Chapter 5
Ash, Misty, and Brock traveled silently through the night back to Viridian city after their battle with Moltres.
Misty glanced over at Ash who was deep in thought, worry etched all over his face.
"Ash is everything ok?" She asked.
"Yea..." He paused "I was just thinking about that fight, was it just me or did Moltres seem off?"
"Pika pik!" Pikachu said nodding his head vigorously.
"Now that you mention it, I did notice that its eyes were an eerie shade of dark purple," Brock stated turning to face Ash.
"That's what I thought, I just wanted to make sure it wasn't my mind playing tricks."
"Ok so Moltres had purple eyes, it's not like people have much data on Moltres or any of the legendary birds really," Misty said shaking her head confused at why Ash was so hung up on that small detail.
"Remember when I said that I saw a dark aura with the group of rockets?" Ash asked.
The others nodded.
"Well that was Moltres."
The other two nodded slowly not completely understanding what that meant. Seeing their confusion Ash quickly kept going.
"You see everyone's aura is a shade of blue. It varies from person to person on how dark or light it is, but it's still blue. I have never seen a different color before, however, when Moltres attacked Pikachu and I activated my aura to shield Pikachu from that flamethrower, I got a better look at Moltres's aura."
Both Misty and Brock were listening intently now.
"Moltres is being held captive against its will," Ash said eyes widening at his discovery.
"How do you know that?" Misty asked.
"Well Moltres's aura wasn't completely purple. Its blue aura was still there, only it was outlined by a dark purple aura. With every attack it fired, its blue aura would flare out as if it was trying to break through the darker aura's wall. It's only speculation but..."
"It makes sense though," Brock put in, "I mean how else would Team Rocket have captured such a powerful being? How did they alter its aura though...that's a scary thought."
Another silence fell over the group as they began to realize how dire the situation was. If Team Rocket is targeting the three legendary birds and has the means to catch them, Ash thought, then they must play a pivotal role in finding the book.
As Ash finished his thought, the first rays of sunlight began to tease the horizon, relieving the moon of its duty.
"As soon as we get to the pokemon center I need to make some calls," Ash stated.
"Pierce, you bring good news, no?"
"Yes sir! We have secured Moltres," Pierce reported as he reached to his belt to hand over the pokeball containing the legendary bird.
"Good! But, I want you to keep that for now. I want you to go to the abandoned power-plant and oversee the capture of Zapdos," Giovanni said stroking his Persian. "You are well versed with the Aura Infuser while the grunts that I sent down there are not. That will be extremely helpful."
"Yes sir! What about Articuno?"
"Don't worry about Articuno, I have Domino assigned to that project."
"Very well sir, I will leave at once."
"Good."
Once Pierce was gone, another man shakily walked in.
"Ahhh Dr. Yung, thank you for coming. Lucky for you the Aura Infuser worked, though I should expect nothing less from a computer expert and the creator of mirage pokemon. So, congratulations, you may continue to live!" Giovanni said oozing malevolence. "But, I have another job for you. You see I'm about to give you very, very sensitive information, can you keep it a secret?" he paused, "of course you can!" The Rocket boss shook his head sarcastically, "What a fall from grace you have had 'Mirage Master.' It's amazing the amount of control one has over another when they have leverage, and I have your wife AND I know where everyone else you ever cared about lives." Giovanni laughed. "Anyway, where was I…oh yeah! The information. So do you know why we need to acquire Moltres, Articuno, and Zapdos?"
The doctor shook his head no.
"Of course you don't! Well listen carefully because I'm about to tell you. You see, once we have the trio of legends, we can open the cavern in which The Book Of Moirai is held. Now there are some minor details I'm leaving out but you don't need to know them to do what I'm about to ask you," Giovanni said as if he were speaking to a child. "All you need to do is create a device that will allow me to combine the power of all three birds into one. You do this and you and your wife both go free and I leave you and your family alone for the rest of your life. You have my word. If you choose to defy my orders like last time, well your wife is already down to 9 fingers. You get the point. Dismissed."
Dr. Yung turned quickly and hurried from the office.
After visiting Pallet town, May and Max were headed back to the Unova region while Dawn decided to go home to the Sinnoh region. However, currently they were all at Max and May's house in Petalburg city stopping in to resupply for their separate journeys.
"May Dear, the phone is for you!" May's mother Caroline called out.
"Thanks mom, be there in a sec!" Then turning to Max and Dawn she continued, "I wonder who that could be."
May stood up from the couch where the three of them had been watching a Pokemon contest and walked into the kitchen to the video-phone.
"May?"
"Ash?!" May said surprised to hear from her friend so soon after leaving him. "Is everything ok?!"
"Well...not re-" Ash began.
"Oh no! Is Brock and Misty and Pikachu ok?!" She asked cutting Ash off mid-word.
"May! Everyone is fine, just the situation has escalated quicker than we had thought it would. Is Max there too? He should hear this as well."
May nodded and said "And Dawn."
"Ok good, call them over." After Dawn and Max greeted Ash, he went back to what he was saying. "So as I was saying, the situation has escalated a lot faster than we had thought it would and the stakes are higher. Team Rocket is also after the Book of Moirai." He let that sink in before continuing, "But for some reason they are capturing the legendary birds Moltres, Zapdos, and Articuno. They have already captured Moltres. I think that the birds play a role in finding the book itself."
"Wait," Max pipped up, "Team Rocket has already captured Moltres? How did they manage to do that? I thought that it was nearly impossible to capture them!"
The other girls looked equally curious so Ash explained his discovery about the dark aura surrounding Moltres's normal one to them.
"Thats horrible! How could they treat pokemon like that!" Dawn cried out.
"They are criminals Dawn, they have no remorse when it comes to morality," Ash said with a hardened glare.
No one had ever seen Ash like this. Silence.
"After we fought with the Rockets who captured Moltres, their leader spewed some helpful information. They are going after the other two birds very soon. That leaves us little time to stop them and Brock, Misty, and I can't go to both locations at once, so I need you to go to the abandoned power-plant near Cerulean city to protect Zapdos while we head to the Seafoam Islands to protect Articuno."
"Ok Ash, we will be there as soon as we can!" Max said determinedly.
"Yeah you can count on us!" Dawn added.
"Bye Ash," May said.
"Be careful guys." Ash said before the screen went black.
May turned to Dawn worriedly, "I have never seen Ash so serious before! This must be very important."
The others nodded in agreement.
"How are we going to get there?" Dawn asked as May began to write a note to her parents telling them where they were going - not what they were doing though.
"Don't worry, I can get us to Cerulean," Max stated with a small smirk as he reached for a pokeball, "But we will have to walk from there." With a flash of light a Gardevoir appeared.
"Oh no!" May shrieked, "Max I don't want to tele-"
Grabbing Dawn's arm and May's wrist, Max related a command, "Gardevoir Teleport to Cerulean city." With a flash of white and one last scream from a terrified May, the four of them disappeared.
"Ash, are you going to call Gary?" Misty asked Ash as he hung up the phone with May, Max, and Dawn.
"I tried. He's not reachable."
"Do you know where he is though?" She pushed.
"No Misty I don't!" Ash yelled at her before walking out of the deserted pokemon center, Pikachu in wake, leaving a bewildered Misty staring at a closed door.
Misty's legendary temper began to flare, "Hey! You can't talk to me that way! Get back here and apologize!" She screamed after him before beginning to chase after. But before she even got two steps, Brock grabbed her wrist and shook his head.
"Let him be Misty. He didn't mean to yell. He's just under a lot of stress," Brock stated trying to calm down the infuriated girl.
"That's no excuse to yell," she said glaring daggers at the door Ash had just walked out of.
"You're right and Ash knows that he's made a mistake."
Taking a deep breath Misty relaxed a bit, then looking at the clock and seeing that it was already 1:00PM, she yawned. "I'm gonna get some rest, we've been up for over 24 hours."
Brock nodded. "Yeah we should definitely sleep. I would assume that we are going to head out early tomorrow morning."
There was a loud CRACK and then a Max appeared in front of the Cerulean Pokemon center along with an extremely frazzled Dawn and May.
"Thanks Gardevoir, take a nice long break," Max said as he returned his exhausted pokemon back into her ball.
"Never. Again." Dawn gasped out.
Before May could add her two cents, Max noted "Were here so let's get moving."
The three of them headed west towards the Rock Tunnel path and about four hours later they were at the trailhead to the abandoned power-plant.
"We should camp here for the night," May said as she looked around.
"Yeah I'm too tired to make it all the way to the power-plant tonight," Dawn moaned.
"Yeah let's set up camp," Max agreed.
After storming out of the Viridian Pokemon center, Ash made his way into the woods on the outskirts of town. Frustrated, he leaned his arm against the trunk of a huge oak tree, letting his head fall against it only to abruptly push himself away with an angry scream. He felt his aura engulf his clenched fists as he punched the tree trunk as if it were a punching bag.
"Pikapi?"
Left hook, right, left, right.
"PIKAPI?"
Ash's aura spread like cool fire up his arms as he threw a hard right elbow at the tree making contact with a resonating crack. Leaves fell like rain and the bark was splintering scattering wooden sparks.
"PI KA CHUU!" Pikachu said as he loosed a sharp thundershock at his distressed friend.
Ash stopped and looked at the ground ashamed that he had let his anger get the better of him.
"Pikapi pika pik pika pikachu pika," Pikachu scolded.
Looking up, Ash saw how much damage he had done to the tree. He had churned through half of the trunk. A couple days ago that would have knocked him out. But the constant use of aura had begun to expand his endurance. Ash turned around.
"I know I shouldn't have snapped at Misty like that," Ash said to Pikachu. "I'm just frustrated right now and I need to get it out someway."
"Pika pi pikachu pika pi pik," the electric mouse huffed out.
"Ok ok the tree didn't deserve the beating. Why don't we go do some constructive training then buddy!"
Around 11PM Ash stumbled back into the Pokemon center worn out from training with his pokemon. Carefully he entered the room to find Brock and Misty sleeping. Pikachu went straight to bed while Ash quietly got into the shower. After showering and getting dressed he slowly crept from the room and back outside to enjoy the night air. Closing his eyes, he began to expand his mind until he felt a familiar aura directly behind him.
"Misty you really need to stop creeping up on me," Ash said without opening his eyes, "first at home and now here." He felt her sit down next to him. Opening his eyes he turned to face her. "Misty I am really sorry for snapping at you like I did earlier. I was way out of line."
"Thanks for apologizing Ash," Misty said, "but I forgave you like 20 minutes after you left so don't worry," she finished flashing a smile then changing to a straight face added "But don't let it happen again," smile, "Ok?"
"You know Misty, you scare the crap out of me sometimes," Ash chided.
Misty yawned and leaned her head on Ash's shoulder. "So why are you out here at 1 in the morning? You've been up for way over 24 hours."
"I can't sleep," he responded.
"Well that's quite obvious! But what's keeping you awake?" She asked.
"Mist, I don't even know where to begin," Ash sighed out.
"Try," she said.
"Alright..." Ash paused, "I guess I'm afraid," he mumbled into the top of her head.
"Ash-" Misty began sitting up.
"But not for me," he continued, "for everyone I'm getting involved in this. I know that there is no other way but that just makes me angry. You saw Moltres, it was aiming to kill. What gives me the right to ask my friends to risk their lives? What kind of friend am I for doing that?" He finished looking at Misty for an answer.
"Ash, you are really too selfless. Any one of us - Me, Brock, May, Max, Dawn, or Gary - could say no. But we don't do you know why?"
"Because you feel obligated to help a friend?"
"No, because I-WE," she corrected quickly emphasizing 'we', "care very very much about you. You would do the same for any of us too." She added looking away blushing.
"I know," then getting up Ash offered Misty a hand. Taking it she felt herself being pulled into a hug. Her cheek resting on his chest. She felt her face heat up with the contact. "I just don't want anything bad to happen to those closest to me."
Pulling out of the hug, Misty grabbed Ash's hand and he let her lead him back to the room where Brock was still out.
"Get some sleep Ash, we have a long day ahead of us," Misty whispered.
"Goodnight Misty."
"Goodnight Ash."
As the sun rose above the mountains, it began to stream through the foliage onto the sleeping faces of May, Max and Dawn. Soon the three began to stir and after a quick breakfast, were on their way to the power-plant.
"How much further?" Dawn whined.
"About the same amount since the last time you asked, 2 minutes ago," Max snapped.
"According to my Pokegear, we are very close!" May exclaimed excitedly. "I wonder what Zapdos will look like in real life!"
"We don't have to get too close...right?" Dawn asked, voice wavering a bit.
"Our job is to keep it safe from Team Rocket let's not forget that," Max added.
After a bend in the path, the power-plant came into view.
"Zapdos lives in that..." Dawn said pointing to the run down building in front of them.
"I guess so," May said taking the lead.
The three of them entered the building through what used to be a door; it had rotted off many years before from the looks of it. The inside wasn't much better. The paint was peeling from the walls and the place smelled like mold and mildew. Though there was dim lighting, it was easy to see that broken glass and dust blanketed the floor while pokemon footprints trailed off in every direction. There was an unnerving buzz to tie the place together.
"Great place," Dawn squeaked out.
"It's like this place is still running..." Max said in regards to the buzz, and then looking around added, "but its probably just all the electric pokemon that are living here."
Pushing forward the trio marveled at the adapted ecosystem inside the power-plant. But the further into the plant they got, the less the saw wild pokemon.
"We must be getting close," Max concluded as he opened a door that led to the main chamber. And sure enough, roosting on fallen i-beams in the near corner of the room was Zapdos.
"It...it's beautiful," May whispered walking to take a closer look, but Max grabbed her wrist.
"Shh! We don't want to wake it. We should go to the next room and wait for the Rockets to arrive."
Dawn shook her head in agreement and pointed to the door on the side of the room opposite to Zapdos. Together all three trainers walked to the door never once taking their eyes off of the sleeping legendary bird in the corner of the room.
Only about an hour after the group had been situated in the room over from Zapdos, they heard voices.
"You there, get the Aura Infuser ready at the door so that I can bring it in when I come through the door."
"Yes sir!"
"The rest of you release your ground types as soon as you're in position."
A chorus of "Yes sir" followed.
Peering out the window May, Max, and Dawn counted five Rockets counting the blue haired leader.
Crouching back down Dawn whispered, "What's the plan?"
May looked at Max as if silently asking him the same question.
"Well, I think that if you two girls each take two grunts, I can take the leader."
The girls nodded.
As the Rockets entered the chamber each grunt released a Claydol. That's when the Max led the charge into Zapdos's chamber.
"Stop!" Max yelled.
Zapdos's eyes snapped open and realized the danger that it was in and spread it's wings, cackling with millions of volts of electricity, daring anyone to challenge it as it rose into the air.
"Quickly! Do it now!" Pierce screamed at the grunts.
Each Claydol let out a hyperbeam that hit Zapdos straight on causing it to have to land again. Max ran in front of Zapdos and released his Gardevoir and Houndoom. May released her Blaziken and Wartortle while Dawn released Piplup and Mamoswine. The two girls ordered their pokemon to attack the Claydols while they were recharging after the hyper beams.
"Blaziken Sky Uppercut, Wartortle Hydro Pump!"
"Piplup Hydropump followed by Whirlpool, Mamoswine Icebeam!"
The four powerful attacks collided with the Claydols knocking them out instantly. But the battle wasn't over yet. The four grunts released a combination of Raticates and Weezings. And the two parties engaged again.
"Move out of my way!" Pierce yelled at Max who was blocking the path to the still downed Zapdos.
"No!" Max yelled back as Zapdos began to rise again.
"Very well. I didn't want to have to resort to killing little boys, but duty calls," Pierce snarled reaching for the only pokeball at his waist.
Max watched as Pierce threw the pokeball.
"Oh no." Max whispered as Moltres's battle cry rang throughout the chamber.
"Moltres Flamethrower at the kid."
Max watched in horror as not orange, but blue flames shot towards him. In the last second Gardevoir jumped in front and used protect snapping Max out of his stupor. "Gardevoir Psybeam, Houndoom Crunch!"
Pierce laughed and didn't even issue a command. Moltres took the attacks head on unfazed. Zapdos looked on as the young trainer fought for its freedom and flew into protect him.
"No Zapdos! you stay back!" Max called out, but the bird didn't listen unleashing a massive Thunder at Moltres that made the hairs on the back of Max's neck stand up and the air smell like ozone.
The birds engaged in aerial combat, shooting powerful attacks at each other with no regard for their surroundings. The the remaining i-beams began to fall and the place began to burn. Finally, Moltres hit Zapdos in the chest with a strong Flamethrower knocking it to the ground. As soon as it touched down, Pierce unleashed the altered pokeball at the bird.
"No!" May screamed as she watched helplessly as Zapdos was caught. The grunts were down for the count but there was nothing Dawn, May, or Max could have done against Moltres. Out of the corner of her eye, May could see Dawn collapse from the smoke. Hold yourself together, May she told herself, Max needs me! But she could feel herself growing weak from smoke inhalation. Darkness began to creep into the corners of her eyes as it beckoned her to give in. She couldn't fight it anymore, I'm sorry Max.
Max fell to his knees returning his pokemon. He had failed.
"That's right boy," Pierce said striding confidently towards Max stopping right in front of him. "You can't win. Team Rocket always gets what it wants."
Max held the man's gaze.
"Oh ho! A brave one. Well I'll make this quick then." Pierce threw an elbow and nailed Max on the side of his head knocking him out.
Stepping over the fallen boy, Pierce pulled out his phone, "Giovanni sir, target acquired."
"Well done Pierce."
"However," Pierce began.
"However what?!"
"Three kids tried to stop us. They may be in league with the aura guardian. Should I leave them here to die?"
"Hmmm...No bring them in. We can use them to our advantage. Report back immediately!"
"Yes sir." Pierce said hanging up the phone and releasing Moltres. "Moltres, retrieve the kids and lets go," Pierce commanded as he got on the bird's back.
Crashing through the burning wall, Moltres flew off into the sky.
That was a long chapter! but I think it turned out ok! Drop me a review and let me know what you think. Your feedback helps motivate me to write more!
Thanks for Reading,
theriot010