Chapter 11

When Dawn woke up it was to find that Ash and Misty were nowhere in sight. After calling out to them and recieving no reply, she decided that she had better go and look for them in case they were in some kind of trouble. She began walking through the forest, keeping an eye out for her friends but not daring to call again for fear of attracting a monster.

The foliage a few feet in front of her rustled and Dawn tensed, ready to fight or flee; whatever the situation called for. She relaxed when Misty stepped into view.

'Misty, there you are', she smiled. 'I've been looking for you and Ash; I woke up and you two had gone. What happened?'

'Oh we were just', Misty paused. 'Busy'.

Dawn frowned; something about Misty seemed off. 'Busy? What do you mean exactly? Where's Ash?' she asked.

Misty smiled coldly. 'He's here', she replied. 'Do you want to see him?'

'Yes?' Dawn answered uncertainly, put on edge by the strange question.

Still smiling that cold smile, Misty reached behind a tree and roughly dragged Ash out by his arm. His eyes met Dawn's and he seemed to be trying to send her some sort of message. Misty casually flicked a hand and Ash was slung back into a tree and held there by an unseen force.

'Now Dawn', she began, slowly advancing towards the younger girl. 'Listen carefully because this is how the events of the next few days are going to go down. The last 258 people are going to die and then you are going to help me in the last step to get me off this damn island', she said matter of factly.

'And why would I do that Togoros?' Dawn demanded, having worked out by now that she was not talking to Misty.

Togoros' smile widened. 'I hoped that you would ask that', he said. He turned and walked back to Ash. He stood in front of him and studied him much like a butcher would a piece of meat. 'Yes, I think that I'll start with that', he purred, stepping back.

The next instant Ash was on the ground, his legs and arms secured by rope tied to four sturdy trees. Above him hung a set of thin, tapering, hollow tubes much like needles. Small hoses were attatched to the tops of them but Dawn couldn't see where the hoses led from through the tree branches

Ash glared defiantly at Togoros as drips started to slowly form at the ends of the needle like tubes. He jerked when a drop fell and landed on his abdomen and Dawn saw a small amount of steam emit from where it had landed. More drops fell and Ash couldn't hold back a scream as the acid slowly dissolved his body.

'Stop it!' Dawn screamed, unable to bear the sight.

Togoros smirked at her. 'I don't think that I will, I haven't had this much fun in decades'.

Dawn looked away as the acid continued to drip down, hating the fact that there was nothing that she could do to stop this.

'Please stop', she begged, tears rolling down her cheeks.

Togoros only continued to smirk and Dawn could tell by the manical light in his eyes that he was truly enjoying this, that he got a kick out of watching people suffer but paticularly loved causing the suffering himself. She was shamefully relieved when Ash finally stopped screaming but still couldn't bring herself to look at him.

'That was fun', Togoros chuckled. 'Now for something different'.

Dawn looked up and saw that Ash was whole again and pinned back against the tree.

'I assume that you're wondering how your little friend is back in one piece', Togoros said to her. 'The answer's quite simple really, when I'm in my vessel I have the power to control life and death. You see, I can keep people from dying so that I can torture people like your little Hunter friend here for as long as I like and then when I get bored, I can simply restore him so I can start the fun all over again. Hmm, let's see... I think that this time I'll burn him alive'.

A strange, black fire sprang up near Ash and travelled towards him. Greedily, it worked its way over his sneakers and up his legs. Ash closed his eyes and grit his teeth against the pain.

'Please stop, don't hurt him again. I'll do anything', Dawn pleaded.

The fire stopped and Togoros turned to look at her. 'Anything?'

'Anything', Dawn confirmed.

Togoros hummed. 'Well, there is one thing that I want. If you do your part in releasing me, then I won't torture the Hunter. Deal?'

'Fine', Dawn agreed, not thinking in that moment what that would mean for the rest of the world. 'Just don't hurt him any more'.

'Done. Pleasure doing business with you Dawn', Togoros smiled. 'Oh and you only have about a minute before my monster reaches you'.

Dawn snapped awake, taking in Ash and Misty still fast asleep on the forest floor next to her. She took a moment to breathe a sigh of relief that Ash was alive and still completly unharmed before shaking him and Misty awake.

'Guys come on wake up. We have to get out of here, something's coming', she said urgently.

Ash and Misty groaned and stirred.

'What?' Misty asked sleepily, wiping sleep from her eyes.

'Something's coming', Dawn repeated. 'Come on, get up'.

Ash and Misty got up and they and Dawn started to leave their campsite when rustling made them stop. They waited warily until the thing in front of them emerged.

Ash blinked. 'It's a rabbit', he stated.

'Awww', Misty and Dawn cooed at the cute animal.

The brown rabbit that had hopped across their path turned and regarded them, it's ears occassionally flicking. It sniffed the air and took a hop towards them.

'Oh it's so cute', Dawn squeaked. 'Come here little buddy, come here Fluffy'.

Ash raised an eyebrow. 'Fluffy?'

'It's what I called my pet rabbit when I was little', Dawn defended.

'Huh'.

The rabbit stretched out it's neck and sniffed at Dawn's outstretched fingers. It took another hop forward. Without warning, it snapped at Dawn's hand, taking a out a chunk between her thumb and index finger. Dawn cried out and quickly withdrew her hand. Ash thrust his spear at the animal but it moved too quickly for him and they just made out the white of it's tail before it disappeared underneath a bush.

'Dawn are you alright?' Misty asked, crouching down next to the younger girl. Dawn nodded. 'Let me see okay?'

Gently, Misty took hold of Dawn's hand and turned it over to see the damage. Under closer inspection, she saw that although it was bleeding quite a bit, the wound wasn't deep. Having nothing better to use, Misty grabbed some large leaves and pressed them against the wound to stop the bleeding and then sprayed the wound with the antiseptic from Dawn's bag. All the while, Ash kept an eye out for any more monsters approaching.

'All done', Misty announced. 'Ideally I'd like to bandage it but we don't have anything that we could use. I guess that we'll just have to keep an eye on it to make sure that it doesn't get infected'.

Dawn smiled. 'Thanks Misty'.

'You're welcome', Misty smiled back.

'So, looks like Fluffy is a flesh eating bunny', Ash said.

'Apparently', Misty agreed. 'Figures; the first sign of life we see, apart from us or monsters and it tries to eat us', she shuddered. 'Let's get out of here'.

They started walking again.

'Do you think that was the monster that was supposed to be coming?' Ash asked Dawn. 'It wasn't exactly terrifying'.

No sooner had he said that, did they come across a rather disturbing sight. A Pidgey sat on a rock by the stream, having just finished washing itself. A warren of rabbits encircled it and as Ash, Misty and Dawn watched, one of the rabbits sprang forward and sank it's teeth into the pidgey's neck. The flying type cried out and flapped it's wings in alarm but the rabbit held it fast. The other rabbits descended on the poor Pidgey and tore into it like a school of Piranha. In a matter of minutes the Pidgey had been reduced to a pile of bones.

'Oh my God', Dawn breathed.

'We have to get out of here', Ash murmured, backing away, dragging the girls with him.

A few of the rabbits turned to look at them but luckily for them, the mutant bunnies seemed to have had their fill for now, as they didn't make a move to attack them.

'I don't think that I like rabbits any more', Misty said as they walked away.

'Got that right', Ash agreed, shuddering when he heard the snap of a breaking bone. 'Let's go faster'.

Route 22, Kanto

The frustrated driver sighed; it had been almost a month since work on the gas mains had begun on the way into Viridian city and it showed no signs of being anywhere near completed. Although it wasn't surprising considering that right now he was watching two workers sliding piping onto the arms of a third man and taking pictures on their phones.

The traffic inched forward and the driver released the handbrake on his car and let the vehicle coast a few feet before braking again. It frustrated him that the vehicles going the other way were actually moving. He rolled down the window to try and cool down the interior of his car; even though it wasn't yet nine in the morning, the day was already getting hot.

After another twenty minutes of barely moving, the traffic began to flow again. It inexplicably did this every morning; the traffic would slow down and crawl towards the roadworks but by the time that it actually reached them, it would speed up again.

Relieved that he was still on time to make it to work, the hassled driver didn't register the oil tanker on the other side of the road until it was too late.

The huge vehicle begun to swerve eractically from side to side across its lane, almost hitting a couple of cars on the other side of the road. Drivers honked their horns and swerved to avoid the tanker. Nobody was sure what had happened to the driver but it was clear that he or she was not in control of the vehicle.

The tanker straightened out for a few feet, then it swerved across the road, hitting the side of a Volkswagon Beetle and tearing straight through it. It carried on, forcing its way through a small gap between a van and a motorbike, sending the bike rider flying over the roof of the car in front of him where he landed heavily with a crunch and lay still.

Road workers screamed and ran for their lives when they saw the out of control tanker careening towards them. The front end of the tanker fell into the hole, the back end flipped up. Gallons of oil pulled the tanker over and metal screeched as it scraped against the jagged edge of the hole. Oil began to pour out of a small hole in the container.

When they had run out of the path of the oil tanker, one of the workers had dropped a cigarette and now it balanced precariously on the edge of the hole, its tip still glowing faintly. A gust of wind blew and the cigarette began to slowly tilt forward. Passing its centre of gravity, it fell into the hole and the puddle of oil.

The oil instantly ignited and spread rapidly towards the still mostly full tanker. A gigantic fireball shot into the air as the tanker exploded, filling the air with acrid smoke. Explosions rocked the street as the fire ignited escaping gas from a torn mains line. The road cracked and broke apart from the force of the explosions, sending people and vehicles alike tumbling down into the newly appeared holes.

Car drivers slammed on their brakes as drops of burning oil rained down on them. The fire moved to consume the oil that now covered the road and cars alike. People panicked and ran from their vehicles when they saw the fire advancing towards them. Vehichles that were still moving were forced to swerve to avoid the fleeing people and many ended up hitting parked vehicles or each other. Some even hit pedestrians and sent them flying like rag dolls.

More vehicles exploded when the fire found their fuel tanks, sending bits of shrapnel and burning wreackage spinning into the crowd.

Those that were trapped in their cars screamed at the people running past them, begging them to get them out. One man stopped to pry open the door of a young woman and was rewarded by getting a piece of flying shrapnel through the eye. His mouth fell open and his remaining eye widened in surprise as his legs gave out and he slumped against the car door. His blank stare met the horrified woman's before he slid down the glass. Seconds later, the fire reached her car. She died screaming.

Gary

The Afterlife was a strange place. The dead remained in the mortal world, yet no one could see, touch or feel them unless a ghost tried really, really hard. Gary was one of the few who had mastered the art of communicating with the living but there were thousands who couldn't and even in his relatively short time as a ghost, he had seen dozens of spirits go mad at the lack of communication and yet could not move on. Most of them became violent but some of them simply gave up caring and just faded away. Gary didn't know what happened to them then and he never wanted to.

He travelled from place to place, ceaselessly searching for Ash, Misty and Dawn. He had heard talk about the accident with the oil tanker and even seen some of the newly dead. When a little boy had latched onto Gary's leg and asked him with tear filled eyes if he had seen his mother, Gary had shaken him off and continued his search without replying.

A tight feeling had settled in his gut, which was kind of weird since he technically didn't have one any more. The time when Togoros would be released was rapidly approaching and Gary just knew that it would be paticularly bad for his friends if they were anywhere near him when it happened.

A blaze of light appeared before him and Gary turned away from the sudden glare. When he turned back he growled lowly as he recognised the ghost that had tried to burn May alive in Brock's kitchen a short while ago.

'What do you want?' he demanded.

Burn victim smiled evily. 'Let's just say that I'm here to delay you', he drawled.

'What do you mean?'

'Well, Togoros doesn't want you trying to stop his rising. I imagine that it would be most annoying to have to deal with a little bug like you trying to get in his way', he smirked. 'And when I'm done with you, I think that I'll go and finish off your little friends'.

'I won't let you touch them', Gary snarled.

Burn victim's smile widened. A flame grew in his hand, the light reflecting evily on his face.

'Your fire can't hurt me', Gary said.

'Can't it?'

'No'.

'How sure are you of that?' Gary didn't reply. 'Let's test that theory shall we?'

A stream of fire shot towards Gary. He dodged, but it still grazed his arm. He was astonished to find that it hurt, he didn't think that that was possible.

'What was that about I can't hurt you?'

Gary growled in reply and went into a defensive position whilst he analysed his opponent. This guy could obviously control fire, whereas Gary had only the basic ghostly powers; being able to move objects and appear and disappear at will. The only one that would be any use in this fight would be the latter, so Gary was going to have to play this one smart.

Burn victim threw a fireball at him and Gary disappeared and reappeared behind him. He was able to get a punch in before burn victim turned and swung a burning fist at him. Gary managed to dodge in time and disappeared again.

This went on for a while; Gary would disappear and reappear to punch Burn victim a couple of times and then disappearing again before he had time to retaliate. But Burn victim caught on to his strategy soon enough and the next time Gary reappeared, he was waiting for him and shot him point blank in the face with a fireball.

Gary staggered back and watched his opponent warily while he reconsidered. His previous strategy would obviously no longer work and he couldn't win against this guy in a head to head fight. The only way Gary could defeat him was if he used his own energy to destroy the other ghost. It was risky and would probably result in Gary destroying himself too, but it was the only way to stop him from hurting Gary's friends.

He tackled Burn victim, catching the evil spirit by surprise and knocking him to the ground. Closing his eyes, Gary concentrated on focusing his energy, which was rather hard to do with Burn victim trying to get out of his grip. Gary could feel his energy building up within him and if he had opened his eyes, he would have seen that his form had started to glow white.

Realising what was happening, Burn victim struggled harder but Gary's grip was firm. The light intensified until it was blinding and with a flash and a scream, Burn victim and Gary were gone.

Togoros' island

'Ash, I have to tell you something', Misty whispered.

She was walking next to him and Dawn was slightly in front of them. It had been hours since they had left the mutant rabbits well behind them but none of them had wanted to stop yet.

'Okay, what?'

'I had a dream the other night', Misty began, keeping her voice low. 'The three of us were standing near a volcano and the next part was kind of blurry, so I couldn't really make out what was happening, but Dawn ended up standing on top of the volcano. She was looking down into it and she had a kind of desperate look on her face. I tried calling out to her but she didn't seem able to hear me. I woke up just as she jumped'.

'Do you think that it was just a dream or something more?' Ash asked after a pause.

'I'm not sure. But Ash, for the last day or so I've been feeling something around me. Like a prescence, and it feels cold, evil. Ash, I think that it's Togoros. I think that it's almost time for him to be released and I feel like he's circling me, ready to possess me', she couldn't keep the fear out of her voice at the last part.

Ash put a comforting arm around her shoulders and gave her a quick squeeze. 'Don't worry Mist, I swear that I won't let him possèss you', he said.

Misty managed a weak smile. 'Thanks Ash'.

'Any time Mist'.

Gary

Gary was only vaguely aware of anything. He couldn't technically feel pain but if he could, he was sure that every single part of his body would be in agony. His thoughts were jumbled and sluggish as he tried to remember what had happened to put him in this situation. Eventually it all came back to him and he smiled, because he knew that he had completly wiped Burn victim out of existence and that there was now no chance of the sick freak ever hurting his friends.

He didn't know how he had survived though. Maybe this was what happened when ghosts faded into nothing, or in his case, exploded into nothing. But somehow he didn't think so.

He did know that he was incredibly weak, too weak to form and definately too weak to appear to Brock and May. When he had taken out Burn victim, he had used up most of his energy and all he could do now was slowly build his strength back up over time.

He wondered if anyone would miss him or worry about him. And then he decided that as long as his friends were okay, it really didn't matter too much anyway.

1,900 feet underwater

The submarine cut effortlessly through the water whilst her crew went about their tasks efficiently. Everything was running as smoothly as it did every day, so the men and women onboard were surprised when alarms suddenly went off. They ran to their stations and tried to work out what the problem was.

They lurched when the vessel suddenly tilted down sharply. The crew scurried to try and fix whatever problem had caused this but could find none. The depth meter showed that they were steadily heading deeper into the oceon.

Before long the submarine reached crush depth. There was a crack as the outer hull cracked open, the pressure from the surrounding water finally being too much for it to handle. The air and fuel tanks went next, along with the inner hull.

They were too deep down for the Emergency Immersion Equipment to be of any good, it only being usuable at a depth of 600 feet at the most, and that was the only means of escape available to them.

The walls of the sub crumpled like a tin can and walls of water rushed in, quickly filling the enclosed area. What little air that remained soon left and the crew members took one last, desperate breath as the cold water closed over their heads for the last time.

Togoros' island

Ash, Misty and Dawn stopped walking when they felt the ground rumble underneath their feet. To Ash, it almost felt as if the island itself was laughing. Togoros' by now familiar prescence closed in on them, making him feel weak and sick. He was certain that he could even see the occassional flicker of a black aura around them. Dawn and Misty pressed closer to him and Ash was glad for their altogether more friendly prescence.

Ash felt the aura gather and travel to his right, where Misty was. He locked eyes with her and the terrified look in her sea green ones almost broke his heart because he knew that there was nothing he could do to help her. He had no power to stop this and all of his promises to keep her safe ultimately meant nothing. He would lose her.

Tears pricked his eyes but he blinked them back defiantly; he would not let her see him cry. He would find a way to bring her back, no matter what.

Misty closed her eyes momentarily and when she opened them again they had darkened to a deep blue. Togoros took a deep breath in his new vessel.

'Finally', he breathed.