Chapter 20 – A Cornered Predator
"So the world died and time stopped… there are worse things that can happen. The world could have exploded in a big ball of fire and then we'd have no chance of surviving. We'd have to steal the Clefairy's spaceship and visit the moon. Can you imagine that? The moon? Who'd want to live there?" Zo
[17:11PM] – 26th May 2011 – Slightly West of Route 1
"There're too many of them!"
"Have a little faith!"
A sound of rushing air signified the second speaker teleporting away, and the first speaker took a couple of steps backwards, trying not to attract the attention of the pursuing rockets.
Really, it was just their luck that they finally managed to discover the Team army camp. SECTION had been curious about where they trained their grunts for years, out of Saffron, Viridian, Lavender and Fuchsia. It appeared they had finally, and quite literally, stumbled upon it.
The irony of it all was cruel, and Lance thought that Fate must have so much fun laughing at them.
He hoped Fate choked and died.
Calmly he spun around, swinging himself into a tree. The forest to the west of route 1 might not have any nice man-made paths but he was quite content with the non-man-made ones. He had played in the hills and caves as a child in Blackthorn, and found navigating the treetops quite easy. Raichu landed nimbly on the branch in front of his, dark electricity crackling in his cheeks.
"Rai Ai Chu!" he chirped in greeting, although Lance had no clue what it meant.
Swinging across to another branch, he queried, "I don't think I caught that – could you repeat it?"
The mouse didn't need to for in that instance, there were cries from the rocket line through the trees and the blurred, teleporting form of Ash, with a blue mermaid fish guarding his back.
He felt his Dratini stir around his neck, and his spine tingled as a beam shot out of the small dragon snake's mouth, hitting a grunt sneaking up on them. Lance thanked his Pokémon, before moving, Raichu running beside him, vanishing for a moment to a lower branch, tail dancing low, electric current running down it and striking at a wandering… was that a Galactic grunt? Odd space suits…
Air shattered. "Move it." Ash called up, ducking under gun fire, "Get to Victory Road."
"Victory Road!?" Lance exclaimed. "It will take an hour or so to get up there, even cutting diagonally across from Pallet!"
"Better start moving then," the younger man patronised, before his form flickered away.
Lance hopped across to a collection of large oaks, branches thickly interlocked. Swinging down, he staggered slightly before continuing forward, heading into the rocket's path.
"There he is!"
Magma, he corrected, spotting the red hoodies with… why did their hoodies have cat ears on them anyway? Then he spotted the Mightyena and cursed. If only Dragonite was not busy, fighting off Zubat swarms (he'd always detested Dark Cave) he could just ask for a hyper beam. As it was, an ice beam would do.
"If you please," he spoke to his small snake, which twisted itself, central red jewel glowing slightly.
The white beam shot out, crackling blue, and freezing the first hyena which crashed into it. The second hound tripped over the first, and Lance was pleased to see the ice statue shatter as it hit a rock. The magmas dodged, and there was a spurt of flames from a Houndoom, countering the ice.
Oh dear.
"Raichu!" the orange mouse dropped down, cheeks crackling, as a thunder rippled forwards, ripping up the ground with its power. Lance took that opportunity to bolt, ducking through the undergrowth with Dratini firing one last ice beam at a magma who had avoided the large shock wave.
Well as spontaneous as this latest scheme of Erika's was, it was working surprisingly well. He knew Luca would roll in as a relief for Rai, allowing the mouse to move further away and recharge. Then it was either Misty or Erika's turn to hold them off.
He slid to a halt about five minute later in what, in this tangled forest, amassed to a clearing. Va was already there, a purple Espeon, red jewel glowing as she telepathically directed the others to find the clearing. As Lance skidded to a halt, breathing erratic, Rai dropped out of nearby tree.
"Can't you… guys… teleport… too?" he asked, blinking wearily at the pair.
Espeon's psychic voice reverberated inside his head, and being the first time, it shocked him slightly, although he was too washed out to do anything but blink at the psychic fox. "As an Espeon I can. Rai, and Luca can follow the spatial fluctuations that Ash and I leave behind and for Zo… well it depends on her form."
Lance blinked again. "Okay." He accepted this for now, but maybe later when he was more aware he would question her further.
A soft displacement of air and Ash staggered forwards, eyes closed but then they flickered open, a brilliant violet, glancing to Lance, and then his two Pokémon. "Zo's holding off the Zubats with your Dragonite." He said, by way of greeting. "She's always wanted to mimic Charizard's form."
"What happened to Charizard?" Lance asked, going off slightly on a tangent.
Ash shrugged. "What happened to your Salamence?" he shot back, "Stored at HQ somewhere with all my other Pokémon. Mew, I miss my team – I mean, Luca's my official aura guardian companion, and Va and Rai are brilliant to have around, I miss the others though – ya know?" He ran a hand through his hair, before realising his hood was down and pulling it back up. "At least I know they're safe. My battlers might be okay in this world… but the others…" he trailed off.
Ash had two sets of Pokémon. His battlers, which could easily take on an elite level Pokémon. Some, like his Garchomp, were completely lethal, although his Swellow, Feraligatr and Floatzel were pretty close to matching the ferociousness the dragon. Others, such as his Bulbasaur, and much to Ash's regret, his Snorlax who seemed to care more about food than battles, were what Ash deemed 'ranch' Pokémon, who lived in relative luxury at either Oak's Ranch, or the Indigo League. It wasn't that they couldn't battle, or that Ash never used them, but his 'battlers' were the few in his arsenal which could take on legendries and hold their own successfully.
This was before the war, of course.
Judging by the Eevee morph, Lance assumed that Ash would add the Jolteon to his official elite team. It had been slightly embarrassing to find out that Ash had somehow managed to beat the elites with only five electric types – a Luxray who managed to use moves that were physically impossible, a surfing Pikachu, a Eelektross which annoyingly was immune to ground attacks, a stupidly persistent Flaafy and a dual typed Laturn.
Ash always had a thing for the electric types, and after that Luxray began to use moves such as flamethrower and hydro pump, they tended to have a counter for most Pokémon sent out against them.
Still catching his breath, Lance took a moment to think about Ash current team of four, perfect for stealth and strong fighters. He reckoned that Lucario could keep up with the likes of Charizard, Pidgeot, Floatzel and Gallade, although he had yet to see the black jackal invent new combinations of moves, reserving himself to his usual, expected movepool, similar to Sceptile, Infernape, Swellow, Feraligatr, Torterra and Typhlosion. Lance had the joy of being lent Ash's Garchomp, and then kept the ground and dragon type around for as long as possible, before Ash just allowed him to look after the pseudo legendary on a permanent basis, much to his joy.
Ash's teams were an interesting collection, and relative to Ash's non-official battling background as a roaming trainer, before eventually becoming an elite. Lance himself, owned several decidedly non-dragon types, although they had mostly been rehomed with people who would care for them. His first Pokémon, unfortunately, was stuck in a Pokéball, stored back at base. Charmander had been his starter Pokémon, closely followed by the Dratini gifted to him by his clan, which remained with him nearby, flying somewhere above his head.
Footsteps could be heard, and Lance was shaken out of his musings, head snapping up. Ash tensed, ready to attack.
"Don't shoot!" Misty seemed to anticipate their panic. "It's only me!"
She appeared, breathless and ragged, her Golduck behind her, running awkwardly. "Erika's holding….them off for now… where the hell … did she get so… so…?"
She didn't finish, trailing off and Ash didn't offer an answer.
"Where are we heading, anyway?" Misty leaned back against a tree, looking to Lance for an answer, although it was Ash who spoke.
"We're heading to Indigo, and hopefully we can lose the Team, but if not, we head to Victory Road."
Misty stared at him. "Victory Road is gone." She said, blandly. "It's a mess of rubble and wild Pokémon."
The aura guardian smirked. "How do you know that?" he asked, "Nobody's been there since those mental Fearow moved into the next door route and Tohjo Falls and the Silver Pass from Johto were sealed off. With the SECTION base north west of Viridian, people take the path over the hills to Indigo anyway."
"Then why don't we go up that way?" Misty asked.
Lance choked. "Do you want to get mauled to death?" he asked, in disbelief. "I'll take my chances with an abandoned path thank you."
The red head shivered. "Leaf and I were stuck wandering around Mount Moon for a while." She admitted.
"Yeah," Lance hummed, "May told me."
"You speak to her a lot, don't you?" Misty smiled at him, "I think somebody has a little crush."
Lance stared back unabashed. "Probably." He admitted, calmly. "Once this is all over I'll ask her out and see what she says."
A choking sound was Ash trying to stifle his laughter. Lance glared at him, but it didn't work.
There was a squeak, as Erika tripped into the clearing. "Okay, so Dragonite and Zo brought the fight to the ground to give us a bit of time." Her Chikorita pranced around happily on the ground and Lance frowned. When did the little shy thing he retrieved in Saffron get to enjoy battling so much? That was going to be one dangerous Meganium one day…
That was if they made it to that one day. Maybe he should concentrate on the here and now.
Erika glanced around expectantly, oddly chirpy for someone who had just been fighting for their life and freedom. "Going?" she asked.
Ash nodded, responding. "We're heading to the Cave System. With any luck we'll lose them before then, at the worst we'll set up the cave entrance to collapse…"
"But that will barricade us in!" Misty protested, "Do you want to build your own grave?"
Ash flinched slightly and Lance spoke up before some stupid phrase like 'I'm going to die anyway' worked its way from his lips. "It's the best plan at the moment Misty. Just go with it."
The red headed woman looked like she wanted to argue, but she fell silent as the Pichu on her shoulder squeaked. "I wish Gyrados came up from the Pallet Coast with me." She mumbled.
Lance was about to respond, but there were shouts behind him, signifying the rockets had caught up to them. "Here we go again." He sighed, preparing to move. Erika grabbed his cape, dragging him over as bullets flew into the clearing.
No, wait, those were poison darts.
He glanced behind, in time to see the white space suits of the galactic team members charging towards them. "Time to go," He decided, pushing Erika in front of him.
Why it was Galactic wore such stupid suits anyway was beyond him. Were they planning to go to the moon? He was so glad Cyrus never got around to fashioning his new world, and got sucked into the Distortion World to be eaten (he hoped) by Giratina. The fashion in a Cyrus world would be completely terrible.
In his pocket, his phone vibrated, disrupting his train of thought. It was May. What was she doing phoning him?
"May, love?"
Did he just call her love?
May however seemed to find nothing amiss with this and continued regardless. "Hi Lance? How are things over-" She was interrupted before she could finish.
"Uh, can I phone you back? We've got a little rocket problem – pest control really… bye!" He cancelled the call, cutting off her exasperated voice splicing his name into two syllables. She'd kill him for it later but for now he had worse things to worry about, namely ducking the bullets heading for his head.
Weren't they going to lose these rockets any time soon?
In the Pewter base, Gary, Leaf, Brock and Dawn were staring expectantly at May. "That was quick." Dawn commented, "Did you tell him about the gears through instant techno communication or something?" she seemed impressed.
May blinked. "No." she said, numbly. "He said 'May, love?' and then that he had a 'little rocket problem – pest control'." She blinked, the words registering. "Wait, did he just call me 'love'?"
Back to Lance, Erika, Misty and Ash, and their assorted furry and scaled companions: Erika had paused to try and "shoot a few more of those bastards.'" As she acted as cover, Rai and Misty darted past. The Chikorita was shooting razor and magical leaves at them – when did it learn magical leaf?
Ash had teleported in besides Lance. "I don't think we can go much longer." He admitted. "If the Caves aren't nearby we're dead meat."
"So much for your overwhelming faith in our abilities," Lance shot back, as the pair ran side by side, ducking through undergrowth and jumping over tree logs.
"Well if you look on the bright side." Ash teleported out of the way of an incoming tree and reappeared on the other side, "At least we found their army training camp."
If Lance was not running for his life he would happily punch Ash for that glib comment. As it was, he had no need, for Erika appeared, tripping over a log (was she really clumsy or was it just him?) and collided with Ash, their breaths rushing out in a whoosh.
"Misty's holding them off." Erika told Ash, who was lying dazed beneath her.
The aura guardian blinked up at her. "Get of me!" he protested, shoving the grass gym leader off.
"Well?" Erika demanded, hands on hips as she hopped out of the way, regaining her balance, "Aren't you going to go and help?"
Lance saw Ash shift, as if about to phase away to help, but instead he glanced at Rai. Unspoken words flowed between them and the mouse headed back the way they had come.
"Why don't you tell her?" Erika asked, "She won't be mad at you … not much, at least."
"I'd tell her." Ash said, "If it wasn't for the fact that it would be twice as hard on her when I die later. She can't be put through that!"
"Not even to spend more time with you?" Lance queried, curiously wondering what he would do.
The aura guardian shook his head in an emphatic no.
"What…" Erika paused… "How do you know you're going to die anyway?"
"I… had a dream of sorts. After I died, I don't really remember anything, but two years passed so I must have been pretty dead. I think I was with Arceus and he told me … Well… I think it was him. I don't really remember. It could have been Darkrai and I wouldn't have known."
"What exactly did god-on-high tell you?" Erika asked, suspiciously.
"That there was a balance and that I have to keep that balance, by dying when I'm meant to." He sounded so forlorn about that, like a sibling who had just been told that their parents preferred their sister, or a lover who dumped them for someone else. It was so unfair on Ash, and he'd been carrying the burden for so long, hiding it from the world, burying it inside, burying himself so deep inside himself that the sarcastic, heartless monster on the outside in no way reflected the inner person.
"What? So some deity has a giant book of fate in which your death is written down at the start of time?" Erika quipped back at him.
Ash scoffed. "Not likely. More like, there's a death written down, and Arceus picked me, since I was already half-way there and he figured he could get a little bit more use from his chosen one." And he sounded so bitter, so defeated, not even trying to alter his fate, just sitting there and taking it, alone, and isolated, a little rocky island in the middle of the sea of fate, trying to wash him away. "It's like this," he explained. "As I said it was a balance; think of it like a set of scales. You put on a pebble to one side; you have to put one on the other side to balance. One side is labelled 'death' and the other 'life'."
"So now…" Erika frowned. "The scales are frozen? No, that wouldn't work. Okay, the life scale is really, really unbalanced?"
Ash shrugged. "Ask the deity." He told her.
A twig cracked. "What are you guys doing standing around?" Misty appeared, panting. "Aren't we meant to be running for our lives?"
Ash teleported to help back up Rai, and Lance was left wondering whether fate could be averted, or whether they would just have to follow the stream.
[19:00PM] – 26th May 2011 – Slightly West of Route 1
Misty stumbled to a halt as the thick forest opened out. They had been running from the grunts for two hours or so now, as she was close to dropping. Finally though, finally they had reached Victory Caves, the supposedly ruined path to the Pokémon league.
Erika was already there along with that… Misty wasn't sure what it was, because she could have sworn it was a Vaporeon, but it had cycled through so many Eevee evolutions recently that she could be mistaken. She frowned. No, she wasn't mistaken; the Eevee could just switch evolutions as if they were forms. It was downright unnatural. Not to mention the brown furred, black eared Eevee looked startlingly similar to the poor bedraggled thing Ash had looked after, before he died.
The currently Flareon was standing next to Erika as Misty made her way over, Golduck slightly ahead of her and Pichu on her shoulder.
Come to think of it, didn't Ash nickname the Eevee he rescued Va?
And she could have sworn she heard Lance call the electric type 'Rai', although since he was a Raichu it wouldn't be surprising.
Maybe she was just reading too much into this, and seeing him at every stranger she saw couldn't be healthy.
Her thoughts were interrupted as the grass leader moved over to her. "You okay?" Erika asked, examining her for injuries. "No? Good, because Lance and Shads have a plan – I hope – and the instruction to us was 'keep out of the way'."
"How nice." Misty sighed, "And what's with the nickname? Shads?"
"Shads. Shadow… he tries to be a dark, scary man, but really he's just a lost, broken soul. You just need to get under the surface."
Misty frowned; Erika seemed to be hinting at something here and she had no clue as to what.
The odd sound of air and space being ripped apart signified the arrival of the mysterious Shadow. "Lance here?" he asked, spinning around, "No. Fine. Luca find the cave – Va grow a defence – Er, can you help?"
The green eyed girl nodded, "Just tell me where."
Misty realised: The thing was Lance and Erika both just accepted him as a leader, regardless of what he said. This strange mysterious Shadow acted as if he had known them for months, and not weeks.
"Incoming!" Lance darted past as if his cloak was on fire, but didn't make it much further as the earth below him gave way, and the champion fell through into the earth.
Misty blinked. It was one of those; blink and you'd miss it moments. Lance had been here a second ago, and then the earth had collapsed under him.
Shadow gazed curiously, but not overly worried at the hole in the ground, soil dribbling down into the black abyss. "Hey Lance? Are you dead?"
"I'm okay! Thanks for asking!" he sounded oddly cheerful for a person who had just been swallowed by the earth.
Shadow examined the hole for a moment more, before deciding something. "Erika, get in. We just found Victory Caves." He glanced back down at Lance. "Well." He considered. "Our dragon tamer fell in it, but still." He glanced at Erika. "Now."
"What?" the grass leader squeaked. "No way! I'm not jumping into that pit – you must be insane – no wait, I'm sorry, I forgot you are insane – if you think…"
Shadow didn't stop to listen to what she thought, for he moved forwards, grabbing her arm and teleporting, leaving Misty alone above ground. She stared, dazed at the spot they had been, and feeling rather left out, the third wheel of an already three wheeled vehicle.
Shadow reappeared. "Va change of plan. Give them light… Luca get back here and Rai…" he paused. "Where's Rai?"
Why do you call him Rai? Misty wanted to ask, but hearing the worry in his tone, she followed his gaze as the pair glanced back towards the treeline, eyes widening slightly at the large group of battered, burnt, electrified team grunts, which were still relentless pursuing them.
Shadow curled his lip. "They just don't know when to quit, do they?" he scoffed, under his breath, before motioning for Misty to drop into the hole. After seeing the method he had used to get Erika down there, Misty didn't hesitate before leaping down, being swallowed by black earth.
[19:05PM] – 26th May 2011 – Victory Road Entrance
She landed on something soft, and there was a huff as whatever she landed on fell over under the impact. The cursing told her she had landed on Lance, and she hastened to get off him.
"Warn me next time you're going to drop in," he told her, hair dusty and full of dirt, illuminated by the pale, eerie glow of the needle furred Jolteon. Misty stared at the electric type, who had started out as a water type, before shrugging and turning back to the surface. Her Golduck landed agilely next to her.
In her arms, ChuChu let out a squeak, cheeks crackling with electricity and providing more light. She could see the silhouette of Shadow still above ground, with his Lucario.
"Are you sure your plan is going to work?" Lance called up to the aura guardian, frowning slightly.
"Oh ye of little faith," Shadow drawled, and shooting him a wolfish grin. "Be ready to run. You'll know when."
"What? When? Why?" Misty asked, frustration growing at being left out of this circle, needing to know. "What are you planning?"
The figure grinned down at them; gaze flicking up to what must be the oncoming grunts. "Lucario, use earthquake."
Lance dragged her and Erika out of the way, following the flickering glow of the Jolteon as they fled the epicentre, losing themselves in the darkness of the catacombs.
April 2013 – I'd say we're nearly there, except we're really not, and that even once this plot is finished, I have added several chapters which cover the period before this story, acting as prequel glue, sticking together the flashbacks. I just finished writing Ash's elite challenge, which was a pain to write five, full battles in a row. It's late at night and I should really have done some work instead of sitting here writing.
I'm doing a review of earlier chapters, rewriting the odd little section to help with continuity or correct grammar. If you notice any errors please point them out so they can be changed. I don't have a beta reader, and so have to make do with myself, reading and re-reading. You might notice the first two have been changed, and corrected.
Also, because we are nearing the end, if there are any questions you want answered (aside from the obvious) please ask, so I can write the answer into the next chapters.
Misty's starting to guess, but with all the chaos can't actually get around to thinking too deeply about it. I'm sorry for the rubbish battle scenes, but faced with that many grunts there isn't much to do other than run away. I'm sure Ash and Erika would love to just stay and fight, but Lance would drag them away, saying something about 'suicidal morons' so I was left with their hit, distract and run fighting, which I hope worked out alright.
Hope you enjoyed reading, and thank you for remaining on this marathon journey with me. Word-count is around 91 000 posted, and a total of 140 000 written. Thanks for the support and sticking with this tale. I definitely would have stopped a while back without some of those reviews!
~ Eclipse