous as the boulder-sized chunks of concrete that had either been dug up out of the ground in the midst of that final attack, or had been knocked off the building Firenza had fallen through.

And the place Firenza had occupied in that final shockwave...

...was now vacant.

Jason didn't know what to do. He wondered if he should just lie there in the rain, along with the rest of the Pokemon, or if he should expend agonizing ergs of energy to get his wheelchair righted and himself along with it.

He wanted to do the former.

And then he heard weeping.

Quiet weeping.

It was coming from just ahead of him.

Jsson had a good idea who it was.

He decided not to bother with his wheelchair, at least for the moment, and instead inched his way forward until he had reached the source.

The source was Wolf.

At first, Jason wondered whether it might be better to just let Wolf have his space. Wolf had lost more than Jason had.

Jason had lost a good friend.

Wolf had lost a brother.

Jason mentally shook his head and kept going. He knew it was reckless, but he also knew that Wolf was human, just as he was. And humans needed comfort and companionship in times of great pain.

Here was one.

He pulled himself along the ground until he was in arm's length of Wolf's foot. Wolf had propped himself against the side of a damaged building, and he'd let his legs simply drop in front of him.

Jason looked up at the battered Shadow clan trainee. His clothes had been reduced to so many shreds, he had multiple cuts and bruises, and a vicious slash across his collarbone that seemed to have penetrated deeply. He saw that the arm attached to that collarbone was hanging limply off Wolf's shoulder. Jason surmised it had been broken, the arm rendered insensate. Jason also guessed that he didn't look much better, though nothing he could feel was broken. He could only imagine what damage his left leg had suffered by the horrendous burn.

Wolf was still crying. Softly, to himself, nothing meant to be loud or demonstrative. Jason imagined that Wolf was allowing himself to be seen in this vulnerable state, most likely because he didn't care what anyone thought of him at this point no matter what he did.

And following that thought, Jason wondered if Wolf would become like Creight had.

They'd both lost someone close.

Creight hadn't recovered. He'd remained obsessed with her death, obsessed with keeping her alive in the past so that his future would not be realized.

It was a frightening thing to ponder.

But Jason couldn't help but ponder it.

So he closed his eyes and allowed himself to let go, at least for a little while.

He would regain control eventually.

But for now...

Jason Creight cried on.

To Be Continued