Hey guys! Another new chapter for you! This is another personal favorite of mine, so I will not make you wait to read on. Enjoy!
LAST TIME: Kiara reveals that she is a kidnapped orphan who doesn't want any part of Team Rocket, and has been kept there against her will. She wants to escape and become a Pokemon trainer…and find a real family. Lance and the other two children continue to move through the ship and make some shocking discoveries. Trouble erupts, however, when all six escapees plus Kira are caught by Mickey, Kira's Team Rocket mentor.
Chapter 60: Fight to the Finish
Misty's eyes widened as she heard the explosion behind them. Despite what her brain was telling her, Misty stopped running, freezing in her tracks and stopping Michelle and Brandon, whose hands she was holding, with her.
"What was that?!" Michelle gasped, looking over her shoulder.
"The battle," Brandon muttered.
Misty swallowed, trying to get the lump in her throat to disappear. No good.
"Come on," she croaked. "We have to get out of here."
She kept pulling Michelle and Brandon along, but this time, the two young trainers were fighting against her a little more.
"Mom, I'm starting to think we shouldn't have left them behind," Michelle piped up.
"They're going to be fine," Misty rushed out, trying to convince herself of this as well. "Lance and your father know what they're doing. Which means they can protect Aiden."
"But how do we know Dad's not going to blow up again?" Michelle asked, her voice wavering.
"He won't blow up if he knows we're safe," Misty replied. "That's why we have to do this. We have to get away and stay safe. If your father knows that we're okay, he can keep his cool."
Michelle tore her eyes away from her mother and looked back ahead. She knew she was right, especially since she had never seen her father so angry. It wasn't a common occurrence. But still, it was scary. Michelle didn't want her father putting himself in danger.
As the three ran, alarms started to go off, blaring overhead while red lights started to flash.
"What is that?" Brandon cried, wincing at the noise.
"They know we escaped," Misty breathed, her face flushing. "We've got to get out of here. Now."
"But how?" Michelle gasped.
Misty looked down the hallway and caught sight of something. "I've got it. Come on!"
She dragged the two children along with her, stopping a few feet ahead at a door that looked quite similar to the one Michelle and Brandon had snuck in through with Lance.
"We're going to have to jump," Misty sighed, staring at the door.
"What?!" Michelle and Brandon cried.
"We don't have a choice!" Misty snapped. "Don't worry, I've got this."
She plucked a poke ball, tossing it as she cried, "Starmie, I choose you!"
The purple stare shape Pokémon appeared before its trainer, red gem glimmering in the light of the flashing alarms.
"Starmie, quick, use rapid spin on the door!" Misty commanded.
The water type jumped up and started spinning, sending its body right into the door. The metal broke away from the rest of the wall, a huge dent scarring its center as it flapped against the outside of the ship.
"Great," Misty breathed, retrieving its poke ball. "Return!"
Once Starmie was back in its ball, the wind from outside started whipping through the now open space. Michelle could feel herself being pulled in that direction, and grabbed onto Brandon's arm to stop herself from slipping. The strong wind blew her grunt hat off of her head, sending her bright red locks tumbling back down to frame her face.
"Get ready," Misty warned the two children behind her, pulling out another ball. "Gyarados, I choose you!"
The sphere popped open and released Misty's perpetually furious looking dual type right outside of the ship. Michelle shrieked, afraid that Gyarados would fall. When she looked closer, however, she realized he was actually floating on air.
"H-how's that possible?" Michelle breathed.
"Gyarados is part flying type," Misty replied, smiling at her daughter. "He can swim, but he can also fly. And that's how we're gonna get out of here."
"They're down this way!"
Misty gasped and turned her head back towards the children after snapping it the other way at the unfamiliar voice. "Hurry!"
She jumped onto Gyarados' back, reaching out for Michelle and Brandon as they scampered closer. She grabbed the young trainers by the hand and pulled them on behind her. Michelle quickly grabbed onto her mother's waist, while Brandon did the same to Michelle.
"Gyarados, go!" Misty cried.
The atrocious Pokémon roared and swooped down, causing Michelle and Brandon to squeak and hold on tighter. Misty narrowed her eyes against the rushing wind as the water below them came into view. Gyarados let out another roar, straightening his body out to slightly slow them down. With the wind no longer smashing into her face, Misty was able to let out a breath and look over her shoulder at Michelle and Brandon, who both looked wind-swept and terrified.
"Are you two okay?" She asked sweetly.
"Yeah…" Michelle replied timidly, her head tilting back so she could look at Team Rocket's ship above their heads.
"That…was terrifying…" Brandon panted. "But also…so awesome."
Misty smirked and giggled softly. Her relief wasn't to last long, however. White crescents came down and struck Gyarados in the back of the neck, causing the dual type Pokémon to cry out in pain and flail, making his flying erratic.
"Gyarados!" Misty gasped, looking down at her Pokémon.
"What was that?" Michelle gasped.
Another brigade of air cutter came down, this one towards Michelle and Brandon. Misty growled and threw her arm out in front of them, the attack making direct contact with her arm instead of the children.
"Mom!" Michelle cried.
"Are you okay?" Brandon gasped.
Misty groaned and lowered her arm, examining the bright red marks on her pale flesh. "Yeah. I'm alright. Better me than you two."
Michelle looked back up, Brandon's eyes now following in the same direction. What they found was a Golbat circling overhead, a hoard of additional Golbat coming in quickly to back the first one up.
"They're still after us," Michelle whined.
"Well, they picked the wrong person to mess with," Misty bit, still wincing as the pain in her arm radiated. Gyarados, flamethrower!"
The atrocious Pokémon whipped around to face the Golbat, unleashing an intense burst of fire. It struck some of the Golbat, causing them significant damage. Michelle and Brandon were about to cheer, until the unaffected Golbat started flying in closer. They began spitting out globs of acid which went barreling straight towards Gyarados and the trainers on his back.
"Sludge bomb!" Brandon gasped.
"I got this!" Michelle cried, tossing her own poke ball. "Butterfree, use gust!"
The butterfly Pokémon appeared and began flapping her wings, creating a torrent of wind. The heavy winds sent the sludge bombs flying back towards the Golbat, causing them to be struck by their own attacks.
"Michelle!" Misty gasped, turning to look at her daughter.
"What, and let you have all the fun?" Michelle giggled, winking at her mother.
Misty smiled knowingly and closed her eyes. "It was an awfully nice assist."
"Guys, look!" Brandon cried, pointing up towards the sky. "The Golbat are all incapacitated!"
Misty and Michelle both looked up, and found that the grunts' Pokémon were, in fact, deliriously flying around and not listening to any of their trainers' commands.
"Perfect," Misty breathed. "Let's get out of here while we can! Go, Gyarados!"
The atrocious Pokémon roared once more before whipping around and flying off, leaving Team Rocket's Golbat and ship behind.
XXX
"Klinklang, use zap cannon!"
The gear Pokémon fired off a ball of electricity right in the direction of Riolu. Ash was about to order Pikachu to use a counter attack to protect Riolu, but that was not Aiden's plan in the slightest.
"Riolu, counter!"
The emanation Pokémon held out his paw and created an invisible force field of energy, sending the zap cannon right back at Klinklang. It collided with the pure steel type, causing the gear Pokémon to cry out in pain.
"Atta boy!" Ash cheered, beaming at his son. "You know what you're doing now!"
"Told you I've come a long way!" Aiden bragged.
"Zap canon, again!"
Aiden and Ash looked away from one another, gasping once they realized another ball of electricity was hurdling towards them.
"Salamence, dragon claw!" Lance commanded.
The dragon Pokémon lunged forward, using his glowing claws to slash the zap cannon in half. Ash, meanwhile, shook his head, internally reminding himself that he needed to focus on the battle with Mickey and not his son's battling proficiency.
"Pikachu, use iron tail!" Ash called.
The little mouse charged forward, flipping in the air and coming down on Klinklang with a heavily glowing tail. Klinklang cried out in pain, while Mickey scowled from behind.
As Kira, who was still being held close to Ash's side, watched the battle rage on before her, she suddenly remembered the bright red backpack she had slung over her shoulder. There wasn't much inside, just things she thought would help her out in her escape and shortly thereafter. Among those items, however, was a bundle of rope. She had brought it along, assuming it would be useful when it came time to scale herself out of the ship. Now, however, she realized it could be used for something else.
"Ash," Kira whispered, not moving her eyes so as to not draw any suspicion to herself. "How strong are you? Physically?"
Ash's eyes shifted over to the brunette girl, who glowered at him for taking his eyes away from the battle.
"I'd like to think pretty strong," Ash murmured back, watching as Riolu used quick attack to bounce off the walls and confuse Klinklang while Salamence fired up an attack. "Why?"
"I've got some rope in my backpack," Kira explained. "If we can keep Mickey distracted, you could tie her up, and we could get out of here."
"Dodge it!" Ash shouted, eyes widening as several of Klinklang's gears came off its body and went flying towards Pikachu. Gear shift.
"I can help," Kira added, watching on in amazement as Pikachu just barely dodged the attack. "I have Pokémon with me, remember?"
Ash grunted and held out his hand behind his back. "Alright. Give it to me."
Kira quickly reached into her bag and fished out the rope, handing it over to the Pokémon Master.
"Well, well, looks like we've got company!"
Kira and Ash both looked over their shoulders, finding a couple of grunts to be standing behind them. From the other side, they could hear Mickey snickering. They were surrounded. Ash, however, was not deterred.
"Lance, Aiden, take care of those grunts," Ash ordered. "Kira and I have got Mickey."
Lance turned towards his teammate and blinked. "Ash…"
The raven haired man glanced at Lance, giving him a single nod. "Do it."
Lance had known Ash long enough to know what that look meant. Ash had something up his sleeve. The dragon master didn't know what, but he knew that he trusted Ash. That look was enough to reassure Lance that this was the right thing to do.
"Okay," he breathed. "Aiden!"
The younger boy nodded his head and turned around with Lance to face the grunts. Ash and Kira moved in closer, their backs matching up against Lance and Aiden's so Mickey couldn't attack them from behind.
"You were never a battler, Kira," Mickey purred, causing the younger girl to scowl. "How do you think you can beat me? Your mentor?"
"Easy," Kira replied. "Because I've got friends to back me up!"
"How weak of you," Mickey snarled, her eyes narrowing viciously. "You've really disappointed me, Kira."
"Then I've done something right," Kira quipped, much to Mickey's obvious annoyance. "Klink, let's go!"
The teenager threw her poke ball, releasing a smaller version of Mickey's own Pokémon; the first creature in its evolutionary phase.
"A weak form of my Pokémon and an electric rat?" Mickey scoffed. "How threatening."
"Pika…" Pikachu growled, sparks emanating from his cheeks.
"Pikachu doesn't like to be called a rat," Ash smartly informed Mickey. "Now you've done it."
"Like I said, I'm terrified," Mickey drawled.
"Pikachu, electroball!" Ash ordered.
"Dodge it!" Mickey barked.
Pikachu fired off a ball of electricity from his tail, but Klinklang separated its gears and avoided being hit. With a smirk, Mickey held her hand out and called, "hyper beam! Knock Klink out with one shot!"
The steel type fired off a powerful orange beam, but Kira showed no sense of concern. "Klink, use protect!"
The gear Pokémon became surrounded by a dome of light blue energy, which rendered the hyper beam useless. Mickey scowled in frustration, while Kira just smiled at her Pokémon.
"Nice job, Klink!" She complimented the steel type. As she did this, she reached over and poked Ash's side, gaining the Pokémon Master's attention. He looked just out of the corner of his eye, not wanting to look fully away from the battle like he had before, and saw Kira give a barely noticeable nod.
Now was their time to strike.
"Klink, use gear shift!" Kira ordered.
The gear Pokémon disassembled itself and began to fly around Mickey and Klinklang, getting into their faces and distracting them.
"Get away from me you little runt!" Mickey stormed, trying desperately to get Klink away from her.
With Mickey unable to see anything, Ash charged forward, with Pikachu darting around his feet, reaching Mickey's backside and roughly grabbing her arms.
"What?!" Mickey fumed, trying to look behind her. Klink's gears would not leave her face, however, and she couldn't see a thing.
"Surprise," Ash teased, smirking at the back of the engineer's head. He looped the rope around her wrists a few times, tying it into a tight knot.
"Pikachu, can you chew through this?" Ash asked.
Pikachu looked at the trail of rope dangling in front of him and nodded. Opening his mouth, Pikachu dug his sharp little white teeth into the rope, fraying it up until the excess was pooled on the floor.
"Great!" Ash cheered. "Now, use iron tail!"
Pikachu's tail began to glow white as he struck Mickey's ankles, knocking the woman down to the floor. As she groaned in pain, Ash used the excess rope that Pikachu had chewed off to bind Mickey's ankles together, leaving her totally tied up and unable to do a thing.
"I can't believe that worked!" Kira giggled.
Ash looked up at the young teen and smiled at her. "It was a good plan! Nice work thinking of it."
Kira just beamed. She wasn't used to being complimented like that!
"Yeah! Got 'em!"
Ash looked back, while Kira turned around. Aiden and Lance were grinning at one another, the two grunts they had been battling passed out on the floor with their equally unconscious Pokémon on top of them.
"Excellent work, Aiden," Lance commended the raven haired boy standing by his side. "The potential in you has truly flourished. You are going to be quite a feat as you get older."
"Why not right now?" Aiden asked with a smirk, causing Lance to chuckle.
Ash approached Lance, gently grabbing the dragon master's shoulder. "Lance, we've got to take this ship down. Rescue all of the kids Team Rocket kidnapped and get these guys locked away for good."
"You're right," Lance breathed, nodding his head.
Ash turned his attention onto Aiden and Kira, who blinked in response. "I think you two should get out of here."
"What?!" Aiden gasped.
"You had to battle with me and Lance because we didn't have any other choice," Ash replied. "Now you two have a chance to escape, and I think you should both take it."
"But Dad-"
"I don't want Giovanni or Magnus seeing you with us," Ash interrupted. "They're already going to be furious, and they'll stop at nothing to get their hands on you. Not to mention, who knows what they'll do to Kira now."
The brunette girl nervously shuffled her feet, staring down at the floor.
"Run," Ash continued, holding onto his son's shoulders. "Find your mother, sister, and Brandon. They're probably all worried sick, especially your mother. I don't want her thinking anything happened to you."
"Okay," Aiden murmured, staring into his father's eyes. "I promise."
"Wait!"
Aiden and Ash turned their attention onto Kira, who by now was looking back up with a rather deep blush on her face.
"I have another idea," Kira continued. "You're at a huge disadvantage as long as Team Rocket has full control of the airship."
"Clearly," Lance replied. "But what are we supposed to do about that?"
"I can get the ship down," Kira replied, giving a slight nod.
"How?" Lance muttered, unable to believe it.
"Kira isn't an operative, Lance," Ash explained. "She's a young engineer. She knows all about Team Rocket's technology because she's worked on most of it."
"I know what to do to get the ship to malfunction," Kira confirmed. "If you have to fight Giovanni and Magnus, it won't be easy regardless. But doing it away from the ship where they rely on all of their state-of-the-art technology will certainly make it easier."
Lance was staring down at Kira, trying to figure out if this girl was the real deal. She hadn't done anything to them yet, but she was part of Team Rocket, and she was just a teenager. Did she really know how to disable an entire airship?
"Trust her, Lance!"
The dragon master hummed and looked over at Aiden. "Yeah?"
"I didn't trust her at first," Aiden admitted, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. "But she doesn't want to be part of Team Rocket. She just wants to be a normal kid! Besides, she did know her way through all those vents up there. Until we fell through, she was getting us through there like it was programmed in her brain!"
"That's because they basically are," Kira laughed nervously.
Lance sighed noisily before turning his full attention back onto Kira. "Alright. Bring the ship down. And remember, we're all counting on you."
Kira held a fist up against her chest and nodded. She ran down the hallway, Klink following after her. Ash watched her go before looking back over at the grunts Aiden and Lance had been battling, who were still knocked out cold.
"Should we be tying them up or something?" Ash asked.
"No way those two are waking up any time soon," Lance refuted, smirking at his partner.
"Yeah Dad, you totally should've seen me battling 'em!" Aiden crowed. "I destroyed them! Those two didn't even stand a chance!"
"Ri!" Riolu barked, wagging his tail back and forth.
"Gee, I wonder where you get that confidence from," Ash teased, raising an eyebrow at his son's exuberance.
"Ash, do you think Misty and the other two got away safely?"
Ash looked back over at Lance. "I think so. I hope so. We definitely distracted those grunts and Mickey enough. But when those alarms started going off…"
"I think they're okay," Aiden piped up, both Ash and Lance staring at him. "I don't feel anxious or scared. I feel…calm. I think Michelle, Mom, and Brandon are all safe."
"For now, anyway," Lance muttered.
"Once we get Team Rocket out of the way, we can find those three," Ash declared. "But I'm not too worried. The kids have Misty with them, and she'll stop at nothing to protect them. She's smart and brave. I'm sure she's got everything under control."
XXX
Just down the hall and around a bend, Kira was busy hacking into the ship's technology center. She knew how to do this quite simply. Finding one of the metal panels in the wall, she removed it and began to mess with the wires and switches that lived beneath the covering. As she busied herself with this, Klink guarded her back, keeping an eye out for any incoming grunts or operatives.
"Kli! Kli!"
Just like now.
Kira gasped and whipped herself around, pressing her back against the exposed panel. A group of grunts came hurrying up to her, their faces quite serious.
"The boss' prisoners have escaped," one of them informed Kira. "Have you seen them anywhere?"
Kira swallowed thickly. They had no idea she'd been the one to help them escape! Thank goodness.
"Yes," Kira replied, trying to keep her voice level. "I saw them go that way."
She pointed to the left, and as soon as she did, the grunts were heading in that direction. Once they were gone, Kira sighed and pulled her short hair back, squeezing her seafoam green eyes shut.
"That was a close one."
"Kli…"
"Thanks for keeping lookout, Klink," Kira breathed, smiling at her Pokémon as she returned to work on the control panel. "Those grunts will have an awfully hard time finding everyone considering I sent them in the wrong direction."
Klink went back to guarding Kira as she messed with the ship's hardware. She yanked out two red wires and stuck green ones in their place. As she did this, all of the lights in the ship turned off.
"Almost there," Kira muttered, squinting her eyes as she leaned in closer to the panel. She flicked two switches in the opposite direction and pulled out a yellow wire, and just like that, alarms began to go off just like before. These alarms, however, weren't red. They were blue. And Kira knew exactly what that meant.
"The ship is going down," she breathed, looking over her shoulder.
"Li," Klink commented, its gears spinning around wildly.
"There's no way they can stop it now," Kira said, placing the metal covering back in front of the panel to cover her handiwork. "Come on. Let's get back to the others."
XXX
Michelle sighed and rested her head on her mother's shoulder. Misty eyed the girl and smiled at her.
"You tired?" Misty asked.
"Yeah, just a little," Michelle admitted.
"It shouldn't take us too long to get back to Cerulean," Misty replied. "Once we get there, we can go home and you can go to bed."
Michelle picked her head up and raised an eyebrow. "How can I go to sleep when I don't know if Dad and Aiden are okay?"
"Because you can't stay up all night waiting to see," Misty sighed. "Believe me, I tried to do that when it came to your father and this whole mission and it didn't do me any good. If anything, it only made me worry even more."
Michelle frowned. Pulling her backpack forward, Michelle zipped up the compartment fully and smiled when she saw that Pichu was fast asleep inside.
"At least one of us is getting a good night's rest," Michelle muttered.
Brandon, who had been quiet during the mother-daughter exchange, suddenly made a noise of interest as he tilted his head back to stare up at the sky.
"Brandon, is something wrong?" Michelle asked the young breeder.
"I'm not sure," Brandon replied, lowering his head. "Do you guys hear something?"
"No," Misty refuted, shaking her head. "What do you hear, Brandon?"
"It sounds kind of like-"
Brandon was cut off as a piercing sound filled the otherwise quiet air. Misty and Michelle both gasped, looking up towards the sky like Brandon had before. Overhead, they saw Team Rocket's airship, only this time, dark smoke was rolling out of the engines.
"What's wrong with it?" Michelle cried.
"I don't know, but it doesn't look good," Brandon grumbled.
They soon realized the ship was getting closer and closer…it was hurdling down towards the Earth. Misty gasped and leaned forward on Gyarados, her emerald eyes set wide.
"Gyarados, faster!" Misty ordered.
The atrocious Pokémon took off, water curtaining his sides and splashing the legs of his riders. Within a matter of seconds, the ship crashed on the grassy shore alongside the water, skidding for a few feet and sending up sparks before it came to a complete stop. The crash shook the ground like an earthquake, causing Michelle to hold more tightly onto Misty and Brandon more tightly onto Michelle. Misty locked her legs around Gyarados, clutching his body for fear of falling off. The quaking caused Gyarados to fall out of the air, crashing into the water and sending it shooting up all around him as he cried out in pain. Misty grunted and pulled up on Gyarados, trying to get the dual type Pokémon to reposition himself. Gyarados flipped around on top of the water, creating a funnel as he now faced the direction in which the ship had crashed. Misty breathed out heavily as Gyarados settled himself, leaning over to stroke the Pokémon's head.
"Good job," Misty murmured. "You're just fine, Gyarados."
"Mom!"
Misty looked back towards Michelle, who was wearing a look of horror. Misty whipped her head around to face the ship, and let out her own gasp as she realized it was now engulfed in flames. Her heart flew into her throat as realization hit her, everything suddenly moving in slow motion.
"Ash…Aiden…" she breathed, her eyes filling with tears.
Please…please be okay.
Two things: First, Klinklang is the most annoying Pokémon name I have ever had to type out. Second, badass Misty is by far my favorite character to write. She is so cool.
Except now, of course, she has to worry about her husband and son. What happens now that the airship has crashed? Stay tuned...