Alright, back to work on the story! Sorry about the cliffhanger, but hey, I gotta keep my readers intrested. I'm also sorry I haven't updated in so long, but things have been very busy for me and, to be totally honest, I'm kinda lazy, so it takes me a while to write. I'm always try to improve on that, but that usually doesn't work either. I will continue to work on this as I write. I'd like to thank all of you who have enjoyed my work and have stuck with me through my time of sloth. Having recieved seven votes in a recent poll here on the tower, even with my lack of updating, has truly touched me. I thank all of you who voted for me and even those who didn't and still enjoy my work. As usual, e-mail me with ideas. I've gotten a few so far, but more is always welcome. The chapter title will seem a bitweird at first, but it'll make sense as the chapter goes on. Anyway, here's Chp. 12! Note: For anyone who hates or hated their school principal(and lets face it, who doesn't?), this is the chapter for you! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chp.12- The Vaccuum That Wouldn't Stop Sucking. I returned to my master, who was in what he called the ritual room. He was pacing back and forth, looking rather nervous. He quickly acknowledged my presence as I entered. I stood in front of him, waiting for further instructions. "Is it done?" he asked. I nodded slowly. She was gone. My master let out a sigh of relief. "Good. Kneel." I dropped to one knee, head down. "With her out of the way, and you under my control, I can take control of every branch of our sacred religion!" "Yes, master." "I was worried when you got hold of my plans," he said, facing the bed of roses. His back was to me, but he stood only a few inches away. "but I still managed to get you. I still don't know exactly how you managed to be tricked so easily...but it is of no matter. No one will understand a Poke'mon, and the girl is dead." "Yes, master." "Hmm...now do I want to rule with power, or should I try to convince everyone to join me first? Since your under my power, I can take whatever I want...but maybe it'd be better for me to earn as much respect as possible? Then again, it's better to be feared than loved. Desicions, desicions..." "Master?" "Yes, what is it?" He turned to look at me. I looked up at him and smiled. A second too late, he realized something was wrong. I don't know what hit harder; the fact that I wasn't under his control, or the uppercut that I caught him right under the chin with. BAM! He stumbled back from the blow, rubbing his sore jaw. I rose to my feet and faced him. When he raised his head to look at me, I gave him a quick right hook. The last thing he probably saw was a brown fur covered hand before his world got dark. He sprawled out on the floor, out like a light. "Ow..." I moaned, blowing on my sore hand. I thought he was dense, and his skull sure supported that theory. When the pain stopped, I ran outside to check on Sara. Pidgeotto was just pecking through the last of the ropes that held her as she stood a good fifteen feet from the water. "Are Chu alright?" I asked. She didn't say anything at first. As soon as her arms were free, though, her response was clear. SLAP! "Ow!" I rubbed my now sore cheek. "What was Rai for?" "Vul thought Vul was gonna die!" she exclaimed. "Well, sorry, but Raichu to do it! Raichu it would've screwed Chu the plan! Besides," I pointed out, "Rai can't help it the chapters Rai ending in cliffhangers!" "Hmph." She seemed unhappy with this theory, but at least she didn't hit me again. She undid the ropes around her feet, the rock now gone. "Alright, Vulpix. What happened? I thought Pix were under hypnosis when Vul cut that rope." "All part Raichu plan." When she was free and we'd started walking to Joy's house, I explained what really happened last night. Once we realized the plan to get control of me and eliminate Sara, Pidgeotto and I made a plan. The book explained how the leader planned to hypnotize both me and Pidgeotto. Then, we could eliminate Sara for him, since, as he wrote in the book, he feared she would take revenge on him if he cut her loose himself. Once we knew that he planned to get us both under hypnosis, we figured out how to counteract that. Pidgeotto's flying away was just so she wouldn't be controlled. The lead cloaky saw her as no threat to his plan if she was gone, so then he just worried about me. After he got me, he made me stay in the room where I'd been staying before. As I guessed, he got over confident, and didn't even bother to close the door to the room. It was a simple task for Pidgeotto to fly back in later and snap me out of it. Since then, I'd just be pretending to be under his control. "But Vul did she snap Pix out of it?" I pulled down the collar on my shirt to reveal the front of my shoulder. The holes had healed over, but you could still see the four small spots of red stained fur, souviners from the holes Pidgeotto left from digging her talons into me as hard as possible. It's a well known fact that pain overrides hypnosis, especially sharp, sudden pains, like being cut with a knife or, in my case, digging talons into one's flesh. Anyway, once I was out of his control, we were going to proceed with the plan, with just one minor adjustment. The rock that was tied to the ropes of her feet was hanging on by a thread, thanks to Pidgeotto's pecking at the rope. A second after I cut the rope that held Sara up, Pidgeotto swooped in, grabbed the remenants of the rope I'd just cut and started flapping. Had we left the rock alone, there would've been no way to stop the fall, but the slight jerk from Pidgeotto grabbing and flapping her wings was just enough to break the rope and cause the rock to drop, causing the splashing sound I heard. From there, it was easy to fly Sara away from the water, now that the heavy weight was gone. After I told her what happened back at the building, Sara then asked what had happened in her town. I was a little hesitant to respond here. Sure, that trenchcoat guy said that the police would be overthrown, but could I trust him? This was the same guy that caused me to wake up cut and bleeding. "Rai...don't know..." "Vul don't know?!" It looked like she was about to slap me again, so I blurted out what had happened since I met Railina. She seemed kind of angry that I'd just left, but when I pointed out it was so I could go find her, she was a bit more understanding. Sara was a little hesitant to come with me into the city, but I convinced her that there was someone here we could trust. We knocked on Joy's door just as the sun was in full view. When Joy(in her usual dress and human form) saw the two of us, she quickly pulled us inside. "Nidoran!" Joy called out. "Dan's back! And he's got a friend!" "Nido?" Nidoran ran in from the kitchen to me. I introduced the two of them to Sara. They exchanged hello's, and Joy asked if this was the owner of Railina. When Sara heard this, she wanted to go over immediatly to see her. Joy went to get her coat, but I pulled her aside at the closet. "Joy, Raichu. Sara's been dealing Rai alot lately, so please, be super careful Chu her. She's Raichu not happy about being a Hybrid, and Rai really killing her inside." Joy nodded understandingly. We all went over together, since the festival was supposed to go on for a least another week, and soon kids would be pouring in again. I wished we had festivals like this in Pallet. The longest festival we ever had was our annual Cheese Festival, but really, who goes to a Cheese Festival? It just so weird that someone actually thought that a festival with a cheese theme was a good idea! Sara was really happy now that she was reunited with all her Poke'mon. It made me think back to Bulbasaur and how he'd stuck by me through all this. I was really starting to miss him, and hoped he was O.K. Soon enough, kids were pouring into the Center. With now two Hybrids and three Poke'mon to share all the work, it was much easier to keep the kids happy. Vaporeon refused to help. He just continued to stay in one of the recovery rooms bed, not talking to anyone. He never moved or said anything, but just laid there. I was starting to worry about him. As the day wore on, I noticed Sara was actually enjoying herself. The kids liked her, and that was a big boost for her self-esteem. They didn't just like her because she was a Hybrid, but because she was a good person in general. She played with them, she talked with them, and did everything she could do keep them happy, and they liked her for that. Joy asked where I'd been, and that much I explained. However, she stayed away from what my mother had said to get me so mad in the first place, and that was good for me. I was still unsure about telling ethier of them what the source of our Hybridism was. I kept reminding myself I had to look at that note Mom faxed over to me, but with everything else going on, I kept forgetting to. After another day of entertaining the kids, I convinced Sara to help me and Joy look for Bulbasaur, the only missing member of our little group. We spilt up to cover more ground. Sara, Joy and Railina made up one group, and me, Nidoran and Pidgeotto made up the second group. Joy volunteered to take Sara, and it made sense. Joy was an older, more mature person. She could help Sara sort out her Hybird problems better than I could. For four nights, we searched the entire city, keeping the groups the same. We slept when we could, and spent the rest of the time working at the Center. Still, by night five, I was losing hope of ever finding Bulbasaur. After an unsuccessful search on my part, I headed back to Joy's house, feeling rather gloomy. I'd arrived back first, so I was forced to wait for the others. We'd arrived back by six, and everyone had agreed the latest everyone should be back was by six-thirty. The following is what happened in the next few hours, in half-hour increments. 6:30 a.m.- No sign of Sara, Joy or Railina. I don't panic. They'll walk in the door any minute. 7:00 a.m.- Still no sign of Sara or the others. I start to worry. Pidgeotto knocks over a lamp onto Nidoran's head. They start to fight. 7:30 a.m.- I finally break up the fight, and begin to really worry about everyone else. 8:00 a.m.- Center needs to be opened in an hour. No one is coming in the door, and, "normal" people are starting to wake up. 8:30 a.m.- I go to kitchen, find city employment office phone number, and fake Joy's voice on the VidPhone(keeping off the screen), saying I'm ill, and can't work today. When asked why my voice sounds deeper than usual, I tell them it's because of a cold. 9:00 a.m.- Replacment doctor arrives at Center. Still no sign of the others. I consider going out and searching myself, but realize that they could be anywhere, and that I can only hold my human form for just over fifteen minutes now. Failure would be certain. 9:30 a.m.- Phone rings. I let the machine pick up, but when I hear a person asking how everything went last night, I grab the reciever... "Hello?" I asked. As I spoke, I started to picture my human form in my mind. "Hello? Joy?" an unfamiliar male voice responded. My ears slowly shrank to human size and shape. "Rai...Yes, it's me." I again faked Joy's voice. My feet slowly shrunk, and the two large Raichu toes on each foot began to split into five human toes. It's sort of like watching the wax of a candle melt and using that like you'd sculp clay, except it's more nausiating when you realize this is happening to your body. "Oh...are you O.K.? You sound weird." There's a loud, "SHLOOP!", and my tail was sucked into my spine like someone slurpping up pasta. "Yes, Rai fine, just a little...sick." My fur slowly receeded into my skin, and I felt my ears were at their normal size and shape. "...Whatever. Did everything go O.K. last night?" My feet now looked human, save for being covered in rapidly shrinking fur. "Last night?" "Yeah, last night. You said you were gonna get all my stuff back for me." My face felt funny for a moment as my nose grew into a normal human one, and the remaining fur dissappeared all together. "Your stuff. Right..." Other than a little fur, I was now total human, which also meant I could talk straight, at least till I changed back. A thought suddenly occured to me. Did Sara know she could become human again? I'd just gotten so used to being like this, I hadn't said anything about it. That would really make her happy if she knew. "You do remember, right? My Poke'mon, my cards, my Gameboy; you got it all, right?" "Um...of course..." Of course...I had no clue what this kid was talking about! "Yes...I got it all back from..." "The school principal?" "Right!" School principal? "Yes, your school principal at..." Help me out here, kid! "Adamsville High?" "Right!" Adamsville High? I guess I start looking for the others there, I thought. "Are you sure your O.K.? I was worried when I saw you wandering around by the school with that girl and the Raichu. Are you sure you were looking for that Bulbasaur I found?" "Yes I wa..." Bulbasaur? This kid had Bulbasaur! "Why don't you stop by my house tonight, and I'll give you your things, and I can take the Bulbasaur back?" "O.K., I'll be there. Bye." He hung up on his end. I hung up on my end and ran across the street. Quickly getting a city Map Card from the replacment doctor(who looked oddly at me when he realized I wasn't wearing any shoes or socks), I ran back to the house and put together the same stuff that Joy used to sneak me to the gym during the tournement. I was forced to return to my Hybrid form, and as usual, I was dead tired. Luckily, Joy bought a lot of sweet snacks, and all the sugar gave me a much needed energy boost. After tying together my ears as best as possible, putting on the coat and bandana like before, I had Pidgeotto perch on my shoulder, I held Nidoran in my arms, and we were off. It was a little hard to find the high school. First, a lot of people stared at my weird get-up, especially since there wasn't a cloud in the sky and I was walking around in a giant raincoat. Second, Pidgeotto kept shifting her weight, and that threw off my balance. Third, I had to juggle both Nidoran and my Poke'Dex at the same time so I could see where I was going. Twice I dropped my Poke'Dex, and once I actually dropped Nidoran, who got rather mad at me. Last, the fact I had Poke'mon out of their balls and around my body in some way got a lot of weird looks. It's a good thing I'd also swiped some gloves from Joy, or else people would've wondered why my hands were covered in fur, as well. After about 45 minutes of wandering, I found Adamsville High. It was about three stories high and took up a lot of space. I wandered around it until I found an unlocked back door(School security at it's finest, I guess). After checking to make sure no one was in the immediate area, I went in. I'd ended up in a long hallway, with tons of doors. They must have led off to various classrooms. No one was in the hall, so it must've been a class period now. There was a lot of noise coming from the various classrooms, but a few didn't have any noise coming out of them at all. I quickly went into one of the nearby quiet classrooms. This was a science classroom of some sort. Probably a chemistry room, judging by all the bottles of liquids, the burners and the complex science formula written on the blackboard. I knew I needed to be able to move around, but I couldn't do that in the halls. There was a vent cover nearby. Maybe I could move around through the ventalation sys... "Come on guys, in here." Someone was right outside! I dove behind the teacher's desk just as the owner of the voice came in, along with several other kids. Pidgeotto was forced to get off my shoulder as I dove, so I reached up and quickly yanked her down, clamping my other hand over her beak. Nidoran was smothered underneath me, so he couldn't make any noise. I removed my disguse as they spoke. "Are you sure no one knows were here?" "Positive. There's no way they could have noticed us leave lunch so we could play." "Alright...come on, enough talk. Let's start playing! They set up their game as I checked on the Poke'mon. Pidgeotto stopped struggling, so I let her go. I got off Nidoran, and, after making sure he knew to keep quiet, let him go. After a few seconds, I heard many familiar things. That's the theme music for the Poke'mon Simulator!, I thought. There was also the music of other video games; Magi-Nation, Super Mario, Legend of Zelda(I couldn't tell if it was Ages, Season, or another one), amoungst others. Waiting a few more minutes, I heard more familar arguments. "I tap two and summon my Pygmy Razorback." "O.K., but first I hit your forest with a Rain of Tears, so it's destroyed, and you can't play your creature." "You can't play that now! It's a sorcery! You can only play those on your turn!" "No, I can play it now!" Magic The Gathering? I used to play that all the time with my friends during study hall and lunch back when I was in school. I always dominated the lesser planeswalkers that were my friends during the game. O.K., so I lost once or twice...or more...oh, I'm a liar! Unlike my friends, I didn't have all sorts of money to spend on cards, and as a result, I almost always lost. The beeps of electronics and screaming over what cards where playable when kept up for about seven or eight minutes. I was starting to worry about being spotted when I heard a loud "CRUNCH!", followed by several rapid footsteps. "Alright you punks!" I glanced around the corner to see a very angry looking old man with a walkie-talkie yelling, along with several school monitors surrounding the kids. "You're all getting ISS!(For those who don't know, ISS is short for In School Suspension. I'm told you sit in a room, have your teachers send you down schoolwork, and when that's done, you just sit there for the rest of the day. You can't talk, draw or do anything. I've never gotten it myself, so I don't know if that's really true.) "H..how...how'd you know?!" one of the kids stammered. "That's none of your buisness! I know you were all gambling in here, and that's what matters!" he responded. "But...but...Mr. Blackheart...we weren't gambling! None of us even have any money!" "Don't lie to me! I know you were gambling! Give me all of your things, now!" Slowly, the kids handed over their cards and games to the evil man. I thought maybe I should do something in the name of all teenagers everywhere, except I'd be putting myself in a really bad position if I did. The kids were escorted out with the monitors. The old man took all of the things out with him in his arms. I waited a minute or two, then ran and quickly shut the door. Moving a desk under the vent cover, I popped it off, placed Pidgeotto and Nidoran inside, then climbed through myself. Nidoran walked in front of me while I crawled behind him, and Pidgeotto hopped along behind me. It was a little tight, but I could make it through with little problem. It was impossible to find anything by sound; the metal and tightness of the vents made any sound bounce around and mix up horribly. I knew generally where the front of the building was, and I've learned from experience that the office of schools are near the front, so I had a small idea of where I was going. Even still, it took us about an hour to find the principals office. We huddled together and peered down into the office. Sitting in the principals chair was the angry old man who'd just taken all those kids things. Logically, he probably was the principal. He sat there for a while, writing papers and making phone calls. I was starting to get rather bored with all this. The walkie-talkie which he had earlier was sitting on his desk, and about one in the afternoon, it crackled to life. "Vaccuum, we have a ten-four in Room 316. Repeat, 10-4 in 316." The principal grabbed his walkie-talkie and held down the talk button. "Blackheart here. I'll be there in a minute." The principal abruptly got up and ran out of the room. As soon as he closed the door, I kicked off the vent cover and hopped down. Pidgeotto fluttered out, and I caught Nidoran when he hopped out. "Rai, guys. Look around Chu here. See if Chu can find anything that Raichu tell us where Sara and Joy are." I locked the door, and we started our search. Well, I started my search. Pidgeotto couldn't really do anything at all in a raid, except knock down awards that hung on the wall. Nidoran ran around too, but all he did was knock stuff over. Actually, that was probably all he was trying to do. I raided the principals desk. Nothing suspicious. I looked through the various school papers, seeing nothing of intrest. I tried the computer on the desk, but it was password protected, and I couldn't get in. When that didn't work, I felt back for one of the wires on the computer, yanked one out and started to rip away at the plastic with my teeth, getting down to the bare wire. When that was cleared away, I started to chew on it. O.K., so it was vandilism, but I was hungry! I was starting to put away the papers when one slipped out and floated under the desk. I went under the table to grab it. I quickly grabbed it and started to get up, banging my head against the table in the process. "RAI!" I moved my head back down and rubbed the sore spot. As I did, my hand brushed against something on the underside of the desk. It was a switch of some sort. Curious, I flipped it. There was the sound of something like stone moving, then silence. I moved out and looked around to see what had happened. "Well, Raichu intresting..." A hole had opened up in the wall, revealing a hidden passageway. I instructed the Poke'mon to follow me, and we explored the new found room. The passageway was rather short, and quickly led to three different doors made of plain wood. Each one had a label over it. One said, "Cards". Another said, "Poke'mon". The last one read, "Games". "Enny-menny-miney-moe...Ah, Raichu it." I opened the door closest to me, the one labeled "Cards", and stepped in. What first got me was the vast size of the room. What got me next was the fact that the walls and floors were covered with cards in plastic cases, like someone would lay down tile. There was a huge stack of them in the corner, probably because the entire room was already covered with them! All sorts of cards were there; baseball, Magic, Poke'mon, Magi-Nation...and rather rare cards at that. Actually, all of them were rare cards, even the ones I was stepping on and the ones that covered the walls. I quickly went out and tried the door labeled, "Games". It was pretty much the same story. Video games in clear plastic cases, each meant to fit according to the system the game was for, covered the entire room. Again, there was also a huge stack of games that couldn't be fitted anywhere else. Rapidly exiting that room, I opened the door labeled "Poke'mon", praying that it wouldn't be the same as the other two. Well, it wasn't exactly the same. There were Poke Balls all over the floor and walls, but there was a large pane of glass over those, probably so they wouldn't break. There was a large pile of Poke Balls in one corner. There was, however, something that hadn't been in the other rooms. "JOY!" Large chains, connected to the bare wooden ceiling and extended all the way to the floor, held Joy in her Hybird form in shackles. Her face lit up when she saw me. "Dan! But...how'd you know...? "Don't worry about Rai." Looking quickly, I saw a keyring hanging off a hook on the door, with a solitary key hanging from it. I grabbed it and went over to Joy, looking for the locks. "What happened?" "The three of us found a boy trying to break in here using your Bulbasaur. I went to my human form and asked what he was doing while Sara and Railina hid. He was trying to get in so he could get his stuff from the, "Vaccuum", as he called it." "Rai principal." Joy looked shocked. I started to unlock the shackles as I explained. "Rai kid called Chu house looking for Chu. Raichu he was going to Raichu Bulbasaur over tonight." "That was the deal we made. If I got all his things back, he'd give us Bulbasaur. Once he left, I called over Sara, and the three of us went in through a window he'd opened. We explored for a while, but something got us from behind. It hit me in the back of the head, and the next thing I knew, I was here." "O.K." I undid the last lock, and Joy rose to her feet, dusting herself off. "What does Rai do with all the stuff Chu takes?" "My guess? He keeps what he likes and gives the rest back." That would explain the kids before. They got their stuff confiscated for "gambling", and he was probably going to take some of it. That's pointless, though. You can gamble on anything, even stuff that doesn't have to do with games or cards. "Hey, I bet you ten bucks he's going to drink that water", or, "Twenty bucks says she gets 2% milk". It's lame, but so are people sometimes. If they really want people to stop gambling in school, students can only be able to sit in a class and do nothing, and the teacher for that matter, because if they learned something, you could gamble on the answers to equations or on what page they'd have to go to. It's ridiculous to punish kids for something that's bound to happen anyway! "Wait...Raichu Sara? And Railina?" "I don't know. They weren't here when I woke...Chansey..." "What is i...Raichu!" Sitting on top of the pile of Poke Balls were two special ones. One was yellow and white, and had a black lightining bolt printed over the button. Another was the basic red and white, except it had a little flame printed over the button, and a little, "S", printed under the button. Oh no...Sara was in that Poke Ball! I quickly pressed the buttons on both Poke Balls. Only Railina's opened. She materialized on the floor while I grabbed the Poke Ball that held Sara. "Raichu!" she cried out. She looked around and said something, which Joy translated for me as, "Where's Sara?" "Railina, Sara's..." Could I tell her that Sara was in a device meant for Railina? I guess I didn't have much choice. "...here." Railina looked up at the ball, then started yelling a lot of things. Joy basically translated it as, "We have to get her out of there!", but I caught a few choice words on my own. "We'll get her out. Don't worry about it." Joy assured her. Joy ran out, but told me to stay for a minute and cover my ears. Confused, I did as I was told. The Poke'mon did the same, to the best of their ability. Joy came back about five minutes later. "What'd Chu do?" "First, I used the P.A. system to Chansey that the principal was a theif, and that anyone who wanted their things back should come to his office..." "WHAT?!" "Don't get excited! I sang when I was done, which is why I had you cover your ears. Everyone in the school, and anyone outside who could hear the announcment, should be fast asleep. We can get out of here without being noticed." "Good." I didn't want to just leave all those Poke'mon behind, but it was for the best. If we tried to release them all, it'd be mass chaos and destruction. I would've loved it, but I suppose there would be a slight risk that someone would get hurt. Joy led the way out and through the various alleyways back to her house(after all, she lived here). As soon as we got in the house, I ran straight for the garage. Finding the mallet Joy used before, I placed the Poke Ball on the workbench and... CRUNCH! The Poke Ball smashed into a thousand tiny pieces. A small ball of light was the only thing that remained intact, and that slowly formed into a living creature. Sara's body slid off onto the floor when it was fully formed. "She's not...dead, is she?" Joy asked, having just came in. I knelt down next to Sara. No, she was alive. She had a pulse and no visible injuries. Actually, there was a weird noise coming from her muzzle. What the... "Rai snoring!" "What?" "Rai asleep. Maybe Rai just got tired and tried Rai rest." Between the two of us, we managed to get Sara over to the couch in the living room. Joy threw a blanket over her, and I pulled over a chair next to her, so I could keep an eye on her. Joy made some food, and we ate, all five of us(Poke'mon included), just sitting there, watching this one girl. At about eight o'clock that night, there was a knock at the door. Joy shifted to human, the Poke'mon went into hiding, and I threw the blanket totally over a still sleeping Sara before joining the Poke'mon. I couldn't hear much from my spot in the garage, but Joy poked her head in about ten minutes later, holding in her arms... "Bulbasaur!" "Bulba!" he said. Joy put him down, and he ran over to me, definitly happy to see me. After we got over our initial happiness, I told him everything that had happened, and assured him that I didn't abandon him. He didn't seem to need much convincing there, but it didn't matter. The important thing was that we were back together. We stayed up for a little longer after that, but not too long. We'd all had a rough day, and everyone else was asleep by the time I'd made myself comfortable on the couch. I looked over our little group and smiled. This was good. Everyone was back together, and nothing else needed to be dealt with. We'd be fine. Still, I reminded myself as my eyes slowly fluttered closed, a lot can happen in a day. After all, look what happened to me in one day... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And here ends chapter twelve. As always, please let me know what you think. I've got another quote today, but I also have a web site, too. If any of you like the original Final Fantasy, don't mind a little cussing, and love humor, then this comic is definitly for you! It's called the 8-bit theater, and the website is: www.nuklearpower.com "I AM THE BLACK MAGE! I CASTS THE SPELLS THAT MAKES PEOPLES FALL DOWN!" Black Mage, trying to get a White Mage to like him.