Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction / Pokemon Fan Fiction / Pokemon Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Utena, Revolutionary Girl Fan Fiction ❯ The Vortex ❯ Act 2: Prelude ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Vortex Act 2: Prelude

"Oh my God," Tiki muttered. She ran towards the stairway of her attic room, hollering, "LEA! I'LL BE RIGHT BACK!", tore down the stairs onto the second floor, down to the first floor, across the house and out the back door.
*
^Meanwhile, ten minutes earlier on a different plane of existence...^
"We'll get those little twerps this time," Jessie muttered.
"Yeah!" James agreed, then added, whining, "But why do we have to do it with them?" He pointed an accusing finger across the path at Butch and Cassidy.
"Because," Jessie snarled, "The boss doesn't think we're capable of doing it ourselves, so he's making us work with them."
James frowned, pouting a little. "I dun' wanna."
"Oh James, grow up!"
"Hey, Brock, when can we stop for a rest?"
The pair froze, then plunged down into the bushes, as the Meowth- dubbed Team Twerp approached. Across the way, Butch and Cassidy did the same.
"Hmm... according to this map, there's a large clearing up ahead a little ways."
"How far?" Ash asked.
"Uhm.... I'd say another three miles!"
Misty sighed. "I wanna rest NOW!"
"Chuu..."
The three pulled to a stop, directly between the two Rocket groups.
"Oh, this couldn't be more perfect!" Cassidy whispered to Butch.
"On the count of three..." Butch started into a walkie-talkie, who's mate was with James. "1... 2... 3!"
The four Rockets launched out of the low shrubs, surrounding the three kids, who were now screaming in alarm. In an instant, Team Rocket had surrounded them.
Meowth and Raticate stepped out of the bushes and onto the road, grinning menacingly. "We're here for da Pikachu," Meowth said. "If you don't give it up, the six of us are gonna fight you until you can't argue with us anymore." He brought his paws up and bared his well sharpened claws.
"Oh, go away!" Snapped a now irritated Misty.
"Yeah, blast off and bother someone else!" Ash added.
"Pi KA!"
Jessie sighed in annoyance. "Can we please get this over with? In case you hadn't noticed, it's going to rain soon." Ash and company looked skywards for a brief moment, and saw she spoke the truth; It had clouded over quite suddenly, and it looked- and smelled- like rain.
The two teams (so to speak) watched each other, waiting for the other one to make a move.
Then it started to pour.
Butch nudged Cassidy, getting her attention. "I'm gonna jump at 'em, Cass. Back me up."
"Right," she replied, bracing herself to jump. Jessie and James barely heard him through the rain, but could guess what he was planning, and did the same.
"YAH!" He cried suddenly, leaping towards Ash. The other Rockets took the initiative, and followed his example.
But something made a startling noise, causing everyone to stop short.
There was a swirling cloud of... something, about six feet in heighth, four feet across. There was something like a moving picture on the surface. A bird flew across the image. There was a house, viewed from the back yard, and a side room with large open windows with 3 cats- two in one window, one in the next- sitting and watching them.
Everyone present stood stock still, looking at this strange site. Team Rocket glanced at each other's expressions.
James stepped closer, looking at it thoughtfully with rain-blurred vision. Misty walked up to it, reaching out a hand, hesitated, then touched it with her finger tips. The surface rippled like water, then settled.
"Misty, stop," Ash muttered. "We don't know what it is."
She sighed, and pulled her fingers out.
Two things happened at once: One was that Misty stepped on a small stone protruding from the muddy ground, and started to lose her balance. The other was that a sudden blast of wind- or maybe a pull of wind- knocked into her, and threw her balance on the wet muck off even more, and she slipped, falling backwards towards the strange mass.
"Misty!" Ash cried, launching himself forward, Pikachu clinging to his shoulder.
"Ash, what are you doing?!" Brock hollered, grabbing his friend's shirt. Both boys strained, one towards and the other away from the cloud.
Brock felt something tap his shoulder. He turned and looked to see Jessie smile at him, wave, then shove him towards Ash.
"Agh!" He yelled, flying through the vortex behind Ash.
"Hmph. About time he got out of my way," she muttered. She leaned forward, and jumped through. James grabbed hold of her boot and was dragged through with her, screaming "Jessie, don't leave me!!" Meowth pounced on James and dug his claws in, making little holes in the leg of James's pants.
Cassidy sighed, grabbed Butch by the arm, and said "C'mon, let's go..."
The two jumped through, shortly followed by Raticate. Just as the window between worlds was closing, a Pidgey swooped through, and squawked in surprise, it's call to echo in the now empty woods a few moments later.
*
Tiki surveyed the mild mess in her back yard, leaning against the wall next to a window. "I shoulda seen this coming," she muttered. The flame point siamese sitting in the window closest to her trilled, purring. She surveyed the mess the Vortex had left her to clean up.
Seven soaked humans and three wet animals were sprawled on the ground in front of the dead crab apple tree in the corner of the yard, recovering from their Trans- dimensional trip. One by one, they stood, assisting each other onto their feet.
"What... What happened?" Ash mumbled.
"You just took a trip via Trans-Dimensional Air. Welcome to Menomonie, Wisconsin. how may I help you?" Tiki said, voice dripping with honeyed sarcasm.
Everyone looked up, mildly alarmed.
"Team Rocket, Team Twerp, you have just crossed from one world to another. Though I wonder... How was it stable enough to send so many people through at once? Last time we tried it, it fell apart so easily..." The group in front of Tiki sweatdropped, as Tiki began muttering to herself and ultimately forgetting what she was doing.
"Uhm, excuse me," Jessie said. "But... how do you know our titles?"
Ash, Misty, and Brock, who were now fuming a little, all cried "We are NOT Team Twerp!"
"TV," Tiki replied, a little distractedly. "I aughta call Lea... Wait, she's already on the phone! Oh screw it, she'll understand if I take a few minutes longer..."
"Has Team Rocket's fame spread to other dimensions?" Cassidy asked, eyes glimmering at the thought.
Tiki, finally realizing that puzzling over this new dilemma wasn't going to get her anywhere just then, shook herself off a little and said, "I guess you could put it that way... You see, in this world? You're all a cartoon."
"WHAT?!" Everyone cried.
"Yeah... That's why it's kinda surprising to see you all here..."
"You didn't seem THAT surprised," Butch stated.
Tiki grinned. "Give me about an hour. By that time, the shock will have worn off and it'll finally hit me."
"By the way, who ARE you?" James asked.
Tiki blinked, realizing she hadn't introduced herself. She bowed elaborately, saying, "Tiki Rocket, of Neo-Team Rocket, at your service."
Jessie, James, Butch, and Cassidy looked at each other, and blinked twice.
"You're from Team Rocket?!" Ash cried, jumping into a defensive position.
"NEO-Team Rocket. Emphasis on Neo. We're sorta version 2.0. In this world, we'd get destroyed so fast for doing some of the stuff that 1.0 does, so we do things a little less... illegal. Like messing with people's heads. I suppose if we had the insurance to keep us out of prison, like a boss to bail us out or something, and something like Pokemon to steal, you can bet we'd do it that way." Tiki sighed. "But, until we can get the Vortex stable enough, we're stuck here."
"If you're a team, where are the others?" Brock asked, trying to change the subject.
"I think you'll be meeting them shortly. However, to finalize plans, I need to finish my conversation with Lea. Okay?"
Without waiting for a response, she turned and headed back into the house. "You can come in, if you'd like!" she called over her shoulder. The siamese in the window meowed.
As soon as she was in the house, Tiki took off for her room at a mad dash. When she got there, she collapsed on the floor, grabbed the phone and said, "Lea?"
"Ack! Hi, where were you?"
"The Rockets have come to visit."
"Lucky and SC? Oh good, they can come along too."
"Wrong Rockets."
"What other- Oh..."
Tiki nodded, even though Lea couldn't have known that. "They're here, and so's Team Twerp."
A soft cooing sound from Tiki's bed- which was in front of the window- made her jump. She got up off of the floor where she'd landed, and looked.
"Oh great," Tiki muttered. "It looks like a wild Pidgey came through too... It made a crash course with my bed."
Lea giggled. "Sounds like you've got your hands full."
"Yeah, you could put it that way. Hey Lea, call Lucky and SC and make them meet us at the ice cream parlor."
"Right. Talk to you in a bit?"
"Yup. Love ya, sis."
"You too, bye!"
The two hung up their phones, and Tiki grabbed the bird and headed downstairs.
"Hey Ash? Can I have a PokeBall?" she asked.
"Uh... sure, I guess..."
He tossed one to her, and she looked at it thoughtfully, then tossed it back.
"Never mind. I don't think I need it that badly." She grabbed a canvas bag from the kitchen doorknob, and carefully set the bird inside. The disoriented creature stuck it's head out and looked around, cooing a little. Tiki shouldered the bag, shooing her four cats away from it. "Go sniff the people, you dumb beasts..."
Finally, she pulled some shoes on, turned to the small crowd, and said, "All right. Let's go."
"Where're we going?" Brock asked.
"To the designated NTR hangout: St. Nick's Ice Cream Parlor!"
She lead the parade through the house, and out to the street.
*
Tiki set a brisk pace, and maintained it the entire way, chattering to the newcomers about one thing or another, mostly pointing out the differences between each world, and sometimes explaining things that were the same by accident. By the end of the trip, she was holding a steady conversation with James about style and hair products, while most of the others sat back and listened or held quieter conversations among themselves.
Compared to the heat outside, the parlor was a refreshing cool. Butch, who had had little distraction on their walk, breathed a sigh of relief; He'd removed the black overshirt on the walk, but underneath that the black T-shirt had left little redemption from the sun. He cursed inwardly for having a black uniform.
As he looked around the parlor, he noticed a girl with tightly curled, brown hair and an identical outfit to Tiki's sitting at one of the small tables, scribbling in a red notebook. The girl looked up, making sudden and surprising eye contact to his inquisitive glance. Her expression brightened drastically, and she launched herself upwards.
"Oh my God!! You're from Team Rocket, aren't you?!! Oh wow, this is so totally awesome!!" She cried, causing everyone to wince.
"Lea!! Chill!" Tiki shrilled back at her, calling forth another wince from all present. She stepped up to the other girl, resting her hands on the girl's shoulders, and said, "Everyone, this is my best friend LeaMarie, who is currently quite spastic because she's probably had too much caffeine today."
"Whereas Tiki probably hasn't had enough," Lea responded. "Otherwise she would've been as spastic as me."
Tiki dug her nails lightly into the other girl's shoulders. "Shut up, Lea dear." Lea swatted her companion's hands away.
"Bite me, Tiki-chan."
"I'd really rather not..."
"Ack! Tiki!"
"What?! I didn't do anything!"
"You haven't yet. You're thinking of something."
"Yeah, well... nyeh!" Tiki shot, sticking her tongue out.
"Nyeh back!" Lea replied, mimicking the movement.
Team Rocket and Team Twerp watched the strange exchange, sweatdropping. Tiki must've noticed, because she pulled her tongue back into her mouth and grinned a little nervously at them.
"Sorry about that. I think we got a little carried away."
"You started it," Lea muttered, unconsciously inciting another argument.
At that moment, the bells tied to the door rang, and the rush of traffic from outside got momentarily louder. Everyone looked to the door to see a handsome, blond young man step into the store.
Lea and Tiki launched themselves at him.
"SC-kun!"
"We love you!"
The girls threw their arms around his neck, grinning happily. He sighed disgustedly, muttering "You two are weird," and trying to hide the grin spreading across his face. He hugged them back.
"This," Tiki stated, "is my big brother StormChaser. He's your typical blond male bimbo and a major airheaded idiot, but we love him anyway and he can be really smart and stuff." She grinned. "Right, SC?"
StormChaser rolled his eyes at his surrogate little sister. "I'm way smarter than you. Look at my GPA."
"Hey, the only reason my GPA is so bad is because I never do my homework, that doesn't count."
"Then do your homework!"
"I don't wanna!"
"Well fine, be that way then."
"I will. Dammit, I want ice cream!" Tiki declared, shifting topics suddenly and drastically.
Jessie and James watched the trio standing before them as they bickered between each other about ice cream and who was buying for who of the visitors and various other equally useless points. "I get the feeling this is a small family of high maintenance," she muttered. "Do you think they ever stop arguing long enough to do something productive?"
"Well, Tiki mentioned something about messing with people's heads..." James started.
"I'd say they're doing a fine job of it," both Butch and Cassidy stated, also eyeing the fight that was starting to break out.
Just then, the door bell jangled again.
"Hi everyone!" cried the girl who had just stepped in.
Tiki, Lea, and SC stopped arguing and disengaged their hands from necks and wrists, and all three responded. "Hi Lucky!"
Tiki stepped away from her other siblings and up to the new girl.
"This, everyone, is Lucky, youngest of the Rocket Four, and the athlete/ fashionably inclined member of the group."
"Hie!" Lucky said cheerfully to the stunned visitors. Lea and StormChaser stood with Tiki and Lucky, and the four of them struck a pose.
"We're Neo Team Rocket," Lea started.
"Defenders of all that is true to our hearts," Lucky continued.
"Believers in true happiness and innocence," SC declared.
"And destined for more than what this world can offer!" Tiki stated firmly.
"Together, we will stabilize the Vortex!" they said in unison.
Their small crowd applauded. "You've gotta admire their team spirit," Ash muttered.
"Think they can ever get organized enough to finish a project, though?" Misty asked, grinning.
"Just let me hook up with the babe," Brock said, drooling a little and blushing. He'd been like that since Lucky walked in the door.
Misty grabbed his ear, frowning. "Let's just get some ice cream, Romeo."
"All right!" Lea said. "Who's ready for ice cream?"
"Hm, coincidentally..." Misty muttered to herself.
Lea ignored the comment, pulling out a pad of paper and a pen, and started taking orders from everyone. Meanwhile, Tiki had everyone take a seat, and began calling orders to the girl behind the counter (who, by now, was looking mildly alarmed). StormChaser and Lucky got samples of ice creams for Pikachu and Raticate, and SC took a look at Tiki's Pidgey. He'd had some experience with injured animals, and was an optimal person to have look at it and check for breaks.
Cassidy watched the four teenagers go from disorganized, whiny, bratty little kids just pull together and form a working team circuit in under 5 seconds. Needless to say, she was a little impressed.
"I don't know how they do it," she said to Butch, "But they could definitely teach some Team Rocket members a few tips."
"I know what you mean," he grated back. "It's pretty admirable."
Just then, Tiki turned around and nearly smacked into Lea.
"ACK!" both girls cried, followed by "Lea, careful!" "You be careful where you're turning, baka!" "You're the baka, frizz-head." "You shouldn't talk, with all the chemicals you've used on your hair it's a wonder your brain's still working." "Oh shut up." Then, both broke out laughing.
Butch and Cassidy sweatdropped at the exchange of insults while the girls carried on handing out ice cream.
"Total comes to $20 and six cents," said the girl behind the counter. As Lea opened her bill fold, Tiki snickered, muttering "hee hee, sixth sense" and was promptly swatted by her older sister, who then handed a twenty and six pennies to the girl behind the counter as if nothing out of place had just happened.
"Thanks Rita," Lea said, smiling.
"You're welcome, girls," Rita replied, smiling wanly. She was starting to get used to the odd behavior from the four.
It took half an hour for everyone to finish their ice cream. There was lots of useless chatter said, but seeing as most of it wasn't memorable, no one bothered recording it for later use, other than Misty talking about how she'd left Togepi in the care of her sisters for a few days after being bribed, and was concerned that they would end up hurting it, and Tiki muttering something about it being a good thing she hadn't brought it with her since Tiki had such low patience for high pitched voices. StormChaser had glared at her for saying as much, replying "I think it's cute," to which Tiki rolled her eyes.
Lea took charge again. "Tiki, what are we going to do with all these people? We can't possibly keep them around, you know."
"I know," Tiki said, nodding sagely. "I've been thinking about that."
"Any plans?"
"As of yet... Hm... Think you can come over tonight?"
"Yeah, for a little while."
"Lucky, SC!"
"What?" came the simultaneous response.
"You're coming over tonight."
"Okay!"
"Why?"
Tiki glared at SC for defying her. "Because we're going to open the vortex again."
*
"This day has been murder," Tiki typed into her computer later that evening. Much later, in fact; It was a few minutes to midnight. "After our little trip to the ice cream parlor, we came back here and had to figure out how to amuse our visitors for a few hours. I asked Lea to cover for me while I took a nap, cuz I knew I was gonna need it if we were gonna open the vortex again.
"Lea did a fine job of covering, however the stress levels were running high, and after two hours she woke me up and we switched off. I'm glad she holds up under stress so well; it must've been hell for her to try and settle people into whatever they were doing. Ash and Brock were trying to beat the hell out of each other on 'Evil Zone', and Ash obviously has no idea how to play video games because he kept losing to Brock and being a bad loser about it. I had to settle down a few arguments between them because Misty- who was watching- wasn't making it any better. Ash kept claiming that Butch and James's music selection was interfering with his ability to play. I would've understood that if they'd had the music going the whole time, but they were pretty much busy arguing over which CD/ song to play, meaning that consistent music was kept to a minimum.
"Jessie and Cassidy, for all the hatred they seem to have between each other, were actually getting along rather well on the computer. I think what makes them so livid with each other is the fact that they are so much alike. They were looking up sites on the internet (nothing dirty, all you perverts out there reading my journal), and apparently have the same tastes in just about everything. It was interesting watching them; an unexposed bystander would think they were best friends, which makes me wonder what came up between them to make them act the way they do towards each other. I think they would get along perfectly. "Well, that was a few hours ago; I finally herded everyone into the TV room, put the futon down so they could all fit on it, and put in 'Magic Knight Rayearth' in hopes that they would at least stop arguing.
"They did. It was amazing, they're all getting into it. When the first tape ended, someone must've gotten up and put in the second one. Every now and then I hear James getting frustrated with Fuu for not telling Ferio her feelings, and Ash snarling at Zagato and stuff. It's pretty funny ^_^."
Tiki hit the save button and closed out, got up and walked into the other room. Ascot was getting upset over his latest defeat, and Jessie looked like she empathized. Realizing that the tape was pretty much at it's end, and that it was the perfect time to get started on reopening the vortex, Tiki sent SC to wake up LeaMarie, and got everyone out into the backyard. Lucky grabbed the Pidgey as an after thought. The Pidgey sat calmly in Lucky's arms, and cooed at her.
Outside, Tiki seated everyone in a circle and had them leave space for herself and her siblings. Team Rocket, who's members were sitting in a row next to each other, began to whisper.
"James?" Butch whispered. "Yes?"
"Do you think they're...?"
James nodded, and Jessie said the words each of them had been thinking since they had met the four children.
"The rumored lost children of Silph..."
"Do you think we've found them?" Cassidy asked.
"It's possible," Jessie replied.
"Then we need to bring them back with us," Butch said, face grim set.
James shook his head. "Not now. Definitely not now."
"They've certainly grown a lot since then," Cassidy said a little whistfully. "Think they remember us?"
"It's possible," Jessie repeated. "I sometimes think that they are linked to us even through the dimensions... How else do you suppose they would follow in our footsteps the way they did?"
"It was a little indirect," James stated. "Though I suppose they did..."
"Even dimensions can't seperate loved ones completely," Butch said distantly.
At that moment, the backdoor banged shut, causing everyone to look up.
The four kids had finally come out, looking serious. Tiki had a bag slung over her shoulder; as they approached the circle, she unslung it and began to pull it open.
The bright moonlight showed what she was carrying: Candles. Thirty or more candles, dumped into the middle of the circle, which she and her siblings began arranging in a smaller circle in the center.
Lea pulled a matchbook out of her pocket, which raised looks from everyone but her siblings.
"Lea's kinda got this afinity with fire," Tiki explained. "She's almost always carrying matches with her."
"She's only like, what, fourteen?" Jessie said. "She shouldn't be carrying matches."
Lea grinned. "Why not?"
Jessie fish mouthed for a moment, then gave up. "It just seems a little... odd."
"We're a little odd," SC stated, looking skyward. He raised his hands into the air a little; a few moments later, a light breeze blew past them all, causing the candles to flicker.
"Careful," Lea warned.
"Sorry," SC said, smiling guiltily.
Tiki took a breath for another explanation, but StormChaser beat her to it, saying, "It's a weird talent I discovered a long time ago." The looks being passed around the circle of friends now was definitely questioning.
"Any other talents you want to share?" Brock asked nervously.
"Not yet," Tiki muttered.
The four kids took their places around the circle: Tiki to the North, Lea to the South, StormChaser to the East, and Lucky to the West.
"Everyone hold hands and close your eyes," Tiki ordered, "and concentrate on getting home. We'll take care of the rest."
Misty thought hard about her Togepi, her sisters, Cerulean, the gym...
Ash concentrated on thoughts of his mother, Professor Oak, the Pokemon League games, his destiny...
Brock thought of his hope to become a breeder on the well known Scissor Street, Jenny, Joy, all the other girls there that he wanted to be in love with...
Team Rocket as a whole was thinking about Saffron City, and the felled Silph Company, and thoughts of a past they'd hidden entirely from the boss and the Team Rocket grunts, from everyone except each other...
The Pokemon, on the other hand, sat in the laps of their owners- or, in Pidgey's case, temporary care takers- and hoped that all this would work.
It took a few minutes for everyone to settle into their thoughts, but as they did, an energy field began building around them. It began circulating through their connected hands, from Misty to Ash to StormChaser to James to Jessie to Lea to Brock to Cassidy to Lucky to Butch to Tiki and through again. It grew until, soon, all of them felt it.
Tiki focused hard on the element she was to be representing. Earth. Ivy. Green. Growing. Dying. The smell of grass. The crunch of dead leaves. Calm. Stablizing. Growing. Growing like trees, upward, spreading. Strength.
To the nonexistent bystander, the aura from the energy around the group was almost tangible. As the energy passed through Tiki, it glowed a vibrant green.
Stormchaser was pulling up everything he associated with the element he stood for. Air. Breeze. Gentle. Soft. Touching. Clouds. Storms. Tornadoes. Yellow gold. Rushing. Carrying. Pushing forward, giving hope. Confidence.
As the energy rushed through him, it became a brazen gold.
Lea concentrated on her element. Fire. Heat. Warm. Comfort. Ambition. Red. Consumption. Life force. Empowering feeling burning within, taking charge. Passion.
As her thoughts fed into the current the group was sending through, it flared red.
Lucky tapped into everything she could think to associate with the element. Water. Cool. Soothing. Fluidity. Rain. Emotions. solitude. Conforming. Flowing. Blue. A perfection, smooth movement. Peace.
The energy swept to blue as it passed through her.
The circle of energy had built into almost a solid wall around them, glowing with power. Tiki felt the power as it built within her, stronger, forceful, collecting in her chest; around the circle, it had started building in her siblings as well, until finally, she cried out the watchword that would set things into the final motion:
"EARTH!"
The energy wall formed a solid barrier around the group, and vines shot up from the ground until they completely covered the light emitted from the barrier. There was nothing getting in or out of there.
"AIR!"
StormChaser's call started a breeze circling around the interior and exterior of the barrier, clockwise, whirling faster. Outside the barrier, stormclouds materialized and covered over the sky, sending the night into darkness.
"FIRE!"
Lea's powerful cry brought the candle flames raging upwards, burning hot and bright; outside the barrier, the night became warm, the air thick.
"WATER!"
Lucky's smooth voice brought the rain pouring down outside, and set things within into motion again; the barrier now whirled, colors swirling together...
"Oh my gosh," Misty said, "It looks like the thing that brought us here to begin with... Like we're inside a bubble of it..."
And then, the final call rang out from within all present, sounding like a whisper and a howl, high and low, rasping and clear all at once.
"Spirit..."
For the four NTR siblings, the feeling was familiar; the feeling that a part of their soul was shooting out of them towards the center of the circle into a strange mass, then firing back into them; the others, however, were a little less braced for it.
Cassidy's mouth opened from the shock. It almost hurt, and she wanted to cry out, but it was as if her voice had locked in place...
Then she slammed backwards, against the barrier. It caught her, as if she'd only been dropped onto a huge down comforter, or a cloud, and she slid down gently. As she and everyone else landed on the ground again, the barrier seemed to pop; bits of it should have flung outward, like a bubble, but instead they froze, spun, and flung themselves back at the "spirit mass" in the center.
Vines, rain, flames, wind, all whirled inward with the barrier, and the mass spun together until you couldn't tell what was what, an confusing ball of matter- and then slowed.
The rain had stopped, the wind had faded to a barely detectable breeze, the candles and all gone out, and the vines had vanished all together. In the center of the circle was the vortex they'd called up.
"That was amazing," Ash said, bewildered.
Lea stared at it in awe. "Wow, it looks way better than last time..."
"We did it, you guys!" Tiki cried. "We did it! We succeeded! It's stable!"
"After that, it has to be," SC stated wryly.
"Well then," Lucky said. "Who's first?"
"I am!" Misty cried. "I wanna go back home! I want my Togepi!"
"Fine, go then allready," Tiki said a little impatiently.
"All right..." Misty was hesitating a little, mildly afraid that it wouldn't work...
Ash took her hand. "Come on, Misty, let's go."
His words- or maybe his hand- must've made her feel bolder, because she stepped forward with him, and jumped in.
"Waah!!" both cried as they shot through. They crashed in a heap on the ground, and rolled a couple feet before finally coming to a stop, Ash with his arms around Misty, trying desperately to keep her from getting injured.
"Are you all right?" he asked after a moment.
"Yeah, I'm fine..." she said, blushing.
Ash realized he hadn't let her go, and did so immediately, blushing and apologizing profusely.
"It's all right, Ash, I.."
Before she could continue, Brock came crashing through the vortex, interrupting anything else that might have been said. Misty cursed him inwardly. Brock was shortly followed by Raticate, Meowth, Pikachu, and the Pidgey, which flew off cooing.
"Ow..." Brock muttered, standing up. He rubbed his backside, and looked back at the vortex. "Hey, cool, we can watch what's going on over there still."
Ash and Misty walked over to see what he was talking about, joined by the abnormally silent Meowth.
On the other side of the Vortex, Team Rocket was preparing for their departure. The sky had unclouded rather quickly; the stars were glinting and flickering in a picture perfect night sky, complete with a death white moon.
The four Neo Team Rocket members faced the four Original Team members.
"We won't forget this visit," Tiki said, otherwise at a loss for words. She didn't want them to leave, she could admit to herself. At the same time, she knew that her heroes had to return home.
"Neither will we," Butch replied. He looked at her as she shifted nervously, unsure of what to do.
Jessie rested a hand on Lea's shoulder. "Lead your team into victory, LeaMarie Rocket," she said, smiling at her.
Lea smiled back. "Always. We wouldn't settle for anything less."
James looked at SC. SC looked at James. They shrugged. It seemed a fair enough exchange.
Cassidy stood facing Lucky, eyes locked. She wanted to say something to her, but nothing that would make sense to the girl came to mind. Finally, she settled for "Stay strong."
Lucky gave her a wide smile. "I will!"
Jessie turned to the Vortex. "James! Come on, let's go."
James grinned at StormChaser, and gave him a thumbs up and a smile. SC grinned back. Then, James stood with his teammate, and both stepped through the vortex.
Cassidy went next. "Butch?"
Butch held his gaze with Tiki's. She could sense that there was something more he wanted to say from the look on his face. All he said was, "Until next time."
"What makes you think there'll be a next time?" she asked, curious.
"Lucky guess."
With that, he turned and followed Cassidy through.
Neo Team Rocket stared after them, watching the other world from their side of the vortex, until Tiki muttered, "Return to your places, elements; return, until you're called again."
The vortex came crashing down.
*
"Meowth," Jessie said, "why have you been so quiet for the last few days?"
"Didn't you enjoy your trip?" James added.
"Yeah..." Meowth started. "It's just... All dat stuff was so weird, I never thought there was other places so different from our world. And da stuff dat those kids did... Hey, why were you two actin' so weird around them, anyway?"
"Weird?" Jessie questioned. "We weren't acting weird."
"Yeah you was," Meowth said, almost accusingly. "All a youse were actin' strange."
Butch and Cassidy, who were sharing a Rocket "bunkhouse" with them now, looked at the cat. "We weren't acting any different," Cassidy stated, "you just think we were."
"Nice argument," Meowth muttered.
"Go back to being quiet," Butch rasped.
Meowth sighed, and complied.
Later that evening, though, while the cat was asleep, the four met up in the basement, and began to talk.
"We've got to get them back," Butch stated flatly. "We know how to bring them here. We know how to restore their memories. Soon, we could have it just like normal again."
"You ready to start?" Cassidy asked.
"I'm ready," James intoned.
"Me too," Jessie said.
"Well then, let's get to it." Butch flicked out the lights.
*
StormChaser rolled over in his bed in the basement, trying to fall asleep. It wasn't working. He'd been trying for the last hour, and all he'd achieved was changing positions six times and sighing at least 20.
He thought about the events of several nights before. It was all so confusing... How did the vortex open itself to let the Rockets through to begin with? What made it strong enough then to send them back?
And why was it that James kept stirring something inside him? It was like something he'd forgotten to take care of, he was aware that it needed to be done but not what it actually was. And it was so frustrating!
Finally, his eyes grew heavier, and a dream began to set in...
A loud VWOOSH from behind his head startled him awake again, but before he could register what it was, a hard blow to the back of his head knocked him into unconsciousness. His final registering thought was "What is it now?!"
*
*
*
Next time on Vortex:
What's going on?! This isn't the right world! Or is it? NTR is out of place, and someone's gonna be doing some major explaining! Stay tuned for the next act of "The Vortex"! ^_^^_^^_~