Author's note: Heyo!
Last time, it turned out that POPSTAR weren't popstars after all. They also weren't from Planet Popstar, meaning that a certain mouse was very distraught, indeed. Poor guy, and he loves Kirby games...
Anyway, hope you enjoy the chapter! :D
Chapter Forty-one: Screams
Now back on his feet, Pikachu frantically looked all around him, desperate to find a way out of this black, metal cuboid. Think, think, think! If he didn't come up with something, he and all his friends would be in the hands of Giovanni in no time! Then who knew what would happen!
Would they get sold off on the black market? Would they be passed around the Team Rocket grunts? Would they be brainwashed into obeying? Or would something even worse happen, if there even was anything worse?! He needed to think!
... Argh, but thinking had never been his strong suit!
What could he do?! The space he and Buneary were in was far too cramped, and the walls were too sturdy for simple attacks!
He placed his paws on the wall, feeling around for any sort of weak spot, since the window was no good, either. That, too, was far too sturdy.
"(Anything?)" Buneary asked from the other side of the cuboid, which was right behind him.
He sighed. "(No, nothing...)" he replied. Frustrated, he let his arms drop to his sides. "(I'm sorry...)"
"(Huh?)"
He clenched his fists. "(This is all my fault... If I hadn't... you know... been tricked by the... the...!)" He took a deep breath through his nostrils, calming himself. Floundering his words now wouldn't help anybody. "(... If I hadn't let myself be tricked, then we wouldn't be in this mess.)"
"(No, no...!)" He heard her shuffle around, then felt a pair of paws on his shoulders. "(This isn't your fault. You had no idea this would happen!)"
"(I know, but... I still let them trick me, and capture all my friends...)" He glanced at her over his shoulder, his heart aching at the sight of her sad face. "(And you...)" He turned away. "(Just... just so I could...)" He shook his head. Now was definitely not the time to be telling her that. Instead, he sighed again. "(Now it looks like there's no way out of here. Without hurting each other, anyway...)
There was a long silence, save for the roaring of the rockets outside that were propelling the robot through the air.
Eventually, Buneary spoke. "(Then... do it.)"
His ears perking in surprise and curiosity, he turned back towards her. She had a strangely determined expression. "(Huh? Do what?)"
"(Hurt me.)"
His eyes bulged in shock and horror. "(What?!)"
"(If... If that's what it takes to get out of here... then you're the one who should do it. Y-You have a much better chance of success, so...)" She scrunched her eyes shut. "(Go ahead!)"
"(What?! No, no, no!)" He spun around, nudging her slightly by accident, and put his paws on her shoulders. "(I'm not doing that!)" He watched as she opened her eyes again. "(I already hurt you once, remember?! And that wasn't even at full power!)" Removing one paw, he pointed at the wall. "(And this is gonna take a full-power Thunderbolt to break! I... I can't...)" He put the paw back on her shoulder. "(I won't hurt you!)"
Her eyes shone with awe for a few moments, but then she frowned again. "(But, if you don't do this, then... we'll end up at Team Rocket HQ!)" He hesitated, so she took that as her cue to continue. "(Besides, we've battled before, right? And I was fine back then!)"
"(Well, yeah, but I didn't hit you with full power! Th-There must be another way!)"
She glanced around at the metal walls. "(I don't think so...)" She looked back at him, giving him a determined smile. "(It's okay. I'll... be okay.)"
"(No, it'll really hurt! Way more than it did last time!)"
"(I know, but... if it's what we need to do...)" He didn't feel reassured by that. She seemed to notice, because she gently put a paw on his cheek and smiled warmly at him. "(It's okay. Trust me. I'm a strong girl, right?)"
"(Well, yeah, but...)"
"(I'll be fine. So you get this box open, and... go rescue our friends, alright?)"
He sadly stared at her, his ears drooping. "(But... I'll... be a really bad boyfriend if I do that...)"
She giggled at him, caressing his cheek. "(You could never be a bad boyfriend.)"
He heart leapt over itself twenty times in his chest. "(Buneary... I...)" He briefly squeezed his eyes shut, trying to mentally prepare himself. When he opened them again, he took a deep breath. "(... Okay.)" He backed away as much as he could, and made his cheeks crackle with electricity. "(I'm... really, really sorry about this...)"
"(I know. I won't hold it against you.)"
His chest tightened and warmed at the same time. Lord, he loved that girl so much...
Clenching his fists and concentrating, he built up as much electricity as the sacs in his cheeks could hold. It kept building and building, gradually getting more and more painful as he felt the sacs bulge outwards slightly from the pressure. When he was sure they were full, he let out another breath.
"(Okay... here goes!)"
He unleashed it all at once with a loud cry. It exploded out of him, rapidly spreading around the cuboid. Within no time at all, he heard Buneary's screams of pain.
Something clenched inside of him, making him want to immediately cut the flow short. Her being in pain, and him being the one causing it, was always agony. Now, though, it was literal, physical pain.
It was so hard to keep going in good conscience, but he had to.
Her screams went on for far too long for his liking, and every second was torture on his heart. Eventually, though, there was a colossal bang from the side of the cuboid.
As Pikachu's electricity finally fizzled out, he allowed himself a quick sigh of relief. He'd done it!
Just as quickly, though, he checked on his girlfriend. His eyes widened in horror as he saw her lying on the floor, her eyes now closed.
"(Buneary!)" He hurried over and knelt down beside her. "(Are you okay?)"
"(Y... Yeah... oww...)" She winced, taking heavy breaths. "(I... knew how strong you were, but... it still surprises me... Ghh!)" Her muscles locked up as a tiny spark danced across her skin.
Even more horrified, Pikachu put his paws over his mouth. "(Oh no... you're paralysed, too... I'm so sorry...)"
"(It's okay... Just... go and save our... friends...)"
He held that pose for a moment, debating his options. Eventually, he lowered his paws and nodded. "(Alright.)" He stood up, turning towards the hole in the cuboid, but still facing her. "(I'll be right back for you, okay?)"
"(Okay...)"
Turning away, he walked towards the hole. As he walked, he dropped to all fours, before leaping outside. Landing on another part of the black, metal robot, he ran towards the large cube that housed his friends. On the way, he filled his tail with steel-type energy.
"(Hang on, guys!)" he called out, leaping up and swinging his tail at the window. Landing, he repeated the action.
"Hey, stop that!" Jessie yelled angrily.
"We paid good money for that metal!" James added angrily.
"You keep yer mitts off de moichandise!" Meowth added angrily.
Pikachu ignored them, continuing to leap up and swing at the window. Inside, he could see his friends either smiling hopefully or cheering encouragingly, which pushed him to keep going. After a lot of effort, he felt the window cave in underneath his tail. His friends briefly shielded themselves from the shower of hard glass, before cheering.
Buizel, Pachirisu, Cyndaquil, Happiny Croagunk, Gible and Piplup - the latter of which was still carrying the Jibanyan doll - all crawled out of the hole. Once out, they turned around and launched their attacks at the cube, to make the hole bigger for the others.
Above him, Pikachu could hear Team Rocket squealing and hollering, but he tried his best to ignore them.
After the hole was made much bigger, Pikachu smiled and nodded at his friends. "(Great!)" he said. "(Okay, you guys start heading down.)" He glanced at the ground, and saw Ash, Dawn and Brock below. "(Oh, the humans are already there! Great, well, jump down, and I'm sure they'll catch you!)"
Piplup turned to him, adjusting Jibanyan in his flippers. "(But what about Torterra and Mamoswine?)" he asked.
Pikachu paused, glancing among his friends. It was true that Mamoswine and Torterra, being as heavy as they were, might struggle with the landing. "(Uh... I guess... the fliers could try to carry them?)"
Both of said fliers looked at him, Staraptor furrowing his brows in disbelief, and Togekiss glancing at Mamoswine and Torterra in concern.
Pikachu winced. "(S-Sorry... it's all I've got...)"
Eventually agreeing, the two flying-types set to work on trying to airlift Mamoswine together. It was a struggle, so it seemed they planned to come back for Torterra afterwards. Meanwhile, the others collectively agreed to jump down three at a time, so the humans could catch them. The robot was awfully high up, after all.
Gible, Cyndaquil and Happiny went first, leaping off the robot and down to the land below. Watching them fall, Pikachu saw the humans scramble around, holding their arms out. Ash caught Gible, Dawn caught Cyndaquil, and Brock caught Happiny.
Pikachu nodded to himself, glad that everything was working out. Now, he just needed to jump back over to the cuboid, grab Buneary and get her back on solid ground. She couldn't move very well, due to being paralysed, so it was up to him to keep her safe.
Just as he was about to move, however, he felt something clamp around his arms and waist. He yelped in surprise as he was lifted away from the other pokémon. He saw Infernape, Sudowoodo and Croagunk about to jump off, and the flying-types slowly carrying Mamoswine down, but Piplup, Pachirisu and Buizel looked up at him in shock.
As Pikachu's ascent halted in front of Team Rocket's open cockpit, he realised that they'd caught him in one of their handheld, extendable grabby hand things. He squirmed inside of the glove's grip, but it had pinned his arms to his sides.
"Ha-ha!" Jessie cheered. "Gotcha, you little troublemaker!"
"T'anks to our handy-dandy grabatron nine-t'ousand!" Meowth added happily. "Good t'ing we had dis in backup!"
"It's thanks to you that we lost our fifteen-for-one deal, you darn dirty rodent!" James snapped.
"So we'll just be taking you as compensation!" Jessie added. "Fair's fair, right?"
"(That's the way it is!)" Wobbuffet said.
"(That's the way it is!)" Mime Jr. parroted.
Suddenly, there was a bang from underneath the robot, and the whole thing tipped to one side. Everyone squealed in shock and horror, flailing around to stay balanced.
"What was that?!" Jessie snapped.
"I don't know, but it was scary!" James squeaked.
"Look!" Meowth called out. "Dere's smoke billowin' from one of de rockets!"
Pikachu looked down and, sure enough, there was smoke rising from underneath the robot. He blinked, wondering what had caused that, before looking down at the ground, where Infernape, Sudowoodo and Croagunk were being caught by Ash, Dawn and Brock respectively. Upon looking up at him, Infernape gave a thumbs up.
Pikachu's ears perked. Oh! So his friends had done that on the way down? Nice!
Oh, and he could hear Ash calling out for the other pokémon to do the same. Looking up at Piplup, Pachirisu and Buizel, Pikachu saw them nod and jump off the robot, while Team Rocket were shrieking at them to knock it off.
Not long afterwards, there was another bang, and the robot tilted violently the other way, making everyone yelp. Glancing down, Pikachu could see Ash holding Piplup - who was still holding Jibanyan - Brock holding Pachirisu, and Dawn holding Buizel.
Staraptor and Togekiss had also placed down Mamoswine, and were flying back up to grab Torterra.
Taking the opportunity, Pikachu built up some electricity in his cheeks, then unleashed it with a cry. It did nothing.
Argh. Rubber. Of course.
He had no room to swing his tail around, either, so he could only sit tight and wait to be rescued.
At least, from this height, Team Rocket weren't likely to call out their pokémon. Especially since Dustox wasn't around anymore.
"Go, Carnivine!" James called out.
... Oh right, Carnivine had Levitate, didn't he? Oh, and Mime Jr. was riding on his head to help out...
Pikachu continued to struggle as Ash engaged himself in battle. While this was going on, Staraptor and Togekiss were airlifting Torterra down to the ground.
Some squabbling later, and there was another bang as a third rocket was taken out, likely by Torterra. The entire robot violently jerked to the side, flinging everyone along with it to many screams of horror.
Pikachu's eyes widened as he saw Buneary slide out of the cuboid and straight towards the ground, utterly helpless to the whims of gravity.
Before he could say anything, though, he felt himself free-falling. What?! Had someone let go by accident?!
Frantically looking below, he saw Ash deeply engaged in battle, Dawn checking to see if Staraptor and Togekiss were alright, after their heavy lifting, and Brock rushing to catch Buneary.
In that moment, no one saw Pikachu falling.
His arms still completely pinned to his sides, he glanced ahead of him to see where he was going to land. Hopefully, it would be somewhere soft.
What he saw was that same boulder from earlier in the day. The one the flashcard from 'POPSTAR' had been sitting on.
His eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as he realised how cosmic that was. It was also really going to hurt! Especially since... oh lord, he was going to hit it head-first!
He tried his best to manoeuvre around in mid-air. At least, if he hit it side-on, it wouldn't be nearly as bad... but the glove was clamped tight, the contraption was heavy, and he was falling too fast!
He clenched his eyes shut, bracing against the inevitable, and praying that it wouldn't hurt too much.
When he felt his skull impact solid rock at high velocity, all his nerve endings screamed in agony.
Then everything went black.