Bad Moon Rising

Chapter 6

James was surrounded in total darkness. There was nothing. An endless void where nothing existed. He tried to walk, but nothing his legs never moved, tried to speak, and his voice never carried out. Even the simple act of shaking his head or flexing his fingers were impossible. It was as if he was super-glued to the darkness. It was cold as death, even though it was just a dream...

Wait...was this a dream? It seemed too real...James could feel the coldness, but he felt so light.

Just as James was beginning to think that this was all just some out-of-whack dream, something ahead of him stirred. The boy's eyes flickered as he saw two familiar figures in the distance, one a red-haired Rocket, and the other a cat pokémon that stood on two legs.

He tried calling out for Jessie and Meowth, but his scream was mute. Even his mouth didn't move. Frustrated, he closed his eyes, but they wouldn't close.

It was only then that he noticed the huge wolf-like creature standing in front of Jessie and Meowth, its white fur tinted blue, its eyes a savage green. The disfigured wolf snarled at the two, and leapt.

James tried to scream out for his friends' safety, but no sound came out. He was forced to watch in vain as the monster leapt forward, tearing into a defensless Jessie and Meowth and leaving them limp on the ground-

-and the beast suddenly turned to face him, and there was a sudden flash. James found himself staring at himself, as if looking in a mirror. But it only lasted a second as the man in front of the real James flickered back to the wolf and leapt at him, but disappeared.

And, suddenly, James was falling like a ton of lead, dropping through the black void, with no end to his fall, and no beginning-

-and there was a sudden flash of a knife, and he felt death overtake him.

No...

No...

"NO!"

"Jesus H. Christ!" screamed a younger voice.

James' eyes shot open and he found himself looking at a panick-stricken Mondo, whose face was as pale as a sheet, eyes wide in both worry and shock. The older Team Rocket member blinked, then gulped.

"Er...wha?" he said slowly, unsure of what just happened.

"You just woke up and scared me to death!" Mondo whispered, and, unnoticed by him, James shivered at the word 'death'. "You were grumbling some things in your sleep, and started screaming out for Jess and Meowth, then murmered something about a wolf."

So it was a dream...

"Sorry Mondo...," James was saying. "Er...where is Jess?"

"She and Meowth went to the library," the younger Rocket announced, holding up a slip of paper with Jessie's handwriting and Meowth's paw print. "C'mon and get up, I'll fix some breakfast."

**********

"Jessie!" Brock yelled from a computer desk, as he gave up on searching for books that gave a cure for werewolves.

His shout earned many angry glares from the librarian and the people in the building reading. Brock visibly sweatdropped and rubbed the back of his head. "Er...sorry...heh..."

Jessie, in the meanwhile, walked up to the older twerp, looking over his shoulder and at the computer screen. Meowth leapt on Brock's other shoulder and stared at the screen as well. The word 'Lycanthropy' was printed across the screen.

"Brock," Jessie whispered, "we're looking for werewolves, not lycan-whatchthropes."

"Lycanthropes," Brock corrected. "They're the same thing as a werewolf, just a different name."

"Oh."

"Well?!" Meowth hissed impatiently. "Does it say dat dere's a cure?!"

"I'm getting to it," Brock whispered.

He scrolled down the page and came to a certain section.

'Another important legend concerning lycanthropes is the silver bullet, silver knife type legend. It is a fairly old legend. In some cultures, werewolves are as easy to kill as any human or wolf, and you need no special equipment. But in many cultures, silver can be used against them. Silver bullets, silver stakes, silver knives and anything of this metal causes death in lycanthropes.'

'For all other wounds, even the most serious, lycanthropes are self healing. Interestingly, a lycanthrope can survive a wound caused by silver, or heal a lesser wound caused by this metal, by shifting to its other form quickly. For lycanthropes who can only change with the full moon, they probably won't survive a silver-inflicted injury. Thus the legend that the older and more experienced a lycanthrope is, the harder it is to kill.'

Jessie growled. "First of all, I do not want to kill my James!" she hissed. "And that is not a cure!"

Brock sighed. "Sorry."

He scoped the page again until he came across another section of the web page, a section that looked more promising.

'There are many herbs believed to cure the disease of Lycanthropy. Many of the ingredients were narcotics or psychedelic... some were belladonna, hemlock, aconite (monkshood or wolfsbane), deadly nightshade, opium and children's blood.'

"Great selection," Ash said sarcastically from behind.

He and Misty had gotten behind them and were also staring at the screen. Meowth threw a look of confusion to the younger twerp, cocking his head.

"Whaddya mean, twoip?"

"First of all, belladonna is really deadly. Just a little bit more than you're supposed to have, and you're gone. There's no hemlock in Johto, or wolfsbane."

"And nightshade," Misty cut in, "is also deadly, plus, there's none around here. Opium's not here, either, and I don't think children's blood will help James right now, as he's hungry for that stuff as of now."

"But the monkshood," Brock intervened, "is kept in a garden in Johto, but it's far away, in New Bark Town, so it would take a week or two to come and go from that place."

"Then we'll go back to James," Jessie announced, "pack, and go there."

"Jess," Meowth said, looking up at her. "No, he's not in any condition to go anywhere...and I don't want to wind up leaving him by himself."

"We'll go," Ash remarked, standing up straight. "We'll go to New Bark."

Misty and Brock exchanged glances, then nodded. "Yeah," Misty said softly, "it's the best thing we can do."

Brock nodded, but turned to Jessie again. "Would you mind if we went to visit James? Just to explain everything to him?"

Jessie thought about this for a while before nodding. "Fine, just don't freak him out, though."