Chapter 16 – Something of a Sanguine Hue
The room smelled distinctly of lavender, though the faint aroma of various fruits also hung in the air. Waning light from the moon fell silently across Misty's back, glimmering across both the fading scars and the beads of sweat that dripped down her frame as she knelt, straddling Ash. Laying on his back, panting, hands on Misty's hips the Gym Leader sucked in one breath after another and, mirroring his partner, trembled. Letting go of the big headboard, Misty bent down and kissed Ash, moaning contentedly even before his hands traced up her back to grip her hair and hold her against him.
"I've been thinking," Misty whispered, slowly letting herself down next to Ash, still draping one leg over his thighs.
"Hm," the Gym Leader responded, rolling his head to one side to look at her.
Misty grinned playfully as Ash felt up her leg, and squirmed as he played with her. "Why don't we just forget about Team Rocket, the Pokedex, and all of these," she paused and looked for a word, trying to think through the pleasant haze in her head, "distractions. We could go away together to Johto or somewhere a long way off and focus on more important things."
Ash grinned. "I'd thought about something like that," he admitted. "Wouldn't it be something if we could just pack our things, leave, and never look back."
Misty settled into him, snuggling herself between the damp covers and Ash's frame, feeling the heat rolling off him. "I'd like that," she went on. "I'd like that a lot. Say the word and we can be gone before sunrise, just us."
"As tempting as that might be," said Ash, "don't you think we'd eventually regret leaving everything here completely unfinished?"
"I'm not thinking about that now," said Misty with a wry grin. "But yes and no, given the right distractions," she let the word hang in the air as she drew her finger across his chest in little patterns, "I think I could cope with the guilt."
Ash smiled again and quickly rolled on top of her, grabbing her wrists and playfully pinning Misty to the bed. "Well, I'm afraid I'm going to require a lot more distracting if I'm going to just forget about everything I've been working towards here."
"Tisk, now what am I going to have to do to distract you long enough to lure you away? Or will I have to resort to bribery?" She raised a leg to rub him with her calf.
"I'm sure we can work something out," he said.
SC
"Well, it's been fun," said Ash, reaching out towards Dawn to give her hand a shake.
The girl left her arms folded across her chest and turned to Oak. "If you're sure you don't want me to stay," she said. "I wouldn't want Professor Rowan to think I just abandoned you."
Ash shook his head some, dropping his hands into his pockets. The thinly veiled venom in Dawn's tone stung his ears. What is her problem? he wondered.
"I'll be fine," said Oak, either missing or ignoring the tone in which she spoke to him. "Give Rowan my best and be safe."
"Hm," the other trainer acknowledged, reaching to her belt and taking a pokeball. Snapping it open and flooding the courtyard with white light, on top of the already brilliant morning sunlight, Dawn stepped up the the coalescing form of a large winged Pokemon.
Ash didn't recognize the bird, but quickly took note of its rounded body, sparkling blue feathers, and ostensibly stubby wings. The haughty look on the Pokemon's face, he thought, matched its trainer perfectly. "If you ever have any more trouble," said Ash, "tell the professor to feel free to ask for help."
"I'll pass that along," said Dawn, swinging one leg up and over the bird's back, planting herself in the saddle. The blue haired trainer fastened some straps around her legs and tapped her Pokemon's sides with her heels. Without another word the pair leapt into the air where the bird's wings snapped open and heaved, carrying both Pokemon and trainer skywards.
Oak folded his arms across his chest and sighed once Dawn passed beyond earshot. "I hope she didn't prove too... abrasive," he said. "Dawn's not really a bad person. She's just so focused on her job that she can come across as cold."
"Icy," Ash corrected, pursing one side of his mouth into a grimace. "No offense, but even when she isn't talking it's hard to put up with her."
"Don't be impolite," Oak said. "She's younger than you and hasn't exactly had it easy. Where's Misty anyway?" the professor changed topics. "I haven't seen her yet this morning."
"Went back to bed," Ash's frown twisted into a clandestine smirk as he watched Dawn fly farther and farther north. "She woke up sore."
"I see," said the professor. "Well, I'm glad the two of you are getting along so well. I had a good feeling about it all when you two first showed up together in Pallet... despite the Gyarados. You know when I was your age I knew this girl named A-"
"What are those?" Ash interrupted, dropping his hands at his sides and staring intently up at the sky.
Oak followed his grandson's level gaze and squinted. "What are what?" he asked.
"Those," Ash pointed towards two specks as they appeared out of the rising sun and angled their paths towards the north. "They're moving straight at Dawn," he added, his stare intensifying as the rapidly advancing little dots took on definition and picked up speed. He watched with growing anxiety as the flying Pokemon neared Dawn and the young trainer veered to one side to avoid the attack as her pursuers swooped by. Ash cursed and grabbed a pokeball.
"Grandpa, something's wrong." He threw out the pokeball and released Pidgeot in a flash of white light. No sooner had the bird formed out of the energy than was Ash on her back. Pidgeot, surprised but exceedingly well trained, squawked and took off without hesitation as Ash tapped her sides with his heels. "Tell Baily to put the Gym on alert," Ash shouted back, simultaneously reaching down to strap his legs into the saddle as he directed Pidgeot with a gesture.
Oak nodded and turned for the gym, impressed by his grandson's initiative, and kicking himself for leaving his Pokemon in his room.
Feeling Pidgeot's excitement buzzing in the air around him, Ash finished buckling himself to his seat and reached for his other pokeball. Suddenly he was very sorry he'd left Pikachu to sleep in with Arcanine. No matter, he thought, grabbing Charizard's pokeball, holding onto Pidgeot's neck and leaning into the wind as his Pokemon gained both altitude and speed. While he sometimes complained about how difficult it could be to train an obedient mount like his Pidgeot, Ash couldn't deny the amazing speed with which the bird could close great distances. In no time at all he'd moved to within half a kilometer of the areal battle breaking out between Dawn and her two pursuers.
Quickly scanning the scene, Ash recognized both assailants as Golbats, each carrying a rider in a hooded cloak. The leathery Pokemon were taking turns flying over Dawn and diving at her to keep the trainer off balance, making them nearly oblivious to Ash as he, with a few heavy strokes of Pidgeot's wings, climbed over everyone else. Guiding Pidgeot with his knees and touches on her neck, Ash angled his Pokemon down at the Golbat setting up for a dive at Dawn, and sucked in his breath. After one mighty heave, Pidgeot tucked her wings and shot down towards the enemy trainer and Pokemon at an extreme angle. Closing the distance in an instant, Ash cued his Pokemon, ducked, and let Pidgeot take over.
The screeching bird tumbled in midair, opening its talons and crashing down on top of the bat like a meteor, only opening its wings after both Pokemon had lurched towards the ground from the impact. Ash felt himself slam into the saddle, but recovered and threw out Charizard's pokeball, trying to see if Pidgeot had dispatched the trainer or simply wounded the Golbat mount. Spinning downwards, leathery wings flailing around him, white energy flashing to his left, Ash couldn't tell what exactly what was going on, but guessed that Pidgeot's attack had broken their enemy's mount at the very least.
"Disengage!" he shouted, fighting vertigo as they toppled. He felt the pokeball snap closed in his hand and heard Charizard roar and catch itself in flight. He felt Pidgeot tear its talons out of the Golbat's back and push free, pumping its wings to steady itself and regain control. Ash glanced downward, noting that the Golbat was clearly disabled and its screaming trainer was plummeting towards the ground more than a thousand feet below. He grimaced and looked away.
Charizard passed over Ash, prompting the trainer to look up and check on Dawn. He'd hoped that taking out one of her attackers would buy her time to fight back, but bit his lip in dismay. The surviving opponent had reached for more pokeballs and loosed a veritable swarm of Zubat and Beedrill. Ash counted no less than three of each, but accurately enumerating the flitting Pokemon as they dove and weaved at Charizard proved impossible. He only hoped that Charizard's prowess would be enough to make up for the enemy's numbers.
"Flame Wheel!" Ash barked, simultaneously prompting Pidgeot to soar higher and angle for a position over the opposing Pokemon. The young Gym Leader, yelping in pain as a Zubat latched onto his exposed wrist, watched as the large Golbat unleashed a scream that visibly undulated the air and crashed into Dawn and her mount.
"Swellow!" Ash heard Dawn shout as her Pokemon shook violently under the blow and began to fall.
Ash swore under his breath and Pidgeot banked hard. Ripping the Zubat from his arm, Ash instinctively gripped at his mount's neck, his weight straining against the restraints holding him in the saddle as Pidgeot tore out of the way of the Golbat's next charge attack. He reached into his coat and clutched at another pokeball, throwing it open and shielding his eyes from the flash. In an instant a hovering Butterfree and opened its wings to catch itself. "Whirlwind!" Ash ordered, pointing at his Butterfree and motioning to the Golbat.
As the insectoid Pokemon threw open its wings hard enough to propel itself harshly backwards and buffet the Golbat with air, Ash and Pidgeot banked towards Dawn and her faltering Swellow. The blue flier looked dazed and confused, flapping erratically. As they neared, Ash looked back up at Charizard who, with amazing alacrity, cut the swarm of Beedrill and Zubat to ribbons, and turned on the dazed Golbat before the Pokemon and its trainer could regain their balance.
At least something's going well, Ash thought. As soon as Pidgeot came within reach of Dawn and Swellow, the horribly stressed and confused Pokemon lashed out at Pidgeot, slammed Ash with its wing, and abandoned its attempt to remain aloft. Plummeting like a stone and taking Dawn with it, the Swellow went limp in the air and passed out.
Gritting his teeth and ignoring the throbbing in his head, Ash pointed and Pidgeot tucked her wings and dove like a falcon. A split second later they'd reached the unconscious Swellow, and Ash had wrapped his arm around Dawn. Ignoring her screaming, he tugged at the restraints around her legs to no avail. Pidgeot got one set of talons into the Swellow and heaved hard, fighting to slow the free fall. The conscious flier, while more massive by far than the azure animal, couldn't lift two people and an unconscious Pokemon.
Ash looked down, gasping at just how quickly the ground seemed to be racing up to greet them, and reached inside his coat again to draw out a long, thin knife. "Don't move!" he shouted at Dawn, working as nimbly as he could to slide the blade under the saddle's straps. With a grunt Ash pulled the blade downwards, knowing that to sever the leather straps he'd have to risk lacerating Dawn also, and despite her thick long coat, Dawn cried out and clutched at her thigh. The strap cut though.
Looking at the ground, Ash heaved at Dawn again, this time pulling the girl loose of her saddle. Pidgeot's wings burst open and clawed furiously at the air as Swellow dropped away like a lead weight. Dawn screamed again as Pidgeot hurled itself skyward, inertia threatening to rip her from Ash's grip. The man in the saddle lashed out with his free hand, dropping the knife as though it had burst into flame, and clutched at Dawn. Pidgeot screeched with effort and shot to the side, regaining her balance the instant before Dawn's feet brushed the tops of the trees in the forest below.
"Hold on," Ash ordered as he pulled her into the saddle behind him.
Dawn did just that, wrapping her arms so tightly around Ash's chest that the trainer could barely breathe. Not missing a beat, Ash turned his gaze skyward, watching as Charizard and Butterfree contended with the Golbat. Ash grinned to himself. Misty had thought a Pokemon like Butterfree would be useless in a stand-up fight, but Ash saw the Pokemon's potential as more than a brawler. As a laden Pidgeot carried herself higher, Ash sighed in relief. Charizard alone might have proved to be more than a match for the Golbat, and with Butterfree distracting it, the enemy quickly found itself completely outmaneuvered.
Charizard gained altitude over the Golbat and dove. Not bothering to use a fiery attack, the dragon opened its claws and tore the trainer clean out of his saddle. Or, Ash saw, Charizard tore at least the trainer's top half from the saddle. As the dragon proceeded to reduce the cadaver in its jaws to a crimson mess, the Golbat, still transporting two legs tied to its saddle, dodged Butterfree and flew directly through a cloud of yellow spores in the insect's wake. Immediately the leathery Pokemon went rigid and dropped. Ash watched with a small measure of satisfaction as the Golbat crashed into the trees below.
"That's that," said Pidgeot's trainer. He turned to Dawn. "You alright?"
The girl nodded into his shoulder, neither saying a word or opening her eyes.
"Looks like you'll be staying in Vermilion a little longer," he added, another note of satisfaction in his tone and again, Dawn only nodded and clung to him.
For a brief moment, Ash considered landing to look for the remains of the trainer who had presumably fallen to his death. His paranoia didn't want someone else getting to the body first. Then he remembered that he had likely badly cut Dawn to get her loose of her Pokemon. He weighed his options. Vermilion was close enough, he decided, turning back towards the south and flying over the city. Descending in wide circles, Pidgeot landed in the Gym's courtyard to an armed greeting.
Baily had quickly marshaled the guards and posted them in their usual positions around the premises. Baily himself walked forward from the Gym's entrance and adjusted his hardhat as Ash got himself out of the saddle and helped Dawn down. Charizard set down next to Pidgeot, and Butterfree lighted on Ash's shoulder as he held Dawn steady. The cool mist the insect's wings began to emit filled Ash's lungs with the refreshing scent of rain and cleared the haze of adrenaline from his mind.
Oak and Misty, Pikachu in tow, came running. Misty in her hastily donned armor and Oak in his lab coat reached them in a hurry. "What happened?" asked the professor, looking at Dawn and kneeling down to inspect her leg having immediately spotted the crimson stain overtaking her coat.
Baily cleared his throat, his Magnemite hovering protectively behind him while a Voltorb rolled beside him. "Are there more for us to worry about?"
Ash first addressed Oak, telling him to get Dawn to the infirmary. "Jacob!" he called out to one of the guards who was at Ash's side in a heartbeat. "Show the professor the way."
The guard nodded and motioned for Oak to follow him.
"I don't know," Ash answered Baily. "I'll be back but keep us on alert and post guards at the Pokemon Center and Town Hall."
"Done and done," Baily answered.
"Ready to move?" Ash turned to Misty, holding out his arm for Pikachu.
Misty tossed Ash Arcanine's pokeball and a headset radio. Ash caught both and managed to snatch a chittering Pikachu in the crook of his arm. "Always," Misty answered.
Pikachu looked up at Ash, eyes narrowed as if to chastise the trainer for leaving him behind, then stood up in Ash's arm and batted the Gym Leader on the nose with one paw.
"I know," Ash admitted to the yellow rodent, his nose stinging. "I'll take you with me next time."
"Where to?" asked Misty, releasing Vaporeon from its pokeball and stepping up beside Ash.
Ash nodded over his shoulder towards the north. "There were two fliers chasing Dawn," he said. "I killed one's mount and the trainer fell well over a thousand feet... more than enough to kill him and, hopefully, leave anything he was carrying more or less intact."
"Right," said Misty as Ash returned Pidgeot and Butterfree to their pokeballs, simultaneously releasing Arcanine from his. "What do you want to bet they were working for Team Rocket..."
Ash ran his hand through Arcanine's flowing mane and hopped up onto the Pokemon's back. Arcanine yipped happily and pawed at the ground, turning his head to lick his trainer's hand. "Good to see you too," Ash responded, silently reaching out with his mind and locating Haunter immediately. The ghost had, it explained, decided upon Ash's flying off without a warning to scan the city blocks surrounding the gym for any trouble. It was the right decision too, Haunter crowed in Ash's head, floating invisibly up beside him, as the specter had found two of the gym's guards asleep at their posts.
Thanking Haunter for the information, and instructing it to stay behind and keep an eye on Baily as far as it was able, Ash offered his hand to Misty. As the girl climbed behind Ash on Arcanine's back, Ash again briefly toyed with the idea of finally telling Misty about his ghostly companion.
Maybe later, he quickly concluded. After all, I haven't really caught Haunter just yet.
SC
Fortunately, human bodies are normally quite warm compared to their surroundings and they tend to cool slowly, making them show up on Ash's thermal imager in fine detail. Ash, trekking through the woods beside Misty and scanning the surrounding terrain without the aid of his invention, slipped the device back into his pack as Misty took out a pair of binoculars. Flanked by Arcanine on one side, and Vaporeon and Blastoise on the other, Ash felt secure enough to stand upright and take a deep breath. Despite the heavy escort however, the young trainer couldn't shake the notion that something about the situation felt off.
"Have a look," said Misty, handing her partner the binoculars. "Looks like the fall definitely killed her."
Ash looked downrange through the lenses and found the body. The trainer lay sprawled out on the ground, perfectly still beside the dead Golbat. Her cloak concealed most of her features, with the exception of her dirty red hair and her exposed leg still draped over the mount. "I expected it would," Ash answered, crossing his arms. "Let's go have a look."
Arcanine bumped his trainer with the side of his massive head, prompting everyone to pause and wait as the canine sniffed the air. Arcanine looked off towards the east for a moment, staring intently into the waist-high brush, before sneezing and making both Ash and Misty jump. When the Pokemon turned his attention back on the body, Ash and Misty both proceeded. Pikachu sat vigilantly on Ash's shoulder while Vaporeon strutted like a ghost beside Misty and Blastoise lumbered on as usual.
"I wonder what made them go after Dawn," Ash stated, walking with Pikachu up to the body and leaving Misty a few paces behind with the other Pokemon. "The two of them were far too well coordinated for raiders... and if they were both trained for this kind of thing-" He pulled the cloak away from the trainer's frame and yelped in surprise.
A face full of malice smiled up at him from the ground, teeth bared in a blood-freezing leer. Even after months, Ash recognized the features. "Surprise!" Jesse yelled, lunging up at Ash and driving the knife in her hand into his side, wrenching it out and laughing with glee as Ash stumbled backwards.
"Ash!" Misty screamed as her partner clutched at his quickly reddening shirt. She thrust a finger at Jesse, seeing crimson. "Kill that fucking bi-"she stopped as a flash of movement caught her eye. Turning to the side, a huge purple blur appeared beside her, shrieking with a deafening battle-cry.
The cold-blooded Arbok whipped Misty with its tail and slammed her against a tree, the force of the blow filling the air with a crack as Misty's armor caved in around her to absorb the impacts. The trainer gasped as the Arbok, whirling with unbelievable speed, turned on the clustered Pokemon and lashed out at Blastoise. The hulking tortoise shifted to absorb the tackle, but Arbok changed course in mid strike, opened its jaws into a horrific fissure, and snapped them closed around Blastoise's neck. The heavy Pokemon couldn't even thrash before Arbok tore its fangs free, leaving punctures like knife wounds that spat a reeking black puss.
Vaporeon spun, swiping its scythe-like tail along the length of Arbok's midsection and opening the serpent's hide to the air. Arcanine's jaws opened as it's throat glowed a brilliant white. Weathering a torrent of flame that roared off its protective hood like water against a rock, Arbok hissed as if to laugh at their efforts. Despite the bleeding injury in its side, the ophedian Pokemon slapped it's tail at Vaporeon, an attack the nimble blue creature dodged, and snapped down at Arcanine.
Pikachu's cheeks lit up like the sun and a bolt of electricity blasted towards Jesse. The trainer, already halfway through the motion, leapt behind the fallen Golbat as the arc tore into and seared black the leathery corpse. Ash's legs buckled and he dropped to his knees, then to one elbow as his body threatened to fall into shock. The trainer's mind raced as he listened to the battle behind him and heard also the 'plip plip plip' of blood dripping from the hole in his ribcage. Air seemed to refuse entry into his lungs, and the trainer suddenly realized the dire straits into which he'd stumbled.
"Oh..." he muttered, spotting the dead body propped up against a tree several paces off from the Golbat. The shattered corpse lulled to one side, naked and hastily concealed by brush. Ash realized it had only been bad luck, or good planning, that had placed the tree between his thermal imager and the body, facilitating the ambush.
Pushing herself against a tree to get to her feet, Misty quickly took stock of the battlefield, her heart sinking as the whole scene devolved into utter chaos. Blastoise groaned and dropped in a heap on the ground and Misty moaned a little when she watched it. She reached for her pokeball and threw it at her fallen Pokemon, snatching up the tortoise in a blanket of energy that disappeared into the orb. Immediately thereafter she saw Arcanine and Vaporeon dueling with the huge snake. Her heart sank lower as she realized that the serpent had almost doubled in length since she'd last seen it months ago. Additionally, scales or plates or some strange structures protruded from the snake's form at even intervals like purple armor grafted to Arbok's skin provided the creature a solid defense against both Vaporeon and Arcanine. The serpent's hood, likewise upgraded, proved a match for any attacks Arcanine launched from behind Immediately Misty's mind flashed back to Mount Moon and the horribly twisted Pokemon they'd fought there.
Jesse ducked out from behind the charred Golbat, only long enough to fling the knife at Ash, and miss his chest by a hairsbreadth as Pikachu again tried to fry her. The knife still cut into Ash's raised arm, dropping him. Giggling madly the fiery haired trainer whistled a piercing note and took a long stride into the trees, her black garb trailing like smoke behind her. Arbok, contending with Arcanine's rending claws and crushing bite, spun in place to throw the massive canine to the ground, and shot off towards its trainer like a bullet.
"Come and catch me," Jesse half shrieked, half laughed. "Come and follow me if you can little girl! Team Rocket will always welcome you home!" She grabbed a handle-like plate on her Pokemon's hood and swung herself onto it's back as Arbok bolted into the trees.
Misty clenched her jaw, contemplating giving chase for only an instant before refocusing all her attention, to the exclusion of all else, on Ash. She and Arcanine arrived at Ash's side at the same time, both vying to take control of the situation, before Arcanine yielded and let his master's mate have charge. Misty leaned in, assessing Ash's condition as the young trainer lay on his back, holding the deep gash in his side. His sweating and trembling only added to Misty's frustration as she peeled back the layered riding clothes, berating herself for not voicing her desire for Ash to wear armor when he flew.
"Hold still," she whispered, her voice trembling as violently as Ash while the wounded trainer struggled to remain lucid. She peered at his exposed wound and sucked in a horrified breath. She looked at the pokeballs on his belt and knew that Ash had one chance. "I hate flying," she whimpered, her mind flashing back to Lavender town and her free fall to what should have been a quick, if painful, death. "Damn it," she hissed grabbing the orbs from his belt and releasing both Charizard and Pidgeot. Turning, she returned Arcanine and Vaporeon to their pokeballs as Pidgeot screeched upon seeing her master's condition.
"You!" she barked at Charizard, instantly gaining the irritable dragon's full attention. "Pick him up, carefully," she emphasized every syllable, "and help me get him back to town."
Charizard huffed, blowing a smoke ring in Misty's direction and watching her indignantly as she turned to mount Pidgeot. Misty froze for a split second, reaching down and grasping a heavy stick knocked loose from a tree during the fight. Reeling around and swinging with all her weight and strength, Misty smashed the bough into the side of Charizard's skull. Catching the dragon completely off guard, knocking him down, and reducing her weapon to splinters, Misty stalked forward brought her face within an inch of the dragon's snarling features.
"Do it," she ordered again, either unaware of, or apathetic towards, Charizard's ability to decapitate her with a flit of his jaw. "Now."
Charizard's black eyes locked on Misty's furious blue ones and held her gaze for a brief instant before Ash's breath wheezed, both from his mouth and the hole in his chest. The dragon snarled, filling the air between his face and Misty's with embers and an acrid smoke, before stepping to Ash and carefully scooping him up in his forearms. Without wasting another second, Misty darted to Pidgeot and slung her leg over the bird as she threw herself into the saddle. The bird looked back at her for a second, expression unreadable, before Misty tapped the mount with her heels as she'd seen Ash do and Pidgeot took off. Charizard likewise crouched, tore into the ground with its hind legs, and carried Ash into the air, trying but failing not to jar him.
As Misty gained altitude, she consciously refused to think about the undeniable truth that she was, despite all her promises to herself over the past year, despite all the times she refused to take Ash up on his offer to teach her to fly, airborne. She also tried to focus on anything but her not being strapped into the saddle. Fortunately, Ash had trained Pidgeot to the point where the mount could quite easily bear a rider with no clue as to how to control a flying creature, and Misty found herself doing next to nothing as Pidgeot led the party towards Vermilion.
As the town neared, Misty immediately knew for certain that something had gone horribly wrong in the half an hour they'd been away. A dark plume of smoke roiled up from the center of the town, from the Gym. Circling down over the gym, unable to completely avoid the smoke rising from both the main building and the leader's residence, Misty and crew set down in the center of the courtyard where men were running around, trying to put out fires where they could. Oak stood off to one side, a Wartortle positioned next to him from where it sprayed a drenching fountain of water through a window to combat the destruction.
"Professor!" Misty shouted, running to Charizard and making sure that Ash's condition hadn't worsened. She nearly choked when she saw how weakly he was breathing. Oak appeared beside her, wholly fixed on Ash.
"What happened? he demanded, blood dripping down his face from a long cut above his brow.
"We were ambushed," Misty responded, steadying herself. "Can we get him to the infirmary?"
"No," said Oak curtly. "The infirmary was the target of the attack." He looked up at Charizard and nodded off towards the third building of the complex, an old storage facility that hadn't seen heavy use for years. "Follow me. The damage to the Gym isn't quite as bad as it looks," he added as Charizard clumsily carried the wounded Gym Leader towards the temporary safe house. "Baily and his guards fended off the attack before they could do too much harm but the infirmary is a loss."
Misty pulled open the plain white door for Oak and Ash as the professor and the Pokemon maneuvered Ash through the opening. "How many were there? What did they want?"
"Five, maybe six," answered Oak. "We caught two, but couldn't get a good look at the others before they retreated, but I think they were after Dawn and myself."
Misty processed that for a second before following Oak. Inside the safe house Baily's men had set up a few beds and cots and rudimentary medical equipment they'd saved from the infirmary. On two of the cots lay Ash's guards. One looked alive but unconscious and the other was either dead or soon would be. Attending the former, having made the inevitable passing of the latter as comfortable as possible, was a young nurse Misty had seen before at the hospital. On two other cots were men Misty had never seen. Their matching black uniforms, strangely void of any identifying marks, were tattered and slashed, exposing both mens' grievous wounds. Misty, guessing they'd participated in the attack, hoped they'd live long enough for her to make use of them.
"Here," Oak helped Ash lay down on a cot, just opposite an unconscious Dawn, and kneeled down to further inspect the wound.
"Inara, get over here" Oak ordered. The young nurse snapped to his side and began assisting the professor in the bloody work of cutting Ash out of his caked clothes. Misty could barely bring herself to watch, but a combination of morbid fascination and and irrational fear that something bad would happen if she looked away kept Misty's attention pinned on Ash. Missing much of the procedures due to her growing mental fatigue, Misty saw that the professor took an adhesive strip of plastic and fixed it tightly over the knife wound. He then grabbed an empty, oddly capped syringe, sterilized the needle, and plunged it into Ash's chest. Ash lurched as the pocket of air collapsing his lung evacuated his chest through the needle, and Oak ordered the nurse to bring him a small platter of sterile supplies from the other side of the room.
Working quickly and muttering about luck, both good and bad, Oak went about stitching, stapling, and binding Ash together from the inside out. Misty watched as Oak moved with surgical precision, her stomach turning so fiercely she had to sit down and put her head in her hands. Ash's quiet groans as he slipped in and out of consciousness while Oak worked without anesthetics nearly drove her to tears and she bit her lip. Something in her gut screamed that this was Team Rocket. She could see that bitch in the forest as she stabbed Ash. The look of elation in the woman's eyes as Ash fell backwards embodied everything that Misty hated about Team Rocket, embodied everything in the world she found so loathsome that the desire to burn it out of the world boiled in her chest like a lake of fire.
Misty clenched her fists by her temples, fighting a wave of hate that rolled over her like a hellish tsunami. She knew Team Rocket was behind everything that made the world such a miserable place to live, and that thought alone pushed her to the brink of screaming. She felt she was sick with hate, that she could die from the excess of it in her and she felt that fury as acutely as the burning in her hands where her nails had begun to dig into her palms. And then something occurred to her... she realized in an epiphany, the source of which eluded her, that her burning hate was a byproduct, a side effect of something completely different.
The loathing she felt towards Team Rocket, and by no small extension herself, came not from her desire for any kind of vengeance or justice to be dealt out against the evil she saw right in front of her face, but rather her desire to protect what was all around her. Brock had been right, she finally admitted to herself as she sat there in a hazy stupor in the safe house. Somewhere along her journey to this point, vengeance dropped out her mind as suddenly as Team Rocket had betrayed her. Taking its place was something she'd once thought to be nothing more than a silly little emotion the weak used as a crutch, but now recognized as the monumental, world-moving force of nature that could light up even the darkest recesses of a cold world.
She loved Ash, Misty finally admitted, quickly thinking that only now was she beginning to understand what that really entailed.
"-alright," the word rang in her head, snapping Misty out of her ruminations. She looked up around with a start and saw Oak standing in front of her. The look on the professor's face was serious, but peaceful, even if his once white coat was splashed with new patches of crimson and brown.
"What?" she asked, shaking her head a little, gradually becoming aware of the salty rivulets that ran down her face and left stinging streaks in their wake. "Sorry, what?" she repeated.
Oak grinned a little. "You've been dead quiet for an hour," he said. "I said Ash is going to be fine."
"Oh thank god," Misty huffed, dropping her head into her hands again.
"We got lucky," Oak went on, "relatively speaking at least. On the flight back Ash must have grabbed that plastic sandwich bag in his coat and pressed it firmly enough over the wound to keep the it from developing into a tension pneumothorax. Combine that with his already robust constitution and my job mostly consisted of putting in a makeshift valve and sewing him back together."
Misty shook her head. She realized he told her all this to put her mind at ease, but Misty had already heard enough. "So he's going to recover?" she asked abruptly.
Oak nodded. "Absolutely. He should make a respectable recovery over the course of a few days, and he could be up and moving around as early as the day after tomorrow. I've also got Joy bringing some specialty steroids from the hospital that should expedite the process. That is, assuming the people we chased off earlier don't come back to finish the job."
Misty promised herself she wouldn't let that happen. Looking at Ash, who now slept more or less peacefully, gave her a profound sense of calm, and she took a deep, steadying breath. She looked over at the forms of the men who'd been left behind by the attackers. "Do we know who they are?"
"No," Oak shook his head. "As soon as I'm done here I'm going to turn them over to Baily to question, but I doubt we'll get anything useful. They're not carrying any kind of identification so they're probably just nameless goons. My gut instinct is that there's a connection to Team Rocket though."
"I understand that," Misty noted, looking towards the window, thankful for the sunlight still streaming in. "And her?" she nodded to Dawn. "What happened after Ash and I left?"
Sitting in the chair beside Misty and resting his elbows on his knees, Oak sighed under the weight of fatigue. "It all happened quickly," he said, staring at the floor. "You and Ash took off and ten minutes later there was a huge explosion at the gym's gate. I think there were five or six of them, but I only saw one clearly, a lean figure with unnaturally blue hair, and he got away. They attacked the guards to give one of them the cover to roll an electrode up to the west wall of the gym and prod the Pokemon into self-destructing. That destroyed the infirmary and took out most of the training room also. When Baily's men recovered from the surprise and the fighting really got intense, the invaders left. Gone."
Misty raised an eyebrow. "They just vanished?"
Again, Oak nodded. "I don't know how they did it, but as soon as the fight started turning against them, this big cloud of black dust came out of nowhere and covered their retreat. While the smokescreen blotted everything out something knocked me upside the head," Oak motioned his thumb at the gash across his forehead, then pointed at the gym guard now laying dead on the cot in the corner, "and ripped Kenneth's insides apart."
Taking a minute to glance over the cadaver's injuries, Misty noted the gross discoloration around the man's eyes, nose, and lips. "Looks like poison," she said.
"I think a Muk or a Wheezing got to him."
"Then I think I know who orchestrated the attack," said Misty. "One of the Team Rocket agents who kept stalking Ash and I through the frontier."
"No proof yet," muttered Oak. "But I think you're right. You and Ash made clear, in no uncertain terms, that you are Team Rocket's enemies. This attack was probably an attempt to take the two of you down before you could gain any more support and become a more serious threat to their plans."
"We don't even know their plans," Musty groaned. "That's half the trouble."
"It doesn't really matter, right now at least, that we don't know what they're after. What counts is that we've obviously hit a sensitive spot and we need to keep it up. Between Ash, Brock, Bill, Kasumi, myself, and you, we've done quite a lot to strip away their resources and their public support. Even if we're just swinging blindly, that's better than nothing right now," Oak said, as much for his own benefit as for Misty's. "Besides," he went on, "we know that Rocket is still trying to get into Cerulean Cave and something is still keeping them out. We know that Malebolge goes straight to the bottom of the cave and that the only way through is to get by the Elite Four and thusly the other Gym Leaders."
"So the best thing we can do," Misty echoed Oak's thoughts from the previous day, "is get back to visiting the gyms... as quickly as possible."
Oak shrugged. "It would all go faster if you agreed to fly."
Cringing, Misty nervously patted her legs. "Great... and here I was getting the feeling that things would start moving faster on their own anyway."
SC
A dry scratching in the back of his throat woke Ash from his tumultuous dreams. He realized before anything else that a biting thirst tore at him and pressed him to sit up. The motion brought with it a stabbing pain in his side and a blast of vertigo, but nothing he couldn't muscle through. Taking a second to look around and coming to grasp how disoriented he really was, Ash tried to get his bearings. He quickly abandoned the prospect of pinpointing his own location as plain white rooms littered with cots and sickbeds weren't particularly unique to one place or another. It didn't help that his head was spinning and on the nightstand beside his bed sat a distracting glass of water.
Reaching over to grab the glass brought a fresh stinging to his arm as something tugged at the crook of his elbow. Ash looked down and saw the needle inserted into a vein and secured with tape had almost come loose with his motion. Muttering in frustration, Ash pulled the tape loose and carefully removed the needle from his arm, pressing his thumb over the pinhole wound as he continued to reach out for the glass of water. The trainer greedily downed the lukewarm drink, sighing afterward and setting the glass back on the stand.
"So you're awake," the voice took a moment to register in Ash's ears as the water revitalized his focus.
Turning about in the bed, Ash traced the source of the familiar voice to the bed beside his. Dawn lay on her back, her forehead and cheek wrapped in bandages. The girl's dark blue hair was pulled back tight and her normally flawless complexion bore numerous small pockmarks and burns.
"What happened to you?" Ash asked, his stomach turning to see her in such poor condition.
"Save the pity, I'm not too bad off," Dawn murmured, her tone both groggy and icy. "Professor Oak says I was in the infirmary when the attack hit. There was a big explosion that wounded a bunch of people."
"What attack?" Ash blurted, trying to keep his voice down for the other sleeping figures in the room.
"Somebody hit the gym while you were gone," said Dawn, turning her head to look at Ash, squinting to see through the dim light afforded only by the moonlight filtering in through the windows. "A couple of people died and several got hurt pretty bad. I heard the nurses talking earlier and if I had to guess I'd say the bad guys our side captured are having a really unpleasant run-in with your Misty and that Baily guy right about now."
Ash groaned and lay back in the bed. At least Misty's alright, he thought. "Any idea what time it is?"
"Two in the morning," said Dawn.
"How can you tell?" Ash asked. "And when I can get out of here?"
"The nurses are changing shifts and the new one should be in any minute. They're short-staffed so they only change every four hours. Don't you want to know what happened to you before you go yanking needles and walking around?"
Ash flinched. It hadn't occurred to him that the needle he jerked from his arm might have been important. "I hadn't thought about it," he said, not sure he wanted to remember what circumstances had brought him here.
"Some Team Rocket operative stabbed you," said Dawn without hesitation. "You and Misty walked right into an ambush and it ended with your lung collapsing and you passing out. Lucky for you Oak knew exactly what to do," she smirked haughtily.
Ash put his hand to his side as Dawn's reminder made his side twitch in a phantom pain. Feeling along his ribcage, the Gym Leader realized that there was something knobby, subtle but out of place, under his skin. "What the hell is this?" he asked, trying not to think about the ambush, the memory of which came flooding back into his brain.
"The professor had to stick a valve in your chest to get you back to the land of the living," said the younger savant.
"Great," Ash flopped his arm back on the bed. Knowing the implant was there made it sting. The trainer went quiet, processing everything Dawn had said as he tried to draw meaningful conclusions from the information. Trying to think clearly made his head hurt and brought to the front of his mind the hunger twisting in his stomach. Several long minutes passed by and Ash began to wonder where the nurse had gotten to. He didn't want to take up resources that could be better spent on other people, but he did want something to eat.
"Thanks," Dawn said.
Ash let his head loll to one side so he could look at the other patient. "What?" he said, surprised both to hear her voice again and because he wasn't sure what she'd said.
"You heard me," said Dawn, burning holes in the ceiling with her eyes. "I said thank you, for saving me earlier."
Ash smiled and nodded as best he could. "That's what friends are-"
"Don't read anything into it," Dawn cut him off. "We're not friends." The girl rolled onto her side to turn away from Ash without another word.
Ash lay there for a moment, a little surprised. What was that all about? he wondered, shifting to get comfortable and looking passed the foot of his bead to the window. I guess she's determined to be bitter, thought the trainer, grinning a little and closing his eyes.
As he began to drift back to sleep, he felt a familiar tugging at his thoughts. Haunter, it seemed, had realized Ash was awake and come to check on him. The trainer forced himself to remain awake for a minute longer to tell the ghost everything was fine and inquire about the state of the gym. Haunter filled Ash in on a few small details without overloading him on information. Misty and Baily were interrogating prisoners, Oak had set about helping the guards to reorganize and re-secure the perimeter, and Haunter in the meantime had been working furiously to track down the attackers who'd retreated.
Ash felt the ghost's uncharacteristic frustration build as it explained that the invader behind the attack was none other than Ash's old friend, James. The ghost couldn't guess at the Team Rocket agent's motive however, and Haunter only stated that the attack only failed because Oak and Baily proved to be highly competent under pressure. The young trainer nodded, agreeing that his friends were the best, and thanked Haunter for the update. The ghost, invisible to the naked eye, did a back flip and a circle around Ash's bed, giggling suddenly about things becoming 'interesting' again.
SC
Ash's recovery progressed steadily and rapidly. He and Dawn both spent the next day on bed rest, closely looked after by Oak, Misty, Baily, and secretly Haunter. Ash continued to toy with the idea of revealing Haunter's existence to Misty, but kept deciding not to. The day after the attack passed by uneventfully, the most exciting detail being Dawn's and Ash's appetites draining the gym's pantries and leaving the cupboards empty.
The second day saw Ash getting out of bed, despite Oak's cautioning him to take it easy. The young trainer scoffed at the idea of spending another minute laid up. Still eating like a rampaging Snorlax, Ash spent the day reconnecting with his Pokemon and overseeing some of the repairs going on around the gym. Arcanine and Pikachu both punished Ash for his carelessness by staunchly refusing to leave his side and glaring at anyone who dared to come within ten feet of the Gym Leader. When not hovering around Ash, Pidgeot spent most of her time perched with Butterfree atop the gym's balconies to keep watch on the surround. Charizard, refusing to acknowledge any concern for his trainer, dozed lazily and sunned itself in the courtyard, though more than once Ash caught the dragon peeking at him with one eye as if to keep tabs.
Taxing himself, Ash even mustered the energy give a brief interview for a local news reporter, over the course of which he made a conscious effort not to imply in any way that he suspected Team Rocket of the attack. A 'band of poorly organized raiders,' he called them, not wanting to give Team Rocket the advantage of knowing his suspicions. As the day drew to a close, Ash moved the possessions he'd kept around his hospital bed to a guest room in the gym's main building where he and Misty spent the night together.
As the third day since the attack dawned, storm clouds rolling in from the sea brought torrential rains and high winds that drove and reconstruction work inside. His spirits rising higher by the day however, Ash spent the day with Oak and Misty planning their next move. Oak voiced his decision to take Dawn north to Bill's laboratory and get her a mount capable of getting her back to Sinnoh, a plan to which Dawn readily agreed. Ash chimed in that he'd been sending all of the interesting Pokemon he captured around Vermilion to Bill for additional research, so there should be at least a few fliers able to carry Dawn wherever she wanted to go. Additionally Oak agreed to take Misty's Blastoise to Bill and see if there was any way both professors could together get the Pokemon back on its feet. The fight with Arbok had left the tortoise in bad shape, such that the Pokemon Center in Vermilion could barely stabilize him, much less begin any kind of active healing process.
At the same time, Ash and Misty both agreed that while Oak traveled north, they would go south over the bay to Fuchsia. Ash had received word from Brock that Vermilion's southern neighbor had recently undergone some rather Rocket-friendly social changes that the Pewter Gym Leader planned to investigate. Seeing this as not only a good opportunity to investigate Rocket's dealings in Fuchsia, but also to reunite with Brock, Ash convinced Misty to fly over the bay with him. Misty had reluctantly agreed, knowing that she currently lacked a Pokemon capable of ferrying her safely across the water.
Their plans settled after hours of hammering out the details, the trainers and the professor all turned in, knowing that tonight was likely the last time they'd all be together for quite some time. For Oak and Ash it was a fairly bitter proposition, even if Ash and Misty secretly agreed that neither shunned the idea of a vacation from Dawn's icy demeanor.
The storm abated after two days of drenching Vermilion in rain. The left the morning of the fifth day since Rocket's attack on the gym, leaving the whole town in a state of immaculate calm. The sun shone warm and the winds blowing in from the sea carried the refreshing scent of salt. Ash, Oak, Misty, Dawn, Baily, and several of the gym's guards all stood in the courtyard as everyone double-checked their packs and took a last stock of supplies.
"Now don't you go doing anything stupid," said Baily, adjusting his hardhat with one hand and shaking Ash's hand with the other. "Eventually you're going to have to come back and take this damned position back from me. Hear?"
Ash nodded and clapped Baily on the shoulder. "Count on it," he said with a grin. "I'll be back." Turning, the Gym Leader released Pidgeot from her pokeball, giving the massive bird a moment to stretch and preen before helping Misty into the saddle. "Just follow my lead," he said as he secured the straps around Misty's legs, silently celebrating his moot little victory for convincing her to wear jeans.
Misty nodded and picked up the stubby reins. Even having spent the previous day getting Pidgeot used to the idea of carrying someone other than Ash, Misty still felt the mount's scorn for a new rider. "That's the plan."
Ash turned to Oak and gave his grandfather a firm handshake, then a bear hug.
"Good luck," said the professor.
"See you on the other side," responded the trainer. He shifted to Dawn, offered her a handshake, and politely put his hand back in his pocket when she crossed her arms in front of her chest. Snapping open the pokeball, Ash released Charizard in a torrent of white light and stepped up to the hot-headed dragon.
Charizard's glare leveled on Ash as the Pokemon waited for its trainer to test the straps that secured the much-hated saddle to Charizard's midsection. The dragon's nostrils flared and smoked with indignation as Ash pulled himself up onto the Pokemon's back and strapped his legs securely to the hardened leather frame. Ash looked to Pidgeot and nodded to the Pokemon. The bird ruffled out its feathers and cocked its head at Ash, the big crest atop its crown shifting up a little.
"Here we go," Ash whispered, mostly to give warning to the ghost hiding and giggling silently in his pack. The trainer took hold of the saddle's pommels and tapped Charizard with his heels. The dragon's heavy muscles bunched and heaved beneath the saddle, filling Ash with the rush of acceleration as he rocketed skywards. The first pull of the Pokemon's wings made Ash's heart race with the excitement of knowing he'd be touching the clouds in mere moments. Almost forgetting himself, he looked around to check on Misty, grinning to see the combination of thrill and shock, mostly thrill he thought, on her features. Looking even farther back and seeing Dawn and Oak shrinking beneath him, Ash raised one arm and waved, before turning forward and watching the sky race towards him.