C26: I know I said I was going to do a creation of Silph flashback but after a draft chapter I realised it was crap, so here we have more hallucinogenic experiences with Bruno, Lance and Loreli, and no I am not on drugs. Plus you find out what happened to Ash.

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Chapter 9: hostage

Ash

Stupid old bastard, I hadn't suspected that Oak had survived. The old miser gave me a devilish smirk before he laid down the many threats he had probably thought up within the last few seconds.

"Ash" he began "I know you picked it up, you know you picked it up, so just hand it over and no one gets hurt" his threats were enough to make me laugh, had he not thought any of this through?

"You're just gonna kill me and take it anyway" I replied spitefully and was confirmed when Oak failed to answer my claim.

"You may be surprised to hear Ash…" he slammed my head against the door during the middle of his sentence, I felt my nose crack blood began to spill into my mouth. "…that your dear mother survived this catastrophe" at that point he let me drop to the floor, I spewed a fountain of blood from my mouth before replying.

"She's alive?" this was news, I hadn't even considered she'd be alive and just let my feelings rest on the subject until I got out of Kanto. Unless of course Oak was just raving mad, I examined him, his white lab coat was covered in the blood of his Pokemon, his face was wild and deranged, he needed help if he was going to last much longer.

After a few minutes Oak had convinced her to come down, mom stood by the stairs shaking intensely, this situation was obviously very traumatic to her. To think that one day you've got a load of friendly creatures surrounding your lifestyle then the next they're all scraping at your door hungry for human flesh.

"Ash" she stuttered "I'm sorry, I trusted him, I protected him" she blurted out, Oak drew another pistol from a pocket in his lab coat and pointed the barrel in her direction.

"You say one more word and I shoot, you got that?" he was talking very calmly at first but when mom didn't reply he turned angry "I SAID HAVE YOU FUCKING GOT THAT?" she nodded slowly, obviously not wanting to even talk to him.

"Now hand it over Ash" he turned his attention back to me, in which time mom bravely leap up and dashed over to Oak, aiming to grab his gun, but it was hopeless.

Oak fired three times, one bullet hit her in the arm, another in the heart and the last shattering a hole straight through her skull, she collapsed to the floor.

In this time I grabbed Oak's other handgun and twisted violently hearing an enormous crack as his wrist snapped. He dropped the gun, I caught it before it hit the ground and raised it to his head, upset and pissed off I grinned.

"Now we play by my rules…"

Lance

I didn't know what to do; Loreli was briskly striding in front of him and Bruno bringing up the rear. I kept glancing back at him; afraid he'd transform and slice me to pieces. When he noticed I was looking at him, I tried not to show how shit-scared I was and grinned, he returned the smile reluctantly and went back to his own thoughts.

My attention drifted from subject to subject for a while until Loreli reached a huge blast door reading in big bold letters SECTION BETA.

"Right" Loreli began in what was likely to be a tantrum in which she would ask how we get in "any ideas?" she asked. She looked at me puzzled; I imitated her look knowing we were royally fucked beyond belief here.

"Bruno?" she asked, I turned round to ask Bruno what he though, but a chill soared up my spine, he'd vanished.

"What the fuck?" I spun round to face her again, Loreli was as confused as me.

"BRUNO!" she yelled in vain, when he gave no reply she yelled again "BRUNO WHERE'D YOU GO?"

I knew that was probably the wrong thing to say, I felt someone breathing against the back of my neck and then someone whispered in my ear in a ghostly, distant voice.

"Here" I swirled round raising my gun, but there was no sign of Bruno, then I heard the voice again, somewhat closer than before.

"Somebody help me…."

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C26: I know that was a short chapter but that just felt like a good place to finish, don't expect an update tomorrow cos that's when Doctor Who starts, I might update, but I don't know yet