Charizard Morph
has doomed us all.
Right, sorry this took so long. I don't really have an excuse for it taking more than three months to write, so i'm just going to end that there. I was going to make this chapter longer, but after i started writing the last part i ended up with way more pages than i whould have, so i cut it in half. So Chapter Fourteen souldn't take me as long to write, and if it does you can chase me with torches and pitchforks.
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Chapter Thirteen
Day five of freedom, More Freaking Trees
“Mew.”
The Pokemon who’s name had just been said jumped slightly. He quickly turned around and saw Celebi. “What are you doing here?” He couldn’t think of anything else to say.
“I need you, something in the forest.” Celebi said this fast, and seemed edgy.
“I can’t go now! I’m trailing Ash until Mewtwo gets back and he’s leaving now.” Mew wondered what it could be, there had never been an issue that Celebi couldn’t handle himself. When there was he never asked for help, usually getting himself hurt.
“We won’t be gone that long, he’ll still be in the city for… a while.” Celebi began to fly off.
“Fine, relax. I’m coming.” Mew left the branch of the tree he was sitting on, fallowing Celebi into the forest. “What’s the emergency?”
“Just fallow me.” Celebi disappeared behind a tree, Mew had to work to keep up.
“You’d better not be joking around here, Mewtwo is coming back today and we can’t waste anymore time chasing people, everything is starting to align how we want it. If we don‘t get more help soon we‘ll be out of luck.” Mew was a little irritated, and Celebi seemed nervous.
Suddenly the time travel Pokemon stopped and turned to Mew, there was dread and sadness in it‘s eyes. “You’re going to hate me.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Mew was confused, and had every right to be under the circumstances.
“You’ll find out in a minute, by now it’s too late to stop it, even if you teleport.” Celebi had a look on his face like he wanted to throw up, which wasn’t far from the truth.
“What-” Suddenly Mew heard the crack of a gun. His fur stood on end, and he looked at Celebi in shock. Mew was afraid that he already know the answer, but he asked anyway. “Celebi… Who got shot?”
Celebi shook his head, his small body going limp. “You’re more important, we couldn’t let you-” Mew was already gone before Celebi had gotten through the fifth word.
Mew stared at the scene before him, there was a man, standing over the body, a body with ridiculous blue hair and wearing sunglasses, a body with a hysterical Pikachu pawing at it. There was blood trickling out of a hole in his head.
“It is not something that we can control. The humans are not our responsibility.” Mew hung his head and let his tail drop, using only enough energy to keep himself afloat. The voice entering his mind belonged to Arceus.
“You let our only chance… go, he was our last hope.” Mew said.
“We need you, the morphs are not our problem. It will be sorted out by itself.” Arceus growled.
“They are our problem!” Mew yelled, rightening himself. In their minds he did the equivalent of looking Arceus straight in the eye. “If we do not intervene they will kill themselves! They will all end up dead! They are our problem, they are part Pokemon, and Pokemon are who we’re here to protect!”
Arceus stared down at the little pink cat. “It will be sorted out by itself, there is nothing we can do to stop it. Talk to Mewtwo, then stop trying to change things that we cannot control.” At that he cut the conversation, and left Mew alone.
Mew watched as a crowd of people gathered around Ash. Someone picked up his pokedex and the man who had done the shooting was nowhere to be seen. Soon cameras and news people would be there, and police would be keeping the cameras and people away. Mew contacted Mewtwo, and just let the picture in front of him go across.
“It will sort itself out. I know.” Mewtwo sent a conversation almost identical to the one Mew had just had to him.
Mewtwo was currently sitting in a small cave he had found at the edge of some beach. He sighed and dropped the connection. There was nothing to say. He stared out at the ocean for a few minutes, watching the water, not moving. Suddenly he stood up and jumped into the air and set off towards Kanto. His hope had died, in more than one way.
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Thomas let his fingers fly across the keyboard on his laptop, it was raining outside and the café they were in was dark, thunder rumbled from overhead. There was a television buzzing quietly in the corner with some irritated woman standing in the rain that had been falling for the past hour.
“How long are you going to be?” Growled Ashley, tapping her fingertips on the table.
“Relax, no one around here is going to see you as long as you keep your hood up. Why don’t you get something to eat, just order whatever you want.” He stared at the file in front of him, scanning it carefully. He couldn’t let any of the information go unnoticed.
“I’m not hungry.” She glared at the computer in front of her.
“That’s a lie. Wake Sam up so that she can eat something too, really, get whatever you want. We aren’t going anywhere until this clears up, I can’t afford to get this wet, and walking around in the rain will just get us sick.” he opened another page and began to type quickly.
“The rain doesn’t get you sick, it’s just annoying and wet.” She placed a hand on the child laying in the booth next to her.
He peered over his laptop at her, sighing. “Not the rain specifically, but you would be cold and wet. When you are cold you’re system works harder to keep you warm, leaving you more open to getting sick. How do you think so many people catch ammonia?”
She stared at him for a second, grinding her teeth. “Just shut up.”
“Happily, I’m trying to find out where my son could have possibly gone and how to rewire the main computer system in that base that you want to get into.” He opened the blueprints for the building, then continued hacking into it’s computers. “I think it’s going to involve getting directly into their system, their may be an outlet I can hook into outside though.”
She let out a low growl, then picked up one of the menus sitting on the edge of the table. She scanned it for a second, then nudged Sam gently. “Wake up.”
She blinked a couple of times and yawned, then she caught sight of her surroundings. “Are we there?”
“No, we’re in a restaurant, it’s raining outside. Do you want anything to eat?” Ashley pointed to the menu.
“Yes!” Sam grabbed it and opened it up. It looked giant in her tiny hands.
“Thomas said we could order whatever we wanted.” she glanced up at the computer he was sitting behind again, wishing that he would even wince at the fact that he had said this. He didn’t even blink, still scanning his files.
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The dark face of the mountain loomed above them, the sun making the snow covering it shine. “We are not climbing over that.” Cella objected.
“Why not?” Asked Bolt, looking it. He could see places where thin roads led up the mountain, it would be easy enough to climb if they could find one.
“Because I’m great at trees, but if you want me on a giant slushy rock you are definitely going to have a hard time getting me there.” She growled, folding her ears back.
“Then we’ll just go without you.” He said, as he leaned against one of the trees that lined the small snowy clearing. He glanced through the trees, watching a murkrow. He was pretty sure that it had been fallowing them for a while now.
“We are not leaving without anyone. And the giant slushy rock will probably be covered in humans, so we aren’t going to climb on it anyway.” Said Star. He yawned and stretched out his wings, looking up at the sky, it was still covered in a layer of clouds, but the snow had stopped.
“We’ll probably have to do a little climbing at some point, the woods around the mountain aren’t on this map, except something that says there’s supposed to be trails. I think if we can find one of those we should take it, if it’s not on a map fewer travelers will be on them.” Rose said, scanning the area as if one of the trails would be hidden by the snow covered trees.
“So, west or east?” asked Bolt, looking at the map in her hands, pulling it down a little so he could see.
“Bolt, it won’t do you any good to read that upside down, but I think we should head west, towards Canalave.” Cella pointed at the city on the map, tapping it.
“So a busy city that leaves us at a dead end if we can’t get onto a boat? I hate to break it to you, but these identity cards aren’t exactly going to keep people from figuring us out if we have to spend time on a boat with them.” Bolt said, watching as Cella rolled her eyes the entire time.
“I have to say that he has a point, but I think that you have an idea, care to share with us?” Star said to her as he took a look at the map from behind Rose, subconsciously placing one hand on her shoulder.
“I wouldn’t have suggested it if I didn’t. Bolt, have you ever heard of a morph named Vincent?” She turned to him, irritated when he didn’t show any surprise.
“Yeah, was captured, escaped, and is now untouchable. Runs that boat company thing…” he immediately shut his mouth. Knowing the story was one thing, pokemorph escape stories were circulated throughout the rocket bases all the time, but knowing what happened after they escaped wasn’t so popular, unless they were dead.
Cella smiled slightly, but didn’t point out that he knew more than he should, knew more than her. She had just been running on hope that he’d actually gotten a transportation business off the ground. “Exactly, he’s untouchable, and so are his boats for some reason. Tyler and I used to listen to him talk about sailing on the ocean all the time, after he was captured by the rockets he escaped, and got some chip out of his arm that the rockets had been putting in him when he got out. If we can find one of his boats, we’ll get passage for free, and we‘ll be able to remain out of sight from most of the other passengers.”
Bolts eyes got a little wider, and his breath caught in his throat, “What did you say about a chip!” He choked out.
“There was a chip, in Vincent, he got it out because he figured that it was a tracking device.” She was beginning to get worried, the look on Bolts face was equivalent to someone who had just been told that they were going to die, or worse.
“Oh god this is not good. Bad, bad bad bad….” He took off his backpack and began digging through it.
“Bolt, what’s wrong?” Rose watched as he dug furiously through the pockets until he found a small first aid kit.
“THE CHIPS! Oh God, they use the chips as tracking devices, I forgot about them, I don’t have one, but you guys might. This is bad, bad bad bad bad!” He sat on the ground and dug his fingers into the snow, crushing it into the mold of his hands.
“Bolt, it would be much more helpful if you would take a deep breath and explain this to us. They use chips as tracking devices?” Star said, rolling up the map and sticking it one of the packs. He hadn’t seen Bolt this freaked out before.
“Right. Team rocket developed small chips, like computer chips, that are immune to Pokemon moves. The only ways to shut them off without taking them out is by either having strong electric currents from an outside source run thorugh the exact spot where it’s at, or by using a high frequency sound wave to shut them down. These chips are tracking devices, if they aren’t shut off, we’re going to be found. They probably don’t care too much about us now, but they’re going to kill us eventually if we can’t keep a few steps ahead of them.” He’d returned to his normal cold manner, saying this as if he were commenting on the weather.
“That would explain a lot. How do we figure out if they’re in us?” Star questioned, watching as bolt went through the first aid kit.
“The electromagnitism in the chips is strong enough that it could be found with a magnet, or running a soft current through someones body until you can find the place that the electricity is attracted to. Finding the chip with the current, if it’s a light one, won’t do anything, but if you try to shut it down it’s possible to receive major nerve damage to the area it’s implanted, and if the current runs through the wrong areas of your body it could kill you.” He suddenly stopped rifleing through the kit, shut it, and shoved it back in the bag.
“Bolt, I know that you’ve been in that base your whole life, but I don’t think that kind of knowledge would normally be given to any morph.” Rose watched as Bolt suddenly froze, his body stiffening and his face going stone blank again.
“No, it isn’t. Nor is it any of your business.” He took a deep breath and zipped up his backpack, placing it on his shoulders. “There’s a path about four feet in.”
“He’s hiding something.” Hissed Cella quietly.
“Cella, he may be hiding something, but unless it could harm us we have no buissness knowing what it is.” Star walked through the trees, pushing aside branches.
“Rose?” Cella turned towards her.
“It looks like whatever he’s hiding hurts him. He never mentions how he grew up in that place. He doesn’t want to talk about it anymore than you want to talk about being tortured.” Rose sighed as Cella winced, picking up her pack.
“You’re right. It’s stupid of me to pry, but you heard him that night, and now he won’t sleep at all until he thinks we’re all asleep. He says he doesn’t need it. I can tell he doesn’t physically, but it’s like he gets something out of it, more than just rest.” She began walking with Rose down the path that was, just like Bolt had said, about four feet into the woods.
“I think you’re just reading too much into it. He’s probably still paranoid from living in that place for so long. If I were him I wouldn’t have slept either. I wonder why that is though, that he doesn’t need sleep. It’s a bit odd.” Rose watched the trail ahead, keeping an eye on two males in front of them.
“Probably a disorder of some kind.” Cella stated flatly.
“You lost me.” Rose flared out her wings for a second, then snapped them shut back onto her back again.
“Sleep disorder. There’s probably something wrong with his brain that has shut down his need for sleep, just not his ability to do it.”
“First bolt is talking about some weird kind of chip, now you’re talking about disorders. Why don’t we move on to a normal subject and let the things that I don’t understand wait until a better time.” They were catching up to Bolt and Star.
“She has a good point. Talking about science stuff is past me. You and Bolt can probably have fun talking about that though.” Star turned around, walking backwards.
“Or not. Ask me how to get a tracking device out, I’ll give you a detailed explanation on how. Talk to me about brains, and I’m asleep, most likely on purpose.” Bolt didn’t seem thrilled with the idea.
“So how long is this path supposed to be anyway?” Cella questioned, choosing geography as a better subject.
“I have no clue, just that fallowing the paths should take us out to Eterna. It probably cuts off some of the time it would take if we were crossing the mountain. Bolt, can you see far enough to judge how long this path is?” Rose looked at the back of his head, one of his ears seemed to twitch in slight irritation.
“Trees trees and more trees, a couple rocks and utterly terrified Pokemon. People don’t come this way often, it’s rare to see anything but the native Pokemon out here I’m sure. So we’re terrifying anything smaller than us, and anything larger feels it safer to keep out of our way.” He turned his head slowly as he said all of this, his eyes flashing yellow.
“That’s a little creepy.” Stated Cella, then she laughed as Bolt missed a slight turn and slammed into a tree.
“It has it’s drawbacks, I never exactly got to play around with this ability.” He growled, rubbing his forehead.
“So everything is staying off the path just because we’re here? You’d think they’d want to know more about us.” Rose looked around at the trees, wondering how many pairs of eyes watched their progression through the forest.
“They would rather leave us alone until they’ve made sure we’re not a threat, or trainers. Most of the Pokemon out here I’m sure are strong, and if they ganged up on us we’d probably be in trouble, but they aren’t sure. It’s best to just leave them alone as long as they do the same for us.” Star was still walking backwards, somehow managing to stay on the path.
“That’s annoying.” Cella stared at him, his feet keeping a beat even though he couldn’t see where he was going.
“You’re full of complaints today, what’s got you? It’s like you just need something to be creepy or irritating.” Rose turned to Cella, then watched Star. She had to admit to herself, it was slightly irritating, but she quickly lost her train of thought.
Cella sighed. “I don’t know. Sorry guys,” She shook her head, making her ears flap a little. “I just feel nervous I guess.”
Star turned around, walking normally, looking up through the trees. “It looks like the sun’s come out finally. Maybe we‘ll actually get out of these woods in time to enjoy it.”
Bolt looked up, and smiled. “Maybe. I’ll tell you guys if I see a clearing.” He stared into the forest, that Murkrow was definitely fallowing them.
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“Leah to Home, I’ve spotted three travelers leaving The Rainy Café, sending data now.” She stared down at the three, she was positive it was them, but she had to keep cover until it was confirmed with the Home.
“Home to Leah, this is Andrew, image confirmed, it’s them. You may proceed. Be careful though, that’s Thomas down there, and we don’t know what to expect.” Leah nodded to herself, then began decent. She quickly landed a bit in front of the group and began walking towards them. She stopped a few feet ahead and waited while they approached.
“Hello!” She called and waved as they stopped a few feet away. She ran up to them.
“Who are you?” Ashley growled as she crouched, ready to attack.
“Oh relax would you? I was sent from home, Andrew you know? He figured that it would be a good idea to send a guide so you didn’t get lost in the woods.” She smiled, whipping her tail and sending a slight breeze over their heads.
“Oh. Thank you then.” Ashley relaxed, then smiled.
Sam tugged on Ashley’s shirt, staring up at her. “Ashley, who’s that?” She pointed to Leah.
“She’s going to show us where to go, so we can get to that place I told you about. Why don’t you ask her her name?” Ashley crouched down and picked her up.
“What’s your name Flygon girl?” Sam asked.
“I’m Leah, and you must be Sam. Nice to meet you all.” She looked at all three, pausing for a moment on Thomas face. He was supposed to be the bad guy, part of team rocket. He didn’t look like she’d expected.
“So how’d you end up with Tylers group?” Asked Thomas. Ashley gave him a glare that basically told him to shut the hell up.
“Why would you want to know?” She asked, slightly uncomfortable. He was way to relaxed.
“Ashley’s been ignoring me since I made her get lunch.” He shrugged.
Leah turned to Ashley “Are you sure he’s the guy who created our blueprints?”
“Unfortunately yes. He wants to help with the Rocket base project that you guys are working on.” They began walking down the path.
“Help us or kill us?” She glared at him.
“Help. Believe it or not, I don’t hate you guys, and it wouldn’t make sense for me to.” He rolled his eyes at her glare.
“Why wouldn’t it? All of the other rockets want us dead.” Leah said.
“It wouldn’t make sense because I spent a good portion of my life figuring out how to make your blueprints, and getting them to work. When you spend that much time on something it’s hard to hate it.” He stretched his arms above his head.
“The way said that was pretty much creepy. And what about everyone else wanting us dead, you used to work for them.” She stared at him. Why was he so relaxed about everything she’d said?
“Yes. And now I don’t. You do the math.” He raised his eyebrows at her.
“Not that this hasn’t been enlightening at all, but we have travelers at twelve-o-clock.” Said Ashley, pointing with her free arm.
“That’s alright, we need to turn right here anyway.” She grabbed Ashleys and Thomas arms and led them into the woods.
“That was close.” Muttered Thomas under his breath as the two people walked by.
“Only for us, no one would have paid any attention to you.” Glared Leah.
“Really, would you stop trying to be mean to me? It’s annoying and uncalled for. Those two work for team rocket as scouts and theives, I would have been in as much trouble as the rest of you.”
“I doubt it. Team Rocket wants you alive, not us.” Ashley said, a slight smile on her face.
“I don’t believe that this is really a proper conversation for the company we’re in.” Said Thomas, seeing that Sam was watching them.
“Look, a combee!” Leah pointed to it, floating over one of the branches above them. “You don’t see many around here, there’s probably a hive nearby.”
“Or it’s on it’s own.” Thomas said.
“Why would it be alone?” Sam stared up at the bug Pokemon.
“It’s a female, female Combee evolve into Vespiquen, so it was most likely kicked out of the hive before it could evolve. There can only be one Vespiquen in a hive.”
The Pokemon flew in closer, its wings buzzing, then disappeared behind a tree.
“Mom had one of those,” Sam stared at the place wehre the bug Pokemon had gone, tears welled up in her eyes. “I miss Mommy and Daddy.” The tears welled over and began to slide down her face, she shook slightly as she tried to hold in her sobs.
Ashley bent down and wrapped her arms around her. “It’s okay, shhh, let it out, it’s okay.”
Sam wrapped her arms around Ashleys neck and burried her face in her shoulder. “It’s not okay! They’re gone and they’re not going to come back! No one can bring them back, I miss Mommy… I miss Daddy. I want Mommy and Daddy back…” She sobbed into her shoulder as Ashley picked her up, slightly rocking her side to side, stroking her hair.
Leah motioned for them to continue and they walked in silence until sam was asleep. Ashley watched the other two as they walked, noticing that Thomas kept running his fingers through his hair and looking at Sam, then he would turn away and clench his fists. Finally she got fed up with it. “Thomas, what the hell is your problem? You’ve been fidgety since we saw that stupid Bug Pokemon!”
Leah turned to them. “He’s probably planning how to kill us all without involving Sam.”
Thomas glared at her, a hateful look on his face. “If you really have to know, I’m extremely conflicted, and before you start making all kinds of ridiculous statements that I’m a traitor, you may want to hear why.”
He continued to glare at Leah. “Fine, I won’t go on about how I knew you were a traitor and admitting confliction proves it until you’re done with your petty explanation.”
“Good. I’m conflicted because I feel like Sams parents death is my fault.” He looked at her, and sighed.
“So you sent the-” Leah started.
“Would you be quiet for more than twenty seconds? I didn’t send that attack. I knew it was happening, but I couldn’t do anything about it, or I would have. I didn’t even know that humans were involved.” Thomas shook his head, grinding his teeth.
“Okay, you can continue, whatever.” Leah sighed, glaring at him.
“I feel like it’s my fault because I created Morphs. I feel like if I hadn’t created them, then her parents wouldn’t have died. She would be happy and carefree, playing with them and their Pokemon, waiting until she was old enough to be a trainer.” He ran his fingers through his hair again, shutting his eyes for a second.
“So what’s wrong with that? If you hadn’t created us, she would be.” Ashley stroked Sams hair again.
“It’s wrong because thinking about you not existing is like killing you, it’s like wondering how the world would be if no Fire type Pokemon existed. Except it’s worse.”
“How is it worse? If we didn’t exist, none of this mess would have happened in the first place. No one would have died for our sake, and since we wouldn’t exist, we wouldn’t have ever been in pain. What‘s wrong with that?”
Leah stared at Ashley as if she’d turned into a toaster. “I think you’re both insane.”
He ignored Leahs comment. “It’s wrong because you’re alive, you think, you talk, you’re born and die. The only difference between my species and yours is the fact that you look different and most of you can use moves. It’s wrong because you’re people.”
“We aren’t human though. That’s why we’re a threat, and you’re not. We’re almost there, I’ll radio Andrew.” Leah flipped open the Devon Scope, and quickly dialed a number.
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“It’s starting to get dark, we should find a place to camp.” Bolt said, looking up at the sky. They had been walking along a dirt path for a while now, the woods had been replaced by bushes and thorns that had choked out anything that could have grown there. They could see the side of the mountains rise next to them, creating shadows as the sun began to sink.
“There isn’t any place around here, there’s too many thorns, our tents would get torn.” Cella unnecessarily pointed out.
“There has to be somewhere, if other people have taken these trails they would have needed to camp too, we’re close to Eterna, but not close enough.” Star said, rolling up the map for the sixth time.
“We might have to turn around and go back until we find something. What do you guys think?” Bolt asked, he hadn’t seen any areas that looked good for camping though, not for miles.
“I don’t know, the last thing we saw that would be good was miles back. If we go back it will be dark before we get there, if we keep moving forward we still have a chance to find a good place.” Rose said, looking at the sinking sun.
“We should keep going, I think there’s something ahead.” Cella said, she smiled.
They walked for a few more minutes, until Cella told them to stop. “Look, there’s a path that goes up here.”
“Why should we take it, what if we just end up getting lost in the mountains?” Bolt growled.
“Relax, if we don’t find the place after ten minutes, the we’ll go back.” She said, already walking.
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Sheridan crouched behind the rocks above the campsite they’d set up, the little psychic brat had been right, there was a flat outcropping of rock that was perfect for camping. Impossible to see from below too, so he’d have no problems taking them out. “It’s perfect, they have no way to defend themselves, except moves.”
He smiled as they sat down on the ground around a small fire that they’d gotten started. They wouldn’t know what hit them. Suddenly a Murkrow landed on a rock next to him. “Ahhh, hello Rox, what did you find out?”
“More of the same, the Luxray morph can see through things, but is a bit clumsey with it. Your son has gotten extremely relaxed around his new friends though.” She cackled at this. Her master looked pleased.
“Good, that’s great. I can’t have you flying around the whole time I’m doing this though, so return. And stop calling him my son.” He held up the red and white sphere, which quickly absorbed the Pokemon.
“Now I just have to wait.”
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Thomas looked around, the room they were in was large, with several computers and other machines hooked to extension cords. There was even a clothes dryer. “Yeah, it’d be better if we had a Rotom.” Andrew said, half a frown on his face.
“It’s fine, how did you get all of this set up without anyone noticing? The electricity has to come from somewhere.” Thomas was impressed.
“We have a few generators, but mostly it’s our own efforts, we do have a few things hooked up to the Gym in Fortree, like the computers, but other than that we make our own power.” He was pleased with the impressed look on Thomas face, even if he still wasn’t completely convinced of his aliance.
“That’s impressive, how do you make that work?” He was glad to talk about anything but the suspecion that several members had for him.
“Ten humans at a time ride stationary bikes that we managed to rig, and we have two Morphs and two Pokemon who can use electric moves send a steady current of electricity through all three secret bases. At night we turn everything off, and we don‘t use electricity to cook very often. Once a week we charge the generators to full power.”
“So you get exercise and power. If the rest of the world could cooperate like this, electric bills wouldn’t be an issue. How do you get enough food though?” Just keep the topic on them.
“Hunting and gathering mostly. Every human here over eighteen has a job in Fortree or Lillycove, there are a few who work in Mauville, and send money via Pokemon when they can. We worry more about clothes and sleeping arrangements than food here. That’s why we had to make two more bases, too many morphs, too many people.” Andrew sat down at one of the computers.
“Oh.” Thomas couldn’t think of anything else to say.
“We don’t mind, but it was getting crowded, and we had to make an estimate on how many morphs we’re going to add tomorrow. We keep getting people because of this one website too. The webmaster is a genius, he helped me get the basic blueprints for rocket bases, and there’s all sorts of things on morphs. I even got permission from Tyler to give him a section on this place. You can see if you want, you‘d probably just hack it if we said no anyway.”
“You all have such a low opinion of me. I’ve already seen the site anyway, your plan is stupid and dangerous, but I have a friend I need to get out of there.” He knew he was being reckless again.
“How could you possibly know about this site? No one from team rocket can get in, weather they’ve quit or not. It says so.”
“Yes, and only someone from team rocket would know how to block all of it’s members. I had a hell of a time making that work you know.” He smiled, looking at Andrew. All he wanted to do was get Tilla out, to get her and Bolt back together he hoped that he could just get that across.
“Why the hell are you messing with me? If you made this stupid site then why wouldn’t you just tell everyone here? Instead of being held under suspecion?” Andrew stared him in the eyes, this website was what had made them, kept them alive, helped them gain money.
“I don’t want people to like me, they don’t even have to respect me, I just want to get Tilla out of that rocket base, then go find my son. Most of the members are bent on hating me, and I understand that, so If you want to keep using that website, you can’t tell anyone. Ashley is the only other person here who knows that I made it. So can I help with that raid or not?” He was aware that he probably could have said that better, but let it go.
“Fine, you can come, whatever. Fly ahead on your Skarmory and cause a distraction. Find whoever you’re looking for, just keep us a secret.” He knew that it didn’t matter what he said, Thomas would go anyway.
“Thanks, after I find her I’m going to leave though. Giovanni cares too much about finding me, and I don’t want to put anyone here in any more danger than I have to.”
“What about her? If you find her what are you going to do?”
“She can come with me or stay if she likes, I don’t mind either way. What would be the point of getting her out if she still didn‘t have any free will?”
“That’s a good point. It’s going to be lights out in an hour, if I were you I’d get set up, you can sleep in the empty base or in your tent, either way, watch yourself. We might just be kids, but a lot of us have a lot of hate, and good reason for it.” Andrew nodded, then watched as Thomas left the base.
“I hope he finds his friend, then gets the hell out of here before he gets himself killed. Any way he dies will be justice in the eyes of half the people here.”
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Chapter Thirteen
Day five of freedom, More Freaking Trees
“Mew.”
The Pokemon who’s name had just been said jumped slightly. He quickly turned around and saw Celebi. “What are you doing here?” He couldn’t think of anything else to say.
“I need you, something in the forest.” Celebi said this fast, and seemed edgy.
“I can’t go now! I’m trailing Ash until Mewtwo gets back and he’s leaving now.” Mew wondered what it could be, there had never been an issue that Celebi couldn’t handle himself. When there was he never asked for help, usually getting himself hurt.
“We won’t be gone that long, he’ll still be in the city for… a while.” Celebi began to fly off.
“Fine, relax. I’m coming.” Mew left the branch of the tree he was sitting on, fallowing Celebi into the forest. “What’s the emergency?”
“Just fallow me.” Celebi disappeared behind a tree, Mew had to work to keep up.
“You’d better not be joking around here, Mewtwo is coming back today and we can’t waste anymore time chasing people, everything is starting to align how we want it. If we don‘t get more help soon we‘ll be out of luck.” Mew was a little irritated, and Celebi seemed nervous.
Suddenly the time travel Pokemon stopped and turned to Mew, there was dread and sadness in it‘s eyes. “You’re going to hate me.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Mew was confused, and had every right to be under the circumstances.
“You’ll find out in a minute, by now it’s too late to stop it, even if you teleport.” Celebi had a look on his face like he wanted to throw up, which wasn’t far from the truth.
“What-” Suddenly Mew heard the crack of a gun. His fur stood on end, and he looked at Celebi in shock. Mew was afraid that he already know the answer, but he asked anyway. “Celebi… Who got shot?”
Celebi shook his head, his small body going limp. “You’re more important, we couldn’t let you-” Mew was already gone before Celebi had gotten through the fifth word.
Mew stared at the scene before him, there was a man, standing over the body, a body with ridiculous blue hair and wearing sunglasses, a body with a hysterical Pikachu pawing at it. There was blood trickling out of a hole in his head.
“It is not something that we can control. The humans are not our responsibility.” Mew hung his head and let his tail drop, using only enough energy to keep himself afloat. The voice entering his mind belonged to Arceus.
“You let our only chance… go, he was our last hope.” Mew said.
“We need you, the morphs are not our problem. It will be sorted out by itself.” Arceus growled.
“They are our problem!” Mew yelled, rightening himself. In their minds he did the equivalent of looking Arceus straight in the eye. “If we do not intervene they will kill themselves! They will all end up dead! They are our problem, they are part Pokemon, and Pokemon are who we’re here to protect!”
Arceus stared down at the little pink cat. “It will be sorted out by itself, there is nothing we can do to stop it. Talk to Mewtwo, then stop trying to change things that we cannot control.” At that he cut the conversation, and left Mew alone.
Mew watched as a crowd of people gathered around Ash. Someone picked up his pokedex and the man who had done the shooting was nowhere to be seen. Soon cameras and news people would be there, and police would be keeping the cameras and people away. Mew contacted Mewtwo, and just let the picture in front of him go across.
“It will sort itself out. I know.” Mewtwo sent a conversation almost identical to the one Mew had just had to him.
Mewtwo was currently sitting in a small cave he had found at the edge of some beach. He sighed and dropped the connection. There was nothing to say. He stared out at the ocean for a few minutes, watching the water, not moving. Suddenly he stood up and jumped into the air and set off towards Kanto. His hope had died, in more than one way.
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Thomas let his fingers fly across the keyboard on his laptop, it was raining outside and the café they were in was dark, thunder rumbled from overhead. There was a television buzzing quietly in the corner with some irritated woman standing in the rain that had been falling for the past hour.
“How long are you going to be?” Growled Ashley, tapping her fingertips on the table.
“Relax, no one around here is going to see you as long as you keep your hood up. Why don’t you get something to eat, just order whatever you want.” He stared at the file in front of him, scanning it carefully. He couldn’t let any of the information go unnoticed.
“I’m not hungry.” She glared at the computer in front of her.
“That’s a lie. Wake Sam up so that she can eat something too, really, get whatever you want. We aren’t going anywhere until this clears up, I can’t afford to get this wet, and walking around in the rain will just get us sick.” he opened another page and began to type quickly.
“The rain doesn’t get you sick, it’s just annoying and wet.” She placed a hand on the child laying in the booth next to her.
He peered over his laptop at her, sighing. “Not the rain specifically, but you would be cold and wet. When you are cold you’re system works harder to keep you warm, leaving you more open to getting sick. How do you think so many people catch ammonia?”
She stared at him for a second, grinding her teeth. “Just shut up.”
“Happily, I’m trying to find out where my son could have possibly gone and how to rewire the main computer system in that base that you want to get into.” He opened the blueprints for the building, then continued hacking into it’s computers. “I think it’s going to involve getting directly into their system, their may be an outlet I can hook into outside though.”
She let out a low growl, then picked up one of the menus sitting on the edge of the table. She scanned it for a second, then nudged Sam gently. “Wake up.”
She blinked a couple of times and yawned, then she caught sight of her surroundings. “Are we there?”
“No, we’re in a restaurant, it’s raining outside. Do you want anything to eat?” Ashley pointed to the menu.
“Yes!” Sam grabbed it and opened it up. It looked giant in her tiny hands.
“Thomas said we could order whatever we wanted.” she glanced up at the computer he was sitting behind again, wishing that he would even wince at the fact that he had said this. He didn’t even blink, still scanning his files.
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The dark face of the mountain loomed above them, the sun making the snow covering it shine. “We are not climbing over that.” Cella objected.
“Why not?” Asked Bolt, looking it. He could see places where thin roads led up the mountain, it would be easy enough to climb if they could find one.
“Because I’m great at trees, but if you want me on a giant slushy rock you are definitely going to have a hard time getting me there.” She growled, folding her ears back.
“Then we’ll just go without you.” He said, as he leaned against one of the trees that lined the small snowy clearing. He glanced through the trees, watching a murkrow. He was pretty sure that it had been fallowing them for a while now.
“We are not leaving without anyone. And the giant slushy rock will probably be covered in humans, so we aren’t going to climb on it anyway.” Said Star. He yawned and stretched out his wings, looking up at the sky, it was still covered in a layer of clouds, but the snow had stopped.
“We’ll probably have to do a little climbing at some point, the woods around the mountain aren’t on this map, except something that says there’s supposed to be trails. I think if we can find one of those we should take it, if it’s not on a map fewer travelers will be on them.” Rose said, scanning the area as if one of the trails would be hidden by the snow covered trees.
“So, west or east?” asked Bolt, looking at the map in her hands, pulling it down a little so he could see.
“Bolt, it won’t do you any good to read that upside down, but I think we should head west, towards Canalave.” Cella pointed at the city on the map, tapping it.
“So a busy city that leaves us at a dead end if we can’t get onto a boat? I hate to break it to you, but these identity cards aren’t exactly going to keep people from figuring us out if we have to spend time on a boat with them.” Bolt said, watching as Cella rolled her eyes the entire time.
“I have to say that he has a point, but I think that you have an idea, care to share with us?” Star said to her as he took a look at the map from behind Rose, subconsciously placing one hand on her shoulder.
“I wouldn’t have suggested it if I didn’t. Bolt, have you ever heard of a morph named Vincent?” She turned to him, irritated when he didn’t show any surprise.
“Yeah, was captured, escaped, and is now untouchable. Runs that boat company thing…” he immediately shut his mouth. Knowing the story was one thing, pokemorph escape stories were circulated throughout the rocket bases all the time, but knowing what happened after they escaped wasn’t so popular, unless they were dead.
Cella smiled slightly, but didn’t point out that he knew more than he should, knew more than her. She had just been running on hope that he’d actually gotten a transportation business off the ground. “Exactly, he’s untouchable, and so are his boats for some reason. Tyler and I used to listen to him talk about sailing on the ocean all the time, after he was captured by the rockets he escaped, and got some chip out of his arm that the rockets had been putting in him when he got out. If we can find one of his boats, we’ll get passage for free, and we‘ll be able to remain out of sight from most of the other passengers.”
Bolts eyes got a little wider, and his breath caught in his throat, “What did you say about a chip!” He choked out.
“There was a chip, in Vincent, he got it out because he figured that it was a tracking device.” She was beginning to get worried, the look on Bolts face was equivalent to someone who had just been told that they were going to die, or worse.
“Oh god this is not good. Bad, bad bad bad….” He took off his backpack and began digging through it.
“Bolt, what’s wrong?” Rose watched as he dug furiously through the pockets until he found a small first aid kit.
“THE CHIPS! Oh God, they use the chips as tracking devices, I forgot about them, I don’t have one, but you guys might. This is bad, bad bad bad bad!” He sat on the ground and dug his fingers into the snow, crushing it into the mold of his hands.
“Bolt, it would be much more helpful if you would take a deep breath and explain this to us. They use chips as tracking devices?” Star said, rolling up the map and sticking it one of the packs. He hadn’t seen Bolt this freaked out before.
“Right. Team rocket developed small chips, like computer chips, that are immune to Pokemon moves. The only ways to shut them off without taking them out is by either having strong electric currents from an outside source run thorugh the exact spot where it’s at, or by using a high frequency sound wave to shut them down. These chips are tracking devices, if they aren’t shut off, we’re going to be found. They probably don’t care too much about us now, but they’re going to kill us eventually if we can’t keep a few steps ahead of them.” He’d returned to his normal cold manner, saying this as if he were commenting on the weather.
“That would explain a lot. How do we figure out if they’re in us?” Star questioned, watching as bolt went through the first aid kit.
“The electromagnitism in the chips is strong enough that it could be found with a magnet, or running a soft current through someones body until you can find the place that the electricity is attracted to. Finding the chip with the current, if it’s a light one, won’t do anything, but if you try to shut it down it’s possible to receive major nerve damage to the area it’s implanted, and if the current runs through the wrong areas of your body it could kill you.” He suddenly stopped rifleing through the kit, shut it, and shoved it back in the bag.
“Bolt, I know that you’ve been in that base your whole life, but I don’t think that kind of knowledge would normally be given to any morph.” Rose watched as Bolt suddenly froze, his body stiffening and his face going stone blank again.
“No, it isn’t. Nor is it any of your business.” He took a deep breath and zipped up his backpack, placing it on his shoulders. “There’s a path about four feet in.”
“He’s hiding something.” Hissed Cella quietly.
“Cella, he may be hiding something, but unless it could harm us we have no buissness knowing what it is.” Star walked through the trees, pushing aside branches.
“Rose?” Cella turned towards her.
“It looks like whatever he’s hiding hurts him. He never mentions how he grew up in that place. He doesn’t want to talk about it anymore than you want to talk about being tortured.” Rose sighed as Cella winced, picking up her pack.
“You’re right. It’s stupid of me to pry, but you heard him that night, and now he won’t sleep at all until he thinks we’re all asleep. He says he doesn’t need it. I can tell he doesn’t physically, but it’s like he gets something out of it, more than just rest.” She began walking with Rose down the path that was, just like Bolt had said, about four feet into the woods.
“I think you’re just reading too much into it. He’s probably still paranoid from living in that place for so long. If I were him I wouldn’t have slept either. I wonder why that is though, that he doesn’t need sleep. It’s a bit odd.” Rose watched the trail ahead, keeping an eye on two males in front of them.
“Probably a disorder of some kind.” Cella stated flatly.
“You lost me.” Rose flared out her wings for a second, then snapped them shut back onto her back again.
“Sleep disorder. There’s probably something wrong with his brain that has shut down his need for sleep, just not his ability to do it.”
“First bolt is talking about some weird kind of chip, now you’re talking about disorders. Why don’t we move on to a normal subject and let the things that I don’t understand wait until a better time.” They were catching up to Bolt and Star.
“She has a good point. Talking about science stuff is past me. You and Bolt can probably have fun talking about that though.” Star turned around, walking backwards.
“Or not. Ask me how to get a tracking device out, I’ll give you a detailed explanation on how. Talk to me about brains, and I’m asleep, most likely on purpose.” Bolt didn’t seem thrilled with the idea.
“So how long is this path supposed to be anyway?” Cella questioned, choosing geography as a better subject.
“I have no clue, just that fallowing the paths should take us out to Eterna. It probably cuts off some of the time it would take if we were crossing the mountain. Bolt, can you see far enough to judge how long this path is?” Rose looked at the back of his head, one of his ears seemed to twitch in slight irritation.
“Trees trees and more trees, a couple rocks and utterly terrified Pokemon. People don’t come this way often, it’s rare to see anything but the native Pokemon out here I’m sure. So we’re terrifying anything smaller than us, and anything larger feels it safer to keep out of our way.” He turned his head slowly as he said all of this, his eyes flashing yellow.
“That’s a little creepy.” Stated Cella, then she laughed as Bolt missed a slight turn and slammed into a tree.
“It has it’s drawbacks, I never exactly got to play around with this ability.” He growled, rubbing his forehead.
“So everything is staying off the path just because we’re here? You’d think they’d want to know more about us.” Rose looked around at the trees, wondering how many pairs of eyes watched their progression through the forest.
“They would rather leave us alone until they’ve made sure we’re not a threat, or trainers. Most of the Pokemon out here I’m sure are strong, and if they ganged up on us we’d probably be in trouble, but they aren’t sure. It’s best to just leave them alone as long as they do the same for us.” Star was still walking backwards, somehow managing to stay on the path.
“That’s annoying.” Cella stared at him, his feet keeping a beat even though he couldn’t see where he was going.
“You’re full of complaints today, what’s got you? It’s like you just need something to be creepy or irritating.” Rose turned to Cella, then watched Star. She had to admit to herself, it was slightly irritating, but she quickly lost her train of thought.
Cella sighed. “I don’t know. Sorry guys,” She shook her head, making her ears flap a little. “I just feel nervous I guess.”
Star turned around, walking normally, looking up through the trees. “It looks like the sun’s come out finally. Maybe we‘ll actually get out of these woods in time to enjoy it.”
Bolt looked up, and smiled. “Maybe. I’ll tell you guys if I see a clearing.” He stared into the forest, that Murkrow was definitely fallowing them.
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“Leah to Home, I’ve spotted three travelers leaving The Rainy Café, sending data now.” She stared down at the three, she was positive it was them, but she had to keep cover until it was confirmed with the Home.
“Home to Leah, this is Andrew, image confirmed, it’s them. You may proceed. Be careful though, that’s Thomas down there, and we don’t know what to expect.” Leah nodded to herself, then began decent. She quickly landed a bit in front of the group and began walking towards them. She stopped a few feet ahead and waited while they approached.
“Hello!” She called and waved as they stopped a few feet away. She ran up to them.
“Who are you?” Ashley growled as she crouched, ready to attack.
“Oh relax would you? I was sent from home, Andrew you know? He figured that it would be a good idea to send a guide so you didn’t get lost in the woods.” She smiled, whipping her tail and sending a slight breeze over their heads.
“Oh. Thank you then.” Ashley relaxed, then smiled.
Sam tugged on Ashley’s shirt, staring up at her. “Ashley, who’s that?” She pointed to Leah.
“She’s going to show us where to go, so we can get to that place I told you about. Why don’t you ask her her name?” Ashley crouched down and picked her up.
“What’s your name Flygon girl?” Sam asked.
“I’m Leah, and you must be Sam. Nice to meet you all.” She looked at all three, pausing for a moment on Thomas face. He was supposed to be the bad guy, part of team rocket. He didn’t look like she’d expected.
“So how’d you end up with Tylers group?” Asked Thomas. Ashley gave him a glare that basically told him to shut the hell up.
“Why would you want to know?” She asked, slightly uncomfortable. He was way to relaxed.
“Ashley’s been ignoring me since I made her get lunch.” He shrugged.
Leah turned to Ashley “Are you sure he’s the guy who created our blueprints?”
“Unfortunately yes. He wants to help with the Rocket base project that you guys are working on.” They began walking down the path.
“Help us or kill us?” She glared at him.
“Help. Believe it or not, I don’t hate you guys, and it wouldn’t make sense for me to.” He rolled his eyes at her glare.
“Why wouldn’t it? All of the other rockets want us dead.” Leah said.
“It wouldn’t make sense because I spent a good portion of my life figuring out how to make your blueprints, and getting them to work. When you spend that much time on something it’s hard to hate it.” He stretched his arms above his head.
“The way said that was pretty much creepy. And what about everyone else wanting us dead, you used to work for them.” She stared at him. Why was he so relaxed about everything she’d said?
“Yes. And now I don’t. You do the math.” He raised his eyebrows at her.
“Not that this hasn’t been enlightening at all, but we have travelers at twelve-o-clock.” Said Ashley, pointing with her free arm.
“That’s alright, we need to turn right here anyway.” She grabbed Ashleys and Thomas arms and led them into the woods.
“That was close.” Muttered Thomas under his breath as the two people walked by.
“Only for us, no one would have paid any attention to you.” Glared Leah.
“Really, would you stop trying to be mean to me? It’s annoying and uncalled for. Those two work for team rocket as scouts and theives, I would have been in as much trouble as the rest of you.”
“I doubt it. Team Rocket wants you alive, not us.” Ashley said, a slight smile on her face.
“I don’t believe that this is really a proper conversation for the company we’re in.” Said Thomas, seeing that Sam was watching them.
“Look, a combee!” Leah pointed to it, floating over one of the branches above them. “You don’t see many around here, there’s probably a hive nearby.”
“Or it’s on it’s own.” Thomas said.
“Why would it be alone?” Sam stared up at the bug Pokemon.
“It’s a female, female Combee evolve into Vespiquen, so it was most likely kicked out of the hive before it could evolve. There can only be one Vespiquen in a hive.”
The Pokemon flew in closer, its wings buzzing, then disappeared behind a tree.
“Mom had one of those,” Sam stared at the place wehre the bug Pokemon had gone, tears welled up in her eyes. “I miss Mommy and Daddy.” The tears welled over and began to slide down her face, she shook slightly as she tried to hold in her sobs.
Ashley bent down and wrapped her arms around her. “It’s okay, shhh, let it out, it’s okay.”
Sam wrapped her arms around Ashleys neck and burried her face in her shoulder. “It’s not okay! They’re gone and they’re not going to come back! No one can bring them back, I miss Mommy… I miss Daddy. I want Mommy and Daddy back…” She sobbed into her shoulder as Ashley picked her up, slightly rocking her side to side, stroking her hair.
Leah motioned for them to continue and they walked in silence until sam was asleep. Ashley watched the other two as they walked, noticing that Thomas kept running his fingers through his hair and looking at Sam, then he would turn away and clench his fists. Finally she got fed up with it. “Thomas, what the hell is your problem? You’ve been fidgety since we saw that stupid Bug Pokemon!”
Leah turned to them. “He’s probably planning how to kill us all without involving Sam.”
Thomas glared at her, a hateful look on his face. “If you really have to know, I’m extremely conflicted, and before you start making all kinds of ridiculous statements that I’m a traitor, you may want to hear why.”
He continued to glare at Leah. “Fine, I won’t go on about how I knew you were a traitor and admitting confliction proves it until you’re done with your petty explanation.”
“Good. I’m conflicted because I feel like Sams parents death is my fault.” He looked at her, and sighed.
“So you sent the-” Leah started.
“Would you be quiet for more than twenty seconds? I didn’t send that attack. I knew it was happening, but I couldn’t do anything about it, or I would have. I didn’t even know that humans were involved.” Thomas shook his head, grinding his teeth.
“Okay, you can continue, whatever.” Leah sighed, glaring at him.
“I feel like it’s my fault because I created Morphs. I feel like if I hadn’t created them, then her parents wouldn’t have died. She would be happy and carefree, playing with them and their Pokemon, waiting until she was old enough to be a trainer.” He ran his fingers through his hair again, shutting his eyes for a second.
“So what’s wrong with that? If you hadn’t created us, she would be.” Ashley stroked Sams hair again.
“It’s wrong because thinking about you not existing is like killing you, it’s like wondering how the world would be if no Fire type Pokemon existed. Except it’s worse.”
“How is it worse? If we didn’t exist, none of this mess would have happened in the first place. No one would have died for our sake, and since we wouldn’t exist, we wouldn’t have ever been in pain. What‘s wrong with that?”
Leah stared at Ashley as if she’d turned into a toaster. “I think you’re both insane.”
He ignored Leahs comment. “It’s wrong because you’re alive, you think, you talk, you’re born and die. The only difference between my species and yours is the fact that you look different and most of you can use moves. It’s wrong because you’re people.”
“We aren’t human though. That’s why we’re a threat, and you’re not. We’re almost there, I’ll radio Andrew.” Leah flipped open the Devon Scope, and quickly dialed a number.
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“It’s starting to get dark, we should find a place to camp.” Bolt said, looking up at the sky. They had been walking along a dirt path for a while now, the woods had been replaced by bushes and thorns that had choked out anything that could have grown there. They could see the side of the mountains rise next to them, creating shadows as the sun began to sink.
“There isn’t any place around here, there’s too many thorns, our tents would get torn.” Cella unnecessarily pointed out.
“There has to be somewhere, if other people have taken these trails they would have needed to camp too, we’re close to Eterna, but not close enough.” Star said, rolling up the map for the sixth time.
“We might have to turn around and go back until we find something. What do you guys think?” Bolt asked, he hadn’t seen any areas that looked good for camping though, not for miles.
“I don’t know, the last thing we saw that would be good was miles back. If we go back it will be dark before we get there, if we keep moving forward we still have a chance to find a good place.” Rose said, looking at the sinking sun.
“We should keep going, I think there’s something ahead.” Cella said, she smiled.
They walked for a few more minutes, until Cella told them to stop. “Look, there’s a path that goes up here.”
“Why should we take it, what if we just end up getting lost in the mountains?” Bolt growled.
“Relax, if we don’t find the place after ten minutes, the we’ll go back.” She said, already walking.
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Sheridan crouched behind the rocks above the campsite they’d set up, the little psychic brat had been right, there was a flat outcropping of rock that was perfect for camping. Impossible to see from below too, so he’d have no problems taking them out. “It’s perfect, they have no way to defend themselves, except moves.”
He smiled as they sat down on the ground around a small fire that they’d gotten started. They wouldn’t know what hit them. Suddenly a Murkrow landed on a rock next to him. “Ahhh, hello Rox, what did you find out?”
“More of the same, the Luxray morph can see through things, but is a bit clumsey with it. Your son has gotten extremely relaxed around his new friends though.” She cackled at this. Her master looked pleased.
“Good, that’s great. I can’t have you flying around the whole time I’m doing this though, so return. And stop calling him my son.” He held up the red and white sphere, which quickly absorbed the Pokemon.
“Now I just have to wait.”
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Thomas looked around, the room they were in was large, with several computers and other machines hooked to extension cords. There was even a clothes dryer. “Yeah, it’d be better if we had a Rotom.” Andrew said, half a frown on his face.
“It’s fine, how did you get all of this set up without anyone noticing? The electricity has to come from somewhere.” Thomas was impressed.
“We have a few generators, but mostly it’s our own efforts, we do have a few things hooked up to the Gym in Fortree, like the computers, but other than that we make our own power.” He was pleased with the impressed look on Thomas face, even if he still wasn’t completely convinced of his aliance.
“That’s impressive, how do you make that work?” He was glad to talk about anything but the suspecion that several members had for him.
“Ten humans at a time ride stationary bikes that we managed to rig, and we have two Morphs and two Pokemon who can use electric moves send a steady current of electricity through all three secret bases. At night we turn everything off, and we don‘t use electricity to cook very often. Once a week we charge the generators to full power.”
“So you get exercise and power. If the rest of the world could cooperate like this, electric bills wouldn’t be an issue. How do you get enough food though?” Just keep the topic on them.
“Hunting and gathering mostly. Every human here over eighteen has a job in Fortree or Lillycove, there are a few who work in Mauville, and send money via Pokemon when they can. We worry more about clothes and sleeping arrangements than food here. That’s why we had to make two more bases, too many morphs, too many people.” Andrew sat down at one of the computers.
“Oh.” Thomas couldn’t think of anything else to say.
“We don’t mind, but it was getting crowded, and we had to make an estimate on how many morphs we’re going to add tomorrow. We keep getting people because of this one website too. The webmaster is a genius, he helped me get the basic blueprints for rocket bases, and there’s all sorts of things on morphs. I even got permission from Tyler to give him a section on this place. You can see if you want, you‘d probably just hack it if we said no anyway.”
“You all have such a low opinion of me. I’ve already seen the site anyway, your plan is stupid and dangerous, but I have a friend I need to get out of there.” He knew he was being reckless again.
“How could you possibly know about this site? No one from team rocket can get in, weather they’ve quit or not. It says so.”
“Yes, and only someone from team rocket would know how to block all of it’s members. I had a hell of a time making that work you know.” He smiled, looking at Andrew. All he wanted to do was get Tilla out, to get her and Bolt back together he hoped that he could just get that across.
“Why the hell are you messing with me? If you made this stupid site then why wouldn’t you just tell everyone here? Instead of being held under suspecion?” Andrew stared him in the eyes, this website was what had made them, kept them alive, helped them gain money.
“I don’t want people to like me, they don’t even have to respect me, I just want to get Tilla out of that rocket base, then go find my son. Most of the members are bent on hating me, and I understand that, so If you want to keep using that website, you can’t tell anyone. Ashley is the only other person here who knows that I made it. So can I help with that raid or not?” He was aware that he probably could have said that better, but let it go.
“Fine, you can come, whatever. Fly ahead on your Skarmory and cause a distraction. Find whoever you’re looking for, just keep us a secret.” He knew that it didn’t matter what he said, Thomas would go anyway.
“Thanks, after I find her I’m going to leave though. Giovanni cares too much about finding me, and I don’t want to put anyone here in any more danger than I have to.”
“What about her? If you find her what are you going to do?”
“She can come with me or stay if she likes, I don’t mind either way. What would be the point of getting her out if she still didn‘t have any free will?”
“That’s a good point. It’s going to be lights out in an hour, if I were you I’d get set up, you can sleep in the empty base or in your tent, either way, watch yourself. We might just be kids, but a lot of us have a lot of hate, and good reason for it.” Andrew nodded, then watched as Thomas left the base.
“I hope he finds his friend, then gets the hell out of here before he gets himself killed. Any way he dies will be justice in the eyes of half the people here.”