End of a Reality

by Blue9Tiger and DarkMutatedBrock

*~*~*

Man: Son? I don't have a lost son.

Social Worker: According to these papers, you do.

Man: I apologize, but there must be some kind of a mistake--

Social Worker: Sorry, but there isn't. It's all here in ink....

Man: But----w-wait a second!!

Social Worker: He bears a striking resemblance to you, sir. I believe you should---

Man: LISTEN. I_DO_NOT_HAVE_ANOTHER_SON. Do you UNDERSTAND?!?!?

Social Worker: Sir!!! There's no need to overreact... we can always put him in the orphanage---

Man: Orphanage?

Social Worker: Yes.

Man: ........He does look like me......

Social Worker: Here he is. I'll send you the rest of the paperwork so you can get it all done.... Good-bye, then.

Man: Wait----what's his---name?!

Sound of tires squealing.

Man: ....Ma'am ....?

Sound of a small, infantile cough.

Man: You.... could you really-----?

Voice from inside a house.

Woman: Flint, what's the ruckus out there about?!??!

Silence.

Boy: ......They called me Brock..... I---I think.... I can't remember......

Woman: .......What in God's name---?!? Flint, why does he look exactly like----

Flint: .............Just get him inside.

Woman: But---WHAT THE HELL IS----

Flint: I'll explain.... later.

Sound of a door slamming.

Brock: Are you really my daddy?

Flint: I hope not.

Brock: .....You don't want me here?

Flint: ...It's not that.

Brock: Then what?

Flint: If you are my first son..........

Brock: Y-yeah?

Flint: ........Nothing. Get inside.

--Conversation overheard by neighbors on January 4, 1992. No papers were brought. No investigation followed.

*~*~*

Chapter 9: Disillusioned

*~*~*

Ash collapsed on the ground, Misty falling under him. This was definitely no way to travel, but there was little choice in that. With a huge effort, the orange-haired girl pulled Ash to his feet, supporting him on her shoulder. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to catch her breath, but a familiar sight caught her eye. She looked upwards to see a black spot racing through the sky. It was hard to see...the airborne object blended with the complete darkness. But there wasn't any time to think about that now. They HAD to get to safety...somehow...

Misty looked up again.

"That looks like..... Sort of like.... Maybe....." She stopped, refusing to be reminded of the plight of their older friend, and dragged Ash and herself along, away from the burning building. The black streak itself was too hard to follow, anyway. It was camouflaged completely against the dark sky, which had just recently recovered from the horrible storm. The ground was muddy, the foliage was wet..... and somewhere in the not-so-far distance, laughter could be heard...... mad..... laughter......

Then, the streak seemed to pause, and shoot downwards, disappearing completely under the heads of the Viridian Forest treetops.

"Maybe...a meteorite?" Misty asked to herself, and she looked backwards as the burning building finally collapsed, the sounds of crashing concrete creating an enormous din...... but then came the silence. The kind of silence that preceded a deadly situation. She gazed over to the trees, but the black object had disappeared. Not particularly wanting to know what it was, she continued to drag Ash along through the drenched soil, the mud up to her ankles.

The laughter.... it was becoming stronger by the moment, as if they weren't out of danger; they had managed to climb out of the frying pan and into the fire..... no, ironically, the inferno. A voice became clear, albeit soft. It was synonymous with the cooing that a dog might receive from its master.

"Yes, Gemini.... You are a good boy, aren't you? Yes, yes you are..... Much more obedient than that stupid Zero-X, mmm.....? Hah-haaa......... Hm? Behind the ear? Yes, you like to be scratched there, don't you?"

Misty's eyes widened in a clear mix of anger and fear as she heard what was being done to Brock. He was being treated like a...HOUNDOUR... no... much LESS than a Houndour...... it sickened her immensely, and she slowed her steps, a bad feeling warning her to stay back, yet at the same time urging her on... foward, through the thick mud. The despicable feminine voice grew louder, and she was dreading what she might see in the muddy clearing in front of them....

Then, the catalyst; "Rrrooaarrrghh....." A growl of contentment, of satisfaction.... like an Arcanine getting its stomach rubbed by a trainer. It was a GROWL, an unintelligible, wordless GROWL that somehow managed to carry the distorted, perverted voice of someone she knew, which heightened the amorality of Ivy's sickening deeds.

"Yes, you're a disciplined one....." the voice continued, softly.

What is she TALKING about?! Misty's thoughts raced at a dizzying rate, and she quickened her paces, her curiosity growing along with her fear. The plop-plop of her shoes sinking into the mud grew faster as she jogged, then ran towards the sound of the voice... and the.. familiar... the familiar..... that..... GROWL.... as she jogged with the unconcious Ash still on leaning against her shoulder.

Misty came upon the clearing.

"Yes..... a disciplined one, indeed...." The.... creature..... was sitting at Ivy's feet, its tail laid out on the ground behind it and its eyes closed in contentment. Ivy was looking down at it as she sat on a stray rock, her hands on the side of its head as she stroked its neck, scratched behind its ear, and held it close to her with a black LEASH and a steel CHOKE CHAIN.

"Yes... completely obedient...." Ivy slowly raised her eyes towards the intruders, arching an eyebrow calmly. "Well.... what kind of specimen do we have here?"

Misty was silent for a long moment, unable to say anything as she stared at the... leash and CHAIN..... in utter horror. However, it wasn't to last long when she shrieked, her face purple with absolute RAGE.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING TO HIM?!?!!?! LET GO OF HIM, YOU UGLY HAG!!!!!!" Hell was never more personified in those normally light eyes, that were burning with pure rage at seeing her friend..... treated like a... DOG. Not as a human being...but an ANIMAL.....a POKéMON.........The kind of treatment he did NOT deserve......

However, the worst part was.... it seemed to be enjoying it. It opened an eye and looked at the girl with curiosity, and then cold indifference.

The girl is of no importance.
The Mistress is all that matters.
The Mistress.

But.... that familiar face.... the red hair... that... VOICE that seemed to be able to crack apart a mountain with one cacophonous note.... the brow furrowed for a moment, and then there was a sudden flash and cry---CRY, not word--of realization, as the creature whined, crawling on its hands and knees towards the other.

Misty-----HELP.... Oh, God... Misty.... Please hear me.... MISTY!!!!!!!!!

Ivy's eyes narrowed, and she grit her teeth as she yanked on the leash. The choke chain pulled on the monster's neck, sending it backwards with a gasp for air and keeping it from the one it desired to see.

"Hm. Then again, obedience can be very fickle." With that, Ivy took a syringe from her pocket, twirled in the air once, and stabbed it into Brock's upper arm, just below the spikes. There was another yell of pain, of agony, as the claws clutched at the head.........

And then, silence. The creature sat up once more, its eyes dead as it stared at Misty... and yet.... at nothing at all.

"Very good, Gemini...... I trust you won't do that again." The Professor smiled wickedly, and used the chain to pull her....... dog....... towards her She smiled wickedly and laid her head on its shoulder, as one might do with.... their Growlithe. She addressed Misty smugly. "As you can see, girl, I spent much time and energy on preparing the primary chemicals and programming ITS genes to react to my newer injections. I believe.... that I deserve the POKÉMON as much as you do."

The brainwashed humanoid that was Brock only looked on in a strange sort of hypnotic silence.

Misty's face contorted into a mask of pure rage, her teeth clenched, her fists balled and her voice shrill and emotionally pained...and incensed with increased anger.....anger at what Ivy was saying.....about the chemicals...programming.....INJECTIONS....unimaginable TORTURES inflicted on poor BROCK...who deserved NONE of it....who was innocent---INNOCENT...living through HELL for trying to live a moral life..it wasn't fair.......
It sent something in her on fire, and it set her emotions ablaze with incensed hatred.

"WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU'VE GOT THE RIGHT TO DO THIS-----To..... CHANGE Brock into what YOU think is BEST?! What gives you the RIGHT?!!"

Silence from the leashed PROPERTY and a confident smile from the owner.

"I'LL TELL YOU!!!! NO ONE!!!!!!!!!! HE'S NOT AN IT!!!!!!!!!!
HE'S A PERSON!!!!!!! A PERSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU HEAR ME,
YOU BITCH?!!!!!!"

Ivy was about to answer when Misty stomped foward, dragging Ash with her, a chunk of mud splattering up into the air. "LET HIM GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Let him go?" Ivy arched an eyebrow at Misty's explosion of hatred, and then smiled, like a leopard satisfied with its kill. "Fine, then. I do not object." She unclipped the leash, leaving on...... Brock's.... collar, as she stood to her feet and stepped backwards. "Do what you wish. Try what you may. Let your......." her smile twisted into an evil smirk. "....friend decide where his alliances lie."

"It'll be Ash and me...you'll...see!" Misty bit her lip and laid Ash down into the deep mud, advancing, but finding herself doing so hesitantly. Brock was still Brock, but it was hard to believe it was so, especially since he could not talk. Once speech was taken away and replaced by primal sounds...it was taking away one half of visible humanity, and all of the audible. Though Misty felt.... something dear towards Brock, there could be no doubt she was a little apprehensive. Yet, she put it all aside, walked forward towards the monster as Ivy walked backward, and looked into the creature's blank eyes.

"Brock....." she said gently, reaching for his steel-like claws. "It's me...Misty!"

A growl, unfriendly, hostile...... the decision was made clear in that one primitive noise. Yet, the girl persevered.

"Brock!!"

Tears collected in her blue eyes. There was no WAY...that she could set her friend free from the loathsome scientist's tight grasp. Her hold on him was.... like the COLLAR..... on his NECK..... it bound Brock to Ivy, rendered him HER personal------PROPERTY.

"You see, girl?" Ivy's smirk upturned just slightly. "Try anything. Anything you like. Gemini, let her--PROVE her thesis to be... untrue."

The creature gave a small, almost invisible nod, its eyes still staring blankly into the air, past the shoulders of the water trainer, and far off into the dark horizon. Still, nods were considered to be rather human.... and this gave the desperate Misty a desperate hope. She would pursue that faint shine until it completely dissipated into the pervasive oblivion. It.....HE.....was her FRIEND------she couldn't abandon him. The pit he was lodged in was so deep, so far down, reaching down to the most unreachable expanses of earth, but she would not...could not turn her back on him and leave him there. She would get him out. Someway or another, she would bring him up from that abbhorent hell.

However, the hell... this... controlled torment, didn't seem to want to give way to anything, as the monster stared into nothingness.

"Gemini...." Ivy murmured. "Look into the girl's eyes."

It did as it was told. From the side, its eyes had seemed dull, unresponsive, but looking dead-on.... they were burning, burning in flames, in agony, in torment that surpassed the most horrible nightmares that could ever be created by the human mind. They were filled.... with pure.... PAIN......

And yet, there was no sign of it in any other part of the body. It was silent. It was immobile. It was tensed, but only so that it could quickly carry out the will of its Mistress swiftly and efficiently.

The creature was silent.

But its soul was screaming.

"Br---Brock...!! Won't you say ANYTHING?!" Misty's eyes were swelling, red with falling tears to see her friend's internal agony, and yet, unable to do ANYTHING about it.

Complete...utterly...POWERLESS.

Powerless...to stop...EVERYTHING.....that was WRONGFULLY being done to him...

The rain began to fall again.

The clouds cried in unison with the girl.

Ivy paused a moment, and then said: "He killed his own brother, by the way. Murdered him. When he was conscious of his actions."

A sharp intake of breath from the monster, but that was all. The eyes screamed louder, as they continued to stare into Misty's. They seemed to want so hard to look away....

".....Not to mention the other... Oh, I'd say at least thirty visitors and employees in the Pewter City Museum of Science......" Ivy chuckled, bringing a hand to her lips. "So you see..... you aren't completely invulnerable."

"You......lying bitch!!!!! I'm never going to believe that!!!!! Brock would never do that and know he was doing it!!! Never!!!!!" Misty glared towards the evil woman. She would have attacked her right there and then... but..... she knew that what Ivy said was true; as long as Ivy held power over her friend, her life was in immediate danger.

But she didn't want to believe it.

Aware of this peril, and trying to realize something otherwise, Misty looked into the eyes.... the tormented eyes..... that were full of..... GUILT? But why? Could it be that-----it COULDN'T be... no...

The tears coursed down her face in streaming rivulets. She was disillusioned... but..... no... she wouldn't believe that he CONSCIOUSLY did that... that he was AWARE that he..... had........ killed........

...Killed. It was never such a strong word until looking into the eyes of the killer. Then it was different. It was real..... it was there..... but... Brock couldn't have killed... intentionally.... it was impossible... it couldn't happen... it was the farthest thing from reality............ and yet........

She knew it was true.

".....Feeding off the resentment those Pewter City inhabitants drilled into it.... hah-hah..... Of course, a human brain has faults, but a Pokémon brain has even more." Ivy's voice came; constant and biting.

Silence from the monster, but were its...... claws......... shaking.......?

Ivy's voice again: "You still believe it impossible, do you not? That I can have Gemini so completely under my power that it would kill and harm others consciously?" She paused. "Try. Try to bring it to 'his' senses." She stepped back, her arms outstretched behind her disarmingly. "I will not interfere.... Hah-hah, on the contrary, I will let you. Give it....... your best shot." She turned away completely, falling into the shadowy shade of a tree. "And when you fail, I will order it to kill you. Hm-hm..... Games.... are part of the fun."

Misty clenched her teeth, and looked Brock in his inhuman eyes. She sighed. She couldn't run away. She would HAVE to do this and play by the mad scientist's rules. There was no other choice. She grabbed onto the creature's hand......cringing at the feel of the cold claws. The orange-haired girl looked over at Ash, who was still lying unconscious in the mud. Not only would she have to DO this, but it seemed as if she would be forced to do it alone. Wiping the last tears from her eyes, but unable to mask a voice choked with sorrow, she commanded in a weak tone:

"Brock...... Wake up.....!"

Silence.

Then, laughs from the other side of the clearing.

"Really, do you believe THAT will work?!? HAH!!!!!!!!! HAH_HAH_HAH!!!!!!!!!! I pity your imagination so much that I'll give you a second chance. Go on!!!! Go on so that I can laugh at your failure."

However, unseen to Ivy, there was a sudden twitch of a muscle from beneath the scales that Misty was shakily feeling. And---another twitch..... which almost resembled a panicked squeeze.

Nothing else moved. Not a milimeter, save for the familiar, and now wet hair, which rose and fell in the harsh wind.

Raindrops fell down from its forehead, its cheeks, its chin, which strangely resembled tears....

But they weren't.

It was a cold, cruel reality. No emotion.....none at all...Misty was quickly losing hope...and the more hope that is lost, the more blind desire is gained. She grasped his claws with both of her soft hands, and began screaming shrilly into the monster's dark face, the falling rain strengthening as she implored.

"Wake up!!!! WAKE UP, or I'll-----I'LL HIT YOU!!!!!!!! PLEASE, Brock.... WAKE UP!!!!!!!!!!"

......No use. It was absolutely USELESS. The futility... the waste of energy.... effort... of trying to bring Brock back to his senses was visible on Misty's tear-lathered face. In her frustration she slowly fell to her knees and then collapsed forward, yelling out incoherent curses and threats as she pounded the cold, wet mud.

Then..... she looked upward, into the callous face of... her.... crush. Her gaze slowly fell, until her reddened eyes met the cool irises of Brock's "Mistress". Ivy did say that after watching her fail, she would order her pet to kill the girl. Would he........ really do that? Misty again looked up into the controlled, crimson eyes, inwardly burning with agony, but outwardly mindless and feral. So much unspeakable TORMENT......that was hidden by the shadow of Ivy's iron fist, a shadow..... that was about to be used against Misty herself.

She could have run away, but she didn't. Instead, the water trainer was suddenly.... overtaken by a desperate urge, an urge that seemed to overtake her body and soul.

Shivering, she stood up, wrapped her lean arms around the creature's stiff, unmoving neck, and placed her lips to the cold, black ones of the monster.

There was a moment of shaky silence, as the creature's breathing suddenly quickened, and then stopped altogether. Its eyes shut themselves tightly, and it slowly, ever so slowly, put its left claws to her cheek, sending a chill down her spine but hope into her heart......

Even through those horrifyingly cold lips, she KNEW it was......... him.

There was a moment of hesitant bliss-----and then a sudden yell.

"D-DAMMIT!!!!!!!!!" Ivy was holding up a PokéBall, black in appearance, and, ironically, an R upon the front. "GEMINI, RETURN!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Almost immediately, the only feeling upon Misty's chilled face was the cold Viridian air, and the only thing in her outstretched arms was nothingness-----a scarlet hue of nothingness, that twisted and writhed in agonizing patterns as it was forced back into its cage.

"Now..... THAT....." Ivy grit her teeth, her eyes narrowed into slits as she pocketed the RocketBall. "Was unplanned for." She regained her composure a moment later, however, and grinned. "So..... how did it feel to kiss a Pokémon, eh? Pleasant? I hope not."

Misty couldn't answer. The cold feel of the dark scales had almost been..... strangely.... warm to her, but that didn't matter right now. What mattered was that Ivy had imprisoned Brock in a POKéBALL...... that was the last straw. Somewhere, a roll of thunder rumbled across the sky. The rain began to pour in thick sheets.

"GIVE.....HIM...BACK!!!!" Misty demanded, reaching for her PokéBalls but instead freezing in terror. They had been taken away from her. Her eyes narrowed in anger, and threw HERSELF at Ivy, trying to grab for the ebony device. "HE'S NOT YOURS!!!"

"OH, YES, IT IS!!!!!!!" Ivy began to yell hysterically, the earlier scene having scared something into her inner being, she pulled the PokéBall from her labcoat, holding with her hand high in the air, out of Misty's immediate reach in a grotesque game of keep-away. Imagine... everything.... in that small, minimized orb, only the size of a marble.........

Misty had finally reached her limit. In a superhuman rage, the water trainer leaped at Ivy, delivering a forceful kick to her stomach, her sneaker shoving itself into the flesh with tremendous impact, as the rage intensified.

"WE'LL SEE ABOUT THAT!"

"AAAAAAAAAAARRRGHHH!!!!!!!!!" Ivy cried out in intense pain, clutching at her stomach as she was thrown backwards into the trunk of a tree. She fell to the ground, wheezing and heaving for air, and her chest in a state of ironic, pure PAIN as she blearily looked down at her hands.

They were empty.

*~*~*

The raven-colored reptile known as Zero-X had never encountered anything as terrible as the sunshine.

It was brilliant to others, but to its eyes, that yearned for the opressive darkness, this light was pain-inducing from everywhere where the sun shone. It caused a horrible aching that sprouted from inside its head, This hurt... that came from the light.... it seemed so alien, yet natural, as if the creature had always hated light... but never THIS much. It had hated it because it was displeasing to its eyes, but it had never weakened Giovanni before.... before the change.

Looking at the hazy rays of sunlight that sprinkled the soft mud underfoot was draining, the reptile growled, snapping its eyelids closed. The light persisted. It growled louder and clamped its claws over the eyes, and the light STILL pervaded. Desperate to get away from that abominable light, it very uncharacteristically burrowed a hole through the mud, and plunged its head into it, in a huge effort to avoid that despicable sun.

In the meantime, the forgotten felines fell out of its claws, both gasping and choking for air.

"MEEEEEOOOWWWWTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Meowth cried, gagging as he laid in the mud and spit out the grit and grime that had accumulated in his mouth while in the hands of the..... lizard. "WHAD' DA HELLOOWTH HAS GOTTIN ENTO YAH MASTOYR, PERSIAN?!?!"

Usually, Meowth's voice was hard to discern. In dire circumstances, it was nearly impossible to decipher as English.

"Mreeeowwwww!!!!!" I don't know... I just hope he doesn't decide to stay under here!!
The feline's cries were choked with the accumulating mud. It thrashed, in a sorry attempt to resurface, but the hole that its "master" was digging was deepening.

".....GgggggRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!" Meowth roared in surprising fury, jumping up and executing a... well, a Fury Swipes attack on the creature's leathery neck. "STOPPIT BOSS, OR WE'RE ALL DON FOYR!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The "Boss" felt a slight...brush of claws against his throat, and scooping up Meowth and Persian, tossed them to the surface, and finally stopped digging, covering up the hole he had made, and virtually sealing himself underneath the mud. The blinding light had been his sole focus, his sole... LOATHING the entire time.

Meowth gasped for a moment, harshly, grabbing at his small chest with his even smaller claws as he laid on the grassy, firm surface of a bank surrounding the mud pool, staring at the sky. Then, he muttered something in his dazed state, which seemed to be towards Persian:

"Wonder if he can breathe down dere...."

"Mreow......." I don't know.....

The Persian cleaned its whitish fur, yowled weakly, still drained from the previous ordeal, and turned its head towards the unevolved cat. "Mreowwwww.Mreowwwww----reowww....." I'm staying here with master. Go and find your friends.

Persian no longer spoke with arrogance to the other feline, being so completely disillusioned that there was no bringing it back to its original mindset.

"But----what if da Boss goes....." Meowth blinked as he staggered upwards. "What if he goes all nutso again?!? Den what?!? I mean... how da MEEOWWWTH did he turn into a... one of us?"

"Mreow.....reowwwww..." I don't know...

The larger cat raised its remaining eye to the sun. "Mreow......Mreowwwwww........." I don't think I really want to know...

"Why not?" Meowth said, his brow furrowing. "You're his best Pokémon!!!! You're sapposed tah be his loyal companion or somethin'!!!! And now ya don't wanna know why he looks-----IS a FREAK!?!?!?!?"

"Mreowwwww........" Meowth, go away.....I don't want to know.....I wouldn't understand.

It gave another saddened yowl, and turned its battered face away, and if one was looking they could see that the jewel on its forehead had been lost in the most gruesome fashion. It closed its eye..... and looked longingly at the mud and the monstrosity that was laying beneath it.

Meowth blinked, then sighed, then turned away and began trudging towards wherever his teammates might be, even as he doubted if Team Rocket would ever be the same again.

*~*~*

The RocketBall was slowly, painfully rolling through the wet grass, towards the sprawled-out visage of a groaning trainer, who was currently laying in the nearby mud. A soft, soft moan was heard, as Ash's eyelids slowly fluttered open, his vision blurred with rain and dirt as he squinted forward.

"Wat's thes?" His speech was slightly slurred, as he groped forward and brought the strange PokéBall into his hands. He turned it over in his fingers for a second and then blinked up towards Misty. "Didda miss sumthin'?"

Misty shot the younger boy an uncharacteristic scowl and wrenched the black PokéBall, and the living soul inside it, away from Ash. "Give me!!" She held it tightly, sheltering it from the rain, and dragged up Ash by his collar. "I'll tell you about it when we get out of here!!!!"

"Huh?!" Ash was back to his old antics, as he blinked and was dragged along. Ivy groaned from not-so-far off, as the two trainers sped off to the deeper part of the woods. His eyes narrowed.

"H-hey!!!!! I found that Pokémon!!!! I get to keep it!!!!"

Misty stopped, then whirled upon Ash, her eyes raging in anger. "Ash, this is BROCK!!! You can't keep HIM!!" she yelled, clutching the PokéBall jealously to her heart.

All Ash did was stare, a strange expression on his face. His features suddenly darkened, and he shoved his hands into his jean's pockets, looking downwards. Then, he muttered:

"I still had it first....."

It was shocking that he was acting in such a manner, but then again, he was reaching adolescence, which is usually the time in which personalities change, morals twist, and often times, children begin to act more and more like their parents....

"I can't believe you, Ash!!!! This is Brock, not-----some..... some...... POKÉMON...!!" The traumatized water trainer choked on the words, and then a glare overtook her blue eyes. "But forget it... you don't understand him anymore....... no one does!!!"

She stomped off deeper into the dense woods, tightly holding the small black orb.....

It took Ash a moment for the full meaning of the words that he had just said to sink into his rather slow brain. If there was one thing about him that couldn't be determined through his genealogy, it most certainly was his intelligence.

".............W-wait!!!!!!" He yelled, running after Misty. "I'm sorry!!!! I'm all out of it-----I dunno what I'm sayin'!!!!! C'mon, Misty!!! You know I didn't mean it.........."

She managed to keep back an oncoming rush of tears as she neared the edge of the forest, the rain pounding above the treetops. "Oh, yeah?! How am I supposed to believe you, Ash?"

Why was she so cold to him? But then again, no human could have witnessed the way Ivy played with a once-human's mind...and look at other humans in a friendly light.

" 'Cause.... 'cause....." They were now well away from Ivy's current location, and Ash grit his teeth, stamping a foot down and crossing his arms. "Because I say so, and my Mom always told me that it's better to do something bad and then make up for it instead of doing something good just to make up for doing something bad afterwards!!!!!"

This was the lesson of the day. Ash's morals were extremely childish, and always, ALWAYS vague to the point of disastrous frustration.

"You're terrible, Ash!!! Really terrible!!!"

Misty's pained voice grew distant as she headed out of the forest with Brock in tow, unknowingly towards a certain location that had been burned off the map so recently before.

Ash grew irritable once more, and scowled as he tromped after Misty. "Oh, YEAH?!?! Well, then, how come you don't just let HIM OUT?!??!?!"

The black orb sat, clasped within Misty's cold, clammy hands, shaking slightly..... shaking....... as if struggling to escape. However, the RocketBalls were locked with a special code, that would make it difficult even for Misty to open it.

But it was erratically shaking, with a force that was slowly escalating...

"Fine, then I will!!" Misty answered indignantly, and tossed the ball gently towards the ground. It landed with a thud, but no bright light was seen. Her eyes widened, and she tried throwing it again, this time a bit harder. But still it did not open. Over and over she tried, throwing the thing harder and harder as her frustration rose. She knew well that Brock was trying to get out of the ball, but there was some type of lock on it.......she tried in futility to break the the object open, but it just wouldn't budge.....yet, she HAD to get Brock out.....

Ash crossed his arms across his chest, looking a bit less worried than he should have been--but then again, he hadn't quite realized the seriousness of the situation.

"You can't get it---him---out?" He frowned. "Maybe it's some kinda Team Rocket trick!"

"If it is... then it's hopeless!!" Misty held the ball to her eyes, and sighed heavily, lapsing into silence. She gazed at the ball, wishing for it to open. But there was no chance of that. It would stay closed, and Brock would never emerge.....

...Unless....

"Hi!"

Misty's head snapped up. "Ash, did you say something??"

"Huh? Me?" Ash blinked downwards and then glared at his abdomen, rubbing it. "Stupid stomach.... are you growlin' again?!?" His head snapped upwards. "Speaking of which---Misty, I'm huuuuuungrrrrryyyy!!!!!"

"How can you THINK about food?!" Misty snapped, her chest heaving in supressed rage.

The voice broke the short silence.

"Food? I've got lots of food!"

Misty slowly began to realize that that was not Ash, and she clutched the ball tighter, her eyes darting around as she stood to her feet and tensed her muscles, afraid that someone may jump up and attack.

"Who's...there?!"

"Me!"

"Where are you?!"

"Here!"

A brown-haired boy a bit younger than Misty with optimistic large eyes and a sickeningly positive demeanor walked into view, holding a picnic basket. However, it wasn't the food that caught Misty's attention, but the R on the boy's white shirt. Her eyes filled with anger, even more so now, aware of the abominable things they had done to Brock.

"Team Rocket!!!"

"That's right! Ooh, you look like the "twerps" Jessie and James and Meowth always talk about!" Mondo's bright face fell into a sulk. "You hurt them a lot!!"

"Uh........" Misty was at a complete loss at what to say. She shot a bewildered glance at Ash.

"Twerps?!?" Ash exclaimed, his eyes widening. "THEY CALLED US TWERPS to YOU TOO?!?"

However, a sharp nudge in the side and a glare from Misty got his thoughts back in the proper place. "Uh----I mean----you know Jessie, James, and Meowth??! The really dumb Team Rocket people who always---"

Mondo was completely taken aback, and he was hurled into a state of complete hororr; it manifested on his youthful countenance. "Dumb?" His voice was quickly rising into the blazing levels of angered fury. He usually was a mild type of person, but when it came to his idols,ridiculing them was sacrilege to him.. "DUMB??? HOW DARE YOU!??! Jessie and James are the greatest Team Rocket members that ever lived!! They've tried to capture your DUMB Pikachu more times than you can count!! And they've got the best flair and style! And they're just plain COOL! So..... nyah-nyah!!!!"

Mondo pulled down his eyelid. Misty blinked.

"Uh.... yeah. Whatever."

She looked at Mondo with a nonplussed expression, but it fell away as heated rage overtook her upon realizing that Mondo was part of the terrible organization that had.... taken Brock. Her eyes grew in their fiery blaze and she shouted,

"Get AWAY!!! He's not yours!!"

She held the PokéBall protectively, hiding it away from the enemy. Mondo looked at her curiously and perked up.

"Ooh, you think I'm going to steal that, don't you?"

Misty gave him a hard look and backed away slowly, until she was beside Ash. The brown-haired Rocket suddenly jumped foward, and Misty gave a sharp cry as the ball was wrenched away from her.

"NO!!! GIVE HIM-----"

Mondo displayed a hurt expression, and then, smiling coyly, he touched what seemed to be a keypad on the underside of the ball. There was a rapid string of beeps, and he dropped the Rocketball to the mud below. The two halves separated, releasing a white burst of light as whatever it contained came out......

Misty held her breath as Ash leaned forward.

At first there was nothing, nothing save for the scarlet light that hung in the air and over the ground. However, slowly, it began to take shape, twisting, darkening, solidifying, and.... BECOMING the abomination known simply as... Brock.

However, it wasn't the terrifying visage that those in Pewter City seemed to have interpreted. It was curled up into itself, laying on its side on the ground and its scaled forehead pressed to the shaking knees of its legs. It's tail was twitching slightly, rustling the surrounding grass, and its face was hidden in shadows. Its claws were too busy hugging its knees to kill, its teeth were too tightly grit to draw blood, its spikes were digging into the ground, too weak to destroy... and its voice----its GROWL--was too choked with muffled sobs to even give out the weakest of roars.

However, even if its horriffic features had been lessened by the trauma and grief that it was emanating, the merciless morning sun that pierced its wrathful rays through the foliage above seemed to give more magnification to its deformities than the stadium lights of a baseball field. In the dungeons, it had been able to hide its face, its body, its hideousness which was only worsened by the stark familiarity of its other features.... even with Ivy, it had been partially hidden.

Now it was stripped of any kind of cloaking, and its scales, designed---designed--to hide it in deep darkness, only brought out its utter..... inhumanity against the optimistic light of day that was slowly displacing the darkness.

It simply laid there, a shadow upon the dew-laden, Viridian grass.

Misty couldn't say anything. Her heart froze beneath her chest, and it refused to rise and fall. The sorry state that her friend......the inhuman MONSTER was now in... brought her to the layering mud, and she looked deep into his eyes, of that strange...unnatural color, terrifying in their own light, that constrasted sharply with the sunlight above. The breaking dawn through the storm clouds that were lightening their drizzle and floating away almost was a mockery: it laughed with scorn upon the damned beast.

"Brock...!!! You're-----"

Mondo couldn't have picked a worse time to cut in.

"It's...... it's..... SCARY!!!!!" he shouted, and fled from the forest as rapidly as possible, leaving the two trainers........ and the monster in the dense wood.

Ash just gawked. Glancing at Brock in the dungeons without really seeing anything, and yelling threats at the deaf wall was one thing, but now, seeing his great and good friend, teacher, girl-scoper, advisor, cleaner, cook, and caretaker as a...... POKÉMON....... it was just....... just......

He continued to stare with eyes that were widening by the second, as he put his fist to a nearby tree, and slowly, surreally, slid down to the ground. His eyes didn't move a millimeter.

Misty didn't even notice Ash's less-than-usual reaction. She was slowly walked towards the shaking form, and then kneeled, slowly. She soon found herself bitterly sobbing at the dark creature's side. She whispered to him soft encouragement, that everything would eventually turn out good again, and everything would fix itself...... and that they would get through this, but she knew she was only fooling herself.

The creature itself.... didn't even seem to see, hear, even feel anything around it..... It was trapped in its own world, of loss, of regret, of pain..... Why had he killed him? WHY!??!?! What the hell had he been thinking, why the hell was he so horrible.... he was a murderer.....

A_MURDERER.

He suddenly did recoil, whirling to his knees as he held his head in his claws and thrashed, enough for it to count as an attack, perhaps, and he cried out in complete anguish and sorrow.

And all the while, no words.....

Not a single syllable.

"Brock!! Are you-----okay?"

Misty didn't realize that, again, she had chosen the most unnecessary and inappropriate words that she could have ever picked for the moment. Maybe in her mind, she was trying to smooth it over. But what good could that do? She had no CONCEPT of what Brock had gone and still was going through. She could only watch from a distance---or maybe not..... No.... No, she couldn't see. Nor hear... the soul behind the tormented growls. Why? She was a human. No human could fully understand this twisted torture that was continuing to be inflicted. As it was, there were few that could even PARTLY understand it.

However.... he could hear her voice....

It punctured the turmoil, and his eyes, which had been shut through the tempest, suddenly snapped open.

There was dizzying darkness for a moment, and then light.... through the trees.

The creature blinked dazedly, bringing a hand to shade its eyes. Light.... seeing light..... being in.... light...... The storm clouds had lifted, the sun burning down upon him.... but.... wasn't it impossible.... To be in... light?

It seemed to be, as he gave out a sudden cry of pain. The light was like a laser, a spear, an acid that dripped down the whole of his body and seeped into his mind. He skittered backwards into the shade of one of the larger trees, in the mix of a leap and a crawl, and shivered... at the... sun?

Light.... I'm afraid... of.... the light........ he closed his eyes. The light was blinding, and he couldn't see anything in that horrible halo of white. Damn....... them......... It...... the light..... hurts......

"Brock, what's wrong?"

Misty couldn't understand him. There was nothing, save for the odd reflexes and intermittient growls. She yearned to understand, but the incomprehensibility of it made it impossible. Though this was Brock in mind, IT was more of an animal...no, a MONSTER.

And yet, she did notice one thing, and she looked him firmly in his burning red eyes. "The light? You're scared of the light?"

That voice again...... Brock looked upwards, fearful of what he might see. Through that white haze.... Misty was leaning forward, blurred by the light... and Ash... was silent, unmoving.... just.... staring.

Brock looked back to Misty, and slowly....... slowly..... nodded.

They made me afraid.... they..... MADE me afraid..... Misty, they made me afraid!!!! I HATE THEM!!!!!!!

He stretched his vocal cords, opened his mouth.... and from his chest... erupted..... a cry. A strangled, choked, rough cry. He had no WORDS to offer, but somehow.... he.... acknowledged.... their presence.

Through... the cry.

Misty finally understood with that single cry of desperation. She stepped forward and she took the clawed, monstrous hand of the other, and gripped it tightly, though the scales...not the smooth tanned flesh, but black...... scales..... It made her recoil a hint, but she buried the horror and tried to ease the situation.

"Come on, Brock... you can come back with us, now.... you're free."

Freedom... that... wonderful, joyous word....

Which he didn't even hear.

He looked down at Misty.

And you're.... you're scared of ME....... He looked into her eyes. He could see it, there. Fear of the unknown, the untouched, the unloved.... he could see it. Maybe she wasn't.... consciously.... but.... subconsciously......

He pulled the claws away, and retreated even further into the darkness, giving out a long, low, growl. A primal sound of apprehension, of distrust.

The sound of..... a caged tiger, perhaps?

"Wha--??" Misty couldn't believe it. Brock.....not trusting her? Not trusting HER, his friend who had gone through so much with him, who admired him so, had gone through all that trouble to save him from Ivy? From Satan and the inferno of her torturous Hell? She just didn't get it..... "Brock..... I'm not going to hurt you!"

She reached out her hand towards the darkness, that seemed to swallow the untrusting beast up.

"I'm not like them, Brock........"

Her voice grew weak. Was this all a waste? To try so hard and fail?

But then.... it hit her like a bullet in her heart, at a million miles an hour.

He_was_afraid of_humans.

HUMANS.

But.... how could he....? Be..... afraid of.... something which he WAS? Because he WAS a human, wasn't he?

WASN'T HE?!?

She didn't know anymore. Was she fooling herself all the time? Maybe Brock wasn't human... but..... no, it couldn't be!! He was the one that had been there through thick and thin...... and yet...... just from hearing, from seeing, and from feeling........

He wasn't human.

"M-Misty.........?" Ash's voice was small, a whisper as he shivered from behind her. "What's wrong with him?"

Another snarl, and then a halting lunge, in warning of coming any nearer.

Of his own will.

"Ash, stay back!!" Misty said out of fear, trying to keep herself from backing away and estranging Brock even further. "He..... doesn't trust us...!"

But why? We're NOT Team Rocket! Team Rocket...and...Professor IVY did this to him! Not us!!

WHY do you HATE us?

Why do you hate...... me?

"Grrrrrrrrrrrrooooorrrrgghh.........." Brock made a another step forward, and this time.... the forked tongue snapped out of his mouth, and he bared his teeth as he hissed at them.

If it hadn't been for the hair... that revealed his true identity.... the Pokémon would have been a new breed of humanoid Arbok, whom Ash would unrelentlessly try to capture....

Capture.... Ash's eyes widened as one of his gloved hands slowly strayed towards his belt. Maybe if....

"ASH!!!! Don't you dare!!!!!!"

All fear vanished as Misty very hastily threw herself at Ash and knocked him down into the fresh mud.

"BUT, MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSTTTYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!" Ash cried, the PokéBall outstretched in one hand, away from Misty as he was tackled. "WHAT IF HE------!!!!!!!"

"I-----I DON'T CARE!!!!!" she shouted carelessly, too overwhelmed by everything that had happened to deal with reason anymore. She wrestled the device away and inexplicably started to run away..... far away, from EVERYTHING. Her heart pounded in her chest as she charged through the foliage, disillusioned by the encounter with Brock, and at the same time, enfuriated with Ash, and just... wanting to get away from it all...

...Little did she know that she was heading straight for Team Rocket headquarters.

Ash blinked for a second, not sure what had just happened. He looked backwards, only to see the Pokémon, the sight of which was very tempting..... but he no longer had his PokéBall. He stood up from the mud, and his brown and sable eyes roved around, disconcerted by the sight of the scaly Pokémon. He soon had turned his back towards his... FORMER friend, and had begun to walk off.

Then, there was a sudden grip on his shoulder, a grip that was somehow familiar, as that hand had rested on the shoulder many times before in reassurance. However, it was meant to do something different this time, as Ash was whirled around, and he found himself staring into two blood-red, pupiless eyes.

The orbs narrowed for a moment.

"AUUGHHHHH!!!!! Misty, wait up!!!!!" Any thought of trying to catch this creature was pulled from Ash's mind as he fled as quickly as possibly, anywhere to get away from the hideous sight.

However, the young boy soon realized that he wasn't going anywhere; the.... creature had the back of his collar tightly in his grasp, and it stood stationary, as if waiting for Ash to actually face it and TELL it something.

However, when he finally found the courage to stop and turn around, Ash COULDN'T say anything: as he was rooted to the spot, so was his mouth, for the time being.

The eyes narrowed even further, and the monster growled slightly, releasing its grip. Perhaps Brock WAS dead, and this THING was simply----

The hand bumped against Ash's head, and rested in the air a moment there, as if in thought.

Why do they want to run away from me----WHY!?!??!?!!?!? It's me...... can't you see?!?! Don't you KNOW me well enough to know that I'm not DOING this because of me----I'm DOING this because---------

The hand returned to the creature's side, and all was silent.

At first, Ash was afraid......there were voices in his head? The last time he checked, he was perfectly sane. Taking the motion as a signal for him to run, Ash gave out a yelp and began to run. It took him a full three seconds to realize that Brock was speaking to him... telepathically... Shakily, he halted his retreat and whirled around, eyes wide.

"Brock?!"

The other eyes widened, and the mouth opened in an effort to speak.

"Grrrraaarrghh.........!!!!!"

However, strangely, there were no words.......

"Hey, you're tryin' to SAY something, aren'tcha?"

There was a.... sweatdrop, dark as the creature's flesh, as one of the creature's eyebrows went up as it gave an exasperated nod. One of Ash's "many" talents seemed to be his unique ability to point out the obvious.

Now that he had gotten it through his head, Ash was determined to help the monster, though he was severely tempted to do otherwise. But for the time being, he was trying to be on the Pokémon's side.

"Whatever you're tryin' to say, I'm listenin'!"

But before either of them could further this, a tremendous din shattered the otherwise silent daytime air with quaking force, and it reverberated throughout for the space of a minute before it died down. Ash blinked. The sound was familiar.....frighteningly so. He looked around in fear, and the roar was heard again.

Then it hit him where it was coming from and what it was.

He gulped.

Team Rocket Headquarters.

The monster......

Brock stared upwards, squinting against the painful sun.

What....... WAS........ that..........? He looked downwards a moment and drew his breath haltingly. It..... wasn't human..... sounded kinda like.... me..... but.... it's someone--------LIKE--------me.....

Brock began to run. He was running like the wind towards that sound, but he didn't know why, didn't know how, but all he knew was that it was someone like HIM.

Maybe..... he wasn't alone.

*~*~*

DMB: WHOA!!! I FINALLY proofread this!!! WOOHOO!!!!!!

DMB: (B9T voice) About bloody time....

DMB: Silence, monkey!!! ::Smacks self.::

Errr.... right. ^^;;; Anyway, YES, this chapter was EXTREMELY melodramatic and corny---and LONG. Twenty-three pages, to be exact. YES, it droned on and on and on during boring scenes, and YES, we know that you want us to show people OTHER than Giovanni and Brock. Bear with us. Chapter 10 and 11 are so full of action that you won't know blood from wine, and we'll have some glorious RUFUS!!!

Anyway, if you haven't reviewed.... C'mon!!! Nine's the charm!!!!! ::Innocent grin.::

TO BE CONTINUED......