Theoleung@sprint.ca

Ice wasn’t sure what to think now, after his recovery from the poison Fuge ‘administrated’ to him. The shock was Alex’s ability to use ‘Recover’ on someone else. The Ice Angel knew something was different about the Psychic Angel, but didn’t suspect it that he was such a powerful Psychic, probably from Chimera experiments.

"So...we’re in the same boat..." Ice thought, glancing over to the still silent Alex. The Psychic’s back was towards the Ice Angel, though Ice had a feeling Alex knew the Lapras-Human was staring. "Or are we? Who is more foregone in the process of Chimera? We may be under the same procedure...but who has more influence from this project?"

The Ice Angel looked away from the Chimera subject and back down on the shell of the Lapras. The party already departed from the island, though Nil remained unconscious. Styx remained by her side. Ignite and Void rode on Skymin’s back, the trio making sure nothing threatening begins to rear its ugly head.

"She’ll be okay..." Ice tried to consolidate for the male Pikachu, looking at the pair. Styx didn’t even look up, just slowly nodded his head.

"Well, that didn’t work," Ice commented to himself, sighing mentally. Just like Alex, he fell silent, waiting for the end of this voyage to freedom.

* * * * * *

The thick fog blocked all sense of vision for the female Pikachu. She raised her arm up, only to see the end half disappear behind the pea soup. The barrier of fog stopped only the sense of vision from the Pikachu. However, with the fact one of her senses was greatly disabled, the other senses became much shaper.

"Why does this fog seem so familiar...?" Nil wondered, ‘gazing’ around. "Better yet...what am I doing here...? This isn’t where I was before..."

The faint screaming in the distance quickly caught Nil’s attention. Normally, she wouldn’t have heard it, but in the situation, it was the only thing she had to work with.

"Screams...? So...why can’t I remember? Or I...don’t want to remember...?" the female Pikachu asked herself, rushing towards the cries and panic screams of others that felt familiar to her. Have, this familiar feeling left a dark mark in her heart, as though she was about to relive a nightmare again.

The fog dissipated as quickly as it materialized before the Pikachu. A surrounding lush with vegetation and forestry replaced the previous environment. The cries grew even louder with the disappearance with the fog. Nil continued to rush down the unpaved path of the forest, coming upon her kin, imprisoned in cages. The cages were stacked on a large, white van, and surrounding the van were a bunch of Humans dressed in lab coats. The young female Pikachu didn’t care for them, though. She intended to electrocute those Humans.

Nil lashed out with snakes of electricity, but they just bounced harmlessly off the coats they wore. She gasped in surprise, but quickly turned into fear when the group of abductors turned their attention to the only remaining ‘free’ Pikachu. The advance was slow and threatening, as if they were trying to savor the moment in a sadistic like way. Nil cringed back, lashing out again with electricity, again to no effect.

"Leave the Pikachu!" a voice commanded from the back, halting the advance instantly. "She’s too small to be any use for the experiments. We have a big enough catch, let’s go!"

"Wait...!" Nil screamed out, but unheard by the group. She chased after the crowd, only to get kicked away by the boot of one of them. The female Pikachu crashed against the soft ground, too hurt to get up. The closing of metal doors force her to look up, crying softly. "No..." she whimpered, watching her kin moving away at a rapid pace. Slowly, she got up and tried to pursue, but to no avail. The truck was well out of her running distance, especially in her wounded state. She fired a weak Thundershock attack that did little to the van.

"NNOOOO!!!" she cried out, her tiny and weak voice echoing throughout the forest.

* * * * * *

Styx nearly fell of Melody when Nil bolted right up, awakened completely and about ready to fry everything within a mile radius.

"Come back!" she sobbed, stretching her arm forward. The sudden action caught the attention of all. "You can’t take them away...you can’t..." she continued to sob, about ready to toast everything.

"Calm yourself!" a sharp voice spoke, piercing her mind. She halted her next action, partially by self, partially by another force that detained her. "Destroying everything here will not bring back those lost to you..."

Nil blinked in awe, turning her heard towards Alex. His back remained towards the female Pikachu, but he was paying attention, more attention then the others.

"A-A-Alex?" Nil thought, recognizing the tone of voice in her mind.

"Calm yourself, Nil...what you saw was the past forgotten to you...you can not change the past with the present..." Alex told the Pikachu through telepathy. "You release your frenzy here..."

Nil didn’t need the Psychic Angel to finish. She glanced around, regaining her sense of environment. She remembered her previous goal: to escape. She recalled her location...or, memorized the current location: back of Melody travelling to Cianwood.

"But...was I dreaming...all of that was in the past...?" Nil wondered, glancing around, noticing Styx and Ice, watching her intently.

"It is assumed what you saw was an effect of the serum Dr. Sapphire administrated to you," Alex explained. "From what I’ve seen in your ‘mind’, it sure seems like a figment of your past."

"It felt so real though..." Nil ‘spoke’, more or less thinking those words. "It...it was all just a hallucination...?" The female Pikachu slowly calmed down, and with that calmness, Alex slowly released the psychic hold over her.

"More like a flashback," Alex answered, still keeping his back turned.

"It was...reliving a nightmare of my past..." Nil spoke softly, gazing at Styx. There was concern in the male Pikachu’s eyes, but he dared not step forward or risk igniting the bomb within Nil. Seeing this hesitation, Nil realized the position she brought to herself and to her companions when she exploded a few moments ago, awakening from her ‘nightmare’. She forced a smile in an attempt to lighten the situation. Styx was taken aback by the action, but slowly smiled back, stepping closer. Melody continued to move, but her pace was slower as she watched the female Pikachu intently. Ice remained impassive, but like the other Pikachu, he didn’t want to do anything rash. The group knew what kind of power Nil could release, especially with her ‘modifications’.

"Are...you...alright...?" Styx asked, not wanting to get much closer at the moment. Nil could understand the fear he was going through, and only smiled again, nodding slowly. In the next moment, she cried out loud and ran towards the other Pikachu, pressing her body with his. She cried, and cried, and cried, on the shoulder of Styx, not sure why she was, but she couldn’t contain herself. Emotions chained in her heart were free, and even if she had no explanation why she was crying for Styx, the answer will appear soon to her.

* * * * * *

The group made landfall at Cianwood City the day afterwards. The trip was non-stop, and even though they pleaded for her to take a rest, Melody pressed on. By the time they reached shore, she was exhausted, and without a load on her back, she almost passed out. Ice quickly recalled the Lapras to the Pokéball he bought back on Hyris Island. Even if Melody wanted to resist, she would never be able to escape in the greatly weakened state she was in.

With the ‘capture’ complete, Ice turned around and faced the group he would be travelling with overland: two Pikachu’s, one Vulpix, one Pidgeot, one Eevee, and one Psychic Angel.

"Interesting crowd," Ice commented, but couldn’t admire much more. The party needed to depart from the beaches of Cianwood soon. The more distance they put in between them and their former home, the better. Silence encircled the group as they headed towards the inland of the continent.

* * * * * *

Silence befouled the group, as it did before, but this time, Alex didn’t like the silence. The silence was different then what it was three minutes ago. Something was making it silent, and he could feel it. The Psychic Angel turned his attention to the Eevee walking by his side, noting the same sense of apprehension from his comrade.

"Any ideas?" Alex asked Void, scaring the wits of the Eevee, though Void was beginning to expect that.

"None...but I still don’t like it one bit..." Void answered, glancing around nervously. It didn’t seem like any of the other members noticed, but then again, none of the other members of the team were psychic either.

"Keep an open eye...and an open mind...anything can happen..." Alex warned, the two breaking conversation now.

"Everybody is so tense..." Styx whispered to Nil, the two Pikachu’s walking side by side as they usually do since their meeting.

"Maybe they didn’t believe we could escape," Nil offered as an explanation.

"No...it’s something more then that..." Styx responded after a moment of thought. "I can’t pin point the problem...but it’s out there..."

"Sort of like getting watched?" the female Pikachu rationalized.

"Maybe that’s just it...maybe we are getting watched..." Styx quickly replied, glancing around the surrounding. They were currently traveling across an open field, but there was quite a bit of trees clustered here and there. Anyone could be watching at those locations.

"But...if we were being watched...wouldn’t Alex be able to sense...whoever it is that is watching?" Nil asked, wondering if her reasoning was true. She heard the tale of Alex’s latent Psychic ability upon her awakening, but she had a hint beforehand of what was going on with the telepathic talk she and the Psychic Angel had.

"I don’t know...he might feel it to...but he doesn’t want to alert or panic us..." the male Pikachu told his female counterpart. "Either way...we won’t know until something happens."

Hell broke lose in those next few moments of existence. At first, the small red dot that appeared and moved around the back of Nil’s head caught the attention of Styx quickly. At first, he wasn’t sure what it meant, but a chord quickly struck his mind.

"Get down!" Styx yelled out, knocking his companion over just as the shot was fired from the bushes behind. The bullet went right through the stomach of the male Pikachu. He didn’t cry, his eyes only went wide with fear and pain. Alex cursed slightly, erecting a Psychic shield around the party in protection. A split second later, another round was fired, bouncing harmlessly off the barrier Alex raised.

"Styx!" Nil cried out, rushing over to the fallen Pokémon, eyes full of fear of what may happen. The male Pikachu coughed softly, still in shock over the wound, but still seemed to think straight.

"Well..." Styx whispered into the ear of his companion when she leaned over him. "I guess...you were right...Nil..." Styx spoke softly, losing life fast. "Someone...was...watching..."

"Styx...you can’t die on me!" Nil cried out, looking up at Alex with pleading eyes. The Psychic Angel nodded, but before he could use ‘Recover’ on Styx, a Psychic blast catapulted into the psychic shield.

"ARGH!" Alex screamed out, paralyzed as he reinforced his shield with more Psychic energy. He glanced down, shaking his head, telling of his incapacitation. Void added his on Psychic energy to the shield, though the combined force was barely holding up against the constant bombardment of Psychic energy against the dome shield. The others in the shield watched helplessly.

"I...I don’t seem...to have a choice anymore..." Styx whispered weakly, closing his eyes with reference to his own death. "If Alex let’s go of this shield...we’re all dead..."

"No...Styx...you can’t...leave me...again..." Nil whimpered, her mind flooding with memories once more as she held the male Pikachu. The ‘again’ in her sentence confused the other however.

"Is...it is you...isn’t it?" Styx whispered, his frown turning into a smile, albeit weak. He placed a hand on her shoulder, pulling her closer with as much energy as he could. Nil nodded slowly.

"Yes...it’s me...the one left behind at Viridian Forest...the one alone...without you...It’s me, Styx...It’s me...Lin..." the female Pikachu whispered, pulling Styx real close.

"Oh Lin...I missed you so much..." Styx confessed. Lin began to cry softly, watching the one she always wanted to be with slowly disappear from her once more, this time, permanently.

"Styx..." Lin whispered, unable to say anything anymore. The locked eyes with each other.

"Good bye...Lin...live on..." Styx spoke, closing his eyes. With his last ounce of energy, he pressed his tiny lips against the lips of his love. For a few moment, Lin couldn’t think, only feel the moment. At the end, Styx fell limp in her arms. Lin as too stunned to speak, only held the lifeless body in her arms.

"My...my...what a touching moment..." a voice spoke harshly from behind. Eyes fell onto the man before them, in hand a sniper rifle, and beside him was a Pokémon unseen to everyone but Lin.

"You!!" Lin cried out, recognizing Angel instantly. Angel stared blankly at them, watching with no expression.

"He can’t hear you," the man told the group within the shield. The Psychic bombardment stopped, as Alex and Void could regain their breath. "The collar around his neck prevents his own thoughts. Angel is under my control." Everyone finally noticed the collar Angel wore, something unfamiliar to Lin since their last encounter. Then again, she didn’t care much either.

"Just shut up and die!" Lin screamed out, rushing out and lashing out with electricity with such unprecedented power. Alex had to release the shield around and Lin and create and new one around the others or face extinction at the hands of their own comrade.

* * * * * *

The Bulbasaur quickly glanced up, the attention of something unknown catching her. The Hitmonchan and Human trainer stopped as well, watching the Bulbasaur.

"What’s wrong, Psy?" the trainer asked his Bulbasaur.

"He’s back..." Psy whispered, glancing around. "He’s back, Carter..."

"Who is...?" the Hitmonchan asked, confused.

"He doesn’t die!" Psy screamed out, rushing towards the distance.

* * * * * *

The storm of electricity eventually subsided, revealing a tired Pikachu and two Psychic shields, the occupants in both unscathed by the storm.

"Really...? You think you can break through Angel’s Psychic power? You’ve experienced the power once, you should know what it’s like," the man mocked.

"R-Ryna...was killed...by this...monster...?" Lin asked, fearing worse of what happened to her previous friends.

"On the contrary, they disintegrated the one known as Angel after you fell," the man explained. "Unfortunately for you, his DNA wasn’t completely scrambled. Combining Pokément with the DNA of another Pokémon has some interesting effects..."

"That’s what resurrected him?!" Ignite shouted through the barrier. "You disgusting...using those poor souls to the end!"

"Ingenious use...saves funds," the man spoke, speaking like a capitalist. "But enough talk...Angel, dispose of these fools." Angel made no move, frustrating his ‘master’. "Angel?! Destroy them!"

"...no..." Angel answered, shocking the Human with a sniper rifle.

"W-W-What did you say?" the Human exclaimed, his face turning pale.

"No..." Angel repeated, raising a hand towards the Human. The cry of pain was short, the trainer disintegrating to one Genocide attack in an instant. Angel admired his handy work for a second, then turned his attention to the other’s, ripping the collar from his neck.

"Nothing can control me..." the Angel spoke, deciding which one to kill first. He decided. "Let me finished what should’ve happened so long ago, my dear Pikachu..."

<Fin>