Author - Chibi / Warlordess

Disclaimer - I don’t own Pokemon; if I did, Illicit Saints would be a feature film and the anime would be a little more adult and a little more Pokeshippy. No, wait. . . A lot more Pokeshippy. Lots more; yup. But I don’t, so it doesn’t matter in any case.

Notes - Welcome one and all to the next part of Illicit Saints! Unfortunately, for those who were expecting everything that I’d given you in the spoiler / preview of the last chapter, it won’t all be happening. I’ve decided that since, last time around, people actually started complaining that the chapter was too long (something that I never thought would happen; lol.), I was going to split this chapter up into two parts - two separate parts but still equally long in reference to all of the others that this fic is going to have. Yea. Did that make sense? Let’s hope so. . . So, please enjoy what you’re about to read, give me a nice lil’ review at the end that doesn’t comment on how many months you lay tortured and restless because Chibi’s work is the only thing that makes a web connection worth it, and stay a fan throughout the end of this fic (which probably won’t be finished until next year, at this rate). . .

Dedication - I suppose I should dedicate this chapter to anyone and everyone who will spend their time reading and reviewing it, as it’s been way too long since I last updated and I feel that anyone who’s been waiting for me to come back deserves it.

OoO

Characters / Ages -

Misty / 17

Ash / 16

Brock / 20

May / 13

Jessie / 22

James / 22

OoO

Pokemon - Illicit Saints

Chapter Three

OoOoO

It wasn’t long after Misty and the group of kidnappers-for-hire left that May groaned in her place, heaped against the edge of the pathway of Rustboro park. First it was just the twitch of her fingers as she tried to remember how she’d ended up that way, and then she slowly raised her head and stared dully at the empty area before her. . . And then it all clicked.

Quickly stumbling to her feet, May cupped her hands to her mouth and let out a yell, “Mis-ty!” But there seemed to be no response. Then, as an affect caused by her leaping up so fast, she doubled over in pain and tried to inspect the damage her flying into the tree earlier had caused. She couldn’t even apply pressure to her back without feeling the immense pain of all of the splinters, cuts, bruising. She slowly turned to see the tree she’d been forced into and cursed at the knowledge that a whole layer of bark had been shaved from the trunk, “Ow. . . ! Oh, I - I’ve gotta get back. . .”

She began taking small steps towards the Southside entrance of the park, sighing as her clothes stretched and retracted against her back. Whimpering, she didn’t realize that something else might have been wrong until a small pouch fell from the open pocket of her fanny-pack and onto the ground. She turned and saw it was her small bag of empty Pokeballs and then it dawned on her. . .

She hurriedly unclipped the fanny-pack from her waist and checked inside it, already knowing exactly why it’d been open and what she’d be missing. Sure enough, all of her Pokemon were gone. . . All of them; her friends and partners. . .

The fifteen minute walk (to be extended, thanks to her injuries) was not to be finished without tears, and when she finally reached the sliding doors of the Center and found her way inside, the first thing she saw were the impatient expressions on her two friends’ faces.

“Hey, May! What took you two so long? We need to get going! Nurse Joy’s ready to give your Pokemon one last quick check-up before we leave, and Misty’s too, once she has the courtesy to walk inside,” Ash said as fast as possible, and then he noticed how May was limping, “What’s wrong with you? Are you okay?” He and Brock rushed forward to help her into a seat and it seemed to visibly dawn on Ash moments later that Misty had yet to show herself, “. . . Where. . . where is she. . . ? May? Did Misty say she was going somewhere? Please say that she told you that she was going somewhere. . .”

“Nurse Joy; May’s injured and she needs some antiseptic and bandaging!” Brock shouted, refraining from his hormonal surges so that the female attendant could get through and proceed to heal the young girl, who was, by now, exhausted from the strenuous walk from the park.

“May, you can’t fall asleep yet! We need to know; where’s Misty? Is she hurt? Did you leave her somewhere. . . ?” Ash’s tone was just slightly less than terrorized as he shook his friend by the shoulders to ensure that she stayed awake.

May shook her head and let out a small whimper as Nurse Joy began to remove the splinters from her back, and then she looked up at everyone and shook her head again, opening her mouth to say something, to explain, but finding it suddenly too parch to speak. Finally, after swallowing countless times, she managed to mutter.

“Team Rocket. . . took my Pokemon. Misty and I. . . lost a Pokemon battle. . . to them. . . They won. . . my Pokemon. . . and her. They got her. . . I’m sorry, Ash. We tried our hardest. . . but they were so strong. . . !” May could only continue to apologize repeatedly in a low tone but when she looked up again, Ash had disappeared, “Where. . . ?”

“He went to look for her. . .” Brock whispered, also just noticing that Ash had gone.

“It’ll. . . be useless. . . The leader of the group. . . had an Alakazam. . . And I know he knew Teleport. . . They’ve probably traveled hundreds or thousands of miles by now. . . Ash doesn’t have a chance of finding them by just wandering around town and yelling her name. . .”

“Maybe not, but he doesn’t have anything else to do. And he cares for Misty so much that just sitting here and talking about how useless it is to even try to find her is out of the question. He’ll be gone for awhile,” Brock said to himself, noticing that the dark thundering skies that’d come to be earlier had now led to rain. He glanced down at May again just in time to see her duck her head as new tears began to produce themselves, “Don’t cry, May. . . C’mon, it won’t do you any good. . .”

“Y-yea, well, maybe it makes me feel just a little bit better. . . ! I tried! I tried so hard to keep her safe, to help her out! She told me that if I got attacked, I should just lay there and - and play it off! But, even when I was facing that, I tried to help her when those. . . people. . . had her surrounded. . . But I was rammed into that tree, and I was knocked out instantly. . . How could I have been so stupid!” May had never before looked so upset, “I was so idiotic, leaving my back turned on Alakazam, and I was so weak, being thrown unconscious so easily. . . And now Misty’s gone and we have no idea how to find her again. . . ! And Ash is probably going to catch an pneumonia while out there in the storm trying to find her.”

“Well, we’ll just have to get out there and help him, or come up with another way to try and find where Misty is. . .”

Only, in the ten minutes afterward that Brock spent asking May questions about how it had happened; what part of the park they were in; what they had been told by the men and women who’d cornered them; any clues that might lead to finding out Misty’s whereabouts, nothing of promise came to them. After relaying everything that she remembered to the breeder, May took a chance to breathe and close her eyes, while Brock put a rain jacket over his head and ran out the doors, hoping to locate Ash and check out the area Misty had been taken from. It was almost an hour later when they returned, Brock looking partially wet, but Ash looking as though he’d thrown himself over another cliff and into the ocean. They were deep in conversation, which ended abruptly when Ash realized just how drenched he was and disappeared into the public trainers restroom to dry himself off.

When he returned barely a few moments later, he didn’t bother making eye contact with either of his friends and, with Pikachu clutching tightly onto his collar, made for the entrance of the Center again, but Brock stepped in front of him, blocking his path.

“Brock, what are you doing? Oh, never mind. . .“ Ash tried to get around his friend, but was faltered to a stop every way he turned, “You saw that place, too, didn’t you? Where Misty was taken from? Just imagine what state she’s in! I gotta go and find her! If you’re that worried about me, then you can tag along all you want; I won’t stop you, just--” And Ash broke off, pushing past the breeder, but Brock took hold of his hand and wouldn’t let him go, “What the hell is this about. . . ? Let go of me!”

“Ash, I did see what was left of the park, but thinking of what information May’s told us. . . It’s not likely that Misty’s anywhere near here, and that makes it useless to get ourselves sick with worry. . . You’re going about this the wrong way is all I’m trying to say. . . That Alakazam that May battled against knew Teleport. They’re long-gone by now, including Misty. . . They’re probably in an entirely different city.”

“Well then, I’m catching a ferry to those cities and turning over every Gerodude, Cloyster, and Snorlax. I’m. . . not going to let Misty down. . . I already can’t help hating myself just a bit for our late entrance last time. . .”

Brock sighed to himself; of course, when it came to the ominous disappearance of any of his friends, Ash couldn’t help but think irrationally. There was no way that he could so easily regain a clear head.

“Ash, really, running out there and exhausting yourself now won’t help us any in the battle to get her back later on. We don’t know where she is, what state she’s in, or even if she’s alive at all!” The final part of the statement left Ash open-mouthed, “For all we know, Giovanni wanted to see his daughter’s death firsthand, or have a part in it! We don’t know! So we’ll just have to calm down and think about this for awhile. We’ll probably find her faster that way. . . !” Brock said, and Ash stopped struggling against him and took a deep breath in resignation.

“. . . Alright; fine. But I can’t just sit here and--” He started as Nurse Joy walked away from a now half-asleep May, who was barely propping herself up in her seat as the attendant went to crouch behind her counter for some quick healing supplies, but there was a small pop, the sound of something hitting the counter and rolling to the floor, and the nurse let out a quick scream, which woke May up almost immediately.

“What is it, Nurse Joy?” May asked, cautiously reaching her feet and breathing a sigh of relief that something cool and tingly had been applied to her back awhile ago to minimize the pain. Ash and Brock ran forward as well, just as Nurse Joy picked herself up from the ground, holding onto the fallen object.

It was a Pokeball of some sort, but rather than the normal red-and-white dyed shell coloring, it was a bluish-green, with orange symmetrical stripes on the left and right sides. There was no mistaking that it was a Lure Ball.

“Hmm, that’s strange. It’s occupied, but I know this wasn’t here before. . .” Nurse Joy glanced at the ceiling as though she expected to see a person hanging there, intent on bombing the Center with Pokeballs from the sky, “I can’t imagine where it could have come from. . . Is it any of yours?” She glanced at the three of them, and her gaze lingered on Ash, who was looking suddenly comprehending.

“I know; it’s Misty’s!” He stated, and took hold of the Pokeball. Brock and May blinked at him as he held it out before him knowingly and then the two friends broke out into weak laughter, “Hey! What’s so funny, you guys? Stop laughing and tell me. . . !”

“Well, Ash, Misty’s a long way from here and she had all of her Pokemon with her the last time I checked, so how could this one get here so fast when she’s nowhere around?” May asked, almost positive that Ash had lost his mind in hopes that Misty would send some type of signal as to where she was.

“Elementary, my dear May!” Ash noticed that everyone looked ready to place him in a straight-jacket, and so he quickly went on, “It was something I found when I was looking at Misty’s Nav before! A Pokemon transfer system. Remember when I asked her if I could look at it for awhile? Whenever she wants, she can take her Pokemon and send them through the Nav to her home, Professor Birch’s lab, or any Pokemon Center she’s visited. She must have done that this time!” Though this explanation seemed plausible to everyone, they still looked slightly doubtful, but Ash seemed to be ignoring them as he danced around in glee, positive that he was right.

“Well,” Brock said, snatching the Pokeball from Ash’s hands, “There is one way to find out!” And he raised his arm to throw it, “Go. . . Pokeball!” There was the familiar flash of red light and Corsola appeared, shaking itself down from the long time he’d been trapped in the enclosed space, “Hmm. . .” Brock inspected the Pokemon closely and then said, “Are you Misty’s Corsola?” The rock trainer prodded the water-type in the back for an answer and, in response, got a spurt of water in the face, “I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that that was out of indignation. . .” Corsola nodded and bounced twice into the air out of excitement.

“I told you!” Ash exclaimed over joyously, and he began jumping around the room as well, “Now, May, all we need to do is look at the Navigational panel on your Nav and we can find Misty and hers! We could find her by tomorrow.” He was trying not to look too pleased at the thought.

It turned out that it would take much longer than a day to get Misty back, however. When they had the chance to look at May’s Nav, they were caught staring at the Hoenn map for almost ten minutes before they finally realized that Misty’s Nav-signal wasn’t apparent. Slightly confused and fairly worried, Brock switched over to the Jhoto map. . . But there was still nothing.

“Oh, please don’t tell me. . .” And they quickly switched over the map again so that the word ‘Kanto’ displayed itself at the top of the screen. A small blinking signal shown to the left-center of the map and they knew they’d found her. . . in Viridian City. Two seconds later, her Nav icon faded out and they were staring at a completely blank screen.

“The only reason her icon would have vanished would be. . .” Ash started.

“. . . That her Nav was destroyed. Now there’s definitely no telling how she is, especially if they realized what she was doing when she sent Corsola to us,” May ended in a slightly horrified whisper.

“So. . . What are we going to do?”

“Well, that’s obvious! Misty’s in Viridian City, which means that, once we buy a few tickets for the cross-region ferry, we’ll be on our way there, too! I’m not going to wait any longer than necessary. . . ! ‘Cause it’s up to me - I mean, us - to make sure that she’s okay!” Ash leapt into the air and grabbed hold of May and Brock’s hands, dragging them across the Pokemon Center lobby and out of the front doors, “Now, let’s go!”

The group proceeded down the pathway leading into town and entered the transportation bureau, heading towards the main consultation desk.

“Er, hello,” Brock started after Ash had shoved him up front, “We’d like to know when the next ferry to Kanto region is, preferably the one to Pallet Port or Cerulean Bay,” the man behind the counter was staring at them all so fiercely that Brock gulped and stuttered before continuing, “But the Vermillion Harbor is. . . you know. . . just fine.”

“This is Rustboro City, kids, in case you haven’t noticed,” the man said irritably and Ash opened his mouth to argue about being called a child, but May placed her hand over it so that the receptionist could continue uninterrupted, “That means that we don’t have a port, especially one leading out of the region. You’ll have to take our town blimp to Littleroot and catch the ferry from there.”

After Brock found out how much the tickets were and paid for them, and then was told that the next ride out of town would be two days later at nine a.m. (at which Ash began to shout very loudly again and May and Brock were forced to pull him by the scruff of his neck out of the building), the group slowly made their way back to the Center, resigned to the fact that they were going to have to wait another long while before they could even leave town. Well, Brock was. . . Actually, he seemed to be the only one who was able to handle the thought of their wait.

“This is nuts! No, it’s even worse! It’s life or death, and all they care about is keeping their mandatory flights on time! Argh, it’s driving me crazy, thinking about how Misty might not even be. . . And I know it’s useless to even think of getting any sleep tonight!” Ash shouted. Random people around them didn’t bother to hide the fact that they were staring and May started up too.

“I know! But it doesn’t matter to them that Misty’s risking her life to keep them all safe!” Now the crowd of townspeople weren’t only staring, but muttering as well. The cream May had been given seemed to have rid her of any fierce pain, and the fact that they had a relative idea of where Misty was and were soon to depart to find her (even if not soon enough) had filled her with an energy not possibly available an hour ago, “You know what? None of us will be able to get any shut-eye, and we’ve already stocked up on the supplies that we can afford. . . Those idiots back at the Transportation Center are so stupid and unaware that we should just steal that blimp! I mean, it’s not like we wouldn’t return it, and our use for it is much more important than theirs. . .” May’s voice broke off into laughter to show that she was just joking.

Brock and Ash joined in, but they were both half-hearted about it, and the three of them had stopped moving because their attention was now fully on the topic at hand.

“You know, May, you make a valid point. We’re trustworthy, and it can’t be that hard to fly a blimp; and Misty’s much more worth using it for than getting the yearly tourists out of Rustboro. I don’t see a problem with it, really; we might. . .”

“You don’t see a problem with it? What world are you living in, Ash? ‘Cause, from where I’m standing, we could get caught by the authorities and quite possibly thrown in jail; plus, as you said, we don’t even know how to fly it to begin with, so we’d probably end up killing ourselves before anything else. . . And, again, your mom - not to mention May’s parents - would kill all of us if they found out about it!” Brock shouted.

“B-but, Brock, it’s for Misty. . .” Ash and May emphasized in chorus.

“Guys, stop it. Just listen to me and really think about it for a moment. Misty was kidnapped almost five hours ago and most-likely instantly transported to her father, whose already sent a good number of people out here to kill her. We’ve had no contact with her, and the only thing that tied us to her before has been destroyed. I know you like to think on the bright side of things, but, for once, stop deluding yourselves.” Brock sighed deeply and, when next he spoke, it was very slowly and clearly, “There’s a good chance that she’s dead, and it’s likely that we could be walking straight into a trap by flying into all of that unknown territory.”

“Brock! Stop being so safe or you’ll force us into going after her on our own, leaving you to watch your hair turn gray in worry! Yeah, we’ve looked at the possibility that she’s already dead, but we didn’t like it, so we’re choosing to believe that Giovanni kidnapped her for more reason than to just watch her die, and we’re hoping that she’s well. . . or else Team Rocket will regret it.” Ash clenched his fist tightly as he said this, “Either way, we have to decide. . .”

“Well, I was just joking when I said that first-off, but I suppose, It’s not that bad of an idea. I mean, other than the legal technicalities, of course.” May spoke up, “I dunno; if she’s dead or alive, the only way we’ll know is if we get to Viridian as soon as possible and find out for ourselves. Otherwise, we’ll just go insane wondering. If stealing a blimp in the dead of night while security is low and the fuel tank is fresh for the next scheduled journey is what it takes, then I don’t see what should stop us.”

“Well, you two can concoct all of the illegal plans you want, Just so you know, I won’t be a part of any of it.” Brock huffed.

OoO

Misty yelped as she was thrown into an uncomfortable stool in what appeared to be a lobby in the back of Viridian City’s Pokemon Gym. To her left was the door leading to the main gym, to the right, another door that she could only assume led to Giovanni’s office, and in front of her was a desk where a female Rocket sat, staring intently at her with a pair of steely eyes and making her feel very uneasy. Misty attempted to stare around the room to get those gray-glowing orbs out of her mind, but found it very difficult, as her surroundings were very plain.

Her heart beat painfully at the thought of what she was facing. Beyond the left-handed door, an army of Rockets awaited her if she dared to try and escape (which she didn’t, as they’d already taken all of her Pokemon) and on the right-handed door. . . well. . . she could only imagine.

To give herself something to do, she began prodding at the moth-eaten cushion below her, counting the seconds and the minutes until she’d see Him. The man who bore her. . . Soon, her thoughts stopped to be replaced by a blissfully dull buzzing. And then a simple black phone she hadn’t noticed before rang from its place next to the dry-eyed woman across from her, and that woman picked it up and gave a few words into the mouth-piece, still staring at Misty as though she were performing some rather interesting magic tricks.

“Alright; I’ll send her, then.”

And the woman hung up, reached her feet, and walked up to Misty.

“You’ve been requested. Giovanni will see you now.”

It was like having a horrible cavity that couldn’t have been filled over the last decade, and now she’d just been told that she’d have to get a root-canal. And, among quite a few other painful things, Misty hated root-canals.

The woman escorted Misty to the door on the right and opened it. Misty gulped, expecting to see Him, but. . . there was barely room enough for a desk in this place, and no windows. The woman shoved Misty inside, took off one of her gloves, and pressed her palm to a hand-sized bare white pan on the wall. It blinked green for a moment and she replaced her glove and shut the door and said in a loud and clear voice, “Basement, fourth floor,” and the elevator began moving downward.

After a few seconds, Misty became aware that she was now going underground. The elevator shuttered slightly as it went and she looked around to see if there was something that told her what floor they were on and how fast they were going, but there was nothing, so when there was a ‘ping!’ out of thin air and the woman opened the door, Misty couldn’t help feeling that the trip had been not nearly as long as she’d have liked.

Outside, the woman shut the door and led Misty past two guards in black uniforms and along a narrow hallway, passed a few doors behind which Misty could only assume held many ugly and evil things. The floor and walls, unlike the stone-flagged prison she’d been expecting, were linoleum and plaster, very similar to a corporate office building. It smelt mostly of bleach and disinfectant, and there was the most annoying ticking of a clock from nowhere as the two women approached the final door straight in front of them and it opened automatically upon their closing in.

“Enter here,” the older woman told Misty, and she turned alone to walk back upstairs to her post.

Misty very slowly and cautiously walked inside.

It was a very spick-and-span place, wide-roomed, with nothing but a few potted plants, a single desk, and, behind it, a comfy computer chair, turned to face three very large windows, all of which showed clear blue skies and gave off the effect of a lovely summer day. Because they were probably twenty to forty feet under the surface of the Earth, she knew that the area she was watching had been created artificially. Suddenly, the periwinkle blueness from beyond the room vanished as though it’d been switched off with a light-switch and the chair swiveled around to face her with its occupant.

“Sunny Day; marvelous technique, that one.” Were the first words from his mouth and all Misty could do was blink, “Anyways, sit down, go on. Can I have my men get you anything? Water, food, fresh clothes? No? Well, then. . . Hello, Aurora; I’m your father, Giovanni, and I’ve been waiting quite awhile to meet you.” He gave a strangely in-control smile and held out his hand for her to shake it, but she just glared at him, “Ah, I see. . . You’re a bit sore about the circumstances, perhaps? Understandable. . .”

“What do you want from me, Giovanni? And call me Misty; everyone does.”

“Even so, Misty is not your birth name, nor is it appropriately legal,” Giovanni gave a chilling grunt to clear his throat as he turned back to his desk and sat in his chair, “Aurora, since you’re so willing to skip the introductions, I’ll go on; I’ve got an offer for you. . .” His hand flicked to his desk and he reached into a drawer to pull out a small piece of paper, “. . . As you are well-aware, I am the leader of the great organization known as Team Rocket.” Possibly, he wanted Misty to cheer for his achievement, or maybe to look overcome with surprise, but as she wasn’t very willing to show any type of emotion, he went on after barely five seconds of silence, “Well, I want to recruit you.”

Misty snorted, “You must be crazy. You killed my mom and sent a million troops after me over the years to finish me off, too. . . And now you want me to join in your little circus act? Not in a million years, daddy. You’ll just have to kill me, I guess.” But she didn’t want to die! God, why did she speak without thinking so often. . . ?

“Hmm. . . See, that would be inconvenient for me. After all, I need someone to take over this. . . position. . . after my retirement, and you’re the only next-of-kin I have. . . At least, that I know of.” He gave the first hint of a maniacal smirk, “Low and behold, I need you right now, and I have ways of making you accept my offer. . .” And, with that, he held up the small item he’d pulled out of his desk before and slid it across the surface so that she could see it properly.

It was a Polaroid of Ash, May, and Brock. While she continued to gaze, horrified, at it, Giovanni chose to take his time in removing another something from his desk. After snapping the drawer shut, he shook Misty from her reverie. She looked up in time to see him crack open a single lock and pop open the top of a small black box, grasping in his hand a diminutive needle of clear liquid.

“You should know of the ‘EAB’, as it was dubbed upon creation, but I doubt you know what it stands for. The ‘EAB’ is also known as the Electro-Acidic-Bullet. When you are injured by it, a paralysis shock courses through your bloodstream, slowing the intake of oxygen and blood to your heart and body, then the acid enters and takes effect, dissolving your organs and destroying you from the inside out. Of course, the bullet itself drains the blue and red blood from your body, killing you in any case. It takes a very strong, tolerant person to survive that for more than a couple of minutes. I’m sure that your mother lasted almost fifteen; she was always so willful,” Giovanni gave another smirk, “Well, almost always. . . The point is, this injection contains a small dosage of the acid used in the EAB. I feed this into your friends bloodstreams, and they die almost instantly; guaranteed. It will only take so much time to subdue them, and I can easily allow you a front-row seat to their last moments. . .” He breathed deeply, as though watching people suffer was what made it worth waking up in the morning, “That is, of course, unless you join under my leadership. As my daughter, I can assure you that there will be a few perks, but you must swear your complete loyalty to me.”

“I. . .” No. She would say no. She would tell Giovanni that she’d let herself be eaten alive by her own Gyarados before allowing Him to take her life into his hands, forcing her to work for Him. . . But all she could do was stare at that photograph. It featured all three of her friends smiling freely, obviously not aware of the fact that they were being spied on. If they were to die. . . if Giovanni were to kill them. . . She wouldn’t make them suffer because of her anymore. There was nothing else for it, “. . . Fine. . . I - I’ll do it. . .”

“Wonderful,” Giovanni stated gleefully, finally withdrawing the leverage he’d formerly been threatening her with and snapping shut the case that now held the acid shot once again and placing it back inside his desk drawer, “Now, for your first mission. . .”

OoO

“I can’t believe that I’m a part of any of this. . .” Brock muttered, following after Ash as the trio started climbing a wire fence, beyond which sat a long and wide jet line. A few blimps were locked down about five hundred feet away. All was dark and silent, so when May slipped four feet from the ground and let out a yelp, it echoed around them “Sh! Now that we’re ten minutes from actually doing this, we can’t afford to get caught. . . !”

“I can’t help it! Oh, the next time we’re expected to climb fences, let me know! I hate wearing skirts and doing heights. . . !” She complained in the loudest whisper she could muster.

By the time they got over the top of the rail and hopped down on the other side, they were all sweaty and tired. They began walking towards the cement airway, skulking low to the ground so as not to attract any unwanted attention, when Ash let out a small yell and Brock and May hit the ground in horror.

“Ash, what is it? Who’s there?” Brock muttered, terrorized.

“No one; I just realized that the gate over there was open the whole time. We could have walked right in if someone hadn’t pointed to the area we chose on the map,” Ash looked edgily at Brock and gave a quick roll of the eyes.

“You were the one who said that anything else would be too easy!” May scolded. Ash gave a sheepish ‘heh’ in reply and proceeded to help her to her feet.

Brock pulled himself up and the two dusted themselves off, following after Ash as he led the way to the nearest steel transport vehicle. Upon reaching the ground below, the group walked up the ramp leading to it and Ash inspected the lock, “Damn. . . Well, it looks ordinary, no Pokemon tolerance. . . May, you should be able to melt it with a simple ‘Ember’. . .”

“. . . I can’t. . . Don’t you remember?” May gave a wry grin as her stance became suddenly rigid, “Team Rocket stole my Pokemon. You’ll just have to use one of yours.”

“Oh. . .” Ash felt himself frown and he slouched, “. . . Sorry; guess I did sort of forget. . .” There was a painfully awkward silence broken by Brock’s clearing his throat and Ash looked up with determination, “Okay; Pikachu, it’s up to you. I want you to shock the lock until the latch opens, okay?”

Pikachu gave a nod and leapt from his shoulder, clenching up its fists and expression, and let loose a swift and pointed ‘Thundershock’ at the steel latch before him, soon after charring it so that it began to fleck and crumble.

“Good job, buddy, that’s all we need. . .” Ash smiled as Pikachu stopped using his thunder power, shook off the effects, and jumped back upon Ash’s arms and up to his head to regain his rightful spot on his trainers shoulder, “Now. . .” Ash took a few seconds to pound the bent lock with his fist until there was a click and it propped itself open.

“Hah!” May said triumphantly, running past Ash and stepping inside. Brock followed after her, half brooding still about what they were doing and half impressed with how well they’d accomplished it, “It’s so dark. . . ! How’re we going to find the control room?” There was the sound of abrupt banging and then the girl moaned, “. . . Ow. . .”

“Hm. . .” Brock said, removing a flashlight and a spare pair of batteries from his backpack. He clicked the small power button and light flared from the device’s front, igniting the dusty contents of the aircraft and revealing many crates of anonymous things labeled ‘Fragile’, “We’d better get moving. We don’t know when this place opens or what type of security they could have out there. Someone might come any moment and see us or the damage we’ve done to the door. . .” He stepped forward and pulled May to her feet, possibly because he felt guilty for not telling her about the fact that he could have prevented her from tripping in the dark to begin with.

“Well. . .” Ash advanced cautiously forward and inspected beyond the railing in front of the others, where, by looking down, he could see the steep fall to the second and first floors. Then he looked to the left, “There’s the front of the blimp. We can go straight that way on this floor, or find the staircase to the other two. There’s no guarantee which one the control room is on.”

“Oh, yes there is,” a bright grin flitted across May’s face as she shoved past Brock and back out the entrance they’d come from. The two boys could see her leaning precariously over the side of the ramp they’d walked up before, looking at something they couldn’t see. She came back with an expression of confidence on her face, “Second floor. I can tell because that’s the only one with windows at the front, and obviously, you need to see where you’re going when you steer, so. . .”

“Right; let’s go, then. The sooner we get this thing off of the ground, the sooner we find Team Rocket, kick Giovanni’s ass, and save Misty! And if they’ve done anything to hurt her, there will be a lot more than a few bruises left when I’m done with them,” Ash growled and gave a threatening crack of his knuckles before leaping madly atop the steel railing, intending to drop to the second floor, but he was grabbed at the pant-leg by Brock.

“Ash; be reasonable. There’s a good fifteen foot drop from here to the next level. Let’s just try and find the staircase or elevator or whatever. It might take awhile, but there’s a probability that it’s safer. . .”

“Oh; right.” Ash sighed and lowered himself swiftly to the ground again, seemingly bummed out that he didn’t get the chance to fall and smash his face flat against the steel floor below, and the two boys turned expectantly to look at May.

“. . . Um, sorry, I don’t have any voodoo or tricks up my sleeve to help us this time. We’ll just have to find the way downstairs on our own.” She told them sheepishly, and so the three of them set off to find a way to safely descend to the middle floor, “So, what are we going to do? Take this thing straight to Kanto, or stop in Littleroot and grab the ferry? By now, I know it’s logical to go to Viridian without any stops,” she said, ignoring possible negative comments at her friends’ incredulous glances, “but do we have enough gas to get all the way there. . . ?”

“I think we might. . . Not only do these blimps have to travel town to town, but they hopscotch all around the region. And all of them have to carry a certain number of fuel tanks in case they run off course, or their schedules change last minute, or something like that. As far as I know, there should be at least ten tanks, each carrying enough fuel for two hundred-fifty miles. Whether or not that is enough to reach Kanto. . .” Brock tapered off, looking unsure.

“How the Hell would you possibly know that!” Ash asked skeptically as he quirked an eyebrow at his friend.

“It’s just something you pick up after being held hostage in one of these things by Team Rocket so many times,” was the reply. The three sweat dropped and Brock continued to run the white light he was holding in his hand around the narrow walkway, “Hey, wait! I think I found it! Okay; now that we know which way we’re going, and I assume that we’re leaving in this one, and soon, one of us needs to hurry up and close the door. Lock it as best as you can. The other two of us will head to the control room to make positive that this thing can start up on its own and we’ll check the access to the gas tank for refueling and the map for the quickest route. We’ll take off in a half-hour, tops.”

Ash checked his watch with a yawn, “It’s almost four in the morning; let’s hope this thing has auto-pilot.”

“What happened to not being able to force ourselves to sleep?” May joked, but she too let out a yawn and, noticing Ash’s irritated expression, turned and said, “Well, anyway, I’ll go close the door. You two head down to the control room and I’ll catch up in about ten minutes if things go easy enough.”

Brock turned the light on a slightly rusted set of stairs and, after hearing May stumbling in the background, he and Ash walked down, keeping a strong grip on the railing alongside the stairs just in case they accidentally slipped.

Behind them, May had managed to find the door again and was trying to shut it tight enough to lock, but Pikachu had bent something the wrong way and the latch was being blocked just short of the lock, so it couldn’t stay shut.

Frustrated, May turned to call the boys for help, but bit her lip at the last moment. If there happened to be someone working security detail then it wouldn’t really be the best idea to shout for assistance right next to the open door, would it? So, instead, she turned and tried to find something to knock the broken piece out of the way, but all she saw were crates of items for the trips the blimp was supposed to take later that week. Non-perishable food items, emergency replacement parts. . . And a crow-bar to open the crates up with.

Eyes twinkling almost menacingly, she picked it up and turned back to the door, raising it high above her head. Then she yelled out and brought the steel rod down, sending it crashing against the small, protruding object before her. After a few consecutive impacts, the piece fell to the ground and May was able to kick it away with her foot.

The next problem was that the lock was now completely broken, so the only thing that she could do to make the groups flight a safer one was to slam the door so tightly shut that it lodged itself tightly against the arch of the walls and then place the crow-bar she’d used before within the handle so that it stretched the length of the exit and along the wall, blocking it from opening.

The only thing they could do now was hope to God for good weather.

OoO

The ensemble was mainly a bodysuit, black in color, with a high collar, no sleeves, and shorts. She had a pair of pearly white leather boots with one inch heels, and they reached past her knees. The gloves were white, too, and almost came to her shoulders. Upon her left breast was the Team Rocket logo, a simple scarlet ‘T’ and ‘R’.

“You will capture them; bring them to me.” Giovanni told her as she fitted the belt to her waist, that which held her own Pokemon, “Your friends are undoubtedly coming here to find you. I want you to meet them before they arrive and take hold of their Pokemon. You won’t have any back-up so be ready for them to fight you, which they will once you destroy any hopes they may have that you are still one of them.”

Misty tried to ignore what her father was saying, but doing that would mean thinking about facing her friends and convincing them of her alliance with Team Rocket.

“However, it will take them awhile to find this area, so for the next few days, you’ll be taking a few basic defense classes, followed by Pokemon Training and Tactics. No doubt you’re already a survivor in this world,” he stated after she turned and glared threateningly at him, “but I’m pressed to be absolutely positive that my soldiers are able to handle any type of adversary, or any turn of the battles they act in. And your life, of course, is of absolute necessity.”

“Fine; whatever you say.” She began, in reply for the first time in over an hour. He smirked at her toneless obedience but, next moment, she spoke again in a slightly stronger voice, “However, I’ve joined you, I’ve agreed to your terms, to take your classes, to deliver my friends to you. . . You touch them wrong, and I’m afraid I’ll have to use every trick and ability you teach me to finish you. I’ll end your life so abruptly that you won’t have any chance to think about your organization or the crimes you’ve committed during your leadership. Everything you’ve ever done will be unraveled. Your legacy will end and be forgotten before you even realize that you’ve lost everything.”

“You forget. . . Your friends are not allowed to mean anything to you. You handed yourself and your future over to me. Should they get between that and us, it would be, how you say, a taboo on our deal. This is your test - to find them, tell them that it is useless to reach you, defeat them in combat if you must, and bring them to this place - all without batting an eye. You’ll be under surveillance so you won’t be able to contact them in any way. Bring them to me and they live out the rest of their lives here; I daresay it won’t be a very productive way of living, but at least they’ll be able to breathe for awhile longer. You try and help them escape that, however, and it will be the end of them.”

“Why?” She asked suddenly, looking at him for the first time, “Why wouldn’t you want them to join you like you’re forcing me to do?”

The next thing that happened shocked and angered her; Giovanni started laughing. Loud and sharp, it made her feel nothing but uneasy.

“Come here and take a look at yourself. . .” He said, edging her towards a mirror, “You’re wearing my logo, following my orders, giving into such a poor fate. Your friends aren’t like that. They’re a liability for their heart. You see, they’ve spent several years under the pretext and friendship of that idiotic boy, Ash Ketchum, demolishing my plans for this world one by one, no matter what the consequences. . .” Giovanni growled, then he coughed and cleared his throat, “You used to be like that as well, but those years you spent alone at your gym softened - weakened - you for me. That’s why I waited so long to come after you again. Of course, it wasn’t part of the plan that you escape me so many times. The gym was a test of your ability to meet deadly challenges, the time outside of Rustboro went not nearly as well as I thought it would. No doubt your being so close to those three children lessened your top-notch awareness.”

“Are you saying that being away from Ash made me ripe for the picking for your evil schemes? That without him to give me confidence, I - I’m nothing. . . ?”

He smirked at her, as though glad that she was able to catch on so quick.

“You are not nothing. If you’re tied to me, you will never be nothing. Those you love are not the only ones who can give you strength,” she turned red at the comment but he seemed to ignore it, “Strength may be gained by many outlets, including those you fear, or those you respect. You respect me, therefore, and I will make you strong.”

“If you think so. . . because I will never fear you.”

“You may believe so. . . for a little while longer, anyway,” was the reply.

Misty turned her head from her reflection for the first time and gave a very small sigh. Her eyes and cold expression were very unflattering at the moment. But she could still see her father’s face, the hand he was still grasping her shoulder with containing a somehow chilling grip.

That was one Hell of a superiority complex he had, she knew for sure.

Swiftly stifling the thought, she swatted Giovanni’s hand away from her and turned to counter the confident smirk he was throwing at her.

“Just don’t challenge me. I already have your blood; if I need your wit to turn the tables on you and make good on my threat, I will stay long enough to learn all of the tricks of your trade. Like I said, touch them wrong after their delivery and it’s going to be the end of you.”

“Whatever you say, my dear Aurora. Now, come with me; there’s much to teach you and your Pokemon before you will be ready to face them.”

OoO

The control room was a very elaborate place. The buttons and levers all over the walls were marked with things such as ‘Lighting’, ‘Locks’, ‘Temperature’, etc. There was a graphic mapping system up front, a steering wheel, and, as per request, an auto-pilot icon.

“Wow, this is. . . pretty cool. . . !” May said, her eyes sweeping over everything.

“And if we weren’t in current progress of stealing this thing to go and save Misty, then we’d have a lot more time to wait around and look at all of this,” Ash reprimanded her, and then turned to face Brock, “but we don’t. Anyway, how do we get this thing started?”

The oldest moved forward and attempted to turn the wheel but it wouldn’t budge more than an inch. He tried turning the mapping and navigational system on next, but that didn’t work either. His hands traced the front wall as though hoping to find a power button, but it didn’t seem to exist. Finally, he turned back to the others in realization, walking past them to a small column right next to the door they’d entered from.

“Looks useless, guys. . . We need some sort of key. Everything’s no total lockdown until somebody inserts on in here,” he placed his hand on the small column.

“That’s not all, guys!” Ash shouted suddenly, his gaze outside the front window, “It looks like we’ve been found out! There are three people headed over here from what I can see, and they’re definitely in a hurry!” He turned back to his two friends, “How are we going to deal with them?”

“’Deal with them!’” Brock quoted furiously, “Ash, we’re already in process of stealing an aircraft! We’re not going to add ‘injuring officers of the law’ to the list!” He ignored the younger Pokemon trainer’s glare and tried to think of a way out of their predicament, “But we can’t get caught. . . We need to get to Misty, right? I can try and head them off, distract them. . . but we still need that key. . .”

“Hello, Brock. . . !” May sung out, removing something from her hair so that one pigtail looked slightly more limp than the other, “Haven’t you ever heard of hotwiring? Go on; Ash and I will stay here and pick the lock. I’m pretty sure I can get it undone in five to ten minutes. . .” She bent down to inspect the key insertion place as well, “Yea. . . That should be enough time.” She held out the item she’d withdrawn from her hair, revealing it to be a clip.

Not wanting to gain the details of how May knew how to hotwire anything, Brock left them to it, removing a Pokeball and his flashlight so that he could get outside before the figures advancing from below them could get inside. After almost running straight into the door leading outside, which May had locked so thoroughly, he ran down the ramp to the grass and cement field below, throwing his Pokeball.

“Go. . . Onix!” He shouted, and the giant stone snake formed before him in a flash of red light, “Quick, use ‘Sandstorm!’” He continued, catching sight of the three shadows closing in on him.

Onix roared and a cyclone of earth surged upward into the air, spewing grains of sand heavily to the ground from all directions. Soon, the three guards would be lost from beyond it, and he’d be able to call back his Pokemon and get back to the blimp.

Brock looked back at it, but there was no guarantee as to how close May was with her success of getting it to start. Then, quite suddenly, there was a chorus of sharp screams from beyond his sight, coming from the eye of the storm his Pokemon was creating. Only an idiot would’ve been stupid enough to travel into such a fiercely temperamental area. . . But he couldn’t risk hurting anybody.

“Onix, stop it now!” He shouted, making up his mind. He quickly tore the snake’s Pokeball from his belt and called him back, then ran forward with his arms over his head into the quelling waves of sand so that he could make sure the trespassers on the groups’ plan to find Misty were healthy. When he finally got close enough to get a good look at them, however, he could only sigh irritably, “Oh, no. . .”

It was Jessie, James, and Meowth; all were holding on to one another and all were looking a little worse for wear.

“What the Hell are you three doing here?” He asked angrily, but was interrupted by padding footsteps coming up from behind him.

“Hey, Brock. . . What’s going on?” Ash shouted, making his entrance, “I saw you pull Onix back from the cockpit and. . . Wait, what’s Team Rocket doing here?” He asked, noticing them for the first time.

“I think that they were just about to tell me; weren’t you, guys?” Brock said, turning back to the trio, who were finally showing renewal of the feeling in their legs.

“Ah hah hah hah hah hah. . .” Jessie cackled somewhat shakily as she reached her feet, “You didn’t think you’d actually lost us last time, did you? That cheap shot didn’t get us very far to begin with. We’re back to steal that Pikachu!”

Not remotely phased by this threat, Ash cleared his throat.

“You guys can’t be serious. . . Look, this isn’t a good time. We were at Rustboro for more than half a month! Why didn’t you try and get us then?”

“We. . . we were waiting for the perfect time!” James stated defensively, getting to his feet. Meowth joined the two flunkies.

“Oh, yea, and that’s clearly now in the dead of night, on an abandoned air field, just when we’re getting ready to go and - - never mind.” Brock finished abruptly, “Ash, we’ve gotta go. This isn’t worth it.”

Suddenly, May back huffing up to them.

“Okay, guys. I managed to get it to turn. The blimp’s ready; we’re all set to go. . .” She too stopped talking at the sight of Team Rocket’s presence, “What - what. . . ? Wait. . .” She pointed at them and then leant forward, squinting sharply, as though not believing that they were actually there, “Oh, no way. . .” She moaned, coming to a conclusion that it wasn’t just their imaginations.

“You’s is stealin’ a blimp. . . ?” Meowth began, looking half horrified and half impressed.

“After telling up how this was a horrible time to try and steal anything?” Jessie continued.

“I don’t think I’ve ever met such a set of hypocrites!” James finished, “And I grew up filthy stinking rich!”

“Oh, shut up! We have good reason for stealing it!” Ash shouted venomously, “Misty’s gone! She needs us!”

“Ash, why are you telling them this?” Brock asked.

“Well, think about it. Misty was kidnapped by their boss; they could be useful. Plus, we have to take them because they know what we’re doing. If we leave them then they’ll just disguise themselves to look like your average citizens so that their facts seem purely innocent and they’ll tell everyone it was us who stole it to begin with tomorrow morning.”

“Wait, you’s is goin’ after da boss?” Meowth asked, his expression turning suddenly cold to the whole discussion, “Da boss took yoi friend? But why would he want her?”

“Anyway, forget it. The only way you’ll be getting us on that blimp is by force. We won’t work willingly against the only people we can call family. So tough luck.” Jessie finished in defense.

“Hey, Pikachu. . .” Ash said offhandedly, and the electric rodent on his shoulder allowed his cheeks to crackle threateningly, “I hate to have to press the subject, but we’re in a hurry. It’s going to take forever to get back to Viridian and who knows what they’re putting Misty through right now. . . ?”

The trio of bumbling villains eyed the fierce looking mouse wearily and then nodded as one in submission.

“We’ll come, we’ll come! Just call him off!” They yelled in fear.

Ash grinned and Pikachu automatically settled himself comfortably back on his shoulder.

“Glad we’ve got that all straightened out. Now let’s get going.” He said, and the group of seven present walked the rest of the way back to the blimp, hurrying up the ramp, slinking inside, locking the door shut. They proceeded down to the control room and shut the hatch, May sat alongside Team Rocket to make sure they didn’t try anything (since they didn’t know that she was currently unarmed), and Brock sat down in front of the graphic mapping system.

“Okay, guys,” the future breeder said, clicking madly at the coordinating keyboard, “We’re set on auto-pilot for now. One of us will have to stay up to keep an eye on things for the next few hours while the rest of us get some sleep,” he avoided looking at Jessie, James, and Meowth as he said this, as they might have been insulted that they were the ‘things’ they’d have to keep an eye on.

“I’ll do it first off. It’s better for a girl to get all of her beauty sleep at the same time.” May said.

“Alright, but. . . can I talk to you for a moment?” Ash said and pulled her aside, “Team Rocket may not be the smartest group of villains in the world, but it’s always good to have a proper defense handy in case they get tricky.” With that said, he handed her a Pokeball, “It’s Craudant. Just so you’re ready for anything.”

“Right. . . Thanks, Ash.” May said with a small grin before they both felt the floor below them quaking as they slowly but surely lifted off into the air.

“And. . . We’re off!” Ash said excitedly, turning away from her and managing to contain himself to a seat, “To find Misty!” He ended gleefully, not looking the least bit ready to drop off to sleep.

May took a seat besides Team Rocket and belted herself down; Brock joined Ash up front, who was suddenly nodding off. Ash had joked a few times before that he became thoroughly exhausted quite suddenly at times due to something known as a ‘Hamburger Deficiency’. Perhaps he truly hadn’t been kidding. . .

“Okay, wake me up in about four hours?” Brock asked her and she nodded the affirmative. To help be positive of the time, he set his watch’s sports alarm and then he laid his head back and closed his eyes.

May turned to look at Jessie, James, and Meowth since it was now her duty, but all three of them seemed to be out cold in their seats, thankful to have a set of slightly comfortable sleeping quarters’ for once, rather than the cold ground or whicker basket they usually used. Then she settled down and, forcing herself to stay awake, contemplated Misty and the possibility of how dangerous their entire situation truly was. . .

OoO

Two days later, the group was flying over the Whirl Islands in the Jhoto region, planning to cut across in an Eastern movement towards Cinnabar Island in Kanto so that they could make a clean Northern turn and head straight towards Pallet Town.

Team Rocket turned out not to be completely useless, as they’d had much practice in the operation of blimp mobility due to their many attempts to use the craft as a getaway vehicle. There were a few times when Brock would accidentally steer straight into some high-turbulence winds and James would have to take over the wheel in order to be sure that they made it out safely and without losing any equipment.

The real test, however, would be taking place in a few hours. . .

The hurricane was barely noticeable at first, until one of the cyclones of water impacted with them, and they realized that they were losing speed, incentive, and the blimp’s paneling upon being pulled within the tornado.

“Oh, no! Oh, no!” May squealed, hanging onto her seat, “Brock, do something! Ash; someone!”

“May, I barely know how to work this thing in broad daylight! We all know that I’d probably get us killed if I tried to do something now!” Brock replied, gritting his teeth as he attempted to hold the steering wheel straight so that they could stay upright.

“Wha-! This is it, then, I guess! We. . . we might have to evacuate!” Ash shouted, half terrified and half angry.

“’Evacuate’? To where? Are you nuts? The closest land is in Olivine and we’d have to swim at least fifty miles to get there! That is, if we can survive the legions of wind and meter-high waves right below us!” May clamped her mouth shut momentarily as the blimp shuddered noisily and turned topsy-turvy on them, “Ah! We’re dead!”

Suddenly, a blaring alarm sounded around the hanger and Ash leapt forward to read the information panel.

“It says we just lost one of our engines and the evacuation door we tried sealing up after the lock broke! What are we going to do?” He yelled in panic.

Brock tried to reply but was interrupted by the force of Jessie pushing him out of his seat and replacing his presence.

“Hey, what the Hell--”

“--I don’t know about you, but I plan on living through my twenty-third birthday! James, Meowth, stop cowering and get your asses into those seats! I’m going to need your help for this! You three. . .” She turned to Ash and the others, “Take a seat, put on your seatbelts and locate the oxygen masks found in the emergency compartments next to you! I have a plan!” James and Meowth were already beside her, flipping off a series of switches connected to the other engines, seemingly aware of what she wanted to do to begin with.

“What do you think you’re doing? That’s most of our power! How are we going to escape this now?” Brock shouted, although he still followed their orders, securing himself to a chair.

“We’ve already lost one engine and we can’t stop to make any repairs at the moment, can we? There’s no way this tub of steel has enough strength to pull through this!” Jessie stopped talking momentarily to pull on a few certain levers. The group of three bystanders and a Pokemon stood by as they heard the unmistakable slam of about four doors shutting in the sub compartment of the blimp leading to the cockpit, “The only way we’ll survive this is by diving underwater and to the greatest depths we can manage before losing anymore equipment. We won’t be able to take much more of these winds without everything being stripped away! And, if that happens, we won’t have any chance at all!” She tried to explain to the now wide-eyed trainers.

“According to the offline manual, Jessie,” James started, sitting in front of a computer that was installed into the control system area, “this tank can handle eight hundred-fifty meters of water pressure! We could go deeper if necessary, but only for up to twenty minutes!”

“Da scale’s droppin’, team! We should be impactin’ wit’ sea level in tree. . . two. . . one--!” There was the dropping of several stomachs as their craft gave a guttural waver and groan, and the visible high-speed winds and small objects flying past their windows changed to just visible, chomping waves, which vanished to reveal the deathly corpses of small water Pokemon, mostly Magikarp, that either didn’t sense the storm coming or couldn’t escape it in time.

“Oh. . .” May whimpered sadly, turning her gaze from the oceanic cemetery, “I. . . It’s so sad. . .”

“Brock, why didn’t radar pick up on the hurricane?” Ash asked, hoping to find an unrelated topic to quell the seasickness in his stomach produced by such a ghastly sight, and the tremors of their blimp as it turned this way and that with the current that, luckily, was blowing East.

“I wasn’t using the radar very often, Ash. It’s an online tool and, unfortunately, going online also ignites the tracking system installed. I only glanced at the reports once every few hours and only for a few seconds at a time. Luckily, it takes almost half a minute for the system to gain a whole reading on our whereabouts so, if we schedule our glances right, then we can’t be followed. But, obviously unluckily, it also constitutes a problem in that we can’t always get a full detail on the weather we’re due to run into. . .”

“Huh. . .” Ash said, only half understanding; the finish of this inquiry happened just in time for the blimp, which had formerly calmed its movements considerably, to spin rapidly in a series of strongly sickening formations, “Ah! What’s going on now?” He shouted, removing his oxygen mask.

“Ugh, oh, no. . . ! We’ve hit a massive junction formed of a meet and crossing of at least three different currents!” James shouted, agonized, “And we’re going to get pulled into the wrong one if we don’t do something!”

Jessie responded by flipping on three more of the engines.

“We’ll just have to escape from here before we get carried too far away. . .” She growled, gripping the wheel as though ready to floor it and leaning forward in her seat as though this would help propel them beyond.

Ash caught sight of May with her gloved hands grasping fixatedly onto her chair and her eyes slammed shut. She was muttering something that sounded a lot like a prayer. Somehow finding this a good idea, he joined her in that silence, hoping to take his mind off of that horrible, vomiting motion his gut seemed to be wanting to make.

But faith didn’t do any good this time around, and luck wasn’t on their side either. They were able to force themselves out of the opposite current they’d first found themselves in, only, just in time for a funnel to appear out of nowhere and suck them into the depths of the ocean they were trying to escape from.

“Ah! We’ve lost our right paneling and another engine!” James screamed in horror, looking very antsy. Jessie stomped her feet into the ground and gritted her teeth, her eyes alight with fury.

“Oh, no! I am not going down like that! It’s going to take a Hell of a lot more than some measly hurricane to stop me!” She screeched.

“Den how’s about a flood of water? ‘Cause we’re about one hundred meters from our water pressure max!” Meowth meowed, his eyes on the gauge, “Fifty meters. . . Twenty-five. . .”

“Agh! We’re going to be scrambled!” May cried, as the funneling current dragged them down in a cliché vortex of doom.

The entire aircraft-turned-submarine creaked wearily as the water draft from beyond sifted around and the group heard the spitting of screws on steel walls, the spurting of weighty fluid upon their vehicle. Suddenly, the use of the extra barricade that Jessie had taken into effect made a lot of sense.

“Does anybody. . . feel that. . . ?” Brock gulped, looking down to the floor and noticing his pant legs were soaking through, “Ash, May, keep your hands on those buckles! We’re being flooded! You too, Team Rocket!” He added and all three bumbling villains looked back at him momentarily with wet eyes, touched that he would care so much.

Suddenly, the entire blimp turned over onto its back and began surging speedily in all awkward directions. The water receded into the back of the control room, sloshing around their ankles. Everyone, feeling suddenly seasick, placed their hands over their mouths to hold back their vomit.

It was like a roller coaster, only more life-threatening, and one that was obviously built for water-world, as the sea level was rising dramatically with their speed, now right below their knees. A look at the pressure gauge told them that they were still almost two times deeper than they were supposed to be (meaning two thousand two hundred-fifty meters), and they were still spiraling out of control, zigzagging left, right, and around in snaking circles so that they had to close their eyes and hold their heads roughly against the back of their seats just to avoid screaming.

“We’s is still almost two thousand meters below da surface!” Meowth screeched as James clumsily moved to place an oxygen mask around the felines face, “We’s isn’t goin’ ta make it! Da water’s filled two and a half floors! It’s weighin’ us down! It’ll take up ta half-an-hour minutes to break land at a controlled speed!” He finished, jumping to hitch his feet up and avoid the water, but it was impossible at this point, as the level had raised to their waists.

“Well, what about. . . an uncontrolled speed. . . ?” May gulped, terrified as she readied to release herself from her seatbelt if it came down to that. She was interrupted by the sound of Brock’s windowpane cracking, the pressure becoming too much for it to handle.

“It’s not enough! Two of the seven main engines are finished and there’s no way to start them up again!” Jessie yelled as her hands, currently on the steering wheel, became distorted by the water level, “There are always emergency engines for things like this, but they’re located in another sub-control room, probably on another floor; there’s no way we could reach them now!”

“Well, we have to try!” Ash shouted, unbuckling himself from his seat and gripping his headrest so that he didn’t float off into the abysmally cold sea filling out around him, “James, I’m sure that there’s a map of this entire thing on that computer! Find it and see if it mentions where that control room is!” He stated authoritatively, swimming to a corner compartment next to the column that May had earlier coaxed into action, opening a cabinet containing a box of emergency equipment and removing a couple of underwater breathing devices as the Rocket boy typed rapidly behind him.

“Ash, you can’t go out there alone!” May shouted, reaching for her own belt release and removing her oxygen mask at the same time.

“I got it!” James said confidently, but as he turned in his seat to show his findings to Ash after inspecting them, the monitor flickered a few times and faded out. There was a moment of crackling electricity which, thankfully, ended as well because of the water resistance installation, “It’s. . . gone!” Ash seemed to ignore him as he continued talking to May.

“I’m not going alone; James is coming with me.” He said, circling swiftly around the hanger and handing everyone a snorkeling device.

“What?” Both she and James demanded.

“There, at least now you’ll be able to breathe. Let’s just hope that we don’t run into another current that will drag us low enough for the water pressure to kill us, or. . . well. . . there’s the impact, if we hit land the wrong way. . . Or if we can’t manage to get the engines working, there’s the extreme drop in temperature. . . Anyway. . .” Ash turned to answer his two companions inquiries, “Look, he was the only one to see the sub-control room’s whereabouts. Without him, we’re all dead, and so is Misty.” It was the first time he’d mentioned her in two days, and it was painfully obvious now how much he was willing to risk for his best friends’ safety, “Now, Brock, I need you to look after Pikachu for me, okay?”

He attempted to remove the electric rodent from his head so that he could hand him safely to Brock, but the yellow mouse wasn’t having it. He growled and actually bared his fangs at the older breeder, who was hoping to help out the situation. No; Pikachu seemed to be perfectly content with asphyxiating himself atop his trainers scalp.

“Pikachu. . .” Ash murmured, sighing, “You have to stay here. . . Coming with me is pretty much a death sentence for you. . . If you go with me and James, it’s going to be in a Pokeball. I can’t risk you getting hurt, okay? I depend on you, on our friendship, to help me through times like these, and I’m going to need you even more when we get to Viridian City. . . Okay?” He asked, and picked his friend up and placed him into his arms, smiling reassuringly at him before placing him in Brock’s lap.

“Ash. . .” His friends said under their breath, but Ash turned, not intent on saying anything else that might make them more emotional.

He faced James, still waiting for an answer, “C’mon, James. . . please. You’re saving your friends by doing this, too,” he said, nodding towards Jessie and Meowth, who were torn between egging their male human partner on and pulling him into a group hug, “It’s a chance to show them what you’re made of. . . !” He gasped as the water level finally rose above his mouth and nose, and everyone quickly placed their masks over their mouths.

Still looking unsure of this deliberation, James gave his team one last glance before nodding and unbuckling himself from his seat.

“Good; now what floor is it one?” Ash said, his voice sounding strangely blurred from within the breathing piece as he swam back to his backpack and picked through his clothes and supplies, removing a single pair of rubber gloves, and handing one to the Rocket boy, “Just in case. . .” And both of them placed the gloves on one of their hands.

James nodded, pointing downward to the first floor and, without saying another thing to anyone else, the two proceeded to swim back to the door leading to the halls, guest rooms, and stairways of the rest of the aircraft, opening the door. Wordlessly, Jessie pushed the levers for the extra barricade she’d set up earlier on into the opposite direction and they too rose into the ceiling, allowing both young men the chance to swim through safely, the water rising steadily behind them.

“Good luck. . .” May said softly from under her filtering device, then, crossing her arms and rubbing her gloves along them to create a slightly heated friction, she continued, “It’s getting colder. . .”

Jessie finally awoke from a sort of reverie and turned back to the control panel, gazing at the gauge.

“. . . That’s because the water’s too heavy on top of this broken down ship and the currents losing strength. . . We’re beginning to sink. And trying to escape without any pressure stabilizing wetsuits will kill us. We’re stuck unless we can get the full throttle of those extra engines. For now. . .” She turned and flipped the switches to the last two main engines so that they grunted into life, “. . . that will have to do.”

OoO

Upon exiting the hanger and managing their way out into the main second floor hall, Ash and James quickly grabbed hold of the rail so that they didn’t end up automatically being pulled upward to the third floor. The walls and signs and everything around them danced aquatically in the dark, less than shallow submission of the sea.

“We need to hurry. . . !” Ash told James in a slightly distant voice, nodding to himself and kicking rapidly against the body built science that would have normally forced him to float towards the sky; James followed behind him in affirmative silence and they kept a hand close to the guardrail just in case they weren’t strong enough to go on their own, descending towards the blackened and obscured final floor. Taking incentive, he tried to clear the air, “I need to tell you. . . I’m sorry.”

He wasn’t sure James had even heard him at first.

“For what, exactly?” He asked, and he actually sounded as though he didn’t know.

“For all of this,” Ash sighed in reply, “If I hadn’t been so worried about Misty and freaked out about you possibly telling everyone in Rustboro what we’d done, you wouldn’t be here in this situation. I guess I should thank you, too. Without you here this time around, we’d have probably ended up stranded on some abandoned island on our first day in the air.”

“Gee, doesn’t this conversation sound like it’s just going in the perfect direction?” James started sarcastically, “Well, if it’ll make you feel any better, we probably would have told them all just to spite you. . .” Ash glanced at him, half humorously and half angrily at this confession, “. . . Then the police would ask how exactly we’d known that since it happened after closing hours in the dead of night, and we wouldn’t be able to come up with a good excuse, and it’d end up with our getting chased out of town by a mob of tourists who thought we were in on the disappearance of their only ride out of Rustboro. . .” He looked miserable at the thought of it.

“Oh, c’mon, your luck can’t be that bad.” Ash said reassuringly but, then again, what did he really know about it? For the longest time, the worst luck he’d had had been while ordering a cheeseburger at the old diner in Pallet and finding out that they were out of pickles.

“This way,” James said randomly, and it was obvious that the conversation was over.

The young man in Rocket garb swam swiftly forward, surpassing Ash and turning towards the opposite end of the blimp as the third floor control room was on. Ash squinted, under the impression that there was a series of anonymous silhouettes slinking around up ahead as the two swam past the rows of completely shattered windows on the walls beside them.

“Hey. . .” He began, but the shadows had vanished, and, thinking it a trick of the eyes, he decided against mentioning them, “There?” He asked instead, pointing at a single door at the very end of the hall straight in front of them, which had revealed itself quite suddenly, and James nodded.

The two approached the large steel door and attempted to push, pull, and kick it open, but all thoughts failed in succession. Finally they were sharp enough to notice the column right beside the door, one with an uncanny resemblance to the one that May had tricked up into livelihood earlier on, only there was no way to do that this time, as neither Ash nor James was feminine enough to prance around with pins in their hair, and they didn’t have any other way of getting the door to open.

“Guess we’ll have to do this the unorthodox way!” The Pokemon trainer said and took a swing at the keyed pillar. Of course, since they were under water, the motion was slowed considerably and barely made an impact; plus, because it was human flesh versus steel, he probably retained the most injury, “Ow! Ow, ow, ow! Gah; that’s it!” And he removed a Pokeball from his belt, “Let’s hope this works the way we need it to! Go, Grovyle! Quick, use ‘Razor Blade’!”

There was the ever-familiar flash of red light and the grass-type appeared, looking majestic and courageous. . . then going very wide-eyed and clawing at nothing in front of him out of terror at the acknowledgement that he couldn’t breathe underwater.

“Ah! I’m sorry, but hurry and attack so that I can call you back into your Pokeball!” Ash said, pointing an arm at the column and wringing the other one out because of the pain of his personal attack.

Not wasting any time, the Pokemon focused on the sharp butchering leaves on its forearms and they glowed white; he struck the key insertion object soundly and it divided into three pieces. The door opened automatically to reveal a still almost completely dry room and Ash called Grovyle back and rushed in with James just ahead, shutting the door again by pressing a button on the panel just beyond; the water, therefore, stopped pouring in around them halfway up their shins and they were able to take off their breathing devices.

“About your calling on Grovyle. . . Why didn’t you do that to begin with?” James asked as he caught his breath. He looked deathly cold at this point, and exhausted.

“Hey, I’m a trainer, not a genius.” The younger boy shrugged in reply, “So. . . what is this place? Where are the engine controls? And. . . How the Hell is it still unflooded, or not crushed or whatever?” He finished, looking around at the completely intact walls.

The room was barely eight feet wide, but it was a good twenty feet long. To their left and right stood a series of boilers and temperature gauges for different area of the blimp and at the back of the room was an installed computer system, a lot of wiring, a PA communication system, and several other things.

“It looks to be an extension made after the original blimp was created. . .” James murmured, running his hands along the bolts and proper melding job on the wall leading back out into the main area of the first floor, “And look, no windows. This area is half mechanics, or manual, and half electric,” he nodded towards the equipment down at the end of the room, “When they built this second control room, they made it so that it was able to withstand the pressure and water used in sea travel. You see those?” He pointed to the ceiling, where seven parallel steel-coated wires were covering the elongated area from the first control room to the back of the one they were currently standing in, “Electric cables connecting the first seven engines to the ones here. We’re directly in front of the power system.” He nodded towards the rounded wall in the back, beyond which lay the open sea.

“Fine; now let’s not waste anymore time!” Ash said, waving tirelessly through the rest of the room and dragging James with him. Everything was already powered up and looking simple enough to identify.

“Okay. . .” James sighed, “this should be easy. . .” He found the only four levers there and pulled.

The dull hum of the main engines Jessie had turned on a half-an-hour before was joined by the thunderous action of the four back-up engines coming to life, as well.

Of course, the combined power of those nine engines plus the current they were relying on to push them up to the surface was so strong that everyone felt the growing speed as they shot upward. Because Jessie, Meowth, May, and Brock were tied down to their seats, they were simply forced to sit back and wait for that strange, pressing feeling to vanish, but down on the first floor, James and Ash were sent flying forward.

James, used to this type of danger, was able to catch himself before he really lost his footing, and he grabbed onto one of the boiler pipes to secure himself; unfortunately, Ash wasn’t so lucky, and was sent face-first into the electric dashboard computer system formerly in front of him. James didn’t notice anything wrong at first; that was, until the younger boy slumped to the floor in an unconscious heap.

“Ah, not the twerp!” The Rocket villain said, running forward and turning the trainer over to inspect him. There was a large nasty knot above Ash’s right eye, and it was bleeding quite badly, alongside a split lip, “Hey, you, twerp, wake up!” Ash made no acknowledgement that he heard anyone calling to him and continued to lay there uselessly, the small filtering oxygen device having fallen from his slackened grip, “I guess now it really is up to me. . .” James finished with a grunt, pulling Ash up off the ground and lifting his weight around his shoulder.

Suddenly his attention was drawn to something else, as there was a sudden pounding on the steely locked door they’d originally come through. Two seconds later, it came crashing down to the ground and the room was completely flooded. James had just enough time to leap away from the computer area behind him before the water came into contact with it, and it began smoldering and crackling dangerously, proving that Ash’s thought to bring that pair of gloves truly was lucky.

He placed his oxygen device over his mouth and looked down beside him to pick up Ash’s, but it had been washed away by the tide. He had one second to take the deepest breath he could manage, pull his tube from his mouth and stuff it into Ash’s, and gain the best grip he could on the unconscious trainer before everything vanished in a haze of murky, oceanic light.

However, he was finally granted the chance to see what had cause such an impossible to handle situation. It was now obvious that Ash’s eyes had not been playing tricks on him earlier, as the school of Tentacool filtered into the room to deal with the trespassers on their turf. It seemed that, once the windows on the first floor had shattered and the current had weakened so that their blimp’s speed had lessened, the Pokemon had taken to the seemingly completely ruined transportation vehicle.

Feeling slightly faint, James quickly pinched Ash’s nose shut and removed the breathing tube from his mouth, taking a few large breath’s before replacing it. Meanwhile, the twenty or more water Pokemon began closing in on them and preparing their Poison Sting attacks. . .

OoOoO

Apology - Aloha, friends, fans, and web stalkers; all who’ve red the spoilers since chapter one have probably realized that this chapter didn’t end the way I stated it would last time around. Unfortunately, in the words of gladdecease, the prologue of this fic made it sound like it had the potential to become a greatly bloody Team Rocket fic. Of course, and I’m sure you’ve all noticed it, Jessie, James, and Meowth have had barely a word until now, and the thing is. . . I wasn’t really planning on featuring them much at all. That’s right; you can go ahead and freak out on me now, I admit it. Anyway, it hit me somewhere around the middle of writing this chapter. . . That is, you just can’t write a “bloody TR fic” without Jessie, James, and Meowth. So, last minute, of course, I decided to put them back in. Yea, and this was the result, plus, I wanted to make them useful and not just Ash-goes-crazy-and-takes-certain-characters-hostage, thus the hurricane scene. And I love James, so I wanted to make him some kind of hero, which is why I knocked Ash out (so sorry to KawaiiCherryBlossom, who I know is a big fan of his). Anyway, this huge chain of events (last minute TR inclusion - TR usefulness - hurricane scene - James heroism) added a lot of pages to the chapter, and since people finally started complaining that they were getting to be too long, I planned to try and make it shorter to begin with. So. . . basically. . . all this long-winded discussion was working up to was that, in an effort to make the overall plot more appealing to everyone, including myself, I had to change the original spoiler plot. So sorry. Lol.

Notes - Oh, my God, you all had better love me. After starting my Ranma fic, “Herbal Remedies”, I had originally planned to put this entire project on hold, until such time as I’d finished at least one other that I was currently working on, but I gave into finishing up the last, maybe, 7,000 words over the past few days. Yes, if you were wondering, I had to wrap my fingers in a lot of gauze and tape to cushion the bruises from hurting so much and I’m not even kidding. That’s just how much I love this fic, and you all.

Also, as of September 8th (in other words, a really long time ago now), Chibi is officially seventeen years old! As a belated birthday present, why not give me lots and lots of reviews? Lol. Oh, and on a more somber note. . .

My mother has suffered, and recovered from, a very serious stroke after her third surgery (a few days after my birthday) and, since I’m just underage and the doctor’s are acting like I’m a child with no experience in the matter (though I’ve been taking care of my mom for years, believe it or not), the state is taking custody of me while they send her home with some incompetent woman who has no idea what she’s doing. So I’m in foster care. Yup. In fact, I’m typing this up from my foster mummy’s computer right now. . .

Anyway, you guys who don’t really care about me and just wanna know about the future of this fic, don’t worry. I fully plan on continuing this thing until the very end. I have a strict policy about my writing. If I start a fic and get a positive response, I will always finish it, no matter how many years it takes me. For those who do care about me, I just gotta say it; gee, thanks for the humanity.

Oh, yes, for those who wanted to know, I’ve finally got an idea for how many chapters Illicit Saints will have! At first, it was going to be rather short (then again, I guess that’s all in how you view it, word or chapter total). I was going for six or seven chapters, but after reviewing this chapter and the entire future plot accordingly, it turned out to be more like ten or eleven, total. I actually did the math and, if I have an average of 12,925 words per chapter (based on the average of the chapters I’ve got typed up so far), then the total amount of words should be somewhere near 129,250 or 142,450 words. Lol; and I write all of the chapters out manually before typing them, too. . . Ow. . . Anyway. . .

Spoiler for Chapter Four - At the same time that Ash, May, Brock, and the bumbling Team Rocket are fighting for their lives to reach Misty, she’s training strenuously in her fathers’ headquarters so that she can reach his standards, thinking that the only way she’s able to go through anything in her disgusting life anymore is that it’s keeping her best friends alive. But the way things are going, will Ash even survive long enough for her to openly betray him. . . ?