Aaaand we're back with Khrista's end of things!

Chapter 47 - Electric Release

Khrista looked around the hall, taking note of the muted murmuring voices, their sources of of sight. "So, is this where they keep the Electric-Types?" She motioned to the doors running along the wall, each one with a lightning bold carved onto its surface.

Upon seeing Nick nod, she asked, "Why separate from all the other Types?"

"They like to have the power sources for everything as close together and under as tight a security system as possible," Azumaril explained. "Honestly, I think it would make better sense if they put the generators in different corners of this floor - the tower, even. The intruders wouldn't be able to get to them all at once that way."

Khrista smirked. "You know, that actually doesn't sound like a bad idea." She then frowned. "But then the warp panels probably wouldn't work, and the door that open with pass codes and keycards wouldn't exactly work, either."

Zorro nodded. "We'll have to choose carefully, if we're going to take any one of these out."

Pika's ears perked up as the group made its way cautiously through the corridor. He looked around for a moment, then jumped to the floor and paused there, his ears twitching.

"There's another strong Pikachu around here somewhere," Pika stated, looking around. "I can't quite place where he is, though..."

Khrista's eyes widened. "A strong Pikachu, huh? Could it be..." She trailed off as her shirt went from red to yellow, in an attempt to try and locate the Pokemon. "If anything, the Pikachu's either the Pokemon of a strong Trainer from my world, or it's...someone else's." She looked over at Pika, who seemed to take the hint.

"It's a possibility," he admitted. Pika looked around, his ears swiveling in order to detect the electricity of that particular Pokemon. "Do you see the electric build-up over in that direction?" He pointed towards a door marked with a "DO NOT ENTER" sign in bright red letters.

Khrista frowned, then closed her eyes and concentrated. Eventually, she saw a bright yellow light coming from somewhere beyond the door.

"Wow. That's a lot of energy." She opened her eyes and look down at Pika. "There's obviously some strong Pokemon over there. Let's check it out." The teen's eyes went to Nick. "Think it would be all right if we took this one out?"

Nick and Azumaril exchanged a glance, then nodded.

"They keep the really strong Pokemon in there," the Aqua member explained. "Sometimes, though, they take them out to make sure that the other generators are giving out enough energy."

Khrista nodded. "Makes sense." She looked over at Zorro. "You want to do the honors? Or do I have to figure out a way to get everybody through in my intangible ghost form?"

Zorro shook his head. "Relax. I got this." He moved over to the door and inspected it. After a moment, he backed up a little, then yowled, "Shadow Claw!"

The Dark-Type's claws slashed the steel door's locking mechanism, the marks that had been left behind glowing with some sort of dark power. The door then swung open on oiled hinges, revealing a strangely dark room, eerily lit by many glowing, yellow opaque capsules.

Khrista stepped into the room cautiously, her shirt switching back to normal now that she could see the light without need of her Electric abilities. The teen's eyes scanned the room quickly, stopping when she looked up at the ceiling. "Pika, I don't think you want to come in here."

The Electric-Type looked up in the direction the Trainer was staring, his eyes widening. "Mother of Zapdos," he murmured.

The entire ceiling was covered with Ground-Types.

"They won't attack unless you do something dangerous to the generator," Nick explained to Khrista from the doorway.

The teen let out a growl of annoyance. "Great. Looks like I'll have to take them out, first." Her shirt turned a deep blue, and she threw a sphere of water up at one of the Pokemon - a Sandslash. "Water Pulse!"

The Pokemon she was targeting let out a yell of surprise as the attack hit his spines, shuddering uncontrollably. He then started to lash out at its fellow Ground-Types as Khrista continued to fire Water Pulses. Eventually, chaos ensued up on the ceiling, some of the Pokemon that had been sitting up there collapsing to the ground, knocked out. As the stragglers continued to fight amongst themselves, Khrista's attention turned to the capsules.

"Do any of you know Iron Tail?" the teen yelled at the capsules, hoping that a Pokemon might have heard her.

"That won't work!" a faint voice called out. "There isn't enough room in this thing!"

"What will get you out, then?"

"Overload it!"

Khrista's eyes widened. "Okay, Pika. I need you to get in here. The rest of you, stay out unless you want to get electrocuted." She reached for her belt and released the other two Electric-Types in her possession as the Pikachu came over. "Okay, guys. We need to overload this thing with so much power it goes haywire. You up to it?"

"I certainly am!" called the voice from within the capsule. "Just say the word!"

The three Electric-Types that weren't trapped nodded to each other, determined looks on their faces.

"Where do you want us to hit?" Raichu asked.

"There's a large red thing on the generator. If you pull it off, it looks like there's a giant outlet underneath. Give that thing everything you've got!"

Khrista looked over at the generator and saw what the voice meant by red thing, which looked like seem sort of cap. Moving around the fainted Ground-Types, she reached out and tore off the cap, revealing the outlet. The teen nodded to the Electric-Types, her shirt changing to yellow.

"On my count," she stated. "Three... Two... One... Now! Thunder!"

Four blasts of powerful electricity blasted towards the outlet, hitting it directly. The glowing capsules started to increase their output, as well, the power almost sparking off the cables as it flowed into the generator. Within a few minutes of the power going in, the mechanical device began to smoke, different parts of it sputtering and letting off sparks of their own.

"Almost there!" the voice from the capsule encouraged. "We gotta get it to explode!"

"Got it!" Khrista shouted back. She poured on the power, glaring at the outlet as the sparks and smoke increased. She let out a primeval shout as one last burst of energy slammed into the machine, completely dismantling it with a bang.

Khrista halted the flow of electricity, letting out a sigh of exhaustion. "There we go. Let's hope that did it." She turned to look at the capsules, frowning upon seeing that they had stopped glowing. "You guys all right?"

One of the capsules cracked, then completely broke open like an egg, allowing the Pokemon inside to come out.

"We're fine," a Pachirisu stated, his voice cracking a little. "A little bit worse for the wear, but fine."

The other capsules began to break open, as well, releasing more Electric-Types as they slipped out of their cages.

"It's about time someone got us out of there," a Pokemon remarked. A solitary Pikachu forced his way through the crowd of Pokemon to stand in front of Khrista and her Electric-Type troop. "Those things are pretty cramped..." The Pikachu's eyes widened as he looked up at Khrista. "When did you get a different shirt?"

Khrista glanced down at her yellow attire, changing it back to the original shade and graphic. "I've always had this shirt," she responded, a little confused by the Pikachu's statement.

A moment later, the teen's eyes widened, and she realized who exactly she was talking to. She smirked. "Now this is going to be a big blow to the tower."

She looked back at Nick and Azumaril. "We gotta find these guys a hiding place before and Galactic grunts get down here and try to catch us."

Nick nodded in agreement as Khrista's two Electric-Types returned to their PokeBalls. "Right. Let's get these guys back to my place - we can figure out what to do for there."

Azumaril frowned. "I dunno... There might not be enough room."

"What do you suggest that we do, then?" Zorro demanded.

Khrista snapped her fingers. "I know!" She turned to look at the Electric-Types. "Who among you guys wants to get out of here?"

Most of the Electric-Types raised their paws or shouted in response.

Khrista nodded. "O.K., then." Her shirt changed to the Psychic-gold shade as she continued, "I can send you guys to a place that can heal your injuries and get you back to fighting condition. They're preparing for an attack on this place, and if everybody's up and ready to fight, there'll be more of a chance of us winning this."

The Pokemon in front of her looked at each other. After a moment, Ash's Pikachu stepped out of the crowd and crawled up onto Khrista's shoulder.

"I'm staying here," the Electric-Type stated. "Ash and I still converse, and he'll start to wonder if I'm not in the area."

Khrista nodded. "All right, then." As Pikachu leapt off and moved to stand beside Zorro and Pika, Khrista turned to look at the rest of the Electric-Types. "Anyone else want to stay?" When none of the Pokemon moved, the teen nodded. "Okay. Here goes! Teleport!"

She sent a blast of Psychic energy at the menagerie of Pokemon, which disappeared in a flash of light.

"Where did you send them?" Zorro asked.

"The main square, down there," Khrista responded. "I had a pretty clear picture of it in my head, so I sent them there." She shrugged. "We'd better get back before anyone finds us."

Nick nodded in agreement. "Let's move."

Spacial Break

Volkner and Lt. Surge sensed the change in electrical power almost instantly. Being Electric-Type Gym Leaders, they had spent time near and around electricity for a pretty good chunk of their lives, so they knew when something was going on.

This was especially the case when about fifty Electric-Types appeared in the Square for no particular reason. The two Trainers had instantly looked the Pokemon over, calling a Nurse Joy and Brock the Pokemon Doctor over for assistance.

"Where did all of these Pokemon come from?" Brock asked, blinking in surprise at the sight of the crowd. "They look like they've been through a lot."

"We escaped from the tower," a Pachirisu explained. "A girl with a multicolored shirt managed to Teleport us here."

The four humans looked at each other.

"Multicolored shirt?" Volkner repeated.

The electric squirrel nodded. "Her shirt went from yellow to red to gold."

The eyes of the Blissey that Joy had brought along widened in surprise. "That has to be Khrista!"

Joy looked over at the Normal-Type. "The girl that escaped from the tower?"

Blissey nodded. "I remember taking a round over in Mt. Coronet. The Trainer had been training with her Pokemon, and they had needed a recharge because they had used up their Power Points training her."

Brock looked surprised. "Really? She can use Pokemon moves?"

"You mean you haven't heard?" Joy turned to look at Brock, whose Toxicroak was watching him warily from a distance away. "The child somehow managed to pick up a Pokemon's abilities from her stay up there. The Professors sent her back in the hopes that she could deal some damage before they sent the Pokemon and Trainers up there to attack."

"Which is probably the reason these little guys ended up appearing down here," Lt. Surge mused. "She probably took out a generator or something."

A Pichu nodded. "That's right! She had these three other Electric-Types with her, too, and they somehow managed to take out the thing that was draining us of our energy."

Joy's face adopted a look of concern. "Poor things," she murmured. Turning to look at the Blissey, she stated, "I want you to go get the other Pokemon and assist me in getting these Pokemon into the infirmary as soon as possible."

The Normal-Type Pokemon nodded, then turned and dashed off towards the Pokemon Center, calling out for other Pokemon in the area.

Brock reached out and picked up the Pichu and the Pachirisu carefully, making sure that he didn't harm them any further than they already had been. "It'll be okay, guys," he stated. "You'll be in prime condition in no time."

"Will we be able to help take out the tower?" a Blitzle asked, leaning against Lt. Surge.

"If you let Joy do her work," the Kanto Gym Leader replied, "you might be able to help out." He reached out and, with a carefulness that wasn't normally associated with the muscular man, lifted the Pokemon up and carried it off towards the Pokemon Center.

As the group was moving the Electric-Types into the Pokemon Center, Birch and Swamp were watching from a distance, Green working with her communication systems on a picnic table nearby.

"Do you think Khrista managed to move all those Pokemon?" Swamp asked, curious.

"Definitely," Green confirmed. She removed the headset she had been wearing. "I could hear everything through the earpiece I gave to Khrista. There was one Pokemon that didn't get Teleported down here, though - Ash's Pikachu. I didn't really catch everything that he had said, but it sounds like he's been conversing with his Trainer through that dream-thing Sabrina told us about. If Pikachu suddenly disappeared from the tower, that would set his Trainer on edge."

"That makes sense," Birch admitted. "What a way to keep up the illusion of nothing going wrong."

"Something's going to give, though," Green warned. "A single generator failure isn't going to stop them completely, and we don't have too long before your scheduled attack. This definitely isn't going to be a walk in the park."

Swamp nodded in agreement. "We'll have to be careful when we slip in there." The Pokemon then turned its attention to Birch. "Raze told me that our parents had been acting up the past few days. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

Birch frowned. "It could be that their original Trainers have been freed from Cyrus' grip," he suggested slowly.

Swamp blinked in confusion. "Raze's and my parents' Trainers are up there?"

Birch nodded. "I don't know if you ever learned, but you mother's first Trainer was Archie."

The Pokemon frowned. "My mother did mention that her Trainer had left her in favor of a Sharpedo as his strongest Pokemon, but I never thought that her Trainer was Archie. That was certainly...unexpected."

"I wasn't planning on telling you," Birch admitted, "but the simple fact that Khrista has managed to partner up with Archie changes things."

Swamp looked between Birch and Green, the Kanto Trainer nodding in confirmation. "I think I'll have to have a talk with my mother and her Trainer when all of this is over. There are things that we need to discuss."

"And you won't be the only one to do that," Green remarked. "I want to figure out more about the holographic avatar that all those kids used. I mean, all of us ran into those kids at one point or another, but only Tate and Liza actually managed to figure out how many kids actually interacted with us. Them, and a few of those in the evil organizations. And then there's the characteristics and the Pokemon that came through and were used..."

She drifted off, a thoughtful look crossing her face, but she was then startled out of her thoughts. "I'd better get moving! I promised that I'd help a couple kids train their Blastoise." Moving quickly, she gathered up her communications equipment and dashed off.

"I have a few things to take care of, as well," Swamp remarked. "I'll see you later, Professor." With that, the Water-Type walked off into the Fields.

As Birch waved to the Pokemon in temporary farewell, he thought, Those kids had better make sure that the Tower is weakened. Who knows what will happen when we attack and they're well-defended?

We're getting ever closer to the chaos that is going to happen, but it's going to be a while yet. ;) It's coming, though.