Chapter Three

Blackout and Brawl

Once away from Goldenrod, with no signs of pursuit, Ash's shakes began to subside. He directed Swellow to head for Olivine. It wasn't very far from Goldenrod, but being honest, nowhere would be far enough away from Goldenrod for him at the moment. However, Olivine was a big, sprawling place, and should give him enough time and room to work out where to go next, and try and work out the 'why' of this whole situation. The encounter with Barricade had left Ash badly shaken. He had no idea what it had been demanding of him, but he had no intention of going near Goldenrod again for a while.

Like the good Trainer Ash was, the first stop was the Poke Centre, to rest and heal his exhusted Pokemon. He went to the upstairs dormitory, but the memory of an hour before was still way too fresh in Ash's mind to allow him to get any sleep himself.

After two fruitless hours of tossing and turning, Ash got up, and, for lack of anything else to do, went out to battle the Trainers around Olivine, hoping to clear his head and maybe work out what was going on. He certainly couldn't stay here: only Ecruteak lay between him and that murderous Police car/robot creature!

He fought his way up the Lighthouse, and was on his way back down, planning to rest his Pokemon again, when he heard a noise. As he reached the bottom floor of the lighthouse, it resolved into two sounds-a low rumbling, and a thrum in the air.

Ash knew that this meant one thing-trouble! He had a bad feeling about this. It seemed inconceiveable that the attack by the Police car was a one-off, and equally inconceiveable that it was working alone. With growing trepidation, he walked out of the lighthouse. As he saw the huge Army helicopter coming into land on a grass-free stretch nearby, he knew.

They had found him-whoever, exactly, they were. He was already running, as fast as he could, back towards the Poke Centre, before the helicopter, upon landing, began to switch its rotors back and change into a towering, menacing, red-eyed man of metal.

He ran straight past the Poke Centre as he changed his mind. The Magnet train! If he could get back to the top end of Goldenrod, he could get on the Magnet train, back to his own home continent of Kanto, perhaps this madness would end.

As he ran up by Jasmine's gym, a huge tank rolled around from the Ecruteak end of things, blocking Ash's path. As he watched, it, too, unfolded itself into its robotic form. The helicopter robot was still approaching from behind him, and this new robot began to advance on Ash. He was trapped between two implacably-advancing Decepticons, both staring intently at him. Both looked able-and likely-to crush him in one mighty fist.

"Waaaah!" he cried, and fled to the one option left to him-the Olivine Gym.

As he entered, Jasmine, the Olivine Gym leader began approaching. She spotted the look of sheer terror on Ash's face.

"What's up, Ash?" she asked.

"Outside-big mechas-robots!" he cried. "They're chasing me and I don't know why!"

"Robots?" she said. "The Goldenrod News Net said the Goldenrod Poke Centre was demolished by a giant metal man."

"Not the same one, but they're linked, I'm sure of it!" Ash said. "There's two of them out there, coming this way!"

"Well, let's see how my Magnemites and Steelix react." she said, catching up her belt of poke balls with one hand. "They are not going to trash MY hometown, and most of all, they are not going to demolish my Gym!" With a determined look on her face, Jasmine walked out of the Gym. Ash hurried along behind her, unwilling to let her go alone, but mindful that it was him that the robots seemed focused on, so he stayed hidden in the door of the gym.

Jasmine was standing looking determined, dwarfed by the two robots, who were still advancing on her position. Arms out parallel to the ground, hands pointing upwards, one palm facing each Decepticon, she called "No further! Stop right there and go back to where you came from! I, Jasmine, Gym Leader of this town, command you! Leave this place now!"

The helicopter/robot let out a strange wheezing, grinding noise that Ash realised was laughter. Jasmine obviously realised it too, for her face reddened in anger. The tank/robot, too, looked about to join in the laughter.

"Listen to it, Blackout." the tank/robot addressed the other Decepticon. "The human vermin wants us to leave."

The helicopter/robot-Blackout-said "I don't think I want to leave, Brawl. We have unfinished business here."

The tank/robot-Brawl-turned back to Jasmine.

"So, if we don't leave, who's going to make us? You?" The last word dripped contempt.

"Yes, me!" shouted Jasmine back, "You need a lesson in manners!"

This time it was Brawl who started laughing.

"I'd like to see you try, puny human!" it said, beckoning to Jasmine with one of its great metal hands. "Bring it on, I need a good laugh, and an easy kill."

Jasmine's response was to throw a poke ball down in front of Brawl. It moved to catch the poke ball, but it fell short. Brawl opened its mouth to taunt Jasmine, but whatever it had planned to say remained unspoken as Brawl found itself confronting a ten metre long Steelix!

Brawl hesitated for just a moment, and then brought its fist down in a trajectory plotted to impact hard with Steelix's head, but the head was not there when the fist hit-insead it was lower down, on the body. The head had ducked under Brawl's arm, and while Brawl was caught off-balance, Steelix wound its length about the robot's body.

"Steelix, bind it!" commanded Jasmine, throwing her other two poke balls. Out came both her Magnemites. Brawl fruitlessly tried to get Steelix off, while Blackout stood and watched. Jasmine pointed one slender finger at Brawl, and the Magnemites sped towards the helpless Decepticon.

"Magnemite and Magnemite, shock wave!" Jasmine cried. Ash's hand closed over Swellow's poke ball. This, he realised, might just be his chance to escape! As the Magnemites joined their attacks, Brawl was lit up all over by an electric flash, writhing in a yellow aura that didn't seem to bother Steelix much at all. Brawl fell over, the resounding thud shaking the ground underfoot.

Ash saw his chance. Releasing Swellow, he dodged around the fallen Decepticion, leaping on Swellow's back, Pikachu leaping to catch hold of Ash's backpack just a moment later. As Pikachu grabbed hold of the top handle, Ash commanded "Swellow! Goldenrod City, now!"

Swellow took off, making the closest thing Ash had seen to a vertical take-off from a bird. As Swellow began winging its way to its destination, Ash heard whirring, clunking and clicking, swiftly followed by the sound Ash was dreading-the thup-thup-thup of helicopter rotors.

Chancing a look behind him, Ash saw that Blackout had reverted back to military helicopter form. Military helicopters were fast, and Ash realised with a sinking heart that it was gaining on him. All he needed was to get to the Magnet Train office thirty seconds before this monstrosity, and get on board. Maybe then his life could return back to normal.

Leaning down low over Swellow to reduce drag, he shot over Ecruteak, the Tin Tower passing in a blur. Abruptly, Swellow made a ninety-degree turn, a sudden course change that slowed the big helicopter down: Blackout had speed but its size created considerable inertia, causing it to lose seconds. As Ash prepared to get Swellow to land outside the ruins of the Poke Centre in Goldenrod, he saw something that chilled him.

Five more robots stood in the place Swellow was supposed to land. The biggest of them-a behemoth of blue, red, and silver-towered over the other four. It was smaller than Blackout in robot form, but not by much. Ash realised that he was dropping towards them-Swellow was still following his last order!

"Swellow! Change that to Olivine!" he screamed. The scream was a mistake, for the robots heard it. It was the red and blue robot that saw him first.

Blue optics met brown eyes, and the robot raised a hand. It was not a threatening or grabbing gesture, but rather half recognition, half beckon. As the sound of rotors increased as Swellow changed course, all the groundbound robots looked to the approaching Blackout, and immediately they began bristling with guns. Swellow's course change was taking them directly back towards Blackout, and Ash squeezed his eyes shut, expecting to be shot any moment.

It didn't happen. Ash heard one of them-he thought it was the big one- shout "Wait till he's clear!" and as Swellow turned on it's side, passing closer to Blackout than Ash ever wanted to get, Ash had an idea.

"Pikachu, Shock wave!" he called. Pikachu was happy to oblige, and as Swellow winged past, Blackout wavered in the air as bolts of lightning struck. Not only did it wobble, it nearly crashed, but recovered just before its nose hit the ground.

Once again, inertia was Blackout's greatest problem as it struggled to turn, which gave the five robots on the ground the advantage.

"He's clear! NOW!" Ash heard the same robot call. The five started blasting at Blackout, who abandoned its pursuit of Ash in an attempt to gain altitude. Ash, looking back, saw the five robots move with incredible speed to get between him and Blackout, all the while still blasting at it.

Are they trying to protect me, or is that just an easier position for them to blast it? Ash wondered. The helicopter kept climbing, gaining enough altitude to get out of range-and then immediately resuming chasing Ash, coming for him at a terrifying speed, although Ash thought the robots below were trying to give chase. However, Swellow's abrupt turn, Pikachu's Shock Wave, and the surprise robot attack had bought Ash the time he needed.

As he flew over Olivine, he noticed that Brawl was still trapped by Steelix, but Ash could see that Steelix was tiring. Jasmine was standing ready with Steelix's poke ball, and as Ash watched, Brawl threw Steelix off. Then Swellow switched direction again, landing outside the Poke Centre.

Ash didn't waste any time trying to find out what Brawl was doing. He only wanted to do one thing-get away from the robots! Putting Swellow away, he pulled out Marshstomp's poke ball. He released Marshtomp and climbed on it's back, scooping up Pikachu as Blackout landed. Blackout regained robot form faster than Ash would have liked. He was still in the shallows when Blackout had finished changing. It locked its glowing red optics on him and opened its mouth in a grin of pure evil. Taking two steps into the water-which only came up as far as its ankles-it advanced towards Ash, trying to grab him in its great hand.

Ash had an answer for that, as he ducked and dodged, he said "Pikachu! Put your tail in the water and use your Thunder Attack now!"

Pikachu did so.

Blackout, standing in highly conductive salt water, didn't stand a chance. Marshtomp, impervious to Pikachu's electric attack due to his half Ground makeup, was fine, but when Brawl got to the water's edge, Ash and Marshtomp were just a dot on the horizon, and Brawl had to drag its unconscious comrade out of the water.

It took Blackout a full hour to come around.

Brawl was going to have to report back on yet another failure. It had managed to hide the massive figure of Blackout by loosely covering it with rocks and then changing back into tank form to keep curious bystanders at a distance. Even Jasmine came down to see what all the fuss was about, but as she had only ever seen it in robot form, she didn't recognise it. In fact, she even helped, telling the bystanders to disperse because "the Army obviously have it well in hand." The townspeople obviously respected their Gym Leader, because they did as they were asked. So now there would be no bystanders to observe when Blackout awoke and easily threw off the rocks used to hide it.

Which still left Brawl with the unpleasent job of telling the other Decepticons-particularly their leader, Starscream-that they had failed in their mission. Starscream did not like failure.

As it had thought, Starscream was angry to hear that they too had failed.

"That is three of you now that have failed to retrieve something from one puny human child!"it thundered. "We are more powerful and far superior to these creatures! What is your problem?"

"He has organic creatures that create electric attacks, metal snakes and flying and swimming beasts at his beck and call!" Brawl explained. "He is so much more than he seems."

"Yes, Barricade said something similar." Starscream said. "Perhaps if we make a joint effort, all eight of us can deal with one human youngster, no matter how many creatures he has to support him. We will find somewhere where having avian and aquatic aid will be of no use to him. I want that AllSpark!"

"Eight?" Brawl asked. "You mean-"

"Yes, at least one of you has not failed me. Frenzy carried out its mission without any difficulties.

Megatron has been released, and is on its way to join us."