Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Fear the Quintet ❯ The Bunny ( Chapter 1 )

There was a brilliant flash of purple and the Golem lifted into the air with a look of terror on his face. There was nothing he could do to stop it, though. In a split second, the terror was replaced with a look of pure agony as he writhed in the air. A ruthless grin on the face of a 15-year-old girl sounded out the command.

“Let it go,” she said so softly that she could hardly hear it herself. The Espeon complied and the Golem smashed to the floor. Kitty couldn't see for the dust, but she knew it was knocked out. Espeon ran back to her and the crowd roared their appreciation for this young trainer. She smiled slightly as Espeon raised her head and her eyes glittered. The referee came over and…

“Kitty!” She was wrenched from her daydream.

“What?” she whined down the stairs.

“Are you ready yet?” her mother asked, knowing the answer.

“Uh… nearly…” Kitty said, scrambling around her room and shoving on her fancy clothes. She quickly put a necklace around her neck, strapped on her shoes and tripped down the stairs, barely managing not to fall over on every step.

“Hurry up!” Marilyn urged, ushering her tottering daughter into the car. Kitty really hated high heels.

The reason her mother was in such a rush was because Kitty's father - her husband - was making a speech in the town hall. They were all very excited. In fact, the whole town was excited. Every time he gathered them together like this, something exciting happened.

Kitty's father was a scientist. He loved to experiment and invent things all day long, and so that's what he did. Nobody really saw him much any more, apart from when he showed off his latest invention. This one, apparently, was a big one. The other inventions had all been things like a combination toaster and radio, or a washing machine that also dried while showing a film of choice. Needless to say, nothing much happened in this town that was of much interest.

When they were in the car, Kitty looked out the window, hoping no one she knew would see her walk in the monstrosities on her feet. As they got out of the car, that, however, was proved to be impossible.

“Hey, Kit.” She looked up, mortified.

“Why are you here?” she said, a lot louder than she had planned.

“We're all here!” Matthew laughed. “Didn't you get Charlie's text?”

“No!” Kitty said, even louder. “Help me in!” she cried, falling on him. He led her through the door, sniggering.

"Why did you wear them?" he asked, letting her down into a chair when they entered the main hall.

"I'm obviously a fan of self torture," she said bitterly, wrenching off her shoes.

"Ah, well…" Matthew said. Kitty glanced at him, knowing he was thinking of a way to turn that into an insult against her. She waited patiently. “… That's probably why you…" but he shrugged. Kitty laughed.

"Rubbish," she said, standing up in her tights. Suddenly, a hand landed on her shoulder. She squeaked and swivelled around to find herself face to face with... Scott. Oh, beautiful, wonderful, always always always smiling Scott.

"Hey, Kitty," he said happily.

"Hi," she said back, grinning. They looked at each other stupidly for a while. Matthew rolled his eyes.

"Do you know where the food is?" he asked, looking around.

“This is a drinks-only event,” Kitty replied.

“Ah, crap,” Matt said cheerily, then shoved his hands deep into his pockets and disappeared into the crowd of well-dressed townspeople.

"Look what I found," Scott said, his eyes flashing. He took her by her hand and led her through the crowd as well.

"No, wait, my shoes..." Kitty laughed, but then shook her head. "Actually, really... never mind." She followed him through a door, then down a corridor and through another door.

Joy! A sofa! She flew at it and started massaging her already battered feet. Scott sat down beside her. Was this it? A sofa? He grinned at her. Oh, God, what did he want?

“One-way glass,” he said.

“Y'wot?” she replied attractively.

“The window. We can watch the speech from in here, but no one can see us. Cool, right?” He grinned again. Oh, Scott, forever smiling.

“Alone?” Kitty asked, snuggling up to him slightly. “Very cool.” The moment she rested her head against - not on, he was too tall - his shoulder, the door opened and the six other boys came in.

“I… brought… popcorn!” Adam sang, thrusting the bag on the table.

“Oh, I'm sorry, are we interrupting something?” Matthew asked, his eyes sparkling. “Budge, Scotty.” He sat down, ignoring the other boy mouthing something very rude at him.

“Close the door, Elliot,” Fred said. Elliot shut it, paused, and then locked it too.

“Oh, good. No we won't be disturbed by anyone,” Matt said, opening the popcorn. Scott rolled his eyes and Kitty laughed as they all squished together on the sofa. These were her best friends, and, annoying as they were, she really did love them.

“Sshhh! He's starting!”

“Ooh, what a perfect view.”

“What's under that yellow thing?”

“Shut up, we'll find out.”

“What's wrong with that lady's hair?”

“I was just thinking that.”

“Shut up, he's… I can't hear anything…” Charlie whispered.

“Oh, well done, Scott. Soundproof room.”

“Hold on.” Scott got up and opened a little circular hatch. “There we go.” He sat back down and they listened.

“… finally found something that will put our town's name on the map forever! Something that scientists could have only dreamt about until now. Ladies and gentlemen… may I present to you… my life's work!”

Shocked and excited muttering from the crowd. Kitty's father stepped back to a large control panel, and with a flourish, pulled a lever. The yellow cloth covering a machine was lifted. The audience gasped, kitty held Scott's arm.

“Up until now, it has been but a dream. A work of fiction; a tree sprouted from the seed of human imagination, but… I asked myself, why were we given such amazing and wonderful dreams if they could not be made reality?”

The cloth fell away completely to reveal a rather awkward contraption. It looked like the skeleton of some kind of deranged hare, with two large ears with claws on the tips, and a huge pair of what looked like scissors for the muzzle. Kitty blinked uncertainly.

This was what he had been doing in the lab for the past seventeen years?

“I give you… the Hyper Electromagnetic Particle Acceleration Detector 3000!” He paused. “Or HEPAD for short.” He chuckled. “Well, we just call it the Bunny.” A few laughs in the crowd.

“What is it?” Adam asked Kitty quietly.

“I have no idea.” She shook her head slowly.

“If you could all please turn your attention to the control panel, I'll take you through it.” He pressed a white button. “I'm turning it on.”

There was a strange low buzzing sound and Kitty's teeth chattered, then a screechy grinding like a pneumatic drill.

He flicked three switches on. “Now for the electromagnetic field.” A collective gasp as some people were yanked several inches forward. “Sorry.” He flicked the fourth switch. “Very magnetic.”

“Something's not right,” Kitty said suddenly as a flash of light came from the thing.

He pulled another lever and slowly the two clawed ears began to spin. They span and span until all that could be seen was the occasional blue spark from where they should have been.

There was a loud bang and what looked like fireworks from the machine. The crowd gasped, but then cheered. Kitty couldn't breathe for a moment. She turned to Scott. Had he seen it too? He looked equally terrified. They had seen the look on her father's face. Something only they could have seen from their angle.

A look of panic, of shock and desperation.

A look of pure fear.

“Something's not right,” one of the boys said. Kitty pressed herself closer to Scott.

“Press the button,” she whispered.

“What?” Scott looked confused, but didn't turn away from the whirring machine. Kitty got up and pressed it, closing the hole. The room was soundproof again.

“What was the point in…?” At that moment, something flew off the machine. The people ducked, and Kitty's dad leapt towards the machine, panicked. He yanked a lever on the control panel but, to everyone's horror, it came off in his hands.

He mouthed something loudly to the people, and suddenly, everyone in the room was on the floor, hands clamped over their ears and writhing in pain.

Nobody in the room could breathe for a moment, and Kitty's teeth hurt.

“What's… what's happening, Kitty?” Elliot asked, terrified, but she didn't answer, just pointed slowly to the machine.

The ears were still whizzing. Kitty's dad had staggered to the control panel and pressed a lot of buttons as the scissor like muzzle slowly opened. Wider and wider until they had between them a gap of about the length of a full-grown man. Kitty's dad quickly pressed more buttons.

White, green, white, yellow, switch, RED. He ducked behind the stage, hands over his head.

“It must be making a horrible noise,” Kitty whispered.

“How did you think to close the hole thing?”

“I dunno, I just…” but she stopped and everyone looked in awe at the Bunny. The muzzle suddenly clamped shut, and then it fizzed and drooped. The people started to get up again.

“What on earth was that?” Matthew asked. His face was pale. Kitty's jaw dropped.

The scissors had cut a hole.

In the air.

There was a huge rip in the middle of the stage. You could see the back of the hall all around it, but a greyish-silvery swirl in the centre.

“Ladies… and gentlemen…” Kity's dad mouthed. Kitty decided against pressing the button. She squinted at his mouth and tried to decipher what he was saying. Some of the other boys murmured along with him.

“You have just become the first witnesses ever to see this. A rip in the time-space continuum. A hole in reality. A tear in mid-air!” he cried silently.

Kitty's eyes widened and she squeezed Scott's arm and looked at him - he was staring in amazement at it too. And quite rightly - they were looking into another universe!

All of a sudden, something enormous burst from the rip. It tore through the room, leaving a trail of splattered black goop. The room suddenly filled with impenetratable darkness but that flickered and lifted. There was an awful roaring in Kitty's ears and she clamped her hands over them.

The creature was a horse. She could see that. It was thrashing around madly in the room while the guests ran around shrieking. The horse had wings. Wings which seemed to be nothing but charred bone with the remnants of decomposed skin draped over them. One or two feathers hovered around the creature as if it were constantly moulting.

But these weren't the things that Kitty noticed. Kitty focused on the colour alone. Black. The colour itself seemed to make her want to claw at her own brain. Seeing it made her give up. She felt herself losing all hope and energy and she went limp as the creature tore apart the room.

One way glass… they should be safe.

The teenagers watched in desperation as it destroyed the room, lashing out at the people and smashing windows. Most of the people were still, on the ground.

“It's scared,” Kitty whispered. Nobody answered.

When every one of the guests had fallen - even the ones that had tried to run away - the creature smashed its way through the door, galloping and flapping down the street, its empty eyes wild.

Kitty sat, as the strength returned to her legs, and blinked a few times. The guests were stirring slightly. They weren't dead.

“Scott!” she shrieked suddenly. Two arms wrapped around her, squeezing her tightly.

“We're ok,” he whispered. “Let's get out of here.” No one argued, strangely, and they all stepped out of the soundproof room and into the main hall.

“Dad!” Kitty hissed, running over and kneeling by his side. “Dad?” He stirred, his eyes flitting back and forth beneath their lids. “Dad, wake up.” Kitty shook him slightly. His eyes snapped open and he sat up immediately.

“What happened?” he cried, feeling around for his glasses. He stood up. “Oh, God…” he moaned.

“Everyone's ok, I think,” Kitty said. “What happened? What was that?”

“If I'm right, then I can't tell you,” he answered, then looked at the rip in the middle of the room. “It's fading.” He paused. “Kitty, I need… a favour. A huge favour. It's… life-threatening.” Kitty's heart skipped a beat. “So, um, don't tell your mother.”

“What is it?”

“That thing… we can't have it here. In our world. It doesn't belong. We need to send it back.”

“How?”

“Well… the thing is, I'm not sure. I need someone to go through the portal and try to find as much as you can about this creature, and find a way to bring it back before things go out of control here. Use this.” He handed her a small green and black thing that looked like an iPhone. “Go through quickly, Kitty. It's not safe here.

“But that's where the thing came from!” Kitty hissed.

“So it's not there any more,” her dad pointed out. “It's no longer safe in this world. Really. You need to go, Kitty. I'll stay here and keep the portal up. I'll contact you with this.” He tapped the iPhone thing. “Goodbye, sweetheart.” He kissed the top of her head and promptly turned back to the machine, tapping frantically at the controls. The portal grew slightly. “Now!” Go!” he yelled. “Hurry!” Kitty looked over to her friends and they all nodded. “GO!”

“Come on…” Kitty said nervously. “Let's go, um, save the world.” She scratched her head and stepped carefully through the tear in mid-air, followed closely by seven boys.