Chapter 1
By Joshua Falken
Ash Ketchum, Misty Williams, Brock
Harrison and the Pokéball engineer Stephen Kurt were pursuing
Butch and Cassidy, who had stolen the mysterious G/S Pokéball
from Professor Patrick Elm's laboratories in New Bark City. The
chase had lasted for several days now, but it was almost over.
"Over there!" Brock
exclaimed. The two terrorists had entered in an abandoned mine.
Ash and his friends walked down
the tunnel until it split into two separate tunnels. Brock and
Kurt took the one on the right and Ash and Misty took the one on
the left. Some minutes afterwards, Ash and Misty heard voices:
"This is it, Butch!"
a woman's voice announced in an excited tone of voice. "This
is the day that we've been waiting for! When the Boss sees this,
he will promote us for sure!"
"And we'll never have to see
Jessie and James again in our lives!" a man replied in a
grating voice. While the two terrorists/thieves laughed about
their luck and planned how they would spend the bonus their
employer would give them for their efforts this day, Ash, Misty
and their Pokémon were discussing their plan of attack.
Ash released his Chikorita and
carefully sneaked up as close to Butch and Cassidy "Okay,
Chikorita! Stun Spore Attack!"
The small Plant-type Pokémon
puffed a cloud of soporific spores from the leaf growing from her
head. Butch and Cassidy didn't even have the time to register
that they were under attack before they were sleeping soundly.
Ash smirked and took the G/S Ball
from Cassidy's limp hand. "Easy money," he remarked to
himself. He grimaced at the incredibly loud and resonant snores
coming from Butch. "I hope he doesn't cause a cave-in,"
he said to Misty. Shey chuckled a little and the two best friends
turned to leave. Unfortunately, as they went to go, Misty tripped
over a rock. She reached out to the wall to steady herself,
knocked an old mine support from its' place. A small shower of
stones and dirt rained down from the roof and fell on the
slumbering Team Rocket terrorists, who awoke immediately.
"What the...?"
"Oops," Misty said,
looking at the maniacal anger that filled Cassidy's blue eyes.
Misty and Ash looked at each other and then fled as fast as they
could.
Seeing her most hated enemies
(other than Jessie) fleeing with her prize slightly clouded
Cassidy's usually efficient mind. She pulled out the Pokéball
containing her newest Pokémon and pressed the 'release' pad.
"Go Electrode!" A sneering beach ball-sized robotic
Pokémon materialised in the middle of the tunnel.
"Electrode, get after those Twerps and Explode them into
the next life!"
"Electrode!" the
Pokémon replied and shot towards the two fleeing youngsters.
"Cassidy, no!"
Butch yelled, his voice suddenly high-pitched with panic.
"Don't use Explode down here!"
Electrode released an enormous
electrostatic pulse, which, in turn, created a massive explosion.
The mine tunnel focussed the power of the explosion, collapsing
the roof and launching Butch and Cassidy out of the other end of
the tunnel. "Looks like we're blasting off too!" they
wailed before they disappeared over the horizon with a little
twinkle of light.
The force of the explosion also
blew Misty out of the tunnel and sent her tumbling down the
gentle slope into which the mine had been dug decades before. The
concussion of the attack knocked Ash onto his face, still within
the tunnel, and a lump of granite dropped from the collapsing
tunnel roof. It was large enough to crush his skull instantly.
However, as it dropped, it slowed. It got slower and slower until
it stopped. A green icon appeared in mid air, two thick vertical
lines, blinking on and off. They were next to a glowing word in
green capital letters: 'Pause.'
Four people looked at a paused
video screen showing an image of the fallen Ash with a massive
lump of rock about to flatten his head like it was a lump of
glazier's putty. They looked like three human males and a single
human female, all wearing business suits in the purest white, but
appearances can be deceiving. Their names were Gabriel, Miguel,
Rafael and Uriel.
Gabriel spoke to his colleagues.
"As you see, direct intervention is necessary in this case.
We cannot forget that he is the Chosen One."
"I agree, Gabriel,"
Miguel, a strong black man responded, "especially
considering the destiny purposed for him. However, I would like
to know that the Supreme Authority thinks of that."
"He gave his approval and his
blessing, old friend."
"Who would be the angel
assigned to this case?" Uriel, a black-haired woman asked
thoughtfully.
Gabriel swallowed nervously.
Several million years in assisting Michael in his role
as the Supreme Authority's messenger and agent still hadn't
prepared him for this. "I I, uh, thought we could send
Giselle Sagan," he said quietly.
There was a long, dead silence in
the room. "Cadet Angel First Grade Giselle Sagan?"
Rafael asked, sounding pained. He had many dealings with the
cadets, and the name was familiar to him. "The
Giselle Sagan? The cadet known to her peers as 'Disaster Area'?"
"Yes," Gabriel replied.
"That Giselle Sagan. Do you have an objection to
her being assigned to this case, Rafael?"
"Yes I do!"
Rafael blurted. "The girl is a menace to herself and
everyone around her. She is good at heart but she can't do even
the simplest task without creating havoc!" He waved
his hand wildly. "We sent her to the star Sanduliac 59
degrees 189 in the Large Magelenic Cloud to recover a lost item
and she ended up making the star that should have lasted another
ten million years go supernova! 'I thought it was
pretty. I just touched it and it exploded!' That is what she told
the investigatory panel! She just touched it and she blew the
thing up!" Rafael had gone red in the face with
passion. No one could blame him. The 'SN-1987A Incident' had been
the biggest disaster in the Agency's history since a certain
young angel let a large rock get too close to the Earth and
several hundred million years work on those 'dinosaur' creatures
was wiped out.
"Don't you think I know about
that?" Gabriel replied, looking miserable. "The Supreme
Authority himself ordered that she should be assigned to
this case." Gabriel remembered The Boss's mischievous smile
when he did so. He wondered if this was one of His rightly
notorious 'jokes' like the duck-billed platypus or the Psyduck.
Hearing that particular
fact silenced the three other executive archangels immediately.
"Well, who will inform the girl?" Rafael asked. Please
don't let it be me, he added silently. Please, please,
please! I would rather baby-sit Azrael the Avenger for a few
aeons!
"All four of us, Rafael, as
per normal procedure," Gabriel said firmly. There was a
strange noise from outside the room. "Ah! That must be her.
Now, brothers and sister, let us put on a good face for the girl.
This is her first major assignment, so she needs to know we have
confidence in her. Is that understood?" The other three
looked at each other nervously, but they all nodded in agreement.
Gabriel rose and opened the door
to the briefing room. A white pulse of energy shot through the
doorway at a substantial fraction of the speed of light and
collided with the table. The energy pulse immediately tumbled
through the air, making Miguel and Uriel dive in opposite
directions and collided with the back wall.
The energy pulse suddenly resolved
itself into the shape of a fifteen-year-old female human with
long purple hair, tied back into a ponytail with a green ribbon.
Her friendly blue eyes were crossed over in pain and surprise.
She was dressed all in white: A white tank top, white jeans cut
off at the knees and white knee-length socks. Even her
finger-less biker's gloves and roller-blades were pure, pearly
white. After a few moments, Giselle managed to get her head back
together after her high-speed collision with the wall.
She grinned around in
embarrassment at her superiors. "Uh like, hi
guys," she said with a thick Californian accent. "You,
uh, you did say that I should hurry didn't you, Mr. Gabby
sir?"
The reactions of the four Superior
Archangels were most instructive to the student. Gabriel looked
at the cadet with an expression that indicated he was feeling the
most profound pain in his long existence at hearing his name
shortened to 'Gabby.' He also wondered for the very first time if
the whole universe might be one of the Supreme
Authority's little 'jokes.' Miguel was carefully studying the
corners of the room, trying not to look at Gabriel's expression
or he would definitely start laughing. Rafael had gone bright red
and had crumpled in on himself, weeping softly and muttering
something about it being the extinction of the dinosaurs all
over again. Uriel was smiling at the cadet in her best
encouraging fashion and thinking to herself: 'What horrible mess
have we got ourselves into this time?"
Gabriel finally broke his
paralysis. "Cadet Giselle Sagan!" he barked in his best
drill sergeant's tone of voice.
"Yes, Archangel!"
Giselle yelped in instinctive obedience and jumped to her feet.
Unfortunately, she had forgotten about her roller-blades. Her
feet immediately shot from underneath her and she was dumped onto
her backside again.
Uriel began to hiccup
uncontrollably as she tried to control her laughter. Gabriel's
face was all-but expressionless except for his lips, which began
to twitch as he seriously contemplated joining Rafael in the
comforting abyss of hysteria.
Giselle erased the roller-blades
from her manifested form and stood up again with a slightly
chagrined smile. "Like, sorry about that guys," she
said.
"Cadet Sagan," Gabriel
began again. "You are being sent on your first
mission!" Gabriel announced. "It is an important and
highly intricate assignment that will involve you protecting the
life of one whose destiny has importance to the Supreme
Authority's most important purposes." Giselle gulped and
would have begun to sweat if Angels sweat. "Don't worry,
child," Gabriel said with a sickeningly false smile of
reassurance, "the Supreme Authority Himself recommended you
for this assignment! From now on, you will be the Guardian Angel
of Ash Ethan Ketchum, the Chosen One."
"Wow!" Giselle said,
most impressed. "I watched him in the Pokémon League this
year! He's a dish! Uh I mean. Yes, sir!" Giselle
shifted uncomfortably under Gabriel's censorious gaze. Every
angel knew that such feelings for a mortal were absolutely
forbidden, and had been since that terrible period known only as
'the Era of the Nephalim.'
Gabriel quickly briefed the young
angel of the details of her assignment and she immediately
departed for Earth, shifting through dimensions and time to reach
her assignment in a timely manner.
When the cadet left, Uriel
murmured a thought aloud. "I just don't know if I should
wish luck to Giselle or to Ash Ketchum..."
On Earth, in fact at the abandoned
mines close to Alazea City, Ash Ketchum felt something
grab his shirt collar and he was launched towards the mine
entrance at high speed. He also noticed vaguely that whatever it
was, was carrying Misty too.
Brock, Pikachu and Stephen Kurt
saw Ash and Misty fly out of the mine and land badly in the
ground below the mine entrance. The funny thing was, they hadn't
jumped It was as if they were being propelled
telekinetically, or as if something invisible were carrying
them.
"Elect-TRODE!" bellowed
the TR Pokémon and used its' attack as its' Trainer had
commanded.
The explosion tore the mine apart
and Brock saw Butch and Cassidy fly out of the other entrance and
into the sky with a despairing wail of: "Looks like we're
blasting off too!"
Just before a combination of the
fall and the massive acceleration of his departure from the mine
shaft made Ash black out, he was certain that he saw a girl
dressed all in white grinning down at him. She winked engagingly.
"Hey, don't worry, kid," she said in an accent that was
either Californian or purest Cerulean City, "like, I'll
protect you!"
To be continued
