The
Great Crossover Adventure
by
Xanthix
Chapter
9: Reunions
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"Superb
news, Boss," Jesse reported to the forbidding image of her superior on the
viewscreen. "Our space pokémon are doing a great job of knocking out the
enemy's spaceships, and we're sure that Mewtwo has rounded up the
intruders." She neglected to mention that, technically, they had lost
contact with Mewtwo half an hour ago, but the Boss didn't like to be bothered by
small details like that.
The
Boss seemed to buy the status report, despite his continual suspicion of Jesse
and James. "Very well, Jesse. Keep up the good work and you'll be
rewarded. But if you fail, remember that you can always be sent back to deal
with Ash and Pikachu again!" He smiled evilly as he closed the
communication.
"No
problem, sir!" Jesse smiled nervously as the screen went dark. She turned
to James, who was using the communication unit to coordinate the pokémon space
battle.
"Don't
let any of them get away, and don't mess it up!" she told him. "The
Boss'll make sure we never catch pokémon again if we ruin this job!"
"I
know," he replied. "But what could happen? We have all of them
surrounded in their spaceship, and the few that are running around in the base
will be rounded up by our guards. And don't forget our secret weapon!"
"All
space pokémon -- continue the attack!" he shouted into the microphone.
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"Hey
guys, good to see you," Fox said as he looked up and saw Zelgadiss and
Ameria walk into the maintenance bay.
"You
too, Mr. Fox. We were almost done for out there," Ameria replied, looking
relieved.
Fox
grinned as he said, "Well, it's great to see that you're still in one
piece. I don't suppose either of you have any idea how to keep those creatures
from eating us alive once they break into the Great Fox?"
Zelgadiss,
analyzing the situation, asked, "What is the condition of the ship?"
"Not
too hot, Zel. I've been able to reactivate Rob64 and get power to the
communication system, but propulsion and tactical will be down for at least
another twenty minutes. And I don't think we have twenty minutes to
spare." As if to prove Fox's point, the unpleasant noise of claws and
teeth grating against the ship's hull echoed through the ship.
Fox
sighed and looked at a nearby computer panel. Unfortunately it was dead like
all the other ship's systems. Zelgadiss stood calmly, pondering the situation.
Ameria stood next to him, also deep in thought.
Suddenly,
their concentration was shattered by Ameria's loud voice. "I've got
it!" she cried as she jumped into the air and landed in front of the other
two. A huge smile played across her face. "I know how we can defeat the
evil enemy and triumph for Justice and Love! Follow me!!" She immediately
ran out of the room and bounded down the corridor.
Zelgadiss
and Fox looked at each other, neither of them having any clue what Ameria was
talking about. Fox shrugged and they both turned to follow Ameria down the
hall.
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"Now,
if I were an evil space pirate," Washu began, "who had kidnapped
people and animals from different dimensions, and I needed a control room for
my hideout, I would have it... right about..." Her voice trailed off as
she, Ranma, and Ryoko walked down a moon base corridor. She seemed to be
intently examining the wall as she walked and talked.
"Aren't
you ever at a loss?" Ranma asked. "It seems like you're always on top
of things. How do we know you're not just making this stuff up to look
good?" Ryoko sneered at Washu at this, but she didn't notice.
Washu
kept walking as if Ranma hadn't even spoken. Suddenly, she stopped, nearly
causing the other two to bump into her.
"Here!"
she shouted. She pushed a section of the wall in, and a hidden door popped
open. As it slid aside, she looked at Ranma, still in his skirt, and while
smiling asked, "Does that answer your question?"
With
a 'never mind,' Ranma acted like it was no big deal. Ryoko laughed quietly. As
least this time Washu was confounding someone else. Then she remembered her
mission, and said, "Who cares? Let's just keep going and find
Tenchi!" She passed the other two and practically flew through the
doorway. Washu and Ranma followed into the dark room beyond.
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James
could hear Meowth moving restlessly near his feet, though he couldn't see the
cat in the dark. "Now?" the feline asked, for the hundredth time.
"No,
not yet, and remember to be quiet," he scolded.
Suddenly,
a light appeared ahead as a door opened across the room. Three forms passed
through the doorway, momentarily blocking the light. Before any of them could
get used to the darkness, Jesse shouted "Now!!"
Immediately
all the lights in the Team Rocket control room came on, and the three saw that
Washu was right about the placement of the base of operations.
All
the walls were covered in computer monitors and control panels of varying sizes
and shapes. And in a ring around the intruders were dozens of Team Rocket
trainers, each holding pokéballs, ready to release their pokémon.
Ranma
did a double take before reflexively assuming a fighting stance. Ryoko jumped
into a hover-stance two feet above the ground, charging for battle. Washu took
in the whole situation as she cursed under her breath, "Sometimes I hate
being right all the time."
James
looked at his startled opponents. This was the moment all villains waited for
-- the ambush. He reveled in it as he saaid, "Aha, now the tide has turned!
Opponents of Team Rocket, prepare for trouble!"
Jesse
gleefully continued, "Make that double!" As she did so, she threw a
masterball that she was holding towards the three. She would normally send her
Ekans into battle, but this was a special occasion.
The
ball bounced and rolled to a stop on the ground before opening. In a brief
flash of light, a small brown rabbit-like creature appeared near it. To the
Team Rocket trainers, it looked like a dirty Nidoran. But to Washu and Ryoko,
it looked very familiar.
"Ryo'ohki!!"
Ryoko yelled as soon as she saw it. She was clearly shocked. "What are you
doing here?!"
In
answer to her question, James picked up the microphone to the communication
system he had used to control the other pokémon. He grinned evilly as he said,
"Ryo'ohki, Cabbit Transformation Attack, now!"
The
innocent looking cat-rabbit had paid no attention to Ryoko, but now jumped into
the air higher than any rabbit should be able to jump. But as it jumped, it
started changing. Its ears and legs stretched out to impossible lengths, and it
started growing in size. It continued to morph and rise until it was twenty
feet up in the air and had taken the form of a sleek brown angular spacecraft.
Ranma flinched as he recognized it as the ship that had crippled the Great Fox
before. Ryoko stared in disbelief that her cabbit would obey another, yet
ignore her.
James
now barked into the microphone, "Ryo'ohki, destroy the three
intruders!" As the cabbit ship began to move forward, he, Jesse, and
Meowth again laughed evilly.
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"So
how are we going to get out of this alive?" Fox asked Ameria. He had
followed her to the cockpit with Zelgadiss, but he had no idea what she was
planning.
The
three of them were in the cockpit of the Great Fox. Most of its systems were
dead, but a few were operational. Supposedly Ameria had a plan that would work
even in their current situation. Ameria turned from looking out at all the
pokémon pecking and scratching at the ship's hull to answer Fox.
"It's
simple!" she said. Her exuberant shout rang through the cockpit, making
Fox wish he didn't have such sensitive hearing. "All we have to do is
convince the enemy to join our side!"
Fox
looked to Zelgadiss, seated next to him, to see if he was as clueless as he was
about how they could do that. Zelgadiss returned his look, but since he was
used to Ameria, didn't flinch. His features seemed set in stone. Fox looked
back to Ameria for clarification.
She
continued explaining her plan. "You said the communication system was
working. That means we can talk to all the animals out there. So I'll use a
spell to make my voice very persuasive. Then Zelgadiss can use sorcery to add
power to your ship's systems, and I'll use them to convince all of those
creatures to join us and defeat the enemy! Once they see that Justice and Right
are with us, they'll immediately come to our aid! With the power of Truth and
Love..."
Fox
looked out into space, thinking, while Ameria continued to expound the virtues
of Justice. Ameria was a fine person, but she could get a little carried away,
even more so than his teammate Slippy. As she concluded her speech, Fox thought
about the plan. It could work -- he had seen all manner of spells and powers so
far, why not one to convince your enemies to join you? Anyway, at least it
offered them a fighting chance.
"All
right," he said. "It's so crazy it just might work." As he moved
to the front of the cockpit to check the communication system, Ameria looked to
Zelgadiss.
"Did
you hear that? Justice is going to save the day!" She was smiling and
practically beaming with pride and joy.
Zelgadiss
got up and placed his hand on her shoulder. "You have already saved me
today," he said seriously. He began to blush as he continued, "I know
you can save our friends too." Ameria looked at him, smiling. She began to
blush too.
Fox
interrupted unintentionally when he turned to tell them how the communication
system worked. "Here's the power supply, Zel. Any electricity you can
muster will help us broadcast. And Ameria, here's a mike. I've had Rob64 tune
us into the frequency those creatures are using. Talk into it and all those
creatures will hear you." He looked at the two, wondering if he had missed
something between them before. Oh well, he thought; never did understand
humans... "Ready when you are, then," he concluded.
"Good
luck, Ameria," Zelgadiss said as he picked up the power cord. He focused
on it as he held it in both hands, and shouted, "Mono Volt!!"
Immediately sparks of electricity crackled all about his stone body and flowed
from him into the wire.
Fox
looked at Zelgadiss in surprise. Wow, he thought, gotta teach Rob64 how to do
that. The power meter on a nearby control panel lit up brightly as more
electricity flowed into the system. "You're on," Fox said, gesturing
to Ameria.
She
whispered the chant for a Persuasion spell under her breath, and held the
microphone to her mouth. This was for her, for her father and mother, and for
all her friends, new and old. She was going to make it count.
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James
and Jesse were still laughing cruelly as they watched Ryoko pleading with
Ryo'ohki. She had tried everything from giving orders to the cabbit ship to
begging it to stop its attack, but all in vain. Ranma, despite his courage, was
starting to get nervous. It didn't help that the Team Rocket trainers were
snickering at him, because he was helpless, and because he was still in a
skirt.
James
stopped laughing for a moment to speak, as Ryo'ohki floated closer and closer
to the trio of adventurers. "Now you see the evils of truth and
love!"
Jesse
backed him up. "While you were running around being optimistic, people
like us at Team Rocket were blasting off to victory!"
Neither
of them was paying much attention to their victims, so they thought nothing of
it when Washu started digging through the pockets of her garment.
"Now
where did I put it?" she asked herself. "I figured this might
happen..." her voice trailed off as she kept looking. "So it's a good
thing... I brought this..." Suddenly she found what she was searching for.
"Carrot!!"
she shouted, holding the bright orange vegetable high enough for all to see.
Everyone
was shocked, most not comprehending how a carrot could possibly affect the
outcome of this battle. Ranma, along with Jesse, James, and Meowth, stared in
disbelief. Ryoko, on the other hand, was cheering inside. Sometimes her mother
had what it takes...
A
very brief but very comical scene followed, in which the previously-threatening
cabbit ship went through a reverse transformation in record time. Ryo'ohki
transformed back into a cabbit and pounced at Washu's outstretched arm without
even touching the ground in between. Before anyone from Team Rocket could
object, Ryo'ohki was eating out of Washu's hands.
"But...
But how?" "Why?" "What the...?" Various cries of
astonishment and confusion rang out from the Team Rocket trainers. James and
Jesse were frozen, dumbfounded by this new turn of events. Ryo'ohki happily
chewed the carrot, in cabbit heaven.
Washu
was quick to turn the situation to her advantage. She gently held Ryo'ohki as
she casually walked towards the two Rocketeers, emphasizing how tame the cabbit
now was.
"That
was very foolish, Jesse and James," she said in her best 'I'm-in-control'
voice while petting the cabbit. "I'm afraid my associates here are going
to have to return your hospitality." She couldn't help but think that Team
Rocket was about to get what was coming to them. She felt the air behind her
charge with Ryoko's electricity and Ranma's battle aura.
Amidst
the flurry of punches, throws, screams, and explosions that followed, Washu
quietly snuck out of the control room and went back into the hall. Sitting
there with Ryo'ohki, she ignored the loud and violent scene in the background.
She spent the time playing with the cabbit, and gave it another carrot. Washu
had never been big on violence or revenge; for many years she had preferred the
innocence of childhood.
She
finally looked up when Ranma and Ryoko walked out of the room fifteen minutes
later, after having cleaned up inside. Sometimes it was best to let others
handle the dirty work, she figured. At the very least, Ranma and Ryoko were
satisfied.
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Ryoko
wasn't satisfied for long, though. Trashing her opponents always helped relieve
her stress, but soon she remembered why she was there.
"Where's
Tenchi?!?" she screamed out loud. "He's supposed to be here!!"
After
clearing out the control room, the three had made their way to the moon base's
prison center, or at least to what looked like the prison, based on a map they
had discovered. But all they had found there was a locked room full of racks of
pokéballs. The lock had posed no problem to the enraged Ryoko, but the
pokéballs had stumped her.
"Calm
down, Ryoko," Ranma offered. "He's got to be here somewhere."
Ryoko didn't calm down.
It
was Washu who provided the next step. "Maybe they're keeping the prisoners
the same way they kept Ryo'ohki, in one of these red balls." She picked
one up off the shelf, and dropped it to the ground. It popped open on a hinge
and a small black pig wearing a yellow bandana materialized at her feet.
"See?"
"Ryoga
-- there you are!" Ranma said, surpprised. The piglet, momentarily
confused, looked up at Ranma. It let out a squeal and jumped back when it
recognized him. Ryo'ohki saw the pig too, and jumped down from Washu's arms to
meet it. P-chan wasn't sure what to make of the cat-rabbit cross, and ran and
jumped into Ranma's arms. While Ryo'ohki looked up at the pig curiously, Ranma
said to him, "I should drop-kick you for what you were trying to do at the
prom, but there's a long story behind this..."
While
Ranma filled Ryoga in, Washu pointed to a labeled shelf on the wall. "Look
-- there's the StarFox team too! We shouuld probably bring these balls back to
Fox so he can decide what to do with them."
It
took Ryoko a moment to snap out of her confusion, after seeing Ranma talk to a
pig like it was his long-lost brother. But when she realized that Tenchi might
be in one of the red and white balls, she wasted no time.
She
grabbed a pokéball and threw it to the floor. It popped open and a small orange
lizard appeared, standing on its hind legs and waving its tiny arms, as it
cried, "Char char!"
Ryoko
ignored it. She would have punted the creature away in frustration if she
wasn't already grabbing for the next pokéball. As she dropped this one, a small
blue turtle appeared with a cry of "Squirtle!"
Ryoko
half-sighed, half-groaned as she saw the pokémon. "That does it!" she
screamed. She had reached the end of her already-tried patience. With one huge
push she knocked down all of the shelves in the room, sending all of the
pokéballs tumbling to the ground.
The
scene that followed was close to pure chaos. Dozens of small pokémon appeared,
filling the room with small reptiles, bugs, birds, and other creatures. As each
said its name over and over again, the noise became deafening. The only thing
Ranma, P-chan, and Washu could hear over the racket was Ryoko. In the loudest
voice possible, she screamed, "Tencchhhhhiiiii!!!!"
In
the wake of her verbal outburst, most of the pokémon became silent. As the
noise level reached acceptable levels again, the others saw why she had
screamed. There, half-covered in pokémon, was Tenchi Masaki.
Tenchi
looked slightly disoriented at having been stuck in a pokéball for an extended
period of time. He looked even more disoriented when Ryoko knocked the wind out
of him with a flying tackle-hug, scattering pokémon in the process.
Washu
stood and watched, gently laughing to herself. Ryo'ohki bounded from her feet,
where it had been socializing with a Nidoran, to hop up to Ryoko and Tenchi.
Quite the family reunion, Washu thought.
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Ten
minutes later, Ranma had managed to herd most of the pokémon into a corner of
the room, Tenchi had finally pried Ryoko off of him long enough to catch his
breath, and Washu had been able to fill him in on the situation. As it turned
out, it was Team Rocket ships that had appeared in Tokyo. Their weapons had
knocked Tenchi out long enough for him to be captured, and he had been stuck in
a pokéball ever since.
Now
that the situation was under control, Washu decided to contact the others.
However, before she could find a communicator to call them, the prison door
burst open with a crash.
She
whirled around at the sound in time to see another herd of pokémon funneling in
through the door. To make matters worse, as soon as they came into the room,
the ones that Ranma had calmed down went into an uproar, crying their names out
in a chaotic chorus. Before long Washu, Ryoko, Ranma, Tenchi, Ryo'ohki, and
P-chan were waist-deep in assorted small and medium pokémon.
Fortunately,
none of the creatures seemed to be hostile. The ones that had come from
pokéballs were happy to be free again, and the newcomers seemed to be happy for
some reason too. Washu was wondering what could have happened when she heard
more a familiar voice.
"Miss
Washu!! Miss Ryoko!! Mr... Miss... Ranma!!" Ameria called out over the
noise. In a moment she had followed the crowd of creatures into the prison
room, followed by Zelgadiss and Fox.
Her
eyes lit up and she smiled as she saw Washu and the rest. Her companions looked
relieved to find them too. "We found you!" she yelled. "We were
worried -- we didn't know what enemies were down here, but we were almost
killed in outer space!"
Fox
chimed in too. "You should have seen it! A bigger space swarm than I've
ever fought through, and they disabled all our ships."
"How
did you get here then?" Washu asked.
Zelgadiss
answered. "Ameria did it. She convinced all of these creatures to join our
side." As he gestured to the crowd of pokémon around them, Ameria blushed.
"She used the communication system to address them, and the speech she
gave about Justice and Love would have been enough to convince the Mazoku to
join us." At this, Ameria's cheeks turned redder than Washu's hair.
Zelgadiss smiled. It was an unusual but pleasant expression on his face of
stone.
Ranma
interrupted the moment by asking, "What do you mean, the ships are
disabled? Are we going to be able to get out of here?"
Fox
was about to answer the question when he noticed Ranma's gender and outfit. He
made a noise that only a Fox could make, that sounded like "Gyah!"
Zelgadiss echoed his sentiments by saying "That's... disturbing."
"Hey!"
Ranma began, but he was cut off by Ryoko, who was holding Tenchi's hand and
refused to release it. She had found her love and wasn't about to let him go.
Tenchi was happy to see her, but as usual, a little overwhelmed at her
forcefulness.
"Yeah,
how are we going to get out of here, hmm?" she queried Washu. "As
wonderful as this place is, I'd like to go home now," she said in a voice
dripping with sarcasm.
"I'm
glad you asked," Washu replied, ignoring the sarcasm and acting flattered.
"It just so happens that I've put a little thought into the matter of returning
home." With this she pulled a small computer out of a hidden pocket. After
entering a series of commands into it, she looked up and around and said,
"Thank you, everyone, for helping out. I'll keep an eye on this dimension
to make sure there are no more problems. But for now, you all deserve a nice
trip... home." She punctuated her sentence with a smile and a button-push
on her computer. With a flash of light that appeared from nowhere, each member
of the party disappeared.
They
left behind a room full of very confused pokémon.
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Continued
in Chapter 10: Epilogue
"Slayers" is copyright H. Kanzaka / R. Araizumi. Original ideas, artwork, and text present on this page are copyright Esther Nairn, unless otherwise noted. No reproduction is allowed without express written or emailed permission. Violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.