Chapter Twelve

Joseph Hope gloated at the dumbstruck group of escapees, smug in the knowledge that the day was his and the vengeance he had sworn long ago would soon come to pass. Too long had the Chimera Children evaded captured, too long had those abominations walked the Earth - but not any more. Soon, Richard Gregg and his Chimera Project would be consigned to oblivion, a deserved fate for the wrong they had done to Hope's mother.

"Imagine it," he said as if speaking to himself. "A thirteen-year-old boy comes in from training his Pokemon to find his mother has taken an overdose . . ."

"I don't know what you're talking about, but you'd better let my brother go now!" Ursula shot back, her muscles tensing with anger. She did not know how much more she could take, how much longer she could stand living in constant fear for her life. All their lives, she and Bjorn had looked out for each other and, right now, her brother needed her more than ever.

"Haven't you already guessed?" Hope asked with a sly smile. "Well, little girl . . . or should I say "little hybrid"? . . . you and I have the same mother. Or at least we did until grief at having her infant twins stolen away drove her to suicide! You," he added, addressing Gregg, "you and your precious Chimera project killed my mother! Tell me, what happened to your other hybrids?"

Gregg blanched, recalling the long hours spent in the laboratory trying to create a viable human/Pokemon hybrid and the deep disappointment he felt each time an attempt failed. "I - I lost them all, except for Bjorn and Ursula," he admitted at last. "There were some Meganium hybrids that survived birth, but they all died suddenly one night - five years after the project began . . ."

"And Suzanne Hope - my mother - was buried that day!" added Hope, his voice becoming anguished as he recalled standing by his mother's grave and vowing to shut down the Chimera project, which he had learned of via Suzanne, if it was the last thing he did. His first move had been to pump herbicides into the rooms where the six hybrid Bayleef that resulted from that particular experiment were kept. As Grass Type Pokemon, they were extremely vulnerable to such chemicals and all of them were dead within an hour.

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Although Gregg had suspected sabotage at the time, he had never been able to prove it and there was no way he could catch the culprit without exposing his work. Now, however, he had just heard what amounted to a confession.

"Are you saying . . . you're the one who informed on the children?!" he demanded. "On your own flesh and blood?!"

"They're no siblings of mine!" Hope shot back as he thrust Bjorn - who was still only semi-conscious - against the wall with one hand and pulled a syringe out from under his OCIB uniform with the other. "As far as I'm concerned, I'm an only child!"

Then, before anyone could stop him, he pulled the cap off the needle and rammed it straight into Bjorn's upper arm . . .

"No!" Ursula yelled as her brother fell to the floor and lay motionless. Rage at everything she and Bjorn had suffered lately, forced into the lives of fugitives because they just happened to be illegal hybrids, and now this built up inside her. Finally, all her pent up emotions exploded in the form of a Hyperbeam, a powrful blast of light which struck Hope full in the chest, just as he prepared to express his feelings for Bjorn with a mouthful of saliva.

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Stunned, Hope stumbled against the wall and, as his fingers chanced to touch the button that activated the security alarm, he grinned and pressed it sharply so that a loud klaxon started blaring and a light bulb flashed on and off. "I've injected that . . . brat with poison," he informed the shocked prisoners flatly. "I'd give him . . . oh, a few hours. And, as for the rest of you . . ."

It was too much for Natasha - as Ursula tried to get her breath back after using Hyperbeam, the former rounded on the OCIB agent, berating him for all the hurt he and his organisation had caused.

"You're just . . . sick!" she yelled, her blue eyes blazing angrily. "Is avenging your mother's death really worth the life of a twelve-year-old boy? And what will killing these children - your brother and sister - achieve? Will it bring your mother back?"

Natasha would probably have said a lot more had Matthew not interupted her from where he and the others knelt beside Bjorn. "Natasha," he whispered urgently, "we've got to get out of here!"

"I know that - but how?!" Natasha had never felt so helpless in her life; Bjorn's grip on life grew more tenuous the longer they lingered, but there was no way they could escape while Hope had them cornered. In the pocket of the stolen OCIB uniform she wore, she could feel something that felt suspiciously like a pistol . . . she hated the idea of killing a fellow human being, but there seemed to be no other choice.

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Her hands trembling, she pulled the gun out and pointed it at Hope who responded by smiling nonchallently, convinced there was no way she would pull the trigger. Seconds later, two bullets rammed brutally into his chest, knocking him to the floor and letting him know without a doubt that she meant business.

Natasha looked at Hope, at the spreading bloodstain on his shirt and the shocked look on his face, with her jaw set grimly. "Your fellow agents forgot to confiscate this," she informed him.

His life ebbing away, Hope made one last effort to taunt the Chimera Children and their allies. " You haven't . . . won yet!" he gasped, forcing the words out. "My fellow . . . agents . . . will . . . will hunt you down . . . and . . . and . . ."

He never finished his sentence - as he closed his eyes for the last time, Natasha turned to the others and nodded her head. "He's dead," was all she told them.

Gregg looked his niece full in the face and thought about what she had done. He had hoped this could be resolved without anyone being killed, but there had been no other choice when it came down to it - Hope had shown he was more than willing to kill his own siblings.

"Well . . ." he said, hesitating as he tried to think of the most appropriate word. "You did the only thing possible in the circumstances . . . Now, we'd better get Bjorn and Ursula out of here."

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Wasting no time, he scooped Bjorn up in his arms and headed towards the roof with Matthew, Ursula and Natasha following in his wake. None of them had any idea what they were going to do next, just a vague plan that involved stealing a helicopter and using it in a bid to outrun the organisation that had caused the Chimera Children so much trouble. But they all wanted the same thing - for both children to survive.

"If we get out of here, I'll make it my business to expose the OCIB's methods," Gregg vowed to himself as they made it out onto the roof - fortunately, no agents had stopped them as they fled down the corridors. "Until then, Ursula will be safer away from Johto and so will Bjorn . . ." He paused and looked at the ashen-faced Chimera, whose breathing felt unnaturally shallow and who showed no signs of responding to what was happening. "If he survives," Gregg added mentally.

He dismissed the possibility that it might already be too late and turned to the others. "And now to find that helicopter," he told them. "Think - did any of you see something that looked like a helipad when you arrived?"

Ursula nodded. "I - I think I saw a whole row of helicopters back there," she said, pointing towards the far end of the roof. "But I'm not absolutely sure - it was dark and I was kind of busy clobbering OCIB agents."

Nonetheless, they had no choice so they headed in the direction Ursula indicated to find six helicopters - all painted in the OCIB's colours, black with a red tail - parked in a row. The only difficulty was deciding which one to take; none of them had much experience flying helicopters and it was only necessity that had driven them to this desperate plan.

"Eeny meeny miney mo, catch a Raichu by the toe . . ." Matthew jokingly launched into the old counting rhyme as he pointed to each helicopter in time to the words. Natasha looked at him in disbelief; surely he wasn't going to start playing games now of all times!

"We've no time for that!" she called to him. "Let's just grab one and get out of here!"

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Minutes later, just as the helicopter that would, hopefully, carry them to safety lifted off, Agents Steed and Johnson came hurrying onto the roof.

"I'm telling you - we've searched all over the building and they're nowhere to be found!" Johnson was saying.

Steed growled - Bjorn and Ursula Olsson had made a fool of him and the OCIB once too often and he would be glad to be rid of them one way or another. For the last few months, they had been a constant thorn in his side; after their disappearence from Greenview, some Violet City agents had brought Mrs Mather in for questioning, only to find that she had no knowledge of their current whereabouts. The resulting hybrid-hunt had taken up far too much manpower already . . .

"Agent Hope's been shot!" he responded. "And I've got a pretty good idea who did it . . ."

The whirring of a helicopter's rotor blades cut him short and he glanced up to see an OCIB helicopter hovering just overhead. Since there were no helicopters currently listed as being "in use", this could mean only one thing . . . Steed pulled out his mobile phone and selected one of the autodial numbers.

"Vehicle Pool, this is Steed. Johnson and I are taking one of the helicopters and going after those hybrids.

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As the helicopter carrying the Chimera Children and their friends flew over the Southern Sea, Natasha spotted something on the radar.

"Uh-oh!" she said as the computer ran a check and revealed that the other aircraft was also an OCIB helicopter. "We've got company!"

Gregg glanced at the screen before turning his attention to Bjorn and Ursula at the rear of the helicopter. From the cursory examination he had managed to give Bjorn, he knew Hope had injected him with a powerful toxin, possibly synthetic, although there was no way to be sure. But what he was sure of was that desperate situations called for desperate solutions . . .

"Quick!" he urged Matthew who was seated beside him. "Jettison the fuel! Natasha, get the door open! And don't argue, either of you!"

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Recognising the urgent tone in his voice, Natasha knew this was the only way they could avoid capture and, struggling to control her trembling fingers, fumbled the helicopter's door open. Then, she stepped forward and, taking a deep breath and trying to avoid the still spinning rotor blades, dived into the sea. "OK!" she called as she trod water. "Ursula, you next - I'll catch you!"

Before long, Matthew and Ursula had joined Natasha in the water and the three of them, a trio of young people at the mercy of fate, looked each other full in the face. Last of all - and with the helicopter now only moments from crashing - Gregg picked Bjorn up and, reminding himself that he had to keep the boy's head above water whatever happened, plunged down to join the others.

"What do we do now?" asked Ursula. "We can't stay afloat forever."

But Matthew had the solution. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a Poke Ball and pressed the button to activate it.

"Mantine, get us out of here!" he ordered as the large Water/Flying Pokemon emerged in a flash of light.

"Dewgong, you too," Natasha added as she released Bjorn's Water/Ice Type. Bjorn had trained Dewgong well; the fact he was willing to obey commands from Ursula and Natasha as well as Bjorn himself testified to this fact.

As it turned out, Matthew and Natasha acted none too soon. Just as Mantine and Dewgong - the former towing Matthew, Ursula and Natasha while the latter took care of Gregg and Bjorn - swam out to sea, the helicopter crashed into the water. There was a deafening explosion - there being just enough fuel left to ignite - and debris rained down . . .

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When Steed and Johnson arrived on the scene some time later, all they found was the floating wreckage of the helicopter. Not a single trace remained of the Chimera Children or their companions - Steed, assuming they would have tried to cling to the wreckage, brought the helicopter he and Johnson were in closer to the crashsite. There was no evidence of any survivors . . .

"They've beaten us," he said flatly.

"Yes," agreed Johnson. "Let's get back to Headquarters so we can report this."