Dark clouds wept low over the mountains, their tears spilling over the forested foothills and the exposed stone alike. Lightning cracked over, the flash filtering down along streams of water falling between green branches, illuminating and dampening the two human figures standing under the trees.
"Did we have to meet here? Now?" Karen asked, pulling her jacket tighter and glaring at the sky as she stepped closer to the nearest tree.
"Yes," Lance nodded, the hood of his cloak protecting him from the rain..
"Is this just your sense of drama or do you actually have a good reason?"
"I have an actual reason," Lance said, narrowing his eyes at the dark-type specialist.
"And your sense of drama has nothing to do with it?" Karen asked, leaning against the tree.
"No, it doesn't. Besides, when it comes to being dramatic you of all people shouldn't be throwing stones."
"Hey! I save being dramatic for when it's important!"
"Really now?" Lance quirked an eyebrow. "That's not what I hear from the Johto gym leaders."
"They're just jealous of my flair," Karen sniffed. "Now what did you call me out here to talk about?"
"The Cerulean City gym leaders reported possible signs of Rocket activity at the latest gym leader meeting," Lance reported. "Giovanni's to Cerulean to help investigate."
"So, we're going to have a city without a gym leader for an unspecified amount of time?" This time Karen raised an eyebrow. "You think Team Rocket will see that as an opportunity."
"It's possible," Lance agreed. "There's not going to be any public announcement about the trip. Giovanni's not even going to inform Viridian City Hall. But I still suspect that Team Rocket will know nonetheless thanks to whatever source of information they have."
"Simple analysis of gym activity might be enough to reveal Giovanni's movements. No need for a traitor."
"True. But that still requires more information than Team Rocket should be able to get from the public records. And from that they'll know that one gym will be vulnerable and that another gym is on their trail."
"It's not going to be like Saffron though," Karen pointed out, reaching into her coat and pulling out a carton of cigarettes and a lighter. "Team Rocket won't be able to take out the gym leader, the gym, and the police all at the same time. Giovanni would be able to return and rally League forces in the Viridian area."
"We still don't know why Team Rocket attacked Saffron City like they did," Lance said, shaking his head. "Sabrina thought she knew what they were up to, trying to acquire Masterball technology, but that doesn't explain their actions. They took every one of the Saffron City Gym's psychic pokemon and we found out that Team Rocket smashed several Masterball prototypes. If they were after the technology, why not take the prototypes? And what did they need the psychic pokemon for?"
"Psychic pokemon are valuable in and of themselves," Karen pointed out, sheltering her cigarette from the rain with one hand while she lit it. "And they may have been attempting to deny us Masterball technology."
"Then why occupy the city?" Lance asked, eyes narrowing. "What were they trying to do?"
"None of the Rockets I interrogated seemed to know," Karen shrugged, taking a puff of her cigarette. "Most of their specialists escaped and out of the ones we got none were high ranking enough to know any details that didn't pertain to their individual assignments. And none of the grunts could tell us even if we threatened to toss them into the Distorted World."
"Exactly," Lance hissed. "We don't know. What were they hoping to gain by occupying the city? Can they get whatever their objective was from Viridian? Would they need to occupy the city to do so or are conditions different such that a raid would suffice?"
"We don't know that they needed to occupy Saffron either," Karen pointed out, gesturing with her cigarette, wisps of smoke rising to be lost in the rain. "It could have been them getting greedy or creating a distraction."
"I know," Lance growled, rubbing his temples.
"Which is why you're upset and paranoid," Karen sighed. "Well, until we can figure that out, there's nothing we can do other than keep an eye on Viridian City while Giovanni's gone. Cerulean should be safe. I don't think Team Rocket would want to deal with two gym leaders at once, one on their home turf."
At her words Lance looked off into the distance, looking without seeing as far as Karen could tell.
"You're probably correct," Lance said eventually. "Cerulean City is safer with Giovanni there."
Spending a long time on a boat took some getting used to. Ash had gone through the process a few times before and had never suffered any seasickness, but the constant rocking had other effects on him. For one he never slept as soundly at sea as on land.
Once again Ash found himself surrounded by fire and dark shapes, the old familiar nightmare, half-recognized, half mistaken for reality. He was hounded by strange faces, faces he knew but could not name, not trapped in the nightmare. Terrible human caricatures grabbed at him and distorted shapes that might have been pokemon hounded him.
Ash was pursued through smoke and flame, through awful forests and over heights. And then he came to somewhere new.
Somehow in his flight the boy ended up trapped in a cylinder of glass filled with liquid. Though he was submerged he did not drown nor did he feel wet. He was warm and somehow this was all that he had ever known.
All around him were strange lights coming from panels and monitors and things that Ash would later recognize as grotesquely misshapen medical and scientific equipment. Human faces, distorted by the glass and the water surrounded him, and they made a noise that was not a noise, a hum felt inside of his head instead of heard in his ears. Their expressions were twisted and exaggerated to the point of meaninglessness, like phantoms in a carnival mirror.
It all ate at him, a swarm of burrowing insects, a rotting fungus, ten thousand strange things grabbing his attention without rest. Ash and not Ash couldn't tell what was going on. The noise from the faces bounced around inside of his head and it was almost enough to drown out the knowledge that something was missing, something bright that used to fill a void.
Glass cracked and suddenly Ash was out of the tube, surrounded by flame that was also smoke. The faces screamed and the noise in his head was a fire. Crimson liquid covered the caricatures of equipment and then it began to boil.
Everything glowed purple, brilliant purple light spilling out of him-
Ash woke up with a gasp, sitting up suddenly, and inadvertently dumping Pikachu off his chest and into his lap. He could feel his sleepwear clinging to him and the smell of sweat filled his tent; he was soaked from head to toe.
Ugh… Pikachu moaned, picking himself up. Another nightmare?
Ash blinked, trying to remember. I think so.
Same one as usual?
Ash felt his head throb once and-
Huh? Ash said, looking around. He didn't remember waking up. He couldn't remember falling asleep either.
Was it the same nightmare as usual? Pikachu asked.
Oh, Ash realized. He must have had another night terror.
I guess, Ash answered, rubbing his forehead. He couldn't recall it, but what Pikachu said made sense. His head hurt faintly, just at the edges of his perception. He let out a yawn and lay back down.
Nothing for it but to go back to sleep, Ash said groggily.
Good idea, Pikachu said, crawling back onto Ash's chest.
AN: I'd like to thank Amationary for beta reading.
Sorry for the late release, not a good night last night.
Anyway, finally on the precipice, so now I'm going to take a nice long break between releases to try and get things right. The next chapter will be released on August 30th 2023.