The rain didn't bother him. Nor did the wind, or the rushing landscape below him, or even the thunder that crashed around him. No, in he was content in his psychic bubble, gliding through the air like a born Flying-type, but feeling none of the elements.
He looked at the ground ahead of him and finally saw the promise of rocky gray waves crashing angrily against the rocks. A smile spread across his face when he saw it, and he pushed forward.
He fumbled inside his backpack and pulled out a small bottle of yellowish liquid, and syringe. He barely felt the needle prick his skin; he'd been feeling them all his life, so it was nothing new. He flexed his hands after putting the items back in his bag.
He spun elegantly in a loop, dancing with the wind. He let his barrier fall to feel the elements on his skin. Drenched in seconds. Freezing. But so, so alive.
He spun again, dropping and twisting. He glowed faintly; two Dragon Dances should have done it.
The corners of his mouth pulled back in a wide grin as he put his force field back up around him, and broke the sonic barrier.
He would be on Cinnabar Island within the hour.
It had taken a long time to put out the first that had eaten the once beautiful Lilycove, but it had taken even longer to put those who had been killed to rest.
What would take the longest, though, was for the living to be at peace.
The death count was not as bad as they had thought: many had escaped into the waters and nearby cove at the first bombing. Several houses were ruined, and the damage was catastrophic. The top two floors of the department store had burned and collapsed, and the Center was in bad shape.
While the healthiest were busy clearing the roads and gathering their dead, the rest were spent treating the injured. Morph or human, there was no distinction: everyone had a job to do, and everyone did it.
Kip had been very useful as a nurse; after having taken care of Gaby's injured Pokémon for so long, he'd gotten quite skilled at playing doctor. His own Pokémon helped as well, using their strength or other abilities to help clear rubble or carry wounded.
Kieran, along with the Furret morph (whose name turned out to be Elaine), were mostly serving as runners. Brilliantly fast in either Pokémon or human forms, they went around the city, relaying information quickly while the power was still down. A burly Electabuzz morph who had accompanied them worked on fixing that problem, and a human sympathizer from the Org and her Skarmory flew overhead, leading other volunteers and their Pokémon as they looked for things they'd missed. Every time Kip saw the flash of silver wings overhead, he missed Gaby even more.
She'd been on his mind for weeks, her pained and betrayed face swimming before his eyes at every blink. He thought he'd never have to face her again, or get the chance to make things right, to tell her that…
And now he was going to have that chance. Would he be able to follow through?
He realized he dwelled on Gaby more because it was too hard to come to terms with the reality in Lilycove. When they'd laid his parents and their Pokémon to rest, he'd collapsed halfway through giving his memento. Kieran, surprisingly, had stepped up to finish. Kip still heard the words in his ears whenever he saw Kieran running determinedly across the ground…
"I never got to meet 'em," Kieran said. He looked around at all the sad faces, and at his friend collapsed on the ground next to him, overcome. "But I do know a few things, so I'm gonna speak.
"They raised a damn good kid. Kip is probably the most honest guy I know, and he always does his best, and can come through anything. I know his parents taught him that. I wasn't raised by a mom or dad. I wish I'd had Kip's, cause the Veesons were probably the best parents around. We're all gonna remember them, right?"
There was mumbled agreement from the crowd. That wasn't good enough.
"I said, we're gonna remember them, right? And everybody here! Because…Because what good is family if we don't learn from them, and love them? This city was a family! I see it, because I've always been outside, looking in, and it's really all of you connected that makes this place what it is. You've lost people, good people, but these people didn't raise you to give up. Or break down, or say it's all over. They taught you to fight!"
The crowd was more alert now, looking at the short boy with the matted black hair and the eyes that seemed to see through them. The honest eyes of a Pokémon, but with the human words behind them.
"Get up, Kip!"
He'd blinked. He looked up, tear-stained and shaking, as if he asked him to do the impossible.
"Are your legs broken? Get up! You weren't brought up to hide in your knees. Get up!"
Kip rose, slowly, shakily, until he stood at full height, facing the faces of Lilycove. Everyone looked at him.
"C'mon Jacob…" he said, nodding to the manager of the Pokémart. He started at the sudden mention, and looked around. Kip's head turned to another. "Sarah." Another. "Christine. Judith. Andrew. Martha. Caroline. Mr. and Mrs. Pecher. Bonny. Mr. Dayle." His voice rose with every name, with every head that looked at him, looked to each other. Looked up with hope.
"This…This is your city. Our city. We're not going to let it rot." He started crying again, but had a half smile this time. "Lets make our families proud, alright?"
"Kip? Seriously. You need your head looked at."
Kip jumped in surprise. The Illumise in his lap that he'd been tending was staring up at him curiously, as Kieran loomed over them both.
"Sorry. I was remembering your speech at the funeral."
"I sounded pretty awesome, didn't I?" He said, leaning back with a grin. "I should do this inspirational speech thing for a living!"
"You're such a little prick, you know that? You-" The Illumise cooed at him to continue spraying her with the potion in his hand, so he obliged and let Kieran grin at him.
"Well, anyway, we're moving out. That's what I came to tell you."
"What?"
"Yeah! Back to HQ. We're WAY overtime, they expected us back three days ago."
"But there's so much left unfinished. The department store-"
"Al got the power working. Lilycove's live. The people here are fine, they'll be able to rebuild. Besides, Fortree's sending teams over, they'll be getting here within hours, so we gotta disappear." He held his hands up and exploded his fingers with a 'poof' sound, then started walking off.
"Seriously? But-"
"C'mon, Kip. You know they'll be fine," he said, an ear twitching to catch Kip's protest. He didn't even turn around. Elaine the Furret and the other uniformed helpers were all gathered at the edge of town, waiting for them.
Kip passed off the Illumise to another volunteer, then grabbed his bag. He'd stocked it days before, to be prepared to leave whenever the demand was made. He was ready, yes but…Now that he was faced with it, he didn't want to-
You have to set things right with her. You have to tell her.
"Wait up!"
Cinnabar Island was not a pretty place. Once beautiful and holding a quiet little town, then destroyed by a volcanic eruption, abandoned for years until Giovanni's scientists and their families moved back and cloned the legendary Mewtwo. Destroyed again by that Pokémon's rage, rebuilt yet again by the scientists of the displaced Team Rocket who were determined to duplicate their success and brilliance, and, finally, years ago, after becoming a bubbly city and tourist hub, being abandoned for mysterious 'toxic conditions' and forgotten under headlines that said 'Unusual Circumstances' by all the newspaper clippings and geography textbooks.
As he walked the island, he let his fingers trail the buildings reclaimed by nature, the vines settled in the cracks in the stone, the trees impaling the concrete and determined to live. He'd spent almost half an hour just staring through an open door of a house at a tree that had grown, reaching for the kitchen window, reaching for life.
This place really is a testament to humans and their need to beat nature… he thought. So many disasters, so many disappointments, and yet, they rebuild. Again and again.
But not this time. No, this time, the threat was too mysterious, nothing natural or pure damaging. He could feel the effects on his body; they made him feel heavy, but also seemed to keen his powers. He'd taken to being barricaded by psychic energy at all times, but sometimes he couldn't resist letting a little fresh air in. If only Father didn't keep him so cooped up all the time, perhaps he wouldn't feel the need to expose himself to toxic chemicals here.
It took him a day to find the lab, and another half to clear the debris from the door to be able to get in. When he'd finally entered the chambers, 005 was faced with something that made even his stomach sick.
Pokémorphs.
There were literally dozens, strewn across the floor, in various states of transformation, preserved by the undisturbed air of the room. Most were at the extremely dangerous half-formed phase; a woman was grotesquely shrunken, her hands and legs made into tiny pink appendages, a Clefairy tail curled around her body. A man's skin had turned hard as stone, green-grey all over, except for his head, which had gone brownish; clearly a Golem gone very wrong. Another woman, this one with blue vines sprouting haphazardly from all over her body, her face hidden by black hair. A huge, hulking mess of a creature, of Pokémon origin that 005 didn't recognize, a human blown way out of proportion, his hands green and the rest of him white, huge, drooping folds of snow-white skin flaying from his face, more on his chest, bursting through his labcoat, the green tail at the back tearing through-
His Labcoat?
He did a double take: yes. These were all scientists, except the few in the tube. How? Why? He backed away quickly, shocked. So many morphs, but scientists?
What the hell had happened here?
"You know, we haven't battled in a really long time."
The challenge took Kip completely by surprise. They'd been walking for the entire day, and had finally stopped to rest in an open, grassy field. They'd levelled the tall grass and pitched tents (only now did Kip wonder why they'd never used them before), and had just finished eating when Kieran looked up at him with a glint in his eye.
"You can't be serious."
"C'MON OUT, POWERHOUSE!"
"You're serious."
"CRUNCH!"
Kip swore loudly as he rolled back from the eager Tyranitar as she tried to decapitate him "playfully" with her teeth. He grabbed the balls from his bag and threw one at random: Quickzap appeared, looking horribly confused at being faced with the green Armor Pokémon.
"Quickzap, take her down! Thunderbolt!"
"Rai!" he called, and, spinning around and lashing his bolt-shaped tail towards Powerhouse, let off a bolt of powerful electricity towards the opponent. The other morphs poked their heads out of their tents to watch.
"Get 'im, Kieran!" Al the Electabuzz cheered, his voice gruff but excited.
"Naw, you can get him, Kip!" Elaine cried. The human, Alice, merely clapped excitedly at the entertainment. Kip felt himself smiling wider than he had in weeks, despite himself.
"Brush it off, girl, you've got this one! Earthquake!"
"Light Screen!"
The earthquake toppled the tents, but nobody seemed to mind, as they crawled out, cheering. The Raichu had barely enough time to set up the protective barrier for the rest of its team members before he collapsed, and disappeared back into his Pokéball.
"Aurora, please make this kid stop doing his victory dance!"
Kieran did stop dancing with his Tyranitar, once he saw the majestic Lapras enter the field, looking ready to go.
"Powerhouse-"
"Aurora Beam!"
The Lapras fired a rainbow jet right at the Tyranitar's chest, knocking her flat down almost onto her master. Kieran recalled her before she bounced, and glared at the Lapras.
"Cheap!"
"Smart," Kip correct. Kieran fumed and threw out his Sharpedo.
"Chew on this! Rage!"
Bullet surged forward and tore at the Lapras, but did very little damage. Kip ogled him, confused. Even a repeat of Crunch would have done better than that.
"Body Slam him!" Kip commanded, and the Lapras did, doing much more damage than the rage.
"Rage!"
It did a deal more this time, and Aurora cried out. Still, Kip persisted.
"Alright, again!" The Sharpedo endured the hit once more, and Kieran grinned his fanged smile.
"Rage!"
It was enough. The Rage had built enough over the last two attacks to take the Lapras down, but the effort seemed to have worn out the Sharpedo as well, and they both fainted.
"Doubles now?"
"You're going down!"
In cries muddled from mixing, the trainers shouted their Pokémon's names. An Absol, Umbreon, Espeon, and Lugia materialized onto the field. Seaflyer drew some gasps from the crowd, but she just waved her head back, feeling like a princess.
"That's totally not fair."
"Deal with it!"
"Okay, but no Aeroblasts!"
"…Alright, fair enough. In that case, Fly! Psylight-"
"Lucky, take down that overgrown Wingull with-"
'Who the hell are you calling a Wingull, you little-!'
"-use Swift!-"
"-Night Slash and-"
'No, seriously, WHAT did you just call me?'
"Shadow, get her with – No! Not a critical!"
'I am so mad you I wish you weren't a dark type so you could hear how pissed I am you little-"
"Fine, Shadow! Return…Get 'em, Brother! Crunch!"
'-Ah!'
"Seaflyer!"
'That Absol…That hurt more than it should have.'
"His ability is that he crits more…"
'Go figure…I'm out.'
Kip returned her to her ball and fumbled with a new one. His Noctowl hit the field and, without waiting for audible orders, took Kip's slashing motion to mean Air Slash. It picked the Absol, simultaneously being pelted with a second Swift attack from the Espeon, and tottered to its knees.
"Alright, that's enough out of you," Kieran said, glaring at the Espeon. Sniper, his Sneasel and last Pokémon, appeared next to the Mightyena. "Bring them down! Formation Zero!"
Kip panicked and ordered his Espeon to use Sand Attack, but it didn't do much; he'd taken Kieran's bluff and left his Noctowl with no orders, and the Sneasel's Icy Wind coupled with the Mightyena's solid Take Down ended Nightflyer's time on the field. The Espeon looked confused and afraid of the dynamic duo now closing in on her. It looked like it was over-
"DARKFALLER!"
A snarling Houndoom appeared and rounded on the pair, then Howled. The Espeon bounced back with renewed vigour, standing with pride next to her companion. The cheers and calls from their onlookers swelled at the final showdown.
"Darkfaller, Psylight-"
"Sniper, Kokuei-
"R-RUN!"
They did. Without hesitation. Kip stood confused, reacting too late to the look of horror on Kieran's face. The cheers turned to screams to his left, and he turned away from Kieran's changing form to see a group in black uniforms grabbing the people in the tents and binding them. He couldn't see with what, but he did see Al's electric abilities being absorbed into whatever it was, rendering his powers useless.
"Get out of here! Run! Run!" Kip ordered. His Houndoom, pained, obeyed, but his Espeon mewled and resisted.
"Take her!"
Darkfaller doubled back and snapped at her, forcing her to run. The Pokémon melted into the tall grass.
Kieran was snarling, fully Pokémon formed, attacking one of the black-suited men that had set upon them so suddenly. There was nothing familiar about them, no logo, no marks, no-
Wait.
Just before he was caught by one of them, Kip saw a strange emblem on the right side of their breast. It was red, and some kind of flower, white around the edges. But his face hit dirt too quickly to absorb anymore, and he felt a needle penetrate the skin of his arm. His vision faded out, and the last thing he saw was Kieran, blood in his mouth and on his face from biting a finger off one of the assailants, being chained by no less than three.
Then he blacked out, to the sounds of snarls and yelps, with the same face swimming before his eyes that had for weeks.
Gaby…
First and foremost, Happy Birthday Paul. This is totally dedicated to you and got written because of you, and YES I'm going with your ideas…we'll see how far ;)
This is also for Lawrence, who also harassed me for long enough to sew the seeds in my head. Without you guys, this would have not been written tonight after over a year, so for that, I'm really, really grateful.
Second, this is totally unedited, so, if it sucks, leave comments so I know what to fix XD Hopefully, it all at least makes sense!
Third, and also very important: I love the rest of you who are actually still reading this, or have found it after all these years. You guys, you actually make me really happy and are my motivation for writing. I would be absolutely nowhere without you. I owe you everything, and I truly love you all. I might just be a sap. Who knows. But I do.
Oh, and not in the Lily-Seth kind of way, more the Kieran-Kokuei way. Yeah. YOU'RE MY BROS 3
FINALLY:
I really want to do this. Do not feel pressured in any way to participate, BUT!
I'll run a little contest thing. I guess it's a contest. It really would keep me motivated (who'd like to see this return to a weekly serial? ME! MEEE! I have TIME TO DO IT NOW.), so I'd appreciate it.
See, I love this story, and I love its characters. I also love art, and reading, and writing, and all sorts of creative things. If you also feel this way, then I really encourage you, and would appreciate it, if you feel like, you know, ever picking up a pencil and drawing some art of the characters! Or, maybe writing little stories, no matter how serious or silly or, hehehe, 'evil', or really anything you want related to RG. As a reward, I'll post it all on a website.
But even moreso, I've realized more and more that I write for you guys. Your feedback went into this chapter; I listen to you. So talk to me. Submit something, I promise it will not only make my entire week, but you will get a chapter out of it, and you can even put a little something in that chapter. A cameo character, an idea for a scene. You can write it yourself and I'll edit it into the flow, or you can give me your idea, and I'll just write it in. I'll also write you crack fiction (You know who you are ;D ) if you'd prefer that. I'm really open to ideas, as long as it doesn't go against the direction I'm planning on taking this in (though, as Paul proved, sometimes even that can happen if I love your idea and it works in conjunction with mine!).
Also, I think we should have a name for fans of RG, or even Morph fics in general (more have sprung up over the years o_O). So leave those ideas in the comments!
Please review if you've made it this far to let me know you still care, and as always, drop me a line at dragon1rogers(.)com (minus brackets). And I don't just want to hear about RG: I'd like to get to know you, too!
Carry on, and really, thank you,
M "R.T." C
PS:
Please don't kill me with bazookas. But you can if you really want.