Author Notes: I've only had one review in the last 4 chapters! R & R makes the world go round.
Jack found that fame did not sit well with him. It did not sit well at all. After his exploits at the Silver Conference he could not travel anywhere without being recognised and swamped by autograph hunters, fan-girls and trainers seeking tips.
He could never find any peace and quiet anywhere, and because he still had four gym badges to obtain he could not find a quiet, lonely spot away from the masses where he could train himself and his Pokémon to his heart's content, alone. After a month of disturbed deliberating he decided he would travel to the teeming metropolis of Saffron to challenge Sabrina, the famous psychic gym leader.
Luckily, because of the sheer volume of people packed into what felt like a steel and glass melting pot, Jack was not recognised or disturbed. He was able to quietly slip into the Pokémon Mart, buy a handful of plastic aerosols painted in impossibly bright colours, and enter the gym without drawing a crowd.
As soon as he entered, the gym doors shut themselves behind him and he looked out into what seemed like a bare iron prison. Nothing decorated or protected the walls, ceiling or floor and the iron surface was scarred and charred in many places from the intense battles that took place within. Hello Jack Lovata boomed a high voice in his head I have foreseen your coming. We will battle now.
A small petite woman with delicate features and long, smooth, indigo hair stood at the other end of the gym. Well...stood is not the best word. More like hovered. She glided elegantly through the air, her hair fanning out behind her, and released a Pokéball from her hand. The Pokéball travelled slowly through the air, as if it was bobbing through a viscous liquid, and broke in half.
Since I only have two Pokémon on me at the moment, this battle will be two vs. two stated Sabrina serenely as a spindly, moustached Pokémon clutching crumpled spoons in both its hands materialised out of the white light released by the Pokéball.
Dante recognised the Pokémon as an Alakazam and released the same Pokémon he used to defeat another member of the brainy creature's species. The Alakazam attacked Kabi as soon as she materialised and the huge creature was tossed to the side, hitting the metal wall so hard that it crumpled slightly.
Kabi shook her head angrily as she picked herself up, her eyes filling with blood as the berserker fury descended upon her. She bludgeoned her way through the Alakazam's psychic barriers and prepared to smash the creature into a pulp. Using all of its strength, the Alakazam managed to hold back Kabi's onslaught.
It shook with the strain but it managed to maintain its hold. The Pokémon stood like that for what seemed like an age as seconds melted into minutes. Neither creature would give in. Then the strangest thing happened.
Both Pokémon were immediately returned to their Pokéballs. Then their Pokéballs disappeared. Jack whirled round and found that his bag had disappeared too, the bag containing that precious egg. STOP! Boomed Serena, and for a second the creature stopped in its tracks. Jack only caught sight of a red and green humanoid creature with whip-like tentacles instead of arms before it disappeared.
That's the thing that stole all my other Pokémon earlier muttered Sabrina angrily can I count on your help for finding them and bringing the thief to justice. Jack answered by sprinting off after the strange creature with Sabrina levitating effortlessly behind him, easily matching his speed. Sabrina caught up with the still sprinting Jack and placed a hand on his shoulder. There was a bright flash of light as she teleported them away.
Jack landed hard and rolled uncontrollably for five metres before unceremoniously being brought to a stop by a psychic barrier. He staggered to his feet and saw the Pokémon handing their belongings to a young boy, dark haired, mousy and waif-like, who couldn't have been more than ten years old. 'Thanks Deoxys,' he squeaked, patting the Pokémon's head, 'we can sell these for a lot of money.'
Sabrina coughed loudly and her voice sounded deafeningly in the skulls of every being there. Give me back my Pokémon. Now!' The boy let out a squeak of fear and twisted around on the spot like a caged animal. Suddenly he let out a yell of rage, 'Deoxys attack!' Sabrina only had one Pokémon left, and it was one of her weaker Pokémon, bred especially for fighting in her gym, and not one of her original team.
She released the giant purple, bug-eyed moth which beat its large delicate wings. A small white storm of spores immediately blew towards the Deoxys.
It moved ridiculously fast, faster than any quick attack or extremespeed move, and appeared directly in front of the Venomoth. Its body suddenly let off a purple flash as it mutated and twisted. Its arm gained another tentacle, the large conical protuberance behind its skull collapsed to form a three pointed cranium and its legs gained bulky red and green armour.
The change happened in less than a second and the creature smashed a tentacle into the Venomoth. The tentacle sliced through the moth's body like a Sharpedo through a shoal of Barboach and the two halves of the creature hit the ground metres apart, oozing thick blood that stained whatever it touched a melancholy maroon. Then the Pokémon prepared to attack Sabrina, who had created a psychic barrier around herself. It never finished its attack.
Whilst the Deoxys was busy dismembering the Venomoth Jack had released Dante and ordered him to attack from behind. The lava dome Pokémon was not happy with his order, but in seeing the Pokémon threaten a defenceless human, his doubts immediately melted away. He bowled into the back of the Deoxys and knocked it flying. The creature was nearly knocked out cold with one attack and as it landed, heavily and dizzily, it began to mutate.
Its body began to thicken and bulk up as what seemed like orange and green armour, with properties very similar to Kevlar, covering it completely from head to toe. Dante attacked again with a crushing punch but the attack seemed to have little effect on the creature. It wasn't even knocked back by the blow and quickly mutated to the three pointed form with multiple tentacles – what seemed to be its preferred Attack Form.
It landed a crushing hit onto Dante's side with its tentacle, leaving a very deep cut spurting the liquid fire that seemed to be his blood.
Dante roared and released a blazing inferno in the direction of his assailant. The Deoxys had already mutated into its hardier structure - what seemed to be its Defence Form - and the fire washed over it without even burning its smooth outer armour. As the fire abated it twisted to its Attack Form and attacked again. The creature had to flip to the side to dodge four lethal claws and was driven on the defensive by a pained onslaught from Dante.
He was breathing heavily and the liquid fire spurting from the wound in his side was scorching the ground around him. The Deoxys closed in for the kill again and had to hastily change forms as a huge burst of fire exploded around it. As it stood in the fire it was sent sprawling to the floor by a flaming tackle and pinned down in a destructive body slam.
It squirmed and twisted, but Dante's weight was too much for it to escape from. Slowly Dante began to crush it, trying to crack and shatter the outer armour which protected it from most blows.
It changed form again, to the least bulky figure – which seemed to be its fastest form - with the long, conical skull, and in the brief millisecond in which it had some space around it, it moved away. It bulged and mutated as it changed into its attacking form and unleashed a devastating psychic attack towards Dante. The attack never reached.
Whilst the Deoxys was preoccupied in fighting Dante, Sabrina had crept behind, gagged the boy and retrieved her Pokémon. Now all five Pokémon of her most powerful party were released, and they were very angry. The creature twisted around and saw five irate psychic Pokémon behind it.
It twisted to escape and was frozen by the psychics' combined power, looking like some hideously enlarged virus given life, though possibly not a conscience to go with it. The boy had already run and Sabrina did not bother recapturing him as he left all the possessions he had stolen behind.
What are you? asked Sabrina forcefully as she used the combined powers of the psychic Pokémon around her, and her own powers of course, to force the creature to answer. It answered in the same way. I am Deoxys. Its voice was afflicted with a strange and torturous accent. Why were you stealing our stuff? Sabrina pressed, the force of her power so great that Jack could feel it pounding across his cranium, even though it wasn't actually aimed at him.
That boy needed help and money answered the creature slowly and he needed company. I gave him all three things by giving him what he deserved. He reminded me of my younger brother who was killed on entry. Sabrina bit her lip as she debated with herself. Are you a psychic? she queried suddenly, her hand involuntary stroking a circular object in her pocket. Yes replied the Deoxys at length do it if you want. I don't mind. It may be fun for a while.
Sabrina whipped out a Pokéball with an "M" scrawled onto the top and proceeded to capture the creature. There was no fight at all and almost immediately the Pokéball signalled that it had captured its intended target. Sabrina looked extremely pleased as she returned all six of her Pokémon and attached the balls to her belt.
Now I have six she muttered quietly, seeming to forget that her voice echoed inside the skulls of the adjacent humans and Pokémon. As Jack recalled Dante Sabrina appeared to offer something to him. I feel that you deserve this Jack Lovata. I have foreseen the future in which we battle, and it is you that comes out on top. I know this so I will hand you this badge, which is also a thanks for helping me retrieve my Pokémon and finally complete my team. I foresaw this Pokémon when I was but three years old, I foresaw its power and its significance. I'm just upset that it took me eighteen years to finally capture it.
Jack received the solid gold circle with reverence and carefully placed it with his four other badges, in a special leather container with sections for every single badge in every single region that he had recently purchased. He thanked the psychic gym leader profusely, but already his mind was focussing on obtaining his next gym badge from the ninja Koga in Fuchsia.
He would need to travel west out of Saffron, through Celadon and down the cycling path, taking great care to avoid the hordes of Muk and Grimer that poison the land either side. It would be good to visit the Safari Zone too, and from there he could take a ferry to Cinnabar Island and challenge Blaine...Jack had everything planned out.
As he stepped down to pick up his bag the egg rolled out. Cracks were running down its smooth shell and there was an insistent tapping sound echoing from within. The egg began to roll around twitchily, of its own accord, as the baby Pokémon within struggled to escape from the restraining shell.
Suddenly a tiny horn punctured the surface and a blue scaled head with delicately curled ears and large, soulful eyes poked out, a small section of the broken shell balancing on its head. Wriggling its small body it managed to drag itself out of the egg, a thin webbing of gunk still covering its skin.
It lifted its head to the air and began to sing wordlessly and sweetly. Suddenly, as if given a cue by the singing, Jack's Pokédex began to chatter of its own accord in the annoying, mechanical voice. Lapras, the transport Pokémon. They have gentle hearts. Because they rarely fight, many have been caught. Their number has dwindled because of this. Its high intelligence enables it to understand human speech. It likes to ferry people on its back.
The baby Lapras nuzzled Jack's hand happily before cutely rolling onto its shell – which was grey and very smooth, though according to the Pokédex hard, bony nubs would erupt through the surface as it aged – and playfully batting Jack with its large front flippers. Jack reached into his pack and whipped out Pokéball. Whilst the Pokémon looked at him trustingly he pressed the central button and watched whilst the Lapras dematerialised in the yellow beam.
When Jack released it the Lapras bumbled around confusedly before falling asleep in what looked like mid stride. Jack returned to Saffron with the creature cradled in his arms, not caring about the strange looks that people were throwing him. Whilst the creature slept its mind reached out and joined with Jack's for the first time since the dark days in the Underground.
This time there was one sentence that echoed within the cacophony of vivid sights, sounds and smells. It echoed around Jack's brain as they shared strange dreams in the sparse rooms at Saffron Pokémon centre. I am Kitane. The voice was still echoing around Jack's head when he was rudely awakened by a man in a black suit knocking hard on his door.
The man knocked insistently, calling out, 'Mr. Indigo wants to talk with you Mr. Lovata.' Sighing Jack ended the strange, restful dream that had wrapped itself around his brain and heaving himself out of bed. Indigo was calling.
In a way Jack was glad that he experienced what followed, because it opened his eyes to the true nature of what he was dealing with. The man named Indigo was in the middle of a meeting when Jack arrived at his red-bricked stately-home, just outside Fuchsia, and by "accident" the teenager pressed his ear to the door so he could hear everything happening in side.
Jack recognised Indigo's deep voice reverberating through the pinewood door, and to his surprised he also recognised the other lilting tone. 'We need to lure them all together, and the Gold Conference is the best place to do that...' Indigo was saying calmly whilst the other man was obviously trying to interrupt him.
'When we do that, Giratina will perform the act and the League will be totally crippled. From there we can retake both Kanto and Johto, and mount our campaigns on Hoenn and Sinnoh on that platform.' Jack recognised the silver-tongued voice that tried to argue with him, and swore under his breath. 'That's totally impossible to do. With their combined power they will be able to subdue Giratina!' shouted Giovanni argumentatively, though the Rocket leader seemed to defer to the shadowy Indigo.
'We will lure them there and my ghosts will kill them all, we will harvest it and then we will give me power!' shouted Indigo back at Giovanni, the insanity so clear in his voice sending shivers of fear up Jack's spine. 'It's been one thousand years since I was thrown down,' screamed the man, 'one thousand years.'
'You mortals cannot understand what that is like. One thousand years without power, hiding in the background, trying to organise things from the shadows. I am a warrior. This is what I do best. I take action with my Pokémon.' When Giovanni replied Jack could hear the uncertainty in his voice, 'OK Indigo. I'll see what I can do. You're not making this easy for me you know.'
Indigo allowed at least a trickle of an apologetic tone into his voice, 'I'm sorry. But I will rule on my Plateau again. Indigo Palace will be rebuilt.' The edge of madness returned to his voice when he talked about the Plateau, a madness that made Jack wanted to run away, dig a hole and hide away from the person afflicted.
It was then that Jack felt that tap on the shoulder. 'What are you doing here?'