Here's a quote I believe fits, but you can be the judge: "Any coward can fight a battle when he is sure of winning; but give me the man who has pluck to fight when he's sure of losing. That's my way, sir; and there are many victories worse than a defeat." -- George Eliot Please enjoy the end to my story! Oh and a note, I know this story is rated what-pg? Pg13? I honestly don't remember, but we've all heard the word shit before right? And if you haven't, well sorry for warping your virgin mind there. Oh and I'm sorry for the length of this! I just wanted the ending to be all in once chapter and, once again, I underestimated how long I can ramble on for. ~~ ::There are many people in this world, it was my error in believing them to all be the same:: system uptated...filing... please wait... ::I have the memories of one of them. A woman. She is sad and she is angry.:: regeneration of right hand- complete. Stand by... ::And I travel with another. A boy. He is an idealist. :: Firewall is 42% eradicated. System update estimated time- 18 hours... :: There are many people in this world. There are people who have friends and there are people who have family. :: Instructions- terminate all traitors to Team Rocket... :: These friends. These families. They know those people better than they know themselves. :: Instructions no longer authorized. Searching... searching... :: It is said that a human does not know himself. I do not know myself. Does that make me human?:: Humanity Program has deleted instructions. stand by... :: There are many people in this world...:: stand by... :: Is there a person that knows who I am? :: Please input new instructions now: _________ ** "We have to get those things turned off," Cassidy snapped at Mondo, who was doing everything he could to find some useful information off the network, but still no luck. "They don't have the firewall, as soon as they figure out that they can make their own decisions, will have a bunch of killing machines out for world domination!" "We'll they'll have to get in line," called someone from the ladder leading into the shelter. "The Boss and Vicious are already messing things up, we don't need a third party." "Butch!" Mondo cried. "We can't find any sort of weak point, and I've checked the schematics over and over again." Cassidy had remained silent as Butch walked over to look at the screen. He was covered with dirt, bits of both dry and fresh blood here and there, and his clothing contained rips in various places. But he was alive. She opened her mouth to relate her relief in his safety, but for some reason it came out as "Where the hell have you been?!" "I could ask the same of you!" he snapped back, but somewhere in his blandly expressive attitude, there was a bit of relief. He stared at her for a second, then turned back to Mondo. "The Boss knew how powerful the androids were built to be," he noted. "And after whatever that was got out of hand the last time-you know, that thing that blew up the old base-he'd be smart to install a safety this time around. He's not stupid." "A safety?" Cassidy repeated. "Like an off switch?" Mondo nodded. "Well if you can turn them on you can most certainly turn them off...but I'm not sure how." He pulled up the display schematics of two androids onto the screen. One was the prototype 01, and the other an updated model. "The prototype needed to interface with a computer to activate its subsystems, but you could bring it on line using a modulator and a few switches, it's not that complicated at all if you can get close to it." "And the updated model?" Cassidy asked, not liking where this conversation was headed. "I assume since it took a password to turn it on it'll take the same to turn it off..." Butch nodded, looking over the blueprints. "Trouble is, you have to be real close to them to make it work, and that requires staying alive long enough to say the password-or words most likely. "What about that disruptor we had?" Mondo inquired, trying to see the screen from over Butch's shoulder, but not succeeding. He quickly straightened up, banging Mondo's nose in the process. "You still have it?!" he and Cassidy exclaimed at once, daring to sound minorly hopeful. The boy nodded nervously. "All right," smirked Butch, "I've got an idea." "Dis window's been used before, da screen isn't in tight enough," Meowth pointed out, scratching a hole in it big enough for James to get through. He and the pokemon silently climbed to the floor of a small room; the door hung open almost half way, but all it revealed was an empty, dark hallway. "Hey Meowth," he whispered loudly to the cat, "We're you the one who told Vicious he didn't need any security system or was that his own brilliant idea?" "Actually dis place has a decent security system-not as good as da Boss's but it works all right," replied Meowth, starting off down the hall and leading the way with his excellent night-vision. "It mighta been betta if dey needed it, but part of da reason dat everyone stays away from here is cuz dey knows what kindsa humans work here." Then he added, "Only idiots like us would try to break in widdout backup." James nodded, half paying attention to the cat as he looked about his surroundings. The walls here were scorched and dirty with ash and soot, plus they contained dangerous looking cracks all over. This wall must have survived the explosion, and probably wasn't really used often-so he gathered from the lack of lighting. Finally Meowth lead him to a door he nearly smashed his nose into, but through the little window in it he could see a well-lit corridor on the other side. "Coast clear?" asked Meowth, who was too short to see through. "I think so," James replied, "But it's hard to see right and left too well. Come on anyway, let's risk it." It turned out the hall really was empty, but that good news gave way to a new problem-at least for James. The last time he'd been in this building, it had actually been an entirely different building and he now had no idea where to go. (Author's note: Okay people unless you haven't picked up on my references by NOW, I have been referring to the Boss's old Team Rocket base. This was shown in the episode where Jessie and James were thinking about quitting but just as they had said so the HQ building exploded. They looked up and saw Mewtwo flying away from the scene as it had just escaped Giovanni) "James you wanna head left," Meowth ordered, turning right. "You're leaving again?" James whined, a bit shocked. "How am I supposed to do this by myself?" Meowth scratched him. "Get it togedda, will yous! Meowth's gonna find Vicious and see if he can distract him from dis area of da base. Hopefully I can cut da security cameras too." "Cameras?" James repeated. "We'll that's just great." "Dere should be a laundry room around here somewhere, find a hat or sumthin," advised the feline. "Da cameras are only in da vital areas like da holding cells and junk-now go on, we gots ta hurry before the guards find yous." *** Activating sequence file... index- accessed. :: It was William Shakespere who said this :: "Men at some time are masters of their fates" Firewall is 67% eradiated... accessing personality program... "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars" :: I am not part of man. I was not even modeled after a male-these stars who control and not control are blind to me:: Unable to access personality program. "But in ourselves, that we are underlings" :: Underling? Am I less because I am not human, or am I more--an underling, or something superior?:: Reason-unknown :: If men are the masters of their fates, who owns the fate of one such as myself? One who was created to serve a master rather than be one-and if I abandon him, am I given to the stars?:: *** "This officially sucks!" snapped Morada, ducking quickly as another bar swung in her direction. "WHAT?" called Misty over the loud humming of the various machinery. "I SAID THIS SUCKS." "WHAT!?" "NEVERMIND!" "WHAT!!??" "SHUT UP BOTH OF YOU!!!!" for some reason, which would have been obvious to James or meowth but shocked the girls, Jessie was easily able to make herself heard over the grinding and churning of gears and the hissing of the steam ports on the exhaust tank. At this time the three girls were crawling through the narrow vents and ports of the computer control systems that operated the obstacle course, and trying to climb through the engine without getting injured. The reason for the occurrence was this: upon entering the basement area where the obstacle course lay, the opening of the door automatically triggered the activation of the course. And so before them was a maze of spinning spikes, target robots with stun-guns, metallic plates that could crush a person and so on-but a person needed to pass all this to reach the other side of the room, if that person did not have the access codes to stop the raging training hall. It was Morada who had the bright idea to crawl through the control systems that went from one wall to the other in order to reach holding cells-an idea she now regretted as the engine appeared to be as much of an obstacle course as the genuine article. And so there they were-dodging spinning gears and trying not to disconnect any wires in fear of an explosion. Misty needed to crawl close to the doctor's ear to make herself heard. "Can't we turn this thing off from the inside?" "Probably," came the reply, "but it would take me longer to figure out how than it would to get through it." Misty groaned and turned to Jessie. "Do you know a way to get through the course? We could've done it that way..." she asked. Jessie nodded. "Sure, I did this thing when I was a little younger than you-but Team Rocket stopped using it because hardly anyone came out without injuries and you need healthy employees to run a business-also, injury pretty much took the excitement out of it all, kids were threatening to quit." Although Misty was shocked by this, she decided not to comment. The three crawled onward for a while, until finally she could see just the smallest patch of outer lighting from behind a maze of pipes. Crawling through the bars wouldn't be easy, but at least there was nothing sharp. Not hearing the warnings from her companions, she put a hand on the pipe, then immediately screamed and removed it. "It's hot!" she yelled. Morada said something, and had Misty known the skill of lip-reading she'd have interpreted, "No shit, Sherlock." "We can't make it through this," yelled Jessie, removing the cover of a nearby vent. "But we're almost at the end, we'll go through the course for the rest of the way." Grumbling in submissive agreement, Morada and Misty crawled over and looked through the small window at what was left for them to face. But for all their efforts nothing much could be seen. The obstacle course is set up as a labyrinth, and their vent-window was situated at one of the dead ends, so all the girls could really see was a short passage way that turned off into a corner and anything beyond was obscured. "I don't remember much what this thing looks like," said Jessie as she stepped out into the area, the other girls trailing cautiously behind. "So I guess we'll be surprised." They walked to the corner and as they made the left-hand turn, the three froze in shock. "I-is this what you meant by surprise?" asked Morada in a classic example of one of Team Rocket's not-the-right-time-for-this jokes. It probably wasn't what she meant, but a large, electric explosion heading right for them most certainly was a surprise. ** Accessing... files updated... imputing... :: I am immortal :: Recharge complete. Firewall 88% eradicated. :: Men have sold their souls to be like me :: Accessing personality program... :: It was Logan Pearsall Smith who said this:: "I am not altogether happy about the future of the Human Race" Unable to access personality program. "when I think of the slow refrigeration of the Earth, the Sun's waning, and ultimate, inevitable collapse of the solar system, I have grave misgivings." Reason- unknown. :: Humans are happy to live, knowing they will die-that is what they call life:: Diagnostic in progress... no errors found. :: I will not die :: Accessing personality program... :: Does that mean I never lived?:: unable to access personality program. :: If I never lived... :: reason... :: Does that mean I am already dead? :: unknown. ** "Well it was nice of that strange boy to show us how to get here," Tracey pointed out. "he couldn't cook too well but it was nice to have a meal." (AN: HAHAHAHAHA!!!! I bet you all thought I forgot about these guys, huh?) Brock nodded. "I didn't know that Ash knew any samurai-or at least any samurai wannabes." (think back to waaaaaaaay in the beginning of the series folks) "I still can't believe he tried to battle a metapod, with another metapod." Tracey laughed for a moment, then added thoughtfully, "I'd have liked to sketch that." "Um yeah," Brock replied with a sweat drop, deciding not to say anything about how boring dueling metapods would be. "Anyway, I'm not sure if this is the place or not..." he said, looking up at the large building in front of them. "Didn't Nurse Joy say the building exploded or something?" "Well it wouldn't be much of a gang base if they didn't do some remodeling," Tracey noted, taking a few sketches before finally putting the book away. "Come on, let's distract the guards so we can get in, the back door should be this way..." They went off, completely ignoring the sheer plot convenience of the window the former parties had used, and made their way two an entrance guarded by three men playing cards in front of the door. "Maybe we should get Onix to scare them off," Tracey suggested. "No, we can't do that," Brock warned. "Rock pokemon are common around Pewter City, which is just outside the forest, but they never ever go into the woods, it would look too suspicious." "Yeah, you're right," the other consented. "All I've seen around here are bug types." Brock lifted his head, and his eyes would have brightened if they could. "That's it!" he cried. ~ "Twenty-one," called John, looking quite please with himself and his cards. "Pay up." Derrek, the dealer of the game, wasn't so happy and neither was Cory, the man who'd betted on him. "Double or nothing?" "No way." Grumbling and cursing, Derrek took out his wallet, but before he even opened it up, Cory stood and just started staring at the bushes that surrounded them like some idiot on a mission. "What ARE you doing?" asked John impatiently. "There's something over there..." Cory replied, pointing to a place just behind the trees. "What?" Derrek was startled. "You mean we actually have an intruder or something?" Cory shrugged. "It's probably just a pokemon..." and right on queue, scyther jumped out of the tree and in front of the two. "Scyther-scy!" it cried, clanging its blades together, then turned around and flew off into the foliage. "I don't believe it, a wild scyther!" Derrek cried, chasing after the pokemon. Cory followed suit. For a moment John considered staying at his post like a good little agent, but then he considered that if HE caught the scyther for Vicious, he'd probably get a better assignment then back door guard. "Hey wait up!" he called, and ran off after them. As soon as the agents were safely out of sight. Brock and Tracey headed for the door. "I know scyther can take care of itself, but we might need it for a battle later on..." Tracey pointed out. "But it was the least suspicious pokemon," Brock reminded him, holding the door open for the boy, "you heard them, they thought it was wild." "I could have used Venomoth," the other pointed out. "Venomoths aren't scary or rare," came the rebuttal. "Oh okay," Tracey acknowledged, "It'll be safe at that samurai's house anyway, let's check this place out." Someone lifted the trap door and called inside, "Is anyone down there?" "Lyn!" Cassidy answered. "Get down here before someone shoots you!" about midway through that sentence however, Lyn ran in screaming and started to clutch Mondo for dear life. "They're dead!" she wailed. "Three of them are dead-they'll find all of us, they won't stop until... they never stop! They're dead!" she kept on like that until Cassidy slapped her. She couldn't figure it out, Lyn had seen plenty of people die before and kept her head. What was the problem this time? "Who's dead?" she asked. "I-don't-knoooow," she replied, voice muffled by Mondo's shoulder. The poor boy was half trying to comfort her, and half trying to breathe under her grip. "But you should have seen it!" she suddenly added, standing upright and dropping Mondo in the process. She wasn't crying any more, but her voice erupted in wild-sounding tremors. "That plasma cannon, it's just disgusting," low, high, her voice stayed even at some unknown level, and frightening enough to cause silence in the room. "It starts out as just another man down-sure it glows purple, but it's still just another body." Mondo started to squirm then, but Cassidy and Butch waited for her to continue. "But then it starts to erode everything, melting it, disintegrating it-whatever's done there aren't even ashes left. Just a spot of dead grass where all the life got sucked out of it." A fearful, but somewhat respectful silence followed. Within the quiet, Butch was the first to notice that the shooting outside had stopped-or at least he couldn't hear gunfire anymore. "Did they quit?" he asked Lyn. She shook her head. "No," she said quietly. She paused, then added, "They're taking prisoners now." "Jenny, are you there?" asked Jenny. "I'm here," replied Jenny, "What's going on, Jenny?" Poor Mrs. Ketchum, she was very confused right now. Professor Oak merely sat, trying to figure out how the Jennys didn't get confused themselves. "There seems to be some sort of congregation of suspicious looking people marching out of Mahogany right now," reported Jenny, "They're headed in your direction, Jenny." "Don't worry, Jenny," Jenny assured her, "I'll keep an eye out for them. How are they suspicious?" "Well for one thing at the rate they're walking," explained Jenny, "They'll reach Viridian in only a few hours-just on foot!" Jenny gasped. "And another thing," continued Jenny, "A few of them, I'm almost positive-I even checked with Jenny on this-are in our records as members of Team Rocket!" "Did you arrest them, Jenny?" asked Jenny in surprise. "No, there was just too many for my force to take on," Jenny explained. "But don't worry, Jenny's following them to see what they're up to." Jenny saluted Jenny. "Good work, Jenny," said Jenny. "I'll call up Jenny and Jenny for backup and we'll get to the bottom of this." Jenny saluted in return. "All right, goodbye Jenny." Mrs. Ketchum started searching her purse for aspirin. "I'm sure it's here somewhere..." "Excuse me, Mrs. Ketchum?" asked a familiar voice. "Give me just a moment Misty-I could have sworn I put it in he..." finally catching on, she bolted out of her chair. "MISTY!?" Professor Oak, Jenny, and nearly every other officer in the station looked over at them. It was a surprise to be sure, but there was Misty, standing in front of them, and looking as normal as if she didn't know the meaning of adventure. "Oh Misty thank goodness you're all right!" cried Mrs. Ketchum, hugging the girl. "What happened, Brock said there was an emergency of some sort and you went missing!" "Yes yes," Oak, nodded, "I hope you can finally clear up all the trouble that's been going on." "Trouble?" asked Misty, looking a bit confused. "I never called Brock, it must have been some sort of prank call." "Well that's certainly rude!" snapped Mrs. Ketchum. "That's a horrible joke to play on a person, it had me worried sick!" She then looked around her. "Well if it was all a joke, does that mean Ash is here?" Misty shook her head. "No, no, we got in this big argument and I stormed off. When I got back to the pokemon centere, Ash was gone and all of a sudden I'm on the missing persons list!" she sounded a bit indignant. "Anyway, that's why I'm here-to get my name taken off of that thing. I'm obviously not missing." "Obviously," repeated the Professor, although there was a sort of tone in his voice. "Does that mean that this was a joke too?" Mrs. Ketchum asked suddenly, retrieving Jessie's warning letter from her purse, but still no aspirin. Misty took the note and read it. "Must be, but I don't know anything about it," she said, and returned the paper. Then she walked over to Jenny and showed the officer her ID card. When Jenny seemed satisfied that she was Misty and in complete control of her own location, she scratched the girl's name off the very long list. "Well I have to go find Ash and straighten this out," Misty said, heading for the door. "It was very nice to see you again Mrs. Ketchum, and you too Professor." The former of the two smiled and wished her well, told her to give Ash a message et cetera. The latter merely nodded. "Be careful, Misty," Officer Jenny warned from her desk. "There's a crowd of suspicious people headed into this area." Misty stopped short, and her eyes narrowed into an expression that seemed very unlike her. "Oh really?" she asked slowly, "Who?" Jenny pulled out a surveillance video for the area of Indigo Plateau, where the crowd of androids was making its march toward Viridian. "Oh, them," said Misty, seeming to be in an effort to sound nonchalant. "That's just one of those walk-for-a-cause things. I ran into them earlier." "Oh really?" Jenny asked with a smile, being the upstanding citizen that loved to hear about community involvement and things like that. "What's the cause?" "Er...gay pride?" tried Misty, but Jenny accepted the answer without question. "Oh! Officer Jenny, do you mind if I use this camera thing to look at Celadon City? I've been feeling kind of homesick..." Jenny said that would be all right and told he to press a certain button, and turned back to her conversation with Ash's mother. She didn't notice the small sparks as the child's hand touched the keyboard. Misty said goodbye, and almost got away but not before Mrs. Ketchum pointed something out. "Oh Misty!" she cried, "Are you bleeding?" The girl looked down, and sure enough, a little blood stained her arm. "Oh that? It's nothing," she tried to ease the woman. "I just got shot." "What?!" "SHOCKED!" corrected Misty in haste. "Pikachu shocked me when I stepped on its tail... well I really have to leave-nice seeing you again, g'bye!" she waved shortly and hurried out the door. Mrs. Ketchum heaved a sigh of relief. "Well it's sure nice to know everything's all right," she said with a smile. She received no response, however, for Professor Oak was still trying to figure out the girl's strange and obviously altered personality. Officer Jenny didn't hear either, for her hands were full with trying to repair the sudden crashing of the surveillance systems. ** Scan of subsystems complete. Scan of first section controls complete. No errors found. :: I am nothing. I have no life to rule me. I am animate, yet still an object:: firewall 95% eradicated. Accessing personality program... :: For what it's worth, I am worth nothing. Nothing will be lost by losing me.:: unable to access personality program... "Why?" reason- unknown. "Why can't I live?" :: Because- I am I. :: ** "Get down!" shouted Jessie as soon as she saw the fireball coming at them. Morada did as told but Misty ran for the crawlspace they'd just exited. "Stop!" hissed the doctor, grabbing the younger girl's ankle. Misty fell to the ground with a harsh-sounding crash, but didn't have time to scream at Morada as the explosion wave reached them. The circuitry above them blew out, sending sparks all over that were visible even through the thick smoke. The girls tried to stay as low to the ground as they could, as one by one the panels above them lit and fell, in a straight line headed towards the wall that hid the engine. "Get up and run!" Morada screamed, rushing into the blaze with the others close behind. Of course walking through fire is dangerous, but not as dangerous as being around an engine as it blows. Jessie was starting to gain on the younger rocket, but being the tallest running was awkward while bending over to avoid the poisonous smoke. However, none of the three could see their destination, and as Morada tripped over something, Jessie tripped over her and then Misty fell and added to the growlithe pile. They were all lucky however. The line of blowing fuses hit the piping before it even got to the engine. The pipes burst, sending dozens of rushing streams of hot water all around. Although it was hot, it still put out most of the fire leaving the sprinkler systems to do the rest. And so the girls sat, slightly burned but not as bad as they would have been. They were soaked, and trapped within a wall of steam and a little smoke, but otherwise very alive (and very annoyed). "What the hell was THAT!?" screamed Jessie. "Get off," she added, shoving Misty off of her and standing up to look around. Despite everything, the walls appeared to be standing but considerably charred. Some of the panels still glowed with a surviving current, but mostly everything Jessie could see through the indoor mist was destroyed. "I wonder what happened..." Misty said. "I can't even tell which way to go anymore." There was a groan from the floor, but it hadn't been the doctor's voice. "I think I tripped over someone..." that had been Morada. "Owwww..." the voice said, and Jessie saw its owner's silhouette in the foggy room. "What happened?" wait a second, that voice was... "ASH!?" screamed Misty, leaning down to see better although the steam was already dissipating. "Heeey lil Twerp!" greeted Morada, slapping the boy on the back a little too hard. "So you broke out, eh? We'll have to punish you for that, since we went through hell to rescue you." Ash nervously backed away from the doctor and stood up, finally noticing Misty. Jessie and Morada watched the two, and for a moment it looked as if things were gonna be romantic as flying bunnies until the both of them screamed, "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!? I'VE BEEN LOOKING EVERYWHERE!!" "What do you mean where have I been?" snapped Misty. "YOU were the one who let me get kidnapped!" "Is this the thanks I get for working so hard to rescue you?" "WE were here to rescue YOU!" It went on like that for a little while, the two nose to nose, exchanging glares. "Funny," Morada noted. "I thought they liked each other." "They do," replied Jessie, resting her chin in her hand. There was no interrupting them now. "Like-like?" "Who says that anymore?" They were waiting a while, for Ash and Misty had days worth of arguments to catch up on and both were irritable from lack of sleep, but somehow they calmed down enough to be momentarily reasonable. "Well it looks like I beat James," Ash said to Jessie. "I found you before he did." Her eye twitched a little, but she didn't say anything back. "What happened to you anyway?" snapped Morada. "I assume you and Galatea never got back to the hotel room, but how'd you get here and where IS the android?" Ash shrugged. "Some crazy guy named Collin captured us." "Collin?" Jessie repeated as she remembered something about Doris's partner. Hadn't he gone mad? "Galatea didn't kill him, did she?" "No, I stopped her." She sighed in relief. Doris would be an absolute mess if Collin was dead. "So where is my lesser half? I haven't seen that thing since it was floating in that tank to be transported." Morada and Misty looked surprised. "You've seen it?" "Sure I have," Jessie replied. It was obvious, right? "I was in the lab while they were building it." "Why were you in the la-" Ash tried to ask, but Misty hit the back of his head. "Just tell us what happened to Gala-whosits," she ordered, then leaned down to Ash's ear and added, "don't ask questions like that." Ash nodded a little and put his hand on back of his head. "Um...well...anyway we got captured and she did this really freaky impersonation of, well, you," he said to Jessie. "Everybody thought she was the real you and so they're out looking for the android I guess." "But where is she NOW?" Morada growled, getting impatient for what little attention span she had was almost done with. "Well we sat in the cell for hours and they took my pokemon-except for totodile because he was in my pocket not on my belt," Ash went on, quicker this time. "And finally Galatea was ready to escape so she bent the bars and destroyed the security camera and we went into the obstacle course, but we got separated and I got lost." "Not surprising," Misty grumbled. "ANYWAY," Ash yelled in her year as he continued. "I ran into a dead end and while I was trying to get out of it these things popped out of the walls and started shooting fire at me." Jessie nodded, remembering something like that in the course. "So I took out totodile and-" "And let me guess," Morada interrupted, stepping forward and sounding extremely irritated. "You told it to use a WATER attack while you were surrounded by ELECTRICAL machinery, right?" He put his hand behind his head again, quite embarrassed. "P-pretty much..." he stuttered as the doctor leaned over him menacingly. Jessie and Misty joined Morada. "You mean HE caused that explosion?" "Looks like it..." Poor poor Ash, he had to run for his life. Terrence leaned back in his chair, feet on the desk and a pencil balancing on his nose. The only lighting in the room came from the many tiny black-and-white screens that covered the wall, recording the goings on of the base. "Thirty eight," he counted to himself, "thirty nine..." But the pencil fell to the ground as the floor shook for an instant. "What's going on?" shouted the angry voice of Vicious from the intercom on the wall. "Was that an earthquake or did something happen?" "I'm checking it now, sir," Terrence called back, sitting up straight and scanning the little screens with nervously jerking eyes. Finally he saw it, a fire, quickly extinguishing under many jets of water. Steam and smoke blocked most of the camera's range, but that screen was from the basement area. Quickly, he turned to the dungeon's camera, only to see static on the monitor. "I think some prisoners escaped sir!" he yelled at the intercom. Luckily, because the surveillance officer was so distracted by the basement fire, he didn't notice James on one of the other hallway monitors, but he wouldn't see James on that camera anymore for the man had just dismantled it. Some of the doors were locked. Not locked well, but there were just too many to pick them all. Besides, the stairwell James was looking for shouldn't be locked in the first place-at least in theory-so that narrowed his search just a little. But still, hallway after hallway, door after door, and camera after camera-this was actually starting to get boring. That, however, didn't make James any happier when the ground shook underneath him, causing him to fall. "Shit," he hissed, getting up a little slower than if he'd been doing this sort of crime thing back in the old days. It sure made him feel old-this had to be it, right? The last adventure before he got to relax? But then again, his life had never been short of activity-he liked it that way actually-but right now James really needed a vacation, or at least a nap since he hadn't slept in a long time. "That came from underneath so..." James said to himself, frowning as the lights flickered for a moment. "I'm obviously not on the ground level-so where's the stairs?" Actually James found a staircase only a few minutes after Meowth had left. Unfortunately, those were the stairs for the renovated section. When Vicious rebuilt the base, instead of repairing the old stairwell to the basement, he'd built a completely new staircase that went through the new buildings. The new one, however, did not connect to the old stairwell's routes, leaving the old way the only way to get in. But with the building so different than the place he'd barely known before, James didn't have any idea where to look-the door could be behind a plaster wall for all he knew! Perhaps he should turn back. Galatea was a murder weapon wasn't she? Nobody could stop her if they tried, so there was no need for him to come for her, and if that twerp was smart he'd stay with the android... Meowth said Jessie was coming to Viridian-maybe she was already here-but if she hadn't come yet, shouldn't he just go back outside and wait? Well, if he wanted to be lazy about it... He could just hear her voice ringing in his ears-"I'm running all over the place trying to save people I can't stand, and all you do is sit there?" Fine fine Jessie, you win. You're right. Oh well, that was what he missed, wasn't it? James turned a corner only to find another hallway, lined with more doors that could lead anywhere. Growling a little, he headed for the double-doors on the very end, since it seemed logical that the stairs wouldn't be placed just randomly on the right or left. Above him, the lights flickered once more but this time they didn't stop. Perhaps that ground movement had damaged the generator, or cut a few cables, or something like that for the light grew dimmer with each waver until they finally died before he'd made it to the end of the hall. "Dark stairwell-loads of fun," he muttered sarcastically, assuming he'd actually find the thing. However out of either coincidence, plot convenience, or the fact that I just can't keep James wondering around forever, the double doors actually did lead to the basement stairs ( AN: hehehe ^_~ ) It took a minute to get the door open, since when the place exploded some of the metal fused together which included the locks. However, it was old and unsturdy. Even a person with James's minimal strength could kick it down. Surprisingly, there was light on the stairs. Apparently the old power systems were separate from the new one, and the stairwell was illuminated by the yellow glow of a cheap bulb. The lit circle didn't extend very far however, and James only found himself looking at steps which went down into shadows. Somewhere down the line another patch of light would come at the next socket, at least James assumed. James stepped forward, knowing this was the only way to the basement and to Galatea, and also knowing he couldn't last too long in a fight against two gang corporations without her firepower. Still, that didn't make it any less creepy. He put a hand on the railing so as not to fall, for who knew what condition the stairs were in-of course, who knew what condition the railing was in either. "I knew you'd come..." came a voice from above him. "Never mind that last one-too cliché...but it's true, at least...I did know you'd come here." It was Collin. James knew it before even looking up, and when he'd heard the familiar voice he'd even rolled his eyes for this man's entrances were starting to become predictable. Nevertheless, you should never turn your back on a crazy man so James turned his head in the direction of the voice. The stairs had, at one time, gone to both the basement and the upper levels but now with the renovations what was left of the old staircase ended in a mess of broken, fused and melted metal reaching out almost to the ceiling. Sitting on the old framing, legs dangling and back hunched over was Collin. He didn't look at James, but stared vacantly at the door, although not as if he expected someone else to come in. "Your fault..." he said, and James noticed the man was slowly spinning a gun in his hand. With each rotation the barrel would, for a moment point to Collin's own chest, before dropping down in James's direction and resuming its turns. "They're coming for her..." "Who's coming?" James asked carefully, trying not to do anything that would make the other snap out of his daze and become violent. "And for who? Jessie? Galatea? Doris?" "Doris..." James couldn't tell if Collin was answering the question or just echoing. "Do you take responsibility for it? She was your partner..." Collin had really lost it. "Doris was ~your~ partner-remember?" James tried. From behind the long, blonde bangs Collins blue eyes narrowed and turned to James, although his face still faced the same direction. "I know." He said. "Jessie was yours. She killed Doris. She was your partner-everyone is dead because of Jessie...your partner..." He rose to his feet slowly, now facing him with those cast down and cloudy eyes. Finger on the trigger, he pointed the gun at James. "Your partner-your responsibility-YOUR FAULT!" "Prisoners?" Cassidy repeated. And Lyn gave a pathetic nod. "I saw them take Raquel and Elsie-Deija tricked me, said he'd be running right behind me but he stayed back to hold the androids off," the power in her voice was starting to die and she collapsed into a chair. "I don't know where he is..." Butch frowned, this really didn't add up. Why take prisioners when it'd be so much easier for those robotic things to kill everyone? Not that he wanted to be killed of course... "Well there goes plan A." Lyn opened one eye and focused it on him. "Which was?" "We assembled a kind of bomb..." Cassidy started, motioning to the weird looking device on the table. It wasn't a bomb really, just a metallic box of gunpowder with a fuse that would blow on remote command and ignite the powder. "We were going to try and get the androids into one area, paralyze them with the disruptor, and then when we got back underground safely Mondo'd use the computer to set off the explosion." "Oh..." Lyn said, and closed the eye. "That's kind of stupid-not enough powder to destroy them... you'd need a real bomb-a big bomb." Mondo got Lyn a cup of coffee which she held but didn't drink. "Maybe if we add oil it'll be enough to at least do some damage..." he said. "I still don't see why it wouldn't work anymore." Cassidy flicked him in the back of the head. "The four of us can't heard the androids by ourselves-we'd need more people and the people are now captured." The boy shrugged. "So we have to rescue them," he said as if it were simple. "Where were they taken? To the Rocket base?" he asked, referring to Giovanni's stronghold just a mile from the resistance center. Lyn shook her head and began to talk very slowly and softly. "No... I don't understand all of it but..." Butch was still scowling. "But what? Things don't add up here, you need to give us all the information!" She sat up straight, hair falling into her face, and directed everything at him in a louder, angry voice. "The bomb shelters!" she said forcefully. "This base-" she motioned to the walls of the room with a sweep of her hand. "This base was once a bomb shelter right?" "Once." Butch acknowledged. "Wrong!" she snapped back. "Doesn't it seem a little clean? A little new?" Cassidy looked around. The walls were dirty, but not so much it would take intense scrubbing to clean them. And also the room had a strong feel to it-not like the flimsy boxes built by the paranoid people decades ago, but this room seemed like it could actually withstand a catastrophe that happened above the ground. "This place," Lyn went on, "Is about five years old-built at the beginning of the android project." There was a pause as everyone stared at her, trying to piece together the message. "There are more... the forest ground is littered with them-I heard the hallow echoes when I ran over them during the fight, and I saw the androids open more doors in the ground and shove our people inside!" She was screaming at them now, almost deranged from her trauma but obviously in control of her mental state at least to a point. Butch still couldn't make sense of it all. "The rocket base has a bigger prison where it's easier to watch everyone. Why didn't the androids take the people there instead of shutting them underground?" He thought for a moment before turning to Mondo and ordering the boy to hack into the Rocket base's system. "What's going on over there?" he asked once the boy had logged on. "Nothing," came the reply, sounding surprised. Cassidy furrowed her eyebrows and walked over to stand behind him at the desk, staring at the computer screen. "What do you mean nothing?" she asked. "They have to have heard the fighting, they must know the androids are awake..." Mondo nodded. "They do know that," he said. "In fact, the fifteen androids still in stasis at the base were activated and are recorded to be on course to Viridian." "That doesn't sound like 'nothing' at all!" Butch snapped angrily, climbing up the ladder towards the trap door that would let him outside. "Well..." Mondo said, hands moving on the keyboard quickly, then stopping altogether. "When I said nothing, I meat nothing. There's nobody there. The base has been evacuated." Lyn, chin in her hands, looked over at the desk. "Why would they do that?" "The log says that the Rocket personnel moved to some bomb shelters under the building..." Mondo went on. "Everyone's hiding underground." "Everyone but the androids," Cassidy pointed out. "Something's about to happen-some kind of damage that androids can take but people can't." "But I thought the Boss wanted the resistance dead," said Lyn, "So why didn't the androids just leave us out there to die?" Cassidy shrugged. "I don't know." Mondo spun in the chair to face the girls. "So now the question is-do we go outside and rescue the others, or do we run and get help?" "The answer is neither," Butch growled, coming back down the ladder and looking discontent. "The door won't open, we're trapped in here." "Transmission coming in, sir!" Domino notified the Giovanni, handing him a cell phone since the video display was in the process of being repaired. "Sir," came a voice he knew but couldn't place a name to. It was one of the head workers at the Mahogany base. "I didn't realize the plan had come into motion so soon-especially since we don't have the prototype-but I wanted to report that everything is ready." "What are you talking about?" Giocanni snapped back at the man. "I never gave authorization to begin-what is going on down there?" "S-sir..." the voice now sounded afraid. "We heard fighting-it was the resistance movement, those partners of the ones we'd made copies of. They had five activated androids and were fighting with them." "THEY WHAT?" "But the androids were killing them off-and we knew your plan wouldn't work if they all died so we transmitted the orders early..." there was a pause, "We're all very sorry sir, we assumed that you had activated the androids from your helicopter and were ready to begin." The boss tried to calm himself down and think reasonably. Even if what, twenty? Twenty androids were activated without the firewall they would still follow his orders at first. It would require a few days of continuous activation for them to start to develop opinions of their own so as long as everything went as planned he could still shut them off in time-after they'd done their job. "Am I to assume that everyone is in the shelters?" Giovanni finally said. "Yes sir!" "How long will if be before they reach Viridian City?" "About half an hour more, Sir." He scowled and motioned for Domino to come forward. "They're on the move," he told her. She was shocked but well composed. "As soon as you pick them up on the scanners let me know-they're orders need to be changed before they destroy all the plans I've made over the last five years." James held his hands up defensively. "Hold on a minute..." he said slowly, trying to remain calm although fear showed a little in his voice. "What happened that's my fault-who did Jessie kill?" he asked, although it didn't look like Collin would answer. "When I find her we can get this all cleared up-don't you want that?" he tried. "All of them," Collin hissed. "First they took Jessie-the experiments...the Boss...it all worked out for him since she knew too much, knew his name and everything...grew up with them all...Madame Boss and them all..." James couldn't make sense of what he was saying, but at least Collin seemed partially distracted-if only the guy would take his eyes off him for moment he might escape. "The experiments worked," Collin sounded disgusted. "Patient 00. SHE was patient 00 and your android was 01!" "N-now how is that her fault?" "Her fault, your fault-both of you!" His hands were shaking, but not so much to make the gun miss if he fired. "The experiments worked-they built the prototype and then took more people. If the experiments hadn't worked, if you hadn't let her go-if you loved her you wouldn't have let her leave like you thought she did! It's her fault my partner died-that makes it your fault!" James narrowed his eyes, suddenly understanding. It was this man's partner, what's-her-name, that he wanted to avenge. Perhaps if James had not somewhat gotten on with his life and left the gang lifestyle, he'd have remained in an unhealthy obsession and lost his mind as well. "You should have gone after her-she was YOUR partner! YOUR responsibility!" Collin was screaming at him now, his voice echoing all over the stairwell. "If you'd chased her you'd have discovered the android project when it started-it wouldn't have been five years too late! Too late too late too late... It's too late to save her now... dead, all of them. Dead dead dead..." There wasn't anything left of his mind that James could reason with. "Dead," Collin repeated again, "You'll be too..." He pulled the trigger. James shut his eyes tight as he heard the gun boom. A girlish scream that actually wasn't James's filled the area as something that wasn't a bullet slammed into his chest. It was a maroon haired woman with a bloody shoulder. She clung to his shirt to keep balance, but he had to grab her before she fell completely. "Collin you idiot..." she bit out, talking through her teeth as she winced from the pain. "Can't even tell who the enemy is..." The voice was faintly familiar, he knew this person from a very long time ago. "Doris..." Collin didn't sound like he believed it. James couldn't help but think the man knew he was crazy-he probably thought that his girlfriend was some sort of ghost or hallucination. "Hey, are you all right?" James asked her, trying to hold her up and look at her shoulder at the same time. She wasn't paying any attention though, and didn't answer. "Collin drop the gun," she ordered in a soft but raspy voice. His hands had gone limp, the gun facing the ground. It didn't seem like he would shoot, but he didn't move to obey either. "Drop it," she said with more force. The weapon hid the ground with a clatter just as his knees collapsed and he fell beside it. James felt her let go of him, and she shakily made her way over to the other man, who was clutching his head and repeating her name, unable to make sense of everything. She nearly fell on top of Collin, catching him around the neck with her good arm, but bleeding badly from the other. "Idiot," she said again, hugging him tightly. His eyes were wide and he shook as if he were afraid of her. "Warm..." he said, still in shock and voice hoarse. "Brea...thing..." James stood against the wall, feeling embarrassed like he'd intruded on something personal. But it still didn't seem the best thing to leave them here alone-injured and insane. "Ow!" Doris suddenly cried out. "Let go!" Colin had grabbed her arm tightly, just below her wound. Blood dripped onto his shaking hand as Doris clenched her teeth in pain. "She came..." he said, glaring fiercely at James and trying to reach his gun. "Came from heaven..." he was so absorbed he didn't notice the hue of the room's light slowly turning to purple. "Came for ME..." Even Doris didn't seem to notice the pain anymore. She stared past Collin and James, with a terrified expression. "AND LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO TO HER!" the tips of his fingers touched the handle but Doris shoved him to the ground. "Get down!" she screamed, as a long cord of magenta light swept across where they'd been. James spun around. Standing on the steps that led up from the basement was Galatea. The holographs that hid the interfaces were gone, bringing the metal strips that covered her skin into view, and looking less humanlike than he remembered. Her eyes were locked onto Collin, right arm outstretched and the plasma rife extending from it shone purple as it recharged for another shot. "You should stand back," she said to James. James was shocked. "I sh...-what are y...-PUT THAT THING AWAY!" he finally got out. "If that gets out of control you could bring down the ceiling!" "Very well," she said in that same soft, near-monotone voice he knew too well. The rifle retracted itself into her arm, but the port didn't close. "It will have to be done manually." From where the gun had been came a long knife, not so much a blade, however, than a flat but sharp sheet of metal. "No!" James snapped back, grabbing her arm and trying to pull it back. He couldn't move it of course; it might be easier to tow a brick wall than force the android's skeleton to bend involuntarily. "Cut that out, don't hurt him and just calm down already!" She turned her had to face him. "I am calm. You are not." "Of course I'm not!" he snapped back. "You almost killed them!" "I was aiming for the man Collin-he shot that woman and wishes to kill you. He is unstable and a threat," she said, but it was more like an explanation than an excuse. James sighed and shook his head. How was he supposed to explain everything to her, and what could he say when she was only trying to protect him? Attempting to kill Collin was Galatea's version of being nice, and it didn't seem like she deserved a punishment. "Just get the gun away from him-give it to me," he said. "I can protect myself from there, you don't need to kill him." James had expected Galatea to react right away, but she paused for a moment. "The young man Ash Ketchum has told me I should utilize my better judgment," she said. He was pretty sure she was paraphrasing however, for James doubted that the twerp knew what 'utilize' meant. But vocabulary aside, did that mean she wasn't going to listen to him? "However," she continued, "The method of which you treat your own enemies is your own choice." The sword retracted, but only after she'd picked up the gun and handed it to James did Doris breathe a sigh of relief. "Now," James said, attaching the weapon to his belt next to Wheezing's pokeball. "Where's the Twerp, wasn't he with you?" Galatea paused for a moment as she translated Twerp into Ash. "We escaped from the confined area but got separated. Soon after there was a small explosion that cut me off from the area I lost him in with a wall of debris, which I could not move without causing it to collapse. I came upstairs to find a schematic of the building in order to locate an alternate entrance." James nodded, remembering how the ground had shaken a little while ago. "He alive?" "Unknown. A high concentration of electrical activity interfered with my scans." Great. How was he supposed to find Meowth, dig up Ash, and get everyone out of the building before Doris bled to death? He tried to think about one thing at a time... James knew he probably couldn't last wondering around an agent-infested area until he found the cat, but he could probably get the twerp out of the basement. "Ok here's the plan," he said, hoping it would sound all right for he wasn't the best plan maker in the world. "Galatea, I need you to go upstairs and find a talking meowth-you remember him-and bring him to the blue convertible parked in the bushes outside." "Shouldn't I stay with you?" she asked. "You require protection from that man," she motioned to Collin, "And the others like him that are here." "Look," he snapped back. "I told you I could handle it. That woman over there needs the first aid kit that's back in the car, but I can't very well leave her alone with a man who-as you pointed out-is off his rocker so you just meet us back there, ok?" She remained silent as the data processed. "Very well," she finally said. "And Ash Ketchum?" "Well come back for him ,but for the moment I'd like to assume the idiot's not bleeding to death so he's not quite priority number one here." "Very well," said Galatea once more, and then she was gone. James shook his head and turned back to Doris and Collin. "Will he move?" he asked the woman, taking a step closer. "Or can you at least risk letting go of him?" "I, ah..." Doris started, looking down at Collin. He had a good hold on her back, half trying to protect her from James and half acting like any moment she'd take his life. "I don't know." James frowned a little until he figured out what to do. "I don't think he'll let me come closer, but come over here." "What?" she asked, trying to untangle herself from Colin's grasp. "Just start walking towards the door, I don't think he'll want to leave us two alone." Dizzy from loss of blood, Doris stumbled over until she came close enough for James to catch. He put her good arm over his shoulder and helped her walk as they headed through the exit and back out into the dark hall. Doris looked back every five seconds or so, and sure enough Collin was following them like a growlithe, not tamed but stupefied. "That thing really did look like Jessie..." Doris said in quiet surprise. "Just like her," she said again, turning to look up at James's face. "You must hate it." "Oh crap," Jessie said through her teeth, staring at the great wall of collapsed machinery that stood in front of the door. "I think we're trapped." "Ash!" Misty screamed, hitting him in the back of his head. "Look what your stupid explosion did!" "Sorry already!" he shouted back. "Can we leave blaming me to after we get out of this?" It looked like the two were about to start up again but Morada stopped them with an overstressed soccer mom yell of "DON'T MAKE ME SEPARATE YOU!" "Arggghh..." Jessie growled under her breath, lifting up a soaking wet foot and dumping the water out of the boot. "I don't suppose we could come back the way we came?" Morada shook her head. "Doubtful. It was probably the first thing to flood." The explosion had broken the water pipes, and although it had put out the fire the area was slowly flooding. Even though the room was pretty large, the water kept pumping fast and was now ankle deep and almost unbearably hot. "Let's just get to higher ground!" Misty whined, already swimming in her low sneakers. Morada raised a hand in the air. "Second that!" Jessie nodded. "Probably best..." she said, staring up at the pile of wrecked machinery-pipes and panels, boxes and spikes, and plenty of other obstacle course souvenirs all piled on top of each other. "Maybe if we climb to the top of this thing we can reach an air vent." Misty crossed her arms. "It's always air vents with you," she muttered. "Are you crazy!" Ash yelled back. "That thing could collapse! Why don't we just try and turn the water off?" The three girls were already starting to climb the junk pile, and Misty glared back down at him in her usual "you're insane" stare. "Ash, the water that's coming out of those pipes is boiling!" she pointed out. "The only reason we weren't burned right away was the fire sprinklers were cold and they cooled it down a little, but they've turned off now and pretty soon it'll get too hot for you to just walk around in!" "She's got a point," Jessie yelled down. She'd climbed higher than the rest, but was having trouble as the makeshift mountain became less sturdy as she neared its peak. "Besides, even though the water's hot, the room's still pretty chilly, and that means fog-even indoors." "Right," Morada said, finishing the thought. "Even if you didn't burn it's getting hard to see in here so what makes you think you can find the water valve?" Ash crossed his arms. "Oh fine already," he grumbled, starting to climb. He climbed pretty well, and easily passed the Doctor, who didn't seem to like the whole prospect at all. "I still like my plan bet-" "SHIT!" Jessie suddenly shouted from the top of the wall, trying to keep her balance underneath one of the air vents. "What is it?" Modada half whimpered, climbing a foot or so higher as the water tried to splash her heel. Jessie scowled and slammed the vent's screen shut with an angry clang. "Vicious didn't keep the old air-duct system, he just built on top of it. This thing leads to a brick wall-we can't get out." The group of androids reached the summit of the last hill, bringing the Viridian Forest completely into view. "Scanning area..." the replicated Misty said, eyes narrowing as the forest melted into a line grid, with the cubed visual of Vicious's Base standing out like a mountain. "Found. Bearing mark 34 by 58." "We have an estimated one hour and twenty-eight minutes before the police interfere," the gray haired copy of a man named Jonas warned the group. "It is not enough time." "The plan must be altered," said another. "We require more time, and more importantly 'Boss' must transmit orders to begin stage two." "Stage two cannot be initiated if the police come before it begins," the group was reminded. "We require them to come after it has ended." "Receiving a transmission from 'Boss'," said the twin of an old team captain, the one of the group with the best transceiver. "Confirmed," the rest replied in unison. ::Attention androids:: came the voice of Giovanni, a bit staticy for the equipment was being pushed to the limit. ::You have additional instructions that must be completed before the operation can proceed. I suspect that the prototype android 01 and Jessica Miamoto are at the Viridian City base-if they are there you must remove them from the building before you destroy it and deliver them to me. If you are unable to detain Jessica you may kill her, but the android cannot be damaged:: "Yes sir," said the machines all at once to the voice only they could hear. The transmission terminated, and the mechanical people resumed their march towards the base, all except for #554471: Misty. "We did not receive instructions concerning the police," she reminded the others. " 'Boss' instructed an additional task before stage two," one android pointed out. "When that is completed we shall receive further instructions." "The time allotment is insufficient," said Misty. "The police will interfere. Further, if we are to deliver prototype 01 and Jessica Miamoto to 'Boss' we shall require to make two trips to Viridian City-it is inefficient. We should begin stage two as soon as we have 01 and Jessica Miamoto in custody." "The police-" "They cannot stop us, they are easily defeated." Another android-a replica of Victoria Niez--spoke up, she frowned but the new tactic looked weird on her. "#554471 is attempting to proceed in actions not authorized by 'Boss'," she pointed out to the others. "Is this mutiny?" "Incorrect," Misty retorted. " 'Boss's' instructions are vague. I am implementing the most logical plan that coincides with the desires of 'Boss' based on current data." "Agreed," chorused the others. "#554471's plan shall commence." Outvoted, Victoria Niez (#3776) had no choice but to concede. However, into her personal logs she entered her suspicions that the android #554471 exhibited unauthorized presumption of orders, an early symptom of rebellion. "So what exactly are we looking for here?" Brock asked, starting to get pretty annoyed. The lights had gone out a while ago and wondering around a gang base in the dark was not only stupid, it was creepy too. "Clues I suppose," Tracey replied. "Hey, maybe if you hold the flashlight I could do some sketches-the police might want to see all this." "Oh fine, I'll take it," Brock complied, taking the light. But before Tracey could even open his sketchbook Brock's hand clamped over his mouth. "I heard something," he whispered. The boys listened, and sure enough there was a faint "What the hell?" a thump, and then silence. "That can't be good," Tracey's muffled voice noted. Brock opened the nearest door. "In here," he said, bolting the lock as soon as they were inside. They were both quiet for a long moment, but didn't hear anything like footsteps and so assumed that, for a little while at least, they were safe. "Hey, check this out!" Tracey said excitedly as he looked around the room, sketching it as best he could. The flashlight was still turned on, but it faced downward making the contents of the room a mesh of shadows. As Brock turned the light upward however, boxes upon boxes of pokeballs were revealed, stacked under many shelves of the things. "Woah..." Brock breathed, taking in the scene. Tracey had discovered a battery powered lamp and turned it on to get a better look. "This must be where they keep all the stolen pokemon..." "Yeah," Tracey nodded, "We should get these to the police so they can be returned to their-" he was cut off by someone at the door. Before the two had any time to react or even duck for cover, the steel doorknob cracked in its place, the bolt falling clear off and allowing the door to swing open freely. There was a tall woman standing in the doorway, but only when she stepped into the light did Tracey and Brock recognize her, but they were too shocked to speak at first. She stared at them with blank scorn. "More distractions," she said quietly, and began to move towards them with what seemed like hostile intentions. "What are you doing here, Jessie?" Brock asked before she'd made it over, not sure if he should be angry or defensive or just confused. She stopped short and looked at them in an analyzing fashion. "You are incorrect. I am not Jessica Miamoto," she said matter-of-factly. "Is she of your acquaintance?" The boys were stunned by that kind of a response. "S-sort of," Tracey stuttered, then whispered to Brock, "What are those metal things all over her?" "They are input-output ports for interfacing with and outside system," she said in that same tone. Tracey gulped, amazed that she'd heard him. "They are also implemented for weapons, scanning, and diagnostics." "What's wrong with you, Jessie?" Brock finally all but shouted, taking a bold step forward. She showed no real reaction, but merely followed his movements with her overly clear eyes. "You were weird before, but now you're just crazy! You're talking like a computer!" She still didn't move an inch; it was far too eerie to watch her stand like a mannequin with only eyes and lips that moved and no apparent sign of breathing. "I am Team Rocket tactical defensive android 01-Prototype," she said. "My former identity was Jessica Miamoto. My current identity is Galatea." "A-A-ANDROID?" Brock got out, unable to believe it. Meanwhile, Tracey was focusing on the more important issue. "Former identity?" he repeated. "Was Jessie always an android?" "Incorrect," said the machine who called herself Galatea. "I was constructed as a copy...you are quite distracting humans," she continued, moving easily from one subject to another, not bothering with the confusion of the boys. She began to turn her head from side to side, examining the room and its contents. "Quite distracting," she repeated, not even bothering to look at Tracey and Brock anymore, although they remained standing still with mouths hanging open. "Tell me-you young men are not from Team Rocket and are not in the uniform of Team Vicious, are you here as my enemy or are you on the side of Jessica Miamoto as you clam you know her?" Brock, seeming to realize that she could seriously injure them, told her that they were on Jessie's side. "Very well then," she walked over to a box of pokeballs, and picked out one. "You should refrain from interfering." She released the pokemon from its ball; it was a meowth. Looking skeptically down at it she ordered, "Speak." "Nya nya!" the cat mewed, and she recalled it. Galatea went to another box, once again produced a meowth and repeated the process with the same results. "She knows which pokemon are Meowths," Brock pointed out. "I wonder how she's doing it." "If she is an android," replied Tracey, "She's probably scanning them or something..." Then he asked in a louder voice, "What are you looking for?" "A Meowth type pokemon who has the ability to talk," she replied without looking up. "Jessie and James's Meowth?" asked Brock. "That can be assumed. James is outside the complex." Tracey and Brock exchanged looks and turned back to Galatea. "Is a guy named Ash with him?" "Negative," she replied, still walking around and all but ignoring them. "James is with Collin Horik and Doris Lockhart, their location is unknown. Ash Ketchum is in the basement." Brock inhaled sharply. "So you do know Ash and James-Jessie too?" "I have not met the woman," Galatea said, still in her distracted search for more meowths to test. "If Ash is here we should go get him," Tracey called to Brock from the doorway. Brock nodded and ran forward, but then stopped short. "What about all these pokemon?" Tracey thought for a moment. "We should probably let them out-if they were stolen from trainers, they're probably already tame and maybe they'd help us...." He trailed off for a second, suddenly remembering something. "Um...Miss...Galatea was it?" "Correct." "Why is Ash in the basement?" "He is trapped there due to a structural failure resulting from an electrical explosion-none of these are the Meowth I am looking for, I must search elsewhere." Galatea turned to leave the room. Brock, still having questions grabbed hold of her arm to stop her, but only found himself being dragged toward the door while the mechanical woman kept her pace. "Hold it!" he cried, Tracey had joined in by grabbing the other arm but it didn't seem to help. "Electrical explosion? Is Ash all right? Did pikachu start something?" "The boy Ash Ketchum's status is unknown. The pikachu was confiscated," said the android in that uniform tone that was starting to get annoying. "Now you humans are interfering with my instructions. Shall I remove you?" Brock and Tracey paused and exchanged a nervous look. They really didn't have any idea of what Galatea was capable of, but of course they had to consider the fact that she'd dragged them half way across the room without even slowing. The boys released her arms and she vanished into the dark hallway, despite their attempts to call her back. "Gaah..." Brock moaned, dropping to the ground in one of his frequent melodramatic moments. "WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO NOW?" "Shh!" Tracey hissed. "Someone could hear you!" Brock made a noise and slowly stood back up again. "We better find the basement and get Ash out of there," he suggested, "I don't know where it is exactly but down is a good bet." Tracey nodded a little but he still seemed distracted, staring down the corridor to where the odd false woman had disappeared. Finally, with an exasperated sigh, he turned his train of thought back to the present situation. "I think you're right," he agreed. "But as long as we're here we might as well get Ash's pokemon-if pikachu was confiscated like she said, his other pokemon are probably around here somewhere..." Brock gave as much of a glare as he could, although it was directed at the rest of the room. "And where exactly is somewhere?" he demanded with a forceful arm motion, directing Tracey's attention to the boxes upon boxes next to the many many shelves of pokeballs. Tracey got a "devious" look on his face ("devious" being in sarcastic quotes because, well, it's Tracey). "Well there really is only way to find all of Ash's pokemon-open up each pokeball and check it," he explained, spelling out his plan for Brock. "And if some pokemon just happen to escape in the process, well that just can't be helped, right?" "We can't just sit here!" Mondo pointed out the obvious but in an excited tone. "We're the only ones who know what's happening!" "Correction," Cassidy snapped back, annoyed with the entire situation. "We're the only one with enough information to know that something's wrong-we have no idea what's happening." From the other side of the room, Butch shouted curses and slammed the dead receiver back onto the phone. "Well they cut the telephone lines," he announced, joining the others in standing around the table. "Well that's just great!" Lyn hissed, crossing her arms and slamming herself into a chair much like a child in a tantrum. "And I suppose that means no internet too? We're cut off from the world until either someone comes for us or we starve!" Mondo shook his head. "No, we have internet," he told her, trying not to aggravate her. Not knowing what had become of Deija had made her increasingly more volatile as time went on. "It's satellite operated." "Oh and what are we gonna do, email an S.O.S?" Cassidy growled sarcastically. "Anyone who actually checks their email often enough to help would think it's a prank. I mean who would take 'help, trapped in a bomb shelter by homicidal androids' seriously?" For a moment the room was silent, as the actual desperateness of their situation started to sink in, but Mondo interrupted that as he had a sudden epiphany. "James would," he said quietly and cautiously, boldly choosing to become hopeful. "What?" "James would take it seriously!" Mondo pointed out, louder this time. "Isn't the prototype android with him? We can send an email to its systems to get a message to James!" "You can do that?" Butch asked, surprised as the others. "I think," he replied sheepishly, not quite liking everyone's eyes on him. "I just got the idea now and I've never done it before." "But what if the android's killed him or something?" Cassidy pointed out. "We never did get word that he was alive." "Seems to me," said Lyn, "We don't have all that many options so we ought to take what we can get." "Fine," Cassidy conceded, knowing that if they didn't try the boy's plan they'd just sit in the base until they went stir crazy or died of boredom. "Do it, Mondo." Surprisingly enough, hacking into the satellite system didn't take too much time, but using it to find the android would take awhile. "See these?" Mondo pointed to the screen, but more specifically at some flashing lights. "The big blobs are the androids that are in storage," he pointed to three small masses of blue light. "Each android only shows up as a little dot, so obviously there are a lot in those places." Butch frowned at the display. "How do you know they're not activated?" "Well I don't really..." Mondo nervously put his hand behind his head. "But they're all standing still and my guess is if they were activated they'd have some sort of job to do." "Just get on with it," urged Cassidy, tapping her finger impatiently on the table to bring back the younger man's attention. "Ok, and that group of green lights are the ones that activated here and near here-they're going through the Viridian Forest right now." Lyn looked up, a bit alarmed. "Already??" she asked, "But it's only been what-two, three hours?" "Well that's what's happening," Mondo certainly didn't sound too happy about it. "Each light is identical, and I'll have to do some major hacking to get to the specific identification codes-then I have to find out what 01's code is so I know what I'm looking for." "How many codes are there?" Cassidy asked. Sighing, Mondo pressed a button on the keyboard and a long list of 0s and 1s began scrolling across the monitor. "Holy shit!" Lyn gaped. "It's like that thing from the matrix movie-but for all we know that could be the binary code for Windows 95." "Hey, what about this light here?" Cassidy asked, pointing to a yellow spark that flickered on the screen, sometimes there and sometimes not. "I dunno bout that," Mondo shrugged. "If could be an android, it could be a malfunction, it could even be a big computer-cept it's moving." Butch brought his face close up to the screen. "What's it blinking for? And hey-isn't it in Vicious's base?" The others gathered close to the screen. "Yeah you're right!" Lyn said, covering the little yellow dot with her finger. "Right there, at the old hideout in the forest." "Think Vicious is building an android?" asked Mondo, starting to get worried. "But he'd need a template," Butch pointed out. "He doesn't have the know-how to build one on his own-it took three years of rocket research to get 01, and even after that it was another two before the improved versions came out! And-what are you looking at?" He cut himself short when he realized that Mondo was staring at him. "The improved versions," repeated the youngest rocket. "That's it!" "What's it?" Mondo pushed the girls out of the way and sat in front of the keyboard. "You see," he began as he started to type, singling out sets and sets of numbers as the code shortened on the screen. "Even though the prototype was the template for the rest of the android models, the internal power source for the new ones needed to resonate at a higher speed to compensate for the new weapons..." he explained. "Well at least that's my assumption seeing as we only have the complete schematics for 01..." "Stop hypothesizing and get on with it," Cassidy snapped. "Okay, okay-it's reasonable to assume that the android tracking system on the Boss's satellite uses the energy signatures to locate the androids-and since there's only one prototype and hundreds of in-service models, the thing probably only scans for the higher energy wave-follow?" "Not really," Lyn muttered, "but go on." "Well if the prototype has a lower resonation then it'll be harder to keep track of so-" "So it'll look like it's blinking on and off on the radar!" Cassidy finished, shoving Mondo off the chair; she typed quickly as he watched the screen from the floor. "Got it!" she suddenly cried out triumphantly. "The codes match-it's 01!" She expected to get a better reaction from the others, but they just stared, frowning. "What now?" "It's in Vicious's base," Butch pointed out. "He might have it under his control." There was silence for a few long seconds until Lyn finally spoke up. "Well," she said, standing up and stretching her arms, "Obviously the Boss doesn't like us much-and he certainly doesn't like Vicious-so the enemy of my enemy is my friend, right?" "You've been busy, cat," Vicious snapped as Meowth padded into his office and took his place on the pillow next to the shadowed chair. Perhaps to make himself feel important, or maybe as a form of mockery, Vicious had kept what surviving decorations in Giovanni's old office. If he leaned back in his seat, his face would be obscured just as the Boss used to do to frighten people, but right now the man leaned over his desk with his face all but pressed against his computer screen. "There are intruders in the base and we can't stop them or even see who they are-I assume this has something to do with you." Meowth tried to look casual, which is generally easy for a cat. "Not me, Boss, wasn't dere some kinda explosion? Maybe people are breaking in-or breaking out-anyone seen da dungeon, I heard dat's where it started." "It is blocked off," Vicious said, flipping from one camera to another, trying to see what was going on in the rooms where the camera's had yet to be dismantled. So far, nothing. "If someone tried to break into the basement they most likely are trapped in there, and if someone tried to break out the same thing would happen-so then why are agents on all levels of this building being found unconscious?" He turned to Meowth, looking angry and expecting an answer he could work with. The sat up quickly and pretended to look alarmed, while in reality he felt very confused. Men found unconscious? James didn't have that kind of fight in him, nor had Meowth expected him to blow up a basement. Not knowing what else to do, he said what he could only expect. "Maybe dere's a buncha intruders, sir. Like a raid or sumthin." Vicious kept shaking his head, not as a reply but as a general show of his mood. "I'm not sure what it is-I sent out a notice too all hands to find whoever they are, but nobody's reported finding anything useful expect a blood stain on the floor of the basement stairwell." Luckily, the crimelord was too wrapped up in the situation to notice the pokemon twitch slightly. Right then, the intercom on the desk started to buzz. Meowth hopped on to the table and pressed the button with his paw. "What is it? da Boss here aint in a good mood." For a moment there was a nervous silence, but finally Terrence from the security room spoke up from the other end. "S-sir I got camera 45 repaired, and there appears to be a slight problem." "What is it," Vicious growled, not willing to accept more bad news. "It's the pokemon sir," said Terrence with a slight tremor in his voice. "They've gotten loose, or someone set them free--I don't know but they're starting to run wild." "WHAT?!" Vicious stood up straight and hurried over to a chair in the corner, where beforehand he'd casually thrown his body armor. Picking up the metallic plates, he attached them over his clothes, then hurried back to the desk to collect his pokeballs. "For years I was a top agent," he grunted as he rummaged through the drawers in the mahogany writing table. "Nobody here is close to what I was-if you want something right..." he located the pokeballs and attached them to his belt, just above the holster for his gun. "Do it yourself." Before Meowth could even make an attempt to convince the man to stop, Vicious reached the door and hurried out. The pokemon quickly jumped from the desk to follow and try to distract his master, however he found that Vicious had all the distraction he needed. "Jessie!" he bit out, surprised to find the red haired woman standing in the hall. If she, on the other hand, was surprised to see him it certainly didn't show. "What are you doing out of your cell-and what are those things on your skin?" Meowth froze in place-Galatea! What was she doing here? If James got her out then why hadn't they ran? From behind Vicious, he stared up at the android and she looked past the man to stare back. For a moment it seemed like she would resume the Jessie façade, but the whole thing seemed trivial now that there was nobody hostage and she had the upper hand. "Incorrect," she said. "But I have identified you-Vicious, traitor to Team Rocket, leader of this facility and its operations." As she spoke, the metal on her arm transformed once again to produce the rifle, which she turned to point at the man, although not charging it yet. Vicious stood stark still, just staring at her. "The android!" he finally growled quietly, voice very bitter. "I should have seen it." "Galatea..." Meowth said slowly, carefully, knowing now that Vicious would figure out his assistance with the android. He'd made a powerful enemy just by saying the name, but he'd said it anyway. He had do know what happened. "What's going on? Where's James?" "He has gone with Collin and Doris to provide medical attention to the latter," she explained in her emotionless voice. Her eyes were just as dead, never moving from Vicious and harboring a stare more heartless than even Jessie could have managed. "Why ain't yous with him?" demanded the cat. "He instructed me to locate you and deliver you to a vehicle." Meowth sighed; it figured that James would do something like that-leave himself virtually unprotected and sending the perfect bodyguard back for a pokemon. He really was desperate for that imaginary family of his. "So now what?" demanded the angry gang leader to Meowth. "You have her kill me, traitor? Or is it money you want?" The cat pokemon shook his large head. "Don't look at Meowth-I've betrayed you, yeah, but she's got a will of her own dere." Galatea still did not change the expression on her face. "You will produce a schematic for the basement of this building," she ordered Vicious. "What's in dere?" asked Meowth. "Ash Ketchum," replied the android as Meowth remembered she'd originally showed up at the base with an annoying companion. Under armed escort, Vicious went back inside his office, standing next to the desk and talking Meowth through the computer work for he'd press the panic button if he was allowed at the keyboard. "Got it," announced the pokemon, sending the map to Galatea's systems via the connecting ports on her shoulder. "Received," she confirmed it, but before she could disconnect, the electrical eyes fogged over and once again she took a turn for the mechanical. "Incoming transmission," she narrated, as the lights behind her eyes blinked quickly. "From who?" Meowth didn't think he could stand any more surprises today, but apparently they were inevitable. "Unregistered computer outside Mahogany Town- Team Rocket technology." Before the pokemon could even take the time to consider what this might mean, Vicious decided to take advantage of the distraction and pulled out his gun. "If that stupid doctor were here she could do this," James muttered, strapping the gauze over Doris's arm with an amateur's guess as how to treat the injury. "For one thing, you can count on a doctor to have a first aid kit in her car, but you'd expect a good one. She doesn't even have tweezers-not like I know how to remove a bullet anyway." "Greaaaat," Doris muttered through her teeth, wincing from the pain. "I get shot and what else? Tetnis? Lead poisioning?" James frowned, strapping an ace bandage over the gauze and struggling with the metal clips to keep it attached. "Are bullets made out of lead? I thought they were steel or brass or something-I don't suppose it matters as long as it's shiny and aerodynamic." "Ha ha-shaddup." Once more an uncomfortable silence set in. Things had gotten much quieter since James had gotten Victribeel to use sleep powder on Collin. Doris too would probably feel better if she slept, but James was reluctant to let her since the loss of blood could force unconsciousness. And so it was just them, and all sorts of forest noises; ordinary people might find the woods creepy at night, but James had slept in those types of places for the better part of his life. But it wasn't at all like camping-no fire, no food, a sleeping crazy man, a bleeding angry woman, and a hideous corvette with a half attached bumper and an AM radio they couldn't use. James had to admit, he certainly felt uneasy-pretty much pissed off, actually. He could be inside the base and doing something productive, but instead he was sitting in the bushes trying not to touch the blood on the woman's clothes. Right then he realized something. Human beings shouldn't have adventures-they just aren't cut out for that sort of thing. Every adventure involves some miserable form of conflict and only half have happy endings. And out of those endings merely a fraction made the whole ordeal worth it. He felt like a mess, depressed and tired, but he couldn't stop. This wasn't the sort of situation a person could just quit on half way through-sure he could just walk off into the forest right then, but how would he ever find out how it all could have ended? Curiosity is an underrated but powerful motivator. "I didn't do it for you," Doris finally spoke, quietly addressing James although she stared at Collin. James nodded; he'd never even assumed as much. "I know." Doris inhaled sharply, but whether the reason was pain or something emotional, he couldn't tell. "He's going to get better," she said, still watching Collin. "He will," she said it with force. "And when he does he wouldn't like knowing he'd killed a man-it'd send him right back over the edge." He nodded, but she didn't see. "What's finding out he shot ~you~ going to do to him?" James couldn't help but ask. "He'll get better," she continued to insist, "if I forgive him, he will get better." "Do you forgive him?" Doris cracked a sort of smile, weird and contorted from the pain on her face. "Why not?" Morada sat cross-legged and stared down into the water. The flood line was steadily rising, little by little. Already it was so deep she couldn't see the floor-even if she had been able to see that far with all the steam in the air. "Anybody got a plan, YET?" "~I~ don't have a plan," Misty growled back. "But why don't you ask the 'plan master' over there?" "Shaddup," snapped Ash and Jessie. "Perfect," muttered the doctor. The four sat in silence for a while. Without any alternate ideas they remained at square one: waiting for the water pressure to build up far enough to brake though the debris wall and force the entrance open. That would, if the collapse didn't kill them and the water didn't burn them to death, get them out of the basement half drowned at best. "So...now what?" Misty dared to ask. Ash glared at her and tossed a piece of metal piping near her foot. "We either think of something or we die. Now be quiet so I can get one of my great ideas!" "Hey!" she threw the pipe back. "I was the brains of the group-you just played hero!" "You're confusing yourself with Brock!" "I'm just as smart as-" "Are not." "Are too!" The results were predictable: it went on for a good ten minutes. What ever they ended up deciding, Brock's main place in the trio had been babysitter to the teens that acted as childish as they had five years ago. Meanwhile, Morada had made a shaking and ill-skilled climb up to Jessie's perch, hoping to pull together enough rationality to produce a plan that was, at the very least, semi-functional. But instead they ended up just watching the show. "Ya know," the doctor observed, "The water level's rising-you'd think those kids would prioritize and pull a Titanic crush-confession." "Never gonna happen," Jessie mumbled, "they have to grow up first." The other stared down at the fighting couple and blinked a few times. "We don't really have that kind of time." "Maybe we should throw stuff at them 'till they shut up..." "I'm starting to agree..." Ash and Misty, oblivious to the conversation continued their dispute (which sounded more like contradiction than an actual argument) until the ground unexpectedly lurched beneath them. Another explosion-just as small as the first but this time more contained, rocked the building for a brief instant. But however short lived it had been, the vibrations were enough to topple much of the scrap heap. Unfortunately it did not fall enough to clear the door way; even more unfortunately was that it turned the wall into something much less than a wall and much more like a peninsula, closer to the ground and thus closer to the now boiling water. But for the two pieces of bad news there came some good. The water level started to drop. "We're saved!" cried Ash. "We're dead," corrected Misty as she looked across the room at a mirror image of herself, however, the reflected face was covered in strips of metal. The water flowed quickly out of a hole in the wall leading to the sewer system, but in the new makeshift entrance stood a group of androids lead by none other than a copy of one of the group. "Misty..." Ash gasped in shock, "that's..." he turned to stare at her, but she stared at the androids. Her counterpart, however, did not meet her eyes; instead, she looked at Jessie and gave a smile that could only be described as mechanical. "It is fortunate," said the other Misty's voice but, if possible, sadistically emotionless. "We do not need to waste time looking for you." Meowth knew he didn't have to tell Galatea to look out for the gun-it wouldn't harm her. Vicious, of course, turned the weapon on the cat. "Android!" he called out to her. She did not respond, but merely narrated a series of numbers into the air, voice soft and hardly audible. "Incoming transmission," she announced again, "Connecting..." Meowth, as little as he enjoyed being a hostage, wanted things to get moving so he could get to James and continue looking for Jessie. "She can't hear you," he prompted Vicious, who felt irritated at Galatea's lack of attention towards him. The man glared at the false woman, eyes resting on the wires that connected her to the computer. Believing he'd found the problem, he ripped them out of the plugs. The plan worked in that he'd gotten her to notice the situation he created. "Android!" he started over, this time with less patience than he'd started with. The gun barrel moved closer to Meowth's charm. "Now, shut down or-" in a flash of purple light, and with a force that propelled him to the wall, Vicious was dead. The pokemon turned to stare, his large mouth hanging open, wide as his eyes. "Is he...?" "Neutralized," Galatea confirmed calmly, the rifle folding itself back into her skin. The purplish illumination of the body seemed to have no effect on her quite basic temper. "As all threats should be." Meowth shifted uncomfortably. That was such a computerized logic-kill your enemy. The fine line between justice and slaughter was snapped buy an unfeeling fake heart that couldn't have cared either way-Galatea only knew to protect her own. She wasn't just as advanced as they came, she was primal as well. "I have received a transmission," Galatea told him, breaking the usual silence that follows a death, even an enemy's. Meowth didn't hear her at first. He just stared at Vicious's radiating corpse and couldn't believe it lay there. He hadn't really toyed with the fantasy of killing the man himself as he had Giovanni-but Vicious had proved to be a strategic asset. And although a madman, he had not done much wrong to Meowth personally. But it wasn't any kind of guilt which shook him, it was surprise. Five years-the man had symbolized five years of servitude spent with only thoughts of revenge. But now Jessie was alive, James was safe, and he had a family to get back to. The vengeful him died right along with Vicious. "Just like that," he muttered. "I never thought you could kill a man like him so fast." "All humans can die quickly or slowly." He hated how impartial she sounded; if he died she'd react the same way. "I have received a transmission from a human named 'Mondo'," Galatea said. A light hand toughed the pokemon's small shoulder to bring his attention back to the present. "Do you wish to reply?" Mondo's ears perked up. "Mondo? You got a transmission? But I thought you got disconnected..." "The plug-in to the computer is completely separate from my transceiver. You wish to reply-yes?" "YES!" Meowth cried, happy to hear from the kid and obviously curious as to what would make him contact an android let along how he'd done it. "What does he have to say?" "He is merely inquiring if I have received his message. I will respond." The cat watched as her eyes cleared once more, and began to pad up and down the room as they waited for a reply. A blinking on the computer screen caught his attention, so he hopped onto the desk and saw it was an incoming videophone call. Meowth often answered calls when Vicious wasn't available, so not wanting to appear suspicious, he turned the monitor away from the body and pressed the receive button. He was surprised, of course, to see the Boss's face on the screen. "Did it work?" Cassidy demanded, all but jumping up and down in her impatience. For a moment, only the clicking of the keyboard keys responded, but then Mondo smiled and nodded energetically. "It did! She says, 'your transmission has been received-what is the nature of your communications?'" "Which means what?" asked Lyn. "She's asking what we want," Butch explained. "So what do we tell her?" "Well for starters let's ask for some help here," Mondo replied, and set down his hands to type again, but Butch jerked the chair backwards. "We wait until we know what side she's on before giving out our location," he warned. Cassidy nodded. "She is in Vicious's base after all, he might have her under his control." "That and if she's not under Vicious's then it's probably the Boss's," Lyn pointed out. "And he doesn't seem to like us that much right now." "Ok..." Mondo frowned for a moment, then began typing. Cassidy leaned over his shoulder to read. Cooldude200: What's the Boss up to? 01: Your inquiry is vague. Restate. Cassidy smirked and stifled a laugh. "Cooldude200?" Mondo blushed. "It's an old KOL (Kanto on Line) account. My sister set it up for me and didn't even ask what name I wanted; she likes pranks." (AN if this cooldude200 actually exists, please don't IM him or her because the name was something I just came up with off the top of my head) Cooldude200: I was curious about what the bomb shelters are for. 01: I have not been informed of them. "Well now what should I ask?" Mondo looked back at the others for suggestions. Butch, who was watching another monitor, lifted his finger to point at a small blotch of lights. "Those other androids reached Vicious's base. Ask if she knows about him." Cooldude200: So what are the other androids doing over there? 01: I have just detected them. I do not know their purpose. 'Boss' would. Do you work with him? "What should I say?" Mondo panicked. "Just tell her the truth," Lyn growled. "There's no use lying to an android, she'll just detect some hole in your fake story and freeze communications." Cooldude200: I'm on a different side. Whose side are you on? 01: For the moment I am on James's side. That will remain unless I have cause to deviate. Cooldude200: I'm a friend of James's. I sent James to my sister, Morada Kokuan 01: I know her. She worked with my programming. Cooldude200: Are they ok? 01: Their condition is unknown, however I have no evidence to support any bad news. Cooldude200: I am on your side-so you can tell me if you know anything about the other androids. 01: I already told you I do not know their purpose. 'Boss' would. Shall I ask him? Cooldude200: how could you do that? 01: He has just called the office I am standing in. "I'm sensing a pattern!" Morada announced, "One bad thing followed by another, again and again and so fourth." "Nice apocalypse," growled Jessie. "Now come up with something useful-what do I do here?" The androids were marching towards the debris pile; only the eyes of most were visible over the water line, although that was receding steadily. "Jessica Miamoto must come with us," announced the voice of the Misty replica, very clear despite a mouth full of water. Ash and Misty stared at the older rocket, trying to decide. Should they hand the woman over or help her fight. She had once been their enemy, but even now she was not their friend-what was she exactly? Was her own welfare worth risking everything? At any rate, at least they could stall. "She can't come yet," Ash called down to the robotic group. "The water's too hot for humans. She'll die." There was a pause, and an electronic murmur emanated from the murky indoor ocean as the androids seemed to converse on the matter. Finally the Misty copy, seeming to be the chosen representative, spoke again. "We will wait until the water leaves the room. Then she must come or be terminated." Misty gave an exasperated sigh. "At least that buys us some time," she said in a bit of relief, then turned to Jessie. "What do they want you for? I thought it was the android they're after." Jessie stared with a solemn anger into the water, which had now dropped to the chin of the shortest droid. "Just...some things I know." "Weeelll," said Morada, sounding ever so slightly more cheerful than the present situation should allow. She began fishing through her shirt and quickly produced her cellular phone. "At least one good thing comes out of this-I couldn't get any reception cause of the whole basement thing, but the androids all have built in antenna so now I'm back in business!" she smiled and pressed the speed dial. Jessie glared at the young woman, then at the androids, and then back to Morada again. "We're facing evil walking computers," she pointed out bitterly. "Who you gonna call, Bill Gates?" They waited for a little bit, until Morada finally conceded that the other line she'd tried to reach was dead. "I'll call up his IP, see if I can get the voice system on the compute-YES! It worked! Hiya bro, what's goin on? Think you could kinda rescue me and some other people? Uh huh...uh huh...well that sucks. You did? Uh huh...yeah...Well get her on voice uplink, dummy!" Misty stared at the doctor and the phone that was big enough to be from the 90s. "What are you talking about and who with?" The other one covered the receiver with her hand and faced the rest of the group. "Mondo-apparently he's locked in a bomb shelter with Butch, Cassidy, and Lyn while talking with Galatea at a chat room on a private node." The others could only blink in astonishment, and Morada went back to her conversation for a moment before resurfacing with more information. "Apparently James is at my car somewhere outside the place, and Galatea and Meowth are right upstairs!" Jessie's eyes widened for a moment before she regained what composure she could. So this was what the expression "so close yet so far away" meant. They were all right within reach-but an android had slapped her hand away before she could even touch the vision of her friends. "Ok and here's a biggie," the doctor spoke up once more. "Vicious is dead, and the Boss called up his office and how he and Galatea are having some kinda conversation-we've got a voice uplink, I'll pump up the volume so you can hear everything." (Author's note: The following scene format is something you see in movies a lot, and even in books sometimes, but it's not really something people write into fanfics. The reason? It's hard! And a tad confusing if there isn't a handy dandy author's note to explain it to you : ) ok so here's how it goes: Galatea and Giovanni are talking to each other so of course Meowth and Domino who are in the rooms they are in can hear the conversation. Now, Mondo is also connected to Galatea and can also hear the conversation, thus Butch and Cassidy and Lyn can too, follow? Now since Morada is on the phone with Mondo and the volume is turned up high, she and Jessie and Misty and Ash can also hear the same conversation between Galatea and Giovanni-it's really very simple folks and kinda cool. The scenes are blended into each other because all the characters present can hear the conversation even if they are in separate places. Characters in one setting cannot interact with characters in another setting, but they can all hear Galatea and Giovanni-get it? You will when you read. It's really a lot simpler to do it this way rather than continuously switching from one of four settings to another) "Prototype 01," Giovanni called to her, slowly and carefully so her voice identification would be sure to work. As far as he could tell she had not moved an inch, standing completely still at the center of the room. Meowth had turned the screen so they could face each other, lifeless clear eyes staring blankly into cold black ones. "Do you know who I am?" Some kind of a reddish light blinked behind her eyelashes for an instant as a symbol of recognition. "You are the one designated as 'Boss'," she replied evenly. "The man with the highest authority over my programming as it stood when activated." "Correct." Domino was watching him, noticing that her Boss was smiling ever so slightly. "I have an order for you to carry out." Galatea stood motionless, waiting for him to continue. "You are to shut down for a little while," continued Giovanni. "I have sent other androids to bring you back to me to repair your programming." "My programming is not in need of maintenance." Everyone listening was considerably surprised to hear her say that. It wasn't the fact that her systems were running that shocked them however, it was the fact that the Boss gave her a direct order, which she did not obey but contradicted. Giovanni, obviously irked but not thrown off, remained stiff and repeated his command. "Alterations are required. You will shut down." "What alterations are needed?" Jessie glared at the phone. "He can override this and force her to take commands," she muttered more to herself than to the others. "But I wonder," said the doctor quietly. "If the humanity program gave her complete free will or just more power over minor decisions. I can't predict who's side she'll end up on." "She'll stay with us!" insisted Ash defiantly. "We're her friends!" "Computers don't have friends, Ash," reminded Misty. "They have owners." "True," Jessie agreed. "But pretty much anyone can sit down at a computer and control it, owner or not Giovanni tried to keep his face straight, but underneath the table his fists were clenched. Domino backed away a few steps, unsure if the low angry sound in the cabin was the whirl of the helicopter's propeller or the growl of her boss. "Has anyone altered your programming since you were activated?" the Boss asked the android, not bothering to answer the other's question first. "Morada Kokuan has altered it," replied 01. Giovanni tried to feign patience. "And what has she done?" he asked. "She activated my interracial subroutines so I could communicate with other humans," the android began to list. "She uploaded more 'every-day' vocabulary into my system. She removed the pausing system that kept me on scan mode during conflict and activated my defense subroutines." There was a long pause before the Boss spoke again. "Is the humanity program activated?" "It is activated, and has proceeded to break through the firewall." Mondo swallowed hard. "Does that mean--?" "It means when it's completely broken through the firewall she can probably access her personality program, which has been adapting as she went along. When it surfaces it'll be nothing like the original Jessie," Butch answered. "Maybe better, but maybe worse." Cassidy glared at something in her own imagination. "I'm betting worse." Domino kept watching her employer. Very few people could see nervousness in the face of a man like that-even she could never detect it when it should have been there-but now he looked slightly...apprehensive was the only word. "And has the personality program been activated?" he asked 01. Her eyes narrowed for a moment as she did some kind of internal scan. "It was activated once, for approximately fifteen seconds," she answered. "And what happened during those fifteen seconds?" "It prevented the murder of James." Domino twitched a little. That machine-how could she! Was there, even now, some program swimming around her electronic brain that wanted the Boss's enemies alive? And in that case, had that part of her turned against Team Rocket? Giovanni continued to interrogate. He knew that this creation of his had started to go out of his control, just like mewtwo, and that was something he planned to correct as soon as she gave him all the information. "And then what happened to this program?" he asked. Once again, the eyes of the android glazed over. *** Firewall 100% eradicated. All systems running at peak efficiency. :: It was a poet who said this :: "I'm nobody!" accessing personality program... "Who are you?" Unable to access personality program. Reason- unknown. Diagnostics project that all programs are operational. "Are you nobody too?" *** "I do not know." James tapped his hand impatiently on the dashboard of the ugly blue car. Where were those two? It shouldn't take a killer android too long to grab a cat and go-something must have gone wrong. Collin seemed subdued enough; Doris could handle things if he went back inside to look......damn, she was drifting in and out of consciousness. "Hey!" he called, flicking the woman between the eyes to stop her for falling asleep. "Stay awake, you lost too much blood." "Ngghh..." Doris groaned, and shifted position with her back to James. He shook her again, but still her eyelids kept drooping. And then something clamped hard onto his shoulder. James turned around to see Colin, laying on his back in the back seat of the car and facing upwards. He didn't look at James, or at anything in particular, but his hand was holding James's shoulder tightly. "If you let her die," he said, "I'll kill Jessie. That'll teach you the lesson you need." James rolled his eyes. He know the crazy man was serious about his treats, but he really didn't have time to listen. He couldn't keep Doris awake, threat or not! Her willpower had died, not his. "I'll get us to an emergency room," he conceded with a sigh. "If meowth and Galatea can't find me when they come then I hope they know enough to run away from this place as fast as possible." He turned the key and the engine came to a somewhat half-life, making the usual pathetic whirling sound. James pressed on the gas pedal, but the car didn't move. Pressing as hard as he could, all he could hear was a sloshing sound. Irritated, he looked over the side of the convertible only to find the cak lodged in some kind of mud bank that had obviously not been there twenty minutes ago. "What the--?" James glared down at the mud, and was surprised to see it emendated a little steam. "Hot water's coming from somewhere-" he called back to Collin, making sure the man didn't think he was just running away. "I'm going to check it out and see if I can stop it before it drowns the car." He called out Wheexing and Victribeel from their pokeballs. "Help my pokemon push the car out of this puddle-I'll be right back," he finished there, and James turned and sloshed through the mud in the direction the water was coming from. He didn't even have time to look back and see if Collin had even reacted to the situation. He hadn't parked very far from the back entrance to the building, which was the place he suspected the water flowed from. The small flood's source, however, came up much faster than he'd expected. Having to stop short and still almost falling in, James discovered a large hole in the ground. It was, ever so slightly, radiating a purplish glow-a dead giveaway of an android's responsibility. He half expected to see Galatea near by, perhaps she'd made her escape and had merely been unable to locate him in the forest, but for some reason he dejected that theory. She'd have found him easily, so where was she? The hole in the ground was definitely the source. It appeared to break into the underground sewer system that the Boss had set up so that his employees could actually use toilets and have showers. But apparently the flow of water was too much for the piping, and as it rushed in a river through the sewer tubes some would rise out of the newly carved manhole and sweep into the forest. James stared down into the murky river, wondering what had caused such a thing. It wasn't as if he could dive in and see what was going in-for one thing the water temperature came so high that already a fog was forming between the trees as the new lake met the chilly air. It didn't look as if the water would stop any time soon, so James decided to head back and see if he could get the car out before they'd have to sail Doris to the hospital. But just before he turned to leave, something emerged from the fountain. It was Misty-no, those metal things covering her...--an android in her image! Soaking wet and not seeming to care about it, a replica of the Twerp climbed out of the hole, easily overtaking the tremendous current that might pull her further down until she washed up in the reservoir. James knew he should have run just then, but he felt too surprised to move quickly enough and she spotted him. "Human," she identified him. "A human who has betrayed Team Rocket." James gulped, it was the Galatea incident all over again. But this time, it felt like a situation more to be feared. Galatea, unlike her mold, looked upon the world with a passive impartiality, whereas this android of Misty's design held many expressions in her copied face. Her current expression looked at him with extreme distaste. "You are fortunate-by human concepts of good luck," she said slowly. Perhaps the water had damaged her a little, for there was a sort of electronic tremor in her voice not unlike the cyborgs on television. "I have prior and more important orders to carry out, I do not have time for you." She turned her back on him and walked in the direction of the front entrance. "You do not have time to go far anyway," she added without looking behind at him. "We shall take care of you on the march back." James stood still for a moment, quite speechless for obvious reasons. But as the steaming water started to work through the soles of his shoes, he snapped out of his nervous daze and ran back to the car. "Ask her about the bomb shelters!" Cassidy insisted, looming over Mondo's shoulder and threatening to take the keyboard away. "And find out why the Boss's taking prisoners!" Butch frowned. "Won't it sound a little suspicious if an android asks those kinds of questions to her master?" "She's created enough suspicions on her own!" Lyn reminded him. "At least we'll have the humanity program to blame for curiosity-the Boss'll never suspect we're whispering in her ear." Cassidy nodded in agreement. "And even if he does," she muttered under her breath, "we're pretty screwed anyway." Mondo heaved a sigh and began typing. Jessie stared down at the water-almost past the waists of the androids, soon he excuse would be over and she'd either have to fight or come with them. "Are we still planless?" she asked the general company. "Pretty much," conceded Misty. "Hey Morada, think the android'll kill us once they have Jessie?" The doctor shrugged. "Thanks a lot. You're a huge help." "Hey guys," called Ash from a few feet away. "Is it just me or are there less of them then when we started?" The group rushed to the edge of their junk pile island and counted. Then they realized that they'd never counted before any went missing in the first place, so subtraction wouldn't help. But finally Ash noticed who had left. "Misty, where's you're shadow?" he asked in an attempt to be clever that clearly came into the category of wrong place wrong time. She glared at him and punched him in the nose. "I wonder where that thing went off to," Morada murmured. "But I'm more concerned with why it went off. Something must have got its attention." "Who cares," snapped Jessie. "We need to get out of here and it's gotta be fast!" She spun around and turned on Ash. "You have been in some ridiculous situations-most of which were my ideas-and got out just fine. DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!" Ash crossed his arms and stuck his nose in the air. "Well excuuuuse me if I don't have a reserved plan for escaping killer androids!" Jessie would have made some sort of a comeback, but a sudden explosion (yes, another one) put the conversation on hold. Actually, it wasn't so much an explosion as it was a stream of fire bursting into the air. It originated from under the scrap metal platform, from the place where the door was blocked, and out of the hole it produced came none other than Tracey, Brock, and a group of pokemon of all types. "Pikachu!!" Ash shouted, running up to meet his pokemon in one of those hugs that happens after every separation longer than fifteen minutes. "And everyone! I'm so glad you're ok!" he finally acknowledged his other pokemon and two human friends. This resulted in a very awkward group hug, one which Misty ended up in while the rocket women stood on the sidelines and stared at the spectacle as if they were in a zoo. Meanwhile, half the androids had climbed out of the water to examine the scene. Two moved to block the newly created exit. "We no longer require to wait for the water to drop," said one. "Jessica Miamoto will come with us now." Jessie froze, jerking backward a little and forming a muttled obscenity in her throat. Part of her wanted to dive into the boiling water and take her chances, another part wanted to see how far she could make it past the two guards before they killed her, and yet the remaining part wanted to go with them and stay alive. But what was alive? Going back to that lab, sedated and only half conscious of what doctors, scientists, and even passing agents were doing to her? After five years of hell...greeted just a few days ago by a taste of freedom... No, she couldn't go back. Not even to stay alive at the chance to see her friends again. Even James would understand that kind of decision. "I'm not going with you," she shouted, more forcefully than her weary attitude had expected. She stepped closer to the water, visibly ready to throw herself in if the androids came any closer, something which shocked everyone. But to her surprise, and maybe the surprise of everyone else, it wasn't the machines who spoke first. It was Ash, and it wasn't something spoken it was something shouted. She didn't hear exactly what it was but in a bright yellow light of a familiar thunderbolt, the soaking wet androids sparked and stood paralyzed in their spots. For a moment, nobody said anything. But then Morada, the queen of tact, broke the silence when she yelled, "Aw man! That fried the reception-cell phone's out of order." The obvious outburst caused the group to stare at her. "Um...anyway..." she shifted uncomfortably, "Let's get out of here." Everyone agreed to that and the odd party set off. Giovanni was starting to lose patience with the prototype. He was, after all, on a tight schedule. Any minute now his team of androids should barge in and capture her, so what was taking so long? "Sir," 01 suddenly spoke. "I wish to know the reason for my creation. Why was I made as a copy? Why are the original humans the others of my kind were replacing locked inside bomb shelters in Mahogany Town?" The Boss would have done a double take, if he'd been that kind of person. He had no idea how she'd known about that, but as long as 01 refused to shut down he'd have to keep her in that place until the other androids came. Answering the question was the best form of stalling he could think of. "Very well," he said slowly. "Your curiosity is unexpected, but I will answer your question-although I don't know if you could understand." Back in the bomb shelter, Mondo and company leaned close to the speakers, hoping to finally get the information that prompted the whole android mess that had ruined their lives. "Imagine this, prototype," the Boss began. "Imagine you are a human being. Imagine you, as a human, wish to murder two people." "It has been assumed," Galatea responded evenly. "Now pretend that you have killed the first man, but the police know that you have done so and have come after you-what do you do?" She paused, assessing the situation in her usual logistic manner. "As a human I would be weak and unable to defeat the police force. I would confess to the crime to prompt a more lenient sentence in court." Giovanni shook his head. "But that wouldn't get the second man killed, would it?" She conceded that he was correct. "So now imagine this: you have, at your disposal, a copy of yourself. Not a twin, more like a clone. That clone could take the blame for you, and while it is in prison you would be free to kill the other man and escape without even being named a suspect because the police think you are already incarcerated." "A clone requires many years to germinate," Galatea reminded him. "Human clones have not survived more than three years in an enclosure. At no point in time could the clone and the original look exactly the same." The Boss nodded. "True," he said, "But an android could." Lyn slammed a fist on the table, shaking her cup of coffee until it fell although nobody seemed to notice. "So that's why the bastard's doing it," she growled. "He's gonna have the androids do something then put the blame on us!" Butch involuntarily grabbed hold of Cassidy's arm. "And then the androids are free do reek whatever havoc they want." Mondo bit his lower lip. "Why not just send the androids to prison and let us go reek havoc?" "Isn't it obvious?" Cassidy replied with an angry calm set in her voice. "Humans get old. Human's get hurt. Humans leave the Team when they don't want to be loyal anymore." "Don't fool yourself, kid," Butch snapped at Mondo. "We're completely expendable." "I see your point," said Galatea. "Strategically, androids are superior. But if it was mere murder you wanted, less androids would be needed, and bomb shelters would not be required. You must elaborate on your explanation." Giovanni tapped his fingers on the desk, not wanting to give away his plans but knowing he needed to stall the android until the others came for her. "Let me explain it this way," he finally said. "I am a human being and I have a natural desire for power and territory." "The alpha male of a clan of mammals," 01 noted, sounding like something off the nature channel. Smirking, the Boss nodded slightly. "I suppose you could put it that way," he said. "The other androids know my plan, you should too. You will be part of it-you will be useful. What purpose can you really serve for that James? With him you are merely superfluous." (AN: as mentioned in last chapter, superfluous means useless) That last part seemed to spark something within the android's mind. Her face, momentarily, bore a different and unknown expression that Giovanni didn't have time to notice before it melded back into its solemn blankness. "The plan is this," he began. "I wish to control Jhoto and Kanto and I will do this with the androids. Once you are safely in my possession, I will give the order for a group of my androids to march from Viridian City to Mahogany Town, destroying everything in their path. The human counterparts for these androids are being stored in the bomb shelters underneath the Team Rocket headquarters, and when the androids arrive they will replace themselves with the humans and hide in the shelters themselves. This way, when the police arrive and see a group of Team Rocket members at the scene of the crime, they will arrest those people. Then the second part of my plan will begin. Nobody on the outside knows that I lead Team Rocket. In fact, the unsuspecting population has just elected me mayor of Viridian City. (AN: ha ha, I'm mean, aren't I? I actually did mention Giovanni was running for mayor, but that was waaaaay back in one of the earliest chapters and I only mentioned it once so you probably all forgot. I kinda wanted it to sneak back up on you ;) ) Because of the recent tragedy the androids will cause, the Mayor will be given more authority in order to bring the city back to life. Team Rocket will be looked upon as a tremendous threat and I, as the only official who can fight them-so it will seem to the public-will rise to power." Galatea stood silent for a moment, listening to the voices in her head (Mondo and the others) who were having a spat of curses. "It is an efficient plan, capable of succeeding," she finally said. "But you do not require my services for this-why have you put it on hold to wait for my return to you?" "The firewall," Giovanni answered without hesitation. "I need that from you." Once again, she stood quietly for several second. "I possess the needed technology for this?" she asked, trying to confirm what she'd already calculated. Giovanni nodded, but before he could say anything the door opened to reveal the android copy of Misty. "Prototype 01," she said. "You will come with me to 'Boss'." Galatea turned to look at the new android. Both sets of eyes that stared into each other were equally dead and clear. She then kneeled down on the ground next to meowth. "Am I superfluous?" she asked the pokemon, whispering so the Boss would not hear. "The people who found me and activated me-they have been working towards a goal. Have I been helping with this or am I an inconvenience? Am I superfluous?" Meowth stared at her, obviously confused. "Are you super-what? I don't even know what that means." She opened her mouth to give the definition, but then decided not to bother. "It is irrelevant," she said. "I have reached a decision. You have five minutes to run." Meowth continued to stare at her. Run from what? But then he realized that Galatea had an internal clock that meant five minutes exactly and the clock was ticking-so he ran out the door as fast as he could, down the stairs and into the forest. "What's she want him to run for?" Cassidy asked. Mondo shook his head. "I dunno..." he said. "She broke the connection---I can't hear anything else." "Well check her system scans," Butch reminded him. "See if you can tell if anything's happened." Mondo began typing frantically for a minute or so, and then froze stiff, staring at the scrolling numbers with his mouth handing open. Surprised by this, the others stared at the screen. "God..." Mondo's eyes widened. "I never thought she'd do that..." "Do what?" Lyn, Cassidy, and Butch demanded at once, then turned to stare at the screen once more. Minutes ago, the monitor had shown the android's programming as millions of sets of 0s and 1s, but now the codes were transforming. The 1s were quickly being deleted in favor of the other numbers, leaving a screen full of represented nothingness in their wake. "She's self destructing." ::Is this suicide?:: No. This is tactics. In order to destroy one's life, one must be alive to begin with. This is not suicide. ::Why do humans kill themselves?:: Because they are not happy. ::What is "happy" ?:: It is the most important thing for a human. :: What is the most important thing for someone like me?:: A machine is a tool built for the convenience of humans. A machine is made to be helpful-if it is not, it is useless. A machine cannot be happy-it does not need to be. A machine has no most important thing-it will never be a human's most important thing. ::Am I able... to want to be happy?:: Machines do not want. Want is an emotion; machine's are built to perform an action. ::Then this action, this tactic, is important? Will help the humans find their most important thing?:: Giovanni watched the prototype with a sideways stare. For a few minutes now, she'd remained still, matching the other android in a staring contest of sorts. She hadn't made any move to go with the android, but neither did she make any move to fight it. But frankly, the Boss was starting to feel bored with the proceedings. "Android!" he shouted at her through the videophone. "I must know right now, who are you loyal to?" She turned her head a little so her glassy eyes could stare into his own. And she smiled. It wasn't a happy smile, it wasn't Jessie's classic smirk, it was some new kind of expression that seemed to say "I've accepted how things will end-you won't accept it, and I'll enjoy that". That wasn't what she really said to him of course. "Baba Dioum said this," she replied instead of the rebuke he'd half expected. " 'In the end, we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught.' " The Rocket Boss glared back at her for a moment. "What does that mean?" That weird smile of hers grew bigger. She hadn't shown any teeth with it, but the corners of her mouth and the arch of her eyebrows displayed more emotion than what had been there moments before. "You humans like to analyze things you claim you know about," she said. "I leave it to you-twist it into whatever truth you like, it means nothing to me." Before Giovanni could respond, and just before the screen went blank, he caught sight of the android's body illuminating. Then everything transformed to a destructive white as it all exploded. James had fallen asleep in the waiting room of the hospital, stretched over three uncomfortable chairs. Although the circumstances were undesirable, he was at the very least happy to finally get some rest. He'd fallen into such a deep slumber that he didn't witness the hospital come alive around him, nor did he hear the loud cries of the pokemon until one of them jumped on his stomach. "James!" the intruder shouted in his face, forcing him out of a needed nap. "N?" he opened an eye to find one other eye staring back. It was Meowth, half his head strapped in bandages. "Meowth!" he shouted, relieved that his friend had made it out...sort of ok. "What happened to you? What are you doing here?" The cat sighed. "ER's the new Pokemon Centere--really long story-how long have yous been here? It's been at least three hours since the explosion, were yous hurt?" "Explosion?" James repeated, bolting straight up. "What happened?" "See for your self!" replied Meowth, picking up the remote control and turning on the lounge TV. On the screen, in fact on every channel, was a picture of the smoldering remains of Vicious's base. Around what had once been the building stood at least three teams of squirtle evolutions and their firefighting captains, trying to keep a forest fire from starting in the Ilex. "What happened?" James stood up quickly. "Did anyone survive?" he demanded, giving his pokemon friend a desperate look. Meowth waved a paw in the air in a motion to try and calm the man. "Relax. Dey's all okay-well not some of Vicious's employees-but all of ours humans is all right. Just da humans though." James blinked. "What does that mean?" "DA explosion," Meowth explained. "Da bomb dat made it was Galatea." The man looked obviously surprised. "I thought she was indestructible." "She destroyed herself." James was quiet for a moment. If Galatea was gone, than the firewall was too and the android danger would no longer be a problem. "So...she saved all of us." "Yeah..." nodded the pokemon. "She did." ~~ The destruction of Vicious's base was immediately followed by a rush to establish some sort of communication link between all the parties involved. The police knew nothing of the androids, and all the rockets involved were able to persuade Ash and friends that things would be best if it stayed that way. But of course, the police would be required to do the clean up work. They went out to Seafoam Island to bring back the rest of the missing persons, and in the meantime Morada took a motorcycle that vicious would no longer need and rode over to Mahogany Town to get everyone out of the bomb shelters. They disposed of the inactive androids before the police came searching for stolen pokemon. When the Jennys did arrive, they found nobody connected to the resistance saving those injured in the battle, ditched there for the police to take to the hospital. And of course, there were the rocket scientists locked in the shelters to be taken away. Basically, a lot of the usual post-disaster-organization stuff took place (which is pretty irreverent to the plot unless you're one of those people who desperately requires a logical and detailed scene switch, and for those who feel the extreme need for storyline closure). ~~ Misty pulled back the sliding door and ran into the room, making such a racket that Jessie was awake even before the girl pulled the blanket off of her. "They're better be a fire, Twerp," she growled, swinging her fist but missing. "I can't find Ash," Misty explained, tossing the sheets back at Jessie's head. From her feet, Pikachu made a distraught sounding noise. "So? He's around-what do you need him for this second and why is it worth waking me up?" Misty shook her head. "He took that android suicide thing pretty hard," she started. "I tried to talk to him about it but he got all defensive and everything and now he won't even come to the party-Morada is probably the least sensitive person I know, and since you know about Galatea almost as well, you have to talk to him!" "Pikachu!" Jessie glared at the twitching teenager and the mouse accompaniment for several seconds before responding. "I have just the cure." "What is it?" She took a deep breath and leaned close to Misty's face. "SLEEP!" she screamed in the startled girl's ear. "And eat something while you're at it! Get some sense in you-we've all had a hard few days, and some of us here, a hard few years. Rest. Food. Bathing. Nobody's going to be psychologically sound without the basics." And with that, she flopped back down on the mattress and threw the covers over her face. "Fine!" Misty snapped back. "I guess I shouldn't have expected YOU to care about anyone besides yourself." She walked back out with a lot of unnecessary stomping, and slammed the door shut behind her. "Pi-ka!" Jessie lay on her back for what seemed like a while, but was actually thirty seconds to a minute, and waited for sleep to come back. "Damn it!" she finally growled, knowing she wouldn't get any rest now. Pulling the covers back once more, she climbed out of bed, her tired muscles hating her with every step. "Now wait just a minute!" she shouted, opening the door and finding Misty still standing right outside. The girl smirked. "I thought that might get your attention." "Look, Twerp," Jessie began, obviously trying to keep her anger in check. "What makes you think I can help your little friend?" she asked. "Don't you think you should just let him solve his problems in a way that works for him?" Misty shook his head. "That's just it," she tried to explain. "Our problem's usually just solve themselves-I don't know what to say to him when it's something like this!" Jessie frowned. What possessed these people to solve every problem they came across? And what idiot hand of fate let them do it? For a life like that, an unsolvable problem might very well mark the end of things. "You can't change something that's already happened." Misty stomped her foot on the ground. "I know that! Tell him! He's still trying to make sense of it all." "Of course he is," muttered Jessie. "Finding out that bad things happen to good androids must be a real shocker." "Can't you be serious!?" Misty felt her face turn red; getting this woman to see the point was harder than she'd expected. "I just thought-- Ash can't understand why she'd kill herself, and you- back there with the water...-- I just thought you'd understand!" Misty immediately regretted mentioning what had happened back at that basement; Jessie looked angry, and not the kind of fleeting frustration she usually had-actual anger, actual pain. "What do YOU think you know?" the woman snapped, hand half raised like she'd strike. "You're just thirteen!" "And you're twenty-five!" Misty shouted back, gathering her willpower to shakily match the glare coming at her. But Jessie suddenly changed. Her mouth dropped open a little and her hand just dangled in the air for a moment before she slowly put it down. "That's right..." she said softly, cracking a kind of smile and laughing a little-but she didn't look or sound too happy, just melancholy in a way. "Fine, fine," she turned around and headed down the hall. "I'll shove some sense into him." Jessie walked down the hallway of the old hotel. It was the Japanese-style kind that covered Trainer's Village, opened early to give all the "P.O.W." refugees a place to stay and celebrate their freedom while their families came to collect them. As she neared the dining hall, the noise from the party grew closer and more annoying. Normally she liked parties, but she had to get through that room to get outside and she wasn't looking forward to it. Still though, she pushed back the door and tried to make her way through the makeshift party as fast as she could. Why people wanted to have a party right after their rescue was something that Jessie couldn't quite understand-she figured they'd want rest or a phone to call up people with or something like that, but probably it was best if, for the moment, they all pretended like nothing had happened. The getting drunk portion was at least reasonable. As she walked towards the patio door, she could feel the eyes on her. People staring, and whispering... The police had noted Jessie's involvement with the resistance movement, and called her a hero-although she frankly didn't appreciate it. But then there were those others that didn't care what the police said, she was from Team Rocket and the reason they'd been miserable for five years. "Hey!" a hand grabbed her shoulder; it was Morada. "Good news," smiled the doctor, and Jessie noticed that in her hand-or arm, rather-Mondo was in a headlock. "One of the Jennys...um...I think it was the one from Cinnabar Island but you'll have to ask the that weird, eyeless guy over there cause he can tell them apart..." "Focus," said Jessie. "I can't breathe," said Mondo. "Oh yeah," she dropped her little brother, who landed on the floor with an unfortunate clatter. "They arrested a rocket agent and it turns out he had your-Arbok was it? And that Warblefet thingy-shipping them over, oughta be here in the mornin' along with Misty's pokemon." A wave of relief rushed through her-she hadn't even realized how worried she'd been until it was gone. "Thanks..." she said, then looked around a little more. Cassidy and Butch had bolted straight away, liking the hero attention even less than Jessie did-perhaps because if everyone knew what had really happened they'd be treated much differently. Lyn had gone off to visit Deija, who was alive but hospitalized for a minor concussion. Raquel was starting to scare people near the punchbowl, and, "Where's Elsie?" "Eh?" the doctor blinked. "Who?" From the floor, Mondo stuck up an arm and pointed to Elsie and Brock, who were staring at each other, babbling incoherently (Tracey was nearby, sketching it all). "It's been a half an hour and they still haven't gotten their names out." Jessie rolled her eyes. "That covers attendance," she muttered. Many people tend to underestimate the actual height of the Indigo Plateu, but it is, actually, an extremely tall landmark. Ash Ketchum was leaning on the railing near its edge, staring out to the Viridian Forest with an excellent view of the enormous pillar of smoke. He seemed entranced by it, but maybe it was a rare case of deep thinking, but whichever it was he was too absorbed to notice Jessie until she was right next to him, leaning against the bar as well with her back to the fire. "What do you want?" Ash muttered. It didn't sound too disguisable for his face rested in his hands, immobilizing the jaw. Jessie made a noise. "It's not what I want-actually it is," she replied. "I want to go to sleep, your overly-talkative shadow won't let me, she wants you at that shindig for the psychopaths, so get going before my sleep deprivation drives me insane and I push you off this cliff." "I'm not going." "Avoidance. Real mature," she smiled in that old, twisted way. Ash's face visibly contorted and he quickly stood up straight to glare her in the eye. "Avoidance? We'll you'd know about that, huh?" Jessie smiled a little wider. "That's the annoying energy I was looking for-you want to scream at me, go ahead. You know I won't care." He opened his mouth wide, and it did look like he'd scream, but instead he shut his jaw and stared angrily at the ground. "If I hadn't stopped those androids you would have killed yourself, wouldn't you?" She didn't answer for a moment, leaning back to enjoy the first wind she'd felt in a long time. "Yeah," she finally replied. "I would have." Ash stared at her as if looking would give him some kind of an idea as to what went on in her mind. "Why?" "Relief...maybe a little bit of pride..." Suddenly he was angry at her-furious in fact. "But what about your friends? Your pokemon? Everyone who was working so hard to save you? That's not a fair decision!" She was still smiling. Why was she smiling? It didn't look like she was happy... he hated that-couldn't she look how she felt? "Life's not fair," she said. Ash found himself looking over the past years of his life, trying to remember as much as he could, but there was nothing in his memory that would provoke him into that sort of thing. She must really have been miserable. "Galatea didn't get sad," he said after a long silence. "Why would she just blow herself up like that for no reason?" "There were plenty of reasons," Jessie contradicted. "She found out that she was the key in a plan for world domination, that she could have been used to hurt a lot of people, and she made the decision to stop the Boss the only way she knew how." Ash shrugged. "The Doctor said that 'the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few', she can be pretty deep sometimes." "Actually I think it was Spock who said that." (AN: ST2, Wrath of Kahn, I just had to do that) "Figures. She didn't seem so philosophical when she told me that Galatea was gone and asked if I was allergic to Kiwi in the same sentence." Ash turned back to stare at the fire. It looked as if finally the blaze was under control. "She didn't have to do that for us," he said. "She could have fought off that Boss of yours. She didn't have to kill herself." "Well look at it this way," Jessie said with a tired breath. "She wasn't really alive-" "SHUT UP!" snapped Ash, anger returning. "That's what Misty said-but Galatea was human enough! She could have been human if she had the chance." "Look," Jessie retorted, giving him a slap in the forehead. "YOU wanted her to be human, and I didn't know her but I think she went along because it's what she thought she should do but, really, she just wanted to be useful." Ash didn't say anything, he just stared at the ground until the sound of a sickly car, puttering up the road broke his concentration and he looked up. "I think I will go to the party after all," he said quickly. "Bye!" Ash half waved and made a beedrill line toward the hotel. Jessie looked on in confusion, then turned to see what had made Ash suddenly decide she needed privacy. Just beside the road to the patio was a light blue giant blender on wheels, coughing up smoke and making noises, and climbing out of the thing was Meowth, who scampered inside very fast, and James. The trip up the plateau was just the last straw for the rolling scrapmetal, and the car died right there. Doris's bloodstain on the seat might as well have marked the bleeding of the Cadillac, that thing wouldn't run again. "But technically we did get to the top of the cliff so you owe me five," Meowth pointed out, opening the door before the smoke coming out of the radio killed them. "I'm not paying Morada for this," James muttered. "I'll bet she's gonna charge be for that hole in her cabin but this I refuse to pay for." Meowth nodded a little, and looked around just in time to see the Twerp running inside the old hotel, and then turning a little to see why. "I gotta find a sandbox," he said quickly, rushing towards the doors and the obvious activity inside. James stared at the building; he wasn't in a partying kind of mood, he just wanted a meal and some sleep. Still the night air felt good, and he remembered liking the view from the plateau last time he'd visited. But when he looked up, the view wasn't what he noticed, it was Jessie. They stared at each other for a moment, as if they hadn't expected to actually be in the same place, but then he ran up and hugged her tightly, forcing Jessie's first words of reunion to be "That kinda hurts." "Sorry," he apologized, releasing his grip but not moving his arms. She felt warm-and not like an overheated microwave, but actually humanly warm. This wasn't Galatea-obviously-this woman's hair was shorter and her skin was paler from being out of the sunlight so long. This one looked tired and hungry, and covered in dust, but this one was Jessie. This one was better. He hugged her again, lighter this time. "I hate irony." "It hates you too," she laughed a little into his jacket. "I run around for days looking everywhere but I don't find you till it's over," he muttered. "It sucked." "Yeah," she breathed. It looked like she might fall asleep right there but she shifted and stood up straight again, staring at him and his face that no longer looked like a ten-year-old's. When her analysis was complete, she cracked a sort of depressed half smile. "You grew up pretty fast without me," she observed. "You don't look to different," he countered, not sure if she was insulting or complementing him, but it seemed more like she was sad for missing something. She nodded a little, but seemed distracted. "What's wrong." Her eyebrows furrowed. "Lots of things..." she replied. "For one, I turned thirty a few weeks ago. I'm officially too old for this sort of thing-" she motioned to the dying fire visible from the cliff side. James laughed. "Good," he said, squeezing her shoulder. "I don't want to do it again." Jessie smiled. "Guess not," she murmured. There was a long, but very comfortable silence that followed, until Jessie spoke up again. "So what trouble have you been getting into while I've been away?" she asked in sporting good nature. "Nothing really," James started to explain his circuit of odd jobs but was cut off. "LORDY!" someone shouted from inside the hotel, and in a matter of seconds Morada had ran out the door and up to the two. "YOU!" she shouted at Jessie, pointing her finger at the woman. "Just how many of you ARE THERE? WHO is that on the tv!?" "Wha--?" Jessie blinked. James looked confused for a split second, then it looked as if he'd remembered something. "Uh-oh." They all gathered around the television, just as the commercial ended and the news came on. "This is what I'm talking about," Morada explained, jutting her finger at the screen. It wasn't the usual scene of Vicious's dilapidated base, but instead the landing site of a helicopter-a helicopter with a bright red R on the side and surrounded by police. "Here I have Officer Jenny to explain what has happened," said the newswoman, holding the microphone to Jenny's face. "Well we are all relieved and surprised to have found out the identity of the Team Rocket gang," the policewoman began, pointing to none other than Giovanni being put into handcuffs. "He will be in jail probably for life," Jenny continued, "although I must say I was very shocked to find out that Viridian's mayor was a crime lord-he apparently even ran the gym some years back. Such a skilled man didn't have to turn to crime but justice will be served!" "Um...right," said the reporter. "It turns out we owe this man's capture to a civilian-oh here she is, I think we can get an interview." In the background, they could hear Giovanni shout, "I'll go quietly, just keep her away from me!" and next to him Domino was screaming something similar. "Now Miss," the reporter said cheerily, handing another microphone to a woman. "Can you tell our audience what happened?" "Of course," smiled Jessibelle, looking extremely pleased with all the attention. "Why these awfully rude hooligans kidnapped me and locked me up in the lavatory, but luckily I was able to escape and when I saw the squad cars heading down the road I thought that I should make them land here so I fought them off using the rope they tied me with!" "Amazing!" the reporter cried as someone off camera handed her something. "Is this the rope? It looks more like a whip to me..." Jessibelle sweatdropped. "Well, ah, they ARE criminals," she stammered. "They're bound to have that sort of stuff around." Morada turned off the television. "WELL?" She didn't get an answer though, for the whole room was in a shocked stupor. "So..." Ash finally spoke up. "JESSIBELLE saves the day?" "Looks like it," replied Misty. James sighed. "Like I said, I hate irony." The end! Not really, here comes the oh-so-shiny... EPILOGUE! The party had finally ended; all the guests had given in to their weary state and gone to sleep. Mondo stuck his head into the dining hall, looking for his sister and finding her hunched over her laptop. "Morada?" he asked sleepily, rubbing his eyes. "What are you still doing up? I went to saw goodnight to you but you weren't in your room." She didn't take her eyes off the computer screen. "Jenny just delivered this-I was just checking my email." "You did that earlier today," Mondo reminded her, walking over to the couch and standing over her. "From the hotel's computer-what's so important?" She shook her head. "It's nothing-no, that's a lie," she smiled. "That Ash kid, do you think he was cheered up by the end of the party?" "He looked a little better..." "I thought so," his sister sighed. "I didn't want to spoil his progress by showing him this, but I suppose I oughta eventually." "What is it?" "Two things-an email and a final schematic. A scan of Galatea's systems before she, er, died," replied Morada. "As it turned out, the personality program-the thing that would have let her become human when synchronizing with the humanity program-activated once. Back at the cabin when she stopped herself from killing James, that was the time. But the sporadic activation wile the firewall was still active cause a feedback pulse that completely cut the personality program off from the rest of her." Mondo shifted. "Meaning?" She sighed. "It means that no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't completely become human." She closed the cover on the computer almost all the way, stood up, and handed it to him. "You can read the email if ya want," she said, messing up his hair with her fist. "But it's...unsettling... I'm gonna try and get some sleep. 'night." "Goodnight..." he called after he, then sat down and opened the laptop once more, balancing it on his knees. On the monitor, a long email file was opened in the first window, and Mondo started to read. ::::: I feel it is important that you receive my finished report, containing the analysis of my experiences. ::::: Mondo was startled-the android! She'd transmitted a message before self-destructing! ::::: There is nothing much to say, except that I have found humans particularly illogical and overly emotional. You put value on things-but put value on people as well. People who are important to you, people who can do things for you, people you want to stand next to-and yet you do not tell them this. For a species with such thoughts your means of communication are extremely flawed and only understandable, when understandable, by your own kind. However, with these emotions programmed inside of me I found myself asking questions that calculations could not answer. I will not be receiving answers to these questions-even if I had remained functioning you humans do not know the answers to your own hearts. So I have certain wants...no...I cannot want-not technically...but I will use that word anyway, or rather, I have wishes. I wish for you humans to gain the ability to say what needs to be said, and say it directly so you do not prolong the goal you are chasing... ::::: "So what now?" Cassidy asked, prodding Butch in the shoulder. "There's no Team Rocket, what now?" Butch blinked and glared a little. "What do you mean, 'what now?' I've been waiting for you to come up with the next plan." Cassidy was startled. "The next...plan?" "Sure," Butch said, sitting up straight. "Whenever one thing ends you come up with something else," he snapped his fingers, "just like that." She stared at him for a moment. After all that trouble... "So you still want to work with me?" He shrugged and leaned back down, hands behind his head. "Why not? Jobs are more interesting when you work with friends-I hate being bored." "R-right," Cassidy nodded, flushing a little. He'd never, at least not directly, called her a friend before. "I'll come up with a great plan!" ::::: I wish for you to stop living in the past and rather, just remember what has happened and live in the present. :::: "AAAAASSSHHH!" Misty groaned, throwing her pillow at him. "Why do we have to get up at the crack of dawn?" "Come ON!" he urged, hands on his hips. "We've lost so much time, and we have to get all the way back to Jhoto!" She continued to stare at him with tired, narrowed eyes. "You've gotten over things pretty fast, sure you don't wanna take a break?" "NO WAY!" he shouted, probably waking up the occupants of the next room. "I'll worry on the way to Newbark Town, now come on; your pokemon are at the Centre and we need to get going to make it to the Ilex by lunch." Misty sighed and smiled a little. Same old Ash. Same old act like it never happened, living in a smiley faced bubble, I'll grow up when I'm good and ready Ash. "Ten more minutes," she ordered, rolling over to face the wall. "MSITY!!!!" "What are you gonna do," she retorted. "Leave without me?" He made a noise, but finally he just crossed his arms and conceded. "Fine. Ten more minutes." :::: I wish for you to find your place in life, for I have observed that is excellent knowledge. Somewhere without regrets. I wish for you to do what is needed, and to find a place to go to when your day is finished. :::: "James?" Jessie murmured groggily. The sun was just coming up and she'd only slept a few hours before her busy mind woke her. "Hmm?" he replied from next to her, sounding just as sleepy. "I'm sorry." He sat up a little, although his back didn't want him to. "What for?" he stared at her, but her eyes were still closed. She paused and inhaled noisily. "For making you think I hated you." James sat up all the way, considerably surprised. "I never thought that!" She smiled in that weird way again. "Yeah you did," she said. "Or else you wouldn't have believed that fake letter and you might have looked for me." "No..." James shook his head, then repeated himself. "No that wasn't it," he touched her shoulder, awkwardly trying to be reassuring. "I just thought that you'd gotten sick of babysitting me-you'd always wanted to move up in the ranks and I figured if I followed you it'd spoil your chances but... I did want to follow you." Jessie didn't say anything; she just opened her eyes and stared at him quietly, and he couldn't quite name the look she was giving. It was like she was trying to believe him, but found it hard. "Look," James said, grabbing her hand. "Let's just rest here today and tomorrow we can go home." She blinked. "Home?" she echoed, sounding confused. "Where's that?" He shrugged and smiled at her. "I don't know," he told her cheerily, squeezing her hand once before letting go as he lay back down to go to sleep. "We'll find one in the morning." ::::: Along with wishes, I have regrets. I regret that I never was able to understand you humans. I regret that I was unable to find the purpose of your short lives. I regret that I never was able to feel your emotions 'wholeheartedly' as you would say. I regret that I never did find that true humanity, so I wish for you all to find it in my place. --End file ~Fin~ FINISHED!! *runs around with flags* and it's about time! So now, if you please, since you've come this far I'd appreciate it if you'd humor me and deal with my Author's Note! (it's really quite spiffy) Notes on plot: This story was started over a year and a half ago. I wrote about half a chapter, hated it, and shut it in my computer. Then, a little over a year ago, I was writing something else and got writers block. In order to cure my lapse, I opened up an old file, this one, and started working on it again. it was like 2 AM and for some reason, although it had never been my original intention, I was like "Duuude, why don't I stick an android in this? Yeah...that'd be cool..." and so I did, and here we are with a story I was pretty much making up as I went along. But I must say, I am very pleased with the results and I hope you all are. I never expected it to be a psychological sci-fi but hey, I'm not complaining. Notes on characters: definitely the most fun to write were Collin and Morada. Collin was never supposed to be in this, but I made him up once again on the spur of the moment and it worked out real well. Morada was not supposed to be a main character-she was originally intended to be the convenient smart person who tells the characters what they need to know, but it turned out to be more convenient to just write her in as a tagalong. The names? All the characters I made up, save Galatea, were named the first thing the popped into my head. Galatea I named as such because of the Greek myth of Pygmalion which I told in the story already. Notes on romance: I know most of my readers expected a lovey-dubby scene of some sorts, and normally I aim to please (and it was my original intention to do that since the romance fans in this section are the nicest reviewers ^^) but about midway through the story it dawned on me: I am not a good romance writer. WAIT! Let me rephrase that: I am not a good romantic-scene writer. Here's a Nathaniel Hawthorne quote for you: "if a man, sitting all alone, cannot dream strange things, and make them look like truth, he need never try to write romances." So here's the thing: a romance I can do, but I'm sorry to all you shippers of various sorts, I can not write an "I love you" that doesn't sound so sappy it makes me sick. So here's what I did for you instead, and would have done anyway, romance or not: I didn't give the story a real ending. It just has that sort of ending where things can move on to whatever you want them to, so here's hoping you all have imaginations-think up whatever ending you want and pretend I wrote it, but my ending is what I posted above. Other fun stuff!: I am, if you haven't realized it by now, a trekkie *people throw things at the poor author* Much of Galatea's dialogue was in fact inspired buy how Seven of Nine talks (ST Voyager) so...there ya go... To end with: Just a thank you for all your patience and support and all, REVIEWS ARE SO APPRECIATED IT'S NOT EVEN FUNNY! REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!! please? But seriously though, thank you all and feedback is totally appreciated. BACK