Friday, March 19, 2004
Betrayal
"Ow!"
"Misty, what's wrong?
"Nothing," the red-head replied. "Just stubbed my toe on that tree root."
"Watch your footing around here," Brock warned. "It's gotten better recently, but the path is really out of repair and this whole area is scattered with those pits Team Rocket always digs." Brock was tall, and his short brown hair stuck out in all directions. He had a square face that belied his playfullness.
"You sure you're all right?" Ash asked in concern, bending down. "You didn't sprain your ankle or anything?"
"I'm fine!" Misty insisted. "C'mon, let's go." She got up and brusked off her knees, running a hand through her hair to pull it back out of her face. The trio of friends set out again, accompanied as always by their assorted pokemon. Walking slightly slower than her companions, Misty soon found herself a f ew feet behind them.
Brock hadn't really changed much in the past five years, she noted. He was still the same hopeless romantic, splitting his time between watching out for his friends, asking every pretty girl he met to marry him, and realizing his dream of becoming a pokemon breeder. He already had something of a reputation.
Ash, on the other hand, was barely recognizeable. He had sprouted about a foot and a half, so that rather than being the shortest of the three he now towered above Brock. His hair was much the same, just longer. The cap he had worn for years was gone, and his silky black locks floated freely in the breeze. The jacket was gone, too. His arms were long and muscular, but streamlined. He had the body of a swimmer. The color, too; he had gone from a crystalline white to a deep bronze. He had become any girl's dream.
Well, almost. His eyes were no longer the wide orbs of innocence they had been; now they were narrowed, hard black diamonds that glittered suspiciously at the world. Around Brock and Misty he was the same as ever, cheerful and carefree and willing to do anything for anyone, but the instant anyone else came near he fell silent, keeping his gaze on the ground and refusing to meet anyone's eyes. His trademark competetive spirit was gone. He still traveled with his friends, but never in the last three years had he entered any sort of contest; he left that to Misty. (Brock entered on occasioon, but only rarely. He was not by nature a very competetive person.) Almost no one could understand this total transformation, Professor Oak and Ms. Ketchum herself included, but Misty and Brock knew.
He had been betrayed.
Around New Years three years previously, Misty and Brock had elected to spend a few weeks' vacation in a small, almost unheard-of village as a sort of vacation. Being the energetic dreamer he was, Ash took the opportunity to make journey to a small PokeCenter a few days' journey away; he had wanted to visit it for years, but they had never passed anywhere near it. Misty and Brock saw him off without concern. It was not unusual for him to run off on some side trip of his own while they rested. He seemed to have unlimited energy.
But when the week dragged on into two weeks, then two and a half, then three, and there was no word from Ash or the PokeCenter, they began to worry. So they set out after him.
He wasn't too hard to find. A few miles off the trail there was a rather large clearing, and the smell of smoke hung heavy in the air. On the far side of the clearing lay Ash, surrounded by crushed Pokeballs, covered in bad burns, and nearly dead. An unconscious Bulbasaur was stretched out next to him, and they could see by the tracks in the muddy ground that it had dragged itself from the far side of the clearing. There were no other Pokemon to be found.
They carried their friend back to the village and turned him over to the local Nurse Joy, who didn't sound too optimistic. He was in a coma, his burns were bad enough on their own, and he had been two and a half weeks without food; his chances weren't good. Misty and Brock resigned themselves to the worst.
Then one night a week later, while Nurse Joy, Brock, and Misty were eating dinner in the only restaurant in the village, Ash disappeared. His clothes and backpack were gone, and several empty Pokeballs were found missing, as well. It took several hours for them to realize that Bulbasaur, too, had vanished.
A search was organized. Huge storms terrorized the region, making travel diffcult and long-distance communication impossible; Professor Oak and Ms. Ketchum had no way of knowing what was going on. For two weeks, search parties scoured the village and the surrounding forest, but in vain. Three weeks after his disappearance, the search parties were recalled, and he was proclaimed dead.
"With those burns, there's no way he could survive in fhe forset," Nurse Joy said. Her voice was cracked with grief.
The village mourned; they hadn't know him very well, but Ash was one of those people who was well-liked wherever he went. News of his death leaked out to nearby towns. Misty and Brock went back to Pallette Town to tell Ms. Ketchum and the Professor in person.
Then, one month and two days after his disappearance, Nurse Joy called the Ketchum residence. The house was empty; they were at the funeral. It wasn't until late that evening that they heard the recorded message. Ash was alive.
Midway through his journey to the PokeCenter, Team Rocket had made their usual appearance, "Surrender now" speech and all. The battle had been short and fierce, and as usual Ash won. But just before Pikashu's Thunderbolt could blast them sky-high, a very famiiar Pokemon had stepped forth. Charizard.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"Charizard!" Ash exclaimed, stunned but delighted. "What are you doing here?" After the Silver Conference, he and the flying fire-type had spent a lot of time together, and they had formed a deep bond that allowed them to commucate clearly. (He had the same kind of bond with Pikachu and several other of his pokemon.)
Charizard made no answer, just stood there and stared. Slowly, wide grins spread over Team Rocket's faces.
"Charizard? What's wrong, buddy?" Ash stepped forward, Pikachu back on his shoulder, and walked toward the winged dragon.
Said winged dragon responded with a furious Flamethrower that knocked Pikachu away and threw Ash to the far side of the clearing.
"Cha...Charizard, what...why?" Ash forced the pain away, ignoring the flames still licking at his clothes, and stumbled forward again. He didn't make it far.
"Today, you see," Jessie said with a smirk on her face as Ash crashed into a tree and landed heavily on the ground, breathless, "we have no intentions of losing. And Charizard here is going to help us with that. Charizard, take down that Pikachu!"
Ash's memory of the next few minutes was fogged; all he could remember was fire and lightning, and pain. Bulbasaur had somehow getten out of his Pokeball, but he was weak against the fire-type, and the first direct hit put him down and out for the count. Pikachu was locked in a dangerous dance with the much larger Pokemon, scoring an occasional hit but taking quite a few blows himself. They were fairly evenly matched, and Team Rocket knew it.
"We don't have time for this!" Meowth cried, exasperated. "Charizard, get over there by the twerp!" The fire Pokemon obeyed.
Pikachu saw this and hesitated. What was Charizard, his one-time friend, doing obeying Team Rocket? That didn't make sense! And why was the Meowth telling Charizard to go stand by the master - oh. That was why. Pikachu knew that if he attacked Charizard now, with the dragon so close to the master, he would attack the master as well, and he might hurt the poor master. The master was already burned. The shock from the electricity might even kill him. He couldn't attack, not if it would hurt the master. He would rather be taken. The mouse Pokemon's ears drooped.
"Pi...Pikachu," Ash whispered, his vision blurring back into focus for a second. "Pikachu...what's wrong..." Their eyes met for the briefest of instants, Ash's full of pain and worry but not yet beaten, not yet subdued, and Pikachu's dark with grief.
//Cannot hurt the master,// Pikachu said in the language of the pokemon. Ash understood him clearly; the words meant nothing to him, but he could feel the meanings as they ran through Pikahu's mind. //Charizard...Charizard is too close, I cannot hurt the master... Must not hurt the master... Will be taken, first, but cannot hurt the master!//
"Do it, Pikachu," Ash urged as loudly as he could - which wasn't very loudly. "Don't give up - aah!" Charizard had stepped on his leg. The dragon Pokemon heard it's former master's pained cry and hesitated for an instant, but then let out another Flamethrower at Pikachu. The electric-type dodged and, acting purely on reflex, aimed a Thunderbolt in Charizard's direction; the dragon dodged and the lightning stuck Ash directly. The master gave a small whimper of agony. Then something dark and stifling slipped over Pikachu's head, and he knew no more.
Pikachu! Pikachu, look out! Ash tried to cry. But the effects of the Thunderbolt were too strong, and he was paralyzed, unable to do anything as James caught the loyal Pokemon in a bag and slung it over his shoulder. He caught a final glimpse of Jessie's gleeful countenance and heard someone say "Flamethrower!" and then everything went black.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Black. Heavy, hot, black. Oppressive. Magmar midnight. Thick. Couldn't breathe.
Wait...there! A breath of air! And again. The soft caress of oxygen.
No, not oxygen. A sound. A voice. Words...
//Master? Is the master all right?//
Ash pried open his eyes with a superhuman effort. Red orbs stared into his, red surrounded by blue and green. It took a moment for his mind to put the pieces together.
"Bu...Bulbasaur?" he murmured.
"Saur!" //The master is injured!//
"I'm...fine, Bulbasaur," Ash lied, giving the Pokemon a small smile. "Just tired. But...Charizard, and Team Rocket...what happened to them?" His vision blurred again.
"Saur, Bulba-bulbasaur...saur!" //They got away.// The Pokemon's "voice" was sad. //And they took the master's other pokemon... Broke the ball-homes, they did.//
"They took...all my pokemon?" Ash repeated, disbelieving. With an effort he moved his hand and felt his belt, where each Pokeball would be clipped; nothing. A bit of melted plastic here and there - the clips - but no balls. A gentle Vine reached out of the plant on Bulbasaur's back and scooped something off the ground, then dropped it into Ash's limp hand. It was a few shattered bits of plastic. Red and white; one of his Pokeballs. A crystalline tear formed at the edge of Ash's eye. He knew he was going to die, there was no question about that - already he was too weak to move more than a few inches at a time, and every word he spoke just magnified the feeling - but he had planned to use the last of his energy freeing his pokemon. Team Rocket had stolen that from him.
"Saur?"
Ash gave another weak smile. "Bulbasaur...you know you're one of my best friends, buddy."
"Saur!"
"But you can't be my Pokemon forever," the young trainer whispered, reaching out and running his hand over the Pokemon's rubbery skin. "You're free now, Bulbasaur. You can go wherever you want. You're free..."
Ash's voice faded and his eyes closed and his hand fell to the ground, limp. Bulbasaur nudged him slightly with a Vine, but the master didn't wake. Slowly, so slowly, Bulbasaur slipped into the dark pit of oblivion.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Voices. Familiar voices. Voices he knew and trusted. But...who, exactly? He couldn't remember. He couldn't remember anything, except the pain and the black...
Something changed. The voices were closer. They were right next to him. Something wet fell on his cheek - what was the word again? Oh, yes...a tear. It was a tear. From one of the voices. The tear slipped down and into his too-dry mouth; he could barely make out the salty taste.
"Ash! Ash, are you okay?" Then, quieter, less urgent, "What d'you suppose could have happened?"
A pause. "I don't know. Come on, we should get him - and Bulbasaur - back to the village. They don't look so good."
There was a peculiar sensation, as if he was floating; the ground was far below him now. He blinked his eyes open for an instant. There was a flash of brown, and of red, but the light was too intense and his eyes closed once more of their own accord. Black.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Ash's return to consciousness was slow and excruciatingly painful. It took a few minutes to remember the reason. It took a few minutes longer to remember that Team Rocket had all of his pokemon - Pikachu included. It didn't, however, take very long to fight back the pain enough to get out of bed, retrieve his backpack and grab some empty Pokeballs from the tray, and limp toward the door.
"Saur?"
"Bulbasaur? Is that you?" Ash noted with distaste that his voice was still weak. He would have to hide that if he was to have any hope of tricking Team Rocket into giving him his pokemon back.
"Saur! Bulbasaur!" //The master should not be up! Where is the master going?//
"To find the others," Ash replied grimly. "I'm not leaving them in the hands of Team Rocket."
//The master cannot go alone! The master is still weak. He must wait for his friends!//
Ash shook his head. "No, Bulbasaur. There's no time to lose. I have to go find Pikachu and the others, and I have to go now."
//Then...I am coming too.//
"You can't! You're in almost as bad a shape as I am!"
This time, Bulbasaur's "voice" was grim. //If the master can go, I can. They are my friends too.//
Ash hesitated, then sighed. "All right. Come on, I'll carry you in my backpack. You can't walk that far." Retracing his steps, the black-haired boy carefully helped his Pokemon climb into his brown backpack and settled the straps on his shoulders as comfortably as he could (which wasn't very, considering the huge burns over most of his body), then started once more for the door.
I'm coming, Pikachu!
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"Piiipikachu! Pika!"
"Now, now, Pikachu, threats never did no one no good," Meowth said in Human, shaking his claw at the mouse-type. He turned to Jessie and James. "Oh, the boss is going to love this!"
"We've been trying for years to catch that PIkachu," James said gleefully. "And now we've finally done it!"
"And all it took was a little help from one of the twerp's former friends," Jessie added. Her voice was confident, proud. "I think we all owe Charizard a big thank-you, what do you think, James?"
"By golly, I think you're right!"
"And I know just the way to do it, too - by making him a member of Team Rocket!" The last, of course, was Meowth. "How's about it, big guy?"
"Char...char," the dragon said, shaking it's head.
"Come on, Charizard," James encouraged. "It's fun!" But the dragon was stubborn.
"Fine, then. We'll just have to make it join. James?"
"Weezing, go!"
"Go, Arbok!"
"Char!"
"Pika!"
"Poison sting!"
Charizard gave a bellow of pain and rage as Arbok's darts struck home.
"Piiiika!"
"Hey, leave him alone!"
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Ash stumbled into Team Rocket's latest lair looking disheveled but angry. His eyes were alight with a strange fire; Team Rocket, who had seen the twerp pretty mad before, were suddenly cringing before the onslaught of his rage. Even Pikachu looked more than a little worried.
Then again, Pikachu knew just how tired Ash was, and how much pain he was in, and he knew that a single attack by Charizard or even one of Team Rocket's pokemon would be enough to knock him down permanently. So he had quite a bit to be worried about.
Said dragon Pokemon realized this, too. But unfortunately, it didn't have the same loyalty as Pikachu; a burning fury welled up inside its mind, and it moved to attack. Ash stumbled to the side and managed to avoid the brunt of the attack, but the flames still licked at his clothes and he gritted his teeth. Charizard beat his wings, creating a huge gust of wind, and Ash fell to his knees.
"Piiiiika!" The mouse Pokemon bounded forward, ignoring the fire-type completely, and ran toward its master. But before it could get there Charizard let loose another powerful blast of fire, and it struck Ash dead-on; the young trainer let out a scream of anguish and collapsed.
"Pikaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" //Nooooooooooo!// The electric-type took a flying leap and landed next to its master's face. Ash gave a pitiful moan.
"Pikachu...buddy...I'm sorry... It wasn't supposed to...end like this..." Ash raised his head slightly and looked at his Pikachu, sorrow in his eyes. "We made a great team, you and I," he murmured. "But now...you gotta free the others, you got that? Free the others. Get them away from Team Rocket. Save yourselves...Bulbasaur's here, he'll help..." There was a quiet sound of agreement, and Bulbasaur squirmed his way out of Ash's backpack, being careful the whole time to stay out of Team Rocket's sight. It wouldn't do to be found out so early.
//But the master - //
Ash gave a weak cough and grimaced slightly as another wave of pain washed over him. "Don't worry about me," he said. "Just help the others and get out of here... Please, Pikachu..." His eyes were pleading, now, wrestling with Pikachu's and slowly, so slowly, winning, "just save yourselves... Do it as a favor...to me..."
"Piiika..."
"Char!"
Pikachu jumped away just as another Flamethrower struck the ground right next to him, missing Ash's now-unconscious form by mere millimeters. Bulbasaur slunk back into the shadows, knowing that PIkachu would call when it needed help. Pikachu was by far the most able of all of the master's pokemon at battling without direction, without hope. It was up to him now.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"Nurse Joy?"
"Yes, Rosaline? What is it?"
"Do you have a group of wild pokemon coming in today?"
"No... No, they're not due until next week. Why?"
"Because....well, just look out the window." Nurse Joy got up and dusted off her apron, then walked to the window that overlooked the road. Sure enough, there was a rather large crowd of weary pokemon stumbling their way up the path. She noticed with trepidation that many of them looked rather badly hurt, especially the types weak against fire.
"How strange," the nurse muttered. "Rosaline, I get the feeling they'll be needing quite a bit of help - could you go get Chancey and round up all of the assistants you can?"
"Sure, Nurse Joy. I'll be back in a moment." Rosaline left, and Nurse Joy leaned up against the window, watching the strange parade of pokemon wind their way through the grasses. She waited unti lthey were very near, then walked to the door to welcome them.
"Hello there," she smiled, holding the door open. "You look tired; why don't you all come in and - "
"Pi...pika?" From its spot hidden behind a larger Pokemon, a small Pikachu came forward, limping badly and looking downright exhausted. "Piiiiiika..."
"Wait a second," Nurse Joy breathed. "Aren't you...Ash's Pikachu?"
"Saur! Bulbasaur!" A Bulbasaur shouldered its way forward through the crowd, joined an instant later by a Bayleaf. Both had their Vines out and seemed to be dragging something. It took a minute for the nurse to realize that the something was a makeshift stretcher, and that the motionless, frighteningly pale form on the stretcher was Ash Ketchum.
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It took a month and a half for Ash to stir from this second coma, and it was nearly a year before he would speak again. He grew distant from both his friends and his pokemon; he refused to see his morher or Professor Oak. (Misty let them into his room at night while he slept, but he had never found out about this.) His self-imposed silence wasn't broken until after a harrowing misadventure involving a sudden downpour and a very tall cliff nearly tore Pikachu from his grasp forever. The shock snapped him out of the black depths of his depression, and slowly he began the return to normal. He had made Misty and Brock swear never to tell either his mom or Professor Oak.
He still bore the scars, Misty knew, and in more ways than one. If you looked closely enough, you could still make out the feathery lines of the scars where his burns had long since healed. He avoided people as much as possible and had yet to aquire a new Pokemon, concentrating instead on strengthening the bonds between himself and the pokemon who already called him a friend. Most notably, his competetive spirit was completely and totally gone.
"C'mon, Brock, Ash, I'll race you to the top of the next hill!" Misty said, sprinting forward. They had played this game for years, the person in the rear challenging the others to a race; it was as second-nature to them as carrying Pikachu or Tokepi.
"You're on," Brock answered, breaking into his somehow jerky but still very fast gait that she knew so well.
Ash just grunted. "You guys go on ahead," he called after them, "I'll catch up in a bit..." In seconds, the red-head and the brunette were gone, and the young trainer was left with only Pikachu for company.
"Pika?"
"Nah, no race today," Ash answered. "I'm not in the mood."
"Piiiika..." //You're never in the mood anymore.//
Ash snorted. "More truth than fiction in that, buddy. I don't know, maybe I'd feel better if I could just go somewhere else for a while, start over with a clean slate...y'know what I mean?" The PIkachu nodded slightly. "Oh, well," Ash sighed, "not much I can do about it now." Pikachu expected him to speed up, to catch up with the others, but to its surprise the black-haired teen sat down heavily and stared listlessly at the ground.
"What'd'ya think, Pikachu?" he continued in a depressed tone. "I mean, Charizard obviously thought I screwed up. Maybe he's right. Maybe I'm nothing but a big fat failure. Maybe I should just leave, go away and let everyone else live their life like they were meant to."
"Pika! Pikapi!"
Another snort. "Right. So this is what's supposed to be? Brock and Misty are supposed to be wandering around aimlessly for the rest of their lives, just so that I'm not alone, instead of following their dreams? Charizard's supposed to be with Team Rocket? Well, I'm not too sure. I bet none of that was supposed to happen. I was never supposed to become a trainer." His voice fell, dark and dispirited. "I probably wasn't even supposed to get you."
"Pika!" Pikachu's "voice" was filled with hurt, and the electric-type protested lourly and vehemently for several minutes. Ash just looked at him sadly.
"You know it as well as I do, buddy," he said when Pikachu finally quieted down. "I mean, just look at the facts. I showed up late, almost too late. You hated me from the first. I bet you didn't even know that there was another potential trainer only a few seconds behind me, did you? It was a girl, a really pretty, really smart girl who already knew a lot about electric types...you'd've liked her a lot, I'm sure." Ash hung his head. "I saw her last time we were in Pallette Town. She's the cashier at the restaurant, doesn't own a single Pokemon... How bad did I screw up her destiny, Pikahu? And how many other people are there like her, people whose futures are ruined all because of me?"
"Piiika..."
Shaking his head, Ash stood and lifted his Pokemon to his shoulder. "We should get going. Misty and Brock are probably wondering where we are." Pikachu gripped his jacket tightly so it wouldn't fall off, and then Ash set off down the trail in his long even lope. Lengthy strides ate up the ground, and it only took a moment to reach his friends. He wasn't even winded.
Brock, however, was. And in a rather large amount of pain.
"Not the ear! Not the ear!"
"I think you and I need to go have a talk, Brock," Misty was saying, her face flushed with anger. "Waaaaaay over there."
"Uh, guys? What's going on - oh." Ash fell silent when he suddenly realized that there was a third person there, a girl he didn't recognize. She was rather short and had long black hair, rather like his own in color and texture, but instead of sticking out in unmanageable spikes hers fell straight down her back to end in flaring red tips. Long bangs streaked with the same brilliant red covered half her face. Her eyes burned with a fierce light; the same light, Ash knew, that his had once displayed. She was obviously competetive. It takes one, he thought wryly, to know one.
"Ohayoo gozaimasu!" she chirped, holding out her hand. "I'm Teae, but I go by Twitch."
"I'm Ash," he said flatly, shaking her hand and dropping it as quickly as possible.
Twitch glanced him over for a second, a look of concentration passing over her face. "That sounds familiar...I'm sure I've heard of you before. I'm a Fire trainer, by the way - how about you?"
"I, uh, I'm not really a trainer anymore," he said. "And I really didn't have any particular type when I was training. Why?"
"Just curious," Twitch replied, shrugging. Again, there was that look of concentration, visible for only the briefest of instants before it disappeared once more. "Hey, I remember now! We have a mutual friend," she explained in response to the questioning look on his face. "I think you'll remember him. Charizard, come on out!"
"Piiiika!"
"H - hush, Pikachu," Ash whispered hurriedly, taking a surprised step backward. Because standing there in front of him, right behind Twitch the Fire trainer, was his old friend and possibly enemy Charizard.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"Char!"
"Piiipikachu..."
"Chaaaaaaaaaaaaaar!!!"
"What in the world has Pikachu so riled - oh," Misty said, turning and recognizing the problem at once.
"That's Charizard!" Brock exclaimed. "What the hell? Where did it come from?"
"Not important right now," Misty said with gritted teeth, hand flying to her PokeBalls. "Between you and me we can probably take it out before - "
"Right," Brock cut her off, his hand going to his own PokeBalls. "Onix!"
Ash, meanwhile, was not taking such drastic measures. His face had paled and was now drawn with painful memories; he stumbled backwards a few steps in shock.
"Pika!" The little mouse Pokemon leapt forward to land bristling on the ground before its master, perfectly willing to fight to defend Ash's life if necessary. Which it looked like it would be, as Charizard drew himself up for a Flamethrower.
"Charizard, stop that!" Twitch shouted, enraged. "What in flames do you think you're doing?!" Charizard cast a fierce glare at Ash before turning suddenly and winging off to the horizon. Turning back to Ash, the fire trainer's face softened. "You all right?"
"...I'm fine," Ash said flatly when his mind finally returned to the present. "I should go." He held out an arm to Pikachu, who scrambled up and reclaimed his usual perch on the teen's shoulder. Ash turned and nearly fled back down the trail.
"What was up with that?" Twitch asked, watching his retreating back. "Is he scared of fire pokemon or something?"
"Long story," Brock said, coming up behind her. "Onix, return."
"You too, Polywhorl, Staryu," Misty said, recalling her own pokemon. Twitch glanced at them in surprise.
"Why'd you get them out?"
Misty's face turned cold. "We were going to use them to take down that Charizard," she said in a voice just as flat as Ash's had been.
"But why?"
"Because it's tried to kill Ash once before, and there's no guarantee it won't try again." Brock had adopted an identical tone.
"But - Charizard was Ash's Pokemon, wasn't it? It's always going on about what a great trainer Ash was, saying I'm doing everything wrong and that I should do it more like Ash did," Twitch said. "There's no way it hates Ash."
"Well, it does. Come on, we'd better go make sure he's all right - it owuld be just like him to fall down some cliff or something."
Which, of course, is exactly what Ash had done.
"Piiiiiiiiiiiiiikaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
"I know, I know!" Ash shouted, fighting down the feeling of nausea that always came with free-fall. "But yell at me later, okay? Tododyle, I choose you!" The faithful water Pokemon appeared, cheerful as always, dancing in midair. "No time for that now, just aim your Watergun at the ground!" Tododyle complied. With Ash's arms wrapped around Tododyle and Pikachu gripping the master's jacket with its sharp claws, the trio's frighteningly rapid descent slowed and was finally brought under control.
"Good job," Ash said, shaking his head to clear it. Tododyle had done extremely well, dropping them only ten or so feet from the ground; a little fall like that was nothing. "Go ahead and return - I think you're gonna need all the rest you can get. Why does this always happen to me?" His gaze found its way to the very top of the cliff; it was several hundred feet at the least, and no easy climb.
"Pika, pikapika piii," Pikachu chattered angrily.
"Look, Pikachu, I said I'm sorry," Ash sighed. "I know I should watch where I'm going more closely. Especially in the middle of an unfamiliar forest like this. But how was I supposed to know there was a cliff there? Besides, you weren't paying any more attention than I was."
"Pika!"
Ash grinned. "Deny it all you want, you know it's true. But what I said earlier still goes. Survive now, yell later. Besides. what I want to know is, where did that cliff come from? It wasn't there when we came by earlier, I know that."
Now Pikachu just looked worried. He chittered rapidly in Pokemon.
//Don't understand. Master is observant - master knows how to see cliffs. Master has plenty of practice at that,// he added as an afterthought, turning a scornful look on said trainer. //But master is right - this one was not here earlier. And...don't know, it smells different. Strange. Not normal.//
It was Ash's turn to look worried, and he cast a glance at the sky, where he found the answer. "Not normal, you say? Could those rainclouds be the problem?"
High overhead, thick clouds crowded in on each other, jostling for the best position. Lightning cracked through the sky and a huge roll of thunder rent the air. But the concerning part was not the fact that there was a storm - the Master above knew they had been through enough of those to not be bothered by them anymore - it was the fact that the clouds were brilliant green and the lightning was black.
//...//
"I think 'what the hell' just about covers it," Ash muttered; Pikachu agreed.
The hairs on the back of Ash's neck raised, and a chill chased itself up and down his spine. He turned slowly.
"You again."
"Char...."
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"Where could they be?" Misty asked for the seventh time. "We've combed this entire forest!"
Brock shook his head in confusion. "Misty's right, we've looked everywhere. It's like they just disappeared."
"I don't understand it either," Twitch said, but her voice was less than convincing. The brunette and the redhead rounded on her instantly.
"What is it?"
"Well...there is a legend about this place...but it's all just a story," she said hastily, embarassed that she even brought up the point. Misty and Brock exchanged a glance. They had run across - and lived through - enough "legends" to know that they were generally at least based in fact.
"Come on, tell us," Brock urged. "What's this legend about?"
"People around here say that sometimes, travellers with strong emotions just...disappear in here," she said. "A long time ago, this forest belonged to the psychic pokemon. They're all gone now, wiped out by the first human settlers, but their presence remains strong in the deeper parts of the woods - a troubled enough person may actually find himself transported inside his own mind, and never know it. They generally turn up again, once they've faced their problem, but..." Her voice trailed off.
"But?"
"The mind - human or Pokemon - is the most dangerous place possible," Twitch said softly. "A lot of people can't face their fears. They get crushed by their own mind."
-----------------------------
[A/N] Another random moment of inspiration. I'll probably finish it some day; it'd be interesting to see how it turns out, at the very least. We'll see.
Random Quote of the Day:
"Team Rocket's blasting off again!"
- Team Rocket
"Misty, what's wrong?
"Nothing," the red-head replied. "Just stubbed my toe on that tree root."
"Watch your footing around here," Brock warned. "It's gotten better recently, but the path is really out of repair and this whole area is scattered with those pits Team Rocket always digs." Brock was tall, and his short brown hair stuck out in all directions. He had a square face that belied his playfullness.
"You sure you're all right?" Ash asked in concern, bending down. "You didn't sprain your ankle or anything?"
"I'm fine!" Misty insisted. "C'mon, let's go." She got up and brusked off her knees, running a hand through her hair to pull it back out of her face. The trio of friends set out again, accompanied as always by their assorted pokemon. Walking slightly slower than her companions, Misty soon found herself a f ew feet behind them.
Brock hadn't really changed much in the past five years, she noted. He was still the same hopeless romantic, splitting his time between watching out for his friends, asking every pretty girl he met to marry him, and realizing his dream of becoming a pokemon breeder. He already had something of a reputation.
Ash, on the other hand, was barely recognizeable. He had sprouted about a foot and a half, so that rather than being the shortest of the three he now towered above Brock. His hair was much the same, just longer. The cap he had worn for years was gone, and his silky black locks floated freely in the breeze. The jacket was gone, too. His arms were long and muscular, but streamlined. He had the body of a swimmer. The color, too; he had gone from a crystalline white to a deep bronze. He had become any girl's dream.
Well, almost. His eyes were no longer the wide orbs of innocence they had been; now they were narrowed, hard black diamonds that glittered suspiciously at the world. Around Brock and Misty he was the same as ever, cheerful and carefree and willing to do anything for anyone, but the instant anyone else came near he fell silent, keeping his gaze on the ground and refusing to meet anyone's eyes. His trademark competetive spirit was gone. He still traveled with his friends, but never in the last three years had he entered any sort of contest; he left that to Misty. (Brock entered on occasioon, but only rarely. He was not by nature a very competetive person.) Almost no one could understand this total transformation, Professor Oak and Ms. Ketchum herself included, but Misty and Brock knew.
He had been betrayed.
Around New Years three years previously, Misty and Brock had elected to spend a few weeks' vacation in a small, almost unheard-of village as a sort of vacation. Being the energetic dreamer he was, Ash took the opportunity to make journey to a small PokeCenter a few days' journey away; he had wanted to visit it for years, but they had never passed anywhere near it. Misty and Brock saw him off without concern. It was not unusual for him to run off on some side trip of his own while they rested. He seemed to have unlimited energy.
But when the week dragged on into two weeks, then two and a half, then three, and there was no word from Ash or the PokeCenter, they began to worry. So they set out after him.
He wasn't too hard to find. A few miles off the trail there was a rather large clearing, and the smell of smoke hung heavy in the air. On the far side of the clearing lay Ash, surrounded by crushed Pokeballs, covered in bad burns, and nearly dead. An unconscious Bulbasaur was stretched out next to him, and they could see by the tracks in the muddy ground that it had dragged itself from the far side of the clearing. There were no other Pokemon to be found.
They carried their friend back to the village and turned him over to the local Nurse Joy, who didn't sound too optimistic. He was in a coma, his burns were bad enough on their own, and he had been two and a half weeks without food; his chances weren't good. Misty and Brock resigned themselves to the worst.
Then one night a week later, while Nurse Joy, Brock, and Misty were eating dinner in the only restaurant in the village, Ash disappeared. His clothes and backpack were gone, and several empty Pokeballs were found missing, as well. It took several hours for them to realize that Bulbasaur, too, had vanished.
A search was organized. Huge storms terrorized the region, making travel diffcult and long-distance communication impossible; Professor Oak and Ms. Ketchum had no way of knowing what was going on. For two weeks, search parties scoured the village and the surrounding forest, but in vain. Three weeks after his disappearance, the search parties were recalled, and he was proclaimed dead.
"With those burns, there's no way he could survive in fhe forset," Nurse Joy said. Her voice was cracked with grief.
The village mourned; they hadn't know him very well, but Ash was one of those people who was well-liked wherever he went. News of his death leaked out to nearby towns. Misty and Brock went back to Pallette Town to tell Ms. Ketchum and the Professor in person.
Then, one month and two days after his disappearance, Nurse Joy called the Ketchum residence. The house was empty; they were at the funeral. It wasn't until late that evening that they heard the recorded message. Ash was alive.
Midway through his journey to the PokeCenter, Team Rocket had made their usual appearance, "Surrender now" speech and all. The battle had been short and fierce, and as usual Ash won. But just before Pikashu's Thunderbolt could blast them sky-high, a very famiiar Pokemon had stepped forth. Charizard.
"Charizard!" Ash exclaimed, stunned but delighted. "What are you doing here?" After the Silver Conference, he and the flying fire-type had spent a lot of time together, and they had formed a deep bond that allowed them to commucate clearly. (He had the same kind of bond with Pikachu and several other of his pokemon.)
Charizard made no answer, just stood there and stared. Slowly, wide grins spread over Team Rocket's faces.
"Charizard? What's wrong, buddy?" Ash stepped forward, Pikachu back on his shoulder, and walked toward the winged dragon.
Said winged dragon responded with a furious Flamethrower that knocked Pikachu away and threw Ash to the far side of the clearing.
"Cha...Charizard, what...why?" Ash forced the pain away, ignoring the flames still licking at his clothes, and stumbled forward again. He didn't make it far.
"Today, you see," Jessie said with a smirk on her face as Ash crashed into a tree and landed heavily on the ground, breathless, "we have no intentions of losing. And Charizard here is going to help us with that. Charizard, take down that Pikachu!"
Ash's memory of the next few minutes was fogged; all he could remember was fire and lightning, and pain. Bulbasaur had somehow getten out of his Pokeball, but he was weak against the fire-type, and the first direct hit put him down and out for the count. Pikachu was locked in a dangerous dance with the much larger Pokemon, scoring an occasional hit but taking quite a few blows himself. They were fairly evenly matched, and Team Rocket knew it.
"We don't have time for this!" Meowth cried, exasperated. "Charizard, get over there by the twerp!" The fire Pokemon obeyed.
Pikachu saw this and hesitated. What was Charizard, his one-time friend, doing obeying Team Rocket? That didn't make sense! And why was the Meowth telling Charizard to go stand by the master - oh. That was why. Pikachu knew that if he attacked Charizard now, with the dragon so close to the master, he would attack the master as well, and he might hurt the poor master. The master was already burned. The shock from the electricity might even kill him. He couldn't attack, not if it would hurt the master. He would rather be taken. The mouse Pokemon's ears drooped.
"Pi...Pikachu," Ash whispered, his vision blurring back into focus for a second. "Pikachu...what's wrong..." Their eyes met for the briefest of instants, Ash's full of pain and worry but not yet beaten, not yet subdued, and Pikachu's dark with grief.
//Cannot hurt the master,// Pikachu said in the language of the pokemon. Ash understood him clearly; the words meant nothing to him, but he could feel the meanings as they ran through Pikahu's mind. //Charizard...Charizard is too close, I cannot hurt the master... Must not hurt the master... Will be taken, first, but cannot hurt the master!//
"Do it, Pikachu," Ash urged as loudly as he could - which wasn't very loudly. "Don't give up - aah!" Charizard had stepped on his leg. The dragon Pokemon heard it's former master's pained cry and hesitated for an instant, but then let out another Flamethrower at Pikachu. The electric-type dodged and, acting purely on reflex, aimed a Thunderbolt in Charizard's direction; the dragon dodged and the lightning stuck Ash directly. The master gave a small whimper of agony. Then something dark and stifling slipped over Pikachu's head, and he knew no more.
Pikachu! Pikachu, look out! Ash tried to cry. But the effects of the Thunderbolt were too strong, and he was paralyzed, unable to do anything as James caught the loyal Pokemon in a bag and slung it over his shoulder. He caught a final glimpse of Jessie's gleeful countenance and heard someone say "Flamethrower!" and then everything went black.
Black. Heavy, hot, black. Oppressive. Magmar midnight. Thick. Couldn't breathe.
Wait...there! A breath of air! And again. The soft caress of oxygen.
No, not oxygen. A sound. A voice. Words...
//Master? Is the master all right?//
Ash pried open his eyes with a superhuman effort. Red orbs stared into his, red surrounded by blue and green. It took a moment for his mind to put the pieces together.
"Bu...Bulbasaur?" he murmured.
"Saur!" //The master is injured!//
"I'm...fine, Bulbasaur," Ash lied, giving the Pokemon a small smile. "Just tired. But...Charizard, and Team Rocket...what happened to them?" His vision blurred again.
"Saur, Bulba-bulbasaur...saur!" //They got away.// The Pokemon's "voice" was sad. //And they took the master's other pokemon... Broke the ball-homes, they did.//
"They took...all my pokemon?" Ash repeated, disbelieving. With an effort he moved his hand and felt his belt, where each Pokeball would be clipped; nothing. A bit of melted plastic here and there - the clips - but no balls. A gentle Vine reached out of the plant on Bulbasaur's back and scooped something off the ground, then dropped it into Ash's limp hand. It was a few shattered bits of plastic. Red and white; one of his Pokeballs. A crystalline tear formed at the edge of Ash's eye. He knew he was going to die, there was no question about that - already he was too weak to move more than a few inches at a time, and every word he spoke just magnified the feeling - but he had planned to use the last of his energy freeing his pokemon. Team Rocket had stolen that from him.
"Saur?"
Ash gave another weak smile. "Bulbasaur...you know you're one of my best friends, buddy."
"Saur!"
"But you can't be my Pokemon forever," the young trainer whispered, reaching out and running his hand over the Pokemon's rubbery skin. "You're free now, Bulbasaur. You can go wherever you want. You're free..."
Ash's voice faded and his eyes closed and his hand fell to the ground, limp. Bulbasaur nudged him slightly with a Vine, but the master didn't wake. Slowly, so slowly, Bulbasaur slipped into the dark pit of oblivion.
Voices. Familiar voices. Voices he knew and trusted. But...who, exactly? He couldn't remember. He couldn't remember anything, except the pain and the black...
Something changed. The voices were closer. They were right next to him. Something wet fell on his cheek - what was the word again? Oh, yes...a tear. It was a tear. From one of the voices. The tear slipped down and into his too-dry mouth; he could barely make out the salty taste.
"Ash! Ash, are you okay?" Then, quieter, less urgent, "What d'you suppose could have happened?"
A pause. "I don't know. Come on, we should get him - and Bulbasaur - back to the village. They don't look so good."
There was a peculiar sensation, as if he was floating; the ground was far below him now. He blinked his eyes open for an instant. There was a flash of brown, and of red, but the light was too intense and his eyes closed once more of their own accord. Black.
Ash's return to consciousness was slow and excruciatingly painful. It took a few minutes to remember the reason. It took a few minutes longer to remember that Team Rocket had all of his pokemon - Pikachu included. It didn't, however, take very long to fight back the pain enough to get out of bed, retrieve his backpack and grab some empty Pokeballs from the tray, and limp toward the door.
"Saur?"
"Bulbasaur? Is that you?" Ash noted with distaste that his voice was still weak. He would have to hide that if he was to have any hope of tricking Team Rocket into giving him his pokemon back.
"Saur! Bulbasaur!" //The master should not be up! Where is the master going?//
"To find the others," Ash replied grimly. "I'm not leaving them in the hands of Team Rocket."
//The master cannot go alone! The master is still weak. He must wait for his friends!//
Ash shook his head. "No, Bulbasaur. There's no time to lose. I have to go find Pikachu and the others, and I have to go now."
//Then...I am coming too.//
"You can't! You're in almost as bad a shape as I am!"
This time, Bulbasaur's "voice" was grim. //If the master can go, I can. They are my friends too.//
Ash hesitated, then sighed. "All right. Come on, I'll carry you in my backpack. You can't walk that far." Retracing his steps, the black-haired boy carefully helped his Pokemon climb into his brown backpack and settled the straps on his shoulders as comfortably as he could (which wasn't very, considering the huge burns over most of his body), then started once more for the door.
I'm coming, Pikachu!
"Piiipikachu! Pika!"
"Now, now, Pikachu, threats never did no one no good," Meowth said in Human, shaking his claw at the mouse-type. He turned to Jessie and James. "Oh, the boss is going to love this!"
"We've been trying for years to catch that PIkachu," James said gleefully. "And now we've finally done it!"
"And all it took was a little help from one of the twerp's former friends," Jessie added. Her voice was confident, proud. "I think we all owe Charizard a big thank-you, what do you think, James?"
"By golly, I think you're right!"
"And I know just the way to do it, too - by making him a member of Team Rocket!" The last, of course, was Meowth. "How's about it, big guy?"
"Char...char," the dragon said, shaking it's head.
"Come on, Charizard," James encouraged. "It's fun!" But the dragon was stubborn.
"Fine, then. We'll just have to make it join. James?"
"Weezing, go!"
"Go, Arbok!"
"Char!"
"Pika!"
"Poison sting!"
Charizard gave a bellow of pain and rage as Arbok's darts struck home.
"Piiiika!"
"Hey, leave him alone!"
Ash stumbled into Team Rocket's latest lair looking disheveled but angry. His eyes were alight with a strange fire; Team Rocket, who had seen the twerp pretty mad before, were suddenly cringing before the onslaught of his rage. Even Pikachu looked more than a little worried.
Then again, Pikachu knew just how tired Ash was, and how much pain he was in, and he knew that a single attack by Charizard or even one of Team Rocket's pokemon would be enough to knock him down permanently. So he had quite a bit to be worried about.
Said dragon Pokemon realized this, too. But unfortunately, it didn't have the same loyalty as Pikachu; a burning fury welled up inside its mind, and it moved to attack. Ash stumbled to the side and managed to avoid the brunt of the attack, but the flames still licked at his clothes and he gritted his teeth. Charizard beat his wings, creating a huge gust of wind, and Ash fell to his knees.
"Piiiiika!" The mouse Pokemon bounded forward, ignoring the fire-type completely, and ran toward its master. But before it could get there Charizard let loose another powerful blast of fire, and it struck Ash dead-on; the young trainer let out a scream of anguish and collapsed.
"Pikaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" //Nooooooooooo!// The electric-type took a flying leap and landed next to its master's face. Ash gave a pitiful moan.
"Pikachu...buddy...I'm sorry... It wasn't supposed to...end like this..." Ash raised his head slightly and looked at his Pikachu, sorrow in his eyes. "We made a great team, you and I," he murmured. "But now...you gotta free the others, you got that? Free the others. Get them away from Team Rocket. Save yourselves...Bulbasaur's here, he'll help..." There was a quiet sound of agreement, and Bulbasaur squirmed his way out of Ash's backpack, being careful the whole time to stay out of Team Rocket's sight. It wouldn't do to be found out so early.
//But the master - //
Ash gave a weak cough and grimaced slightly as another wave of pain washed over him. "Don't worry about me," he said. "Just help the others and get out of here... Please, Pikachu..." His eyes were pleading, now, wrestling with Pikachu's and slowly, so slowly, winning, "just save yourselves... Do it as a favor...to me..."
"Piiika..."
"Char!"
Pikachu jumped away just as another Flamethrower struck the ground right next to him, missing Ash's now-unconscious form by mere millimeters. Bulbasaur slunk back into the shadows, knowing that PIkachu would call when it needed help. Pikachu was by far the most able of all of the master's pokemon at battling without direction, without hope. It was up to him now.
"Nurse Joy?"
"Yes, Rosaline? What is it?"
"Do you have a group of wild pokemon coming in today?"
"No... No, they're not due until next week. Why?"
"Because....well, just look out the window." Nurse Joy got up and dusted off her apron, then walked to the window that overlooked the road. Sure enough, there was a rather large crowd of weary pokemon stumbling their way up the path. She noticed with trepidation that many of them looked rather badly hurt, especially the types weak against fire.
"How strange," the nurse muttered. "Rosaline, I get the feeling they'll be needing quite a bit of help - could you go get Chancey and round up all of the assistants you can?"
"Sure, Nurse Joy. I'll be back in a moment." Rosaline left, and Nurse Joy leaned up against the window, watching the strange parade of pokemon wind their way through the grasses. She waited unti lthey were very near, then walked to the door to welcome them.
"Hello there," she smiled, holding the door open. "You look tired; why don't you all come in and - "
"Pi...pika?" From its spot hidden behind a larger Pokemon, a small Pikachu came forward, limping badly and looking downright exhausted. "Piiiiiika..."
"Wait a second," Nurse Joy breathed. "Aren't you...Ash's Pikachu?"
"Saur! Bulbasaur!" A Bulbasaur shouldered its way forward through the crowd, joined an instant later by a Bayleaf. Both had their Vines out and seemed to be dragging something. It took a minute for the nurse to realize that the something was a makeshift stretcher, and that the motionless, frighteningly pale form on the stretcher was Ash Ketchum.
It took a month and a half for Ash to stir from this second coma, and it was nearly a year before he would speak again. He grew distant from both his friends and his pokemon; he refused to see his morher or Professor Oak. (Misty let them into his room at night while he slept, but he had never found out about this.) His self-imposed silence wasn't broken until after a harrowing misadventure involving a sudden downpour and a very tall cliff nearly tore Pikachu from his grasp forever. The shock snapped him out of the black depths of his depression, and slowly he began the return to normal. He had made Misty and Brock swear never to tell either his mom or Professor Oak.
He still bore the scars, Misty knew, and in more ways than one. If you looked closely enough, you could still make out the feathery lines of the scars where his burns had long since healed. He avoided people as much as possible and had yet to aquire a new Pokemon, concentrating instead on strengthening the bonds between himself and the pokemon who already called him a friend. Most notably, his competetive spirit was completely and totally gone.
"C'mon, Brock, Ash, I'll race you to the top of the next hill!" Misty said, sprinting forward. They had played this game for years, the person in the rear challenging the others to a race; it was as second-nature to them as carrying Pikachu or Tokepi.
"You're on," Brock answered, breaking into his somehow jerky but still very fast gait that she knew so well.
Ash just grunted. "You guys go on ahead," he called after them, "I'll catch up in a bit..." In seconds, the red-head and the brunette were gone, and the young trainer was left with only Pikachu for company.
"Pika?"
"Nah, no race today," Ash answered. "I'm not in the mood."
"Piiiika..." //You're never in the mood anymore.//
Ash snorted. "More truth than fiction in that, buddy. I don't know, maybe I'd feel better if I could just go somewhere else for a while, start over with a clean slate...y'know what I mean?" The PIkachu nodded slightly. "Oh, well," Ash sighed, "not much I can do about it now." Pikachu expected him to speed up, to catch up with the others, but to its surprise the black-haired teen sat down heavily and stared listlessly at the ground.
"What'd'ya think, Pikachu?" he continued in a depressed tone. "I mean, Charizard obviously thought I screwed up. Maybe he's right. Maybe I'm nothing but a big fat failure. Maybe I should just leave, go away and let everyone else live their life like they were meant to."
"Pika! Pikapi!"
Another snort. "Right. So this is what's supposed to be? Brock and Misty are supposed to be wandering around aimlessly for the rest of their lives, just so that I'm not alone, instead of following their dreams? Charizard's supposed to be with Team Rocket? Well, I'm not too sure. I bet none of that was supposed to happen. I was never supposed to become a trainer." His voice fell, dark and dispirited. "I probably wasn't even supposed to get you."
"Pika!" Pikachu's "voice" was filled with hurt, and the electric-type protested lourly and vehemently for several minutes. Ash just looked at him sadly.
"You know it as well as I do, buddy," he said when Pikachu finally quieted down. "I mean, just look at the facts. I showed up late, almost too late. You hated me from the first. I bet you didn't even know that there was another potential trainer only a few seconds behind me, did you? It was a girl, a really pretty, really smart girl who already knew a lot about electric types...you'd've liked her a lot, I'm sure." Ash hung his head. "I saw her last time we were in Pallette Town. She's the cashier at the restaurant, doesn't own a single Pokemon... How bad did I screw up her destiny, Pikahu? And how many other people are there like her, people whose futures are ruined all because of me?"
"Piiika..."
Shaking his head, Ash stood and lifted his Pokemon to his shoulder. "We should get going. Misty and Brock are probably wondering where we are." Pikachu gripped his jacket tightly so it wouldn't fall off, and then Ash set off down the trail in his long even lope. Lengthy strides ate up the ground, and it only took a moment to reach his friends. He wasn't even winded.
Brock, however, was. And in a rather large amount of pain.
"Not the ear! Not the ear!"
"I think you and I need to go have a talk, Brock," Misty was saying, her face flushed with anger. "Waaaaaay over there."
"Uh, guys? What's going on - oh." Ash fell silent when he suddenly realized that there was a third person there, a girl he didn't recognize. She was rather short and had long black hair, rather like his own in color and texture, but instead of sticking out in unmanageable spikes hers fell straight down her back to end in flaring red tips. Long bangs streaked with the same brilliant red covered half her face. Her eyes burned with a fierce light; the same light, Ash knew, that his had once displayed. She was obviously competetive. It takes one, he thought wryly, to know one.
"Ohayoo gozaimasu!" she chirped, holding out her hand. "I'm Teae, but I go by Twitch."
"I'm Ash," he said flatly, shaking her hand and dropping it as quickly as possible.
Twitch glanced him over for a second, a look of concentration passing over her face. "That sounds familiar...I'm sure I've heard of you before. I'm a Fire trainer, by the way - how about you?"
"I, uh, I'm not really a trainer anymore," he said. "And I really didn't have any particular type when I was training. Why?"
"Just curious," Twitch replied, shrugging. Again, there was that look of concentration, visible for only the briefest of instants before it disappeared once more. "Hey, I remember now! We have a mutual friend," she explained in response to the questioning look on his face. "I think you'll remember him. Charizard, come on out!"
"Piiiika!"
"H - hush, Pikachu," Ash whispered hurriedly, taking a surprised step backward. Because standing there in front of him, right behind Twitch the Fire trainer, was his old friend and possibly enemy Charizard.
"Char!"
"Piiipikachu..."
"Chaaaaaaaaaaaaaar!!!"
"What in the world has Pikachu so riled - oh," Misty said, turning and recognizing the problem at once.
"That's Charizard!" Brock exclaimed. "What the hell? Where did it come from?"
"Not important right now," Misty said with gritted teeth, hand flying to her PokeBalls. "Between you and me we can probably take it out before - "
"Right," Brock cut her off, his hand going to his own PokeBalls. "Onix!"
Ash, meanwhile, was not taking such drastic measures. His face had paled and was now drawn with painful memories; he stumbled backwards a few steps in shock.
"Pika!" The little mouse Pokemon leapt forward to land bristling on the ground before its master, perfectly willing to fight to defend Ash's life if necessary. Which it looked like it would be, as Charizard drew himself up for a Flamethrower.
"Charizard, stop that!" Twitch shouted, enraged. "What in flames do you think you're doing?!" Charizard cast a fierce glare at Ash before turning suddenly and winging off to the horizon. Turning back to Ash, the fire trainer's face softened. "You all right?"
"...I'm fine," Ash said flatly when his mind finally returned to the present. "I should go." He held out an arm to Pikachu, who scrambled up and reclaimed his usual perch on the teen's shoulder. Ash turned and nearly fled back down the trail.
"What was up with that?" Twitch asked, watching his retreating back. "Is he scared of fire pokemon or something?"
"Long story," Brock said, coming up behind her. "Onix, return."
"You too, Polywhorl, Staryu," Misty said, recalling her own pokemon. Twitch glanced at them in surprise.
"Why'd you get them out?"
Misty's face turned cold. "We were going to use them to take down that Charizard," she said in a voice just as flat as Ash's had been.
"But why?"
"Because it's tried to kill Ash once before, and there's no guarantee it won't try again." Brock had adopted an identical tone.
"But - Charizard was Ash's Pokemon, wasn't it? It's always going on about what a great trainer Ash was, saying I'm doing everything wrong and that I should do it more like Ash did," Twitch said. "There's no way it hates Ash."
"Well, it does. Come on, we'd better go make sure he's all right - it owuld be just like him to fall down some cliff or something."
Which, of course, is exactly what Ash had done.
"Piiiiiiiiiiiiiikaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
"I know, I know!" Ash shouted, fighting down the feeling of nausea that always came with free-fall. "But yell at me later, okay? Tododyle, I choose you!" The faithful water Pokemon appeared, cheerful as always, dancing in midair. "No time for that now, just aim your Watergun at the ground!" Tododyle complied. With Ash's arms wrapped around Tododyle and Pikachu gripping the master's jacket with its sharp claws, the trio's frighteningly rapid descent slowed and was finally brought under control.
"Good job," Ash said, shaking his head to clear it. Tododyle had done extremely well, dropping them only ten or so feet from the ground; a little fall like that was nothing. "Go ahead and return - I think you're gonna need all the rest you can get. Why does this always happen to me?" His gaze found its way to the very top of the cliff; it was several hundred feet at the least, and no easy climb.
"Pika, pikapika piii," Pikachu chattered angrily.
"Look, Pikachu, I said I'm sorry," Ash sighed. "I know I should watch where I'm going more closely. Especially in the middle of an unfamiliar forest like this. But how was I supposed to know there was a cliff there? Besides, you weren't paying any more attention than I was."
"Pika!"
Ash grinned. "Deny it all you want, you know it's true. But what I said earlier still goes. Survive now, yell later. Besides. what I want to know is, where did that cliff come from? It wasn't there when we came by earlier, I know that."
Now Pikachu just looked worried. He chittered rapidly in Pokemon.
//Don't understand. Master is observant - master knows how to see cliffs. Master has plenty of practice at that,// he added as an afterthought, turning a scornful look on said trainer. //But master is right - this one was not here earlier. And...don't know, it smells different. Strange. Not normal.//
It was Ash's turn to look worried, and he cast a glance at the sky, where he found the answer. "Not normal, you say? Could those rainclouds be the problem?"
High overhead, thick clouds crowded in on each other, jostling for the best position. Lightning cracked through the sky and a huge roll of thunder rent the air. But the concerning part was not the fact that there was a storm - the Master above knew they had been through enough of those to not be bothered by them anymore - it was the fact that the clouds were brilliant green and the lightning was black.
//...//
"I think 'what the hell' just about covers it," Ash muttered; Pikachu agreed.
The hairs on the back of Ash's neck raised, and a chill chased itself up and down his spine. He turned slowly.
"You again."
"Char...."
"Where could they be?" Misty asked for the seventh time. "We've combed this entire forest!"
Brock shook his head in confusion. "Misty's right, we've looked everywhere. It's like they just disappeared."
"I don't understand it either," Twitch said, but her voice was less than convincing. The brunette and the redhead rounded on her instantly.
"What is it?"
"Well...there is a legend about this place...but it's all just a story," she said hastily, embarassed that she even brought up the point. Misty and Brock exchanged a glance. They had run across - and lived through - enough "legends" to know that they were generally at least based in fact.
"Come on, tell us," Brock urged. "What's this legend about?"
"People around here say that sometimes, travellers with strong emotions just...disappear in here," she said. "A long time ago, this forest belonged to the psychic pokemon. They're all gone now, wiped out by the first human settlers, but their presence remains strong in the deeper parts of the woods - a troubled enough person may actually find himself transported inside his own mind, and never know it. They generally turn up again, once they've faced their problem, but..." Her voice trailed off.
"But?"
"The mind - human or Pokemon - is the most dangerous place possible," Twitch said softly. "A lot of people can't face their fears. They get crushed by their own mind."
[A/N] Another random moment of inspiration. I'll probably finish it some day; it'd be interesting to see how it turns out, at the very least. We'll see.
Random Quote of the Day:
"Team Rocket's blasting off again!"
- Team Rocket
// posted by Ha'ri @ 3/19/2004 12:40:00 PM 
