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| The One |
| Chapter 12 |
| The darkness inside Giovanni's gym-like office was suffocating. The faint, ultra-violet light overhead blinked in and out, threatening to sentence the room to an eternity of a colorless void. But the dimness of the surroundings wasn't the only darkness weighing down on those in the room. As the concrete walls on the far side of the room inched open at a painfully slow pace, the two teens and the Boss drew together in pure helplessness. The young ones sensed what the older man already knew; there was nothing they could do. No where to go. No pokemon strategy they could use. Nothing. Misty: [looking into Ash's eyes] "Ash, what are we going to do?" Ash looked down at the girl, pleading with her eyes as if she thought he may posses the key for fixing this hopeless situation as he had in the past. Memories suddenly flew back to his mind. Beating Mew-two and changing his heart, uniting the three treasures of fire, lightening, and ice in the Orange Islands, solving the mystery of Entei and saving his mother. He never realized how great of a role he had played, and only now did he realize how much Misty and the others really looked toward him to lead them through. In her eyes, he saw the one who had lead him through so many times. She was his strength, but right now, he had to be hers. Ash: "Misty...huh?" Ash didn't have time to answer. The doors were open. A click, like the sound of an intercom being turned on, errupted through the room, the echo bouncing off the walls. "Eh-hem. Testing, one, two, three." *muffle, bang!* "[muffled] Butch, don't mess this up! This is my job. [muffle; loud and clear] Testing. Now then...This is it. Prepare to meet your doom." Giovanni: "Those two idiots! What are they going on about?" Cassidy: "In case you think we're bluffing, I assure you again, you will meet your doom, right, now!" *Creak* Misty: "What's going on here?!" Ash: [putting his arms around her] "I, I don't know." Giovanni: "I do. Kids, over there." Ash and Misty looked at Giovanni to see his terror-stricken look, and then their eyes reluctantly followed the direction that his finger was pointing. Towards the now open concrete wall. To a pair of glowing red eyes that almost reached the ceiling of the space it was coming from. Giovanni: "It can't be..." Ash: "What? What is it?" Cassidy: "Your doom, or shall I call it by its proper scientific name? The name Team Rocket Scientists give this creature is 'Steelakazing'." Giovanni: "The first pokemon fusion." Misty: "Wha?" Ash: "Wait a second. I thought only Saiyans could form a fusion." Giovanni: [really confused] "What?" Misty: [to Giovanni] "Heh heh, its after your time. [hitting Ash on the head] THIS IS NO TIME TO JOKE AROUND!!!" Ash: "Whatever, you say, uhh..." Giovanni: "This, this creature is what Rocket scientists have been working on since our establishment here in the mountain. Probably before that, with tests and theories in their laboratories. But when we came here, they could actually put their theories into practice..." Ash: "You mean they came here to steal the power Mt. Silver pokemon to use in their experiment?!" Giovanni: "Exactly." Misty: "Is, is there any hope, at all?..." Ash: "Misty..." [squeezing her tighter] Giovanni: "I don't know. All I do know is that this is one of those rare times I wish that Jessie and James were here instead." Ash: [smiling sadly] "Because they always mess everything up." During the short moment they hadn't been paying attention, a trio of 'screw-ups' managed to do what they did best: tampering with the system and managing to destroy its major functions. [muffled] "hey, what are you three doing here? Wait! Give that back muffmwahmuff...Ahem, prepare for trouble." Ash: "Hey, that's not Cassidy anymore!" Giovanni: "Speak of the devil." "Make it double." Brock: "The motto. [to Pikachu] Ok, that's the signal. You know what we have to do." Pikachu: [nodding] "Pika/Right." Brock and Pikachu activated the switch on the cell door and opened it, walking into a dark, cave like passage. Jessie: "To protect our boss from devistation." James: "To save our twirps from dislocation." Jessie: "To denounce the evils of Butch and Cass." James: "To pretend we're good while they're on their glass. Jessie: "Jessie!" James: "James." Jessie: "Team Rocket screwed up as we always do." James: "But aren't you glad that we came through?" Meowth: "Meowth, we didn't stop that thing!" Jessie/James/Ash/Misty/Giovanni: "What?!" Cassidy: [back at the microphone] "That's right. You two may have stopped up from controlling the fused pokemonster, but you also disabled the controls to stop it. Ha ha, you just dug your own graves!" Butch: "See ya at your funerals. We're outta here!" Jessie: "Oh no, we messed up again." James: [Taking the microphone] "We can't help anymore. The monster can't be controlled, but there might still be hope if you wait for the....beep...." The intercom went dead. The red eyes glowed even brighter in a flash of fury. Whatever this new creature was, it was enfuriated for being mistreated and tormented so much and it was ready to take its revenge on its human enemy, though it didn't care which human it desimated first. Giovanni: "That is one hell of a pokemon. It has the invincible strength of Steelix, the inextinguishable fury of Ursuring, and the unmatchable power of Alakazam. Steel, strength, and psychic power. It's inpenitrable." Ash: [angry] "What are you saying? There has to be a way!" Giovanni: [raising his voice] "You don't understand! That pokemon is not normal. It's been bred to be indestructable, and the fact that it is a fusion of three REAL, wild pokemon, well, we don't have a chance." Ash: "You can't just give up like that! You can't say it's over." Misty: "Ash." Ash: "We have to think of something." Misty: "Ash?" Ash: "There's a way, somehow..." Misty: "Ash, watch out!" Misty pushed Ash out of the way just as the powerful beast sent an earthquake through the floor, raising the earth into jagged rocks on its swift path through the ground straight toward Ash. But the path of destruction never made it to Ash, because Misty took the blow for him. Ash: [looking around frantically] MISTY! Misty, where are you?" He looked all around the coarse earth that had once been a smooth and pristine gym floor. He finally spotted her, lying several feet away in a clump on the floor. Tears flooded Ash's eyes as he raced over to her side once again. Ash: "Oh Misty, I'm so sorry. That was meant for me, and, and you..." Giovanni: [rushing over to Ash] "Ash, we have to get out of here, now!" Ash: [looking up into his eyes] "I can't leave here here like this." Giovanni: [grabbing his arm] "You have to. I know a way out. If we go now we might make it..." Ash: "I'm not leaving her like you left me!" Ash immediately regretted his venemous words as soon as they spewed out of his mouth, but he didn't have time to take them back. Giovanni: "Ash, look out!" Giovanni managed to push Ash out of the way just as a blue psychic beam cascaded across the ruins straight for the two remaining on their feet. The blast didn't hit Giovanni directly, but it knocked him back against the wall near his office's entrance. Ash stood up, looking directly into the glowing spheres of the creature that had almost destroyed two of the people he cared about most in this world. He couldn't take this, and although it seemed foolish, he wasn't going to let this pokemon destroy his loved ones or anyone else. Ash stared into the monster's eyes, seeing its agony and its desire for revenge against the human race for the torment the three trapped pokemon minds were enduring. He stood still and strong upon the highest rock he could find, and as the third attack, another psychic blast, headed directly for him, he knew very well that there was no one else left to protect him. It was his turn to protect them. He threw his arms ups into the air, raising his head and cupping his hands toward the sky, focusing on his faith in himself and his loved ones and somehow knowing that this was the right thing to do, even as the psychic blast overpowered his human strength and engulfed his body in a blinding blue light. As the blast past on, the blinding light remained, filling the darkness with a golden brilliance, and giving goodness new hope. For the power behind the brilliant light was none other than ash from the ruins. |
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