Chapter 34 – Game Over
"Things just began to get back to normal, when once again they took a turn for the worse. In hindsight, we should have guessed, but if we had hindsight, things might have gone a lot differently, huh?" Va
("Then it was Indigo." Ash said, with some horrible sense of finality about his words.
"We had that dinner first." Leaf reminded him, "The four of us."
"True." Misty mumbled. "I enjoyed that."
Ash smiled down at his sleepy girlfriend. "Yeah… dinner… it seems like so long ago…")
[20:05PM] – 26th February 2007 – Kanto – Indigo League – Restaurant
"So what's the occasion?" Leaf asked, leaning into Gary's side as she eyed the dark haired man and red haired woman across from her.
Ash shrugged. "A new mission... You know how it is. I thought it would be nice to have a happy memory all together."
"Haven't got enough already?" Gary asked, raising his eyebrows.
Even touching on the awkward subject, Ash merely shrugged it off, staring pointedly off into the distance, and for a moment his brown eyes flickered to molten gold. "Not really. Things are still blurry, and I still find myself knowing things, even if I don't know how." He paused, frowning, "It's like a puzzle and I can see the picture but not some of the pieces. I don't really notice it though." The last bit was a lie, but they wouldn't know.
Misty grabbed his hand reassuringly and he squeezed it gently. His eyes fell on a yellow mouse and he sighed. "Pikachu's raising the ketchup. I'm gonna' have to pay for that."
"What?" Gary gasped, exaggerated, "Champion's don't get discounts on the food?"
"Shut it, you." The aura guardian threatened, standing, "I'm an elite anyway. Lance stayed champion. Uh… Excuse me a minute while I make sure Pi and Eva are okay."
Leaf frowned after him. "Nicknames are a new thing, huh?" she said, although it was more of a statement than a question.
The red head nodded, smiling sadly. "Yeah... His whole team have them – Amps, Lux, Arrin, Ter, Feral, Shard, Tristan, Cia, Sceptre, Lax, Saur, Coal…." She was ticking them off on her fingers. "It's mostly it's just shortening the name." Misty smiled, looking through the window to see Ash, with the yellow mouse and brown fox trotting around his heels.
"I'll go check he's okay," Gary said, gaze layered with concern. Ash was perfectly capable of taking care of himself, and Misty had seen for herself that his aura spheres could shatter bones, and ever since the Celadon Incident as it was known, and the labs afterwards, Ash had a startling lack of morality. Misty had managed to persuade him away from the more dangerous habits, but she knew that one part of the sweet innocent kid who started his journey so blasé and naïve was lost, never to come back.
She watched as the spiky haired Viridian leader approached Ash, the raven glancing at him before turning back to his two Pokémon. Gary's lips moved and Ash must have responded.
The dark haired man turned to face Gary, grabbing his wrist and putting something in it, and Misty could see his face, light angling off it, a deep frown set within it.
Gary unfolded something, looking at the object Ash had passed, before glancing up, mouth forming a question.
The aura guardian looked a bit lost, before whistling. There was a gust of wind as his orange Charizard landed, head cocked to the side, questioningly.
Whatever Ash had handed to Gary he snatched back and passed to Charizard who, with a quick sniff, took it in his great maw, snapping it up in a burst of flame.
The researcher asked Ash something again, but the other waved him off with a shrug. Misty frowned. That was odd.
She felt an indescribably sense of curiosity as to what Ash had shown Gary, but pushed it down, forcing herself to understand that he had his secrets, and she had hers.
And that was the way she was happy to keep it.
("Everything turned down hill of course." Ash was studying the ground. "We were found out. It was stupid though, to expect everything to work out okay. That sort of thing only happens in fairy tales."
"It's okay now." Dawn tried to be positive.
Erika curled up, wrapping her arms around her knees. "Is it though?")
[17:34PM] – 13th March 2007 – Kanto – Viridian City – Viridian Rocket HQ
"And why…" the orange suited man tapped his fingers against his chin, staring at the defiant, yet bound man in front of him. "Should I consider this offer of yours when last time you turned on us…?" He leaned forwards, elbows resting on the desk. "Hm?"
You turned on me first. Ash longed to snap, but he had to play the part, had to forget that, and hide behind the emotionless mask that slid into place all too easily.
"Because the League is going to lose," He stated, calmly. "You've proved that already. What's so odd about wanting to be on the winning side?"
The ex-gym leader smirked. "I'm glad you came around. I'm going to need a better reason than that though."
Mentally Ash winced. He hadn't wanted to use this excuse, but it would work perfectly, regardless of his opinion on it. "Misty…" he stopped, as if the word pained him, and maybe it did. "She's… she's with Lance… again…" The worst thing was the 'again' tacked onto the end, as if he wasn't, and never could be good enough for her. Then it was the lies, the blatant skin deep lies.
Giovanni smirked, a malicious thing which showed he obviously enjoyed Ash's false pain. "Prove it." Was all he said.
Prove it.
Ash wouldn't think later, about the man he had killed. He would forget it, forcing it behind barricades and letting this memory drift through the holes, never bothering to fish for it. The person was not the first, this nameless person, but they would not be the last. They were however, the first in cold blood, the first who stared up at him with pleading eyes, innocent of all crimes, but Ash didn't care.
He tried to ignore the guilt pooling in his stomach. He'd managed a lack of empathy when it came to the rocket grunts, so why was this one any different? It was the same, theoretically speaking, yet so very, very different.
He reminded himself that he didn't care.
He already had blood on his hands.
What was a little more in the long run?
[11:48AM] – 24th April 2007 – Kanto – Viridian City – Viridian Rocket HQ
Ash ignored Silver glaring balefully at his back, as he stalked to Giovanni's office. For some reason or other the four rocket elites refused to deal with him at all. Not that Ash was complaining, but he would rather report in to Archer than the head honcho.
"They refused to take the bait."
"No?" Giovanni cracked open one eye lazily. "That seems to be happening increasingly often Ketchum. Your position doesn't really seem to hold that much weight does it?"
The League's little games weren't working, trying to send in a spy but unprepared to make the sacrifices to prove said spy's worth. "Goodshaw doesn't trust me and he's still running the scenes, playing puppeteer." Ash turned his general dislike for the twisted old man, who should probably be retiring in an old people's home rather than boss around the Kanto elites, gym leaders, gym trainers and soldier. "If you want me to get rid of him…" that idea was awfully tempting and Ash would have no qualms about that. Misty would be shocked, but what Misty didn't know wouldn't hurt her.
"No." Giovanni shook his head. "Continue as you are doing, playing both sides for what they are worth."
Ash glanced up, alarmed at the rocket leader. Did he just say what he thought…? At his feet Rai's red cheeks began sparking slightly. "Playing both sides?" Ash bluffed. "One side, the idiotic backstabbing losing side, yes..."
"Isn't it odd?" Giovanni spread his fingers. "That you automatically rush to defending yourself?"
Ash was silent, not knowing what to say. He wondered how the rocket boss knew that he had been passing information to both sides, enough to keep them happy but not enough to blow up in his friend's faces or risk his position as spy.
"You get one chance. Make sure you know what side you're on."
The boss narrowed his eyes, making sure that he conveyed the fragility of Ash's tenure with Team Rocket.
"Then its game over."
[00:53AM] – 30th April 2007 – Kanto – Viridian City – Viridian Rocket HQ
The screen flashed up with a warning sign, requesting a passcode. It beeped and Ash glanced up and around the computer lab in alarm. There were still no guards, but they were due to pass by on the hour. He had seven minutes left, to find the damn file that Lance wanted…
Pixelated data on screen showed Gary's Porygon2, temporarily lent to him for the specific mission. Eva was in the ventilation shafts, checking the coast was clear. "Hurry up." Ash hissed at the computer, hoping the data Pokémon could hear him, within the system. He glanced up against, meeting Pikachu's dark brown gaze, the mouse stationed by the door.
"Ka." Pikachu chirped, glancing out of the window into the corridor. A rustling made both human and Pokémon jump as a ceiling tile slipped out of place, a small brown head visible.
"VuiEe!" Eva squeaked down to them. (People are coming!) Her sweeping tail brought dust particles floating downwards, as Ash glanced at the screen.
"Can you get back to Blue?" he asked, falling into nicknames. It wouldn't do after all for anyone to overhear that he was in correspondence with the Viridian Gym Leader.
The screen flashed with a confirmation message, and the pixelated evidence that there was a Porygon2 hacking the computer systems vanished, leaving the screen black. Ash glanced upwards. "Eva!" he called softly. "Drop down!"
The fox looked at him anxiously before obeying, but not before pawing the ceiling tile awkwardly back into place, leaving a small gap for her to leap down through. She landed into his arms with a sneeze, dust coating her fur. Ash glanced at Pikachu who twitched an ear.
"No one visible in the corridor," Pikachu told him mentally, and Ash took the extra time to leap onto a desk to slide the ceiling tile back into place. Hopping down he moved to the mouse's station by the door, slipping it open. Rai leapt to his shoulder, Eva curled in his arms.
The guard's footsteps were audible now, along the pass of the corridor, and Ash slipped the door behind him closed, spinning around and making his way slowly down the corridor. Running would attract attention, this late at night. He turned off down a side corridor, and turned immediately to his left, slipping into a store cupboard.
"Do you think that will work?" Ash asked, closing the door behind him. He glanced at the room. "Store cupboard," He mused. "I like it." He glanced around a bit. "Bit bigger than they usually are; cleaner, too."
"Pika…" Rai grumbled, hopping onto a cardboard box.
"How long till the signal?" Eva asked, pressing her small body against his chest.
Ash glanced at his watch, looking at the ticking seconds. "About… now…" he smirked, and on cue, a wailing alarm echoed through the building, likely rousing the sleeping grunts and rockets. "Let's go."
"You'd have thought…" Pikachu leapt onto a beam, pushing away another loose ceiling tile and revealing a dark space above him. "That after all those films where people sneak in through the ventilation system… that they'd have learned…"
"Yeah, yeah," Ash slipped… well… awkwardly clambered… into the roof. It was dark, and Pikachu let his cheeks spark slightly, providing a faint glow. "Now…" Ash stood upright, pausing to orientate himself. He had spent hours learning the roof plans and it better not go to waste. "This way…!"
[01:09AM] – 30th April 2007 – Kanto – Viridian City – Viridian Rocket HQ
He dropped down, after ten minutes of pained crawling through the roof. Dust clung to his dark hair, and behind him Eva looked like a shiny Pokémon, her brown coat dusted with silver cobwebs. Her brown eyes peered mournfully down at him from the dark hole in the ceiling.
"Wait there." Ash told her, as Pikachu hopped down. The room he had landed in was smart, immaculate, with well-polished wood and piles of paper in an organised system. The yellow rat pawed through a pile, sniffing at the ink. "It's designs." Ash told Rai, "Plans for buildings. Saffron, Lavender…" he moved forwards, opening the bottom drawer of a filing cabinet and sifting through its contents.
His brown eyes skimmed past the financial plans, the bank letters, and he slammed the door shut, moving up to the next one. Over on the desk, Pikachu was moving through the piles, tail nudging aside the paper. Above him, Eva looked down at them, and then shot a worried glance at the door which remained locked. It looked like innocuous wood, but a bullet would probably not penetrate it.
The alarm was still wailing, the rocket sectors still dealing with the false-break in along the far wing, and the file hack Porygon who was probably long gone by now. Giovanni would not be around for a while.
Strike hard, strike fast, and leave them sitting dazed, Ash had been instructed. He figured that this worked for the confused part.
"Pika!" Rai chirped, half sitting in one of the open desk drawers, pulling out folded design plans that were bigger than he was. Ash smirked, lifting them out of the drawer and onto the desk, looking over them.
"Great." He said, folding it up and pulling the next thing out of the drawer. It was another plan, and he folded that up as well. "Anything else?" he asked Pikachu, who was still sitting in the open drawer.
"KaChu!" Pikachu pulled out a file, 'top secret' printed over the front, temptation just sitting there. The mouse hopped out of the drawer and onto the desk, flicking the file open.
Some pictures were shoved in the front, paper clipped in, and Ash had to look at it twice before placing what Pokémon it was, the form was so weak and feeble. His hands trembled, tracing the bloodied image of the Mightyena, fur on fire and eating away at its own flesh. Below in an illegible scrawl words caught his eye.
He slammed the file closed, feeling sick, and the smell of sterile laboratory strong in his nose. "Not there." He muttered. "Not there."
Above him Eva squeaked a warning. In front of him the lock clicked open.
"Oh crap." He cursed, head still swimming with pain blood fire as Pikachu leapt forward, cheeks sparking.
"Find anything useful?" Giovanni stared at him from beneath dark glasses, standing behind two armed guards, guns pointed at him.
Pikachu's sparks died abruptly.
Ash took a step back from the desk, leaving the file sitting there. "Nice reading materials." He joked, trying to ignore the flashes of memory threatening to drown him.
Lab white specimen cut
It hadn't been so bad, the usual trickle, but there had been times there had been too much. Too much information, images, too many holes in the images…
"Friends are always in our heart…" A boy with glasses, sitting on the hillside… A girl with hair like fire… A friend for life…
Above him he heard the tiny paw scrapes as Eva turned to flee. Maybe she would try to find help, but he doubted she would manage it. He just prayed to whatever deity was listening… to whatever deity who decided that it was time to return the many favours they owed him… help her… please…
"of fire… water… and light… lest these three titans…" Blue Red Yellow Water Fire Lightning Song
Pikachu didn't fight the Persian that crept up on him, the cat and mouse game. He felt the fight leave his master and he crouched there and waited … because they had a plan right? They always had a plan, a crazy stupid idiotic plan…
"when every life… meets another…" Friend Enemy Rival Friend Enemy Threat
As they bound his hands Ash wondered how things had gotten so far, so quickly, so serious… this wasn't just about three idiots and a balloon… this was about one madman and the world… it still seemed so small…
Monster freak abomination
He stood in front of him, the genetic freak and the madman, and one was one and not the other, and the only thing that made them different was what side they fought on.
"I'm disappointed." Giovanni announced later, as they threw him into a cell in their prison guard-room dungeon… "I thought you had made the right choice and picked the right side."
Right side Wrong side… what was the point when everything just led to more pain?
"Well what can I say?" Ash grimaced. "I didn't fancy working for the murderers and thieves, winning side or not."
Giovanni laughed, as he turned in the prison doorframe. "That's what we are? Criminals and murderers…? There's a fine line between your good and evil Ketchum, and you're walking it. There's blood on your hands as well as ours. Don't forget that." Then he spun around and the door slammed shut.
[11:34 AM] – 1st May 2007 – Kanto – Indigo Plateau – Outside the League Ruins
He stood there bound, half drugged on whatever they gave him to stop the cuffs snapping under the blue flare of aura. The world swam in monsters, him and them, and all he can hear is Misty, screaming.
Then it was real, and the air against his face was cold, and there was rain in the air, clouds overhead, thunder in the distance, and he was kneeling there, muddy, bruised, and bleeding, brown eyes sliding to blue to green to brown.
The silver blade which pressed against his throat was real. He blinked, the words hitting him and he swallowed, throat pressing up against the sharp blade.
"No, no, no you can't let them do this!" Misty was screaming, Lance physically wrapped around her to hold her back. The corner of Ash's lips twitched in the remnant of a smile as the red-head drags her backwards, whispering in her ear.
"We can't lose this whole thing just to save him."
It sounds terrible, but Lance knows that Ash would make the same decision if he were sitting there.
"He's more important than any of this."
You're more important than my life, Ash wants to tell her, but instead he shook his head. "I'm not Misty. You know I'm not."
She was crying and his gaze drifts away, unable to look at her when those sea blue eyes water and shed salty tears. In the mud Pikachu blinked up at him, and once more Ash prayed that Eva got away safely. "PikaPi." Brown eyes bore into him, trusting him to the end, even though they both know that they're run is over.
"Live your life Mist. Live it for me. Do everything you ever wanted and be happy. Promise me that you'll be happy,"
Giovanni was watching this life a soap opera, examining the scene with cruel amusement. Lance glared at him, stepping forwards. "You kill him this is war. And we won't hold anything back."
"Then we won't either." Giovanni smirked. He turns away, as if bored of the scene. "Throw him over the cliff when you're done." He gestures carelessly to the Indigo Cliff. Behind him the smouldering ruins of the Indigo League lie in ruins, the ragtag remains of SECTION scattered there. Cracks webbed the ground, some pattern to the chaos, and the sky grumbled, even though the storm doesn't break.
Ash doesn't think it will ever break – he can feel something stopping, something slowing… the aura of the world has stopped breathing, its heart has stopped pumping…
Pikachu whimpered.
His lip curled. "I hope you bastards rot in hell." He spat, and it came out bloody. "And then I hope hell spits you back out again so that I can send you back there myself," he'll see the hell fires before them, the twisted dimensions of its world before he crawls back out to drag them in.
Giovanni stopped admiring the view to glance down at him. "Finally found your tongue aura guardian? Are you ready to finally plead for your life?" he grabbed Ash by the chin, turning the raven-haired man to look at him. "You can… still join us."
It was a false offer. Ash had joined them and dumped them and joined them again. Instead he jerked his head out of the others grip, feeling the knife slip against the beating thrum of his pulse. "You can watch your back. Keep watching, keep waiting, because I swear on all those whose lives you have touched, I will hunt you down and kill you, inch, by inch until you scream for me to end it. You can send me to the far reaches of darkness but your days are numbered. You know it… and you'll spend the rest of your time on this earth, scared… because one day you'll turn around…"
Giovanni turned away, body tense and Ash stopped talking, glaring daggers at the man's back. It was silent signal, to the boy… man holding Ash. There was only a moments of hesitation and the knife faltered. Ash could hear Silver's muttered apology before it fire branded itself across his throat.
The Space In-Between
Then its dark and he's falling, and it's hard to breath and maybe that's because with his blood gushing out of his throat it would make sense except there's no pain and just not enough air and a warm body Pikachu Is curled against his side so maybe this is death or maybe this is just dying and death is just a blank pit of nothing he'd hate that because there has to be something isn't there something or was all that lies
There's black and white and maybe grey in-between and red eyes watch judgementally white collar like smoke around its neck and clawed hands like a demon Dark and its talking about time and space and temporality displaced and he's not really listening because he's dead obviously it should make sense except there's nothing there it's all in his head really this perception of death it's how he's trying to come with it and oh please Arceus let him not be a ghost he doesn't want to haunt lavender tower for the rest of his life
The thing laughs clawed hands reaching out and gripping his soul his life his spirit and dragging him back wrong and frozen and he's still got the pit tainting his soul as the white silver light faded and the thin air became thinner and colder and there was snow and ice and it was freezing as his vision slipped and he blinked.
And breathed… a starving lungful of oxygen like a dying man…
Alive
[00:00 AM] – 5th May 2008 – Sinnoh – Mount Coronet
Ash sat up, frozen, head swimming.
He was aware of three things.
He was dead. Had been dead. Maybe he was still dead.
It was freezing.
Pikachu was curled up next to him, shivering slightly.
And a black Riolu wearing a bag was staring at him.
Ash stared back. Make those four things.
Wait… what?
"Who are you?" The Riolu's aura swirled around him in waves of concern and wariness. "Rio?" he tilted his head to the side. (Are you okay?)
"Hello." Ash tried to say, but it came out as a strangled cough. His throat was dry and he tried to swallow. The small pup noticed and leapt towards a pile of snow, scooping it up and lifting it towards Ash, cupping his paws. The raven haired man smiled awkwardly, accepting the snow. It was cold, but melting quickly it soothed his aching throat. "Thanks. I'm Ash by the way, and this is my partner, Pikachu or Rai if you prefer." He gestured to himself and the snoozing electric type. "Where are we?"
The Riolu blinked red eyes at him. "Ruor? Ri OuOuLou!" (You don't know? We're on the Spear Mountain!"
"Mount Coronet?" Ash queried, glancing around at the snowy peak. There seemed to be nothing but cloud, the occasional pine tree and lots of snow and rock. "Sinnoh?"
"RioLu," the pup added. (Land of Creation), which translated to Sinnoh.
"Ka?" Pikachu stirred at Ash's side. Shifting uncomfortably. "KachuPi," he grumbled, rolling over. (Hmm… stop poking me…)
"Rai." Ash shook the mouse gently. "Wake up." He glanced up at the emanation Pokémon apologetically. "He's a heavy sleeper."
The quiet puppy just looked at him with those solemn red eyes making Ash shift awkwardly. Pikachu was right actually, there was something digging into him. He shifted, reaching for the rock that was buried between them and pulling it out, about to throw it aside.
He paused, fingers splayed on the rock, energy bubbling to life under the surface. The stone was dirty with mud and snow, and he brushed it off, light playing over the steel coloured rock.
"Ro…" Riolu reach out with one black paw towards it and then stopped, looking warily towards Ash.
"It's okay." Ash said to him, even as Pikachu opened his eyes, blinking at the snowy cold world.
"KaChu?" (What the…?)
"My point exactly," Ash sighed, fingers gripping the steel coloured rock shaped like a gear so tightly his gloved hands were turning white. "Hey, Riolu? What are you doing up here? Were you… looking for this?"
The jackal looked hesitant, and then nodded. "Riolue…." (My father…) he began, one paw touching his little bag where something pulsed in response.
Ash's gaze slid blue, looking towards the black jackal. He wondered why he hadn't noticed it before, the flaring pulse of aura resonating from the two gears. He paused then, because those were the only two flares of aura he could feel other than the thrumming heartbeat from himself, Pikachu and Riolu.
The hum of the earth's aura had stilled.
"Oh no." he whispered, staring at the horizon bank of clouds. "The gears… time…"
"Rio!" Riolu nodded frantically. (That's right!) "OuLoupRiRiRiO!" (Time shattered!)
The aching feeling in Ash's gut grew, and he looked at the gear in his hand. The feeling hadn't gone away since he woken up, burdened with the knowledge of what he had been told to do.
"Must we?" Pikachu stared sadly at the gear. "All of them?"
"Will you help me?" Riolu asked using aura, reaching out tentatively to the strangers he had met on this cold icy mountain, bloodied and very, very dead.
Ash swallowed, his instinct telling him to go back to Kanto and look for Misty and Lance and Riley and Gary and he knew he couldn't do that.
What was the point when he just ended up at the end of it anyway?
"I'm in." he sealed his deal with aura and emotions.
Up on that day on the snowy mountain, a deal was made between three beings, a pact of sort, to bring them together along a road of blood and pain and friendship.
This Section Is Also Known Collectively As How One Fox, One Mouse, One Human and One Pup Got Out Of Sinnoh (Eventually)
(Ash was looking uncomfortably at the wall, Misty's head resting on his shoulder, eyes open, listening silently.
May had fished out her new Pokegear and snapped a picture of the cute couple.
The red-head blinked at the flash, and lifted her head slightly. "Hey!" she protested. "Give that here!"
May stuck out her tongue childishly. "Nuh-uh!" she snapped her phone closed. "This is blackmail!"
Lance rolled his eyes, and turned to look at where Zo and Luca were perched. The black jackal had pricked his ears at his part in the tale, while Zo was muttering mutinously about rueing the day she ever ran into the crazy trio. As the story had progressed, the others had fallen silent, not willing to interrupt. Now though the tension had eased. Leaf had gotten bored enough to steal Gary's journal and was flicking through it, doodling in the margins. Her boyfriend hadn't noticed, sitting next to Brock and Dawn.
Max was stretched out on the floor with the Pokémon and Erika. Rai and Va's little cub, Shadow, hopped forwards to sniff his hand and then scurried back towards the flea eaten couch Ash and Misty had claimed. The silver Eevee squeaked and Misty rescued him, cuddling him to her chest. "So next thing was meeting Zo?" she asked.
Lance visibly perked up, like a Houndoom with a bone tossed in front of it. "The Dragonite?" he asked eagerly. The hairs on the back of his neck stiffened, and he turned to see Zo glaring at him, with what was probably a Mean Look.
"We'll get there." Ash laughed at his friend's predicament. May promptly took a picture of it, before turning back to her keyboard.
"Okay guys. Shoot.")
[10:06 AM] – 18th July 2008 – Sinnoh – South of Hearthome City – Eastern Bank of Mount Coronet
Luca didn't trust the pair.
It wasn't just the circumstances in which he had found them; it was the aura the pair gave off. In the silent world any living thing practically beamed out life and soul.
Ash and Rai though, were gaping black holes – an abyss in life. They were voids that shouldn't be able to exist, but did, just as silent as the still world.
Their flesh was living, their hearts beating, but whatever it was that gave him life and spirit and fire and a right to walk the earth lacked for them. They had pulses and spirit and emotions… but they were walking the path of the dead.
The fighting and steel gears pulsed in his bag. He didn't trust the pair with them a single inch.
It didn't help that the aura the human… Ash, he reminded himself… pulsed out a blackened, dead looking aura that tinged purple. It made his senses tingle and go numb, although now he thought about it that might have been from the Pikachu's reversed polarity of electricity.
Then there was the fact that trouble seemed to literally stalk the pair. They took about a month to get off the mountain; running into everything from Zubat infested caves to landslides and blocked routes. Admittedly the mountain routes had been unmaintained for travellers, since the war, and the open passes were crawling with Galactic grunts.
Now he was clutching the hood of Ash's jacket, said human pressed against a rocky quarry wall. It was an extended dig that reached out from Oreburgh, diggers realising they had gone the wrong direction and abandoning it. He trembled, wishing he was brave enough to stand in front of the human, pulsing out aura, the same was the Pikachu was sparking black electricity, but his limbs wouldn't work properly.
The beast in front of them growled, eyes narrowed, orange scales rippling over its body. The usually peaceable creature was enraged and highly protective, a nest of eggs and Dratini visible in the centre of the quarry which had been turned into a nest.
Riolu swallowed, looking beyond the snarling dragon at the rest of the pack.
Was it even still a pack? He wondered, in a weird daze at their predicament. They had fallen into trouble, and the coincidence that they had quite literally fallen was not lost on him. Above them the narrow trail which wound south had given away underfoot, sending them tumbling right into the dragon's nest.
Maybe it was a flight of Dragonites. He considered, as another, even larger beast prowled forwards.
Ash was trying to reason with them, but it wasn't working. They were angry, scared, and their most recent experience of humans was the Team trying to enslave them and steal their young.
Luca didn't want to die here, killed by an enraged flying orange Barney!
"Listen…" Ash had his hands raised in a non-threatening gesture. "We'll go! We'll leave you in peace?" He was trying to emit a non-threatening aura, but it wasn't working so well with his deadness and all.
"RioLu!" he whimpered. (Let's just go!)
"It's okay," Ash whispered. "We'll get out of this. We always do."
"Oh yeah? And what's your great plan asshole?"
Ash stiffened at the voice, and Pikachu stepped backwards, ears flickering upwards. Glancing upwards Luca could see two dark eyes looking down at him. "RioIoRiolu?" (Who are you?) He asked.
"Your saving grace," the eyes mocked him, even as they glanced up at the snarling dragons. "Hey! Take this on for size!" she shouted, propelling her dark form off the cliff to land in front of them, a purple haze that was steadily growing in size.
It didn't stop growing either, matching the human, and then matching the Dragonite in size, solidifying to a large, silver Steelix.
The dragons fell back in surprise as the steel snake thrashed angrily. Ash was gaping, shocked, and Pikachu chirped a warning. "KaPi PikaPi!" (Let's go Ash!)
The raven haired man shivered, that odd feeling that Riolu had come to associate with teleporting washing over him, and then dissipating, obviously failing. Realising he was out of options, Ash turned to the side, throwing himself up the cliff to a handhold.
"KaChu?" (What are you doing?) Rai followed his trainer by grabbing onto a shoe and then scurrying up to sit beside Riolu on Ash's shoulder. "Pikachu PikaPika Pi!" (We should be going the other way!)
"You want to run towards the prize fight battle?" Ash asked rhetorically. "Yeah, didn't think so." He pulled himself up to a ledge, rolling onto it, and the two Pokémon almost fell off because of the jolted movement.
Regaining his perch, Riolu looked down to the Steelix-that-wasn't, frowning at the shape. The rolling body had clashed against the cliff, shaking rocks and rubble loose and with a hiss of surprise Ash pulled back. In the depth of the quarry, the leader Dragonite, a rugged orange scaled beast with battle scars and a missing fang landed in front of the silver rock snake with a roar, eyes flashing with a leer.
The snake paused, hesitating as its form shimmered into purple, shrinking back to its original size. The alpha Dragonite looked startled but advanced anyway, the rest of the pack growing restless as the rubble continued to rain down upon their home.
The small purple cloud coalesced into a dark purple and black midnight fox with a blood red ruff. Dark eyes blinked up at the fearsome dragon. "Uh… hello?" she whimpered, form lost as she shrank back.
The dragon opened him mouth and snarled. A bit of saliva caught the fox's fur, and she wrinkled her nose. "Dude. Your breath stinks."
The dragon launched himself forwards.
The fox darted out from beneath his claws, making for the cliff. "What are you waiting for you idiots? Climb?"
Ash hastened to do so.
[10:25 AM] – 18th July 2008 – Sinnoh – South of Hearthome City – Eastern Bank of Mount Coronet – (Relative) safety
The ground was shaking from raging hyper beams as the rag tag group continued to try to lose the dragons on their tail. Rocks rained down around them.
Somewhere, between running for their life and looking for shelter, the dark type had introduced herself as Zo.
"You're a Zorua." Ash had recalled the name. "The Illusion Fox."
"Rio?" the black Riolu clutched his hood, still perched on his shoulder. (It was an illusion?)
"That's right." She looked proud for a moment. "Master of Disguise!"
"KaPikaPikaChu," Rai muttered spitefully. (So much for your impeccable shifting). The fox ignored him, turning up her nose as she hopped to a lower ledge.
The ground gave another shake and there was the sound of wing beats. Zo pressed herself to the ground in alarm. "Quick!" she called, "Get down here before big angry boss dragon turns up!"
Ash slid down the slope towards her, jumping across a pile of loose rubble that looked like it was about to give way any second. A few lumps of gravel slid down to his left, where they slope grew progressively steeper before eventually evening out to a grassy plain far below. The raven haired man could see a dark shadow in the rock ahead, signifying a cave, and he turned to call Pikachu down.
"Ya' coming?" he called, feeling Riolu shift on his back.
Pikachu chu-ed softly and leapt after his trainer, landing part way down the slope. He hopped forwards, skidding slightly in the loose gravel, which slid away beneath his feet.
With a startled yelp Pikachu slid sideways off the slope, Ash lunging after him. "Pikachu!" he cried.
Behind him Zo rolled her eyes. "How are these idiots still alive?" she sighed, before shifting into a Pidgeotto and diving after the yellow rat. She scooped him up in her talons and deposited him in Ash's arms, before shimmering back to normal.
In Ash's arm's Pikachu was shaking, and Zo took a moment to observe what was wrong. The mouse had only rolled a few feet, his yellow coat studded with dirt and bits of leaf. The rubble slope was rough, but shouldn't have any lasting injury. His tail was bent at an awkward angle, something sharp and jagged resting on it…
Oh crap… Zo glanced down at the slope again, studded with coloured stones. Evolutionary stones, which usually were buried in the rock, had been shaken loose and Pikachu…
Pikachu had fallen right on top of a thunder stone.
December 2013: Umm... sorry?
Okay, so real life caught up to me - a lot. I've been dealing with my application for med school, and that kind of takes priority over most other things, but now it's the holidays I finally just sat down and got it written. I had hit a wall with ending this, so it took a while. But now I've done, I'm just posting the last three chapters as a Merry Christmas gift to you guys, so you don't glance at this story any more and think 'I wonder what happened to that?' I said I'd finish it, and I have, so here ya' go. Also this chapter hasn't been checked for spelling or grammar so apologies for any errors.
So we've met Zo, and next chapter is where we'll meet Va. Well... meet here again.
Enjoy
~Eclipse