[Tired... *sigh* I stayed up last night playing tunes and watching Thirteenth Warrior, after being up late every night this week doing something...I don't function well when I'm tired...]
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Betrayal
"Ow!"
"Misty, what's wrong?
"Nothing," the red-head replied. "Just stubbed my toe on that tree root."
"Watch your footing around here," Brock warned. "It's gotten better recently, but the path is really out of repair and this whole area is scattered with those pits Team Rocket always digs." Brock was tall, and his short brown hair stuck out in all directions. He had a square face that belied his playfullness.
"You sure you're all right?" Ash asked in concern, bending down. "You didn't sprain your ankle or anything?"
"I'm fine!" Misty insisted. "C'mon, let's go." She got up and brusked off her knees, running a hand through her hair to pull it back out of her face. The trio of friends set out again, accompanied as always by their assorted pokemon. Walking slightly slower than her companions, Misty soon found herself a f ew feet behind them.
Brock hadn't really changed much in the past five years, she noted. He was still the same hopeless romantic, splitting his time between watching out for his friends, asking every pretty girl he met to marry him, and realizing his dream of becoming a pokemon breeder. He already had something of a reputation.
Ash, on the other hand, was barely recognizeable. He had sprouted about a foot and a half, so that rather than being the shortest of the three he now towered above Brock. His hair was much the same, just longer. The cap he had worn for years was gone, and his silky black locks floated freely in the breeze. The jacket was gone, too. His arms were long and muscular, but streamlined. He had the body of a swimmer. The color, too; he had gone from a crystalline white to a deep bronze. He had become any girl's dream.
Well, almost. His eyes were no longer the wide orbs of innocence they had been; now they were narrowed, hard black diamonds that glittered suspiciously at the world. Around Brock and Misty he was the same as ever, cheerful and carefree and willing to do anything for anyone, but the instant anyone else came near he fell silent, keeping his gaze on the ground and refusing to meet anyone's eyes. His trademark competetive spirit was gone. He still traveled with his friends, but never in the last three years had he entered any sort of contest; he left that to Misty. (Brock entered on occasioon, but only rarely. He was not by nature a very competetive person.) Almost no one could understand this total transformation, Professor Oak and Ms. Ketchum herself included, but Misty and Brock knew.
He had been betrayed.
Around New Years three years previously, Misty and Brock had elected to spend a few weeks' vacation in a small, almost unheard-of village as a sort of vacation. Being the energetic dreamer he was, Ash took the opportunity to make journey to a small PokeCenter a few days' journey away; he had wanted to visit it for years, but they had never passed anywhere near it. Misty and Brock saw him off without concern. It was not unusual for him to run off on some side trip of his own while they rested. He seemed to have unlimited energy.
But when the week dragged on into two weeks, then two and a half, then three, and there was no word from Ash or the PokeCenter, they began to worry. So they set out after him.
He wasn't too hard to find. A few miles off the trail there was a rather large clearing, and the smell of smoke hung heavy in the air. On the far side of the clearing lay Ash, surrounded by crushed Pokeballs, covered in bad burns, and nearly dead. An unconscious Bulbasaur was stretched out next to him, and they could see by the tracks in the muddy ground that it had dragged itself from the far side of the clearing. There were no other Pokemon to be found.
They carried their friend back to the village and turned him over to the local Nurse Joy, who didn't sound too optimistic. He was in a coma, his burns were bad enough on their own, and he had been two and a half weeks without food; his chances weren't good. Misty and Brock resigned themselves to the worst.
Then one night a week later, while Nurse Joy, Brock, and Misty were eating dinner in the only restaurant in the village, Ash disappeared. His clothes and backpack were gone, and several empty Pokeballs were found missing, as well. It took several hours for them to realize that Bulbasaur, too, had vanished.
A search was organized. Huge storms terrorized the region, making travel diffcult and long-distance communication impossible; Professor Oak and Ms. Ketchum had no way of knowing what was going on. For two weeks, search parties scoured the village and the surrounding forest, but in vain. Three weeks after his disappearance, the search parties were recalled, and he was proclaimed dead.
"With those burns, there's no way he could survive in fhe forset," Nurse Joy said. Her voice was cracked with grief.
The village mourned; they hadn't know him very well, but Ash was one of those people who was well-liked wherever he went. News of his death leaked out to nearby towns. Misty and Brock went back to Pallette Town to tell Ms. Ketchum and the Professor in person.
Then, one month and two days after his disappearance, Nurse Joy called the Ketchum residence. The house was empty; they were at the funeral. It wasn't until late that evening that they heard the recorded message. Ash was alive.
Midway through his journey to the PokeCenter, Team Rocket had made their usual appearance, "Surrender now" speech and all. The battle had been short and fierce, and as usual Ash won. But just before Pikashu's Thunderbolt could blast them sky-high, a very famiiar Pokemon had stepped forth. Charizard.
***
"Charizard!" Ash exclaimed, stunned but delighted. "What are you doing here?" After the Silver Conference, he and the flying fire-type had spent a lot of time together, and they had formed a deep bond that allowed them to commucate clearly. (He had the same kind of bond with Pikachu and several other of his pokemon.)
Charizard made no answer, just stood there and stared. Slowly, wide grins spread over Team Rocket's faces.
"Charizard? What's wrong, buddy?" Ash stepped forward, Pikachu back on his shoulder, and walked toward the winged dragon.
Said winged dragon responded with a furious Flamethrower that knocked Pikachu away and threw Ash to the far side of the clearing.
"Cha...Charizard, what...why?" Ash forced the pain away, ignoring the flames still licking at his clothes, and stumbled forward again. He didn't make it far.
"Today, you see," Jessie said with a smirk on her face as Ash crashed into a tree and landed heavily on the ground, breathless, "we have no intentions of losing. And Charizard here is going to help us with that. Charizard, take down that Pikachu!"
Ash's memory of the next few minutes was fogged; all he could remember was fire and lightning, and pain. Bulbasaur had somehow getten out of his Pokeball, but he was weak against the fire-type, and the first direct hit put him down and out for the count. Pikachu was locked in a dangerous dance with the much larger Pokemon, scoring an occasional hit but taking quite a few blows himself. They were fairly evenly matched, and Team Rocket knew it.
"We don't have time for this!" Meowth cried, exasperated. "Charizard, get over there by the twerp!" The fire Pokemon obeyed.
Pikachu saw this and hesitated. What was Charizard, his one-time friend, doing obeying Team Rocket? That didn't make sense! And why was the Meowth telling Charizard to go stand by the master - oh. That was why. Pikachu knew that if he attacked Charizard now, with the dragon so close to the master, he would attack the master as well, and he might hurt the poor master. The master was already burned. The shock from the electricity might even kill him. He couldn't attack, not if it would hurt the master. He would rather be taken. The mouse Pokemon's ears drooped.
"Pi...Pikachu," Ash whispered, his vision blurring back into focus for a second. "Pikachu...what's wrong..." Their eyes met for the briefest of instants, Ash's full of pain and worry but not yet beaten, not yet subdued, and Pikachu's dark with grief.
//Cannot hurt the master,// Pikachu said in the language of the pokemon. Ash understood him clearly; the words meant nothing to him, but he could feel the meanings as they ran through Pikahu's mind. //Charizard...Charizard is too close, I cannot hurt the master... Must not hurt the master... Will be taken, first, but cannot hurt the master!//
"Do it, Pikachu," Ash urged as loudly as he could - which wasn't very loudly. "Don't give up - aah!" Charizard had stepped on his leg. The dragon Pokemon heard it's former master's pained cry and hesitated for an instant, but then let out another Flamethrower at Pikachu. The electric-type dodged and, acting purely on reflex, aimed a Thunderbolt in Charizard's direction; the dragon dodged and the lightning stuck Ash directly. The master gave a small whimper of agony. Then something dark and stifling slipped over Pikachu's head, and he knew no more.
Pikachu! Pikachu, look out! Ash tried to cry. But the effects of the Thunderbolt were too strong, and he was paralyzed, unable to do anything as James caught the loyal Pokemon in a bag and slung it over his shoulder. He caught a final glimpse of Jessie's gleeful countenance and heard someone say "Flamethrower!" and then everything went black.
***
Black. Heavy, hot, black. Oppressive. Magmar midnight. Thick. Couldn't breathe.
Wait...there! A breath of air! And again. The soft caress of oxygen.
No, not oxygen. A sound. A voice. Words...
//Master? Is the master all right?//
Ash pried open his eyes with a superhuman effort. Red orbs stared into his, red surrounded by blue and green. It took a moment for his mind to put the pieces together.
"Bu...Bulbasaur?" he murmured.
"Saur!" //The master is injured!//
"I'm...fine, Bulbasaur," Ash lied, giving the Pokemon a small smile. "Just tired. But...Charizard, and Team Rocket...what happened to them?" His vision blurred again.
"Saur, Bulba-bulbasaur...saur!" //They got away.// The Pokemon's "voice" was sad. //And they took the master's other pokemon... Broke the ball-homes, they did.//
"They took...all my pokemon?" Ash repeated, disbelieving. With an effort he moved his hand and felt his belt, where each Pokeball would be clipped; nothing. A bit of melted plastic here and there - the clips - but no balls. A gentle Vine reached out of the plant on Bulbasaur's back and scooped something off the ground, then dropped it into Ash's limp hand. It was a few shattered bits of plastic. Red and white; one of his Pokeballs. A crystalline tear formed at the edge of Ash's eye. He knew he was going to die, there was no question about that - already he was too weak to move more than a few inches at a time, and every word he spoke just magnified the feeling - but he had planned to use the last of his energy freeing his pokemon. Team Rocket had stolen that from him.
"Saur?"
Ash gave another weak smile. "Bulbasaur...you know you're one of my best friends, buddy."
"Saur!"
"But you can't be my Pokemon forever," the young trainer whispered, reaching out and running his hand over the Pokemon's rubbery skin. "You're free now, Bulbasaur. You can go wherever you want. You're free..."
Ash's voice faded and his eyes closed and his hand fell to the ground, limp. Bulbasaur nudged him slightly with a Vine, but the master didn't wake. Slowly, so slowly, Bulbasaur slipped into the dark pit of oblivion...
[...And this is why I'm not allowed to write when I'm tired o.O;; This isn't finished, but there's no telling whether I'll add to it or not...]
[Edit: It doesn't like the accented 'e' in pokemon, so I changed 'em all back to normal... I'll fiddle around later and see if it likes the HTML style more...]
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Random Quote of the Day:
"Team Rocket's blasting off again!"
- Team Rocket
