Episode 32: Ghost Hunter – Part 4
The fourth part already of episode 32 in my Fan Fiction series about the Pokémon journey of Ash and Angie. Involves some MorpheusShipping (Ash and Angie liking each other) so if you don't like that idea, perhaps you might want to stop reading here. The rest, I hope you enjoy this fan-fiction.
"No, Ash! Don't leave me!"
Suddenly Angie was sitting up straight in her bed. Her face was covered with drops of sweat as a result of the terrible nightmare she just had. She was breathing heavily, as she looked around the room frantically, slowly realizing it was all a bad dream and she was still in the Pokémon Center. "It was horrible!" she thought. She had seen Ash lying down on the ground, motionless...
"Pika?" Pikachu asked, raising it's ears.
The little mouse Pokémon had slept on the lower end of the bed, on top of the blankets, and it had also noticed how it's trainer's best friend wasn't sleeping very peacefully tonight. Shinx also woke up, and after a big yawn, jumped into bed with Angie, to give her a little hug.
"It's okay now guys, I was just having a really bad dream," Angie said soothingly, although deep inside she was still very shook up about what she had seen just a moment ago.
It felt so real, a shiver went down her spine. "Perhaps I should still go on with my plan to go a little ahead and try to help Ash, instead of waiting for tomorrow, and Officer Jenny to arrive," she thought, "besides, I would never forgive myself if anything happened to Ash because I waited too long!"
Angie jumped out of bed, but quickly realized that if she wanted to get away undetected, she had to be really quiet, so she was more careful from now on. She got dressed and took her belt with Poké Balls. She slowly opened the door to her room, and peeked around the corner, into the hall. It seemed empty alright, there were just a few emergency lights burning, indicating where the exits were, and the computer screen located at the desk where Nurse Joy could usually be found, was still lit. Buizel was still asleep next to the door of Angie's room. It had been standing guard, but eventually had fallen asleep as well. Pikachu tapped on Buizel's shoulder, and as result it jumped up immediately.
"Bui-bui?" the startled Pokémon uttered, as it held it's paws like a boxer would, ready to fight.
Pikachu held it's paw in front of it's mouth, to signal Buizel to be silent.
"We are going to save Ash," Angie whispered, "if you want to help, just follow me and don't make a sound."
Buizel nodded, and followed Angie and the other Pokémon. They were almost at the front door when Angie suddenly heard a voice.
"Stop!" it said.
The voice sounded way too dark and masculine to be Nurse Joy's, so Angie had no clue who it could be. But it looked like she was in trouble deep now. She slowly turned around, while thinking up possible excuses to explain what she was doing out of her bed, all dressed. But there was no one in the hallway! But wait, it looked like the door to the Intensive Care was open a little, and Angie was certain it was fully closed just a minute ago! She looked closer, and suddenly the door swung fully open. It was Lucario!
"You're not thinking of leaving without me, right?" Lucario said, without opening it's mouth.
Angie had to try hard not to scream, but she managed to control herself, since she would be busted after all, if she were to make such noise. Angie stepped closer to the Aura Pokémon, still a little frightened after hearing it "talking" in some mysterious way.
"Can... can you...talk?" Angie whispered.
"I can understand human speech and by means of telepathy send my thoughts to you in the form of words you can comprehend, if that's what you mean," Lucario answered with a calm voice.
Baffled by this unexpected revelation, Angie could only nod. The other Pokémon didn't understand why she was behaving to strangely.
"If you want to go save your friend Ash, may I suggest that I assist you?" Lucario said.
"Well, I think we can need all the help we can get," Angie started, "but are you sure you are up to it yet?"
"I can assure you I have recovered sufficiently to make a positive contribution to this undertaking," Lucario assured.
"Fine, come with us then," Angie answered, as she started walking as silently as possible towards the front door. She carefully unlocked it, and with her "rescue team" she sneaked outside.
Meanwhile, a few miles away from there, Ash was struggling to get free. It was no use however, the ropes were so tight he could barely move at all.
"Don't bother trying to get free," the man with the cape said, startling Ash, "I've designed those knots myself, and mathematically spoken they are impossible to unravel unless you know the exact combination."
"Huh? What do you mean?" Ash said, as he had never been much of a math wiz.
"Well, let me tell you that I am not what you think, just an ordinary villain," the man explained, "in fact I am a true scientific genius."
"And also very modest..." Ash added whispering, but just loud enough for his kidnapper to hear it.
"You don't believe me?" the man said, agitated, "I'll explain it to you."
"No need to bother, you probably worked for Hunter J. first, right?" Ash said, looking at the mecha that was standing on the far side of the small open spot the man had set up camp, hinting at the shape of it, which was almost identical to the six wheeled vehicles the infamous Pokémon Hunter used before she was captured.
"Oh that?" the mysterious man said, laughing, "no, I just managed to get one of those vehicles really cheap, since the company that made them had suddenly lost it's best customer when J. went down. And as you can see, I've adapted it to fit my needs."
Ash turned away, since he was not too interested in those technical details. Instead he was thinking about Angie, Buizel, Lucario and Pikachu. "Would they have managed to get to safety and get the help Lucario needed?" he thought. "And this guy is so full of himself, but what is he up to?" he pondered.
"So why did you want that Lucario so bad anyway?" Ash suddenly asked.
"Since you're not going anywhere now, I suppose I can tell you," the mysterious man answered, "I assume you know a Lucario can sense the Aura of all living beings, whether it be humans or Pokémon?"
Ash simply nodded, gazing at the man, while trying to figure out what he was getting at.
"I once was a researcher working for Giovanni," the man continued.
Ash looked up. He hadn't heard anything of Giovanni since their last encounter, which resulted in the criminal getting arrested and locked away for quite some time. Ash never expected to hear about him so soon.
"I can see that I've finally got your attention," the man said, as he took off his helmet, "man, it sure gets hot wearing this thing, I'll have to add some cooling system to it someday."
Ash expected to see a harsh looking face, judging by the threatening tone the man had been speaking to them during their fight, but it turned out to be quite the opposite. The man had a pale looking skin, and his features were actually quite delicate. He looked more like the stereotypical nerdy scientist, than like the strong and powerful man Ash had pictured him to be.
"So, where was I?" the man continued, suddenly with a very feeble sounding voice.
"Your voice... it's different," Ash remarked.
"Oh, just a little gimmick I built into that helmet," the man explained, "it changes my voice so I sound more menacing, and judging by your reaction, it worked. Now on with my story, I'm Conrad and I was assigned to the Mewtwo-project."
"The what?" Ash said, trying to sound as surprised as possible.
"I'll explain. On a special mission, one of our team discovered DNA from Mew," Conrad added, "Giovanni ordered us to clone that Pokémon, but make it stronger, so he could use it as the ultimate weapon. And we succeeded brilliantly!"
Conrad paused momentarily, as he seemed to be gloating over this achievement. "I thought no one knew about the existence of Mewtwo anymore," Ash pondered, "didn't it wipe the memories of all that encountered it, so no one would ever bother it and the cloned Pokémon that were with it?" But before Ash could find an explanation for this, Conrad resumed his story.
"But we never could have dreamed Mewtwo would be that powerful, a mistake that would cost us dearly," Conrad continued, "One day Mewtwo escaped and destroyed the entire laboratory, with all the data we had about it. I was late that day and wasn't there when it happened, but as I was driving towards my work, I saw the place getting obliterated. Strangest thing is that when I got there, no one seemed to even know anything about Mewtwo. They simply denied it's existence, like there was a hole in their memory."
Ash knew exactly what Conrad was talking about. And now he also realized why Conrad still knew about Mewtwo. Since he hadn't been there when Mewtwo escaped, his memory had remained intact...
"I kept trying to convince them, but they never believed me," Conrad said, with a touch of despair in his voice, "they even started calling me Ghost Hunter, since they thought I was chasing ghosts! But I'll prove them wrong! As soon as I get that Lucario back, and I will, I'll force it to use it's Aura sensing powers to locate Mewtwo, and with my superior technology, seize control of it once more! And then they will have to believe me and bow down before me!"
Conrad was now standing straight up, with one arm up in the air, like he was making a victory pose. Ash shrugged his shoulders, for as much as he could, being tied up.
"Nice story, but I'm getting tired now, so if you don't mind," Ash yawned.
"You also don't believe me, right?" Conrad said, agitated, "but you will talk differently when I put my plan in motion. And don't even think about escaping, my Magmortar will keep an eye on you during the night."
Conrad picked up his helmet, and after sending out Magmorter, like he said he would, climbed aboard his peculiar craft. Ash looked at the fire Pokémon for a moment, but quickly looked away again, since it glared menacingly at the young Pokémon trainer. "Conrad wasn't bluffing when he said escaping would be difficult," Ash thought. After pondering a while how to overcome this, sleep finally got the best of him, and he closed his eyes, unaware of what was taking place elsewhere, in the night.
"Can you sense anything yet?" Angie asked Lucario, as they were now outside the small village.
"I am trying..." Lucario answered.
The Aura Pokémon closed it's eyes and the black appendages on the back of it's head slowly moved upwards, as Lucario concentrated to pick up Ash's Aura signature. Angie, Pikachu and Buizel were watching the spectacle attentively. Then Lucario opened it's eyes again, and the black appendages fell back to their usual position.
"I am truly sorry, but I cannot detect your friend's presence yet," Lucario stated.
"You have to try harder, you simply have to!" Angie almost shouted, as tears formed in her eyes. Then much softer, as she started sobbing, "please..." she begged, falling down on her knees...
(to be continued...)
My 56th fan-fiction chapter. I apologize for any typing errors, or grammatically not 100% correct sentences. Remember, I am not a native English speaker or writer. I tried to make this story as close to the Pokémon series as possible, so that the characters will react roughly the same in this fictional story as they do in the series. Comments are always welcome, you can use the review function on this FanFiction site for that.
Disclaimer: I do not own or claim to own any trademarks of Pokémon. Any similarities to the works of others is purely accidental, and not meant as an infringement on anyone's achievements.