The Omega Mutation

by Joshua Falken

Ash Ketchum discovers a terrible secret about his mother... a secret that threatens destroy his family and friends... Chapter 18 is up! Fic completed!

16. The Final Showdown

The Omega Mutation
by Joshua Falken

Thanks to BenRG for beta read this chapter :-D

---

Chapter 16 - The Final Showdown

During the night, four winged forms, a Charizard, a Dragonite, a Crobat and a Fearow, landed close to the Orange Islands Pokémon Research Laboratory. From them, five people and three Pokémon dismounted: Ash (with Pikachu and Chikorita), Misty, Brock, Jessie and James (with Meowth). Quietly, they crept up to the fence that protected the complex. They saw a helicopter behind the building. There was certainly somebody 'at home.' James was about to cut the wire with pliers when Ash stopped him.

"What's wrong?" the blue-haired young man asked, surprised.

"Just this." The boy from Pallet Town threw a branch at the fence. The electricity immediately destroyed it.

"Meowth! Isn't it enough dat we get Thunderbolted by da Twoip's Pikachu all da time?" The feline Pokémon immediately shut up when he saw the upset looks he received from the rest of the group.

"It seems that Professor Ivy made some home improvements..." Ash said.

"My turn, Ash." Brock said, releasing his Geodude. "Geodude, use Dig to tunnel under the fence."

When the group emerged on the other side, Jessie asked, when seeing that Ash seemed to be smelling the air.

"What now?"

"There are two... no, three people inside of the building." He announced, surprising them. "Two of them are Cassidy and Butch, I remember the smell of Cassidy's cheap perfume... Butch always reeks of cigarettes, thanks to that forty-a-day habit of his. There is also somebody using a perfume with the smell of wood and violet..."

"It's Professor Ivy's perfume." Brock informed, but didn't give more details, even with the curious glances of his colleagues.

"Brock, do you know the layout of the laboratory well?" Misty asked.

"Of course!"

"Good, it's better we capture them fast because they are installing explosives in the building." Ash informed, surprising them, as soon as Brock finished explaining the interior of the laboratory. "Well, this is what we will do..."

Some minutes later, Prof. Ivy has just copied the last files to a DVD-ROM before turning off the computer. Now no file on the Project Omega was in that machine. "I should have erased these files a long time ago!", she thought, reprehending herself. But proud as she was, she had not convince herself to erase the records of her best and more powerful creation...

"Are you finished now?" a feminine voice asked.

The violet-haired woman lifted the eyes and saw Cassidy's cold eyes.

"Yes, I'm finished."

"Great, now let's go!"

'Who does that idiot think that she was to give me orders?' The geneticist thought angrily. Even so, she obeyed. "Where is your partner?" she asked.

"Butch is finishing placing the explosive charges." Cassidy answered.

What the terrorist didn't know was that on that exact moment Butch was trying defend himself from a Smokescreen Attack from James's Weezing. He had got a Pokéball when he was struck by a Thundershock from Ash's Pikachu, leaving him unconscious. Naturally, he didn't answer Cassidy's summons on through his walkie-talkie.

"Butch! Answer me, Butch!" Cassidy called him impatiently. "Did you already finish installing the charges?"

Noticing that something was wrong, the terrorist ordered that Ivy stayed in the office and she went until where was Butch, releasing her Raticate on the way. She opened the door that took until the basement of the building.

"Butch!" she yelled to the dark enclosure, but she didn't hear any answer.

She tried turn on the light but the switch didn't seem to work. Holding her gun, she slowly went down the stairway. When she was in the half of the descent, something seized her weapon, pulling it from her hands. Cassidy gasped in instinctive fear and turned towards her Raticate...

"Pikachu, Thunderbolt!"

"Starmie, Hydro-Pump!"

"Raticate, Agility!" Cassidy ordered, but it was too much late: the combined attack knocked out the Normal Pokémon. Then from the middle of the darkness, a Meowth attacked her with its' Fury Swipes. The terrorist and Pokémon that attacked her fell downstairs. Immediately, Cassidy felt that was entangled by Vine Whips before two persons tied her and placed her near somebody also tied.

"Meowth, are you Ok?" a woman's voice asked. Cassidy knew that voice well too much...

"Of course I am!" The Pokémon answered. A talking Meowth? Then it had to be...

The basement's lights were turned on. It revealed the situation in that she and Butch were: their arms and legs were tied with insulation tape, and they were without their Pokémon and without their weapons. They were watched by five people: Ash Ketchum, Misty Williams, Brock Harrsion, Jessie Gibson (or rather, Darkholme) and James Morgan. Cassidy immediately turned to her most hated rival:

"Your traitor! Wait until the Boss finds out about this!"

The redhead walked over sensually and leaned forward to look into Cassidy's burning, hate-filled eyes from as close as she could get. She spoke in the coldest voice than the blond terrorist had heard from her. "Cassidy, dear, I don't give a damn for what the Boss knows and he doesn't!" Jessie then gagged Cassidy's mouth with insulating tape. "And now?"

"We will find Professor Ivy. Meowth, stay here and watch those two." Ash said.

"Meowth!" Meowth exclaimed angry. "Who do you think that you are to give me orders?"

"Meowth, do what he said!" Jessie and James ordered in stereo. The cat Pokémon sweatdropped and proceeded to sulk as the humans walked off.

The group went up the stairway in direction of the main offices. Brock had said that was the most probable local for the Team Rocket geneticist to stay. Ash knew that that was true because her perfume was more and more strong... Meanwhile, Professor Ivy noticed that the delay of Cassidy was not normal. She liberated a Marill, that immediately informed her that a team of people and Pokmon came in her direction. The geneticist got ready for her "guests".

When the five Pokémon Trainers entered in the offices of Orange Islands Pokémon Research Labs, they were greeted by several Machamps ready for the fight. While they fought with the Pokémon, Ivy ran down the corridor leading to the courtyard and her helicopter. Butch and Cassidy's bad luck didn't affect her!

But Misty saw her escaping.

"Ash, Ivy is going away!"

"Ah, she won't escape!" Brock exclaimed. "Onyx, go after her!" He released the Rock Pokmon Snake, that began to pursue Ivy through the Laboratory. Ash and Brock went after the criminal geneticist, while Misty, Jessie and James defeated the rest of Machamps.

"Onyx, Dig attack!"

The Rock Pokémon immediately punched into the ground and, moments later exploded under Ivy's feet, before she arrived in the exit of the building. Ash threw from his wrists a jet of Spinarak's Web that grabbed the geneticist immediately, but he forgot about the web retraction; Ivy flew back towards the young heroes and they had to duck to avoid her as she soared through the air. There was a sickening 'crack' as Ivy hit a structural column head-on and was knocked senseless.

"Ash... how...?"

"I'll explain later, Brock. Now help me!" Ash said, lifting the violet-haired woman from where she had fallen.

It was some minutes before Ivy regained consciousness and found herself bound to a chair. Before her was the Champion of the Global League of this year and the son of Omega, Ash Ketchum. Having very few options, the woman immediately tried bluster. "Do you have any idea what you are doing? Do you know who I am?"

Ash smiled in a way that conveyed no warmth whatsoever. "I know who you are very well, Professor Ivy. You were who directed the experiment that transformed my mother in what she is now, into Omega."

"You can't prove that!"

Ash's cold expression didn't alter. "Yes, we can. Actually, the Pokémon League and the Security Police already know all about it." It was a bluff, but Ivy could not be sure of that. "But perhaps they could be persuaded to be a little more lenient in deciding your punishment if you say where my mother is."

Ivy laughed, hiding her fear behind defiance. "So, you want to sign my own imprisonment order? No, thank you. Besides, do you think that those bumbling bureaucrats and second-rate policemen could stand in the way of Team Rocket now?" She gave Ash a malicious smile. "Besides, this way I can take advantage again of your mother's 'special talents'."

Ash was confused for one moment, then he understood the implication of Ivy's smile. His face became red with rage. "You..."

Ivy laughed scornfully. "What did you expect? Considering the fame that your mother had in Team Rocket, it was natural that the more adventurous of them would take the opportunity to use her to have a little 'fun'..."

Ivy didn't have any notion of the danger she was in. That was the last tiny straw for Ash: he lost control. With a scream of rage his fists began to crackle with earth-type energy and the boy slammed his fist into the wall beside Ivy's head. The boy's fist went through the wall without even slowing down. Everybody was terrified; they could see that now the part of Omega in Ash had taken control of his actions.

"Ash!"

"Ash, stop it!"

"If you don't want that the same thing to happen to your head," Ash threatened without caring. "Tell me where my mother is!"

"Ash, no!"

"Control yourself!"

"Let me go!" Ash screamed at Brock and James as the two men tried to drag the boy away from the pale-faced and trembling Professor Ivy. Ash was too out-of-control to notice what was happening in the side room. Two Electabuzz materialised and generated Thunderwave attacks, creating a pulsating electrical barrier separating the young friends from Professor Ivy and the two Rockets guiding the Pokémon.

"Butch and Cassidy!"

"Exactly." The blonde woman affirmed as she and her partner cut the last of the ropes binding the geneticist to the chair. "Good-bye!"

The two Rocket agents and the scientist fled. While Ash, Misty and Brock fought against the two Electabuzz, Jessie and James ran after Butch, Cassidy and Ivy. When the former Rocket agents reached them, the fleeing trio was already in the helicopter, which was lifting into the air.

"Now, what you deserve, your traitors!" Cassidy screamed. The blonde woman jumped out of her seat and swung up the M60 machine gun mounted in one of the side doors and began to fire at Jessie and James. 7.62mm ammunition spat divots of dirt into the air as Cassidy 'walked' the machinegun across the yard towards her two most hated enemies. Jessie, acting on instinct, shoulder-charged James and knocked him aside just as the bullets reached their range. Six ugly, blood-red holes opened up in the front of her shirt, knocking her backwards and to the ground. "JESSIE! NO!" James screamed.

Ash, Misty and Brock ran out of the laboratory at the exact moment that Butch activated the demolition charges. The whole lab building blew apart, throwing everybody in the grounds of the building into the air. Cassidy gave a cry of glee at the scene. Today would be one that she would long remember with pleasure.

As the helicopter faded into the distance, Ash rose, shaking his head. He had recovered his senses. He looked around him: aside from the dust of the demolition and burned clothes his human friends were all well. Pikachu looked okay too, if a little dazed from the concussion of the explosion...

The situation of his cousin was totally different. James tried help her, but her injuries were fatal and no normal human aid could save her. Ash knew what he had to do.

"Hold her still, James," he said, pulling off his gloves.

"Be careful, Ash!" Misty understood what Ash was planning to do. Brock, for his part, didn't understand. What was Ash planning?

The boy from Pallet Town cradled his cousin's face in his hands. The veins in his face began to stand out. His white T-shirt began to be stained red from blood, at the same time the bullet holes in Jessie's chest closed up. When the last wound was healed, Ash collapsed, writhing in pain. Jessie, completely recovered, looked around herself in surprise.

Misty caught Ash as the boy collapsed and dropped to her knees, holding the frighteningly limp form to her chest. As Jessie, James and Meowth looked on, the wounds on Ash's chest began to heal as completely as if they had never happened...

======

As the Team Rocket helicopter returned to its base on Black Island, another helicopter approached the heliport on the roof of the UN Defense Forces headquarters in Viridian City. Awaiting its arrival, were Generals Williams and Heisenberg and an honour guard of soldiers.

"Who do you think the Security Council sent?" Heisenberg asked her colleague.

"I don't know," Williams replied. He silently begged the Powers that it not be Robertson! If that guy had to take the decision, Indigo Island would be Ground Zero!

The helicopter landed and from it exited a white-haired man, wearing a brown business suit. His face had the marks of cunning and of a lack of scruples that marked him as a professional politician...

Oh no...

Gerald Robertson walked over to the two Generals, wearing a superior smile. Heisenberg decided to take the initiative when she noticed the terrible mood of her comrade-in-arms.

"Welcome to Indigo, Mr. Robertson!" She yelled over the noise of the helicopter.

"Thank you, General Heisenberg, General Williams!"

The two generals and the representative of Security Council went down to the War Room. When they arrived, Robertson's first question was: "Was the UNNS Kraken contacted?"

Both generals noticed that he didn't ask about Omega or if the cities were being evacuated... "Like all of our missile subs, the Kraken was running deep under the polar ice pack." Heisenberg informed, after a moment of silence. "We sent an ULF radio message and we are waiting for her to come shallow to copy new operational orders through her main Sat Com mast."

'I need tell Misty and Ash!' Williams thought. 'But how?'

======

Meanwhile, in the deeps of the Arctic Ocean, an alarm sounded in the communication center of UNNS Kraken. Lieutenant Eric Ryan immediately transcribed the message and took it to Captain Damir Ramius. The young Lithuanian's eyes bulged out.

"Lieutenant Ryan, take us out from under the ice pack and have Navigation plot a high-speed course to our Pacific Ocean firing station." The submarine's first lieutenant nodded his understanding as Captain Ramius turned to a communications panel. "C-in-C, Captain," he said as he pressed a button. He continued without waiting for the Officer of the Deck's response. "Derek, take us shallow and prep the SSIXB mast. We are about to receive new operational orders." Unconsciously, so much the captain as his second-in-command took the hand until his chest, feeling the metallic key.

The key that launched the missiles armed with quantum weapons.

Sixteen hours to the deadline.

======

A helicopter landed at the Team Rocket base on Black Island. Butch and Cassidy accompanied Prof. Ivy down to the heavily-guarded laboratories of Project Omega. Their live weapon floated in the liquid of its containment chamber, its eyes shut. The two Black Rockets had not forget the humiliation that her son had inflicted on them on Valencia Island...

Cassidy went over to the console in a nearby booth that controlled the security cameras in the laboratories. With the skill of long practice, Cassidy set up a feedback loop that ensured the cameras simply showed an empty chamber; Now, no one would know what they were about to do... other than the participants. The two agents then went to a locked cabinet and took out vials of a green fluid - an inhibitor for the fear pheromones that Omega produced naturally. While they injected the inhibitor in their blood, Ivy looked at them in confusion.

"What are you two doing?" she asked neutrally.

"I am just going to discipline our rogue agent," Cassidy answered icily, "and also get a little payback for how her son treated us on Valencia Island. Now take her out of that overgrown pickling jar!"

Ivy considered the look in Cassidy's eyes for a moment before shrugging. What did she care anyway? Omega was nearly impossible to injure physically and any psychological damage was completely irrelevant given the fact that her conscious brain processes were completely overridden by the control necklace. Ivy pressed a few switches on a nearby control panel and a robot arm folded out, pulling Omega out of the containment chamber and depositing her on the floor in front of Butch and Cassidy. The mutant woman's blind eyes suddenly acquired the shine of awareness, even though her body could not move. Much to her confusion, she noticed that her pain sensory nerves were active. What was going on?

Butch and Cassidy ordered Ivy to leave the laboratory. After her departure, they walked over to Omega with sadistic smiles on their faces. Then Cassidy punched the face of the mutant woman with all her strength. Omega went down in a heap. The neural control necklace prevented her from reacting - she was defenseless.

Butch and Cassidy began to beat her, resolved to taking revenge for what she did with them in Pallet Town. After half hour of torture, Delilah Ketchum was face down on the ground, every part of her body in agonising pain.

Suddenly, her dulled senses snapped into full awareness when she noticed how Cassidy's hand was touching her back... it was a caress. The blond Rocket whispered in a surprisingly gentle tone: "You know, Mrs. Ketchum... for a 51 year-old mutant freak, your body is very beautiful... very beautiful."

Terror flared up in Delilah's mind. Yes, she knew very well what these two intended... they could not make that any clearer. A lonely tear ran down her cheek as she wished more than anything else that she could close her eyes.

======

Misty Williams had rested Ash's head in her lap. The boy was lying very still, his eyes closed. His body was still recovering from healing Jessie's gunshot wounds, besides the wounds that he had suffered himself. Due to the Omega Factor, Ash could tolerate that, but everything together was too much for him to deal with and stay conscious.

Meanwhile, Jessie, James and Brock watched the unconscious boy with their eyes bulging out in shock and amazement. Jessie, especially, continued examining her chest, poking her fingers through the blood-splattered holes in her shirt and still unable to believe that Ash had... Meowth, who had escaped the destruction of the laboratories through an air duct, couldn't understand why his colleagues were staring at Ash in such a strange way.

At that moment that Ash began to scream in a blood-freezing way and began to writhe crazily. It was as if he were being tortured!

"Ash, what is happening?" Misty cried out in fear.

Ash didn't reply. Instead, he lunged out of Misty's embrace and raced off through the wreckage of the laboratories, still screaming like a lost soul.

"ASH!"

"PIKA-PI!"

The four humans ran after him. Brock and James caught up with Ash in seconds, but when they grabbed his arms, the smaller boy threw them off in a superhuman demonstration of strength, more due to instinct than in any kind of conscious attempt to attack them. Misty and Jessie grabbed Pokéballs off of their belts, but it was not necessary: Ash's scream died in his throat and he collapsed.

"Has he fainted?" The redhead asked, confused. Behind her, James and Brock got up, with their bodies aching. For such a young person, Ash was very strong!

"No..." Misty murmured. She noticed what was happening. He was crying... The former Gym Leader slowly approached Ash and touched his shoulder. She was shocked at the expression of pain on her boyfriend's face. "Ash...?"

"They hurt her, Misty..."

"What do you mean?"

"Team Rocket hurt my mother." Then, once again, the combined price of the use of so much power, both offensive and regenerative, took their toll and Ash blacked out.

======

"What are you doing?" An angry woman's voice asked in a shriek.

Butch and Cassidy rose from Omega's fallen body, and they saw Domino whose face was pale with fury and disgust. Butch was terrified but his partner pulled herself up defiantly. "Just talking with our agent," Cassidy answered, without even a blink of remorse.

Domino looked at the sexual residues all over Omega's body and had to sternly control herself to stop herself from being sick. She grabbed Cassidy's uniform tunic from the floor and threw it at the half-naked blonde woman. "Get dressed and get out of here!" Domino ordered, her face twisted with disgust.

Cassidy laughed mockingly as she walked past the younger woman. "Jealous," she lisped sensually. "You only want to have your own 'quality time' with everyone's favourite freak don't you.?" At that point, Domino punched Cassidy hard in the gut and the older woman folded double. Butch grabbed his coughing and moaning partner and dragged her out of the laboratory.

As soon as the two Black Rockets were out of the chamber, Domino could release her tension. She dropped to a chair next to the eerily immobile Omega, shuddering. Only the nearly-hypnotic flow of fluids within the strange creature reassured the young woman that Butch and Cassidy's 'conversation' had not resulted in the destruction of the Organization's prize asset. Domino found it hard to believe that Butch and Cassidy had found the courage to... No, of course, that was wrong. Those two creatures had only dared to do this because they knew that their victim could not fight back. This was an act of cowardice, not courage. The only reason that Domino hadn't arrested them right now was that the Boss would ask why, and would probably also order Domino's arrest for her negligence when he found out what had been happening.

Domino noted that Omega was trying to get back to her feet. Feeling an empathy that she never expected to feel for what was, after all, essentially an organic weapon, Domino helped Omega to stand. There was no emotion in the creature's expression, but there was something in its eyes. Domino shook her head. "Wait here and I will return you to the containment chamber," she instructed. Omega nodded in a robot-like manner and came to a parade rest posture.

"I will probably have to increase the level of restorative chemicals in the chamber," another voice added. Domino whirled to see that Professor Ivy, had returned to the laboratory and was at the control panel of the containment chamber. With the speed and fluidity of long practice, the geneticist returned her creation to the containment chamber.

"Ivy, have you gone mad?" Domino shouted. "You must have known what those two were planning! How could you leave them to it?"

The scientist's answer was delivered in a defensive tone, although she clearly wasn't about to condone Butch and Cassidy's lowbrow attempt at revenge. "Well, I didn't really think it was important," she replied. "After all, she has performed that service for Madame Boss a number of times..."

"That doesn't matter!" Domino screamed, disturbed by the completely matter-of-fact tone the violet-haired woman was using. "Madame Boss has been dead for over a decade! If the current Boss discovers what you allowed to happen, we both could end up dead! Omega is Giovanni's own, personal tool and is to be used at his command and at no other time! Do you understand?"

Ivy shrugged; She clearly didn't care very much one way or the other. "Yes, Domino."

The terrorist breathed deeply, trying to restore her facade of professionalism; she could not show any weakness. "I don't know why he cares so much about this," she sighed.. "Omega is just a weapon, right? I don't know why he didn't want us to capture her son as well." And with that, Domino left the laboratory.

Ivy looked at her creation expressionlessly. She believed she knew why Giovanni didn't want to capture Ash Ketchum. Madame Boss had personally provided the sperm sample that was used to induce the pregnancy in Agent Omega that resulted in Ash Ketchum. The old woman had never told Ivy the donor, but Ivy had her suspicion of who it was... She wondered if Giovanni had wondered the same thing. Ivy looked at Omega again, thoughtfully and entertained herself by thinking what could be learnt from a proper examination of a second-generation Omega mutant...

======

It was the beginning of the afternoon in Viridian City. What was an already abnormal afternoon for 8 million people changed completely when a siren sounded throughout the entire city. All the people stopped to listen to it, confused and afraid. It was something that they would only expect to hear in case of natural disaster or war... something that they never really expect to hear in their lives...

It was the Evacuation Alarm of Kanto Region's civil defence agency.

They had fifteen hours to the deadline.

======

Ash Ketchum opened his eyes and looked around himself in confusion... Where was he? He shook his head. It was not the time to think about that! He had to save his mother! He tried to get up, but he was still very weak. He ended up falling off the bed and the resulting uproar summoned some company. The door of the room opened up and Pikachu, Chikorita, Misty and Professor Oak ran in.

"Ash, are you Ok?" Prof. Oak asked, while Misty, Chikorita and Pikachu all hugged Ash, who nearly asphyxiated as a result.

"Guys..." he gasped out.

"Oh! Excuse me, Ash!" Misty exclaimed, releasing him from her death-grip hug.

"Air! Air good!" Ash asked as Professor Oak began to examine Ash's state. The boy shoved the old man aside and tried to stand. Professor Oak and Pikachu stopped him. "Let me go! I have to go save my mother!" he screamed.

"Ash, you can't help her if you aren't well!" Prof. Oak replied sternly.

"You don't understand, Professor!" Ash was visibly trembling. "Team Rocket is hurting my mother! They are beating her! They are..." Ash swallowed his nausea, unable to even find the words for the images that had appeared in his mind.

The researcher could not understand what was happening. He measured his words carefully. "How can you be sure of that, Ash? We still don't know..."

"I SAW IT!" Ash yelled, in a tone of despair. "I saw what they are doing to her!"

The room was in silence. Samuel Oak finally understood. The old man sat back. "Perhaps you did, at that lad," he replied at last. Many species of Pokémon had telepathic links between parent and child that lasted until adulthood, indeed some speculated that this naturally occurred in humans too, but seeing what was happening to the other?

Meanwhile, Brock, Jessie and James entered in the room, alerted by the noise. "How long was I sleeping?" Ash ground out.

"Twelve hours," Misty replied.

Ash couldn't believe it; he had lost twelve hours? "What happened?" His mind was a blank.

Misty told him everything that had happened in Valencia Island.

"I don't understand it!" Brock exclaimed. "I tied them with ten loops of duct tape!"

"They probably cut da tape with da scissors." Meowth answered.

"And where did they get a scissors?" Jessie snarled.

"In da drawer of the table that was in da basement," the cat-Pokmon replied, seeming a bit embarrassed.

"And how they could reach there when they were tied up?" Misty's tone was a honey-edged one of menace that made Brock remember why he lived in terror of redheads.

"Maybe Cassidy's Raticate recovered when Meowth went to get a snack and got them for her."

Before anyone else could reply, Jessie and James simultaneously pounded Meowth on the head with all their strength. "IDIOT!" Jessie roared. She pulled out a pair of Pokéballs. "I've had enough of you! Arbok, Seviper!"

Before Jessie could unleash her two snake-Pokémon to punish a cowering Meowth, Tracey entered and spoke in neutral tone. "Ash... I think you will want to answer this call this phone call."

The boy from Pallet Town walked into Professor's living room and saw who was on the screen of the videophone. He could not help being surprised. "Mr. Williams?"

Misty's surprise was no less. "Daddy?"

"Misty?" Then the man in the uniform of the UNDF shook his head and he looked at Ash. "Ash, something has happened that I must inform you. It is regarding your mother." He was practically breaking all the security laws of UNDF - enough to guarantee a court martial and life sentence - just for making this call. But he was a man first and he could not let what seemed inevitable just happen without first warning his daughter and her boyfriend...

"What happened?" Misty asked.

"Team Rocket sent an ultimatum to the United Nations: If United Nations do not surrender the control of the Kanto Region for them in the next three hours and fifteen minutes, Team Rocket will send Omega to destroy each city of the region, beginning with Viridian City."

A horrified silence greeted that terrible news.

"Meowth!..." Meowth murmured.

"That explains the evacuation alarm in Viridian..." Tracey commented.

"It gets worse," the general continued. "The Security Council gave clear instructions to stop your mother, Ash, at any price... Including the use of quantum weapons."

Now General Williams's listeners passed from horror to a state of total shock. Professor Oak finally recovered enough to reply. "Quantum weapons? Are you talking about the same type of weapon that the old USAF Space Command used to completely destroy that comet that threatened to hit the Earth back in 2042?"

"The same," Williams confirmed. "And they have been developed to an even greater destructive potential since."

Ash opened and closed his mouth in silence sometimes before he found his voice.

"But... General Williams... the only reason my mother is working for Team Rocket is because their Control Necklace! If she managed get rid of it..."

Williams looked at Ash with pity. "Ash, I understand that, but as member of the UN Defense Forces, I cannot risk the life of at least 8 million people. I just can't."

Ash understood the reason of the phone call. Misty's father was warning him to prepare for hearing of his mother's death. "Thank you for calling me, Mr. Williams."

"I'm sorry, Ash." The connection was ended.

"But... they can't do that! Can they?"

"Yes, they can, Tracey." Ash answered without taking his eyes from the now blank screen. "Remember that, from their point of view, it is the life of eight million people against one." He rose suddenly. "And that means that I have less than three hours to rescue my mother."

"But Ash, we don't know where she is." Misty protested. "How you will find her?"

"in the traditional way: looking for!" Ash snapped.

"Hey, wait an instant!" James exclaimed. "Now I remember! The ID code on the helicopter! It was for the Black Island base!"

"Of course!" Jessie exclaimed. "That is easily the most secure base the Organization has! The Boss must have had the project laboratories moved there!"

"Meowth! And you remember that only now, twelve hours later?" The cat Pokémon asked, but nobody paid attention to him.

"Then let's go!" And Ash was already running to the door when Jessie seized his arm.

"Slow down, Ash! You won't find the base without me and James. And even if you get in there, how do you intend to stop Omega for long enough to remove the control necklace?"

For that, Ash didn't have an answer.

"I think can help with that. Wait for me here." Oak murmured, feeling that now the time had arrived to see if what he had learned about the biology of Omega would not be in vain. He left the room for some minutes and returned with three objects in the hands.

"Ash, when I saw your mother for the first time, I thought that she was an unknown type of Pokémon, and a seriously ill one at that - therefore I captured her in this Pokéball. And I believe that she still had the ID-transponder inside of her." Oak gave the Master-type Pokéball to Ash. "If, IF, your mother is very weak, perhaps the Master Ball could contain her, but I can't say for sure if it will work." The researcher sighed. Then he handed over a great spray bottle, like a small fire extinguisher. "Delilah asked that I develop a tranquilliser strong enough to knock her out if she was out of control, due to compatibility problems with the similar of the Serum that I developed. This is it, but its effects are very short-term, and I don't believe that the disorientation that this cause will last a long time so long as the control necklace is delivering commands to her brain." Then he handed over, a vaccination pistol loaded with a red liquid. Just doing so made him feel a traitor. "This would be your last resort: this vaccination pistol is loaded with a dose of AO-X. The load is nearly a lethal dose, but isn't quite. Hopefully, it won't kill Delilah, but it will leave her in a very seriously weakened state."

"Thank you, Professor Oak." Ash understood the reasons the white-haired man had done this, but honestly he didn't know if he would have the courage to pull the trigger... He went back to Jessie.

"Do you know how we can get into in that base on Black Island?"

"Yes, I have an idea that can work."

Ash nodded. "Then let's go!" The five humans left for the Black Island. Professor Oak, Tracey, Mondo and Meowth exchanged glances. The only thing that they could be sure was that in three hours they would know the end of the story.

======

"Was Viridian City completely evacuated?" Williams asked.

"Yes, General!" A lieutenant answered. "The first evacuation transports should be arriving in Fuchsia City at this moment, sir."

"And about the neighbouring cities?"

"Pallet Town and Pewter City were also evacuated, but Celadon City's population is still being moved, sir."

He looked at again to the central screen of the War Room. Several concentric circles surrounded Viridian City. Other circles surrounded Celadon City, Fuchsia City, Vermilion City and Saffron City.

"Are the troops in their positions?"

"Yes, General."

"And the BrightEye?"

"The control codes have been transferred to our system, Kent." Heisenberg answered. "And it is being configured for a tight beam attack."

"Good!"

Williams' subordinate seemed to have her doubts. "Kent, are you sure of this? Even on the narrowest beam setting, the electromagnetic pulse will burn out every electronic system for a dozen miles in every direction..."

"I am aware of that, Mercedes. But you should remember that if we need to use the quantum bomb, the damage from an EMP will be the smallest of the problems facing us."

"Sure... but, Kent, who can guarantee that that will work against Omega?"

"I think that it deserves a chance, if it can avoid our having to use our final option." It was Ash's comment about the Control Necklace that inspired Williams to try a desperate alternative: to reach Omega with all the energy of the BrightEye Orbital Cannon. The BrightEye was a product of the United States of America's obsession with ballistic missile defense in the first decade of the 21st century. Basically a gigantic cluster of Tesla Coils mounted on a series of electromagnetic wave-guides that focussed their combined power into a single massive electrostatic discharge. The theory behind the weapon was that it could potentially disable hundreds of nuclear ballistic missile warheads while they were still far from their target. However, the weapon was never intended to be used on a target smaller than several dozen square kilometres. And no-one had ever planned turning it towards the Earth itself... However, Williams hoped that power that could have eliminated a Cold War first strike with a single shot could, if properly focussed, disable the TR control collar and allow Ash's mother to regain control of her own actions.

"Then, that is the plan is it, General? Hide Kanto's civilian population and strike at Omega with everything what we have, even knowing that that won't work?" asked a sardonic voice from the corner of the War Room.

Williams breathed in deeply, trying to calm down. "Mr. Robertson, considering the power of Omega, that is the only possible strategy. And we cannot take a risk the use of nuclear or quantum armaments in the Kanto Region unless it is really necessary." General Williams pointed for the central screen with the map of Indigo. "See! If Team Rocket attacks from the west, we will have freedom of action... they attack from the north, there are Pewter City and the Icy Mountains. At the south, Pallet Town and Cinnabar Island. But if Omega attacks from the east, we will have to consider the presence of Celadon, Cerulean, Vermilion and Saffron! A mistake can cost the lives of millions of people!"

The representative of Security Council didn't seem impressed with the possible catastrophe." More than the life of the possible victims of Omega?" he asked.

Williams didn't answer. He just continued to take care of his troops... and pray for a miracle.

======

A TR jeep travelled down a hidden highway in the forest. On it, a group of five people was in silence. The car stopped in front of a wall watched by a group of armed Dan'in.

"Halt! Identify yourself!"

The driver removed his cap and dark glasses, revealing lavender-coloured hair and green eyes. He calmly handed over a smart card to the lead guard. "I'm bringing new recruits," he said in a bored tone of voice.

The guard swiped the card through a reader and read James's retina with a laser-device that confirmed the man's identity as a White Rocket field agent. The guards opened the hidden door and the jeep entered in an underground tunnel. The three recruits on rear bench seat of the jeep stared around them at the tunnel and the gigantic underground garage with surprise.

"Incredible!" The girl in the back commented.

"Impressive, isn't it?" The woman beside James commented, winking at the girl. "Now you know why we boasted of being part of Team Rocket."

The trio of 'recruits' removed their dark glasses, revealing Ash, Misty and Brock, disguised as Team Rocket cadets. Ash threw aside a blanket, revealing Pikachu, who immediately jumped to his friend's shoulder.

"I can't believe that we got in here so easily!"

"Cassidy and Butch's arrogance helped us," James explained. "As they were sure that we were dead, they didn't think it necessary to cancel our access or even bother to tell anyone of our 'deaths'."

The five heroes began to walk stealthily through the corridors in direction of where the Project Omega's Laboratories should be. "I only hope that it is not too late..." Ash muttered to the invisible heavens. They had wasted a long time avoiding UNDF patrols! It was in that moment as the group walked around a blind corner, that they essentially collided with Butch and Cassidy. The two Black Rockets recognised their enemies at once, although they did have a little trouble in believing their eyes.

"Jessie!?" Cassidy asked venomously.

"The one and only!"

"James?" Butch, hardly the brightest light in the house, asked in confusion.

"That's right, Botch!"

"Pikachu, Thunderwave!" Ash ordered, and the paralysing attack put the two Rockets on the ground, before they could reach for their weapons.

"Ash, get going! We can take care of these two!" Jessie said to her cousin.

The boy from Pallet Town had to resist a desire to strangle Butch and Cassidy right away - he knew what they had done! - but he would take care of that later... Right now, he had to save his mother! "Okay!" He, Misty and Brock ran through the corridor.

"Now, your traitor..." Cassidy murmured, in an apoplexy of rage. The two Black Rockets grabbed Pokéballs. "Now, I will finish this once and for all!" She released a Sableye and Butch released his Primeape.

"Why you don't talk less, and fight more, dear?" Jessie asked with an ironic smile. "Go Wobbuffet!"

"Go Weezing!" James commanded.

"Sableye, use Shadow Ball!"

"Wobbuffet! Use Reflect!" The Reflect attack doubled the power of the whirling black sphere of ghost-type energy and flashed it right back at Sableye. The impact sent the unearthly ghost/dark-type tumbling backwards. Cassidy didn't care, of course. "Damn it! Get up Sableye and use Confuse Ray!"

"Primeape, use Low Kick!"

"Sludge attack, Weezing!" A jet of toxic chemicals spat into Primeape's eyes, blinding the fighting monkey for a few seconds, making its attack go wide by a comfortable margin.

While the fight continued, Ash, Misty and Brock arrived in front of a great metal door. An inscription in red letters said: Project Omega.

"It's here." Brock murmured.

"Shhh!" Ash hissed, putting his ear to the door. He heard the conversation that happened inside the chamber.

"Domino, is Omega ready?"

"Yes, Boss!"

"Then tell Professor Ivy to release it immediately for its mission!"

"Oh no!" Ash exclaimed.

======

The regenerative fluid was being pumped out of the chamber. Behind a protective pane glass, Domino smiled, imagining the victory of Team Rocket over the UN Defense Forces, when a Hyper Beam attack tore the armoured doors off their rails and tossed them across the room like they were made of paper. Three people in what looked like Team Rocket uniforms rushed in, accompanied by a Geodude, a Politoed, a huge Snorlax and a Pikachu. "What the...?" Domino exclaimed. Seeing the Pikachu, she suddenly realised that the younger male was Omega's son and she understood that he had come to rescue his mother. Well, he would not do it! "Go Electabuzz! Go Slugma!" she commanded, throwing two Pokéballs.

The electric fighter and the fire slug materialised in front of them.

"Ash, rescue your mother!" Brock yelled. "Misty and I will take care of them!"

For one moment, Ash was conflicted between helping his mother and helping his friends, but he saw that Brock was right. He ran over to the containment chamber.

"Geodude, use Mud Slap!" The gym leader from Pewter City, commanded, pointing at Electabuzz.

"Politoed, use Water Gun!" Misty commanded.

"Electabuzz, use Thunderpunch! Use Fire Blast, Slugma!" Brock and Misty were both ready. Geodude blocked the Electabuzz's electrical punch with a hand-full of mud, which went on to slap into the creature's eyes, throwing it end-over-end. The electric-type Pokémon stumbled back and struck a control panel, which began to spit sparks. Half the lights exploded and the others began to flicker dangerously. Politoed's Water Gun extinguished the flames belched out by Slugma, filling the center of the chamber with steam.

At that moment, Omega walked out the chamber, her head snapping from side to side as she quickly absorbed the tactical situation..

"Snorlax, put a Hyper Beam into that chamber!"

The huge bear-like earth-type Pokémon sucked in a breath to launch his attack, but then it was paralysed, able only to stare into the alien, brilliant black-slitted eyes of Omega. He simply couldn't move...

Ash noticed that besides Snorlax, Brock and Misty's Pokémon had also been frightened by his mother's alien nature. Even Domino's Pokémon seemed frozen for a moment. Ash understood what happened: Omega was using Terror to stop them.

"Snorlax, concentrate on my voice! Use Hyper Beam!"

Even before Ash's Pokémon could obey, he was struck in the center of the chest with a powerful Flame-thrower attack, nearly powerful enough to kill even the super-tough Snorlax.

Omega was programmed to destroy anything that stood in the way of her mission, which would normally be simple enough. However, this was not a normal situation. The semi-darkened, fog-filled conditions in the chamber were no real problem for the genetic fighting machine, but Ash, Brock and Misty were all wearing Team Rocket uniforms, making determining friend and foe essentially impossible. Omega's programming, in such situations, was to use non-lethal force to immobilise all combatants. She turned to face Ash, who was the nearest available combatant and, when she tried to launch an attack, a genetic imperative, far more deeply-implanted than any other, stopped her in her tracks. Omega glared at the boy, who stared back at her fearfully, and she noted that his aura was essentially identical to her own.

"Omega!" Giovanni's harsh voice echoed from an intercom panel, breaking the mutual paralysis. "Complete your mission!" Omega shook her head as if she were coming out of a trance and began to glow with power and suddenly emitted an Explosion attack that knocked everyone, hero and villain alike, away from her and hard against the walls of the laboratory chamber (wrecking it in the process). Then, she raised her hands to the roof and launched herself upwards, using a modified version of Dig to 'swim' upwards through half a mile of rock and to soar into the air.

The Explosion attack shook the base from top to bottom, knocking Jessie, James, Butch and Cassidy as they fought in the corridor. Butch jumped on top of James, and tried strangle the lavender-haired man. Before he could get far, Jessie's Arbok seized him in a Wrap attack and slammed his head against the floor, knocking him out.

"Thank you, Jessie!" The redhead just smiled.

That gave time enough for Cassidy to recover her sidearm. She pointed it at Jessie's head. "And now..." the blond terrorist said with a smile of anticipation.

"Jessie, get down!" James wailed. The redheaded young woman ducked, dodging Cassidy's shot. Then, Cassidy took a Sludge attack from James's Weezing in the face.

"What...?" Cassidy gasped before screaming as the poison-type acids began to eat into her flesh. Jessie completed the attack with a punch in the face of her long time rival. Cassidy went down like a felled tree. Jessie didn't stop for a celebration. She and James ran in the direction of the Project Omega laboratories.

Ash pushed his way out of the collapsed acoustic tile suspended ceiling and looked at the hole his mother had left in the rock during her hasty departure. In his mind's eye, he could see his mother soaring into the sky... on a route to destruction. With the help of Pikachu, he shifted the debris from on top of Misty and Brock, helping them to their feet.

Domino lay unconscious, buried under a combination of the destroyed ceiling and tangled in the ruins of Omega's containment chamber. Ivy, who had remained on the periphery and had emerged relatively unscathed, looked around herself at the ruins and ducked out of a side door. It would be easy enough to convince Giovanni that she was dead, then she could begin again using a new identity...

At that moment, Jessie and James charged into the laboratory. "What happened here?" James asked, stunned at the scale of the destruction in the chamber.

"My mother went in direction of Viridian City." Ash calmly reported as he injected Snorlax with a Max Revive and turned to his friends as his big bear-like friend staggered to his feet, looking a bit abashed at having been beaten so easily. Everybody understood what they would have to do and that knowledge terrified them all. Ash could feel that, even if his friends tried to hide it.

"If any of you don't want to come with me when I go after my mother, I would understand and I will not hold it against you," he announced. In his mind, it was the very least that he could do for his steadfast friends.

The temptation of accepting Ash's offer was strong. However, the bond of friendship and the knowledge of the consequences of inaction were stronger still. Jessie answered for everybody. She released her Fearow and asked "Where did you say that she went?"

Ash smiled.

======

Meanwhile, on Shamuti Island, an unprecedented meeting was taking place, one that represented the very natural order itself: the Legendary Birds Lugia, Ho-oh, Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres. They were in a semi-circle around two other beings, one that had existed from the beginning of the World and another that had been created by the human science.

Mewtwo spoke: You all know what is happening. You know that the Dark Guardian is about to destroy everything in front of her and that not even the Chosen One can stop her! The Birds exchanged glances, in doubt. Mewtwo growled. How could they possibly fail to understand something so utterly obvious! Mewtwo admitted the abilities of the Chosen One, who had already saved him twice, first from its own madness and pain and the second time of being a slave for the humans that created him again. But the Legendary Birds could not seriously believe that Ash Ketchum, even with the aid of his loyal Pokémon, could stand before the power of his mother! Could it be, Mewtwo asked, his telepathic voice dripping with scorn, that the mighty avatars of the natural order are afraid to face what a few lowly humans and their mortal Pokémon companions are willing to face?

Moltres answered Mewtwo's arrogant accusation of cowardice. "Yes, we are afraid of her."

Lugia firmly took charge. You are powerful but, in truth, you are ignorant of the power that the Dark One has gathered in his unwilling servant, the Titan of the Seas answered. She closed her eyes for an instant before continuing. Nonetheless, you are right: the Chosen One needs our help, and we should aid him in that moment of need.

Ho-oh, Moltres, Articuno and Zapdos agreed in silence.

Lugia opened her wings and rose into the night. Her flying companions followed her. Slowking watched as the legendary birds flew in direction of Indigo. He didn't know what it was happening, but he was sure that everything was about to change... for the better for worse.

======

In the vicinity of Celadon City, Omega emerged unscathed from the fireball caused by the detonation of several surface-to-air missiles had created around her in the night sky over Kanto. The fight had been enjoyable, but that was the moment to eliminate this destruction.

Omega rose a little higher into the air before diving down and unleashing a powerful Earthquake attack. The enormous shock-wave threw the hapless UNDF troops from their feet. All it took was a powerful Explosion attack followed by an omni-directional hail of Thunderbolts to sweep the last of the resistance aside.

Omega was a little disappointed that had eliminated those troops so easily: she expected a more little of resistance if only to keep her entertained. Additionally, the immediacy of battle would help her ignore the strange sense of disorientation that had haunted her since her departure from Black Island. It was all down to that juvenile human male with the aura so like her own.

Shrugging off her moment of distraction, Omega took to the skies and continued towards her objective. It was when she noticed that she was being followed: four flying Pokémon were racing in her direction - a Charizard, a Dragonair, a Crobat and a Fearow. Omega immediately identified the three of the five human riders to be the anomalous Rockets in the laboratory at the moment of her release. A dark, slightly serpentine smile curved the woman's lips. Whoever they were, they were clearly determined to stop her, and had the determination and the skill to make a decent attempt at it. Good! She could use the practice. Her smile dropped as, once again, her instincts immediately reached out to the rider of the Charizard and blocked her every attempt to even think of harming him.

Ash noticed immediately that Omega had turned to face them. "Are you ready?" Brock, Jessie and James nodded. Ash breathed in deeply. "NOW!"

Immediately, a Flame-thrower, a Hydro Pump and a pair of Hyper Beams shot towards Omega. The mutant woman raised a Light Screen defense around her and the attacks detonated against it, leaving her unharmed. Omega raised her head and laughed, a terrible, scornful laugh that frightened Ash more than anything else he had ever heard in his young life. Nonetheless, he knew that they had achieved their objective: Omega's whole attention was now focussed on them.

Omega was so focussed on fending off the elemental attacks from Charizard, Crobat and Fearow that she didn't see Misty, still riding on Dragonair, materialise close behind her, courtesy of Togepi's teleport. Light Screens do not stop physical objects, so Dragonair was able to slip through Omega's defences without effort. Misty raised the fire extinguisher and pressed the trigger. Omega, sensing a threat, turned just in time to get a blast of the specially-tailored tranquillising gas full in the face. Misty commanded Dragonair to flee before the mutant woman could respond.

Before losing her senses, the mutant woman tried to disperse the gas with a Whirlwind, but she had to open her Light Screen to do so. A Flame-thrower and a pair of Hyper Beams struck home, swatting her from the skies like a fly.

Omega, blazing like a meteorite, tumbled down through the sky towards storage tank #3 of the McAlester Chemical Plant near Vermilion City. The semi-conscious mutant woman tore through the thin metal as she fell and her blazing body ignited the hydrochloric acid inside. The resulting explosion destroyed everything for hundreds of yards in every direction. After a few moments, a smouldering Omega emerged from the firestorm, looking shaken and angry. Earth-type energy formed two spheres of light around her fists.

Everybody was frozen for one second before Omega suddenly joined the two spheres, creating a super-bright flash of light. Everyone was blinded for a second (especially Ash, who had been using his enhanced sight). When the effect faded, Omega was gone.

"Where is she?" James asked, looking at all the sides, trying find Omega in the darkness.

"She is still here." Ash murmured, still protecting the eyes with the right hand. "I can feel her presence."

"Where?"

"I don't know..." Ash's expression was apprehensive. "We will have to separate and search for her."

Everybody exchanged worried glances. They knew that Ash was right.

"But Ash... how will we stop her?" Misty asked, holding the now-empty gas bottle.

Ash shrugged, forlorn. Omega had already shrugged off the first of their three secret weapons, as well as unthinkable amounts of destructive energy. He didn't know if they could do anything to stop her, or even significantly slow her down.

Jessie, James and Brock went to the west side of the plant. Misty and Ash went to the east side.

In the shadows, a sadistic smile formed under a pair of green brilliant eyes that watched the heroes go their separate ways. The hunted had become the hunter. The annoying feeling in the depths of Omega's mind was now stronger.

======

"What happened, lieutenant?" Williams asked.

The lieutenant that took care of the line of external defense of Celadon City breathed deeply before answering. His head was bound with a bandage.

"Our defenses were totally destroyed, sir. That... that... monster continued to the west."

Williams closed his fists in despair. Team Rocket was not stupid. It had programmed Omega to take a route that went by several densely inhabited zones, limiting the options available to UNDF...

"Radar, what is the current position of Omega?"

The radar operator swallowed dryly. "Sir... we don't know... Omega disappeared from our radars soon after four flying objects approached her just as she was approaching the road in between Vermilion and Saffron Cities."

"Determine her position, Sergeant! Do whatever it takes!"

"Yes, sir!"

The black-haired man breathed deeply, trying put his thoughts in order. He was quickly running out of alternatives. "General Mitsuragi, prepare the BrightEye for firing."

"Yes, General Williams." The Asian man went to the control panel and transmitted the command.

Forty thousand miles above the surface of the Earth, a huge satellite, some three times longer than the old ISS space station was wide began to open like a huge metal flower. Fifteen 300-foot-long 'petals opened up to create an object that looked like a gigantic dandelion seed. The shaft of this giant 'seed' was a cluster of huge metal-and-crystal energy projectors, all directing their particle streams into one particularly large projector that pointed out into space like a huge needle. Bright blue-white light began to shine from the crystal as the whole enormous construction began to rotate around 180 degrees to point its' firing array at the very end of the shaft at the Kanto region. For the first time since its' operational tests, the BrightEye cannon prepared to fire. Kent Williams hoped that it went enough to stop Omega... but if it wasn't...

"UNNS Kraken? Come in, UNNS Kraken!"

"UNNS Kraken responding. Awaiting your orders, General!"

"Captain Ramius, this is UNDF Headquarters Kanto. Prepare to copy targeting instructions and your missile launch authorisation."

It was to his credit that the young submariner did not hesitate for a moment. "Yes, sir!"

Williams closed his eyes.

======

Jessie, James and Brock searched through a warehouse attached to the factory. The silence of the building was cut by their steps, until a metallic sound echoed from nowhere.

"What was that?!" James asked, his nerves jangling at their limit.

"Calm down!" Jessie hissed "I... I will check. Stay here." Jessie, with her Dustox fluttering along in front of her, walked into one of the corridors of the warehouse. Some moments later, she returned. "I didn't find anything."

"Well, let's go this way." Brock pointed to another corridor. When he and James turned their backs to Jessie, the fingers of her right hand changed to an array thirty centimetre-long razor blades.

"JAMES, BEHIND YOU!" A woman voice screamed. "Arbok, Wrap attack!"

"Jessie" looked at back and saw the real Jessie commanding her Arbok. The distraction gave Brock and James a chance to release their own Pokémon.

The Pokémon snake tried to hold the body of her master's double, but 'copy-Jessie' simply morphed out of the snake Pokémon's coils and jumped for the roof, metamorphosing back into Omega as she did so.

For one moment, the mutant woman was stunned. The disorientating feeling was completely disrupting her combat efficiency! She should have been able to end this long ago! With a hiss of anger, Omega tried to ignore the feeling; she had a mission to complete. Omega threw from her wrist a Vine Whip that grabbed Arbok, completely immobilising the Pokémon snake. Then, she electrocuted Arbok and threw it over James with great force. He didn't have time of dodge.

Ash immediately heard the sound of the fight. "Misty, they are in trouble!"

Both ran up to where their friends were.

"Onyx, Tackle!" Brock ordered.

Omega just smiled. She released an ember attack, which set off the automatic fire extinguishers in the hallway. The water wouldn't harm her, but it would make a rock/ground-type Pokémon far weaker.

An automatic fire door slammed down in front of Ash and Misty just as the two were about to reach their friends. They were shut outside as the battle continued within.

Omega jumped over Brock's head. As the dark-haired man span to face her, she kicked him back into a stack of barrels that collapsed down upon him. James was knocked out, bleeding from the head. Jessie, desperate and on the verge of hysteria, watched as Omega sauntered over to her. She lashed out with a punch to the face. Omega's hand blurred up and caught her fist effortlessly. "Not bad, dear." Omega said with a smile. "But, as my old tutor once said: 'Nearly is never enough'."

Omega flowed over Jessie's arm, and kicked her in the back with smashing force, yanking backwards to break the human female's arm as if it was a twig. Jessie's scream of agony echoed throughout the factory. The mutant smirked down at Jessie's pale face satisfied that the pain had incapacitated her opponent. The icy smile of satisfaction on Omega's face contrasted with the agony in her eyes.

On that moment, the fire door crumpled inwards as Ash's Pikachu struck it with his Iron Tail attack. Omega dropped Jessie, who fell to wet ground like a limp rag, and teleported away.

Ash and Misty ran in. "Pikachu, Chikorita! Help Brock!" Ash ordered, while he helped his cousin to get up. Misty held a handkerchief to James's head wound.

"Are you all ok?" Ash asked.

"I am, Ash. Go after your mother, I'll take care of James and Brock, " Jessie announced.

Ash looked down at the horrible unnatural angle of Jessie's right forearm, but realised that she was right. Reluctantly, he, Misty and Pikachu ran off, seeking their quarry.

Ash and Misty entered a metallic corridor when the boy from Pallet Town suddenly stopped in his tracks. "Misty." he whispered.

"Yes, Ash?"

"Take cover."

"What?"

"Take cover!" He turned suddenly, with his right arm outstretched. Misty dropped to the ground as a Hyper Beam shot over her head from Ash's outstretched arm and blasted into Omega's chest, blowing the mutant woman down the corridor and into a fire equipment cabinet, which shattered from the impact.

"Interesting." Omega remarked in a conversational tone as she staggered to her feet. "I almost felt that." Omega looked down and calmly directed an Aurora Beam into the structure of the corridor, coating everything with ice. Ash and Misty desperately tried to keep to their feet. Pikachu, who had long claws to act as ice cleats, unleashed his most powerful Thunder attack. Omega didn't even flinch. Instead, she raised her foot and delivered a Mega Kick, not at her opponents, but to the corridor floor.

The metallic corridor shattered and was revealed to be an inspection catwalk over something chemical and very-toxic looking. Ash, Misty and Pikachu would have dropped into the tank if Ash had not thrown his Spinarak's String Shot at the roof. He seized Misty and Pikachu and swung away towards the other side of the building. Ash dropped Misty and Pikachu onto the nearest platform before momentum carried him back towards his mother. Unnoticed by all, as Ash reached the limit of his swing, the AO-X injector fell from his belt.

Omega's eyes narrowed. She threw a Razor Leaf that cut Ash's Spinarak's Web. The boy fell and landed agilely on his feet. With a hiss of annoyance, Omega leapt from her vantage point and landed right in front of her opponent. She raised her fist for a Dynamic Punch attack and froze, unable to overcome the instinctive imperative that seemed to override even her deepest programming.

The boy from Pallet Town heard in his mind the voice of his mother, strangled and distant: Ash, run away!

'My mother is still there, but she can't beat the control of the necklace!' he thought.

Omega was frozen, trying to overcome her conflicting commands and instincts. Ash took the chance to use a Spider Web attack to immobilise his mother. Big mistake; Being under attack freed Omega from her paralysis. A flashing Cut attack sliced the web apart in mid air and Omega lashed out with a kick. In a blur of motion, far to fast to be human, Ash dodged his mother's assault and lashed out at his mother's knees with a low kick, trying to knock her feet out from under her. Omega somersaulted over the attack.

Misty got off the scaffold, while she watched the fight between Ash and Omega. Both were little more than indistinct blurs of motion. Ash was doing his best, but he was half-human and he didn't stand a chance against Omega in anything other than the shortest of fights. Misty knew that she had to do something, but what? At that point, she saw the AO-X injector. With a grim expression, the girl hung it on a belt loop and began to climb down to where her love and his mother fought.

With tears running down her alien face, Omega finally gained the upper hand, morphing around a punch to the face and grabbing Ash by the back of the head. She swung the boy around and slammed his face into an electrical junction box a few times. Then she raised her hand to deliver the deathblow... and stopped... once gain unable to override her instinctive need not to harm this being. With a strangled snarl of frustration, she swung Ash around again and slammed his back against the wall. Omega leaned forward and glared at her nemesis in a way that would terrify the Devil himself. "Who are you?" she bellowed. "Who are you? What are you? Speak and I swear that I will spare your life!"

Omega was so completely focussed on trying to solve this mystery that she failed to sense Misty until the girl jabbed the injector into the base of her head and pumped the AO-X solution into her body. The mutant woman screamed murderously with the pain and fell in the ground, the red infection of the toxin spreading quickly through her body. Misty, in shock, dropped the empty weapon.

Ash shook his head, his wits returning. He unholstered the Master-ball given to him by Professor Oak and thumbed the 'recall' touch pad. A ray of red light was spat out to Omega and surrounded the writhing mutant woman. The ID-transponder was still active. The woman dematerialised into a red glow, which was sucked into the Master-ball. There was a bleep and the 'active' indicator lit up on the status panel. Suddenly, the ball jerked and fell from Ash's hand, electricity crackling over it. The ball shook violently, rocking from side to side... and then exploded.

Omega materialised in the middle of the factory, like an infernal Phoenix. Her expression showed a paradoxical mix of pleasure and pain. "The end," she announced in a tone of utter finality.

Unable to directly harm her enemy, Omega turned to the great vats of chemicals and began to unleash a wave of Flame-thrower attacks at them. Ash covered Pikachu and Misty's bodies with his own as the vats detonated.

Like a blazing demon, Omega rose from the ruins of the factory. The pleasure of eliminating her enemies was nearly overwhelmed by a pain that she could not understand. Omega set a course for her first primary target, trying to shake the feeling off. However, even while she flew onward, the feeling continued... almost as a scream of anguish from the deepest part of her mind...

======

In his secret office, Giovanni watched a satellite image of the trajectory Omega was taking towards Viridian City... He tried to imagine what would be the reaction of UNDF to the small surprise that he had programmed...

======

Everybody in the War Room observed the tiny blip on the radar screen that was racing towards Viridian City at hypersonic speeds. Omega had destroyed each defence measure that UNDF had planned.

"Has her path been calculated?"

"Yes, General Williams."

"Is the BrightEye locked on target?"

The operator for the orbital canon was about to confirm when the radar operator called out. "General, the target has just changed course."

Williams froze for a moment before speaking. "What?" he asked. "Confirm that, sergeant!"

"Confirmed sir. Omega has changed course and is now heading away from Viridian City!"

"What is her new course, sergeant?"

"If it continues on this vector, it will arrive in Fuchsia City in twenty minutes." Fuchsia City was the place where Kanto's Governing Council had sent most of the civilian population of Indigo, in an attempt to protect them. The attack against Viridian City was just a decoy.

"Mitsuragi, inform the defences of Fuchsia! Now!" Williams ordered. "Reconfigure the BrightEye targeting matrix!"

"Sir, the target is moving too fast! We can't get a lock on her! If we fire that thing now, it will burn a hundred-foot-deep trench across the countryside!"

The UNDF General absorbed that information, his face expressionless. "Heisenberg... Send the missile arming codes to the Kraken."

======

Meanwhile, Brock and James pulled away the wreckage from on top of Ash, Misty and Pikachu. They swallowed dryly in shock when seeing that an iron lever had punched through Ash's abdomen.

"Pika-pi!" Pikachu exclaimed in horror.

"Don't mind that." Ash simply yanked the lever out and his body and the hideous wound flowed closed almost instantly with an awfully-familiar ripple of gelatinous blue. Ash didn't seem to notice.

Misty had fainted due the shock and the smoke, but she was already recovering. "What...?" she asked weakly.

Ash looked around and saw several electric wires, that they were part of the structure of the now demolished chemical factory. He had a desperate idea. He ran and yanked the wires out of the wall.

"Where are you going Ash?" James asked as Ash released his Charizard.

"I think I can stop my mother! Stay here!" Ash grabbed Pikachu and vaulted onto Charizard's back. Without a word of command, the dragon launched himself into the air.

"Ash!" Misty called out, but he was fading into the distance. "I don't believe it!" the orange-haired girl cried out in a combination of irritation and fear. Why Ash did have to have that hero complex? "Please, Ash... come back!" she pleaded quietly.

======

"This is Captain Damir Ramius, commanding ballistic missile UNNS Kraken. I have received a quantum launch order. I must confirm the identity of the person issuing the order. I will need a voice and name check."

Williams nodded. "Major General Kent Lanning Williams, Commander of UNDF Indigo - Kanto Region."

"Thank you, General. Now I must copy your authorisation code."

Williams reached into the inside pocket of his uniform jacket, pulling out a laminated plastic card. He briefly scanned what was written on the card according to the pattern that he and he alone knew. "The Day Code is 'Red-2-9-4'," Williams announced. "Authorisation code is '3-0-9-9-2-7-Bravo'."

Far away, Captain Ramius read his sheet of launch codes and felt an icy finger of fear on his back. "What is the code on line five of column four, sir?" Williams sucked in a breath before reading off the twelve-digit prime number. Somehow, his voice remained steady. On the other end of the communications line, Captain Ramius sounded like a recorded telephone announcement for all the emotion in his voice. "I will need a second command-authorised person to confirm this order, sir."

Robertson stepped forward, his face shining with an unhealthy light that made the professional soldiers in the War Room feel distinctly uncomfortable. "Captain, this is Chairman of the United Nations Security Council Gerald Arthur Robertson. I hereby authorise you to launch your missiles."

Williams and Heisenberg couldn't help but smile slightly at the pomposity in the politician's voice. Captain Ramius sounded suitably deferential. "Mr. Chairman, please give me your day and authorisation code."

Robertson snorted quietly and read off the required codes from his own unique authorisation card. After satisfying Ramius as to his identity, the man stood back and allowed Williams to take charge again. Williams held his breath for a few moments before pressing the 'transmit' button. "Captain, you have already been given the target co-ordinates. Ready one of your Planet-Buster missiles and prepare for a final launch order." Even Robertson felt cold. The Planet-Buster was the most powerful human-built explosive device in history, over half a million times more powerful than the atomic bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Suddenly, everyone in the room knew the stakes with unparalleled clarity.

======

Omega approached her true objective. She was just preparing to commence her attack run when she was struck behind for an Aeroblast many orders of magnitude more powerful than any attack that she had previously suffered. A crater was formed where she crashed.

Stop, Dark Guardian!

"Dark Guardian?" she thought, confused. She looked at her attacker. It was a gigantic, white and black bird, that, for some reason, reminded Omega of a Concorde aeroplane. It was Lugia, accompanied by Ho-oh, Zapdos, Articuno and Moltres.

Hate boiled up inside of Omega. With a frightening roar, she arose to the skies, and into the attack. At that moment, the ground opened up and The God of the Mountains, Groudon exploded out into the air towards Omega, leading with his metre-long claws. Simultaneously, the ocean around Fuchsia City seemed to rise up and Kygore, the God of the Deep emerged. Both of the Rival Gods of Houen unleashed their most powerful attacks at the genetically-engineered super-weapon. Simultaneously, two birds that resembled swing-wing fighter-bombers dived out of the sun, spitting psychic and ice-type attacks at Omega. They were accompanied by three wingless fliers, one purple, one pink and one green, who launched their own attacks. Three mighty creatures like crosses between bears and cats suddenly pounced out of nowhere, firing their own attacks upward into the fray.

======

"Sir! You won't believe on this!" The commander of the defence of Fuchsia City exclaimed to his superior.

"What won't I believe, Brigadier Jordan?"

"Omega is... she is... facing the Legendary Pokémon, sir!"

Gerald Robertson didn't understand why everybody in the War Room of War was in stunned silence. After all, he was not from this part of the world, he didn't know the legends about the powers of the Legendary Birds and the other Legendary Pokémon.

"Put it on the screen!" Williams ordered. "Now!"

Everybody watched in silence a battle that would never imagine to see: The Protecting Powers of Kanto Region facing the almost alien power of Omega. And the most incredible and terrible... it was that Omega might even win...

======

Ash approached the battlefield and he saw, almost unable to believe, that Omega was able to match the power of the Legendary Birds. Only now he really had idea about the true power of his mother...

"Well, it is now." he murmured for himself. "Are you ready, Pikachu?"

["Yes, Ash."]

"Then let's go! Charizard, you know what to do!"

Omega emerged from the interacting fireball of dozens of unimaginably powerful attacks with a scream of pain. She was still weak from the poison that the orange-haired little bitch back at the chemical plant had injected into her and her Light Screen couldn't take this sort of abuse for too long. She couldn't face these enemies now; She had to get past them and get to her target!

Ash breathed deeply and, with Pikachu on his back, jumped onto the flying form of his mother. He lashed out with all the strength in his arm and his hand passed through the outer layers of his mother's substance, seizing the control collar where it rested around her throat like a strange ornament. He braced himself and prayed for the best. "Pikachu, Now!" he ordered.

Pikachu gathered all her power, throwing the most powerful Thunder Attack of his life, that was transmitted straight to the control necklace in an attempt of overload and destroying it... using the wires and Ash's own body as a conduit.

Omega shrieked in pain, no longer sounding even remotely human, feeling all that energy blasting through her nervous system. She shook herself violently, with such force that Pikachu lost his grip and fell from Ash's back. Charizard caught the electric Pokmon in mid-air.

Omega flowed through her body, reversing her position to face Ash. A murderous light shone in her eyes as her hands seized his neck with crushing force.

======

"The target stopped mid-air, sir!" the radar operator called out.

"I'm sorry, Ash." Williams thought, aghast, seeing the fight between the teenager and his mother in the screen. "Send Omega's current co-ordinates to the BrightEye."

"Yes, sir."

He strode over to a screen with just a window with the question: "Activate BrightEye Orbital Cannon? Y/N"

"Target locked sir!"

Williams pressed the key 'Y'.

======

Omega was fighting as much a battle against herself as she was against this annoying human (human? Perhaps not) that continued to try and defeat her. Conflicting instincts and genetic instructions beyond her comprehension were preventing her from terminating this impediment to completing her mission. The mutant woman focussed her will on her hands, trying to make them close around her enemy's neck, even as he fought to break her grip.

Then, without warning. there was only light, shining down from high above. The very air fled from the sudden outpouring of energy. At the very centre of this impossible column of energy, Omega and Ash Ketchum writhed in impossible agony as their bodies began to incandesce as the energy from the sky tried to transmute them into puffs of hydrogen, carbon and oxygen vapour.

Both beings' screams echoed throughout the bright column of white energy.

======

There was a crackle of electricity and every bit of electronic equipment carried by Jessie, James, Brock and Misty simultaneously shorted out. Their Pokémon materialised and looked around them in surprise as the Pokéballs released them before failing under the intense EMP from the BrightEye discharge.

"Ash! NO!" Misty screamed. In the distance, as the Legendary Pokémon soared away, Omega, Ash Ketchum still tangled around her, dropped lifelessly the mile or more to the ground.

======

A gelatinous blue hand, still surrounded by the occasional blue-white arc of electrostatic energy, reached behind her neck and seized a red ribbon with electronic circuits sown into it and ripped it off. The control necklace had been destroyed. Delilah Ketchum was free. Without a second thought, she threw the useless bit of debris aside. She only had a thing in her mind. "ASH!"

Delilah ran up to where her son had fallen. His breathing was shallow and filled with pain. His clothes had been all-but seared from his body. His entire body seemed to have been seared raw. "M-mom..." Ash whispered, trying to smile.

Immediately, Delilah hugged Ash. "Ash, forgive me! Please!"

"All.. right, mom... You... are.. free..." The light in Ash's eyes faded and his breathing stopped. The damage that Ash had received was more extensive than his healing factor could deal with.

"Ash? ASH! GOD, NO!" Delilah shook the inert body of her child desperately... She had... she had... "PLEASE, NOOO!" She screamed, tears of despair and horror running down her face. Then she remembered when the regenerative power of Ash had manifest itself for the first time.

With a tiny thread of hope in her heart, she clasped her son's body to her. 'It can work!' she thought desperately.

======

Meanwhile, a heated discussion was in progress in the War Room, in the UNDF Headquarters. The image of Omega holding her son was on the screen, filmed from a spy satellite that had somehow escaped the EMP effect. "Williams, Omega is still alive!" Robertson exclaimed "If you don't launch the missile now, she will destroy the whole of Indigo Island!"

"Kent, she is too close of Fuchsia City! Everybody in the city would die!" Heisenberg also exclaimed.

"General Williams, what are your orders?" Captain Ramius, of UNNS Kraken asked through the radio.

Robertson heard Omega's terrible scream and misinterpreted what it meant. He pulled up the radio microphone from Williams' hands. "Launch the missile now!" the politician screamed. "Fire!!!"

In UNNS Kraken, the captain and his second-in-command rotated the metallic keys when they heard the order.

A missile armed with a quantum device with an explosive yield equivalent to ten billion tons of TNT exploded out of its firing tube. The power of pressurised gas pushed it the 200 feet to the ocean's surface where its' four liquid-fuelled rocket engines ignited. The UGM-304A Planet-Buster missile arced into the heavens. Its target - Fuchsia City... and Omega.

======

Misty arrived well on time to see an electric shine surround mother and child. The mutant woman screamed in agony, while Ash's burns began to heal itself... Misty suddenly understood. Omega had used her morphing abilities to copy Ash's DNA, including his uncanny powers of healing... and was now absorbing her son's mortal wounds, just as he had once absorbed hers.

"Mom?" Ash asked, in a weak and confused voice.

"You will be fine, Ash. I promise!" Delilah whispered gently for her son, hugging him tightly.

The need to hug Ash was far stronger than the fear that Misty felt for Omega. She ran over to them and she hugged Ash far more strongly than his mother could in her current, weakened state.

"Hey, what is that?" James asked, pointing into the sky. It looked like a meteorite, a single, blue-white point, followed by a white vapour trail.

Delilah stood up immediately. With her vision, she identified the object. "It it's... a ballistic missile re-entry vehicle..." she announced, "and by the trajectory... it will detonate almost directly overhead!" her voice rising in disbelief.

No one was able to process the information for a few seconds. "Can't we go to some shelter?" Jessie asked, weakly.

"It won't make difference." James explained sadly.

For one moment, Delilah looked around herself in stunned silence. She saw Misty hugging Ash... James and Jessie hugging each other... preparing for their death...

There was only a thing that she could do. "I will deal with this." She said simply, looking at the sky.

She bent over and hugged her son with all the love that had. Over his shoulder, she looked at Misty. The trainer from Cerulean City heard the woman's voice echo in her mind. Misty, please, take care of him. He will not understand. Misty nodded, tears springing to her eyes as she realised what was about to happen.

Delilah noted that, during the healing process, a strip of white hair had appeared over the crown of her son's head. She pushed the fringe aside and placed a gentle kiss on her son's forehead. Then she stood up and stepped away from her son and his mate. "Mom?" His weak voice was confused.

Wings flowed out of her back.

No matter what happens from this moment forth, always remember that I love you... my son. Then she rose in direction of the dark night. Ash kept his arm stretched out in the direction in that she had gone, until the night was driven away by a terrible, unnatural light brighter than a billion suns.

---

To be continued...

Chapter 17 coming soon.

What do you think? Read and Review!