Chapter 17 – Chasing Ghosts
Subtlety, in Ash's mind, played very little role in his taking stock of the town of Fuchsia. After several hours on Charizard's back, flying over mile after empty mile of water towards that ever widening strip of land in the distance had left Ash's shoulders sore and his back stiff and he just wanted to land and stretch for a moment. Nonetheless, with a renewed effort on the parts of Jesse and James to kill him, thought the savant, it wouldn't be wise to set down blindly in a town he'd never before seen.
With that in mind, Ash and Misty circled down out of the clouds, banking in large, lazy circles to get a broad view of the city beneath them. On the surface, Fuchsia presented the casual areal observer with an unremarkable sight. Laid out on a grid, the city consisted mainly of buildings constructed from either rough-hewn timber in the case of the higher facades, or unremarkable brick walls and slate roofs. By far, the former type of building seemed the more popular choice of residence. Ash counted many dozens of apartment complexes of five stories or more all clustered around the core of the city and making up what looked like the biggest collection of tall buildings contained within the thick palisade protecting the city from the outside world. From that spire at the center of the town it seemed that all the rest of the city sloped downwards like the sides of a mountain. Office buildings, commercial structures, private homes, and the like all flowed out in a fairly even scatter of shapes, with the squattest buildings running right up to the palisade.
Ash signaled Misty and touched the radio at his ear. "Let's set down just outside that gate," he pointed to the wooden gatehouse on the northern side of the city, only a block away from a large open space that looked to serve as the city's market or forum. "From there we can head straight to the main square and snoop around for Brock."
"Sounds good," Misty answered, raising her voice over the whipping cross-breezes.
Angling downwards at a greater angle, the pair glided towards the ground, aiming for the least populated section of the forum. To the sound of a great number of cries and gasps of surprise, Charizard flapped his wings a few times before his clawed feet thumped down on the packed earth of the square, tearing up small divots. Gently as a feather, Misty and Pidgeot touched down beside the great lizard and both trainers extricated themselves from their saddles. Neither traveler failed to notice the small crowd of people that either stood at a safe distance to watch, or cautiously afforded the Gym Leader and his partner a wide berth as the citizens went about their business.
Turning to some of the nearer people Ash set one hand on Charizard's side and waved with his other. "Don't mind us," he said with a reassuring grin. "We're here for business, not trouble."
Most still watching Ash carefully, the people began to disperse and go about their business. The young trainer turned to Charizard, patted his side, and thanked the dragon for his help. Charizard snorted and looked away from Ash with an indifferent sniff of the air. Ash sighed and returned the dragon to its pokeball, then turned to Pidgeot, rubbed his fingers through the feathers of her crest, and patted her neck. Cooing happily and closing her eyes, Pidgeot disappeared into the light of the pokeball as Ash snapped the little orb closed in his hand.
Misty touched Ash's arm to grab his attention. "Where to?" she asked.
Ash opened his mouth to speak, but paused for a moment. Facing Misty, he glanced over her shoulder and into the crowd of observers which had almost completely dispersed. His gaze instinctively locked on the violet eyes peering at him from under the purple hood. The girl in the faded jeans and violet hoodie tucked her hands in her pockets and turned away. As soon as a single passer-by walked between the girl and Ash, blocking her from his sight for a split second, she vanished. Ash winced, casting about to find her, unable to catch sight of the girl a second time.
"Ash," Misty said, regaining his attention. "Did Brock say where he was going to meet us?"
Ash looked back at his partner and shook his head, suddenly a little unnerved. "Well he never exactly said he'd meet us," reminded Ash. "He only said he was going to Fuchsia, and we decided to try and meet up with him."
"Right," Misty muttered. "Well even if we don't meet him, at least we're here. And by the way, you never get to accuse me of being stubborn ever again."
Ash raised an eyebrow. "Why's that?" he asked.
"Because I just spent the better part of a day flying over Vermilion Bay so you wouldn't have to walk like the other ninety-nine percent of people who travel," she teased.
"We flew," Ash added, his voice growing quieter, until Misty almost couldn't hear him over the business in the forum, "so we wouldn't run into any trouble. Now that we're back in civilization I'm not quite as worried about Team Rocket jumping out to kill us. Still, be careful."
Misty nodded. "I know," she said with a grin the belied the serious tone in her voice. "I say we head to the Pokemon Center, figure out which way to the gym, and be done here. If we meet Brock in the process, then great."
Neither Ash nor Misty noticed the figure in the purple hoodie turning away from them. From her hiding spot opposite a stand of Fuchsia souvenirs from the trainers, the girl with the violet eyes tucked her hands in her pockets and began casually walking away.
Ash and Misty set off from the forum, walking south into the city. After only a block, Ash had to stop and look around to get his bearings. From the air the city had seemed to rest on a simple, east-to-navigate grid of main roads and smaller side streets. On foot however, both trainers quickly discovered that the main roads, while running in near perfectly straight lines, crossed Fuchsia's hilly terrain by utilizing a network of shallow bridges that spanned smaller roads built in the dips. The side streets crisscrossed the main roads at differing intervals and twisted off into the city at odd angles, breaking into yet more and smaller roads that wound through alleys and into dead ends. All of the buildings looked so much alike that, combined with the confusing layout of the city, Ash and Misty found themselves baffled.
When the pair stopped to ask for directions to the Pokemon Center, the friendly people they encountered gave what sounded like simple and sound advice on which roads to take for how long. Upon reaching the intersection where they were to turn however, the trainers discovered that their road consisted of two, three, or even four smaller footpaths that all shared a common name. Compounding their frustration, when Ash and Misty stopped again to ask more questions, the still friendly folk of the city offered advice that completely conflicted with what they'd been told upon leaving the forum. By the time the sun began to dip behind the palisade, the trainers had spent more than four hours wandering the city in search of the Pokemon Center.
"How does anyone live here?" Ash groaned, scratching the back of his head. Leaning against the exterior wall of a cooper's shop, the trainer looked around and tried again in vain to get his bearings. "Is everyone here just trying to mess with us or are they just used to it?"
Misty shook her head. The thinning rivers of people set her more at ease and she took a deep breath. "From the air it didn't look too bad," she said. "Maybe you could fly up and have a look around?"
"Trouble is," Ash sighed, "that the town is much more confusing from down here. I didn't even see a Pokemon Center when we flew in. Then again I wasn't really looking too hard..."
"Give it a shot," said Misty with a grin. "I'll be fine here for a little bit," she reassured him.
"You're sure?" he asked. "I really don't want to split up and risk not being able to meet up quickly."
"And I really don't want to fly," said the girl. "Go. I promise I'll be fine."
Ash nodded and grabbed a pokeball from his belt. Catching a few wary gazes from passers-by as he released Pidgeot, Ash hopped on the bird's back without bothering to strap himself in. "I'll be back in a few minutes," he said. Hey, he contacted Haunter and the ghost floated invisibly out of his pack. Stay with her, he ordered the ghost, and stay out of sight unless she's in real trouble.
The ghost acknowledged with a giddy nod.
"If we do get split up," Misty added, "assume I'll find the Pokemon Center eventually and wait for me there."
"I'll do that," Ash agreed and tapped Pidgeot's sides with his heels. Barely finding the room to open her wings without hitting a wall or a person, Pidgeot carried herself and her rider into the air, where Misty quickly lost sight of them. Leaning against the wall with a sigh, Misty crossed her arms and put one foot up against the brick structure at her back. A minute went by and she began casting about, looking at the people walking around the street.
"Fear and be afraid!" a man yelled somewhere to the east.
Misty's eyes snapped to her left as she searched for the source of the shouting. Casting around for a brief second drew her attention to a spectacle cropping up a dozen yards away. A man with wildly untamed grey hair and a beard to match, dressed in mismatched rags had climbed atop a garbage dumpster he'd dragged from an alley. Shouting at the top of his lungs the man threw out his arms and pointed accusingly at people as the walked by and tried not to look at him.
"We are but motes of dust!" shouted the madman, his voice booming louder than Misty thought his slender frame should allow. "We are but specs floating on a spec. Ours is an island adrift in a sea of utter chaos and apathy.
"You forget," he thrust out his finger at a young man who had stopped to listen to the ravings, "that god is not a man that we may kill him! He is not an object in motion that we may stop him. He is not a creature that we may even understand him. He simply is! God is older than time, more vast than the universe, more all-consuming than the eternal void! We cannot fathom his nature, for nature crumbles in his presence! Stars twinkle out and worlds shatter with his passing by!
"Woe, woe, woe to us should we ever merit his attention!" the man continued to scream. "For we exist only because god does not see us. We have crept up in his shadow, scurrying like mites the bird has yet to pick away, and woe will be us when he finally sees us. Woe will be you, daughter of water," he turned and looked directly at Misty from his place atop the dumpster, "when you understand that our end is growing near!"
Misty felt a sudden pang of anxiety, more from her being singled out by an apparent lunatic than by anything he'd said. She glanced about, noting that of the three or four people who had stopped in front of the yelling man, none had turned to look at her. "Alright," she whispered, turning away. "Let's not stand and listen to the scary crazy person."
"You think me a deaf fool?" yelled the madman, exposing a mouth full of teeth half rotted away. "Murderer, kin-slayer, turncoat that you are, you would accuse me of madness?" Misty stopped dead in her tracks. "Surprised?" the man repeated, glaring at Misty. "I can see what you have done, I can see what all of you have done!" he waved his hands over the people watching the display. "I have dreamed of god! I have touched the mind of god! Such is his power that my simply seeing him opened my eyes to all of the dark things in the world!"
"Alright," Misty repeated. She turned away this time, and walked down the road a bit, coming to a prominent intersection. Glancing over her shoulder at the mad prophet, she saw a man in a dull red uniform had approached him.
"Come on down, Ibrahim," said the man in the red outfit, his voice somehow carrying over the dull background noise of the city. "Lets get you back home."
From his place atop the dumpster, Ibrahim looked at Misty. He made a sign in the air and pointed in her direction. Her lip twisting up in a combination of curiosity and contempt, Misty tried to cow him with a leering stare. She looked away and rounded the street corner when his steely gaze, remarkably level and clear for a lunatic, failed to falter under her own glare. "Crazy," she muttered, waiting uncomfortably at the intersection. "Just some old loon..."
She waited for several minutes, until she could be sure that waiting outside the cooper's wouldn't draw the attention of another raving prophet, then turned and began walking back down the way she'd come. Stopping halfway to her intended destination, Misty paused and took a moment to look around, no small amount of confusion evident in her features. She knew this was the right street, she even stopped to double-check the street sign, but the road looked... different somehow. The street appeared narrower and to twist in a way she didn't recall from when she had walked it less than an hour ago. Unsure of what exactly made her think so, Misty caught herself wondering if the city hadn't been twisting around her the whole time she and Ash had been trying to find the Pokemon Center.
It seemed a silly idea, she noted, but at the same time, now that she stood still and actively watched the scene transpire around her, Misty could swear that the shadows of the oddly shaped buildings were twisting as the sun set. Minutes continued to tick by and Misty made an effort to track the changes. Sure enough, a subtle illusion began to appear and make sense. The trainer couldn't describe how exactly, but the patterns in which the buildings had been arranged, combined with their crenelated roofs and carefully engineered heights, gave the impression to anyone who had not been watching for it that the city was gradually shifting and shrinking. Seeing it unfold so slowly made the girl a little uneasy.
"That is messed up," Misty muttered, wondering who would have gone to the trouble to lay out such a large yet clandestine illusion, and more importantly, why.
"Miss," someone called politely at Misty's right. "You look a little lost. Can I help you?"
Misty shifted to see who had spoken, and saw a young man standing beside her with his arms folded behind his back. Dressed in the same dull red uniform worn by the man confronting the lunatic, the new arrival kept his black hair and beard short and neatly trimmed. Misty smirked, finding him rather attractive.
"I'm actually looking for the Pokemon Center," said Misty, reaching behind her head to tousle her hair. "But I took a wrong turn and now I'm sorta lost."
"Alright," said the man in the uniform. He casually stepped beside Misty and pointed down the road in the direction she'd come from originally. "You're going to head down 9th here and take a left at-" he went on to throw out a couple of twists and turns that Misty might wish to avoid, but the trainer had since stopped listening.
As the man had raised his hand to point down the street, the dimming sunlight had flickered off a small pin, the same color as his uniform, stuck on the man's chest. It took a moment for Misty to make out the shape of the crest, but as soon as she identified the stylized "TR" Misty had twitched and taken a step away. For an instant she fought back revulsion and tried to stymie her overwhelming dislike for the man beside her.
"And it's as simple as that," said the man, smiling politely and turning to face Misty. "Think you got it?"
Misty snapped to, forcing herself to smile politely and nod. "Yep," she said. "I think I understand."
"Alright," answered the Rocket Grunt. "Well is there anything else I can do for you ma'am? If you'd like I can show you the way to the Center personally."
"Oh I don't think that will be necessary," said Misty. "I'm just waiting on a friend actually. He went to look for directions and should be back any minute now."
The man nodded and inclined his head politely. "Have a pleasant evening ma'am," he said before turning and walking off towards the east.
Misty kept her face fixed in a gritted-teeth grin until the man had moved well beyond earshot, and then she sighed. It took the trainer a moment to remember that Fuchsia maintained a more open policy towards Team Rocket than Pewter, Cerulean, or Vermilion. Misty had to steel herself when she realized that it might not be unlikely for her to encounter more members of the organization walking the street. She shook her head and looked up as a quick movement caught her attention.
Scanning the scene before her, Misty turned to her right, looking back towards the intersection and stared for a moment. She could have sworn something moved in and out of her field of vision, but when she looked, there were only people going about their own business. Misty stared for a second, catching sight of the worn grey traveler's cloak. She'd recognize that particular article of clothing anywhere after she had spent days in an identical one on her journey to Mt. Moon. The spiky brown hair of the man walking away from her was also a dead giveaway.
"Brock!" Misty yelled, jogging to the intersection. "Hey Brock!" she repeated.
Stopping and turning around, the Pewter Gym Leader scanned the thin crowd of people for whoever had called his name. He smiled when he saw the redhead bounce up beside him, and held out his hand. Misty greeted the gym leader with a firm handshake and nod, stepping back and noticing the heavy black body armor he wore beneath his cloak.
"Misty," Brock said, not hesitating to pat the trainer on the shoulder and give her a once over. "You're looking good for someone I didn't expect to run into... here of all places. How have you been?"
"Busy," Misty responded. "Vermilion's been hectic since you last visited, but it hasn't been anything too bad. You?"
"Alright," Brock shrugged. "I shouldn't complain, but Viridian's food shortage has spread to Pewter and it's hitting us hard. I was actually on my way back to the Center. Is Ash here?"
Misty nodded. "Somewhere," she sighed. "We were wandering around looking for the Center for hours, but this town is... hard to navigate. You've found it though?"
Brock nodded. "I've been in town long enough to get a feel for the place. I can't tell you why, but it can be a confusing city if you let it get to you."
"Well," Misty looked around again. "Ash and I agreed that if we got separated I'd keep looking for the Center and we'd meet up there."
"Sounds like a plan," said Brock. "C'mon, I'll show you the way."
SC
Finding the Pokemon Center proved no challenge for the Pewter Gym Leader. Brock's innate sense of direction, coupled with his having already gotten the layout of the city down firm, lead the pair straight to the low key little building. Looking it over, Misty could see why Ash had missed it from the air. Fuchsia's Pokemon Center lacked almost all of the characteristics that made the structures unique in every other city Misty had visited. Without a red roof, blue tinted windows, and big white letters to identify it, the Pokemon Center could easily have passed for a regular apartment complex.
Brock and Misty went straight to the front desk, unsuccessfully scanning the lobby for Ash. Using some of the money she'd brought from Vermilion, Misty rented a room right down the hall from Brock for herself and Ash. At Brock's behest, Misty went up to her room to clean up and relax a little while he waited in the lobby for Ash. Settling into the comfortable armchair he'd repositioned to face the door, Brock relaxed with a sigh and reached into his cloak.
SC
"This is ridiculous," Ash grumbled. Looking down on the city from almost a thousand feet in the air, scanning it for any signs of a building marked out to be the Pokemon Center had yielded no results. Even with Pikachu, held firmly in the trainer's lap, spotting amongst the buildings below no signs of the Center manifested. "You'd think I could find one building even if it doesn't have a ruby red roof..."
Pidgeot screeched like a falcon to get Ash's attention. As her trainer looked up, the bird turned without instruction and angled towards the west, where the sun had since dropped below the horizon. To Ash's surprise, flying up from the ground outside Fuchsia, an avian figure took wing and sped into the sky. Straining to see it in more detail, Ash leaned forward in the saddle and squinted into the distance.
"It's obviously a trainer," Ash said as the big figure gained altitude and angled towards Fuchsia. "Probably a Pidgeot or a Pidgeotto."
Pidgeot screeched again in warning as the trainer leveled with Ash in the sky and turned towards him directly. Ash knew his mount's vision shamed even Charizard's, and when something bothered Pidgeot, Ash never hesitated to take it seriously. He tapped her sides with his heels and Pidgeot pulled at the air to gain altitude over the quickly approaching shape. By now he could plainly see the sleek outline of a healthy Pidgeotto, being ridden by a slender figure in white clothes. As the Pidgeotto turned skywards again to remain level with Ash, it came near enough and turned just right for Ash to catch the glint of red from its rider's uniform and hair. The bold "TR" emblazoned on the rider's chest, combined with her fiery red hair made Ash's stomach turn.
"You've got to be kidding me!" he exclaimed as his pursuer came within shouting distance.
"Me again!" Jesse screamed with glee as her Pidgeotto, lighter and faster than Ash's sturdier mount, heaved itself forward with a blinding motion and angled towards Ash like a javelin in flight.
"Roll!" Ash shouted the order while simultaneously cuing Pidgeot with a touch. The bigger bird tucked one wing and spun to the side, not an instant to late to dodge the charge. First glancing down at Pikachu, ensuring his Pokemon had secured itself to the saddle with the secondary straps, Ash cast about for Jesse, spotting her turning around in the saddle towards him. Taking a second to determine what she was pointing at him, Ash sucked in a surprised breath and again ordered Pidgeot to roll as Jesse led him with the crossbow. He heard the 'thunk' of the arms snapping the cord forward, and tried to angle himself away from the trajectory of the bolt.
Feeling the blunted impact in his back, Ash glanced behind him and saw the heavy bolt had penetrated clean through his pack. The broadhead blades protruded just beside his right shoulder while the tail fins stuck out like feathers on the left side of the backpack. He whirled on Jesse, spotting her reloading the weapon, and reached for a pokeball. "Not this time!" he barked, holding out the little orb and releasing Charizard in a blaze of light. "This time I'm putting you down for good! Charizard," he yelled and pointed at Jesse as his dragon caught itself. The Rocket Agent had almost reloaded. "Drop her!"
Charizard spotted the ascending Pokemon and its rider, and bellowed a battle cry. Wings snapping downward, Charizard propelled itself higher into the air and kept its eyes locked on its prey. As managed to remain level with Jesse as Charizard climbed higher than either. He watched with Pikachu as Charizard rolled upside down and angled at the agent, talons open like the jaws of a charging shark. Jesse spun in the saddle, readied crossbow aimed straight at the incoming monster, and pulled the trigger. Roaring in frustration and rolling to the side, Charizard dodged the missile's full blow, but still felt the searing sting as one of the razor-like fins drew a thin crimson line in his hind leg.
"Flame Thrower!" Ash ordered.
Charizard's eyes flashed red as it dropped below Jesse, opening its wings to steady itself. Bellowing, maw open and shining like a second sun, Charizard blasted a jet of flame towards the mounted agent. Her Pidgeotto rolled away only just in time to save itself an instant death. Jesse, still laughing like a child playing a game, reached into her coat and threw out two pokeballs, both of which popped open and dazzled Ash with a sparkling light.
A familiar caw filled Ash's ears as he looked at the two animals coalescing out of the light. Twin Fearow had come to their master's aid and Ash cursed bitterly. "Where the fuck does she get all these Pokemon?" he spat. "Charizard, keep them off me!" he ordered as he and Pikachu angled for Jesse.
The big dragon acknowledged the order by belching a scorching jet of flame at one of the vulturine Pokemon. The bird, nearly as nimble as Charizard itself, banked away from the flame and changed targets, rushing towards Charizard.
"My turn," Ash growled, patting Pikachu's side as the two closed in on Jesse. "Thunderbolt!"
Chittering like the tail of a rattlesnake, Pikachu locked onto his target, and more than a hundred meters away, Jesse felt her hair beginning to stand on end. Swearing and quickly loosening the thin silver chain around her neck, Jesse flung the shiny object away from her. Making Ash's vision dance with colorful lights, Pikachu flashed white as lightning arced between him and the necklace next to the intended target. A clap of thunder rang in the air, making Pidgeot falter and forcing her to correct her course.
"We'll try not to do that again," he said to his mount as comfortingly as he could. Seeing that the point-blank blast of thunder had nearly stunned Jesse's Pidgeotto, Ash took the time to look up at Charizard and feel out the fight. His dragon, normally a force to be reckoned with in the skies, seemed to be quickly overpowering the two Fearow, despite being outmaneuvered. Both of the fliers must have been young enough to retain sufficient agility to dodge Charizard's fire attacks at any more than fifty yards, and if Charizard closed for a kill one of the Fearow would invariably manage to flank him and force the Pokemon to break off its attack.
Turning to see Jesse angling for him again, knowing she'd probably guessed that Pikachu's attacks were equally dangerous to both sides, Ash cued Pidgeot to try for more altitude. Simultaneously, Jesse raised the crossbow and took aim again, forcing Ash to roll hard to one side.
The battle raged on for several more minutes, painting the skies over Fuchsia with streaks of flame and long plumes of dissipating smoke. Many times, both Jesse and Ash took cover behind the hazy aftermath of one of Charizard's jets of flame. In the post-sunset gloom, the thin smoke might as well have been a wall made from obsidian. Ash wondered briefly why no police on the ground seemed to take notice of the chaos in the air, but he quickly realized that, in a Rocket friendly town like Fuchsia, it was just as likely that the guards had been bought off tonight as that they lacked flying mounts. As the battle migrated west, over the bay and the long bridge which made up Route 18, Ash began to feel Pidgeot's muscles straining beneath him. The harsh areal maneuvers drained his Pokemon and the trainer could only hope that Jesse's Pidgeotto was also slowing down.
"We've go to end this soon," Ash muttered, angling Pidgeot to put one of Charizard's plumes of smoke between himself and Jesse. "If not, shit-" he barked as the smoke in front of him gave way and the Pidgeotto appeared within arm's reach of Pidgeot's beak.
Both mounts screeched in surprise as both Jesse's and Ash's gazes met in a brief exchange of shock. With a bone-jarring smash the birds collided in mid air and began tumbling downwards together. Ash felt his head jolt forward and connect with something solid, splitting his forehead with pain and making his ears ring. Simultaneously he heard Jesse cry out in pain. Opening his eyes, losing track of the plummeting chaos, and feeling the stinging blood from his forehead dripping into his eye, Ash gasped to see Jesse shoving the loaded crossbow one-handed into his face. The Agent's split lip curled up in a sick grin as her mount fought with Ash's, both wanting to break away from the other but continue their attacks, all without falling to their deaths.
Ash threw his hand upward and knocked the crossbow away just as it lurched and flung the bolt into the empty air beside his head. He leaned forward in the saddle, tearing the bow from Jesse's hand, throwing it away, and slamming his clenched fist into her face. The blow connected with Jesse's Zygomatic bone and snapped her head back. As Jesse looked back up, dazed, Ash roared and hit her again, his fist smashing into the same spot and crushing her cheekbone with a splintering crack. Fragments of bloodied bone broke through her skin and jutted up like spines as the right side of her eye socket caved in a little.
Retaliating with a scream, Jesse swiped at him and raked his cheek with her fingernails, tearing away ditches of flesh and hooking Ash's head down with the blow. Her eyes dancing with fire, even as the bridge rocketed up at them, Jesse reached out and went for Ash's throat. Her hands wrapped around his windpipe and squeezed like a vice. Ash jerked at her wrists, but only managed to cut himself as her nails dug into the back of his neck.
Hissing and squeezing his cheeks, Pikachu exploded with a blast of light and thunder, the shock wave blasting the areal combatants away from each other and stunning all those present. Only a split second behind Jesse, Ash watched in stunned awe as the agent missed the bridge, her mount shooting downwards at a steep angle and crashing like a meteor into the metal shed set atop one of the artificial islands meant to anchor the bridge. Less than a second later, Ash felt the impact of the water like hitting a floor of concrete, just before the freezing substance collapsed around him and the world seemed to go dark.
He forced himself not to suck in a breath, and tried for a moment to pull himself towards the surface only to find that his arms couldn't move. He wanted to look up at where the sky should be, but his shocked body simply refused to move. Then he remembered the the thick leather straps of Pidgeot's saddle held him securely against the motionless bird's back and his mind began to race. The smothering darkness seemed to be getting too deep too fast, like it was hurrying him downwards towards the bottom of the bay. The trainer's mind screamed for his body to move, but the tingling buzz that filled the places his arms should have been refused to respond.
As his lungs began to burn a moment later, the lack of air becoming impossible to ignore, Ash pleaded silently with the darkness for help. He didn't want to die, and he could think of no way he wanted to die less than to drown here in the cold dark where his last waking moments would be spent sinking into an abyss. Feeling what might have been his chest and stomach spasming for want of air, Ash screwed his eyes shut as he tried not to breath involuntarily. Only then did he notice a faint white light and begin realize he might just be dying.
Then something hot closed around his waist. Ash couldn't open his eyes, but something spherical popped into his hand and he felt himself beginning to move upwards, quickly. The drowning silence shattered as Ash's head burst above the waves of the bay, and he gasped for air. Hearing a growl of effort, Ash, still panting, unable to relieve his lungs, turned to the side as something wet bumped into him.
"Arcanine?" he muttered in surprise.
To Ash's awe, the huge canine had somehow escaped its pokeball, and now battled the choppy water around him. The orange dog half dove beneath the surface and under Ash, coming up beneath Pidgeot and forcing the immobile bird's upper body out of the water and towards the nearby island. Fighting and barking as wave after wave in the tumultuous bay crashed down on him, Arcanine refused to let Ash, Pikachu, or Pidgeot drop beneath the surface, often staying submerged for a minute or more at a time to keep the others stable.
As Ash tried to focus on just staying awake, a task made easier by the salty water stinging his forehead and cheek, he forced himself to focus on the island fifty meters away. As Arcanine, yipping, sputtering and kicking at the water to close with the artificial anchor for the bridge, pushed them ever closer, Ash instinctively scanned the island for threats. When all he spotted was a collapsed pile of twisted metal, he looked down in his lap. There Pikachu, still strapped to the saddle like his owner, gasped and took deep breaths.
"You're the best," he whispered, patting Pikachu's head. "Good boy getting Arcanine loose."
With a growl of effort, Arcanine pulled at the shoreline of the shallow island and heaved Ash and his Pokemon onto the stable surface. Falling against the pebbles and crushed rocks, Ash only lay there for a minute as he looked over at Arcanine. The massive canine stood defensively over his trainer, looking all around and ensuring no danger showed its head, before shaking himself dry and looking down at Ash.
"Good boy," Ash said to Arcanine, looking up at the big panting dog.
Arcanine barked, letting his tongue roll out of his mouth happily, before leaning down and licking Ash's face. The young trainer ignored the biting sting that brought to his cheek for Arcanine's sake, and reached to unbuckle himself from the saddle. Flopping down onto his side, Ash coughed and rested against the ground for a minute before pushing himself up to his knees. He shifted to look Pidgeot over, his heart sinking to think that he's lost another faithful mount.
"You did good," he said, looking at the still bird, his chest tightening to see her right wing broken and bent back the wrong way. "Well done." He reached out and set his hand on her side, raising an eyebrow to feel a tiny twitch run through her muscles. The Pokemon lurched and gargled up a screeching cough. A combination of water and mucus spatted against the ground beside the bird's nares as Pidgeot sneezed hard and began screeching.
"Easy," Ash called as his mount floundered up to her feet, flailing her broken wing in a confused panic. The trainer finally resorted to wrapping his arms as far as he could around Pidgeot's frame, effectively pinning the bird's wings against her body and holding her immobile. Still squawking and trying to break loose, Pidgeot flopped to the ground, taking Ash with her and kicking up a small storm of dirt.
Ash closed his eyes and tucked his face into the Pokemon's feathered neck to shield his eyes as Pidgeot's good wing broke loose of his grip and started started slapping all around. Yelping in pain, Ash gritted his teeth and clenched his fists as Pidgeot kicked with one leg and slashed her talons down Ash's calf. Ash's thick pants split like paper and he felt the sharp pain rip into his leg.
"Stop!" he said as calmly as he could. "It's me! Calm Down."
Pidgeot's thrashing left Arcanine bewildered and Pikachu powerless atop the bird's saddle, but Ash held on, continuing to speak to the animal and try to hold her broken wing immobile. After what seemed hours to Ash, Pidgeot's tossing about slowed, whether from fatigue or calm he couldn't tell, and gradually the bird came to rest. Ash got to his knees, still holding the wing against his mount with his chest and one arm, and felt along her neck up to the point above Pidgeot's eye. Carefully he rubbed his hand through her feathers and scratched behind her crest. Pidgeot's big head turned on Ash and she looked at him with both fear and exhaustion as her chest rose and fell in quick succession and her wing continued to twitch against Ash.
The trainer continued to whisper to his Pokemon for another minute until the bird had completely stopped struggling and some of the panic had left her eyes. Slowly Ash let go while Pidgeot remained motionless, standing with a her wing bent back at the elbow. He assured her it was going to be alright and reached for her pokeball. Detaching it from his belt he quickly returned her to the orb and sighed in relief. At least she's alive, he thought as Pikachu dropped from the saddle when Pidgeot disappeared.
"Thanks again," he said to Arcanine, hobbling up to the Arcanine and petting the canine. Arcanine rumbled happily and bumped Ash with the side of his head. A moment later Ash turned as a heavy thud shook the ground a few yards away. Charizard landed on all fours and sat on its haunches. Ash could see the dragon pull its lip back and claw at a dull brown feather stuck awkwardly between its fangs. Ash couldn't hold back a grin.
Turning towards the collapsed metal shed, Ash picked up Pikachu and tried to decide whether or not he wanted to investigate. He told himself that there was no way Jesse could have survived the impact, but there couldn't be any harm in just making sure. Climbing up on Arcanine's back, Ash directed the canine to the pile of twisted debris and stepped off. His wounded calf made it difficult to walk and he leaned on Arcanine for support.
"Wow..." he muttered. What remained of the shed looked like the bridge overhead could have collapsed on it for all the damage it had sustained. "What a mess."
Ash froze, staring at the wreck when he heard a faint moan. He waited a minute longer and heard a grunt, followed by a small clang of falling metal, then another moan followed by silence.
"No way," Ash muttered. "There's no way she survived." He waited another minute as a faint whimpering made his blood go cold. He quickly turned away, deciding that Jesse must have been trapped under the debris and it would be best to just leave her. Starting to swing one leg over Arcanine's back he stopped short, hearing another grunt followed by the pitiful groaning again. The trainer's heart sank. "I'm going to regret this..." he complained, walking towards the shed and leaving a confused pair of Pokemon behind.
Listening as the struggling in the debris went silent, Ash leaned down and began pulling sheets of metal away from the wreck. Working carefully to avoid cutting his hands on the edges of the scraps, Ash gradually cleared away enough of the trash to look down into a small hollow created by the collapse. He dropped the sheet in his hand off to one side and tried to think of the best way to approach this. Six or seven feet below, Jesse lay broken and pinned beneath the heavy beam that had at one point acted as the shed's main support. Her arms crushed beneath the beam on either side of her chest left her completely immobile. The two halves of her Pidgeotto had both landed on opposite sides of the hollow, and left Jesse spattered from head to toe in red.
"Hold on," Ash groaned, leaning down, taking hold of a broken pipe sticking out of the wreck, and slowly picking his way down into the hollow. For a moment he considered calling in Arcanine or Charizard, until he realized neither Pokemon could navigate the debris well enough to matter.
"What," Jesse growled. "Want to finish me off yourself? Not enough to just leave me to rot?"
Standing over the agent, Ash bit the inside of his cheek, suddenly unsure of helping her get loose. A moment passed as he tried to focus on simply how to get the beam off her before he spoke. "Why me?" he asked, making Jesse raise an eyebrow. "What the hell did I ever do to you to make you hate me so much?"
"Simple," Jesse spat, "My boss ordered me to bring you in, so I will. Now just get this over with."
"What does your boss want with me," Ash asked. "What is all this about?"
"For fuck's sake," Jesse groaned. "Are you going to finish me off or just talk me to death?" She struggled against the beam to no avail. "I'll tell you that you're in the way of a better world so you have to be removed. You're a blight, a thorn in the side of progress. That's all."
"But what did I do?" Ash pressed. "Is this about Team Rocket or is there something bigger?"
"You know what?" Jesse half laughed, half wheezed, as the beam settled lower on her with a creak. "Go to hell."
Ash clenched a fist. "Fine," he said, leaning down and kneeling by her side. "You can be a cold, murderous bitch all you want. I don't care any more, but..." he slipped his fingers under the side of the beam and planted his feet. "I'm not going to kill you. And you know why?" He strained, inflaming the pain in his calf as he heaved the heavy metal beam a few inches off Jesse's chest.
The agent looked up at him silently for a moment, baffled, before turning over on her stomach and crawling out from under the debris. Ash growled and dropped the beam where it crashed to the ground between his feet. He leaned forward, drained, and rested his hands on his knees. Taking deep breaths and already sweating from exertion, he looked over at the Rocket Agent, who had propped herself up against the side of the hollow. Now, Ash could see most of the right side of her body had been crushed and bloodied almost beyond recognition. How she was still alive, much less moving and struggling, Ash couldn't understand.
"Why?" Jesse asked calmly between huffs for air.
"Because," Ash said, straightening up a little to face her. "It's the right thing to do." He walked forward and offered her a hand up. "You can't make it out of here on your own and you'll die if you stay. C'mon."
Jesse stared at him for a second, her expression completely unreadable. "You're going to regret this, you know," she said, reaching up and taking his hand.
"I know," he answered, pulling her arm over his shoulder and looking up at the edge of the hollow. Arcanine and Pikachu stared down at him, both wearing curious grimaces. "I'll be right up," he called at them. "Don't worry."
Silently supporting the grievously wounded agent, Ash climbed and crawled up the side of the ring of debris, struggling the whole way. By the time he reached his Pokemon, the trainer's knees were shaking and his heart raced. Likewise, Jesse had begun to swoon and nearly fainted more than once on the ascent. Looking up at the massive column of the bridge, Ash sighed in relief to see that a maintenance ramp wound its way around the support and allowed for foot traffic all the way up to the main platforms. Following the bridge with his eyes, Ash tried to estimate how far he'd have to travel to get back to Fuchsia. In the dark such approximations could only be guesses at best, but Ash clearly saw that an hour or more lay between him and the city.
"It's going to be a long night..." he muttered. Straining as Jesse slumped against him, passing out and hanging like a dead weight, Ash fought for his balance until Arcanine helped prop him up. "A very long night," he amended.
SC
Sitting on the stool in the emergency room, Ash tried not to notice how much attention he drew from the people all around him. Opposite him on another stool sat a young nurse. Using a cotton swab, she drew thick lines of a sterile medical paste over the gashes in Ash's cheek. The salve felt so cold that it burned horribly, making Ash clench his fists at his sides.
I want to get back out there... he thought, caustically mocking his own words in his mind. I want to go back on the road to save the world. Right. Barely a week since I decide to set off again and I've already been stabbed, slashed, burned, ambushed, hospitalized twice, and to top it all off I still don't know exactly where the Pokemon Center is at... The trainer sighed and decided then and there that if he ever started a town, he would make sure that the Pokemon Center and the human hospital were located on the same block, if not in the same building, right in the center of the urban sector.
"Ouch," he muttered, trying not to draw away as the nurse pressed an adhesive bandage over his cheek and checked the edges.
"Sorry," said the nurse. "But it stings because it's working." She grinned a little. "And maybe it will teach you that it's dangerous to fly over populated areas after dark."
"Believe me, I know," said Ash. "Do you know how that other woman is doing?"
"We rushed her to the trauma center as soon as you brought her in," answered the nurse. "It hasn't been very long sir, but for what it's worth, I've seen people in worse condition than her in here before. For the silver lining though," the young woman smiled, tucking her light red hair behind her ear, "your friend is Team Rocket so the local chapter should pick up the bill for both her care and yours."
"That's a nice bonus," said Ash, looking down at his bandaged calf and leaning down to pet Pikachu. The little rodent sat patiently on the floor at his trainer's side, cleaning himself. "So am I good to go?"
The nurse nodded. "If you take it easy, then I'll say you're fine to leave. I'll just bill Team Rocket for the medical expenses. They're usually pretty good about covering their members' tails."
Ash nodded and stood up, scooping up his Pokemon and ignoring the stinging in his leg. He had no idea what kind of medical glue the hospital used to treat lacerations like his, but he was going to find out and bring it back to Vermilion if he got the chance. "Thanks," he said, setting Pikachu on his shoulder. "One more question though, if you have time?"
The young nurse cast about the room for a moment and, given that it was a slow night and she saw nothing demanding her immediate attention, she turned back to Ash. "Shoot," she said.
"How do I get to the Pokemon Center?" he asked. "I'm meeting some friends and I'm already about as late as I can be."
"Well," the nurse checked the clock on the wall. "I'm off at midnight, and I live a block away from the Center, so if you can give me half an hour I can show you the way."
"That would be quicker than me spending the rest of the night stumbling around looking for it," Ash commented.
"Good," the young woman chimed. "It's a fairly long walk and I for one wouldn't mind having an experienced trainer for an escort. My name's Joy by the way, nice to meet you."
"Ash," the trainer and the nurse exchanged handshakes. "I guess I'll be in the waiting room," he nodded off towards a lone of chairs by the emergency room entrance, getting up and walking away when she told him that would work.
Thirty minutes later, Joy had clocked out and changed out of her scrubs. Meeting Ash by the door carrying a backpack and a small plastic case, Joy lead the trainer outside. The night air in Fuchsia blew harder and colder than in Vermilion, making both Ash and Pikachu shiver once before shrugging it off. Joy on the other hand, dressed as she was in jeans and a leather jacket, seemed revitalized by the sudden blast of cold when the glass doors slid open.
"It's down this way," said the nurse, pointing to and leading Ash down a well lit road. "There will be a couple of twists and turns, but nothing too major. Just stay close," she winked at her companion.
Ash grinned awkwardly for a moment, glad Pikachu sat vigilantly atop his shoulder. "I knew a nurse Joy when I worked in Vermilion," said the trainer. "She actually had pink hair just like yours and she worked at the Pokemon Center. Come to think," he looked a little harder at the girl walking beside him, but stopped short, not wanting to comment on the resemblance between the two, potentially, unrelated people.
"I'm not surprised," said the girl in the jacket. "I've got a big family and you probably met one of my cousins."
"Cousins?" Ash probed.
Joy nodded. "It's kinda a funny story. My mom had five sisters, all of whom grew up in Saffron, went their separate ways, and got married. They all fell out of touch with the others, but, and here's what makes me laugh, each of them had a daughter they named 'Joy' who all went into nursing."
"Wow," said Ash. "What are the odds."
"What's even better is that none of the Joys knew about it," said the nurse. "We all grew up in different cities and never met until the Celadon Medical Center had this big convention and we all ran into each other by accident."
"And have you all stayed close?"
"You bet," said Joy. "How could we not? Actually our whole family kinda came back together after that. All of our moms started keeping in contact, and the cousins all write each other regularly. Every couple of months we all got to Celadon to hang out for a few days, hit the casino, you know." She looked up at Ash and glanced at Pikachu. "By the way," she said. "Speaking of my cousins, Joy in Vermilion mentioned a guy by the name of Ash in a few of her letters recently. What's your last name?"
Ash grinned a little. "Ketchum," he said.
"I knew it!" Joy exclaimed. "As soon as you walked in with a Pikachu and an Arcanine I knew it had to be Ash Ketchum. My cousin said you were getting ready to travel again, but what brings you to Fuchsia?"
"Business," said the trainer as Joy turned and led him down another street, this one dipping down and passing under a bridge. "It's actually not something I can go into a whole lot of detail about with anyone but the Gym Leader here."
"You mean Koga?" Joy said. "So this is stuff between the Gyms?"
Ash nodded. "To a limited extent."
"Good luck finding him," said Joy. "The gym belongs to Team Rocket now."
"What?" Ash stammered. "Since when?"
Joy paused for a moment. "It's been about a year since Koga's men moved out of the city and left the gym empty. After that it just sat vacant for months until a few weeks ago when Team Rocket bought the property from the city and set up shop."
"Does anyone know where Koga is now?"
Joy shrugged. "I couldn't tell you for sure," she said. "But I know Koga maintains a presence in the city, or at least that's what the mayor says. Whether or not he really does is anyone's guess, but I can tell you that nothing changed too much after the gym moved out. The crime rate stayed about the same at least, and that was Koga's main responsibility... keep crime low. Now that Team Rocket has moved in, that's gotten even lower, despite more and more businesses closing down and food getting more expensive."
"I'd heard about that," said Ash. "A lot of the people moving to Vermilion were people who had lost their jobs here and in Celadon, and people trying to get away from Saffron."
"Yes, but that's starting to get better. Team Rocket does a lot of good work around here," said Joy. "They'll pay people's medical expenses, provide cheap food to people who are out of work. They've recently bought up a lot of the old apartments and started fixing them up, hiring people and paying them a good rate."
"Sounds too good to be true," said the trainer.
"Maybe," said Joy. "Even if it is, they're still doing a lot of good. Where they get all this money is beyond me, but I'm not going to question something that's working."
They get it from draining places like Vermilion dry, Ash thought. Who knows who they're extorting to pay for all of this good press...
Ash and Joy slipped into small talk for the rest of the journey. The walk went by quickly as both told jokes or funny stories, or in Ash's case, talked about adventures from his past. Making a conscious effort to avoid the topic of Team Rocket or Misty's past, Ash gave Joy a brief overview of his travels from Pallet to Cerulean. He skipped over Lavender and by the time he reached the point of his becoming Gym Leader, he and Joy had stopped in front of a tall and unassuming structure.
"This is it?" Ash asked, looking up at the building. "It's got one sign saying it's the Pokemon Center," he grumbled. "I'll bet we walked by this place twice and never saw it."
"Maybe you'll be a little more observant from now on," Joy teased. "Wow, you're just learning all kinds of lessons today."
Ash smiled and shook his head. "Oh well, thanks for your help," he said. "I'd have been lost all night if you hadn't helped me out."
"Don't mention it," said the nurse. "But, if you ever want to get lost, I might be able help you with that too." She stepped back and waved before he could respond. "Good luck!" she said before shifting to keep walking away.
Ash waved and watched her round a corner down the street. Walking past a figure in a purple hoodie sitting against one of the decorative retaining walls, Ash sighed in relief and stepped through the Center's big doors. Looking around to get his bearings he immediately spotted the man standing up from a comfortable armchair on the other side of the room. Brock smoothed out some of the wrinkles in his cloak and walked forward to meet Ash halfway through the room.
"Brock," Ash beamed, clasping the Gym Leader's hand as the two greeted each other with a firm hug. "I didn't expect to see you here so soon, but I still hope you didn't have to wait up too long."
"You're late and you look like hell," said Brock, quickly taking note of Ash's wounds. "What happened?"
"Long story short," said Ash, "Team Rocket ambushed me and it turned into a bloodbath." He paused as Brock raised an eyebrow before continuing, not mentioning that he not only let his attacker go, but also saved her life. "But the details aren't too important. Have you seen Misty?"
"She's up in your room," said Brock. "I told her I'd wait up until you got here. Damn," he looked Ash over again with a laugh. "You look like a Snorlax sat on you... go to bed. We can talk in the morning."
"First I've got to get Pidgeot looked at. She took a beating and needs help."
Checking Pidgeot into the emergency wing, Ash left his mount's pokeball with the nurse behind the counter, making it clear to her that money was not an issue. Whatever his Pokemon needed, Ash had said, he'd pay the premium price for the care. With that, Brock and Ash headed up stairs. The younger trainer had said that he likely had some explaining to do to Misty, to which Brock had responded with nothing but a shake of his head before leaving Ash in the hall.
After Brock's door had closed, Ash took a steadying breath, not sure exactly how to explain the new bandages, and knocked on the door. To the trainer's surprise, the door swung in as he touched it, the locking mechanism unhitched. Ash glanced into the dark room, a smirk flitting across his face. He stepped inside and closed the door behind him.
"Misty," he whispered. "Are you still up."
A rustling of covers from the bed drew his attention as Misty rolled over and raised her arm to signal him over. Ash stepped inside and closed the door behind him, shirking out of his shirt and pants and tossing them over the back of a chair. Quietly asking if he'd woken her up, Ash crawled under the covers next to Misty. The pair quickly snuggled close and Misty turned to face him in the dark.
"Nope," she said. "I left the door unlocked in case I fell asleep before you got back," she went on. "Where were you?"
Ash guessed she hadn't seen the bandage on his cheek. "Well, um," he stammered for a second. "Team Rocket ambushed me," said the trainer matter-of-factly.
"Right," Misty chuckled. "Funny." She reached up and put her hands on his cheeks to kiss him, instead twitching when Ash flinched and she felt the bandage. "You weren't kidding," she bolted up in bed, not bothering to pull the covers up in front of her chest. "Ash what happened? Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," he answered calmly. "Don't worry about a thing." He reached up and put a hand on the side of her neck, prompting her to lay back down. "Pidgeot took the worst of it for me and she should be alright soon enough."
"I'm glad you're alright," she said, kissing the cheek Jesse hadn't raked. "But at least tell me... was it Jesse and James again?"
Ash nodded. "Yeah, or Jesse at least. I didn't see James but I'm going to assume he's somewhere in town." Despite his best efforts to remain level headed, Ash almost mentioned that he'd let Jesse go. Catching himself however he decided that nobody needed to know that right now. Such details would likely spoil the moment and Ash was greatly enjoying the calm and the feel of Misty's warm body against his.
"I'm sorry I wasn't with you," Misty sidled a little closer.
"It all happened in the air," said Ash as he saw a wry grin flit across Misty's lips. "But thanks."
"Can I at least make it up to you," said the girl.