Warning: This is not standard Pokemon fanfiction. It contains scenes of
violence and some inappropriate language.

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                           Pokemon Master 

Fanfiction by Ace Sanchez.

All parts of this story may be found at the following address:
http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/acey/pokemon.htm

Note: Pokemon and its associated characters are copyright by Nintendo,
Game Freak, Creatures Inc, and 4Kids Productions.

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Part 11 - Regressions


Near the jagged and rocky shoreline of the U-shaped Viridian Gulf, all
that could be heard was the overwhelming sound of hard rain striking the
ocean. As if the sheer amount of falling water would pulverise the mass
of dark and violent tossing waves, the blue-black heavens above continued
to let free its floodgates relentlessly.

Even the dark spray ricocheting off the massive waves arose little before
being disintegrated by the powerful bullet-like downpour. Fragments of
razor-sharp rocks of the gulf's cliffs crumbled and fell to be swallowed
up by the hungry ocean.

In the midst of that black and wet turbulent body of water suddenly arose
a pointed white ship, barely visible as it rode the high waves up and
down, each second seeming to be its last before it crumbled like a paper
boat - either by the violent waters or by the heavy downpour. But the
ship's plating seemed to weather the assault and it safely survived each
jerking jar of the huge waves and the continuous rain. Darkness caused by
the total absence of natural light was barely chased away by the bow's
overhead spotlights.

After carefully lowering the hood of his cloak over his head and
adjusting the straps of his small backpack, Ash, below decks, slammed the
ship's hatchway open, and with a slight exhalation of breath, sprang up
into the cold, wet night. Immediately a torrent of violent rain washed
over him and he quickly grasped on to a nearby mast for support, the
steel beneath his black fingerless gloves slippery and wet.

Sensing a sudden large wave rather than seeing it in the extremely poor
visibility, Ash rolled with the deck's abrupt rising and falling as it
was jerked about like an out-of-control roller coaster. There was a roar
as water collided against the ship's side and exploded over him, almost
forcing him to lose his grip and wash him away into the ocean. But he
retained his hold and shook his head, jerking the drops of salty water
from his eyes that had found their way into the hood of his cloak.

"Quick, before the next wave hits!" he shouted behind himself, above the
wailing and screaming of the wind and rain. He turned his attention back
to the hatchway which had been almost flooded with water, and watched
attentively as the rest of the group they had designated to come ashore
climbed their way out.

Misty and Duplica came out first, both dressed in their hooded cloaks to
ward off the rain. Deep puddles of water splashed beneath their boots as
they took their positions atop the deck.

A slight pause later, Duplica just let go of the handhold and dived over
the starboard railing. Her shape melted as she shifted into an elegant
and long-necked, blue lapras and splashed into the sea. Her wide flippers
moved quickly to keep her afloat and beside the ship. "Hurry!" she said
telepathically, so that her voice seemed to come from within the minds of
whoever she talked to. "The ship won't be able to take much more beating
staying on the surface like this."

Bruno was next out of the hatch. "Go, go, go!" he yelled in a tight
voice. Ash could see that he still showed a tinge of pain from all that
he had lost. The maroon-cloaked, hugely-muscled man leaped off the edge
and into the sea to grab on to Duplica-Lapras' side, followed closely by
the green-cloaked Erika who also dived down but with more expertise.

Finally, two rain-coated figures prepared to jump over the side as
well as the white, panther-like persian wearing a thin waterproof cat-
jacket. Despite this being decided as a Master-only operation, Jessie and
James had managed to convince them that they should come along.
Apparently they wanted revenge on Butch and Cassidy for some reason or
other.

"Oh, I hate swimming!" James exclaimed, his voice just barely audible
over the sound of the wind and waves as he held the hood of his
rain-coat over his blue hair steady with one hand.

Jessie just forcefully pushed him over the edge. "Just get in there,
fool, and grab on to that lapras!" She jumped in after him with Persian
at her back.

When they had gone, Misty looked at him. "After you," she said with a
flourish. Even though her face was invisible under the darkness of her
cowl, he could sense an ironic smile on her lips.

He was about to answer when a slight prickling of his senses touched the
back of his mind and he scanned the deck alertly.

"Ow!" Misty was suddenly clutching her upper left shoulder with her right
hand.

"What is it?" Ash asked, his eyes narrowing as he searched for what he
had felt. He thought he saw a shadow fly off the edge of the ship but he
wasn't sure. Immediately, he leaped across the deck for a look at where
he thought he saw the shape jump from. But there was nothing there save
for more heaving black waves and hard rain. He turned back to her.

"Nothing. I think it was just a mosquito or something," she said as she
looked within the fold of her cloak. She stumbled a little as the deck
rolled to the side and she ripped her arm away from her shoulder.
"Anyway, we got more important things to worry about! I can barely still
see them out there. Let's go!" She stepped back and then took a running
dive off the side of the ship. Graceful as only a professional diver
could be, she cut into the ocean without even a hint of a splash despite
the rolling turbulence of the waves.

Pulling his hood further down against his face, Ash stepped to follow.
"Ready, Pikachu?" he said, directing his voice at the top of his backpack
where his pokemon was still riding inside.

"Pii."

"Let's go then." He launched himself over the railing with a quick leap
just as another huge wave struck the ship and actually forced it to
submerge, sinking it deep within the ocean's depths.


<><><>


Misty had barely reached Duplica's side and grasped on to the side of
her grooved back, like the others were doing, when the churning water
behind them suddenly began to get sucked into a massive wave. It grew
quickly to tower high over their heads. "Hold your breath everyone!" she
shouted as she treaded closer to get a better grasp.

"Better listen to the expert," Jessie said, eyes wide as she stared up at
the outsized current of water about to crash over their heads.

And then everything was black and wet and there was a roaring in Misty's
ears as what felt like a slab of concrete seemed to smash itself over her
head and upper shoulders. Underwater, bubbles fizzed in front of the
darkness in her eyes and she almost lost her grip on Duplica's flank. But
just as suddenly as the wave had crashed down, it was abruptly gone and
she was breathing and coughing and spitting out sea-water as she exploded
upward. Even though she was a good swimmer, the hard water still managed
to find its way through her defences. Her eyes stung as she blinked and
regained her vision. "Everyone okay?" she asked out loud. She desperately
checked to see if all of them had survived the submerging.

"Ugh!" Erika sputtered as she clung on to Duplica's opposite side with
one arm. "I think I swallowed a gallon of ocean."

Jessie, James and Persian were treading water nearby - all of them
seeming to be firmly attached to one another - with Jessie the one who
was actually holding on to Duplica for support.

"My fur's all wet," Persian growled in complaint.

"We're going to drown!" was all James said.

Jessie bopped him on the head with her free hand. "Stop pulling my hair!"

Bruno was just silent as he leaned on Duplica's flank and treaded water
almost lethargically, although he did give her a nod of okay.

However, a tight feeling had invaded Misty's throat. Ash was nowhere to
be seen. "Where's Ash?" she shouted out, her voice hoarse. Had he made it
off the ship? There was something that had attracted his attention just
before she had dived into the ocean. Uncaringly, she threw her sodden
hood back for greater visibility, although it meant letting the hard rain
pound over her now-unprotected head. "Ash!" she continued to cry out as
she wiped sodden strands of long red hair from out of her eyes. She knew
she shouldn't be this worried about him - it made suggestions about
herself that she didn't want to face right now - but she couldn't deny
her concern.

"Over there!" Duplica-Lapras' voice projected into her mind as the
woman-turned-pokemon pointed her head in an easterly direction. Misty
followed her gaze and saw a black shape ride a huge, hilly wave up and
down in the near distance. At the exit of the wave, the figure began to
move his arms and swim freestyle toward them. The rain falling all around
them and the darkness threatening to rend everything invisible made it
extremely hard to tell, but she knew it was Ash.

"I think that's him!" Misty shouted in relief. She lightly slapped
Duplica's spiny back. "Move it Duplica!"

Duplica-Lapras swivelled her head to look at her briefly and snorted in
playful indignation. "Watch it sister, or I'll report you to the cruelty
to pokemon association!" But she began to stroke all four of her wide
flippers to powerfully propel all of them toward him.

Unfortunately, the current was against them - the waves destined for the
rocky cliffs of the Viridian Gulf - while Ash was out to sea. Every time
Duplica actually began to gain some lee-way against the powerful waves,
they were just pushed backward even more. And despite the powerful
strokes Ash was using to swim over to them, it actually seemed like he
was only swimming on the spot like a bizarre version of an aquatic
treadmill.

Suddenly, Misty sensed multiple alien signatures of water-based pokemon
all around them. "Wait! Something's wrong!" Normally she could tell
exactly what species a Water Pokemon was if it was anywhere in her
vicinity, but these ... these just felt wrong.

Even Duplica sensed it. "Forbidden Pokemon! We're surrounded!" Her eyes
immediately flared like bright yellow spotlights, brightening up the
black night and improving the visibility around them.

Surprisingly, James turned serious, and began to look all around the
tossing waves alertly. In one hand, he abruptly flashed one of his sai
knives and spun it around his finger. "Careful, they're underwater!"

Jessie also produced a knife and searched around the water they were
treading in. "I just hope they're not gyarados," she said with some
remembered dread.

"Over there!" Bruno shouted, his rust-coloured eyes flaring within his
sodden hood as he pointed to the waves behind Ash's back in the distance.
"Seaking!" In horror Misty was just able to spot a sharp, shark-like fin
streaming in toward Ash's rear. It almost blended in to the black waves
of the ocean as it headed toward its target. Then more and more fins
began emerging to the surface around it - all of them heading toward Ash.

"Misty, watch out!" Erika screamed. Misty jerked her attention back just
as something dark flashed in the water to the side unexpectedly. A huge
gaping black mouth full of sharp, needle-point teeth exploded out toward
her with a violent splashing that sent a huge geyser of water upward.

Rapidly, she let go of Duplica's flank to leave both arms free and kicked
off to the side, causing the mouth full of sharp teeth to narrowly miss
biting her legs off. At the failed attack, it gnashed angrily in the
water and turned to follow, but then stopped and hissed in pain as a sai
knife found a home in its blaring red eye on the side of its head. Black
blood gushed out of the wound and steamed as it fountained around into
the water.

"Nice throw," Persian growled.

"But that was one of my favourite knives," was all James said.

However the knife only seemed to slow it down and it continued to thrash
its way toward her. Calmly, Misty glided away backward, kicking her feet
to propel her as she clasped her hands together out in front. Going from
what Ash had said earlier, this pokemon would probably be one of the ones
who could resurrect itself. She concentrated on dropping her aura's
temperature.

It was closer now. "Misty do something or I will!" Erika said in sudden
worry.

Cold, think cold... she thrust her clasped hands outward, palms
outstretched. "Now!" Her hands fogged white, then all at once a
spear of sub-zero energy exploded forth in a tightly-controlled beam of
ice. It shot across the surface of the water toward her target, icing up
a whole trench of ocean in its wake. The thing that was not a seaking
roared as the beam flew through it, freezing it completely solid and
immobile.

"Good thinking," Erika congratulated her. 

But then even more fins began emerging from the surface of the ocean
around them. Red eyes gleamed at them from beneath the churning waters.
Although Misty was dismayed to learn that however many Forbidden Seaking
things were around them, there were even more of them gaining on Ash as
he tried to swim over to them in the near distance. 

"There's too many!" Bruno shouted as he powerfully punched one of them in
the head, smashing it back and breaking off its horn. "We'll have to fall
back to the cliffs and climb ashore as soon as possible or we'll be
overrun!"

Misty wiped her rain-wettened hair from her eyes again. "What about Ash?"

"He can take care of himself! Duplica, move it! We're not making any
headway against this current anyway!"

Duplica-Lapras looked back worriedly. "I-I don't know..."

Misty removed the black star-shaped badge from the front of her cloak and
held it up in her right hand as she treaded water. "Don't worry, Duplica,
I'll get him. Starmos, let's go!" She threw the badge out in front of her
whereupon it enlarged into her six-foot-wide, black starfish pokemon. She
dived forward, dodging another one of the Forbidden Seaking's attempts to
bite her in two, and landed chest-first on her pokemon's back - upon the
red jewel - and carefully held on so as not to cut herself to ribbons on
its ten razor-sharp points. 

Riding it like a bodyboard, Starmos propelled both of them along with
three jets of water which it shot out of its back limbs. Another seaking
thing appeared in front of them, but Misty directed Starmos to ride a
nearby wave and they used it to jump over with a fountain of expelled
water. They landed smoothly on the other side and surfed and skipped
along the waves toward Ash like a thrown rock upon a lake.

Ash was still swimming on the spot when he spotted her, arms methodically
cutting the water, but getting him absolutely nowhere. He looked a bit
embarrassed. "I really thought I was a better swimmer than this," he
said a bit sheepish.

"Pika," Pikachu agreed, having stuck his small head through the opening
in the top of Ash's backpack.

"Huh, you can say a lot Pikachu, you just ride on my back," he said in
a disgusted tone.

"It's because of the current heading out to sea," Misty told him as she
leaned to the side, preparing to intercept him and pull him up as she
passed.

Just then, from the waves behind Ash, exploded the head of one of the
Forbidden, its long black horn aiming to impale him through the head.

"Ash, dive!" Misty yelled as she pulled Starmos up vertical with a
huge splash. Then she let go and launched it forward with a kick of her
feet. "Starmos, Ice Slice!" she ordered as she backflipped to dive back
into the water.

"Woah!" Ash said as Starmos rocketed forward along the surface of the
water and spun into a deadly-sharp shuriken. He dived and it passed over
him with a slashing of the waves. Then an arctic glow surrounded its
blurred form as it shot through the attacking Forbidden Pokemon,
exploding it into two bloody chunks which then froze solid. The hardened
pieces of the body then splashed back into the water and floated like
oddly-shaped ice-cubes.

Starmos then banked as it returned to her in a wide arc with a splashing
of water, cutting and freezing solid yet another dark seaking. As it
passed by her, she leapt back on to bodysurf back to Ash and Pikachu who
had then resurfaced with a gasping of air.

"Quick!" Misty said as she leaned over again and this time managed to
grab on to Ash's hand and pull him aboard. She made room for him as he
clung on Starmos' right side but almost slipped off when it banked again
to head back to Duplica and the others who were swimming toward shore.

Another huge wave rose up by their left side, a rising wall of surf.
Misty tilted Starmos into the steepening inclination and yelled, "Hang
on!"

Ash clung on tighter. "I hope you know what you're doing!"

"Chu!" Pikachu mirrored.

Misty rocked Starmos to the side then shot them all into the wave,
spiralling smoothly upside-down then right-way-up again. "No problem!
It's only water!"

A spiny black shape dived out of the wave above them and Misty was just
able to corkscrew them out of the way.

Ash shook his head. "I have no problem with that. Just with whatever's in
it!"


<><><>


Meanwhile, Duplica glided her fins along the water and looked up high at
the seemingly-impossible-to-scale cliffs. It was about thirty feet high
with blade-like ledges scattered all along its vertical face which curved
outwardly about the whole south-side of the mainland. There was no other
way ashore from this side of the ocean, they *had* to climb Viridian
Gulf.

A wave behind threatened to smash them into the razor-sharp rocks in
front of her, but she managed to keep them anchored relatively still with
powerful pushes of her flippers. The rain was still pounding from above
and making the water surrounding them resemble a well-used pin-cushion.
Although it did seem to have quietened down a bit now, the sound of the
rain dropping to the level of what was like background static.

"So what are we supposed to do now?" James asked as he also looked up the
cliff, wet blue hair hanging all around his pale face. His raincoat hood
had been torn off by the violence of the storm. Jessie swam by his side,
hood also removed, water-darkened red hair hanging around her face in
wisps while her long ponytail floated in the water behind her neck.

"Ash said that he'd be the one to take care of it," Bruno replied as he
peeled his own sodden hood off his head and smoothed his wet brown hair
back - now not so spiky since he was soaked.

"Oh that's just great!" Jessie said, her dark-blue eyes narrowing in
annoyance. "Why couldn't one of you have been left behind instead of
him?"

Erika's eyes flashed green at that comment. "You're lucky we're even
bringing you with us, 'Team Rocket'."

Jessie turned around to glare back at her. "You want to start something
with me, grass girl?"

"I'd be happy to oblige," Erika replied angrily as she raised a fist out
of the water and a golden glow surrounded it.

Jessie smirked. "Oh, make me!"

"Everyone, please!" Duplica interrupted. "We have enough to worry about
without us fighting among ourselves, now we just have to wait for- woah!"

A huge wave cut her off in mid-sentence as it splashed down over them
with the force of a jackhammer. When it subsided, Ash, Misty and Pikachu
were there next to them looking exhausted and wet as they lay on Misty's
Starmos.

"Finally," Persian growled, as he let go of Duplica's side - to her
relief; those claws were sharp! - and doggy-paddled over to them.

Ash slid off Starmos back into the water. Treading water, he unhooded
himself and let his wet black hair blow around in the wind. "Now, just
follow my lead!" He lifted one arm up and his black pikachu climbed up
it. With a sudden crack of thunder which startled everyone, it reformed
into his long, slightly-curved katana blade, its black colour almost
camouflaging it completely in the night. "Alley Oop!" he yelled as he
rapidly jerked his arm backward, then threw it point-first high up the
cliff. From the bottom of its hilt trailed a long thin rope of what
looked like black electricity. When the sword was at the top of the
cliff, gravity then pulled it down to secure itself into the rock with a
solid thunk that they could even hear from down below.

"Let's go!" Ash said as he tested the rope with a few tugs, then leaped
on to it and began pulling himself up hand over hand. His sodden black
cloak dripped water profusely until a dark glow surrounded his form and
then it was just suddenly dry.

"Are you sure that's safe?" Misty said hesitantly as she shrunk her star
pokemon back into a badge and pinned it to her blue cloak. "I mean ...
that rope is made of electricity ... and we're treading in water. I know
all about electricity and water."

Ash looked down at her. "It's safe. As long as I hold on to it first -
which is what I'm doing now - the rope is sufficiently grounded for
anyone else to follow me."

"And what if you fall off while we're all climbing it?" Bruno asked
with more than a hint of doubt.

The rope had begun to swing in the wind, causing Ash to rock back and
forth dangerously, his boots trailing in the water. "I won't fall off."

"But what if you do?"

Ash paused. Then startlingly, he lifted an arm with the speed of a
striking snake and exploded a bolt of dark lightning down at them. For a
moment, Duplica almost thought that he was attacking *them*, until she
realised that he had actually just disintegrated a Forbidden Pokemon
behind them which had just been about to attack.

His black-gloved hand still smoking, Ash just shrugged and continued to
pull himself up. "How's your resistance to electricity?"


<><><>


The heavy storm above was wreaking havoc to the underwater ocean
currents. So much so, that the submarine-capable white ship was being
thrown around like an aircraft flying in severe turbulence. Visibility
was also at a frighteningly low level - the water seeming to have been
stained an ebony as black as the eternal night above them. If it weren't
for the basic radar capability of the Waterflower, they probably would
have been dashed against the rocks of the Viridian Gulf already.

Within a darkened room inside the underwater ship, a white-coated man
with glasses worked almost silently. Clack, clack, clack. His fingers
danced along the keyboard. Green writing flashed on the display. No, not
what he wanted. He had to find it, had to. The floor shook as what
sounded like thunder rumbled outside. He almost slipped from his chair at
the abrupt shaking. Pain flared within his sprained ankle, but he never
lost concentration.

And still the voice chanted within his mind. I can kill him for you. Kill
him. Destroy all the obstacles between you what you want most. Kill him.
Kill everyone. It was a mistake for him not to watch over me. He's crazy.
You would be serving the world to allow me to get rid of him for you.
It's so dark in here. You want her. I know you want her. I can make that
happen. They're all bitches. They deserve whatever they get. Just release
me. Release me.

The voice went on.

And then he found it. Found what he had been looking for. He adjusted his
glasses and smoothed the sweat from his palms with a wipe on his
lab-coat.

"Combination accessed," the female-sounding computer voice said softly.

Release me... RELEASE ME.


<><><>


The floor and walls of the chamber shook yet again as if some kind of
psycho dentist was drilling on to the hull of the Waterflower. A
complete maniac of a dentist, Laselle decided, teeth chattering, as she
hung on to a wall strap with all her might. After a while, the shaking
subsided to the more familiar vibrations of normal underwater currents
and she let go with a sigh of relief.

She looked over to Junior who was lying on his bed with a frighteningly
blank expression on his face. He was staring up at the ceiling with
glassy green eyes. "You okay?" she asked worriedly. She had just entered
to check up on him before the ship's shaking had interrupted her. Junior
had been holed up in his room ever since the fall of Cinnabar and hadn't
spoken a word since then either.

He didn't answer. Laselle shook her head as she stepped over to the side
table and picked up his cap which had been resting upon it, along with
three poke-balls. She spun the cap around her finger. She supposed if she
had thought she was an orphan and then found her mom only to lose her
again, she would have been feeling much the same. It was bad enough when
her own parents had died...

She looked at him again and gave a slight smile. "C'mon, JT. At least you
still have your father. And with such powerful parentage, maybe some of
their strength may have gotten passed down to you."

He closed his eyes then opened them. "Don't call me JT," he said,
breaking his silence. 

"Hey, you're talking!" Laselle said with a lopsided smile.

Junior continued without acknowledgement. "As for Master Bruno..." His
voice tightened in anger. "My father... what a joke."

"What do you mean?" she asked a little warily as she played with the
sleeves of the green jumper she was wearing.

"He was never a father to me. One thing I don't understand is why should
he have taken me from Mom if he was just going to deny me anyway?"

Laselle placed his hat back on to the table. "All I know is that he does
care about you. I've seen it."

Junior grunted. "Uh huh. And first chance he gets, he splits." He closed
his eyes and fell back to silence.

Laselle was about to say more when suddenly everything began shaking
wildly again with the sound of rumbling thunder. She grabbed on to the
hand-support and held tight. Thinking that it was just ordinary
underwater currents again, she was surprised when the sound of an abrupt
explosion somewhere outside mingled in with the commotion. 

A feminine computerised voice blared on the intercom. "SECURITY ROOM
LEVEL ONE BREACHED."

"Sounds like trouble!" she exclaimed as she let go of the hand-hold and
desperately tried to balance over to the door on the shaking ground. She
looked back to see if Junior was coming. He wasn't. "Junior!" No
response. "Fine then!" She wrenched the door open and slipped outside.


<><><>


The room was clouded with smoke as inside the white-coated man with
glasses and brown hair looked around intently. Various lights blinked on
and off on the various displays all along the walls. Then he saw the
large wall-high safe. He walked over to it and punched in a code on the
touch pad on a panel on its side. There was a click as it opened.

He wrenched the large safe door open with a creaking of metal. There.
There it was. He looked upon the ball seeming to be made of shadow
pulsing within. A construct of that monster. It lay secured on a
raised cone-shaped holder.

Release me.

He reached over to pick it up. It felt cold within his palm. Like a
sphere of dry ice yet with no solidity to it.

"It's that Joe guy," someone shouted. "What the hell do you think you're
doing?"

He turned around to see two of Master Bruno's Fight Trainers standing at
the door. I'm sorry, he thought to himself. But I'm doing this for
everyone. He threw the ball at the ground between them. It shattered open
like a dissipating shadow. Brown energy flared, exploded, and began
reforming itself into a tall humanoid figure with a cloud of steam.

"Damn!" the other Fight Trainer cursed. "He's freeing Brock! You go get
help!" His companion quickly left to do just that, as he wrenched a
poke-ball from a fold within his uniform and threw it. "Go, Rhyhorn!" The
ball split, releasing its energy into the powerful, rock-armoured pokemon
with four legs and a single thick horn upon its nose.

It was too late. A long brown cloak flapped once as the six-foot-seven,
heavily muscled Master of Rock finished reforming. Fiercely glowing eyes
like narrow slits flashed under dark-brown hair worn in long spikes.

"Rhyhorn, Horn Drill!" Immediately, the charging pokemon's horn began to
spin rapidly within its skull just as it leaped up to the attack.

A smirk twisted Brock's lips as he threw folds of his cloak back to free
his arms. Instantaneously, the skin along them began to crackle as they
turned to grey-tinged rock. By the time the rhyhorn had reached him, they
were completely transmorphed. Then calmly and almost without effort, he
just abruptly stopped the powerful charge by grasping on to its
shoulders as it rose to impale him. The strike of rock against rock was
violently loud as it echoed all along the metallic walls of the chamber.

"Pathetic," Brock murmured. He looked up at the Fight Trainer as he
easily held the Rhyhorn's revolving horn at bay. "You haven't been
training this Rock Pokemon well at all." He looked back down at it and
his eyes flashed an ugly brown. "Best to put it out of its misery..."

The Fight Trainer gasped in shock as Brock's rocky fists twisted and
there was a huge snap as he viciously snapped the Rhyhorn's neck to the
side. Bits of rock and dust crumbled from the destroyed neck.

"And you too!" Brock yelled, brown cloak flapping as he threw the severed
head with its still-spinning horn directly at him. The Fight Trainer
screamed in horrified agony as the horn sank into his chest and drilled
through his heart with a wet grinding sound and a splatter of bright
blood. The horn was still drilling through his chest as he took a drunken
step backward then collapsed against the wall and finally lay still.

Joe closed his eyes against the carnage. The end justified the means. It
was all he could think of.

"So you are the one who freed me."

Joe opened his eyes and he felt his heart speed up in fear. For a moment
his throat felt too tight to speak. Then he realised that Brock wouldn't
hurt him. They were allies now after all. "Y-Yes, Master Brock."

He took a step closer, his heavy boot seeming to shake the ground.
Despite the conclusions that Joe had come to earlier, he was still
warily afraid. "WHERE ARE ASH AND MISTY?"

"H-He's-"

Someone screamed, cutting him off, and he looked over to the open
doorway. It was a girl with long brown-black hair wearing a green jumper
and a skirt. He recognised her as Laselle, Giselle's little sister and
formerly one of Erika's Grass Trainers. At her shoulder was hovering a
strange black-coloured butterfree. She had just run into the room and was
now staring horrified at the dead trainer laying against the wall and
floor with the rhyhorn's severed head, which was still drilling through
his body and was now making screeching noises as it tore at the metallic
floor underneath.

Brock turned, his eyes flashing at the intrusion. "A female," he said, a
scowl twisting his lips. He lifted his rocky arms, palms glowing darkly.

Joe paled. Not Giselle's sister! "No, Master, please don't!"

Brock glanced at him for a second but then returned his gaze back to the
young girl who stood as if paralysed, looking at the dead man. "She looks
familiar," he mused darkly. "Ah! She's the sister of that bitch you're so
enamoured of... I'm going to enjoy this." He began to step forward, brown
cloak rippling over his muscular frame, the folds gliding behind him.

Laselle seemed to snap out of whatever shock she had been in.
"Butterfree, Psychic!"

"Free!" A blue beam of energy shot forth from her flying pokemon directly
at Brock.

"Weak!" Brock yelled as he continued forward, arm outstretched to knock
it away. Therefore he was absolutely surprised when the Psychic bolt of
power struck his arm and propelled him powerfully backward, tumbling on
to his back before he collided into the metallic wall of the room and
created a massive dent in it. Arm smoking, he looked up, slitted eyes
flashing an ugly brown as he stared at the black butterfree.

"Free," the butterfree said hesitantly.

"YOU!" Brock yelled.

"Butterfree, Stun Spore!" Laselle ordered.

But strangely, her pokemon flapped its wings and flew away back into the
corridor she had come from.

"Butterfree! Where are you going!"

Brock chuckled evilly as he pushed himself to one knee and then stood up
to his full massive height. "Little girl, you don't know what you're
dealing with ... those who meddle with power ... will become
overpowered."

Laselle seemed to freeze up, absolutely frightened as the Rock Master
slowly approached.

"You simpering females sicken me," Brock growled.

"Master Brock, please don't!" Joe yelled as he ran forward and grabbed on
to his arm.

He didn't spare him a glance. "WHERE ARE ASH AND MISTY?"

"Master ... they-they swam ashore to the Viridian Gulf ... they're
heading to Indigo Plateau and the Palace of the Elite Four..."

"Good. I guess I don't need you anymore." He grunted as he transformed
his rocky arm into a sharp spear and then turned around to impale Joe
through the chest with it in a burst of blood. Joe screamed a gurgling
death cry as crimson shot forth from his mouth. Then Brock jerked his
spear-shaped arm from him with a splatter, almost ripping the dead man in
two, and roughly kicked the pieces away.

"Like, holy shit!" Daisy cried as she skidded into the room beside
Laselle, blonde hair mussed up in her run.

"This is totally bad," Lily said as she also ran inside with her other
sister, Violet, in tow.

Brock turned at the intrusion and smiled thinly. He morphed his arm back
to normal and with a hard jerk, straightened out his brown cloak. "More
females to play with," he growled, wiping the blood off his arm with a
fold of the mantle.

"Jerk!" Daisy yelled as she removed a white and yellow flower decoration
from her hair. She threw it at Brock's feet and it exploded in a cloud of
fog and mist.

Brock coughed as he covered his nose. "BITCH!"

Lily smoothed her long dark-pink hair back and raised her arms to the
sides. "Quickly sisters! Link hands!"

Daisy and Violet each grabbed one of her hands and an arctic-blue glow
surrounded them. An unnatural breeze began to stir and their pink, blue
and blonde hair each respectively began floating high in the air as the
power of water coursed through them.

"Misty's air-headed sisters," Brock growled as he recognised them.
"Holding hands to pray for your lives?"

"I don't totally think so!" Daisy shouted. "Now, sisters! AURORA BEAM!"
She and Violet pointed their free hands at the Rock Master and a surge of
bright rainbow-coloured energy washed forth in a wave of watery
destruction.

Brock yelled as he crossed his arms out in front of him and desperately
tried to hold himself against it. But a second later, his thick boots
lost their hold upon the metallic floor and he was powerfully smashed
back like a small yacht washed away by a tidal wave. The already-dented
wall gave way at his collision into it and he was smashed through more
bits of metal and machinery until he was expelled out into the ocean.

"WARNING! WARNING!" the female computer voice blared on the intercom.
"HULL INTEGRITY BREACHED."

The ship groaned at the punishment and ocean water began surging in to
the room as if a huge dam had burst. The water roared with the force of a
hundred waterfalls.

"Fall back!" Daisy yelled as she began dragging Laselle with her out into
the corridor with her sisters following. "Emergency shut down the western
wing before we get flooded enough to sink!"

"Got it, sis!" Lily shouted as she began running toward the bridge, pink
hair floating behind her at the speed she was running.

Water tinged with red flowed out into the hallway by their feet until
Violet opened a small control-box on the corridor wall and smashed it
with her palm. Thick steel walls rapidly hissed and then shut the doorway
off with a clang, stopping more water from escaping out of the room and
into the rest of the ship.

"I hope we get through this," Daisy said as she worriedly smoothed her
blonde hair back.


<><><>


West of Viridian Forest, all was silent, save for the light crunching
sounds of boots against dried leaves and the gentle patter of rain upon
vegetation. Shadows danced against the trunks of thin trees as a group of
seven people and a large persian trudged north in single file, the one
in the lead with a dark pikachu sitting on his left shoulder and emitting
a faint light - just enough to allow visibility through the blackness of
the artificial night for a radius of about half a dozen feet. Overhead,
dark swirling clouds dominated the sky, although it now seemed as if the
violent storm had just about died down and was swiftly returning to what
passed as normal in recent days.

Walking in third place, just behind Ash and Misty, Duplica brought the
hood of her violet cloak lower over her head so that the edge of it was
about level with her eyes. Annoyingly, droplets of water dripped from it
so that they fell in front of her face, slightly obscuring her vision.
"Ash, how long do you think till we get to Indigo Plateau?" She was
tired, wet, cold and hungry. And the forest around here gave her
unpleasant memories...

Features cast in shadow from his hooded cloak, Ash took a brief look back
at her, but continued on at the same speed. He parted low-lying branches
and other foliage in their way with swipes of his black-gloved fists. "I
think we just hit old Route Twenty-two. We should reach the outlying
ruins of the entrance to League Headquarters in about another hour or so
if we continue on at this pace."

Misty was directly in front of Duplica, walking uncharacteristically
tired but also thoroughly hooded and cloaked against the light rain. "At
least if we don't get lost," she said wryly.

"Ruins?" Duplica asked, confused. "You mean Pokemon League Headquarters
was destroyed?"

Ash looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "Duplica, where have you
been? Yeah, the old headquarters was destroyed, but we rebuilt it further
inland - in the centre of the Indigo Plateau City." 

"Well, I haven't been around this area in a long time," Duplica defended.
Nor did I ever want to come back, she added silently to herself. If she
had known that this was the route they were going to be taking...

"What's wrong, Duplica? Not your usual perky self?" Erika said at her
back. There was a hint of acid to her tone which puzzled Duplica.

"Erika, please," Misty said tiredly.

Walking behind Erika, but in front of Jessie, James and Persian, Bruno -
who was silent until now - grunted. "Stop it. All of you. I am sick and
tired of petty squabbling. I just want to destroy the Pokemon League once
and for all." There was still the deep grief in his voice that he
couldn't hide ever since they had escaped Cinnabar Island.

Duplica looked down, thinking as she watched for muddy puddles to step
over. Losing the person you loved most... it was the most painful thing a
person could ever experience in their lifetime.

"My feet hurt," James complained in the back.

"Ssh!" Jessie unsuccessfully whispered. "Don't let them notice us while
they're fighting."

"Yeah, ssh!" Persian said a little scared.

After that, they fell to silence again for a while, just the sound of
boots crunching on underbrush and twigs, and occasionally the sound of
branches being swiped away by Ash in the lead.

Then the silence was broken as suddenly Misty stumbled as she tripped
over something and fell, clutching on to Ash's back. Ash stopped, halting
the group. "Misty, are you alright?" he asked, turning around to support
her with his hands on her upper-shoulders.

"I-I'm, fine," Misty exhaled. "Just keep going. I just feel a bit tired,
that's all."

Although Ash's features were concealed by the shadows of his
hooded-cloak, Duplica could sense his frown. He reached with one hand to
slide Misty's hood from her head. "You look a bit pale." 

He was right, Duplica thought, as she stepped closer and studied Misty's
flaccid features. Her red hair hung limply around her shoulders and she
looked like she was sweating despite the coldness of the artificial
night. Her normally light-cream skin looked as white as snow and her
usually bright-blue eyes seemed to have lost some of their inner-light.

"N-No, it's okay," Misty insisted, although lacking conviction. "We have
to push on before ... before we run out of time to stop them."

Ash threw the hood of his own cloak back to shake his head. "No. Look at
you. You can barely stand up straight. There's something wrong."

Erika pushed her way past Duplica and felt Misty's forehead with the back
of her hand. "She's burning up with fever. It's almost as if ..." Her
eyes flashed green. "It feels like poison!"

"What?" Ash asked angrily.

"Seems to be -"

Then Misty groaned and collapsed into Ash's arms. Ash held her tightly
with an expression of worry replacing his anger. "What kind of poison? Is
it serious?"

Erika closed her eyes once then opened them. "I-I can't tell. Some part
of it seems Grass-based but it also has other elements within it..."

"Pikapi!" Pikachu on Ash's shoulder suddenly shouted angrily, cheeks
sparking. They all turned around to what had caught his attention. A
small, yellow and scaly form with glowing black, round eyes was perched
upon a low-lying branch on a tree about a dozen feet in front of them. It
clutched something white within its sharp front claws.

"Shreww..." it growled in a hostile manner.

"A sandshrew?" James exclaimed.

Ash was suddenly alert, eyes beginning to glow golden. "Not just any.
That's AJ's Sandshrew."

"Does that mean he survived when he was thrown off the ship then?" Erika
asked, eyes also beginning to glow in suspicion.

The sandshrew narrowed its eyes and then pointed a paw at them. There was
a light whoosh of air as it shot one of its claws downward. Ash moved his
left boot out of the way as it thunked into the wet earth where it had
just been. There was a small piece of rolled-up paper attached to the
claw that Ash reached down to pick up as he supported Misty on one arm.
He stood up and unrolled it to read it. A second later, his gloved hand
tightened, crunching it into a ball. He dropped it on to the ground, eyes
blazing now as he stared hard at the sandshrew. "That bastard."

The sandshrew turned to leap off the branch and then scampered off
through the trees in a westerly direction.

Ash gave Misty over to Duplica and Erika to support, each with an arm
over a shoulder. "I have to go now. Meet me at the ruins of the old
League Gate. I won't be long - no one follow me." He looked down at Misty
with a brief tender look in his eyes. "Please take care of her." A lump
grew in Duplica's throat at the look. And with that, he threw his hood
back on and dashed after the sandshrew with Pikachu clutching on his
shoulder, black jagged tail streaming behind in the air.

As Ash rapidly ran out of view into the hundreds of trees all around
them, Bruno stepped over to the crumpled note and picked it up. He
unrolled it and read it. He shook his head. "That AJ is a fool."

"What does it say?" Erika asked.

Bruno read aloud, "Meet me at the old Viridian clearing if you want your
bitch to live. Don't be late."

Duplica looked at Misty's unconscious face, pale in her sickness, but
still with an ethereal beauty. She removed her own violet hood with her
free hand and blew a lock of damp blue hair from her cheek. 

"Rest in peace, AJ."


<><><>


The bridge of the ship was ankle-deep in water and Giselle was frowning
down at her ruined shoes as she concentrated on keeping the edges of her
lab-coat from getting wet. Designers they were, she fumed. And probably
the only pair left in the world after the company that made them was all
but obliterated in the war. That Brock guy had a lot to answer for.

"Like, listen up everyone!" Daisy was saying, seated upon the captain's
chair, which she had swivelled around to face them. All the survivors had
been gathered onto the bridge. "I think we've gotten the ship into a
stable condition. As it is, sections five to eight are totally
water-logged, but we managed to survive. If the storm hadn't settled down
by the time we surfaced, like we'd probably be all sitting at the bottom
of the ocean."

Giselle looked out the view screen. The surface of the ocean was still a
bit wavy but like the blonde had said, it was relatively calm, more in
touch with the deadness of the world. A light rain was still falling, but
nothing serious. "Probably, the power given off by Cinnabar's destruction
finally died down," she said aloud.

"And we're totally lucky that it did so," Lily said as she swung her
chair around, splashing her feet in the water on the floor. "But right
now, we're stranded out here in the ocean until we can get the turbines
online..."

"But-but we have to warn them about Brock!" Laselle said as she hugged
her butterfree. She stood up agitated from where she was sitting down on
a box.

Violet paused from her rapid tapping on her keyboard and looked at her.
"Not possible," she said sadly with a shake of blue hair. "Like, by the
time we could get there, it would be much too late. I don't think we can
even get the repairs done in time to pick them up at West Indigo Plateau
like we planned."

"Where are we now?" Captain Jenny asked as she leaned against the wall of
the bridge.

"Somewhere south-west of the old Pallet area's shore," Daisy answered.
"We've been totally pushed back by the storm."

Giselle sighed. "Ash is so dull. He should have taken that damn Shadow
Ball with him instead of leaving it here with us. After all, he would
have had to kill Brock eventually."

"But that's what he was trying to avoid to do," Laselle said forcefully.
"How would you feel about having to kill someone who was once your best
friend? Oh, that's right, you never had any. Unless you count
'boyfriends'."

Giselle shrugged eloquently. "You got me pegged, little sister."

"Besides, it was your admirer, Joe, who set him free in the first place!"

"Look, I didn't ask him to love me so it's not my fault."

"Please," Nurse Joy interrupted. "Fighting won't erase what's happened.
We should be thinking of the solution, not bickering over whose fault it
was."

"Mistress..." a quiet voice suddenly spoke up. Giselle turned to see that
it was that weird gothic-like girl in the black robe and charms they had
picked up back at Cinnabar. Chanelle, her name was, she remembered. "I-I
think I know a way to warn them..." the girl said.

Laselle looked at her in suspicion. It was obvious that she had disliked
the waif-like pale girl with long black hair on first sight. "Really?"

"Yes," she said softly, pale-silver eyes looking scared.

"Laselle, stop bullying her," Giselle said firmly. "If she knows a way to
get to Ash and the others then let her speak."

Laselle stuck her tongue out at her then sat back on the box, next to
Junior who Giselle had almost forgot was in the room since he was so
silent. She felt a light tinge of pity looking at him, but then returned
her gaze to Chanelle.

"Y-You see," Chanelle said, charms on her robes clinking as she stepped
from foot to foot within the ankle-deep water, "back in Cinnabar, I was
training to be a League Channeller-"

Hikaru, one of Bruno's men, looked at her sharply. "A League Chaneller!"
he said in horrified surprise. He backed away from the girl as if she had
just grown two horns and a forked tail. Laselle had even let go of her
Butterfree and was preparing to use it.

"But that's all finished now," Chanelle said, looking down at her feet.
"A-After Mistress Lorelei murdered everyone, I don't know what to think."
Her pale silver-grey eyes moistened. "My friends ... my family. All
gone."

Nurse Joy stepped up to her and gave her a hug. "That's okay Dear. Don't
think about it. You're with us now."

Giselle was spinning the stethoscope on her neck around in circles.
Finally she said, "So, a Channeller ... does that mean you know how to
teleport?"

Chanelle gave a slight nod. "B-But I'm not very good. I'm still a
beginner. I get tired easily and I can only teleport a few at a time...
maybe only three others besides myself. As far as Viridian City Ruins."

Laselle frowned. "But if you knew how to teleport, why didn't you tell us
sooner?"

"I-I don't know. I guess I didn't think about it until now."

"Like that's enough, as long as she can do it now," Daisy said before
more hostilities could break out. "As long as we warn them about Brock
and tell them that we'll be late." She looked over them. "So who's
going?"

Laselle immediately latched on to Giselle's arm. "C'mon big sister," she
said sweetly. "You know you want to go."

Giselle cursed underneath her breath. "You little power harlot," she
whispered. "You're just saying that because of what you know about me."

"Naturally," Laselle said unashamedly.

Surprisingly, Junior spoke up too. "I'll go then. I need ... I need to
speak to my father as well."

"Okay, that's three-" Daisy said.

"Me too," Hikaru interrupted.

"But she said only three-"

"No, no, I-I think I might be able to do four," Chanelle said. "It's
okay."

"You totally sure, Dear?" Lily said with a smile.

"I'm sure," Chanelle said firmly.


<><><>


They stood around in a circle in the driest room they could find on the
ship - surprisingly it was the bathroom. It was probably the
waterproofing, Giselle thought to herself a little ironically. On the
ground around them were six tall, lighted white candles that Chanelle had
insisted she needed for the ceremony. It was also their only light
source, since all power had been cut off in this section to save it for
the engines when they finally became operational.

"Now all link hands," Chanelle said, her pale silver eyes reflecting the
light of the candles so it seemed she had a fire within her. She looked
almost menacing - far different to the timid girl they had always seen so
far.

They lifted their hands to the sides and soon they were a completed
circle - Chanelle, Junior, Giselle, Hikaru and Laselle.

"Ow, do you have to hold my hand so tight?" Laselle complained.

"Sorry," the young channeller said. "Now please be silent while I begin
the incantations."

They complied, and the room was completely quiet except for the light
sound of gentle waves outside splashing against the ship's hull and their
breathing.

Chanelle finally began chanting in an eerie monotone, in perfect timing
with the rocking of the ship's floor.

              "Night beyond light, Darkness beyond Twilight."
			  
A spooky breeze began to kick up around them despite the room being
closed off. Giselle shivered.

              "I offer my soul to the dead."
			  
The candle flames brightened then burst into tall flames.

              "With this unworthy virgin's blood, I appeal thee."

Chanelle produced a small pocket knife from her robes and slashed the
fleshy part of her palm. Bright crimson blood dripped on to the tiles. It
seemed almost to steam as it splashed in dark splotches.

              "Send us oh advocate, to thy location!"
			  
Her voice grew to an abrupt shout.

              "TELEPORTATION!"
			  
Chanelle's brightly glowing silver eyes seemed to dominate the whole
room. To swallow them in a world of stark whiteness. And with it came a
pain as white-hot as that gaze. Was it supposed to hurt this much? It was
a thought that Giselle considered just before she lost consciousness.


<><><>


Light rain fell continuously from the blue-black skies above. The storm
was over but the rain persisted. It pattered across the tops of the trees
and the leaves so that it was the only sound that could be heard.
Although without thunder and without lightning, a storm of a different
kind would very soon take its place.

At the edge of a circular clearing in the Western Viridian Forest, a tall
athletic figure in a light-brown cloak waited, leaning against the
gnarled trunk of a tall tree. A single eye that matched his cloak in
colour glimmered in anticipation within the darkness of his concealed
face.

The corner of AJ's lip turned up. Ash was gonna pay. There was no way
he was gonna ignore the letter of challenge. He remembered the girl
with red hair and how she and Ash were so sickeningly close. He frowned.
How the girl had cheered against him in the semi-finals. When
unbelievably, he had lost. Pain flared in his palm and he looked down to
see blood dripping from his closed fist. He had tightened it so hard, his
fingernails had bitten the flesh.

"Shrew!" 

AJ looked up across the other side of the clearing to see the squat
yellow body of his pokemon scamper out of the shadows of the trees
and run towards him across the wet grass. 

He frowned. Where was Ash? He was supposed to be following. "Where is
he?" he asked angrily down to his pokemon when it had reached him and sat
by his feet.

Sandshrew looked back puzzled. "Shrew?"

"Did you give him the letter?" he screamed, forming a long whip made of
brown energy in his right hand. He began to crack it over its head. "I
told you-"

"You will give me the antidote," a voice said softly from above.

AJ looked up into the branches of the tree above him, letting his whip
dissipate. A lean form shrouded in floating black shadows stood
motionless up above balanced perfectly along a bough. It was looking down
at him, two glowing dots of gold that were its eyes gleaming out of the
darkness.

"Huh?" He leapt back into the clearing startled. It was him! How did he
get up there without him noticing it?

Ash jumped down, cloak trailing above him like a demon's wings, and
landed swiftly in a crouch on the wet ground. There wasn't even a sound
at the impact but his boots were smoking as if incredibly hot. Then he
stood up, hands behind his back, all the while staring at him from
underneath his hood with those frightening golden eyes. On his left
shoulder was perched his black pikachu, cobalt-blue eyes gleaming as
malevolently as its master's.

AJ stood up straight and folded his arms. Sandshrew leapt up on to his
own left shoulder. "I knew you'd come," he said with a smile devoid of
humour. "You were always a sucker for a pretty girl."

"Just give me the antidote, AJ," he said flatly.

AJ narrowed his single eye. He flashed a small circular vial of red
liquid in his hand. "If you want this, you have ta fight me for it." He
flicked the vial into the air and caught it in his mouth which he then
swallowed. "Just in case you think you can get it by stealin' it and
runnin' away. Now I'll prove to the world once and for all, that I am the
greatest Pokemon Master of all time."

The gold eyes within the black hood narrowed to slits at the action. "You
really want to risk attracting the Forbidden Pokemon?"

AJ extended his right arm and Sandshrew ran along it. There was a tremble
to the air, like an aerial earthquake, as it flashed and reformed into
his thick steel broadsword. He threw his hood back behind neck, letting
the rain fall upon his head, and spread his arms wide to the sides. He
spun his thick brown sword around in circles. "You think I give a shit
about any Forbidden Pokemon?" he roared. "We have to finish it! I can't
live knowin' I'm not the best!"

Ash regarded him silently as he adjusted his fingerless black gloves out
in front of him. "Very well," he said softly. He extended his own right
arm out to the side to let his pikachu run along it to his hand. There
was an ear-splitting crack of thunder and a flash of bright lightning
that forced AJ to look away. 

When he looked back, Ash was holding his long, wickedly-sharp katana
horizontally behind his back with his right arm, slightly-curved, black 
blade seeming to absorb the darkness around them. He stood slightly 
sideways in preparation, left palm forward, his black cloak 
sinuously moving around his body as if it were alive. "Just remember 
that you pushed me to this - I'll not go easy on you any longer," was 
all he said as he jerked his head back to let the hood fall behind his 
shoulders. His released black hair fell partially over his calm face.

AJ brought his arms together, locking the hilt of his sword within both
hands. "I'll remember to have the funeral people engrave that on your
tombstone," he growled, the rain wetting his own green hair to lie over
his forehead. "DIE!" he screamed as he launched a swing upward from the
ground, blade glowing an ugly brown. The grassy earth beneath him was
ripped open and a jagged blade of hard rock emerged to rapidly streak
across the ground toward his target.

Surprisingly, rather than dodge, Ash ran boldly into it, katana blade
still held behind his back with one hand. Then with a ringing of steel,
he sliced through it with one smooth stroke - so fast, AJ only saw a
diagonal slash mark before the blade of rock exploded in a shower of
pebbles and granite. And then the Shadow Master was atop him in a flurry
of precise sword strikes. 

Black and brown sparks flashed at each clash of their blades. AJ fell
back, parrying the strikes with some difficulty. "Very good," he panted.
"But you forget something... Ground overpowers Thunder!" He forced more
of his element along the blade causing it to glow brighter and struck at
Ash with all his strength. His enemy attempted to slide his blade along 
his in a spin manoeuvre, defensive to offensive, but was instead blown 
backward by the sheer power of AJ's slash. Brown ground energy pushed 
him back and high into the air like a boulder thrown by a catapult.

AJ laughed until he saw Ash rotate high into a backflip to strike the
horizontal face of a top of a tree with his boots. Using the tree like
a launching pad, he propelled himself back down toward him, Shadow Blade
at the ready. AJ tried to do the same thing again but was rudely
surprised when Ash picked up speed, and seemed to this time, dodge the
slash rather than parry it, and nimbly enter AJ's center of defence. His
breath exploded out of him as he felt a hard fist strike his belly, then
again, followed up by a shifting side kick which knocked him backward.
Then Ash finished the series with a step, double roundhouse kick which
struck him first in the chest, then on the chin and this time, launched
*him* high into the sky.

Feeling like a bashed-in punching bag, AJ spat out some blood as he
desperately twisted in midair to face Ash who had leaped up after him,
black sword held over one shoulder ready to finish him off. "Not yet!" AJ
yelled. He still had his own sword which he had not let go of despite the
beating. He swung it while simultaneously letting his ki course through
the sword once again. A blade of brown elemental energy was released
which flew down toward Ash like a bullet.

However, Ash pointed his sword down and let go a huge bolt of black
lightning to force his flight higher. AJ's blade of energy narrowly
missed him and instead struck the lower trunk of a tree at the edge of
the clearing and sheared through as if the hard wood was as weak as
paper. It fell over with a shockingly-loud crash.

AJ spotted the branch of a tree behind him, and he spun into a somersault
to grab it with his one free hand. Then using his backward momentum to
his advantage, he swung around the branch until he was above it, let go,
flipped, and landed in a crouch on the precarious limb. Quickly, he
looked in the direction where he had last seen Ash and prepared to let
fly another Ground Slash, but he was nowhere to be found. "Where are ya,
coward?" he yelled.

"You should never have brought Misty into this."

AJ spun around and stood up. Ash was standing on the root of the branch
just where it was joined to the trunk of the tree. He held his curved
katana in one hand to the side, calmly spinning it around his finger in
wide circles.

"Your quarrel is with me, and me only," Ash continued.

AJ rubbed the scar which ran along the left side of his face, and the
closed eyelid where an eye was missing. "You think I care about your
whore?" he said harshly. "Anything that gives you pain is what gives me
pleasure. In fact, I wouldn't be sorry if your whore was dead already.
That poison was incredibly lethal."

Everything turned frighteningly quiet. AJ stepped backward to prepare for
an attack when a horrifying red colour began to replace the golden-brown
of Ash's eyes. Darkest black aura began to emit around his body and
the still air began to move in a sharp wind, blowing AJ's cloak around as
well as rustling the leaves of the tree around them.

"You don't like that do you?" AJ asked smugly, not understanding what was
going on, but knowing full-well that the death of his girl would hurt him
terribly. He lifted his sword out in front of him. "Well, playtime's
over! Sandshrew, Electric Inversion!" The sword began to spark on and
off. A pity he had to resort to this move - it was kind of cheap - but
the way Ash was acting unnerved him a little and he didn't want to take
any more chances.

Ash's eyes flared red once and stayed red. "Pathetic." 

His voice had somehow grown deeper, deep enough that AJ could feel it
within his bones. He blinked. "What?"

Ash began to step closer despite the blinking of AJ's sword. "Truly
pathetic."

"What the hell?" AJ said, looking at the blade. "Sandshrew, are ya doin
it just like I trained ya?"

Shockingly, Ash suddenly just grabbed on to the blade with his free left
hand. "You are weak." Then his fist closed and the blade just snapped.

AJ heard the dying scream of his Sandshrew within his mind. "NOOOOOOO!"
he cried as the shattered remnants of his sword fell through his hands
like broken glass.

"It was a mistake to push him like that," Ash said, eyes still glowing
red. He lifted up his long curved black katana and there was an obscenely
loud boom as it reformed back into his dark pikachu. Except now its eyes
were also red. AJ screamed as the pikachu latched on to his chest and
began to glow blackly. Despite his immunity to electricity, he could feel
the powerful current course throughout his body, vibrating him like a
rag doll. It felt as if his blood were boiling - like he was being cooked
from within. His single eye felt as if it would pop from the blistering
heat - he could imagine it explode like a badly-cooked raw egg.

Desperately, he thought fast. "If you do this, the antidote will be
destroyed! I was lying earlier - she's probably still alive!"

Immediately the immense electrical current stopped flowing into him and
he was released to fall down, grasping at the branch by Ash's feet.
Abruptly, Ash shouted as he clutched at his head as if in pain. His eyes
were blinking from red to golden-brown as if he could not decide what
colour they were supposed to be. Tremulously, he said, "W-What's
happening to me?"

He's crazy! AJ thought wonderingly. Now's my chance! "Die!" he yelled as
he jumped up, ki channelled within his hand to stab him through the
heart.

Unfortunately, Ash sensed his movement and recovered just in time to
change his Pikachu back into katana form which he then used to slice the
branch out from underneath their feet. And then they were both abruptly
falling forty feet to the ground with nothing to support them.

"Fool!" AJ shouted as he looked down and threw his senses outward. The
grass far below ruptured and a narrow mountain of brown rock began
rapidly rising upward with the sound and force of a rising volcano. He
landed on top of it and used it to gain his balance and slow his fall.
Ash bounced off the side of AJ's man-made mountain and continued to fall
toward the earth. "Fissure!" AJ yelled, commanding the earth Ash was to
fall upon to split apart. Steam hissed at the violence and roaring of the
earth's opening. He would make Ash land in a pool of molten lava!

But as Ash tumbled downward toward his apparent death, AJ cursed loudly 
when his enemy abruptly flipped upright and a disc of shadow grew from 
beneath his feet to stop his wild spinning. Somehow he gained enough 
control to glide down to the ground out of harm's way.

"Dammit!" AJ exclaimed as he too landed back to earth upon his improvised
elevator of rock. "This is for Sandshrew! Lay down and die!" he screamed,
as he pounded the earth with both fists. He had to attack hard and fast
before Ash gained his bearings. The bastard still seemed a bit confused
from whatever had happened up there. And he was growing tired. Already
with his pokemon's loss he could feel himself growing weaker.

A crack of hard destruction zigzagged its way on the ground toward where
Ash had landed from his fall. Seeing the attack headed his way, Ash
leaped high into the sky. Black cloak gliding around him, he reared his
arm back and rapidly threw his sword down at him. AJ dodged easily, the
katana harmlessly striking down into the grass behind his back with a
thunk. He jumped up and began rising up to meet him in the air with the
helpful push of a rising column of rock. "That was pathetic!" he said
disgustedly. "Now you've left yourself wide open!"

"You should have just given me the antidote," was all Ash said with a
regretful look in his brown eyes. He whipped what looked like a thin
black rope of electricity down from his palm and it flew past AJ's
shoulder with a burst of crackling energy.

"You missed again ... ARGH!" AJ gurgled as suddenly he just saw the long
curved blade of Ash's black katana sticking through the middle of his
chest. How? How? AJ thought as he lost control of his column of rock and
began to fall to the earth. He looked over his shoulder to find the hilt
of the sword buried in his back and the thin black rope of lightning
attached to it. Ash had pulled his sword back up with his rope to stab
him! It was his last thought before he landed hard on his back upon the
ground, forcing the katana even more through his body, bounced once and
then died.


<><><>


Ash landed with a wet thump upon the damp grassy ground, the folds of his
cloak settling around him. It was over. He jerked his wrist and his
katana flew out of the fallen AJ's back with a whipping of the lightning
rope. As he caught the hilt in his palm, he was already running. He had
to get Misty's antidote from within the body. 

He frowned as he pushed his rain-wetted hair back from his eyes. For a
second during the fight he had somehow blanked out. When he had 'awoken'
he had felt the residue of fury ... and yes, pain, such that he had
never known... it frightened him that he was capable of such hatred. He
had to find out what was happening - although what he already suspected
terrified him even more than what the conclusion of the Armageddon would
bring if it was ever allowed to take place.


<><><>


Howling as shrill as a phantom, a wind had begun to blow in the dead
atmosphere above - although there were no leaves and branches of trees to
be rustled around in the near area. Like some sort of bomb of death that
had been dropped, where there used to be a village in the midst of a
surrounding forest, what lay there now was naught but blackened husks of
devastated buildings and vegetation. Dirt roads that wound their way
through the once-living town were now stained black - but it was anyone's
guess whether it was from the ashes or the blood of the people who had
died there.

In the darkness, with nothing but a single lantern for light held aloft
as well as the fire manes of their white mounts, four figures on
horseback surveyed the destruction before them. In the lead, and the one
holding the lantern, was a woman in a long black overcoat divided in the
back for riding. Complex, braided blue hair lay still behind her neck
and the half of her face that was not covered by her long bangs looked
seriously upon what used to be the Pallet Settlement.

Behind her, in line formation upon their steeds, was a blue-cloaked and
hooded Pokemon Master as well as another aqua-haired man and blonde
woman, both dressed in matching light, steel armor and thin grey
over-cloaks which they wore upon their shoulders.

"The Forbidden Pokemon have been busy," Suzie said quietly as she swung
the lantern around and turned her pointed brown gaze upon the countless
prints of clawed feet all throughout the ground before them. Most lay
coagulated around suspicious piles of bones with gnaw marks on them.

"Nasty business," Butch said in his scratchy voice. "I wonder. Are even
us of the Pokemon League truly safe? How do you suppose they know their
targets?"

Silence reigned for the moment. Then Suzie answered quietly, "To tell the
truth, I suspect not. There have been reports..." She supposed she should
be worrying about her ship which they had left anchored around the shore
near the destroyed Cycling Bridge with only a skeleton crew... but
honestly, she only cared about one thing nowadays... Nothing else
mattered.

"So we were right," Cassidy said angrily with a flip of her ponytail over
the shoulder of her over-cloak. "Our army getting savaged was no fluke.
If you and your men hadn't come along when you did, we would have been
devoured - even if those idiots Jessie and James hadn't come along. This
farce of the League Master's is really some sort of suicide. All the
better we find the twerp and bend his power to our own."

The blue-cloaked Water Master suddenly broke his silence. "And after that
we can kill him. I just want ... the bitches who did this to me." Rainer
threw his hood behind his shoulders to show his abused face, swelling and
with cuts as if he had barely survived from a brutal beating.

"Silence," Suzie said with a calm but steely voice. "We're here to
procure Brock, first and foremost, as you have failed to do several times
already. I do not suffer repeated failures within my company."

Rainer just stared down at his hands furiously, blue hair falling into
his eyes. "Oh, you will have him alright, but I will have what I want
too." There was also a hint of profound grief within his tone that was
impossible to conceal. The Eevee brothers had been a tightly-knit family.
And now they were a family no longer - just a lone man seeking recompense
for loss of said family.

Butch was thinking about what had been said earlier. "Speaking of Jessie
and James, we should really find them again before they find us. I don't
want to be surprised like that again."

Shaking her head, Cassidy said, "I guess that girl isn't really as
powerful as we thought to let them escape." 

"Enough talking," Suzie interjected as she hooked her lantern on to the
saddle and wheeled her Rapidash around to begin galloping north-west.
"We're wasting time. Now that the rain has stopped we should make much
better speed."

The two soldiers and the Water Master jerked their reins to follow.


<><><>


Over and over, powerful black waves crashed upon the hard rocks of the
Viridian Gulf with the sound of powerful thunderclaps. Although the storm
had died down, the seas of the ocean near the cliffs of the dangerous
gulf remained violent and unending.

Halfway up, on the slick, sheer, vertical face of slippery cliffs, a
brown-cloaked figure was steadily climbing. Rocky hand over rocky hand,
the six-foot-seven and more than two hundred and fifty pounds of solid
muscle - more when he transmuted his body to rock - Rock Master climbed
the razor-sharp cliffs as relentlessly as a force of nature.

Smash. Smash. He created his own handholds to pull himself up by simply
smashing his diamond-hard fists into the stone. The cutting wind was
powerless to faze him as it was not enough to even jar the solid mass of
his body.

Less than half an hour later, he managed to pull himself to the top of
the cliffs. He paused on the rocky precipice, crouching on one knee to
gather his breath, then stood up to his full height. The stone of the
cliffs continued on in front of him for about a dozen yards before it
slowly gave way to the brush and vegetation of a forest. As he examined
the ground for footprints, his thick, brown cloak glowed for a
split-second to dry itself of the ocean he had just come from. 

There. His slitted eyes glowed brown. Boot prints in the dirt by his 
side. They seemed to converge into a single path leading north into the 
trees.

He pulled his cowl over his head and began to trudge on when he suddenly
sensed someone behind him. He turned around. "Sabrina." Like always he
could never tell when she decided to come in except when she wanted
attention.

The Psychic Master stood with her hands behind her back, twilight-blue
eyes like her cloak, staring out at him from underneath her hood. "Still
after Mistaria, I take it," she stated.

He growled. "I appreciate your help back there in freeing me, but shut
your mouth on matters not your concern."

Her eyes flashed yellow. "Not my concern? Really?"

His own slitted eyes flared brown to match her. "NOW it is no longer your
concern. Leave me be, witch." He spun around with a flap of his mantle
and walked relentlessly forward.

Sabrina shook her head as she teleported out with a flash of white light.


<><><>


"Uhhhh," Laselle groaned as she opened her eyes. She slowly pushed
herself up to a sitting position. Everything was black, shrouded in
darkness. She couldn't see a thing and it was starting to scare her.
"H-Hello?" she called out. "Hello?" Her voice seemed to echo around,
mocking her. Where was she? The last thing she remembered was that
crybaby Chanelle casting that spell or whatever it was to teleport them
all to the ruins of Viridian City. Had something gone wrong? She
remembered a brief pain just before the spell was cast, but then,
nothing.

Then white light flared by her side, startling her. She blinked to get
the black spots out of her vision.

"Free?" The butterfly pokemon was sitting by her side on the rocky floor,
a bright light shining from its dark wings.

"Butterfree!" she said happily as she hugged her pokemon. "Am I glad
you're here! Do you know where everyone else is?"

"Free..." it said sadly.

"What is this place?" Laselle said looking around. It seemed to be an
underground tunnel of some sort, kind of like the ones underneath Mount
Moon ... instantly, upon that thought, her heart starting beating faster.
"This isn't Mount Moon is it?" she asked desperately.

Butterfree shook its head.

"But then, where are we?" she asked, puzzled, but still scared. A tunnel
was a tunnel. And she *hated* tunnels. She looked north and it seemed to
continue on forever until Butterfree's light dissipated and then it was
just black. On the other side to the south, the tunnel seemed to open up
into two other tunnels.

"Free, free, free," Butterfree tried to explain.

"What?" Laselle asked. She wished that she could understand it, like the
rapport between Ash and Pikachu, but apparently she had not had enough
time with it yet.

Butterfree sweated. Then it hopped out of her arms and seemed to grasp
her hand with its antennae. It manipulated her fingers into a 'V' sign
and then pushed her arm up.

"You're trying to tell me something," Laselle said, understanding. She
looked at the sign on her hand. It was the one she used whenever she won
a Pokemon battle. "V ..." she mused. "V for victory?"

"Free!" the Butterfree nodded happily. Then it looked down at the dirt
floor. It leaned down and traced two wavy parallel lines through it.

"Um..." Laselle said. "Squiggles?"

Butterfree sighed. Then its red eyes brightened. It leaned down again and
drew a stick figure person between the parallel lines and what looked
like one of those cars people used to use before the war when all those
things were destroyed. "A road?" she asked hesitantly.

"Free!" Butterfree nodded affirmatively.

"Victory ... Road?" Her throat dried out and it felt like she had
suddenly swallowed a golf ball. "Victory Road??? Oh, shit, oh shit, oh
shit..." She glared at her pokemon with a frightened look on her face.
"Butterfree how could you! I would have rather stayed ignorant!"

Butterfree sighed again.


<><><>


Upon the crumbling stone wall, the shadow of a small campfire flickered
in random directions. Somehow in synchronisation with the shadow's
movement, there was a cold wind that whistled through the holes in the
roof where the dead pallor to the sky could be spied through from below.
It wasn't much of a shelter, the half-collapsed section of a building -
one of many within the ruins of the old League Gate just at the western
edge of Viridian Forest - but it was better than having to brave the
depressing, cold weather of the world outside.

Especially when Misty was so sick, Erika thought with a lump in her
throat as she watched her best friend of these past years toss and turn
upon the open sleeping-bag, sweat-soaked red hair splayed around her
face. She had removed the blue cloak earlier and had found the small
thorn attached to her upper-arm. It wasn't hard to find since the area
around the puncture had begun to bruise an ugly purple colour - a distinct
contrast to the natural paleness of Misty's skin. It was an evil poison
that AJ had struck her with. She suddenly and furiously wished that
whatever Ash had done to AJ was ugly and messy.

Misty mumbled something in her sleep. Erika thought it sounded like she
had said Ash's name. She shook her head. Even if Misty blamed Ash and
herself so much from what had happened, she couldn't run away. Perhaps it
was the reason that Misty had foolishly sought him out before all of this
Armageddon stuff even started. An excuse to finally meet him again and
finally get the man out of her system. If that was the case, then her
goal had truly and completely failed. Erika was no longer sure on what
leg to stand on. She used to think that Ash had no empathy with himself
or others, but she had been proved wrong so many times already. He
obviously cared a lot for Misty despite all their fighting but it was
completely contradictory to what he was supposed to have done.

She removed her red hair-band and bent it around in her fingers above her
crossed legs. She still blamed herself for the death of her last three
Grass Trainers. No matter if she had been lost with Ash, she just knew
that she should have been there for them. It was illogical, but whoever
thought that feelings had to stay within the confines of reason?

And now, Misty. The poor girl who had probably been suffering heart-break
for more than a quarter of her life - and now with a slim chance at
regaining all that she had lost, the poison was now rapidly taking even
that away. Ash, hurry, she chanted in her mind. Hurry... if Misty died
... and with her right here and she couldn't do anything. Anything. It,
it just wouldn't be right.

Suddenly, a commotion started in the room next door where Bruno and the
old Team Rocket were resting, voices shouting, and then the rotting
wooden door banged open to reveal Ash looking deathly tired, his black
cloak ripped in several places and with Pikachu on his shoulder.

"Pikachu, give Erika the vial," Ash said as he banged the door shut again
and leaned against the wall. As he brushed the hair away from his
half-closed eyes, Pikachu leaped off his shoulder and scampered over to
Erika where he dropped a small, round glass decanter.

"Pika," Pikachu said sadly as he looked down at Misty, pointed ears
drooping, then sat down on his hind legs by the campfire in the centre of
the room.

"Thank God!" Erika said anxiously as she lifted the container into the
light of the fire and studied the liquid within. "This is the one. It
could have been that AJ was bluffing that he really had an antidote and
intended all along for Misty to die."

"Just do what you have to do," Ash said in a haunted voice. He slid his
back down the rough stone wall and fell to hug his knees and close his
eyes.

Erika quickly propped Misty up against a backpack and opened the decanter
of liquid. "It was good you got it here when you did, I finally
identified the poison. It's a lethal strain from the blood of a certain
species of kakuna. It's only curable by the same sort of venom ... we 
couldn't have found any ourselves in such short time." She opened Misty's
mouth with a finger and began gently pouring the red liquid down her
throat. "It causes a certain type of paralysation which tires at first,
then attacks the nerves in your body causing non-movement and eternal
sleep followed by death. It was even a wonder how someone like AJ was
able to get not only the poison, but the antidote for it as well."

Ash turned his head and opened one eye to look down at Misty. "So is she
going to be alright?"

"I think so. We'll definitely know in a few hours."

He closed his eyes again and turned back to the front. "You seem to know
a lot about poisons, Erika. I'm glad you were here for her."

"It's not so puzzling since nearly all Grass Pokemon are part Poison as
well," Erika explained as she sat down again and replaced her band back
within her shoulder-length hair. "I'm nowhere near as good as Koga and
Aya though. Those two were a veritable dictionary of poisons. I wonder if
they managed to escape from South Lavender before it went nova." Suddenly
she caught a flash of red on Ash's hands and she turned. Astonishingly,
she realised that both his gloved hands were absolutely covered in
dark-red blood, although most of it was dried now.

Ash sensed her gaze and opened his eyes to look down at his red hands
again. "You must be thinking I'm some kind of murdering monster," he said
softly. "I was after all known as 'the Assassin' back in the wars."

But Erika just turned back to watch over Misty, who now seemed a lot
calmer, although if that was more from Ash's presence or from the
administering of the antidote was unknown. "Is that AJ's blood?"

A pause. Then, "Yes."

Erika pulled her knees up and hugged them. "Then good."


<><><>


James had his ear pressed against the wooden door. "I think she's going
to be okay," he whispered over to Jessie who was leaning against the
half-crumbled wall on the other side of the room. He hunkered over and
fell beside her to start brushing his longish blue hair with a comb.

Jessie's dark-blue eyes were narrowed in concentration, long red ponytail
laying over her shoulder, as she sharpened one of her knives on a smooth
stone with light scraping sounds. "Good. We've been slowed down enough as
it is."

Bruno, who had been resting against the wall on the opposite side opened
one eye. "If you think we're slowing you down, why don't you just go on
ahead without us?" His deep voice was annoyed.

Jessie clutched the black veil that was lowered under her chin as if she
might raise it over her face in preparation for battle. "Fine. We just
might go and do that."

"No-no, Jessie," James immediately said. "I think we should stay
together. Besides, our rain-coats are ruined." He indicated the torn
yellow coats that they had discarded upon an old uneven table. "We can't
go out in the wet with only our fighting attire."

Persian, curled up in the centre of the room against some broken pieces
of furniture, stopped licking his paws and gave a feline smirk. "Per...
it's already stopped raining ... you just don't wanna go out there."

James began to get angry at him. "Well, I was thinking more that we just
might need some Pokemon Masters on our side. Remember what happened at
South Lavender? Butch and Cassidy ended up having verrry powerful
friends. I want friends like that too!"

"Ah," Persian flopped a paw at him, "That was a fluke. I coulda whipped
them eventually."

"Hee hee ... I seem to remember that Jolteon making those whiskers of
yours smoke," James said evilly.

Persian glared at him with his vertically-slitted black eyes. "Shuddap."

"So that's how you were captured?" Bruno was listening attentively now.
"Those three Masters with Eeveelutions?"

Jessie was back to sharpening her knives as she answered. But now they
were harder strokes in her anger. "Yes, but it wasn't so much them as
that damn bitch with the braided blue hair. That Ninetails she had ...
I've never seen anything like it."

"We tried to steal it so we could sell it," James admitted sheepishly as
he scratched the back of his head, "but it didn't work out."

Bruno gave them a flat stare.

Persian shrugged his front shoulders. "Well, we gotta eat ya know."

"I thought you were mercenaries now."

"Well, it's been kinda slow what with most of our employers probably
dead."

Then the door creaked open startling everyone, even Bruno. Ash looked at
them through the crack, his features exhausted and his black hair messy
over his forehead. "We should get some rest everyone, for at least three
or four hours. Misty might be okay by then. I'll take the first watch."

Bruno leaned back upon the wall again and pulled his maroon cloak over
himself like covers. "Don't worry. Duplica's out there already. She said
she wanted to be on watch first and that she'd go get someone when she
was tired."

Ash rubbed his cheek with a bit of his black cloak and yawned. "Yeah, I
did see her out there, sitting on a collapsed pillar. Is she okay? She
looks like there's a lot on her mind. I've never seen her so serious."

"I don't know. She's been like that ever since we got ashore," Bruno
said. "Maybe, what with everything that's happened, it's finally sinking
in to her."

Ash shook his head. "No, doesn't sound like her. Anyway, when she comes
in, tell her to get me for next watch? I'll ask her what's wrong then.
Right now, I ... I'll just get back to Misty and see how she's doing." He
closed the door.

Bruno looked around at them. "Well I guess it's time for some much-needed
shut-eye," he said as he closed his eyes and tried to go to sleep.

A few minutes later he opened them. "Jessie would you please stop that
scraping with the knife."

"Well, sorrrry," Jessie said sarcastically. She began sharpening her
throwing stars instead which was even louder.


<><><>


Outside the half-collapsed stone building and sitting high upon a
toppled-over column, a woman with long, blue hair and wearing a short
black dress was looking up at the slowly swirling sky as she hugged her
legs to her chest. Dark-bluish patterns almost like demonic symbols
decorated the heavens - or was that hell? - that were haunting to look
upon. They were strangely beautiful though...

She blinked. For an instant, Duplica thought she glimpsed a shooting star
behind that dark covering, but she wasn't sure if that was reality or
just her imagination. However, according to the time-piece, it was
supposedly around midnight so maybe she really had seen it. Nowadays, day
looked as night and it was hard keeping track of the time. But at least
she knew that there was a night sky up above - it was just being
prevented from being seen. In any case, she had made her wish, even
though she knew it would not come true. She had wished upon countless
stars in her life and none had ever been answered. Except for one, but
that had already been 'taken'.

She rubbed her folded bare arms and shivered. For some reason a biting
wind had arisen and was now howling around the broken ruins around them.
It was all the hard-faces and shapes of the broken walls, boulders,
overgrown weeds and collapsed parts of buildings that let the wind make
its terrifying noises. Almost like ghosts. A tingle ran down her spine.
Oh great, now that I've thought about ghosts, I'll keep on thinking about
them...

Still, thinking about ghosts gave her something else to think about other
than what she currently was. She would rather feel frightened than this
sickening feeling in her belly and throat and yes, her heart - especially
her heart - remembering bad memories best left forgotten. She had tried
to forget, and even actively tried to find a way where she would have to
finally give up on her feelings for good ... but as with most things in
life - at least hers - nothing was ever easy.

The howling of the wind was harder now. The rustling of shrubs, vines and
other foliage growing around the ruins grew louder and the collapsed
stone column she was sitting on began to vibrate. Duplica stopped
hugging her legs and stood up, long violet cloak materialising around her
body as she willed her hair to stop flapping in her face. She lifted her
right hand palm-first and created a brightly-lit torch from her flesh
which she threw up and caught in her other hand. "Who's there?" she
called out boldly, sweeping the torch from side-to-side. The light chased
away most of the darkness, but there was nothing around her except for
the shaking vegetation.

And then suddenly the wind just quietened down, almost like it was just
cut off, and everything was still once again. Duplica didn't let her
guard down. The quiet before the storm and all that. She wasn't
disappointed.

A black, transparent ... 'something' swooped rapidly past her shoulder
screeching loudly and it still startled her in spite of her foreboding
feelings. Then another and another. She dodged from side to side, her
heart caught in her throat. What were they? She could have sworn that
some of them moaned her name, but she wasn't sure... even worse, she
thought they had moaned *his* name as well ...

She turned around, arms raised in defence, eyes searching above in the
sky behind her for whatever they were ... spirits of some kind? But they
had vanished, either out of thin air, or among the branches of the
Western Viridian forest trees at the edge of the ruins.

Her heart beating wildly, she debated whether to go inside and report
what she had seen. Then she decided against it. She imagined Ash looking
at her in disgust and then dashing off to investigate for himself. She
had always been strong - the one never to take anything seriously - she
had to live up to that image. Inwardly she began deciding on what form to
change to ... ghosts and spirits. It would have to be something with high
special abilities. But then wouldn't the Forbidden Pokemon sense that?

"Thinking of something to change to?" a young girl's voice - eerie in its
complete contrast to the terrifying atmosphere - startled her out of her
desperate thoughts from behind.

She immediately turned around and shone her torch brighter with a
thought. A young girl's pale white face seemed to be floating,
disembodied, in the shadows of a crumbled stone wall. Then she stepped
forward, the sound of silver charms clinking, revealing a thin black robe
over a slim body and long equally-black hair that tumbled loose behind
her back. Pale silver eyes regarded her over a pert nose and a red
rosebud-like mouth.

"Chanelle?" Duplica asked, confused. "How did you get here?" Then she
narrowed her eyes as her guard arose for some reason. Something weird was
going on. It was strange and frightening in that the girl's manner was
completely different to how she had met her and it didn't match up to
the waif-like look.

"Duplica, Duplica," Chanelle said, her soft voice low. "A most useful
ability you have. To change your very shape to whatever you desire." 

Something was definitely wrong. "Well, it gets me on dates at least,"
she said uneasily.

"Are you frightened of ghosts, Duplica?" Her pale silver eyes were
brightening so that they lit up the night with their whiteness.

The fine hairs on the back of her neck were standing on end now. "Is that
a rhetorical question?" This had gone far enough ... it was obvious that
the girl was dangerous. How about an ekans? She could paralyze her with a
glare and then get some answers. But when she went to concentrate on the
metamorphosis, she heard a scream to the air that was so appalling and
terrifying in its sheer pain and hatred that she suddenly just froze up.

Chanelle looked on with a half-smile. "If not, you soon will be." She
lifted her arms to the sides and a black, smoke-like vapour began to rise
up around her like a cloud of death. Vapour which gave appalling giggles
and laughs. She began chanting in a dull monotone,


          "Night beyond light, Darkness beyond Twilight
		     I pledge thy soul to eternal death
		     Compel thy wretched one within thy sight..."
		   
		   
Duplica stopped breathing. A terrible pain struck her heart, a pain like
a thousand boiling needles being jabbed into it over and over. What was
this? A spell? But the only one who relied on such powers was ... NO. It
couldn't be.

Chanelle's eyes were a burning hot light of twin boiling white brands.
She jerked her arms down with a metallic clinking of the charms on her
robe. "Let us find out your deepest thoughts. Stare into my gaze and be
destroyed by the truth!"

And then it seemed like she couldn't look away and she was staring down
into a deep, dark abyss. Within she saw a young girl with blue hair. She
was all by herself, crying, with no one to comfort her.

Duplica closed her eyes, but still she saw it. She began to scream. She
screamed and screamed and screamed.

But no noise came out.


<><><>


A pretty sixteen-year-old girl with long blue hair and wearing a
wide-brimmed straw hat skips southward along the dirt road through the
forest humming a joyful tune. The folds of the skirt of her violet dress
ruffle in the breeze of her movement and on her face is a sunny smile
that would brighten the day of any who might catch a glimpse of it.
Large light-brown eyes shining as burnished gold in the sunlight
filtering from the upper-canopy of the trees seem to be brightened in
anticipation.

"I think we're almost to Pallet!" the girl says out loud as she taps her
straw hat angled at a rakish tilt on her head. With her free hand,
she straightens the strap of the small handbag she is carrying on the
slim right shoulder of her dress.

"Dits," the apparent straw-hat says in agreement, a little smiley
face on the front of the hat putting the truth of what it really was.

A shadow suddenly darkens across her face. "I wonder if he'll remember
me though," the girl says in a worried tone. Her skipping slows down as
she thinks.

"Ditt, ditto," her hat encourages.

"Well, I am a famous entertainer, but he was the Pokemon League
Champion," the girl explains. "I watched him on TV. He's much more famous
than me. Or what if he does remember me?" Her voice deepens into an
incredibly realistic male voice. "Oh, I kind of remember you! You were
the cheap entertainer we met back on my journey. The copycat girl! But
why are you visiting me now?"

Her voice returns to normal and now her skipping has completely stopped
in favour of a slower, depressed walk. "That's right, why am I visiting
him anyway?" She brushes her long blue hair over her shoulder sadly.

"Ditto..."

The girl abruptly laughs, changing emotional states completely. "You know
me too well. I just couldn't stop thinking about him ever since I met
him all those years ago. I've never met anyone like him. We had ... some
sort of connection. I-I've got to see if-if, well you know." Her pretty
face reddens in a becoming blush. Then she snorts at herself and begins
her happy skipping once again.

The forest begins to thin out and in the distance, houses begin to become
visible.


<><><>


Ding dong! The doorbell rings as the blue-haired girl stands in sudden
worry on the porch of the house. She has her hands behind her back,
clasped together and wringing themselves.

This was a mistake, she just knew it, the girl thinks to herself as she
removes her straw-hat from her head and clutches it underneath one
slender arm.

And then the door opens and it is a beautiful woman with long brown hair
and light-brown eyes. Familiar eyes. And familiar features. But it is
something even closer to familiarity, the feeling that she feels. It
prickles goose bumps along her skin. It is like she *knows* her. How, 
she doesn't know, but she can swear to it somehow.

"Why, hello there!" the woman says cheerfully. Then she blinks her
light-brown eyes as she studies the girl more intently. Then she laughs.
"Oh, for a moment there, I thought you were someone I knew!" Then she
stops laughing. "Oh dear, please forgive me. This is no way to treat a
guest. I'm Mrs Ketchum, how can I help you, young lady?"

Ash's mom! the girl thinks. No wonder she seems so familiar. She can
see some of her features in her son's face. But that isn't only it. It
is also something else... something she refuses to think about.

"Hi, Mrs Ketchum," the girl says when she finally finds her tongue. "I
heard that your son, Ash, has come back from his journey, and I just
wanted to know ... if he was here? I-I'm a friend that he met on his
badge quest."

"Ah!" the woman says in delight. "A friend of my son's? How nice. Yes,
yes, he's here in Pallet, visiting me. Now where did he go off to ... oh
that's right, I think he went out for a stroll along the beach just North
of the Viridian Gulf. It's not that far. Just follow that pathway over
there and it should lead you directly to him."

The girl smiles. "Thanks a lot, Mrs Ketchum!" She turns to follow the
woman's directions while placing her straw hat back on her head. But a
haunting image of the woman strangely stays within her mind as she walks
off.


<><><>


Underbrush leaves and twigs on the forest floor crunch like rice crispies
as the girl walks through in a nervous mood. She thinks as she carefully
steps and jumps over stones and small shrubs, keeping her straw hat
steady with one hand on the wide brim. 

What would it have been like to have a mother? Ever since she could
remember she had been alone. She did have a father, but he had been dead
for so long she could hardly even remember him. All she pictured within
her mind's eye was a stern-looking man with short blue hair and serious
eyes. It was a wonder she couldn't remember more of him though, because
she had been five or six before he passed away. In fact, nearly all of
her childhood before that had been a blur. All she knew was that
somewhere in those early years she had found Ditto, her best friend in
the world.

Since then she had lived within the old house with her Ditto. If it
weren't for Ditto helping her with finding ways to make a living for
herself so they could survive, she didn't know what would have happened.
Her community had only been a sparse country-type place, no room for an
orphan with no means of support.

Nowadays though, she was quite well-off. With her entertainer career
taking off, she had no more reasons to worry about getting enough money
to survive the next day. In fact, with her detailed knowledge about
all pokemon, she could have been a Pokemon Trainer - or even a researcher
as well. Training a Ditto was equivalent to being constantly enrolled
at a school like Pokemon Tech.

But it didn't solve the problem of her loneliness. Often she would
practise in front of a mirror in her various costumes just to play at
there being someone else with her besides her pokemon. It made her feel
not so alone. That's why when Ash came along when he did...

She begins to hear the rhythmic sounds of something pounding on wood as
well as smell the salty tang of the ocean. She peers around the next
tree and she sees a boy, naked to the chest and wearing only baggy long
pants with his back toward her, punching and striking a tall trunk with
ropes wrapped around it for padding. His hair is worn in soft black
spikes which rustles at each hard movement of his body.

The girl admires his lean athletically-built back for a while as the
boy apparently continues his training silently, giving no indication that
he has sensed her presence.

"C'mon, Pikachu!" the boy says, looking down to the side, "gotta keep up
with the punches like this!" He does a three-step punch combination on
the tree which incredibly seems to be snapping back at the force of the
hits.

The girl feels her mouth open in shock. Pikachu? She sticks herself out
from behind the tree even more from where a bush was blocking her view
and spots the small yellow electric mouse perfectly mimicking the boy's
martial arts. It is standing on its hind legs and working on a smaller
tree with corresponding ropes wrapped around it, cheeks sparking at each
thrust of its paws.

She looks back at the boy again, brown eyes wide open. So this is Ash!
He looks so different ... so ... mature. Admittedly, it had been some
years since she last saw him, and even then it was on the telly. Now that
she had a more frontal view of his features she could see his cuteness as
a kid had evolved to his current age...

Unfortunately, she begins to lose her balance at the precarious position.
She screams in shock as she slips and falls on her front upon a pile
of autumn-brown tree leaves. The leaves scatter and fly up at her clumsy
landing and drift around her like large snow-flakes.

Eyes closed in embarrassment, she pulls her hat off which had become
wedged over her face and pushes herself up. She opens her eyes in
mortification and brushes long blue tendrils of hair out of her face. 

But the boy is only staring at her and rubbing his chin as if trying to
work out a particularly hard puzzle. "I know, I know you!" he says
enthusiastically. Then his light-brown eyes brighten and the girl knows
already that he has come to the wrong conclusion. "You're Duplica the
high class callgirl!"

"Pika pika!" the pikachu agrees in excitement.

Her eyes widen. She had *not* expected that. "Callgirl? I was the
impressionist entertainer near Fuchsia City. But you know a callgirl?
What dirty stuff have you been doing?"

He laughs and scratches the back of his head self-consciously. "Hehehe,
don't worry about it."

"Pikachu," the pikachu says, correspondingly rubbing its head with its
paw.

She pushes herself to her feet with a groan and smoothes her dress down
of sticking leaves and grass. Then she smiles at him. "At least you got
my name right, Ashy-boy. Do I really look like a callgirl?" she asks
wickedly and poses in a coquette position.

Covering his mouth, he coughs once. "Duplica! Ahem, you've really changed
a lot though!" He sweeps his gaze from side to side around her. "But
where's-"

"Dits!" The yellow straw hat on the ground bounces up from the ground to
settle upon the girl's head. A small smiley face appears on its front
edge and winks at the boy.

"Ah! How cool!" He looks down at his pikachu sitting by his bare left
foot. "Pikachu, why can't you turn into a hat? That would be really
useful."

The pikachu scampers up the boy's leg, then back and finally jumps up to
sit on his head. "Pikapi?" it says, grinning cutely.

The boy lets out a sigh. "Pathetic."

The Pikachu shocks him.

"Okay, you're a great hat then," the boy agrees hastily, his body lightly
smoking.

The girl laughs out loud. Then she pointedly looks at the trunks with
ropes wrapped around them and arches one slim eyebrow. "That's new. Since
when have you been training to fight? You yourself I mean. Not your
pokemon."

"I'll have you know that I've been training myself hard even before
Pokemon League," he says a little offended. "I trained right beside
Pikachu here. I've got to be strong too you know or it wouldn't be
right." He rubs his hair sheepishly. "Of course I did learn some new
things when I was out on assignment for Professor Oak."

"Strong, huh?" the girl says, grinning as she takes her hat off. It
promptly morphs back into its original violet, amoeba-like form and sits
on her shoulder. "Well then, how about a match, Mister Ashy-boy Pokemon
League Master?"

He waves it off. "Ah, I'm not the League Master. Gary has that title now
and from what I hear he's been doing a great job. No one else has beaten
him yet." He walks over by the trunk of another tree where a small brown
backpack is lying against it. He lifts a cut-off black shirt out from it
and pulls it on, followed by a beat-up old Pokemon League cap which he
plops on sideways on his head. "Well anyway, yeah, I'll take you on," he
says keenly. "I seem to remember that I haven't beaten you yet either."

"Ha!" she teases. "You want to use Bulbasaur again? You know it's kind of
ego-gratifying to know that I totally whipped a League Champion's butt
before."

He smiles. "I've gotten better." The boy then looks down on his belt, at
the several poke-balls attached. "I dunno about Bulbasaur... or Ivysaur
now. He may want a rematch..."

"Pikapi," the pikachu says, cheeks sparking little shocks.

He looks at it. "Oh, you say you want to fight Ditto this time?"

"Chu."

"Okay. That okay with you Duplica? Ditto?" 

She folds her arms over her dress. "Fine with me. At least I know you're
not going to go easy on me."

"Ditto," her pokemon agrees.

"I don't know," he says as he picks up his backpack and hooks it over a
shoulder. "Pikachu's been known to be a softy around pretty girls. C'mon,
let's battle down by the beach. It's cooler over there and maybe we can
go swimming later." He begins to stroll off down an incline with the
pikachu scampering by his side, expecting her to follow.

The girl pauses for a moment, her heart beating. He thinks I'm pretty!
She bends over to pick up her fallen handbag and then begins to follow.


<><><>


They stand facing each other upon the yellow sands of the beach, the
sounds of the waves of the ocean unnoticed in the background. Above them,
in the cloudless azure sky, the bright yellow sun is hot against their
backs. But a cool ocean breeze is blowing a refreshing tangy wind over
them which is rustling their hair and clothes around softly. Pidgeys and
spearows squawk their bird cries as they soar and swoop high in the sky.

"Go, Ditto," the girl orders as she tries to hold her skirt still from
the wind which threatens to raise it indecently.

The small violet blob with a smiley face on it, bounces forward over the
sand. "Ditts!"

The boy taps his beat-up old hat. "Okay, Pikachu. You know I choose you."

"Pika!" The pikachu scampers forward on all fours with jagged tail
upright, to meet its adversary.

"Ditto, Transform!" the girl says, smiling.

Smoothly, the violet amoeba changes shape until it is an exact mirror of
the pikachu. Except this one is the colour of the girl's hair - a
blue-teal colour instead of yellow - and it has black stripe markings and
black cheek sacs instead of amber.

"Huh? That's new," the boy says, extremely interested.

"It's so we don't get mixed up," she replies a bit proudly. "I've been
teaching her some new tricks with transforming."

"That's great. Mind if I put a note about that in my pokedex later?"

She gestures with her hand. "Help yourself."

"Thanks. Anyway, let's get this battle started. Pikachu show them that
Gurenken series we've been practising!"

"Pika!" The pikachu scampers forward and begins a variant of punch
manoeuvres that the girl recognises as the fighting moves the boy was
trying on the tree.

"Ditto, counter with Agility and dodge!"

"Pika!" the teal pikachu acknowledges and desperately dodges the
hand-to-hand punch and palm-strikes that the boy's pikachu is quickly
executing. But it is obviously having trouble as each strike of the
yellow pikachu is almost grazing it as it falls backward on its hind
legs.

"Pikachu, speed up with Agility also!"

That proves to do the trick and the yellow pikachu manages to connect
three times into the teal pikachu's chest and shoulder. Then it does a
spin move and knocks it in high the air with its tail.

The girl gasps. It was amazing how fast the boy's pikachu had moved!
"Ditto, air-recover and Thunderbolt!"

The teal Pikachu gains equilibrium in the air, flashes once, then sends a
surge of crackling yellow-white lightning down at the yellow pikachu.

"Pikachu, Absorb it!"

Shockingly, the yellow pikachu takes the full brunt of the blast and
instead of getting hurt it seems to suck all of the electricity into its
body.

"What?" the girl says in surprise as her ditto-turned-pikachu lands on
all fours a dozen feet away and breathing hard. "How many new moves have
you taught it?"

The boy seems to think. Then he shrugs, a bit embarrassed. "I dunno. I
sort of lost count."

"This is crazy!" She is at a definite disadvantage. She only knows the
basic attacks each pokemon has. She has no idea of any customisable ones
that the boy seems to be using. She has to fight smart then... "Ditto,
Thunderbolt the ground it's standing on!"

"Pika chu!" The teal pikachu sparks, then instead of aiming its attack
directly at the other pokemon it sends a charged bolt of lightning at its
feet instead. There is a small explosion of sand and it is hard to see as
a cloud of debris shaped like a mushroom hovers in the air around the
point of impact. A second later, the yellow pikachu lands hard on its
back a couple feet away looking a bit roughened up.

"Good move!" the boy says. "You're easily smarter than the majority of
the trainers at Pokemon League."

The girl brushes a loose tendril of her hair back behind her ear, glowing
at the praise. "Thanks."

"But it doesn't mean you're better than me," the boy finishes with a
confident grin. "Pikachu, Lightning Slash! But only use a quarter power!"

The yellow pikachu leaps into the air, pointed ears laid flat against the
back of its head. "PIKA!" Simultaneous with the cry, it slashes the air
with its tail in a rapid spin move and a long blade of electricity
explodes forth with so much power, the sand around them detonates a few
feet into the air at the force of the blast.

"Ditto, jump!" the girl says, stepping back in fright.

"Pika!" The teal pikachu leaps high into the air. Unfortunately, the
blade of electricity swoops upward to follow and it cannot escape.
There is a small boom and sand flies everywhere. When it settles a minute
later with both the boy and the girl coughing, the teal pikachu is lying
on the sand a dozen feet away with X's in its eyes.

"Ditto!" the girl shouts worriedly and runs over to her fallen pokemon.
At her approach, the teal pikachu morphs back into its natural violet
amoeba-like form.

"Dits," it says weakly.

Someone crouches by her side. It is the boy and his pikachu. "Is it
alright? I'm really sorry! I shouldn't have told Pikachu to use so much
electricity."

"Pika," the pikachu says, ashamed.

The girl looks at him and smiles faintly. "Fine! Trample my ego into the
sand why don't you," she says laughingly. She looks down at her ditto
again as it wobbles upright and wavers in a daze. "It's okay, I know how
to lose graciously. I have to say that you two are just damn awesome. I
can now see how you became the Pokemon League Champion."

Red rushes to the boys cheeks and he uses his hat to fan his face. "Aww,
stop it. Anyway we should be strong with the amount of training we do.
Anything less would be embarrassing."

Now's my chance! the girl thinks. Ask him to dinner! "Ah," she mumbles,
"you wouldn't happen to be free for-"

"Ash!" a pretty girl's voice shouts. "So there you are! I just got back
from Cerulean City and I've been looking for you everywhere!"

She looks up and sees a tall, beautiful girl with long red hair streaming
behind her in the breeze as she runs toward them from up the slope
leading down to the beach. Her eyes are as blue as the ocean and the sky
and on her face is an expression of happiness ... love?

"Misty!" the boy says excitedly as he stands up and begins to run toward
her as well, his pikachu running by his feet.

They meet together on the sand in a gigantic hug and the boy spins her
around once in a circle. Happy laughter strikes between the two and then
they kiss.

The blue-haired girl watches silently, still kneeling on the sand. Inside
her chest is the most agonising, burning pain she has ever felt, and she
is feeling dizzy and disorientated. Is this how it feels to have your
heart broken? She has never felt this way before, so maybe it is.
Stupid, stupid! She should have known that the red-haired pony-tailed
girl that was with him in the past would have probably snatched him up by
now. She feels like the most stupidest person alive.

Then the hugging boy and girl look back at her. "Who's she?" the girl
asks in her pretty voice as she pushes a strand of long red hair from her
beautiful blue eyes with a free hand. "I know I've seen her somewhere
before."

"Oh. You remember Duplica right?"


<><><>


Chanelle's silver eyes watched pityingly over the lying, writhing woman,
crying softly to herself as she hugged her knees, prone upon her side on
the ground.

"You poor little girl... But perhaps you may be allowed to redeem
yourself."

The pale silver eyes flashed white once more.


<><><>


Ash awakened to the sound of someone stirring beside him. Misty! He
opened his eyes and turned over to sit up on his sleeping bag. Sure
enough, she was about to sit up and was rubbing her face with the back of
one slim hand.

"How do you feel?" he asked, immensely relieved that she had regained
consciousness. He combed his fingers through his hair and examined her
pallor. Her face had returned to its more healthy creamy tone and her
eyes looked clearer and bright: a flawless aqua-blue which she blinked as
she regained her bearings.

She brushed some strands of long, red hair from the shoulder of her blue
dress and looked at him. She licked her pink-tinged lips. "I-I feel
alright." She noticed his tight study of her and blushed slightly.
"Poison?"

He looked away. "Yeah."

Her voice tightened. "Who?"

"AJ." He looked down at his hands again. Although he had washed them off
from last night, he could still feel the itch in them - the stickiness of
the blood that had covered his fingers like evil paint. "We don't have to
worry about him anymore."

She covered her face with her hands, shoulders shaking, like wild
hilarity, but with grief. "This is all wrong. Wrong! How could we have
degenerated to this? The world is already dead. Should we save it? It's
like it's not even worth saving anymore."

Ash grabbed her hand. "No. As long as there is still life we know we have
to do something. Anything. This prophecy is a suicide, don't you realise
that? And for whatever reason, suicide is always wrong. Life shouldn't be
wasted. I've always believed in never giving up." He looked into her
eyes. "If I hadn't, I'd probably already be dead." Then he quickly looked
away as if her gaze into his eyes burned him to the core. "As for AJ ...
the AJ we knew as kids was dead as soon as he failed at the Pokemon
League. His hatred consumed him, leaving him an empty shell with nothing
but a need to prove himself worthy of a worthless title." Something poked
his finger that was grasping Misty's hand. A ring of some sort? He began
to look down.

But Misty pushed away from him. "But you gave up on me."

He looked up, incredulous. "What are you talking about? If anything, you
gave up when you went running over to Brock. Is that why you left on that
day?"

A cold, blue aura began to emit from her body. "What Brock said ...
was a lie! I may have stayed with him, but that was only because he's
always been our closest friend! I couldn't think of anyone else to talk
to. There was never anything romantic between us."

"It seems he thinks differently," Ash said grimly as he closed a fist and
stared at it.

She turned on him, eyes blazing in her fury. "Just like you say AJ turned
into a different person, don't you see how Brock has changed also? For
some ... some reason, he's become fixated on me. I don't know how, I
always treated him as a friend, especially when we were kids. He never
gave any sign that he thought of me as anything different. He was always
after a different girl..."

"He was hiding it ... and love doesn't have to have a reason to emerge,"
he said glumly. "If I knew how he felt back then..."

"What? You would have stepped aside?"

"Why shouldn't I?" he shouted back. "I've always placed my friends above
myself!"

"How dare you?" Astonishingly, she growled as she leaped on top of him,
knocking him over on to his back on the stone-tiled floor. Her grip on
his wrists was painfully tight and he could feel the coldness of her aura
beat his body. "You would have sacrificed us, just to be some noble
idiot? And wasn't I a *friend* too?" Her eyes blazed cold, blue fire down
at him.

But for some crazy reason, suddenly Ash could only think about how
beautiful she was with her long crimson hair splayed over him, eyes
bright with emotion, beautiful face heated with anger. "I-I, but you're
more than a friend, you're just Misty," he said softly. "You've always
been Misty."

And then her fury transformed into another emotion, one just as hot and
demanding as the anger that had spawned it. A confused expression washed
over her face as if she couldn't decide what it was that she was feeling.
"Ash," she breathed, almost like a whisper in the wind. Then suddenly and
shockingly, they were kissing as passionately and with as much feeling as
if they had never split apart - in fact it seemed as if their feelings
had even amplified since then. Her skin felt as soft and as supple as
velvet, and where their lips were united was as hot as the midday sun.

Ash wanted to break away. He wanted to. This was the woman who could
break him like a piece of fragile glass. She had already done it once.

But he was just too weak. 

He needed this. 

He needed her.


<><><>


Erika and Pikachu quietly crawled over to the door in a bit of haste.
They had been awoken by the argument and had silently stayed as still and
as unnoticeable as they could. But now that the two people, oblivious to
everything around them but each other, had begun tearing their clothes
off, now was the time to leave them to their privacy.


<><><>


Later, all was silent as they lay next to each other except for the
steady sound of their slow breathing. The room was still shrouded in
darkness since the campfire had long since died out, but they were as
aware of each other as only two people who had shared the closest act of
all, could be.

Eyes tightly shut, Misty tried to hold reality at bay. As she was doing
what she had done, she had promised herself that whatever came, she could
bear it. If only she could have that pleasure, she could bear anything.
But now that her head had cleared from anger and desire, like an
anaesthetic that had just worn off, the full force of her aching heart
came back to greet her. Sitting up, she tried to locate her lingerie and
dress. Probably the worst part of it was finding it next to her all
ripped up, while she still wore a part of her skirt that had become
caught between her bare legs. She felt like one of those easy women or an
actor in a dirty movie.

She reached over to her pack for a change of clothes and turned away from
him, expecting nothing. It hurt too much to have your expectations dashed
down a cliff. "We should probably go soon."

After a small silence, he turned over toward her, whole body stiffening.
"Huh?"

Resolving herself against hurt, she pulled her bra and underwear on
almost mechanically. "I've already slowed us down enough. We have to get
to Indigo Plateau and somehow stop the full prophecy from unfolding
before it's too late."

"Damn the Pokemon League! You really want to talk about that at a time
like this?" Ash said, glaring at her with those golden-brown eyes that
she could so lose herself within. "We have to talk about the past and
finally resolve this!"

She narrowed her eyes. How could he pretend he not know? Abruptly, she
just felt a pain in her head. A pain which blackened her vision for an
instant before it went away. And suddenly she just hated him. A hate she
remembered feeling just before she had left all those years ago. A hate
that she had gradually lost afterward as she realised that it was her
fault too but had now strangely come back. But what was the most unusual
thing was that she also felt the same love for him that it seemed like
she always had. The conflicting emotions felt as if they would tear her
apart. She felt like her head would explode. And so she lashed out. "Just
let it go, Ash! Maybe we were both looking for closure. Maybe it's now
out of our system and after we stop this Armageddon mess we can both get
on with our lives."

He looked at her as if he could not believe what she had just said. Then
his eyes narrowed to slits and he looked down, his black hair obscuring
his upper face from her view. He began to jerkily force his long,
loose-fitting black pants on and then tightened it at the waist with a
draw-string which he tied in a bow. "Closure? Leave the psychiatric
analysis to that damn Sabrina, but leave me out of it." His voice was as
icy as any cold attack she had ever generated. 

After pulling on his shirt and boots, he stood up swiftly and avoided
meeting her gaze. Dark shadows appeared by his feet and arose in a spiral
fashion to generate his long black cloak. He pulled his hood over his
head, rendering his face invisible in its darkness and stepped over to
the door. Still not looking at her, he pushed the door open. 

"If that's the way you feel," he said unemotionally, "then after this, I
never want to see you again." He stepped outside and slammed the old
wooden door shut so hard, it split vertically down the middle.

Misty stared at the door cracking, even as her spirit felt the same way.
Then she collapsed atop her sleeping bag, face against the ground as she
rolled herself into a ball. She cried.


<><><>


The group travelled on through the ruins in a silence as stony as the
fallen structures around them, with both Ash and Misty walking as far
apart from each other as possible. There was a tension to the air that
seemed even more violent and powerful between the two than the utter
gloom of the prophecy unfolding.

Erika couldn't understand it. Where had they gone so horribly and
tragically wrong? She looked to the front where Ash was leading the
group, gravely quiet as he stepped over fallen boulders and rocks which
regularly blocked the path they were following. He seemed to walk
stiffly, artificially, as if he was an inanimate object incapable of
emotion. Sinister clouds of black shadow hung around his cloaked form
like a vapour of death. His lack of emotion seemed to be mirrored by the
still black pikachu clutched to his left shoulder. It was eerie. It
horrifyingly reminded her of his demeanour when he still shared 
allegiance with the Pokemon League and was their most dangerous enemy.

Misty was much the same way, walking behind even Jessie, James and
Persian at the rear, covered in her blue cloak. Her hooded head was 
casting her face in darkness, but Erika could still see the blank 
expression, like the beautiful face of an unliving china doll. Blue eyes 
seemed unblinking as glass beads.

In total contrast to the two's emotions though, Duplica walked beside her
with a face as sunny as a day on the beach. Shrugging off the cold wind
that howled like a shrill banshee amongst the deserted wreckage and
rubble of the once lively South Indigo City, she just wore the most
scandalous short dress of black nothing that Erika had ever seen or
imagined. Skipping along, occasionally running her hand through her long
tealish-blue hair like an egotist, Duplica seemed to be having a lovely
time.

"What is your problem?" Erika finally said to her, breaking the group's
self-imposed silence. She made sure to let her eyes flash green at the
ditzy woman just to show that she meant business.

Duplica just arched an eyebrow at her and tossed her long hair over a
shoulder. It was as annoying an action as even Giselle could execute.
"Well, excuuuuse me, Plant Girl, but unlike you spoilsports, I prefer to
keep a happy composure." Then outrageously, her form blurred, grew
taller, then smoothly transformed into an exact mirror image of her.
Green-cloaked woman with grass-green eyes, shoulder-length black hair
highlighted with blue and even the same red hair-band. Erika scowled, as
Duplica-turned-Erika then stuck her tongue out at her and lowered an
eye-lid.

"Oh, look at me, I'm high-and-mighty Erika!" Duplica said in an exact
replica of her voice and flashed her own green eyes back at her. "Always
the perfectly-groomed beautiful princess!" She spun around and curtsied
mockingly.

Erika stopped walking, gaining everyone else's attention as they stopped
too. Feeling angry as she had never felt before, even angrier than when
her Gym had gotten burned down by Team Rocket and her Gloom had almost
died, she lifted a hand that grew as bright as the sun with solar energy.
"Why, you little..."

"Duplica, you've gone too far," Bruno interjected before a fight could
break out. "You should apologise. We can't afford any discrepancy within
our group."

The Erika clone laughed at him. "Oh bite me, Bruno-baby." She changed
back to her original scantily-clad form and blew a kiss at him. "Besides,
what are you going to do? If you try anything I'll change into you and
kick your own ass." She laughed again. "Although I'd prefer not to change
into an icky male body."

Ash finally intervened, his voice in puzzlement now rather than
unemotional. "Duplica, do you feel alright? You've been acting so odd
lately."

Erika paused. That was right. Yesterday, Duplica had been moody, almost
depressed. Now she was acting so annoyingly care-free and over-the-top -
even more than her usual brand of silliness. From extreme to extreme:
that wasn't normal. Perhaps she had been a little too hasty in getting
angry. Duplica was probably heavily troubled.

"Never better," Duplica then said, batting her eyelashes at Ash. "I guess
I just feel a little hyped at the fact we're finally going to destroy the
Pokemon League for good and stop their vile evilness from corrupting the
innocent!"

"I wouldn't say that," Ash said, still a little perturbed. "The League
isn't evil. It's just that the current Master feels that he is in the
right. Life should end so that it can start again."

"We're all going to die?" James suddenly said in the background.

"Shut up!" Jessie and Persian immediately said as they each smacked him
on the head and scratched him correspondingly.

"How do you know so much of what Lord Garick's plans are?" Bruno said
questioningly.

Ash looked away. "He told me himself. Remember, I *was* a Pokemon Master
for the League."

"You don't have to remind me," Bruno muttered.

Misty frowned. "We should go now."

Ash didn't look at her as he twisted back in the direction of the pathway
through the ruins and the forest. He started their procession again.
"Yes. The sooner we do this, the sooner we can get out of each other's
sight."

A cold gust of wind blew in front of them carrying a small tornado of
leaves and rocks. The rocks were smashed to dust as they collided with a
huge stone pillar. But the leaves floated away unharmed. 


<><><>


Gradually, as they walked north through the weed-infested ruins, the
pathway grew to better quality stone and the surroundings looked more and
more preserved, with intermittent buildings that actually looked
undamaged. The forest trees by the edges had begun to thin out as well,
to shorter shrubs and grass and there was the light sound of streams
flowing to mingle with the high voice of the wind. However, the horizon
in front of them showed no sign they were nearing the edges of the Indigo
Plateau, the heart of the Pokemon League. By now, the tops of the
buildings of the capital city should have been in view over the top of
the rubble and debris, but instead it was as a blank canvas with an
artist that only used black paint.

Ash stopped walking abruptly, causing everyone else to halt as well. "Not
good," he said cryptically.

"What is it?" Bruno asked, eyes narrowed as he folded his huge arms.

"We'll have to find another way into Indigo Plateau. This way is
blocked."

James strode forward confidently, fiddling with the lowered, black
ninja's veil beneath his chin. "Nonsense! Looks clear to me! Oof!" He
smashed into something hard and fell unceremoniously on to his bottom on
the stone pathway.

"That's why the horizon is black," Ash explained, dusting off his
night-dark long cloak from specks of dust that had arisen from James'
collision.

Erika took a cautious step past Ash and felt the air in front of her with
a hand. "You're right. I don't see anything but there's a wall here."

"How high does it go?" Bruno asked, looking up as if imagining the
barrier that was there in his mind's eye. "Maybe we can go over it."

Ash reached insid