Re: Lisa the Legend - Chapter 52 up!!
Cooltrainer: Wow! Thanks for reading this! Hopefully the long reading time was worth it in the end, right?
Do you make up pokemon yourself? I haven't made any new ones for ages now, but when I did I found it to be an interesting challenge.
Pokemon killing people? Oh, you mean the Anna-Entei thing. Yeah, strange how that happened. Don't worry, it may seem a bit odd at the moment, but everything is going to make sense one day.
Karania: I know, I know. It's taking me so long. I have hardly any spare time. I still stand by what I said before though ... I hope to have it posted by the end of August.
Spontaneous ... this is not the c/o, but a further instalment none the less!
Cheers!
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Chapter 42 – Invasion from the Inside.
The house was completely deserted. Lisa, still filled with the euphoria of Fiskmire and the others’ triumphs at the lake, did not notice immediately. She breezed indoors happily and began cutting up a very red apple to eat when she suddenly realised there was no shouting as she sang the latest Julienne Brextar song. They’ve gone out, thought Lisa, feeling the tiniest bit rejected as she threw her apple slices into a bowl. They could have at least told me.
At that point, she did not notice anything else curious about her home. Not yet.
Marina didn’t plan on coming home until at least seven, when the mall would close, so Lisa chose to go up to her room and maybe fiddle around with her Buzzball for awhile. She had already uncovered three of its uses; an electric shock (that stunned its victims), the inflating that the girl at the checkout had showed her, and most recently, Lisa discovered that her Buzzball could become as hard as a rock sometimes – which would prove useful if she ever needed it as a weapon.
Plopping her bowl of apple on the springy bed, Lisa lay flat on her stomach, plucked the Buzzball off her bedside table, and began examining it closely. The bright red ball greatly resembled a squash ball. It was rubbery ball, completely vermilion in hue, and very shiny. It looked completely unremarkable and Lisa would have thought nothing of it, if she didn’t know what it did. The Buzzball was a mystic device – it interpreted the thoughts of the holder and performed an action to the best of the holders ability. Lisa didn’t quite understand the theory behind it yet, but she got the basic idea.
The ball began to inflate in Lisa’s hands; she did this often, now that she had mastered the skill, but the problem was that it took usually took several minutes for the ball to deflate. The sphere swelled to the size of a soccer ball (it was normally smaller than a pokeball) and while Lisa waited for its size to reduce, she noticed a clean white envelope on her bed.
“Oh, I forgot about this …” she muttered carelessly. The envelope said very clearly on the front:
Lisa Teresa Walters
23 Woodrow Avenue
Greenmount
Ecruteak City
At the top right hand corner, where a stamp should have been, there was the small insignia of a world globe with a gold ribbon curving around it and the words ‘Johto Ministry of Justice’ within the golden ribbon. Lisa tore the letter open curiously – what could the government office want with her, especially the judiciary system? Lisa remembered her brother Tom once making a comment that once you turned fifteen the government gave you a card which proved your age for universities and for independent care.
There was no card in the envelope. Just two sheets of folded paper, headed not with ‘Dear sir/madam’ but with ‘Dear Miss Walters’. Lisa took a sharp breath and read on.
Dear Miss Walters
It has come to the attention of the Johto Ministry of Justice that you were present at a place where a criminal activity occurred on the nineteenth – twentieth of December, 2002. It has been verified by the Investigative Squad in the province of Houen that a number of criminal offences took place during this time in the village of Port Valeo, and that you witnessed one or more of these events.
The Johto Ministry of Justice, in conjunction with the Tri-province Constitution, requires the attendance of you, Lisa Teresa Walters, at the trial of Lenina Johnson. The trial will be held at the Port Valeo courthouse, at 13 Salmon Drive, Port Valeo, on Thursday the 27th February 2003, beginning at exactly eleven am. You will be required to give testimony and make a brief statement concerning the case.
Thank you for your co-operation,
Brett Snyder
Senior Deputy Commissioner
Johto Ministry of Justice.
‘I have to go to a trial?’ thought Lisa, imagining a massive courthouse and her in the witness box. ‘I thought they took care of all that stuff last December. We made statements for the police in Houen. Lenina already went to jail, didn’t she?’
But no matter how hard she stared at the sheet of paper, it did not tell her anything more than she had already read. The second page turned out to be a simple map of Port Valeo, showing the few streets, the resorts, shops, houses, library (the book from which Lisa still had), the peninsula and the observatory, where Lisa had fought for her life with Jessica.
Jessica! Lisa had suddenly clicked. If she was needed at this trial, that definitely meant Jessica and Phil and Andrew would be needed too! Not to mention Gavin, if the Ministry of Justice had been able to get a hold of him, which she doubted.
There was a slam downstairs as the door closed. Marina must be home at last! Lisa ran downstairs at once to talk to her about the letter, which was still in her left hand. Her right hand gripped the now almost deflated Buzzball. As she walked into the living room, it suddenly occurred to her how dark it had become. And where had Marina got to so quickly?
The lower rooms of the house felt quite abandoned; Lisa was used to seeing them full of people. She flicked the lounge room light on as she walked into it and felt a bit more comforted. The front door was shut, but Lisa had left only the security door shut. That meant Marina must have come home, because the heavy oak door was now closed.
“Marina? You th-” Lisa began, but there was a scuffle from behind and, before she could whirl around, a hand had gripped tightly over her mouth. For a moment Lisa tried to throw her attacker off, struggling in her panic, but suddenly she caught sight of her attacker.
It was only Marina after all.
“Don’t speak, Lisa,” whispered Marina, very seriously. “Be really really quiet.”
She pulled her hand away from Lisa’s mouth. Her skin was very pale. Her Guardian Butterfree was not hovering round her head happily, but perched on her shoulder, perfectly still. Lisa had never seen Marina or her Guardian Angel look so frightened or watchful. Very slowly, Marina backed back into the living room, and Lisa followed her very nervously.
Marina seemed to relax a bit more once the girls were both in the living room. “Oh, thank God … you have your Buzzball …” said Marina.
“What’s going on??” hissed Lisa.
Marina shook her head. “Lisa, I don’t really know, but something’s really really wrong. I just came inside then, and …” she broke off, looking for the right words. “There’s somebody in the house. Who isn’t supposed to be, that is,” she added. “I don’t know who, I think it’s a woman but I’m not sure … I just saw them going from the dining room into the games room a minute ago … they have a Houndoom with them …”
Lisa swore under her breath. “You’re saying our house has been broken into?”
“Yes,” said Marina instantly. “Lisa, didn’t you notice, the lock of the door is broken. How long have you been here alone?” she asked.
“About fifteen minutes,” Lisa told her, a shiver going up her spine. But then sense came to her. “If anyone was really in the house, they’d have attacked me or whatever. I mean, I was singing … I was in the kitchen for five minutes, if anyone was there they would have made a move. You must be wrong.”
But Marina didn’t look at all convinced. She glanced around the place uneasily. They had both sat down on the futon in the living room, facing the door to the dining room. “Where’s your family?” she said suddenly.
“Dunno, they went out I think …” Lisa said.
“Did you see them?”
“No … they probably left a message.”
Lisa stood up from the seat and walked over to the phone table, where the large message pad lay. She didn’t know how she had missed it before; right on top was a pink note saying ‘We’ve had an urgent problem with work. We’ve got the kids with us. Be back later tonight’.
Mr and Mrs Walters had disappeared once before like this, but they had given Lisa a couple of days warning. That was last year, when they both left town to dig at Mt Moon for some Omanyte Fossils. Perhaps, Lisa thought, they had had a problem with the Omanytes?
Marina had stopped moving. The Guardian Butterfree on her shoulder has risen in the air an inch or two, humming very softly. “Lisa … I just saw her.”
“What? Who?” Lisa said quietly, looking at her pale, blue-haired friend.
“The person in the house … it’s a she,” whispered Marina, her lips barely moving. “Don’t move!” she hissed urgently at Lisa, staring through the doorway which led from the kitchen to the games room. “I can see her right now, she’s in the games room … she’s got red hair, fairly tall … she’s talking to someone else … it’s a guy she’s talking to … OH!” Marina’s breathing suddenly became incredibly laboured.
Lisa turned and glanced very briefly through the window, and at that moment she too caught sight of two people crouched low over the desk in the games room. A very dangerous-looking Houndoom was at their feet.
Lisa seized Marina’s wrist, then took her upstairs in one swift movement. They arrived in Lisa’s room, Marina shaking slightly. Lisa grabbed her backpack and hoisted it onto her back, not before throwing in a few things; her pokeballs, the letter from the ministry of justice, the runes Gavin sent, the jellimer and orb for dratini, and her pokegear and wallet. She kept the Buzzball in one hand, the small circular container holding the aquaflox in the other.
“What are you doing?”
Marina was shaking terribly, clutching at the chest of drawers.
“That’s Team Rocket,” said Lisa. “I … they might … look, just put of your backpack, we can’t stay here anymore … They know where I live now …” It had just sunk in. Lisa felt as though her very skin had been invaded. The rockets knew where she lived, she would not be safe in this house again, ever. It would be impossible to return.
“We’re going, right now,” said Lisa. “I don’t know when we’ll be back.”
Lisa carefully unlatched the door which led to her balcony. She could hear a muffled noise downstairs, and a very definite sound of a vase of some sort smashing on the tiles. For a moment, she wondered how many of these people had invaded her home.
Marina threw her own backpack on and followed Lisa timidly.
“You’re not going to jump off, are you?” said Marina apprehensively.
Lisa ground her teeth nervously, but when she spoke, her voice was strong. “Pretty much, yeah. And that’s ‘we’ not ‘you’.” She paused. “This side of the house faces almost directly onto the garden. If we can hide behind the bushes, we can sneak out and leave.”
Joining her on the balcony, Marina tapped the wood uncertainly with her foot. “How do you plan on falling without killing yourself, again?”
The Buzzball was in her hand still. Lisa grinned savagely. “Inflate,” she said to it in an undertone, concentrating on seeing the ball inflate to massive size, and it did so, very rapidly. Marina watched in awe as it swelled to the size of an Elekid, then kept going. The scarlet exterior was looking quite stretched now, as though the ball was nearing bursting point. Lisa prodded it gingerly; it was very springy. She knew once she landed, there would be only moments for her to run and hide before one of the people arrived to meet her.
She held the now massive Buzzball up to her stomach and leaned over the balcony.
“Marina, if we get separated, here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to contact Gavin somehow and stay with him. If all does go well, though,” she added. “We’ll meet over the back fence. We’ll have to run though.”
And with a scared pat from Marina, Lisa propelled herself over the side of the balcony. For a moment, she felt her stomach lurch as she was in freefall, then there was a loud thunk as the buzzball hit the grass. Lisa felt herself roll forwards and somersault into the bushes; the ball seemed to roll in the opposite direction. Brushing twigs and dirt from her ebony hair, Lisa looked up at the balcony, where Marina was standing uneasily, and gave the thumbs-up.
It looked like Marina was about to jump straight onto the ball from the second floor, but Lisa spied a dark figure appear around the corner of the veranda from the other side of the house. Lisa signalled violently to Marina not to jump, and the girl upstairs heeded.
The dark figure was soon snooping around under the balcony, a Murkrow flying on his or her shoulder. A beam of moonlight struck her face suddenly. Peering from the refuge of a large kurrajong tree, Lisa put a hand to her mouth. She recognised the person snooping around underneath the balcony. It was a red-haired woman - Lisa had met her before, once; it was the woman from the shopping mall, who had tried to attack her and Marina.
With a sickening thud, Lisa also recognised the usual crimson ‘R’ emblazoned across the woman’s chest.
It was a miracle that she hadn’t yet seen the Buzzball … it was sitting in a shadowy corner behind a terracotta pot, looking quite obvious from Lisa’s point of view. But the woman seemed more interested in the balcony, as though she was looking for a way to climb up it.
And then it happened. Marina peered timidly over the wooden posts on the balcony at the same moment as the red-haired woman glanced up. Their faces met instantly. Marina gave a strangled kind of a squeak and disappeared from view; the woman drew a weapon out from her clothes. It was not a gun – it looked like a remote control crossed with an electric toothbrush. She pressed a button, yelling out something to her male friend, who was presumably indoors. A jet of blue light which looked like a laser beam emerged and burned through one of the posts holding up the balcony.
“NO!” someone cried out from inside and Lisa heard Marina’s own distinct scream also, accompanied by many thuds.
‘I can’t be sensible now,’ thought Lisa. ‘I don’t want her to go like Anna.’
Without a second thought, Lisa leapt from the bushes and pelted towards the underside of the balcony. The woman there turned and looked stunned for a moment, then shot off some blue light which skimmed over Lisa’s hair. Luckily, Lisa had surprised her. She reached the Buzzball (which was almost back to cricket-ball-size) and scooped it up before the Rocket could react further. Then she quickly curved around and ran straight for the bushes, where she hoped she could get out of sight.
“Stun her now!” screamed a male voice from nowhere. Lisa had just been turning to see where Marina had got to when a third jet of electric blue light issued from the weapon. It would have hit Lisa’s chest if it weren’t for the Buzzball that she held there. The light ricocheted off and hit the Kurrajong, which burst into flames.
“Murkrow, Faint attack!” yelled the red-haired woman, who seemed to have abandoned her stun gun. Lisa was running at full pelt now, crashing through her Mum’s flowers and trying to lower herself down. A moment later, she felt something like a hot poker slash through her leg, and she made only a few more steps before crashing to the dirt. The Buzzball went spinning out of her grip.
The noise seemed dimmer here, but Lisa realised that there were more people than she had seen. A few women were arguing loudly somewhere nearby in the dark, and she heard at least two different men yell out.
“In those bushes, just there!” shrieked the red-haired woman.
Lisa was already trying to wriggle away but three bursts of blue light were fired and a few more bushes burst into flame. The flickery light from the fires meant that suddenly Lisa could see her way; the back fence was only twenty metres away, through a screen of trees. Refusing to accept that her home could be so easily razed to the ground, Lisa deftly released Fiskmire from his pokeball.
“Hydro Pump, Fisky!” she called, as she hobbled toward the trees, her leg killing. Fiskmire gushed litres of water over the garden, extinguishing the nearest spot fires one by one. Lisa ran for the doused trees. Just a few more metres –
“Paralabeam!” yelled a man. Lisa turned sharply to see a dark figure standing between her and the trees, illuminated by the fiery glow everywhere. An electric current seemed to erupt from the man and hit her in the chest. With a sickening thud in her stomach, Lisa felt her body seize up. Her face was pushed into the dirt by the man, as he yelled, “I’ve got her, over here, quick!” and many scurried footsteps were heard.
No way, thought Lisa. This isn’t how it’s supposed to go. I was so close, I was so quick, I can’t get caught now …
“Lisa Walters!” said the man who had paralyzed her. “Now we meet. Tell me –”
“ELECTRIFY!” squealed a girl’s voice, and Lisa knew it was Marina. A sudden explosion of yellow electricity shot through Lisa’s vision and there were two groans. Lisa knew Marina had picked up her Buzzball … thank goodness …
The man in Lisa’s face stood up and pointed the device in his hands at Marina. Although Lisa could not see everything, she heard just fine. There was a shout and a dazzling flash of blue, a pelt of footsteps again, a roar of fire, another shout. Then a relative calm, followed by a sizzling sound. Lisa thought she saw a jet of purple light from somewhere. Then –
“ICE BEAM!”
“Mud!” There was a soft squawk and a flash of ice. Lisa waited for a moment, then saw Marina come into her narrow range of vision.
“Quick, Lisa, we have to go.” Her face was bleeding and she was pale, but all the same, Lisa would never forget the steely look of determination on her face that night.
Lisa tried to get to her feet, and utterly failed, Marina helped her into a sitting position, but Lisa’s muscles refused to respond; Fiskmire was tugging at her arm urgently.
A chilly wind seemed to blow over the girls suddenly, though the fires around them should have made it hot.
“NOW! STUN THEM BOTH! KILL THEM BOTH, I DON’T CARE!”
The voice came from nowhere. Lisa saw yet another streak of blue light fly through the air, and connect with Marina’s midriff. She looked shocked, then was thrown back without a further sound.
“Got her!” cried a voice. “Where’s the other?”
“Here …” A light bulb seemed to flicker on somewhere, and Lisa felt someone’s eyes bore into the back of her neck. She tried to turn and suddenly found that she could. Lisa’s golden eyes looked straight back into a man’s dark ones.
“There she is, I’ll stun her!” called a woman.
The man looking at Lisa gripped her jaw tightly and painfully, his palms sweaty.
“Tell me, Lisa, where have you – AAAH!” He collapsed as he was hit with the light from a Stun Gun.
And suddenly, the entire scene seemed to swirl around in Lisa’s head, never ending and never starting, just spiralling around until she could see nothing but smoke and fire and people and blue light … Lisa knew nothing, except that she was somehow being taken away, she was leaving her house, leaving the terror of that evening. But where she was going, she could not say …
Originally Posted by mr_pikachu
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