That morning Brock thundered on the gym doors. He was shouting, punching and his friends' voices boomed behind him. Finally the doors creaked open.
"What is the meaning of all this!" Pryce knew he fouled up when two figures rushed to hold the gates open and a third decked him square in the jaw.
"Now you will answer our questions!" Brock shouted as Richie kept apologizing.
"Uh, guys he's out cold." Whitney pointed out, both Brock and Richie slapped their foreheads.
Gary heard the screams. He ran from his bleacher seat. It had been one month since the events presented had occured. Gary ran out the exit and shot out behind the stadium bleachers. Into the trainer rooms. He saw three figures ahead of him. Two dragging the third. Gary shouted as he followed.
Turning the figures moved faster. Gary leapt over some discarded gym equipment as he chased them through the rec room. The lights had been shattered. Cussing Gary felt a shard bite through his boot into his foot. He felt his sock asorbing the blood which made him a bit queasy.
As they disappeared out the room Gary saw they were dragging Koga.
"That's why he disappeared!" Gary ran into a bench press.
He woke to find out he failed to stop the kidnapping. More questions surfaced. Who would carry Koga away? Why? And how did they get the drop on a Shadow Master? Gary limped back to the hotel to think.
Ash was terrified! Emerald was celebrating his death today. He felt sickened as he walked about the city while the morbid festival ran wild. Rockets ran about horraying.
"Hey kid here!" One shouted and threw Ash a collector's item, a coin with a dead Ash on the front with the words: Rejoice for he is dead! on the back.
Ash slammed it to the ground after they passed on tossing more coins. He hated this world. Nero wondered what was upsetting Ash. Ace was off somewhere looking up old friends. James and Meowth where eating for free at the open market.
"This the day our Queen snuffed out the evil threat to our reign we rejoice! Rejoice for he is dead!" A speaker had the crowd raging.
"So the Queen killed my counterpart." Ash whispered to himself.
"Not the best of celebrations." Nero walked up with a cap hinding his ears. "This is almost an entirely Rocket holiday. Only Rockets truly party tonight."
"The sooner I get out of this crazy place the better." Ash hid in the shadows.
"Where's Ace?" James burped, wiping his mouth.
"Yeah?" Meowth licked his paws.
A sudden explosion shook everyone to their knees. Screams rang out as TRs poured away from the castle.
"I have a pretty good idea where he is." Ash lead his team away from the city.
Another explosion rocked the city. Ace sat on top of the gym roof which lay forgotten. He hooked another wire to the control console. Smiling he pushed the button. A roar of flames gutted the back walls of the palace.
"Let the dogs of war run loose! Raising hell!" He shouted. As he stored the control back into his pocket. "The war has just started."
Brock had two opposing camps on his troubled hands. AJ, who just arrived that morning and helped trap Pryce wanted to scare the old man into surrendering his secret.
Richie refused to agree to this. He would not change his mind.
"It's the only way to make that Ancient Turtle in there to talk!" AJ smashed a fist onto the table.
"Yeah? Well what if you give the old guy a heart attack!" Richie thudded his fist but, not as impressive as AJ had.
"I agree with Richie." Ootoshi scowled at AJ.
"Marrrooowak! Wak! Wak!" Marowak swung his bone club.
"How could you agree with him?" Ootoshi only got a shrug of Marowaks' shoulders as an answer.
"I agree with AJ, even have the right pokémon to work with." Bugsy released Scyther.
"Siiiia! Theeeeerrrrr!" The warrior criss crossed it's sickles.
"Violence solves nothing." Todd sat next to Richie.
"Well a two to two vote. Whitney?" Brock awaited her answer.
"It's not my place to decide such things. I can not agree to something that might hurt Pryce and I can't sit back and let him hide his secret. I am undecided. This situation is one that a leader should solve. Brock you;re our leader. I will leave it to you."
Brock thought long and hard that day. Since noon he sat working pros and cons of the solutions. It was near dark when he made his announcement.
"Despite the possible harmful effects of the solution it is the only way to deal with Pryce. We use AJ's plan." He hoped in his heart he was doing the right thing.
Down in the valley the city errupted in horror and panic. Gary watched it all. He had come to the city's edge to see if the resistance was willing to attack the Queen. He decided to risk his Raiders in this battle. He would sprint to his camp and begin the invasion into Emerald. Ace was right when he sent the carrier pidgey. If Emerald was conquered by the Resistance then Team Rocket would be trapped between two cities moving to extreminate them. Ace was also calling for his command to send in agents to help cut off escape routes that the Rockets might try.
"This looks like the end of the war." Gary ran.
"What's on your mind?" Cynder flopped down next to Draco.
Draco tore his eyes away from the sky to greet his friend. He couldn't help it though his eyes went back to the stars.
"The greatest war is coming Cynder. Many will die in the following months. Ace is revenge driven, he is going to damn his own soul Cynder." He looked down at the city as it caught flame. "He has already started."
"He will live a long time Draco, plenty enough to redeem himself. No, something else is eating at you. What is it?"
"Charcole." He watched his tail dangle over the side of the cliff.
"Oh! So you have a flame for her still?" Cynder laughed.
"We've been here for two weeks now and I haven't found her. Not even caught onto her scent. She was supposed to wait for me. Mating season is a few months away for me. I don't want to spend the rest of my life with someone less than her!" Draco growled.
"Calm yourself down! Draco you always amuse me." He flew into an uproar of laughter.
"What's so funny!" Draco threatened with a slash.
"You! Chars live a long time Draco!" He fell into another fit of snickers. "You are young! No more than thirty! You are a teenager of sorts."
"How long do we live?" Draco asked.
"Charizards? Well thousands of years ago a char could reach six or seven but, something happened bewteen those times and now you live but, one or two thousand. Polution maybe or other vices of man but, that's what happened. Your kind doesn't settle down until about sixty to a hundred." Cynder rolled onto his back to watch the stars. "You have years to find Charcole. This is the time in your life Draco to have fun! Experience different females, learn what impresses them. You haven't even worked on your courtship dance I bet!"
"My what?" Draco spun around.
"You don't even know what it is!" Cynder rolled into more laughter. "You are a long way from settling down!"
"What about you Cynder! You're nine hundred when does your kind settle down!"
"Monogamy! Buuuurrrrrrr!" Cynder pretended to shiver.
"I forgot Tys don't mate for life." Draco slapped his forehead, why had he asked a typhlosion anything.
"One thing though Drac, I'm going to miss you when your days are over." Cynder became serious.
"What do you mean?" Draco turned around.
"Tys can live to be over seven thousand. All my friends will be gone when I still breath. Chah will call you all back to him before he comes to ask me back home into his shining heaven." Cynder thought about it, he strode away depressed.
Draco never knew such things. He never thought why Cynder was always using any excuse to laugh, he had to if you wanted good memories of the friend that would decompose long before you. Draco had no comforting words like he always seemed to have. He was worried about his future and never thought about Cynder's.
To be continued.........
-JLB