Writing Seven Days of Terror
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RE: Seven Days of Terror (ch 10 mega pwn up)
Took me long enough, right?
After six months, I have finally, at long last, finished this beast of a chapter. Chapter seven pales in comparison to the length of this monster. This chapter is the largest chapter of every chapter written on PokeBeach, ever, and I'd wager that it alone is longer than most people's stories. Don't let that intimidate you; every word of this chapter is pure, unfiltered awesome.
All 20,000+ of them.
Things go from bad to worse fairly quickly. I never did get to the spot I'd planned, but the spot I stopped I am very pleased with. It gives me some material for chapter 11, which will not be done for a very long time (hopefully not six months, but you never know).
Please enjoy, and please review.
Everything was black. Darkness as far as the eye could see. To anyone else, one might be afraid of such intense shadow, but Misty had been here before.
Not being able to see, she felt her body where she'd been stabbed, and she was not surprised to find that her body was intact. "It's real this time... isn't it? Am I... am I really dead?" She took a moment to examine the rest of her body. "Nothing out of the ordinary...am I in that strange place again?"
Remembering the details of her last visit, she looked around for the door of light, and this time Misty was surprised to find that it was nowhere to be found. Feeling more comfortable, she walked aimlessly at an even pace, favoring movement over simply waiting for something to happen.
A few minutes passed, and still nothing happened. Misty decided that she would rather wait it out than waste energy walking - after all, if this really was for real, she would have an eternity to wait. Laying down on the surprisingly soft ground, she decided to sing to pass the time.
After fifteen minutes and several songs, Misty still found herself surrounded in total darkness. "Oh, come on!" she called into the darkness. "Is anyone there?! Geez..."
Almost instantly, a door was opened not five feet from where the girl lay, complete with the blinding white light Misty was familiar with. From within emerged the woman with the wand, slowly and carefully. Closing the door behind her, she lit up the surrounding area with a flick of her wand, allowing the two to see each other. She held her hand out for Misty to grab. Once doing so, the woman yanked Misty to her feet with minimal effort, and Misty was shocked at how strong she was.
"Took you long enough!" Misty stated, the annoyance clear in her voice. "What's the deal with making me wait so long?"
"I come when called," the woman explained in a sweet-sounding voice. "You did not call, so I did not come."
Misty took a minute to register what had just been said. "So you mean that I-- and you could have just-- that's..." she trailed off. "Ugh. Fine. Look, I don't know what I'm doing here, okay? I swear to Jirachi or Mew or whatever legendary Pokemon you'll have me swear to that it wasn't me that did this!"
"That is not necessary," the woman continued in the same tone. "I am well aware of the circumstances that brought you here."
The woman's voice seemed to have a positive effect on Misty, as she calmed down considerably after those two sentences. "Good. I just don't want to get screwed out of happiness because of a misunderstanding, you know?"
The woman nodded. "It is a perfectly common reaction. You are wondering if you will be reunited with Vaporeon in the manner you seek, yes?"
Misty tensed up considerably after these words. Of course she was wondering. She'd been wondering ever since she got here... wherever 'here' was. She thought back to the moments just before she died. "Tracey... oh my gosh, I'm so sorry... I can only imagine what you must be thinking now." She remembered the plea she sent with her living body's last breath. She'd forgiven him. She was sure of it. "Well, yeah," she said finally.
The woman said nothing right away; she began walking circles around the Water-type trainer, much to the young girl's confusion. After a few circles, she finally spoke. "I warned you about what would happen if you still had not forgiven Tracey at the time of your death."
"And I did!" Misty shouted. "I swear I did! But..."
"You heard voices which put doubts into your head."
"How did you know?"
"I put them there. I had to be sure that you were being completely honest with yourself, for both your sake as well as Vaporeon's. When you heard those voices, did you listen to them?"
Misty thought for a minute. It's not like it's easy to ignore a voice in your head, and even harder to ignore if the voice is clear as day, persistent, and not your own. Did she hear it? Absolutely. Did she listen to it?
"Of course not," Misty said matter-of-factly. "It called me a liar and I know for sure that I wasn't lying."
The woman nodded. "I know. I tested your resolve and you passed magnificently. However, you made one mistake - telling Tracey you didn't forgive him."
"Look, I told him about your stupid voice, okay? And if you know all this stuff, you should know that I told him that despite that voice and all its nagging, I still forgave him."
"You said you were no longer angry with him. There is a difference."
Misty's jaw dropped. Was she getting ruined on a technicality?
Not if she could help it. "You can't be serious!" she screamed. "That's not what I meant! If you're so smart, you'd know that! You can't tell me I'm screwed based on that!"
The woman suddenly flared with energy, causing Misty to fall over. She hovered slightly off the ground, her teal dress billowing around her. She pointed her wand at Misty and spoke in a voice Misty hardly recognized. "Yes I can. I am Rose, agent of death. This is but a mere speck of my strength. Your fate is as I deem it. Do I make myself clear?"
Misty looked on in horror. What did she get herself into? If she had really messed up her shot at a peaceful eternity by running her mouth and angering the apparent queen of... whatever this place was, she would never forgive herself, voice or no voice, Pokemon or no Pokemon. Unable to form the words, Misty quickly nodded her head, hoping that she'd incurred Rose's wrath for the last time.
Seeing Misty's compliant reply, Rose came back to the ground and continued on as if the previous spectacle hadn't happened at all. "Do not be afraid," she said, as if oblivious to the display she just put on not 30 seconds prior. "You are safe. Follow me..." Without warning, Rose turned and opened the door of darkness, despite the lack of a knob of any kind (at least, from what Misty could tell). Misty shielded her eyes in preparation for total light, but there was none. Instead, Misty found herself in a large field filled as far as the eye could see with flowers of all sizes, shapes, colors, and smells. Near the two of them was a huge body of the clearest water Misty had ever seen; it took everything she had not to just jump in. Misty went wide-eyed at the sheer number of Pokemon present here - in the skies, in the water, in the field - dozens and dozens of Pokemon as far as the eye could see. There were no fewer than 200 different species visible from where they stood, and Misty thought she saw at least 10 Pokemon she did not recognize. Far off in the distance, she could see mountains, which Misty was sure were filled with cave-dwelling and other mountainous Pokemon.
"What... what is this place?" Misty asked, still bewildered by the beauty of what she had seen.
"You tell me," Rose replied from behind her. Turning to see her, Misty was shocked once more to find a small cottage behind her. It was a small thing, dark blue in color, and it had windows. Rose went inside, leaving Misty no choice but to follow her. She flung open the door and was once again taken aback by what she saw inside. While it appeared small on the outside, the inside of it was incredibly spacious - it was bigger than the Cerulean Gym.
Misty took an instant liking to this place. "This is incredible!" she exclaimed as she investigated the large room, her feet clacking on the tile floor. On one side of this room was a playground that seemed to be exclusively for Water-types, as a small group of them were making use of it. In one corner of the room was what looked like a large hole that was filled with water. A tunnel could be seen underwater leading into the wall. "What is that?" she asked, curious.
"Perhaps I was not clear. This is all your creation, Misty. That hole is there because you willed it to be there. And not just that hole. This room, this house, this entire place is a product of your imagination."
"I... made this?" Misty asked to herself more than Rose. "I created this?" She looked around, noting the finer points of the world she'd subconsciously made - how the curtains over the windows were that perfect shade of blue she'd not been able to find in any department store. How the playground inside her new home was being used by some of the Water Pokemon she found the cutest. "Hold on a minute," she said after letting this information sink in. "This is... well, to say it's amazing seems like a horrible understatement. But where's Vaporeon?"
Rose crossed her arms. "You mean you still do not understand? This is your world. Your eternity. If you want to see Vaporeon, all you must do is want her to be here, and she will come."
"Just think of her, huh?" Misty said, closing her eyes.
While the image of her Vaporeon came quickly, her mind wandered to other things - in particular, her living friends, and how they would handle her demise. She felt a pang of guilt at what her last words to Tracey had been. "He probably doesn't think I've forgiven him," she thought. "I really hope he doesn't take it too hard. And Ash... how horrible it must be for you. Our relationship had only started... I'm sorry." She thought about May and Max. "I especially feel sorry for May. I just had to die when you needed me the most."
"Don't worry about it," a familiar voice said from behind her.
Snapping out of her trance, Misty turned around and was face to face with May. "Whoa!" she screamed, taking cover behind the woman with the wand. "W-what is she doing here?!"
Rose walked forward and began to circle the spirit of May, who merely smiled at Misty. "She is here because deep down, you wished she were. She is not specifically the girl you knew - she is merely a copy who is aware that you have died. Despite this, however, she cannot relay messages to the living world. You may talk about anything you want, even about who killed you; the living version of her will never know. She, as well as anyone else you summon, will retain all the memories they had up until the day you died. The summoned versions will remember everything you do with them from this point forward, so you may still have some kind of human companionship."
"You can do that?" Misty asked, timidly stepping forward to become better acquainted with her new friend, although she still did not have a grip on the situation. "Your power is that great?"
"Even greater still," Rose explained. "To put it in perspective for you, I personally created your very own universe and allowed you free reign over it. Even if you were to destroy me, you would only destroy this body. I exist in countless universes not unlike this one, helping good souls such as yourself become more knowledgeable with your new home."
"Yeah," Misty said absentmindedly, paying more attention to May's copy than what Rose had said. She felt a cold wetness on her leg, snapping her out of her trance. She looked down and saw Vaporeon nuzzling against her leg. Misty leaned down and pet the aqueous creature, causing her to leap into Misty's arms and purr softly. Misty held her Pokemon and could not help but let a few tears fall, but at long last, they were not tears of sadness. While she would miss her surviving friends and family, Misty was looking forward to the endless stories she would write with her new found companions... and Vaporeon, of course.
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
Day five at the mansion started like any other. James was up early, as usual, writing in his diary about yesterday's occurrences. He stopped for a moment to give his writing hand a rest. He looked out his window and admired the sun coming up over the horizon, coloring the ocean red-orange. "It's pretty," he commented to himself. "Sunrises usually are..." He continued writing, stealing glances outside on occasion to see if he might see Shelly again. "Don't know what I'm so worked up about," he thought, putting his focus back on his writing. "After what happened, I don't think she's dumb enough to risk getting hurt."
Satisfied with his entry, James put the pencil back in the notebook's binding and let out a yawn. "Maybe I'll get a little more shut-eye," he wondered, looking over at his still-snoozing Pokemon partner. Placing his notebook underneath his pillow, James turned off the nearby lamp and, with another yawn, closed his eyes.
Seconds later, a bloodcurdling scream was heard not too far down the hallway. Fast as lightning, James was on his feet and out the door, clad in nothing but his boxer shorts. Within moments he was joined by a stumbling May, who nearly ran into the wall in her rush to reach him. "Max? Max?? What is it? What's wrong?"
Max slowly backed out of Misty's room, his face frozen over in fear.
When May had come into his room asking him to wake Misty up, he'd almost told her to go do it herself and gone back to sleep before remembering his sister's predicament. Feeling a bit of shame at that, he voiced an apology (much to her confusion) and scrambled out of bed to go to his sister's aid. "Stay here. I'll get her," he said, stifling a yawn. He briskly walked to Misty's door, his self-imposed hurry an attempt at making up for his attitude. He knocked quietly at first; loud enough for Misty to hear in the event she was already awake, but quiet enough not to disturb anyone else. Hearing nothing from inside, he let himself in, eager to complete his task and get back to sleep.
Immediately upon entering, Max could tell something was wrong. The way she lay was a bit unnerving; the fact that he could not notice the steady rise and fall of her chest from breathing was slightly alarming. It wasn't until he went in for a closer look that his suspicions were confirmed.
Misty was dead.
Max stared in horror at her corpse, her light blue nightgown stained a sick, dark purple from her blood. He found himself looking into her eyes - those bright green eyes stared vacantly back at him, seeming as if to ask her killer, "Why? Why would you do this to me?"
Seeing a dead person would frighten anyone not used to seeing them. When it's your first time, and to top it all off, the body of someone you know, regardless of how long you've known them... well, sometimes it's just too much to hold in.
He screamed as loud as he could. All he could do was scream, the reality of the situation hitting him like a ton of bricks. Unable to look away from Misty's lifeless gaze, he backed away slowly, the panic in his mind quickly turning to fear. Who did this? Why do it? Of all people, why Misty? Am I next? All these questions were swirling through Max's head as he entered the hallway. A firm hand fell upon his shoulder, and in his shock he almost screamed again before a small part of his rational mind reminded him what time it was.
"Max! What's wrong?" James asked, looking into Misty's room, hoping to see what would spook Max so horribly.
And saw it he did. James walked over to Misty's dead body and nearly threw up at the sight of it. He quickly looked away, fighting the urge to blow chunks all over the place.
Ash, also awakened by Max's shriek, emerged from his bedroom more annoyed at being woken up rather than shock. He was a bit put off by the sight of the Hoenn siblings crying in each other's arms, and noticing Misty's door was open, he went inside. He was about to ask James what on earth he was doing there when he saw Misty's body.
For Ash, it was as if time stopped. Lying before him was his beloved. She'd been his for not 24 hours... and now she was dead. He didn't want to believe it at first, despite the obvious signs, even going so far as to check her pulse to be sure that it wasn't a false alarm like before.
She was really gone.
He took one of her cold hands in his and kissed it tenderly. He looked into her eyes... and the last thread of his dignity unraveled. He fell to his knees, still grasping her hand, and cried openly and unashamedly. James, still more composed than Ash was, silently let a few tears fall for the young man's loss and simultaneously thanked his lucky stars that it was not Jessie lying there.
James did or said nothing at first and let Ash have his cry. May and Max were still in an embrace outside the room, choosing to comfort each other rather than crowd Ash. After a good twenty minutes or so, after James was certain Ash's tears had finally stopped, he spoke up. "Ash," he said.
Ash, however, was not listening. While it was true that he was finished crying, he had already started thinking of how to go about getting the revenge kill on whoever dared to kill his girl; most likely, Ash reasoned, that blue-haired liar behind him.
He stood up slowly and gently placed Misty's hand on her bed. "Ash," James began again as Ash slowly turned to face him, his face stained red with tears, the very sight of James nearly enough to make him start crying all over again; his fists were clenched so hard his knuckles were white.
During Ash's little cry session, James wondered if Ash might lose control of his rational thought and simply assume the obvious - that James had killed Misty at some point and had just been discovered. It would explain why he hadn't visibly shed any tears, but if there was one thing James didn't need right now, it was a fight.
Unfortunately for him, however, Ash looked fully ready to give him one. James decided that he had better speak up before Ash did something drastic. "Ash, it's not--"
Too late. Almost instantly after opening his mouth, Ash swung as hard as he could at the older man, landing a fierce left hook right in the jaw. James staggered backwards and fell onto the floor, surprised at the young man's strength. He wiped a bit of blood away from his mouth, angry at Ash for letting his anger cloud his better judgment, and himself for not being on his guard.
Wasting no time, Ash dove in to deliver another punch, but this time James was ready for it; he easily rolled out of the way and got to his feet. "Ash, would you wait a second? I get that you're angry, but--" he blocked another swing and nearly fell onto Misty as a result. Man that kid could swing hard.
"Not gonna listen? All right," James said, strengthening his grip on Ash's arm. He pulled Ash in and slammed their heads together, causing Ash to lose his bearings. After that, all it took was one punch to the face to send the boy to the floor. James went over and lifted the boy by his shirt, ready to literally beat some sense into him, but Ash had other ideas.
"Wait! Wait!" he sputtered, flinching as James brought his fist back. When James didn't do anything, Ash slowly looked up at the older man. "I'm fine. Will you let me go?" James did as Ash asked, but did not let his guard down in case Ash foolishly tried to attack him again.
"Sorry about that," James said, backing away from Ash in order to give him a little breathing room.
"Yeah, me too," the black-haired youth said, wiping his own trail of blood from his mouth, and he offered his hand as proof of his sincerity, which James shook. "I was just mad, you know?" He looked over at Misty again. "I just saw her, and you, and..."
"I know. I know. And believe me, Ash, I'm no happier. We'll get to the bottom of this." He looked himself over and felt a bit of embarrassment now at having run out in his undergarments. "Let's get dressed and wake the others."
A nod of agreement from Ash, and James went back to his own room to get dressed, explaining the situation to May and Max on his way back. Ash gave his fallen lady one more look before leaving for his own room, closing the door behind him.
On the other side of the wall, Jessie sat in her own bed, having heard the entire spectacle.
Awakened by Max's scream, Jessie almost left her room to investigate when she quickly deduced why he was screaming in the first place, given his location. She felt horribly nauseous at the memory of it and vomited quietly in the trash can near her bed, hoping she would also purge the image of Misty asking her "why?" that was burned into her mind. She sat on her bed and cried quietly into her pillow, being careful not to alert the ones just outside her door.
"I... I killed her," she told herself between sobs, as if admitting it to herself would make her feel better. "I killed her! Why... why indeed. She didn't deserve to die! What was I thinking?"
She stayed quiet for the following minutes, trying to make out what was going on in the room next door. Hearing things die down, she slipped back into bed and did her best to dry her eyes in case anyone came knocking. Ten minutes later, someone did just that. Taking a quick glance in the mirror to make sure that it wasn't too obvious she'd been crying, she opened the door just a crack and peeked out with one eye. "What is it?" she asked her visitor.
"Ash wants everyone up and in the main hall in five minutes," Max explained.
"Fine," Jessie replied before closing the door in the confused young man's face. She turned and leaned against the door and looked at her bed next to the wall. Giovanni's decision to make all the rooms other than his own identical in design was doing her no favors, as it reminded her again of what she had done. Jessie sighed and tried to think of other things as she went to get dressed.
Ten minutes later, everyone was gathered in the main hall as Ash had requested. Max, May, and Tracey were sitting on the couch nearest the stairs. Brock and James were sitting on the sofa next to them; Jessie and Shelly sat opposite them on the other sofa. No one had said a word since arriving, as Ash was slowly pacing around the furniture, taking long looks at each of his friends in turn. Everyone knew what Ash was going to say - that is, everyone except Tracey, who merely thought Ash was simply waiting for Misty to arrive before starting, although getting stared at was weird, and Brock, who was thinking a similar thought.
Ash may have looked calm and collected on the surface, but on the inside, it was taking everything he had to keep his composure. He didn't want to believe that any of his friends was a killer. He trusted them all with his life, but given the circumstances, he couldn't afford not to suspect them at first. After all, he thought, it was possible they did it. But who would want Misty dead? Why Misty? It was no accident - it was very obvious that Misty was murdered. Was it simply a random killing, or was it planned? Ash cringed at the thought of one of his friends systematically killing them all off, and couldn't help asking himself if perhaps he was next.
After five minutes of nothing but looks and determining how he would start, Ash finally decided to start talking to his friends. He knew it was going to be bad no matter how he put it, so he decided not to mince words. He started with the most obvious thing.
"Misty's dead."
Ash continued to look around and noted the others' reactions to this. As expected, May, Max, and James didn't react too much to the news. Jessie looked like she was going to cry at a moment's notice. Shelly seemed to be relatively unfazed by it.
Tracey went wide-eyed. "No..." he whimpered as he jumped out of his seat and ran up the stairs before James had a chance to stop him.
"Let him go," Ash instructed.
Ash was a bit put off by how well Brock managed to keep his composure. If he was shocked at all by the news of Misty's death, he didn't show it at all. "Last night?" he asked, as if Ash had just announced to everyone that he'd gone to bed.
"Yes, last night," Ash confirmed, trying to drown out Tracey's muffled, sorrowful cries. "And it was no accident. She didn't die of natural causes. She was murdered," Ash said, glancing over at the two women.
Jessie froze. Was she caught? Did he know the truth? She did everything Shelly instructed. She quickly thought back to her actions last night, after she'd done the deed. Knife disposed of? Check. Clothes disposed of? Check. Own body cleansed of any traces of blood? Check. So what did she forget? Perhaps there was something Shelly forgot to mention. Or, Jessie hoped, it was just an innocent glance with no accusations attached.
"Who would do such a thing?" Brock asked, still as calm as ever.
"That's what I'd like to know," Ash said. "However, it's not like we have nothing to go on. We know... that one of us killed her. And yes, I said us. While I know that I didn't do it, and I hope you guys will all believe me when I say that, I know that it's possible that I could have done it."
"Do you have any ideas who did?" Shelly asked.
"Funny you should mention that," Ash said, turning to face the girls, "because as a matter of fact, I do. You see, I came here with my friends. I trust them all. I can't think of any reason they would want Misty dead. As for James, he saved Misty's life. Misty asked me to stop being so suspicious of everything. It ended up being her last request, and I intend on honoring it the best I can. I don't think James did it either. Meowth is also off the hook because one, he's too small, and two, his fur would have been everywhere. So that leaves you two."
"Jessie is innocent!" James roared, bursting from his seat, startling the two teens from Hoenn.
This came as a shock to the younger of the accused women. "Why is he defending me?" Jessie thought. "Why does he even care?"
Ash turned to the male Rocket. "Calm down, would you? I didn't say she did it. Hear me out," Ash said, turning back to the accused. "Now, as I was going to say, this is not an accusation of guilt. I'm just putting my feelings out in the open so everyone knows where I stand. You two are the only ones I could feasibly see committing this crime."
Jessie continued to weep quietly as the young man spoke. "Jessie, listen to me. We've known each other for a long time. Granted, you and James are the criminals here, but let's be honest. Your chance of killing me is a long shot on a good day. Given your track record, if you would have done it, you probably would have ended up cutting yourself, or making a huge mess, or something. Still, it is possible you did it."
Shelly, who had remained mostly silent up until this point, couldn't help but let out a chuckle at the image of Jessie trying to stab Misty, but failing and cutting herself in a very comical fashion.
"And you," Ash started again, directing his attention to the redhead. "I don't even know what to think with you. I just met you a couple days ago and the only thing I know about you is your name. And you're a treasure hunter? What kind of job is that? I swear, everything about you screams suspicious. I gave you the benefit of the doubt before - I'm not from around here. Maybe treasure hunting is some kind of sanctioned profession in Sinnoh. I don't know. The only person you ever really talk to is Jessie, and you guys are gone most of the day anyway doing who knows what. That's why I suspect you most of all. You're unknown to me."
"Shelly wouldn't do anything like that," Jessie said quietly, though the instant the words came from her lips she found herself laughing on the inside at that very notion, almost audibly doing so before catching herself. Of course Shelly was capable of doing this. Who was she kidding? Best to keep up the façade for now, though. "I've known her longer than you. We're friends. There's no way she'd do something so horrible. And I sure didn't kill her, so maybe you oughta start interrogating your friends."
"We've been Misty's friends for years!" May exclaimed. "How can you even suggest such a horrible thing?!"
"Doesn't feel good to be accused, does it?" Shelly said, arms crossed. "Well, unlike you kids, I'm not going to start raising my voice and proclaiming my innocence. I know what I have and haven't done, although I will thank Jessie for coming to my defense," she continued, giving Jessie a one-armed hug for emphasis. "We could sit here for the next three days and point fingers at each other, or we could use our heads and try to figure out just what happened. Did you even consider the fact that Misty may have committed suicide?"
"No way that's possible," James said. "She was stabbed multiple times. She couldn't have done that to herself. There would have been blood all over her hands, and the weapon would still be there."
"Well, aren't we just an ace crime solver."
By now, Tracey had come back downstairs and taken his seat. It was plainly obvious he'd had a very intense crying session, and he secretly hoped no one had heard him.
When he'd first heard Misty was dead, he couldn't believe it. "There's no way," he thought. "How in the world could Misty manage to die overnight?"
He charged up the stairs two at a time and bolted down the hallway to Misty's door. This was all just a cruel joke. It had to be. There was no way, no way, no way Misty was really dead. He threw open the door and ran to the young girl's side.
"It... it can't be." She was dead. He looked at the cuts she suffered and for a moment asked the question everyone else was asking - why? Why her? Who could do such a thing? He fell to his knees and cried loudly into the dead girl's sheets. "She's really gone. What am I going to do now?" he asked himself between sobs. He thought back to the conversation they had a few days prior:
Tracey was wide-eyed. "So you mean to tell me that the only one who knows what really happened..."
"...is you," Misty finished. "Please don't tell Ash or anyone else. I don't want him to worry about me."
"He's going to worry regardless of whether or not you tell him. But I won't say anything. You have my word."
Tracey tried his best not to cry even more than he already was. "Stupid, stupid, stupid! What am I gonna do now??" As he began to dry his eyes, he weighed his options. "Do I tell him? Everyone thinks she was attacked. I'm the only one who knows the truth. They're her friends. They have a right to know! Misty kept it a secret for a reason, though... I'm sure she planned on telling them soon. What to do, what to do... well, everyone's together, so I guess I could tell them since she... won't be able to. I'd better get back downstairs..."
He rose to his feet, making sure he didn't look at the dead girl again for fear he'd have another outburst. He dried his eyes as best he could, took a deep breath, and walked back to the group as calmly as he could.
"I... I'd like to make an announcement," he said once Shelly had finished speaking. Instantly, all eyes were on him, and he regretted bringing attention to himself like that. "It's about Misty."
"What is it?" Ash questioned, showing a bit more interest than before. "Is the body okay?"
Tracey felt a chill run down his spine. How could he talk so freely about this? "Yes, it's fine. It's not really about that. It's about when she was attacked."
"What about it?" Ash pressed him. Why was Tracey bringing this up?
"She wasn't attacked. She... she tried to kill herself."
Ash stood and looked at Tracey, completely dumbfounded. What did he just say? "Mind repeating that?"
"Misty tried to kill herself before we came here." Feeling a little more confident after having said it, he recounted the conversation with Misty that he'd had the day they left Kanto.
"There, you see?" Shelly said to no one in particular once Tracey had finished talking. "She tried to kill herself once before and failed. Who's to say she didn't succeed this time?"
Ash was on her in no time at all, delivering a hard backhand across the redhead's face. "How dare you!" Jessie made no move to assist, for fear of getting hit as well. James lunged over the table and struggled to pry the teenager off, who was laying blow after blow on a flailing Shelly. Tracey got up to help, and together the two older guys were able to restrain the young man from Pallet Town.
Amazingly, Shelly seemed to shrug off the damage. "Huh. Second time since I've been here that a man hit me while I'm off guard. How unsportsmanlike you Kanto men are."
Ash cursed at her. "I don't care what your opinion of me is." He struggled in the tight grip of Tracey and James. "Let me go!" He took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "I'm cool. I'm all right." He relaxed his muscles in an effort to show he was sincere, and he was released. "I'm going home," he said, marching upstairs without another word to anyone else.
On his way to his room, Ash thought about what Tracey had said. "Is it true? Were you so depressed that you tried taking your own life?" He quickly shut that voice out of his head. "Why couldn't you tell me? We're supposed to tell each other our problems, right? Man..." Upon entering his own room, he rummaged through his suitcase and found his phone. Turning it on, he made to dial the police department in Pallet Town, but he couldn't get a signal. "What the heck?" he asked the phone. "Why won't you work?" He tried pressing random buttons in an effort to get a signal, but no matter what he did, all he found was interference. "No way," he whispered as he realized what this meant. He ran to the top of the stairs. "Everyone get your phones!" he shouted on his way back down. "Get your phones. I want to go home right now. Get your phones and get us out of here."
"What's wrong with yours?" Max asked, taking his phone out of his pocket.
"It doesn't work. All I'm getting is some kind of garbled signal. I don't think it'll work from way out here. Is your phone working? Isn't Hoenn closer to Orre than Kanto? Yours should work, right?"
Max shook his head. "Sorry, Ash. I'm getting the same problem."
"Me too," May chimed in after managing to dial her home number.
"Well this is just awesome!" Ash exclaimed. "Now we're really stuck here. I... I don't even know what to say. I know I don't feel like having fun now that my best friend just got killed. What about you guys?"
Silence.
"Yeah, I didn't think so," he continued. "And we still have three days left. Just.... awesome." He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Do whatever you want. Just leave me alone," Ash said, leaving once more up the stairs and out of sight.
When Ash was gone, James went and grabbed Jessie by her arm. "We need to talk," he said, forcing her onto her feet. She was a bit surprised at his sudden move, but she did not struggle against his hold. He led them to the library, and after making sure no one had followed them and no one else was near, locked the doors behind him. Then he turned to his partner and asked her a simple question. "Did you do this?"
Jessie scoffed and turned away. "Like you care," she said under her breath.
James was taken aback at her reaction. "Jessie, what's wrong?" he asked her, the sharp tone of his voice completely gone now. "What have I done to deserve this treatment? You've been avoiding me more and more lately, and it's driving me insane because I don't know why! Please, tell me."
"What do you care?" Jessie said more audibly, although she still did not face him. A pause. "The boss told me, you know."
James was confused. "What? What are you talking about? What did he tell you? I don't understand!"
In an instant, she spun around and slapped him across his face. She had begun crying, and she was breathing heavily. "Oh, cut the act, James!" she fumed, still keeping somewhat quiet out of respect for the house's other inhabitants. "He told me how you've been asking him over and over for a replacement partner for years. He told me that you disagree with everything I do. He told me you said I abuse you and Meowth. He told me everything, James. I thought...we..." she trailed off, unable to speak through her tears.
James could do nothing but stare back at her, both heartbroken at seeing her cry and furious that Giovanni had been the one to put these thoughts into her head. "Jessie, I... I never said any of those things! Why on earth would I ever want to be away from you?! Jessie, I love you! You know that!"
"I thought I did," she said quietly. "I didn't want to believe it. I really didn't. I cried when he told me. Shelly came into my room and asked me what was the matter, and I told her what he told me. Do you know what she said? She said you told her the same exact thing!"
"What?!" he roared. He took a moment to keep his anger in check and silently apologized to the others for raising his voice unnecessarily, then placed his hands on Jessie's shoulders and continued. "Jessie. Do you honestly believe that girl you just met over me? Think of how long we've known each other. Do you remember our vacation a few months ago in Olivine City? The Festival of Flowers last year? Shoot, like two days before we got this mission, I bought you flowers - pink carnations. Your favorite. Can you really sit there and tell me that you're going to just forget all of that because of what a girl that you haven't even known for two weeks said to you?" He wiped away a few of her tears with his hands.
She stayed silent. He did have a point, she decided, but... "It's not just her, James. The boss also said y--" She was cut off by James, who had brought the surprised girl in for a kiss. It was not a hard kiss, but very tender, filled with love and adoration. It was the kind of kiss that made her melt into his arms on any other occasion, and James was praying that it would help him get his point across. Out of pure surprise, she made no movements at first, not being used to feeling his soft lips on her own. It was a feeling that she had missed, she noted; the last time he'd kissed her like this was before they left for Orre. Jessie also noted that she was slowly starting to lose the ability to think rationally. James' kisses were like a white-hot flame, lighting her up like no one else could. She loved being kissed that way. It was her special reminder, and as far as she was concerned in this situation, irrefutable proof, that he loved her.
After a few tense moments, she kissed him back. She leaned into his strong frame and threw her arms around him, so very glad that everything she'd been told about the man she loved was nothing more than horrible lies. James knew that she accepted him now, and he separated from her before things got too out of hand, much to the magenta-haired beauty's regret. Soon after he did so, however, she started to cry again.
"What? What's wrong?" he asked.
She didn't want to say it. As much as she'd not wanted to ever say it, or even think it, she had to. She knew she'd messed up, and she was afraid that if she let James know just how badly she messed up, that he would leave her. Putting her faith in James's level-headedness and good judgment, she spoke. "I messed up bad, James," she began. She told him about her nightmares, and Shelly's supportiveness... and then she started to trail off when she got to the most important part. "I... told Shelly about our mission."
James froze upon hearing those words. Was she serious? Of all the people she could have told... "You did what? You didn't. Please tell me you didn't..."
She buried her face in his shoulder. "I'm so sorry, James. Please don't leave me..." she begged.
He wrapped his arms around her, a bit confused at her request. "Leave you? Jessie, I understand. It's okay. I'm not going anywhere," he reassured her, giving her a comforting squeeze. "What did she say when you told her?"
"She said she'd help me."
Now James was even more confused. "Why would she say that?"
"She said we were friends, and she didn't like those twerps anyway. Her words, not mine."
"That's awkward." He paused, not knowing how he should ask his next question. He didn't want to believe Jessie was a murderer, but there was only one way to be sure. "So, then... last night..."
She couldn't hold it back anymore. She cried hard into him, not caring who heard her. "I don't want to do this anymore, James! I don't care what happens! I'll be fine as long as I'm with you. Please, you have to help me," she pleaded, tears falling freely down her face.
"I swear it. On my life, I swear we'll get out of this. Together. Okay?" He kissed her again. "Does Shelly know that you've had a change of heart?"
"No," she said, quieting down a bit. "I'm almost afraid to tell her. If she tells the rest of them what I did, Ash will kill me, and I really wish I was only saying that figuratively. And if they find out that you know and didn't tell them..."
"Don't worry about that. We'll keep this our little secret for now. We do need to get out of here before Shelly decides to start making good on her promise to help you, though, and I know just the thing. Meowth and I found a boat a few miles out. It'll be a tight fit, but we can do it. We can sneak out tonight once Shelly is asleep. We'll make a break for the shore on the opposite side of the island, get on, and drive. What do you say?"
"It sounds like it could work," Jessie said, her lips curling into the faintest hint of a smile. James, happy he was able to get his love out of her sad mood, was grinning from ear to ear.
"It can't fail. We'll let everyone know over the course of the day whenever we get the chance - meet by the front door late tonight, like 11 PM? Take nothing with you. No way anyone will refuse a chance at freedom, and if they won't listen to me, they'll listen to Ash."
"Yeah," Jessie said, completely grinning now. "It'll work. I know it will."
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
Meanwhile, at the base of the waterfall...
"What a day this has turned out to be, huh?" Meowth asked, skipping a rock over the water's edge.
"Indeed," Shelly said, tossing a rock of her own. "Any ideas on which one of them killed the girl?"
Meowth shrugged. "Eh. To be honest, I'd have thought you'd be more the killin' type. Jessie and James, they're too soft. I don't think they could ever actually kill someone."
"What about you?" Shelly asked, looking at him intently. "Could you kill someone?"
"Nah," Meowth said calmly as he skipped another rock. "I'd go nuts from the guilt."
Shelly sighed and watched the amazingly adept feline skip rock after rock over the water.
A talking Meowth. The only one of his kind. The one bridge enabling crystal-clear communication between humans and Pokemon. She closed her eyes and fondly recalled when she first met him. Not expecting to find a Pokemon on a supposedly deserted island, she screamed when she'd entered the kitchen only to find the small creature preparing a sandwich, and nearly fainted when it shouted back at her.
"Stay away!" he screeched, claws bared.
"It talks!" she shouted. "It... it talks!"
Feeling she wasn't a threat, Meowth retracted his claws, not surprised at all by the woman's outburst. "Yeah, I talk," he said, returning to his sandwich. "So, what's your name?"
"Shelly," she answered, taking a seat at the table. "A talking Meowth, huh? Don't see that every day."
"Yeah, I suppose." He hopped onto a chair and began to eat his sandwich. Shelly merely watched him eat, and Meowth started feeling uncomfortable. He absently looked around as he chewed, purposely avoiding eye contact with the redhead. Before long, however, his patience reached its limit. "You got a problem or something?" he asked, finally looking at her.
"You're just... fascinating," she admitted, not taking her eyes off him. "Are you here by yourself, little guy?"
"Nah. I got two humans with me. We're a team," he said between bites of his sandwich. "What a pair they are. They're downstairs right now. You wanna meet 'em?"
"No thank you," she replied politely. "I'm sure I'll meet them soon." She got up from her seat and went to the large refrigerator, perusing its contents for a moment before deciding on a bowl of medium size. Taking a spoon from the silverware drawer, she returned to her seat and began to consume the bowl's contents, slurping it loudly off the spoon. She sighed contentedly.
"What's that?" Meowth asked, curious.
"Gelatin," she answered. "Strawberry flavored. I made it last night. Want some?" she offered a spoonful of the stuff to him. He made to reach for the spoon, but she moved it out of his reach. "Let me," Shelly said with a smile. "You're so cute!"
Submitting to the woman's wishes, Meowth let himself be fed. "This is great!" he exclaimed, happily opening his mouth for another spoonful, which Shelly happily gave. They carried on general conversation until they were both surprised by James crashing through the door...
Shelly opened her eyes and smiled. This truly was a shame, she thought to herself. She briefly thought about aborting the whole thing, but she knew what she was getting into when she signed up. She'd been told not to get emotionally attached, and yet, here she was, sentencing someone to death whose only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Despite all this, however, she truly felt remorseful about what was about to happen. With a heavy heart, she nodded towards the Weavile lying in wait nearby. She reached down and scratched behind the feline's head. "I'm really sorry, Meowth," she said, a tear forming in her eye.
Meowth tossed another rock with expert precision - this one skipped five times. "Sorry? What are you t--" he looked down in horror at the large claws that had torn clear through him, pierced straight through his heart.
Shelly winced. "Please forgive me," she said, and turned away as the Weavile impaled Meowth through the midsection with another one of its claws briefly before ripping them apart, tearing the poor cat in two.
She gave her friend a moment of silence and offered a silent prayer for a safe journey to the next life. When she was finished, she removed a Poke Ball from her belt and released its contents, an enormous mammoth with light green fur and tusks that extended nearly three feet from its body. It towered over the young woman and the Weavile, who was puny in comparison to this beast. "Dig a hole," she commanded. "Make it deep. Weavile!" she barked.
He ignored her, appalled at what he'd just done. He looked down at Meowth's torn corpse and his own bloody claws. How could his brother have done this so easily? Had he no conscience? No remorse? He'd warned his older brother about just blindly following orders. He was a sentient being just as much as Giovanni was - what gave him the right to order them around and expect nothing but complete and total compliance? Sometimes enough was enough.
Still, Weavile considered, he was between a rock and a hard place. He could choose to follow this... human's orders until this whole ordeal was finished, then head back home for more brutal training. Being forced to fight his friends until he nearly killed them was not something he looked forward to every single day. At least then he'd had his brother to keep him company, but now he'd gone and got himself killed. And it wasn't like he could blame that boy. He'd seen him do it, and yet he felt no need to exact revenge upon the lad. When the boy and his girl had left, Weavile had gone to the body of his brother, hoisted it up, and carried it out of the clearing where it all happened. He buried him a short distance away from there and said a few words; he nearly slashed Shelly's arm when she tried to stop him.
His second option wasn't that favorable either: rebel and run. He had no doubts in his mind he could take Shelly one on one, but her other Pokemon would likely tear him limb from limb. Even if he had succeeded in eliminating her Pokemon, what could he do? He couldn't just leave. He had no idea how to make that large water vehicle move, and even if he did, how would he survive out here? The food in Giovanni's house would only last for so long, and if Giovanni came back and found him there, well... that'd be the end of that.
He briefly entertained the idea of appealing to Ash and his friends, but he was pretty sure that plan would fail thanks to the impenetrable wall that he himself had erected. Still, a shot at freedom was awfully tempting, and he was prepared to do whatever it took to be free... even if it meant learning to communicate in the humans' language. If that Meowth could do it, why couldn't he?
His train of thought was interrupted by a blow to the back of his head. "Weavile! What's the matter with you?! Pay attention!"
The Pokemon sped front and center and gave Shelly his attention, not wanting to anger her any more than he already had. "When he's finished digging, bury him," she instructed, pointing behind her. "No rough stuff. He was my friend. Is that clear, both of you?" Both Pokemon nodded. "Get to work."
She turned away from them and leaned against a tree. Pulling out her radio, she made a call and waited for the person on the other end to answer. "This is Shelly. Meowth is dead...yes, sir. Jessie took care of her, actually...yes, sir. As far as I know, they're not speaking to each other. By the way, Ash killed one of your Weavile. Just thought you'd like to know, sir... no, sir. The other one is fine. He's quite the little demon. He could probably take them all out by himself." She began to experience some static and tried fine-tuning the frequency to eliminate the noise. "Sir? Are you there?" After trying for a few more seconds, she turned the radio off with a huff. "That Magnezone... must have fallen asleep again. Man. Giovanni said it was lazy, but come on. Can't it follow one simple order?"
As soon as she clicked the radio off, she was poked in the side by Weavile, who pointed a dirty, bloody claw over to where he'd buried his kill. Shelly walked over to the newly covered hole and offered one last prayer. "Get cleaned up," she told the smaller Pokemon as she recalled the larger one into the Poke Ball. "Our job isn't done yet."
Shelly took another Poke Ball and threw it down; Luxray emerged in a flash. It let out a low growl, looking for its next opponent. "I know you're just itching for some action, huh?" she said, petting it. "Well, you're probably going to get some today. I want you to wait here. Anywhere in the area is fine, just stay hidden. If any human other than me shows up here, kill them. Do what ever is necessary. Understood?"
Excited at this job he'd just been given, Luxray grunted a feral roar, his fur crackling with electricity. Yeah, this was just what he'd been waiting for.
"Excellent. Don't let me down," she said as Luxray bounded behind some trees and came to rest on the ground. She looked over at Weavile and saw him frolicking in the water, enjoying the coolness on his skin. After what he'd done, he needed a good cleansing. "Weavile!" she snapped. "Did I say you could rest? We have a job to do!"
Instantly, Weavile jumped from the water and shook himself off, and gave Shelly a weak salute as she put him back in his Poke Ball. "Honestly," she said as she left Giovanni's Luxray to wait.
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
"...May she rest in peace."
The five remaining friends stood a few meters out into the ocean, where they each had the opportunity to say their final farewells to the departed Gym Leader.
The decision to give her an aquatic burial was a unanimous one. They saw it fitting that since she had spent her entire life around Water-type Pokemon, having her final resting place be the ocean she loved would do her a great honor. As Brock, the last to speak, finished saying his piece, he and Ash towed Misty's body a few more meters out to sea. Ash look one last look at the girl before submitting her to the deep, and silently swore he would pay back her killer in kind.
"You okay?" Brock asked when Ash did not immediately begin to swim back to shore.
"I'm fine," Ash said, though that wasn't entirely the truth. His mind was still trying to figure out who killed Misty. He'd decided on Jessie or Shelly, but couldn't narrow it down to just one of them.
Jessie and Misty were never the best of friends, or even slightly friends. They weren't really enemies, either; more acquaintances than anything else. After she and Ash had stopped traveling together, it had been two years before she even saw Jessie again, and it wasn't even as a member of Team Rocket. She and Ash had run into her at the annual Festival of Flowers two years ago; the two females had ended up partnered together in the Petal Cup, taking second place.
"She had a lot of fun," Ash remembered, noting that Misty had even invited Jessie to walk with the two of them for the rest of the evening. As soon as the festival was over, though, it was back to normal - Jessie and James had shown up in uniform not a week later - at a picnic Misty had prepared for her and Ash, no less - spewing out the latest motto and plans to "steal dat Pikachu," going on about their most recent plan for five minutes straight before James had realized that Pikachu wasn't even present.
Jessie had never shown any sort of open hatred for Misty, not even in the days leading up to Misty's death. James had said he and Jessie weren't acting as members of Team Rocket, and James's behavior certainly reflected that. He talked sports and cooking with Brock, shared battling strategies with Max, and once he and Tracey got together, they'd never shut up about their drawings. He was friendly, even gentlemanly, towards Misty and May, despite not having much in common with them. Jessie, however, was completely the opposite. She socialized openly only with Shelly, and only if they were alone; if anyone else came into the room, she immediately shut down - from outgoing to ultimate introvert in the blink of an eye.
Still, the fact remained that Jessie worked for Team Rocket, and despite James's actions, Ash could not bring himself to completely trust the two of them. He did not want to believe that Jessie would kill someone who had once called her a friend and meant it, but the fact that she was there, and her actions as a member of Team Rocket, cemented her as a suspect in Ash's mind. A small suspect, but a suspect nonetheless.
Shelly, however, was a different story. From day one, Ash had expressed distrust in the redhead, if for no other reason than she'd already been there when they arrived. Everything that girl did was a secret. Every day, she would leave for hours on end, and when she came back, she would grab something from the refrigerator and disappear without a word into her room. She spoke only when spoken to; she was even more reserved than Jessie. It was weird in every sense of the word, and Ash did not care what she did when she left. One less weirdo bothering him and his friends, he'd said when Max had asked him about Shelly's mysterious departures.
The way she acted was another strike against her. To describe her as aloof would be an understatement - it wasn't that Shelly didn't like any of them; she just plain did not care. She spoke her mind regardless of who might be offended or hurt, and it was this part of her that made Ash the angriest.
On a personal level, Shelly didn't seem to hate Misty, either, but that was only because they didn't speak to each other - if anything, she seemed to actually be rude towards May more than anyone. Why Shelly singled out that poor girl, no one knew. If May had been the one who ended up dead, there would be no doubt in Ash's mind that Shelly was the culprit, but May wasn't dead; Misty was. Even though there was no obvious hatred between Misty and Shelly, Ash was still prepared to believe Jessie, a person who he knew for several years, over a lady he just met not one week prior.
A splash of water from Brock brought Ash out of his thoughts. "Hey, Ash!" he shouted.
"What? What is it?" Ash responded back. "Sorry, I was just... thinking about things."
"Let's get back to shore. Max is freaking out and pointing to something."
No sooner had the two friends gotten on dry land did Max start running his mouth. "You guys!" he shouted. "Look up there! On top of the mansion!"
The lot of them got a little closer to get a look at what Max was pointing at. Hovering a few feet over the roof of the mansion was a semi-large, gray Pokemon, with a tall yellow antenna on its head and three large magnets protruding from its sides. A dull, but clearly audible, buzzing noise could be heard over the calm washing of the water onto the sand.
"What in the world is that?!" Ash yelled.
"Shhh!" Max quickly quieted him down. "It's a Magnezone. When you take Magneton inside this one mountain in Sinnoh, it might evolve into Magnezone with a little training. It's the only place in the world that is capable of evolving Magneton. Ash, I'll bet you anything it's that Magnezone that's causing our phones to jam. Someone must have put it there. Just whatever you do, Ash--"
"Hey!" Ash screamed, picking up a nearby rock and throwing it at the dormant Magnezone. "Hey!"
"Ash, what are you doing?!" Max scolded him. "Stop! Don't wake it up! Do you have any idea how strong its Electric attacks are?"
"It was sleeping?" Ash gulped upon seeing the bright red eye in the center of the Pokemon light up shortly after being hit with the rock. Judging that the black-haired boy was the one who'd disturbed its rest, Magnezone began charging its energy, visible crackles and sparks emerging from its body.
"RUN!" Max shouted, grabbing his sister's hand before making a beeline for the front door as fast as his legs would carry them. Ash paused for a moment before breaking into a dash, diving to avoid the tremendous bolt of lightning that was shot by Magnezone, hitting the sand, accompanied by a large burst. Lucky for them, Magnezone did not continue its attack; it either thought that it had vaporized Ash with its impressive attack, or simply did not care to pursue its attacker. After all, Magnezone had its orders, too.
The group of teens looked in amazement at the smoldering crater in the sand Magnezone's attack caused. Without a word, they all scrambled to get inside the safety of the mansion, each attempting to catch their breath after nearly being fried.
Wasting no time, Ash ran up the stairs and attempted to open Shelly's door, but found it to be locked. "Spread out! Find Shelly!" he yelled, coming back downstairs.
"Ash, hold on," Tracey started. "Mind telling us what's going on?"
"No time," Ash said, starting to head down a hallway. "Max, you stay with May. Take her into her room and don't let her out of your sight for one second. Brock, check downstairs. Tracey, go down that hallway and check every room. I don't care if you guys have to drag her here by her ears. You two can overpower her no sweat. I want to see her on that couch ASAP," he barked, disappearing into a room before briefly re-emerging. "And find Team Rocket! I want all three of them here as well."
Almost as if on cue, the sound of a door opening was heard upstairs. Jessie and James beame visible at the top of the stairs, arm in arm. Not expecting to see everyone staring back at him, he froze at the top of the stairs, following only after Jessie yanked him onward. No one said anything to anyone, even after the two humans had reached the bottom.
"What?" Jessie said, calm as ever. "You guys look like you've seen a ghost."
Just then, Ash came from having checked the sauna. "Jessie!" he shouted, running full speed in case she decided to take off. "Jessie, I'll make this quick. I don't think you killed Misty. I'm sorry I ever doubted you."
Now it was Jessie's turn to freeze. What happened that made him change his mind so quickly? She looked around the room briefly, hoping doing so would not make her look suspicious. Excluding Misty, everyone else was present and accounted for, except...
"Where's Shelly?" she asked.
"Meowth too," James added.
"We were hoping you could tell us," Ash said, catching his breath. "I haven't seen her since early this morning..."
"I don't know where she is. She must have left while James and I were upstairs."
"This is serious, Jessie!" Ash practically yelled at her, nearly pushing her out of anger. "Maybe you don't understand what's going on. Well, Jessie, let me tell you. My best friend is dead. Another one of my close friends is now blind and who knows what else happened to her. Is it sinking in yet, Jessie? I almost got fried out there by another Pokemon I've never seen or even heard of before today. Shelly killed Misty. I'm sure of it. If Meowth is with her, he's in danger, too. We have to save him. You and Shelly have been thick as thieves since we got here, so don't even try telling me that you have no idea where she is. Lives are at stake, Jessie. Where is she?!"
Jessie paused as she took in what Ash said. She was off the hook for Misty's murder. She'd been worried about being found out this entire time, and now Ash was clearing her of suspicion without her having done a thing. She thought a moment about this. She'd taken a life... committed murder. She knew that Shelly was entirely innocent. She knew, and she was the only one that knew, and at this point, it wasn't likely anyone would believe her if she were to come to the redhead's defense. Still, Jessie was torn. Despite being talked into taking an innocent life, Jessie still considered Shelly her friend. If she told Ash where Shelly was, Ash would probably attack her... maybe even kill her. It was true she didn't know Shelly's exact whereabouts, but it was also true that she could guess her location. In fact, Jessie surmised, everyone else may have already had the same guess as her regarding where Shelly was. Did she link herself to the murder by claiming she had no idea? Ash did say that he was sure Shelly was the killer... and Jessie needed to talk to Shelly as well. As much as it hurt her to put her friend's life in danger, Ash was right about Meowth being in danger as well. She had no choice.
"...She's probably at the waterfall. If Meowth is gone, then he's with her. There's no question."
"Thank you," the boy replied, turning to the others. "Max, stay here with May. Brock, Tracey, you're with me. Let's go. If we hurry, we can still save him."
"Wait!" Jessie exclaimed as the three guys went to leave. "I'm coming with you. I have to see her..."
"No. You stay. I'm sorry, Jessie, but everything is just way too suspicious right now. I'm taking no chances. James - don't let Jessie out of your sight."
"Hold on a moment, Ash," James said. Now was a good a time as any... right? "Listen. There's a boat a mile or so away from the waterfall. We could take it and get out of here, when Shelly's asleep. What do you think?"
"Can we all fit?" Ash asked, interested in this plan.
"I'm not sure. All of us here, it's gonna be a tight fit for sure. The only problem is we'd not be able to bring our luggage, but this is the only idea I've got for escaping. Otherwise we're stuck waiting at least three days... and who knows what she'll do in that time. I don't want to see any more death," James said, giving Jessie's hand a squeeze.
"Anyone have any objections?" Ash said, looking around for signs of dissent, and finding none.
"We leave at 11:00," James instructed. "Take nothing but the clothes on your back. If you absolutely must, take one small item. I'll be taking my journal. Nothing larger than that... understood? Leave in pairs. It's too dangerous to go alone. I'll go with Jessie. Tracey... you go with May. If something happens, you may need to carry her, so be on your guard. Max, go with Ash and Brock. Guys, same story - if worse comes to worst, pick him up and run. Understood?"
(you guys should be used to the word limit monster by now - to the next post!)
Took me long enough, right?
After six months, I have finally, at long last, finished this beast of a chapter. Chapter seven pales in comparison to the length of this monster. This chapter is the largest chapter of every chapter written on PokeBeach, ever, and I'd wager that it alone is longer than most people's stories. Don't let that intimidate you; every word of this chapter is pure, unfiltered awesome.
All 20,000+ of them.
Things go from bad to worse fairly quickly. I never did get to the spot I'd planned, but the spot I stopped I am very pleased with. It gives me some material for chapter 11, which will not be done for a very long time (hopefully not six months, but you never know).
Please enjoy, and please review.
Chapter Ten: Staring Death Down
Warning: Character death
Warning: Character death
Everything was black. Darkness as far as the eye could see. To anyone else, one might be afraid of such intense shadow, but Misty had been here before.
Not being able to see, she felt her body where she'd been stabbed, and she was not surprised to find that her body was intact. "It's real this time... isn't it? Am I... am I really dead?" She took a moment to examine the rest of her body. "Nothing out of the ordinary...am I in that strange place again?"
Remembering the details of her last visit, she looked around for the door of light, and this time Misty was surprised to find that it was nowhere to be found. Feeling more comfortable, she walked aimlessly at an even pace, favoring movement over simply waiting for something to happen.
A few minutes passed, and still nothing happened. Misty decided that she would rather wait it out than waste energy walking - after all, if this really was for real, she would have an eternity to wait. Laying down on the surprisingly soft ground, she decided to sing to pass the time.
After fifteen minutes and several songs, Misty still found herself surrounded in total darkness. "Oh, come on!" she called into the darkness. "Is anyone there?! Geez..."
Almost instantly, a door was opened not five feet from where the girl lay, complete with the blinding white light Misty was familiar with. From within emerged the woman with the wand, slowly and carefully. Closing the door behind her, she lit up the surrounding area with a flick of her wand, allowing the two to see each other. She held her hand out for Misty to grab. Once doing so, the woman yanked Misty to her feet with minimal effort, and Misty was shocked at how strong she was.
"Took you long enough!" Misty stated, the annoyance clear in her voice. "What's the deal with making me wait so long?"
"I come when called," the woman explained in a sweet-sounding voice. "You did not call, so I did not come."
Misty took a minute to register what had just been said. "So you mean that I-- and you could have just-- that's..." she trailed off. "Ugh. Fine. Look, I don't know what I'm doing here, okay? I swear to Jirachi or Mew or whatever legendary Pokemon you'll have me swear to that it wasn't me that did this!"
"That is not necessary," the woman continued in the same tone. "I am well aware of the circumstances that brought you here."
The woman's voice seemed to have a positive effect on Misty, as she calmed down considerably after those two sentences. "Good. I just don't want to get screwed out of happiness because of a misunderstanding, you know?"
The woman nodded. "It is a perfectly common reaction. You are wondering if you will be reunited with Vaporeon in the manner you seek, yes?"
Misty tensed up considerably after these words. Of course she was wondering. She'd been wondering ever since she got here... wherever 'here' was. She thought back to the moments just before she died. "Tracey... oh my gosh, I'm so sorry... I can only imagine what you must be thinking now." She remembered the plea she sent with her living body's last breath. She'd forgiven him. She was sure of it. "Well, yeah," she said finally.
The woman said nothing right away; she began walking circles around the Water-type trainer, much to the young girl's confusion. After a few circles, she finally spoke. "I warned you about what would happen if you still had not forgiven Tracey at the time of your death."
"And I did!" Misty shouted. "I swear I did! But..."
"You heard voices which put doubts into your head."
"How did you know?"
"I put them there. I had to be sure that you were being completely honest with yourself, for both your sake as well as Vaporeon's. When you heard those voices, did you listen to them?"
Misty thought for a minute. It's not like it's easy to ignore a voice in your head, and even harder to ignore if the voice is clear as day, persistent, and not your own. Did she hear it? Absolutely. Did she listen to it?
"Of course not," Misty said matter-of-factly. "It called me a liar and I know for sure that I wasn't lying."
The woman nodded. "I know. I tested your resolve and you passed magnificently. However, you made one mistake - telling Tracey you didn't forgive him."
"Look, I told him about your stupid voice, okay? And if you know all this stuff, you should know that I told him that despite that voice and all its nagging, I still forgave him."
"You said you were no longer angry with him. There is a difference."
Misty's jaw dropped. Was she getting ruined on a technicality?
Not if she could help it. "You can't be serious!" she screamed. "That's not what I meant! If you're so smart, you'd know that! You can't tell me I'm screwed based on that!"
The woman suddenly flared with energy, causing Misty to fall over. She hovered slightly off the ground, her teal dress billowing around her. She pointed her wand at Misty and spoke in a voice Misty hardly recognized. "Yes I can. I am Rose, agent of death. This is but a mere speck of my strength. Your fate is as I deem it. Do I make myself clear?"
Misty looked on in horror. What did she get herself into? If she had really messed up her shot at a peaceful eternity by running her mouth and angering the apparent queen of... whatever this place was, she would never forgive herself, voice or no voice, Pokemon or no Pokemon. Unable to form the words, Misty quickly nodded her head, hoping that she'd incurred Rose's wrath for the last time.
Seeing Misty's compliant reply, Rose came back to the ground and continued on as if the previous spectacle hadn't happened at all. "Do not be afraid," she said, as if oblivious to the display she just put on not 30 seconds prior. "You are safe. Follow me..." Without warning, Rose turned and opened the door of darkness, despite the lack of a knob of any kind (at least, from what Misty could tell). Misty shielded her eyes in preparation for total light, but there was none. Instead, Misty found herself in a large field filled as far as the eye could see with flowers of all sizes, shapes, colors, and smells. Near the two of them was a huge body of the clearest water Misty had ever seen; it took everything she had not to just jump in. Misty went wide-eyed at the sheer number of Pokemon present here - in the skies, in the water, in the field - dozens and dozens of Pokemon as far as the eye could see. There were no fewer than 200 different species visible from where they stood, and Misty thought she saw at least 10 Pokemon she did not recognize. Far off in the distance, she could see mountains, which Misty was sure were filled with cave-dwelling and other mountainous Pokemon.
"What... what is this place?" Misty asked, still bewildered by the beauty of what she had seen.
"You tell me," Rose replied from behind her. Turning to see her, Misty was shocked once more to find a small cottage behind her. It was a small thing, dark blue in color, and it had windows. Rose went inside, leaving Misty no choice but to follow her. She flung open the door and was once again taken aback by what she saw inside. While it appeared small on the outside, the inside of it was incredibly spacious - it was bigger than the Cerulean Gym.
Misty took an instant liking to this place. "This is incredible!" she exclaimed as she investigated the large room, her feet clacking on the tile floor. On one side of this room was a playground that seemed to be exclusively for Water-types, as a small group of them were making use of it. In one corner of the room was what looked like a large hole that was filled with water. A tunnel could be seen underwater leading into the wall. "What is that?" she asked, curious.
"Perhaps I was not clear. This is all your creation, Misty. That hole is there because you willed it to be there. And not just that hole. This room, this house, this entire place is a product of your imagination."
"I... made this?" Misty asked to herself more than Rose. "I created this?" She looked around, noting the finer points of the world she'd subconsciously made - how the curtains over the windows were that perfect shade of blue she'd not been able to find in any department store. How the playground inside her new home was being used by some of the Water Pokemon she found the cutest. "Hold on a minute," she said after letting this information sink in. "This is... well, to say it's amazing seems like a horrible understatement. But where's Vaporeon?"
Rose crossed her arms. "You mean you still do not understand? This is your world. Your eternity. If you want to see Vaporeon, all you must do is want her to be here, and she will come."
"Just think of her, huh?" Misty said, closing her eyes.
While the image of her Vaporeon came quickly, her mind wandered to other things - in particular, her living friends, and how they would handle her demise. She felt a pang of guilt at what her last words to Tracey had been. "He probably doesn't think I've forgiven him," she thought. "I really hope he doesn't take it too hard. And Ash... how horrible it must be for you. Our relationship had only started... I'm sorry." She thought about May and Max. "I especially feel sorry for May. I just had to die when you needed me the most."
"Don't worry about it," a familiar voice said from behind her.
Snapping out of her trance, Misty turned around and was face to face with May. "Whoa!" she screamed, taking cover behind the woman with the wand. "W-what is she doing here?!"
Rose walked forward and began to circle the spirit of May, who merely smiled at Misty. "She is here because deep down, you wished she were. She is not specifically the girl you knew - she is merely a copy who is aware that you have died. Despite this, however, she cannot relay messages to the living world. You may talk about anything you want, even about who killed you; the living version of her will never know. She, as well as anyone else you summon, will retain all the memories they had up until the day you died. The summoned versions will remember everything you do with them from this point forward, so you may still have some kind of human companionship."
"You can do that?" Misty asked, timidly stepping forward to become better acquainted with her new friend, although she still did not have a grip on the situation. "Your power is that great?"
"Even greater still," Rose explained. "To put it in perspective for you, I personally created your very own universe and allowed you free reign over it. Even if you were to destroy me, you would only destroy this body. I exist in countless universes not unlike this one, helping good souls such as yourself become more knowledgeable with your new home."
"Yeah," Misty said absentmindedly, paying more attention to May's copy than what Rose had said. She felt a cold wetness on her leg, snapping her out of her trance. She looked down and saw Vaporeon nuzzling against her leg. Misty leaned down and pet the aqueous creature, causing her to leap into Misty's arms and purr softly. Misty held her Pokemon and could not help but let a few tears fall, but at long last, they were not tears of sadness. While she would miss her surviving friends and family, Misty was looking forward to the endless stories she would write with her new found companions... and Vaporeon, of course.
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
Day five at the mansion started like any other. James was up early, as usual, writing in his diary about yesterday's occurrences. He stopped for a moment to give his writing hand a rest. He looked out his window and admired the sun coming up over the horizon, coloring the ocean red-orange. "It's pretty," he commented to himself. "Sunrises usually are..." He continued writing, stealing glances outside on occasion to see if he might see Shelly again. "Don't know what I'm so worked up about," he thought, putting his focus back on his writing. "After what happened, I don't think she's dumb enough to risk getting hurt."
Satisfied with his entry, James put the pencil back in the notebook's binding and let out a yawn. "Maybe I'll get a little more shut-eye," he wondered, looking over at his still-snoozing Pokemon partner. Placing his notebook underneath his pillow, James turned off the nearby lamp and, with another yawn, closed his eyes.
Seconds later, a bloodcurdling scream was heard not too far down the hallway. Fast as lightning, James was on his feet and out the door, clad in nothing but his boxer shorts. Within moments he was joined by a stumbling May, who nearly ran into the wall in her rush to reach him. "Max? Max?? What is it? What's wrong?"
Max slowly backed out of Misty's room, his face frozen over in fear.
When May had come into his room asking him to wake Misty up, he'd almost told her to go do it herself and gone back to sleep before remembering his sister's predicament. Feeling a bit of shame at that, he voiced an apology (much to her confusion) and scrambled out of bed to go to his sister's aid. "Stay here. I'll get her," he said, stifling a yawn. He briskly walked to Misty's door, his self-imposed hurry an attempt at making up for his attitude. He knocked quietly at first; loud enough for Misty to hear in the event she was already awake, but quiet enough not to disturb anyone else. Hearing nothing from inside, he let himself in, eager to complete his task and get back to sleep.
Immediately upon entering, Max could tell something was wrong. The way she lay was a bit unnerving; the fact that he could not notice the steady rise and fall of her chest from breathing was slightly alarming. It wasn't until he went in for a closer look that his suspicions were confirmed.
Misty was dead.
Max stared in horror at her corpse, her light blue nightgown stained a sick, dark purple from her blood. He found himself looking into her eyes - those bright green eyes stared vacantly back at him, seeming as if to ask her killer, "Why? Why would you do this to me?"
Seeing a dead person would frighten anyone not used to seeing them. When it's your first time, and to top it all off, the body of someone you know, regardless of how long you've known them... well, sometimes it's just too much to hold in.
He screamed as loud as he could. All he could do was scream, the reality of the situation hitting him like a ton of bricks. Unable to look away from Misty's lifeless gaze, he backed away slowly, the panic in his mind quickly turning to fear. Who did this? Why do it? Of all people, why Misty? Am I next? All these questions were swirling through Max's head as he entered the hallway. A firm hand fell upon his shoulder, and in his shock he almost screamed again before a small part of his rational mind reminded him what time it was.
"Max! What's wrong?" James asked, looking into Misty's room, hoping to see what would spook Max so horribly.
And saw it he did. James walked over to Misty's dead body and nearly threw up at the sight of it. He quickly looked away, fighting the urge to blow chunks all over the place.
Ash, also awakened by Max's shriek, emerged from his bedroom more annoyed at being woken up rather than shock. He was a bit put off by the sight of the Hoenn siblings crying in each other's arms, and noticing Misty's door was open, he went inside. He was about to ask James what on earth he was doing there when he saw Misty's body.
For Ash, it was as if time stopped. Lying before him was his beloved. She'd been his for not 24 hours... and now she was dead. He didn't want to believe it at first, despite the obvious signs, even going so far as to check her pulse to be sure that it wasn't a false alarm like before.
She was really gone.
He took one of her cold hands in his and kissed it tenderly. He looked into her eyes... and the last thread of his dignity unraveled. He fell to his knees, still grasping her hand, and cried openly and unashamedly. James, still more composed than Ash was, silently let a few tears fall for the young man's loss and simultaneously thanked his lucky stars that it was not Jessie lying there.
James did or said nothing at first and let Ash have his cry. May and Max were still in an embrace outside the room, choosing to comfort each other rather than crowd Ash. After a good twenty minutes or so, after James was certain Ash's tears had finally stopped, he spoke up. "Ash," he said.
Ash, however, was not listening. While it was true that he was finished crying, he had already started thinking of how to go about getting the revenge kill on whoever dared to kill his girl; most likely, Ash reasoned, that blue-haired liar behind him.
He stood up slowly and gently placed Misty's hand on her bed. "Ash," James began again as Ash slowly turned to face him, his face stained red with tears, the very sight of James nearly enough to make him start crying all over again; his fists were clenched so hard his knuckles were white.
During Ash's little cry session, James wondered if Ash might lose control of his rational thought and simply assume the obvious - that James had killed Misty at some point and had just been discovered. It would explain why he hadn't visibly shed any tears, but if there was one thing James didn't need right now, it was a fight.
Unfortunately for him, however, Ash looked fully ready to give him one. James decided that he had better speak up before Ash did something drastic. "Ash, it's not--"
Too late. Almost instantly after opening his mouth, Ash swung as hard as he could at the older man, landing a fierce left hook right in the jaw. James staggered backwards and fell onto the floor, surprised at the young man's strength. He wiped a bit of blood away from his mouth, angry at Ash for letting his anger cloud his better judgment, and himself for not being on his guard.
Wasting no time, Ash dove in to deliver another punch, but this time James was ready for it; he easily rolled out of the way and got to his feet. "Ash, would you wait a second? I get that you're angry, but--" he blocked another swing and nearly fell onto Misty as a result. Man that kid could swing hard.
"Not gonna listen? All right," James said, strengthening his grip on Ash's arm. He pulled Ash in and slammed their heads together, causing Ash to lose his bearings. After that, all it took was one punch to the face to send the boy to the floor. James went over and lifted the boy by his shirt, ready to literally beat some sense into him, but Ash had other ideas.
"Wait! Wait!" he sputtered, flinching as James brought his fist back. When James didn't do anything, Ash slowly looked up at the older man. "I'm fine. Will you let me go?" James did as Ash asked, but did not let his guard down in case Ash foolishly tried to attack him again.
"Sorry about that," James said, backing away from Ash in order to give him a little breathing room.
"Yeah, me too," the black-haired youth said, wiping his own trail of blood from his mouth, and he offered his hand as proof of his sincerity, which James shook. "I was just mad, you know?" He looked over at Misty again. "I just saw her, and you, and..."
"I know. I know. And believe me, Ash, I'm no happier. We'll get to the bottom of this." He looked himself over and felt a bit of embarrassment now at having run out in his undergarments. "Let's get dressed and wake the others."
A nod of agreement from Ash, and James went back to his own room to get dressed, explaining the situation to May and Max on his way back. Ash gave his fallen lady one more look before leaving for his own room, closing the door behind him.
On the other side of the wall, Jessie sat in her own bed, having heard the entire spectacle.
Awakened by Max's scream, Jessie almost left her room to investigate when she quickly deduced why he was screaming in the first place, given his location. She felt horribly nauseous at the memory of it and vomited quietly in the trash can near her bed, hoping she would also purge the image of Misty asking her "why?" that was burned into her mind. She sat on her bed and cried quietly into her pillow, being careful not to alert the ones just outside her door.
"I... I killed her," she told herself between sobs, as if admitting it to herself would make her feel better. "I killed her! Why... why indeed. She didn't deserve to die! What was I thinking?"
She stayed quiet for the following minutes, trying to make out what was going on in the room next door. Hearing things die down, she slipped back into bed and did her best to dry her eyes in case anyone came knocking. Ten minutes later, someone did just that. Taking a quick glance in the mirror to make sure that it wasn't too obvious she'd been crying, she opened the door just a crack and peeked out with one eye. "What is it?" she asked her visitor.
"Ash wants everyone up and in the main hall in five minutes," Max explained.
"Fine," Jessie replied before closing the door in the confused young man's face. She turned and leaned against the door and looked at her bed next to the wall. Giovanni's decision to make all the rooms other than his own identical in design was doing her no favors, as it reminded her again of what she had done. Jessie sighed and tried to think of other things as she went to get dressed.
Ten minutes later, everyone was gathered in the main hall as Ash had requested. Max, May, and Tracey were sitting on the couch nearest the stairs. Brock and James were sitting on the sofa next to them; Jessie and Shelly sat opposite them on the other sofa. No one had said a word since arriving, as Ash was slowly pacing around the furniture, taking long looks at each of his friends in turn. Everyone knew what Ash was going to say - that is, everyone except Tracey, who merely thought Ash was simply waiting for Misty to arrive before starting, although getting stared at was weird, and Brock, who was thinking a similar thought.
Ash may have looked calm and collected on the surface, but on the inside, it was taking everything he had to keep his composure. He didn't want to believe that any of his friends was a killer. He trusted them all with his life, but given the circumstances, he couldn't afford not to suspect them at first. After all, he thought, it was possible they did it. But who would want Misty dead? Why Misty? It was no accident - it was very obvious that Misty was murdered. Was it simply a random killing, or was it planned? Ash cringed at the thought of one of his friends systematically killing them all off, and couldn't help asking himself if perhaps he was next.
After five minutes of nothing but looks and determining how he would start, Ash finally decided to start talking to his friends. He knew it was going to be bad no matter how he put it, so he decided not to mince words. He started with the most obvious thing.
"Misty's dead."
Ash continued to look around and noted the others' reactions to this. As expected, May, Max, and James didn't react too much to the news. Jessie looked like she was going to cry at a moment's notice. Shelly seemed to be relatively unfazed by it.
Tracey went wide-eyed. "No..." he whimpered as he jumped out of his seat and ran up the stairs before James had a chance to stop him.
"Let him go," Ash instructed.
Ash was a bit put off by how well Brock managed to keep his composure. If he was shocked at all by the news of Misty's death, he didn't show it at all. "Last night?" he asked, as if Ash had just announced to everyone that he'd gone to bed.
"Yes, last night," Ash confirmed, trying to drown out Tracey's muffled, sorrowful cries. "And it was no accident. She didn't die of natural causes. She was murdered," Ash said, glancing over at the two women.
Jessie froze. Was she caught? Did he know the truth? She did everything Shelly instructed. She quickly thought back to her actions last night, after she'd done the deed. Knife disposed of? Check. Clothes disposed of? Check. Own body cleansed of any traces of blood? Check. So what did she forget? Perhaps there was something Shelly forgot to mention. Or, Jessie hoped, it was just an innocent glance with no accusations attached.
"Who would do such a thing?" Brock asked, still as calm as ever.
"That's what I'd like to know," Ash said. "However, it's not like we have nothing to go on. We know... that one of us killed her. And yes, I said us. While I know that I didn't do it, and I hope you guys will all believe me when I say that, I know that it's possible that I could have done it."
"Do you have any ideas who did?" Shelly asked.
"Funny you should mention that," Ash said, turning to face the girls, "because as a matter of fact, I do. You see, I came here with my friends. I trust them all. I can't think of any reason they would want Misty dead. As for James, he saved Misty's life. Misty asked me to stop being so suspicious of everything. It ended up being her last request, and I intend on honoring it the best I can. I don't think James did it either. Meowth is also off the hook because one, he's too small, and two, his fur would have been everywhere. So that leaves you two."
"Jessie is innocent!" James roared, bursting from his seat, startling the two teens from Hoenn.
This came as a shock to the younger of the accused women. "Why is he defending me?" Jessie thought. "Why does he even care?"
Ash turned to the male Rocket. "Calm down, would you? I didn't say she did it. Hear me out," Ash said, turning back to the accused. "Now, as I was going to say, this is not an accusation of guilt. I'm just putting my feelings out in the open so everyone knows where I stand. You two are the only ones I could feasibly see committing this crime."
Jessie continued to weep quietly as the young man spoke. "Jessie, listen to me. We've known each other for a long time. Granted, you and James are the criminals here, but let's be honest. Your chance of killing me is a long shot on a good day. Given your track record, if you would have done it, you probably would have ended up cutting yourself, or making a huge mess, or something. Still, it is possible you did it."
Shelly, who had remained mostly silent up until this point, couldn't help but let out a chuckle at the image of Jessie trying to stab Misty, but failing and cutting herself in a very comical fashion.
"And you," Ash started again, directing his attention to the redhead. "I don't even know what to think with you. I just met you a couple days ago and the only thing I know about you is your name. And you're a treasure hunter? What kind of job is that? I swear, everything about you screams suspicious. I gave you the benefit of the doubt before - I'm not from around here. Maybe treasure hunting is some kind of sanctioned profession in Sinnoh. I don't know. The only person you ever really talk to is Jessie, and you guys are gone most of the day anyway doing who knows what. That's why I suspect you most of all. You're unknown to me."
"Shelly wouldn't do anything like that," Jessie said quietly, though the instant the words came from her lips she found herself laughing on the inside at that very notion, almost audibly doing so before catching herself. Of course Shelly was capable of doing this. Who was she kidding? Best to keep up the façade for now, though. "I've known her longer than you. We're friends. There's no way she'd do something so horrible. And I sure didn't kill her, so maybe you oughta start interrogating your friends."
"We've been Misty's friends for years!" May exclaimed. "How can you even suggest such a horrible thing?!"
"Doesn't feel good to be accused, does it?" Shelly said, arms crossed. "Well, unlike you kids, I'm not going to start raising my voice and proclaiming my innocence. I know what I have and haven't done, although I will thank Jessie for coming to my defense," she continued, giving Jessie a one-armed hug for emphasis. "We could sit here for the next three days and point fingers at each other, or we could use our heads and try to figure out just what happened. Did you even consider the fact that Misty may have committed suicide?"
"No way that's possible," James said. "She was stabbed multiple times. She couldn't have done that to herself. There would have been blood all over her hands, and the weapon would still be there."
"Well, aren't we just an ace crime solver."
By now, Tracey had come back downstairs and taken his seat. It was plainly obvious he'd had a very intense crying session, and he secretly hoped no one had heard him.
When he'd first heard Misty was dead, he couldn't believe it. "There's no way," he thought. "How in the world could Misty manage to die overnight?"
He charged up the stairs two at a time and bolted down the hallway to Misty's door. This was all just a cruel joke. It had to be. There was no way, no way, no way Misty was really dead. He threw open the door and ran to the young girl's side.
"It... it can't be." She was dead. He looked at the cuts she suffered and for a moment asked the question everyone else was asking - why? Why her? Who could do such a thing? He fell to his knees and cried loudly into the dead girl's sheets. "She's really gone. What am I going to do now?" he asked himself between sobs. He thought back to the conversation they had a few days prior:
Tracey was wide-eyed. "So you mean to tell me that the only one who knows what really happened..."
"...is you," Misty finished. "Please don't tell Ash or anyone else. I don't want him to worry about me."
"He's going to worry regardless of whether or not you tell him. But I won't say anything. You have my word."
Tracey tried his best not to cry even more than he already was. "Stupid, stupid, stupid! What am I gonna do now??" As he began to dry his eyes, he weighed his options. "Do I tell him? Everyone thinks she was attacked. I'm the only one who knows the truth. They're her friends. They have a right to know! Misty kept it a secret for a reason, though... I'm sure she planned on telling them soon. What to do, what to do... well, everyone's together, so I guess I could tell them since she... won't be able to. I'd better get back downstairs..."
He rose to his feet, making sure he didn't look at the dead girl again for fear he'd have another outburst. He dried his eyes as best he could, took a deep breath, and walked back to the group as calmly as he could.
"I... I'd like to make an announcement," he said once Shelly had finished speaking. Instantly, all eyes were on him, and he regretted bringing attention to himself like that. "It's about Misty."
"What is it?" Ash questioned, showing a bit more interest than before. "Is the body okay?"
Tracey felt a chill run down his spine. How could he talk so freely about this? "Yes, it's fine. It's not really about that. It's about when she was attacked."
"What about it?" Ash pressed him. Why was Tracey bringing this up?
"She wasn't attacked. She... she tried to kill herself."
Ash stood and looked at Tracey, completely dumbfounded. What did he just say? "Mind repeating that?"
"Misty tried to kill herself before we came here." Feeling a little more confident after having said it, he recounted the conversation with Misty that he'd had the day they left Kanto.
"There, you see?" Shelly said to no one in particular once Tracey had finished talking. "She tried to kill herself once before and failed. Who's to say she didn't succeed this time?"
Ash was on her in no time at all, delivering a hard backhand across the redhead's face. "How dare you!" Jessie made no move to assist, for fear of getting hit as well. James lunged over the table and struggled to pry the teenager off, who was laying blow after blow on a flailing Shelly. Tracey got up to help, and together the two older guys were able to restrain the young man from Pallet Town.
Amazingly, Shelly seemed to shrug off the damage. "Huh. Second time since I've been here that a man hit me while I'm off guard. How unsportsmanlike you Kanto men are."
Ash cursed at her. "I don't care what your opinion of me is." He struggled in the tight grip of Tracey and James. "Let me go!" He took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "I'm cool. I'm all right." He relaxed his muscles in an effort to show he was sincere, and he was released. "I'm going home," he said, marching upstairs without another word to anyone else.
On his way to his room, Ash thought about what Tracey had said. "Is it true? Were you so depressed that you tried taking your own life?" He quickly shut that voice out of his head. "Why couldn't you tell me? We're supposed to tell each other our problems, right? Man..." Upon entering his own room, he rummaged through his suitcase and found his phone. Turning it on, he made to dial the police department in Pallet Town, but he couldn't get a signal. "What the heck?" he asked the phone. "Why won't you work?" He tried pressing random buttons in an effort to get a signal, but no matter what he did, all he found was interference. "No way," he whispered as he realized what this meant. He ran to the top of the stairs. "Everyone get your phones!" he shouted on his way back down. "Get your phones. I want to go home right now. Get your phones and get us out of here."
"What's wrong with yours?" Max asked, taking his phone out of his pocket.
"It doesn't work. All I'm getting is some kind of garbled signal. I don't think it'll work from way out here. Is your phone working? Isn't Hoenn closer to Orre than Kanto? Yours should work, right?"
Max shook his head. "Sorry, Ash. I'm getting the same problem."
"Me too," May chimed in after managing to dial her home number.
"Well this is just awesome!" Ash exclaimed. "Now we're really stuck here. I... I don't even know what to say. I know I don't feel like having fun now that my best friend just got killed. What about you guys?"
Silence.
"Yeah, I didn't think so," he continued. "And we still have three days left. Just.... awesome." He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Do whatever you want. Just leave me alone," Ash said, leaving once more up the stairs and out of sight.
When Ash was gone, James went and grabbed Jessie by her arm. "We need to talk," he said, forcing her onto her feet. She was a bit surprised at his sudden move, but she did not struggle against his hold. He led them to the library, and after making sure no one had followed them and no one else was near, locked the doors behind him. Then he turned to his partner and asked her a simple question. "Did you do this?"
Jessie scoffed and turned away. "Like you care," she said under her breath.
James was taken aback at her reaction. "Jessie, what's wrong?" he asked her, the sharp tone of his voice completely gone now. "What have I done to deserve this treatment? You've been avoiding me more and more lately, and it's driving me insane because I don't know why! Please, tell me."
"What do you care?" Jessie said more audibly, although she still did not face him. A pause. "The boss told me, you know."
James was confused. "What? What are you talking about? What did he tell you? I don't understand!"
In an instant, she spun around and slapped him across his face. She had begun crying, and she was breathing heavily. "Oh, cut the act, James!" she fumed, still keeping somewhat quiet out of respect for the house's other inhabitants. "He told me how you've been asking him over and over for a replacement partner for years. He told me that you disagree with everything I do. He told me you said I abuse you and Meowth. He told me everything, James. I thought...we..." she trailed off, unable to speak through her tears.
James could do nothing but stare back at her, both heartbroken at seeing her cry and furious that Giovanni had been the one to put these thoughts into her head. "Jessie, I... I never said any of those things! Why on earth would I ever want to be away from you?! Jessie, I love you! You know that!"
"I thought I did," she said quietly. "I didn't want to believe it. I really didn't. I cried when he told me. Shelly came into my room and asked me what was the matter, and I told her what he told me. Do you know what she said? She said you told her the same exact thing!"
"What?!" he roared. He took a moment to keep his anger in check and silently apologized to the others for raising his voice unnecessarily, then placed his hands on Jessie's shoulders and continued. "Jessie. Do you honestly believe that girl you just met over me? Think of how long we've known each other. Do you remember our vacation a few months ago in Olivine City? The Festival of Flowers last year? Shoot, like two days before we got this mission, I bought you flowers - pink carnations. Your favorite. Can you really sit there and tell me that you're going to just forget all of that because of what a girl that you haven't even known for two weeks said to you?" He wiped away a few of her tears with his hands.
She stayed silent. He did have a point, she decided, but... "It's not just her, James. The boss also said y--" She was cut off by James, who had brought the surprised girl in for a kiss. It was not a hard kiss, but very tender, filled with love and adoration. It was the kind of kiss that made her melt into his arms on any other occasion, and James was praying that it would help him get his point across. Out of pure surprise, she made no movements at first, not being used to feeling his soft lips on her own. It was a feeling that she had missed, she noted; the last time he'd kissed her like this was before they left for Orre. Jessie also noted that she was slowly starting to lose the ability to think rationally. James' kisses were like a white-hot flame, lighting her up like no one else could. She loved being kissed that way. It was her special reminder, and as far as she was concerned in this situation, irrefutable proof, that he loved her.
After a few tense moments, she kissed him back. She leaned into his strong frame and threw her arms around him, so very glad that everything she'd been told about the man she loved was nothing more than horrible lies. James knew that she accepted him now, and he separated from her before things got too out of hand, much to the magenta-haired beauty's regret. Soon after he did so, however, she started to cry again.
"What? What's wrong?" he asked.
She didn't want to say it. As much as she'd not wanted to ever say it, or even think it, she had to. She knew she'd messed up, and she was afraid that if she let James know just how badly she messed up, that he would leave her. Putting her faith in James's level-headedness and good judgment, she spoke. "I messed up bad, James," she began. She told him about her nightmares, and Shelly's supportiveness... and then she started to trail off when she got to the most important part. "I... told Shelly about our mission."
James froze upon hearing those words. Was she serious? Of all the people she could have told... "You did what? You didn't. Please tell me you didn't..."
She buried her face in his shoulder. "I'm so sorry, James. Please don't leave me..." she begged.
He wrapped his arms around her, a bit confused at her request. "Leave you? Jessie, I understand. It's okay. I'm not going anywhere," he reassured her, giving her a comforting squeeze. "What did she say when you told her?"
"She said she'd help me."
Now James was even more confused. "Why would she say that?"
"She said we were friends, and she didn't like those twerps anyway. Her words, not mine."
"That's awkward." He paused, not knowing how he should ask his next question. He didn't want to believe Jessie was a murderer, but there was only one way to be sure. "So, then... last night..."
She couldn't hold it back anymore. She cried hard into him, not caring who heard her. "I don't want to do this anymore, James! I don't care what happens! I'll be fine as long as I'm with you. Please, you have to help me," she pleaded, tears falling freely down her face.
"I swear it. On my life, I swear we'll get out of this. Together. Okay?" He kissed her again. "Does Shelly know that you've had a change of heart?"
"No," she said, quieting down a bit. "I'm almost afraid to tell her. If she tells the rest of them what I did, Ash will kill me, and I really wish I was only saying that figuratively. And if they find out that you know and didn't tell them..."
"Don't worry about that. We'll keep this our little secret for now. We do need to get out of here before Shelly decides to start making good on her promise to help you, though, and I know just the thing. Meowth and I found a boat a few miles out. It'll be a tight fit, but we can do it. We can sneak out tonight once Shelly is asleep. We'll make a break for the shore on the opposite side of the island, get on, and drive. What do you say?"
"It sounds like it could work," Jessie said, her lips curling into the faintest hint of a smile. James, happy he was able to get his love out of her sad mood, was grinning from ear to ear.
"It can't fail. We'll let everyone know over the course of the day whenever we get the chance - meet by the front door late tonight, like 11 PM? Take nothing with you. No way anyone will refuse a chance at freedom, and if they won't listen to me, they'll listen to Ash."
"Yeah," Jessie said, completely grinning now. "It'll work. I know it will."
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
Meanwhile, at the base of the waterfall...
"What a day this has turned out to be, huh?" Meowth asked, skipping a rock over the water's edge.
"Indeed," Shelly said, tossing a rock of her own. "Any ideas on which one of them killed the girl?"
Meowth shrugged. "Eh. To be honest, I'd have thought you'd be more the killin' type. Jessie and James, they're too soft. I don't think they could ever actually kill someone."
"What about you?" Shelly asked, looking at him intently. "Could you kill someone?"
"Nah," Meowth said calmly as he skipped another rock. "I'd go nuts from the guilt."
Shelly sighed and watched the amazingly adept feline skip rock after rock over the water.
A talking Meowth. The only one of his kind. The one bridge enabling crystal-clear communication between humans and Pokemon. She closed her eyes and fondly recalled when she first met him. Not expecting to find a Pokemon on a supposedly deserted island, she screamed when she'd entered the kitchen only to find the small creature preparing a sandwich, and nearly fainted when it shouted back at her.
"Stay away!" he screeched, claws bared.
"It talks!" she shouted. "It... it talks!"
Feeling she wasn't a threat, Meowth retracted his claws, not surprised at all by the woman's outburst. "Yeah, I talk," he said, returning to his sandwich. "So, what's your name?"
"Shelly," she answered, taking a seat at the table. "A talking Meowth, huh? Don't see that every day."
"Yeah, I suppose." He hopped onto a chair and began to eat his sandwich. Shelly merely watched him eat, and Meowth started feeling uncomfortable. He absently looked around as he chewed, purposely avoiding eye contact with the redhead. Before long, however, his patience reached its limit. "You got a problem or something?" he asked, finally looking at her.
"You're just... fascinating," she admitted, not taking her eyes off him. "Are you here by yourself, little guy?"
"Nah. I got two humans with me. We're a team," he said between bites of his sandwich. "What a pair they are. They're downstairs right now. You wanna meet 'em?"
"No thank you," she replied politely. "I'm sure I'll meet them soon." She got up from her seat and went to the large refrigerator, perusing its contents for a moment before deciding on a bowl of medium size. Taking a spoon from the silverware drawer, she returned to her seat and began to consume the bowl's contents, slurping it loudly off the spoon. She sighed contentedly.
"What's that?" Meowth asked, curious.
"Gelatin," she answered. "Strawberry flavored. I made it last night. Want some?" she offered a spoonful of the stuff to him. He made to reach for the spoon, but she moved it out of his reach. "Let me," Shelly said with a smile. "You're so cute!"
Submitting to the woman's wishes, Meowth let himself be fed. "This is great!" he exclaimed, happily opening his mouth for another spoonful, which Shelly happily gave. They carried on general conversation until they were both surprised by James crashing through the door...
Shelly opened her eyes and smiled. This truly was a shame, she thought to herself. She briefly thought about aborting the whole thing, but she knew what she was getting into when she signed up. She'd been told not to get emotionally attached, and yet, here she was, sentencing someone to death whose only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Despite all this, however, she truly felt remorseful about what was about to happen. With a heavy heart, she nodded towards the Weavile lying in wait nearby. She reached down and scratched behind the feline's head. "I'm really sorry, Meowth," she said, a tear forming in her eye.
Meowth tossed another rock with expert precision - this one skipped five times. "Sorry? What are you t--" he looked down in horror at the large claws that had torn clear through him, pierced straight through his heart.
Shelly winced. "Please forgive me," she said, and turned away as the Weavile impaled Meowth through the midsection with another one of its claws briefly before ripping them apart, tearing the poor cat in two.
She gave her friend a moment of silence and offered a silent prayer for a safe journey to the next life. When she was finished, she removed a Poke Ball from her belt and released its contents, an enormous mammoth with light green fur and tusks that extended nearly three feet from its body. It towered over the young woman and the Weavile, who was puny in comparison to this beast. "Dig a hole," she commanded. "Make it deep. Weavile!" she barked.
He ignored her, appalled at what he'd just done. He looked down at Meowth's torn corpse and his own bloody claws. How could his brother have done this so easily? Had he no conscience? No remorse? He'd warned his older brother about just blindly following orders. He was a sentient being just as much as Giovanni was - what gave him the right to order them around and expect nothing but complete and total compliance? Sometimes enough was enough.
Still, Weavile considered, he was between a rock and a hard place. He could choose to follow this... human's orders until this whole ordeal was finished, then head back home for more brutal training. Being forced to fight his friends until he nearly killed them was not something he looked forward to every single day. At least then he'd had his brother to keep him company, but now he'd gone and got himself killed. And it wasn't like he could blame that boy. He'd seen him do it, and yet he felt no need to exact revenge upon the lad. When the boy and his girl had left, Weavile had gone to the body of his brother, hoisted it up, and carried it out of the clearing where it all happened. He buried him a short distance away from there and said a few words; he nearly slashed Shelly's arm when she tried to stop him.
His second option wasn't that favorable either: rebel and run. He had no doubts in his mind he could take Shelly one on one, but her other Pokemon would likely tear him limb from limb. Even if he had succeeded in eliminating her Pokemon, what could he do? He couldn't just leave. He had no idea how to make that large water vehicle move, and even if he did, how would he survive out here? The food in Giovanni's house would only last for so long, and if Giovanni came back and found him there, well... that'd be the end of that.
He briefly entertained the idea of appealing to Ash and his friends, but he was pretty sure that plan would fail thanks to the impenetrable wall that he himself had erected. Still, a shot at freedom was awfully tempting, and he was prepared to do whatever it took to be free... even if it meant learning to communicate in the humans' language. If that Meowth could do it, why couldn't he?
His train of thought was interrupted by a blow to the back of his head. "Weavile! What's the matter with you?! Pay attention!"
The Pokemon sped front and center and gave Shelly his attention, not wanting to anger her any more than he already had. "When he's finished digging, bury him," she instructed, pointing behind her. "No rough stuff. He was my friend. Is that clear, both of you?" Both Pokemon nodded. "Get to work."
She turned away from them and leaned against a tree. Pulling out her radio, she made a call and waited for the person on the other end to answer. "This is Shelly. Meowth is dead...yes, sir. Jessie took care of her, actually...yes, sir. As far as I know, they're not speaking to each other. By the way, Ash killed one of your Weavile. Just thought you'd like to know, sir... no, sir. The other one is fine. He's quite the little demon. He could probably take them all out by himself." She began to experience some static and tried fine-tuning the frequency to eliminate the noise. "Sir? Are you there?" After trying for a few more seconds, she turned the radio off with a huff. "That Magnezone... must have fallen asleep again. Man. Giovanni said it was lazy, but come on. Can't it follow one simple order?"
As soon as she clicked the radio off, she was poked in the side by Weavile, who pointed a dirty, bloody claw over to where he'd buried his kill. Shelly walked over to the newly covered hole and offered one last prayer. "Get cleaned up," she told the smaller Pokemon as she recalled the larger one into the Poke Ball. "Our job isn't done yet."
Shelly took another Poke Ball and threw it down; Luxray emerged in a flash. It let out a low growl, looking for its next opponent. "I know you're just itching for some action, huh?" she said, petting it. "Well, you're probably going to get some today. I want you to wait here. Anywhere in the area is fine, just stay hidden. If any human other than me shows up here, kill them. Do what ever is necessary. Understood?"
Excited at this job he'd just been given, Luxray grunted a feral roar, his fur crackling with electricity. Yeah, this was just what he'd been waiting for.
"Excellent. Don't let me down," she said as Luxray bounded behind some trees and came to rest on the ground. She looked over at Weavile and saw him frolicking in the water, enjoying the coolness on his skin. After what he'd done, he needed a good cleansing. "Weavile!" she snapped. "Did I say you could rest? We have a job to do!"
Instantly, Weavile jumped from the water and shook himself off, and gave Shelly a weak salute as she put him back in his Poke Ball. "Honestly," she said as she left Giovanni's Luxray to wait.
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
"...May she rest in peace."
The five remaining friends stood a few meters out into the ocean, where they each had the opportunity to say their final farewells to the departed Gym Leader.
The decision to give her an aquatic burial was a unanimous one. They saw it fitting that since she had spent her entire life around Water-type Pokemon, having her final resting place be the ocean she loved would do her a great honor. As Brock, the last to speak, finished saying his piece, he and Ash towed Misty's body a few more meters out to sea. Ash look one last look at the girl before submitting her to the deep, and silently swore he would pay back her killer in kind.
"You okay?" Brock asked when Ash did not immediately begin to swim back to shore.
"I'm fine," Ash said, though that wasn't entirely the truth. His mind was still trying to figure out who killed Misty. He'd decided on Jessie or Shelly, but couldn't narrow it down to just one of them.
Jessie and Misty were never the best of friends, or even slightly friends. They weren't really enemies, either; more acquaintances than anything else. After she and Ash had stopped traveling together, it had been two years before she even saw Jessie again, and it wasn't even as a member of Team Rocket. She and Ash had run into her at the annual Festival of Flowers two years ago; the two females had ended up partnered together in the Petal Cup, taking second place.
"She had a lot of fun," Ash remembered, noting that Misty had even invited Jessie to walk with the two of them for the rest of the evening. As soon as the festival was over, though, it was back to normal - Jessie and James had shown up in uniform not a week later - at a picnic Misty had prepared for her and Ash, no less - spewing out the latest motto and plans to "steal dat Pikachu," going on about their most recent plan for five minutes straight before James had realized that Pikachu wasn't even present.
Jessie had never shown any sort of open hatred for Misty, not even in the days leading up to Misty's death. James had said he and Jessie weren't acting as members of Team Rocket, and James's behavior certainly reflected that. He talked sports and cooking with Brock, shared battling strategies with Max, and once he and Tracey got together, they'd never shut up about their drawings. He was friendly, even gentlemanly, towards Misty and May, despite not having much in common with them. Jessie, however, was completely the opposite. She socialized openly only with Shelly, and only if they were alone; if anyone else came into the room, she immediately shut down - from outgoing to ultimate introvert in the blink of an eye.
Still, the fact remained that Jessie worked for Team Rocket, and despite James's actions, Ash could not bring himself to completely trust the two of them. He did not want to believe that Jessie would kill someone who had once called her a friend and meant it, but the fact that she was there, and her actions as a member of Team Rocket, cemented her as a suspect in Ash's mind. A small suspect, but a suspect nonetheless.
Shelly, however, was a different story. From day one, Ash had expressed distrust in the redhead, if for no other reason than she'd already been there when they arrived. Everything that girl did was a secret. Every day, she would leave for hours on end, and when she came back, she would grab something from the refrigerator and disappear without a word into her room. She spoke only when spoken to; she was even more reserved than Jessie. It was weird in every sense of the word, and Ash did not care what she did when she left. One less weirdo bothering him and his friends, he'd said when Max had asked him about Shelly's mysterious departures.
The way she acted was another strike against her. To describe her as aloof would be an understatement - it wasn't that Shelly didn't like any of them; she just plain did not care. She spoke her mind regardless of who might be offended or hurt, and it was this part of her that made Ash the angriest.
On a personal level, Shelly didn't seem to hate Misty, either, but that was only because they didn't speak to each other - if anything, she seemed to actually be rude towards May more than anyone. Why Shelly singled out that poor girl, no one knew. If May had been the one who ended up dead, there would be no doubt in Ash's mind that Shelly was the culprit, but May wasn't dead; Misty was. Even though there was no obvious hatred between Misty and Shelly, Ash was still prepared to believe Jessie, a person who he knew for several years, over a lady he just met not one week prior.
A splash of water from Brock brought Ash out of his thoughts. "Hey, Ash!" he shouted.
"What? What is it?" Ash responded back. "Sorry, I was just... thinking about things."
"Let's get back to shore. Max is freaking out and pointing to something."
No sooner had the two friends gotten on dry land did Max start running his mouth. "You guys!" he shouted. "Look up there! On top of the mansion!"
The lot of them got a little closer to get a look at what Max was pointing at. Hovering a few feet over the roof of the mansion was a semi-large, gray Pokemon, with a tall yellow antenna on its head and three large magnets protruding from its sides. A dull, but clearly audible, buzzing noise could be heard over the calm washing of the water onto the sand.
"What in the world is that?!" Ash yelled.
"Shhh!" Max quickly quieted him down. "It's a Magnezone. When you take Magneton inside this one mountain in Sinnoh, it might evolve into Magnezone with a little training. It's the only place in the world that is capable of evolving Magneton. Ash, I'll bet you anything it's that Magnezone that's causing our phones to jam. Someone must have put it there. Just whatever you do, Ash--"
"Hey!" Ash screamed, picking up a nearby rock and throwing it at the dormant Magnezone. "Hey!"
"Ash, what are you doing?!" Max scolded him. "Stop! Don't wake it up! Do you have any idea how strong its Electric attacks are?"
"It was sleeping?" Ash gulped upon seeing the bright red eye in the center of the Pokemon light up shortly after being hit with the rock. Judging that the black-haired boy was the one who'd disturbed its rest, Magnezone began charging its energy, visible crackles and sparks emerging from its body.
"RUN!" Max shouted, grabbing his sister's hand before making a beeline for the front door as fast as his legs would carry them. Ash paused for a moment before breaking into a dash, diving to avoid the tremendous bolt of lightning that was shot by Magnezone, hitting the sand, accompanied by a large burst. Lucky for them, Magnezone did not continue its attack; it either thought that it had vaporized Ash with its impressive attack, or simply did not care to pursue its attacker. After all, Magnezone had its orders, too.
The group of teens looked in amazement at the smoldering crater in the sand Magnezone's attack caused. Without a word, they all scrambled to get inside the safety of the mansion, each attempting to catch their breath after nearly being fried.
Wasting no time, Ash ran up the stairs and attempted to open Shelly's door, but found it to be locked. "Spread out! Find Shelly!" he yelled, coming back downstairs.
"Ash, hold on," Tracey started. "Mind telling us what's going on?"
"No time," Ash said, starting to head down a hallway. "Max, you stay with May. Take her into her room and don't let her out of your sight for one second. Brock, check downstairs. Tracey, go down that hallway and check every room. I don't care if you guys have to drag her here by her ears. You two can overpower her no sweat. I want to see her on that couch ASAP," he barked, disappearing into a room before briefly re-emerging. "And find Team Rocket! I want all three of them here as well."
Almost as if on cue, the sound of a door opening was heard upstairs. Jessie and James beame visible at the top of the stairs, arm in arm. Not expecting to see everyone staring back at him, he froze at the top of the stairs, following only after Jessie yanked him onward. No one said anything to anyone, even after the two humans had reached the bottom.
"What?" Jessie said, calm as ever. "You guys look like you've seen a ghost."
Just then, Ash came from having checked the sauna. "Jessie!" he shouted, running full speed in case she decided to take off. "Jessie, I'll make this quick. I don't think you killed Misty. I'm sorry I ever doubted you."
Now it was Jessie's turn to freeze. What happened that made him change his mind so quickly? She looked around the room briefly, hoping doing so would not make her look suspicious. Excluding Misty, everyone else was present and accounted for, except...
"Where's Shelly?" she asked.
"Meowth too," James added.
"We were hoping you could tell us," Ash said, catching his breath. "I haven't seen her since early this morning..."
"I don't know where she is. She must have left while James and I were upstairs."
"This is serious, Jessie!" Ash practically yelled at her, nearly pushing her out of anger. "Maybe you don't understand what's going on. Well, Jessie, let me tell you. My best friend is dead. Another one of my close friends is now blind and who knows what else happened to her. Is it sinking in yet, Jessie? I almost got fried out there by another Pokemon I've never seen or even heard of before today. Shelly killed Misty. I'm sure of it. If Meowth is with her, he's in danger, too. We have to save him. You and Shelly have been thick as thieves since we got here, so don't even try telling me that you have no idea where she is. Lives are at stake, Jessie. Where is she?!"
Jessie paused as she took in what Ash said. She was off the hook for Misty's murder. She'd been worried about being found out this entire time, and now Ash was clearing her of suspicion without her having done a thing. She thought a moment about this. She'd taken a life... committed murder. She knew that Shelly was entirely innocent. She knew, and she was the only one that knew, and at this point, it wasn't likely anyone would believe her if she were to come to the redhead's defense. Still, Jessie was torn. Despite being talked into taking an innocent life, Jessie still considered Shelly her friend. If she told Ash where Shelly was, Ash would probably attack her... maybe even kill her. It was true she didn't know Shelly's exact whereabouts, but it was also true that she could guess her location. In fact, Jessie surmised, everyone else may have already had the same guess as her regarding where Shelly was. Did she link herself to the murder by claiming she had no idea? Ash did say that he was sure Shelly was the killer... and Jessie needed to talk to Shelly as well. As much as it hurt her to put her friend's life in danger, Ash was right about Meowth being in danger as well. She had no choice.
"...She's probably at the waterfall. If Meowth is gone, then he's with her. There's no question."
"Thank you," the boy replied, turning to the others. "Max, stay here with May. Brock, Tracey, you're with me. Let's go. If we hurry, we can still save him."
"Wait!" Jessie exclaimed as the three guys went to leave. "I'm coming with you. I have to see her..."
"No. You stay. I'm sorry, Jessie, but everything is just way too suspicious right now. I'm taking no chances. James - don't let Jessie out of your sight."
"Hold on a moment, Ash," James said. Now was a good a time as any... right? "Listen. There's a boat a mile or so away from the waterfall. We could take it and get out of here, when Shelly's asleep. What do you think?"
"Can we all fit?" Ash asked, interested in this plan.
"I'm not sure. All of us here, it's gonna be a tight fit for sure. The only problem is we'd not be able to bring our luggage, but this is the only idea I've got for escaping. Otherwise we're stuck waiting at least three days... and who knows what she'll do in that time. I don't want to see any more death," James said, giving Jessie's hand a squeeze.
"Anyone have any objections?" Ash said, looking around for signs of dissent, and finding none.
"We leave at 11:00," James instructed. "Take nothing but the clothes on your back. If you absolutely must, take one small item. I'll be taking my journal. Nothing larger than that... understood? Leave in pairs. It's too dangerous to go alone. I'll go with Jessie. Tracey... you go with May. If something happens, you may need to carry her, so be on your guard. Max, go with Ash and Brock. Guys, same story - if worse comes to worst, pick him up and run. Understood?"
(you guys should be used to the word limit monster by now - to the next post!)
PMJ
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RE: Seven Days of Terror (ch 10 mega pwn up)
ch10 continued
"We got it. We've wasted enough time here. Let's get going before Shelly gets back. Hopefully we'll be able to subdue her without using force, but..." Ash said, heading for the door, briefly pausing as he considered his options. "Yeah. Knives." Ash ran as fast as he could to the kitchen and brought back enough knives for the three of them. He took one last look at Jessie before leaving, opening the door for the two other guys to leave. "By the way, I'm sorry I yelled at you, Jessie. Really. I'm sure you can understand how stressed out I am right now... just wanted to let you know." And with that, they left, en route to the waterfall, unaware of the silent little Volbeat who'd flown far ahead of them, ready to inform his trainer about what had just occurred.
Inside the mansion, the others were discussing a more current course of action.
"I'm starving," Jessie said after a moment of silence between those that remained. "If we're going to be leaving, I refuse to leave on an empty stomach."
James felt his stomach rumble at the mention of food. "Oh, I hear that. I'm running on empty. Mind if I accompany you?"
"You're supposed to be watching my every move, remember?" Jessie reminded him. "You don't have to ask." She linked her arm with his. "And even if you did, you know I'd say no."
James smiled. "Glad to hear it," he said, leading his lady down the hall into the kitchen, leaving the siblings from Hoenn by themselves.
Max took a seat on the couch and let out a sigh, cleaning his glasses with his shirt. So much had happened today, and it was hardly afternoon yet. He smiled as his sister sat next to him, although it hurt his heart knowing she could not see it. It also made him furious to think that someone would hurt his sister. May never hurt anyone. What did she do to deserve this? He thought of what had happened to Misty. He didn't know her too well, but from his short time with her, Misty seemed like a really nice girl. He pulled May in for a fierce hug, so very glad that while she had been attacked, she was still alive.
May was taken aback by the sudden show of affection, but nevertheless she hugged him back. "What's with this, all of a sudden?" she asked.
"Just glad you're okay," the young teen replied.
"Yeah..." He had no idea what she'd gone through. No one did. Misty was the only one she'd trusted enough to tell the truth about what had really gone on down there, and now she was gone forever. "I should really tell Ash about that man," she thought. She rubbed at the spot on her stomach where she'd been hit. The external pain was gone, but the memory of what had happened after she'd come to was burned into her mind, hurting her more than any flesh wound ever could. "But who could have done it?" she pondered. "It couldn't have been Max. He's too short. Brock and Tracey are both tall enough, but... gosh, I couldn't imagine either of them doing that. Neither of them own a Luxray, either... no one does except Max. And if it couldn't have been him..."
"What's the matter, May?" Max asked, concerned about his sister's sudden mood change.
"Just thinking about Misty," she told him. Even if she thought he was smarter than she was, May did not want to worry him any more than she already was by telling him about the horrors that took place in that basement. "I miss her."
"I see," Max said, studying her face carefully. "I wish I'd gotten a chance to get to know her. She seemed nice."
"Uh huh," the girl said audibly. "Could... could Shelly have done it?" May thought, paying no mind to what her younger brother was saying. "It would explain the need to disguise her voice, but..." she gasped as she suddenly realized something."If it really was her, and she's got a gun, I need to tell Ash right away! Oh, why didn't I think of this before?!"
"Max! Take me to Ash! We have to warn him!" she said, standing up, trying her best to make her way around the table that blocked her path to the front door.
"Whoa, May, hold on a second!" Max interrupted her, taking her hand. "What are you talking about?"
Clearing the table, May made a mad dash for what she hoped was the door, dragging the poor genius with her. "I'll explain on the way. Let's go! Lead the way!"
"May, seriously, wait!" Max pulled her, stopping her from dashing out the door. "Have you forgotten about the Magnezone sitting above us?" When this worked in getting May to calm down, he pulled out his phone and dialed his home number to test. "Yeah, nothing. It's still jammed. Our phones are pretty useless here. Most technology nowadays has safeguards put in place to stop the magnetic Pokemon from ruining them, but cell phones are still open to some magnetic interference," he explained. "Even still, it shouldn't be this bad. This island's pretty big, so if we get as far away from Magnezone as possible, there's a small chance that our phones would work, although I imagine the reception wouldn't be too great.
"As far as I know, the furthest point is the waterfall on the other side. Ash is headed there now. The boys got out of here just fine, so maybe Magnezone is sleeping again."
"That's a good possibility. Let's go, but let's be careful."
The pair from Hoenn made their way carefully outside, being careful not to make too much noise. Upon stepping outside, Max saw what he thought was...a Pokemon? Near where the sand met the water, bundled up into a little ball, was a tiny creature. Max was almost sure of it... he just needed a closer look.
"Oh, May, check it out... oh. Right. Sorry. But... there's a Pokemon out there by the water! It looks hurt. Come on, let's go see."
Briefly letting go of his sister's hand, Max rushed to the Pokemon's aid. "Max, wait!" May shouted in a voice not much above a whisper. "Geez, talk about forgetting..." She slowly walked towards where he was, taking no notice of Mr. Mime emerging from behind its invisible wall. It sat on the doorstep and assumed a meditative position, going deathly silent, using its powers to muffle the footsteps of the lumbering mammoth that had been lying in wait on the other side of the house, slowly approaching the two humans. On its back rode Shelly, who gave the command to her mount. It grunted and began charging the powerful attack.
"It's a Volbeat," Max confirmed once he'd gotten close enough. Volbeat was tightly curled at the water's edge, facing away from the young man. "Hey, little guy," he coaxed, kneeling down to its level, but it wouldn't budge. "May, come here, look at--" he turned around and saw the two Pokemon behind her, as well as the woman commanding them, and he sprawled to his feet. "May, look out!" he cried just as Shelly's green monster finished the attack. It loosed the Ice Beam with a low grunt. Max bolted as fast as he could, managing to push his sister out of the way of the incoming blast of ice. He shrieked in pain as the attack hit him the feet, instantly freezing them on contact. He fell to the ground, his feet encased in ice. "May. Run! Get out of here, fast!" he begged as Mamoswine continued the attack, freezing the young boy to the ground he lay on. "Ash was right! Shelly's behind it all! You have to w-" he was cut off once more as Mamoswine finished the attack, leaving Max completely encased in ice.
May sat there in the silence, too shocked to move. What just happened? "...Max?" she whimpered, not daring to move from her spot. "Max, where are you?"
Shelly hopped off the beast, removing a small device from her pocket. She brought it to her mouth, but after a moment's thought, put it back into her pocket. "Don't suppose I need that anymore, do I?"
May recognized the voice immediately. "Shelly! What's going on?! What did you do with Max?!"
"He's right in front of you, sweetheart," Shelly said, leading Mamoswine to where Max lay, frozen; Volbeat flew from where it lay and sat on Mamoswine's back, obviously having feigned injury. "Brave kid. Your brother, right? That attack was meant for you, you know. Didn't think he'd turn around..." May crawled slowly in front of her and felt the popsicle that used to be her brother.
"What did you do to him?!" she bawled.
"Froze him. Duh. Like I said, I wasn't going for him. Don't you remember?" She took the device from her pocket and brought it to her mouth. "You're my special toy," she spoke into it. She put the object back into her pocket; the look on May's face was all the confirmation she needed to know that May recognized that voice instantly, too.
"That was you? You're disgusting!" May screamed. "Oh my god, I think I'm going to be sick..."
"Yes, well, if you do, you should probably turn around. Wouldn't want you hurling all over your brother, would we?"
"Shut up! How dare you!" she screamed. Following the sound of her voice, May scrambled over Max's body and lunged at Shelly intent on punching her. Shelly dodged it easily, sending the blinded girl to her knees. Shelly yanked her from the ground, forcing May to her feet..
"Cool your jets, May," she said, pulling the girl's arms behind her in a lock. "He's not dead."
May calmed down a bit at this. "He's... he's not?"
"Nope. He is dying, yes. It's like what happened to Misty, except in reverse. She was freezing from the inside out; Max is freezing from the outside in." She gave a nod to Mamoswine, who reared its front legs back high. "Listen very carefully, May," Shelly instructed. "All right, Mamoswine, go for it," she said, and the giant green thing brought its legs down with tremendous force, completely shattering the frozen block that was Max. Pieces of him flew everywhere; the entire area leading up to the house was covered in shards of ice.
May didn't need to see to know what had just happened. She froze in Shelly's grasp, both emotionally and physically unable to move. Shelly let out a low chuckle and whispered into the girl's ear, "Just kidding. He was frozen to the core. There was no way he was getting out alive." She recalled Volbeat and Mamoswine back to their Poke Balls. "I wish I had more time to play, but I have a job to do. Goodbye, May." Shelly quickly spun the girl around and delivered a hard punch to her ribs; one shot was enough to knock May out cold. She let the girl fall limply to the ground as she released Weavile. It saluted the redhead, awaiting orders.
"Drag her somewhere out there and kill her," Shelly ordered, pointing towards the forest. "Do it however you want, but make sure you're not anywhere near here. I don't want any obvious evidence. The sun will melt what's left of the runt, so we don't have to worry about that. And no funny stuff! If I even so much as think you're screwing around, I'm gonna stick you back in your ball and then I'm gonna chuck it into the ocean - if I'm feeling merciful. Got it?"
Weavile gulped and gave a shaky nod, taking one of May's wrists in his claws. He disappeared into the forest at a steady pace, dragging his charge behind him.
"All right," Shelly said, wiping a bit of sweat off her forehead. "Five to go." Pleased with the day's progress, she welcomed herself back into the mansion, looking to satisfy her body's hunger.
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
A few miles away, Ash, Brock, and Tracey had just reached the waterfall's base, looking for any signs of Meowth or Shelly. Luxray was quietly napping out of the sight of the three boys, having fallen asleep while waiting.
"Doesn't look like she's here," Brock noted, casually tossing his knife in the air.
Ash was going to have none of that. He was determined to find something while he was here. It looked like Brock was right, though; there were no signs of Shelly or Meowth anywhere.
"Hey, you guys, look at this," Tracey said, kneeling near a spot by the water's edge. "Look at the ground. It's all discolored, and..." he picked up a small, curved object. "Oh, no," he said upon inspecting the object more closely. "You guys... I think this is a bone."
"What?" Ash said, causing Luxray to awaken from its slumber, still hidden from view. Ash scanned the ground for anything that looked similar to what Tracey was holding, and also noticed the discoloration on the dirt at their feet.
"You think it's blood?" Tracey asked to no one in particular.
"Could be," Ash said. "And if that's really a bone you're holding, then that means..."
"Meowth was probably killed here," Brock finished. "Poor guy. How despicable!" Brock kicked a nearby tree. "How can she do something like this?!"
Ash paid him no mind. "If he was killed here, he's probably buried nearby. Look around for any place that looks like the ground was disturbed."
As each guy searched, Luxray moved in the shadows, unable to decide who to maul first. The kid with the hat? The tall one? The dark one? He looked tough. Would he put up a fight?
"You guys, look. Here. This spot," Tracey said. "This looks freshly filled."
"Well, then, let's get digging!" Brock said, a bit too enthusiastic for Ash's liking.
Luxray, seeing his opening, decided to go for the biggest target first. Quick as ever, Luxray bounded from the shadows with a roar, delivering a powerful Spark attack to Tracey. He fell to the ground in pain as the electricity coursed through him. He turned to a very surprised Ash and Brock, fangs bared. As Tracey struggled to get back to his feet, Brock was the first to move, making a kick at Luxray, which it barely dodged. He lunged forward with his knife, hoping to put Luxray out of commission with one blow, but Luxray dodged that, too; it fired a low-power Charge Beam in retaliation. While Brock was hit with the full force of the attack, it was only a small jolt.
Ash put his heel right to Luxray's face as he fired the move, causing it to lose its balance. At that moment Ash tried his luck with the knife, but Luxray easily jumped out of the way. Seeing Tracey stagger to his feet, knife in hand, he shot a blast of Thunderbolt at him, sending him down once again. Luxray jumped on the Pokemon watcher, ready to take a bite out of his neck, when Tracey swung his knife as hard as he could into Luxray's side. It yowled in pain as it fell to the ground, firing off a massive Discharge attack at the same time. Tracey was hit the hardest, losing consciousness almost immediately after taking the hit.
Ash and Brock, still conscious but reeling from the jolt, both dived for the injured Pokemon. Brock managed to strike home; with a swift motion of his hand, he buried his knife in Luxray's flesh to the hilt. Seeing a brief moment of opportunity, Ash grabbed hold of Luxray's head with both of his hands and with all his strength, snapped the Luxray's neck with an audible crack. It slumped over, dead.
Relieved the ordeal was finally over, Brock went over to where Tracey lay and felt for a pulse. "...He's alive," he said with a sigh of relief. "Guess he's just passed out. What about you? You okay?"
Ash stretched. "Yeah, I'm fine... my body aches. I can walk, though."
"Good. I'm gonna need some help carrying Tracey, though..." he gave Tracey's shoulder a shake, and he did not respond. "Yeah, he's not getting up," Brock said, slowly pulling the unconscious Tracey to a sitting position. "You take his feet. I got this end."
"Just wait," Ash stopped him. "Can't forget what we originally came here for, can we?" Moving Tracey from the spot he lay, Ash dug into the dirt, not knowing how he'd react when he was done. If he found nothing, fine - that meant Meowth was probably still alive somewhere, but that would mean that he was still missing. If he found a corpse, well... at least he wouldn't be missing anymore. Brock leaned Tracey up against a tree and assisted Ash with his digging.
It didn't take long to find him. Only a few feet in, Ash came across Meowth's tail end; Ash did not bother yanking his body out.
"We need to get out of here right now," Ash said, heading to pick up Tracey's feet as previously instructed. "We never should have left May and Max alone. If anything's happened to them because of me..."
"Calm down, Ash. You're not the one doing these things... it's Shelly." Brock put his arms underneath Tracey's shoulders and the two men hoisted him off the ground. "Let's go."
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
When May was knocked out, she didn't expect to wake up. When she did, she felt that she was sitting upright, leaned up against what felt like a tree. She didn't dare move, for fear that Shelly would give her a repeat performance of two days ago. Why couldn't she just kill her and get it over with?
"I thought I'd be dead by now," May said to her captor, not knowing that she was not there. Weavile, who had propped the girl against a tree, was lost in thought. This was his chance to make his wishes known. He sat facing a tree, absently picking at its bark while contemplating how to make the words come out. That Meowth had made it look so easy...
Weavile did not hear her stir, and when she opened her mouth, it jumped off the ground and, realizing he hadn't killed her yet, began spouting out a flurry of his own name, trying hard to speak a word she'd understand.
"W-Weavile!" May gasped. "...Where's Shelly?"
Weavile knew exactly what May said, but every time he opened his mouth to explain, he'd said his name instead. How could he get his point across?
Hearing the Weavile finally stop running his mouth, but still nothing from Shelly, May tried to move her hands and feet and was pleasantly surprised to find that neither were bound like last time. She slowly got to her feet, not knowing if Shelly really was gone or simply hiding, and also because she did not know who or what else, if anything, was present. She checked herself for injury. She noticed the back of her shirt and shorts were covered in dirt, and her hair had a few sticks and leaves in it, but other than that she was perfectly fine...long-term injuries notwithstanding.
"Um..." she began. "Where am I?" She paused a moment before letting out a laugh. "Guess you can't answer me, huh?" Still, she did not make an attempt at simply running for it, not only because she would most likely run into something, but May figured it unlikely that Weavile would let her get anywhere.
She was trapped, completely at the mercy of Shelly's Weavile.
"Why are you even doing this in the first place?!" she yelled, hoping Shelly was simply there, but not speaking. "What did my friends ever do to you, huh?" She sat down again and buried her head in her knees. "What did Max do to deserve to die? Nothing. He saved me... don't you have any compassion?! Any friends?!" she shouted, directed at Shelly, but Weavile thought she was speaking to him.
Weavile watched her speak, taking in every word, every movement of her mouth, hoping he could mimic her. "Feh," he said. Okay, that wasn't quite what he was going for, but it was a start! Maybe she could get the hint from that. "Feh!" he said again, hoping she'd understand.
May didn't quite know what to make of that. "Feh?" she said, unable to see the enormous grin that came across Weavile's face when she did. Yes! There was hope! "What's feh?"
"Weavile!" he said.
May sighed. "I don't follow you. What are you trying to say?"
Weavile sighed too. "Ffffffen," he spoke, slowly, carefully. "Weavile fffffen."
"Fen? You mean friend?"
She did it! She did it! Praise be to the gods, she did it! Weavile let out a series of emphatic grunts, hoping she'd take that as the affirmative it was.
"Shelly's with her friend? You mean Jessie?"
Weavile buried his face in his claws and wondered if Meowth had this much trouble learning how to speak. He remembered something he'd seen Giovanni do to other people he worked with - maybe it would help get the point across to May. Not wanting to frighten her, he carefully made to take one of her hands in his claws, but the instant he touched her, she panicked and jerked her hand away from his grip. "Weavile!" he snapped, cursing Shelly for making this that much harder. Fearing he would do worse if she resisted, she submitted, extending her hand and hoping whatever it was Weavile was going to do wouldn't be too painful.
Again, Weavile took her hand in his claws. Once he had her, he shook her hand. "Weavile fen."
"Weavile...friend? You... want to be my friend?"
About time. He hugged her, spitting out another series of his own name, overjoyed she'd figured it out. Very confused, May just hugged him back. "Why do you want to be my friend?"
Weavile froze. What was he supposed to do now? He'd barely managed to stumble his way through one word, and even then it took some effort to just get that message across! He released May from his hug, heartbroken at the realization that he would never be able to effectively convey his meaning. "Weavile," he said forlornly.
Fortunately for him, May thought Weavile had been offended by her question. "Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean it like that," she said, reaching out to pet him. "I don't know what to say, is all. Surely you can understand my predicament, Weavile."
Weavile nodded. This was hard!
May smiled. "So don't worry. I'll be your friend, all right?" Again, Weavile gave an emphatic nod. "Good. My friends are out here somewhere... I'm not going to to be much help to you in my state. Could you go find them and bring them to me? I'll wait here for you."
"Weavile!" he confirmed, rising to his feet and saluting her. He was gone in seconds, eager to please his new friend.
May still wasn't too sure about what she'd just done. Was that Weavile for real? Where did he learn to talk? Granted, it was quite basic, but he still managed to say one word. She hoped she hadn't fallen for a horrible trick - being stranded in the middle of nowhere was not something she had planned for. Not having any alternatives, she put her faith in Weavile and sat against the tree she'd awakened against, hoping Ash would get there soon.
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
Weavile darted through the trees and foliage, searching for his target. Off in the distance, he saw Ash, Brock, and a now-conscious Tracey in a brisk run, en route back to the mansion. Catching up to them was an easy task.
Ash was the first to spot Weavile. "You!" he shouted, breaking into full-on chase mode.
"Ash, what are you doing? We have to get back!" Brock shouted.
"Go on without me!" Ash said, not taking his eyes off Weavile, who'd took off running as well. "I'll catch up!"
Weavile looked behind him and was amazed to find that Ash was actually keeping up with him. He was pretty fast... for a human. Weavile decided that this pace was fine - while he was sure he could lose the boy easily enough, losing him was not on the agenda for today. Spotting May in the distance, Weavile took a quick look behind him to make sure Ash was close behind him, and then ran faster. He stopped upon reaching where May had been resting, hoping Ash wouldn't give up the chase despite being virtually abandoned. Thankfully, he didn't, and he caught up with minimal trouble, although he was a bit winded after the whole thing. He saw May sitting against a tree and was overjoyed to find she was still alive.
"Weavile fen!" the Pokemon exclaimed, proud to have proven himself useful. Things were starting to look up!
Ash completely ignored him, tackling May in a fierce hug. "May. Oh god, May..."
"Ash!" she exclaimed, surprised at how fast he'd gotten here. She hugged him back, thankful he was safe.
"May, I'm sorry," Ash said, not releasing his hold on her. "I was so worried. I shouldn't have left you guys... where's Max?"
"He's... he's dead," May said, hugging Ash even tighter. "Shelly and her Mamoswine killed him."
Based on its name, Ash surmised that Mamoswine was somehow related to Piloswine - probably an evolution or something - but that took a back seat to the more important part of May's news. "What?! Oh, May, I'm so sorry... when did this happen?"
"Not long after you left... we were ambushed as soon as we left the house."
"Why would you leave? It's not safe!"
"I wanted to warn you... about Shelly. She has a gun. I don't think she's used it yet, but I know she has one. I couldn't just sit there and let you get killed. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if something had happened to you."
"It's all right. I'm fine. I'm here," he soothed her, still completely ignoring the small Pokemon that had led him here.
Weavile felt it was time to break up this little lovefest. Focusing energy into a claw, he let a chilly wave of air flow from it, sending chills up Ash's spine. The Sharp Claw Pokemon giggled as Ash shuddered under the Icy Wind's effects, easily jumping out of the way when he'd made to backhand the small creature.
"Don't you think I've forgotten about you," Ash said, making a surprise lunge at Weavile, catching only air as he fell to the hard ground.
"Weavile fen!" Weavile snapped at him. "Weavile fen!"
"Ash, wait!" May pleaded. "Don't hurt him!"
"What did you just say?" Ash asked, bewildered. "Do you have any idea what you're asking me to do?"
"I don't really understand it either, Ash, but... I think he wants to be our friend."
Ash laughed openly at this. "Are you out of your mind?"
"I'm serious, Ash! Think about it. When Max and I got ambushed, Shelly knocked me out. When I came to, I was here, and Weavile was the only one here with me. He could have killed me at any time, but he didn't. The only reason he brought you here is because I told him you were out here somewhere. He brought you to me. He hasn't done a thing to harm either of us. Aren't you listening to him? Weavile fen. Weavile friend. Why would Weavile even bother trying to learn our language if he wasn't serious? I think he wants to help us out."
Ash listened intently to what she said. Everything she said was true. "That true?" he said, looking over at Weavile.
Weavile grinned and nodded. "Weavile fend!" He took one of Ash's hands in his claws and shook it in the same way he'd done to May before. "Weavile fend."
Ash sighed. He just wanted to go home already. "Can you fight?"
Weavile stared at him like he'd just asked him if he could use Fire Blast. Of course he could fight! Geez, how dense was this kid?
"Don't look at me like that. If you're going to help us, I need to know what you're capable of. That Magnezone, which I'm going assume belongs to her, is the reason we can't call for help. Still Dark- and Ice-type, right?"
"Yeah," May answered for the Pokemon. "Magnezone is Electric/Steel, just like Magneton. Weavile's moves aren't very effective on it..."
Weavile laughed a bit at this. He was raised by Giovanni - there was no way Giovanni would let something as simple as a type disadvantage hinder his Pokemon. Weavile walked to a tree and looked it over, making sure it would be sturdy enough for what he was going to do to it. Finding that it was to his liking, he motioned to Ash to pay attention. Once the boy was watching, Weavile focused some energy into his claw and with one heavy blow, drove his claw into the tree. It was significantly harder than flesh and bone, so his claw did not go all the way through, but it still left a decently sized hole in it.
"I recognize that. Brick Break, right? That's great. That should be--"
Weavile silenced him with a grunt. Yeah, that was great, but he wasn't done yet. Turning back to the tree, he raised that same claw into the sky and focused all of his power into it. After nearly a minute of charging energy, Weavile slammed his fist into the tree with a sound not unlike thunder. The area where he'd hit exploded from the impact, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the tree. Ash shielded himself from the bark that had been sent flying.
When the dust cleared, Weavile flashed him a grin. He loved showing off.
"Wow," Ash said, unable to say much else. "That's... that's one heck of a Focus Punch... I'm sorry I ever doubted you. Your strength is real."
Just then, a cracking sound was heard close by, followed by another, and then another.
"The tree's falling!" Ash said, scrambling to get May out of the tree's path.
Perfect, Weavile thought. Time for trick number three. It scurried back a few yards and charged up a large mass of energy between his hands. He knew it wouldn't be as strong as Focus Punch, but he hoped it would be sufficient enough to knock away a tree. As the tree fell, Weavile aimed his claws up and shot the blast. It connected perfectly, and Weavile focused more, attempting to increase its potency. With a burst of strength, he pushed the blast forward, pushing the tree backwards, causing it to safely fall elsewhere.
Ash stared at Weavile, unable to form words at what he'd just seen. "What... what in the world... that was incredible!"
Weavile cursed his lack of knowledge of their language. He knew exactly what he'd done, and he wasn't sure if May knew or not. Nevertheless, he smiled at the two humans, happy to receive praise for what Weavile thought was a rather halfhearted Focus Blast. Sure, he'd tried, but he thought he could have done a little better. This kid and Giovanni were incredibly different...that was for sure.
"Are you all right?" Ash asked to the girl.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she said, getting to her feet. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah... Weavile just blew that tree away using some... ball of energy. It was intense. I've never seen anything like it."
"It's called Focus Blast," May said without missing a beat. "I may not have been able to see it performed, but I heard it loud and clear. Focus Blast gives off this really loud hum when it's used, so it was a dead giveaway. It's a Fighting-type attack. Really strong, too. With moves like that, Weavile should be able to handle Magnezone pretty easily!"
"Yeah," Ash said, getting up as well. "So, you said she has a... Mamoswine, was it? Evolved form of Piloswine, right?"
"That's right. It's still Ice/Ground, if I recall correctly." She thought about the rest of Shelly's Pokemon. "She also has a Mr. Mime, a Volbeat... and... and a L-Luxray."
"Luxray? Me, Brock, and Tracey got jumped by one at the waterfall. We--"
"Really?! Are you okay?!" May interrupted him, clutching onto him as if he were going to fall apart.
"Relax. I said I'm fine. Tracey got knocked out, but he's all right now. Anyway, we killed it, so assuming it's the same one you're talking about, that's one less Pokemon Shelly has. Does she have anything else?"
"Um... no, not that I know of. When Max and I were attacked, it was just Mr. Mime, Mamoswine, and Volbeat... I didn't even see Luxray there." She paused as she caught her error. "Well, you know what I mean."
"All right. At least we know what we're dealing with," Ash said, brushing himself off. "We have to hustle back. We still don't know where Shelly's at. She could be anywhere. Weavile, stick with us, all right? You're fast, and strong, but we can't defend ourselves out here. Got it?"
Weavile gave Ash a quick salute. It took May's hand in one of its claws. "Weavile fend!"
Ash couldn't help but chuckle at the Pokemon's eagerness. "Let's go."
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
Jessie and James, long since finished eating, were enjoying some quality time together in Giovanni's pool. After relaxing at the poolside, James decided to swim some laps. Jessie watched him for a few minutes, but quickly became bored.
"James, I'm leaving," she said as he finished another lap, heading for the changing room. "I'm bored..."
James frowned at this. "Bored? How could you be bored? The water's great! Swim with me."
"I'll pass. I'm starting to get all wrinkly," she said, looking at her fingers to confirm. "I'll be in the sauna."
"Sauna, eh? Sounds nice..." James said, contemplating.
"You're welcome to come "keep an eye on me" if you want," Jessie replied.
James laughed. "Again? I think I'll stay here a while longer and meet you later, okay?"
"If you insist. Love you," she said with a wink.
James smiled back at her. "Love you too, sweetheart."
Jessie sighed to herself and left the pool area, dried herself off, and then wrapped herself in it, not bothering to remove her swimsuit. Looking down the hall to see if anyone was there, she slipped out of the pool area and made her way to the nearby sauna. She entered the hot room and nearly jumped out of her skin when she found Shelly, likewise clad in a towel, relaxing on a bench near the door, eyes closed.
"Oh. Hello, Jessie," she said quite casually. "I want to talk to you. Is James coming?"
"No," Jessie said, sitting next to the other woman. "He's still in the pool."
"That's good. I'll be quick, then. About your little mission - I've been quite busy helping you out. Two more are dead - May and her brother, Max was it?"
Jessie was shocked into silence. She didn't see this coming... sure, perhaps she might have done one of them for her, but two over just one afternoon? It made her sick to her stomach just thinking about it. She didn't even want to think about what Shelly did to do the deed.
Shelly resumed speaking when Jessie didn't answer her. "Listen, there's what, three of them left? You kill one and I'll take the other two tomorrow. What do you say?"
"Shelly, I- I don't... I can't do this, Shelly," Jessie said finally.
"What? Yes you can. You killed once already. Ball's rolling. Can't stop it now."
"No. I won't. Not anymore, Shelly. Everyone thinks you killed Misty. You should have seen Ash earlier today. He was yelling all over the house for you."
"I can handle a punk kid and his friends, all right? Don't worry about a thing. I'll handle everything." She put her arm around Jessie and squeezed.
"No. Please, Shelly. Leave them alone. They don't deserve this... I only wish it hadn't taken Misty's life for me to realize it. This whole thing is wrong... Giovanni is wrong. I'm running away with James. As long as he's with me, I don't care what happens to our jobs. I... I love him, Shelly. I'll stay by his side until the end."
"Aw, that's so sweet!" Shelly said, fully embracing the girl with purple hair. She wasn't looking forward to this - losing two friends in one day - but it was something that needed to be done. "However..." she nodded towards the corner of the room.
"What? What are you talking about?" Jessie asked.
In an instant, Jessie felt her entire body go numb; slowly she began sliding up the wall, under the control of Mr. Mime, stepping out from behind its invisible wall.
"I'm sorry," Shelly said, rising from her seat. "I'm under orders to take out each and every one of you, and that's what I plan on doing."
"What?!" Jessie asked, struggling to get free but could not so much as budge an inch. "Orders from who?!"
"Your boss, of course. He called in a favor to my boss, Archie, and asked him to send one of his best men to Kanto to help him with a "pest control problem," he said. Giovanni was a bit skeptical when he realized that Archie's best man was a woman, but he decided to have faith in Archie's judgment and send me here, and he even gave me some of his Pokemon to help get the job done. I left the day I arrived in Kanto. He didn't mention that you guys would be getting here so soon... I'd only been here for about a day. I was learning the house right along with you guys."
"How could you?!" Jessie screamed, still struggling to break free of Mr. Mime's intense psychic grip, but to no avail. "They're just kids!"
"Look, that's not going to work," Shelly said, sitting on a bench opposite the wall where Jessie was held. "The whole "scream and hope I'm heard" thing? I explained this to May, too. Mr. Mime? Soundproof? Ring a bell?" She paused as the look on Jessie's face went from shock to anger to defeated. "I thought so. Look, Jessie, it's nothing personal, really. If we'd met under different circumstances... I'm sure we'd be good friends. In all honesty, I shouldn't have befriended you in the first place. Doing this certainly would be easier. I had a hard enough time killing Meowth."
"Meowth doesn't belong to us. He's Giovanni's," Jessie said calmly, realizing there would be no escape for her.
"Giovanni ordered me to kill him, even though he wasn't supposed to be here. Don't worry, though... I made it quick. He hardly suffered at all."
Jessie nodded. Hopefully, whatever Shelly had in mind would not be painful for her, either. Shelly looked at Mr. Mime, who appeared to be getting tired from rendering Jessie's arms and legs completely immobile. "All right, it's time."
"Wait!" Jessie pleaded. "One last thing... please, Shelly, if you ever considered us friends... let Ash and his friends know the truth. In an envelope on top of my pillow is... well, it's a letter. Please give it to Ash."
Shelly nodded. "Of course." With a wave of her hand, Mr. Mime went to work. Releasing his hold on Jessie's arms, he went for her neck instead. He gripped her throat in his phantom hands and, with a bit of focused energy, squeezed, shattering her windpipe instantly. Mr. Mime then released her neck and tightened his grip on her legs, opting to dangle her upside down in front of him.
"Wait," Shelly stopped him before he could continue. She kneeled down to Jessie's eye level. "I'm sorry, Jessie," Shelly said, looking into her pained, sorrowful eyes. "I wish things didn't have to be this way..." Rising to her feet she gave the signal for Mr. Mime to finish the job. With a pulse of psychic power, Mr. Mime held Jessie's body straight while he manually took hold of her head and twisted it harshly, snapping her neck in two. killing her on the spot. Job done, he relinquished his psychic hold on her, letting her corpse fall into a pile on the floor.
Shelly sighed. Four more to go. She unclipped Luxray's and Mamoswine's Poke Ball and handed it to Mr. Mime. "Get her out of here," she said, pointing at Jessie's body. "Take Mamoswine with you and you two bury her, understand? When you're done, get Luxray back in his Poke Ball and put Mamoswine back in his, then Teleport directly to me. I'm taking the rest of them out tonight and I'll need your help. I trust you can handle that?"
Mr. Mime nodded solemnly, understanding his orders. Grabbing hold of Jessie's wrist, Mr. Mime closed his eyes, readying the Teleport. The two were gone in a flash a moment later.
Shelly took Volbeat's Poke Ball from her belt and released it. It perched itself on her shoulder, awaiting instructions. "Ready, little guy?" she asked, tickling his stomach, much to his delight. It nodded happily at Shelly's question, glad he would finally get to show the others how strong he really was. "You'll get your chance really soon. Soon as Weavile gets back, we're gonna have us some fun. Come on. I'm going to get dressed and wait for the others to come back. Weavile should be back by then, too." She stepped out of the sauna and walked towards her room, adjusting her towel to keep it in place. "We'll get rid of the rest of those kids, collect our reward, and start living the good life!"
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
When they first left the clearing where Ash had found May, Ash had chosen to lead them back while Weavile guided May. They'd chosen to go off the beaten path and cut through the brush instead in an effort to save time, but Ash found he was constantly leaving them behind when Weavile had to release May in order to clear away a branch or bust a log. After a few complaints from May, Ash agreed to lead May while Weavile stayed up front and cleared a path. This proved to be highly effective, as Ash could keep a closer watch on May, May was pleased to be closer to Ash, and Weavile had lots of fun proving himself useful by eliminating anything that stood in their way, enabling the two humans to walk unobstructed.
"Almost there. Just a bit more," Ash said, trying to keep May's spirits up.
"Good. My feet are getting tired," May said, walking a little quicker to keep pace with him. "I can still wa-aah!" she cried, surprised from being pulled backwards. She clung to Ash for dear life as he hoisted her off the ground, supporting her knees with one arm and her back with the other.
"This better?" Ash said, trying his best to retain the same pace while carrying her. She was a bit heavier than he expected, but he could not afford to lose any more time than necessary. "It had better be, because I'm not putting you down until we get back."
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
Brock and Tracey, having just been left in the dust by Ash, were arguing over whether or not they should pursue the young man.
"We need to go after him! It could be a trap!" Tracey yelled. "I won't let him die!"
"We have to go back, right now," Brock said, grabbing hold of Tracey's wrist. "May and Max are there alone with Team Rocket, we have no idea where Shelly is, and between you and me, I don't think James is going to do a good job of keeping Jessie on a short leash."
"What makes you say that?" asked Tracey, curious.
"Simple. James is in love. Haven't you paid any attention at all? It's subtle things, like the look in his eyes, the way he moves, little things like that that tell you when a man's in love. Ash took out a Weavile before. He can do it again if things get rough, I'm sure. Right now we have a 13-year-old trying to care for his attractiveblind, teenage sister who could already be in great danger. The kids need our help and they need it right now."
"You're right. You're right. They take priority right now. Let's -- wait, did you say attractive?"
"Let's go!" Brock said quickly, marching onward to the mansion.
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
Shelly paced the area around the front of the house, waiting for her prey to arrive. Volbeat sat perched on Shelly's shoulder, and Magnezone hovered nearby, following the redhead as she walked. Why wasn't Weavile back yet? She checked her watch again. "Ten to six," she thought, thinking how long it had been since she sent Weavile to dispose of May. "That should have been a fifteen minute job, tops, and he's been gone for almost two hours. I never should have let him go out on his own."
Just then, Mr. Mime materialized a few feet from her, Mamoswine's Poke Ball in hand.
"Good, you're back. Did you bury her as I asked?" Mr. Mime nodded. "Where?"
He looked into the distance and pointed towards the waterfall. "You buried her there?" Another nod. "Good..." She released Mamoswine from his Poke Ball, slightly intimidated by the loud grunt it made upon release. It stomped at the ground, desperate for prey. Shelly went to release Luxray from his ball, but nothing happened. "Hey! I said to bring Luxray back with you! What's the matter with you?!"
Mr. Mime took hold of Shelly's wrist and projected the image of Luxray's corpse into Shelly's mind. She nodded in understanding. "Shoot. So much for that. I hope he doesn't take this out of my pay... all right, Mr. Mime, you're forgiven. Standby until I give the order to attack."
This was it... with or without Weavile, Ash and his friends would die tonight. Shelly made to entertain herself by thinking up creative ways to kill them. It was a shame May was already dead... there was some serious fun to be had with a blind girl. Shelly had a chuckle to herself at that, her ears alerting her to rustling in the trees. From it shot a small beam, freezing the plant life solid. Crashing through the frozen foliage a moment later was Weavile.
"Weavile!" Shelly shrieked. "Where have you been?! Get over here this instant!"
Weavile nearly jumped out of his skin after hearing the high-pitched yell, but he quickly righted himself and assumed a full-on battle pose, staring down the much larger Pokemon at Shelly's command. He quickly backed to the edge of the forest, stopping Ash and May from leaving.
"Huh? What is it, Weavile?" Ash asked, peering over him, his gaze resting upon Magnezone, Mr. Mime, Volbeat, and Shelly. He wanted nothing more than to drop May and do all sorts of horrible things to Shelly, but even he wasn't dumb enough to do that. He locked eyes with Mamoswine, almost laughing openly at his bright green fur. Unbeknownst to Ash, Mamoswine was infuriated by the eye contact, but he stayed put - he knew what the punishments for disobeying orders were.
"Are... are you betraying me? Betraying Giovanni?" Shelly asked the smaller Pokemon. Weavile stood tall, firing a warning Ice Beam at the ground when Shelly stepped closer. "I see. I also see that May is still alive... I knew I shouldn't have let you out on your own. Well, Weavile, if you'd rather die with them, then so be it."
Not thirty seconds after those words escaped from her lips, Brock and Tracey emerged from behind Ash and May.
"Sorry we're late," Brock said. "We saw that enormous Pokemon and Magnezone and had a feeling something was up. We saw you two over here, so we cut through. What's the situation?"
"The situation is, you're all going to die," Shelly said as Volbeat flew off her shoulder, wings vibrating furiously.
"You..." Ash seethed, never more furious about anything in his life. "You did this! You're the one that ordered the attack on Misty! You... killed... her..." He wiped away the tears forming in his eyes, intent on saying his piece. "I'll never forgive you. You took not one, but two of my friends away from me... and for that...you will pay."
"Well, you're not entirely right," Shelly said calmly, totally unfazed by Ash's threat. "I did order the attack on Misty, and I was responsible for Max's death, but you don't have all the pieces of the puzzle. First, and most obviously, do you see Jessie, James, or Meowth here?"
"Did you kill them, too?!" Ash screamed, beyond furious at this point.
"Guilty as charged, although I will let you in on a secret - James is still alive, blissfully unaware of what's going on right now. Even if he were, he is in no position to stop me. I will annihilate the lot of you, finish James off, and get off this dreadful island."
Ash looked to his friends, and then down to Weavile, who was sweating bullets, but not willing to back down. Ash couldn't help but admire him for his courage. All their hopes were riding on him.
"Secondly, I didn't kill Misty, and I can prove it," Shelly continued, taking Jessie's letter from her back pocket. "This is a letter that Jessie wrote...sometime today, I guess. I didn't ask her before she died. "It's addressed to you, Ash, but you can't have it unless you pry it from my corpse."
It took everything Ash had not to rush like a madman at her. Trying very hard to keep his anger in check for just a little longer, he turned once more to his friends.
"Weavile, we're counting on you," Ash said, placing a hand on Weavile's head. I don't know your attacks, so I can't command you in battle. The only people who could even know are either dead, not here, or blind - no offense, May. You're on your own. Do your best."
Ash turned to the rest of his friends. "I won't lie, guys. We could all die here today. Weavile is our one shot, so we'll probably end up taking hits."
He turned to May and took her by her shoulders, new tears forming in his eyes. "May... please don't take offense to what I'm about to say. It's going to hurt to hear it and it's going to hurt me even more to say it, but I don't have time to sugarcoat it. You're a burden, May. Our lives are at stake. If you get in the way, you could get us all killed. None of us can afford to stay with you, and to be perfectly honest, I think they're going to attack you first because you're the weakest link. Do you understand, May?"
She answered him with a kiss. She understood, all right. Everything he said was true. She was a burden. "I know, Ash," May said, forcing herself onto him in a hug. "If I do die, I didn't want to die without letting you know how I feel about you."
"I understand... I understand," he soothed her, still tightly embracing her. "All I can ask is that you feign death. If you get hit, fake death as best you can. Hopefully you'll be hit by something non-lethal..."
Ash was interrupted by Shelly, tiring of watching the teens in their final moments. "Ready, everyone?!" she yelled. Magnezone, the electric powerhouse, sparking and crackling with so much excess electricity that the sparks singed the sand; Mamoswine, the enormous mammoth, bursting with power and energy, had his sights set on Ash; Mr. Mime, the psychic demon, prepped for battle, his psychic aura flaring wildly; and Volbeat, the speedy firefly, zoomed around his teammates, ready to show everyone he was not to be taken lightly.
"Go!" She commanded them. "Kill them! Kill them all!"
ch10 continued
"We got it. We've wasted enough time here. Let's get going before Shelly gets back. Hopefully we'll be able to subdue her without using force, but..." Ash said, heading for the door, briefly pausing as he considered his options. "Yeah. Knives." Ash ran as fast as he could to the kitchen and brought back enough knives for the three of them. He took one last look at Jessie before leaving, opening the door for the two other guys to leave. "By the way, I'm sorry I yelled at you, Jessie. Really. I'm sure you can understand how stressed out I am right now... just wanted to let you know." And with that, they left, en route to the waterfall, unaware of the silent little Volbeat who'd flown far ahead of them, ready to inform his trainer about what had just occurred.
Inside the mansion, the others were discussing a more current course of action.
"I'm starving," Jessie said after a moment of silence between those that remained. "If we're going to be leaving, I refuse to leave on an empty stomach."
James felt his stomach rumble at the mention of food. "Oh, I hear that. I'm running on empty. Mind if I accompany you?"
"You're supposed to be watching my every move, remember?" Jessie reminded him. "You don't have to ask." She linked her arm with his. "And even if you did, you know I'd say no."
James smiled. "Glad to hear it," he said, leading his lady down the hall into the kitchen, leaving the siblings from Hoenn by themselves.
Max took a seat on the couch and let out a sigh, cleaning his glasses with his shirt. So much had happened today, and it was hardly afternoon yet. He smiled as his sister sat next to him, although it hurt his heart knowing she could not see it. It also made him furious to think that someone would hurt his sister. May never hurt anyone. What did she do to deserve this? He thought of what had happened to Misty. He didn't know her too well, but from his short time with her, Misty seemed like a really nice girl. He pulled May in for a fierce hug, so very glad that while she had been attacked, she was still alive.
May was taken aback by the sudden show of affection, but nevertheless she hugged him back. "What's with this, all of a sudden?" she asked.
"Just glad you're okay," the young teen replied.
"Yeah..." He had no idea what she'd gone through. No one did. Misty was the only one she'd trusted enough to tell the truth about what had really gone on down there, and now she was gone forever. "I should really tell Ash about that man," she thought. She rubbed at the spot on her stomach where she'd been hit. The external pain was gone, but the memory of what had happened after she'd come to was burned into her mind, hurting her more than any flesh wound ever could. "But who could have done it?" she pondered. "It couldn't have been Max. He's too short. Brock and Tracey are both tall enough, but... gosh, I couldn't imagine either of them doing that. Neither of them own a Luxray, either... no one does except Max. And if it couldn't have been him..."
"What's the matter, May?" Max asked, concerned about his sister's sudden mood change.
"Just thinking about Misty," she told him. Even if she thought he was smarter than she was, May did not want to worry him any more than she already was by telling him about the horrors that took place in that basement. "I miss her."
"I see," Max said, studying her face carefully. "I wish I'd gotten a chance to get to know her. She seemed nice."
"Uh huh," the girl said audibly. "Could... could Shelly have done it?" May thought, paying no mind to what her younger brother was saying. "It would explain the need to disguise her voice, but..." she gasped as she suddenly realized something."If it really was her, and she's got a gun, I need to tell Ash right away! Oh, why didn't I think of this before?!"
"Max! Take me to Ash! We have to warn him!" she said, standing up, trying her best to make her way around the table that blocked her path to the front door.
"Whoa, May, hold on a second!" Max interrupted her, taking her hand. "What are you talking about?"
Clearing the table, May made a mad dash for what she hoped was the door, dragging the poor genius with her. "I'll explain on the way. Let's go! Lead the way!"
"May, seriously, wait!" Max pulled her, stopping her from dashing out the door. "Have you forgotten about the Magnezone sitting above us?" When this worked in getting May to calm down, he pulled out his phone and dialed his home number to test. "Yeah, nothing. It's still jammed. Our phones are pretty useless here. Most technology nowadays has safeguards put in place to stop the magnetic Pokemon from ruining them, but cell phones are still open to some magnetic interference," he explained. "Even still, it shouldn't be this bad. This island's pretty big, so if we get as far away from Magnezone as possible, there's a small chance that our phones would work, although I imagine the reception wouldn't be too great.
"As far as I know, the furthest point is the waterfall on the other side. Ash is headed there now. The boys got out of here just fine, so maybe Magnezone is sleeping again."
"That's a good possibility. Let's go, but let's be careful."
The pair from Hoenn made their way carefully outside, being careful not to make too much noise. Upon stepping outside, Max saw what he thought was...a Pokemon? Near where the sand met the water, bundled up into a little ball, was a tiny creature. Max was almost sure of it... he just needed a closer look.
"Oh, May, check it out... oh. Right. Sorry. But... there's a Pokemon out there by the water! It looks hurt. Come on, let's go see."
Briefly letting go of his sister's hand, Max rushed to the Pokemon's aid. "Max, wait!" May shouted in a voice not much above a whisper. "Geez, talk about forgetting..." She slowly walked towards where he was, taking no notice of Mr. Mime emerging from behind its invisible wall. It sat on the doorstep and assumed a meditative position, going deathly silent, using its powers to muffle the footsteps of the lumbering mammoth that had been lying in wait on the other side of the house, slowly approaching the two humans. On its back rode Shelly, who gave the command to her mount. It grunted and began charging the powerful attack.
"It's a Volbeat," Max confirmed once he'd gotten close enough. Volbeat was tightly curled at the water's edge, facing away from the young man. "Hey, little guy," he coaxed, kneeling down to its level, but it wouldn't budge. "May, come here, look at--" he turned around and saw the two Pokemon behind her, as well as the woman commanding them, and he sprawled to his feet. "May, look out!" he cried just as Shelly's green monster finished the attack. It loosed the Ice Beam with a low grunt. Max bolted as fast as he could, managing to push his sister out of the way of the incoming blast of ice. He shrieked in pain as the attack hit him the feet, instantly freezing them on contact. He fell to the ground, his feet encased in ice. "May. Run! Get out of here, fast!" he begged as Mamoswine continued the attack, freezing the young boy to the ground he lay on. "Ash was right! Shelly's behind it all! You have to w-" he was cut off once more as Mamoswine finished the attack, leaving Max completely encased in ice.
May sat there in the silence, too shocked to move. What just happened? "...Max?" she whimpered, not daring to move from her spot. "Max, where are you?"
Shelly hopped off the beast, removing a small device from her pocket. She brought it to her mouth, but after a moment's thought, put it back into her pocket. "Don't suppose I need that anymore, do I?"
May recognized the voice immediately. "Shelly! What's going on?! What did you do with Max?!"
"He's right in front of you, sweetheart," Shelly said, leading Mamoswine to where Max lay, frozen; Volbeat flew from where it lay and sat on Mamoswine's back, obviously having feigned injury. "Brave kid. Your brother, right? That attack was meant for you, you know. Didn't think he'd turn around..." May crawled slowly in front of her and felt the popsicle that used to be her brother.
"What did you do to him?!" she bawled.
"Froze him. Duh. Like I said, I wasn't going for him. Don't you remember?" She took the device from her pocket and brought it to her mouth. "You're my special toy," she spoke into it. She put the object back into her pocket; the look on May's face was all the confirmation she needed to know that May recognized that voice instantly, too.
"That was you? You're disgusting!" May screamed. "Oh my god, I think I'm going to be sick..."
"Yes, well, if you do, you should probably turn around. Wouldn't want you hurling all over your brother, would we?"
"Shut up! How dare you!" she screamed. Following the sound of her voice, May scrambled over Max's body and lunged at Shelly intent on punching her. Shelly dodged it easily, sending the blinded girl to her knees. Shelly yanked her from the ground, forcing May to her feet..
"Cool your jets, May," she said, pulling the girl's arms behind her in a lock. "He's not dead."
May calmed down a bit at this. "He's... he's not?"
"Nope. He is dying, yes. It's like what happened to Misty, except in reverse. She was freezing from the inside out; Max is freezing from the outside in." She gave a nod to Mamoswine, who reared its front legs back high. "Listen very carefully, May," Shelly instructed. "All right, Mamoswine, go for it," she said, and the giant green thing brought its legs down with tremendous force, completely shattering the frozen block that was Max. Pieces of him flew everywhere; the entire area leading up to the house was covered in shards of ice.
May didn't need to see to know what had just happened. She froze in Shelly's grasp, both emotionally and physically unable to move. Shelly let out a low chuckle and whispered into the girl's ear, "Just kidding. He was frozen to the core. There was no way he was getting out alive." She recalled Volbeat and Mamoswine back to their Poke Balls. "I wish I had more time to play, but I have a job to do. Goodbye, May." Shelly quickly spun the girl around and delivered a hard punch to her ribs; one shot was enough to knock May out cold. She let the girl fall limply to the ground as she released Weavile. It saluted the redhead, awaiting orders.
"Drag her somewhere out there and kill her," Shelly ordered, pointing towards the forest. "Do it however you want, but make sure you're not anywhere near here. I don't want any obvious evidence. The sun will melt what's left of the runt, so we don't have to worry about that. And no funny stuff! If I even so much as think you're screwing around, I'm gonna stick you back in your ball and then I'm gonna chuck it into the ocean - if I'm feeling merciful. Got it?"
Weavile gulped and gave a shaky nod, taking one of May's wrists in his claws. He disappeared into the forest at a steady pace, dragging his charge behind him.
"All right," Shelly said, wiping a bit of sweat off her forehead. "Five to go." Pleased with the day's progress, she welcomed herself back into the mansion, looking to satisfy her body's hunger.
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
A few miles away, Ash, Brock, and Tracey had just reached the waterfall's base, looking for any signs of Meowth or Shelly. Luxray was quietly napping out of the sight of the three boys, having fallen asleep while waiting.
"Doesn't look like she's here," Brock noted, casually tossing his knife in the air.
Ash was going to have none of that. He was determined to find something while he was here. It looked like Brock was right, though; there were no signs of Shelly or Meowth anywhere.
"Hey, you guys, look at this," Tracey said, kneeling near a spot by the water's edge. "Look at the ground. It's all discolored, and..." he picked up a small, curved object. "Oh, no," he said upon inspecting the object more closely. "You guys... I think this is a bone."
"What?" Ash said, causing Luxray to awaken from its slumber, still hidden from view. Ash scanned the ground for anything that looked similar to what Tracey was holding, and also noticed the discoloration on the dirt at their feet.
"You think it's blood?" Tracey asked to no one in particular.
"Could be," Ash said. "And if that's really a bone you're holding, then that means..."
"Meowth was probably killed here," Brock finished. "Poor guy. How despicable!" Brock kicked a nearby tree. "How can she do something like this?!"
Ash paid him no mind. "If he was killed here, he's probably buried nearby. Look around for any place that looks like the ground was disturbed."
As each guy searched, Luxray moved in the shadows, unable to decide who to maul first. The kid with the hat? The tall one? The dark one? He looked tough. Would he put up a fight?
"You guys, look. Here. This spot," Tracey said. "This looks freshly filled."
"Well, then, let's get digging!" Brock said, a bit too enthusiastic for Ash's liking.
Luxray, seeing his opening, decided to go for the biggest target first. Quick as ever, Luxray bounded from the shadows with a roar, delivering a powerful Spark attack to Tracey. He fell to the ground in pain as the electricity coursed through him. He turned to a very surprised Ash and Brock, fangs bared. As Tracey struggled to get back to his feet, Brock was the first to move, making a kick at Luxray, which it barely dodged. He lunged forward with his knife, hoping to put Luxray out of commission with one blow, but Luxray dodged that, too; it fired a low-power Charge Beam in retaliation. While Brock was hit with the full force of the attack, it was only a small jolt.
Ash put his heel right to Luxray's face as he fired the move, causing it to lose its balance. At that moment Ash tried his luck with the knife, but Luxray easily jumped out of the way. Seeing Tracey stagger to his feet, knife in hand, he shot a blast of Thunderbolt at him, sending him down once again. Luxray jumped on the Pokemon watcher, ready to take a bite out of his neck, when Tracey swung his knife as hard as he could into Luxray's side. It yowled in pain as it fell to the ground, firing off a massive Discharge attack at the same time. Tracey was hit the hardest, losing consciousness almost immediately after taking the hit.
Ash and Brock, still conscious but reeling from the jolt, both dived for the injured Pokemon. Brock managed to strike home; with a swift motion of his hand, he buried his knife in Luxray's flesh to the hilt. Seeing a brief moment of opportunity, Ash grabbed hold of Luxray's head with both of his hands and with all his strength, snapped the Luxray's neck with an audible crack. It slumped over, dead.
Relieved the ordeal was finally over, Brock went over to where Tracey lay and felt for a pulse. "...He's alive," he said with a sigh of relief. "Guess he's just passed out. What about you? You okay?"
Ash stretched. "Yeah, I'm fine... my body aches. I can walk, though."
"Good. I'm gonna need some help carrying Tracey, though..." he gave Tracey's shoulder a shake, and he did not respond. "Yeah, he's not getting up," Brock said, slowly pulling the unconscious Tracey to a sitting position. "You take his feet. I got this end."
"Just wait," Ash stopped him. "Can't forget what we originally came here for, can we?" Moving Tracey from the spot he lay, Ash dug into the dirt, not knowing how he'd react when he was done. If he found nothing, fine - that meant Meowth was probably still alive somewhere, but that would mean that he was still missing. If he found a corpse, well... at least he wouldn't be missing anymore. Brock leaned Tracey up against a tree and assisted Ash with his digging.
It didn't take long to find him. Only a few feet in, Ash came across Meowth's tail end; Ash did not bother yanking his body out.
"We need to get out of here right now," Ash said, heading to pick up Tracey's feet as previously instructed. "We never should have left May and Max alone. If anything's happened to them because of me..."
"Calm down, Ash. You're not the one doing these things... it's Shelly." Brock put his arms underneath Tracey's shoulders and the two men hoisted him off the ground. "Let's go."
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
When May was knocked out, she didn't expect to wake up. When she did, she felt that she was sitting upright, leaned up against what felt like a tree. She didn't dare move, for fear that Shelly would give her a repeat performance of two days ago. Why couldn't she just kill her and get it over with?
"I thought I'd be dead by now," May said to her captor, not knowing that she was not there. Weavile, who had propped the girl against a tree, was lost in thought. This was his chance to make his wishes known. He sat facing a tree, absently picking at its bark while contemplating how to make the words come out. That Meowth had made it look so easy...
Weavile did not hear her stir, and when she opened her mouth, it jumped off the ground and, realizing he hadn't killed her yet, began spouting out a flurry of his own name, trying hard to speak a word she'd understand.
"W-Weavile!" May gasped. "...Where's Shelly?"
Weavile knew exactly what May said, but every time he opened his mouth to explain, he'd said his name instead. How could he get his point across?
Hearing the Weavile finally stop running his mouth, but still nothing from Shelly, May tried to move her hands and feet and was pleasantly surprised to find that neither were bound like last time. She slowly got to her feet, not knowing if Shelly really was gone or simply hiding, and also because she did not know who or what else, if anything, was present. She checked herself for injury. She noticed the back of her shirt and shorts were covered in dirt, and her hair had a few sticks and leaves in it, but other than that she was perfectly fine...long-term injuries notwithstanding.
"Um..." she began. "Where am I?" She paused a moment before letting out a laugh. "Guess you can't answer me, huh?" Still, she did not make an attempt at simply running for it, not only because she would most likely run into something, but May figured it unlikely that Weavile would let her get anywhere.
She was trapped, completely at the mercy of Shelly's Weavile.
"Why are you even doing this in the first place?!" she yelled, hoping Shelly was simply there, but not speaking. "What did my friends ever do to you, huh?" She sat down again and buried her head in her knees. "What did Max do to deserve to die? Nothing. He saved me... don't you have any compassion?! Any friends?!" she shouted, directed at Shelly, but Weavile thought she was speaking to him.
Weavile watched her speak, taking in every word, every movement of her mouth, hoping he could mimic her. "Feh," he said. Okay, that wasn't quite what he was going for, but it was a start! Maybe she could get the hint from that. "Feh!" he said again, hoping she'd understand.
May didn't quite know what to make of that. "Feh?" she said, unable to see the enormous grin that came across Weavile's face when she did. Yes! There was hope! "What's feh?"
"Weavile!" he said.
May sighed. "I don't follow you. What are you trying to say?"
Weavile sighed too. "Ffffffen," he spoke, slowly, carefully. "Weavile fffffen."
"Fen? You mean friend?"
She did it! She did it! Praise be to the gods, she did it! Weavile let out a series of emphatic grunts, hoping she'd take that as the affirmative it was.
"Shelly's with her friend? You mean Jessie?"
Weavile buried his face in his claws and wondered if Meowth had this much trouble learning how to speak. He remembered something he'd seen Giovanni do to other people he worked with - maybe it would help get the point across to May. Not wanting to frighten her, he carefully made to take one of her hands in his claws, but the instant he touched her, she panicked and jerked her hand away from his grip. "Weavile!" he snapped, cursing Shelly for making this that much harder. Fearing he would do worse if she resisted, she submitted, extending her hand and hoping whatever it was Weavile was going to do wouldn't be too painful.
Again, Weavile took her hand in his claws. Once he had her, he shook her hand. "Weavile fen."
"Weavile...friend? You... want to be my friend?"
About time. He hugged her, spitting out another series of his own name, overjoyed she'd figured it out. Very confused, May just hugged him back. "Why do you want to be my friend?"
Weavile froze. What was he supposed to do now? He'd barely managed to stumble his way through one word, and even then it took some effort to just get that message across! He released May from his hug, heartbroken at the realization that he would never be able to effectively convey his meaning. "Weavile," he said forlornly.
Fortunately for him, May thought Weavile had been offended by her question. "Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean it like that," she said, reaching out to pet him. "I don't know what to say, is all. Surely you can understand my predicament, Weavile."
Weavile nodded. This was hard!
May smiled. "So don't worry. I'll be your friend, all right?" Again, Weavile gave an emphatic nod. "Good. My friends are out here somewhere... I'm not going to to be much help to you in my state. Could you go find them and bring them to me? I'll wait here for you."
"Weavile!" he confirmed, rising to his feet and saluting her. He was gone in seconds, eager to please his new friend.
May still wasn't too sure about what she'd just done. Was that Weavile for real? Where did he learn to talk? Granted, it was quite basic, but he still managed to say one word. She hoped she hadn't fallen for a horrible trick - being stranded in the middle of nowhere was not something she had planned for. Not having any alternatives, she put her faith in Weavile and sat against the tree she'd awakened against, hoping Ash would get there soon.
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
Weavile darted through the trees and foliage, searching for his target. Off in the distance, he saw Ash, Brock, and a now-conscious Tracey in a brisk run, en route back to the mansion. Catching up to them was an easy task.
Ash was the first to spot Weavile. "You!" he shouted, breaking into full-on chase mode.
"Ash, what are you doing? We have to get back!" Brock shouted.
"Go on without me!" Ash said, not taking his eyes off Weavile, who'd took off running as well. "I'll catch up!"
Weavile looked behind him and was amazed to find that Ash was actually keeping up with him. He was pretty fast... for a human. Weavile decided that this pace was fine - while he was sure he could lose the boy easily enough, losing him was not on the agenda for today. Spotting May in the distance, Weavile took a quick look behind him to make sure Ash was close behind him, and then ran faster. He stopped upon reaching where May had been resting, hoping Ash wouldn't give up the chase despite being virtually abandoned. Thankfully, he didn't, and he caught up with minimal trouble, although he was a bit winded after the whole thing. He saw May sitting against a tree and was overjoyed to find she was still alive.
"Weavile fen!" the Pokemon exclaimed, proud to have proven himself useful. Things were starting to look up!
Ash completely ignored him, tackling May in a fierce hug. "May. Oh god, May..."
"Ash!" she exclaimed, surprised at how fast he'd gotten here. She hugged him back, thankful he was safe.
"May, I'm sorry," Ash said, not releasing his hold on her. "I was so worried. I shouldn't have left you guys... where's Max?"
"He's... he's dead," May said, hugging Ash even tighter. "Shelly and her Mamoswine killed him."
Based on its name, Ash surmised that Mamoswine was somehow related to Piloswine - probably an evolution or something - but that took a back seat to the more important part of May's news. "What?! Oh, May, I'm so sorry... when did this happen?"
"Not long after you left... we were ambushed as soon as we left the house."
"Why would you leave? It's not safe!"
"I wanted to warn you... about Shelly. She has a gun. I don't think she's used it yet, but I know she has one. I couldn't just sit there and let you get killed. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if something had happened to you."
"It's all right. I'm fine. I'm here," he soothed her, still completely ignoring the small Pokemon that had led him here.
Weavile felt it was time to break up this little lovefest. Focusing energy into a claw, he let a chilly wave of air flow from it, sending chills up Ash's spine. The Sharp Claw Pokemon giggled as Ash shuddered under the Icy Wind's effects, easily jumping out of the way when he'd made to backhand the small creature.
"Don't you think I've forgotten about you," Ash said, making a surprise lunge at Weavile, catching only air as he fell to the hard ground.
"Weavile fen!" Weavile snapped at him. "Weavile fen!"
"Ash, wait!" May pleaded. "Don't hurt him!"
"What did you just say?" Ash asked, bewildered. "Do you have any idea what you're asking me to do?"
"I don't really understand it either, Ash, but... I think he wants to be our friend."
Ash laughed openly at this. "Are you out of your mind?"
"I'm serious, Ash! Think about it. When Max and I got ambushed, Shelly knocked me out. When I came to, I was here, and Weavile was the only one here with me. He could have killed me at any time, but he didn't. The only reason he brought you here is because I told him you were out here somewhere. He brought you to me. He hasn't done a thing to harm either of us. Aren't you listening to him? Weavile fen. Weavile friend. Why would Weavile even bother trying to learn our language if he wasn't serious? I think he wants to help us out."
Ash listened intently to what she said. Everything she said was true. "That true?" he said, looking over at Weavile.
Weavile grinned and nodded. "Weavile fend!" He took one of Ash's hands in his claws and shook it in the same way he'd done to May before. "Weavile fend."
Ash sighed. He just wanted to go home already. "Can you fight?"
Weavile stared at him like he'd just asked him if he could use Fire Blast. Of course he could fight! Geez, how dense was this kid?
"Don't look at me like that. If you're going to help us, I need to know what you're capable of. That Magnezone, which I'm going assume belongs to her, is the reason we can't call for help. Still Dark- and Ice-type, right?"
"Yeah," May answered for the Pokemon. "Magnezone is Electric/Steel, just like Magneton. Weavile's moves aren't very effective on it..."
Weavile laughed a bit at this. He was raised by Giovanni - there was no way Giovanni would let something as simple as a type disadvantage hinder his Pokemon. Weavile walked to a tree and looked it over, making sure it would be sturdy enough for what he was going to do to it. Finding that it was to his liking, he motioned to Ash to pay attention. Once the boy was watching, Weavile focused some energy into his claw and with one heavy blow, drove his claw into the tree. It was significantly harder than flesh and bone, so his claw did not go all the way through, but it still left a decently sized hole in it.
"I recognize that. Brick Break, right? That's great. That should be--"
Weavile silenced him with a grunt. Yeah, that was great, but he wasn't done yet. Turning back to the tree, he raised that same claw into the sky and focused all of his power into it. After nearly a minute of charging energy, Weavile slammed his fist into the tree with a sound not unlike thunder. The area where he'd hit exploded from the impact, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the tree. Ash shielded himself from the bark that had been sent flying.
When the dust cleared, Weavile flashed him a grin. He loved showing off.
"Wow," Ash said, unable to say much else. "That's... that's one heck of a Focus Punch... I'm sorry I ever doubted you. Your strength is real."
Just then, a cracking sound was heard close by, followed by another, and then another.
"The tree's falling!" Ash said, scrambling to get May out of the tree's path.
Perfect, Weavile thought. Time for trick number three. It scurried back a few yards and charged up a large mass of energy between his hands. He knew it wouldn't be as strong as Focus Punch, but he hoped it would be sufficient enough to knock away a tree. As the tree fell, Weavile aimed his claws up and shot the blast. It connected perfectly, and Weavile focused more, attempting to increase its potency. With a burst of strength, he pushed the blast forward, pushing the tree backwards, causing it to safely fall elsewhere.
Ash stared at Weavile, unable to form words at what he'd just seen. "What... what in the world... that was incredible!"
Weavile cursed his lack of knowledge of their language. He knew exactly what he'd done, and he wasn't sure if May knew or not. Nevertheless, he smiled at the two humans, happy to receive praise for what Weavile thought was a rather halfhearted Focus Blast. Sure, he'd tried, but he thought he could have done a little better. This kid and Giovanni were incredibly different...that was for sure.
"Are you all right?" Ash asked to the girl.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she said, getting to her feet. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah... Weavile just blew that tree away using some... ball of energy. It was intense. I've never seen anything like it."
"It's called Focus Blast," May said without missing a beat. "I may not have been able to see it performed, but I heard it loud and clear. Focus Blast gives off this really loud hum when it's used, so it was a dead giveaway. It's a Fighting-type attack. Really strong, too. With moves like that, Weavile should be able to handle Magnezone pretty easily!"
"Yeah," Ash said, getting up as well. "So, you said she has a... Mamoswine, was it? Evolved form of Piloswine, right?"
"That's right. It's still Ice/Ground, if I recall correctly." She thought about the rest of Shelly's Pokemon. "She also has a Mr. Mime, a Volbeat... and... and a L-Luxray."
"Luxray? Me, Brock, and Tracey got jumped by one at the waterfall. We--"
"Really?! Are you okay?!" May interrupted him, clutching onto him as if he were going to fall apart.
"Relax. I said I'm fine. Tracey got knocked out, but he's all right now. Anyway, we killed it, so assuming it's the same one you're talking about, that's one less Pokemon Shelly has. Does she have anything else?"
"Um... no, not that I know of. When Max and I were attacked, it was just Mr. Mime, Mamoswine, and Volbeat... I didn't even see Luxray there." She paused as she caught her error. "Well, you know what I mean."
"All right. At least we know what we're dealing with," Ash said, brushing himself off. "We have to hustle back. We still don't know where Shelly's at. She could be anywhere. Weavile, stick with us, all right? You're fast, and strong, but we can't defend ourselves out here. Got it?"
Weavile gave Ash a quick salute. It took May's hand in one of its claws. "Weavile fend!"
Ash couldn't help but chuckle at the Pokemon's eagerness. "Let's go."
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
Jessie and James, long since finished eating, were enjoying some quality time together in Giovanni's pool. After relaxing at the poolside, James decided to swim some laps. Jessie watched him for a few minutes, but quickly became bored.
"James, I'm leaving," she said as he finished another lap, heading for the changing room. "I'm bored..."
James frowned at this. "Bored? How could you be bored? The water's great! Swim with me."
"I'll pass. I'm starting to get all wrinkly," she said, looking at her fingers to confirm. "I'll be in the sauna."
"Sauna, eh? Sounds nice..." James said, contemplating.
"You're welcome to come "keep an eye on me" if you want," Jessie replied.
James laughed. "Again? I think I'll stay here a while longer and meet you later, okay?"
"If you insist. Love you," she said with a wink.
James smiled back at her. "Love you too, sweetheart."
Jessie sighed to herself and left the pool area, dried herself off, and then wrapped herself in it, not bothering to remove her swimsuit. Looking down the hall to see if anyone was there, she slipped out of the pool area and made her way to the nearby sauna. She entered the hot room and nearly jumped out of her skin when she found Shelly, likewise clad in a towel, relaxing on a bench near the door, eyes closed.
"Oh. Hello, Jessie," she said quite casually. "I want to talk to you. Is James coming?"
"No," Jessie said, sitting next to the other woman. "He's still in the pool."
"That's good. I'll be quick, then. About your little mission - I've been quite busy helping you out. Two more are dead - May and her brother, Max was it?"
Jessie was shocked into silence. She didn't see this coming... sure, perhaps she might have done one of them for her, but two over just one afternoon? It made her sick to her stomach just thinking about it. She didn't even want to think about what Shelly did to do the deed.
Shelly resumed speaking when Jessie didn't answer her. "Listen, there's what, three of them left? You kill one and I'll take the other two tomorrow. What do you say?"
"Shelly, I- I don't... I can't do this, Shelly," Jessie said finally.
"What? Yes you can. You killed once already. Ball's rolling. Can't stop it now."
"No. I won't. Not anymore, Shelly. Everyone thinks you killed Misty. You should have seen Ash earlier today. He was yelling all over the house for you."
"I can handle a punk kid and his friends, all right? Don't worry about a thing. I'll handle everything." She put her arm around Jessie and squeezed.
"No. Please, Shelly. Leave them alone. They don't deserve this... I only wish it hadn't taken Misty's life for me to realize it. This whole thing is wrong... Giovanni is wrong. I'm running away with James. As long as he's with me, I don't care what happens to our jobs. I... I love him, Shelly. I'll stay by his side until the end."
"Aw, that's so sweet!" Shelly said, fully embracing the girl with purple hair. She wasn't looking forward to this - losing two friends in one day - but it was something that needed to be done. "However..." she nodded towards the corner of the room.
"What? What are you talking about?" Jessie asked.
In an instant, Jessie felt her entire body go numb; slowly she began sliding up the wall, under the control of Mr. Mime, stepping out from behind its invisible wall.
"I'm sorry," Shelly said, rising from her seat. "I'm under orders to take out each and every one of you, and that's what I plan on doing."
"What?!" Jessie asked, struggling to get free but could not so much as budge an inch. "Orders from who?!"
"Your boss, of course. He called in a favor to my boss, Archie, and asked him to send one of his best men to Kanto to help him with a "pest control problem," he said. Giovanni was a bit skeptical when he realized that Archie's best man was a woman, but he decided to have faith in Archie's judgment and send me here, and he even gave me some of his Pokemon to help get the job done. I left the day I arrived in Kanto. He didn't mention that you guys would be getting here so soon... I'd only been here for about a day. I was learning the house right along with you guys."
"How could you?!" Jessie screamed, still struggling to break free of Mr. Mime's intense psychic grip, but to no avail. "They're just kids!"
"Look, that's not going to work," Shelly said, sitting on a bench opposite the wall where Jessie was held. "The whole "scream and hope I'm heard" thing? I explained this to May, too. Mr. Mime? Soundproof? Ring a bell?" She paused as the look on Jessie's face went from shock to anger to defeated. "I thought so. Look, Jessie, it's nothing personal, really. If we'd met under different circumstances... I'm sure we'd be good friends. In all honesty, I shouldn't have befriended you in the first place. Doing this certainly would be easier. I had a hard enough time killing Meowth."
"Meowth doesn't belong to us. He's Giovanni's," Jessie said calmly, realizing there would be no escape for her.
"Giovanni ordered me to kill him, even though he wasn't supposed to be here. Don't worry, though... I made it quick. He hardly suffered at all."
Jessie nodded. Hopefully, whatever Shelly had in mind would not be painful for her, either. Shelly looked at Mr. Mime, who appeared to be getting tired from rendering Jessie's arms and legs completely immobile. "All right, it's time."
"Wait!" Jessie pleaded. "One last thing... please, Shelly, if you ever considered us friends... let Ash and his friends know the truth. In an envelope on top of my pillow is... well, it's a letter. Please give it to Ash."
Shelly nodded. "Of course." With a wave of her hand, Mr. Mime went to work. Releasing his hold on Jessie's arms, he went for her neck instead. He gripped her throat in his phantom hands and, with a bit of focused energy, squeezed, shattering her windpipe instantly. Mr. Mime then released her neck and tightened his grip on her legs, opting to dangle her upside down in front of him.
"Wait," Shelly stopped him before he could continue. She kneeled down to Jessie's eye level. "I'm sorry, Jessie," Shelly said, looking into her pained, sorrowful eyes. "I wish things didn't have to be this way..." Rising to her feet she gave the signal for Mr. Mime to finish the job. With a pulse of psychic power, Mr. Mime held Jessie's body straight while he manually took hold of her head and twisted it harshly, snapping her neck in two. killing her on the spot. Job done, he relinquished his psychic hold on her, letting her corpse fall into a pile on the floor.
Shelly sighed. Four more to go. She unclipped Luxray's and Mamoswine's Poke Ball and handed it to Mr. Mime. "Get her out of here," she said, pointing at Jessie's body. "Take Mamoswine with you and you two bury her, understand? When you're done, get Luxray back in his Poke Ball and put Mamoswine back in his, then Teleport directly to me. I'm taking the rest of them out tonight and I'll need your help. I trust you can handle that?"
Mr. Mime nodded solemnly, understanding his orders. Grabbing hold of Jessie's wrist, Mr. Mime closed his eyes, readying the Teleport. The two were gone in a flash a moment later.
Shelly took Volbeat's Poke Ball from her belt and released it. It perched itself on her shoulder, awaiting instructions. "Ready, little guy?" she asked, tickling his stomach, much to his delight. It nodded happily at Shelly's question, glad he would finally get to show the others how strong he really was. "You'll get your chance really soon. Soon as Weavile gets back, we're gonna have us some fun. Come on. I'm going to get dressed and wait for the others to come back. Weavile should be back by then, too." She stepped out of the sauna and walked towards her room, adjusting her towel to keep it in place. "We'll get rid of the rest of those kids, collect our reward, and start living the good life!"
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
When they first left the clearing where Ash had found May, Ash had chosen to lead them back while Weavile guided May. They'd chosen to go off the beaten path and cut through the brush instead in an effort to save time, but Ash found he was constantly leaving them behind when Weavile had to release May in order to clear away a branch or bust a log. After a few complaints from May, Ash agreed to lead May while Weavile stayed up front and cleared a path. This proved to be highly effective, as Ash could keep a closer watch on May, May was pleased to be closer to Ash, and Weavile had lots of fun proving himself useful by eliminating anything that stood in their way, enabling the two humans to walk unobstructed.
"Almost there. Just a bit more," Ash said, trying to keep May's spirits up.
"Good. My feet are getting tired," May said, walking a little quicker to keep pace with him. "I can still wa-aah!" she cried, surprised from being pulled backwards. She clung to Ash for dear life as he hoisted her off the ground, supporting her knees with one arm and her back with the other.
"This better?" Ash said, trying his best to retain the same pace while carrying her. She was a bit heavier than he expected, but he could not afford to lose any more time than necessary. "It had better be, because I'm not putting you down until we get back."
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
Brock and Tracey, having just been left in the dust by Ash, were arguing over whether or not they should pursue the young man.
"We need to go after him! It could be a trap!" Tracey yelled. "I won't let him die!"
"We have to go back, right now," Brock said, grabbing hold of Tracey's wrist. "May and Max are there alone with Team Rocket, we have no idea where Shelly is, and between you and me, I don't think James is going to do a good job of keeping Jessie on a short leash."
"What makes you say that?" asked Tracey, curious.
"Simple. James is in love. Haven't you paid any attention at all? It's subtle things, like the look in his eyes, the way he moves, little things like that that tell you when a man's in love. Ash took out a Weavile before. He can do it again if things get rough, I'm sure. Right now we have a 13-year-old trying to care for his attractiveblind, teenage sister who could already be in great danger. The kids need our help and they need it right now."
"You're right. You're right. They take priority right now. Let's -- wait, did you say attractive?"
"Let's go!" Brock said quickly, marching onward to the mansion.
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
Shelly paced the area around the front of the house, waiting for her prey to arrive. Volbeat sat perched on Shelly's shoulder, and Magnezone hovered nearby, following the redhead as she walked. Why wasn't Weavile back yet? She checked her watch again. "Ten to six," she thought, thinking how long it had been since she sent Weavile to dispose of May. "That should have been a fifteen minute job, tops, and he's been gone for almost two hours. I never should have let him go out on his own."
Just then, Mr. Mime materialized a few feet from her, Mamoswine's Poke Ball in hand.
"Good, you're back. Did you bury her as I asked?" Mr. Mime nodded. "Where?"
He looked into the distance and pointed towards the waterfall. "You buried her there?" Another nod. "Good..." She released Mamoswine from his Poke Ball, slightly intimidated by the loud grunt it made upon release. It stomped at the ground, desperate for prey. Shelly went to release Luxray from his ball, but nothing happened. "Hey! I said to bring Luxray back with you! What's the matter with you?!"
Mr. Mime took hold of Shelly's wrist and projected the image of Luxray's corpse into Shelly's mind. She nodded in understanding. "Shoot. So much for that. I hope he doesn't take this out of my pay... all right, Mr. Mime, you're forgiven. Standby until I give the order to attack."
This was it... with or without Weavile, Ash and his friends would die tonight. Shelly made to entertain herself by thinking up creative ways to kill them. It was a shame May was already dead... there was some serious fun to be had with a blind girl. Shelly had a chuckle to herself at that, her ears alerting her to rustling in the trees. From it shot a small beam, freezing the plant life solid. Crashing through the frozen foliage a moment later was Weavile.
"Weavile!" Shelly shrieked. "Where have you been?! Get over here this instant!"
Weavile nearly jumped out of his skin after hearing the high-pitched yell, but he quickly righted himself and assumed a full-on battle pose, staring down the much larger Pokemon at Shelly's command. He quickly backed to the edge of the forest, stopping Ash and May from leaving.
"Huh? What is it, Weavile?" Ash asked, peering over him, his gaze resting upon Magnezone, Mr. Mime, Volbeat, and Shelly. He wanted nothing more than to drop May and do all sorts of horrible things to Shelly, but even he wasn't dumb enough to do that. He locked eyes with Mamoswine, almost laughing openly at his bright green fur. Unbeknownst to Ash, Mamoswine was infuriated by the eye contact, but he stayed put - he knew what the punishments for disobeying orders were.
"Are... are you betraying me? Betraying Giovanni?" Shelly asked the smaller Pokemon. Weavile stood tall, firing a warning Ice Beam at the ground when Shelly stepped closer. "I see. I also see that May is still alive... I knew I shouldn't have let you out on your own. Well, Weavile, if you'd rather die with them, then so be it."
Not thirty seconds after those words escaped from her lips, Brock and Tracey emerged from behind Ash and May.
"Sorry we're late," Brock said. "We saw that enormous Pokemon and Magnezone and had a feeling something was up. We saw you two over here, so we cut through. What's the situation?"
"The situation is, you're all going to die," Shelly said as Volbeat flew off her shoulder, wings vibrating furiously.
"You..." Ash seethed, never more furious about anything in his life. "You did this! You're the one that ordered the attack on Misty! You... killed... her..." He wiped away the tears forming in his eyes, intent on saying his piece. "I'll never forgive you. You took not one, but two of my friends away from me... and for that...you will pay."
"Well, you're not entirely right," Shelly said calmly, totally unfazed by Ash's threat. "I did order the attack on Misty, and I was responsible for Max's death, but you don't have all the pieces of the puzzle. First, and most obviously, do you see Jessie, James, or Meowth here?"
"Did you kill them, too?!" Ash screamed, beyond furious at this point.
"Guilty as charged, although I will let you in on a secret - James is still alive, blissfully unaware of what's going on right now. Even if he were, he is in no position to stop me. I will annihilate the lot of you, finish James off, and get off this dreadful island."
Ash looked to his friends, and then down to Weavile, who was sweating bullets, but not willing to back down. Ash couldn't help but admire him for his courage. All their hopes were riding on him.
"Secondly, I didn't kill Misty, and I can prove it," Shelly continued, taking Jessie's letter from her back pocket. "This is a letter that Jessie wrote...sometime today, I guess. I didn't ask her before she died. "It's addressed to you, Ash, but you can't have it unless you pry it from my corpse."
It took everything Ash had not to rush like a madman at her. Trying very hard to keep his anger in check for just a little longer, he turned once more to his friends.
"Weavile, we're counting on you," Ash said, placing a hand on Weavile's head. I don't know your attacks, so I can't command you in battle. The only people who could even know are either dead, not here, or blind - no offense, May. You're on your own. Do your best."
Ash turned to the rest of his friends. "I won't lie, guys. We could all die here today. Weavile is our one shot, so we'll probably end up taking hits."
He turned to May and took her by her shoulders, new tears forming in his eyes. "May... please don't take offense to what I'm about to say. It's going to hurt to hear it and it's going to hurt me even more to say it, but I don't have time to sugarcoat it. You're a burden, May. Our lives are at stake. If you get in the way, you could get us all killed. None of us can afford to stay with you, and to be perfectly honest, I think they're going to attack you first because you're the weakest link. Do you understand, May?"
She answered him with a kiss. She understood, all right. Everything he said was true. She was a burden. "I know, Ash," May said, forcing herself onto him in a hug. "If I do die, I didn't want to die without letting you know how I feel about you."
"I understand... I understand," he soothed her, still tightly embracing her. "All I can ask is that you feign death. If you get hit, fake death as best you can. Hopefully you'll be hit by something non-lethal..."
Ash was interrupted by Shelly, tiring of watching the teens in their final moments. "Ready, everyone?!" she yelled. Magnezone, the electric powerhouse, sparking and crackling with so much excess electricity that the sparks singed the sand; Mamoswine, the enormous mammoth, bursting with power and energy, had his sights set on Ash; Mr. Mime, the psychic demon, prepped for battle, his psychic aura flaring wildly; and Volbeat, the speedy firefly, zoomed around his teammates, ready to show everyone he was not to be taken lightly.
"Go!" She commanded them. "Kill them! Kill them all!"
PMJ
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RE: Seven Days of Terror (ch 10 mega pwn up)
Oh yes, I almost forgot. However, it is a spoiler for those who haven't read chapter 10 and wish to not be spoiled over who lives to see another chapter, so it will be written in "Inviso-Font:"
While I was writing, I wasn't sure if I wanted to kill off May, since I do feel sorry for her and I like her as a character. I decided to put her fate in Kronar's hands - I asked him a question and based on his answer, either killed her or saved her. Kronar chose wisely, so May's life was spared.
All you May-haters can thank him for it. She's fair game in chapter 11, though, so you jerks might just get your wish yet. ;D
Oh yes, I almost forgot. However, it is a spoiler for those who haven't read chapter 10 and wish to not be spoiled over who lives to see another chapter, so it will be written in "Inviso-Font:"
While I was writing, I wasn't sure if I wanted to kill off May, since I do feel sorry for her and I like her as a character. I decided to put her fate in Kronar's hands - I asked him a question and based on his answer, either killed her or saved her. Kronar chose wisely, so May's life was spared.
All you May-haters can thank him for it. She's fair game in chapter 11, though, so you jerks might just get your wish yet. ;D
PMJ
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RE: Seven Days of Terror (ch 10 mega pwn up)
Well, he didn't - I never mentioned that. ;D Words were said, fits were thrown, but the short version is that this wasn't proofread by him at all, so don't blame him for my mistakes. ;D
Well, he didn't - I never mentioned that. ;D Words were said, fits were thrown, but the short version is that this wasn't proofread by him at all, so don't blame him for my mistakes. ;D
RE: Seven Days of Terror (ch 10 mega pwn up)
Ah.. okay..
Well, at least you got rid of the evidence of your mistakes, I suppose. =P
Anyway.. I'm so looking forward to chapter 11! =D
I'm assuming it's the final chapter? Either that, or it's coming close to an end?
Shelly must die. >=[
Ah.. okay..
Well, at least you got rid of the evidence of your mistakes, I suppose. =P
Anyway.. I'm so looking forward to chapter 11! =D
I'm assuming it's the final chapter? Either that, or it's coming close to an end?
Shelly must die. >=[
PMJ
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RE: Seven Days of Terror (ch 10 mega pwn up)
Chapter 11 won't be the last one. My plan right now for chapter 11 is to write out the ensuing battle. If it goes on long enough, I can leave it at that. Realistically, that's probably not going to be the case. I mentioned in the chat room that there will probably be 13 chapters, and that's not a bad estimate.
Chapter 11 won't be the last one. My plan right now for chapter 11 is to write out the ensuing battle. If it goes on long enough, I can leave it at that. Realistically, that's probably not going to be the case. I mentioned in the chat room that there will probably be 13 chapters, and that's not a bad estimate.
RE: Seven Days of Terror (ch 10 mega pwn up)
This chapter is huge! It could be a week or more before I finish reading it.
I'm not on the computer much on weekdays because of school, and my Grandparents are coming this weekend, so I won't have much time then too.
I'll let you know what I think once i'm done reading it.
This chapter is huge! It could be a week or more before I finish reading it.
I'm not on the computer much on weekdays because of school, and my Grandparents are coming this weekend, so I won't have much time then too.
I'll let you know what I think once i'm done reading it.
RE: Seven Days of Terror (ch 10 mega pwn up)
Woah, all I can say. Took me two days to finish. Gosh. Some of the deaths were wierd, but some were expected. I totally called one of them. It's suprising how it seems like the story is finished, but it's not. x_x I can't wait until Shelly's rampage stops to be honest. You can do it Weavile! Anyway, I also still totally agree May is useless. Even she admits it. ;o
Kudos to having the title like you promised. I thought you would have something cooler, but it's still awesome to see this chapter finished is all. Now don't wait another 6 months Matt. >:[
dmaster out.
Woah, all I can say. Took me two days to finish. Gosh. Some of the deaths were wierd, but some were expected. I totally called one of them. It's suprising how it seems like the story is finished, but it's not. x_x I can't wait until Shelly's rampage stops to be honest. You can do it Weavile! Anyway, I also still totally agree May is useless. Even she admits it. ;o
Kudos to having the title like you promised. I thought you would have something cooler, but it's still awesome to see this chapter finished is all. Now don't wait another 6 months Matt. >:[
dmaster out.
PMJ
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RE: Seven Days of Terror (ch 10 mega pwn up)
Editing his post and then saying you disagree means you're disagreeing with your edit. ^o^
Also god I am a fail typer grumble grumble fix fix
edit: HA! I found an error youuuuuuuuuuuu guys all missed!
/me wins 10 points \o/
Editing his post and then saying you disagree means you're disagreeing with your edit. ^o^
Also god I am a fail typer grumble grumble fix fix
edit: HA! I found an error youuuuuuuuuuuu guys all missed!
/me wins 10 points \o/
RE: Seven Days of Terror (ch 10 mega pwn up)
Awesome. Cool chap.
Awesome. Cool chap.