Chapter 41 - Psychic Release

Khrista knew that Joshua had trained his Zorua to be fast, but she hadn't figured on Zorro's evolved form. That Zoroark was extremely hard to keep up with, even when he was going at half his normal speed.

"How much Carbos did he give you?" Khrista asked as she flew through the halls, still in her invisible ghost state.

"I never bothered to count," Zorro responded carelessly. "We don't have much further to go - our destination's up ahead."

"Where are you taking us?" Pika asked from her position on Khrista's shoulder. He had moved out of the backpack and zipped it shut as soon as they had gotten out of Joshua's cell.

"You'll see." The Zoroark turned a corner and jumped up onto a wall, his claws digging into the material. Khrista stopped beside him, her eyes looking over the hallway before them.

"Zorro, what am I supposed to be looking at?" Khrista asked, frowning.

"This is where they keep the Pokemon," Zorro explained. "Come on - the Psychic-Types are holed up in here." He jumped from wall to wall, stopping at the end of the hall in front of a door marked with a purple eye. "We're going to need a password in order to get through."

"Spoken or typed?" the teen inquired.

"It looks like a keycard," Pika remarked, pointing to a slot on the door.

Khrista let out a growl of annoyance. "Great. Now we have to find someone with a keycard - and the right keycard, too."

"It's Butch," Zorro stated.

The teen looked at the Zoroark in surprise. "The Rocket grunt? He has it?"

Zorro nodded. "Despite how he acts, he's top Stoutland when it comes to Pokemon care."

"Which is ironic, considering what Rocket used to do to people," Pika noted, raising an eyebrow. "Where are we going to find him?"

"Who's there?"

Khrista turned towards the source of the voice and, upon seeing who it was, smirked.

"Looks like we won't have to look too hard," she remarked.

Change in POV - Butch, 3rd

When Butch had heard that the Psychic-Types were acting up, he went straight to the storage room in order to figure out what was wrong.

You could probably imagine his shock when an invisible something snatched the keycard away from him and opened the door, all the while talking in three different voices.

"Who's there?" the ex-Rocket grunt demanded for the umpteenth time. "Show yourself!"

When there wasn't an answer, he walked forward quickly, entering the room. Upon seeing what was going on inside, his eyes widened.

"Take it easy, guys," a brown-haired girl in an orange shirt said as she broke apart the bars of a cage that held some of the Pokemon. "I'll get each and every single one of you out; just give me a minute."

Butch's heart picked up speed as the girl's shirt seemingly changed colors as she moved from cage to cage, tearing the bars apart and severing the Pokemon's connection with the system. And then there were the girl's partners! The Zoroark and Pikachu looked powerful enough to destroy any one of the Psychic-Types!

Wait a minute...

"What are you doing with that Zoroark?" Butch demanded as he stepped towards the girl.

The teen sent a quick look in his direction, then looked back at the cage bars she was trying to pry apart. "I'm borrowing him for a little while; my friend said that he would be helpful in my work."

The Zoroark grinned at Butch, then slashed a cage open, allowing a Mime Jr. and a Smoochum to tumble out. He then moved onto the next cage.

"And what is your work?" Butch asked slowly, watching as the Psychic-Type Pokemon gathered in the center of the room, eyeing him suspiciously.

The girl grinned at him. "What does it look like it is?" She looked around the room for a moment, then out her hands in her pockets. "Looks like that's-"

"Hey!" the Pikachu suddenly called out. "There's one more Pokemon trapped in here!"

The teen turned her head in the Pokemon's direction, frowning as she did. "What do you mean, one more?"

"It's back here somewhere," the Pikachu replied, motioning to the wall at the back of the cell. "Help me find something that could get it loose - a hidden switch."

"Let me." The Zoroark stepped over and started to rake his claws over the wall. The grating noise scratched against Butch's ears until the Dark-Type hit something and paused. The Pokemon put his full paw on the area and pushed down, and a resounding click came from that area in the wall.

Butch swallowed nervously as the wall slowly slid back, revealing the hidden chamber that had been installed after construction.

The girl's blue eyes widened. "No way." She looked back at Butch. "You guys caught the Wishmaker? When?" The curious look quickly morphed to a serious one.

"When your friend got here," Butch responded cautiously, not liking the expression on her face.

The girl looked back at the sleeping form of the Legendary, her eyes narrowing as she took note of the wires that wove in, out, and around the Psychic/Steel-Type. "Now, how are we going to do this..."

Her shirt became a dark purple that marched the shade of a Gastly's form. She raised her right hand, then threw what appeared to be a Shadow Ball at a mechanical device above Jirachi's head. The attack bounced back and hit a wall, dissipating.

The girl frowned. "Hmmm...looks like some sort of force field." She reached out and found the force field. "Maybe it's got a weak spot."

"I don't think it does," Butch responded. "Cyrus built it himself."

"The two Electric Mice at your belt," the Pikachu stated, pointing at the brown-haired girl's waist. "We should be able to find something if we work together."

The teen's eyes widened, and she smacked herself in the forehead. "Of course! I completely forgot about them." She reached for her belt and tossed two PokeBalls into the air, releasing two Raichu-a male and a female.

The male Raichu looked around with wide eyes. "Are we inside the tower?"

The teen nodded. "Yeah. We've got a little problem." She motioned to the chamber. "There's some sort of force field keeping us from getting to the Wishmaker. There's probably a generator connected to it. Do you think you guys could find it and take it out?"

The female Raichu saluted, then moved to stand in front of the slumbering Legendary, her tail twitching.

After a moment, the Electric-Type pointed at a corner of the room, sparks flying off the thunderbolt on her tail. "It looks like there's a problem in the wiring over there somewhere."

The girl nodded. "Can you overcharge it without hurting Jirachi?"

The Raichu thought for a moment, then nodded. She led the other two Electric-Types over to the corner, pointing up at a box-like device above their heads.

"On my count," the female Raichu stated. "Ready...set...now!"

The three Pokemon used Thunder at once, sending the attack up at the device in the corner. Instantly, the electricity spread out across the room, affecting the wires and lighting in the room.

The teen smirked. "Let's hope this works." She caught sight of the nervous look on Butch's face, causing her grin to become wider. "Don't be such a worrywart. You and Cassidy ran into this sort of thing enough times that you should have a minor immunity to it."

Her eyes went over to where Jirachi lay, watching as the energy field started to fluctuate from the added electricity. With a final flash of light, the force field vanished, and the technology in the room began to smoke.

The male Raichu grinned. "They never learn." The female Raichu nodded in agreement.

The brown-haired teen nodded. "You got that right." She moved over to where Jirachi had been trapped and, moving quickly, removed the wiring and removed the Legendary from the machine. "I hope they didn't do anything to him."

The Psychic/Steel-Type let out a moan, then shook his head as he came to. "What? Where..." The Legendary's eyes instantly widened, and he jumped out of the teen's arms. "What happened? The last thing I remember-"

"Calm down," the blue-eyed girl stated calmly. "We only just got you out of the thing Cyrus had you trapped in." She motioned to the smoking device behind the Legendary. "What ended up getting you trapped here in the first place?"

Jirachi's gaze went over the group quickly, and, after a moment, the Wishmaker stated, "Mewtwo wanted to find a way to stop Cyrus' progress for a little while, and he and I managed to sneak in and mess around with that machine of his right before they sent someone through. They came up from behind, but Mewtwo managed to escape. I've probably been trapped here ever since."

Butch frowned slightly. "Probably? You haven't been moved at all from there since we out you in there at Cyrus' behest." It took him a moment to realize that he had actually managed to say his boss' name without getting is mouth shut, so he decided to test how far he could go. "Honestly, the only way you managed to get out is that those Electric-Types managed to break that coot's machine."

Much to his delight, neither of his hands moved up to cover his mouth and prevent him from saying anything more.

The girl gave him an odd look, her shirt turning gold. "Hold still for a minute, Butch."

Before the ex-Rocket grunt could ask about what the girl was going to do, she grabbed his forehead, and he instantly blacked out.

Change in POV - back to Khrista

It turns out that Jirachi had sensed that I was coming, and that I would be needing some help. Somehow, he was involved in Joshua getting to keep his free will, and he was more than willing to help out in any way he could. I ended up telling him to head back to the Underground and tell them my progress in the chaos-making, and to try and help them in any way possible.

Turning to look at Zorro, who was poking at the knocked out Butch, I asked, "Do you have any idea where they hid the controls for the outer defense system?"

Zorro thought for a moment. "I think they have the Electric-Types powering that. Rescue them, and that should do it." He made his way over to the door, looking at each of the Psychic-Types in turn. "Make yourselves scarce, all of you. Teleport yourselves out of here and find shelter."

"Find Ho-Oh," Raichu suggested. "He'll give you shelter."

The Pokemon nodded, then disappeared at once in a great flash of light, leaving the room empty except for us.

At my feet, Butch began to stir, letting out a grunt as he stood up.

"You mind giving me some sort of warning next time?" he demanded, annoyed.

I shrugged. "I wanted a private conversation with the Legendary. Could you blame me?"

"...Well, I guess not." Butch looked around a little fearfully. "But do you have any idea as to how much trouble I'm going to get in? If they find out that I was here when the Pokemon vanished, Cyrus is going to have my head!"

I gave him a curious look. Really? They were that scared of him when he was half mad? "Cyrus has his hands full already. If you really want to hide, I'm sure that you could figure out something."

Zorro frowned. "I highly doubt that we can do anything for him," he remarked from his position by the door. "Come on; we've got to find those Electric-Types."

I was about to answer when the communicator in my ear suddenly crackled with static, Green's voice coming over it a moment later.

::Khrista? Are you there?::

"Yeah, I'm here," I answered, pressing a finger to my left ear. "What's up?"

::Jirachi just got here. Is it true that you've managed to disable the Psychic sensor?::

"I do believe that I have," I confirmed. "Have you guys managed to settle on a date yet?"

::Birch wants it to start sometime in the next two days. Nothing narrowed down any further than that::

"All right; I'll keep an eye and an ear out for you guys and try to take care of things up here. At the rate I'm going, I'll probably have everything spiraling down into chaos long before you get up here."

::Don't be too rash. We don't want this thing over before it's begun. Over an out::

I looked over at Zorro as the two Raichu disappeared into their PokeBalls and Pika climbed onto my shoulder. "Any place you know of that we can hide in for the night?"

The Zoroark nodded instantly. "I know of the perfect place. Come on." He dashed out the door.

I ran after him, switching to Ghost-Type so that I could fly and move more quickly without being seen. We were out of that area of the building in seconds.

Khrista's causing trouble!~

By the way, guys - we're over halfway done with this! The whole thing ends at about 68 chapters or so, so it won't be too much longer!