Chapter Three -
Pain comes in many Forms

Ash awoke with a very uncomfortable feeling in his throat, that made him feel like he wanted to get sick, and he had piercing pains all over. He tried to cough, but whatever was in his throat wasn't coming out. He opened his eyes slowly. Everything was green and something floated up in front of him. Bubbles? He was in some sort of green liquid inside a glass tube of some sort.

He looked down and relised he had some sort of tube inserted in his mouth that traveled down his throat. It was there to make sure he could breath he guessed. He felt very weak, and he couldn't feel his arms or legs, they had gone numb. He looked beside him and saw the reason for the peircing pains. All up his arm and in some of his chest, needles were inserted with wires coming out of them and connected with the top of the tube. There was a metal clamp that came from behind him and clamped around his stomach. Two more clamps held his arms out beside him, but his arms hung limply.

He narrowed his eyes to try and see through the green liquid. He saw Ho-oh sitting in a cage across from him, eyes shut tight, sharing the same pain Ash was feeling. Ash closed his eyes and thought hard. Suddenly, Ash's voice echoed in Ho-oh's mind. "Ho-oh, whats going on?" Being able to talk through mind, thats something Ash had inherited from having some on Ho-oh's powers.

Ho-oh opened it's eyes and looked over at Ash worriedly. "I don't know Ash"

"Well your a psychic Pokémon. If you can read my mind can't you read their's?" Ash asked.

Ho-oh sighed. "It would take up too much energy to find that information, energy I don't have right now" Ho-oh explained. It turned it's head suddenly and let out a sort of growling sound as Butch walked into the lab and over to one of the scientists. Ho-oh's eyes flashed red for a second and it was able to hear everything they were saying.

Butch glanced over at Ho-oh before turning to the scientist. "Is everything going according to plan? What have you found out?"

The scientist. "No sir, nothing yet. But I still don't understand what you're aiming for"

"That kid" Butch said glancing over at Ash. "Has some sort of strange powers. I don't know how the Ho-oh was able to transfer them to him without killing him but I want to find out. If can I can give myself the power of a Pokémon, maybe many" He explained. "Your job is to figure out how to transfer a Pokémon's power to a human. After we've found that out, you can dispose of them"

Ho-oh growled and followed Butch with it's eyes as the Rocke left the lab through a large metal door. It turned back to Ash to tell him what it'd heard, but looked back as a scientist aproached it with a seringe. It narrowed it's eyes and growled menacingly.

The scientist grinned and took a remote out of his pocket and held it up, showing it to Ho-oh, before he pressed a button on it.

An electric shock emited from the metal 'collar' around Ho-oh's neck and ran through the legandary Pokémon. It was strong enough to knock the weakened Pokémon, and Ash, unconcious.

The scientist put the romote away and walked towards the cage once again. He reached through the bars and, ignoring all the pain the Pokémon was feeling already, drove the seringe into the giant birds wing and extracted some of it's blood. He pulled away quickly and looked at it. He walked over to one of the other scientists and handed it to them. "Did you already get a sample from the boy?"

The other scientist noddedand put the blood sample down. He turned to his assistant. "Are the minor tests finished yet?" He asked noding towards Ash.

"Yes sir" The assistant said. "So what's the next test?"

"Pokémon attacks. Get that kid out of there and lock him in a cell again. I'll go prepare the Pokémon" The scientist said as he turned and headed out the same door as Butch.

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Ash groaned and opened his eyes. "Were am I now?" He thought, getting really fed up of being moved around all the time. He recognised it as the same cell he had been in the day before yesterday. He sat up but cringed as he felt a sharp pain in his arms. He looked down at his arms and saw marks from all the needles. His throat still felt sore, but he didn't feel to weak anymore. "Ho-oh? Are you ok?" Ash tried to ask the Pokémon, not knowing were it was.

"Ya I'm ok" Came a responce from no were in particular. "That recover attack of mine is pretty useful ain't it?"

Ash smiled, but his smile quickly faded as the door of the cell opened and he saw two Rocket grunts standing in the doorway. "Let's go kid" One said while the other walked forward and grabbed Ash by one of his arms and dragged him out towards the door.

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"A battlefield?"

Ash looked around the huge field with confusion. Ho-oh had been let out of a cage next to him, but seemed like they were just being put into a bigger cage. The battle field was surronded by bars that came across the top so there was no way Ho-oh could fly out of there. Wen Ash looked closer he realised that the only exit led into the lab. "Whats going on?" He asked as a group of Rockets walked to the opposite side of the battlefield.

One rocket stepped forward. "We're challenging you and your Ho-oh to a battle"

"I'm nobodys Ho-oh!" Ho-oh yelled angrily.

"Ho-oh take it easy" Ash whispered and turned to the Rockets. It didn't seem like they had much of a choice as the Rockets began to release there Pokémon. They were outnumbered, about fourty to two. The opposite team consisted of Dragonite, Jolteon, Raichu, Blastoise, Tentacruel, Onix, Magnamite and many other Pokémon that Ash relised all had the advantage over Fire/Flying type Pokémon like Ho-oh.

But even though they were outnumbered, Ash knew he and Ho-oh could outpower them. They just had to be careful.

Ho-oh grinned as it looked at the Pokémon. "Thats the best you got?"

"After fighting evil legandary pokémon this should be a piece of cake" Ash said.

"Everyone, attack!" The raockets ordered, and their pokémon charged forward, readying their most powerful attacks including Thunders, Rock throws and Hydro Pumps.

Ash and Ho-oh were both struck by two thunderbolt attacks and stumbled over. Ho-oh looked up at the approaching attacks. They had to think of a way to block them, better then to take the hits and regret it later. Ho-oh grinned as an idea came to mind.

Ho-oh bent down and picked Ash up by the back on his jacket, throwing him up so he landed on it's back. It spread it's wings and flapped hard so they were up high and looking down on the other Pokémon. "I'll need a little help" It said to Ash.

Ash looked up at the giant bird and nodded. He raised his hand and placed it flat on Ho-oh's back. A soft red glow surronded both of them as Ash began to transfer some energy to Ho-oh.

Ho-oh grinned and watch the attacks approach and it's eyes glowed red. A barrier surronded Ash and Ho-oh and when the attacks struck, they backfired on the users.

Half of the Pokémon were struck by the attacks, but they still stood strong. They continued to fire one attack after another, which just kept backfiring.

"Let's finish this" Ho-oh said, grinning. Ash and Ho-oh both closed their eyes and Ho-oh focused both of their energy to make a powerful Psychic attack. When Ho-oh's eyes shot open the Psychic shot forward in the form of a red beam, which swept across the field and struck all the opposing Pokémon, knocking them unconcious in seconds.

The rockets returned their Pokémon and looked nervously up to were the Ho-oh was. Onlt it had moved. Ho-oh swooped past the Rockets and released a Fire Blast on the lab door. The door and some of the wall around it exploded into pieces and Ho-oh flew right through.

Unfortunatly, they didn't get far. Ho-oh and Ash soon felt the fermilier feeling of the electric collar shocking them both. Ho-oh's wings were unable to move and the Pokémon fell hard to the ground.

Two Rockets ran up to the paralised form of Ho-oh and grabbed Ash as he made an attempt to get away from them. They tried to hold him and one of them called to Dr. Deon's assistent who stood a small distance away. "Would you get that anistetic over here already!"

The assistant had picked up a bottle on anistetic and looked back. "Alright, hold your Horsea" He said as he felt around for a seringe when he found one lying around with a label on it, though there was no writing on the label, he pierced the top of the bottle, filling the seringe up. Being the stupid assistant that he was, he didn't know how unsafe it was to not use a clean seringe.

Ash watched the assistant aproach and nervously glance around, trying to find a way out. Unfortunately, before Ash could resist, the seringe was stuck into his arm. He groaned as sleep overcame him once again and the whole room blurred.

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Dr. Deon studied the computer screen as it should the results of the battle. "They both have the same weakness, same stregths and they even seem to think alike. They can also give power to the other...what is this rubish? There's no way that could be possible" He sat back in the chair and looked around. "Maybe I'll get some logical explenation from the blood samples" He thought and stood up, heading towards the lab.

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"Were is it?" Dr. Deon muttered as he looked around the lab tables.

The assistant looked up from the computer screen. "Were did what go?"

"There was a seringe around here" Dr. Deon explained. "Have you seen it? It has a blank white label on it"

"Oh that one" the assistent said standing up. "I used that to give that kid an anistetic"

Dr. Deon looked up, eyes widened. He stormed over and grabbed the assistant by the colar. "You idiot! That had a blood sample of Ho-oh in it!"

The assistant was surprised by the scientists actions. "It's ok, we can get another one"

"Thats not what I'm worried about!" Dr. Deon almost yelled. "I'm worried about what's gonna happen to the kid! We don't know what could happen to a human if pokémon's blood is injected into them, and this kid isn't exactly normal. This kid is most likely gonna die and you'll be soon after when Butch or Cassidy find out about this!"

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Ash gasped for breath as a sharp pain awoke him from his sleep. He sat up fast in the cell bed and covered his face with his hands. The pain was excrusiating, and he felt like he had fallen into a flaming thorn bush. His head pounded and he felt the cold sweat running down his face. What was going on?

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To Be Continued

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Well there ya go, another new chappy for ya. Well what'd you think? Please review with your comments, I'll need to know how it's going if I'm going to improve. Thanks everyone! Your reviews are keepin' me going! Slán!
Bay Bay!
Bayleef
adorable_chickorita@hotmail.com
www.geocities.com/hoohsflame