Chapter 22: The Elite
Max was walking by the sleeping quarters that night, heading towards Prof. Oak's station when all of a sudden; he was stopped as a Pikachu rushed out of the area, nearly tripping because of the little fur ball. "Whoa!" he let out in shock, gaining back his balance he kneeled down to the electric rat's level. "You're a Pikachu, right?"
Full of energy, the Poke'mon nodded. "Pika Pi."
Being sure to not spook the critter, for his own safety, he gently placed his hand on top of its head, slowly petting it between its large yellow ears. "I still can't believe just not too long ago I considered you the enemy."
Just as Max scratched behind Pikachu's ear, it became like putty in his hands. "So, what were you just doing in there?"
But the Poke'mon was too engrossed at this attention to properly answer the once member of Team Rocket. So Max pulled his hand back from the creature, where it shook its head and ran off to who knows where, leaving the young boy to walk towards the sleeping quarters, the doors a crack open from where the Pikachu escaped.
Only peering his left eye through that crack told him all he needed to know, completely speechless to see how Misty forced Ash to kiss her. His eyes widened, able to see everything clearly with only minimal amount of light, hearing her tearful confession before kissing him again.
Slowly backing away, his body shaking at the site; knowing his sister also had feelings for Ash: did his sister know, should he tell her, how will react? Still not sure, he only clasped his hands over his mouth and headed off.
Two days went by since that day; everyone awoke early that morning for the briefing, the final assault on the Team Rocket Organization; standing in rows, each person standing next to a Poke'mon, facing their leader for the plan of attack.
Standing before the audience, his back straight and head held high, he communicated to the troops. "The time has finally come; we will launch the final attack against the Team Rocket Organization, bringing them and their lies down once and for all."
The crowd cheered to this news, but was quickly silenced as Captain M2 added. "So let's start off with the plan," looking towards his second in command, Tulip bowed and signaled Professor Ivy's three lovely assistances to display the information on screen.
Once the satellite image of Electric City was displayed, Mewtwo continued. "As we already know, tomorrow Team Rocket will be going forward with Project Expansion; where they will be building three new Generators, each fifty miles in each direction of Electric City."
"Now they have already marked the location to where each new tower will be place, which is right behind the energy surge caused by the city's barrier that turns Poke'mon into blood thirsty beasts. So the plan of attack is to have the Poke'mon use their attack from a distance to protect the humans that will try to destroy the tower and stop the Team Rocket Agents with as little bloodshed as possible."
The screen changed behind him, revealing the three legendary Poke'mon: Celebi, Jurachi and Manaphy. "Now like you all know, the main power source for the Generator at Electric City is being powered by a clone, Codenamed 028, of the original Mew, each one of these new towers will be using one of these Poke'mon to power it. So in the process of destroying these towers we will try to rescue those Poke'mon as well."
"But besides the destruction of the new towers, the true goal of our plan will also commence," the slide changed, revealing the detailed plains of the devise which will revive the Poke'mon species; shaped like a small orb about the size of a baseball, a gold top with a silver bottom and the letters GS inscribed right above which looked like a button. "Don't let its looks fool you; it is a very powerful device, which according to the Professors, it will automatically clone the Poke'mon that has been slaughtered on this planet, even if it is a drop of blood from 200 years ago."
The troops were in awe that something so small could be so powerful. "Now alone, it is useless, but if we are able to combine this device with the main Generator located within Team Rocket, it will be able to draw from its power and bring the Poke'mon of the world back! So, while most of us will be destroying the towers as a distraction, a small team will head into the Organization to install the device; so I ask that the most recent Team Rocket members to volunteer for this mission, since they know the layout of the Organization hands on better then the rest of us and where their presents won't raise much alarm: Ash, Misty, Brock, May and Max."
All of the troops looked at the five, each being a bit nervous with this spotlight on them. But after shaking it off, Ash grinned. "I'm up for it."
Misty nodded. "I'm in too."
"Count me in," Brock added a thumb's up.
May and Max looked at each other, as if trying to read each others minds on the thought; both coming to the agreement. "We're in."
The troops clapped to their agreement. "I'm glad to hear that," Mewtwo stated, "but before I have you all head off for each of your mission briefing, I have something I would like to bring up. Recently we came across some information from before the Great Crisis, a group of four Poke'mon trainers, seen to the world as the strongest of their time, focusing on the power brought from the relationships of human and Poke'mon as one. So in their honor and for our final assault, I would like to change our Organization's name to, The Elite!"
The troops nodded to the idea, saluting with their captain. "All hail the Elite!" Mewtwo announced.
"All hail the Elite!" they all repeated.
Lowering his hand, Mewtwo declared "Now, each head off to your briefing, our assault will begin at 0600 hours tomorrow. Dismissed!"
The mission briefings went well into the afternoon, with this being their final mission everything had to be perfect, down to the second.
Equipment was being tested, strategies were being analyzed, and a back up plan or two were being discussed. They were ready.
The five were just leaving from their briefing for their well deserved dinner, but May spoke up. "Misty, could I talk to you?" she asked, barely above a whisper, "alone."
"Sure," she looked at her friends, "save us a seat, we'll be right there."
Once the three were out of ear range, May just came out and asked. "What did you do with Ash two nights ago?"
But May didn't need to hear a reply from her friend, the shocked expression alone told her everything she needed to know. "How c-could you?" she drooped her head, feeling the warm water slip out of her eyes to stream down her face. "Y-You knew I had feelings for him," she chocked, "h-how could you?"
Misty wish she could explain, but she knew there was just nothing she could say that would heal May's heart; wanting to approach her to comfort her, however after the first step. "Stay back!" May shrieked. "Stay away from me!"
May couldn't help it; her body wouldn't stop shaking just as the warm tears wouldn't stop falling from her eyes. "I noticed you two have seemed much closer these past few days. J-Just tell me... why?"
Nearly about to cry herself; seeing her friend so distraught from this. She clenched her hand right over her heart; this was defiantly not the way she wanted to tell her. "Truly, I don't know how to explain it. It all just happened so fast." She turned her head to the left; she just couldn't see her friend in this state. "He was so depressed and I couldn't leave him like that, where in the heat of the moment I confessed, my body just seems to do things before my brain can catch up."
May knew that Misty was truthful, but she was simply in too much pain. "B-But I was his childhood friend, I knew him longer," slowly, she moved her shaking finger to her lips, "he was my first..."
"May, I never meant to get you hurt in anyway, but, "she clenched her chest tighter, "I-I truly care for him too, I was willing to do anything to help him, even if it meant confessing my true feelings to him. I have no regrets to what I did."
Still keeping her head down, May slowly approached Misty. The streams of water continued to leak out of her eyes. She stopped just as Misty's shoes came into view and with one movement, quickly slapped the tomboy across the face, but Misty didn't even flinch to this even as she started to feel the small pain growing on her left cheek.
May's hand twitched, then without another word, turned around and ran off.
Misty sat down with the rest of her friends to eat, trying to hide her recent altercation with a smile; but she knew the first question that her friends would ask. "Hey Misty, where's May?" Ash asked.
Picking up her chopsticks, she replied. "She told me she wasn't feeling well, so she went to bed early."
"Well I hope she gets better by tomorrow," Brock added, "saving the world just won't feel right unless we are all there."
"So," the worried younger brother spoke up, "how is my sister?"
Rubbing the head of the young boy, hoping she could at least settle him down. "Don't worry," she stood back up, "I'll take a tray of food to her right now, just to be sure."
Swallowing his red bean pastry, Ash added. "Tell her we're all hoping for a quick recovery."
Misty gently smiled back. "Don't worry, I will."
She knew where May was, it wasn't that hard to guess as she say her friend crying into the pillow in their sleeping quarters; clearly hearing her muffled cries as she approached her friend. "I brought some food, incase you're hungry."
Still with her face buried into the pillow, she shook her head. So Misty placed the tray of food on the night stand next to the bed. "I told our friends you weren't feeling well, they are all hoping you get better soon."
May mumbled something, but Misty couldn't understand. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"
The young girl turned to her side, her eyes swollen and red with her pillow completely soaked. "I-I'm s-sorry," Misty was able to make out in her quivering tone, "on h-how I a-acted."
Misty rubbed the left side of her cheek, flinching a bit but it wasn't that bad. "Don't worry about it; it has been pretty stressful around her. It must have just gotten to you."
May hugged her pillow tighter in her arms, still shaking from what she did. "It still doesn't make up for what I said or did. How can you still consider me a friend?"
Yet the youngest of the Waterflower sisters only smiled. "If I can forgive you for dragging me to the spa or to the dress store I can forgive you for anything."
That caused May to giggle a bit, a smile just starting to form on her face. "I-I am a bit hungry."
"Well, do you want to eat here or pull up a seat with our friends?"
Sitting up on her bed, she rubbed her arm over her reddened eyes. "Ash's mom always said, 'food tastes better with more people around.'"
It was early the next day, the sun still hadn't rose but the sky was already starting to turn a warmer shade with the last start fading away; each soldier of The Elite standing by in their undisclosed location, a mixture of fear and confidence in the pit of their stomachs.
Watches all set to the same time, 0559; all waiting for the final order of attack.
0600 hours. The plan commenced.
To Be Continued
Yes, soon this ff will be coming to an end; but don't think I'm done with all the twists. Read and review.