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 http://jsa.users.fl.net.au
Note: Pokemon and its associated characters are copyright by Nintendo,
Game Freak, Creatures Inc, and 4Kids Productions.
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Part 10C - Resentments (Continued)
Ash carefully looked down through the frozen branches of the tree.
"Nothing. I think falling into that crack I made gave us enough time to
lose them."
They were sitting up high in a frozen tree house that they had found in
A public park playground for shelter and rest. Mostly for Erika though,
as she had been too tired to go on. Right now, he watched in bemusement
as she rubbed the arches of her bare feet with her hands.
"I don't think I like skating," she said tiredly as she blew a strand of
short blue-black hair away from her mouth.
Pikachu and Misty were warming their hands on another dark campfire he
had created.
"You sure that using our elements won't attract notice? We are trying to
lose them after all, not find more trouble," Misty said as she brushed the
flakes of ice from her long red hair with a small hand-comb.
"I already explained it," Ash said, collapsing down next to them,
suddenly feeling very tired. He threaded his fingers through the long
black hair of his bangs above his eyes and sighed. "Too much Forbidden to
notice it, if that makes sense."
Misty shrugged one shoulder. "In a weird Ashy-kind-of-way, it sort of
does."
"Actually, I think it's more of a weird Misty-kind-of-way," he
retaliated.
"No, it's an Ashy-weird," she fired back.
"No, definitely Misty-weird."
"Chaaa..." Pikachu groaned in a fed up tone of voice.
"You can say that again," Erika sighed.
"Chaaa..." Pikachu obliged her.
Unexpectedly, Erika suddenly looked at Ash and narrowed her grass-green
eyes at him. "Besides, you seem particularly well after a week of
'Hydroxin Waterflower.' You guys are all alike, after bed, you forget
about it the next day."
Ash leaned back against the wall of the tree house and put his hands
behind his head. "What are you talking about?"
She looked from him to Misty pointedly. "I assume since he seems very
much alive, he's free of the poison? And to do that, you had to um ..."
She coughed. "You know..."
Misty suddenly crawled over to Ash and grasped the sides of his head with
both hands. "Actually, I didn't. And I was wondering about that all the
way back at South Lavender."
"Didn't what?" Ash said, still confused. Misty's blue eyes were staring
into his seriously. "What are you doing? You want to kiss me or
something?"
"Don't flatter yourself," Misty said as her eyes glowed a bright blue, an
obvious sign that she was accessing her power. A minute later, the glow
of her eyes died down and she sat back down next to him. "I was right.
You're completely free from my influence."
"Isn't that a good thing?" Ash said flippantly.
"I don't understand it," Misty said, ignoring his witticisms. "There was
no way he could be free of my poison unless I flushed it out of his
system."
"Wait, wasn't Valdera at South Lavender too?" Erika suddenly said.
Misty narrowed her eyes in sudden thought. Then after coming to a sudden
conclusion, she slapped him on the face. Ash's teeth seemed to rattle in
his mouth.
"And just what was that for?" he asked with his brow raised and rubbed
himself on his now stinging cheek.
"You-you two-timing gigolo!" Misty accused. "You, you male whore!"
Ash pushed himself away from her. "Have you gone crazy?"
"Pikapi!" Pikachu said, also in puzzlement.
"You slept with my sister!"
Ash blinked. "Well I did go out with her back at Pokemon League after we
split up. And might I again inform you that I didn't even know you two
were related even though that might seem unbelievable. I thought you knew
that?"
"Not at Pokemon League, just now at South Lavender!"
"But that's impossible. I was imprisoned and asleep most of the time! I
was injured, remember." He shook his head. "Besides, why should you care?
We're officially a broken couple."
Misty grew tongue-tied. "Because ... well, because!"
Then it was Ash's turn to get angry as he remembered what Duplica had
told him on the ship. "And what's this about not telling me the whole
truth back at Cerulean? How I attacked you under mind-control?"
"What?" Erika said in alarm. "Misty, you didn't tell any of us about
that."
Misty twiddled her thumbs. "I-I didn't think it would help." She looked
at him. "You seemed so depressed..."
"I have to know things like that," Ash told her. "As it is, it doesn't
look good. I have to make sure that it never happens again ... or who
knows what will happen. Now seriously, tell me the truth. What exactly
happened back at South Lavender? And just how *did* we capture Brock? And
just how did the base get destroyed? And don't tell me it's because Brock
and Valdera destroyed it in their fight; I don't buy it one bit."
She looked away. "Okay, I'll tell you what really happened. You-"
"Wait," he cut her off. "Do you hear something?"
"Look, do you want me to tell you or not?"
"Move!" He dived forward, knocking Misty and Erika away with a flying
tackle, just as something exploded through the floor and bisected the
whole tree house in half.
Everything was in confusion as Ash, Misty, Erika and Pikachu were
suddenly floating in midair after the abrupt eruption, with broken pieces
of icy wood, branches and tree leaves flying in the air all around them.
Then Ash flipped upright in midair, and rapidly descended to land in a
crouch on the icy-grassy floor far below the tree, his black cloak
billowing around him. Misty and Erika followed suit, also landing in
crouches by his sides while Pikachu landed on his left shoulder, alert.
Subbsesquently, bits of the destroyed tree house fell all around them
with several muted crashes and showering of shattering ice.
"What was that?" Misty asked breathlessly as he long red hair continued
to settle around the shoulders of her blue cloak.
A hiss came from above them and they leaped backward as a white-furred
panther-like pokemon landed with its razor-blade claws outstretched just
where they had been crouching before. The red jewel on its forehead was
blinking threateningly as it licked its chops around its dagger-sharp
whiskers. Vertical slit-like eyes stared at them unblinkingly and seemed
to glow an eerie pale white.
"A persian!" Erika exclaimed as a green sparkle covered her dainty feet
and her boots formed back along them. She rose to a stand and
outstretched her hands as she summoned her long black staff.
Ash held her off with a hand as he remained in a crouch. "Wait. I think I
recognise this persian."
A flash from above in the corner of his eye warned him just in time. He
fell backward as a thrown dagger just missed his throat and sunk into the
icy earth between his ankles.
"Up there!" Ash warned as he lifted his hand and threw a long bolt of
black lightning up at the tree the dagger had come from. The cracking
charge of shadow electricity sheared off one of the branches and sent it
crashing to the ground in a hail of icy sparks. It revealed a slim figure
dressed in black baggy trousers and a short-sleeved tank-top that was
standing in the upper-canopy of the branches. Its face was covered by a
ninja's veil while long red hair up in a ponytail streamed out the
opening at the back of its head. "Jessie!" he exclaimed, recognising her.
"And James!" Misty called out as she dodged another dagger which flew out
from the bushes and embedded itself in the icy trunk of the tree they had
just fallen from. Sure enough, a figure dressed similar to Jessie, but
wearing a long-sleeved black shirt instead, somersaulted out of the
bushes. A lock of bright blue hair flared out of the slit in his mask
truthfully revealing him as the male counterpart of the Jessie and James
duo.
"Team Rocket?" Erika said in puzzlement as she scratched her head with
one hand. "I thought that organisation was destroyed at the conclusion of
the Dark Pokemon Wars."
Ash stood up and backed away as Jessie flipped down from the tree and
landed softly in front of him. She had begun spinning a pair of
three-pronged sai knives around the fingers of both hands. "These two
aren't Team Rocket anymore. We met them back at Mount Moon, and to tell
the truth they didn't seem too bad. In fact, they were helping us
dispatch some Pokemon League soldiers."
Misty, in turn, was backing away from James, who had also begun spinning
sai knives around his hands. "That's right."
Persian had begun to stalk Erika, who also began to back away. "Well, if
these people are now such fine upstanding citizens, then just why in the
name of all Grass Pokemon are they attacking *us*?"
"Look at their eyes!" Misty said aloud.
Ash did so and narrowed his own. "Didn't Jessie have blue eyes? A real
sinister kind of blue. Now it looks like they're washed out - a pale
white."
"Same with James and Persian," Misty said. "And usually, they'd be
talking a kind of trash talk. It isn't like them to be silent for more
than a few minutes like this."
"Mind control? Was I like this?"
"Not really. Your eyes were red."
"Um," Erika interjected. "I'd hate to interrupt your little chat, but
they're getting awfully close now."
"Well, it's best if we just knock them unconscious until we find out why
they're like this," Ash said. "Try your Sleep Powder?"
"Good idea," Erika said as she lifted one hand. Her green eyes began to
glow and her cloak and shoulder-length hair arose to waver sinuously.
"Hope this works!" she shouted as she scrunched up her fist and then
seemed to throw something at the three former members of Team Rocket.
Sparkly yellow powder flared brightly in the air as it settled over them
in a light coating of stars. But still Jessie, James and Persian
continued to advance.
"Uh, what was the use-by date on your Sleep Powder, Erika?" Ash asked in
a tone as dry as dirt.
Erika glared at him. "Maybe they're immune to Grass techniques."
Misty gave a slight smile of recollection. "Well, they're certainly not
immune to Electric attacks, Ash. Why don't you paralyse them?"
"Okay, Pikachu, Thunder Wave!" he said, throwing Pikachu up into the air.
His dark electric mouse sparked darkly as it flipped around high.
"Pika ... CHUUU!" he shrilled as a tidal wave of ebony thunder emitted
from his body and splashed over the trio.
But when the electricity dissipated, they were still unaffected,
unstoppably advancing.
Pikachu landed softy on the frozen grassy ground on his hind legs and
blinked his cobalt blue eyes. His pointed ears and jagged tail were
twitching in confusion. "Pika?"
"Uh, what was the use-by date on your Pikachu, Ash?" Erika took great
pleasure in saying.
"Very funny," Ash said, as he blew a lock of hair that fallen over his
left eye with a twist of his lips. "Something's definitely wrong here."
"There's always the old fashioned way," Misty said, as liquid energy
formed around her hands into her twin ice daggers.
"Right," Erika said as she grasped her staff with both hands and began
spinning it around in three-sixty degree revolutions in front of her.
Ash looked down at Pikachu. "I don't want any fatalities little pal, so,
uh..." He looked up at the tree and pointed. "You stay up there and watch
okay?"
"Pikapi!" Pikachu said as he folded his little arms, annoyed.
"Okay, if you do this for me, I'll give you an extra helping of ketchup
when we get back to the ship."
Pikachu's tummy rumbled. "Cha," he said embarrassed, then nodded his chin
and scampered up the tree to sit on the branch. He gave Ash a thumbs up.
"Chu, pikachu!"
"Thanks, pal! This'll only take a few seconds anyway," Ash said, just as
Jessie tried a roundhouse kick, which he blocked with a crossing of his
arms. But then, expecting a blow of strength that would normally come
from a woman, he was completely surprised when the power of the hit
propelled him sliding away backward until the lower edge of a
slippery-dip at his back tripped him over to fall on his bottom and he
slid up the kiddie slide in reverse. At the top, gravity decided to put
in its two cents and pulled him down again just as if he were a real kid
playing on the slide. Of course, since the slide was all iced up, he
slid down much too fast and he fell on his butt at the bottom.
"Cha ha ha!" Pikachu laughed from his vantage point atop the tree.
"This is embarrassing," Ash said as he ripped the folds of his cloak away
that had fallen in front of his face and stood up, rubbing his aching
forearms.
Meanwhile Misty and Erika were about to take on James and Persian, side
by side.
"Why do I always have to get the Pokemon?" Erika complained as she dodged
a few testing slashes of Persian's front claws.
"I don't know," Misty shrugged as she began clashing blades with James'
sais with icy sparks. "Maybe you just have a way with animals."
"I'd rather have a way with men," Erika declared as Persian growled and
finally leaped up at her. To dodge, she struck the end of her staff into
the frozen grass and pole-vaulted over his head to land on top of some
monkey bars in the centre of the playground, but almost slipped until her
boots found purchase upon the narrow bars of ice.
"Isn't that the same thing?" Misty sighed as James began a three step
offense with his blades that she was hard-pressed to counter. She sucked
in her breath as one of the knives almost slashed across her wrist and
she couldn't twist away in time for a rising flying kick which took her
in the shoulder and knocked her away powerfully. She flew away a dozen
metres and landed on her back on a kiddie swing which swung backward and
deposited her on the ground on her back in short order. "Owww," she
groaned as the ice blades on her hands winked out.
Then she screamed in shock as someone fell on top of her in a tumble of
black clothing. Golden-brown eyes looked into her own.
"Ugh, sorry Misty, but Jessie packs quite a punch," Ash mumbled.
She threw him off her with a growl and he rotated in midair to land on
his feet with a flap of his cloak.
"What are you doing? I thought you were good at fighting? Are you going
easy on her?" Misty asked in annoyance as she jumped upright.
Ash shrugged as he turned back to Jessie who was now leaping toward him
silently on the tops of all the playground equipment. "Maybe. I don't
really like fighting women, especially when they're friends."
"Friends?" Misty asked as she turned around to face James as he was also
leaping toward her on the tops of the playground equipment.
"Well, we've known them so long now, that it just feels right to call
them that," he explained.
"Yeah, trying to steal Pikachu most of that time," Misty snorted. "I
think that punch rattled your brains is what I think."
"Well at least, I have a brain to get rattled," he replied with a
sardonic look in his golden-brown eyes.
"Are you implying something?"
"Is it that obvious?"
She turned around with blue fire in her eyes. "Why, you-"
"JUMP!" Ash shouted and he leapt upwards, grasping Misty's arm to carry
her upward with him.
Below them, Jessie and James collided into each other, their skulls hard
enough to knock each other unconscious and fall flat on their backs.
Ash and Misty turned a flip in the air and then landed back down on the
ground with a hard thump of their boots, they're cloaks billowing around
them. Misty descended to one knee to examine the dynamic duo.
"They'll be fine," she said after a while and looked up at him. "Nothing
serious."
"Heh," Ash said, the corner of his mouth lifted in a smile. "It looks
like that being mind-controlled still left their intelligence intact."
"Pikapi!" Pikachu suddenly warned.
Ash turned to see what Pikachu was pointing at and just managed to catch
the corner of someone's black robe disappear from behind a tree at the
far edge of the park. "Someone was watching!" he shouted as he crouched
and leaped up high on to the branch of the nearest frozen tree. "Go check
if Erika's okay, I'll get whoever it is!" he said as he began leaping
from tree to tree towards where he had seen it, his cloak flapping behind
him at each jump. "C'mon, Pikachu!"
"Chu!" Pikachu said as he also began leaping from tree to tree after him.
<><><>
Misty frowned after them. She was sorely tempted to follow, but Erika may
need her help after all. Turning around, she was surprised to see that it
was getting foggy. White steam was rising from the frozen floor, vapour
of water like her name. Wait a second, she thought as she turned around
again. The mist was rising much too fast to be anything natural...
"Mistaria, you're mine," a voice as cold as the mist suddenly said softly
in her ear. Hands formed out of the mist grabbing her and her thoughts
turned into the bleak frozenness of despair.
<><><>
When the park ended, Ash jumped from the tree to the roof of a frozen
house and almost slipped, before he gained his balance and ran along the
slippery tiles quickly but carefully. A jingling noise sounded beneath
him. There! He spotted the black-robed figure running along the sidewalk
from below. Quickly, he leaped off the roof head-first, arms outstretched
into a flying tackle. As he caught him about the waist, he used his
momentum to bring them both down and he rolled them over until he caught
him in a secure arm-lock from behind. "Alright, who are you and what were
you doing watching us?" he asked gruffly.
But then long black hair filtered into his vision; it was a girl!
"I-I'm sorry," she sobbed in a pretty voice. "I-I was just so scared! I-I
was looking for help and I thought you could ... but-but I thought you
were going to kill me!"
Immediately, he let go of her and scrambled backward, feeling ashamed.
"No, I think I'm the one who has to say sorry ... I had no idea," he said
scratching the back of his head. "Did I hurt you?"
The girl turned around revealing a cute pretty face dominated by
large pale-silver eyes that almost looked white. On the black robe she
wore, she had a variety of charms and necklaces draped around it and that
was the jingling noise he had heard when she had been running. "Oh no ...
I-I, just a bruise I think. Her milk-pale cheeks blushed red as she
looked at him. "Oh, you're so cute!" Then she blushed even more and
looked away. "I-I mean sorry, I shouldn't be so forward!"
Ash stood up and put his hands behind his head. "Heh heh heh, no it's
alright." She reminded him of Laselle for some reason ... maybe because
they looked about the same age - about fifteen or so.
He lowered a hand and helped her to her feet. She stood about as tall as
his shoulder, and he suddenly felt very protective of her. "So ... uh ...
uh..."
"Chanelle," she offered with a slight smile as she looked up at him.
"Chanelle ... what are you doing in a place like this? Oh great, that
sounds like a pick-up line ... I mean seriously, this place is dead, I
don't know what's up with that."
Chanelle looked down at her feet suddenly turning even paler than white
if that seemed possible. "I-I lived here ... with my family ... until the
sky went dark and there was screaming and screaming and-"
He touched her shoulder. "It's alright, you don't have to tell me."
She looked up, a tear dribbling out of one silver eye and then sobbed as
she collapsed into his arms, hugging him tightly around the stomach.
Poor kid, Ash thought. "Anyway, I'm Ash and you don't have to worry about
a thing-"
"Pika chu," Pikachu said as he jumped down from the roof, finally
catching up to him. He scampered over and jumped on to his shoulder as
Ash released Chanelle from the hug. "Chu pikachu?" he asked curiously,
indicating her.
"Pikachu, this is Chanelle ... she's been stranded on this horrible
island ever since it was frozen."
Pikachu narrowed his blue eyes. "Pikapi."
"Don't be silly, she's just a girl," Ash said with a shrug. "Now let's
get back to Misty and Erika."
<><><>
"Weird how the persian just collapsed like that, almost like it just ran
out of batteries," Erika said tiredly as she leaned on her staff for
support.
"But, where's Misty?" Ash asked, looking around the frozen park for the
blue-cloaked woman he could just not get out from underneath his skin.
She was like a burr that got caught in your clothes and stuck there
forever.
"I thought she went with you," Erika said, puzzled. She looked at
Chanelle who was standing silently behind him with a frightened
expression on her face. "Unless you traded her in for that girl you have
now."
"Erika, this is serious. I swear I told her to stay with you to help out
with Persian," Ash said exasperated.
Erika waved her hand at the unconscious Pokemon. "I can take care of
myself."
"But didn't you just say it just fell over? You didn't exactly do
anything."
"Hey, it's the results that matter isn't it?" she replied with a shrug.
"Pikapi, pipikachu!" Pikachu called out.
Ash turned and ran over to where his pokemon was examining the frozen
grassy ground. He crouched down to get a closer look. It looked like
Misty's boot prints, where the blades of ice had been crushed. Looking
at they way they were arranged, it seemed as if she had turned to walk
back toward Erika, but then just stopped as if she had disappeared into
thin air. "I don't like the looks of this," he said gravely. He leaned
closer as he noticed a fine sheen of icy water clinging down upon the
trampled icy grass. "Mist..." he stated.
"What does that mean?"
He looked up at the centre of the island at the high peaks of the frozen
volcano. A watery vapour of steam had begun to rise from the top in an
uncanny imitation of real lava as the beginnings of a dark-purple vortex
began swirling around in the air. A slight rumble trembled along the
ground.
"It means we're in deep shit," he said.
"Pikachu," Pikachu agreed.
<><><>
Misty blinked as she suddenly awoke, feeling like she had just arose from
a cold-as-death slumber. The first thing she realised was that the air
around her was so cold, she was afraid her blood would start to freeze.
That meant that the temperature was so severe that it would actually
affect her even though her element was strong against ice.
The ground she was laying on was also just as cold and so hard it was
painful to her back. As her eyes regained their vision, she sat up and
hugged herself with her arms. There was a freezing wind blowing, jerking
her hair and her cloak around her like a flag caught in a hurricane.
"So, Jezzebell ... you have awakened."
Misty rapidly stood up and almost slipped upon the sheer ice she was
standing on. And then she saw just how grave her situation was. What she
was standing on was what looked like a small flat iceberg floating upon a
cold sea of liquid energy. The dark clouds above looked close enough to
suggest that she was at a very high altitude. Around her, also floating
on the freezing liquid were numerous icebergs like the ones she was
standing on and everything was surrounded by a blue arctic wall of rock
which closed them off in a circle. The place looked vaguely familiar and
she gasped as she realised that this was the exact place that Ash had
fought Blaine for his Volcano badge all those years ago. On top of the
fiery volcano itself. Except, now the volcano's lava was lethally cold
instead of lethally hot, and the small platforms floating upon the lava
were much lower than the high peaks Ash's charizard and Blaine's magmar
had fought upon. To make things even worse, she noticed that a swirling
purple cloud above them was beginning to reveal itself as the second
Forbidden vortex.
Misty looked back at who had spoken and saw Lorelei in her ice-blue
cloak, her long purple-blue hair streaming behind her in the frozen wind.
She was standing on one of the other many ice-platforms at the other side
of the volcano, standing impossibly steady upon her ice-skates. Her
sea-green eyes behind her small spectacles glowed fiercely, the glow so
bright it completely encompassed her beautiful face.
Lorelei then lifted her arms and the air seemed to grow even colder, cold
enough that Misty thought her soul was freezing.
"You think you can match up to me, Jezzebell?" Her voice boomed and
echoed within the walls of the volcano.
"Mistress Lorelei, this is ridiculous!" Misty shouted over to her. "I
never wanted to match up to you!"
"You actions give the lie!" Lorelei shouted back. "You stole everything
from me! Everything!" her voice quieted to a whisper, hard to hear in the
screaming of the wind. "Until I had nothing left but the cold..." Her
eyes flashed and she ripped off her glasses and threw them into the
freezing lava, although they froze up and shattered before they could
even touch the cold liquid surface. A tear streamed down her cheek before
it froze and was blown off her face by the wind. Underneath, she was
almost naked save for a very short black mini-skirt and dress "Well, now
... I call for a Circle of Masters! Physical combat!" She lowered her
raised arms in an abrupt gesture. "She who flees the circle or lies
unconscious shall forfeit ... their life!" She grasped the shoulders of
her icy cloak and threw it off behind her to be snatched by the violent
wind and carried off into the darkening sky. The purple swirling vortex
above them screamed as it snatched the cloak like a hungry mouth and
shredded it to so many fragments of icy fabric.
Misty narrowed her eyes as she summoned her power of Water as a buffer
against the freezing coldness. Her form glowed bright blue as she too
threw off her blue cloak to be snatched by the hungry leaving her long
sapphire-coloured elegant dress to flap around furiously. Ice-skates
formed out of her boots and her height was raised a few inches. "Very
well, you know I have to accept," she said gravely. She leaned to one
side and ripped the end of her skirt off to leave more room to manoeuvre
for her now-bare legs.
Lorelei smiled a smile devoid of any warmth whatsoever. "I know."
<><><>
Before them stood the impossibly tall volcano of Cinnabar Island. Ash was
looking up and could just see the blue sparks of flaring Water and Ice
energy flaring at the very top of the now-frozen mountain of cold. And
above all was the swirling purpleness of the second Forbidden gate. His
gaze drifted downward and rested upon the huge iron gates that were the
entrance to this place of doom. It lay off to the right of the pools of
flowing liquid blue energy that used to be the hot springs he had once
bathed in so very long ago.
"I still say you should have stayed behind to look for the others,
Erika," he said without turning around.
"Pika pika," Pikachu seconded from his shoulder.
"Look, Misty's always come when I needed her, so why I can't I do the
same for her?" she replied stubbornly.
"You're just putting Jessie, James and Persian in needless danger," he
indicated their unconscious bodies behind them being carried on the
flower of Erika's Venusaur.
"Saur!" the huge, green squat dinosaur-like pokemon with a large, wide
flower on its back, agreed.
"And Chanelle looks terrified," he indicated the girl who was sitting on
the venusaur's shoulder with a scared expression on her face.
Erika folded her arms. "Best friends come first."
Ash sighed. "Okay, but-"
The icy ground beneath their skates trembled.
"An earthquake?" Erika inquired, looking down at the ground.
"Worse than that," Ash said, nodding his chin in the direction of the
cold springs flowing along the base of the volcano. Something huge and
translucent was rising out of the pool of freezing liquid energy.
"Oh, great, not *that* again," Erika said sliding backward a step and
raising her dark wooden staff.
"MASTER ASH," the massive Lapras made of ice boomed telepathically
through the air as it rose out of the frozen springs. It was much too
large to fit all the way through and so smashed its way upward through
the floor of ice itself. "YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE COME."
"Nessie!" Ash shouted as he skated forward. "I want answers! Why did you
ever consent to become a Master Pokemon?"
The huge lapras paused, its horned head looking down at him from above.
"AFTER YOU ABANDONED ME, I GREW ATTACHED TO SOMEONE ELSE. IT WAS HER WISH
THAT I BECOME SO."
"You mean, Lorelei?" he asked. Then he frowned. "And I never abandoned
you! I let you go free because I thought it was what you wanted!"
"FORGIVE ME FOR SAYING SO, BUT YOU ARE A FOOL, MASTER ASH. YOU HAVE
ABANDONED COUNTLESS POKEMON THROUGHOUT YOUR JOURNEY. DIDN'T YOU EVER
REALISE THAT ABOVE ALL THEY WOULD WANT TO STAY WITH YOU NO MATTER WHAT?
IT IS LIKE OFFERING BUT A CRUST OF BREAD TO A BEGGAR THEN SNATCHING AWAY
THE LOAF WHEN THEY REACH FOR MORE." She looked down at the pikachu on
his shoulder. "ABOVE ALL, ONLY YOUR FIRST POKEMON WAS SPARED FROM YOUR
STUPIDITY."
"I-I never knew you felt that way," Ash said, his throat tightening. But
all those pokemon he had let go. Was this how they really felt? But it
had always seemed like the right thing to do. Was his beliefs flawed?
"AND NOW I CANNOT LET YOU PASS BECAUSE IT IS MISTRESS LORELEI'S WISH."
"But, Misty's up there! You know her! How can you let her be murdered?"
"IT IS MISTRESS LORELEI'S WISH," was all she said. "NOW LEAVE BEFORE I
MUST RESORT TO VIOLENCE."
Ash didn't know what to do. He just couldn't attack Nessie, it wouldn't
feel right ... even if she was the Pokemon League's sixth Master Pokemon.
But ... but Misty was in the fight of her life. He couldn't abandon her -
he just couldn't! It would tear his soul apart just when he thought he
had mended it.
"Ashy-boy!" a throaty female voice suddenly shouted. "I finally found
you!"
He turned around to see a voluptuous violet-cloaked woman with long blue
hair skating toward them from the direction of the city. "Duplica!" he
called out in surprise. He spotted Junior and one of Bruno's trainers as
well as Laselle and Giselle all skating toward them.
"I'll distract her for you, now get up there and save your girlfriend!"
Duplica said as she leaped into the air and began changing into a huge
yellow bird with spiky wings. Electricity crackled around her form as
the new zapdos took to the air. "ZAP!" she shouted in an amused voice
from her razor-point orange beak.
"WHAT?" Nessie cried as Duplica-Zapdos shot a massive jagged bolt of
charged Thunder into her and she cried in pain, flinching as she
unwillingly began to sink back into the cold springs.
"Not so hard, Duplica, but thanks a lot!" Ash said as he crouched and
formed a disc of black shadow beneath his feet. "Up we go, Pikachu!" he
called out as they began to rise rapidly in the air to the top of the
volcano. "By the way, she's not my girlfriend!" he said down to her.
"ZAP! Get out of denial, Ash, the land of truth can be very rewarding!"
Duplica-Zapdos replied as she zoomed around in the air and continued to
keep Nessie busy with bolts of electricity.
Erika, Junior, Laselle, Giselle and the rest of them ran past the
battling pokemon to the huge iron door. "We'll go up the conventional
way!" Erika shouted. "Meet you up there, Ash!"
<><><>
Where did she go? Misty thought frantically as she searched all around
the volcanic arena with her eyes. Leaping from ice-platform to
ice-platform as she skated around was beginning to tire her and already
she was bleeding from numerous cuts on her arms and legs. Although she
thought she had given about as good as she got so far - she was sure she
had cut Lorelei in just as many places with kicks of her own razor-sharp
ice-skates.
Just as she guessed correctly, she leaped away from the platform she was
currently on as Lorelei exploded from underneath, feet-first, with her
razor-sharp ice-skates cutting through as an ice-pick shatters ice. In
midair, she turned a half-twist, shaking off the cold lava from her body
and landed upon another platform.
Misty sucked in her breath as a splash of the freezing-molten liquid
struck her in the forearm and immediately her skin began hardening to
ice. It was only from hard thought and desperation that allowed her to
gather enough Water energy in her body to melt it back to normal.
"Too cold for you, Jezzebel?" Lorelei asked as she shook her blue-purple
mane of hair, to fully free it of the liquid freezing lava. "You should
embrace it as do I, for feelings are not worth feeling."
"You're wrong, Mistress Lorelei!" Misty shouted in an emotionally-pained
voice. "Feelings are what make us human! You used to understand that ...
to be cold and nothing else is nothing but a parody of death."
"Ironic coming from you ... as you in turn were the one to teach me these
values," Lorelei replied as she began leaping from iceberg to iceberg for
another attack. The cuts along her bare skin that Misty had inflicted
upon her seemed to not even slow her down. "You and *him*. Him
especially! He stole a part of me when he left me behind to rot in the
Pokemon League. Allowing yourself to feel opens up the possibility of
being hurt. And hurt is inevitable in this immoral world!"
"Him?" Misty asked in confusion as she prepared for Lorelei's assault.
"Who are you talking about?"
"I assume she's talking about me," a tight masculine voice called out
over the wind.
Misty turned and gasped in surprise as she saw Bruno standing upon one of
the icy platforms, his maroon cloak billowing about his huge muscular
body in the fierce wind of ice.
Lorelei saw him and screamed. She abruptly stopped her charge with a
snow-plough manoeuvre sending ice-shards flying from her skates. "You!
You dare to show your face to me?"
Bruno stayed deathly still upon his platform of ice. Abruptly, he broke
down and covered his face with his hands. "I'm sorry, Lorelei ... but you
seemed happy in the Pokemon League ... while I ... I couldn't bear what
we had become; nothing but a body of over-powered people seeking to gain
our own ends at the expense of others. We were nothing but a more
powerful Team Rocket."
Lorelei's sea-green eyes narrowed to glowing horizontal slits. "And you
think I was? I was happy because of you! For once I had a family to call
my own ... and yet with one 'moral' step you completely removed it from
me." She turned her attention back to Misty. "Was she worth it, Bruno?
Was it worth having an inferior version of myself by your side instead of
me?" Her form abruptly became shrouded in an ice-blue freezing aura. "No
matter what you answer, she will be nought but ice and I will shatter it
like you shattered my heart."
"No, she has absolutely nothing to do with any of us!" Bruno roared. "I
don't how you ever reached this insane conclusion that I left you for her.
Leave her be, she is and always was Ashura's girl!"
Suddenly, a dark form swooped up and over the crater wall of the volcano.
A black-cloaked form riding on a disc of shadow. "I wouldn't put it quite
that way, Bruno, but no one's turning Misty into an ice block! This is a
family discussion, that I'd rather you left us out of!"
"Ash!" Misty cried out in abject relief as he swooped toward her.
"Misty! Jump!" he called out and she did so, right into his arms as they
glided upward upon Ash's power of shadow.
"She's escaping!" Lorelei screamed as she began to fire bolts of ice from
her fists.
Misty felt dizzy as Ash manoeuvred around in quick midair turns and loops
to dodge the wild shots.
"Stop that!" Bruno shouted as he began leaping from platform to platform
towards her with big crunching sounds from his heavy boots.
"Who are you to tell me what to do?" Lorelei said as she began to point
her blazing fists at him.
"You're husband!" Bruno roared as he jumped into a high tackle knocking
her off her skates into a high parabolic arc until they landed upon
another ice platform, Bruno pinning Lorelei on her back. Hissing in pain
from the coldness seeping from her skin to his arms, he quickly lowered
his head and kissed her.
For a moment, she struggled, the flesh of lips feeling as cold and hard
as ice, but then the faintest tinge of warmth began to pervade them.
Lorelei burst out into tears and collapsed as Bruno hugged her in his hot
embrace.
<><><>
Ash, with Pikachu on his shoulder, and Misty watched from above as they
hovered upon Ash's disc of shadow. "Amazing how a kiss can solve so many
problems," Ash said, shaking his head as he carefully rode both of them
against the wind.
Misty didn't answer. He turned his head to see what she was doing and
found her staring at him with a strange expression on her face. Her blue
eyes were bright with emotion and suddenly he felt warm as her arms
wrapped around his side became a burning brand. Long locks of her
crimson hair caressed his cheek like a feather upon soft down.
His eyes lowered to her pert pink lips and he abruptly remembered what
they tasted like ... like strawberries and cream. He had the sudden
uncontrollable urge to test the memory ... and she too began leaning in
close for a merging of lips...
But a shrill, terrifying scream from above broke the spell and they
looked up to find that the dark-purple vortex had grown even larger,
large enough to swallow the whole volcano whole. Dark shadows of flapping
shapes became visible from within, uncountable dots of blood-red eyes
looking down at them in hunger as they waited patiently for freedom.
"The Forbidden Gate is becoming fully open!" Lorelei's voice called from
below. Her tone had grown considerably warmer - whatever Bruno had done
had been more than completely successful.
"How can we stop it?" Bruno asked quickly as they stood up.
"Master Bruno, you're alright!" a new voice sounded from the far side of
the top of the volcano.
Ash looked down to see that the rest of them had finally climbed to the
top through the stairway. Junior was standing upon the entrance ledge,
holding on to the visor of his maroon cap to keep it from being blown
away from the wind. Next to him were Erika, Giselle and Laselle.
"Junior, what are you doing here?" Bruno yelled in surprised anger.
"JT," Lorelei suddenly said softly. Then more loudly, "My JT?" Her
sea-green eyes were wide as she stared at him.
"JT?" Junior called out. "I remember when I was small, someone used to
call me that!" His own green eyes widened. "No, there's no way!"
"Lorelei!" Bruno shouted.
Lorelei suddenly grasped her hands tightly against Bruno's shoulders.
"How could you bring my son here?" she sobbed. "Now the gate is too far
open, everyone here will die!"
"Tell me how we can stop it!" Bruno asked again, this time more
desperately.
"MOM?" Junior yelled over the wind. "But-but if she's my mom, that means,
Master Bruno ... Master Bruno..."
"Is your father!" Lorelei completed. "Bruno how could you not tell him?"
Bruno closed his eyes. "I-I couldn't. I just couldn't! He didn't deserve
a father like me ... better to be an orphan than be the son of a
heartless murderer!"
"You're wrong!" Lorelei shouted. "Everyone deserves a family! Family is
what keeps people together. Without them, the loneliness will lead to
despair ... and with the despair, the bitter touch of complete coldness."
Her green eyes had sunk to a dull glow at the remembrance of her
feelings. "I can't let that happen," she suddenly whispered in a low
voice. "I won't. I won't let it!"
Bruno had to back away as she suddenly summoned such an immense amount of
elemental power that the very air around her body began to freeze solid.
"Lorelei, what are you doing?" Bruno said appalled. "You can't hold that
much energy without it ripping you apart!"
"Bruno," she said in a soft tone, tears freezing around her eyes. "You
must know that I am a focal point holder. Three of the Elite Four were
given the duty of acting as a conduit for each of the three towers to
allow the Forbidden Gates to open. We holders are part of the keys to
these gates. If all of us die, then the Prophecy of Armageddon will be
stopped."
"So Sabrina was telling the truth!" Erika shouted.
"But-but," Bruno began, his eyes beginning to moisten. "That means ...
NO!" he screamed in a voice full of pain and denial. "Not after we've
just found each other again! Not after just remeeting your son!"
"But it is because that JT - and you - are here that I must do this,"
Lorelei said in a voice just louder than a breath. "My death and my final
blast of power will slow down the destruction of this island enough for
you to escape." She paused, her eyes beginning to glow even brighter,
brighter than the bluest of stars. "Goodbye, Bruno ... my love... take
care of JT for me -" She smiled bitter-sweetly. And then she was gone.
All Bruno could do was let out a yell of complete anguish and loss.
<><><>
Seeming to shrill in pain as if it had taken a mortal blow, the massive
swirling dark-purple vortex of death flared as if a thunderstorm had just
begun within its dark heart.
The pure white island of ice and its volcano underneath it began to shake
underneath a massive upheaval of the sea and ground. Light which flared
from the ice itself and seemed to light the island from the darkness,
began to blink as it lost its source of power.
Wind blew and hail struck. Air smelling of ozone and melting ice was
everywhere around them.
"Which way is the ship?" Ash shouted over the careening of the wind as he
desperately steered his platform of floating shadow that was holding
everyone up in the wildly shaking air. He had extended it, large enough
to carry most of their companions, while Duplica in Pidgeot form, flying
behind him with powerful beats of her wings, carried the rest that would
not fit. The icy city below them was beginning to collapse within itself;
houses, trees, buildings and everything was disintegrating as if the
whole island was a sandcastle that had just been submerged within the
sea.
"It's at the south of the island, on the beach!" Giselle answered him as
she yelled over the noise of destruction. "We better hurry and hope that
Misty's sisters have gotten that ship fixed or we can all say goodnight!"
A few desperate minutes later, Ash spotted the white pointed form of the
ship far below them on the white beach. It looked like Misty's sisters
had already begun to cast off.
"Hey, they're not leaving us are they?" Laselle asked in sudden fear as
she lay on her chest, clutching the shadow platform with her hands
tightly.
"No, they're just getting ready so that when we come, we can make a
speedy getaway," Misty explained, still holding Ash's side.
"Pidgeot!" Duplica-Pidgeot trilled. "Let's dive!" she cried as she
lowered one wing and swooped down like a fighter jet.
"W-Watch it!" Jessie said, who had now awoken from unconsciousness and
seemed normal - normal for her - as she clung to Duplica-Pidgeot's
brown-feathered back in fear.
"I'm scared of heights!" James cried.
"Oh, be quiet!" Duplica-Pidgeot trilled. "You're lucky I'm even giving
you a ride!"
Ash banked his disc of shadow and followed them down.
Lily was waving at them from on top of the deck. "Like finally!" she
shouted when she saw them descending. "We were becoming like totally
worried!"
Duplica-Pidgeot landed first with an elegant gliding of wings, although
she deposited, Jessie, James and Persian more than a little roughly upon
the hard deck.
"Ow!" they cried.
"Sorry, an accident!" Duplica said innocently although the wicked tone in
her voice gave the lie as she shifted back into human form.
After that it was Ash's turn, and it was more than a little hard for him
since upholding the Shadow levitation so large and for so long had
completely tired him out. Pikachu as well, as he had been adding his
power to his. As it was they were still a couple of feet in the air above
the ship before, he could no longer maintain it and they all fell down
with a thump in the wake of the sudden empty air.
"Quick, below decks!" Lily said, helping everyone up. "We're going to
have to submerge to get out of this one!" She indicated the island behind
them as the ship sped away at full acceleration. She looked at Ash as he
tiredly stood up and began following everyone down the hatch with Pikachu
on his shoulder. She shook her head. "You know, places that go to hell
seem to be quite common when you're around."
"Tell me about it."
After submerging, they managed to escape the destruction of Cinnabar
Island. Onward, the ship turned its destination north to the Viridian
Gulf.
But it was a sombre mood that descended over the party of people within
the ship. They were one step closer to their goal, but at what price.
Bruno stayed locked in his rooms for the whole journey, while Junior
refused to even speak. Even Erika seemed to fall in depression at the
knowledge of her three Grass Trainers death.
And unknown, behind in the cargo-hold, a stow-away plotted retribution.
<><><>
The cold air above the ruins of Cerulean City was dead calm. Gruesome
animalistic howling sounded every so often interrupting the terrifying
stillness which enveloped the land. Forgotten crumbling buildings lay
throughout, seeming devoid of all life. Aside from the deadness of the
ruins, by contrast the tall circular black tower that rose above the
destruction was pulsing with dark-purple waves. It was from here that
such appalling cries of inhumanness originated, or more precisely above
it, the first vortex of the Forbidden. Which now seemed to be drifting to
the east...
Behind a toppled building, white light seemed to burst as something came
into being. As it flared and gained solidity, it emerged into a slim
white-cloaked figure. Its head was covered by its hood and the two
glowing blue lights constrained within its shadows that were its eyes,
slowly rotated their field of vision.
Crumbled pieces of rocks and stone crunched underneath her white boots as
Valdera began to search. It was around here somewhere. After all these
years, she still remembered where it was, even if Cerulean City looked
... slightly different.
Strangely, a sense of homesickness came over her as she looked around at
all the destroyed ruins of buildings and burnt trees and other ashes that
used to be the plentiful plant life of the city. She was only seven years
old when she decided that life was nothing but a stupid vessel to pass
through before ultimately leading to its true goal - death. And so she
had staged her death and ran away... there were better things to do than
suffer under the company of her stupid sisters. And oh, how she had hated
Mistaria... and now if what she suspected was true, then life was worse
than a vessel of death. Nothing but a bad joke.
Something hissed among the broken stone bricks to her right, breaking her
train of thought. A rattata the colour of the night, leaped out of a
crevice and beagn to pounce toward her. Lazily, Valdera lifted one hand.
Her fingers crackled as pure white lightning exploded forth in a
devastating bolt of hot destruction. The rattata seemed to evaporate into
red steam as the electricity streamed through its body and into a
half-collapsed broken stone wall - which just exploded into a shower of
molten lava upon contact.
Stupid Forbidden. Lord Garick was indeed an idiot to use such
uncontrollable creatures. If Ashura wasn't so stubborn and joined her,
nothing would be able to stop the combined might of light and shadow.
Masters such as they did not need outside power; they only needed each
other. Thinking about that, she realised that already she missed him.
Maybe she shouldn't have done what she did back at the Rebel base. It
just let her crave for more. She quickly put it out of her mind as she
continued on her way without a glance back.
Finally, upon a large depression on the ground among the largest ruins of
a building yet, she spotted the severed head of a large seel. The sign of
the Cerulean City Gym.
"So, you have come for answers," a voice said from behind her, eerie in
its emotionless.
Valdera turned around. A tall figure, taller than even her, in a cloak
the colour of twilight stood there. Its head was also covered by its
hood, making the features of its face invisible save for the eyes.
"Sabrina," she stated in annoyance. "As if I wanted any of your
psychomasochistic babble."
Sabrina continued without acknowledgement. "There's no escaping from it.
Your blood is as entwined as the knots of a life's thread. As you have
seen with Ashura, the prophecies are proving true. All dualities will
become one eventually. That much is obvious."
Valdera sucked in her breath. Something tickled on her cheek and she
angrily wiped it away after realising it was a tear. Then she collapsed
to her knees on the stony ground and looked at her slim white hands.
"Prophecies can be broken!" she suddenly sobbed in denial. She looked up
with a defiant look on her face. "And I will find a way to break it!"
But no longer was Sabrina there. Only the dead air surrounding the
equally dead city.
Valdera brushed away a long lock of blonde hair away from her eye. It was
time she and 'Misty' had a more serious encounter. 'Ash' could only
belong to one sister ... her.
*** End of Part 10
Next Episode: A landing at the Viridian Gulf. Ash and AJ's final battle.
A thorn within their myst. The terrors of Victory Road. Valdera and Misty
head onward to their final conclusion. And Agatha shows the might of her
ghostly power... and just what happens to Brock?
Two more parts to go until the final conclusion!
_________________________________________________________________________
POKEDEX
_________________________________________________________________________
SHADOW PIKACHU
Type 1 - Shadow
Type 2 - Electricity
Attack : Shadow Slice
Type : Shadow / Fighting
In blade form, a strike of the sword that can be launched over surprising
distances to cut any substance known to man.
_________________________________________________________________________
Notes:
Ack. My fingers are about to fall off from the length of this fic. I
think I beat my record... anyway, time for my world-famous notes! What do
you mean you don't know about them? Start from Part 1 then! *grin*
New Characters: Try to guess what each of the new characters (Ania,
Triana, Colletra and Hikaru. Oh and Chanelle.) match up to from the
gameboy game - answers at bottom ^_^;;. By the way, I didn't want to
create even more new ones but I found describing them as "Erika's
Trainers" or "Bruno's Trainers" got pretty old and required actual names.
Although on second thought, I just killed most of them off anyway so
maybe it didn't matter.
On Ash's bow shooting skill: I chose two hundred yards because I just
finished watching Guiness Prime time and it said the furthest someone
could shoot an arrow with accuracy was one hundred yards. So naturally, I
chose double for Ash *grin*.
On Triverion: I've always been a big fan of Transformers where they would
all join to make a big robot ^_^;;. Except this idea was based more on
how it was done in the PSX game, Xenogears.
On Lorelei: Sorry for being so corny, but I thought a kiss would fit for
some reason. Kind of like Sleeping Beauty ... or Sleeping Insane-Woman.
On Ice skating: Ain't it totally cool? That would be awesome if there
really was a city of ice to skate around in ^_^.
Anyway, as always tell me if I stuffed up this chapter or whether you
loved it to pieces. And if I stuffed up, tell me where you think I did it
so I can see if I can improve it. Thanks!
Ace Sanchez
Email: jsa@fl.net.au
WWW: http://jsa.users.fl.net.au
Answers for pop-quiz:
Ania = Pokemoniac. That one in the lab coat in the gameboy game. It is a
feamle right? That's what it looked like to me.
Triana = Junior Trainer - female. Ponytailed girl. You fight like
hundreds of these, especially in Erika's Gym.
Colletra = Cool Trainer - female. That one with the whip and ponytail.
Hikaru = Hiker. Those big guys with Onix's and Geodudes hanging around
Mount Moon and the Rock Tunnel. Btw, I know Hikaru is a girl's name. I
just thought it would be funny if I give a real masculine character a
girl's name. Bwahaha! Well okay it wasn't that funny =)
Chanelle = Channeller. Those women in Pokemon Tower? Anyway, in their
pic, they looked kinda young to me so that's how I designed this
character.
Scoring - Give youself 1 point for every character guessed correctly.
4-5 : Congrats! You may think a lot like me! On second thought, my
condolences ^_^;;
2-3 : You are an average Gameboy fan and uh average for deducing what I
think.
0-1 : Master of the obvious, you aren't ^_^