Life Goes On

Chapter 1
       It was March 5th, 2005, ten years after Ash and his reluctant Pikachu set out on their Pokemon journey.  After ten years, Ash had travelled the known world and had become a Pokemon League Champion in both the Kanto/Johto league and the Hoenn league.  He had caught enough Pokemon to be recognized as a Pokemon Master, and he was now at the Kanto/Johto League’s Elite Four Challenge meeting.
       The meeting was for Kanto and Johto region Gym Leaders, Elite Four members, and Champions, to discuss the upcoming Elite Four Challenge.  The conference hall was filled with representatives from every Gym in Johto and Kanto, and with the current Elite Four members: Bruno, Koga, Karen, and Will.  The Champions, Ash, Lance, and Gary (by now Viridian’s Gym Leader), were there too.  Ash’s wife, Misty, by now very pregnant, represented the Cerulean Gym, and Brock, still single and hating it, represented Pewter.  And as if that wasn’t enough:
       “May I please have your attention, everyone?”  Lance began.  Slowly everyone settled down.  Lance cleared his throat.  “Yes, thank you.  I would like to announce the arrival of a few special guests from Hoenn.  This is Steven and this is May.  They are Hoenn League Champions.  This is Roxanne and Flannery, Wattson, and May’s father, Norman, Hoenn Gym Leaders.  This is Phoebe, a member of the Hoenn Elite Four, specializing in Ghost Pokemon.  I hope you will make all of our guests feel at home.  They have come to sit in on our little meeting and to get to know their fellow Trainers from the North.  Now, on to business!”




       Ten minutes later, at 3:13 PM, Professor Oak stood stunned in front of his vidphone, as an impersonal ‘Disconnected…’ flashed on the screen.  A file downloaded on the computer to his left, aided by his Porygon.  The PC barely shivered at the huge mushroom blast outside.  Tracy ran into the lab, out of breath.
       “Professer!  …The explosion!  …From the Plateau!  What happened?”   The Professor didn’t answer.
       “Professor Oak?  Are you all right?”
       He spoke, softly, as if not believing his own words.  “All those lives…  The meeting was today, do you realize that?”  He didn’t stop for an answer.  “The meeting they hold every year, with all the top-rated Trainers,… Their Pokemon too…  They had to invite the Hoenn leaders, didn’t they?” he spat.  His face softened and he continued.  “Gary… And Ash, and Misty and their unborn child…  Tracy, they are all dead!”  At this realization, the Professor broke down and cried.
       “Dead?”  Tracy blinked.  He wouln’t accept it.  They couldn’t be dead.  There was no possible way—that they could be dead.  It was inconceivable!  All the top Trainers just gone?  Blown up?  Incinerated?  No, it couldn’t possibly be true.  The explosion was a mirage, an illusion.  Ash and Gary would come back on their bird Pokemon later, saying how great it was to meet all the Leaders again and say hello, Professor Oak, hello, Tracy, what did you do while we were gone?  …Yes that had to be it.  He refused to believe that all of them were dead.  They had to be alive.  But he had seen the explosion from all the way over here… it had taken up more than half the sky…
       Mrs. Ketchum burst open the lab door, tailed by Gary’s mother and sister.  Ash’s mother had clearly started crying, because there were tear tracks in her makeup.  She said, “It isn’t true, is it?  The news?  They just showed a crater on TV and said it was the Indigo Plateau!  Is it true?”  She ran over and started shaking Professor Oak’s shoulders, tears streaming down her face.  “I said, tell me if it’s true!  Tell me!”
       Professor Oak, usually so composed, was completely unable to speak.  He finally managed to get out, in a soft and squeaked voice, “Yes, everything you’ve heard is true.”  He stood up to his full height, gently took her hands off his shoulders, and continued speaking, salt water flowing over his face.  “Before… the explosion, Ash called me on the vidphone, and asked for a quick favor, to send some of his Pokemon to Bugsy’s storage system.  I agreed, and asked him what the rush was?  Misty got on and said that there was only five minutes until Indigo Plateau blew up, and then she told me to do what Ash said or… Well, she threatened me.  Gary asked me to send over some of his Pokemon too… Then Ash came back on and asked me to tell his mom that he loved her.”  He paused, almost unable to speak.  “Then… the League exploded.”  His eyes started to tear up just thinking about it.  “Oh yes.  He also asked me to begin sending the Pokemon from the lab south to Hoenn.  Obviously, whoever pulled that off … must be pure evil.  Porygon, have you begun sending them over yet?  Yes?  Good.  They’ll be safe with Professor Birch, at least for now.  Tracy, call up every Trainer you know and tell them to be ready to battle.  There’s no knowing what lays in our path now…”


       Tracy had called Richie, Duplica, Loreli (who had thankfully not been at the meeting, although she said that Agatha had been), Brock’s father Flint, the Cerulean Sisters, and all the other trainers who hung out at the Gyms.  They had all promised to keep the message going, and by now the news had to be in Hoenn somewhere.  He did it without feeling, without emotion.  Something was wrong.  If he knew Ash, and he did, then there was no way he’d just sit there without trying to save Misty and Brock, if not himself.  There was just no way.  Gary, too, and Lance, and the Hoenn champions, they were take-charge kind of people.  They would have found a way to save themselves.  There had to be an explanation.
       The people of Pallet Town were distraught.  Everyone he saw grieved for a lost friend, a role model, or a neighbour that had been on the Plateau.  For it was known now, a day later, that not only did the blast incinerate the Leaders, it left at least twenty other people dead.  It was the same everywhere, even in Hoenn, as the people cried for their lost Champions. 
       There had to be an explanation.  Tracy was working late as the people continued to call the Lab demanding that their Pokemon be sent to Professor Birch’s or Professor Elm’s lab.  Besides that, a large amount of Pokeballs were being sent from Johto, from trainers who assumed that their Pokemon weren’t safe there, either.  Oak had also worked late, but had gone home a few minutes ago, leaving Tracy with the load.  Tracy didn’t mind, he knew the Professor was dying of misery.  Oak had personally known every Leader at the meeting, even the ones from Hoenn.  It was just that Tracy really needed to know if anyone had survived.
       At 1:00 in the morning, Tracy stopped all calls, and asked Professor Elm over the phone to do the same.  Now he was tired, but still puzzled about Ash’s call.  He hadn’t seen the video, but he knew that Oak recorded all his calls so that he wouldn’t forget about anything important.  His memory had started to go, and he had often asked Tracy to call someone back that he had just been on the phone with, to find out what exactly it was he was being asked to do. 
       Tracy sat down at the computer desk and accessed the recorded call files.  He opened the file for March 5th, 2005, 3:08 PM.  The recording began.  Ash stood on the screen with Leaders clearly visible in the background, packing their backpacks and talking tensely to each other.  Lance and Steven were quickly speaking in a corner, as May and her father exchanged a few last words.  Bugsy was typing something into his laptop computer and Koga and his daughter Janine were embraced in a loving goodbye hug.  The twins Liza and Tate were taking it in with shifting eyes, their Solrock and Lunatone released from their Pokeballs and floating a few feet in the air.
       Wait a minute, Tracy thought.  Liza and Tate?  They weren’t at the meeting, were they?  Had they been invited?  He continued to watch as Ash began to speak.  “Hello?  Professor Oak?  I need to ask you for a favour, really fast.”
       Oak responded.  “Yes, of course, Ash, but what’s the rush?  How goes the meeting?”
       Ash looked nervous on the screen.  He quickly began talking again, almost cutting off the Professor.  “Yeah, about that, um, I’m gonna have to ask ya to take care of this thing pretty fast.  Did you know that Bugsy created a storage system recently?  Yeah, I need you to transfer a few of my Pokemon into his system.  Gary too.”
       “Sure Ash.  You sound nervous.  If I didn’t know better, I’d think there was an emergency over there.”  As soon as the words were said, Misty pushed Ash out of view and stared at the screen.  She didn’t look happy. 
       “Listen here Professor Oak.  You don’t know better, because in five minutes this whole place is going to blow!  I mean sky-high!  And if you don’t do exactly what Ash says, I will personally come over there and beat your head in!  Do you understand?”
       “Yes, yes, I understand!  I didn’t realize it was so serious!  Porygon, get right on it!  Okay Ash, what Pokemon do you need?”
       Ash spoke quickly.  “I need Typhlosion and Kingler and Pidgeot, and Lapras, and, Moltres.  And get Misty’s Articuno too.  Tell Venusaur not to worry, and to keep everything under control over there.  Gary needs some too.  Here he is.”  Ash moved out of the way to let a slightly frazzled Gary past. 
          "Hello, Grandpa.  I need Dodrio, Tyranitar, Milotic, Aggron, Magneton, Machamp, and Zapdos.”  In the background Bugsy could be heard telling Gary that his system had limited space, and that no more could be stored.  Gary nodded to the left and continued.  “Thanks a ton.  See ya on the flip side.”  He moved away and Ash reappeared. 
       “Thanks a lot, Professor.”  Ash repeated.  Lt. Surge began yelling from across the room.
       “Everyone down!  Protect your head!  Get off the phone, boy, and hit the deck!”  Everyone around was following his orders. 
       Ash continued, a little more hurried.  “One more thing, Professor.  Tell my mom I love her.”  He smiled weakly, and there was a flash of light, the screen cracked, and there was a split second of flames before the call was disconnected.
       Tracy stood there with his mouth open.  No wonder Oak was so sure that he had died.  He had seen it with his own eyes… and now Tracy had too…  I need to sit down, he thought.  I have just witnessed the murder of thirty-two innocent people…  Tracy was out of it, swerving over to the couch like a drunk Spinda.  He held his head in his hands.  Porygon’s screech came loudly from the speakers on the PC.  It was trying to get his attention.  Tracy ignored it for a minute or two, then stood up, ignoring the knot in his stomach.  “What’s wrong, Porygon?  Not another virus, I hope?”  Porygon shook its virtual head, and zipped around the screen, opening files until it came to the recorded file of another file uploading.  It was the uploading of Ash and Gary’s Pokemon from the lab (represented by a cartoon face of Oak, above a PC) to Bugsy’s commputer system (represented by a picture of Bugsy’s face, above a laptop).  It started at the beginning, uploading all of Ash’s Pokemon, in the order they had been mentioned in Ash’s call to the lab, and then Gary’s.  “What’s the problem, Porygon?  Yes, Ash’s dying wish was to have these Pokemon go to Bugsy’s system.”  He choked back a sob.  Porygon opened up another file.  It was the recording of the call to the lab.  Ash stood on the screen, with the Leaders behind him.  Tracy couldn’t figure out what Porygon was trying to tell him, but he’d go along with it.  Porygon must have a good reason.  The virtual imp zoomed over to the paused figure of Bugsy, typing on his laptop.  “Yes, I believe Bugsy always keeps his laptop with him.  What’s your point?”  Tracy thought for a moment.  “Wait a minute!  Why would Ash and Gary send their Pokemon to Bugsy’s laptop if it were about to be blown up?”  Porygon nodded, and fast-forwarded the video to the explosion.  He circled the lower right-hand corner, and Tracy noticed the time.  3:13.  “It was three-thirteen.  Yes, go on, Porygon.”  The virtual colen-sized shape closed the video file, and returned to the upload file.  He circled the lower right-hand corner.  The time that the upload ended was 3:16.         
       “Three-sixteen…  That’s three minutes after the laptop blew up!  But it continued loading!  That means that the laptop didn’t blow up!  If the laptop didn’t blow up, then probably neither did Bugsy.  And if Bugsy’s alive, then the others probably are too!  Porygon, you’re a genius!”  Porygon beeped its appreciation.  “I’ve got to tell the Professor!”
       He ran outside to the house across the street from the lab, and pounded on the door.  Oak, in slippers and a bathrobe, opened up the door after a minute or two.  “Tracy?  What’s the emergency?  It’s the middle of the night!  What’s the matter?”
“Professor!  They’re alive!  Can you believe it?  They found a way out!  They’re alive!  All the leaders, all the leaders at the meeting are alive!”
       “Are you serious, Tracy?  How do you know?  Come in!”  The Professor opened the door wide to let him through.  Three minutes later, Tracy, Oak, and his wife were sitting in the living room while Tracy explained what had happened.  ‘I hope Tracy isn’t being overly hopeful,’ Oak thought to himself.  ‘Even if Bugsy did survive, that doesn’t mean that everyone else did too.  I want to hope that they’re alive, I really do, but I don’t see how anyone could have survived a blast like that.’ 
       There were noises outside.  People shouted, barked orders, grunted ‘Yessirs’ in response, from the direction of the lab.  “The lab!”  Oak leaped up.  “Did you lock the lab, Tracy?  Oh, no!”  Oak and Tracy ran outside and spied a black armoured vehicle with a giant red R painted on the side.  Through the windows, they could see people dressed in black directing a man at gunpoint through the lab.  The man wore a white lab coat and glasses.  Oak recognized him instantly.  He was Mark Filbert, the boy who had worked in his lab before Tracy had.  He had moved to Johto with his family and currently worked for Professor Elm.  After a minute of deliberation, Oak decided to go in.  He knew something bad would happen, but if he didn’t stop Team Rocket from stealing the lab’s Pokemon, or whatever else they aimed to do, then who would?
       “Hey, what are you doing in my lab?  You have no business here; leave now!”
A brown-haired man with acid-green eyes approached him.  “Are you Professor Oak?”  He demanded.
       “Yes, I am.  Whoever you are, you have no right to be here.  Now get out!”  Oak pointed toward the door, genuinely angry.
       “I’m sorry, Professor, but we don’t have time for this.  The boss wants you and your Legendary Birds, and she’ll not like having to wait.  Now where are they?”
Two of the six lowlives grabbed him by the arms.  He kept silent.
       “I said, where are the birds?”  He pulled a gun to Oak’s face, pointed it at his temple.
       “I’m not talking,”  said Oak, acting more composed than he actually was.  The brown-haired man swore and withdrew the gun. 
       “You’re just lucky that she wants you alive.  Now get him into the truck and clean out the rest of the lab.  Now, you idiots!  Move!”  The morons followed his orders and pushed Oak roughly into the armoured vehicle.  After they had gotten Mark Filbert to show them where the Emergency Return button was, they forced him into the back also. 
       'Oh, no,' Professor Oak thought.  'Once they push the Emergency Return button, all of the Pokemon on the reserve will return to their Pokeballs automatically…  Then all they’ll have to do is just pick up the Pokeballs.'  “Filbert, what happened?”
       “They forced me into doing what they said, they already captured Professor Elm, and they said they had already got Birch, too.  They had a gun to my head!  What was I supposed to do?”
       “I’m not blaming you.  Just shut up a minute so I can think.”  Oak thought for a moment.  “I think we need a miracle.”
       There was a crash from the lab.  Tracy, still hiding outside near the window, saw it clearly.  A Venusaur had escaped from his Pokeball and was releasing Pokemon with its vines.  It had two idiots in one vine and was using them as a sort of club to hold back the others, while the Pokemon were getting away.  Mrs. Ketchum’s Mr. Mime had arrived, and once it got near enough, it erected a Barrier to protect the Venusaur and the other Pokemon from the gunfire.  By this time, the Rockets were panicking and the leader couldn’t seem to get control…  The Venusaur charged forward and threw his captives into the side of the truck.  They left a dent, but were well enough to get on their motorcycles and zoom off.  The others followed suit, with the leader cursing at them as he drove the truck away. 
       By now Officer Jenny had arrived on the scene.  She asked Tracy what had happened here, and drove off to hunt them down.  “A little late, aren’t we?”  Tracy said to himself after she had gone.  The commotion had attracted the attention of the townspeople, and they were asking each other what was going on.  Tracy announced that Oak had been kidnapped, but that no Pokemon had been stolen.  “This is all my fault,” Tracy said to himself as he went back to the lab to straighten up.

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A/N:  Hello all readers!  This is my first story and I would like to hear from anyone who had so much free time that they decided to read it.  I don’t care if you liked it or not, I just want at least one review.  Some notes:  I have already got this story written, so I will be sending them in at intervals of about once a week.  If you have any questions, comments, reviews, or suggestions, e-mail me!