Chapter 5:Emboscada! Proteger a la meta!
Let's start with a phone call to Ingrid. "Tell me something good," Ingrid hoped. Ash wouldn't fail to please.
"I've acquired Ashley," he reported. "Waiting instructions." Hearing that Ash recovered Ashley, Ingrid chuckled. Ash fulfilled her promise.
"Excellent work. I'll send you the coordinates that will take you and your team to the extraction point. A helicopter will evac you all from there."
"Understood. I'll rendezvous with Gary and Paul before reaching the extraction point." Hanging up, Ash and Ashley raced from the church. He could wonder about the parasite that were in both and worry about Saddler but getting Ashley to safety was first priority. However, that might as well be a tough task when an entire village awaited them. How were they going to get out now?
"Ash, here!" Ashley called out as she pushed a wagon from where they came out of. Ash tried to pick one of the barrels from in the wagon which was heavy...and felt liquid bounce the wood. Ash grinned.
"Ready for a little barrel bowling?" Barrel bowling? Demonstrating, Ash rolled a barrel down the hill at the villagers, tripping a few before coming to a stop. "Pikachu, Thunderbolt on the barrel!" Pikachu launched a perfect strike on the barrel...as well as some of the villagers. KABOOM! A rupturing explosion blasted from the barrel and a handful of villagers were charred beyond help. "Muy Caliente!" Okay, Ash, don't get overexcited. Getting Ash's drift, Ashley kicked another barrel down the hill, clipping some more of the villagers before another Thunderbolt blew that barrel and more villagers to a crisp. That's one way of trimming the field. Unfortunately, they quickly ran out of barrels and with plenty of villagers still climbing, Pikachu's Thunderbolt wasn't going to be enough.
"Okay, now what?" What else could Ash think in order to get pass the villagers? The wagon was bare...and he was smiling?
"Hop on!" Pikachu jumped into the empty wagon before Ashley had the idea. She wasn't liking where this was going.
"You can't be serious... There's no steering mechanism on that wagon." Surrendering, Ashley boarded and clutched Pikachu tightly. Ash got behind the wagon and gave it one mighty push. The wagon hit the changed angle and started to gain speed. The speed nailed the groggy slow villagers, running them over. They reached the bottom in several seconds. Safely, the Ashes and Pikachu hopped off and ran passed the entrance.
"Let's see them pass this roadblock. Torterra, Rock Climb!" Ash threw his ball out and released Torterra who did the earthly pillar summon and wedged it in the doorway. That worked to perfection. "Just what I was hoping for. Thanks, Torterra. Take a nice break." Returning Torterra, Ash was ready to move.
"I don't know if now I should be more afraid of your creatures or the villagers." Ash wasn't so concerned with Ashley's questioning. Those monsters were personally trained by him.
"Trying to make me the bad guy?" Pikachu had to disagree with Ash's assumption. As they entered a ghost village, the phone rang. Ingrid was calling. Ash answered it. "Talk to me."
"Ash, I've got some bad news," Ingrid replied. Ash wasn't ready to get bad news. It better not be Gary and Paul found dead.
"What's wrong?"
"Our helicopter's out of the radar. I think someone shot it down." Ash had a mental double-take. So far, the only ones with weapons were he and the rivals. The biggest weapon all the villagers had was a chainsaw but how could that take down a helicopter?
"Do what you can about that. By the way, do you have data on a guy named Osmund Saddler?" There's a name not on Ingrid's mind. Yet, she had an idea on something.
"I'm gonna take a crack at it and say that he's the leader of Los Illuminados?"
"Yeah. He's also infected us with the parasites." Ingrid knew that the situation became dire.
"Try to find a way to eliminate the parasites in your body before you become one of them. I'll search the database for Saddler." Hanging up, the Ashes scurried through the village and to a bridge. As they crossed over, creepy moans alerted them to see more villagers on the approach. How did Saddler infect all these people in the amount of time he had? More moans and from an adjacent path produced more. There was so many villagers, standing and fighting would've been suicide.
"Ash, what do we do?" a panicked Ashley wondered. Ash searched around for a way to escape...until blasts of water and leaves blew the second set of villagers over the side of the cliff which was connected by the bridge. There was Gary and Paul with Blastoise and...who knew Paul had a Torterra himself? Both rivals were just fine as they raced to Ash's side.
"Ash!" Gary roared out. Both reaching, the rivals had a chance to view the female Ash for themselves.
"Nice timing, you two," Ash huffed. Gary had a chance to hear Ash and was shocked to listen to him in the oddest tone.
"Paul was right, your voice has changed." Ash nodded. "And it seems that you got the president's kid to go alongside. Way to go!" Ash giggled like it was nothing. Paul turned to the bridging company.
"Now that we're back together, let's hurry and find a place to recover!" he ordered. Ash knew Paul was right. He spotted a cabin close by. Better than nothing.
"That cabin can help," he replied. The group raced into the cabin where Gary slammed the steel door. They were safe...but for how long? Hearing footsteps, Pikachu turned and squealed someone else. Great, they ran right into a trap. Actually...
"Chicos!" Luis called out. Ash turned around to see a wooden beam fly at them. Good hands Ash caught it before it even reached Gary. Luis came out to view the still thriving kids. "Small world, eh?" As Ash handed Gary the beam, Luis had a good look at Ashley. "Well, I see that the president has equipped his daughter with...ballistics." Ashley was disgusted with Luis' flirting advances.
"How rude!" she snapped, flinching Luis. "And I don't believe there's any relevance with my figure and my standing!" Ash got to Ashley's side, a notion of defense.
"We have enough problems without you trying to hit on someone, Luis," he backed Ashley. Luis wasn't too worried.
"Just trying to lighten the mood, American princess!" he tried to play off. "Perhaps knowing your name is a start to a...survivors' union. Besides, we've already got enough friction between those boys." Ashley groaned as Paul loaded his favorite weapon and Gary sipped something from a canteen. Did he find fresh water?
"Ashley Graham, President Graham's daughter," she barked. "And what do you mean friction between the boys?" Luis gazed at the faces of Gary, not wanting to be here in the first place.
'No matter what I'm doing, Paul's still riding my butt,' minded the brunette Oak. Next, Paul.
'Why was I forced to team up with pathetic trainers from the same town, let alone the same region?' wondered the purple-haired chip. 'Ash is arrogant but Gary's smart-alack use of his Pokémon nearly got us killed by that giant.' It seemed that Gary made mistakes when Paul let Ash advance to rescue Ashley. Speaking of Ash...
'I don't know about Luis but the rest of us have that parasite sprawling around in us,' concerned the raven-haired trainer. 'Should I tell them about it?' Three rivals, no two thoughts alike. Gary's upset with Paul, Paul's disgusted with the training perspectives of Gary and Ash and Ash was concerned with the parasites within Gary, Paul and Ashley. Paul walked up to Ash with a question.
"So, did you find anything interesting when rescuing the damsel?" Ash turned to his Sinnoh rival with a grit that their problems weren't anywhere remotely to minor.
"I ran into the head honcho of the Los Illuminados. Ingrid's running a background on him as we speak...and he told us about eggs implanted in us." Eggs? Gary heard Ash, thinking that these eggs were not the normal three ounce portion.
"Larva eggs?" he assumed. Ash wanted to go with Gary's word since one, he's never seen a larva egg in his life and two, he was injected while unconscious.
"In short, we have parasites swimming around our systems." Paul growled in anger that his body's being violated by a parasite as Gary was a bit concerned. Luis heard the news.
"Who knows how long it'll take those eggs to hatch and turn you into them," Luis referred. The boys and Ashley didn't have a lot of time on their hands with the parasites swimming in their bodies.
"Is there a way to remove these parasites before they take us over?" she wondered. Luis began to ponder if there's a way to save the kids.
"No sé a ciencia cierta." That was a letdown. Pikachu squeaked to tell the people that trouble's coming. A ton of villagers were coming their direction. Ash took action.
"Pikachu, keep an eye on Ashley," he commanded. "Both of you head upstairs." Agreeing, Ashley and Pikachu raced to the second floor as the men got their weapons ready, including Luis with a long barrel handgun.
"Okay, boys. It's game time!" The villagers came busting through the boarded windows and right into gunfire. The men fired round after round, shot after shot, bullet after bullet dwindling the oncoming invaders. For a few minutes, the boys were holding off the villagers, some even spurting disfiguring features. Parasites in complete control.
"Ash, upstairs!" Paul instructed. "We'll keep things in order!" Ash obeyed and got upstairs to see one villager climbing a ladder. Ashley and Pikachu could shock him into submission but Ash raced out to him with a vicious right cross. KABLAM! The punch knocked the villager from the top to the ground head first, his head busting open. Every ladder the villagers boarded, Ash pushed them off. One of the villagers chose to call off the assault.
"Tenemos que reagruparnos!" he called. The villagers still alive retreated on the order. The heroes and Ashley could breathe a little easier.
"That was a little scary," Gary sighed. "At least they're calling off the charge." For how long?
"Perhaps we need to think of a way to escape but with that bridge occupied by those villagers," Paul studied. "I'd want to know if there's a way to get off the land."
"There is," Ash quickly replied as he, Pikachu and Ashley returned to the rest. "There's an extraction point to reach where a helicopter's suppose to pick us up." There's a plan now. Luis seemed confident that the kids would be okay without him.
"You do what you need to do," he murmured. "I've got a few things of my own to treat." Luis opened the door and left the house. To Paul, Luis seemed to be hiding something.
"You don't suppose he's working with Los Illuminados, do you?" Paul questioned. It was an interesting speculation. Even Ashley had concern about Luis.
"If he is working with Saddler, he's putting on an impressive act," she believed. Ash wasn't concerned about Luis as much as he was worried about getting Ashley home.
"Let's not get worked up about him, alright?" Ash tried to get order down. "Let's get outta here before the villagers engage round two." The four with Pikachu exited the cabin and found a secret path by the left side. Entering a straightaway, a boulder was hanging by a simple wooden beam at the top of the cliff. Little did they know, they were going to need it. A roar echoed, alerting all to what was behind him. The behemoth reappeared, much to Gary's and Paul's chagrin...and Ash's surprise. "Didn't you two take care of him before?"
"Yeah, we did!" Gary replied. "We even saw it dissolve!" How many behemoths did he have? Ash spotted the hanging boulder. "I also remember that he had that parasite which protruded out of his back now that you mentioned those eggs inside of us." That gave Ash an idea.
"Let's get Mr. Big under that boulder. Gible, I choose you!" Ash released Gible with a plan. "Gible, Dig!" Gible entered the ground and reemerged between the legs. "Gible, Draco Meteor!" Gible began storing energy within its body before firing straight up... PING! Right into the little behemoth under the loincloth. That had to hurt. The behemoth clutched his junk as he doubled over in pain. That even made Paul squint in the behemoth's suffering. "Good work, Gible...though, I should have told you where to attack like the back." So he felt the groin shot as well. Recovering his wits, Ash grabbed a green grenade and pulled the pin. "This might sound odd but...Frag Grenade, I choose you!" He's right, it did sound odd. Ash chucked the grenade at the beam which exploded and toppled the platform, the boulder falling down onto the still down behemoth. SPLAT! The boulder turned the behemoth's head into a moldy pancake. He wasn't getting up anytime soon. To Gary, it's a sight he's seen before.
"He's not a Pokémon Master yet, but he's definitely the master of thinking outside the box." To say Ash was a master of unorthodox acts just seemed that Ash preferred to work in so many different angles than normally trained.
"It's rather pathetic for him to be so underhanded," Paul snorted. That had Gary groan in displeasure.
"Hey, better to be underhanded than have no plan." Paul snarled at Gary's reply as they continued through...until a door blocked their path. It was too tall to climb over. There also seemed to be a scanning device to the door.
"I know that scanner," Ashley inputted. "It's scans your eyes and if it recognizes you like this for example, it'll unlock the door." Trying it out, Gary placed his face where the red light scanned his eyes. Nothing.
"It didn't accept me. We need someone who can trip the scanner and get us passage." Luis was long gone. There was no one who could trip it here, not even Ashley. They began to search for more ways to get around the roadblock which took them to a ski lift fitted with platforms instead of benches. After taking care of those on the lift, the youngsters reached the other side of a deep chasm. Their search on the other side had them coming across a barn. Something about that barn rubbed Paul the wrong way as he walked toward the opening.
"Paul, where are you going?" Ash wondered. In his disgust, Paul snorted his away.
"Away from pathetic trainers from the Kanto Region," he scowled. Gary and Ash came over as he entered the barn...and the doors were closing. Ash was stopped by the door and Gary ceased just a moment after. Hearing the doors slam, Paul turned around to see the Big Cheese as his big hand snagged Paul by the neck and lifted him.
"Usted y sus amigos nos han cruzado por última vez!" he angrily roared. "Que todos vamos a morir!" Paul was in a bind when he spotted a gas barrel. He whipped out his gun and shot the barrel. KABOOM! The explosion ignited the hay and lit the barn on fire, rapidly concerning the Ashes.
"Paul!" they yelled out. How was Paul going to escape the hands of the Big Cheese and could the rivals help out?
CONTINUARÁ...