Picking up the Pieces
Panted gasps follow the breeze that carried garbage, filth, blood, and other mangled pieces of steel and wood across the battle torn ground. Ash Ketchum, the great Pokemon Master who saved the world from Mewthree, powerless to save his love from her greatest fear. "Misty" Ash sobbed. Dozens more of police came to the scene, carrying out the bodies of Tarantulas victims. Ash stood staring at the forest, totally emotionless.
Brock sighed as he rubbed his face, seeing Ash be still like a statue without a heart or twitch to show signs of life. Pikachu whimpered softly "Pikachu pi". "I know Pikachu..I miss her too (sob) and it's ALL MY FAULT" Ash said. Brock shook his head sadly "Ash I know how much you love Misty, but you can't blame yourself for this. Your one person you can't expect to be prepared for everything, life isn't that easy.it's hard. You're only human".
As the cold winds chilled Ash's bare arms and tossed his black hair up, he sighed watching flowing tear drops drip from his sorrow filled hazel eyes. "It's the thought that's killing me the most Brock, that's the real sad thing. Misty is alone, somewhere, being scared out of her mind, by whatever the hell that bug thing was, who's doing god knows what to her" Ash sobbed out. The boy's pain was furthered by seeing a brain dead Casey carried off.
Doctors, Nurse Joys, and Officer Jenny's came to aid the fallen victims of the twisted robot. Sadly however both Brock and Ash knew how serious and hopeless this situation seemed. Everyone who had faced Tarantulas had their brains completely sucked dry, left in a permanent coma as a mindless vegetable. Not only that but the bug Pokemon were going berserk all over town, all over the city reports of bug attacks were increasing like wild fire.
"It's just so horrible; we can't even keep the Pokemon centers open. With all the bug attacks there destroying the center and their trainers as well", a frightened Nurse Joy wept out. Suddenly Pikachu's ears rose up at the sound of footsteps. Jesse, James, and Meowth had stern looks on their faces, Brock blinked at them "Hi guys uh what's up?". James sighed and wiped the sweat from his brow, both he and Jesse knew Ash might not really like their news.
Jesse said "Well we checked all the other trainers but their condition is the same, which means no one can tell us anything about that bug robot". Ash blinked back tears as he could have sworn he spotted people hiding behind Team Rocket. Immediately pushing past Brock to see Meowth stopped Ash, Meowth frowned "hang on there kiddo we got good news and bad news". "All right then what's the good news?" Ash asked crossing his arms firmly.
"Out of all da victims of that steel bug ting dat attacked the trainers and took Misty, we found some survivors who are willing to talk" Meowth said. Sensing a troubled tone from the talking cat Brock murmured "And the bad news?". Slowly Jesse and James moved away from their hidden "friends", and Ash's eyes widened to see clearly and hatefully who the bad news was. Matic, Electra, and the Sneasel from Team Tech were right behind the trio.
"You heartless SON OF A BITCH" Ash screamed as he tackled Electra down. The beautiful blonde bombshell rocket was screaming and struggling madly, trying to pry Ash's angry green gloved hands from her choked throat. Almost immediately Jesse and James told Ash to relax as they pulled him off Electra, the boy kept squirming, screaming, and kicking madly with rage. "No don't you see it, it's their fault they let loose that bug bot" Ash growled.
Matic angrily glared back " For your brat ass information sparky, we didn't send that freak thing after you nor did we even built the dam machine". Slowly sitting back up on her silver boots, Electra hissed "His name is Tarantulas and he attacked us first, he's our enemy too Ketchum". Ash spat at them "You guys have always made our lives a living hell, why should we believe you now?". Electra smirked "Because we can get your girl back".
The struggling Ash immediately ceased his angry struggled and stared a baffled glance to the twin rockets. Brock grimaced "Misty is our friend and your enemy, why bother helping foes?". Electra laughed "Fools don't you see we are the only ones who know anything about that psycho cyborg, everyone who's crossed his path is brain dead or just plain dead. Tarantulas is our mission and your sea slug of a girl is your friend, so let's team up".
Matic nodded "Both Electra and I have agreed to settle the whole eternal enemy bit to save bubbles bacon, but only if you help us destroy the bug". Jesse turned to Ash as she spoke firmly, "I know you don't like them Ash we can't stand them either but Matic is right". Quietly Ash hanged his capped head and pondered what to do. Their situation had holes in each side of it, Team Tech could help but no back stabbing was guaranteed from them.
James continued "I'm afraid I'm gonna have top go with Jesse on this one Ash, I'm scared shitless of that thing but we can't beat him by ourselves". Pikachu looked to Ash with a firm stare as if feeling the same way Ash did. But just as Ash's ravaged mind was about to make a decision, he heard something. "Huh?" Ash replied as he took a sharp gaze to the far left, there was something over there that drew his attention, something at the stage.
Among the debris and rubble that was spread out across the mangled structure of wood, steel, and busted walls was a man. "That's funny I thought the cops cleared everyone but us from the park" Ash thought to himself. But right there on the stage was a VERY oddly dressed man. Dressed in a slick fancy blue suit that almost made him look like a lawyer, even had a fancy fuchsia colored tie. The man was grinning right to Ash.
Blackish blue suit flexed as the man leaned back, almost having a sort of cool slick edge to his shifty odd looks. Hair was spiked up really tall, all of his red/goldish colored hair ends split up in different directions. One hair up, one hair left, and one hair right. The man had a white puffy chest piece at the half buttoned blue suit, on his wrists had cuffs with little numbers on them. The suit had the design of a pocket watch painted on the shirt's open sides.
The watch looked real but at the same time perfectly blended into his outfit. Pants were just as slick and fashionably cool looking as his suit, wore black cowboy like boots that went up past his calf. On the boos were gold rims over the top of the shoe and the bottom soul of the boot. Finally his face was small but gentle yet still keeping his trickster smile and bright purple eyes. The man grinned and said words that literally haunted Ash's spinning mind.
"Cool it squirt your girl is fine, but your running out of time. To find the bug find his hive, don't forget the caveman jive."
"Hey what are you talking about? Do you know where Misty is? You better tell me or I'll" Ash suddenly stopped as he felt Brock tap his shoulder. The rock gym leader asked curiously "Um Ash who are you talking to?". Ash was about to point towards the rhyming blue clock dressed man, but when he looked back he was gone. It was as if Ash was just talking to a figment of his imagination. The boy shook his head silently and murmured "No one".
Reluctantly Ash did agree to work with Team Tech, but only on one condition. "Tell me everything you know about this Tarantulas guy" Ash stated. The rockets agreed as they took him up towards the cave where Tarantulas was dug up, they found Nurse Joy and Eve brain dead. However Vicky and her cameraman partner Gunther were not to be found. But as Ash entered the dark dank cave and examined its surroundings, he was thinking.
It was that strange man who spoke in rhymes to him, it's as if his words were coming together. The cave was where Eve found Tarantulas so this must be the "hive", but he said don't forget about the caveman "jive". Matic opened up his laptop and punched up his files with rapid black glove finger typing. Ash gasped "Caveman jive I mean.this is information on Tarantulas". Matic nodded as he took a deep breathe to explain the story.
Matic hummed "As far we know what we encountered was no ordinary robot, it was in fact a cybernetic alien robot that was from another world. He called it Cybertron and claimed he was something called a "Preadacon".
Meowth blinked "Sounds like a fruit name".
James curiously asked "What exactly is a Preadacon?".
Matic smirked "Eve's files which I am "borrowing" say that the Preadacons were one of 2 robot sides that came down to Earth over 65 millions years ago".
Ash blinked "2 sides? You mean there's more of these things?".
Electra groaned "No twerp just one left, Tarantulas said he was the last one".
Brock scratched his chin "Well from the sound of the name and his appearance, I'm guessing the Preadacons were the bad guys but who were the good guys?".
Ash added "And why aren't any of them here?".
Matic replied "Okay here's what I can understand from the files. 65 million years ago after the dinosaurs croaked, 2 spaceships had crashed onto Earth. Each one carrying a team of robots from this techno planet called Cybertron. One ship held the bad guys called Preadacons, the other one had the good guys called Maximals. Apparently they were in a war known as the "Beast Wars".
Everyone blurted out loud "The Beast Wars?".
Matic rolled his eyes "I don't need an echo. The Beast Wars were called that because the robots took on the forms of animals from the prehistoric Earth. Since none of the Pokemon species had evolved into being yet, they only took what they could find. So that explains why Tarantulas looks like a spider. Anyways the wars went on for a long time but it eventually ended".
Ash asked "Did the Maximals win or the Preadacons?".
Matic frowned "Can't really say, there are no records of any of the Maximals parts left on Earth. A lot of the Preadacons parts were found scattered about the planet, but only a few Maximal pieces could be salvaged".
Brock nodded "It seems that the Preadacons must have lost if there are more body parts of them then of the Maximals".
James shrugged "Okay that explains how he got found and rebuilt and all that jazz, but what about Tarantulas? He's still out there".
Jesse gulped "You don't think he's going to try and revive the other Preadacons do you?".
Electra pondered "It's hard to tell, he seems to be more mad then sane. Never the less our mission is to destroy that miserable bucket of bolts at any cost".
Ash just remembered "Hey what about the brain thing, can that be cured?".
Matic shrugged "I'm not so sure about that. If what I am reading is correct, Tarantulas was a genius when it came to biology and toxicological liquids. There's no telling what horrors he can unleash on this planet".
Brock gasped "Not to mention all those bug Pokemon he has under his control".
Matic shrieked "Wait a minute..THAT'S IT".
Meowth blinked "What's it?".
Pikachu squeaked out "Pika, pika?".
Matic explained "My police scanner states that one of the cops reported Tarantulas grabbing the medallion piece on his forehead. I'm almost positive that is how he is controlling the bugs, and it stores the victim's brain neurons".
Ash nodded "So you're saying if we can bust that medallion piece that not only would Tarantulas lose control of the bugs, but cure everyone's brain loss?".
Matic smiled "Gazactly".
Ash confusedly asked "Say what?".
Matic screamed "IT MEANS YOUR RIGHT".
Ash backed off "Okay, okay sheesh".
Meowth sighed "Heya guys I hate to burst your bubble there but how we gonna find spider boy?".
Matic smirked "Corrected already, I have developed a tracker able to track down the neurons of all human life. It'll make Tarantulas stick out like a black head".
Jesse butted in "Yes but that still doesn't help the fact he's got a bazillion bug bodyguards to trample us into dust".
Ash growled "I say we go head on. I can care less if he's a billion year old robot with a zillion bug Pokemon. He's got Misty and that's all I need to know".
Brock nodded "We need a plan something that would surprise Tarantulas".
A mysterious voice called out "I think we can help you there".
Everyone shrieked in shock "YOU? BUT WE THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD".
To be continued.