Chapter 10: Team Helix.

The next day, Flint and Naga were off to continue their journey, leaving Taru tied to a pole in the center of town, waiting for police to pick him up and arrest him. The townsfolk, learning from Flint that he was a willing follower of the pokemon that terrorized thier town, thew tomatos at him and humiliated him for a time before the officer arrived.

Eventually, after hours of mockery, she did show up. On a motorcycle she appeared from beyond the horizon; with curly blue hair, and her partner pokemon riding with her. Her pokemon was round and pink. It had pointed ears with brown spots on them, a curl of hair in the front, and a fluff of hair that looked like a bow above it's tail, and a single sharp tooth poking out when it's mouth was closed.

"Hello, I'm officer Jennifer O'Hara, VCPD, acting on behalf of Interpol," She spoke to the elder,"Do you have the criminal?"
"Yes, ma'am!" He spoke,"Right over here. I'm glad to finally have him out of our hair! He is a very bad man, he worked with an evil pokemon to terrorize our town!"

"I see," She said, approaching him,"Well, I'll make sure he can never hurt anyone ever again."

As she bent down to temporarily uncuff him to get him unstuck from the pole, she was hit in the face by a shoulder charge from a man almost twice her size.
"DON'T TOUCH HIM!" Yelled brick as Officer Jenny fell to the ground.

"What, how'd you know I was in trouble?" Taru asked.

Another Team helix member answered his question. Accompanying brick on this mission was a different member of his team. A mysterious figure in a long black robe, it's hood was up and it wore a gas mask, it's face and hands covered by it's outfit. On its back was a gas tank with a skull and crossbones on it. "We're always listening in to the police scanners."

"And we never leave a teammate behind!" Said brick, beating his fist into his hand, ready to take on Officer Jenny.

"I for one don't know why we should save a human that can't even do their job, but Brick insisted."
"Fail?" Taru asked, "How's this for failing." He said, holding up a pokeball,"The Gliscor I came for, right in here. That idiot Flint thought he was taking my 'second pokemon' off of me, he grabbed an empty ball and I was able to save Muda and Gliscor for myself.

Jenny stood up, and her Pokemon got ready for a fight. "CLEFAIRY!"

"Allright, let's go!" Taru said, throwing a pokeball into the air,"LORD GLISCOR, GRANT ME YOUR POWER!" Gliscor was released, floating in the air. It took a moment to look around. A fairy, the sun, so many people!? It panicked and returned to the pokeball. Taru was mad that this once great pokemon was so easily intimidated. "Fine, let's go MUDA!" Taru yelled, releasing his partner pokemon.

"Clefairy, Ice beam!" Jenny yelled, as her clefairy fired at Taru and Muda. Being as close as they were, they were both hit, freezing them in place.

Brick jumped back and released Whismur. Whismur was scared, fighting was hard, but he had to save his friend! Whismur ran up to Clefairy and walloped her with one of his ears. Clefairy stumbled back, got her bearings and curled into a ball to defend herself. Whismur continued to pound as hard as he could, but he just wasn't doing any damage. In the quietest whimper, he said "Wi-wi-wi." Everyone else seemed confused, but Brick knew what this meant. He turned off his hearing aids once again, before Whismur took in a deep breath, and let out an ear-drum shattering yell! Clefairy was protected against physical attacks, but this rumbling shook her insides up.

Clefairy uncurled, and ran back towards her master, panicked. "Cle-Cleffa!" she yelled, covering her ears. Jenny seemed to be struggling too. "Clefairy,use your metronome spell!"

Clerfairy uncovered one of her ears and wiggled her finger at Whismur, and then there was a green flash of light, as a swarm of biting bugs appeared around Clefairy and flew at Whismur, biting at all over his body! "Allright, Infestation!" Jenny yelled. No one could hear her, but Brick could read her lips. The pain of the bug bites only caused Whismur to yell louder.

"If you don't put your pokemon away," Jenny yelled, falling to her knees in pain,"Those bugs will keep eating at him until there's- ugh- nothing left!"

Brick winced, and returned Whismur.

"That's right, perp," Jenny started, before seeing Brick lower his stance and start charging at her. "My goodness, are you serious?" She asked smugly laughing,"A big scary man running at me, what ever shall my fairy pokemon do? Clefairy, moonblast!"

Though it was daytime, the moon was still visible in the sky, and as Clefairy raised her hands high, a faint beam of light shined down from the moon and beamed Brick, who's momentum was stopped as he went flying backwards 20 feet, losing his breath.

The hooded figure finally spoke,"Are you done yet, Brick?"

"Wh- huh-ah-wh-what?" Brick couldn't tell what the figure was saying with his hearing aids off and their face covered, and couldn't catch his breath to speak.

"I'll take that as a yes," They said, annoyed. "JENNIFER!" The figure yelled,"Your fairy may be strong against warriors, but there's one thing that's always haunted the fairies of the world."

"Yeah, wise guy, what's that?"

"The same thing that haunts me. Humanity! Humans produce pollution and artificial machines, disturb the environment and hurt fairies. But now I've harnessed this power I hate, so I can stop the humans who use fairies!"

"So what? You got a poison pokemon, is that it?" Officer Jenny asked.

"Something like that," The figure said, raising it's long sleeve-covered arms and pointing them forward. It was at this moment Officer Jenny noticed this figure wasn't walking, but hovering a few inches above the ground. Was that a pokemon in human clothing?

"Smog!" The figure yelled in an eerie voice, releasing a large gust of dark green gas at its enemies. It kept pumping the gas out, engulfing Jenny and her Clefairy. They were poisoned. Coughing and hacking, damaging their lungs and getting the poison into their bloodstream where it burned. When the smoke cleared, they lay on the ground, not getting up any time soon.

Brick got up and turned on his hearing aids again,"You stopped them?"
"Yes."

"Good, let's get Taru free then!" Brick said, as he started to smash the ice around Taru to free him.


"So, Tootie, you finally put aside your hatred for humanity for long enough to save a human, huh?" Asked Taru on their way to their new base. After the last one was found out, their whole squad had to move further west to anothers secret base that had been constructed previously.

"Like I said, Brick demanded I help."

"How could you not?" Asked Brick,"We're like a family here. I gotta save my brother, and you oughta too. I know you don't like people but we like you-"
"I sure don't," Said Taru, bluntly.

"Feeling's mutual," Replied Tootie.

"Now guys, don't be like that!" Said Brick.

"Not everyone uses Team Helix to cope with their emotional issues," Taru replied in an unusually malicious tone. While he was responding to Brick ostensibly, it was clear that was meant for Tootie more than anything.

"Yeah," Said Tootie, falling for his rage-bait,"Well you may not have the same issues as me, but you don't have pokemon powers either do you! I have ghastly powers now, you notice that? You see me floating?! You see me shoot poison from my fingertips earlier!"

Taru paused, had Team Helix finally made a breakthrough? "Hmm, how'd she manage that?" He asked. Tootie seemed to be embarrassed and a little ashamed, wrapping her arms around herself and looking away as she continued to float forward.

"Well," Brick started,"You see that gas can on her back. Under that robe it connects to a whole suit with all sorts of thingies, and there's a Koffing in there who's powering the whole thing."

"Hmm, it's something I guess, but she still has to rely on a pokemon to do it. Someday Team Helix is gonna give us all pokemon powers." Taru said with great optimism. Brick and Tootie both nodded, the one thing that seemed to bring them together. "This Gliscor can lend people power without trapping it," He said,"It gave me strength and extra arms and horns, it felt amazing! But," He looked down at the ground,"No, it wasn't right. It was the best high of my life to fight that goody-two-shoes bounty hunter, but that Gliscor was…influencing me. I was like it's peon. I don't want to have to rely on another pokemon for my strength. I want to be powerful like them, something majestic and worth respecting!"

"I respect you, Taru," Brick said.

It didn't change Taru's attitude much, and honestly didn't mean much to him, but for Brick's sake, he said,"Thanks."


When they got back to their new base, Tootie split off from the others. Taru took the Gliscor to the lab and gave the scientists all the information he had, before heading off to the rec room. Before he could leave, a scientist stopped him, "Just so you know, Hasius will be visiting this base soon, and I believe he said something about needing a squad for a mission. We already had a squad defending this base so it's probably gonna be your team." The scientist seemed to be glad to have Brick and his squad out of his hair, and took a sadistic pleasure in striking anxiety into Taru.

Taru tried to cool off, playing ping-pong with Brick. It was pretty easy for Taru. While brick was stronger and probably faster than him in a straight line, Taru was more agile and could play mind games; feinting and baiting him. "Brick, I'm gonna be real with you, and you can't tell anyone."
"Of course, anything."

"I'm scared."

"Why?"

"The boss is coming. We were the base that was discovered, a policeman a bounty hunter and a random teenager were able to sneak in and defeat us,"Taru sped up, his swings becoming more wild and inaccurate as his panic set in,", I had full Team Helix gear on when we went to capture the pokemon back from the interpol guy, I needed a rescue team for capturing one pokemon-" His paddle snapped in half as he launched the ball at the net, losing that volley.

"GAH!" Taru yelled,"I CAN'T TAK-" He looked over, as the door opened, luckily it was Tootie, but Taru did try his best to change to a calmer demeanor and change where his sentences was going,"Take this anymore, you're so good at ping-pong, Brick."

"I-uh, thanks," Brick said, confused.

Tootie floated over to a corner and simply waited. Behind her, followed Levi, who sat down on the couch, with his feet on the table, and his hat resting on his face, relaxing. The third behind them was the last member of Brick's main team, a girl named Buttercup. Despite being an adult, she dressed like a fairy-princess, complete with fake wings and flower crown, over her long wavy blonde hair. She walked with a rhythmic bounce. She sat on the couch next to Levi, adding her own flair of falling backwards off the back of the couch, sitting on it upside down, pumping her legs in the air.
"Hey Brick…Hey Taru~" She waved at them.

"So, he's here then?" Taru asked, in a serious tone.
"Ye-ye angstey boy!" Buttercup said, giggling, and playing with her Floette, a small fairy pokemon with a flower, that hopped on her chest while she batted at it with her hands.

After a minute or two of waiting, he entered. Hasius was a tall man of an average build. His medium length brown hair was pulled back, and thin glasses covered his neigh-expressionless face. His confidence despite his unassuming appearance was all the intimidation you would ever need.

Levi stood up, took off his hat, and gave a traditional Japanese-style deep bow, with his arms by his side. Buttercup gave a deep curtsey and a smile. Brick kneeled down on one knee, bending his head like a knight bowing to his king; When Taru didn't follow his lead, he elbowed Taru in the side, at which point Taru followed the kneel, but did not bow his head, instead looking up with an almost spiteful stare. Tootie stood silently, though this did not seem to offend Hasius.

"Up, all of you," He spoke in a neutral tone, making it unclear if these actions annoyed him, or if he was simply putting them at-ease like a drill sergeant would. They all stood, with varying levels of anxiety between the team members. "Here's what's going to happen," He spoke without preface or introduction, direct and to the point,"Your team has shown themselves time and time again to be…willing to take great risks, that is put Team Helix in great risk; regardless of the success of such risks. You are going to take another risk."

"I-" Taru tried to speak but was ignored and spoken over

"You are going to move westward. We have information that a meteorite has landed on the west coast that may contain a legendary pokemon; Deoxys. Deoxys is the DNA pokemon. Given our current understanding of pokemon's abilities, we need such a pokemon to unravel the secrets of their DNA. You are not being sent to retrieve the meteor, you are being sent to scout out a route to the meteor for a retrieval team to then follow after you. Other than your standard field rations for such a trip and a modified frontier tracker to gather data, you are not going to receive any additional help. Understood?"

There was a pause. While Brick was the official leader of the squad, Levi had been called many times on special missions and it was an open secret that he was the member given the most respect and prestige in the group.

"Understood, Brick?" His face finally showed some emotion. That of a parent putting great pressure on a child to succeed, or else.

"Y-Yes Hasius, sir."

"Good," He said as he made his way to the doorway,"And-,Do not fail me again."