Chapter
7 - Misty
Delilah Ketchum watched as Ash
chased after the terrified Misty and tried to decide whether she
should help him in his pursuit. Suddenly, she felt a hard impact
in her chest. Delilah didn't feel any pain in human terms, but
some instinct made her look down at her chest, fright beginning
to fill her mind. She saw a glass bullet that slowly broke open,
releasing a red fluid inside of her transparent blue body.
Suddenly there was pain; a terrible burning pain. The mutant
woman fell to her knees as the toxin began to attack the adaptive
proteins that made up her modified nervous system.
"Who could foresee
this?" a woman asked in a sneering tone of voice. "The
powerful Omega captured so easily."
Delilah lifted her eyes. The
poison that now circulated in her body was causing her vision to
blur and was confusing her perceptions. For one moment, she
thought that the black-uniformed woman in front of her was her
deceased sister. But then her vision cleared up (her regenerative
abilities were beginning to combat the toxin), and she realised
that the woman that was standing in the doorway of her living
room was another person; Another Black Rocket Agent.
The blond woman wore a smug smile
and holding what Delilah recognised as a TRX rifle in her right
hand. The woman reached behind her and pulled out an electrified
net of the sort Team Rocket had developed to capture wild Dittos.
"Don't worry, Omega," the Rocket announced. "You
received a small dose of AO-X." The former Rocket Agent
cringed when she recognised the acronym: it was the substance
made to knock out and kill Dittos. "You won't die..."
the agent continued, "although perhaps you would prefer
that to what is going to happen to you."
Domino threw the net... and
suddenly screamed, dropping her rifle and reeling backwards.
Operating on instinct, Delilah had launched a wave of telekinetic
force at the young woman, sending the net flying back into
Domino's face. Writhing in pain from the powerful electric charge
in the net, Domino was a sitting duck and Delilah launched her
over the sofa and against the back wall of the living room with
one inhumanly powerful drop kick. "You should have used a
lethal dose of AO-X, dear," Delilah said angrily. "I'll
be glad to make you regret that you missed your
chance!"
Domino snarled and reached for one
of her Pokéballs. She felt a searing pain in her right hand and
looked to see something that looked like an egg biting
her hand. "Togepi-pi-toge-to-ge-ge-pi!" [Leave Grandma
alone!] Togepi exclaimed angrily. In her escape, Misty had
forgotten her little friend. Although confused, Togepi was brave
enough to want to help 'Grandma' fight the bad lady.
Surprisingly, Delilah's maternal
instinct lit up when she saw the immature Psychic-type attack
Domino. She didn't want the small Pokémon to get hurt. She
teleported Togepi to Ash's bedroom, where, hopefully, she would
be safe.
The two women watched each other
warily for a moment. Suddenly, Delilah pointed her left arm at
Domino and a vine whip lashed from her wrist. Domino jumped and
rolled across the floor to dodge the attack, which caved in some
of plasterboard making up the walls. The transparent woman
realised that she was facing somebody very well trained.
She also found it strange that Domino wasn't in the least bit
afraid of her...
Domino smiled, a satisfied and
sadistic smile. She pulled a Pokéball off of her belt and threw
it to the center of the room. Now, the real battle would
begin. "Go, Slugma!" Domino exclaimed, releasing the
slug-like fire-type Pokémon.
== == == == ==
"Misty! Stop!"
Misty heard Ash screaming, running behind her. She heard the fear
and the despair in her friend's voice, but her brain was
completely deaf to that. She could only think about getting as
far away as possible from that monster, of that woman
that deceived her the whole time... and of the
"woman's" son...
Misty stopped (ironically, close
to the Pallet-Viridian Fault), grabbed two Pokéballs and yelled:
"DON'T COME ANY CLOSER ASH!"
"Misty, please."
The boy from Pallet Town implored. In his heart, he knew that she
was so afraid that she couldn't hear him. He could not blame her
for feeling that way. "I... I can explain!"
The Water-Type trainer tried to
control the contradictory feelings of rage, friendship and terror
that flashed through her mind like lightning. Fear won out. Misty
released Starmie and Dragonair. "No closer, Ash. More a
step, and I..." she left the threat hanging in the air.
Of course, Ash couldn't believe
what he had just heard. Was Misty threatening him?!
"Misty..." Ash took one step in her direction.
The girl saw her friend's
outstretched arm, coming in her direction. The fear of being
contaminated with whatever had transformed him spoke
louder than her sudden urge to fall weeping into his arms.
"Starmie! Water Gun NOW!"
The Water-Type Pokémon executed
the order immediately, sensing the urgency in Misty's voice,
although he couldn't understand why his Trainer wanted him to
attack her Journey's companion. Shocked, Ash didn't even think to
defend himself against the attack. The pressurised water jet
knocked him off his feet and sent him tumbling across the ground.
"Pika-pi!" [Ash!]
Pikachu shouted, rushing over to him. Desperate to protect his
Trainer, Pikachu fired a Thunder-shock attack that crackled
around Starmie, sending him reeling away from Ash.
Misty was barely aware of what was
happening. Reacting on blind instinct and habits from years of
Pokémon training, she recalled Starmie and leapt astride Dragonair.
The water/flying-type rose into the sky and flew off towards
Cerulean City.
Ash watched as his friend
disappeared into the night, soaking wet and completely amazed. I
can't believe that she did that! he thought. Suddenly, he
heard a voice behind him.
"Chikori! Chikori!"
[Ash! Ash!]
"Huh? Chikorita?!"
"Chikori-korita-chiko-chi-chi-rita-rita!"
[Someone is trying to capture your mother!] said the small
plant-type Pokémon, breathless from her haste.
"WHAT?!"
== == == == ==
Omega was standing astride Domino
with her blue gel-like hands wrapped around the blonde woman's
throat. Only the weakening effects of the AO-X toxin had stopped
her from crushing the Rocket's throat. Domino was scratching at
Delilah's face and squeezing her wrists (where tendons and nerves
would be in a human) desperately trying to loosen the mutant
woman's stranglehold around her windpipe. It was a losing battle.
Already, Domino could see the light-flecked blackness of death
beginning to close in around her field of vision.
Panicking, she managed to pull her
last unused Pokéball off of her belt and she activate it.
"Kabutops, get her!" Domino gasped.
The fossil water/fighting-type Pokémon
lashed out with his sabre-like arms, slashing open the mutant
woman's back. Delilah released Domino, turning her whole
attention to the new threat. It only took her a few moments to
mimic the electric powers of an Electabuzz and send the Kabutops
down with a massive Lightning Bolt attack.
Behind her, Domino crawled across
the scorched and tattered living room carpet and grabbed her
rifle. She rolled onto her back and fired two more rounds into
Delilah's back. Delilah screamed and collapsed to the floor, two
more red stains spreading like an ultra-fast fungal infection
through her liquid-based body. She was dying.
Domino, her purple eyes flashing
with hate and fear, staggered to her feet. It only took a few
seconds for her to realize that she had gone too far.
She didn't know what The Boss's reaction would be to her killing
the prize instead of capturing her, but she bet it would not
be pleasant. She pulled out a black-and-white Master-type Pokéball.
Her last hope was that the Pokéball's stasis field would keep
Omega alive until she could get her to the Headquarters research
center where she was created.
Delilah, her consciousness fading
in and out and her body slowly losing its' shape, had given up
any hope of further resistance or even survival. She watched
without hope as Domino raised the Master-ball. Suddenly the Black
Rocket paused and began to shudder as if she were having a fit.
"Togi-priii-priii-gi-gi-togi!" [Leave my Grandma alone
you bad lady!] a voice squeaked. Blood began to spill from
Domino's nose and her ears, she began to grimace in agony and the
veins stood out harshly against her temples. Her eyes suddenly
rolled up into her skull and she fell to the floor, unconscious.
The cavalry had arrived. Delilah
stared at this most unlikely of rescuers for a long moment.
Togepi had teleported herself out of Ash's room, then little Pokémon
had sneaked up on Domino and used a Psychic attack. Delilah was
surprised, as she didn't know Misty had taught her little friend
any attacks.
"Thank you!" she
murmured. Delilah didn't know how long Domino would remain
unconscious from the attack. Not wanting to take any chances, she
gathered her waning strength and teleported her antagonist away,
not bothering to specify a destination.
Mr. Mime, who had been tied up in
the first moments of the Team Rocket assault, finally freed
himself and charged into the living room. He tried to help the
woman whom, for all practical purposes, was his Trainer but he
was a house-worker, not a medic. He didn't even know where to begin.
Some minutes later, Ash came back
at a dead run, with Pikachu and Chikorita at his side. He didn't
even notice that the house where he had grown up was a
smouldering ruin in the wake of the battle between Delilah and
Domino's powerful Pokémon. All he cared about was the fact that
his mother was clearly dying. Red stains were spreading through
her body like a malignant virus and her body was slowly
liquefying and losing its' shape.
"Mom!!!" Ash cried out
in despair. He knelt down beside her and grabbed her cold hands
in his own. He was desperate and his mind was whirling in terror.
He needed to help his mother, but he didn't know how!
"Ash, call Sam." Delilah
murmured, her eyes unfocussed.
"Huh?!" Ash was startled
by this request.
"Call Professor Oak!"
She repeated, desperate. And can you blame her? "He can help
me. But you will have to take that rifle to him." She
pointed weakly to the weapon lying by the shredded remains of the
couch.
Ash looked at for one moment to
his mother's alien face, deformed by the pain. "Okay!"
he said, snatching the rifle. "Pikachu, Chikorita, take care
of her... please." And ran in the direction of the
laboratory of Professor Samuel Oak.
== == == == ==
"Ouch!" Cassidy
Longstreet groaned in pain, as she walked beside her team
partner, Butch Seaborg. They had fell in the forest, close to the
Pallet Lake. Their landing after Delilah Ketchum had blasted them
off had not been soft or gentle! Cassidy was sure she had
dislocated her shoulder and Butch was limping in a way that
suggested he had sprained his left knee.
"How do Jessie and James
stand this?" Butch wondered.
They had just arrived at the
lakeshore, when a blue light appeared about 30 meters above the
surface of the lake. When the light disappeared, the two agents
were surprised to see the form of a human woman appear and fall
in the cold lake. It was Domino.
== == == == ==
"Professor! Professor!"
Ash was pounding so hard on the door of the building that it
seemed that he could knock it down at any moment. What
is keeping him? Did he take a sleeping pill or something?!
Ash thought in exasperation. He didn't understand why his mother
wanted him to call Professor Oak, but if she thought that he
could help her...
The door opened and the confused
face of Professor Samuel Oak's peeked around the opening.
"Ash? It is nearly midnight, lad! What is happening?"
"Professor! Come quick!
Somebody shot my mother! Now she is dying and"
Oak couldn't keep up with the
hysterical boy's explanation. "Calm down Ash! What are you
talking about?"
Ash began to tell his tutor about
his mother's mutant abilities and the sudden unprovoked assault
by the forces of Team Rocket. He also gave the researcher the
rifle. Professor Oak pulled the magazine out of the rifle and
slid the first bullet out of the magazine. He broke the glass
bullet open with his shoe and sniffed the sweet-smelling red
fluid thoughtfully. Suddenly all hint of fatigue was gone from
Oak's face and he was fully alert. "Ash, go up to Tracey's
bedroom and wake him up, even if you have to throw a bucket
of cold water on him," Oak ordered. "I have to get
some things in the laboratory." He ordered.
The young Trainer was completely
stunned. He has just admitted that his mother was a mutant, like
in the comic books, and Professor Oak wasn't even surprised!?
"Ash, hurry!" Oak said firmly. "Time is a critical
factor right now!" The black-haired boy ran in the direction
indicated by the old man's arm.
The white-haired man closed his
eyes for one moment, sighing, before entering in his laboratory.
== == == == ==
Professor Oak wasn't the only one
that had a tumultuous awakening. Daisy and Lilly Williams also
had been roused from their beds. Now they were at the door of
their younger sister's bedroom. Misty had appeared at dawn with
the most panicked expression than they had ever seen in their
lives. Misty had broken Lilly's nose by slamming the door open
when she entered. She had only stopped running when she reached
her bedroom.
"Misty! Like, please, open
the door!" Lilly implored.
Daisy, knowing her sister all too
well, put a gentle hand on Lilly's shoulder. "Like, forget
it Lilly. Misty only will come out when she calms down."
Lilly reluctantly agreed.
Two hours later, Lilly was at the
Gym's Reception desk when the internal telephone rang.
"Lilly? It it's Misty.
Listen... if... if someone asks for me, I'm not... I'm not here.
Do you understand?"
"What's happening
Misty?" Lilly asked. "Are you in trouble or
something?"
"You you don't want
to know," Misty said, her voice broken by sobs.
"Please, Lilly, do as as I say. I I'm not here,
especially if Ash Ketchum calls."
"Like, what did he do to
you?" Misty had already hung up. Lilly briefly considered
trying to call her back, but she knew how stubborn Misty could
be. She wouldn't talk to her, or to anyone, until she was good
and ready. So all Lilly could do was wonder about what might have
happened and plot increasingly bloody acts of vengeance for when
she next met Ash...
Meanwhile, Misty put down the
receiver and, in a remarkably childish act, she sat down in the
walk-in wardrobe, closed the door and hugged her knees to her
chest in the darkness. Instinct was forcing on her a desperate
attempt to make herself as invisible and hidden as possible.
Misty's mind was in a whirl
powerful like a Gyarados' Dragon's Rage attack. She hadn't
thought coherently or consecutively since she saw that massive
Onyx that protected Ash from Team Rocket metamorphose into an
alien vision in the form of Delilah Ketchum. If that wasn't
bad enough, the easy way Ash acted around her, and the love
demonstrated in how she hugged Ash to her, indicated that this
was no surprise to her friend.
Friend! Misty thought
hopelessly. He he must be a monster just like
her! When she saw the Delilah-monster teleport the
unconscious Team Rocket agents away, she started to run. All her
instincts were screaming at her that the creature would destroy
her. Although she knew in her head that it was still the
Delilah and Ash she had known for four years now, she couldn't
stop running. All she could feel was an all-consuming terror. She
had to run or she would face a fate worse than death!
But what fate? Misty's
overactive imagination, which Violet's taste in science fiction
and horror movies from the last century had worsened
considerably, began to go into overdrive. It was hard to imagine
what they could not be interested in doing. Maybe use
her in some kind of experiment. She was, after all, a healthy and
fertile human female. Perhaps they wanted to use her to... to
breed another generation of mutant monstrosities like them!
Or, more horribly, maybe they weren't
really Ash and Delilah any more. She remembered one classic film,
"Invasion of the Body Snatchers." In that particular
story, humans were replaced in their sleep by horrible alien
doppelgangers grown in plant-like pods outside their bedrooms.
One thing was certain, and that was Misty wasn't planning on
sleeping any time soon!
No, she remembered how Pikachu was
still with Ash and Togepi wasn't afraid either. Misty
covered her mouth to hold in a scream. Togepi! How could I
have left her behind? Misty fell onto her side and buried
her face in her hands and wept in terror as she tried to imagine
what might be happening to the cute little psychic-type at the monsters'
hands
No No, they must still be
the bodies of Ash and Delilah Pikachu wouldn't
still be there if they were some kind of alien duplicates. Then
what had happened? Perhaps perhaps the monsters were
something inside of them something like a virus or a
parasite that restructured their bodies into metamorphosing alien
liquid
Misty shuddered, suddenly
realising that maybe they wouldn't have to try to find her.
Maybe, eventually, she would go to them. After all she
might already be infected
She remembered when Ash won the
Johto League the previous year.
He had defeated Gary, who was
using an Arcanine, with his Chikorita. All throughout that
odds-defying battle, Misty had been filled with incredibly
passionate feelings for Ash. She felt his worries, his joys and
his triumphs. When the battle ended, with Ash's victory, she had
felt ready to explode with joy. She ran across the stadium,
jumped into his arms and kissed him, freely admitting to herself
for the first time that she felt for the kid who wrote off her
bicycle three long years previously.
Surprised at first, Ash soon began
to respond to the kiss, holding her head and stroking her hair.
When it became clear that they were lost in that kiss, Gary asked
Pikachu to "save them from embarrassment." It was,
after all, being broadcast to entire world! And Pikachu had
saved them, with a Thunder-shock.
No one was surprised that, when
Ash gone to the Masters' Box to receive the Johto League Trophy,
he was holding Misty's hand. Nor was anyone surprised that the
two danced together the whole night during the Champion's Ball
that celebrated Ash's victory.
Misty could still feel that kiss
and the incredible feeling of warmth that it had given her.
Neither she nor Ash had spoken of that moment since. Both more
than a little embarrassed about the strength of their emotions at
such a young age. Misty hugged her legs harder and wept in terror
and heartbreak. She had never felt so safe and so alive before
that moment. Nor had she ever felt that she belonged so
clearly before. However, perhaps that was all it took. A single
kiss to snuff out her humanity like it was a candle in a typhoon.
Could that kiss have infected her? Might there be some alien
horror, microscopic or otherwise, crawling about in her now,
slowly reworking her into a... a monster?
Terrified about what might happen,
she opened the sliding wardrobe door slightly so she could see
and concentrated on her right hand. Misty had never been more
frightened, but she had to know whether she was still
well, her. She concentrated and willed her hand to
liquefy and flow into blue gel-like fluid. Nothing happened.
Misty tried to draw in a deep
breath in relief, but it all she could do was suck in a series of
shuddering sobs. She dragged the wardrobe closed and tried to
think.
I need help, she thought
desperately. I need to get someone who can tell the world and
protect me! I can't stay here too long Ash and Delilah know
that this is the first place to look. Maybe I should go to Pewter
City and hide at Brock's Gym No Misty
immediately shied away from that possibility. Black paranoia
uncoiled in her mind. Brock is Ash's closest friend, she
reminded herself. And he stayed with Delilah for some time
after coming back from the Orange Islands... Misty thought
desperately. He's probably already one of them.
Tracey was off the list too. He was always Ash's friend, rather
than hers. Ash had probably infected him years ago, and with him,
Professor Oak went off the list of potential allies. Pallet
Town probably should change its name to Alien Town, it is monster
central now, she thought, trying to stop herself from
starting to scream in terror. What should I do? What can
I do? Please, someone, tell me what to do!
Never having felt so lost, so
very, very alone, Misty hugged herself tightly and continued to
weep until her exhausted body surrendered. Her brain shut down
and she drifted into a dreamless sleep.
== == == ==
Ash Ketchum's brown eyes were
empty of feeling. He had never felt so tired and so lost in all
his young lifetime. He was looking at his mother, who had curled
up into a fetal position as she floated in a tube of cool grey
fluid, attached to a battery of sensors and other electronic
apparatus by wires that seemed to be attached to every square
centimetre of her blue flesh. Professor Oak had built this
apparatus some years before, just in case this day would come.
"You knew already, didn't
you?" Ash asked, in a tired voice, to the man that had
quietly entered the Laboratory.
"Yes, Ash. I knew about your
mother's mutation," Oak confirmed with a gentle sigh.
Ash faced the Pokémon researcher.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Well, I thought that I had
no right to do that," he replied. Sam Oak felt badly for
having hidden that of Ash. "I mean... Delilah is your
mother. And if I told you that she was..." Sam didn't want
say 'a mutant,' "different, very different, from
the rest of us, would you have believed me?"
Ash sighed, and scratched Pikachu
on the head. The Pokémon cooed reassuringly and rubbed his
hands. "No, I wouldn't have," Ash said. "You're
right about that." Then, Ash laughed ironically. "Then,
you were helping her deal with her condition, weren't you? That
explains why you two always walked together. And there I was
thinking you were dating and that I might end up as Gary's
step-uncle!"
The researcher blushed. Both were
silent for a while. Sam Oak noticed the perspiration that was
beading on Ash's forehead, in spite of the laboratory being
air-conditioned and cool for the sake of Delilah's health.
"And how is Tracey
doing?" Ash asked after a moment.
"Well, he is calmer
now," Sam replied. Sam remembered Tracey's terrified
reaction when he saw Delilah for the first time in her default
form. Of course, he initially assumed that she was some
incredible new kind of Pokémon that Ash had captured. His fear
became utter terror when the Pokémon Watcher
recognised the being in the regeneration apparatus. "I
explained Delilah's situation to him. He's promised that he won't
tell anyone anything."
Ash nodded. "Professor
Oak," Ash asked, "will my mother recover?"
"I believe so yes," Oak
replied in his most reassuring tone of voice. "We arrived
well in time, before the toxin destroyed her basic cellular
integrity. However, she will need total rest and will be unable
to morph into any other shape or use any of her other powers for
some time to come."
Ash sighed and looked down,
covering his eyes with his hands. Oak watched compassionately as
tears trickled down the boy's cheeks for a few minutes and his
breathing turned into hoarse sobs. "Thank you," Ash
finally managed to say in a grating, hoarse tone of voice. After
a few moments, he was able to look up and looked at the digital
timepiece over the glass tube that was keeping his mother alive.
It was 4:12 A.M. and, in two hours, a new day would dawn.
The Champion of the Global League
of 2063 realised that something important had happened during the
night, something that he had not noticed, and something that he should
have noticed. He sighed. Well, he would have to worry with that
later, because now he had an important matter to deal with.
"Professor Oak, could you take care of the Security Police
for me?" Ash knew that after all the destruction caused by
Rockets, the Security Police would ask questions.
"Sure, but why?"
"Because I have to go to
Cerulean City and, God help me, convince Misty to not to tell
anybody about my mother."
"Does she know? How?"
Ash explained what had happened in the previous night. Professor
Oak grimaced and shook his head. "Good luck, Ash!"
"I will need
that," Ash murmured for himself. He pulled out a
handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his forehead. Carrying
Pikachu and Togepi, he left, heading for Cerulean City...
== == == == ==
It was 11 A.M. in Cerulean City
and Ash climbed off of Pidgeot's back. He stroked the big
flying-type gratefully and thanked him for the ride before
recalling him to his Pokéball. After nearly falling off his
bicycle for the twentieth (or was it the thirtieth?) time, Ash
had given up trying to reach Cerulean on his own power and had
asked Pidgeot for his help. Ash's face was flushed, he kept on
having shivering fits and he was also having dizzy spells. It was
if something were using up all his body's energy for
its' own purposes. The last thing I need right now, he
thought in exasperation, is to be coming down with influenza
or something!
Ash shook his head. He could
handle something trivial like a cold or the flu later. Right now,
he had to convince Misty not to tell anyone about his mother's
mutation. He desperately tried to think of something to say. It
still hadn't occurred to him that Misty might be frightened of
him because she thought he was a mutant too
"Toge-priii-priii-Togepi-toge?"
[Are you well, Daddy?] the small Pokémon asked.
Ash looked at Togepi in surprise
(partly, due to the fact she was always calling him 'Daddy.')
"Yes. But why you ask?"
"To-to-pi-gepi-Toge-geprii."
[Because you are all red.]
"I'm red because it is too
damn hot today," Ash snapped. He was unaware that it was a
cooler-than-usual autumn day in Cerulean City.
Beside them, Pikachu looked at his
Trainer in worry. All electric-type Pokémon could see the
bio-electric field generated by all life forms. Pikachu was
watching something unlike anything he had ever seen
before. Ash's bio-electric field was changing. It had
begun in a subtle way shortly after Ash's thirteenth birthday and
had suddenly accelerated and gained in strength in the last few
days. Normally the bio-electric field was like a uniform aurora
hugging the skin and extending out about two centimetres like a
kind of St. Elmo's Fire. Ash's bio-electric field now more
closely resembled the sun's corona during a Solar Activity
Maximum. Massive knotted streamers and arcs of bio-electric
energy were surging across Ash's body and flashing up to four or
five metres from his body. Pikachu felt that he should
say something, but he wasn't sure exactly what he was
supposed to say.
Ash sucked in a deep breath,
gathered his courage in both hands and knocked on the door of the
Gym Leader's residence next to the Cascade Gym. The door slammed
open and Lilly Williams leapt out, grabbing him by the shoulders
with a fierce expression. "What did you done to my
sister, Ash Ketchum?" Lilly screamed into his face. Ash
knew fury when he saw it and readied himself for the violence to
start.
"Well... I..." he said
hopelessly.
"Lilly, calm down!"
Daisy ordered, seizing her sister by the back of her dress and
dragging her away from Ash. Daisy looked into the eyes of the boy
with half of her age in a searching way. "Hello, Ash,"
she said calmly. "What can we do for you?"
"Well... I... uh Misty
left Togepi at my house last night. I came to bring her back. I
also wanted to talk with her..."
The oldest of the Sensational
Sisters interrupted him. "Thank you for returning my
sister's Pokémon..." she said. Lilly had already grabbed
Togepi out of Ash's hands and had practically ran into
the Gym's interior. "I'm afraid that you cannot speak to
Misty, though. She left for Violet City three hours ago."
Daisy had changed a lot in the
last few years. She had become a better Trainer and had learnt a
little decorum. After all, a Gym Leader should be the perfect
host to his or her visitors. However, she forgot all of that now
as she considered Misty's horrible emotional state. "Like,
what in the hell did you did to get her so upset, Ash?" she
bit out. "Are you cheating on her with Melody, your friend
on Shamuti Island? Or did you try to push her into going all the
way last night?"
"What? But
I..."
"Save your lies for some
other time," Daisy spat. "Goodbye, Ash Ketchum. Like,
don't come this way again unless you have some official
business." Daisy then closed the door in the face of the
Trainer from Pallet Town. Daisy watched through a window as Ash
stood at the door for some time before he sagged in on himself
unhappily and walked off. As soon as she was sure he was gone,
she breathed out gently and put Gyarados' Pokéball back onto her
belt.
She walked into Misty's bedroom to
find her baby sister hugging Togepi like a drowning person would
hug a life preserver. Tears were streaming down Misty's cheeks
and Lilly was hugging her, crying too as she tried to comfort
her. "Is is he gone?" Misty sobbed.
"Yes." Daisy said
kindly. The Gym Leader shuddered as she heard the utter relief,
bordering on hysterical joy in Misty's sigh when she heard that.
== == == == ==
The boy from Pallet Town was
pacing up and down in front of Pikachu, Charizard, Pidgeot,
Chikorita, Totodile and Kingler in Cousteau Park, just across the
street from the Gym. Ash wasn't sure why he had let them out of
their Pokéballs. As he felt wrong somehow, as if his
skin didn't fit his body anymore and he desperately needed
someone to talk to. "I can't believe that Daisy thinks I
would cheat on Misty," he blurted to his six
friends. Ash didn't mention Daisy's other accusation. Even the thought
of trying to force himself on Misty was anathema to him.
Ash covered his face for a moment
and tried to think. "I've still got to get into the Gym and
talk to Misty," he said. Ash had no doubt that his friend
was inside. He had smelt her distinctive perfume. It had been a
gradual change, one that he hadn't noticed, but he had got very
good at picking up scents, hearing faint sounds and seeing
movement in the dark recently.
Ash sighed and sagged to his
knees. Chikorita walked over and rubbed his face supportively.
Pikachu leapt to his shoulder and then Kingler and Totodile tried
to hug his legs while Pidgeot and Charizard spread their wings
over him like a protective shield. Ash smiled and accepted his
friends' implicit confidence and support. If only I didn't
feel so tired, he thought.
== == == == ==
The afternoon was just turning
into evening when Daisy and Lilly left the Cascade Gym to attend
a disciplinary hearing against a Trainer accused of Pokémon
Abuse being held at the Cerulean City Pokémon Center. They were
locking the doors as Misty was left behind alone.
Before they left, they gave a last
glance at the Gym. "Like, do you think is a good idea?"
"Come on, Lilly," Daisy
said with, rolling her eyes. "We will only be gone for half
an hour at most. Like, what could happen?"
Above them, a Pidgeot alighted on
the roof of the Gym. The shadow of a boy jumped off, followed by
a Pikachu. Pikachu fired off a small electric shock, shorting out
the alarms around the window. Ash released Kingler and the
crab-like water-type began to tear at the glazier's putty around
the windowpane. In less than a minute, Ash was able to prize the
glass out of the frame and make a stealthy entrance to the Gym.
== == == == ==
Misty walked through the darkened
building, responding to a malfunction warning on the main alarm
control panel. Suddenly, noticed someone hidden in the shadows,
close to window. Feeling a tremendous terror, she screamed a
challenge at the shadow. "Who are you? What are you doing
here?"
"Calm down, Misty! It's
me!"
Misty was instantly paralysed. She
had recognised the pleading voice. "A Ash?"
Ash left the shadows. His face was
flushed; the collar of his blue jacket was open. His eyes were
shadowed with fatigue and he was trembling slightly as if he had
a fever. Seeing this, Misty came to a conclusion that was both
supremely correct and completely wrong. He is changing. He is
becoming a monster, just like his mother! was Misty's
terrified thought.
"Misty, I only
wanted..."
She didn't let him to finish.
Screaming, she ran down the empty corridor in direction of the
Gym's fighting arena.
Ash stood alone for a moment,
looking at Pikachu's sarcastic smile. "Great idea,
Ash," he said to himself in reprimand.
When Ash arrived at the Arena, he
flipped a switch to turn on some of the lights. When Ash looked
up, he almost fainted in utter terror. Misty was standing on one
of the beams supporting the roof, trying to reach one of the
skylights. "Misty! What are you DOING UP THERE?!?" he
shouted.
Misty either didn't hear or didn't
want to respond. Ash ran for the service ladder leading to the
roof area. When he emerged from the inspection trap just a few
metres from Misty, she screamed in terror. "Don't come near
me, you... you alien!" Misty began to run down the
narrow beam. She tripped on one of the brackets attaching the
beam to the roof and tumbled out into the air, 50 feet above a
cold, unyielding concrete floor.
"PI-CHU!" [MISTY!]
"MISTY! NOOO!"
Ash's scream echoed through the empty gym, as Misty fell, her
arms and legs pin-wheeling helplessly against the air. Then she
struck the floor, and the sound of her bones breaking was the most
terrible sound than Ash heard in the life. Ash was unaware
of anything as he slid down the ladder and ran over to his
friend's broken body (his girlfriend's body his innermost
self could admit that now). Pikachu, crying in terror, was
already beside her.
"Misty... no
please, God..." Ash gasped, tears streaming down his
cheeks. Misty's back, neck and all four of her limbs were broken,
the broken ends of her bones poking through tears in her flesh
and she was bleeding freely from every orifice. Her eyes were
glazed and, as Ash tried to feel the pulse in her neck, he could
somehow feel the life draining out of her limp body.
Misty was murmuring something, but Ash was in no fit state to
hear, even if what she was saying were coherent words, which was
unlikely. "Misty what have I done?"
Ash cried out. "Please please don't die! Misty,
please stay"
Misty gasped one last time and
then her chest stopped moving. Her eyes were utterly blank and
lifeless now, her pupils fully dilated. Ash screamed in horror
and denial. "NOOO! MISTYYYY! COME BACK! PLEASE!" Half
insane with grief and drawn by some instinct he didn't
understand, Ash grabbed Misty's shoulders and pressed his
forehead to her clammy cheek, desperately trying to will
the life back into her body. Then something happened; something
impossible; something... wonderful.
A gentle electric blue glow
appeared around Ash's body and spread over Misty's still form.
Ash stiffened and gasped in pain. His skin began to writhe, his
arteries and veins standing out stiffly. Blood began to flow from
Ash's nose and mouth. There was a deep electric hum and the
lights in the Arena seemed to grow brighter. As Pikachu watched,
too afraid to even move, he saw his Trainer's limbs fracture,
bone snapping and punching out through his flesh, as Misty's
bones healed and her wounds closed up. Misty's neck and back
suddenly slid back into place as Ash's neck suddenly dropped
limply to one side at an unnatural angle. Somehow, Ash's body was
absorbing Misty's injuries.
Three of the lights exploded with
a loud bang. Misty gasped in a breath and her eyes were once
again filled with life and awareness. The blue glow faded and
Ash's body slumped to one side of Misty, barely breathing with
blood pouring from every orifice. He was on the verge of death.
Misty looked around her in confusion and saw him. She screamed,
covering her mouth in horror. "Ash! NO! Please
don't don't die! How how could this happen?"
As the girl and the Pokémon
looked on, Ash's back and neck straightened. His wounds were
slowly closing up and his bones were re-setting themselves. His
breathing grew stronger and the light of life and awareness in
his eyes became brighter
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Review!
To be continued...
