Pokemon Fan Fiction / Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Desert Hurts ❯ Uprising ( Chapter 5 )

Desert Hurts
By Hector Gilbert

Chapter five
"Uprising"

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.

A Wobbuffet slipped over to its master. Rocket Executive Jessie looked down at it from her chair, trying not to be too distracted from the process of polishing her automatic rifle.

"What's your problem?" Jessie asked, sighing.

"Wobb!"

"...I shouldn't have asked." Jessie placed her gun back down on the desk in front of her. "Is it another dream?"

Wobbuffet said nothing; it usually broke into chatter whenever Jessie so much as mentioned dreams. This interested her.

Jessie crossed her arms as she lay back into her chair. "A person?"

Wobbuffet bobbed its body up and down in agreement.

"James?" she inquired, but she knew that Wobbuffet didn't mind him. "An intruder?"

Wobbuffet seemed to react to those last words. Jessie's eyes widened as she realized that "intruder" was probably right. She immediately saw herself telling James that something was up.

But she couldn't just rely on such loose data. She needed a name.

"Is it Terry?" Jessie asked, but to no response. "Cassidy? Edith? Clare? Rob? Giovanni? Butch?"

At the mention of the last name, Wobbuffet seemed to nearly slip into hysterics. Jessie stood up from her seat, nearly throwing it back to the other end of the room.

And with that Jessie leapt away from her quarters, and ran over to those of James. She was going to thank Wobbuffet, but she forgot to in her rush.

***

Rocket Grunt Thomas got a new bad back as he hit the wall with a bit too much force for his liking. "Hey, easy now!"

"Where's Misty Waterflower's cell?" a rather intrusive Executive hissed, ignoring his complaints.

Thomas didn't like most of the Executives; they seemed to have a sort of superiority complex. But this one looked different, not to mention somewhat familiar. But this guy was also even rougher with Thomas than was usually expected.

For one thing, he had a pistol placed under his chin. For that more than anything else, Thomas decided to talk.

"Basement level one, cell 68," Thomas yelped.

"Good." The "Executive" then let go of him, and ran off hastily.

While sliding down the wall petrified, suddenly Thomas recognized Butch. He wasn't an Executive at all; not anymore. He was just wearing the same clothes.

That fooled me, Thomas admitted to himself, but it probably wouldn't fool anyone else.

***

"I suggest that you cool down," Executive Jessie retorted. "Butch has been taken down before, there's nothing written on the wall saying we can't do it again."

"But what if this is something bigger?" Executive James paced around in his own room/quarters in a panic that Jessie didn't like. "We'll need to tell Boss Fortress."

"Absolutely not!" Jessie shot back, "you know what would happen, given how predictable Fortress is; he'd set off the alarm."

James by this stage had stopped pacing, and was trying his very best to sit still in his own chair. "Why not? He's an intruder!"

"This kind of reaction started The War," Jessie hissed. "This is something small. The last thing we need is something big."

James shook his heavy head. "I just don't know, Jessie."

"Well, clearly," Jessie replied with a cutting smile. "This is nothing to get in a twist over, James. We'll just split off, and get him ourselves."

James went silent for a few seconds. "...I'll only do it if you do one thing for me."

"What's that?" Jessie asked, leaning on the table that James bowed his head down on.

James opened up his left hand and revealed what he was holding on the table: two small audio receivers, apparently meant to fit inside an ear. Jessie recognized them immediately; they were given to still-paired Executives like Jessie and James.

James put one in his ear, and found himself listening to a series of blips that represented Jessie's pulse. The other had James' pulse; Jessie caught on to James' plan, and put that one in her own left ear.

"If you die," James explained, "it's a big thing."

***

I can sense people beginning to panic already with the appearance of Butch.

Rob raised an eyebrow. His feet were now at this stage treading many ground stones in the spacious courtyard, the building's entrance five minutes walking distance away.

I guess that this stage is easy to reach, Rob agreed.

But, of course! You already have your dozen followers, and your backup dozen at your precious base. All I need is to convince Fortress to support me; I need chaos.

Rob's eyes gleamed as an idea came over him.

I can give you some more of that if you want, Rob noted.

"Okay," Rob yelled back at his troops, "I've received some new orders from Will!"

What orders?

"I want you all to surround the entrance. If someone comes out..." Rob made a motion with his hand to make it look like a gun. "...Attack with extreme prejudice!"

Oh.

***

She felt hundreds of tiny electric bolts cover her body, making her feel roughly like a makeshift pincushion. "A-Ash? What-"

Ash held Misty still with perhaps more force than she liked. "Relax. It's a very mild thunder wave, meant merely to block the psychic interference that's doping you down."

Both Ash and his Pikachu now shown a new edge that Misty had never seen before. It wasn't their age, but their desire to taste revenge that marked the slight grin on the end of Ash's mouth. Misty recognized that look on other people many a time; she had already grown not to like it.

Misty kept quiet, staring wide-eyed at the Ash she didn't know. "It'll wear off in a few minutes," Ash explained, "but the psychic Pokémon will have given up by then."

Misty finally walked out of her cell, into the outside hallway. The mutilated bodies of the Rocket Grunts who were at one stage guarding her cell surrounded both of them.

***

Jessie and James had split off in looking for Butch. James was to inspect around in the ground floor level, and Jessie was to go outside and search around the outer perimeter of the building. Of course, that was the way Jessie had wanted it.

Things of course didn't go quite as expected, though - especially in Jessie's case. She was meant to leave using the entrance. When she did, she noticed over ten armed men outside with guns pointed right at her.

She noticed that they were not wearing Rocket uniforms. That was the last thing she noticed before twenty to sixty bullets tore through her body, plastering what was left of her against the wall with their mere kinetic force.

***

A distinct and sharp noise rang in James' ear rather than the "blips" that usually kept him with warm company. This meant that Jessie was dead, but James couldn't swallow it fully.

How? Why? James didn't find himself asking those questions. But what he did do was stop in his tracks.

Stop, turn, and move towards Fortress' office. Jessie died; James wanted the alarms at full blast, for surely it was a big thing.

***

Butch swung the door to Misty's cell open. He wanted to get to her first, as she was the one he had met most recently. A lot would have changed in a few years appearance-wise, so Butch reckoned that it was the wise thing to do.

But to no avail; the cell was empty.

Butch looked down to see a couple of dead Rockets. Their own guns had been taken from their bodies.

Of course, now Butch reckoned that someone was surely screwing him over.

***

James now wore a headset rather than just the little receiver he had in his ear not too long ago. Fortress had given it to him; he had grudgingly accepted it.

James had just managed to save that headset from being chopped vertically in two - probably along with his own head - by dodging just in time with a right-angled bend in the hallway. James had the pleasure of hearing loud banging noises ring in his head, as several stars from a "swift" maneuver hit concrete rather than their target. James had made his move prematurely; if he hadn't, the extremely accurate swift projectiles would have hit.

"What's happening?" Fortress' voice screamed through the reciever.

"...It's probably Butch," James gasped.

"What is?"

"There's a Mantine that has sucked itself on the side wall to act as an immovable turret," James explained, "and it appears to know swift, as if it has been taught it by a TM."

A pause. "Yes," Fortress agreed, "that sounds like Butch."

James looked at the ground in desperation and noticed a bit of debris coming from the wall, knocked out from it by the kinetic force of the swift impacts. "I think... I have a plan, Boss!"

A chuckle. "Well, then. Do it."

Without further prompting, James picked up a concrete stone from the floor and chucked it in the path of Mantine's fire. Predictably Mantine's swift gobbled it up; as it happened, James slid under.

James didn't realize that he was stepping on the dead body of one who wasn't so lucky when he leapt away. But he wouldn't have cared; this was for Jessie, for Team Rocket.

When James got back up, he could see the back of a Mantine that apparently didn't notice his sneaking past. From there James kept walking on, surely towards Butch.

"I'm through."

***

By the time Ash had Tracey freed, he only had to kill five more Rocket Grunts before he felt that it was safe to talk. They all settled down (or at least tried to get close to that) at a balcony one floor above ground level.

Ash finished off the last one by himself, which was relatively unusual as most of the time he let his Pikachu do things for him. It took one well-aimed shot to do it; the guard was sitting at the balcony itself, and the kinetic force of the impact (on the center of his chest) knocked him off. A lumpy red mark lay in his wake on the stubby walls lining the balcony.

He went off suddenly, probably dying instantly.

Misty and Tracey just kept on watching, speechless. Ash seemed on the edge of a breakdown when they met him last, but then again he always was without his Pikachu.

His Pikachu was his pride. And for now, Ash was dangerously full of it.

"...And that's the end of them," Ash finished before sighing, "we shall have to leave soon." It almost sounded like as if it was meant to be a bad thing.

"I took these guns from your guards," Ash reported, handing over a pistol to both Misty and Tracey.

Tracey and Misty looked at each-other, saying nothing. But of the two, Misty didn't feel as if she wanted to break the silence anytime soon.

"Wait here," Ash ordered ('ordered' to Misty's objecting glance in response), "I'll be going back down; I haven't forgotten about anyone's Electabuzz..."

"Ash," Tracey budged in, "Electabuzz is my Pokémon."

Ash groaned back. "So I suppose you want it abandoned in Team Rocket Headquarters." He looked down at his Pikachu. "Most disagreeable, wouldn't you say?"

Tracey opened his mouth up to retort, but didn't get a chance to say anything as at that moment the alarm finally went off.

The alarm sounded; klaxons roared wildly through each and every floor in Team Rocket Headquarters.

When Ash heard their siren song, he hastily abandoned his friends for the slim chance to get back Electabuzz.

Misty continued to stand up, with her new pistol still lying somewhat rejected in the palm of her hand. Tracey pocketed his own pistol, and sat down at the edge of the balcony.

Tracey looked back up at Misty with some concern. Tracey wasn't going to ask about Brock; he had made a hasty yet somewhat wise presumption on that.

"Do you think Ash will make it?" Tracey finally asked.

Misty simply shrugged in response, not speaking because she was beyond words.

***

The alarm sounded; klaxons roared wildly through the thin hallway where Butch stood dumbfounded.

Butch tightened up, and stuffed that clip he found into his pistol. As he had thought, the magazine was meant for the gun.

Butch swung the door to "Misty's" prison cell shut, cursing his judgement. He regretted trusting Rob in his briefing; why should he? He had no reason in particular to believe that Ash, Tracey, and Misty were in there.

Butch looked to his right, and noticed a lean and quirky man with his gun pointing at Butch's face.

"Oh," Butch swallowed. "It's you."

James was always good at sneaking up on people. Butch never understood how he did it. But then again, he was James; you didn't need to know the how and why with him.

James smiled, but with a hint of fear that Butch could see. "Yes; I'm the Executive now."

"Where are your Pokémon?" Butch asked as he looked up the barrel of the gun; James was famous for keeping his Pokémon alive.

"I... Don't need to answer your questions," James finished. "You're under arrest."

Again.

As Butch lowered his gun, James continued to tense up his finger around the trigger. James muttered something into the headset he wore, before looking back up at Butch.

"...You think I killed her, don't you?" James squeaked. "Was it the voice, Butch?"

Butch's eyes glazed when facing the gun. "Yes."

"Butch," James sighed, "you really do have ammo for brains."

***

To his own surprise, Fortress found himself looking at the back of Ash Ketchum. He didn't know how Ash got out; Will's Triatu was meant to be keeping him down. But he was there; that was what mattered.

Ash stood inspecting a few pokéballs on the shelf in front of him, apparently quite occupied. Fortress blessed the timing of his approach, trying to make his steps as quiet as he could as he moved towards his subject.

Fortress related using a gun to peeling off a band-aid; in his view, it was best to do it quickly. With his trusty machine pistol, all he needed to do was whip it out and fire a quick spray.

And - with that luck - Fortress nearly managed to kill Ash Ketchum. He would have nailed him to the wall, and one of the bullets in the spread would have struck the young trainer in the windpipe. In fact, that would have happened if it wasn't for a long, blue electric bolt swatting Ash away abruptly.

The bullets sank into the concrete wall after seething past the wood of the shelf, which itself remained intact. And before Fortress could say "Pikachu again", another bolt struck him in the chest which knocked out his breath.

Ash recovered quickly; he was used to Pikachu by this stage. Fortress didn't, now leaving himself at the mercy of Ash. And so the tables turned.

Fortress had a new headache after hitting the concrete floor in a bad position, but it wasn't enough to stun him. He lay on the floor, his eyes just managing to look up from it to see Pikachu.

To Pikachu's left, Ash was already stirring again. He got up and predictably approached the vulnerable Fortress, clutching his right hip where Pikachu had nudged him aside.

Ash kicked Fortress' now-fried headset aside. He then flicked out his own pistol from his pants - undoubtedly stolen from one of the Rocket Grunts.

"Looks like the big baby wants a bottle," Ash observed. "But I already have something else for him to suck on."

However, Fortress' trusty Crobat didn't manage to disappoint as it bolted to the scene. It was weak against electric attacks - Fortress knew that only too well - but it wasn't as if it intended to stay for any prolonged period of time.

It fired a confuse ray at Ash and Pikachu, causing them to react furiously. Bolts of electricity shot around the room, random in their patterns of direction and firing rate. Some hit Crobat, and some hit Fortress - but they weren't very concentrated shots, more like a frenzy of desperate attacks.

Clinging on to his Crobat with the rest of his strength, Fortress felt himself fly away. He had lost his gun in the process, but he didn't care at this stage.

***

James and Butch walked on, towards Fortress' office. By this time they had grown tired of speaking to one another; James felt himself complain whenever he found himself talking to Butch.

But they would need to open their mouths some more by the time they reached the office itself. James was told specifically that he would be there by then; he wasn't.

"Where are you?" James asked through the headset.

No response from Fortress. Nobody to take care of Butch but James himself. James didn't call on the Boss and help start the alarm for this.

But what was he going to do? James kept his aim on his gun steady. Would he have to kill him?

"This place has windows," Butch observed with a grunt, ignoring the look on James' face. Obviously he had never been in Fortress' office/quarters before. Few had.

James approached Butch slowly, balancing his aim by tucking his elbow into his belly. Butch gradually moved towards the windows, taking little notice of the Rocket that he seemed to know would be angry at any lack of attention.

James tensed his finger on the trigger. Maybe he wouldn't be in trouble for killing him. It would be what Jessie would have done. But now, Jessie was dead...

Suddenly, Butch seemed taken aback at something through the window. "Rob..."

"What about Rob?" James budged in, before he even recognized the name.

But James was interested too. He looked through the same window as Butch. His eyes widened.

Through the window, the troops outside took no notice. They weren't wearing Team Rocket uniforms, and they were carrying guns that James didn't know of. They carried Jessie along with them, piece by piece.

Rob stood behind them.

"Sorry!" was all James heard before feeling a sharp blow to his stomach, causing him to double over. James at once lost the grip on his gun, and found something snatched from his pocket.

James realized what had happened once he caught his breath two seconds later. Butch had distracted him, and taken advantage of it. By this stage he was gone, and had taken his gun with him.

Butch had distracted him, since he knew what it would take to do so.

For the next few minutes James continued to lie in a crumpled heap on the floor, hoping that he would wake up from what wasn't a dream.

***

Ash had met up with Misty and Tracey at a balcony from one floor up, along the side of the building. But of course, not before he had plugged yet more unsuspecting Rocket Grunts with bullets and electricity.

Pikachu was on Ash's shoulder, looking a bit bruised like its master. Misty wasn't going to ask about what Ash had run into back there. Whoever went through going back down a couple of floors in what was basically Team Rocket's Headquarters to get a single Electabuzz had to be insane. But then again, there was Ash Ketchum.

Ash slapped the pokéball which it was presumed contained Electabuzz in Tracey's hands. "I'm going to escape now."

"What about us?" Misty barked back. It was the first thing she had said since Ash had taken her out of her cell.

Ash sighed. "You follow, but only if you see me go through okay." Pikachu nodded in agreement.

With that, he left. Ash took the one-floor jump off in his stride, and Pikachu clung on to its master's shoulder all the while.

Misty bowed down, leaning against the stubby balcony wall with Tracey.

"So we're meant to stay and watch," Tracey muttered.

***

The sight of a young man leaping off the side balcony and darting towards the exit was just caught by Rob. Needless to say, it was one of the few things that Rob wasn't prepared to expect.

That would be Ash Ketchum and his Pikachu, Will explained.

And indeed, a small electric rodent Pokémon followed the tracks of the young man on his way out. Rob had heard of this little guy. Apparently caused quite a stir...

I think I'll need you to help me with him, Rob stated. My men are still positioned at the entrance to the building itself, and my Pokémon doesn't like electricity.

And it seems that Mr. Ketchum seems to be trying to escape; I'll set up a barrier.

***

Ash kept his sights on the gap in the large surrounding wall that clearly meant to be the exit.

Ash was running from the start, with the motivation of the freedom he saw. But as he began to expose himself out in the open to gunfire, he picked up the pace.

Running to rid himself of the Rockets; to go anywhere if it meant keeping Pikachu. He kept running, and picking up his pace as far as he could go.

But, oddly enough, after a point it seemed that despite his moving further and further onward, Ash Ketchum wasn't moving any closer towards the exit.

***

"Ash!" Tracey nearly yelled, but to no avail as Misty's hand muffled him.

"Shut up!" Misty hissed through clenched teeth. "Do you want everyone to know we're here?"

It took a few seconds for Misty to release Tracey from her grip on his mouth. "...Sorry," Tracey managed afterwards. "It was just that..."

"...Ash vanished into thin air," Misty jumped in. "Don't worry, you aren't the only one to notice."

"But what can we do now?"

"I... Don't know," Misty admitted, sighing.

Both of them then lay down in thought, staring blankly at the guns Ash gave them. If any Rockets were left on guard duty on their floor, they would have been sitting ducks.

"Will!" Misty suddenly realised.

***

Ash clenched his head, finally starting to react to Will's odd attack. The pain was a delicacy that Will was relishing.

Will's fist clenched at the same rate as Ash and his Pikachu's skulls caved in on themselves. He did it bit by bit to properly savor the taste of victory.

Ash Ketchum wasn't going to be moving any closer to the exit now.

***

With the job done, Will sat still in Fortress' Guest Chair - completely oblivious to the sounds of gunfire outside of the Main Office. He had done nothing in particular since his encounter with Pikachu, not with his new Pokémon with him.

Will spent that hour thinking about what was going to happen, and admiring the cosmetically-appealing size of Fortress' office/quarters. Most of this room was taken up by a long series of steps from the entrance. It was actually Giovanni's idea; Fortress just took it as it was because it was convenient in his circumstances, for it was on the ground floor which made it easy to get outside.

Fortress would probably have just taken any old dump if not for that, Will thought with a shake of his head.

There was a desk, with the Guest Chair on one side and the Host Chair opposite it. Behind it was a king-sized bed, with cushy covers and pillows that most likely originated before the war started. It looked so neat and let with such an obviously flattened surface that Will assumed with a shudder that Fortress had slept on the bed without going under the covers, and hence probably had not bothered to take off his clothes on the way.

When Fortress almost literally came crawling back through the entrance door with his Crobat, he certainly did look like the guy who had slept with his clothes on. Will was quite amused, but he didn't show it.

Fortress - after managing the feat of getting up all those useless steps - slung himself into his chair. Fortress' heavy head lay back over his chair.

"You're still here," Fortress pointed out between gasps, "why?"

Will's gaze focused deeply on Fortress; his Triatu mimicked him. "I think that we need proper control now," Will explained, "Triatu could be quite the surprise strategy to achieve such a goal."

Fortress snorted. "You want Triatu to take control of security again?"

Will said nothing, leading Fortress to shake his head. But Will could sense that Fortress' reaction wasn't one of rejection anymore, but rather of primitive denial.

"I think you may be right," Fortress gradually lied, "so why not?"

"I think that you should announce it on the PA," Will stated.

A short silence followed, but Will had some limited future sight which told him that he wouldn't need to break it.

"Why not?" Fortress finally repeated, reluctantly turning on the com-line.

Will rejoiced silently in his thoughts. The plan had worked; with Rob, he had managed to make Fortress change his mind. Perhaps Butch had held him up somewhat...

"Message to all marks," Fortress squeaked through the PA unit just as he turned it on. "I am giving permission to Executive Will to take control of security with his Triatu for the emergency. All computer terminals above and below ground will be taken over."

Will's eyes gleamed as he heard Fortress' last few words before the microphone was turned off. "Triatu can... Control you as a medium if it so wishes." Those were also the last words Fortress ever said.

The element of surprise and a few psywaves did the trick, spreading Fortress and his precious Crobat all over the floor.

Will could feel the new power this was giving him and Triatu. He could also feel barriers breaking down between him and the next level.

Soon, it would be time.

***

Rob felt it. Felt pleasure; waves of it filled his head, trying to take over. But the pleasure was all Will's - for the time being - coming in the form of the telepathic gratitude which haunted his thoughts.

Get my new men inside to react, Will ordered, now that you're capable.

With pleasure, for indeed I am "capable". You have helped me get to what I've wished for.

Be careful what you wish for, Rob warned mockingly. You might just get it.

***

Will. I'm waiting.

***

James had never liked the look of those anonymous men in black that made up much of the Grunt force. They had appeared to be a recent phenomenon.

They would get him soon; with their numbers he was sure, and now indeed James was regretting the dismissal of his own suspicions. Bullets whizzed past his face, coming from the pistols that the suits held. He didn't knew why they were aiming at him; did he have to?

After zipping through a conveniently-placed bend in the hallway, James once again drew his pistol. Turning around to face the men behind him, he fired a few shots. They dropped like Pidgeys in a thunder wave, not stopping to suffer before they died.

Keep it up, James mused. Two down. Two-hundred and ninety-eight to go.

But still impressive, Will replied.

James perked up with a start, his pulse accelerating.

I didn't know that you could kill anything, Will continued to chime in. I thought that your woman did it all for you.

James gritted his teeth together. Will was doing all of this. Will was trying to kill him, and it looked to James like he would succeed.

James tried not to think. If he did, Will would notice. He wasn't strong enough to hide his feelings, even if the other person didn't also happen to be psychic.

Wait, Will thought, didn't you kill someone in Team Rocket? Out of cold blood, it was. You did quite well to make it look like Butch.

No, James replied with some strain. Butch is only convinced I did; all the more reason for me to be the one that threw him out.

"But wasn't there the voice, James?" James looked to his side to find the splitting image of himself. And indeed, one with the same voice; it just wasn't him.

James realized what had happened after a moment's thought. Butch was right, but also in a way still wrong.

"You see," the James copy explained, "you were always going to be an easy target."

The James copy had one hand clenched into a fist; when opened up, it revealed a hand grenade without a pin.

***

Will. I'm still waiting.