Part Eight A. Pikachu: Saving the world is hard work.

Some times even I'm forced to wonder about my trainer.

"Pika-pi!" I call as he and Pidgeot take off without me to go and get Natsume . . . "Pika-pi!" Darn, everyone else is screaming at him to come back now so loud he can't hear me. Oh well. Plan B.

I avoid the bugs that are still frozen thanks to Jynx and make my way over to where Charizard is gently setting down the door. Pika-pi would be very proud of him. He's lifted it off it's hinges without damaging the wood at all. Still that's not what's important now.

"Pikachu, pika pika! Chu! Pika-pi, pikachu."

"Char?" Charizard sniffs at me then flexes his muscles.

"CHHHHAAAAR" he roars making the other humans jump.

"Someone subdue that thing!" Oops, someone should have told Kanna how touchy fir pokemon are . . . and that they're not the only ones . . .

"Charizard is not a thing! He's a very loyal pokemon!" Well said Shigeru.

"What's it doing?" Hiroshi asks as Charizard unfolds it's wings, outstretching the tip of one of them to me. I run along it, taking up position at his neck and then Charizard solves that question by flying through the roof.

"Charizard! Come back here! I'm going with you!"
"Loyal?"

I would like to see how Shigeru reacts to that remark of Kanna's but I have to save my trainer . . . yes, once again it looks like the fate of the Indigo continent is resting on my shoulders.

"Pika-pika."

Charizard snorts and takes us through the cloud cover. I shiver--the clouds are a lot colder and wetter when I don't have Pika-pi to shield me from them . . .

"Pika-pi!" I call as we spot him through the clouds.

Charizard roars angrily--Pidgeot is faster in the air then the big fire-dragon, it’s going to take us awhile to catch up. Luckily what Pika-pi is chasing isn't very fast . . .

My ears droop as I catch a full glimpse of what we're chasing. It's the sort of thing sane people run away from . . . which is why Pika-pi is heading straight for it, of course.

What strikes me most is that this thing--a human thing of course, no pokemon would want to build something like that and out of Gyrados bones no less--smells of sorcery. I suppose that much should be apparent from the fact that the thing is flying--albeit, clumsily, but I've never smelled it as strong or as dark as this. Pika-pi may be in very big trouble . . .

Speaking of which . . . "Pika-pi! Pikachu-pika-pika!"

He either doesn't hear me or he ignores me because rather than taking my advice he instructs Pidgeot to fly closer . . . I wince as a bolt of light of some sort shoots at them and Pidgeot narrowly dodges it.

"Try again!"

I watch with concern as Pika-pi changes his position so he's now crouching on Pidgeot's back. Good grief, he's surely not going to . . .

He did.

I screw my eyes tightly shut as Pika-pi makes a jump for the outer edge of that hideous human-flying thing . . . Please don't fall, please don't fall, please don't fall . . .

"Charrrr!"

He did? He made it?

I open my eyes to see Pikapi hanging half on half off the side of that thing, scrabbling with his blade as he tries to hold on.

Ah well. What the hell.

"Pika-pika!"

"Charr, charrrr!"

I refrain from replying to that. To tell the truth I half agree with Charizard that I must be insane . . . because there is no way I am going to be able to . . .

Shwap!

"CHAAARRRR!"

Oh . . . I'd forgotten the thing was shooting at us.

Charizard's wing is hurt . . . but it ignores it's injury, and putting all his energy into this pulls closer to the contraption. "Char!"

"Pika . . . chu!"

Once more into the fray . . . I jump and shut my eyes . . . then there's nothing and my legs are scrabbling in thin air and then . . .

"Pikachu!"

I open my eyes. Pika-pi has caught me.

"What are you doing here?"

Trust my Pika-pi to not get the obvious . . . I chide him affectionately. "Pika-Chu."

He laughs setting me down.

"I'm glad your here. Now come on, we have to find Natsume and get her out of here . . ."

"Pikachu?"

"A door? It could be . . . you're right!"

"Pi," I mutter. There's no need to act so surprised. I'm always right . . . well right so often it hardly pays to mention the times I wasn't right . . . not that Meowth or Charizard see it like that.

Pika-pi must truly appreciate me though . . . because he reaches out and pats my head. "I was surprised a huge airship constructed from Gyrados bones and magic would have something so mundane as a door . . . though you have to admit, as doors go, it's not mundane . . ."

It's creepy, that's what it is . . . as Pika-pi lifts the rib bone out of place for us to climb through I can't suppress a shiver . . .

"Scared?"

I correct him immediately. "Pika-pika!"

"Yeah . . . you're right. It doesn't feel proper, disturbing the dead like this . . . still, I'm sure if the ghosts of those Gyrados are still around that they'd be on our side, not whoever made this ship . . ."

Gyrados ghosts? I edge closer to Pika-pi. That's not a comforting thought . . .

"Who goes there? Declare yourself!"

A woman warrior with greeny blue hair steps out of the shadows. Her sword is out . . . but then so is my Pika-pi's.

"I'm Toraeru Satoshi," he says. "I'm looking for a friend of mine. Tell me where she is."

"The Psychic," The lady sniffs. "You'd do better to forget about her . . . she is our prisoner now. And you . . . you are intruders on our property . . ." She steps aside and a Growlithe steps out of the shadows beside her, growling and looking directly at me.

I bristle. If it wants a fight, it's going to get one . . .

"Natsume's my friend! I'm not about to forget about her!"

"Your funeral." The woman steps forward quickly and as her blade whips out her Growlithe attacks . . . I charge forward to meet the Growlithe with my thunderbolt attack.

"Why do you want Natsume?" Pika-pi gasps, parrying the woman's attacks. "What's going to happen to her?"

"That is not for you to know."

"She'd better be okay."

"You are in no position to make demands."

"Yeah?" With a flick of his sword that Shigeru taught him, Pika-pi disarms his opponent. The Growlithe is already shaken by my thunderbolt, I only have to look at him and spark again to send him whimpering back into the shadows at the side of the passageway.

The Lady backs to the side of the passage. "I see you are more skilled than we thought."

"You know me?" Pika-pi asks. "Who's we?"

The Lady smiles and I see her fingers curl around a bony knob in the side of the passage. "Believe me, Toraeru Satoshi, that is the last of your worries . . ."

And with that the floor below us slides apart. The woman, obviously expecting this has grabbed on to the vertebrae of the corridor. Pika-pi and I have nothing . . .

"Piiiiiiika!" I cry as once again my feet scrabble and connect with nothing.

"I've got you Pikachu," Pika-pi says grabbing me.

I can't help but think that would be a whole lot more reassuring if someone had him . . .

Part Eight B. Shigeru:

"Pikachu! Charizard!" I watch as the two of them swoop off without me.

Kanna gloats some more and I would love to wipe that smug grin off her face but . . . well even if he is engaged to my enemy, Satoshi's my friend. He's also in a lot more trouble than he can handle . . .

"Shigeru? Where are you going?"

"I'm going to help, Satoshi? What do you think I'm doing?"

Hiroshi took a step away from me. I'll admit I was being unpleasant . . . but finding out that Satoshi was marrying Kanna had sort of ruined my day somewhat. "Shouldn't you wait?"

"Why? So he can get into even more trouble?"

"So we can work out what's going on!" Kasumi said. "These things . . . they're not ordinary pokemon. And that wasn't an ordinary flying fortress . . . "

"Jirarundan."

"Huh?" Everyone turned to gape at Yuuji. He looked embarrassed.

"Back at the Dragon clan . . . there were rumours. The forbidden continent with strange pokemon, now ruled by a dark mage with enough power to raise a storm or level mountains. It's said he's power hungry and wants to control the world . . ."

"The world?" Musashi repeated. "Well, that's fair enough. I mean, he sounds like the sort of person you don't want to make angry." She frowned at the look I gave her. "What? So I'm a coward--better than having a life expectancy of two minutes!"

"Live as long as you like! I'm going to get Satoshi, now!"

Rapidash wasn't saddled but I didn't have the time for that. Instead I was just grateful I'd learnt to ride bareback as a child.

"Let's go! Satoshi's possibly--probably in danger!"

Rapidash whinnied and took off at a speed nothing on land could match. Out on the open plains nothing could catch my Rapidash . . . especially fuelled as it was by concern for a friend.

As we swept through the low hillocks surrounding the storm clan territory I tried to blank out the little niggling voice that told me I shouldn't have been so mad at Satoshi earlier. If he died thinking I hated him . . . well, I'd never forgive myself.

"C'mon Rapidash," I urged my pokemon. "We have to find Satoshi so I can apologise for being an idiot!"

"Rapidash!"

"I mean marrying Kanna is a fate worse than death . . . he deserves my sympathy, not my anger!"

"Rapidash!"

"What? Hell!"

We had caught up with them. The site was incredible. For a moment Rapidash and I were motionless, just trying to take in the scene before us.

The flying fortress . . . I think this was my first full look at it. It was huge . . . threatening . . . my more immediate attention was drawn, not to the ominous spectre that was the ship, but the two creatures circling it.

"That's Pidgeot and Charizard! But where are Satoshi and Pikachu? And why aren't they going closer?"

I got the answer to that question as a beam of light shot out from the ship, narrowly missing Pidgeot. The beam continued to the ground, striking the grass beside my Rapidash who promptly reared and dumped me.

"Thanks a lot," I muttered, getting up.

I looked sourly at the fortress. It was a heck of a long way up . . . and If Satoshi was inside as I suspected--well, it was the most dangerous place one could possibly be at the moment. Ergo Satoshi had to be there--and there was not a lot I could do to help him.

"Rapi--Dash!!"

We hurried out of the way as another beam of light struck the ground by us.

"I'm beginning to dislike that thing," I said to my pokemon.

"Rapidash."

We followed the fortress. It seemed to be making a slow journey south . . .

"Rapidash."

"Something had better happen soon . . . " I muttered. And then it did.

"Chaaarr!"
"He sounds excited about something," I mused, looking up to see if I could spot what was so urgent.

"Oh no . . . Satoshi!"

I jumped back on Rapidash's back and urged him forward. "Go!" I urged though I knew there was no possible way we could get there in time to halt Satoshi and Pikachu's downward plummet . . .

Luckily we weren't the only ones concerned about Satoshi . . .

"Pidgeot!"

"You can do it! Get him, Pidgeot!" I cheered even though there was no way the bird could hear me. "He did it! He caught Satoshi!" I cheered, throwing my arms around Rapidash! "Satoshi's not going to die yet!"

"Rapidash!"

"Oh . . . sorry. I was excited, I didn't mean to invade your personal space . . ." I took a step away from my pokemon. And winced. "No Pidgeot, watch out for that--"

Bang.

Thump.

I uncovered my eyes. "Tree. Ouch."

"Rapidash."

I ignored my pokemon, hurrying to where they'd collided with the tree line. I found Pidgeot lying upside down against a tree in a way that had to be painful and his cargo scattered across the clearing.

"Satoshi? Sato-chan, are you all right?"

"Geru?" Satoshi moaned as I gathered him into my lap.

"Are you hurt?"

"I just fell out of the sky, Geru-chan. Of course I hurt."

"Oh." Well, come to think of it, that was a stupid question . . .

"Pikachu? Pikachu?"

"Pi-pika!" Pikachu gave him a wobbly 'v' sign. "Chukapi . . ." and then fainted.

"Pikachu!"

"Here," I got up and carried the little pokemon to his trainer.

"Thanks, Geru," Satoshi said, cradling Pikachu gently. Then smiled at me. "I guess you're not mad at me any more then?"

"Satoshi, I have to admit I'm not keen on Kanna . . . but if you really want to marry Kanna then that's fine with me."

"Geru . . ."

"No, I mean that. I'm not going to come between you guys, although I'll always think of you as my friend--"

"GERU! LISTEN TO ME!"

"Oh . . .okay," I blinked.

"I do NOT want to marry Kanna! It's Yuuji and Matisse's idea and I think it STINKS! Have you got that?"

"Hai . . ."

"Good. In that case I'm going to pass out."

Rapidash snorted in my ear. "Rapidash."

"Oh quit complaining. Satoshi's not exactly light as thistledown."

My pokemon continued to complain however. Pidgeot was perched unsteadily on his back while we'd had to tie Pikachu on so he wouldn't injure himself more by falling off . . . I was carrying Satoshi across my back. Lucky for the both of us he hadn't caught me up in height . . .

"This always happens . . .Satoshi goes rushing off into a perilous situation without even thinking and whose left carrying the burden?"

"Rapidash."

"You're right. It isn't him."

"Rapidash."

"I wish for once he'd think first," I sighed. "But I guess that's asking a little bit too much of the storm clan daimyo . . ."

I kicked at a stone. I'd been so stupid . . . Now that I thought about it I could remember Satoshi trying to tell me something during the wedding. And his face when Kanna had hinted that there might be another wedding . . . well happy is not the word that comes to mind. And then I'd gone and got mad at him . . . stupid, stupid, stupid . . .

"Stupid!" I said out loud.

And got kicked in the ribs.

"Ow! Uh . . ."

"Put me down now!"

"Satoshi? I didn't mean that quite the way that sounded . . ."

"I think what you meant was pretty clear, Shigeru!"

I winced. Darn, we were back to our full names . . .

"Satoshi, I--"

"No! Don't say it! I don't want to know how bad a daimyo you think I am . . . I get enough of that from Matisse and Yuuji! Just leave me alone!"

"Satoshi, you can't walk properly."

"Well, I'm going to."

I sighed as I watched Satoshi hobble unsteadily in the direction of his stronghold . . . I shouldn't have got him mad, I know how stubborn he can get . . . it looked like now was one of those times.

"Rapidash . . ."

I gave my pokemon a sour look. "You shut up."

"You know," Satoshi said, as we sat in the rather crowded infirmary--crowded because quite apart from Petal-Rose, who was bandaging her son, and the clan healer who was taking care of Pidgeot, it was filled with Hiroshi, Kasumi, Kanna, Takeshi (staring at Kanna), Musashi, Matisse, Yuuji, myself, and assorted pokemon.

"For once it would be nice to have a council meeting where I was allowed to have all my clothes on."

"If you didn’t go chasing after flying fortresses controlled by evil sorcerors, you wouldn’t have to," Petal-Rose said, seeing the situation as only she could.

"So," Hiroshi said, stroking a Pikachu so thoroughly bandaged the only part that you could see of him was his tail, "What do we do now?"

"We have to help Natsume . . ."

"But we can't forget Kojiro!" Musashi protested, tears beginning to appear in her eyes. I wondered briefly why Takeshi was going silly over her . . . granted he had his attention pretty firmly taken up by Kanna but that hadn't stopped him before . . .

"Restoring Kojiro to his place as Lord should be our main priority," I said. "If the poison clan is allowed to be ruled by someone as dangerous as Yamato all our clans may soon be in danger."

"Natsume should be our top priority!" Satoshi protested. "We don’t know what Jirarundan wants her for."

"Yes, but we do know that Yamato in power is bad news," I pointed out. "As this situation poses the more immediate threat we should deal with it before we go off chasing flying fortresses." I turned back to the map pinned to the table in front of us. "If Yamato went with a large amount of warriors to the psychic clan there is a chance we can avoid a mjor battle by heading directly to the psychic clan and--"

"We haven’t agreed to that yet."

I blinked. I’d been fire clan daimyo for about a year now and I think that was the first time anyone had dared interrupt me in a council meeting. "What?"

"We haven’t agreed to that, Shigeru. I still disagree that the poison clan is our major worry here."

"Really? And why is that?" I asked, annoyed. Satoshi being childish was weakening my authority in front of Kanna . . .

"Please share with us your reasons for this, Lord," Kanna said.

Satoshi gave her a doubtful look but continued. "Well before Pikachu and I were thrown out of the fortress th woman warrior said I was more skilled than they’d thought. That must mean they’d heard of me . . . "

"Impossible!" Takeshi said sharply. "There’s no travel allowed between Ingido and the forbidden lands. No one is allowed through the mountain pass."

"The Forbidden Land and us . . . well we’ve never bothered that much about eachother," Yuuji said. "Live and let live . . . but if what Satoshi says is true then it appears they have intelligence concerning us . . . which can only mean they plan to invade."

"That’s what I thought," Satoshi said. "That whole ship spooked me. I think we need to discourage them from coming here fast."

"Then there’s the aspect of why Natsume was taken," Hiroshi mused. "The psychic clan is small for all it’s power . . . so why kidnap the leader of an unimportant clan? Unless they want her for her psychic power then . . . "

"Maybe it has something to do with that monster she and Musashi mentioned," Kasumi suggested.

"But what?" No one could think of something.

"I vote we take a break," Yuuji suggested. "Give our brains a rest for ten minutes, then see if we can’t make more sense of this situation."

"Why deliberate?" Kanna said. "Satoshi’s obviously right. We should concentrate on recovering the psychic."

"The poison clan is every bit as much of a threat," I retorted. "It won’t do us much good to avert an invasion from the forbidden continent if we come home and find our holds overrun by the poison clan."

"Well the answers obvious then, isn’t it? Hiroshi spoke up, beaming sunnily. "We need two forces to cope with both situations."

Everyone looked at him.

Of course! Why hadn’t I thought of that . . .

"Let us consider Hiroshi’s suggestion and meet back here in an hours time to discuss this," Yuuji said. "In the meantime we have some clan matters to discuss with our daimyo."

A walk might help me think, I decided strolling around the passages of the storm clan stronghold. I found myself in the great hall where a number of crimson clothed children were being fed by Petal-Rose. There were more crimson clothed people, sitting or lying down on mats spread accross the hall. They talked in muted voices or stared downcst at nothing . . . of course, refugees from the psychic clan.

I watched from the doorway, wondering how it must feel to loose house and belongings in such a short time . . .

"It’s not that bad. In time we will regrow and rebuild."

I blinked at the woman who had spoken, I hadn’t noticed I was being observed.

"You have great faith."

She smiled gently. "It is a fact of life. One must sometimes farewell old things to make room for the new . . . although it does make me sad to think that we no longer have a place to return to, I can be glad that my husband, my children and our pokemon are still with me."

"That is something to be grateful for," I sighed.

"He does not mean it, you know. Any more than you do."

"What?"

"The storm clan master. You are upset because he’s mad at you."

Psychics. People who can read your deepest darkest thoughts. I have to admit I don’t have Satoshi’s easy going attitude towards them . . . probably because he doesn’t think . . .

"That is unfair."

"What?"

"Granted the storm clan daimyo is reckless. But he has many good qualities that make him a worthy clan leader."

"I know that! He is my friend," I said annoyed. "You’d never find someone as willing to help as him, or more supportive when you need encouragement."

"But you haven’t told him this."

"And now he’s mad at me because he thinks I hate him."

"That isn’t right. Satoshi’s hurt that you don’t appear to value him . . . you are his friend and someone who’s opinion he values highly."

"Oh . . . " When you add that to what he said about Yuuji and Matisse telling him off all the time . . . well, I feel pretty low . . ."That doesn’t make his behaviour at the council meeting any better."
"And what did he do that was so terrible? Expressed his own opinion? Disagreed with you?"

"Um . . ."

"Granted the two of you have not had to deal with situations like this where your opinions are very different. That doesn’t mean you have to fight. You are both daimyo’s of strong clans. Surely you can agree to disagree?"

"You sound like my sister," I tell the woman sourly. "She’s always right to."

The lady smiled. "Glad I could help."

I retraced my steps to the infirmary. I had to accept that Satoshi was well, grwoing up. He’d always accepted my opinion as kids . . . well, the fact that he was learning to make his own decisions would change our friendship. It didn’t have to end it.

"Satoshi?" I knocked on the infirmary.

"Go away!"

I ignored him and opened the door.

Satoshi gave me a sour look from the bed he was sitting on. "What?"

"I’ll forgive you for being a brat," I told him sitting down, "If you can overlook the fact that I’m a jerk."

He laughed. "I think I can manage that."

"Glad to hear it," I smiled. "Hey, Pikachu. Still up for that chess game?"

"Pika!"

"You won’t have time. Yuuji wants us back in twenty minutes."

"Thought about what you’ll do?"

He nodded. "Hiroshi’s idea is the best . . ."

"At least until we figure out the secret to being in two places at once. So let me guess, you’ll be going after Natsume?"

"She is my friend."

I sigh. "Kanna will probably want to go with you . . . "

"Which means Takeshi . . ." Satoshi sighed.

"So I should probably lead the other one. This feels all wrong . . ."

"I know . . . we fight together. But . . . "

"When there’s no alternative I guess this is all we can do."

"Pikachu."

"Thank-you, Pikachu." Satoshi smiled at me. "Pikachu says that real friends are never far apart. We can remember the time we’ve spent together and it’ll be like we’re together even though we’re not."
"That rat of your can fit an awful lot into three syllables."

"Well, I lost a bit in the translation . . ."

I laugh. "Let’s go tell the others what we’ve decided, hmm?"