Time for Anecdotes!
I think that when I started writing this fanfic, I was subconsciously inspired by Detective Conan. I don't know if you're familiar with it, but I remember having two DVDs of the series and watching it over and over again. The part where Ran was unaware of Conan's true identity really amused me, and looking back, I think it was one of the strengths of the manga/anime.
As for the motion sickness aspect of Ash turning into a Charmander, or just the fact that he chose a Charmander... Yeah, Natsu from Fairy Tail. Of course, the manga went off the rails, but the first seasons were great: they flowed well, the battles weren't just based on the power of friendship, and the humor was more situational than fan service.
Ah! And I corrected Minus/ Minun (shame on me T T)
Boutons d'or root easily
Serena stood doubtfully in front of the moonlit building. Several cracks ran through it and some windows were broken. The girl listened carefully, she could only hear the sound of the waves behind her, but there was no sound coming from this building where many people should be working. They must all be asleep, the trainer convinced herself. But the ball growing in her stomach made her realize that this explanation was not enough.
"Are you sure this is the place?" Serena couldn't help but ask as Wattson finished docking his boat.
"I know I'm old, but I'm still in my right mind," the leader said. "And what would you like it to be?"
A storage room was the first and only idea that came to Serena's mind. Especially since the structure was not very big for a system that was supposed to feed an entire city.
"How do we get in?" she asked.
"Through the door," Wattson replied as naturally as possible.
The man walked past her and simply turned the handle to open the door. Shouldn't there be a code with infinite combinations, a quadruple lock, a retina scanner, something to ensure a minimum of security? Even a simple padlock would have sufficed...
"No, nothing," said the young girl, disappointed by the old man's carelessness.
As she entered, Serena had no doubt that they had made a mistake. There was nothing in this room but old, rusty, dusty mechanical parts. Wattson didn't stop at the entrance, however, but walked to the back of the room.
"Are you coming?" he called.
Serena jumped, the old man could at least turn on the light. She weaved her way through the tarnished metal, barely able to see where she was going.
"Charman," the fire monster pointed out.
A staircase? Serena didn't think there were any floors here. She watched anxiously as the steps sank into the ground. If the first ones were more or less visible thanks to the ghostly moonlight that shrouded the place, the next ones disappeared in the darkness, giving no hint as to where they led. Clearly, Wattson preferred to build things deep rather than high.
"Originally, we wanted to create a real underground city. But we abandoned that idea after the twelfth level," Wattson explained as he approached one of the walls.
"Wasn't that enough?"
Wattson pressed the call button for the elevator before answering:
"New Mauville must have had sixty-nine floors. That's not nearly enough, is it?"
"Sixty-nine..." the girl stammered.
The old man pressed the metal circle again and stared at the quadrant above the doors, which remained stuck at the number six.
"In the end, I'm not unhappy that we gave up on that idea," Wattson remarked.
The leader returned to the stairs with a weary step. He could already feel his knees complaining about the future torture.
"We're not taking the elevator?" the trainer asked hopefully.
The old man's laughter turned Serena pale. She looked again at the stairs leading into the darkness, she had a bad feeling. Wattson turned on his flashlight, doubling the girl's concern.
"The lighting's broken too," the guide sighed.
The steps were far too high for Ash to climb alone. That's why he still found himself in Serena's arms. But he wondered if it was really necessary, considering the speed at which she was moving. The young girl placed the tip of her foot carefully, using the reptile's flame to guide her. In this narrow cage, the sound of footsteps bounced off the walls and was amplified to create a deafening and continuous echo. Serena kept looking nervously behind, convinced that a vengeful ghost was following them.
Wattson didn't move much faster. With every step he took, he swept the area in front of him with the beam of his lamp, as if waiting for a monster to emerge from the darkness.
Ash felt the arms tighten around his body and found himself pressed against the girl's chest. His friend's heartbeat, regular but terribly fast, pounded against his back. She was trembling, and he suspected that she was imagining all sorts of stories filled with ghosts and nightmarish creatures.
"Cha!" the shapeshifter tried to encourage her.
She gasped in terror, her face pale.
"Don't scare me like that!" she reprimanded him.
"Der," Ash frowned.
Wattson stopped when his flashlight illuminated the number nine on a door. The room they entered was no better lit. It was deserted, not a single soul to be seen, and that did not please the inventor. Suddenly he noticed the outline of a shadow on the floor. The old man's features twitched, hoping he was wrong.
"Cha!" Ash shouted as he leapt to the ground and ran towards the figure.
As the old man had feared, it was indeed a pokemon. He shook his shoulders and called to it, but the yellow-haired monster with black stripes did not move. Wattson rushed to the side of the salamander and examined the electabuzz before huffing:
"He's just unconscious, but it looks like his electrical energy has been stolen."
"Der," Ash shuddered.
Serena followed her pokemon's gaze, noticing the other unconscious creatures in the darkness.
"Who could have put them in this state?" Serena panicked.
The leader was shaking with rage. He had built this power plant for the electric pokemons to take refuge. He knew them all, from the smallest pichu to the largest electivire. So whoever had made them suffer would have to pay...
CLANG.
Everyone turned to the source of the strange sound. The old man waved his lamp, hoping to reveal the creature lurking in the darkness.
"Could it be..." began the young girl with a pale face. "This power plant is built over an ancient graveyard, and the spirits that live there have decided to take revenge!"
Ash shuddered. Serena's stories always made him break out in a cold sweat.
"And if the elevator did not work, it was because it was filled with the blood of the previous victims!" she continued.
The trainer suddenly put her hands over her mouth, as if everything she had just said had escaped her.
"I shouldn't have said that..." the girl regretted in a high voice.
Wattson, however, had not been destabilized. He continued to illuminate the area with the beam of light, searching for some kind of clue.
Screams, a sizzling sound and then a small vibrating light appeared in the middle of the darkness. Serena took refuge behind the reptile, despite the little protection he offered. She shivered and closed her eyes, not daring to look at the will-o'-the-wisp glowing in the distance.
Ash sighed in annoyance. Not that he was embarrassed that she was using him as a living shield, but if they were really attacked, the best he could do would be to protect his friend's calves.
CLANG.
The trainer crouched down, covered her ears and yelled:
"I'm sorry!"
Ash took a few steps back, wondering if the girl was right. But Wattson didn't move, his gaze focused on the second light that had just been born.
"Charman! Cha!" the shapeshifter shouted, hoping to make him react.
It had the opposite effect. Wattson lunged at the ghosts, pulling a pokeball from his pocket.
"Stop it!" he shouted.
Ash couldn't remember ever seeing Wattson so angry, he was becoming more terrifying than any supernatural creature. The man's chubby form disappeared into the darkness. Serena froze, realizing she was now alone with the salamander.
"Wattson?" she called in a trembling voice.
There was no answer, and the wisps were gone. The girl suddenly closed her eyes, blinded by a brief flash of light. It came from where the old man had gone.
"What's going on?" the trainer gasped.
She stepped forward, hoping to find the gym leader, but shrill noises stopped her in her tracks. It sounded like pots and pans being banged together and...
CLANG.
It was close. Serena turned her head; even with her pokemon's flame, she could barely make out what was going on a meter away. The girl's eardrum vibrated, excited by the repeated clang that was approaching.
"Stay where you are," she said in a weak voice.
Ash stood in front of her, baring his fangs, hoping to scare the threat away. Finally, the thing was visible. A flashing claw, opening and closing like it beat a rhythm. It moved through the air, supported by a flexible cable.
"Mander!" he shouted louder.
The claw froze in the open position. The thing may not have had eyes, but Ash could feel it staring at them. The metallic jaws closed with a crunching sound and the black cable retreated into the darkness.
"Is it gone?" said the trainer, who had just gotten up.
Ash didn't have enough confidence in his intimidation skills to think so. His claws shone, his muscles tensed, adrenaline in his blood.
"Der..." he warned his trainer.
The false pokemon's scales trembled. It was as if they were sensing the air, looking for any pressure anomalies that might alert the reptile to danger.
"Cha!" he shouted and ran to his friend.
Serena didn't expect her pokemon to mow down her legs with a shoulder strike. She fell forward as the cable sliced through the air, aiming for where the girl had been seconds before.
"Der?"
Serena winced; she'd scraped the palms of her hands, and her knees couldn't have been in any better shape. However, the arcs of electricity jumping between the curved jaws told her that her fate could have been much worse.
"Chhhh..." the reptile growled.
His flame had intensified and he held his arm in front of his trainer's face, making it clear that he forbade anyone to approach her. Serena remained on her knees, not daring to stand up completely. Execpt that she was the trainer, she couldn't just stand back and let a young pokemon fend for itself.
"Use Slash!" she commanded.
The tube twisted and snapped as Ash's claws dug into the rubber. The latex sheath wriggled, trying to free itself from the parasite that was hurting it.
"Charmander! Don't stand there!"
But even though he was being jerked around, the fake pokemon's claws remained stuck in the rubber. I'm going to throw up, the former human blushed.
"Charmander!" the frightened girl screamed.
Ash noticed that the rope in front of him had bent enough to allow the claw to turn toward him. It approached the pokemon like a seviper whose tail had been grabbed, forgetting that it still had its fangs. Only, this beast was producing lightning and was determined to strike the insolent one on the spot.
"Leave him alone!" Serena shouted angrily, pulling a pokeball out of her pocket.
"Sonicboom."
A silver wave cut the cable cleanly. Ash fell, gasping as he felt the sheath crush his stomach, it was heavier than he thought. Serena came quickly to free him and held him close. Too close! the former human panicked as he felt her cheek against his scales.
"The little guy must have been really scared," Wattson remarked.
"Charman!" the fire type denied.
"Your scales..." the girl said.
Indeed, the normally orange pokemon had turned bright red. At this rate, he was in danger of turning into a fluorescent lamp.
"Plu?" he suddenly heard.
Ash noticed the two pokemons he had helped earlier behind the leader's legs.
"What are you doing here?" Serena exclaimed.
"Charman, Charmander?" the reptile said in the same tone.
The ears of both monsters dropped in unison, their hands clasped and their heads bowed in apology.
"I asked them the same question," Wattson sighed. "They're good kids, they thought they were helping us by coming."
The champion had bent down to stroke their heads, but it was easy to see the concern he felt for the pocket monsters on his face. Wattson turned to another pokemon floating in the air: three gray orbs stuck together, moving their arms like magnets, each had a giant white eye that they coordinated to always stare at the same point.
"Magneton, I'm counting on you to find the other wounded," the man asked as he approached the unfortunate electabuzz.
"Min!"
"Yes, you two can help us as well," the old man smiled.
"Wait! You still haven't explained what that thing was," Serena interrupted.
"We'll discuss that later. For now, we managed to make him run away, so we have to use it to..."
A metallic scream startled the leader. Electricity leaked from his pokemon's body and headed into the darkness, as if absorbed by an unseen force.
"Magneton! Get out of the way!"
"Magn..." the pokemon moaned, unable to move.
Wattson called his friend back to the safety of his pokeball. Two cables twisted in front of him, their pliers snapping in victory.
"That's enough! You're going to use your fiber optics and see who you're attacking, you stupid machine!" grumbled Wattson.
The clamps stopped moving and focused on the man who had just spoken. A whirring sound was heard, and then a low, garbled voice began to recite:
"Emergency Protocol. RequeZzzt personnel to proceed to secure areaZzz."
"And for what reason?" Wattson interjected with a frown.
"Ah ah ahZzz! Central malfunction."
This bold pseudo-laugh that tried to imitate a human tightened the leader's jaw.
"I want more details," the old man growled.
"My deaZzz Wattson, let's not get excited. The power plant has a Zzzlight malfunction."
This time it was a deep, honeyed voice. The machine went through every possible tone of its interface.
"I think you're the one with the malfunction," the old man scoffed.
"My circuitZzz are fine. Power plant malfunction."
"And I tell you, it is time for you to reconnect your circuits!" the exasperated gym leader shouted. "This will prevent you from attacking innocent pokemons."
"Setting up the backup system to ensure electrical power needZzz."
"You've got to be kidding me!" the leader shouted.
"Go to the safe areaZzz"
The pincers lit up and shot a bolt of lightning that narrowly missed the old man.
"Wattson?" he heard the girl hiss nervously.
"Let's do what he says for now."
"He?"
"The I.A. of New Mauville," the old man growled.
Serena glanced at her reptile, which seemed ready to return to battle. She stood in front of the young monster in anticipation of what he might do, then asked the leader:
"Do you have a plan?"
"I'll think of one," Wattson replied, hoisting the electabuzz onto his shoulders.
"And the others?"
"For now, let's help the ones we can."
Serena noticed the old inventor's pained face. He tried not to look at the other injured monsters, or he might do something completely stupid.
He left. Amidst the moans of the electric monsters, the cries for help. The yellow fur warmed his back as he promised himself to save them.
"Charman! Der!" the reptilian shouted, angry at the abandonment of the pokemons.
Serena crouched down and blocked Ash's mouth, preventing him from saying anything more.
"If he doesn't act, it's for us too," the girl whispered into the reptile's ear.
"Der..." the fake pokemon growled.
"I know. But even if it's to save the others... I don't want you to get hurt," she admitted.
But he didn't care. And anyway, he was free to decide what to do with his body!
"Charmander," she begged.
Ash clenched his hand on his arm. When she gave him that look...
"Charman," he admitted to himself.
It was necessary to go down another floor to reach the area indicated by the computer. Serena still had the unpleasant feeling of being spied on, but now she knew where it came from. The mechanical arms popped out of the walls from time to time, snapping their claws as they approached the electric monsters in the group. But Wattson was standing in front of them, and his look was enough to stop the machine from going any further.
Many questions ran through the old man's mind as he walked. Yesterday everything had been fine and today the AI was having a teenage crisis. What had the computer scientists been doing while he was gone? Especially since Wattson always had his Xtransceiver with him, so it wasn't hard to reach him.
They had arrived. The champion didn't dare open the door, anxious to know if all the workers were safe and sound. But he would not know that until he pushed the door open. Wattson stepped inside and was immediately dazzled. This room, unlike the entire complex they had passed through, still had the whitish light of the fixtures.
The old man heard his first name, an orchestral exclamation that mixed different tones and pitches with relief as a climax. His employees surrounded him, but all the old man could see was a chaotic array of colored eyes. They were there, they were all there, and there were even few pokemons with them.
"It's good to see you," the old man laughed, covering his watery eyes.
A chill ran through the entire group of workers. They looked at each other, not knowing if they should tell their boss. Wattson's laughter stopped. A young technician, probably the newest member of the group, was pushed forward. He looked at his elders in distress, but no one came to his aid.
"Tabi is gone," he said in a weak voice.
The leader ran his hand mechanically through his beard. He knew exactly what everyone was thinking, but could the AI he had created really have...
"Maybe Magnet killed him."
Wattson glared at the technician who had just spoken. Did he know anything about subtlety? In any case, he had succeeded, everyone was discussing who would be next. And the young trainer he had brought with him was giving him a frightened look.
"Calm down," Wattson ordered, clapping his hands. "For now, he's just disappeared. Maybe he's trapped in another room than ours."
"But all the staff is gathered here except him," observed a man in a light shirt. "And you saw what he did to the pokemons."
The inventor lowered his head. He didn't need to be reminded that he'd had to leave many of his friends behind.
"If Magnet really had some... bad tendencies toward humans, I think a lot more people would be missing," the old man analyzed.
The reasoning was sound, and people preferred that version anyway. So everyone agreed and concluded that their colleague was stuck somewhere else. Wattson huffed, all the better if the others believed him, it would avoid panic.
"Watt. Can you tell me what happened?" called Wattson.
A dark-haired man with round glasses emerged from the group of men and women. His skin was pale and he looked uncomfortable talking to the champion.
"So?" encouraged the specialist in electrical types.
Watt nodded that he didn't want everyone to hear their conversation. The old inventor sighed, his assistant was too formal.
"The others have a right to know, too," the leader said.
Serena sat on one of the beds in the room. The machine could have put them in a more comfortable place than this kind of hangar with dilapidated walls and a few dingy beds. Besides, the air conditioner was making a racket worthy of an exploud band.
While Serena bemoaned the state of the room, which was supposed to be the employees' rest and relaxation room, the discussion between Wattson and Watt intensified. With each answer, it was a veritable torrent of technical and computer gobbledygook, much of which the young girl could not make sense of.
Serena thought about the missing person again. What if the man was right? Could the A.I. announce in its metallic voice that it was going to make them all disappear at once? She reached into her coat pocket to make sure Charmander's pokeball was still there. She hoped that the ability of these objects to protect monsters was real.
The fire pokemon in her lap was not as worried. He kept its arms crossed and his tail stroking Serena's thigh as he focused on the two men's discussion.
"Do you understand anything?" the trainer asked.
It was the fire pokemon's stomach that answered with a gurgle. Ash put his hands on his belly and groaned.
"I must have some food left for you," Serena reassured him.
"Charman!" Ash said happily as she handed him some food.
Plusle and Minun had approached, sniffing the reptile's food with envy.
"Der," he suggested, cutting his doughnut into three pieces.
The electric pokemons thanked him, but no sooner had they taken a bite than they spat the food out with their tongues.
"Mander?" The shapeshifter didn't understand.
Ash took a bite to see if the doughnut was as bad as the two brothers let on. But no, he found it very good.
"I don't think they can handle tamato berries," Serena explained as she handed the little monsters her bottle.
Ash looked at his doughnut and noticed that it was topped with red jam. If he had been human, the spiciness of the berry would have made him spit flames. But in his new form, the filling seemed as sweet as honey.
"I wonder if they'd like Pancham's food," Serena mused as she rummaged through her bag.
"Why don't you try this," suggested an employee who had just approached her.
The metal box she held in her hand, with a yellow and black acronym on the label, immediately won the favor of the electrical types. But there was one more stomach to feed. Serena blushed as her tummy complained about being left out.
"I think I have something for you, too," smiled the woman, who soon returned with a plastic tray.
Serena smiled at the employee. It wasn't homemade food, but the girl wasn't going to be picky.
"We're lucky Magnet didn't cut the power to our break rooms."
The Kalosian pulled on the burning plastic wrap and smoke billowed from the dish. She was aware now that she was starving, and the fatigue was not helping.
"Magnet?" the girl asked, chewing.
"It's the little nickname given to the I.A that Wattson created."
Serena guessed that this thing must be of the same kind as Clemont's robot. But she'd never understood much about all that stuff.
"I'm surprised to see a child as a rescue team," the employee laughed.
Serena was surprised by the playful tone. True, this woman looked younger than the other employees, but those sparkling eyes were more reminiscent of a child just beginning her journey than someone bored by years of repetitive work.
"Let's just say a certain pokemon left us no choice," the trainer grumbled, putting down her fork.
"Der," the interested party tensed.
"How can you blame such an adorable pokemon," the woman smiled, sitting down on the edge of the bed to get a better look at the reptile.
Ash was suddenly uncomfortable as he felt the violet irises staring at him. Instinctively, he moved closer to Serena, so close that he could have melted into her coat.
"My name is Adele. I'm not here to hurt you," the worker tried to reassure him. "And I only use my wrench on the machines," she added with a slight laugh.
Serena stroked the monster's head to calm him down, but Ash couldn't trust this woman.
"You really like your trainer," Adele remarked.
At these words, the shapeshifter moved away from the young girl as if he had just been burned.
"Charmander?" Serena gasped.
"And why didn't you call me sooner!" Wattson suddenly roared, startling everyone in the room.
"I did!" shouted Watt in turn. "Most of the lines were down. You were the only one I could reach, but you didn't answer. And after a few hours, the last communication channels were cut off, and we had no way of contacting the outside world. What the hell did you do, Wattson? You, who usually calls us three times a day to make sure we fed the pokemons at the power plant! You're always ordering us to do useless things, but when we really need you, there's no one there!"
Watt's voice trembled, as if he was about to burst into tears at the responsibility he had to bear alone. Superior or not, the old man had failed him, and he could not forgive that.
"That's what you say, but I think you didn't move and let things get out of hand. You're too slow, Watt. You were always too slow! And it's those poor pokemons who suffer because of your incompetence!" the old man shouted.
The braver employees now held the two men's arms, fearing that things might get out of hand. No one wanted the champion to fall and end up in the emergency room with a femoral neck fracture.
"They're scary," the young coach shuddered.
"Wattson looks confident and relaxed. But as soon as things don't go his way... you see what happens," the mechanic sighed.
Watt had finally freed himself. He grabbed Wattson by the collar and, without daring to look him in the eye, said in a cracked voice:
"I told you I called and..."
"I was doing some repairs on that damn Cycling Road!" the old man defended himself, pulling away from the grip that was twisting his jacket. "And just so you know, I didn't get any calls on my Xtransceiver. Nothing! Nada! Do you understand?"
"So..."
"So don't make me think that you've really tried everything to fix the situation!"
Wattson stomped his feet on the floor like a child. It was a sad sight, and no one knew how to calm him down. Watt opened his mouth before quickly closing it. When his boss was in that state, he knew it was useless to try to calm him down.
"Well! It will take them a whole night in a bar to make up," Adele joked.
"Does this happen often?" the trainer asked.
The woman tucked one of her curls behind her ear. Serena couldn't help but admire the lavender hair. The employee wore it short enough not to be disturbed while she worked, but it didn't detract from her feminine side.
"I've been here less than a year and I've already lost count," she confessed. "But this time, I admit, there's reason to be upset."
"What exactly happened?"
Adele put her hands in the pockets of her blue jumpsuit, looking for a simple way to explain recent events to the girl.
"It turns out that this morning, just as we were about to take the night shift, Magnet forbade us to leave our restrooms. Then he attacked the wild pokemons living in the power plant, claiming that we needed to make up for the energy shortage. Some of them were able to take refuge with us in the restrooms, but..."
Serena shuddered, remembering the injured pokemons they had encountered along the way.
"Der?" Ash remarked, pointing to the still warm tray.
"Magnet doesn't have the ability to cut power to the safe zones. Besides, all the generators were working perfectly. So I don't see where he made up his power shortage."
Adele had stopped talking, watching Serena intently, as if trying to take in every feature of the trainer's face.
"Have we met before?" she asked in a dull voice.
Serena searched her memory, but this woman did not look like anyone she knew.
"I just arrived in Hoenn, so I doubt it," the trainer explained with a nervous smile.
Adele blinked several times before asking:
"What were we talking about?"
"As usual, it's up to me to sort everything out!" Wattson said angrily, interrupting the girls again.
Everyone watched as the old man pulled back a carpet to reveal a code box embedded in the floor. The old man called to Magneton again as he pulled a magnetic card from under his shirt.
"The usual magnetization," he ordered.
He passed the card through a notch in the hardened steel floor while his pokemon inserted one of its magnets into another part of the hollowed metal. Wattson watched the numbers on the box move back and forth for a few minutes before indicating:
"Now."
The pokemon's magnet began to spin. The sound of the locks being unlocked one by one could be heard. All Magneton had to do was rise into the air to open the trap door in front of all the workers.
"Well, well, you're keeping secrets from us," Adele remarked.
"You're not going to do it," sighed the old man.
"And you're going alone?" asked the worker, looking at the gaping wound in the ground.
"I'll be with my pokemons," the leader replied.
Adele closed her eyes in a meditative posture. Finally, she put her arm around the girl's shoulders and offered:
"You should take her with you."
"Certainly not!" the leader immediately objected.
"But you don't know what might happen. And then, basely, she came to help you," the woman remarked.
"She doesn't have the skills to reset an artificial intelligence, as far as I know," Wattson grumbled.
The trainer couldn't disagree. She already had trouble setting her alarm correctly when she had to practice rhyhorn races. Well... maybe she did it on purpose back then.
"I think you'll feel better with someone who doesn't know how to hack a computer in less than five seconds."
Wattson gave his assistant a look of disbelief.
"She knows," Watt admitted.
"You'll have to explain that to me," grumbled the inventor.
"And so?" asked Adele with a pleading look.
"Okay, but only Serena," the old man relented.
This announcement did not exactly please the trainer. Besides, the unpleasant tingling she felt in her back proved that her body was not up for the adventure.
The leader waited beside the gaping hole that Serena decided to go down. But the young girl remained motionless, gazing at the rusty ladder that disappeared into the darkness. Magneton tried to reassure her by using his Flash attack to help her see better, but Serena still wouldn't move.
"Cha!" the fire type encouraged her, placing his foot on the first rung.
"Don't go down alone," Serena scolded him.
Ash huffed in annoyance, but in the end he still clung to the shoulder of his friend.
"Slowly..." the girl whispered. "Don't look down and... Ah!"
The shapeshifter had felt a jolt. Serena took a deep breath and put her foot back on the metal bar.
"You'd better think about moving on," Wattson grumbled directly above her.
Indeed, she had barely ten bars to descend in five minutes.
"Magneton, close the hatch," the leader ordered.
"No!" cried the girl.
Too late, they were plunged into darkness with only the magnetic monster to light them. Serena's hands went numb, and even without seeing the bottom, she was still dizzy.
"Charman, cha!" Ash encouraged her.
"Hmm..." the coordinator groaned.
"What's wrong? " Minun asked, accompanied by his brother.
"You should stay upstairs," Ash advised.
"We're doing better than you," Plusle remarked, sitting quietly on one of the bars directly above the human. "And Wattson was okay with us coming along. "
"That's dan-dangerous," hiccuped the trainer, who had also noticed the two rabbits.
"Serena," Wattson called back, annoyed that things didn't go any faster.
The former human felt sorry for his friend and thought of a solution to calm her down. The two electric guys went up and down the ladder with agility, as if gravity had no hold on them.
I just have to prove to her that it's safe! Ash thought.
Convinced that his idea was brilliant, He let himself slide down the girl's cloak and grabbed the rungs, ready to climb down on his own.
"What are you doing, Charmander?!" the trainer panicked.
"Der, Charm..."
His foot slipped and his hands let go of the precious ladder. Ash screamed and fell into the bottomless pit. Would he end up like this? Without ever being able to fulfill his dream. Without ever seeing his best friend again.
The shock was less severe than expected. The shapeshifter opened his eyes to find himself safely in Serena's arms, held by Magneton.
"That was close," Wattson commented as the steel pokemon led them back to the ladder.
Serena grabbed the rungs forcefully, this time putting her whole arm through them and locking her grip with the inside of her elbow. She didn't say anything, but Ash guessed that she would have scolded him violently if the terror she'd just experienced hadn't rendered her speechless. In any case, he had learned his lesson, his heart pounding in his chest was proof of that.
"Come on, let's not waste any more time," Wattson encouraged.
Ash noticed that his friend had picked up the pace. Her feet hit the bars steadily and with a certain roughness that made the shifter nervous.
After a while, they reached the floor. Ash expected to be scoled, but he was not. The girl took him in her arms without saying a word. He had the impression that she held him tighter than usual.
"Cha..." the monster tried.
"Where are we going?" the trainer asked.
Ash cowered. He didn't know what was worse: being reprimanded by the trainer or being ignored.
"To an area where Magnet has no hold," Wattson avoided the question.
Magneton was back in his pokeball. Serena wished he'd stayed, because the thin blue neon lights that ran along the walls were barely enough to light their way.
Ash didn't move, didn't speak, was even careful not to breathe too hard. Still, She could tell him something, that the atmosphere in these narrow corridors was heavy.
"Are you sulking?" asked Minun, who was jumping around near them.
"I was trying to help her," Ash muttered.
"You succeeded," Minun said.
So much so that Serena had overcome her fear of heights enough to jump into the void to save him. The shapeshifter felt a bitter taste in his mouth.
"Stop bothering him. He feels bad enough about scaring his human," Plusle interjected.
"She's not my human!" Ash shouted.
"But you must be close, since you have the same smell," the red-eared pokemon laughed.
"What?!"
Ash didn't know if the electric monster was laughing at him or telling the truth. However, he had been glued to Serena so much lately that it wouldn't come as a surprise.
"Is something wrong?" the blue one asked.
"That's right. You don't seem to be feeling well," Plusle echoed.
The shapeshifter's head was spinning from the two curious looks. He really had to explain to Serena that they couldn't sleep together.
"Is it the fact that we are in the basement that makes you uncomfortable?" Minun thought he understood.
"Basements... Yes, that must be it," Ash stammered uncertainly.
"What if we use Helping Hand to make him feel better?" Plusle suggested.
"Why not, it won't hurt him," the brother conceded.
The two pokemons jumped up and down, sending sprays of colored sparks from their paws. The brothers spun around, moving their paws in rhythm. Ash was feeling better, but did they really need all that drama to start their attack?
"That's beautiful!" marveled Serena.
The two electric rabbits stopped and looked at the girl with puzzled eyes.
"She's weird," muttered the red one.
"Or she's just messing with us," the blue one sighed.
"It's not Serena's style!" Ash scolded.
The fake-pokemon put his paws in front of his mouth, he had gotten angry again for nothing. The two brothers looked at each other, unconvinced by the compliments.
"Your human is nice, but we know that our movements are... useless," Plusle explained with a little self-deprecating laugh.
"You just need to get stronger!" exclaimed Ash, who hadn't lost his trainer's reflexes.
"We can't evolve," Minun replied, his ears lowered. "Our attacks, our resistance, our speed, any pokemon from this facility could overtake us. We work, we try, the others do the same, and in the end, we are unable to close the gap. And the humans are not wrong."
"Wattson always tells us not to listen to what trainers say and that we have our own qualities. But sometimes I feel like he just says that to cheer us up..." the positive pokemon added.
"And why don't you become Wattson's pokemon?" Ash naively suggested.
The two rabbits looked at each other and sighed heartily.
"We asked him," Minun explained, "but he refused. He said he wasn't the right trainer for us. In other words... even he doesn't want to team up with us. "
"Why do you look sad all of a sudden?" asked Serena, who had just crouched down.
The brothers gasped. Ash looked at her friend, who smiled at them as she said:
"I want you to show me more when we get out of here. I'm sure it will help me in contests"
The rabbits' ears pricked up. They still couldn't believe anyone was interested in their dance. They got back on all fours and ran forward.
"What did I say wrong?" Serena worried as she stood up.
"Charman," the reptile replied with a small smile.
He had tried to motivate the twins from his perspective as trainer and fighter. But sometimes, a different way of looking at things could unblock situations that seemed unsolvable at first glance.
The girl looked at him for a few seconds, ready to ask him for some explanations. But she changed her mind and turned her head away, reminding her pokemon that he was still not forgiven.
They reached the end of the corridor. A heavy metal door cut them off. Contrary to what everyone thought, the leader did not open it with a complicated code, but with a simple key.
"We're in!" Wattson shouted with joy.
He flicked a switch, illuminating the room with a pale glow. Large black boxes hummed, neatly lined up along the walls. It was a veritable field of macro-computers, their faces studded with yellow, blue, and green mini-rectangles that blinked constantly.
"Serena, find a place to sit while I work."
With that, he walked over to the more conventional computers in the middle of the room and started typing. The girl watched him, wondering why she had come. She moved her shoulders a little, she still had that tingling feeling in her back.
"Cha?" the pokemon asked.
She looked at the salamander for a few seconds before following Wattson's advice. The trainer stepped over the bundles of cables that were tangled on the floor, taking care not to touch the large central units. She managed to slip into a corner of the room that had been spared the colonization of the metallic megaliths. The uncomfortable feeling in her back disappeared as she leaned against the wall.
Despite the constant noise, the warmth of the place made the girl sleepy. Ash played with his fingers next to her, still feeling guilty about what had happened earlier. The trainer sighed, she could never blame him for long anyway.
"I wish you'd take better care of yourself," she muttered.
It wasn't the first time she'd said that. The fake pokemon scratched the ground with his foot, not knowing what to say.
"Plus!"
Ash looked up. The two electric rabbits were having fun exploring the place. They didn't hesitate to touch the huge black boxes and even climb on them. The former trainer watched them, suddenly feeling nostalgic. If Pikachu were here, he wouldn't have wasted any time sympathizing with the Hoenn pokemons. Pikachu... was he doing well with Professor Edivo? If only he knew the archaeologist's phone number, he might have some news.
Ash felt a hand on his back, moving back and forth. His shoulders sagged and his tail quivered. He looked up to see only Serena's blue eyes.
"When you have that look, I always get the impression that you are going far away from me," she admitted.
The shapeshifter moved away. He would have to go sometime, because he had his dream to fulfill and the fabulous world of pokemons to discover. And all that is more important than... He looked at the girl again, his heart clenching. I don't want to be held back, he told himself.
Serena had risen, her hand gripping his elbow nervously. She felt that Charmander was rejecting her, excluding her from the bubble he had created for himself. The girl had to walk a little. She went into the uniform forest of black units, leaving the reptile alone in his corner. Adele had told her that Charmander cared about her, but sometimes she doubted it. It was paradoxical, she felt comfortable with him, but she always had the feeling that there was some kind of line she could not cross.
Serena leaned against one of the mainframes, feeling it buzz against her shoulder. If she was defeatist from the start, she would never get anywhere with her fire friend. Even if the pokemon didn't seem to want to open up to her completely, there was no reason to believe that that wouldn't change. Besides, they were only at the beginning of their journey, she couldn't abandon this salamander so quickly. A small smile came to her lips as she remembered the young monster's happy face when he ate what she had prepared for him, or his determined expression when he set a goal. He had a real gift for worrying her, and at the same time, he was so...
Serena pulled back sharply as she felt her shoulder burn. She had been in contact with the fake stone for too long and it was getting hot under the mass of calculations it had to perform. The trainer decided it was time to join her fire reptile. She looked around for the path she had taken, but it was hard to find her way with all those identical black monoliths making a hell of a noise. She swallowed and tried to turn around. But as she walked around one of the giant computers, she found the leader surrounded by a dozen screens. His fingers were moving at full speed on the various keyboards, and his nervous face told the girl nothing of value.
"Are you okay?" she dared to ask.
The man didn't take his eyes off the computer, he didn't want to be embarrassed while he was concentrating. Especially since all he had to do was disable a few firewalls. Realizing that there was no point in insisting, the girl prepared to go back in search of his lair when a tiny shadow running across the ceiling caught her eye. She squinted to get a better look. But the little ball was already at the door, leaving the room and heading into the hallway, making her lose all hope of finding out what it was all about.
"How did you get access to this computer?" the scientist said, getting up from his seat.
Serena noticed that the screens now showed only one eye with a pupil that moved in all directions.
"Danger detected. Attempt to eliminate. Zzz. Error. Calculating newZzz data. Zzz. Solution found. Initializing solution."
"I thought we were safe here," Serena worried.
"Even if he could access this computer, he has no control over it. He can only watch me apply the patch."
"But he said he found a solution..."
Ash waited in his corner, not having much to do but watch Plusle and Minun standing on the black machines. But there was something strange. They had their ears pricked up and were looking at the ceiling. That's when the fake pokemon also heard a terrible noise coming from above, it had become so loud that even humans could hear it.
"Don't tell me..." Wattson squealed. "Everybody! We're getting out of here! Now!"
But Serena continued to stare at the ceiling, not understanding what was going on.
"What the hell are you doing?! Stop staring at the ceiling and run! And that goes for you too!" he shouted at the rabbits.
"Charmander," Serena disintegrated as she turned to where she had left him.
Ash had stood up to listen better to the creaking above his head. He had thought he heard Wattson screaming, but with all the noise of the units, he had been unable to hear anything. And then, at that moment, the champion had a tendency to get excited over little things.
Dust fell on the fake pokemon's nose, making him sneeze. He rubbed his nose before suddenly stopping. Dust? while the ceiling was made of metal... He looked up and noticed a small crack where the silica grains were leaking out. It was spreading, and the noise was getting louder.
Ash started to run, but the plastic wires that wrapped around his legs slowed him down. The computers kept whirring, not caring what was happening. The former human pulled the last wire from around his tail. Now he could... A metal plate fell close to him. He watched in horror as the ceiling bulged, dislocated, as if something was pushing at the suspended panels.
Then a veritable deluge fell upon him: first the shiny plates, then the large pipes, the torn wires, the metal angles, the concrete. The computers all around exploded, creating a veritable firework of electrical sparks and flames. The reptile coughed from the smoke and dust, wondering when his turn would come. He stepped back just in time to avoid an object that shattered against the already dameged machines. Ash trembled, it was close.
"Charmander!" he heard Serena's panicked voice.
The pokemon went around the obstacle. Serena's eyes were red, and she did her best not to slip on the debris.
"Charmander!" she yelled when she saw her friend.
She hurried to him, relieved to see him safe and sound. But the debris continued to fall, and the last ramparts of the ceiling that held most of it would soon give way.
"I'll carry you," she warned him.
In any case, she had not waited to finish her sentence to take him in her arms. Ash did not see the others. Had they already left? The shifter was tossed around as his friend ran, and the cracking continued. They would probably be the last.
"Hurry!" Wattson yelled from the doorway.
Serena put all her energy into the last sprint, but it wasn't enough. The exit was blocked by a pile of debris before they could get out.
"No!" Serena cried in horror as she took a few steps back.
A thunderous noise. Ash looked up to see a compact pile of concrete and metal falling right on top of them. Serena's hands clenched, unable to move, frozen in fear.
"CHA!" Ash shouted to get her friend to react.
Nothing to do. She remained stunned, her eyes frozen on the avalanche of concrete.
Ash's blood burned, his mind went blank. He twisted to free himself from the arms that protected him, leapt to the ground and swung his tail over his trainer's legs. Serena screamed in surprise and pain as she slumped to the ground.
The reptile's throat filled with flames, his blood pulsing in his arteries. He released the pressure and felt his feet sink into the ground as the torrent of flames rose to engulf the threat. They consumed the inert material. Concrete and metal hissed through the air. Serena could see her monster putting all his energy into saving them, but she knew it would not last, that the flames would soon disappear and release the debris on them.
Ash couldn't take it anymore, his mouth was burning too much. He knelt down, his flames dying, nothing left but the smoke coming from the corner of his lips.
Serena screamed.
Was she afraid? He wanted to assure her that everything would be all right. He wanted... to keep traveling with you. His face burned again as he opened his mouth toward the rockslide. A little more, just a little more.
One last explosion, a hiss, and everything went silent.