This part was written by Annie. Part 7: Rude Awakening It was a place deep in the mountains that almost nobody had heard off, much less been to, but in towns nearby, people whispered stories about the cave. The story went like this: one day, about eight hundred years ago, a possessed girl came into town. She started killing people, and soon some of the villages fell into ruin. The spirit inside her was mad, insane, or perhaps just misunderstood. It had a hate for humans of any kind. Then a young boy came to town. He drove the possessed girl away, and they settled their score in the cave. Hours and hours they fought, the townspeople watching the cave anxiously, wondering who would come out alive. The boy prevailed, sealing her in a magical sarcophagus. Her last words were: "Little boy, I will come back. You have not seen the last of me... nobody has. And when I do, little boy, Ketchum filth, I will kill every last of your descendants and anyone they care about. You think this petty device can stop me? You underestimate me... all of you do! I vow that I will come back, and my imprisonment will be revenged!" Nobody knows if the story is true or not. Many skeptics who hear it call it petty and think it isn't true. Others say that the girl is dead and that she cannot come back because the magic containing her is too powerful. Many of the people near that mountain say she is only biding her time and will be back soon when nobody suspects it. And many don't know about it at all. ~~~~~~ Brock and Fae had finally found the relative area of the clearing where her Pokemon had been kidnaped by Team Rocket. They had gotten lost five times, taken directions from a pigeot, and fallen into a stream. Brock still didn't know where he was. Fae looked as beautiful as ever, and not one strand of hair was out of place. There wasn't a drop of mud on her. Brock looked like a mud-ridden wreck. They came to the clearing and Brock saw a large building. There was a red "R" hanging over it, and he gasped. He looked at Fae. "Team Rocket Headquarters? You lost it here? How did you find it?!" Fae smiled darkly, staring at Brock for a few seconds. "Actually, I didn't lose it at all." She kicked him in the place that no guy wants to be kicked. He staggered and fell to the ground, clutching his bottom and moaning in agony. "You're - not - an - innocent - and - beautiful - girl, - are - you? Team... Rocket," Brock said with an effort between moans and whines and rolling all over the ground. She smiled at him. Then she kicked him really hard in the head twice, punched him in the face a few times, and kicked him again in the crotch. He fell unconscious. She picked him up and slung him over her shoulders, walking toward the gate. "No, I'm not an innocent victim. I am Fae Rocket." ~~~~~~ Feeling came to her slowly. Her hand twitched. Then, hearing, a muffled sound of dripping. She was livid with pain, and she could hear her voice cry out. The darkness around her didn't answer at all. Then her eyes opened, and she saw nothing. There was blackness everywhere, and it was so cold! After a while, her conscious mind started coming to her. Her memory stayed locked tight, and she wondered who she was. Or, for that matter, where she was. She only knew that she was inside a cold, dark, and enclosed space and didn't have much moving space. And the air in the enclosed space had been used up long ago. Surprisingly, though, her lungs were not on fire. She had no need to breathe, and did not feel hungry, either, though she knew she hadn't eaten in a long, long time. But who was she? What was she? No memories would come to her, no matter what she did. She knew that she was someone, and that something had happened - something terrible - yet she did not know what. She pushed her hands against the lid, claustrophobia almost making her scream. The lid moved aside easily, and diluted moonlight fell into the sarcophagus. She looked around. She knew she was in a cave, and had been lying in a coffin with strange symbols all over it. But where was this cave? She knew it went very far back into the rock, though she could see nothing past a few feet. She looked at her hand and screamed. It was her hand all right, and it looked normal, only it was as pale as death and almost transparent, almost like three- dimensional paper. Why had this happened? What had she done? She got out of the sarcophagus, her untidy black hair falling around her shoulders. Her deep, unemotional black eyes surveyed the cave coldly. Then a hand touched her on her shoulder, and she felt terror rise in her stomach. "Welcome to my world," a voice whispered in her ear. The room tilted for a moment, and she fell on the cold cave floor in a dead faint. ~~~~~~ Brock's eyes opened. Black and red spots danced in front of his vision, and his head, torso, and crotch hurt from multiple bruises. The room tilted in every direction imaginable. He moaned and tried to get up, only to find he was standing up, but tie d to a wall. When he moved, pain exploded in his head. "So, you're awake?" a voice asked him. "I have to admit that after the beating you'd undergone, we all felt... worried." The voice laughed, and Brock felt like he knew who was talking. There was something about that voice that was familiar... "Let me go! You can't do this! It's kidnaping! How demented are you Team Rocket freaks, anyway?" Brock yelled. The exertion almost made him black out, but his head was beginning to clear. The lights turned on, and he cried out when the light hit his eyes. He had been in the darkness for so long, and the headache he had was getting worse now that there was a light. He looked around. Giovanni was sitting in a chair in the center of the room, stroking his Persian profusely. Ash was standing behind him about two feet, and then another two feet to the right. Misty was next to Ash, and was leaning against the wall, staring off into space, her expression severe. Her hair was different, looking like the ponytail had been sawed off. She had a dark burn mark in the shape of an "R" on her face, no doubt from some strenuous torture that she had undergone. "NO!" Brock screamed. "What have you done to them?! Ash! Misty! You two can't be serious!" To think of Misty's beautiful, once-perfect face with that livid, dark mark of Team Rocket on it... "Brock, carrying on like this is hopeless. We want to ask you something..." Giovanni stated. "How do you know my name?" Brock whispered. "And why do you want to ask me a question?" "We know a lot about you, Brock. And it is essential that you answer the question: Will you join my team of trouble?" Giovanni questioned. "NO! NEVER!" Brock screamed at the top of his lungs. "Then you will meet your destiny," Giovanni replied. He snapped his fingers twice and a panel opened. A metal rolling table rolled in carrying assorted torture devices, all with an "R" somewhere on them. Three people and a Pokemon followed the table, one rolling the table. Brock recognized all of them, especially the one rolling the cart. It was... Brock screamed at the top of his lungs. "AH!" His scream went on and on for what seemed like forever. He stared at the person operating the instruments, horrified, and wishing it weren't so. It couldn't be true... Then he spoke. "MY WORST NIGHTMARE! YOU'RE THE VIRIDIAN CITY NURSE JOY! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" He started to tremble, and he was covered in cold sweat, almost like he had awoken from a really bad nightmare. This Nurse Joy couldn't be a member of Team Rocket! It was impossible. Ash looked at Misty, a weird expression of shock and disbelief at Brock's reaction on his face. "You know, he's taking this pretty hard," he mused. Misty shook her head. "He's hopeless." They both turned toward the soon-to-be-tortured Brock. James and Jesse were standing behind Nurse Joy. Jesse was dressed and makeup-ed to look like a twisted parody of Nurse Joy, and James was dressed like an executioner masquerading as a doctor. Giovanni smiled sadistically. "Let the tortures begin!"