Unbroken Disguise

While knowing the location that Hunter J would strike at next was certainly a boon, that didn’t make the trip to the location any more pleasant.

If they’d had more time available to them, N probably could have convinced one of the local Flying types to assist him with relative ease. But in a moment when time was of the essence… well, sometimes you have to make due with what you have.

With Officer Jenny’s motorcycle and sidecar available, along with the fact that her Pokemon, apparently called Arcanine, was large enough to ride, the group realistically had four seats between them if there was a passenger riding behind Jenny. The fact that there were six of them was a bit of a problem. Brock and Ash decided to double up on the Arcanine, which meant that the Pokemon would have to keep a slower pace to ensure that neither of them fell off with how precariously they were straddled on its back. N wasn’t about to put himself into the awkwardness of the squad car, so he had hopped on the motorcycle behind Officer Jenny. That left poor Dawn and… he really needed to get the name of the Gardevoir’s trainer at some point… but regardless of that, the last two girls found themselves crammed inside the sidecar, both looking like if the trip didn’t end quickly they’d take their chances on walking and miss all the action.

The trip to the water wheel probably didn’t actually take very long at all, but it certainly felt that way, and the sight they stumbled upon when Officer Jenny brought her motorcycle to a screeching stop didn’t help in that regard. Hunter J had arrived before them.

With the way that the forest had been laid out, their exit from it put them on a rather steep hill just a bit away from the water wheel. Down near the entrance of the building, they could plainly see J, her Salamence, and her crew’s six-wheeler. What must have been the water wheel’s operator was laying on the ground, bound up in a String Shot like the criminal had done to them just a bit ago. A quadrupedal Pokemon with deep blue, almost black skin that was covered in white fur stood between the downed trainer and Hunter J. He had never seen one himself, but he believed it matched the description of an Absol. The scythe-like appendage on its head gave it an intimidating appearance, but being good in a fight didn’t mean much when she could just use the device on her wrist to turn Pokemon into statues. As N and Ash hopped off of their respective rides, they saw her capture the Pokemon.

“Shit! We don’t have them surrounded yet!” Officer Jenny lamented.

But it seemed that he and Ash were of the same mind for the moment, running down the hill and into the action.

“Wait! It’s too dangerous!” Officer Jenny called after them, but neither of them stopped.

Upon reaching the bottom of the hill, Ash called out. “J! Give me back Pikachu, now!”

“I won’t let you get away with this!” N added on,his fists clenching almost painfully tight in anger.

Hunter J turned towards them casually, as if their arrival meant nothing to her. “Oh, you.”

“Don’t move!” The boys heard from behind them, Officer Jenny and her Arcanine appearing by their sides. “I’m placing you under arrest!”

“I guess I should commend you for discovering us, but…” Hunter J began as the Absol was loaded into her vehicle, “Salamence, Hyper Beam!”

Out of the corner of his eye, N saw Ash’s bag stir, but before Mimikyu could do anything Officer Jenny had her Arcanine counter it with a Flamethrower.

The two attacks clashed.

But the difference in strength was made apparent in that instant.

Arcanine’s Flamethrower managed to stop the Hyper Beam from hitting them directly, but an explosion went off right in front of them as it hit the ground instead. The Fire type took the brunt of the damage, having placed itself between the two groups when it launched its attack, but N felt the blast hit him before he went flying, landing harshly on his back. His skin felt raw, and he was sure that he had at least minor burns. Hissing in pain, he stood back up, looking over to see Ash and Officer Jenny in much the same state.

He saw Hunter J’s lips moving, but the blast had left his ears ringing, so he couldn’t make out a word of it. Her Salamence took off into the air, and he saw the vehicle prepare to leave. The bastards were about to get away!

But Ash was experienced with this sort of thing. When he saw the boy run towards the vehicle, he followed right behind, hoping that Ash had some sort of plan.

He was shocked when he watched the boy dive between the tires of a vehicle that was about to speed away, but he found himself doing the same.

He was even more shocked when he and Ash came face to face with the Rockets. Hanging from the underside of the vehicle, their heads not having much clearance from the ground, the woman made a shushing gesture towards them, and Ash quickly adopted the same position as them. When the vehicle started to move, N realized that it was now or never.

He latched on to the bottom of the vehicle, just barely pulling himself up before the crooks really started to pick up speed. The rocky terrain didn’t make for a very even ride, but before long they were passing over metal instead. It was probably safe to assume that they had made it onto Hunter J’s giant invisible ship.

There was a flurry of movement around them as people got out of the vehicle, and taking a glance between the giant wheels revealed that they were currently in some sort of garage or hanger, a decent number of vehicles taking up the space. The four of them remained silent until the sound of boots on the flooring stopped, and they heard the door shut.

All four of them dropped from the vehicle, rubbing their sore hands after having to hold their body weight up with strange grips for so long. But N wasn’t about to forget who was right in front of him.

“What are you doing here?” He all but growled, his patience gone.

“They took Meowth!” the periwinkle haired man cried out.

“We’re not about to let that hussy steal our friend from us!” The magenta haired woman hissed.

N’s frown tugged at his burnt skin painfully, and he was ready to launch into a tirade about the irony of that statement coming from a Rocket when Ash stopped him.

“We don’t have time for this! Team Rocket will help us out, they know whose side to be on when it really counts.” He stood up, walking towards the door.

But then his backpack wriggled, reminding everyone that it was currently occupied.

“Impor’an’ question b’fore we leave this room!” Mimikyu cried out, two shadowy hands peeking out of Ash’s backpack.

“Wait a moment, Ash.”

“I don’t have time to wait! She has Pikachu! If you need to wait, Mimikyu, then you can stay with N.” He started to slide the straps of the bag off of his shoulders, but Mimikyu continued in a hurry.

“I jus’ need ta know how the League views lethal force!”

“Lethal force?” N repeated with a gasp, his words making Ash pause with his bag hanging by a single strap.

“That psycho jus’ tried ta Hyper Beam you guys to the face, right? That’s a murder attempt righ’ there, and I wouldn’ be s’prised if she tried it again! I don’ take ‘er for the type ta come quietly, so if it comes down to it, is lethal force alright in self defense cases? Cynthia already hates us N!”

When N repeated the inquiry, he saw the Rockets shrink back in fear, as they should, but the question gave Ash pause.

“...only if it’s your only option. If it comes down to it… I’ll back you up during questioning. I know a trick or two for deceiving Psychics, and I don’t think they’ll mind too much if it’s someone like this.”

Before N could question that any further, Ash had readjusted his backpack and opened the door, walking out into a corridor. From where they were standing, they could see four branching paths.

“We’ll have to split up.” Ash declared.

“Split up? Are you insane? We just got done discussing how this woman is psychotic and tried to kill us!” N immediately rebutted. “If one of us runs into her alone, they’re doomed. Besides, spreading out only increases the odds that we’re spotted and they sound the alarm or something.”

“Well then what do you suggest we do?” Ash’s temper flared. “This ship is huge! Are we supposed to check each room one by one until we find them, just hoping that nothing happens to Pikachu and the other Pokemon in the meantime?!”

“Those two are career criminals, right?” N turned towards the Rockets. “Where would you store stolen Pokemon on a ship like this?”

“Team Rocket operates very differently from a group like this,” the male hedged, “but based on what we’ve seen in the past there are a few possibilities. One would be that J keeps her spoils as close to her as possible because she doesn’t trust her men to not do something stupid with them. It’s also possible that they’re stored in the center of the ship to prevent any damage in the event that an outer wall is hit by someone in pursuit. But with an operation of this size… I think the most likely case is that J works at such a large scale that Pokemon will be scattered throughout the ship, organized in some manner that’s impossible for us to know but would make her job easier. It would be impossible to fit them all in one room.”

“Well then what are we supposed to do?!” the woman complained. “Split up and that bitch kills us with her stupid dragon, move in a group and we’ll never find Meowth! Are we meant to march right up to someone and politely ask where the newest captures are being held?!”

“Maybe askin’ would work. Jus’, ya know, maybe not so much polite an’ more.. Threa’enin’.” Mimikyu spoke up from the backpack.

“What do you mean by that?” N inquired.

“Well, ya see…”

Hiding in a side room filled with wooden crates and various junk items, Ash wasn’t sure how he felt about this plan.

He would admit that N had a point. Running around the ship aimlessly would put them at risk, especially since N’s only Pokemon was lacking in the battle department. Mimikyu was improving with Shadow Sneak, but with how weak it still was… the little ghost was either completely ineffective, or would have to use the lethal force it had mentioned. So much for the whole “seeing Mimikyu’s true form kills you” being a baseless rumor like Absol and disasters…

Unless Mimikyu genuinely didn’t know and just wanted to be safe? He could see how learning that sort of thing about your species would make you hesitant to test it yourself.

But he could worry about that later. Now was the time to worry about how they were going to get his best friend back. Somewhere on this ship, Pikachu was frozen in place, and every second they sat waiting here ate him up inside.

But footsteps echoing down the hall meant that the wait was over.

When J’s lackey was walking past the doorway to the room they were in, Jessie and James leapt out, grabbing the man and dragging him into the room. There was nothing special about him. Short brown hair and a plain face would have pegged him as a random stranger on the street if not for the fact that his outfit indicated he was one of J’s men. That he had thrown away any shred of morals and decided to steal and sell Pokemon for profit.

Ash stayed put as the next stage of Mimikyu’s plan kicked in. Still trying to fight the Rockets off, the man struggled to little avail as N approached the three of them with a green backpack in hand.

“You’re going to tell us where the newly captured Pokemon are being held.” N demanded. There was power in his voice. In a way, that seemed familiar, but Ash was too focused on the grunt to think about what it reminded him of.

“Why would I tell you morons anything?! Once J gets her hands on you, you’ll be sorry!”

“Is that so? Then you won’t mind if my little friend here gave it a shot? He’s quite upset that you decided to steal from us.” N lowered the backpack to the ground right in front of the man. He looked confused, and a little wary, but he’d likely come to the conclusion that anything small enough to fit in Ash’s bag wasn’t a serious threat to him.

What a fool.

The change in the room when those shadowy hands started to pry the bag open from the inside was instant. Where before the room had felt a bit stuffy, the air at a comfortable temperature, now a shiver ran down Ash’s spine. Fear coursed through him, though not to any degree that he was unfamiliar with.

He watched as the grunt’s eyes widened, but the man stood firm. “You think that scares me? What, you have a little Ghastly hidden away in there or something?”

“...or something,” N replied.

The backpack came further undone, and the Rockets clenched their eyes shut, literally shaking in their boots as they turned their heads away, too terrified to even look in Mimikyu’s general direction. The fear Ash felt deepened from a general unease into a bone deep sense of wrongness. It was like he had just angered a Champion’s Pokemon and his body knew that he was not long for this world.

“O-Ok, so m-maybe it’s not a Ghastly, but I-I’m sure that the boss will be here any minute now!”

Unfortunately, he might be right. If Mimikyu was releasing this much terror, how far did the effect spread? Could it be felt through the walls of the ship? Hunter J might have noticed them already if that was the case.

The backpack opened further, and even Ash felt the need to look away. With a feeling like this… the Ghost type tinge on things was unique enough, but it felt all too familiar at the same time. His instincts were screaming at him to run. That he stood no chance against something of this nature. That the entity before him was above a mere mortal. Feeling that sheer, agonizing dread only cemented the theory that had formed in his mind about Mimikyu.

“I-I’ll talk! I’ll talk, just get that t-thing away from me!” the grunt shrieked, no longer attempting to fight off the Rockets but instead trying to drag them with him as far away from Mimikyu as he could get. Not that he got more than a step or two. The Rockets were braver than he thought for withstanding this as well as they had. “T-they’re in hanger number three! It’s j-just down the hall to the left and t-then you hang a right, you c-can’t miss the huge doors! Please, make it stop! I don’t want to die!” The man was screaming now, the fear for his life clearly genuine.

Mimikyu closed the backpack back up.

The grunt, with his wide eyes and adrenaline coursing through him, could only shake and nod in agreement when they tied him up, leaving him alone in the room.

Ash was the first one to sprint out of the room.

It took longer than he would have liked, but he had a location. Pikachu wasn’t even that far away!

He heard footsteps behind him, but he didn’t look back to confirm that it was N and the Rockets. Being separated from Pikachu like this… it was always the worst feeling. His palms felt sweaty and he found himself fighting for breath. He’d been through enough terrifying situations to mostly get a grip on himself, but Pikachu was his anchor. Without his best friend on his shoulder, he didn’t know how much longer he could stay calm.

Just as he was about to take the right turn as the grunt had directed however, the Drapion from earlier rounded the corner. Ash stopped, allowing N and the others to catch up behind him as the Poison type came further into the hallway, followed by Hunter J and her Salamence. With the two sizable Pokemon present, the hall was getting cramped.

“So you were foolish enough to follow me here. I’ll admit I was a bit surprised when I felt you from across the ship. What Pokemon was that? I’m sure it would fetch quite a price.”

“You’ll never take Mimikyu!” Ash shouted at her.

“Mimikyu? You mean the annoyance that I captured alongside your Pikachu? I think you’ll find that it’s already in my collection.”

“Mimikyu-kyu!” the little ghost’s voice rang out from behind him as two shadowy arms stretched out towards the woman before him.

Hunter J jumped back before she could be reached, ordering her Pokemon to intercept. “Salamence, Dragon Claw!”

The mighty blue Dragon reared back, using its tail to support itself as its front right leg took on a brilliant blue-green glow, swiping down towards Mimikyu’s outstretched arms.

The shadowy appendages were swatted out of the way, but Mimikyu only barely hissed in pain and the glow supporting the Dragon Claw suddenly winked out of existence.

“What the-” Hunter J cut off her own words as her eyes went wide.

That shouldn’t be possible.

“Drapion, use Poison Sting!” A barrage of needles ensured that the intruders would have to look away to prevent eye damage and give her a moment while she assessed the situation.

None of this should be possible.

First, this “Mimikyu” Pokemon had moved after being petrified.

Then, she feels a Ghost type presence on her ship stronger than anything she’d ever felt before.

And now not only had this Pokemon apparently separated itself from part of its body, allowing it to escape while she had a piece of it in a stasis case, but it had just completely negated Salamence’s Dragon Claw.

It was a weak move, she would fully admit that. Her partner had long been trained to focus on special attacks, leaving physical attacks as an option for handling weaker targets without damaging the goods in the process. But to negate it?

She had been hearing rumors lately. Rumors of a particular infection. The rest of the situation was worrying, but that?

That was bad for business.

How many Pokemon had been infected already? How many would need to be gotten rid of and recaptured so that she could assure her buyers that her product was pure?

It was time to cut her losses, but trying to have a full battle here would lead to damaging the ship and a further dip in her profits. Perhaps if they were isolated…

Yes, that would do. Get rid of the intruders and the merchandise they had already infected all in one go.

Backing away from the intersection, she commanded her team to fall back with her, giving the intruders a chance to slip towards their destination. In their blind desperation to reach the Pokemon she’d acquired from them, they didn’t seem to think a thing of it, taking the first chance they could to reach the holding area of hanger three.

As soon as they were out of sight, she made her way to the bridge of the ship. “I want hanger three separated from the ship immediately!”

The moron she’d left in charge of such things, she couldn’t be bothered to learn their names when they were so expendable, turned to her in shock. “But Ma’am, we have Pokemon in hanger three!”

“Did I order you to question me? No. I said to separate hanger three immediately!” She glared at the coward, smirking as he immediately gave in and input the command.

The ship jerked slightly as hanger three detached and started plummeting towards the ground.

“Get a clean up crew ready, and while you’re at it get in contact with someone working outside of League territory. I need information.”

“Am I crazy, or was that way too easy?” Mimikyu asked from the bag N was carrying.

“You’re right. Someone like that shouldn’t have let us escape.” N agreed. They hadn’t gotten out unharmed, as made evident by the many tiny needles burrowed into his skin and delivering a slightly poisonous solution, but they’d made it out with their lives and that was more than you could expect in a situation like that.

“Obviously she was trying not to blow up her own ship! It’s a real pain getting a new hot air balloon made, I don’t even want to imagine the hassle something like this would be!” the female Rocket suggested.

“You’re still here?” N looked over his shoulder at the Rockets following behind him.

“We still need to get Meowth! I can understand not liking Team Rocket, but we’re not heartless! Meowth is our teammate, and we’re not leaving until we get him back!” her partner reasoned.

“Jessie ‘as a point, but I feel like we’re bein’ corralled inta this area on purpose!” Mimikyu tried to make him focus.

“We can worry about that once we free the Pokemon!” N replied as they followed Ash into the room that they’d been directed to.

Right in front of them were the Pokemon they’d been searching for. Still housed in their display cases, the petrified Pokemon were on top of a table in the back of the room. Ash immediately started toying with a slider on the base, his face lighting up with a smile as Pikachu’s color returned to him and the glassy material vanished, freeing the Electric type from his prison. Partners reunited, Pikachu leapt at Ash and they laughed as his trainer hugged him close. Team Rocket did the same with Meowth, leaving N to free Gardevoir, Absol, and Mimikyu’s disguise.

Absol paused for a moment, looked to N, and calmly stated “We’re all going to die.”

Concerning, but not his immediate priority.

Gardevoir bowed gracefully as the cloth of Mimikyu’s outfit collapsed into a pile with nothing to support it. “I thank you for freeing me.”

N dropped the Pikachu disguise into Ash’s bag, watching it wriggle before his friend popped out, looking like his usual self. “Not a problem! Happy ta be of service! But uh, we might be relyin’ on you next.”

“Relying on me?” The Psychic type questioned.

“Well we’re curren’ly pretty damn high in the air an’ all, so I was hopin’ tha-”

Mimikyu’s words were cut off when the floor beneath them suddenly tilted.

“Oh, shit!” Mimikyu jumped onto N’s shoulder as the room they were in suddenly started to turn over on itself, feeling like it was in freefall.

“There’s a disaster imminent!” The Absol pointed out the obvious.

“What’s happening?!” Jessie panicked.

“It feels like we’re falling!” James responded.

“I think that crazy bitch cut us loose or something!” Meowth cried out.

“Hold on tight!” Ash clutched Pikachu tight to his chest.

“Gardevoir!” N called out. “You’re a Psychic type, aren’t you?!” The boxes around the room tumbled, making a mess and crashing into the free falling room’s passengers. “Teleport us to safety!”

“I’ll try!” A soft blue glow overtook her eyes.

“What do ya mean, you’ll try?! You can either do it or-” Mimikyu’s words were cut off once more as, with a flash of light, he disappeared before N’s eyes. Flash after flash took everyone out of the room individually until finally N found himself on a grassy field, Gardevoir appearing right before his eyes, slumping to the ground and panting for breath.

An explosion rang out behind them.

Taking just a glance to confirm it was the part of the ship they had been in crashing to the ground, N carefully approached the Psychic type. “Are you alright?”

“I am… simply exhausted… not used… to moving so many at once.” The Pokemon slowly managed to get out.

Looking around him, N confirmed that everyone had made it to the ground in one piece. He and Ash were burned, and all of the humans had taken a direct Poison Sting, but they were in one piece.“Take a break, Gardevoir. You deserve it.”

After brushing so close to death, N thought they were all deserving of a little break.