Book 2
First Strike
"Do they see the fear in my eyes (Are they so revealing) This time I cannot disguise (All the doubt I'm feeling)"
Chapter 1
Cave
Jenny landed outside the cave and hurried inside with Karen.
"Is she alright?" Sarah asked. Kevin ran over to Karen and looked her over for a moment.
"She just got knocked out. She should be fine."
A few moments later a brilliant blue Articuno landed outside the cave and shifted back into Bryce. He came inside looking winded but unhurt.
"I don't think they followed me. I tore them up pretty good."
"Good, Now what are we gonna do?" Blake asked.
"I believe we are going to have to fight them. Maybe if we found their base of operations and destroy it, they'll give up the fight."
"I agree with Kevin. We need a plan. We have to him them fast and hard." Rachel spoke up.
"Yes, our best bet is to take them by surprise."
Jenny produced a small pistol. "They were using these at the hospital. Maybe Kevin and Garyn can learn something through reverse engineering?"
"Yes, this will help us a lot. It looks as though it is a laser weapon." Kevin said taking the weapon.
"Yes, it is." Jenny said glumly. She was bandaging a burn injury on her tail.
Kevin and Garyn left with the small pistol. They were already discussing it before they had gotten into the next cavern. Bryce carried Karen over to a cot and put her there until she woke up. Jenny was tired from the fight and went to get some sleep. Blake wandered off to do something for no reason at all. Bryce took care of Karen for a few hours. He went to the cavern entrance and looked out. The sun was just beginning to set. The leaves on the trees were beginning to lose their colors and turn crisp and brown. Many trees had already begun losing leaves. An icy breeze reminded the young pokemorph that winter was on its way. He knew the caverns would get very cold unless something was done to warm them. He could handle the cold, but he was worried about the three fire pokemorphs. They would definitely have a tougher time. Especially Jenny. Bryce turned and went inside. Karen was still asleep so he went on to bed himself. Kevin and Garyn were still sitting in a dimly lit room working on the laser weapon. Bryce wondered if those two ever slept.
Early the next morning everyone straggled into breakfast. Kevin and Garyn had fallen asleep in the chamber they used as a lab. They ate quickly then went back to work. Everyone else discussed plans for the next few days. Jenny took her turn at the security moniters. Almost all the time there was someone watching the moniters. At night when everyone was asleep the computer only woke someone up if it detected any unrecognized human DNA. During the day it also tracked any pokemon that would come into the region. Jenny had only been sitting at the moniter for a few minutes when a bright blue dot crossed onto the screen. A blue dot indicated a pokemon, a red dot indicated a human, and a purple dot indicated a pokemorph. Jenny clicked on the blue dot. A box popped up revealing all the computer knew about the pokemon that had shown up.
Species:Pikachu
Gender:Female
Health:High
Upon reading this Jenny hurried outside to find it. She got bored sometimes during in the day and didn't own any pokemon of her own. So, she went after the Pikachu hoping to catch it so she would have a pokemon to play with over the winter.
"Bryce! Where are the extra pokeballs?"
"They're in the cabinet near the stove!" He hollered back.
"Thanks!" She grabbed a few and headed outside. Bryce came into the room a moment later.
"Jenny?"
He padded over to the computer and sat down. A purple dot was moving in on a blue one. Once the two dots were close together the purple dot became blue with a thin purple ring around it. Bryce remembered Kevin telling him that meant a known pokemorph in morph. If an unknown pokemorph came on screen in morph he or she would be shown as a pokemon. After a few clicks, the screen displayed a wireframe Pikachu and a wireframe Raichu. Both of them had a good health rating. But the rating was dropping for both of them. Red areas appeared on the 3-d models to show where pain was felt. A red area formed on the head of the Pikachu and its status changed from fair to unconcious. Moments later the pokemon disappeared from the map without a trace. Jenny appeared a few moments later in the main cavern.
"Did you catch it?" Bryce inquired.
"Yep!" Jenny held up the pokeball and smiled.
"Hey Jen, what ya got there?" Blake asked as he walked into the room.
"My Pikachu"
"You have a Pikachu?"
"I do now. It came on the scanner a few minutes ago, so I went and got it."
Blake tossed a lump of food in the microwave and turned it on.
"You can see pokemon on that thing?"
"Yeah" Jenny nodded giving Blake a confused look.
"How?"
"It's automatic Blake, all the blue dots are pokemon."
"What?! You're kiddin' me!"
"No, weren't you paying attention to Kevin when he showed us how it worked?"
Bryce snickered and left the Charizard and Zapdos to finish their oncoming argument.
"Oh, I can't ever understand a word that Chahmanduh says."
He turned away from the microwave in disgust and glared at Jenny. In the process he brushed a wing against the microwave and temporarily disabled it. This sent Jenny into a fit of laughter, and annoyed Blake. Jenny sighed and regained her self control.
"Blake, you're incredible you know."
"Yeah, I know" Blake was lost in self praise.
"C'mon I'll show you how it works."
Blake followed Jenny over to the computer.
Meanwhile, Bryce was fretting over the problem with heating. The caves weren't very warm, and winter was fast approaching. Suddenly he felt a wave of heat coming from one of the unused subcaverns. He went inside and found that it was being used by Kevin. Kevin was sitting in the middle of the room tinkering with a small piece of metal that looked like a pistol. The metal on the weapon was a very light blue color with vibrant strokes of red running up and down it. The outskirts of the room were lined with bushes that were heavy laden with bright red berries.
"Kevin! What are these?" Bryce was surprised, it seemed odd that Kevin had been able to grow all of these bushes without him noticing.
"Oh, hi Bryce. These are Fireberry bushes. Come on in. You're about to singe your tail on that one there by the door."
Bryce quickly stepped away and barely managed to keep the tip of his purple tail from brushing against the bush.
"Fireberry bushes?"
"Yeah, wait till you see this."
Kevin plucked a berry off of one of the bushes. Now that Bryce actually got to look at one of the golf ball size berries, he realized that it truly was on fire. Yet it never seemed to burn away at all.
"How does it do that?"
"There's a chemical in the berry that burns very very slowly and without much heat. Here, hold it for a minute."
Kevin handed Bryce the flaming Fireberry. It was warm to the touch, but that was all.
"Can you eat them?"
"Oh yes, they're perfectly harmless."
"But you said..."
"Oh that, the berries are harmless, but the leaves. I'm still working on that. I've been engineering these things for months. I just got the last bit right a week ago." Kevin poked a leaf with a pencil. The pencil burst into flames when it touched the leaf. Bryce rubbed his tail nervously.
"How long until you get it fixed?"
"Probably about a week. These bushes will help keep this place heated this winter."
"Yeah, I was getting concerned."
"Wait till I show you what this gun does!" Kevin placed a fiery red pellet into the odd shaped gun and pointed it at the wall. He fired it and Bryce watched in amazement as a ball of red light hit the stone wall and exploded in a blast of fire that scorched the wall.
"What was that?"
"It was a metal cylinder with the juice from that berry and a few other things."
"And you can eat these?" Bryce asked as he held up one of the burning red berries.
"Yeah, I've got a bunch of Thunderberry bushes and Iceberry bushes growing in two other chambers. But they aren't harmful unless you shoot them or are weak to their type."
"Yes, I'll keep that in mind. Would you mind if I grabbed a few of those Thunderberries and showed them to Rachel? She's pretty down today."
"Yeah, they're right next door. She'll love'em since their her own type."
"Yeah!" Bryce chuckled and left.
A few hours later everyone was gathered together in the kitchen area discussing their next plan.
"As far as we know, the hospital was totally wiped out. We airlifted Karen out, and brought her back here. To the best of our knowledge, no one saw which way we went. Nevertheless, we must fortify our position. Kevin has already invented a few devices to help us out. Kevin?"
Kevin got up and explained to everyone else how the Fire, Ice, and Thunderberries worked. After he was finished, Garyn brought up the laser weapon that had been captured during the hospital assault. He and Kevin had taken the thing apart and managed to figure out how it worked.
"The only problem, is this part in the firing chamber." He motioned to a small crystaline fragment that the laser passed through on its way out of the weapon. "Allow me to demonstrate." He pointed the weapon at the cave wall and fired it. It made a scorch mark that was only a few inches across. Then, he removed the crystalline chip and fired again. The blast was much bigger, but lacked critically in power.
"What are we going to do about it?" Rachel asked.
"Well, there is a facility about ten miles west of here. But it was captured by the Rockets gang last month. If we can raid it and get away with a crate of these crystalline chips, we can duplicate their technology and set up a few turrets to guard the cave from attack. The turrets will stall them long enough for us to get enough warning. Everyone who manages to get into the cave won't stand a chance against us if we can get them unarmed."
Rachel was obviously ready for a fight. Sarah could see small sparks jumping off of her, and her tail was twitching up and down in an excited manner. Garyn pulled out a map of the region surrounding the facility. It was built in the woods away from the city for safety purposes. The nearest public road was over a mile away. The facility was to the west of the cave. This meant crossing a rope bridge that had been built over a river that cut deep into the terrain only a quarter mile away from the buildings.
"They will be armed," Sarah, the Eevee, pointed out. "We will not be able to fight that many of them unarmed. Even our long range attacks won't be enough."
Kevin stood in answer to this and presented his weapon. He gave the rest of the pokemorphs the same demonstration he had given Bryce just a few hours earlier. All the while, Karen watched from a distance. She was amazed at their courage and how well they managed to organize and discipline themselves as opposed to human's their age.
Finally, after an hour of discussion everyone went to bed, most still thinking of the upcoming assault. Bryce, Kevin, and Garyn spent the entire next day building more of Kevin's gun. It was finally decided that the elemental weapons be named "Pyro Blaster," "Cryo Blaster," and "Thunder Rager." Each type of pellet required a different gun to fire it. Kevin claimed that otherwise the chemicals left in the chamber by previous rounds would damage the gun when they interacted.
The following day the preparations were complete and everyone was getting ready to leave.
"Want to try a berry Jen?" Rachel asked. She handed Jenny a glowing yellow berry while she was distracted. She popped it into her mouth and bit down on it. Then she yelped in pain as the electrical charge shocked her. Rachel walked away laughing. Blake saw Jenny level her Cryo Blaster and point it at the back of Rachel's head.
"Jenny, why don't we save tha' for the Rockets?"
Jenny muttered angrily and holstered the weapon. Then turned back to her work. She knelt down next to a box full of shimmering blue pellets and began loading them one by one into a slot on the side of her blue striped gun.
Chapter 2
Rocket Facility
Half an hour later everyone was finally ready to go, and Jenny was still bickering with Rachel.
"Okay, it's time to leave. Everyone stay with your partner." Bryce announced. "Let's go" He walked out the cave with everyone else right behind him. Even Karen had decided to go on the assault. She was thrilled to death to go in shooting, especially since some of the Rockets in the facility most likely took part in the hospital assault. Everyone had a single gun, save Karen. She had two, a Thunder Rage and a Cryo Blaster. Everyone was given a set of three, but only one gun was needed at a time. Karen didn't have any natural elemental attacks, so she felt it would be best if she had two guns.
The fighting began almost as soon as they reached the bridge. A Rocket scout stationed at the bridge saw the battle party coming and ran to get help. He pitched forward and fell from the bridge as a yellow blur struck his back and exploded into a crackling burst of electricity. Everyone raced across the bridge, but was pinned down halfway across. Laser bursts flew everywhere in a wild manner. Rockets were falling left and right, either on fire or being electrocuted. A few laser bolts came close, but no one was hurt more than a mild burn. Bryce noticed that he was almost completely out of ammo. Finally, one final shot caught a Rocket in the leg and engulfed his leg in flames. Then the gun clicked because of its empty chamber. With no weapon, Bryce did the only thing left to do. He jumped off the bridge headfirst. Moments later a huge Articuno hurtled out of the gorge and swooped down on the attacking Rockets. Bryce had always enjoyed fighting as an Articuno. One of the Rockets made a run on the bridge. Garyn shot the planks beneath the running man. They shattered and burst into flames, sending the Rocket hurtling towards the river far below. The last Rocket was taken out by a burst of electricity. A cheer went up from the bridge as the circling Articuno blasted the fortified doors in with a well placed ice beam. Bryce landed and reverted to his normal self.
The entire group flooded into the facility. Rockets were everywhere. Some screamed and tried to run away, others tried to stand and fight. But all of them were knocked out cold in a matter of moments.
The fight had been fast and furious. Everyone scattered throughout the facility looking for the chips. Finally someone called out.
"I've found them!" Everyone rushed to the room where Sarah had hollered from. It was a storage area and was filled with boxes of various components. She held a small box out to Garyn.
"This is it! Let's get out of here" Garyn exclaimed as he shoved the lid back onto the crate.
"Come on Kevin we've got to get going!"
"Just a minute! You should see this! They're trying to build a hovercraft!"
"That's great, but they're also going to be coming around soon!" Rachel grabbed him by the tail and drug him away from the crate.
"Ow! Take it easy!" He whined. Rachel glared down at him and he became very quiet. Sirens began to blare throughout the facility.
"Come on! Let's move it!" Karen yelled from ahead. She blew a hole in the wall with a weapon that she'd obviously taken from a downed Rocket. Laser bolts began sailing past, blackening trees and shattering rocks as the last few pokemorphs were crossing the bridge. As soon as Bryce stepped off, Karen fired a few rounds of sparkling balls of energy into the center of the bridge. It exploded as the first of the Rockets were about to cross. What remained of the bridge fell burning into the river below. Everyone escaped into the trees as the Rockets began trying to shoot them from across the river.
Later that day, everything was pretty quiet. Kevin and Garyn were in their "lab," as they liked to call it, working on the laser weapons. Bryce was sitting at the kitchen table wondering how the people in town would react when a Charizard landed at the grocery store with a Pikachu on its back. Blake came in and sat down at the computer. He still had the Scyther that Bryce had given him and was wanting to catch a few more pokemon before winter finally set in and most of the pokemon had migrated or gone into hiding. Sarah was cooking something on the stove. It surprised Blake at first to see her. Instead of having four Eevee legs, she was fully human except for her tail and ears, which were Eevee.
"Where'd Jen and Rache go?" Blake asked the Mewtwo morph.
"Jenny shifted to Charizard and carried Rachel as a Pikachu to town."
"Those two!?"
"Yeah" Bryce cringed at the thought and went on reading his book. Blake went over to talk to Sarah. She explained to him that centauriform morphs were only centauriform when they were in a hurry or when they wanted to be. At other times they just looked like normal morphs.
"What are you cooking? It smells interesting." Bryce asked as he peered into the pot.
"Wanna taste some?" Sarah asked. She held up a spoonful of opaque green fluid and doubled over laughing. "It's some sort of goop that Kevin and Garyn needed. They gave me the instructions and told me that it was a 'secret recipe'"
Bryce almost blacked out when the foul smelling goo was thrust into his face. Blake laughed and slapped him hard on the back as he made his way back to the computer.
"I don't know why but it says do not allow to come in contact with water."
"Well, whydon't we just see what happens then?"
"I dunno Bryce."
Bryce picked up a cup full of spring water and dunked the goop- covered spoon inside. The water burst into flames and sizzled away to nothing, destroying the container in the process.
"Oops. I guess that's why." Bryce said as he held up the ruined spoon. Sarah took the pot back to the chamber where Kevin and Garyn were working.
"Hey Bryce! You oughta see this!" Blake called, his wings twitching excitedly.
"What?" Bryce hurried over to the computer. The display showed a blue dot with a purple rim moving in fast. A wireframe Raichu popped up. It was pockmarked with red blurs indicating injuries.
Subject-Rachel
Species-Pokemorph-Raichu
Status-In Morph (Raichu)
Health-Poor
"She's hurt! Get Kevin and Garyn." Bryce ordered as he saw her speed dropping off. The model suddenly pitched forwards and rolled causing a few light pink spots to form filling in the areas on the model that weren't a brilliant red. A moment later an injured Raichu stumbled in and reverted to Rachel.
"What happened Rachel? Are you alright? Where's Jenny? Is she okay?"
"Quiet!" Rachel felt bombarded by the questions coming at her from seemingly every direction.
"What happened?" Sarah asked quietly.
"We were attacked. We had just landed at the market when a gang jumped us. I shocked the closest one pretty bad. Jenny burned a few, but they got a net over her. It was a steel net that was electrified. The electricity knocked her out and they loaded her up into a van. They kicked me into a bush and left. Then I came back here."
"Did you recognize the gang?"
"No, but I got a good look at 'em."
"Let's go see Karen. Maybe she can help us.
A few moments later Bryce and Rachel were both flying into town. No one noticed as two Pidgey landed on a window and pecked at the glass. The window opened and the two vanished into the house.
Chapter 3
Shadow Hawk hide-out
Jenny was forced into the truck, and felt a sharp pain in her arm. A brief wave of nausea washed over her as the man waiting in the truck withdrew the syringe from her arm.
"Ow!" Jenny kicked and yelled as her arms were tied to her sides and her wings were folded as she normally kept them, and tied to her back.
"What if she tries to shift boss? She could slip right out of the ropes."
"Don't worry about that. That injection will keep her shifting abilities in check for hours."
Jenny hoped he was bluffing. Silently, she grabbed the ropes and began burning through them.
"Hey! She's trying to break the rope!" Someone yelled. Jenny felt something hit her head. She crumpled forward.
"Idiot! We're supposed to have her healthy when we get her to the base!" Jenny heard and then let go of consciousness.
Hours later, Jenny woke up in a dimly lit cell. The only light came from the fire on the tip of her tail.
"Hey freak!" a female voice called from behind her.
Great, I've got an idiot cellmate. Jenny ignored the rude comment.
"Hey! I'm talking to you."
Right, and I'm not talking to you.
"Hey! Lizard girl!" Jenny felt someone tug on her tail.
"Watch it!" Jenny yelled as she lept to her feet and glared at the older teen behind her. With her wings flared out, and her tail curled around by her feet, she was a pretty intimidating figure.
"Woah! Calm down! Ok, no touching the tail." The girl looked nervous.
"That's right." Jenny said, glaring daggers at her. Her tail whipped off the ground and back down once for emphasis. A small ball of fire formed in Jenny's open palm.
"Ok, put the fireball down, and we'll just talk okay?"
Jenny dropped her hands to her side and let the fireball go out. She sat down on a rock near the girl, keeping her tail flame between them for lighting, and defense.
Jenny got her first real glimpse at the insulting girl. She was average height, had long brown hair, green eyes, and obviously had an attitude problem. She wore a dirty pair of jeans and a plain red t-shirt.
"So, what's your name Charizard? You do have a name don't you?"
"My name is Jenny. What's your name?" Jerk maybe?
"I'm Angela. So, why do they got you locked up?"
"Hmmph, its the same reason every time." Jenny sighed.
"Oh, I see." Angela saw that Jenny was upset. Who wouldn't be?
"Why are you here?"
"I sort of 'borrowed' some of their stuff last night."
"You mean you stole it?"
"It's not like they didn't steal it first. All those gangs are the same. The Shadow Hawks aren't any different." Angela said to her cellmate.
"Yeah, well I've had a rough day. I'm going to sleep."
"On the rock floor?" Angela was surprised.
"You think that I haven't slept on a rock floor before? Trust me its nowhere near the first, and its not going to be the last either." Jenny laid down on the floor, with her head resting on her spread right wing. She knew it would be sore in the morning, but she preferred a sore wing to a sore head. Angela watched for a moment as the Charizard girl drifted off into a restless sleep. She grabbed a chunk of rotting wood from the floor and put the end of it in Jenny's tail flame, which Angela noticed was not burning near at the intensity it should for a healthy Charizard. It caught fire quickly and burned slowly.
"I wonder why?" she said to no one in particular. She raised her torch in the air and let it cast its light on the sleeping morph. There were several marks from injections on her arm and a bleeding gash in her left wing.
"So, she's been hurt." Angela wondered how she had managed to stand, much less sit and talk with such an injury.
Meanwhile...
"Did you get a good look at any of them? Any markings?" Karen was asking. Rachel was getting very tired of all of the questions. Bryce could tell by the sharp whiplike motions of her tail.
"Umm Karen?" He whispered, "Maybe you ought to calm down just a bit. Rachel looks like she's about out of patience."
"Right," Karen took a deep breath and followed her friend's advice. He resumed his post at the window. He was nearly always calm and always thought ahead.
"What can you tell me about them?" Karen asked.
"They were all wearing black uniforms."
"Anything on the uniforms?"
"No, they were solid black, but one of them had an SH tatooed on his arm. I noticed it when I bit his arm."
"Hmm, SH" Karen murmered as she tapped away at the keys. "We've got a match! There's a local gang that calls themselves the Shadow Hawks. That's their logo." She pointed to an SH logo on the screen. It matched Rachel's description perfectly.
"Now, the question is, how do we find them?"
Chapter 4
Shadow Hawk Base
"Jenny! Wake up!"
Jenny felt someone shaking her. I hate this place...
Moments later a bucket of water was thrown over her. The water soaked her shirt, hair, and, most importantly, her wings. Which, to a Charizard, feels like they're being burned off.
"Ahhh!" Jenny yelped as she flailed out on the ground. That's it! I'm going to kill her!
Two strong arms looped under her shoulders and lifted her off the ground. She hung limply in place as a third person administered the injection.
"We're finished, let's go." Someone said. All at once Jenny was released. She dropped to the ground.
"Are you okay?" Angela asked. "What was that all about?"
"No, I am not okay, and that was some sort of injection they're giving me to keep me from becoming and Articuno or Charizard or something and blasting my way out of here. But it doesn't matter." She struggled to sit up. Her wings were dripping with the water and burned terribly.
"Why? You think you're going to escape?"
"No, I think it's only a matter of time before my friends show up and get us out of here. There were two of us when they attacked. Rachel and I were together. But they didn't get her."
Meanwhile...
Bryce, Rachel, and Karen were searching through Karen's rented storage shed. Karen and her co-workers had managed to acquire several uniforms from many of the local gangs after fierce battles where both sides suffered, but only one side was ever helped by Karen's affiliates. The others were left to fend for themselves.
"Ah ha!" Karen shouted as she held up a grey and black uniform that had an "SH" emblazed on the back and a smaller version on each shoulder.
"These will be perfect!" She tossed one to Rachel and told her to slip it on. She stepped into the bathroom with it.
"I don't think any of these are going to come close to fitting you."
Bryce knodded. He knew his physique varied too much from humans.
"Well, what are we going to do with you?"
"Simple! I will be your prisoner." Bryce grinned slyly.
Rachel returned a minute later wearing her uniform. Her tail was tucked down one pant leg, and her long brown hair concealed her ears. Karen went to change after she found some old stunner rifles. One for her and one for Rachel. Ten minutes later the trio was in Karen's car headed down the road. Karen's computer had given them an address of the last known Shadow Hawk base. They arrived in thirty minutes. Rachel was still angry at Karen for not keeping enough gas in her car. They had to stop for gas after getting about ten miles down the road.
From the street, the building looked abandoned, but a trained eye could tell that it was in use. Karen was sure they had found it when she saw an old surveliance camera that was still functioning. Everyone got out of the car. Karen and Rachel prodded Bryce towards the door with their weapons. Rachel knocked on the door. A man appeared and opened up a small hatch in the door.
"What's the password?" he grumbled.
"We have a prisoner. He's dangerous. Let us in before he tries to get away."
"No one gets in without a password! I might just call the.. ughh." The man groaned and fell out of view.
"Bryce?" Rachel asked.
"He'll be out for at least an hour"
"Now how are we going to get in?" Karen wondered aloud. She tried shoving on the door.
"Stand back." Rachel instructed. Then she placed both hands flat on the steel door. Electricity crackled through the air and door. She pulled the doors apart with her electrical hold.
"Good job, let's get in and get out before someone finds this guy." Karen said as she drug him around the corner and dumped him in a bush.
On the inside the building was in good condition and housed several Shadow Hawks. Karen stopped one of the gang members.
"Hey, can you tell us where the cells are? We're new, and we just caught kitty over here outside."
"Careful with him! He's a Mewtwo. Man he could knock your head off without even touchin ya!"
"Really? Well we better take him down there quick then."
"Yeah, second hallway on your right."
"Thanks. Come'on move it! I haven't got all day!" Karen prodded Bryce with her rifle. Bryce acted passive and allowed himself to be forced down the hallway. The guard at the cell met them with a questioning look.
"New prisoner?"
"Yep!"
"Heh, and I heard rumors that pokemorphs were infiltrating the base." He chuckled.
Rachel crackled with electricity and glared at the now frightened guard..
"We are." She said coldly. A moment later the man was pinned to the floor with Rachel beating the daylights out of him. He was out in under a minute. Bryce began searching for the man's keys.
"Forget that! They know we're here." Karen blasted the outer door with her stunner rifle. It's rather odd that they call them stunners. The door was reduced to twisted chunk of melted and torn metal. Karen kicked it aside and burst into the cell block.
"Karen!" It was Jenny. She was in one of the cells along with a rough looking girl. Jenny didn't look to good. She had been pretty well beaten up. Karen blew a hole in the bars. Jenny and Angela climbed out through the hole and followed Karen back into the guard room where Rachel and Bryce had engaged a few guards with lasers. All three guards were disarmed and out cold within a few seconds. Bullet proof vests didn't hold up very well against electricity and weren't even an issue when Bryce let a volley of energy balls fly at them. Jenny took out the remaining opponent. He ran about ten feet before collapsing from his burns. Karen dropped her gun and knelt down over it.
"What are you doing?! We've got to get out of here!" Rachel shouted.
Jenny took the moment to arm herself with one of the discarded laser weapons.
"Setting it to overload. When it goes, it will destroy the entire cell block." She finished punching the buttons and heaved it towards the door. It caught on the doorframe and fell onto the ruined door. It began glowing a brilliant red. Bryce motioned with his hands and the huge weapon slid to the back end of the cell block.
"Fine! Now let's get going!" Rachel fired a few laser bolts down the hallway at the advancing enemies.
"We're pinned in here!" Angela yelled as she peered at the door and was almost killed by a volley of laser fire.
"Bryce can you teleport us out?" Karen yelled over the din.
"No, there's too many of us and I don't have the energy. I spent to much of it on the guards!" Rachel turned away from the firefight and blew a gaping hole in the wall. Fresh air drifted in.
"They're getting away!" Someone yelled. Jenny fired her laser blindly through the smoke as she clambered through the hole in the wall. She heard someone groan and collapse. She was at the end of her strength. She went limp as she climbed. Two sets of arms grabbed her and hoisted her out.
Chapter 5
Pokemorph Cave
After a short firefight and then an hour of walking, everyone was safe back at the cave. Angela did not come with them though. About halfway there, she left, choosing to live her life her own way.
Everyone was relieved to see that the rescue party had made it back safely. But there was very little time for celebration, winter was just around the corner and preparations had to be made...
"Blake, hand me that hammer." Jenny pointed to the hammer while holding the metal square in place.
"I'm busy with these plants of Kevins. He wants all of 'em watered good by noon."
Just then the hammer floated into the air and over to Jenny.
"Thanks Bryce!" Jenny said as she began hammering the metal square into place.
Bryce was working on one of the electric furnaces. It had gotten flooded during the last rainstorm and was acting up. Garyn came in a few minutes later. He looked depressed.
"Something the matter?" Bryce asked him.
"I'm afraid that I've got to leave."
"Leave? Why?"
"It's difficult to explain. My sister also happens to be a morph. She's a dewgong. I just found out today that she got caught in a net and is in critical condition in my home town. I need to go see her and then I will be staying in town, where I can protect her."
"I see, I am sorry to hear that. Have you told Kevin?"
"Yes, I told him a few moments ago."
"Good, have a swift journey then, and be careful."
"I will. I have my things packed already. I'll be leaving in the morning."
Everyone was saddened by Garyn's departure, but there was so much to do to prepare that the work kept them preoccupied. Two weeks after Garyn left, the first snowstorm hit the area. It was the worst snowstorm in three years.
"There's snow drifts piling up in the front of the cave." Sarah said as she entered the power room. Bryce was feeding some of the voltorb.
"We'll need to get it blocked off then. Grab some plywood and meet me there in five minutes." Bryce responded.
"Okay." Sarah shifted to centauriform and dashed off. Bryce finished feeding the electric pokemon and went to meet Sarah. She was already working. Two hours later the makeshift wall was finished.
The winter season seemed to drag on forever. There wasn't much to do as far as chores. Someone watered the plants everyday until Kevin trained Bryce's Squirtle to do it. The only real task left was manning the security computer. With so much free time, everyone was able to relax. Jenny, Bryce, Sarah, Blake, and Rachel spent most of their time in the "battle caverns," training their pokemon and themselves as well. Kevin wasn't as interested in battles and spent the greater part of his time tinkering with his inventions.
"Is he always like that?" Jenny asked Bryce after their Pikachu had finished their speed drill. The two electric pokemon were allowed to take a quick break. Bryce watched them play in the shallow pool while he thought about the question.
"Yes, most of the time. Kevin doesn't talk to people very often. He's spent most of his life alone with his inventions."
"Wouldn't that get boring?"
"Not for Kevin!" Bryce chuckled. Jenny was doing a good job of getting to know everyone and establish friendships. Even before the cave idea was formed most of the morphs in it had already known each other for several years. Sometimes Jenny felt like she was the newbie and didn't fit in. Bryce knew this. He was very good at sensing how people were feeling. He had met the Charizard girl only three months ago and they were already good friends.
Rachel suddenly burst into the room.
"Come quick! Sarah says the computer says there's someone outside!"
"Outside! In this weather?!" Jenny said as she and Bryce ran after Rachel to the front of the caverns where the computer was. Sarah was tapping away at the keys. Kevin and Blake watched over her shoulder.
"Well?" Bryce asked.
"I don't know. The snow is interfering with reception. Kevin?"
"Try hitting it!" Blake suggested.
"Set it to filter #1."
Sarah punched the keys for a moment. The display cleared up a moment later. About fifty yards from the cavern entrance the scanners had picked something up. It was a purple dot. Sarah clicked on it for its health reading.
"Specimen's identity is unknown." The computer stated as the box popped up.
There was an outline of a fallen figure next to Condition: critical. Gender: Female Race: error. The wireframe wasn't functioning though.
"She'll die out there!" Rachel noted.
"Come on! Let's get her inside!" Bryce hollered and sprinted off down the exit hallway with Jenny, Sarah, and Blake right behind him. Jenny fireblasted the wall that Sarah and Bryce had built to keep out the snow. Instantly the snow piled in. Jenny shivered from the extreme cold.
"Go back inside! It's way too cold for fire morphs out here! Especially Charizards!" Bryce commanded over the wind. Jenny nodded and quickly complied. Her high body temperature made her very susceptible to cold temperatures. The other three stepped out into the snowstorm. Sarah could hardly see at all through the snowstorm. Bryce and Blake had very acute eyesight, but it wasn't helping in this weather. All anyone could see was the driving snow.
"See anything?!" Sarah hollered, but her words were lost in the howling wind.
{I sense something to our west.} Bryce said telepathically. It was a useful ability, but he didn't really like using it as it consumed energy.
"She's about seven yards to your right." Kevin's voice crackled in Blake's earpiece.
{There she is!} Bryce yelled as he spotted her. Lying facedown in the snow was a young Articuno morph, probably about fifteen years old. She was unconcious. Her brilliant blue wings were draped limply across her back. Bryce lifted her up carefully and swept the snow off of her wings and tail. The freezing trio rushed inside with her and laid her on a couch. Kevin was waiting with a medical kit. Jenny had lit a fire. Sarah hurried off to get a hot water bottle. Bryce and Blake watched as Kevin took her temperature, checked her heart rate, and performed several other tests.
"Well?" Bryce asked as Kevin paused for a moment.
"Her temperature is about twelve degrees lower than it should be. Most Articuno morphs have a temperature of about twenty degrees Fahrenheit. She's at around ten."
"Ten degrees!?" Blake was shocked.
"That's not really dangerous actually. It would be fatal for another type of morph in a few hours, and a few minutes for fire types, but ice types have very low blood temperatures. Other than that, her heart rate is good, so I'd say she was in good health, but she's got lots of odd chemicals in her."
"Medications?" Bryce asked,
"Probably. She's showing signs of exhaustion. I'd say she'll have low stamina for about a week and won't wake up for a few hours at least. She looks like she's been through a lot recently."
Bryce looked down at the sleeping 'Cuno morph on the couch. She was lying on her wings. Her tail had several bits of twigs caught in it, and her sky blue hair hadn't been combed in days. The Mewtwo wondered who this girl was. Where had she come from? What had happened to her? Why was she out in the storm?
Pokemon is (c) Nintendo, Gamefreak, and Creatures.
Bryce, Jenny, Blake, Kevin, Garyn, Karen, Sarah, Rachel, and the Articuno Morph are all (c) Vaporeon
The Pokemorph Revolution Series and all its unique characters, items, and techniques are (c) Vaporeon
"What if I stumble?" is (c) DC Talk
Special Thanks: Everyone at the rpg for keeping me going, and Arti, who inspired me to add an Articuno to the team!