Chapter 24 – Webs
It must have been sunset, or some time fast approaching sundown if the crimson light streaming in through the windows meant anything. To Ash it seemed that the entire house must have consisted of nothing but jet colored wood dully illuminated by sanguine light falling in twisting and chaotic patterns through black lattices and oddly shaped panes of glass. He stood at the center of an antechamber from which radiated four hallways lined with doors and windows. The young trainer looked up, seeing that he stood on an island of red in a lake of black, and noted the skylight overhead displayed no clouds: only an unbroken, glowing, perfectly uniform picture of red.
"This..." Ash muttered, looking around. "How exactly did I get here?" he asked, only then realizing that he could hear his voice as plainly as if he were speaking, despite his not having opened his mouth. Vague memories of departing Celadon City bounced around in his head, but Ash could only recall stopping for the night to camp, not entering any house or even leaving the road for that matter. "This has to be a dream," he thought, hearing the words as an audible voice.
Standing still at the intersection of the four hallways, Ash waited for a length of time he couldn't judge, hoping to wake up. When that failed, the trainer reached up and patted the side of his face, feeling the sensation but remaining where he stood. After some time, he walked to the entrance of one hall and looked down the passage. Studying it for a second, he shrugged and moved to the second hall, then the third, and then the forth. Judging them all to be identical, aside from the different patterns of red light washing in through the asymmetrical windows, Ash stopped and turned around once to get another look at the chamber.
Flinching, his guts twisting beneath his ribs, Ash saw a different room before him. The antechamber had vanished, replaced with an otherworldly vision of a massive lobby in a skyscraper made of glass. The lobby seemed to glow red in the sanguine light that still radiated from the luminescent sky, the dull illumination throwing deep, dark shadows all around the statues of men and Pokemon that stood around the lobby. Ash swallowed the lump in his throat, turning in the utter stillness and looking back down the hallway, which now lead to a winding glass staircase. Following the structure with his eyes, looking up passed the many landings and branches, Ash traced the stairs all the way to the ceiling and walked to the base of the massive spiral.
As he lifted his foot to the first stair, Ash jerked and stumbled when his foot came down on nothing but empty air. The staircase, and the rest of the building vanished entirely, and the young trainer immediately caught himself in yet another dark room. The chamber remained lit by the same red and black illumination, though the roles were now reversed. From the single skylight overhead, a blackness radiated and filled the room's deep red walls with shadows the color of blood.
Stopping and looking around, Ash gaped, struck by the similarity between this room and his memories of his grandfather's laboratories. The silhouettes of tables and lab equipment adorned the room in semi-circles, like rows of teeth in a great monster's mouth, the concentric rings of tables emanating out from the far wall of the room against which sat a massive silhouette that towered up to the high ceiling.
The great orb, drawn in inky red, sported numerous spires jutting out of its frame, and thick cables that ran from its center to the floor and walls all around it. As Ash stared at it, the orb seemed to vibrate without moving, as if the air around it shook in its presence but, lacking the energy to flee, could only surround the structure with illusory ripples.
"I don't care," the low whisper echoed in the room, prompting Ash to whirl around and look for the source. "Just maintain containment."
Ash quietly drew in a slow breath, looking all about the room but not seeing the source of the voices as another whisper answered the first.
"-the charts," it said, fading in and out. "-power to-"
"Make it work," the first whisper grew louder, as if shouting from far away. "Just fix it! Get it working now!"
Shivering at the fury in the screaming whisper, Ash looked back at the great sphere, his eyes shifting to the tiny shape standing beside it. A figure no taller than a child, ghostly pale with straight black hair that ran to the floor, stood with her hand on the orb. The child remained perfectly still, with her face turned away from the young trainer, looking at the structure.
Ash tried to keep himself from shaking, his eyes growing wider as he took a few steps forward, the shadowy benches and equipment breaking around him like mist. "Hello?" he called, the word feeling hollow in his mouth.
The little girl, for Ash saw as she turned to him that it was indeed a young girl, looked at him and all the world seemed to freeze. The ghostly child studied him for a minute, both eyes, one so deeply red it seemed to draw in and lock away any light, the other so vibrantly purple as to almost glow, fixed on the young trainer.
In a voice like a dozen children speaking at once but in different rhythms, she asked,"what are you doing in my dream?"
Ash couldn't answer. The nightmare overpowered his free will and he stood motionless as the little child turned completely towards him and pointed up at the device protruding from the wall. "Maybe you can help me," she said.
Ash jolted, gasping and opening his eyes as a loud pop rang in his ears. From her spot by the campfire, Janine turned to look at him.
"Sorry," she said, going back to laying new sticks in the flames. "The wood's a little wet."
Sweating and breathing heavy, Ash sat up and rubbed a hand over his face. "Don't worry about it," he said, spotting around and seeing Arcanine, awake but lazily lounging directly behind him. The trainer scooted back and leaned against the big canine as Pikachu, sleeping beside the dog, woke up and hopped into Ash's lap. The trainer began idly running his hand over the rodent's ears and rubbing the back of his neck with Pikachu chittering happily as Arcanine's tail began thumping against the ground. "I wasn't sleeping too well anyway. What time is it?"
Janine glanced at her watch. "Four-thirty," she said. "We should be able to reach Saffron today without too much trouble. If we hurry, we might even be there before it gets dark."
Rubbing his temples, Ash looked up at the trees and immediately spotted the arachnid figure hiding in the foliage overhead. "I guess that, until then, I'm just going to have to get used to sleeping under a giant shadow..." he muttered.
"Ariados has saved me from more than one ambush," Janine grinned without looking up at the spider. "He's quiet and doesn't gripe when I leave him out to keep watch."
"The last time I slept in a forest, surrounded by huge bugs..." Ash twitched once and trailed off.
"If it makes you feel any better," said the girl in the hoodie, grabbing a tin cup from the ground beside the burning logs, scooting over, and holding it out for Ash, "he only eats other bugs."
Ash took the cup as Janine reached for its mate and took a sip. He grimaced as the two-day-old coffee hit his tongue, but finished it off with a gulp as Janine settled next to him and leaned against Arcanine with her own drink.
"I should probably get a warm blooded Pokemon or two," she said, snuggling her back into Arcanine's fur as the big canine watched her with one eye, "if only for the warmth. Very nice."
Ash shrugged and set his cup aside, looking into the fire as his expression melted into a blank stare.
"So..." said the girl. "You feeling alright?"
"Bad dreams," he answered.
"Want to talk about them?"
"No."
"Okay," Janine pulled her knees up to her chest, rested her chin between them, and stared with Ash into the flames as the minutes began slipping silently by.
After an unspoken agreement, Ash and Janine both got their feet and began breaking their small camp off the side of the road. They kicked out the fire and gathered up their bedrolls, stuffing them away in packs. Janine clicked her tongue and her spider dropped out of the canopy, righted itself in midair, and landed almost silently beside her. She hopped up on the Pokemon's back and grabbed hold of the long hairs that covered the arachnid's body as Ash swung a leg over Arcanine's back and pulled himself into the saddle.
When Pikachu jumped into Ash's lap, the young trainer tapped Arcanine's sides with his heels and both the massive canine and the huge spider set off south. They weaved silently through a little less than fifty yards of dense undergrowth and came out on the roughly carved path that lead through the miles and miles of forest separating Celadon from Saffron City. While Janine checked the small marker she'd set up on the side of the road the previous night, Ash stirred Haunter from his backpack with a mental nudge and ordered the ghost to begin making regular patrols around the trainers.
"People passed by here last night," said Janine, getting back on her mount.
"Any clues as to how many?" Ash responded.
The girl shook her head and the trainers set off down the road. "Small group, probably not more than five. It didn't look like they spotted our marker or advanced anywhere near our camp. Still, I'm glad we're not taking the main road."
"Even if it's safer, Route 5 curves too far North. This way will be quicker," said Ash.
Other than the soft patting of Arcanine's paws and the occasional tap as Ariados' normally silent step struck a rock or bit of debris, neither trainer heard anything above the quiet sound of the forest surrounding the road. Ash busied himself with looking all around, his eyes darting from one gap in the trees to the next as he watched for any sign of trouble. When Haunter grabbed his attention over their empathic link, Ash straightened up in his saddle and turned his focus to his invisible companion.
In a tone that dripped with something almost like disappointment, Haunter relayed to Ash the relative tranquility of the road ahead. Any creatures who even noticed the trainers' passing immediately withdrew deeper into the forest and hid. Ash listened to the ghost's report, daring to let his thoughts wander a little, until they drifted seemingly without his consent back to the battle of Celadon. As his face grew blank and his grip tightened on the reins in his hands, Ash began playing out the events of the battle over and over in his head, analyzing every move he remembered making and trying to find some flaw in his plan, trying to find where he let something slip.
Ash took a deep breath, prompting a silent glance his way from Janine, and shook his head. He almost opened his mouth to say something, but a cold bolt through his chest instantly silenced him and froze him in his saddle. As his chest tightened and he sucked in a shocked breath, Janine looked towards him and studied him for only a second. Just then, Ash turned towards his left as Haunter came silently shrieking out of the woods, calling for Ash and circling around him like a whirlwind.
"You alright?" asked Janine as Ash took his hand away from his chest.
Fighting to unclench his jaw and block out the phantom noise of Haunter's incoherent yelling, Ash looked all around him for a threat before shouting with his mind for his spectral companion to be silent. The ghost stopped circling and began hovering beside him.
"I'm just a sick of this forest," Ash groaned, simultaneously reaching out to Haunter and trying to ask it what was wrong. The instant Ash's consciousness touched the ghost's Ash again went rigid in the saddle as overwhelming terror flooded across the link.
Psychic, Haunter whispered in Ash's ear. Strong psychic here. Now. Need to hide.
"Just tired," Ash repeated as calmly as he could, forcefully pushing his link with the ghost to the back of his mind as a cold sweat broke out on his forehead. "Hey," he turned to the girl in the hoodie. "How exactly does Ariados detect intruders?" asked Ash, looking at Arcanine. The canine's nonchalant, almost relaxed, gait did nothing to settle Ash's nerves.
A smirk flitted across Janine's lips and she patted her mount on its back. "Ari here has one of the finest-tuned tremor senses in the world. It can pick up on the vibrations of a Rattata walking across soft ground a hundred yards away."
"Good to know," said Ash, again turning to Haunter. Where is it? he asked the ghost.
Here, said the ghost, drifting into the pack on Ash's back and going silent.
Where? Ash asked again, turning in his seat to look around.
Greetings again, the voice reverberated like a great bell from far underwater in Ash's mind, making him whirl forward and cast about the forest for the source.
Instantly, Ash spotted Pikachu sitting on the back of Arcanine's neck, turned around and looking at him with a blank stare and eyes that glowed a subdued purple. The little Pokemon took a step closer to Ash and looked up at him, sitting absolutely still.
You are headed to Saffron, this is good, I have something I need you to do, the baritone voice radiated from Pikachu.
"Mewtwo," Ash half whispered, half hissed at the little yellow Pokemon. "Get away from my Pikachu." He threw a wary glance towards Janine, only to notice that she stared straight ahead of her and seemed intently focused on the road.
She is distracted, said Mewtwo, and your Pikachu is unharmed. The overshadowing simply puts it into a comfortable sleep for a time. Now, when you got to Saffron you will need to-
"Hold it," Ash growled. "What are you doing here?"
Telling you what you should do.
"You just show up, take over my Pikachu, and think you can order me around?"
Yes, Mewtwo toned.
"Well," Ash stammered, taken aback by the completely apathetic tone in the psychic's message, "you can't. The last time you came out of nowhere like this, I got my ass kicked. Besides, I have things I need to do too."
Remaining absolutely still, Pikachu's purple eyes stared at Ash. You survived the events surrounding our last meeting due to my help and accomplished both our goals with my direction. Our aims were the same then and they are the same now. I am here to provide you with more direction and save you a great deal of blindly fumbling about. That is all.
Ash's face soured, but he nodded. "Fine," he muttered. "What's going on?"
I am fast nearing the end of my plan, Mewtwo's words grew a little louder, though his tone remained as devoid of emotion as ever before. Only two great blows remain to be struck and it seems fate wishes you to make them both. Mewtwo stopped and Pikachu twitched. Hm, inconvenient, muttered the psychic as the overshadowed rodent looked passed Ash and off into space.
"What?" asked Ash. "What is it?"
Nothing about which you can do anything at present, Mewtwo went on as Pikachu turned back to Ash. Go to Saffron, get into Silph Company's main building. There you will find a great many of Team Rocket's assets, but destroying them all will take time we can not spare. Rather make your way to the ninth basement and find their Telesthetic Lab. Free Sabrina from her captivity and she will have further instructions.
Ash's face twisted. "Wait," he said. "If Team Rocket's been massing resources at Silph then we should take them-"
Free Sabrina, Mewtwo repeated, and their operation in Saffron will crumble. Do that and you will see.
"I don't see how that will work, or why we're in such a hurry," said Ash.
Understanding is not necessary, the psychic said through Pikachu. But it will come in time. Will you do this? Mewtwo's tone grew almost rushed and his overshadowed vessel looked back off into space.
"You're obviously busy," said Ash. "I'll get it done. Go."
Good, Pikachu started to turn away, hesitated for a split second, then looked back at Ash, eyes still glowing purple. Ash Ketchum, the psychic's voice resonated. Are you prepared to do what is necessary to win, even if collateral damage reaches unprecedented levels?
Pausing for a moment, Ash's mind darkened as his thoughts turned back to the night after the battle in Celadon. Without his direction his mind ran over the events and an instant later he shook himself out of the memory, face hard. "I'll do whatever it takes, no matter what."
Excellent.
A hint of a scowl flitted across Ash's brow before his face returned to the blank mask he'd worn for the passed days. "Mewtwo," he said. "Can I ask you a question?"
This is not the time for questions, said the psychic. There are matters-
"Take a second and answer me," said Ash, his whole demeanor changing and growing cold. "I'm doing all this to help you so in return you can help me a little."
Something like a sigh sounded over the link between Pikachu and Ash. Fair. Your question?
"Have you," Ash clenched the reins in his hand for a second though his face remained as calm as before. "Have you ever heard of a way to bring someone back from the dead?"
The purple glow in Pikachu's eyes narrowed as the Pokemon cocked its head only a little. To do so... Pikachu took a step back on Arcanine's neck as the forest continued to roll by, would require an act of selfishness beyond your comprehension.
"But it could be done?" Ash leaned forward, dropping Arcanine's reins and raising his voice, prompting a wary glance from his mount. "It's possible?"
No.
"But you just said," Ash barked, his face washing over with a mix of shock and anger. "I'm tired of being caught up blind in all this shit! Quit playing games with me! Is it possible or isn't it?"
Ash Ketchum, said Mewtwo, his tone growing deeper. There are things that you can not yet be expected to understand. When we meet face to face, for we certainly will, I will explain all then. Until that time however, I must ask that you trust me and follow my instructions. Can you do this?
Shaking his head and drawing in a deep breath, Ash clenched his fists, then reached for Arcanine's reins. "Sure," he breathed. "Sure, but you're damned right that we're going to meet face to face and you're going to line all this out for me."
If that is what it takes, that will be my end of this bargain, said Mewtwo. Free Sabrina. She will instruct you further.
With a quiet sigh Pikachu fell forward and Ash lashed out to catch him. Simultaneously, Janine shivered in her seat and looked over to Ash.
"Sorry, you say something?" asked the girl in the hoodie.
Holding a dozing Pikachu in his lap, Ash shook his head. "Must have been the wind," he said, looking down at the little yellow Pokemon as Janine shrugged and went back to watching the road. Ash stared passed Pikachu and, after several long breaths, a small tug at the edge of his lip began to form a grin on his face.
Maybe, he muttered in his mind. Just maybe... there might be a way. Ash glanced up and caught the uncertainty in Arcanine's eye as the massive canine looked back at him. The trainer leaned forward and ran a hand through Arcanine's mane, straightening out some of the tangles and removing a few bits of debris. Almost immediately Arcanine turned back around, started wagging his tail, and panted happily. A moment later, Haunter slunk out of Ash's pack, asking if it was safe to come out before resuming its patrols.
SC
Sounding like thunder clapping just overhead, the golden beam of energy split the air and made everything on the ground below tremble and shake, even before tearing into a four story building and exploding like a miniature sun. The building's entire front facade blew outwards in a spray of shrapnel and dust that washed into the city streets below as the morning again grew quiet.
Knowing better than to trust the calm, none of the men in the municipal building's lobby dared move into the street as the structure only a few doors down from their location collapsed. The twelve soldiers in black and olive uniforms stayed knelt near the rear of the big room, either pointing their rectangular riot shields at the front windows or hiding behind the men with the shields. None flinched but all stiffened when a second, far louder explosion shattered the otherwise calm day, this one even closer. The soldier's ears rang as the top floor of the apartment across the street came crashing down in the road like an avalanche.
"How much longer are we going to stay here?" shouted one of the uniformed men knelt behind his shield.
Standing just outside the tight formation, a tall figure concealed from head to toe in heavy black armor knocked on the shield to its left to get the soldiers' attention. "Until they get tired of firing at us," the armor's occupant shouted through his helmet, eying the troops from behind a tinted visor.
"Shit," laughed a young trooper in the back. "That soon? They haven't hit anything yet." A few chuckles and affirmative grunts ran throuh the group.
"Corporal Eliad, cut the small talk," ordered the man in the black armor, "unless you plan on talking the Johtans to death."
"Sir," responded the first soldier, "would you like me to try, sir?" Another ripple of laughs pulsed through the twelve man patrol, but stopped instantly as an ear-splitting scream tore through the building. This time the frame of the structure shook so violently it knocked the armored commander to one knee as great chunks of rock fell into the street from the top of the soldiers' hiding spot. The ceiling shook, a chandelier fell and shattered, and drywall dust shook loose from the walls. Every man not holding a shield put a hand over his mouth and nose as the hurricane of wind and dust blew into the room and obscured for a moment the otherwise copious daylight.
"Squad!" shouted the commander, his voice muffled through his helmet. "Everybody into that shop across the road, now!"
In unison each man grabbed the weapon at his side, got to his feet, and hustled to the door. As the structure groaned and rumbled, some debris still dropped from the top of the building but bounced mostly harmlessly off of helmets or the armored vests worn by the soldiers. The shield-equipped troopers fanned out to the flank of the small formation as the others instinctively pointed short, sturdy spears over the heads of their companions while all twelve picked their way over piles of rubble and crossed the street to a narrow single story building.
Grip firm on his spear, Corporal Eliad followed the gazes of the rest of his squad as another peal of thunder tore through the city on the clear day. This time the beam of energy, almost ten feet across the young soldier reasoned, split the sky directly overhead. Blasting into some building farther south in the city with a ground shaking boom, the beam left the Corporal's eyes dazzled.
"What the hell are they throwing at us?" asked another soldier in the squad, just as the group of men made it into the shop. They all turned to face the door, those with shields throwing them up in front to block any debris as the building in which they'd stood not a minute before began to collapse.
"Hyper Beams," the commander said a moment later, walking passed the polycarbonate shield wall and poking his head outside to survey the street once the municipal building had mostly finished toppling. "Probably from a couple of Gyarados..."
"Man, we are screwed, we are so screwed," said the soldier, shaking and on the verge of hyperventilation as he held his shield in front of Eliad. "Johto catches us with our pants down, rolls across half of Cinnabar like a fuckin' Snorlax on a rampage, our Air Force is gone jerking off, and now we got Charizards and Skarmory and shit raining death from above. We're so-"
"Take a breath," Eliad cut him off. He grabbed the soldier's elbow and forced him to rest his shield at a steeper angle. "You're a soldier of Cinnabar. Quit bitching, man up, and get ready to kick some ass! Got it?"
Ducking inside, the commander stepped back from the door as a pair of shapes raced through sky, casting speeding shadows on the ground an instant before the soldiers' refuge shook and another Hyper Beam demolished a building a few blocks away. He dusted down his armor and stepped back to the door of the small bookstore, waving at someone Eliad couldn't see. A few seconds later another soldier, dressed in a uniform identical to those of the eleven troopers appeared in the doorway.
"Captain Zvika," the new arrival panted as the man in the black armor closed the door. "Alitza and the rest of the specialists are holed up on the north edge of town; Fillmore Street in the 1200 block, with two infantry platoons and a full battery of heavies ready to halt the enemy advance. The engineers got them dug in pretty good but they're requesting your platoon join them."
"The rest of my platoon's in the west," said Zvika, "reinforcing Yael and her company at the 300 Metro." He turned to the rest of his men and pointed into the group. "Corporal Eliad, get this patrol back to the metro. Tell Lieutenant Yael to keep the pumping station operating as long as possible. Cinnabar City and the rest of the island are going to need all the power they can get for as long as we can keep the lights on."
"Yes sir," acknowledged Eliad as Zvika moved and slammed the door closed. Another wail split the air just as everyone go to their feet. A colossal boom rumbled the building and a barrage of rubble flooded the streets in front of the thin windows as the building two doors down the road collapsed under the bombardment.
Gesturing in harsh waves for everyone to move, Captain Zvika ordered everyone outside as he threw open the door, shoving aside the plentiful rubble left over from the many collapsed buildings along the street. "They'll need a second to recharge!" Zvika shouted. "Out! Go! Go!"
The troopers hustled out the door and turned left onto the rubble lined road. Eliad stopped by the captain for only a second as the rest of the men gathered in a loose formation. "Captain," said the young corporal, the glint of the pokeballs on the officer's belt catching his attention for only a second. "Good luck dad."
Zvika nodded. "Keep your head down," he said, tone controlled.
"Alright, hustle up!" Corporal Eliad shouted, running into the formation as the messenger joined their ranks. They quickly set off down the street.
His ears still ringing, Zvika waited for several seconds as his squad ducked into the ruins of a half-collapsed cafe to access the alley behind it. The man in the black armor dropped a pokeball and let it split open in a torrent of white light. A massive horse wreathed in orange flame whinnied as it swirled into existence, and Zvika threw one leg over the Pokemon's back. Despite his large frame and even larger set of armor, Zvika still looked almost too small for the Rapidash as he picked up it's reins.
"Got your attention," he muttered and tapped his mount with his heels, galloping north and turning his gaze skyward. He had seen the shadows against the sun change course the instant the Rapidash appeared, and Zvika now watched as the two flying Pokemon angled out of the blinding sphere towards him. Calmly he reached up and grasped the handle of the squat but massive labrys slung across his back, simultaneously pulling one foot from its stirrup and placing the ball of his foot on his saddle's pommel.
Training his eyes on the diving fliers, one a Charizard and the other a Fearow, both bearing riders holding pokeballs in each hand, Zvika felt every muscle in his body tense as the Charizard opened its mouth and belched out a column of fire. The man on the Rapidash roared and leapt up, propelling himself vertically off the saddle and drawing back his huge, doubleheaded axe as the wave of fire swallowed and blinded him. Still bellowing a war cry, Zvika swung with his axe and felt it bite into the Charizard, an instant after the Pokemon pulled up from its low dive.
Grunting as his arms jerked, his body swinging like a weight on a chain, Zvika held onto his axe as his vision cleared and he saw one of the blades embedded all the way to the head in the Charizard's ribcage. As the mounted trainer screamed and the Charizard wheezed a breath of smoke, the flying lizard twisted in midair and crashed to the rubble strewn street. Friction with the road tore Zvika and his axe out of the Pokemon and all three figures tumbled for a solid twenty feet before coming to a stop.
"I surrender! I surrender!" shouted the mounted trainer, one arm hanging useless as he tried to extricate himself from his floundering mount's saddle. The moaning Charizard, with arms not flexible enough for the task, tried to clutch at the gaping wound in its side and hold in its oily blood.
"You bring a war to my home," Zvika growled like a wolf as he stalked towards the struggling Charizard and its trainer. "You ambush me on a holy day." He raised his axe over his head with both hands, and brought it down on the Charizard's throat, severing its neck with a definitive snap and sending the Pokemon's head tumbling away from its instantly stilled body. "You attack civilians and noncombatants... kill women and children," he glared through his visor at the man, "and you have the gall to ask for mercy?"
"Please," whimpered the trainer, putting his good hand up in front of his face for defense. "Have mercy."
With a huff Zvika turned around, his grip going loose on his axe for a split second. With another grunt he whirled around, holding out both arms and the axe and swinging at the trainer. The wicked edge of the labrys both sliced and crushed through the man's forearm and neck, splattering the street with red blood as the decapitated head flew and the truncated corpse slumped in the saddle.
"No," Zvika muttered. He looked up at the sky as his Rapidash trotted to him and halted at his side. The trainer mounted on the Fearow had since turned and fled in the other direction. With a satisfied smirk hidden beneath his helmet, the trainer pulled himself back into his saddle and reared the Rapidash around, turning north. Glancing back, he saw the line of blackened stone where the Charizard had attempted to strafe him, and his smirk grew.
"Thank the goddess for fiberglass armor," he sighed. The man in the heavy black armor barked an order and his mount bolted off down the street.
SC
"So this is Saffron City?" Ash muttered, standing on the side of the road and looking towards the walls only a few hundred yards away.
Sunset had come and gone, but the crimson glow still lingering on the western horizon threw the skyline of the metropolis into stark contrast. Obsidian spires, wrapped in flashing neon and spotted with countless windows stuck up into the sky. From where he paused, Ash could plainly make out even the meanest of the dozen skyscrapers, as gaudily decorated as they were. Even the city wall, an imposing structure itself standing more than forty feet high, sported neon signs and what looked to be large screens flashing advertisements.
It took Ash a moment of scanning the wall to spot the less glamorous buildings constructed outside its circumference. Hidden in the shadow of the huge barrier, the rest of Saffron sprawled out over the plain. Houses, apartment complexes, squat factories, warehouses, water towers, granaries, and even many blocks of slums all lay in the shadows of the skyscrapers. Crisscrossed by dozens of roads, most of them not easily visible from the small hill on which the two Gym Leaders sat atop their mounts, the city reminded Ash of Cerulean and its many water channels.
"It's a lot less impressive than it touts itself to be," said Janine, shaking her head, "but if you're looking for a diseased cesspool of corruption, fraud, and all-around shitty people, look no further. Saffron has all the vice and evil you could ever want."
"Why don't you tell me what you really think," Ash muttered, tightening his grip on Arcanine's reigns only enough to quiet the Pokemon's excited whimpering. "Is it really that bad?"
"The wealthier citizens all live in that walled off section there," Janine pointed to the skyscrapers behind the wall. "There are a few powerful families that control the city. That's where you'll find Silph Company and Sabrina's Gym. The poorer districts on the outside consist mostly of factory workers, common laborers, and petty criminals. That's where you'll find the Pokemon Center and Team Rocket's old company headquarters."
Ash raised an eyebrow, scanning the slums outside the wall. "If we weren't on a schedule I'd suggest checking out the base," he said.
"Wouldn't do any good." Janine sighed. "That was one of the facilities they cleared it out when they tried to move into Fuchsia. We probably wouldn't find anything anyway."
"Hm," Ash toned, turning from the city to the girl on the spider. "So what's it take to get inside the wall?" he asked. "They wouldn't have built it if they were just going to let anyone through."
A smirk tugged at Janine's lip. "Don't worry about a thing. I can have us passed that wall by tomorrow afternoon, no sweat."
"Let's get to the Pokemon Center then," said Ash, tapping Arcanine's sides with his heels. Immediately the canine, tail wagging from side to side, set off at a quick trot, making Janine hurry to keep up. "We'll dismount when we're closer."
"Still worried about your Munchlax, eh?" asked the girl in the hoodie, her spider moving up next to Arcanine.
Without nodding, Ash glanced at the pokeball on his belt. "Oz didn't do anything but sleep when I let him out. Normally he's running around like a maniac trying to eat everything in sight."
Continuing on and only stopping when they reached one of the city's outer streets, Ash and Janine dismounted, returned their mounts to their respective pokeballs, and began walking casually into the city. Most of the outer ring of houses looked to be abandoned and in differing states of disrepair. As they continued inward however, never passing or even seeing anyone out in the streets, neither trainer could miss the many sets of curious eyes looking out at them from darkened windows and open doorways. Ignoring the urge to shiver, Ash reached down to the ground beside him and picked up Pikachu, quickly setting the little Pokemon on his shoulder.
"Good deterrent," said Janine. "The Pokemon Center's just a couple of blocks this way," she went on as the buildings grew more congested and loomed higher. No light shone from most of the windows and those that did cast some illumination rarely glowed brightly. That coupled with the small percentage of working streetlights left the trainers to walk in a gloom not a great deal less oppressive than many of the frontier's wilder stretches of land.
"Reminds me of Viridian Forest, just more concrete," Ash mumbled, casting about when he heard a dull rumbling ahead.
As he and Janine spotted they rounded a corner, both trainers spotted a better lit strip of street and a long line of people stretched out towards a building with a large, open front. A large sign hung out over the front of the building read "Inner City Outreach," under which there sat the small but plainly visible insignia of a stylized TR. Beneath the sign, several men and women in red and white uniforms stood behind a counter, handing out small paper sacks to every individual who walked by, took the sacks, and dispersed into the slum.
A constant cycle of people carrying supplies inside the glassed in lobby of the building kept the counter stocked as the line of people, fed by a constant stream of people appearing from within the slum, remained a roughly constant size. Janine and Ash watched for a minute or two from the street corner as people, most dressed in dirty and worn clothes, came and went.
With a quick grunt, Janine bumped Ash's arm. "Watch what you say," she hoarsely whispered, simultaneously reaching up to keep her face hidden in her hood's shadow.
In an alley across the street from the bread line, two men emerging from the shadows caught Ash's attention. Both were tall and well-built men in white and red uniforms. Team Rocket's ruby insignia sprawled boldly across their chests as they approached Ash and Janine, stopping a few paces away. Ash couldn't miss that each carried a pokeball at his belt.
"Anything we can help you or your friend with?" asked the taller of the two big men, his tone far more polite than the sallow expression stuck on his harsh and meaty face. He paused as the girl in the hoodie, looking at the sidewalk so that her countenance remained completely hidden, stepped a little farther behind Ash. "If you need some groceries, you're more than welcome to stand in line. It's all free to anyone in need, as usual, courtesy of Team Rocket."
"Um, actually," said Ash, "we were just looking for the Pokemon Center."
The second uniformed man, a lean character whose exposed hands bore dark scars, leaned over to his partner and whispered something too quiet for Ash to catch, shielding the conversation with his marred hand. Ash immediately noted the thinner man's eyes locking on Pikachu.
"Down fifth here," the wider man raised a finger and pointed. "Turn right on Cole and it's right there. If you have any other questions," the man paused, "don't hesitate to ask the nearest Team Rocket member. You can find us anywhere, anytime."
"Thanks," said Ash. "I'll remember that." He turned away and began walking with Janine down the street as the two men paced back across the street. They followed the man's directions and quickly spotted the Pokemon Center a block closer to the wall. A quick twitch flitted through Ash's shoulders as he felt Haunter's presence appear at the forefront of his mind. The ghost, silently snickering and floating invisibly behind Ash, quickly alerted him that the two Team Rocket members from before had tailed them.
Again Janine bumped Ash's arm with her elbow. "Those two are following us," she whispered, "and I count no less than eight other teams of of two people wearing Rocket's uniforms between us and the center, all of which are keeping tabs on us. I think they might have recognized you."
Ash swallowed the lump in his throat, but hid any anxiety. Quickly scanning the road ahead he did see a few people in Team Rocket uniforms... not as many as Janine claimed to see, but he spotted at least four.
"Would they start something in the middle of the city," he faked a smile and kept walking.
"This is their city," the girl in the hoodie slipped her hands into her pockets.
SC
Invasion.
The word grabbed Ash's attention completely and he slowly pivoted away from the dark window to his left and glanced over his shoulder. He didn't miss Janine pausing in the middle of her sentence to look passed him at the television mounted on the wall of the Pokemon Center's massive cafeteria. Apparently the word also garnered the undivided attention of the two dozen or so other people sitting around the tables and booths that night, as someone near the font of the room shouted for everyone to shut up and someone else walked forward to turn up the TV's volume.
"...again, this is the first any news studio has on the story, so there's no telling how many have been killed as of yet," said the anchor in the red dress. She shuffled some papers around as the man turning up the volume stepped away from the TV, before clearing her throat while the camera zoomed out to allow for a news box to appear beside her. Closeup pictures showed burning buildings, men in black and olive uniforms running here and there, and rubble piled high in the streets of an obviously industrialized population center.
"So far all we have are images from Concord," said the reporter, "the southernmost city on Cinnabar Island, but reports came in only minutes ago that this invasion is indeed a full scale effort on the parts of Johtan cities Goldenrod, Olivine, and Cianwood at reconquering the entire island. As far as we know, the Johtan offensive began four days ago when a coalition army landed on the eastern shore of Cinnabar in the port city of Salsu. One common element among the many conflicting reports coming in is that the Island Defense Force, Cinnabar's primary armed forces, were caught off guard by the attack, despite the invasion's size and the IDF's status as the single largest and best equipped standing army in the world."
Swallowing the lump in her throat the reporter paused for a moment and put a hand to her ear. "I'm just now getting word," she said, moving the papers on her desk aside, "our correspondent at Indigo Plateau has just told us that the Elite Four released a statement confirming that they will not intervene in the war. For more let's go to Mason Charleston, live at Indigo Plateau. Mason?"
Glancing around the room as the picture switched over to a burly man framed by the edifice of a Pokemon Center, Ash heard hushed conversations, each riddled with uncertainty, popping up all over the room.
"Why aren't the Elite Four going to do anything?" asked one man.
A woman with one hand on a stroller turned to a man sitting beside her. "Why's this happening now?" she asked.
"Why would Johto invade?" asked a teenager, hanging onto his girlfriend a little tighter.
"Well Anna," said the reporter, "no one is quite sure what's happened over the last few hours. I'll admit that I was shocked when the Elite Four released a written statement only thirty minutes ago stating that they knew about the invasion as early as yesterday morning when one of their Rangers returned from the island nation with word. One little-known fact that the Elite Four said heavily influenced their decision not to take action is, despite what everyone here on the mainland has assumed for decades, Cinnabar Island is not actually under the Elite Four's jurisdiction.
"Cinnabar has a very long and very bloody history, but the long and short of it is that when the current government took control of the island a little more than a century ago it was written into their constitution that Cinnabar was to never sacrifice any amount of its sovereignty to any outside power. This lead the people of Cinnabar to reject the offer made sixty years ago by the Elite Four to make the island a protectorate.
"Ever since that point the Johtan cities of Olivine, Cianwood, and Goldenrod, which were each settled by the people the current Cinnabarean government displaced in the first place, routinely launched largely uncoordinated attacks on the island. For the last half a century Cinnabar has suffered countless raids by pirates and mercenaries under the control various Johtan powers. The island nation has been involved in numerous proxy-wars with the smaller settlements on other islands in the Cinnabar Cluster, fighting primarily against insurgents backed by either Goldenrod or Olivine."
The reporter paused as a strong wind blew out of the night and nearly knocked him off balance. "There's never been anything remotely like this though," Mason went on, clearing his throat. "Sources say that an army of no less than seventy-five thousand soldiers, backed by as many as two hundred Pokemon Trainers is currently marching west across Cinnabar towards the city of Yamen and, ultimately, to Cinnabar City. While there's been no official release yet, sources also report that Blaine Katsura, current head of the gym and embassy on the island, was captured early on the third day of the fighting when he and his gym's members sided with the Cinnabareans."
"Mason," said the anchor in the red dress. "I don't mean to interrupt, but I'm sure a lot of viewers are wondering why this is the first we're hearing about this," her eyes narrowed a little. "Is there any word on why communication wasn't established earlier? Or if there's any threat to the mainland."
"Actually Anna, the Elite Four's written release did mention," responded the male reporter, producing a piece of paper on which he focused for a moment, "their ranger noted a few hours before the invasion began that several listening posts on the northern edge of the island went down, so the Cinnabareans had a very limited capacity to communicate from the beginning. Couple that with the sheer distance between Cinnabar and the mainland and it's a miracle any information at all made it within broadcast ranges. Now however, I'm told that the IDF has established several emergency communication hubs that our affiliates on the island have been able to use to break the story.
"As for a threat to the mainland..." the reporter paused and forced himself to smile for a second. "If the Johtans wanted to invade Kanto then there are certainly easier ways to do it than by moving through Cinnabar. Anna, my sources here are confident for the most part that this is a move against Cinnabar, not Kanto in general. I should mention however that the Elite Four are urging the Gym Leaders of Kanto to think long and hard if they're considering an effort to relieve Cinnabar. Lance himself said, and this should clear up how serious the issue is... Lance commented on it saying that if any more Gym Leaders on this side of Mt. Silver involve themselves it could start a, quote, world war."
Turning away from the television as the report continued, Ash faced Janine. The two trainers' eyes met and both took a deep breath waiting for the other to speak. After an extended staring contest, Janine finally sat back and crossed her arms in front of her chest. Nodding off towards the television, she tapped her foot on the floor.
"Well that's quite the development..." muttered the girl in the hoodie. "What do you think?"
Shrugging his shoulders, Ash stared down at the table for a moment. "I-" he began, stopping as a woman in a white dress walked up beside the table.
"Mr. Ketchum?" asked the nurse, going on once Ash acknowledged her. "The doctor sent me to tell you that your Munchlax is going to be just fine. Actually," she half-grinned, "Dr. Corkerin says that of the few Snorlax-family specimens he's encountered, your Munchlax is one of the healthiest and most manageable."
"I've been making a point to keep it tame," Ash responded flatly. "But I am a little concerned... Munchlax has been sleeping a lot lately when usually he's got too much energy to handle."
"Dr. Corkerin also asked me to tell you," the nurse answered hesitantly, "that your Pokemon is actually getting ready to begin its next growth cycle. Over the course of the next week or two it's going to sleep almost all day and only wake up to feed. Assuming you let it out of its pokeball it's going to get very big, very quickly."
Ash looked up at her. "So you're telling me it's getting ready to evolve."
The nurse nodded. "That's exactly what I'm saying... Mr. Ketchum, Dr. Corkerin wants you to know that while he would never tell a trainer what to do with his or her Pokemon, it's his concerned opinion that you should take every precaution available to ensure that your Munchlax remains... under control. I'm not sure you're aware, but Snorlax tend to be extremely," she paused as though she was searching for a word.
"I know about their temperament," said Ash. "Tell the doc not to worry. I can take care of it."
Bowing slightly, the nurse took a step back. "Of course," she said. "You can pick up your Munchlax anytime at the front desk."
As the woman left, Ash turned back to Janine and dropped one hand below the table, finding Pikachu dozing lazily on the seat beside him. "Of course I can handle a Snorlax," Ash said, mostly to himself. "That's almost insulting."
"I can understand why she's concerned though," said the girl in purple, fiddling with the edge of her hood as she looked out at Ash from under the shadow. "Snorlax aren't famous for their lovable disposition... still, I can see why you'd like the idea of having one that obeys you."
Ash looked back at the TV, and listened for a moment as the reporter on the screen went over some of the details involving the invasion of Cinnabar. "I wonder if this is all part of the plan?" he mumbled.
Janine cocked her head at him. "What plan?" she asked.
His eyes flinching, though his face remained otherwise calm, Ash continued staring at the screen. "Just a thought," he said. "So," he turned back to her and stood up, "I'm going to go get my Pokemon. See you back in the room?"
"Sure," said the girl. "We need to hammer out what we're doing tomorrow."
Ash nodded, turning and walking towards the entrance to the big cafeteria as Janine stood and went the opposite direction. Pikachu resting contentedly but vigilantly on his shoulder, Ash made his way through the Pokemon Center to the main lobby. The brightly lit room sported the latest styles of Saffron City, almost glittering with fresh gold paint and white accents and furniture. The young trainer stopped in front of the main desk and rapped his knuckles on the surface to get the attention of the sleepy attendant on the other side.
"Huh? Oh, sorry," the attendant, an older boy in wrinkled suit, sputtered awake. He glanced around and spotted Ash immediately. "What can I do for you, sir?" he asked.
"Ash Ketchum," answered the young trainer, "here to pick up a Munchlax." He reached inside his coat, produced a document stamped with a large seal, and set it on the desk.
The attendant glanced over the paper and jumped before looking up at Ash, eyes growing wide as the corners of his mouth fell. "You're the real Ash Ketchum, Gym Leader from Vermilion," he said. "I saw the name and the league discount on your papers, but I wasn't sure it was really you. I'll have your Pokemon out to you in just a second sir." The boy behind the desk stood up and almost ran off to one of the side rooms, returning less than a minute later with a pokeball marked with a tag held in a shaking hand.
"Thanks," said Ash, accepting the pokeball, checking the tag, and clipping the little orb to his belt. "I paid up front, you know," he said when the attendant continued staring at him.
"Oh, I know sir," answered the boy behind the desk. "I didn't mean to stare," he quickly looked away, voice tight.
"Are you alright?" Ash asked, shifting slightly away.
"Oh, yes sir," said the attendant. "It's just that Ash Ketchum turning up here... especially after what the news has been saying for the last few days about Celadon... I don't think anyone was expecting you here."
Ash eyed the attendant carefully. "I've been on the news?" he asked. "What have they been saying?"
"Um," the boy behind the desk pushed himself back a little. "You haven't heard?"
Ash shook his head.
"Well, nothing too bad," the attendant said quickly. "Most of it was about Erika actually. You were just kind of there too but the people on TV were talking a lot about how you helped Erika usurp Celadon." The attendant twitched as Ash's face twisted. "Well they said 'usurp'" he amended hastily. "That wasn't what I really thought happened, but a lot of people say that you killed a lot of... Um, I'm really not sure actually," by now he was all but trembling in his chair. "I think I need to file some paperwork before my shift it over."
Ash nodded as the attendant pushed himself up from the desk and backed away. "Sure, sure," he sighed. "Thanks," the trainer turned away, spotting a few people glancing at him from around the room. Ash grimaced and reached up, pulling the bill of his cap down a little lower and looking down as he walked across the lobby towards the stairs. Finding his way to the fifth floor easily enough and walking straight to his room, Ash found Janine sitting on the edge of the bed, one hand on her knee and the other inside her hoodie's pocket as she stared, ostensibly absentmindedly, at the TV across from the bed.
"Come take a look at this," said the girl, glancing as Ash closed the door behind him.
"What's up?" asked the trainer, crossing the room, almost bumping his shin on the low nightstand due to the darkness, broken only by the light of the television.
Janine nodded to the news report and muted the volume. "Maybe they'll show it again," she said, watching screen, "but there's supposed to be one hell of a fight going down in Concord on Cinnabar. The anchor said the IDF and the Johtan Coalition are probably fighting over the processing and pumping plant that Cinnabar uses to produce natural gas."
"No surprise there," said Ash. "Ever since Pallet went up in smoke, Cinnabar hasn't had anywhere to send the gas so I'd imagine they've been stockpiling."
"Yeah, but logistics aren't what worry me- there," she pointed to the TV just as a news box reappeared as the anchor's lips silently moved. "Look at that monster."
Ash stared for a moment and his jaw went slack. "No way," he muttered. "Turn it up."
"... sure exactly why or when," the anchor's voice blurted, "but this live video just coming in from Concord seems to confirm the worst fears of many. It would definitely seem that Professor Elm, the man responsible for the capture of the Southern Sea's legendary Red Gyarados, has joined the battle on the side of the Johtan forces."
Tuning out the anchor and simply watching from the perspective of a cameraman atop a five story building, Ash stared at the enormous red figure rampaging through burning residential district of the city of Concord. The colossal Pokemon, a full two blocks away from the observing news crew, towered above the one and two story buildings around it, thrashing about and demolishing everything around it.
The camera zoomed in on a small figure, half a block behind the monster and surrounded by a dozen armored men and just as many large Pokemon. Carrying a small antenna, which he pointed at the Red Gyarados with one hand and a contraption that struck Ash as eerily similar to the Pokedex in appearance in the other, the man in the white lab coat shouted orders into the device.
"Oh shit," hissed the cameraman as the image rapidly shifted back to the Gyarados, which now stared directly at the news crew atop the building. The monster roared and reared back, it's jaws opening horrifyingly wide as a great red and purple light shone out of its mouth. As the Gyarados whipped its head towards the apartment building, a blinding beam of light shot from between its teeth and slammed into the building, violently shaking the camera and apparently knocking down it's crew.
Ash heard several men scream as debris flew in all directions and the camera tumbled down. For a split second the image on the screen exploded into complete chaos, before disappearing into buzzing static as a "Signal Lost" prompt appeared in the corner of the screen. Almost immediately thereafter, the image returned to the shocked anchor in the red dress, holding a hand over her mouth.
"Oh my god," she gasped, all illusions of composure gone. "Um, ladies and gentlemen, I don't know exactly what happened but I think-" she went silent as Janine muted the volume.
For a long few seconds, the two trainers remained quiet. Gradually Ash's mouth closed and his jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. Janine got up from the bed and paced to the window, drawing the blinds a little tighter before moving a chair away from the glass and sitting back down.
"Thought you might find that interesting," said the girl in the hoodie. "Given what happened to Pallet."
Ash took a long breath, and sat down on the bed, looking at the floor between his feet. "That doesn't matter as much as Silph Company, right now at least," he said. "For the moment, let's just figure out what we're doing tomorrow and see where that takes us. Now... you mentioned a friend you had in Silph?"
"Right," said the girl. "Let me go drop off a letter."
"You might want to make it quick," said the boy in the cap. "If the reception I got in the lobby is any indicator, we might have already outstayed our welcome."